Day 16 at the Gym. Cloudy.
The weather was pleasant for once. No scorching sun. After morning training at the Gym, Reiji took advantage of the cool air and went shore fishing with all his gear.
Cissy's grandpa was there too. Fishing didn't feel complete without that old menace hovering nearby.
Today, though, neither of them had anything to brag about.
They both got skunked.
"Old man," Reiji said, raising his cup toward him, "a fisherman never leaves empty-handed. Have a couple more."
He drained his drink in one go.
"No more," Cissy's grandpa said, waving him off. "My bones can't keep up with young people."
He came here partly because he craved it. Reiji had good liquor, and the old man couldn't pretend he didn't notice.
Most of those bottles came from two past messes—one involving Riku in Trovitopolis, and another involving a poaching crew. Reiji had kept more than ten bottles for himself, all top shelf. Even a small sip lingered.
"All right," Reiji said. "We'll stop here today."
He checked the time and started packing up. He still had to go clock out properly.
"You're leaving soon, aren't you?" Cissy's grandpa asked.
He'd figured it out already. Cissy had told him Reiji was heading to a tournament, and she'd told him to come back with a championship.
"Yeah," Reiji said. "Gym Leader's orders."
He didn't hide it. For all he knew, grandpa and granddaughter shared the same plan anyway.
Once the tournament ended, Reiji would qualify as an Elite-tier trainer. If he still couldn't get a top-grade Water Stone after that, he wasn't going to waste time staying with Mikan Gym. He'd cut loose and find another path.
Even using a high-grade evolution stone, he didn't want to wait. Poliwhirl was stuck at a ceiling. All he could do right now was sharpen technique and grind move proficiency.
He wasn't going to let Poliwhirl fall too far behind the rest of the team.
"Go win it, kid," Cissy's grandpa said, sounding oddly sincere. "Mikan Gym hasn't produced a champion in a long time."
Then his voice turned sour. "Last one was that brat from my family. Now the little granddaughter can't even crack top three. Pathetic."
"I'll do what I can," Reiji said.
The old man still refused to mention the Water Stone, even though he clearly knew why Reiji was here. Reiji didn't push it either. If the old man wouldn't give it, Reiji couldn't exactly rob him.
He also wasn't beating that Slowking.
The old man watched him for a moment. "I'm curious. Where did you catch that Pokémon of yours?"
He didn't say the name, but he didn't need to. He meant Darkrai.
The old man had investigated Reiji from every angle. Kinnow Island, the local drunk, Shun, the orphanage—he'd dug it all up.
Reiji's background was plain. No lost noble bloodline. No secret family guardian.
Which meant Darkrai wasn't inherited.
Reiji had caught a Mythical Pokémon himself.
That was the part that never sat right.
He was an orphan. His earliest records started at an orphanage. After that, he'd been listed under the old drunk's household. Those people were local toughs—small-time, bottom-of-the-barrel—nothing worth fearing.
So the old man could accept that Reiji's identity was clean enough. Maybe he'd spent time around the underground scene on Kinnow Island, but if nothing stuck on paper, it didn't matter. Most people had some dirt when they were young.
What didn't match was Darkrai.
A boy with that background shouldn't be walking around with a nightmare-bringing Mythical Pokémon.
"Stop digging into other people's secrets," Reiji said.
Only two outsiders knew he had Darkrai—this old man and Naoki.
Naoki was on his side.
This old man was a wildcard.
"I won't force it," the old man said, shrugging. "Then tell me this. Where did you see Lugia?"
Reiji's head snapped up. "How do you know I've seen Lugia?"
The old man grinned like he'd pulled off a magic trick. "You can hide from everyone else, but you can't hide from me."
"Save it," Reiji said. "You didn't figure anything out. That Slowking did."
He remembered how that Slowking pinned him down so hard he couldn't move. If it had wanted to keep them there, there would've been no escape and no struggle.
The old man clicked his tongue. "Kids these days are no fun."
He turned his head away and glanced at the Slowking beside him, eyes closed in meditation.
Reiji spoke anyway. "It's not complicated. I put out a forest fire while travelling. Poliwhirl and the others got badly burned. Lugia called down a storm, and the rain saved us."
So that was why Slowking hadn't attacked back then.
It had sensed Lugia's mark.
Poliwhirl and the others carried that presence, and Reiji still had a Silver Wing in his bag. Slowking must've picked it up instantly.
"That explains it," the old man murmured, stroking his chin while he waited for Slowking's judgement.
"He isn't lying," Slowking said, the words sounding directly inside the old man's mind.
Its perception had wrapped around Reiji completely. It could track breathing, heartbeat, the smallest shifts. It hadn't detected a lie.
Reiji snorted. "What? I've travelled the sea. Is it that strange to see Lugia?"
The old man almost choked. Lugia was the sea guardian of the Orange Archipelago, not some "dumb fish" you stumbled across whenever you got bored.
Still, he forced a stiff smile. "I saw Lugia when I was young too."
Reiji didn't bother arguing. He packed the last of his gear. "I'm heading out, old man. I'm off work."
He slung on his bag and walked back toward the Gym, leaving the old man to his pride.
Once Reiji's footsteps faded, Slowking opened its eyes. "Have you decided?"
Cissy's grandpa kept gripping his rod. "That kid… I can't read him."
Slowking let out a quiet sigh and closed its eyes again.
It knew this old partner too well. Decades together, and nothing changed. He wanted control. He wanted everything within his grasp. Anything outside his expectations, he wanted erased.
No wonder that child had left home and stayed gone for years.
The old man probably understood that now, at least a little. It didn't matter. A person's nature didn't shift easily.
"League… Team Rocket… the black ships… the Gym… an orphan…" the old man muttered, then exhaled hard.
He kept finding new reasons to hesitate. The worst part was knowing the mess was his own doing.
He used to be an Elite Four–tier trainer with a notorious temper. He'd swing first and ask later.
Now he was cautious over a single stone.
"Fine," he said under his breath. "I'll keep watching. If he really wins the championship…"
He let the thought hang, then shoved it away.
He was old. After the brat got pushed out, that kid hadn't come home in years. Grandpa was the strongest pillar left in this house. Overthinking wouldn't fix anything.
All he could do was train the younger generation while he still had the strength. At least that bought them a few more quiet years.
…
Reiji returned to the Gym without knowing any of that. He was outside talking with Sou, preparing to ride Pelipper back to the lakeside cabin.
"Rai-nii," Sou said, voice low, "I've been thinking about this all day. I should show you. Do you know what this Pokémon is?"
Sou had been debating whether to bring it up at all. His family fished it up by accident, and even without knowing what it was, he could tell it wasn't ordinary.
Neither he nor his dad could keep something like this safe.
"What Pokémon?" Reiji asked, taking the Poké Ball.
Sou wasn't illiterate. If he didn't recognise it, that was already a bad sign.
"It's… like a stone Pokémon," Sou said, swallowing. "Rai-nii, do you know what it is?"
Reiji opened the panel and saw an antique.
[Kabuto]
[Type: Rock/Water]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 47%]
[Level: …]
"Uh…" Reiji looked up at Sou, then back at the Poké Ball, then back at Sou again.
After a few rounds of that, he finally muttered, "What the hell…"
Sou's luck wasn't "good" anymore. It wasn't even luck.
It was poison.
Luck only counted if you could hold it. If you couldn't, it became a blade at your throat.
Reiji didn't want to touch this thing. Sou had brought it straight to him.
"How many people know about this?" Reiji asked, cutting straight to it.
He didn't doubt where it came from. Fishermen dragged up all kinds of things from the sea. A Kabuto wasn't impossible at all.
The Orange Archipelago even had places where Kabuto and Omanyte slept in clusters. Not one or two—whole groups.
"Just my dad," Sou said. "He told me not to tell anyone."
"Your dad's right," Reiji said. "From this moment on, you don't mention this Pokémon to anyone. Not a word."
Sou blinked. "Rai-nii… is it really that serious?"
"It is," Reiji said flatly.
Kabuto was considered extinct. Even if survivors still hid deep in trenches and rock cracks, it was still a rare ancient Pokémon. The moment people heard there was one here, they'd swarm.
And it wouldn't be one pack of wolves.
It would be an entire feeding frenzy.
Reiji forced himself to stay calm and think. "Sou, this Pokémon is Rock/Water. Do you want to keep it and raise it, or sell it and use the money to start your trainer life properly?"
Sou hesitated, then nodded slowly. "I want to raise it. But… selling it probably makes more sense for me right now. Rai-nii, do you want to buy it?"
"I'm not buying it," Reiji said. "But I can find you a buyer."
He was thinking of Naoki. Naoki had been talking about building a sandstorm team. Kabuto fit that plan, and it could also fit rain. Either way, Naoki could use it.
And this wasn't just any Pokémon. It was Kabuto.
A baby with this kind of potential normally sold for three to four million. With Kabuto's rarity, if you ran it right and stirred up enough heat, an auction could push it into ten million.
Maybe even twenty or thirty million at the high end.
Kabuto was rare, but it wasn't mythical. The black market always had rumours of someone stumbling across an ancient Pokémon in some forgotten place. Kabuto was scarce, not impossible.
That was exactly why it was dangerous.
If you flooded the market, people started asking questions. If people asked questions, someone eventually came knocking.
Reiji still hadn't touched the Kabuto sleeping grounds on "Fukuhara Island No. 4" for that reason. He'd rather let them sleep than ruin a place like that.
Even if he ever went back, he'd only take one with decent potential. He didn't want to destroy a sanctuary.
"Rai-nii, who would even buy something like this?" Sou asked.
"I'll take you to the buyer," Reiji said. "You'll understand when you see them."
He kept the Kabuto's Poké Ball. Leaving it with Sou was too risky.
"For now, I'm holding onto it," he said. "These next few days, go fishing. Catch as much as you can."
Then he added, "In a couple days, I'm heading to Mandarin Island North. Get yourself ready. I'll take you there to meet the buyer."
Sou's eyes lit up. "We're really selling it?"
"You decide whether you're coming," Reiji said. "If you don't want to, I give Kabuto back."
What happened after that was Sou's problem.
Reiji wasn't his guardian. They weren't family. He wasn't a babysitter.
"I'm going," Sou said immediately.
He'd been worrying about what he'd do for money once the Pelipper teaching job ended. If he lost income, his training would stall.
Now Reiji had handed him a path.
"All right," Reiji said. "Go fish. See you tomorrow."
Sou had been bringing fish to the Gym every day lately, and Reiji had been quietly helping him look for good Water-types.
Sou had also caught a Krabby in the last few days. Krabby were everywhere along the shoreline. It was practically standard equipment for a Water-type trainer, so finding one with decent potential wasn't surprising.
After saying goodbye to Sou, Reiji picked up dinner from the back kitchen and returned to the lakeside cabin.
His Pokémon were still one move away from finishing their training. Once they learned those moves—and once Sou was ready—they could finally hit the road.
First stop was Mandarin Island North. He'd settle Sou's business there.
After that, he'd head to Rind Island to evolve Magikarp.
It had been more than a month since he'd seen Old Quincy. He missed the old man, and he wouldn't mind sharing a drink or two.
…
Day 17 since joining the Gym…
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
[Check out my Patreon to read 20+ chapters ahead]
[[email protected]/BellAshelia]
[Thanks for your support!]