From what Reiji could tell, those two ran wild on this ship. They were basically untouchable beneath the very top. The only people who could keep them in line were probably the same people spoiling them rotten. Otherwise, with all the filth they'd done—especially that disgusting creep—there was no way they'd still be walking around like this.
All he could do was sigh. What else was he supposed to do? He wasn't some savior. At best, he was a pretty capable thug. He didn't have the strength to interfere.
As for Blaine?
Forget it. There was no way an old man like Blaine was going to step into someone else's mess for no reason, then start lecturing people about right and wrong. That would be even more ridiculous.
And tell Officer Jenny? Then what?
Those were the kind of rotten Trainers who lived in the underworld. They didn't care.
As for Team Rocket?
Give him a break. Blaine had a weakness now. He had no interest in inviting extra trouble, and this was the last time to pick a fight with Team Rocket. Blaine would never make that choice.
Once someone has something to protect, they start hesitating. Too many things to worry about. Unless somebody touched Blaine's weakness directly, there was no way he would make a move.
That was the pathetic part of it. The people who wanted to change things didn't have the strength. The people who did have strength either had too much to lose and were afraid of retaliation, or they were already benefiting from the system.
Why would people like that change anything?
Why would they smash their own rice bowl?
Reiji let out another long sigh.
"Enough sighing. They were planning to use Amber to threaten you and force you into working for them as a sailor..."
"Pffft—"
The moment Darkrai finished, Reiji sprayed the mouthful of juice he had just taken—straight onto a passerby.
"Sorry, sorry. Went down the wrong way. My bad, my bad." He shot to his feet and bowed over and over, hoping the guy wouldn't lose his temper.
The passerby wiped at his clothes, but didn't dare swing at him. The biggest reason was the Kingler standing right beside Reiji. After a few muttered curses, the man stormed off.
Reiji let out a breath, then hissed, "Can you not say things like that in one shot?"
Darkrai sounded innocent. "You didn't ask. I heard you sighing and didn't interrupt, but you just kept going, so I had to cut in and tell you the important part first."
"Was that one person's idea, or both of theirs?" Reiji lowered his voice only after spotting Amber in the distance buying a balloon, with Poliwhirl and the maid beside her.
"The one who whipped Riolu thought of it. The other human didn't. If he did, Gallade never would've acknowledged him. That Pokémon's heart felt very clean. A Trainer accepted by that kind of Pokémon shouldn't be bad..."
Reiji gave a bitter smile and shook his head. "Human beings aren't that simple. If the bond runs deep enough, people can go rotten together."
"Fine. Humans make no sense. You're way too complicated." Darkrai could sense malice and darkness in people, but only that much.
As far as Darkrai was concerned, human malice came in three kinds.
No malice at all.
Malice kept buried, never shown and never acted on.
And naked malice—malice with no intention of hiding, the kind that would turn into action soon enough.
Reiji fell into the first and second categories. Sometimes the second one led to action, but only rarely. The moment Darkrai remembered most clearly was when they faced Ho-Oh.
"I get it. Let me think this through." Reiji sighed again. He might have to go back to his old trade after all. That bastard had his public identity now, and that meant he couldn't afford not to prepare.
Maybe he should just throw Blaine's name out there and scare them off. He really didn't want trouble with them. The brat was almost certainly the son of some big shot on this ship.
If he killed the guy, what came after would be endless pursuit. And if Team Rocket was involved, that only made him want to touch this even less.
He was in Kanto right now. If Team Rocket marked him here, he really would be walking into a net with no way out.
After all, a thief can strike for a thousand days, but no one can defend for a thousand days.
Better to wait for Blaine to get back, talk it through with him, and decide what to do after that.
"What are you staring at? Come on, we're heading back for dinner." Blaine came over and nudged Reiji's foot with his shoe. Seeing him zoned out in one direction, the old man clearly assumed he was busy admiring girls.
Reiji came back to himself with a cough, saw the smirk on Blaine's face, then looked over where he'd been staring. At some point, several girls in swimsuits had appeared there.
"No, Blaine, it's not what you think. I wasn't. That's not—"
Blaine just grinned and gave him a knowing wink, the kind men used on other men when they thought they understood everything.
Reiji froze.
Great. Now he really couldn't explain it.
The worst part was that he had already lined up what he wanted to tell Blaine, and after that misunderstanding, he couldn't even remember how he was going to start.
"Heh. Move it, you little brat." Blaine walked off holding Amber, still chuckling to himself, with no interest at all in hearing Reiji defend himself. He carried Amber into the ship and headed for the elevator back to the top floor.
By dinner, Reiji couldn't even be bothered explaining the whole staring incident. But the spoiled brat was still something he needed to discuss with Blaine.
"Blaine, how strong is this ship's captain? And how much force does this cruise ship actually have on board?"
"The captain?" Blaine thought about it for a moment. "Pretty strong. He's just about brushing the Elite Four threshold."
The man had been running the Cinnabar route for years. When they first met, he had only been a sailor. He had spent twenty years on that route before finally climbing into the captain's seat.
Time really did move fast. The young man Blaine met back then was middle-aged now.
"As for defenses..." Blaine looked at Reiji and smiled. "This isn't the Orange Archipelago. It's Kanto's coastal waters. There aren't any pirates here, so what do you need heavy defenses for? The captain, a few sailors, and the Trainers traveling aboard could all be organized in an emergency. That would be enough to protect the ship."
"I see." Reiji felt like this might actually be workable.
Then he noticed the smirk still on Blaine's face. He went back over what the old man had just said and finally caught it.
"Blaine, I think you were mocking me."
Blaine burst out laughing, but didn't answer. The Orange Archipelago really was a mess. On the surface there were pirates. Under the surface, what they really were was harder to say. Calling them the private troops of some big family wouldn't have been far off.
Reiji snorted. He knew exactly what Blaine was implying. The old man was talking about the Orange Archipelago like it was some lawless backwater, and since Reiji was a Trainer from there, that jab landed squarely on him.
Then again, he wasn't actually local. He was just a shameless outsider.
As long as he didn't identify with it, the insult wasn't aimed at him.
That was one of the perks of being a transmigrator.
"Hah. I was joking," Blaine said with another laugh. "Come with me after dinner. There's someplace we're going."
"Where?" Reiji knew Blaine was just teasing him, so he let it go.
"The captain's hosting a Trainer gathering. He'll put up a decent prize, let the younger ones trade blows a little, and give everyone a chance to get acquainted."
The captain had invited Blaine, but there weren't any young people around him except Reiji. If he wanted someone to make him look good, Reiji was the only real option.
Amber was still too young for something like that. Maybe later, once she had grown a little more. At the very least, she'd need Advanced-tier strength before stepping into a battle there.
"Of course I'm going. Why wouldn't I?" Reiji immediately thought of the invitation the boy had handed him that afternoon. It had to be the same gathering.
One invitation was for Advanced-tier Trainers. The other came through Blaine. Clearly Blaine's route had more weight behind it.
And Blaine had also said it was a contest among the younger crowd.
So yes, it had to be the same event.
Perfect. He could go over there and scope things out for himself. What kind of security did this luxury liner actually have? This was a rare chance to find out.
And if that boy was handing out invitation tickets, then he had to be part of the host side. There was a real chance he was the captain's son.
Reiji had made up his mind.
He was going to do this job.
If the captain was only just reaching the Elite Four threshold, then this was possible. He had already stolen from a quasi–Elite Four before. Why shouldn't he be able to kill a quasi–Elite Four's son too? Anything else would be ridiculous.
Luckily, Reiji had never believed in science.
He only believed in himself and his Pokémon.
This job was happening.
Not only was he going to do it, he was going to wipe out the roots too. With Blaine backing him up, a veteran Elite Four taking on two quasi–Elite Fours should be easy enough.
Heh.
Tonight, he was really going to do it.
A little after seven that evening, after dinner and a bit more sea breeze, Blaine took him and Amber to the ballroom on the top floor of the luxury liner.
Reiji had walked around this ship every day and still had no idea there was a ballroom this huge on the top floor. He really was a country bumpkin visiting the city for the first time.
No.
He absolutely could not let all this luxury soften him up.
He had to stay true to himself...
And then the smell hit him.
"Holy shit. You all need to understand one thing. Everything here is free. This is even better than a buffet."
"Everybody out. Eat whatever you want. However much you can eat, eat it all."
He released Poliwhirl and the others. He even let Zapdos out. No point holding back now. First things first—stuff everyone full.
"Yobo!" Poliwhirl heard the words eat whatever you want and didn't care about anything else. It grabbed the beautifully plated food off the table and started stuffing itself with all the fragrant, gorgeous dishes.
"Kuh-keh." Kingler had fought hard all afternoon and didn't bother pretending otherwise. Its small claw scooped up the food laid out below and started eating too.
Some Pokémon were too short to reach the tables, so part of the spread had been placed neatly on the carpet for the smaller ones.
"Sa-doh? What did you say? Eat!" Rhydon had already lost its mind. The teacher who had been training it was right there with it, and both of them were going feral. Chances like this—an all-you-can-eat meal that cost nothing—didn't come often.
"Peli." Pelipper had much better manners. It ate in great beakfuls, but still took its time and chewed slowly.
"Sah." Scyther had no hands, so Poliwhirl had to toss food straight into its mouth.
As for Gyarados, there was no need to say much. It looked even worse than Rhydon. It had the waiters pouring basin after basin of food straight down its throat.
At least Gyarados wasn't eating the plates.
Hanhan was.
By the time Hanhan started crunching through dishes with loud cracks, everyone nearby had already backed away from those two dinosaur idiots and made it clear they wanted nothing to do with them.
Apparently those two had gone so hungry they were eating porcelain now.
Then there were Shelmet and Zapdos. Those two stayed beside Reiji and didn't eat much. Zapdos picked at some grains, got full almost immediately, then fluttered into the cap hanging against Reiji's back and fell asleep.
Yes, Zapdos could fly now.
It was still just a tiny gray sparrow, though. The premature stage was over, but it was still growing.
At this point the whole group had completely lost control, especially Hanhan and Gyarados. Their table manners were so bad they bordered on criminal.
Because the display on Reiji's side was that ugly, plenty of guests moved away from them and started pointing.
Reiji couldn't care less what anyone thought. He was a practical man. He had no use for fake refinement. If you could eat, then eat more. Most importantly, it was free.
Nothing made him happier than getting something for free.
Free once felt good.
Free forever felt even better.
"Hey, do you know that guy over there?"
"No. Do I look like I know him?"
"Heh. Hard to say. Maybe you just don't dare admit it."
"...Heh."
In the end, Reiji's all-out assault on the food drew attention from the hosts.
The captain turned to the people near him and asked, "Who invited that young man over there?"
Blaine heard that and nearly died on the spot. He didn't dare answer. He acted like he hadn't heard a thing and desperately hoped someone else would step forward and take the blame.
If he'd known this would happen, he would've reminded Reiji to mind his manners a little.
And Rhydon—when exactly had that idiot started running with Reiji's crowd?
By the time the captain asked a second time, sweat had started to bead on Blaine's forehead. He was close to giving up and admitting it himself. It wasn't like he was the one losing face.
Luckily, someone stepped out first and took the hit for him.
"Father, I invited him."
The Gallade Trainer stood up awkwardly. He hadn't expected Reiji to come. And he definitely hadn't expected him to become famous the second he arrived.
"So it was you, Itsuki. How do you know him?" Since it was his son, the captain couldn't really say much. It wasn't like he could start scolding the boy in front of a room full of old friends. He still had an image to keep up.
"I watched his battles this afternoon. His Kingler won four straight, so I invited him over. I also tried to recruit him as one of my sailors." Itsuki scratched his head awkwardly and could only tell the truth about what happened that afternoon.
Blaine, holding Amber in his arms, fell silent.
So that was what had happened while he was away taking that phone call.
And that brat hadn't told him a word.
"Forget it. Handle it yourself. Come over here, I'll introduce you to an uncle." The captain waved his son over. "This is Uncle Blaine. He's the Gym Leader of Cinnabar Gym."
"Hello, Uncle Blaine. I'm Itsuki."
Itsuki stepped forward to greet him, but didn't recognize Blaine as the man from that afternoon. He didn't recognize Amber either, because Blaine had changed wigs.
That afternoon, they had been looking down from the third floor at a long-haired Blaine in sunglasses and Amber under a sun hat.
Now Blaine had short hair and no sunglasses. Amber was wearing a baseball cap and hiding in his arms the whole time.
No wonder they didn't recognize them.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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