Chapter Forty-Eight: It’s That!

After changing out of her uniform, Officer Junsha let her long hair fall, cascading all the way down to her waist. She had even taken the time to brush it neatly before emerging; her bangs parted lightly on both sides of her forehead, not too thick or heavy. As for her figure, Amu hadn’t paid much attention. He already knew, though, that Miss Junsha had arrived riding her Great Bird—no, it was a Pidgeot.

“She still hasn’t woken up after nearly drowning?” Junsha said gravely, looking at the unconscious Chikako lying before her.

“I asked my Exeggutor to take a look earlier, but since it’s not specialized in this kind of thing, I didn’t let it go too deep,” Amu replied from the side.

It wasn’t impossible for someone to become comatose or enter a vegetative state after nearly drowning, with no telling when—or if—they might awaken. Since Exeggutor hadn’t received any training in psychic healing, Amu hadn’t dared to let it try too much.

“So…” Junsha’s tone was heavy, and as she paused, the others couldn’t help but turn their attention to her. Then she continued, “This is undoubtedly a case of malicious, aggravated assault!”

Everyone: … Really? That much is obvious. We thought you’d come to some more valuable conclusion!

“Officer Junsha, we have footage from the scene,” Hiroki quickly offered, bringing over his video camera.

“Oh? There’s footage? And—just call me Officer Yumi,” Junsha—no, Officer Yumi—introduced herself.

“Yumi?” Amu was taken aback. Weren’t you supposed to be a traffic officer?

He quickly shook his head, telling himself he should be used to this kind of random crossover by now.

Yumi shot Amu a sidelong glance, walking over to stress, “It’s Officer Yumi—don’t go calling me just Yumi.”

“Officer,” Amu hastily added.

Yumi didn’t waste any more words and immediately went to watch Hiroki’s recording.

...

“So… a Ghost-type trainer with a Cofagrigus attacked the victim, then took her into the forest and tossed her into a ravine…” Yumi summarized after viewing the footage and listening to everyone’s account.

As a Junsha, Yumi wouldn’t jump to wild conclusions about a wild Cofagrigus turning people into mummies and controlling them, as ordinary people might.

In fact, the “bandages” covering the assailant were likely the result of Cofagrigus’s disguising ability. There had already been a previous attack involving Cofagrigus in the garden. If a trainer used Cofagrigus, they could instantly wrap themselves in bandages.

Conan kept glancing at Amu, hoping he would clue Officer Yumi in, but noticing Amu was absorbed in his Pokédex and ignoring him, Conan had no choice but to speak up himself: “Huh… but isn’t it strange? Did the mummy drop something at the front door? Why would they leave through the back window only to circle around to the front for Hiroki to catch on camera?”

Yumi’s expression turned suspicious. She glanced at Hiroki and the others, then said, “Let’s follow procedure… let me examine your Pokémon first.”

“We can, but how could it possibly be one of us…” Asheng responded with a hint of irritation.

...

Yumi proceeded to carefully “inspect” the Pokémon belonging to Hiroki, Ryoichi, and Asheng. This so-called inspection was really her using her special Junsha ability to communicate with them.

The Junsha ability was essentially a means of communication. If a Pokémon had committed misdeeds on its trainer’s orders, it was likely to “confess” under this influence. In fact, Pokémon involved in crimes could even be stopped by this power.

She hadn’t inspected Ayako’s Pokémon, not out of favoritism, but because she had already communicated with her Marowak.

Just to be thorough, Yumi also checked the Pokémon of the other uninvolved parties.

“Hmm? Hey, what about the Pokémon in this Poké Ball?” Yumi asked, looking at Amu—she had noticed the ball containing the Mischievous Voltorb.

“Oh… Boom, come down here,” Amu called upstairs.

The others looked over in confusion; they hadn’t known Amu had left a Pokémon upstairs.

“Ah! That’s… a Voltorb? But it looks…”

“It’s an Ancient Voltorb!”

“That’s extremely rare…”

Hiroki hurried to film with his camera.

Amu explained, “After the attack in the garden, I left Boom in my room to keep an eye on things upstairs… But that’s not important now—I think I know what’s going on!”

“Huh? You know where the trainer with Cofagrigus is?” Yumi looked at Amu in surprise.

“No… To be accurate, it’s not Cofagrigus at all!” Amu turned the Pokédex screen around for everyone to see. “It should be Ditto!”

“Huh?” Yumi stared at Amu in confusion.

Conan was momentarily stunned, then an expression of realization flashed across his face. He quietly took two steps back, using his small size to slip upstairs while nobody was watching.

“The Cofagrigus that attacked in the garden—I sensed something off about it when I confronted it. But since Cofagrigus is so rare in Kanto, I’d only ever seen it in the Pokédex, so I didn’t react right away…” Amu recounted calmly.

“What did you notice? Stop keeping us in suspense!” Yumi pressed anxiously.

“There’s a description of Cofagrigus here—its eyes glow red… I don’t think that’s just poetic exaggeration, right?” Amu flicked the Pokédex to Cofagrigus’s entry, displaying the description and its image.

“Ah! You mean…” Yumi caught on. Amu had just mentioned Ditto, and now he was talking about Cofagrigus’s eyes.

“That’s right. Although it was dark in the forest and hard to see the details, now that I think back, at the very least, I can say for certain—the Cofagrigus I saw didn’t have glowing red eyes!” Amu declared with certainty.

Ditto, with its signature Transform ability, could become any other Pokémon. Aside from stamina, all its stats would match those of the Pokémon it transformed into.

Unlike in the games, Ditto’s power in this real world was more akin to its depiction in the anime. It didn’t need to see its target to transform—once it had learned to mimic a Pokémon, it could take its form at will.

This had its pros and cons: the advantage was that Ditto wasn’t limited to transforming into the Pokémon in front of it; the drawback—or rather, the limitation—was that Ditto had to study and practice each new form. It couldn’t transform simply by glancing at something!

To this day, no Ditto had ever successfully transformed into a legendary Pokémon, and generally, the number and types of Pokémon it could become were limited.

Cofagrigus might be rare, but it wouldn’t be surprising for Ditto to manage the transformation.

Once transformed, Ditto would look exactly like the target Pokémon, with one exception: its eyes—no matter what it became, Ditto’s eyes remained its signature “bead eyes.”

Moreover…

Ditto could also transform into a human, provided it was familiar with the person.

But as always…

Its eyes would never change!