That was the question.
In the games, when a Gholdengo uses the move Make It Rain, it functions perfectly every time. Not only can the move be used repeatedly during battles, but the player can even pick up money afterward. However, in real life, things obviously couldn't work that way.
After all, you can't just let Pokémon casually toss currency around—doing so would most certainly trigger an economic crisis. Imagine corrupt factory bosses capturing a whole batch of Gholdengo to generate gold coins every day. There's no way the Pokémon League's financial system wouldn't collapse under such abuse.
Thus, in the real world, when a Gholdengo uses Make It Rain, it's a move powered by Pokémon energy. However, if a Gholdengo happens to be holding physical coins, it can also use its own coins as ammunition in the attack. That said, the League has a strict regulation in place: all coins used in the move must be split evenly between both trainers after the battle.
In other words, if you're up against a Gholdengo in battle and they use Make It Rain with actual coins, win or lose, you'll walk away with at least 500 pokedollar coins. This is the League's way of limiting the financial potential of Make It Rain, since allowing a Gholdengo to endlessly increase the coin quantity in the move would be incredibly unbalanced.
"What's the current gold price?" Edward asked casually, watching Fortune absorb the coins, while sipping on his sweet Mago Berry juice.
"Mr. Edward, the current price of gold is 545 League Coins per gram," the bank's lobby manager answered, rubbing his hands together with a friendly smile.
Edward nodded slightly. 545 coins per gram—it was a bit higher than before. He looked thoughtful for a moment. According to a certain Pokémon professor's research, if a Gholdengo used actual gold coins for Make It Rain, the move's power would increase substantially.
However, even for someone like Edward, that kind of battle style was not something he could easily afford.
To put things into perspective: 500,000 coins could be exchanged for only 917 grams of gold—not even a full kilogram. To forge a standard 33-gram gold coin, you could make roughly 27 of them. If you wanted to make 1,000 gold coins, it would cost nearly 19 million League Coins.
"…But maybe that's not so much after all?" Edward muttered to himself.
Still, based on the Pokémon professor's findings, the difference in attack power between regular coins and gold coins wasn't vast. If standard coins gave the move an attack coefficient of 1, then gold coins offered a coefficient of 1.75.
On the other hand, if you used gold coins in a battle against another trainer, the League's rules would attract challengers like moths to a flame. You wouldn't even need to make eye contact. Someone could say, "I dreamed you disrespected me last night," and that would be enough of a reason to initiate a battle.
So, Edward decided to abandon the idea. 500,000 regular coins would suffice. After all, a League-standard coin weighs 6.1 grams. If Fortune could throw all 500,000 coins at once, the total mass would rival the sheer impact force of a Snorlax using Giga Impact. It was enough to deal with most emergencies.
Not that Edward intended to unleash that many at once. His goal in giving Fortune access to 500,000 coins was simply to prepare for emergencies. Deep down, he knew that the real crisis threatening Hoenn still hadn't fully emerged.
Increasing Fortune's battle power was just another step in preparing for that eventual showdown.
And if, by then, Zinnia tried to use him as a bargaining chip against his older brother or their father, then Edward would be ready to strike back hard. In the games, Zinnia wasn't depicted as overly insane—but this was real life, and real life had its differences.
"Mr. Edward, would you like to purchase some gold?" the lobby manager asked warmly. Edward was a premium customer, and high-tier clients like him often made large purchases. The Pokémon League Bank offered various gold products, from bullion bars to bricks.
"Not right now," Edward shook his head.
It wasn't that he didn't want to buy—it just wasn't the right time. Gold prices fluctuated daily, and Edward preferred to wait for a dip before investing. Besides, even if he bought gold now, he likely couldn't give all of it to Fortune for combat purposes.
It would simply be too extravagant.
Anyone struck by that kind of attack might literally wake up laughing in the middle of the night.
Once Fortune had finished absorbing all the coins, Edward, holding Q in his arms, led his golden Gholdengo out of the bank. The lobby manager, still smiling, handed him a business card. Edward hadn't planned to take it, but when he saw the man's name—Lex Luthor—he accepted it without hesitation.
Not for any professional reason—just because that name was enough to make him want to keep the card.
Time passed like that brand of sticky-sweet lemon tea—the kind that develops a butyric acid stench as it ferments, reminiscent of sweaty feet, but somehow still intoxicating. One whiff and you're hooked.
And once you're hooked, time just flies.
Before he knew it, Edward had arrived at the Rustboro City Pokémon Care Center.
Compared to before, the shelter's front gate was peaceful again—no more groups of troublemakers causing daily ruckus. The place had regained its calm. Blacky (Murkrow) was no longer standing guard at the gate, which made Edward curious. Once he stepped inside, he saw Blacky sipping berry juice with Big Bear.
The afternoon sunlight was warm without being harsh. When Big Bear (Stufful) saw Edward, he raised a hand in greeting and made a hand signal.
Edward understood immediately. That was Big Bear's way of telling him that someone had come to adopt a Pokémon today.
"Craa!" Blacky chirped and flew over happily, but upon spotting Q napping peacefully in Edward's arms, he quietly turned around and returned to his spot.
Fortune looked around curiously at the two unfamiliar Pokémon. These species didn't exist in the Paldea region, so he was intrigued.
Edward brought Fortune inside. He wasn't concerned about guests adopting Pokémon. After all, the shelter run by Headmistress Lillian had always advocated Pokémon adoption services.
Adoption over capture—that was Lillian's slogan.
And in Rustboro City, Lillian's Pokémon care center had gained a modest reputation. Some families would even come here to adopt a Pokémon as their child's first partner.
Not every household could afford one of the official starter Pokémon, after all.
"…Greeny (Shroomish) has a great temperament, but she tends to get overly excited. When that happens, she releases a lot of spores uncontrollably. Are you sure you want to adopt her?" Edward heard Headmistress Lillian's voice before he even stepped fully inside.
He paused for a moment—someone wanted to adopt Greeny?
Holding Q, and with Fortune by his side, Edward entered the room. And as soon as he stepped in, he saw the person standing next to Headmistress Lillian.
Zinnia.
(End of Chapter)