boyutpedia Chapter 10: The Solution – The Fried Pig Incident
Chapter 10: The Solution – The Fried Pig Incident
"Murder and arson are extremely serious cases, so why are there only so few people at the scene to arrest them?"
Amid the bustling scene of a murderer being escorted onto a police car, Hugo asked Officer Jenny, who was standing to the side grooming the mane of a lightning zebra, with a puzzled expression.
"We're short-handed." Officer Jenny, who had just solved a major case, showed no joy and uttered four words with a dark face.
"Oh?" The detective suddenly perked up from the exhaustion of closing the case and started asking the officer a series of questions. "The police have also noticed the unusually high crime rate in Feiyun City this month?"
“We’re exhausted! This morning alone, the Sheriff’s Division handled four trainer brawls, and many officers were injured, as were their partners. Other departments in the police station are experiencing similar situations, with all sorts of serious crimes emerging, and everyone is extremely busy.”
The policewoman felt a little overwhelmed as she thought about the mountain of errands piling up at the police station.
"And Hugo, how long are you going to keep the truth of this case a secret?"
"So you were still thinking about this." The detective's exaggerated expression of sudden realization was particularly irritating to Officer Jenny.
"It's more than just confusing; ever since you suddenly said to me, 'By the way, the prisoner is in the hospital,' I've been completely baffled by the whole thing!"
Officer Jenny began bombarding the detective with a barrage of questions: "Why is the culprit a woman? And why did she insist on coming to the hospital to retrieve Cool Leopard? Why did Cool Leopard suddenly attack the police? And so many other questions, I just don't understand any of them!"
Hugo, however, became embarrassed and scratched his head: "Actually, for a detective, once the mystery is solved, the whole case starts to become rather dull. I always feel that simply recounting such obvious facts to others is a clumsy performance born of excessive self-consciousness..."
"Stop getting bored! Give me the answer right now!"
Officer Jenny and the lightning zebra beside her glared at the detective, especially the latter, whose imposing manner was even more terrifying, with faint electric sparks flickering between the two white lightning bolt-shaped manes on his head.
Having succumbed to the tyranny of his police officer partner, the detective finally begins to solve the case.
"The most valuable clue we had to solve this case was that 911 call filled with lies—it was through that call that I was able to piece together the whole story."
"But just as you said, that phone call was all a lie."
“A lie can also be a key to unlocking the truth.” The detective wagged his finger mysteriously. “Let’s think of it this way: since the criminal went to such lengths to make a false police report, the call must have contained information that would benefit the real culprit.”
"Because her goal was to mislead the police?"
“Exactly.” Hugo raised an eyebrow with delight. “Then recall, at the beginning of the case, what mistakes did the police make because of this phone call?”
"First, they mistook the body for someone who died in a battle accident... No, even without the phone, seeing the battlefield covered in signs of combat would have led us into that misconception..." Officer Jenny recalled. "The real misconception the other side used the phone to put us in was that they deliberately made us mistake the identities of the killer and the victim."
"That's right, the misconception caused by the phone call mainly lies in misleading the victim's identity. It makes you believe that the murdered person was the thug who used the Cool Leopard, not the college student who used the Fried Pig."
"The purpose of burning the body is precisely this!" Officer Jenny suddenly realized. "If it were just about burning the body, we couldn't possibly confuse the two."
"Everything that passes by leaves a trace; everything that is covered up has a reason; everything that is revealed has a purpose."
Hugo raised his index finger and continued.
"The perpetrator's real purpose was to make you chase after college students with fried pork all over the city, while ignoring those with the characteristics of petty thugs. This arrangement was undoubtedly advantageous to the murderer himself. Therefore, from here I added some assumptions to my reasoning—following the opposite principle from the telephone call, I assumed the perpetrator was a petty thug and the victim was a college student—this is a leap in logical reasoning, but it did help me find the truth."
“This is outrageous,” Officer Jenny shook her head. “The police would never arrest a criminal this way.”
"This is deductive reasoning under reasonable conditions," Hugo replied nonchalantly, even with a hint of pride. "This is also one of the reasons why the profession of private detective exists."
"So, what happened next? What was the reason the perpetrator killed the victim? What exactly happened between Cool Leopard and Fried Pig?" Officer Jenny continued to ask.
The detective stretched, seemingly having completed the most arduous task, and was about to enter his familiar territory.
"Just like the relationship between a criminal and a victim, the relationship between Cool Leopard and Fried Pig was also reversed once."
"Huh? Eh?"
"Simply put, the thug and the college student had exchanged their Pokémon. That's why the thug's Pokémon attacked its owner and was eventually abandoned by the thug. That's also why the college student's Leopard shielded the thug from the Pokémon's attack. The thug, as the culprit, had to go to the hospital to retrieve the victim's Pokémon."
Hugo raised his index finger: "Only by exchanging this explanation with the elves can we make sense of all the information found at the crime scene."
Seeing that Officer Jenny was still puzzled, the detective reminded her, "This is also something the murderer tried her best to hide on the phone. She didn't need to mention the two types of Pokémon in detail, but she still explained it in great detail. Based on the experience gained from previous deductions, this is another trap set by the murderer."
Officer Jenny was speechless.
"Going back to the case, after the thug and the college student traded Pokémon, for some unknown reason, the thug, who had already traded the Pokémon, began to harbor intense hatred towards the college student—this reason is likely related to the Leopard. So, she prepared a dagger and gasoline, attempting to kill the student and then retrieve her Leopard."
The detective seemed to enter a certain state, as if he had witnessed the entire case firsthand, and began to speak eloquently.
"On the day of the incident, she lured the college student to the entrance of the sewer via her mobile phone, stabbed him to death with a dagger, then took the Poké Ball from the Leopard, poured gasoline on the student's body, and planned to throw the body into the sewer after his face and fingerprints were burned away—this was her original plan."
The story before her was too unbelievable. Officer Jenny momentarily forgot to judge the truth or falsehood of the reasoning and followed the detective's lead, asking, "And then something unexpected happened?"
“That’s right. There’s folly and accident in every crime,” the detective said again. “She accidentally brought the Poké Ball she got from trading with her.”
"Huh? Stir-fried pork?"
"The thug's assassination happened in an instant. Fried Pig didn't have time to stop it. Inside its Poké Ball, it watched helplessly as the college student who had raised it was stabbed through the abdomen with a dagger by its new owner. Then, the new owner took out a container full of gasoline and began to pour it on the deceased..."
Hugo's words were plain and lengthy, yet they seemed to transport Officer Jenny back to the time of the incident, as if he were empathizing with Fried Pig's fate. An irreparable grief gripped Officer Jenny's heart.
"Overwhelmed by grief and anger, the Fried Pig broke free of its Poké Ball, and amidst a burst of emerald red light, the orange-red pig-like monster appeared beside the Incinerator. The female thug was stunned by this sudden turn of events, and could only watch helplessly as black hooves were about to strike her..."
"And then what happened?"
"The leopard also broke free of its Poké Ball and entered the arena to fight the piranha. The traces of the battle were left at that time. The leopard should have been the winner of the battle, after all, it had its trainer's command... In any case, in the end, the piranha, fighting alone, was defeated and fell into a near-death state."
Officer Jenny was stunned and wanted to refute something, but couldn't find any basis for it.
Upon closer examination, everything at the scene perfectly matched the detective's reasoning. But how does that explain why the female thug didn't flee after committing the crime, but instead ran to the hospital?
"You must be wondering why that thug went to the hospital instead, right?" the detective asked understandingly—but because his guess was so accurate, Officer Jenny felt a little horrified.
"I got stuck at the point by the trash can. But after listening to your explanation of the case, I suddenly understood."
“Using ‘on the contrary’ here is offensive to me,” Officer Jenny retorted, her face showing displeasure.
The detective ignored the officer's complaints and continued explaining the case.
"That's because a new situation arose at the time of the incident—although the winner of the one-on-one battle was the leopard, it was by no means unscathed. On the contrary, it was very likely that it had already been seriously injured while protecting its owner during the first round of attacks by the fried pig."
Officer Jenny imagined the scene of the leopard sacrificing itself to protect its murderer owner, and her expression turned serious. Meanwhile, the mystery of the case was gradually becoming clearer with the detective's explanation.
"Although serious injuries are very common in Pokémon battles, if an injured Pokémon is left untreated and a kind passerby takes it to a Pokémon Center, the Pokémon will inevitably be in mortal danger. If she takes it to the Pokémon Center herself, it will definitely be registered, and she will be suspected if the body is found. Therefore, she only has one option left."
"So she called the police because..."
“That’s right, it’s to save Cool Leopard,” Hugo answered readily.
"To save her partner, she abandoned her more meticulous original plan and instead resorted to the trick of switching identities with Faceless Corpse, improvising a messy lie. This afternoon, the murderer called the Feiyun City Police Department and told that whole lie—it's amazing she came up with the crazy idea of using a mobile app to change her voice to a male voice... Then, the murderer recalled the unconscious Fried Pig into its Poké Ball and threw it into a distant trash can along with a gasoline bottle—she must have hoped that the Fried Pig that ruined everything would just die quietly like that."
“There are still some things I don’t understand.” Officer Jenny raised her hand like a student to ask a question, “Why would the killer personally go to the hospital to pick up Cool Leopard? She should have been able to escape on her own.”
“Because Leopard is her only Pokémon.” The detective sighed.
"Murder is a very dangerous thing. If the murderer had any Pokémon other than Lizard, she would definitely have brought them with her on the day of the incident. But at the crime scene, we only found traces of a fight between Lizard and Spiky—which means she only had that one Pokémon. If she abandoned Lizard, she would be completely alone..."
Hugo looked up at the sky, which had been swallowed by darkness, and sighed.
"In this world, embarking on a journey without a single Pokémon requires considerable resolve and courage. I know this all too well."