Day 4 back in the Orange Archipelago. Light rain.
After three days and one night at sea, Reiji finally reached Kumquat Island on the morning of the fourth day.
When he disembarked, the girl followed him off the ship. But Reiji immediately transferred to another passenger ship, this one bound for Mandarin Island North.
The girl hesitated when she saw him board another ship. She had already escaped her pursuers by coming this far. There was no real need to keep following him.
Still, his words kept echoing in her mind. Over the past few days, she had redrawn her plans for the future. Revenge was important, but she could not stay rigid. If she wanted to succeed, she needed to raise her overall strength too.
Skarmory could continue being trained normally. After that, she needed to catch Flying-type Pokémon with other typings as well, preferably ones that could counter Fire types. There would be a hard fight waiting for her someday.
With that in mind, she stopped following Reiji. Instead, she decided to travel through the Orange Archipelago properly, strengthen herself, gather training resources, and look for Flying-type Pokémon that could deal with Fire. There was plenty for her to do.
She stayed behind on Kumquat Island, planning to spend some time there before moving on to the other islands.
After Reiji boarded the ship, Lokoko told him the girl was no longer following. He did not care much. If she had left, then she had left. That just made things easier for him.
More than a month had passed since he wiped out the Lightning Gang. The heat from that incident should have cooled by now, which meant he needed to deal with the Pokémon he had on hand and prepare for the coming tournament.
He had no idea how Cissy and Senta's preparations were going. He had heard they would both enter the tournament. Then there was the matter of Senta being assassinated during the competition. That was another headache waiting for him.
As for the assassination, Reiji definitely had no intention of letting that older cousin's family live comfortably. They had chased him and also tried to assassinate Senta. That debt needed to be settled. Even if they were not the ones behind it, the blame would still be guided back to them in the end.
The question was whether he could turn the whole thing into a trap.
If he could keep Senta alive while pushing Senta's father into destroying that family, the outcome would be perfect.
They were already enemies. At this point, he might as well bury them properly. Ideally, Senta's father would cripple the whole family, and Reiji could clean up whatever was left.
To make Senta's father act, Senta had to "die."
But Senta could not actually die.
So Reiji needed a compromise.
When the time came, he would have Gengar protect Senta. Ideally, they would catch the assassin and whoever was behind the assassin too. The killer might not know who really hired him. Families like that were good at keeping people in the dark.
But Reiji had to catch someone behind the scenes, and that person had to point toward the older cousin's family. Senta also needed to be badly injured and unconscious for at least a week.
The injury part was easy. Broken arms, broken legs, fractures—anything would work. Add enough cuts and bruises to make it look terrible. With this world's medical technology, all of that could be healed.
As for the coma, Gengar could handle it with hypnosis. It could implant a suggestion so Senta would not wake for ten days or more. It would just be rough on the kid.
Even better, Gengar could hypnotize the doctors too. Make them describe the situation as seriously as possible: wheelchair for life, never waking up, permanent vegetative state, any of that would do. Only then would Senta's father truly go all out and tear through the older cousin's family.
This was for Senta's own good.
That was not Reiji making excuses. It really was for Senta's good. If they did not force Senta's father to destroy that family completely, none of them would be able to sleep peacefully at night.
The entire point of making Senta suffer that badly was to push his father into action. Add in the abandoned-child buff—growing up without a father's love—and Senta's father would naturally want to make it up to his son and finally act like a proper parent.
Then, before he even got the chance to make amends, his son almost died.
Anyone would snap.
That would be the perfect moment for Senta's father to cut through the older cousin's family. Whatever small fry were left afterward, Reiji could handle himself.
He trusted Senta's father to do it. After all, the man had managed it in the future. The only condition was that Senta had to look miserable enough. Otherwise, his father might hesitate.
And hesitation was absolutely not allowed.
When dealing with this kind of enemy, they had to pull out the roots. Otherwise, the problem would just grow back.
After boarding, Reiji kept thinking about Senta's situation as he headed to the training room with his Pokémon. If nothing unexpected happened, they would reach Mandarin Island North tonight. By then, Naoki and the others should be off work. He could have a drink with them and return to Mikan Island tomorrow.
On the way back from Cinnabar Island to the Orange Archipelago, he had also finished testing Scizor's Fire resistance and speed.
Its speed really was twice that of an ordinary Scizor. Its Fire resistance was weaker than expected, though. Fire moves still hit for roughly x3 damage.
That could still be improved, so he was not too worried. Reducing the weakness to x2 would be enough. Anything beyond that was hard to say, and Muramasa's booklet recommended stopping at x2. Better to follow the advice.
Scizor's body was not like Forretress's. It could not form the same layered, onion-like structure, one shell over another, stacking almost endlessly.
Fortunately, Scizor had Rain Dance. Fire-type moves had their power halved in rain. If Scizor's Fire weakness was reduced to x2, then rain would bring the damage down to normal. That would be enough for it to handle most situations.
Rain Dance felt much more comfortable on Scizor than it did on Poliwrath. Scizor took normal damage from Electric-type moves. Thunder became more accurate in rain, but it still would not hit too hard.
Reiji had Gengar check the training room, then released his Pokémon so they could train on their own. While they worked, he began going through his roster.
He realized his first-line Pokémon had mostly reached quasi–Elite Four tier. Next, they would all face the Elite Four-tier threshold.
Just thinking about raising more than ten Elite Four-tier Pokémon made his head hurt.
Among the first team, the ones that needed the most attention were Pelipper and Rhydon. Accelgor was still early. It was only level 54.
But Rhydon and Pelipper were almost 60, probably within the last week. As for breaking them through to Elite Four tier, Reiji did not have any especially good method.
Hanhan could eat Gems, so it could at least build up through accumulation. The pile of Gems dropped by Steelix would all end up in Hanhan's stomach sooner or later. The problem was how long that accumulation would take.
Pelipper was harder. It could not simply eat Gems to build itself up. If it relied on Pokéblocks alone, who knew how long the process would take? Reiji could only leave that one to luck.
Then there were Poliwrath, Gyarados, and Kingler.
Poliwrath had already been quasi–Elite Four tier when it evolved. Reiji could not check it right now, so there was nothing he could do. The same went for Gyarados and Kingler. He would have to wait until the tournament began and get them back from Pryce before making plans.
The second team was progressing well too. The faster ones had already climbed into the fifties, while the slower ones had at least reached Advanced tier. For the preliminaries and group stage, those younger Pokémon should be enough for most situations.
They could handle the Orange League tournament's preliminaries and group matches. It was also time to give the Pokémon who had not appeared much a chance to show themselves.
Once the elimination rounds began, he would return to the strategy of one main Pokémon leading two weaker ones, or two mains carrying one weaker one. Which younger Pokémon made it that far would depend on the matchups.
The final rounds would probably use the same six-on-six format as the Indigo Plateau Conference. Whether that started at the top sixteen or top thirty-two, he did not know. When the time came, he would use whoever was still available.
He had only fifteen true main Pokémon. If he counted the seven support Pokémon, then that added a few more options.
Butterfree, Starmie, Farfetch'd, Tentacruel, Whiscash, Tauros…
Those Pokémon had not been specially trained, but they were still Advanced tier. They were more than enough to bully inexperienced opponents in the preliminaries, so Reiji planned to use them first.
He also wondered how Slowpoke was doing. What had it learned under Cissy's father? Reiji only knew about telepathy. Cissy's family also had an ancestral inheritance, which explained why everyone in her family had a Slowpoke. He did not know whether Slowpoke would be able to fight by then.
Reiji pushed down his curiosity and finished counting the Pokémon he could use openly. Then he turned to the Pokémon tied to his Spider identity.
The core there was still Toxicroak, Swampert, Magnezone, and Golurk. Those four were the main force.
The remaining three were support. Golbat handled scouting and alerts. Weezing was a reserve. Sharpedo was for escape and would not fight unless there was no other choice.
Ditto and Spinarak were his bodyguards, but they were starting to fall behind.
In battles between Elite Four-tier Pokémon, Protect from anything below Elite Four tier was useless. In the end, he still had to rely on Gengar.
As for the four main Pokémon under his alternate identity…
Toxicroak is also quasi–Elite Four tier. Its level was now 59. It was facing the Elite Four-tier bottleneck as well, and Reiji did not have a perfect solution for it either.
Still, based on Lokoko, Gengar, and Electivire's breakthroughs, he was not completely clueless.
Lokoko advanced because it had lived long enough. Gengar advanced because of the Plate fragment. Electivire advanced because of a massive amount of Legendary Pokémon energy.
Toxicroak, though, could only rely on itself.
By "itself," Reiji did not mean ordinary poison. Toxicroak could no longer keep using poison recklessly. If it did, it would die. What he meant was Toxicroak's mutated poison sac. That might be the key to its Elite Four-tier breakthrough.
Ever since Toxicroak learned to suppress the toxins inside its body, the mutated poison sac had gone completely quiet and no longer burdened it.
But with Toxicroak's Poison-type talent, Reiji could release the poison sac and let its Poison-type talent reach Elite Four tier first, then use that to pull its level up with it.
Toxicroak had reached quasi–Elite Four tier half a month ago. Since then, Reiji had been having it refine the toxins in its poison sac. The rumbling sounds in its throat came from that process, as it strengthened the poison stored inside its body.
Over the past half month, its Poison Touch ability and Poison-type move proficiency had also reached quasi–Elite Four tier. Now it came down to whether Reiji's idea was correct.
If Toxicroak kept refining its toxins until the poison improved in every direction and broke through the final Elite Four-tier barrier, then its body would have no choice but to respond. Even just to stay healthy, Toxicroak would have to awaken more of its physical potential and suppress the toxins again. That, in turn, could push its level into Elite Four tier too.
That was Reiji's method for Toxicroak.
If it failed, he would have Toxicroak continue purging poison and think of another way.
Magnezone had also reached quasi–Elite Four tier. It was level 59 too.
Its growth speed was ridiculous.
For Magnezone's breakthrough, Reiji had handed the plan to Zapdos. They could simply copy Electivire's method. It would lack Raikou's energy, but that also meant it would not be as painful.
Magnezone could absorb Zapdos's Electric-type energy, lightning from the sky, and even electricity from Electivire. Its breakthrough was only a matter of time, so Reiji did not need to worry too much.
Golurk was only level 56, But Reiji had already decided its path. It would follow a method similar to Gengar's.
He would not use Plate fragments, though. Golurk would accumulate power on its own. Its Elite Four-tier breakthrough was also just a matter of time, though it definitely would not be as fast as Gengar's.
Swampert was the troublesome one.
It was not even level 50 yet, so there was no rush. For now, Reiji could only wait and see whether he ran into some useful resource. If his luck was bad, Swampert would have to rely on slow accumulation.
As for Golbat, Weezing, and Sharpedo…
Weezing might reach Elite Four tier faster than anyone. All it needed was poison, and the stronger the poison, the better.
Weezing had reached quasi–Elite Four tier a month ago and had been accumulating toxins ever since. The poison came from Gengar, so whether in strength, intensity, or quality, it was more than enough.
As long as Weezing could digest Gengar's toxins, it would reach Elite Four tier after a period of accumulation. Reiji guessed it might take half a year, maybe a full year, or perhaps even less.
Either way, Weezing had already been eating it for a month. The toxins expelled by Toxicroak and Golbat would also become Weezing's food, speeding up its breakthrough. Now it was only a question of how long it would take.
Sharpedo was not urgent. It had only just reached Advanced tier, and it was still several months away from quasi–Elite Four tier. It was the slowest of the younger ones.
Golbat, however, could not be underestimated. It had also reached quasi–Elite Four tier. Even though it had mostly been coasting along and doing support work like scouting and keeping watch, Golbat was the only one suited to those jobs. It was also the only one that could keep up with the team now. Spinarak would eventually fall behind.
For Golbat's breakthrough, Reiji planned to wait.
Toxicroak's mutation had been a natural poison-sac mutation. Golbat, on the other hand, had been forced into its current state. It was different from Toxicroak.
Back then, Reiji had removed two poison sacs just to suppress the toxins in its body. He was worried the poison might run out of control again. Better to let Toxicroak test the path first. In terms of physical toughness, Golbat definitely could not compare to Toxicroak.
To prevent another toxin outbreak, slower was fine. Two or three years, even four or five, would be acceptable. Golbat mostly handled support anyway. He almost never used it in direct battles. If the day came when Golbat had to fight, then Reiji was already out of options.
After sorting through the future plans for his main Pokémon, Reiji had a clearer picture.
Some already had possible paths to Elite Four tier. Some could only be left to accumulate strength and wait. Others had not reached the right stage yet.
Counting it all out, he had nine quasi–Elite Four-tier Pokémon and two Elite Four-tier Pokémon.
That did not include Lokoko. The fox was still thinking about its old master, so capturing it would probably be difficult, and Reiji had no intention of trying.
Once Slowpoke returned, it could take over Lokoko's translator role. Whether through telepathy or actual speech, either would work.
Then there was Darkrai.
It should have reached Elite Four tier by now. The problem was, where was it?
He would have to wait until the Orange League tournament began and ask Shun when they met. Tania should have been there too, so he could ask her if he ran into her.
The person in charge of the ruins exploration was Agatha. Agatha should know what happened to Darkrai.
Unfortunately, Reiji did not have the standing to talk to Agatha directly.
He put down his notebook and pen, let out a long sigh, and stared up at the ceiling light.
How frustrating.
In the end, he was still too weak. He did not even have the right to ask questions.
After brooding for a while, Reiji put away the notebook and stayed in the training room until evening. Then he left, ready to disembark.
Mandarin Island North was almost here.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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