Exhibition Tour (1)

"An exhibition tour?"

In a conference room with an enormous round table, several of the Kanto Region's Kings had gathered. As the youngest among them, Gongping was assigned the new round of King exhibition tours.

Lorelei smiled and handed Gongping a promotional brochure. "Every season, the region's Elite Four have to visit several cities to hold exhibition matches. This is the public relations work the regional League values most. And this time, the League specifically requested you as our representative."

As the new Sandstorm King and a young prodigy, Gongping was naturally a major focus of publicity, so the League's higher-ups had designated him to take part in these rounds of exhibition tours.

After officially joining the League's Elite Four, Gongping had registered all the Pokémon he currently owned in the League's system. There were seventy-eight in total, with Steel-, Ground-, and Rock-type Pokémon accounting for more than fifty of them. He truly lived up to the name of Sandstorm King.

However, considering that Gongping belonged to the Kanto Region's Kings, the League also hoped the Pokémon he usually carried with him would preferably be from the Kanto area—that is, primarily Pokémon from Kanto and the D Region.

More than a dozen of his Pokémon met the League's requirements. Swampert, who had attracted the most attention at Gongping's Regional Conference this time, was instead one the League hoped he would keep as a mainstay. After all, this Pokémon had already become his trademark.

"What kind of people will I be facing on the exhibition tour?"

Exhibition tours had appeared in the original anime, too. Even then, Gongping had wondered how those competitors were selected. At any rate, they certainly would not suddenly show up to challenge him the way Ash did.

Lorelei swayed, making a certain pair of things bounce a few times, before continuing, "They're all trainers who placed in the top three at Regional Conferences over the years, local Gym Leaders, or trainers ranked in the top thousand in Pokémon magazines."

Gongping ignored those two swaying things and continued considering the exhibition matches. "Any other requirements?"

"You have to show the bearing of an Elite Four member in battle."

How was he supposed to show that?

First, Gongping's entire outfit was replaced. The League had specially commissioned clothing for its regional Elite Four, all from local designer brands and made with top-quality fabrics. Compared to his regional travels, when he generally carried only a few sets of durable clothing, the League had spared no effort on an Elite Four member's personal image.

"Then where is the next exhibition match?"

"Vermilion City."

"My opponent won't be the local Gym Leader, will it?"

If it was just Lt. Surge, Gongping felt there would be little point. After all, he had challenged the Vermilion Gym before.

"Of course not."

Watanabe coughed several times and opened the file. "It's a famous local beauty who trains Pokémon. She was runner-up in the Regional Conference four seasons ago, and also won the Pokémon Contest Conference in the Hoenn Region two seasons ago."

Bruno burst out laughing at that. "A beautiful trainer, and a Coordinator at that. Beauty and the beast-now that's something everyone loves to see."

Liu Ping's battle with Gongping a few days earlier had received a good response. At the very least, the internet had erupted over the match. With his violent, ferocious style, Gongping had been dubbed the Tyrant of Sandstorm. Pitting such a fierce man against that delicate beauty of a trainer-the League certainly was not worried about making too much of a spectacle.

"The first exhibition match will take place in three days. The exact venue is a luxury cruise ship in Vermilion City."

Once the exhibition match agenda was finished, the next topic grew serious: the current work assignments and responsibilities of the Elite Four.

"Tracking down special criminals-Gongping, are you sure you want to take on this work?"

Those the League classified as special criminals were all exceptionally difficult to deal with in certain areas. The leader of Team Rocket, for instance, possessed an enormous network of underworld connections and powerful armed forces that the League could not readily handle. Other criminals were utterly vicious, their methods extremely bloody and cruel, while they were also cunning and difficult to trace.

"My fighting style is sometimes better suited to these missions."

Gongping's bluntness made Watanabe, Bruno, and the others exchange looks. Soon, the Kings nodded, agreeing to let him take over this area of work for the time being.

At present, the most disruptive force in the Kanto Region was Team Rocket, which was suspected of illegally capturing all kinds of Pokémon. Many trainers had also been victimized, with numerous treasured companions stolen from them, so the League's main attention was currently focused on Team Rocket.

Gongping's strength was not in question, but for missions against Team Rocket, Watanabe still felt it would be safer to have the veteran Bruno accompany him. As for Agatha and Lorelei, their work would remain primarily focused on culture and education.

"Team Rocket will be conducting an operation at Mt. Moon soon. Gongping, Bruno, sorry for the trouble, but I'll leave it to you two."

Most of the subsequent work arrangements had nothing to do with Gongping. They mainly concerned assessments of the Gyms in various cities. Some Gym Leaders had their League ratings lowered because their pass rates were too high, while other Gyms were likewise disciplined for having excessively low pass rates.

The League's Gym assessments focused primarily on deviation. The pass rate for trainers taking Gym Challenges was unsuitable if it was too high or too low, and Gym Leaders had to weigh the various assessment criteria themselves.

Six of the Gyms had failed their assessments for several consecutive seasons and were stripped of their Gym status, demoted to ordinary training halls. The Ghost-type Elite Four member Agatha was then assigned to select from several candidate Gyms.

"Lorelei, how is your coordination with Professor Oak coming along regarding the Pokédex entries for the newly added Pokémon in the Kanto Region?"

"Three new Pokémon have been added, and Professor Oak has finished upgrading the Pokédex. Next, Pokémon Centers in every city will make the upgrade fully available. In addition, two Pokémon Centers have applied for renovations and upgrades. I inspected them in person, and they really are a little run-down. The older Poké Balls also need replacing. Quite a few have shown signs of stuffy, damp air inside and discomfort among the Pokémon."

Lorelei's work primarily involved liaising with Pokémon Centers everywhere. She was responsible for all sorts of work at local Pokémon Centers, including preparing medicines, selecting the types of Poké Balls to distribute, and filing trainers' budget expenses. Compared with the other three Elite Four members, her work was the most tedious, but also the most important.

The three Elite Four members reported on their work. Bruno was currently responsible for the League's public security work and would also search for special criminals alongside Gongping. Besides those matters, Gongping had an exhibition tour to carry out. Lorelei and Agatha looked even busier, dealing with all kinds of matters, large and small.

The Elite Four's points system differed from that of regular regional tournaments. The League allocated points based on how well they met their routine work targets.

Consequently, in the usual Elite Four challenges, Bruno always had the lowest score among the four. That way, once someone initiated an Elite Four challenge, there would be enough buffer time to avoid disrupting Lorelei's and Agatha's work.

Watanabe's mention of this also illustrated the importance of Bruno's position. Thus, the fourth, "bottom-ranked" Elite Four member also had to be brought out as a target, and Gongping became the current Elite Four member most easily challenged.

"Prepare for the exhibition match in Vermilion City first!"

Several days later, enormous fireworks lit up all of Vermilion City as a luxury cruise ship slowly approached from the distant sea. This exhibition match would be held publicly aboard the ship, and television stations throughout Vermilion City were broadcasting it live.

"An exhibition match featuring the new Sandstorm King!"

"That barbarian? Let me see—his opponent is Sister Sally?!"

A trainer spoke in disbelief. In his mind, Gongping epitomized a savage, crude style. He had never expected him to face Sister Sally, the goddess in their hearts, in an exhibition match.

It was practically beauty and the beast, and that guy was a bona fide member of the League's Elite Four. Shali might...

"What are you worried about? Sister Sally only just missed taking first place in the region back then. Besides, she's devoted all her energy to Pokémon Contests these past few years. None of us can judge her true strength, but I believe she'll definitely teach that barbarian a lesson."

His companion beside him spoke with a smile. Clearly, as a diehard Shali fan, he believed the goddess in his heart would surely defeat that barbarian.