Chapter 254:
November 7th
On the Eastova region's calendar, today marked the Beginning of Winter.
The last traces of autumn had been completely erased by the passage of time.
The flowers planted along the sides of the Bluestone Trail had mostly withered, with only a few sparse blossoms remaining.
In this season, even the Combee were unwilling to work outside.
After receiving instructions from Hayashi Kaede, they contentedly settled inside their hive.
Hayashi Kaede had even asked them whether they would feel cold during winter—
Did they need him to buy a heating lamp?
Several Combee stacked together like blocks inside the hive, forming a wall of honey.
They looked as if they were shivering.
This situation improved greatly after the heating lamp was installed.
Though, in fact, the barn already had air conditioning.
It had originally been installed for the Miltank in summer, to prevent them from getting overheated and restless.
But in winter, the Miltank—with their thick layers of fat—weren't afraid of the cold, so the AC was generally not used at this time.
Hayashi Kaede was currently in the barn, going over accounts with Gardevoir.
"Gardevoir...?" (This is...?)
Gardevoir looked at the Grepa Berry Wine stored in the barn, falling into confusion.
Over the past few days, it had sensed that something was off about the plantation but couldn't pinpoint what.
Today, it finally found the source of that discrepancy—
It was the Grepa Berry Wine.
As everyone knew, there was a great deal of Grepa Berry Wine stored in the barn—enough to fill the entire space—and the alcohol content was high.
So daily consumption was practically negligible.
Up to now, aside from Gardevoir, who drank a bit more, the other Pokémon had barely touched it.
In total, they had consumed only about two or three barrels.
Fortunately, it was winter, so the wine wouldn't spoil sitting there. The problem was, come spring next year, they might need to buy several dozen more storage capsule.
Because during the intense summer heat, even Grepa Berry Wine couldn't be stored outside for long.
But storing it in storage capsule would work.
The only issue was that large-capacity storage capsule with cooling effects were quite expensive.
"A barrel of Grepa Berry Wine is missing?"
Hearing Gardevoir's words, Hayashi Kaede fell into thought, then looked rather incredulous.
"This... this doesn't make sense, does it?"
If this had happened before Mew arrived, he might have suspected that invisible Pokémon.
But now... leaving everything else aside, several of the Pokémon on the plantation possessed Aura abilities—and Hayashi Kaede himself had Aura power too.
Moreover, Pokémon were constantly moving in and out of the barn, and the Miltank were always there.
And under these circumstances, a whole barrel of Grepa Berry Wine had gone missing—without anyone noticing?
Really?
Still, Hayashi Kaede didn't doubt Gardevoir's words. Instead, he began counting the number of wine barrels himself.
He wanted to see if whoever had secretly taken the wine might at least have left an empty barrel behind.
After scanning the area with his Aura power,
Hayashi Kaede exclaimed, "Whoa? There really is one missing?"
When he had originally placed the order, he bought 250 barrels.
But counting now, there were only 249 left.
This meant that over the past few days, some unknown entity had quietly made off with a barrel of Grepa Berry Wine.
You've got to be kidding.
Could it be Mew?
Hayashi Kaede thought about how, ever since Jirachi had fallen asleep, Mew hadn't been home much.
It wasn't even around at mealtimes, only occasionally dropping by.
Maybe Jirachi had talked to it in its dreams, and now it was running around everywhere because of that?
In any case, during these seven days, Hayashi Kaede had only seen Jirachi in his dreams during the first three or four days.
After that, it had happily appeared in who-knew-whose dreams every night.
However, Hayashi Kaede had prepared "packed lunches" for Mew's frequent travels—
Basically storage capsule like the one he had given Victini, filled with some of Mew's favorite foods.
"But that shouldn't be it either..."
He remembered that he'd already put a little Grepa Berry Wine in Mew's Capsule.
And besides, while Mew did enjoy the wine, it wouldn't just take an entire barrel, right?
Had it perhaps made some hard-drinking 'good friend' out there?
Hayashi Kaede couldn't help but speculate.
"This is really strange. I'll ask Mew when it gets back."
One missing barrel of wine wasn't a big deal—
After all, there were still over two hundred left.
Judging by the current consumption rate on the plantation,
it would probably take ten years to finish them all.
Hayashi Kaede was even considering whether he should sell some off.
But an entity capable of silently taking a barrel of wine right under the noses of so many Aura-sensitive Pokémon—that was something worth looking into.
Hayashi Kaede felt it was necessary to investigate.
Just then, Gardevoir beside him shook its head.
"Gardevoir..." (It's not Mew.)
"Gardevoir..." (I asked Serperior to help check with Aura. The last time Mew was last here was on the 3rd. The missing barrel was still here on the 3rd.)
Hayashi Kaede: "..."
"No..."
His expression turned serious.
He began recalling the events of the past few days.
After Jirachi fell asleep, Mew had first brought him a Wishing Stone.
It said it was Jirachi's treasure—a stone imbued with wish energy, the very meteor that had originally awakened Jirachi.
Its description read:
[Legendary Secret Item– Wishing Star: A stone from outer space that absorbed vast amounts of wish energy as it traversed the sky. Carrying it brings the holder luck and blessings for their wishes to come true.]
Mew had said that Jirachi originally wanted it to keep the stone, because after a thousand years, it wouldn't know where its belongings had gone.
Later, after learning that Jirachi would awaken in just one year, Mew wanted Hayashi Kaede to keep it safe.
After seeing the stone's effects, Hayashi Kaede thought briefly, then decided to let Mew keep it after all.
Since Mew wandered outside every day, it was probably fine for it to hold onto the Wishing Star.
The next few days were uneventful—just the arrival of the fruit tree seeds he had purchased.
He'd taken Sandshrew, Milotic, and the others to the new plantation area, spending time planting the seeds. Nothing particularly unusual had happened... right?
"Could it be that a powerful Ghost-type Pokémon snuck in at night?" Hayashi Kaede muttered curiously.
He left the barn with Gardevoir, heading toward the plantation to ask the Pidgeot whether they had noticed anything strange these past few days.
At that moment, the sister Indeedee came over carrying a Gardevoir, planning to collect that day's Berries.
As she approached, a sudden realization flashed in Hayashi Kaede's mind.