82 Ran's Pokemon

"Come out, guys!" Ran threw the two Pokeballs on the ground.

Pop!

The Pokeballs popped open, releasing two Pokemons in a flash of red light. The first Pokemon was about one meter tall. It had two pairs of rounded, veined wings.

Hum!

It quivered its transparent wings, buzzing at high speed.

It is an insect Pokemon that mostly resembles a bipedal, yellow wasp. Its forelegs are tipped with long, conical stingers. It also has another stinger on its yellow-and-black striped abdomen.

This large venomous bee-like Pokemon is called Beedril.

It is the final evolution of Weedle, a very common Pokemon in Kanto. They are very popular among bug catchers because of their strong combat power. Also, they are the most feared Pokemon among many trainers.

Beedrill is highly territorial, and unlike real bees, Beedrill lives in colonies rather than hives. They work together to solve basic problems regarding food, territory, and reproduction.

They are quite vengeful and will attack anyone that dares to set foot into their territory. What's nastier is that they like to attack in a swarm. This means that if you are attacked by them, either you defeat them with a powerful Pokemon or run away and hope they didn't catch you.

Many new trainers had been attacked by them. Some had even died to their poisonous stingers.

Clop!

There was a clatter of hoofs on the ground.

The second Pokemon, however, caught Hisoka's attention.

It is a horse Pokemon with a flaming mane and tail. Ponyta is a relatively rare kind of Pokemon. They tend to live in grasslands, on plains, or anywhere that they can run freely.

Ponyta has a lovely appearance. Its height is around one meter, similar to Beedril. It can control its flames so that its rider is not burned by them, and Ponyta only does this for those that it has accepted.

Its evolution, Rapidash, is even more popular. In ancient times, they were often used as the mount of many noble knights.

"Watch out!"

When Ran saw Hisoka suddenly reach out his hand to touch Ponyta's mane, she wanted to stop him. She knew that Ponyta was quite wary of strangers. Hisoka's rash behavior would undoubtedly earn the ire of Ponyta. She can't remember how many times she was almost burned by Ponyta's flames when she first caught it.

Hisoka didn't touch Ponyta's mane as Ran imagined. He instead placed his hand in front of Ponyta's mouth. Then, he opened his hand, revealing a few pieces of Pokeblock.

They were made from leftover ingredients of his Pokemon Pokeblock. After adding some honey and herbs, they were turned into snacks for his Pokemon to eat.

Ponyta sniffed the hand curiously before approaching Hisoka. It smelled something delicious from it. When it got closer, it saw several mouth-watering colorful candy blocks.

Neigh!

It neighed several times in a pleasant way. Then, it buried his face in Hisoka's hand and began to eat them. Slowly, his other hand began to stroke the soft-looking mane.

Ran, like Hisoka, was raised in an orphanage. But she didn't have any experience nor any knowledge in regards to Pokemon training. Most of her experience came mainly from watching her previous gym training.

After she got her own Pokemon, she didn't have enough money to buy Pokemon food. So, she often went to the forest to forage for some wild berries in order to save some money.

Beedrill was quite easy to feed. She just needed to mix some honey and some flowers together into a juice.

But since she couldn't afford Pokemon food, she could only bring it to graze in the plains outside of the city.

This was enough to feed them, but that was it. Their growth would be much slower, and it would be hard for them to become a strong Pokemon.

Ponyta had never eaten such tasty food in its life. It decided to let Hisoka go just this time.

Hisoka's hand was caressing the flaming mane. It seemed that the Fire Horse Pokemon had decided to accept Hisoka. The fiery mane was quite warm and pleasant to touch.

...

Ran was staring at the scene with her mouth open wide. She couldn't believe that Hisoka had managed to get away with that easily.

While Hisoka was rubbing Ponyta's mane, he found that the muscles on its back were loose, a clear sign of malnutrition.

'This girl,' Hisoka shook his head.

In fact, Ponyta or any other kind of horse Pokemon can't only eat grass. Occasionally, the trainer must also mix their food with some barley and soybean meal as well as some berries for a healthy diet.

...

Rhydon was inside the training ground, lifting dumbbells. He was doing his strength training. At the same time, Weavile standing inside a cage with a dozen pitching machines around it.

Beep!

When Hisoka pressed the switch button in his hand, many balls started to fly toward Weavile from all directions. Then, Weavile leaned her body slightly, avoiding the high-speed balls.

Swoosh!

Her ears perked up. Quickly, she raised her hand, catching a ball that was about to hit her head.

Swoosh!

A few more balls flew at her. At this time, it was hard for the others to see her movement. They could only see a black shadow shuttling inside the cage.

These pitching machines were modified by Hisoka. The balls would fly at high speed at irregular intervals. Then, Weavile would have to dodge these flying balls. This training was mainly done to improve her evasion as well as reaction time.

...

"Hisoka, can you also let my Beedrill try that?" Ran asked eagerly, pointing to the cage.

Beedrill was her initial Pokemon. It was much stronger than Ponyta. They were quite a popular Pokemon used in many competitions due to their strong attacking power. They had a decent speed too.

'Well, I hope she won't cry later,' Hisoka thought.

Even though Weavile made it look easy, it was really hard to dodge the fast-moving balls. In fact, Hisoka knew that Weavile was hit many times. They just didn't see it clearly. Although they won't cause any severe injuries, being hit by them still hurts quite a lot.

Hisoka admired her courage. Weavile has a great racial advantage in terms of speed and physical flexibility. Also, she had done this kind of training at a lower speed. So she was pretty used to it.

"Yeah, sure!" replied Hisoka.

Then, he turned the switch off, ending Weavile's evasion training. She stopped moving and crouched on the ground, panting heavily. Beads of sweat dripped down from her face.

Although she had only trained for about fifteen minutes long, she was almost out of her strength. This training not only consumed her physical strength but also her mental strength. She had to stay in high concentration to dodge the balls. It put a great burden on her.

Hisoka didn't say anything to her because he knew she would want to try it herself. Besides, it would be good training for her Pokemon. And he still lacked a good deputy.

After all, he still had his own job as a hunter. He would definitely need to go somewhere far to complete a task in the future. It might even take a month or two to complete the task.

So what should he do if a trainer came to his gym during this time and found the gym was closed? Just ignore them? It would be fine if it was once or twice. But if it happened every time, he had no doubt that someone would report it to the League soon.

When that happened, his official gym status might even be canceled immediately. All the things that he did would go down the drain.

So he was already thinking about training an assistant who would handle all the gym matters in his absence. The strength of the acting gym leader didn't need to be strong and certainly not too weak either.

They must be good enough to only give out around eight badges in a month. Lower than that, it would be too strict. Higher than that, it would show that his gym was weak. So eight badges per month were just right.

And since Dark City was located in a remote area, there wouldn't be many trainers that wanted to challenge his gym.

Hisoka had asked the old Mayor, Chris, about the annual tax revenue of Dark City. It was around one million dollars per year, which meant that he could take around 50,000 dollars as his cut. And plus the funds he got from the League, he would get around 100,000 dollars per year.

This amount of money was quite a huge sum for ordinary people. 100,000 dollars sounded a lot. But for Hisoka, it was not enough. Whether the Prism Scale he needed to buy for Feebas or the Protector for his Rhydon, by his estimate, he would need at least two million dollars to buy them all.

Ran called Beedrill to her side and whispered a few words to it.

"Go show your strength, so Hisoka would appreciate us more.

"Buzz!"

Beedrill nodded and struck its two stingers repeatedly.

'No problem. I would complete the task.'

"Buzz!"

Then, without waiting any longer, it rushed into the cage.

"Are you ready?" Hisoka asked loudly.

"Yes! We are ready!" Ran waved his fist excitedly.

Hisoka turned the switch on. He did not select the previous speed but selected a much slower ball speed.

Swoosh!

Many balls started flying out of the pitching machines, heading toward Beedrill, but it was much slower than before.

At first, with the sensitivity of bug-type Pokemon, it perfectly avoided the flying balls. But as time went by, it was evident that it couldn't last long. When four balls were about to hit it at the same time, the Beedrill was struggling to maintain its composure.

Firstly, it hit a ball with its right stinger. But then, a ball suddenly struck its wing. While it was struggling to maintain its flight, another ball hit its leg.

That was the last straw that broke the camel's back. It finally couldn't hold it any longer before falling to the ground, covered in bruises.

"How could this be!" Ran murmured to herself.

She had always believed that her Beedrill was quite strong. At least, when she was in Yas Gym, none of the trainers could beat her Pokemon.

...

Knock!

There were several knocks on the door.

"Rhydon, can you do me a favor and open the door for me, please? Someone is knocking on the door," Ran pointed to the front door, which had been closed all day.

'Ha, I'm done,' thought Ran while wiping the sweat off her head. She had just finished scrubbing Rhydon's body.

Since she joined Hisoka's gym, she has been doing all the work of cleaning up his Pokemon and taking care of their hygiene. Hisoka could also spare more time on more important things.

It was hard for her to clean Rhydon's body. She needed to climb on the giant Pokemon to clean the crevice around his rocky plates.

After that, she would have to wash, soap, clean, and add some oil before she was finally finished. Although it was a lot of work, she could eat well every day and learn a lot of things. She was actually satisfied with this.

In her mind, Hisoka was a true genius, whether it was in the training of his Pokemon or Pokeblock making.

...

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