Pokémon Detective Case Files.

Hugo skillfully steered the conversation, firmly controlling its direction.

"Leaving aside the extremely bizarre suggestion of giving the painting to the model, the time setting of forty minutes itself seems both accurate and crude. It is neither an hour nor thirty minutes, and it also has slight differences compared to the fifteen-minute quarter-hour unit of the United States."

Afterwards, when the forty-minute time limit ended, your painting was still in its final stages. This indicates that the forty-minute time limit was not a general rule you derived from your creative experience, and you weren't entirely confident that you could finish the painting within forty minutes. So, what was the rationale behind this time limit?

“It was just a casual remark,” Yati shrugged. “You guys really know how to make a big deal out of the smallest details in verbal expressions.”

“The details in the words are just hints; the key is that these anomalies always lead us to new evidence.” Hugo looked at the Insect-type Gym Leader with a provocative gaze.

"Mr. Attendant, could you show us some of your sketches?"

“A sketch?” Sera, who had been listening attentively, couldn’t keep up with the detective’s train of thought for a moment.

"Anyway, we're here to pick up the painting, so it wouldn't be a problem to take a look beforehand, would it?" Hugo said casually.

Yati gritted her teeth and pointed to a space behind the battle space, which was covered by layers of insect silk, resembling a giant cocoon: "There, that's my private studio."

The detective and the policewoman followed the curator to the gap in the cocoon. That was the entrance to the studio, and from the outside, one could see its colorful interior, where iridescent silk transformed the area into a dreamlike scene.

In the center of the studio, there is a large painting depicting Hugo and the three members of the Big Three resting on a bench.

The artwork, composed of colorful silk threads, was exquisite, but the detective frowned as he looked at his own face in the painting.

"Just as I thought," Hugo sighed.

"You must have rehearsed sketching this landscape many times, right? That's why you were able to confidently say you could complete the painting in less than an hour. The so-called forty minutes is actually made up of thirty minutes plus ten minutes. The former is used to quickly depict the complex background scenery, and the last ten minutes are used to add figures to the painting. That's why you couldn't manage the latter part of the time well."

"The truth of the matter is very simple. It wasn't because I was sitting on that bench that you decided to sketch here, Mr. Artis; rather, you had already chosen that scene as your subject, and I just happened to be sitting there. You already knew the scene you wanted to depict by heart, you just added a person and three Pokémon to it."

"As for the evidence I need, it is hidden at the very bottom of this painting, in those few original brownish-red threads."

Upon hearing Hugo's words, Aydi, like a defeated mantis in a duel, wryly scratched his curly hair, yet seemed to have let go of a heavy burden in his heart.

"I never expected that's where we slipped up."

On the canvas, although the scene of the detective in the white coat playing with the elves is lifelike, there is a fundamental contradiction—

In the finished artwork, the poses of the three Pokémon—Turtle, Chimchar, and Piplup—are completely different from the initial sketches shown to Hugo!

Chapter 111 Where the Threads Connect

The three little guys under Hugo's command are all restless types, and they have already changed their poses and positions countless times while painting in Aydi.

Normally, when creating a painting, an artist should arrange the composition according to the initial sketch, and even if there are slight modifications, it shouldn't be completely different from the original sketch. However, street sketching requires completing the work in a short time, so it's natural to pay more attention to the efficiency of time utilization.

Drawing from a sketch can avoid wasting time recomposing the drawing and also prevent the model from being dissatisfied with the changed composition.

But Aydi chose a different, thankless approach: first, he drew a sketch for Hugo to check, then he drew a background to completely cover the sketch, and finally he drew another sketch and added the detective and the three main characters to the drawing.

Therefore, a clear logical contradiction emerged in the short forty-minute sketching session—why didn't Mr. Yati paint according to the original sketch?

Or—since Mr. Artie had already decided to draw the background first, why did he first draw a draft and show it to Hugo and the others?

After Hugo's careful consideration of Ayti's words and actions, the answer to these questions became crystal clear—Ayti had to complete the painting in the order he had practiced, so he had to spend thirty minutes painting the scene first.

Hugo's appearance on the bench was an unexpected coincidence. The insect artist had a sudden inspiration and decided to spend ten more minutes painting the model to add a perfect eyewitness to his alibi.

“If only one aspect of their behavior, speech, or painting style is unusual, it might be explained by a coincidence or a matter of mood. But when all three are combined, there must be something strange going on.”

Hugo held up three fingers and said to the Bug-type Gym Leader—

"Perhaps I couldn't understand the meaning of your little actions this morning, but after the incident, your motives became crystal clear. At the time, in order to make the time you spent drawing irrefutable evidence, you specifically emphasized the forty-minute timeframe to me, and even went so far as to show me the draft to prove that you started drawing from scratch, as if you were afraid that I would provide the police with incorrect information afterward."

"And the purpose of all this you did was to make people believe that you were right in front of me when the artworks in the museum were stolen, so you couldn't have had the time to commit the crime. That's your alibi trick."

The detective's long-winded explanation echoed throughout the battlefield.

"Based on just this one meeting, you've connected me to this case?" Yati raised one eyebrow.

Perhaps resigned to his fate, he stopped making excuses for himself and became much more composed, even asking the detective with interest, "Have you figured out what happened in that art museum?"

The detective did not answer immediately, but slowly raised his arms, his fingers moving nimbly in the air as if manipulating an invisible stick.

This is what Hugo did in the police station!

Miss Sera, standing nearby, immediately recalled the scene from noon when the detective was distracted, fidgeting with his hands in the interrogation room. So that wasn't an unconscious, childish gesture after all. She was slightly surprised—could it also be related to the case?

“Mr. Artie, you kept pointing your brush in my direction while you were painting. This technique is usually used by painters to determine the proportions of objects in a painting, so they use a brush instead of a ruler to copy the size they see onto the canvas. But based on the information I just deduced, you have practiced that scene many times before, and you are even fully capable of drawing that scene from memory.”

"I couldn't help but wonder—did you really need that ruler? Could it be that you were pointing your finger and paintbrush at the sky for some other purpose?"

“Sigh, I surrender, I completely give up. What an excellent deduction.” Yati shook his head with a wry smile, while raising his hands. “Hugo Detective Agency? I’ve lived in Feiyun City for so long, and I’ve never even heard of your name, you famous detective. I’m so ignorant.”

“You can’t see the essence of things with the naked eye.” The detective said meaningfully, with a double entendre. “As an artist who plays with silk, you must understand this very well.”

"Oh! I see!"

At this moment, Sera finally realized that the invisible thing in the air that Hugo mentioned was insect silk!

Mr. Adi's babysitter worms can spray out different colored silk threads depending on the food they eat. However, besides the white, brownish-red, light yellow, and lake blue silk threads that are visible to the naked eye, can't there be transparent, colorless silk threads?

The silk threads of babysitter worms are naturally transparent!

The silk produced by Pokémon is exceptionally strong, especially that of Bug-type expert Mr. Artie's main Pokémon, the Nutcracker. Perhaps a single strand of this silk could even pull a large truck!

The bench where Hugo was standing was opposite the Feiyun City Art Museum, while Yadi was standing in front of the detective, with the Feiyun City Art Museum, its gates wide open, just across the street behind him!

Therefore, as long as the interconnected threads are set up in advance, even if Mr. Artie is facing away from the museum, he can still move things inside the museum!

"Although there are no security cameras inside this small art gallery converted from a traditional gallery, a review of the street cameras in the vicinity might reveal Mr. Atti sneaking into the art gallery last night. Judging from your current inexperience in even handling a search, Mr. Atti, you probably weren't prepared for this at all..."

Hugo shook his head. This time, the suspect who committed the crime was surprisingly quiet and listened attentively to his reasoning, which the detective found quite enjoyable.

“But Hugo, even if the museum owner had connected a few threads to the works inside the museum, how did he manage to tear all four paintings to shreds at once? You were at the crime scene, weren’t you? The mess there couldn’t have been done with just a few thin threads.”

Although Ayati has shown a willingness to turn himself in, Sera still has some questions about the case.

"That 'Four Virtues' piece was Mr. Adi's debut work, right? From that time on, he used silk as a material for his creations. And silk materials have a common characteristic—that is, as long as you master the methods and techniques, you can unravel it back to its original form."

"Untie?"

"Yes, it's like pulling on a thread and tearing a sweater into a pile of yarn. As the creator of the work, Yati can easily find the loose thread in his painting and then destroy it slowly and quickly, like pushing over dominoes."

Hugo reached out as if to pull, looking at the curator provocatively with a wicked smile that seemed to expose a sore spot, and continued—

"Mr. Yati connected the vital points of those works to the external threads, and then while painting in the morning, he was depicting me and the little fire monkey sitting on the bench with his brush, while pulling on the transparent threads, causing all the paintings in the museum to collapse!"

"why is that?"

The policewoman was stunned by the absurd scene the detective recreated: "Mr. Atie, why did you destroy your own painting like that?"

Amidst Sera's skepticism, the Bug-type Gym Leader, exuding an artistic air, suddenly let out a sneer—

"Does an artist need a reason to destroy his own work? Many people think that art is noble, great and priceless, but in the eyes of the painters who create it, so-called works of art are nothing more than junk to be disposed of."

Chapter 112 Things as Brilliant as the Stars

The true owner of "The Four Virtues" is the owner of the Art Gallery. The museum merely deposits and exhibits these four paintings; it does not own the entire series.

Therefore, Mr. Artisan could do whatever he wanted with the painting without any problem.

Even if it means completely destroying it.

“There are no legal issues here, and the police have no right to intervene,” Hugo said, turning to Sera, whose face showed disappointment.

“Artists are born with the right to interpret their work. This most powerful insect artist can make the most perfect defense for himself, package his behavior as a kind of creative activity, and say things like ‘destruction is also part of creation’—clichés that sound reasonable at first but are actually nonsense. He might even be praised by art critics who don’t know what they’re talking about. I heard that this kind of activity is quite popular in the United States art scene recently, and it seems to be called ‘performance art’.”

Despite the detective's mocking expression, his words subtly hinted at offering advice to the owner of the Artisan Pavilion. Officer Sera was momentarily confused about the detective's stance.

If Azure or Officer Jenny were here, they would have seen through Hugo's bluff instantly.

Often, deduction and reasoning alone cannot reach the inner thoughts of the person involved. The human brain is like a black box. Observing its reactions to the outside world can certainly help us infer what's inside the box, but it's never as easy as letting the box speak for itself.

Hugo, of course, didn't believe that the Bug-type Gym Leader of Flying Cloud City would do something so attention-seeking. What he was doing was simply trying to get Black Box to talk.

He deliberately makes baseless conjectures, using indirect and veiled attacks to torment his opponent's mind. Usually at this point, the person who is unwilling to have their motives misunderstood will take the initiative to reveal their true motives.

Faced with Hugo's sarcasm, Monsieur Artie's composed and playful demeanor wavered, however—

"Detective Hugo, stop your provocation. I'm not going to tell you the truth."

The Insect-type Gym Leader crossed his long arms and sighed like a melancholy poet: "Just consider me a show-off. This is my own retribution."

"Self-inflicted punishment? Retribution?"

Hugo paused slightly upon hearing those two terms. Clues from a previously solved mystery resurfaced in the detective's mind.

Inexplicably, he sensed that he had overlooked an important condition.

Seeing Hugo fall silent, Sera couldn't help but step forward and ask Atie—

"Mr. Yati, you are a great artist. 'The Four Virtues' is your debut work, a magnificent epic depicting the history of Feiyun City's founding, incredibly beautiful and awe-inspiring. Why must you destroy those four paintings? Is there some hidden story behind this? Our Feiyun Police Station will assist you."

“There’s no particular reason. Those four paintings are my works, and I’m free to do with them as I see fit.”

Inside the cocoon of the studio, Mr. Atti kept his eyes down, avoiding Miss Sera's glaring gaze.

Is he truly an artistic genius? In no time at all, Aya had mastered the art of exercising the right to remain silent and was now tormenting the policewoman.

"Even if it was vandalism, why did you have to ruin 'The Four Virtues' in such a terrible state in front of everyone? Didn't you already sneak into the museum last night? You could have easily taken the original artwork then, so why did you create an alibi this morning?"

Yati still didn't answer directly, but simply shook her head slightly, a look of melancholy on her face: "It's just my mood; it's more interesting to do it that way."

"Is it really just for attention-seeking?"

Due to Aya's uncooperative attitude, even the usually calm Miss Sera became somewhat emotional and raised her voice slightly.

She herself is a local resident of Feiyun City and has visited the art museum with great interest several times to admire the artworks there. Of course, she has also stood attentively in front of Mr. Yati's masterpiece.

She simply couldn't believe that the person who created such a dazzling work of art would commit such a near-criminal act of destruction for such an absurd reason.

However, Yati remained silent, leaning against the wall, almost blending into the silken cocoon behind her, like a portrait that could not speak.

When the atmosphere reached a stalemate—

"I understand what's going on."

Sera turned her head and saw Hugo straightening his white suit jacket with a wry smile, walking to the center of the studio, facing the artist who was leaning against the wall.

"Your Excellency is indeed engaging in performance art, but the act of art is not despicable destruction, but rather regeneration."

"Regeneration?" The policewoman considered the meaning of the word. "Does it mean resurrection?"

“There’s a slight difference. ‘Resurrection’ is generally used to describe something reappearing before the world in its former glory, while ‘regeneration’ is when a living organism uses everything from the past as nourishment to transform into something new. At least, we would consider the transformation of a Bug-type Pokémon from its cocoon to a butterfly as a kind of regeneration, rather than resurrection.”

"Oh? It seems you already know..." A bitter smile appeared on Yati's face, just like Hugo's.

Sera looked at the two who seemed to appreciate each other, and inwardly grumbled, wondering what they were smiling so bitterly.

“It’s not difficult. You gave me a lot of hints during our conversation. As long as you understand the personality of the person involved in the case, it’s not hard to guess their motives.”

The detective looked around and slowly said, "Everything you've done is for this gym, isn't it? Faced with a complex maze, people only rack their brains over the obstacles in front of them, ignoring the huge project quietly brewing above their heads... It's quite a clever design."

"You flatter me, it's just a coincidence."

The owner of the Art Gallery, who had created this art palace, responded to the detective's gaze, straightened up, and seemed to gain new vitality. He then spoke with a proud voice—

“Detective Hugo, do you remember when we met I told you that I am an artist who loves the creative process more than the result? That wasn’t just a boastful statement. In fact, I have always been troubled by the limitations of the medium of art. No matter what form of art it is, when a work is presented to the world, that art becomes something solidified, and it can no longer grow or transform. I think such a work is imperfect.”

"Will we be fortunate enough to witness such a perfect work?" the detective asked.

"Although the most crucial part is not yet finished, there's no time like the present. Since we've met an art connoisseur today, let's have a splendid premiere."

The curator of the Yati Pavilion walked to the center of the cocoon workshop and pulled down a barely visible thread that hung from the air—

In an instant, the dojo floor began to tremble, as if something slumbering beneath the ground was awakening...

Before the detective and police officer could panic, Aya took the initiative to explain:

"This is a special mechanism inside the gym. After pulling this thread, the ceiling of the Flying Cloud Gym's maze section will transform into a huge art gallery, with different paintings spreading across the entire sky like a starry curtain. According to the original plan, my latest silk art will work in conjunction with this technology, using the mechanism as its driving force to bring the art, which should be frozen, to life... Unfortunately, this part cannot be realized yet."

The museum owner led Hugo and Sera out of the battlefield through the back door and into the maze area, where the two guests witnessed an amazing scene!

Beneath the ceiling, the honey-colored walls seemed to shimmer with iridescent light. The silk curtains that had hung above the honeycomb maze as decoration began to move, fluttering and cascading down with the circulating air, revealing a large number of paintings arranged like merchandise on a shelf.

These paintings by Ayati moved slowly, like thick strokes of oil paint from an expressionist painter, steadily and brilliantly advancing the territory until they covered the entire sky!

Looking around, there are scenes of humans and Pokémon living in peace, epic tales of legendary Pokémon standing atop mountains, passionate battles, dazzling beauty contests, individual figures, and hordes of Pokémon... a wide variety of hundreds of giant paintings in different materials are on display at the same time, dazzling the eyes, yet they are so harmonious that they seem like a whole, without any sense of aesthetic fatigue!

Even a layman can easily see that those paintings are masterpieces no less than "The Four Virtues"! If any one of them were randomly selected and put up for auction at an art auction house, it would surely fetch an astonishingly high price!

Chapter 113 Resolution—The Destruction of the Famous Painting