Chapter Two
Cinccino slings the video camera over her right shoulder and aims the small, circular lens at the green bird in front of her. Natu coughs a little, tells Cinccino to press the play button, and clutches a microphone in her one foot.
“Just in--household cook turned killer? Tonight, watch in detail about how Mayor Victini was murdered within his own walls. Smeargle, do you have any response to the charges brought upon you?” Natu asks, her eyes wide and narrow.
“Shut up, Natu, you’re not a cop,” you groan.
Smeargle ignores you and speaks anyway. "Have you any idea what sort of repetition poisoned food would give a chef like me? I'll be ruined if this gets out! Why would I do such a thing? It must have been Slowpoke! He entered the kitchen, mad at the mayor, and poisoned the tea when I wasn't looking!"
“Ah, steering the guilt away. Things are just not looking good for you, huh?” Natu taunts.
“Um, sorry to interrupt, but they haven’t taken his statement into consideration yet, so you can’t exactly deliver your own verdict, Natu. After all, Slowpoke is a Chemist and knows what could kill someone,” Cinccino frowns.
“CUT! Arceus, you people just cannot be formal in times like these. First the insult on my occupation and now my underling can’t even do the one job she was given. Unprofessional!”
“Boy, she’d do anything for a scoop, wouldn’t she?” Smeargle mutters to you. You don’t answer.
Toxicroak takes Smeargle and Slowpoke, both suspects, upstairs to a private location. Natu, Sneasel, Blissey, Cinccino, and Gardevoir remain on the ground floor with you. While your partner finds a good place to interrogate, you have to talk to the remaining guests as you wait.
You see Gardevoir crying in a chair next to the covered-up body. “I just can’t believe he’s gone. I just can’t!”
Sneasel creeps up beside her. “How long have the two of you been...doing whatever you’re doing?”
“We’ve known each other for a while; we’ve always had this sort of closeness, but this was new. It just started.”
“Didn’t you put something in his drink?” asks a curious Cinccino. “I seem to recall you catching his drink and sprinkling something in it.”
“That was...that was simply a love potion I had created through love, tears, and by collecting the little hearts I make when using TM Attract,” she blushes.
“So you’re not his secret admirer from before? I knew he was already cheating on me, but if it wasn’t with you, Gardevoir, then someone else is the culprit!” Sneasel asserts.
“How do we not know you didn’t kill him out of anger? Or in greed? Wouldn’t you be on the receiving end of his will?” Blissey mentions.
Sneasel looks shyly at the ground. “He never showed it to anyone. He claimed that he had special people to bury his money approximately five meters to the left of his favorite restaurant, MooMoo Central. They served the best milk…!” she sniffs before all-out bawling.
Roselia uses a flower petal to open up a small safe through a rugged keyhole. “Flower power is the real power,” she giggles. Roselia lifts the lid and looks through several papers, including love letters, sticky notes, and random documents. She keeps looking, but she does not find the deed to the house. However, she does come along a certain paper with fancy writing...the actual will of Mayor Victini. She begins reading it, hears someone coming from the stairs, and stuffs the letter in between the petals of her flower hands. Roselia then darts from the bedroom she was in to the bathroom and shuts the door. She leans against it, panting, and then decides to read the will.
“Are you threatening me? I can claw your psychic energy right out of your face!” Sneasel screams before throwing her claws aimlessly at Gardevoir.
“Cinccino, get the camera! This is a gold mine!” gasps Natu.
You, annoyed, turn your head and see a shadow moving slightly near one of the exit windows. Before the creature can escape, you sling your arm back, hand glowing black, and Sucker Punch the opponent.
A small, purple cat with scary-looking pink eyelids is thrown against the wall and grits her teeth. She sits, surrounded, and relaxes her shoulders.
“Fine, you got me,” she says.
“Oh yes I did.”
“Togekiss, there’s something I need to admit to you,” Nidoking quietly whispers to her in the same closet as before.
“I’m listening, Nido,” she smiles.
“I got invited to this party for us because I helped Victini rig the election--I got involved in the lottery and made him win enough for his campaign and more. This is his way of repaying me.
“What are you saying?”
“I got the benefits of rigging this town’s election because of my deal.”
“How was he elected, then?”
“It’s because Victini is a legendary Pokemon and he represents power. He had a lot of money before the election, so he stood out as one who could make a difference. Arceus knows he never cared about the middle evolutions, but the highest percentage of Pokemon were his best friends. Look at who all is here--doctors, lawyers, the press. This is just one big show. We’re invited because I screwed this town a million times over. If I could reverse my actions, I would.”
Togekiss frowns but doesn’t say anything.
“Despite Victini’s popularity and mild success, my friend Nidoqueen--do you remember her?--had to move out of Bafu due to unemployment. She wasn’t the only one laid off--do you remember Charmeleon, the bag boy over there are the PokeMart? Yep, he’s gone. He lives in the west now, or so I’ve heard. Victini’s ruined this city, and I came to this party to set things straight. Will you go to Victini with me? I want to end this. Now.”
Hearing Nidoqueen’s name hurt, but Nidoking seems concerned for the town. Togekiss closes her eyes when he mentions ending things, as she wonders to what extremes he would go to do so.
“Please?”
“Alright, Smeargle, you’re free to go,” you tell the poor cook.
“I figured I would be,” he remarks. Smeargle exits the small guest room and heads toward the stairwell.
“Slowpoke,” you say, redirecting your attention to him. “What do you know about the poison that killed Victini?”
Slowpoke cocks his head to the side and looks blankly at you. “Is Victini really dead? Did you make sure?”
“....Yes, yes I did. Over two hours ago. Seriously, Slowpoke--the question isn’t hard: what do you know about that poison?”
“I know poison is easy to make. Just about any Pokemon can do it with the use of a single TM,” Slowpoke says. “However, are you sure poison killed him? Not old age?”
You stare at him with a sour look in your eyes and allow him to return downstairs. “Now, Purrloin,” you continue. “Why are you here?”
Purrloin snootily shuts her eyes and swings her head to the side, much to your dismay. You lift an arm and your hand glows purple.
“One Poison Jab per question you don’t answer. Fair?”
Purrloin turns her head back toward you and smiles. “Hardly.”
You lower your hand and keep your eyes on the mysterious Devious Pokemon.
Roselia hears mostly everyone go down the stairs and returns to the empty master bedroom. She shuts the door gently and opens that note out. She then redundantly opens the door slightly to peek out after hearing movement and sees that Cinccino has now entered the bathroom next door. She hides herself well in the room and looks at the will once more.
“Oh my roses! Five million dollars given to--”
Natu hops around and squeals after seeing suspects coming back from the interrogation. “Cinccino? Where are you? Let’s get rolling!” she calls out, but no answer. “She must be in the bathroom or something. Don’t Cinccino have bladders the size of peas? Or was that the Tyranitar from Unova? Ugh, I don’t even know anymore.”
Nearby, Sneasel and Gardevoir think about all the women that were invited to the party.
“Well if you weren’t the one he was cheating on me with, then it was either Natu, who is annoying, Roselia, who only loves flowers, Togekiss, a happily married woman, Blissey, someone who was insulted by him, and…” Sneasel lists out the people, eliminating each and every one of them.
“Does that mean?” Gardevoir asks with her eyes bulging.
“Was he seriously cheating with--”
“...Cinccino? Five million dollars to the maid? This will is recent, too--it was updated just last month! He and the maid must have had some sort of hidden romance,” Roselia giggles.
Nearby, she hears a weird gurgling sound, a scream, and silence. Roselia hides the will in her rose petals again and runs to the bathroom to make sure Cinccino is okay.
The door is ajar. She opens it and listens to it creak with every millimeter of movement. The sink and toilet looked fine, but then Roselia glances over at the tub and sees a figure submerged in deep red bath water. She screams “murder” out loud repeatedly and runs down the stairs to join the suspects, the arguers, and everyone else who crowded the foot of the steps.
Why is everyone at the one place the killer would be? Roselia asks herself.
It was clear, though. She sees you walk down the stairs holding a Purrloin. You say that you found an intruder, but she is not the murderer. You throw her into the crowd and announce that the bathroom houses Cinccino’s corpse. It’s unclear who the murderer is, but every single one of the ten guests, twelve including you and your partner, though you do not think your partner is the culprit, is a suspect.
“Are you saying I have to find a new cameraman? Ugh, the life of a reporter is a hard one indeed,” Natu groans.
Several people cry. Blissey pulls a tissue out of her pouch and wipes her face, while Togekiss cries into Nidoking’s shoulder. Even Smeargle senses a tear on his face, though he swipes it with his tail and goes to the kitchen.
“She was a good friend while she lasted,” he says.
“Who could do such a thing?” asks Sneasel, obviously surprised by the attack.
“So Victini is really dead, too, then. Man, I don’t think this is a party anymore,” Slowpoke tells the group.
“Roselia just came downstairs not too long ago. She acted sneaky, too. I think she’s hiding something from everyone,” suggests Blissey.
Every pair of eyes shifts to the Thorn Pokemon, whose face burns with embarrassment. She has no words and can only put her hands behind her back.
“Roselia, is there something you’re not telling us?” you ask the Pokemon.
Dead: Cinccino (Twisted Turtwig)
Accused: Roselia (Reinforce)
*Another long chapter, but I thought it was pretty good. I'll hopefully make them shorter, sorry! Remember that you cannot PM me your final determination of the killer until next chapter, but you don’t have to do that at all. It’s optional until the very end, where you’ll have to if you want to win. Keep in mind that I will only look at the first submission per chapter because multiple people aren’t going to die. Reinforce, you must PM me your alibi and who you cast your blame on by November 23rd!. Thanks for the support and popularity of this thread!
