What if the underground black market was exposed?
Then it was exposed. Simple. Throw one person out to take the blame, and that would be that. The captain could easily say someone below him had hidden everything from him, that he had never known a thing.
Would the League believe that?
Who knew. The people who wanted to believe it would believe it no matter what. Anyone else didn't matter.
So should he go or not?
The boy was still raising his glass at him from upstairs. If Reiji refused, would that make the other side lose face? People like this never thought like normal people. Who knew when one of them might suddenly snap over something stupid.
In the end, Reiji decided to go hear him out. He could always refuse afterward. Besides, with Blaine here, what was there to fear?
"Lead the way."
He released Poliwhirl and told it to stay here with Kingler and protect Amber. After telling Amber to wait for him and asking the maid to keep an eye on her, he followed the two sailors away.
They entered the ship and headed straight for the third floor. There was a private room there with a wide view of the arena below. From inside, you could see the battles perfectly.
The moment he stepped in, he saw someone he really did not want to deal with. Reiji had met him before in the underground black market—and offended him too. He had never expected to run into him here, much less sitting together with the Gallade Trainer.
It was the same spoiled brat who had sent a lackey to invite him over before. When Reiji refused, the brat had someone tail him. Reiji had stripped the man's underling bare, and after that the whole matter disappeared. He never expected to meet the brat again here.
"So you're Rai. Have a seat," said the Gallade Trainer, a young man who, just like in the black market, wore no disguise at all. He showed his face openly and gestured toward the sofa.
Reiji did not bother being polite. He dropped onto the sofa at once. A waiter came over to ask what he wanted to drink, but he refused. He was only here to find out what this guy wanted.
When the boy saw that he was not drinking anything, he did not seem offended. He waved the waiter away and explained, "Sorry for inviting you over out of nowhere. I watched your battles just now. You're pretty good, and you use Water-types too. Any interest in staying on as a sailor?"
"No. I still have to compete in the Indigo Plateau Conference. I have no intention of spending the rest of my life on a ship."
The moment he realized it was just a recruitment pitch, Reiji relaxed a little. Good thing he had altered his voice before going to the black market.
Otherwise, he would never have dared sit here and talk to this guy. If he had used his normal voice—especially with all that shouting during battles—the other side would have recognized him immediately.
"Don't be nervous. I only asked because you're strong. I'm getting ready to start running ships myself, so I want to recruit a batch of sailors. If you join us now, you'll be part of the old guard from the very beginning." The boy smiled and explained himself in a calm, gentle tone.
"Why waste so many words on him? He already said no. I'll just be your first mate when the time comes," the spoiled brat said with a curl of his lip. He clearly did not understand why his childhood friend was being so polite to a stranger.
If the man was willing, then fine. But since he had already refused, what was the point in talking so much? Showing goodwill changed nothing. He had still turned them down.
"That's not how you do things. Once we start running ships, having more friends means having more options." The boy cut him off immediately, then turned back to Reiji. "Don't mind him. My friend has a bit of a temper."
"It's fine." Reiji waved it off. The boy actually left a decent impression on him. At worst, he had just painted a pretty future while recruiting people. That was standard business nonsense. Reiji had heard plenty of it in his last life, so it barely registered.
What he could not figure out was how these two had become friends in the first place. Their personalities could not have been more different, yet somehow they were sitting here drinking and chatting together. That really was baffling.
"If you're not interested in becoming a sailor, that's alright. There's a high-end gathering tonight. Everyone attending is an experienced Trainer, and the prizes are excellent this time. This ticket is your invitation. I hope you'll come."
The boy beckoned to a waiter.
The waiter stepped forward at once, wearing white gloves and holding an invitation with both hands. He bent down respectfully and placed it in front of Reiji. It was a ticket to a party on the top deck of the luxury liner, printed with the ship's emblem.
Reiji picked it up. There was no need to refuse something like this. He could always choose not to go later. There was no point making an issue out of it now.
Crack.
The sharp sound of a whip cut through the room the moment he took the ticket. Reiji turned his head and saw a Riolu chained up in the corner. The spoiled brat had just lashed it hard.
"Useless trash. I've raised you this long and fed you all kinds of good stuff, and you're still disobedient. You still won't evolve."
He whipped Riolu again. The lash tore open its skin, and old scars from earlier beatings still marked its body.
Even then, Riolu did not cry out. It only clenched its teeth harder and glared at him with savage hatred. That stubborn refusal to yield fit the species all too well.
"This next part might be unpleasant. You should go." The boy waved Reiji off. He clearly did not want him seeing this. If word got out, it would bring trouble—and maybe drag Reiji into it too.
"Alright."
Reiji nodded, glanced once more at Riolu, then got up and left the private room. There was nothing he could do about it. It was somebody else's Pokémon. Even if he wanted to help, he had no power here.
Still, he left Darkrai behind. He wanted to know what was really going on. Why was Riolu chained up? And where had it come from?
Only after Reiji left did the boy let out a breath and snap at the spoiled brat, "Enough. There was still a guest here. If this gets out, don't even say you know me."
He genuinely thought his friend was far too violent with Pokémon. If they did not obey, he beat them or screamed at them. Sometimes he even locked them up and starved them. He had said it more than once, but the brat never listened. There was nothing he could do. The Pokémon were not his.
"Heh. Like he'd dare say anything." The brat shot a vicious look toward the door Reiji had just gone through. Only after Reiji was gone did he grin at his friend. "Honestly, I should've gotten rid of it a long time ago. It's still disobedient, and evolving is out of the question. Your Gallade already evolved, and we hatched them at the same time..."
"I told you from the beginning that these were special species. One uses psychic power, the other uses aura. The way you raise them was wrong from the start. They can sense what their Trainer is like. No matter which one ended up in your hands, you'd... forget it. There's no point."
He knew his friend's attitude toward Pokémon too well. There was no way someone like him could ever win the trust of a rare species like these. Even hatching them from Eggs would not change that. With a heart as twisted as his, there was no chance he would ever be acknowledged by either one.
Ralts was a Pokémon that could sharply sense the emotions of both humans and Pokémon through the red horns on its head. It almost never appeared before people, but it would drift closer when it sensed bright, positive feelings, and hide the moment it picked up hostility.
They said Ralts appeared before people in a cheerful mood and preferred warm, open-hearted people over gloomy ones, no matter their age or sex. Once it picked up warmth from a person or a Pokémon with those red horns, even its own body would grow a little warmer. That was likely part of what made it so special.
If its Trainer was happy, Ralts would be happy too.
Riolu was much the same. As a Pokémon attuned to aura, it possessed the strange ability to read hearts and would not approach dangerous people. Those with kind hearts could earn its approval. Cruel people only earned its dislike.
Riolu could read the emotions of humans and Pokémon—and even the state of nature itself—through aura.
It could also communicate with its own kind through aura. The aura it released from its body would grow stronger whenever it felt fear or sadness, sending a warning to its companions. Because it did not need to cry out, enemies would never notice.
Riolu's body was both supple and tough. It could run all night without tiring. In a single night, it could cross three mountains and two valleys. It was a stubborn, hardworking Pokémon through and through, though while unevolved it was still very much a hot-blooded youngster.
And because Riolu was so lively, anyone taking it out for walks was in for a rough time.
Any field guide would tell you the same thing: hatching these two species was not enough to make you their Trainer. Only a human they acknowledged could truly become their Trainer.
Rare Pokémon with abilities like these had the right to choose their own Trainers. If they did not approve of someone, that person would never really become their Trainer. They would not submit either. The spoiled brat standing here was proof enough.
"Please. If it won't listen, then beat it until it does," the brat said, completely unimpressed by the explanation. He had never believed in his friend's way of raising Pokémon. His creed was simple: the strong ruled. If something refused, you beat it until it stopped resisting.
Just like the Strongest Type Challenge in the underground black market, the Pokémon he liked most were Dragon-types—especially the ones ranked on that board.
If his father had not told him Riolu had more promise in the long run, he never would have chosen to hatch Riolu in the first place. He would not have handed the Ralts Egg over to his friend either.
Then again, once Ralts hatched, it might simply have Teleported away. It would never have sat here in chains letting him whip it. At this point, winning the trust of these Pokémon was clearly hopeless. He was never getting their approval.
Still, his father was trying to get his hands on pseudo-legendary Pokémon—those very same monsters listed on the Strongest Type Challenge rankings. The plan was to breed them with other Dragon-types and hatch Eggs. Whether his father could actually get a Dragon-type pseudo-legendary was another matter.
He had heard those people were extremely hard to deal with. It was not as if he had never considered going after them himself, but they were all strong—at the very least quasi–Elite Four Trainers, the kind who stood on equal footing with his father. He had the greed for it, but not the nerve.
Then again, there was always the Team Rocket route. They could always steal more Eggs from Sinnoh.
His friend probably still did not know it, but his own father and the other boy's father were both working undercover for Team Rocket.
The boy sighed. There was nothing he could do. The Pokémon was not his, and that left him just as powerless.
"Fine, fine. I won't hit it anymore." Seeing his friend sigh like that, the brat lowered the whip. Then he kicked Riolu once and spat, "Get out of my sight. Just looking at you pisses me off."
"Rrr..." Riolu took the kick as if it were routine by now. It scrambled back to its feet immediately, lowered its body, bared its teeth, and growled a warning at him.
"Oh? Still baring your teeth at me?" The brat laughed. Every time this stupid dog showed its fangs, he beat it until it was half dead and could not even crawl. That was when he finally felt satisfied enough to stop.
"Enough. Don't ruin the mood." The boy sat with one leg crossed over the other and cast his friend a flat look, hoping he would stop. There were too many people around.
"Alright, alright. I'll listen to you." The brat had just risen again, but now he dropped back into his seat. He recalled Riolu with a Poké Ball, then looked at his friend and asked, "That Trainer seemed pretty capable. Why'd you let him go?"
"People come and go on a cruise ship. Strong Trainers are everywhere. Some will refuse, some will accept. There's no need to make things unpleasant."
The boy shook his head lightly. His father was the smooth type too—a harmless, easygoing man, at least on the surface.
He had learned to act the same way. His father had taught him that. Be kind to everyone. You never knew whose help you might need in the future. Time was long, and who could say what lay ahead?
"I think that little sister of his is cute. If we had the girl, would he still dare refuse you?" The spoiled brat licked his lips and grinned. Every time he looked downstairs and saw that short-haired little girl, he found her adorable. If he pinched her, she would probably cry for a long time.
"Shut up. Keep your sick habits to yourself, or don't blame me if I stop treating you like a friend."
The boy exploded to his feet, grabbed his friend by the collar, threw out that warning, and stormed out, slamming the door behind him. He had not expected the man to be that disgusting.
"Hey, hey, alright, I won't say it anymore. I'm your first mate, remember?" The spoiled brat saw that his friend was genuinely angry and hurried after him to apologize. He did not want to lose this friendship.
Once the two of them were gone, the waiters hurried in, cleaned up the room, and left as well.
No one noticed the streak of darkness that slipped out through the crack in the door after it closed.
Reiji was still sitting beneath the parasol. Darkrai moved carefully through the shadows of passing pedestrians. When one walker's shadow overlapped with the shade beneath the parasol, Darkrai slipped back into Reiji's shadow and brought him the information he wanted.
"That Riolu was hatched by them. The malice in that human's heart is worse than in many other humans I've met before. The way he treats Pokémon is even crueler than that poacher boss from before..."
"Heh. That's humans for you. I'm no saint myself, but even I think people like that are disgusting sometimes." Reiji laughed under his breath. He had never expected the poacher boss to get dragged back out just to be compared like this.
The fact that the poacher boss's Starmie had jumped out a window and fled without hesitation was proof enough that there had never been any bond between them. It had only ever been a relationship of use and exploitation.
And yet, by Darkrai's judgment, there were Trainers even worse than that man.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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