"Reiji. Orange Archipelago Trainer. Winner of the Indigo Plateau Conference a few months ago. A tactical Trainer who relies on unusual strategies to outsmart opponents. Based on your performance at the Indigo Plateau Conference, you study your opponents, build specific plans against them, and choose different Pokémon depending on the matchup."
"You don't show off too much. In every match, you win, but only by just enough. You make it look difficult, as if any opponent could have beaten you if things had gone slightly differently. That kept you from standing out too much and avoided drawing unnecessary attention. In other words, you're a cautious competitor."
"And in the finals, you used a hidden shiny Accelgor to defeat Reggie, who had been dominant the whole way through. That gave you the championship. You qualify as my opponent."
After reading Reiji's profile, Shingo finally closed his laptop and got serious. This opponent was worth fighting.
"Dad, the Trainer you brought this time is strong. He's the Indigo Plateau Conference champion. This should actually be interesting."
Shingo walked onto the training field and looked at Reiji and Rhydon with open curiosity.
"I watched the video of your Indigo Plateau Conference finals. Your ace Poliwhirl is strong. I honestly didn't expect it to beat a pseudo-Legendary."
"But I'm more interested in that shiny Accelgor of yours. Did you bring it? I have a Shelmet too. Shiny ones are too hard to find, so I had to settle for a normal one."
"Tch. So all that data isn't completely useless." Reiji clicked his tongue under his breath, a little impressed despite himself.
This guy was excellent at gathering information. He might actually make a good strategist for the organization, someone who could coordinate operations and plan from the back.
Shingo had no idea that he had only asked to see Reiji's Pokémon, while Reiji was already wondering how to lure him away. Reiji the smooth-talking kidnapper was back at work.
"You seem pretty obsessed with speed."
"Of course." Shingo looked like he had uncovered the ultimate secret of Pokémon battles, only to live in a world too slow to understand him. He asked and answered his own question with complete confidence. "What matters most in a Trainer battle? The answer is obvious. Speed. If you're fast enough, the opponent can't even touch you."
"Tch. So that's the path you went down." Reiji barely had the energy to mock him.
If this were the Pokémon games, Shingo would not be wrong. It was basically that old martial-arts logic: speed beats everything.
But this was reality. Pokémon were not limited to four moves, and battles had too many variables. Sometimes even the Trainer could not keep up with the flow, let alone issue perfect commands every second.
That was enough information. Now that Reiji knew Shingo's battle style, he could build around it. A one-track Trainer like this was the easiest kind to handle.
Muramasa watched from the side and sighed inwardly. His son was going to lose. He already knew Reiji's data and general battle style, so why keep talking? Worse, he had practically handed over his own strategy.
His poor idiot of a son. This match was already slipping away.
Muramasa had no intention of warning him. If anything, he was quietly pleased. At last, someone might straighten Shingo out. This time, his son would not lose because of bad data. He would lose because of arrogance.
"Enough talk. Send out your Accelgor. Let me see this Golden Streak." Shingo threw his Poké Ball and released his Scizor.
Its streamlined red armor gleamed under the sunlight, flashing with a brilliant crimson sheen.
Just from the color and polish of Scizor's armor, anyone could tell it had been raised well. Shingo was clearly a Trainer who loved his Pokémon. Or at least, he used to be.
"You want to see my shiny Accelgor?" Reiji raised one finger and wagged it. "Beat me first."
"Fine. Come on, then." Shingo cooled down from his excitement and turned his attention back to Rhydon. He sat cross-legged on the ground, opened the camera on his laptop, and aimed it at Rhydon.
"Your Rhydon didn't fear Water-type attacks during the Indigo Plateau Conference. It didn't fear Grass-type attacks either. Its body can release intense heat, hot enough to melt the ground into magma. It can draw that magma over itself, and when it cools on contact with water, it releases huge amounts of high-temperature steam. Once the magma hardens, it becomes a strong layer of armor. I call that state Black Armor."
"In Black Armor, Rhydon's defense rises sharply, but its speed drops. In exchange, it can ignore many attacks. Losing some speed is a fair trade."
"The battle already started," Reiji said, feeling a headache coming on.
Shouldn't Shingo have memorized this stuff before the match? Who had time to cram mid-battle?
"Rhydon, Rock Tomb."
"I knew you'd use that." Shingo smiled, certain he had read Reiji perfectly. As boulders rose around Scizor, he shouted, "Scizor, fly up. Iron Defense, then Metal Claw."
"Rhydon, Rock Blast."
"Pointless. Scizor can fly, and its evasion is excellent. Rock Blast's accuracy is pathetic. It won't hit."
Reality played out exactly as Shingo said. Scizor completed its Iron Defense in midair while weaving past every stone projectile.
At the same time, silver light wrapped around its red pincers. With unstoppable momentum, it dove straight toward Rhydon.
"Metal Claw. stab. Base power 50. With Technician, that rises by 50%. Against Rhydon, it also hits for x2 damage. Even if your Rhydon can handle Grass- and Water-type attacks, it still has too many weaknesses. Steel, Ground, Fighting, Ice—there are plenty of ways to attack it."
"Is that so?" Reiji really did feel like he was facing a serious player from his old world. Back then, after enough time with the games, he had known types and moves inside out too.
It was a good foundation. The kind a strong Trainer could build from.
"Rhydon, Protect."
"Protect?" Shingo frowned, then quickly relaxed and smiled. "Protect gets less reliable if you use it repeatedly. How many times do you think it'll save you?"
"Rrrh!"
Rhydon heard the command, but it did not use Protect at all. Instead, flames burst around both of its fists, and it raised its arms toward the diving Scizor.
Boom—
Rhydon met Metal Claw head-on with Fire Punch. Its feet sank deep into the ground, its entire body igniting with searing heat. Then it caught both of Scizor's pincers in its hands.
The heat washed over Scizor at once, and even with its training, a Pokémon with a x4 Fire weakness could not take that comfortably.
Rhydon did not let go. It opened its mouth and blasted flames straight into Scizor's face.
"Wait, why wasn't that Protect? What do you mean it caught it with Fire Punch? And why is it so hot?" Shingo's laptop was still pointed at Rhydon and gathering data. The sensors showed Rhydon's surface temperature climbing past 1,000 degrees and still rising. The heat alone was becoming unbearable.
Then Shingo saw the point-blank Fire Blast and his expression changed.
Bad.
Scizor had boosted its physical Defense. Its Special Defense against Fire Blast was only 80. It could not take that cleanly.
"Protect! Hurry, use Protect!"
But Rhydon was still holding Scizor's pincers. Before Scizor could use Protect, Fire Blast struck it full in the face and sent it flying.
"Finish it. Rock Tomb."
"Rrrh!" Rhydon stomped the ground.
Stone pillars erupted around the spot where Scizor had fallen, trapping it in the center.
"Rrrh!" While sealing Scizor in with Rock Tomb, Rhydon drove its claws into the ground, tore out a massive slab of rock, and hurled it toward the top of the stone cage, capping it shut.
At that, Shingo forgot all about data. He threw aside the laptop, sprang to his feet, and shouted, "Scizor, fly out! Hurry!"
Bzzzz—
"Kcha?"
Scizor had just reached the opening when the giant rock came crashing down. It had no time to react before the slab forced it back inside.
Rumble—
The stone slab smashed down and collapsed the whole formation. Scizor was buried inside the Rock Tomb, with no chance left to escape.
"It's over." Reiji let out a breath.
That Scizor had a x4 Fire weakness, yet Fire Blast from a same-level opponent had not taken it down. That meant it clearly was not taking true x4 Fire damage. It had Fire resistance.
Not enough to be absurd like Forretress, though. It was probably closer to a x2 weakness now. Fire Blast had still hurt Scizor badly, and Rhydon had needed the final follow-up to finish the job.
Turning a x4 Fire weakness into something closer to x2 was not simple. That middle-aged man definitely had real methods. Reiji could not help glancing back at Muramasa.
Muramasa noticed Reiji looking and immediately realized how sharp his eye was. One Fire Blast had been enough for Reiji to spot the problem with Scizor. Embarrassed, Muramasa turned his head away.
His family did have the Scizor training method Reiji wanted. Without it, Masamune would never have earned the name The Crimson Streak. They also had a way to improve Scizor's Fire resistance.
Muramasa had originally planned to leave that weakness in place for his son's future opponents to exploit. But since Reiji had already seen through it, there was no point pretending otherwise. They could discuss it later.
Back on the field, Shingo had already cleared away the broken stones and found his unconscious Scizor. Thankfully, Scizor's armor was tough. It had only fainted and was not badly injured. The burn was the bigger issue, but seeing that it was still safe let Shingo breathe again.
"Still fighting?" Reiji turned back to Shingo. Rhydon had only used a short burst of power. It still had plenty of stamina left.
"What is wrong with your Pokémon?" Shingo demanded. "Why didn't it listen to your command? And what kind of battle style is that? Aren't you worried both sides will go down together?"
Shingo had thought he understood Reiji well enough, but once they actually fought, he realized Reiji was the kind of Trainer who treated deception as part of the battle. He did not follow the expected script at all.
And that Rhydon did not even obey its Trainer properly. Why didn't it use Protect? Why didn't it dodge? Why take the hit directly?
"Cough." Reiji had no good defense against that complaint. He was embarrassed too. That was Hanhan's battle style. He could not change it, so he could only explain.
"My Rhydon has a very specific personality. To put it simply, it likes charging straight in. If it doesn't like my command, it'll fight its own way instead."
"How is that okay? Doesn't that ruin the Trainer's plan?"
"Not really," Reiji said. "There are too many variables in a battle. What matters is that the Pokémon still reaches the result the Trainer wanted. Sometimes, the Pokémon may even find a better way to do it."
"My Rhydon doesn't mind getting hurt. Just now, I wanted it to use Protect to block the attack, catch Scizor during the opening, then finish with Fire Blast. Skipping Protect was the variable. That kind of thing happens all the time."
"The Trainer has to understand what their Pokémon is trying to do the moment it acts. Then you either give the next command or let it keep fighting on its own. Your job is to watch the field and patch whatever details your Pokémon might miss."
"When you spend every day with your partner, you should know each other. The most important thing a Trainer can do is trust. When the Trainer trusts the Pokémon, and the Pokémon trusts the Trainer, they can create openings no one expects."
"Trust?" Shingo looked down at Scizor in his arms.
When he had not given an order, Scizor could have flown out of the Rock Tomb by itself. But because Shingo had not commanded it, Scizor had stayed inside and waited. That hesitation had cost it the chance to escape.
"Kcha…" Scizor gave a soft cry, trying to comfort him.
"I'm okay, Scizor." Shingo lowered his head. "I should have trusted you more. I'm sorry. That was my mistake. In that situation, everything happened in an instant. The stone pillars rose, and the boulder came right after. There was no time to check the computer. Because of me, you missed the chance to get out."
"Kcha." Scizor shook its head.
It had always trusted its Trainer completely. It had never doubted him, or it would not have waited inside the Rock Tomb in the first place. It did not blame him.
The problem was that Shingo had never given his Pokémon any room to act on their own. He controlled everything himself. That was the flaw in his obsession with data. Pokémon were not cold numbers. They had feelings. They could understand and respond.
Shingo thought Pokémon battles could be calculated exactly like data on a screen. In doing so, he had ignored the communication between Trainer and Pokémon. He treated Pokémon like numbers to be commanded, without accounting for anything outside the stats.
But this was the real world.
If this were a Pokémon game, Shingo would undoubtedly be a high-level player. Every number would sit neatly inside his calculations. The problem was that reality did not care about perfect formulas.
His battle style had an even bigger flaw: it would not hold up in high-level matches.
At regional tournaments, where plenty of opponents were still inexperienced, he could bully Trainers who could not react fast enough. But true high-level battles were decided in fractions of a second. Some fights did not even need the Trainer to command every move.
Sometimes the Trainer could not command at all. They had to let the Pokémon fight on their own, and that made pre-battle planning even more important. It was like a strategy game—one bad matchup, and the whole plan could collapse.
That was why Reiji carried so many Pokémon. More Pokémon meant more room for error. If pure tactics failed, he still had numbers. If numbers and tactics both failed, then he would use numbers, tactics, and hidden cards together.
Unless a final boss came down to bully the starting village, even Elite Four-tier Trainers could slip up. Reiji had seen it happen. They dropped a lot of loot when they did, too.
Elite Four-tier Trainers were seriously fat targets.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
[Check out my Patreon to read 20+ chapters ahead]
[[email protected]/BellAshelia]
[Thanks for your support!]