That evening, a light rain was falling on Mandarin Island North too.
By the time Reiji finally reached Mandarin Island North's harbor, Naoki was already waiting for him. Reiji stepped off the ship and went straight into Naoki's car.
Naoki had dressed for the part today: black suit, black umbrella, black car. The whole thing looked so formal that plenty of people around the harbor kept glancing over.
Reiji had planned to switch back to his real face, but after seeing Naoki's little production, he decided against it. Better to keep the face from the stolen ID for now.
Naoki saw the stranger walking toward him and immediately knew it was his disguised boss. He opened the door for Reiji, waited until he got into the passenger seat, then climbed behind the wheel and drove away from the harbor under all those curious eyes.
"Don't make such a scene next time." Reiji peeled Ditto off his face, fed it a few Pokéblocks, and recalled it into its Poké Ball. Then he tossed the ID card out the window and into the sea, rolled the window back up, and lowered the sun visor to hide the passenger seat.
"Yes, boss." Naoki gave an awkward laugh. "This whole getup was rented. One of today's clients insisted on it. Said it made him look important. I still have to return everything tomorrow morning."
"City people really know how to amuse themselves," Reiji said, his mouth twitching.
"You have no idea, boss. Those big shots care more about face than anything." Since Reiji seemed willing to listen, Naoki started telling him about the job. "There were over 100 people today, lined up from the hotel all the way to the road. The whole thing was ridiculous."
And ridiculous or not, the client had paid well for the show.
"Was Tai at the banquet too?" Reiji had not been especially interested until Tai came up. Then he perked up at once.
"He was, but only as a nobody. We talked for a bit." Naoki said, "Boss, you probably haven't heard yet, but Tai's doing pretty well now. He's already a Team Rocket Executive. Behind the scenes, he controls one of the two major gangs in the old district. The other gang is also secretly under Team Rocket."
"That kid's moving up." Reiji watched the streetlights streak past the window.
Team Rocket had already taken control of the black market on Mandarin Island North, Trovitopolis, and several other islands. Their reach in the Orange Archipelago was getting deeper by the day.
"More than moving up. With Tai on the inside, moving dirty goods has become much easier. If we need materials, we can buy them straight through him." Naoki went on about how useful it was to have someone planted inside Team Rocket. Sometimes he could even slip into the black market while pretending to be one of them.
Who would have thought he would end up wearing the skin of the thing he hated most?
Still, pretending to be the enemy had its uses. It had also given him a much clearer sense of just how powerful Team Rocket was.
"Hah. Sounds like you've been having fun," Reiji said. "Meanwhile, I almost got killed in Johto."
Naoki's smile froze.
The mood in the car changed instantly.
"Boss… what happened?"
"Nothing complicated. Remember the cargo ship we took down before? Its captain was the eldest son of a major Kanto family's main branch. Kanto didn't move against Mikan Gym directly, so they decided I was the easier target. When I went to Johto, that family found me and sent an Elite Four-tier Trainer after me."
Naoki forced himself to calm down. Reiji was sitting here alive. That meant the other side had failed.
And Naoki trusted his boss. An ordinary Elite Four-tier Trainer would not be enough to kill him.
"They must have paid for it, right?"
"Of course. The Elite Four-tier Trainer who chased me is dead. After that, Giovanni blocked my way himself, and I had to use Giratina to escape." Reiji let out a quiet sigh.
Thinking back on the Johto trip, he had come close to dying more than once. Somehow, he had made it through all of it.
That journey had been far too dangerous.
"Giratina?" Naoki's mouth fell open. "Isn't that a Legendary Pokémon?"
He badly wanted to turn and stare at Reiji, but unfortunately, he was still driving.
"The legends are real." Reiji had met Giratina. At this point, he had seen enough Legendary Pokémon to stop doubting them.
Lugia's feather, Ho-Oh, Giratina, Darkrai, Suicune, Raikou, Zapdos…
"Boss, who's Giovanni?" Naoki asked once the first shock passed. That name had bothered him. If Giovanni had personally blocked Reiji, then he had to be someone important. But how strong could he be?
"Giovanni is Team Rocket's boss. Champion tier. He's also the current Viridian Gym Leader."
Reiji realized he might be the only person here who knew Giovanni's real identity. In the anime, the League had only discovered Giovanni's hidden role after he was exposed, and only then had they launched their operation against Team Rocket.
Naoki swallowed.
"Giovanni is Team Rocket's boss… and he's Champion tier?"
For several seconds, he could not say anything.
Then the rest of it caught up with him.
Viridian Gym Leader.
Wasn't that a League position?
So the head of Team Rocket had been hiding inside the League all along? What kind of person even did that? And how did Reiji know? Did he have an even deeper source somewhere?
"Why are you so surprised?" Reiji said. "Will, the Psychic-type Elite Four member. Koga, the Poison-type Elite Four member. Karen, the Dark-type Elite Four member. Lt. Surge from Vermilion Gym. Sabrina from Saffron Gym. And—"
"Boss, please stop." Naoki cut him off at once.
He was numb.
His hands were trembling on the steering wheel. He had never imagined Team Rocket had that many people planted inside the League, and not low-level nobodies either. Elite Four members. Gym Leaders. How were they supposed to fight that?
And from what Naoki had already found out, Team Rocket's top executive, Vicious, was a seasoned Elite Four-tier Trainer. Then there were the Three Beasts and the Four Generals.
Team Rocket might have twenty or thirty Elite Four-tier Trainers.
That was only what they could confirm. Add in all the hidden League insiders, plus regional underground leaders like Tai, and every layer of Team Rocket was dangerous.
"Hahaha, scared already?" Reiji smiled and told him to relax. "Don't panic. Team Rocket's real enemy is the League, not little bugs like us. Can't you tell? They haven't even started taking us seriously."
"Yes, boss. I understand." Naoki said it, but his hands were still shaking.
Just Proton alone had been enough to make him feel like he was suffocating. Team Rocket had twenty or thirty people at that level.
"Don't just understand it. Remember it." Reiji sighed. "When the people you hate most don't even bother taking you seriously, that's its own kind of insult."
With his current strength, Team Rocket still did not see him as worth their full attention. Only his future self had earned enough recognition for Giovanni to monitor him in real time.
That should have been proof of his future strength.
Instead, it only made Reiji feel bitter.
"I'll remember." Naoki swallowed again and locked those names deep in his mind. If he ever ran into any of them, he would know to keep his guard up.
"Keep it to yourself. Telling the others would only hurt them."
"I'll be careful."
Neither of them spoke for the rest of the drive.
The car entered the villa grounds. No one here knew Reiji was coming back. Some people were training their Pokémon. Some were resting. Everyone was doing their own thing.
Once Reiji got out, though, they all came over to greet him.
"Boss!"
"Rai-nii!"
"Go back to whatever you were doing. I've been stuck on ships for too long. I just want to rest." Reiji smiled and greeted the familiar faces around him: A.J., Sou, Daishi, Keith, and the others.
When his eyes passed over Gai, they paused for the smallest moment before moving on.
Gai had not betrayed him yet. Reiji could not kill him before he had actually done anything.
Better to wait.
Hopefully, the guy would not be stupid.
After greeting everyone, Reiji followed Naoki up to the second-floor study. Naoki had already prepared late-night snacks and brought them up from the living room. He laid everything out, poured Reiji a drink, and the two of them settled in to eat, drink, and talk privately.
"I didn't see Gulzar." Reiji picked up a piece of braised meat, took a sip of grain liquor, and asked about him.
"He left two days ago. Kumquat Gym called him back to prepare for the Orange League tournament. Everyone's been talking about the tournament these past few days. It's getting a lot of attention."
"The tournament, huh?" Reiji said. "Let everyone go have some fun. They can pretend not to know each other when they're there. You're not going, though. And anyone without a clean identity should stay away too. Getting caught would be bad."
He smiled and pointed at Naoki. Naoki was black from head to toe. There was no way he could take the League route anymore.
"Haha, boss, don't joke around. Why would I go? I'm already too old for that. People would laugh at me." Naoki laughed awkwardly.
He had challenged the Orange League tournament once too, years ago, though he had never placed well.
He had been young and full of fire once. Later, the fire cooled, he started making a living underground, and then he met someone he liked and began chasing love instead.
"Right. Did you finish selling the Lightning Gang's Pokémon?"
"They're all handled. Some went through the old district, and some were sold on other islands."
Naoki had taken an Elite Four-tier Electivire last time, so his own profit must have been good.
"I still haven't sold mine. That's one of the things I came back to handle." Reiji had thought about selling them in Johto, but after being hunted and running out of time, he never got around to it.
"Boss, just give them to Tai. That part is easy. The only troublesome one is the Elite Four-tier Magnezone. That'll have to be sold on another island."
"That works." Reiji waved it off. "Ask Tai if he has time. Make sure it's safe for him to come over. You two should have a secure way to contact each other."
"We do. Give me a moment."
Naoki did not avoid Reiji. He took out his phone and called Tai. By then, Tai had already left the banquet. After the two exchanged code phrases, Tai headed over.
When Tai reached the area near the villa, he did not alert the people training in the yard. Golbat carried him over the villa wall and brought him to the balcony outside the second-floor study. Inside, Reiji and Naoki were drinking.
"Boss, you're back?" Tai landed on the balcony and spotted Reiji immediately. Golbat stayed outside the window, keeping watch.
"Long time no see. I hear you're a Team Rocket Executive now." Reiji smiled and waved him in, telling him to sit.
He did not pour Tai a drink.
An undercover operative could not drink. He had to stay clear-headed at all times. The fact that Tai could come here meant he had the highest authority among the local Team Rocket members, so no one could monitor him. Even so, he still could not drink.
"Boss, not long after the Lightning Gang incident, I was promoted to Executive." Tai smiled, removed his disguise to show his real face, then had Ditto change him into a new face before sitting between Reiji and Naoki.
"I called you here for nothing major. I wanted to hear about the current situation, and I also need you to help me move the Pokémon from last time." Reiji took out a backpack.
Inside were seven quasi–Elite Four-tier Pokémon and sixteen Advanced-tier Pokémon. They were the spoils from the Lightning Gang and from the men under the Elite Four-tier Trainer who had hunted him. The gold, silver, and jewelry from the Lightning Gang boss were inside too.
The seven quasi–Elite Four-tier Pokémon were worth over 6 million each, with the rarer ones reaching more than 7 million. Even if he counted them at 6 million each, that was 42 million.
The sixteen Advanced-tier Pokémon averaged around 3 million each. Common ones were a little over 2 million, while rarer ones could reach 3 or 4 million. At an average of 3 million, they came to about 48 million.
If Reiji sold them himself, he might get a higher price, but that would be a hassle. Letting Tai handle it saved him a lot of trouble, and Tai deserved a cut for the work. Reiji was not going to make him run errands for free.
Everything in the backpack added up to more than 100 million. As for the gold, silver, and jewelry, they were useless sitting around. Better to turn them into resources.
"The goods here are worth over 100 million. Sell everything. Transfer 100 million to me, and keep whatever you make above that. The Pokémon can be sold to Day Cares for breeding. Preferably somewhere they'll never come out again."
He handed the backpack to Tai and watched Tai have Gengar swallow it. Then he turned to Naoki.
"Right, Naoki. How much did your Elite Four-tier Electivire sell for?"
"Boss, Electivire is really popular in the Orange Archipelago right now, and mine was Elite Four-tier. I took it to an auction house on another island. It sold for over 200 million. Almost 300 million."
"Holy shit. It's worth that much?" Reiji swore on the spot.
A quasi–Elite Four-tier Pokémon was only worth a little over 6 million. Even rare ones usually capped around 7 or 8 million.
Only especially rare Pokémon, like Lucario, Zoroark, Gardevoir, and similar lines, sold for much more.
Popularity helped, and so did the possibility of producing Elite Four-tier offspring, but the truly valuable part was still the words Elite Four-tier. Hype could be manufactured to push the price higher, but even after the hype faded, Elite Four-tier Pokémon would still hold their value.
Crossing that one threshold multiplied the price by ten, even twenty times.
Elite Four-tier really was Elite Four-tier. Thanks to the League's endless promotion, everyone wanted a Pokémon at that level.
"Of course it's valuable, boss. If you use an Elite Four-tier Electivire for breeding, its offspring start at 100 million at the very least. It's about the same as Ralts and Riolu when they were hot a while back. Even then, it still can't compare to truly special Pokémon offspring. Only Elite Four-tier offspring can sell for prices like that."
"What about Magnezone, then?" Reiji asked.
Magnezone had no gender. If it was going to produce Eggs, it would need Ditto, but reality was not the game. Who knew whether breeding worked that way here?
"Boss, Magnezone is harder to price. I can only guarantee at least 80 million," Naoki said carefully.
"That big a gap?" Reiji looked at him.
Honestly, he was starting to regret not choosing Electivire back then. Both were Elite Four-tier, yet the price difference was two or three times.
"Boss, it depends on popularity. Ever since Electivire appeared, it's been hot in the Orange Archipelago. Magnezone's hype has already passed. And Electivire is big, strong-looking…"
Naoki did not finish the sentence.
He knew Reiji understood. Put a tall, powerful-looking Pokémon beside a floating lump of metal, and most Trainers knew which one they would choose.
"Damn. There are that many people who care about looks?" Reiji cursed under his breath, but he had to accept it.
To be fair, he liked Electivire more too. If he had not caught one, he would probably still be backing Magnezone.
But now he had an Electivire, and a shiny Electivire at that. There was nothing left to hesitate over.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
[Check out my Patreon to read 20+ chapters ahead]
[[email protected]/BellAshelia]
[Thanks for your support!]