bookbashuk Chapter 415 The Giant's Breath
Chapter 415 The Giant's Breath
Chapter 417 The Giant's Breath
As dusk settled, in the northeastern corner of the Unova region, the Giant's Cave stood like a gruesome scar on the earth.
Legend has it that this is a relic formed by an ancient meteorite impact. The residents of Kagome Town have passed down a terrifying legend about this place for generations: anyone who dares to approach the cave will suffer terrible disasters for various reasons.
Ms. Lila, an Interpol officer from the Hoenn region, is currently standing on the outskirts of this forbidden place.
By the faint moonlight, the detective entered the cave. Her gaze swept across the creaking rock walls, finally settling on a seemingly natural crevice deep within the cave. As Alakazam's psychic energy surged, her body floated up as lightly as a feather, reaching the top of the cave.
"Is the Sinnoh branch always so unconventional, abandoning the main force and acting alone?"
As the words fell, Alakazam's eyes, which were fixed on the rock wall, lit up with blue light, and the psychic energy wave tore through the carefully arranged camouflage wallpaper on the rock wall.
The handsome Interpol agent hiding inside nearly fell from the cave ceiling, but luckily the mischievous frog beside him grabbed the hem of his coat in time.
"Damn it!" The handsome wolf-fox steadied himself, instinctively clutching the Poké Ball at his waist. "How did you find me?"
Lila landed slowly without answering immediately. She first signaled Alakazam to reinforce the "light wall" and "reflective wall" at the entrance, ensuring that the double barriers completely isolated the sound and energy fluctuations inside. Only then did she slowly turn on the lights and take a telescope-like device from her tactical belt.
"A thermal imager." She waved the device in her hand.
"The last time your location was detected by the police's communication devices was at the Pokémon Center in Kagome Town. Combined with the mission briefing previously shared by Champion Hugo, your whereabouts as the expeditionary force's vice-captain are clear." The purple-haired detective paused meaningfully. "How long have you been staking out here?"
"Two days, wait!" The handsome man suddenly realized, "That's not what I'm asking! I mean, even if you know I'm nearby, there are at least dozens of side caves in this cave suitable for an ambush. How are you going to find my hiding place from all of this?"
"Professional instinct." Lila interrupted his questioning, raising her hand to recall Alakazam with a Poké Ball. "More importantly, what progress has your secret investigation made?"
"We didn't catch Team Plasma. They didn't come in from this side; there must be a secret passage." The handsome guy brushed the dust off his trench coat. "However, during our infiltration, I occasionally felt vibrations from underground in the rock walls. They seemed to have a certain regularity, unlike the vibrations caused by battles between wild Pokémon."
"You believe this is the conspiracy that Team Plasma orchestrated in the Giant's Cave, as Hugo Champion mentioned?" The detective frowned.
"That detective never lies," the man said confidently. "I recorded the time intervals between the tremors; they were basically once every two hours. But after two days of observation, I discovered that the intervals were slowly shortening, which is almost like—"
"The breathing of a certain creature—it is gradually awakening!"
Lila, who had once been the brain of the Frontier, now had a sharp look in her eyes—
"It seems there really is something extraordinary buried beneath this terrain. We've come to the right place this time."
"Have the reinforcements from the Criminal Investigation Organization arrived yet?" Seeing the expedition captain arrive alone, the handsome man couldn't help but ask. "Yes. According to the local champion's plan, we haven't established contact with the United States branch of the Criminal Investigation Organization yet. At this stage, apart from sending a few people to monitor the movements of the United States Plasma Group Church in the eastern part of the country, everyone else is lying in ambush near this cave, preparing to launch a general attack at four o'clock in the morning when people's defenses are at their weakest."
"A very wise judgment." The handsome man nodded in agreement. He glanced at his watch; there were still six hours until the operation began. "Although I haven't seen any Team Plasma members nearby, there are obvious signs of widening on the main passageway inside the cave—neither the League nor any trainers exploring inside would do that. This indicates that Team Plasma likely has a large number of personnel stationed inside Giant's Cave. With our current manpower, to make the operation successful, we must avoid attrition during the sneak attack phase and strike when the enemy is least prepared."
"I really wish you had given me these wise suggestions before we even started," Lila said, shaking her head helplessly.
"My motto is 'On-site investigation is everything.' Wise opinions can only be derived after investigation," the handsome man said seriously, then suddenly looked outside. "Miss Lila, could you please ask Alakazam to remove the barrier-type moves at the cave entrance? A wild Gigantamax will be passing by in a minute, and disturbing it might cause some trouble."
"I never imagined the famous 'Whistle' was such a coward," Lila laughed, not rejecting the vice-captain's proposal.
She sent out Alakazam again, changing the direction of the "Light Wall" and "Reflector" that were originally blocking the cave entrance, hiding them like the camouflage wallpaper the handsome guy had used before.
The two held their breath, with only the wicked frog's cheeks occasionally twitching in the darkness.
"Speaking of which, there's something that's a little strange to me."
Just as the handsome man had predicted, the massive, rock-scaly monsters marched past with heavy steps, causing fine pebbles to fall from the cave ceiling. Lila used this natural noise as cover, lowering her voice even further—
"The members of the Sinnoh detective organization seem to be acting strangely tensely. I initially thought it was because you, as the vice-captain, deserted without permission, but after questioning you, I discovered that you seem to have always been like this—"
She gave the handsome man a meaningful look: "What's going on with those strange behaviors of the Sinnoh agents?"
"Well, this is a long story."
The rascal croaked with concern. The handsome man gently stroked his partner's smooth back and sighed, "Before I was transferred to Unova, I was temporarily in charge of the Major Theft Investigation Division of the Sinnoh branch of the Detective Agency. Most of the people who came with me this time are subordinates from this division. In fact, this gloomy atmosphere has been permeating the Major Theft Investigation Division for the past two years."
"What's going on?" Lila asked, becoming increasingly curious.
"Two years ago, no, it should be almost three years now. Anyway, a major safety incident occurred in Sinnoh at that time."
The man shook his head, looking as if he couldn't bear to recall the past. "The former head of the Major Theft Investigation Division, Officer Jenny, known as the 'Phantom Thief Countermeasure,' was devastated by that incident and retreated to the sidelines. I took over her position as head around that time. That incident not only greatly hurt Officer Jenny, but also severely damaged the morale of the subordinates in the Theft Investigation Division—they still haven't recovered from that failure."
"So what exactly is this—"
Just as Lila was about to continue asking questions, she caught a glimpse of a blurry figure emerging at the end of the passage where Pang Yan had left.
"Shh!" The handsome detective was the first to react, making a shushing gesture.
The sound of water dripping from the cracks in the rocks suddenly became shrill.
The figure moved slowly forward with an eerie rhythm, a giant monster floating beside it—a brown superpower light flickering in the cave, leaving behind strange and distorted shadows.
What's unsettling is that the other party, despite having a Sensitive Psychic-type Pokémon, seemed oblivious to the two behind the barrier.
"Is this person from the target organization?" Lila asked the handsome man in tactical hand signals. He had seen this person in the information Hugo had sent him. He nodded without hesitation, then slowly mouthed the name to Lila, pointing to the man in the white uniform with a hairstyle resembling a blue satellite ring—"A--K--Ro--Ma--!"