After reaching an agreement with Giovanni, Grey quickly drafted up a notice about the acting Gym Leader arrangement and posted it under the Fighting Dojo's official account.
[Fighting Dojo Annihilape Official Account (V): Dear Gym challengers, Leader Grey and Leader Sabrina will be traveling to the Unova region for a one-week trip in three days. During that time, @Giovanni of the Earth, Leader Giovanni will serve as the acting Gym Leader of the Fighting Dojo.
If you happen to run into Leader Grey in Unova, feel free to ask for a souvenir photo. Leader Grey will give a Polaroid to any lucky fan who spots him.]
The moment the post went live, it caused an uproar online.
[What Is Grey Eating Today (Fan Badge 22): What the heck? Leader Grey and Leader Sabrina are going to Unova on vacation? For a whole week?!]
[Retired Unova Colonel (Fan Badge 33): highly intriguing.jpg]
[Cerulean Mermaid: Huh?]
[Pewter Onix: Oh~ Is this a honeymoon trip?]
[Best-Selling Light Novel Author Shauntal: Welcome to Unova, both of you. handshake.jpg]
[…]
The comment section under the Fighting Dojo's official account nearly collapsed.
Too many comments flooded in at once, and the servers were almost overloaded.
…
…
Kalos region, Flare Group.
"President Lysandre, the servers for our FlareTok platform are almost overloaded!"
A man in a red uniform came running over in a panic. Only after spotting the man whose hairstyle looked uncannily like a Pyroar did he stop and report the situation.
"Hm? What happened?"
Lysandre frowned slightly. A problem like that should not have been happening with one of their company's platforms.
Given the carrying capacity of their servers, even if a creator with tens of millions of followers uploaded a video and a massive wave of fans poured in all at once, it should still have held.
"The main company has been under attack lately. Our bandwidth has been heavily occupied, CPU and memory resources have been exhausted, and then just now, a Gym Leader from the Kanto region posted an announcement that brought in a huge flood of fans all at once. The servers almost crashed."
The man gave a rough explanation of what had happened.
Only then did Lysandre understand the situation.
So the group had been attacked.
Apparently the attacker's IP address was even from the Sinnoh region.
Unfortunately, he could not openly start a conflict across regions, and since he could not reveal his identity yet, Lysandre simply reassured the man and told him to handle it.
"Honestly… wouldn't it be better if people just got along a little more peacefully…"
Lysandre shook his head and did not take the matter too seriously.
The Flare Group was only the company on the surface anyway.
Even if it collapsed, he would not feel bad about it.
"Wait. Who was that Gym Leader?"
Lysandre suddenly became curious about the Gym Leader whose post had helped push the servers to the brink.
In a way, you could call it meeting through conflict.
"It was the Fighting Dojo's Gym Leader from the Kanto region. Just search for Fighting Dojo Annihilape."
The man gave Lysandre the information.
"Fighting Dojo Annihilape… so a Fighting-type Gym Leader… How interesting."
Lysandre scrolled through his phone, a faint smile appearing on his face.
…
…
Three days later, the day of the flight finally arrived.
Ever since his battle with Koga—
none of Grey's later opponents in the Gym challenge had been trainers from the official eight Gyms, which let him breathe a sigh of relief.
He had also successfully made it into the top eight, and his points were tied with Giovanni's for first place.
The Kanto region's eight Gyms had successfully shifted places.
The current ranking was:
First: Fighting Dojo, Viridian Gym
Second: Cinnabar Gym
Third: Fuchsia Gym
…
Eighth: Cerulean Gym
That's right. The eight Gyms actually numbered nine.
Grey had even asked Lance how that was supposed to work, but Lance's explanation was that since this was the first time such a thing had happened, they had created a tied ranking system that did not take up an extra slot.
So the Cerulean Gym, which should have been ninth, had effectively moved up into eighth place.
A truly joyous occasion.
"Waaah, you really aren't taking me with you this time?!"
Just before departure, Green came rushing over, clinging to Grey with tears and snot everywhere. "You promised you'd take me to other regions so we could live it up! And now you're just throwing away the vows we made? Grey, you heartless jerk!"
"Alright, alright, enough of that. What kind of nonsense are you even saying? Don't say things that'll make Sabrina and Caitlin misunderstand."
Grey pinched Green's cheek irritably. "What I said back then was that I'd take you on the S.S. Anne to the Galar region. Don't go imagining a bunch of things that never happened!"
"Damn it… then next time you have to take me with you! I can massage your shoulders at night!"
Green's eyes turned watery. She was genuinely jealous this time.
How was it that Grey got to go traveling in Unova with Sabrina and Caitlin?
And what about her?
She could only stay behind miserably at the dojo.
Sigh. Comparing yourself to other people really was infuriating.
"Alright, alright, next time I'll take you with me."
Only after pinching her cheeks for quite a while did Grey finally let go. Then he said goodbye to everyone in the dojo.
"Leader Giovanni, I'm leaving the Fighting Dojo in your hands."
Grey looked toward Giovanni, who had arrived carrying bags in both hands, then waved goodbye together with Sabrina and Caitlin.
"Have fun in Unova."
Giovanni smiled as he watched the three of them leave.
Until they were gone.
"Ah, finally heading to Unova. We only said we were going a week ago, but somehow it feels like almost a month has passed."
As they neared the airport, Grey could not help making a sarcastic remark.
Time had felt strangely slow lately.
Still, that was not a bad thing.
After all, he really was about to head to Unova.
Who knew what kind of people and events he would run into there…
Oh, right. He still needed to tell N that he was on his way to Unova.
With that thought, Grey quickened his pace toward check-in.
This time, the flight to Unova had been specially arranged by the Kanto League.
Aside from Grey, Sabrina, and Caitlin, the only other passenger was Zinzolin, who was being escorted there under guard.
…
…
Once the flight took off, Grey, Sabrina, and Caitlin chatted happily along the way.
During the trip to Unova, Caitlin seemed a little reserved.
She sat beside Grey, lightly tracing the edge of the window frame with her fingers, while the soft cabin lighting painted a warm hue across her porcelain-white skin.
The moment the plane pierced through the clouds, boundless golden light poured through the glass and fell across her trembling eyelashes.
She suddenly froze.
Grey's profile stood out sharply in the morning light, and the thoughtful expression on his face completely drew her in.
Only when she noticed Grey looking her way did she hurriedly turn her face aside, though the tips of her ears had already turned red enough to drip blood.
"What's wrong?"
Grey noticed Caitlin's aura and turned to ask.
But the instant he turned, Caitlin looked away again.
That left Grey honestly a little confused.
"It's nothing…"
Caitlin shook her head, set both hands on her knees, and took several deep breaths.
Seeing that, Grey only let out a soft laugh.
Then, using the plane's Wi-Fi, he sent a message to N.
[Fighting Dojo Annihilape: Already on the way to Unova.]
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