"Oh — Grandpa, I was wrong! I won't do it again, I swear — please, spare me!"
"A next time? Want me to send you straight to Giratina right now?!"
"I believe you! I believe you! You're a great man — don't bother with someone as small as me, please! Whatever you want to know, I'll tell you everything — everything — just please—!"
When the scene settled, the man everyone had been calling Fatty was now flat on the ground, limbs splayed, looking every bit like a Pokémon that had just fainted in battle.
Both his arms were twisted behind his back, pinned down by David's one hand, while a foot pressed firmly against his spine. The pressure was intense enough that whatever he'd eaten that morning seemed to be threatening a return appearance.
He was pleading without pause — nothing at all like the hardened, ruthless operative one might expect from a member of the Supreme Organization, one of the three major international criminal syndicates.
"Weren't you full of confidence a moment ago? What happened to that?"
David applied just a fraction more pressure, and Fatty yelped immediately.
"Ow — it hurts! Mercy! I give up, I give up — just ask me what you want to know!"
There was no fight left in him at all. Whatever David said, he would agree to without a second thought. Had David been the type for that sort of thing, Fatty probably would have called him anything he was told to.
David said nothing, and Fatty — still pinned underfoot, now drenched in sweat — could only think, If you've got something to ask, just ask it.
He had genuinely given up. The moment he had lunged at David with the two daggers, the boy had caught both blades bare-handed — and then, with what could only have been Aura-enhanced strength, crushed them into fragments right in front of him. After that came a kick that brought him back to earth in the worst possible way.
What was he supposed to do against that? The kid in front of him wasn't normal. Fatty was now genuinely worried that his head was next in line, and he was quite certain it wasn't any harder than two alloy daggers had been.
So the Supreme Organization really isn't all that special, David thought, looking down at him. At the same time, he understood how it worked. Organizations like the Supreme Organization ran entirely on power and fear — loyalty was a luxury, not a value. Fatty wasn't young, and his rank seemed somewhere in the middle — not high enough to be a core member. For someone like him, revealing information under a real death threat wasn't surprising at all.
"Talk. What is this ruin, and how did your organization find it?"
That was something David had been wondering about himself. This ruin had been sitting in these waters for over a hundred years without drawing attention — how had these people managed to locate it?
"It was a direct order from the organization. The boss — Hugh — was told to gather elite operatives from several coastal branches to search for a ruin somewhere in the Belon City sea zone."
"We only got the basic details about the ruin after we were already inside. How headquarters found out about it in the first place — I genuinely don't know."
"Oh — wait, there's this too."
Still face-down on the floor, Fatty nodded toward himself, trying to gesture that he had something to hand over. Lucario stepped forward, gave him a quick search, and pulled out a pendant — nearly identical to the one David had seen earlier in the black-clothed man's possession.
David turned it over in his hand. It was worn and battered, but the carved figures were still recognizable — Lugia and the three Legendary birds.
"What is this? Did you use it to enter the ruin? Is it what triggered the reaction when you came in?"
"That's right. Headquarters issued it to us. They called it an entry token for the ruin — said that anyone holding one would be transported to the same location upon entering."
That explained a few things. David had wondered how the group's leaders had all ended up in the same place despite the apparently random teleportation — the pendants had been coordinating it all along.
He continued questioning Fatty about the Supreme Organization's internal structure and the specifics of the current operation.
Having figured out his life was probably going to be spared, Fatty held nothing back — words spilling out of him like a Rattata from a shaken bag, covering everything he knew.
Meanwhile, outside the ruin, the fishing competition that had brought everyone together had devolved into total confusion. The celebration was, by any measure, a complete failure.
For safety, the Belon City Alliance's public security forces had begun carefully evacuating all participants from the area.
The most urgent concerns, however, were the missing persons from the competition — and the matter of the ruin, whose outline had now become faintly visible above the surface of the sea.
After David's group had entered, the ancient temple — sealed beneath the ocean for hundreds of years — had begun to stir. Its silhouette was now visible from above the waterline.
To address the situation, nearly every senior official in Belon City had been called together: the mayor overseeing city affairs, the chief of the public security bureau, the commander of the coastal defense forces, the Gym Leader of the Azure Wave Gym, and others.
"Current confirmed missing persons number approximately seventy-seven. However, a portion of them appear to belong to the organization responsible for this incident — witnesses reported that some of the missing individuals voluntarily entered the deep-sea whirlpool when it appeared."
"That group accounts for roughly forty or so individuals. The remainder are civilians — innocent participants caught up in the chaos."
The mayor of Belon City delivered the summary to the assembled officials.
Several faces in the room tightened at the number. It had been a long time since the Cloudspire Alliance had seen this many people endangered at once. Handled poorly — and with casualties — there would be serious consequences.
Just as it seemed the mayor was finished, he spoke again.
"Regarding the missing persons — their families have been contacted and notified. We've offered reassurance and committed to active rescue efforts. However, one individual among the missing has a rather... particular identity."
With a faintly strained expression, the mayor brought up a profile sheet on the large screen at the front of the room.
The moment it appeared, every person in the room drew a sharp breath.