Elf: Rewriting the script, starting with Black Stocking Hanako

The scenery on the way to Tokiwa City changes rapidly. The low-rise buildings on the edge of the city gradually transition into groves of trees. The dirt road of Route 6 is a bit soft from the rain of the past few days, and you can leave shallow footprints when you step on it.

Xiaoxia walked at the front of the group, her steps light and quick, but she never dared to look back at Jiang Chuan.

Because she lost again last night, and I was the loser!

When she woke up this morning, Jiang Chuan had already finished washing up and was sitting on the edge of the bed watching her.

He wore that familiar smile, a smile that reflected on last night's events.

Xiaoxia pulled the blanket over her face and mumbled, "What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a beautiful woman get up before?"

Then Jiang Chuan burst out laughing.

Enraged, she kicked him.

But now, walking down the street, with sunlight filtering through the leaves and falling on my shoulders, I'm not so angry about what happened last night.

If you lose, you lose.

Anyway, it's not like I haven't lost before.

Things change every thirty years; you can't lose forever, right?

After encouraging herself, Xiaoxia put on the flower sticker and went to seek comfort.

Hanako looked at Kasumi, who was leaning on her shoulder with a pout, and knew how the special requisition had ended last night.

She didn't point it out, but just smiled and tilted the parasol slightly towards Xiaoxia.

Jiang Chuan walked about seven or eight steps behind the two women.

He didn't join their chatter, just chuckled, and then continued his special training.

The wild Pokémon along this route are generally not very high level.

But Jiang Chuan did not slack off because of this.

Low-level opponents are perfect for feeding low-level Dratini.

A beam of white light shot out of the Poké Ball and solidified into a slender silhouette on the roadside grass.

The dwarf dragon flicked its tail and raised its head to look at Jiang Chuan.

"Today is your day!"

Jiang Chuan squatted down and gently tapped the head of the Mini Dragon with one finger.

The dwarf dragon squinted its eyes, let out a soft cry, and flicked its tail left and right on the grass.

Xiaoxia turned around when she heard the noise and saw that Jiang Chuan had already released the Dratini. She muttered, "He's already starting training so soon. Does he have a restless soul?"

Hanako glanced back and smiled, saying, "It's good. Having something to do on the way makes it less boring."

Hanako found a shady spot under a tree, took out a picnic mat from her backpack, and laid it out.

Xiaoxia plopped down on the picnic basket, pulled out a dorayaki, took a big bite, and puffed out her cheeks like a squirrel.

Hakuron's Poké Ball was also shaking. Hanako was released, and Hakuron's eyes lit up as he looked at Hanako's food pouch.

Hanako chuckled and, while taking out some food, said, "Our daughter is fighting over there. You eat here and watch over her, okay?"

Hakron barked twice, as if to say: "Children need to be toughened up, but Mom doesn't. I can eat!"

The little dragon in the distance glanced helplessly at its gluttonous mother, shook its head, and then began training with Jiang Chuan.

Dratini is currently at level 15, which is not high among wild Pokémon at this stage, but it is definitely not low either.

Given its inherent base stats, it's virtually impossible for any opponent of the same level to gain an advantage over it.

But its experience bar is too long.

The same amount of experience points might be enough to level up Pidgey twice, but when fed to Dratini, the experience bar only increases by a pitiful little bit.

Jiang Chuan had already leveled up both Pidgey and Pikachu to level 20 on that stretch of road in Viridian Forest, and it didn't take too long.

Now it's Dratini's turn. Same journey, same opponents, but the experience bar is rising so slowly it makes you want to sigh.

Fortunately, Jiang Chuan was mentally prepared for this.

That's how you build up your late-game combat strength.

It requires a large initial investment and has a slow return, but once it's established, it becomes the most stable pillar in the team.

His goal was clear: to train the Mini Dragon to be both tanky and high-damage dealer in the team.

This goal requires time, patience, and accumulating experience points little by little.

After most of the day, the harvest was still pretty good, with a small improvement of two levels.

[Pokémon: Dratini, Level: lv15→lv17]

………………

The training continued the next day.

While Jiang Chuan was leveling up Dratini, he also began to devote some of his energy to another member of the team, Infernape.

Its final sprint.

Infernape's level had been stuck at level 38 for some time. Zhan Jiangchuan's training for him wasn't about leveling up, but about the last four uses of the Ultimate Rage Fist.

However, in a place like Route 6, it's extremely difficult to find an opponent that can push Primeape to its limit.

The wild Pokémon around were generally only level 10 or 20, so a single punch from a Primeape would basically KO it; there was no such thing as a limit. The opponent couldn't even scratch a Primeape, so how could they possibly push its stamina to its limit?

Jiang Chuan came up with a solution.

He first released the Primeape, telling it not to fight back and to take the attacks of wild Pokémon head-on.

However, the results were still not ideal.

A level 10+ Rattata scratches a Primeape with its claws, but the damage is like a tickle.

Infernape stood there motionless while being scratched for five minutes before its stamina dropped by a small amount.

At this rate, forget about getting the Ultimate Rage Fist; even getting your stamina down to half will be a struggle.

Even the fiery monkey felt bored and yawned.

Later, Jiang Chuan released Aerodactyl and Charizard, and used Primeape's Column to farm them.

Fortunately, the success rate of using the "hold on" method consecutively today is quite high.

After a whole day, I finally managed to get Infernape's Ultimate Rage Punch three times.

Finally, Jiang Chuan found a Sand King of a decent level.

This Sandslash is probably the boss of this area, around level 30, much higher than the other wild Pokémon around it. It was squatting on a large rock, basking in the sun, its scales gleaming with a metallic gray sheen in the setting sun.

Jiang Chuan glanced at it and knew it was a suitable opponent.

"Intense Monkey, it's the last show."

Incineroar glanced at Jiang Chuan, then turned back to face the Sandslash on the rock.

The Pangolin also noticed the uninvited guest. It stood up from the rock, its scales bristling and making a metallic scraping sound. Its eyes were alert, and it growled a low warning.

Hot Monkey ignored its warning and took a step forward.

The battle erupted in an instant.

Sandslash launched the first attack, curling its body into a ball, its scales transforming into rapidly spinning cutting blades as it rammed into Infernape. This was Sandslash's signature move—Roll.

Incineroar did not dodge.

It took the hit head-on.

Sandslash slammed into Infernape, its scales scraping against its fur with a screeching sound. Infernape was knocked back two steps, its stamina dropping drastically.

But not enough.

It's still a little short of the limit.

Jiang Chuan stood not far away, his arms crossed in front of his chest, without giving any instructions.

This battle requires no command.

Hot Monkey knows what he should do.

It withstood two more rolls from the Pangolin, its stamina pushed to the brink of death. Its body began to sway, its legs trembling as if they might break at any moment, and its breathing became heavy and labored, like a bellows.

Pangolin, thinking victory was assured, curled into a ball again and launched its final attack.

Just at this time.

Intense Monkey suddenly regained his balance.

Hold on, the trigger was successful, but my stamina is now locked at its last bit.

A flame-like red light ignited in Incineroar's eyes, his right fist clenched, and the power in his body exploded instantly like ignited gunpowder.

Ultimate Rage Fist.

When that punch was thrown, the air itself produced a sonic boom.

The Sandslash's roll was abruptly interrupted, and its entire body was blasted away by a punch, crashing into the large rock where it had just been crouching, creating a spiderweb-like crack in the rock.

The Sandslash slid off the rock, its limbs outstretched, its eyes darting around, completely incapacitated.

Incineroar stood still, his right fist still poised to punch out.

Then its body suddenly lit up.

A white light of evolution surged from its body, illuminating the dim forest at dusk.

under the tree.

Hanako, Pikachu, and Eevee are resting.

Hanako sat leaning against a tree trunk, wiping her sweat with a handkerchief. Pikachu and Eevee rolled around on the grass, the two little guys chasing each other's tails, having a great time.

Xiaoxia sat on the picnic mat, holding a dorayaki in her hand, having just taken a bite out of it.

With his cheeks puffed out, he was chewing with great relish.

Then they both saw the white light.

Xiaoxia stopped chewing.

Hanako stopped wiping her sweat.

Pikachu and Eevee stopped rolling around, pricked up their ears, and looked in the direction of the white light.

A thick cloud of black energy surged out from the white light, like ink dripping into clear water, and quickly spread, enveloping the entire body of the Infernape.

The black mist surged and churned, carrying an indescribable air of melancholy.

Hanako stood up and quickly walked to Jiangchuan's side.

Her brows were slightly furrowed, and her eyes were filled with worry.

"Jiang Chuan, your Infernape seems off. Why is it emitting black smoke?"

As she said this, her hand unconsciously tugged at Jiang Chuan's sleeve.

Xiaoxia also came over.

She still had half a dorayaki in her mouth, her cheeks bulging, but her eyes were fixed on the black mist.

"Did your Primeape learn from Koffing again? Did it learn to use poison gas?"

She took the dorayaki out of her mouth, tilted her head, and frowned.

"But can Fighting-type Pokémon learn moves like Toxic Gas?"

Her tone carried a sense of bewilderment at having her expertise challenged.

Hanako had never seen anything like this before, and she felt a little panicked. All the evolutions she'd ever witnessed were just a flash of white light, the Pokémon simply changing its appearance. This was nothing like the billowing black mist that made it seem like something terrible was about to happen.

Xiaoxia was calmer than Hanako, after all, she was a gym leader herself and had seen more evolutions than Hanako. But she had never seen this black aura before, though her intuition told her it wasn't a bad thing.

Two women stood beside Jiang Chuan, one worried and the other confused.

Jiang Chuan, however, showed no sign of worry.

Quite the opposite.

His lips curled up, and his eyes gleamed with satisfaction.

He reached out and took the half-eaten dorayaki from Xia's hand, stuffed it into his mouth, and took a bite.

Xiaoxia froze for a second, then exploded.

"Oh, you bad guy, that was made for me by Hanako-nee!"

She reached out to grab it, but Jiang Chuan had already swallowed the dorayaki.

He chewed and mumbled, "Don't worry, it's fine."

He raised his chin, gesturing for them to look at the mass of black smoke.

"Primash is about to undergo a new evolution."

Xia's hand, which was grabbing the dorayaki, froze in mid-air.

She turned her head and looked again at the churning black mist, her confusion even deeper than before.

"evolution?"

She repeated the two words as if she hadn't understood.

"No...that's not right."

She tilted her head, her lips slightly pursed, and her mind began to quickly search for the Pokémon knowledge she had learned.

"Based on my understanding, the Primeape species reaches its evolutionary peak after Mankey evolves into Primeape at level 28, and hasn't progressed any further, right?"

Her tone was very certain.

This is something written in textbooks.

Mankey evolves into Primeape, and then that's it. This is common knowledge in the Pokémon academic community, as unquestionable as one plus one equals two.

"This evolution even involves emitting black smoke?"

Her voice rose at the end, turning into a question mark filled with confusion.

Jiang Chuan didn't offer much explanation.

He reached out and placed his palm on Xiaoxia's head, gently stroking her hair.

"Just you wait and see."

Xiaoxia swallowed back the question that was about to come out after he patted her head.

She pursed her lips, but still obediently turned her gaze back to the cloud of black mist.

Hanako stood on the other side, still holding onto Jiang Chuan's sleeve. Although she heard Jiang Chuan say it was okay, she still subconsciously moved a little closer.

The black aura grew thicker and thicker.

From a blurry wisp of mist, it gradually condensed into a vague outline.

The silhouette was a size larger than the original Infernape. The air seemed to drop a few degrees, not in a real way, but because the black aura itself carried a chilling aura. Not evil, but resentful.

It was like an emotion that had been suppressed for too long finally finding an outlet.

The black energy surged faster and faster, then suddenly contracted.

All the black energy was sucked into the center of that outline at the same instant, as if it had been swallowed whole by something.

Then, a Pokémon emerged from the lingering dark aura.

It is taller and more robust than the Fire Monkey, but its temperament is completely different.

Incineroar is always in a state of high agitation, radiating flames of anger from head to toe.

The one in front of us was eerily quiet.

It stood there, arms hanging at its sides, head slightly lowered, its eyes glowing with a faint red light, a deeper, more melancholic red.

Its body color became darker, changing from its original white to a dark gray that was close to black. There was a dark ring of lines on its wrists and ankles, as if it were wearing an invisible pair of shackles.

Abandoned Monkey!