"Officer Jenny, can I adopt that Pawniard?" Gary thought it would be nice to raise a Pawniard, so he planned to adopt this one.
"Alright, then come with me."
Officer Jenny led Gary to the area of the police station where Pokémon were kept.
As soon as he entered, Gary saw a large number of Pokémon, and all of them wore unhappy expressions on their faces—because these were all stray Pokémon.
Since humans sometimes abandoned their Pokémon, these abandoned Pokémon had to fight to survive in the city. Some of the more aggressive ones would even attack humans. Officer Jenny would naturally capture and detain Pokémon like that, then hand them over to the Pokémon Conservation Association to be dealt with.
Being caught by Officer Jenny meant these Pokémon had disrupted the normal order of the city. Although the root cause lay with humans, who could they blame for being weak?
Soon, Gary spotted the Pawniard.
Seeing it, Gary said in surprise, "A Shiny...!"
"Yes, this Pawniard has a rare coloration, which is why J kept it," Officer Jenny said.
That wasn't surprising. Pawniard weren't particularly rare Pokémon—they usually acted in groups following a Bisharp, and catching one wasn't very difficult. Only its rare coloring could explain why J had bothered to keep this Pawniard.
Pawniard noticed Officer Jenny and Gary as well, but it merely glanced at them before paying them no further attention.
Officer Jenny brought Gary in front of the Pawniard and introduced him. "Pawniard, this is the person who saved you. He's willing to adopt you. From now on, you'll be his Pokémon."
Pawniard looked at Gary, then nodded, agreeing to become his Pokémon.
"Gary, Pawniard agreed," Officer Jenny said with a laugh.
Gary was surprised. He had thought Pawniard would reject him, but it agreed right away. It was surprisingly easygoing.
"Pawniard, I'm a Trainer, and you'll be my Pokémon. That means you'll have to battle in the future," Gary reminded it.
"Paw, paw!" Hearing that it would get to fight, Pawniard nodded frantically, as if afraid Gary might not let it battle.
Gary was even more bewildered. He knew, of course, that Pawniard were highly combative Pokémon. From a young age, they aspired to become Bisharp, hoping to one day lead their own kind. They trained tirelessly every day and never feared a challenge, no matter how strong the opponent.
"Since you're willing, then come along." Gary took out a red-and-white ball.
Without even waiting for Gary to throw it, Pawniard leaped up on its own initiative, tapping the Poké Ball's button with the blade on its arm, and was drawn directly inside.
The Poké Ball shook slightly twice in Gary's hand, then went still.
[Ding! Mission completed. The reward has been sent to the space backpack.]
By capturing Pawniard, Gary had finally completed the task that had gone unfinished for three years.
Unfortunately... after the task was completed, no follow-up mission was issued.
It seemed the Advanced Shiny Charm was the highest tier of reward. It gave a 5/1000 chance of encountering a Shiny Pokémon—in other words, 1/200. On average, one Shiny Pokémon would appear for every 200 Pokémon encountered, which was already an incredibly high rate compared to normal.
Traveling by bicycle, a Trainer would encounter roughly 200 wild Pokémon on the road between every city or two. And if you searched carefully in the wild, hitting 200 encounters was a certainty.
It was a pity that no follow-up task had been issued. Even if Gary ran into Shinies in the future, there'd be no obligation attached—he wasn't going to forcibly capture Pokémon he didn't actually like.
Gary immediately checked Pawniard's data.
[Pokémon: Pawniard (Shiny)]
[Type: Dark / Steel]
[Level: 27]
[Potential: Quasi-Elite]
[Ability: Defiant (When the opponent lowers this Pokémon's stats, its Attack increases by 2 stages.)]
[Moves: Scratch, Leer, Fury Cutter, Metal Claw, Torment, Assurance.]
[Friendship: 94 (Max 255)]
The Ability was decent. If it had been either of the other two possible Abilities, they would have been basically useless.
Pawniard's other two potential Abilities were Inner Focus and Pressure. Neither of them did much for Pawniard—both were passive Abilities that depended entirely on what the opponent did.
Against a Pokémon without the Intimidate Ability, Inner Focus was useless.
If the opponent didn't attack, Pressure was useless.
Even Defiant worked the same way—if the opponent never lowered Pawniard's stats, the Ability would never trigger.
In other words, whether Pawniard's Ability activated at all depended entirely on how the opponent played. It was a rather passive situation.
But that didn't really matter. After Pawniard eventually evolved into Kingambit, its Ability would become Supreme Overlord. As long as five Pokémon had fallen in a full six-on-six battle, sending Kingambit out last would boost the power of its moves by 50%.
However, it would be quite difficult for Pawniard to evolve all the way into Kingambit. Forget Kingambit—even reaching Bisharp was hard enough.
That was because Pawniard could only evolve into Bisharp at level 52, and for a Pokémon to raise its level above 50, Quasi-Elite potential was the minimum requirement. Any Pawniard that didn't meet that standard had no chance of evolving at all.
That was why most Pawniard remained Pawniard their entire lives. Never mind Kingambit—they couldn't even evolve into Bisharp.
Afterward, Officer Jenny told Gary to be careful. He was, after all, the first person in recent years to stop one of J's hunts, and she might come after him for revenge.
Gary wasn't worried about that at all. In the original story, Ash had repeatedly foiled J's hunting operations too, and she never sought revenge against him.
It wasn't that she didn't resent Ash—that was simply how she operated. She wouldn't lift a finger without payment, but for the right price, there was no evil she wouldn't do.
As long as the money was right.
After leaving the police station, Gary settled in at the Pokémon Center. While he was at it, he released Pawniard and used 3 low-grade Rare Candies to raise it to level 30.
Pawniard had been level 27, and if he didn't use the low-grade Rare Candies now, there'd be no chance to use them later.
"Paw, paw!"
A change in level was the easiest thing for a Pokémon to feel, and the sudden surge of strength startled Pawniard.
"That's my ability. Here, put this in your carry space." Gary took out a Soothe Bell and handed it to Pawniard.
Pawniard took the Soothe Bell and gave it a shake. Deciding it posed no threat, it stored the bell away in its carry space.
Gary then began teaching Pawniard new moves. Even though Pawniard hadn't reached its final evolution, it could still master plenty of moves. After all, it needed to reach level 52 to evolve—if its move pool wasn't broad enough, surviving that long would be genuinely difficult.