Chikai who was immobilized by Gengar's Mean Look, struggled desperately to break free from the restraint. But with his small frame, how could he possibly resist Gengar's overwhelming psychic power?
Seeing Yuga approaching step by step, Chikai still tried to argue, forcing himself to question Yuga with a hard tone.
"Gym Leader Shimizu, what exactly do you want to do? I haven't broken any laws—you don't have the right to arrest me!"
Yuga replied with a half-smile, "If I say I have the right, then I do! You need to clearly realize whose territory you're standing on right now..."
As he spoke, he reached out toward Chikai's face, feeling around his temples. Chikai turned his head, trying to stop Yuga's actions, but it was no use.
Soon, Yuga seemed to find a flaw. He gave a strong pull, and with a loud scream from Chikai, a mask was ripped off his face.
Yuga examined the unfamiliar yet youthful face and clicked his tongue, "Tut tut... Still trying to argue? Why aren't you arguing now?"
Chikai stared at Yuga with deadly eyes, as if he wanted to tear Yuga to pieces, but Yuga didn't care at all.
"Come quickly and cuff him," Yuga said, waving to a nearby officer.
"Oh—oh! Yes!"
The officer answered loudly and rushed behind Chikai. He took out a pair of handcuffs, cuffed him, and confiscated the remaining Poké Balls from his body.
The arrest had gone so smoothly that it didn't even feel real yet.
At that moment, several Pokémon walked out from the house. They were the real Chikai's Pokémon, and they looked at the fake Chikai with confused expressions.
Of course, they recognized Chikai (the imposter). He had been a close friend of their Trainer. But hadn't the real Chikai said he died while escaping from the Paradise Organization?
What was going on? Where was the real Chikai?
Among them, Swellow—Chikai's first Pokémon—was the most agitated. It flapped its wings and rushed forward, loudly crying at Chikai. Unfortunately, Chikai didn't understand what it wanted to say; his face remained cold and emotionless.
However, Yuga understood clearly. Swellow was questioning Chikai, asking where their real Trainer had gone.
Swellow's questioning stirred up the other Pokémon, and they swarmed around Chikai, asking one after another. But Chikai remained silent the entire time.
At this moment, Yuga explained, "This is not the real Chikai. He's been impersonating the real Chikai all this time using this mask." He waved the mask in his hand. "You'd better prepare yourselves mentally—the real Chikai may already be dead…"
No wonder they had felt that Chikai had been acting increasingly strange since coming home. Turns out, this wasn't their Trainer at all!
The Pokémon became even more emotional, questioning Chikai more loudly than before, but they still received no reply.
At this time, none of the Pokémon could have imagined that the one who killed their Trainer was none other than this person—the one their Trainer once called a friend.
Yuga gently comforted them, "Please don't get too worked up. We'll give you an explanation. For now, come with us back to the police station."
Throughout this whole process, the only one who remained completely silent was Flabébé. It still didn't understand what was happening, floating in a daze nearby, watching the scene unfold with confused helplessness.
Chikai? Where was Chikai?
Seeing Flabébé's pitiful look, Yuga felt deeply guilty. It was he and YoYo Day Care who had failed to properly screen Flabébé's Trainer, causing it to follow someone like this and end up in such an awkward and heartbreaking situation.
Yuga waved at Flabébé and said, "Flabébé, come here."
Hearing Yuga's voice, Flabébé finally found someone to rely on. It quickly floated over to Yuga.
Yuga gently tapped its tiny head with his finger and said, "Come home with me. Everyone at YoYo Day Care is waiting for you to come back."
"Flabébé~"
Where's Chikai?
Flabébé tilted its head in confusion and asked.
Yuga didn't know whether he should tell Flabébé the truth. Should he really tell it that the Trainer it had trusted all this time never existed? That would be far too cruel for the young Flabébé.
"You come home with me first, okay? I'll have Duoduo make you something delicious tonight, how does that sound?" Yuga instinctively changed the subject.
Flabébé still trusted Yuga a lot. After hesitating for a few seconds, it slowly nodded.
Meanwhile, Gillette was at home waiting for news from Chikai, when he suddenly heard the sound of an Arcanine outside. He walked to the window and saw that the front of his villa was already filled with police officers.
His heart skipped a beat.
Did the police catch something on him?
But then he thought again and felt it was impossible, so he stormed out angrily to demand.
"What's the meaning of this? Trespassing on private property? Believe it or not, I'll sue you!"
Masato Shirai calmly pulled out an arrest warrant.
"Mr. Gillette, someone has reported that you murdered a Pokémon, so please come with us."
Upon hearing that, Gillette's pupils shrank.
He immediately thought of Delphox.
But Delphox wasn't a registered Pokémon under his name in the League records. He had made sure to leave no traces when he disposed of it. There shouldn't have been any way for this to be discovered!
Feigning outrage, Gillette shouted, "What nonsense are you talking about? What Pokémon did I kill? Who saw it? Let them come out and face me!"
Masato Shirai said, "According to people at the Pokémon Club, you brought a Delphox there a few days ago. May I ask where that Delphox is now?"
Damn it! He miscalculated!
Gillette was immediately speechless. Where was he supposed to find a Delphox now?
But he knew very well that he couldn't fall into the hands of the police. They clearly came prepared, and this arrest might have been planned by some unknown enemy. Once he went in, getting back out again wouldn't be so easy!
"What Delphox? I've never even seen a Delphox before! Cut the crap and get away from my front gate, or I won't be polite!"
"Your lies are useless," Masato Shirai said coldly. "There's surveillance footage from the Pokémon Club as proof, and more than one person saw you with that Delphox. Deny it all you want—it won't help. If you can't present the Delphox, then you'll need to come with us."
Gillette had never anticipated that he'd kill Delphox, so when he brought it around before, he had done so publicly. Who would've thought that would now become a liability?
Gillette started cursing and refused to open the door. Masato Shirai seeing this, said: "Since Mr. Gillette refuses to cooperate, don't blame us for taking aggressive measures!"
"Saskia!"
Masato Shirai turned his head and called out to Saskia.
"Here!"
Saskia answered and immediately took two officers, mounted their Flying Pokémon, and flew over the tall iron gates of the villa, planning to apprehend Gillette by force.
But how could Gillette just let himself be captured? The moment Saskia and the others got close, he released a Pyroar. With its imposing presence and a threatening Flamethrower, he shouted.
"I dare anyone to come any closer!"
Pyroar's intimidation was so overwhelming that Saskia and the officers had to stop—they didn't dare advance.
But Masato Shirai was fearless. He had Gym Leader Shimizu standing behind him, after all. So he shouted back: "Oh yeah? You dare attack the police?!"
"Arcanine!"
At Masato Shirai's command, the Arcanine beside him let out a mighty roar and released a Flamethrower that slammed into the iron gate, instantly melting more than half of it into molten metal.
Masato Shirai led Arcanine through the melted gate and called to the subordinates behind him.
"Surround the place!"
Gillette was now completely surrounded.
Masato Shirai's move left him utterly dumbfounded.
Who attacked the police? Who attacked the police?
He had just wanted to scare them a little; he hadn't actually intended to make a move!
Now he finally understood—these police officers were dead set on arresting him.
But ever since coming to Verdanturf City, he hadn't done anything bad.
So why were the police targeting him?
Gillette was completely baffled.
"Hmph… Want to arrest me? Let's see if you've got the ability!"
Gillette sneered coldly. "Pyroar, use Hyper Voice!"
"ROAR!!"
With Pyroar's thunderous roar, the resulting shockwaves and sonic blast sent the officers and Pokémon surrounding Gillette flying in all directions.
Only Saskia's and Masato Shirai's two Arcanines remained standing.
"Arcanine, use Flare Blitz!"
"Arcanine, use Wild Charge!"
At the sound of Masato Shirai's and Saskia's commands, the two Arcanines—one cloaked in blazing red flames, the other wrapped in golden lightning—charged toward Pyroar simultaneously.
"Pyroar, use Overheat!"
"ROAR!!"
A massive spiraling pillar of fire instantly engulfed the two charging Arcanines.
"Pyroar~"
Saskia's Arcanine had the Intimidate ability, so it was directly blown away by Pyroar's Overheat.
Masato Shirai's Arcanine, however, had the Flash Fire ability—Fire-type moves were ineffective against it. Plus, its level was higher than Saskia's Arcanine, so it broke through the Overheat and slammed right into Pyroar.
"ROAR!"
Pyroar roared angrily as it was knocked back quite a distance, though it wasn't seriously injured.
Clearly, Masato Shirai's Arcanine was still a little bit lower in level compared to Pyroar.
With a swing of its long tail, Pyroar used Iron Tail and sent the Arcanine flying.
"Hmph… Be smart and back off now, and I'll pretend none of this ever happened."
Gillette still didn't want to completely offend the Verdanturf City Police Department. After all, he still had things to do in Verdanturf City—he couldn't afford to act too arrogantly.
By now, Masato Shirai had more or less realized how strong Gillette was, so he didn't insist on pressing forward blindly.
Instead, he took out a Poké Ball and said: "Let's see if you can still say that in a minute!"
With a flash of red light, Nana appeared between Gillette and Masato Shirai.
She glanced at the two Arcanines and casually released a wave of Heal Pulse toward them.
In an instant, both Pokémon's injuries disappeared without a trace.
"Arcanine~"
At Nana's signal, the two Arcanines obediently stepped back.
The moment Nana appeared, Gillette knew something was wrong.
He instantly recognized this as the Gardevoir who had been at Yuga's side that day.
Could it be that he is the one coming after me?
"Pyroar!"
Hearing his Trainer's voice, Pyroar's mouth flared with flames, ready to launch an attack at any moment.
But in the next second, Nana gently pointed at it with one hand, and Pyroar froze in place—unable to even blink.
"Pyroar!"
Gillette shouted, but Pyroar gave him no response.
At this moment, Gillette finally realized just how terrifying this Gardevoir truly was.
"Pyroar~"
With a low moan, Pyroar collapsed to the ground, completely motionless.
Gillette opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get a word out, Nana raised her head and looked straight at him.
A terrifying pressure instantly crashed down on him.
Gillette froze on the spot like a puppet.
"Gardevoir~"
Nana turned back and called out to Masato Shirai and Saskia. The two of them immediately understood and quickly ran over, handcuffing Gillette and confiscating his Poké Balls.
After searching Gillette's villa and finding some of his personal belongings, Masato Shirai and Saskia escorted him back to the police station.
Gillette was someone with a very dirty background. Among his personal belongings, there was a large amount of evidence of his various crimes. Even if the charge of murdering the Delphox didn't stick, there was no way he'd escape now.
By the time Masato Shirai returned to the station with his team, Yuga was already waiting for him. At the same time, when Chikai and Gillette saw that the other had also been arrested, they both flashed an expression of disbelief—and immediately realized that escaping now would not be easy!
After Yuga and Masato Shirai briefly recounted how they each captured their target, they began discussing how to interrogate the two of them.
"Let's separate them for now," Yuga said. "There are definitely some shady secrets between these two."
Masato Shirai added, "And we still need to inform Chikai's parents. They probably still don't know that their son is a fake."
"No, don't! Don't!"
Upon hearing this, Chikai who had remained silent all this time, suddenly shouted, "Don't let my mom and dad know!"
Masato Shirai sneered and said, "You've been impersonating their son for so long—don't you think they have the right to know? Still playing pretend? They're not your parents!"
"No, they are my mom and dad!" Chikai's face twisted as he screamed, "I am Chikai! They're my mom and dad! I am Chikai…"
Chikai had no real name, no real identity. After impersonating Chikai for so many years, he had completely internalized the identity. He had naturally come to see Chikai's parents as his own.
Watching Chikai lose control and scream hysterically, Masato Shirai curled his lip and felt that Chikai's parents were truly pitiful. After searching for their son for so long, what they got in return was a fake.
But as a police officer, he had the responsibility to tell the victims the truth!
Soon, Chikai and Gillette were placed in separate holding cells. However, by coincidence, Gillette was placed in the same cell as his underling, Gis.
"Boss, how come you got locked up too?"
Gis was utterly shocked when he saw Gillette.
Gis's case had yet to be fully investigated, so he had been detained at Verdanturf City's police station this whole time.
"Gis!"
Seeing that his underling was safe and sound, Gillette finally breathed a rare sigh of relief.
"Hurry up and tell me—how did you get caught?"
Gis then recounted the story of how he got arrested. When Gillette heard Gis say that the Key Stone he had was given to him by Chikai, Gillette immediately realized something.
"Chikai, you bastard! You dare mess with one of my people? I won't let you get away with this!"
The naive Gis still didn't realize that it was because of Chikai's manipulation that he had indirectly made a move against Yuga.
But unfortunately, Gillette and Gis's conversation was overheard by another prisoner. In order to curry favor with the prison guards, that prisoner reported the contents of their conversation to the authorities.
As a result, Masato Shirai quickly became aware of the connection between the two.