It was already past nine by the time Reiji got back to the lakeside cabin. He let Poliwhirl and the other main partners out again, then headed inside to sleep.
Before bed, he recalled the Water-types in the lake into their Poké Balls. They got the same treatment as Croagunk—staying in their balls and placed beside his pillow for the night.
Once the Pokémon had settled in, Reiji took a shower, climbed into bed, and drifted off with Slowpoke in his arms.
What he didn't know was that someone had been watching him. The "I'll cancel it" Reiji heard earlier in the day had only been thrown out casually—it hadn't been taken seriously at all.
As long as Reiji was still breathing, he was a threat. The money had already been paid, the deposit was already handed over. If they could get rid of him, great. If they couldn't, they could just pretend they'd forgotten about it—Reiji probably wouldn't make a fuss over something that small.
And if the bounty hunter got taken out by Reiji instead? That would be even better. Who knew—maybe it would count as a black mark on Reiji's record as a Trainer.
Once the cabin lights went out, the lakeside fell silent. Only the forest stirred with faint, skittering sounds, and the only light left was the pale, weak moon above.
Two men were already hidden in the trees. They didn't move, didn't speak—only their eyes tracked the darkened cabin as they waited for the right moment.
"This kid was a pain to find. Living out in the middle of nowhere…"
"Good. No one around means it's easier to do this cleanly. His Poliwhirl, Kingler, Scyther, and Rhyhorn are all strong—you've seen it yourself these past few days. They're at least Advanced-tier."
They hadn't come in blind. Before making a move, they'd visited the Gym more than once to scout, checking how strong Reiji's team really was and piecing together most of his routine.
But they'd tailed him at night, so they never saw the other Pokémon Reiji kept around the cabin. If they had, they wouldn't have been this careless.
"Wait a bit longer. Let him fall into a deep sleep. Quiet and clean."
"Heh. We put him to sleep first, then paralyse him. Even if it turns into a straight fight, two-on-one isn't scary. Easy money."
As the night deepened and midnight crept closer, the two men finally released two Pokémon and sent them forward, inching toward the cabin.
One was Paras, shaped like a crab. The other was Venomoth, fluttering like a moth drawn to light.
Moving one behind the other, they slipped up to the window and fanned their wings gently, dusting the room with Sleep Powder and Stun Spore.
But Spinarak—hanging upside down under the eaves—had already spotted the intruders. It started to react, only for Darkrai to stop it.
The moment Venomoth began releasing powder, Darkrai and Gengar spread a psychic barrier together, sealing Reiji and the sleeping Pokémon beneath a telekinetic shield. At the same time, Darkrai reached Reiji through his nightmare.
Someone's raiding you. They used Sleep Powder and Stun Spore on the bedroom.
A night raid? Reiji's mind snapped sharp even inside the dream. Bold.
He immediately had Darkrai slip over and use Dark Void on the two Trainers outside.
Ignore the two Pokémon at the window. Lock down the Trainers first—seal their Poké Balls too. I'll be up in a second.
After giving the order, Reiji jolted awake. He saw powder clinging to the surface of the psychic shield and understood at once—Gengar had blocked it for him.
Gengar had also covered Poliwhirl and the other strongest partners, but its psychic strength wasn't unlimited. The rest wouldn't be protected; they'd sleep through it and wake naturally in the morning.
Darkrai returned just as quickly, bringing word that the ambushers were already down. Reiji nodded and had Gengar drop the barrier.
"Gengar. Spinarak. Move."
"Heh-heh-heh." The moment Gengar heard that, it slipped straight through the wall and burst outside. One Shadow Ball smashed Venomoth out of the air and slammed it into the ground, and Gengar followed up with two quick punches that left Venomoth limp.
"Spina." Spinarak fired silk at Paras, pinning it in place and wrapping it tight until it looked like a ball of yarn.
With the two scouts dealt with, Reiji sat up without breathing in, swung his legs off the bed, and moved away from the bedroom fast. Poliwhirl, Scyther, and the others followed him out, leaving the powder-filled room behind.
Hanhan and Butterfree were already asleep, so Reiji left them that way. Waking them now would only make things worse.
He took Poliwhirl, Scyther, Croagunk, Spinarak, Gengar, and Kingler outside and headed for the two men in the woods.
"Where are they?" Reiji already knew there were two Trainers, and thirteen Pokémon in total. The two that came to spread powder were just disposable scouts.
If Venomoth couldn't put them under—or if the trick got noticed—then the raid would turn into a direct fight.
"In the trees. No one else nearby. Just those two."
"So it really is an assassination attempt." Reiji's thoughts flicked back to the conversation earlier that day. Had the guy been playing him?
Otherwise it didn't make sense. If the job had truly been cancelled, why was someone still coming for him tonight? Unless it hadn't been cancelled at all.
He'd get answers tomorrow. Right now, he had two problems asleep in the dirt.
"Take me to them."
He walked into the forest with Darkrai guiding him. A moment later, the moonlight caught two bodies sprawled face-down in the mud, breathing hard like they'd dropped on the spot. The stink of alcohol hit Reiji as he got close.
They'd come to ambush him drunk.
Reiji almost laughed. He'd built his entire style on catching people off guard, and these idiots thought they could sneak up on him?
"Spinarak. Empty their pockets."
Spinarak quickly stripped them of anything useful. Aside from the eleven extra Poké Balls, the two men carried nothing but junk—cigarettes, a lighter, little cards, a bottle, and a few Pokéblocks. There was no real cash either, just a handful of crumpled low-value Pokédollar notes Reiji couldn't be bothered picking up.
The only valuable thing they had was their Pokémon. Everything else was either stashed somewhere else—or they truly had nothing.
Outlaws like this were usually wanted men. If they were local thugs hanging around the port, they might have a safe house. Or they might be exactly what they looked like: broke and desperate. Reiji didn't care enough to guess.
"Kingler. Dig a hole. Deep."
He was going to bury them. People who tried to kill someone in the dead of night didn't usually have clean hands, and if they vanished out here, no one would come asking questions.
"Croagunk. Poison Jab."
He had Croagunk inject poison to make sure they didn't crawl out later—and because he wanted to see just how lethal Croagunk's toxin really was.
"Croa." Croagunk yanked up their shirts with one hand and drove the other into their stomachs, feeding poison straight into their bodies through the tubes in its arms.
The effect was immediate. Their faces went dark and bruised-looking, and they woke choking and vomiting. When their eyes finally focused enough to catch Reiji under the moonlight—and the Pokémon around him—they understood the raid had failed and tried to run.
They barely made it to their feet before the world started spinning. Their vision split, doubled, swam. They reached for their Poké Balls—and found nothing.
The moment they realised that, their bodies gave up. Both men collapsed back into the dirt, foam on their lips, unconscious again.
"One minute." Reiji lowered his watch and looked at Croagunk. Spinarak's venom was nasty, but Croagunk's was worse—Keiko's boyfriend had at least lasted five minutes.
Pokémon could sometimes keep moving even while poisoned. Humans couldn't. People in this world were tougher than normal, but toughness had a ceiling.
Once the poison finished them, Kingler had the pit ready. It dragged the bodies down into the hole, and Reiji had it cover everything with soil. By next year, the trees here would probably grow a little better for it.
He then had Gengar burn the useless scraps with Will-O-Wisp, leaving nothing behind, before he took the Pokémon back to the cabin.
The bedroom was unusable now. Reiji had Poliwhirl and the others carry Hanhan and the sleeping Pokémon out into the living room. He would clean the room tomorrow.
He picked another bedroom to sleep in, keeping Poliwhirl and the rest close—but no one really slept. Not after something like that. If another pair of rats tried to break in, he wanted everyone ready.
Lying there, Reiji stared at the thirteen Poké Balls in his hand. Those two broke idiots had been lugging around a full squad: Venomoth, Paras, an Advanced-tier Victreebel, an Advanced-tier Arbok, an Advanced-tier Sharpedo, an Advanced-tier Tentacruel, plus Beedrill, Weepinbell, Pidgeotto, Fearow, Koffing, Gloom, and Grimer.
Working together, they could bully Trainers who'd only just stepped into Advanced-tier. No wonder they'd dared to take the job.
Against Reiji, though, they hadn't even gotten a real fight. Darkrai had slipped in behind them and one Dark Void had dropped them on the spot.
As for their Pokémon, Reiji kept them in the Poké Balls for now. He'd deal with them later when he went out. Staying stored wouldn't kill them—people had kept Pokémon in balls for years before.
With the ambushers handled, his thoughts circled back to the guy at the Gym. This felt like a test—testing whether Reiji could erase desperate killers without making noise, and testing how much force he could handle.
Whatever the reason, Reiji wasn't going to keep letting it slide. Tomorrow would make things clear. If the pressure didn't stop, he'd start gathering proof and report a Team Rocket mole to the League.
He pushed that aside and looked at his partners, especially Gengar. Under Darkrai's direction, Gengar had raised a psychic shield cleanly, blocked the powders, and made a hard call—protecting the strongest fighters first.
Gengar still loved snacks and messing around, but tonight it had been solid. It was part of the team now.
[Gengar (shiny)]
[Type: Ghost + Poison]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: ???]
[Level: 24.10％]
[Ability: Cursed Body/12.92%]
[Moves: (Confuse Ray/31.57%) (Lick/33.55%) (Curse/29.15%) (Hex/28.23%) (Shadow Ball/37.82%) (Destiny Bond/26.63%) (Phantom Force/35.56%) (Shadow Claw/29.92%) (Shadow Punch/27.11%) (Toxic/44.84%) (Acid Spray/30.52%) (Venoshock/31.21%) (Poison Jab/33.15%) (Toxic Spikes/27.54%) (Sludge Bomb/27.35%) (Hypnosis/32.41%) (Dream Eater/30.12%) (Psychic/37.64%) (Trick Room/22.44%) (Rest/39.81%) (Mean Look/14.48%) (Perish Song/12.78%) (Payback/25.26%) (Taunt/18.77%) (Sucker Punch/19.88%) (Dark Pulse/29.42%) (Ice Punch/13.23%) (Drain Punch/11.55%) (Hyper Beam/9.32%) (Will-O-Wisp/22.45%) (Protect/18.87%)]
Reiji hadn't checked Gengar's growth in ten days. Now he stared at the numbers and checked them again. Gengar's level had jumped frighteningly fast—back when it was straining toward its limit, it was hovering around level four or five. Ten days later, it was already into the twenties.
Its experience gain was ridiculous. Even as levelling slowed at higher levels, Gengar was still growing at nearly twice the pace of his other Pokémon. Maybe that "potential limit" really did feed back into growth once it was pushed far enough.
Reiji drew a sharp breath, then let it out slowly. "That's absurd…"
At this rate, Gengar wouldn't take long to surpass Croagunk—maybe even Poliwhirl—and become his strongest partner. Thankfully, their bond was already there. He didn't have to worry about a greedy little ghost turning on him.
After evolving, Gengar's Ability had changed from Levitate to Cursed Body. When it got hit, it could sometimes disable the opponent's move—about a thirty percent chance.
Losing Levitate didn't stop it from floating, phasing through walls, or vanishing at will. That wasn't an Ability trick—it was just what Gengar was.
Its move proficiency hadn't shifted much. Most changes were small, because Gengar had spent that period hammering its potential with Gems, and a lot of its moves had risen along with it. With a little practice, it could bring the timing back immediately, and the moves still hit just as hard.
What mattered was how wide its toolkit had become—especially across Ghost, Poison, Psychic, and Dark moves. Once its potential rose, its talent stopped looking like "good" and started looking like "unfair," particularly in Poison, Ghost, and psychic techniques.
Acid Spray, Venoshock, Poison Jab, Toxic Spikes, and Sludge Bomb gave it a full Poison package—some of those were likely picked up by watching Croagunk. Toxic Spikes in particular was a nasty addition.
Ice Punch and Drain Punch looked like they'd been stolen by observation too. Gengar wasn't just learning—it was copying.
Psychic and Trick Room were proof enough of its psychic talent. If Reiji ever wanted to play with Trick Room tactics, Gengar could.
Even Hyper Beam had made it onto the list—brutal power, with the usual drawback of a recovery turn after firing.
Taunt and Sucker Punch rounded out the Dark moves, which explained why Gengar loved making that taunting "come here" gesture.
Phantom Force, Shadow Claw, and Shadow Punch filled out the Ghost side. After all the Ghost-type Gems it had eaten, it was finally paying it back.
And then there was Perish Song. If Reiji ever wanted to run a trap-and-Perish style, Gengar could do it.
Protect was the last piece—picked up while sparring sensing drills with Croagunk.
Reiji didn't even know what to say anymore. Gengar's talent was outrageous, and it made sense only because Reiji had burned an impossible amount of money to push it this far.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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