Mission and Sunset

Rope looked at the list he had in front of him and tapped the table gently in silence.

Leopold, Poloson, Thurman, Ishikai, Harumi, Malkin, Riko...

There were some people in there whose identities they knew.

Like Poloson was a well known director in the Kalos region, Harumi was Snow herself, and Malkin was a journeyman who had always been well known on the League's most wanted list. And Malkin's grandfather... a Pokémon hunter famous from the days of Professor Oak's involvement in League conventions, was on the League's Most Wanted list back in those days, and is still at large again...

As for the others... Rope didn't doubt the information Snow had sent over, if no counterparts had been found in reality then these people were either obscure or had completely changed their names in life...

Ahead of him, Cynthia, Daisy, and Whitley were seated at a table with tea and pastries.

The three women were having afternoon tea. Rope, on the other hand, didn't have much to do with this afternoon tea...

After all, his work wasn't done yet...

"Say, Cynthia, shouldn't you leave these jobs to Lucian? Why would you let me do it?"

Rope asked without looking up.

Cynthia had a grin on her face and was just about to turn back to go make a joke or two with Rope when she saw Rope's gesture of not raising her head. Then shook her head rather helplessly.

Rope's kind of behavior was something she had seen not once or twice. It seemed like he was talking to you, but in fact, your answer didn't matter. He was just adjusting his thoughts.

"Because Lucian has his own job too, it's fine if you're not there, and I don't have to bother Lucian if you are."

"And if you have any other plans in the future, you'd better learn to handle those jobs honestly. After all, I won't feel comfortable retiring if I don't leave the Sinnoh region in the hands of a reliable person."

As for what to do after retirement...that's something everyone knows.

Rope just nodded silently, then shook his head again, then raised his head to look at the three women across the table and said, "There are no more new clues over here for now. We'll give this list to the others later. Then get Diantha to help get Poloson under control first. It shouldn't be of much use though."

The information Snow had given was of great value, but the only one who could really get his hands dirty was Poloson, who Tide Doo had previously confessed to.

Cynthia nodded and said, "Eh well, I'll go ahead and get everything motioned aside in a bit."

Rope pondered for a moment, then said, "Let's have every League everywhere send someone to patrol the dojos everywhere. There might be some clues."

Cynthia nodded again.

Rope then looked to Whitley and said, "Whitley, in a few moments, you follow Hoopa to Tree of Beginning and talk to Mew about you going around to meet up with the Legendary Pokémon everywhere. Actually, I should be the one to step in on this, but I've got a lot of things going on my end, so you go ahead and take Mew with you, and there shouldn't be some guys who'll come after you."

Whitley nodded and answered the task Rope had arranged. Of course she knew exactly how difficult the difficulty behind this matter was, although there wouldn't be much danger. But facing the gods head on was enough to require courage in itself.

Rope finally looked at the nervous Daisy again as he smiled, "Sis, I need you to help me stabilize the administrative side of League and keep an eye on them for me. We can't let them trip us up, and we can't let some of them betray us."

Daisy nodded seriously at Rope's words. She couldn't help much with anything else. But keeping an eye on the politicians, she could still do it. After all, when she was at the Oak Research Center, she was also the one who was in charge of dealing with these pesky administrators for Professor Oak.

"Then I'll travel to the administration under the guise of helping you set up an official institute and spy on them in the process."

Daisy said with clear thinking.

Rope smiled and nodded, "I'm comfortable leaving things in your hands, by the way Mei, since you're going to be under that name then by the way bring that little girl named Yutsuki and Eri with you as well. This will be the straw team of our institute from now on."

Daisy rolled her eyes. What kind of person talks about their own institute members like that...

But she still nodded to signal that she was clear.

"What about you?"

Cynthia asked as she looked at Rope and frowned. Of course she wasn't afraid that Rope would be lazy and not do her work, but that Rope would leave all the dangerous tasks all to herself. Rope's biggest bad habit was being a pushover.

Or a great lack of trust in others.

Rope smiled and said, "I recently went back to hunting Malkin."

Rope's eyes sparkled with a divine light, "My gut tells me that catching Malkin would have been a huge piece of our intelligence."

Rope wasn't talking nonsense with this statement, from the intelligence given by Snow, Malkin, this guy probably knew quite a bit about the Servants of God organization and harbored a certain amount of dissatisfaction towards the organization.

Seriously, what's the point of keeping this kind of person if you don't capture him and torture him for information!

But Cynthia was obviously not as optimistic as Rope.

"But according to the information Snow gave us, the weakest of these people must have Elite Four level strength. And he might even have his grandfather Kumas with him... that's a real veteran champion..."

Cynthia was indeed a bit worried about Rope. if Malkin and Kumas were that easy to catch, they wouldn't be on the League's Most Wanted list until now.

Moreover, this Kumas guy had still been on the run for so many years, and as far as Cynthia knew, it wasn't like the League hadn't rounded him up. In the end, the League had not succeeded in apprehending this thief who had been on the loose for decades.

But since then Kumas has rarely been seen in the public eye. The legend of the legendary thief Kumas gradually faded away. In his place was the story of his grandson, Malkin.

Of course, even Malkin was a man who had been wanted for more than ten years, but the League still had nothing to show for it. To the point that League has never even seen his real face until now. What they have seen, with a hood blocking the facial details of the photo.

Malkin, the enigmatic Bandit.

Rope is now talking about capturing Malkin and will almost certainly come into conflict with the Kumas.

Cynthia still had a hard time accepting the reality of putting Rope at risk for a moment.

But Rope was shaking his head, "Don't worry about it, Cynthia, I naturally don't preach any honorable fighting when dealing with these people."

Rope gave a wide smile and said, "I'll do it myself."

Rope said that Cynthia also reflected that the guy in front of her was not a normal trainer. As long as he didn't want to, then no attack could hurt him for a long time.

With such physical characteristics, he dared to fight a certain Darkrai in the dream world when he hadn't yet gotten stronger. And after getting stronger, what were two hunters and bandits in the area?

Cynthia was dumbfounded and said after a moment, "Is there anything else you want to instruct me besides the meeting?"

Rope thought for a moment and said, "There really is. snow gave us this list, and if these are real names, then even if it's hard to find out, you can always find some cracks. You'll start with the one called Riko."

Rope's eyes narrowed slightly as he said, "Pursuing Ho-Oh, has a sick daughter at home, is a woman herself, and goes by the name Kanto."

"Seriously I would surmise that the odds are that this woman is a Kanto. And a being who wants to go after Ho-Oh would never bypass Bell Tower and Mount Tensei."

He looked to Cynthia and said seriously, "I wouldn't know the exact identity of this person very well. But based on folklore alone, it's definitely not that simple to track down Ho-Oh's existence, so it's a good bet that this guy should also have a certain position in the League. And one that has access to news about Legendary Pokémon."

"So, I'm going to start by checking with Kanto and Shirodo's internal staff?"

Cynthia frowned, "But that's not appropriate, is it. I'm the champion of Sinnoh. Let Lance do the checking."

It wasn't that Cynthia was pushing back. Rather, this situation really wasn't suitable for Cynthia to intervene, leaving it to Lance was the right thing to do.

But Rope shook his head and said, "I'll instruct Lance to look into it from the other side."

"Are you trying to relax the enemy's attention before you let me find this Riko in the shadows?"

Cynthia instantly realized what Rope meant.

Rope smiled with a raised eyebrow and snapped his fingers then said, "That's right, that's right, the best way to catch a snake if you know it's hiding in the grass is not to walk into the grass, but to startle the snake."

Cynthia also smiled and nodded, signaling that she understood.

"That's the arrangement then. I'm going to go over to the archives first to find some information on Malkin and Kumas...I don't really know much about the stories and rumors about those two guys..."

With that, Rope was going to walk out of the office.

But not before Cynthia tugged on her sleeve before she could take two steps.

"Where do you want to go?" Cynthia had a 'kind' smile on her face before pointing to the pile of papers on her desk, "Your work isn't done yet!"

Rope thought to himself is this my job? Don't you dare say that to Lucian's face. As long as Lucian is here, I can get him to carry off this 'mountain' of papers.

Lucian! Lucian!!! where are you?!!! Come and get me !!!!

Not to mention that Rope didn't shout his heart out. Even if he shouted it out.Lucian would never come over!

And in the other office.Lucian looked at the pile of papers stacked almost higher than the desk by his feet and nodded with a smile.

"I can't believe I finished my work so quickly today, and not a single document from Cynthia's side has actually been sent over!"

Lucian informatively propped up his eyes and said, "It looks like Big Sister has finally regained her working self-consciousness as a champion."

After sighing with emotion, Lucian picked up the book in his hand, flipped it open and took a sip of the black tea in his hand.

Enn! This is my normal working condition!

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Sinnoh, Sunyshore City, Business District

"Daddy, Daddy! I want that sticker!!!"

A little girl with a double ponytail and wearing a small dress pointed at a Garchomp sticker above and excitedly shook the arm of the middle-aged man beside her, her eyes full of longing and desire.

The middle-aged man smiled and picked the little girl up, then said, "Come take it down."

Then he lowered his head and looked at the stall owner in front of him and asked with a smile, "How much?"

"Bearing favor, 200."

The stall owner smiled kindly as well. The man, on the other hand, shook his head and muttered 'how it's more expensive than even Pokéball' before pulling out money and handing it to the owner.

The boss took the money and said with a smile, ''This is a customized sticker, if you choose the electric sticker, heart-shaped sticker or whatever, it's definitely cheaper. But these customized stickers we are all peripheral developed with League, there are royalties!"

The man impatiently said, "Okay, okay, I know that too."

Then looking to his daughter, he asked, "Baby why did you pick this sticker?"

"Because Garchomp is cool!" The little girl's eyes lit up, "Sister Cynthia is so cool!"

Then both the stall owner and the man broke into smiles.

"Then you should learn from Sister Cynthia in the future and become a good trainer!"

Once the little girl heard this, there was a big seriousness on her tender little face, "I definitely will!"

On the other side of the bench, a blonde beauty with a baseball cap, wearing strapless short sleeves and a pair of light-colored jeans underneath couldn't help but smile at this sight.

And the youth beside her, who was wearing an open white coat with a simple white t-shirt and jeans underneath, looking a bit tired, had a smile on his face as he said, "Aren't you going to go see your little fan?"

This white coat youth was naturally Rope, while the blonde beauty on the other side was naturally Cynthia.

And after hearing Rope's slightly flirtatious words, Cynthia was not in her head, she just silently smiled and shook her head.

"No need ah, she already has a goal doesn't she? I'll tell her the funny stories of this time when she's able to stand up to me."

Cynthia smiled brightly towards Rope, "I have a good memory, for example I can still remember the way certain people almost burst into tears in Poplar."

Rope sucked in a breath of cool air, then shook his head with a bitter smile, "Gotta have it, I admit defeat, Miss Cynthia please do spare me!"

Cynthia also feigned triumph, and tilted her head in true delight and laughed, "It's good to know how powerful this young lady is!"

Rope also scratched his own head and laughed.

He and Cynthia had been busy for most of the day, and had finally finished organizing their work and those materials related to Malkin and Kumas. So the two of them decided to come to Marina Town for a little while and go for a seafood dinner on the way.

Without Whitley and Daisy of course. this time it was a two-person affair.

Rope watched the setting sun spilling over this street. Looking at the lights of the houses at this time. Most importantly, he looked at the woman beside him who was smiling like a little child, smiled and shook his head.

Then sang softly.

とっておき　ふくつのこころ　もって

With your Last Resort, a Steadfast heart

高いテンガン山　越えて行こう

Let's go cross the tall Mt. Coronet

だれをゲットかな?　どこで出会うかな?

Who will we get? Where will we meet them?

ワクワク気分　まるで　ひみつきちさ

I'm excited, as if it's a Secret Base

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