Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

Inside the caves, Reiji went back to the dull work of catching Diglett.

He kept at it until noon. By the time he came out, he was drenched in sweat again, and more than a hundred Diglett later, he still hadn’t found one with high potential.

There was no forcing this kind of thing. It all came down to luck. If he was lucky, he could find what he wanted right away. If he wasn’t, it would be like the Magikarp search all over again—half a month of catching and checking with nothing to show for it.

If only Diglett were like Magnemite, something he could buy in bulk. Unfortunately, the people running Day Cares were all sharp. Finding a bargain there was almost impossible.

Diglett were common Ground-types, but that was exactly why the black market had no demand for them. Nobody went there looking to buy ordinary Pokémon. The Department Store Day Care probably had some, but just thinking about the price made him give up.

No shortcut, then.

He could only keep catching them.

Reiji returned to camp, ate lunch, and spent a while resting in the sun with his Pokémon. Lying under the shade of a tree, he took out his notebook and wrote down the Pokémon that had evolved recently: Magmar, Poliwrath, Swampert, Lucario.

Magmar’s path was already clear. Keep building the Fire type moves. It only needed minor adjustments now, nothing that would change its long-term direction.

Poliwrath was just as straightforward. It was already strong, and the training plan didn’t need to change much. Waterfall burst was still its core. At most, he would add Swift Swim training into the routine.

Swampert was similar. Waterfall burst would be its foundation too, and it also had Mega Evolution waiting somewhere down the line, assuming he could ever find the right Mega Stone. It could learn moisture sensing from Poliwrath, but Reiji wasn’t sure that was worth the time.

Gengar, Golbat, and Toxicroak already covered the team’s awareness from different angles: Gengar could actively scan, Golbat could map the area through sound, and Toxicroak was sharp at picking up danger. With all three around, Swampert didn’t need to spend time developing a weaker passive sense of its own. That time was better spent sharpening Waterfall and building a stronger burst.

The first three plans were easy.

Lucario was the problem.

Reiji had never trained Aura before. He knew from his past life that Aura could do all kinds of things: sense the surroundings, read through objects, sense emotions, communicate through telepathy, and even connect strongly enough to trigger a bond-style transformation. Ash had done that, at least.

There were too many possibilities, which made the starting point harder to choose.

For Lucario, Aura should be the core. But that didn’t mean its other moves could fall behind, and endurance training was non-negotiable for any Pokémon Reiji planned to rely on.

Reiji still didn’t understand how Aura connected to Inner Focus, and the ability description only talked about resisting interference. He set that aside for now. Lucario would start with the basics: build stamina, sharpen its Aura perception, and develop a stronger burst.

The last part was simple enough.

If Lucario’s body was tough enough, then speed would become impact. It was a Steel-type and already knew Iron Defense. Once it learned to harden itself properly, every burst of movement would hit harder. And if it learned Extreme Speed later, anything caught in that charge was going to regret it.

Aura was still too unfamiliar for him to build a full plan around, so Reiji kept the first stage simple: Aura perception and Iron Defense. Build the senses. Build the body. Once he understood Aura better, he could adjust the rest.

He wrote the idea down, took a short rest, then explained the training plan to Lucario. The exercises weren’t complicated. Poliwrath had gone through similar work before, so it could help Lucario get used to the routine.

After that, Reiji headed back into the Diglett caves.

Rumble—

He had barely entered before the ground began to shake.

”Everyone, over here. If the ceiling starts coming down, use Protect.”

Toxicroak jumped in front of him at once, keeping its usual distance so its poison wouldn’t brush against him.

Golbat settled on Reiji’s shoulder. If the tunnel collapsed, Golbat and Spinarak would use Protect to block the falling rocks.

The rumbling passed. Reiji swept his flashlight forward and caught sight of a huge body sliding through the darkness.

Onix.

They waited until it moved past and the shaking faded. Then Reiji saw brown heads popping up from the ground along the path it had carved: tiny black eyes, pink noses.

Diglett.

”Quick. Knock them out.”

Reiji moved immediately. Ditto and Gengar stayed back, while Toxicroak, Spinarak, and Golbat struck at the same time, dropping the Diglett as they surfaced.

He threw Poké Balls one after another, picked them up, and checked only the potential line. There were more than ten in this batch.

”Twenty-nine. Thirty-five. Forty. Thirty-eight. Twenty-two… still too low.”

He released them after checking and followed the Onix’s trail deeper into the cave.

The ground along its path was riddled with Diglett holes. Every so often, another Diglett poked its head out, and Reiji caught it the same way. He kept following the trail until it opened into a cavern beneath the mountain.

Reiji stood on a ledge and aimed his flashlight down.

The sight nearly made his heart stop.

The cavern was full of Onix. They lay coiled across the floor, sleeping, with Diglett scattered all around them. Every tunnel entrance had more Diglett nearby.

His exhaustion disappeared on the spot.

This was exactly what he had been looking for.

Reiji moved carefully, catching Diglett one by one without making too much noise. He spent the entire afternoon in that cavern before finally finding one worth keeping.

Potential: fifty-four.

Not perfect, but good enough.

Once he had it, he didn’t stay a moment longer. He had Golbat follow the airflow and lead them back out.

There were so many Onix down there that some were bound to have excellent potential, but Reiji had no intention of touching them. Catching even one might wake the whole nest.

The Diglett hunting had already disturbed a few. Gengar had kept them asleep with Hypnosis, but if a whole group of Onix panicked, the mountain itself might start coming down.

Leaving quietly was the smarter choice.

With that Diglett caught, he could return to Mandarin Island North. Once he bought one more Magnemite from the power plant, he could finally start the combination-evolution research.

He also needed to sell off the stolen goods he had been holding onto. Whether the money would be enough was still hard to say. Three combination-evolution Pokémon wouldn’t be cheap.

Magby, Poliwhirl, and Marshtomp’s evolutions had already burned through more than two hundred million Pokédollars. The remaining goods still hadn’t been sold, and Reiji didn’t know if they would cover the next part of the plan.

He made it out of the cave before sunset.

The sun hadn’t touched the sea yet, so he still had time to rest properly. Tomorrow morning, he could head back to Mandarin Island North.

When he returned to camp, everyone was waiting.

Poliwrath came over first and looked him over. Only after making sure he wasn’t hurt did it finally relax.

”Don’t worry. Gengar was with me.”

Reiji praised Gengar, rubbed Poliwrath’s head, and walked back into camp with the others around him.

He made dinner first, then finally sat down for a short rest. After eating with his Pokémon, he washed up by the river and crawled into the tent early, Eevee already snoring in his arms.

He wanted to sleep as soon as possible.

He had spent the whole day in the tunnels, and the stale air had worn him down more than he expected.

Tomorrow, he would return to Mandarin Island North and begin the combination-evolution work. He also had to start planning Pidgeotto’s evolution.

Pidgeotto was in a similar position to Marshtomp. Its foundation was strong, and it had built up enough to evolve. It didn’t have Poliwhirl’s long accumulation or Magmar’s explosive setup, but not every Pokémon needed a perfect evolution plan.

After watching so many teammates evolve one after another, Pidgeotto was bound to feel impatient. It was better to arrange its evolution soon.

Reiji wasn’t in the early stage anymore, where losing one or two main Pokémon could leave him scrambling.

Between his main team, his alternate roster, and the younger Pokémon he was raising, he had plenty of choices now. Almost any one of them could hold its own in a professional match. In an amateur match, most of them could be the ace.

Choosing who to use had become its own problem.

Not a bad problem to have.

[End of chapter]

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