That afternoon, Reiji kept drilling Shelmet and spending time with Magikarp. One more trip to Rind Island was all it would take—let Magikarp make its leap and evolve into Gyarados—and he'd finally have a real heavy hitter.
Magikarp had been surprisingly easy to win over. Reiji talked it down, laid out the facts, then promised steady meals and a safe place to live. After that, the Poké Ball clicked shut without much drama.
It had been furious at first about getting snatched mid-migration, but it cooled off once it understood the deal. Reiji wasn't locking it away forever—if it wanted to go back, it could go back. For now, they'd build trust first.
He was in the middle of Shelmet's afternoon training when Senta suddenly showed up and waved him over. "My sister wants you."
Reiji told Shelmet to keep jogging on its own, or do target practice if it felt like it, then followed Senta to the battle field. Cissy wasn't battling today—no Trainers were challenging the Gym at the moment.
"Gym Leader?" Reiji called as he walked in.
Cissy was staring off into space. Nearby, Blastoise and the others were training, carefully not interrupting her little daydream. If Reiji had to guess, she was probably plotting a new way to get even with him.
"Come sit. I need to tell you something." Cissy pointed at a stool beside her. Once Reiji sat down, she continued, "You're stronger than most rookies. Have you thought about moving up to Elite Trainer?"
"Elite Trainer?" Reiji blinked. He'd been braced for some new trap, not career advice. "That sounds… hard."
He really hadn't thought about it. He'd already claimed the basic benefits that came with rookie registration, and there was no rule that said he had to rush. Rookie certification had been annoying enough; Elite promotion definitely wouldn't be a stroll.
"To qualify, you need at least three second-stage Pokémon. That's the baseline." Cissy counted on her fingers as she went through his team. "Your Poliwhirl, Pelipper, and Kingler are enough to meet that first requirement."
She didn't stop there.
"Next, you go to a Pokémon Center and complete point tasks totaling one hundred thousand points. You also need at least ten Gym Badges. And you need tournament results—either two regional leagues where you place in the top thirty-two, or one where you make the top eight. Meet all of that, and you're an Elite Trainer."
"Four requirements…" Reiji listened without interrupting and quickly realized the problem: he only met the first one. The other three were still empty boxes.
The points requirement was the easiest. If he wanted, he could simply convert money into points—one hundred thousand points' worth, which worked out to one million Pokédollars.
The badge requirement meant traveling. He'd have to go region by region, challenge Gyms, and collect badges there. Ten badges wasn't a big deal for him; it would just take time.
The tournament requirement meant entering a regional league in Kanto or Johto and at least making the top thirty-two. That also sounded manageable.
For a tournament like the Indigo Plateau Conference—the kind that still had plenty of "baby" matches—top thirty-two wouldn't be a stretch. Top eight might even be realistic.
If Kanto and Johto were still like the leagues he remembered from the old anime, then a top-eight finish felt doable. If it was more like the later regions, he wouldn't bet on it so confidently.
Hoenn and everything after it had leagues with steadily rising quality. By the time Ash reached Hoenn, you already had pseudo-legendary Pokémon appearing on the field.
And Sinnoh… Sinnoh was where freaks showed up—those Trainers who fought like they'd been built in a lab. If he entered that kind of league right now, he'd be walking in just to get shredded.
Still, with the strength he had today, Kanto and Johto were the cleanest path. He could handle those leagues and tick the boxes without it turning into a nightmare.
Cissy leaned back, satisfied. "The last three requirements—you've got time, so finish them as soon as you can. The Elite Trainer standard is only top thirty-two." Then her tone sharpened. "But the Gym's requirement is different. Bring back a championship. If you don't win it… don't even think about it."
Reiji finally understood. She wasn't struggling to find a chance to mess with him. She'd just changed the game.
He wanted a premium Water Stone.
So she set a condition that would hurt if he failed. If he couldn't do it, then the Water Stone was off the table.
"Champion?" Reiji asked, half convinced he'd misheard. He even pointed at his own face like that would help. "You mean me?"
Cissy nodded.
Reiji let out a dry laugh and shook his head. "Gym Leader, that's giving me way too much credit. Regional leagues are packed with monsters. Winning the whole thing is hard."
"I don't care," Cissy said flatly. "That's the Gym's requirement. I already asked Grandpa. No championship, no Water Stone."
Reiji looked away. She'd crossed her arms and put on the kind of stubborn expression that said the conversation was already over. She even dragged the old fisherman into it as leverage. There wasn't much he could do.
If it was only "try to win," then fine—he could put the work in. Whether he succeeded was another question, but effort was still something he could control.
"Alright," he said at last. "I'll try."
It wasn't even an outrageous demand in the long run. If he wanted a League starter Pokémon, he'd need to enter a regional league anyway. Only the champion got to choose.
"When you meet the promotion requirements, just go to a Pokémon Center and upgrade," Cissy said, already waving him off.
She'd only called him over because, while she was spacing out, the thought had occurred to her: Reiji had no business sitting at rookie rank forever. If he wanted to become an Advanced Trainer later, an Elite Trainer badge was the minimum threshold.
And once someone became an Advanced Trainer, they could apply to the League to open a Gym. Pass the League's evaluation, and they could become an official Gym Trainer.
Of course, the League controlled Gym numbers. Ordinary people rarely got approvals. The Orange Archipelago hadn't added a new Gym in years—most of the existing ones were inherited.
Reiji left. Only then did Senta finally dare to speak. He'd been quiet the whole time, watching his sister and Reiji talk without cutting in.
"Sis… you didn't even win a championship back then. You only made the top sixteen. Isn't it a bit much to demand Rai-nii takes first?"
Cissy snapped her eyes to him. "Are you telling your sister how to do her job? And are you done copying Blastoise's notes?"
"I…" Senta folded instantly. One look at her face was enough.
He slunk back to training, swallowing whatever he'd planned to say. He'd tried to put in a good word for Reiji and got slapped down for it. At this point, all he could do was silently mourn Reiji's future. He had no idea what Reiji had done to set her off, but Cissy's anger hadn't cooled even after all these days.
In another corner, a different boy—the young man's cousin—watched the whole thing and smirked to himself.
Champion. That was the requirement.
His cousin had entered the Indigo Plateau Conference three times before he finally won once. And this rural nobody thought he could take a championship? Ridiculous.
Even he couldn't win a league trophy. There was no way Reiji would. Better to stay in the Gym and keep doing errands like a good helper.
…
Back in the training room, Reiji kept circling the same question: whose demand was this, really? Was it Cissy's idea, or the old fisherman's?
The more he thought about it, the clearer it became. It had to be Cissy. There was no such thing as "the Gym's requirement" unless the Gym Leader said so.
And it definitely wasn't the fisherman. That old man was up there in years—he wasn't going to invent a nonsense condition like this out of boredom. If it wasn't Cissy trying to pay him back, why would anyone set a requirement this nasty?
Still, even without her condition, he'd planned to win a regional league. He wanted Squirtle—a true starter Pokémon—and that meant taking first place.
Once Poliwhirl and the others picked up a few new moves and had time to solidify them, he'd be ready to head out. About half a month, give or take. His first stop would be Kanto, the first region Ash had traveled.
He could even visit Pallet Town and see if Ash was there. If this world somehow didn't have Ash… that would be horror-movie material. Like waking up from a beautiful dream.
But that wasn't possible. Professor Oak was on television all the time, and Reiji had even seen Oak's grandson, Gary, on-screen. He just hadn't caught a glimpse of Ash yet.
He'd also seen Gary's sister on TV—Daisy. She never showed up in the anime, only in the special manga. A Coordinator, the type who entered Pokémon Contests.
Coordinators weren't like standard Trainers. They raised Pokémon for contests, not for real battles. Calling them performers wasn't even an insult—it was accurate.
Reiji had no interest in that path. He wanted strength—enough to control the situation when things turned ugly. Fancy performances didn't keep you alive.
If he didn't want to be eaten, and didn't want to eat others, if he wanted a quiet life where he could lie back and coast, then he needed power. At minimum, he needed Elite Four-tier strength.
He couldn't choose his birth in his old life, but he'd still managed to pick a life where he could lie low and fish.
This life was the same. No choice in where he started, but he could still choose where he ended up.
A person should live for themselves. He'd only understood that at thirty, and those years had been surprisingly comfortable—right up until he got thrown into another world.
The universe really was a bad joke. He never wanted to grind in the first place, so why was it still forcing him?
The league was still a future problem. He wouldn't leave until Poliwhirl and the others learned their new moves—about half a month.
For the Elite promotion, he still had two practical hurdles: one hundred thousand points, and Gym Badges.
He could handle the points first. He didn't need to browse the Pokémon Center's task board; higher-point missions meant higher risk and wasted time. He wasn't short on money.
He also had a batch of contraband he needed to move, and he wanted Naoki to help him find a Karrablast. He could call tonight and have Naoki come over.
Naoki could help sell the contraband and, at the same time, go to the Pokémon Center to post tasks. With enough money, he could set whatever rewards he wanted.
A single job worth one million Pokédollars would look fake on its face. Anyone would assume someone was trying to buy points through the back door.
Which was normal, honestly. The League didn't care. They'd take a handling fee, convert the money into points, and those points would still only be spendable within the League system.
So the solution was simple: split it. Have Naoki post several smaller tasks until the total payout added up to one million Pokédollars, then the points requirement would be done.
The League wouldn't "take" those points away, either. They only existed as proof that a Trainer had the experience to complete missions at that scale.
Clear one hundred thousand points' worth of tasks, and you'd proven you had the baseline competence expected of an Elite Trainer.
Reiji kept training Shelmet as he planned out the road ahead. The afternoon slipped by, and soon it was six.
The four Trainers who had been helping Poliwhirl and the others all said their goodbyes and headed off.
Sou thanked Reiji again and went off toward the street. If he went shopping alone, he'd probably get overcharged—and that, too, was a lesson. Paying a couple thousand to learn it wasn't the worst deal.
Before they left, Reiji asked them to spread the word. If they found a Pokémon that knew Recover, he wanted its Trainer to come by and teach Shelmet.
Once they were gone, Reiji returned Poliwhirl and the others to their Poké Balls, said goodbye to Senta, said goodbye to Cissy, picked up his packed dinner from the back kitchen, thanked the kitchen lady, and headed back to the cabin by the lake.
Eat dinner together with Cissy?
No chance. She was looking for revenge every second of the day, and the kitchen lady had already warned him in a whisper: Cissy had been talking about frying bitter melon for his meal. Reiji wasn't about to sit down and hand her an opening.
He didn't just avoid her—he actively fled the idea. Even if bitter melon wasn't involved, Cissy would still be quietly plotting some other way to mess with him. He wasn't taking the bait.
When he returned to the lakeside cabin, everyone crowded around. They were genuinely happy to see him back. Reiji released Poliwhirl and the others, and set Magikarp into the lake.
The Tentacruel hadn't returned, which meant the underground river had been sealed off. If a Krabby dug its way in again, he'd just catch it again.
Everyone was exhausted. Reiji also called back Hanhan and the others—one look at the proficiency panel would tell him whether they'd been slacking.
The numbers had moved, which meant they hadn't. Good enough.
He unpacked the dinner from the Gym kitchen and fed the Pokémon first. Then he made himself another portion, and once they finished, they ate together.
While eating, he pulled out his phone and called Naoki.
"Boss?"
"Naoki, I joined the Mikan Gym."
"Mikan Gym?" Naoki sounded genuinely confused. "With your strength, Boss… do you really need to join a Gym?"
Naoki still believed Reiji was an Elite Four-tier Trainer, not some up-and-coming nobody.
Reiji couldn't exactly correct him without collapsing the image he'd built. "Having a public identity makes things easier when you need to handle… certain work."
Naoki understood immediately. A cover. Like how he'd hidden his real name and joined a club as a coach.
"Got it," Naoki said. "So why are you calling me this time?"
"Are you still on Mandarin Island North?"
"I am. I also joined a small club—coaching there for now."
"Come to Mikan Island. Before you leave, find me a Unova Bug-type Pokémon called Karrablast. I don't care if it's from the black market or a breeder. Buy one and bring it over—best talent you can find."
He paused, then added, "I've also got a batch of contraband to deal with once you arrive. And there's one more thing, but I'll tell you when you get here."
"Understood, Boss. Do you need Gems?"
"You're still collecting Gems?"
"I'm not," Naoki said quickly.
Reiji's tone had gone flat, and Naoki could almost hear the suspicion. He wiped sweat from his forehead. After the last warning, he hadn't dared stockpile Gems. He'd only do it if Reiji specifically asked.
"I don't need Gems," Reiji said. "That's all. Get ready and come over as soon as you can."
"Okay, Boss."
After he hung up, Naoki immediately flipped open his Pokédex, found the Unova section, and looked up Karrablast. Short limbs, a blue body—ugly, awkward-looking, and, from the way he understood it, unable to evolve.
He didn't get why Reiji wanted something like that. A weak Bug-type like this looked useless no matter how you stared at it.
Then again, it wasn't his job to understand. His Boss had caught Darkrai—the Mythical Pokémon known as the Nightmare Pokémon. Naoki didn't even have the courage to imagine how that had happened.
It was already night, but if this was an order from Reiji, it couldn't wait. Naoki found the club owner, asked for leave, and headed straight to a breeder to start searching.
If the breeder didn't have one, he'd check the black market, then the smuggler ships. One way or another, he'd get what Reiji wanted—even if it meant arranging a transfer from Unova.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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