thefictionvixens Chapter 93 The Grass Seedling Turtle Calls
Chapter 93 The Grass Seedling Turtle Calls
Cold, cunning, and utterly immoral.
This is Hugo's immediate impression of the criminal killer.
After all, this is a ruthless character who can chat and laugh with people while simultaneously sending out Pokémon to kill. Only an extremely hypocritical and shameless soul could drive a human to act in this way.
But in this particular crime, the way the murderer disposed of the body seems far too hasty…
Even a female thug committing murder for the first time knows to char the body to conceal the victim's identity and buy herself some leeway in escaping punishment. A criminal who kills so swiftly and decisively has no reason not to do the same.
Slashing faces, cutting off hands and feet, pulling out teeth to prevent dental examinations, stripping naked, separating the victim from items that could identify them, or even directly binding the body with heavy objects and sinking it to the bottom of the sea—a ruthless murderer is fully capable of doing all of these things.
The crime scene was a deserted beach where no one would notice the process of disposing of the body, and the surging tides day after day would erase the footprints and blood. The murderer had plenty of time and resources, but still chose to abandon the body on the shore—even burying it in less than a meter of sand.
According to Hugo's calculations, even if the three of them did not find the body this time, the tide would still surge onto the beach and bring the dead back to light in a few days.
Why did the murderer dispose of the body so boldly and carelessly?
Hugo's brow furrowed again: Could the murderer simply be an idiot too lazy to dispose of a body? But that was impossible; an idiot couldn't possibly gain the geologist's trust. Besides, no matter what kind of idiot he was, after committing a heinous crime like murder, there should have been traces of him trying to cover up the evidence, but there was absolutely no such trace at the scene—
No, there was something else: the murderer stole the victim's Pokémon. But that's all.
The more the detective analyzed, the more he felt that the murderer seemed to be laughing at him with glee... The other party possessed power that he could not reach. He appeared like a ghost, killing people without reason, and then disappeared without fear.
.
Before he knew it, Hugo had arrived at another seaside. Unlike the previous desolate beach, which was full of potholes and covered in silt, this was a tourist pier specifically for people to relax and play. The blue sky and the sea were clear and the sand was white. There were already quite a few tourists playing here.
Aquatic Pokémon such as baby ducks and tadpoles frequently appear on the beach, and many tourists are feeding them with great interest.
Further out in the sea, you can even see chubby and wild bass. Lifeguards sitting on high chairs on the shore are watching them closely. If these Pokémon, which may attack humans, get close to the tourist area, the lifeguards will send out Pokémon to drive them away.
Huh? The silhouette of a Pokémon on the beach caught Hugo's attention.
Before the detective could observe further, Azure shouted excitedly from behind, "Ah, it's Starmie! I didn't expect to see a Kanto Pokémon in Unova!"
"This Pokémon is more likely from Alola or Hoenn than Kanto." The indifferent voice was followed by a sharp retort; old man Naoki was still playing the game of talking back—
“Every summer, warm currents from the south bring a batch of rare water-type Pokémon from other regions, with Magikarp being the most common. Occasionally, Staryu, Tentacruel, and Pummel will also appear, all of which are wild Pokémon from the southern ocean regions. In lucky years, there may even be a spectacular sight of a group of giant Wailords passing by. This is common knowledge among our trainers here.”
Naoki was right, because before he finished speaking, a trainer wearing a baseball cap and carrying a fishing rod, looking like a fisherman, rushed forward.
The fisherman threw out his Poké Ball, and out emerged a giant blue-white ice cream cone with eyes, radiating a chilling aura.
"More ice! Use freeze-drying!"
A battle to capture the starfish broke out. Perhaps the fisherman was not good enough. Even though Dodo Ice's "freeze-dry" had a restraining effect on water-type creatures, it still could not suppress the gem starfish from another place.
The trainer tried several times to throw the net, but it was all bounced away by the starfish's spinning ten-pointed body.
"Ah, that guy failed."
Starmie broke free from the battle and jumped back into the sea, while the trainer who used Ice Beam knelt dejectedly on the beach, pounding the ground in agony.
Seeing this, the old gatekeeper grinned maliciously.
"What is the Air Force?" the detective's assistant asked curiously. There were just too many strange terms in the Unova region, and the girl from the simple town of Pallet Town couldn't understand them at all.
"This is a common saying among fishermen by the sea—if you can't catch any Water-type Pokémon, and your fish basket is empty, and you go home empty-handed, that's called 'air force'; if it's like this for several days in a row, that's called 'air force commander', isn't that interesting?"
On the distant sea, a starfish, perhaps celebrating its victory, spewed a jet of water into the sky, the droplets falling and refracting the sunlight into a vibrant rainbow.
Azure rolled her eyes; she didn't find it funny at all.
Hugo, however, rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and then spoke abruptly to his assistant and the elderly Naoki—
"The difference between the crime scene and other ports in Feiyun City is that it's a place where you can secretly contact Pokémon from other places, right? And when you say 'other places,' you usually mean the Alola Islands in the south and the Hoenn continent, right?"
"Yes... but what are you trying to say?"
Naoki's old, withered mind couldn't keep up with the detective's train of thought, but Azure reacted first—
"Hugo, have you thought of any clues related to the case?"
“I can vaguely connect some things,” Hugo said with a deep gaze.
"The truth behind this incident is complex and multifaceted, involving the twisted and bizarre news industry in the Unova region, the unfathomable dark web of the internet, the case at hand, and the clandestine conspiracies of an evil organization… A crucial link is missing from the deduction, leaving the entire hypothesis shrouded in chaos. I apologize, even I cannot fully explain the situation to you. What I do know for now is—"
The detective took a deep breath and began again: "Regarding this case alone, we can deduce the following facts: First, the geologist died in a conspiracy completely unrelated to him; second, the Plasma Group was conducting some kind of transaction with a foreign organization, and the victim accidentally discovered it; third, the person who killed the victim is about to leave the United States."
"Why... No, now is not the time to get to the bottom of things, Hugo, what should we do?" The assistant's gaze shifted from confusion to determination, and she looked at the detective in the white coat with high spirits.
Hugo looked bewildered, a rare expression of confusion on his face: "I can't be sure. I only know that this deal exists, but I can't deduce its specific form or the parties involved. We're missing a crucial piece of the puzzle. Without finding it, we'll be fighting against nothing but empty air."
At that moment, strange bell sounds came from all around.
"Hugo, it's your phone," Azure reminded him.
The detective glanced at his phone; it was a call from the agency's landline. This was highly suspicious. Only the Grass Sprout Turtle was left at the Feathered Residence. Who could be calling?
Hugo gestured for everyone to be quiet and then pressed the speakerphone button to connect the call.
Two whip cracking sounds came from the other end of the phone.
The detective immediately understood and explained to the other two, "This is the Turtwig using its 'Vine Whip' to prove its identity to us." Then he replied into the phone, "Turtle, I know it's you. Is there anything important?"
Surprisingly, the turtle's calls didn't continue. Instead, everyone heard a crisp sound of typing, followed by an audio clip playing from the phone.
The audio clip features a woman's voice with a standard broadcast accent; it's clearly a clip from a news report.
"...During this meeting, the Chairman of the Unova League warmly received Mr. Zvage, President of Hoenn Devon Corporation. The two sides discussed a number of issues, including energy security and the Pokémon ecosystem. The meeting concluded in a friendly atmosphere..."
Azure and the old man Naoki were confused, but the detective was struck dumb, and his hand holding the phone even trembled slightly.
Inside the Feathered Residence, the little green tortoise hung up the phone, lazily yawning with its big head. It used its vine whip to move the mouse and close the news video that was playing.
In another corner of the computer monitor, the same blurry video was still playing continuously. The video was from the security camera footage that Azur Lane had obtained from the convenience store.
The video consists of only a few frames. In the enlarged image, a middle-aged man with white hair is leading two of his men through a corner of the street.
And that middle-aged man actually bore a striking resemblance to the chairman of Devon Corporation, a giant corporation in the Hoenn region!