Compared to Grey, Erika felt like she'd honestly be better off facing Blaine or Giovanni instead.
Grey might specialize in Fighting-types, but those two legendary bird Pokémon under his command were enough to make every opponent wary.
The innate pressure of Legendary Pokémon was like an invisible aura draped across the entire battlefield.
Legends had always carried that lofty, untouchable feeling.
Even if Grey still hadn't fully drawn out their power, just the thought of facing an opponent like that made it hard to breathe.
"Gym Leader Erika, what are we supposed to do?"
Linglan clutched the edge of Erika's sleeve.
Grey was her idol, but Erika was also her boss.
If her idol and her boss ended up fighting...
Linglan couldn't help sighing.
Her Gym Leader's level was... well, what it was.
Not weak, not amazing either.
And now she was about to throw hands with Grey...
Forget it. Better to just pray Erika could endure a few more moves.
That was the only thing Linglan could do right now.
If she went up there herself, she'd just be feeding the other side a free knockout, so she'd better behave and cheer from below.
"Linglan, do you really think I have no way of winning...?"
The corners of Erika's mouth twitched a few times.
The battle hadn't even started yet, and her own side's morale had already been extinguished.
Linglan, if this were an actual battlefield, you'd be court-martialed and executed after the war!
"Ahem, no, no. Gym Leader Erika is the strongest Grass-type Gym Leader in Kanto. It's just that Grey's tactics are always changing, while your tactical setups are a bit more fixed... s-so I think Grey has probably already prepared counters in advance."
Halfway through saying it, Linglan decided her concern was completely justified.
Erika's main team was basically those same few Pokémon.
But Grey had a huge roster of Pokémon under him.
In a situation like this, Erika would obviously bring out her main team to battle Grey.
But...
What Grey would use was impossible to predict.
After all, Grey's main team was fully Elite Four level.
As for his second and third teams, nobody even knew what their strength looked like.
If he suddenly sent out a Pokémon no one had ever seen him use before, wouldn't that be an instant information gap?
Linglan's concern wasn't unreasonable.
All of Grey's Pokémon had gone through systematic training. Their strength rose quickly, but they also had solid fundamentals.
And every single Pokémon had received personalized tactical adjustments.
That made them extremely hard to guard against.
"At this point, no matter how much I think about it, it won't help."
Erika ran through things in her head, but the more she thought, the more irritated she became. In the end, she simply gave up on thinking about it and went out to clear her head.
Lt. Surge was dealing with a similar headache.
After seeing the matchup list, he came over to the lounge on the Fighting Dojo side to relax.
"Sigh... I never thought I'd run into Gym Leader Giovanni in the second round."
Lt. Surge looked up at the ceiling.
His tone had clearly lost some of its edge.
To think that in only the second round, he'd already run into Giovanni.
That meant he was definitely going to lose a match now.
Even against Koga, Sabrina, or Blaine, Lt. Surge felt like he might have had a chance.
But the problem was—
his opponent was Giovanni.
Giovanni of the Earth specialized in Ground-types.
Lt. Surge specialized in Electric-types.
He was being hard-countered from the start!
"It's fine, Gym Leader Lt. Surge. Life doesn't always go smoothly. This was a trial you were bound to face sooner or later, so just take it one step at a time."
Grey patted Lt. Surge on the shoulder. What he meant was simple.
He was telling Lt. Surge to take it in stride.
As a Gym Leader who was frequently victimized by Grey, this really wasn't anything new for him.
Lt. Surge: "..."
"Gym Leader Grey, thank you so much."
Lt. Surge ground out those words through clenched teeth.
"Come on, we're basically brothers. No need to thank me."
Grey waved both hands at once, telling Lt. Surge not to take it to heart.
Taking a hit for his good buddy was only natural.
"..."
Hearing Grey say that, Lt. Surge fell silent.
Then he got up and left.
He had been about to ask Grey whether he could bring out Zapdos so he could get a good look at it, but Grey had annoyed him too much, so forget it for now.
The next time he ran into Grey, he was absolutely going to see Zapdos!
The image of Zapdos flashed through Lt. Surge's mind.
And somehow, his fighting spirit reignited.
So what if it was Giovanni?
That couldn't possibly stop his desire to see Zapdos!
With that thought, before leaving the lounge, Lt. Surge gave Grey a thumbs-up.
"See you around, Gym Leader Grey."
"Hah, I told you what I said would be inspiring."
Seeing Lt. Surge recover his fighting spirit, Grey nodded heavily and said, "Good luck, Gym Leader Lt. Surge!"
"Gym Leader Lt. Surge really is a man of remarkable willpower."
Caitlin dragged over a stool and sat down beside Grey.
She had just witnessed Lt. Surge's shift in mood, and it gave her a whole new impression of Grey's way of talking.
"That's true. With that kind of willpower, he won't fail no matter what he does."
Grey sighed with emotion.
The fact that Lt. Surge was willing to challenge Giovanni already proved he had guts.
And the fact that he kept pursuing Zapdos proved his determination too.
Looking at it that way, Lt. Surge really was someone with potential.
"Oh, right... Sabrina, who are you facing?"
Grey turned to Sabrina.
He had only looked at his own matchup and hadn't checked any further.
And since Sabrina's name was listed below his, he had no idea who her opponent was.
"Blaine."
Sabrina let out those two words softly.
"Hiss... Blaine, huh? Yeah, that's definitely going to be a tough one..."
As one of the old veterans among the Kanto Gym Leaders, Blaine came from the same generation as Professor Oak and Agatha of the Elite Four.
And among the Kanto trainers of that generation—
they had been packed with talent.
There was no way Blaine would be far behind.
At minimum, he was an Elite Four-level battler.
Sabrina, meanwhile, was a top-tier Gym-level trainer. Only by using her psychic powers could she raise her strength to Elite Four standards.
She was pretty similar to Caitlin in that regard.
"That's true. But as long as I only lose to Gym Leader Blaine and win the rest of my battles, getting into the top eight won't be a problem."
Sabrina had participated in the Gym Showdown twice before, so she understood the event pretty well.
It was only one loss.
Even two losses wouldn't be the end of the world.
The people who could make her lose were almost all trainers from the Eight Gyms anyway.
And even if she did lose, the later rankings would still account for the points value of those losses. If the opponent who beat her ended up with a high score, then her own ranking would rise along with it.
Overall, there was no need to place too much importance on winning or losing.
It wasn't like she had never lost before.
Sabrina could handle it just fine.
"Oh, right..."
Sabrina got halfway through her sentence, then faltered slightly.
"What is it?"
Grey turned his head.
Sabrina parted her lips and asked, "Did you buy the plane tickets to Unova yet?"
"I did."
Grey nodded and showed the two girls the tickets he had booked on his phone.
"The three of us are seated together. Once the first half of the Gym Showdown is over, we'll fly to Unova."
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