Day 33 of the journey. Cloudy.
Reiji was the last one up again. Quincy and Gulzar had already made breakfast.
After they ate, everyone went off to do their own thing. Gulzar didn't seem to know what to do, so he trailed after them to the river to catch Magikarp.
"Gulzar, go back into the forest. Find the poaching crew and stop them from catching wild Pokémon," Reiji said. Their ship hadn't left, which meant they still hadn't finished what they came for.
If Gulzar kept capturing wild Pokémon and kept getting in their way, it would keep the pressure on and keep the poachers complacent. It also fit the role Gulzar had been showing them—hot-blooded, newly empowered, desperate for revenge.
If they hadn't run into the poachers yesterday, Reiji wouldn't need to bother. But they had. If Gulzar suddenly stayed quiet today, it would look wrong. If he acted like Gulzar, nobody would suspect a thing.
"Rai-nii… why?" Gulzar frowned. "Shouldn't we wait until night? Why go in the daytime too?"
"You were seen yesterday. If you don't show up today, they'll get suspicious," Reiji said plainly. "You being in the forest is what's normal."
"I get it," Gulzar said after a beat. If he'd been raging for revenge, then suddenly went calm, it would be a giveaway.
And it wasn't like he could just go attack the poachers' ship offshore. He couldn't win that fight, and Reiji clearly wasn't planning to step in. So sabotaging their capture squads in the woods was the only option that made sense.
"Don't bother hiding it," Reiji added as Gulzar was about to leave. "Your goal is to find them and ruin their captures. Just walk in like you belong there."
Gulzar pressed his lips together and nodded. With Gyarados's Poké Ball in hand, he headed into the jungle.
Quincy watched him go, unease written all over his face. "Rai… I don't get it. What are you trying to do?"
"Keep that arrogant idiot lulled to sleep," Reiji said without looking up, still scanning Magikarp stats, hoping for one that finally met his standards.
"Lulled to sleep?" Quincy lowered his voice. "What if the boss comes out personally?"
Reiji shook his head. "I haven't moved. A cautious poaching boss isn't going to move either."
From what Darkrai had reported, the man on that ship wasn't just experienced—he was the kind of leader who cared about profit, not people. He'd throw away every underling he had if it meant a better haul.
If Gulzar kept harassing them, the boss's first instinct wouldn't be to fight. He'd try to buy the problem off—offer terms, split profits, anything to keep things quiet.
In that man's mind, his own life came first. Profit came second. His Pokémon came third—tools he valued far more than his disposable crews.
Shame he'd never live long enough to negotiate. Before any deal could happen, he'd be sleeping at the bottom of the sea, permanently, with no one ever knowing he died here.
"Relax," Reiji said with a smile. "At most, Gulzar slows them down. He's not going to make them quit."
Poaching wild Pokémon was fast money. It was the kind of black-market trade the League outlawed for a reason. A boss addicted to profit wasn't going to walk away.
Sure enough, once Gulzar reached the forest, he found one of their squads and picked a fight.
The squad couldn't win, so they called for help. Gulzar and Gyarados fought while backing off, then vanished into the trees again. The skirmish ended as quickly as it began, leaving the Pelipper perched in the canopy bored out of its mind.
Still, Pelipper didn't forget its job. It only needed to make sure the boy down there didn't die.
As the attacks piled up, the poachers caught on. Gulzar wasn't here to "train"—he was here to sabotage their captures.
They sent word to their boss immediately. Gulzar only had two Pokémon, but that Gyarados was vicious. It took three Elite-tier Pokémon just to hold it in place, and even then they could only stalemate it.
Which meant three capture squads had to operate as a unit—one to keep Gulzar pinned, two to keep hunting.
The messenger hurried back to the ship and reported everything in the captain's cabin.
After listening, the boss narrowed his eyes at Rind Island beyond the window. "Did you see that trainer's Pokémon?" he asked at last. "Did the kid have any other Pokémon with him?"
"No," the underling said. "Only an extra Oddish."
If that trainer's Pokémon had been there, none of them would've made it back alive.
"Leave a hunting squad to keep him busy. Let him play." the boss said, waving him off.
Once the man was gone, the boss leaned back, already piecing it together. Reiji was using the poachers as a whetstone—throwing pressure at that boy to force growth.
It was annoying, but not dangerous. Once they finished capturing the remaining group, they'd leave Rind Island. Worst case, it cost a few extra days.
He restarted the soft music, sank into his chair, and let his men deal with the interruption.
With the boss's instructions delivered, the three squad leaders made their call: one squad would stay behind and drag out the fight with Gulzar, while the other two continued catching wild Pokémon deeper in the forest.
So the fighting went on all day. Gulzar kept capturing what he could, and kept making trouble wherever he couldn't.
Time bled away in constant clashes. Near evening, Gulzar finally stumbled back—then collapsed.
He'd fought and hidden, fought and fled, more than ten times. He was wrung dry. Even Gyarados and Oddish were covered in injuries. The moment he reached the edge of camp, his legs gave out and he went down.
Hearing movement behind him, Reiji turned and saw Gulzar unconscious. He stopped what he was doing at once and told Quincy to support him. Then Reiji picked up Gulzar's two Poké Balls, checked the battered Pokémon inside, and released them.
Gyarados burst out with a roar, saw Gulzar on the ground, then spotted Reiji and Quincy—and immediately assumed they'd done it.
"Quiet," Reiji said coldly. "Do you want to die?"
Kingler snapped into place in front of Reiji, claws raised. It clacked them together like a warning, as if to say: Don't move, you overgrown loach, or I'll cut you into pieces.
Gyarados froze. Poliwhirl, Scyther, Kingler—and several more Pokémon—had already gathered. It lowered its head at once. Not because it couldn't fight, but because it could see where this was going.
"Spinarak, help treat its wounds," Reiji said, taking out a healing spray and letting Spinarak handle the worst cuts. Oddish's injuries were lighter—Gulzar could deal with that once he woke up.
After Spinarak finished, Reiji returned Gyarados to its Poké Ball and set both balls beside Gulzar's head.
Gulzar was completely spent. Through Darkrai's translation, Reiji already knew what the boy had pushed himself through today. Once Gulzar slept it off, it would be around midnight.
That was when they'd hit the poachers.
After dinner, Reiji and Quincy went back to the river and kept catching Magikarp. By the time midnight rolled around, Quincy had already turned in.
After twelve, Reiji wrapped up too. He still hadn't found a Magikarp he liked, but he'd caught one with a potential rating of 58.
Another 58.
He didn't need it, but releasing it would be a waste. He'd already let the "57-potential idiot" go. A 58 could be kept around—if nothing else, it could be a gift someday.
When he returned to camp, Gulzar was awake. He'd passed out around four in the afternoon and slept through to midnight.
"Rai-nii," Gulzar said when he saw him, exhaustion still clinging to his eyes. Reiji looked like he'd been busy all day too. Gulzar couldn't help wondering if failing to find a Magikarp would affect tonight's plan.
"Good. You're up," Reiji said, taking a drink of water before speaking again. "Did you get your Pokémon treated?"
"I did." Gulzar glanced down at the two Poké Balls on the table. Gyarados and Oddish were both asleep inside.
"How'd it go today?" Reiji asked—meaning both the clashes with the poachers, and what Gulzar managed to catch.
"One squad stuck to me the whole day," Gulzar said, letting out a quiet sigh. "I didn't catch much. Once they realized I only had Gyarados, they kept trying to corner me."
If Oddish hadn't protected him, he wasn't even sure he would've made it back.
What he didn't know was that, out of sight, Pelipper had been launching razor-sharp gusts from the canopy—attacks hidden in the leaves, impossible to trace.
Even if the poachers sensed something, it didn't matter. The attacker was in the dark while they were out in the open. All they could do was grit their teeth and endure the ambushes that kept breaking their pursuit at key moments.
"Eat first," Reiji said, waving it off. "Then let them sleep a little longer. We'll go after that."
After the late-night meal Quincy had prepared, Quincy—shockingly—didn't go to bed. He hovered, unable to sleep, waiting for Reiji and Gulzar to come back.
This time, Reiji brought Pelipper, Spinarak, Poliwhirl, Kingler, Scyther, Croagunk, Gengar, Darkrai, Zubat, and Ditto.
Ten Pokémon in total.
When they reached Rind Island's shoreline, they spotted a fishing boat with a few orange-yellow lights glowing on deck. So that was the cover—posing as fishermen while they poached Pokémon.
"Pelipper, take Spinarak over," Reiji ordered. "Everyone sleeping up there—web their mouths, and bind their hands and feet."
Spinarak hopped onto Pelipper's beak, ready to go.
Pelipper only needed to transport it. Once Spinarak was aboard, it would come back and pick up Reiji and Gulzar.
As the two Pokémon flew off, Reiji pressed his foot into the sand. Two lumps of shadow peeled away from beneath him and slid after them.
Before they moved, he'd already made it clear to Darkrai: Darkrai and Gengar only had one target—the boss.
Darkrai would ambush him. If there was a Psychic-type Pokémon on night watch, Darkrai could pin it down without trouble.
Psychic-type attacks didn't work on Dark types, and Dark-type pressure crushed Psychic types. Reiji had full confidence in the raid.
He'd stolen a quasi–Elite Four tier trainer's bag before. This boss was only an Advanced-tier Trainer. Even head-on, Reiji wasn't scared. With an ambush, it was over before it began.
A straight fight was the last resort—the option you chose when you had no other choice.
Striking from the shadows was always better.
They didn't wait long. In under a minute, Pelipper returned after dropping Spinarak onto the boat.
Reiji climbed onto Pelipper's back. Pelipper hooked its claws around Gulzar and carried both of them toward the fishing boat.
When they reached the deck, the ship was still quiet.
By the order of the plan, Darkrai and Gengar would hit first. Once Spinarak sensed fighting in the cabin, it would start webbing up the rest of the sleeping poachers. Anyone who woke up after that…
"Poliwhirl, Kingler, Scyther—go help Spinarak," Reiji said, releasing the three of them on the deck. "If anyone resists, knock them out."
Their first targets were the drowsy lookouts on deck. The three Pokémon moved cleanly, and the watchmen went down without even getting a full shout out.
Once they disappeared into the cabin, Reiji released Zubat and Croagunk as well. Along with Pelipper, those three stayed with him. Ditto was already on his face, reshaped into a stranger's features.
"Rai-nii…" Gulzar whispered. Reiji's commands were smooth, practiced. Every Pokémon had a role, every timing was clear—like he'd done this before.
"Put this on." Reiji tossed him a black face scarf. "If you're going to do this kind of thing, you mask up. And if you get the chance, go find yourself a Ditto."
"I understand, Rai-nii," Gulzar said, tying it on.
Now he finally understood why the Ditto back at camp mattered. It wasn't just for copying—it could change your face.
Reiji looked completely different now. If Gulzar didn't recognize the clothes, he wouldn't have been able to pick him out at all.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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