Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

[Caterpie]

Type: Bug

Gender: Female

Potential: 58%

Level: 5.41%

Ability: Shield Dust / 0.71%

Hidden Ability: Run Away / 2.23%

Moves Known:

(Confusion / 0.64%)

(Tackle / 0.81%)

(String Shot / 4.55%)

After last night’s molt, Caterpie’s experience had risen again, bringing her even closer to level seven—evolution was right around the corner.

This little glutton was leveling way too fast—so fast that Reiji barely had time to prepare.

He’d originally said evolution would happen in about half a month, but that timeframe counted from hatching—not from when he met her.

There was no telling how many days Caterpie had been hatched before they met.

Now, with only 1.5% left to level seven, she could evolve as soon as tomorrow, or the day after. Way sooner than he’d expected.

Still, that molt had been a blessing in disguise. She’d grown larger, and her body could now store more energy for evolving into Metapod and, eventually, Butterfree.

But where was he supposed to get high-energy food in just two or three days?

Right now, the only reliable high-energy food he could get was Pokémon meat. Each type of meat carried the energy of that Pokémon’s type.

For Bug-types, that meant eating either Caterpie or Weedle—those were the two most common Bugs near the forest edge.

But Weedles were poisonous. One wrong move and you’re dead.

And Caterpie... well, that would be borderline cannibalism. It was awkward. Little Green might be fine with him or Poliwag eating Caterpie, but asking her to do it herself?

That would be a problem.

”Ah... guess we’ll just go with the flow,” Reiji sighed, gently patting Caterpie’s head. He couldn’t get her any Beedrill honey or Moomoo Milk or anything like that. There’d have to be some regrets about her evolution.

When it came to doing anything in this world, three things mattered: cost, risk, and reward.

With both legs injured, sneaking into a Beedrill hive was practically suicide.

That was the kind of risk where the cost could be his life.

And that was just too steep a price for a maybe—maybe the honey would help Caterpie’s potential, or maybe it wouldn’t.

A mature adult wouldn’t go for that kind of gamble unless the return was clearly worth it.

Unless it was something you really cared about, you wouldn’t take on that much risk.

If the worst outcome was just a sprained ankle, fine. But getting skewered to death by a territorial Beedrill?

No thanks.

A life-threatening cost in exchange for a vague chance at a reward? That’s a hard pass.

Caterpie still had two or three days. If he stretched it, maybe five. Maybe even a week.

By then, his leg might be healed. If an opportunity presented itself, maybe he would go get some honey for her.

To buy some time, he’d already made a training plan for her—focusing on Confusion.

If training her could slow down her evolution even a little, it’d be worth it.

Not that he knew if it would work or not, but he had to try.

Thinking it over, Reiji picked up a two-finger-wide leaf from outside the treehouse and held it out in his palm.

”Caterpie, can you lift this leaf with Confusion?”

”Buu?” Caterpie blinked, then stared at the leaf, her eyes beginning to glow blue. The glow slowly extended to the leaf, wrapping it in shimmering light.

The leaf rose… floated gently for a few seconds…

Then fell again. That was all she could manage.

”Caterpie, your new training is weight-lifting. We start with leaves. Your goal is to keep one hovering for half an hour. I’ll keep time.”

Reiji had guessed right—she was barely able to lift a leaf, let alone herself.

”Buu buu…” Caterpie flopped into his lap, already exhausted after just a few seconds of Confusion.

”No slacking. Look at Poliwag—he’s been running in the rain this whole time,” Reiji said sternly, giving her a pointed look.

If you don’t train, how are you supposed to get stronger? Now that she was his Pokémon, she had to follow his training plan. He wouldn’t allow his partners to be weaklings.

He wasn’t stingy with praise when it was deserved. But training was serious business.

”Buu…” Caterpie sighed, glancing out at Poliwag running through the rain. She knew this day would come.

This was the price of eating good food.

No amount of acting cute or playing dumb was going to fool Reiji. No sneaking out of training. No dodging.

So she crawled out of his lap and back to her foam pad.

Reiji figured she was going to take another nap and ignore him. But then Caterpie let out two cries and stared hard at the leaf in his hand.

”Buu buu, buu buu…”

”What?” Reiji didn’t get it. Was she asking to sleep in the Poké Ball?

”Buu.” With a focused glare, her eyes glowed again, wrapping the leaf in blue light. It floated toward her and hovered above her foam bed.

Then… it didn’t fall.

Even as sweat beaded on her forehead and her little body trembled, she held it there, refusing to let go.

Only when she reached her limit did the leaf drop. She collapsed, panting hard.

Reiji brought over a bowl of warm water and placed it in front of her to help her recover.

Poliwag returned from his run at the same time, and Reiji had warm water ready for him too.

Warm water quenched thirst, but didn’t restore stamina. For that, they’d need food.

Fortunately, they still had one Krabby left—enough for the two little ones to enjoy a hearty post-training meal.

And Magikarp too. Reiji released it from its Poké Ball and started making lunch—same as always, simple crab soup.

Once the food was ready, Caterpie devoured more than half the crab roe by herself, then rolled over and fell into a food coma.

Magikarp got its usual crab leg.

Because it had been raining all day, Reiji hadn’t bothered putting it in the water barrel. Instead, he filled a plastic tub with rainwater and let Magikarp out there.

[End of Chapter]

[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]

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