Day 38 of the journey to Kanto. Clear skies.
Another bright, sunny morning. After getting up, they had to move on again. Reiji was still two days away from Celadon City, but since mountain roads would be rough for Keith, taking a boat today was an option.
They could board from this town. It sat on the eastern side of the inland sea; from there, they could sail north, then continue north on foot for one more day to reach Celadon City.
Keith did not need to follow him for the next leg. He had to board from the harbor on the north side of the inland sea. This town's port was too small for ships heading out to open water, so only the northern docks would work.
"Time to board." Reiji held two tickets and handed one to Keith. The two of them got onto the passenger ship. Since it only sailed within the inland sea, they had bought short-distance tickets, not cabin tickets.
Once they were aboard, Reiji ordered a chilled citrus juice and sat under a parasol to enjoy the view. Keith was sent off to catch Wingull.
Now that Keith had Magikarp, whether he caught Wingull or not no longer mattered much. Wingull and Gyarados overlapped in typing, and Keith was not short on Flying-types anyway. Catching Wingull would not change much.
With the sea breeze blowing over him, Reiji read when he got bored and occasionally thought back on his haul from Grampa Canyon. After getting so many Elite Four-tier items, he felt much more confident about securing a top-grade Water Stone.
If Cissy's grandfather refused to hand one over, Reiji could trade an Elite Four-tier item for it. The two were worth roughly the same.
Strictly speaking, an Elite Four-tier held item was more practical. It could even be passed down like a family treasure, the kind of Dragon Fang that lasted three generations.
But why would he trade away a Dragon Fang?
He could just use a Hard Stone. Most Dragon Fangs came from the Dragon Clan, so they were rare and hard to buy even with money.
An Elite Four-tier Hard Stone was different. Any Elite Four-tier Rock-type Pokémon could condense one with enough time, and the hardened parts left behind after death could turn into Hard Stones too. It could not compare with Dragon Fang in rarity, which made it perfect for trading for a top-grade Water Stone.
Poliwhirl's evolution was more or less settled now. The next issue was finding the right trading partner, and Reiji already had someone in mind: Blaine. As a Gym Leader, getting a top-grade Evolution Stone should be easy for him.
Cissy's grandfather did have a top-grade Water Stone, but Reiji did not trust the old fox. If he lost at drinking, he blamed the liquor. If he failed at fishing, he blamed the spot. The man would blame anything except himself.
Reiji would not dare trade with him, especially not with an Elite Four-tier item involved. If the old man decided he wanted both the item and Reiji himself, Reiji would end up crying in a bathroom stall.
He set down his pen and closed his notebook. That was his plan for now. Whether he could get the top-grade Water Stone would decide what came next, but his route to the Indigo League Conference would not change.
"Vee." After spending a few days with Reiji, Eevee had slowly grown used to him. Seeing him sit there in thought, it occasionally rubbed against him for attention.
"Eevee." Reiji felt the fluffy head against him and reached over. Eevee, lying on the table, lifted its head and rubbed into his palm.
He was basically raising this Eevee as a pet. It definitely had trauma around battling, and probably around evolution too. They could deal with that after they got closer. He would not force it to evolve or battle.
This Eevee could probably only evolve into Umbreon. The other evolutions were not worth considering. The Dark-type energy inside it was too obvious, and Umbreon clearly offered the most potential.
But Umbreon's evolution required friendship and a full moon at night, which was even more demanding than Golbat's evolution. They could not meet those conditions right now, and the friendship definitely was not high enough. For now, he could only raise it slowly.
"Zap..." Zapdos lay on Reiji's lap. It had gotten used to being there, though it still preferred hiding in his hat.
"Left hand Eevee, right hand Zapdos." Reiji quietly enjoyed the feeling of petting two fluffy little creatures. This part of the trip was honestly pretty comfortable.
Riolu was another story. That little dog did not want anything to do with him, and Reiji had no interest in forcing it. At least Riolu's injuries were almost healed, and it would train with Poliwhirl now, so Reiji let it be.
Riolu did not reject Poliwhirl as much. It followed Poliwhirl around like a little assistant and only listened to Poliwhirl's orders.
If Reiji could not change Riolu's attitude toward humans, then he would not be able to catch it. In that case, he could just let it roam around the Gym. Losing one Pokémon would not matter; he was not short on battlers.
Aside from Poliwhirl, he had not released the rest of the little ones. They were still on a ship, and too many Pokémon would get in the way of the other passengers.
No wonder the League had a rule saying Trainers could only carry six Pokémon. It actually made sense.
He was carrying around twenty Pokémon right now. Feeding them alone took ages, and because there were so many, he could not release them freely. If Poliwhirl and the others were not sensible enough to help him care for the younger ones, he really would not be able to handle them all.
Reiji quietly flipped through their panels while recording interesting moments from the trip. Whenever he came up with an interesting idea, he wrote that down too.
When he opened Poliwhirl's panel, he sighed. The last time he checked, Poliwhirl's panel had already hit its limit, and this time was not much better. Its level had stopped moving, completely blocked by its potential.
He closed Poliwhirl's panel and opened the others. When he checked Weezing, the change in level was obvious. Like Gengar, it grew at double speed, and with toxin crystals as snacks, it grew even faster. What it lacked was real battle experience.
He would have to let Gengar properly train Weezing in the dream world. Those two were always hanging around together, and he had even discovered them poisoning each other.
Apparently, eating the toxins secreted by Toxicroak and Golbat was not enough. Gengar had also tasted Weezing's poison, though Weezing's toxins did not taste good to it. Weezing was a Pokémon that fed on gas, after all.
Then Gengar had Weezing taste its own poison. Weezing went red on the spot and nearly got poisoned flat.
That proved one thing: Gengar's poison was the strongest. Even Weezing could not handle it.
After Weezing joined them, it became the second most poisonous Pokémon on the team. It had been raised through toxins, after all. Toxicroak was third, Golbat fourth, Spinarak fifth...
He had not checked Golbat's panel for more than a month, not since the last Gym battle.
[Golbat]
[Type: Poison + Flying]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 65.37%]
[Level: 40.11%]
[Ability: Inner Focus/23.53%][Hidden Ability: Infiltrator/22.13%]
[Moves]
Poison-type: [(Sludge Bomb/35.64%) (Poison Fang/36.45%) (Venoshock/35.74%) (Toxic/38.82%)]
Flying-type: [(Wing Attack/29.31%) (Air Cutter/28.54%) (Air Slash/27.32%) (Roost/12.33%) (Tailwind/22.53%)]
Normal-type: [(Quick Attack/29.11%) (Protect/36.88%) (Supersonic/34.12%) (Screech/32.35%) (Mean Look/21.64%)]
Dark-type: [(Bite/27.41%) (Crunch/10.64%) (Nasty Plot/14.43%) (Taunt/24.73%)]
Grass-type: [(Absorb/22.21%) (Giga Drain/8.01%)]
Psychic-type: [(Hypnosis/22.14%) (Agility/12.34%)]
Other Moves: [(Steel Wing/13.54%) (Leech Life/23.94%)]
After more than a month, Golbat's potential had risen slowly. Slowly enough to crawl, but Reiji was used to that.
At least Golbat had reached Advanced tier. Unfortunately, its evolution required friendship, which made raising its potential harder. Friendship evolutions were among the most difficult evolutions.
Golbat was also one of his disguise Pokémon, so he could not openly bring it out to grind friendship. That made evolution even harder.
He would have to let it happen naturally. When the friendship was high enough, it would evolve on its own, just like the Eevee currently rubbing against him.
Golbat's abilities had changed quite a bit. As its strength rose, both had grown to different degrees.
Over this period, Golbat had also learned plenty of new moves. Most of them were advanced moves of its own types, which explained why it learned them so quickly.
Better yet, Golbat's physical condition had finally caught up. That was worth celebrating.
It no longer needed help purging excess toxins. Golbat could now break them down on its own without damaging its body.
"Not bad. Not bad." Reiji nodded to himself and closed Golbat's panel. Golbat was already good enough for scouting and guard duty. At least he now had a visible guard. Spinarak was still a little lacking there.
After putting Golbat aside, he opened Toxicroak's panel. He had not checked it in about a month either, not since they parted ways on the luxury cruise ship. It should have reached Advanced tier by now.
[Toxicroak]
[Type: Poison + Fighting]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 66.46%]
[Level: 42.32%]
[Ability: Anticipation/38.68%][Hidden Ability: Poison Touch/39.88%]
[Moves]
Poison-type: [(Poison Jab/36.11%) (Toxic/38.55%) (Venoshock/36.44%) (Poison Sting/31.15%) (Sludge Bomb/26.34%)]
Fighting-type: [(Dynamic Punch/26.47%) (Drain Punch/34.24%) (Bulk Up/26.77%) (Low Kick/24.34%)]
Ground-type: [(Mud-Slap/34.31%) (Mud Shot/34.35%)]
Ghost-type: [(Shadow Ball/21.25%) (Shadow Claw/11.35%)]
Dark-type: [(Taunt/25.55%) (Sucker Punch/12.51%) (Nasty Plot/10.71%)]
Other Moves: [(Bullet Punch/36.27%) (Protect/40.51%) (Rest/41.72%) (Ice Punch/14.52%) (Thunder Punch/14.62%) (Aerial Ace/11.37%)]
After a month without checking, Toxicroak's potential had actually risen. Reiji remembered only giving it Fighting Gems, not anything Poison-related.
Toxicroak's potential had risen a little more than Golbat's. Logically, neither had much room for major change, so the increase should have been tiny. Yet Toxicroak gained an extra 0.1 or so. Reiji could only chalk it up to its Poison-type talent.
Golbat's Poison-type talent had been forced out and then trimmed back by him.
Toxicroak's Poison-type talent was natural. After Reiji balanced it through physical training, it had started feeding back into its potential. Not bad at all.
Its level had reached Advanced tier, just as expected, and even surpassed Golbat's. That made sense. He had caught Toxicroak first.
Its ability proficiency had also improved. Toxicroak's danger sense was getting sharper.
As for moves, Reiji had assigned it new ones to learn, and it had basically picked them all up. Most were learned from his other Pokémon. That counted as making full use of the team, and it expanded Toxicroak's coverage.
Reiji closed Toxicroak's panel, set down his pen, and stretched. There was not much need to check the remaining Pokémon. Tauros, Ditto, Spinarak—these support Pokémon did not need as much attention.
If he tried to carefully raise every single Pokémon, he would have no time for anything else. At that point, he might as well become a Pokémon researcher.
He really envied Trainers like Ash. They had Professor Oak helping them care for their Pokémon. Handling everything alone was too much work.
Reiji put away his Pokémon notes. It was about time for lunch, but he did not call Keith. The kid had money, and who knew where he was catching Pokémon right now.
Reiji ate lunch first. When Keith came back, he helped check the potential of the Pokémon he had caught. If none were good enough, Keith went back out to keep catching. With nothing else to do that afternoon, Reiji headed to the ship's battle court.
Although it was only an inland-sea passenger ship, the entertainment facilities were complete. That included a battle court. Reiji spent the afternoon watching battles from the second floor, and when he got interested, he went down and fought a couple of rounds with Forretress.
All afternoon, he did not meet a single opponent who could break through Forretress's defenses. Even Fire-type Pokémon were useless. Forretress used Rapid Spin and rolled straight into Flamethrower.
It tore through the flames and slammed into the opponent's face, knocking it unconscious. Forretress came out fine. Its whole body was already pitch-black, so even burns did not show. Consider that a successful fire-resistance test.
His training method had just gone up in value again.
Once his Forretress drew attention, a lot of Trainers came over to ask where he had found it and how he had raised it.
Reiji brushed them off with vague answers. Then, when no one was paying attention, he slipped into the crowd and got away. Fortunately, the ship was packed, and he had covered his face, so no one recognized him.
He went to a public restroom, changed into a different outfit, then returned to the ship rail for dinner while enjoying the sunset. As the whistle sounded, the ship pulled into port.
After disembarking, Keith went to buy his transfer ticket. This was where Reiji would part ways with him. In the end, Keith still had not caught a talented Wingull.
Reiji advised him, "Wingull is Water/Flying. You already have Magikarp, and you're not short on Flying-types. No need to obsess over it."
"I understand, Boss." Keith had eight Pokémon now, enough for a new Trainer's starting lineup.
He was short on main battlers, though. Counting only the ones that could serve as real mainstays, he had Pidgeotto, Geodude, Zubat, and Magikarp. The rest leaned more toward support. They could fight too, but they were not as strong as the others.
"Go on. I've already spoken to Naoki. He'll help you find work, so learn from him properly." Reiji waved goodbye and told Keith not to worry. Then he watched him board the ship.
"Goodbye. When you come back, Boss, I'll come find you." Keith did not know how long Reiji would stay in Kanto or what he planned to do, and he did not dare ask. Reiji would not tell him anyway.
"Goodbye." Reiji smiled helplessly. Keith was still a kid, but having the courage to travel alone by ship was already impressive. Hopefully, he would reach the Orange Archipelago safely.
Reiji had already warned him to be careful on the way. Watch what he said, keep a low profile, and avoid showing too much of himself. If he could stay holed up in his cabin the whole trip, he should. If he needed training, he could rent a training room. Above all, cause as little trouble as possible.
That was how things worked when someone lacked strength. Once he had power, he could act bold later.
As for Reiji's plans for the kid, Keith had a record and clearly could not stand in the light. That made him useful for things that had to stay hidden.
Each of these younger ones would have their own use in the future. Reiji had no intention of letting them sit around as background decoration. When the time came, all of them would have to fight for him.
After seeing Keith off, Reiji turned and entered the city. Future plans were still distant. Right now, he cared about the work in front of him.
The harbor city was not large, but at least it had a Pokémon Center. Reiji went there, registered for a room, and decided to stay the night.
He would head for Celadon City tomorrow. It was not far from here. By car, it would take one morning; by flight, only an hour or two. There was no need to rush.
The Gym challenge could wait until tomorrow. After a full day on a boat, that swaying feeling had returned.
He had not gotten seasick on the larger ship before, but the moment he boarded a smaller one, the dizziness came back and refused to fade all day. He planned to sleep it off properly.
After releasing everyone for dinner, Reiji had them spend time in the Dream World. Then he released Spinarak and Poliwhirl to keep watch, hugged Eevee, and fell asleep.
"Vee." Eevee listened to Reiji's steady breathing and slowly crawled out from under his hand. It looked at Spinarak in the corner, then Poliwhirl beside the bed, before moving to Reiji's face and lying there quietly, watching him.
It did not know whether following this Trainer would turn out good or bad. But its new Trainer treated it well, at least much better than its previous one.
Because of Evolution Stones, Eevee were popular in Stone Town. That also meant there were many abandoned Eevee wandering around. Fortunately, kind people sometimes took them in. Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny would, at least.
When Eevee had still been with its Trainer, it had seen plenty of stray Eevee. It had thought that once it was abandoned, it would have to start wandering too. But it had not.
Being abandoned was a misfortune. Maybe, in this case, it was also luck.
"Vee." Eevee stuck out its little pink tongue and licked Reiji's nose. Then it curled up in his arms and drifted into a peaceful sleep.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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