Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 346 Call the emergency number as soon as possible

Chapter 348 Call the emergency number as soon as possible

Azure's dictation of her dream was recorded immediately after she woke up in the laboratory. Therefore, this was the first time Hugo had read Azure's description of her dream so comprehensively.

The moment the detective in the white coat realized what kind of report he was reading, he decisively and thoroughly overturned his previous judgment without the slightest hesitation.

"Wrong? What does that mean?"

Upon hearing Hugo's statement, Azure and the Doctor exchanged glances, while Truffle jumped directly in front of the detective, blurting out a question as easily as a squirrel's tail slap.

"Could it be that Miss Mia's other dream wasn't caused by a second secondary personality? Then what about all the previous reasoning? If it's not a split personality, then what caused the anomalies in the dreams and experiments?"

Hugo gently shook his head and pressed down with his palms, asking the girl to be patient for the time being.

Afterward, he read through Azure's dream record again from beginning to end, sorted out his thoughts, and then turned his gaze to Miss Mia, who had been standing quietly beside everyone—"Miss Mia, before reconstructing this case, I would like to ask you a few questions."

Sensing the change in the atmosphere around her, the already introverted Miss Mia looked uneasy, but still nodded in response to the detective who had brought her here from the coast of Feiyun City: "Um—I, I'll answer properly."

"Don't worry, Miss Mia. I know you've never lied in this incident, nor have you ever deliberately concealed any truth from us. The reason I'm asking you again is simply to clear up some misunderstandings caused by my own arbitrary speculation."

Misunderstand?

The detective's assistant, who was listening to the conversation, tilted his head. So far, in the questioning of Mia, was there any element that could lead to misunderstanding?

Hugo, in a gentle tone, asked Mia, "Miss Mia, you once said that ever since you started having that strange dream, you've inexplicably had a desire to end your life. And driven by that strange emotion, you eventually took sleeping pills and stood on the beach in Feiyun City, is that right?"

"Yes, yes, I really didn't lie—"

"I understand," Hugo reassured her. "What I want to know is the specific process by which that suicidal impulse propelled you all the way to the shore."

"Specific process?"

"Hugo, could you explain this in more detail?"

Seeing that Mia still seemed somewhat confused, Azure stepped in to assist her, asking questions on behalf of the person being questioned.

As if a switch had been flipped, the detective snapped his fingers and began to explain cheerfully, "Generally speaking, even if people have suicidal impulses without reason due to some kind of twisted thought in their hearts, these impulses are often short-lived and mild—just like how standing on a high place sometimes makes you want to jump off, seeing a sharp blade makes you want to use it to hurt yourself, or standing in front of a traffic light makes you want to rush into the traffic. In most cases, these emotions are just thoughts."

"In the absence of external interference—that is, without a clear motive for suicide—these impulses are quickly suppressed by opposing emotions such as fear, resentment, and responsibility, and then completely forgotten in the midst of a busy life. Miss Rice Industry previously said she 'can control herself' and 'would not do anything similar dangerous again,' and that's probably for this reason, right?"

"Hmm, that's probably it—"

Mia herself wasn't quite sure, but she felt that what the detective said seemed to make sense.

"But this presents a contradiction. Since Miss Mia's suicidal impulses are both brief and mild, and can be easily suppressed by herself as she has today—then why would that impulse lead Miss Mia to such an unusually troublesome act as 'taking sleeping pills to the beach'?"

"Is this really that complicated? Isn't it enough to just bring the medication with you when you go out?"

Truffle looked puzzled.

She still doesn't understand the connection between things like suicide and abnormal dreams.

Hugo wagged his index finger: "Miss Mia, who lives alone, doesn't have the resources of your Dream Research Institute. On the day I first met Mia, I mentioned to her that the hospital has rather strict restrictions on the use of sleeping pills. You need a doctor's prescription to buy the corresponding medication in small quantities from the hospital pharmacy each time. And if you want to accumulate enough for suicide, you need to repeat the process many times, which takes a considerable amount of time."

"Ah, that's contradictory!" Azure realized.

"Since Miss Mia's suicidal impulse is short-lived and can be suppressed, then this impulse cannot support a long-term and complex plan like accumulating sleeping pills."

"Yes." The detective in the white coat nodded in agreement. "Just to be on the safe side, we also have to consider that Miss Mia was trying to alleviate her suicidal impulses, and unconsciously adopted this roundabout and unlikely method of seeking death. However, if that's the case, Mia's psychological problems would be much more serious than they are now, and the psychiatrists in the hospital who prescribe medication certainly wouldn't prescribe sleeping pills to a patient like that."

"Well—at first, I was a little uneasy because of the nightmares, so I went to the hospital for a checkup. At the hospital, I didn't dare to say that—that I wanted to end my life, I just described the strange dreams. So, the doctors started prescribing sleeping pills to me regularly."

"Mia said timidly. Someone with her personality would indeed find it very difficult to lie to a professional psychologist,"

"Regarding this, although my dream research has little to do with drugs, there are many kinds of sleeping pills."

Dr. Zhenyan, adopting the air of a seasoned medical professional, earnestly advised Mia—

"The medication you received is likely a tranquilizer, but some types can worsen nightmares. It's important to note that sleeping pills can have negative effects such as impaired memory and cognition, and regardless of the type, they should never be taken in excessive amounts over a long period."

Mi Ye nodded repeatedly in shame and quickly explained, "However—at home, I didn't take those sleeping pills I got from the hospital. Although I would go to the hospital to buy medicine because of anxiety, every time I got the medicine and came home, for some reason, the anxiety caused by the strange dreams would suddenly subside, and the unused medicine would just accumulate little by little."

"Why keep buying sleeping pills?" Bilan asked matter-of-factly. "If you have them at home, why not just take them when you're plagued by nightmares?"

Mia lowered her head blankly: "I don't understand either, but at the time I felt that I couldn't settle down if I didn't do it."

Yes, this could not possibly be a simple suicidal impulse.

The detective's assistant thought to himself—this phenomenon could easily be explained by the theory of dual personality. But given that Hugo rejected that theory, if one had to put it into words, Miss Mia's behavior seemed more like the influence of hypnosis or mind manipulation.

"Yes, just as I expected. It seems this was also triggered by that 'strange dream'."

At this point, Hugo, with a satisfied expression, smoothed things over for Miss Mia, "Alright, now we know where you got the medicine from on the beach, Mia. So why did you choose that particular beach back then?"

"I think it was probably chosen randomly."

Mia said hesitantly, "Although I can only make a living by taking on painting commissions online, I still want to find a formal job in Feiyun City. So, sometimes I go out to look for jobs. And then, on the way, I saw the sea."

"I see. Feiyun City is a port city after all, and the most prosperous commercial districts are located in the southern coastal area. When you're out and about, it's actually difficult to completely avoid the sea," Azure commented objectively.

Mia continued, "I don't know when it started, but when I look at the ocean outside the city, I feel like that blue color has some kind of attraction for me. Sometimes I get lost in thought and start walking towards the sea without even realizing it."

"Indeed, when I saw Miss Mia at the beach, you also had that dazed expression on your face."

The detective in the white coat nodded. "I saw you standing in the sea, opening a medicine bottle to take pills, so I instinctively assumed you were planning to commit suicide."

The idea that he would drown himself in the sea using sleeping pills—that is precisely my fundamental misunderstanding in this incident.

"soft?"

Surprisingly, the first person to be shocked by the detective's statement was Mia herself, one of the parties involved in the incident—"Why do you say that? When I went to that sea, wasn't I trying to commit suicide?"

"No, based on the previous reasoning, Miss Mia, your suicidal impulse caused by the strange dream and the emotion that led you to approach the coast with sleeping pills are similar, but they are not the same thing—it's just that Miss Mia confused them because they appeared in you almost at the same time."

"Is this...is this real?"

"Yes, back then you simply wanted to take sleeping pills in the seawater. There was no direct causal relationship between that and your suicidal impulse. Mia, do you remember what I told you at the beach?"

Hugo pointed to his head—

"Even if you take sleeping pills in the water, the body will experience a strong jolt the moment you fall in, forcibly waking you up. Therefore, no matter how much you take before sinking, you will not drown while you are asleep due to the medication."

Then, the detective posed the crux of the matter: "Since she didn't drown, what would have happened to Miss Mia if she hadn't coincidentally run into me? She had taken sleeping pills in the sea."

"Well—like the detective just said, Mia might wake up feeling suffocated and then leave the beach," Truffle said matter-of-factly.

"However, there is another possibility," Azure said from the side. "After all, Miss Mia took the medicine at the edge of the shore. Given that the water wasn't deep, we can't rule out the possibility that she just fell asleep in the sea."

With a snap, the detective snapped his fingers again—

"That's right, that's it!"

Standing amidst the clutter scattered throughout the Dream Research Institute, and before the bewildered crowd, Hugo once again tapped his forehead with his fingertip. "You see," he said, "people dream when they're asleep. Making Miss Mia drift into a deep sleep in the sea outside Feiyun City was the true purpose of the being known as the 'Strange Dream' in manipulating her psychologically!"

"An existence known as 'strange dreams'?"

Azure opened her eyes wide, a sense of foreboding rising in her heart.

Could it be that some kind of ghostly Pokémon, capable of infiltrating human hearts through seawater, is hidden deep within Miss Mia's mind?

As if noticing Azure's suspicion, Hugo gently shook his head at his assistant with a reassuringly calm expression. "The truth behind this incident is vast and complex, and has been intentionally or unintentionally interfered with and distorted by various forces. The only thing we can be certain of right now is that what's parasitizing Miss Mia's mind is not some kind of split personality—but rather some kind of individual with independent consciousness. Azure, who has connected with this individual through dreams, should understand this best, shouldn't she?"

The detective raised the dream dictation he was holding.

A dreamlike seascape.

Thinking of this, the assistant couldn't help but shudder: "Could it be that the emptiness I felt around me when I first regained consciousness in the dream wasn't the void of the dream world, but rather the ocean in the memories of the person I was connected to?"

"That's right. In that dream, there was no powerful superhuman with an omniscient perspective overlooking the world, nor was there any dream space created based on mental power. What you saw, Azure, from beginning to end, was the real world as witnessed from that individual's perspective."

Azure, along with the two dream researchers who had also read the dream report, were all speechless with shock at the detective's words—

That deep ocean, that discolored stone tablet, that purple smoke, and that final series of overhead zoom-in images like movie scenes—were all of these real?

"Why did that strange dream come back to me? Did I do something wrong?"

Hearing news that was far beyond her comprehension, Mia covered her head in fear and asked the detective with some excitement.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Miss Mia," Hugo said to her in a comforting tone. "The strange dreams you experienced weren't caused by the vengeful spirits of Ghost-type Pokémon, nor by the malice of a powerful psychic. In fact—"

The detective flicked the dream report in his hand.

"After all, this is just a warning notice."