In Castelia City, Unova, after catching Reshiram and taking a day to rest, Grey and his group returned to the city.
They had quite a few things to take care of here.
Aside from filing the paperwork for a long-term stay in Unova, Grey also wanted to make some preparations before the Strongest Trainer Tournament began.
He wanted to put his partners through a little extra training.
And as for how?
Naturally, by having them spar with viewers from Unova.
"Gym Leader Grey, good morning~ You came to Castelia City too~!"
As soon as they arrived at the hotel, Lacey's delighted voice rang out from behind him.
Grey turned and saw her.
Today, Lacey had not come to Castelia City alone. She had come with some classmates from Blueberry Academy.
"Good morning, Lacey. Are those your classmates?"
Grey looked at the three students behind her and more or less figured out who they were.
Crispin, Amarys, and Drayton.
They specialized in Fire, Steel, and Dragon types, respectively.
"Yep~ They're all my classmates from Blueberry Academy."
Lacey smiled and introduced them one by one.
When she got to Drayton, the boy with the strange forelock and purple highlights openly looked Grey over.
"There's a seriously strong Dragon-type aura on you~ Lacey said you're a Fighting-type Trainer, and that your ace is Annihilape, but honestly, you really don't look like it."
Drayton rested one hand against his arm, and in the end, his gaze settled on the Cherish Ball hanging at Grey's waist.
By the way, the one Grey had sent back this time was Gallade.
He trusted Gallade quite a bit.
The reason he had sent Gallade over was also to keep the place steady, just in case someone took advantage of his absence to start badmouthing the Fighting Dojo.
Originally, the ones holding down the fort had been Zapdos and Breloom.
Then both of them ran off.
So...
Gallade probably would not go and "run away" too, right?
For a moment, Grey pictured Gallade slipping off somewhere.
But then he thought about how well-behaved Gallade was and figured there was no way it would sneak off to play.
So when Drayton asked, Grey only gave an awkward smile.
"It's nothing special. Not as impressive as you think. And yeah, my ace really is Annihilape. It's just that lately it likes to keep its aura under control."
His ace, at least the one out in the open, really was Annihilape.
Reshiram was being kept hidden, basically as a trump card.
Under normal circumstances, Grey was not going to reveal Reshiram.
As for communication, that was not a problem either.
Even though Reshiram was inside the Cherish Ball, it could still communicate with Grey through telepathy.
That was basically standard equipment for legendary Pokémon.
"Well, if Gym Leader Grey doesn't want to say, then I'll let it go~ Anyway, we'll be seeing each other at Liberty Garden later, right?"
Drayton instinctively started to go over and throw an arm around Grey's shoulders, but Lacey reacted quickly and stopped him.
"Drayton, Gym Leader Grey just got back to Castelia City. He's probably here to check into the hotel right now, so don't bother him."
Lacey crossed her hands into an X, telling Drayton not to act so familiar.
"All right, all right~ Even though Gym Leader Grey is Lacey's idol~ Funny how someone spends every day hugging her phone, watching his livestreams, and scrolling through his videos every chance she gets~"
Blocked by Lacey, Drayton kept smiling and lifted a brow at her.
In the end, he cupped his hands around his mouth and called out to Grey, "Gym Leader Grey, after you finish checking in, would you mind signing my poster~?"
"My poster? Oh, you mean the one from the Gym selection tournament? Sure, no problem."
At first, Grey was wondering what poster Drayton meant, then he remembered that after the new eight gyms had been selected, the Kanto League had made posters for all of them as promotion.
Though, if he remembered correctly, there had not been many.
Only a hundred in total.
He had not expected Drayton to have actually gotten one.
"No problem. Once I finish checking in, I'll come over and sign it for you."
Grey waved it off. It was only a small thing.
Then he went to the front desk to handle his room.
While that was going on, Lacey straightened her hair accessory and narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked at Drayton.
"Lacey~ I'm about to have a poster signed by Gym Leader Grey, and right now it's the only one like it~ It might even turn into a one-of-a-kind collector's item."
"Say, if Gym Leader Grey gets really famous in the future, don't you think I could make a killing selling this on a secondhand marketplace?"
Drayton produced a poster from who knew where. Grey stood in the center, with his partners beside him.
Lacey looked at it with pure envy.
"Drayton, I don't think that would be very nice..."
Lacey wanted to tell him not to sell it, but the poster belonged to Drayton, so she did not really have any good reason to stop him.
But...
This was one of only a hundred posters.
It was not expensive. Most people could afford one.
The problem was that there were just too few of them.
It was one of those things with a price but no actual market supply.
That was why even the unsigned ones already sold for a lot.
If Drayton did not sell it, she could at least keep admiring it in person later.
But if he actually sold a personally signed poster from Grey, then the only place she would ever get to see it again would be online.
Ugh, she was so jealous.
Lacey wanted one of Grey's signed posters too.
But she had failed at the very first step.
She had not managed to get one in the first place.
"How about this, if you, Lacey..."
"Lacey, do you want a poster? I've got one here. If you want it, I'll just give it to you."
Drayton got halfway through his sentence before Grey suddenly cut in and interrupted him.
While checking in, he had overheard the two of them talking.
It was only a poster. Back then, the Kanto League had given him a few hundred of them, or something like that.
They had told him to hand them out.
Grey had been worrying about how to get rid of his posters, and now Lacey had basically delivered herself right to him.
During the few days after the Gym selection tournament ended, Grey had so little to do that he not only signed some of them himself, he also had all of his Pokémon step on them as their "signatures."
So this was basically a prerelease freebie, meant for offline fans who managed to catch him in person.
"Here."
Grey pulled out a clean poster with no creases from his backpack, wrote For Lacey across it in a big sweeping signature, and handed it to her.
Lacey froze in place.
"Thank you, Gym Leader Grey! Thank you so much!"
She took the poster with both hands and got so excited that she could barely say anything else.
"It's nothing. Oh right, I heard you all are getting ready to enter the Strongest Trainer Tournament?"
Grey remembered Drayton saying earlier that they were planning to enter too.
He still had no idea what criteria that Hydreigon was using to hand out invitations. It seemed like Trainers of all different levels had been invited.
He had originally thought it would mean battling a whole bunch of Elite Four-level Trainers.
But then again...
Considering Alder's level, the other Trainers under him probably were not going to be all that much better.
So in the end, it looked like the bar had been lowered to roughly the level of the eight gym circuits.
Lacey nodded. "Yep. We received invitation letters from a Hydreigon, so the four of us are planning to depart together from Castelia City's harbor and head to Liberty Garden."
Normally, the four of them would probably have traveled separately.
But Crispin and Amarys did not really have any good way to cross the sea, so traveling together made more sense.
They all went to the same school, after all. Classmates helping each other was only natural, and maybe after graduation they could even work together someday.
That was what led them to team up.
"There's still a week before the Strongest Trainer Tournament starts. Is there anything you want to do, Gym Leader Grey?"
Lacey blinked. The four of them were planning to stay in Castelia City for the next few days.
But Grey seemed like the type who could never stay idle.
"Hard to say. For now, I'm planning to look around Castelia City a bit. If I get the chance, I'd also like to make a trip north to the Desert Resort."
Grey had not forgotten one of his main goals in coming to Unova.
He wanted to catch some Pokémon.
And among those, it was especially important to catch more Fighting-types.
If possible, he wanted to catch all of these, Tepig, Scraggy, Throh, Sawk, and Mienfoo.
That was a lot, but it was not a huge problem.
With the system's leveling boost, he could get them up to dojo-battle standards in a short time.
One of them, Scraggy, could be found in the desert.
And on top of that, there was a Volcarona living in the ancient ruins of the Desert Resort.
In the upcoming Gym selection battles, he would be dealing with people like Bruno. Even if his Fighting-types had the advantage over Ice-types, Ice-type moves still did neutral damage to Fighting-types.
So Grey wanted to go take a look and see if he could find that Volcarona.
That was what he planned to get done over the next week.
"Wow, then make sure you prepare for the sun, Gym Leader Grey. The Desert Resort is really hot and stuffy, and there's sand everywhere. If you don't have goggles, the sand will get right in your eyes~"
Lacey offered some advice.
After hearing that, Grey decided he should stop by the department store and see if they sold goggles.
But before that, he still needed to check on his Pokémon.
With that thought, Grey said goodbye to the Blueberry Elite Four and headed upstairs with Caitlin and N.
Then, while riding the elevator, he sent Bumiao a message.
[Dojo Annihilape: Bumiao, how's Gallade doing? It didn't end up running off too, right?]
[Bumiao: Grey, I was just about to tell you about that. Gallade slipped out too.]
[Dojo Annihilape: ?]
When I type a question mark, it's not because I'm the one with a problem. It's because I think you are.
What was that supposed to mean, Gallade slipped out too?
Grey knew Gallade's situation perfectly well. It was a Pokémon he and Sabrina had saved themselves.
And now Bumiao was telling him Gallade had slipped off too?
Wait, what?
Was the Fighting Dojo secretly some kind of place where Pokémon just naturally ran away?
Actually, Gallade had not really been lured off at all.
It had gone of its own accord.
Back when Gallade had just been sent back to the Fighting Dojo...
"Gallade." (I'll go bring them back.)
The instant Gallade emerged from its Poké Ball, it said that, picked up the scattered traces of their auras, and Teleported away.
From beginning to end, Bumiao had been nothing more than the person holding the Poké Ball.
Under normal circumstances, Gallade would not have had an easy time locating people with its psychic power.
But because so many of the dojo's Pokémon had wandered off, Gallade actually had a chance to track them down.
And once Gallade arrived...
It was immediately surrounded by a group of Pokémon and quickly learned the whole story.
"Gallade." (So you want to surprise the boss? By taking second place? That should be doable.)
After thinking it over for a moment, Gallade decided that getting second place should not be a problem.
At the moment, the team had five Pokémon with Elite Four-level strength. The top four spots were basically already locked in.
"Zapdos." (Exactly. I checked, and among the challengers there don't seem to be many real threats. Aside from Bruno, there's apparently just one Trainer from Galar who actually looks like they've got something going for them.)
This tournament had been specifically organized for Fighting-type Trainers, and worldwide, the people who had really accomplished something in Fighting-type battles were pretty much all known names.
Bruno was almost at the very top.
If they lost to him, it would not count as throwing the match.
Yep, perfectly reasonable.
Back in the present, Bumiao finally managed to smooth things over with Grey after a lot of explaining.
Then she called a small meeting and announced, "For the next few days, the dojo is switching to a rotating acting Gym Leader system. One person stays behind each day, and everyone else comes with me to Celadon City to watch the tournament!"
"And on the last day, the finals are on a weekend anyway, so we'll just close the dojo completely!"
Bumiao was brimming with excitement and had already bought the express train tickets to Celadon City.
The round trip was not too expensive, and it lined up perfectly with the tournament.
The harder you work, the luckier you get.
If they could take second place, that counted as victory.
Three days later, under the blazing sun, the red-brown rock pillars on the desert badlands stood like the broken fingers of giants, letting out a low moan in the wind.
Grey's shirt fluttered in the dry heat as he narrowed his eyes and looked into the distance.
A sandstorm rolled across the horizon, casting a yellow-brown haze over the strange rock formations that had been eroded by the elements for ages.
Now and then, the silhouettes of a few cacti flickered into view in the blowing sand, only to vanish again a moment later.
This was the Desert Resort in Unova. After making every possible preparation, Grey had come here with Caitlin.
At first, when Caitlin heard Grey say he was taking her out somewhere, she had been incredibly excited.
Then they arrived.
And Caitlin's eye twitched a little.
A scenic desert. The Desert Resort...
There was seriously nothing here but sand.
"Grey, is this really supposed to be fun?"
Caitlin tugged lightly at his sleeve. She had thought they were going to sit in a sightseeing cable car and admire the desert scenery.
Instead, the two of them were walking through the desert.
Was Grey really this hopeless when it came to romance?
Before, he had at least known enough to go to Nimbasa City for Ferris wheel rides at the amusement park, so why had he brought her to a dead empty desert today?
"Huh? Didn't I just say I was bringing you out with me?"
Grey had only asked if Caitlin wanted to come along. She had definitely misunderstood.
"I saw that you didn't invite N, so I thought... you were taking me out..."
Caitlin muttered the words quietly, but the next moment she suddenly felt herself grow lighter.
Grey had scooped her up in his arms, one hand around her waist and the other under her knees.
A princess carry.
"Huh? Grey, you..."
Caitlin's face turned red, and all of the complaints in her heart vanished instantly because of what he had just done.
That was so unfair.
Carrying her like this at a moment like this?
That was cheating.
"Reshiram, help me look around nearby for anything like temple ruins. If you find something, we'll just fly straight over."
Still holding Caitlin, Grey jumped and landed directly on Reshiram's back.
Then he set Caitlin behind him.
Turning his head, he told her, "Hold on tight."
That one-two combo nearly left Caitlin completely dazed.
"Riolu." (Grey, you're pretty good at flirting, huh?)
Little Riolu sat in Grey's lap. After hearing what Grey had just said to Caitlin, it could not help teasing him a little.
Grey really did have a knack for this kind of thing.
Whether he meant to or not, the one who got flustered by him the most was always Caitlin.
Grey did not say anything back, because honestly, it really was true that he had not explained himself very clearly.
Reshiram spread its wings and rose into the air.
Blue flames swirled around its body, keeping the blowing sand away.
Along the way, they did not see anything like temple ruins.
They did not even run into any Darmanitan with the Zen Mode Ability.
In Grey's memory, if you wanted to reach the ruins where Volcarona was, there should have been two rows of Darmanitan standing in front of the entrance, all of them with Zen Mode.
Ding.
After some time, Grey's phone suddenly rang.
"Hm?"
He lowered his head and saw a new message on the screen inside the sandproof bag.
[Master Mustard of the Isle of Armor: Gym Leader Grey, I heard you've been in Unova lately. I was wondering whether you also received the invitation to the Strongest Trainer Tournament at Liberty Garden?]
Grey stared at the screen.
Why was Mustard suddenly sending him something like this?
No way...
[Dojo Annihilape: Yeah, I got it a few days ago, right after I arrived in Unova. Master Mustard, did you come to Unova too?]
[Master Mustard of the Isle of Armor: That's right. I happened to meet an old friend, and I received an invitation to the Strongest Trainer Tournament as well. I also heard from him that you'd come to Unova, so I thought I'd ask.]
[Master Mustard of the Isle of Armor: Since you'll be competing too, Gym Leader Grey, I suppose that makes us rivals.]
[Dojo Annihilape: If it's you, Master Mustard, I honestly feel like I might not be able to beat you.]
Grey was not just saying that.
Mustard was a Champion-level Trainer who had a legendary Pokémon, Urshifu.
His skill with Dynamax had once let him hold the title of Galar Champion for multiple terms in a row. Even though Dynamax could not be used in Unova, his own strength still could not be underestimated.
After all, this was Leon's teacher.
And he was also one of the true veteran masters among Fighting-type Trainers.
Whether it was battle experience or the strength of his Pokémon, Grey suspected that he would only be able to beat Mustard by using Reshiram.
But if he used Reshiram...
Well, the thing was, Grey really wanted to keep Reshiram hidden as a trump card.
If possible, he still wanted to use Annihilape against Mustard.
Of course, that was only if possible. If he really could not pull it off, then he would just have to tearfully accept becoming one of those legendary-spamming Trainers.
"Grey, look over there. Aren't those members of Team Plasma?"
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