Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

Back at the treehouse, Reiji saw that the rag covering the puddle was still intact. The dumb birds hadn't returned—probably still scared that the Pidgeot might make a surprise comeback and massacre them.

First, he stashed away the honey and the two Charti Berry in the treehouse.

Then he headed outside to sort out the Wishiwashi in the puddle. That was three full buckets of fish—several days' worth of meals. No way he was letting those dumb birds ruin that.

He picked up the empty buckets he'd left on the grass and called over Poliwag and Caterpie to help collect the fish.

"Poliwag, Caterpie, come help me pick up the fish!"

"Wag wag!" Poliwag grabbed one corner of the rag with its mouth.

"Buh buh!" Caterpie bit down on the other corner. Working together, the two Pokémon yanked the rag away.

"Caterpie, you keep watch. If you see any Spearow, alert us. Poliwag, you help me collect the fish," Reiji assigned the tasks. Poliwag could carry live fish to the buckets using its mouth.

Caterpie was small and not very strong—perfect for lookout duty.

"Wag wag!" Poliwag immediately grabbed a dead, belly-up Wishiwashi and tried to toss it into the bucket.

"Nope, not the dead ones. We'll grill those later," Reiji stopped Poliwag and set the dead fish aside on the grass. They'd eat those soon enough.

"Wag wag!" Poliwag got the idea. From then on, any dead fish went to the grass, live ones to the bucket.

Reiji worked his way through the puddle. For every half bucket of fish, he added half a bucket of water. But something kept nagging at him. Why had that Pidgeot flown over here? And why did it grab a branch from this area?

That meant the branch must've fallen here last night. And if that's the case, then maybe it wasn't after the branch itself, but what was on it—leftover honey or Charti Berry that had dropped to the ground.

"Buh buh! Buh buh!" Suddenly, Caterpie let out a rapid, urgent cry. It had spotted something, and it kept calling Reiji's name.

"Spearow?" Reiji stopped picking fish and hurried over to the base of the tree shelter. He looked up and asked the Caterpie in the tree what it had seen.

"Buh buh!" Caterpie pointed toward the coast—specifically, the beach.

"The beach?" Reiji turned to look. The very beach where he used to scavenge was now swarming with Spearow, Pidgey, Beedrill, Krabby and Kingler, all fighting over something.

With so many Pokémon gathered there, he didn't dare go near. He just watched from a distance and picked up his pace with the fishing.

Soon, he had finished scooping up all the fish from the puddle—three full buckets. He slowly hauled them over near the treehouse and sealed them with foam board lids.

Added to the other five buckets of fish already outside the treehouse, he now had eight buckets of Wishiwashi—more than enough to feed them for over half a month.

Once the buckets were sealed, he called Poliwag and Caterpie and headed to the beach to watch the brawl, which was nearing its end.

What the Pokémon were fighting over were the honey and Charti Berry that had fallen from the branch the Pidgeot had grabbed earlier.

In the end, the victor in the skies was Fearow. After several aerial duels with Pidgeotto, it overwhelmed its rival and flew off with its spoils. Pidgeotto did the same.

The remaining honey and berries were being contested by the Spearow and Pidgey on the ground.

Meanwhile, Beedrill, krabby and Kingler were duking it out over the honey—flinging ranged attacks back and forth in a heated battle.

In the end, Beedrill came out on top thanks to team tactics. Some Beedrill held off the Kingler, while the younger ones landed on the sand and sucked the honey clean.

Once all the honey was gone, the Beedrill finally withdrew.

By the time Reiji and his team arrived, the battle was practically over. Only a few Spearow remained, pecking at the corpses of other Pokémon on the battlefield.

Thank goodness he hadn't been stupid enough to charge into that chaos. Once the fighting died down, he finally moved in to scavenge.

He stuck to the outer edges of the battlefield, picking up a few Spearow corpses—perfect for making soup. He avoided the Beedrill bodies. Those were poisonous, and he didn't dare eat them.

Besides Spearow, there were some Pidgey and Krabby corpses. Not wanting to draw the attention of any surviving Crab, he picked up about a dozen Pokémon in total and left.

By the end, only Spearow and Kingler were left on the battlefield, sometimes even fighting over the same carcasses. Reiji had no intention of getting involved in that mess.

A dozen or so Spearow, Pidgey,Krabby, plus a few dead Wishiwashi—more than enough for a feast today. Anything they couldn't finish could be smoked and stored. No need to overdo it.

"Back to cooking, Poliwag, Caterpie!"

"Wag wag!" Poliwag chirped back, volunteering to stay behind and cover their retreat, just in case other Pokémon followed them.

"Buh buh," Caterpie crawled ahead, grinning ear to ear. So much meat! There was no way they could eat it all.

Caterpie couldn't wait for lunch—it was absolutely thrilled.

Back at the treehouse, Reiji lit a fire and started cooking. This time, they'd eat their fill. Last time, with just one Krabby, the three of them only got half full. This time, they could finally eat without restraint.

He split the ten-plus dead Wishiwashi in two: half for soup, half for grilling.

Those fish had died overnight—if they didn't eat them soon, they'd start to rot.

Next, Caterpie resumed its Confusion training while Poliwag practiced Double Slap—whacking foam training balls with rapid strikes.

Reiji supervised Caterpie's training while preparing the bird meat and Kingler. That was dinner—and breakfast tomorrow. They'd never finish it in one sitting.

During afternoon training, the two Pokémon would stay hydrated and energized by eating the food Reiji prepared.

Most of the bird meat went to Caterpie—to help it overcome its instinctual fear of Flying-type predators.

Reiji cooked. The two Pokémon trained and devoured their meals. In just one afternoon, with ample food and constant replenishment, their training progress shot up.

Not just their skill mastery—experience was skyrocketing too. Food had been holding them back before.

Poliwag's malnutrition also seemed to have recovered. From here on, it was all about building a solid foundation and slowly unlocking its potential.

With a full belly and focused training, Poliwag's potential increased by 0.01.

[Poliwag]

Type: Water

Gender: Male

Potential: 31.02%

Level: 10.94%

Ability: Damp (0.83%) / Hidden Ability: Swift Swim (2.53%)

Known Moves: Mind Reader (0.21%) / Ice Ball (0.31%) / Refresh (1.61%) / Bubble (1.31%) / Hypnosis (0.82%) / Double Slap (5.62%) / Pound (0.91%) / Water Gun (7.61%) / Water Sport (2.51%).

[End of Chapter]

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