Day 50 of the Johto journey. Clear.
After eight days at sea, they finally reached Cinnabar Island.
That was slow. Painfully slow.
Once Reiji disembarked, he was still using the disguised face from the ID card. He looked up at Cinnabar Gym halfway up the mountain, but after what had happened during the last chase, he had no intention of going there. He transferred straight to the next passenger ship, bound for Kumquat Island in the Orange Archipelago.
After boarding again, he thought back over the last eight days. The trip had been peaceful enough. He hoped the next leg would stay that way too.
The only surprise was that the girl had not come looking for him once during those eight days.
She had boarded the ship as well, but she kept her distance and only watched from far away.
It was not exactly surveillance. Gengar told him the girl only paid attention to him during the day. When he was in the training room or sleeping in his cabin, she had no idea what he was doing.
Still, being followed like that made Reiji uncomfortable. He just had no intention of confronting her.
She was being hunted. As long as she did not come bother him, he was happy to leave it alone. He had no interest in inviting trouble.
His routine stayed the same after that.
During those eight days aboard the ship, he finally managed to get an Elite Four-tier Damp Rock. It came from a trade meeting, an anonymous high-end exchange for Elite Four-tier Trainers.
After hearing about the gathering, he had used Lokoko's illusion to sneak in under a disguised identity. In the end, he traded one Elite Four-tier Arbok fang and one quasi–Elite Four-tier Feraligatr tooth, which counted as a Dragon Fang, for one finished Elite Four-tier Damp Rock.
Damp Rock.
When held by a Pokémon, it extends the rain created by Rain Dance or Drizzle to eight turns.
The difference between an Elite Four-tier Damp Rock and anything below it came down to how much water energy it contained. The Elite Four-tier one was far richer.
If Poliwhirl had carried a Damp Rock like this during the Indigo Plateau Conference, then even after Pelipper had drained the moisture from the air, this one rock alone would have provided enough water energy to call down a thunderstorm.
The moment Reiji took it out in his room, he could feel the air grow damp. Moisture filled the cabin, and beads of water appeared on the walls. If he left it out for too long, his blankets would definitely turn clammy.
If he carried this thing around for too long, he suspected he would end up with rheumatism. Only Water-type Pokémon like Poliwrath enjoyed the kind of damp environment a Damp Rock produced.
After entering his room, he quickly took out the metal powder, Float Stone, and Damp Rock. Following the ratio from Muramasa's booklet, he ground them into powder, mixed them together, and stored the mixture in a box.
The amount and weight of the three-part mixture had been calculated carefully. Reiji was not going to tamper with the recipe. Who knew whether changing it on his own would throw the final result out of balance?
The booklet listed ratios for Elite-tier, Advanced-tier, and Elite Four-tier materials. Reiji used the Elite Four-tier ratio to prepare the evolution item.
Next, Scyther only needed to hold the item and go through a trade machine to evolve. If anything was missing afterward, he could supplement it through food. There was no need to rush that part.
Because held items had to be precise for evolution, Reiji did not plan to add anything else. Extra materials could cause imbalance after evolution, or create some other accident. Those were unnecessary risks.
Whatever Scizor lacked could be fixed later. It was only a matter of time. No need to force everything at once.
Once the evolution item was ready, Reiji had Scyther hold the box, recalled it into its Poké Ball, opened the door, and left the room.
The moment he stepped out, Gengar warned him that the girl from before was following him again.
Reiji did not shake her off. This was not anything important, and besides, she might be one of his subordinate's future wives. Letting her follow was harmless enough.
He only ditched that little tail when he attended Elite Four-tier gatherings or went to the black market to buy materials. Whether she could follow him depended entirely on what he was doing.
If she liked following him, then fine. She could follow. Bringing her back as a fighter might not be bad either. Her enemies were the only annoying part.
But there was still Keith, that simp. If she wanted revenge in Johto later, Keith could help. With Spider's future potential, seven or eight Elite Four-tier members would be more than enough to handle that kind of small problem.
Compared with Team Rocket, her grudge was child's play. It barely counted as difficulty, so Reiji did not take it seriously.
This time, he went to the ship's banquet hall.
Trainer exchange meetings were often held here, along with Pokémon battles. A trade machine was standard equipment for this kind of venue, meant for Trainers to exchange Pokémon.
Reiji came to the banquet hall late at night, around eleven or midnight. The event had already ended. Most Trainers had gone back to rest, and there were not many passengers left. The trade machine was free.
He walked up to it and placed Scyther's Poké Ball on one side. He did not place another Poké Ball on the other side.
A trade machine could still work with one Poké Ball.
Once he pressed the button, the machine began to hum. The left side pulled in Scyther's Poké Ball. After the machine processed the exchange internally, the Poké Ball came out on the right side.
That counted as a successful trade.
Reiji picked up Scyther's Poké Ball and opened its panel.
Sure enough, it had changed.
Scyther had finally evolved into Scizor.
[Scizor]
[Type: Bug + Steel]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 69.89%]
[Level: 58.92%]
[Ability: Swarm/49.43%][Hidden Ability: Light Metal/14.13%]
[Moves]
Bug-type: [(X-Scissor/46.82%) (Fury Cutter/51.45%) (Bug Buzz/33.35%) (Defog/29.33%) (Bug Bite/50.16%) (U-turn/5.26%)]
Steel-type: [(Bullet Punch/5.32%) (Metal Claw/4.33%) (Iron Defense/6.65%) (Iron Head/4.64%) (Flash Cannon/3.66%) (Steel Wing/46.81%)]
Flying-type: [(Acrobatics/46.22%) (Tailwind/49.35%) (Wing Attack/43.25%) (Air Slash/42.61%) (Air Cutter/32.61%) (Aerial Ace/12.11%)]
Normal-type: [(Swords Dance/50.88%) (Focus Energy/49.95%) (Double Team/47.24%) (Protect/52.83%) (Leer/36.11%) (Baton Pass/31.65%) (Slash/41.84%) (Quick Attack/48.91%) (Double Hit/27.24%) (Razor Wind/30.58%) (Giga Impact/3.54%)]
Fighting-type: [(Brick Break/42.68%) (Close Combat/28.24%)]
Other: [(Agility/53.73%) (Night Slash/39.64%) (Cross Poison/28.74%) (Rain Dance/8.44%)]
The panel name had changed to Scizor, and its type had become Bug and Steel. Its potential had also risen to 69. That was already pretty good for Scyther.
From here, he only needed to push it above 70 through the diet plan. After that, whether it could reach Champion tier would depend on whether he could obtain Champion-tier ingredients to make food for Scizor. Without them, its chances were slim.
Scizor's level had also reached 58.
That level was enough to compete in plenty of professional matches. With Muramasa's training method, its speed definitely would not disappoint. Scizor would just need some time to adjust to the sudden jump in speed.
Swarm had not changed much. It had carried over from Scyther. The hidden ability, however, had changed from Steadfast to Light Metal.
Thanks to the Float Stone training method, Scizor's weight was already only half of normal: 59 kilograms instead of the original 118 kilograms.
With Light Metal added on top, its weight was halved again, leaving it at around 29 kilograms.
That was the secret behind The Crimson Streak.
Extreme defense and sharply increased speed at the same time. Think about how much force a bullet carried, and it was easy to understand what kind of power came from high defense combined with high speed. That was an attack almost impossible to intercept, like a hypersonic missile.
Next, Scizor would stop regular training and focus entirely on adapting to its new body.
The Orange League tournament was closing in. Getting used to its new strength as quickly as possible was the priority.
Scizor had also learned new moves. Most of them were Steel-type moves: Bullet Punch, Metal Claw, Iron Defense, Iron Head, and Flash Cannon. Those were learned on evolution.
There were also some moves it had learned recently: the Bug-type move U-turn, the Flying-type move Aerial Ace, the Water-type move Rain Dance, and the Normal-type move Giga Impact.
Reiji did not even want to imagine what Giga Impact would look like if Scizor slammed into an opponent at full speed.
After checking Scizor's panel, Reiji returned to his room. The tests for Fire resistance and speed would have to wait until tomorrow. It was already late, and he wanted a proper night's sleep.
He released Scizor inside the cabin.
After evolving, the X-shaped scar was still on Scizor's forehead. It had carried over from Scyther.
Reiji thought it looked pretty cool. In Scizor's own words, a warrior without scars was not a proper warrior.
"Scizor, you can start adjusting to your new body tomorrow. We've got plenty of time, so don't rush." Reiji smiled and patted Scizor's red armor.
It really was hard.
Then he recalled Scizor into its Poké Ball.
"Ksha." Scizor nodded softly.
Now that it had evolved, it wondered how far it still was from Poliwrath. It really wanted to fight Poliwrath once and could hardly wait.
"Umbreon, time to sleep." Reiji released Umbreon, held it in his arms, and lay down on the bed. Outside the window, moonlight filled the night.
"Ruu…" Umbreon lay on Reiji's chest like a little cat, gazing at the bright moon outside the window. The rings on its body gave off a faint golden glow.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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