Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

[Bonus Chapter]

”Yo yo, yo yo,” Poliwag chirped, watching Reiji with a dreamy look on his face. It really wanted to know what that thing he was holding was.

”This is grown-up stuff. Kids aren’t allowed to smoke,” Reiji said, stuffing the cigarette back into his pocket. He even gave it a firm pat to make sure it was secure.

He only had four left—no way he was sharing with Poliwag.

Besides, Poliwag was a Pokémon. Smoking was out of the question. He couldn’t let it pick up bad habits.

As its Trainer, it was his job to guide Poliwag down a good path—not a bad one.

If someone had to be a bad influence, that could be him. His Pokémon should stay pure and cheerful.

No way Reiji would let his Pokémon turn delinquent!

…

By the time they woke up from their afternoon nap, the sun was already dipping toward the horizon.

The campfire had gone out, so Reiji pulled out his lighter and got it burning again.

It was dinnertime. They still had two crabs left. One crab per person—well, one crab for Reiji and three Pokémon—was just right.

While the pot boiled with crab meat, he let Caterpie out. ”Hey, how’s your body doing?”

”Buu buu!” The moment Caterpie emerged, it pounced into Reiji’s arms, nuzzling his cheek over and over.

Reiji gently hugged it back, but then his hand brushed across the crack in its shell—the one left behind by that Krabby’s claw. The crack had gotten worse.

[Caterpie]

Type: Bug

Gender: Female

Potential: 58%

Level: 5.01%

Ability: Shield Dust / 0.71%

Hidden Ability: Run Away / 2.23%

Moves Known:

(Confusion / 0.64%)

(Tackle / 0.81%)

(String Shot / 4.55%)

Caterpie had hit level 5. String Shot’s proficiency had also gone up by 0.5%.

The move gains weren’t much—but the level gain was fast. Just two more levels and it’d evolve.

That was a problem.

He wasn’t ready. If his foot weren’t still injured, maybe he could push himself for Caterpie’s sake.

But right now, even walking was hard—let alone sneaking off to steal berries or hunt for Beedrill honey. No way that was happening.

Thankfully, the damage to Caterpie’s shell hadn’t lowered its potential. Reiji let out a relieved sigh.

As long as the potential didn’t drop, it was fine. Otherwise, it’d feel like a needle to the heart.

A high-potential Pokémon was rare enough—if its stats dropped because of him, he’d never forgive himself.

For someone with OCD, even ”58%” was hard to look at. If it dropped to 57%, he’d lose sleep.

”Yo yo!” Poliwag called out suddenly, snapping Reiji out of his thoughts. It reminded him about the crab.

”Oh, crap, almost forgot!” Reiji turned to the pot. The shells were bright red now. He quickly took it off the fire and placed the crab in front of Caterpie.

”This is the crab that hurt you. Eat as much as you want. Time to recharge,” Reiji said, cracking open the shell to reveal golden crab yolk.

”Buu!” Caterpie’s eyes sparkled at the sight of all that meat.

It had braved heavy rain to get here—for meat! And now the meat was right in front of it. The scent alone had drool sliding down its mouth.

Gone was any sense of restraint. Caterpie lowered its chubby green head and dug in, munching just like Poliwag.

Well, neither of them had hands—this was just how they ate.

Poliwag didn’t mind that Caterpie got first dibs on the crab yolk. As Reiji’s first Pokémon, it didn’t need to be petty.

When Reiji finished cooking the rest of the crab,he gave Poliwag a big claw and three legs. After cracking them open, Poliwag joined in on dinner too.

The last crab leg went to Magikarp in the bucket. Reiji took the final claw for himself.

After Caterpie was stuffed full, it had eaten more than half the crab yolk. It leaned back and let out a happy little burp—it hadn’t been this full in ages.

Then it promptly got sleepy again. After calling out twice, Reiji returned it to its Poké Ball.

The rest of the crab yolk was passed to Poliwag. Hopefully it didn’t mind Caterpie drool.

”Poliwag, thanks for working hard today. The rest of the yolk’s yours,” Reiji said, nudging it over.

”Yo yo?” Poliwag pushed the food back, wanting to share with Reiji.

”I’ve still got this,” Reiji said, holding up his crab claw. That one piece alone had half a pound of meat—plenty for him. Besides, it wasn’t smart to eat too much before bed. Made it hard to sleep.

After dinner, Reiji started boiling water to soak his feet and disinfect his wound.

He’d been sweating all day, and the cloth wrapped around his foot was soaked. Time to clean it.

This time, he didn’t boil it in the crab pot. He used a plastic basin instead.

The idea of cooking soup and boiling dirty foot cloth in the same pot… yeah, no thanks.

Last time, the cloth was unused, so it didn’t bother him. But now it had been wrapped around his sole… nope.

First, he soaked his foot and disinfected the wound. Then he washed the cloth.

After cleaning it thoroughly, he laid it beside the fire to dry. Only then did he rewrap it around his foot.

With his foot taken care of, he picked up the wooden door by the tree trunk and grabbed a frying pan and some nails. He added a wooden plank across the middle and made a latch to install back at the treehouse.

He used a stick as a crutch and leaned on the trunk to get up. After recalling Magikarp into its Poké Ball, he called out to Poliwag.

”Poliwag, bedtime!”

”Yo yo,” Poliwag tilted its head. Reiji was heading back with its food bowl… What was he planning?

Once they got back to the treehouse, Reiji started a fire inside and began hammering something on the wall with the frying pan. Poliwag still didn’t get it.

Reiji was installing a door latch.

The setup was simple: two grooves on each side of the door, and a plank of wood behind it to slide down and lock in place.

He’d seen it in some old TV shows from his past life—older houses used this kind of latch. A more secure version would include an extra bar to lock the plank.

But this was a rickety old treehouse on a deserted island. What was there to protect? Unless a Rattata or Diglett showed up and tunneled inside.

After locking the door, Reiji released Caterpie again. The treehouse now had sleeping spots for everyone. Poliwag had its bed, and Caterpie’s was added just yesterday.

”Goodnight, Poliwag,” Reiji said, taking the firewood out of the stove and pulling the ragged blanket over himself.

”Yo yo…”

Hearing Poliwag’s soft reply, Reiji looked out the plastic rain cover toward the night sky, reached into his pocket for his cigarettes, and tucked them under his pillow.

Then he drifted off to sleep.

[End of Chapter]

[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]

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