Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 270 Final Farewell: The Deathly Favor of 3 Bees

Chapter 272 Final Farewell: The Three Bees' Last Words

Hugo, tell me, what exactly is this so-called "world"? Born in a narrow, amber-colored hive, I'm already breathless just flying from one end of my territory to the other. And in this forest alone, there are countless Pokémon communities like ours. On Mt. Coronet, there are countless forests of this size. Even looking at the entire Sinnoh region, and even the entire planet beneath our feet, there must be countless mountain ranges the size of Mt. Coronet. Even if we count to this point, beyond this planet, there are still countless vast starry skies. In each luminous galaxy, there are thousands upon thousands of burning suns. How many planets like the one beneath our feet exist among them? The long years, the endless distance, the boundless expanse—this scale is simply too vast, making one completely lose the courage to explore its concept, isn't it? So whenever I fly to the treetops and look up at the night sky, I feel myself becoming so small, shrinking to a point even smaller than the smallest grain of sand. Whether this point exists or disappears at this moment, it will not have the slightest substantial impact on this vast world.

Sometimes I think, since the existence of an individual is so insignificant, then strength and weakness, intelligence and stupidity, courage and cowardice—these qualities that determine the differences between us—all seem meaningless, don't they? Perhaps you can't tell, but I care a great deal about individual differences. Just as short people are always concerned about their height, insecure people like to put on airs, and emotionally burdened people yearn to escape their locked world, life is such a greedy thing, forever using that insatiable gaze to focus on its own shortcomings and flaws. And my flaw lies precisely in this: from birth, I was surrounded by hundreds, even thousands, of three-bee companions who looked exactly like me. Even when observing myself on the surface of the water, my so-called self is only a pitiful third of what I am. Remember our adventure investigating the Veiled City Department Store? What impressed me most that time wasn't the spatial trick of using a teleportation panel to secretly swap an entire floor of the building into the Galaxy Vision Building across the street, but rather the large truck we hitched a ride on in order to sneak into the supermarket warehouse. The truck's cargo containers were filled with potent wound medicines fresh from the factory. The medicines were packed in groups of eight, sealed with plastic film, and arranged in dense rows like a honeycomb. There were at least tens of thousands of bottles in the entire container.

You probably find it laughable that I saw myself reflected in those kinds of goods. Mediocre, cheap, and plentiful.

And it's endless. Hugo, your electronic dictionary, which contains all the Pokémon information, should have it written there, right? The male-to-female ratio of Beehives is about 1:7. Only female Beehives have the chance to evolve into the magnificent and powerful Queen Bee. That is to say, when each Beehive is born from a Pokémon egg, it has to go through a lottery. There is a one in eight chance that it will evolve into a Queen Bee. After reaching adulthood, such a female Beehive will lead a few companions away from the hive and quietly evolve in another place with abundant water and flowers. Then it will build a nest there and settle down, becoming the leader and mother, and reproducing another Beehive colony. The remaining seven in eight will go down a different path in life, destined not to evolve, but they can live a simpler and more leisurely life. Their brains can be freed from the burden of thinking. The Queen Bee of the colony will make difficult choices for all the Beehives. In the rest of their lives, besides work, there are only happy times and sweet honey to enjoy. Perhaps, from a human perspective, this lifestyle might be fraught with problems, but as you can see, I don't have the orange-red triangle that signifies a female bee—I'm a male bee. Because of this, I can assure you with my life so far that seven-eighths of my ordinary life is also meaningful, nothing to be ashamed of, and there's no reason to accept belittling from other creatures outside the hive. Of course, there are downsides; the lifespan of male bees is slightly shorter. But that's unavoidable; it's a seven-eighths probability after all. When hit by that probability, you probably wouldn't even feel unlucky. That's all there is to it. Compared to things we're born with, topics related to individual differences trouble me more. Where exactly is the dividing line between individuality and commonality? My thousands of fellow bees in the hive and I are undoubtedly siblings of the same mother, sharing the same bloodline, and even our appearances are almost identical. We work, live, and laugh together—that's already enough. In this situation, pursuing so-called uniqueness would only be harmful, right? Then what's the point of continuing to distinguish between "you" and "me"? Is this individuality that makes me fantasize just a hallucination born of excessive consciousness? When I was young and strong, I only thought about such things occasionally. After all, back then, my consciousness only occupied a third of this body. Even if I had a momentary lapse in thought, the rest of my body would immediately help me get back on track, doing something enjoyable to dispel my worries. Speaking of which, you should have already figured out which hexagonal honeycomb originally belonged to me, right? Yes, that's right, it's the one in the upper left corner of the three honeycombs. That time when I entered the Random Ruins with your sister...

When we encountered Unown, you probably already noticed, right? Just like left-handed people, when I use the move "Gale Rush," I always raise my left wing first; when passing items or picking up berries to eat, I always use my left side first. This is the powerful magic left by years of habit. So, even though you weren't good at recognizing Pokémon before, you were able to instantly distinguish me from the illusion created by Unown. Truly amazing, worthy of being a genius I personally recognized! Anyway, that's how it is. I originally resided in the small compartment in the upper left corner of this body, until the upper right and lower parts of me left this world one after the other, and only then did I finally gain the entirety of this body.

Ah, this sounds a bit like the criminals in those mystery novels you and I talked about, as if I deliberately killed other parts of my body, but that's not the case at all. The three bees are connected and inseparable.

If we suffer external injury, or are afflicted by negative conditions such as burns or poisoning, our physical strength will be consumed simultaneously as a whole. Therefore, it is impossible for two hives to die, leaving only one surviving. In fact, the reason why the "me" in the upper right and lower corners died was very simple—they reached the end of their lifespan, felt they had no regrets in this life, and thus greeted their death with smiles, dying peacefully in their old age. But I, although born at the same time as them and following the exact same life trajectory, was completely unwilling to die at that time. Because I still had regrets in my heart, an inexplicable and inexplicable unwillingness. So, I subconsciously struggled desperately to survive.

In that amber-colored hive, my tears flowed like a waterfall. My inhuman, piercing screams attracted many of my companions. The left wing of my body trembled wildly and violently, like a wind-up toy, trying to resist the approach of death. According to our queen bee, who arrived later, she had never seen a drone so noisy in its dying moments before me. Generally, worker bees that die of old age either sleep silently in the hive or fly to some forgotten corner and disappear without a trace. Even a male bee like me, driven to a frenzy, was...

This was the first time I'd ever seen anything like it. Perhaps it was at that moment, in the last second before my natural death, in that instant when I started making a ruckus, that I truly gained my own personality for the first time. Of course, I didn't die that time. Otherwise, what's standing before you now would be a genuine ghost. The reason I survived is because the two versions of myself, in the upper right and lower right corners, preserved two sources of life for me before they died. In my perception, they were two warm, gentle currents within my body. These two currents penetrated the walls of the honeycomb and slowly merged into the compartment in the upper left corner that belonged to me. In an instant, I felt the death that had been closing in suddenly vanish. What? Those two guys, so those two "me"s also have this gentle side? Even though there was only a thin layer of amber wall between them, they were secretly preparing for this. It seems that I'm not the only one with a unique personality in this body. Perhaps, the feeling of death didn't completely disappear afterward, but just followed closely behind me.

It had become something that watched me from somewhere far away in the darkness, and now, I can finally feel its presence again—in short, that's how it is; I've been fortunate enough to gain a second life. After passing through the hive with the permission of the queen bee leader, I left the hive, and with a body I still couldn't fully control, I stumbled and flew on my journey to find myself. It's because of this that I can use three faces to make expressions at the same time, and that I have the opportunity to communicate with you like this, Hugo. It's truly a magical fate, isn't it? In the year I've spent with you, I've been very happy every day, not the carefree joy of the hive, but a more fulfilling, more exhilarating happiness. I remember at first I just suggested that you come to the forest to chat with me from time to time, but somehow, in the end, I ended up following you around everywhere. Ah, this feeling is quite nice too. Recently, some people have even started calling me the "Helper Bee," and I believe there's probably no other bee in the world who deserves that title. It's truly something to celebrate; even short people can sometimes grow taller. I still remember the first time I visited your hometown, Shinwa Town. The appearance and population density were completely different, but it was a place that resembled a beehive. Everyone dutifully fulfilled their responsibilities, and interpersonal relationships were as solid and stable as a regular hexagon, valuing inheritance like a bee colony caring for its young. However, the queen bee who ruled that place wasn't a human or a Pokémon walking among humans, but a god in their faith. It was also there that I met the Pokémon that indirectly led to our meeting—of course, I avoided you and secretly met her in the backyard. We didn't meet directly, but really, that family was completely different from what I remembered; it didn't look like a young Pokémon that had just hatched from its egg a little over a year ago. It's even evolved! It's bigger than me, with a fierce and menacing expression. Its rough blue skin gleams in the sunlight, as if it can absorb heat from the air. Your sister is truly a terrifying trainer. Are you sure you want to treat such a Pokémon as something to be kept for later? After seeing Sharpedo, I couldn't help but feel sorry for you. However, what happened next immediately dispelled my concerns. It was the incident that happened that evening at the Pokémon Contest. Hugo, you called me on video, and through the empty room, you summoned my Pokémon to be teleported to the Pokémon Center in the city center. The larger Sharpedo immediately responded to the summons, crawling into its Poké Ball and being placed into the teleportation device by a Ghost-type Pokémon exuding a demonic aura. Then came the agile Lucario and the magnificent Roserade—but at that moment, I noticed something. Sharpedo, through the courtyard fence, was looking longingly at the way you were assigning Pokémon through the communication device. Perhaps it was really looking forward to the day when it could work alongside you. I'm not as adept at interpreting Pokémon's expressions as you are, but I'm not so quick to misinterpret such an obvious look. Hugo, give it a chance someday. A Pokémon that shows such a bright expression can't possibly disappoint its trainer, yeah, even if you are Hugo, I still think so. Someday in the future, what a captivating phrase, once again I feel the vastness of time. I'll probably just disappear into the flowing river of time, like a grain of sand in the universe, a glimmer on the water's surface. Do I still have expressions on my cheeks now? I can't quite feel it anymore, aging is a terrible torture, the other two "me" probably felt the same way back then. Oh, right, there's one last thing I want to mention to you, but I'm not even sure if it's true myself, that's why I left it for last. Bee Assistant proposing deductions to the detective, isn't that just humiliating? But I think this matter is quite important, and I hope you can put it aside for now. Hugo, please be very careful about what's behind those resolved cases. I can sense that there's some sinister figure lurking in those situations—no, not the Milky Way galaxy hidden behind the veil. With your wisdom and insight, Hugo...

And with the power of your sister and those friends, I think you should have been able to defeat them long ago. The real crisis comes from the more insignificant, easily overlooked blind spots. Perhaps, if you hadn't noticed them in time, you might have been expelled from this Sinnoh region. It's not that I'm deliberately making this ambiguous, but I myself only have a vague feeling, neither clear nor indescribable. It's fine to consider this a dream I had before falling asleep; perhaps I don't even know what I'm dreaming about anymore. I didn't cry or make a scene this time, after all, I died peacefully without regrets. I didn't cry, yes, I didn't cry. Rain lesson, righteous moe Zuo - wishing you a beautiful and happy life...

"It's gone."

A hand rested on Hugo's shoulder; it was Zhu Lan. She had sensed her unusual emotional state and secretly followed him into this grove. Judging from the leaves clinging to her shoulder, she must have been hiding in the branches of a large tree.

"It remained silent until its death. Even if you never caught it with a Poké Ball, it always followed you silently."

Turning her gaze to the three bees, which no longer showed any expression, the older sister sighed sadly.

The three bees' faces had lost all vitality, and they would never again display their kaleidoscope-like, lengthy pronouncements.

"Let's do it here."

Hugo interrupted Zhu Lan's attempt to comfort her.

"The afternoon sun shines through the trees and falls here, and in spring flowers bloom, making it a perfect place for tomb sweeping."