Pokémon Detective Case Files.

What came into the girl's view was the detective's grass turtle with a leisurely expression, pouring itself a cup of tea with a grass knot in the office's living room.

"Grass Turtle, are you staying behind again today?" Azure greeted him as she changed her shoes.

Don't let the pitiful sight of the grass-fed turtle all alone in the office fool you; it actually carries a tremendous mission on its shoulders—

In the past, when detectives left the agency to investigate cases, they would hang a "Case Under Investigation" sign in front of the gate outside the courtyard, causing Yuxi Mansion to temporarily close down.

However, it seems that the little fire monkeys passed some kind of test by Detective Hugo some time ago. From then on, they can take turns staying at home while Hugo is handling cases, and are responsible for receiving clients who come to visit during this time.

Among the detective's Pokémon, Chimchar and Piplup like to follow Hugo around, while Turtwig, which has little presence, prefers to stay at the office. Therefore, it often volunteers to switch shifts with the other two Pokémon and stays quietly at the office while the detectives go out on fieldwork.

"Grass Turtle, do you know where the underground sewer map of Feiyun City is kept?"

Azure only knew that these kinds of documents were probably placed near the detective's desk, but she didn't know their exact location. Before starting the search, she tried asking the Grass Turtle.

Unexpectedly, the green turtle nodded its enormous head without hesitation, moved to a drawer next to the desk, and opened the second-to-last drawer with a wicker cane made of grass.

"Ah, it really is here!"

Upon seeing the blue drawings in the drawer, the girl exclaimed with delight.

Since the design blueprints for the sewer system were quite substantial, consisting of a thick stack, Bilan packed the necessary blueprints into her tote bag.

While they were busy, the portable hard drive that was originally in their pocket fell to the ground. The grass turtle thoughtfully picked it up and handed it back to the detective assistant. Azure shook her head, though: "It contains a useless surveillance video. Just put the hard drive on the table."

The grass-fed turtle tilted its head in confusion, and Azure casually told the little turtle about her and the detective's search for the Super Stone.

After packing up the blueprints, Azure said goodbye to the little turtle who was left behind, and then left Feather Residence like a gust of wind with Eevee. She was eager to know who the expert the detective had invited was.

The grass turtle maintained its calm expression as it gazed at the external hard drive left behind by Azure, and began to form its own thoughts—

Since we're just killing time anyway, why not take a look at the surveillance footage that Miss Azure went through so much trouble to get?

.

Azure arrived at the agreed-upon location with the detective, only to find the slope where Rena had discovered the Mega Stone completely empty.

Hmm, it seems the detective's plan to hire someone didn't go very smoothly, and I completed the task first.

The girl wasn't bored, so she found a dessert shop nearby that didn't have many customers and started looking through the design blueprints for the sewer system while sitting by the window.

Of course, to avoid drawing too much attention to her actions, Azur Lane also took some covert measures—

She sent Ditto to sit opposite her in Touko's form. Ditto had seen Touko before when it was traveling in the Johto region, so it could transform into the image of that energetic girl with the high ponytail.

Sure enough, compared to someone poring over a thick blueprint alone, the image of two girls huddled together head to head in a dessert shop seemed much more harmonious.

Azure looked up gratefully at Ditto, who had transformed into a fighting shape. This child was simply a social grace ace; when she was traveling alone in Kanto, she had relied on Ditto's ability to avoid many awkward situations.

"...The super stone was found here. The slope is in this direction, and the sea is to the south, so the water level surges this way during high tide..."

As Azure studied the map of the underground waterways, her expression gradually turned to surprise.

"I originally thought the source of the super stone would be the city center where rich people live or the wealthy western district, but why does the direction of the underground water flow point to the south of Feiyun City... Isn't that the wasteland by the sea?"

Just as the girl was deep in thought and reasoning, "Miss Touko" across from her encountered unexpected trouble.

A waitress saw the girl with the high ponytail and immediately walked over familiarly: "Miss Douzi, long time no see! Are you planning to order your usual dessert set meal? Or would you like to try our autumn new products? I remember you said you were really looking forward to them."

Faced with the sudden and unexpected attack, Ditto panicked for a moment, and even its eyes turned back into Ditto's signature beady eyes.

Oh no, I forgot this used to be Douzi's foraging territory. I didn't expect the waiter to know Douzi so well...

Just as Ditto was about to give itself away, Azure slammed the blueprint down, drawing the waiter's attention back, and then shouted at "Douzi"—

"Of course I want both the set meal and the new items, Miss Douzi. I'll pay for this meal."

Ditto nodded frantically, almost shaking its head out of shape, and took the opportunity to change its eyes back to human form.

"Okay!" The waitress happily checked the dessert on the electronic order form. "Mango sparkling water with a three-tiered deluxe cream and fruit tart, plus a limited-edition autumn candied chestnut cake. The total is..."

After paying the bill, the waiter left the table with a satisfied smile.

Azure's heart was bleeding along with her wallet—Douzi's dessert set meal was too expensive, it was equivalent to several days' wages at the agency... Even for a star trainer with a high income, spending money like this was too extravagant.

Then, Azure saw the waitress return to the table with a "mountain" made of a huge amount of cream and various fruits: "Sorry to keep you waiting. This is your set meal and new product. I hope you enjoy your meal."

Only then did Azure notice that at the foot of the Cream Mountain, there was a tiny glass of orange-yellow sparkling water and a triangular brown-black cake.

"Ugh..." Azure almost groaned out loud. The portion of this dessert was far too much, even including Ditto and Eevee.

The phone vibrated in my pocket; Hugo's call came almost at the same time the dessert was served.

The assistant answered the phone, and sure enough, a report came through that the detective and his accomplice had arrived at the rendezvous point.

Azure cautiously sought the detective's opinion: "It's lunchtime now. How about we have some dessert together first?"

Hugo paused for a moment, then asked with a strange tone, "You didn't turn Ditto into Touko's appearance and force him to order a whole bunch of the food that glutton usually eats, did you?"

"My God, Hugo, how did you know? You don't have superpowers, do you?"

“I have a pair of eyes, bright blue. Vision isn’t a superpower. I’m right outside the dessert shop’s glass right now, and I can clearly see you and your Ditto staring blankly at that cream and fruit tart, looking utterly ridiculous.” The detective’s voice carried a hint of exasperation.

The assistant suddenly turned her head to look out the window separated by glass—

Just a wall away, Hugo was standing in front of the glass partition with a somewhat familiar, gaunt old man, staring at her and "Douzi" at each other.

Chapter 90 Ghostly Figures on the Coast

With the combined efforts of the three people and a group of Pokémon, the enormous mountain of creamy fruit was finally divided up.

To be honest, the desserts that Douzi routinely chooses are really delicious, and considering the portion size, they might even be surprisingly good value for money.

Azure even noticed that the detective in the white coat secretly glanced at the menu on the table. Presumably, the detective wanted to remember the name of the restaurant so that he could come back to visit it in the future.

It's unbelievable that he has the leisure to do this while handling cases...

Recalling the matter at hand, Bilan couldn't help but glance at the old man sitting beside the detective, wiping his mouth with a napkin. After a frantic search, she finally remembered his identity.

"I remember now, you're the doorman at that luxury apartment building!"

"Yes, this is the old man Naoki, the administrator we met back then. His long-haired dog only recently evolved, but it had been raised as a Hayok for many years before that. I believe its sense of smell should have been honed to perfection."

The detective put the well-fed Chimchar and Piplup into his ball, and then introduced the helpers he had brought to Azure.

The old man named Naoki was neither upright nor dull-witted. His face was gloomy, and he looked both stubborn and cunning, like a human-shaped cunning tengu. Perhaps this gloomy appearance also influenced Azure's initial misjudgment of him as a criminal suspect.

The long-haired dog lying by the aisle looked gentle and honest, its serious and upright face bearing no resemblance to its owner.

"I have to go back to patrol the apartment building later, so I only have two hours to go out freely. Although I am very grateful for your hospitality, this meal has already taken half an hour."

Despite having enjoyed a free and delicious meal, the old man showed no courtesy and glared at the detective with hostility.

Hugo calmly replied, "This is not a complicated task, Mr. Naoki. You just need to take the long-haired dog to the place we specify, it won't take long."

Azure was still somewhat puzzled: "Hugo, why do we have to use a long-haired dog?"

"Canine Pokémon have a sense of smell that is about 1200 times stronger than that of humans, and police dogs and trained canine Pokémon have an even richer sense of smell. Unlike humans, dogs have a special area in their brains that processes scent signals. Give them five paw prints, and a dog can determine the direction its owner walked. Therefore, as long as a long-haired dog remembers the information on the evidence, it can lead us to find more clues."

The detective took out the almost-doll super stone from the evidence bag and carefully placed it on the tip of the long-haired dog's nose.

However, as the detective approached, the large dog suddenly jumped backward and sneezed more than a dozen times, making its long, beard-like hair on its head messy.

"How about I do it?"

Seeing that the detective's constitution had caused trouble again, Azure took the initiative to get up from her seat, took the Mega Stone from the detective's hand, and continued to help Longhair confirm the olfactory records on the Mega Stone.

Undeterred by being sidelined due to his perceived incompetence, the detective shooed away Eevee, who was perched on the table, and began examining the sewer blueprints that Azure had flipped through. After only a few turns, the detective's eyebrows twitched—

"Fortunately, there are only two branches in the underground waterway along the route, so we only need to go back and forth once. But it's really strange that the end point is that coastal wasteland."

"How to say?"

The old gatekeeper casually asked Hugo a question. Judging from his apparent knowledge of the case, the detective must have explained the details to old man Naoki on the way here.

“Feiyun City is the largest maritime import and export center in the United States, and the number of cargo ships waiting outside the city is always at full capacity. Therefore, on the outer ring of the city, there is a harbor that looks like a huge ring, densely packed with ships, like a fully booked parking lot,” Hugo explained patiently.

"However, not every harbor is suitable for ships to dock. The place we are going to this time is a muddy coast, and it faces the direction of the ocean current. The current is treacherous and it is extremely easy to run aground, so ships can hardly dock. That unusable coast has become wasteland."

"This has nothing to do with the case, does it?" Azure, having completed her task, sat back down at the table and said to the detective with dissatisfaction.

“That’s true. It’s hard to say whether the owner actually lost the item there. I was probably overreacting,” Hugo apologized. “In that case, let’s start the search as soon as possible?”

"Speaking of which..." Perhaps wanting to slack off a little longer, old man Naoki suddenly picked up where Hugo left off—

"I've also heard about that coastal wasteland. A few years ago, there were rumors in Feiyun City about redeveloping that wasteland, but somehow, the news gradually disappeared. It seems like the Alliance officials and the news media just vanished overnight."

"That's a common occurrence, isn't it? After a project starts, they discover insurmountable engineering difficulties, so the United Alliance quietly cancels the project. After all, it's embarrassing to make it public," Azure speculated.

Hugo nodded: "That's right. There's no need to pry into these things before we've even started the investigation. The engineering problems and the Alliance's shady dealings are too far removed from this lost and found case. Let's get started as soon as possible."

Old man Naoki sighed regretfully, then stood up with his long-haired dog and reluctantly followed the detective and his assistant out of the dessert shop.

Before leaving, Ditto, which hadn't yet reverted to its original form, deliberately waved to the attentive waiter in its beak form, receiving an even more enthusiastic response in return.

……

Half an hour later...

"The twenty-third." Azure counted listlessly, feeling as if she had turned into an emotionless humanoid counting princess.

The long-haired dog sniffed at the entrance of a drain along the way, then continued walking forward without looking back.

"Hey Hugo, we're almost at the coastal wasteland, but that long-haired dog doesn't seem to have found anything. Could it be that the smell of the super-stone's transparent tape is masking other scents, causing the long-haired dog to lose its way?"

"That transparent tape brand uses the foam of the 'Froggy Frog' as glue, and it's colorless and odorless. So it's probably just because it's not this side road, after all, we only have a one-in-five chance." Hugo shrugged indifferently, as if he was quite used to the tricks of the god of probability.

"It's also possible that the long-haired dog vaguely smelled something, but we haven't confirmed it yet. You see, now that we're not leading the way, the long-haired dog can find the sewer entrance on its own."

As they ventured deeper into the exploration route, fewer and fewer pedestrians appeared around them, and the faint outlines of wild Pokémon could be seen in the distance.

Hugo had unconsciously placed his hand on his waist. It was unclear whether he was preparing to use a Poké Ball to send out Piplup and Chimchar for a battle, or whether he was planning to resort to physical means.

Since the detective was going out with Azure, who was in charge of the fight, he unusually didn't bring his cane. He only hung an extra retractable baton on his belt where he kept his Poké Balls, just in case.

Before leaving, Azure had a sudden urge to ask Detective for a weapon, but Hugo sternly refused, saying that Azure's fighting ability was too poor and that his weapon would be easily stolen. He suggested that Azure should focus on commanding his Pokémon with his bare hands, so that his combat power would at least not be negative.

"Hey, detective, I think I see something?" Old Man Naoki's hoarse voice rang out from ahead, and he and the long-haired dog had stopped in their tracks.

The detective and his assistant hurried forward and looked in the direction the gaunt old man was pointing. About a hundred meters away, there really did seem to be a blue thing moving around.

"That looks like a Pokémon. If we go over there rashly, we'll scare it away. Azure, can your Pokédex detect Pokémon from a distance?"

Too far apart, and shrouded in mist, Hugo couldn't identify the type of spirit, so he asked the girl who possessed the cutting-edge technology at Oak's lab.

Azure nodded: "I'll give it a try." With that, she took out her Pokédex.

The girl aimed the Pokédex at a distant blue object, constantly adjusting the lens's focus until the Pokémon's aperture was aligned with the swaying figure—

"Lidlight, the candle Pokémon, is said to have flames burning on its head that are its own life energy. To replenish this energy, it sometimes draws energy from humans or other Pokémon. It appears in dark places, lights lamps to illuminate the surroundings, and even leads people on their own initiative, but in reality, it is luring them to the spirit world."

A mechanical electronic recording was heard coming from the Pokédex.

Chapter 91 The Corpse Under the Beach

Upon hearing the description of Litwick in the Pokédex, Hugo frowned deeply, as if he had foreseen that the events would irrevocably spiral into an abyss, and the relaxed atmosphere of the previous outing vanished completely.

“This doesn’t make sense,” the detective said irritably. “It’s noon, and the area around there is all wet mud. There’s no reason for a Fire/Ghost type Spirit to be there.”

“Something must have happened.” Azure’s expression was equally serious. “According to the legend of the Candle Spirits guiding human souls, the appearance of this spirit should be a sign of some phenomenon. There might be something nearby…”

"Woof! Awoof! Woof woof woof!"

Before the detective's assistant could finish explaining his reasoning, he was interrupted by a low bark from a dog.

Suddenly, Naoki's long-haired dog became agitated, as if it had been hit by a "Taunt" skill. This fierce dog, covered in thick fur, ignored the mud on the shore and charged madly toward a certain spot ahead.

Naoki hurriedly followed, but as a trainer, he did not stop his partner's behavior, instead letting the long-haired dog do as it pleased.

After sniffing a few times, the long-haired dog began digging furiously at a patch of sand. A blue light lit up on its paws, indicating that it had used the "Digging" skill.

Seeing the scene before her, Azure didn't hesitate to command Eevee, "Eevee, quickly use 'Dig' to help the Snorunt."

Then, coming to her senses, she added, "Don't dig too hard, be careful... about what's buried below."

If you don't consider stamina, a Pokémon using its "Dig" skill at full power can rival a professional sand excavator in efficiency. In the blink of an eye, the once flat sand was dug into a pit more than a meter deep, and the object buried underneath gradually came into view of the three people present.

That's a corpse, a human corpse.

The first thing to be unearthed was the body's hand, which was dug out by a long-haired dog.

It was a pale, bloodless left hand. Shaking off the sand clinging to it, Azure noticed that the fingernails were neatly trimmed, but the palm was rough and covered with calluses from handling some kind of tool.

Then, the arm, still covered by clothing, was unearthed. To the detective's assistant's surprise, the fabric of the clothing appeared to be very expensive. As Eevee and the long-haired dog continued digging, Azure discovered that the deceased was actually wearing a well-tailored black suit.