Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

The stronger a Pokémon's foundation, the less likely it is to encounter situations where its strength stops improving.

He wouldn't rush things or suppress Poliwag's growth. Poliwag just needed to train normally, grow normally, and let nature take its course.

Thanks to the proficiency panel, there would be no such thing as zero progress leading to giving up. Even if proficiency only increased by 0.01, he wouldn't give up.

If it were another Trainer, someone who couldn't see the Pokémon's strength improving, they probably would have abandoned the boring training long ago.

Once a Pokémon passed the rapid growth phase and entered a slower maturity phase—where improvement was too gradual for the Trainer to notice—the Trainer's patience and energy would be worn down, and they'd likely give up on that Pokémon.

This had happened before. Many of the starter Pokémon Ash picked up weren't actually flawed.

They were just abandoned by ten-year-old rookie Trainers because they didn't know how to raise Pokémon. If the Pokémon were weak, didn't evolve, and couldn't win fights, the kids would toss them away.

That's why he said patience was a luxury for young people.

Expecting teenagers to be both passionate and steady? That's unrealistic.

Only those who've been smacked around by life would say things like that. If you want a hardened veteran to show some passion again, just throw money at him.

That's why he said impulsiveness and restlessness were the norm for the young. Carelessness, impatience... that's just youth.

Unlike him—he may be younger again now, but he still loved fishing and could handle loneliness. Otherwise, he wouldn't be a fisherman. After getting beaten down by life, that hot-blooded drive was long gone. He was realistic now.

Besides, losing wasn't scary. The scary part was denying yourself, not others denying you.

In his past life, what annoyed him most were so-called experts constantly yapping. People's lives—how they live, what kind of life they choose—are their own business.

Who needs that kind of commentary? People know what environment they live in. They know exactly what they'll eat next, what they'll do tomorrow—better than anyone else.

Before he chose to lie flat and go fishing, he had also gone through many intense debates. But when he realized none of it mattered, he just fished when it was time to fish, ate when it was time to eat, drank when it was time to drink, filtered everything else out, and carried on...

…

On Poliwag's proficiency panel, the remaining abilities hadn't changed much.

Only Damp had passed the 1% mark.

As for moves, Refresh increased by 2%.

Double Slap by 6%.

Water Gun by 8%.

Water Sport by 3%, which also fed back into Damp a little.

He closed Poliwag's proficiency panel and began eating dinner, staring at the red sunset where the sky met the sea, finishing his meal.

After devouring two Magikarp and one crab, Poliwag burped, then returned to the water bucket to soak and relax, easing the day's training fatigue.

He didn't know how to give massages or back rubs. In the future, when he met other humans, he could hire a professional Breeder to massage his Pokémon and relieve them after battle training.

For now, all he could do was let Poliwag paddle around in the water and enjoy itself, doing its best to ease its exhaustion.

While Poliwag soaked, he prepared a foot bath for himself. Once he boiled the water and let it cool, he put his left foot in first.

After four days of recovery, the wound on his left foot was starting to shrink. The right foot was almost healed, with only some scabbing on the sole. In a few more days, the scabs would probably fall off.

The left foot wound was the main issue. At least it wasn't bleeding anymore. It would likely scab over in four or five more days.

Things were moving in a good direction. He had now been on the deserted island for nineteen days.

These nineteen days had been surprisingly smooth despite everything. The busy days were behind him, but the anxiety still lingered.

From now on, all his focus would be on training Pokémon.

But with Metapod still evolving, Poliwag was his only usable Pokémon. Having only one made him feel insecure.

Lately, the beach had become more chaotic. Some Krabby drawn over by the Pokémon battle had decided not to leave.

The Krabby population was now fighting over food on the beach, and the conflict was spilling into their area. Poliwag could handle the lower-leveled Krabby.

But against higher-level Krabby, Poliwag could barely hold its own in a one-on-one. If more showed up, they'd have to flee.

And with him unable to run, he'd be nothing but a burden to Poliwag.

He wanted to catch more Pokémon, but high-potential ones weren't something you could just find by wishing.

So far, in nineteen days, he had only encountered two Pokémon with potential above fifty.

And they were just a useless Magikarp and a weak Caterpie.

Without any new Pokémon, all he could do was be extra cautious. It was best not to go near the reef shallows anymore—Krabby had taken that area.

Apparently, Krabby had realized Beedrill didn't care about this beach. Beedrill's territory was the jungle above the beach.

As long as Krabby stayed out of the forest and only searched for shells near the reef or caught Caterpie near the forest edge, they wouldn't provoke Beedrill. That's how Krabby took over the beach.

But that made things worse for Reiji. Their living space had shrunk again. They'd only had half the beach before, and now even that was being taken.

If they wanted to fetch water, they had to pass the reef shallows. Even scavenging and beachcombing took place there, since most garbage floated to that area from the sea.

Reiji had no way to deal with the Krabby presence. All he could do was wait until Poliwag grew stronger before making any plans.

After tending to his foot, he released Magikarp, fed it some food, then returned it to its Poké Ball.

He moved the stove into the treehouse, then called out to Poliwag, who was still soaking in the bucket and blowing bubbles from its nose.

"Poliwag, time for bed. Come on in."

"Yoh?" Upon hearing him, the bubble on Poliwag's nose popped. It woke up instantly, saw Reiji enter the treehouse, then flipped itself out of the bucket and followed him inside.

Once in the treehouse, Poliwag saw Metapod still asleep on the tree trunk and didn't disturb it. It just returned to its own bed and lay down.

Reiji closed the wooden door and took out four Poké Balls from his pocket—one of them holding Magikarp. The extra Poké Ball was the one he found today in the collapsed treetop.

After placing the Poké Balls, he got ready to sleep. But he couldn't stop thinking about how the scavenging beach was now occupied by Krabby. He didn't even have a place to look for Poké Balls anymore.

It had been a while since he last checked the shore. Who knew if some useful trash had been washed ashore? He was starting to miss the scavenging life.

As the thoughts drifted, Reiji said goodnight to Poliwag and fell asleep.

"Poliwag, see you tomorrow..."

"Yoh-yoh..."

(End of Chapter)

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