Lucas walked over to the stored berries, thinking.
The pie would be a bit sweet. Pecha Berries were juicy and soft—not great for baking.
But Oran Berries were crisp and sweet, not too juicy, perfect for pies.
He set down his basket and reached for the fragrant Oran Berries.
At that moment, a line of bright red text flashed across his vision:
[Alert: The item the host is about to touch contains toxins. Please stop this dangerous action immediately.]
Lucas froze, heart skipping a beat.
Was he seeing things? The system was warning him about toxins in the berries?
He frowned. If this was real, it was a big problem.
"How's it going, Luxray?"
He looked at Luxray, who was sniffing each basket of produce.
"Luxray~."
Luxray shook its head and pointed with its right paw at a few baskets set aside.
It had found the same strange scent in only those baskets—apparently the culprit had only enough poison for those few.
"I see."
Lucas's calm voice was full of suppressed anger.
He hadn't expected an actual poisoning incident on his farm—almost identical to what had happened at the neighboring Jones Farm. There, the poison had been smeared on growing crops; here, it was on harvested ones.
Who the culprit was didn't matter yet. The fact that someone had ruined crops that his Pokémon had worked so hard to grow made Lucas furious.
Serperior was also fuming. Its underlings—Comfey, Dolliv, and Eldegoss—had worked so hard to grow these crops.
To think their hard work could be spoiled overnight—Serperior's tail lashed the ground in anger.
If its feet hadn't regressed after evolution, it would be stomping mad.
"Sss-serpi~!" (Wasting food is shameful.)
Ceruledge's ghostly flames flickered with emotion. Having once been abandoned, Ceruledge knew what it was like to go hungry, which sparked its interest in cooking.
For it, wasting food was an affront to its beliefs. Such villains could not be forgiven! Ceruledge vowed to take up its sword when it found the culprit and teach them the value of food.
Sad cries reached Lucas's ears. He looked over—Comfey, Dolliv, and Eldegoss hung their heads low, devastated that their hard work had been so carelessly ruined.
Even Mudsdale, Dragonair, and Politoed, who did the daily farm work, felt the same. The crops were the fruit of everyone's labor—no wonder they were upset.
Lucas took a deep breath and told his Pokémon, "First let's notify Officer Jenny. Maybe she'll have some leads."
He wanted to try finding the culprit. If things remained unclear, he wouldn't hesitate to use his system's powers.
…
Officer Jenny soon arrived with a report, looking serious.
"It's confirmed. The poison on the berries matches that found at Jones Farm—same color as the fruit, sweet scent, causes paralysis but no lasting harm. All the features match."
"I think both incidents were caused by the same Poison-type Pokémon, but what species and why, we still don't know."
Lucas nodded, unsurprised. If cases were that easy, every region wouldn't need its own evil team.
But a few things Jenny mentioned caught his attention.
The poison was the same color as the fruit—did that mean the culprit could change its poison's color? That narrowed the possible suspects.
Officer Jenny was very grateful for Lucas's patience and support—it gave her time to investigate properly.
But she was also troubled. Poisonings weren't unknown in Los Platos, but they were usually from battles or accidents, never targeted food poisonings like this. For some reason, the higher-ups had given strict orders to crack this case quickly, putting her under a lot of pressure.
A Poison-type Pokémon's toxins are affected by its environment, diet, and more—no two are exactly alike, but there's so much variety that it's hard to identify the species just from the poison.
Testing and analysis take time, but investigations demand speed. Every delay reduced the chances of solving the case and finding the hidden culprit.
Though Lucas had reported the incident, all Jenny could do was ask him to wait for updates.
The culprit was sly—even trained Growlithe couldn't pick up a scent.
Jenny tried to piece the clues together but always felt something was missing, which frustrated her.
Just then, Lucas hesitantly spoke up: "Could it be a Grafaiai?"
Jenny's pupils contracted. She nodded, then shook her head. "We've considered that. Grafaiai can change their poison's color based on what they eat, which fits the clues."
"But most Grafaiai live in the Poco Path or Arboliva's Forest. The environment around Los Platos isn't their usual habitat, so we didn't list them as suspects at first."
"But it's a lead. We'll look into it. There could be a lone Grafaiai in the area for some reason."