Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 366 The Solution - The First Card

Chapter 368 The Solution - The First Card

Once you know the truth of the matter, tracing back to the cause from the result is an extremely simple task.

Since Hugo made contact with Devon Corporation's satellite observation department and confirmed the existence of the city-sized Poké Ball symbol in the ocean, all the fragments that Azure observed in the dream connection experiment yesterday have been pieced together into a complete picture in the detective's reasoning blueprint.

What the detective's assistant witnessed in the dream was certainly not a virtual world constructed by Mia's second personality.

Rather, it is an undeniable flashback based on reality. Throughout this memory, her perspective remains focused on the protagonist of the memory.

The protagonist of this memory is none other than the Aiya Mushroom that Mia released back into the wild.

More precisely, those were just a few of the countless spores that the Ayah Mushroom scattered to the outside world—like threads hidden in the darkness, quietly weaving together the true form of Mia's strange dreams.

Now that we've seen the enormous, island-like figure of the giant mushroom standing in the sea, the veracity of this guess is self-evident.

It wasn't that a legendary Pokémon from the deep sea kindly acted as an intermediary, conveying Aquafoil's thoughts from the deep sea to its original owner. Rather, Aquafoil, through its own efforts, finally managed to send a part of its body across the ocean and successfully reach the trainer it had longed for.

Judging from the fact that Mia could only clearly perceive the spore consciousness of the Aiya Mushroom after being immersed in seawater for a long time, these independent spores need to gather to a certain number in order to clearly express their own thoughts; otherwise, they can only reside in the target's subconscious in the form of dreams.

Furthermore, unlike abominable pathogens, they do not forcibly invade and parasitize the human body.

The evidence is that even after Mia had been plagued by strange dreams for about a year, her body still did not accumulate enough spores to make Aya Mushroom continue to show consciousness.

Therefore, Hugo believes that these spores may still retain the characteristics of the Grass-type move "Leech Seed," like dandelion seeds drifting in the wind, cleverly using the power of sea breeze or seawater to quietly attach to the surface of the human host's skin in the form of extremely small particles, and gradually lose their activity over time.

In essence, they are no different from the dust that drifts freely in the city. The only difference is that each individual spore has its own independent consciousness.

After Azure entered the Connected World, the hazy space she felt in the dream was the deep ocean in the eyes of these Aya mushroom spores.

The enormous stone tablet she saw in the dark abyss below was most likely something that the individual spores had all witnessed—such as a powerful item imbued with the power of a legendary Pokémon.

As for how the consciousness of the Aiya Mushroom came into contact with the stone tablet, that remains to be discussed.

Even when the spores growing on mushrooms form mycelium, they will not reach out and touch the stone slab like humans do.

Therefore, what Azure saw in her dream was likely a combination of fragmented memories experienced through her own emotional imagination.

Before Mia had ever bathed in the sea, the spores of the mushroom attached to Mia's dreams pieced together her memories, recording only the most memorable parts.

Considering the original size of the Ayakashi mushroom, or rather, considering the individual sizes of the countless parallel spore personalities within the Ayakashi mushroom, the actual size of that prop is probably much smaller than the so-called "stone tablet".

However, this item contains enormous energy, enough to inflate the originally less than 20 centimeters tall and weighing only one kilogram of Agar.io to the size of an island, so much so that even satellites outside the atmosphere can clearly see the Poké Ball pattern on its head.

Thinking of this, Hugo couldn't help but recall a stone slab that was originally buried under a sculpture in Banteay City in the Sinnoh region. After a series of events triggered by Team Galactic, the artifact, which was said to be a relic of Arceus, was eventually transferred to the History Institute in Sinnoh City and guarded by the local elder, Cynthia and Hugo's grandmother.

If it's that item, it's not surprising that it can do something so extraordinary, especially since the stone tablet in the dream is a dark green. Ignoring the influence of the blue reflection from the deep sea, the stone tablet's actual color might actually be a vibrant green, representing the Grass type—perfectly complementing Aya's Grass attribute.

Based on these premises, the phenomenon that Azure's perspective suddenly rose after touching the stone tablet in the dream can be reasonably explained. Under the huge amplification of grass attribute energy, Aya's own size rapidly expanded, and the consciousness that came into contact with it also moved further and further away from the stone tablet.

It wasn't until it rose to the vicinity of the sea surface and saw the white light from the sky—that is, when the giant mushroom was about to reach the size of a modern city—that the mutation occurred.

The most noticeable change was that the color of the stone slab changed in the dream.

It changed from its original green to a dangerous purple.

Considering the possible origin of the stone slab, and the subsequent deaths of two toxicology experts from the same unidentified poison,

This is undoubtedly an extremely dangerous signal.

However, before considering whether the slate itself has undergone any mutation, we must first resolve some more fundamental contradictions.

Why does the mushroom spore, from the first-person perspective of the dream, see the stone slab again?

Reviewing the dream connection report provided by Azure, the detective assistant's perspective clearly went through four stages: first, aimlessly drifting in the sea; then, seeing the green stone tablet and rising rapidly; then, diving down again and seeing the purple stone tablet in the sea; and finally, having his consciousness thrown far away and seeing Miss Mia crying.

In this series of states, the first two stages correspond precisely to Awful's initial foray into the marine environment and its gradual growth and expansion within it. These steps are equally essential if Team Magma intends to establish their own secret base in the ocean. The final stage can be roughly understood as the spores being released to the surface, drifting with ocean currents and monsoons all the way to the shores of the Unova region, finally able to reunite with their beloved Mia. The reason it presents a broad, God-like perspective is because it is originally a product of the integration of countless spore perspectives. But what does this third stage represent?

As an observer within the dream, Azure has no way of altering the course of memories within it. So, what factors, then, are at play?

This caused the individual perspective of the Ayya Mushroom to descend again, allowing it to see the stone slab prop that had been far away before.

Under normal circumstances, Hugo's reasoning might have stalled due to this thorny problem, as if he had entered a dead end.

However, the current situation is quite different; there are now too many clues laid out before the detective. It's as if a killer has committed multiple crimes in succession...

In this situation, the police do not need to analyze every murder case in detail. They only need to grasp the clues left by the murderer during a particular crime to follow the trail and successfully bring the perpetrator to justice.

In this series of cases related to the mysterious toxin, Akromma is a collaborating scientist dispatched by Team Plasma to Team Magma. So, to which faction does Selvilik, whose personal belongings contain the same salt crystals found on the former's Pokémon, belong?

The answer to this question is already obvious.

There is no doubt that he was one of the scientists recruited by Team Lava to participate in experiments.

However, due to some unforeseen event, this "plague scholar" was eventually driven by some terrifying speculation to return to the Unova region alone to spread the fungal antibody he had created, and ultimately died from an unknown poison.

The movements of the Lava Team's poison specialist are crystal clear. So, according to the confession of Team Aqua member Segawa,

How exactly did Voodoo, a toxicologist from the same ocean-worshipping organization, get involved in the case?

Having reasoned this far, the truth behind the "crying ruler" is now crystal clear.

Ultimately, there is no clear evidence to prove that these spores have undergone another dive.

Considering that Ayya Mushroom did not see the green stone slab again in the dream, the original stone slab should not have floated up to the side of the view.

The myriad clues all lead to the same explanation, which also explains why the stone slab's color changed.

The stone slabs left behind by the gods can remain unchanged for thousands of years, so it is impossible for them to suddenly change color.

The only reasonable explanation is that someone brought a second stone slab!

The purple, highly poisonous stone tablets were exactly the opposite of the emerald stone tablets held by Team Lava.

The power contained within the stone slab can create land, and it can also destroy it, restoring the sea to its original state.

The organization that planned this operation was, without a doubt, the Marines, who were sworn enemies of the Magma Team. Segawa and Fukuto were the special task force members responsible for carrying out this operation.

A toxicologist paired with a thug is indeed an excellent combination for carrying out such a highly dangerous small-scale mission.

However, judging from satellite aerial photographs, their operation ultimately ended in failure.

Voodoo fled to the Unova region and went into hiding. Judging from his rampage of killing the wild elves he had come into contact with, he likely believed that he was also infected with the same fungal virus that Servilic was trying to prevent. His indiscriminate killing may simply be to prevent the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile, Segawa, unaware of the reason, followed Fukuto to Hiun City, and even when he was arrested, he still did not know about the death of the person he was following.

More importantly, neither Futsu nor Segawa, the two members of Team Aqua, were found with any stone tablets on them when they were discovered.

It's impossible for the Flying Cloud Police Department to have kept the evidence hidden from him, the Unova Champion. And even if N, the King of Team Plasma, might be deceived by his subordinates, he, who can understand the thoughts of Pokémon, would not have overlooked such a prominent Pokémon item as the Arceus Plate.

This means that no one brought the stone slab out of this giant mushroom island.

The two stone tablets that the spores saw were actually located in two different places.

The two stone slabs, one Grass-type and the other Poison-type, are both currently present on this island made of Ayakashi. "Hugo, we've dealt with the enemies on our side. Have you discovered anything?"

Pachira's broadcasting voice cut through the damp sea breeze and reached the detective's ears. The latter walked cautiously on the soft red fungal carpet, maintaining a safe distance from the other Champions ahead. His gaze swept across the Lava Team base, constantly observing and revising his reasoning.

"The cement around the airport is light in color and has a uniform texture. Moreover, it shows almost no signs of weathering on this windswept island, indicating that it was laid no more than a year ago."

Hugo responded to the Fire Elite Four member's question, walking past the Magma Team executives lying haphazardly on the ground, and continued his analysis: "Most of these Magma Team members have skin that shows signs of recent sunburn. Although they have many burns, they lack the bronze or dark brown complexion typical of people who have lived by the sea for a long time. The color difference between the areas covered by clothing and the exposed areas is very small, which means they moved here at most a year or so ago."

"What does this prove?" Champion Karune asked, turning her head as she recalled the Wrestling Hawkman into its Poké Ball.

"Judging from the current size of Agaric, this Pokémon must have grown to the size of an island a long time ago. If Team Magma had planned to build a base here from the beginning, the buildings we see from the sky should have spread outwards in concentric circles from the center, gradually becoming sparser—but that's not the case in reality."

"That's really strange," King Lantana chimed in. "For this island in the sea, an important facility like an airport should have been built in the very center of the cap first, but Team Lava built it on the outer edge of the red zone, as if they just remembered to build it."

"That's right! Exactly!"

Hugo snapped his fingers, immediately realizing, "This island was originally not intended for building a base! Because the Ayakashi mushrooms that form the island's foundation are constantly growing, any building would collapse within a few years of its construction due to the expansion and deformation of the foundation. However, in the past year, Team Lava has suddenly started a large-scale construction project, even preparing to use it as a secret base."

Karuni looked thoughtful: "Does this mean that the growth of the Ayam mushroom has reached its limit?"

So the island stopped expanding?

"If there were a limit to its growth, it should have stopped long ago before it reached its current size," Hugo shook his head in denial. "I'm more inclined to believe that someone stopped the island's expansion plans a year ago, forcing Team Lava to turn it into a secret base instead."

"Speaking of all that equipment on this island, like the desalination plant and the wood catalytic workshop, it's obvious that it was looted from the production facilities they destroyed in the Hoenn region not long ago." Dragon-type Elite Four member Genji frowned and sneered. "What secret base? This is clearly a bandit's stronghold."

Hugo gazed at the distant horizon and fell into thought once more—Akroma's return to Unova, Team Magma's construction of a secret base, Team Aqua's dispatch of a special task force, Mia's onset of strange dreams, Servik's development of a vaccine, and the two extremist groups' competitive sabotage operations in Hoenn all occurred within this specific timeframe of one to six months prior.

If they are all dominoes falling one after another, then what is the first domino that triggered this series of problems?

Just then, a deafening roar came from afar.

On the other side of the island, where Champion Steven had drawn fire for their plane's landing, a gigantic Pokémon, its body enveloped in red light, slowly rose from the sea. Its gaping jaws resembled a guillotine with a sharp blade hanging overhead, and its menacing carapace pierced the waves.

With its blue-green limbs as large as buildings, this enormous Pokémon with its bright red eyes was like a towering mountain just by standing there.

"Heh, it seems Team Lava has finally revealed their ace."

Among the five, the Gambler King looked up at the spectacular scene and a smile appeared on his lips.