I Sting (Pokemon Poison Type Specialist)

The inside of the house was dark, almost as if the family consuming the Slowpoke tail didn't want their secrets to be discovered, and although Virah knew what they were hiding, wasn't planning on revealing it the rest of Azalea.

Yet.

She still needed information, and to get that, the family needs to be intact, their business needs to keep running, and they need a constant supply of herbs.

Once she's gathered everything she's needed, she would go and air out theirs and everyone else's dirty laundry to the people of Azalea Town and the Jennies, after that the law can go and make them take responsibility for their actions.

Virah neared a wooden cabinet and opened the drawers, the contents weren't much, papers of all kinds, notes about the shop's finances, and a list of herbs were what she found.

She copied that last one and found nothing strange on the numbered herbs on the paper, all of them were regular healing herbs used by trainers to heal both themselves and their Pokemon.

Psychic Poppies were included on the list as well but it wasn't suspicious, it was a strong anesthetic after all.

Virah pushed the cabinet closed and walked deeper into the house, the furniture, she noticed, was minimalist at best with expensive things, such as plates and alcohol, here and there, everything else was cheap and could be bought from Azalea's own wood working store.

She soon found herself on the first floor of the house standing inside a peach colored hallway and pictures of the family hanging on the walls, the three paths available to her were on either side of the corridor as well as the door in front of her.

Virah decided to check out the door and it led to a storage room, with crates of herbs inside the cramped, square-shaped room.

She already knew what was inside the crates but just to be sure she didn't miss out on anything that wasn't on the list she copied, she took out her notebook and started comparing her list to the contents of the crates.

Nothing was out of place and she jotted down the possibility of the family using nothing but Psychic Poppies to enhance their high, it was a possibility, but it wouldn't be confirmed until Virah finished her investigation.

After the storage room was the side of the hallway that led to the streets outside.

Virah expectedly found the shop at the end of her walk and upon entering, she checked everything she could and found more lists and written notes about the sold herbs and the finances of the family.

The costs of their day to day expenses were here too and as Virah guessed, they had enough extra income to buy Slowpoke tails weekly.

Selling herbal medicine had its advantages it seemed and it made Virah consider making a few bottles of her own to sell them for extra cash on the round, that, or she could use them for her team.

'Well, here's to more healing options,' the poison specialist thought as she closed the book of herbal mixes that the family used to make their bottles.

Virah snapped her notebook shut and snuck it under her gear.

She scanned the shop some more, discovering nothing new in terms of information, everything was something that was already written on her notebook or something that she discovered herself like the locations of the tail peddlers.

Leaving the shop now, Virah walked deeper into the house, the pictures hanging on the walls felt like they were shooting her with judging stares but she couldn't be bothered to care about them.

The family in these picture frames enabled the rocket branch in Azalea to continue operating thanks to their weekly purchases, they can't judge her for breaking in to their house.

At the end of the hallway was a door, opening it, Virah saw a staircase that led deep underground.

She breathed, looked back, then headed downward.

Three rows of tables pressed up against the wall was what greeted Virah inside the basement, on top of one of the tables were tools such as a mortar and pestle, a grinder, a squeezer, and an oven.

On another were bottles, some halfway full of herbs, both marinated in some type of liquid or as some kind of dust. There were also buckets full of herbs on it, three in total, two had processed herbs, one crushed into paste and another resting in some kind of viscous liquid, the last had untouched leaves.

Thanks to the notes that she had copied, Virah had a decent idea what was happening in these buckets but nothing more than surface level.

She inspected the oven next and found a bunch of dried leaves on top of a tray, these, she knew, were going to get grinded into fine dust.

She closed the oven and headed over to the last table where she found a notebook, she opened it and smiled.

'So there's an actual mix for the psychedelic they use alongside the Slowpoke tail,' Virah wrote down what she found, glad that it wasn't pure Psychic Poppies that was being ingested by the family.

With her theory proven, she started making her way out, she closed the basement door behind her and stopped, there was a shadow standing in the hallway, and it was staring straight at her.

Slowly, Virah stepped closer to the wall, she pressed her back against it and flared her Aura, she scaled up to the ceiling and with her feet and hands now pressed against either side of the wall, holding her up, she started moving.

She passed by the stationary woman, confused as for why she didn't make any movements, she wanted to investigate further but didn't want to risk getting caught.

Virah only watched in silence as the shadow walked down the hallway and into the basement door, it closed behind her and that was the end of Virah's encounter with the figure.

A little bit unnerved, she quickly made her way out of the house and back into the dark streets of Azalea, the open air and wide rooftops made her feel relieved and for once, the stars up above was welcomed by her.