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"What?!"
Officer Jenny's expression changed dramatically. This didn't mean there was no way to build factories in Gringey City anymore, but the situation was far more serious than she had initially thought.
After the Urban Environment Purification Plan was launched, strict regulations were put in place regarding factory construction within the city limits. Many factories that failed to meet environmental standards had already been demolished to protect the city's recovering ecosystem.
The Honda Group had only settled in Gringey City after the environment showed significant improvement. They had even invested heavily in sewer environmental protection projects, which made their current actions all the more shocking.
However, the factory's construction had been kept completely secret from the public from the very beginning. This meant that no one in the city knew about its existence, which was a clear violation of the transparency laws.
To prevent Gringey City from returning to its former polluted state, any new factory construction had to undergo rigorous environmental impact assessments. A factory could only be established if inspectors were certain it wouldn't produce harmful substances that exceeded the strict environmental standard.
Honda had deliberately concealed the factory's existence, which was undoubtedly against all regulations. Once it was confirmed that the factory exceeded pollution standards, it would have to be demolished immediately.
"Mr. Honda, what exactly is going on here?" After recovering from her initial surprise, Officer Jenny fixed Honda with a serious stare and spoke in a cold, professional tone.
"This... I..." Honda stammered, unable to find words to defend himself. He glanced at Ash and his friends, his eyes practically burning with rage, but in this public situation, he couldn't afford to act recklessly.
The citizens who had been stirred up by Honda's earlier speeches were now listening carefully to Ash and his companions' explanations. They were beginning to understand the true scope of what had been happening in their city.
Honda must have built illegal factories in secret. If those factories began operating at full capacity, all the toxic waste and harmful substances would be discharged directly into the city's sewer system.
In that case, the Grimer living in the sewers would certainly discover the pollution. The realization hit the crowd like a thunderbolt—Honda had invested heavily in winning the sewer renovation contract specifically to cover up his illegal factory operations.
Ash and his friends had mentioned earlier that someone was deliberately instigating the entire incident. Now it was crystal clear who that someone was.
This meant Honda was also the real culprit behind the Grimer attacks on the city streets. He had first sent his people to attack and provoke the Grimer in the sewers. The Grimer, believing it was the citizens who wanted to drive them away from their home, had retaliated by rushing to the surface to attack.
Meanwhile, Honda had taken advantage of this chaos to encourage the citizens to drive the Grimer away completely. He had appeared at the perfect moment, positioning himself as their savior and gaining widespread public support.
Although the citizens hadn't suffered major losses, the feeling of being manipulated and used as pawns in Honda's scheme left a bitter taste in their mouths.
"Actually, the only thing we can blame is your excessive greed and guilty conscience," Ash said, addressing Honda directly. "Grimer can survive and even thrive in any harsh environment, no matter how polluted or toxic it becomes."
"So even if your factory violates environmental regulations and makes the sewer environment much worse than before, the Grimer wouldn't mind at all. In fact, the worse and more polluted the environment becomes, the more they actually enjoy living there."
"But you insisted on driving them away anyway. You never expected that a group of seemingly insignificant Grimer would turn out to be the crucial clue that would lead to your downfall!" Ash looked directly at Honda as he spoke, his voice calm but filled with certainty.
Listening to Ash's words, Honda felt a jolt of shock, followed immediately by deep regret. If he had known this would happen, he never would have gone through with his plan. But now it was far too late to change anything.
"Mr. Honda, you need to come with us immediately," Officer Jenny said, her expression deadly serious.
Gringey City had finally recovered from its polluted past, and she would never allow anyone to destroy that progress again. This incident had nearly led to a catastrophic mistake, and she was determined not to let it slide.
The police officers surrounding the area began to close in. Although Honda was wealthy and powerful, the bodyguards around him didn't dare cause trouble at this critical moment.
Facing the angry citizens gathering around them and the determined police force, Honda's security team could do nothing. Honda was eventually escorted into a police car by Officer Jenny and her officers.
At the same time, Officer Jenny approached Ash and his friends, asking them to cooperate with the ongoing investigation. The three trainers didn't refuse and agreed to accompany the officers to provide their statements.
The police quickly moved to investigate the Honda Group's facilities first. After a thorough inspection, they confirmed that the factory Honda had built in secret was indeed completely illegal and violated numerous environmental protection laws. An immediate embargo was placed on all operations, and the factory was added to the demolition list.
Next, they captured Team Rocket members Cassidy and Butch, who had been working in the sewers. The Grimer cooperated fully with the authorities and handed the two criminals over to Officer Jenny. Both Team Rocket operatives were quickly taken into police custody.
As for what their final punishment would be, Ash didn't particularly care. If they managed to escape somehow, he would consider them skillful. If they couldn't escape, then that was simply their fate.
After the entire incident was resolved, Ash and his friends were preparing to leave the city. However, it had already grown quite late in the day. With no other choice, the group decided to spend another night at the Pokémon Center in Gringey City.
When they first returned to the Pokémon Center, they were nearly overwhelmed by a crowd of enthusiastic citizens. The reason was naturally related to their role in solving the crisis that had threatened their city.
Without intending to, Ash had once again become a local hero of Gringey City. His popularity and reputation in the city had increased significantly once more.
Fortunately, Officer Jenny arrived to express her personal gratitude to the three young trainers and helped disperse the eager crowd. Otherwise, they might not have been able to get any rest that evening.
In this way, they ended up staying one more night in Gringey City. The next morning, Ash and his two companions got up early and planned to leave the city as quickly as possible. They were concerned that if they stayed too long, they might be surrounded by grateful citizens again.
"I understand being afraid of crowds, but isn't this a bit too early to be leaving?" Misty asked while walking down the road, rubbing her eyes that were still heavy with sleep.
"Personally, I think there's nothing wrong with the feeling of being surrounded by grateful people," Brock said with a dreamy expression and slightly flushed cheeks.
This was because most of the people who had gathered around them the previous evening were young women, which had made the experience both overwhelming and exciting for him. Ash simply ignored Brock's comment and continued looking around with an expression that seemed tinged with subtle regret.
"Ash, what's bothering you?" Misty noticed Ash's unusual expression and asked with concern.
"Huh? It's nothing important. Let's keep moving," Ash replied. Hearing Misty's question, he shook his head slightly and pushed away his barely noticeable feelings of disappointment.
Misty didn't think much more about it, assuming that Ash was simply worried about being suddenly surrounded by crowds again. Soon, the three trainers left Gringey City behind and resumed their journey toward their next destination.
While walking along the route, Brock suddenly seemed to remember something important and couldn't help but speak up.
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen Electivire at all today," Brock said, suddenly realizing something was missing.
Brock had just remembered that he hadn't seen the Electivire who had been traveling with them yesterday. No wonder he had felt like something was different.
"You're absolutely right! I didn't see Electivire this morning either. It must have left sometime during the night," Misty agreed after thinking about it. She still had fond feelings for the Electivire, who had appeared rough and intimidating on the outside but was actually gentle and caring on the inside.
"Speaking of Electivire, we really have to thank it for helping us discover the truth behind everything that happened," Ash said thoughtfully. "Now that I think about it, Electivire must have already known about the Honda Group's secretly built factory."
"That's probably why it went into the sewers in the first place and ended up encountering Team Rocket. After it was injured in that confrontation, it ran out of the sewers and that's when it met us."
Hearing this explanation, neither Misty nor Brock disagreed with Ash's reasoning. The pieces of the puzzle were finally fitting together perfectly.