After leaving the Pokémon Center, Reiji and Shun walked through the streets of Fuchsia City, finally clear of all the noise and chaos back there.
Good thing they had gotten out fast. If they had stayed any longer, the crowd gathering at the Pokémon Center would have surrounded them completely, and leaving would have been a pain.
"Weren't you going to enter that fighting tournament, Shun? Let's split up here," Reiji said. Their routes were different from here on out, so there was no point forcing themselves to travel together.
"Reiji-nii, I still wanted to battle you," Shun said.
He had been in a great mood a moment ago. He had won his match, and Reiji-nii had won his too. That was worth celebrating.
But now they were about to part again, and his mood dipped right back down. They had only just met up again yesterday, and now they were already saying goodbye. He really didn't want it to end so soon.
"Didn't we already battle yesterday?" Reiji said with a laugh, patting him on the shoulder. "There'll be plenty of chances later. At the Indigo Plateau Conference, or when we're back in the Orange Archipelago."
For all the kid's independence, Shun still had moments like this.
Traveling on his own meant he could already stand on his own two feet. He could think for himself, make his own calls, and follow his own path.
But seeing him this reluctant to part made Reiji think of a few months ago, when they had said goodbye on Mandarin Island South. Shun had looked just like this back then too.
"I know, Reiji-nii." Shun took a long breath, steadied himself, and said, "At the Indigo Plateau Conference, I'll beat you with everything I've got."
Reiji laughed. "Good. I won't hold back either."
Only after Shun turned and walked away did Reiji notice the little Poliwhirl charm hanging from his backpack, swaying with every step.
"Shun, you've really grown into a trainer who can stand on his own."
"See you, Reiji-nii!"
Shun waved too, then kept walking.
He really had wanted to travel with Reiji, but he held himself back. This was his journey. Once he calmed down, he knew he wanted to go where he had chosen to go.
"So he'd been carrying that charm the whole time," Reiji murmured, smiling to himself.
Then he took Poliwhirl with him and headed down another street.
After parting with Shun, he went to the department store and found a Pokémon supply shop. He wanted to buy a saddle for Tauros, basically the same thing as a horse saddle.
He had already caught the thing, so he might as well use it for travel. Riding Tauros to the Gym at a leisurely pace would be a lot more fun than just flying there on Pelipper. Besides, it was about time Tauros earned its keep instead of getting fed for free.
The moment the shopkeeper heard he wanted a bull saddle, he asked Reiji to send Tauros out. After measuring its back, he found a saddle that matched its size and started fitting it on.
Tauros hated it at first. It had been running wild on the plains before this. Now it was being turned into a mount, so of course it wasn't happy. The thing was still raw and stubborn.
But Darkrai only had to leak the faintest trace of pressure and direct a little intimidation at it. Tauros immediately behaved, going stiff and obedient while the shopkeeper worked on it.
Once the gear was fitted properly, Tauros had a full riding setup on its back, complete with a bridle so Reiji could lead it and a padded seat so riding it would be more comfortable.
The full set cost him 500,000 Pokédollars.
That was just for basic tack, not the high-end stuff. The premium sets started at 2 million.
Since he only wanted Tauros for travel, 500,000 for something reasonably comfortable was enough.
After recalling Tauros, Reiji thanked the shopkeeper and headed to another store.
The first shop sold more general equipment, including riding gear and exercise equipment. The second was a proper Pokémon item shop.
This time, he was here for Float Stones.
He wanted to try evolving Pineco. It had long since passed its evolution level and could evolve any time now, so there was no reason to keep holding it back. The sooner Pineco evolved, the sooner it could help him in battle.
He already had a few Float Stones from the dirty work he had done in Trovitopolis's underground market, but this time he planned to buy ten first and see how it went.
Held items for Pokémon generally fell into two broad types: ones that boosted stats, and ones that altered a Pokémon's condition or performance.
Usually, offensive items were the expensive ones. Float Stone fell into the second category, and what it changed was speed.
Lighter weight meant more speed. The logic was simple enough. If you ran a kilometer at your normal weight, then ran another while carrying your own body weight on your back, which one would be faster?
Most people probably couldn't even lift that much, let alone run with it.
There was no need to dwell on how important speed was. In games or in real life, speed meant the initiative. It meant more control. Whether you wanted to fight or run, the faster side usually got to decide.
Float Stone sold incredibly well, second only to straight damage-boosting items. In lower-level battles, where both sides were usually still rough around the edges, the faster one often held the advantage.
High-level battles cared about speed too, of course, but breaking through the opponent's defense came first. If you couldn't crack them, all the speed in the world was useless.
Take his Shelmet, for example. Even after it evolved, it still wouldn't be able to do much to Hanhan, so it would have to focus on frailer opponents instead. Speed only got you so far, especially when Accelgor was the standard you were comparing against.
He bought ten Float Stones, though he had no idea whether that would be enough, and the total came to 5 million Pokédollars. Each one cost 500,000, about the price of a Beginner-tier item.
As for pricier versions?
Float Stone only did one thing: it cut a Pokémon's weight in half. No matter which one you bought, the effect was the same. That meant there was really only one kind, one purpose, and the price stayed relatively reasonable.
Once he had the ten stones, he asked the shopkeeper if there was anywhere he could buy hard bark.
Pineco's outer shell was made of tough bark already. If he wanted to push its defense even higher, he needed to add more.
He had no idea what kind of bark Pineco had been given before, but since it was already attached to its body, he wasn't going to dig into it now. Later, he could grind the shell down with moves and strip away any weak bark.
He planned to keep layering hard bark onto Pineco and polishing the shell until it reached exactly the thickness and hardness he wanted. Once it did, he could let it evolve.
If the process worked, he was sure the resulting Forretress would have much better defense than an ordinary Pineco.
The item shop owner, however, had no idea where to buy that kind of thing, so Reiji ended up going back to the first shop and asking the saddle seller instead.
Luckily, that owner did know. In fact, a lot of the tools in his shop were made from wood with that same kind of tough bark.
"If you want to buy in bulk, head to the logging yard outside the city," the man told him. "Look for Apricorn trees. Their fruit can be used to make Poké Balls, and they come in a lot of colors."
"The kind that bears Black Apricorns is the toughest of the lot. Those are used to make Heavy Balls, the kind meant for really heavy Pokémon, so the bark is tough too. It should be exactly what you're looking for."
"Thanks," Reiji said, and headed straight for the outskirts.
If he hadn't asked, finding hard bark on his own would not have been easy.
He didn't know everything. With a little guidance, though, the whole thing became much simpler.
Outside the city, he found the foreman at a logging yard and explained that he was looking for bark from Apricorn trees. The man immediately agreed to take him there. Easy money was still money.
Fuchsia City was in the middle of a major development push, and with all the surrounding primeval forest, the logging yards had plenty to cut. As far as Reiji could tell, it was all perfectly legal.
Before long, the foreman brought him to an open-air processing site. Trees were being stripped there one after another, and the bark had been tossed into messy piles on the ground. Once enough built up, it would all get hauled away by the cartload.
The logging yard didn't bother sorting any of it. If Reiji wanted Apricorn bark, he had to dig it out himself.
The bark would all be reprocessed eventually anyway, as fuel, fertilizer, paper, or something else. They were going to squeeze whatever use they could out of it.
The Apricorn bark Reiji wanted was somewhere in that huge pile, and sorting it out by hand was on him.
There was nothing he could do about that, but thankfully he had done his research beforehand. The bark from Black Apricorn trees tended toward a very dark brown-black, and one piece stood out almost immediately.
He sent Pelipper out at once and had it fetch the bark for him. Reiji took the piece, rapped his knuckles against it, and listened.
It gave off the crisp, hollow knocking sound his notes had described. This was the right stuff.
Then he, Poliwhirl, and Pelipper started digging through the pile together.
The foreman had already left and clearly didn't care about the bark at all. He had simply told Reiji to find him once he was done.
Reiji and the two Pokémon spent the whole morning searching through bark at the stripping yard. By the end, the roar of the machinery had nearly numbed his ears, and he had only managed to find a little over ten suitable pieces.
Carrying the bark in his arms, he left the worksite, found the foreman again, and asked what he owed.
The foreman waved it off. "No charge. Say, kid... you're a trainer, right?"
"Yeah? What do you need?" Reiji asked.
The moment he heard the bark was free, he knew this was going somewhere unpleasant.
"Could I ask you for a favor?" the foreman said. "My son really likes Pinsir. Could you catch one for him?"
"Pinsir? Isn't there one in the Safari Zone?" Reiji looked at the awkward middle-aged man in surprise.
Other than the Safari Zone, the area around Fuchsia City was protected habitat. Wild Pokémon couldn't just be caught there. Was this guy trying to drag him into trouble?
"I've been there plenty of times," the foreman said with a sigh. "But you can't battle to catch Pokémon there, and Safari Balls are too expensive. I spent nearly 500,000 and still didn't catch a single Pinsir."
The man sounded genuinely helpless. He had clearly already tried the obvious route, or he wouldn't have come asking Reiji.
"I can help," Reiji said, glancing at the bark on the ground, "but just for a few pieces of bark?"
He did need the bark badly, but there was no way he was going to show that. If he looked too eager, he'd get played.
The foreman's face lit up at once. He rubbed his hands together and said, "You want this black bark, right? We still have several trees that haven't been stripped yet. I'll arrange it right away. I'll have those done first and set all the bark aside for you..."
If Reiji refused, the man was probably ready to name some outrageous price instead.
"Did you ask the Day Care in town?" Reiji asked after a moment.
He still didn't know how much bark he needed, only that more was better. Even so, he was already getting the better deal here, and he wasn't about to agree too easily.
"I did. Too expensive," the foreman said with a bitter smile. "It starts at 2 million at least. Even a Pinsir Egg costs 500,000, and there's no guarantee it'll hatch."
He clearly didn't dare gamble on that. If the Egg was dead, the money was gone.
"My son really likes Pinsir," he said again. "Please help me out. I'll make sure your bark is ready."
"Fine, fine. I'll come back tomorrow," Reiji said, waving him off. "Just make sure the bark is prepared."
He really couldn't handle seeing a grown man on the verge of tears, especially a scruffy middle-aged one doing it right in front of him.
"Done! Leave it to me," the foreman said, grinning from ear to ear. Then he lowered his voice and added, "Just take the bark quietly when you come, all right? Don't make a fuss about it."
"I get it."
The wink told Reiji everything he needed to know. So that was it. The man was using his position for a little private side deal. Reiji was getting what he wanted too, and it saved him trouble, so there was no reason for him to say anything.
As for Pinsir, Darkrai could make a trip tonight. Catching one would be easy enough.
After agreeing to meet again tomorrow, the foreman went back to supervise the stripping. Reiji let Gengar out, had it swallow all the bark, and then left the logging yard.
He found a small river on the outskirts of Fuchsia City, set up his camping tent, and let all his Pokémon out.
Riolu's injuries were mostly healed now. It ate on schedule every day, though it still couldn't be bothered to pay much attention to him. Whatever Reiji fed it, it ate. When it got bored, it sometimes went running with Poliwhirl and the others to train.
Tauros came out too and was tied near the river to graze. Once it had eaten enough, it went down to the water to drink and bathe, then flopped onto the bank for a nap. Easy enough to keep, really.
Weezing had officially become one of Gengar's underlings by now. As for where Gengar kept dragging it off to, Reiji couldn't be bothered to care.
Marshtomp could finally come out in the open too, and the moment it did, it charged straight into the river to play.
Watching Marshtomp splash around in the water, Reiji did the math in his head. It had already been a month since he brought Marshtomp along, and he hadn't checked its panel once during that time.
[Marshtomp]
[Type: Water + Ground]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 67%]
[Level: 28.12%]
[Ability: Torrent/12.13%][Hidden Ability: Damp/22.23%]
[Water-type Moves: (Hydro Pump/18.11%)(Waterfall/23.14%)(Rain Dance/16.31%)(Water Gun/27.45%)(Surf/7.15%)]
[Ground-type Moves: (Mud-Slap/15.22%)(Mud Shot/19.23%)(Earth Power/14.31%)(Bulldoze/12.81%)(Dig/17.58%)]
[Normal-type Moves: (Tackle/24.51%)(Growl/25.52%)(Protect/7.12%)(Supersonic/19.33%)(Screech/14.35%)(Take Down/15.86%)(Body Slam/11.18%)(Roar/21.75%)(Double-Edge/4.53%)]
[Psychic-type Moves: (Amnesia/2.21%)(Rest/26.78%)]
[Ice-type Moves: (Ice Punch/19.55%)(Ice Beam/1.47%)]
[Other: (Bite/21.21%)]
Marshtomp's potential hadn't changed much, but its level had climbed to 28. Eight more levels and it would evolve into Swampert. Not bad at all.
By the time he finished the Indigo Plateau Conference and headed back, Marshtomp would probably be ready to evolve. Once that happened, it could start helping with the dirtier jobs too.
After a full month, its ability proficiency had gone up quite a bit as well. Clearly it had been training seriously.
Torrent worked like Blaze. Once its HP dropped, its Water-type moves hit harder.
Damp had improved the most, which made sense. They were always camping near rivers, and the house on Mikan Island was right by a lake. The moist air suited Marshtomp well.
Its moves had changed a lot too, especially Waterfall. It looked like Marshtomp had been studying seriously under Poliwhirl.
Once it fully learned Waterfall's burst technique, its explosive power would probably surpass Poliwhirl's and might even be about on Hanhan's level. It had the weight for it, and its lower body was much stronger too.
Pokémon like that were born for this kind of thing. Poliwhirl still needed more polishing, and so would its evolved form, Poliwrath. The line's real natural gift lay in the upper-body muscle it gained after evolving, which translated into much stronger attacks.
Marshtomp had also picked up quite a few new moves from the others lately. At last, its talent was starting to show. Not bad for a Pokémon that had been born with quasi–Elite Four tier potential.
Then there was little Zapdos. Its feathers were still dull and gray, with no real change yet. Still an ugly duckling, apparently. Who knew when it would finally turn into a swan? At least it could discharge electricity now.
Lately, its main food had been Electric-type Pokéblocks. Whether the change in diet had done anything yet, Reiji couldn't say.
[Zapdos]
[Type: Electric + Flying]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 59.98%]
[Level: 21.11%]
[Ability: Pressure/4.53%][Hidden Ability: Static/7.53%]
[Moves: (Peck/18.21%)(Thunder Wave/11.61%)(Thunder Shock/9.93%)(Pluck/12.11%)(Agility/6.21%)(Charge/4.63%)(Roost/5.54%)(Discharge/3.23%)(Rain Dance/1.65%)(Rest/18.91%)]
Zapdos's potential hadn't changed much either. It looked like quasi–Elite Four tier might be its current ceiling, and Reiji still had no idea how to push it toward Elite Four tier. Zapdos couldn't evolve, so the only option was to grind it out over time.
Its abilities hadn't changed much either, though Static had gone up a fair bit. Reiji got zapped often enough whenever he held the little thing.
Zapdos had also learned quite a few new moves. Some probably came naturally with level growth, and some might have been copied from elsewhere. There was no real way to know. When it came to a legendary Pokémon, doubting its talent was pointless.
Most of the new moves were Electric- or Flying-type, which was a good sign. The kid clearly had talent. Shame it had been born early.
Still, all the little ones were growing well. Zapdos had made it past the danger of being premature, then through infancy, and now it was finally ready for some basic training.
Reiji planned to focus on Flying-type training first. Electric-type moves were too risky to use carelessly. People would connect them to Zapdos too easily, so those would have to be trained in secret and used in secret.
If he absolutely couldn't hide it, he would just blame it on a shiny mutation. Whether anyone believed that was their business. He had already decided that was good enough. Until Zapdos was fully grown, there was no way he could let its identity be exposed.
For now, he let the others relax on their own. Poliwhirl still had to stay with him. He was going to make Pineco bigger, harder, and lighter here, then evolve it into Forretress.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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