Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

After his recent morning training, Reiji’s body had grown noticeably stronger—more muscular, more powerful. While he couldn’t go around breaking bricks with his bare hands or wrestling Fighting-type Pokémon, reeling in today’s catch didn’t take nearly as long as before.

With constant pressure applied to the fish, he finally pulled it out of the sea and up onto the shore—it was an old, familiar face.

”A dumb thing again? You’ve got to be kidding me.” Reiji frowned the moment he saw it. Another Magikarp. No meat, just wasted time. He was tempted to stomp it on the spot.

Still, now that he’d reeled it in, he couldn’t resist checking its potential. Not knowing would drive him crazy, like having an itch he couldn’t scratch.

He quickly dragged the Magikarp onto the shore and called out to Poliwag, who was watching nearby. ”Poliwag, give it a slap and get it up here.”

”Yoh! Pa! Pa! Pa!” Poliwag was very experienced with this routine. It hopped over and smacked its tail, sending the Magikarp flying onto dry land.

Reiji tossed a Poké Ball and caught it without much hope—after all, this Pokémon was infamously useless.

The ball flashed red a few times and finally clicked shut. Catch successful.

Reiji picked it up and checked the data on the screen.

[Magikarp]

Type: Water

Gender: Male

Potential: 54%

Level: 3.18%

Ability: Swift Swim / 1.21%

Moves: (Splash / 0.98%) (Tackle / 0.34%)

”Huh?” Reiji blinked at the potential reading. He shut the window, rubbed his eyes, and opened it again—just to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. When he confirmed the number…

”Holy crap…”

”Am I seriously this lucky lately? That’s two over-50% potential Pokémon in a row…”

Even so, he still wasn’t impressed with the dumb fish.

No particular reason—it was just that Magikarp were too common. Even if he couldn’t find high-potential ones here on this island, he could always go camp out at the Magikarp Waterfall in the Orange Islands.

During spawning season, the waterfall would be full of returning Magikarp swimming upstream to lay eggs.

With that many, he’d definitely find one with high potential eventually.

And this one didn’t even have a Hidden Ability. For someone with minor OCD like him, that was torture.

”Poliwag, let’s go catch dinner.”

Storing away the Poké Ball and securing his rod, Reiji headed back with Poliwag to find a Caterpie.

He didn’t really want to keep the dumb fish, but with potential over 50%, he couldn’t bring himself to eat it either. He’d just raise it for now.

Later, if it turned out this Magikarp was the best he could get, he could always commit. But if he found one over 60%, that’d be even better.

”Yoh yoh?” Poliwag trailed behind him, confused. Didn’t we already catch a big fish? Why go catch more dinner?

Still, it didn’t complain. Having extra food in reserve was always a good thing.

”See that, Poliwag?” Reiji suddenly stopped, pointing to the edge of the forest where a Caterpie was munching on leaves.

”Yoh yoh!” Without hesitation, Poliwag executed a quick Water Gun + Double Slap combo and knocked the bug out.

This time, Reiji didn’t carry it back by hand. He used the now-empty Poké Ball that had belonged to ”Little Green” to capture it.

After catching it, he checked the stats—still nothing special.

Only 25% potential. No Confusion, no Electroweb, none of the genetic moves he was hoping for.

He returned to the shelter with the catch and started boiling water for dinner.

Poliwag went back to soaking in its bucket, but now there was a second bucket next to it—Reiji had released Magikarp into it.

The fish immediately sank to the bottom, too scared to come up. It was afraid of Reiji… and also afraid of the Poliwag nearby.

But after last time’s experience with new recruits, Poliwag realized Reiji wasn’t planning to eat the new guy.

This Magikarp was probably going to become their new teammate.

So, Poliwag decided to extend a friendly gesture. After all, they were both Water-types. Sure, Magikarp was technically still on its menu, but it still felt weird offering kindness to food.

Pa! Pa! Pa!

”Yoh yoh, yoh yoh…”

Poliwag slapped its tail on the water, splashing some into Magikarp’s bucket.

Startled by the sudden noise, Magikarp retreated to the bottom again, trembling.

But after a few rounds of this and realizing it wasn’t in danger, Magikarp eventually peeked up and cautiously watched Poliwag.

At that moment, Poliwag was floating belly-up on the water’s surface, blowing playful water jets into the air. Magikarp instinctively copied it—and accidentally splashed Poliwag in the process.

”Yoh?” Poliwag blinked and glanced at Reiji, thinking it was his doing. When it realized it was Magikarp, it turned back to look at its new neighbor.

Plop.

Wanting to get its attention, Poliwag blew a small jet of water into Magikarp’s bucket.

Magikarp responded in kind.

And just like that, the two began a friendly water-squirting game between buckets.

Until—

”Poliwag, dinnertime!”

Reiji had finished preparing the soup and portioned out the meals. He called out to Poliwag, who immediately abandoned the game and hopped over to its pan-turned-bowl to eat.

That pan had been through a lot—hammered with nails, repurposed as a dish—and it still held up.

As Poliwag dug into its food, Reiji picked up the Caterpie tail, having already removed the head and other parts. He planned to use it to feed Magikarp.

After all, Magikarp were famously tough. Caterpie tail was still meat—Magikarp should be able to eat it.

As he approached, Magikarp dove back to the bottom of its bucket, lifting its pale eyes and watching Reiji warily from the shadows.

Reiji simply tossed the Caterpie tail into the water and left, figuring there’d be plenty of time to bond later. Magikarp’s evolution was a mystery in itself—no need to rush.

After dinner, Poliwag went back to its bucket for a soak. Reiji leaned against the tree, poking at the campfire with a branch while gazing out at the sea and the setting sun.

He thought about Little Green.

Sigh… There was nothing he could do. If they weren’t fated to be together, then no amount of longing would change that.

Still… when would he find another Caterpie with Confusion?

After watching the last rays of sunset disappear, the day came to a close.

Reiji walked to the water buckets, caught Magikarp with a Poké Ball before it noticed, grabbed his new foam mattress, and called out to Poliwag.

”Poliwag, let’s head back and rest.”

”Yoh yoh—!”

[End of Chapter]

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