A poaching gang pulling something like this was basically suicide. The moment the ransom got paid would be the moment their entire operation got wiped out.

They’d kidnapped a Gym Leader’s son. The Orange Archipelago only had four Gyms in total, which told you exactly how much weight those Leaders carried.

If the old man behind that Gym found out his grandson had been taken, he’d tear the entire Orange Archipelago apart. The sea wouldn’t stay calm for long.

So this wasn’t as simple as it looked. The poachers wanted to eat from both sides: use the ransom to buy time, while lining up a buyer in the background.

When the time came, they’d collect money from both ends. Even if the Gym never handed over the cash, it wouldn’t matter if a few lackeys got arrested—because the boy would already be sold.

A Gym Leader’s son was worth a fortune. If Team Rocket got their hands on him, washed his brain, trained him up, and stamped him with Team Rocket’s identity…

Then, when he inherited the Gym one day, the Kumquat Gym would become Team Rocket’s planted agent in the Orange Archipelago. Team Rocket would have one of the four major Gyms pulled into their camp.

And the other three Gyms? Team Rocket could work them slowly. If they managed to bring all of them over, then even if the Gyms didn’t openly stand with Team Rocket, neutrality would be enough. The Orange Archipelago would turn into Team Rocket’s backyard.

The League’s sudden involvement had already made the local powers unhappy. Now Team Rocket was sticking its hand in too. The locals were more than happy to sit back and watch the tigers fight—then scoop up the profit afterward.

And it wasn’t just the locals. Reiji had also noticed another force in the Orange Archipelago: black ships cruising the nearshore waters around many islands.

He didn’t know if those ships were agents backed by the locals, or if the locals ran them directly. Either way, the black ships were tangled up with them deeply—not just money, but marriages too, a web of relationships so knotted you could only call it a mess.

And “black ships” weren’t even one single organization. Any vessel doing illegal trading near the coast got called a black ship. That made the situation worse, because near every island’s coast sat a black ship—and each one belonged to a different black-ship faction.

None of that mattered right now. What mattered was the boy: save him, or don’t.

If he saved him, the benefits were obvious. Reiji had headed north in the first place because he wanted to join the Kumquat Gym.

But the adult world didn’t run on obvious. He wanted to join the Gym, and the Gym Leader’s son got kidnapped—then delivered right to his doorstep.

Nothing lined up that neatly. Even if it was coincidence, he couldn’t treat it like coincidence.

If he brought the boy back after single-handedly carrying out the rescue, the Gym would probably decide he’d staged the whole thing just to force his way inside.

With an entry like that, yes, he could get in—but he already knew how it would feel. The Kumquat Gym would watch him like a thief. They’d give him a token position, toss him a few scraps, and try to send him on his way. And if anything ever went wrong, they’d dump him without hesitation and strip his status as a Gym apprentice.

Never overestimate people’s integrity. Not even when the other side is a Gym, not even when it’s a Gym Leader. Nobility belonged to individuals, not to job titles. What happened to him in his past life—being “optimized away”—was still burned into his memory.

Back then, his parents had warned him: less trouble was better than more. Don’t stick your nose into things. If you didn’t knock someone over, don’t help them up. If you saw someone in trouble, lying on the ground and not moving, don’t play the hero.

Because you could easily become the scapegoat.

It happened all the time. If you were the one who found them, you became the first suspect. Refuse to confess? Fine. All it took was someone “loosening your joints” a little, and you’d confess nicely.

Reiji never put his fate in someone else’s morals. Once he’d stepped into society—and then been discarded by it—he stopped believing in that kind of fairness.

The adult world was black as ink. Once you walked through it, you didn’t stay clean. Surviving was already a win. Most endings took everything from you—sometimes even your life.

Life taught everyone the same way: cold, suffocating, and absolute. It broke the stubborn first. Sometimes it didn’t even leave you half a life. It chewed you down to the bone, then came back to suck the marrow.

Even if he couldn’t use this connection to join the Gym, he still had to save that boy. The benefits could be figured out later, and his plan to join the Luana’s Gym would have to change.

Saving the boy and joining the Gym were two different matters. Even if he rescued him, he’d make the boy keep quiet about their connection—including the fact that Reiji wanted to join the Gym. They couldn’t acknowledge each other.

That was the point of thinking in terms of a wager. Start from human nature, swap perspectives, and you land on the worst-case outcome.

Don’t ask why he didn’t imagine the best. That kind of thinking was childish. The higher your expectations, the harder the pain when reality hits. After enough beatings, you stop clinging to naive hope.

Since he was going to save the boy—and strip the entire poaching gang clean—there was no need to call Officer Jenny. He could have Darkrai keep watching the poachers to stop them from running early.

He could wipe out everyone on that ship whenever he wanted. No reason to drag things out. Let Darkrai monitor them for two more days, then he’d move.

Once he settled on that, he looked up at the boy—and realized the boy was kneeling, right there on the grass.

“Why are you kneeling?” Reiji frowned. He didn’t get it. This was a transaction, nothing more. There was no reason for the kid to do this.

“Rai-nii? My companions…” Gulzar saw Reiji look over, but he had no idea what Reiji had decided. Would the boy be saved or not?

“I’ll go check. Not yet. Get up first.” With those words, Reiji had already given his answer. He’d taken the rescue.

“Rai-nii, can I come with you when the time comes?” Gulzar’s face lit up the moment he heard it. Getting Reiji to agree hadn’t been easy—he’d finally convinced this powerful Trainer to help.

“No.” Reiji shook his head without hesitation. He wasn’t bringing dead weight. He wasn’t going to split his Pokémon off just to protect this kid.

“Rai-nii, then can I learn how to raise Pokémon from you? My Pokémon partners all died in the poachers’ hands. I want revenge…”

Gulzar had gone all-in. He hated how weak he was. He wanted strength every second of every day. Even if Reiji wiped out this poaching gang, the sea was full of others. Gulzar didn’t want to get captured again, and again, and watch his Pokémon partners die again.

He never wanted to see that happen again. He wanted to become strong—strong enough that whenever he met a poaching gang, he could erase it. Until there were no poachers left on the sea.

“Your companions are worth saving. What can you give me?” Reiji’s voice stayed blunt and practical. “Don’t forget—you still owe me your life.”

This kid was the same type as Naoki: another boy chasing revenge.

Naoki had at least been a down-on-his-luck quasi–Elite Four tier Trainer. Shun had that connection through the drunk old man. Tai had helped keep secrets for him. What did this kid have that was worth Reiji taking an interest?

[End of chapter]

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