The Death of Hosokawa Hiroshi

The finale of the auction featured a blue potential Ralts. As soon as Ralts appeared on the big screen, the atmosphere of the auction heated up dramatically.

Initially, Yuga had intended to bid for it, but the competition was overwhelming, and he had no choice but to reluctantly withdraw. After all, his Ecopark didn't lack a Ralts, so there was no need to fight over it and risk a costly bidding war.

Typically, breeding facilities rarely sell blue potential Pokémon openly. They either distribute them internally or send them to auctions. For the average person without connections, obtaining a blue potential Pokémon isn't easy.

What's more, this particular Pokémon was Ralts, a rare species. Who wouldn't want a Gardevoir?

The Ralts in this auction was female, so evolving into Gallade was out of the question, but it was perfectly suited to evolve into Gardevoir.

The competition for this Ralts was intense, and it was ultimately sold for a staggering 9.5 million. This price would generally be considered high for a blue potential Pokémon, but for a Ralts, paying such a premium wasn't unreasonable.

By the time the auction ended, it was nearly dark. As soon as the event concluded, the auction house promptly delivered the items Yuga and Mayor Ishida had won. Yuga and Mayor Ishida then settled their payments directly with the attendants by swiping their cards.

After completing the transaction, Ariyo helped Yuga and Mayor Ishida carry their purchases and prepared to escort them home.

As they walked through the auction hall, they encountered Hosokawa Hiroshi and Asajō approaching from the opposite direction. Upon seeing Yuga, Hosokawa beamed and said warmly, "Gym Leader Shimizu, are you leaving? Allow me to see you off."

As always, he ignored Mayor Ishida entirely. However, Mayor Ishida, with his wealth of experience, wasn't bothered by such petty provocations and paid it no mind.

Yuga waved his hand and replied, "There's no need to trouble you, Deputy Branch Manager Hiroshi. Ariyo will escort us."

Hosokawa chuckled and said, "Then have a safe journey." As he spoke, he secretly shot Ariyo a glare, making Ariyo's scalp tingle with unease.

Back at home, Yuga first had dinner under the arrangement of Audino and then headed to the Ecopark.

He placed Throh and Sawk in the main Ecopark, where Machamp and Medicham—also Fighting-types—resided. This way, they could spar with each other, and since they shared the same egg group, breeding future offspring would also be convenient.

If Throh and Sawk weren't interested in Medicham, they could pursue the beautiful and alluring Lopunny, who also belonged to the humanoid egg group.

Throh and Sawk seemed a bit reserved. In this new environment, their behavior was rather restrained. Fortunately, Machamp and Medicham were friendly, which helped them adjust relatively well.

After confirming that Throh and Sawk were settling in fine, Yuga took the Prism Scale he had acquired at the auction to the shallow sea beach sub-ecopark.

Upon arriving at the lake in the heart of the island, Yuga called out to Milotic. With a loud splash, Milotic's head emerged from the water, its curious gaze asking why Yuga had summoned it.

Crystal-clear water droplets slid down Milotic's smooth skin, enhancing its beauty even further. Close behind, Gyarados surfaced with starry eyes, utterly mesmerized by Milotic.

Yuga explained his plan to use the Prism Scale to evolve a Feebas and asked Milotic to help him select one.

Hearing this, Milotic swished its long tail through the water, and a Feebas was promptly flicked onto the shore.

Yuga activated his Insight skill to inspect the Feebas.

...

[ Feebas ]

Type: Water

Ability: Adaptability

Gender: Female

Potential: Green

Level: 25

Moves: Splash, Tackle, Mirror Coat, Water Pulse

...

Yuga didn't expect that with just a casual swipe, Melotic had managed to pull out a Fee as with hidden ability. It's not that a hidden ability Feebas is inherently better, but it's simply not very common.

Yuga walked to the edge of the lake and gently lifted the Feebas from the water. The Feebas was very calm and didn't struggle at all.

After leaving the Ecopark with the Feebas, he went to the Pokémon Center. Though it was already dark, it was still early, and Joyka and Blissey hadn't gone off duty yet.

When Yuga explained that he was there to help the Feebas evolve, Joyka didn't even look up, directly telling Yuga to handle it himself.

The Feebas wore the Prism Scale, and after a communication exchange, it successfully evolved into a Milotic.

...

[ Milotic ]

Type: Water

Ability: Marvel Scale

Gender: Female

Qualification: Green

Level: 26

Skills: Splash, Tackle, Mirror Coat, Aqua Ring, Refresh, Twister, Attract, Aqua Tail, Dragon Pulse.

...

After looking at Milotic's skill list, Yuga noticed that Refresh, Twister, and Attract were skills that could only be learned after reaching a certain level, but Aqua Tail and Dragon Pulse seemed like moves that Milotic couldn't learn unless it actively sought them out through training.

Could this be the difference between evolving with the Prism Scale versus another method? Yuga suspected that Milotic, when evolved using the Prism Scale, might inherit some of the skills its previous owner had, which would explain why it could learn these moves upon evolution.

Of course, this was just Yuga's hypothesis, as he only had this single case to go on and couldn't form a solid conclusion. The actual situation would need further observation.

After Feebas evolved successfully, Yuga took it back to the Ecopark and asked Milotic's leader to take good care of it.

The next morning, Yuga went to the gym to revive the eleven fossils. He had spent over a million on them, and he was eager to see if any high-potential Pokémon could be revived from them.

It turned out that the Bright Pearl Auction House's claim that these fossils had been carefully selected was likely true, as among the eleven revived Pokémon, there were some high-potential ones: a green-potential Omanyte, a green-potential Archeops, and a blue-potential Tyrunt.

Yuga made a huge profit.

Just the blue-potential Tyrunt alone was worth more than the Ralts at the auction, not to mention the added bonus of the green-potential Omanyte and Archen.

The Omanyte was released into the shallow coastline, where it enjoyed floating leisurely in the sea.

Although it seemed a bit slow, the Omanyte was actually very quick-witted. In no time, it made friends with many of the sea creatures and turned out to be quite the diplomat.

The Archen was sent to the Archeops by Yuga.

The freshly revived Archen had a hard time adjusting to the new environment. It was very timid and would panic and scatter in all directions whenever another Pokémon got close, emitting high-pitched cries.

However, it was highly dependent on its own species, and the Archeops was more than happy to look after the newly revived member of its kind.

As for the Luxray, which had been "serving his sentence" under Archeops's supervision, it was finally "released" after receiving Yuga's approval.

After returning to the Grassland Sub-Ecopark, Luxray had changed significantly. It was no longer as arrogant as before and had become much more docile.

Having not seen his mate for a long time, Luxray couldn't resist getting cozy with the four Ampharos. It seemed likely that before long, the Ecopark would have new additions.

As for Tyrunt, it was naturally sent to the Dragon Den Sub-Ecopark.

Yuga entrusted Tyrunt to Druddigon, who now had plenty of experience raising young Pokémon. Taking care of one Pokémon, like Helioptile, was no problem, so adding Tyrunt to the mix was just as easy.

However, Tyrunt had a rather rough personality. The first time it saw Helioptile, it immediately tried to bully it, but was quickly disciplined by Druddigon.

Yuga didn't believe that Tyrunt would become obedient after just one lesson. Druddigon the Nanny would have plenty of headaches in the future.

The remaining low-potential fossil Pokémon were sent to the new Ecopark.

After Yuga had settled all the fossil Pokémon, he was shocked to hear from Saskia, who hurriedly came over to deliver some devastating news—Hosokawa Hiroshi had been murdered at home.

Yuga froze for several seconds after hearing this. Hosokawa Hiroshi was dead?

"Let's go. Take me to the scene!"

Yuga said with a serious expression. As the Gym Leader of Verdanturf Town, he couldn't ignore a murder that happened in town. However, he never expected that the man who had been courting him not long ago would end up dead like this.

Under Saskia's guidance, Yuga arrived at the crime scene.

Hosokawa Hiroshi had been killed in his own home, which was in a newly built villa district in Verdanturf Town. When Yuga arrived, Masato Shirai was already on site, directing people to investigate and protect the scene.

When Yuga saw Hosokawa Hiroshi's body, he nearly vomited his dinner from the night before. The sight of his body was gruesome—he looked like a dried-up corpse.

Suppressing his discomfort, Yuga asked Masato Shirai, "Is it confirmed that this is Hosokawa Hiroshi?"

"Yes, it's been confirmed," Masato Shirai nodded. "We took DNA samples from the body, and it's definitely Hiroshi."

Yuga remained silent for a moment before sighing, "I wonder who he angered. This was definitely the work of a Ghost-type Pokémon."

Having dealt with Ghost-type Pokémon for a long time, Yuga immediately recognized the cause of death.

While Yuga and Masato Shirai were discussing the situation, they suddenly heard crying. After asking, they learned that it was Hiroshi's assistant, Asajō, who was crying.

Asajō had been called in by the police for questioning. They wanted to know if Hiroshi had made any enemies recently, and Asajō burst into tears, crying uncontrollably.

However, Asajō wasn't crying because he was sad about Hiroshi's death; he was crying from fear, repeatedly muttering, "It must have been him."

It was clear that Asajō knew something.

After much questioning by the police, Asajō eventually revealed the full story.

It turned out that Hosokawa Hiroshi was not a good person. He frequently used his position to embezzle items that customers had sent to the Bright Pearl Auction House for auction.

Not long ago, when he was still at headquarters, a person had come to the auction house with a precious item for auction, and Hiroshi had been the one to attend to him. However, Hiroshi had secretly taken the item for himself, refusing to admit it, and, taking advantage of the other person's lack of power, had hired someone to beat the person up.

Soon after, Hiroshi was transferred to Verdanturf Town, but to his surprise, that person had followed him here, looking for Hiroshi to settle the score.

Yuga had met that person before, the same one who had been thrown out of the auction house that day.

Of course, Hiroshi denied taking the person's item, so he secretly hired someone to beat up the person again. This time, he went even further, breaking the person's two legs.

Asajō had been present at the time, and he still clearly remembered the words that person had said as they left. He had claimed that Hiroshi had ruined his life and swore that he wouldn't let Hiroshi live.

Sure enough, the very next day, Hiroshi was dead.

Asajō was now terrified. He was Hiroshi Hiroshi's most loyal lackey, and he feared that the person who had killed Hiroshi wouldn't be satisfied and would come after him next to take out their revenge on him for being Hiroshi's underling.

After hearing Asajō's words, both Yuga and Masato Shirai were infuriated. Hosokawa Hiroshi truly deserved to die.

According to Asajō, this wasn't the first time Hiroshi had committed such acts, or he wouldn't have been so accustomed to it. However, he never expected that this time not only would he fail, but it would cost him his life.

It was still uncertain whether the person Asajō mentioned was the actual killer, but the police hadn't found the item Asajō spoke of in Hiroshi's house.

According to Asajō, Hiroshi was very fond of that item, and when he came to Verdanturf Town, he didn't even bring his wife but made sure to bring that item along, frequently taking it out to play with it.

The police quickly issued a wanted notice for the person Asajō had mentioned. Currently, that person was missing, and they were the prime suspect in the murder.

While Yuga also felt that Hosokawa Hiroshi had it coming, he knew that murder was still murder. Regardless of the reasons, killing someone meant having to take responsibility under the law.

After the wanted notice was released, there was still no news of the suspect's whereabouts. Hiroshi's family arrived soon after, and upon learning of her husband's death, Hiroshi's wife cried bitterly.

However, Yuga noticed that when Hiroshi's wife saw his body, she stepped back in shock and refused to come any closer. Even when she cried, she stayed a great distance from the body.

Yuga could understand, though. After all, Hiroshis death was so gruesome that even he, a grown man, nearly vomited. It must have been even harder for a woman to witness.

The calmest person in the entire scene was Hiroshis grandfather. After a single glance at his grandson's body, he maintained a stern face and didn't say a word for the rest of the time.

It was said that the old man was nearly ninety years old and now had to bury his own grandson, which was tragic.

However, there's always something to be hated about someone pitied. If this old man had done a better job raising his grandson, this tragedy wouldn't have occurred.

As the saying goes, "If you don't teach your child, it's the father's fault." Yuga also observed Hiroshi's father, who was just as irresponsible as Hiroshi himself. Though the man wasn't young anymore, there was no sign of the maturity one would expect from someone his age.

If it were just a case of the grandson being poorly raised, it might be excusable. But when both the grandson and the son turned out the same way, it could only point to a failure in the old man's education.

Afterward, Hiroshi's grandfather privately visited both Yuga and Masato Shirai, hoping that Verdanturf Town would catch the killer as soon as possible.

After sending the old man off, Yuga's face turned grim. He didn't believe for a second that the old man had been unaware of the wrongdoings Hiroshi had committed over the years.

If they had done all these things, they should have been mentally prepared for this day to come. Those who walk along the riverbank should expect their shoes to get wet sooner or later.