Chapter 693: Rippling Water

Even though somewhat blurry, as if taken in a hurry, the Pokémon in the photograph bore an overall appearance strikingly similar to Suicune.

But merely similar, that was all.

At least based on Luo Mu's knowledge, coupled with his past experience of having personally seen and encountered Suicune.

The creature in the photo looked like Suicune, yet it was some unknown species of Pokémon that was not actually Suicune.

It was not a Ditto transformed into something else with minor discrepancies in detail, but rather an entirely different Pokémon through and through.

This inevitably reminded Luo Mu of Meng Lei Gu at the farm, who frequently exercised its Electric-type moves on the small hillside.

It too possessed an appearance, color scheme, and patterns somewhat similar to Raikou, yet remained a distinctly different species of Pokémon.

Speaking of which, could the "Suicune" in the photo be, like Meng Lei Gu, a species of Paradox Pokémon?

Raikou is an Electric type, while Meng Lei Gu is an Electric/Dragon type; following Game Freak's usual tendencies, could this suspected Paradox Pokémon before them be a Water/Dragon type?

Luo Mu's thoughts gradually drifted until Lei Guan Wang's mental energy, used as a reminder, surged into his mind, only then did he notice that Master Master Haidai had somehow appeared standing before him.

Those callus-covered hands waved before his eyes, seemingly checking whether he had lost focus.

"Hey! Showing up unannounced is one thing, but why are you zoning out?"

Since they were old acquaintances like Zhou Zhou Shuren, Master Master Haidai spoke without any restraint, not to mention his own personality was naturally of the bold and straightforward sort.

Luo Mu's gaze sharpened, and he shook his head apologetically, saying, "My apologies; I simply felt I might have seen the Pokémon in the photo before, so I got lost in recollection, that's all."

Upon hearing this, Master Master Haidai's expression immediately turned serious.

Behind them, Miss Miss Junsha of Bottle City also stood up, striding in high heels to stop before Luo Mu in a few steps.

She first performed a salute to demonstrate politeness and respect, then opened her mouth to say, "We kindly request that you, Mr. Champion, share with us the detailed circumstances."

"Everyone present is striving to resolve this current 'Water Vapor Incident'."

"Naturally, that is precisely why I have come."

Luo Mu nodded slightly, exchanged a glance with Master Master Haidai, and directly took the empty seat beside him under his invitation.

Originally, Luo Mu had intended to find a seat for Lei Guan Wang as well, but the latter shook its head, conveying via telepathy that floating behind Luo Mu would suffice.

It was not the type of personality that enjoyed drawing attention or made excessive demands based on a self-perceived noble status.

After Luo Mu sat down, the meeting within the city hall continued.

Probably to accommodate him, Miss Miss Junsha, serving as the chief executive officer responsible for the incident, recounted the general situation once more.

"The spread of the water vapor began at six o'clock last night."

"Simultaneously, the entire water system of Bottle City was affected; the water temperature, originally maintained at normal levels, began rising as if being boiled over a fierce fire, and continues to climb even now."

"During this period, the scale of the water vapor continuously increased alongside the rising water temperature, resulting in numerous cases where farmed fish and shrimp in ponds managed by aquaculture contractors died due to high temperatures and lack of oxygen."

"Aquatic Pokémon fared better; due to their constitutions, as long as the water temperature did not rise to the extreme level of boiling water, they could barely adapt, or otherwise choose to come ashore to evade it."

"—However, I do not believe the culprit behind this incident possesses the capability to bring the entire water system of Bottle City to a boil, let alone approach the level of one hundred degrees Celsius."

"After all, the energy release required for that would be equivalent to continuously boiling all water resources within this city; only those legendary Pokémon could accomplish such a feat."

Miss Miss Junsha paused in her speech, her gaze landing somewhat ambiguously upon Luo Mu.

Of course, this was not because she suspected Luo Mu; she had simply recalled a complaint once made by her cousin, who served in Pingdie Town.

This Champion's farm housed a legendary Pokémon named Moltres, and seemingly, on the night of the recent New Year's Eve, some absurd incident involving using the power of a legendary Pokémon to set off fireworks had occurred.

And now, the very subject of that complaint sat right before her eyes; thinking about it was quite difficult to keep a straight face.

Restraining the desire to laugh, Miss Miss Junsha said with a serious expression, "After the water vapor anomaly arose and spiraled out of control, we immediately began organizing corresponding actions to investigate the cause of the Water Vapor Incident."

"—Yet there has been no progress."

"No matter what detection methods we employed, we were unable to track down the culprit responsible for heating the entire water system of Bottle City and continuously emitting massive amounts of water vapor."

As Miss Miss Junsha's voice fell, she was about to continue speaking but immediately closed her mouth.

She saw Luo Mu raising his hand and simply nodded, indicating he was free to ask questions.

Luo Mu did not stand on ceremony and asked, "Perhaps my focus is somewhat off, but I still wish to know the answer to one question."

"Please, go ahead," Miss Miss Junsha said.

"Mm." Luo Mu nodded slightly, his gaze falling upon an overhead map of Bottle City posted on the whiteboard, and asked with confusion, "What exactly is the structure of Bottle City's entire water system? Why would it be boiled indiscriminately?"

In Luo Mu's view, unless one went from place to place individually, it would be impossible to simultaneously bring independent water sources to a boil.

This was not like the original Groudon's 'Primordial Sea'.

If that was the case, then there could only be one possibility.

". Your question hits the mark perfectly; in fact, we were just about to explain this point."

Miss Miss Junsha picked up her thermos cup, took a sip of water, and directed her gaze toward a corner of the long table, landing on a middle-aged man dressed as an engineer.

The other party understood immediately, stood up at once, and bowed slightly to Luo Mu with cautious reserve.

"Hello, Mr. Champion; I am a descendant of the engineer who designed Bottle City's water system."

". Hello?"

Luo Mu responded kindly and waited quietly for the other's explanation.

"In fact, the reason Bottle City, located in a desert region, could create a water city resembling Olivine City in the Johto region is because the entire city's water system possesses a complete set of automatic control systems."

"Even the oasis near Bottle City is the product of decades of effort by generations of Bottle City residents, who worked hard to introduce water flows from nearby water-rich areas to achieve greening."

"And this automatic water resource circulation system, which endowed Bottle City with life, lies buried deep beneath the city, periodically exchanging water resources with connected water bodies and performing purification, turning this place into a vibrant water town and a lush green oasis on the edge of the scorching desert."

The middle-aged man spoke a long passage in one breath.

Luo Mu extracted one key point from it.

—The entire water resources of Bottle City are completely supplied and periodically circulated by that single automatic water resource circulation system built underground.

In other words, boiling the water resources supplied to the entire city from the source—was feasible.

Luo Mu looked toward Miss Miss Junsha and found her looking at him as well.

"Just as you guessed, the source of the problem lies underground."

"—But the one who helped us discover this was not an attacked worker, but a teacher from Grandma Ju Zi Academy."

Miss Miss Junsha said softly.

"A teacher from Grandma Ju Zi Academy?"

Luo Mu froze for a second, never expecting to hear such an answer from Miss Miss Junsha's mouth.

"Yes." Miss Miss Junsha nodded with great seriousness to ensure the reliability of her words, "And she also claimed that the Pokémon in the photo appeared in Montenevera City because of her."

Luo Mu: "."

Unable to hold back, Luo Mu stood up slightly and asked, "Then, that person is—?"

"Her name is Seeing Lei He, a history teacher at Grandma Ju Zi Academy."

Master Master Haidai shrugged, answering Luo Mu in place of Miss Miss Junsha.

This made Luo Mu even more confused.

He could never have imagined hearing Seeing Lei He's name here.

Didn't Principal Clavell say she was busy with something recently? Wait, could what she's been busy with be this very matter?!

Seeming to notice the change in Luo Mu's expression, Miss Miss Junsha had no intention of keeping them in suspense; instead, from the perspective of someone who experienced it firsthand, after Luo Mu understood the ins and outs of the matter, she reorganized the timeline for him.

First, as mentioned earlier, steam filled the city, water temperatures rose, and Montenevera City Hall, their police station, and even Mr. Master Haidai as the Gym Leader all participated in investigating the source.

At the same time, other forces within the city attempted to disperse the steam using the Flying-type Pokémon's move "Defog," but unfortunately, the effect was poor.

Time passed like this for one night, arriving at this morning.

A woman, namely Seeing Lei He, voluntarily appeared outside City Hall.

She directly confessed that she was probably, perhaps, possibly one of the culprits behind the "Steam Incident."

After receiving this news, Miss Miss Junsha immediately summoned Seeing Lei He.

Seeing Lei He took this opportunity to reveal how she had caused such a huge incident.

In short, she wanted to purify some so-called Four Treasures of Ruin whose existence was uncertain, so she had been searching for traces of a legendary Pokémon called "Suicune."

Although traces of the legendary Pokémon "Suicune" mostly appear in the Kanto and Johto regions on the other side of the planet, she believed there might also be traces of it here in the Paldea region.

Hard work pays off; she successfully grasped the whereabouts of a Pokémon suspected to be Suicune, except that location was somewhat special, situated within the heavily guarded "Great Crater of Paldea."

No one knows what method she used—at least Seeing Lei He didn't explain it in front of Miss Miss Junsha—but anyway, she successfully found traces of that Pokémon resembling Suicune and brought it out of the Great Crater of Paldea.

—Then, naturally, her primary goal was to borrow its power to purify those "Sealing Stakes" whose traces she had already found.

Seeing Lei He's first target was a hidden "Sealing Stake" located in the mountain range above Montenevera City.

However, just as that "Suicune" differed in appearance from the Suicune of legend, it utterly lacked the power to purify the Sealing Stakes.

Furthermore, likely due to interest in Montenevera City's waterways, that "Suicune" broke free from Seeing Lei He's control, silently slipped into the automatic water circulation system underground in Montenevera City, and occupied the massive reservoir serving as the source.

It began using that reservoir as a base to transform Montenevera City's entire water system into an environment it liked best.

Seeing Lei He, who followed it, was completely unable to stop its actions; forced by helplessness, she could only come to City Hall to "surrender."

Luo Mu: "."

My native language is speechlessness.

At this moment, Master Master Haidai picked up the conversation.

"Then, based on the clues provided by that young lady, we successfully located that Pokémon's hiding spot."

"Next comes how to subdue or evict it."

"Unfortunately, even though I tried my hardest, with the assistance of Miss Miss Junsha and the others, I was completely unable to do anything about that 'Suicune'."

"So now it's just as you see; after sealing the entrance, we returned to City Hall to discuss countermeasures."

There was a very obvious bitterness on Master Master Haidai's face.

And rightly so; after all, he is the Gym Leader responsible for the entire Montenevera City, the strongest person under normal circumstances.

Yet he was unable to resolve the culprit gradually plunging Montenevera City into chaos.

At this point, the Mayor of Montenevera City, who had remained silent until now, spoke up.

"We had already planned to seek combat assistance from the League Headquarters, but at this moment, Champion Luo Mu—you arrived here."

"May we ask if you could lend us a hand?"

"Of course; I came here precisely for this purpose."

Finally having clarified the cause, Luo Mu rubbed his brow and did not decline.

"Hahaha, with Brother Luo Mu here, the next operation will definitely be a piece of cake!"

Quickly recovering from his low spirits, Master Master Haidai laughed heroically, his palm-leaf-sized hand, capable of knocking fish unconscious with a single slap, heavily patting Luo Mu's shoulder twice.

Enduring the force that nearly smashed his body to pieces, Luo Mu asked helplessly, "... However, before we set out, I still have one question I'd like to ask."

"Please, go ahead."

"Although the ins and outs of the matter have been explained, why—has Seeing Lei He, that culprit you mentioned, not been here the whole time?"

Luo Mu was wondering, could that woman have already been locked up in the police station?

He still wanted to ask her how she suddenly pulled off something like this.

"Oh, so that's what you wanted to ask." Miss Miss Junsha looked suddenly enlightened; she touched her chin, pondered for a moment, and then answered, "As for Seeing Lei He, although locking her up for later interrogation is standard procedure..."

"... but since progress in capturing that Pokémon isn't going smoothly, and she said she might be able to find useful related information, I dispatched officers to take her to Grandma Ju Zi Academy to consult relevant texts."

"Calculating the time, they should be returning about now..."

As luck would have it.

Just shortly after Miss Miss Junsha's voice fell.

A hurried sound of footsteps came from outside the conference room door.

With a loud "Bang!", the conference room door was forcefully pushed open.

From beyond that pushed-open door, a female voice that was barely familiar to Luo Mu rang out.

"Found it, I found it!"

"That Pokémon isn't some 'Suicune' at all, but an ancient Pokémon recorded in ancient texts, one called 'Walking Water'!"

(End of Chapter)