Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

Take the Shalour Gym in the Kalos region, for example—its previous Gym Leader was Gurkinn.

Yeah, that Gurkinn—the grandfather of Korrina.

That Gym has a long-standing tradition tied to Mega Evolution. So really, this stuff isn't some grand secret. It's just that other Pokémon's Mega Evolutions haven't been discovered yet.

And Korrina? She didn't just inherit the title of Gym Leader. She inherited a noble title too. She's a Marquess.

In other words, Korrina is actually a noble.

The Kalos region is based on France, and in France, Marquess is the second-highest rank of nobility. The only title above that is Duke—and then that's it.

Unless you stage a coup and become king yourself, that's as far as nobility goes.

That's how powerful noble families are. Korrina's family is second-tier nobility. Which means her ancestors were seriously loaded. Even in the current timeline of the anime, they're still ridiculously well-off.

As a Gym Leader, her status is second only to the Elite Four—and Gym Leaders can even challenge them for their positions.

And when you combine that with a family line that holds the legacy of Lucario's Mega Evolution, that status gets even more untouchable.

She was born in Versailles, had a Mega Stone in her crib, and of all things—it was Lucario's Mega Stone.

Now look at Reiji. Stranded on a deserted island. No ID, no status. His team? A Poliwag, a Caterpie, and a Magikarp...

…

Then you've got the Sinnoh League's Lily of the Valley Conference champ—Tobias.

He just happened to use dual abilities. Two, that's it! Totally reasonable, right?

After all, the man flat-out cheated. A full sweep with Darkrai, plus a Latios. The rest of his team could've been six Magikarp and he still would've won.

In comparison, isn't Reiji being a little too conservative? A little too wholesome? Dual abilities—honestly, that's nothing...

…

And don't forget the Hoenn region's Petalburg Gym. Gym Leader Norman and his infamous Slaking.

Back when he watched the anime, Reiji had been floored by Norman's Slaking. That thing didn't even rest. It had somehow broken the habit of being lazy and could attack continuously.

That's a Slaking, mind you—a Pokémon with base stats on par with legendaries.

The whole point of Truant was to keep Slaking's absurd strength in check. But Norman's Slaking apparently said, "Screw that," and just went wild. Absolutely insane.

What, did a Poochyena eat its ability or something?

It's so outrageous, it makes outrageousness look normal.

Then there were those anime Gym battles, where it was obvious the Leaders were going easy. A Slaking that doesn't Truant? Most Elite Four members couldn't handle that.

And Ash beat it using a two-stage Grovyle? Reiji could only chalk that up to script armor. No comment.

Even when Slaking used Earthquake, it looked like Norman was holding back. If that had been full power, the entire battlefield would've collapsed.

No doubt about it. A master of pulling punches. Any Trainer who battles Ash ends up joining the "Let Him Win" club—especially those Masters Eight contestants.

Reiji didn't know how Norman trained his Slaking to overcome Truant, but with the proficiency panel, all he needed was targeted training. Just grind up that trait mastery and he'd be able to fully utilize dual abilities.

Like Butterfree's Compound Eyes and Tinted Lens…

Compound Eyes: Increases the Pokémon's move accuracy.

Tinted Lens: When a move is "not very effective" (type effectiveness ≤ 0.5), the move's damage is doubled.

Turns out both of Butterfree's abilities were actually pretty useful.

Compound Eyes increased accuracy—a very solid buff.

And Tinted Lens? When Butterfree uses a Flying-type move that would normally only deal 0.5x or 0.25x damage due to resistance, the multiplier gets bumped to 1x. Basically, it neutralizes resistance.

It doesn't help with super-effective moves, but it keeps resisted moves from being too weak. Under Tinted Lens, even resisted attacks deal regular damage. That makes a difference.

The only problem? Caterpie was lazy as heck. Tough training probably wasn't going to go over well.

Trying to max out both abilities could burn Butterfree out—or there just might not be enough time.

Bug-types matured fast... and died young.

Still, twenty years later, the showrunners finally reunited Ash with his Butterfree.

Reiji figured his own Butterfree would stick with him to the end, too.

On the move list, the only change was the addition of Harden. Everything else remained the same.

Now that Caterpie had evolved, Reiji decided to pause training Confusion. Until Metapod evolved into Butterfree, he wasn't going to put it through any more training.

Its main priority now was to fully absorb its evolution energy and evolve into Butterfree as soon as possible.

"Congratulations, Caterpie—you evolved," Reiji said with a bright grin as he closed the panel and gave Metapod a pat.

"Doran, doran!" Metapod hadn't realized it had evolved. It leapt into Reiji's arms, knocking him back a step.

"Alright, alright, off you go. You're getting too heavy for me." Reiji chuckled as he gently set Metapod back down.

It really was heavier than the official data said—he could feel it. Probably from all the food it had scarfed down before evolving.

Ten kilograms? Twenty-odd pounds? That should've been no problem to carry. But this Metapod felt much heavier.

Not a bad thing, though. It meant it was packed full of evolution energy. Caterpie had already gotten a boost in potential from one evolution—surely it would get another bump as Butterfree. The only question was: how much?

Hopefully, it could break through the 70% mark and get one step closer to Champion-level. That way, it could accompany him even further.

"Doran doran…" Metapod finally realized its body had changed. It had evolved—into the hard-shelled form it had once seen before.

"Yoyo, yoyo!" Poliwag was staring at Metapod with a bit of drool on its lip—probably remembering that time it ate one.

"Oh, right—Poliwag!" Reiji turned to the eager little guy. If just a bit of Beedrill honey had changed Caterpie that much, Poliwag had to be showing signs of progress too.

He couldn't wait any longer. He pulled up Poliwag's proficiency panel and skimmed through it quickly—his expression lighting up instantly, his excitement barely contained.

[Poliwag]

Type: Water

Gender: Male

Potential: 33.22%

Level: 13.12%

Abilities: Damp / 0.83%, 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%)

As for abilities—honestly, I wanted to leave it at that. But even just two abilities had some readers crying foul, calling it broken and unfair. Sigh…

Can we please stop fixating on that? It's just two abilities. If I'd kept all Caterpie's abilities, it'd have five.

…

And for all the people yelling about "fairness"—if the protagonist had transmigrated straight into Gurkinn's family, as Korrina's grandson, with Lucario in one hand and a Mega Stone in the other? Sure, I'd call that fair. I'd take that deal any day.

…

Or if he got reborn as the heir to the Devon Corporation, with a silver spoon and a warehouse full of shiny pseudo-legendaries? Yeah, I'd be preaching fairness too.

…

But come on. A deserted island. No ID. A Poliwag, a Caterpie, and a Magikarp…

Seriously? This is what people are upset about?

It's just two abilities. Chill.

(End of Chapter)

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