"Is that so? If you haven't enough to go on with, I could put up some backing for you."
Seeing the sorry state they were in, Vance made the offer.
"No, no, we've nearly saved it up, we've enough."
James refused in a hurry, and Jessie was of the same mind.
Taking money from their old superior — how could they bring themselves to do it? At any rate, the two of them could not.
That left Meowth with a torn look on his face, until Jessie thumped him on the head and he opened his mouth and said no as well.
"Very well. If you do need it, you can get in touch with Ambrose as well; he can put something together. And I wish the three of you good progress."
Vance nodded, and left it at that.
"Yes, yes, thank you very much."
The trio felt a warmth in their hearts at that. They really had fallen in with a good man. He was not even their leader any more, and he still cared about them, and had found them backing.
It was terribly moving.
"Drink up, drink up."
Vance urged them to it, and five people and one Pokémon sat round the table over their tea.
When they had drunk, they all went on to other things — every trade and profession, nothing left out — and the talk went very pleasantly.
After a long while of it James looked at the time and signalled to the other two.
"Set your mind at rest, Chief. I, Meowth, have the experience now, and there's absolutely no chance of that accident happening a second time — eh?"
Meowth felt Jessie pushing him from behind and took the hint at once.
"Well then, Chief, we'll leave our call there. Good luck at the Conference."
James and Jessie stood up and made their goodbyes.
"Just so, just so. Good luck at the Conference, meowth."
Meowth put in after them.
"You could stay the night here. I've rooms enough."
"No, no, we've somewhere to stay ourselves."
After a round of declining, the trio left all the same.
Vance saw the trio off and went back to talking with Emery and Ambrose.
"We were about to have a sponsor just then. Jessie, what did you hit me for?"
Once they were outside, Meowth did not understand it.
"Didn't you read The Ways of the World in Human Society? Didn't you take any of it in? How could we bring ourselves to do it? Besides, when we can stand on our own feet, going and asking the Chief for backing would only make us look useless. Better to do without it."
Jessie answered him. At any rate she could not bring herself to do it.
The Chief had been good to them and had looked after them a great deal, and now that they were no longer under him he still cared about them like this. How could they bring themselves to take his money?
Even if it meant setting up a stall, even if it meant selling sushi, they would not take it.
"Mm, mm."
James nodded along with her, very much in agreement with what Jessie had said.
"Meowth, I haven't got to that chapter yet, but I understand now. I, Meowth, will prove it — prove that the Chief was right to put his support behind us."
Meowth raised both paws, full of spirit.
"All right, all right. If you want to prove something now, go and catch a rare Pokémon. Never mind all this business."
..................
That night Emery and Ambrose stayed on at the villa, and it was not until the next day that they left, off about their own affairs.
After the two of them had gone, Nolan and Cerise came along together, and that day too was passed in going about and enjoying themselves.
The three of them felt not the least urgency or pressure before the tournament, unlike the other Trainers, who were racing the clock and still labouring for a breakthrough before it began.
On the day of the tournament the grounds of the Indigo League Conference were a sea of people, noisy and packed.
The seats were full before the matches had even started, and the standing room was jammed as well.
When Vance arrived he had to push through for a long while before he came out of the competitors' tunnel. Once his identity had been verified he found himself a seat in a corner and waited for the matches to begin.
Information about the matches would be shown on the great screens above the grounds, and would also be sent to Trainers' Pokédexes or phones.
High up in the grounds, people were gradually taking their seats.
Vance looked over. A few of the faces were quite familiar. Anyone who could sit up there was League high command.
Steven, Cynthia and others appeared one after another, attending this Conference on behalf of other Leagues. On top of that, the two of them had not yet become Champions and their names did not carry the weight they would later, so their places had been set somewhat further back. Beside them were the seats of the Elite Four who had come in from the other Leagues, and a little further forward sat the Elite Four of the Kanto region.
Lorelei of the Elite Four, slender, wearing a pair of glasses, with the air of an elder sister used to being obeyed.
Bruno of the Elite Four, muscles knotted all over him, his face dark, giving off something wild.
Agatha of the Elite Four, her hair gone white, a kindly smile on her face.
And the Dragon-type of the Elite Four, Lance, who came down out of the sky on a Dragonite and into the grounds in a fine, handsome attitude.
"Wah!! It's Lance of the Elite Four!!"
"He's so handsome!!"
"Lance! Lance!"
Lance's handsome entrance set the grounds below in an uproar, with any number of girls cheering for him.
Of the Kanto Elite Four, Lance was the most popular. His handsome looks, his hatred of wrongdoing, and his spending all his days striking at crime had carried his name past the other three.
"I can't bear it. The man is such a show-off."
Lorelei rolled her eyes and looked at Lance waving to the crowd, with nothing to say to it.
"Ha ha, that's Lance all over. He'll go without the warmth so long as he's got the style."
Bruno laughed his open laugh and scratched his head. He looked thoroughly guileless, and with his dark skin he might have been a farm boy, very easy to get on with.
"I don't understand it."
Lorelei said it, at a loss.
"That is the grace of you young people, too. It's a fine thing."
Agatha said her piece as well, watching Lance come towards them, and looking very much gratified. There were people to come after them.
The League's future still needed young people like Lance to take it up, and old bones like theirs would have to give way.
"Oh, come, Auntie Agatha, don't talk like that. You're not old at all."
Lorelei answered.
"Ha ha ha. Old, old."
Lance came over, paid his respects to his elders first, and sat down in his own place, with Lorelei beside him.
He had no sooner sat down than Lance felt a cold air he disliked. He did not have to think about it; it was certainly the woman next to him.
He turned his head, and Lorelei looked over at the same moment. The two of them met each other's eyes, and distaste rose in both.
"Hmph."
"I won't argue with you."
Neither could stand the sight of the other.
Bruno was in the seat on Lorelei's other side. Seeing all this, he only went on smiling his guileless smile.
Agatha watched the two of them squabble with a kindly look on her face as well.
At present the Kanto region had no Champion, only the Elite Four.
It was not that they were too weak to have a Champion. It was that they were too strong, and that was what left them without one.
Any one of the four of them, set down in another League, would have been fit to hold the Champion's seat. It was only that they had all ended up in the same place.
Of the Elite Four, Agatha was old and had no wish to contend for the Champion's seat, and the strength she showed was always just enough and no more.
Of the rest, Lance had the better of Bruno, but came unstuck against Lorelei — and Lorelei, in one tournament, had lost to Bruno.
And so this strange chain of victories had come about.
Later Lance had roused himself again and beaten Lorelei on his way at the Champion's seat, only for Lorelei to make a breakthrough of her own after that defeat and beat him once more, just as he was about to take the top place.
So the struggle between the two of them had gone on, a mad round of one-upmanship: you beat me, and next time I beat you. And before anyone took up the Champion's seat, there were several days set aside for challenges.
With the two of them performing like that, it was not only the League's own officials who could not decide which to choose — the public argued about it too, some for Lance, some for Lorelei.
The two had much the same weight of support behind them.
The League's high command looked at this and decided to let it take its own course.
And so it was left. Not settling on a Champion would do, and it suited well enough.
Having no Champion in these circumstances brought no other ill effects either. The other Leagues would not laugh at them for it — they would envy them.
As for the Champion's seat, they would let time decide it.