Staring fixedly at Shinya's surroundings, Kamiyama couldn't help but think of an extremely terrifying possibility. Just as the League recruits Psychics to become part of its strength, Team Rocket also possesses a specialized team composed entirely of Psychics. Giovanni values and treasures these individuals immensely; every time they take action, no matter how difficult the trouble, they resolve it with ease.
What Kamiyama hadn't expected was that Team Rocket would actually dispatch this team just to deal with him. Of course, this was only Kamiyama's speculation. Based on his observations, he could indeed detect some abnormalities, but whenever he tried to lock onto a specific person, he found the opponent weirdly vanishing into the crowd.
While it was possible they were using Pokémon like Ditto, Kamiyama couldn't think of any other possibility for this sudden vanishing ability besides a Psychic or a Psychic-type Pokémon. Just as Kamiyama was preparing to arrange for the other three to meet at a remote location while ordering Shinya to head to a designated spot, he suddenly noticed Shinya's situation was wrong.
"What's happening, Shinya!?"
Kamiyama's voice rang out, but unfortunately, Shinya could no longer respond. He was simply walking toward a secluded area like a puppet.
"Damn it!"
After a curse, Kamiyama began contacting the remaining three to prevent them from being defeated one by one. After some hesitation, he decided to take action personally. If things became impossible, Kamiyama would have no choice but to abandon Shinya. Before that, he intended to try a bit harder; after all, these four trusted subordinates were still quite useful and couldn't be lost easily.
Stepping into a secluded alley, even here, there were no shadows to speak of under the brilliant lights of Neon Town. Long before Shinya felt he was being followed, Gu Yuan had already arranged for a hidden Gengar to approach him. Through gradual hypnosis combined with Shinya's own intense emotional fluctuations, he had fallen completely under the influence of Hypnosis.
First locking onto Kamiyama and the other three with his psychic power, Gu Yuan had Alakazam use Teleport to vanish from the spot with him and Shinya. By the time Kamiyama cautiously arrived in the alley, Shinya had disappeared without a trace.
"All of you, immediately gather at the previously agreed-upon location and wait for me. We leave as soon as I arrive. I'll inform you of the details then!"
Without hesitation, Kamiyama abandoned Shinya. Or rather, it was no longer a question of whether Kamiyama would abandon him, but whether he and the other three could leave unscathed. Hearing the gravity in Kamiyama's tone, the others didn't dare ask questions and immediately rushed toward the meeting point.
Unfortunately, no matter how fast two legs move, they cannot outrun Teleport. While following Shinya earlier, Gu Yuan hadn't been idle; he had already locked onto the positions of Kamiyama and the others, leaving a psychic mark on them.
A psychic mark is a minor technique using psychic power to lock a portion of energy onto a target. Until the psychic power dissipates, the marker—or anyone capable of using psychic detection—can track their position.
Ally Switch was unleashed, and one of the men currently on the move vanished instantly. The moment he appeared, Alakazam used Teleport to vanish again. The process was extremely rapid. Furthermore, since there were few people where the target had been, bystanders only felt a blur before their eyes and didn't think much of it.
Following the same method used on Shinya, Gu Yuan quickly brought him under control. This was only the beginning; there were still two others waiting for Gu Yuan to deal with. Once they were all captured, the specific arrangements would be entirely up to Gu Yuan's whims. Even though these people were on guard, they lacked the ability to resist Alakazam. All Gu Yuan had to do was station Annihilape and the others in a suitable spot to knock out the people Alakazam brought back.
When Kamiyama arrived at the meeting point, he found no one there, and his communication had been forcibly cut. For the first time since betraying Team Rocket, Kamiyama felt fear. He had no intention of waiting further and immediately chose to flee.
Turning around to look at the surrounding crowd, Kamiyama forced himself to calm down quickly and began analyzing the current intelligence. The most likely suspect was Team Rocket's Psychic unit. Judging by the style of operation, the opponent's identity as a Psychic could be confirmed. Kamiyama knew quite a bit about the eeriness of Psychics and Psychic-type Pokémon.
If he were to rashly leave Neon Town now, he would only give the opponent a better opening. Forcing himself to stay calm, Kamiyama felt the situation wasn't entirely hopeless. If the opponent had Elite Rank strength, they would have shown themselves to deal with him long ago. Although he couldn't rule out the possibility that the opponent was toying with him, Kamiyama preferred to believe they only had Leader Rank strength, which was why they were trimming his wings beforehand.
In that case, their goal was likely to force him out of Neon Town. Setting aside whatever traps they had laid, they probably didn't want to cause too much of a stir to avoid attracting the League's attention and exposing the item he carried.
Thinking of this, Kamiyama felt he could neither follow the opponent's lead nor sit and wait for death in Neon Town. What he needed most right now was to fish in troubled waters. To do that, he first had to muddy the water.
He came up with a rough plan. Although Kamiyama knew clearly that even muddying the water wouldn't guarantee his safety, it was the best course of action. Unfortunately, in the brightly lit Neon Town, setting things up was quite difficult. After a moment's thought, Kamiyama gave up on overly precise arrangements.
He disguised himself simply and then took out all the remaining bombs. After a quick installation, he pressed the detonator.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Successive explosions rang out. Under the impact of the blasts, a large number of residents were affected. Screams and cries echoed one after another. While the scene was chaotic, Kamiyama lacked the time and energy for a proper layout, so the actual damage wasn't too extensive.
Due to the situation in Neon Town, Officer Jenny and the other police officers immediately rushed toward the explosion site. Mingling with the crowd, Kamiyama carefully observed everything around him, guarding against a potential sudden assault.
Hiding in the dark, Gu Yuan couldn't help but smile. Just as he was worrying about how to host this performance, he hadn't expected the protagonist, Kamiyama, to have already conceived the entire plan for him.