20demayo Chapter 136 The Anomaly in the Dojo Tournament
Chapter 136 The Anomaly in the Dojo Tournament
Chapter 146 Anomalies in the Dojo Tournament
"I see, I see."
After listening to the information provided by the guitarist, Hugo nodded in satisfaction, casually tore off the page from his notebook containing the information, shredded it into a pile of extremely fine strips as if using a shredder, and then threw it into the wastebasket in the backstage room.
If someone were to examine the detective's notebook, they would see that half of the tattered, cheap little book had been torn out, leaving only a dozen or so blank pages.
"Is that an important clue? Should we take it outside and destroy it?" Cook asked cautiously, pointing to the wastebasket, noticing the detective's strange behavior.
"No need. This isn't confidential information; it's just a personal habit. It means I've clarified a certain logical relationship and no longer need to rely on text for summarization."
Hugo closed his notebook, spoke casually, and then turned back to the witness—
“Miss Guitarist, your description has given me almost a complete picture of the incident, although some details are still missing—do you know anything about what happened after the engineer caused the production accident?”
"She didn't seem to resign immediately, and this seems to have caused a bit of a stir. Many employees said that her staying at the factory was shameless." Ms. Lu seemed to have already guessed the detective's question and answered without hesitation, then shrugged and said, "I have absolutely no idea what happened after that."
“Thank you.” Hugo nodded, then turned his gaze to the other two musicians—
"Out of caution as a reader of mystery novels, let me ask you this: shouldn't the four members of your band know about each other's lives?"
Cook and Martin hesitated for a moment, glanced at each other, and then nodded.
"Since we know each other well, you can all testify that you have nothing to do with the accident caused by the engineer two years ago, or the explosion that happened not long ago, right? Please don't rush to answer. Think about it calmly for ten seconds before telling me. I reiterate, this is not to doubt you, it's just a routine question to be prepared. If you have any questions about your partners, it's better to talk about them here and now."
The detective's tone was so sincere, as if it possessed a convincing magic, that it actually made the three of them accept an unreasonable interrogation of each other.
Lu, Cook, and Martin, the three musicians, closed their eyes and began to think deeply.
Ten seconds later, the three of them said in unison—
"There is absolutely no doubt about it."
The detective in the white coat snapped his fingers, abandoning any further investigation into his alibi, and bowed deeply like a magician taking his final bow: "Thank you all for your cooperation. I won't bother you any longer..."
“Wait a minute.” Miss Lu interrupted the detective’s closing remarks rudely. “When you go out later, take the trash from the wastebasket with you. Aren’t there often plots like that in comics, where the detective’s left-behind items cause a new bloody case? I don’t want to become a new victim of a case because of my past work experience.”
The drummer and keyboardist listened and nodded repeatedly in admiration, saying that Miss Lu was indeed meticulous in her work, and that their carelessness had almost caused the band a lot of trouble.
Even seasoned detectives were taken aback by these words, and couldn't help but smile wryly—was the detective profession really that badly regarded among young people? Almost as bad as Absol…
.
When Hugo, completely unladylike, left the backstage area carrying a trash bag and arrived at the gym battle area, he witnessed an utterly absurd scene.
An even more unrefined person appeared before him—
Homiga, the Poison-type Gym Leader, sat on the floor like a duck, her white hair disheveled and tears welling in her eyes. Six Poké Balls were scattered around her, and even her Electric Bess was thrown to the ground some distance away. She looked completely defeated.
Meanwhile, the assistant, Azure, who had been left behind earlier, was now awkwardly standing on the other side of the battlefield, holding Eevee in her arms and with an Archaeopteryx on her head.
Beside her, the massive Blastoise stood as steady as a mountain; two mischievous Gengars were making faces at each other, one of them undoubtedly being a Ditto; Clefairy, standing next to Azure, didn't make any moves, but her smug smile almost reached her eyebrows.
The assistant looks way too much like a villain... The detective couldn't help but think to himself, did they beat up the gym leader with sheer numbers?
Seeing Hugo's strange look, Azure quickly explained, "It was Gym Leader Homiga who requested to continue the full-scale battle. I only used some of my true skills in the battle. These guys came out on their own because they were bored after the battle ended."
"Not a single one...we couldn't even defeat that Archaeopteryx..."
The defeated bassist, the club owner, let out a dry, bellows-like sound as he denounced Azure's atrocities. Hugo's gaze toward his assistant grew increasingly strange.
"This is because Archaeopteryx's attributes are very effective against Miss Homiga's Centipede King, so I let it try it out..."
Azure explained somewhat flusteredly, as if she, the victor, was more embarrassed by her victory.
"I had Pico use 'Baton Pass' to give it the boosts of 'Shrink' and 'Cosmic Power,' wanting Archaeopteryx to experience high-level battles early on... I didn't expect it to actually win..."
As Azure spoke, Archaeopteryx remained with its eyes half-closed, lazily perched on Azure's white sun hat, as if the topic had nothing to do with it.
"Waaah, that centipede king was supposed to be my trump card..."
The band's lead singer, whose once-proud voice was trembling, saw Hugo emerging from behind and, as if finding someone to confide in, tearfully lamented—
"That silly bird is clearly full of weaknesses, but its durability is ridiculously high, and its moves almost never hit it. The few times it does hit, it immediately recovers its full HP with Roost... This is no longer a Pokémon battle; this is blatant humiliation!"
Homiga erupted in a protest-like roar, almost rolling on the ground—
"Shouldn't Pokémon battles be a game that brings smiles to people's faces? Why does such a disgusting skill as 'shrinking' exist?!"
"Something doesn't seem right."
Hugo touched his chin, but felt something was amiss.
He looked Homiga up and down, her body battered, then lowered his voice and spoke to the white-haired girl in a tone only the two of them could hear—
"Gym Leader Homiga, your protest seems a bit like you're playing the victim, doesn't it? Among all the Unova trainers, you, the Poison-type Gym Leader, are clearly the least afraid of moves that increase evasion."
"Oh?"
The Poison-type Gym Leader's tantrums were completely under control. Hearing Hugo's barbed question, he immediately stopped, and the tears in his eyes disappeared. Homiga raised his head and looked up at the detective in the distance. "Why do you say that?"
"Because all Poison-type Pokémon possess a signature move: 'Toxic.' When this move is used by a powerful Poison-type Pokémon, it's almost impossible for the enemy to avoid it. This move not only ignores evasion moves like 'Shrink,' but even if the opponent Pokémon temporarily leaves the battlefield using 'Fly,' the toxin can still spread into the opponent's body through the air."
Hugo walked up to Homiga, the curator, knelt down to face the white-haired girl, and whispered softly—
"Even if Archaeopteryx gains a significant boost from 'Band of Faith,' if your Centipede King uses 'Poison,' it probably won't last more than a few rounds. Why did you deliberately avoid using 'Poison,' letting Archaeopteryx win the battle?"