After parting ways with Officer Jenny, Roy resumed his journey.
Before long, noon arrived.
He found a patch of shade beneath a large tree and sat down, taking out an energy bar to recover some of his strength.
Just as he finished eating…
Rustling came from the bushes behind him once again.
The sound was incredibly faint.
But Roy caught it immediately.
This time…
It wasn’t another Bug Catcher jumping out.
Instead…
A strange smell drifted through the air.
Blood.
Mixed with the stench of burnt flesh.
Roy’s expression subtly changed.
Something was wrong.
He remained perfectly still, blending naturally into the surrounding environment.
Several moments later…
A rough, irritated voice echoed from behind the bushes.
“Damn it!”
“That damned Officer Jenny!”
“If I ever get my hands on her…”
“Litwick.”
“Lit.”
Litwick floated silently off Roy’s shoulder and drifted toward a nearby tree overlooking the bushes.
Moments later, it returned.
The blue flame atop its head flickered.
Like a projector, the ghostly fire recreated everything it had just seen.
Inside the illusion…
A middle-aged man was spraying Potion and several other medicines over a horrifying burn wound covering his arm.
“Hiss…”
He ripped the mask from his face, revealing skin covered with hideous scars.
“Good thing I fooled that little cop…”
“Otherwise I’d have been finished today…”
“Hiss…”
His voice trembled as the movement pulled at the burns on his arm.
The pain nearly made him scream.
Remembering that Officer Jenny might still be nearby, he forcefully bit back the sound.
So…
This scar-faced man was one of the poachers Officer Jenny had warned him about.
The burns on his arm were most likely Arcanine’s handiwork.
Fortunately…
He appeared to be alone.
Roy thought for a moment.
A criminal had practically delivered himself to Roy’s doorstep.
There was no reason to let that opportunity slip away.
The only concern was the man’s strength.
Anyone capable of escaping a Gym Leader-class Arcanine couldn’t be weak.
Even if he wasn’t Arcanine’s equal…
He couldn’t be too far behind.
Fortunately…
This wasn’t a Pokémon battle.
Roy didn’t need to defeat him.
He only needed to immobilize him.
After weighing the risks…
Roy decided to gamble.
He held the advantage.
He was hidden.
His enemy wasn’t.
Even if things went wrong…
He could still escape.
The only thing bothering him was…
He hadn’t seen the man’s Pokémon.
It was probably still inside one of the Poké Balls hanging from his belt.
Roy nodded.
“Duskull.”
“It’s your turn.”
Duskull emerged from its Poké Ball wearing a confused expression.
Dinner already?
Didn’t we just eat?
“Not food.”
“Work.”
Roy quickly explained the plan through Ghost Force.
“Duskull.”
“When I give the signal…”
“Use Mean Look on him.”
“Litwick…”
“You know what to do.”
Once the plan was settled…
Duskull silently floated beneath the tree where the poacher was hiding.
Its single crimson eye suddenly turned pitch black.
Mean Look.
The scar-faced man suddenly realized… Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
He couldn’t move.
His hands froze.
Then his entire body stiffened.
Only his eyes could still dart around frantically.
“Did they find me?”
His heart nearly stopped.
Before he could think further…
A young man slowly emerged from the trees with his head lowered.
The poacher’s fear mostly came from the unknown.
Now that he saw the culprit…
He relaxed.
It was just some kid.
Not Officer Jenny.
His confidence immediately returned.
“Brat.”
“I don’t know what trick you used…”
“But you’d better release me.”
“Otherwise…”
Before he could finish threatening Roy…
The boy suddenly accelerated.
Within seconds…
Roy stood directly in front of him.
Then…
Roy slowly raised his head.
Only half of his face was human.
The other half…
Was nothing but exposed bone.
Bits of flesh still clung to the skull.
Ghostly blue flames floated around him.
A grinning skeletal mask hovered beside his shoulder.
In a hoarse, hollow voice…
Roy whispered,
“…Give…”
“…my life…”
“…back…”
As he spoke…
He gently stroked the poacher’s frozen face.
“G…
g…”
“Ghost!!”
The scar-faced man nearly lost his mind.
He desperately tried to run.
But Mean Look completely locked his body in place.
He didn’t even remember the Poké Balls hanging from his waist.
His mind had already gone blank.
Just like the Bug Catcher earlier…
He had never witnessed anything like this.
A warm sensation suddenly spread through his pants.
A stream of yellow liquid dripped onto the ground.
Roy sighed in disappointment.
“That’s it?”
“I still had plenty of tricks left.”
The terrifying half-skull face…
The ghostly flames…
Everything had simply been another illusion created by Litwick’s fire.
Covering his nose…
Roy looked down at the trembling man with obvious disdain.
“Was I really that scary?”
“You wet yourself?”
If he had experienced Froslass’s style of waking people up the way Phoebe had done a few days ago…
He might have died from fright on the spot.
Roy removed every Poké Ball from the poacher’s belt.
Then…
He pressed the safety locks on each one, preventing them from opening.
Duskull quickly wrapped the man in ropes.
The poacher never resisted.
In his eyes…
Roy wasn’t human.
He was a vengeful spirit.
And Duskull…
Was the little ghost following its master.
Just to be safe…
Roy sprinkled the Bug Catcher’s Stun Spore powder all over him.
Almost immediately…
The poacher began convulsing violently.
His entire body twitched uncontrollably.
“…Huh?”
Roy stared at the yellow powder in confusion.
“This really is Stun Spore…”
Ignoring the shaking criminal…
Roy picked up the realistic human-face mask lying nearby.
Almost exactly like real skin.
“No wonder he fooled Officer Jenny.”
“This craftsmanship is incredible.”
He casually stored it inside his Storage Bracelet.
The poacher also wore an old Storage Bracelet.
Unfortunately…
It was an outdated fingerprint-lock model.
After checking its contents…
Roy found almost nothing of value.
Killing the man would certainly solve the problem.
But…
Thinking about the System’s Popularity mission…
He reconsidered.
After weighing the pros and cons…
Roy decided to leave the criminal alive.
Besides…
The man wasn’t carrying anything worth looting anyway.
Turning him over to Officer Jenny would earn both merit…
And probably Popularity Points.
The only question now was…
How was he supposed to notify her?
Wait here until she came back?
As if answering his thoughts…
The sound of galloping echoed through the forest.
Officer Jenny returned atop her Arcanine.
The scream she’d heard earlier sounded strangely familiar.
Remembering the young Trainer she’d just met…
She had turned around to check on him.
She had expected to find Roy captured by a dangerous criminal.
Instead…
She found the scar-faced poacher tightly bound on the ground, still trembling uncontrollably…
And Roy standing several meters away, pinching his nose while waiting proudly for praise.
One glance…
Was enough for her to understand what had happened.
The young man…
Had captured a dangerous poacher all by himself.
Roy smiled brightly.
“Officer Jenny.”
“I found this guy hiding in the bushes.”
“He was secretly insulting you.”
“He looked suspicious…”
“So I arrested him.”
His reasoning was simple.
Officer Jenny.
He was talking bad about you.
Officer Jenny gave Roy an approving look.
“Leave the rest to me.”
She walked toward the poacher.
Before she could even begin questioning him…
The scar-faced man reacted as if he’d just seen his savior.
His convulsing instantly stopped.
Mean Look had already worn off.
Although still tied up…
He struggled onto his knees and crawled toward Officer Jenny, tears streaming down his face.
“I confess!”
“I confess everything!”
“The ranch robberies…”
“I did them!”
“The Safari Zone incidents…”
“Also me!”
“The Lilycove cases…”
“That was me too!”
“Please!”
“Please arrest me!”
“I even stole an old lady’s underwear!”
“I stole a kitten’s mung beans!”
“…”
“…”
In short…
Every crime in the world was apparently his doing.
He begged only for one thing.
To be taken away immediately.
As far away from Roy and that floating skull ghost as possible.
He would’ve happily accepted a hundred-year prison sentence if it meant never seeing them again.
Officer Jenny slowly turned toward Roy.
“…”
Roy innocently spread his hands.
“Maybe…”
“He’s genuinely reflected on his mistakes.”
“Maybe he just wants to become a law-abiding citizen.”
Officer Jenny stared at him.
She believed that explanation…
Yeah, right.