Morning practice wrapped up, the last wave of gym challengers filed out, and just like that it was lunchtime again.
Reiji hadn't caught a single break all morning. It still went by fast—busy enough that he barely noticed the hours disappearing.
The woman from the kitchen came out to ask what he and Senta wanted. Reiji had Darkrai translate while he checked the Pokémon's preferences, then relayed their requests back to her.
For himself, he asked her to make any homestyle dish she was good at, plus two bowls of plain white rice. That would do.
After everyone finished eating, he sent the Pokémon off to rest. Gengar and a couple of the others had already taken care of lunch earlier—Reiji had slipped out of the gym for a walk, grabbed food outside, and only then returned.
Once he got off work, he also planned to rent a place with a yard. Then he could leave Gengar, Croagunk, and the rest out there to train and play on their own, with Darkrai keeping an eye on them. Reiji could check in during his lunch break or after work without having to keep them at his side all day, and it wouldn't slow down their training either.
After the afternoon break, challengers started coming in again. The gym's usual trial still ran the same way: Water Gun target practice. Most rookies couldn't clear it, and that was before they even got to the surfing challenge.
Then the same young man from yesterday showed up—the one whose Golduck had survived three full rounds of the Water Gun trial. So far, his was the only Golduck that could hold out that long.
He wasn't that young, either—seventeen or eighteen at least. That kind of training didn't happen by accident.
Today, though, he wasn't here to shoot targets. If he couldn't get past the blindfolded moving-target round, he was never going to earn the Coral-Eye Badge.
He already knew he couldn't outshoot Reiji, and once he heard Reiji was only the acting Gym Leader, a different idea took hold. Maybe the gym would allow another kind of match.
"Challenger, release your Pokémon and get ready for the target trial," Reiji said when he looked up and saw him. People like this came back again and again in a single day. There wasn't much to say anymore.
Some Gym Leaders got sick of the noise and the repetition and dumped the hassle on gym apprentices. Reiji was living proof of that.
The League still had rules, though. Only trainers with a Pokédex could officially challenge a gym. If someone without one wanted to fight, the Gym Leader could accept or refuse however they liked—no one was obligated to test random "wild" trainers who weren't even registered League rookies.
"Acting Gym Leader… your target shooting is too strong," the young man said, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "Can we switch the trial to something else?"
He'd been stuck at the Mikan Gym for too long. He and his Golduck had trained until they could hit a moving clay disc three times in a row—only for the gym to add a blindfolded round on top of it. It had almost made him cough up blood from frustration, and he still hadn't earned the Coral-Eye Badge.
Reiji hesitated, then glanced at Senta, who was holding the control remote. "Senta? Is that allowed?"
"It's fine," Senta said at once. "My sister switches it to battles all the time. Decide whatever you want."
She'd learned her lesson. If the rules changed, she wanted it clear whose decision it was.
"Alright. Raise the battlefield," Reiji said.
Senta brought up the arena platform to cover the pool. Reiji turned toward the Poliwhirl training by the edge. "Poliwhirl, you're up."
"Yo bo," Poliwhirl answered, already eager. Reiji hadn't blinked this time. That meant it could finally have a real fight.
"Go, Golduck," the young man said, seeing Poliwhirl take the field. His request had gone through—this gym wasn't only about Water Gun trials. Battles counted too.
"I'll referee," Senta announced, stepping onto the center line and waving an arm. "Three-on-three. The acting Gym Leader can't switch Pokémon. The challenger's first Pokémon is Golduck. Challenger moves first. Begin!"
"Golduck, Water Gun!" the young man called, testing the waters.
"Poliwhirl, knock it down," Reiji said, not even bothering to watch closely.
"Yo bo." Poliwhirl lifted a hand and casually slapped the stream apart. It wasn't a serious attack to begin with.
Reiji's voice stayed flat. "If that's all you've got, you're not getting the Coral-Eye Badge."
The young man's expression tightened. "Golduck, Confusion!"
"Gah!" Golduck's eyes flared with blue light, locking onto Poliwhirl as it tried to seize control with psychic force.
Reiji's command came sharp and clean. "Don't meet its eyes—Drain Punch!"
Poliwhirl had already moved the instant that blue glow appeared. It broke away from Golduck's gaze, water exploding under its feet. Two rapid Waterfall bursts snapped its path sideways, and it slid to Golduck's flank in the same breath.
Golduck lost the lock the moment Poliwhirl slipped out of its line. It could only watch as Poliwhirl appeared right beside it and drove a glowing fist into its body, ripping away a chunk of stamina with the hit.
Reiji's brow creased. "That reaction's too slow. Didn't you drill it to read with its psychic power and move on instinct?"
Golduck's psychic attacks should have come with sharper awareness. Missing a flying disc was one thing, but being that late to react even with Confusion running—that didn't add up.
The young man stared, shaken. Golduck had been punched clean out of position, slammed into the wall with a heavy crack, and rebounded back to the floor.
Senta's eyes widened too. She'd seen plenty of battles, but that kind of instant acceleration made her stomach tighten. If Poliwhirl could explode like that, how had her sister's Blastoise ever managed to hold it off?
For a moment, the thought hit her hard: had this guy been putting on an act when he fought her sister?
She wanted to storm off and tell her, right now. Then reality caught up. Even if she told her sister, it wouldn't change anything. Whether Reiji could beat her or not, her sister still had to act as his guarantor. And if her sister already knew he'd been hiding something, what could she do about it?
That was probably why Reiji wasn't hiding it anymore.
"Golduck, can you keep fighting?" the young man asked, helping it stand.
"Gah," Golduck replied, clutching its chest but nodding anyway. It still wanted to go.
"Alright. Golduck, Psybeam!"
Golduck raised both hands, pointed toward the red gem on its forehead, and fired a psychic beam straight at Poliwhirl.
Reiji let out a quiet breath. The kid still didn't get it. He didn't even feel like dragging this out. "End it, Poliwhirl."
"Yo bo."
Water detonated under Poliwhirl's feet again. It flashed forward in short bursts, and the Psybeam tore through empty space. Golduck couldn't track it—its eyes couldn't keep up, and its mind couldn't catch the rhythm either.
Poliwhirl reappeared behind it and punched.
A pale-blue psychic barrier snapped into place at the last second. Poliwhirl's fist hit it hard enough to spiderweb it with cracks.
Only then did Golduck finally react—whipping around, arms up, forcing the barrier to hold. It barely did.
A second layer formed, this one pale green. Protect.
Poliwhirl clicked its tongue, forced a step back, and the green shield held.
Golduck took a breath.
Then Poliwhirl came right back in, fist raised again.
Protect was gone.
"Golduck—!" the young man shouted.
The punch landed.
Golduck flew into the wall again, this time going limp on impact before it even hit the floor.
Reiji turned away as the young man rushed to catch his partner. "Take it to get treated. Your Golduck's reactions are too slow. Train Confusion properly—learn to turn its sensing into real-time responses—then come challenge again."
He watched the young man leave.
Truthfully, that Golduck wasn't weak. Its psychic training just hadn't gone deep enough, especially the awareness side of it.
In terms of overall strength, it looked like it had only just stepped into the Advanced tier. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been able to catch Poliwhirl's heavy punch at all—Golduck wasn't exactly built like a tank.
Even so, surviving three clean hits was still respectable. The first punch knocked it back but didn't drop it. The second time, it managed to stack a psychic screen and Protect. The third punch finally finished it. For a newly Advanced-tier Pokémon, that was decent.
Poliwhirl's Waterfall bursts could chain without pause, and every strike behind them came out at full power. Even Darkrai wouldn't want to take that head-on, let alone an ordinary Pokémon.
A familiar panel flickered into view.
[Poliwhirl]
[Type: Water]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 52.33%]
[Level: 51.12%]
[Ability: Damp/42.53%][Hidden Ability: Swift Swim/39.13%]
[Moves: (Mind Reader/38.21%) (Ice Ball/23.31%) (Refresh/43.11%) (Water Gun/50.14%) (Water Sport/35.21%) (Waterfall/48.22%) (Rain Dance/9.11%) (Ice Punch/41.31%) (Mega Punch/21.82%) (Mega Kick/16.45%) (Protect/46.31%) (Mud Shot/38.82%) (Drain Punch/29.84%)]
Reiji hadn't checked Poliwhirl's proficiency in a while—almost a month.
Since the last time, its potential had climbed a little, thanks to the Water Gem he'd given it. Poliwhirl absorbed far slower than Gengar, crawling along at a turtle's pace, but slow progress still beat no progress.
At least right now, the changes still looked meaningful. Once Poliwhirl reached the Elite Four tier, any gains would shrink to tiny decimal nudges. That would take years of grinding.
Poliwhirl was also closing in on its ceiling. Reiji couldn't justify forcing its potential up to fifty-nine before letting it evolve. The cost wasn't worth the delay—it would fall behind too much.
He'd rather push Poliwhirl into the Elite Four tier first. Whatever came after that, he could think about later. That was exactly why he needed a top-quality Water Stone—and why he'd stayed at the gym in the first place.
Reiji could wait. Poliwhirl couldn't.
If Poliwhirl's potential stopped moving, it would get trapped in the low fifties and stall out in the Advanced tier forever.
Even without a fast way to raise potential, though, there were other things to sharpen: abilities, moves, and combination techniques.
Poliwhirl still needed to learn more moves to widen its options. Once its potential had been mined as far as it would go, and once it had learned everything it needed, then it could evolve.
For now, Poliwhirl still had gaps. Too many moves still needed work, and while they were stationed at the gym, Reiji intended to lock all of it down.
The ability gains alone were noticeable.
Damp went up by twenty-two percent, mostly from afternoon sparring sessions with Scyther.
Swift Swim rose by seventeen percent. That only trained on rainy days—or when Poliwhirl borrowed Pelipper's Rain Dance.
The move growth had shifted too.
Mind Reader climbed by twenty percent. Poliwhirl had focused on that heavily for a while.
Ice Ball went up fourteen percent. At this point, it trained the formation speed and how compact it could make the sphere. Accuracy wasn't the problem anymore.
Refresh rose eighteen percent. It used it whenever it got injured, hit by a status condition, or even when it burned its mouth on hot food.
Water Gun climbed eighteen percent. It was already Poliwhirl's highest-proficiency move, and it didn't need extra training anymore.
Water Sport went up ten percent. Poliwhirl mainly used it defensively—raising water screens in front and behind to blunt incoming hits and shave off impact.
Waterfall rose eighteen percent. Poliwhirl could compress the burst to about two meters now, but it still hadn't met the one-meter target. At this stage, extra weight training probably wouldn't help. If it wanted to squeeze out the remaining distance, it would need Staryu's Gravity.
Rain Dance climbed six percent. It had barely trained it at all, but with potential hitting its limit, Poliwhirl would need to carve out time for it.
Ice Punch rose twenty-three percent. It had seen a lot of use for a stretch, so it climbed quickly.
Mega Punch only rose five percent. It hardly used it.
Mega Kick rose three percent. It used that one even less.
Protect climbed twenty-seven percent. During sparring with Scyther, when it couldn't dodge cleanly, it relied on Protect.
Mud Shot rose twenty-three percent. It also used that during sparring.
Drain Punch rose twenty-three percent. Poliwhirl was training its fists and practicing combination techniques with it now. It had basically shelved Ice Punch for that work.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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