"What do you mean, a governor is coming to stay at our dojo for a few days?!"
Bumiao grabbed Grey by the collar and shook him like crazy.
He'd only been the Gym Leader for how long, and he was already bringing people to stay at the dojo all the time!
And they were always pretty girls!
"Grey, you…"
Green, sitting on the sofa, blinked. She covered her mouth—shaped into a perfect "O"—with one hand, clearly shocked by what Grey had said.
Not long ago, right after Grey replied to Caitlin, he'd called an emergency meeting at the Fighting Dojo.
Everyone thought something serious had happened. They'd even been ready to bring out their Pokémon and fight.
And then…
Grey said that late tonight, he was going to bring Governor Caitlin back to stay here.
"Sabrina, say something! Grey's bringing someone into the dojo, and you're not reacting at all?"
When Grey didn't answer, Bumiao immediately turned toward Sabrina, trying to drag her onto the "battlefield."
"Caitlin already talked to me. I knew about this."
Sabrina sat beside Grey, one hand lightly resting over the back of his hand.
She'd known about Caitlin from the very beginning.
Caitlin was coming to deal with her psychic powers.
For Sabrina, this had once been something that tormented her as well.
In Sabrina's eyes, since she'd run into a Trainer who was suffering from the same problem, of course she should help.
It was that mutual understanding between psychics.
So when it was brought up, Sabrina had nodded and agreed.
And she had been the first one to agree.
"Uh…"
With Sabrina confirming it, Bumiao didn't know what to say for a moment.
"Fine. If you're okay with it, Sabrina, then I guess I'll raise my hand and agree too."
With the numbers against him, even if Bumiao wanted to vote "no," he couldn't stop Caitlin from coming.
As for asking Silver?
Yeah, forget it. One look and you could tell that guy was on Grey's side.
If he didn't stab Bumiao in the back, that would already count as a win.
...
...
Before they knew it, time reached midnight.
Saffron City glittered under the late-night haze. Even out in the suburbs, it was brightly lit.
It didn't feel like night—more like a nightclub district.
Grey was already standing in the airport's arrivals hall.
The electronic display showed that the flight from Sinnoh would be landing soon. Staring through the glass curtain wall at the ink-black sky outside, he couldn't help thinking of yesterday, when he'd come to pick up Steven.
But Steven and Grey were buddies—picking someone up at the airport wasn't exactly something people could twist into gossip.
Well… aside from certain unhinged clickbait accounts.
This time, though, he was picking up the governor herself.
If someone snapped a photo, it would be easy to spin into a story.
So Grey had come fully prepared.
"Thanks for coming with me to pick her up."
Grey had his hands in his pockets as he looked at Sabrina, who stood straight as a pine tree, completely unmoving, and he spoke with genuine gratitude.
"It's fine. Psychics can sense each other. If she really is like people online say—if she has extremely terrifying, volatile energy—then when the plane is above Saffron City, I'll be able to feel it."
Sabrina spoke softly, her eyes gradually turning a deep blue.
Psychic power flowed through her gaze. Without even looking up, she could sense everything in Saffron City.
Every blade of grass, every tree—nothing could escape her grasp.
"Having psychic powers really is nice."
Grey clicked his tongue, sighing in admiration.
Sabrina's psychic ability was already comparable to an Elite Four-level Pokémon. Covering all of Saffron City with her psychic power was just part of her daily routine.
He wondered what Caitlin's level was like.
If she was slightly weaker than Sabrina, that would make her easier to keep under control.
But if she was stronger, and she went berserk…
The consequences didn't bear thinking about.
Still, Grey felt that Caitlin's psychic power probably wasn't as absurd as Sabrina's.
At the very least, Sabrina's whole setup was basically "bugged mechanics + insanely inflated stats."
Caitlin probably only had the "inflated stats" part. Whether she was also a mechanics monster… that still needed to be seen.
"She's here."
Sabrina suddenly lifted her head, her gaze locking onto the sky above the airport.
Deep in the night, a pure-white private jet tore through the clouds.
On its wings, a rose-red family crest gleamed beneath the floodlights.
That emblem belonged uniquely to Caitlin's family in Sinnoh.
As the landing gear touched the runway, the glass of the entire terminal trembled.
Once the jet came to a stop—
The cabin door opened, and a girl with long golden hair stepped down.
From a distance, her delicate face looked a little cold. Even her eyes carried the feeling of "keep your distance."
"She kind of looks like you."
Grey nudged Sabrina with his elbow a few times, teasing her.
He remembered it clearly—when he first took Sabrina in, that was the exact expression she'd had when she woke up.
Cold and emotionless, without the slightest warmth.
You couldn't tell what she was feeling at all, like nothing in the world mattered to her.
"Yeah. A little," Sabrina said, not denying it, as she carefully observed Caitlin.
Then she raised her hand, a faint deep-blue glow gathering at her fingertips.
A ripple of psychic power—almost invisible to the naked eye—quietly spread outward.
In the distance, Caitlin suddenly stopped. The coldness on her face eased little by little.
The tightness at her lips softened, like a glacier meeting a warm current.
Psychic power brushed past her hair, and the young lady from Sinnoh casually swept a strand aside—then finally noticed the two of them inside the airport.
Because they were still too far away, Caitlin wasn't sure if it was Grey.
She took out her phone and snapped a photo.
[Sleeping Beauty: I'm here. Are the two of you the ones standing there? image.jpg]
[Dojo Annihilape: Yep, that's us. Come over.]
Grey had just locked his phone screen when he looked up and realized the pickup area was already empty. Caitlin was nowhere to be seen, like she'd vanished into thin air.
Just as he was wondering what was going on—
Tap.
A hand in a lace glove suddenly landed on his shoulder.
Cold spread instantly from the point of contact. The hairs on the back of Grey's neck stood up.
"That's kind of scary, Caitlin."
Grey patted his chest as he turned his head—and saw Caitlin standing right beside him, a few heads shorter than he was.
"Sorry… I didn't mean to…"
Caitlin's voice was a little soft. Paired with her doll-like appearance, it was impossible to stay mad.
And she really hadn't meant anything by it.
She'd only wanted to call out to Grey.
"It's fine."
Grey reached out, but quickly froze with his hand hanging in midair.
He'd instinctively wanted to ruffle her hair, but then remembered they weren't that familiar yet. So he gave up on the motion and awkwardly scratched the back of his own head instead.
"Right—do you want to go straight to the dojo, or do you want to eat something first?"
"Straight to the dojo. My family doesn't let me eat at night."
Caitlin answered without hesitation.
"Works for me."
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