Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 334 Poisonous Tragedy – A Trap of Self-Destruction

Chapter 336 Poisonous Tragedy – A Trap of Self-Destruction

N possesses the ability to hear the thoughts of Pokémon. This is neither a false claim by Team Plasma nor a far-fetched assertion by their ardent followers; he truly can understand the languages ​​Pokémon use.

However, in reality, learning the language of Pokémon is merely a byproduct of N's ability. Rather than describing his ability as "listening," it's more akin to a semi-forced, long-distance telepathic communication with Pokémon.

If a person can directly sense every thought that others want to express, then he can easily learn the spoken language they use—for N, it's as easy to grasp as an elementary function.

In a state of sensory connection, even if the spirits don't actually speak, as long as the other's brain is still unconsciously functioning, N

You can subtly sense the true thoughts of the Pokémon opposite you through your own thoughts, as if looking at flowers through the fog.

It is through this connection that he is able to connect with all the Pokémon in the world—even those like Magnemite and Slug.

The spirits, unable to make sounds in the conventional sense, communicated with each other in a friendly and intimate manner, just like friends.

It was precisely through this special ability, which he had been honing since birth, that he was able to establish a connection with the ancient Pokémon across the thick rock layers when he was fighting against the two girls in the wilderness of Rikyu City, igniting the anger of those two ancient creatures slumbering underground.

However, during this operation to capture Voodoo, Team Plasma King's invincible special ability completely failed to work. It wasn't because the king's skills were lacking, causing his ability to malfunction; nor was it because there was some special magnetic field interference nearby that prevented his listening ability from working; nor was it because he had once again been tormented by fate, suddenly losing this innate talent and curse... but because of a simpler, yet more cruel reason—all the Pokémon who witnessed the criminal had died from poisoning.

Heart stopped beating, breathing ceased, brain died, and the voice was lost—like being trapped in a dark, sunless Poké Ball.

From the tourmaline cave where the plasma cluster first discovered the poisoner's trail, to Voodoo's second hideout—the frozen warehouse in Fanba City—to the white forest isolated from the world at the foot of Mount Reversible, and finally to the Giant Cave in Kagome Town…

Throughout his pursuit of the poisoner, N encountered not a single wild Pokémon that had ever witnessed Voodoo. In other words, every Pokémon that had encountered the poisoner had been harmed and turned into the countless skeletons he witnessed along the way.

A shrew, having entered Voodoo's warning zone, stepped into a Poison Spike trap and perished in the mountains with a bewildered expression; a sapling passing by a poisoner's escape route was attacked by a Poison-type Pokémon, its neck being gnawed by Poison Fang, dying in agony in terror; a greypigeon flying through the sky was struck by a Poison Needle from below, losing its ability to move before falling to its death; a wild king, drawn to the crime scene by the scent of blood and venom, was also attacked by a Poison move, ultimately struggling to its death while afflicted with a status condition.

The human seemed to be possessed by some kind of obsession, relentlessly slaughtering every Pokémon he encountered along the way.

Common sense dictates that such a simple act of killing should be entirely devoid of any benefit.

Wild spirits abandoned in the wilderness cannot turn into money and flow into the wallets of criminals, nor will they become experience points to make the killer stronger, as in video games.

The venom collected by Plasma Group from the corpses showed that although the venom used by the poison-type spirits who poisoned the criminals had been specially formulated and enhanced to a level that amazed even the scientists within Plasma Group, its toxicity remained unchanged throughout the crimes committed.

This indicates that Voodoo, who committed numerous atrocities in the Hoenn region, had already completed his venom research before arriving in Unova. The killer's motives were completely different from those in the Hoenn period, and were definitely not killings for the so-called "toxicity testing."

Even from the fugitive's perspective, wild Pokémon don't have a social relationship with humans, and their deaths in remote areas wouldn't even attract the attention of the Unova League police. In other words, even if the Pokémon that witnessed Voodoo were allowed to scatter and escape, these Pokémon wouldn't pose any threat to the escaped drug trafficker. Moreover, those Pokémon didn't even know Voodoo. However, despite all this, Voodoo, just like in reality, continued its merciless killing spree along its escape route.

Even knowing he was being hunted by Team Plasma, he stubbornly wasted every second of his escape time killing innocent and harmless wild Pokémon. Was this a crime committed out of some kind of morbid psychology, such as a killing compulsion? Or was it to pursue some kind of belief or pleasure?

No, N simply couldn't convince himself with such a crude conclusion.

Judging from the modus operandi, this does not seem to be a crime committed based on some kind of paranoid psychology.

On his journey to become the King of Team Plasma, N has faced countless battles against humans who disregard the lives of Pokémon, including unscrupulous trainers who live in grassy areas, poachers who treat Pokémon like commodities, mad scientists who conduct experiments that push the boundaries of decency, and mentally unstable patients—

However, the present-day Voodoo is completely different from the battle traces left by those people.

Rather than calling him a madman who enjoys killing, judging from his battles with Pokémon, he seems more like an assassin who maximizes the damage output of Darkrai Pokémon.

Contrary to the characteristics of most paranoid crimes, Voodoo's massacres in the Unova region seemed to have completely abandoned his personal style, instead focusing on efficiency and cost. Every wound was as precise and deadly as an autopsy, and he would not do anything unnecessary if he could kill with one blow.

The reason why most of the traces left behind are mainly poison-type moves is simply because the poison used by the Voodoo Pokémon has been specially prepared, making the attacks more skillful and efficient, which makes trainers more inclined to choose this fighting style.

Vodka may have indeed fallen into a kind of paranoia, but this poisoner must have maintained a calm mind beyond that paranoia.

The spirits under its demonic influence were not in a state of frenzy or berserk rage. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to survive those forty-six consecutive poisoning attacks along the way.

They consistently maintained such a swift and decisive killing method.

So the question comes back to the starting point: why did Voltulus slaughter Pokémon?

N once speculated that it was possible that because of his existence, Voodoo, who knew of N's sensory abilities, deliberately poisoned all the wild Pokémon that had seen him in order to hide his whereabouts.

However, this idea was rejected the moment it came to mind—if the other party wanted to hide their whereabouts, why would they leave all the corpses of wild elves at the crime scene without any concealment?

In fact, it was because the Plasma Group discovered the body of an elf that had been murdered and abandoned by Voodoo near the Tourmaline Cave that they began tracking down this vicious poisoner.

The reason they knew that the perpetrator was Futo, who had committed numerous bloody crimes in the Hoenn region, was because a road camera on a deserted street captured footage of him on his way. After comparing the information, they found Futo's criminal records in the Hoenn region.

Most chillingly, in the crude footage captured by that nearly abandoned camera, the drug addict's face was clearly visible, his gaze fixed on the lens.

Fudu had actually made eye contact with a surveillance camera!

It's hard to imagine that the serial killer who didn't even spare the birds flying overhead would so carelessly ignore the camera pointed at him—even though he could have easily avoided or destroyed it, he still brazenly left his image on the device.

Machines can be ignored, but life must be destroyed—what kind of logic leads a drug killer under pursuit to make such a judgment?

N feels like he is facing an equation with no known conditions. No matter how much he tries to deduce and exhaust the possibilities, his thinking always goes around in circles and returns to the starting point.

He had hoped that the situation would improve after the poisoner was caught—but things didn't go as planned.

Voodoo died, along with his companions.

The Poison/Fire type Saurami, the purple Weezing, the powdery-skinned Dustmoth, the four-winged Crobat, the red-fanged Scyther, and the Galar form of Slowking.

He died in the Giant Cave in the northern part of Kagome Town.

He died from a type of poisoning never seen before.

A new equation and far more variables than the equation to be solved appeared before the king.

The only thing that can be confirmed is this:

That was the only fact that the incomplete equation could lead to, but at best it was just a vague concept that could barely be called a "conclusion" for the time being—meaningless in the face of the newly discovered corpse.

As if mocking himself, the Plasma King revealed this conclusion to the fire-type Celestial Earth from Carlos: "In Voodoo's actions, there was a clear lack of elements for survival."

N said, "Throughout our pursuit, Voodoo never once tried to communicate with us, his pursuers. There was no negotiation, no talk, no argument. He simply kept trekking through mountains and rivers, avoiding cities where he could easily blend in, and plunging headlong into remote, uninhabited forests. Not only did he fail to destroy the cameras that could reveal his identity, but he also wasted time killing large numbers of wild elves, leaving their corpses like road signs in place—this almost proves that Voodoo had no intention of shaking off his pursuers and escaping alive."

"Even though our Plasma Group was chasing us day and night, Voodoo was still one step ahead of us, maintaining a comfortable lead until we reached the Giant's Cave. For a human to do this, they would have to flee without eating, drinking, or sleeping, otherwise it would be impossible to shake off the organized pursuit of an entire group."

"But Vudu persevered in this state for nearly half a month."

Inside the dimly lit Giant's Cave, standing amidst the bustling Team Plasma members, N pointed to the corpse in front of him and said, "The on-site autopsy also proved this. This trainer's physical condition was already on the verge of collapse before he died. Even if he hadn't been poisoned and hadn't received timely treatment, he would have at least lost most of his life after leaving the hospital. I think from this information, we can vaguely understand the poisoner's mental state at the time."

"It's as if escaping wasn't the goal, but rather the carnage along the way."

Faced with the battered and mangled body of the poisoner, covered in mud and blood, the news anchor remarked with a hint of unease, "Could he have known all along that he was poisoned?"

"The test results are not yet available, so it's impossible to determine whether it was suicide or homicide. All we know for now is that the toxin that caused Voodoo and his Pokémon's deaths is not the same as the concoction used on those Poison-type Pokémon."

N sighed and shook his head. Facing the body of the human who had slaughtered countless Pokémon, he didn't know what expression to make.

"Even if it's murder, from the perspective of our Plasma Group, it seems unnecessary to seek justice for this guy who deserves to die, right?"

"Sigh, it's a bit disheartening that things ended like this, but the person is dead, what else can we do?"

A short, wise man with a mustache spoke to the king, his magnificent robes signifying his noble status as one of the Seven Sages.

Another white-robed elder beside the sage bowed to N and said, "Whether it's suicide or murder, let's move these bodies out as soon as possible. Although this path isn't the main route leading to the depths of the Giant's Cave, the bodies here are already interfering with the normal work of other explorers—it will definitely be more troublesome once the bodies start to decompose. Your Majesty, should I use geometric snowflakes to temporarily freeze this person?"

Pachira observed N's reaction with great interest, wanting to see how the young king would interact with his subjects.

"What you say makes a lot of sense."

N spoke in a calm tone, as if he were having a casual chat with his elders.

"However, I feel that the cause of this person's death is not simply poisoning. The fact that he murdered the elves shouldn't be dismissed so easily just because the killer is dead; at least the details should be investigated. What do you think?"

"Excuse my bluntness, but Your Majesty seems to be spending far too much time on this case."

The tall, thin old man in the white robe shook his head and said...

"I don't mean to interfere with Your Majesty's schedule, but please note that the undertakings we are undertaking are in dire need of rebuilding. While you are bogged down in meaningless trifles, thousands of abused Pokémon are crying out in despair. Please—"

Consider your actions carefully.

For some reason, the old man's tone as he offered his advice gradually became sluggish, as if he had encountered some kind of invisible pressure.

N didn't seem angry at all; he simply stretched out his hand to stop the yellow-robed sage from arguing with the old man.

Then, the King of the Plasma Group issued a decree: "Master Vio, what you said is indeed reasonable. Different tasks should indeed be assigned to more specialized people. As far as I know, Father seems to have recently recruited a collaborator who is currently under evaluation, right? How about hiring this person to solve this case?"

With his usual calm expression, N looked directly into the eyes of the "hotspot" and saw the shock within.

Just as the puppeteer of "Foolish Carnival" can grasp the subtle tremors of human nature, and the king can listen to the voices of all Pokémon, how could he be like a puppet, completely unaware of the actions of his subjects?