"Gallade, Hypnosis!"
The moment Gallade's trainer realized what was happening, he changed tactics on the spot. Close combat was no longer an option. Trading blows with Toxicroak would only make the poison flare up faster, so they had to end this quickly.
Gallade locked its eyes on Toxicroak, ready to put it to sleep with Hypnosis.
But Toxicroak had a simple answer to that. It just had to shut its eyes. Hypnosis wasn't Dark Void.
Block out Hypnosis and it failed.
Get caught in Dark Void, and sleep was forced on you whether you liked it or not.
"Damn it. Gallade, eat the Berry and cure the poison!"
Its trainer clearly hadn't wanted to use it so early. He only had one, and once Gallade ate it, it was gone. He had brought it specifically because he knew how nasty Toxicroak's poison was.
"You've got to be kidding me, it has a Berry too?" Reiji almost went numb on the spot. He had just seen the opening to win after poisoning Gallade, and now the other side casually pulled out a cure.
"Toxicroak, rush it. Poison Jab!"
Reiji had no intention of letting Gallade cleanse itself in peace. If he could land another Poison Jab right now, he could push the ordinary poison straight into a badly poisoned state.
Toxicroak exploded forward the moment it saw Gallade reaching for the Berry, aiming to finish it then and there.
Instead, Gallade tossed the Berry into its mouth and used Teleport to get out.
"Damn it, I forgot it had Teleport too," Reiji muttered under his breath. There was no point chasing now. "Toxicroak, Mud Shot!"
By the time he spoke, Gallade had already eaten the Berry and escaped. There was no way Toxicroak was catching it cleanly, so the best he could do was harass it and keep control of the pace.
Toxicroak swept its eyes across the battlefield, found Gallade almost instantly, and spat a Mud Shot at it.
Gallade cut every lump of mud apart.
"Toxicroak, Venoshock!"
Mud Shot hadn't done the job, so Reiji switched again.
At the command, Toxicroak opened its mouth and fired a stream of purple venom shots at Gallade.
Gallade didn't dare block them and didn't dare cut through them either. It could only keep dodging.
And Toxicroak kept spitting.
One volley after another.
Before Gallade's trainer noticed what was happening, the entire battlefield floor was covered in venom.
Then Gallade's foot hit one of the soaked patches, and pain shot up through its leg.
It stopped running and looked down.
Both feet had already turned purple-black.
"Gallade? Don't tell me that can poison you too?" Its trainer couldn't understand it. Gallade hadn't touched Toxicroak, so why was it poisoned again?
Gallade instantly sprang off the contaminated ground and retreated to one of the four corners of the battlefield—the only spots the venom hadn't reached yet.
"How is that even possible?" Its trainer stared at the black sludge clinging to Gallade's feet, then finally looked around properly.
The whole battlefield was full of black poison.
It even hissed where it touched the floor.
"Damn it. Corrosive venom…" He clenched his jaw. "Gallade stepped in it, so its feet are getting eaten away. It just cured the poison, and now it's poisoned all over again…"
He almost cursed out loud, but barely held it back. There were too many eyes on him. Losing his temper would only make it worse.
Gallade had no more Berries.
It could clear the poison with Rest, but if it used Rest now, it would lose anyway.
With Toxicroak's speed, it would be on top of Gallade in an instant. A sleeping Gallade wouldn't survive two turns. It would go down before it ever woke up.
And even without Rest, this fight was already slipping away.
This new poisoning had started from the feet.
"Toxicroak, finish it. Poison Jab!"
Toxicroak rushed in again, crimson spikes raised for the final blow.
Gallade's trainer still tried to fight it out. "Gallade, Psycho Cut!"
Gallade flung one arc-shaped psychic blade after another at the charging Toxicroak.
Toxicroak dodged every single one.
But Gallade's real target wasn't Toxicroak.
It was the poisoned ground.
"Now—Teleport!"
"Toxicroak, stay on it!"
Reiji didn't care how many times Gallade broke the field apart. At this point, it was just a war of attrition. Whoever had more stamina left would win. As long as Gallade was still poisoned, it would fall sooner or later.
And that was exactly what happened.
By the time Toxicroak finally started breathing hard, Gallade couldn't keep going either. It collapsed to the floor, spent, and Toxicroak stopped chasing.
The match was over.
The crowd exploded.
"He won again!"
"No way. He actually beat a Gallade?"
"Yeah, and that was a matchup where Toxicroak was four times weak to Psychic. He still pulled it off."
"It was ugly, though. He won that by dragging it out and outlasting it."
"So what? A win's a win!"
The whole place was shouting now. Nobody had expected Toxicroak to pull that out from such a bad matchup. Winning it at all felt ridiculous.
Reiji let out a quiet breath when Gallade dropped. That match had worn on him too. He was starting to lose patience by the end.
It also made one thing painfully clear.
Toxicroak needed Aerial Ace, and it needed Shadow Claw too. Otherwise, fights like this would keep leaving it in that awkward position where it had no good move to use.
As for Shadow Ball—
Honestly, it wouldn't have helped much.
At the start, the accuracy and timing would have been too unreliable. Later on, it wasn't worth using anyway. By then, the match had become pure stamina grinding.
Once Gallade was poisoned, it was never going to outrun Toxicroak forever. Reiji didn't need Shadow Ball. Toxicroak could have stood there and kept spitting mud to herd Gallade around if it had to.
Gallade was recalled, and its trainer left without saying a word.
Reiji recalled Toxicroak too, then released it again long enough to feed it a Pokéblock and recover some stamina.
He didn't notice someone walking up behind him.
"Hey, kid. Your Toxicroak looked pretty good. Our young master wants a word."
Reiji had just fed Toxicroak the Pokéblock when he looked up and saw an unmasked young man.
He recognized him at once.
One of the rich brat's lackeys from the other day.
"Not interested."
The fake smile vanished from the man's face immediately. "Don't refuse a good thing when it's offered."
"No interest."
Reiji wasn't going to indulge him. This was already a lawless place. If the other side wanted trouble, that was on them.
The lackey dropped the act completely. The threat was naked now. "Kid, don't be stupid."
Reiji didn't even bother answering. He turned and walked to the referee to collect his winnings.
"If you won't show respect, then don't expect to battle here again!"
Still, Reiji ignored the barking dog.
The referee didn't give him any trouble. He handed over the original hundred thousand and the two hundred thousand in winnings, and Reiji turned around and left the black market without another word.
At the same time, upstairs on the second floor of the arena, inside one of the private luxury viewing rooms, Gallade's trainer had just returned—and was immediately greeted with laughter from the rich brat.
"Hah. You really are useless. You had that kind of advantage and still lost."
"It wasn't me losing. That Toxicroak was just too poisonous." Gallade's trainer sank onto the sofa, clearly annoyed. A tray of expensive fruit sat in front of him, but he wasn't in the mood to touch it.
Then he noticed that the rich brat's lackey had failed to bring Reiji over and laughed in return. "Looks like you're not doing so great yourself. He didn't give a damn about your so-called face."
That jab made the rich brat look back down.
Sure enough, Reiji had completely ignored the invitation, taken his money, and walked out of the black market.
The lackey hurried back upstairs to report what happened, not daring to look his master in the eye.
The rich brat's expression was ugly enough already.
"Trash."
He took the cigarette from his lips and ground the lit end into the lackey's palm.
The man didn't dare scream. He could only endure it.
After that small punishment, the rich brat rested his polished shoe on the jade coffee table and waved one hand casually, deciding someone else's fate as if he were brushing dust aside.
"Get two good men and follow him. Cripple him."
"Yes, young master."
The lackey didn't dare say another word. He didn't even dare lift his head. If the rich brat had truly gotten angry, he might have been thrown overboard to feed the sharks.
Once outside, he hurried off and grabbed two more men. They were going to take down that arrogant little bastard and vent the young master's anger on him.
"Your useless crew won't be enough for someone like that," Gallade's trainer said with a smile, finally in a good enough mood to eat some fruit. There really was nothing better than watching a friend get embarrassed too.
"That's true." The rich brat thought it over seriously, then twisted the knife a little deeper. "Judging by what he showed, he's already at Advanced-tier level. That Toxicroak especially. Even your Gallade couldn't beat it."
Gallade's trainer couldn't be bothered to argue. He pretended not to hear and kept eating.
"Send two more after them," the rich brat ordered with another casual wave. "I don't believe five men still won't be enough to block him."
Two more lackeys immediately left to catch up with the first three.
…
The moment Reiji left the black market and came up into the bar, he noticed he was being followed.
The footsteps behind him on the stairs weren't exactly subtle.
As soon as he stepped into the bar, he saw three men in black coming out of the kitchen. The instant they spotted him, they pointed and rushed over.
Reiji turned and ran, Spinarak still on his shoulder, ducking into one of the toilet stalls in the men's restroom.
Why had he picked a public restroom?
Simple.
Because it was perfect for scooping them all up at once.
"That brat ran into the toilet."
"Hiding in there? Cute."
"Come on, let's find our little friend."
From inside the stall, Reiji could hear footsteps outside. The three men chasing him. Other people scrambling away. Panic at first, then silence.
A few moments later, the entire restroom fell quiet.
Only the disgusting snickering of the three black-clothed men remained.
"Darkrai," Reiji whispered, "ambush them."
"Understood."
Darkrai slipped out from Reiji's shadow, emerged behind the three men from another patch of darkness, and formed a Dark Void in its hand.
Then it threw it.
The black sphere swallowed all three men at once.
When the darkness cleared, they were all asleep inside the restroom. One was draped over a urinal. Another had collapsed into a suspicious puddle on the floor. All three were out cold, sleeping like pigs.
"Spinarak, frisk them."
Reiji opened the stall door and glanced at the mess on the floor. He had no interest in personally touching any of those three pigs, not with the state they were in, so Spinarak could do the work instead.
Darkrai slipped back into the shadows.
"Gengar, hurry. Use Psychic and pick that stuff up."
Gengar popped out of the shadows at once and lifted the Poké Balls and items Spinarak had dug out from them, sending everything flying neatly into the open bag Reiji was holding.
In just a few breaths, the team finished looting them clean.
Afterward, Reiji recalled Gengar and Spinarak, stepped outside the restroom, had Spinarak seal the entrance with webbing, and walked away.
He had barely left the bar restroom when two more people arrived.
If those two had been a little earlier, they would have ended up just like the three pigs inside.
Reiji hadn't killed anyone. Not on a cruise ship.
Space was too limited. If a murder happened, the entire ship would be searched. So he let the three men live and only stripped them of everything they had.
After ditching the pursuers, he found a deserted corner of the deck and checked the haul.
The three men had yielded ten Pokémon total.
Not bad.
Everything personal they carried went straight into the sea. Let them look for it themselves.
At the very end, he found some cash too. Not much—about five hundred thousand altogether. Pathetic. He had made more than that off a five-win streak.
The ten Pokémon were more valuable than the cash, though. Four of them were carrying items—Elite-tier items, but all pretty ordinary. Nothing especially expensive.
Once he finished sorting everything, he slipped into another public restroom, changed his outfit again, and returned to the top-deck sea-view rooms, heading straight for Blaine's private training room.
It was still morning. With nothing else to do, he might as well train with the others.
As for the ten captured Pokémon, he could send them to the old drunk once they got off the ship. Sending them from the cruise liner was too risky. Every transfer here would be recorded, and if anyone checked, that would become a problem.
Once they disembarked, he could find somewhere else to send them. With his face covered, nobody would know who he was.
He wasn't worried about the old man's end either. That old fox had survived this long for a reason. If he were easy to trace, he'd have been dead years ago.
Among the ten Pokémon, Water-types were the most common, with Grass-types next. Most of them were ordinary trash.
The only one that stood out at all was a Seadra.
Without a Dragon Scale, though, even that was just another ordinary Pokémon.
Reiji remembered taking the Seadra off that barking lackey. It was probably something the rich brat had tossed him as a reward.
A pity. The potential was awful.
None of the ten were anything special. Most of them sat around Elite tier to Advanced tier in strength, with potential in the forties and fifties—already close to wrung dry.
He would leave them to the old drunk to handle later. Same with the four Elite-tier items. Sell everything off, pocket a few million, and the total profit would come out somewhere near ten million.
Not bad at all.
Once the little thrill settled down, Reiji trained with the others until noon. Blaine's maid came to call him for lunch, and after eating, he spent a while playing with Amber before going back to train again.
This time, though, not with Poliwhirl's group.
He rented another training room and started drilling the alias team's second line instead.
He brought Scyther along too so it could teach Golbat Steel Wing and Agility.
Toxicroak was set to learn Shadow Claw. Gengar already knew it. Reiji had originally wanted to teach Thunder Punch first, but Hanhan wasn't free, so Shadow Claw came first instead.
Since someone had already marked him, he couldn't be bothered going back underground to fight. Training in a rented room worked just as well.
There were only two days left before they reached Lavender Town.
Training time would pass quickly enough.
By the original plan, he had wanted to let Marshtomp try a few matches too. That was out now. Once people started watching him, there was no point taking that kind of risk.
As for striking back?
Of course not.
He wasn't a child.
Just because a dog barked at him didn't mean he needed to kill the owner.
Not worth it.
He had already taken more than ten million off them. That counted as compensation. As long as those lackeys stopped bothering him, he was content to let it end there.
…
Meanwhile, the three men who had been stripped in the restroom had finally made it back.
They came back wearing nothing but white underwear.
"Young master, we saw him go into the toilet, so we followed him. Then everything went black. We don't know what happened. We woke up like this…"
"Lock them up."
The rich brat didn't even want to look at them. They had failed to catch the target and gotten stripped bare without even knowing how. It was too embarrassing.
"Young master, spare us! Spare us!"
"Slap them."
At the order, the burly men holding them in place immediately started swinging.
Each of the three took more than ten hard slaps. Teeth flew. Blood frothed at the corners of their mouths.
Then they were dragged away.
"So that's it? You're just letting it go?" Gallade's trainer sat there grinning. "Doesn't sound like you."
"Let it go?" The rich brat gave a cold laugh. "He's still on the ship. If he comes back here again, he won't escape."
He wasn't worried in the least.
As long as Reiji kept showing up in this place, there was no way out.
He had people aboveground and underground.
The kid wasn't getting away.
…
Day 12 of the trip to Kanto…
Nothing happened.
Training.
Day 13 of the trip to Kanto…
Nothing happened.
Training.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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