After saying goodbye to the shop owner, Reiji moved at once. He was a pragmatist, the kind of person who acted the moment he made up his mind. Once he left the roadside store, he scanned the area, picked out the thick black smoke rising over the outskirts, and headed straight for it.
There was no way he could test Koffing's combination evolution at the Pokémon Center. If Nurse Joy caught him running that kind of experiment there, he'd get chewed out for sure. Better to stay well out of her sight.
So he decided to rent a room at a hotel and run the test there. Before that, though, he needed two Koffing with high potential.
He already knew where to start looking. The darker the sky in one direction, the more likely Koffing would be there. They were Poison-types that fed on industrial fumes, so the worst the pollution, the more of them he was likely to find.
It didn't take long for him to reach Gringey City's industrial district. The first thing that stood out was the forest of towering smokestacks thrusting up into the sky, each one belching thick black smoke.
The moment he arrived, he spotted Koffing floating around the stacks in droves, completely drunk on the fumes. Every one of them wore a blissed-out look. Some had shoved their entire heads down into the smokestacks and refused to come back out, drawing nonstop curses from the workers below.
"Hey, kid, you a trainer?" the foreman called out the second he saw Reiji, his eyes lighting up. "Help us drive those Koffing away!"
He'd clearly gotten an idea on the spot. Maybe he could squeeze some free labor out of him.
"Yes," Reiji said.
He had a mask over his face, his hood up, and a black umbrella in hand, which made him look more mysterious than usual. The rain had already stopped, though, so he lowered the umbrella. The mask and hood stayed on, partly to hide his identity, and partly because the air here was even filthier than the rest of the city.
"Please, young man, help us out," the foreman said, practically begging now. "Get rid of those Koffing for us."
"Fine," Reiji said, pulling out two Poké Balls and releasing Toxicroak and Golbat.
He had no intention of doing this as a favor, and he wasn't about to take money either. His real goal was to catch Koffing. If he accepted payment, then he'd be expected to solve the problem properly. And if the Koffing came back afterward, these people would definitely come looking for trouble. Better not to give them that opening.
Golbat had barely emerged before it started coughing. The air here was so bad it was hard to breathe.
Toxicroak wrinkled its nose too. Even it thought the stench was awful.
"Golbat, use Hypnosis. Put all those Koffing to sleep."
With the foreman hovering nearby and hurrying him along, Reiji sent Golbat up into the air. The plan was simple: knock every Koffing out and let them drop on their own.
Golbat flew up to the smokestacks at once and sent waves of hypnotic power out through its eyes.
One after another, the Koffing drifted down without the slightest resistance. Reiji immediately started throwing Poké Balls, scooping them up as they fell.
As the balls hit the ground, each one flashed red for a moment and then went still. Reiji hurried over, picked them up, and checked their panels.
The results were disappointing. Their potential was low across the board, mostly in the twenties and thirties. One of them had reached forty, but there wasn't a single Koffing above fifty.
"There's still one stuck inside the smokestack!" the foreman shouted as soon as he saw Reiji catching them. "Don't forget that one!"
"Inside the stack?"
Reiji looked up and called, "Golbat, pull it out!"
Golbat grabbed the Koffing with its feet, beat its wings hard, and yanked it free from the smokestack before dropping it to the ground.
Reiji caught it at once. All of these Koffing were half out of their minds from huffing exhaust, so they barely resisted. That made them easy captures.
Unfortunately, this one was mediocre too. He had no interest in keeping it.
Then Golbat suddenly cried out and motioned for him to look higher.
"What is it?"
Reiji watched Golbat fly into the smokestack again, then drag out a Koffing that was pitch-black from head to toe.
"Black? Stained by smoke? Or…"
He forced down the excitement rising in his chest, had Golbat bring it lower, and caught it with a Poké Ball before checking its panel.
[Koffing (Shiny)]
[Type: Poison]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 53%]
[Level: 21.31%]
[Ability: Levitate / 20.12%]
[Moves: ...]
"So it really is a Shiny Koffing. Nice. Today's turning out better than I thought."
His guess had been right. This Koffing had inhaled so much waste gas that it had mutated into a Shiny variant, one that had become even more poisonous than normal.
Its potential was solid too. Fifty-three. This was exactly the kind of Koffing he had been looking for.
That made it a real windfall. Not only had he found a Koffing worth keeping, he'd stumbled onto a Shiny one too.
"Thanks, kid! You really helped us out!" the foreman said the moment the last Koffing had been caught.
Reiji didn't even bother answering. He called Toxicroak and Golbat after him and walked away from the smoke-belching factory.
Once he reached the outside of the plant, he released all the ordinary Koffing he had just caught.
The Koffing floated there in confusion. They'd been put to sleep so quickly they were still half dazed and had no idea what had happened.
But as more black smoke kept pouring out of the smokestacks, they caught the scent of it and immediately perked up. In the next moment they floated right back toward the factory, happily crowding around the stacks to suck in exhaust again. A few even went straight back inside.
The foreman had barely enjoyed two minutes of peace before he started raging all over again, screaming about where this new batch of Koffing had come from and why the ones that had just been caught were suddenly back.
Hearing the shouting from inside the factory, Reiji could only laugh to himself as he headed for the next plant with a lighter step.
He stayed in the area until afternoon, circling from factory to factory, but he never found a second high-potential Koffing. In the end, he left the industrial district with only three.
One was the Shiny Koffing. The other two were ordinary Koffing with poor potential. He had caught those two for one reason only: to test whether Koffing really could undergo combination evolution and then revert afterward.
If the process worked with normal Koffing, he could go looking for a second Shiny one later. Two Shiny Koffing combining into a single Weezing… just imagining what kind of monster that might produce was enough to make him impatient.
Riolu was still at the Pokémon Center, and he planned to check on it around dinner, so for now he headed straight to a hotel and rented a room.
Once inside, he drew the curtains, locked the door, and had Darkrai sweep the room to make sure it was safe. Only after that did he head into the bathroom, where there was an exhaust fan.
He switched the fan on before releasing the two Koffing. The smell coming off them was unbearable. Without the bathroom fan running, he'd rather have tested Koffing's combination evolution out in the open.
And if Koffing smelled this bad, Grimer would be even worse. Ordinary Poké Balls probably wouldn't be enough to contain that stench. He'd need specially made ones that could seal odors inside.
The two ordinary Koffing floated there, staring around the bathroom in confusion. They looked completely lost.
"Koffing, the two of you can combine and evolve," Reiji said as he backed out of the bathroom. Toxicroak stood beside him, ready to move at any moment. "If you don't do it, I'll kill you."
It was only a threat, of course. These weren't his Pokémon, so he couldn't simply order them to evolve. The only way to force the issue was to scare them, corner them, make them feel real danger. If they wanted the strength to survive, then maybe their instinct would push them into combination evolution on their own.
The two Koffing looked at each other.
They could feel the killing intent rolling off Toxicroak. If Reiji gave the word, it wouldn't hesitate for a second. It would kill them on the spot.
Under that pressure, the two Koffing drifted closer together. Then their bodies erupted in white light.
The light of evolution.
When it faded, the two Koffing had become a Weezing. The moment he saw it, Reiji shouted, "Knock it out!"
Toxicroak lunged forward at once and punched each head once, raising a lump on both with brutal efficiency. Two hits. Both heads of the Weezing went limp.
Then Reiji released Scyther. He planned to force the thing apart again. Since it wasn't his Pokémon, talking to it would be pointless. Doing it the hard way was faster.
Scyther took one look at the Weezing and understood. It raised its blades and slashed straight through the connection point between the two heads—the pipe-like section linking them together.
The instant the cut went through, Reiji saw the middle section split open and spew out a huge cloud of black smoke. Then both halves flashed with white light again.
When the glow faded, the connecting pipe was gone.
The Weezing had reverted to two Koffing.
But something about them was off.
One had become noticeably larger. The other was much smaller, as if it had come out underdeveloped.
Reiji recalled both Koffing and checked their panels again. Nothing major had changed. Their levels were still the same as when he'd first caught them, though both had dipped slightly.
Their other proficiencies were unchanged as well, but both Koffing had gained a bit of potential. Overall, it looked much the same as what he'd seen with Gengar's evolution and reversion. That meant his method worked. Using combination evolution and then reverting it really could raise Koffing's potential.
If that was the case, then the smaller Koffing was probably just like a balloon that had lost half its air, while the bigger one had ended up with most of the gas.
So the process itself didn't cause lasting harm. It boosted potential, and the only real issue was that the smaller Koffing needed to refill itself on fumes afterward.
That meant the next step was obvious.
He needed to catch two Shiny Koffing and use fusion evolution to push Weezing's potential even higher.
Right now he was still missing one Koffing, and he also needed the toxin crystals used for Koffing's evolution. Those usually dropped anywhere Grimer showed up.
Which meant the place he needed to search was…
…the sewers.
"Oh, hell no."
If the sewers here were even half as clean as the ones in Trovitopolis, he might have considered it. But this city's river water was already filthy enough to make your eyes hurt. The sewers were out of the question.
Instead, he could send Gengar and Darkrai to look for toxin crystals. The riverbed, sludge pits, even the seabed—any of those would do. If there were toxin crystals around, they could bring some back.
Finding Grimer first would make things easier. Wherever Grimer gathered, toxin crystals were probably nearby. With the pollution this bad, there was no way the city was short on them. At this point, even the river and seawater were probably toxic.
After everyone ate dinner at the hotel, he still needed to visit Riolu at the Pokémon Center. After that, he wanted to check around the power plant too and see whether any Magnemite were active nearby.
This area didn't just have factories. There was also a thermal power plant, and everybody knew how much pollution those things produced. There were bound to be Koffing there as well. Maybe he'd even get lucky and run into another Shiny one.
By the time dinner was over, night had already fallen. With the pollution hanging over the city, it got dark especially fast.
They split up after that and agreed to meet back at the hotel later that night. Darkrai and Gengar would search for toxin crystals. Reiji's side would head to the Pokémon Center first, then the power plant.
Inside the Pokémon Center ward, Reiji returned before the sky had gone completely black. Riolu was still lying in bed, fast asleep, and he didn't disturb it.
He only left some Moomoo Milk and Pokéblocks by the bedside, then slipped quietly out of the room.
Judging by the state of its injuries, Riolu would need about a week just to recover. If it wanted to fully restore its body and shake off the effects of malnutrition, it would need at least half a month, plus the right amount of exercise afterward.
That could all wait until Riolu had recovered. It was too early to think about any of it now.
But the moment Reiji left the ward, Riolu opened its eyes.
It had been pretending to sleep.
After watching Reiji go, Riolu glanced at the food beside the bed, then got up and hopped over to the window on one foot. It stood there watching Reiji leave the Pokémon Center, its gaze following him until he disappeared at the far end of the street.
Only then did it look away.
From beginning to end, Riolu never showed what it was thinking. No one knew what was going through its head. After Reiji vanished from sight, it returned to the bed, picked up a Pokéblock, and started chewing.
Reiji, meanwhile, had no idea Riolu had been faking it. Under cover of night, he had already reached the power plant, where he found large numbers of Magnemite drifting around outside, clearly drawn there by the electrical field generated by the plant. For him, that made things easy.
So tonight, he'd start with them.
He released Toxicroak and Spinarak again, but not Golbat. He'd only need Golbat later, when it was time to catch more Koffing.
"Toxicroak, use Mud Shot. Knock those Magnemite out."
Reiji already had empty Poké Balls in hand as he began catching Magnemite outside the power plant.
If there were Magnemite outside, then there had to be more inside. He would catch the ones around the perimeter first. If none of them had high potential, then he'd go inside the plant and keep looking.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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