"Ha, sorry about that. Since you're that fat man's friend, how about I give it to you at two hundred thousand per half-kilo?"
The head chef clearly didn't know why he had sent Reiji over and couldn't quite justify outright gouging him.
"Sure."
Reiji thought it over, then nodded. Paying a hundred thousand for a quarter kilo of venom was acceptable as long as the quality was good.
And by "good quality," he meant venom taken from elite-grade Pokémon, not baby-stage Pokémon. He reminded the head chef on the spot, "I'll need to inspect the goods. Don't bother bringing me any trash…"
He didn't believe this guy could produce venom on par with his Croagunk's, but at the very least, he didn't want to get scammed with sacks taken off Weedle.
"Of course not, sir. I'll be right back, please wait a moment."
The head chef got up, excused himself, left the restaurant, and went to the back to make a call.
When he found out Reiji was just some stranger and not someone who needed special treatment, he actually regretted quoting that "low" of a price.
Still, two hundred thousand per half-kilo was already higher than what the Pokéblock manufacturers were paying. They'd make a tidy profit.
After all, this stuff was basically pure profit—a little under-the-table gray income the boss turned a blind eye to, as long as they handled things properly and didn't cause any poisoning deaths.
Reiji didn't have to wait long. The head chef soon came back—but he came back empty-handed.
"Sir, your goods have arrived…"
"Then where are they?" Reiji asked.
"Please follow me to the back kitchen."
The head chef obviously wasn't going to bring poison sacs into the dining area. One whiff of that sharp, fishy stench and the customers would bolt, and his paycheck would get docked.
Reiji followed him through the kitchen and out the back door into a rear alley. The goods were in the head chef's hands.
"Sir, all the poison sacs you asked for are here. There's a total of five kilos. You can inspect them…"
When the head chef set the cardboard box down, Reiji took out a Poké Ball and released Gastly.
"Gaaast…"
The moment Gastly came out and saw Reiji, it stopped darting its eyes everywhere and floated obediently at his side.
"Gastly, taste the venom and tell me if it's fresh and how potent it is," Reiji said. Calling Gastly out was the only option he had.
He only had three Poison-types. Croagunk's own toxins were already intense enough—letting it sample more venom would just be pouring fuel on the fire. Spinarak was poisonous too, but if it got knocked out by the venom, he'd have to drag it to the Pokémon Center.
So it had to be Gastly. It was the only one that wasn't afraid of poison at all.
"Gaaast, gaaast!"
The second it heard there was venom, Gastly rushed the box, excited.
Seeing that, Reiji could only sigh helplessly, a wry smile tugging at his lips. He quickly opened the box. The instant Gastly stuck out its long tongue and licked one of the poison sacs inside, Reiji recalled it.
Then he sent Gastly out again and asked, "Well? How's the venom?"
"Gaaast…"
Gastly licked its lips, still savoring the taste. At Reiji's question, it nodded, then drifted back toward the box again.
That was enough for Reiji. If Gastly liked it that much, the batch wasn't bad—at least in Gastly's opinion. Good enough for him.
"Sir, these all just came out of cold storage. I guarantee they're fresh," the head chef said. He'd been startled when Gastly appeared, but thankfully it had gone for the box and not for him.
"Here's two million."
Reiji counted out two million Pokédollars, handed it over, then hefted the cardboard box and turned to leave the alley.
"Sir, if you want to keep it fresh, I suggest buying a small fridge," the head chef called after him as Reiji disappeared around the corner. Whether Reiji actually listened wasn't his problem.
He'd already given the reminder, and he'd made a nice little windfall tonight. After collecting poison sacs from a few other restaurants and adding in his own kitchen's stash, he'd managed to sell over two million's worth. Tonight, he could treat himself to a drink or two.
Leaving the alley, Reiji headed straight for an appliance store, spent ten thousand on a mini-fridge, and loaded the venom inside to keep it fresh.
He'd heard the head chef loud and clear: if he didn't keep the venom chilled, it would start to reek over time. There was no way he was letting Gastly gobble all in one sitting.
Last time, a quarter kilo had knocked Gastly out for three full days. Five kilos would be crazy.
Before stuffing everything into the fridge, he used the shop's scale to weigh the cardboard box. It really was five kilograms. So the head chef hadn't lied to him.
Then he put on gloves, packed the venom sacs into the fridge bag by bag, shut the door, tied a rope around it, and slipped the whole thing into his space backpack.
The cardboard box and gloves were useless now. He tossed both into a trash can, walked out of the empty alley, and headed toward the city outskirts to rent a villa and begin Gastly's evolution experiment.
Only, when he reached the suburbs, a small accident happened. He saw Lorelei—and Lance.
"…Oh, come on."
The moment he spotted the two of them, Reiji swore inwardly. Why the hell was Lance here? Wasn't this guy supposed to be hosting the Youth Trainer Tournament in Kinnow City…
"Right. By now the Youth Tournament should be wrapping up," Reiji realized. It had been about a week since he left Kinnow Island; the tournament was probably already over, so Lance showing up here wasn't that strange.
"Not strange, my ass!"
He really wanted to shout that out loud, but he didn't dare. He didn't want to draw Lorelei and Lance's attention at all. Getting noticed by those two right now would be nothing but trouble.
Forget hugging anyone's thigh. What was he, exactly? A nobody who couldn't even get his League Trainer application approved. Did someone like that really deserve to latch onto big shots?
He was clear-headed enough to know his own weight. All he wanted was to stay low-key and invisible. When his rain team finally reached Elite Four level, that would be when he stepped onto the stage for real. Right now was way too early.
However…
"Hey, you over there, Trainer—I'm challenging you!"
Not me. Not me. Not me.
Reiji tried frantically to brainwash himself as he kept walking past Lorelei's villa gates like nothing was happening.
He had zero interest in whatever Lorelei and Lance were talking about out back, and he definitely didn't care about the pack of brats yelling for him to stop. Judging by their uniforms, they were students here on some kind of field trip.
Lorelei's lectures were famous. As long as she was willing to accept a bit of sponsorship money and certain people brought their kids over to "get acquainted," plenty of parents were more than happy to send their children here.
And it was exactly that kind of spoiled brat who'd be this bold. Social monsters, the lot of them. Calling him out on the spot like it was nothing.
"Hey, I'm talking to you! Didn't you hear me?"
Reiji had been planning to just keep going, but the group of ten-odd kids rushed up and surrounded him. At this point, it was too late to walk away.
Well, not "too late." More like "not allowed." With Lance the Dragon Master right there, bolting would look incredibly suspicious—like he had something to hide.
If that beefy dragon smacked him with one big fat paw, he'd probably get swatted straight into the ocean and smashed to pieces. No amount of tape would put him back together.
And with these annoying little brats blocking his way and throwing out their Pokémon to cut off every exit, what could he even do? Charge through them?
They had bodyguards too—each one in a black suit and sunglasses, broad-shouldered and built like a brick wall. Reiji was pretty sure any one of them could beat him up bare-handed. They were basically walking Fighting-types.
"Hey, you're a Trainer, right? Why didn't you answer when we called you? We just want a Pokémon battle. Hurry up and send out your Pokémon…"
"I've got things to do. I don't have time to battle, sorry."
Reiji waved them off with a couple of perfunctory lines and tried circling around them to get away from Lorelei's villa.
He really should've seen this coming. Since Lorelei had a villa out here, he should've gone to some other town to rent a place, not come anywhere near this one. Too late for regrets now.
"You're lying. If you were really busy, why would you be here? I bet you're trying to see Lorelei and she doesn't want to see you, so you're just hanging around the gate!"
"I am not," Reiji said quickly. As if he had the guts to pester Lorelei. What was he, seriously? He had no idea what went on in this little girl's head. She was a student—she should be studying, not fantasizing about romance dramas all day.
"Lorelei! Lorelei! There's a creep peeping at you at the door! Come catch the peeping creep!"
He had no idea which kid shouted that, but Reiji froze on the spot. He really wanted to send out Pelipper and fly the hell out of here, but someone moved even faster.
A tall, orange figure dropped down beside him, eyes glaring fiercely. Reiji was so terrified he didn't dare twitch. This was an Elite Four-level Dragonite. If he so much as flinched, he'd turn into a smear on the pavement.
"Who's the peeping creep?"
Lance and Lorelei walked out from the back garden and saw Reiji standing at the villa gate, paralyzed with fear in front of Dragonite.
"Mr. Lance, the kids are just talking nonsense. I'm just a Trainer who happened to be passing by," Reiji said the moment he saw them, rushing to explain what had just happened. The last thing he wanted was for those two to misunderstand.
"Enough chatter. ID."
As a Pokémon G-Men officer, checking IDs was perfectly reasonable.
"Here."
Reiji hurriedly pulled out his ID. Thankfully, once he'd finished his shopping, he'd dropped his disguise. His face was back to normal and matched the photo on his card, so he wasn't afraid of any background checks.
With Reiji's ID in hand, Lance asked, "So you know who I am?"
"I saw you at the tournament in Kinnow City," Reiji answered honestly. If he claimed he'd seen Lance on the black market instead, he'd probably get dragged off in cuffs.
"You're from Kinnow City?"
Lance glanced at the address on the card—Kinnow Harbor—so it made sense the kid had seen him there. Then he asked, "Are you a League-certified Trainer?"
"No."
Reiji answered truthfully again.
"You're already fifteen. Under League regulations, you can apply for Trainer certification at ten. Why are you out traveling without applying?"
"I'm an orphan."
Those four words choked off Lance's next question.
"Wait here."
Lance told Reiji to stay put and had Dragonite keep watch over him before turning back toward the villa. He asked Lorelei, "Got a computer?"
"I do."
Lorelei led him to the study and, curious, asked, "Is there something wrong with him?"
"Not sure yet. I need to log into the League population database."
Pulling up the records, Lance quickly found Reiji's file—including the three Pokémon he'd registered at the Pokémon Center: Politwhirl, Spinarak, and Pelipper.
Just thinking about those three made Reiji cringe. If he'd known this would happen, he never would've registered Spinarak. Next time he updated his info, he might as well mark Spinarak as released.
Reiji didn't actually wait long. Lance and Lorelei came back out soon enough. With Dragonite hovering nearby, he wasn't going anywhere anyway. And his record was clean. Why would he run? Only guilty people tried to run. He had nothing on his conscience.
"Trainer Reiji, here's your ID back. You're free to go," Lance said as he stepped out and handed the card over. Aside from not being a League-certified Trainer, Reiji had no criminal record.
Just a clean orphan whose parents had been killed by pirates. Trainers like that didn't bother him. The ones he really hated were scum from Team Rocket.
But orphans like Reiji were still on his watch list. They were exactly the kind of people underground groups liked to recruit. Team Rocket in particular loved picking up these kids.
Reiji quietly let out the breath he'd been holding, slipped his ID safely away, and turned to leave.
Except…
"Hold it. I'm challenging you. You still haven't accepted my challenge!"
For f—
Reiji bit down hard on the curse that almost slipped out the moment he heard "wait." He didn't dare actually say it. One slap from that big dragon and he'd be airborne.
"Sorry, I really do have things to take care of," Reiji said with a polite smile, trying to edge around the kids and put as much distance as possible between himself and this landmine of a place.
But Lorelei leaned toward Lance and whispered, "Lance, don't let him go…"
"Why?" Lance asked, confused.
"Just keep him here first," Lorelei said, seeing that Lance wasn't reacting. She didn't have time to explain, so she stepped forward herself. "Trainer Reiji, how about staying for a bit? Have a seat and play a couple of matches with these kids."
"Thank you for the invitation, Ms. Lorelei, but I really do have something urgent to deal with," Reiji said as he looked back and thanked her. His feet didn't slow at all. He kept walking.
His oddly firm refusal immediately raised a red flag in Lance's mind. Lance shot Dragonite a look, and Dragonite once again moved to block Reiji's path.
Even Reiji's good temper was wearing thin now, but he still didn't snap.
For one simple reason: he couldn't beat either of these Elite Four members. No matter how wronged he felt, he had to swallow it.
"Mr. Lance?" Reiji turned to face him, completely baffled about what he wanted this time.
"Ahem."
Lance glanced at Lorelei, hoping she'd give him a cue. But she turned away, pretending not to see. So Lance had to come up with something on the spot. "Trainer Reiji, do you want to become a League-certified Trainer?"
"Uh… I don't meet the League's requirements," Reiji said, completely lost now. Was this why Lance had stopped him? If that was all, there was really no need to sic Dragonite on him. He'd almost pissed himself from the scare.
"As long as you pass a test, I'll approve your Trainer certification myself," Lance said. If he wanted to keep Reiji here, he might as well go all in. With his status, signing off on a rookie Trainer's certification was easy.
"What kind of test?"
Reiji really wanted to know how hard this exam would be. If it meant battling Lance and beating him, he was out. He wasn't that masochistic.
(End of Chapter)
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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