Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

[Tentacruel]

[Type: Water + Poison]

[Gender: Female]

[Potential: 64%]

[Level: 35.31%]

[Ability: Clear Body / 18.13%] [Hidden Ability: Rain Dish / 22.33%]

”Not bad. Sixty-four potential is enough to hold down this little lake.”

Reiji nodded to himself and lowered the Poké Ball. Only then did he notice Cissy and Senta staring at him.

”Rai-nii, Tentacool doesn’t need a Water Stone to evolve, right?” Senta asked at once. ”So why did you use one?”

”It doesn’t need one, but that doesn’t mean it can’t use one,” Reiji said. ”Evolution rebuilds a Pokémon’s body and typing. Tentacool’s typing stays the same, so adding extra energy during the process helps the evolution go more smoothly.”

He didn’t mention potential. That was more in the field of Pokémon researchers, and without a simple way to measure it, research on potential was still pretty rough.

The League probably didn’t understand this area as well as Team Rocket. Team Rocket had run too many Pokémon experiments, and plenty of them were meant to force out hidden potential. Lance’s red Gyarados was a good example.

”So that’s how it works.”

Senta took the explanation seriously. When his Pokémon were close to evolving, he wanted to try it too.

”You even know about evolution?” Cissy asked.

She couldn’t see the details behind it, but Reiji just kept looking more capable. He trained Pokémon well, he could cook, and now he sounded like a Breeder too.

”A little.”

Reiji scratched his head awkwardly.

He was only half-taught. He hadn’t grown up in this world, and he had never received proper Pokémon education from the beginning. Survival had come first. Everything else had to wait until he was strong enough to protect himself.

That didn’t mean he had stopped learning. He just had to learn one step at a time.

Next was Barboach. This was the one he had picked up thanks to Sou. Sou’s own Barboach should have already broken into Elite Four potential, and now Reiji’s was ready to evolve too.

[Barboach]

[Type: Water + Ground]

[Gender: Male]

[Potential: 51%]

[Level: 31.12%]

[Ability: Oblivious / 17.43%] [Hidden Ability: Hydration / 19.13%]

Fifty-one potential. Barely enough to touch the edge of Elite Four potential.

Reiji didn’t waste time. He called Barboach over, took out one Water Gem, one Ground Gem, and one low-grade Water Stone, then tossed them into Barboach’s mouth.

”Barboach, draw out the Water Stone’s energy. Absorb as much energy from the three stones as you can. Evolve.”

The moment he finished speaking, white light spread across Barboach’s body.

It faded quickly, leaving a round-headed fish in front of him.

”Whis! Whis!”

Whiscash bounced excitedly by the shore, splashing water everywhere.

”Whiscash, congratulations. Now spit out the Water Stone.”

Reiji patted its slick body. This catfish was lively.

”Whis! Ptoo, ptoo, ptoo!”

Whiscash spat out all three stones. Reiji checked them one by one.

The Water Gem and Ground Gem were completely drained. The Water Stone still had three or four percent energy left, which was worse than Tentacruel’s case.

So Pokémon that didn’t normally need Evolution Stones couldn’t even fully absorb a low-grade Stone during evolution. That was a little disappointing.

Reiji fed Whiscash a few Pokéblocks and let it go celebrate with the others. Then he rinsed the two Gems and the Water Stone in the lake, washing off the slime. If he didn’t, Hanhan might refuse to eat them.

”Rhydon.”

Reiji called out and tossed the stones over.

Hanhan caught them, sniffed the Water Stone first, and only threw it into its mouth after making sure it didn’t smell strange.

Once Whiscash went off to play with the Pokémon it knew, Reiji opened its new panel.

[Whiscash]

[Type: Water + Ground]

[Gender: Male]

[Potential: 61%]

[Level: 33.32%]

[Ability: Oblivious / 18.43%] [Hidden Ability: Hydration / 21.13%]

Sixty-one potential. Good enough, barely. At least it had reached Elite Four potential.

Its Hidden Ability, Hydration, worked well with rain. If Reiji ran into an Electric type, Whiscash could come out and handle it. It was basically a budget Swampert, with a role close to Quagsire.

That was enough evolution for today.

The others could wait. He needed to let the newly evolved Pokémon adjust first. Evolving too many in one day wasn’t a good idea.

Reiji spent the afternoon watching the construction workers build the Pokémon huts and having a battle with Senta.

Senta had wanted to battle him for ages. Reiji was the Indigo Plateau Conference champion now, and Senta had finally found a chance to challenge him properly in a full six-on-six.

Reiji didn’t bully him. Most of Senta’s Pokémon were only Elite tier, so Reiji used Elite-tier Pokémon too. Tentacruel, Whiscash, and the others that had just evolved were perfect for it. That didn’t count as picking on a kid.

After half an hour of fighting, the six-on-six ended in a draw.

Reiji had held back.

Senta still puffed up proudly and bragged to his sister about tying with him. Cissy silenced him with one sharp knock on the head.

That finally settled him down.

Cissy then remembered her last Gym battle with Reiji. He had held back against her too. This time, she wanted to force out his real strength.

Reiji accepted her challenge, but before either of them could release their Pokémon, rain began to fall. They had to stop and take shelter under the eaves.

The construction workers had raincoats, so Reiji didn’t need to worry about them. A light rain wouldn’t slow them down much.

No one knew how long it would last. Cissy felt there was no point staying much longer. As for her mother’s suggestion that she spend the night, she rejected it. It felt too fast. She might as well go home and practice cooking more.

The drizzle showed no sign of stopping, so Senta called the driver to pick them up. He was reluctant to leave. Tomorrow, his father’s brutal training would start again, and the rare day off he had begged for was about to be wasted just like that.

Before long, the driver arrived and took Senta and Cissy away.

As the sky darkened, the workers finished for the day and left too.

The cloned Pokémon and Reiji’s hidden-identity Pokémon came out of the forest and gathered around the newly built Pokémon shelter. They looked it over with curiosity.

Was this their new home?

”Everyone, come here. This is where you’ll live from now on. There are three large rooms and fifty smaller ones. Go pick whichever one you like.”

”Blas!”

Blastoise climbed the wooden stairs and stopped in front of the two large rooms on the lowest level. There was a broad wooden platform there, wide enough for many Pokémon to stand on.

With its size, Blastoise could only choose one of those two rooms. It picked the one on the left and went inside.

Each large room could fit three Blastoise if they squeezed. For one Blastoise, there was more than enough space, with room left over for other Pokémon that wanted to sleep with it.

”Char!”

Charizard had wings, so it chose the large room at the very top. It flew up, landed on the platform outside, and claimed it.

Every room had its own small platform and a connected stairway. The higher platforms weren’t very wide, though. Charizard could stand there by itself, but that was about it.

In the end, the three large rooms were taken by the fully evolved Kanto starters. Venusaur took the last one.

If other Pokémon wanted to sleep with them, they could share the large rooms.

Around the large rooms were the mid-sized rooms, better suited for Pokémon like Rhyhorn, Ninetales, Pidgeot, Vileplume, Nidoqueen, and Scyther.

The large rooms were two meters tall. The mid-sized ones were about a meter and a half, just enough for Scyther, the tallest among that group.

Outside that was a ring of smaller rooms, about one meter tall. They were good for Pokémon like Sandslash, Golduck, and Kingler.

The outermost ring had the smallest rooms, only half a meter high. Those were for Pikachu, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Meowth, and other smaller Pokémon.

Reiji had asked for three large rooms and fifty smaller ones so his own Pokémon could use them too.

He had more than sixty Pokémon in total now. Some could stay in the shelter, some in the lake, some in his cabin, and some in their Poké Balls. That should be enough for everyone. Ideally, the shelter wouldn’t even be full.

The open side facing the lake counted as the main entrance. There was no front door, but each individual room had a door and window. Pokémon with hands or claws could open and close them without much trouble.

Once the cloned Pokémon had chosen their rooms, Reiji turned to his own team.

”You can pick a room too, or sleep with me. Whatever you like.”

”Poli.”

Poliwhirl had no interest in choosing a room. Wherever Reiji slept, it would stay nearby. There was already a small bed for it in the bedroom.

”Spi.”

Spinarak refused too. It liked hanging upside down in the corner of the bedroom.

Some Pokémon did pick rooms. Tauros chose one on the ground floor so it didn’t have to climb stairs.

Riolu jumped lightly and picked one of the one-meter rooms.

Farfetch’d usually slept in the bedroom. It had its nest by the window. But after seeing Riolu choose a room here, it flew up and picked the room next to it, staying close to the hurt little one.

About half the shelter filled up. For the empty rooms, Reiji had Accelgor go around and close the doors so the wind wouldn’t damage them.

After that, he brought out dinner and ate with the Pokémon on the large platform in front of the big rooms.

More than sixty Pokémon eating together was quite a sight.

The rain stopped during dinner. Reiji sat down on the steps and watched the sunset come out after the shower.

He wished every day could be this quiet, without all the trouble and danger.

The setting sun burned half the sky red. His Pokémon and the clones sat, lay, or stood around him, all quietly watching it together.

For the cloned Pokémon, this finally felt like a place to settle down. No more running from Team Rocket. No more wondering if they would survive the next day.

Reiji had already done the math.

There were ten large Pokémon. If each one ate five Pokéblocks a day, that was fifty Pokéblocks total, or five boxes.

Bulk orders came with a member price. High-quality Pokéblocks cost four thousand Pokédollars a box, so five boxes were only twenty thousand.

The remaining fifteen cloned Pokémon needed about three Pokéblocks each per day, forty-five total. That was even less than the large Pokémon. All together, feeding the clones cost under forty thousand Pokédollars a day. He could afford that.

And they didn’t have to eat only Pokéblocks. Good-quality ones were cheaper, and there were also inexpensive Pokémon snacks. Two thousand Pokédollars could buy ten kilograms. If he stocked up on regular food they liked, the daily Pokéblock cost would drop even more.

Keeping them fed wasn’t the hard part.

Including his own Pokémon, food would probably cost around eighty thousand a day. Luckily, only a few were in active training. If every Pokémon needed extra meals, the cost would jump by at least half, to around one hundred and twenty thousand a day.

One hundred and twenty thousand sounded like a lot, but it wasn’t too bad for him. He still had three hundred million sitting in his bank account.

Three hundred million would cover two thousand five hundred days of food. Six or seven years, give or take.

And it wasn’t like he had no income. Besides, one hundred million of that was clean money, and clean money earned interest, even if the rate in the Pokémon world wasn’t high.

After sunset, Reiji got ready to head inside and sleep.

Mewtwo still hadn’t shown up tonight. It had probably gone back to town to observe classes again. Reiji couldn’t control that, and he didn’t have the ability to try.

After a quick shower, he thought about which Pokémon should evolve tomorrow. Then he climbed into bed with Eevee and Slowpoke in his arms, while the others settled around the bedroom.

Only then did he notice Psyduck, Pikachu, and Meowth had also snuck in.

Psyduck was sitting in a basin. Pikachu and Meowth had taken spots on the blanket near the foot of the bed.

Reiji looked at them and smiled helplessly. He didn’t chase them out.

Ash’s Pikachu clone and Team Rocket Meowth’s clone definitely didn’t have their protagonist halos anymore. He could treat them like ordinary Pokémon.

Still, that duck was worth paying attention to. Misty’s Psyduck had frightening psychic talent. He wondered if the clone had inherited that too.

As he thought about how to train the cloned Pokémon, Reiji hugged Slowpoke and Eevee and slowly drifted off to sleep.

[End of chapter]

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