"I already heard. You followed the vine to find the melon and caught Tarou Furuta's buyer. Your nose is sharp!"
On the other end of the call, Lance gave Sato a thumbs-up without hesitation.
"I still have a long way to go. The ones I caught were just lackeys," Sato said modestly.
"Catching lackeys is already impressive. Those guys are slipperier than the next—easy to defeat, but hard to catch." Lance seemed to have thought of some unpleasant memory as he shook his head.
Sato pursed his lips, thinking of his Ariados, Gardevoir, and Gengar.
It didn't seem that difficult, did it? Sato's unconvinced expression did not escape Lance's sharp eyes, honed through years of catching criminals.
"Did you always want to become an investigator? Otherwise, why are the Pokémon you caught, once paired together, just like that so suited to catching criminals?" Lance posed a soul-searching question to Sato.
Sato blinked, thinking to himself that his job in his previous life had been that of an "underground investigator."
Both involved finding targets through every possible means. The difference was that he used to kill them, while now he captured them.
"Just a coincidence. Didn't you also catch Butterfree to assist you?"
Sato should not have mentioned it. The moment Butterfree came up, Lance's expression changed.
"If there were good support options among Dragon-types, would I be willing to use a Bug-type Butterfree?"
"It's also Flying-type."
"Sato!"
Lance's eyes widened furiously, but even when angry, he was not the least bit intimidating to Sato.
In fact, Sato could not help laughing out loud.
"Alright, alright, Bug-type it is. Our esteemed Dragon-type Elite Four!"
Lance's face darkened like the bottom of a pot. In the end, he simply ignored Sato and hung up directly.
Sato looked at the dark computer screen