The Unyielding Façade

Part 8 - Paranoia or Gut Feeling?

The next morning, I walked out of the Pokémon Centre greeted by warm sun rays and the chilly wind. I shivered and looked down at the white baby-doll dress I was wearing, topped with a black leather jacket. A pair of warm black leggings covered my legs, while my red Pokeball arsenals along with the four Pokeballs were tied to my thighs. I figured that since he had seen me with that red and pink attire last night, just in case I bumped into him, I should change the way I look. Sounds perfect, right? Well, the only drawback is that this jacket is not as warm as my red fleece coat. I sighed and looked back to the Pokémon Centre, reminiscing the warmth (and incredibly dry air) inside generated by the heater 24/7.

Damn, it's colder than I thought it'd be... I thought and took a deep breath while looking up, well, at least now I've accomplished what I came here to do... a whole lot earlier and easier than I thought... I guess I can go back and train-

Just then, I felt something shuddering inside my bag. I opened my bag and dug through it. As soon as my hand felt a smooth and cold flat surface shuddering like crazy, I grabbed the device and pulled it out of my bag. It was an old Xtransceiver which used to belong to my grandfather. But since he's getting the newer version, he gave this one to me. Yeah, can't do video calls just yet and doesn't have a map. If it does, I wouldn't be getting lost that often. Anyway, unexpectedly, there was an incoming call from an unknown number.

Who's this...? I thought but picked it up anyway.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Oh! Finally..." said a familiar voice on the other end of the line before sighing, "15th times the charm, I guess,"

"Are you... Matias?" I asked, "oh God, I'm so sorry, I just woke up...!"

"That's alright. Glad it all works out in the end," he said, "I managed to have a chat with him last night about the situation, so thanks for that,"

"That's okay - I just told him about your calls," I said, "is something wrong, though? For you to call 15 times in a row?"

"...Valen, I need to ask you something," he said, "when's the league?"

"Uhh... in another 10 days, I think? I know it's December 31 - I remember it's just a day from 2018 since there's a lot of ads with the picture of the previous champions in the ads, missing the '1'" I asked, "why? You aren't signing up for it, are you?"

"Listen," he said with a stern voice, "something is not right. Something is just extremely weird,"

"You mean the fact you stopped calling me 'kid'?" I asked, smirking, "finally you have some respect for me?"

"This is serious," he stated, "this morning, I just heard the police decided to stop their investigation of the case. Said because lack of proof but it just doesn't make sense,"

"...Huh? HUH?! Wait, what?!" I asked, "I mean, good for you, but... why?"

"I'm not entirely convinced, but..." he said, pausing for a moment, "I believe... someone's trying to get our guard down by putting off the whole case. I think they realised what you've realised. We could pretty much say they started it since they're definitely connected to the Gris. So he wants some more dirt to dump on us and strengthen their case... somehow since normal police investigation didn't cut it for them,"

"Maybe that was just Antonio taking quick actions," I said.

"In one night? I doubt that," he said, "stopping something this big would take a bit longer, even if you know someone in the police force,"

"What if it's the marquess figuring everything out and bribing the police to stop the case?" I suggested, "like, the whole thing happened in his property,"