Pokémon Detective: Cynthia Forces Me to Adopt a Pokémon

Chapter 318 Corpse Poison – A Memo of the Case's Progress

"Dream?"

At midnight, in the brightly lit Feiyun Police Station, Bilan stared in surprise at the detective in the white coat standing in front of her.

Not long ago, this boss had just bid farewell to Carlos, the champion who was visiting Unova, and left the charity gala. He brought Mia to the Flying Cloud Police Station and told his assistant what had happened.

The woman who intended to end her life was currently in the police station's psychological counseling room, receiving mental health support from police professionals.

However, judging from Officer Jenny's expression that said, "Look how much trouble you've caused us again," the emotional support she was giving seemed to have had little effect...

Hugo placed his hand on the desk beside him, sorting out the situation while rhythmically tapping the edge of the desk.

According to him in the past, this repetitive and simple action helps him maintain a calm and steady pace of reasoning amidst complex and intricate mysteries.

"Miss Mia released the Aiya Mushroom during her sophomore year of college, when she was around twenty years old. That's at least six years ago. And according to her description, the strange dream about the Aiya Mushroom only started appearing in the last year. This five-year time gap undoubtedly means that some things are still unclear."

"The dream that was dreamt of seemed to be a montage of fragments, akin to flashbacks. Miss Mia couldn't recall its exact beginning, just as we often forget dreams we had days ago—it was too ethereal to be real. According to her testimony, the strange dream wasn't initially perceived as a concrete dream or image, but rather as an extremely abstract thought—an impulse to die."

"In other words, she first developed a suicidal tendency without any apparent cause, and then, as this emotion intensified, she gradually began to have strange dreams. In these dreams, she saw fragments of her past life with Aiya Mushroom, and from this, she realized the connection between herself and Aiya Mushroom..."

"A dream that makes someone want to commit suicide... Are there really such terrifying dreams in the world? Could it be that Miss Mia has offended some kind of Pokémon like Gengar or Misdreavus?"

Seeing the detective's expression gradually become troubled, Azure Assistant tentatively asked—

"I remember that Ghost-type moves like 'Dark Shadow' seem to have a similar effect, causing the victim to see their deepest fears."

Hugo shook his head: "The 'Shadow of the Night' does indeed reveal one's deepest, most pressing fears, but those fears are not unfounded."

This is Officer Jenny's office. The detective scans the stacks of documents scattered on the desk, including search reports on the suburban poisoning case and analytical notes on the Servilik poisoning incident.

He took a deep breath, looked away from the fascinating documents, and then spoke to Azure—

"Miss Mia didn't do anything wrong by releasing the Agaric. The release was out of good intentions, and she not only fully respected the Pokémon's wishes but also went back to the forest to check on it the day after the release. After that, she adopted a new Pokémon, Electivire, as her partner, so it can be said that she has almost completely moved on from the shadow of the past."

"She may still have some regrets about the 'Aiya Mushroom' incident, but it's definitely not serious enough to become a deep-seated problem or a nightmare."

"So, if her strange dreams and suicidal tendencies are caused by the Ghost-type Pokémon's 'Dark Shadow,' she'll probably dream of things more closely related to her current life, like rising rents, an employment crisis, a deteriorating economy, or the hardship of not being able to stay in Suicune City."

"But Hugo, that's not necessarily true, is it? Perhaps some event triggered her guilt and nostalgia for releasing Pokémon, like she might have recently discovered what happened to Agaric after it was released?"

The detective's assistant pressed on with a nitpicking tone—

"If such an event really happened, even without the ghost Pokémon's interference, Miss Mia might still be driven to despair and attempt suicide."

"But that would make it impossible to explain the strange dream. Could it be a lie made up by the other party? Judging from Miss Mia's personality, lying must be quite a difficult challenge for her."

The detective in the white coat pointed out the blue-clad woman's oversight and shrugged.

"Besides, if Mia knew about these things, she wouldn't have any reason not to tell us, would she? I can't imagine why someone who's about to commit suicide would still want to keep a secret at this point..."

As he spoke, Hugo himself began to have doubts—

"However... it's true that we can't completely rule out that possibility. After all, as a detective, you can never underestimate a client who comes to you. Although Miss Mia didn't make a request, let's wait and see if the police's psychological counseling is effective."

"Hugo, do you think Mia's dreams might be related to plasma clusters?"

Azure changed the direction of her reasoning and then asked.

"Indeed, this method of manipulating minds does resemble the work of the mastermind behind Team Plasma, and the origin of this incident is also related to the Pokémon liberation movement that Team Plasma strongly promotes. It's hard to believe that the two are completely unrelated."

Hugo agreed with his assistant's opinion, but then asked—

"However, mere suspicion is meaningless. Even if we pinpoint the suspect, we still face a huge problem—what exactly is the connection between Mia, who once released the Aya Mushroom, and the Plasma Cluster? Azure, can you come up with any clues?"

Seeing that the detective had thrown the question back into her hands, Bilan held her head and pondered for a long time before finally shaking her head in resignation.

That's true. Who could guess what kind of sinister and wicked scheme that evil organization entrenched in the United States might be plotting this time?

"By the way, maybe... we can ask that guy."

Hugo suddenly remembered the contact person assigned by the Plasma Group to monitor him.

Although he was called a monitor, Hugo hadn't officially met the other party yet. He had previously sent that guy to deal with the controversy caused by the handover of the championship under the pretext of testing his abilities, and he was currently at the United States headquarters at the end of the Champions Road.

If we interrogate that guy carefully, we might be able to extract some clues about the internal workings of the Plasma Cluster from its members.

If they're lucky, they might even be able to get some information from him about the cause of death of that "Plague Scholar"... After all, Team Plasma is the largest criminal organization in the Unova region, and Servilik, who has been selling deadly poisons since leaving the hospital, is bound to have some connection with them.

"Alright, let's put Mia's matter aside for now. Hugo, what's your opinion on the poisoning and murder case that the police are investigating?"

Seeing Hugo pondering and then slowly turning his gaze back to the documents on the table, Azure sighed helplessly and simply asked the detective directly about the case.

"Have the police done any results from their scientific search of the scene? Like, the Pokémon hair and dust traces?" Hugo asked.

"Preliminary results are already available."

The one who answered was not Azure, but Officer Jenny, who returned from the counseling room.

"Through the examination of Pokémon traces on the deceased's clothing, we discovered that Selvik had been in contact with a large number of centipedes in the weeks leading up to his death. We suspect that he used these Pokémon to poison the wound medicine containing insecticide spray toxins. According to the examination by toxicologist Nurse Joy, there were also physiological traces of a Seviper and a Drapion on the deceased's old clothes, which are likely Pokémon that the 'Plague Scholar' usually carried. In addition, there were traces of other Poison-type Pokémon, but they were varied and faint, making it impossible to identify them all. Perhaps they were wild Pokémon that he encountered by chance in the wild."

"Whether it's the centipede, the rice spoon snake, or the dragon king scorpion, they should all have been taken away by the intruder who cleaned up the scene, right?" Azure asked.

“That’s right.” Miss Officer Jenny nodded. “As for the dust traces, apart from the soil in the wild areas around Flying Cloud City, we also found a very small amount of salt sand in the crevices of items such as suitcases.”

"Salt? The deceased once lived by the sea?"

The detective raised an eyebrow knowingly; this was indeed unexpected new intelligence.

“That is indeed possible,” the officer said. “The air in coastal areas contains a lot of salt that evaporates with the seawater. If you are frequently exposed to the sea breeze, these tiny salt particles will accumulate over time. However, there is something wrong with that. No sand or soil commonly found on beaches was detected on Servilik’s shoes and suitcase wheels, which is somewhat puzzling.”

"Besides the seaside, similar particles can also be produced in salt mines, and chemical plants. Could the deceased have hidden in those places in the past?"

Azure, with a sudden inspiration, said in a connected thought—

"Whether it's manufacturing poison or selling murder weapons to premeditated criminals, it all needs to be done in a secluded corner, right? Could that 'plague scholar' have found a place like that as his hideout for making drugs?"

“Selvilik has been missing for so many years, so there must be a place where he stayed, but it is still too far-fetched to judge whether he lived by the sea or in the mountains based solely on the salt.”

Hugo looked at Officer Jenny—

"Are there any other new discoveries? The police have been working for so long, there can't be only this much to show for it."

Upon hearing the detective's question, Officer Jenny's face fell immediately, and she sighed, "Sigh, I wish it weren't true."

"What's going on?" Azure tilted her head in confusion.

"Although Servilik's cause of death was obviously poisoning, the autopsy showed that no traces of poison could be found in his body. Even the specific method of poisoning was completely unknown... Sigh, I have never seen such a disappointing autopsy report since I became a police officer."

"You mean the autopsy couldn't determine what kind of poison Servić died from, or whether he was exposed to the poison through oral ingestion, inhalation, external injury, or some other means?"

Upon hearing Officer Jenny's account, Hugo couldn't help but frown.

"It's not that it's impossible to determine, but the current situation is completely different from any known poisoning symptoms in the medical community."

Officer Jenny shook her index finger under her white glove and said—

"If the victim dies from an external infection, there will at least be wounds on the body; if the death is caused by oral poisoning, then regardless of whether the poison is encapsulated, traces of the poison's effects will inevitably remain in the deceased's digestive tract and stomach; if the death is caused by inhaling toxic gas, abnormalities will also be observed in the lungs and trachea..."

"However, there was no trace of the poison entering the body from the outside on the 'Plague Scholar''s' corpse. According to Miss Joey, it was as if the corpse had generated a deadly poison in all the blood in its body out of thin air, and then launched a general attack, from the limbs to the brain, causing the body to fall into a state of paralysis evenly and slowly due to the poison, and then die in a coma."

"You said the deceased's blood contained a deadly poison, does that mean the blood samples taken from the body contained toxins?" the detective pressed.

"No, that was just Miss Joey's analogy. In fact, we couldn't extract any known poison components from the deceased's body. Miss Joey even risked letting her poison skeletal frog come into contact with the blood, but it didn't detect any lethal substances. The poison seemed to evaporate instantly after killing the victim."

Officer Jenny shook her head and sighed as she explained the whole situation, then looked expectantly at the director of the Hugo Detective Agency—

"Well, Hugo? Do you have any clues about this?"

"The intelligence is still fatally insufficient."

The detective rubbed his temples, imagining a mysterious poison that appeared and disappeared suddenly, like a spirit using "teleportation."

"I'll have to trouble the police to do some more legwork. It's necessary to thoroughly investigate Servić's movements and lifestyle during the past ten years of living under an assumed name. The investigation into the motive for the poisoning incident cannot be interrupted either. It would be even better if we could find out the specific way the victim obtained the raw materials for the insecticide spray."

"You don't need to tell me that; the police are already investigating. By the way, Miss Mia's psychiatric evaluation report is out. Would you like to see it?"

Miss Officer Jenny held up a document in her hand—

"Aside from the suicidal tendencies stemming from that strange dream, Ms. Mia shows no signs of mental abnormality. But the mere suicidal tendency is already quite alarming. We're planning to contact her family and have them take their daughter back to her hometown to recuperate. What do you think?"

Hugo thought for a moment and decided, "Let's wait a bit. I don't think this incident is simple. Sending Mia out of Flying Cloud City now might not guarantee her safety. I need to investigate the connection between that incident and Team Plasma. For now, let's settle her in... um..."

The detective hesitated.

"How's Dr. Makomo's Dream Research Institute doing?"

Azure had already had this idea in her mind when she chatted with Hugo. It just so happens that she had recently taken the two Dream Eaters there—

"Isn't that device in the research institute designed to solve this kind of problem? It just so happens that Miss Mia is suffering from strange dreams of unknown cause, so Dr. Makomo would definitely welcome such a test subject."

"Yes, that's a brilliant idea. We'll send Mia there tomorrow."

The firm's director readily agreed.

"Alright, since the evidence is limited, our reasoning has to end here. Let's conclude our investigation here for today. It's about time to head back to the office. Strangely enough, I feel like I've forgotten something today..."

Coincidentally, as if in response to the detective's puzzled question, two figures, panting heavily, squeezed into Officer Jenny's office at that moment—

"Detective Hugo, you've forgotten our interview!"

Mary and Dai said in unison.