บท 47: Pokemon: I Transmigrated Twice [47]
"Woof~ Woof-woo~"
Houndour tilted its head back, barking something incomprehensible.
Will spread his hands.
"I don't get it."
As he spoke, Will turned his head toward the house and called out, "Hey! Stephen, it's your turn to step in."
Stephen got up and walked to the door, looking visibly annoyed.
"You guys aren't done yet, are you?"
"Woof! Woof woof!"
Houndour was even more agitated than before.
Stephen instinctively sensed trouble brewing but, after thinking for a moment, placed his hand on Houndour's back.
Come to think of it, to avoid mixing up this ill-tempered Houndour with the other three in his house, it might be better to settle on its name sooner rather than later.
"So? What did it say?"
Will asked curiously.
"The little girl Rihua's been grounded," Stephen said.
This first statement didn't elicit much of a reaction from Will.
After all, given the previous chaos, Rihua caused by letting this Houndour escape, being grounded was no big deal.
But Stephen's next words wiped away Will's calm expression.
"Our identities might be exposed."
"What?!"
Will's eyes widened as he pointed an accusing finger at Houndour.
"You traitorous mutt!"
"Woof woof!"
Houndour, feeling deeply insulted, barked at Will, startling him into withdrawing his hand.
"Even though I don't like this dog either, it's not its fault," Stephen said, pulling his hand back with a smirk.
"Turns out Lance can be a surprisingly sharp observers."
Will didn't want to ask, nor did he have the energy to. All he cared about was one thing, "So, what do we do now? Should we make a run for it?"
"There are two options: either pack up everything we can carry, destroy what we can't, and run as you said, or…"
Stephen glanced at the room filled with his hard work. After a brief pause, he continued,
"We bring Rihua into the fold."
Of course, the most foolproof method would be to silence Rihua permanently.
The dead keep secrets best.
But Stephen wasn't that ruthless.
"If that's the case, then if we're exposed, the only option left is to recruit her."
"That's impossible, right? Mr. Ritsuki, the owner of Sandslash Real Estate, is a well-known wealthy figure in the Johto region," Will said, pouring cold water on the idea.
"How could a pampered rich girl leave her life of luxury to live like us, with our heads always on the chopping block?"
"Woof woof! Woof woof!"
Houndour barked again.
"What's it saying now?"
"Probably that it thinks Rihua will agree."
Stephen's guess was spot on.
Houndour, who had shadowed Rihua back to the villa, had a clear view of her current circumstances. It believed that the present Rihua would be willing to join them.
Seeing Houndour nod in confirmation, Will was even more incredulous.
"Seriously?"
Stephen pressed a hidden compartment behind the bookshelf.
A poster of Kalos idol Diantha flipped around, revealing Stephen's phantom thief outfit.
"Hey, hey~ Are you going?"
Will asked, still skeptical.
"At the very least, I want to see how that young lady feels about it. Besides, she's probably already guessed our identities. We need to observe her," Stephen replied, changing into his outfit.
"Fine, whatever…"
Will rolled his eyes and pressed another compartment.
The wall and another poster flipped over. This time, it was Will's own phantom thief outfit.
Incidentally, the poster featured a child model from the Unova region, Elesa as a kid.
...
That night, inside the Ritsuki villa.
"Don't ask me anything. I won't say a word."
In her room, Rihua sat on the floor, hugging her knees and burying her face in them.
Joy Saori, who had come to offer psychological counseling, looked troubled and glanced at Officer Jenny beside her.
Jenny shook her head. She was at a loss too.
"I don't know what happened to you, but Miss Rihua, the entire League is paying close attention to this matter. Even if you don't care about yourself, think about your father and your family," Jenny said after much hesitation.
It wasn't a baseless statement.
Although the main culprits were Team Rocket, led by Joker, the incident had happened on Ritsuki property. As the host of the event, their family would inevitably bear some responsibility.
Recently, the stock price of Sandslash Real Estate has been steadily declining.
However, Jenny's words only made Rihua's face darker.
Do you want me to care about the father who allowed Psychic Pokémon to invade my mind?
Even if Ritsuki had acted out of desperation, the event had left an indelible scar on Rihua's heart.
Saori quickly noticed the shift in Rihua's mood. Leaving behind a polite reminder, "Miss Rihua, please get some rest," she hurriedly dragged Jenny out of the room, thinking, You're just making things worse!
As Saori and Jenny reached the bottom of the stairs, a police officer approached them. His hat was pulled low, his arm clutched as if injured. With a pained expression, he gritted his teeth and reported,
"Officer Jenny! Joker has appeared at the front entrance!"
Officer Jenny's face darkened. She quickly released her Growlithe and shouted to the officers stationed around the villa, "Follow me to the front entrance!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Once the others had left, the injured officer removed his hat, revealing Will's face.
"Heh, too easy."
With a mischievous grin, Will stripped off the police uniform. Beneath it, his short stature was elevated by a pair of extendable stilt-like shoes.
"That guy Stephen always comes up with the weirdest stuff. Well, my job's done. Time to slip away."
...
When the room was silent again, Rihua finally lifted her face and stared blankly at the crescent moon outside the window.
Everything disappointed her.
Her father, who would stop at nothing for his status.
The Elite Four, whose true motives for killing Houndour's parents remained unclear.
The oppressive Pokémon League, trying to extract information from her.
All she wanted now was to escape.
"Woof woof!"
The familiar sound of barking reached her ears.
Rihua, who had been lying limply on her bed, suddenly sat bolt upright.
She would never forget that bark.
"Hou… Houndour?!"
Opening the window and stepping onto the balcony, Rihua found the dog she had longed for sitting calmly in the center.
"You… How did you…"
Rihua's trembling eyes filled with equal parts joy and confusion.
"You seem to be in a bad mood, huh?"
A teasing voice came from above her.
Rihua looked up sharply, spotting the figure from a few days ago—the one who had appeared in her storage room—now casually sitting on her roof, legs crossed.
"You?!"
"You seem to know quite a bit, Miss Rihua," Stephen said with a teasing smile, fully in his Joker persona.
His expression and tone were exactly like those of a villain in a shounen manga.
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