"That's a pretty childish question." Reiji walked over with a smile and raised a hand toward Toxicroak, telling it to clear out the trash around her.
The Advanced-tier Trainers were already tied up elsewhere. The people left around the woman were weak, mostly Elite-tier Trainers, and none of them could help her.
Toxicroak moved fast. Every time it flashed past, someone dropped. In no time, the small fry around her were gone, and Toxicroak was back at Reiji's side.
The woman had never seen anyone like this before. As Reiji came closer, her legs gave out and she collapsed onto the grass. Even with 2 Pokémon protecting her, she had no will to fight.
"Please, let me go. I'll tell you where that man hid the family treasure. Just let me live."
"Family treasure?" Reiji looked her over. He had thought it was some rare item, but if it was a family heirloom, then it was probably something old.
The woman saw him watching her and misunderstood. She bit her lip, cursed men under her breath, then forced on a flattering smile and tugged at her skirt, showing off a stretch of pale thigh.
"My lord, if you want me to serve you, I can..."
Reiji's brow twitched under the mask.
Really? This again?
What kind of person did she think he was? He had lived through the internet age in his last life. He had seen every kind of demon and monster people could come up with.
And this was supposed to tempt him?
"Toxicroak, finish her." Reiji waved a hand. He had no interest in wasting more time. If she did not talk, he could still find the thing himself.
"Why? You can't do this! Please, spare me! I'll do anything. I was taken by that man too. My mother is sick, and my gambling father lost me to the Lightning Gang..."
"Yeah, of course." Reiji shook his head and turned away.
Maybe her story had been true at the start. But no one became the Lightning Gang's third-in-command by staying innocent and helpless. He did not buy the poor little victim act.
"Please, spare me!"
Her begging ended a moment later. Toxicroak's poison took her down, and she collapsed with foam at her mouth.
Her 2 Electric-type Pokémon had tried to move earlier, but Gengar's pressure scared them still. Spinarak searched out their Poké Balls and recalled them.
Once the woman was dead and her valuables were packed away, Reiji looked toward Naoki.
That fight was almost over too. Everyone else had their opponents under control. If Flygon had not opened with that wide-range Earthquake, and if the manor had not been full of Electric types, things would not have gone this smoothly.
Since everyone was fine, Reiji walked through the collapsed front gate and into the manor.
The place was in chaos. Some of the fighting had already spilled inside.
Reiji ignored the battles and went straight in. No one tried to stop him.
Then he reached the main hall and stopped.
The place was absurd.
Glowing pearls, colored gems, art pieces on every wall, gemstones, pearls, agate, white jade floor tiles. Everything was bright, expensive, and overdone. It looked less like a home and more like someone had tried to build a palace out of money.
"Boss, this place looks like a royal palace." Naoki walked in carrying the Lightning Gang boss and stared at the hall. Even he was stunned.
"We're just country bumpkins," Reiji said with a dry laugh. Then he waved for Gengar to hold the boss with Psychic. "Gengar, hypnotize him. Ask him what the family treasure is."
"Gar, gar."
Gengar rose from the shadows, its red eyes fixed on the boss as it prepared Hypnosis.
"Not a chance." The boss saw Gengar and bit down before anyone could stop him.
Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
He had hidden poison in his mouth for exactly this kind of situation. Even if he died, he would not let his younger brother get the family treasure.
The empty box earlier had been a trap too. He wanted Smiling Spider and his brother to turn on each other. If he was going down, then he wanted those 2 to tear each other apart with him.
He had still been trying to figure out how to make his brother believe Smiling Spider had already taken the treasure. Reiji letting that boy go had solved the problem for him.
"Ruthless bastard." Reiji saw the blood and knew it was too late. He had Gengar let go, then had Toxicroak finish the man off. After that, he told Gengar to grab someone else who could lead the way.
"Take me to your boss's room, and I'll let you live." Reiji had no plan to kill the servants, but they were terrified. If he did not say it that way, they probably could not even stand.
"M-my lord, you really won't kill me?" The maid on the floor stared up at him in fear.
"Keep wasting my time and I might."
"I'll take you. I'll take you there." The maid scrambled to her feet and led him to the boss's bedroom and study. The 2 rooms were connected.
Before leaving, Reiji glanced back at Naoki. "Number One, take the others and search the place. Kill anyone who fights back."
"Yes, Boss." Naoki rubbed his hands together.
The boss had already been searched, and there was nothing valuable on him. Since the man was dead anyway, Naoki grabbed another servant to lead the way and went straight for the rooms used by the gang's quasi–Elite Four Trainers.
The maid brought Reiji to the boss's study, then waited by the door while he looked around.
The study was surprisingly plain compared to the main hall. Just bookshelves, a desk, a simple ceiling light, and a lot of framed photos on the walls.
"Spinarak, tap around and look for hidden compartments." Reiji did not believe the room was this simple. While Spinarak checked the furniture and walls, he had Gengar search for hidden spaces.
Reiji went to the bookshelves.
Most of the books were ordinary things: speech, manners, social etiquette, old classics. Nothing valuable. If he took them out, they would be sold by weight.
Normal people would not pay serious money for them, and rich people would not buy secondhand books. They had no reason to.
Reiji worried something might be hidden in the covers or between the pages, so he had Gengar scan every book.
Nothing.
That was not how this was supposed to go.
Gengar and Spinarak finished checking the study and both came back with nothing. No hidden compartment. No secret space.
Reiji frowned.
The main hall was covered in gold and jade, yet this room was plain. The difference felt wrong.
Spinarak had pulled open the drawers and found some Evolution Stones, a few items, some gold and silver, and a bit of cash. But there was no family treasure, and nothing here was worth more than the art in the main hall.
The art was useless to them anyway. Most of it was probably stolen, and nobody would dare buy it. If anyone traced it later, every merchant connected to the pieces would get dragged in.
Besides, art was valuable because people agreed to call it valuable. It was a way for large amounts of money to move around. Real or fake, rich people could put whatever price they wanted on it.
For Reiji, it was dead weight.
He found nothing in the study, so he went into the bedroom behind it. Gengar and Spinarak searched again and found a backpack. Reiji dumped it out. Ordinary items, a pile of cash, nothing special.
He searched through everything again and again.
Nothing looked like a family treasure.
He was getting pissed.
He kept the Pokémon searching, kicked a chair across the room, and threw the cups off the desk. One smashed against a framed photo. Then he stormed back into the study and questioned the maid.
"Do you know where your boss hid his things?"
"I... I..." The maid dropped to her knees, almost crying. "I don't know. I really don't know. He never let us into the study."
"Damn it. I should've hypnotized that woman before killing her." Reiji cursed under his breath.
Then he asked, "Did you ever see him treasure anything? Something he looked at often, or kept touching?"
The maid froze and tried to think. She dug through every memory she had from working in the manor, especially the times she had brought him tea or water.
"I only know he liked sitting in the sun. And he liked staring at the photos on the wall. Sometimes he'd sit there all afternoon."
"Photos?"
Reiji looked at the wall.
There were photos here, and there had been more in the hallway. Photos of the Lightning Gang boss everywhere.
Was the old man hiding it in plain sight?
Gengar had already checked the photos. No layers, no hidden space, nothing behind them. Just ordinary photos.
Maybe the photos outside the room?
No. The family treasure was too important. He would not leave the actual item inside a random hallway photo. Too easy to lose, too many things could happen.
If everything impossible was ruled out, then...
Reiji turned back to the photos in the study.
If the photos themselves were normal, then the answer had to be inside the images.
It was like one of those spot-the-difference games. Find what was the same, or what changed, and the trick would reveal itself.
He looked over the photos again.
At first, they looked pointless. Just a narcissistic middle-aged man taking pictures of himself. Different clothes, different places, different colors. Nothing special.
Same man. Different ages. Different Pokémon beside him.
There had to be something he was missing.
Reiji looked again.
Then he noticed it.
In one formal photo, there was a feather in the chest pocket. In another, the same feather was tucked at his sleeve. In another, it was at his collar.
"There it is."
Every photo had that feather. No matter what the man wore or where he posed, the feather was always on him.
Was that the family treasure?
"You can go. Take the others and leave through the back door." Reiji had found the secret, and the photos in this room could not stay.
After the maid fled, he collected everything valuable, then released Weezing and had it set the study on fire.
He stepped into the hallway with Weezing and checked the photos there too. The same feather was in those photos, but he did not burn them. That would make it too obvious.
He went back to the main hall.
The place was a mess. Sou was actually prying gems out of the wall. Reiji did not even know what to say to that.
He walked over to the Lightning Gang boss's body and checked the man's nightclothes.
Sure enough, there was a feather in the chest pocket.
No one would have guessed the family treasure was a feather, especially not one sitting in plain sight in every photo and on the man's body.
Reiji picked it up, and the panel appeared.
[Golden Feather: A mysterious feather that gives off a golden glow. (Zapdos)]
"Golden Feather. A Zapdos feather." Reiji almost laughed. "He really knew how to hide it."
The man had understood the trick perfectly. The most dangerous place was the safest one. No one would think his most precious treasure was the dry, messy feather sitting right in his pocket.
[Silver Wing: A mysterious feather that gives off a silver glow. (Lugia)]
Reiji had seen Lugia's feather before, and the panel looked almost the same.
Without his proficiency panel, who would ever guess this dry, yellowed, split feather came from Zapdos?
No wonder they were called the Lightning Gang. The boss must have known whose feather it was when he named the gang. The only thing Reiji did not know was what the feather could do.
He did not study it there. He dragged the boss's body into a room, had Weezing set another fire, and let the flames spread through the manor. With luck, the fire would destroy every photo.
After getting rid of the body, Reiji put the feather into the box and stored it in his backpack.
Outside, more and more people were gathering. They were close to rushing in.
Reiji's group had not left yet. If those people got inside and saw the main hall, they would go insane. The place would turn into a bigger mess.
It had been less than an hour since the operation started. Barely half an hour, really.
When Reiji reached the front gate, he saw people testing the edge, almost ready to push in. Toxicroak used Poison Jab and sent one person's Pokémon flying, scaring the whole crowd back.
"It's Smiling Spider! Back up!"
"He's coming out! What's he doing?"
Reiji stood at the gate and looked over the crowd. There were people in the forest, people in the air, all of them hiding in the dark with greed in their eyes.
"Spider is working," Reiji said. "Anyone who doesn't back off dies."
"What, Smiling Spider wants it all?" someone shouted from inside the crowd.
"Step out and say that." Reiji looked toward the sea of heads in the distance.
Whoever it was had half a brain. Hiding in the back and stirring up the crowd was not a bad move.
"Don't be scared of him! If we all rush him, he can't stop everyone!"
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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