In the real world, Pokémon abilities and move effects weren't set in stone like in games.
They would continuously improve as their mastery deepened.
Take Gyarados's 'Rain Dance' move as an example. When roughly mastered, it could only summon a light drizzle, boosting Water-type move power by maybe ten or twenty percent.
But at 'Proficient' level, the rain would intensify to moderate rainfall, potentially boosting Water-type move power by thirty or forty percent.
Following this pattern, the higher a move's proficiency, the stronger its power and effects would be.
The same applied to abilities!
When Pokémon were still weak, some abilities were hard to activate while others were hard to deactivate.
Control difficulty was quite high either way.
For instance, when Caster first caught Pichu, its 'Lightning Rod' ability could attract lightning but was difficult to consciously turn off.
After absorbing lightning, it easily suffered from indigestion and self-inflicted injuries.
However, after consuming Ability Candies, Pichu's Lightning Rod ability had gradually deepened in development. Not only had its lightning attraction range expanded, but it could subsequently absorb Lanturn's Thunderbolt and Ampharos's Thunder, showing clear improvement.
Even then, Pichu's Lightning Rod ability still couldn't be turned on and off at will.
But now, little Pichu had broken through that limitation and seemed able to toggle the ability on and off freely.
In doubles or group battles, this would have an absolutely explosive effect.
It was equivalent to sealing off the opponent's Electric-type moves while Caster's side could freely use Electric-type moves.
With that, Caster's side would have a massive advantage.
"Let's test it out!"
Caster rubbed his hands together, deciding to run an experiment.
He glanced at Gyarados not far away, then at the 'Thunder Wave' TM in his fishing space, and couldn't help but think, "A Pichu that knows Thunder Wave is nothing special, but a Gyarados that knows Thunder Wave would definitely be one in ten thousand."
The principle was the same as Pichu knowing Surf.
As far as Caster knew, moves like Thunder Wave and Flamethrower were all in Gyarados's move pool.
But under normal circumstances, Gyarados found it very difficult to learn these moves.
Yet once it truly mastered them, the effects could be explosive, often catching opponents completely off guard.
With this in mind, Caster called Gyarados over and activated the 'Thunder Wave' TM.
"ROAAR~"
Gyarados let out a strange cry, feeling its brain tingle again.
"Pichu, turn off your Lightning Rod."
Once Gyarados finished absorbing the knowledge, Caster immediately commanded, "Gyarados, use Thunder Wave!"
"ROAAR~"
Seeing Pichu nod, Gyarados struggled to gather power for a moment.
At the convergence point of its three forehead horns, a thin, peculiar electromagnetic wave actually shot out.
However, compared to Pichu, Gyarados's Thunder Wave was slower to execute and the wave was thinner, showing obvious differences in effectiveness.
But that was unavoidable, since Gyarados wasn't an Electric-type Pokémon after all.
Bzzt!
The Thunder Wave shot straight at a small tree nearby and hit it in the blink of an eye, with no sign of being drawn away during the process.
"Success!"
Caster beamed with joy.
The facts proved that everything little Pichu had said was true.
Patting little Pichu's head, Caster turned his attention to the moves he'd harvested in his fishing space.
[Electro Ball: Electric-type move. Hurls an electric orb at the opponent. The faster the user is compared to the target, the greater the power.]
[Electroweb: Electric-type move. Captures and attacks the opponent with an electric net while also lowering their Speed.]
[Volt Switch: Electric-type move. After attacking, the user rushes back to switch places with a party Pokémon in waiting.]
[Eerie Impulse: Electric-type move. The body radiates a strange electric wave that envelops the opponent, sharply lowering their Special Attack.]
"Pichu, master these!"
Caster activated these TMs.
Before long, little Pichu's move list had expanded considerably.
And with these moves, Pichu's strength had directly skyrocketed.
Looking at Pichu's move list, Caster nodded with satisfaction at first, but then quickly shook his head with a serious expression.
"Pichu certainly has quite a few moves now, but they're all basically at rough mastery level and can't exert much real power. Looks like I still need to fish more!"
Next, Caster glanced at Gyarados's move list and remarked, "In rainy conditions, both Hurricane and Thunder are guaranteed to hit. In that case, I should hurry up and arrange for Gyarados to learn 'Thunder' as well."
Clenching his fist, Caster felt filled with motivation and declared energetically, "Decided! Tonight I'm pulling an all-nighter fishing session!"
No choice!
To improve his Pokémon's strength, he had to work even harder at fishing.
Caster resumed fishing. Lanturn kept taking the bait, and rewards kept appearing.
...
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye it was the middle of the night.
Under the shroud of darkness at the seaside, Caster sat cross-legged on the shore fishing, his body exhausted, yawning constantly.
Little Pichu lay sprawled on top of Caster's head, quite energetic actually, even using its 'Flash' move to act as a spotlight shining on the float.
Because every so often, Caster would teach little Pichu new moves from TMs while activating Energy Orbs to nourish it, so its enthusiasm remained particularly high.
But Caster wasn't made of iron. After fishing continuously for over ten hours, mostly in rapid succession, he was completely worn out.
However, the Lanturn migration from the ocean to the mountain lake to spawn only lasted two days. Caster had to race against time.
Whoosh!
The float suddenly plunged down. Caster quickly pulled the rod.
With a "splash," a Lanturn was yanked from the water.
[Caught 'Lanturn', rewarded with 1 'Charge' TM.]
The cheat ability appeared as promised, but Caster was completely numb to it now.
He couldn't even remember which Lanturn this was anymore, but it was definitely over a hundred.
"Huh? This Lanturn is injured?"
Suddenly, Caster noticed scratches all over the Lanturn's body, with faint traces of blood seeping out.
"Injured? Was it bullied by other Pokémon in the ocean?"
His mind stirring, Caster quickly pulled a Potion spray from his backpack, wanting to treat the Lanturn's wounds.
"Yo-ki~"
But upon seeing Caster, the Lanturn panicked, spat out the hook, and jumped back into the sea, disappearing.
Caster didn't think much of it.
But as Lanturn continued to bite, injured ones kept appearing one after another, all with net-like abrasion marks. Caster suddenly realized something was wrong.
Especially one Lanturn that had lost one of its tentacles entirely. The sight was shockingly gruesome.
Connecting this to what President Kunio had mentioned this morning, Caster's brow twitched. "Could it be illegal fishing vessels?!"
At that thought, Caster quickly dialed Kunio's number.
But to Caster's disappointment, perhaps because he was on an island, the phone signal here was very unstable and no one answered on Kunio's end.
So Caster called the emergency police line instead.
Though the signal was still poor, this time the call went through.
However, after hearing Caster's purpose, the officer on the other end said this was all just Caster's speculation with insufficient evidence, so they couldn't dispatch.
Unless Caster actually saw the illegal fishing vessel with his own eyes.
"I want to speak with Officer Jenny!"
Caster still held onto a thread of hope.
Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy were both role models in the Pokémon world. If he could contact her, Caster believed she would definitely respond in the name of justice.
"Officer Jenny is very busy. Please don't make baseless claims without evidence. If there's nothing else, I'm hanging up!"
With that, the other end disconnected.
"Damn it!"
Hearing the busy tone on the phone, Caster ground his teeth in frustration.
How could an illegal fishing vessel possibly sail openly to shore for him to see?
Or was he supposed to search the vast ocean himself for illegal fishing vessels?
"Pi~"
But just then, Pichu's ears twitched on top of Caster's head.
It seemed to sense something?