Giovanni listened to Grey, but his eyes never left Silver in the distance.
"?"
Silver's back went cold. Something felt wrong, but he couldn't explain it.
"Boss, if there's nothing else, I'm going to go walk around outside."
The dojo felt weirdly chilly, so Silver decided to take his Pokémon out and wander around for a bit.
Since he was already in Saffron City, he had to get properly familiar with the city.
"Alright. If you're not coming back for lunch, remember to tell me ahead of time."
After giving Silver a few reminders, Grey shifted his gaze back to Giovanni.
Noticing Grey looking at him, Giovanni calmly adjusted his mood and said evenly, "In your dojo, Grey… is he your only apprentice?"
"Yeah. After losing to the Saffron Gym twice in a row, the Fighting Dojo's basically in a situation where the old generation is gone and the next generation hasn't caught up."
Grey shook his head. Talking about his dojo carried a bitter edge.
Beep-beep—
All three of their phones rang at the same time.
Grey glanced at his screen and saw the Gym group chat's "@everyone" notification flashing with a red badge.
He tapped it open, and saw an official announcement from the group owner, Lance.
[Dragon Master Lance: Pokémon League HQ's latest decision has been posted in the group announcement. Everyone, take a look.]
Grey skimmed it, and after reading, he looked up at the other two.
"Wait—what did the very first point say again?"
Sabrina put her phone down and met Grey's eyes as she repeated what she'd just seen. "It was… that the Johto region is also going to participate in this Gym Leader Tournament?"
"In the past, the tournaments for the two regions were separate. This is the first time they've ever done a joint event like this," Giovanni murmured. "And it's sudden. A last-minute notice… hard to say what the Johto Gym Leaders think about it."
He'd participated in more Gym Leader Tournaments than Sabrina since taking over Viridian Gym, but even for him, seeing two regions merged like this was a first.
Knock, knock, knock—
Suddenly, there was a sharp knock on the door.
And at the same time, a hurried, all-too-familiar voice followed.
"Grey! Open up, Grey! I know you're in there!"
Grey: "..."
No need to think about it. Lt. Surge—the "Zapdos number-one superfan"—was here.
"Today's got a lot of guests. Why does nobody ever say anything in advance? At least let me go welcome you," Grey complained silently.
Sure, they were all buddies, but random drop-ins like this meant he hadn't prepared anything.
Otherwise he'd at least have put out some snacks.
Now all they had was tea, and nothing to talk about besides whatever happened to come up.
Grey stood, opened the door, and saw Lt. Surge wearing sunglasses.
"Yo, Surge—eating well lately? You look even more solid than before."
Grey stroked his chin as he spoke.
Compared to the pale-skinned Surge from before, his skin was noticeably darker now—clearly tanned from the sun.
You could tell he'd been out doing work a lot lately.
"Haha, just training. Gym Leader Grey—there's something I've got. Wanna hear it?"
Lt. Surge played it mysterious, raising his eyebrows at Grey like he was dropping a hint.
"Come in and tell me properly."
Seeing the usually loud-and-open Lt. Surge acting this secretive, Grey figured he had something real. So he brought him inside and headed to the battle area.
"Lt. Surge—long time no see."
Giovanni greeted him with a smile.
"Wow, is that Gym Leader Giovanni? Long time no see. Viridian Gym only opens a few days and you're already over here—honestly, I'm jealous. No need to stress about Gym stuff at all."
Lt. Surge joked a couple lines, then looked toward Grey. "Gym Leader Grey, how much longer are you busy?"
"Almost done, almost done."
Grey told him to wait a moment.
He wanted to say a few more things to the viewers and then end the stream for the day.
[When are you coming to Unova? According to rumors, Unova's preparing to 'sync with the international scene' and pull off something huge.]
[Huh, Unova's doing something huge too? Our Galar region is as well. Streamer, streamer—any chance you'll come to Galar?]
"Unova and Galar? Right now, I've got thoughts about both regions. It's just a matter of which comes first."
Grey glanced at the two Super Chats pinned at the top and explained, "It depends on what's going on with the dojo. I've got a match coming up soon, so I probably won't be leaving Kanto in the short term."
[Got it—good luck, Streamer! Career comes first!]
[Good luck, fight on! Can't wait for the day you become the strongest Gym Leader in every region.]
[Isn't Streamer already? The most streamer-ish Gym Leader, and the strongest Gym Leader among streamers.]
[Iono from Paldea has something to say!]
[Iono? Ohhh, that shark-tooth Electric-type girl, right? Can she really handle Streamer's Pokémon?]
[Maybe ask if Streamer even knows Iono first. If he does and you're still stirring things up like this, you'll hurt their relationship.]
[Streamer never leaves home—how could he possibly know a Paldea Gym Leader?]
[They're both streamers and both Gym Leaders. Isn't it normal for them to know each other?]
"Iono? I don't know her. But I have scrolled past her streams before."
Grey told the truth.
He knew of her, sure.
But if you asked whether they had any private contact—nope.
Even though they were both Gym Leaders and both streamers, their content had nothing to do with each other. There was basically zero overlap.
[Aw, I thought there might be a collab chance. Streamer Gym Leaders are so rare…]
[Streamer, just pick a time and do a PK battle stream! The gifts would explode!]
[Isn't this the same 'Not Much But Not Really' guy from last time? If there's actually a collab stream, you'll probably be the first to bail.]
[Stop slandering me. I'll go to the other side and make it harder for Streamer.]
The chat was having a great time. After replying to a few messages, Grey said goodbye.
"Alright, everyone—see you next time!"
The stream ended, and Grey logged off in glory.
Then he sat back down and waited for Lt. Surge to continue.
At this point, the other three Gym Leaders in the dojo were all staring at Lt. Surge, waiting to hear what he had to say.
"Ahem."
Lt. Surge sipped tea to wet his throat, tapped the table lightly, and then pulled out his phone.
[TOP SECRET! Inter-Region Rumor Exchange Group!]
"Tch—"
Seeing that explosive name, Grey couldn't help giving a thumbs-up. "I can't believe you, Surge. You look so upright, and you're actually this kind of person."
"?"
Lt. Surge looked at Grey's thumbs-up and felt like Grey was being sarcastic.
But he didn't sweat the details.
He opened the group chat and showed the messages to everyone.
[Anonymous: No informants here. Dropping the latest intel—Unova needs to boost its visibility, so it recently decided to launch a competition similar to something called the World Championships.]
[Anonymous: At the same time, Galar has the same idea. Both events are being called the World Championships, but the registration methods might be slightly different.]
[Anonymous: Some unknown organization has arrived in Kanto. Purpose unknown, but it seems connected to a local organization.]
Only three messages.
All four of them finished reading, each lost in their own thoughts.
"No wonder they merged Johto's Gym Leaders into this tournament," Grey realized. "So they want us to go compete in this 'World Championships' later?"
Kanto and Johto were pretty similar in overall Gym strength.
The League probably wanted to pick the strongest eight Gym Leaders as the public face to send out.
"We don't know the exact situation yet, but the League's probably trying to ride the Gym Leader Tournament and then use the Indigo Plateau Conference to push the hype and build a name," Lt. Surge said.
Then his eyes locked onto Grey, burning with intensity. "After I told you all that confidential stuff… Gym Leader Grey, aren't you going to show some appreciation?"
"What are you trying to do?"
Grey jolted, immediately ducking behind Sabrina and peeking out from behind her. "I'm not doing anything illegal!"
"?"
Lt. Surge's eye twitched. He snapped, "I want to battle your Zapdos!"
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