Hanhan ate two Advanced-tier items that matched its typing, and its potential climbed to 74—slightly higher than Kingler's 71, but still short of Gyarados. Two Advanced-tier items could only push it so far.
If he had an Elite Four-tier item, Hanhan might've jumped straight into quasi-Champion territory. Too bad he didn't. The best he had was a quasi–Elite Four-tier Soft Sand—something meant to be held, not swallowed.
Getting his hands on an Elite Four-tier Dragon Scale had already burned through whatever luck he had left. As for the good stuff he'd gotten from Riku, that wasn't luck. That was payment—earned, planned, and collected.
Hanhan's level also pushed into the 40s. It had finally stepped into the Advanced tier, but it still sat miles below Blaine's Rhydon. Even with Blaine's Rhydon injured, the result would've been a coin flip at best—and more likely a loss. One good arm was probably enough to pin Hanhan down and pound it into the ground.
That was Elite Four-tier Pokémon for you. Losing to that wasn't shameful.
Both of Hanhan's abilities had also improved, and Reiji knew exactly why. Hanhan had spent plenty of time slamming into trees while they stayed around the Gym. If nothing else, its head had only gotten harder.
Most of the moves it already knew didn't change much—everything ticked up a little, that was all.
The real surprise came from the new moves. That was the part that mattered.
Earthquake, Drill Run, Fire Punch, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Rock Blast, Stone Edge, Scary Face, Stomp, Take Down, Horn Drill, Surf…
Reiji wasn't shocked Hanhan could learn those. It was the kid of an Elite Four-tier boss, and it had eaten more good stuff than most trainers saw in their lives.
Earthquake came with the level jump. Before this, Hanhan simply hadn't reached the point where its body could handle it.
The elemental punches also made sense. Once a Pokémon had the elemental fangs down, turning that same element into a punch wasn't a stretch.
Rock Blast and Stone Edge came from the Rock side, while Drill Run came from Ground. With the level boost, they showed up naturally.
Scary Face was even simpler. Anything that looked intimidating enough could pick it up without much effort.
Stomp and Take Down didn't need explaining either—one was a heavy foot, the other was a full-body hit.
Horn Drill, though, was different. It worked the same way as Kingler's Guillotine: land it clean, and the opponent dropped—assuming you could actually hit.
Surf didn't surprise him at all. Hanhan had never been afraid of water, and after evolving, riding a wave felt almost inevitable.
On top of those twelve, Hanhan had also learned Poison Jab and Shadow Claw—two moves Reiji genuinely hadn't expected.
Neither fit its typing. One was Poison-type, the other Ghost-type.
Still, the trail wasn't hard to follow if he thought back. Gengar had drained the power out of thousands of Gems—mostly Ghost Gems and Poison Gems, with a smaller number of Psychic Gems mixed in.
At first, Reiji had tossed the empty Gems once Gengar finished with them. That changed the day he caught Hanhan digging through the trash and crunching on the "dead" stones anyway. After that, he stopped throwing them out and just handed every empty Gem to Hanhan.
If Hanhan had swallowed over a thousand emptied Ghost and Poison Gems, then picking up Poison Jab and Shadow Claw during evolution suddenly didn't look so strange.
Even "empty" didn't mean "nothing." A little residue times a thousand still added up. Hanhan liked rocks, so Reiji had no problem feeding it every leftover stone he could.
And once he started testing evolution and de-evolution on those five other Pokémon, the empty Gems from that work could go to Hanhan too.
Gengar alone had chewed through more gems he can count—And all of that ended up in Hanhan's stomach in the end.
Riku's items, the black market items—Hanhan had swallowed plenty of those too, and it still had more waiting. From here on, its future growth would depend on what it ate next.
If Hanhan took that much top-tier food and still turned out weak, Reiji would have to start wondering whether someone had sold him fake items and fake stones.
He still had over a Gems set aside for Hanhan. If that pushed its potential to Champion tier, then Hanhan would become his fourth partner to reach Champion-level potential.
After looking through the panel, Reiji ran into a different problem: the move list had gotten too long. Thirty-plus moves meant he couldn't train everything. From now on, he'd have to focus on the ones that mattered and ignore the rest—and he'd need to do the same for the rest of the team.
He closed Rhydon's panel.
Poliwhirl, Gyarados, and Rhydon had been in treatment for a little over half an hour when the speakers called his name. Nurse Joy told him Poliwhirl and Rhydon only had light injuries.
Gyarados wasn't so lucky. Its tail had taken a serious hit. For the next few days, it wouldn't be able to fight properly with it, and it needed rest.
Reiji let out a long breath. Of course it was Gyarados again. If he'd known it would end like this, he wouldn't have forced that last clash.
At least Gyarados had used Iron Tail instead of Aqua Tail or Dragon Tail. Iron Tail hardened the tail like armour, and that had spared it from worse damage.
Once he knew their condition, Reiji pulled out his Pokédex and registered for the Indigo Plateau Conference at the Pokémon Center. They also issued him a badge case, and he slotted the Volcano Badge into it.
The case had ten slots. That meant Kanto had at least ten Gyms—some of them simply never showed up in the old stories.
Reiji didn't worry about it. Eight badges were enough to enter the Indigo Plateau Conference, and for a newcomer, that wasn't exactly brutal.
It was still far easier than the Pokémon League Entrance Exam Building.
That exam worked like this: pass the written sections and the battle section, and you earned a qualification badge that let you enter without collecting eight Gym badges.
It was perfect for trainers who were too busy to travel, or who couldn't handle constant long-distance trips because of age or health.
But the Entrance Exam Building had its own cruelty. You weren't allowed to bring your own Pokémon inside. You had to battle with Pokémon provided by the exam site, which meant you needed to recognise species, know abilities, and remember what moves Pokémon could have at different stages. That wasn't "hard." That was a memory torture device.
Reiji had no intention of taking it. He planned to travel anyway—he needed to catch Pokémon and study their evolutions—so he might as well collect badges along the road while he was at it.
He recalled Poliwhirl, Gyarados, and Rhydon, packed away the badge case and Pokédex, and rode Pelipper back to Cinnabar Gym.
Amber sat in the lobby, laughing as Arcanine tore around the room like it owned the place. Outside, under the eaves, Blaine leaned back with tea and a cigarette, looking like the fight had never happened.
Reiji had no idea how Blaine treated his Rhydon, but he didn't need to. Blaine had connections—Cinnabar Lab alone gave him options.
"Young man," Blaine said, eyes narrowing, "what did you feed that Rhyhorn?"
"I didn't do anything special." Reiji sat down on the wooden floor under the eaves, grabbed Blaine's teapot, and poured himself a cup. "Just two Advanced-tier items—Hard Stone and Soft Sand."
He took one sip and immediately pulled a face, tongue flicking out on reflex. He lifted the lid, saw the surface completely covered in tea leaves, and stared at Blaine like he'd been pranked. "That's bitter."
"Two Advanced-tier items…" Blaine's mouth twitched. "Listen to yourself."
One evolution, and he'd thrown two Advanced-tier items into a Pokémon's mouth like it was nothing. That wasn't how an "orphan's budget" usually looked. Those two items together easily cost ten million-plus Pokédollars.
Blaine didn't press further. Compared to the secrets Reiji clearly carried, two Advanced-tier items weren't worth digging into—just wildly extravagant for someone who claimed to have nothing.
"What about that Poliwhirl burst earlier?" Blaine asked instead. "How did you pull that off?"
"Old man Blaine, that's a secret." Reiji leaned back, cup in hand. "Stop fishing."
He also gave up on refilling the tea. He drank tea for the gentle sweetness, not whatever Blaine had brewed into this leaf soup.
"Heh. Stingy brat." Blaine sounded annoyed, but his eyes stayed sharp. Poliwhirl had traded blows with Rhydon and walked away looking almost untouched. For a Pokémon that wasn't Elite Four tier, that made no sense.
"That method isn't cheap," Reiji said with a grin. "If you want it, trade me a pseudo-legendary."
"In your dreams." Blaine shot him a look like he'd stepped on a nail. "I want a pseudo-legendary too."
"Then forget it." Reiji shrugged.
Pseudo-legendaries took forever to raise. By the time he actually needed that kind of heavy firepower, he'd probably already outgrown the need for them.
Blaine tapped ash from his cigarette. "By the way—there's news about Amber's mother, Elisia. A friend of mine in Lavender Town saw her there. She visited Lavender Town and went to Amber's grave."
Reiji's expression sharpened.
"We're taking a boat to Lavender Town tomorrow," Blaine continued. "You coming?"
"Lavender Town…" Reiji pulled out the beginner guide and flipped to the map from Cinnabar Island to Fuchsia City. "My next stop is the Fuchsia Gym in Fuchsia City. If we go by boat, we pass the Seafoam Islands, then Sunnytown, then transfer to a passenger ferry. There's also that 20-kilometre bridge route to reach Fuchsia City. Either way, I can travel with you for part of it."
"Lavender Town has a Gym too," Blaine said casually.
Reiji turned slowly. Suspicion sat plain on his face. "Lavender Town has a Gym?"
"What, you don't believe me?" Blaine's moustache bristled, but he didn't get angry. He just asked, "You know Agatha, right?"
"Of course." Reiji didn't even need to think about it. Agatha had a reputation that didn't fade with time. Ghost-types didn't "age out" the way most teams did, and she'd built her whole career on that.
Blaine nodded. "Agatha's close to retiring. She plans to open a Ghost-type Gym in Lavender Town. Name's Lavender Gym. Badge is the Paranormal Badge. I heard it a while ago—might already be open by now. Lavender Town's the kind of place where strange incidents never stop, so it suits her."
"So that's what this is…" Reiji sat there for a moment, turning it over.
He'd never seen a Lavender Gym in the old anime, but this world didn't promise to follow the script. He'd also heard the other rumour: after Team Rocket got crushed and Giovanni disappeared, Agatha would temporarily take over the Viridian Gym.
If Agatha retired now and built a Gym of her own, raising the next Ghost-type Elite Four… that wasn't impossible.
"Alright." Reiji closed the guide. "I'll go with you."
Blaine was covering the trip anyway. Reiji didn't see a downside.
"Boat leaves at nine tomorrow morning," Blaine said. "Don't sleep through it."
"Got it," Reiji replied.
He headed off to the hot springs.
This time, he released all eight Pokémon he could show in public and let them cram into the pools together. Gyarados took its own pool—its body filled the space too easily.
Rhydon stepped in and tried to speak, but the missing tooth made the words whistle out awkwardly. The others broke into laughter. Rhydon's ears flattened, and it lowered its face into the water, refusing to look at anyone.
Gyarados couldn't soak its tail because of the injury. It draped the tail over the edge and sank the rest of its body into the pool, eyes half-lidded as the heat loosened its muscles.
Poliwhirl perched with a towel folded on its head, steam rising as it leaned back against the rock and let its breathing settle.
Reiji hadn't blamed it for losing. He'd told it the truth: that Rhydon was Elite Four tier, and losing to that was normal. Poliwhirl had accepted that, and now it could finally rest.
Kingler climbed in too. Before long, the heat turned its whole body an even brighter red. One look at it, and the pool erupted with laughter all over again.
Pelipper, Scyther, and Shelmet soaked quietly nearby. Zapdos refused to enter. It stretched one foot toward the water, touched the edge, and jerked back immediately—its claws flushed red from the heat.
After that, Zapdos stayed on land, hopped over to Reiji, and started tugging at his hair like it was building a nest. A minute later, it settled on top of his head and dozed off.
Reiji leaned back in the water and left it alone. With Blaine watching Amber, Reiji didn't need to keep glancing over every few seconds. He stretched out in the pool, let the heat sink into his shoulders, and stayed there without moving.
The only regret was that he couldn't release Marshtomp and the others. They had to stay hidden for now.
Once he travelled alone, he could finally let them soak too.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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