Virah entered Kurt's smithy with a wary expression, she searched the shop for any possible shopper before heading to the counter and nudging Kurt.

The old man blinked at her, "you're done already?"

Virah nodded, "I am," was something about what she did bothering him? She tilted her head, "I have everything, I even gathered two Scyther claws just in case, I doubled everything, actually,"

The smith's eyes went wide, "you doubled everything?" He asked her, skepticism in his voice, his eyes looked her up and down, "and the Pokemon? Are they alive?"

"I don't know how Scythers who lacked one of their weapons could possibly survive in the depths of Ilex Forest but the Ursaring I got the claws from used Rest to regrow her natural weapons and the Sudowoodoo just looked annoyed when I took off one of its arms," Virah answered.

"They're fine, Scyther move out of the depths when they lose an arm and Sudowoodoo would just go back to being stationary," Kurt nodded at her, "good job, drop them off here and come back in two days, the Katana should be finished then,"

Virah bowed, "thank you,"

"You're welcome," Kurt returned the gesture, "before you go, have you noticed something strange going on the town lately?"

"I have…" Virah met Kurt's gaze, "there are people slipping in and out of houses, does Azalea have a tunnel system underneath it?"

"None that I know of," Kurt shook his head, "you're sure that they're moving between houses?"

"I've seen it happen," Virah doubled down.

"… Thank you," the smith smiled, "keep me updated,"

"Should I tell Bugsy about this?" Virah asked, continuing the conversation.

"No, he has a bug somewhere in that gym of his," Kurt warned, "be careful,"

"Thanks, I will," with one last bow, Virah left the smithy aiming to continue her investigation into the people selling the Slowpoke tails across Azalea.

Now back on the outskirts of Ilex Forest, the first thing she did was check on her team, Nitro and Jet were doing fine, her Ghastly, someone who she hasn't really named yet, was still getting checked by the Pokemon center, she'd need to wait a while before he could get registered to her team.

Ghost Types were unexpectedly dangerous to have, and only the dedicated and mad actually had them as a specialty.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Among all of them, only Agatha was the exception to the rule, meanwhile, every other Channeler or Ghost Type specialist had either gone mad or were put in extensive care.

Who knew that beings which were the natural antithesis to life would cause problems for living creatures?

Virah set her eyes to Azalea Town, so people were building something underneath it, a set of tunnels to be specific, and it led to the Slowpoke well where they, she assumed, were harvesting Slowpoke tails to be sold.

How would someone go about in investigating that?

Virah's thoughts were filled with nothing but plans for investigating her suspicions around the town as she made her way back Azalea.

For one, attacking their base of operations first was now put on hold, she wanted information about the criminals themselves as well as any possible leads outside of Azalea, no sane provider would just stick to one town after all.

Next would be their daily customers, who they were and what they did was a consideration that Virah had expanded upon during her walk.

After that came the actual investigation, she needed to find the tunnels, scan them with as much accuracy as she could muster, prepare routes across it, and then finally, search for the base of operations within the well, plan, and attack.

It sounded simple in paper, and Virah thought as much as she finished writing down her thoughts.

"What were you writing just now?" Whitney looked up from the pink dress she was sewing to look at Virah, "it looked serious,"

"There's a conspiracy around town," Virah answered.

At her words, both her friends stopped for a brief moment, Whitney tilted her head while Grene stopped hitting the punching bag she had set up.

"Conspiracy?" The martial artist asked.

"Mhmm." Virah sighed, "people are selling Slowpoke tails around here,"

"… That's normal right?" Grene asked.

"Well, yeah, but the scale is larger than normal, there's a well full of them in Azalea Town after all," Virah answered.

"Ah," Grene sat down, "so you're saying there's an actual group of criminals down there?"

"Yeah," Virah nodded, "and they're organized too, they're digging tunnels beneath Azalea, which they're using to move around the town unseen,"

"How?" Whitney went back to sewing, but some of her attention was directed at the conversation, "people should have noticed holes popping up here and there right?"

"Well, they would, if the holes aren't hidden inside houses," Virah replied.

"Oh," Whitney frowned, "how did they do it?"

"And how did you figure it out?" Grene chimed.

"Ground Types, and I saw a guy leave a house he never entered last, so I followed him and with Jet's help, was able to overhear him and his buyer haggling the price of the tail he was selling."

"Concerning," Grene murmured, "and they're all over Azalea Town?"

"They are," Virah nodded, "as far as I know, they have 5 houses that they built exits and entrances on, not exactly a small number,"

"It's not," Grene agreed, "they've been here for a while now,"

"Mhmm." Virah hummed, "possibly even a few years, but I think it's only months, I'll see what their base looks like and if they've automated the process but yeah, a few months,"

"You're hoping it's only been months," Whitney guessed.

Virah slowly nodded, "it's the best case scenario,"

"I get it," Whitney offered her a kind smile, "those poor Slowpokes would have been suffering for far too long otherwise,"

"Yes," Virah returned Whitney's gesture halfway through, her lips thinning out as she did so, "that and you know, there might be more than just "drugs" at hand, Slowpoke tails are naturally psychic after all, and so are their effects,"

"If Team Rocket is involved, then I think we really need to tell the League about them, they're way too trenched in Johto for comfort," Grene suggested.

"They are, yeah," Virah could understand her concerns, the organization is mainly based on Kanto after all, but this is Team Rocket they're dealing with here, "but I think they have spies up in the Johto League,"

"They do?" Whitney asked.

"I think so," Virah nodded in confirmation, "I'm not really sure but I'm leaning on thinking that my gut is right and that they have people telling them everything that's happening around Johto."

"That's… a bit concerning," Grene said, "they've practically invaded us by that point haven't they?"

"They have," Virah nodded, "but I think the same goes for Kanto, I think, wholeheartedly, that Team Rocket is an independent entity working for their own goals instead of being an organization that's allied with Kanto,"

Her friends looked at her, then, slowly, they both nodded.

"I believe you," Grene said.

"You shouldn't, I haven't confirmed anything yet," Virah shook her head.

"But you believe that what you're thinking is true," Whitney mused.

"Yep," Virah nodded.

"Then we'll believe you too, we'll wait until we confirm things to really get going but I'm satisfied with our suspicion for now," the pinkette added.

"Mhmm," Virah looked at them both, "you two can work on your costumes while I investigate further, we'll move based on what I've found,"

"Okay!"/"got it," her friends nodded at her, conviction and courage coloring their features.