Chapter 38: A-Hong (Patreon)

Charmeleon had quietly activated Thunder Breathing the moment it stepped onto the field.

Once Charmeleon's level climbed higher, the power boost the technique provided might shrink. For now, though, a full doubling of its physical attributes was enough to let it stand toe to toe with plenty of veteran-level Pokémon in close combat.

The Poliwag across from it, on the other hand, had most likely been caught not long ago, judging by the speed of its moves. Its Trainer clearly hadn't drilled it in that area.

The result: while Poliwag was still struggling to gather water energy, Charmeleon had already sprinted right up to it.

Then its right claw, crackling with yellow lightning, slammed into Poliwag's head without a flicker of hesitation.

—Bam!

Poliwag took a heavy hit, staggered in place a couple of times, and, no surprise, collapsed.

"Poliwag is unable to battle. The winner is Charmeleon!"

"Roar!" Winning its first battle since evolving had Charmeleon fired up, and it shot a stream of flame straight up at the sky.

Renan stepped forward and clapped it on the shoulder. "Nice work. You'll get extra food later."

On the other side, Poliwag's Trainer recalled his Pokémon with a dejected look. "You did great, Poliwag."

With that, he gave Renan a nod and ran off toward the Pokémon Center lobby.

There were Trainers out there who'd release or even abandon their Pokémon at the drop of a hat, trash of the worst kind. But thanks to the League's education, the vast majority had perfectly decent characters.

Just then, the Trainer who had been refereeing walked over.

He looked about Renan's age, with a baseball cap on his head and a jacket on his back.

"That Charmeleon of yours is a sneaky one. It even learned Thunder Punch," the Trainer joked, then held out a hand to Renan. "Nice to meet you. I'm Ritchie."

Ritchie…

Hearing the name, Renan froze for half a second. He remembered that in the anime of his previous life, the Trainer who knocked Ash out of the Indigo Conference top eight had seemed to go by that very name.

Still, whether this was the same person from his memory didn't really matter.

In competitive battles, being bad is the original sin.

"Hello, I'm Renan."

It was nearly evening, and Renan had been traveling alone, with no one to talk to for several days.

At Ritchie's invitation, he took a seat by the window in the Pokémon Center lobby. They ate the dinner Nurse Joy had provided and swapped stories about their Trainer journeys.

The Pokémon League had a rule: one day each season, mainline Trainers all received their starter Pokémon and Pokédex together and set out on their journeys.

Ordinary, non-mainline Trainers faced far fewer restrictions and requirements. Buy a Poké Ball at the Poké Mart, catch a Pokémon, and off you go. The catch was that staying at a Pokémon Center cost them an extra fee in League currency.

Ritchie was the same age as Renan, ten, and had set out one season earlier.

But as they ate, Renan took a look at the two Pokémon Ritchie had sent out, a Charmander and a Butterfree. Their levels seemed about the same as his own three little ones. Judging by its size, Ritchie's starter Charmander was somewhere around level 12 or 13.

That surprised Renan a little.

Then he noticed that the dinner Ritchie had set out for both Pokémon was just the standard fare from the Pokémon Center, and it clicked.

Mainline Trainers got free lodging and three meals a day at Pokémon Centers.

Rooms aside, though, the food the Pokémon Center served was honestly not good. Trainers and their Pokémon alike ate instant meals.

As for Pokéblocks, a box of six at the Poké Mart, enough to feed a Pokémon with an average appetite for a day, cost 100 League currency for the basic grade and 500 for the intermediate. The advanced and master grades had to be custom-ordered from an expert breeder at a Breeding House.

Unless the League's top brass were fighting themselves and sabotaging their own business, there was no way they'd hand out Pokéblocks for free at Pokémon Centers.

But for a Pokémon to grow stronger quickly, proper training wasn't enough. Supplementing its energy was undoubtedly a must.

If this Ritchie really was Ash's rival from the anime at the Indigo Conference…

Then, going by the breeding knowledge he'd inherited from the original owner, it was no wonder his Charmander was still in its base form back at the Conference. Keep feeding a Pokémon this kind of low-nutrition food, then train it too hard one day, and it could easily lose its natural potential, even lose the ability to evolve normally.

Ritchie had in fact noticed Renan's gaze, and he'd also seen the Pokéblocks Renan had added to his three little ones' bowls.

He shrugged, and a flash of envy and helplessness crossed his eyes. "My parents paid a big deposit to make me a mainline Trainer. I came out on this journey partly to broaden my horizons, and partly to build a record at the Indigo Conference that'll land me a better-paying job someday. As for these two..." He crouched down as he spoke and patted Charmander and Butterfree on the head. "For now, they'll just have to put up with some hard times. When I earn some money, I'll find a way to make it up to them."

Inside, Renan was no kid, and how other Trainers treated their Pokémon was something he didn't want to interfere in, and had no right to.

But Ritchie's words made him think of his own savings, or rather, the original owner's.

As the child of a League member who had died on duty, the original owner had received a 10,000 League currency stipend every month until coming of age at ten. And since the age of six, thanks to his connection with Dragon Tamer Lance, he'd lived free in the Viridian Academy dorms, while his old house had been rented out.

Over the years it had all piled up. Even after spending 150,000 in one go before the journey on six forced-training devices and a pile of raw materials for making Pokéblocks, he still held nearly 400,000 League currency. The rented-out house also brought in about 3,000 more every month.

If he was frugal, that was easily enough to cover a full year of travel.

But Renan wasn't really a ten-year-old, and he knew the wisdom of preparing for a rainy day.

'Looks like I can't just sit around eating through my savings. On the road ahead, I'll need to find some projects that can bring in money and refill the coffers.'