First of all, let's talk about ass… It might sound a bit perverted but there were a few things that made up having a good ass in my opinion.
It didn't need to be the fattest or thickest.
It just needed to perfectly fit the body of the person that had it and have enough fat in the right place. So yes, when I said Lida's ass was perfect, I really meant it.
"Sure." I said and she tilted her head to look up at mine from where it was pressed against my chest, though she tried to hide it, her expression showed that she was happy about that answer.
"You mean it?" Lida perked up.
"You said I should do everything I did with Tawn, right? Then sure, it wasn't like it was inappropriate." I said.
While her being pressed against me was a genuinely good opportunity, I was more interested in seeing her happy and shy right now.
Also I was getting a bit hard from all of it which was its own separate issue I was managing quietly.
"Good, you better." She let out a sigh and took a step forward. "I… I'm sorry if I was a bit rude, it's not nice to press your ass against someone—"
"I don't mind if it's you." I chimed in and she hid her face, spinning on her heel and rushing over to the wardrobe, pulling it open and effectively hiding her body from my view with the door.
"Well, turn the other way and don't peek at me." She said. "If you do then I'll never cook for you again.
I turned around and faced the door with the quickness.
That was a very viable threat… She was the only genuinely good cook in Hotel Z and if we were comparing in pure cooking ability, Lida won easily.
Sure, Taunie's dish wasn't bad but it wasn't in the same bracket. I was not risking the breakfast supply under any circumstances.
"You did great today in dancing." I said, listening to the sound of clothes being shifted around behind me. "It really looked like you had fun too."
"Th… thank you." She said. "Even though Mrs. Bea is a bit hard on us, she helps with the steps a lot… but I'm very scared, what if the scouts don't pick me?"
"You don't need to be scared at all." I said. "At the end of the day, you just have to be yourself and do what you do best. You'll get what you want. You don't have to be the best dancer in the group…"
I paused. "You're unique in your own cute way."
"..."
Oh shit, was that too much or…?
"Thanks Pax." Lida said quietly. "Thank you for believing in me. I'll try not to let you down."
She was fumbling with her clothes. At least, that was what it sounded like.
"Honestly, I don't want you to go anywhere." I said. "You know staying at home and serving me breakfast every morning doesn't sound so bad."
It might sound limiting but if she was traveling for gigs, I'd have to survive on Taunie making breakfast or buying outside every single day.
There was perfectly good food at home!
Lida stopped moving for a second.
"I… I don't really mind that if we were married." Lida said.
I laughed a little.
"Sure, why don't we get married then?" I asked and I couldn't see her face but I could absolutely feel the blush radiating off her from across the room.
"Marriage is a very important thing, you don't joke about it." She said. "Couples date for years before even thinking about getting married. We've only known each other for days. It wouldn't be appropriate…"
"I can meet your parents. Even your brother." I teased some more and she shuffled where she was. "No need to stress about it Lida, I'm joking… for now."
I wasn't even sure what family situation Paxton had in this world.
I really needed to look into that at some point. It would also be genuinely strange to show up somewhere with several girls and attempt to explain the situation to my mother in this world saying I wanted to marry them all or something.
"O-okay." The wardrobe clicked shut. "You can look now."
I turned around.
She was wearing her usual blue jacket with accessories back in her hair exactly as they always were. She looked as completely normal and cute as she did every morning at the Hotel Z dining table.
"Cute."
"It's just how I look everyday, do you need to compliment that?" She walked toward me and her cheeks were already going again. "Before we start anything… you call Taunie Tawn, so why don't you have a cute nickname for me, huh?"
Oh? Lida wanted a nickname?
"What about Lili…" I suggested, taking one step closer.
She warmed up immediately, the blush spreading up properly. Lida was really getting a lot of mileage out of blushing today.
"If you want it then I'll be happy." She looked down at the floor as she said it.
I couldn't help myself. I placed one hand on her waist and lifted her up.
"Hup…"
I got her into a princess carry with one hand naturally palming her ass in the process, and she immediately hid her face in my chest.
"I… I wasn't ready. You're mean." She said against my chest.
Using the opportunity, I grabbed a good handful of her ass and pressed down on it and she covered her face harder, pressing further into my chest.
"You didn't hold Taunie like this." She said.
"Of course not." I said. "You wanted to be held better than Taunie, right?"
I let go and trailed my fingers along her behind instead. It took a genuine amount of restraint not to just spank her. Why did these women have to be so hot?
"You… you're mean." Lida said, adjusting herself in my arms so I could get a better grip, which I took full advantage of, placing my hand there again properly.
"Alright, let's head back downstairs." I said and her face came out of my chest with a horrified expression. "I did carry Tawn down the stairs after all."
"Everyone is still here…" Lida said immediately. "Just carry me around the room and then put me on the bed."
Naturally I obliged.
I walked around the small dorm room with Lida in arms and Ralts watching from the desk next to the Riolu egg… and then something from the wall stopped us both.
We went quiet and listened.
"Haa~ Miles~ Ha… Harder~!"
They were going at it right next door. Right now. In the middle of the afternoon. Could people not hold their desires for five consecutive minutes?
Lida went red.
"They… they usually do that." She stuttered. "There's no rule against it in the scholarship rooms so Mika just does it whenever she wants."
"I see." I looked at the wall then I looked at Lida. "Wanna join in?"
She blushed so hard it looked painful and hit my chest with one hand.
"No! Put me on the bed." She said while kicking her legs and I laughed before setting her down on it.
She bounced once, smoothed her jacket, and looked up at me. "Alright. You have to kiss my forehead now."
Kissing two hot girls on the forehead in the same twenty-four hour period? I really wanted to see Naveen try to pull this off.
I leaned my head down and gave her a small kiss on her forehead while Lida looked everywhere in the room except directly at my face and her color hitting maximum.
"Are we good now Lili?" I asked while drawing back.
She nodded slowly.
"Fine. I forgive you now…" Lida said, sitting up and adjusting her hair while we both very casually ignored the sounds continuing to come through the wall. "So I didn't make breakfast this morning because I was thinking about how to plan all of this. Should we head back to the Hotel so I can cook you something? I don't want you working on an empty stomach today."
Really? Yes! Absolutely yes!
My phone pinged before I could say anything further and I checked it.
It was a second alarm… I was cutting it close. Emma said I should arrive at noon on the dot, not a minute later, those were the exact words she had used.
"I have to get to work." I told her. "But I would really appreciate it if you cooked a feast for when I get back. I'll be doing detective work today after all."
"Oh." Lida's face went a little downcast before perking back up. "Then I'll make a whole lot of food and you have to eat all of it. Every bit… Agreed?"
"Sure I will." I said.
She smiled.
I walked over and adjusted Riolu's egg back into the incubator harness, strapping it against my stomach, and settled Ralts back up on my head.
"Get home safe. I'll see you later, Lili."
She waved at me from the bed with a small smile still on her face.
I left the room and closed the door behind me, glancing once at the room next door from which certain sounds were still very much ongoing.
Tch! Bunch of perverts!
…
I arrived at Nouveau Café exactly at 12:00 and stepped out of the cab.
At one of the outside tables, Emma sat with a coffee in front of her and a file open on the table with a look on her face that said the morning had not been particularly generous to her.
She looked up at me.
"You're late." She said.
"Afternoon, Milady~" I said, tipping the hat.
I was wearing the full detective uniform she had sent via Taunie which was a bodysuit similar to Emma's own, a long brown coat over it, and the brown hat which Ralts was currently sitting on top of rather than my head.
I had debated the egg and ultimately decided to bring it. This was my first mission and we weren't chasing down criminals… the LCPD handled that.
We were detectives so the egg was fine.
"Thank you for coming, Paxton." She motioned to the chair across from her and I sat. "I see you're very attached to the Riolu egg already. That makes me happy. It'll hatch for a wonderful trainer."
She looked significantly more tired than yesterday with dark circles under her eyes.
"Em…" I tested the shortening of her name. "Have you slept at all?"
Emma waved a hand to the side.
"Maybe two hours…" She said. "It really is hard handling all of this by myself."
She yawned, covering her mouth. "But don't worry about that. We have several commissions today and we'll be focusing on two main ones right now. Let's see if you have the critical thinking to handle them."
"Alright." I said. "Lay it on me."
She handed me the file that was printed formally and properly organized… Em had made it official.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
LOOKER BUREAU ACTIVE CASE FILE
DETECTIVE IN CHARGE: Emma
ASSISTANT DETECTIVE: Paxton (Probationary)
DATE: August 1st 2019
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MISSION #1 — MISSING POKÉMON REPORT
Case ID: LB-0041
Filed by: Claudette Moreau, owner
Location: Patisserie Soleil, Rue Lumière, Jaune Sector 4
Status: OPEN
Report Summary: Complainant reports that her Munchlax (registered name: Soli, male, approx. 3 years old, no Pokéball) has been missing from the shop's back room for two days. Back door and front door were both locked at closing time with no broken windows and no signs of forced entry. Complainant does not believe it was theft given Munchlax's low market value but cannot explain the disappearance. Soli is described as lazy, well-fed, and unlikely to wander. Last confirmed sighting: 7pm, two days prior.
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MISSION #2 — OVERNIGHT STOCK THEFT
Case ID: LB-0042
Filed by: Gérard Marchais, owner
Location: Boulangerie Marchais, Rue Dorée, Jaune Sector 4
Status: OPEN
Report Summary: Complainant reports that overnight bread and pastry stock has been disappearing from the storage room for the past two days with no signs of forced entry. Complainant suspects human involvement and describes the losses as financially significant… stock is being discarded each morning as contaminated with no surveillance, no witnesses and no trace of the stolen goods found.
NOTE: Both locations are in Jaune Sector 4.
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I closed the file.
"So not only do we have to find a missing Munchlax." I said. "But we also have to find a thief stealing pastries overnight."
I looked at Emma. "And based on the locations, they're in the same area."
I wasn't going to accuse anything innocent without confirming it first but I was already putting it together.
"That's the mission." Emma replied, setting her coffee down. "Since this is your test run, I won't be telling you much. You're the one solving it and I'll be following."
She looked at me evenly. "Want to back out now?"
"If we solve this, will you at least sleep for a few hours afterward?" I asked. Two hours was nowhere near enough for a person running an entire detective bureau alone.
Emma blinked then she let out a quiet sigh.
"I… Fine then." She said. "Should we head to the first location? I have a taxi ready."
"Let's go." I closed the file and stood.
"Rara~"
Onward to Jaune District!
…
"This is the place." Emma said as we arrived.
Unlike Lida's dance school which had deliberately stayed untouched by the Urban Redevelopment, Patisserie Soleil was completely in line with the new Lumiose… it had a clean front and an electronic sign above the doors glowing a warm amber colour.
[Patisserie Soleil]
It was a pastry shop.
The display window showed rows of croissants, éclairs, small tarts with glazed fruit on top, and at least three kinds of macaron. My stomach had opinions.
We entered and strangely there were no customers at this hour, there was just the smell of butter and sugar hanging in the warm air and a woman with white hair tied in a neat bun who scurried toward us the moment the door opened, nearly dropping the broom she had been using.
This was Mrs. Claudette from the file.
"Ah, welcome, detectives." She said, clasping her hands together. "Thank you for coming as quickly as possible. I really do appreciate it."
Emma looked at me so it was my cue.
I stepped forward.
"We haven't helped you yet ma'am." I said. "But I can assure you we'll do everything we can to find your Soli."
I pulled out the small notepad I had been given as part of the kit. "Can you show us the room where you usually keep him?"
"Of course, please come through." She led us to the back room, opening the door into a space that had been set up for a Pokémon specifically… there were toys in a basket, a sleeping cushion and treats on a small shelf at ground level with plenty of room to move around.
"As you can see, Soli has everything here. I spend a lot of time in the shop so he can't be wandering the floor while we have customers, but two days ago he just vanished. The windows are too high for a Munchlax to reach and nothing looks tampered with. I don't know what happened."
She was right about the windows.
I looked around the room slowly and nothing was obviously disturbed.
The food bowl on the floor was empty but apparently that was normal according to the file… Soli ate constantly.
"Ma'am, please let me investigate." I reached into the coat's inner pouch and pulled out the magnifying glass they had included.
This was the best part of the job, I was not going to pretend otherwise.
I walked the room slowly with the magnifying glass, doing my best impression of someone who knew exactly what they were doing.
Ralts, still on my shoulder, reached over and looked through the glass herself with considerable interest.
"Rara~" She pointed at the lower wall.
I followed where she was pointing.
There… a large ventilation grate was set low in the wall, leading somewhere behind the building and on the inside frame of the grate which was very clear once you were looking for it were scratch marks that were going outward.
And the grate was ever so slightly off its frame which was close enough that you wouldn't notice unless you were crouching down and inspecting it, nobody apparently had done so till now.
Munchlax had pushed its way out and then pulled the grate back from the other side to hide it.
That was smarter than I expected from a Pokémon famous primarily for eating and sleeping.
"I think Soli escaped through this vent." I stood and looked at Claudette and Emma. "There are scratch marks on the inside of the frame and the grate has been moved. It made its own way out."
"Oh…" Claudette pressed both hands to her chest. "I hope you find him quickly. May Arceus be with you both."
She sent us off with a croissant each for the road.
We stepped back outside into the alley behind the building with croissants in hand, examining where the ventilation channel ran.
Emma pulled out her Rotomphone while taking a bite of her croissant.
I glanced at her.
I had always been more of an ass man personally but Emma had a look about her that made it impossible not to notice everything… also those boobs were something else. I couldn't really keep my eyes off them.
"The ventilation systems of older Jaune Sector buildings connect through a shared underground utility channel." Emma said, looking at her screen. "They didn't remove it during the renovation so it runs under the street between buildings. There should be several exits but one should be at another building up ahead."
She looked up at me. "Lead the way Paxton and stop staring at me. It's… embarrassing."
Cute… All these girls were really cute.
"Sure." We started down the alley. "So Em… how long have you been doing this kind of work?"
"Several years now." She said. "I'm doing it to help someone very important to me. He's the reason I can help people the way I do today."
"He sounds like a good person." I said. "Maybe I'll get to meet him at some point."
Emma looked at me with a small smile.
"It's possible." She said. "If you do, you'll know immediately. And you can tell him that you know me."
She took another bite of her croissant. "Shouldn't you be focusing on the investigation though?"
"I mean, it's already obvious the two cases are connected." I said. "Because this alley leads directly to Boulangerie Marchais."
And it did… right at the end of the alleyway, the next building was already visible and in front of it, at ground level was another ventilation grate.
I crouched down and inspected it with the magnifying glass.
It had the same scratch marks and the grate was bent slightly differently from this side, this time it had been pushed from the inside outward repeatedly.
"See?" I said.
Emma nodded once.
We walked into Boulangerie Marchais and the smell hit immediately… It was bread and the display case along the counter was full of baguettes standing upright, round loaves, flat pain de campagne, and a stack of ficelles.
As for how I know all this, they had nametags.
Behind the counter were two workers and behind them, emerging from a back doorway, was the owner.
I had expected someone irritable from the tone of the filed report but I had not expected someone who appeared to be six foot seven and built like a very thin and very annoyed tower.
Gérard Marchais looked down at us from a height that made me feel personally targeted. Why was it always the men that didn't deserve it that were tall? Were was my own height?
Skinny… that nickname fit him better than Marchais.
"About time." He said. "Like I told you in the report, someone is stealing my stock overnight and I am very sure it is a person because there is no trace left. Find out what is going on and deal with it, that is what I'm paying for after all."
Why was he so rude though? I understood the frustration but the attitude was on top of the actual problem and nobody had asked for it.
"Sure." I said. "Show us the storage room."
He nodded sharply and led us through a door and down a staircase into the storage room below.
It was a long, cool room running under the length of the building with shelves on both sides that went from the floor to ceiling, wire cooling racks holding overnight stock and large sacks of flour stacked at the far end.
There were also baskets of baguettes wrapped in cloth, trays of boules and a row of bread bins along the lower shelf.
"This is my storage." Marchais said, gesturing at the shelves. "I bake overnight… In the morning when I come down to bring stock up, a third of it is gone. The baguettes, the pain de campagne, whatever was cooling on the lower racks… There was nothing left behind except crumbs. Two days in a row now."
"Alright sir." I said. "I already have a good idea of what's going on, Just give me a moment."
I opened Poketube on my Rotomphone.
The interface loaded with the usual group of videos and even Canari's morning stream was right there at the top with a Sponsored tag, Oho~
I ignored that and searched for what I actually needed.
[Sounds for irritating Munchlax]
It was clear that Munchlax was smart so it was probably hiding, but it couldn't hide from sound though.
Immediately I played one of the results and turned my Rotomphone to the highest volume while walking.
"SKREEEEEEEEEEE! CHEEEE! REEEE! PREEEE!!"
Marchais immediately started complaining about the noise but I kept walking. Emma watched from near the door with her arms folded and said nothing.
"MUNCH!!!!"
One of the large flour sacks at the far end shifted and toppled.
Behind it, wedged into the corner gap between the bottom shelf and the wall, was Soli… surrounded by the remnants of multiple baguettes and what appeared to have been an entire batch of pain de campagne.
There was also the wrapper of something that had once been a boule and several ficelle stubs with one loaf of bread that it was actively holding and eating as we found it.
It had also apparently pulled a cloth from one of the bread baskets and fashioned something like a nest out of it.
Soli had been living here… with full access to an unlimited bakery for two days.
"A Munchlax?!" Marchais's voice hit a frequency I didn't know a very tall man could reach. "YOU were the thief?!"
Soli looked at all of us with a round face, half-lidded eyes, and cheeks absolutely packed.
It kept eating the bread.
I approached slowly, raising both hands the same way I had done with Magikarp in the water.
"Calm down Soli. I'm not going to hurt you. Claudette has been worried sick… let's just head back together." I said.
"Nom nom nom…"
Soli continued eating the bread with one hand then, with its other hand, with its short grubby little fingers, it somehow extended its middle finger directly at me.
I stared at it.
What the hell?
A Munchlax had just flicked me off?!
[Author's Note]
This is the second extra chapter I owe and it took me quite a while since it was long but done with it.
As for the new game, well I don't know why I expected much from them tbh but hey, at least Gen 10 is coming out next year right? WE will be buying Winds/Waves!
Anyway, new week new goals... 150 PS for 2 bonus chapters as usual, you guys really bombarded the book with stones even when I wasn't uploading. Well well, Happy Sunday from over here. I'll be going to sleep now.