dmims Chapter 82 Uninvited Guest
Chapter 82 Uninvited Guest
Hugo turned around and glanced at the three little ones who looked sad.
Chimchar clutched the purple evolution stone tightly, while Piplup and Turtwig gazed at each other sadly. The little creatures huddled together like conjoined twins, as if losing any one of them would cause all three to collapse from the overwhelming psychological blow.
But the detective in the white coat showed no embarrassment or fluster; instead, he spoke in an almost cold tone—
"What a surprising and dazzling entrance. But putting that aside, Azure, guess what I saw when I looked out the window just now?"
"Hey, Hugo," the assistant couldn't help but interrupt Hugo, "This isn't the time to talk about these things, is it? Go and comfort these three children."
Hugo ignored Azure's advice and continued speaking to himself—
"Eevee asked you for a gift before, right? That behavior isn't unusual, but I still find it strange. That Eevee has been with you every day for a long time, and it's pretty carefree outside of battles and play, not even bothering to think about what form it should evolve into. When it sees its companion receiving a gift, it would at most wag its tail to give you a hint. Isn't it a bit too eager to ask for it so aggressively like before? That doesn't fit Eevee's usual laid-back personality."
Eevee? Azure wondered why Hugo was bothered by such trivial matters at this moment. Didn't he see that the three little guys, ignored by their trainer, were almost crying with sadness?
"I'll let you explain these things to me later. Right now, the most important thing is to comfort them..."
“No.” Hugo coldly interrupted his assistant’s advice. “I’m not a qualified trainer, but I’m a detective. The most important thing a detective should do is to distinguish right from wrong.”
"This isn't the time for deduction games!" Azure said, sounding a little anxious, and her voice rose slightly.
“No, now is the time to put an end to this game,” Hugo replied calmly.
The assistant's raised voice carried deep into the Feather Residence. As if in response to the girl's voice, a soft rustling sound came from the room where the Grass Turtle and the others had come out.
An astonishing scene unfolded—
Under the watchful eyes of the detective and Azure, another group of Sinnoh starter Pokémon emerged from the room.
Unlike the little creatures who looked forlorn and huddled together, the elves who appeared at this moment initially had a bewildered expression. Then, upon seeing the elf that looked exactly like them, they were immediately terrified and scrambled to run behind the detective.
"The drawback of psychological profiling is its inability to explain unknown variables in the environment. Therefore, even renowned criminal profilers often stumble when handling real cases, arriving at conjectures that are completely inconsistent with the actual situation. I mentioned this point when I introduced psychological profiling to you, didn't I?"
Surrounded by the three elves, Hugo seemed to feel a bit safer. His previously tense and serious demeanor dissipated somewhat. He simply climbed onto his desk, crossed his legs, and began to deliver his verdict—
"At this point, the whole story is crystal clear. The culprit behind all the strange occurrences in the Feather Residence is none other than Ditto, the Pokémon that stands there, playing three roles and performing a vivid and lifelike transformation!"
"A Ditto?!"
Amidst Azure's exclamation, the three starter Pokémon, which had been standing motionless like stone sculptures at the doorway, instantly transformed into some kind of soft substance as if they had lost their souls. They then began to melt and recombine until they became a whole pillow-sized purplish-red clay!
"The reason I kept facing the window was very simple. It wasn't some complicated feeling of melancholy. I just felt that the gate of the Feathered Residence seemed to have been tampered with by someone after Officer Jenny and the others left. The last person who used the double iron gate was walking outwards, but now the iron gate is slightly bulging inwards—this is obviously caused by some kind of small Pokémon squeezing through the gap in the iron gate."
Ditto shook like a lump of clay, its beady eyes fixed on the detective who was talking at length.
"Once I realized that there might be uninvited guests in the Feathered Residence, I began to pay attention to the various situations inside the house," the detective continued.
"Then, I noticed Eevee's unusual behavior. I had just given Chimchar an Evolution Stone, and afterwards, I clearly saw Eevee and Chimchar go back to the rest room to play together. But in the blink of an eye, I suddenly saw Eevee aggressively demanding a gift from you, Azure!"
"You guessed Ditto's true form back then?" The assistant asked the detective, speechless.
"No, this is the Unova region, so my first suspect is the Phantom Pokémon Zoroark. This Pokémon can create phantoms and transform itself into the appearance of other Pokémon. Its evolved form, Zoroark, is even said to be able to create a phantom space the size of a football field, allowing humans to live in it."
“So you deliberately make yourself appear vulnerable and sentimental. If the other party is a hostile Zoroark or Zoroark, they will definitely focus on this aspect when they want to deal with you. Being prepared will allow you to deal with it easily.” The assistant immediately followed Hugo’s train of thought.
"After all, it's a Pokémon that sneaked into our house, so we can't afford to be careless," Hugo nodded.
"However, after seeing the starter Pokémon appear as conjoined twins, I immediately realized that this was not Zoroar, but a mischievous Ditto. Only this kind of Pokémon needs to be close together to play multiple roles. Now, seeing your reaction, Azure, I understand even more clearly that this Ditto is not hostile. It just wants to test my true nature in this way."
The Ditto, having been thoroughly analyzed, shrank even further, its purple clay body wriggling shyly. It seemed the detective had really caught it red-handed.
"As for why Ditto appeared at Feather Residence, Azure, you should know better than I do, right?" Hugo looked at his detective assistant with a playful smile, clearly having already figured out the reason.
The chestnut-haired girl sighed deeply, walked up to Ditto, and picked up the lump of purple clay.
"This is a partner I met in the Kanto region, a Ditto that loves to play pranks. I don't know how it ended up in Unova, but Hugo, I'm sorry to have caused you trouble."
Then Azure fiercely held Ditto up to its face: "Tell me! Where did you hide Eevee?"
Before Ditto could answer, Chimchar and Piplup behind Hugo pointed towards the room, and Turtwig tilted its head, making a sleeping face with its eyes closed.
"Looks like Ibrahimovic is sleeping soundly in his room," Hugo shrugged. It was getting late.