INTERVIEW: Sunflora

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It was a fine morning in the Wigglytuff Guild, when-

Well, no, it really wasn't a fine morning. There was a murder in Treasure Town about just before dawn, and the whole place seems to be waking up to the fact still, so it's more of a somber morning for the Wigglytuff Guild.

So, it was a somber morning in the Wigglytuff Guild, when an ear-piercing shriek echoed from one of the rooms on the third sublevel. It turned heads, made thoughts race through minds of danger within these hallowed, safe halls. It was easy to think so, what with the thought of murder still fresh in their minds. Seeing how not much other noise came of it, especially the sound of a pokémon using a move of any sort, things slowly went back to normal in the morning routine of the Explorers guild.

On the third sublevel of the guild, behind a heavy-looking, decorated door, Absol sighs. "Zorua, you can come out of the corner now."

The white pile of fluff in the corner, tinged with red streams of waving fur, silently shakes her head. Her amber eyes, widened as far as they can go from their perpetual half-lidded gaze, stare at the pink blob monster standing in the middle of the room.

A feeling, one disconnected from her survival instincts, makes a comment. The creature looks oddly confused at your reaction. And, dare I say it, it looks hurt.

I'm not giving in to its wiles of looking soft and safe! Zorua shouts at the feeling, shuffling further into the corner. It's all big and round and probably talks complete nonsense!

The creature's unblinking green eyes look so hurt, though. They soften, taking a step towards her. "I won't hurt you, friend Zorua. We're all friendly friends here, don't worry~" It even adds a musical cheer and a small spin to its words.

I bet those arms can pulverize brick. A quiet feeling sneers. Don't let it hug you, whatever you do.

"Don't-" Zorua stops and swallows a lump in her throat. "Don't hug me, mister monster."

That just seems to hurt the pink-thing even more.

Chatot, meanwhile, is glued to the desk. He looks between the other three with a mix of utter bewilderment and unstoppable laughter. He coughs, but a hint of that laugh comes out, so he stops immediately.

Pride before the fall, that one. A feeling appraised. Respect.

Absol sighs again, this time shorter. There's a hint of a growl in her tone. "Zorua, we are acting as the ones to solve a murder. You are not going to unreasonably freak out from Guildmaster Wigglytuff; it's unbecoming of an Explorer."

Almost immediately she corrects her. "Detective."

"Detective, whatever," She shakes her head, her head-blade slicing the air. "You need to stay focused, Zorua."

The pink monster gives an overly exaggerated look of confusion to Zorua. "'Detective'? Is that like an Explorer?"

Nobody else would answer for her, Absol being near-done with this situation and Chatot trying to hold back laughter, so Zorua slowly nods. She then adds "I specialize in investigative matters, like forensics and interrogation."

It makes a long, oddly musical hum. "That sounds very important, I think. I have never seen a Detective at work before. Or," It rubs the side of its head with one stubby paw. "Well, I haven't heard of any Detectives before, either. Which guild do they come from?"

The answer is automatic. "Precinct 41."

Its endless cheer turns confused again. "Um…" It turns to Chatot, who seemed to finally get his own feeling under control. "What's a precinct, Chatot?"

Chatot looks over Zorua, face hiding his thoughts.

But not from me. A feeling comments. He is wary of your actions, and highly suspicious of your legitimacy.

The bird's eyes narrow. "I haven't heard of a 'Precinct 41' before, but there are Guilds out there that I haven't heard of. I have no clue as to why it doesn't follow the same naming convention as the rest, though…"

Then his eyes light up. "Ah, I have an idea."

A strange tingling crawls up her spine. He's about to have a bad idea. For you, that is.

"How about we see your badge?"

All eyes in the room, including Absol's, turn to Zorua. Now she has another reason to dig herself into the corner, her nerves alighted. "Uh…"

This isn't good. A feeling states.

No shit this isn't good, I'm back to square one with even more important people! Her eyes dart between the bird and it. Eugh, why does this keep happening to me?

"She lost her badge."

All gazes turn to Absol, her face still as stoic as ever.

Here comes backup! A feeling cheers.

Surprisingly, it was the pink thing that responded first. Its stubby little arms smush up its face, a horrified look taking over said face. "You lost your badge? Oh no, that's terrible! What happened?"

Absol, being the best investigation partner ever, continues. "Zorua has said that it most likely has to do with her current…" A quick glance to Zorua - she's hunting for the right words - before she tilts her head from side to side in a so-so gesture. "Mental state. I was informed she told you about it, correct?"

Now the pink monster looks confused. "We were?" It looks over to Chatot. "Did our friendly Detective come by and tell us something?"

If birds could sweat, Chatot's feathers would look moist. "I-I believe she told me herself, yes. Although I wasn't aware that she was a sort of Explorer, I can assure you Guildmaster!"

Well someone is trying to cover for themselves. A feeling snarks.

Chatot continues. "And rest assured, we will deal with it in a timely manner. But I'm afraid that it's not something that can be done soon." He fluffs up again. "Adding onto that, it isn't safe to let someone who might not be an Explorer do something as dangerous as catch a murderer. Without your badge to represent yourself, I'm afraid that you won't be eligible for payment, regardless if you go off and capture the criminal."

Part of Zorua's world cracks. Her voice comes out as a whimper. "No money?"

Surprisingly, the pink monster looked horrified too. "What? But Chatot, she seems so nice!"

Chatot gives the pink monster a patient - frustrated - smile. "It is the rules, I'm afraid. Unless Zorua can provide proper proof of her status, she isn't eligible for-"

A dull ring sounds out, stopping the pink monster and their assistant. Zorua looks over to the noise, watching Absol bring her claw back down from her horn. It must be made of metal, then! "I do not believe payment is our current problem."

Her eyes narrow, settling a Look on the other two by the desk. "Zorua has expressed that, first and foremost, we have to find a killer. I'm under the impression that she's going to assist me anyways, which is a good thing if her previous work this sunrise means anything. If you really want to determine her status as a Detective, then having your psychic contact the Federation itself and ask for Zorua would be the smart thing to do."

Chatot seemed to be dubious about it for some reason, in which no feeling could tell her anything. The pink monster, on the other hand, looked delighted. "That's an amazing idea! We can have that call made as soon as possible, but it might not be today," Here, he looks sad. "Chimecho is… busy," Then looks happy again. "But not forever! In the meantime, let me take a look at Zorua one last time!"

Incoming! A feeling warns.

Steadily, the pink monster approached her, suspiciously cheery smile still slapped onto its face. Zorua tries to burrow further into the corner, but it doesn't deter the creature this time. It stands just in front of her, then makes an exaggerated "Hmmm~" as its eyes roam over her.

It's examining you for weaknesses. A feeling whispers. Stand on your hind legs and look threatening; it should scare it off.

That sounds like a horrible idea!She shouts at her feelings. I'm staying right here and not moving, you can't-

What… Another feeling, this one tired, sighs. At least, it seems like the impression of a sigh. Are you doing?

…staying still so that the monster won't kill me?

The pause in her thoughts weren't long, but it felt like eternity in there.

…you're a Detective. The feeling states. You were just staring at a corpse about an hour ago, and now you're scared of a round, pink ball with rabbit ears. Grow up.

B-but… She fearfully looks into the monster's light green eyes. What if it does something? It's the leader of this guild, it's probably super dangerous!

"It" looks like it wants to hug you. Gently. Another feeling counters. See the softness around the eyes? Those are friendly crow's feet.

Her own eyes are dragged to those aforementioned details, and not under her own volition. Which was good, because she very much did not want to make eye contact and would have missed it. Okay. I see it.

Just let it happen. The gentle feeling reasons. Please.

It was odd to have a part of herself beg to herself, but it certainly wasn't the most odd thing that's happened to her before. She might've only existed for a couple of days, but those were some days to exist. Zorua especially can't get over how people can so easily brush aside Litleo because of his attitude, for example.

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Litleo suddenly woke up from his morning nap to a sneeze.

Seeing how there wasn't anything happening in his den, and there wasn't much light out this morning, he decided to fall back asleep. He lost some time to Zorua barging in, so it's only fair he slept in this morning.

…maybe he'll go see if Shinx is around, then rile him up again. That put a smile on his face as he drifted off.

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Seriously, he's a good kid. She muses. Still need to get him a lock for his door. I wonder-

Soft.

-what sort of lock would… She slowly stops, suddenly registering the feeling. What's happening now?

Zorua pulls herself out of her deep musings, which is sort of concerning how far from reality she went for a moment there, to address her surroundings.

And her surroundings are pink.

She blinks. "You're hugging me, aren't you?"

The pink monster hums happily. "Yup!"

"Oh thank god," She sighs. "I thought I went blind suddenly and was forced to see a bad color for the rest of my life."

There was a long, awkward pause from there.

…you know, all considering, this isn't a bad hug. It's like a stuffed animal has embraced you.

…okay, I admit, it feels pretty good. She sighs out loud. "Okay, you're not out to kill me. The voices in my head say you're okay."

And then things got loud.

"Hooray!" Wigglytuff cheers, tightening the hug and then spinning in a circle. "We're friendly friends now, Detective!"

Oh fuck make the spinning stop! A feeling whisper-yells. Your gut isn't cut out for this!

Struggling to speak, Zorua mutters. "Make it stop…"

Somewhere behind her, she hears a synchronized duet of groans, along with the vague feeling that Absol might be disappointed again. Somehow. It's not like Wigglytuff hugging her and then turning into some kind of discount aerostatic was her fault!

Then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped. She's carefully set down on the ground, and Wigglytuff backs away to show her the same blank smiling look that he had when he was asleep.

Or perhaps that is the only face he can make? A feeling suggested. If so, then that's very unfortunate.

"I approve of her, Chatot!" Wigglytuff suddenly announces. "Based on the information that she has found, along with that drive to help others, she definitely has the spirit of a good pokémon!" Then he ends that proclamation by twirling around the desk like a dancer and gently - but forcefully - pushes the flabbergasted bird out of the way. He then picks up the quill, jotting something down at speeds that make Chatot look geriatric.

Chatot ruffled his feathers, beak slightly open. "But Guildmaster, we can't-"

Whatever Wigglytuff was doing, he finishes it with a flourish. "Yes we can, because I already completed it! Mission assigned to Absol and Zorua, which they shall finish post-haste." He suddenly spins around the table again, somehow ending up in front of both her and Absol.

Zorua only realized then that she was placed right next to Absol when The Hug ended. It was almost like the pink whirlwind of a pokémon placed her there on purpose…

The Guildmaster of this guild stops with a grand pose. "Now go on out there and find THE BOOTY LANE KILLER you two!"

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Only moments later, the two investigators find themselves outside of the Guildmaster's office and into the main area of the third floor. Absol couldn't seem to wait to leave and immediately left with a polite "Farewell" and not a single look back. It took Zorua a while longer to wrap her head around the sudden three-sixty that the conversation took, and to be entirely honest she still can't do so. The only power she could muster was enough effort to follow after her partner.

Surprisingly, after a moment of silence - which is thanks to the door's thickness; there was a budding argument starting before the door closed - Absol spoke first. "That was Guildmaster Wigglytuff. He's…"

A lot. A feeling finishes. Which is an understatement, but sure.

Zorua chews on her lip, looking back at the door. "Yeah, I saw. A very bubbly guy, isn't he?"

"Indeed." Her blank red eyes survey Zorua. They're vaguely apologetic. "Sorry that you had to meet him. I normally avoid going inside the guild itself; there's a bounty board outside I usually use." Her horn-blade swishes as she shakes her head. "We couldn't avoid it for this request, however."

It wasn't that bad. A feeling comments. It's not like he was an uber-fascist that wanted to deport you or anything.

…I'm not going to question what that means, but sure. Out loud, she gives Absol half a grin. "He's not too bad, all things considered. He didn't call me a freak or anything, so…" She lets it hang off there.

Absol acquiesced her point. "Fair. He is still too much for my taste." She looks around the large room they're standing in. "Now to go find Sunflora, yes? Chatot said she is still here in the guild."

Zorua nods and goes to move, then stops mid-step. "Do we know where she is?"

Absol pauses. "...no, we didn't ask."

That's an issue Zorua wasn't expecting. It's not the worst thing in the world; she could go back into the office and ask for directions, but then she has to face those two again.

The Guild can't be that big. A feeling reasons. You could do a bit of exploring to find our lead. It's very investigative, something a detective would do.

Zorua sets her eyes onto the open room they're in, scanning the mostly bare room once again. There's a path off to her left, away from the pagan frog statue and the blue frog staring at it, that seems promising. So, with a small shrug, she starts over in that direction.

Absol doesn't comment and follows after her.

Their journey doesn't take long to finish. The hallway - which is nothing more than a packed earth ceiling and walls with a mostly level floor - ended after maybe fifteen meters to a door. It took no more than a small push to open it, with only mild creaking from the hinges, and showed the two pokémon another room. This one is much smaller than the last one, is completely bare of ornamentation and furnishings, and light streamed in from a window - with no glass, now that she's close enough to one.

"Hm." The white fox grunts. "Another empty room."

Absol gives it another once-over, then hums thoughtfully. "I believe this is an unoccupied member quarters. There's enough space for a few beds, and it leads to the main room."

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Zorua gives a hum of her own, but her eyes are drawn back to the center of the room. The fact that it's so empty struck her as odd, as if there should be something in this room other than a door and a window.

She walks over to the window and hops up enough to put her forepaws on the window, peering out of the hole. Outside seemed like there was nothing, but a quick look down showed a nice view of the ocean. She can even see little waves lapping at the foot of the cliff, which are probably much bigger than they look.

Zorua frowns. "Not sure how much I'd like it here if it rains. I'd prefer glass windows."

When she drops her front half and turns around, it's to a mildly curious Absol. "You have glass in your windows? How can you see out?"

"...by looking out of it?" Zorua's head tilts slightly. "Glass is clear, Abs. You look through it and see everything fine on the other side."

Absol opens her mouth, then shuts it.

She's still getting used to your 'common knowledge' and other quirks. Be patient.

"Either way, this isn't where Sunflora is right now. We should keep moving." Absol turns and lets Zorua lead the way back out the door, which the fox accepts.

It's when they both reach the main room that something occurs to her- no feelings required. She stops and turns back to Absol, who stops when she does. Red eyes look back into her own at the lack of movement. "Is something wrong?"

Zorua's eyes narrow slightly. "You appear to be following me."

Surprisingly, it didn't take long for Absol to realize something. "Right, I haven't said anything yet. Normally I work alone. I haven't always worked alone, but I have done some requests under senior apprentices. I was mostly muscle, for… reasons."

"Reasons that I won't tell you," goes without saying. A feeling provides.

She continues. "And, seeing how you're so… mobile when you investigate the environment around you, I let you take the lead," The blade dog furrows her brow ever so slightly. "Is that a problem for you?"

After a short beat, Zorua shakes her head. "No, it won't be. I just thought you would take over, saying 'I am the more experienced one' or something."

Absol denies that immediately. "I won't let my pride get in the way of someone skilled in these matters. I'm not the most sociable pokémon, but you are already a step ahead of me; I can see that much." A small, tiny smile quirks her lips. "Not that I can't do so, but having someone else do it for once is pleasant."

Somehow, that lifted Zorua's spirits. Having someone say that she's competent in something, out loud, even with only over an hour of being around one another must mean she's doing something right. She let a smile of her own crawl across her face. "Thanks. That means a lot."

"Don't mention it. Now," She looks up from the smaller fox and to the other hallways. "As much… fun, as it is to search every room, we can just ask for directions."

The smile slides off, Zorua looking back to the rest of the room. "Aw, but that's boring. We could have side-adventures in those rooms!"

Absol's voice is dryer than a desert. "I doubt there will be side-adventures in a guild member's quarters."

All of the accumulated trust in that moment has been tainted. Good going, girl. A feeling mocks.

Shut up, I was having fun! Outwardly, she turns back to Absol. "But what if-"

"No."

"We can go and-"

"No." Absol almost hisses. "If we waste time, that's time the killer has to hide from us. We need to be quick about this."

Zorua almost protests on principle of wanting to fight off the boredom she experienced last night, but a feeling cuts her off. It's true. Whenever a crime is committed, especially murder, a lot of leads become useless after forty eight hours. If the rodent was killed at midnight, then we would have already lost about eight.

A sudden pressure pressed down on her temples. You only have forty hours to find the killer, before your chances drop drastically. The clock is ticking.

(A Shuffling Of Materials A Sobbing Of Hollowness A Razor Thin Line Being Broken)

Zorua shivers suddenly, then nods. "You're right. Let's get going."

Absol just nods.

Looking back over the room, her eyes went to the most obvious answer to their problem… and found that she wasn't too disappointed. There was no way they were going to go back into the Guildmaster's office, and while they could see if anyone was upstairs they would have to go back down to this floor afterwards. Which was too much footwork for one thing and zero detours.

She lets out a fake sigh. "Oh well, I guess we have to go over to the pagan frog statue and speak to its acolyte."

There was a quiet "What?" behind her, but she was already moving over to the statue. She heard footsteps following, so she wasn't too worried about going too far.

Now on the other side of the main room, she sees the frog slowly turn their head and look right at them. His expression is so utterly blank that it made Absol's stoicism look lively. She would've guessed that he might be contemplative, but he could have easily suggested boredom or annoyance.

This frog has trained in the art of composure. A feeling notes. There's no special sensing with this one.

…okay. She looks over the statue once more, including the cauldron, before returning to the frog. Don't really know where to start, other than to ask about the weird statue.

With no other comment from within her, she nods to the frog. "What's with the statue?"

The frog's gaze held her own for a moment longer before shaking its head, an odd tone tinted masculine. "Meh-heh-heh, it's not the statue that's important."

Zorua waits for a further explanation.

When she doesn't get one after ten seconds, she clears her throat. "Krm. Um. What's with the cauldron, then?"

"It's a swap cauldron."

Another awkward pause.

Oh, I see what this might be. A feeling notes. He's testing your will. You won't have a problem with this, will you?

I dunno… Zorua feels her spirit drop. I've had a track record of feeling bad for screwing things up. I've been scared that I'll implode from shame before the day's out.

This is just a small thing, though. The feeling reassures. You can take it.

With that thought, she continues to stand and stare at the frog. She doesn't add any extra feeling behind the stare, but she tries to exude the feeling of a Detective who really doesn't want to screw up this case and can't take shit from nobody.

The frog stares back.

Absol sighs. "Excuse my partner, Croagunk, she's very curious. We need to know where Sunflora is: they know who the murder victim was and we would like to ask questions."

The frog - a croagunk - breaks eye-contact with her (Victory!) to reply to Absol. "Explains why she looked so sad when Geodude reported the body. She's in the guild storage area, down that hallway." He then points to the hall to their left with a black finger, and Zorua notes the orange finger beside it.

A feeling shoves a pang of jealousy into her. Why does he get to have hands and not you? No thumbs, sure, but at least he can get a grip on something.

Well this isn't fair. Zorua bemoans internally. Externally, she nods, causing the frog to glance at her. "Thank you for your cooperation, acolyte. I will get answers later, however."

Steadily, Croagunk turns to look at her, then slowly blinks once. "Meh-heh-heh, okay."

A twinge of annoyance flashes in her, and a familiarly strong feeling rises in her. Did this mucus-covered cultist just brush you off? He did, didn't he? I don't think he respects you, and that can't keep happening. You're a cop, and people respect your authority.

Unconsciously, Zorua starts chewing her lip. You didn't say anything when Litleo was like this, now did you?

The annoyance grows. That was before you knew you were a cop, you moron! Besides, he's just a troubled youth: he'll get off easy… for now.

The chewing gets harder. Okay, but what am I going to do about this guy, then. I have a job to do.

Maybe he's holding back something important. Smartasses like him always hold something back out of spite. Drag it out of him. Now.

Suddenly, it sounds like a really good idea to raise her voice and start asking more questions. It sounds pretty detective-like to do so, and one of her greatest personality traits is to ask an absurd amount of questions to random people that she doesn't even know the name of. Which, well, she wouldn't know the name of anyone here anyways except for whores, and… well, she has a job to do. As much as she wants to know about the statue, it has to wait until later when-

Establish. Authority.

She winces, then flinches harder when a sharp pain flashes across her face. A coppery taste suddenly floods the tip of her tongue. She quickly sits so that she can bring a paw up to her mouth. When she looks down at the paw, it comes away with a touch of crimson.

The annoyance shifts to something quiet, but clinical. A split lip, made from sharp incisors. Your own, in fact.

She hears a confused hum from her side. "Why did you do that?"

Zorua looked up to Absol, who had a mildly confused look on her face. The fox shrugged. "Forgot my teeth can do that."

Another blank look is her answer, and nothing else. Even the display of mild self-mutilation didn't phase the frog. None of that really mattered to her, as long as that surge of feeling didn't have its way.

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Absol still doesn't know what to make of her impromptu partner.

On the one paw, Zorua has to have some of the most… interesting skill sets available. Outside of pokémon who go out of their way to learn how to heal others, most don't know how to identify wounds as thoroughly as one who can learn a healing move. Chimecho is a perfect example of that: their lines are known to be fantastic at healing, so knowing what wounds to treat just comes with the territory.

A zorua knowing how to do so is strange. This one in particular had managed to identify as much as she could without any use of moves. There was an offhand remark of not having any psychics back at her 'precinct', but knowing her current condition makes her doubt the validity of it. Regardless, one has to wonder why a pokémon who can't heal knows wounds so well.

The answer, sadly, was obvious to Absol: Zorua has seen too much death.

Death is not unheard of in this world. There are some pokémon who live much shorter lives than some, and those who live much longer than others. Those who tend to live longer also throw themselves into seclusion when the world moves on without them. Her own line are known to be hermits who avoid the disaster that usually follows populated locations: having the ability to sense wrongness in the near future tends to be too stressful.

The only reason she stays is because hers was broken. It goes on and off for no reason at all, but at least it's manageable. No more than a headache, really.

Take that up with her… past… then Absol herself has seen enough to take these sorts of situations calmly. Death happens, she goes to find the cause (most of which are from natural causes these days) she says a few sparse words, then moves on. In total, she's only ever had to deal with a genuine murder four times. Five if she counts Patrat.

If she's being honest, the worse ones are the ones where Absol finds out the victim isn't dead. Seeing the light go out in their eyes…

But Zorua?

She joked at the expense of the dead. Even insulted him for looking at her with loathing for no reason the day before. The staring was weird, but other than that the pale fox took to a murder as if she's done this dozens of times before. Supposedly brain damaged or not, there's a sort of experience carved into Zorua's bones.

Then she flips that expectation of Absol's onto its head and cowers from Guildmaster Wigglytuff, the least threatening 'mon she's ever met. Not to discount the tales of the Guildmaster's prowess and strength, but she's dealt with him enough times to tell he prefers to be a friend to everyone he meets. Why the fox found him 'monstrous' is well beyond her, but all of that expertise she witnessed before was gone with the wind right then.

Now she's just wandering around, looking at things with an obscene thoroughness that feels excessive, then chewing through her own lip after staring at Croagunk for an uncomfortably long moment.

She had to pull her away from that, the fox nursing her lip as they walked past a large dining table. Yet again, despite the obvious annoyance said wound gives Zorua, she still takes in everything in the room with rapt attention. Her droopy eyes sweep the room, but for the moment nothing seems to pique her interest.

Good, Absol thinks. I need to talk to her about something.

"Detective," Absol keeps her words level, but gives her The Look when she catches the fox's gaze. "A word, before we reach Sunflora."

The only outward reaction that her words have on Zorua is a single blink and a small tilt of her head. She swears she sees the red fur streams twitch slightly, but it could've been her imagination. "Okay."

Absol doesn't wait to drop the hammer. "You need to get your shit together."

It's not lost on the blade dog that Zorua is a mess. It's been shoved into her face since the crack of dawn that, while helpful, the pale fox can quite easily become a liability in information gathering. She's moving around on a whim, speaking whatever comes to mind, and that's dangerous for requests like these. All it will take is Zorua making a fool of herself in public (again) and when the people in this town find out that it's her trying to find Patrat's killer…

She shivers as she remembers The Murkrow Incident. She's never seen a group of pokémon panic so destructively…

So it's better to tell Zorua to stop that now, than when it's too late.

Zorua's ears fold down slightly, twitching when her eyes glance upwards. "This is about my brain damage, isn't it?"

"No," She makes sure to strengthen her Look. "This is about your conduct when dealing with others. The strangeness was amusing, I'll admit. But having unreasonable fears and random staring contests while maiming yourself isn't going to catch the killer."

"...well," Zorua shrugs slightly. "I mean, who knows the exact formula needed to solve this-"

"No."

Zorua's mouth shuts with a click.

Absol narrows her eyes. "If we're going to continue on this request, you need to get. Your. Shit. Together." Her eyes become red slits. "Am I understood?"

Finally, Zorua slumps. "Okay, Absol. I'll try."

"Don't try," She says, letting up The Look. "Do. Now, I'm going to lead with Sunflora. If you really feel like I missed something important, then you can speak up. If not, then focus on controlling yourself, alright?"

Zorua nods, unable to meet Absol's eyes. "Okay."

…

It's good enough. At least I have experience with her kind.

From there, it wasn't a long walk to Sunflora. She stood amongst crates and barrels of stored food and other supplies, haphazardly sorted and currently in the process of being re-sorted and logged. Sunflora, for her part, seems to be as sunny as her kind usually are. She either wasn't aware of the death of Patrat yet, or they weren't as close as they believed. When she turned at the sound of them entering, Absol couldn't tell if the flower pokémon was ever disturbed by anything with that giant smile on her face.

Of course, it's hard to tell anything with her eyes as it is.

She hears the flower gasp. "Oh gosh, I didn't expect to see you, Absol!" Her face shifts, the smile dimming to a degree. "I don't like to be so forward with you, but you are the same Absol that…"

Absol could pick up on the hidden words. "Yes, I am. We came to you because we have been told by Chimecho that you know about the victim, and hope to ask a few questions."

The smile dimmed further. "Oh, well… That's right, I do know about P-Patrat. Gosh, it's just so…" She trails off, looking to the side. "Zorua? What are you doing here?"

Absol turns to her side, seeing Zorua standing a bit further back than Absol thought. Zorua's expression doesn't move, but she swears she sees her eyes glance to the larger 'mon. "I'm partnering with Absol on this investigation. I, uh, helped with the preliminary forensics on Patrat."

This time, the surprise is obvious on Sunflora. "You did what?!"

Zorua's ears pin back. "We're here to ask you some questions, please don't make this about me." This time Absol did catch the nervous look sent to her.

Absol smoothly continued the conversation, cutting off Sunflora. "So, what is your relationship with the victim? Were you acquaintances?"

Sunflora looked between her and the fox behind her, before visibly shifting her attention away from Zorua. It looked like it took too much effort. "I know about P-Patrat, yes. I'm someone who knows about everyone here in Treasure Town, in fact! I try my best to get to know everyone who lives here, and a little bit of everyone who passes through. In fact, I think I remember something about you and the Murkrow Incid-"

Absol suddenly clears her throat. Loudly. "We don't need to bring that up, Sunflora. But yes, you made your point. So how well did you know Patrat?"

About this point, Absol noticed the smile finally falling off of the flower's face. "We were… friends, but Patrat would make it sound more important than that."

"How so?"

Sunflora sighed. "He makes it sound like we trade 'very important information' but…" Sunflora brings up a leaf to rub one of her petals in embarrassment. "It's just gossip to me, and most of it is him being very close-minded. Paranoid, actually."

That was different. If Absol remembers right, patrats tend to have a sort of tendency to be paranoid, but it usually ends up with them taking up hobbies of watching other pokémon in some capacity. She decides to say as much. "Did he have some sort of hobby with 'mon watching?"

That brought out a small laugh from the flower, although it felt too small for normal. "Yes, but he didn't consider it like that. He calls it a 'sacred duty to watch for bad pokémon' or something, but it usually ends up with him staring at others all day long. Sometimes he even-"

She stopped herself, her face shifting. "Well, sometimes he gets a little too overzealous."

It's almost too obvious what to ask. "Overzealous, how?"

Sunflora visibly fidgets, continuing to brush her petals with a leaf. "He sort of believes that certain pokémon are considered 'bad' by nature. It's not healthy."

Zorua, having been silent for the past couple of minutes, speaks up. "So he's just racist. Got it."

The smile returns nervously. "It's the main reason we're just acquaintances and not friends. I try to tell him to be better about those stereotypes, but he would argue about it and dig himself into a hole every time." The smile shifts. "I guess I won't succeed in convincing him after all…"

After making a mental note of Patrat's general personality in her head (it looks a lot like a small paper note that says "is just a paranoid racist") she pushes through Sunflora's melancholy. "Speaking of you two, have you any knowledge of his general daily life? Does he tend to frequent certain places in Treasure Town?"

Sunflora seems to shake off her cloud of sudden depression in favor of answering Absol. "It's hard to tell, but other than the usual places pokémon go to for normal services and bartering, he just watches others around Treasure Town, mostly near where a lot of them enter town."

Not seeing much there, she marches on. "Do you know if he deviated at all from his routine, yesterday?"

Sunflors seems to think about it - which is hard to tell from this distance - before answering. "I did see him, and I spoke to him briefly, but it didn't look all that different than normal."

"Where did you meet him?"

"Down by the crossroads, but it wasn't for long. I was going on a request with Corphish for the day and we didn't get back until sometime in the afternoon."

There wasn't much left in the interview, but the last thing she got out of Sunflora was where Patrat lived and if he had any family in Treasure Town. The latter was a negative; Patrat had no family here, and if he had any family anywhere else either Sunflora was not willing to say anything or Patrat was that tight-lipped about it. If she was being honest about herself, she wasn't looking forward to the house visit. There's one thing that she knows about pokémon, it's that they tend to act differently behind closed doors. Patrat never bothered to hide his paranoia, but the fact he determines certain kinds of pokémon to be 'bad' can mean a lot of things.

Keeping things professional, Absol gives a polite nod. "Thank you for cooperating, Sunflora. We will do our best to work with the evidence given to us and search for the killer."

Sunflora gave her another smile, and this time she can see the sadness in it. "Thank you, Absol. I hope I gave you enough to work with."

With another nod, Absol turned and went to leave.

It took her a moment longer than it should for her to notice that Zorua didn't follow her, her thoughts distracted as they are. She was almost out of the room when a passing glance didn't show any red-on-white fur, and she stopped to see what happened.

Zorua hadn't moved from her spot, staring at Sunflora. The flower herself had turned back to her work when Absol did so too, so she hadn't noticed the odd fox not moving. Slowly, as if dunked in thick molasses, her head tilts to the side.

Soon, Sunflora also turned around, most likely because there weren't any more footfalls from either of them suddenly. The flower looks at Zorua, her expression hidden from Absol at this distance. "What's wrong, Zorua?"

There's a beat of silence from the fox, where the only thing that moves is the red parts of her fur, which sway in some unseen breeze. Absol doesn't need her species' famed sixth sense to see that Zorua is about to do something strange again, and she takes a step forward to move in front of-

"What did Patrat say?"

Absol was going to keep going, but when Sunflora flinched at Zorua's words, she stopped to stare at the flower pokémon. The fox's tone wasn't malicious in any way, but it was asked with a certainty that Sunflora had not mentioned something.

But in what way does she mean? Sunflora certainly must know, if she reacted like that.

Unfortunately, the first thing Sunflora did was act confused, if doing so nervously. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

It was the worst lie Absol has ever heard.

Zorua must think so too, because the denial doesn't dissuade her. "When you last saw Patrat on the crossroads, you mentioned that you talked to him before leaving. From what it sounded like, you tried to brush off his words, but you also said that any interaction between you two is always informative in some way." She shuffles her legs under herself to try and stand taller, instead of mildly slouching. "So, either you said something to him that you rather not mention to us, or…"

When she trails off, it dawns on Absol, and she finishes Zorua's sentence. "Or Patrat said something that you don't want us to hear." Then another possibility presents itself to the blade dog. "That, or it really wasn't important."

Almost too quickly, Sunflora took the bait. "Yes, that's exactly it! We just said hello and, um, something else that wasn't very important!" She nods to herself. "I just didn't want to bother you with something mundane like that."

There are several words that Absol would like to say to that, but before she could pick which one Zorua spoke up. "Sunflora, I would like to remind you that we are investigating Patrat's death, and that the killer is still out there. Whatever hangups you have with that interaction, it could help us find the one responsible for his death." Then, as an afterthought, "Please cooperate."

Sunflora seems to waver slightly, but the details of her internal struggle is lost to Absol. It was times like these that she wishes she could see better; she misses too much because of this.

Sunflora's leaf-arms slump, and Absol knows that she's starting to give in. "Gosh, it's… embarrassing. And a bit rude."

Finally, Zorua steps forward. When she reaches Sunflora, she lightly puts a paw onto a slumped leaf, but Absol can't see whatever face she's giving the flower. "Every little bit helps."

Her words were the final straw, it seems. Sunflora still seems to want to fold in on herself, but she starts talking. "It wasn't a long talk, because Corphish knows how I get with gossi- I mean, talking to others, so he rushed us. But it didn't seem like it would have been long anyways, because he was focused on something. When I asked him, he said he was trailing a 'bad' pokémon and, well, you know how that is…"

That small piece of information seems to make something click in Absol's mind. Patrat considered himself a sort of watchmon of this town, so it would make sense for him to try and shadow a pokémon that he might consider an outlaw of some kind- whether he was correct or not. But, if this target of his was an outlaw, and a very dangerous one, then it would make too much sense that he tailed them for the whole day, got in way over his head, then killed by this shady character. It definitely wouldn't have been Absol's first choice of a possibility, because something like this happening in Treasure Town of all places seemed slim; she'd have a better chance of hearing something like this back home in To-

Then Sunflora cut her thoughts off. "But…" She squirmed slightly - which was a bit disturbing to see on a flower - and looked down at Zorua. "He said that the bad pokémon was - oh gosh, I'm sorry - 'that freak zorua.'"

Whatever her thoughts and theories were came crashing back down. It seemed that way for Zorua too, who flinched away from the flower as if struck. "W-what?!"

If Absol was closer, she was certain that Sunflora's face would either look apologetic or embarrassed- or both. "Patrat was probably following you, Zorua."

…well, at least Absol wouldn't say this wasn't an entertaining request, if the odd strangled whine Zorua made means anything.