Hi again everyone... I am finally finished with this chapter! Okay... I'm not sure how it happened, I thought it was short, but... well... I beat my word count from chapter 10. This one reaches about 12k words? Umm...
Oh yeah, repeating it here again! Thank-Q for the Chapter 13 Review Gamelover41592! Hope you continue to look forward to what's to come!
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Well... before you go check out the chapter, I have a poll for you all on my profile! I'm still unsure how this works on mobile, you may have to use the desktop version to see it. This won't be blind like choosing the next chapter, but I also won't explain why I'm giving this option. Just choose One Pokémon, that's all I ask:
1. MrMime (Number Of Votes So Far: 0)
2. Lucario (Number Of Votes So Far: 1)
3. Spinda (Number Of Votes So Far: 0)
I'll be updating this when there are more votes. I won't explain anything else, but I did leave an obscure and subtle hint in the Dojo chapter. Points if you can guess what this vote is for. (~ ^ o ^ ~)
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Anyway, I'll leave you to it! For now, see you at the bottom.
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'Thoughts'
"Speech"
'Quoting'
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Chapter 13: We Are, The PokéTectives!
Another week had come and gone, he was soon entering the fourth week of being here in this world. The duo had begun to develop this routine of school in the day, tutoring or training at the dojo after classes, and if there was enough free time, shopping for supplies or eating dinner out with the Chief who always treated. But tomorrow, the Chief was giving the boys a break and the school was being closed due to some meetings. So, Shinichi/Conan thought that day was the perfect opportunity to organize his thoughts and unwind a little. But, like many self-indulgent plans, the meddling of outside forces soon interrupts them. Outside forces being his new little group who had quickly grabbed his flipper one-day after class and begged him to meet up tomorrow near the school. He tried to get out of it, he really did, but the children were so persistent with their pleas, which made him relent. They cheered in their success and told him to be ready for a surprise.
So that's how he's ended up here, outside the school with the group gently pushing him in a direction deeper into the forest. At first, he thought they were heading in the direction of Treecko-nii's home, but everyone took the opposite turn as they came across a deeply wooded area. The trees here were much like the Banyan tree that he and his guardian live under, many small trunks were weaving and twisting every which way. The only Pokémon who could even navigate this area were those that were as small as the group. Munchlax-san was probably the maximum size that could even be wandering in here. Up and down, left and right, dodging branches and squeezing their way through the narrow passageways between trees, they traveled quite far.
"So, are we there yet?" Conan/Shinichi asked curiously.
"Almost, we just gotta go under these roots and we'll be there." She smiled happily.
True to Skitty-san's words, in front of the group were a series of roots that seemed to have formed a natural tunnel. The trees surrounding completely blocked whatever was on the other side, so this tunnel or coming in from above the trees were probably the only options to get to the other side. They all stepped in and walked on through. It was a short distance as Conan/Shinichi saw the light at the end and his curiosity heightened. Some soft furry paws(?) covered his view as he heard Munchlax-san say, "No peeking. It's a surprise!"
"I won't," he complied and allowed them to have their fun. But they seemed to take an extra step as he noticed Pikachu-san had moved in front of him, covering up his view all the more. Guess they wanted to be extra prepared he didn't accidentally ruin their surprise. Inwardly, he chuckled and just closed his eyes so they wouldn't have to worry about him looking around.
They walked a little more, he noticed the ground was now leveling off and the soil was soon being replaced by soft grass under his feet. Then, everyone stopped and it grew quiet.
"Okay Pip, now open your eyes!"
Slowly, as he did, the light made it a little hard to see, so he blinked a few times till his vision adjusted. His jaw dropped at the beautiful sight all around him. This place was enchanting. It was like a natural dome, where trees covered the sky to the point where sunlight and bits of blue slipped through the cracks. But even though it was covered, the place felt exceptionally bright. The area itself was covered in grass of a beautiful shade of emerald as wild flowers and dandelions painted the ground with color. Over in the middle of this area was what looked like a hut shaped play house, but what made it interesting was that the grass grew out from the walls and the roof, almost looking like nature was reclaiming the unnatural structure.
"So," Skitty's eyes gleamed with excitement, "what do you think?"
"This is our little secret place." Pikachu added on.
Conan/Shinichi was just in awe, "It's amazing!"
Munchlax was practically beaming, "We knew you'd like it!" He could only respond with a nod back, still taking in the beauty of this area.
"Since we explore the forest all around the school a lot, we thought we knew every secret. But one day, we sort of got lost and that's when we found this place. It was thanks to Munchlax's runaway apples of all things. We all chased his food and ran here. Even now, we're not sure how we were able to squeeze through some areas."
"I told you Pikachu, it doesn't matter how we found it, what's important is that it's now our little secret hideaway." Skitty playfully ruffled the fur on Pikachu's head with her tail.
Hmm, accidents sometime can lead to fun surprises. It made him think back to when he was in first grade and he found the wallet in the library and was lead out to see a sunset with… who was he there with again? Wait, a new memory?
"Anyway, come on Pip, let's go inside!" He was forcefully jolted out of those thoughts as the trio all pushed him towards the little structure.
"So, what's with the building? Has it always been there?"
"You would think that, right? But actually, we built it ourselves."
"Huh?"
"You see, even though this is our secret hideaway, there's this Pokémon that likes to come by the area once in a while. This is also her secret spot, but after some convincing, we agreed to share it. So we all protect this little secret. As for why it's always so lush in here, it's cause she likes to practice using Grassy Terrain. It kind of made our base like that on the outside, but the inside is just fine."
"Grassy Terrain?" Another move he hadn't heard of yet, till now.
"Yeah," Munchlax began, "It's a move that makes the grass grow more. In battle, it can help everyone in the area heal up faster."
Ah, so it was a healing move, like the ones they were taught in battle moves class a couple of days ago. The move itself didn't exactly make sense; sure nature can help in the healing process, but grass specifically? At this point he just resigned himself to the main go to answer, video game like world and logic.
"Wow, Munchlax, how did you know that?" Skitty asked.
"I remember all the cool moves that help plants and food to grow." He proclaimed confidently.
Everyone just fell at his words, of course he would. If it wasn't about unagi (eel), it was going to be some sort of food with Ge… Ge? Unagi?
After everyone recovered from Munchlax-san's response, they headed inside and he was surprised to find this little house was much bigger than he first thought. The room was simple; in the center was a round table with four cushions surrounding it. On the sides of the walls, there were mostly baskets of berries, random little supplies, and apples. The walls itself seemed to be made of stone and clay instead of grass and thatch, with two little holes on opposite ends for windows. The grass had grown around the hole and bordered around the perimeter of the windows. Scattered on the walls, just as messily as the police station, papers of different sizes hung about everywhere. There was a neater pile of papers on a smaller rectangular table that was on the right side of the wall, close to the entrance. Overall, this was a simple place, but it really impressed him.
"Like what you see?" Pikachu asked as the three eagerly watched him.
"I think. What is all this anyway?"
The three glanced at one another, sharing a knowing look. They all took in a deep breath and proclaimed at the same time, "Welcome to the (Shounen Tantei-dan) PokéTectives team base!"
Again, he's hearing that name again. This was the second time it got replaced? It's strange he kept hearing this group name, yet, for some reason, he didn't know the meaning of it. He knew Shounen meant boys, but what was this 'Tantei' part? Come to think of it, this group's name too, what did PokéTectives stand for? Oh, they were waiting for him to say something, weren't they?
"Ah… thank you. Your base is really cool! But why do you have so many papers around here?"
Pikachu looked eagerly at him as he began to explain, "You see Pip, all these papers here are from past cases completed by the rescue and explorer teams. Some of them were item retrieval quests of those who lost items while traveling through dungeons. Some were escort or reuniting quests, where Pokémon got trapped in dungeons and were forced to wait there for rescue. Then…" He paused as he let Skitty take over and pointed to a certain area of posters, "These fulfilled requests were wanted posters of outlaws that are now captured and put in jail, either here on the islands, transported to the main continents or elsewhere."
Munchlax took a turn and pointed at another part of the wall, "Over here are my favorites though; they're the secret room, treasure hunting, artifact recovery, and ingredient searching quests. They're harder to complete because there isn't always a guarantee that the rooms, items, or ingredients can be found in the dungeon. Since dungeons are always changing and are wonky like that, they can show up some days and disappear other days."
"Ehh?" He was sort of surprised but, at the same time, also not. The surprise came from the fact that these children, hatchlings were researching all they wanted to know about past cases and missions, most likely to better prepare for their future as explorers. He wasn't surprised about the fact this was another friendly reminder that, the longer he stayed, this world continued to display more and more video game like qualities. It hasn't been so bad staying here, but it was taking much longer than he wanted to admit to even adjust to everything, figure out his memories, or maybe even find a way to become human again, if it were even possible. Instead of dwelling on his predicament though, he decided to focus on something else, "So how did you get all of these anyway?" He asked as he looked around at each paper.
Skitty answered, "We asked the workers at the police station who are responsible for taking down all the old request. They said it was fine for us to have them since they're all stamped as completed and were originally going to be thrown away," she pointed to the stamp that looked a little like the badges the officers wear, "so that way no one mistakes it for an incomplete job."
"I see." He waited for her to explain more, but she never did.
The trio decided to clean the table and prepare some snacks, so Shinichi/Conan chose to look around at each of the posters. He was becoming thankful for the long tutoring sessions he had to endure since he now was able to read easier. There were still a lot of runes he had trouble deciphering. Even so, he was able to get the gist of what was written down. The outlaw quests reminded him of those old school western wanted papers, since Pokémon of varying types were displayed on the center and the reward was written below. For the other papers, they seemed more like formal written requests that were copied a couple of times, but with a different client and item or perso… Pokémon to find. But while looking through the retrieval quests, there was a single paper face down on the ground that caught his attention. Picking it up, he found it a little strange, it wasn't like the other ones.
"Hey guys, can you look at this?"
The trio looked up as Pip brought over the paper to the table. When they looked at it, the trio wasn't sure what was wrong. It looked like one of the usual lost item requests, lowest rank type too, Rank E. But something did feel off to all of them. Skitty pulled out a paper from the stack that was sitting on the desk table in the back and compared it to the paper Pip showed them. They stared at it for a little while before everyone, at the same time, realized, "The stamp!"
"Where's the stamp?!"
"It's not on the paper."
"Well that's obvious Munchlax. I think he accidentally took an active request down."
"Well, shouldn't we go return it then?" Pip asked everyone, it was an active request and they didn't want whoever sent it out to be waiting any longer.
But the look the trio gave each other concerned Conan/Shinichi, like they were contemplating on what to do and struggling with a decision. It was like they were weighing out some sort of options, nonverbally agreeing and coming to the same conclusion.
"You know…" Pikachu started.
"We could do that." Skitty continued.
"But who knows how long it's been here." Munchlax mused.
Was this going where he thought it was going?
The three agreed together saying, "Let's do this quest!"
Yep, it did.
"Oi! NO way!" There was no way they were doing this, he had enough trouble when helping to save everyone last time. No way was he agreeing to this, no dungeons! Besides, the Chief would have a fit if she caught wind of their little escapades. They're already familiar with her punishment, so why tempt the inevitable even more?
Unfortunately, Conan/Shinichi's outburst was ignored as the group had already packed their bags and put on their accessories, donning their little badges as well as their scarves, or ribbon. His eye twitched at this, it seems they were no stranger to the task at hand.
"Hey Pip, where's your badge?" Skitty asked as she finished equipping her bag.
"My badge," that caught him off guard, "I forgot it?"
She clicked her tongue, "Ah Pip, don't forget it next time." She motioned to Pikachu to get something from one of the baskets. When Pikachu put his hand out, he could see it was another badge, which was promptly pinned in the center of his bowtie.
"There you go! You're ready!" He looked down and sure enough, the badge was a copy of the one he was given.
"Don't lose that badge, that's for whenever we recruit another member." Pikachu smiled widely as he turned back and put on his messenger bag.
"Here Pip, you can use this extra bag for now. Yours will have all the throwing sticks and gravel so you can do those cool kicks like back in the cave!" Munchlax looked really excited at the fact he may get to witness him kicking more throwing objects. That was just a one time thing, he probably wasn't going to do it again in this dungeon. Wait, when did he start agreeing to go along with this?
"Everyone ready?" Skitty asked.
"Yeah, I got the Oran berries and apples." Munchlax patted his bag confidently.
"I have an Oran berry, an emergency escape orb, and status healing berries." Pikachu held up his bag with a smile.
"I also got an Oran berry and a mostly empty bag for any treasure or Poké we find." Skitty showed how empty hers was by opening it with her tail.
"And Little Pip's got all the throwing items and an Oran berry!" Munchlax spoke again, this time with more excitement in his voice at the mention of the items. He was really serious about wanting to see those kicks again, wasn't he? Actually, the other two were looking just as eager.
Skitty got up on her hind legs and shouted excitedly, "THEN, LET'S GO!"
"YEAH!"
"Oi! Wai-" Sadly, Conan/Shinichi's words weren't heard or simply ignored as the trio all grabbed his flipper and dragged him out running. This was going to be a long day, wasn't it?
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It took about an hour's walk from the secret base when they finally found themselves outside the dungeon. Pikachu held the paper and read the request aloud:
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Client: Stufful
Location: Simplicity Woods
Mission: Find my special doll.
"I had to pass through the dungeon to go visit someone.
While I made it safely out, I lost my precious doll somewhere.
Please help me find it, it's important to me."
Reward: 100 Poké + Reviver Seed
Rank: E
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"So it's a precious Pokédoll." Skitty thought on this, "Did Stufful say what it looks like?"
Pikachu-san shook his head sadly. Well, that wasn't going to help them at all. But given it's a doll of some sort, it probably would stick out like a sore thumb… Conan/Shinichi began considering learning Pokémon idioms, if only to not gain odd looks for his already out of normal actions as it was. Well, all least he hadn't said it aloud, this time.
"Ready to go in then?"
"Hold it!" Munchlax stopped them, "Before we go, let's just check our stuff one more time. This mission may be a Rank E one, but it never hurts to double check."
For some reason they saw Pip's eyes grow wide, seemingly dumbfounded by what he heard. "What Little Pip? Just because I like to think about food a lot, doesn't mean I don't like to be prepared. Dungeons are scary business sometimes. We just weren't prepared the last time you saw us since we didn't think the cove would become a dungeon."
Pip blinked, a puzzling gaze crossed his face before he shook his head and looked again, "I'm sorry, Munchlax. I just thought… Nevermind."
"It's okay, now let's just check our bags one last time before we get in."
"Yeah!" Everyone, including Pip, agreed.
They soon headed into the woods.
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Team: {Future Team} PokéTectives
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Piplup - Name: Little Pip or Pip a.k.a. Kudou Shinichi / Edogawa Conan
Current Level: 10
Attacks Known: Bubble, Growl, Pound,
Other Attacks That Can Be Known At This Level: Water Gun
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Skitty - Name: N/A
Level: 13
Attacks Known: Disarming Voice, Sing, Fake Out, Tackle
Other Attacks That Can Be Known At This Level: Growl, Tail Whip, Attract, Fake Out, Copycat (11), Foresight,
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Munchlax - Name: N/A
Level: 12
Attacks Known: Defense Curl, Tackle, Snatch, Rest
Other Attacks That Can Be Known At This Level: Metronome, Odor Sleuth, Tackle, Defense Curl, Amnesia, Lick, Last Resort, Snatch, Recycle, Covet, Rollout, Rest,
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Pikachu - Name: N/A
Level: 12
Attacks Known: Growl, Thunder Shock, Tunderwave, Tail Whip
Other Attacks That Can Be Known At This Level: Thunder Shock, Growl, Tail Whip, Thunder Wave, Thunder Wave, Play Nice, Electro Ball, Double Kick, Double Team, Charm, Nasty Plot, Nuzzle, Sweet Kiss,
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━━ • Simplicity Woods: Floor 1 • ━━
The team entered in together through the woods and watched as the world shifted all around them. The obvious paths and clearings were no longer visible as trees seemed to warp into places that obscured their view. The sun's rays were much brighter in the woods than they were before entering in the dungeon. As for the trees themselves, they seemed much taller but also, at the same time, they didn't. The dungeon made everyone perceive space in such a weird way that they all agreed not to look up anymore and keep their eyes on the path ahead. Overall, the place, for the most part, looked like any average woods. This was how the dungeon got its name in the first place; unlike other ones, this was far tamer and the most natural by comparison.
"Simplicity Woods." Pip spoke its name as they were taking in everything about this place.
"Alright team, we have to stick together now." Skitty called out, "We don't really know what's in here so we'll have to keep each other in check. Like how Teacher Mawile taught, stick together and cover each side. Keep an eye out for any oncoming enemies, the stairs, and our main objective, the Pokédoll."
Everyone agreed and so began their journey. Pikachu pulled out a paper and pencil, writing on it as they walked. At first, Conan/Shinichi thought the mouse like Pokémon was drawing the map, but upon closer inspection, with each step they took, the map of the floor was filling out on its own. He was caught staring and was given an explanation, "Wonder maps work weird in Mystery Dungeons. Normally, they're used to show the layout of the land, but once inside a Mystery Dungeon, they can map out the floor as you walk. Anything you draw on the map immediately becomes erased as soon as you go to the next floor."
Ah, more game like mechanics. Noted. But now that Conan/Shinichi thought of it, "Why would these woods have floors? Aren't places outside supposed to be more leveled?"
"It's just what a mystery dungeon does." Pikachu-san shrugged, "Pokémon have tried to figure it out, but they could never come to a good conclusion. It just warps the world around it like that."
Well, maybe in the future, when this world advanced their studies of science, a good explanation could be given. Could the professor possibly figure it out, or maybe miss yawny eyes could provide an answer too. But then again, she was a chemist… Oh? A new person?
"AAH!"
"Skitty!" The boys yelled which caused Pip to become alert.
In front of Skitty was a strange mongoose shaped Pokémon who had massively large chompers. Without those teeth baring menacingly at them, he honestly thought it would have been cute. But right now, it was on the offensive as it tired to repeatedly tackle Skitty who was dodging. She apparently had enough of this and used a move she called, "Disarming Voice!" As she did this, she was literally crying out in a charming way. Apparently it worked in stopping the Pokémon who was just welling up with emotion at the sound. It was somehow damaging the Pokémon too from what he could observe, perhaps it was because of the sound or frequency. Quickly, Munchlax had swapped out with Skitty and tackled it before it regained its composure. That ended up doing the trick as they all watched the Pokémon faint and the light take it away elsewhere in the dungeon for safety.
"Phew! Nice assist Munchlax!" The two did a sort of high five with Skitty using her tail instead of her paws.
"What was that Pokémon?"
"That was a Yungoos, Little Pip. They're normally like this, just looking to pick a fight and test their strength with family and foe. They don't mean any harm by it, but they do get bothersome after a while, especially the ones that live in dungeons. But don't worry, teacher Skitty is here to teach you everything." She raised her head in a posture of confidence, feeling the pride of being the teacher instead of the one being taught.
'Oi oi! You may know more, but I'm still older than you three,' he grumbled in his mind, but chose not to voice it. His supposed ages wouldn't make sense to them away, especially when all they see is a young hatchling, seems no older than a babe, but has a higher intelligence than the average child. Also, he wasn't sure exactly how old he was at this point. If he added both ages, did that make him twenty-four or twenty-five?
For the rest of the floor, they explored every other room that appeared until the map looked complete. No Pokédoll was in sight on this floor, so it was time to backtrack, go to the stairs they found earlier, and proceed onward to the next floor.
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━━ • Simplicity Woods: Floor 2 • ━━
The second floor wasn't all too different from the first one. Everything looked just about the same, only with a different layout. This time though, in the room they were deposited into, they found some coins and what he remembers from the items class, a Cheri berry. The red berry that sort of reminded him of a cherry, if he recalled correctly, was to heal the paralysis status. One of Pikachu's moves, Thunder Wave, could cause this condition to occur. It was useful for those times you don't want to, or can't fight and need to get away since it slowed down an opponent. Munchlax picked that up, and then gave it to Pikachu, while Skitty got the coins. Everyone looked around some more before seeing no other objects were in the area, including the lack of a Pokédoll.
They soon moved on from this room and began their walk. This time, Pikachu was in the front of the group and Pip was right behind him. They had agreed to rotate their positions each floor so they could save on their energy and move usage. That was another game like mechanic too, moves could only be used a certain number of times before becoming unusable for a while. Realistically, it made sense, since you're reserving your energy before preforming a big action. But for the move to be completely unusable? Well… Unless you rested up for the day or used items or herbs, it wouldn't recover. Oddly enough, if you exited a dungeon, your moves have the possibility of recovering again, but this wasn't applicable to all. That was a concern for another time though, for now, they had a mission to focus on.
Wait a minute, when he thinks about it again; he still remembers that they are 'unofficially' taking on a professional mission. How in the world were they even going to get away with this without the chief being made aware of their little adventure? Also, why did he even allow this to slide?
"Little Pip!" Pikachu yelled as another wild one approached.
Ah, that's right, the children were in change and he was just the youngest member who had little to no say about what to do. He'd have to put up with their antics and be ready for any trouble they brought.
'Clearly you don't know how much of a trouble magnet you are.' A voice responded in sarcasm and held a mature tone.
'Oi oi!' He thought back automatically, before thinking that the voice was weirdly familiar. He didn't have any time to ponder as he heard,
"Pip!" Right, focus. He and Pikachu-san were the one in charge of battling.
The Pokémon in front of them this time had a round, white shell with yellow circles at the back, its face was covered with an orange and yellow helmet like shell, and two yellow pincers with orange tips dangerously clasping open and shut as its vertical zigzag mouth made clicking noises at them. It kind of reminded him of some kind of larva, so possibly a bug.
"That's a Grubbin, pure bug type." Pikachu quickly explained as he fired off a Thunder Shock. The round little bug easily dodged and was now spinning around hurling Mud Slap at the two. Pikachu cried out a little in pain, the attack must have been a ground type attack. If he remembered type matchups correctly, that's an electric types' one main weakness. The attack didn't affect him as much so he immediately went to work and used Bubble. Munchlax tossed Pikachu an Oran berry, quickly saying the main one in his bag was for emergencies like the big fights. He nodded at that and was back to focusing on the battle.
Pip's Bubble had somewhat worked, but the Grubbin was fast enough to dodge a good amount of them. The opponent was still going strong. Pikachu closed his eyes for a few seconds, thinking of a good way to get through this battle. 'Grubbin's fast and dodges well. What can I do?' He thought some more, opening his eyes quickly to see Pip successfully hitting with a Pound attack, only for the bug to catch him in a Vise Grip, an attack that pins its opponents from both sides squeezing them to inflict damage. That's when Pikachu saw his chance, unfortunately it would hurt Pip a bit, but this was the right time. Getting as close as he could, while all attention was in hurting Pip, he yelled,
"Thunder Wave!"
Conan/Shinichi felt the tingles of electrical energy as its strength grew and faded. Finally getting out of the bug's grip, he crawled away just enough to get be out the pincers' reach. As he rose up, he fell back down again, temporarily unable to move. In that moment, he felt the loss of control of his limbs, the paralysis kicking in. In what little motion he could do, he turned to see how the Grubbin was doing. It seems Pikachu's attack worked well since it was lying on its side as the waves of electricity visibly traveled around its body. The mouse like Pokémon wasted no time and immediately used a Thunder Shock, which did the trick. The insect's eyes rolled into swirls and the light enveloped it, taking it away elsewhere in the dungeon.
Pikachu immediately went over to help him stand up. Oh, when had he sat down again? "Sorry, Pip." He was embarrassed, expression filled with guilt at having to do the attack. Pip only shook his head and accepted the apology, knowing that the Pokémon only meant to help. He then hurriedly dug into his bag and handed him the Cheri berry they had picked up not that long ago, "Here, eat this."
Conan/Shinichi thanked the mouse like Pokémon and nibbled at the berry. The small berry was a little drier than he thought it would be, but the bit of spicy kick pleased his taste buds. In no time, after fully consuming the whole thing, the waves of electricity visibly faded and the pain subsided till he could get up and move normally. These berries were truly a wonder, and it still surprised him how quick it was to be healed.
Skitty came over to the two of them and with her tail, she ruffled his feathery fuzz like hair and Pikachu's fur. "Great job you two!" She smiled, her stance seemed like it took pride in her teammates' hard work in the battle. Pikachu blushed while he simply nodded. She then turned to Munchlax, "Isn't it great that berry was just there? Mystery Dungeons really are strange!"
"Yeah, can never tell if they're helping us or not." Munchlax responded, smiling excitedly at Skitty. She returned a smile just as big. They looked so enamored by the idea of the strange properties and inner workings of the mystery dungeon.
"Well," Pikachu began, "It would be fun to know more, but we got a mission, remember?" Pikachu rubbed the top of his head, shyly bushing as he looked at Skitty.
The two children agreed, "Right." Then soon, everyone was back on track through the dungeon floor. As they made their way through, they marked off the areas they passed by and the pathways they traveled down, making sure to avoid the few sleeping Pokémon that were around. They even found the stairs early on, but alas, there was no sign of the Pokédoll. Slowly they made their way back towards the stairs, ready to face whatever the next floor had in store.
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━━ • Simplicity Woods: Floor 3 • ━━
This third floor was not like the others. Where the others still felt like they were lost in the woods, this one felt more spacious, almost like a park. They were deposited into one large space upon descending with not a single object or Pokémon in sight. The map revealed there were only two pathways to take, so they followed them. This time they decided to do Munchlax up front and Pikachu as the support, Skitty and he covered the back, with the pink cat like Pokémon being the tail end of the group. A quick scan of the room revealed that there weren't any items around, so they decided to move on.
The first pathway they took led them to a dead end with the small area having nothing but a stray Oran berry on the ground. Upon circling back, the once empty park like area now had a Pokémon in the corner. Where had it come from? It was a single black and white bird with a red pattern from the face up, resting just in front of the only other available passage to exit the room.
Munchlax, Pikachu, and Skitty's eyes shined with sparkles as the looked over to Pip who was looking at them suspiciously.
"What do you want me to do?" His eyes narrowed at them, staring them down.
"Wellll…" Munchlax began.
"Since the Pikipek is so far away…" Skitty continued.
"Maybe you could use your items and kick it?" Pikachu finished, the sparkle in their eyes still never leaving them.
Conan/Shinichi eyed each one of them, seeing if they were really serious about what they were suggesting. That only earned him some mischievous smiles back.
He sighed, "Fine, but don't make it a habit of relying on this."
Their smiles changed into gleeful excitement as they watched the penguin Pokémon dig into his bag and pull out a gravel and a stick. He turned them over in his flippers, inspecting each one before placing the gravel on the ground first. Much like before, Pip touched his foot and spun the tip of his flipper into a circular motion before leaning back preparing to kick. When he made contact with the stone, it immediately flew straight into the bird that was now hurt and wide awake. The peaceful expression was long gone and now was replaced by a face of rage. The team was ready to jump in front of Pip to cover him, but they stopped as they saw him toss the stick in the air. The stick spun around rapidly, and once it was at a certain point, Pip kicked it. It was timed so well that his foot made contact with the thick end of the stick, which was now flying fast like a Dreepy being launched out from a Dragapult. The Pikipek was hit and stunned upon impact, not moving at all. It wasn't out for the count yet, so Munchlax and Pikachu finished it off with a Tackle and Thunder Shock respectively.
Once that was finished, the trio proceeded to gather around Pip, crowding him and bombarding him with questions.
"Woah Pip, that was awesome! How did you get the Pikipek to be stunned like that?"
"How do you even kick? Do you do secret training?"
"Can you teach me how to kick with that much power?"
"Calm down!" Pip yelled, but it was fruitless. They were still going at it with the questions. So, he simply walked off ahead of the group before they realized and took their assigned positions again.
For the rest of the way, they walked through the only other path available. It was long and twisty, making them turn up and down, even getting them stuck in dead ends. When they finally found the stairs, the map showed that there were only three rooms total and the rest were all the paths they traveled down. Still no Pokédoll in sight.
━━ • ━━
━━ • Simplicity Woods: Floor 4 • ━━
Conan/Shinichi began to notice a small pattern, it seemed he was never at the forefront or the back. The first floor, Skitty was lead while Pikachu covered the back. On the second floor, Pikachu took the front with Munchlax in the back. On the third floor, was Munchlax the lead with Skitty covering the rear end. Given that he noticed, he figured it would be his turn to cover the front or back, but he was again placed in the middle, acting as support. He couldn't ignore it, he had to know.
"Hey team?"
"What's up, Pip?" Munchlax asked.
"Shouldn't I take a turn covering the front or back?" The team blinked simultaneously. "You know, so we can all reserve our energy? Each one of you all took turns."
The trio looked at one another making an "oh" sound. They then looked back to Pip, pondering on what to do.
"Well, Little Pip," Pikachu spoke up first, "we know how amazing you are. I mean, we've all saw the fight against the Wishiwashi School Form with Helper Treecko and the Wishiwashi brother. But…"
"But?"
"You're the baby of the group."
"Skitty!"
"What Pikachu? I'm being real." She replied before turning to Pip, "You're basically the littlest out of all of us, probably the youngest too."
Pikachu coughed, "What Skitty is trying to say is, we feel sort of responsible for you too. You may have been amazing in the fight, but you're not as experienced or as familiar with how we do things yet."
"So we all agreed early on to keep you on support until you get use to our way of teamwork. Once you do, we can work as great as a well cooked meal." Munchlax added.
"Don't you mean running like a well oiled Klinklang?"
"I said what I said, Pikachu." He could only sigh back at Munchlax's comment.
"Oh," Conan/Shinichi responded. That was fair, this was the first time he was working together with these children. They seemed to read each other well and knew exactly what to do without having to exchange a bunch of words.
"Sorry if that made you feel left out, Pip." Skitty apologized.
"No, it's okay, I get it." Skitty smiled back kindly.
"AL-RIGHT! I think we should take a quick break and eat. Let's get our energy up again with some good food." Munchlax pulled out some apples from his bag and handed them to everyone.
"Is it alright to do that here, Munchlax?"
"Yep, Skitty! I scanned the area, nothing around and only one way out I can see." The teal Pokémon smiled as he pointed out the pathway.
"Okay then!"
The team ate their apples and had their fill. Once they finished, it was time to get up and check the area again. Sadly, much like every area before it, there was no sign of a Pokédoll. They did however find some more Oran berries, Cheri berries, and another one called a Chesto berry. This one can cure the sleep status inflicted by any Pokémon that puts the opponent to sleep. Skitty's move sing was one of those moves. They also fought a few other Pokémon as well, two bug types called Ladyba and Spinarak. They really resembled giant versions of ladybugs and spiders back home. From a quick glance at the Spinarak though, he noticed it only had 6 legs. So was it really a spider at all? Then again, spiders are not classified under insects, but arachnids. He shrugged; it was probably this world's logic for making it a bug at all, since naturally, those classified as insects have 6 legs. The exception are arthropods such as the Wimpod he fought before, which probably has a lot more legs and was still technically considered a bug. But aside from the new wild opponents, there was absolutely no sign of the Pokédoll. It was time to go to the next floor.
━━ • ━━
━━ • Simplicity Woods Clearing • ━━
As they descended the stairs, they noticed the area naturally warping back into place. Everyone looked up to see the sky was a clear baby blue with nothing but the sun shining down. Its rays of light slowly danced as the many branches and leaves covering the area swayed gently in the breeze. Out of all the trees, the biggest one was the one right in front of their line of sight. It no longer gave them a headache to make sense of the surrounding, so that could only mean one thing.
"We're out of the Mystery Dungeon?" Pikachu asked, surprised.
"Guess this one was really short." Munchlax crossed his arm, thinking.
"Makes sense, the mission was a rank E." Pikachu reasoned.
"But where was the Pokédoll? We didn't see it anywhere." Skitty looked absolutely disappointed.
"Maybe…" Pip hummed, "This mission was already done but they just forgot to stamp it?"
"WHAT?!" The three looked at Pip refusing to believe him.
"You said it yourselves. The ones who take down the papers only ever gave you completed missions." Pip explained.
"But that…" Pikachu paused before correcting himself, "that actually makes sense. The officer in charge could have just forgotten to stamp it."
"NO WAY!" Skitty whined.
"Not cool!" Munchlax agreed as he sulked.
"Well, I guess we should go." Pip started walking but while he did, his foot got caught on something that made him trip and yelp in surprise.
"Little Pip!" Everyone shouted, immediately rushing to his side.
"I'm okay." He took Pikachu's and Munchlax's offered paws and was hoisted up. As he was lifted, he looked closer at what caused him to fall. "Hey, look at this."
The trio looked at the ground and noticed that there was something unnaturally white in the dirt. They all began to dig at the spot until they uncovered a couple of items buried below.
"Hey! Is that?"
"I think it is!"
"It's the Pokédoll!"
"Also a lot of random mystery dungeon items and…"
"An Explorer's bag?"
"What's it all doing here?"
"Ah, no no! Don't touch my treasures!" The group looked up not finding the speaker.
"Who are you?" Skitty called out, unsure of where the voice was coming from as it seemed to echo from many different directions. The giant tree's branches rustled and out fell a Pokémon. This Pokémon was a blackish grey and dull white; it stood on its hind legs and had a strange mustache under its nose. It was cleaning the leaves that had stuck to its head during the fall. From what Conan/Shinichi could tell, it was a rat like Pokémon.
"I am Rattata! This is my secret treasure. You cannot have it!"
"But these don't belong to you!" Ratatta hissed at Pikachu's words.
"I find things, if they go unclaimed in the woods, they are now my treasure. YOU CANNOT HAVE IT!"
"Other Pokémon lost these items, you have to give them back. Turn them in to the lost and found at the police or one of the guilds." Munchlax answered back rather upset at this Pokémon actions.
"NO! They are MINE! I find them here, so I keep them here."
"You're not listening. Don't be a pack Rattata. Pokémon must be looking for them." Skitty glared unkindly at the rodent, which surprised Little Pip since she didn't seem the type to have such an expression.
"If you will not let me keep them, then WE BATTLE FOR IT!"
'Here we go again...' Pip could only shake his head, sighing in defeat.
Everyone looked up at one another, reluctant but agreeing to the fight.
━━ • ━━
━━ • Boss Fight: The Alolan Pack Rattata • ━━
━━ • ━━
Opponent: Alolan Rattata
Level 16
Attacks: Hyper Fang, Focus Energy, Tail Whip, Quick Attack
━━ • ━━
Challengers:
Team: {Future Team} PokéTectives
━━ • ━━
Piplup - Name: Little Pip or Pip a.k.a. Shinichi / Conan
Current Level: 10
Attacks Known: Bubble, Growl, Pound,
Other Attacks That Can Be Known At This Level: Water Gun
━━ • ━━
Skitty - Name: Unknown At This Time
Level: 13
Attacks Known: Disarming Voice, Sing, Fake Out, Tackle
Other Attacks That Can Be Known At This Level: Growl, Attract, Tail Whip, Copycat (11), Foresight,
━━ • ━━
Munchlax - Name: Unknown At This Time
Level: 12
Attacks Known: Defense Curl, Tackle, Snatch, Rest
Other Attacks That Can Be Known At This Level: Metronome, Odor Sleuth, Amnesia, Lick, Last Resort, Recycle, Covet, Rollout,
━━ • ━━
Pikachu - Name: Unknown At This Time
Level: 12
Attacks Known: Growl, Thunder Shock, Tunderwave, Tail Whip
Other Attacks That Can Be Known At This Level: Play Nice, Electro Ball, Double Kick, Double Team, Charm, Nasty Plot, Nuzzle, Sweet Kiss,
━━ • ━━
━━ • ━━
Rattata started his attack, aiming for Pikachu who had dared to tell him that this treasure was not his. Skitty immediately took action and went for a Fake Out, a move that always goes first. It hit the Rattata and caused it to flinch a little bit. Pikachu saw this as a chance to use Thunderwave to get the rodent to stay still. Unfortunately it misses, as the opponent was able to shake off his flinch enough to dodge. He immediately goes in with a Quick Attack at Munchlax, but to his surprise it's hard to knock the boy down. He had apparently taken time to set up a Defense Curl, which strengthened his defense.
"NO NO! You're supposed to go down!"
"Don't think we're weaklings!" Munchlax shouted.
"We're the strong team that will stand up to any wrongdoers!" Skitty followed.
"We're future team PokéTectives!" Pikachu finished confidently.
"NO!" Rattata was now angered, heading straight for Pip with a Quick Attack. Fortunately he was able to dodge just in time and get some good distance away before firing off a bubble. As he did this, he thanked Lopunny-senesi for all the lessons so far.
The attack hit, but the Rattata was strong, he shook off the sting and changed targets. Skitty took the opportunity to use a sing.
"No Skitty!" Pikachu yelled out, knowing that she hadn't practiced directing her song to affect only one Pokémon yet. Everyone else was feeling sleepy as they attempted to cover their ears from the sound. The Rattata swayed a little and soon fell asleep.
"Opps." Fortunately her team had covered their ears, but unfortunately they were now moving more sluggishly. Her attack bought them time, but what was she to do. That's when she remembered the Chesto Berries. "Pikachu, your bag!"
Pikachu hurriedly swung his bag around, fumbling through it to the berries. It was good thing he kept so many inside; there was more than enough for all of them. Quickly he tossed Pip and Munchlax the berries. They both ate them fast and were now more wide-awake. Immediately they went in for the attack with Munchlax using a Snatch and Pikachu using a Thunder Shock, but Rattata woke up and saw the two boys incoming. He was able to get away from the shock, but the teal one's attack hit.
"Hah, your attack hurt me little. Its type shares with one of mine. MY TREASURE WILL STAY!" He immediately launched himself at the boy and used, "Hyper Fang!" The attack hit it mark, it felt stronger and also landed a critical hit. Munchlax was soon down on the ground, struggling to get back up on his feet. But he felt too tired for that, even to reach for the emergency berry in his bag.
"Munchlax!" Pikachu called out, and immediately ran over to him to assist. But as he did, the Rattata glared and used a Quick Attack to aim for him. In the mouse Pokémon's eyes, he felt like he was going to take the hit, but something surprising happened. The running Pikachu did built up into a white energy and he was able to get away from the mustached Pokémon for a brief moment before redirect his path into a collision course with it. The Rattata was sent flying into a nearby tree, staggering but still had fight in his eyes.
"Pikachu! You just did a Quick Attack back!" Skitty called out excitedly!
It caused Pikachu to blink and celebrate in leveling up, but that was his downfall as the Rattata rushed in from behind to Hyper Fang the boy.
"Bubble!" Pip had called out and it hit, but it was still too slow, since Pikachu got hit by Rattata's attack and was now lying on the floor.
"Pikachu!" Skitty ran immediately going in for a Tackle attack. She lands a hit, but the hoarding Pokémon was still not going down.
"IT'S POINTLESS! GIVE UP NOW AND LEAVE MY TREASURE BE!"
"No!" Skitty replied angrily, then remembered what Rattata had said, "If Munchlax's attack is the same, then take this, Disarming Voice!" The kitty's voice pierced through in such an emotional way that the opponent was now down on his legs, unable to take how strong her attack had become.
Conan/Shinichi saw this as opportunity to put in a final attack, "Bubble!" But what was suppose to be those little bubbles turned into a full on stream of water. Skitty stopped her attack and stared eyes wide with surprise. The pressure of the water was strong enough to send the Pack Rattata flying towards the tree, just barely hitting trunk. The little hoarder was down for the count, struggling to get up before giving up and allowing himself to faint.
Piplup Gained Experience - Leveled up to Level 11
New Move Learned: Water Gun
New Moves That Can Be Learned: Water Spout, Charm
Skitty Gained Experience
Munchlax Gained Experience
Pikachu Gained Experience - Leveled up to Level 13
New Move Learned: Quick Attack
━━ • ━━
━━ • Boss Fight: The Alolan Pack Rattata Defeated • ━━
━━ • ━━
The fight was over, the hoarding, packrat… Rattata was down, soaked and too tired to get up. Skitty and Pip went to their teammates helping them to eat the Oran berries to regain their strength. Once they were all better, they all smiled preformed a high five, cheering!
"That was amazing!"
"Congratulations on learning Quick Attack, Pikachu, and Water Gun, Pip!"
"You both really pulled through!"
Conan/Shinichi didn't know how to feel about the praise. On one hand, it really helped them with the final blow, but on the other, this attack felt worse. Instead of a series of saliva bubbles, he was now upgraded to a seemly endless stream of spitting. Even if this was a normal occurrence for water types, he was not pleased with it in the slightest. Well, this was it; this was the end of him. None of his friends back home would ever let him live this down. Even if he didn't remember them well yet, he had a feeling that endless teasing awaited him.
Pip was pulled out of his thoughts by the trio who handed him two Oran berries and a couple other items plus some Poké. Why were they giving this to him?
"Could you leave that for the Pack Rattata?" Skitty asked. He titled his head curiously while nodding. "He was just defending what he thought was his treasure and maybe his home too. He can't keep the stuff, but we can at least leave him some of the things we found in the Mystery Dungeon."
Ah, compassion towards their opponent, what a noble and kind gesture of the group. He agreed, laying the items beside the now unconscious Rattata. The trio smiled as they proceeded to find the exit out of the clearing. It didn't take as long as it had at Tide Pool Cove. They were able to successfully exit in a matter of minutes. So it looked like, coming into the woods was the Mystery Dungeon part, but exiting treated it like any regular area. Just like that, they were out and on their way to the Police Station to turn in the bag and Pokédoll.
"Hey Munchlax," Skitty eyed the lost explorer bag, "could I see the Pokédoll we picked up?"
"Sure thing!" Munchlax got it out of the bag, "Here Pip, hold it for Skitty to see."
"Oi!" He reacted as it was unceremoniously shoved into his flippers to hold.
"Thanks for holding it Little Pip." She smiled so sweetly, he blushed, still a little miffed at the action. Pikachu giggling at him, he was probably making some sort of funny face right now.
Skitty examined the doll as he held it, rotating it at different angles for her. "Hmm…"
"What's wrong?" Pikachu asked.
"This doll is weird. I thought it was a Pokédoll, but it doesn't look any Pokémon I know."
"Huh?" Munchlax and Pikachu looked closer.
"Hey, you're right."
"Never seen one like that."
Pip didn't really understand what the big deal was. It wasn't made professional looking, but he could tell that whatever this bipedal white Pokémon was, it was wearing some clothes. A white cape was stitched onto its neck and a white top hat with a blue ribbon wrapping the lower part was covering its head. On one of its blue stone eyes, a single circle was stitched around it, which kind of reminded him of a monocle. Now that he gave it a better look, for some reason, the silhouette resembled a human, but its body was completely white. But it couldn't be, after all, there were no humans here. The closest were probably the few humanoid like Pokémon he had seen around the island so far. One thing's for sure, this doll really wasn't what any of them were expecting to find.
Pikachu looked at the paper with the mission one more time, "Please find my special doll. That's what it said. Nowhere on the paper had it said Pokédoll."
Skitty "oooed" at that, thinking for a moment. "OOOO! Maybe this is supposed to be a human doll!"
"Ooh! It could be! But are humans this snowy white?" Munchlax looked up, trying to imagine.
"Maybe? I mean, the legends of humans could vary everywhere. Maybe humans came in all different colors like Pokémon do? But then again, this could be made to look like a legendary or mythical Pokémon," Pikachu mused.
"What do you think, Pip?" Skitty asked.
Conan/Shinichi stared at them, thinking about what he wanted to say. "I'm not sure what legendary or mythical Pokémon, but you're not wrong about the human part, Pikachu. But their skin colors are more in the shades of browns and yellows. The darkest being like the wet soil to the lightest being like a pale sandy beach."
"You think so?" Pikachu asked.
"I'm pretty sure." He paused looking at them, "Well, I may not remember a lot, but I feel confident in that much."
"Okay." The three were thinking. They didn't seem to disregard what he had said, unlike Treecko-nii who didn't always seem to believe him about the times he shared about humans when asked. Did the group take him seriously though?
Pikachu looked like he realized something and wanted to ask Pip more, but Skitty made a noise. "Ah, we gotta go! If we're too late, we won't be able hand back this request!"
"Oh no! Come on everyone! Let's run to the station!" Munchlax immediately began to run as Skitty zoomed in front of him.
"O-oi! Come on Pip, we gotta catch up! Pikachu grabbed his flipper as they all dashed off together. Pip stared for a second before smiling as he took it. Then, they were off.
The two soon caught up and everyone was smiling and laughing as they made their way out. It soon became a game of race to the front as each one gained speed in order to be first. Conan/Shinichi was genuinely enjoying this, forgetting for a little while what he currently is and the strange world he now inhabits. Right now, he was enjoying a fun game with friends. With all that's been happening to him, he really missed having these carefree moments.
━ • Time Skip • ━
Pip was nearly of breath as they reached the station. Everyone seemed to be as well, but Pikachu claimed the victory of arriving first.
"No fair! I bet you used Agility when we weren't looking." Munchlax pouted.
"I don't even know that move yet."
"Then your Quick Attack!"
"Still nope, only learned that for the first time today. Though I probably would've had a bigger lead if you didn't trip me with your tail Skitty."
"Ah, you know I haven't mastered my tail, so if it drags on the floor and makes others trip, it's an accident." She commented playfully before turning to Pip, "Sorry about that."
"Ah it's okay, I wasn't hurt. If anything, we all had a fun time, right?" He smiled happily, which caused the group and random Pokémon passing by on the street to coo. He immediately grew embarrassed once again, his cheeks failing to hide his reddening blush.
"Don't worry about that "Little" Pip, you'll get use to the sweetness one of these days." Munchlax emphasized the Little part a little too much. Since he joined their ground, they got a kick out of seeing how he reacted whenever anyone made a fuss about his childish tendencies. Pip could only turn away, not wanting to be treated this way anymore.
"Let's just, uh, let's just return the items already." The trio agreed with Pip, and in they went.
Inside the station, it was quieter than the last two times he was here. Over on the desk, he noticed a familiar green helmet of hair sitting and looking rather bored as he was levitating his charcoal pencil with psychic and spinning it around like a fidget spinner.
"Raltz-keiji!"
"Huh?" The pencil stopped spinning and accidentally hit Pip's head, eraser side down.
"Oww."
"Oh, Little Pip. Sorry about that. Wait, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at training or tutoring or something?"
"Chief gave us the day off? She said something about having things she needed to do and that we deserve a break. As for school, there's some sort of meeting going on. So all classes were called off for today."
The Raltz thought for a moment before remembering, "Oh yeah, that's why I'm on desk duty. I normally am with the Chief, but she said she didn't need me today. It's honestly been such a slow day." He sighed, "So what brings you here?"
"This," Munchlax presents the bag, "we found when we were playing today. I think an explorer lost it."
Raltz levitated the bag in the air, inspecting it and the contents inside. Examining it further, he saw a bunch of dirt in places where dirt shouldn't be if it was simply just found lying around somewhere. "Where did you find this?"
"The beach."
"The park."
"The forest."
The three all answered simultaneously, while Pip remained quiet.
"Uh huh. Sure you did." The small psychic Pokémon looked over to Pip, "Care to tell me where you all found it, Little Pip?"
Pip looked at the group, he could see their eyes water, pleading for him to stay quiet. The poor penguin seemed to be caught between a rock and a hard place. He knew if they admitted it, they were definitely going to get in trouble with the Chief later. But if he lied, then it would cause more problems for him in the long run.
Pip opened his mouth, but Raltz stopped him, "Okay, don't tell me. Just hand over anything else you "found," " he emphasized the word sharply, "and I'll fill in the reports for you. We'll just keep this from the Chief, just this once."
The group's expressions changed from worry to delight, happy that they were getting off the hook for this one. Pip's expression was more relaxed now, having a little less to worry about. He's been there; the Chief can be a real tough case when it comes to order. The boy didn't need more of that added to his day.
So future team PokéTectives handed over all the items they had dug out from the Pack Rattata's tree, and my, my there were a bunch of them. They also handed him a paper that suspiciously looked like a mission's request. They chose to remain silent about how this came into their grasp. Raltz had already figured it out though; one of the officers responsible for taking down the old requests must have mistakenly plucked this off the wall before handing them the paper. Oh he knew about them getting those papers, but it wasn't a big deal since they were just the extras to be thrown out. The original copies were put away on file, so if ever they needed to reference them, they were there. He'd have to remember to stamp this one before the Chief got back and file it away. Come to think of it, he really should tell the chief that they need bulletin boards instead of this colorful mess on the walls.
"So is that everything?"
"Yep! (Haii!)" They all said in unison, except for Pip who said yes in Japanese. At this point, they were unfazed by his odd words, but every once in a while he'd still receive strange looks for those unfamiliar phrases.
"I'll just have to call up the Pokémon with the request and let her know the doll was found." Everyone nodded before he added, "For now, why don't you get on home. I'll—"
"Um, excuse me?"
A shy childish voice called out. They all turned to the door to find a little Stufful slowly walking up to the desk. Raltz tilted his head a bit soon shaking it. "Yes, how may I help you?"
"Umm… Well… I came… Mostly because… Well… My special doll… Did anyone finish the request I put two days ago?"
Raltz blinked, talk about great timing.
"Um… I've been coming every day to… well… uh… ask."
Oh, that makes more sense. This doll must be really special to the little Stufful. The psychic type smiled, "As a matter of fact, these children here found it while out playing around. They turned in just now."
The Stufful's eyes lit up with delight and a wave of relief washed over her. "Oh thank you! Thank you!"
Raltz immediately handed the doll back to the children and Pip was the one to hand it over. The Stufful grabbed it, hugging it ever so sweetly, completely ignoring all the dirt and filth that ruined the pure white doll.
"I can't ever thank you enough! Please, tell me! What are your names?"
The group smiled as Conan/Shinichi internally groaned, 'Here we go.'
"I'm Skitty!" She proclaimed.
"I'm Munchlax!" He crossed his arms and smirked.
"And I'm Pikachu!" He raised his arms wide. They looked to him.
"And I'm Pip." He tried to sound excited, but his tone fell flat.
"No matter the mystery!"
"However great the unknown!"
"We're the team who will reveal the truth of what all others can't solve!"
Together they proclaimed, "We're the future exploration team, Team PokéTectives!"
Stufful didn't seem to mind, if anything, she was impressed. "Wow! Thank you future Team PokéTectives! You really helped me! I'll do my best to never lose my doll again!"
Everyone couldn't help but smile at the sweetness of the little Stufful, her tone childlike, so genuine with the joy of having been reunited with her favorite toy.
"Oh, here, as promised on the paper, 100 Poké and a Reviver seed. I wish I had more to give, but that's all my allowance for now."
Skitty raised her head at that, curious about something, "Say Stufful, how come we don't see you at the Pokémon School?"
"Oh, umm… My auntie… Lady Beware, she uh… she keeps us at homeschool… us being my twin brother and me... We're just staying on the island until we have to go home again."
The group nodded at that. "Well then, if you're able to, we can play sometime together."
"Play?" Stufful blinked before shyly smiling, "That'd be nice. I'll have to let auntie know."
"Oi! Stuffy you here?" Another voice called out. Everyone looked to see another Stufful peeking into the station.
"Ah… um… I'm coming big brother!"
"I thought you said he's your twin?" Munchlax asked.
"He is," She spoke a little too quickly. "But he hatched first. So he's my big brother." She bowed a little before saying, "Thank you again!" Then she took off towards her brother and they were out of sight.
"Another great job by the, PokéTectives!" Skitty proclaimed, as Pikachu and Munchlax smiled at that. Pip however, from the moment the Stufful's brother called out, something he couldn't pinpoint felt off. Her response also seemed just as strange. Oh well, he'd probably figure it out later.
"Okay then, you four better go run along now. If the chief gets back early, then I'm leaving you to explain what happened. Got it?"
They all stiffened, nodding without looking back as they quickly walked out the door. Officer Raltz could only sigh, he'd better get to work and fix that document as well as find the officer who was responsible for taking down the completed requests during those two days. That Pokémon was in for a good lecturing when he found out who. Better him than the chief at least. She'd dance her flames of fury away, getting lost in the music only she could hear, keeping them for an hour or so before getting back to work. He sighed again, 'Well, this is what I get for wanting more to do today.'
Meanwhile, the children all ran out and down the way, they all headed in the same direction towards the direction of the school. Along the way, the team noticed the Stufful twins and waved another goodbye. Shinichi/Conan slowed down a little, looking over the twins more carefully. Stufful's brother looked up at him, waving before stopping as they stared at each other. In that instance, it felt like something within him stirred. A sense of unease and suspicion built up inside of him, 'He's looking at me oddly, almost like… he's familiar with me? How?'
Unfortunately for Pip, his flipper was being wrapped by Skitty's tail as she pulled him, "Come on Pip! Let's go!" She laughed, "We're racing back to the school! Don't want you to be a rotten berry!"
"Oi! Wai—" He was being dragged around again. Oh well. Saving another set of strange feelings and memories for the notebook. For now, he was letting loose and having fun. Taking Skitty's tail and gently pulling her back, she nearly tripped. Conan/Shinichi used this as the opportunity to get in front of her. "Catch me if you can!" He laughed.
"No fair, Pip!" She smiled and took it as a challenge. This day truly was fun, she was glad to have a new member to their future team.
Though, it would be some time before the team realized, "AH! We forgot to ask about the doll!"
To Be Conti… wait… again?
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He watched as she interacted with the children and listened in their conversation. They were really all so adorable, but his eyes keep trailing back to the little boy blue, the penguin Pokémon, Piplup. It really was strange to think, that this Pokémon really was one of his best critics. Even in a new world, he's still dealing with him, huh? He really wanted to observe more, but it was best to get out while they could. Once they reunited and stayed to a side where no one would pay attention to them, he looked her way.
"So? Lady Beware is our aunt? Also, me as your older brother and twin?"
"I ran with the first Pokémon I could think of. What was I supposed to say?"
"Ah, you could have let it at older brother. It's not like they would have known."
"Well, excuse me, 'onii-chan' for not having enough improv skills."
The boy laughed, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. You did really well in there, could have left out Lady Beware's involvement though. But other than that, your act fell a little short as your shy personality began to wane. Your Trixie was showing."
"KAITO!" She threw her doll at him pouting.
"Ah Trixie, what happened to this being your special doll?" He teased.
"It is, but I can throw him at you when I'm not happy." She made puppy dog eyes at Kaito to which he flinched back.
"It's too powerful! Stufful's cuteness!"
"Oh hush, Kaito. Or I'm throwing the fiend at you!"
"You wouldn't dare!" His voice lowered an octave, serious but also pure terror spiking through.
As soon as Trixie was about to respond, they heard the children exiting the police station. Upon seeing them, their nervous frowns grew into joyful smiles as they waved at both of them. She smiled, thankful that they found her doll, and waved right back. Though the two noticed that the little one, Pip, had stopped as his teammates were getting farther away.
Kaito waved at the Piplup, hoping that he'd just leave them alone. But he stopped as the two really looked at one another. Just like before, Kaito was elsewhere, another memory filling into place. In this, he was in his Kaitou Kid attire, confronting Tantei-kun on a building. He was halfway up the rope but the boy was looking at him from above, eyes smiling with confidence at the fact he just figured out the trick. His mouth curled into a mischievous smirk, ready to expose the truth of his trick. Then, just like that, Kaito pulls off a daring escape as usual and gets away. But just like that, the moment is over and he's back to seeing the Piplup with a far off look, before it's abruptly interrupted by the little Skitty who was pulling him along with her tail.
The two soon watched as Pip pulled on the pink kitty's tail and began laughing like the little hatchling he appeared to be, taunting her to try to get ahead of him. She was surprised for a brief moment before running even faster to catch up to him.
"Even if he doesn't remember, his senses always seem to be on high alert."
Trixie looked at Kaito, "So, you really think that's your little rival friend over there? That 'favorite critic, chibi tantei' as you call him?"
Kaito hummed, "I'm more than sure of it. Trixie," he looked her in the eye, "no one else has been able to trigger a memory. He's the first one. So, I really believe that's him."
"Then why aren't you going to him? Can't you fellow," she points to her doll, "help each other out?"
"No, that's not what the elder said." He cleared his throat and modified his voice, "'If the balance of the world were to be upset once more, a chosen few will be called upon to defend the world again. Though their objectives may differ and despite being scattered, they all work toward the same goal.' " She looked at him, still impressed by his voice manipulation skills, but also a little disappointed, "I can't approach him yet. But if he approaches first, then that's probably fine. Besides, from what I've been able to find out about him, he's lost more memories than I have."
"Well, he's on the right path right? He's a detective and joined those children, future team PokéTectives."
Kaito chuckled at that choosing to ignore her question, "Well, I do vaguely recall he was also part of a little elementary school detective club. I don't know who they were or how many, but I guess it was bound to happen here too. He must be really having a headache with them."
"But he seemed happy enough."
"True." Kaito smiled, 'Well meitantei, we'll see how good you get when we do cross paths again.'
They stayed silent for a little as they walked back to their temporary lodging. Trixie looked up and finally asked, "So what's the plan now?"
"I'm thinking of looking into those crystals found around here. According to the ancient text and the limited information in the libraries, they once had some greater use other than boosting attacks and unlocking special moves. But that info was lost to time. I have a feeling; someone's looking into it among those researchers and plans something bad. But it's hard to infiltrate since they're all so tight lipped about what they find over there. It's understandable though, they don't want to release information until they're certain that is its true meaning and can publish a proper report."
"So another round of moonlighting publicly or are we going stealth mode?"
"Stealth for now, but if we find something interesting, it will be another return of the Phantom Thief to the islands."
"Oooh! I look forward to assisting you with that again!"
Kaito smiled, his famous toothy Cheshire grin. "Me too." At the same time, he thought, 'I hope you're ready for me when that happens, Tantei-kun.'
TBC
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Oh look! Long time no see, Kaito! Sooo... Yep, finally another mystery dungeon chapter! If they keep getting this long, I may consider splitting so they'll span more than one chapter or skipping floors to fit into one chapter. As I wrote, I honestly enjoyed this, up until the boss... The boss battle was the one I struggled with the most. But the other parts made up for it... I hope it isn't too out of character.
Sooo, here are a few things:
As for Pip himself, he really hasn't figured out what to do just yet. But he's going to figure it out soon. For now, he had a pretty fun day with the Shounen... I mean, the Future Team PokéTectives! Honestly glad he gets to enjoy himself a little. Though, I wonder about those thoughts of his and a certain few words?
For the young trio themselves, they really admire what Pip and Treecko had done. But at the end of the day, Pip's still basically a hatchling in their eyes, so they have a sense of duty to be the responsible older role models. Also, they want to keep him back as much as they can, at least till they believe they can work together better as a team. So far, it seems to be okay, a little clunky with the movements, but otherwise, they're doing well to start out.
Now for the dungeon, I totally based it off the early routes in Alola's SM/USUM. All of these Pokémon can be found around there. This technically should have been the starting dungeon if this was the typical PMD experience, but you know, some things just take different turns.
Hopefully, by the next chapter, things will slowly be revealed and Pip's role will soon begin. It's been a slow start mostly for Pip to get use to being a Pokémon and learning to battle. Also, for me to attempt to write out battle scenes.
Ah, I didn't forget the end part. Our dear Kaito has come back again and it looks like he's going to be lingering around the islands gathering information. I wonder where he's been and what he's been doing since then? It will be awhile before we get more info, for now, we'll just keep wondering.
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As always, Thank-Q to all who favorite, follow, review, and even check up on the story! I hope you look forward to what's to come!
So, that's all... unless there's something you'd like to know more about? Anyway, thank-Q again everyone! It may be much longer this time till the next chapter, still, see you when a new one is up...!
Posted Chapter: 03.16.2023