First of all, what was the 'responder'? Responder was a device created by the league that would help them determine the number and ranks of Pokemons that they would be facing in a tide.
Of course, it didn't apply to large cities like the Kanto League city as the responder didn't have the capacity to scan such a large area but it was perfect for a small city like Hakone city.
Since this was the product of the league, the city would have to pay an annual responder tax for the device to be activated. However, the mayor had not even paid the tax for the responder for who knows how many years.
Axel was also furious about the money in the city vault. 400 billion Poke dollars was not a huge amount. Axel alone had 500 billion Poke dollars of liquid cash.
There were many grades of city/town. First, there were villages. They were the lowest rank and they covered very little area. Then there were towns. They covered more area than villages and then there were cities.
Hakone was a city. Cities also had grades and he didn't know what grade Hakone city was but it must be in a lower tier. Cities cover a large area of land.
If one were to combine the forest and the north side of the city, the land would be very big. Even Venu family had 1 trillion dollars as savings and it was just a family. The area covered by Venu family was far less compared to Hakone city.
Of course, it was the Venu family, one of the starter families and they had a huge influence. However, their income sources were very low and they also had high expenses.
They had their forest and the resources of the forest were rapidly depleting. They only charged house tax and business tax on profits and their members did some missions out of the family for income.
The total number of members of Venu family was in the thousands whereas the total population of Hakone city was in the millions. So, there might be few hands to feed but there were also few hands to gather income.
Venu family also heavily invests their money in training their members and providing the best of the best training resources. Hakone city didn't do it.
Axel had personally invested in the permanent soldiers of the city. Before, the city only did the bare minimum. Venu family also had some members stealing a lot of money and even then they had 1 trillion dollars in savings.
But his city…..
The city had many types of taxes. Business taxes on profits, property tax, salary tax, annual registration charge, direct and indirect tax, capital gain tax, and many others. The city would also get a cut on the money of the first Pokemon that their citizens acquired. They would also charge heavy rent amounts to Pokemon Center and marts.
Besides that, the city also had some of its owned businesses. Like the airport was run by the city. The city would literally milk its citizens in taxes.
The city also didn't have a huge amount of expenses. There might be some infrastructure that needed to be built but it had already been built for hundreds of years. They just need to maintain those places, pay its governmental employees, pay protection fees to the league annually, and pay monthly income to its soldiers. That was it.
And the city had been running for the past 400-500 years. The biggest expenses that the city would incur would be during the tides but Hakone city had never faced any tides.
So naturally Axel expected trillions and trillions of Poke dollars in the city vault. But the mayor said that the city only had 400 billion Poke dollars.
400 billion Poke dollars might not be enough to get through the tide. The league would ask for a huge amount of money for the tide if Axel asked the league for help. If the grade of the tide was low, then Axel might be able to handle it himself with his mercenary and the permanent soldiers.
However, if the grade of the tide became high, then he would have asked the league for help. After the tide, the city might not have anything left in the city vault.
Axel had also given 25% of the resources that he received to the city and that was also in billions. So, what did the mayor do to eat so much money?
###
"GUARDS, COME HERE INSTANT!!", shouted Axel.
The voice was so loud and filled with aura that even the citizens near the mayor's office heard it. The mayor's ears might have been damaged by Axel's voice.
The guards became terrified by hearing the sound. They thought that the mayor was attacked so they rushed towards the meeting hall.
When they entered the meeting hall, the guards were surprised to see the situation of the mayor. The mayor was holding his ears and he was crying in pain.
"Guards, arrest this mayor. From now on, I am the mayor. The mayor has stolen trillions of Poke dollars. Put his entire family and relatives in jail. Give them the bare minimum to survive. After the tide, I will personally deal with them.", shouted Axel pointing at the mayor.
The guards didn't know what to do. Axel, the prodigy of the city was telling to arrest the mayor. The guards were there to guard the mayor not capture him.
One of the guards heard the word 'tide' and asked, "The tide?"
"Yes, we will be facing a tide. I will announce it after some hours. Till then keep your mouth shut and arrest him. We don't have time."
The guards were still in dilemma. Axel was so furious that he was ready to attack the guards. His family lived here and this was the situation of the city? He cursed himself for not auditing the mayor before.
Cody came in right time to assure the guards.
"You are dealing with an angry elemental-rank human who has many king-rank Pokemons. Do you really want to increase his anger and die right here? Think about your family and think about how much Axel had done to the city. If you want to live, do what Axel says."
Seeing Axel's furious face, the guards believed everything that Cody had said. They didn't know about elemental rank humans but it was scary stuff. So, they complied and arrested the mayor and also went to arrest his family and close relatives.
###
"Axel, what are we going to do?", asked K.
"I will contact the league and ask them to activate the responder.", said Axel and directly called Gerad.
Gerad was the head of Kanto region. Axel didn't have a good relationship with him but this was not the time for that.
Tring.. Tring.. Tring.. Tring…
"Hello."
"Hello Gerad, I am Axel Blaze."
"Oh, hey Axel, to what do I owe the call?", asked Gerad in a pleasant voice. He had been told by Romeo, the leader of the league to maintain a good relationship with Axel as he considered Axel to be the dark horse.
"Gerad, I am in a pickle here…."
Axel then explained all the things and the corruption of the mayor. Axel also indirectly told him that it was the mistake of the league. The mayor was selected by the league after all.
Annual audits were done for the city by the league but since Hakone city was a small city out of nowhere, the league didn't care about it. It was mandatory to do the audits but the mayor must have birded the auditors too.
"I am sorry Axel for all these things but you also must know that the league cannot control all these things. Corruption happens everywhere. We can try to monitor it but we cannot eliminate it.", said Gerad.
"Yes, you are right. But right now, I need you to activate the responder. Since it is an emergency situation, can you do it now?", asked Axel.
"Wait a minute, let me get the details of your city.", said Gerad and put Axel on hold for 20 minutes.
Time was something that Axel didn't have right now and he was already pissed for being put on hold. After 20 minutes, Gerad came on the phone again.
"Axel, Hakone city had not paid the responder tax for 102 years. The current annual tax for the responder is 300 million Poke dollars. You will have to pay the tax for 102 years before I activate the responder. You will also have to pay a penalty for it. The total amount comes to 3 trillion Poke dollars. Since the tax has not been paid for 102 years, the responder has also not been changed and it has been outdated. I will also have to send you a new responder.
That would take time but since it is an emergency situation, I can give it to you in 3 days.", said Gerad with a smile.
300 million Poke dollars for 102 years was around 30 billion Poke dollars. So the penalty was more than 2 trillion Poke dollars. Axel was instantly stupefied by that amount. How much percentage did they charge for the penalty?
Meanwhile, Gerad was laughing from inside. He knew that since the mayor had stolen trillions of Poke dollars, Axel was out of money. Axel could not pay such a huge amount. So, when Axel ask him to lower the amount, he would be a big guy and tell Axel that he would do it for free. Then Axel would owe him and he would receive that favor some other way.
Gerad patted his back for thinking ahead. He was really brilliant. However, he didn't know the state of Axel's mind right now.
"Gerad, I don't have such a huge amount of money right now."
"Oh, then as this is.."
"As I don't have such a huge amount, I will have to decline. Also please take your soldiers out of my city. Hakone City would not be under the league from now on.", said Axel.
All his dreams were cracked after hearing Axel's statement.
"What? Axel, have you really thought of what you have said right now? You might really kill your city.", shouted Gerad.
"Don't tell me how to run my city. If I find that the league is in cahoots with the mayor for stealing so much money, I will directly come to you for vengeance. BE PREPARED!!!", shouted Axel and cut off the phone.
Gerad had a champion-rank Pokemon. He was also the leader of the Kanto League. Now, he was being threatened by some nobody. He was so furious that he ticked the table and almost destroyed his own room.
He was now ready to call all his Pokemons, go the Hakone City, and finish the city himself while his juniors were doing everything to calm him down.
###
Axel didn't shout to Gerad for no reason. When he called Gerad, the phone was on speaker and when Gerad proceeded to tell him all these fees and fines, Cody silently gave him the note that said,
'Tell him that we don't need it. I have a way for that problem.'
The city not being under the league was something Axel had thought himself. He knew that if he declined the responder, and asked the soldier for help, Gerad would charge a lot for the soldiers, and even if Gerad gave it for free, he would owe Gerad and he didn't want to owe to the league.