"I hate that nom de guerre, it has no elegance or beauty! My displeasure is not at your willingness to end the scum you come across , no I applaud it instead! What displeases me however is your rough and unrefined methods, they lack the grace and beauty that a pokemon master should have!" Juan said passionately. I admit that this caught me totally off guard since I was expecting to have this whole back and forth banter only to find that the man was perfectly fine with my violence but had a problem with my aesthetics instead.-

How was I even supposed to react to something like this? "Not to be rude or anything but you've totally lost me. We are talking death and torture here not pageantry." I said honestly confused. The man guffawed "That is where you are wrong! A pokemon master should be elegant in all things even the removal of life and the infliction of pain on the deserving!" he said loudly earning a lot of helpless looks from those nearby watching this whole spectacle. I knew the guy was passionate about his beliefs but this was simply too much to accept for me.-

"Yeah so lets agree to disagree on this. Other than that I imagine you should have an idea as to why I am here." I said choosing to change the topic. The mans whole persona flipped at this point as he went serious. "You hunt the scum that has infested the dark parts of my beautiful city no? In this our beliefs are aligned and together we shall bring down the graceful justice of the law upon them! At least that is what i would like to do but alas I lack the knowledge to do so. These rodents have burrowed out of my sight and scurry at the slightest of movements from me."-

"You alone must undertake this venture, but I have faith you shall prevail before long!" the man said before spinning in place and striding into the gym. 'Well that was certainly something , now to go grab the last few depots and round up the kingpin lurking in the city' I thought as I headed to the warehouse district after sending the Lapras off. Unlike most cities that are roughly as wide as they are long Sootopolis was not very long but extremely wide. -

The reason for this was because the city was built from the walls of the circular "island" of stone and thus formed a sort of crescent moon shape if looked at above. The warehouse area and harborage were both at the far left tip of the crescent moon and both of my targets were there. The last kingpin was a woman by the name of Ruby Klaw who ran her part of the goods ring from the depots themselves. She was able to evade Juan and the league this entire time because according to the handlers and thugs he had asked she was androgynous in appearance and a master of disguise. She could as a result pass for anyone in the area and thus was never able to be caught.-

What made me different than everyone else sent after her however was that I knew two pieces of information that made hiding from me impossible. The first was that she enjoyed playing this game of hide and seek dangerously and thus always showed herself to those hunting her before donning a disguise. The second was that no matter how you changed your appearance you couldn't change your aura as well.-

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Thanks to this I memorized her aura the moment she showed up in the distance and bragged about how no one was able to get her yet and that i would fail as well. After that I casually walked through the docks and the moment she appeared again under the disguise of being an elderly man I captured her. She was stunned and demanded to know how I figured her out but I denied her questions as I turned her over to the Jenny clan member that had been following me since I came to this part of the city.-

It was pretty obvious to the members of that clan at this point that if I was doing something out of place in a deliberate manner that I was likely going after criminals. Besides the kingpin all the other criminals in the city didn't survive the day as I tore down the last depot on top of them with Gaia crushing it afterwards. The rescued pokemon were treated much faster than in the case of the Mossdeep depots since Juan had apparently set the Joy and Jenny clans on standby for when I was done.-

"I feel I must offer an apology for my earlier words. after witnessing your actions for myself I have come to understand that I was blind to the grace of your own ways. You move with purpose and efficiency of which could be likened to a predator on the prowl. Smooth and without a single movement out of place, if that is not grace then what is? Please take this badge as I am told you have a fondness for collecting them despite them not serving much purpose for you." Juan said passionately after the matter was over while offering me the last of the Hoenn badges.-

That meant I now held a full collection of the regions badges which made me genuinely smile. There was a sense of accomplishment about it that I couldn't really explain. I knew that the things were entirely decorative for me but that didn't mean they didn't hold value in my mind. I ended up staying in Sootopolis for a few days on Juan's insistence which proved interesting if nothing else. Hades and Juan did not get along at all. In fact they clashed like water and oil which is to say they didn't mix at all. -

The leader wanted to teach the ghost type the greatness of control and precision but Hades was more or less of the mind to remove his head from his shoulders instead. I didn't like doing it but had to put Hades in it's ball just to prevent the flamboyant man from getting murdered by it. Yani and the little one were Juan's favorites from my team as they embodied his idea of grace and beauty to a tee. Vulcans reaction to the man was strange as the legendary was wary of him. Yes wary as though the man held some form of threat to it.-

I found out why that was on the last day when a cold breeze kicked up in Sootopolis to my confusion before Juan revealed that it was one of his oldest and strongest pokemon returning. From the sky I watched as a huge light blue feathered bird with long ribbon like tail feathers descended, an Articuno. Not just any Articuno though but a bonafide variant as well if a rather mundane variant as a royal. The bird was smaller than Gaia but not by a whole lot as it was only maybe sixteen or so feet tall with a massive wingspan.