The Orange League has four gyms:
Mikan Gym, on Mikan Island. The Gym Leader is Cissy—a young red-haired girl. Going by the timeline, she shouldn't be very old yet; she even has a kid brother who's supposedly smaller (and denser) than Ash. Ash hasn't debuted yet—Reiji dug that up earlier.
Navel Gym, on Navel Island. The Gym Leader is Danny, a red-haired pretty boy in his twenties. This one's worth a shot—he's old enough to make the call on taking an apprentice.
Trovita Gym, on Trovita Island. The Gym Leader is Rudy—yep, another red-haired teen; Ash's rival and the guy Misty once confessed to, plus he has a little sister.
For this gym, Reiji passes. The Leader's probably younger than him, same reason as the first: likely just a caretaker with no real authority to accept a formal apprentice.
Kumquat Gym, on Kumquat Island. The Gym Leader is Luana, a short-haired red-headed middle-aged woman—four redheads in a row. She has a son, older than Ash, who looks uncannily like him; even the Pikachu's a 1:1 copy.
Given that, Navel and Kumquat are the best bets: the Leaders are older and should have real authority to take apprentices.
The other two? A teen and a kid. Most likely acting Leaders without the power to bring on apprentices—they'd need to "ask the adults," and the answer would probably be no. No point flying there to get turned down.
So: try Navel and Kumquat first. If those fail, then try Mikan and Trovita as backups.
And if none of the Orange Archipelago gyms work out, there's always Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh…
With the next steps clear, Reiji headed for the Pokémon Center battle grounds to see if Shun was still around.
He could also register for the youth event here and sell his ten starter points—ideally to Shun—to lighten Shun's grind a bit.
What he didn't know was that when he left the club arena, he'd drawn more eyes than just the long-haired Water Club recruiter. Taro from the Electric Club had clocked him too.
Right then, Taro was in the Water Club's staff lounge—not the contestant rest area. This one's for insiders only. Their job at these events? Snipe rival clubs' dark-horse entrants—trainers like Reiji—and especially those who turned down club offers.
Every club fields a snipe squad of senior sparring partners and coaches to counter the others:
Electric staff post up at Water and Flying events; Flying post up at Grass and Bug;
…and so on.
Why? Lots of reasons:
Punish strong independents who refuse to sign with a club.
Battle-hardening for club staff—it's the unspoken rule.
Keep outsiders off the podium; make it an in-house race.
More heated matches boost viewership—no boring stomps, fewer complaints.
…and plenty more.
Bottom line: great for club employees, not friendly to outsiders.
That's why Reiji said he'd never win the whole thing—outsiders rarely even crack the top ten.
To prep for this league, the six clubs jointly fielded six close to Ace trainers, twelve veteran-class trainers, and twenty-four elite-class trainers. Against that kind of lineup, wildcards almost never take the title; the truly strong independents don't even bother entering.
But for the clubs, it matters. Taro and Ren from the Electric Club are both on the snipe list: Taro for the veteran bracket, Ren for the elite bracket. Their shared target: Reiji.
"Water already tried to recruit the masked guy. Doesn't stop us sniping him. Ren, test his Rhyhorn first," Taro said.
"He's avoided Poliwhirl since our last fight, so he might bring it out now. If you can't eliminate him off Rhyhorn, I'll do it myself—and wipe that loss off my record."
Taro hadn't forgotten losing to a type disadvantage. Everyone in the office has been roasting him for it. This was his shot to take it all back.
His plan: push his Electabuzz a stage further—to Electivire—then flatten Poliwhirl. Not exactly honorable, but winning shuts everyone up. Winners get to talk; losers exit quietly.
"Got it. I'll take the first swing," Ren said. Sparring partners rank beneath coaches—he'd follow Taro's lead.
Assignments set, they just had to wait four days for Round Two. From there on, expect daily snipe matches. Should be a fireworks show.
—
At the Pokémon Center, Reiji registered for the youth points event, then checked out the six battle pads. Kinnow City's Youth Trainer Points Qualifier was being hosted here—beat someone, take their points.
Each trainer starts with ten points—printed as ten named point slips tied to your Trainer ID in the system. If someone takes your points, the system deducts them from you and records them under the winner.
Seeing the physical slips, Reiji realized: you can wager any amount per match—not just one point. And since they're physical, you can trade them outright, like tickets.
Did the city not think of that? Of course they did. This is deliberate—a welfare lever for regular trainers, using Lance's star power to pump the event.
Who pays for this welfare? Whoever buys points. The city gets the PR without spending a Pokédollar.
Trainers who could never hit 100 points in five days can still walk away with cash. Finalists eat the steak; everyone else gets soup.
Rules recap: Under 16 may enter. The top 64 to reach 100 points within five days advance to the knockout. Lance will appear on site and present awards to the top three.
When Reiji hit the pads, he located Shun first—and asked around about the going price. It had spiked to 60,000 per point.
So his starter ten? 600,000 Pokédollars for doing nothing.
If you're loaded, you can just buy ten people's slips for 6,000,000 and jump straight to 100.
Money talks. He figured half or more of the Top 64 would be whales.
He also needed to sell before the 64 filled. You need roughly 600+ entrants to populate the bracket (many won't sell), and once enough whales cap out, the point price will crash.
He found Shun mid-battle; Poliwhirl quickly wrapped it up. With pads in short supply, each trainer got one match, then had to queue again. Shun stepped down and re-queued. Reiji slid in beside him:
"Shun, you're here, huh?"
"Reiji? You finished your match?" Shun lit up. "You registered too?"
"Yeah. But I'm not planning to grind. I'm gonna sell my points."
"Sell to me! I'll pay 50,000 per point!"
"Sure—but are you really going to keep fighting?" Reiji laid out the math. Shun fell quiet.
He'd been battling since morning—skipped lunch—and only had 25 points: 10 starter, 9 he bought from a chubby kid, and 6 from wins.
Getting to 100 off battles alone? With whales hoovering slips? Grim.
Reiji figured the Top 64 would fill in two to three days, harsher than the official five-day window suggested. Unless Shun bought the rest, he wouldn't make it.
That's the design: skim the rich, let regular kids cash out.
Shun stepped out of line.
"You're done?" Reiji asked.
"Unless I drop 5–6 million on the remaining points, I can't keep up," Shun sighed. "Spending that just to get curb-stomped in knockouts? I'd be a clown."
Exactly the point of this event—slice the whales, let everyone else take home some cash.
"Good. For us, grinding this makes no sense," Reiji said, watching the hopeful kids queue. "Being young looks fun, though."
They went looking for buyers. Reiji also scribbled a note and sent it off with Pelipper to the orphanage—any kids who want in on the easy money should come. 600,000 is life-changing for a kid.
"You're alerting the orphanage?" Shun asked, seeing Pelipper take off.
"Yeah. Let the kids earn too."
Before long both of them sold out—60,000 per point—and left the grounds to catch a cab back to the villa.
(End of chapter)
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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