Swanna Girl and Braviary Man

Chapter 29: Parting Ways

"I'm sorry," I whispered, wrapping my hands around the old Poké Ball that used to belong to my only female Pokémon, Swanna.

"Don't be, sorry," Nurse Joy said, "You did nothing wrong."

"Yes I did," I argued, keeping my eyes on the empty Poké Ball, "I lied to you. I was never on that journey. I—I helped out Braviary Man with Swanna. I'm Swanna Girl, well, I used to be."

There was a moment of silence. Nurse Joy was probably processing everything that was going on. That was just a big bombshell she had just witnessed. The countless phone calls I've made to her, she just thought I was traveling around. I told her whenever I healed a Pokémon, which wasn't untrue as I did that a lot, and when I caught a new Pokémon, which again, wasn't necessarily untrue either.

"I know."

I looked up at Nurse Joy, surprised, but the nurse just smiled.

"You're too much like you father. Back when he and your mother were superheroes, he only did so to keep people safe. He had a talent for that sort of thing," Nurse Joy explained, "Besides, there was a Trainer who never got her package of a Swanna costume she must've ordered."

"You knew?" I asked.

"Well, I wouldn't be a good nurse if I didn't pay attention to the small details, now would I?" Nurse Joy told me as she winked, "I learned that from you."

"Of course you did," I laughed.

Nurse Joy smiled, "Plus, I'm friends with Officer Jenny. You do realize that the officials have their eyes on you and that boy. I mean, same thing happened with your parents, you're just lucky that I could talk them out of doing anything major.

My laughter died down a bit, as I started to realize why I wanted to talk to her in the first place.

Nurse Joy's expression changed to a more solemn one as she caught on, "Now, what happened? Did that boy break your heart? Do I need to ban him from the Pokémon Center?"

"No!" I protested, "Rudi isn't like that!"

Nurse Joy looked confused, "Wait, you and him aren't—"

"No," I cut her off, "I mean, we're dating, I think. I don't know. With everything going on, we had to put that on pause. Not completely though, I mean, we kissed. Only once though."

I remembered that much, quickly thinking about the second time we could've done it. It was probably best that didn't happen. My emotions were running all over the place. Audino nearly fainted leaving my original Swanna—

No, I couldn't think she was dead. There was no body. No body meant she could've escape. There's a lot of Pokémon who feint, take time away from their Trainers to heal, and come back. That's not uncommon. I just had to keep hope.

She couldn't be dead. I would know if she was.

Didn't Trainers know when their Pokémon—

"So if it's not the boy, then what is it?" Nurse Joy asked.

I took a deep breath, "During the last battle against Team Miasma," I finally told her, "I wasn't quick enough. Swanna, you know, the Ducklett I took in and took care of, she disappeared. I don't know if she's dead or if she just disappeared."