Pokemon (Detective Pikachu)

A Legendary Search

34. Mystery Fan Playing a Practical Joke…

Once Tim had the teacher's schedules, Tim left the school property. When he and Absol got to the Hi Hat Café, Tim ordered their usual drinks, then set the schedules and his notebook down, turned to a fresh page. He began making a list of where each teacher and administrator in the building was supposed to be during the two hours that the safe had had no camera watching it. The ones that had no class, he kept on a separate list; the rest of them, he wrote down what room they were supposed to be teaching in. He also matched up his own schedule and began writing down where they would be during time periods where Tim didn't have a class. He intended to speak to every teacher tomorrow, and nail down exactly where they were during that time frame- if they were in the places they were supposed to be.

He was shocked out of his work when Emilia and Meiko joined him. They had been doing that more and more often over the last couple months, to the point where they joined him almost every day now. Still, he'd gotten immersed in his work, and had neither taken note of the time nor heard or seen them coming.

"You look busy." Meiko noted with a smile at his jump when they'd sat down. "Test coming up?"

"Oh… no, this is something else." Tim said, looking back down at it.

"Project due? Wait… those all look like schedules."

"Yeah." Tim muttered. "I need to speak with all the teachers tomorrow to find out where they all were this morning between seven and nine… so I'm writing down where they were supposed to be, and where they'll be during my free time so I can track them down."

"Did something happen?" Emilia asked, leaning in. Tim frowned at his notes.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out. Something doesn't feel right with what I was told today."

Tim shifted the schedules he was working through and picked up his pen again, going back to his list. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Meiko open her mouth, leaning in, and Emilia give her shoulder a gentle push back, shaking her head. He dimly heard Pablo say,

"He's been completely absorbed in that since he got here," before the world faded back out and Tim continued with his lists.

He continued compiling them until he had them finished, every teacher marked out on where they were supposed to be during that two hour period, where they would be during Tim's free time, and marked out a schedule on the best way to speak with each of them. Tim would leave early to speak with some of them; others, he would speak with during the two-hour break he had between one and three (giving himself fifteen to twenty minutes to inhale lunch), and the rest he would try to catch before they left for the day.

Finally putting down his pen, Tim shook his left hand, which ached from use.

"You're finished?"

For the second time, Tim jumped before looking to his right. Emilia still sat there, smiling at him, though he couldn't see Meiko anymore.

"Oh! Um, yeah. I didn't… know you were waiting. I'm sorry…"

"Oh, don't be. Meiko left a bit ago, but I wanted to wait and make sure someone was around to snap you out of it if you didn't eat by seven." She gave a small laugh. "You just made it."

Tim blinked at her, then checked his watch to find she was right; he had three minutes before it hit seven pm.

"Oh, man… I hope my dad got dinner…"

Emilia laughed again. "You said before that you did the cooking, right?"

"Yeah… my dad can't cook. He's pretty bad at it. My mom taught me before I left home, though."

"I see. Well, he was on his own for a while before you came, right? I'm sure he figured something out. You should eat something, though."

Tim smiled. "I guess you're right."

Given the time, Tim looked through a couple options offered by the café he was currently in, and ended up ordering one of the sandwiches- well, two, really, one for him and one Absol. Emilia placed an order as well, for a creamy vegetable broth, and asked him,

"So are you working a case, then?"

"Um… well, yes, a confusing one." Tim admitted. "The more I learn, the less sense it makes."

"Hmm. Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out."

Emilia looked at him, no doubt in her gaze at all, and Tim found himself nodding. "Yeah, I will."

Absol bent down to allow Tim to climb off his back.

"I'll see you later than usual for lunch, remember." Tim warned. "Make sure you tell Dustin that too. Don't want him digging up the parking lot again."

Absol gave him a look. Tim was getting better at reading his expressions. "Do you really think I would forget?"

Tim shot him a brief smile, running his hand through his hair. "No, but... well..."

"It's alright. You'll find answers today." Absol said confidently. "You probably have answers now and just don't know how to put them together yet."

Tim sighed. "I hope you're right, Absol. But either way, I better get moving. The longer I wait here, the less time I have."

"I will see you later." Absol said, and gave Tim a firm push with his head.

Tim checked the schedule he'd written down, and started off. He had three teachers to check before class started, and he didn't want to get off schedule.

Tim was able to verify the first two with no trouble; both testified that they had been teaching their respective classes. The third teacher got a little annoyed at the insinuation that she would be doing anything other than teaching her scheduled lesson, and Tim left that class a little closer to the bell than he would like, finding himself bumping into a curious older student outside the door.

"Why did you need to know where she was this time yesterday?" He asked.

"Oh… I'm looking into something. I'm just trying to figure out where all the teachers were at this time yesterday."

"Looking into something? Wait, you're that detective… you're looking into a case to do with the teachers then?"

"I think so, but… I'm not sure yet. Something doesn't seem right. Look, could you… keep this to yourself? The teachers don't want anyone panicking."

The boy frowned. "Panicking… over the locker thefts? They told everyone… oh. Oh, wait. It's the start of November…"

It was Tim's turn to frown. "Uh, yes, it is."

The boy then grinned. "Ohhh… I see. Sure, I'll keep it to myself. The name's Bradley, but I normally go by Brad. I dunno if you've spoken to her yet, but when I walked into my class yesterday morning, Ms. Honeytree was already in our classroom. She gets there early and sets everything up. Do you have Terry as one of your teachers?"

Tim blinked, confused at the topic change. "Uh, yeah. Law Enforcement."

"I had him for that too, last year. He likes his practical jokes, huh?"

"Um, I hadn't noticed." Tim felt more confused than ever.

"You'll see what I mean." Bradley assured him. "Good luck." The boy went into the classroom.

"Uh, thanks…" Tim watching him go, then wrote down what he said about Ms. Honeytree, though he still resolved to speak with her himself. Shaking his head, Tim put the odd encounter with the boy out of his head, and hurried off to his own class.

The encounter with Bradley was only one of three bizarre incidents that happened that day. The second one was when he was speaking with a few of the teachers during the period of time in the middle of the day when Tim had no classes- he had two periods back-to-back. He found a couple of them in the staff room, and after he'd finished speaking with them and was about to leave, he stopped when he saw the safe.

The safe at the other end of the room was closed. Someone had shut the door.

Tim looked at the teachers in the room.

"Who closed that?" he asked, gesturing at the black box, and one of the teachers shrugged.

"We always keep it shut. It was closed when we came in."

Tim blinked. That couldn't be right. He was told that it had to be left open and untouched at least until the police came on the weekend. Why, then, had someone shut it? Why had someone even touched it?

Tim noted it down right under the note that stated that they were not going to have police come look at it until the weekend. Something was wrong there.

Joining Absol near the end of his free time, Tim filled him in on what he'd seen in the staff room in between bites as he grabbed the Sandshrew food and headed for the tree that they met Dustin at. Reaching it, Tim dumped to food into the small bowl that they'd left there, and as Dustin ran up and Tim finished speaking, Absol frowned.

"That doesn't make any sense. Are the teachers some sort of joke here? I don't understand any of it."

Tim sighed. "Neither do I."

"Hey! What are you doing with Dustin?" an angry voice interrupted them.

Tim looked up to see Tyler, looking furious, storming towards them. "What are you feeding him?"

"Food." Tim said simply, feeling a headache start. He tucked his right hand, which had begun trembling a couple minutes ago, into his pocket. Absol didn't give him grief over it, but Tyler would.

"He's just giving me lunch!" Dustin piped up, but Tyler, of course, couldn't understand.

"Food for what? What are you playing at?" he demanded.

Tim sighed. "Food for lunch. Your Sandshrew goes and digs up the parking lot looking for food if he doesn't get any. You remember that parking lot collapse last month? That was this guy. I started bringing him food so he would stop doing that."

Tyler went red. "You're suggesting I don't take care of my partner? I'll have you know that we put food in the ground for him every week at home!"

"I wasn't saying that at all. I'm just saying he has nothing to eat here. So I started bringing him something."

"Just shut up!" the boy shouted, and Absol growled.

"This is enough! Leave and take your temper elsewhere!"

Tyler glared at Absol, though he took a step back. "Think you're a big man because you've got this giant- sized demon of a Pokemon guarding you? One day, you'll be sorry! Everyone will see you're just some mystery fan playing a practical joke and you'll be sorry! Dustin, come!"

Tyler bent down and jerked a protesting, confused Sandshrew into his arms, stalking off. As he went, Tim heard the Mouse Pokemon call,

"I'm really sorry about this! I just don't know what's got him so upset when you're really nice! I'll try to talk to him!"

Tim sighed and rubbed his forehead, then jumped up as he realized he had less than five minutes to get to class.

"Some people just don't ever see sense." Absol sighed. "He may be grieving, but that's no excuse for his behavior at this point."

"I've got to go, Absol. I'll see you later."

"Yes, of course."

Tim was leaving his last class of the day when the third incident happened. He was in the hallway, keeping himself out of the way as he organized his things, searching for the schedule he'd drawn up. He'd spoken to about half of the teachers so far, and wanted to speak with the rest of them before he left. A couple of minutes had passed and he was reading over the schedule he'd made to determine where to go next, when he heard the shout.

Immediately looking up, his eyes fell on the student in the wheelchair about twenty or so feet away from him, whom the shout had come from.

"It's gone!"

He had already had a few other students around him; even more turned at his cry.

"My… my backpack! Look at it!" The boy showed the couple people standing next to him the bag hung on the back of his chair, but Tim couldn't see it from where he was. He hurriedly stuffed his things into his bag and came over.

"Excuse me… are you alright?" Tim asked the boy, and he looked up, looking almost near tears.

"No! I brought the medal my grandfather got in his army service to show some of my friends in my International Relations class. I went to grab it out of my bag just now but it's gone, and look at my backpack!"

The boy tugged the backpack around to where Tim could see it, and only then was Tim able to see that the backpack had been slashed open as if with a knife. As he moved it, a couple more objects fell out, and Tim lunged to catch them, ignoring that his right hand was tingling in a couple fingers and numb in the others… it had been doing that for the past hour.

"Oh, man…" Was this boy another victim of the school thief? But it was just a backpack… why slash it open when it could just be unzipped?

"My parents are going to kill me…" The boy moaned. "I took it without telling them, and look what went and happened…"

Tim opened his mouth to promise the boy he'd find it, but before he could speak, another voice interrupted.

"Uh, um… excuse me? Is this the medal you mean?"

Tim and the other boy, a tear trailing down the latter's face, both looked over. Tim recognized the speaker as Jane… and she held out one hand with a medal in it, though Tim couldn't tell what exactly it was, not really knowing the difference or what each medal was awarded for.

The other boy, though, brightened. "Yes! That's it! My grandfather's medal!"

"Then… I'm so sorry." Jane said, looking very ashamed. "It was… well… Snickers! You get over here and apologize now!"

Jane moved aside and tugged on something, and a Sneasel came into view.

"My Sneasel took it… she keeps sneaking into the school to come see me, and she likes shiny things. She must have seen it in your bag and ripped it open to go after it. I'll, I'll get you a new bag… and Snickers, I've told you not to take things that aren't yours!"

The Sneasel looked crestfallen. "But… it was so sparkly, and I… I wanted to have it. I'm sorry…"

Jane handed the medal back to the boy in the wheelchair, who seemed relieved. "Oh… it's ok, then. Things happen. Thank you… thank you!"

He wasn't the only one who looked relieved, as well. "There you go, Phillip." The girl next to him told him. "For a moment there, I thought the school thief had hit you for it."

Jane flinched, but gave a nervous smile. "I'm so sorry about my Sneasel… um, where did you get your backpack from? I can try to replace that exact one if you want, or…"

The boy the other girl had called Phillip looked up. "Oh, it's ok. I'm not attached to this particular one, and I can have my mom get me a new one at the store this weekend. She'll understand."

"No… it's ripped because of my Sneasel. So I should replace it, or at least pay for it." Jane insisted. "Really, I am sorry. I'll bring the backpack on Monday, ok? It'll be here. And you," she said, turning to the Sneasel she still had in her grip, "are marching out of here, right now! I've told you and told you, there's no Pokemon allowed in here! Let's go!"

The Sneasel in her grip began protesting, but she and Jane were both heading down the hall, rounding the corner and heading for the door. Tim smiled.

"Well, thank goodness that that ended about as well as it could have." Tim said aloud, then left the area to track down his next teacher. The crowd in the hall would slowly disperse on its own; Tim had lost some time with the incident, and needed to get moving.

A/N: We start wrapping up the cases Tim is working on next chapter. Maybe some of you have already started guessing at what's been happening... but regardless, starting next chapter, answers finally begin to surface.