Pokémon: Above the Top

Splash splaaaash...

A rare heavy rain fell over Shadownight Town, and maybe due to the weather, for the first time, the Gym had no challengers.

Sato sipped a warm cup of Moomoo Milk, leaning comfortably in his chair as he watched Sina and the others use the rain to train their Pokémon's reaction skills.

Three months of special training, plus over a month of real battle experience; those who had joined the Gym early on had now undergone a complete transformation.

Sina's Gligar, Sneasel, and Houndour had all evolved. His Gliscor had firmly reached the Elite level, while Weavile and Houndoom had both achieved Peak Ordinary level.

Since all of their training and development was personally supervised by Sato and Joseph, almost no potential had been wasted, and it was only a matter of time before the others reached Elite as well.

At first, Sato had been worried that four months might be too fast, concerned that it would be like forcing sprouts to grow. But when he brought it up, he was instantly met with unanimous scorn from Joseph and the rest.

Then he remembered: compared to his own growth rate, theirs was nothing.

…So, he let it go.

The Gym never lacked real battles, and the problems he had worried about weren't likely to appear.

Over these four months, Sia had only trained Azumarill up to evolution and reached Elite level. Her Murkrow and Eevee, however, still lagged behind.

Getting Eevee to evolve into Umbreon wasn't easy. Sato only succeeded in such a short time because of his past-life knowledge and his deep understanding of his own Eevee's preferences.

As for Murkrow… well, even his own Murkrow hadn't evolved, so what was she expecting? (◇)э

Still, with Joseph gradually handing more responsibilities over to Sia, Sato could clearly see how hard the girl was working and how much she'd grown.

As for Akira, who had chosen the "data-driven" route. After a period of intense training, his practical battle skills had improved considerably, and he was finally keeping up with the rest. Both his Houndoom and Phanpy had successfully evolved as well.

But Sato noticed that Akira still spent a huge amount of time on data research every day. It was obvious that this was what he truly loved.

A Gym didn't need just one kind of talent. Besides, Sato had no intention of keeping them in the Gym forever. What mattered most was for each of them to find their own path.

So, Sato had a simple and direct talk with Akira: as long as he didn't fall behind, he was free to use the rest of his time however he wanted.

Because real-time data was a great aid in planning training routines, Sato gradually let Akira participate in that area as well; another form of learning.

Trish was the only registered Gym Trainer who didn't have to deal with challengers. Her growth wasn't exactly slow either, but she was still young. For now, Sato and Amber had agreed she should just enjoy a happy childhood.

After all, her family wasn't short on money. The older one had already been squeezed dry; might as well spare the younger one.

Finally, there were Sosuke and Ponyo. Back when they chose their Pokémon, Sosuke picked Houndour and Murkrow, while Ponyo chose Sneasel and Murkrow.

Now, both -Houndour and Sneasel- had evolved too, and thanks to their intense effort, their strength wasn't lagging at all.

But since they didn't have any Pokémon of their own when Mark recruited them, their overall team strength was still a bit behind.

Sato had made it clear to them: they were free to go catch any Pokémon they wanted to raise. But neither of them was in a rush, they were focused on training the two they already had.

It wasn't until several days later that the straightforward Sina was finally "coaxed" into stammering his way through a question to Sato: asking if there were any ways to obtain high-potential Pokémon.

That's when Sato realized that Joseph, during training, had directly told them how a Pokémon's growth was limited by its natural potential. That was why they were hesitant to expand their teams casually.

Sato firmly rejected the idea. Even if they all left because of it and he was left running the Gym alone, he still wouldn't agree.

A qualified Trainer should build their team through their own captures. Having two Pokémon with Elite-level potential was already enough to put them ahead of most others.

A Gym was a place to train and develop Trainers, not a welfare center. If someone didn't want to stay, they were free to leave; there were plenty of people desperate to get in.

At that moment, Sato also became more alert. Right now, the Gym didn't have many members, and because of their young age, none of them were overly scheming.

But you couldn't control who their family or friends were. And as the Gym grew, things would inevitably get more complicated.

Not everyone could earn Sato's trust like Mark and Joseph had. Not everyone would even get the chance to earn it.

So, Sato began taking cues from the Ghost Ship Organization and the Joy family, establishing rules and systems for the Shadownight Gym: rewards for merit, punishment for mistakes.

And yes… rewards would include access to Pokémon with excellent potential.

---

Splash splaaaash...

The rain over Shadownight Town hadn't stopped. Sato opened another bottle of Moomoo Milk; he was still growing, after all… more milk meant he'd grow taller.

Umbreon was lying at Sato's feet, yawning lazily. But the movement startled the Pichu curled up in its belly.

Pichu twitched its large ears, shivering a bit from the cold, damp weather, and instinctively burrowed deeper into Umbreon's warmth.

Umbreon's body froze for a second, but it soon relaxed again, slumping hopelessly against Sato's foot and closing its eyes to keep fake-napping.

"Who would've thought the two of you would get along this well," Sato chuckled, sipping his milk as he spoke to Umbreon.

Umbreon, clearly forced into this situation, twitched its ears and turned its head away, refusing to acknowledge its shameless Trainer.

'You laid the egg and didn't raise the child. All you do is run around all day. What do you expect me to do? I'm at my limit too!'

Sato ignored Umbreon's silent tantrum. Instead, he turned toward a figure in the rain and sighed inwardly: 'something was coming again'.

"BOOOOSS! I found it! I found it!" Mark came sprinting over noisily, drawing everyone's attention.

Pichu and Umbreon were now fully awake, glaring at Mark in annoyance. But upon seeing he was looking for Sato, they quietly slipped into the backyard to find a place to go back to sleep.

"Boss, I found it! I found the portal!" Mark beamed, shaking a Relic Crown in his hand.

"Talk while we walk. You took so long I thought something happened to Zillion in the Reverse World."

Sato waved at Sina and the others to resume their training. After downing the rest of his milk in one gulp, he followed Mark away from the training grounds.

"Boss, you can't blame me for this one! The portal connecting to the Reverse World turned out to be in a rain-filled puddle. If it hadn't rained, it wouldn't have been visible at all!" Mark said, full of grievance.