Chapter 7 – All So Different

“So. You got beaten up, huh?”

Lyla the Seviper was ready to start her work day in the warehouse, checking that everything was ready to be exported to their respective merchants. She really needed a longer vacation, just a free day every week wasn’t enough for her and she was starting to feel her energy and motivation fading. Lucklily, she got some company that morning.

Ari, Nimb, Cora and Romi were there visiting again before going to the academy. They were retelling the whole Sanah situation as Lyla prepared some things for his daily routine. Romi wasn’t paying attention at all, and his sister had to catch him a few times to stop the hyperactive Popplio from using the warehouse as a playground. He thought those boxes could be a perfect fort and he was its king; he’d think later about hiring soldiers.

“Well, not exactly ‘beaten up’, I could have moved and… Okay, I couldn’t,” Ari said.

“Not gonna say I told you but…”

“You did.”

“I did.”

Cora noticed she had missed some context there. As she got some explanation to Ari and Lyla’s meeting yesterday, she started asking questions. “Oooohhh, so you knew Sanah? What was she like? Why did you know her? Does she hate everyone? Is she a villain in secret?”

“Woah, relaaax, girl, I see you’re not that different from your brother,” Lyla chuckled.

“Hey, I’m not like him!” Cora crossed her arms in annoyance. She looked just like his brother when she did that, with her cheeks puffed and all. Romi didn’t hear that, but he would probably have a similar reaction if he did.

“Anyway, I’m not sure I wanna talk about that now…”

The Brionne had other plans. “Come oooon, tell us! I wanna know, come on, come ooooon pleaseeee!”

Lyla deadpanned. “You’re going to keep saying that until I tell you, right?” She got a quick nod. “Ah… Whatever, I guess I don’t mind that much. You see, there was a time Sanah and I were friends. Our families hated each other and we were used to it too, but we found that situation too stressful and we just tried to understand each other, which resulted in our friendship. Unfortunately… You know how she is. Too insecure, too rude, you mix those and there you have it, the recipe for disaster…” She sighed, so many years of regret reflecting in her eyes. “She started seeing me as a threat, like I was too good and she was too bad, and eventually… She had an outrage and said she hated me and didn’t want to talk to me ever again.”

There was a moment of silence while everyone took that in. Sanah had been a jerk for a really long time, it seemed. And yet… There was something more to that behavior, even if it couldn’t be justified.

“That’s so cruel… Why would she treat a friend like that?” Cora retorted.

“Yeah… Since that day, I learned that I should always follow the instincts of my species and avoid zangooses at all costs. I won’t make the same mistake again…”

Ari couldn’t agree with that, despite everything. After all that he’s been through, he should be hating Sanah and following Lyla’s advice, but in the end he couldn’t stop making excuses, as if everything that happened was for a reason. Also, hating a whole species over an argument with a single pokémon was a bit exaggerated… wasn’t it?

They couldn’t talk for much longer, as it was time to start their first investigation. They had to meet with Maia in their usual classroom to discuss some basic stuff before starting, so there they went, along with the others. Everyone was (mostly) excited, some couldn’t sleep too much because of it, some were talking nonstop about their expectations like this was going to be the event of the year. As everyone got their own gholdevice, Maia continued with the explanation.

“Remember that those gadgets belong to the academy, be careful not to break them since you’ll have to return them after the investigation,” she said, while she eyed some of the students in a bit of wariness. Her eyes stopped on Sanah for a moment. The Decidueye had been informed by Reko that the Zangoose did quite a number on Ari yesterday, and she felt bad for having asked him to try and get along with her. She was also worried by the fact that Ari didn’t even tell her what happened. “Either way… we’ll be going soon. You’ll be working as a big team this time, instead of being separated in two teams, so it shouldn’t be hard for you. Consider it a tutorial investigation.”

Well, that was something. Working in a small team when one of your teammates hated you was really awkward, Ari thought. But being a team of eight… Even if it was hard to coordinate, it was still better than the awkwardness.

“This investigation will take part in the mansion of the outskirts.”

“I KNEW IT!” Asher jumped, making Nimb flinch. “So, the abandoned mansion, huh? Pretty nice to start with.”

“What do you mean? It isn’t abandoned, the owner just stopped living there a while back and now he wants to sell it,” Maia corrected.

“… Oh.”

“Anyway, here’s the case. You know the Kecleon brothers, right?”

Velia was the first to speak. “Of course! They’re well known merchants in this town. There’s the green one and his brother, the purple one. The first is most known for always trying to expand their business and reach all kinds of markets to trade with. His brother is…well, he’s just there, it seems.”

“Yes… Thanks for explaining it for me, Velia,” Maia smiled sheepishly. She coughed and then continued. “So, the green Kecleon wants to purchase that mansion, but he’s having second thoughts due to the weird rumours there has been about paranormal activity and the furniture appearing strangely damaged every now and then.”

Nimb shivered at that. Paranormal activity? It was probably just ghost types doing their thing, but he didn’t want to deal with that. He was definitely going to shield behind Ari during most of the investigation.

“If it keeps being damaged and the rumours keep getting worse, he won’t buy the mansion in the end. Of course, Nidoking doesn’t want that.” Maia then looked to her students. “So, there’s your first mission. Investigate the mansion and find out what’s happening there.”

She then paused for a moment and added, “Oh, I should inform you about this. You probably heard about that feral pokémon that showed up in town yesterday. It was neutralized and sent back to a mystery dungeon, but I recommend you to be careful from now on. Those ferals are becoming unpredictable lately… And some pokémon have come across really dangerous ones,” she stole a glance at Ari and Nimb, who nodded in understanding. The Armarouge from the other day could very well be a feral… But there was something more to it.

With that, the whole class marched outside, starting their excursion to the mansion in the outskirts. While they walked through the corridors, before getting outside the academy, Mylo stopped as most of the class went ahead, leaving him and Sanah behind. As she walked by him, Mylo called out for her.

“Hey.”

Sanah stopped and looked with a side eye, not trying to hide an annoyed glare. “What.”

Mylo stood there, staring for a moment, as his expression stopped being the usual creepy and turned to the angry creepy. “Don’t think I’m going to ignore what you did to Ari yesterday.”

Sanah flinched slightly, but her expression didn’t change. “What do you care about that? You should just mind your own business.”

“Hm…” Mylo walked a few steps ahead, and turned around to face the Zangoose. “I don’t like people like you, who hurt innocent pokémon. You’re lucky I’m choosing to talk first before doing anything. I did it with that Golduck and I’m doing the same with you, I’m being reasonable.”

Ah, right, the Golduck from the other day. Mylo was threatening him as Ari and Nimb caught the scene by pure chance. Ari eventually learned that the Golduck was just a jerk that treated others like garbage. Sounded like a cliché.

“What the hell? Shut up and leave me alone already,” Sanah narrowed her eyes in defiance.

“Very well. But do not try anything like what you did yesterday ever again. Consider this a warning.”

And with that, the Toxtricity walked on, leaving a stunned Sanah standing there in confusion. What was his deal? She wasn’t going to be friendly to such a stupid Riolu just because a random guy told her, even if he was… kinda scary, even for her.

 

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The whole class eventually arrived at their destination, a mansion in the outskirts, west of the town. It didn’t look too old, and definitely not like in those horror stories, which was a bit disappointing for some, but reassuring for others. It was a two-floor building that looked pretty wide, with stone gray walls and a black roof decorated with many vines that went all the way from the top to the ground through some of the pillars from the facade. A Nidoking and a Kecleon were waiting outside, chatting before they noticed the investigators coming.

“Oh, you’re here, good!” The Nidoking said. Maia had a quick talk with him, and after a moment, he resumed. “So, my name’s Terry and I own this mansion. Your teacher probably told you all you need to know, so you can go inside already and start doing your thing if you want.”

“Yes, indeed,” Kecleon added. “But also, be careful when you’re inside, I don’t want any more furniture to be damaged, or else there won’t be anything to buy.”

“Woah… That’s a huge mansion you got there! Are you a millionaire?” Asher asked, now looking at the Nidoking.

“Haha, you could say that. But we’re not here to talk about my wealth. I just wanna get rid of this mansion and I can’t do it like this,” Terry said.

Behind the big pokémon, there was another one looking shyly, a Nidorina it was. She showed signs of fear as if the paranormal stuff was too much for her. She would probably get along well with Nimb, if he ever had the guts to talk to a stranger by himself.

“Hey, and what about you?” Ari asked, approaching the Nidorina. She flinched and stepped back to hide again.

“Oh, come on, don’t be like this, Anne!” Terry said while moving aside, revealing once again the poison pin pokémon, who looked distressed. Terry raised his head to face back at the group. “Forgive her, she’s kinda difficult at times.”

“It’s okay, I’m also familiar with that overwhelming feeling when there’s so much new people, I understand how you feel.” Ari said, smiling to the Nidorina, and then turned to wink at Nimb.

Sanah, who was farthest from the group, couldn’t stand even hearing Ari’s voice. She had to speak up her opinion or she would explode. “Of course you do, because you’re soooo smart, right?”

She was looking at him with a killer glare again. If looks could kill, Ari would be isekai’d twice from that only interaction from Sanah. He flinched and decided to stay quiet for now, he definitely didn’t want more problems. Maia, on the other hand, asked Sanah to stop being so passive-agressive towards his classmates. Still, the Zangoose was probably going to take the ‘just aggressive’ approach afterwards.

Once everyone went inside the mansion, they immediately noticed that was far from abandoned. It was a cozy mansion, with big windows that kept the house well illuminated. The entrance led to a large room that had a few drawers and a big mirror on the wall, and the floor was covered with a red carpet that kept going through the corridors on each side and the stairs that were in front of them. It all looked… cliché. Except for the one drawer that was smashed like someone hit it with a bat. And the hole in one of the walls.

“Okay, you’ll be on your own from this point,” Maia said. “Remember that you can contact Saga, Louis or me through your gholdevices whenever you need some help. Take care and good luck!”

The Decidueye went outside and the investigation officially started. Everyone started talking at the same time trying to share their ideas and everything became pure chaos in a matter of seconds.

“SILEEEEENCE!” Velia shouted, and everyone turned to her, startled. “Ehem. This shall be the moment that launches us towards fame and fortune! We have to prove that we’re worty enough to become the best investigators on Syftelia!” She was posing in dramatic ways as everyone watched in confusion, but no one wanted to interrupt the motivational speech. “And if we want to achieve that, we need to get organized first. I suggest we split into small groups to explore the mansion.”

There was a long moment of silence until someone decided to retort. “B-but… Splitting up here? R-really?” Nimb said.

“Yeah, this sounds like the plot of some horror story. Shouldn’t we stick together?” Ari added.

“Come on, it’s not like this is some haunted mansion… Even if there is paranormal activity,” Asher said. “There’s plenty of daylight so it won’t be scary at all. Also, I think it’s a good idea to split into groups, otherwise it would take us too long to explore the whole mansion.”

“… Well, I guess,” Ari eventually said.

“Okay, how about this,” Velia started. “I’ll go with Cora, Asher will go with Mylo, Ari with Nimb and Kyle with Sanah… Wait, where’s Sanah?” Everyone looked around and found that the Zangoose was nowhere in sight.

“I saw her going further inside,” Mylo said. “Guess she prefers working alone, heh.”

“Oh… Well, Kyle could go with Ari and Nimb then,” Velia decided.

“Hmmm, fine by me,” Kyle the Scrafty said. No one complained, even if Nimb was a bit uncomfortable with an extra teammate being with them, but Ari saw that as a perfect opportunity for Nimb to get to know his classmates one by one, so it wasn’t too overwhelming. Also, Kyle was nice and quiet, so it was perfect for a start.

Each group went in a different direction, leaving the top floor to Asher, Mylo, Cora and Velia, and the right corridor on the main floor to Ari, Nimb and Kyle, as it seemed that Sanah went to the left one. As everyone went deeper inside, they started getting an unsettling feeling of being watched at every moment, but whenever they looked back, there was no one there.

 

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Asher and Mylo weren’t really similar. The Cyclizar liked to talk a lot, and the Toxtricity usually just stared without saying anything, so they should get along well easily. However, Asher was still wary of him because of the rumours, so it quickly became awkward for him. He focused on his gholdevice, trying all its features like a kid opening his birthday gifts. The one he liked the most was the scan function, so he kept scanning everything that looked remotely suspicious. That includes the whole floor.

“Woah, this thing is so cool! I still can’t believe this kind of technology is even possible!”

“Mhm… Yeah, it is,” Mylo said.

“And… You can even keep the images of whatever you scan! That’s pretty useful, huh?”

“Indeed.”

“Haha… Yeah…” Asher was trying so hard to start a conversation, but nothing came. He looked away and kept scanning whatever he found. They were in a corridor filled with chanderliers and little drawers, but there wasn’t much more to say about the place. The walls were made out of wooden plaks half painted on the lower portion with a red hue, and on top of that there was a curled stripe pattern that continued through the whole corridor.

Out of nowhere, the carpet where they were standing on started shaking violently, forming waves that almost threw Asher and Mylo back. “Woaaah, what is happening?” Asher yelled, as he jumped to avoid the waves, like he was having a beach day.

“There must be someone stirring the carpet from the room down the corridor!” Mylo said, while he jumped to the side to avoid getting flung off.

Asher copied him, and then took his gholdevice and quickly scanned the carpet. One never knows. The carpet stopped shaking, and as he looked up he found that Mylo was running ahead, leaving him behind. “Hey, wait for me!” He followed him, and as they both reached the room, a vase was thrown at Asher by an unknown force. He couldn’t react in time, but before the object reached him, Mylo stepped in and smashed it with a fist enveloped in electricity.

The Toxtricity turned to him. “Are you okay?”

Asher just blinked in surprise, still processing what had happened. “Uh… Yeah, thanks! Wow, that was an impressive thunder punch.”

“Actually, it was spark. I just channel it through my fist ’cause it’s what I use the most, heh.”

And there it was again. Asher felt shivers running through his spine and laughed nervously, trying to suppress the urge to take a few steps back from Mylo. Asher’s thoughts were cut out by a chair that was launched at them again, followed by other objects in the room, and chaos upon them in a matter of seconds.

Mylo rolled to evade the chair and Asher swiped his tail to the flying objects, sending a candle, a painting and a clock back to where they came from. “Okay, who the hell is doing this? S-show yourself!”

Right from behind him, a big figure rose from his shadow and hit him, sending him flying. He crashed on a bookshelf and then landed on the floor, and a pile of books fell on top of him, immersing him in literature literally. Mylo went to strike the unknown figure with another punch, but it quickly vanished and left him looking everywhere in confusion.

“Agh… Behind you, Mylo!”

Mylo turned and found the shadowy figure about to strike him with dark claws. He quickly jumped backwards and narrowly avoided the slash, but a second figure wrapped its arms around the Toxtricity, immovilizing him. Luckily, the Cyclizar had enough time to recompose himself and jump at the new shadow, biting it with darkened fangs. The shadow recoiled and let go of Mylo, who took his chance and released his most powerful move. He run his fingers along the organs in his chest, creating an electrified wave of sound that hit both shadowy figures. Asher could have sworn he heard a high pitched squeak coming from one of the shadows, but both of them disappeared before he could ask questions.

“Are they… gone?” Asher asked, visibly nervous.

Mylo stood in silence for a long moment, analyzing the room, and finally relaxed. “Seems like it. Must be ghost types, judging for how they vanished.”

“I agree… But what’s their problem? We didn’t even do anything…” Asher stopped and stared at the mess that was caused in the room. “Woah… Kecleon won’t be purchasing this house anyway at this rate.”

“Yes, whoever did this is going to be in so much trouble,” Mylo said.

Asher looked at him and saw the same creepy look as always, but with the added weight of his words. “Uhhh… S-sooo I think I should scan stuff here too, hehe…” Asher took his gholdevice and went back to his thrilling job of pointing the gadget at every single broken thing he saw. He still tried to have a normal conversation to calm his mind. “Hey, this mansion is pretty weird, huh? With all those fancy windows, the chandeliers, the weird stripe pattern on the wall… Look, even the pattern on that specific spot looks more like zigzag rather than curled, how weird.”

“Heh, it is… Hey are you scanning that too?”

“Uhmm, y-yeah. Why?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve been sending every single image you took to all our classmates…” Mylo grabbed his gholdevice from his bag and checked it. Every device had already registered the classmates as contacts, so it was easy to share stuff between them. “Ah, you’ve even sent them to me…”

“Oh… Yeah, haha… Whoops.”

“Nevermind, we should keep exploring.”

And there they went, falling silent once again, and Asher struggling so hard to find any topic to talk about. Even after what happened, he didn’t feel comfortable with his partner, but maybe it’s just that he had to accept that not everybody talks a lot like he does? It didn’t matter that much, since his mind was already being filled with another thought as his stomach rumbled loudly.

“Ahh… I wish I had brought a sandwich with me today…”

“You’re hungry already? We haven’t been here for that long,” Mylo said, a bit amused.

“Yeah… I like sandwiches, haha…”

“We can make sandwiches later if you want.”

At that, Asher stopped. He slowly turned to the yellow fellow Toxtricity in confusion. “You… like sandwiches?”

“I like cooking. Baking bread is the most important part since it’s what will add most to the texture of the sandwich,” Mylo said with a half smile.

Asher gasped loudly and his eyes turned into metaphoric stars. “You… You KNOW the art of sandwiches! You have to tell me your secrets! I like mixing the most exotic ingredients, and make it like a combination of everything I like.”

“Heh, sometimes simple things work better, but I can understand that.”

“Oh, and how do you make the bread to be all crunchy? I love it like that!”

“Well, you see…” Mylo started.

And so, they kept talking nonstop about food for at least twenty minutes. Both of them seemed to be enjoying it, at least, so that was certainly something that helped them get to know each other a little better. They eventually remembered they were supposed to investigate.

 

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Cora and Velia were interested in the sights of that rich’s palace. They couldn’t understand why anyone would want to sell such a big place just like that, unless they were going to live in a theme park now. Sure, they weren’t rich themselves to know how they think, but it seemed like common sense.

“That Nidoking guy better pay us a good amount of money for this, he must be like, SUPER rich,” Cora said.

Velia closed her eyes, deep in thought. “Hmmm… We shouldn’t get our expectations too high, and also…” She then opened her eyes and pointed upwards with her other arm in her waist, doing a weird pose as always. “Whenever there’s a mystery or a crime, it’s our duty to be there and solve it to help this world become a safer place! Money doesn’t matter when the future is in our hands!”

“… But you were the one who talked about fame and fortune, Velia,” Cora narrowed her eyes and smirked.

Velia the Meowstic stood there in silence as she thought of a comeback. “… We don’t need to expect fame and fortune… Because fame and fortune will come to us anyway! Come on, fellow partner, mystery awaits.” She resumed the walk and Cora just giggled while following her.

The corridor they were in was too long, and they had to check in every single room in order, so it was likely going to take a while. There was a couple of bedrooms, a pool, a playroom- oh? The playroom could be an interesting place to start investigating, for… reasons, yep. They entered the room and found a bunch of wooden toys on a box, a ball and a wooden ponyta lying there, in the middle of the room. There was also a shelf with more toys and a colorful carpet that looked like it was part of some kind of game.

“Woah, I wish I had all this in my house, I would spend hours here with my brother!” Cora said in awe.

“You sure spend much time with your brother…” Velia wasn’t looking at her teammate, she was rather inspecting every item found on the room.

“Yeah, I have to take care of him sometimes. Wouldn’t you do the same?” Cora started toying with the ball, balancing it on top of her nose.

“My little sister is really smart, she takes care of herself, and my brother… Well, that’s a different story,” Velia said, her tone going softer. Cora looked at her with curiosity. “He’s depressed and won’t ever leave his room. He barely talks to me…”

Cora lost balance and the ball fell off her nose. She turned to Velia with a frown. “Oh… I’m sorry to hear that, I hope he gets better…”

Velia sighed. “Me too. Anyway, we’re not here to talk about that.”

“Right, the investigation. Uhhh hey, what if we try using that time thingy in the gholdevice?” Cora then pulled her gholdevice and pressed random buttons, expecting something to happen. She just triggered the scan function and took pictures of everything around her, then pressed another button and accidentaly used the recording function and got the sound of absolutely nothing. Cora frowned, she didn’t even know how to use that thing, so she just kept pressing buttons until she accidentally called someone.

“Hello, Cora! Anything you need my help with?” It was Saga, the technology teacher.

“Whoops, sorry. Missclicked,” whatever that means. She then spent a while trying to hang up while Saga kept asking what was going on but didn’t get an answer, until Cora finally pressed the correct button.

“You should stop pressing every button. It’s not like we need to use the kinetic ray right now, there’s nothing interesting here to use it with,” Velia shook her head.

“Right… I don’t know how to use it anyway, so whatever,” Cora then turned to the box full of toys beside her. “By the way, all this seems kinda weird to me.”

“What do you mean?”

Cora turned to her. “Why would someone leave all of this in a house they’re going to sell? I’d definitely take the toys with me instead of leaving them here forever.”

Velia put her paw on her chin and considered that for a moment. “You know… That’s a good question. Maybe they’re so rich that they can buy a replacement for everything they left behind… Or they just don’t care anymore about all that.”

Suddenly, a loud thump could be heard coming from the adjacent room. Cora and Velia jumped and looked at each other in confusion. Without wasting any more time, they went to look for the source of the noise. As they entered the other room, they found nothing more than a normal bedroom, probably for a medium to small sized pokémon, with a silk bed, a closet, a small table with a drawer and a desk. Aside from that, there wasn’t anything at sight that could be related to the noise they heard before.

“What the…? There’s no one here…” Cora said. She went to inspect the closet, but upon opening it, she found it was completely empty. “So they didn’t leave anything here, but they did leave the toys behind… Weird.”

Velia inspected the room with a suspicious glare, speaking in a low voice. “This is an actual mystery… Yes, it’s actually happening…” Cora noticed her teammate trying to disguise the excitement with her cool face, but chose not to comment on that. Velia recomposed and took her gholdevice again. “Yes! We need to search for clues in this room, we’re definitely on the right path.”

“And how do we even… search for clues if there’s nothing here?” Cora asked.

“It’s simple. The first thing someone does to enter any room…” Velia then turned to the entrance. “It’s opening the door, of course.” As she approached the door, she pressed a button on the device and a purple light was shot out of it. She pointed it to the door handle and… There were traces on it. “Gotcha!”

Before she could even do anything else with the UV light, a big shadow emerged from the floor and a dark smoke covered almost the entire room. From the shadow, a big scary face looked at the investigators like it was laughing at them.

“GO AWAY!” The shadow growled, and extended a floating ghostly hand at them, as if it was trying to grab them.

Cora yelled in fear, but Velia was bold enough to push her out of the way to avoid the hand. As the other hand went for them, Cora finally reacted and launched a water gun at it. Upon being hit, the hand vanished and reappeared in a different place and went for them again. She kept shooting water at the hands, but they kept reappearing elsewhere, it was useless. Velia wasn’t good against ghost types, so she didn’t know what to do and tried to scan the ghostly figure with the gholdevice.

Tired of the hands, Cora decided to go straight for the scary face, enveloping her body in water and launching herself with aqua jet. She went through the face without hitting it, but she rather crashed on the closet, severely damaging it.

“Stop!” A new voice could be heard, this one muffled but much less eerie. The shadow vanished in a moment and the girls were left there in confusion.

“What? Hey, who was that? Show yourself!” Velia demanded. They waited for a long moment, but got no response. “That was so strange… Hey, are you okay, Cora?”

Cora approached her while checking her body, in search of any splinter from the broken closet, but she was fine. “I’m okay, the ghost didn’t actually attack… But hey, now we know that whoever is doing this is a ghost type!”

Velia fell silent for a moment, recounting the events in her mind. Something didn’t quite work. “It may be the work of some ghost pokémon. But if it was just that, then… It still doesn’t make sense.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Because ghost type pokémon… Shouldn’t leave fingerprints. And those were definitely what we found on the door handle.”

Cora’s eyes widened in realisation. “Oh… Wait, does it mean there are more than one pokémon involved?”

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Velia said, while tapping some buttons on the gholdevice. “I’ll share the picture of that ghost with the rest of the class, this is some valuable info… Wait, why did Asher send like 47 pictures?”

 

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Sanah was ready to face any mystery on her own. She was going to prove that she didn’t need help from anyone, let alone from that Riolu. Everyone was always so much better than her, and she was so tired of it. Why was it so easy for them to keep improving each day while she was so stuck in the same problems each day?

The worst of it was that Ari knew of her insecurities now. She told everything to him, and for what? He was using her to make himself look like the hero, he never cared at all. ‘Just like everyone else’, she thought. Worst of all, she couldn’t stop thinking about that. She didn’t like that Riolu in the first place, but then why did she feel so… betrayed?

She pushed those thoughts aside as she reached different room that looked like a big kitchen. Everything was perfectly clean there, unlike the other rooms where there was always at least something broken. There was a big countertop in the middle near the rest of the kitchen stuff, but there was also plenty of stuff in the other side of the room, with a table and chairs, but it seemed like they probably used it only a few times, given that there was already a dining room right next to it.

“I’ll never understand rich people…” She sighed. Sanah was used to a humble life in a house that miraculously hadn’t fallen apart yet, and seeing this was making her sick. “Let’s just get this over with. Hey, if there’s anyone there about to scare the shit out of me, do it already!” she called out, raising her voice. She waited, but there was no answer. She grew tired and started registering every corner of the room in search for anyone or anything suspicious.

As she couldn’t find anything, she went to the dining room to do the same, but noticed something that shouldn’t be there. A crowbar lied there, under the dining table, which looked pretty much out of place. Was that left behind when they stopped living in that mansion, or…?

Sanah pulled out her gholdevice and thought of her options. She didn’t want to mess this up, so she relied on the only clue she had found so far, and tried to remember how to use the kinetic ray from the gadget. She pointed at the crowbar and pressed a button. To her relief, an energy trail started emanating from the item, slowly moving towards the wall. It then went straight through it and looked like it was grappling the wall for a moment from the inside, before completely vanishing.

That was… Weird. Sanah took the crowbar and approached the wall, hesitantly looking at it. She didn’t have anything to lose, so she just stuck the crowbar between the wooden planks and pulled hard. The planks easily gave in and opened like a small door, revealing a small staircase to the basement. Sanah brightened at her discovery; this was likely going to be a huge lead and she was the one who found it.

The Zangoose went down the stairs carefully, expecting any kind of ambush from whatever was hiding there, and eventually reached a corridor that wasn’t nearly as luxurious as the rest of the house. It was pretty much like and old storage room, but pretty big, like there was another house down there, without windows, so it was pretty dark. Sanah used the flashlight function of her gholdevice and went further.

Down there she found a similar structure to the rest of the house, with the difference of it being underground and lacking any kind of furniture. She came acroos a few other staircases that led to the main floor, which she thought connected to some other secret door like the one she entered. Instead of going up through any of them, she continued strolling through the basement for a long time until she reached a room that wasn’t empty at all. It was like a bedroom, with just a straw bed, a couple of toys, a candle and a desk that had a book and a pencil on top of it.

“What? Why would someone live down here? Is this… Some kind of hideout?” Sanah spoke her thoughts while she approached the desk. She opened the book and examined it with curiosity. It was filled with drawings, some of them depicting various pokémon from many species. “Damn, someone has terrible drawing skills…”

Right after she finished that sentence, a pebble hit Sanah’s head, and she quickly turned around in distress to see who was responsible for that, but there wasn’t anyone there.

“Hey, who did that? Don’t be a coward and show yourself!”

Nothing happened. As she massaged her head, she took the book with the drawings and stored it in her bag, deciding it was time to leave that place. She checked her gholdevice while thinking about her options. Would she be able to solve that alone? Of course, she definitely wasn’t going to ask the others for help. But… What’s with the drawings? Who made those? And what the hell were those 47 pictures in the class group chat?

 

---

 

Maia wasn’t really good at this. She was trying hard to do the right thing, but in the end she let one of her students get beaten up by another. Maybe Reko’s reprimand was enough, but she still regreted having done nothing to ensure this wouldn’t happen again. She felt responsible for anything that happened to Ari and Nimb, after all, she was the one who asked them to stay in her house, so she was like… their caretaker?

She thought if she defended them too much, the others could give them a hard time for it, that kind of stuff happens a lot between classmates when the teacher is biased towards some of them, so she did nothing. But this time, almost everyone in class seemed nice… Maybe she was taking this too far?

The Decidueye kept pacing in front of the mansion while everyone did their job. She could have returned to the academy and come back later, but she was restless. What if there was another fight? Or… What if Nimb had another anxiety attack? She shouldn’t be so worried about a couple of students, they could take care of themselves and this was just her job, and yet… Why did she care so much?

Still, Maia thought she was right about the way she arranged this investigation. Working as a big group meant they had to work together and agree on how to approach things. Teamwork was key with this kind of stuff, and with eight students doing the same thing they would have to take different roles to make it easier, and she trusted they could make it work by their own means. Also, with them being so different from each other, they were going to discover what they’re good at, and hopefully combine their unique abilities to solve the mystery all together.

As she checked her gholdevice and saw the ghost picture Velia shared, she knew they were doing a great job in there. Maia sighed in relief, everything was going okay. Except for the fact that she needed to have a talk with Asher regarding the correct usage of the gholdevice. Really.

 

---

 

Nimb pressed onwards, walking slowly but surely, he was doing a great job in there, facing his fears. Well, mostly, because he was perched to Ari’s arm so hard the Riolu almost felt it numb. Ari didn’t care that much, since he wanted his partner to feel safe, but it was a bit embarrasing with Kyle walking beside them, staring with curiosity.

“Hmm… Are you really that scared?” The Scrafty asked.

“J-just… N-not used to… B-being in abandoned places with p-paranormal stuff…” Nimb shivered at the thought, while Ari rubbed his wing.

“It’s okay, we’re in this together. It’s not like we’re dealing with any real danger here, nobody has ever gotten hurt here, just… scared by whoever is hiding,” Ari explained. As he tought about what he just said, he realised it wasn’t that reassuring. “Whatever, we just have to search for clues and we’ll be done pretty soon.”

“O-okay… B-but I’m staying like this…” Nimb gripped his blue furred shield tighter.

“You two are really cute together, if you told me you’re brothers I’d buy it,” the Scrafty said, without changing his neutral expression at all.

Nimb was too focused on not fainting to say anything, but Ari laughed nervously at that. “Heh… Yeah, it’s not the first time someone points that out.”

“I kinda envy you two.”

“… Wha-?” Ari turned to him in confusion.

“Y’know, what you two have. I don’t have any silblings, so I’m used to doing everything by myself, even playing when I was a kid,” Kyle still wasn’t changing his expression at all, he didn’t seem too troubled about that.

“You… know we’re not actual brothers, right?” Ari said, and he got a nod from Kyle. “Well I guess I understand what you mean, I was also an only child. But in some way, that’s for the better…”

Nimb frowned at that for a moment, and Kyle turned to the Riolu with curiosity. “What was that?”

“Oh, nothing. Hey, I wanted to ask… Why are you so calm about all this? I’ve always seen you so calm and collected, and we’re literally in our first investigation! Aren’t you excited? Or… scared? Like him,” he pointed at his bird friend, who pouted.

“Hmmm maybe a bit excited, I dunno. I’m just taking it easy, I only need to do my job and get to do that for a living, and then I can relax.”

“Relax… M-more?” Nimb asked.

“Yeah. I won’t need to worry about my future anymore, just keep doing my job everyday. A steady job with no surprises.”

“… C-crimes and mysteries aren’t like… full of s-surprises?” Nimb stopped glancing in every direction in fear and finally looked at his classmate, only to express how confused he was with that claim.

Kyle looked away, subtly pulling his pants up. “Uhm… I… I guess. But, hmm, it’s not like I care too much about that.”

Ari and Nimb looked at him in bewilderment. Okay, that was weird… “Anyway, we really should start looking for clues, or… I don’t know, attract the evil entity that’s hiding here.”

“N-nooo…!” Nimb shivered.

“O-okay, okay, no attracting, just investigating…” As soon as he finished that sentence, his ear twitched and he stopped. “Hey… Did any of you hear something? Like… Wind?”

Kyle shrugged. “Nope, and the windows are closed. Maybe it’s the others doing weird stuff in the top floor.”

“O-or m-maybe… It’s THAT!” Nimb froze at the sight of a blackish dense fog that approached from behind.

Ari and Kyle turned around and flinched in surprise. It looked like a nightmare, but they were pretty much awake. It probably had an explanation, but they weren’t going to test it, so they ran ahead in panic. Ari could catch a glimpse of Kyle finally showing an emotion, but it was brief as he went back to seem like he didn’t care at all.

“WHAT IS THIIIIIIIIS!?” Ari yelled, desperately jumping to avoid a portion of the fog that almost touched him from below. It was spreading fast and they were inches away from being swallowed, so he grabbed his companions and started using quick attack, while boosting himself with the power of his pearls.

“AaaAAaAaAAAAHhhHH!” That was the second time Nimb was dragged like this, but he wasn’t getting used to it at all. “WwAaAAAwaAaAaaA!” He repeated, just in case.

“Quiick, toOo thaaAt rOoOm!” Kyle pointed to the room at the end of the corridor, which was pretty obvious that they were going in there, Ari thought.

Ari reached the door and tossed Kyle and Nimb inside, quickly turning to close the door and pressing against it, in case it opened by some unknown force. It didn’t and the black fog, surprisingly, wasn’t leaking through the gap under the door, not even after waiting for a long and tense moment. Ari blinked. “Uhm… That’s it?”

“W-what do you m-mean? T-that was so CREEPY!” Ari searched for the voice of the bird, who was hiding behind a couch. “W-what is wrong with t-this place?”

They were now in a living room, with a fancy red couch, four cushions, a table another round carpet… On top of the other carpet… Rich people, am I right? This room was pretty big compared to the others, and had a bunch of other furnishings, like drawers, a big clock and a mirror. Some old paintings hanged on one of the walls.

Kyle sat on the couch and turned to face the hiding Archen. “You know that was just a strategy to scare us off, right? They want us to leave, but I doubt we’re in real danger.” Nimb raised his head a bit and searched Kyle’s eyes for any sign of worry, but he seemed as calm as always, which reassured him a bit.

“You… really think so?” Kyle nodded, and Ari did the same as Kyle and sat on the couch, trying to look cool.

“Think about it,” Ari started. “Why did the fog stop just because I closed the door? It could very well leak through the gap below the door. I’d say it was an illusion.”

Nimb pondered that for a moment. Was it that easy? Maybe… If it wasn’t for the ghostly figure that just appeared in front of them. Appearing like a floating shadow, big scary face that laughed at them, floating hands… The kind of apparition that already happened to their classmates. Nimb froze in fear. Again.

“LEAVE!” The ghost yelled.

“What the… Now this?” Ari complained. A floating hand went to grab Nimb, but he quickly dispelled it with a metal claw. It was kinda weird how it just vanished… “Hey Kyle, can you defend me for a moment?” He said, while staying close to Nimb.

“Sure,” as Kyle said that, he moved in front of them to block any attack, or just a phantom hand that barely did anything.

Ari closed his eyes and tapped in his aura powers, tassels rising as a blue energy enveloped him. He couldn’t stay like that for much longer, because Nimb finally regained his ability to move and generated a bunch of rocks in the air by sheer panic. Only, he launched it upwards.

“Wait, what are you doing, Nimb?” Kyle asked, but then saw the rocks falling on top of the trio. “… Oh.” He quickly jumped to push Ari and Nimb aside, the rocks impacting on the ground right next to them with a great power. Enough to actually break the floor, opening a hole that grew large enough to swallow them. Everyone yelled.

Ari grabbed Nimb in an attempt to shield him from the fall, which wasn’t that high at all. Still, it hurt, and he had to massage his back after he managed to sit. “Awwww… Oh wait! Kyle! Kyle, are you okay?” He searched for the Scrafty, who was actually standing in front of them, unharmed.

“Yep, I fell on my feet, luckily.”

Ari sighed in relief, and quickly turned around to check if Nimb was doing okay, which he should, Ari literally shielded him. Nimb just looked around in fear, expecting anything else to attack them, but the shadow didn’t attack anymore, and there was nothing else in that dark room than a straw bed, a couple of toys, a candle, a desk and a Zangoose. Wait, a Zangoose?

“What the hell?” Sanah said, a puzzled expression in her face. The three fallen mons turned to her in surprise. “Why are you here?”

“We just fell from there,” Kyle said, pointing to the hole in the ceiling.

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“There was a…” Ari stiffened, he really wasn’t expecting to find her right here, without many other pokémon to make it less awkward. He didn’t know how to talk directly to her. “… a ghost, a-and…”

Sanah’s scowl gradually increased, but luckily Kyle was there to talk for him. “There was this weird dark fog that tried to swallow us, then we got to that room up there and a ghost attacked us. Seems like a ghost type pokémon is responsible for all the rumours in the end.”

The Zangoose raised an eyebrow. “Like that wasn’t obvious from the beginning.”

Ari took a deep breath and intervened. “Only… I used my aura on that thing, and I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t sentient. That’s not a pokémon, or at least its aura was empty, like there wasn’t anything there.” Sanah gritted her teeth, she didn’t look happy about that claim for some reason.

“M-maybe… It was an illusion? F-from a ghost or psychic pokémon…” Nimb spoke, and everyone turned to him. Of course he flinched from the sudden attention.

“Hmmm that makes sense, actually…” Kyle said. He took his gholdevice and showed it to his classmates. “But look, Velia has shared a picture… She and Cora were attacked by the same thing.”

“What the…?” Sanah started. “How did it go so fast between different floors? Are there two of them?

“That, or… it could be really fast and reach both places in a short amount of time. By the way, where are we?” The Scrafty asked.

“Well, I found out that there are some hidden passages that lead to this kind of huge basement,” Sanah explained. She debated on whether she wanted to tell them this or not, but in the end they were going to see it for themselves. “Actually, maybe this is how that thing moves so quickly without being spotted by anyone. This basement has many corridors too, but every room except this one is empty.”

“There we have it, that’s probably how it travels so fast,” Kyle said, and he motioned to the door to the corridor. “We should go outside and meet with the others to see what they found out.”

Sanah frowned. She wanted to do it on her own, but now that the most interesting place she could investigate was discovered by the others, she thought she may as well leave. She didn’t want to share what she knew with the others, but they might have useful information, so she went along with it.

All four of them moved, traversing a long corridor until they went upstairs through one of the passages. There, they opened one of the not-so-secret entrances, this being the one that Sanah used in the first place, using the crowbar again, and now they were in the dining room.

Sanah she revised the book she had ‘borrowed’ earlier, her back turned away from his classmates. She didn’t want them to see it yet, but she needed to get something useful out of it.

“So… We know there must be at least a psychic or ghost pokémon going around scaring everyone, and there are secret passages to a huge basement, and a room where maybe someone lived, I don’t know, and…” Ari summarized.

“We know all that, shut up already,” Sanah interrupted, with her usual angry tone, while she tried to concentrate on the book.

Ari cringed a little. “B-but… Hey what are you doing?” He glanced with curiosity, making the Zangoose flinch.

“Eh? N-nothing, stay away!” She quickly turned around and hid the book behind her.

“Hmmm, is that a book?” Kyle asked.

Sanah put the book back in her bag in a hurry, grasping it tightly. “No, it’s not. Leave me alone.”

“H-hey, if you found something, you should share it,” Ari was trying to not break under Sanah’s glare, but every word he said made it worse. “Y-you know, we’re a team.”

“I don’t care! I found this, and I’m the one that’s going to solve the case with it.”

Ari sighed. He was afraid this might end up badly, but he was getting tired of that selfishness. “Look, if we want to succeed, we need to work together, and hiding stuff from each other isn’t going to help.”

“Like hell am I going to give it to you! You just want to take credit for everything, right? Because you’re ALWAYS number one.”

Ari frowned. “What? Is this really about hating me again? Is it going to be like that forever or what?”

Sanah moved one step closer to him, in defiance. “Yes, it is. Any problem with that, you scum?”

Nimb didn’t like where this was going, but neither was Ari. The bird cringed and stepped back a bit, but he was surprised to feel Kyle’s hand resting on his shoulder.

“Any problem…? I… Ugh. Look, this isn’t about taking the credit, this is about being efficient. And if we don’t work together, we’re going to fail every single investigation, you know?” Ari was starting to get heated, but also really scared of her. She was even closer than before.

“That’s all you care about, right? You wanna be successful in every single thing even if it takes STOMPING on others like they’re garbage. Because I know your kind well, that’s what you ALWAYS do!”

“NO, I DON’T! Stop making assumptions about others so quickly, I’m really tired of this!” Ari was yelling at this point, and Sanah took that as a threat.

“YOU are tired? I’m the one who has to be around a SCUMBAG like you!” Ari’s scowl slowly shattered into a mixture of emotions, but she continued, leaning closer. “You’re nothing more than a self-centered failure that needs to be on top of others to make yourself feel like you’re actually worth something! But guess what? YOU’RE NOT!”

Ari opened his mouth to retort, but could only make a soft whimper. He tried to find words, but there was nothing he could say. Anything he could say would only make it worse, ending up with another beat up or just… Making her feel miserable again.

But there was a specific thing she said that cracked something in his mind. He frowned deepily, and started trembling. He couldn’t say anything, he couldn’t think, so… He turned around and left before anyone could see his face while he tried so hard to hold back the tears.

“W-wait, Ari!” Nimb cried, but he wasn’t listening anymore. He wanted to go follow him, but Kyle caught him. He turned to face the Scrafty in confusion, but he wasn’t actually looking at him, but rather at Sanah, who just stood there, still fuming.

“… You’re kind of a jerk, you know?” Kyle finally said.

“What?” She turned to him.

“He’s trying his best to get along with you, always being nice to everyone, but you just won’t let him be.”

“I’m being a jerk? Well, just so you know, this ‘nice’ guy you’re talking about CHEATED on the exam the other day because he didn’t know a thing and literally told me he wanted us to believe he’s better than all of us! He doesn’t care about anyone, he’s just a stupid facade who likes using others to feel better about himself. He’s the jerk here!”

“And you really believed what he said?” Kyle didn’t even have to think too much before saying that.

“…Huh?”

“If he really cheated, then how did he get the hardest questions right? You know, the ones only he got right, out of everyone in class.”

Sanah’s scowl descended into confusion. “He… That…”

“He knows so much because he’s been an explorer, and you probably saw that in class too. Why would he even need to cheat?” Kyle explained, slightly frowning.

“He… He didn’t cheat?” Sanah was really confused now. Why did he lie then? What could he possibly gain from that?

“So, are you going to fix this or what?” Kyle demanded. Nimb looked nervously between the two, worried about another argument.

There was a moment of silence, Sanah still processing what she just heard and trying to decide how she felt about it. Eventually, she answered.

“… I’m not going to apologize to him, if that’s what you expect me to do,” she said while she moved. “But I’m definitely going to make him talk, by force if needed. He’s going to explain to me why the fuck he’s such a liar.”

She went to look for the Riolu, leaving Nimb and Kyle there. Nimb really hoped Ari was fine, he wanted to be there for him but this wasn’t the best moment. He just had to wait with Kyle, who at least was now comfortable to be with, and hope for the best.

Sanah reached the kitchen and found a door closed on the bottom. She definitely didn’t check that room last time, but she could swear it was open before, so she tried there. She opened the door and found an empty larder, with a few shelves and empty boxes. She closed the door behind her and glanced at the trembling Riolu sitting on a box on the deepest part of the room. This situation felt strangely familiar.

Ari was trying to take deep breaths, but he couldn’t calm down. He couldn’t let himself cry now, this wasn’t important. But he was panting so much. He didn’t know how to move on, to get out of that situation. He was trapped in a loop, something he was pretty familiar with.

“You.”

Ari flinched, but didn’t turn around.

“You lied about cheating, didn’t you?”

Ari tensed and spoke with a fragile voice. “W-what? What are you talking about?”

“Stop lying! You made that up, right? It doesn’t make any sense.”

There was complete silence for a long moment, until Ari just nodded slowly. Sanah sighed and crossed her arms.

“I don’t understand. You were so fucking obsessed with everyone liking you. Why would you lie about that, if that was obviously going to make me hate you even more? What’s the point?” Sanah demanded.

“I… I just…”

“What. Let me guess: you wanted to ‘help’.”

“…”

“Go on,” Sanah was getting irritated again. “Say it. You wanted to be the hero, right?”

“It’s not…” Ari couldn’t find the courage to talk.

“You wanted to feel like you’ve done so much for others in need. Because of course, everyone needs you,” she said in a mocking tone.

“I’m…”

“You act like you care about how I feel but you did that just to feel better about yourself, feel like you’re the one on top and-“

“It’s because you deserve much more than me, okay!?” He snapped.

Sanah stopped. She wasn’t expecting that at all.

Ari turned to her, his face showing distress. “You wanna know why I stopped being an explorer? It’s because I sucked at it. There’s no use in knowing a lot if I can’t even fight. Every time there was someone we had to fight, I tried to talk them out of it, because I feel like trash whenever I harm someone that haven’t done something horrible to me or my friends. And talking never worked.”

“What…?”

“I was completely useless because of that, and I still am. That’s why I felt like I couldn’t make you feel the same, I thought that you didn’t deserve to go through that, after all, you probably worked so hard to get where you are, but me?” He took a suddering breath. “I showed up out of nowhere and suddenly I’m the best in class? I didn’t deserve that, I haven’t done anything to become good with investigations, it was luck.”

Sanah was at a loss of words. She wanted to say something, to complain, to tell him off. “You… What? What are you talking about…?” She couldn’t.

The Riolu grasped his arms tightly. “I’m sorry I lied, I thought that’s what you needed, but maybe you’re right and I’m only making excuses. I want everyone to like me, but then I also feel like I don’t deserve it, that’s why I told you I cheated. Heh, I guess I know now why I’m like this. I need everyone else to like me… because I won’t do it myself.”

“…”

Ari turned around so she couldn’t see his face. “Forget I said anything, this isn’t important. This shouldn’t be about me. You’re right, I AM self-centered.”

Sanah’s face expressed more emotions that she had ever felt. Was it anger? Irritation? Maybe… regret? It was hard to tell, but as she stared at the Riolu in that dark larder, something changed.

“… Idiot.”

There wasn’t any heat in that word.

Ari sagged, letting all the stress from keeping all that to himself finally leave his body. Sanah uncrossed her arms and approached the Riolu while searching in her bag. She pulled out the book and exposed it to Ari, who turned around in confusion.

Sanah sighed. “You’re such a crybaby. Whatever. I… found this book in that room down there. It’s full of drawings, maybe there’s some kind of clue,” she looked away. She wasn’t sure why she was doing this. “We should go back and check it with the others. They’re waiting for us.”

Ari searched her for any signs of anger, but he didn’t find them. “I… Okay…” He finally managed. He stood up and followed her outside, neither of them saying anything. He felt pathetic now.

Kyle and Nimb saw of of them coming with a neutral expression in their faces. It looked like it could have gone worse, at least. Nimb approached Ari and looked at him in concern, as if mentally asking ‘are you okay?’ Ari nodded to him, smiling slightly.

“So…?” Kyle asked.

Sanah opened the book she had in her hands and showed it to his classmates. “Okay… This book has lots of drawings on it. If we managed to find out who made those, we may know who’s responsible for all that’s happening.”

Nimb’s eyes widened in disbelief. He didn’t know where that change of heart came from, but he wasn’t complaining. He approached, and so did Kyle, as Sanah opened the book in front of everyone. There were many shabby drawings displayed, even some scribbles here and there in unown script that spelled the name of the pokémon or just the title for the drawing. ‘Beach at sunset’, ‘Quiet night’, ‘Two rattatas fighting over a fritter’…

Unown script was the main alphabet nowadays, as it was easier to write and to understand, so it’s pretty unusual to find someone that doesn’t know it. In ancient times, such alphabet was just an archaeological discovery that was studied in different ruins found all over the world, so it was a forgotten language that now became relevant again.

“Those drawings are… Kinda bad,” Kyle said.

“Shut up! Don’t say it out loud, the house doesn’t like it,” Sanah looked left and right in alert, expecting another pebble thrown at them.

“W-what’s this thing over here?” Nimb pointed at a specific drawing. It looked like a triangle without the outline of the base, with a curved line decorating it and a couple of loops.

“Looks like… A tower? Never seen it before…” Ari said, scratching his chin with his paw, pensive.

“No idea, whatever,” Sanah said, but then her eyes lit up. “Wait, I think I have seen that in a different page…” She turned pages randomly until she found another picture with the exact same tower on a corner. “It’s here too!”

“Interesting… Whoever made this must love towers I guess,” the Scrafty said. “Maybe there are more?”

Sanah kept turning pages and found that the tower was present in many other drawings, mostly in a corner, so it didn’t stand out too much. “It’s… everywhere. Why?”

They stood in silence for a while, trying to come with a conclusion, until Ari finally spoke up. “You know, it kinda looks to me like…” He gasped and lifted his head. “Wait, it’s not a tower, it’s the letter ‘A’!”

All of them looked at the Riolu in confusion, but slowly came to the same realisation. “Aahhh, it makes sense,” Kyle said, eyes widening slightly.

“But then… Why is that letter in so many drawings?” Sanah asked, but she got a collective shrug.

They were getting somewhere, but there was missing context to all that, so they decided it was time to share ideas with their classmates and solve this mystery for once.

 

---

 

Everyone reunited in the mansion main hall, near the entrance. The whole class, Maia, Nidoking, Nidorina and Kecleon were there. The investigators had enough time to discuss everything before calling the others to talk about their discoveries, and hopefully, finish their job. Maia decided not to intervene while they solved the case.

“You’ve got something already? That was pretty fast, I’m impressed,” Terry the Nidoking said, and Kecleon nodded in agreement.

“Well, we’ve been exploring the whole mansion in search for clues, dividing in small groups to cover more ground, and let’s say… We all got a warm welcome,” Velia explained.

“Yep, we were attacked by some… things, I don’t know,” Asher added, and Maia gasped. She didn’t expect the first investigation to put them in danger already. “It wasn’t that much of a threat, don’t worry.”

“Anyway, Velia shared a picture of a ghost that attacked Cora and her, and it was the same that attacked Kyle, Nimb and I,” Ari explained, getting confused looks from those who weren’t there to witness it. “A ghost that, for some reason, wasn’t affected at all by moves of any kind. Because there wasn’t anyone there in the first place.”

“What do you mean?” Kecleon asked.

Before Ari could say anything, Kyle did his part. “It wasn’t a pokémon, but rather an illusion, just like the dark fog that chased us in the corridor. And that illusion was probably made by a ghost or psychic pokémon.”

“And knowing that Asher and I were attacked by two figures that could actually touch us and they phased through the floor, I’d say they were ghost types… But that also means there are more than two pokémon responsible for this,” Mylo added.

“How do you know they weren’t the same two ghost type pokémon all the time?” Terry asked.

Velia took a step forward and began. “Because there’s at least one pokémon involved that couldn’t be a ghost type.” As she said that, someone in that room flinched.

“Velia found fingerprints on the door handle of the room we were attacked in, and they were recent,” Cora continued, getting all the attention now. “Some non-ghost pokémon was there recently, and it wasn’t just us.”

“So, yeah, we don’t need to catch those ghost types, because the one who planned all of that isn’t actually a ghost type,” Asher said.

Sanah took a deep breath, it was time for her to talk. “Someone… had to direct everything from a place where they wouldn’t be noticed, but at the same time they could get anywhere in a short amount of time. And that place is the huge secret basement there’s beneath us.”

“Wait, the basement? I thought we walled up the entrance years ago…” the Nidoking said.

Ari nudged Nimb gently, gesturing for him to say something. He swallowed nervously, but finally decided to talk. “T-there are… Uh… P-plenty of secret entrances to the b-basement in the main floor. Also, uhhhh… T-there’s a new one now, the big hole on the living room floor… S-sorry about that…” He visibly cringed. Ari tried to reassure him with gentle pats on the back while he sheepishly smiled at the adults, fearing any sort of reprimand.

“… Of course, one more, why not…” Terry deadpanned.

The Toxtricity kept searching through the whole gallery of pictures Asher had sent to the group chat while everyone else continued.

“And inside one of the rooms in the basement, I found this book,” Sanah exposed it to everyone while she opened it. “Inside, there’s a bunch of drawings, but there’s a specific thing in common between many of them. And that’s the letter ‘A’ written in some weird style.”

“That doesn’t make any sense… What’s that letter supposed to be, then?” Kecleon asked.

“A signature,” Ari and Sanah answered at the same time. The looked at each other for a moment in surprise, but didn’t say anything, both of them looking away.

“Anyway…” Velia continued, shrugging the awkward moment away. “The signature was probably showcasing the first letter of someone’s name. I doubt Ari or Asher had something to do with that, so there aren’t many other options to choose from… Right, Anne?”

Everyone turned to the Nidorina, who flinched hard at the mention of her name. She had been visibly nervous the whole time, and the whole class had noticed it since the moment they started exposing their findings.

“What? My daughter?” Terry the Nidoking turned to her. “That can’t be true, right Anne?”

“I… T-that’s…” The Nidorina stammered. She couldn’t say anything.

“That’s not all the evidence we have, though,” Cora added. “Sanah found some toys in the same room that she found that book. Those toys were really similar to the ones in the bedroom we investigated, which is…”

“… Yes, that’s my daughter’s bedroom.” Terry narrowed his eyes at her daughter, who only cringed harder.

Cora continued. “That would explain why we heard someone yelling us to stop when I accidentaly broke the closet. She didn’t want her stuff damaged.”

“Also, aside from the fingerprints on the door handle, there were many more footprints on the room, so… Pretty obvious to me, yes,” Velia said.

“So it was you, Anne,” Ari finished. “You wanted us to leave and asked for other pokémon to help you.”

There was a moment of silence, everyone expecting the Nidorina to say something while she just looked everywhere expecting to come up with something. Which she didn’t.

She sighed. “I… guess that’s it. Come on, guys, it’s over…”

“Aaawwww…” A voice could be heard besides Anne, and in a blink of an eye, three pokémon appeared out of nowhere, two of them rising from the ground. They were a Gengar, a Banette and a Zoroark. Almost everyone flinched in surprise.

“We’re sorry, we just wanted some fun, and… a place to live,” the Zoroark said.

“Wait, so the illusions weren’t from a ghost or psychic type, they were yours!” Ari said, eyes widening in realisation.

“Yeah…”

“Sorry for attacking you I guess,” Gengar grinned as he looked at Mylo and Asher. He didn’t really look that sorry, but rather like he was still having fun.

“My own daughter… I can’t believe this,” the Nidoking said, his face showing anger. “Why, Anne? You’ve been ruining my plans to sell the house! What were you thinking?”

Anne the Nidorina flinched hard, desperately looking at her friends for emotional support. Zoroark nodded at her, and Gengar and Banette just stood there silently.

“I… I just…” She sighed. “I told you so many times, but you didn’t care… I don’t wanna leave this house, dad! I love this place, and you just saw it as an opportunity… For what? You only care about money… So I asked my friends to help me prevent the house from getting sold and they could live here in return.”

Terry’s scowl was getting worse. ” You really… Damn, you don’t know what you’re saying! And I already told you, life is about leaving things behind, because that’s the only way you’re going to grow up!”

“Leaving things behind…” Sanah interrupted. “Like… Those toys?”

Anne’s dad threw his arm upwards in annoyance. “Ugh, of course, those stupid toys. I told you to leave them in the house because you weren’t going to need them, but you just refuse to leave them behind. You’re so immature, Anne!”

“But I love those… I can get a job or do whatever you want me to do, but I don’t want to leave everything behind!” Anne insisted, almost tearing up.

“Enough!” Terry took a deep breath as everyone watched. There was so much tension in the air, even the pressure felt like being close to Palkia or Dialga. “Anne… This is for your own good. Those things are for kids, and you’re too old for that. What will people say when they find out? Just… Forget about it. You have to accept that you can’t do all that stuff anymore.”

Anne turned around so no one could see her face. She was so frustrated and… tired. Zoroark supported her with a gentle stroke on the back, while everyone else stood silent. It was hard, but such is life, and nobody could fight against that. Nobody could, so nobody said anything. Well, nobody except for…

“…Why?”

Everyone turned to Nimb in surprise, and he flinched, but didn’t look away.

“W-why does it have to be that way? Does it hurt anyone to play with toys?”

“Wha- well of course it does! It damages her reputation!” The Nidoking scowled, making Nimb suddenly grip the Riolu’s arm in reflex, fearing a confrontation.

“Dad… I DON’T CARE about my reputation. I just want to be happy. And the life you want to give me isn’t making me happy anymore…”

Terry kept glaring at his daughter while he thought of what to say next, but his face started showing conflicted emotions. “You… Anne, but… You really think you’re not happy?” She didn’t say anything, but the answer was clear with how miserable she looked. “I’m… I’m not making you happy?”

“What’s the point if I have to give up in every single thing that makes me happy…?”

The Nidoking looked at everyone expecting some support, but their faces were telling him that he was alone in this. He was wrong…? All this time, and he didn’t even notice…

“I think…” Nimb spoke, drawing everyone’s attention once more. “I think s-she can grow up and do adult stuff… B-but that doesn’t mean she can’t do the things that make her happy in her free time. I, uhhh, I also like toys. And I would enjoy running around in such a big mansion… W-well, if it wasn’t for the g-ghosts and all.”

“Whoops,” Banette finally said, and Gengar shrugged beside her, without losing his toothy grin.

“Yeah… I think I get it now,” Ari said. “This isn’t about the age, it’s about enjoying life the way you want, as long as you’re not doing anything bad. It doesn’t matter what others think as long as you’re happy with it.” He smiled at Nimb, who also returned a warm smile.

It’s always nice to get unconditional support from a close friend whenever you need it. Makes you feel welcomed.

After some time, Terry let out a loud sigh and and turned to his daughter. “Anne, I… I’m sorry. I only wanted you to succeed, so I thought being so attached to those things would prevent you from growing. In the end it was me who was doing it…”

Anne slowly widened her eyes, looking carefully at her dad. “Dad, do… do you really… mean it?”

“Yes, Anne, I’m so sorry. I’m still not sure about your hobbies, but if you are old enough for that… Then you’re also old enough to decide what you want to do. I can’t decide that anymore…”

“Then… D-does that mean… I can live here? And my friends too?”

The Nidoking took a moment, looking around to see the house once more, until he sagged. “I… I don’t think I want to sell it anymore I guess…”

“Really? YAYYY!” Anne and her friends beamed, celebrating with hugs and cries of happiness. The class watched them in amusement, it was nice to see such a happy ending, even if that wasn’t the result they wanted in the first place. “Thank you, dad,” Anne finally said. His father smiled at her, content with the result. He didn’t care about money as much as he cared about his daughter.

“Well, it’s not that I wanted to buy this place anymore, with all those new holes and broken furniture…” Kecleon interrupted the celebration. He sighed and shook his head, accepting the reality of his new business.

“Hey, that wasn’t us,” Banette said. “We didn’t break anything.”

“Yeah, we know Anne likes this house, we wouldn’t break anything on purpose!” Gengar added, shaking his arms like he was trying to fly.

“Wait, what? But then… Who did it?” Maia finally spoke.

“I think I may have an answer,” Mylo stepped forward and exposed his gholdevice in front of everyone. Everyone approached him and looked at the gadget (well, those who were close enough, as there wasn’t enough space for that many pokémon). “This mansion has an interesting striped pattern on the walls. Asher took a picture of it and many other things, but he also scanned this specific spot of the wall where the pattern looks different.”

“I knew my pictures were going to be useful!” Asher beamed, but then cleared his throat as he saw the unamused looks in his classmates’ faces. “So, in that moment, we overlooked that, because we were so focused on the ghosts and all that, but… We saw that weird pattern in the same room we were thrown so many objects from the house.”

“And what does that pattern remind you of?” Mylo continued.

Everyone slowly raised their heads in realisation and exclaimed at the same time.

“KECLEON?”

As they turned to him, he raised his hands nervously and looked at everyone in fear. “W-wait, wait! Are you for real? I’m the one that needed the furniture intact!”

“Well, I clearly see your pattern in this wall…” Zoroark glared at him in suspicion.

“B-but I swear, I’m not…”

“Wait,” Ari interrupted. “Kecleon, you… You have a brother, right?”

“…”

Everyone looked at the Riolu in disbelief. That was such a random claim, given the fact that they haven’t seen his brother show up and probably wasn’t even related to this.

“… You gotta be kidding,” Sanah said. As she saw the Riolu cringing slightly with that response, she looked away.

“My brother, seriously? Why would he do something like that?”

Mylo pointed to the wall near the corridor. “Why don’t you ask him yourself? He’s right there.”

As everyone looked in that direction, the ridiculous claim Ari made became not-so-ridiculous. The same pattern was there, interrupting the normal striped pattern from the walls, and it almost looked like it was sweating. And trembling.

“… Brother?” Kecleon asked. After a few seconds of tense silence, the invisible figure sagged, finally giving up. Suddenly, a purple Kecleon appeared, visibly sad.

“I… I’m sorry…”

“Sorry? You messed everything up! What the hell?!” He approached his brother, seeming angrier than ever, and everyone else leaned closer just to make sure nothing escalated out of that.

“I… I know! I just…” He sighed, now facing his brother. “You were so obsessed with expanding our businesses that… I was scared. It was becoming more and more stressful, I already have enough with our shop, but taking care of every single business you run is draining my energy. And I don’t want you to do something too risky and lose all of our money…”

The green Kecleon stood there, unamused. “… Really? You had to take it so far just because you were stressed?”

“I told you and you insisted on keeping this up!”

“… Agh. Okay, fine, we’ll hire more pokémon to help run the businesses.”

The purple Kecleon suddenly lifted his head, looking at his brother directly. “Wait, you… You’ll do that? It’s just that easy?”

“I guess, I’m scared to know that you would do such a thing for this. So yeah, I’m not risking any more crimes. Dude, we’re going to be fined for this! And we’ll have to pay for the damaged furniture!”

The purple Kecleon scratched the back of his head, chuckling nervously. “Hehe… yeah… I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”

“You better mean it.”

The investigators looked at each other with a smile, already celebrating their success. They had solved their first mystery! And, in the end, both the Nidorina and the purple Kecleon got what they wanted, so the moral of the story is… The criminals always win? Uhhh… Whatever.

 

---

 

The whole class started returning to the academy, as they had to fill in a report of the case, but they weren’t having any classes that day. They were talking about how cool they were back there, exposing the evidence and saying cool detective stuff. It was nice as a first experience, and everyone learned a lot from it. However, they still had a lot to learn.

“You did great, everyone, I’m so proud of you!” Maia said. “You’re all so different, but you managed to use your differences to your advantage in a way that everyone could shine!” Her tone then suddenly got more serious. “But I must ask you to not be too reckless just because it seemed easy. This one was an easy case, you got decisive evidence that was lying there in front of everyone, but there will be mysteries that won’t be so obvious.”

Everyone exchanged glances, confused by the sudden change of mood.

“Criminals nowadays know that this kind of technology exists,” she said, refering to the gholdevice. “Many of them have some way of hiding evidence even from that. It won’t be that easy most of the times, just be careful, okay?”

“Sure, we will,” Asher said.

“We’re just happy we succeeded on our first investigation!” Cora beamed.

They went back to their conversations as they walked, while Maia addressed Ari, Nimb and Sanah , who just walked silently.

“I’m also really proud of you three,” she said in a low tone, keeping it private. “You, Nimb, for being so brave to talk in front of everyone. And you two, Ari and Sanah, for working out your differences and solving this together,” her smile was so warm it almost looked like they were staring at the sun.

“Thank you…” Nimb smiled.

Ari and Sanah looked at each other for a moment, but neither of them knew what to say, so they eventually looked away, as always. It didn’t feel like the right moment to talk, at least not yet. So, for now, they kept walking in silence, until Sanah stopped for a moment and saw everyone walk away.

She thought about everything that happened that day, then looked at the Riolu, who was as much deep in thought as she was. She was still mad for everything that had happened these days. She still hated him. This was just a weird event that made her act funny, but she wasn’t going to change her mind.

She hated Ari, yeah.

She wanted to hate him.

…

Who did she actually hate?