In Xia Yan's view, Agatha had already been cautious enough.
In order to make the person hiding within the Pokémon League let down their guard.
She had even deliberately sent Lance, a now-famous investigator, to look into Hunter N.
Most importantly, Lance did not know that Hunter N was Xia Yan, so he investigated with utmost seriousness.
On top of that, Agatha had intentionally leaked some information about Hunter N to Lance.
She had made everything look extremely convincing.
Who would have thought—
Even that was not enough to reassure that person.
And the fact that they had noticed how often Xia Yan and "Yan Xia" appeared in the same places proved that they truly cared about "Yan Xia"—in other words, Hunter N.
After a thorough investigation.
If—
Xia Yan could pass this test as well, he would barely be considered to have passed that person's examination and gained the qualifications to be used.
Fortunately, Xia Yan had kept an extra eye out.
He had carefully considered why that pitch-black feather had appeared.
Tracing it back to the source.
If Xia Yan had not noticed that feather, he would not have thought of Marshadow, much less tracked things down to this point.
Still.
There was something else Xia Yan found rather puzzling.
How had they learned about Xia Yan's connection with Marshadow?
Had they investigated the records from the Goldenrod City Incident?
No, no, no.
Back then, the only person who knew about the relationship between Marshadow and Xia Yan was Agatha.
And Agatha definitely would not have written it down, because they had agreed on that from the start.
Was it those pirates at sea, or Team Aqua?
But he had been using the identity of "Yan Xia" at the time.
No.
He had overthought it.
Xia Yan realized.