"What?"
Daisy went blank. What did that mean? All of a sudden she could not quite follow it.
She looked at Vance and saw the League uniform he wore — so he was a League man. And now he said there was something the matter with their Gym; what was the matter, exactly? She did not follow.
"Gym Leader Daisy, surely you did not fail to look at the notice I sent down?"
"Ah? You're Vance, the Conference champion?"
Daisy gave a start, and looking at him properly she recognised the man in front of her.
"Yes, I am Vance. I have come to inspect the Gym. These are my credentials, Gym Leader Daisy, and if you do not believe me you may look me up on the League's official site."
Vance held up the credentials, his tone strictly official.
"I......I believe you."
Given the way he carried himself, and given his recent fame, Daisy did not need so much as a glance at the credentials; she did not doubt a word Vance said.
Then she thought of the state the Gym was in just now, and her face went white again. Facing an inspection from above in a state like this?
At that moment she realised she had done something stupid — and not only that, but that an uncontrolled incident had happened right in front of the inspector.
She turned her eyes to the Gyarados, which had been swatted once with a tail and was now playing dead, and she felt very like killing it. Of all the times to kick up a commotion like this!
Not that she could have killed a Gyarados.
As for the Gyarados, having been worked over by Vance's Gyarados, its eyes were no longer red and the whole creature was no longer mad. It lay quietly under the water, not daring to show its head.
The one of its own kind was far too strong. That presence alone pinned it where it was.
Even the drugs churning in its body seemed to be held down, and soaking in this stretch of water felt comfortable.
Invisibly to the eye, as the Gyarados lay in the water, faint motes of pure Water-type power drifted off it of their own accord and dissolved into the water.
"Let's wrap this up first. Deal with it, and we can talk about inspecting the Gym afterward."
Vance indicated as much. People were starting to drift over to gawk; because of the performance there were plenty of them about, and the scene was in disorder.
"Yes."
Daisy and the others heard him out and hurried off to organise things and restore order.
With Vance there they had no need to worry about the Gyarados stirring again — not with that other Gyarados standing over it.
"Are you all right?"
Vance turned his head to look down at Misty beside his feet.
"I'm...I'm all right."
Misty shook her head as she answered.
"Good. What happened to it? How did you provoke it?"
"I didn't know it was in here. My sisters wouldn't play with me either, they were all outside performing, so I was playing in here. It was a bit dark in the water, and somehow I went into its mouth, and I was so frightened I got straight back out of there — but it startled it as well."
As she spoke there was still fear on Misty's face. She had had no small fright from that Gyarados, and just thinking of the scene set her whole body trembling.
What came after that had been more dangerous still. Luckily he had saved her.
Beside him, seeing how calm and clear his bearing was, with that unfathomable Gyarados standing there as well, Misty felt extraordinarily safe.
*This* was a strong Trainer who could really control a Gyarados.
When she looked at that Gyarados she sensed not the least trace of savagery about it — instead there was a presence clear as water, pure and cleansing. To sense that on a Gyarados made Misty doubt herself.
But it was genuinely there, which could only mean this Gyarados was no ordinary one.
Another person's Gyarados raised to a state like that; while their own Gyarados — Misty glanced at the Gyarados still paddling about and shook her head.
There really was no comparing them. Whether a Pokémon was good or bad was something a human could judge to some extent by eye, and in this she was a little unlike other people, and could see more than most; she got on well with Water-type Pokémon, too, and so she paid them particular attention.
If she really had to compare, all she could say was that their own Gyarados was a sorry specimen — put it in a television drama and it would be playing the villain.
"It will be all right."
Vance ran a hand over her hair as he said it.
Even if he had not come today, she would have been all right.
Had anything happened to her, there might well have been no her later on.
"Mm-hm."
"Gyarados, we're going."
He recalled Gyarados and walked out.
Once they had finished with all their busywork, it would be time to carry out the inspection he had come to the Cerulean Gym for.
"Most of the Gym's funds were spent on things other than Pokémon. What was all that for?"
Vance looked through the Gym's records and asked.
"Er, er — that would be the Gym's path of development, developing a character of its own."
Daisy and the others did not answer; they stood there quietly, and it was the same middle-aged man who had received Vance who spoke up.
From what Daisy and the others called him — Uncle Bertram — he was an old hand at the Gym, who had long helped the Gym Leader run the place.
With none of them opening their mouths, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and stand in.
"And what about the raising of Pokémon? How has that been let go so badly?"
Vance raised another problem he had found. This one could not be faked either; you could see the Pokémon for yourself.
"Since the old Gym Leader fell in battle, the new Gym Leader has only just taken over and is still finding her feet, which is only natural. The city bureau understands the position too, and is arranging to second a specialist here to advise, and next year the Gym will certainly be built back onto the right track."
"Very good, very good."
Vance said nothing further. He made another round of comparisons and, with the several of them accompanying him, looked over the whole Gym. The figures they had provided were true; but the actual state of the Gym was terrible.
There was nothing wrong with the records. It was the running of the place that was a muddle.
This Cerulean Gym was not performing the function of a Gym in the slightest.
Vance was thinking that they would do better to hand it to Team Rocket to develop — anyone of theirs would be a great deal better than this lot.
"Miss Daisy, the man is from League Headquarters this time. You'd better do rather better in this battle in a moment. If you flop again, there's no telling whether the old Gym Leader's name will still carry you."
Bertram found a gap and warned her.
At the mention of battling, Daisy's face went sour. She was what she was; how was she supposed to fight?
Her standard of battle really was dreadful.
She turned her eyes to her younger sisters — skipping Misty automatically, who was still far too small.
"Don't look at me, I'm no good at battling either."
"Don't look at me either. I can't even match you."
With her two sisters like that, Daisy had a headache coming on. The Cerulean Gym really was done for this time; all she could do was see how much of her dead father's name was left to trade on.
"Right. The Gym Leader's battle capability will now be assessed."
Everything else had been inspected; they had come to the assessment of the Gym Leader's level of ability.
Daisy had no choice but to stand in. The two of them took their places on the battlefield, each sent out a Pokémon, and the battle began.
A few minutes later Daisy walked off the field dejected. She had lost, and lost cleanly.
Her showing in the battle did not bear talking about.
"Your Gym really is poor. The funds aren't being put where they should be, the Pokémon don't pass muster in either number or quality, and the Gym Leader's battle strength is hopeless. How do you expect to keep a Gym going like this?"