1st Case: The Search for P- [Video]

[wboiled]

Oy! Give me back my hat, you mangy panda!

[What a wonderful sound to grace the holocaster very early Thursday morning. Some guy yelling at the top of his lungs, running around Vaniville Town chasing what appears to be a Pancham wearing a rather stylish black fedora This shaky video goes on for a few seconds before abruptly cutting off.]

[It starts up again around ten minutes later, the Pancham having been caught and the hat now on the man's head, where it belongs.]

Ah, so that's how this thing works. Not my usual style, but I can get used to it. No need to tell me where I am; I'm a hard-boiled detective, and I've figured it out already.

[ie, he went up and asked some dude, who proceeded to answer his question after rambling about technology for a while.]

This place is a lot different than I remember it when I played Red as a kid. How many of these Pokemon are out there now? [He nods towards the Pancham in the background, who is busy playing by a fountain.]

Comments

Visual

[unbroken_chain]

"Seven hundred and...nineteen, as of the last official Pokedex compilation, I think?"

There's a slight pause as Kotoha mentally sorts through her early days in Hinoto-Ri.

"...say, aren't you the head of the Narumi Detective Agency?"

Visual

[wboiled]

"Seven hundred and-" Okay that's a lot more than the 151 he's used to, but he's quickly over the surprise at the mention of the Agency.

"My agency is known all the way out here? Decade must be spreading the stories." He offers the girl a cool grin and a tip of his hat. "Hidari Shotaro, at your service."

[unbroken_chain]

"I'm Kotoha, nice to meet you! I kind of make a habit of this dimension-traveling stuff, and the last place I was at had a copy of your agency."

Slight pause.

"I've heard of Decade? But the Kamen Riders I know are Fourze and Sting."

[wboiled]

Given that he knows people like Decade, dimension hopping is not a new or surprising concept to Sho. It makes sense that there would be others that can travel around, too.

"I know Fourze, but I've never heard of Sting."

[unbroken_chain]

"He's from your world's equivalent of Unova; I think it's called America?"

[wboiled]

"An American Rider...?"

Shotaro thinks on this a moment. Were there even more Riders than the Showa and Heisei groups?

"I'll deal with that when I get home. There are more important things right now."

He looks back to the Pancham in the background, who is still running around.

"My Pokemon skills are a bit rusty, but this might make for a good vacation."

[unbroken_chain]

"That's the spirit! Hopefully you'll manage to catch up with the rest of us soon; it'll be neat to talk to you in person!"

[wboiled]

"Anything for a fan."

Shotaro no.

"I'll try to hurry along, but I don't have my bike with me. Walking's going to take a while."

[unbroken_chain]

"It's a hike, yeah! Towns are a good place to stock up on stuff, so we've been hanging around each of them for a bit before leaving; you might be able to catch up after a while."

[wboiled]

"So there's a large group of you? How far ahead?"

As hard-boiled as the whole lone traveler thing is, it might be better to be with a group, if only for the company. He's got the Pancham, but conversations would be a little one-sided.

[unbroken_chain]

"A lot of us showed up all at once, and we kind of split into groups; I'm actually just traveling with one person. It's...a little under a week of travel from where you are to where we are? Assuming you don't get lost in the forest, anyway."

[wboiled]

"Don't worry about me. I've got a detective's intuition when it comes to navigation."

Which means he's probably going to be lost.

[myheadisnotbig]

Um... A lot? I don't know how many, exactly.

[Says the smallish boy that seems to have a bidoof quiescently flopped over his hair-spike.]

I didn't even know there was a set number! I figured it was like animals back home, and there were more species than we could count.

[wboiled]

There were a hundred and fifty-one, but that was when I played fifteen years ago.

[Then again, maybe he shouldn't be comparing a video game to an actual world of Pokemon.]

[myheadisnotbig]

Played what?

[It's not to say that there wasn't a parallel game in his world. It was just that he wasn't the kind to play handheld games--that was the purview of his scary sister. Plus his world's version sucked. It was basically nothing but one big zubat cave, and NO ONE WANTS THAT.]

[wboiled]

Don't worry about it, kid. It doesn't matter now.

[Trying to explain it would be an exercise in futility, anyway.]