The Secret Hidden on Peat Island

After signing, Cynthia handed back the paper and pen. She brushed back her hair and smiled. "No need to be so nervous. Just treat me like an ordinary person."

"How could I possibly do that..."

Mingyou suppressed his excitement and tucked the autograph into his bag. It was Cabbage Sis's signature! A collector's item like this deserved safekeeping.

Cynthia shook her head, though. She was easygoing and disliked the distance her status created between her and others in everyday life.

Mingyou had no choice but to reply, "Well... okay. If you don't mind, I'll call you Cabbage... No, Cynthia Sis."

"That's fine."

Cynthia smiled. Most people called her Miss Cynthia or Champion, but adding "Sis" felt closer and less formal. She rather liked it.

Even from that brief exchange, she could tell Mingyou was the sort of person who naturally drew close to others. It was almost instinctive, not something he did deliberately.

She found the young man rather interesting. He had also gotten Gible to use Cross Poison, a move it should never have been able to learn. That intrigued her even more.

So she asked him directly, wanting to know how he had done it...

"Cross Poison?"

Seeing that he had caught her interest, Mingyou grew even more excited. He took the opportunity to make his pitch, though he did not reveal his goal outright. First, he needed to earn her trust and prove himself.

"You mean... Move-Learning Fruit?"

"Exactly!"

Mingyou took a Noctowl Berry carrying Extrasensory from his bag and began to explain. It was still fairly fresh despite having been picked days ago, but its effect was already weakening.

Cynthia and Shali studied the owl-faced fruit with curiosity. A fruit that worked like a Technical Machine? One that could even teach Pokémon moves they normally could