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There was a light of hope suddenly. Henrietta nodded her head quickly and went through the remains of her things. It wasn't a lot, a spare purse she'd had to replace her bag. She quickly fished out the money, all of it, 600 pokedollars, and handed it over to Reid without counting it.

"Th-thank you," she said.

((A perfectly normal sentence? Suspicious!))

Reid looked at the money in his hand. Then at the pokeballs on her belt. Four. Of course, he knew that already, but he at least needed to look lik he was getting information for the first time.

He assumed she wanted them all healed. There was only enough for half of the pokemon she had.

"You'll need more money than this if you want to heal all of your pokemon," he told her bluntly. Hopefully, she would find someone else who was charitable. But Reid needed to wrap things up soon. As far as he knew, Sachiko was still in the center. And he didn't want to be seen in the same place as any of his agents for too long.

****

Meanwhile, Sachiko pouted. "What have...what have I done with them? I was right here this whole time..." She began to sniffle again. "You think I did something to...something to...."

And then she stood up, looking perky and cheerful. "Hold on! I'll go check on that other nurse!" she told him happily as she skipped to the counter. "Don't move, I'll be back shortly!"

The pink haired woman skipped all the way to the Employees Only section, and then turned her skip back into a business like stride when she was completely out of Luka's sight.

What a pain that child was. Did all trainers have such a phobia towards strangers? She hadn't expected him to be neurotic, although based on his profile she should have. And who could have possibly been that immune to cleavage?

She walked into the room where Luka's pokeballs were being scanned. Sushiya, her Jynx, stood before the nurse that Luka had previously spoken to. The nurse just stood in one spot, swaying back and forth and mumbling to herself as she drooled out the corner of her mouth. Undulating circles of black spun in the whites of her eyes.

Sachiko waved her hand in front of the nurse. "Nice job," she told Sushiya as she put Luka's pokeballs onto a tray. "I'll be right back, get ready to go."

She then went back into the lobby, standing behind the counter to give Luka back his pokeballs.

"It looks like your pokemon are fully healed. Thank you for taking our survey. Have a nice day!"

Luka looked at the Nurse as he took his Pokéballs back. Something funny had gone on here. He couldn't tell what, but, he guessed that the Nurse had been stalling him. Trying to divert his attention. He just couldn't figure out why. Still, he thanked the Nurse and was about to leave.

Then some kid walked into the Pokémon Centre with three near comatose Pokémon. Luka just caught the words that the kid spoke and was quite frankly horrified. There was just something about him. The sigh as he walked around Luka as he ahd spoken to the Nurse, the blunt statement to the Nurse at the counter and the appalling state of his Pokémon. ((I can't remember, are we using the Manga style of Pokéballs or the Animé/Game versions? If it is the latter, then just take Luka's last bit of the list as assumption from the horrified state of the nurses.))

Obviously, both of them were by the counter as the kid handed in his Pokéballs, so, Luka wouldn't have been surprised if the kid noticed his look of distaste as he started to head for the exit.

(( sweatdrop My bad, Kyne))

After stuffing the hypnotized nurse into a closet, Sushiya started heading back to the counter to join Sachiko to bail. But she was dragged into the frenzy of nurses after Paul brought his pokemon in to be "repaired".

Since Sushiya looked more like a human than most Jynx did, she passed for one in the chaos as she rushed to help the severely injured pokemon.

She saw Sachiko, who was bizarrely tranquil, cross her arms and look into Paul's eyes. As nurses rushed all around her, taking Paul's pokemon into the emergency rooms, she was just as calm as Paul.

The pink haired "nurse" tapped her lips with her pen before getting ready to jot things down on her clipboard. "So how did your pokemon end up like this? I'll also need to see your pokedex for identification."

****

Reid looked to his side through the window of the pokemon center. The place was in a frenzy, and Sachiko was at the front counter. Sachiko, I'm entering the center now. You can kill the trainer later, stay focused.

He's a dead man.
Do not put our cover into jeopardy.
SHUT UP, REID! He's a dead man, by the time I'm done with him he'll wish he was never born.

The emotional backlash caused Reid to wince from the static in his brain. And now Henrietta was literally begging for his help. Were her pokemon that badly injured? Or was she just as weak minded as he thought she was? Either way, she was starting to make a scene. He couldn't have that.

"Alright, I'll buy you what you need. Just please, stop crying," he told her, tapping his index and middle fingers to his head momentarily as he spoke. An image of Henrietta standing strong and confident would flash through the girl's mind, to act a subtle psychic motivator. "Don't move, I'll be right back."

Reid headed into the center and sighed as he put his hands into his pockets. This is just what I need. he thought while passing Luka through the doors without so much as glancing at him. Why are these things never simple?

Luka walked past Reid, out of the Pokémon Centre doors and then he spotted Henrietta. She looked a little shaken. "Hey, Henrietta." He smiled at her. "You doing ok? It's just..." He sighed, not quite knowing how to put the thought that she looked bloody miserable and a complete mess. There was something about Henrietta that just made you want to cover her in cotton wool and protect her from the world. She just looked so frail. There was, however, her skill as a trainer that contrasted against that meek persona outside of battle. It was weird. Maybe she just needed to gain confidence in herself to reach the point where she was more akin to her battle persona than her normal one.

Luka sat down next to her. "It's ok."

He took out his wallet and sifted out a few hundred Pokédollars. He held them out to Henrietta. "I think you won this earlier and I kinda forgot to give you it." He brushed his hand through his hair. "Yeah.... Sorry about how craply that battle ended. You were pretty amazing, y'know?"