Officer Jenny approached them before they could leave.
"Wait." Her expression carried something beyond gratitude, desperation tinged with professional frustration. "We need help. The kind official channels can't provide."
"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.
"The Aether facility. We need to investigate it, the escaped subjects prove something criminal is happening inside. But they're claiming diplomatic immunity. Some kind of international research exemption that blocks local law enforcement."
"That's convenient."
"That's corruption." Jenny's composure cracked slightly. "I've watched them operate for months. Shipments that don't match manifests. Screams from the building at night. Missing Pokémon reports that always seem to dead-end near their facility. But every time I try to investigate, someone higher up shuts it down."
"What are you asking?"
"Champion's brother has authority that local officials can't block. If you requested the investigation personally, if you also used the Uchiha clan's weight, doors might open that stay locked for me."
Sasuke considered for only a moment.
"Give me your evidence. Everything you've compiled."
The calls took an hour.
Sasuke worked through channels that ordinary trainers couldn't access, connections to League officials who owed favors to the Uchiha clan, administrators who respected the Champion's family enough to expedite unusual requests.
"Regional Authority confirms: investigation approved under Champion's family prerogative," the final confirmation came through. "Diplomatic immunity waived for duration of criminal inquiry. You have full access."
Officer Jenny's expression shifted from hope to determination.
"Raid team assembles in thirty minutes. You're coming with us?"
"We're coming. As witnesses and additional security."
"Then let's go expose what they've been hiding."
The Aether Saffron facility projected legitimacy from every surface.
Modern architecture with clean lines. Corporate signage that emphasized research and conservation. Reception areas staffed by pleasant employees who smiled with practiced warmth.
The public face was flawless.
"Regional Authority investigation," Officer Jenny announced, presenting credentials that the diplomatic immunity had previously blocked. "We have full access to all areas including restricted zones."
The receptionist's smile faltered. "I'll need to contact our director, "
"Your director can meet us in the basement. We're proceeding immediately."
Police officers spread through the facility, securing exits and beginning systematic documentation. Sasuke's group followed Jenny deeper, past public areas into sections that visitors weren't meant to see.
The transition was stark.
Corporate aesthetics gave way to industrial function. Lighting shifted from welcoming to clinical. Temperature dropped as air conditioning systems worked to maintain conditions that comfort hadn't designed.
"Basement levels," Jenny said, approaching a secured elevator. "This is where the real work happens."
The laboratories exceeded their worst expectations.
Row upon row of containment units lined corridors that stretched beyond immediate sight. Each unit held a Pokémon, species ranging from common to rare, all displaying signs of the experimentation they'd witnessed in the escapees.
"There must be dozens," Kasumi whispered, horror evident in her voice.
"Hundreds," Kiyomi corrected, documenting everything her tablet could capture. "This facility alone. And we know they have others."
The documentation they found painted a picture of systematic atrocity.
[Project Evolution Override]
Files detailed attempts to force evolution through external stimuli, chemical injections, energy bombardment, surgical modification. The goal was accelerating development timelines that nature had established over millennia.
"Subjects display evolution markers but lack corresponding capability increases," one report noted. "Hypothesis: external force produces form without function. Further trials required."
The "further trials" had left Pokémon trapped between evolutionary stages, bodies changed, abilities broken, suffering constant as their forms rejected what had been forced upon them.
[Project Primal Synthesis]
This project targeted the ancient power that Sasuke's own Pokémon accessed naturally.
"Attempting to artificially induce Primal Reversion in subjects lacking genetic predisposition," the summary explained. "Initial results promising, energy signatures detected. However, subjects unable to sustain transformation. Cellular degradation observed."
The Pokémon in these units showed burns that came from within, their own bodies rejecting power they'd never been meant to contain.
"They tried to force Primal Reversion," Sasuke said, voice cold. "Into Pokémon that couldn't survive it."
"They didn't care about survival. They cared about results."
[Project Legendary Replication]
The most ambitious, and horrifying, project attempted to create synthetic Legendary Pokémon.
"Utilizing genetic material obtained from multiple sources," the files detailed. "Goal: produce controllable entities with Legendary-level capabilities. Current subjects show promise but remain unstable."
The containment units in this section held creatures that defied natural classification. Hybrid forms that nature had never intended. Suffering expressions that suggested consciousness trapped in bodies that shouldn't exist.
"This is abomination," Miyuki said. "Not science. Abomination."
The rescue operation began immediately.
Police secured the facility while Miyuki established a field hospital in the largest clear space available. Sasuke's group assisted in extraction, carefully removing Pokémon from containment units, assessing immediate needs, prioritizing cases for treatment.
"Triage categories," Miyuki directed, professional training overriding personal horror. "Red: life-threatening, immediate intervention. Yellow: serious but stable. Green: ambulatory, can wait."
Too many fell into red.
Pokémon whose bodies were failing from experiments they'd never consented to. Creatures in constant pain from modifications that served no purpose they could understand. Lives measured in hours without intervention.
Miyuki worked without pause, her skills pushed beyond anything formal training had prepared for.
"Some of these..." She paused over a particularly damaged Rattata, its body twisted by Evolution Override procedures. "Some of these can't be saved. The damage is too extensive."
"Do what you can."
"I am. It's not enough."
Kasumi's Pokémon provided what medicine couldn't.
Gardevoir moved through the rescued subjects, its empathic abilities offering comfort to minds that had known only fear and pain. The Embrace Pokémon couldn't heal physical damage, but it could ease psychological trauma that might otherwise have been permanent.
Togekiss radiated its natural serenity, creating an atmosphere that calmed creatures who had every reason to remain terrified.
"They don't understand what's happening," Kasumi reported, tears streaming. "They just know the pain stopped. They know someone's being gentle."
"Keep doing it. It matters."
The arrests began as the rescue concluded.
Lower-level employees were detained, lab technicians, security personnel, administrative staff who had enabled operations they couldn't have been ignorant of. Their expressions ranged from fear to defiance to the hollow look of people who had compromised themselves too thoroughly to feel anything.
"Where's the director?" Jenny demanded of one supervisor. "Where's the leadership?"
"Gone." The man's voice was flat. "Left about two hours ago. Said they had urgent business elsewhere."
"Two hours ago. Before we arrived."
"Before you had authorization to arrive."
The implication was clear. Someone had warned them. Someone within the League structure that had approved the investigation had also ensured that the people most responsible would escape it.
"Inside job," Sasuke said. "Corruption goes higher than local officials."
"All the way up, probably." Jenny's frustration was palpable. "We've got evidence. We've got witnesses. We've got dozens of Pokémon who are living proof of their crimes. But the people who ordered all this, they're already somewhere we can't reach."
The evidence secured was overwhelming.
Kiyomi organized documentation with systematic precision, project files, experimental records, financial documents showing funding sources that led to shell companies and offshore accounts. The case against Aether Foundation had grown from concerning to undeniable.
"This alone should be enough for prosecution," she said. "But prosecution requires someone with authority willing to pursue it."
"Send copies to Itachi."
"Already done. Plus Professor Oak, the Kantonian Historical Preservation Office, and several journalists I've identified as probably uncorruptible."
"Probably?"
"Nothing's certain. But spreading information makes it harder to suppress."
The raid concluded with the facility sealed pending formal investigation. Rescued Pokémon were transferred to legitimate care facilities, ones that Miyuki personally vetted before authorizing transfer.
"Some of them will never fully recover," she said as the last transport departed. "The damage is too extensive. They'll live, but they'll never be what they should have been."
"And the ones responsible?"
"Danzo's still out there. The real leadership escaped. This facility was just one piece of something larger."
They'd accomplished something real, rescued victims, gathered evidence, exposed operations that had hidden behind legitimate facades. But the victory felt hollow against what remained undone.
"Danzo," Sasuke said, the name carrying hatred he rarely expressed. "He's been doing this for twenty years. Building something. Planning something. And every time we get close, he slips away."
"We're building too," Kiyomi replied. "Every piece of evidence. Every rescued Pokémon. Every witness who sees what they've done. The case grows. The pressure builds."
"And eventually?"
"Eventually, it becomes impossible to protect him. Eventually, even corrupt officials have to choose between Danzo and their own survival." Her golden eyes held conviction that had only strengthened through each encounter. "He'll fall. They all will."
"I intend to be there when it happens."
"We all do."