Pokémon Detective Case Files.

"But I didn't know about this. I'm a shrewd human who thinks the world is a huge deception."

The android head seemed to want to let out a lament, but the player's performance wouldn't allow it to; it could only remain calm and frank—

“I completely misunderstood the whole situation. Even though no one set a trap for me, I was still completely fooled by my own misunderstandings—and until recently, I was still running around in circles driven by my own stupid anger.”

"Does this refer to your secret escape from Binhai City, or your determination to break the seal on Xicui Naughty Thunder Bomb?" Zhulan asked.

The air seemed to freeze for a moment.

"It has nothing to do with the former. Although I am hostile to the Galactic Group that captured me, I have never been directly abused by humans, whether as a test subject or after being put into the head of an android. So when I escaped that research institute, I did not have any thoughts of revenge."

Whether it was an attempt to downplay the issue or not, Rotom in the head explained in detail how he escaped.

"However, the slight hostility I showed in the past also played a significant role in my escape. You humans always seem to underestimate the intelligence of taciturn creatures. Therefore, when I displayed intelligence like a human, the guards in the laboratory did not notice at all."

Even in heavily guarded human prisons, escapes occasionally occur. How much more so in a laxly guarded monitoring lab where the project has been suspended for two years? How could it possibly contain a cyborg robot with superhuman abilities who is determined to escape?

To be precise, it stole a set of lab guard uniforms, changed the surveillance footage to loop old recordings, and then the android Rotom left the research institute in Binhai City openly and legitimately.

Fortunately, androids do not need to eat like humans, and regular physical examinations will have to wait until the next cycle.

Judging from the fact that none of Director Hayden's subordinates have called to report this, the personnel stationed at the laboratory probably still don't know that their target has already escaped.

“Every living being has an impulse to yearn for freedom, and my choice to run away was based on a similar reason—the so-called ‘journey to find myself.’ For me, the starting point of this so-called self is, of course, this abandoned mansion in the Hundred Generations Forest. However, it has now been reopened.”

"So, Mr. Rotom, who was temporarily residing inside a human head, why did you later change your mind and decide to blow us up?"

Miss Officer Jenny asked with a smile that sent chills down the spines of outsiders.

However, this has no impact on Rotom, whose vision module cannot be enabled.

Rotom continued calmly, "In my Pokémon form, I am genderless... But let's leave that aside for now. The reason I changed my mind is because after returning to this Forest Mansion, I heard news that deepened my misunderstanding once again."

"Darken it again?"

After recalling the entire incident, the Sinnoh champion thoughtfully asked—

"Do you mean the time when you were stuck in the wall of the curator's room?"

Sound is essentially sound waves produced by the vibration of objects. The reason why the Ice-Treading Doll's "light wall" can isolate conversations inside the room is because the super-energy generated by the "light wall" completely absorbs the sound wave vibrations from the room.

However, at this moment, an unfortunate Pokémon was tightly pressed down by this "light wall" that was absorbing air and vibrating, so much so that it had to make a banging sound to attract outsiders before it was finally able to escape.

Naturally, the entire conversation between Medan and Hayden in the room was heard by Rotom without missing a single word.

"Since the mansion was surrounded by trees on all sides, I sneaked into the roof from the outside, intending to transform back into Rotom from the attic and pass through the wall back to my underground habitat."

The android head's narration was completely monotone, as if it were recounting a trivial matter—

"In order to break free from the human body, I disassembled myself piece by piece, starting from my toes, in the attic beneath the spire, except for my head. After disassembling myself to the point where I could no longer take it apart, I packed all the parts into a spare sack in the warehouse, tied it tightly with ropes made from torn clothes, and hung it at the top of the spire."

That's the situation.

The android head beneath the gray cloth spoke calmly.

Carefully peeling back the bionic skin, disassembling each grain of sand-sized tactile sensor; separating the carbon nanotubes that simulate ligaments, removing the crisscrossing artificial muscles one by one; then the joints and bones, removing them in sequence with a creaking sound; turning the screws, before the limbs stop functioning due to insufficient power, removing the artificial heart and cooling system from the chest cavity; then picking out the memory metal running through the entire spine from behind the neck, allowing the disconnected vertebrae to fall off naturally, one by one, like pearls on a necklace with their string pulled off…

—Just like that, he casually revealed the mystery of the android decapitation incident.

Decapitation does not require someone to cut off the head; it only requires the body below the head to disappear.

The truth of the matter is that simple and easy to understand.

The android was not subjected to the persecution of having its head cut off; it simply disassembled the part below its head to gain freedom.

That's it.

As the saying goes, "seeing the trees but not the forest," Zhu Lan and the others' view was inevitably limited from the moment they stepped into the vicinity of this forest mansion.

Beneath the towering mansion tower, even from the rooftop, one cannot clearly see the area near the spires. Therefore, Rotom's package remains hanging atop the Forest Mansion's spire to this day.

Unlike real human corpses, the remains of androids do not leave behind blood or develop an unpleasant odor if left unattended for an extended period. Furthermore, if properly preserved, bionic materials can remain usable even after months or years – this is the advantage of mechanical creations.

Furthermore, if reassembled properly, this Rotom might even be able to reassemble itself from head to toe. Then, acting as if nothing happened, it could slip back into the android lab in Binhai City and perfectly cover up the incident... Perhaps, that was its original plan?

“I see. I thought you had already thrown your body deep into the dense forest, which is why you didn’t bother to check on the whereabouts of the parts other than the head. I never imagined that it would be hanging right above our heads.”

Zhu Lan wore an expression of relief that was both unexpected and yet understandable.

"It's like you humans getting a very gorgeous piece of clothing. If one day you don't want to wear it anymore and want to take it off, you wouldn't be willing to just throw it away completely, would you? That's basically my view of this body," the head replied.

"But how could that be?"

Miss Officer Jenny couldn't help but ask—

"Disintegrating yourself into pieces from the bottom up... No matter how you look at it, that's impossible, right? Isn't that as fantastical as trying to lift yourself off gravity by your own hair?"

“The conditions were sufficient, which is why I adopted this approach,” the android said.

"If you don't believe me, you can ask my creator. To make it easier for bionic robots like me to repair themselves, my memory module contains information on my own structure and repair methods. Some parts inside my body can even be used as temporary screwdrivers and miniature spot welders in extreme cases."

Being able to repair parts and replace components naturally allows one to disassemble those parts and components one by one.

Just as pharmacists always know which solvents can kill people, and surgeons know the most about human vulnerabilities.

For a bionic robot that understands its own structure and maintenance methods, as long as it makes up its mind, the bionic human's "decapitation" operation can be carried out effortlessly.

Officer Jenny turned her gaze to Medan, who closed her eyes and nodded.

"Furthermore, as my creator previously stated, automated design always has many counterintuitive limitations due to logical contradictions. It's impossible for me to reassemble myself now that I've become like this."

"After I left that body and took Rotom's form, I completely forgot all the data in the memory module. Just like how Rotom the phone couldn't understand Pokémon language after it became a machine, I chose another life form and also gave up my omnipotent technological power. I can't even put my original body back together anymore."

Without a trace of regret, Rotom declared to everyone present—

"To abandon my identity as both human and machine and become a pure Rotom—that is my choice. Part of the reason is based on my hostility towards the Galactic Group, but the main reason is that I believe this side represents freedom."

"However, although you make it sound so easy, the reality of your gaining freedom must not be so easy, right?"

The champion was not interrupted by the bionic head's frankness and calmly continued to press for answers—

"I won't ask how you continued the disassembly process after you were reduced to only one hand—unlike the difficulty of transforming Rotom back into a android, when you transform from an android into Rotom, you only need to remove the parts that don't hinder your movement beforehand, and then loosen the screws on the remaining parts. Naturally, you can easily continue to disassemble the remaining parts into eight pieces. The lightning on both sides of Rotom can not only transform into physical hands, but can even use static electricity to assist in more delicate operations... The really important part is here."

The Sinnoh champion tapped his head with his fingertip, then suddenly realized that the androids currently lacked vision, and quickly added—

"Ah... I mean the head. This bionic head was originally a product of the Galaxy Cluster. The crazy scientists in that organization can be impatient and reckless at times, and usually they are also insane, but they never make a mistake that shows mercy."

"So I think, based on their original design, even if you manipulate your body and forcibly destroy the android's operating core, your soul would still be trapped in this dark, sunless box in your brain—after all, the ultimate purpose of this device is to make Pokémon have the soul of a human. If the soul inside could leave the body so easily, then there would be no point in inventing the device, right?"

"Yes, what the champion Zhu Lan said is correct."

Professor Medan immediately nodded in agreement, which was actually the part that puzzled him the most as the creator.

"In the design and planning of androids, whether the body suffers severe damage that renders it unable to move, or shuts down due to complete power depletion, or even if someone disassembles the entire head of the android, it is impossible for the Pokémon inside the device to have its soul leave its body."

"The reason for this is that the hardware responsible for storing the soul's essence is stored independently within the brain. The entire component is like a single, molded metal block, housed within the most robustly defended miniature structure. We mimic the information recording system of the space shuttle, calling that part the 'black box,' meaning that even if the android falls from tens of thousands of meters in the air, it can be revived using the data stored on the hard drive. This layer of defense is absolutely reliable, both externally and internally. Subject, how exactly did you break through this layer of defense?"

"The method is actually not complicated."

The head, which Mei Dan referred to as an "experimental subject," said—

“I am a Rotom, classified as a Plasma Pokémon in the Pokédex created by humans. That is why, even in an airtight metal box, sealed in a data cage that even Ghost-type Pokémon cannot escape, there is still a secret passage for me to escape.”

"I see, I understand now."

Surprisingly, it wasn't Madan, the creator of the androids, who saw through Rotom's escape plan, nor Cynthia and Officer Jenny who were in control at the end of the long table, but Hayden.

"You've connected the wires for yourself."

The man, a businessman, a conman, an entrepreneur, a conspiracy theorist, a science fiction enthusiast, and someone whom Mei Dan called an old classmate, spoke up.

"Inside the attic, which served as a warehouse, there was food preservation equipment and basic lighting, so electrical wires weren't hard to find. That's where you cut the insulation of the wires and connected the two ends of the black box's circuitry to the neutral and live wires respectively, creating a momentary short circuit."

"Due to the short circuit, the current that should have flowed through the entire Forest Mansion instantly found a shortcut, surging through the soul module of the bionic body like a raging flood. The soaring current energized everything in the metal device, whether it was the circuit pins on the data silicon chip or the integrated circuits connecting the flash memory chips, all of them were completely covered by this rampaging current—in this way, you, as a plasma Pokémon, can leave the prison formed by the human body as freely as a freely moving negative electron."

“You clever human, you are absolutely right,” the head replied without hesitation.

"Because once separated from the body, the relevant disassembly knowledge will be lost, so when carrying out this step, I had already disassembled myself down to just my head and one arm, relying solely on the distributed power source inside my skull to maintain my last ability to move."

"As the powerful humans had said before, most of the parts on my arm had already been removed, leaving only a few parts that could be easily disassembled without a screwdriver, maintaining their basic shape like dry, brittle twigs. With these arms, I grabbed the wire connected to the household circuit—the wire, of course, was also removed from my body—and aimed it at the hidden interface of my soul, inserting it straight up from directly below my disassembled head."

"And then you, as Rotom, were reborn."

Zhu Lan said meaningfully—

"You escaped from the surging currents, and the head, now without its manipulator, became pure inorganic matter and fell back to the ground. Then, as Rotom, you disassembled the last arm, stuffed all the remaining parts into a sack, and hung it high up in the Forest Mansion, leaving the head in the attic of the Forest Mansion."

The language module of the bionic head remained silent, using silence to indicate default.

"Why didn't you put the heads in with you?" the champion asked.

"It's because of an unexpected situation."

Officer Jenny, who was standing next to Orchid, suddenly spoke.

From the Sinnoh League's intelligence department, she swiftly lifted the gray cloth, revealing the android head inside, its eyes bulging from the electric shock.

Officer Jenny pointed to the head, then slowly lowered it.

"You still haven't explained where the blood on your neck came from, have you?"

A silent uproar ensued, especially from Ms. Zina, who was the first to witness the beheading, whose face paled in shock.

Yes, how could we forget that scarlet shelf?

“It wasn’t just bloodstains on the head and neck; the blood-like liquid left at the scene even overflowed from the shelves, leaving a bloody puddle on the attic floor. You must have been forced to abandon putting the head into the sack where the body was stored because of this accident.”

"Indeed. I never expected that when I left the android body, bright red liquid would suddenly flow out of the area below my head like a faucet that couldn't be turned off."

The sound emanating from inside the motionless android head seemed particularly eerie.

"If I were still inside the skull, I could probably figure out the cause of this situation in no time. But now I'm just a Rotom, and that computing speed and memory comparable to an electronic computer has been completely stripped from my body."

"So at that time, I could only watch helplessly as the blood kept flowing out. Whether I put it in a package or turned the head upside down, the blood would definitely contaminate the other parts. In the end, I had no choice but to move it to a high shelf in a corner, hoping that it wouldn't be discovered so quickly."

"He abandoned his body in such a reckless way, yet now he's concerned about the preservation of his remains? It feels like his rationality in decision-making has plummeted. Is this a side effect of turning back into Rotom?"

Officer Jenny sarcastically remarked that it seemed her interrogation skills remained undiminished even when dealing with non-humans.

"Even if you say that, I find it hard to explain the reasons behind it," the severed head said, looking troubled.

"If you humans could have your soul leave your body after death, wouldn't you also want your remains to be properly preserved?"

“A very interesting instinctive reaction.” Hayden said thoughtfully, “In the future, companies that develop consciousness uploading technology may also encounter the same problem… Hayden Pharmaceuticals may be able to do something about this.”

"Hey! Don't plot against me, and don't whisper at a volume I can hear. Are you trying to take advantage of Sinnoh's intelligence agency?"

For some reason, Officer Jenny moved in front of the entrepreneur and gave him a low reprimand before turning her wrathful gaze toward the android head.

"So, even you don't know where those liquids came from?"

The head remained silent, indicating that it knew nothing.

At this point, the most authoritative person in the room on this matter spoke up—

"Those liquids must be the coolant for the built-in power supply in the head," Professor Medan said cautiously.

"I see, so that strange code in the machine compiler is this kind of instruction. Once the soul module stops operating, it will automatically open the coolant suppression valve... Well, after all, it was originally made as a weapon, so it makes sense to immediately destroy the core components of the device if the soul dissipates. But why use this liquid with a bloody smell?"

"It's probably just like the androids' hairstyles, a product of the Galactic Group's designers' wicked sense of humor. Blood flowing out after a person dies—they probably wanted to add this feature to the tools they created."

Officer Jenny agreed with the professor's statement and deduced the evil organization's motives.

"Speaking of which, Professor Medan, you haven't even fully understood the code inside the android head, yet you're directly applying it to your own android? Aren't you worried that it might be hiding something, a backdoor program that could threaten the safety of the researchers?"

“We have indeed deciphered most of the code. However, there are still a few fragmented program statements remaining in the mechanical language that forms the basic logic. These statements are not interconnected and can only operate one or two micro-components at most. Before we understand their function, we are not in a position to delete them directly—after all, it would be difficult if it involved important basic functions.”

"So, it means 'if it's working, don't touch it anymore,' right?"

"Yes. Take this suppression valve for example. If this statement suddenly causes the android's head to suddenly leak water in the laboratory, we, who created the android from scratch, can completely fix it and then delete this dangerous basic code."

"But we must retain this command until the danger manifests, because before its function is fully understood, it could also be a micro-code that benefits the stable operation of the android in other situations. For example, it could be a program that increases the weight of the level indicator data alert when the android misses a step, or closes the android's eyelids when the head is attacked..."

"Alright, we'll continue our discussion about the design of androids later."

Interrupting Mei Dan's increasingly enthusiastic speech, the champion continued in a concluding remark.

"In short, once you understand how androids transform like bug-type Pokémon, Rotom's activity schedule becomes clear."

"First, there's the butterfly effect caused by the short circuit—because the bionic head absorbed most of the electrical energy, and the short circuit was extremely brief, it didn't blow the fuse or trip the main switch. But most of the electrical appliances in the Forest Mansion lost power and restarted—that's why, even though Professor Medan had set the computer cluster to standby mode, Officer Jenny and I still saw the mainframes running when we investigated the basement."

"Ah, I see!" Professor Medan exclaimed in surprise.

"If it's just a power outage and restart, the name calculation program won't run automatically. So, it seems the underground Electrode's rampage has nothing to do with my experiment... No, according to Rotom's previous statement, if I hadn't been living here because of the experiment and hadn't inadvertently discussed those things with Hayden, Rotom wouldn't have been determined to break Electrode's seal. So it still seems..."

Looking sympathetically at the distraught Meidan, Officer Jenny turned to Orchid beside her and asked—

"So, Rotom left his body before we entered the basement?"