The Hawlucha walked back and forth in the interrogation room, arms crossed and an angered look on his face. It was the next day, and their thief had long since woken up. They had gotten into the room only ten minutes ago, and considering the Sneasel's sly remarks, he knew he wasn't going to enjoy it.

"Hey, officer Libre, I'm just saying you didn't have to hit me on the noggin, here." The pokemon gestured to the top of his head, where there was a small bump due to the powerful blow he had gotten last night. "I would have gone without a fight if you just asked."

"It's officer Machon to you." The Hawlucha walked forward and put his hands on the table. Using his arms for support, he leaned closer to the Sneasel, who stared back at him with a smug grin. "And I don't take any chances. You aren't tricking me, thief. You were trying to run away. Don't deny that."

"I'm a man of dignity, I'll have you know." Dice chuckled, leaning against the table as he did. He put his elbows on the surface of the table. Resting his head in his hands, he leaned forward towards the officer. "In fact, I'm going to do you a favor. You already know that I broke into the old man's house, right?"

Due to the small amount of distance between the two, Machon leaned away just slightly and nodded. "All of the evidence points to you, yes. We already know you did it, so don't go trying to deny it."

"Oh, are you kidding me? I wouldn't deny that. I don't deny any of my crimes. Here, let me do something." Dice brought out one of his claws, and Machon bought up a fist in response. Dice chuckled. "Come on, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just doing something, and even if I do try to attack you, all you gotta do is bonk me on the head again

The Hawlucha stared at him with a look of doubt, but after a few moments, he brought his hand down and nodded. "Do as you must. Just don't try anything."

Dice nodded and pressed his claw down on the wooden table. He scratched a capital 'R' into the table and put a line underneath that. He moved his finger to the right and scratched a capital 'W' into the table. He also put a line underneath that. He then scratched one tally mark under the 'R'. He looked up at Machon with a grin.

"So, I'm a nice guy. I'll give you a chance to guess what other crimes I did. Guess it right, and I'll admit to them. You can get it wrong only three times. After that, my lips are sealed, and since I'm cooperating with you, I think my sentence should be shortened. We have a deal?"

The officer frowned and stared at the Sneasel. Dice had a good feeling that he caught the officer by surprise. How many times has this officer seen someone admit to their crimes. Dice doubted he's seen that a lot.

Hawlucha walked over to the door. He opened it and poked his head out of the room. "Get me a list of crimes in the city of Strikelm." He then looked back at Dice and nodded. "You have a deal, thief, though I'm not sure about shortening your sentence. We'll see after this is through."

"The name's Dice," the weasel pokemon said as he brought his claws underneath the table. The officer seemed to not care about the vandalism he just caused to police property. He should consider himself lucky, then. That's a crime he wasn't going to accuse him of.

"Whatever," the officer said as the door opened once more. A Kirlia walked through the door, wearing a pair of glasses and carrying a few pieces of paper. She walked to the Hawlucha and offered the paper.

"How you doin', doll?" Dice said with a chuckle, giving the psychic-type a wink. The Kirlia looked at him and glared before she turned around and walked away, slamming the door behind her. "Wow, that's cold even for me, and I'm an ice type."

"She already has someone, you know," the officer said as he put the papers on the table. So many crimes committed in the last couple months. Luckily, most of the criminals had been caught, which narrowed it down, but there was still a lot to pick from.

"You stole from the Tabit family?" They were a rich family of Persians that lived in the capital. They had someone break into their house about a month ago.

"Strike one. Didn't do that, but I probably should have. Heard that those guys were loaded."

Machon looked up from the papers to see that Dice was scratching a tally mark underneath the capital 'W'. Once he was finished, the dark-type looked back up at him, giving him a look that told him to continue.

"Right...let's see…" Machon looked back down at the papers. No, Dice couldn't have stolen from the charity. He didn't seem that heartless, though perhaps he was only pretending. "You stole from another inventor, didn't you? The Klink brothers? A prototype of one of their inventions were missing. It was you, correct?"

"You got it." Dice scratched another tally mark into the desk, this time under the capital 'R'

"Hmm...the assault last week? A Leavanny was found in an alleyway. Heavily injured. All of her possessions were stolen. Was that you?"

Dice narrowed his eyes just slightly and put another tally mark underneath the 'W'. This was more aggressive as he dug the tip of his claw down into the wooden table and brought it down, not stopping until he hit the edge of the table.

"I don't just assault people," the pokemon said with a shake of his head and an edge in his voice. "Sure, I did it to that old man inventor, but that was only because I have to. I don't go around mugging people. Strike two. Start using that brain of yours, Libre."

The Hawlucha narrowed his eyes as well and shook his head. "You stole from the Pokemon Bank down the street from here? You stole a few berries and gummies, correct?"

"Got that." Dice was slowly starting to calm down. Though that edge was still there, it wasn't as noticeable as before. "Some pretty good berries, too, but I sold the gummies. Keep going. You may find yourself on a roll soon."

"You stole from the dojo a few blocks down from here? The thief had broke into the window, like you did last night."

"Yep, did that. Got a few good possessions, but I don't think it was worth it in the end." Dice left another scratch and chuckled. "You got four now. At this rate I'll never get out of jail."

Hawlucha grinned and nodded. "We can only hope, can't we?" His eyes scanned through the paper, and a minute later he shook his head. He was trying to remember how the crime scenes looked, but...he was drawing a blank.

"Got anything, officer?"

"Be quiet," he muttered. Another minute had passed and he still had nothing. He smacked one of his hands down on the table out of frustration and looked up. "You stole from the museum, didn't you? You took the ancient armor that was stolen two months ago."

Machon was just making a wild guess by now. He had to guess something, or else this was going nowhere. Machon didn't remember how the robbery had happened. They actually had no idea how someone could avoid all of the guards in the museum, but he had to guess.

"Honestly, I wish I did that, but no. Don't even know the guy who did it." Dice chuckled and put his claw down next to the two other tallymarks. He swiped down and left another mark in the table, indicating that Machon was wrong for the third time.

"Strike three," Dice stated, a hint of cockiness in his voice. Only four crimes? The sentence couldn't be that bad. "How long would you say I have to stay locked up?"

"I'm not the one that decides your sentence," the officer said as he rounded up the papers. He had hoped to get this guy for more crimes than four. He just knew this guy was to blame for many of the crimes around, but...he probably got all he could out of him. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

As the Hawlucha walked out of the room, Dice chuckled and put his feet up on the surface of the table. Man, only four crimes? He's done a whole lot more of them in the capital alone. He got lucky here. Thankfully the officer was an idiot and couldn't guess correctly.

A few minutes later, as Dice was getting comfortable, Machon walked back into the room. He wasn't carrying the papers anymore, so Dice just assumed he gave them to that cutie Kirlia from earlier.

"Get your feet off the table," he said as he walked back towards the table.

"Alright. You're the boss." The Sneasel shrugged and put his feet down, setting the on the floor. He rested his hands on the back of his head and looked at Machon, that grin that he had for a few minutes now was still present. "So, what's my sentence?"

"The judge has given you two options," The Hawlucha said, sitting at a chair that was on his side of the table. "Though if it were me, I'd just sentence you to ten years in jail."

"Good to know," Dice said with a chuckle, "but there are two options? Ten years in jail and something else, right?"

"Yes, well, you can either take your ten years in jail and then be released, or you have to sign up for the adventure guild in town. There you can repay your debt to society by doing something meaningful with your life."

"Wow, harsh." Dice shook his head. "So I'm either locked up for ten years or I join the guild? The guild doesn't sound bad, you know. I'll just take that option."

"You realize that once you sign up, you can't leave the guild, correct?" Machon asked. "Not only do they make you stay for at least a year before you leave, due to the guild rules, but the court's going to make you stay for at least two years, but it'll most certainly be more, if I can help it. You need to know the conditions of this deal."

"I'm aware of that now," the Sneasel said as he moved his hands down to his sides. "Still, it doesn't seem that bad, now does it? I think I'll take that."

Machon nodded. "Well, that's a shame. I would have liked seeing you locked up." The pokemon then stood up and walked towards the door. "You'll be escorted to the guild in about an hour. We'll bring you a meal before you get there. You'll meet the guild leaders and be assigned a team, and after that, I honestly don't care what you do."

"Thanks for the words of encouragement." Dice gave the officer a mock salute as the bird pokemon shut the door. He chuckled and put his feet on the table once more. He avoided ten years in jail just by joining the guild? It was that easy? Jeez, this was going to be simple.