Someone wanted to know how strong Reiji had become.
More specifically, they wanted to know whether the Pokémon that had stood out at the Indigo Plateau Conference had already crossed into Elite Four tier.
Now that he had forced Reiji to reveal one of them, his job was done. The masked man recalled Arbok at once, tossed his entry badge over to Reiji, and showed no interest in continuing the match.
He had no intention of sending Arbok against Rhydon. Winning would gain him nothing, and losing would only mean wasting time treating injuries. During a tournament, the last thing he wanted was one of his Pokémon hurt. He still had other work to do after this.
Besides, his orders from above had only been to force out specific Pokémon and check their strength. He had done exactly that. Even if the people above wanted to nitpick, they would not have anything solid to complain about.
Whoever wanted the next round could come do it themselves. He was done playing errand boy. Some woman had appeared out of nowhere, and suddenly all of them were supposed to follow her orders? Who did she think she was?
"That's it?" Reiji looked down at the entry badge the masked man had thrown him. What was wrong with that guy? He had forced Reiji to answer with equal strength, then walked away without even fighting.
Whatever. The badge was the only part that mattered.
Two more preliminary matches, and he would meet the group-stage requirement without having to waste time on more qualifiers.
The waiting began again. This time, two minutes passed before a young man stepped onto the field.
Reiji froze the moment he saw him.
He had not expected this guy to enter too. Local Trainers from the Orange Archipelago who ran with the underworld usually kept a clean public identity, but with this man's strength, he could bully his way through the weaker fields and reach the group stage easily.
So why come to Reiji's battlefield?
Every last one of them was acting weird.
"Do I know you?" Riku caught the look on Reiji's face and frowned, brushing a hand over his own cheek. He wasn't wearing a disguise, but he was sure he had never met this guy before. So what was that reaction?
"No. You're not that famous."
Reiji cut in fast, tossing out the jab on purpose. Get Riku annoyed, and maybe he would stop thinking about the slip.
Riku's temper sparked at once. "The hell is that supposed to mean?"
Then his eyes narrowed.
"No… wait. You have seen me before."
"Young Master Riku," Reiji said, lowering his voice, "dragging this out won't do either of us any good."
That was not just a warning. It was a reminder.
If Reiji knew Riku, then it was probably from the black ships, or from the gray side of the Trainer world. But Riku was not gray. He was black all the way through.
The referee had no desire to let them keep talking. He raised his flag and began announcing the rules.
"Both competitors, prepare yourselves. This preliminary match will be a two-on-two battle. For the first round, both sides will send out their Pokémon at the same time."
"Go, Cloyster."
Riku threw his Poké Ball, but his mind was still stuck on those two words: young master.
Reiji had called him by name. Accurately.
His face darkened.
A Trainer like him should not have been able to enter an official League tournament at all. He was using a fake identity, and yet Reiji had still recognized him.
So Reiji must have seen him on the black ship or at a black market. Most likely in Trovitopolis. But Reiji was a Trainer from Mikan Gym.
A Mikan Gym Trainer who knew his face from the black market? Then Reiji's own hands were not clean either. At minimum, he had been mixed up in the same underground circles.
Riku wondered if he should expose him, but without evidence, it was just an empty accusation. Who would believe that?
Still, it was useful information. Trovita Gym would probably be interested. Formal Gyms loved playing dirty under the table.
He had only come here because he was accompanying his older brother to the tournament. Unfortunately, after Team Rocket stormed the Trovitopolis black market back then, the black ship ended up owing Trovita Gym a favor. That was why they had been asked to test Reiji, and Riku had taken the job.
"Go, Ludicolo."
Reiji threw his own Poké Ball at the same time.
Since Reiji knew Riku's team leaned heavily toward Water types, Electric or Grass was the obvious answer.
Electivire was his trump card, so that stayed hidden. Zapdos was even worse; showing it here would only cause trouble. That left Ludicolo.
After more than half a month of working with it, Ludicolo was finally usable. Not perfect, but it listened well enough in battle. The rest could come with time.
So he really had seen him somewhere.
Riku was sure of it now. Reiji must have been around Trovitopolis. Otherwise, there was no reason he would know Riku used mostly Water types and answer with a Grass type right from the start.
A shiny Ludicolo, too.
"Ludicolo, Leech Seed."
Reiji didn't bother with whatever Riku was thinking. The referee called the start, and he gave the order at once. Then he glanced up. The sun was still out, weak but usable.
"Solar Beam."
"Not happening. Cloyster, Drill Run. Get underground."
"Ludicolo, tear up the field."
"Luu-ba!"
Light gathered above Ludicolo's head. It opened its mouth, and a pale yellow-white glow swelled in front of it before firing out in a thick beam.
Solar Beam carved across the battlefield.
Cloyster could hide underground all it wanted. Reiji wasn't trying to land a clean hit. He only needed the blast to shake the ground hard enough to force it back up.
"Cloyster!"
The field cracked open, and Cloyster burst out spinning. Ludicolo was already waiting and fired another round of Leech Seed.
"Cloyster, Rapid Spin. Knock them away."
"Ludicolo, Grass Knot."
"Luu-ba."
Ludicolo's eyes flashed green. Grass shot up under Cloyster's spinning path, twisted together, and caught it at the worst possible angle.
Cloyster tripped mid-spin and crashed down—right on top of the first Leech Seeds.
The seeds burst open the moment its shell touched them. Vines snapped around Cloyster, binding it tight enough that even opening its shell became a struggle.
"Damn it."
Riku's luck had turned ugly fast. Cloyster had knocked away the second Leech Seed, only to fall straight into the first one.
The moment Reiji saw the vines take hold, he called it.
"Now. Solar Beam."
"Luu-ba!"
Ludicolo opened its mouth again. Energy gathered in front of Cloyster, then blasted forward.
"Clack!"
Cloyster gave up trying to break free. It slammed its shell shut and braced for impact.
The beam hit with a heavy boom.
Cloyster was thrown all the way into the safety net, hard enough to dent it inward. The organizers clearly hadn't expected preliminary matches to get this violent. That hit had almost reached the spectators.
The same thing had already happened on other fields, so the tournament staff had patched the problem by stationing Trainers around the battle areas to stop any accidents before they spilled into the crowd.
Reiji's first round was over.
Cloyster was built to take physical hits, not a Solar Beam to the face. With the x2 weakness on top of that, one clean blast was enough to drop it.
"Cloyster is unable to battle. Competitor, please send out your second Pokémon."
The referee checked Cloyster, confirmed the knockout, and signaled for Riku to continue.
"Come back, Cloyster."
Riku recalled it, gave Reiji another look, and threw his next Poké Ball.
"Raaah!"
Gyarados appeared with a roar that rolled across the field. Ludicolo flinched back at once and lowered its eyes, unable to meet Gyarados head-on.
"Tch. Intimidate again. And it's quasi–Elite Four tier too."
Reiji's head was starting to hurt.
That made two now. Two quasi–Elite Four tier Pokémon in the preliminaries. This was supposed to be the easy part.
"Gyarados, Hurricane."
"Ludicolo, Protect."
"Luu-ba!"
A violent gale tore across the field, sharp enough to cut. Ludicolo got Protect up in time, and the pressure eased behind the barrier.
"Ludicolo, return."
Reiji recalled it before the wind could push it any farther.
Ludicolo didn't have the advantage here. Against this Gyarados, even trying to stall would be rough.
Reiji ran through his options and found almost nothing he liked.
Was he really supposed to show Electivire this early?
If he kept Electivire hidden, then Hanhan would have to handle it. He hadn't expected the preliminaries to keep throwing serious Trainers at him, and every one of them seemed to be aiming straight for his team.
It felt targeted.
He just didn't have proof.
But if he refused to use one of his main Pokémon now, he was not winning this match.
"Go, Rhydon."
"Raaah!"
Rhydon hit the field, and the first move was Reiji's.
Hanhan stomped down. Stone pillars erupted around Gyarados one after another, locking it inside a ring of rock.
"Gyarados, Iron Tail. Break them."
"Rhydon, Rock Blast."
"Raaah!"
Rhydon stomped again, cracking the ground. Chunks of stone flew up, and it grabbed them one by one, hurling them straight into the stone ring.
Before Gyarados could smash the pillars itself, Rhydon's rocks shattered them first. The broken stone burst into fragments and slammed into Gyarados's huge body from every side.
Gyarados was weak to Rock, and Rhydon had just surrounded it with rocks. With a body that big, it could only take the hits.
And while the debris battered it, Rhydon was already charging.
"Too fast," he muttered. "A Rhydon shouldn't move like that."
Hanhan's Float Stone had already made it far lighter than a normal Rhydon. With that much weight gone, its usual sluggishness didn't apply. Once that heavy body started moving, it was much faster than anyone expected.
"Gyarados, Protect."
Boom.
Gyarados had barely raised Protect before Rhydon's Thunder Punch crashed into it. The barrier held, but the impact came with all the force of Rhydon's charge.
"Raaah!"
Rhydon didn't pull back. It stomped again, sending an Earthquake through the field. The shockwaves hit Gyarados from below, throwing its body off balance and making even Protect tremble.
Electricity gathered around Rhydon's other fist.
It punched again.
The shaken Protect broke apart instantly.
Rhydon pushed in before Gyarados could recover. Its free fist sparked with another Thunder Punch and slammed into Gyarados's side. Gyarados was too tall for Rhydon to reach its head, so the body would have to do.
The blow launched Gyarados into the safety net.
Rhydon charged after it. Gyarados lay curled on the ground, and Rhydon raised its fist again, this time aiming for the head.
A red beam hit first.
Gyarados vanished back into its Poké Ball.
"I give."
Riku exhaled. Good thing he had recalled it in time. Gyarados had an x4 weakness to Electric. One more Thunder Punch, and it might have been out for half a month.
What was that Rhydon?
It wasn't afraid of Water, and it was fast enough that even Gyarados had almost failed to react. Riku could accept losing. Trovita Gym had wanted him to test Reiji, and now he knew the answer: Reiji was the real deal.
But there was something else Riku cared about more.
He tossed the entry badge to Reiji and left the battlefield.
A little later, he walked into a private room at a restaurant on a commercial street. Inside was the middle-aged man leading Trovita Gym's group—Rudy's second uncle.
"I brought the information you wanted," Riku said. "His Rhydon is strong. Probably close to Elite Four tier."
He went over the match. That Rhydon was vicious. The look it gave him after he recalled Gyarados almost looked like it wanted to kill him, as if it was angry the fight had been cut short.
"As long as it isn't Elite Four tier yet."
The middle-aged man let out a quiet breath. Then he thought of the useless students back home and sighed again. If they could bring in a Trainer like that to support Rudy when he took over the Gym, things would be much easier.
"I don't know where Mikan Gym found that kid, but they struck gold. They stayed out of things for years, then came back once and somehow landed a Trainer like him. I hate it, but I can't deny they got lucky."
"There's something else you'll want to hear."
Riku waited for him to stop muttering, then told him Reiji had recognized him.
"You're saying his background might not be clean?"
The middle-aged man rubbed his chin.
That could matter, or it could mean nothing. It depended entirely on how much Mikan Gym valued Reiji.
If they valued him, then visiting a black market was not enough to hurt him. At most, it would leave a smear. Everyone had been to places like that.
But if they didn't value him, that one stain would be enough to throw him out.
That was how these things worked. Ruining someone didn't always need a deep reason. Sometimes it came down to whether the person was useful, and whether someone above them happened to be in a bad mood.
"I've told you everything I know," Riku said. "We're even."
He didn't care what Trovita Gym planned after this. They weren't on the same side. He had repaid the favor, and that was enough. His older brother still had a match in the afternoon, and he planned to watch it.
The middle-aged man watched him leave and sneered. He made no move to stop him.
In the end, people like Riku were still stray dogs with nowhere proper to stand. And they wanted to fight for an Elite Four seat? Ridiculous.
Even if Riku's older brother became one of the Elite Four, that wouldn't make them untouchable. Their records were dirty from the start. The League could move on them whenever it decided the time was right.
His own family needed to pick a side too.
The League did not like families that kept swaying back and forth. This tournament was not only a show of force. It was also a way to make the Gyms declare where they stood.
If they kept trying to play both sides, taking League missions but refusing to put in real effort, the League would eventually make an example out of them.
The League wanted to kill a chicken in the Orange Archipelago to scare the monkeys.
His family had no intention of being that chicken.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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