Pokémon Detective Case Files.

"Then I shall take my leave..." Hugo was about to say goodbye when the apartment manager was nowhere to be seen. In his place stood a long-haired dog with a majestic beard and a large face.

The old dog, carrying a purple evolution stone, approached Hugo.

Hugo glanced at the little guys at his feet, who seemed to be wondering what was going on, then looked at the long-haired dog and sighed, "I just can't do anything with you guys."

Hugo reached out and took the Evolution Stone, stuffed it into the pocket of his white suit without any hesitation, and then turned and left.

Seeing this, Chimchar, Torkoal, and Piplup quickly followed. The three starter Pokémon, who could outmaneuver the murderous Corsola, lined up like soldiers in a battle formation, obediently following behind the detective.

Chapter 069: Four Clues and Azure's Deduction

"I'll give you a few words as a hint, so you can use them to think about today's events. We'll talk about the rest when we get back to the office."

In the back seat of the taxi, the detective, wearing a tattered white coat, held up four fingers and spoke to Azure with a profound expression.

Hugo's voice was deep and clear, and with each word he uttered, a finger would bend back into his palm.

"Gifts, neighbors, rocks, benefits."

"Huh?" Under the bewildered gaze of Azure, the detective turned back, leaned against the seat cushion, and showed no intention of giving an explanation, closing his eyes to rest.

The drive back to the city center from the western district of Feiyun City was too long, and Azure also had a competitive side to her personality. After a brief moment of confusion, the assistant immediately activated her mental cells, combining the crime scene with subsequent intelligence information, and began logical deduction—

The "gift" the detective mentioned was likely the flowerpot on the bookshelf. Beneath that succulent that required little care lay the murderer—a ghost-type Galar Corsola.

Before the detective raised the trophy and smashed it against the flowerpot, Azure hadn't really paid much attention to the inconspicuous little potted plant. She was too stunned by the large patches of blood on the ground to observe it calmly.

Therefore, Bilan only had a vague understanding of what the potted plant originally looked like. Based on her brief, fleeting memory, Bilan vaguely remembered that the small flowerpot had no special features and simply sat alone next to the books. It was neither aesthetically pleasing nor did it make the already messy room any more chaotic. The placement of the flowerpot was also inappropriate; the potted plant looked very out of place on the bookshelf, probably just the result of the victim's careless placement before death.

Even if it wasn't Hugo, Azur Lane, who had searched the scene, could easily tell that the deceased Greta was a carefree trainer, and it was unlikely that such a person would actively buy potted plants that couldn't participate in Pokémon battles to raise.

So why did Hugo choose "gift" as the first element in deducing the truth of the matter? It was just a flowerpot that inexplicably appeared in the deceased's house; there are countless theories that could explain it. Why did it have to be a gift?

Of course, there are other possibilities, such as... for example...

At this point, the assistant was surprised to discover that the explanation of the flowerpot being delivered as a gift into the secret room was actually the only reasonable explanation for the presence of the flowerpot in the deceased's home.

But how could that potted plant be a gift? Azure couldn't easily accept the conclusion reached through the process of elimination, because the flowerpot looked so shabby that no one could associate it with the word "gift"—

What information on that ordinary, plain brick-colored flowerpot hints at its gift-giving nature? Is there a message or the giver's initials? Not at all—its simple, rough walls don't even have a single pattern!

Moreover, the succulents planted in flowerpots look like simple transplanted varieties, neither beautiful nor practical, and most likely won't live more than a year.

Giving a useless bonsai to a Sandstorm Team trainer feels more like mockery than a gesture of goodwill.

This doesn't seem like a gift that would be given to a close friend or family member.

The girl shook her head, pondering—if she had to call it a gift, this potted plant could only be given as a greeting gift to a stranger she was meeting for the first time. It was like the person giving the gift desperately trying to avoid making an overly strong impression by choosing a completely unoriginal gift, which ultimately backfired and made them seem very shabby…

A stranger? A gift to greet you?

"I see!" Upon realizing this, Azure finally understood the detective's intention. It turned out that after ruling out the possibility that Mr. Greta had purchased the flowerpot himself, Hugo immediately realized that its origin might be related to a visit from a stranger.

Prior to the murder, the victim and the killer had never formally met. After their first meeting, a potted plant containing Galar coral was delivered to the victim.

It was quite obvious that the stranger who came to visit had given Greta a "gift" that contained murderous intent as a formality.

Moreover, the only person who could do this so easily without arousing suspicion was the deceased's "neighbor"!

They were inside the second layer of security created by the apartment building, so they didn't have to worry about being remembered by the doorman or the cameras outside.

When she discovered the second word in the detective's clue, Azure couldn't help but pump her fist in delight—her train of thought was on point!

What happened next was perfectly logical. Mr. Greta passed by the bookshelf, intending to read a book or consult an illustrated guide, completely unaware of the danger hidden in the flowerpot.

Then, Corsola made its move, piercing the unsuspecting victim's abdomen with a cone-shaped rock. Since it wasn't a STAB move, the attack's power was relatively weak, and the rock left by Corsola's "Stone Slash" appeared to have shrunk considerably.

The victim did not die immediately, but struggled desperately in his home, with no one responding. His cell phone, capable of making emergency calls, sat on the table just a step away, and his six beloved pets slept soundly in a medical device. Yet, he could only die helplessly, not even knowing the killer's name or motive before he died.

Who exactly planned this crime, and for what reason? The first question has already been answered: it was the six young people who were carrying many low-level Pokémon. But what was their motive for murder?

As the reasoning progressed, Azure's confusion did not dissipate; instead, it deepened and became even more inexplicable.

The girl believed the detective's last two clues revealed the murderer's motive, and it was based on these clues that Hugo uncovered the criminals. But what did those two words mean?

"Rock"? Why a rock?

Mr. Greta is an expert in Team Sandstorm, and his Pokémon, including Druid of the Rock, Gigantamax, and Tyranitar, are all Rock-type, which greatly enhances their combat power in sandstorm weather. However, they didn't appear in this case at all, so how are they connected to the young people's criminal motives?

And there's one last clue: "interests." Does Hugo mean that there's some irreconcilable conflict of interest between the six young people and Mr. Greta, whom they've just met, which led to the murder?

According to the earliest reasoning, they had only met for the first time recently. What kind of interests led two groups of strangers to resort to such an extreme way to resolve their conflict?

Since the keywords provided by the detective were too difficult to understand, Azure decided to re-examine the criminal motive according to her own thinking.

When asked about her motives for the crime, the first thing that came to mind for the girl was Greta's dark history as a trainer.

As we all know, being a Pokémon trainer is a very tough profession. As a star trainer, Mr. Greta may have made enemies with someone during his journey to participate in the League competition, and this assassination attempt was his revenge.

However, this doesn't make sense. Those who would have a grudge against Greta would at least be trainers who were once at his level. Those young people are completely mediocre and could not possibly be the targets of any enmity.

Azure suddenly thought of another person—the apartment manager who used the long-haired dog. That man's command style was that of a seasoned veteran. If anyone in the apartment building had a grudge against Greta, this old man was highly suspicious, especially since he was the first to discover the body… He even had a spare key to that secret room!

Thinking of this, the girl was horrified—

Was Hugo misled by the apartment manager? As the manager, he also had the opportunity to give the potted plant to Mr. Greta. The final chaotic fight could very well have been staged by the old man, using his heroic act to completely clear his name of suspicion. The young people might soon be acquitted due to insufficient evidence, and the case would become a cold case…

"You've got it wrong." A lazy voice sounded in Bi Lan's ear.

"Look at you, all jumpy and overreacting. You're not the composed detective's assistant you should be. Have you forgotten the clues I gave you and started overthinking things?"

Azure turned her head and saw Detective Hugo's teasing smile.

Chapter 070 Resolution - Sandstorm Team Murder Case

Perhaps it was the detective's caution that made him unwilling to reveal his address, or perhaps it was simply to avoid surprising the driver too much by seeing the Yuxi Mansion, the detective got out of the car one street away from his residence.

After getting out of the taxi, Hugo tossed his worn-out white coat into a roadside trash can, then stretched lazily and began to impart his detective knowledge to Azure as if having a casual chat—

"The worst thing in reasoning is to start from scratch and abandon proven conclusions. This can easily lead to a fallacy that I call the 'common sense trap'."

Passing by the dazzling array of shop windows on the street, the detective, who had taken off his white coat and was now only wearing a black shirt, chatted casually as if no one else was around, looking much neater than usual.

"People tend to follow their intuitive thinking to connect simple facts, then become blinded by a single leaf, using this filter to interpret more information they like, thus ignoring all other evidence that is unfavorable to the conclusion. But such speculation cannot be equated with the real truth. And if a detective's misunderstanding falls on the suspect, it will become an extremely malicious framing."

Azure nodded as if she understood, but she was still worried and simply told Hugo that she suspected the apartment manager might be the culprit.

Hugo expected to be ridiculed by the detective, but he simply shrugged nonchalantly, as if he were used to it.

"You mean that administrator? Well, he was definitely involved in some shady business. He didn't seem to have much sympathy for the deceased Mr. Greta. On my suspect list, he's about as suspicious as another partner from the Sandstorm team."

"Is the other partner the one who first noticed Greta's disappearance and finally arrived at the crime scene with the administrator?" the girl couldn't help but ask.

"That's just how it is."

The detective in the black shirt nodded: "The closer the partners, the more likely they are to have the most intense arguments; the more interdependent the interests, the more likely they are to engage in the most deadly battles. Besides, if it's a gift from a partner you see every day, wouldn't the victim be more likely to take it back to their apartment?"

Azure's eyes widened in surprise: "Ah, I didn't think of that. It's certainly very possible."

"That's impossible!"

Hugo rubbed his forehead, regretting his assistant's easily swayed performance: "Miss Azure, if it's just speculation, there are countless motives for a crime. What a detective does is to constantly eliminate illogical options and revise his suspicions repeatedly based on newly discovered evidence, so as to finally identify the real culprit."

So what exactly should we do?

“Let’s start with the apartment manager’s suspicion. In my opinion, if the person who premeditatedly murdered Greta was the doorman, then there’s an undeniable contradiction in the case,” the detective said casually.

"What contradiction?" The girl was already intrigued and eagerly awaited what would happen next.

"The contradiction is that the old man could have carried out the crime more meticulously. For example, he could have taken a Poké Ball out of his pocket, aimed it at the flowerpot, and quietly put the Corsola back into the ball while the other person who first discovered it ran to the police. If he had done that, even if we and the police had been lucky enough to discover the trickery in the flowerpot, we would have had no way of finding out the specific traces of the other party's tampering."

The detective stroked his chin and then added, "Of course, the same contradiction exists if the murderer is another partner from the Sandstorm team. Therefore, the possibility that the first discoverer was the murderer can be almost ruled out, unless new evidence can explain this contradiction, in which case they cannot be the perpetrators."

"Could they have simply forgotten? Or missed the opportunity due to negligence?" Azure naturally questioned.

“Azure, you don’t have much experience with murder cases, but I’m telling you, a murderer who plans a murder so meticulously and hides the traces of the crime will never forget such an obvious cleanup.”

"Is the locked room always a product of compromise...?" Azure recalled Hugo's lecture on the locked room in front of the crime scene.

“Not bad.” The detective snapped his fingers and said sarcastically, “The compromise of this locked room is that it is too perfect, so much so that the real murderer couldn’t even take the murder weapon out of the room. It’s ironic.”

"But how did you manage to find the real culprit among the residents of the building?"

Hugo scratched his cheek, looking somewhat embarrassed. Just as they arrived at the courtyard gate of the Feathered Residence, he stepped forward, unlocked the door, and turned his back to Azure, saying—

"Actually, the moment I entered the crime scene, I realized why the murderer had the intention to kill the victim. At that time, I hadn't even noticed the strange thing about the flowerpot."

"Huh?" Azure almost dropped her jaw in shock. "At that time? But why didn't the officers who investigated the scene before and I notice anything?"

"You are just watching, but I am observing."

The front gate of the courtyard was opened, and Hugo, in a show of style, twirled the key ring on his hand a few times before bowing and making a "ladies first" gesture to invite people in.

"From the four hints I gave earlier, you've probably already figured out the meanings of the words 'gift' and 'neighbor,' right?"

“That’s right.” The girl followed the detective into the Feather Residence. “A ‘neighbor’ gave the deceased a flowerpot with a murder trap as a ‘gift.’ Is that what you meant?”

"Yes, that explains how the locked room came about. And I hinted at the killer's motive in the last two words."

"Rocks" and "Interests".

"Was the motive for the crime a conflict of interest caused by the 'rock'?" Azure followed the detective into the Feather Residence, sat down on the sofa in the hall, and casually made up a guess.

“Who can argue with that?” The detective chuckled mischievously. “This is the murderous intent woven from rocks and interests; it’s the information I gleaned from the entrance to the crime scene.”

“Speaking of which,” Bilan suddenly raised her smartphone, the light blue device reflecting a faint light under the fluorescent lamp, “I actually took the liberty of taking a picture of the crime scene. I don’t think that’s illegal, right?”

"It doesn't matter if the police don't stop it, and besides, there wasn't a real body at the scene at that time."

It seems the girl's candid photography skills have been honed to a high level... Hugo pursed his lips and waved his hand, looking completely indifferent.

He reached out and took the phone, zooming in on the panoramic photo repeatedly, and said to the phone's owner, "Look here, do you see the everyday items here?"

Azure leaned closer to the phone: "What? This is just a regular cleaning tool, isn't it?"

"And here, do you see the floor and furniture? How do they feel?"

The assistant had no idea what the detective was trying to get her attention, so she could only honestly answer, "The floor is plain stone tiles, and the furniture is unstylish, looking short, stout, and bulky."

"And this door, note its width and height." Hugo turned the camera to the bedroom door in the distance.

"Hmm, it's probably a bit bigger than a normal room door, probably to allow large Pokémon to come and go freely? Hmm! Wait a minute!"

Azure finally noticed something amiss, and then, as if triggering a chain reaction, she immediately understood the common meaning of the objects Hugo had pointed out—

"Hugo, I understand! Mr. Greta's sandstorm team consists of large Pokémon. If we want them to roam freely in the apartment, we need to enlarge the doors, prepare sturdy stone floor tiles, and replace the furniture with the most durable models. As for the cleaning tools—"

Hugo nodded in agreement with Azure's reasoning, and then continued, "The cleaning tools are for easily sweeping away the dust caused by Pokémon's 'Sandstorm' ability. Although the special dust generated by the ability will dissipate naturally, as Rock and Ground-type Pokémon, they naturally carry a lot of dust on them. Besides, Greta has raised six of them. If we hadn't cleaned them properly, this apartment would probably be covered in dust by now."

“But the room we saw was very tidy…” Azure murmured.

"This shows that the homeowner is very diligent in doing housework, as evidenced by the somewhat bald broom in the photo. But his most frequently used tool should be this electric vacuum cleaner. Presumably based on his habits when buying furniture, he did not use those small and delicate silent vacuum cleaners, but instead used this model that looks very powerful, presumably to clean up the dust in the house in a timely manner."

"Wait, this still doesn't make sense." The girl noticed something odd in the detective's reasoning. "If he was so bothered by the dust, why were all the doors and windows locked when we arrived at the secret room?"

"Of course, it's to prevent the smoke and dust from drifting outside. This trainer has raised Sandstorm Team Pokémon for so many years, and naturally he has experienced all sorts of complaints from the neighbors. There are even people downstairs who want to hang clothes to dry on their balconies. Greta, who lives on a high floor, naturally has to lock the doors and windows to avoid causing trouble for the residents below."

"But he still caused trouble in the end, didn't he?" Azure had already vaguely seen the truth of the matter. She sighed, as if she was accepting an unacceptable reality.

Why is this firm always filled with such regrettable truths?

"Tyranitar weighs 200 kilograms, and Gigantamax weighs a full 260 kilograms. The other Sandstorm Team Pokémon don't weigh much less than these two figures. With such Pokémon active indoors, the downstairs neighbors naturally have to endure constant banging noise. Moreover, Greta uses a high-powered vacuum cleaner every day, and with the echoes in the enclosed room, the noise is even more unbearable."

Hugo shook his head helplessly, as if apologizing for the deceased Mr. Greta: "If I were the resident downstairs, I might also be driven to murder by the constant noise."

Chapter 071: The Solution—A Conflict of Interests

"But the thought of killing and the act of killing are two completely different things. How can people decide to kill so easily?"

Azure was baffled and loudly questioned the detective's reasoning.

"The downstairs residents clearly had countless other ways to solve the problem, such as visiting them to offer advice, complaining to the building manager, or moving out voluntarily... Why did they choose to commit murder?"

"Regarding this, I later obtained some information from the apartment manager, and in the process of collecting information, I gradually filled in the gaps in the image of those young people."

The detective did not immediately respond to Azure's question, but continued his story calmly—

"The six tenants downstairs are a bunch of complete social outcasts. They rented the apartment through a sub-landlord rather than through formal channels, so the apartment manager didn't help them protect their interests; moreover, they made a lot of noise while living there. While Mr. Greta was traveling, a resident on the floor below complained about them, and those people pulled out Poké Balls and started a brawl until the other party moved out of the apartment building on their own."

After filling in the missing information, the detective asked Azure a question in return—

"Do you think scoundrels like them would ever think of using legitimate means to solve their problems? Don't forget, these kinds of people are the most likely to bully the weak and fear the strong. Greta is a well-known star trainer. Even if the residents downstairs used all their Pokémon, they would still be no match for a full-strength Sandstorm team."