White light burst outward from between Magikarp's scales.
The water pressure crushed down on its body with brutal force. The wreckage of the cruise ship was still slowly sinking below them. Broken tables, shattered glass, and debris tumbled through the churning currents, battering Magikarp's thin frame from every direction.
But this time, the currents could not push it back.
The tail fin that had once done nothing but slap uselessly at the water's surface, barely raising a ripple, now surged with real force. It carved through the crushing seawater, generating powerful thrust that steadily lifted Naoki's sinking body upward.
Magikarp pressed its head firmly against Naoki's back and pushed forward with everything it had, driving the unconscious human through the water.
The light of evolution grew brighter and brighter.
Magikarp's body stretched and expanded inside the glow.
Its fins hardened and grew into massive rigid barbels. Its small scales shed and reformed into heavy, iron-hard blood-red plates. The dull, gentle eyes that had always looked half-asleep took on a sharp red gleam. Above its brow rose a set of hardened, spike-like horns.
Deep in the cold ocean, the small, frail Magikarp shed its old body completely.
Gyarados.
An enormous tail lashed the water violently, and the currents that had been dragging them down were torn apart by raw force.
Gyarados opened its jaws and let out a Dragon Rage that split the sea. The hull of the ship, which had held together this long, was blown open with a single impact.
Its enormous, ferocious head bent down carefully. It closed its jaws gently around Naoki's clothing, and then that massive body surged forward with tremendous power, rocketing straight up toward the moonlit surface of the sea.
The wreck of the cruise ship settled into silence at the bottom of the ocean. Behind Gyarados, only the dark blue-black depths remained.
Splash.
The salty sea wind hit Naoki's face. Pale silver moonlight spilled across the surface of the water.
Gyarados's enormous body floated on the ocean surface, carefully laying the young man across its back. Its fierce eyes stayed fixed on Naoki's pale face.
Low growls rumbled from its throat, thick with burning worry.
Not far away, countless survivors on the lifeboats saw the scene and froze completely, staring in disbelief at the massive Pokémon radiating red light on the water's surface.
"My god! That's a Gyarados!"
"A red Gyarados? It's huge!"
Startled cries broke out through the crowd.
Captain Cliff had spotted the drowning man immediately.
He quickly directed a lifeboat over, and with the help of several crew members, they got Naoki onto the boat and began performing chest compressions.
A moment later, Naoki coughed up seawater and slowly opened his eyes.
"He's awake, he's awake!"
Voices rose around him in relief.
The first thing he saw was several excited faces looking down at him.
Naoki's eyes slowly drifted, and quickly settled on a fierce, ferocious face with violent red eyes.
But strangely, he saw a trace of worry in those violent eyes as well.
That was... a Gyarados? Where had a Gyarados come from?
Right then, the Gyarados lowered its enormous head, opened its mouth slightly, and two shrunken Poké Balls slid out from between its jaws and landed gently in Naoki's hand.
Naoki blinked in disbelief. "Magikarp?"
"ROARR!"
Gyarados let out a furious roar, as though answering him.
Evolution.
Magikarp had evolved into Gyarados.
The brief moment of disbelief passed, and Naoki understood everything.
He stood up with the help of a few crew members and reached out to touch Gyarados's enormous head.
"Thank you, Gyarados. Thank you for saving me." His feelings were complicated in a way he could not put into words.
He did not need to think through it to understand what had happened.
In that moment, Magikarp had evolved into Gyarados to save him, and had pulled him out of the water.
Gratitude, emotion, joy, exhilaration. All of it hit him at once, and Naoki could not stop himself from gently wrapping his arms around Gyarados's enormous head.
"Thank you..."
That ferocious Gyarados was surprisingly gentle in that moment, its low growls softened into something quiet and heavy.
"Roar."
The crowd watching from the side stared in dumbstruck silence.
Naoki drew a deep breath after a moment.
He looked out at the now-calm ocean and could not help asking, "What exactly happened?"
"Pokémon Hunters!" Captain Cliff clenched his teeth. "Those cursed Pokémon Hunters. They used Sleep Powder to knock every passenger on the ship unconscious. They didn't just take our Pokémon, they blew up the entire ship!"
"My Milotic..."
"Pokémon Hunters, I'll never let this go. My Bagon, my precious Bagon, and Larvitar, they took them all!"
The passengers around him, the same people who had attended the Rare Pokémon Gathering earlier, cried out in anguish.
"The most important thing right now is figuring out how to contact the mainland and wait for rescue."
Yuna forced herself to stay calm. Her Goomy had been taken too. As much as she was hurting, there was no supplies or fresh water on the open ocean, and with this many people they would not last long out here.
"Don't worry, I already used the radio to contact the harbor. Someone will be here to pick us up soon." Cliff tried to reassure the group.
"That said, why weren't your Pokémon taken?" Cliff could not help asking Naoki.
"Because in the second before I passed out, I moved every Poké Ball to a different spot on my body. They must not have found them." Naoki explained.
Years of watching anime had taught him one thing. When something seems strange, there is always a reason.
And in the Pokémon world, criminal organizations mostly operated by targeting rare Pokémon.
That was why he had been able to react in time, and the facts had proven him right.
"I see!" The crowd's eyes reddened.
The lifeboat was too crowded. Naoki decided to sit on Gyarados's back instead.
After evolving, Gyarados measured close to ten meters long, with an enormous physical frame. Naoki had never actually seen a Gyarados in person before, but he could tell right away that his was noticeably larger than an average one.
Combined with its ferocious face and dangerous eyes, it looked genuinely intimidating.
Pokémon: Gyarados (Shiny)
Gender: Male
Type: Water / Flying
Ability: Intimidate
Strength: Peak Veteran
Known Moves: Tackle, Leer, Whirlpool, Twister, Bounce, Dragon Rage, Crunch
Naoki's eyes stopped on the stats.
From evolving out of Magikarp, its strength had jumped straight from Beginner to Peak Veteran.
One step away from Elite.
Truly a case of the carp leaping over the Dragon Gate. It had literally transformed into a dragon.
But more than anything, Naoki felt genuinely excited.
His Shiny Magikarp really was something extraordinary.
Only...
Pokémon Hunters.
This time, they had nearly killed him. Naoki was going to remember that organization.
Right now, something in him was already sharpening a knife in the dark. This debt was one he was absolutely going to collect.