r18novel Chapter 88 Turbulent Currents Under the Sidewalk
Chapter 88 Turbulent Currents Under the Sidewalk
After the detective confirmed the information repeatedly, the berry breeder Rena made the final decision to return the genuine Mega Stone to its original owner.
"Doesn't she feel it's a pity?" On the way to a field mission, Bilan, dressed in autumn clothes for warmth, asked the detective with a puzzled look.
Still wearing his white coat, Hugo seemed to have picked up the mannerisms of the crowd. He spread his hands and shrugged exaggeratedly: "My old friend, it's much more reassuring to receive a reward directly from the owner when returning lost property than to ill-gotten gains from selling stolen goods."
"That's not what I meant." Azure, walking alongside the detective, shook her head in denial. "Didn't her almost-doll really like that super stone? She'd probably be very disappointed to return it like this, wouldn't she?"
"If the Pokémon were very capricious, this situation could indeed occur. However, that Pokémon is a reliable one. It is said that it used to work at a Pokémon hospital, where its medical skills and reputation are top-notch. So it certainly won't be troubled by this kind of thing."
"Pokémon Hospital? How did it become Rena's partner?"
"Huh? You didn't even notice?" Hugo looked at his assistant in surprise.
What should I be able to see?
"Those tentacles, almost as long as stethoscopes on the doll's ears. The fact that its tentacles are that long means that this doll is over fifty years old. This indicates that it became Reina's spirit after retiring from the hospital."
"But I remember Rena saying that Bebop was her starter Pokémon?" Azure was still puzzled.
"Perhaps our client is just too unreliable, to the point that the doll practically tamed her and ended up taking care of her?" Hugo casually guessed, "Judging from the relationship between those two partners, it's hard to say who tamed whom."
"In a way, their relationship is indeed a bit like that of a parent and a ward."
Azure nodded while secretly thinking: Hmm, this does confirm Hugo's definition of bonds from last night...
The two chatted aimlessly, and before they knew it, they had arrived at their destination.
"From this end of this street to that uphill, is that where Rena found the Super Stone that almost became a doll?" Azure glanced at the entire street and asked Hugo for confirmation.
The detective stood on a manhole cover and nodded firmly: "This is the place. Look, from this angle you can see the signpost for the large supermarket in the distance. Rena mentioned this feature in her story."
As Hugo spoke, he held up the evidence bag in his hand. Under the morning sunlight, the almost doll-like super stone emitted a beautiful pink hue.
In order to find the exact location where the Super Stone dropped more quickly, Azure and Hugo re-examined the information provided by Rena—
It was early Monday morning when Rena and her partner were walking down this familiar street, heading to tend to the fruit trees in the yard of the client who had hired her, when they discovered the Super Stone.
In Feiyun City, Rena has quite a few clients. Besides Hugo, she also has a client in the vicinity.
This family kept a picky eater, a pecan monkey. To enrich their beloved creature's diet, the family adopted a method similar to Hugo's, planting a pecan tree on their rooftop.
On that day, Rena chose to walk a long way past the building so as to take a look at how the fig tree was growing.
"I saw the arugula tree that Rena mentioned, it's on the rooftop of this building. Speaking of which, that family's arugula has some really strong tastes, I remember arugula is spicy." Bilan couldn't help but complain.
“Some Pokémon just like that,” the detective replied succinctly, without even looking up. It seemed he wasn't interested in Rena's clientele.
It makes perfect sense, really. Rena is an ordinary person who knows nothing about Super Stones. Finding a Super Stone was purely accidental, and the possibility of her client being involved in the case is almost zero.
Unlike the aimless wandering around and browsing the shops on the street, Hugo kept bending down to examine the things on the ground, as if he was trying to find another super stone.
Seeing Hugo's inexplicable behavior, Azure secretly felt a competitive urge and wanted to find the owner of the Mega Evolution Stone before the detective could.
The girl began to explain her reasoning to the Eevee perched on her shoulder—
"Unova doesn't produce Mega Stones, so the only ways to obtain them are by purchasing or receiving them as gifts. Anyone who can afford a CoinDome Mega Stone must be incredibly wealthy. And anyone who receives a Mega Stone as a gift must be a highly talented Pokémon Trainer. Considering CoinDome's weakness in battles, that Trainer is likely a medical professional..."
Although Eevee kept yawning as she listened, the detective's assistant's analysis was logical and methodical. She narrowed down the characters who lost the Mega Stone to two types of people: the wealthy and the promising medical personnel.
And the goal is to find people who have recently passed through this area...
Azure's gaze locked onto a 24-hour convenience store across the street. Coincidentally, the store's security cameras could see all pedestrians passing through this area!
.
Ten minutes later, the detective and his assistant met again.
"Hugo, look what I got!" Azure proudly held up a portable hard drive shaped like a pack of chewing gum, showing it to the detective.
"Uh, I guess it's illegal evidence..." Hugo watched speechlessly as a can rolled to Azure's feet, then turned into a puddle of clay and was sucked into the Poké Ball by its red light. Ditto is really too convenient for spy work.
"It's the CCTV footage from the convenience store! We can see pedestrians who have passed by this area for the past week, and there must be someone among them who lost the Mega Evolution Stone!" Azure grinned smugly, her face practically screaming, "Praise me!"
Hugo scratched his cheek awkwardly: "Um... Azure, actually I just realized... the real location where the Mega Stone is lost might not be in this area."
"What? Why!"
Azuma, who had just felt that she had a cool and chivalrous style, was a little devastated. Had she worked for nothing?
"Logically speaking, such a sparkling jewel shouldn't be left there for long without being picked up. Although this area isn't the busiest part of Feiyun City, there are still quite a few pedestrians around on weekdays. The fact that Rena was able to find this super stone on a nearly deserted street in the early morning means that the super stone had only just appeared there when Rena found it."
Hugo paused, then continued, "And between three and six in the morning, it's clearly not the time when humans normally go out for a walk, let alone someone would wander here during that time and then casually leave the Mega Evolution Stone by the roadside."
Azure looked at him incredulously: "But if it's like you say, how did this Mega Evolution Stone appear? Did it grow legs and start walking by itself?"
“Of course something is pushing it.” Hugo picked up his phone and pulled out a table. “This is the tide record table of the coast of Feiyun City. Please take a look at the most recent high tide.”
The girl looked closely and was shocked to find that the time was five o'clock this morning!
"You mean the tides pushed the Mega Stone here? That's even more impossible. This is the inland center of Flying Cloud City; unless there's a flood, seawater could never enter the city. And look at the ground in this area—it's completely dry, without a trace of water!"
“Azure, a large portion of the sewers in Feiyun City are seawater.” Hugo gestured with his chin, pointing his toes to the manhole covers on the ground. He then took a few more steps to the edge of the wide road, leading his assistant to bend down and peer inside.
"Besides manhole covers, there are countless hidden drainage channels along the roadside, concealed in the road surface faults. On the edge of the city, muddy and sandy torrents flow past pedestrians' feet. Sometimes, in autumn, fallen leaves accumulate, and driven by the tide, things that should have sunk into the abyss roll out from these intersections."
Facing the bleak autumn wind, the detective looked up again at the distant uphill slope—
"Especially in places with such a large difference in elevation."