Pokémon Hunters Have a Hard Time These Days

"Your other half was captured?"

Xingye had just come over with warmed Moomoo Milk when he saw little Gengar waving its hands and chattering nonstop, telling him what had happened to Mousy.

For some reason, in just this short time, these little guys had already hit it off. They had even accepted a commission for him and arranged his work.

"Hmm... eat first. I'll ask about the rest."

Xingye had prepared a portion for Mousy as well. Little Gengar was at the age where it was growing—probably—so he always made extra. Eating nothing but Pokémon food and energy cubes was far too unhealthy.

He sat on the sofa and looked at Mousy sitting across from him. He introduced himself first. "I'm the owner of this Odd Jobs. Could you tell me the details of the commission? Who captured your companion?"

"..."

Mousy did not answer right away. It glanced at Gengar, then waved its tiny paws and began chirping. Xingye watched carefully, trying to understand what it meant.

"A bunch of very, very bad people... brought you here, and then..."

After a while, Xingye more or less understood. Someone had brought Tandemaus here from elsewhere, most likely from the Paldea Region. Sightings of Tandemaus outside Paldea were simply too rare.

After being brought to the Alola Region, they had been locked in a cage somewhere unknown for around two or three days.

Then, an explosion suddenly destroyed that place. Tandemaus had been separated by the blast. Mousy had fallen into the sewers and been swept away by the current. After finally escaping the sewers, it had run into the Meowth.

"That should be roughly what happened..."

As Xingye interpreted, he used his phone to take notes. Then he went over the translated words with Mousy twice before reaching that conclusion.

Though he had flunked badly on school exams, he still had things he could do well. Talent had given him an opportunity, so naturally, he had to make good use of it.

But he could not get any more information. Mousy had been kept in a cage ever since it was captured and knew nothing about the outside world. Still, if there had been an explosion, he could just search online.

"Based on the timing, it should have happened around when I got out of school. Let's see where there was news of an explosion..."

Xingye could not even worry about eating now. If what Mousy said was true, what did people usually think of when Pokémon were kept in cages? Pokémon hunters!

Those people were rare. Some might go their entire lives only seeing them in the news, but that did not mean they did not exist. There would always be people willing to sell their souls to the devil and take risks for profit.

"Let me see... damn, it's right on the Hau'oli Evening News front page."

He had barely opened the homepage when he saw a report about a warehouse explosion in the Port Area two hours ago.

The report gave a brief account. So far, no casualties had been found, and the exact cause was still under further investigation. It was a standard brush-off. They would probably forget about it in a couple of days.

"The Port Area? That's pretty far."

Xingye pondered for a moment, then stood up. He told Cyclizar and the others to finish their food while he went out for a bit. He would be back soon...

When he reached the izakaya downstairs, he went straight to find Slowking, intending to ask around.

Business was not particularly good today. Only Delphox and Ceruledge could be seen chatting in the izakaya. When they saw him come in, Slowking slowly asked, "Here to eat again? Didn't Cyclizar carry the Moomoo Milk upstairs already?"

"Not here to eat. I just want to ask about something."

As he spoke, Xingye sat at the bar and showed Slowking the news report on his phone.

"An explosion in the Port Area. So what?"

"Here's the thing..."

He told Slowking about finding Mousy. But after hearing him out, Slowking shook his head, put another lollipop in his mouth, and slowly said, "There are no Pokémon hunters in Alola. That's the advantage of having such small islands. The ecological environment here is good, and there are plenty of rare Pokémon, but it's a total trap. Once you catch them, you can't get away."

"Is that so?"

This was the first time Xingye had heard that. But now that he thought about it, Alola was made up of islands and surrounded by ocean. It really would be difficult to escape. So had his guess been wrong? There still had to be some connection, though!

"Tandemaus was captured in the Paldea Region and then locked in a warehouse in the Port Area. Could there have been Pokémon hunters—"

Before he could finish, Slowking suddenly said, "Could you think about something sensible? What era do you think this is? Pokémon hunting stopped being profitable a long time ago. It's exhausting, dangerous, and there's no business."

"A few years ago, there was some international criminal organization that did that kind of work too. Team Rocket, I think? Ever since they got taken down by that Red... or whoever it was, a bunch of Pokémon hunters saw no future in it and switched jobs. They went to construction sites to mix cement, or started flipping cards, toys, model kits, and figures."

Xingye listened with a face full of question marks, feeling as though he had missed a lot of useful information. Yet after hearing all that, he tilted his head and instinctively remarked, "Aren't scalpers even more awful...?"

"No, no!"

He shook his head, finally realizing the conversation had gone off track. After clearing his throat twice, he continued, "What I want to ask is, Boss Slowking, what do you think?"

"What do I think? I think while lying down! Stop bothering me with your work all the time, okay? If you don't have the ability, don't accept the commission. And even if there really are Pokémon hunters, so what? I'm not the one who got captured."

"Uh..."

"But if you really want to know something, there was another explosion on that artificial island around four months ago. The exact cause was never found then either. As for whether the two incidents are related, I don't know."

"..."

Hearing Slowking suddenly say that, Xingye narrowed his eyes. The artificial island should be the Aether Research Center. How could that possibly be connected?

He could not figure it out, but since Slowking had mentioned it, it would be better to pay some attention to it. Overall, though, he had not gotten much useful information.

When he returned upstairs, the others had already finished dinner. They had even saved a portion for him, but he did not eat right away. Instead, he said to Mousy, "Let's go. We'll take a look at the Port Area. I don't have high hopes, but we might as well search."

It had been less than three hours since the incident. Even if the police had already gotten involved, they might still be able to find some clues left behind.

At his words, Mousy immediately nodded excitedly. It jumped off the sofa and onto him, ready to come along. Gengar and Cyclizar immediately sprang into action as well...

The Port Area was a long way from Kabukicho. Even riding Cyclizar and taking shortcuts under the speed limit, it took nearly twenty minutes.

This was Hau'oli City's port for traveling to other islands and regions. People and ships usually flowed through it endlessly, and even now, at night, it was still bustling.

However, because of the afternoon explosion, parts of the warehouse district were still sealed off for investigation. It likely would not reopen for normal operations until tomorrow morning, but sneaking in would be easy enough.

Using the photos in the news report, Xingye quickly located the warehouse where the explosion had occurred. He then used his phone map to mark the shortest route that would avoid every surveillance device before heading over.

For the moment, he had Cyclizar stay inside its Poké Ball to avoid being spotted. Before long, he stopped beside a wall and looked into the distance.

There stood a warehouse roughly the size of two basketball courts, now reduced to rubble. Police tape had been set up around it, and Jenny and Gumshoos were investigating.

"There are too many people. This is going to be difficult."

Xingye had hurried over hoping to take advantage of dinnertime, when there would be fewer people, and slip inside to look for clues.

Gengar floated beside him. It knew panicking would do no good, so it could only wait a little longer. But then, it suddenly noticed that Mousy, sitting on Xingye's shoulder, looked somewhat strange.

"Gengar?"

"Eek!"

"Hm?"

Seeing that Mousy seemed to have noticed something, Xingye instinctively looked in the direction it was pointing.

In a corner on the other side, he discovered a man whose face could not be seen, hiding there and watching the scene as well. At the man's waist was an S-shaped skull!

"Team Skull?!"