Day 15 at the Gym. Clear skies.
Reiji got up early and fixed breakfast for the team. He ate under the eaves, watching pale mist drift across the lake, and the view made even plain food taste better.
Since arriving on Mikan Island and joining the Gym, he'd been here for half a month. His Pokémon were down to one last move each. Once they learned those final moves, he'd be heading out again—probably within days.
A part of him didn't want to leave. He'd barely started to get used to living here, and he still hadn't had his fill of the scenery.
He didn't have to go. The problem was the Indigo Plateau Conference. It was about to start, and if he missed this year, he'd have to wait for the next one.
By then, he'd be sixteen.
Showing up at sixteen to compete with a bunch of kids would feel shameless, and he wasn't interested in being that guy.
The Indigo Plateau Conference was a beginner's stage. It belonged to teenagers. The later a league got, the older the field became. The Lily of the Valley Conference was the perfect example—Tobias turned up with Mythical Pokémon and bullied everyone on the biggest stage like it was normal.
If Reiji didn't want to be sixteen when he entered his first major tournament, he had to go at fifteen. It was tight, but Poliwhirl and the others were already strong enough to fight for the top three.
As long as nothing went wrong—no early injuries, no Team Rocket interference—top eight was a given. Top three should be solid.
First place was another story.
He wanted it, but he wasn't delusional. If he treated everyone else like idiots, then he'd be the idiot.
Ash's first league run was a mess. Charizard wouldn't listen, and that alone was enough to bury any championship dreams. A top sixteen finish was exactly what he deserved.
Gary, on the other hand, had real talent. Early on he was too loud and too arrogant, but after Giovanni schooled him at the last Gym before the league, he toned it down. By the time he travelled to Johto, even his cheerleaders were gone.
And even that version of Gary still lost.
He got knocked out by a trainer named Melissa. Gary's Nidoking had its horn caught, and Melissa's Golem finished the match with a Seismic Toss.
Gary placing top thirty-six was embarrassing on paper. It didn't even look like him. Ash stumbled into top sixteen, so Gary dropping that early made no sense unless one thing happened.
He ran into someone strong.
Reiji remembered that opponent clearly. It was just an old anime memory, but nobody forgot the shows they grew up with.
If he entered the Indigo Plateau Conference, those people counted as serious threats. Anyone who could beat Gary or Ash wasn't a joke.
Based on what he remembered, two names showed up clearly in the top sixteen—Ash and Melissa. Ritchie made top eight. Assunta made top four. The champion was only shown as a silhouette that looked like Brock, which meant nothing good.
They had another thing in common too. They were all League-backed. Assunta had an Ivysaur. Ritchie had a Charmander. Melissa's full team wasn't shown, but her Golem was enough. Ash didn't even need explaining—everyone knew he was the ultimate beneficiary of "connections."
Winning a title against that kind of field was hard enough. Winning when the champion was a complete unknown was worse, silhouette or not.
Assunta's team alone made the point. She had a Rhydon. Rhydon didn't evolve until the forties, which meant it was already Advanced tier territory.
Reiji owned a Rhyhorn himself, so he knew exactly what that implied. Once you hit top eight, it wasn't "elite rookies" anymore. It was Advanced-tier trainers trading blows, and an Elite-tier team simply didn't belong there.
That was why he kept saying "as long as nothing goes wrong." With five Advanced-tier Pokémon, he could lock down top three even in a kid's tournament.
And if everything lined up, the championship was still possible.
Once he finished breakfast, Reiji left food for the day and told Butterfree to keep an eye on Mudkip and the others. He also reminded it to guide their training. Then he climbed onto Pelipper and flew to work.
At the Gym, he greeted Cissy and Senta, picked up breakfast from the back kitchen, and headed to the training room where the hired teachers were waiting.
Most of them were strangers. Only Sou stayed behind after handing his Pokémon over.
"Rai-nii," Sou said, holding out his bag, "I paid attention to what you told me the other day. I only managed to find these two kinds—Wooper and Barboach."
Reiji stared at him. "Only those two? Nothing else?"
A few days ago, he'd warned Sou about type matchups. If Sou built a full Water-type team, Electric- and Grass-types would always have him by the throat.
So Sou went out and came back with Wooper and Barboach.
Wooper at least made sense. It was a solid Water/Ground option.
Barboach was… complicated.
Water/Ground didn't fear Water moves, sure, but it suffered even harder against Grass. Reiji couldn't see why Sou had grabbed "a loach" just to stack another Grass weakness.
"Rai-nii," Sou said, scratching his head, "most Ground-types around my place hate water. We live by the sea, and these two are the ones I see the most. Are they no good?"
Reiji exhaled and took the bag. "They're fine. Let me look."
Sou didn't have many choices. Having something to pick from was already a win.
In a perfect world, you'd talk about better Water/Ground options like Gastrodon or Seismitoad. The problem was that those weren't Pokémon you could just find in the Orange Archipelago whenever you felt like it.
Sou brought a backpack packed with Poké Balls—mostly Barboach, with a smaller pile of Wooper mixed in.
Reiji checked them one by one.
The Wooper were nothing special. None stood out.
The Barboach were another story. He found several with potential in the forties, and two that cleared fifty.
One sat at 51%.
The other hit 53%.
Reiji glanced at Sou again. "How many ponds did you empty?"
With Pelipper around, Barboach were basically food. That made catching them in bulk much easier, and it showed.
"This one's good," Reiji said, handing Sou the 53% Barboach. "Raise it properly."
Then he added, more quietly, "Take the rest home and release them. And stop eating this stuff so much."
"I get it," Sou said, marking the Poké Ball and nodding. He understood what Reiji meant. The League's messaging had changed. People ate Pokémon far less than they used to.
Fishermen like Sou still got looked at as outsiders by some trainers—like they were monsters for doing what the sea had always demanded. Sou didn't argue it out loud, but the frustration sat on his face.
Reiji pulled out cash. "This Barboach is mine. Here's 100,000 Pokédollars. Consider it a purchase."
He was talking about the 51% one. A Whiscash in his lake, ruling it like a pond boss, sounded perfect.
"Rai-nii, no," Sou said immediately. "You've helped me enough. I can't take your money."
Reiji shoved it into his hand anyway. "Keep it. If it makes you feel better, call it a loan. When your team grows, you'll need money just to keep them fed."
Sou hesitated, then finally nodded. "O-okay."
He stared at the bills like they might vanish. That was the reward for two teaching jobs, and he'd never held that much at once.
"Go teach Pelipper," Reiji said. "I'm serious, Sou. I'm betting on you."
Sou's face lit up. "Rai-nii… you're a good person."
"Don't start," Reiji said, laughing as he gave him a light kick in the backside. Sou handed out "good person" labels way too casually, and Reiji wanted no part of that kind of luck.
When Sou left, Reiji rubbed his chin.
Was 100,000 too low?
A Barboach with quasi–Elite Four potential was worth far more than that. He'd basically stolen it. He'd make it up later.
He'd also made the choice on purpose.
Sou was still a teenager. Dropping a million Pokédollars in his lap would be dangerous. A kid who'd never seen money like that could easily lose his grip.
If Sou ever realised how obscene the profit margin was, and if he couldn't control himself, the slope was steep.
One day he was a decent kid trying to climb out of poverty.
The next, he was a Pokémon poacher.
Reiji had seen it happen before. The change could be instant.
Sou had been at the Gym long enough to see the gap between himself and everyone else. He didn't say much, but Reiji could read it anyway. That stubborn pride, the quiet shame, the way he tried to smile through it.
At night, that kind of thing didn't let a teenager sleep.
And when frustration hit its peak, people stopped caring about rules. They only cared about results.
Reiji didn't want Sou to become that kind of person.
In the anime, they glossed over these questions. Real life didn't.
If this world was a clean utopia with no class barriers and no ugly economics, then why did every Bug Catcher kid show up with scraps and never with starter Pokémon? The answer was obvious, no matter how much people pretended otherwise.
Reiji couldn't change the world. He could barely keep his own life stable.
So he kept it simple. Look after himself, and pull up the people within arm's reach when he could.
That was all he could do.
Shun had been like that. Tai had been like that. Gulzar had been like that. Sou was the same.
Shun had the best situation out of the group. Naoki didn't count—Naoki was a whole separate story. Still, even Naoki had clawed his way up on his own, and Reiji respected that. No cheat powers, no miracles, and he still made it.
Tai's situation in Team Rocket was worse than Gulzar's, but Team Rocket had a habit of turning outsiders into useful double agents. It was a path, even if it was dirty.
Gulzar had made it into the Kumquat Gym, which was a real opportunity.
Sou, though…
Sou had Pelipper, and that was it. Everything else was a broken-bowl start. Half the time his clothes were patched, and he used to carry salted fish as lunch like it was normal.
Reiji had given him 50,000 just to buy new clothes back then.
Compared to Sou, even Reiji's "stranded on an island" beginning looked comfortable.
Sou was so rough around the edges it hurt to look at him.
If Reiji could help before Sou ever stepped onto the poacher road, he would.
If Sou still chose that road later, Reiji wouldn't hesitate either.
People he pulled up could be kicked back down.
He'd never doubted his own resolve.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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