Chapter 287: Yeah Right, Like I’d Believe You, You Wicked Little Demon King

The video continued playing.

The moment Hina finished speaking, the yellow mark on the back of her hand gave off a faint halo of light.

The grin was still plastered across the scar-faced man’s face—

But his mouth suddenly seemed to be seized by some invisible force.

Words began spilling out uncontrollably.

"My name is Mason Briggs! People call me Scarface Mason! Our hideout is Warehouse No. 3 at the abandoned cannery north of town! The secret savings I’ve been hiding for three years are in the Snorlax-patterned metal box under my bed! My bank card PIN is 114514—"

The short, heavyset man had just regained consciousness when he heard his boss spilling every financial secret he possessed.

"Boss! What are you doing, Boss?!"

"You think I WANT to say this?! I CAN’T CONTROL IT!!!"

The scar-faced man wailed while his mouth continued betraying him.

"And this fat guy next to me! Every night, he secretly does unspeakable things with his collection of Wailord stickers!"

The short man’s face instantly turned dark red.

"BOSS!!!"

"YOU PROMISED YOU’D NEVER TELL ANYONE!!!"

"I TOLD YOU, I CAN’T CONTROL IT!!!"

Hina’s expression shifted from serious to confused.

Then from confused—to completely lost.

"Um..."

"I didn’t ask about any of that..."

"You can stop talking now..."

She turned around and lightly patted Quaquaval’s wing.

"Ducky, let’s go check the cannery."

Quaquaval pushed up its sunglasses.

After securely tying up Scarface Mason and the short man with rope, it returned to the front of the group and resumed scouting the way.

After about fifteen minutes of walking—

The abandoned cannery finally came into view.

Warehouse No. 3 stood at the deepest part of the complex.

A guard was leaning against the wall outside, dozing off.

Surskit silently glided behind him.

Then—

A beautiful spinning kick.

The guard didn’t even have time to make a sound before collapsing limply onto the ground.

Hina entered the access code Scarface Mason had blurted out.

The heavy metal doors let out a deep rumble—

And slowly slid apart.

The noise immediately alerted everyone inside.

More than thirty pairs of eyes snapped toward the entrance at once.

A tall, skinny man with an instant-noodle fork hanging from his mouth stood up.

"Who are you?!"

"How did you get in here?!"

"The Pokémon you’re keeping here..."

Hina pushed the doors completely open.

Her golden eyes seemed unusually bright beneath the warehouse’s dim lighting.

"I’m taking all of them with me."

"Huh?"

The skinny man froze. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

Then he let out an extremely disdainful scoff.

"You?"

"One little girl?"

"What do you think this is, some kind of movie?"

"Trying to play the hero of justice? You’ve been watching too many cartoons."

"Enough talking! Grab this brat who doesn’t know her place!"

Hina didn’t answer.

She simply raised the back of her hand—

Pointing the pink mark toward everyone in the warehouse.

An invisible pink shockwave spread outward from her palm.

It swept through the entire cannery.

And passed through the chest of every poacher present.

Ten minutes later—

Police sirens sounded outside the warehouse.

When Officer Jenny charged inside with a squad of officers, the scene before her looked like some kind of abstract painting.

More than thirty burly men were rolling around all over the floor.

Some were sobbing uncontrollably.

Some were laughing hysterically.

Some were hugging Pokémon while crying and singing love songs to them.

And one man was clutching the bars of an iron cage—

Calling the yawning Staraptor inside...

"Mom."

The only person standing normally—

Was a little girl with long, light-blue hair.

The instant Hina saw Officer Jenny enter, she instinctively shrank half a step behind Quaquaval.

Her fingers nervously intertwined in front of her chest.

"U-Um..."

"Officer Jenny..."

"These poachers..."

"I’ve already helped you restrain them..."

Officer Jenny had worked for the League for more than ten years.

She’d seen all kinds of things.

But this?

This was new.

[VIP Chat Group]

[Dawn]: Hina is amazing! But taking on more than thirty poachers at once is still a little risky. Next time, she should call Officer Jenny first!

[Steven]: What part of that was risky? Judging from what we just saw, what difference would thirty poachers or three hundred poachers make?

[Leon]: So this is Mesprit’s Emotion Manipulation? Isn’t this completely broken?! No wind-up, no cooldown, and it’s an area-of-effect attack too?! Even anime protagonists don’t get abilities this ridiculous!

[Raihan]: What anime protagonist has it even half as good as Hina?

[Shauntal]: My, that contrast between looking completely harmless and then making everyone in the room mentally collapse the moment she acts... she’s practically the perfect light-novel protagonist!

[Lorelei]: Don’t forget whose daughter Hina is. Children raised in Asher’s family are bound to be influenced by him at least a little.

[Wallace]: So somehow we’ve circled back around to blaming Asher again.

[Asher]: No, seriously, how did this become my fault again?! Are you people physically incapable of having a conversation without bringing me up?!

[Tiana]: Dad’s right! Little Sister Hina being so good in a fight is entirely the result of her own hard work! It has absolutely nothing to do with Dad! (￣ω￣)

[Volkner]: At this point, I genuinely can’t tell whether Tiana is being sincere or trolling us.

[Tiana]: What do you mean? Tiana is the most honest girl ever.

Just as everyone was enthusiastically discussing the matter—

The image on the giant screen suddenly froze.

[Ding! Question Time!]

[Generating random question...]

[Question: Back at the villa in Arrowroot Town, when Dawn and Princess Salvia challenged Hina to "Guess which one is your real mom," how did Hina ultimately identify the real Dawn?]

[A. The Power of Viridian sensed her biological mother’s unique energy.]

[B. Quaquaval used the Quaxmen secret art, "Sunglasses X-Ray Vision," to see through the disguise.]

[C. Asher secretly gave Hina a hand signal from behind them.]

[D. Hina suffered an emotional breakdown, crouched on the floor, and covered her face, causing Dawn to feel sorry for her daughter and reveal herself.]

[Buzz-in begins in thirty seconds!]

[VIP Chat Group]

[Ash]: Here it comes! Question time! Pikachu, we’re definitely getting it this time! (Cracks knuckles.)

[Gary]: Stop cracking your knuckles. Tiana can stop time. Is there even any point in the rest of us trying?

[Steven]: Niece Tiana, how about not using time stop this time? Your uncle hasn’t managed to buzz in for several episodes now.

[Raihan]: I propose that Tiana be banned from participating in all future quiz rounds! She’s obviously destroying the game balance!

[Tiana]: Aww, everyone is way too prejudiced against Tiana~ I promise I won’t use my powers over time and space this time! We’ll compete fairly, okay? (≧?≦)ゞ

[Raihan]: Yeah right, like I’d believe you. You wicked little demon king.

[Countdown: 3... 2... 1——]

[Ding! Buzz-in begins!]

A gigantic red button appeared in the center of the screen.

Everyone had already mentally prepared themselves for Tiana to stop time and steal the answer again.

But the very next second—

[Ding! Congratulations to Asher for buzzing in first!]

...

TL: Cough Now that I think about it, the Quaxmen aren’t so bad. Cough Let me join... *side eyes* (This is not a request. Hand over your secret arts!)