Day 32 of the journey: overcast.
It had rained all night again. The rain finally stopped this morning, and after feeding Mudkip breakfast inside the tent, Reiji stepped out to make breakfast for the rest of the Pokémon.
He was the last one up. Quincy and Gulzar were already moving around—Quincy was watching the Magikarp and jotting things down, while Gulzar sat on a stool with a book, taking notes into a fresh notebook as he studied.
Reiji didn't pay them much attention. He got everyone fed, and once breakfast was done, the Pokémon started their morning training while he headed to the river to keep trying for Magikarp.
Gulzar suddenly came running over from who-knew-where. "Rai-nii, can my Gyarados train target practice with your Pokémon?"
"Sure." Reiji sat down on the grass and nodded. Then he added, "But that's not the important part. You need more Pokémon, and you need to keep building your bond with Gyarados. Take it into the forest and catch the Pokémon you like."
He pointed at the supplies. "There are a few hundred empty Poké Balls and spare backpacks here. I'll help you pick what to keep—if you catch something with good talent, we'll raise it. Go."
"Rai-nii…" Gulzar had been thinking about this since yesterday. If Magikarp talent could be screened, then other Pokémon should be the same. He just hadn't dared to ask—Reiji had already done too much for him.
Now Reiji had brought it up himself. Gulzar wasn't about to miss the chance to catch high-quality young Pokémon.
"Go." Reiji waved him off. "That's as far as I can carry you. The rest of the road is yours. Now get moving and stop getting in my way."
"I get it, Rai-nii." Gulzar dropped the idea of target practice right away. Compared to basic drills, catching talented Pokémon mattered more.
Once Reiji caught a Magikarp he liked, he'd leave Rind Island. If Gulzar wanted decent Pokémon after that, he'd be stuck paying a Pokémon Day Care for premium stock.
Those prices started in the tens of millions. He couldn't afford that. This was his last chance to turn things around, and he had to grab it.
If he could secure six Pokémon with solid potential, his future would be stable. With that team as a springboard, he could go after the rest later. By then, scraping together tens of millions wouldn't be impossible—unlike now, when he couldn't even pull together a few hundred thousand.
With a backpack on and a pile of empty Poké Balls, Gulzar took Gyarados's Poké Ball and walked straight into the forest, looking for a Grass-type Pokémon he actually wanted.
Catching a Gyarados didn't change his goal. He still wanted to be a Grass-type specialist, not a Water-type one.
That came from where he'd grown up and what he'd learned to value. Butwal Island was poor—even basic supplies had to be shipped in from other islands. As a result, most trainers who left Butwal Island relied on Grass-types, and Gulzar was no exception.
This time in the forest, he wanted another Oddish so he could raise his Gloom properly.
He still felt like he'd failed his first partner. He missed Gloom badly, and he wasn't done—not with catching more Oddish, and not with getting revenge for Gloom.
As Gulzar disappeared into the trees, Reiji motioned to Pelipper. When Pelipper waddled over, Reiji leaned in and murmured a few instructions. Pelipper flapped up and flew toward the forest.
Reiji had it stop training and shadow Gulzar. The forest wasn't dangerous only because of wild Pokémon—there was also that pack of poachers.
If it was just wild Pokémon, Gulzar's Gyarados could handle it. If it was poachers, Pelipper needed to step in if Gulzar got overwhelmed.
And if the forest had poachers, why let Gulzar go in at all?
Because avoiding it wasn't an option. Gulzar would still have to hunt for Pokémon sooner or later. Reiji didn't have time to separate everything into neat steps—he had to deal with the poachers, and Gulzar had to build his team. They could only move forward at the same time.
Even if Gulzar ran into them, it wasn't a disaster. The poachers were weak. One Gyarados could handle most of them, and with Pelipper as backup, it would take the boss personally showing up before things got truly ugly.
Reiji stopped thinking about Gulzar and went back to his own grind. He was determined to catch a Magikarp with 59 potential.
As for anything above 60… he hadn't even seen a single 59 yet. Dreaming about 60+ at this point was just getting ahead of himself.
Morning passed, and he still didn't land what he wanted. He went back to camp for lunch. Gulzar didn't return—he'd taken lunch with him when he left.
Reiji didn't dwell on it. Everyone had to walk their own road. His focus stayed on Magikarp and Mudkip.
After lunch, he went back to the river with Quincy and kept catching Magikarp. Their teamwork was getting smoother by the hour.
Nothing went wrong all the way into the afternoon—until Gulzar came staggering out of the forest.
"Rai-nii, I ran into the poachers." Gulzar's clothes were in tatters. They'd been ragged to begin with, and now they looked like they'd lost a war.
When he reached Reiji, his voice still carried that leftover panic. He hadn't expected to run into the same poacher squad that had captured him before—just from trying to catch wild Pokémon.
At first he'd been scared. Then he saw them going wild, hauling off Pokémon in bulk, and something in him snapped. He had Gyarados fire off an Ice Beam and froze half the squad in place.
That was when he realized it: those "untouchable" poachers who'd crushed him before weren't gods at all. They were just bullies. He and Gyarados tore into them and finally got the payback he'd been choking down.
Then they swarmed him.
One-on-one, Gyarados didn't lose to any of their Pokémon. But when five or six people piled on at once—and they could call in more bodies—he couldn't hold.
Reinforcements kept showing up. Gulzar had to fight while backing off, dragging the battle toward safety step by step, until he finally escaped by the skin of his teeth.
He got away, but what he saw on the way out made his blood boil. The poachers were sweeping the woods clean, snatching up entire groups of Pinsir and Heracross—leaving nothing behind.
He was furious, and he couldn't do anything about it. Even if he'd gotten stronger, he still only had one Pokémon, and Gyarados had just evolved. He couldn't beat a whole poacher crew on his own, so he ran back to find Reiji.
"They didn't take your Gyarados, right?" Reiji asked.
Up in the treetops, Pelipper gave a small shake of its head. That told Reiji enough—Gulzar hadn't been seriously hurt.
"It's fine. Just scrapes." Gulzar swallowed, then forced the words out. "But I saw them grabbing wild Pokémon—whole groups at a time…"
"I know." Reiji waved him toward camp. "Go drink some water and rest."
He didn't care about how the poachers were catching Pokémon in the moment. If Reiji hit their boat at night, wiped them out, and freed everything they'd taken, then the problem solved itself. Panicking now wouldn't help. He could release the rescued Pokémon afterward.
"Rai, kid," Quincy said quietly, still uneasy. "They're taking entire groups. You really don't want to call Officer Jenny?"
"No." Reiji shook his head. "If Gulzar hadn't spooked them, I could've wiped them out tonight and freed everything they took."
He'd been planning a night raid. Instead, Gulzar had run into them and started a fight. If the poachers didn't flee tonight, then tomorrow night would be their end.
"If you've got a plan, I won't pry." Quincy sighed. "Just watch yourselves."
"It's almost dinner." Reiji exhaled and rolled his shoulders. "We're done for now."
Nothing. Still nothing. He still hadn't seen a single 59-potential Magikarp.
Back at camp, he sat at the table with a cup of water and looked at Gulzar. "Did you catch anything? Let me see."
"Yeah! A lot." Gulzar hurried over with his backpack. "Mostly Oddish."
"Go help Farfetch'd cook." Reiji flicked his hand at him. "You can't live off my food forever."
Reiji had bought two months of supplies twice. The first time was on Kinnow Island, and he hadn't even finished that stock yet—perfect for these two to help him burn through. He also had another two months' worth from Mandarin Island North. Food wasn't an issue.
Once Gulzar went to help with dinner, Reiji opened the backpack and checked the catches.
Gulzar hadn't exaggerated. Out of ten Pokémon, eight were Oddish. The rest were a mix of Grass-, Bug-, Poison-, and Flying-types, with Grass-types making up the bulk.
Reiji went through Poké Ball after Poké Ball. In the end, he found one Oddish with decent potential.
It had 52 potential. That was solid—and with a three-stage evolution line, it could go far. If they could get a high-grade evolution stone, its ceiling would jump to the 70s at minimum. That made it worth raising.
By the time he finished sorting, dinner was ready. Reiji set the Oddish's Poké Ball in front of Gulzar at the table.
"This Oddish has good talent," Reiji said. "Raise it properly. Once you've got the means, find a high-grade Leaf Stone or a high-grade Sun Stone and evolve it."
"Thank you, Rai-nii." Gulzar tucked the Poké Ball away like it was treasure. If Reiji said it was worth raising, then it was worth raising—full stop. Another reliable partner.
"Alright." Reiji pointed toward the nearby woods. "After dinner, release the rest of the wild Pokémon. Let them go in the trees over there. The poachers won't dare come close, so they'll be safe."
Gulzar looked ready to bounce out of his seat, but Reiji cut him off with a calm wave. This was only the beginning.
Quincy watched the whole selection process with a stunned look. Now he finally understood why Reiji was so strong. If Quincy had met someone like this when he was young, he might not have ended up an observer at all.
After dinner, Reiji went right back to working overtime at the river, still trying to catch Magikarp. Quincy stayed with him. Gulzar released the unwanted catches and then hurried back as well.
"Rai-nii, when are we hitting the poachers?" Gulzar asked as soon as he arrived. Seeing them sweep up wild Pokémon so casually had lit a fire in him, and he hated that he couldn't stop it on his own.
"Originally, tonight," Reiji said. "But you fought them in the forest. They'll be on guard now. We wait until they think it's safe, loosen up, and go back to poaching. Then we strike."
"I understand." Gulzar's shoulders dropped. His recklessness had delayed things. He didn't argue. He just owned it and started helping Reiji work the river.
"Don't worry." Reiji kept his voice even. "We won't wait long. Tomorrow night is the end of them."
"I got it, Rai-nii." Gulzar's mood lifted a notch. Tomorrow night meant he didn't have to stew in this for long.
They worked deep into the night again. Reiji still didn't catch the Magikarp he wanted. It had been five days already. He still had more than twenty days left, so all he could do was keep waiting.
They finally wrapped up, went back to camp, ate a late snack, and slept.
On the poachers' side, the men who'd fought Gulzar had already returned to their wooden boat—and the boss chewed them out the moment they stepped into the cabin.
He'd warned them over and over: don't provoke that trainer, and don't provoke that boy.
Since neither of them had called the police, it was obvious they didn't want to get involved here. So why would these idiots go out of their way to anger them and bring an enemy to his doorstep?
The underlings felt wronged. Gulzar had come looking for trouble. They'd been doing their job in the forest, catching wild Pokémon. They hadn't gone after anyone.
The boss snorted. He'd said it before—League trainers were like burrs that wouldn't come off. Hot-blooded kids with more courage than sense. Let them see poachers hauling away wild Pokémon, and they'd jump in every time.
That mindset didn't come from nowhere. The League drilled it into people through propaganda and education, pushing this idea of humans and Pokémon living in harmony, loving each other, sharing everything.
They'd been shaping the next generation for years. Once those kids grew up, they'd become the League's most loyal supporters.
But it came with a flaw.
In comfortable households, the message landed perfectly. For the people scraping by at the bottom, running themselves ragged just to eat, the League's message didn't mean a thing.
Maybe you could fool a kid for a while. Then life hit them in the face, and nobody believed it anymore. Unless the League actually improved basic living conditions and welfare, that crowd wasn't going to "wake up" into believers.
"Enough." The boss waved them away. "Nobody sleeps tonight. Stay sharp for a raid. If they don't come, you're back in the forest tomorrow catching Pokémon."
He let them off—barely.
"Understood, boss." The troublemakers hurried out of the captain's cabin, relieved he wasn't going to punish them further.
Once they were gone, the boss stared out the window at Rind Island.
Now he finally understood: that Gyarados belonged to the boy.
One or two days, and the kid had evolved a Gyarados. Not only that—he'd suppressed a rampaging Gyarados and made it listen. That young trainer was… interesting.
The kid himself was just an ordinary kid. The boss didn't see anything valuable there. Yet that trainer had still helped him catch a Pokémon like Gyarados. Strange, and worth remembering.
It also confirmed something else. The trainer didn't care about the poachers. If he did, he would've acted already, or he would've called Officer Jenny. That was exactly why the boss didn't want to provoke him.
Keeping the men awake was just punishment. The boss knew they'd slack off on watch the moment they got the chance. Real security came from his Pokémon, not from a bunch of useless hands.
With that thought shoved aside, he shut the window and got ready for bed. He wasn't staying up.
All-nighters were for the mules.
They were cheap, replaceable tools—hard-luck mules you could find anywhere. If one batch quit, there were plenty more to pick up.
There were still three Pokémon groups in the forest worth taking. Once the idiots finished sweeping those, they'd leave.
And on the black market, a complete wild Pokémon group sold for tens of millions. A whole group was worth far more than any single Pokémon.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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