Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

Reiji saw that Caterpie still showed no sign of remorse. He wasn’t about to coddle it. Instead, he turned to Poliwag, who was sulking with its face buried in the water bucket, blowing bubbles.

”Poliwag, I want you to supervise Caterpie’s punishment. If it doesn’t figure things out, then no meat for it.”

”Yoh!” Poliwag instantly perked up at the order, leaping out of the bucket and hopping over to Caterpie. It began urging Caterpie with repeated chirps. ”Yoh yoh, yoh yoh!”

It had been secretly gloating earlier when Caterpie was being scolded—Caterpie’s smug little face had totally crumbled. Poliwag had almost laughed itself silly in the water, thinking, ”You had this coming! Yoh yoh yoh…”

Now that it was officially assigned to supervise Caterpie’s punishment, Poliwag was even more motivated, hounding Caterpie nonstop.

But Caterpie, with its head held high, remained defiant. The same attitude: ”Why should I?”

Seeing this, Poliwag looked up at Reiji, raising its tail slightly as if asking for instructions: Should I smack it? Or smack it?

Reiji, however, simply took out Caterpie’s Poké Ball and held it in front of the little bug.

”Caterpie, this is your Poké Ball. If you want to leave, I won’t stop you. Go.”

”Yoh yoh, yoh yoh,” Poliwag, seeing the Poké Ball in Reiji’s hand, slowly lowered its tail, its aggressive aura fading. It began softly calling out to Caterpie, seemingly urging it to just apologize.

But Caterpie still wouldn’t look at Reiji directly. It was still in its ”I’m not listening, I’m not listening…” mode.

Yet it couldn’t stop staring at the Poké Ball. The glossy surface reflected its bug face clearly. Caterpie began to seriously wonder—Would this human really let me go? Not… eat me?

”If you don’t want to stay, then go,” Reiji said, stepping back two paces to show he meant it. He also called out to Poliwag, ”Poliwag, step aside. Let it leave.”

”Yoh…” Poliwag actually kind of liked the little guy. After a few days of bickering and messing around together, Caterpie had become a quirky part of life—kind of fun to have around. It would be a shame if it left.

But still, Poliwag moved aside, giving Caterpie the space to choose freely.

Seeing both Reiji and Poliwag back off, Caterpie finally began seriously debating—stay, or go? Its gaze flicked between the Poké Ball and the two of them.

After a bit of internal struggle, Caterpie chose to leave.

Reiji respected the decision. He silently watched Caterpie crawl away, disappearing into the forest.

It was just a Caterpie, after all. He wasn’t about to go back on his word. He said freedom meant freedom.

On a deserted island like this, bipedal humans were rare—but Bug-type Pokémon like Caterpie were everywhere.

”Yoh yoh…” Poliwag watched as Caterpie vanished into the trees. It subconsciously took a couple steps forward.

”Don’t worry about it, Poliwag. That was its decision,” Reiji said, reaching out to stop Poliwag from chasing after it. ”Go back to your bucket. Once I finish bathing, we’ll go find something to eat.”

He shook his head at Poliwag’s sad, pleading gaze. If you’re not meant to travel the same road, then don’t force it.

Poliwag didn’t respond. It simply returned to the bucket, a little glum, blowing bubbles aimlessly.

Though it was a shame Caterpie left, Reiji reminded himself that Caterpie wasn’t part of their life to begin with. Now that it was gone, things just returned to how they were before—Poliwag lazily soaking in the bucket, watching Reiji work as usual.

If it were me, Poliwag thought, I’d never leave Reiji. Reiji is my real home.

Reiji fetched a bucket of water and headed behind the temporary shelter’s tree trunk. He tossed the makeshift shower into the bucket and stood barefoot in a plastic basin, ready to collect the runoff.

Then it was time to strip down. A deserted island, no one else around—he could be as free as he wanted.

He hung the plastic-bottle shower on the tree. The flow rate from the holes in the bottle was enough for a quick rinse, and with the current temperature, the water didn’t feel cold down there either.

After showering, only half the bucket was used. Reiji looked at the murky water pooled in the basin under his feet with a complicated expression.

But hey, that water paired perfectly with his grimy T-shirt and shorts. He swapped into his crudely hand-cut shorts and got to washing.

To save water, he first washed his clothes with the used shower water, then gave them a final rinse with clean water.

Survival on a deserted island meant compromises. He did what he could with what he had.

After his bath, Reiji laid back in the shade with his life ring as a pillow. He finally felt truly refreshed.

For thirteen days he had been too busy gathering food, finding fresh water, and upgrading his shelter to care about hygiene.

Now, finally, things had stabilized.

But… his fresh water supply was almost gone. They used about one bucket of water per day. Since the storm ended on Day 9, and this was Day 13, that made five days—five buckets of water.

That was just for daily living. Poliwag had also gone through a whole bucket during construction, and two more for its baths over the last few days. That added up to three more.

And now, one bucket had been used for Reiji’s own shower and laundry.

That was nine buckets total. He only had five left—five days of clean water.

Realizing that, Reiji quickly got moving and returned to the rocky catchment he used before. He reset the buckets in place.

His old buckets had been wrecked by the storm, and since he hadn’t been worried, he hadn’t fixed it. But now? He was worried.

This spot could gather about two buckets of water a day—enough to meet his needs.

After setting everything up, he went back to the treehouse to grab his old partner: his fishing rod. He planned to fish for a bit before sunset.

His bait was a bunch of sea snails he’d collected yesterday, stored in a plastic bottle.

He arrived at the familiar fishing spot, baited the hook, cast the line—and settled in for the long, boring wait. Whether the fish would bite depended on whether they liked snail meat.

”Yoh yoh, yoh yoh…”

Poliwag came over too, as usual. It quietly sat beside Reiji’s feet, just like in the old days, waiting for the float to twitch.

Buzz—

They waited a long time. The sun was nearly kissing the sea, and Reiji was about to pack up and look elsewhere for food—when the rod finally jerked.

Judging by the force, another big one had taken the bait.

Reiji immediately lifted and braced the rod—same old trick: wear the fish down.

It was the classic method used by anglers when there was a big gap in strength between them and the catch—the most efficient way to land a large fish.

But this time, he didn’t have the luxury to wait too long.

The sun was nearly down. Night was coming.

He couldn’t afford to battle a fish in the dark.

[End of Chapter]

[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]

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