480 CH112 (476), Another Perspective (3)

POV: Aaron

Location: Fiore, southeastern area, Verdure City

He read the message he had received over the order pager he had been assigned, and could not help but clench his fist in excitement as well as agitation. They had finally found a clue on the true hand behind the smuggling ring he and the others have been investigating since he arrived in this part of the world two years ago.

Aaron had to tell his friends that he was here to explore the regions, which he actually did and had to do during his main mission, but that was all a cover for the true hidden long-term mission he had accepted at the headquarters.

When he learned at the time that a lot of Pokemon from the eastern continent had been appearing on the black market, especially the one on the northern continent. Aaron had not really had that much of a reaction aside from thinking that the perpetrators had to be somewhat curbed because honestly, something like the black market and Pokemon smuggling were unavoidable.

While he was still contemplating whether he should accept the black market raid mission at the time, his uncle called him to a meeting room, which was a bit surprising since he had not known that his uncle Riley had been back in Rota at the time.

Uncle Riley had not been the only one in the conference room when he entered. Two more high-ranking guardians were there standing beside him, and there were quite a few regular guardians like him gathered in front of them.

When Uncle Riley saw him enter he told him to join the others, and then they began to explain the reason all of them had been called over. They confirmed that it was true that a lot of Pokemon from the eastern continent had been appearing on the black market, especially here on the northern continent.

Still, while smuggling was a problem, that was not really the reason Aaron and the others had been called over. No, it was the deplorable state the poor smuggled Pokemon were in that caused the order to order a thorough investigation.

Not only did all Pokemon show signs of physical abuse, but they also exhibited signs of emotional damage. Some were apparently even catatonic, while others were acting robotically. Those were probably the worst ones among them since tests showed that their emotions had been buried really deep and they were acting like that due to fear or due to an instinct that had been drilled into them.

At the time, the higher-ups had mentioned that it was a miracle that none of the Pokemon had gone feral, but they now knew that was not true. The criminals simply put down the ones that did go feral since there was no way for them to control a Feral Pokemon.

Honestly, the thought of the inhuman things he had seen during this time still made his blood boil every time. It was the reason Aaron was so determined to see this mission through until the end even though he had a few close calls during these two years.

However, he was not the only one that had gone through dangerous situations. Of the 16 people that accepted the mission with him, and the 28 people he knew who participated in the mission, 4 had lost their lives, while nearly everyone else had had a close call at least once.

Still, the hard work and sacrifices they made, had by now resulted in a near stop of smuggling coming from the organization they were investigating. They had arrested a lot of criminals and more than one of the higher-ups but unfortunately none of them knew their backer, at least until now.

Apparently, that had changed after the last operation, since they had seemingly finally gotten a lead on the mystery backer. Once that b*stard was captured or at worst killed, Aaron's mission would be complete. Hopefully, their team would be able to take in the man alive since they had to squeeze him of all the information he had, which would be impossible if he was dead.

Aaron decided to remind his uncle to send out a reminder for everyone that capture was preferred and the reason behind that since he knew quite a few others on their team that would love to snuff out the life of that son of a Muk.

Well, at least all the danger and close calls had resulted in some great progress in himself and his Pokemon. Aaron himself had already become a Tier 3 First-Class Aura Guardian by now, and he felt as if he could advance to Tier 4 within the next few years.

As for his Pokemon, Lucario, Infernape, Gallade, and Toxicroak could break through to the dark gold stage at any time, but were biding their time in order to reach their limit. They would do so once they felt as if they were no longer progressing.

Machamp had evolved and had reached the (high) gold stage, along with Heracross and Sirfetch'd. Meanwhile, Primeape, Poliwrath, and Breloom were at the (mid) gold stage, but he was confident that they would advance to (high) gold within another year or two.

Finally, there was Clefairy. Aaron did not have her participate in the dangerous battles unless he had no choice because she usually acted as the team healer as well as a training assistant. Her healing was the reason they managed to hang in there in some of the critical situations.

Clefairy preferred that role and he did not want to push her out of her comfort zone if he didn't have to. She had reached the (high) silver stage quite a few months ago, but she was still considering whether she wanted to evolve or not, and he did not plan to rush her.

All in all, Aaron was practically ready to register as an Ace-Class trainer, so some personal good came out of this whole mission as well, aside from all the Pokemon they had saved from suffering, which would have been enough for him to do it over and over again even if he had not gotten stronger as he did.

Well, enough reminiscing, he had to meet up with the others to discuss their next step, so he made his way to the PokeCenter they had chosen as their meeting point. Once there, Aaron made his way to the room that Nurse Joy reserved for their group and saw that he was one of the last to arrive. Only Joe, Samuel, and Lara were still missing.

Samuel and Laura came over together a few minutes later, and both looked a bit down. Nonetheless, Joe was still missing, and it quickly became apparent that Joe would not be joining us because Uncle Riley began the meeting as soon as Samuel and Laura had taken a seat.

Uncle Riley explained that Joe, Samuel, and Laura were the ones that managed to capture the criminal executive that gave them the information on the mysterious backer. Unfortunately, Joe got severely injured during the capture operation and passed once they had subdued everyone on the scene.

The doctors said that Joe should not have been able to hold on more than two or three minutes after the injury he suffered, but Joe fought for nearly 20 minutes before he allowed himself to fall with a smile after asking Samuel and Laura to keep an eye on his wife and daughter for him.

He could see many-a-tear run down the cheeks of his colleagues, and Aaron himself could not stop the tears from falling as well. He could feel the steely resolve of everyone present. They were keen on finishing this mission and taking care of this organization along with its mysterious backer once and for all.

He saw his uncle give his deputy a stoic nod, and she began explaining their next set of actions.

POV: Kinji

Location: Galar, Glimwood Forest

Kinji chose to take a break after finding a small and seemingly quiet place with enough space for him as well as his Pokemon to eat their lunch. It had been a few months since he had arrived on the western continent, and a month since he decided to settle inside the Glimwood Forest for the time being after having scouted out the various forests as well as the deserts of Galar and Unova.

The reason Kinji chose to settle in the Glimwood Forest was the high number of fairy types living here, which they only did because of the higher-than-usual fairy energy concentration in this place. He did not know which one came first, the number of fairy types, or the high concentration of fairy energy, and he did not care about it as much as others would.

What he wanted to see was whether the high concentration of fairy energy had some kind of impact on the local bug-type population. The currently only known populous fairy and bug-type Pokemon was the Ribombee line, so Kinji wanted to see if he could maybe find another group somewhere in this place that was numerous enough that it could actually count as a true tribe.

He naturally would be content even if he only stumbled upon a lone fairy/bug variant that he could take into his team. Still, if all else failed, he would still catch a Ribombee or a Cutiefly for his team. He really wanted to have a fairy on his team, so he would definitely do it if he failed to find any variant at the end of his stay here at the Glimwood Forest.

Anyway, while the Glimwood Forest was not nearly as big as the Viridian Forest, it was still a giant forest, and he had no illusion that he would be able to explore everything without spending years, which he was not planning to do since there were still other places he intended to visit.

No, Kinji was going to stay at Glimwood Forest for somewhere between 12 and 18 months, so the absolute limit he gave himself was half a year. After that, he would leave for his next target, though he was not sure yet if he would head for the Dusty Bowl or if he should head to the Giant's Cap to check out the icy cavern that he had heard about.

He was interested in Snom and Forstmoth after all. They had a unique typing as well and looked quite similar to Volcarona, even if they were not as impressive strength-wise, so there was no way that he was not interested in them. Still, that had to wait until he was done here.

Kinji, Leavanny, and Butterfree made sure they were not disturbing any Pokemon that were living or resting here before he began calling out the rest of his team. Pinsir, Volcarona, Scyther, Forretress, Venomoth, Yanmega, Galvantula, Beedrill, Vikavolt, Golisopod, as well as Orbeetle, appeared and all settled down around Kinji.

With their appearance, the small clearing suddenly seemed much more crowded, and it definitely was no longer as quiet. While his Pokemon were by no means screaming, even talking would reach a certain volume if so many individuals were doing it.

Nonetheless, Kinji was not worried about someone bothering them due to the noise they were making. The platinum stage aura released by Volcarona, Pinsir, and Scyther would be enough to deter anyone from bothering us. Heck, even the weakest of his Pokemon, Orbeetle was already at the (mid) gold stage, so there was no one truly weak that could be targeted.

He had already made sure that there were no platinum-stage Pokemon around these parts that saw the area as their territory, so he did not have to worry about their presence provoking any local bosses. Not that he truly thought that it would have come to a fight unless the boss was vastly superior compared to his own lineup.

At least until now, he did not have to deal with such a situation. The few times they did come face to face with one of the local bosses, Kinji, with the support of his platinum trio, was able to keep the situation from escalating too much. There were admittedly a few occasions where it came to some clashes but once it became apparent that his side was not easy to deal with, the other side always ended up choosing to compromise as well.

Anyway, Kinji distributed everyone's food and began to munch on his own lunch as well. While he was eating his Sandwich, he took out his phone to see if he had a signal in this place and luckily he did, so he began going through the messages and calls he had missed since the last time he checked his phone.

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