Back at Mikan Gym, Reiji didn't return to the lakeside cabin at noon. He'd left plenty of food for Butterfree and the others, and after talking with that guy for a while, he'd already been there well past half an hour.
Once the afternoon shift started, he didn't bother going back. The moment he stepped into the gym, challengers would be waiting.
Gym battles opened for the afternoon, and Trainers kept showing up one after another. They all knew they couldn't beat the acting Gym Leader, but they liked testing themselves against someone stronger anyway. Reiji didn't know what to say about kids like that.
This time, he sent out his Rhyhorn. After eating so many good things, Hanhan still hadn't put on any weight, so it was time to get moving.
[Rhyhorn]
[Type: Ground + Rock]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 59.13%]
[Level: 39.38%]
[Ability: Rock Head/35.15%][Hidden Ability: Reckless/31.17%]
[Moves: (Counter/22.22%) (Skull Bash/24.31%) (Rock Polish/30.26%) (Crunch/33.82%) (Thunder Fang/21.45%) (Ice Fang/32.94%) (Fire Fang/22.91%) (Rock Slide/9.21%) (Stomping Tantrum/19.99%) (Double-Edge/37.14%) (Smack Down/11.37%) (Bulldoze/17.17%) (Horn Attack/38.53%) (Rest/35.81%) (Tackle/38.21%) (Dig/20.73%) (Rock Climb/33.27%) (High Horsepower/23.28%) (Sunny Day/3.63%) (Rain Dance/3.34%) (Sandstorm/5.54%)]
It had been a while since he'd checked Hanhan's panel. Its potential had actually gone up by more than a full point. Back in the City, Hanhan had eaten plenty of the Ground Gem and Rock Gem he'd picked up there.
Hanhan's level was also closing in on forty. Three more levels and it would evolve into Rhydon. He probably wouldn't even need to push it all the way to 99% before the evolution kicked in.
Three levels sounded small, but they weren't easy. Before level twenty, you could sometimes climb a level a day. These last three? Ten days, half a month—there was no guarantee they'd move at all.
And that last bit of potential wouldn't come quickly either. Hanhan couldn't do the Gengar trick of evolving and reverting to squeeze out growth. If he wanted to grind it up to sixty, he'd be looking at at least half a year, maybe a full year, and that was with gems every day.
He'd seen what it took for Gengar to break through that Elite Four wall. That alone told him how many gems Hanhan would end up eating. None of them were cheap to raise, so the plan stayed simple: evolve first, then keep stacking potential afterward.
He wasn't going to hold Hanhan back and refuse to let it evolve. He'd done the same thinking with Poliwhirl—if a Pokémon could evolve, it should evolve. The groundwork was already there. This stretch was for tightening fundamentals, then pushing onward, first toward Elite Four tier. He wasn't some Trainer who had to count every mouthful.
After the level came abilities.
Rock Head had jumped by fourteen percent. Hanhan stayed Hanhan—hard-headed to the core. Even if a move carried recoil, that skull could shrug it off.
Reckless had climbed by fifteen percent.
But recoil didn't mean much when Hanhan's body could take it, and Rock Head could erase it entirely. That meant a move like Double-Edge was basically free to spam, no self-damage to worry about, just brute force.
Hanhan's move growth looked just as wild.
Counter was up twelve percent. It slammed into trees so often that it sometimes triggered that move on instinct. Whether the tree "took recoil" was another question.
Skull Bash was up nine percent too. Same habit, same target, just with a longer wind-up.
Rock Polish was up fifteen percent. He'd built it into the morning run until it felt natural.
Crunch rose eighteen percent. Hanhan used it when chewing through hard chunks of ore.
Thunder Fang was up fifteen percent. Sometimes it wanted "spicy" minerals, and it didn't mind shocking itself to get them.
Ice Fang climbed twenty percent. The Orange Archipelago ran hot, so it ate far more chilled mineral treats.
Fire Fang only went up eleven percent, since it didn't go for hot stuff much in this weather.
Rock Slide rose three percent. Useful, but straightforward—drop rocks, hit the target.
Stomping Tantrum climbed eleven percent. Hanhan used it whenever it got annoyed, whenever it wanted berries, and whenever it decided a patch of grass had done something unforgivable. Reiji still didn't know where it picked up that habit.
Double-Edge rose nineteen percent. That was the move it used when charging trees, and because it didn't fear recoil, it even knocked trees down. Reiji had Poliwhirl drag them back for firewood.
Smack Down only climbed four percent. Hanhan liked throwing stones at beehives with it. It was so rough about it that Butterfree refused to take Hanhan along on honey raids.
Bulldoze rose eight percent. That likely came from running, especially when Reiji pushed it to sprint hard. Hanhan's horn, legs, and fangs were all weapons—he wanted that body to hit like a battering ram.
Horn Attack climbed fifteen percent. Hanhan loved grinding its horn against things, and it used this move whenever it "worked on" a tree.
Rest rose thirteen percent. Hanhan snored, too. More than once, it had kept everyone else awake.
Tackle rose fifteen percent. Hanhan used it constantly, and it even swapped between different "tree-hitting moves" depending on its mood. This was still its most practiced technique.
Dig climbed twelve percent. It rarely dug unless its nose caught something tasty underground. Wild Pokémon loved hiding food beneath the soil.
Rock Climb climbed twelve percent. Reiji used it to train traction and make sure Hanhan could run along rough slopes without slipping.
High Horsepower jumped twenty-two percent. When Hanhan burst forward into a tree, that was the move behind the impact. Without it, trees wouldn't be snapping.
On top of all that, Hanhan had somehow learned weather moves—three of them: Sunny Day, Rain Dance, and Sandstorm.
Reiji hadn't planned it. He'd simply dumped all sorts of odd stones on Hanhan, and Hanhan had literally eaten its way into weather control.
Calling it "gifted" didn't even cover it. The only comfort was that Hanhan belonged to him. If an opponent had a Pokémon like this, it would be a headache from start to finish.
He liked what he'd done with Hanhan's training lately. It sometimes slacked off, but it still ran seriously most days.
That running wasn't just running. It braided moves together—Horn Attack inside its Tackle, Rock Polish to smooth out its stride, Rock Climb to lock in its footing, High Horsepower to build explosive acceleration. When Hanhan smashed into something, it wasn't "just a Tackle." Almost nothing could stand in the way once it committed.
So Reiji's "plan" for Hanhan was no plan at all. Until it evolved, everything stayed the same. Hanhan liked hitting trees, so it would keep hitting trees. That habit trained both its abilities and its moves, and it tempered that absurdly hard head.
He wasn't going to strip away what Hanhan enjoyed. As far as Hanhan was concerned, trees existed to be challenged, and its style stayed brutally simple—charge, collide, repeat.
Reiji wouldn't force a new fighting style onto it either. Hanhan came from an island tyrant's bloodline. Let it do what it did best. A straight-line charge suited a Pokémon that didn't want to overthink anything.
He'd only step in to correct habits that actually mattered. Snoring? Annoying, but harmless. Hanhan already did more than enough without him micromanaging every breath.
As for the Trainers challenging the gym, none of their Pokémon could withstand Hanhan's charge. They either got launched or flattened.
A head hardened by countless tree impacts wasn't a joke. One hit, one kid's team in trouble. If their Pokémon couldn't even handle a basic charge, they had no chance against Double-Edge.
Some challengers had seen Reiji skip Poliwhirl and Kingler, and they'd secretly celebrated. Those two were famous around the gym for being strong. What they hadn't expected was that Rhyhorn would be just as terrifying.
Water Gun, Razor Leaf—moves like that slammed into Hanhan's rock-hard head and did almost nothing. Hanhan simply pushed through the type advantage and sent every last Pokémon flying. It looked ridiculous, and that was exactly the problem.
"Good work," Reiji said, patting Hanhan's head. "Have a Gem and get your stamina back."
His palm even stung a little. Hanhan's hide was thick, and its head felt like a boulder. The texture wasn't "nice," but Reiji liked it anyway.
This was the payoff: armour you didn't need to wear. Like Krabby's shell, Hanhan's body itself made most ordinary moves useless. Sometimes it could just stand there and let an opponent swing until they ran out of options.
"Grrr…" Hanhan swallowed the Gem Reiji tossed it.
It had eaten so many stones lately that it could even tell them apart. Some ran hot. Some went icy. Some went down smooth, almost like warm porridge. And after eating them, it had picked up new moves—Reiji told it those were weather moves: Sunny Day, Rain Dance, Sandstorm.
There was also another kind of mineral that tasted incredible. Reiji had only let it eat one once. He'd told Hanhan those were "items," and it needed to finish the weather stones first before it got more of the good stuff.
"Alright, stop licking me," Reiji said, trying to push that huge tongue away. "You're getting drool everywhere. Rest for a bit. It's Scyther's turn."
No matter what he did, he couldn't budge Hanhan when it decided to get affectionate. He had to wait until it was done, or throw another stone to steal its attention. After wiping his face with a towel, he looked up and saw Scyther sharpening its blades, practically vibrating with impatience.
"Grr." Hanhan pulled its tongue back, obedient for once, and crouched by Reiji's feet while it licked at leftover grit. It had fought several battles already, and it was ready to let Scyther take the stage.
"Scyther," Reiji said, giving the signal.
"Scy!" Scyther stepped forward at once. After watching Hanhan plough through challengers all afternoon, it had been itching to fight.
Reiji raised a hand before it got carried away. "These are kids. Don't go too hard."
Hanhan launched opponents with blunt force. That meant bruises, maybe internal aches, but nothing a trip to the Pokémon Center couldn't fix.
Scyther's blades were a different story. One bad cut and someone's Pokémon went home injured for real. If a parent decided he was bullying rookies, his role as acting Gym Leader would turn into a pile of complaints.
"Scy." Scyther nodded. It could tell these Trainers weren't strong. It liked battle, but it didn't care about carving up easy wins.
A worthy opponent meant a proper fight. A weak one meant a quick knockout.
Once Scyther's battles began, Reiji loosened his grip on the reins. He let Scyther run the fights itself. Against beginners, that was more than enough.
He sat at the edge of the arena and fixed his attention on Scyther's panel.
[Scyther]
[Type: Bug + Flying]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 54.47%]
[Level: 43.12%]
[Ability: Swarm/32.23%][Hidden Ability: Steadfast/33.33%]
[Moves: (Defog/11.33%) (Night Slash/28.64%) (Steel Wing/26.81%) (Air Slash/33.61%) (Acrobatics/31.22%) (Bug Bite/31.16%) (X-Scissor/34.82%) (Fury Cutter/38.45%) (Brick Break/26.68%) (Slash/25.84%) (Quick Attack/41.91%) (Double Team/13.24%) (Tailwind/34.35%) (Agility/40.73%) (Swords Dance/34.88%) (Focus Energy/36.95%) (Protect/32.83%)]
He hadn't checked Scyther's panel in over a month. Its potential had risen too, but only by a fraction.
Once he confirmed gems could raise potential, he'd given every Pokémon its own share. When they weren't busy, they'd lick at their gems, keep them close, and slowly absorb the energy. It worked, but it crawled.
Scyther's level sat only one step above Krabby's. That made sense. Scyther's starting line had been high—when he caught it, it was already close to Advanced tier. After months of training, it slid into Advanced tier without much strain.
That was why some Trainers obsessed over catching strong Pokémon. Get something powerful, and you could jump tiers fast—Advanced, even quasi–Elite Four tier if you were lucky.
But Pokémon caught like that often carried no bond at all. Betrayals, turncoats, outright backstabs—those stories didn't come from nowhere.
In a tough wild battle, a "newly caught powerhouse" would often run the moment things turned against its Trainer.
Reiji refused to raise Pokémon that way. Bond mattered. Talent mattered too.
He looked at Scyther's potential—only a little higher than Poliwhirl's—and did the math. Scyther would hit the same wall before long.
Gems helped, but they didn't solve the problem. They took too long. If he wanted real, fast growth, evolution was still the cleanest path.
Before Scyther evolved, he needed a way to obtain and cultivate Float Stones. After that, he could head to the Johto region and handle the rest. At the latest, he'd start preparing Scyther's evolution within half a year.
He wasn't going to let a Pokémon with this much fighting spirit get trapped in a dead end.
After checking potential and level, he moved on to abilities.
Swarm had risen sixteen percent. That came from sparring with Poliwhirl again and again. Without that foundation, Scyther wouldn't have dodged Gym Leader Luana's Marowak swinging that bone club so cleanly.
Steadfast had only risen six percent. Reiji didn't focus on training it, and Scyther didn't need proof of its will. A Pokémon that could stare down Charizard's furious flames didn't lack courage.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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