Chapter 97: Team Rocket Has Arrived!!
Lavender Town. The morning of the next day.
Sounds drifted from Mammon's room that left little to the imagination.
The curtains were drawn against the morning sun — concealing the light, and quite a few other things besides.
"Mmh — Mammon, not there — I can't—"
Erika made a small, flustered sound and pressed her hand against his, though she knew, somewhere in the back of her mind, that things were only going to keep escalating. It was just all happening so fast.
"But I'm worked up right now."
"Then what am I supposed to—" Erika's voice had gone entirely mortified.
"Here. Help me like this."
Mammon leaned close and murmured something in her ear.
Erika's eyes went wide.
"...That's — that's allowed?"
"It's fine. You can do this, Erika. Can't you?"
"Then — I'll... try—"
Thirty minutes later, the Celadon City Gym Leader bolted out of his room with both hands over her mouth, ears burning crimson all the way down to her collar.
In the room next door, the door that had been resting slightly ajar opened a fraction wider, and a young lady with brilliant golden hair watched Erika's retreating figure with her lips pressed together.
"Forty-three minutes. That's much longer than the last two days. Mii — why does Mammon need to practice on her."
Caitlin felt something sour that she absolutely refused to name as jealousy.
She was just the housekeeper. Once Mammon got bored, there would be nothing between them. That was simply how these things went.
Completely irrelevant. Not even worth thinking about.
Over the next two days, Mammon shuttled back and forth between Lavender Town and the lab.
Mr. Fuji was putting in the work, but meaningful results in this timeframe were never realistic. Mammon wasn't in a rush.
"We leave Kanto tomorrow. Tonight's your last night here, Erika — then you can go back to Celadon."
"Oh — tomorrow?"
Erika looked up from her soup. Right — he'd told her this at the start. When he left Kanto, she could go home.
But—
She should be happy. She kept turning that thought over. Back to her own life, away from Team Rocket — that was good news, wasn't it.
"Right. When the League comes asking about this week, just tell them the truth — you were coerced. I'll have no objections."
"...Yes." Erika looked down at her bowl.
She had been coerced, technically. But thinking back on it — beyond waking him up in the morning and cooking meals, she hadn't actually done much compulsory work. The room-cleaning and garden-trimming had been her own doing. He'd returned her main team Pokémon after the first two days and spent several evenings giving her pointed feedback on their training that she'd found genuinely useful.
That woman is FINALLY leaving.
Caitlin's expression remained perfectly composed. Her heart, however, was singing. The woman who had been sneaking into Mammon's room every single morning was departing at last.
I said it from the beginning. Just a housekeeper. What possible threat could she pose? Mammon had simply been passing the time. Beyond providing certain practice opportunities, what use did she actually serve? None.
Only I, Caitlin, will remain at Mammon's side.
She ladled a bowl of soup with perfect elegance and set it in front of Mammon, a small, lovely smile at the corner of her lips.
"Something wrong? Are you sad to see me go?"
Mammon had noticed Erika's expression and asked the question with a trace of amusement.
"Of course not! Mammon, you really — this humble person is simply — simply—"
The flower-arranging young lady trailed off completely. She couldn't finish the sentence, because she refused to admit that she was, in fact, sad to see him go.
He'd been awful to her. Getting progressively worse, in fact. He'd even told her that the, ah, milk was very nutritious and let her believe him, and she'd— well.
If she hadn't held her ground, she would have lost considerably more than her dignity.
If it ever got out that she'd been kidnapped by Team Rocket and compromised on top of it—
"Erika, you really are impossibly cute."
Mammon laughed out loud.
"Mrr—"
Erika's forehead hit the table.
After dinner, Mammon called her out to the rear garden.
"I'll be in other regions for a while — probably won't be back in Kanto for months." He turned to face her.
"So consider this a thank-you. For looking after things this week."
He opened a Poké Ball.
A small green Pokémon appeared in the garden — lizard-shaped, grass-green body, darker tail, belly flushed rose-red, large eyes that managed to look both cool and faintly endearing all at once.
"Is that... a Treecko?"
Erika crouched slightly and studied it with open curiosity.
"Exactly. You like Grass-types, and Treecko's final evolution — Sceptile — is capable of Mega Evolution. For building up your team, the growth ceiling is significant."
Erika's combat strength sat somewhere in the middle range for Gym Leaders — not weak, but not outstanding. Mammon's read was that she needed a genuine centerpiece to anchor the team around.
"I'll also mention — Venusaur from Kanto can Mega Evolve as well, and it's right in your type specialty. Worth catching one when you have the time. Or I can have someone locate one for you."
"What do you think? Do you like this one?"
Mammon watched her crouched there in silence and asked the question lightly.
"...Very much."
Erika's voice had gone soft. She looked at the Treecko turning its head this way and that, and something in her expression settled.
A moment later, she sighed.
"Mammon."
"Mm?"
"You really have committed quite a lot of sins."
"Well — I am evil Team Rocket, after all." Mammon snorted.
"What you've done to this humble person... how is she ever supposed to get married now?"
Erika's tone was mournful. These past few days — every inch of her inspected, every morning a fresh assault of thoroughly accomplished kissing. Her technique had genuinely improved against her will.
She was an unmarried young woman with very traditional values, and she had opinions about this.
"Erika." Mammon considered her for a moment. "Are you asking me to take responsibility?"
"This humble person wouldn't dare."
She shook her head. She wanted to, of course — she was a traditional girl, and she knew what she felt. But take responsibility — what did that even look like in practice? Mammon was still Team Rocket.
Walk away from everything and be with him? She wasn't ready to make that choice.
Ask him to leave Team Rocket for her? She wasn't delusional. She wasn't charming enough for that — if she were, she wouldn't be a housekeeper right now, she'd be his actual wife.
Mammon's heart wasn't the kind that would stay on one person, she understood that. Even if something did happen between them, it wouldn't change anything fundamental about him.
Although—
Erika touched her flat stomach absently, and then immediately had a thought she really shouldn't have had, and then immediately felt embarrassed about having it.
The next morning, Erika provided her final wake-up service.
Perhaps knowing it was the last time for the foreseeable future — she was considerably more cooperative than usual, though she did hold the final line.
According to the golden-haired young lady's precise timekeeping, Erika remained in Mammon's room for exactly one hour and seventeen minutes.
One hour and seventeen MINUTES.
That's WAKE UP SERVICE?
And those sounds—
That shameless woman!! I am going to brick her into a WALL, YO—!!
Caitlin barely managed to hold herself back from the brink.
It was fine. Today the woman was leaving. Caitlin would continue traveling with Mammon, and when they returned to Kanto in a few months, there would be no place left for that woman anywhere near him.
Because by then, I will be the lady of this household.
(Very loudly.)
The outskirts of Lavender Town.
"Mammon, Caitlin — this humble person takes her leave."
The black-haired young lady straightened, composed and graceful, and gave both of them a proper farewell bow.
"Goodbye. I'm looking forward to next time." The corner of Mammon's mouth lifted.
Erika understood immediately, went crimson, and gave him a sidelong look that tried to be reproachful and didn't fully succeed.
"Farewell." Caitlin's send-off was poised and brief.
Mammon watched Erika's figure until it disappeared from view, then released Armored Mewtwo.
"Let's go. Gladion's already waiting at the airport."
At Lavender Town's small airport, Mammon and Caitlin found Gladion exactly where he'd said he'd be.
The boy had spent the past several days in nothing but intensive training, and it showed — there was a slightly haunted edge to him now, an intensity that hadn't quite been there before.
Understandable, really. The memory of Bruno catching him and cuffing him had left a mark.
The three of them boarded the flight.
"Kanto. We'll be back."
On the road outside Lavender Town, Erika watched the plane climb into the sky, Treecko's Poké Ball turning over in her fingers, the expression on her face too complicated for her to put a name to.
Hoenn.
A region with more variety packed into its geography than almost anywhere else in the world — tropical rainforest, desert, ancient ruins, all coexisting in the same landmass. But what defined Hoenn above everything else was water. The ocean here covered nearly as much area as the land itself, a ratio that set it apart from every other region on record.
The legends said Hoenn had been created by the legendary Pokémon Groudon and Kyogre — Groudon raising the land from the deep, Kyogre filling the seas around it. Another tradition held that it was the wandering Regigigas who had shaped the continent as it moved between landmasses in ancient times, before departing for Sinnoh in the age of iron.
Mammon wasn't particularly invested in which version was true. He only knew that he was about to arrive.
Slateport City. A major hub at the heart of Hoenn — sometimes called the City of Dazzling Lights.
"Not a bad place."
Mammon stepped out of the airport and rolled his shoulders, looking out over the city.
"Lord Mammon — word just came in. A portion of our members have already reached Hoenn."
Gladion glanced up from his phone.
The senior staff who'd come along for this operation were just the two of them — Caitlin and Gladion — plus Domino, who had arrived ahead of them through separate channels. Of course, Domino was an intelligence operative by trade.
Gladion was itching to train rather than manage, if he was being honest with himself. But Mammon had entrusted him with real organizational responsibility, and he wasn't going to let that slide.
"Good. Have them converge on Lavaridge Town from their respective positions."
"Understood."
Gladion sent the message.
"Mammon — what's first on the agenda?" Caitlin asked.
"Obviously, we have to go and properly introduce ourselves to the locals."
The corner of Mammon's mouth curved upward slowly.
It was his firm belief that when Team Rocket came to a new region, the very first order of business was to greet the resident organizations with appropriate courtesy.
Anything less would be rude.
Team Magma, Team Aqua — Team Rocket has arrived.
☆☆☆
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