Day 18 back in the Orange Archipelago. Light rain.
It was time to leave, and of all days, it started raining.
After a farewell breakfast, Reiji and Naoki took a car to the Water-type club. Sou and the others still had work, while Naoki had taken the morning off to see Reiji out.
Their first stop was the Pokémon Center. Reiji sent Shellder back to the Mikan Gym and asked Senta to give it to Cissy's father. The fusion evolution could wait until Reiji returned. The money from the Lightning Gang boss was more than enough for it.
After telling Senta he still had business outside, Reiji ended the call and left with Naoki.
Next, they headed to the blacksmith outside the city. The magnetic armor Reiji had commissioned was finally ready.
When Reiji first came to him, the old blacksmith had mentioned a family technique. He said he could make the magnetic armor harder without adding extra weight.
Reiji asked the price.
The old man wanted twenty million Pokédollars.
Reiji did not agree right away. He only said he would pay if the result satisfied him. If not, the old man would not get a single coin.
The blacksmith asked what "satisfied" meant.
Reiji released Rhydon and told him the answer was simple: if the armor could take one bite from Rhydon, it passed.
Hanhan's bite was at least quasi–Elite Four tier. If it could not bite through the armor and only left tooth marks, then twenty million was not unreasonable.
Now Reiji was here to collect it.
The old blacksmith brought out the sealed magnetic armor. Rhydon stepped forward, picked up one piece, and bit down hard.
It almost hurt its teeth.
"Rhy." Rhydon shook its head and threw the armor onto the ground, as if saying it tasted awful.
"Did you actually bite down?" Reiji had never seen Rhydon fail to bite through metal before. Even the refined steel he had used for Forretress's evolution had come away with teeth marks, and Rhydon used to eat that stuff like food.
"Rhy." Rhydon was offended by the doubt and showed Reiji its teeth. It had bitten so hard that even touching them hurt.
"All right, all right. Come back first."
Reiji sprayed pain relief on Hanhan's teeth, gave it some painkillers, then recalled it.
"Here's twenty million. I'm satisfied with all 3 sets."
He paid, picked up the magnetic armor, and weighed it. The weight was still within the range he had asked for.
Then he had Magneton test it. Once Magneton ran electricity through the armor, it could pull the pieces onto itself with magnetism. That proved the armor worked.
Reiji sealed the armor again and put the 3 sets into his backpack.
With the magnetic armor finished, one more problem was off his list. It would come in handy on Shamouti Island when he evolved Magneton.
After that, they drove to the port and removed their face disguises.
The tour group was already waiting there. Reiji got out, put on the group's cap, and joined them. The ship would leave at nine, and he was not the last one there. Plenty of tourists had come with their families and were still arriving.
By 8:50, the whole tour group had finally gathered. The guide hurried everyone onto the passenger ship, and it left port soon after they boarded.
After saying goodbye to Naoki at the port, Reiji boarded with the tour group. The ship left soon after and would take 2 days to reach Shamouti Island.
Reiji did not bother going to the room the tour group had booked. He went straight to the training room.
First came Staryu's evolution. The high-grade Water Stone had been ready for a while.
"Hya!"
Staryu spun in place. The gem in its center had healed cleanly, and it had recovered well over the past few days.
"Ready?" Reiji took out the high-grade Water Stone, along with twenty million in Water Gems and Water-type items. All of it had come from the Lightning Gang, so he did not need to buy anything new.
"Hya."
Staryu nodded, quiet as ever.
Reiji had gotten used to that. Staryu rarely made noise. It just kept working.
He spread the Water Gems and items across the floor, then placed the Psychic Gems and Psychic-type items in the center. Staryu needed Psychic power for Gravity, so that mattered more than the Water-type boost.
Those Psychic-type items had come from the Lightning Gang boss's backpack. Reiji had meant to save them for Slowpoke, but Slowpoke was still with the Gym Leader, so Staryu would use them first.
"Absorb the Psychic Gems first. Once you're ready, catch the Stone."
Staryu nodded again.
Reiji tossed the high-grade Water Stone. Staryu caught it with one of its suction-cup arms.
The moment it touched the Stone, evolution light burst from its body.
A moment later, Staryu had become Starmie.
Its main body was pale purple, with a golden front and a larger red core. A second star had grown behind the first, flipped upside down. The second set of arms was partly connected and could spin all the way around.
Reiji checked what was left on the floor.
The Psychic-type items, worth around ten to twenty million, were basically gone. The Water-type resources had barely been touched. Starmie had only used a dozen or so Water Gems.
So that was its limit: the Psychic-type resources plus the high-grade Water Stone. Compared to Magby, it had absorbed far less. In total, this evolution had only cost around thirty million.
Reiji did not recall Starmie yet. He had Gengar check the training room first. Once Gengar confirmed there were no cameras, Reiji released the rest of the team for breakfast and treated it as a small celebration for Starmie's evolution.
[Starmie]
[Type: Water + Psychic]
[Gender: Genderless]
[Potential: 64.14%]
[Level: 49.85%]
[Ability: Natural Cure/31.16%]
Starmie's potential was at 64.14%. Barely passable, honestly. After all those resources, it had only caught up to Tentacruel and Whiscash, and those 2 had been raised much more casually.
The problem was Staryu's starting point. Its original potential had only been 48. Getting this far was already decent.
Reiji had never planned to raise it as a main fighter anyway. As long as it had Elite Four-tier potential and could work as support, that was enough.
After breakfast, Reiji brought out the Pokémon he used for his cover identities. Magneton knew Gravity too, which gave him 2 Pokémon that could train the team with it.
Magneton practiced Gravity while Accelgor, Swampert, Magmar, Pidgeot, Lucario, Dugtrio, and Pelipper trained inside its 1x gravity field.
Poliwrath, Rhydon, Scyther, Gyarados, and Toxicroak trained in Starmie's 2x gravity field.
A 1x gravity field was like carrying your own body weight again, but spread evenly through every muscle and bone instead of sitting mostly on the legs.
That made it different from normal weight training. Carrying weight on the back hit the legs harder. Gravity training pressed on the whole body.
Reiji tried it himself. He could handle 1x gravity, but after half an hour, he was done. He had to leave the field and rest.
The Pokémon needed time to adjust too. At first, none of them could run. They could only move slowly and get used to the pressure.
Poliwrath's group started at 2x gravity, so their training was harder than Magmar's group. They could handle it because they already had a foundation from weight training.
Poliwrath adapted the fastest, followed by Rhydon and Toxicroak. Scyther and Gyarados had a harder time. Scyther especially was built for flight, with lighter bones. Without evolving, 2x gravity was already about as much as it could take.
In the 1x field, Swampert, Lucario, and Magmar adjusted the fastest.
Accelgor, Pidgeot, and Dugtrio got flattened. Pidgeot could not even stand and had to lie there.
Pelipper did a little better. It could still walk, barely. Flying-type Pokémon were not made for this kind of training. Weighted flight suited them better. For now, Pelipper only needed to get used to 1x gravity.
Golbat did not even need a proper test. It flew in, dropped straight to the floor, and had to be dragged back out by Lucario.
Eevee trained in the 1x field too. It was light, so it adapted faster than most of the others and ended up playing around inside.
Dratini did not need to try. It was still growing, and lately it had gotten noticeably rounder.
There was also the Carvanha, but Reiji had not caught it yet. Once they reached Shamouti Island, he could just beat it down and catch it. Dealing with that stupid fish would be easy.
Spinarak and Ditto did not need training. Both had already hit their potential ceilings and could not keep up with the team anymore. Unless Reiji found a proper Ditto training method, raising Ditto's potential would be difficult.
Day 19 back in the Orange Archipelago.
Reiji only returned to the tour group when the guide took attendance. Once everyone was given free time, he spent the rest of the day in the training room with his Pokémon.
Day 20 back in the Orange Archipelago.
After 2 days at sea, the ship reached Shamouti Island in the morning.
The tour group got off the ship to visit the Legend Festival.
That was why Reiji had come.
If the Festival Maiden and the talking Slowking could not help him solve the Zapdos problem, he would have to find another way.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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