Chapter 237: Courting Death
Xiu's scientific curiosity, often bordering on reckless self-experimentation, was thoroughly piqued. "This Stun Stem..." he said, a daring glint in his eyes, "can I try it? Not that I doubt your word, Miss Rinko, but I'd like to experience it myself. If anything were to go wrong, well I'd like to believe everything is fine with you around. "
Rinko's eyebrows arched in amusement. She turned and disappeared briefly into a storage area, returning with a small, sealed container. Inside, a few dark green, slightly withered, slender leaves lay innocuously. The quantity was small, no more than a pinch, yet Rinko handled it with a distinct seriousness that didn't escape Xiu's notice.
"You'll want to be very careful with this," she cautioned, handing the bag to Xiu. Her tone was light, but her eyes were grave.
This only intensified Xiu's interest. He took the container, examining the leaves within. They looked ordinary, unremarkable. No obvious visual difference from the common variety. "Is the paralytic agent airborne, released by scent?" he asked. "Or does it require ingestion?"
Rinko's lips curved into a slightly mischievous smile. "Why don't you try it for yourself?"
Xiu, never one to shy away from a calculated risk, particularly when it came to understanding potent substances, so he didn't hesitate. He broke the seal, pulled down his protective mask, and brought the opening close to his nose, intending to take a cautious sniff.
There was no discernible odor, no immediate sensation. He was just about to offer a wry comment, perhaps about the subtlety of its effects, when a bizarre numbness began to creep across his face. He tried to speak, but his facial muscles refused to respond.
The paralysis spread with terrifying speed, his limbs going slack, his body losing all motor control. He pitched sideways, a dead weight.
Rinko, anticipating this outcome, reacted instantly. She snatched the container from his collapsing form with one hand, while her other shot out to try and support him. However, Xiu was far heavier than she anticipated.
She couldn't hold him. Instead of catching him, she was pulled down with him, her cry of alarm muffled as they both tumbled to the laboratory floor.
Xiu's mind, however, remained terrifyingly clear even as his body became utterly unresponsive. He felt nothing, couldn't move a muscle, as if his nervous system had been completely severed from his brain.
The creeping numbness began to invade his consciousness, a chilling sensation of his very thoughts slowing, becoming thick and sluggish. This is… bad.
However, Xiu was not an ordinary individual. Years of rigorous mental discipline, his unique psychic constitution honed by Abra's constant presence, and perhaps a sheer, stubborn will to survive, triggered an instinctive, powerful resistance.
Lying on the floor, eyes wide and bloodshot, Xiu's supposedly paralyzed muscles began to twitch, to tremble erratically, fighting against his current predicament.
Rinko felt the violent, uncontrolled spasms wracking Xiu's body. Panic flared in her eyes. This wasn't right. Victims of her family's Stun Stem usually went completely limp, passively succumbing to the effects. This… this is unprecedented!
She had never seen anything like it. Confused and frightened, she scrambled to her feet, shouting towards the window, "Gloom! Nectar! Quickly!"
The Gloom, startled from its sun-drenched nap, roused itself. A thick, yellowish, sweet-smelling nectar began to bead at the corners of its mouth.
Rinko didn't hesitate. She swiped a finger across Gloom's mouth, collecting a glob of the viscous liquid, then rushed back to Xiu. Forcing his slack jaw open, she thrust her nectar-coated finger inside, rubbing it vigorously against his tongue and the roof of his mouth, desperate to get the antidote into his system.
Xiu, his consciousness fading, was vaguely aware of something being forcibly inserted into his mouth, something stirring insistently. His paralyzed body couldn't react, couldn't spit it out. He could only endure the strange, sweet intrusion.
Then, miraculously, the creeping mental fog began to recede. Sensation returned, first as a tingling in his extremities, then a gradual regaining of control. What was that?
He blinked, his vision clearing. Rinko was straddling him, one hand pressing on his chest to keep him still, the other still trying to administer more of the Gloom nectar.
"Nngh! Mmmph!" Xiu managed, raising a now-functional hand to gently push her hand away. "I'm… I'm okay! I'm fine!"
Rinko, seeing his eyes focus, his movements becoming purposeful, let out a shaky sigh of relief. She sagged, applying pressure directly onto his chest, nearly knocking the wind out of him again.
"Cough! Cough! Gack!" Xiu choked, then managed to gasp, "Get… off!"
Startled by his coughing fit, Rinko scrambled off him, her face etched with apology and concern. "Oh! I'm so sorry! Are you alright?"
Xiu pushed himself up, taking several deep, ragged breaths. He felt utterly drained, his muscles aching, his head throbbing. But at least he was alive and in control of his own body again. A weak, helpless laugh escaped him.
Well, that was dumb. He had indeed courted death, a very unpleasant experience Xiu would never forget. He'd underestimated the Murasame's strain of Stun Stem, assuming his prior experience with the common variety would offer some resistance. Sigh, overconfidence is a swift path to disaster.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Rinko asked again, her voice laced with genuine worry.
"Fine, fine," Xiu waved a dismissive hand, though his voice was a bit hoarse. He pushed himself to his feet, determined to regain his composure. He couldn't blame her; this was entirely his own damn fault. To save face, he quickly changed the subject. "I can certainly see now why your family's Stun Stem is a restricted item. In the wrong hands… the consequences could be devastating."
Rinko nodded, still looking a little shaken herself. "Yes. That's why its distribution is strictly controlled. It's supplied exclusively to the Pokémon League, for official use only."
"Hmm?" Xiu frowned. "The League orders this from you? Regularly?"
"Yes. The Pokémon League places a substantial order it every month." Under Xiu's seemingly casual questioning, she revealed more. The unique, hyper-potent strain had been developed by her parents.
She had only been six years old at the time. It was truly a groundbreaking achievement, this unique botanical discovery, that had led to her parents being invited to a prestigious Pokémon research seminar in Celadon City. However, they never returned.
There was an accident on the journey, she had been told. She was nine when she became an orphan, left alone to manage the vast botanical garden and her parents' legacy. Thankfully, Professor Oak's intervention and continued support had been instrumental in her survival, in her ability to maintain the garden. No wonder she reveres him so much.
"It was just a naturally occurring mutation we discovered," Rinko explained, her voice softening with a touch of sadness as she spoke of her parents. "Though not uncommon in plants, this one was… particularly potent. My parents spent years of selective breeding, stabilizing the strain's unique properties."
Listening to her story, a new, unsettling thought began to form in Xiu's mind. He asked, his tone carefully neutral, "What did your parents intend to do with this hyper-potent strain of Stun Stem, Miss Rinko? Did they ever speak of its potential uses?"
Rinko paused, reminiscence in her eyes. "I don't remember all the details back then, but my parents were researchers who are driven by discovery. I don't believe they ever intended for it to be widely distributed, or used for harmful purposes. To them, it was a scientific curiosity, a botanical marvel."
Xiu's mind raced, connecting dots. The Murasame family, renowned for generations as master cultivators. The sudden development of an incredibly potent, weaponizable botanical agent. The 'invitation' to a seminar.
The 'accidental' death of her parents, leaving a young, inexperienced child as the sole heir of their legacy— a child easily influenced, easily controlled by a 'benevolent' mentor figure like Professor Oak, who just happened to be a close family friend…
And the Pokémon League, conveniently becoming the sole, regular recipient of this restricted substance...
He looked at Rinko, her eyes reflecting her innocent passion for science and her trust in the institutions that had, perhaps, orchestrated her family's tragedy. Before, when I first heard about it from Professor Oak, I thought the decline of the Murasame family was just a sad consequence of changing times, of a dwindling lineage.
But this… this changes everything. He realized, with a chilling certainty, that he had perhaps been far too naive, had far too much faith in the supposed integrity of the Pokémon League, and perhaps even in individuals like Professor Oak.
They weren't just cultivating plants here; they were cultivating a weapon. And when the people behind this project finally become loose ends...