บท 163: Trading Ideas

I opened my eyes and released the hallucinations I had placed Tate and Liza under as it was announced we won, fighting the throbbing in my head as I did so and using my hand to wipe away the few drops of blood that had begun to trickle from my nose. I wonder if this is what Arceus meant when he said I wasn't as atuned to psychic powers as I was aura?

Well too fucking bad, I wasn't going to stop training them!

"Yeah! We won Aniki!" Ash exclaimed, making my head throb even more as he went for a high five.

"Yeah. Just keep it down a little Ash." I told him, while still giving him the high five before going to check on Honedge.

"Are you ok Aniki?!" He asked, now realizing that something was wrong.

"Yeah, just tired with a big headache." I replied, before gripping Honedge's hilt to pick her up.

Even unconscious, Honedge's sash wrapped around my arm as she began to rapidly drain the aura from my body in order to restore her own energy and repair some of the damage from the battle.

"I don't see why, since Ash carried you so much and did all of the heavy lifting at the end." Sneered a voice that only made my headache grow.

"Really Goh?" I asked him with undisguised exasperation.

"What? I'm just saying the truth!" Goh quicky defended himself, while Tracey slowly shook his head beside him. I did NOT envy Tracey in the near future.

"Spoken like one who is truly ignorant." Said a new voice, as Tate and Liza approached us.

While the former seemed, shaken, but ok, the latter refused to look in my direction at all while a rosy hue colored her cheeks.

"That was excellently fought, Ace and Ash Ketchum. If I may ask, how was your....hallucination so....vivid?" Tate asked me with both curiosity and trepidation.

"Actual experience." I immediately replied, making him go pale.

"I don't have the scars anymore to show you, but I was mauled by a pack of Houndour being led by a Houndoom a little over five years ago. I just made you see that through my psychic powers, and channeled what I had actually felt back then through my aura."

""?!?""

"You possess both psychic abilities and aura?!" Tate exclaimed, while his sister seemed equally shocked, despite STILL not looking at me.

"Yeah. I was born with more aura than usual, while I only unlocked my pychic powers recently. The only reason I've gotten so proficient with them so quickly was because I have someone teaching me when they can." I explained to them, vividly recalling all of the training I've done with Sabrina. Speaking of, I have a session with her tonight.

"I see... No wonder your hallucination seemed so much more powerful..." Tate muttered as if in thought, while Liza blushed even more. If that were even possible.

"So do we get our Gym Badges now?" Ash asked, obviously not caring about the discussion between Tate and I regarding psychic powers.

"Of course. It was the most exciting match my sister and I have had in quite a long time, so we are both pleased to give the two of you your Mind Badges."

As he said that, Tate readily produced the Mind Badge and presented it to Ash, leaving Liza to give mine to me herself while she desperately avoided looking at me. As she did so, I projected a short message into her head that made her nearly drop the Badge.

'If you ever want to experience the real thing, I'll be more than happy to help out.'

"Eep!"

Tate, Goh, Ash and Tracey all looked at us confusedly from the strange noise that came from Liza's mouth, which prompted her to nearly throw the Badge at me before she quickly walked away, as if fleeing. Even though she was older than me, with Liza's petite figure and reactions, I couldn't help but to find her incredibly cute.

"Anyways, thanks again for the interesting battle." Tate quicky said, before going after his sister. Presumably to see what was wrong with her.

I pointedly ignored the looks I knew I was getting from Tracey and Goh, who were both radiating suspicion towards me that I felt was completely unwarranted.

"I think Its almost time for May's match against Iono." I said offhandedly, returning Honedge to her pokeball before making my way towards the meeting place where the two of them would have their match.

Once there I had found what was possibly the largest crowd of spectators yet, which made the throbbing in my head only intensify from their cheering. Aside from them there were also numerous drones that I could feel aura coming from, aura that was similar in nature to my phone.

"Rotom drones?" I uttered quietly in contemplation, wondering what else could be done with Rotom that we hadn't considered yet.

Here's hoping they don't try to go all Terminator on us in the future though.

Banishing the image of an army of Terminator Rotom from my mind, I focused on what was happening before us as Iono and May prepared to battle.

"Hellooooo there, and welcome to the Iono Zone~! Today is going to be a SUPER DUPER special collab between Iono, and May from May's Expeditions! Give her a round of applause folks!" Iono declared as both she and May rose up above the arena on a couple of Magnezone that had been fitted to act as platfoms for the two girls to stand on.

A roaring cheer that made me wince sounded from Iono's declaration, with the Rotom Drones flying around capturing every single moment and angle of it to broadcast not only to Iono's channel on Pokevision, but also the numerous screens surrounding us. And on one of them, I could see a VERY pale and nervous looking May.

'I'm here May.'

The moment I mentally projected words of encouragement towards her I saw May visibly relax on the screens, before she took in a breath and a competitive gleam entered her eyes.

'That's my girl.'

"So who's ready to get this show on the road~?!" Iono asked as the audience began to calm once more, stirring them back up as they cheered on the two streamers.

"I'll go first, with my beloved Pawmot~!"

"Paaaaaaaaw!" Cried out the pokemon that appeared within a flash of sparks and lightning.

It's appearance reminded me of a teddy bear, but it was pink instead of the same light brown that Surge's had been, and it stood easily at nearly five feet tall. Not quite an alpha, but still large and powerful for one of it's kind, and a shiny on top of that.

But then again, would a streamer want pokemon that weren't eye-catching and alluring compared to 'normal' pokemon?

"Your turn May~!" Iono declared as her Pawmot flexed and posed for the sake of showmanship.

"Ok! I choose you, Blaziken!"

"BLAAAAAAAZE!"

As if to compete with Pawmot, Blaziken released a powerful flash of flame in the form of a Fire Spin to draw attention to itself, like one would in a contest.

"Watch this Chimchar." I said while letting the little guy out, who eagerly climbed atop my head and watched Blaziken with stars in his eyes.

"How hot! Hot! HOT!" Iono declared excitedly as the crowd got even more fired up with Blaziken, making Pawmot smirk as if it found her efforts humorous.

"Let the battle begin!" The rotom drone declared.

"Focus Energy!"

"Charge and Agility!"

May and Iono both ordered at the same time.

"Blazeeee..."

Blaziken growled as she focused her attention and energy to increase the effectiveness of her attacks.

"Pawwwww..." Pawmot similarly growled as it stared at Blaziken unflinchingly, building up electric energy while also loosening it's muscles to increase it's speed.

""Fire/Thunder Punch!""

"BLAZE!"

"PAWMOT!"

The duo charged at the other the second they were given their next orders, Blaziken's claws bursting into flame while Pawmot's paws crackled with electricity.

*KER-CRASH!*

...

"That was such a good battle May!"

"Thanks, though I really didn't do much." May said awkwardly to Chloe's praise.

"Don't sell yourself short May. That was an EXCELLENT battle." I told her, from where I was laying with my head in Daisy's lap.

"Really? Thank you!" May said happily, earning me a few deadpan looks that I could literally FEEL.

Currently we had gone to have lunch after May's battle against Iono, who she managed to egg out a win against with Blaziken. Joining us of course were the guys and girls, who were similarly taking a break after spending the morning battling themselves.

Though, for some odd reason the girls refused to look me in the eye for the most part. Except for a couple like Gloria, who looked at me like she was 'hungry'.

I pretended not to notice since I was pretty sure that Victor and the other guys would NOT appreciate learning that I was fucking their sisters/cousins, and I did NOT want a bunch of protagonists pissed off at me.

"First round up!" Arven suddenly announced, passing out several sandwiches that we had asked for before going to work on the next batch.

While he did that, I reluctantly sat up from Daisy's lap and stood to approach Arven's Mabosstiff while it was laying near where Arven was making lunch, with Lucario joining me to help in treating the poor pokemon. Together, the two of us sat on either side of Mabosstiff and laid a hand/paw against it's sides, and started channeling our auras in unison.

I could feel the gratitude radiating from Arven as Lucario and I treated his longest companion, though truthfully I felt like we weren't doing that much to begin with since the result was so minimal.

But I guess with how bad Mabosstiff was right now, any improvement was like a godsend. No matter how small.

Lucario and I continued until our lunch was done as well, which was around forty minutes since they were the last round of sandwiches to be made.

"Here you guys go." Arven said when our sandwiches were done, bringing them to us as Lucario and I went to stand up.

"Chocolate and salami! My favorite!" Lucario exclaimed as he happily accepted his own sandwich, while I quietly accepted my roast beef(Tauros) and everyone just stared at him in disbelief.

"What are you all looking at?" Lucario asked in confusion.

"Nothing." I said while shaking my head, before biting into my own sandwich.

There was silence for a few minutes as everyone ate their lunch, before Calem asked me, "So I heard you battled Korrina this morning?"

"Yeah, it was a good battle. She never gave me my Badge though."

"She didn't? I wonder why?"

"Same here." I said with a wry smile, recalling the accidental kiss.

"I heard that you've been collecting several Badges over the last couple days though." Said a new voice, as a grizzled man approached us.

"Daddy!" Misty cried as she rushed to hug her father, Hudson Williams.

"Hello my little Horsea." Husdon said as he hugged her back.

"Hey father." I called to him in greeting.

"Son." Hudson greeted back, gripping my hand in a firm shake when he had released Misty.

"I've seen all of your Sharpedo circling the ship. Most impressive." He added after releasing my hand.

"Aren't they? Sadly I can't claim too much credit for them since I only trained the pack leader. But you saw what she was capable of back in Cerulean city."

"Indeed. However their loyalty and strength is something to be proud of regardless, just like your Gyarados."

"Thank you." I said with pride at the praise.

"Hey! Aren't you the Gym Leader of the Cerulean city Gym?!" Ethan suddenly demanded.

"I used to be, but I'm retired now." Hudson replied with a wry smile, obviously seeing where this was going.

"Then how about a battle!?" Ethan requested excitedly.

"Humph. Very well." Hudson agreed with a smirk, before leading the way to the nearest arena.

"That's my cue as well." Brendan said as he stood as well, presumably to go and find his next opponent.

"I need to go too! Can't let the rest of you stay ahead of me forever!" Barry declared in usual energetic voice, before practically running away to find his next opponent.

"I should go too. Thank you for lunch Arven." Lucas said as he followed his friend.

One by one everyone else left as they went to find their next opponent, including several of the girls. They may not be as serious about battling as their brothers/cousins, but they too wanted to do well in the tournament.

"What about you Ace?" Lillie asked me as everyone else left, though she refused too look me in the eye as she did so.

"I'm gonna rest for a little bit. My battle with Tate and Liza was hard on my head because I had to use psychic powers aginst them, but I also want to battle Koga today since Lucario found where he's hiding last night. So I plan to recouperate for a bit before challenging him, which I have to do before Dawn's contest tonight."

I could feel Dawn beaming at me happily that I recalled her contest was going to be tonight, which was also going to be the first contest she would ever participate in.

"Oh yeah! We all have to make sure we don't miss that!" May stated.

"When we're done here let's go back to the room Dawn. I can help prepare and style your pokemon until it begins!" Daisy said excitedly with a gleam in her eyes, obviously excited to have the chance to show her grooming skills in an actual contest.

"Ok Daisy! I was planning to spend the rest of the day preparing anyways since I haven't decided what to wear yet." Dawn said, her aura mixed with both excitment and axiety.

"And while you're resting Ace, there's a few things I wanted to run by you." Leaf said as she entered business mode, even pulling out a pair of glasses to look more professional.

"Gah! The horrors of trying to start a business!" I declared dramatically while flopping down onto the couch yet again, except this time I didn't have Daisy's lap for a pillow as she and Dawn went to prepare for the contest.

"Did I hear someone mention business?" Giana asked as she suddenly appeared, making me wonder if the talk of business actually summoned her.

"Yes, you did. I was just about to go over our ideas from yesterday with Ace." Leaf said as she sat in the chair beside me.

"I see! Let us begin then, shall we?" Giana said as she took another seat near me, and Leaf pulled out a notepad.

"First off is the name and logo of the company. I have a few ideas if you wanted to look over them." Leaf said while handing me the notepad.

I looked over the ideas that the two of them had brainstormed yesterday with a genuine seriousness, as this would be the future of what I was known for.

Among the ideas were quite a few good ones, but the one that stuck out the most to me was Ace Amenities. Simple and to the point, while it could also refer to either my name or the quality of our goods. And for the symbol of my new company, an ace of hearts playing card. (A.N. Thanks to the numerous ideas you all had, I may end up using one or two of them for something else later in the series.)

The ace was obvious in it's symbolism and meaning, while the heart specifically was due to my MANY trysts, lovers, and girfriends. I couldn't say that I really disagreed with it.

"I like these ones." I said, pointing out the name and symbol in question, to which Giana and Leaf traded knowing looks.

"Great! I'll call a guy, and he can get some proper lables made up and ready for use. Also I already looked into the market prices for honey, and came up with a decent price that we can sell yours at." Giana said as she passed me a note regarding the price she mentioned for each type of honey we had.

"Nice. The two of you are really going all out on this." I said with an appreciative smile.

""Of course."" They said at the exact same time pointedly.

"We also came up with some product ideas to sell alongside the honey and get the company off the ground." Leaf said, turning to anther page in the notebook to show me what they had come up with. And I had to admit, some of them were really out there.

"Are you two being serious with these ideas?" I asked, since a good portion of them involved marketing me specifically, such as making posters, action figures, and so on. There was even two options regarding a calender based off of me, though one had a star by it for some reason.

"And what is this one?" I asked, pointing to the calender idea.

"It's a calender of course." Leaf said as if it were obvious, though she was obviously leaving a big part of it unsaid.

"And why is it different than the OTHER calender?" I asked.

"Well.... We thought that one calender could be made with you and your pokemon for each month, while the other could have you and...maybe women?"

I blinked.

"Leaf, are you proposing a nudie calender starring me?" I asked curiously.

"Maybe?"

"It's a good idea." Giana quickly interrupted from the side, before pulling out a Rotom phone.

"I had Sabrina send this to me yesterday. It's currently being sold throughout the female Team Rocket members by the surveillance department for some side cash."

I cocked a brow as the screen on the phone showed me, stretching and adopting various poses in the nude.

"You mean they're marketing the show I put on to piss Giovanni off?" I asked curiously.

"Yes. Do NOT underestimate how good you look." Giana said, pointedly looking me up and down as she said that.

I had to admit, she had a point though.

My body had been carefully sculpted throughout my second life, built entirely of muscle while also being lean enough to not hinder my flexibility or speed. After all, I did NOT want to look like another roided out monster.

Plus there was my prided cock to think about.

"Alright. I can see the feasability in this." I admitted after a moment of thought, which made both of them trade victorious smirks. Plus I was pretty sure I saw a money sign in Leaf's eyes.

"BUT!" I added, making them look at me.

"Firstly I will NOT include any of my girlfriends in the calender, nor pornstars. So the two of YOU will need to find ten willing models. Good looking ones that will sell as well."

"Thats fine." Leaf said. "But..."

"We'll need twelve models." Giana pointed out, to which I smirked before sitting up and putting a hand on their shoulders.

"Don't worry, we already have two of them right here. Or did you think that you can just make plans to use my body without putting either of yours on the line as well?"

The two girls blinked at that, before Leaf immediately turned completely red at the idea of selling her nude figure publicly. Before she could try and back out of the deal though...

"Dibs on March." Giana quickly said, seemingly not at all caring about appearing nude in a calender with me. And leaving Leaf staring at her in disbelief.

"Alright. We can talk more about it when we dock in Celedon. Now, onto other ideas... I think I have one for us to make." I said while turning serious. And while Leaf appeared to still be short-curcuiting from my condition, Giana was listening with her full attention.

"This is an idea that came to me after battling Falker and Clair yesterday, and one that I'm surprised no one has come up with yet." I said while grabbing the notebook and a pencil to give them a quick sketch of what I was talking about.

"You know about Emolga, right?" I asked Giana.

"Of course." She nodded in affirmation.

"Well, my idea can be based off of them." I said, before showing her what I had drawn.

"It's basically a body suit with a thin membrane-like cloth connecting the arms with the legs, and the legs with each other. When in the open air, it'll allow the user to glide instead of just flat out falling."

As I explained my idea Giana's mouth genuinely fell open while I could practically see the gears turning in her head.

Something like this would explode in popularity in this world due to the fact that people performed what others would consider to be extreme stunts on the daily as they explored and battled pokemon. ESPECIALLY amongst the trainers like Falker who primarily used flying type pokemon, and flew with them daily.

"Amazing..." Giana uttered as her own aura flared in excitment.

"I know the design itself could use some work, especially so that it wouldn't interfere with general movement when flying or on the ground. But with the basic outline we can have someone work to improve it. Once we can hire a developer." I explained further, while even Leaf had recovered enough to look at my design over Giana's shoulder.

"I'll get on it right away." Giana said in a low voice, her mind obviously still racing with all of the possibilities of the design I handed her, before she looked up at me seriously.

"I'll have a contact I know look into this. If we can get a proper design that works up and going, then we can start selling them as soon as possible. This will be the first big product of Ace Amenities!"

"Yeah! I can already imagine how popular this will be among flying type specialists, and even the Rangers." Leaf added, making me blink. I hadn't even considered the Rangers when I suggested the glide suit, but it was definitely something they would be willing to invest in.

I'll talk to Wendy about it when I see her again tomorrow, which is when she and the rest are suppose to arrive in secret to prepare for the battle against Team Rocket. I also recall her mentioning that the number one top Ranger would also be joining us, making me interested in meeting him after everything I had heard.

After that the three of us discussed possible ideas to market and produce, right up until I had to go and challenge Koga.

(A.N. I know this chapter kinda feels like it's all over, but I had a hard time focusing on it with how tired I've been for the last week from work. Plus I may have....splurged a little in a sale on the nintendo store and been busy with that. Let's just say I should have enough games to keep me occupied for a few months, at least.)