"Pelipper, stay here and keep watch. If you see any lights or a boat coming close, warn us with your cry," Reiji said, leaving Pelipper on the deck while he took Croagunk and Zubat into the fishing boat's captain's cabin.
The moment Gulzar saw Reiji move, he hurried after him and followed him into the cabin.
By the time they reached the captain's cabin at the stern, Darkrai and Gengar had already slipped into his shadow. Reiji also got a clear look at the poaching boss—a greasy fat man still wearing pajamas.
The cabin was lavishly decorated. An Ursaring pelt served as a rug underfoot, with the bear's head still attached. Expensive tables and chairs made from some unknown wood filled the room, and a wall-length liquor cabinet stood to one side.
The cabinet was lined with bright, high-end bottles. Beneath it sat a row of safes, and next to it was a bookshelf packed with colorful volumes.
To Reiji, only a handful of those books looked remotely useful. Otherwise, that pig wouldn't have been stuck at Advanced tier. He would've already pushed into quasi–Elite Four tier and wouldn't be this lazy—Darkrai had watched for days, and the man hadn't trained his Pokémon even once.
The captain's cabin connected to a bedroom. The boss lay sprawled on the bed in his pajamas. When he died, he was probably still sleeping like a log.
As for the two Pokémon posted as guards, Exeggutor had been knocked out cold. The moment Starmie saw Darkrai, it bolted through the window without hesitation and hit the water with a loud splash.
The remaining Flygon, Seadra, Sharpedo, and Gyarados were all in Poké Balls by the pillow. The boss died before he could even release them.
Reiji gathered the Poké Balls, set their locks, and stuffed them into his bag. Sharpedo, Gyarados, and Seadra were a headache to deal with. Exeggutor and Flygon were the real money.
The other three… he'd have Naoki appraise them later. They weren't exactly valuable anyway. Sharpedo could only be treated as food, Gyarados would flee the moment it was released, and once it ran, there was no chance of catching it again.
Seadra could still be used for breeding, but it needed a Dragon Scale to evolve, and that alone stopped a lot of Trainers. Dragon-types were never easy to build around.
All told, the five Pokémon he kept were worth at least fifteen million. The Advanced-tier Flygon was the biggest prize, with the Advanced-tier Exeggutor right behind it. Too bad one got away.
"Gulzar, is the poaching boss him?" Reiji put the Poké Balls away and motioned for Gulzar to come identify the body.
"It's him, Rai-nii. When I worked on this boat, I saw him twice. Everyone was terrified of him…"
Gulzar stepped into the bedroom and stared at the fat man's wide-open eyes. He looked like he'd been scared to death. Gulzar couldn't imagine what the man had seen in his final moment to end up like this.
He also hadn't seen Reiji send any Pokémon in here. A single Spinarak wouldn't be enough to deal with the boss. That meant Reiji had something else—something hidden, something that could erase the boss quietly without making a sound.
Once Gulzar realized that, he didn't dare look around. He was smart enough to know when to play dumb. After confirming the boss's identity, he lowered his head and waited for orders.
"Alright. Go outside and watch the rest of them," Reiji said, patting Gulzar's shoulder lightly. "Anyone who bullied you—handle it however you want."
After Gulzar left, Darkrai's voice echoed inside Reiji's mind.
"He noticed us…"
"He knows we exist, but he doesn't know who we are," Reiji said with a slight shake of his head. "He's a smart kid."
Reiji had caught Gulzar's tiny tells from start to finish. The boy was sharp, and he knew how to behave.
Reiji wasn't worried about raising someone who would turn on him. Whether Gulzar chose the underworld or the straight path, once Reiji climbed into the League's upper ranks, Gulzar would still end up working under him.
"Gengar, find anything valuable and pack it into the bags," Reiji said. "Darkrai's been watching this guy for days. If you're not sure where something is, ask Darkrai."
Gengar licked the corner of its mouth, already eager at the thought of "good stuff." In its head, "good stuff" meant endless food. Whatever snacks this dead pig had stockpiled, Gengar planned to take every last bite.
There was plenty to do. Reiji put on gloves as well and started searching for anything Darkrai might've overlooked. The safes were the first target, then the rows of expensive liquor, then the bookshelf.
Useful or not, he'd pack it all first. He could sort it later—keep what mattered, toss what didn't.
He also found the boss's backpack. With a space backpack on hand, there was no real reason to rely on safes.
Then Gengar reached a chubby black hand straight through a safe door and pulled out… a thong.
"Gengar, stop. I said valuables. Not this," Reiji said, already guessing what those safes were really for. No wonder the fat man used safes—this was the kind of "evidence" he wanted sealed away forever.
Gengar jerked like it had grabbed something scorching and flung it aside.
The thing landed on Croagunk's head.
Croagunk tilted its head, completely lost, then held it up against itself like it was checking the size. It looked like it might fit.
"That's enough. Put it down," Reiji said, pressing his fingers to his forehead. "And from now on, if you see stuff like that, don't touch it."
Pokémon didn't need clothes. Croagunk didn't know what it was, but Reiji absolutely did.
Even dead, that fat man still wanted to "leave his innocence behind."
Too bad he forgot Ghost-types could pass through walls.
None of the three safes had anything valuable. They were all stuffed with women's underwear—every style imaginable—sorted across three separate safes. Reiji didn't even know what to say anymore.
Once he gave up on the safes, he found some cash in a drawer, a few pieces of women's jewelry, and a couple of "art pieces" he couldn't make sense of.
That was it. Anything truly valuable was probably inside the backpack.
Even the drawers were full of lingerie, along with piles of tasty snacks. This dead pig was a complete freak. Just looking at it made Reiji's eyes hurt.
Then he spotted something on the desk: a golden Bulbasaur.
So people in this world believed in this kind of thing too?
He didn't see any "good luck" charm around, but "inviting death" sure came true.
Reiji had Gengar swallow the backpack, then handed over an empty one and told Gengar and Darkrai to loot the rest of the ship. Anything valuable—take it, and pack it away.
The captain's cabin was cleaned out. Darkrai had been hiding here for days, so it knew exactly what was worth taking.
There were also bank cards. The fat man used complicated passwords, had a whole stack of cards, and every password was a random string of digits.
Reiji only knew because the idiot was afraid of forgetting them, so he wrote the passwords directly on the cards.
You could call him smart for using complex passwords, but you also had to call him stupid for writing them down where anyone could read them. It was like locking your door and taping the key to the handle. In the end, it just made things easier for Reiji.
A poaching boss like him had to be swimming in money. You didn't grow that much fat without living like a king. Reiji just didn't know how many hundreds of millions were sitting in those accounts. Illegal business always paid best.
With the two backpacks of captured wild Pokémon secured, Reiji took Croagunk and Zubat and left the captain's cabin after one last check for anything missed.
One backpack held several hundred Poké Balls. That number sounded small, but every single Pokémon inside could sell for a million, and some for three or four million.
The boss only cared about rare catches like Scyther. Common Pokémon weren't worth his attention—his grunts were the ones who caught those.
Out in the corridor, Reiji saw every member of the poaching crew gathered on the deck. Sixteen people in total, with thirty-eight Pokémon between them—mostly common species.
Aside from the two sailors who stood watch at night, the rest split into three hunting squads. They went out every day to catch wild Pokémon.
Beyond the rare Pokémon the boss demanded, they also captured common ones. The other backpack held thousands of Poké Balls filled with those catches, basically the crew's "bonuses."
Even workhorses needed feed. Those Pokémon were their spoils. Once they got back to a big city, the boss would distribute rewards, and the money from selling Pokémon would keep them partying for a long time.
Too bad. It was all in Reiji's hands now.
He was going to release those wild Pokémon later. Even if some were valuable, he wouldn't sell them.
He needed money, sure—but he wouldn't make it this way. That was his line. Who said bad people couldn't have a line?
When Gengar and Darkrai returned and confirmed they'd searched everywhere and packed all valuables into the bags, Reiji finally stepped down from the corridor toward the deck below.
The moment the crew heard footsteps overhead—heels striking wood—they fell silent. One by one, they turned toward the sound.
When they saw Reiji, they realized he was just another teenager. Their stares stayed hostile, warning him to let them go, as if their boss would make him pay.
Ali, who had seen Reiji move before, felt cold all over.
It was night, so he couldn't see Reiji's face clearly, but he remembered Gulzar.
A Trainer walking side by side with Gulzar could only be one person—the one who had beaten them. Someone at Advanced tier, just like their boss.
If that kid was here, then the boss was probably already gone.
Which meant they were next.
And these idiots were still trying to glare him down. It was suicide.
"Where's the other kid?" Reiji asked, scanning the deck. Sixteen people were tied up, and only Gulzar was standing. "He's not here."
"He's still in the holding cell," Gulzar said. "I haven't gone to get him yet."
"Go get him. I'll stay here," Reiji said, clicking on a flashlight. There was no point hiding anymore. The boss was dead, and this was just cleanup.
Before Gulzar left, he switched on his own flashlight and headed for the lowest level of the deck. Gym Leader Luana's son was locked down there, and Gulzar knew the way—he'd been the one bringing food.
Not long after, Gulzar came back up with a boy in torn clothes, hair a tangled mess, his face sallow and thin from hunger.
Reiji shone the light on him. The boy was so weak he couldn't even lift a hand to block it. He stood in the doorway with the beam on his face, eyes dull, barely reacting at all.
"Eat something first," Reiji said, tossing him a bottle of water and a bun. A starving body couldn't handle too much at once. He needed to recover slowly.
"Th… thanks," the boy rasped. His throat sounded like it hadn't touched water in ages. After forcing out the words, he lunged for the bun, tore the wrapper open with his teeth, and wolfed it down.
Then he gulped water so fast he nearly cried when the cap wouldn't twist off. Gulzar had to open it for him.
He drank too hard, choked immediately, and spat water everywhere.
"Cough—cough, cough…"
"What's your name?" Reiji asked once the coughing eased.
"T-Travis," the boy said, stumbling over it.
"Travis? Gym Leader Luana's son?" Reiji rubbed his chin.
He didn't look much like Ash at all.
Back in his previous life, the animation team had been lazy. They didn't want to redraw a one-off character, so they reused Ash's character model for Travis. By that logic, the two should've looked nearly identical.
But standing here now, there was a clear difference.
Then again… the boy was starved down to bone. His cheeks were hollow, his eye sockets sunken, his face barely more than skin over sharp angles. It was hard to look at.
"Yes," Travis said, giving a faint nod. Then he glanced at Gulzar, like he wanted to ask whether Gulzar had told Reiji everything.
Gulzar only nodded back. He didn't explain. This wasn't the place to talk. They could deal with it once they were back at camp.
"They didn't feed you?" Reiji asked.
"I used to get one meal a day," Travis said. "But the last two days… nothing."
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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