Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 220 Hugo's Message

Chapter 221 Hugo's Message

"Ms. Naz, there's something I'm a little embarrassed to say—"

"Oh, Miss Director? Now that all the performance plans have come to a perfect close, is there anything troubling you that you can't let go of? Why don't you tell this experienced leading lady?"

Two teenage girls are cleaning up the aftermath of a chase scene from a horror movie on a stretch of road.

After the cordon was lifted, a few pedestrians began to appear on the streets. These pedestrians walked by unnoticed, completely oblivious to anything unusual happening in the road.

The giant purple hand, the cracked road surface, the flying bushes, the twisted streetlights, the dismantled vending machine—these things, which seemed to be from a surrealist painting, have completely disappeared as if they never existed.

Only a few leaves, blown by the strong wind, remained, scattered sparsely on the ground.

Therefore, the two girls who came specifically to collect the leaves looked more like street volunteers cleaning up than the crew members cleaning the stage.

But even leaves must not be left on this road, because they could become evidence that the family has noticed something amiss. In fact, these leaves are completely out of season and are important props for creating a sense of realism in the illusion. Their main function is to force the three people to half-close their eyes at the beginning of the performance, thus depriving them of their ability to observe the outside world.

When people close their eyes, any kind of miracle can happen.

To prevent the leaves from scratching the eyes of the three unsuspecting audience members, the director specially found tender yellow new leaves that had just sprouted. They were light and soft, without any sharp edges—this was a very hard-to-find prop in Flying Cloud City during winter. Fighting and Serpent spent a lot of effort to barely produce enough for one performance in a short period of time.

"So, this lady who claims to be an experienced leading lady... from the very first line, you completely abandoned all your prepared acting skills. What's going on here?"

Douzi wore a stiff, amiable smile, his eyes fixed on Miss Nazi, who had changed back into ordinary clothes.

Besides long-term care, Sachiko's cognitive impairment can be cured by overturning all conventional wisdom and creating a scenario where any miracle is possible. In this scenario, Miss Naz uses her super-powerful abilities to focus the girl's attention on her parents, allowing her relatives, who were initially considered "missing" based on science fiction theories, to reappear.

Therefore, in the original storyline commissioned by Azur Lane, Sabrina was supposed to act as a mysterious magician who happened to be passing by, performing a time-traveling miracle in front of the family of three.

However, Sabrina, who was supposed to be a mysterious sorceress, went into a berserk state the moment she appeared, completely abandoning her neutral and benevolent sorceress persona, and chasing after the Kuribayashi family like a villain—

"Oh well, there's nothing we can do about it."

Naza waved her arm, sending a small pile of leaves flying into the trash can, and said, "I met that girl's father once before. If I had participated in the original script, my identity would definitely have been exposed. With no other choice, in order to complete the plan to restore the little girl to normalcy, I had to sacrifice my reputation and play the villain in the performance."

"Is this really out of necessity? Why do I feel like you're enjoying it? Aren't you getting too emotionally involved?"

Douzi cast a suspicious look at him and launched into a barrage of questions.

"Anyway, the final result is satisfactory, so everything is fine, right?"

The psychic-type gym leader shrugged casually, skillfully avoiding the topic.

"When those three audience members open their eyes, they'll find themselves sitting in the movie theater, watching the fantasy film 'The Magic Door to the Magic Kingdom,' in which I star. Everything that just happened will become a dream that surfaced while they were dozing off during the movie. Hehe, it was really lucky to wear that costume today; my premonitions always seem to work especially well at times like this. Wouldn't that be a perfect, dreamlike performance?"

"Don't talk about the remedies that others have painstakingly come up with as if they were your own superpowers or premonitions! 'The Magic Door' has been showing for more than a month, and it's a miracle that you can find a movie theater nearby that has it playing."

The girl with the high ponytail complained irritably, "And it's not all good at all—those two adults aren't children with confused memories; they definitely won't treat what happened before as a dream. Besides, the little girl even fell on the ground halfway through the performance. If she had any injuries or pain, she would instantly see through the truth we're trying so hard to cover up."

"Don't worry about that," the actress said reassuringly to the director as she removed the last leaf from the prop.

"If those parents were smart enough, they would never tell their daughter the truth right away. Once the girl's cognitive impairment stabilized and was cured, it wouldn't matter if they realized everything. As for the little girl, I used my superpowers to catch her when she fell, so it's impossible for her to have any physical injuries. Therefore, even if the plot changes midway, it won't lead to any regrettable outcome."

"What a diva-like actress. Oh well, since we were so well prepared, even though the process was a bit thrilling, it can definitely be considered a perfect ending."

The director breathed a sigh of relief. Then she suddenly remembered something and became curious again.

"By the way, Miss Sabrina. I remember you were hit by Daewoo's 'Sealing' technique before, right? How come you were still able to use 'psychic power' to help people up?"

The Gym Leader looked at Douzi speechlessly, as if the other party had made some common sense mistake. "I'm not a Pokémon. How could a move that seals a Pokémon's skills possibly work on me? I was just putting on an act and pretending to be delayed. Besides, after stunning Daewoo, I was out of the battle. Even if my psychic powers were really sealed, I could easily unseal them at that time."

"Yes, showing weaknesses is also an important part of creating a villain. It also helps to foreshadow their eventual defeat. By laying the groundwork for later plot developments in such seemingly insignificant details, we can truly capture the essence of filmmaking."

Douzi nodded earnestly, looking completely at ease.

"Phew, I didn't just leave out that much." Talking about her area of ​​expertise, the veteran villain, Ms. Sabrina, continued, "There's also the final crimson spear. Since it's just an illusion, it can actually be cast instantly with a wave of the hand; there's no need to practice those spells. After all, superpowers aren't based on theory; mages basically operate by feeling."

Miss Sabrina's superpowers seem to be far more powerful than even the wildest imagination of Touko.

"Whether you're playing a villain or a gym leader, it's the same principle: you have to give your opponent a glimmer of hope during the battle, otherwise it's just bullying them."

"No, you've been bullying people ever since you started using your superpowers."

"Speaking of which, the director also helped a lot with this performance. If it weren't for you bringing in the fog cannon truck and sound equipment, I wouldn't have been able to create such a dazzling visual illusion as before. Being able to coordinate so many on-site installations all by yourself, you truly deserve to be someone who claims to be a great director."

Despite feeling slightly smug, the director crossed her arms and responded firmly: "Even if you flatter me, I won't pretend that you tore up the script today didn't happen."

"How about this then?"

Naza brushed her dark blue hair back and smiled at Touko.

"The little servant of Shou Xiao, the guardian of the classic film, the lost of the Beijing movie, the flower terrace should be Xiao Yun, only the Western classic I. A proper earthen, a use, only a proper technique for filming insects to use color, as long as you tell me the shooting time in advance, I will arrange my schedule to participate in the United States area. I have a feeling that a good movie will be made."

Just as Touko and Sabrina successfully completed the task entrusted to them, Azure, who had just solved a case, was troubled at the Pokémon Center.

The little boy's mother had already come to pick him up. The idle detective glanced at the clock on the Pokémon Center wall. "Saria and the others should have finished their performance by now. With Douko's help, nothing should go wrong. In other words, Sachiko will most likely be able to see her parents again by now."

Although her hints were very subtle, the Kuribayashi couple are both intelligent people and should cooperate with Natsumi's performance.

When Azure said goodbye to the Kuribayashi family, she deliberately added the ambiguous phrase, "I have a premonition." This "premonition" was a catchphrase that Sabrina had liked to use since the past.

As long as Sabrina mentions this word, the Kuribayashi couple, realizing this, should be able to guess the connection between the passing magician and the detective, and then fully cooperate with Sabrina's performance. As long as no drastic unexpected changes occur, and as long as they don't fall into a crisis situation where they don't have time to think, things will definitely continue to develop smoothly.

Although the act was faked, which is somewhat unfair to Sachiko who was kept in the dark, the misunderstanding created by the lie should be resolved by the lie, and the distortion that arose in the dream should be corrected by the dream itself.

Sachiko was an innocent party outside the incident, and she shouldn't have to bear the heavy burden of the realities behind the case. True fairness lies in letting the adults resolve the matter cleanly and decisively.

The only remaining problem is those two guys in the Pokémon Center ward.

The two Pokémon, one big and one small, are a runaway Pokémon with a trainer and a carefree personality, while the other is a wild Pokémon suffering from long-term malnutrition and has developed severe psychological trauma due to being confined to a classroom for a long time.

Neither of them could be entrusted to the Pokémon Center for adoption.

Although in this detective mission, Azure solved two requests from different clients in one go, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

But if we include the cleanup work for the lost Dream Eaters, wouldn't I have to handle two additional tasks: finding the trainer who lost the Dream Eater and choosing a suitable adopter for the smaller Dream Eater? Both of these are time-consuming, laborious, and yield meager results.

How can this be considered killing two birds with one stone?

It's killing two birds with one stone.

Hit rate 66.6%.

However, they couldn't just abandon the two Dreame. If the staff didn't know the full story, it would be difficult to take good care of the smaller Dreame, who was suffering from emotional and physical trauma. After waking up, the larger Dreame became inseparable from the former, seemingly wanting to protect its fellow creature in its tragic situation. Forcibly separating the two Pokémon would also cause considerable trouble.

Speaking of which, the reason this other Dream Eater wandered into the preschool a month ago might have been because it received a distress message from its companion conveyed through dream smoke. However, it never expected that its companion would be hiding inside the normally locked classroom, wandering the school for over a month without discovering the location of the smaller Dream Eater.

If Hugo were in this situation, how would he resolve it? Azure couldn't help but wonder.

The detective in the white coat is probably the one who has the least control over Pokémon. If two Mewtwo, one big and one small, fell into his hands, he would be at a loss for what to do.

As if in response to Azure's thoughts, the girl's phone vibrated, seemingly displaying a text message from a social media app.

Shouldn't Natsume and Touko have completed their mission?

With such a preconceived notion, Azure turned on the screen, then stared wide-eyed in surprise.

The message was sent by Detective Hugo, who was attending a solemn ceremony.

The flashing social media profile picture is the agency's LG0 logo; the minimalist icon and font are simple and elegant. Aside from being mistaken for GG, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Truly a pragmatic guy—

Upon opening the message, Azure quickly skimmed through it, only to be met with even greater astonishment.

The message wasn't a report on Hugo's recent situation, nor was it a routine greeting to Azur Lane. Instead, it was a work request: "I received a request from Professor Makomo. I should have handled this myself, but I have some troublesome personal matters to deal with here, so I can only ask you, who is staying in Castelia City, to help me. The task is to find a lost Pokémon. With your abilities, Azur Lane, you should be able to solve it in less than half a day, right?"

"Here are the details of the incident: A month ago, Dr. Makomo moved his Dream Research Institute from Sanyo City to Feiyun City."

During the move, her partner Pokémon, Mosquito, went missing. Since Mosquito is generally carefree and often returns home nonchalantly after being away for days, and given that it can survive in densely populated cities without food or water, Professor Makomo wasn't initially too worried. However, as a month passed, she began to fret, and after receiving my call, she made a request to me.

"In short, if you find the Dream Eater or obtain credible eyewitness testimony, please contact Dr. Makomo's phone number in the attachment. Her research institute address is also listed there."

"p.5. Since the Pokémon Dreameat feeds on dreams, I suggest starting your investigation by checking hospitals, preschools, and nursing homes near the New Dream Lab. Of course, the progress of the investigation is constantly changing, so please make your own judgment, Azur Lane. —Hugo"

Okay, now all the problems are solved.

Is that detective some kind of omniscient monster?