Chapter 84

The chime of a doorbell could be heard from behind the stained wooden door when Nina pressed on the button. She had taken to visiting Charlie’s place on different days of the week, hoping to catch someone that she can talk to.

Originally, Nina had hoped to encounter the boy at some point in school, but that has yet to happen. And given that he still wasn’t answering her calls, she had begun to worry. Even Kumiko was concerned when Nina called her up to ask at one point, who said that she’d felt something was off with her son for some time now and asked if Nina could investigate.

The door finally opened unceremoniously to an unfamiliar, plain looking older boy in glasses who simply stared at Nina while chewing on something with a bored looking expression.

“Hi there,” Nina said with a smile. “I’m looking for Charlie Rockford, my name is Nina and I’m a fr—”

Her words were cut off when the door slammed shut in her face with a bang, eliciting a wince from the girl and her Eevee.

“Eevee e ee eevee!” In a rare display of outrage, Espy loudly cried out at the door and the boy in condemnation.

Nina sighed and gently caressed Espy to soothe her anger. “Guess I have no choice…” she muttered. There was actually a more direct way to track down Charlie, but Nina has been holding back out of respect for her friend’s privacy. However, if this was going to be the hostility she had to deal with then “Screw it!” She thought.

She turned around and began walking out of the dilapidated apartment building filled with mysterious stains and black mold. It was a place located in an older section of the city with an unsavory reputation. Honestly, Nina was shocked when she first came here. In fact, she probably wouldn’t be brave enough to venture this far in without a literal Dragon to protect her.

“Knowing the Rockfords, I find it very hard to believe that they would be callous enough to allow their son to stay in a neighborhood like this. Were they lied to?”

***

“I don’t think it’s proper for me to do that for you, Nina. It would constitute a breach of our student’s privacy.”

“I understand that, Mrs Smith. I just need to know if Charlie Rockford is still enrolled in the Vermilion Flame or if he’s gone on a sabbatical or something. I haven’t been able to get a hold of him and his mother is worried about his behavior. Please?” Nina broke out the Baby-Doll Eyes on her teacher. She hadn’t yet reached the age where making such a face would be cringe on her, so she intended to make full use of it.

The teacher known as Mrs Smith sighed. “I suppose if that’s all you need to know then I can probably oblige…” She replied as she began tapping away at her PC.

Nina smiled. “Thanks, Mrs Smith. I really appreciate this.”

The teacher hummed. “Well… if you want to thank me. I do have a thesis that I’m working on at the moment. I wouldn’t mind some feedback from Professor Bill, if at all possible.”

Nina stopped her eyebrows from twitching. This has been a common occurrence since her enrollment so she was used to it, but it didn’t make it any less annoying. “Sure,” she said. “I can send an email but there’s no guarantee that he’ll read it. His secretary is very strict and the Professor himself is quite scatterbrained. Usually, if I need him urgently, I give his wife a call or go visit him in person.”

“Yes, an email would be lovely. Thank you, Nina.” Mrs Smith beamed in satisfaction before continuing. “Now then, as for your friend. He is still, in fact, enrolled in our school, though just barely…” She said that last part with a frown as she looked through Charlie’s records.

“What do you mean barely?”

Mrs Smith looked a little hesitant, but ultimately decided to answer. “His academic records are quite poor and he has a history of frequent truancy. He’s been somehow hanging on and avoiding expulsion, but the line he’s threading is very thin. Very thin indeed…”

Now it was Nina’s turn to frown. “If it’s that bad, then why hasn’t anyone informed his parents yet?”

Mrs Smith chuckled helplessly. “As you can probably relate, trainer school students are quite restless. It’s fairly normal for them to suddenly tire of their mundane routine and seek out adventure. As such, truancy isn’t irregular, especially among the older students.

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“But for an individual as… unfocused as Mr Rockford, it's rare that they haven’t withdrawn from school or taken their sabbatical yet. It is the policy of our school to not meddle in personal matters in an effort to cultivate independence among our students — a vital trait for a Pokemon Trainer to have. We simply act as a safety net and a guide. Our students know where to find us if they seek help.”

Nina couldn’t fully relate to her teacher’s words. “I suppose this is another culture clash between this world and Miles’s one.” This sort of behavior from a student in her old world would raise all sorts of red flags. A competent teacher wouldn’t have allowed things to reach this point.

Nina felt a bout of outrage coming at such callousness, but quickly suppressed it with a tight clench of her fists. “You’re in a different world right now, Nina… They do things differently here…” She assuaged, mostly for her own benefit. As one would expect from a society that willingly allows their children to venture out at ten years old, accidents occurred on the regular and grieving parents were not an uncommon sight.

Thankfully medical technology was highly developed, so most injuries that would be lethal to a child in Nina’s old world can still be dealt with so long as they were given the proper care in time. As evident by Nina’s own revival. So in that sense, the mortality rates weren’t as high as one would expect either. With enough money, even a severed limb can be regrown in due time.

“Thank you for the answers, Mrs Smith. I understand that you’ve compromised a lot in telling me this. I’ll be sure to inform his parents and work out a solution. One last question though, does it say if he’s present in school today?” The teacher replied that he was not, so Nina thanked her again and left the faculty office.

***

“I knew about the state of the house,” said Kumiko, earning her a disapproving frown from Nina. “That neighborhood is not as dangerous as you might think, just a little destitute. But I do agree that it’s not the healthiest environment either.”

After her brief meeting with her teacher, Nina made an urgent call to Charlie’s mother to get her take on the situation.

“Stephen wanted to support his sister,” Kumiko continued. “Vanessa is a single mother supporting three kids. Stephen’s been using Charlie’s rent as an excuse to supplement her however he could.” The woman sighed.

“That kid you saw is probably one of her sons, Charlie’s cousin. Things… have always been difficult for them. What’s with their mother constantly at work and never being home. She tries though, that much I do know. She’s a good woman and a hardworking mother.”

“That’s not an excuse to subject your son to such a toxic environment.” Nina admonished. “Charlie has always talked about how reluctant he was to live with his extended family. So it’s clear that something is going on. Which neither you nor Stephen seem to know, or care about.”

Kumiko pursed her lips at Nina’s harsh words. “I do care, Nina! I wasn’t too happy about sending Charlie to live with them either, but we were hoping that Charlie’s optimism might help to brighten the household a little bit. And if things weren’t working out, I would have moved him elsewhere.” She choked.

“But Charlie never told us! Every time he called in, he would be all smiles, telling us everything was fine… I knew something was off. His smile never reached his eyes, and he always seemed so… evasive.” Kumiko was on the verge of tears at this point. “Stephen would tell me he’s doing fine — just boys being boys. Probably found a girlfriend or something… I just wanted him to be happy, Nina…”

She then said that Charlie had only visited home once in the four years he was away, during his first summer break. In the subsequent years, he’d say that he wanted to work and earn money. Which they were happy to overlook since they considered it a sign of growth.

And indeed, the Pokemon League regulates a message board where people could post requests to hire independent Pokemon trainers for various miscellaneous tasks. It was meant as an avenue for journeying trainers to earn some funds during their travel — a gig economy of sorts. So the Rockfords probably thought that was what their son was doing during the summer months.

Nina sighed at the drama. “I’ll try to track him down.” She promised. “In the meantime, I’d appreciate it if you attempted to reach out on your end as well.”

The teary eyed woman nodded in gratitude. “Thank you Nina, can I ask you to keep this from Stephen for the time being? My husband can be a little… inconsiderate at times.”

Nina nodded in agreement and ended the call. “Now then, time for Espy to get a little revenge.”

***

Nina once again trudged up the creaky stairs of Charlie’s apartment building, this time with a plan.

In truth, she did not know if anyone would be home. But she decided that she would keep trying until she did get someone, friendly or otherwise, or until Kumiko got back to her with some positive news.

Secretly though, she was hoping to get that same brat who slammed the door on her again, just so that she and Espy could have some fun.

And it seemed that Mew was listening for once. Because a short while after she rang the doorbell, she could see Espy grinning. Which meant that she detected a familiar Psychic signature.

Nina schooled her expression to be as stern as possible. And predictably, the moment that glasses boy opened the door and saw Nina, he immediately moved to slam the door again, only to be Tiffany’d by Espy.

Right as he was about to swing the door, he found himself met with a bouncy resistance that sent him tumbling on his ass just like Tiffany did way back when. Except, Espy’s execution was much smoother and intentional this time.

Nina kicked the door the rest of the way open and sauntered right into the apartment, standing over the rude boy and glowered at him menacingly. “Gotta be careful with those hinges,” she mused. “In a rundown place like this, they can get a bit rusty. Especially if you keep abusing them like that.”

“W-who are y-you… What do you want?!” The boy stuttered, whose name Kumiko probably told Nina but she did not care to remember.

At the boy’s unfriendly tone, Espy’s eyes glowed slightly as the boy suddenly felt a pang of pain in his head from the Eevee’s Psychic jab.

“What I want is simple. I’m looking for Charlie Rockford, do you happen to know where he is?”

The boy scowled. “Why should I care what that loser’s up to!” He yelled, earning another jab from Espy. Glasses boy opened his mouth, probably to argue or cuss at Nina again because Espy sent another Psychic jab his way, causing him to yelp out in pain multiple times before finally acquiescing.

“Okay, alright! Stop hurting me!” He pleaded.

Nina let out a sinister smile and repeated her question.

Glasses boy quivered in fear at the domineering girl and the Eevee with glowing eyes. “I… He’s probably at work… I dunno where. He’s got a ton of jobs — changes all the time too ‘cause his useless ass keeps getting fired.”

Nina frowned and pressed for more details, telling the boy to give her the name and location of each of Charlie’s workplaces that he knew of.

In the end, after squeezing as much information as possible out of the wimpy kid, Nina left. Without much to work with, she’ll just have to check out each of Charlie’s known employers to track him down.