"Let's go and take a look." Gothorita, whose curiosity was rather strong, said.
"N-no… better not, w-we might… we might be discovered!" Pancham said fearfully.
Gothorita said unhappily: "You're way too timid. You just need to obediently follow us. You don't need to worry about anything else."
Chatot, who had the same trouble-seeking personality as Gothorita, agreed wholeheartedly: "Don't be afraid, I will protect you all!"
So the few Pokémon quietly walked in the direction from which the noise was coming.
In the backstage area of the circus, there were many staff members walking around, so the little ones were very careful. Chatot had the sharpest eyes, and after walking a short distance, it suddenly flew forward, lifted up a curtain, and underneath it was actually hidden a person who had already fainted.
Unsurprisingly, this person should be one of the circus staff.
And moreover, this person's clothes had actually already been stripped away.
The flames of gossip within Gothorita and the others had already been ignited and were now burning fiercely.
"This I know, it must be that someone has infiltrated into the circus!" Fletchinder said excitedly, "I saw this on TV before!"
Chatot, priding itself on being well-informed and knowledgeable, said with a serious expression: "There are now two possibilities. One, this circus is an evil organization, and now a righteous person has infiltrated to investigate them!"
"And the other? And the other?"
The little ones were extremely excited, feeling that they had uncovered some amazing secret, and hurriedly pressed for more.
"The other possibility is that the circus is in possession of some secret, or has some treasure, and now it has been targeted by an evil organization, and the evil organization has sent people to seize it."
What Chatot said sounded very proper and convincing, and even Pancham, who not long ago had been too scared to come over, now had eyes that were sparkling with excitement.
Even Gothorita had been taken in, and couldn't help but praise: "Chatot, I didn't expect you to actually be pretty impressive!"
Chatot smacked Gothorita on the head with its wing: "Can't you show a little respect to your elder? Call me Uncle Chatot!"
Gothorita stuck out its tongue and made a funny face at Chatot.
"Then let's hurry and go take a look."
Cubchoo stood up on its hind legs, rubbing its two little paws together forcefully, showing its excited mood.
Chatot and Fletchinder, the two Flying-type Pokémon, were in charge of scouting. They looked all around at the surrounding environment, and after confirming that no one had noticed them, they secretly slipped toward the backstage of the circus.
This circus had already been in Verdanturf City for some time. Because it was so popular, there had been no sign of it leaving. Many large tents had been set up here, and the few Pokémon turned round and round among the tents until their heads nearly spun dizzy.
Why did all these tents look exactly the same?
At that moment, Chatot unexpectedly discovered that a man dressed in a blue tailcoat, with clown makeup painted on his face, was dragging a box toward one of the tents.
So it hurriedly signaled its companions to be quiet and led them to follow along.
However, the clown man's perception seemed extremely sharp—he suddenly turned his head back.
Chatot and the others quickly hid behind another tent, but the slow-reacting Pancham was still discovered, tumbling out clumsily.
The clown man's expression suddenly became vicious. He took out a Poké Ball and was just about to release a Pokémon, when suddenly, a girl appeared out of nowhere, rushing forward with a worried look, scooping Pancham into her arms.
"Honestly, Pancham, how can you just run around recklessly like this? You really worried me to death."
Pancham: ∑(△｀)?!
Who? Who are you?!
After the girl finished speaking, she seemed to only then notice the clown man at the side. Then, with an apologetic expression, she said: "I'm really sorry, my Pancham is truly too mischievous, it just loves to run around everywhere. It didn't cause you any trouble, did it?"
The clown man restrained his expression, and with a stiff tone said: "Outsiders are not allowed to enter here. Leave at once!"
"Yes, yes, yes." The girl repeatedly bent her body and apologized several times to the clown man, looking extremely remorseful. "We'll leave right away, we'll leave right away, sorry for disturbing you!"
After speaking, the girl carried Pancham—who had been bewildered from beginning to end—and ran off quickly.
Chatot and the others, who had been hiding at the side, also let out a sigh of relief at this moment. After the clown man left, they followed after the girl who had carried Pancham away.
When they reached outside, that girl was already holding Pancham, waiting for Chatot and the others.
As soon as Chatot saw the girl, it immediately flew over and asked: "May, why are you here?"
It turned out that this girl was actually May.
Since May was acquainted with Yuga, Chatot naturally recognized her. May also had a deep impression of this Chatot with its peculiar personality from YoYo's Daycare.
"These words should be asked by me instead. Why did you all run into the backstage of the circus?"
So, the few Pokémon told May in detail about what they had discovered backstage at the circus, as well as all of their conjectures.
At this moment, from behind a large tree not far away, a boy suddenly walked out and said: "The person you mentioned who infiltrated the circus should be me."
"Rand!"
Upon seeing the boy, Chatot couldn't help but exclaim.
"Why are you here? When did you return to Verdanturf City? Why didn't you go home?"
Rand replied: "This time I came back because I'm carrying out a mission."
Rand and May had run into each other by chance, and coincidentally they were investigating the same matter. Their target of investigation was also the circus, so they temporarily decided to work together.
Rand had accepted a mission from the Ranger Union, while May had received a commission from the People of the Water.
Not long ago, the ancestral ruins of the People of the Water had been invaded. The ruins were left in a complete mess, destroyed utterly, and the intruders seemed to be searching for something.
No matter what they were trying to find, destroying the ancestral ruins was absolutely intolerable to the People of the Water.
After investigation, the People of the Water found this circus to be extremely suspicious. By coincidence, May was nearby, so they entrusted her with the task of investigating the circus.
May could also be considered a member of the People of the Water. She had always maintained contact with them, so she readily accepted the commission.
At the same time, the pioneering army discovered that recently, in the border region between the Hoenn wilderness and the human world, some Pokémon of unknown origin had appeared.
All signs indicated that those Pokémon seemed to have crossed through the defensive line and infiltrated the human area.
Since the pioneering army needed to garrison the wilderness, they entrusted the task of investigating those Pokémon to the Ranger Union.
After conducting investigations, the Ranger Union eventually tracked one of them down, and that Pokémon at present seemed to be hiding in this circus.
Rand then took on the mission of investigating the circus.
During the course of their investigations, Rand and May met, and so they decided to join forces.
Today, Rand had intended to infiltrate the interior of the circus, with May covering him, but things had not gone smoothly.
What Chatot did not know was that its guess had accidentally hit the truth right on the mark.
However, since this was a secret mission, Rand naturally would not tell Chatot and the others too much, so at this moment the few little ones were itching with curiosity in their hearts.
May warned the few Pokémon: "You had better hurry and leave, and don't come near here again."
Rand nodded and said: "This circus is not as simple as it looks on the surface."
Chatot said: "We can stay and help you!"
As soon as the other little ones heard this, they immediately chirped in a chorus of excited agreement.
Rand stared at Chatot for a while, and then suddenly said: "That might not be a bad idea."
The little ones, upon hearing Rand's agreement, were just about to feel happy, when they then heard him say: "But just Chatot alone will be enough. The rest of you little ones should go back."
Chatot's strength was considerable. Although its personality was peculiar, it was indeed a reliable support.
The little ones immediately deflated when they heard this.
Seeing this, Chatot comforted them by saying: "Don't worry. When I return, I will definitely tell you the entire course of events in complete detail."
"Yay! Yay!"
Only then did the little ones cheerfully leave.
At the same time, on the other side.
The little girl, Sakurako, was wandering around outside the venue with her tears welling up in her eyes.
"Big sister Asuka, where did you go?"
It turned out that the older girl, Asuka, had gone missing.
Previously, when the circus performance was about to start, Asuka had taken Sakurako along with the crowd intending to enter the venue, but at that time, there were simply too many people surging toward the venue. In the crush of the crowd, the two of them were forced apart.
And then Asuka disappeared, and no matter how Sakurako tried, she could not find her. She even searched inside the venue, but she wasn't there either.
She had Asuka's contact number, but when she called, no one answered.
At this time, the audience had already gone inside, and there were hardly any people left outside. The little girl squatting there all alone looked just pitiful beyond words.
Beside her, her Torchic and the Cutiefly she had recently won at the fishing competition were comforting her.
Encouraged by her own Pokémon, the little girl suddenly stood up, wiped her tears, and said: "Big sister Asuka definitely wouldn't abandon me here alone. She must be nearby. Let's search again."
So Sakurako, together with her two Pokémon, began searching for Asuka around the venue once more.
At the same time, Gothorita and the others, because of May and Rand's warning, no longer had the desire to watch the performance, so they decided to go home.
Just then, Cubchoo suddenly discovered that something ahead seemed to be sparkling. So it dashed forward and picked up that object.
It was a communicator!
Cubchoo huffed and puffed as it ran back to Gothorita's side, handing the communicator to Gothorita.
"This must have been dropped by someone, right? Its owner must be very anxious."
So Gothorita and the others decided to find the owner of the communicator and return it.
When they reached a corner, the little ones happened to bump into Sakurako.
Gothorita looked up and thought: Uh… isn't this that unlucky one who got bullied by the Slowpoke?
Of this unlucky one, Gothorita had a very deep impression. It hadn't paid much attention to the final results of the competition, but since she had been tricked by that Slowpoke until nearly the end of the contest, her final score must have been very bad, right!
Gothorita couldn't help but think this in its heart.
Sakurako apologized to Gothorita and the others, and was about to leave, when she suddenly noticed that the communicator in Gothorita's hand looked familiar, so she stopped her steps.
Seeing Sakurako staring at the communicator in its hand, Gothorita thought the communicator must be hers, so it raised the communicator in its hand.
"Gothorita~ Gothorita?"
Is this yours?
However, Sakurako could not understand what Gothorita was trying to say, and instead asked: "Where did you get that communicator from?"
So Gothorita began to explain the origin of the communicator.
"Gothorita~ Gothorita…"
However, Sakurako still could not understand, and so they began a completely mismatched and confused exchange right there.
On the other side.
May and Rand once again infiltrated the backstage of the circus, while Chatot was responsible for keeping watch for them.
The two of them quietly arrived at the tent where earlier the clown man had carried in a box, only to see that now there were two people guarding the entrance.
At this, May pulled out a Poké Ball, and with a flash of red light, a Lunatone appeared outside. It was precisely the one that Yuga had once helped May capture at the Mirage Tower.
"Lunatone, I'll be counting on you!"
Lunatone nodded, its body flashed with a violet glow, and the two guards suddenly went limp and collapsed, but in the very next second they stood back up again.
However, if one looked closely, one would see that the two guards' eyes were completely vacant—turns out they had been put under Lunatone's psychic control.
"Lunatone, we'll leave things outside to you." After May finished speaking, she turned to Rand and Chatot and said, "Alright, let's hurry up and go inside."
Rand nodded, and then the two of them, together with one Pokémon, quickly slipped into the tent. The guards outside, already under psychic control, naturally did not react, and Lunatone, after another shimmer, hid its presence as well.
Everything remained normal, as if nothing at all had happened.
After entering the tent, Chatot softly said to May: "Little girl, you've gotten really impressive now."
May smiled but didn't reply, instead turning her gaze to survey the inside of the tent.
It appeared to be a place for storing miscellaneous items, everything piled up in a messy heap. With one glance May immediately spotted that same big box that the clown man had dragged earlier.
At that time, both she and Rand had thought that big box was very suspicious.
The two exchanged a look, nodded to each other, and then walked toward the box, with Rand opening it.
Yet inside the box was completely empty.
"That shouldn't be right!" Rand said with a frown.
"Could it be hidden somewhere else?" May said.
Rand nodded: "Let's search again!"
So the two of them began searching around inside the tent.
But the tent was only so big. The two of them turned everything inside upside down, yet still found nothing.
Could it be hidden in another tent? The thought occurred to both of them at the same time.
"Wait a moment…"
Rand seemed to suddenly think of something. He pulled out a Poké Ball, and with a flash of red light, a majestic, tall Luxray appeared.
"Luxray, help me check whether there are any hidden mechanisms here." Rand said to Luxray.
"Luxray~"
Luxray nodded, and then its two eyes emitted two golden beams of light.
This was the natural ability of Luxray's species.
Pokémon of the Luxray line were born with a pair of eyes capable of seeing through any object. Whether it was for finding items or for tracking and exploring, they were exceptionally skilled.
As Luxray's gaze swept inch by inch across the tent, every hidden secret within the tent was revealed one by one in its eyes.
"Luxray~"
At this moment Luxray let out an excited cry of its species, and Rand quickly asked: "How is it, did you discover something?"
Luxray suddenly walked to the potted plant by the entrance of the tent, and with a light push, a series of ka-ka-ka mechanical sounds echoed throughout the tent.