Pokémon: Starting with a Dragon Dance Gible [2]

Gible looked like a baby shark—but one adapted for land. A terrestrial shark, if you will.

Pokémon are... strange like that.

Not only was there a land-based shark like Garchomp, but also a “sky whale” like Kyogre, who soared the heavens.

Gible had a large dorsal fin on its head and two side protrusions shaped like spindles. Its body was mostly deep blue, with a red jaw and belly. Light blue stripes marked its back and the twin nubs on its head.

Its mouth was huge, filled with sharp teeth. Its limbs were stubby but muscular, each ending in three claws. Male Gible had a notch in the dorsal fin—females did not.

“….”

The issue wasn’t Gible’s appearance.

The issue was that Gible belonged to a very rare and revered category of Pokémon: the so-called “pseudo-legendary” class.

Or, to use the more formal term—the late bloomer Pokémon.

After three stages of evolution, Gible would eventually become the incredibly powerful and near-perfectly stat-balanced Garchomp—aka the Land Shark Pokémon.

Base Stats:
HP 108 | Attack 130 | Defense 95 | Sp. Atk 80 | Sp. Def 85 | Speed 102
Total: 600

For many players, those numbers were even more deeply engraved in memory than the infamous 114514 meme code. It was practically written into their DNA.

Some Pokémon fans could identify each other in real life just by quoting those stats—like a secret handshake.

“Honestly, I don’t really get what makes Gible or Garchomp so powerful,” Dyson admitted, scratching his head, “but if they’re called a ‘late bloomer’ Pokémon and get that much hype, there’s gotta be a reason.”

“Also... you’re telling me I’ve been sitting next to a trust-fund kid this whole time?!”

“What are you talking about? If I were rich, I wouldn’t have gone without a starter Pokémon until now, would I? This Gible… well…”

“Well what?”

“…I’m still trying to come up with a halfway convincing excuse to lie to you with.”

Kaiba’s face turned solemn as he prepared to spew complete nonsense with a straight face.

“Let me guess—recharged your phone and they threw in a Gible for free? Or maybe you found it in a trash heap?”

Dyson snorted. “Where exactly is this garbage dump that lets you pick up pseudo-legendaries? Let me know—I’ll bring a bag.”

“Not only did I find a Gible,” Kaiba continued smoothly, “but next to the trash pile, there was also a beautiful humanoid android who only spoke in beeps. She was too heavy to carry home, so I had to leave her behind.”

“I don’t believe a word out of your mouth. You’re just full of it—revving your engine like a Cyclizar with no brakes.”

“But whatever,” Dyson shrugged. “It’s not like I care all that much. I’m not trying to become a Pokémon Trainer anyway. I’m just happy having my Yamper as a pet. Battling’s not my thing—that’s for the kids in the Pokémon Battle Department.”

Both of them were business majors at Shanghai University.

Their school offered a wide range of departments: Pokémon Battle, Breeding, Medical, Research...

And then more conventional programs like Business Administration, Computer Science, Civil Engineering, and Finance.

Even in a world that revolved around Pokémon, society still needed people in all kinds of roles.

Division of labor—everyone had their place. That wasn’t going to change.

“Still, it’d be a real shame not to become a Trainer when you’ve got a pseudo-legendary on your hands.”

“…Maybe. But they call it a ‘late bloomer’ for a reason. Gible’s not exactly top-tier in the early game.”

Kaiba muttered, half to himself.

As a starter, a pseudo-legendary like Gible actually wasn’t as useful as the average regional starter Pokémon.

Sometimes it was even outclassed by the kinds of Pokémon you’d catch walking down the road, hanging around in the forest, or crawling out from under a girl’s skirt. (Metaphorically.)

The main problem was that pseudo-legendaries had ridiculously long growth cycles. The EXP curve and level requirements to evolve were far steeper than for ordinary Pokémon.

By the time Kaiba’s Gible reached Gabite, and then finally evolved into Garchomp…

Other Trainers would’ve long since finished training their first main team, evolved their starters, and probably moved on to prepping their second wave of battle Pokémon.

The gap in efficiency was massive.

Still, Kaiba wasn’t about to act ungrateful. Getting a pseudo-legendary starter was an enormous head start.

He wasn’t going to sit there whining about Gible being “underwhelming.”

After all—remember the last person who picked Gible as their first Pokémon?

She ended up dominating the Sinnoh League for years in a row, and was now widely hailed as the “Battle Goddess” of the region.

After finally ushering out the well-meaning Dyson and his Yamper, Kaiba shut the door to his dorm.

Now, at last, he had some alone time.

Time to properly examine his “starter Pokémon”—the one that had traveled across worlds with him into this new reality.

His adorable shark-shark: Gible.

“Kapu~?”

Gible tilted its head and opened its huge mouth, staring blankly up at him with wide, dumb-looking eyes.

Kaiba looked at it.

Gible looked back at him.

(O_o)??

Man and mon locked eyes.

A moment later, a sudden wave of information surged into Kaiba’s vision like a digital HUD:

Species: Gible (♀)
Type: Dragon / Ground
Ability: Rough Skin (Sand Veil)
Base Stats: …………
Known Moves: Dragon Claw, Stomp, Sand Tomb, Dragon Rage, Dragon Dance, Bite

“Emmmmm…”

Kaiba frowned slightly, scrutinizing Gible’s data panel.

“…Emmmmm?!”

The more he read, the more startled he became. His humming turned into something between a car engine and a distressed whale.

HmmmmmrrrrRRRNNNNGG—

A Gible that knows [Dragon Dance]?! What the hell is this?!

My dear friend.

This Pokémon of yours… feels just a little bit illegal.

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This is a fan translation of 宝可梦，开局龙舞圆陆鲨 by 眼含泪光 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!