Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

Day 10 back in the Orange Archipelago. Cloudy.

Reiji woke up that morning at Naoki’s villa on Mandarin Island North.

He had arrived the previous afternoon. Naoki and the others were all at work, so he came to the villa on his own. A few of the guys who didn’t have jobs were still hanging around.

Sou, the person he needed, wasn’t there yet, so Reiji had to wait until he got back from work. The matter itself was simple: Reiji wanted Sou’s fishing village to help him catch Pokémon.

It was just business. He needed certain Water-type Pokémon, and he didn’t care whether he hired Sou’s village or complete strangers. Sou happened to come from a fishing village, so Reiji asked him first. If the job could help Sou’s family earn more, even better. If the village didn’t want it, he could find someone else.

Sou accepted for his father as soon as Reiji explained. If the first order went well, there might even be room for long-term cooperation.

Collecting Pokémon alone was too slow. If he could pay others to gather candidates and only handle the selection himself, it would save him a lot of time. Later, whether he opened a Day Care or built a Gym with a richer habitat, this kind of connection would be useful. There was no harm in building it early.

Right now, he only needed two Pokémon: Carvanha and Shellder.

Slowpoke was still with Cissy’s father, and Reiji had no idea how the man planned to train it. Even so, he needed to prepare a Shellder for it in advance.

The deal was simple: two thousand Pokédollars per Pokémon. As long as they kept catching Pokémon for him to check, he would keep paying.

That kind of arrangement had upsides and downsides. If the search dragged on and he had to screen too many Pokémon, the cost would climb fast. But if he found what he wanted within a few dozen or a few hundred, he would come out ahead.

One million Pokédollars would let him check five hundred Pokémon. He figured a budget of two or three million should be enough unless his luck was truly awful and even several thousand Pokémon failed to produce a good one.

Once the deal was made, Sou called home and asked his father to take the boats out first thing in the morning.

Sou already had Poké Balls. Cheap secondhand ones only cost a hundred Pokédollars each, so they weren’t expensive. That morning, Reiji had Pelipper carry Sou’s Poké Balls back to the village. Between those, the ones at Sou’s home, and whatever they could borrow from the neighbors, the village should be able to scrape together a few thousand. That was enough for one delivery. Pelipper would handle the transport back and forth.

As for how long a delivery would take, that depended on when Sou’s family caught enough Carvanha and Shellder to send over. Reiji only needed to pay.

With that settled, he moved on to the second matter.

He still needed one more Diglett and two more Magnemite.

Magnemite were common. They gathered wherever there was electricity: near power plants, around Magnemite ranches, places like that. He could simply buy some.

Magnemite ranches were used to supply power to remote towns and villages. A few hundred thousand Pokédollars could buy one, so they weren’t especially expensive.

The last Diglett was trickier. In a city this large, Reiji had no idea where to find one, so he asked the people around him.

”Any of you know where I can find Diglett?”

”Boss, you need Diglett?” Naoki asked. He seemed to know.

”You know a place?” Reiji looked at him. Naoki had specialized in Ground-types before, so he should know their habitats better than most.

”Diglett spend most of their time underground. They often use tunnels made by Onix as homes, and they only poke their heads out often in caves. Find an Onix habitat, and you’ll usually find Diglett too.”

”So?” Reiji nodded. That matched what he had read.

”Boss, did you forget? Sunburst Island has a lot of Onix. It even has the Crystal Onix. There should be plenty of Diglett there.”

”That’s right.” Reiji smiled. He had even met Steven on Sunburst Island before. If there were Onix there, then a trip back made sense.

”You all continue as usual. Work if you need to work, train if you need to train. I’m going to Sunburst Island.”

Reiji said goodbye and prepared to head out.

”Rai-nii, what about the fish?” Sou chased after him to ask about the deal they had made the night before. If Reiji left, who were they supposed to hand the Pokémon to?

”Contact me anytime. If I’m not around, keep them with you for now and wait until I come back.”

Reiji patted Sou on the shoulder. After two months with barely any sun, the kid’s skin had gotten noticeably paler.

”Got it.” Sou stepped back to give him space.

Reiji mounted Pelipper and flew away.

”Let’s go. We still have work,” Naoki said, opening the car door and getting into the passenger seat. Daishi was driving.

There were seven people staying there. Some worked; some didn’t and spent the day battling and training instead.

Gulzar didn’t work. Gai didn’t either, though he spent more time doing Pokémon Center work.

Keith and A.J. weren’t working either. One had just arrived and hadn’t figured out what to do yet. The other was still too weak for any club to take.

After Reiji left, everyone returned to their own tasks. Time was tight now. The wanted notices were already up, offering rewards for the group of white-masked pirates, dead or alive.

It wasn’t only the League. The black market had posted bounties too. Who had paid for them didn’t need much guessing. It was either Team Rocket or the Kanto family whose son had died. With no real leads, certain people probably weren’t sleeping well at night.

The League worded things more politely and wanted them captured alive.

The black market didn’t care. Corpses were fine.

Their heads were worth quite a lot now.

…

Sunburst Island lay directly south of Mandarin Island North, not far by air. Once Reiji reached the island, he headed for the town first.

He asked the locals where the power plant was, only to learn there wasn’t one.

So he asked about the Magnemite ranch instead. An island without even a Pokémon Center would have trouble supporting a proper power plant. The population was small, and the local industry revolved around glassmaking. They probably burned more wood and coal than they used electricity.

It didn’t take long for him to find the ranch.

The ranch didn’t rely on one method to keep its Magnemite charged. It had a few different sources of electricity.

First came thunderstorms, which were basically free power.

Second, they asked passing Trainers to help charge them. Most Trainers agreed, so that was free too.

Third, the ranch regularly sent batches of Magnemite to Mandarin Island North on supply ships. There, they worked with a large power plant and got the Magnemite charged properly through the local power company.

As for the electricity they got for free, no one needed to say the rest out loud.

When Reiji arrived at the ranch, the first question he got was whether he could help charge the Magnemite. He didn’t have an Electric-type Pokémon with him, so he turned the request down.

Then he said he wanted to buy Magnemite. The ranch owner didn’t refuse. He led Reiji to the warehouse where the Poké Balls were stored and explained the setup.

”These are the numbered Magnemite. They’re the batch we trade with Mandarin Island North. Whenever their charge runs dry, we send them there to recharge.”

He pointed to the other side. ”Those are the Magnemite the ranch collected ourselves. They haven’t been numbered. If you want one for battling, I’d recommend choosing from that group.”

”Can I not choose from the numbered ones?” Reiji asked.

He was already here. There was no way he wasn’t touching every ball he could.

”You can, if you don’t mind the number on its body.”

The ranch owner took a drag from his cigarette, flicked away the ash, and gave him a casual answer.

”Same price?”

They had already agreed on the price. If the man tried to raise it now, Reiji would walk.

”Same price. Call me when you’re done.”

The ranch owner waved a hand, left Houndoom at the warehouse entrance to watch him, and walked out.

The price was five hundred thousand Pokédollars per Magnemite. The owner had agreed so quickly that Reiji instantly knew he had offered too much. Losing the negotiation that badly left a sour taste in his mouth.

He could only accept it. Five hundred thousand was the same price as an Electric-type Pokémon Egg at the Day Care on Kinnow Island, which made that place look even more overpriced.

A finished Magnemite here didn’t even have to cost five hundred thousand, while Kinnow Island charged that much for an Electric-type Egg alone. The markup was ridiculous.

Most Pokémon Eggs cost a hundred thousand. Even if Electric-types were more expensive, two or three hundred thousand should have been enough. A Magnemite itself should be around that too. It was far too common to be rare.

Reiji only felt annoyed for a moment. His bargaining still needed work. Under Houndoom’s watch, he brought Toxicroak into the warehouse.

He had come in disguise this time. The Magnemite were meant for his other identity, so buying them under his real face wasn’t convenient.

As for the Magnemite Cissy had seen—the one he had left at the Gym—he could always say he released it. It was just one Magnemite. No one should care.

Inside the warehouse, Reiji went shelf by shelf, touching the Poké Balls one at a time. There were more than a thousand Magnemite stored here.

The number matched the island’s needs. The ranch kept one batch fully charged, one batch in use across the households, and another batch recharging. Every household on the island needed at least one Magnemite, and the three batches rotated to keep the power supply stable.

Fantasy really had found its way back to reality. Magnemite were unpaid, nonstop tools—worse off than overworked employees.

After checking more than a thousand Magnemite, he finally found one with decent potential.

Fifty-one.

Barely acceptable.

It was one of the numbered Magnemite, just as the ranch owner had warned him. Reiji looked at the number printed near the edge of its magnet and felt oddly bothered by it.

Still, Magnemite would fuse when it evolved into Magnezone. The number probably wouldn’t remain. Thinking of it that way made him feel better.

He took the chosen Magnemite outside and found the ranch owner chopping firewood. Reiji tossed him the Poké Ball for inspection, then threw over five hundred thousand in cash.

The owner glanced at Houndoom. When Houndoom shook its head, he knew Reiji hadn’t hidden any extra Poké Balls. He took the money and tossed the ball back.

Deal done.

As for one numbered Magnemite going missing, that was nothing. The ranch could replace it with an unnumbered one from its own stock. No one would care.

By the time Reiji got the Magnemite, the sun had started to tilt west. He didn’t linger in town and headed straight for the barren mountains outside it.

The mountain was riddled with caves. Some had been dug by glassmakers, but most had been carved out by Onix.

Reiji flew there on Pelipper, released his Pokémon for lunch, then took out a flashlight. After eating, he kept only Toxicroak, Golbat, Spinarak, and Gengar in his shadow, then entered the caves.

Having Gengar in his shadow changed everything. Anything below Elite Four tier was manageable now, and even an Elite Four-tier boss wasn’t impossible to fight.

That was the confidence an Elite Four-tier Pokémon gave him.

Before that level, a weaker Pokémon could still win with the right tactics, the right matchup, or a well-timed trick. Against true Elite Four-tier strength, though, those tricks lost most of their bite. At that point, power was power.

Absolute strength crushed most things.

Not long after entering the cave, Reiji saw a Diglett.

Good. He had come to the right place. He would definitely find one worth keeping here.

He sent Golbat and Spinarak ahead as scouts and attackers. They fought their way through the tunnels. Whenever they found a Diglett, they knocked it out, and Reiji caught it.

He kept going until evening.

By the time he had caught over a hundred Diglett, he was drenched in sweat.

When he came out of the cave, the sky was nearly dark and the sun had already reached the horizon.

After an entire afternoon in the caves, Reiji had caught and checked over a hundred Diglett, but not one of them had the potential he wanted. None even broke fifty. Compared to the Magnemite he had found just by walking through a warehouse, it was hard not to feel cheated by the difference in luck.

He made camp beside a river before the last of the light disappeared. Spinarak took watch while the others helped set up the tent, and only after that did they sit down for dinner.

Once they finished eating, Reiji went into the river to wash off the sweat and dirt, clothes and all. Several of his Water-types joined him in the water—Pelipper, Poliwrath, Marshtomp, Staryu…

Marshtomp was close to evolving now. Staryu still needed a few more days to recover from its injuries.

After washing up, Reiji sat by the fire and opened Marshtomp’s panel.

Marshtomp belonged to his alternate identity, so during the Indigo Plateau Conference, Reiji hadn’t paid as much attention to it as he should have. That had to change. Once Marshtomp evolved into Swampert, it would become the main fighter he could show openly under that identity. Toxicroak was there to protect him. Gengar stayed hidden as his last line of defense.

[Marshtomp]

[Type: Water + Ground]

[Gender: Male]

[Potential: 67.31%]

[Level: 37.32%]

[Ability: Torrent/22.13%][Hidden Ability: Damp/31.23%]

Marshtomp’s potential hadn’t moved much, but one more evolution should push it past seventy. That was already excellent. With that kind of ceiling, Swampert would have a real shot at becoming a strong, established Elite Four-tier Pokémon later.

Its level was already high enough to evolve, but Marshtomp hadn’t triggered it on its own. Reiji still had ten to twenty million Pokédollars’ worth of Water-type resources left, plus some Ground-type resources. That should be enough to support the evolution.

Marshtomp wouldn’t get the same kind of investment Poliwhirl or Magmar had received. If Reiji had kept it unevolved with an Everstone and let it build up longer, the result might have been better. But he couldn’t afford to wait forever.

His alternate identity simply didn’t have enough combat power.

Toxicroak and Gengar were already locked into their roles: one protected him in the open, the other stayed hidden for emergencies. Darkrai wasn’t with him. Golbat was useful, but not as a frontline fighter. Spinarak had already reached the limit of its potential. Ditto was tied to his disguise. Weezing listened well enough and was surprisingly obedient, but most of the time, it was thinking about food.

Weezing could help in a fight, but it was better as support. It wasn’t the Pokémon Reiji wanted leading a charge. For that, he needed something heavy and direct. Swampert fit that role perfectly. Once it moved, the battlefield would feel it.

That was also why Magnezone, Sharpedo, and Golett mattered.

Magnezone would give him a proper answer to Water-types, which was almost mandatory in the Orange Archipelago.

Sharpedo would solve his travel problem at sea and on land. It could also let him approach from underwater instead of relying on Golbat to carry him through the air.

Golett overlapped with Swampert a little, but that wasn’t a problem. No one said he could only have one frontline fighter.

His defensive setup was already clear: Toxicroak and Spinarak in the open, Gengar and Ditto hidden.

For support, he had Golbat and Weezing, with Spinarak able to help there too.

What he lacked were real attackers. Marshtomp was the only one that truly fit. Weezing could fight, but it couldn’t carry the offense by itself. Sharpedo, Magnezone, and Golett would give him the pressure he needed. Toxicroak was better kept for finishing blows.

If Toxicroak had to step forward as the main fighter, that meant things had already gone wrong.

And if Gengar had to reveal itself, then the situation had become genuinely dangerous—just like the last two times Team Rocket had hunted him down.

Reiji had no interest in ending up that cornered again.

[End of chapter]

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