"Why? With your qualifications, you don't even need an internship—you could directly inherit a Gym."
Clair remained silent.
At the same time, news that Lance's cousin, Clair, had lost to Red quickly spread.
Back at the Gym, Ash and Gary—who had stayed behind to look after things—exchanged glances.
"Didn't Master say he was handling important business? How did he suddenly end up competing in a tournament?"
In Saffron City, Sabrina frowned as she watched the report on TV.
"What is Red doing on Champion Island? That's not a good place…"
As a member of Team Rocket, Sabrina knew very well—
a major operation was about to take place on Champion Island.
Instinctively, she picked up her phone to contact Red.
But when she saw their chat—completely empty since adding each other—
her temper flared up. She tossed the phone onto the bed.
"Hmph! Why should I worry about that guy?!"
"And last time, he pinned me down and almost made me embarrass myself!"
But at that very moment, a message popped up.
It was from Red.
In the photo, Red was holding a variety of street food, wearing a handsome smile.
"I recently came to Champion Island for a tournament. The food street here is great—the squid is especially good. Next time, we should come here together."
The moment Sabrina saw the message, she didn't hesitate—
and walked straight out of the Gym.
Her disciples immediately rushed over.
"Gym Leader, didn't you say you were going into seclusion? Where are you going?"
Looking at these disciples—whose psychic powers had shown no improvement—
Sabrina felt irritation rise instantly. She replied coldly:
"Do I need to report my whereabouts to you?"
"Instead of wasting time on meaningless formalities, go train your psychic powers!"
Hearing her icy tone, the disciples fell completely silent, not daring to say another word.
...
After sending the message, Red put away his phone.
In his view, relationships required maintenance.
So he had sent the same photo to two people—
one was Sabrina, and the other was Joy Xue.
Joy Xue replied with a "maybe next time" sticker.
As for Sabrina—
there was no reply at all.
Red sighed slightly in disappointment.
"Looks like meeting just once isn't enough to build a solid relationship."
Still, he didn't mind.
After all, as long as he sent enough invitations—
someone would eventually accept.
Of course, Red hadn't considered what would happen if everyone showed up at once.
At the border between Cerulean Gym and Pewter Gym—
Joy Xue looked at the message Red sent and murmured:
"I just finished the evaluations for both Gyms… maybe I should go to Champion Island for a while?"
The moment she thought of Red, she couldn't help but recall—
how he had firmly grabbed her hand at the police station, almost forcing her to leave with him.
And later, in the backyard, the sight of him training shirtless, his muscles glistening with sweat.
Her face flushed slightly.
"…I'll go take a look while I'm at it."
"Besides, it seems like a lot has happened at his Gym since last time. I didn't really help much…"
...
After defeating Clair, Red found that the remaining opponents posed even less of a challenge.
With Larvitar, he easily defeated all of them—
becoming one of only two contestants to achieve a perfect record in the preliminaries.
The other undefeated contestant was someone named Xiao Ai—
the towering, 1.9-meter-tall man Zheng Xiong had mentioned, who used identical Pokémon.
After talking with Zheng Xiong, Red had already guessed—
that "man" was Mewtwo in disguise.
After all, aside from Mewtwo, who else could produce so many Pokémon with identical levels?
Still, thinking about a 1.9-meter-tall burly man named "Xiao Ai"—
Red couldn't help but find it amusing.
But despite that, he remembered the name.
At the time Mewtwo was cloned, it wasn't the only one—
the Kanto starters and a human girl named Xiao Ai were also cloned.
Xiao Ai was the young daughter of Dr. Fuji, who had died early.
When Mewtwo was still in its infancy, Xiao Ai communicated with it through telepathy.
She became its only friend.
One could even say—
if not for Xiao Ai helping Mewtwo establish a basic sense of meaning in life,
it might have become a world-destroying monster from the moment it was born—
instead of a Pokémon searching for its purpose.
Unfortunately—
the three starter Pokémon and Xiao Ai all failed in the cloning process.
Only Mewtwo survived.
And the fact that Mewtwo still used the name "Xiao Ai" showed just how lonely it was.
In that sense, Red could actually understand Mewtwo.
After all, as a transmigrator—especially one reborn from infancy—
when he first arrived in this world, he had also felt the same kind of loneliness.
As if he didn't belong.
It wasn't until about ten years later that Red gradually integrated into this world—
taking the Songzao Gym as his home, giving his restless heart an anchor.
Leaning back on the bed, Red sighed.
"Sigh… no point thinking about all that."
"When the main tournament begins, I'll show Mewtwo—"
"even with the same species, same potential, and same strength…"
"just how big the gap between them can be!"
At that moment, Ninetales suddenly tugged on his arm.
"Let's go, Master! I haven't finished exploring the food street yet!"
"After the tournament, who knows when we'll come back to the island!"
Hearing this, Red nodded.
"Alright, let's go."
Ninetales had already changed out of her shrine maiden outfit and into a cute light-yellow dress, happily clinging to Red's arm.
Meanwhile—
Mewtwo looked at the list of qualified participants for the main tournament.
Without hesitation, it placed Red in the bracket farthest away from itself.
"A worthy opponent… should be saved for last."
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