Day 17 of the journey to Kanto. Sunny.
Reiji had boarded yesterday. He spent the whole first day training on the ship, and today he finally felt like going out to find something fun to do.
Not the underground black market, obviously. He was heading for the open-air battle arena instead. Battles there were held out in the open, no hiding, no shady nonsense. He refused to believe anyone would dare rob people in broad daylight.
He was also bringing Amber out to take her mind off things. She had cried for a long time after waking up yesterday afternoon, and nobody could calm her down.
In the end, she cried herself to sleep. When she woke again that night, the first thing she said was that she was hungry. Neither Reiji nor Blaine dared bring up what had happened during the day.
They didn't need to. Amber asked on her own. "Grandpa Blaine, can I still see Mommy again?"
"You can. I've already sent people to look for her. Elisia came to visit your grave, which means she still remembers you and still thinks about you. The next time she comes back, you'll be able to see her..."
"Is that true, Rai-nii?" Amber blinked up at him with her big eyes. She only wanted one thing: a real answer.
"It's true. Your mom came to see you, so that means she's still thinking about you. We'll find her sooner or later." Reiji gently stroked her short blue hair. This time, he really wasn't lying. He was only blurring the timeline.
"Okay. Grandpa Blaine and Rai-nii really didn't lie to Amber. Amber believes you." She finally smiled. She had gotten the answer she wanted. Neither of them had fooled her. She would see her mother again someday. She just didn't know how long it would take.
"Amber, you can't use your ability carelessly. Sometimes it can hurt people." Reiji sighed quietly. It was only because he hadn't lied that he could say it out loud.
Her ability to tell whether someone was lying wasn't something she should use lightly. Even if she knew someone wasn't telling the truth, that didn't mean she should say it out loud, especially while she was still small and powerless.
In the wrong situation, exposing someone as a liar could bring trouble down on her.
"Why?" Amber didn't understand. If she could tell whether people were lying, wasn't that a good thing?
"You'll understand when you're older." Reiji smiled, but didn't explain. It was too complicated. Adults understood it. Children didn't.
He patted her head again, then went off to keep training his Pokémon. Amber could only stay with Blaine.
"Go on. I'll stay with Amber," Blaine said. He knew exactly what Reiji was going to do, though it still surprised him how clearly this kid understood the way adults handled people and situations.
Whatever Blaine said to her after that, it worked. Amber had already come out of that dark mood by today, and now she was happily here watching Pokémon battles with him. Blaine was here too.
There were still several days left in the voyage. If all they did was stay in the training room and grind all day, the trip would get unbearably dull. So the plan was simple: train in the morning, come here and relax in the afternoon.
Blaine had wanted to come out for a walk anyway, and since he was also trying to cheer Amber up, he brought her here to watch the battles.
"Go, Rai-nii!" Amber hadn't gotten angry about being put to sleep yesterday. Reiji and Blaine hadn't lied to her, and she trusted those two more than anyone.
"Got it." Reiji gave her a small wave. It was his turn to step onto the field. This time, he threw out Kingler's Poké Ball and planned to use Kingler for a couple of matches. There were no bets today. These were just friendly battles for fun.
Rhydon, Scyther, and Gyarados had all been hurt pretty badly at Lavender Gym, so Kingler was the only one he could really send out for a few casual rounds.
He also couldn't let Poliwhirl or Pelipper burn too much energy. Something unexpected could always happen on a ship. Other than training, those two needed to keep some strength in reserve just in case.
"Kuh-keh, kuh-keh." Kingler hadn't gotten to fight in the Gym battle. After hearing how badly Gyarados had been beaten up—and how it had even electrocuted itself unconscious at the end—it wanted a turn too. Otherwise it was going to rust.
"Wow, that Kingler is huge..."
"It really is bigger than a normal one. Its Trainer must have raised it well..."
"Cloyster on one side, all defense. Kingler on the other, those massive claws. This should be fun..."
"Cloyster, Iron Defense!"
As soon as the opposing Trainer shouted, Reiji gave his own order. "Kingler, rush in and bring the hammer down with Hammer Arm!"
Trying to turtle up and passively defend was just asking to die. It didn't matter how high Cloyster stacked its defense. If Kingler could smash the shell open, that was the end of it. Ash had won exactly that way in the Indigo Plateau Conference.
Defense only bought time. Every swing from Kingler's giant claw carried real impact, and that force would still travel through the shell.
At Kingler's current size, it had more than enough power to knock Cloyster out through the shell alone.
[Kingler]
[Type: Water]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 72.23%]
[Level: 46.36%]
[Ability: Hyper Cutter / 39.22%][Hidden Ability: Sheer Force / 34.53%]
Water-type[Moves: (Water Gun / 43.35%)(Rain Dance / 12.04%)(Crabhammer / 35.55%)(Bubble / 22.14%)(Bubble Beam / 15.53%)]
Ground-type[(Dig / 38.54%)(Mud Shot / 40.24%)(High Horsepower / 18.34%)(Stomping Tantrum / 14.54%)]
Normal-type[(Protect / 41.44%)(Swords Dance / 32.25%)(Leer / 37.43%)(Harden / 35.14%)]
Steel-type[(Metal Claw / 31.34%)(Iron Defense / 38.64%)]
Psychic-type[(Agility / 43.15%)(Amnesia / 31.18%)]
Other[(Hammer Arm / 32.22%)(Ice Beam / 13.36%)(Rock Tomb / 14.64%)(X-Scissor / 11.91%)]
It had been about a month since Reiji last checked Kingler's panel. Its potential had risen to seventy-two. Most of that had come from its last molt, though. Without molting, its potential crept upward at a snail's pace.
Its level had reached forty-six, nearly four levels higher than before. It wouldn't be long before it caught up to Poliwhirl, though Poliwhirl itself was currently stuck.
That was the headache. If he still couldn't get a top-grade evolution stone after the Indigo Plateau Conference, then he'd have to ask Blaine for one, and that would probably be the end of his time at Mikan Gym.
He couldn't keep putting Poliwhirl's evolution off forever. At the latest, it had to be settled before the Indigo Plateau Conference ended. A top-grade evolution stone was the goal, but if he absolutely had to, even a high-grade one would do.
Then came Kingler's abilities. Both had improved to varying degrees, but the biggest change was that Kingler had learned moves that could trigger Sheer Force. As those moves increased, the ability would matter more and more often in battle.
Its older moves hadn't changed much. During that stretch at the Gym, it had spent most of its time learning new techniques, so it rarely trained the old ones.
That was still the case now. Lately, it had mainly been drilling its newer moves, and their proficiency had been rising fast.
During that period, Kingler had learned High Horsepower, Stomping Tantrum, Rock Tomb, X-Scissor, and Ice Beam. It had been training all five ever since, and the results were already decent.
It had also taken time to learn Bubble and Bubble Beam. Kingler could already spit bubbles to begin with, so those two were easy for it.
That was the extent of Kingler's changes over this period. By then, Kingler had already cracked Cloyster's shell open. Cloyster stuck out its big pink tongue and fainted on the spot, handing Reiji a clean first win.
He immediately recalled Kingler to clear the Speed drop from Hammer Arm. The move had a drawback, so it couldn't trigger Sheer Force.
If Hammer Arm's Speed drop had targeted the opponent instead, then Sheer Force could have boosted its power by thirty percent. Too bad that wasn't how it worked.
The second challenger soon stepped onto the stage, and the next battle began. By the end of the afternoon, Reiji had won four straight matches before Kingler was finally taken down by a Venusaur.
A bad matchup was still a bad matchup. Unless Kingler had been in perfect condition, there was no way it was turning that around. After four straight battles, getting cleaned up by a Venusaur was only natural.
After recalling Kingler, Reiji headed up to the second floor of the arena, where Blaine and Amber had been sitting the whole time. The moment he arrived, he found a glass of iced lemonade already waiting for him on the table.
"Ah, that's cold." He sat down and drained half the glass in one go. On a bright, blazing day like this, it tasted incredible.
"That Kingler of yours is impressive. Four straight wins," Blaine said. He had watched every match from start to finish. Once Kingler set up Iron Defense and Swords Dance, it became extremely hard to stop.
Add Agility on top of that, plus the monstrous strength in that huge claw, and it had even gone head-to-head with a Machamp in a raw power contest and won. That was rare.
"It used to be worse. Its claw was bigger than the rest of its body. It only molted enough times for the rest of it to barely catch up," Reiji said as he let Kingler back out and fed it a Pokéblock to help it recover.
He had the feeling his first-string team had finally started to brush the threshold of pro-level competition. Gyarados was still a little short, but the other five had all stepped into that range already. That made him even more confident about the Indigo Plateau Conference.
"Really? Shame I missed the early stage. I would've liked to gather some data," Blaine said with a smile. Even from Kingler's current appearance, he could roughly picture what it had looked like before.
That oversized claw must have hindered its growth so badly that it probably couldn't even lift it in the beginning. Under normal circumstances, a case like that would've required amputation. Otherwise, a Kingler like that would be very hard to raise properly.
He had no idea how Reiji had managed it, but somehow he had preserved that oversized claw from its stunted phase. That was why Kingler's claw and body were now nearly the same size, and why its strength was just as absurd as that claw.
That alone was enough to open up a whole new research topic: how exactly could a stunted Kingler develop this kind of monstrous strength through repeated molting?
He filed the idea away on the spot. When he had time, he could catch a few Krabby around Cinnabar and study whether Kingler's growth process could be reproduced.
"Oh, right, Blaine. Do you know if there's a Blastoise Island near Cinnabar?" Reiji asked. On the way back, he wanted to look for it and see if he could catch a Squirtle.
"Blastoise Island?" Blaine thought for a moment and remembered it right away. The island was indeed near Cinnabar, but it wasn't marked on ordinary maps. The League had it under protection.
"What do you want to go there for?"
"To catch a Squirtle, obviously. What else?" Reiji thought that was a pretty stupid question. He was an orphan. If he didn't catch one this way, where was he supposed to get a starter?
If he caught a Squirtle on Blastoise Island, Blaine could serve as a witness and prove that the source of his starter was legal. Then he could use it openly in the future without any trouble.
"I see." Blaine chuckled. He had thought Reiji was about to ask him for a starter, but the kid wanted to catch one himself. That was a small matter. Blaine trusted him not to catch a Squirtle just to sell it, and that was enough.
"I know the island exists, but I've forgotten the exact location. We'll need to get back to Cinnabar and pull the records before I can tell you the direction. Let's talk about it when we get back."
"Works for me." Reiji didn't think Blaine would lie to him over something like this. It was just a Squirtle. It wasn't as if Blaine would have any trouble getting one himself.
Bzz. Bzz.
Once the matter of Blastoise Island was set aside, Blaine went back to staring at Kingler and turning that new research topic over in his head. Then the phone in his pocket suddenly rang.
He answered while holding Amber. The moment he heard the voice on the other end, he started chatting happily, like someone who had just gotten an unexpected call from an old friend he hadn't heard from in years.
At the same time, he signaled with his eyes for one of the maids to take Amber. Amber climbed down on her own instead and sat obediently to one side, watching him walk away.
"Rai-nii, try this sweet jelly. It's really good," Amber said. Since she knew Blaine needed to take the call, she shared her jelly with Reiji instead.
"Then feed your big brother a bite, okay?" Reiji said with a grin, opening his mouth and waiting for her.
"Okay. Hold still, Rai-nii." Amber used her little white plastic spoon to scoop up a mouthful of jelly and brought it to his lips.
Reiji bit down on the spoon and refused to let go, laughing inside. He just wanted to tease her a little.
"Huh? Rai-nii, the spoon won't come out!" Amber gave it a hard tug and nearly stumbled backward, but she still couldn't pull it free.
The moment he saw her tipping back, Reiji reached out and caught her. With his other hand, he pulled the spoon out of his mouth and dropped it back into her jelly cup.
"You okay, Amber...?"
"I'm fine, Rai-nii, but you bit the spoon." She stared at it in distress. There was a clear tooth mark on the plastic.
"Haha..." Reiji laughed awkwardly. He had only meant to tease her, but he ended up biting it for real.
"Kuh-keh, kuh-keh." Kingler was crouched by Reiji's feet. It hadn't really been paying attention to him and Amber fooling around, but it still used its smaller claw to tug at his clothes. Someone was coming over.
"Hello, Trainer Rai. Our young master would like to invite you over for a chat..."
"Who's your young master?" Reiji looked at the two men. They were clearly dressed as sailors, which made the whole thing even stranger. Had Kingler's win streak attracted another batch of weird troublemakers?
If they hadn't been dressed like crew members, he would've turned them down on the spot. He couldn't be bothered with random invitations from random people.
"Our young master is on the third floor." The two sailors turned and looked upward. A boy on the third level raised a glass of juice toward Reiji and smiled.
"That's our young master..."
So it's him.
The thought flashed through Reiji's mind the instant he saw the boy. They had battled once before in the underground black market. He was the Trainer who had sent out Gallade.
And if even the sailors on this ship were calling him "young master," then he was probably connected to one of the ship's higher-ups.
At the very least, one thing was clear now: the people at the top of this luxury liner had known about the underground black market for a long time, and they probably even had a stake in it.
Most likely they just took a cut of the profits. No protection. No risk. No responsibility. Keeping their own hands completely clean mattered most.
Old foxes. Every last one of them.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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