The so-called chaos was not limited to the buildings and lanes. Public safety was a mess, too.
Little Sheep was parked by the roadside to let its engine cool. From where Shen Qi stood, he could see a single-story cottage in the distance, with a dark figure hunched outside a window.
It looked like a burglar.
"Chansey, Dodo."
Shen Qi pointed in that direction to alert them, and both Pokémon went on guard.
After moving a little closer, Shen Qi realized he could not identify the dark figure.
It was roughly a meter and a half tall, with a smooth, blackish-purple body.
Chansey suggested it might be a Gengar.
"The height is about right... but what Gengar is that skinny?"
When they closed to within fifty meters, they could see the cucumber-thin shadow leaning against the window and peering inside.
It was eight in the evening, still quite early. Saffron City's nightlife was only just beginning, yet thieves were already at work in the outlying settlement.
The lights were on in that house, so its residents certainly had not gone to bed. Wouldn't a thief going in now end up in a head-on fight?
Worried about making an embarrassing mistake, Shen Qi did not call the police right away. If it turned out to be one of the household's Pokémon cleaning the windows outside, that would be quite a misunderstanding.
Thud.
The dark figure set a bag down beneath the window.
Then it paced back and forth outside the door, looking stranger by the moment.
Suddenly, the figure turned its head. There were two holes in its black cloth mask, and a vicious gaze no human could possess swept toward them.
It had spotted Shen Qi!
With a fight possible, Shen Qi recalled Chansey first, ready to strike first with