Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

”Accelgor, eat the Berry. Dodge Electivire as hard as you can, and keep it off balance with Mud Shot!”

”Accel!” Accelgor slipped away from the Thunder coming down at it and crushed the Rawst Berry in its mouth.

A Rawst Berry cured burns, which did nothing for Accelgor right now.

But curing status was not the point.

The moment Accelgor lost its held item, Unburden activated.

Its Speed doubled.

A moment ago, Accelgor had already been fast enough to leave afterimages. Now it shot across the field like a streak of gold lightning, stunning the whole stadium. By the end of this match, everyone would remember what an Accelgor was.

Of course, the actual boost was not a perfect double because of its ability mastery, but it was still much faster than before. Electivire could not keep up with Accelgor earlier. Now it had no chance.

Too fast.

Reggie clenched his teeth. All he could see was a flash darting through the field. For a second, he almost mistook it for one of Electivire’s Electric-type attacks.

And Accelgor was still using Agility.

It was getting faster.

Electivire could not catch it. Its attacks could not touch something moving that quickly. Accelgor was even faster than Poliwhirl now. If Reggie wanted to hit it, he needed the same setup he had used before.

”Electivire, Rain Dance!”

”Vire!” Electivire stopped wasting energy on blind attacks. It threw its head back and tried to call the rain again.

Nothing happened.

No matter how hard Electivire tried, no clouds gathered overhead. The sky above the main stadium stayed clear. Pelipper and Abomasnow had already drained the air dry during their weather clash. It would take time before enough moisture gathered again.

”Rain?” Reggie stared up at the sky. ”Where’s the rain?”

There was no rain.

There were not even clouds.

While Electivire froze for that split second, Accelgor fired two Mud Shots straight at its eyes, trying to block its vision.

”Elee!” Electivire snapped, wiped the mud from its face, and fired electricity wildly from its antennae.

But Accelgor was too fast. Without rain to carry the charge, Electric-type moves had a hard time landing. Electivire needed to slow it down first.

”Electivire, Rock Tomb!”

”Vire…” Electivire dropped to one knee as bad poison flared again. That was the second tick.

Once the pain passed, Electivire stabbed its cables into the ground in front of it and used Thunder to blast rocks out of the field, sending them flying toward Accelgor.

”Gor!” Accelgor was already gone. It circled behind Electivire and spat another Mud Shot into its blind spot.

Electivire threw out Rock Tomb and Thunder in every direction and even tried to catch Accelgor with Electroweb, but the web was too slow.

Accelgor kept the distance open with Quick Attack, Double Team, and Mud Shot. It never gave Electivire a clean target. It just kept circling, harassing, and dragging the fight out.

If this went on, Electivire would faint from Toxic before it ever caught Accelgor.

”Electivire, Electric Terrain!”

”Vire!” Yellow current wrapped around Electivire’s body. Bolts spread from it into the field, lighting up the ground and boosting Electric-type moves.

”Accelgor, be careful. Use your own power to shake off the current if it hits you.”

”Cel.” Accelgor folded its arms and watched the yellow sparks crawling around its feet.

It was not afraid of electricity.

Honestly, it had no idea why Electivire kept trying to shock it.

”Electivire, Thunder!”

Electric Terrain boosted Electric-type moves, and Reiji knew exactly what Reggie wanted. He was trying to make Thunder spread wider so it had a better chance of landing.

”Eleee!”

Electivire called Thunder again.

Then Accelgor started running through the Electric Terrain, and the whole stadium stared.

”How?” Reggie looked at the field in disbelief. ”It’s inside Electric Terrain!”

Accelgor was not slowed by the current at all. If anything, it moved even better than before, almost like the electricity was helping it. Sparks ran under its feet as it cut across the field.

That was Hidden Power Electric.

Accelgor blended with the Electric Terrain just enough to ignore the weaker current around it, while Thunder still could not land.

”Vire…” Electivire’s last burst ended, and Accelgor still had not been touched. Electivire’s strength finally gave out. Its body seized under the poison, and it collapsed.

Even when it hit the ground, it had never landed a single clean hit on Accelgor.

If Electivire had been given the choice, it would rather have fought Rhydon head-on, even with the bad matchup. At least that would have been a real fight.

Chasing Accelgor had been nothing but frustration.

”Electivire is unable to battle! The Champion of this year’s Indigo Plateau Conference is Contestant Reiji!”

”Contestant Reiji, the dark horse of this tournament, has lived up to every bit of the hype! He fought through the group stage, broke through the knockouts, defeated his final opponent in the finals, and claimed the championship! Let’s hear it for him!”

”Champion! Champion! Reiji! Reiji!”

The moment Electivire fell, the whole stadium rose to its feet. Reiji’s name echoed through the main stadium again and again.

Reiji leaned against the railing and sucked in a long breath. The final had started in the morning and dragged all the way into the afternoon. His body was tired, his nerves had been tight for hours, and he was starving.

Once he caught his breath, he raised a hand to the cheering crowd. Then he recalled Accelgor and slowly walked down from the trainer platform.

He had planned to leave through the competitors’ tunnel, but the entrance was already packed. Ash and the others were there too, waving at him like crazy and running over.

”Ash, I’m exhausted, I’m hungry, and I need to get my Pokémon treated first. We’ll talk later.” Reiji patted Ash on the shoulder, sent out Pelipper, climbed on, and flew straight toward the Pokémon Center.

”Ash, that final was amazing. Let him breathe first,” Brock said. He could see how tired Reiji looked. ”We can find him later. There’s still the award ceremony tonight, so you’ll have plenty of time to catch up.”

And with this many people around, Reiji would only have a harder time leaving if he stayed any longer. He would be mobbed.

A moment after Reiji flew off, the excited crowd surged forward and swallowed the area, scattering Ash’s group. Only then did Ash understand what Brock meant.

These fans were terrifying.

At the Pokémon Center, Reiji arrived with his mask on. He handed Nurse Joy the six injured Pokémon and quietly asked her not to call his name too loudly, or he would be surrounded.

Nurse Joy understood at once and took the Poké Balls for treatment.

Reiji slipped into the rest area and looked at the TV. The big screen at the main stadium had already been repaired.

Reiji — Reggie

Gyarados [recalled, out] — Electivire [recalled, recalled, out]

Rhydon [recalled, out] — Torterra [out]

Forretress [recalled, out] — Drapion [recalled, recalled, out]

Pelipper [recalled, recalled] — Aggron [recalled, out]

Poliwhirl [recalled, out] — Abomasnow [recalled, out]

Accelgor [win] — Garchomp [out]

All six of Reggie’s Pokémon portraits had turned gray.

On Reiji’s side, only Accelgor and Pelipper still had active portraits. That final had been dangerously close. If his last Pokémon had been one of his other two Water-types instead of Accelgor, he would not have won.

Gyarados, Rhydon, Forretress, and Poliwhirl were all badly hurt. Pelipper, thankfully, was only tired. It could still carry him, which was how he had flown here just now.

The screen changed again. Reggie’s portrait disappeared, leaving only Reiji’s. From the stadium broadcast, he could still hear the crowd chanting ”Champion.”

His head hurt.

He had actually won.

That meant Mewtwo Strikes Back was going to be a problem. He was almost certainly on Mewtwo’s invitation list now. Worse, Mewtwo might already have its memories back.

Being noticed by Mewtwo was not a good thing.

He had no intention of accepting any invitation to New Island. If Mewtwo wanted to play its clone game, it could play by itself. Reiji just wanted to go back to the Orange Archipelago.

With Poliwhirl and the others hurt this badly, they would need at least half a month to fully recover. But he could not stay here that long. Two more days at most, then he was leaving.

Pelipper was fine anyway. The trip home would give the others time to heal. If he took a ship from Kanto to Mikan Island, he should be home in about half a month.

Footsteps came from the Pokémon Center entrance while he was thinking.

Reggie and Paul came in, and Reggie went straight to Nurse Joy, asking her to treat his Pokémon.

The moment the other Trainers saw him, the Pokémon Center went quiet for a beat, then stirred again.

Everyone had been talking about that final. The tactics, the Pokémon, the back-and-forth—there was so much to study that most of them were already planning to watch the recording again.

Reggie had not won, but he was still the runner-up. He had only lost by a step, which was far beyond anyone who had been knocked out early.

After handing over his Poké Balls, Reggie was surrounded exactly as expected. Trainers asked for photos and autographs, and he dealt with them one by one before taking Paul to the rest area.

He happened to sit across from Reiji.

”You’re…” Reggie recognized the masked Trainer almost immediately, but Reiji raised a finger to his lips before he could say the name.

”That was a great battle,” Reiji said. ”You and Electivire really got me.”

He had seen Reggie shouting himself hoarse, just trying to wake Electivire up in time.

”I’m the one who should be embarrassed. I still lost to you.” Reggie saw Reiji offer his hand and shook it.

After a battle like that, Reggie’s pride had taken a hard hit. The powerful Pokémon he had chased after had still lost to Reiji and the bond he shared with his team.

He did not hate him for it.

He could not even feel angry.

Instead, he found himself looking back at the way he had trained. Maybe he really had been too full of himself.

A strong Pokémon needed its Trainer, and a Trainer could not stand without their Pokémon. That heat, that pressure, that rush of the battlefield—that was what Trainers like them were supposed to live for.

Somehow, Reggie had drifted away from that.

When had he stopped recognizing himself?

When he first received Turtwig, he had not been like this. Back then, he had been pure, excited, and full of passion.

That old fire, the one he thought had gone cold, seemed to stir again.

”You can’t measure it like that,” Reiji said with a smile. ”Pokémon aren’t trophies. They’re our partners—our family.”

Was it like his old world, where people acted like money could prove how deep love was?

Was strength supposed to prove how strong a bond was?

If that was what bonds meant, Reiji would rather have none at all. He could rot in a grave before accepting that kind of love.

Reggie sat with that for a moment, then let out a quiet breath. ”I get it. I still have a lot to learn.”

”We’re young. Take your time.” Reiji let go of his hand, then reached over and ruffled Paul’s hair.

Paul was still pretty cute at this age.

”Hmph.” Paul saw his brother listening to Reiji and turned away in a huff, moving to sit farther off.

This was the person who had beaten Reggie. And now Reggie was chatting with him like nothing had happened.

It made no sense.

Reggie laughed. ”Don’t mind him. Paul learned that from me.”

This was the first time Reggie really noticed how much his old attitude had affected his brother. Paul had already started going down the wrong path. Reggie would have to fix that.

”It’s fine.” Reiji waved it off and sat down.

Reggie soon started asking about the match.

”Your Poliwhirl is incredible. You still aren’t planning to evolve it?”

”After I get back to the Orange Archipelago. It’s not really convenient right now.” Reiji smiled, then asked, ”Your Abomasnow was strong too. I could feel the cold from my side of the field. I should’ve brought a jacket.”

Reggie laughed. ”Your Pelipper wasn’t bad either. People kept saying it was just your ride and not much of a fighter. Then I actually fought it and realized I’d been lied to.”

”Really? Pelipper doesn’t battle much. There are a lot of islands in the Orange Archipelago, so I usually use it to fly around.”

”The Orange Archipelago, huh? I’ve heard the beaches there are beautiful. I’d like to see them sometime.”

”Sure. I’ll show you around.”

”By the way, how did you guess I’d use Abomasnow?”

”I didn’t. I guessed wrong a lot too. I thought you’d send Garchomp there, not Drapion.”

”Haha, I was going to use Garchomp, but you kept hiding your last Pokémon. I wanted to keep one card back too.”

”So we were thinking the same thing.”

The two of them got carried away, praising each other and talking through the match. Paul stared at them with wide eyes. His brother felt like a stranger. Reggie was never this polite with other people.

Nurse Joy eventually came over to call Reiji, but he did not hear her until Reggie reminded him.

Only then did Reiji snap out of it. He said goodbye, collected Poliwhirl and the others, and left the Pokémon Center.

Before he went, he saw the look in Reggie’s eyes.

Respect.

Honestly, after surviving office politics in his previous life, handling someone like Reggie was not hard. But Reggie still looked like he wanted to keep talking, and that made Reiji’s skin crawl.

He was into women, thank you very much. He did not need a long, intimate talk with another guy.

”Reggie, you’ve changed.” Paul looked at his brother with anger, frustration, and confusion.

Had one loss really been enough to change his brother?

Reggie looked away without thinking. He could not meet Paul’s eyes. He looked almost like someone caught cheating.

”Ahem. Paul, bonds aren’t bad.” Reggie sounded guilty even as he said it.

They had agreed to get stronger together and catch powerful Pokémon together. Now he was the one who had broken ranks and taken another path.

”Reggie?” Paul stared at him, stunned.

His brother, of all people, had just said that?

Was this still his brother?

”Trust me, Paul. Try it for yourself, and you’ll understand what makes it worthwhile.”

”I don’t want to, Reggie.”

Paul did not wait for an answer. He turned and walked away, as if he had made up his mind, and never looked back.

Reggie watched him leave in silence.

A line came to him then.

”Leaving,” the dictionary said, ”means parting from a person or a place.”

He thought he understood it now.

That was the moment he learned what leaving really meant.

[End of chapter]

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