Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

Chapter 598 - 598 – Shadow

"There's a human school in town on Mikan Island," Reiji said. "Start from the lower grades and sit in on the classes."That was the best idea he had.

Basic League education should at least give Mewtwo a normal foundation. Children raised through that system usually came out with decent values.

As for the ones who turned out wrong?

Every world had those. No point going into it. The textbooks and teachers were mostly the same. How much someone learned still depended on the person. Mewtwo had already understood that it existed as its own being, so Reiji didn't think it would go too far off course.

And things like childish pranks, arguments, or bullying?

Please.

Mewtwo had lived through Team Rocket. What kind of evil hadn't it seen there? Who would even dare bully Mewtwo? That would just be asking to die.

"A school? Sit in on classes?" Mewtwo had never heard of a place like that. Could going there really help it understand what it was missing?

"You'll know once you try. You have psychic power, right? Hypnotize the teachers and students so they ignore you, then spend some time learning there. Watch how human children grow up. If you're still confused, think through it slowly."

"All right. I'll go."

Mewtwo nodded quietly, willing to try Reiji's idea.

Then it thought of Amber. "Is Amber going to school too? And Amber's condition was strange. How can she go to school like that?"

"I found Ho-Oh and had it revive Amber. Her body is a clone created by Dr. Fuji, so Fuji still played a part in bringing her back."

"Ho-Oh? Isn't that a legend?" Mewtwo was surprised.

It had challenged the strongest Trainers before and thought the strongest Pokémon must belong to Trainers. Instead, most of the Pokémon it had met had been far weaker than expected.

"How could Ho-Oh be only a legend? Ash is the child chosen by Ho-Oh, the Rainbow Hero."

"Rainbow Hero?" Mewtwo heard another unfamiliar title.

It was starting to realize how much it still didn't know. Maybe going to school really was necessary.

"I have another question," Mewtwo said. "How do you tell good from evil?"

Mewtwo could already judge things for itself, but that judgment was still young. Once it chose "good," it could easily fall into all-or-nothing thinking.

"Good and evil are hard to explain."

Reiji took out two Pokéblocks. They tasted decent, and humans could eat them without issue.

He picked up a fruit knife, cut one of the Pokéblocks in half, and left the other whole. Then he ate the whole Pokéblock first. Under Mewtwo's gaze, he picked up the two halves and ate them separately.

"What does that mean?" Mewtwo stared at the table, then at Reiji's movements, then at his calm face. It didn't understand what he was trying to show.

"You saw it. You heard it. You felt it. Do you still need to ask me?"

The truth was, Reiji didn't know what it meant either.

He had just cut the thing for fun. Who knew what meaning anyone could pull out of it? It could be interpreted however they liked.

Still, one thing was true: people who spoke in riddles were annoying.

Two Pokéblocks. A fknife. A table. A person holding the knife.

First, a cut Pokéblock could be shared. A whole one could be kept for yourself.

Second, if a fruit knife could cut a Pokéblock, what else could it cut?

Third, why had one Pokéblock been cut while the other had not?

Fourth, Reiji ate both Pokéblocks anyway, even the one he had cut in half.

Fifth...

Mewtwo couldn't understand what any of this had to do with good and evil. Even with its psychic power and its speed of thought, it couldn't work out an answer right away.

Of course it couldn't.

There was no clean answer to the question of good and evil.

If someone claimed there was, that person was probably the problem. Good and evil only existed after humans created those ideas. Before humans, the world was just one thing eating another. Bigger fish ate smaller fish, smaller fish ate shrimp. That was all. A food chain. Survival.

"You don't have to understand it right now," Reiji said, stopping Mewtwo before it got stuck thinking in circles. "Give it time. You'll understand more later."

That was why he wanted Mewtwo to go to school.

School would teach it how humans thought about good and evil. The values taught there were meant to guide children toward doing good instead of harm.

A child who accepted that kind of education might not come out rich or successful, but they would usually come out as someone who knew how to follow rules and live properly.

As for the ones who turned out rotten anyway, that was another matter. Throwing out basic education just because a few bad ones existed was either stupid or malicious.

"I understand," Mewtwo said quietly.

Reiji suddenly seemed much deeper to it. He was only human, yet Mewtwo couldn't read him the way it had read Giovanni's greed. This was a first.

"You've eaten. Rest and heal for now. Don't go wandering around outside. I'm going to sleep for a while too. We'll talk again at dinner."

Reiji waved a hand.

Lunch was done, and those two Pokéblocks had nearly stuffed him to death. Right now, he only wanted to lie down.

"I will stay here for a while."

Mewtwo watched Reiji go upstairs. It did not leave the living room. Instead, it sat on the sofa and rested. It was still injured.

"Mewtwo..."

Back in his room, Reiji muttered to himself.

Mewtwo's problem was actually simple. It didn't know who it was. It had no one to copy, no model to follow. It was like a lonely child looking for others like itself, looking for somewhere it belonged.

Give a child like that a direction, and the rest became easier. Even if it failed, it could try again.

His previous life had plenty of that kind of motivational talk.

Sadly, none of it worked on him.

What did a deadbeat who had already given up need with belonging or recognition? He had lost all of that long ago, buried under every insult and every time someone looked down on him.

People who survived that kind of low point usually had tough hearts. If they didn't, they wouldn't still be alive. Someone who had dragged himself out of the worst part of life would not be shaken so easily.

Either they drowned themselves in entertainment and lived however they wanted.

Or they took someone down with them, and if they got two for one, that was a win.

Or they quietly planned something huge in the dark.

For now, he would wait for Mewtwo to grow. Mewtwo was still being chased by Team Rocket, so it clearly had not reached its peak yet. If it had, dealing with Team Rocket should be as easy as raising a hand and crushing one small fry after another.

As for catching Mewtwo?

Please.

If he could keep Mewtwo calm today, that was already enough. At most, he could become its friend.

Catch it?

Come on. Just admit you want the body.

And yes, Reiji wanted it too.

Back in the bedroom, Reiji released his Pokémon and fed them lunch. After they ate, he recalled them one by one. He had too many Pokémon now, and he needed time to sort everything out properly.

But the first thing he had to check was Gengar's proficiency panel.

He wanted to see just how far that greedy little ghost had come.

"Gengar, back into your Poké Ball. Let me check."

Reiji took out Gengar's Poké Ball.

"Gar, gar."

Gengar obeyed at once.

Downstairs, it had watched Mewtwo listen to Reiji until it settled down. Gengar could feel how powerful Mewtwo was, and it had no confidence it could beat it. With something that terrifying as a comparison, Gengar didn't dare mess around. It returned to the Poké Ball without a fuss.

"Good."

Reiji nodded to himself.

Gengar had grown stronger, but it had not turned on him. Their bond was still there. He had been worried it might lose control, but now he could finally relax.

Really, he should have known from the moment Gengar woke up on its own to protect him. It still cared. It still saw him as family. Otherwise, it could have kept pretending to sleep and ignored whether he lived or died.

[Gengar (shiny)]

[Type: Ghost + Poison]

[Gender: Male]

[Potential: ???]

[Level: 60.03%]

[Ability: Cursed Body / 35.22%]

[Moves]

Ghost-type: [(Shadow Ball / 58.82%) (Shadow Punch / 55.11%) (Shadow Claw / 56.92%) (Confuse Ray / 51.57%) (Lick / 50.55%) (Curse / 54.15%) (Hex / 53.23%) (Destiny Bond / 55.63%) (Phantom Force / 59.56%) (Night Shade / 58.13%) (Spite / 49.13%) (Nightmare / 53.66%) (Shadow Sneak / 42.33%) (Shadow Force / 52.62%)]

Poison-type: [(Toxic / 58.84%) (Acid Spray / 51.52%) (Venoshock / 48.21%) (Poison Jab / 52.15%) (Toxic Spikes / 50.54%) (Sludge Bomb / 48.35%) (Smog / 44.14%) (Poison Gas / 47.55%)]

Psychic-type: [(Hypnosis / 46.41%) (Dream Eater / 44.12%) (Psychic / 46.64%) (Trick Room / 40.44%) (Rest / 56.81%)]

Normal-type: [(Mean Look / 43.48%) (Perish Song / 35.78%) (Protect / 51.87%) (Hyper Beam / 42.32%)]

Dark-type: [(Payback / 41.26%) (Taunt / 43.77%) (Sucker Punch / 40.88%) (Dark Pulse / 39.42%) (Nasty Plot / 32.92%)]

Fire-type: [(Will-O-Wisp / 47.45%) (Fire Punch / 34.98%)]

Other: [(Ice Punch / 33.23%) (Thunder Punch / 34.15%) (Drain Punch / 28.55%)]

Gengar's potential was still the same mystery as before.

Its level had only just reached Elite Four tier. That was the price of waking early. Still, it had finally crossed the line. From here, it just needed time.

Its Ability had not changed much. Cursed Body had only risen a little.

The Spooky Plate fragment had affected its Ghost-type moves the most. Their proficiency had all been dragged upward.

When Reiji saw the changes, his first reaction was: wow.

He had been worried that too many toxin crystals might unbalance the poison energy in Gengar's body.

Now the opposite had happened. The Ghost energy was so strong that the Poison energy was the one getting pushed down.

That was easier to fix. From now on, he just needed to feed Gengar more toxin crystals. Those were much cheaper than Ghost-type resources. Anywhere badly polluted, anywhere with Grimer, usually had toxin crystals.

Other moves had improved too, though not as dramatically. Because of the toxin crystals, the Poison-type moves had grown more than the rest.

More importantly, Gengar had learned two new Ghost-type moves.

The first was Shadow Sneak. It stretched the user's shadow and attacked from behind. Priority +1, 40 power. It could strike while hiding in the opponent's shadow.

By logic, Gengar was the Shadow Pokémon, so it should have been able to learn Shadow Sneak. Unfortunately, Gengar normally couldn't. It had probably learned it because of the Spooky Plate fragment.

The second move was Shadow Force.

That was Giratina's signature move.

Gengar learning Giratina's signature move was a huge surprise, but it also worried Reiji a little. Would this attract Giratina's attention? This was his move, after all.

Shadow was only one part of Giratina's power. Giratina also had antimatter, and both were higher-level forces than the eighteen types. Space and time were similar, ruled by the other two Legendary Pokémon.

Darkrai mainly controlled nightmares, but it also touched a little of shadow power.

As for Gengar, one thing was now clear: it had gained part of the authority over shadow. Hiding in shadows would be much harder to detect now, just like Darkrai. It had taken on a few traits closer to Legendary Pokémon.

Giratina's other power, antimatter, would have to depend on luck. Whether Gengar could touch that power depended on whether the Plate fragment contained any of it.

Still, shadow authority was already more than enough. It had only borrowed a small piece of that power. Hopefully Giratina wouldn't get angry. At least Giratina wasn't in the real world, and Reiji had no plans to visit the Distortion World.

Too bad it wasn't a Dread Plate fragment. If it had been, Gengar might have been able to try learning Darkrai's Dark Void.

Of course, if Darkrai came back, there would be no need for Gengar to try Dark Void.

Sigh.

"Gengar, you learned Shadow Force. Can you use shadow power now?"

Reiji looked at Gengar floating near the ceiling. He wasn't sure whether Gengar understood what he meant.

"Gar."

Gengar held its head and thought for a moment. Then its round little claw snapped its fingers.

Darkness spread from its body.

It started at the ceiling, flowed down the walls, covered the floor, and finally swallowed the windows. Every bit of light disappeared.

"This... is shadow power?"

Reiji couldn't see anything.

The darkness had eaten all the light. The room had become Gengar's battlefield. Anything below Legendary level would probably be beaten senseless in here. Weaker Legendary Pokémon might not even be able to handle this version of Gengar.

To break this darkness, someone would probably need the same kind of power at an even higher level.

If Giratina used it, it might swallow the entire sky.

So this was what a Legendary Pokémon's authority looked like. Gengar had only stolen a tiny piece, and the result was already this strong.

"Gar, gar."

Gengar's red eyes shone in the darkness.

If Reiji hadn't known those eyes belonged to Gengar, he might have been scared stiff on the spot.

"How wide can you spread it?" he asked.

"Gar."

Gengar removed the darkness from the bedroom and gestured at the whole cabin. That was the range it could cover now, and even that was not its limit.

"Gengar, I love you."

Reiji jumped off the bed and hugged the floating Gengar.

The round black ghost had finally made it. Its black shiny body and shadow power were a perfect match.

"Gar, gar."

Gengar scratched its head and laughed, a little embarrassed by Reiji's reaction. It bent its mouth into a wide grin and hugged its Trainer back in midair.

"You didn't finish absorbing that little stone, right?"

Reiji guessed Gengar had woken up early, which meant it probably had not fully absorbed the Plate fragment. Besides, he still had a larger fragment too.

"Gar."

Gengar rolled out its big pink tongue. On it sat a Plate fragment about the size of a grain of rice.

According to Darkrai's earlier description, that fragment had once been about the size of a mung bean, smaller than the other nail-sized piece. Now only a rice-grain-sized bit remained.

"Keep it safe. After you finish absorbing it, come to me. I still have another piece. Also, absorb toxin crystals together with it so your energy doesn't go out of balance."

Reiji smiled and patted Gengar's head.

Soft. Really nice to touch.

Gengar was his first Pokémon to reach Elite Four tier. For now, it was his backbone.

With shadow power, Gengar could hide in shadows without being found easily. Since it was a higher-level force, detecting it would take at least something on Slowking's level.

"Gar, gar."

Gengar laughed and licked Reiji with its big pink tongue. It had wanted to do that for ages.

"Haha, stop, stop. I'm going to sleep for a bit. Go play wherever you want."

Reiji pushed Gengar away helplessly and lay back down.

With Gengar here, he finally had the confidence to face Elite Four-tier opponents. He could also start arranging the plan he had thought about before.

He needed to think it through properly.

[End of chapter]

[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]

[Check out my Patreon to read 20+ chapters ahead]

[[email protected]/BellAshelia]

[Thanks for your support!]