Could something strange have happened?
Baimu was about to call out Dragapult and ask when a commotion broke out nearby.
"Mayor Shan Ren!"
"Mayor, you're finally here!"
He looked over and saw Shan Ren striding toward the site with several others, his face grim. Shan Ren didn't notice him and hurried inside.
From outside, Baimu could faintly hear him shouting.
"Where are they? You still haven't gotten them out!?"
"People won't go down, and Pokémon won't go down. What about the machines!? You have all those construction robots—use them!"
"Don't give me that ghost-story nonsense. Ghost-type Pokémon are everywhere!"
"Four or five out of every ten people here used to live in the Underground City. It's only been a few months, and now they're afraid to go home? Don't make me yell at you! Get moving!"
Baimu winced. The guy was in a foul mood. Who had set him off?
Several residents gathered nearby, though, seemed to be enjoying it.
"Hahaha! Little Brito got yelled at again!"
"Told you he couldn't make decisions. He's not cut out for this!"
"Oh, give it a rest. You think the mayor has worse judgment than you? Why didn't you go when he organized the trip to Silicon Beryllium City to study?"
Brito...
One of the troublemaking kids from Azure Iridium Street.
Baimu remembered him. He also knew not everyone wanted to become a Pokémon Trainer.
Back then, people had no choice. If they didn't compete for a place on the Quicksand Team, they had to mine underground without ever seeing daylight, exploited to the bone, or work themselves into the ground in sweatshops with next to no safety measures.
Now that they had choices, they naturally wanted to try other things.
Brito had taken a keen interest in construction. He seemed born to