Day 27 of the journey — cloudy.
When Reiji woke up this morning, the villa was quiet. Naoki wasn't around, and Reiji had no idea where he'd run off to.
He looked at the on-guard Spinarak and Darkrai. "Anything unusual last night? When did Naoki leave?"
"He left before dawn," Darkrai said, pointing at a black backpack beside the sofa. "He came back once, dropped that off, then left again."
"What's inside?" Reiji picked it up and unzipped it.
"Lots of Gems," Darkrai said. It had checked earlier, since Naoki had shoved the bag into its hands in the middle of the night.
Back then, Naoki had even said, "Darkrai, please give this backpack to the boss…"
"Why didn't you hand it over yourself?" Darkrai had asked. Getting dragged outside at that hour just to be forced into carrying a backpack wasn't exactly pleasant.
"If I give it to him myself, he definitely won't take it," Naoki had said. "He's collected nearly a thousand Gems lately. This place is basically sold out now. These are the last ones I could get my hands on, and the boss really needs them…"
Naoki had been watching. Even the boss—someone who'd pulled out high-grade Fire Stones and even a quasi–Elite Four tier item like Charcoal—had stopped buying Gems and left Mandarin Island North. That only meant one thing: he'd run out of money.
Naoki didn't know how many more Gems Reiji needed. He could only do what he could—buy out the black market's last stock and use it to repay the help he'd been given.
"Fifty Poison Gems and forty Ghost Gems. Total value: forty-one million," Reiji said after counting them out. Then he had Gengar swallow the entire pile.
Naoki had already made the choice, and he'd even bolted—probably afraid of getting chewed out, or afraid Reiji would refuse. The kid really did overthink everything. At this point, refusing wasn't even an option.
Since Naoki had gone this far, Reiji stopped pushing back. He accepted the Gems, climbed onto Pelipper, set his heading, and flew straight for Rind Island.
He'd already had twenty Gems left. Add these ninety, and that made one hundred and ten Gems in total. Even if every last one went to Gengar, it barely moved the needle.
Gengar's potential development would have to pause here for now. When he had money again, he'd continue. Until then, he couldn't magic Pokédollars out of thin air.
As for everything he'd picked up in the City underground black market, he still had…
Two ore backpacks, plus Rock-type and Ground-type held items he wasn't selling, an Everstone and a Float Stone, a pile of Gems of various types he hadn't sold yet, and several hundred boxes of high-grade Pokéblocks of different flavors.
Riku's stash was still there too: Mystic Water, a Water Gem, a Damp Rock, Soft Sand, and a Swampert Egg.
He also hadn't sold his Ground Gems, Dazzling Honey, Moomoo Milk and other supplements. The Fire Gem was still with him as well—he'd just save it for Hanhan to eat.
And there was still a Heat Rock, Black Sludge, Poison Barb, a Dark Gem, and a few thousand more boxes of high-grade Pokéblocks.
Those were the items he had left. As for his cash…
Yesterday, he'd stocked up on two months of food: 300,000. Getting Zubat's stitches removed: 10,000.
After adding everything up, he still had 5,656,000 Pokédollars left.
That five million was his last cushion. He was broke again—and this was the cost of raising just one Pokémon.
He had two full squads as his core lineup: ten Pokémon. If they all burned money like this, he couldn't afford to keep them.
Luckily, the others weren't like Gengar. They could be raised slowly. If everyone needed this kind of spending, he might as well quit training and go professional as a robber.
He could also use what he knew from his previous life and invest early in certain opportunities here.
But he also knew those "opportunities" were just bait without the strength to protect them. Without power as a deterrent, he'd just be another walking fat lamb.
It was a loop. Without strength, he couldn't hold onto good things. With strength, he wouldn't be short on money anymore. That left him stuck in the awkward middle—good stuff existed, but he didn't dare bring it out.
For now, improving strength came first. A hard fist was the real truth here—same as how people used to "reason" with cannon range back in his old world.
Reiji rode Pelipper through open sky. The blue overhead had thinned to a single blazing sun, and the sea below rolled with layers of gold like scales. He watched the glittering water for a long moment, taking it in properly for the first time.
Back in his old life, even a view like this was rare in the mountain gullies. Now he could cross islands on a Flying-type and look down on it all from high above.
Mandarin Island North was close to Rind Island. After just a little over two hours, the outline of the island finally appeared ahead.
The island was marked on the map. A long river cut straight through it from end to end—the Rind River, a channel linking north and south.
Magikarp born here would always return when they matured, swimming back upstream to climb the waterfall. If they pulled off that climb, they "leapt the Dragon Gate," reached the lake above, and evolved there.
A Magikarp that completed the climb had a fifty percent chance to evolve.
Half would be eliminated by the climb itself. Then evolution would eliminate half of what remained. In the end, one in four would evolve—and that was already an unusually high rate.
He'd come to the right place.
After reaching the island, Reiji didn't have Pelipper land. Instead, he had it follow the Rind River, searching for a good campsite.
The river ran north to south, with a large lake in the middle. That lake wasn't a good place to camp. Fifty percent of the Magikarp that made it there could evolve.
If he started catching Magikarp there, some idiot might evolve into a Gyarados and decide to take a bite out of him. Camping by the lake was asking for trouble.
Besides, there was a small cabin by the lake, which meant someone lived there. If Reiji remembered right, it would be the Magikarp watcher from the anime—Quincy T. Quackenpoker.
An old man who'd been observing Magikarp here for a long time. Reiji didn't plan on getting involved with him. And the old man had better not try to stop him from catching Magikarp, either.
After circling along the river, Reiji found the right spot: downstream. All the Magikarp would pass through the lower waterfall on their way to the lake.
Catching Magikarp heading upstream was best here. It also made releasing them easier—once released, they could keep climbing.
With the campsite chosen, Reiji had Pelipper descend. He sent out Poliwhirl and the others to help pitch the tent. He planned to stay here long-term.
This wasn't the Magikarp return season. He didn't know when they would come back, and right now the river had none at all.
He decided to wait two days first. If Magikarp still didn't show up, he'd go ask Quincy—someone who'd lived here for years would know the timing.
If he'd missed the season entirely, he'd have no choice but to head to the Gym and apply as an apprentice, then come back another time to catch Magikarp.
Once the tent was up, he unpacked folding chairs, pots and pans, and the rest of the camping supplies. He also set up an inflatable bath—one for Wishiwashi, and one for Magikarp.
He didn't trust leaving those two in the river. If a predator showed up and ate his fish, he wouldn't even have a place to cry about it.
Whether or not the Magikarp return happened while he was here, he planned to release Magikarp on this island. Stay or go—up to it. Still, after following him for so long, he wasn't sure if it would really leave.
With camp arranged, Reiji lit a fire and cooked lunch for both himself and the Pokémon. After eating, they could train in the forest.
He wasn't on a tight schedule anymore. Since leaving Trovitopolis City, the team had gone seven days without proper training. Now there was nothing to disrupt it.
After lunch, Poliwhirl and Scyther—two battle addicts—headed into the forest together. Poliwhirl's afternoon training was Moisture sensing. Scyther's was Swarm. The two sparred while they worked.
Pelipper had carried him here, so it didn't need afternoon training. It could rest until tomorrow.
Kingler took Croagunk and Shelmet to work on accuracy drills. Accuracy and type matchups were the basics of Pokémon battles. Understand matchups, land your moves, and only then could you start refining real combat technique.
If you couldn't even hit Water Gun, what were you doing talking about battling? That was exactly what Poliwhirl and Scyther were working toward. He'd taught both of them type matchups too.
Back when he was still training them in the dream, he'd used a full Pokédex encyclopedia. He'd flip through common entries and teach them, one by one, what types other Pokémon had.
At the same time, he'd have Darkrai create illusions so they could recognize them—what type you should use to counter a given Pokémon.
Once they learned this, they could adapt mid-fight and choose the right attacks instead of blindly following habits.
Pokémon needed their own judgment. If the Trainer hadn't given an order—or didn't have time to—then a Pokémon making the right call could cover the Trainer's gaps.
That required constant combat practice: sharpening technique, building experience, and improving the ability to adapt under pressure.
Croagunk and Shelmet were drilling accuracy. With Kingler supervising, Reiji wasn't worried. Kingler's own afternoon training was defense—getting hit.
Both of their moves could hit Kingler, and they could help it practice Iron Defense and Amnesia at the same time. Nothing was wasted.
Hanhan had already gone off to headbutt trees again. Its skin must have been itching badly—he was probably going to be scrubbing off a fresh layer of dead hide later.
Then there were Gengar and Zubat. Both were running accuracy training too. Type matchups could wait—accuracy came first.
Their targets were fixed: the trees along the riverbank. They'd master stationary targets first. Starting with moving targets right away was an easy way to shatter confidence.
Once they were steady, they could start beating on Kingler. That would be their moving target. After boosting its defenses, that guy was basically all shell and toughness—nothing they did would really hurt it.
As for Darkrai, Reiji didn't need to babysit it. It had already gone into the woods to mess with sleeping Pokémon. Its focus was still on Dream Eater—trying to feed what it gained back into its Bad Dreams.
Reiji didn't know if that had any real meaning. But as Darkrai grew stronger, its control over energy kept improving. Restricting the nightmares it leaked unconsciously, and mastering Bad Dreams, would come naturally with time.
Ditto and Spinarak didn't train today. Ditto had spent days "changing faces" nonstop; the little guy had earned a break. Still, it would need Protect training tomorrow or the day after.
Spinarak also needed Protect training. Accuracy wasn't necessary anymore—its moving-target triple-shot was already good enough, and there was no point grinding it further.
Reiji didn't demand much from support Pokémon. If it could land a triple-shot on a moving target, that was enough.
Poliwhirl was different. At this point, it could land a moving-target triple-shot even while blindfolded. It was already used to that kind of training.
Letting Poliwhirl spar with Scyther also served another purpose: teaching. Scyther ranked third in strength right now, so only Poliwhirl could properly coach it.
Reiji's standard for Poliwhirl was harsher: blindfolded, moving, dodging attacks, and still hitting a moving target.
That was the strictest form of accuracy training. Poliwhirl was stuck on the final step—one last push, and it would clear it.
He'd split accuracy training into tiers: the first three levels, and the last three. Each level also had three or four difficulty steps. Support Pokémon only needed the first three; the back half was too brutal.
The first three: stationary targets, moving targets, hitting moving targets while you're moving.
The last three: blindfolded stationary targets, blindfolded moving targets, blindfolded—moving while hitting moving targets.
And each difficulty could scale: one target, two targets, three targets, four targets…
Only certain Pokémon trained the back half—Poliwhirl, Zubat, Scyther, Croagunk, Gengar, Darkrai, and others like them.
Poliwhirl had Moisture sensing. Zubat had Supersonic echolocation. Scyther had Swarm. Croagunk had Anticipation.
Gengar and Darkrai both had psychic sensing—that was only one part of it. They could also hide in shadows, making them hard to find, and they could sense what was inside the shade.
Darkrai even had another kind of sensing Reiji had never heard of. It was probably tied to Darkrai being a Mythical Pokémon. A lot of legendaries had something like that—an absurd level of perception.
For Pokémon with those senses, Reiji demanded blindfold training in the back tiers. They had to locate enemies through sensing alone, attack accurately, and evade attacks they couldn't see. The blindfold made everything harder.
Pokémon without that kind of perception didn't need it. Right now, Poliwhirl and Scyther were using combat itself to sharpen their senses—tracking an opponent while also dodging.
This was all just foundation work. After accuracy came move proficiency and ability proficiency, then speed, offense, and defense conditioning.
Type matchups and combat technique were already advanced training. Then came the next step: perception training and combo techniques—core tactics.
And because each Pokémon had a different role, he assigned different training accordingly. Pelipper as team support. Kingler and Rhyhorn as tanks. Poliwhirl and Scyther as the push-in and finisher pair. Shelmet as a harassment specialist.
Once all of that came together, a core Pokémon would be fully formed. At that point, he wouldn't need to keep his head down. He'd start showing his edge—then pushing into the spotlight, and eventually making a real name for himself.
A battle was only a battle when both sides were evenly matched.
A real fight was different. He wouldn't leave the enemy even a sliver of chance. If he could kill in one blow, he would. No hesitation. No dragging it out.
After assigning training to twelve Pokémon, he looked at the rest—Butterfree, Slowpoke, Staryu, Farfetch'd…
He had all but Farfetch'd focus on Confusion training. Farfetch'd didn't train; it helped him chop wood, slice ingredients, and keep the fire going. The duck was still useful.
While the Pokémon trained, Reiji stayed busy too. Cooking dinner for more than a dozen Pokémon wasn't exactly easy.
Once Farfetch'd finished the camp chores, Reiji sent it into the forest to pick Berries. Spinarak, Ditto, and Butterfree went with it.
Butterfree was always trying to slack off during training anyway. If it wasn't training, it could at least do some work—and it really did help.
When dinner was ready, Reiji had Pelipper call back the Pokémon training in the woods. Everyone formed two circles around the fire—small Pokémon in the inner ring, bigger ones on the outside.
"Mui-mui." Butterfree saw itself as the big sister. Not only did it insist on sitting in the outer ring, it also insisted on sitting beside Reiji.
"Yobo." Poliwhirl sat beside Reiji too, and nobody dared fight for that spot. Poliwhirl's status had been earned with its fists, and everyone accepted it as the big brother.
Aside from never having fought Darkrai, none of the others could beat Poliwhirl.
"Kook." Kingler sat in the outer ring as well, right beside Poliwhirl. It was Poliwhirl's little follower.
"Huff-huff." Rhyhorn really wanted to sit in the inner ring, but everyone dragged it back. There was no way the inner ring could fit that walking food-mountain.
"Peli." Pelipper sat in the outer ring beside Butterfree. Those two loved bickering the most. Every time Pelipper carried Reiji in flight, Butterfree would get mad and go whining to Reiji for comfort.
"Sha." Scyther sat in the outer ring too. It didn't care about the politics. It only wanted to challenge the strong—especially Poliwhirl, and maybe even test itself against Darkrai.
"Gwa-gwa." Croagunk was also in the outer ring. Nobody sat near it—its toxins were only getting stronger. It didn't care. In its mind, there was only Reiji. Reiji didn't mind it, so it didn't mind anything else.
Darkrai sat across from Reiji in the outer ring, close to Croagunk. Only Darkrai would choose that seat.
"Ya-don." Slowpoke sat in front of Reiji, still looking dull and slow as ever. It lagged behind on everything. Everyone knew it was acting, though—it simply couldn't be bothered to move.
"Shelmet, shelmet." Shelmet sat beside Slowpoke in the inner ring. After spending so long with the group, it had blended into the family. Everyone treated it well, and Butterfree even shared honey with it often.
"Gah-gah." Farfetch'd sat beside Slowpoke as well. It no longer attacked Reiji. Its hatred for humans had faded. It could even help cook now—a handy little assistant.
"Keh-keh." Gengar, the big fat guy, should've been in the outer ring, but it forced its way into the inner ring anyway. It was still a baby, after all—and it ended up sitting close to Croagunk.
"Tss-tss." Zubat sat in the inner ring too. It was the newest member, and with so many seniors around, it still didn't dare speak loudly.
"Ii-to." Spinarak sat in the inner ring as well. It was the hardest-working one, often stuck on night watch, and it never complained. As long as it got food, it was satisfied.
Ditto was a total social butterfly. Aside from getting tired during face-changing, it thrived in this big family—matching whoever it was talking to, speaking in their style without missing a beat.
"Heh-cha." Staryu still felt a bit stiff around the group. It was closest with Butterfree and Slowpoke—mostly because they all had psychic moves.
"Karu-karu." Magikarp stayed in the inflatable bath, poking its head up to stare at the fire while chatting along with everyone else.
"Woo, woo." Wishiwashi was in the bath too. It was the boss now—Magikarp couldn't beat it at all. One tail smack could make Dummy cry. It stole food constantly.
Reiji still hadn't expected a Pokémon he'd caught on a whim to become this strong.
All eighteen of his Pokémon were here. Add the two Eggs, and that made twenty in total. They sat around the fire in a big outer circle and a small inner one, noisy and lively as they ate dinner together in the sunset. By the time they finished, the sky had already darkened.
It had been almost three months since he arrived in the Pokémon world.
And somewhere along the way, he'd built a team he could trust. These eighteen Pokémon were his foundation.
Once these little guys grew up, there wouldn't be anywhere in this world he couldn't go. He'd travel the entire Pokémon world with them, then find a quiet place to settle down.
After that, he could finally fish in peace. No interruptions. Just living happily with this bunch of adorable troublemakers.
There was no training tonight. In the wild, you couldn't push too hard—you had to keep stamina in reserve in case wild Pokémon decided to crash the party.
On Rind Island, nights were for rest. Train in the day, sleep at night…
[End of chapter]
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