Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

Day 20 since leaving the Orange Archipelago. Clear skies.

The storm had finally passed, leaving the ocean calm beneath the morning sun. A gentle breeze swept across the deck of the rented yacht as it headed north toward Kumquat Island, its engines humming steadily and a trail of white foam stretching behind it.

The detour was deliberate. Spider had rented the yacht under legitimate identities, and Reiji didn’t want the rental company to be able to reconstruct their movements during the cargo ship raid.

They had hidden the yacht beside an uninhabited island near Navel Island before the operation. Heading north afterward would look perfectly ordinary to anyone checking the vessel’s route.

Once they reached Kumquat Island, they planned to turn south toward Mandarin Island North before continuing to Tangelo Island, where the yacht would be returned. The entire trip could be completed without much trouble, and they expected to reach Mandarin Island North that evening.

For now, however, most of Spider’s members had no interest in sightseeing. They had spent the entire night fighting, and after feeding their Pokémon and grabbing something to eat themselves, they had settled into a rotating schedule of sleep and watch duty.

Reiji was one of the few who remained awake.

He’d discovered something unpleasant shortly after returning to the yacht. Will had secretly placed a psychic mark on him during their confrontation, and the others who’d stayed behind on the cargo ship, including Naoki and Shingo, had been marked as well.

It wasn’t an immediate threat, but it could have allowed Will to track them.

Reiji had read about such techniques before. Much like animals using scent to mark their territory or signal to potential mates, Psychic-type Pokémon could leave traces of their energy on people and objects. Humans with psychic abilities were capable of doing the same.

Fortunately, these marks weren’t permanent. Energy that countered Psychic types could gradually wear them away, and they would also fade naturally once the target moved beyond the user’s effective sensing range.

Gengar had already found and erased every mark Will left behind, washing them away with Ghost-type energy.

Compared to Reiji’s previous experience, the process had been almost effortless.

The first time he’d encountered a psychic mark, it had come from the Champion-tier Slowking belonging to Cissy’s grandfather. The difference in strength had been so enormous that he’d spent months gradually removing it.

Will’s mark hadn’t posed anything like that challenge.

With the tracking problem handled, Reiji turned his attention to the loot Gengar had collected from the cargo ship. The Pokémon had swallowed a ridiculous amount of equipment and supplies, and even its unusual storage space seemed to be reaching its limit.

Reiji spent some time sorting everything into bags, compressing the scattered supplies into a more manageable collection. Once Gengar swallowed the neatly packed bags again, it no longer looked quite so uncomfortably stuffed.

Apparently satisfied, Gengar slipped back into Reiji’s shadow.

A moment later, it emerged again and deposited two Pokémon Eggs on the cabin floor.

Reiji stared at them.

One had a red shell covered in black markings, while the other was white with blue patterns. Neither looked familiar, and he had absolutely no idea when Gengar had managed to steal them.

”Where the hell did you get these?”

Rather than try to decipher Gengar’s explanation immediately, he picked up the eggs and activated his proficiency panel.

[Pokémon Egg: Red shell with black markings]

Type: ???

Gender: ???

Potential: ???

Level: ???

Ability: ???

Known Moves: ???

Incubation Period: 17 days

[Pokémon Egg: White shell with blue markings]

Type: ???

Gender: ???

Potential: ???

Level: ???

Ability: ???

Known Moves: ???

Incubation Period: 119 days

Reiji sat on the edge of his bed, studying the results with growing unease.

The first egg didn’t seem especially unusual. Seventeen days was a fairly ordinary incubation period, and judging by the red-and-black shell, he suspected it might belong to a Fire-type Pokémon.

The second egg was another matter entirely.

One hundred and nineteen days. Nearly four months.

He’d only encountered an incubation period remotely comparable to that once before, when he’d obtained the gray egg that eventually hatched into Zapdos. That one had required more than two months, so long that he’d initially wondered whether the egg was defective.

He later learned that Legendary Pokémon often had unusually long incubation periods.

Now he was staring at an egg that would take almost twice as long as Zapdos’s to hatch.

An awful possibility occurred to him.

Don’t tell me that’s Lugia’s egg...

”Gengar! Where did you get this one?”

Reiji jabbed a foot at the shadow beneath his bed, striking the Gengar hiding inside. Of all the things that mischievous Pokémon could have stolen, surely it hadn’t been stupid enough to take a Legendary Pokémon’s egg.

Gengar floated out and began gesturing frantically, trying to explain what had happened.

Back on the cargo ship, it had noticed something round and white beneath Lugia. All it had done was reach underneath, pull the object free, and swallow it.

It hadn’t even thought about what it was taking.

Unfortunately, Reiji couldn’t understand most of its excited cries.

”Wait. You’re saying you found it on the cargo ship?”

Gengar nodded, but Reiji needed something more specific. He rummaged through his belongings, found a thick illustrated Pokémon encyclopedia, and hurriedly flipped to Lugia’s entry.

He held the open book in front of Gengar.

”Was it underneath this Pokémon? Did you steal the egg from Lugia?”

Gengar pointed at the picture and nodded again, still attempting to explain itself.

Reiji felt his stomach drop.

I’m dead. I’m actually dead.

He sank back onto the bed, staring at the white egg.

That’s Lugia’s egg. When it realizes the egg is missing, it’s going to hunt me down.

While Reiji was occupied imagining his imminent death, Gengar quietly produced two incubators from its mouth and placed them on the bed. It then began edging back toward the safety of his shadow.

Reiji caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and grabbed one of Gengar’s short legs before it could disappear.

”Oh, no you don’t!”

He dragged Gengar out of the shadow and seized it around the neck, or at least where its neck should have been.

”You little bastard! Do you have any idea what you’ve done? You don’t even mess with a hen when she’s sitting on her eggs!”

He shook Gengar in exasperation.

”And you went and stole one from Lugia! Lugia! Do you have any idea what happens when a Legendary Pokémon finds out someone stole its egg? You’re going to get us all killed!”

Gengar’s long pink tongue flopped out as Reiji shook it, but it only made a ridiculous face at him.

That made Reiji even angrier, though there wasn’t much he could actually do. Gengar clearly wasn’t taking the danger seriously, and strangling a Ghost-type was hardly an effective punishment.

Eventually, he let it go.

Once he’d calmed down enough to think, Reiji noticed the two incubators Gengar had left on the bed. He placed an egg in each, taking particular care with the white one.

Keeping Lugia’s egg out in the open was out of the question. He ordered Gengar to swallow its incubator again, reasoning that the strange storage space inside Gengar might prevent Lugia from sensing the egg’s location.

As for the other egg, he still believed it was probably an ordinary Fire-type Pokémon. He had no particular interest in hatching it himself, so he’d simply give it away.

Kazuma’s daughter came to mind.

Yuzuki was living at the villa on Mandarin Island North, and an egg would make a nice present for her.

Reiji didn’t need any grander reason to part with it. He simply wasn’t interested in raising another Pokémon from an egg right now.

With the two eggs dealt with, he finally left his cabin and headed to the yacht’s bridge.

Kazuma and Naoki were on duty, while the others slept. Reiji had originally intended to join them, but discovering that Gengar had stolen what might be Lugia’s egg had made sleep seem impossible.

He went straight to the windows and searched the surrounding sea.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, much less a suspicious storm forming on the horizon. The water remained calm, and there was no sign of Lugia coming after them.

Reiji allowed himself to relax a little.

Thinking back to the previous night, he began to wonder whether the enormous storm had been connected to Lugia laying its egg.

If the Legendary Pokémon had been preparing to give birth, surrounding itself with a violent storm would have been an effective way to keep intruders away. Most sensible people would turn around rather than sail straight into the eye of a storm.

Team Aqua, of course, had done exactly that.

Those idiots had taken advantage of Lugia’s weakened condition and tried to capture it, apparently without realizing why it was so vulnerable in the first place.

If Steven knew the full circumstances, he’d probably understand why Lugia had seemed so exhausted during their battle. Giving birth was difficult enough without spending an entire night being attacked by poachers.

Reiji couldn’t help drawing a rather crude comparison.

What’s the worst possible moment for someone to come charging at you?

Probably when you’re sitting on the toilet.

Now imagine being interrupted in the middle of that by a bunch of armed strangers determined to drag you away.

Reiji shuddered at the thought. No wonder Lugia had been furious.

After confirming the yacht was running smoothly, he chatted briefly with Naoki and Kazuma and asked them to wake him immediately if anything unusual appeared.

He returned to his cabin, still intending to keep one ear open for trouble. His exhaustion finally caught up with him, however, and he fell into a deep sleep almost as soon as he lay down.

By the time Reiji woke, evening had arrived. The yacht had been traveling all day and had already reached Pummelo Island, where it was now heading south toward Mandarin Island North.

Tai, Shingo, and Sou had taken over the bridge while Naoki and Kazuma rested. Reiji stopped to talk with them before heading outside, where he settled against the railing to watch the sunset.

The stormy seas of the previous night felt like a distant memory. The sky was clear, and the setting sun cast a warm orange glow across the water as the yacht continued its steady journey south.

Gradually, the other members began waking up. None looked particularly refreshed after sleeping aboard a moving vessel, but at least they’d managed to recover some of their strength.

Some wandered onto the deck to stretch, while others gathered in small groups to talk. Nobody had much energy left for anything more demanding, and the yacht continued toward Mandarin Island North without incident.

When they reached the waters near the villa district, Naoki took over the controls. He would be responsible for sailing the yacht to Tangelo Island and returning it to the rental company, a task that would keep him away until well after midnight.

The others released their Flying-type Pokémon and flew the remaining distance to the villa.

After three exhausting days of preparation, infiltration, and fighting, Spider’s raid had finally come to an end. They’d failed to kill Riku’s brother, but they’d taken control of his cargo ship, stolen plenty of valuable supplies, and returned without suffering any serious losses.

For now, everyone wanted a few days of proper rest.

Tai had other responsibilities, however. As soon as they reached Mandarin Island North, he headed straight for the gang’s headquarters in the old district. He’d been absent for several days, and there was probably a mountain of work waiting for him.

Back at the villa, Kazuma’s family came out to welcome him home. Yuzuki rushed toward him, thrilled to see him again, while her mother hurried over to check that he was all right.

Most of Spider’s members barely noticed the reunion. They were too tired to do much beyond returning to their rooms, washing up, and looking for something to eat.

Reiji and Shingo remained in the living room to discuss what came next.

They needed to monitor the League’s response to the cargo ship incident before deciding whether to continue operating from Mandarin Island North or abandon the area altogether.

If the investigation began pointing toward Spider, they would have to disappear before the League could close in. On the other hand, leaving too early would mean giving up everything they’d established on the island.

They spent some time discussing possible responses, but neither was in the mood to make major decisions after such a long operation. Eventually, they agreed to get some proper sleep and continue the conversation later.

Reiji was heading upstairs when he noticed Kazuma and his family were still celebrating their reunion.

Yuzuki had both arms wrapped around Kazuma’s leg, refusing to let go, while her mother held his hand and asked whether anything dangerous had happened during the trip.

Watching them, Reiji remembered the Pokémon Egg he’d brought back.

He quietly summoned Gengar and had it retrieve the incubator. Then he carried it over to the family, who were still talking excitedly.

”Kazuma, everyone’s exhausted, so try to keep it down. You should all get some rest too.”

”Of course, Boss.”

Kazuma quickly made a zipping motion across his lips, encouraging Yuzuki and her mother to lower their voices.

Once the room was quieter, Reiji crouched in front of Yuzuki and placed the incubator beside her.

”Here, Yuzuki. I bought this Pokémon Egg while I was away. It’s a present for you, but you have to take good care of it until it hatches, all right?”

”Unc...”

Yuzuki caught the slight change in Reiji’s expression and immediately corrected herself.

”Reiji-nii! Is it really for me?”

”Of course it is.”

Reiji gently patted her head, noticing that her hair had been cut short since he’d last seen her. Her mother had probably done it to help with the family’s new identities, and he appreciated that she was taking their situation seriously.

He gave the woman an approving smile before reaching into his pocket for two more Poké Balls.

”I picked out two Pokémon for you as well, Yuzuki. You’ll have to look after them properly too.”

The girl was already holding the incubator with both hands and couldn’t reach for the Poké Balls. She looked from the gifts to Kazuma, uncertain whether she was allowed to accept so much.

”Boss, you’ve already given her an egg,” Kazuma protested. ”That’s more than enough. We really can’t accept anything else.”

Reiji had returned Kazuma’s belongings, helped him select new Pokémon aboard the cargo ship, and now wanted to give his daughter three Pokémon of her own. Kazuma was grateful, but the generosity was becoming difficult to accept.

”Just take them.”

Reiji tossed the Poké Balls to him, leaving little room for argument.

”There’s a young Lapras and a Munchlax inside. I’m sure Yuzuki will love them.”

He gave the girl another affectionate pat before standing.

”Anyway, make sure there’s food ready for everyone tomorrow morning. Those guys are going to wake up starving, and I don’t want them tearing the kitchen apart looking for breakfast.”

With that, Reiji headed upstairs, leaving Kazuma and his family to enjoy their gifts.

Of course, his generosity wasn’t entirely selfless.

Munchlax was notorious for its appetite, and keeping one properly fed could become expensive. Lapras wasn’t exactly cheap to raise either, particularly for a family still trying to establish itself in a new home.

Reiji had chosen those Pokémon partly because he wanted Kazuma’s family to remain dependent on him.

Kazuma would have another reason to work hard, while Yuzuki’s mother would need to keep earning money at the hot spring resort to cover the growing expenses. As long as they needed that income, they would be far less likely to abandon their jobs or look for opportunities elsewhere.

It was a convenient way to strengthen the family’s ties to him while making the gifts look like a generous reward.

The cargo ship had contained other rare Pokémon, including Growlithe and Chansey, but Reiji hadn’t wanted to touch either species.

Growlithe was closely associated with the Jenny family, while Chansey was practically synonymous with the Joy family. Within Trainer circles, everyone knew that obtaining those Pokémon through questionable channels could lead to serious trouble.

A Growlithe occasionally ended up with an ordinary Trainer, but the Joy family was particularly protective of Chansey. Any Chansey that appeared outside its usual circles was likely to attract an investigation.

Lapras was far less troublesome, so Reiji had selected a young one for Yuzuki.

He had no interest in keeping it himself. If he’d wanted another Lapras, he could have obtained one long ago. Pryce had an entire group of promising Lapras living on his property, and Reiji had already been given opportunities to choose Pokémon from there.

Back when he was weak, a Lapras would have been an incredible prize. Now that he had the strength and resources to raise one, he simply didn’t need it.

Besides, when Pryce had offered him a Pokémon before, he’d ended up receiving Swinub instead.

Some things just worked out that way.

After Reiji went upstairs, Kazuma spent a little longer with his family. He deliberately avoided telling them what had happened during the cargo ship raid. They were happy enough knowing he’d returned safely, and he had no desire to frighten them with the details.

Eventually, he carried Yuzuki upstairs to rest, leaving his wife to prepare food for the exhausted Trainers.

Uncle helped her in the kitchen, making the work considerably easier. They prepared enough food for a large breakfast, knowing that Spider’s members would be hungry after spending so much time at sea.

By the time Naoki returned from Tangelo Island, the first dishes were ready. He’d finally finished returning the yacht and was exhausted, but the smell of freshly steamed buns and rice porridge persuaded him to sit down for a quick meal before going upstairs.

The kitchen stayed busy as the night wore on. More food was prepared, and the aroma gradually drifted through the villa, reaching the rooms where everyone was sleeping.

Before dawn, the smell had begun waking Spider’s members one after another.

They emerged from their rooms with rumbling stomachs and made their way downstairs, where a generous breakfast was waiting. Steamed buns, rice porridge, fried dough sticks, rice balls, and an assortment of side dishes covered the table.

After days of hurried meals and exhausting battles, nobody needed to be invited twice.

They gathered around the table and began eating, repeatedly complimenting Kazuma’s wife on her cooking. The warm food was exactly what they needed after their ordeal, and for the first time in days, the atmosphere at the villa felt relaxed.

The cargo ship raid was behind them, at least for now.

They could worry about the League, the Black Ships, and Spider’s next move after getting some proper rest.

[End of chapter]

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