"Get up, get up! Come on, Butterfree!"
"Hold on, Butterfree!"
The people in the arena were cheering the Butterfree on. Perhaps it is only that the weaker side comes by pity more easily.
And the way Sandslash looked at present, it did rather look the villain.
"Freee—"
The Butterfree got itself into the air with great difficulty, and Sandslash gave it a Slash without the least ceremony, knocking it up and away to come down along a curve.
Pitiable you may be, but this is a competition field.
How should Sandslash give it a chance? On the strength of the shouting of those two-legged beasts?
Not a hope of it.
It would not leave off until its opponent was thoroughly beaten.
It stamped down with both feet, and several currents of force ran away through the ground towards the Butterfree, and the power of the Ground type burst open beneath it.
"Bang—"
It was blown into the air again, rolled off to one side and did not stir.
After thinking it over, Sandslash even trotted across to take a look. There. Now it could be easy in its mind.
Another victory won for its Trainer. Sandslash was Sandslash indeed.
A pat on the back for itself, first of all.
Both claws behind its back, belly thrust out, the very picture of a victor.
"I thought there would be a miracle. It couldn't stand against that Sandslash after all."
"Talk sense. How was it to win? Do you not know how strong that Sandslash is? It isn't even afraid of a Charizard."
"The light of us Bug Catcher boys goes out in the end."
"Getting this far is good enough. This Trainer called Vance seems to be an ordinary man himself."
However much the people regretted it, it made no difference to the running of the tournament, and Vance went through to the last 64 on another lopsided record.
...............
"Damn. What rotten luck."
Kai Farrow came down off the field cursing and grumbling. He had lost.
The opponent he had drawn was one of the favourites for the title, Elspeth.
Not at all surprisingly, he had lost, and lost very badly indeed.
One Pokémon had swept all six of his, and beaten the temper out of him.
Remembering that he had been hauled up and lectured twice made him angrier still.
Damn it, everything that had gone wrong for him was that Vance's doing.
Ahead of him a tall man in gold-rimmed spectacles, greying a little at the temples, stood waiting for him.
"Who's that, daring to stand in my way? Do you take me for an easy mark?"
Kai Farrow roared it out. He was choking with resentment, and at a moment like this somebody was blocking his path.
He looked up at the man, and the impatience on his face turned to delight on the instant.
"Grandfather, how is it you're here?"
Kai Farrow was glad of it. His grandfather was here — so could he strike back again now?
He knew what his grandfather's strength and methods were worth.
Very fine indeed, so fine that nobody could find fault with them.
"I came to see what has been going on with you. The League people here got in touch with me to say you had broken the tournament's safety rules and been warned twice."
Gerald Farrow said it with a frown.
"It's all that Vance's fault. If it weren't for him I'd never have come to this. That bitch Cerise is mixed up with him too, and it's because of him that I lost so badly in the tournament."
Kai Farrow said it with hatred, his face twisted.
"Tell me. Set the thing out clearly."
Gerald Farrow said it in a heavy voice.
"It was like this. You told me to court that Cerise, didn't you, and who would have thought the bitch was mixed up with this man........."
"So my two men are with him now, alive or dead I don't know, and when I went to find him I was humiliated by him, and that's how the two warnings came about."
Kai Farrow set the business out with a good deal added to it.
Gerald Farrow heard him out with no particular reaction; instead something else came into his mind.
"If your Drowzee went with them and was taken as well, then the other side must certainly have Gym-class strength. The man's ability is no small thing either, and at that age, I fear there is no limit to what lies ahead of him."
What a man of his experience thought was naturally not to be compared with the notions of a raw boy like Kai Farrow.
"Then what's to be done about it, grandfather?"
Kai Farrow understood the weight of it as well, and asked at once.
"By the look of him there will be no smoothing this over, so we shall have to use other methods."
A cold light showed in Gerald Farrow's eyes as he worked through it carefully.
"Other methods?"
"Yes. Before this it might have been hard to manage, but now....." Gerald Farrow smiled, and then said, "Now it is not hard at all."
"Not hard now? What method is there?"
Kai Farrow was rather at a loss. Just then a gloomy old man came up and stood beside him, and the clouded eyes fixed on him made him a little uncomfortable.
He was on the point of demanding where this old beggar had come from when he saw his own grandfather speaking to the man with courtesy.
"Elder Vayne, thank you for the help your people gave us this time. It is why my old partner has been able to take that step and enter the Near-Champion realm."
Gerald Farrow came forward and took the man's hands in both of his, warmly.
"What! Grandfather's Pokémon has broken through to Near-Champion!"
Kai Farrow was startled at first, and then wild with joy.
If that were so, their Farrow family would rise more than a whole level again.
And as the eldest young master of the Farrow family, the power he could call on and the resources he enjoyed would be greatly increased over what they were now.
He did quail inwardly at this gloomy old man, though, above all when those cold eyes looked straight at him.
But that did nothing to spoil his joy.
Ha ha ha, this was splendid. His grandfather had made another breakthrough, and the power of the Farrow family would rise again.
Vance, Vance. However fine you may be, what of it? Can you match me?
Once the tournament was over, he would let the man see what the Farrow family of Saffron City was worth.
At the very worst, let his grandfather's Pokémon that had broken through to Near-Champion out, and would he not come quietly and give himself up?
In a moment the good news had washed all the pent-up bitterness out of Kai Farrow's heart, and nothing was left but a brimming pleasure.
To one side, Gerald Farrow had fallen into talk with this Elder Vayne, settling certain matters between them.
And at this time Vance did not know that Kai Farrow was thinking how to deal with him, nor that this Farrow family would be producing a Near-Champion Trainer.
Just now he was busy with the match from the last 64 into the last 32.
The opponent he met this time was stronger than the ones before as well, with one Pokémon of Gym-class fighting strength among them.