Pokémon: Starting with a Dragon Dance Gible [20]

Having confirmed his registration for the freshman "Sprout Cup," set to begin in three days, Kaiba's next step was naturally to continue his daily intensive training with Gible to accelerate her growth.

"Given Gible’s overall strength, it shouldn’t be difficult for her to dominate in beginner-level matches," Kaiba mused aloud.

"But right now, I only have Gible as my starter Pokémon. If we run into Trainers specializing in Fairy- or Ice-types—or even Pokémon that simply carry an Ice-type coverage move—it’ll get tricky very quickly."

While Gible diligently practiced her moves, Kaiba wasn't idle either; he was continuously running tactical simulations in his head.

—Better safe than sorry.

The Ground/Dragon typing of Gible was undoubtedly excellent, having only three weaknesses: a twofold weakness to Dragon and Fairy, and a glaring fourfold weakness to Ice.

The first two weaknesses were manageable enough.

But a quadruple Ice weakness—well, that was practically standard-issue for powerful Pokémon!

"Maybe Gible could use [Dragon Dance] not just to buff herself, but also to deflect moves like [Ice Beam] or [Icy Wind] by spinning her fins during the dance…"

"I wonder if something like that could actually work in a real battle?"

Properly executed, dance-type moves could significantly reduce the damage from attacks. A Bug-type Trainer from Johto, whose Scyther spun with [Swords Dance] to block a super-effective [Flamethrower], had left a deep impression on Kaiba.

He couldn’t even remember that Trainer’s name at this point; it certainly wasn’t someone as famous as Ash or Cynthia. Yet, that unique tactical maneuver was vividly etched into his memory.

It seemed well worth copying—might as well become a "Copy Ninja" himself.

"Hmm... that strategy might actually have merit. But without real training or practice in battle, I can't confidently say how effective it’d truly be."

In Kaiba's view, Pokémon battles in the real world obviously wouldn't be as rigid and predictable as turn-based battles in the games. But he also knew better than to assume too much.

Reality had its own constraints and rules, after all.

"If [Dragon Dance] came with built-in protection like [Protect], wouldn’t that be way too overpowered?"

In that case, Kaiba could just keep telling Gible to [Dragon Dance] endlessly until she stacked up six boosts to her Attack and Speed, before finally striking back.

"Fortunately, there’s another more practical, 100% reliable strategy," he murmured thoughtfully.

That was having Gible—or eventually Garchomp—carry a special held item: a Yache Berry.

The Yache Berry was just one of the many peculiar and diverse berries available in the Pokémon world—and it was one of the more specialized, higher-grade varieties.

[Yache Berry]: Activates when hit by a super-effective Ice-type move. Reduces damage from that Ice-type move by half for one attack.

In other words, a 4× weakness to Ice would effectively be reduced to only a 2× weakness—still painful, but far less devastating.

The basic law of Pokémon battles was simple: a Pokémon could generally endure a 2× super-effective hit by increasing its defenses, but a 4× super-effective hit was practically a death sentence without special items.

...

"Yache Berry… Yache Berry…"

Kaiba quickly grabbed his Rotom phone, searching online for information about purchasing Yache Berries.

He figured there had to be some vendors on TaoBao or PinXiXi—maybe even some sellers using the classic pity-selling pitch: "Our produce is unsold, please help us!"

"Ah—found some! Plenty of vendors selling berries, including advanced varieties."

Basic berries like Oran, Pecha, or Cheri, which had short growth cycles and high yields, were inexpensive. Each berry was only around 50 to 100 Pokécoins.

[Oran Berry]: When held by a Pokémon, activates and restores 10 HP when HP drops below half.

But higher-tier berries, such as Sitrus Berries, which restored one-quarter of a Pokémon’s health, or the even more potent Figy Berries that restored up to one-third of a Pokémon’s health, were considerably more expensive.

The Yache Berry—known informally as the "Anti-Ice Berry"—was a specialized berry with a unique defensive effect. Its price typically ranged between a Sitrus Berry and a Figy Berry, costing about 500 Pokécoins each.

Was that expensive? Not extremely so, but still considerable.

But these were consumables—eat once, and they were gone.

Kaiba certainly wasn’t wealthy enough yet to let Gible snack casually on Yache Berries as daily treats or dessert.

Constantly relying on berries to resist Ice-type damage would drain his resources quickly.

"Buying one or two Yache Berries as a precaution is fine," Kaiba muttered to himself. "But making them part of Gible’s regular diet would be way too costly."

Kaiba shook his head. Raising Pokémon under ordinary circumstances wasn't terribly expensive.

He and Dyson could easily afford to raise Gible and Yamper just by squeezing out a bit from their monthly living expenses as university students.

But there was a big difference between simply "being able to afford" Pokémon and raising them optimally.

The specialized training required for truly exceptional Pokémon was a costly investment.

---

T/N: oh right yeah we switched to pokecoins so yeah

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!