Pokémon Detective: Cynthia Forces Me to Adopt a Pokémon

Chapter 331 Toxic Pollution - Vortex

"Akromar was poisoned at the Alliance headquarters? And in the meeting room where you were scheduled to meet?"

Just as Hugo was finding Servilik's death increasingly suspicious, he learned from a phone call from Douzi that the monitor sent by the Plasma Group had died.

It can't really be called a death, since although the Plasma Team member is unconscious due to an unknown toxin, thanks to the excessive efforts of the Alliance headquarters' medical department, he is not completely dead yet.

Given Akromar's sensitive status, the detective wanted to immediately call the League and tell them that it was okay to give up treatment. However, doing so might lead to various unnecessary misunderstandings among the League's higher-ups, and could also cause them to miss the opportunity to directly obtain the truth from Akromar—provided that Akromar still had a chance to be saved.

After considering various factors, this impulsive idea had to be abandoned.

“I understand the general situation. Don’t worry, I’ll take charge of this case. Whoever the murderer is, they’ve chosen the wrong time—it’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence that the league champion happens to be a professional detective.”

After carefully inquiring about the details of the scene and calming the landlady down, Hugo immediately hung up the call.

He did not tell Douzi about the poisoning murder that occurred in Feiyun City, since there was no clear evidence to link the two cases.

Experience shows that simply overlapping two mysteries will not lead to the truth. If Hugo were to use his champion status to directly interfere in the case, he might not only disrupt the on-site work of the headquarters police, but also steer the originally grounded investigation astray.

Now that things have come to this, all he, as a detective, can do is think for himself.

While analyzing cases with Bilan and the others can certainly help broaden our thinking, the current cases are not lacking in ideas or clues, but rather in a logical chain that connects all the information.

Standing in the room where the first poisoning occurred, Hugo mobilized the gray cells in his brain, immersing his thoughts once again in the intricate labyrinth—

Servilik and Akromma, two seemingly similar but actually completely different poisoning incidents, happened to occur one after the other within the same time period.

The two incidents occurred in Flycloud City and the Alliance Headquarters, respectively. One is a port city at the southern tip of Unova, and the other is a comprehensive facility in the mountains at the northernmost tip of the region, geographically spanning the entire Unova region from south to north.

The two victims in the incident were a drug dealer who had been on the run in the United States for many years and a former scholar belonging to the Plasma Group.

One arrived in Feiyun City on his deathbed and inexplicably used undiluted insecticide spray to poison a large area of ​​the city's outskirts; while the other, carrying only a pen, came to the deepest part of the Alliance headquarters, violating his duty as a monitor, and took the initiative to request a meeting with the current champion agent.

One is already dead, and the other is dying... and the origin of the toxins in both of them is unknown. Because the police were unable to find any traces of poison in either of their bodies, comparative analysis of the toxins was impossible.

Is there any connection between the two incidents?

"There might be some subtle connection, but essentially they should still be two different things..."

Hugo's gaze was fixed on the spot of blood on the table, and he made a judgment based on intuition and reasoning.

At least the poisons administered to the two individuals were fundamentally different.

It's not about whether or not there's a nosebleed; such differences can be simply explained by the degree of poisoning.

What truly aroused the detective's suspicion was the timing when the two realized they had been poisoned.

In this case, the unusually ferocious expression on Servić's body suggests that he was aware of the abnormality in his body and understood that he was about to die, at least before he died.

Judging from his unusual behavior after arriving in Feiyun City, the other party may have noticed the poison much earlier.

However, in stark contrast to the scene before Servilik's death—according to Douzi and the others' eyewitness testimonies, Akroma, who was poisoned in the Alliance headquarters, appeared to be fast asleep.

He maintained a balanced posture, a calm expression, and even after losing consciousness, he remained seated with one hand supporting his chin.

Despite having a pen and paper readily available to record information, the scholar wrote down a series of meaningless operation symbols before his death.

Rather than a distress signal, it seemed more like a research project done casually to pass the time. It's hard to imagine someone facing mortal danger remaining so calm and collected...

—It was as if he had no idea he was poisoned.

In addition, the surveillance footage provided by the Alliance police, including the footage of that person being filmed in the headquarters lobby, also showed the same information.

Akroma showed no sign of anxiety or urgency as he headed to the meeting room. He simply followed the Alliance Office’s tedious procedures and spent nearly an hour methodically going through the process of applying for a meeting.

Akroma may have indeed discovered something, but the matter requiring a meeting with the champion was probably not that urgent and should have nothing to do with the serious situation he encountered after entering the meeting room.

What exactly is this second toxin that can silently render Akromar unconscious?

Is there some kind of even greater malice lurking behind it?

.

thump, thump, thump—

As the detective was deep in thought, he suddenly heard a knock on the door.

"Who?"

The knocking didn't come from the door of this room, but Hugo didn't panic. He calmly looked towards the source of the sound—a window at the far end of the living room with its curtains drawn.

thump, thump, thump—

The knocking sound rang out again, this time clearly audible as the sound of tapping on glass.

The other person carefully kept the volume low enough not to attract attention, which reassured Hugo considerably—the person outside the window at least didn't seem to be planning a direct confrontation with the police for the time being.

The detective first threw a Poké Ball, sending Chimchar to wait near the door so that the police could be notified in time for rescue.

Then he walked to the window, raised his hand and yanked it open, completely pulling open the curtains that were blocking the sunlight.

The blinding sunlight streamed into the room, where a black-clad ninja could be seen crouching on the dusty windowpane.