The masked man had been stalking Cole for several days, eyeing his Larvitar.
He was nothing more than a small-time thug who lived an idle life. Having squandered his family's fortune, he now lived alone, sustaining himself through petty theft.
The derelict house Cole saw in the illusion was actually the thug's ancestral home, where he had stumbled upon three mischievous Ghost-type Pokémon.
Though initially terrified of these Pokémon, he soon realized they were harmless — merely bored spirits who entertained themselves by playing pranks on passersby.
The masked man manipulated these naive Pokémon into helping with his schemes, convincing them it was all just harmless fun.
Together, these three Pokémon possessed a remarkable ability to create extraordinarily realistic illusions, which the masked man exploited for fraud and deception.
When Cole and Omura were dining out with their Pokémon, the masked man spotted them by chance. The sight of the Larvitar sparked his greed.
He figured selling such a rare Pokémon would solve his financial troubles forever.
From that moment, Cole became his target.
Each day, he shadowed the boy at the Berry Exhibition, blending into the crowd to study his movements. Concluding that Cole was just a defenseless child with no protection, he decided to strike tonight.
Unable to enter the upscale restaurant, he remained ignorant of Cole's connections to influential figures like Lysandre and Diantha. His greatest shock, however, came when he encountered the legendary Blaziken Mask during his attempt.
While the Ghost-type Pokémon weren't particularly powerful, they excelled at weakening victims psychologically through illusions before the masked man struck. Yet Cole remained largely unfazed — even without Blaziken Mask's intervention, the ambush would have failed.
After piecing everything together, Blaziken Mask fixed the masked man with a stern glare. "You've been causing trouble for far too long." He declared, "Today's your unlucky day — you've crossed paths with me, Blaziken Mask, defender of justice!"
As he spoke, he struck a pose, crouching with both arms raised to the sky in an embarrassingly dramatic fashion, with Blaziken perfectly matching his pose.
Cole's toes curled from secondhand embarrassment as he wondered how old this guy actually was. From his voice, he sounded at least twenty-five, maybe even thirty — how had he not outgrown this phase yet?
After interrogating the masked man, Blaziken Mask turned to him and said, "Young man, what a fateful encounter — I didn't expect to meet you again."
Seeing Cole silently staring at him, he finally sensed the awkward atmosphere and apologized.
"I misunderstood you last time. I'm sorry, I sincerely apologize."
Cole snorted coldly, "If an apology was enough, what would we need Officer Jenny for!"
"Uh..." Blaziken Mask was taken aback — Officer Jenny was the last person he wanted to see. The atmosphere grew awkward again, and after a while, he finally said, "How about this — I'll give you something as compensation later, and we'll call our misunderstanding settled!"
Compensation? Cole hadn't expected this man to be so reasonable, but before he could say anything, he saw Blaziken Mask pick up the masked man and prepare to leave.
Blaziken Mask's tall, strong frame made lifting the thin, small masked man look like picking up a chicken.
"I'll take care of this person!"
Hearing this, Cole quickly said, "Why don't you leave those three Ghost-type Pokémon with me!"
His orchard was actually short-handed, and while Ghost-type Pokémon might not be good at everything, they'd definitely be great at climbing trees to pick berries. Besides, Ghost-type Pokémon were rare and could appear and disappear at will — if they grew stronger, they would be very helpful for the orchard's security.
Blaziken Mask stopped at these words, thought for a moment, then had Blaziken toss the three Ghost-type Pokémon's Poké Balls to the kid.
Gastly, Misdreavus, and Litwick were still trembling and offered no resistance as Cole captured them in the Poké Balls.
By the time he came to his senses, Blaziken Mask had vanished. Cole wondered how he would handle the masked man.
He wouldn't kill him, would he?
✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲
Of course, Blaziken Mask wasn't that brutal — he took the masked man directly to the police station and, when no one was around, left the unconscious man at the station's entrance with a recording of his confession.
The self-proclaimed hero didn't know that the masked man already had a record at the police station. Once caught, he would definitely serve time.
✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲
Meanwhile, Cole took his Pokémon back to the hotel.
Omura had already returned from his friend's place, so Cole greeted him before heading to his room.
After closing the door, Cole released the three Ghost-type Pokémon. They immediately huddled together in a corner, trembling and looking at him fearfully.
"Brion~ Brion~"
Brionne wasn't pleased and barked at the three Pokémon intimidatingly, making them even more frightened.
After its "bad cop" routine, Cole stepped in as the good cop, "You don't need to be afraid. I won't hurt you."
The three Pokémon remained silent.
"From now on, I'm your new trainer." He continued, "As long as you behave, I promise you'll be safe, and I won't trick you into doing bad things like your previous trainer did."
Having witnessed the masked man's confession, the three Pokémon had realized how they'd been deceived.
At Cole's words, they finally began to calm down, their trembling subsiding slightly. Still, they didn't fully trust the human, remaining huddled in their corner, unwilling to approach.
Cole didn't force the issue — these things couldn't be rushed. There would be plenty of time to build trust, and eventually, the three Pokémon would understand he meant no harm. For now, it was enough if they would simply obey.
So he took out their Poké Balls and recalled the three Pokémon.
✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲
Early the next morning, Cole and Omura packed their belongings and headed to Lumiose City Airport, where Kiara and Sara would join them for their journey to Coumarine.
Cole had already made arrangements for the two to visit his orchard.
Though Blaziken Mask had promised compensation, Cole hadn't received anything — but it didn't matter, as he'd already forgotten about it completely.
✲✲✲
T/N: If you want more chapters like this, check out my Patreon! Take a look at my other translations too, you might like them!
For just $1.50 you can access all the extra content, and descriptive images, costs only $2!
That's it and happy reading! (-‿◦)
https://www.patreon.com/collection/1305384