"Oooh, a promise under the starry sky."
Not far away, Bumiao crunched on sunflower seeds as she watched the two standing by the window, a full-on auntie grin on her face.
"Bumiao."
Grey didn't turn around, but there was a lively note in his voice. "If Miss Sabrina and I head to Unova together in the future, the Fighting Dojo will be in your hands."
"???"
As soon as she heard that, Bumiao's expression changed dramatically.
What Grey meant was: once the two of them weren't around, she'd be the acting Gym Leader?!
This wasn't going to some neighboring city. They'd be sailing across the ocean all the way to Unova!
Just the time for a round trip was on a completely different scale.
Letting her be acting Gym Leader all that time…
Absolutely no way!
Oh, wait—there was still Silver!
Remembering that there was a new kid she could use, Bumiao's expression turned "scheming" again.
Silver: "???"
He suddenly had the feeling that someone was plotting something against him.
Who?!
Silver looked around in all directions.
In the end, his gaze could only land on Bumiao.
Ever since he'd joined this big family at the Fighting Dojo, everyone had pretty much been very nice to him.
But!
Every now and then, there was always this weird sense of persecution.
Like someone, somewhere, wanted to make his life difficult on purpose…
And nine times out of ten, all fingers pointed at Bumiao.
After all, she was constantly trying to take private photo shoots of him.
Dragging a boy in the prime of his youth into doing boudoir-style shots—what kind of normal person did that?!
"Silver, what's wrong?"
Bumiao narrowed her eyes, rubbing her hands together.
"Nothing, I'm going to bed."
Silver hurried off, terrified she'd drag him off to pose for a Polaroid.
"Tch~ Nightlife's only just getting started."
Watching Silver's back as he left, Bumiao muttered that line, then waited until Grey and Sabrina finished their conversation.
"Well, if it isn't Miss Nightlife herself."
Grey turned around and suddenly dropped that on her.
"?"
Bumiao's brain froze for a second, then she quickly realized what he meant.
Wasn't that exactly what she'd just said to Silver?
And now he was calling her "Miss Nightlife"?
"All right, it's getting late. Bumiao, was there something you wanted to talk about?"
Grey stretched his arms, ready to head back to his room and get some sleep.
But seeing that Bumiao had clearly been waiting for him, he knew there had to be something she needed him to deal with.
Might as well hear what it was.
"Well, the president of Silph Co. found out you saved Celadon City and arrested three executives, and he wants to invite you to visit Silph Co. this Sunday."
Bumiao took out an invitation. Stuck around the edges were little stickers of a Poké Ball, Great Ball, and Ultra Ball.
And at the top of the invitation was an "M" logo.
"Besides that, Mr. Silph also said that if you ever need Poké Balls in the future, you'll get a permanent fifty percent discount."
As she spoke, Bumiao produced six Ultra Balls and handed them to Grey. "He said these are a little gift for you, to make up for not being able to wait any longer to see you in person."
"Oh? That's actually pretty nice."
Grey took the Ultra Balls from her and weighed them in his hand.
Right now, the Poké Ball factory assembly lines weren't that advanced, and a single Ultra Ball went for 1,200. With a half-off discount, that was only 600.
You could save a lot of money that way.
"Still, having him invite me to Silph Co. on Sunday… that's a bit of a coincidence."
Grey rubbed his chin, thinking of how Giovanni was also supposed to be showing up on Sunday. Something about it felt off.
It couldn't be some kind of trap, could it?
But in this world, Giovanni hadn't revealed his identity as the Viridian Gym Leader.
So he swatted the thought of some 'ambush banquet' away.
Impossible.
If the Silph president was inviting him to headquarters, the odds were high it was about a particular Poké Ball.
The Master Ball.
After all, there was that "M" logo on the invitation.
For "Master".
"Anyway, let's just get some sleep. No point overthinking Sunday right now."
Grey shrugged. Instead of letting his mind spiral, it was better to just go to bed.
He still had Gym challenges to handle tomorrow.
Ahhh—
Another day of running a Gym. What a drag.
…
…
The night passed in silence, and dawn came.
After a full night's rest, Grey got up early. Once he'd washed up, it was time to open the Gym and face a day of Challenger battles again.
Title: [Warm-Hearted Dojo Big Bro Solves Your Problems]
Tags: [Warm-Hearted Big Bro] [Got Drama? Come In] [Gym]
Grey went with a different style for his stream title this time, and it had a lot of people curious.
[Did something happen to the streamer while he was arresting Team Rocket in Celadon?]
[Don't tell me his childhood friend joined Team Rocket and he found out!]
[Lol, that'd actually make the streamer happy. Here, I'll buy him a Governor badge to cheer him up.]
[Big spender over here? Respect, boss!]
[Not much, not fake.]
[What do you mean "not fake", lmaooo!]
[I lost it, so this is how we're doing things now?]
"Good morning, afternoon, and evening to all the brothers in the chat from across the world~ I'm Grey, the Dojo Master of the Fighting Dojo. Before we open for Gym battles today, I'll be spending some time helping everyone with their troubles~"
Grey raised one hand in a heart pose, smiling into the camera as he explained today's stream title to everyone.
"I know all of you have a lot of questions you want to ask. Since I've got a bit of free time right now, I figured I could use it to answer questions for a few lucky viewers."
"Of course, if you've got anything weighing on your heart, you can talk about that too~ I can also serve as a little 'tree hole' for you to vent into."
No sooner had he finished than the first co-call request popped up.
Grey took a look—and it was actually from the user "NatureBlack".
Last time, this guy had dropped a 180,000 tip on him.
Even after taxes and the platform's cut, it had still been a sizable fortune in his pocket.
"Good morn—actually, with your time zone, it should be good evening over there~ NatureBlack, what did you want to talk about today?"
Grey tapped "accept", curious what N wanted to say.
"I'd like to see your Pokémon, if that's okay. I want to see… Riolu."
N wanted to see Riolu.
More precisely, he wanted to see if he could read its heart just through the phone screen, and get a sense of how Riolu really felt about Grey.
After all, Riolu was a Pokémon gifted with Aura, and it needed high friendship in order to evolve.
He wanted to see for himself whether Grey was the type of Trainer who only paid lip service…
"Which Riolu do you want to see? Ah, forget it, I'll just call them all over."
Grey pulled out a Poké Ball and sent out Riolu. At the same time, the little Riolu sleepily shuffled out of the kitchen.
The little Riolu still had a steamed meat bun clenched in its mouth, juice running down its chin.
"Riooo~" (Who's interrupting my breakfast so early in the morning~?)
The little Riolu glanced at the screen, not recognizing who was on the other end.
In its mind, anyone who interrupted its meal was not a good person.
[Sorry about that, here's a little greeting gift. (Upgraded to Governor)]
"Big thanks to NatureBlack for the Governor tier!"
//Check out my P@tre0n for 20 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810