Time passed to Winter 23.
Because James had notified her yesterday about going to the clinic for a physical exam, and adding that today was Tuesday, Ron, Jessie, and James headed to the clinic together.
"Is it really free?" Jessie asked in a lowered voice.
"Really," James replied.
Because Meowth was a Pokémon, he was excluded from this, but today was also Maru's shift at work. So, Meowth and Maru made an agreement to head over to the Carpenter's Shop together in the afternoon to conduct research on robots.
After getting a Rotom, Maru's robot research had advanced by leaps and bounds. She even used Ron as a go-between to order some custom Rotom engines from the Pokémon Center. They were only waiting for tonight to make their first startup attempt.
Arriving at the clinic, Ron went into the examination room under Harvey's guidance.
James and Jessie leaned over the counter, getting their files sorted out with Maru's help.
"Then, what about your birthdays? Which day?" Maru asked, looking up after writing in her logbook for a bit.
"Our birthdays..."
Having been in Pelican Town for so many days, the two had gained some understanding of the town's calendar system. They couldn't help but look at each other.
"Mm," Maru said, taking down a hanging calendar from the side and pushing it in front of them. "Mark it down. I'll sync it with Lewis later—this way, everyone will know when your birthdays are.
Of course, only people who are really close to each other will celebrate birthdays.
But if everyone knows, they'll at least say 'Happy Birthday' if they run into you on that day."
After pondering for a moment, James and Jessie said in unison, "Winter 16."
"The same day?" Maru looked at them in surprise, then wrote down both their names under that date.
Jessie then noticed that today was Leah's birthday. She couldn't help but lower her voice and ask, "By the way, do you know what Leah likes?"
"Leah?" Maru paused, looked at today's date on the calendar, and realized, "Oh, her—she seems to like all kinds of foraged items."
"Foraged items?"
"Just things you can find all over the mountains and the wild," Maru said, pulling out a map from the side and pointing to a spot on it. "You can find them in these areas—in winter, you should be able to find Snow Yams and Winter Roots."
"I see..." Jessie mused. Just then, she heard Harvey say to Ron inside the room: "The examination is over—no problems—well, to be precise, you're astonishingly robust."
"—Probably because of doing farm work," Ron said candidly.
"Do you two want to get your checkups today as well?" Harvey walked out behind Ron, looking at James and Jessie. "There's no time like the present, and the farm happens to have given you the day off today anyway."
Hearing this, the two thought for a moment and agreed.
At Harvey's cue, Maru led Jessie into the room.
Under Maru's instructions, Jessie slowly lifted her clothes.
Maru, who was originally planning to check Jessie step-by-step according to the standard procedure, froze in place. Looking at the dense, fine scars covering Jessie's body, it took a long while before Maru finally found her voice: "—What, what did you do for a living before...?"
"Me?" Jessie turned her head to look at Maru. Under Maru's gaze, Jessie paused. After a long while, she opened her mouth:
"—I was a bad person before."
"A bad person?" Maru was just taking out Harvey's medicine and looked up at Jessie upon hearing this.
"Do you mind?" Jessie asked.
Normally, she should have told a lie. In fact, she could have brushed it off with any excuse, but after seeing the pained, sympathetic look on Maru's face, she just couldn't bring herself to do it.
"I don't think you are," Maru dipped a cotton swab into the medicine bottle and said softly. "You don't look like a bad person, not at all.
Granny Evelyn even praised you yesterday."
Jessie stared at Maru in a daze. The next moment, Maru's eyes curved into a smile.
"Go lie down over there—this is Harvey's special medicine. It only costs 1,000g, and it can cure any illness. It can even make old scars look as good as new."
At this moment, Jessie felt tears suddenly welling up.
The last time this happened was the day she reunited with the Chansey from the Pokémon Nurse School at a certain Pokémon Center.
As the cool medicine was applied to her body, she couldn't help but bury her face in her arms, muttering muffledly, "I'm going to be a good person—"
Maru didn't hear these words. She was carefully applying the medicine to Jessie right now. Being a girl herself, even if she didn't care much about appearances, she knew that having so many scars of all sizes on her body would definitely bother Jessie at least a little.
Therefore, she made sure to apply the medicine to every single spot on her body.
After Jessie finished getting her medicine and Maru gave her the rest of the checkup, she smilingly saw Jessie out the door.
"Aren't you going to celebrate Leah's birthday today? Hurry up and go."
Saying this, she blocked Jessie's attempt to pay and turned back to the counter.
Not long after, Harvey also finished James's treatment. After sending James out the door, he turned his head to glance at Maru.
"Just now—"
"Just now—"
Both spoke at the same time. Harvey paused for a moment, then signaled for Maru to speak first.
"Just now, I used a bottle of your medicine," Maru said. "I marked Jessie's as free—because her body is covered in wounds."
After saying this, Harvey fell silent too.
"What about you?"
"—" Harvey silently walked into the room. "Nothing, we just took a loss of 2,000g today."
Maru was looking at Harvey's back. Upon hearing this, she immediately realized what he meant and couldn't help but cover her mouth and laugh.
Thinking about it, she turned to look outside again.
Although she didn't know what the two had experienced on that other continent—since they had come to Pelican Town, everything would get better.
With this thought, Maru buried her head and continued organizing their files.
On the other side, after leaving the clinic, Jessie kept thinking about Leah. She brought Wobbuffet and headed straight for Cindersap Forest.
Although Wobbuffet didn't have much in terms of offense, his defense stats were maxed out.
If she was just going out to forage some mountain goods, bringing him alone was more than enough.
"Wobuffet~"
Wobbuffet called out as it followed Jessie into the woods.
"Hey—Wobbuffet," Jessie asked, turning her head while using her hoe to dig through the snow. "What do you think—about us staying here?"
"Wobuffet~"
Wobbuffet called out again.
There was no change from usual. Of course, Jessie didn't expect to get an answer from Wobbuffet anyway. She patiently dug through the snow.
Recalling everything that had happened in this short period of time since coming to Pelican Town.
Thinking and thinking, before she could come to any sort of conclusion, she dug up a Snow Yam from the snow.
"Ah—found one."
"Wobuffet~"
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