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Sophia could only stare in horror as her Weavile was smacked flying by a single Iron Tail from Swampert—only to crash straight into the door of the Viridian Gym, shattering it violently. She nearly blacked out on the spot.

"That idiot! Does he even know whose gym this is? If he wants to die by smashing into someone's turf, fine—but don't drag me down with you!"

Sophia's expression darkened as she glared daggers at Sato. In her mind, thousands of Mudsdales were stampeding in rage. Her cherry lips pursed, and her jewel-like eyes widened in fury as she puffed her cheeks and glowered at him.

In that moment, the aloof, ice-queen image she usually maintained completely collapsed. The gap between her usual demeanor and her current flustered outburst left nearby male spectators completely stunned.

Sophia was panicking. If she could, she'd gladly crush Sato's family jewels under her heel, then drag him to apologize to Giovanni in person—just to make it absolutely clear she had nothing to do with this door-smashing incident.

Sato, meanwhile, wore a miserable expression as he looked toward the broken entrance of the Viridian Gym. One half of the massive doors lay pathetically on the ground, while the other looked like it could collapse at any moment, swaying limply in the wind.

He hadn't expected things to end up like this. Sure, the door wasn't broken on purpose, but the consequences were real.

Worse yet, the actual Viridian Gym Leader was probably inside right now—a man who was also the leader of a certain shadowy organization and didn't exactly have the best temper.

If Sato didn't go in and explain himself immediately, he had a feeling he wouldn't even make it to the "Viridian Gym Challenge" part—he'd be blasted into orbit before that.

After all, smashing the gym door down was apparently one of the most "trendy" ways of picking a fight with a Gym Leader these days—or so the onlookers claimed with mocking grins.

"How is this my fault?! I'm innocent too! I'm panicking over here!"

Sato glanced sideways at Sophia with the corner of his eye and muttered this bitterly when he saw the usually icy beauty looking like she was about to explode from anger.

"Uh… hey, pretty lady, maybe we should go explain ourselves… like, now. It's probably the smart thing to do."

Sato took a deep breath, turned toward Sophia, and forced a sheepish smile onto his face as he addressed the now tsundere goddess before him.

At the sight of Sato shamelessly trying to smooth things over, Sophia instantly returned to her cold and elegant demeanor. She gave him a complicated look, turned around, and strode briskly toward the Viridian Gym.

She had thoroughly embarrassed herself in front of her idolized leader today—not only had she lost the battle, but her ace Pokémon had broken the gym's front door in the process. If her brother found out, he'd laugh at her for the rest of her life.

Still, despite how humiliating this was, her Weavile was still inside. If she didn't want Giovanni to treat Weavile as an intruder and wipe it out on sight, she had no choice but to bite the bullet and walk into the Viridian Gym.

Seeing Sophia take the lead gave Sato a bit of confidence. At least he wasn't going in alone. He quickly returned his Swampert—who had been lounging shamelessly against Arcanine for warmth—and called Arcanine back into its PokeBall as well, then hurried after her.

With countless spectators casting gleeful and mocking looks their way, Sato followed Sophia into the pitch-black interior of the Viridian Gym, nerves twisted into knots.

Meanwhile, deep within the Gym's battlefield, Giovanni was staring quizzically at a fainted Weavile lying on the ground.

He glanced in the direction from which Weavile had crashed through, then noticed the busted doors and several damaged walls inside his gym. The corners of his mouth twitched, and a huge vein pulsed on the back of his head.

Giovanni had a good memory. He recognized this Weavile as Sophia's ace Pokémon. Given its sudden appearance here, he assumed Sophia had been defeated by Sato.

What confused him, though, was why Weavile had smashed through the gym door and walls. From what he knew of Sato, the kid didn't seem like the type to pick a fight by smashing through someone's front gate.

"Could it have been… just a battle accident?"

Giovanni rubbed his chin with one hand and pondered with a strange look on his face.

"Meow?"

The Persian sitting beside Giovanni followed his gaze, also noticing the busted door and broken walls. It looked at the unconscious Weavile beside it, scratched its head with a paw, and tilted its head in confusion.

Weavile had crashed through the wall and landed right next to it, giving it quite the shock. On instinct, Persian had swiped a paw at it.

But before its claw even connected, the just-barely-upright Weavile had collapsed again with a thud.

Persian had seen plenty of Pokémon pretending to faint back when it was a wild Meowth on the streets of the city, but this was the first time it had been the target of such a stunt. It was at a loss for how to respond.

Before it could think further about the situation, Persian's ears twitched. Someone had entered the gym. Its expression turned serious.

It stood up instinctively, walked to the front of Giovanni, and narrowed its eyes toward the sound of approaching footsteps.

Soon enough, the main doors to the Viridian Gym's battlefield creaked open. Sato and Sophia stepped in one after the other, locking eyes with Giovanni and Persian.

"That really is Giovanni…"

Seeing the familiar figure on the battlefield—the very one countless players had defeated in the games—Sato's heart skipped a beat. Giovanni didn't look pleased.

Compared to the massively nerfed version in the games, the real Giovanni exuded an overwhelming presence.

Even now, Giovanni was doing nothing but standing there, glancing over at Sato, yet Sato immediately felt a pressure that exceeded what he had felt from Weavile just moments earlier.

In fact, upon closer comparison, Sato realized that Giovanni's aura wasn't any weaker than Professor Oak's when the man went into serious mode—it may have even slightly surpassed it due to Giovanni being a real underground Boss.

Giovanni—a master of Ground-type Pokémon worthy of entire books and legends. Seeing him in person now, Sato understood the reputation was not exaggerated.

But what made this first meeting so awkward was that Sato hadn't come here after collecting all eight gym badges, full of confidence, ready to challenge Giovanni.

No.

He was here to explain a door-smashing accident, all while praying not to get beaten into a pulp.

"Sir, please, let me explain. It was an accident."

"It was his fault."

After a few seconds of tense silence, both Sato and Sophia suddenly shouted in unison—one pleading, the other blaming—as they addressed Giovanni.

". . ."

". . ."

". . ."