Day 33 since returning to the Orange Archipelago. Cloudy.
Today was the sixth knockout round, cutting the top eight down to four. After that came the semifinals, then the final.
Reiji already knew he would probably go no further.
His opponent was Drake.
That did not mean he planned to skip the stadium entirely. After breakfast with Cissy, he still headed for Pummelo Stadium, and this time he allowed her to come along. There was a good chance his own match would barely qualify as one, so they might as well watch the others together.
Only four matches were scheduled for the entire day, with Reiji and Drake drawn third.
By the time they arrived, the first quarterfinal was already underway. Reiji and Cissy watched from the balcony outside the waiting room, where Shun was facing Danny.
Shun had made it all the way to the top eight without a single Elite Four-tier Pokémon. Reiji suspected the bracket had been unusually kind to him, but there was only so far a favorable draw could carry someone at this stage.
Shun still made Danny work for the win.
Lucario, Electivire, Poliwrath, Infernape, and the rest of his team fought all the way to the final stretch. Then Danny finally brought out an Elite Four-tier Pokémon, and Shun's last two partners simply could not bridge that gap.
"Congratulations to Danny on advancing to the semifinals!" the commentator announced. "And a huge round of applause for Shun as well! His tournament ends in the top eight, but the Orange League will be waiting for him again next year!"
Both Trainers left to cheers, and the stadium quickly prepared for the second quarterfinal.
The next two names drew an even louder reaction.
"Entering the battlefield now, the Psychic Queen, Sabrina! And facing her, the Ghost Queen, Tania!"
"Sabrina! Sabrina!"
"Tania! Tania!"
Reiji leaned against the balcony railing and watched the two women step onto their platforms. They had completely different styles, but both had somehow ended up with "Queen" attached to their names.
"Two pretty girls and suddenly everyone turns into an idiot," he muttered, amused by the noise from the stands.
"Reiji, what exactly are you looking at?"
The sweetness in Cissy's voice immediately put him on alert.
"The match?"
He turned toward her and found her smiling in a way that did not look friendly at all.
"Really?"
"Obviously."
Sabrina and Tania were both attractive women with long dark hair, and Cissy knew perfectly well that Reiji had eyes. Judging by the screaming audience, he was hardly the only one enjoying the view.
Cissy pinched his arm anyway.
"I believe you."
"Your hand says otherwise."
She only squeezed harder.
Reiji endured it without giving her the satisfaction of a reaction, then pointed toward the battlefield. "The match started. Psychic against Ghost—this should actually be good."
Once he was allowed to have his arm back, Reiji paid close attention.
The battle was far more interesting than the opening spectacle. Psychic power and Ghost-type energy collided across the field, while Tania tried to bring Perish Song into play against Sabrina's silent style of command.
Sabrina had clearly studied her beforehand.
By relying on telepathy and shutting conventional sound out of her battle plan, she denied Tania one of the tricks her team depended on most. Several of Tania's Pokémon had been trained around Perish Song, but against an opponent who had specifically prepared for it, the strategy never gained the control it normally provided.
Sabrina also had an Elite Four-tier Psychic Pokémon on her side.
Once Tania's main tactic failed, the rest of the match steadily slipped away from her. Sabrina eventually secured the victory without giving her a realistic path back into the fight.
Reiji watched Tania recall her final Pokémon and checked the time.
"My turn next."
He started toward the door, then remembered something else he had been meaning to ask her.
Cissy hurried after him. "Rai, wait for me."
By the time Reiji reached the Trainers' tunnel, Tania was coming the other way after her loss.
He stepped into her path. "Heading home?"
"There isn't much reason to stay now."
Tania tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She seemed pleasantly surprised that Reiji had gone out of his way to speak to her, at least until Cissy appeared behind him.
The warmth in her expression cooled almost immediately.
Reiji noticed, but there was no graceful way to handle the conversation he actually needed to have. More importantly, it concerned Darkrai, and Tania might leave the Orange Archipelago as soon as today.
He could survive a little awkwardness.
"There's something I wanted to ask you. When you and your grandmother explored those ruins near Pallet Town, did anything unusual happen? Did the expedition find or capture any strange Pokémon?"
Tania's annoyance faded.
That was not the question she had expected.
"Why do you want to know?"
"It matters to me. You don't have to tell me anything classified. I just need to know whether something happened."
The stadium announcement called Reiji to the battlefield.
Reiji ignored the announcement, and Tania noticed immediately.
Whatever he was asking about clearly mattered more to him than arriving promptly for a quarterfinal.
"There was something," she admitted. "During the second expedition, the exploration team found a very powerful Pokémon sleeping inside the ruins."
Reiji's attention sharpened.
"I didn't take part in the fight, so I never saw what it was. My grandmother only told me that it nearly escaped. If her Gengar hadn't been able to Mega Evolve, they might not have contained it."
That was already close to confirmation.
"What did it feel like? Did you sense anything unusual around it?"
Tania thought back. "I was outside the ruins, so mostly I felt the fighting. The whole place was shaking. But Gengar told me afterward that being near that Pokémon felt... wrong. Ominous, I guess. It scared Gengar."
A Ghost-type Pokémon like Gengar admitting fear was enough for Reiji.
The sleeping Pokémon had almost certainly been Darkrai.
What he still did not know was whether the League had ultimately taken Darkrai or whether Giratina had become involved somewhere along the way. At least now he knew his speculation had been pointing in the right direction.
"That's what I needed. Thank you."
Reiji offered his hand, and Tania accepted it.
"I owe you one. Seriously. This was important to me."
Tania had expected a casual thank-you, not that. For a moment she seemed unsure what to say.
"It wasn't a big deal."
She slowly let go of his hand and glanced past him at Cissy.
A favor from Reiji should have made her happy, but somehow it did not. There were other things she would rather have received from him, and with Cissy standing only a few steps away, the reminder was difficult to ignore.
The stadium called Reiji again.
"I really need to go. Let me buy you lunch afterward."
"Sure."
Reiji smiled and hurried toward the battlefield.
Tania remained in the tunnel, watching until the cheers outside told her he had reached the field. She had agreed automatically, but the longer she stood there, the less she wanted to stay.
Lunch would only make leaving harder.
Better to end things cleanly and go home before she gave herself more reasons to linger.
...
Reiji reached his platform in an excellent mood despite being late. The Darkrai lead mattered far more to him than today's match, and if he needed more information about where it had been taken, Blaine was probably a better person to ask than Tania anyway.
He had no idea she had already decided to leave.
"Reiji has finally arrived!" the commentator announced. "Up next is our third quarterfinal: Reiji against Drake! What kind of battle will these two Elite Four-tier Trainers give us?"
The field selector stopped on grass.
"This will be a full six-on-six battle. Once either side loses three Pokémon, there will be a five-minute intermission and a new battlefield will be selected. Both Trainers, prepare to send out your first Pokémon!"
Drake took out a Poké Ball.
"Go, Ditto!"
The commentator laughed. "Drake opens with Ditto again! No matter who he's facing, he loves starting with the same Pokémon. Now let's see what Reiji sends—"
Nothing appeared on Reiji's side.
The referee waited a moment, then raised a yellow card.
"Reiji, you failed to send out a Pokémon when instructed. This is your first warning."
Reiji remained where he was, arms folded, and calmly looked from the referee to Drake and then toward the crowd.
He raised one hand.
"Referee, I forfeit."
A wave of confusion swept across the stadium.
Even the referee looked startled. "You what?"
The commentator nearly stumbled over his own words. "Reiji is forfeiting? In a quarterfinal? He hasn't even sent out a Pokémon!"
Drake stared across the field with a twitch at the corner of his mouth.
"What are you playing at?"
He knew Reiji's reputation too well. The kid loved strange tactics, traps, and plans inside plans, so an immediate surrender somehow made Drake more suspicious rather than less.
Reiji only repeated himself.
"I forfeit. You can call it."
The referee watched him step down from the platform before asking one final time. "Reiji, are you certain?"
"Completely."
He kept walking.
There was no trick.
Reiji knew exactly what he had left. Most of the Pokémon capable of fighting at this level were injured, while Drake was an established Elite Four-tier Trainer with a full team available.
Even Ditto was a nightmare under those circumstances. If Reiji sent out a Pokémon below Elite Four tier, Ditto could transform into it while bringing Drake's Elite Four-tier strength to the copied form. Trying to grind through that just to prove he had fought would accomplish nothing except getting more of his team hurt.
Reiji had already secured a top-eight finish.
That was enough.
He was not a child who needed to smash his head against an impossible matchup for the sake of pride.
Cissy was waiting inside the tunnel.
"Rai?"
Reiji looked at her. "What?"
"You did enough." She took his hand. "Top eight is already more than anyone had the right to ask from you."
That was the answer he had hoped to hear.
Cissy knew what remained of his team and understood perfectly well why fighting Drake made no sense. Reiji had carried Mikan Gym's hopes farther than either of its actual heirs had managed, and she was not going to blame him for refusing to sacrifice more Pokémon to chase a match he had almost no chance of winning.
"Then let's get out of here. I told Tania I'd buy her lunch. You're not going to get mad, are you?"
"No. I heard what you were asking her. That thing clearly matters to you."
Reiji glanced sideways at her. "You don't want to know why?"
"Not really."
He laughed. "You're a terrible liar."
Cissy puffed out her cheeks when he pinched her nose.
"I said I don't!"
"Sure."
She lasted a few more steps before changing the subject herself.
"Tania likes you, you know."
"I noticed."
Cissy looked at him sharply. "Then why did you—"
"I already have you." Reiji grinned. "Although if you're offering to let me have both—"
"Dream on."
Cissy yanked her hand free and marched ahead.
Reiji laughed as he followed her through the tunnel. "Worth asking."
Several people nearby turned to stare. The man had just forfeited a quarterfinal without throwing a single Poké Ball, yet he was leaving the stadium laughing as though he had won.
Reiji did not care.
In his previous life, plenty of men never managed to find anyone at all. Having someone waiting beside him now was already more than enough; he had no real desire to turn his life into some ridiculous harem fantasy.
One person was complicated enough.
And if he ever forgot that, Cissy seemed perfectly capable of reminding him.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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