Chapter 175: Memory Leak
"Mostly superficial flesh wounds," Xiu assessed aloud, more to keep the injured girl conscious than for her benefit. He worked quickly, efficiently cleaning the deepest gash on her abdomen. "No major organs seem damaged. You lost a lot of blood because strenuous movement likely kept reopening the wounds."
He continued his running commentary, describing the process as he worked. "Now applying antiseptic... Preparing to suture..."
He knew, abstractly, that suturing a wound like this without anesthetic must be agonizing. He'd read accounts, studied field medicine in both lives. Yet, Number Seven remained unnervingly stoic. Aside from the initial muffled whimpers and involuntary tension, she endured the procedure with a disturbing, unnatural stillness. Too calm. Too practiced at suppressing pain.
Xiu's hands moved with the steady precision born of practice – both his breeder work requiring delicate manipulations and the self-taught first aid he'd drilled relentlessly. He finished closing the primary wound, applied a sterile dressing, and secured it firmly.
Only then, as he cleaned the smaller cuts and bruises, did he take closer notice of the faint, older scars crisscrossing her young body – pale lines from past training 'accidents', discolored patches from poorly healed injuries sustained on previous 'missions'. A silent testament to a brutal upbringing.
"Alright," he said softly, finishing the bandaging. "Done for now." He uncapped a small bottle containing a concentrated nutrient solution he usually prepared for his Pokémon – high in electrolytes, easily digestible proteins, and energy boosters. "Drink this. It'll help." He mixed a small amount with water from his canteen and held it out to her.
Number Seven, who had somehow remained conscious throughout the ordeal, finally succumbed to the accumulated trauma and blood loss. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she slumped back, unconscious again, before she could take the offered drink.
Xiu sighed. He carefully set the nutrient solution aside. He couldn't question her now. But there was one more thing...
He gently turned the unconscious girl onto her stomach. Recalling a faint anomaly Abra had sensed during the earlier psychic probe – something small, foreign, embedded beneath the skin – he focused his attention on the area at the junction of her neck and shoulder blades.
Sterilizing a small, sharp scalpel from his kit with antiseptic, he made a tiny, precise incision. Probing gently with sterilized tweezers, he located and extracted a small, flat object, no larger than a capsule. It felt unnaturally smooth.
He dropped the object into a cup of clean water for examination later, then meticulously closed the small incision, applying antiseptic and a small bandage. He cleaned up the used medical supplies, then picked up the cup, holding the submerged object up to the dim light of the camping lantern.
It wasn't metallic, not electronic in any conventional sense he could recognize. Strange, swirling lines were etched onto its surface. Abra extended its psychic sense towards it – no detectable power signature, no familiar energy pattern.
Not technology, not obviously mystical... What is this? A tracker? Whatever its purpose, its clandestine implantation spoke volumes about the organization that controlled her. Definitely not a good thing.
He had Abra perform a detailed psychic scan, committing the object's structure and markings to memory. Then, he held the object out towards Abra. "Find a Rattata outside. Feed this to it."
Just as Abra was about to do it, Xiu paused. His fingers curled around the small object. Wait. An idea sparked. Destroying it is the obvious move. But perhaps... perhaps this has another use. A potential bargaining chip? A way to track them? He shook his head slightly, tucking the object away securely in a separate container in his bag.
Keep options open. Abra hovered silently, awaiting further instruction, offering no judgment on his change of plan.
Having made his decision, Xiu began meticulously cleaning the area, erasing any trace of their presence. He gathered the used bandages, wrappers, bloodied cloths, then carefully bundled up the still-unconscious Number Seven. With a final check of the room, he and Abra, carrying the girl, vanished into thin air.
Not long after their departure, the door to the empty room creaked open. Another figure slipped inside, moving with the same unsettling silence and agility as Number Seven. This newcomer was also clad head-to-toe in dark night gear, face completely obscured, only their eyes visible.
Their build was similarly light, almost unnaturally thin, with disproportionately long limbs. They stood motionless for several moments where Number Seven had lain, seemingly sensing the lingering presence, then scanned the room with sharp, quick movements. Finding nothing, they turned and melted back out of the room, leaving no trace they had ever been there.
Xiu reappeared with Abra and Number Seven in the designated temporary warehouse near the market district – the one Kurokawa had secured. It was larger than the abandoned houses, smelling faintly of dust and old wood, but dry and secure. He propped Number Seven carefully against a stack of covered crates, then settled himself against another nearby, letting Abra maintain a vigilant psychic watch while he rested his eyes.
Some time later, a soft groan alerted him. He opened his eyes instantly. Number Seven was stirring, slowly pushing herself up, one hand automatically going to the fresh bandage on her abdomen. She looked around the dim warehouse, disoriented.
Xiu watched her silently until she managed to sit upright, albeit shakily. "Careful," he advised quietly. "Don't tear the stitches. I won't patch you up again."
Her eyes snapped towards him, sharp despite her weakened state. She opened her mouth, then remembered her inability to speak, frustration flickering across her face. She raised a hand, pointing towards her throat, then towards him questioningly.
Xiu understood the gesture. He casually tossed the bottle of nutrient solution he'd prepared earlier towards her. Either his throw was slightly miscalculated, or perhaps she was weaker than he thought. She fumbled the catch, the bottle slipping through her grasp, about to hit the floor.
But with a mere flicker of concentration from Xiu[1], the bottle froze abruptly in mid-air, hovering inches from her hand. The cap unscrewed itself silently, and the bottle gently lowered itself into her waiting palm.
Number Seven stared at the bottle, then back at Xiu, her expression unreadable, though perhaps a flicker of awe mixed with her fear.
"Well?" Xiu prompted, a hint of dry amusement in his voice. "Don't tell me you need me to feed it to you?"
His slight mockery elicited no visible reaction. She simply raised the bottle silently and began sipping the nutrient-rich liquid, her movements slow but deliberate.
Seeing she was stable and regaining some strength, Xiu leaned back against the crates, the silence stretching between them, broken only by the faint sounds of the city outside. The single camping lantern cast long, dancing shadows across the stacks of grain sacks and supplies that now filled the warehouse – the first deliveries arranged by Xiaoyuan already arriving.
After she had finished about half the bottle, setting it down carefully beside her, Number Seven made another series of soft clicking sounds, then pointed towards her throat again, then gestured emphatically towards Xiu.
"Aba aba~" The almost inaudible sounds were her attempt at communication.
Xiu sighed. He nodded towards Abra, who re-established the minimal telepathic link necessary for basic understanding, bridging the gap of her silence.
"How did you find me?" Xiu projected the question directly into her mind via Abra.
Number Seven looked towards the darkness where Abra remained hidden, then focused back on Xiu. Her mental 'voice', relayed through Abra, was surprisingly clear, though tinged with lingering fear. "You showed me. The memories. The ones you put in my head."
Xiu froze. What? That wasn't possible. The memory probe was supposed to be one-way. "What exactly did you see?" he demanded, his mental tone sharpening.
Number Seven seemed to shrink back slightly from his intensity. "Bits and pieces. Flashes. You... saving... him." Her mental gaze flickered towards Abra's general location. "Saving the small one. From the... the cage?"
Saving Abra? A cold dread washed over Xiu. The probe hadn't just read her memories; somehow, feedback, a psychic echo, had imprinted fragments of his own traumatic memories, linked through Abra, onto her.
A completely unforeseen, disastrous error. Is she a psychic too? Or is the technique itself flawed? It could also be the organization behind her... He didn't know. The technique was untested on others.
Damn it all! If she knew about Abra, about his past... that was leverage. That was danger. He fought to keep his expression impassive, his mind racing. How much does she really know? How clear were the images?
"Intermittent," she added quickly, sensing his internal turmoil. "Just fragments. Confusing."
Her reassurance did little to ease Xiu's suddenly knotted stomach. True or not, the potential exposure was catastrophic. Only the fact that Abra, the source of the leak, was also the conduit for their communication prevented him from considering more drastic, permanent solutions immediately. Knowing too much is a dangerous burden...
He forced himself to regain composure, pushing the implications aside for now. He needed information. "You knew who I was, where to potentially find me," he projected, shifting back to his original question. "Yet you waited nearly a full day after escaping before tracking me down. Why come to me now?"
Number Seven's mental reply was chillingly calm. "The necklace is useless now. The Organization... they came for me."
"Why?" Xiu pressed, though he suspected the answer. "Failure to complete the mission wouldn't usually warrant death, would it?"
A wave of cold, bleak resignation emanated from her mind.
"Because I betrayed them."
[1] prolonged exposure to Abra's psychic energy made Xiu a psychic, even if not at the same level as Sabrina.
ofc, I gotta give the MC some benefits by sticking with Abra, so yeah