r18novel Chapter 29 The Doctor's Commission
Chapter 29 The Doctor's Commission
"Speaking of which, Douzi, what was that commission you mentioned before?"
Hugo helplessly watched the landlady of the Feathered Residence lying on the ground. The girl with the high ponytail was leaning against Hugo's desk, playing around with her Pokémon. She was holding Hugo's specially made Pokémon food and enthusiastically teasing Hugo's starter Pokémon.
Seeing Piplup, Tortoise, and Chimchar huddled together with their big and small heads, Douzi grinned happily.
The trio at Yuqi Residence had already finished their lunch with sandwiches from the convenience store. Little Blue, having just endured a brutal introductory lesson in detective work, was visibly listless and had gone back to her room to rest. Hopefully, she wouldn't have any nightmares.
So, naturally, the detective began to take notice of his next assignment.
"A commission?"
For a moment, Douzi was in a daze, squatting on the ground and staring at the grass turtle in front of him with his head tilted. After a while, he remembered: "Is it the commission I mentioned when Azure first came? You suddenly said a lot of business scope and professional terms back then, which startled me."
The detective nodded: "That's a great opportunity to show off your detective skills in front of your roommate. There aren't many detectives in the world who can rattle off so many tricks and schemes in one go."
Ignoring Douzi's skeptical expression, Hugo continued to plead with the landlady on the floor: "Please tell me the details of the request. Work and cases are always urgent, especially now that I need to pay an assistant's salary."
Douzi casually fiddled with her black hair in her high ponytail: "Actually, it's not really a case. It's just a fun and a bit strange everyday event. It's not urgent."
"That's perfect, I don't have anything urgent to do right now, so please tell me about this strange event."
The young landlady grinned slyly for a long time without answering, showing no intention of honestly explaining her request. Instead, she continued to play with Hugo's three main characters.
The three little creatures were oblivious to their owner's anxiety and continued to chase after Azure's hand holding the feed with great enthusiasm, running from left to right and from right to left, over and over again, having a wonderful time.
Hugo finally couldn't take it anymore. After several failed attempts at negotiation, he directly commanded his Pokémon, "Turtle, stop playing around! Use your prized skull to 'ram' this woman's stomach!"
As expected of a Pokémon personally selected by the champion, it is intelligent and obedient, with an extremely high degree of execution of commands. The Turtwig attacked Fighting without hesitation, showing no regard for the target's identity, and mercilessly used the "Tackle" move.
The grass turtle took four short strides and accelerated straight towards Douzi's belly. Judging by the force, if the attack hit, Douzi might follow in Azure's footsteps and fall into a state of lethargy.
However, the head of the grass turtle did not reach the finish line. It was not because the tortoise dodged it, but for some reason, the grass turtle tripped and fell on the flat wooden floor, and the momentum brought by the running acceleration naturally dissipated.
With such a low center of gravity and four legs, why does it still trip over?! The detective covered his eyes like a pickpocket washing its face, unable to bear watching the scene.
"Ha, Hugo's bad luck has kicked in again!" Douzi was startled, but when he saw that the grass turtle hadn't bumped into him, he was overjoyed and became even more arrogant.
"You wouldn't have realized how bad Hugo's luck had gotten before you had any Pokémon. He can't even use a move like 'Tackle'... Waaaaaah!"
Douzi suddenly clutched his neck and screamed.
It turned out that Bogarman behind her couldn't stand it anymore and, without waiting for Hugo's order, launched a small "water gun" at the back of the girl's neck that was exposed outside her collar.
It seems that Pokémon can use their moves normally even without Hugo's command; "Water Gun" startled Douzi with its precise force.
"Well done, Pogaman!" Hugo praised his subordinate for his proactive approach.
The three little guys had now surrounded Douzi in a pincer movement. Chimchar was rubbing his hands together, Turtwig had gotten back up, and Piplup was puffing out his cheeks, ready to unleash his "water gun".
Seeing the three starter Pokémon fully engaged in battle, Touko was both amused and exasperated, and had no choice but to surrender.
.
"The client who filed the case is Professor Yew from Deer Town. Don't let her strange name fool you, she's a renowned Pokémon professor in the Unova region," Touko said, sitting back down in her chair.
"I know she's an expert on the origins of Pokémon, and her father is an archaeologist. Although I'm not interested in that field, I've heard a lot about her."
“However, the mystery she’s encountering now has nothing to do with the topics you mentioned, but it is related to them.” Douzi pointed to Hugo’s elf who was standing to the side.
The detective raised an eyebrow curiously: "Is it related to the starter Pokémon?"
"That's right. In addition to conducting their own research, Professor Juniper is also responsible for distributing the initial partners to novice trainers. In the Unova region, our initial Pokémon are Snivy, Oshawott, and Tepig. Generally speaking, before embarking on an adventure, novice trainers will go to the Pokémon Lab in Deer Town and receive one of these Pokémon from Professor Juniper."
“It’s the same everywhere,” Hugo nodded in agreement. “Sometimes, several trainers arrive at the lab at the same time, and the professor lets them discuss which Pokémon they want. I’ve heard that in such cases, people call this group of beginners ‘fellow trainees’ or ‘rivals.’ And if, after all the starter Pokémon have been taken, some unlucky trainer is late, the professor will just grab a Pokémon from his backyard, pretend it’s a very rare Pokémon, and use that to get rid of the guy.”
“No, no, no.” Douzi shook his head repeatedly. “It’s not like that in our Unova region.”
The detective then learned that the Unova League's rules were different from those of other regions. In order to ensure that novice trainers could embark on their journeys fairly, Professor Pokemon would prepare several sets of starter Pokémon in the research institute to deal with situations where multiple trainers would come at the same time.
Each new player will be given an equal opportunity to choose their favorite starter Pokémon from three different starter Pokémon of different types.
In addition, the Unova League has built many breeding bases specifically for raising starter Pokémon to ensure that no one is unable to choose a particular starter Pokémon due to being late or a shortage of that starter Pokémon.
“Generally speaking, even if all the Pokémon in the research institute have been claimed, new trainers only need to wait one more day to receive a Pokémon transported from the training base—it’s a fair choice of three. That’s the rule in the Unova region.”
“A very comprehensive set of rules—though I think it’s a bit of an overreaction,” Hugo commented honestly. “So, what is the problem that Dr. Yew is facing now?”
"Listen carefully," the girl said, her eyes sparkling, as if the matter had something to do with her.
"In the first few months of this year, more than sixty novice trainers came to the Pokémon Research Institute in Deer Town. They each chose their favorite Pokémon to embark on their journey. But strangely, these more than sixty trainers, who came from all over the world, were strangers to each other, and had only a superficial understanding of Pokémon, all of them chose Oshawott, one of their starter Pokémon, as their partner on their journey."
"More than sixty people, all of them chose water otters!" Douzi emphasized again.