Pokémon: Starting with a Dragon Dance Gible [6]

Inside the private training room at the university gym—

“Gible! Use Doragon Dansu—[Dragon Dance]!”

Kaiba shouted the command at full volume, his voice ringing with dramatic intensity.

There’s a rumor in the community that a Trainer’s battle cry actually works like a move of its own.

Any opponent who hears it?
Special Attack -1.

After all…

Who’s to say Terrifying Upright Ape isn’t a species?
Isn’t a kind of Pokémon?

And from it evolves the even more fearsome subspecies:
Super Newbie Prime, with a constitution that rivals—or surpasses—top-tier Pokémon.
Maybe even the mythical battle-loving race itself.

So the louder a Trainer yells, the more effective their commands.
Probably.

“Kapu—!”

At Kaiba’s command, the vacant, slightly dopey look in Gible’s eyes sharpened in an instant.

And as the imagined disco beat from Nimbasa City started pumping in Kaiba’s brain—

“? ? ? ? ? ……”

Gible whipped its stubby fins side to side, spun in place, wiggled and rolled through the air in a performance that could only be described as the dragon kind’s signature battle dance.

Its Speed and Attack rose by one stage each!

[Dragon Dance]:
A mysterious and powerful ritual dance that raises the user’s Attack and Speed.

This… was the terrifying buff known as Doragon Dansu.

A lot of newer Trainers misunderstood what “raising a stat by one stage” meant.

They assumed it was a literal level-up—like going from Level 5 to Level 6—so of course your Pokémon gets stronger.

But in battle mechanics, “one stage” meant something entirely different.

Raising a stat by one stage = original stat × 1.5
Two stages? ×2
All the way up to a max of six stages, for a tripled stat.

The same goes in reverse—six stages down and you’re down to just a quarter of your base value.

Which means: Buffs in Pokémon battles are no joke.

A competent Trainer would never let their opponent get away with setting up.
Let a stat buff through unchallenged, and you could lose your entire team.

If the opponent stacks enough buffs, they could sweep—
1v3, even 1v6, all too real.

Now, just raising Speed isn’t enough. If you don’t hit hard, you won’t one-shot, and the enemy might counterattack.

Just raising Attack isn’t enough either. If you’re slow, you’ll get hit first—possibly knocked out before you can move.

That’s why a move like [Dragon Dance], which boosts both Attack and Speed in one turn, is so highly prized.

Especially for a pseudo-legendary like Garchomp, with a base stat total of 600 and an already near-perfect stat distribution…

If Garchomp could learn [Dragon Dance], it would simply be too perfect.

That’s why, even across generations of games, even as other Dragon-types—and even non-Dragons—have all gained access to the move…

Garchomp never could.

It’s as if the heavens themselves cursed it.

Or more specifically, the “heavens” of the Pokémon world—
Game Freak’s designers.
Cynthia haters, every last one of them.

“? ? ? ? ? ……”

Okay, no—there wasn’t actually BGM playing in the room.

Kaiba had just imagined it in his head.

But Gible’s performance was very real.

Its footwork grew lighter, its movements faster, its strikes—sharper.

“Kapu~”

Gible spun in place, wobbling with adorable roundness, yet moving with new precision.

A Gible that knows [Dragon Dance].

This wasn’t a dream.

This was real.

Kaiba’s expression darkened just slightly, sharpened by focus.

Back in his original world, he’d been pretty familiar with Pokémon battling and raising strategies.

You had to be, if you were the guy helping players get their custom, modded Pokémon—
the “friend” in “my friend gave me this.”

To make what they wanted, he had to understand why they wanted it.

Why did people want a [Dragon Dance] Garchomp?
Why did they want Groudon with [Fly]?
Why did they want Gengar’s [Levitate] ability back?

Those weren’t just random whims.
They were dreams that the official games had denied.

If he could just raise this Gible—
into Gabite,
then into Garchomp,
and someday… Mega Garchomp—

Then a [Dragon Dance]–using Garchomp could truly show the world what domination looked like.

Kaiba could already see it, like some kind of EX-tier Future Sight.

“Sharky… my little sharky…”

“To restore Garchomp’s honor… this burden falls to you.”

---

P.S. There’s a viral meme going around lately—“Toothless dancing” / “Black & White dragons using Dragon Dance.” The BGM used in those memes? It’s the Nimbasa City theme from Pokémon Black & White.

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!