"So you figured all of that out yourself?" Sister stared at Luther as if trying to dig every secret out of his mind.
Luther smiled.
"Evergreen gave me the direction. I just put the final piece of the puzzle in place. That worthless pawn you looked down on... that ambitious fool you planned to sacrifice... that scapegoat you discarded... Evergreen told me everything he knew."
Sister frowned. "So, to catch me... you actually worked together with Evergreen?"
In his eyes, there was only one way Luther could have learned all of that: they had joined forces. The thought of Luther swallowing his hatred to cooperate with the man he despised most was so absurd that Sister burst out laughing.
"We did cooperate," Luther admitted.
Cynthia froze. She knew better than anyone how deeply Luther hated Evergreen. The man had become an obsession, a nightmare he could never escape.
"We happened to meet," Luther said, "and then he killed himself right in front of me."
Sister's eyes widened in disbelief.
Luther, on the other hand, wore a look of quiet satisfaction. "He decided that if exposing you meant giving up his own life... then so be it. He said that maybe you could see farther than everyone else.
Maybe you always treated him like an insignificant nobody. But in the end... the one who destroyed every one of your plans would be him. He told me he would destroy your chessboard with his own life. As long as you didn't win... then he did."
Sister's face turned ashen. A cold, murderous glare filled his eyes as his fists clenched so tightly they trembled.
To him, Evergreen had always been nothing more than a man with a little ambition, someone insecure, desperate for recognition, and easily controlled.
In Sister's plan, Evergreen was supposed to become the League's scapegoat: the infamous Leader Zero, hunted across the world by the Pokémon League. With Evergreen's personality, he should have gone into hiding and continued taking revenge on the League.
But he hadn't.
Why?
Luther spoke each word slowly and clearly. "You're not as good as Evergreen."
"I... am inferior to that useless puppet?" Sister roared.
Everything he had spent his life planning had collapsed, and now he was being told that the man he had always looked down upon had defeated him. Those words denied everything he had ever accomplished. For the first time, Sister completely lost his composure.
Luther didn't back down. Instead, he took another step forward.
"Evergreen was ruthless. He was ruthless to everyone else, and he was just as ruthless to himself. If he'd reached the same position you did, there's no telling what he could have accomplished. He was my enemy, and that's my honest assessment of him. But you..." Luther shook his head with open contempt.
"You're ruthless to others. Ruthless to your own subordinates. You make long-term plans and pride yourself on your intelligence. Even after we exposed your identity, you still believed no one could match your intellect or figure out your real plan. If you'd been as ruthless with yourself as Evergreen was, you would have attended tonight's gathering in person. If you'd even taken a few injuries... then even with all our evidence, we'd still have wondered whether Evergreen had framed you.
"But you didn't. You stayed safely inside your mansion, waiting for the results. You never dared put yourself in danger. You weren't willing to risk your own life for a greater reward."
That was more than criticism, it was the complete rejection of everything Sister had spent his life building. The calm mask he'd worn finally shattered. He swung his fist at Luther.
Before it could connect, Cynthia's Garchomp flashed between them and knocked Sister away with a single strike.
Sister crashed to the floor, blood streaming from his nose. He stared blankly at the crimson staining his hand... and suddenly burst into wild laughter.
"Fine. I'm guilty. Then arrest me. The Pokémon League's prisons are quite comfortable, after all."
His position was simply too sensitive. The International Police couldn't expose a scandal involving someone like him, and the truth that he had been Leader Zero could never be made public. Given his status, there were still too many variables.
And Luther hated uncertainty.
"Prison?" Luther casually rolled a small medicine bottle between his fingers and smiled. "Who told you that's where you're going? Evergreen's exact words were: 'My life... in exchange for the lives of every remaining member of the Hodgepodge Organization.' When someone entrusts you with something, you see it through. Even if that person was your enemy."
Fear finally appeared on Sister's face. His split lip made his voice whistle as he spoke.
"You... you're not planning to do to me what you did to Shizukumo... are you? The Elite Four and the Champion are all watching! Back then, you could justify yourself by saying your own life was in danger. But now?"
Sister looked toward the Elite Four and Cynthia, but what he saw made his blood run cold. All five of them were staring back at him with the same eerie, icy gaze.
Luther looked at Sister the way one looks at a corpse.
"Garchomp. Open his mouth."
The order had come from Luther, yet Garchomp obeyed without hesitation, even giving Luther an approving look.
As Garchomp's claws drew closer, panic finally overtook Sister. "You can't do this!" he screamed. "This is extrajudicial punishment! You're violating the Pokémon League's laws!"
Luther calmly pulled out a pill. "All I know is that killing a person is against the law." He looked down at Sister without a trace of emotion. "But you... don't really qualify as a person anymore."
Sister realized it then: Luther had already decided to kill him. The only reason Sister had stayed behind after realizing his identity was exposed, waiting quietly for the Pokémon League to arrive, was because he believed the League's laws would protect him.
But now...
The Elite Four. The Champion. Not one of them tried to stop it. They simply watched in silence.
"If you kill me..." Sister shouted desperately, "you'll never get the complete list of Hodgepodge Organization members!"
For someone who had once ruled the Hodgepodge Organization as Leader Zero, he showed none of the composure or dignity expected of a leader when face-to-face with death. Instead, he begged for his life.
After witnessing Evergreen's unwavering resolve, Luther could only feel contempt. "There's no need. When you granted Evergreen higher clearance, he copied the entire list."
Luther raised the pill.
"There's still more!" Sister cried, his mouth twisted beneath Garchomp's grip.
Seeing Luther hesitate, he hurriedly continued. "The newest names were never added to that copy! I kept them myself! As long as you promise not to kill me... I'll hand everything over. You don't want remnants of the Hodgepodge Organization still hiding inside the Pokémon League, do you?"
Luther hesitated.
Then Bertha spoke. "I'll make that promise. If you hand over the list, I guarantee Luther won't lay another finger on you. But first... I want to see the list."
Everyone stared at Bertha in disbelief. Flint and Aaron immediately stepped forward in protest, only to stop dead when Bertha shot them a sharp glare.
She climbed the stairs and gently patted Luther on the shoulder twice. Cynthia's eyes narrowed in understanding. She stopped Lucian before he could object and silently signaled for him to do as Bertha asked.
Following Sister's directions, Lucian searched the study and found a carefully preserved handwritten document. He compared it against Evergreen's copied data, and only after checking it over and over did he finally confirm that they possessed the complete list of remaining core members.
Bertha took the pill bottle from Luther.
Luther looked at her, and as though a great burden had finally been lifted, he smiled.
Sister let out a long breath of relief. He thought he had survived.
The next instant, Garchomp forced his mouth open again, and a handful of pills was shoved straight down his throat.
Sister's face turned bright red. He clutched at his throat, doubled over, and vomited violently while pointing a trembling finger at Bertha. "You..." he rasped.
Bertha looked down at him with cold ridicule. "I promised that **Luther** wouldn't make another move against you. I never said **I** wouldn't."
When she had climbed the stairs earlier, Bertha had whispered only a single sentence to Luther:
"I'm close to retirement. If someone's hands have to be stained... mine are the most suitable."
Luther, Bertha, Cynthia, Flint, Aaron, and Lucian each pulled over a chair and sat at the foot of the stairs. Together, they watched Sister's final moments.
On the steps above them, Sister writhed desperately like a maggot, struggling with everything he had left. It was useless. Foam poured from the corners of his mouth, and the man whose ambition had threatened the entire world met the exact same end as the Evergreen he had always looked down upon.
But in Luther's eyes, Evergreen had protected his own pride to the very end. Perhaps he had never truly won anything in his life, but in this one final contest... he had utterly defeated the man who had always treated him as nothing more than a disposable pawn.
After seeing Evergreen leave this world... and now watching Sister follow him... Luther's heart finally became still.
(End of Chapter)
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