Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 200: The Resolution - The Return of the Dark-Type Elite Four

Chapter 201 Resolution - The Return of the Dark-Type Elite Four

"Thank you for your hard work this time, welcome back. 💜😲 69Ŝђ𝐔乂.cᵒ爪🍧😎"

"Hmm, well done."

Scattered applause could be heard from a private room in a small tavern hidden in a deep alley near the headquarters of the United Alliance.

The tavern is located at the end of the rugged Champion's Road, a mountain road that is usually deserted, especially during the day when it is not mealtime.

The owner, who also served as the chef, had gone out to do something, leaving only the kapok ball responsible for cleaning the floor, which lazily drifted around, rubbing cotton wool the size of a rag between its leaves, and idly dusting off the dirt on the floor.

"As expected of Cranberry, it can create such a wonderful victory without relying on Pokémon battles. It's truly inspiring."

A muscular man dressed as a fighter rose from his seat to greet Yueju as she entered the private room, saying apologetically—

"I'm sorry, if it weren't for what happened with Master, I should at least have opened a barrel of good wine to celebrate for you."

"No need for alcohol, even Boss Wu, there's plenty of that stuff on the Royal United Ship." Yueju stepped into the room, bumped fists with the man, and said, "What I miss most right now are my reliable colleagues."

Lian Wu, the Unova Fighting King, is a disciple of the champion Alder.

In the face of the Champion's semi-retirement and the Dark-type Champion's "betrayal" of the League, he, like Regigigas in mythology who supports the sky with his shoulders, gritted his teeth and endured the pressure from all sides, maintaining the reputation of the Unova League.

"It's okay to say we're friends."

The novelist, wearing round-framed glasses, waved and teased, her neat purple short hair covering her ears, making her look like an unevolved polka doll.

Wanlong, the Ghost King of the Unified World, a popular bestselling author, and the initiator of this undercover operation.

When the Alliance needs her, she's always battling against novel deadlines; when editors come knocking with demands for her work, she's always busy handling the heavy workload of the Alliance. ♚♞ 🐻💝

"When you have time, you'd better tell me everything that happened on the gambling ship. I don't want to miss out on such great writing material." The Ghost King held a notepad and shamelessly stared at the Blueberry.

"I remember this operation plan was devised with you, Wanlong, right? Is it necessary to repeat it again?" Yueju shrugged and asked rhetorically, "Besides, what's the use of accumulating so many inspirations? Don't you have a wildly popular work being serialized online, and the ending is still a long way off?"

"Tsk." The novelist clicked his tongue unhappily. "Even the physical medium itself is a symbol of constraint. A true writer should be free to do as he pleases, reciting poetry at sunrise, getting into the flow of a fantasy novel, and only picking up his pen to create when the typewriter becomes endearing; depicting love in spring, writing ghost stories to cool off in summer, writing down weighty history in the autumn wind, imagining the world a thousand years from now while snuggled in bed in winter, sculpting the heavy reality on rainy nights, and writing about passionate battles under the clear sunlight..."

"A writer this lazy probably couldn't write a single word, could he?"

Facing Wanlong, who was lost in her imagination, the villainous King launched a merciless attack: "Don't use serialization as an excuse. Even back when you were publishing novels as single volumes, didn't you have those glorious experiences of being forced by editors to hide in the King's room and stay up all night writing the manuscript?"

Wanlong shuddered, then shook her head violently: "Even if you try to change the subject with my dark history, I won't fall for it! Inspiration is inspiration, the more the better! You never know when you might need it. Besides, when you were discussing the plan with me, you concealed all the traps and tricks in the casino. This time, I'm making you spill them all!"

"These are just tricks to fool children; there's nothing to brag about. The reason the scam succeeds is simply because the people who fall for it are too stupid; everything they do is exactly what we expected."

The gambling king still refused to answer directly, drawing a piercing gaze from the novelist. ♬💢 💘♧

"Blueberry, three months ago... what did you do with my Pokémon?"

At the far end of the room sat a blonde girl, wearing a wide, brimless hat that looked like a cream cake, her eyes half-open as if she hadn't woken up yet.

The one who questioned Lantau was this girl—Cattleya, the youngest of the Unova Elite Four, a psychic-type Elite Four member.

A Poké Ball floated out from beside her hand, and through its translucent red part, a copper-green disc-shaped creature could be seen.

"This is the Bronze Mirror Pokémon that Gosho gave me when I went back to Sinnoh last time," Cattleya said lazily, yawning. "Why did Blueberry borrow it when it's not even fully trained yet?"

"Ah, it was the item you borrowed on the day the turmoil at the Shippo Museum first started, right? I ran an errand for you at the time to Cattleya's villa. It turns out that the life-or-death item you mentioned was actually the Poké Ball containing the Bronze Mirror."

Even Wu looked at Yueju with interest: "I'm also a little curious, why didn't you use the Pokémon Center's teleportation system back then, and instead had me send someone to meet you?"

69 new books

"This Copper Mirror is pretty good. It helped me win my first bet against Team Plasma," the Dark-type Elite Four member replied casually. "If it were teleported through a Pokémon Center, wouldn't its existence be known to others? It would also be recorded in the Pokémon Center's system."

Lingju sat down next to King Lianwu and began to explain—

"Generally speaking, when people see me, they only think of a fierce and vicious Dark-type Pokémon, right? That's the same for the Dark Trio who were responsible for monitoring me. So when I suggested that we use gambling to decide my reward for joining us at the meeting place, none of them expected that I would use superpowers to manipulate the game."

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"I remember you used a coin toss game to gamble against Team Plasma, right?"

As Wanlong recalled the details of the events from three months ago, she asked, puzzled—

"Even if the bronze mirror monster can use 'telekinesis,' wouldn't it be too much of a stretch to expect it to perfectly simulate the motion and spin of a coin?"

In a bet with the Dark Triangle, Bulbasaur and the ninjas tossed a coin ten times in a row. They agreed that if all the tosses landed heads up, Bulbasaur's reward would be increased tenfold; otherwise, he would receive nothing.

"As I said before, those are just tricks to fool children. The actual operation is much simpler than Wanlong guessed."

Rather than using complex telekinetic techniques to simulate the coin's trajectory in the air, it's better to gently nudge the coin just before it hits the ground to determine its final orientation.

The bronze mirror monster did not control the coin the entire time. It only needed to apply "gravity" to one end of the coin at the last moment when it landed, and it could silently make the outcome of the coin toss completely reversed.

The leaked superpower fluctuations were so faint as to be almost imperceptible.

One problem was solved, but another question immediately arose—

For the cheating method to work, Bronze Mirror Monster must be present with Blueberry. How did this bronze Pokémon, which can neither turn invisible nor transform, manage to evade the vigilant gazes of three elite ninjas?

"This brings us to the real reason I chose Copper Mirror," the Dark-type Elite Four member said, shaking his finger. "The reason I chose Copper Mirror instead of the other Pokémon in Cattleya is because it's the most patient of all the Psychic-type Pokémon."

"Best at enduring?"

"This all started with the robbery in Shippo City—after the first robbery, Team Plasma moved the museum's collection to the Order's secret warehouse, but that was just a cover. The important Order officers were actually hiding in an even more concealed place. They thought their safe house was well hidden, but my Raven leader had already discovered the location of that hidden spot. That night, while the Team members launched a surprise attack on the Shippo Museum, I secretly sneaked into the building and buried the Bronze Mirror Monster under the floor tiles in the center of the room."

In the midst of the museum incident, despite a whole night of searching, the Dark Trio failed to discover the Dark Stone that the detective had buried beneath the museum's floor tiles. Naturally, they couldn't possibly have guessed that the floor tiles beneath their own feet had also been tampered with.

"A few days after the museum incident was resolved, Team Plasma finally made up their minds and decided to accept my so-called 'surrender.' By this time, all the warehouses where they had previously hidden the museum's collection had been searched by the police, leaving only a handful of places available for secret meetings. So, naturally, I was invited into the most secluded safe house to discuss my future treatment with Team Plasma."

The three ninjas never expected that the "first" ninja to enter the building, Yueju, had already planted an accomplice beneath their feet.

Lian Wu looked utterly shocked, and Wan Long's mouth formed an "O" shape.

"This trick is very similar to Gosho's 'exchanging fields' tactic. Hmm... what a strange coincidence."

The Elite Four member examined the Poké Ball containing the Bronze Mirror Pokémon in his hand. The sleepiness on his face had vanished, replaced by a thoughtful expression.

"But there's still one problem," the novelist suddenly said, nitpicking.

"Unlike the blueberry, the bronze mirror monster buried underground can't see whether a coin is heads or tails—even with 'telekinesis,' it can only sense the presence of a round object about to fall from the sky. Through the thick floor tiles, it can't possibly discern the pattern on a spinning metal piece. How can it ensure that the coin it alters will land with heads?"

"That's easy."

A naive smile appeared on Lingju's face, as if he were truly playing a childish trick on a little kid. He then lifted his toes and lightly tapped the ground.

Tap tap—the sound of barely audible footsteps echoed on the ground.

"Every time I tap the ground with my toe, the bronze mirror monster under the floor tile changes the orientation of the coin."

That's how it is.