~Soutarou POV~
Soutarou stared at her and said, "You really won't tell me the secret?"
Kaede tilted her head and flashed him a motion of her lips being sealed by making a zipped motion before she threw the 'zip'. Soutarou rolled his eyes and pretended to pick up the zip and unzip her mouth all while tilting her chin up at him and saying, "Tell me."
Kaede shook her head and said, "When you're strong enough. Not yet. The repercussions of that truth are too deep, though I'm guessing you might already know something if you know about Summers and Takashina. Let me warn you… Do not dig further into those people or the people behind them will also look into you and they won't let go once they take a proper glance at you."
Soutarou's eyes narrowed and he said, "It really can't be that-"
Kaede sternly and completely seriously said, "Soutarou. Even I don't carelessly look into those two… I'll be blunt with all my strength even if I went all out. If I peered too deep or did something unintentionally those people wouldn't even leave behind my corpse. They're strong enough that even I'm weak in comparison, even with Latios."
Soutarou's words got stuck in his throat and he just let it go before saying, "Alright. Just answer one thing for me… Are Gym Leaders Clair, Jasmine, and Whitney people I should avoid?"
Kaede's eyes glazed for a moment and she softly nodded saying, "As expected you do know something… Soutarou whatever you know, just keep quiet about it. Let's go…"
Kaede walked quickly in front of Soutarou as if her mood had drooped a bit, before she went to Soutarou's side and just said, "Hand."
Soutarou put his hand out and Kaede intertwined her fingers with his tightly as if afraid he'd disappear and she just silently walked with him. Soutarou, trying to take her mind off whatever the secret was, asked, "So what did you leave to go do?"
Kaede answered lightly, "Nothing much, just submitting my inspection report of Pewter along with the re-evaluation date."
Soutarou nodded and said, "Can you… Can you inspect Cerulean while Misty's here?"
Kaede paused and finally nodded saying, "Alright…"
The pair reached the Pokemon Center and Kaede had already slipped her hand out of Soutarou's before suddenly tippy toeing and kissing his cheek and saying, "Don't worry too much ok? Just try to get strong and all the answers will come by themselves."
Once they walked in they were met with a newly dressed yellow. She wore a beautiful butter warm-yellow cropped utility jacket over a silky mock-neck pale inner layer. She also had a new summer styled straw & leather designer hat that had a floral accent to it.
Her once utilitarian boots were replaced with off white sleek trainer-hiker hybrids, with yellow accents. Her pants were switched for high waist pleated shorts with knee high socks. Even her accessories were… To be blunt. Gorgeous…
Thin gold hoop earrings, a simple bracelet, and a brown pokeball embroidered design side bag, with a similar circular metal clasp, it was the premium, M. Corp expansion bag design. She'd even redone her normal look… Her lips were glossed, her hair in a new pony tail, her eyelashes were prominent due to the light mascara and her demeanor no longer gave that shy-girl softness… No it radiated… confidence.
Soutarou gaped at her with his jaw dropping and Kaede smacking him, and him having to apologize, before Yellow softly said, "D-does it look good?"
Soutarou nodded vigorously, "Very. Good job Misty!"
Misty shook her head and said, "I only helped her with the pony tail and the touch up, she's a fashionista through and through. I guess her previous situation blocked a whole lot of her talent huh?"
Soutarou nodded and said, "That's the greatest pity of our world… The amount of talent that goes unnoticed. Still, at least we were able to help Yellow."
Yellow blushed and coquettishly looked away, batting her eyes at Soutarou, in such a way that he almost felt his heart jump out of his chest.
Kaede pursed her lips before running off into the rooms they'd booked in the Poke Center, before she came out in dazzling fashion in an all pink outfit with a mini beret, a collarless short coat in a dusty rose wool-crepe lightly cinched at the waist with a matching belt. Her inner lay consisted of a silky satin blouse in pearl pink with a high, soft neckline. While she wore high waisted wide leg trousers in a warm rose beige, and glossy ballet flats. She carried herself an air of pride holding her small top-handle straw milk leather bag daintily.
Soutarou put his hand on his chin and bobbed his head and in appreciation with his eyes staying on her a bit longer than needed, 'She kind of looks like those ladies from the 1950s… Except the pencil skirt got replaced with trousers… Huh… But damn…'
Misty stared at the pair of girls and grumbled before heading off and coming back out in a cropped aqua windbreaker, with a soft mint colored inner layer, simple utility shorts in bright tangerine. Alongside a pair of white trainers with orange highlights and aqua panels. As for her accessories she simply had a waterproof sling bag in a frosted aqua color, tiny starmie-shaped studs, and a short necklace with her Key Stone on it.
Soutarou nodded approvingly, 'This could actually be her new day to day outfit, and it redefines her look… Though… Honestly… I kind of prefer all of Misty's and Kaede's old looks… This is fine once in a while… As for Yellow I'm sure she has a normal outfit too.'
Soutarou just told them what he thought and all the girls rolled their eyes. Yellow nodded and said that she had another daily wear outfit ready. She went to the room and came back out in the same hat and shoes, but a simple white and yellow flower sundress instead of the upscale fashion version of her old outfit. To which Soutarou gave a big thumbs up and muttered, "As expected… You're all beautiful as heck…"
Kaede rolled her eyes, Misty pursed her lips, and Yellow's eyes flashed with something unknown. The group stayed together for a bit, before Misty retired early for the night saying she needed to prepare for tomorrow. While Kaede and Yellow ran off to God, sorry Llama, knows where.
And so the night came to an anticlimactic close…
~The Next Day, Soutarou POV~
Feeling absolutely drained and somewhat fried, with a deep yawn and a stretch of his arms Soutarou woke up.
'Strange… Why do I feel so tired? I dreamt about…'
Soutarou's eyes glanced back at Ralts whose head was steaming and her face was all red, while holding her hands to her mouth in a way that screamed 'guilty.' Soutarou's face twitched, but he said nothing; he was instead more focused on something entirely else…
Looking down at the two apple stems that were bluntly just leftovers, Soutarou scratched his chin in contemplation….
'Will this really work?'
Soutarou called Servine over and had her hold the leftover only for it to disappear and for Servine to have question marks show up on her face as she glanced around in confusion. All the while Soutarou's eyes lit up.
[✨Servine ✨( ♀️)
…
Held Item (s): Leftovers (Servine's item capacity has been hit)
…]
[Item Description: Leftovers restores health once every 10 seconds, even outside of battle, as long as the holder is outside its Poke Ball]
'Hehe… I knew it… It's a bit sad that Servine can't hold items in the system anymore… But that doesn't mean she can't physically hold anything else… Though… How do I retrieve items?'
'Do I just click the leftovers-'
Immediately a blue flash appeared in front of Soutarou and the half eaten apple returned. Servine again grabbed it at Soutarou direction making the apple disappear and Servine stared in curiosity. Before Soutarou left the item and did the same with Milotic.
'Honestly… This'll make the whole battle a bit like bullying… But Misty's also a noticeable amount stronger than her anime counterpart by now… So perhaps she'll surprise me. I'd be really surprised if she somehow managed Mega Evolution. But that wouldn't make sense. She just got Gyarados, and forget that…. She barely just got over her fear of Gyarados and even that is sketchy as to whether she actually got over it or just forced herself to ignore her fear because of a greater fear of being weak…'
'Though that might not necessarily be a bad thing… A Misty with a great desire for power and a Misty who just gets handed power are two very different things… Hell she might even reach Champion Level in this world… Because I can feel it… She suddenly has a drive to get stronger.'
'Though honestly speaking… I definitely have a protagonist's aura right? Because there's no way in two days of knowing Misty I changed her whole outlook on life and then in the next three days she got over a fear that's plagued her for her whole life right? Weird… but somehow it makes sense… Misty and I got clicked really well I suppose… That and people in the pokemon world get attached way more quickly and easily compared to my old one.'
'Must be the Pokemon effect… Well not like I'm complaining… But seriously this world is also messed up… Well no point in worrying about that right now… Let's focus on this upcoming battle.'
Soutarou recalled Servine and Milotic who were both still curiously looking around for where the leftover apples went, before finally heading out of the room. He headed to the cafeteria where he saw Kaede, Yellow, and Misty already gathered and eating breakfast. So he quickly grabbed some items from the cafeteria's buffet and sat down with them before turning to Misty and saying, "Well… What's the plan?"
Misty seriously said, "What else. You'll challenge like a normal challenger and I'll be the one to battle against you."
Soutarou shook his head and said, "No I meant should I walk to the gym with you or not?"
Misty raised an eyebrow and said, "Why would that matter? Let's just take our time with breakfast and then we'll go."
Soutarou paused and pursed his lips before saying, "Do you want more time to prepare?"
Misty vehemently shook her head and said, "No need. Three on three. Everything else will get sorted once we get over there."
Soutarou nodded before finishing breakfast and firing off a message to Sebastian about what pokemon to keep his eyes open for and gather. The group walked into the gym, finding a large crowd gathered around in the arena's seating area as Misty's sisters prepared for their noon water dance. Misty sighed deeply while Kaede pretended not to notice anything and Yellow just curiously watched.
Soutarou on the other hand had his hand on his chin and stared with seriousness as he thought, 'Damn Misty's sisters are way more stacked than her… I choose wrong. Can I get yesterday's offer again…?'
Kaede noticed Soutarou's face and pinched his waist in indignation, while Misty thought Soutarou was being serious in preparation for their battle and she smiled and stared forwards in contemplation. All while Yellow just looked at Soutarou and glanced down every now and now blushing.
The group watched for and as the show ended and the crowd thinned, Soutarou glanced around seeing only two other trainers left other than them, which made him confused. Not that there were so little trainers, but rather who was sitting there.
'Is that Dawn? Or rather Platinum? Wow… Wait isn't that Hilda? What the hell? Why are those two together? Huh.'
Soutarou stared at them for a moment, before Dawn who was chatting with Platinum glanced at Soutarou and then locked eyes with him. Soutarou felt a weird feeling for a moment, before she flashed him an awkward smile and waved at him. Which Soutarou reciprocated. As the trio of Cerulean Sisters cleared the field, Dawn and Hilda went to the trio and from what Soutarou was able to gather asked to challenge them only to be turned down, because their pokemon were still injured.
Worse, the trio offered to give the pair the badge for free. Which made Kaede narrow her eyes and looked at Soutarou with the look of, "how am I supposed to defend this?"
Soutarou made a pleading look at her and she rolled her eyes before glancing back at Dawn who had looked at Soutarou in confusion. Which Soutarou caught, but pretended not to see, deciding to keep his focus on the upcoming battle.
The trio of sisters lit up seeing Soutarou and Misty and quickly ushered Misty to the gym leader's side before one of them tried to take the referee position only for Kaede to take over after showing her prosecutor badge. Soutarou watched as they moved over before Dawn and Hilda annoyedly asked, "Hey, Gym Leader, how can you deny our challenge and accept someone else's?"
Daisy politely shrugged saying, "My sister is filling in for us and she was already challenged by that gentleman over there yesterday, so once she's done with this battle if she's able you can challenge her. I truly apologize."
The duo grumbled, but said nothing else sitting down in the viewing area next to Yellow who had released her pokemon and was feeding them the Poke Blocks Soutarou had bought for her. The two girls introduced themselves to the shy yellow who stuttered and introduced herself, Chuchu, Chicky (Torchic), and Froggy (Froakie) to the duo…
Meanwhile Soutarou and Misty were now on opposite ends of the battlefield facing off against one another. With Misty's eyes burning with resolve and determination to show Soutarou her strength. On the other hand Soutarou was calmly looking at Misty and admiring her new confidence and demeanor.
Kaede coughed into her fist drawing everyone's attention including her elder sisters who were now sitting on Yellow's other side. Before Kaede announced, "Trainer Soutarou challenges the Cerulean City Gym and acting Gym Leader Misty! The battle will end when either the Gym Leader's pokemon are unable to battle or challenger fails to do so. Both sides will use three Pokemon, the Gym Leader cannot switch Pokemon and will reveal their Pokemon first."