It turned out that this Chikai was not the real Chikai, but someone who had taken over his identity.
Speaking of this person's background, he even had a slight connection to Yuga, because he had once been part of a secret organization secretly cultivated by the Rite family—Paradise Organization.
The Rite family was the one that Gilruta and Milolovide belonged to, which had now completely fallen from grace.
In the past, the Paradise Organization abducted children from all over to train them in secret bases in order to cultivate manpower.
Both the real Chikai and the person who later impersonated him were once members of this organization.
However, when the real Chikai was kidnapped, he was already relatively old and remembered his origins and family very clearly.
Although he was trained in secret by the Paradise Organization, the real Chikai was very aware that he had been taken by force. So although he pretended to submit to the Paradise Organization, he had never truly been loyal and was always waiting for a chance to escape.
Unfortunately, the Paradise Organization had extremely strict control over new recruits, and Chikai never had a real chance to break free.
The one who impersonated Chikai was someone the real Chikai knew in the organization. His real name had already been forgotten; in the organization, he was only known by his code: 1314587.
These abducted children had no names during their training and were only referred to by code numbers. Only upon graduation, if they could serve the Rite family, would the organization bestow them with names.
When 1314587 was brought into the Paradise Organization, he was extremely young and frequently bullied by the other children. In that environment of the strong preying on the weak, one could imagine how miserable life at the bottom truly was.
1314587 lived a nearly inhuman life—barely enough food, not enough clothing, constantly beaten and punished.
Chikai had a kind nature. Eventually, he couldn't stand it any longer and began secretly protecting 1314587.
Among the batch of children at the time, Chikai was considered one of the top students, so no one dared to provoke him, and gradually they stopped bullying 1314587.
Over time, 1314587 became Chikai's little follower. Chikai truly treated him well, and the two of them eventually became nearly inseparable.
After years of being together, Chikai had come to trust 1314587 completely and treated him almost like his own younger brother.
Chikai even told 1314587 all about his hometown and his parents, and whenever he had time, he would secretly talk about his childhood, hoping that one day he could return home.
1314587 himself had no memories of his past and deeply envied Chikai for having the chance to go home. However, he never reported Chikai. Instead, he once said that if they ever escaped one day, he would accompany Chikaii to see his home.
Because he had heard the stories so many times, 1314587 later could recite every detail of Chikai's childhood with perfect clarity.
Originally, according to the planned trajectory, the two of them would graduate from the secret base and go on to serve the Rite family.
But due to Yuga's actions, the Rite family's secret cultivation of the Paradise Organization was exposed. The entire family fell into chaos and soon faced punishment from the League.
Once the Rite family was in disarray, the secret bases cultivating new recruits for the Paradise Organization naturally fell apart as well. Taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Chikai escaped with 1314587.
Unfortunately, they were discovered halfway through and hunted down by members of the Rite family.
During the ensuing battle, 1314587, reacting instinctively to an attack, used Chikai—who was nearby—as a human shield, resulting in Chikai sustaining severe injuries.
1314587 himself was stunned at the time, unable to believe he had done such a thing. One could only imagine how shocked Chikai must have been as he looked at him in disbelief.
After they eliminated their pursuers, the two of them had a confrontation. In the heat of the moment, 1314587 accidentally killed the severely injured Chikai.
At the time, 1314587 panicked and, in a moment of rashness, also killed the Pokémon that had been injured while fighting alongside Chikai.
The current Swellow, Rapidash, and other Pokémon beside 1314587 actually originally belonged to the real Chikai. It was just that they hadn't participated in the battle back then, having been locked inside their Poké Balls, so they had no idea what had happened in the outside world. Even now, they were still completely in the dark, only feeling that Chikai seemed to be acting more and more different from how he used to be.
After disposing of Chikai's body, 1314587 had nowhere to go. Strangely, as if guided by fate, he actually ended up visiting Chikai's family—and met Chikai's biological parents.
During all the years Chikai had been missing, his parents had never stopped searching for him. They had never given up.
1314587 deeply envied Chikai for having such parents.
Perhaps due to some strange psychological impulse, 1314587 put on the "human-skin" mask and approached Chikai's parents, pretending to be their son.
This special human-skin mask was something 1314587 had snatched when he escaped from the Paradise Organization. It was a piece of bio-tech developed by the organization's researchers to mimic Ditto, allowing its wearer's appearance to change based on presets—truly a magical item.
Having spent many years with Chikai, 1314587 not only knew everything about Chikai's past, but even imitated his behavior, habits, and interests almost flawlessly.
Their son, who had been missing for years, suddenly came back—and he knew everything about his past, and even looked exactly like him. Chikai's parents had almost no doubts.
Maybe they did have suspicions at one point, but they subconsciously chose to ignore them. After all these years of suffering through the agony of searching, of longing for their son, even if the person before them wasn't truly their child, they didn't want to question it.
To them, this was the son who had been missing for so many years!
And just like that, 1314587 started a new life under the identity of Chikai. He was handsome, modest, and polite—almost the perfect son in his parents' eyes, and the kind of "ideal child" everyone in the neighborhood envied.
But Chikai (1314587) was never someone who could settle for a quiet life.
The Rite family had fallen, and the Paradise Organization had been destroyed. But there were so many people who had once served in the Paradise Organization or been trained at those secret bases—the League could not possibly wipe them all out completely. There were always a few who slipped through the cracks.
These people had no past and no future, so naturally, many of them turned to the criminal underworld. Eventually, Chikai got back in touch with these people in secret.
From then on, publicly, Chikai was just a regular Pokémon Trainer, using the same Pokémon that the real Chikai had used in the past. But in the shadows, he got involved with the underworld and worked alongside some of his former "colleagues" as a bounty hunter—using the Pokémon he had brought out from the Paradise Organization.
The double identity—one light and one dark—allowed him to thrive.
He met Gillette during his time as a bounty hunter. Later, they both pledged allegiance to another individual and became actual colleagues.
Very few people knew that Chikai had this dual identity, and Gillette just happened to be one of them.
In the dark, Mismagius silently observed Chikai's true face. Though it didn't know about Chikai's past, that didn't stop it from reporting to Yuga that Chikai was wearing a fake face.
Chikai stared at his reflection in the mirror. Suddenly, he seemed to sense something and spun around, scanning the room. When he found nothing out of the ordinary, he got up and walked around the space once again.
"Just my imagination?"
Chikai muttered to himself before sitting back down.
Mismagius had been startled by his sudden reactions and fled the room quickly, vanishing from Chikai's residence in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, Yuga had just finished talking with Delphox. From Delphox, Yuga learned a great deal about Gillette.
Gillette wasn't originally from Hoenn—he came from the Kalos region. He had only been transferred to the Hoenn League's military later on, taking up a position in a pioneer army division.
At the time, he was the deputy general of that pioneering army. His abilities were quite impressive, but he had a major flaw—he was lecherous. Many of the higher-ups in the army knew about this issue, and among them, the general had the biggest problem with him.
The League usually appoints one general, four deputy generals, and two military commissioners in a pioneer army division. These seven individuals each have different responsibilities, and as long as they don't fight over power, it's generally easy for them to get along well.
However, people are people—there will always be some conflicts due to one reason or another.
At the time, Gillette and the other three deputy generals were very close brothers. On the other hand, the general and the two commissioners had a good relationship with each other. The two sides had vaguely started to show signs of trying to suppress one another.
One time, the four deputy generals were drinking together and accidentally drank too much. While intoxicated and woozy, Gillette went so far as to flirt with the general's Aromatisse.
To make matters worse, that very day, the army base was attacked by wild Pokémon. Because the four deputy generals were drunk, the base suffered heavy losses.
These two incidents enraged the general.
Moreover, one of the military commissioners' primary responsibilities is to supervise the army. The four deputy generals had made such a serious mistake, so of course, the commissioners had to report it to the League. But once something like this was reported to the League, there would be no way to undo the consequences!
In the end, no one knew exactly how it happened, but Gillette ended up taking all the blame by himself. He was dismissed from the military, while the other three deputy generals were only demoted. Now, many years later, all three of them have been promoted back to their original positions, with some even climbing higher.
Perhaps out of guilt toward Gillette, those three people had always protected him. Whenever Gillett caused some trouble—so long as it wasn't too big—they would help cover it up for him.
This is also why everyone was willing to show Gillette some respect—because he really did have powerful people backing him.
Over the years, Gillette had relied on this protection to commit countless wicked deeds, but he never left behind any solid evidence. Even when there was some, it had long since been cleaned up.
After learning about some of Gillette's atrocious behavior, Yuga cursed him, calling him a "beast." At that moment, Mismagius also returned. After listening to what Mismagius had seen and heard, Yuga sighed and said.
"All kinds of monsters and freaks have come to Verdanturf City, haven't they? Just wait—let's see how I'll deal with all of you!"
Masato Shirai's efficiency was still impressively high. The next day, he called to share the results of his investigation with Yuga.
"This Chikai guy has a very good reputation among his neighbors. He has a harmonious family and is personally quite outstanding. Everyone who knows him has nothing but praise."
"But there's just one thing…"
"One thing?" Yuga asked.
Masato Shirai organized his thoughts and said, "He was missing for many years, and then one day suddenly came back on his own. But the neighbors all recognized him and confirmed his identity, saying that he was indeed the same Chikai who went missing back then. His appearance hasn't changed much."
After listening, Yuga fell silent for a moment. Just because someone looks the same doesn't mean they are the original person. There are plenty of powerful disguise techniques in this world. Think of the deceased Ariana—her disguise skills were practically godlike.
Recalling what Mismagius had seen, Yuga believed that the real Chikai had probably already met a tragic end.
In any case, the first priority was to control the imposter. As long as the mask on his face could be removed, he wouldn't be able to deny it even if he wanted to.
"Director Shirai, how about this... wait for me at the police station, I have something I want to discuss with you."
On the other end of the call, Masato Shirai immediately became excited when he heard this. Ever since Yuga asked him to investigate Chikai yesterday, he had guessed that Yuga was probably planning to take action.
Causing a stir was great! For Masato Shirai, whenever Yuga made a move, it was an opportunity for him to earn credit!
So Yuga quickly got ready and rushed to the Verdanturf City Police Station, smoothly making his way into Masato Shirai's office.
The Verdanturf Police Station still looked the same as before, and was located in the same old place. It hadn't changed just because Verdanturf had been upgraded from a town to a city.
When Yuga arrived, Officer Saskia was also there. Apparently, Masato Shirai intended for his niece to be involved in this as well.
Saskia had been stationed in Verdanturf City for a few years now. Of course, she needed to make some real achievements if she wanted to get promoted—she couldn't just stay in the police station working as her uncle's assistant forever!
After a brief discussion, the three split into two teams. Yuga took a group of people to Chikai's place, while Masato Shirai and Saskia led a group to Gillette's location.
To prevent Masato Shirai and Saskia from being overwhelmed by Gillette, Yuga specifically sent Nana along with them to back them up.
Meanwhile, inside his room, Chikai had just put his mask back on when he suddenly heard an urgent knock at the door. When he opened it, he saw Flabébé chirping away.
Impatiently, he asked, "What is it?"
Seeing that Chikai didn't understand, Flabébé tugged at his sleeve and tried to drag him outside. Chikai hesitated for a moment, then followed Flabébé out.
But the moment he stepped outside, he saw that his residence was completely surrounded by police. Startled, he turned to the leader—Yuga—and asked.
"Gym Leader Shimizu, what crime have I committed that you would bring people to surround my home?"
"You've come out at just the right time," Yuga stepped forward. "You're suspected of identity theft and murder. Please come with us."
Upon hearing this, Chikaii's heart skipped a beat. He stepped back slightly and tried to remain calm as he said.
"Gym Leader Shimizu, what kind of joke is this? I've stolen someone's identity? Whose identity did I steal? And whom did I supposedly murder?"
Yuga took another step forward and reached toward Chikai's face. "How about I try to peel off your face? You can explain yourself afterward."
At that moment, Chikai finally realized that his secret had probably been discovered. He quickly retreated and reached behind his waist for a Poké Ball, which he immediately threw out.
With a flash of light, an Armaldo appeared in front of Yuga and raised its front claw to strike.
As he retreated rapidly, Chikai couldn't stop thinking: where exactly did I slip up?
Yuga's Breloom stepped forward with a single stride and punched Armaldo hard. With a loud bang, Armaldo was sent flying and crashed into the wall behind it, collapsing it.
At this point, Chikai had no time to worry about Armaldo. He turned around and attempted to flee.
"Trying to run? Don't bother."
As Yuga's voice fell, Gengar appeared beside him. A red gleam flashed in Gengar's eyes, and Chikai suddenly found himself unable to move.