Alex found himself back outside the Pokémon Nursery once the light of teleportation faded. With his obvious leads at a dead end, he needed to start acting like a proper detective. Granted, he had learned plenty about investigations at the Police Academy in Saffron City, but that had been a long time ago, and most of those lessons had gone unused other than profiling. He usually relied on Arcanine for everything, so he had never actually needed to use his own head for investigations before.

“First things first, what do we know?” Alex muttered, placing a hand on his chin in thought. “There have been seven dead Pokémon in just over a week, the guardian is a Champion ranked Ice and Psychic type, and the bodies were found in the sewers…”

“Gardevoir!” Gardevoir beside him called out, adding more details.

“Their bodies were shredded, and they were younger Pokémon?” Alex clarified. “That feels like a passion-driven attack. We’d better find out who those Pokémon belonged to.”

Alex stepped back into the Pokémon Nursery, walking straight into the manager’s screaming. Without hesitation, he flooded the space with his aura, cutting her off before she could continue, and began firing off questions.

“Who owned the dead Pokémon? Where are their addresses? What do you know about every single one of them?” Alex asked in rapid succession.

“STOP THAT!” she shouted angrily, launching straight into another tirade.

“I see,” Alex said, nodding as Gardevoir fed him information pulled from the old woman’s memories.

Apparently, most of the nursery’s clients lived near the park. The entire southeast corner of the city was considered a residential area for higher-income families, those who could afford steep rent or outright purchase apartments or even entire buildings. They were also the kind of people who could afford to raise and feed Pokémon. However, they lacked the ambition of trainers, so they often left their Pokémon in the nursery’s care.

Conveniently, all the owners of the dead Pokémon lived in the same building, making it likely that the perpetrator resided there as well. This was basic geographic profiling, linking the culprit to the victims through their shared activity space, or where they were most likely to have met.

“Thanks,” Alex cut in before turning and leaving the nursery, slamming the door in her face.

“Gardevoir, I want a sweep of the area. Cover the ground, the sewers, and the skies. Lock down the entire space between here and the building northwest of the park. Have them investigate anything suspicious.”

“Gardevoir,” she said with a nod as Rotom released Alex’s Pokemon, mostly his attack teams. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Ceruledge, Dusknoir, and both pairs of Chandelure dove underground into the sewer system. Raticate, Arcanine, Kommo-o, the shiny Lucario, Gallade, and Lopunny took to the streets. Togekiss, along with Grim’s and Altaria’s flying teams, took to the skies.

It made for an impressive sight, one that instantly drew the attention of the surrounding crowds relaxing in the park or walking along the streets. Rarely did they ever see such powerful Pokémon moving through the city outside of a screen.

Alex, together with Gardevoir, Espeon, and Gothitelle, walked toward the apartment building where all those who had lost Pokémon lived. It was highly likely the culprit lived there as well.

“Rotom, find out what the police investigation uncovered,” Alex commanded.

He was willing to bet the police had reached the same conclusion and had already investigated everyone living in the building. After all, it wasn’t difficult to determine that the culprit operated in this area.

“Twelve households have undergone formal interview procedures, with no viable suspect identified to date. Seven of these correspond to the registered owners of the deceased Pokémon; no discernible relational links have been established among the parties apart from their use of the Pokémon Nursery.”

“Current assessment indicates the suspect is unlikely to be a resident of the building. No anomalous or suspicious activity has been recorded. Adjacent and surrounding residences have been subjected to equivalent investigative protocols, yielding similarly negative results. Further inquiry into the immediate location and its environs is currently assessed as non-productive for evidentiary yield.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Alex commented. “Oh well. Let’s see the place for ourselves and see if we can do anything different.”

Once they arrived at the address, Alex was presented with an old luxury apartment building that housed 12 apartments, two on each floor across a total of six floors. The structure carried a faded sense of prestige, with aged stonework and ornate detailing that had been dulled by time and urban wear. Despite its upkeep, it still projected affluence, suggesting long-established or inherited wealth rather than recently acquired luxury.

“Scan it, Gardevoir,” Alex commanded. “There should be 35 people and 15 Pokémon inside.”

It was already quite late, as it had taken a while for Alex to move around the city. The residents should have already returned home for dinner.

“Gardevoir!” she confirmed, indicating that the number of people and Pokémon inside matched the report.

“Did you find anything suspicious in their thoughts?”

Gardevoir shook her head. They all appeared as clean as expected.

Alex was at his wits’ end. The only remaining option was a blanket search of every person and Pokémon in the vicinity, an obviously poor investigative approach. It would also be highly disruptive, as he would have to subject each and every one of them to a deep psychic evaluation.

“What about you, Gothitelle? Do you know who the culprit is?”

She may have already glimpsed the identity of the culprit, so Alex asked simply to confirm what she knew.

Gothitelle responded with a thumbs-up and an excited smile.

“So you do know who it is?” Alex asked, a note of hope in his voice.

She tilted her head adorably, as if to indicate that Alex already knew better than to ask.

“Alright,” Alex sighed. Another dead end.

Gothitelle were complex in that they often had to behave in specific ways to allow their visions of the future to properly unfold. At least, that was the prevailing scientific hypothesis behind their unusual behavior. His own Gothitelle was something of an outlier, however, far more chipper than most of her species, who were typically aloof and detached.

Suddenly, Dusknoir rose from the ground with something clutched in his hand. He floated over to Alex and handed him several torn pieces of paper, with red hand painted markings on them, that he had found in the sewers.

“This is a ripped-up Cleanse Tag,” Alex noted.

Cleanse Tags are protective talismans placed throughout human-inhabited areas to repel wild, hostile Ghost type Pokémon. They are typically concealed within infrastructure so they aren’t visible, but their presence helps maintain a stable barrier that discourages Ghost type intrusion, especially at night when such Pokémon are most active.

In practice, they are treated as a standard requirement in construction and urban planning. Builders integrate them into key structural points such as walls, foundations, roads, and utility systems, including sewer networks. This creates a layered containment field across the entire settlement, ensuring that buildings, streets, and underground spaces remain consistently protected.

“Is our culprit a Ghost type Pokémon? That would certainly explain how it can evade detection by the nursery’s guardian, who is Psychic type,” Alex muttered as realization dawned. “Wait… Gardevoir wouldn’t be able to detect them either.”

Quickly, Alex scanned the entire building with his own aura, supported by his Dark type energy. Unlike Psychic types, Dark types were more than capable of easily detecting Ghost type Pokémon.

“There you are, you little bugger,” Alex said, detecting a 16th Pokémon in the building. “Gardevoir, send me a mental map of the Pokémon you’ve detected.”

Once Alex had a complete layout of the building from Gardevoir’s perspective, he was able to pinpoint the exact apartment where the Ghost type was located. It was in a child’s room.

“Gardevoir, surround that room with Dark and Ghost types,” Alex commanded, pointing to a corner balcony on the third floor.

Gardevoir coordinated Alex’s Pokémon and sent them out. Grim and Hydreigon hovered outside the room, Dusknoir and Ceruledge phased through the building and covered the top and bottom, while the Chandelure pair took the remaining two sides inside the building, completely trapping the Pokémon inside. If it dared to escape, mercy would no longer be an option.

Then, with a leap, Alex landed on the balcony and forced his way in, breaking the lock.

“Kyaaaa!” screamed the poor boy inside, suddenly confronted by a strange man.

Out of nowhere, the Lucario action figure atop the desk came to life, its form morphing into a Banette. Without hesitation, it rushed toward Alex, claws brandished, its face twisted with hate and fury.

Alex easily grabbed the feisty Pokémon by the top of its head, stopping its movement. It was only Adept rank and quite weak, yet still strong enough to kill the young Pokémon at the nursery.

“Got you,” Alex said with a satisfied smile, having successfully completed his investigation.

It was satisfying to prove he wasn’t just all muscle and no brains outside of combat. Honestly, it felt pretty good.

“Ethan! What’s wrong?” The parents burst into the room in alarm after hearing their son’s screams. “Ahhh! Who are you? What are you doing in our son’s room?”

“My name is Alex Wattson. I’m a bounty hunter here to capture the culprit responsible for the deaths of multiple Pokémon in the nursery.”

“That?” they stared in shock at the Banette in Alex’s hand, still struggling and lashing out at his arm in a futile attempt to break free.

“Yes, I apologize for breaking in. You can bill me for the damages. Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Alex said as he turned to leave.

“Wait!” the young boy shouted. “Where are you taking him?”

“Protocol indicates I must submit it to the police, where it will likely be killed for its feral tendencies.”

“Can’t… can’t you just let him go?”

“It would continue killing more Pokémon, though. Especially since you’re the reason it’s committing all these crimes.”

“Me?” the boy exclaimed, wearing the same shocked expression as his parents.

The Banette in Alex’s grip stopped struggling… and eerily turned its face toward the boy.