Chapter 258: Former Employees of New Mauville
By the time Asahi arrived at the hall with Slowpoke, he found it empty except for Gary.
"The prisoner transfer is complete?"
Asahi didn't see Sabrina around, so she had probably dumped the task onto Gary.
"It's done… Asahi, do we have any other missions next?" Gary asked.
"Why do you ask? Since when did you become so motivated? If you're this eager, I could assign you some extra tasks," Asahi replied.
As he spoke, Slowpoke beside him also gave Gaery a look—one that clearly said, Are you an idiot?
Feeling Slowpoke's gaze, Gary was insulted.
He briefly considered challenging Slowpoke to a battle but quickly realized that arguing with a Slowpoke was, in itself, a stupid idea. He took a deep breath and told himself not to stoop to the level of a Slowpoke.
"…I was just asking," Gary muttered.
"To be honest, I don't know either," Asahi said with a shrug, seeing Gary's exasperated expression. "I thought messing with Giovanni would be fun, but not only did he refuse to take the bait, he even hung up on me."
"So now, I guess we'll have to go mess with Team Aqua and Team Magma instead."
"By the way, how's the recruitment going with the former employees of New Mauville that I asked you to contact?"
"If they're on board, let's arrange interviews."
When Asahi had asked Gary for the forum link earlier, it wasn't just to mess with him—he genuinely wanted to recruit some former New Mauville employees as informants.
Hearing Asahi bring it up, Gary perked up.
"We've got over ten applicants so far… but a lot of people are hesitant. Our recruitment process is a bit unorthodox…"
"That's fine. I don't need a huge number—just people who are familiar with New Mauville and Hoenn's situation. Tell them to come for the interview," Asahi said dismissively.
Gary nodded.
He also realized—this meant he'd get to be an interviewer!
That thought excited him.
"I'll go notify them right away—"
Slowpoke watched as its trainer effortlessly tricked Gary into doing extra work. A strange gleam flickered in its eyes.
What an idiot… so easy to manipulate.
Suddenly, Slowpoke felt a gaze land on it. Instinctively, it glanced sideways.
Then…
"What are you looking at?"
Asahi's voice rang in Slowpoke's ears, making it shudder. It hurriedly put on its usual vacant expression.
"Don't bother acting dumb—I saw everything."
Asahi narrowed his eyes at Slowpoke, who looked clueless but was actually way too sharp for its own good.
"Looks like your training has been too easy lately. In that case…" He stroked his chin thoughtfully as Slowpoke began to look nervous.
"…Let's double it."
Double?!
Slowpoke thought about its current training regimen.
⊙_⊙
I'm doomed.
---
New Mauville Interviews Begin
"Name?"
"Hashimoto Kyo."
"What was your previous job at New Mauville?"
"I was responsible for maintaining the Seafloor Mauville energy extraction platform… Here's my résumé."
"Hmm… Looks good. You're hired. Your new job is maintaining the base's facilities, starting today. Pay is as discussed. No issues with that?"
"No issues! Thank you so much!"
The maintenance engineer, Hashimoto Kyo, stood up and bowed deeply.
His gratitude was so intense that Asahi started wondering if he was offering too high a salary.
He glanced at the compensation package he had put together.
Looked pretty standard.
Seeing Asahi's confusion, Gary leaned in and whispered, "Asahi, you don't understand New Mauville…"
He then gave Asahi a rundown of New Mauville's employee treatment.
The details were horrifying.
Summarized, it was basically a hellhole.
"…No wonder they went bankrupt," Asahi muttered.
Signaling for Hashimoto to bring in the next applicant, Asahi turned to Gary and asked, "I heard from Sabrina that you caught a new Pokémon in Steel Valley?"
Shigeru waved his hand, feigning modesty. "Oh, just a Skarmory. Nothing special~"
Asahi: "….."
Who asked if it was strong or not?
Still, judging from how smug Gary looked, this Skarmory must be very to his liking.
Asahi smirked. "Now I definitely want to see it in action."
Seeing that expression, Gary immediately felt uneasy.
Before he could say anything, the door opened, and a bald middle-aged man walked in.
"Introduce yourself," Asahi asked, following standard procedure.
Judging by the count, this was the last applicant of the day.
He had to admit—though New Mauville had gone under, its employees were actually pretty capable.
Not only had they found people for fieldwork, but they had also recruited staff for base maintenance.
"My name is Toga. I was an engineer at New Mauville. Actually, I'm not here for a job—I just heard that someone was recruiting former New Mauville employees, so I came out of curiosity," said the bald man, Toga.
"…Toga?"
Asahi found the name oddly familiar.
Pulling up the International Police database, he quickly checked.
"…Chief Engineer of Kusunoki Shipyards?"
While Asahi wasn't familiar with Toga himself, he did know about Kusunoki Shipyards.
In the original storyline, when Team Magma and Team Aqua headed for the Seafloor Cavern to awaken Groudon and Kyogre, they had used a submarine—Abyssal One—which was built by Kusunoki Shipyards.
For Abyssal One to reach the depths of the Seafloor Cavern, two things were required:
1. The Abyssal One submarine itself, built by Kusunoki Shipyards.
2. A core component manufactured by Devon Corporation.
Team Aqua had already stolen the core component.
As for the submarine itself…
"If you don't mind me asking, how is the Abyssal One doing these days?" Asahi asked casually.
Toga looked confused. He had expected Asahi to question why he came despite already having a job. Instead, Asahi asked about the submarine. Instinctively, he answered:
"Of course, the Abyssal One is fine… Wait. That's classified information! How do you even know about it?"
Halfway through his sentence, Toga realized what he had just said. He immediately looked at Asahi with suspicion.
Originally, he had come to investigate whether this recruitment effort was tied to any shady plots against New Mauville.
Now, he was the one being interrogated.
Asahi waved a hand dismissively. "Relax. I know because I'm friends with Steven. Naturally, I heard about it from him."
"Anyway, Mr. Toga, as a former engineer of New Mauville, you must have handled some business intelligence work as well. That's exactly the kind of talent we're looking for!"