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"I'm from Kanto," Zev said matter-of-factly, as if that was explanation enough. But just in case, he added, "Chili oil runs in my blood."[break][break]

For his dinner, he'd chosen dan dan mian, a spicy noodle dish he'd been eating since childhood. The restaurant was thankfully well rated for its authentic Kantonese cuisine; otherwise, Zev would have declined Kouji's invitation to dinner.[break][break]

The mere fact Kouji had invited Zev to eat had been strange, of course. Kouji hated Zev, all because of a nightmare the boy had a few months ago. But if the boy had any motivations other than food poisoning or acid reflux, he hid them well.[break][break]

Picking up the plastic chopsticks that came with their table setting, the hitman started tucking into his food. "What do you want to talk about, Matsubara?" he asked, getting straight to the point, his voice coldly apathetic.[break][break]

Normally, he would slip into his charming civilian persona in public, but there in Sootopolis, he didn't have to wear any masks. They could discuss business for Team Rocket without fear of repercussion.

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Kouji should have realized that it was going to play out so quickly, he was dealing with a man who didn’t play small games.
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”Just wanted to watch ya squirm, but that plans a bust. Whatever, I’ll still cover the meal, since I’ve got ya, lemme pick your brain for a while.” He said as he leaned back, might as well use the resources at hand. Zev was a treasure trove, but to Kouji it was like approaching a cursed tomb, it only made him want to be sick.
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But he couldn’t go squandering a chance like this over some personal feelings, no matter how important they were to him.
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”You’re stuck in a rift, surrounded by dragon types, got a brat behind ya, unprepared, what’s your approach?” He listed one of the battles that had brought him failure and embarrassment.
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He had thought of many ways to deal with it after the fact, but even then. ”Beside leave the brat behind, or use ‘em as bait.” He said as he took the first spoonful of his mapo tofu, the burn was interesting; the kind that left a tingle behind, but even as he ate, he kept his eyes on Zev.

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Zev was about to suggest either leaving the child behind or using them as bait when Kouji added that stipulation to his scenario. Zev stared at the boy across the table, his expression blank but the gears of his mind turning.[break][break]

Under different circumstances, he would not have been suspicious of this discussion of strategy over a meal. But they had no previous habit of such casual conversations, considering how much Kouji hated him.[break][break]

Finally, Zev turned his attention back to his meal. He picked up another mouthful of noodles with his chopsticks. Before he lifted it to his lips, however, he said:[break][break]

"If the goal is escape, teleport out. No Dragon-types have MAGNET PULL or SHADOW TAG as abilities.[break][break]

"But if the goal is to defeat them, use them against each other. They're aggressive and territorial, so any confusion-inducing moves should work."[break][break]

Zev ate the flaming mouthful, the spice searing his tongue in a familiar, satisfying way.

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It made sense, something like ally switch, confuse ray, or something different; it wasn’t that different to the tactic that brat used.
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But that brought on something else, it might’ve been the long way around to ask this, but Kouji did it anyway. It was hard to motivate himself to engage in this conversation that he sought out; but there was no point being a brat about it.
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”You’re a Beast, so; just how do you decide outside of orders when to fight, and when to run? Not asking ya how to decide what a winnable fight is, but how you decide whether you have to fight.” It was the bigger question on his mind.
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”The way I see it, it’s gotta be a fight for the thing driving you. The goal that keeps you going.” Yet, as he spoke he could only glare at the man across from him, as if that was one of the goals in front of him.

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Zev lifted his glass of water to his lips and drank deeply of the cold liquid. "At any point in time, you have a limited number of resources," he started, his tone possessing a tactical ruthlessness honed over a decade of fighting.[break][break]

Raising his other hand, he counted with his fingers as he explained. "Your Pokémon. Your personal, physical reserves—such as your stamina, wakefulness, bodily health, and so on. Your time." He lowered his hand to the table. "You get the picture."[break][break]

Zev put his drink back down and picked up his chopsticks again.[break][break]

"Most important of all is your advantage. Even if you're a powerful fighter like bryan delarosa, there are certain thresholds where you can lose your advantage over your enemy. You could be outnumbered, or someone has a power that cancels yours."[break][break]

For some reason, Zev thought of kyle lopez, grinning, in the middle of a castle garden blooming with life. The Beast blinked the strange hallucination away.[break][break]

"If, at any point, you run low on one of those resources, you leave."

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It was a good line to draw, very different from his own emotional driven approach to battles, it was hard cold logic, Kouji could appre-
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He stopped himself, stopped those thoughts right in their tracks before he could allow them to fester, it would be something to ruminate on, and because it was this man speaking it, he had to find a chink in there, a gap in that armor.
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”You’ve gotta pick between an ally, a pokemon or…” No, this was a pointless line of conversation to follow. ”What if running avoids you losing your advantage the first time, but you’re certain to lose it any future clashes. The element of surprise is gone after someone’s fought ya once.” But there was preparation, wasn’t there?
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Were his approaches still immature?
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”No, that’s not it. You’ve got a good set of rules, most people follow ‘em without thinking, and when you’re thinking about it, with your experience, it comes out pretty refined.” He said with a shrug.
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”But I ain’t like it much, I’m sure it ain’t set in stone or nothing, but being wary of too many factors is a disadvantage of its own, ain’t hard to end up running from fights you can win.”
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But his own method led you into fights you had no chances of winning.

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As Zev ate, he listened to Kouji's attempts at finding a flaw in his logic. The boy started a couple trains of thought, only to pivot away from them before finally settling on an absurd argument.[break][break]

"Experience plays a role in all tactics," Zev said, before drinking more water to fight the fire in his mouth. "You eventually learn where the balance is between staying to fight and leaving to recover."[break][break]

It was a lesson that a hot-headed nineteen-year-old probably did not have the patience to accept.[break][break]

"Also, some fights aren't worth the time or effort," Zev added as an afterthought.[break][break]

"If they don't further your goals or improve your ability, there's no point. We're not rabid Mightyena seeking outlets for unchecked aggression."

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Kouji hummed aloud.
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”Yeah, that makes sense. Tch. You make way too much sense Harcourt, it’s annoying as hell.” He said as he filled his mouth with more of his mapo tofu, letting it simmer away in order to cool his head.
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He really needed it sitting here.
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As he swallowed, another thought came to mind.
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”Still, you’ve either lost a lot, or never lost. That’s the kinda experience you give up, can’t see you having drawn much if ever.” A draw was a different kind of loss, one that made you feel better about losing, because neither side reached their objective. The only takeaway was one’s life.

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"You're right. I've never lost."[break][break]

Zev spoke with the casual confidence befitting a man of his condition: that is, an assumed godhood, a certainty that he could not lose, be killed, or die. No humility or restraint caused him to lower his gaze to his meal, but an arrogance as natural to him as breathing.[break][break]

Kouji's acerbic words, even the voiced assumption that Zev might have lost once, had made no dent in the hitman's defenses. After all, no person in the world could hope to understand him—or rise to his level.[break][break]

"What about you? Lost a lot, have you?" he asked after chewing and swallowing another mouthful of spicy dan dan mian. The flavor burned his throat, only to be washed down with more ice water.[break][break]

Finally, he raised his eyes to lock with Kouji's, one eyebrow arched.[break][break]

"To those dragons, maybe?"

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”Beat them, but it wasn’t me.”
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Kouji shrugged, that was perhaps the closest he had ever been to death, it was a horrible occasion and he still remembered it at times. ”Dragons are territorial, so I acted as bait with my own dragon, peppered them, used Area of Effect attacks, the other person hit them with Springtide Storms, until they were properly defanged, and would struggle to hurt a Caterpie.” But it wasn’t his own idea.
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He sucked in a deep breath to lower the burn by just a fraction, before he looked back at Harcourt. ”But aye, I’ve lost a buncha times. Well, seeing as I’m still walking, I can’t say it’s bad. You gain a lot from losing, y’know?”
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It was a strange thing to say, but a loss was a place to learn that was a lesson he had beaten into himself, to lose, and learn without excuses. ”Not talking about that ‘winners were losers once’ kinda crap, but you can understand the mindset of a cornered guy.” His tone dropped just a tad as he spoke.
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”Ain’t nothing scarier.”

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Neither empathy nor understanding entered Zev's face as Kouji admitted to loss and fear. The younger man did not need to know how many times Zev himself had been forced into a corner. He did not need to recount how many dozens of times he'd faced the possibility of his own death.[break][break]

People considered fear a universal emotion, its icy grip around one's heart familiar to all. But Zev did not know it as others did. To him, it was as alien as love. He had only felt the brush of its fingers once, and even then, anger had overridden it just as quickly.[break][break]

So Zev simply said, "If you say so."[break][break]

Then he wiped his mouth and dropped the crumpled napkin into his empty bowl. He was ready to leave, even if Kouji wasn't done eating. "You're paying, right?"

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Kouji looked up at the man, a snarl almost threatened to slip between his lips before he sighed it off.
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”Aye aye, I’ve bounced what I could, so feel free to cut.” Kouji said as he continued to struggle with his meal, it seemed like the petty angle wouldn’t work on this man. Spicy food didn’t compare to years of Torture, but then again, pain was never something one wanted to experience willingly.
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At least the food was good.
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”Oi Harcourt, doubt I need to tell ya this, but keep watching your back.” It didn’t reek of a threat, it didn’t dance in his tone like one either, Kouji simply looked at the man with a neutral expression.
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”The longer a streak of wins goes, the harder that crashes to the ground.”

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