Chapter 77: Assisting Investigation (Patreon)

The League's response was swift.

Barely half an hour had passed since Renan subdued the two low-ranking Team Rocket leaders when hurried footsteps rang out in the corridor outside the guest room.

Then came the knocking. Knock, knock, knock.

Renan sent out his spiritual power and sensed the mental fluctuations of the few people standing on the other side of the wall.

Once he was sure they weren't spies Team Rocket had sent to rescue their own, he used Confusion to turn the handle and open the door.

The Investigators and Officer Jennys filed into the room. The first thing they saw was the two Team Rocket members lying on the floor, completely unable to move.

As for Renan, the azure glow around his pupils was enough to announce that he was a psychic.

The Investigator at the head of the group stepped forward and smiled at the black-haired boy. "Thank you for your help. We'll handle things from here."

Renan nodded.

He didn't ask how they planned to pry the two women's mouths open.

That had nothing to do with him.

His part of the job was over now anyway.

Yet just over an hour after he Teleported back to the bedroom, at around eleven at night, someone knocked on the door of his and Misty's room again.

Renan's Meditate was interrupted, and he got up with a helpless sigh.

Misty hadn't gone to sleep yet either, or maybe she'd been woken up. She came out of the other bedroom.

The two exchanged a glance, and Renan pulled the door open.

Standing before them was an Officer Jenny in a police uniform.

Renan recognized her. She had been standing in the back row of the Investigator team earlier.

Seeing Renan again, an awkward look crept onto her face.

"Trainer Renan, I'm Jenny Feng, head of the Oma Town police station. We have an incident on our hands, and we need you, as a psychic, to help with the investigation."

With an outsider present, Jenny Feng didn't spell it out.

But Renan understood at once. The Investigators had been unable to do anything with those two Team Rocket members.

Since he was already caught up in this, then if only to make the coming trip to Rota City a little more peaceful, he was going to see every Team Rocket member near Cameran Palace behind bars.

He answered Jenny Feng's request immediately. "Sure. I'll go with you."

Standing beside the boy, Misty's eyes flickered.

She had noticed earlier that Renan was lying, but she hadn't known what he was actually up to.

Now, with Jenny's arrival, it finally dawned on her that Renan might have gotten himself tangled up in some troublesome incident, and most likely of his own accord.

After two seconds of hesitation, she suddenly spoke up. "I'll come too. I'm Misty, the next heir to the Cerulean Gym. When something unusual happens, I have a duty to help the League."

Jenny Feng had been about to refuse. An incident involving Team Rocket was best kept to as few people as possible until it was settled.

But deep in her mind, a boy's voice suddenly sounded: [Agree to it.]

Jenny Feng glanced at Renan. Considering that he would be the main force from here on, she gave a slight nod. "All right."

…

Over ten minutes later.

Jenny took Misty with her, while her Arcanine carried Renan on its back. The three of them arrived at the police station.

The Investigators had clearly been waiting in the hall for some time.

When Renan, the psychic, appeared, the Investigator who had spoken with him earlier came over and quickly started explaining. "Sorry about this. There was a psychic from inside the League who was supposed to come, but his car broke down halfway here. By the time it's fixed and he arrives, it could be several hours. None of the rest of us have a Psychic-type Pokémon, so we had no choice but to call you in to save the day."

"And of course, as a reward, once this is resolved the League will give you a generous number of points."

Renan didn't put on an act of selfless virtue and refuse.

"Where are those two?" he asked.

"In the holding cell," the Investigator said.

"Then take me there. The sooner we get the information out of them, the better for everyone."

"Right."

Inside the holding cell, two women in their thirties lay on the beds with plaster casts on all four limbs, their expressions dull.

They didn't know what their future held. No, now that their limbs were completely ruined and they'd lose most of their mobility even if they healed, they had no future to speak of in the first place.

Even so, when they saw Renan, that demon, again, they screamed in terror.

"Don't come near me!"

"Please, let me go!"

"I know I was wrong, I-I-I shouldn't have joined Team Rocket!"

…

The sight left the Investigators and Officer Jennys at the door staring at one another.

Whenever they'd caught Team Rocket members in the past, some of the Investigators who held grudges against them had used a few rough methods, but they had never scared those people into this state.

Renan, on the other hand, stayed calm from start to finish, as if it weren't him the two women feared.

He walked up to the bed of the woman on the left and didn't waste any words. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

Snap!

The next instant, the woman who had been so terrified looked as if she'd been hypnotized. She stared blankly, her sense of self completely gone.

Renan turned back to the Investigator he'd spoken with earlier. "Go ahead and ask whatever you need to."

The Investigator froze for a moment.

In his career he had worked with quite a few psychics, but every one of them used props when performing hypnosis, such as a coin hanging from a string or a bent metal spoon, and it didn't succeed every time, either.

To hypnotize someone with a mere snap of the fingers like Renan did—to be honest, he had never seen that before.

He was full of curiosity about the boy's psychic level, but mapping out Team Rocket's layout inside Cameran Palace mattered more right now. In the end he asked nothing. He simply waved over an Investigator in charge of taking records and began the interrogation of the two Team Rocket members.

The Investigators had a complete question-and-answer procedure of their own.

All Renan had to do was place the hypnosis on the two prisoners and renew it whenever they began to come out of it.

Over forty minutes later.

The Investigator let out a long breath and turned to the boy beside him. "You can release the hypnosis now."

Renan raised his arm and snapped his fingers once more.

Immediately, the two Team Rocket leaders, who had looked like idiots a moment ago, regained consciousness. Realizing they'd told everything, they exchanged a glance and gave up completely.