A drizzle fell this morning, so the weather wasn't great. By the time they finished breakfast, the rain had already stopped.
The Pokémon trained on the grass, while some went into the forest to work. And as for them, they still had Magikarp to catch.
The boy they'd brought back last night was awake now. He stood in the camp watching the training, remembering how those same Pokémon had saved him. Everyone here looked strong. Even their target practice was dead accurate.
He didn't know how the old man's questions had gone, but he wanted revenge for his Pokémon partners. He wanted to become a Trainer again. If he could follow a strong Trainer like this one and learn how to raise powerful Pokémon… that would be perfect.
"Rai, I want to contact Officer Jenny to pick this kid up, but he doesn't want to go," Quincy said, releasing a Magikarp beside Reiji as he brought up the boy.
"Kids are a pain. You're the one who dragged him back—figure it out yourself," Reiji said. He couldn't be bothered with some brat like this. Traveling before you'd even grown up? If human traffickers didn't notice you, you were lucky. If you weren't lucky, you ended up like this kid.
"Rai, you seriously don't plan to do anything?" Quincy asked. Seeing how little Reiji cared, Quincy couldn't help thinking he didn't act like a League Trainer at all—no sense of justice. A League Trainer wouldn't just swallow something like a poaching gang.
"Do what? If a brat won't listen, hit him once and he'll behave. Let Officer Jenny handle what happened here. If you chose to come out alone, you're responsible for that choice. Otherwise you'll start thinking being a Trainer is just a game…"
Reiji wasn't a League Trainer anyway, and he didn't want to get dragged into the League's mess. If you didn't have the strength, then train your Pokémon properly. Why wander around outside just to show off like those rookies who brought bodyguards? Did you really not know your own limits? Or did you drink the League's propaganda for too long?
Quincy let out a long sigh. "If we don't step in, I'm worried that kid will do something stupid." He understood Reiji's stance now—Reiji didn't want to clash with the poachers. He only wanted to catch his Magikarp.
"What stupid thing can he do? If he wants to go back and die, nobody's stopping him," Reiji said.
He wasn't going to care about a stranger's life. They weren't family. He'd already saved the kid once, and the kid hadn't even thanked him. What, was he supposed to save him a second time too? He wasn't anyone's babysitter.
A stranger doesn't help another stranger for no reason. That's the adult world. Small favors are fine. Big ones? You have to think—are they after your money, trying to use you, setting you up to take the fall?
Quincy sighed again. "Then we can only leave it to Officer Jenny. I'm old—I can't help that kid." With things like this, if Reiji wouldn't move, then only Officer Jenny could deal with the poachers.
"Do what you want. I'm not a babysitter. Tell him to go home early—this kind of wilderness isn't for him," Reiji said. He'd already had Darkrai scout last night.
The poachers' boss wasn't that strong—about Advanced tier at most. The rest were mostly low-level goons, with only two or three around Elite tier.
If it was just the dozen or so poachers on that ship, Reiji could hit them at night. An ambush first, take out the boss in the dark, and the rest would be easy. Before Officer Jenny arrived, he could strip the whole group clean.
"Alright. I'll talk to the kid about it at noon," Quincy said, committing it to memory, then went back to work and continued marking the Magikarp.
There was no rush to contact Officer Jenny. Quincy's mobile phone was still in the wooden cabin. Even if he wanted to call her, he'd have to go back and get it first—but he didn't dare return alone. At best, Reiji would need to send two Pokémon to escort him to retrieve it.
Morning passed quickly. Reiji still hadn't caught a Magikarp he was satisfied with. It wasn't like these days had been wasted—he'd run into plenty with 56, 57, and 58 potential.
But not a single one with 59 potential. And among the 58-potential ones, there'd only been one. He hadn't released it yet. If he really couldn't find a 59-potential Magikarp, he could settle for this 58-potential one. The idiot even had two Abilities.
They returned to camp, put together lunch, and ate. Afterward, Reiji went right back to the river to keep catching Magikarp, while Quincy stayed behind to tell the boy what the morning's discussion had decided.
"Kid, once Officer Jenny gets here, you should go home. The wild is just too dangerous," Quincy said. He didn't mention that Reiji refused to help—saying it out loud would only crush the kid.
"Grandpa… does that mean that big brother Trainer…" The boy saw Quincy's expression and already knew the answer. He just didn't want to believe it until he heard it.
"Go back. If you stay here, it's too risky. You'll only be safe under Officer Jenny's protection," Quincy said. He was preparing to head back for his phone so Officer Jenny could handle the poachers, and so she could take the boy away as well.
"I'm not going." The boy gripped his cup so hard his fingertips turned white. He looked toward Reiji at the riverbank, catching Magikarp, then asked Quincy, "Grandpa, what would it take to get him to help…"
"Rai?" Quincy followed the boy's gaze to Reiji. He'd thought he could lean on a League Trainer's sense of justice and talk Reiji into it, but Reiji hadn't taken the bait at all.
That was when Quincy understood—Reiji wasn't the hot-blooded, impulsive type. He'd been calm since the moment they met. You couldn't move someone like that with words. You needed something they actually wanted.
"If you want him to act, you need money. A lot of money…"
"Money…" The moment he heard it, the boy's heart sank. What money did he have? His starter Pokémon, a Gloom, and the others he'd caught later… all of them died because he'd gone out traveling. They'd been killed by that poaching gang.
The world seemed to collapse over his head. Since becoming a Trainer, he'd never been this helpless. He'd thought losing his Pokémon partners to the poachers was the most hopeless thing possible.
Only now did he realize it wasn't. Being weak. Being unable to take revenge. Being able to do nothing at all—that was the true despair.
And yet, at that very moment, with his back against the wall, the boy suddenly remembered there was another boy on that ship—about his age. He knew who that boy was. He knew his status.
He himself had no money, but that boy's family was rich. Very rich. Rich enough to hire someone like this Trainer to rescue him.
But what did that have to do with him?
It still mattered—at least a little. If he could use that boy's identity to get Reiji involved, then the poachers would definitely try to stop him. And when that happened, he could follow behind and take his revenge. That alone was enough.
All he needed was to get his foot in the door. He could use it as a step toward the next move—just like how he'd pretended to submit to the poachers, then slipped away when he found an opening.
If he hadn't caught that last thread of a chance, he never would've found a way to escape the ship at night. This was all forced out of him. He wanted to live. He wanted revenge…
If he stayed on that ship as a "sailor" under their watch, he'd never get it.
The poachers' boss wanted to recruit him as crew. That was impossible. He would never stand alongside the murderers who killed his Pokémon. He would wipe out everyone on that ship and avenge his partners.
An eye for an eye. Blood for blood.
He hadn't been like this before. But after being held for so long, after seeing too much killing on that ship—whether it was humans or Pokémon—after watching even his own Pokémon die at the hands of those desperate criminals…
He understood something clearly. Talking to monsters like that was useless. Only when you treat them with the same brutality they use on others do they learn what fear is. He wanted them to feel the fear he'd lived through.
"Grandpa, can you introduce me? I want to meet him," the boy said, pointing at Reiji by the river. He wanted to use the other boy's identity to connect with Reiji. As long as he could speak to him, he was confident he could persuade Reiji to act.
Before he escaped, they'd already agreed—he would find help and come back for him. But before that, he wanted to see the poachers die… and then pull the other boy out too.
"Alright. What's your name?" Quincy asked. At this point, he knew he couldn't talk the boy out of it. The boy had his own plan. Quincy didn't feel like making decisions for him anymore.
Quincy led the boy down to the river to introduce him to Reiji. Whatever happened next, they could talk it out themselves.
"Rai, this kid's name is Gulzar. He's got something to ask you," Quincy said. He'd learned the boy's name earlier, and now he passed it along while also introducing Reiji to him.
"This is Rai. You can call him Rai-nii. Say what you need to say to him yourself…"
Once Quincy brought the boy over, he went back to releasing Magikarp. Before the boy made his choice, Quincy didn't want to rush to contact Officer Jenny. If the boy didn't want Jenny involved, then calling her now would just ruin things—and make the boy resent him for it.
Hot-blooded kids were stubborn. Stubborn as a Tauros. Better not decide for them. When you're old, stop meddling. Just watch your Magikarp in peace.
"Something you want?" Reiji didn't even look up. He knew the boy was standing nearby. He had no idea what stunt the kid was trying to pull now.
"Rai-nii, I want to ask you to save my companion," Gulzar said, dropping to his knees on the grass.
In truth, the boy trapped on the ship wasn't really his "companion." More like another victim. Gulzar had been taken first as a hostage, and the other boy had been taken later.
By the time the other boy was captured, Gulzar was already planning to escape. At first, the other boy even mistook him for one of the poachers. Later, Gulzar earned his trust. The boy told him to find a chance to escape and bring help. If Gulzar could rescue him, the reward would be generous.
"Companion?" Reiji paused. Darkrai had mentioned another kid on the ship. He didn't expect the two to actually know each other.
"My companion's status isn't ordinary. If you save him, you can have anything you want," Gulzar said. He was going all-in. If he wanted to move Reiji, he needed to put real value on the table.
"And who is he?" Reiji asked. Now he was interested. What kind of boy got snatched by a poaching gang? Some rich family's kid?
"He's the son of Luana, the Gym Leader of Kumquat Gym," Gulzar said. When he first heard it, he'd been shocked too. How could the son of a Gym Leader end up caught by poachers?
Later, when Gulzar delivered food, he found out the truth. The boy had snuck out to have fun—and got taken. Just like him.
Gulzar had challenged Kumquat Gym before. Back then, he only had one Pokémon, and Luana refused to accept his challenge. Kumquat Gym used Double Battles. You needed two Pokémon.
After he caught two more, he went back and challenged again, but he still couldn't beat Luana. So he planned to head out to sea for Pummelo Island to watch Drake's match. He'd barely set sail when the poachers grabbed him.
After he was dragged onto the ship, his starter Gloom was gone. His other Pokémon… those bastards cooked them into soup.
He'd watched it happen with his own eyes. That was why he didn't want to go back. He wanted revenge on the poachers.
"Kumquat Gym? Interesting." Reiji rubbed his chin. Luana, the Gym Leader… her son was the one from the anime who looked a lot like Ash, right? The kid who also traveled with a Pikachu. His name was—Travis.
Still, how could a Gym Leader's son get caught? And who would dare to snatch a Gym Leader's kid?
If you were the child of a Gym Leader, why wouldn't Luana assign a couple of bodyguards? If the kid sneaked out on his own, though… then anything could happen. Kids really did pull nonsense like that. When Reiji was little, he used to sneak out to the river with friends to mess around in the water too.
And a red-haired mother giving birth to a black-haired son… that meant the father's genes were strong.
As for the neighbor's old gossip? Forget it. If there were a scandal like that, Luana wouldn't be able to keep her Gym position. Someone would hold it over her head.
Since Luana could sit firmly as a Gym Leader, she couldn't be ignorant of that. Unless she'd hidden it flawlessly—but you couldn't hide a hair color like that.
And Reiji hadn't heard any rumors about her, either. If she could hold her post, aside from her own strength, her husband probably had some influence too.
If her son had been taken, and Reiji hadn't heard a single thing about it even on Mandarin Island North, there were only two possibilities.
First: Naoki had noticed it, Reiji hadn't. Reiji never asked, and Naoki never brought it up. Those days they stayed in the villa, and the only time they went out was to buy groceries. Who would be paying attention to news like that?
Second: the poachers threatened to kill the hostage, forcing the parents not to call the police, and demanded a ransom instead.
After all, out on the open sea, if there was a full-scale search, he should've seen search ships. He'd seen nothing.
Not even an Officer Jenny on the island searching. If someone was hunting kidnappers on Rind Island, they wouldn't miss them. They made fires every day. Could nobody see that obvious smoke?
If it was a quiet ransom demand, and the Gym kept the kidnapping out of the public eye… then Reiji wouldn't know either. That explanation fit perfectly.
[End of chapter]
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