That night.
In a room at Viridian Gym.
Xia Yan was temporarily staying in the room Blue had arranged for him.
"Darkrai, let them out."
Xia Yan spoke slowly from his chair.
As his voice fell, dense, surging Haze rapidly spread through the room, expanding until it completely enveloped the entire space and turned it into a pitch-black world.
Thud—
As the Haze spread, two figures fell out of it.
They were Oka, one of the Three Beasts, looking simple-minded yet with surprise and curiosity in his eyes.
And another of the Three Beasts, Sakaki, her clothes tattered and her brows tightly furrowed, as though her train of thought had been interrupted.
"I've already handed Chakra over to the Pokémon League. In the next few days, they'll commend me for this achievement."
With his arms folded and one leg crossed over the other, Xia Yan looked at the two of them and spoke calmly.
At that—
Both of them abruptly raised their heads and looked toward Xia Yan, whose expression revealed nothing and whose eyes gave away no information.
Oka sat cross-legged on the floor, smacked his lips, and sighed in a muffled voice. "What a pity. Chakra was a capable man."
Xia Yan did not disagree with that.
During the Sevii Islands incident, Chakra had not only handled important combat and intelligence-gathering duties, but had also served as a mechanical engineer capable of developing all sorts of high-tech weapons, including things like "Gundams."
He was somewhat like Meowth from the Team Rocket Trio.
But his ambitions had been too great, while his strength and capacity had failed to match them.
Even if Xia Yan had not appeared, even if he had destroyed Team Rocket's airship, killed Oka, and taken Giovanni's disappearance as an opportunity to claim the position of