"Entering the field now is the Psychic Queen herself, Sabrina! This is her first tournament appearance, but she's already shot straight to the top of the popularity rankings. Cute, mysterious, and terrifyingly strong, Sabrina has joined Danny and Drake as one of the three favorites to win the entire tournament!"
"Everyone wants to know which of those three will take the title, but first, Sabrina still has another knockout match to win!"
"And her opponent today is Cissy of Mikan Gym! With her bright red hair and cool attitude, Cissy has built up quite a following of her own!"
"Unfortunately for some of her fans, rumors have been going around that Cissy may already be seeing someone. The organizers have heard your questions, gentlemen. There will be a fan event later in the tournament, so you'll have your chance to ask the Trainers yourselves!"
"Sabrina! Psychic Queen! Sabrina!"
"Cissy! Cissy! Cissy!"
Reiji leaned against the wall inside the Trainers' tunnel and listened to the stadium lose its collective mind over the two girls.
They were louder than they had been for his match.
Shameless. Every last one of them.
Sabrina still had the bigger crowd, though. She was first in the popularity rankings, followed by Drake and Danny. Reiji had made the list too, but much farther down. Cissy, Tania, Amber, Komai, and several other girls were all ahead of him.
Not that the ranking meant much. How was he supposed to compete with an audience like this?
Then Sabrina walked into view on the stadium screen.
Long black hair, straight bangs, that cold expression, and a battle style that made it look like she was never under pressure.
Reiji quietly reconsidered his criticism.
Fine. Maybe he understood them.
The match started soon after, and Cissy ran into trouble almost immediately.
Sabrina barely needed to speak. She gave commands through a psychic link, leaving Cissy with almost nothing to read before each attack came. After only a few exchanges, Cissy was already fighting from behind, and her first Pokémon went down without accomplishing much.
Her second did better. Once Cissy had a feel for Sabrina's timing, she finally managed to land a few solid hits, but hurting Sabrina's Pokémon and actually beating it were two very different things. Before long, Cissy was down to her last.
At that point, she stopped worrying about conserving anything and went all in.
It worked—barely.
Her final Pokémon managed to take Sabrina's first Pokémon down with it.
Three for one.
That was as far as Cissy got.
"Sabrina wins!"
The stadium erupted.
"Psychic Queen! Sabrina! Psychic Queen! Sabrina!"
The crowd rose together, chanting her name while Cissy quietly left the Trainer platform. Nobody was chanting for her anymore.
Reiji was waiting inside the tunnel.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine." Cissy sighed. "I knew I probably couldn't beat her. I just wanted to see how far I could push it. I didn't think the gap would be that big."
"At least you took one down. Next time, take two."
Cissy gave him a small smile. "Next time?"
"Sure. You're not retiring because you lost one match."
That was enough to pull her out of the worst of it.
As they started to leave, Reiji glanced toward the tunnel on the opposite side of the stadium.
Sabrina had just stepped inside.
For a moment, the dim passage lit up around a pair of glowing blue eyes.
She was looking directly at him.
Reiji met her gaze until the glow disappeared.
Cissy noticed him staring and looked back, but by then there was nothing to see. "What are you looking at?"
"Nothing. Come on."
He had no idea what Sabrina wanted from him, or whether she had decided to take an interest in him again.
Whatever.
There was no point worrying about it now. If he ever became strong enough, even Giovanni would just be another opponent.
He was not there yet, though.
Best not to get ahead of himself.
They left the Stadium and headed to the Pokémon Center, where both of them handed their teams over to Nurse Joy. Afterward, they went upstairs to the hospital room.
Reiji only planned to stay for a while. He had something more important to take care of before tomorrow.
The next round was six-on-six.
It was finally time to bring Poliwrath, Gyarados, and Kingler back.
He wanted all three available before the top 64 began. Winning the whole tournament might still be asking too much, but with them back on the team, he at least wanted to push into the top eight.
They stayed at the Pokémon Center until evening, when the new bracket was scheduled to be announced. Everyone gathered around the television as the countdown appeared.
"Three... two..."
Reiji found himself counting along.
One.
The screen changed.
"The third knockout round of the Orange League will use the full six-on-six format. The following matchups have been assigned by the tournament system. All participating Trainers should check the schedule carefully and remember their match times."
Names and portraits began flashing past.
Drake.
Danny.
Shingo.
Then Reiji's portrait appeared beside another boy.
He stared at the screen for a moment before giving a helpless laugh.
"Him?"
So there really was no avoiding this fight.
Reiji stood and headed downstairs to the Pokémon Center's video phones.
Against that opponent, he needed Poliwrath back.
Hopefully all that time with Pryce had paid off. Otherwise, tomorrow might be as far as he went.
...
The call connected quickly, and Pryce's smiling face appeared on the screen.
"Rai. Calling at this hour... you want those three back, don't you?"
Reiji laughed. "You already knew?"
"Of course."
"Tomorrow is my first six-on-six match. I'm starting to run short on Pokémon, so I wanted to bring Poliwrath, Gyarados, and Kingler back."
"Not a problem. Sheila is already bringing their Poké Balls over. I'll send them right away."
"Thanks, Pryce. They didn't cause you any trouble, did they?"
Reiji was mostly thinking about property damage. Those three were strong enough now that one training accident could leave him with an expensive apology to make.
"Nothing like that. Poliwrath is especially well behaved. Whenever there was no training to do, it even helped us with little jobs around the Gym. You've raised it well."
That was a relief.
"Thanks, Pryce."
Pryce frowned at him. "You can stop thanking me every other sentence."
Reiji laughed awkwardly.
Pryce liked the boy, but they simply had not spent enough time together yet for Reiji to stop being so formal with him.
And then there was Blaine.
Pryce had seen that old man on television telling anyone who would listen that Reiji was his student.
Ridiculous.
Blaine specialized in Fire types. What exactly was a Fire specialist supposed to teach a Trainer whose entire style revolved around Water?
If anything, Reiji was a much better fit for Pryce. Ice and Water went hand in hand.
Reiji had no idea that this argument was happening entirely inside Pryce's head.
"Right. No more thanks."
"Good."
"Thank—"
Reiji caught himself when Pryce's brow twitched and quickly turned it into an awkward smile.
The transfer machine chimed.
One Poké Ball arrived.
Then another.
And a third.
Reiji collected all three, but the machine kept running.
He looked back at the screen. "Pryce? I have all three. Why is it still transferring?"
"Oh, that."
Pryce smiled.
"You helped me find Piloswine again. I never properly gave you anything for that, so I'm sending you a little one. Take good care of it."
"You really don't have to—"
"Don't start."
Pryce cut him off before he could refuse.
"Blaine gave you that Magmar. I saw it on television, and it looked pretty impressive. I can't let him be the only generous one. I'd never hear the end of it the next time we met."
Reiji knew when he had lost.
"All right. I'll take good care of it."
"Good."
Pryce then remembered something else.
"You probably want to know what I did with your three while they were here."
Reiji immediately paid attention.
"I have a piece of Never-Melt Ice that has been around for ten thousand years. I let the three of them absorb some of its cold. Gyarados managed the most, about a layer and a half. Poliwrath and Kingler each absorbed one layer."
Reiji's eyes lit up.
"All three have excellent potential. Keep training them properly. As for the little one I'm sending you, its talent for Ice is even better. It managed two layers."
Now Reiji really wanted to see that last Poké Ball.
Even one layer of that Never-Melt Ice represented roughly a thousand years of accumulated cold. If the three of them had actually absorbed that much, their Ice-type techniques should have improved considerably.
"Got it. I'll take care of all four."
"That's what I wanted to hear. Good luck tomorrow. Sheila and I will be watching."
"I'll do my best."
Reiji was about to end the call when Sheila suddenly squeezed into view beside Pryce.
That bought him another few minutes.
By the time he finally hung up, the fourth Poké Ball had finished transferring.
Reiji picked it up and opened the status panel.
Just as he had guessed.
A Swinub—the same evolutionary line as Pryce's ace.
[Swinub]
[Type: Ice/Ground]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 59.12%]
[Level: 55.11%]
[Ability: Oblivious / 21.15%][Hidden Ability: Thick Fat / 23.16%]
Reiji looked over the panel once.
Then again.
"Well, that explains it."
The first thing that caught his attention was not the level or even the potential.
It was Thick Fat.
Fire-type moves normally hit Swinub for x2 damage, but Thick Fat cut Fire damage in half. That effectively erased the weakness.
Which made Reiji think back to Pryce's Piloswine. When it had been badly burned all those years ago, it probably had not possessed Thick Fat. Otherwise, that battle might have ended very differently.
The Swinub was impressive in other ways too. Dual Abilities, 59.12% potential, and a level above fifty-five while still unevolved.
That potential had clearly been improved at some point; numbers that precise usually meant it had changed from its original value.
And at level fifty-five, Swinub had almost certainly been kept from evolving on purpose. An Everstone was the obvious explanation.
Its potential was even a little higher than the Magmar Blaine had given him.
Not that Reiji intended to start comparing gifts. Blaine and Pryce had both helped him far more than they ever needed to. As far as he was concerned, both men were among the most important people he had met since coming to this world.
He put Swinub's Poké Ball away. Once he returned to the Trainer Village, he would make things official and add it to the team.
For now, Swinub could fill a supporting role in the tournament. Long term, with potential like that, Reiji fully intended to raise it as one of his main battlers.
He had already started thinking about how he wanted to organize the team in the future.
The strongest would form his Champion group. Below them would be a veteran Elite Four group, then a regular Elite Four group. Everyone else could train and battle at their own pace.
That way he could choose a team that actually fit the opponent in front of him instead of crushing everyone with Champion-tier Pokémon once he eventually had enough of them.
Having a large roster was normal anyway.
Ash had thirty Tauros by himself.
Reiji was nowhere near that ridiculous.
He returned upstairs with the four Poké Balls.
The Pokémon from today's match had already finished their examinations. Tauros would almost certainly be pulled from the tournament, but Magmar and Slowking were fine. They were tired, nothing more. A good night's rest would have them ready again tomorrow.
Now came the part Reiji had really been waiting for.
He started checking the three Pokémon that had returned from Pryce.
Gyarados came first.
There was a large pink bump on top of its head.
Reiji stared at it.
Someone had apparently beaten some humility into it while it was away.
It had been more than a hundred days since Reiji last checked Gyarados's panel properly. Three months of training under Pryce was a long time.
[Gyarados]
[Type: Water/Flying]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 79.99%]
[Level: 58.24%]
[Ability: Intimidate / 49.23%] [Hidden Ability: Moxie / 46.23%]
Water-type: [(Waterfall / 45.24%) (Rain Dance / 43.39%) (Aqua Tail / 56.28%) (Hydro Pump / 52.53%) (Surf / 48.71%) (Dive / 47.93%) (Whirlpool / 42.61%)]
Flying-type: [(Hurricane / 47.33%) (Bounce / 54.79%)]
Normal-type: [(Hyper Beam / 46.55%) (Take Down / 37.69%) (Body Slam / 34.24%) (Roar / 42.37%) (Double-Edge / 31.25%) (Bind / 28.33%) (Splash / 43.21%) (Tackle / 46.31%) (Scary Face / 41.72%) (Leer / 43.61%) (Protect / 48.42%) (Giga Impact / 33.38%)]
Dragon-type: [(Outrage / 29.11%) (Twister / 32.01%) (Dragon Dance / 42.41%) (Dragon Tail / 49.22%) (Dragon Pulse / 44.34%) (Dragon Rage / 46.37%)]
Ground-type: [(Bulldoze / 37.73%) (Earthquake / 39.63%)]
Ice-type: [(Ice Fang / 56.51%) (Ice Beam / 57.64%) (Icy Wind / 42.31%) (Avalanche / 43.35%) (Blizzard / 38.85%)]
Electric-type: [(Thunderbolt / 41.58%) (Thunder / 42.87%)]
Fire-type: [(Flamethrower / 42.37%) (Fire Blast / 41.56%)]
Steel-type: [(Iron Head / 38.95%) (Iron Tail / 36.61%)]
Dark-type: [(Crunch / 37.77%) (Payback / 21.71%) (Dark Pulse / 33.65%) (Taunt / 32.15%)]
Other: [(Stone Edge / 35.25%) (Rest / 52.66%)]
Its potential had barely moved. Breaking through the barrier to Champion tier was clearly much harder than reaching Elite Four tier had been.
Its level, however, had climbed to fifty-eight. Gyarados was firmly in quasi–Elite Four tier now, and before long it would enter the long accumulation period before attempting the next breakthrough.
"Not bad."
The Ability numbers had risen quite a bit too.
Pryce had definitely put it to work.
The biggest changes were in its Ice-type moves. Gyarados had improved across the board and picked up several new ones while it was away, including Icy Wind, Avalanche, and Blizzard.
Exactly what Reiji would expect after months with an Ice specialist.
Next came Kingler.
[Kingler]
[Type: Water]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 73.33%]
[Level: 59.99%]
[Ability: Hyper Cutter / 53.22%] [Hidden Ability: Sheer Force / 48.53%]
Water-type: [(Water Gun / 55.35%) (Rain Dance / 46.04%) (Crabhammer / 53.55%) (Bubble / 52.14%) (Bubble Beam / 52.53%) (Hydro Pump / 46.63%) (Dive / 42.13%) (Razor Shell / 41.53%)]
Ground-type: [(Dig / 48.54%) (Mud Shot / 54.24%) (High Horsepower / 44.34%) (Stomping Tantrum / 42.54%)]
Normal-type: [(Protect / 56.44%) (Swords Dance / 47.25%) (Leer / 48.43%) (Harden / 56.14%) (Slam / 43.44%) (Body Slam / 22.64%) (Hyper Beam / 44.15%) (Giga Impact / 49.43%) (Guillotine/22.24%)]
Ice-type: [(Ice Beam / 55.36%) (Icy Wind / 51.52%) (Hail / 49.94%) (Blizzard / 48.41%)]
Steel-type: [(Metal Claw / 47.34%) (Iron Defense / 57.64%)]
Rock-type: [(Rock Tomb / 41.64%) (Rock Slide / 33.34%)]
Psychic-type: [(Agility / 54.15%) (Amnesia / 45.18%) (Rest / 44.48%)]
Other: [(Hammer Arm / 47.22%) (Rock Tomb / 41.64%) (X-Scissor / 40.91%)]
Kingler had reached quasi–Elite Four tier before Gyarados and had already been building toward the next step for a while. Reiji had kept track of when each Pokémon reached that stage, so now it was simply a question of which one would break through first.
Its potential had risen as well.
That surprised him more.
Kingler had already been above seventy-two percent when he sent it away, yet Pryce had still managed to squeeze more out of it in only a few months.
The man really knew what he was doing.
Both Abilities had improved significantly, and its Ice-type moves had made the same kind of progress as Gyarados's. Even the powerful Normal-type move Reiji had wanted it to learn was now sitting comfortably on the move list.
At this point, he was hardly surprised anymore.
Poliwrath, Gyarados, and Kingler had gone to one of the most experienced Ice specialists in the world. Of course their Ice techniques had improved.
Still, seeing the results firsthand made one thing very clear.
Veteran Trainers like Pryce had spent decades learning things that could not simply be picked up from a book.
Reiji put Kingler's Poké Ball down and picked up the last one.
Then he opened Poliwrath's panel.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Nothing was wrong.
Quite the opposite.
The change was so much bigger than he had expected that Reiji could feel his breathing getting heavier as he stared at the numbers.
He wanted to laugh.
Unfortunately, he was sitting outside a hospital room.
Nurse Joy would probably throw him out herself if he started yelling in the hallway.
So Reiji lowered his head and tried to hold it in.
His shoulders started shaking.
Cissy noticed immediately.
"Rai? Are you okay?"
Reiji pressed his lips together before the grin could escape and stood up.
"I'm fine. I just... need to go outside for a minute."
"I'll come with you."
"No."
That came out a little too quickly.
"I mean, stay here. I'll be right back."
Cissy watched him leave with a puzzled look.
Reiji made it out of the Pokémon Center, kept walking until he reached an empty stretch outside the city, and finally stopped pretending.
He burst out laughing.
"Pryce, I love you!"
For the second time since meeting him, Reiji understood exactly what decades of experience at the Elite Four level were worth.
Pryce had solved something Reiji had struggled with for months—something all his reading, planning, and experimenting had never managed to fix.
And apparently, the old man had made it look easy.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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