The forest clearing was warm under the sun, the air thick with the mixed scent of damp soil and grass.
Akemi stood at the far end of the clearing. Her short orange hair was neat and sharp, and her gaze held the hard-edged, practical confidence typical of Viridian City trainers.
Giovanni was a legend.
You could say he was the idol of practically every Viridian trainer.
The only issue was that Giovanni wasn't exactly a diligentGym Leader. He was almost never home.
Still, that was manageable.
So long as the Gym Leader approved it, badges could be issued by subordinates.
The Viridian Gym trainers working under Giovanni were allowed to award badges too.
They were only authorized to handle challengers up through the sixth badge, though.
The seventh and eighth—
the ones that decided whether you could enter the Indigo Plateau Conference—
had to be awarded by Giovanni himself.
"Standard rules: two-on-two!" Akemi called, flicking two Poké Balls out with practiced ease. "Go, Raticate! Nidoran!"
Light flashed.
A well-muscled female Raticate crouched low, sleek fur shining, front teeth glinting dangerously.
Beside it, a small purple Nidoran♀ pricked up her ears, front paws scraping anxiously at the ground.
Ash's eyes swept their lineup. The corner of his mouth twitched upwards.
Raticate was the main threat.
Nidoran was clearly newer; not much danger there.
"Pikachu!" he called, and the partner on his shoulder burst into golden light and landed at the front. "And you—Magikarp!"
Red light flashed, and the golden Magikarp flopped out of its ball, landing in the mud with a wet splack beside Pikachu. Its tail slapped weakly twice, kicking up a couple of little mud droplets.
Akemi and Misty: "…"
Akemi's mouth twitched. "Hey, rookie, are you serious? You're bringing Magikarp into a real battle?"
She felt personally insulted.
Using Magikarp in a serious fight—was he even human?
In reality, Ash had just fielded his strongest possible team.
His Pikachu was practically a demigod.
Ridiculous didn't even begin to cover it.
"…I can't watch this," Misty muttered, covering her face.
"Of course I'm serious!" Ash's voice rang out, loud and firm, full of unshakable confidence. "Magikarp, Splash! Pikachu, cover it!"
He wanted Magikarp to get real battle experience. Maybe, just maybe, that extra growth would push it into evolving.
"Pika!" Pikachu got the idea instantly. Its cheeks crackled with fine sparks, body coiled and ready.
"Karrrp…"Magikarp heaved itself out of the shallow puddle with everything it had.
Golden light flashed as it soared much higher than a normal Magikarp had any right to, carrying serious weight behind it—
And then slammed into… absolutely nothing.
With a wet thunk, it crashed back into the mud.
It had tried to body-slam the enemy. It just… missed.
What could you say?
The world wasn't a game.
In the games, Magikarp was dead weight early on. Getting it to Lv.15 for Tackle felt like an eternity.
If you knew how to cheese it, you'd burn through Splash's PP and then use Struggle.
But in reality, Magikarpdid have offensive options.
For example: use Splash to jump and then fall on people.
To be honest, that hurt.
A Magikarp close to a meter long could weigh around forty kilos. Its body was mostly bone and scale.
If that dropped from two or three meters up onto something?
There really wasn't much difference between that and being hit by a boulder.
You couldn't take the Pokédex at face value.
Magikarp had insane vitality. It didn't care about pollution; it survived anywhere near water. Seas, rivers, ponds, roadside ditches… they were everywhere. Its reproduction rate was through the roof; you got sick of seeing them.
Individually, they weren't that strong. But ecologically? Top-tier.
They'd overrun so many habitats that wiping them out completely was basically impossible.
From a species survival standpoint, they were perfect.
And once the numbers got high enough, the number of Gyarados that emerged wasn't exactly low, either.
Facing this Magikarp—
Raticate and Nidoran both froze for a beat.
"Raticate! Forget the fish! Take out Pikachu! Quick Attack!" Akemi reacted instantly, seizing the chance she thought Ash had handed her by crippling his own team.
"Chuuu!"Raticate vanished in a gray blur, launching straight for Pikachu.
"Pikachu, Thunder Shock to disrupt it!" Ash snapped back just as fast.
As for dodging?
Pikachu would do that on its own.
Honestly, even if he gave no commands at all, Pikachu would fight just fine.
That said, this kind of lower-speed battle still left him room to call plays, and… it felt good to be involved.
Pikachu pushed off with all four paws, springing sideways to narrowly avoid Raticate's charge as a fine thread of golden lightning flicked toward the spot Raticate was about to land.
But Raticate had plenty of real battle experience. It hit the ground and rolled, cleanly slipping past the arc of electricity.
Looked like Akemi had the same philosophy as Ash.
Carry one rookie with your ace.
Strong lead, weak trainee—
fastest way to raise them both.
"Nidoran, Poison Sting! Target Magikarp!" Akemi's next order hit immediately.
Always squeeze the softest target first.
"Nido!"Nidoran mustered her courage, unleashing a spray of fine purple stingers that rained down toward the golden Magikarp still splashing in the mud.
"Magikarp, don't let it hit your eyes!" Ash called, overlapping her command.
Trainers calling out orders in front of each other meant both sides heard everything.
Ash was pretty sure Nidoran didn't have the power to punch through Magikarp's scales—
but the eyes were another story.
Magikarp sensed the danger. Its tail churned the puddle wildly, golden scales throwing back the sunlight in a burst of dazzling reflections.
"Splaaash—!"
The golden Magikarp responded at once. It clearly felt the threat in that purple rain of stingers. For the first time, a fierce survival instinct flashed through its dull eyes.
With everything it had, that muddy tail whipped through the water.
Whooosh!
A curtain of filthy water exploded upward, forming a murky wall between Magikarp and the incoming Poison Sting volley.
Pupupupupu—
Most of the stingers slammed into the muddy wall, caught and dragged down. They lost their speed and accuracy, dropping uselessly into the slop.
Only a few managed to punch through, pinging off Magikarp's scales with faint metallic tink sounds that didn't even leave marks.
Magikarp's scales were thick, and its body was mostly bone.
Given Nidoran's level, there was no way her Poison Sting had the raw force to crack that armor—
especially after being slowed by the mud.
The projectiles were just too light.
That was the biggest issue facing most Poison-types.
Poison was great—
but you had to pierce something first to apply it.
"What?!" Akemi and Misty yelped in chorus.
That reaction. That defense?!
"Nido…?" Even Nidoran was stunned, staring at her completely ineffective Poison Sting. Her little head went blank.
In that split second—
"Now! Magikarp, smash it!" Ash's voice cut in.
Time to end this.
Magikarp didn't have many things it could actually do in a battle.
But it had to actually fight if it wanted to grow.
This wasn't a game where just "showing up once and then swapping out" earned you EXP.
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