Pokémon: My Titles Know No Limits! [188]

Walking down the underground passage beneath Viridian Gym, Silver led the way, while Gary hung back and whispered to August, “Silver… he’s Giovanni’s son?”

August’s words from earlier had completely shocked him.

His instincts told him August had to be joking, but his rational side knew that, while August loved to trick him, he never joked about something this serious.

So… it was true?

August gave him a puzzled glance. “Of course. Why would I lie? Blue and Sabrina both know.”

“Hiss…”

Having his suspicions confirmed, Gary took a sharp breath.

He couldn’t even put his emotions into words—he could only give August a big thumbs-up.

Impressive. Absolutely incredible.

August had actually managed to pull Giovanni’s own son into their group.

As for whether Silver could be trusted… Gary hadn’t even considered the possibility that he couldn’t.

Come on, he thought. With how cunning August is, if Silver weren’t trustworthy, there’s no way he’d be here right now.

“I feel like you’re thinking something disrespectful about me…” August’s voice suddenly sounded beside Gary’s ear.

Gary’s expression stiffened, then he quickly feigned innocence. “What? No, I was just thinking about what to get Silver as a welcome gift.”

“Oh really?” August’s lips curled in amusement.

Just as Gary started to panic, August looked away.

They had arrived.

Before them stood a massive metal door, stamped with a bold, crimson R—a clear mark that this had once been a Team Rocket base.

The door bore visible battle scars, remnants of past conflicts.

August stepped forward and, with practiced ease, entered a code, then verified his palm print and iris.

Gary and Silver exchanged confused glances.

Wasn’t this your first time here? Why do you know the access procedures so well?

Noticing their looks, August explained, “After Lance took this place, he reset the security system and registered new credentials. Right now, the only ones with access are the Elite Four and me.”

We get that… but why are your movements so fluid?

Team Rocket’s security system should be completely different from the League’s, right?

August didn’t bother elaborating further. He simply pushed open the door.

Inside… was an empty hall.

After securing the base, the League had removed anything that might hold sensitive Team Rocket intelligence.

But that wasn’t what August had come for.

Following the map Lance had given him, he led them to a particular room and pushed the door open.

The storage room inside was filled with items deemed worthless.

Among them, the most striking was a half-body statue of Giovanni.

The sculpture depicted Giovanni with a kind and gentle smile—an expression that made it hard to associate him with the ruthless leader of Team Rocket.

Silver wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but the moment he saw the statue, a strange feeling welled up inside him.

Was it familiarity? Disgust? Confusion?

He couldn’t quite put his emotions into words.

By his side, Sneasel gripped the hem of his pants, also lost in thought.

Gary didn’t disturb Silver. Instead, he curiously examined the items scattered around the room—until something caught his eye.

Walking over to a shelf, he picked up a slightly dust-covered book and brushed off the dirt on the cover.

"The Profound Secrets Of The Earth."

Not just any edition—this was a personally signed collector’s edition by Giovanni.

This book was incredibly hard to find nowadays. For some reason, after Giovanni was exposed as Team Rocket’s leader, the price of The Profound Secrets Of The Earth had skyrocketed instead of plummeting.

And this signed collector’s edition had been driven up to ridiculous heights by collectors.

There were even bounty requests among Pokémon Hunters for copies of it.

Just as Gary was considering taking the book back with him to see what differences it had from the publicly available version—

A hand suddenly reached over and snatched it from him.

Gary: ???

He stood frozen for several seconds before turning to glare at August in outrage.

But August only flashed him a smile before casually handing the book to Silver.

“Your father wrote this. Take a look.”

Silver snapped out of his thoughts and glanced at the book in August’s hand. He was about to refuse when—

August added, “Even if it’s just to understand your enemy.”

Seeing August’s smirk, Silver hesitated for a moment before finally taking the book and placing it in his bag.

Watching Silver accept it, August let out a small sigh.

Yep. I’m definitely a good person.

Just then, Gary made yet another discovery.

Hearing the rustling of paper, August turned to see Gary holding up a world map.

It detailed all the regions under the Pokémon League’s jurisdiction.

On the map, Kanto, Johto, and the Sevii Islands were all marked in red, signifying that these regions were controlled by Team Rocket.

Gary already knew this. What caught his attention, however, was something else.

“August, look at this.” Gary pointed at the Hoenn region. “There’s a mark here.”

“Hm?” August raised an eyebrow.

He leaned in for a closer look and found a tiny dot on the map—so small that it was almost imperceptible at first glance.

There was no label, no indication of what it represented.

Gary speculated, “Could this mean Team Rocket has already infiltrated Hoenn? There’s nothing about this in the Kanto division’s database. Does this mean I’ve made a major discovery?”

The more he spoke, the more excited he became.

For once, August didn’t immediately shut him down.

Instead, he stared at the small dot on the map, then pulled up a digital map of Hoenn on his phone to compare.

“…It’s Mossdeep City,” August said.

Gary hadn’t quite caught that. “What did you say?”

“I said, this location is Mossdeep City…” August repeated.

His expression turned serious.

If he remembered correctly, Mossdeep was home to the Mossdeep Space Center, Hoenn’s facility for rocket launches and space exploration.

Of course, there were multiple launch sites across the world, so the existence of this one wasn’t particularly special.

But the key issue was…

If his memory served him right, in the Special manga, the meteorite that carried Deoxys had been recovered by the Mossdeep Space Center.

And now, on this map, Team Rocket had specifically marked Mossdeep’s location.

Could this mean that Team Rocket had confirmed Deoxys was at the Mossdeep Space Center?

Otherwise, August couldn’t think of another reason why, out of all places in Hoenn, they would highlight this one.

With that in mind, August patted Gary’s shoulder. “Nice work. This intel is important.”

Gary didn’t fully understand what August had figured out, but hearing praise, he tossed his hair back with a proud grin. “Hah! Of course! I am a genius, after all. Even tiny details don’t escape me—”

August: “…..”

He decided to let Gary have his moment. Given how useful this discovery was, he could tolerate his smugness.

But Silver, who had been quiet this whole time, suddenly turned his gaze to Gary.

Looking at this carefree "senior," Silver said seriously, “Gary, I’d like to battle you.”

Gary’s laughter came to an abrupt halt, replaced by a fit of coughing.

“Cough, cough…”

After a moment, he composed himself and looked at Silver in confusion. “Why do you want to battle me? If you want to improve, wouldn’t it be better to challenge August? When I fought him, my skills improved dramatically.”

Technically, Gary wasn’t lying.

After his training battle with August back in Lampurchi, he had worked on correcting the weaknesses August had pointed out, which led to a significant improvement in his skills—
…Even though he later got utterly crushed by Sabrina in Saffron City.

“I already fought Brother August before,” Silver explained. “The reason I want to battle you is because you were also a Viridian Gym Leader once. I want to see how much of a gap there still is between me and that man.”

“….Oh.”

Gary wasn’t too thrilled about this. He had been battling nonstop for an entire week and had no interest in spending his break on yet another match.

But seeing Silver’s determined expression, Gary eventually sighed. “Fine. I am your senior, after all…”

He put on the look of a seasoned veteran, ready to mentor a junior.

And just as Gary was settling into his “senior” persona—

“Just don’t get wrecked,” August suddenly said, shattering the mood.

Gary bristled. “What’s that supposed to mean?!”

August shrugged. “Just stating facts. If it’s a one-on-one, Silver isn’t weak.”

Previously, Silver had been the weakest in their group only because he had just one Pokémon—Sneasel.

If Gary didn’t bring out his main team and instead used his second or third string, he might actually lose.

August was just trying to help him.

Unfortunately, Gary didn’t see it that way.

Shaking his head, August didn’t say more. He led Gary and Silver out of the room.

After sealing the hidden passage beneath the couch, the three returned to Viridian Gym’s main hall.

A staff member immediately approached. “Gym Leader, the battlefield has been repaired. Should we let the next challenger in?”

Though Gary acted casual around August, he was all business in front of his gym staff.

With a wave of his hand, he declared, “Someone’s cutting in line. They’ll have to wait.”

The staff member blinked in shock.

Did he seriously just say that out loud?

Wasn’t that a bit too blunt?

But before he could voice his concerns, Gary was already standing at one end of the battlefield, with Silver taking the other.

To ensure privacy, August signaled for the gym staff to leave. Once only the three of them remained—

Gary smirked. “Since August mentioned a one-on-one, we’ll go with that. No objections, right?”

Silver nodded and tossed out a Poké Ball—Sneasel appeared on the battlefield.

Seeing Silver choose Sneasel, Gary said, “Sneasel, huh? Well, as your senior, I won’t hold back either… Go, Nidoking!”

Although Gary had initially brushed off August’s warning, he had still taken it to heart—
Which was why he sent out one of his main Pokémon.

His years of experience had taught him one thing:

Listening to August might get you into trouble. But not listening to August? That was a guaranteed disaster.

After all, this was supposed to be a mentoring battle. Losing would be humiliating.

As August, acting as the referee, gave the signal to begin, both Sneasel and Nidoking charged at each other.

August sat by the battlefield, opened his phone’s camera, and leaned back with Eevee in his arms.

“So, Eevee, who do you think will win?” August asked.

Eevee tilted its head, watching the battle, then pointed at Sneasel.

Eevee didn’t overthink it—its logic was simple: Nidoking lost to me once, so it’s probably weak.

August didn’t comment on its reasoning. He simply turned his attention back to the match.

By now, both Silver and Gary were fully focused.

Nidoking launched a volley of [Poison Sting], while Sneasel nimbly dodged, then swung its claws, sending a freezing gust toward the charging Nidoking.

Silver instantly recognized Gary’s strategy—Nidoking wanted to fight in close quarters.

With its sheer bulk and power, one clean hit would be enough to take Sneasel down.

Naturally, Silver wasn’t going to let that happen.

“[Icy Wind]!” he commanded.

The chilling blast shot toward Nidoking’s arms.

Silver was using the same strategy he had employed against Ursaring—freezing its limbs to restrict movement.

It was a smart tactic, especially since Nidoking was weak to Ice.

If he could freeze its arms, it would both inflict damage and cripple its attacks.

But—

Gary’s trained Nidoking isn’t the same as a wild Ursaring. August thought.

And sure enough—

Just as the icy blast neared, a cunning glint flashed in Nidoking’s eyes.

Suddenly, it skidded to a halt, stomping down hard and shattering the ground beneath it.

A massive stone pillar erupted from the floor, shielding Nidoking from the [Icy Wind].

Silver’s eyes widened in surprise.

Gary smirked. “Didn’t expect [Earth Power] to be used for defense, huh? Learned that trick from your father’s book.”

Silver’s expression didn’t waver. “Sneasel, [Hone Claws]!”

Scritch, scritch—

Sneasel sharpened its claws, ready to go on the offensive.

Seeing this, Gary changed tactics—he no longer tried to close the distance.

“Nidoking, [Rock Tomb]!”

Nidoking slammed its fist into the stone pillar—

Crack!

Chunks of rock shattered and rained down toward Sneasel!

Forced to dodge, Sneasel darted left and right, barely avoiding the falling boulders.

But Silver knew—

He was losing control of the battle’s pace.

He opened his mouth to issue a new command—

But Gary was faster.

“Nidoking, [Earthquake]!”

---

This is a fan translation of 人在实教，一之濑你会后悔的 by 作者：白良. 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!