On the seventeenth day of the journey, the weather was clear.
Waking from the nightmare, Reiji still felt dazed. It was as if he hadn't slept at all, just moved from one world to another.
Both worlds felt so real that it took him a long time to adjust, like he'd pulled an all-nighter; his head still throbbed faintly.
Fortunately, the senses in the nightmare were just as real—it hurt when you got hurt. All of that kept reminding him it was only a dream.
If the scope of the dream hadn't been so small, he really might not have been able to tell which side was reality.
Looks like he couldn't stay inside the nightmare too long in the future. If he spent too much time there, mixing up dream and reality might lead to judgment errors in the real world. If he treated the dream as reality and did something suicidal, he might not even know how he died.
He went into the bathroom and let cold water wash over his body. Only then did he fully wake up. After that, he prepared breakfast for his Pokémon and made something simple for himself.
In hindsight, it wasn't actually that easy to get addicted to the dream world. First, the dream's range was tiny. Second, there were no other people there. The dream and reality were still very different, and with Darkrai around, it was easy enough to tell which side he was on.
Once breakfast was done, he laid out food one by one for all seventeen Pokémon. For now, Darkrai was eating Gastly's stash of Psychic-type Pokéblocks. If Gastly ever found out, who knew if it would flip the table on him.
Luckily Gastly didn't know, or it would definitely kick up a fuss.
Once everyone had eaten, the Pokémon all started their morning training, and Reiji went out for his usual jog.
Seeing that everyone was working out except itself, Darkrai floated over to where Reiji was running. "Everyone else is training. What should I be doing?"
"Darkrai."
Reiji stopped jogging and went to sit on a bench by the pool. He'd decided it was time to talk to Darkrai about the nightmare problem.
"Your nightmares are probably because your mental power is too low to restrain the Bad Dreams ability," Reiji said. "You need to build up your mental strength—basically, your psychic power. That's why I've been feeding you Psychic-type Pokéblocks…"
"Bad Dreams?" Darkrai clearly had never heard of what a 'Bad Dreams' ability even was.
Reiji exhaled. He took out his Pokédex and flipped to Darkrai's page, only to find there was no description of its ability at all. That meant no one had discovered Bad Dreams yet, much less researched it.
"It's not in the book, so I don't really know how to explain it," he admitted. "But you know the move Dream Eater, right?"
"Dream Eater?" Darkrai nodded. It did know that move and could use it, but it didn't understand what that had to do with Bad Dreams.
"Dream Eater works almost the same way as your Bad Dreams ability," Reiji said. "If you want to control your nightmare power, you have to get really good at using Dream Eater first. Does that make sense?"
"Dream Eater…"
Darkrai thought about it, but still didn't understand the connection. Bad Dreams was pure instinct, a subconscious aura that radiated out on its own.
Darkrai probably didn't yet realize that Bad Dreams was also a kind of power you could rein in, not something that just followed it wherever it went.
"Forget it, just start by practicing Dream Eater," Reiji said with a helpless sigh. "Once the move's proficiency gets high enough, you'll naturally feel the nightmare energy leaking off your body."
Nightmares were an invisible, intangible power. He didn't know how else to describe it either. In his past life, all he'd known was that its effect was similar to Dream Eater—one passive, one active.
"Oh, right. You need sleeping targets to practice Dream Eater on. Without sleeping targets, how are you going to use the move?"
"…"
Darkrai fell silent.
If Dream Eater really could help it control its nightmare power, then where was it supposed to find suitable targets to practice on?
To use Dream Eater, you needed something to strip away in the first place.
For a while, both Reiji and Darkrai were stuck. Where were they supposed to find the right kind of practice targets for Darkrai to build up its Dream Eater proficiency?
"What if we wait until tonight?" Reiji finally came up with an idea. They could have Darkrai reduce the move's power and use Dream Eater on some sleeping Pokémon.
"Tonight?" Darkrai asked, confused.
"Yeah. You can use Dream Eater on some trainers' Pokémon at night," Reiji explained. "Or on wild Pokémon, that works too."
"It won't hurt them, right?"
Darkrai didn't feel good about that. What if it hurt the wild Pokémon? It hesitated. Reiji really was trying to help it, and here it was still wavering. Darkrai didn't quite know how to face him.
"Then what do you want to do?" Reiji spread his hands. "If you don't have anything to take, you can't use Dream Eater at all."
He genuinely wanted to help the nightmare god, but if Darkrai refused to hurt other Pokémon, there wasn't much he could do.
"If you're that worried about hurting them, just tone down Dream Eater's power," Reiji said. "For those Pokémon it's basically just a nightmare. Tomorrow they might feel a bit drained, but after some rest they'll be fine…"
"Really?" Darkrai still wasn't entirely convinced.
"If you don't believe me, go try it yourself," Reiji said. "Find a few sleeping Pokémon and give it a test. Just remember to dial down Dream Eater's power, then watch how the targets react after you drain a bit of their stamina."
"Uh… how do I even reduce the power?" Darkrai understood in theory, but had no idea how to control the move's strength.
"Come with me."
Reiji didn't know how to put it into words either, so he brought Darkrai into the kitchen for a hands-on demo.
In the kitchen, Reiji turned on the tap and filled a plastic basin with water. "Darkrai, the power of a move depends on how much energy you push out…"
He twisted the tap on and off in a quick flick, just enough to fill half a bowl. "This bowl is the energy I released in that instant. And this basin—"
Reiji lifted the plastic basin and dumped all the water out in one go. "—is also the energy I released in a single instant. See the difference?"
"I get it," Darkrai said slowly. "If I want to weaken Dream Eater, I just need to output less energy in that instant, and that'll reduce how much it hurts the other Pokémon."
Reiji nodded. "Pretty much. Dream Eater doesn't just hurt sleeping Pokémon—it also restores your HP. Just be careful and try it out for yourself."
"No wonder they always collapsed when I used Dream Eater before," Darkrai muttered as it suddenly put the pieces together. "I was just using too much power."
Of course, reducing the energy output wasn't that easy to control either. It would have to practice that too.
"Oh yeah," Reiji added, "if you find it hard to control at first, you can practice using other moves. Go find Poliwhirl, or Butterfree. They're both really good at controlling their move power."
"I understand. Thank you," Darkrai said, then turned to head toward Poliwhirl.
"No need to thank me. Friends don't need to say thanks," Reiji waved him off and went back to jogging.
At those words, Darkrai's drifting steps paused for a moment before it continued toward Poliwhirl. Having a friend felt really good. Being able to befriend someone like Reiji made it genuinely happy.
Training continued through to lunchtime. After eating, everyone had their midday break. During this window, Reiji called Poliwhirl over to try giving it a massage.
Recently he'd been studying Poliwhirl's massage techniques from a book. Today he'd start with its legs. As soon as Poliwhirl lay down, the other Pokémon all crowded around to watch.
"Shoo, shoo. Nothing to see here. Go rest, we've still got training this afternoon," Reiji said. He hadn't even put his hands on Poliwhirl yet and was already surrounded. With his first time massaging, being stared at like this was embarrassing.
The Pokémon reluctantly scattered, but none of them really gave up. They lay down as if they were napping, but every single one of them was secretly watching him out of the corner of their eyes.
Reiji honestly didn't know what was so interesting about a massage. The routine for Poliwhirl was simple: relax its overworked muscles and ease the tightness in its arms and legs from training.
After just a few minutes, he realized this was hard labor. If he didn't use enough force, Poliwhirl felt nothing. If he did use enough force, Poliwhirl was comfortable, but his ten fingers were starting to give out.
"Poli~," Poliwhirl murmured contentedly, eyes closed as it enjoyed Reiji's not-very-professional massage. It felt really good—this was Reiji massaging it, after all.
After half an hour, Reiji had to stop and rest, his arms heavy and his fingers weak.
Maybe he just wasn't used to it yet. Or maybe his technique wasn't efficient enough.
Either way, it would do for now. He'd start by building up his own proficiency on Poliwhirl, then move on to massaging the rest of his Pokémon.
Seeing Poliwhirl fall asleep under his hands, Reiji lay back on the folding bed to take a nap himself. Butterfree fluttered over, landing in his arms with a soft, "Buu-ii…"
"All right, all right, you too," Reiji said. Like he couldn't tell this thing was begging for attention. Hugging Butterfree, he put his fingertips gently against its temples and started pressing around its head.
Butterfree had to train its psychic power all the time; its brain was under constant strain. Helping it relax a bit wouldn't take long.
As he slowly worked around Butterfree's temples, Reiji himself drifted off.
He slept until the alarm he'd set went off. It was 2 p.m.—time for afternoon training.
The Pokémon all went back to their own practice. Reiji swept his gaze over the yard to make sure everyone was working, then pulled out his training books again to see if there was anything that could make up for the limits of his proficiency panel.
As he read, he noticed something—or rather, someone—was missing. Once he finished counting, he realized Darkrai wasn't there.
Darkrai had definitely gone to try Dream Eater. It would probably be back by dinner. Reiji didn't worry about it. They'd only just established a basic working relationship. They still had plenty of time ahead of them.
Just as he'd predicted, by the time the sunset brushed the horizon and dinner was ready, Darkrai had returned to the villa's courtyard.
"How'd it go, Darkrai?" Reiji asked, setting down Darkrai's dinner in front of him. Darkrai ate at the same table as Reiji now. Not just Darkrai—Poliwhirl, Butterfree, Scyther, Croagunk and a few others all had seats at the table.
Any Pokémon that could realistically sit on a chair ate at the table. Kingler and Rhyhorn didn't have that option; they had to eat on the open ground next to it.
"Not bad," Darkrai said. "With Dream Eater weakened, the Pokémon I used it on just woke up in a fright. It didn't do much harm. I can feel myself getting more and more precise with the move."
"As long as it works," Reiji said. "Eat up. We're heading back to the black market tonight. I need a lot of money, and I'll need your help."
They ate and chatted. Reiji told Darkrai about his plans—Gastly's training couldn't stop; he needed a constant cash flow to keep feeding that bottomless pit.
By the time the sun was completely gone, he was back in his anti-stab outfit, getting ready for another night of 'fishing'.
Before night operations, he had to track down the young bartender and ask which sailors liked to rob robbers, and how strong they were, so he could bait the hook properly.
But when he reached the harbor bar, he learned the young bartender wasn't there. He asked the other bartenders and waiters, but none of them knew where the kid had gone.
All he got during his questions was someone hinting that the kid had "gone down below." No one said which "below" they meant.
Reiji really hadn't seen it coming—that the bartender actually had the guts to go to the black market. And he had no clue what the kid was doing down there.
To avoid tipping anyone off, Reiji didn't press the others further. Instead, he climbed onto Pelipper and flew to the drainage outlet, then dropped back into the sewers, heading for the black market to look for the bartender. Whether he'd find him or not was anyone's guess.
It was still early. He had time to swing by and take a look.
He stepped into the same black market as yesterday, into the cavern under the Poison Gang's control.
The moment he arrived, he noticed there were far fewer masked stall owners than yesterday. He had no idea what had happened.
"Hurry up, let's go. The Poison Gang's recruiting—we might actually get picked! Once we join them and have that badge, no one will ever push us around again."
"Bro, I heard you have to beat a Poison Gang senior if you want to get in. The Storm Gang's the same way…"
"What else did you think? If anyone could just walk in, would the Poison Gang be handing out free Poison-types?.
"I heard there's Ekans, Koffing, Grimer, Weedle, Spinarak, Tentacool and Bellsprout, but I still want a Zubat…"
"Pass the test first. If you can't beat the seniors, you'll only get to pick in your dreams."
Watching the whispering pair hurry off, Reiji couldn't help feeling amused. The Poison Gang and Storm Gang were actually recruiting. They'd probably already formed an alliance—before moving on the Rock Gang, they wanted to gather a batch of disposable muscle to probe Rock's true strength.
Curious, he followed them.
Next to the black market cavern, there was another cave guarded by two Poison Gang members in black uniforms. Only by passing through this rocky tunnel a few meters long could you reach the Poison Gang's base.
(End of Chapter)
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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