Poacher

After bidding Officer Jenny farewell, Roy set off on his journey once more. Before long, noon arrived, and Roy casually found a patch of shade to sit beneath, eating a Pokéblock to restore his strength.

Then he heard movement coming from the grass not far behind him again. Though the sound was faint, Roy heard it clearly.

This time, it was not another Bug Catcher jumping out.

But Roy caught the mixed scent of blood and something scorched in the air.

He sensed that something was wrong. His body went completely still, and maintaining his current posture, he seemed to blend entirely into the surrounding environment.

After a while, a voice that shifted from steady to rough came from behind the nearby grass.

"Damn! That damned Officer Jenny! Don't let me catch her!"

"Litwick."

Litwick emerged from Roy's shoulder and floated to the large tree nearest the grass where the voice had come from. Before long, it floated back.

The flame atop Litwick's head formed an image of what it had seen.

A middle-aged man was spraying Potions and various other medicines over the vicious burn scars on his arm.

"Tss~~~"

The middle-aged man tore off the mask on his face, revealing a face covered in scars.

"Good thing I fooled that little bitch, or I'd really have been done for today... Tss~~~"

Scarface's raised voice aggravated the burn on his arm, causing another wave of agonizing pain. But remembering that Officer Jenny was still nearby, he hurriedly swallowed his cries.

It looked like this Scarface was one of the poachers Officer Jenny had mentioned. The scars on his body had most likely been caused by Arcanine.

But it seemed he was alone right now.

After thinking it over, Roy decided he could not turn down a reward that had practically delivered itself to him. He just did not know how strong the man was. Being able to escape from a Gym Leader level Arcanine meant that, although he was weaker than Arcanine, he could not be too far behind.

But this was not a Pokémon battle. Roy did not need to defeat him; he only needed to restrain Scarface.

With that in mind, Roy decided to take a gamble. He was hidden while the enemy was exposed. Even if the gamble failed, he could still escape.

The only issue was that he had not seen Scarface's Pokémon. They were probably in the Poké Balls at his waist.

"It's up to you, Duskull!"

The Duskull that was released looked completely confused. Was it time to eat again? Hadn't they just eaten?

Eat your damn head!

It was time to work!

"Duskull, use Mean Look on that Scarface in a moment. Litwick, you..."

After arranging the battle plan, Duskull silently floated beneath the tree where the man was. The single eye within its skull mask changed from red to black and stared fixedly at Scarface.

While cursing through the pain, Scarface suddenly discovered that his hands could no longer move. Then the rest of his body froze as well, leaving only his eyes able to dart around in terror. Had he been discovered after all?

While Scarface was considering his options,

a boy slowly emerged from the bushes with his head lowered.

Scarface's fear mainly came from the unknown. Now that he knew this pretty boy in front of him was responsible, he was no longer afraid. It was not Officer Jenny, after all. He even began threatening the boy walking toward him.

"Kid, I don't know what trick you used, but you'd better let me go right now, or when..."

Before Scarface could finish his threat, the boy who had been approaching slowly suddenly quickened his pace and arrived before him.

The boy abruptly raised his head, revealing a face with only one half intact. The other half was bare bone, with scraps of flesh hanging from it, making for an exceptionally horrifying sight.

Along with the Will-O-Wisps floating around the boy and the skull mask,

"R-return... my life..."

As he spoke, the boy even reached out and stroked Scarface's stunned face.

"G-ghost... g-ghost... a ghost!"

The man was jolted out of his stupor by the sight before him. He wanted to flee, but he could not move at all. He had even forgotten to call upon the Poké Balls at his waist.

Just like the Bug Catcher earlier, Scarface had never seen anything like this. Heat spread through his crotch, and foul yellow liquid trickled out.

Seeing how smoothly the operation had gone, Roy sighed in disappointment. He had not even used most of his tricks, yet Scarface had already been frightened into this state.

The half-face ghost mask and the Will-O-Wisps from earlier were merely images created by Litwick's flame.

Covering his nose, Roy looked disdainfully at the man kneeling on the ground in terror. Was it really that scary? He had wet himself just from that?

If Roy had used the same style Pheobe used to wake him up the morning before yesterday, this man might have been scared to death on the spot.

Roy removed the Poké Balls from the man's body and pressed the central lock buttons, sealing the Poké Balls completely.

Then Duskull tied Scarface up. Throughout the entire process, Scarface did not dare make the slightest movement. In his eyes, Roy was the incarnation of a vengeful spirit, while Duskull was more like a little demon following at Roy's side.

Still uneasy, Roy took out the Stun Spore from the Bug Catcher earlier and sprinkled it over Scarface.

Now Scarface could not even speak. His whole body began twitching.

Roy stared at the bag of yellow powder in his hand in surprise. This was Stun Spore, right?

Ignoring the twitching Scarface on the ground, Roy picked up the human-face mask the man had thrown down earlier and examined it carefully. The mask felt cold and truly resembled human skin.

No wonder it had fooled Officer Jenny. So there was technology like this. Roy silently put the mask into his Spatial Bracelet.

Scarface also had a Spatial Bracelet on his hand, but it was an old model with fingerprint unlocking. There were only a few valuable things inside.

Roy could simply kill Scarface on the ground, but then he thought of his Popularity Points mission...

After weighing the pros and cons, Roy still decided to leave Scarface for Officer Jenny. Mainly because Scarface truly had nothing valuable on him, so it was better to exchange him for credit and Popularity Points.

Now the question was how to notify Officer Jenny. Should he wait for her to return here?

As if she had heard Roy's call, Officer Jenny arrived again atop Arcanine.

The scream from this area had sounded somewhat familiar. She remembered Roy, whom she had encountered earlier, and, worried about him, turned back.

She had expected Roy to have fallen into the hands of the criminal, but instead saw Scarface tied up and still trembling all over, along with Roy standing far away from him, covering his nose and waiting for praise. Officer Jenny understood what had happened at a glance.

The boy before her had actually captured a vicious poacher all by himself.

"Officer Jenny, this guy was secretly cursing you in the grass just now. He didn't look like a good person, so I caught him."

Roy's reason was simple:

Officer Jenny, he insulted you!

Officer Jenny gave Roy an approving look, signaling that she would handle the rest.

Then Officer Jenny turned her attention to Scarface. Before she could sternly reprimand him,

Scarface seemed to see Officer Jenny as a lifeline. Even his twitching body stopped shaking.

At that moment, Duskull's Mean Look wore off, and Scarface regained the ability to move. But because his body was tied up, he struggled to straighten himself, twisting and wriggling as he knelt before Officer Jenny and tearfully confessed his crimes.

"Officer Jenny, those cases at the ranches and hunting grounds were all done by me! All the cases in Lilycove City were done by me too! Please arrest me quickly! Stealing old ladies' underwear, stealing Hakimi's mung beans..."

In short, every bad thing in the world had been done by him. He only begged Officer Jenny to take him away immediately.

At this moment, he only wanted to get farther away from Roy and the skull ghost beside him. Ideally, he wanted to be thrown into prison for a hundred years so he could calm down.

Officer Jenny looked at Roy in confusion. Roy waved his hand. Maybe Scarface had recognized his mistakes and wanted to become a law-abiding citizen?

Officer Jenny believed that explanation... like hell.