Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

Day 5, Orange Archipelago. Light rain.

Near Rind Island, the League rescue team had already reached the damaged cargo ship. The rear deck had been blown open where the boiler room used to be. The ship was done.

The bridge tower windows were shattered. Burn marks covered the deck. Smoke stains and blast marks were everywhere. Whatever happened last night, this ship had been through a real fight.

”Who did this?” Officer Jenny took the report from her colleague. She skipped past the analysis and went straight to the witness statements.

”Witness statements. Initial judgment: pirate attack. The attack began with a fire in the captain’s bedroom. The captain is missing. The first mate and second mate are dead. The boatswain and all armed sailors are dead. Only one sailor survived by hiding among the crew without wearing his work uniform.”

”Everything valuable besides the oranges was taken. The safes in the first mate’s and second mate’s rooms were forced open. The sailors’ Pokémon were all taken too. Anything left behind was either too hard to carry or wasn’t found.”

”Several crew members heard the attackers say they were pirates and only wanted money, not lives. Then why did all the sailors die? Did they fight back?”

”And what is this clothing description? Black clothes, black cloaks, black hoods, white masks. The witnesses said they looked terrifying. Less like pirates, more like vengeful ghosts from the sea.”

”The masks had numbers on them too. Witnesses only saw numbers from zero to seven. So there were only eight attackers?”

”What kind of pirates dress like that? Matching outfits, strange masks... Are pirates forming boy bands now?”

Officer Jenny stared at the witness report and frowned. The statements all pointed to pirates, but too many details felt wrong. It was like there was something hidden behind the fog, and she couldn’t see it yet.

”Officer Jenny, we finished counting the crew.”

”Other than the missing captain and the sailors whose bodies haven’t been found, who else is missing?”

”The rescue team found several bodies in the water. They were all wearing sailor uniforms. Some crew members jumped overboard in fear, but we found them too. There’s only one person still missing.”

”Who?” Officer Jenny looked up. The missing person might be the key to this whole attack.

”Cissy, the Gym Leader of Mikan Gym. She disappeared along with the captain. The last time anyone saw her, she was in the captain’s room.”

”Who saw that?” Officer Jenny’s interest sharpened.

The missing report said the captain was male and Cissy was female. Two people disappearing from the same room made the whole case much more interesting.

The male officer called over two frightened maids. ”Come here. Officer Jenny has questions.”

”Tell me Cissy’s relationship with the captain,” Officer Jenny said.

The two maids shrank back and looked at the male officer, saying nothing.

”You leave first,” Officer Jenny told him.

Once he was gone, she took the two maids somewhere private and asked the same question again.

”Officer Jenny... the young master and Miss Cissy are cousins,” one maid finally said. Officer Jenny’s stare made it clear that lying would not help.

”Cousins? Then why were they in the same room? And why the captain’s room?” Officer Jenny pressed them.

There was definitely something dirty here. Was it what she was thinking?

The thought made her skin crawl.

”Officer Jenny, it was... it was...” One maid almost spoke, but the other pulled her back.

”Fine. You want to hide it?” Officer Jenny noticed the little movement and looked toward the sea. Sharpedo were rising and dipping through the water in the distance. ”Do you two like feeding fish?”

”You can’t do that,” one maid said, terrified, though she clearly didn’t believe Officer Jenny would really go that far.

”Want to test that?” Officer Jenny looked at the Arcanine beside her. ”Arcanine, drive them into the sea.”

”Growl!” Arcanine bared its teeth and growled, forcing the two maids toward the railing.

”Wait! I’ll talk!” The maid knew Officer Jenny probably wouldn’t do it, but she didn’t dare gamble. Even being pushed into the water and pulled back out would be terrifying.

”Good. Talk.”

Officer Jenny wanted to know exactly how ugly this was.

”Miss Cissy ran away from home and boarded the young master’s cargo ship because she wanted to go to Kanto. But the young master didn’t want to wait until Kanto. He told us to drug the wine and juice. Tonight he planned to... That’s why Miss Cissy was taken to his room.”

”Tch. So it really was that.” Officer Jenny clicked her tongue. ”Filthy. Disgusting.”

This involved a Gym Leader, so it was above what she could handle by herself. She would have to report it to the League and let an inspector deal with it.

The captain was also a registered Trainer from Kanto who had competed in the Indigo Plateau Conference, and his family seemed important. For now, she could only take this much further.

”Give me the drug,” Officer Jenny said. That was evidence.

”It’s here.” The maid took a small medicine bottle from her pocket.

Officer Jenny picked it up with forceps and sealed it inside a clear evidence bag. Then she let the maids go.

Only then did she loosen her grip on the recorder in her hand. She had recorded the whole conversation. She would make backups later.

One copy for her family, one to keep. It was also a backup for the missing Gym Leader, just in case someone tried to ”help everyone remember things differently” later.

”Officer Jenny, we found something new.”

The male officer came back and brought her to the balcony outside the captain’s bedroom. There, she saw the cut air-conditioning pipe.

”The cut is smooth. It doesn’t look like the outdoor unit was blown loose and tore the pipe apart.”

”They came prepared.” Officer Jenny looked at the cut. ”Was it someone on the ship, or did someone sneak aboard?”

At first, she had really thought this was just a pirate attack. But with the maids’ statements, Cissy’s disappearance, and the cut air-conditioning pipe, the picture changed. This was planned. The key was Cissy.

Reiji had not expected the fire to be put out so quickly. The copper pipe had not melted, leaving the cut behind as evidence. But in that moment, he couldn’t have thought of everything.

”Officer Jenny, there’s powder all over the deck. Pokémon testing confirmed it as Sleep Powder,” another male officer reported from the doorway.

”Sleep Powder.” Officer Jenny looked at the copper pipe again and started to understand. ”How cold does it get at sea at night?”

”During the day, under direct sun, it’s at least forty degrees. At night, it’s still over twenty. Inside the cabins, it can stay above thirty.”

”I see.”

Officer Jenny stepped onto the balcony and looked around the bedroom, working through what happened.

”The attacker came aboard at night and cut the air-conditioning pipe. When Cissy and the captain returned to the room, the air conditioner didn’t work, so they opened the glass door. Once it opened, Sleep Powder came in and put both of them down.”

Then...

Officer Jenny stopped there and realized the captain was probably dead. Cissy, on the other hand, had been rescued.

Who rescued her?

What was their relationship with Cissy?

Was the captain dead or alive?

Where was Cissy now?

If she investigated Cissy’s personal connections, she should be able to find a Trainer with the ability and motive to pull this off.

Officer Jenny got excited for a moment. She was about to tell the male officer to investigate Cissy’s circle, but then she stopped herself.

Cissy had been drugged. Being taken away might actually have saved her. If Jenny kept digging, she would drag Cissy’s shame back into the open. Cissy was a Gym Leader. Her father and grandfather were both Elite Four-tier Trainers. Who wanted to face the anger of two people like that?

Better to speak with Cissy’s grandfather first.

Officer Jenny acted as if nothing had changed and told everyone to keep checking the scene. Then she left the cargo ship by helicopter.

Once she was in the air, more ideas came to her. If handled well, this could earn Cissy’s grandfather a favor and push him firmly toward the League, instead of letting him keep sitting on the fence.

She would need to report this to her family and have someone come over to take the favor properly. They would also need to put pressure on the captain’s family in Kanto and make them answer to Mikan Gym.

At the same time, Matori was still with Giovanni, tracking Mewtwo. She also received news that one of their moles had been killed.

But this was not the time to bother the Boss with something so small.

A single mole wasn’t important enough for Giovanni to handle personally.

Meanwhile, Saya had just arrived on Mandarin Island North from Mandarin Island South. She was scouting locations for a haunted-house hotel, and this city had the customer flow she wanted.

Mandarin Island North, Mandarin Grand Hotel.

By the time Reiji arrived, the sun was already up. He booked two rooms under a fake identity.

Once inside, he let Pelipper come in through the window. Pelipper spat Cissy out, and Reiji carried her to the bed.

The moment he set her down, her eyelashes trembled. She slowly woke up and saw Reiji right in front of her.

Reiji immediately backed away before she could slap him.

”You? Why are you here? Where’s my cousin?” Cissy was still dazed. She had lost her memory of last night. That was one of the drug’s side effects.

”You don’t remember?” Reiji asked. Did she really remember nothing?

”I had dinner with my cousin last night. I drank some juice, and then... then...” The more Cissy tried to think, the more her head hurt. Everything after the juice was blank.

Then she realized her clothes were gone and she was wearing only a bath towel. She grabbed a pillow and held it in front of herself, glaring at Reiji. ”What did you do to me?”

”Watch it yourself.” Reiji had expected this.

Here came the crying and screaming, like he was the one who had done something. Good thing he wasn’t a good person. Too bad he wasn’t the one who did it.

He tossed the video camera to her. The recording only showed the maids wrapping her in the towel, the cousin reaching for her, and him collapsing. Then it ended.

”What is this?” Cissy saw the two maids wrapping the towel around her. She knew both of them. They were the maids who served her cousin.

Then the wind lifted the towel and exposed her leg. Her cousin reached toward her thigh.

A wave of disgust ran through her. For a second, she wanted to smash the camera.

But she forced herself to keep watching. Then she saw her cousin collapse, and the recording ended with the camera aimed at the two people on the bed.

By then, Cissy understood. Reiji had brought her out.

”Look.” Reiji turned on the TV and switched to a Mandarin Island North news channel. Officer Jenny was being interviewed. The report said the cargo ship Cissy had boarded had been attacked by pirates, and the captain was missing. It did not mention Cissy.

”Where is he? I want him dead.” Cissy threw the camera aside and stared at the captain’s photo on the TV, her teeth clenched. She had almost lost everything.

Reiji caught the camera before it hit the floor. This was evidence. He still needed it to prove his own innocence. After setting it aside, he answered, ”I used him as bait.”

”Bait?” Cissy didn’t understand.

”For fishing. You do use bait when you fish, right? Oh, almost forgot. You don’t fish.” Reiji acted like the thought had just occurred to him.

He didn’t want to keep watching Cissy cry. Girls really were trouble.

”Rest. Your Pokémon are all in your bag. None are missing.” Reiji yawned and turned to leave. ”I was busy all night, and I’m dead tired. Call the front desk if you want food. If you want to go home, take a ship yourself. I’m going back after I wake up.”

”Don’t go.” When Cissy saw him leaving, she got out of bed barefoot and hugged him from behind, her voice shaking. ”Don’t go. I’m scared.”

”Tch. You weren’t acting like this a minute ago.”

Cissy’s face turned red at once. She really had misunderstood him earlier. She had thought he was the one who did it, only to learn it was her bootlicking cousin. Who would have thought Reiji, who had still been at the Indigo Plateau Conference not long ago, would end up here and save her?

”Fine, I want to sleep. I’m exhausted.” Reiji tried to pull her arms away, but for some reason, he couldn’t. Had one night without sleep really made him that weak?

”You jerk. I knew it was you. Why didn’t you come sooner?” Cissy was still crying and wouldn’t let him go.

She had been so close. Her life could have been ruined.

”How is that my fault?” Since she had figured it out, Reiji kept playing dumb. ”You’re a Gym Leader. Why run around for no reason? Did you think you’d get lucky and run into me every time?”

”You jerk. You called me flat again.” Cissy’s face went even redder.

She remembered the first time they met. Reiji had been on top of her then and said she was flat, so he wasn’t interested.

”Ahem. I really didn’t feel anything...”

The words came out before Reiji could stop them. He regretted it instantly. He almost wanted to slap himself.

He wasn’t like this. Women were trouble. He only joked with his mouth a little. That didn’t mean he had to take responsibility, right?

”Jerk, jerk! It was you. Stop denying it. Does the bite mark on your hand still hurt?”

”This...” Reiji looked at the web between his thumb and forefinger. The black stab-resistant glove covered it, but she had already exposed him.

Nothing left to say. Keep playing dumb.

”Fine, princess. Whatever you say. I really need sleep.”

Reiji picked up the bath towel from the floor and tossed it to her. Then he opened the door and slipped out, quickly unlocked the room next door, went inside, and shut the door with a bang.

His heart was pounding.

He wanted to ask the world: who understood the suffering of an old pervert? He had nearly lost control back there. He had to think about every empty fishing trip from both lives just to keep himself from turning around.

Luckily, he held on.

He reminded himself that he had seen plenty in his past life. A flat runway wasn’t anything special.

Only then did he calm down. He released his Pokémon and fed them breakfast. Toxicroak had done well last night.

Its sudden attacks from outside the encirclement had broken the sailors’ formation. None of them could stop it, and most didn’t even react in time. It deserved praise.

After feeding everyone, Reiji went to the bathroom and took a shower. Once he finished, he recalled his Pokémon, fell onto the bed, and went straight to sleep.

He slept until evening. Someone knocked on his door several times, but he didn’t open it because he knew who it was.

In the end, Cissy tricked the front desk into giving her a key and opened his door herself.

Fortunately, Reiji had expected that. He had left Poliwhirl and Butterfree in the room to guard him.

”Poli.” Poliwhirl saw Cissy and shook its head, telling her not to disturb Reiji.

”Free.” Butterfree blocked the doorway too, warning her not to come in and wake him.

Cissy looked past them at Reiji sleeping soundly on the bed. Seeing that jerk sleep so peacefully made her angry all over again. But with both Pokémon refusing to let her in, she couldn’t go against them.

She closed the door again and waited quietly outside for Reiji to wake up.

[End of chapter]

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