radicalducati Chapter 72 A Weekend at Feathered Residence
Chapter 72 A Weekend at Feathered Residence
The day after the locked-room mystery was solved... well, actually, the mystery wasn't really solved by then.
Detectives can see through the fog of mystery at a glance, but behind every case, there are countless wounds waiting to be healed.
The Feiyun City Police Department is still overwhelmed with the follow-up work of the case. Although the case has been transferred from the police department to the prosecution department of the procuratorate, the police department still has countless coordination tasks to complete.
It will take at least six months, until all six perpetrators have been tried in court and imprisoned, before this matter can be considered truly closed.
In addition, the telephone fraud cases that were linked to the murder case were also numerous and complex.
The police have a variety of troublesome tasks to handle, including recovering stolen funds, searching for victims, and shutting down illegal profit-making organizations upstream and downstream... Ms. Jenny probably won't be able to sit in the office drinking tea and chatting every day this month.
In matters unrelated to the case, the adoption of Mr. Greta's remaining Pokémon has also been progressing poorly.
Everyone has their own opinion on the ultimate fate of the Sandstorm team. It's not that anyone is greedy and wants to profit from the situation; it's just that everyone has their own thoughts.
The deceased's family wants them to stay in their hometown, serving as a source of solace for those mourning their loved one; the deceased's battle companions believe that returning them to the arena would better heal their trauma; while the spirits themselves seem to want to spend their entire lives in the room where their master died. The debate continues unresolved, with no consensus reached.
Moreover, it's not just those six Sandstorm Team members that this star trainer keeps; he also keeps a lot of Pokémon in his backyard and breeding house. Finding suitable new owners for each of them would be a time-consuming and laborious task, not to mention that most of the Pokémon are quite emotionally unstable and will likely remain unadoptable for a long time.
However, these matters are handled by the all-powerful Elf League. They have a bureaucracy so intricate that it can handle any situation. Pushing these troublesome tasks onto them is a case of fighting fire with fire.
In short, the aftermath of these unpleasant cases has nothing to do with Hugo and Azure anymore, and Hugo Detective Agency has already started its weekend break.
A sign is posted outside the courtyard of Yuxi Mansion that it is closed on weekends. For urgent matters, appointments can only be made by contacting the property via emergency phone or email.
The firm's director strongly recommended the latter.
.
As a port city, Feiyun City in autumn lacks the sweltering heat and humidity of summer. The temperature is very similar to that of spring, but it is drier and clearer.
Just after noon, Azure and Eevee finished their weekly physical training at the Battle Club, took a nice shower in the club's bathroom, and returned to Feather Residence feeling refreshed.
The detective's assistant, who was on vacation, witnessed an astonishing scene upon opening the agency's doors, almost thinking he had stumbled into another world—
On weekends, he usually either drinks tea and reads books or tinkers with some random research on Hugo. He found a game console somewhere, connected it to the largest LCD TV in the office, and started playing games with the little fire monkey next to him.
The giant screen was split in two, showing the control perspectives of Hugo and Chimchar. It was clearly a racing game, except the vehicles weren't cars, but rather Pokémon running at full speed.
In the game, the little fire monkey rides the classic Rapidash, its fiery mane billowing behind its pale yellow, majestic body, leaving a cool trail. However, it has already been left almost half a lap behind by the detective on the other side of the screen.
Over at Hugo's place... Azure glanced at the other end of the screen and immediately couldn't hold back anymore—
The detective controls a Mareep with only four short legs, which is completely different from the Rapidash next to it. Moreover, the sheep in the game runs by hopping and jumping. If you ignore the rapidly receding background on both sides, I think that Mareep is not even as fast as a disabled person's wheelchair.
"Oh, it's azure."
Mare the sheep ran onto a straight road. Hugo glanced back at the doorway briefly, then turned back to continue the game while explaining what he was doing.
"I'm conducting an experiment to study the problem of my Pokémon always malfunctioning. I've never done this kind of research before because I didn't have a Pokémon in my possession."
"Cool," Azure exclaimed.
So it was still a research experiment, she suddenly felt as if the upside-down world had returned to normal.
The girl quietly whistled, but failed, and made a comical pout. Although it looked a little embarrassing, Hugo had already entered the bend and was focused on drifting with Mare the Sheep, so he didn't notice her.
The detective's ears twitched: "I heard a short, sharp sound. Azure, are you trying to whistle? Judging from the sound, the reason you couldn't make a sound is probably because you didn't keep the airway between your lips, and the air pressure wasn't enough. You can try pressing the tip of your tongue against your jaw while opening your mouth."
Azure responded with a displeased whistle of success, her face pale. Detectives on holiday, having lost their jobs, often indulge in using obscure, largely useless knowledge to educate others.
The detective continued to explain: "Pokémon always make a fool of themselves around me, so I wanted to test whether their luck had run out or whether they had experienced a comprehensive decline in intelligence and coordination in a short period of time."
Azure glanced at Chimchar's record, which was almost a full circle behind, and then bluntly said, "I guess it's probably the latter."
After spending more than a month with the detective, she had exhausted all the words to complain about his constitution. By now, the assistant had completely come to realize that "Hugo and Pokémon don't get along" is an ironclad rule, as natural as the law of nature.
It rains, apples fall to the ground, people have two legs, Magikarp lives in water, Pokémon use moves, and Hugo's command for a Pokémon to use a move will fail. That's how it is.
“I’m not sure yet.” The detective’s Mare the Sheep reached the finish line, put down the handle, and stretched his wrists. “Could you take my place as a control group?”
"You mean you want me to play with the little fire monkey once more and see if its performance is any different?"
“That’s right,” Hugo said sincerely, handing the controller to Azure. “This game is called Pokémon Rush 8. It’s a game that Officer Jenny strongly recommended. I seriously suspect that this is the root of all her evil when she’s drifting around while driving.”
Seeing the little fire monkey staring defiantly at the TV screen, the assistant nodded: "Sure, it's possible. But I've never played this game before, and my skills are probably terrible. Will that affect the experiment results?"
“No, I only care about the time taken and the luck when acquiring the items.” Hugo said, picking up a form from the small table next to him and filling in the information from the previous round. “Of course, if any of you can break the record, I hope you can do me a favor.”
"What is it..." Just as Bilan was about to ask, she suddenly felt a commotion on her shoulder.
"Bu-i-bu-i!"
The Eevee on the girl's shoulder started to throw a tantrum—
Why can other kids play video games on weekends, while it can only accompany Azure to the training ground to run? It also wants to be a control group and play video games too.
"There's also an old controller in the box. If Eevee wants to use it, you can give it to him. The game can be split into up to four view panels." The detective filled out the form without looking up.
Azure then took the old handle out of the box and put it into Eevee's two little paws.
"Buyi!"
Touching the controller, the little guy seemed to have discovered some kind of truth about the world, and immediately broke down emotionally. His ears drooped, and his spirits visibly withered.
It turns out that Eevee's little paws simply cannot control the complex buttons on the controller. Game controllers based on ergonomics do not support play by creatures other than primates.
Little Eevee looked enviously at Chimchar's ten healthy fingers on both hands, then looked at its own—it only had six fingers in total, all shriveled into fluffy little balls.
Under the strange gazes of the detective and his assistant, Eevee, with tears welling in his eyes, put the handle back in the box with his mouth, then hid in a corner of the Feathered Residence, curling up alone and falling into a state of self-isolation.
Hugo and Azure's gazes became even more peculiar.
Eevee, who had fallen into a state of withdrawal, suddenly felt something was wrong, as if there was something around him, and he could feel the body temperature of some kind of creature.
It looked up and saw two figures, one blue and one green, in the darkness.
It turned out that the grass turtle and the Bogarman had also huddled together and hidden in this corner.