Day 6 in Kanto. Overcast skies.
Reiji was up early, and Blaine clearly hadn't slept much either.
Amber, on the other hand, was still out cold. She'd gotten scared sleeping alone last night, so she'd dragged both Reiji and Blaine into the room to keep her company.
The inn used Japanese-style bedding laid out on the floor, so they'd simply rolled out three spots, one blanket each, and called it a night.
After getting up, Reiji went to the open-air hot spring, filled a cup with water, and brushed his teeth. By the time he finished, Amber was finally sitting up—eyes still shut, rubbing them with her fingers like she couldn't remember what morning was.
"Rai-nii… Grandpa Blaine…" Amber mumbled, staring blankly. She honestly looked like she'd forgotten how to brush her teeth.
"Old man, you teach her," Reiji said, spitting out his mouthful of water and putting his toothbrush and cup back into his backpack. "And we need to hire someone to look after her day-to-day. There's a lot we can't handle properly like this."
"Fair point," Blaine said. He handed Amber a smaller toothbrush and patiently walked her through it again. It was only the first day, and he could already tell how awkward it was going to be without a proper caretaker.
"Alright, Amber. Once you're done, we'll go get breakfast," Blaine said, and after she finished brushing, he led her out. Reiji followed behind them.
After breakfast, it was time for the Gym battle Blaine had promised. This one wouldn't be inside the volcano's usual battle arena—the place was built over magma, and Blaine wasn't about to take Amber anywhere near it.
Instead, they moved to a safer spot: a wide lawn in the inn's backyard. Amber sat on Arcanine's back, safely out of the way, with Arcanine watching her. Even if the fight got rough, the aftershocks wouldn't reach her.
"Kid," Blaine said, "Cinnabar Gym is a three-on-three battle. My first Pokémon is Growlithe. Send yours out."
"Growlithe…" Reiji narrowed his eyes. Blaine wasn't bullying him by opening with his ace, but that didn't mean this was a free win. A Growlithe raised by Blaine could easily be related to that Elite Four-tier Arcanine of his. Underestimate it, and you'd pay.
Reiji grinned. "Alright, big guy. Let's go."
Gyarados hit the field like a tidal wave, furious as always. The instant it roared, Intimidate slammed into Growlithe—and somehow Reiji's opener stacked more on top of it, like Scary Face and Leer folded into the same entrance. Growlithe's Attack and Defense dropped a notch, and its Speed took a brutal hit.
"Heh. Fire-type Growlithe? Of course I'm using a Water-type Gyarados," Reiji said. "That Volcano Badge is mine."
Attack down one, Defense down one, Speed down two. His filthy little opening routine was online. Now he just wanted to see how Blaine would respond.
"Oh?" Blaine said, amused. "Type advantage doesn't decide everything, kid. You've got the first move."
Blaine knew Intimidate, but this wasn't just Intimidate. He'd caught the extra debuffs buried in the entrance too. Reiji had basically seized control before the first command was even shouted.
In a normal match, switching would be the clean answer—but this was a Gym battle. The Gym Leader doesn't get to dodge the opening by swapping out. Blaine had to swallow it.
"Gyarados—Dragon Dance," Reiji ordered.
Gyarados surged upward, twisting hard in midair as if it were whipping the sky itself. Its momentum sharpened, its body moving with more snap and bite—Attack and Speed climbing together.
"Dragon Dance, huh…" Blaine stroked his chin instead of rushing in. "A Gyarados with a Dragon move. That's not ordinary."
"Growlithe—Flamethrower!"
Growlithe opened its mouth and blasted out a thick pillar of fire, spearing straight toward Gyarados's massive body.
"Hydro Pump!"
Gyarados answered with a cannon of water. The two attacks collided head-on, and the impact exploded into a wall of steaming mist that swallowed the entire battlefield. Fire and water canceled out cleanly—no clear winner.
But as the steam rose, it became obvious that was exactly what Blaine wanted.
"Growlithe—Agility in! Thunder Fang!"
Through the white fog, Growlithe shot forward, tracking by scent.
Gyarados jerked its head around, thrown off by the sudden loss of visibility. Reiji snapped immediately, voice sharp but steady. "Gyarados, calm down! Don't panic—Hurricane!"
Gyarados inhaled and unleashed a violent gale in every direction. The steam was ripped apart and scattered in seconds, the field snapping back into clear view.
Growlithe dug its paws into the grass to keep from getting shoved back by the wind.
"Rain Dance," Reiji said.
It was his first time calling it in a real match. He'd seen what Gyarados could do back on Rind Island—nothing dramatic, but enough to bring in a real drizzle.
Gyarados threw its head back and roared at the sky. Clouds rolled in fast, and light rain began to fall.
Normally, it shouldn't have come that easily at Gyarados's current level—but the battlefield was still saturated from all that steam. The humidity did half the work for it.
Growlithe flinched as the rain hit, shaking itself like the wetness offended it.
"Keep going!" Blaine barked. "Agility in—Thunder Fang!"
Blaine didn't have a lot of clean options. The fog had been his best chance: blind Gyarados, let Growlithe hunt by smell, and strike while Reiji's monster was swinging at empty air. But Reiji had shattered the setup instantly, and now the rain had cut Growlithe's Fire moves down to nothing.
At least Arcanine had carried Amber back under the eaves to keep her dry. Blaine could fight without worrying about collateral.
"Hydro Pump!" Reiji called.
Gyarados fired again and again—compressed blasts that detonated in the turf around Growlithe. But Growlithe was too quick after Agility. Every shot exploded close, and not one landed clean.
"So you're that slippery," Reiji muttered. "Fine. Dragon Tail—send it flying!"
Gyarados's tail flashed blue as it swung like a battering ram.
"Dodge!" Blaine shouted.
Gyarados's tail smashed down. Water sprayed up in a sheet, the ground cracking under the impact—but Growlithe slipped away again.
"Scary Face!" Reiji snapped.
Gyarados surged forward, jaws lifted, the expression alone like a threat carved into stone.
Growlithe froze for a heartbeat at that size and pressure, dropping low with a strained growl.
"Thunder Fang—now!" Blaine shouted. "This is the opening!"
Reiji didn't blink. "Bounce!"
He wasn't letting Growlithe bite down. Electric-type attacks hit Gyarados four times as hard—one Thunder Fang and a paralysis, and the fight could flip on the spot.
Gyarados slammed its tail into the ground and launched upward in a heavy leap. It still couldn't truly fly, but it could hang in the air long enough.
"Thunder!" Reiji followed immediately.
Lightning crashed down in wild strikes. Growlithe tried to dodge, but the rain-soaked ground betrayed it—every landing splashed into conductive mud. The shocks kept stacking until its legs finally seized up.
One more bolt dropped cleanly.
Growlithe collapsed in the wet grass, unconscious.
"Not bad, kid," Blaine said, recalling Growlithe. The first round was his loss.
Reiji didn't recall Gyarados. "Type advantage is basic Trainer stuff, Gym Leader Blaine. It's the first layer of tactics."
Blaine chuckled. "And you're not wrong."
He tossed his second Poké Ball. "Then how about this one? Magcargo."
"Fire and Rock," Reiji said, almost laughing. "You want to play type advantage too?"
Magcargo was four times weak to Water, and it had just been raining. This should've been ugly.
Then Reiji noticed the drizzle had already stopped. Rain Dance had ended. If he wanted the rain back, he'd need to set it again.
"Come on," Blaine said, smiling as he yielded the initiative again. "You first. Type matchups go both ways."
Reiji didn't overthink it. "Hydro Pump!"
Gyarados fired a barrage of water shots. Growlithe had dodged because it was fast—Magcargo wasn't going to outrun a dog.
"Withdraw—then Shell Smash!" Blaine called.
Magcargo snapped into its shell as the Hydro Pump blasts hammered the mud around it. Then its body flared with white light as it cracked its own defense open—Shell Smash trading away durability for raw power and speed.
Reiji's grin widened. "Oh, so you're playing that game."
So Blaine wasn't trying to win with Fire moves at all. He was trying to drag Reiji into the same kind of dirty setup war.
"Dragon Dance," Reiji said flatly. "If you're boosting, I'm boosting."
Gyarados whipped into the dance again, building Attack and Speed.
Then Magcargo's shell gleamed with a metallic sheen.
"Iron Defense!" Blaine said.
Reiji's smile twitched. "You've gotta be kidding me."
Shell Smash dropped Magcargo's defenses, sure—but Iron Defense shoved its physical bulk right back up. If Reiji kept boosting, he'd be falling behind on tempo.
"Enough dancing," Reiji decided. "Hydro Pump—blast it until it cracks!"
Hydro Pump was special damage. Iron Defense wouldn't save Magcargo from that.
Gyarados opened fire. Shot after shot drove Magcargo deeper into the mud, the impacts thudding like piledrivers.
Blaine stopped boosting. "Magcargo—Gyro Ball, spin out! Circle it and spew toxic smoke!"
Magcargo spun out of the crater like a cannonball and began circling Gyarados. From vents in its shell, it spewed thick black-and-red smoke.
Reiji's eyes narrowed. Burn and poison in one nasty cloud if you breathed it in. "Old man, you're vicious."
"Gyarados, hold your breath—Twister!"
Gyarados slammed its tail, whipping up a tight tornado that sucked the smoke into its spiral and kept it contained instead of letting it spread.
Reiji pressed the attack. "Iron Tail—smash the ground and catch it!"
Gyarados's tail flashed with steel as it hammered the turf again and again, trying to clip the rolling Magcargo.
But Magcargo kept slipping away. Not one hit landed.
Blaine watched calmly. "You're not catching it that way. When it's rolling at full speed, a straight tail swing won't land."
He sounded almost pleased, like this was a puzzle he wanted to see solved. Reiji had already cracked his earlier setups and beaten Growlithe cleanly—his command and timing were sharp for a young Trainer.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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