Pokémon Detective Case Files.

"This kind of transactional news usually only gets squeezed into the corner of the second page, but now it has taken up the front page. Moreover, the newspaper inside doesn't mention anything about what happened at Qibao Museum. Not only that, even the robbery that caused a huge commotion yesterday morning has become much less popular online."

"Is it because of the negative impact of the Heavenly King's betrayal?" Azure asked, speculating.

"That's a possibility, after all, this news would make the league look foolish. In fact, there are quite a few forces in the media who want to see the league make a fool of itself. In this incident, the league and their opponents have maintained a strikingly consistent stance."

“I see.” With the detective’s hint, the assistant quickly found the answer. “Those opponents of the Alliance are colluding with Team Plasma. They don’t want information about Blueberry’s betrayal to be leaked.”

Hugo smiled knowingly. "That's true, but that's no longer something a private detective like me needs to concern myself with."

The train was running smoothly, Ibu was sleeping peacefully, and Bogarman was still watching a documentary, wearing the small headphones Hugo had given him.

"Hugo, wouldn't it be inappropriate for the museum to hand over the Dark Stone directly to the police?" Azure suddenly remembered this and asked with a chill.

After the incident, Aloe and Mu Li, the deputy curator whom they contacted by phone, agreed that it was not safe to keep the Founding Stone on display at the Qibao Museum, so they officially handed the stone over to the Qibao City Police.

"The Plasma Cluster could very well and has the capability to infiltrate the Alliance. Wouldn't it be unsafe to blindly trust the police like this?"

“It’s not that it’s not very safe.” Hugo was still rubbing his neck, it seemed that his stiff neck was really serious. “It’s that it’s absolutely not safe, otherwise Mr. Blueberry wouldn’t have bothered to be an undercover agent.”

"Isn't the situation terrible now?" The assistant couldn't hold back any longer and asked loudly.

"Keep your voice down, Azure." Hugo gestured for silence.

"What was handed over to the police was actually the same fake item that had been stolen before. After recovering the stolen item, I used black clay to cover up the text on the bottom of the fake item and gave it to Officer Jenny as the real thing. The police didn't even notice."

"Then...then really?"

Hugo reached into a pile of souvenirs and rummaged through them, finally finding a dark, oddly shaped stone: "I'm going to give this to my sister in Sinnoh as a souvenir. After all, the first principle is to surprise her."

The girl opened her mouth wide, remained silent for a long while, and then said in a very unnatural manner.

“Um… I have a friend who lives in the snow-capped mountains, and his house is quite big… I suddenly wanted to give him a souvenir that can also be used as a decorative item.”

Chapter 055 Only Death and Taxes Are Inevitable

On a sunny afternoon in the peaceful and tranquil city of Feiyun.

“This one is okay, this one isn’t quite right, this one is okay, this one won’t do, this one won’t do…” On the first floor of Yuqi Mansion, inside the Hugo Detective Agency, Director Hugo, with his messy black hair, was checking the photos that Bilan handed him one by one.

The chestnut-haired girl, who was the detective's assistant, was completely bewildered. She tilted her head like a headache-stricken Psyduck, blankly observing her employer's every move. Finally, she couldn't help but ask, "Great detective, can you tell me the reason for selecting these photos?"

Hugo stopped what he was doing and looked at Azure with some surprise, as if the other party was asking a strange question.

"In my opinion, these are all pretty much candid shots of extramarital affairs. Why do you think some of them are usable while others are not? I made sure the couple's faces were clearly visible in the photos, so why did you have to filter out half of them?"

“We are a legally operating private detective agency,” the detective said earnestly. “We are not tabloid paparazzi chasing after gossip, nor are we perverted stalkers with one foot in the field of sexual harassment. We take legal and reasonable photos that will not infringe on the reputation rights of others.”

"No, no, no, from the moment you accepted the commission from that middle-aged, overweight wealthy woman, our actions were already far removed from what is reasonable and legal." Azure shook her head vigorously, trying to correct the detective's misconception.

“I understand what you mean. It seems you still live in a black-and-white world, my friend,” Hugo said, as he re-examined the photographs in his hand.

"There is no pure black or pure white in the world. Perhaps laws and morals can serve as the bottom line and standard for people to regulate their own behavior, but if we regard these dogmatic constraints as forbidden zones and dare not cross the line, we will become slaves to mediocrity and drift further and further away from absolute justice..."

The detective kept rambling on and on, but Azure rudely interrupted his speech—

“I’m not that old-fashioned. I took those photos myself. Now, as payment for stalking a married man like a stalker for a whole week, tell me your reason for splitting those photos into two piles!”

“As I said before, the world is not black and white, but is made up of large areas of gray. However, we can still pick out some things that are close to white from the gray.” The detective finished screening the photos, wiped the two stacks of photos on the table, and the two rows of photos were clearly presented to his assistant.

"So, what I really want to ask is, you divided the photos..." Azure paused halfway through her sentence, revealing an expression of sudden realization.

On the table, the photos Hugo had selected were arranged together, resembling a meticulously crafted street scene photography series by a professional artist. The faces of the married men and their lovers captured in the photos seemed to have vanished as if by magic; they were like drops of water in the ocean, buried among the masses, becoming inconspicuous.

Even in several photos, where the two people being photographed are clearly the central subjects of the image, they are intimately kissing each other near a suspicious location, yet due to the subtle lighting and the magical atmosphere created between several consecutive street scene photos, a sense of artistic harmony is somehow achieved.

Viewers of the photos will not perceive them as lewd voyeurism, but rather as a conscious creative act by a photographic artist.

After looking at the photos Hugo selected, let's look at the remaining set of photos—

Azure felt utterly ashamed of her voyeuristic behavior; those were truly just dirty and obscene voyeuristic shots.

"Your photography skills are good, and your perception of light and shadow is excellent. This unadorned color palette can actually be a major selling point. However, you still need to work on the composition," Hugo said casually, taking a sip of water, with the air of a professional art critic.

“As long as we go through this kind of screening process, we won’t be considered to be illegally taking photos. Bilan, you’ve just conducted a photography trip as a traveling artist. The couple in the picture are just in an awkward way in your work. Since they are not the focus of the work, it does not involve issues such as infringement of reputation or privacy.”

As Hugo spoke, he used his phone to send a document to Azure: "This is the creative summary of your series of photographs. It will be used when conducting art transactions. Just fill in the appropriate content in the template and then sign it."

Azure looked at the document Hugo had sent her and her head started spinning.

The text is filled with profound and enigmatic terms such as "visual symbols under personal style", "framing composition and angle", "emotional tone and mood flow", and "local customs and culture of modern cities".

"The title could be something like 'Urban Adventures of a Stranger from Kanto.' The residents of Unova love to call themselves city dwellers, so they'll be happy to see a title like that," the detective added, his expression a mix of sarcasm and self-deprecation.

The girl asked nervously, "Hugo, are these photos going to be sold as works of art? Or are they going to be exhibited in an art museum?"

“Of course we’re going to sell them, but I’ll be the one selling them to a wealthy, plump lady for her private collection.” Hugo gave his assistant a meaningful look, then continued, “Just like you think, we’re going to sell the photographs to the consignor as works of art.”

"What's the point of doing this?" Azure was still puzzled.

"In this way, if the client's husband files a lawsuit against us for invasion of privacy, we will have ample grounds to make him lose. After all, as a private investigator, I just happened to find a set of photographs containing evidence of the husband's infidelity and gave them to the client. And you, as a well-intentioned third party, simply took pictures of the street scenes of Feiyun City around you—which is perfectly normal for a newcomer to Hezhong."

Seeing the look of sudden realization on Azure's face, Hugo added—

"In addition, in this way, we can also generously reduce most of the fees that the client would otherwise have to pay, thereby easing the tax burden on the firm."

"Taxation?" The girl paused, taken aback by the familiar yet unfamiliar word.

"This is a very clever tax avoidance strategy, which I only discovered by accident. You see, the United States region attaches great importance to the development of the art industry and has all sorts of preferential policies for emerging artists. Among them, the tax rate for art transactions around 10,000 yuan is unbelievably low. And the price of a normal extramarital affair investigation commission happens to be in this range..."

"So the wages I received before were actually so dirty..." Bilan had a disillusioned and dejected expression. She had also shown this expression once before when Hugo took her out to the street to take photos of her.

"Don't think like that. We helped an unhappy woman see her husband's true colors. Revealing the truth is a detective's job, and there's nothing to be ashamed of."

Hugo said with an air of self-righteousness, "Besides, if legitimate tax avoidance is considered dirty, then 90% of the accountants in Feiyun City should be looking for a rock in their office and killing themselves."

"That sounds good. It seems that there are still about 10% honest and upright accountants left in Feiyun City."

"No, the remaining 10% of accountants were fired and sent home because of their incompetence," the detective said in a cold, impersonal tone. "Besides, I saw you were quite happy when you received your salary, rubbing your cheek with your phone that showed the successful transfer. You certainly didn't think about the personal income tax issue, did you?"

"Is there a problem?" Bilan took a step back, unconsciously covering her phone which she used to transfer money, becoming wary.

“It’s not a big problem,” Hugo said seriously. “When I was calculating your salary and tax rate, I took it upon myself to declare you as a Pokémon Trainer in the Unova region, which allows you to enjoy certain tax reduction policies. In addition, I also settled part of your salary as travel expenses, so that it wouldn’t be included in your personal income tax calculation.”

"If you didn't use these methods to avoid taxes, your income last month would have been approximately..." The detective wrote a short string of numbers in his palm with a pen and then showed it to the girl.

Azure broke out in a cold sweat, her face instantly changing color. The assistant gave an awkward smile, and after a long pause, finally spoke—

"Hugo, we don't live in a black-and-white world, do we?"

Chapter 056 Officer Jenny: You are not Hugo, who are you?

Just as the detective and his assistant were discussing tariff rates, Hugo abruptly changed the subject—

"Back when I wasn't a detective, I used to fantasize about what my future detective agency would look like."

For some reason, the detective brought up a topic that seemed very interesting, fully arousing Azure's curiosity. The girl asked with great interest, "Hugo, what was your dream workplace like back then?"

"In my imagination at the time, it would probably be a cramped apartment in an office building, with a crooked sign for the agency at the door, various documents piled up haphazardly inside, and trophies seized from various cases scattered haphazardly in the living room. Every client who came to the office would regret coming to the wrong place upon seeing this scene," the detective answered without hesitation.

"Wow—" Azure exclaimed as she looked around the bright and clean interior of the Feather Residence, then thought of the spacious courtyard that always amazed her when she went out. She sighed, "That was really a completely different environment from now."

"Of all the various ideas I've come up with, the one I'm most insistent on is that the detective agency must have a wooden door without a doorbell," Hugo suddenly said.

"Why?" Bilan tilted her head, her chestnut hair swaying in the sunlight, radiating the vitality of a young girl.

"Because if I use a wooden door without a doorbell, I can guess the identity, occupation, and mood of the visitor by the frequency and force of the knocking before they enter. Besides that, I also think the sound of a wooden door being knocked on is very pleasant."

“That really does feel like a detective,” Azure nodded in agreement. “That way you can be like a prophet, able to tell the general situation before the visitor even states their purpose. It’s a cunning and effective trick. Speaking of which, last time when Douzi and I came in together, you deduced that Douzi was very happy just by ringing the doorbell twice, and then deduced the final outcome of our battle against that sandstorm team.”

"Yes, it's a pity that plans can't keep up with changes. The current facilities only allow me to make such unimpressive deductions, which are completely unable to reflect the effect of a program about foresight."

Hugo sighed regretfully and pointed out the window with an expression that would easily arouse envy.

"Who would have thought that my detective agency would be equipped with such huge floor-to-ceiling windows and such a spacious outdoor courtyard? Now, it's easy to see who's visiting outside!"

Sure enough, looking out from the floor-to-ceiling windows, you could actually see two sneaky guys studying something outside the courtyard of Yuxi Residence.

Seeing the figures outside, Azure finally understood why the detective had changed the subject.

"As you can see, those are two police officers in beige uniforms from the Feiyun City Police Department. The one with short blue hair is an old acquaintance of mine, Ms. Officer Jenny from Feiyun City. She used to work in the Public Security Division, but was recently transferred to the Criminal Investigation Division after solving a major case. The female officer next to her, who looks a bit timid, is probably her new partner. I don't know her, so I'll have to wait until she goes inside to introduce myself."

Faced with the eloquent detective Hugo, Azure couldn't help but ask, "Shouldn't you go and open the door if you see someone standing outside?"

The detective waved his hand dismissively, as if swatting away mosquitoes: "There's a doorbell at the entrance of the Feather Residence, and they haven't rung it yet. That obviously means the two ladies aren't planning to come in anytime soon. Maybe Miss Officer Jenny is currently introducing her old friend to the newcomer, just like I am."

The assistant nodded somewhat convinced, but then realized something was amiss: "The police station is quite a distance from Yuxi Residence, isn't it? If they wanted to introduce you, they should have done so along the way, right?"

As luck would have it, at the same time, the landline phone on Hugo's desk rang loudly. The detective picked up the receiver: "Hello, this is the Hugo Detective Agency."

A roar came from the other end of the phone, startling Bilan even from a distance.

"Hugo! The doorbell of your ridiculously huge, dilapidated mansion is broken! I've been waiting at your door for ages, come out and open it!"

.

The detective reluctantly welcomed the police officer inside, and the female officer who looked like his deputy followed Officer Jenny into the Feather Residence.

“Officer Jenny, this is a new employee of our agency. She heard about my detective exploits in the Kanto region and came here specifically to become my apprentice. Her name is Azure. Azure, this is the super detective I often mention to you, Ms. Officer Jenny from Flying Cloud City. Her training of the Thunder Zebra is terrible at riding.”

Hugo continued spouting nonsense without batting an eye.

"Don't listen to this guy's nonsense!" Officer Jenny and Azure glared at the detective in unison. After noticing his reaction, they smiled at each other, as if they had established some kind of tacit understanding as soon as they met.

The policewoman said irritably, "I'm not some super detective. The work in the criminal investigation department is all incredibly troublesome. Hugo, this is Sera, my deputy assigned by the department."

Officer Jenny's partner, a woman with long black hair and square-rimmed glasses, always had her head down, engrossed in her notebook. It was truly surprising that the police department had assigned such a quiet young woman as Officer Jenny's assistant.

“Nice to meet you, Miss Sera. I’m Hugo, the detective here.” Hugo’s self-introduction was very simple. Then he explained to Azure, “Because criminal police officers often have to deal with crime scenes, they must work in groups of at least two people. Therefore, a detective and an adjutant is a common operating mode in police investigations.”

"Mr. Hugo, Ms. Azure, hello, I'm Sera." The black-haired policewoman greeted the two detectives politely, then took a step back shyly, hiding behind Officer Jenny like a timid little animal.

"Nice to meet you both. I'm Detective Assistant Azure." Azure introduced herself like a detective, then eagerly asked, "Since Miss Officer Jenny and Miss Sera have come as a pair, you must be investigating a case, right?"

“It’s not just one case; they just went to the scene of a murder.” Hugo pointed to Officer Jenny’s pocket at her waist and said incisively.

“Miss Officer Jenny has a bunch of rubber gloves stuffed in her pocket, which is something police officers only need when entering a crime scene; also, the slightly messy hair at your temples suggests that you wore protective caps not long ago to prevent hair loss from disturbing the scene.”

The assistant observed the detective's serious expression and felt that Hugo was being a bit more aggressive than usual. Was he angry because he had made a wrong deduction due to the broken doorbell?

"Yes, yes, there is such a murder case." Officer Jenny seemed unsurprised and didn't rush to explain the case. She found a sofa and sat down comfortably, and her assistant quickly sat down next to her.

Seeing everyone seated, Hugo made a strange gesture. He raised his hands above his head and clapped them loudly.

Then, the sound of running could be heard from the Feather Residence. Soon after, Turtwig, Chimchar, Piplup, and Eevee came running out excitedly, each carrying a teacup full of water.

Officer Jenny took the teacup from the Turtwig's grass knot, blew on it to warm it, and asked Azure, "Did you train all these Pokémon? They're all Pokémon that are rarely seen in the Unova region."

The assistant at Yuxi Mansion shook her head: "No, only Eevee is mine; the other children are Hugo's Pokémon."

"what?"

Speechless, the teacup slipped from Officer Jenny's hand, only to be caught at the last second by Turtwig's Grass Knot. The policewoman, looking bewildered as if she'd just witnessed the sun rise in the west, stared blankly at the Pokémon serving tea to everyone before her gaze gradually shifted to the detective—

"You're not the Hugo I know. Who are you?"

Chapter 057 The Bloodstained Stone in the Secret Chamber

The misunderstanding was resolved in the blink of an eye.

As is customary, Hugo instructed Bogarman to use "Bubble Beam," but the little penguin, his face turning red, couldn't unleash the skill.

Only when its owner, holding the umbrella, gave up the command with a look of apology did the poor Pogaman start vomiting, gushing out large amounts of foam from its yellow beak and coughing up the foam.

Officer Jenny then dispelled her doubts and concisely explained the case to the great detective who had verified her identity—

"The murder occurred in a high-end apartment building in the western district of Feiyun City. The victim was stabbed in the abdomen with a stone in a closed room and died from massive bleeding."

"Stone?" The detective was momentarily dazed. "Was the victim a professional in financial management?"

“No,” the policewoman replied crisply. “The deceased was a Pokémon trainer named Greta, male, 27 years old at the time of his death, single and living alone, and skilled in using Rock-type Pokémon.”

"Please explain the situation in detail." The detective's expression turned serious, and he entered working mode. He took out his notebook from the drawer, looking like he was ready to listen attentively.

Azure, who was taking care of Bogarman, also straightened her posture and listened attentively to the conversation between the police and the detective.

The loss of a living trainer's life is not a funny or amusing case like "sixty trainers in a row choosing Otter".

"The victim's trainer couldn't contact the other party, so he went to visit the apartment, only to find no one answering. Out of concern, he asked the apartment manager to use a spare key to unlock the door, and that's when the body was discovered."

Officer Jenny's explanation was concise and to the point, clear and stern.

"Does the apartment manager have the residents' keys? Won't that raise privacy concerns?" Hugo asked immediately, as if he had detected a discordant note in a piece of music.