Chương 35: There's a reason why some majors require ethics

Currently, Courtney and I are sitting outside of a café around a small metal table. Serena is inside ordering drinks, and Courtney is helping me with my new problem.

With my head in hand and stump, Courtney suggests, "You don't have to adopt them. You're not financially stable, and that's okay. You heard her. They were contemplating allowing each to be adopted separately anyway."

I look up at her, forcefully distressing my eyes. "But imagine how much they could bolster my team, and the fact that they were all adorable!" I feel Robin shake in her pokéball, and I'm forced to pet the ball itself to calm her down.

She raises an eyebrow. "How about this? Are you not worried about any extra eggs on your team? If I remember correctly, Eevee is a member of the Field Egg group, which is an extensive group."

I wave her comment off. "All of my pokémon are female, and all of the Eevees were female."

Her brow creases. "How do you know?" Almost as if realizing her stupidity, she face-palms. "Never mind. While they were piled on you."

"While they were piled on me," I confirm. Our conversation pauses as Serena approaches with drinks. Courtney has a Cheri smoothie, I got a Razz smoothie, and Serena got Pecha juice. I would describe mine as a smooth taste with a kick.

We sit in silence as we ruminate over my financial problems. Though, my thought process is interrupted by Serena slurping her already finished drink. She looks between us giving her The Look. "Sorry," she apologizes.

"It's fine," I reply. "Okay, what about this—" pause for dramatic effect. "How unethical would it be if I designed a few different A.I. for monitoring the stock market and investing."

"Very." "Not at all." Serena and Courtney share a Look of their own before returning to me.

Serena picks up the torch by giving me an apologetic, but admonishing gaze. "Yes, legally, you could do that, but it would undermine the people that study and work in the stock market for a living. You would be destroying an entire workforce in one move."

Courtney rolls her eyes. "If you can make one that works, then great. Publicly, during our…misguided era, we were funded by donations. Realistically, we were committing insider trading and other crimes to pay for our equipment. Guess what? So is everyone else, and everyone else is going to try and get every advantage they can."

I set down my drink and drum my fingers on the table. "You both make good points, some stronger than others." Courtney shoots a smug smile at Serena. "How about this? An A.I. that tracks changes in the stock market and only gives advice on what to trade. I'm still making the overall decisions."

Serena grimaces. "I don't like it, but I'll accept that."

Courtney looks neutral. "I'm okay with this outcome."

Continuing to drum my fingers, I look up from them to Serena. "Serena, when did you plan on continuing your journey with Ash?"

She opens her mouth, then closes it as she contemplates her word choice. "We were going to wait until we were sure you were fine…physically and mentally." Off to the side, I notice that Courtney pursed her lips slightly.

I look down towards my hands, comparing them. My mind captures the missing symmetry between them and iterates through several designs for a new hand. A few might work, but they require more experimentation with the crystals and maybe some other things that haven't quite been invented yet.

"If you were to ask my opinion, which in all honesty is probably not that great, I will be fine in the physical sense. However, I'm still contemplating killing Clemont over this egregious mistake." Serena crumples in her chair at that, but Courtney just nods.

"I'll help you hide the body." Serena and I just look at her with no words to say. My lips move, but nothing comes out. It's just a…yeah.

"Thanks," I eventually say. "I'll keep that in mind…"

"Nicole…" Serena says with slight hesitation. "Would you feel better if Clemont apologized to you?"

I purse my lips. "Mmmaybe…"

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"What the hell is this?" I refuse to blunt my words in any capacity right now. This… This isn't making feel better. This is making me feel a different emotion—confused!

"It's called a dogeza," Ash interjects my incoming rant. "It's a formal way of apology."

I stare at him with a few choice words floating through my head. "I get that point," I deadpan. "My real question is why is he testing the limits of public nudity, or rather, WHY IS HE ALMOST NAKED?" I shout, probably grabbing the attention of any passersby in this busy plaza.

Over to the side, I see Bonnie facepalming and Serena rubbing her temples. It looks like this was an Ash and Clemont idea. Wonderful.

Clemont is, as previously mentioned, almost naked. He's actually just wearing his boxers, but Bonnie is holding his backpack, at least. Haaaaah…I can feel an aneurism coming from the amount of stupidity in my general vicinity.

"I APOLOGIZE FOR MAKING AN INVENTION THAT CUT OFF YOUR ARM!!!" Clemont shouts with…enthusiasm. The way he's going about this is taking all of the fun out of the apology. Looking to the left, I see Courtney hiding her face, but the shaking gives me the impression that she's finding this hilarious.

Glad it's at my expense, Courtney. I'm wrapped up in this too.

"Okay," I utter with displeasure soaking my words, "I've had enough of this farce." Using a few Octillery Arms, I heft Clemont into the air, grab his jumpsuit from the backpack that Bonnie's holding, and roughly shove him into it. I don't care if I'm stretching the fabric, Clemont. You should have thought about that before pissing me off.

Elevating myself, I shift his struggling form in front of me in midair. Just so that I can look down on him. "Clemont, I am…feeling many things right now. Anger at you, anger at Team Rocket, and anger at myself for being incapable of protecting my own body. I could have made different choices, likely using all of my pokémon in battle simultaneously. That's a lesson I've learned at a serious cost—the villains refuse to play by the rules, we choose to. I think a nice lesson for you would be to pick up a manual on hazardous materials and prevent future inventions from exploding."

I squeeze him a little tighter with my arm and pull him only a few centimeters away from my face. "Do we have an accord?" I hope he understands that this is not advice, or a request, but rather a command.

He swallows. "…yes," he whimpers.

"Wonderful." Gently, I put him back on the ground where he scarpers towards Bonnie to grab his backpack. Honestly, my mood is kind of ruined now, and I think I should probably take a nap or something before this bubbling anger translates into the Arms annihilating a block.

"This has been…" I look at everyone. "It's been an event. It's been a slightly long day, so I'm going back to my room tonight. I think I'll get back to my journey tomorrow. If you need me, then I'll be back in my room at the inn, or possibly rent a room out of the pokémon center or something if they've already given my room away."

I climb over a nearby building with everyone behind me speechless. Well, except Courtney. She's giving me that quizzical stare.

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"You wanna do what now?" I drowsily ask, mentally checking the clock to see 5AM. I'm still wearing pajamas, but Courtney is standing in front of my inn room, completely dressed in her classic Team Magma Admin outfit except her hood is down.

Last night was not kind to me as, with the Arms now fused to my back, I'm forced to sleep on my side or face with no intermediate step in-between. I can't really turn on my back with eight metal tentacles sticking out of me.

"As I said, it would be pertinent to your health if you had someone accompany you for the foreseeable future. So, I took it upon myself to invite me to your adventure." She immediately switches from cold, calculating admin to a more child-like persona as she sheepishly looks down at her twiddling thumbs. "…If that's alright with you?"

Her doe eyes have moderate-to-severe affect on me, but my defenses still hold!

Stifling a yawn, I reply, "That's fine with me, but you should know that I plan on climbing over the forest with my Arms. That means I'll have to carry you, and I can't guarantee it'll be a comfortable ride."

She nods. "That's fine with me."

It takes everything I have not to smile.