Chapter 54: Bloodline Suppression
The video continued playing.
Outside Cerulean Gym in Cerulean City...
Raina stood before the Gym’s entrance, repeatedly taking deep breaths.
Eevee lay atop her head, its tail stretched rigidly behind it.
Gengar poked half its head out of her shadow, only for Raina to immediately push it back inside.
"Stay hidden. This is a formal occasion, so we have to be serious."
"Gengar..."
Raina clenched her fist and knocked firmly on the door three times.
Misty opened it.
Raina took one step backward, her expression extremely solemn.
"I am Raina, a Trainer from Cerulean City. I formally request a Gym battle!"
Misty froze.
"...What?"
"Please accept my challenge!" Raina repeated.
The corner of Misty’s mouth twitched.
"...Stand up straight and speak properly."
"...Mom, could you please cooperate with me?!"
Misty reached out, pinched both of Raina’s cheeks, and pulled them apart.
"What are you pretending for?! You’ve been traveling for a few months, and now you don’t recognize your own mother?"
The pain made Raina grimace, instantly destroying her previous solemn demeanor.
"Ow, ow, ow! Mom, let go! I’m a challenger! I have seven Badges! You need to respect me!"
"Respect, my foot! Get inside! And Eevee, get down from there! I have no idea where you learned all this nonsense."
"Eevee, Eevee~"
Eevee immediately jumped down from Raina’s head and sat obediently on the floor, looking every bit like a perfectly well-behaved child.
"Eevee, you traitor!"
Raina glared at it.
"Weren’t you supposed to help me look intimidating?!"
"Eevee, Eevee~"
Eevee turned its head away, leisurely swishing its tail.
[Regular-Seat Chat Group]
"Hahahahahaha! Her act collapsed instantly!"
"Raina: I’m a Trainer with seven Badges!
Misty: I gave birth to you."
"Misty looked far too practiced at pulling her cheeks. She has clearly been doing that since Raina was little."
"Raina crushes everyone else while traveling, then gets crushed by her mother the moment she comes home."
"This is bloodline suppression."
"Person above summarized it perfectly."
[VIP Chat Group]
[Brock]: Eevee is clearly changing sides according to the situation.
[Gary]: Obviously. It was still helping Raina build her courage outside, but the moment they entered, it defected.
[Ash]: My Pikachu would never treat me like that!
[Pikachu]: Pika, pika~ Looks guilty.
[Ash]: Pikachu?!
[Dawn]: Hahahaha! Eevee is far too practical! The moment it faced Misty, it immediately chose the correct side!
[Piplup]: Piplup, Piplup!
[Daisy]: Misty has been pulling Raina’s cheeks like that since she was little. Raina has developed a conditioned response by now.
[Violet]: And even though Raina keeps insisting she’s a challenger, she didn’t try to dodge when Misty grabbed her face.
[Lily]: That’s the authority of a biological mother. Her mouth protests, but her body knows better.
[Misty]: What’s wrong with disciplining my daughter?!
[Asher]: Nothing. You pulled them well.
[Misty]: You be quiet too! This has nothing to do with you!
[Asher]: ...
[Brock]: Misty is attacking everyone today...
The video continued playing.
Misty dragged Raina through the Gym entrance by one ear while Raina grimaced and protested.
"Mom, let go! I’m an official challenger now! You can be reported for treating a challenger like this!"
"Reported?"
Misty released her and crossed her arms, looking Raina up and down.
"Go ahead and report me. Who do you think the complaint will eventually be sent to? The Leader of Cerulean Gym—which happens to be me."
Raina opened her mouth, then realized she genuinely couldn’t find any way to argue against that.
Helplessly rubbing her ear, Raina looked toward the main hall.
An enormous banner hung across it.
The words had been painted in different colors, and every section used a completely different style of handwriting. It had clearly been written separately by three people and then assembled.
[A GRAND CELEBRATION OF RAINA’S RETURN AND CERULEAN GYM CHALLENGE!]
Beneath the banner, Daisy stood on the left with two cheerleading pom-poms.
Violet stood on the right, holding an inflatable cheering stick.
Lily stood in the center behind a video camera.
All three inhaled deeply at the same time.
"WEL—COME—HOME!"
Raina stood frozen.
Her expression shifted from shock to confusion, then from confusion to embarrassment.
Eevee covered its face with one paw.
Gengar poked half its head out of the shadow, saw the scene before it, and silently retreated again.
"Aunt Daisy, Aunt Violet, Aunt Lily... what are you doing?"
Raina’s voice trembled.
"Can’t you tell?"
Daisy enthusiastically waved her pom-poms.
"We’re holding a homecoming ceremony for you!"
"We spent the entire morning decorating!"
Violet raised her inflatable cheering stick.
"I even dug this thing out of storage! It took forever to inflate!"
"Lights! Camera! Everything is ready!"
Lily pointed toward the camera.
"I’ve already decided on the title of the documentary: The Growth of a Water-Type Master!"
The corner of Raina’s eye twitched.
Daisy approached and poked Raina’s cheek with one pom-pom.
"Well? Are you moved?"
"...Very moved."
"Right? Right?"
"I’m so moved that I want to crawl into a crack in the floor and disappear."
[Regular-Seat Chat Group]
"Hahahahahahaha! I’m dying! What is that banner?!"
"I captured Raina’s expression. It can become a new reaction image called, ’Why Do I Have Aunts Like These?’"
[VIP Chat Group]
[Gary]: ...That is unbearably embarrassing.
[Cynthia]: I think the atmosphere is slightly better than at an archaeological excavation.
[Diantha]: ...Cynthia, why was an archaeological excavation your chosen comparison?
[Cynthia]: Because archaeological sites are what I’m most familiar with.
The video continued.
Raina remained standing in place while Daisy had already begun scattering flower petals around her.
Violet tucked the inflatable cheering stick beneath one arm, took out a whistle, and blew it.
"All right, all right! Next comes the welcoming speech! Lily!"
Lily cleared her throat and somehow produced a sheet of paper.
"On behalf of every member of staff responsible for this ceremony..."
"You three are the entire staff," Raina interrupted.
"Do not interrupt!"
Lily continued reading.
"...We warmly welcome Raina’s return! We have closely followed your performance throughout your journey! When you challenged—"
"Enough, enough, enough!"
Raina snatched the speech from her hands.
"Stop reading!"
Daisy stood beside them and pretended to wipe away tears with her pom-pom.
"This child has grown up. She’s even learned how to snatch away speeches."
Lily produced another sheet of paper.
"It’s fine. I brought a backup."
Raina looked desperately toward the corner.
"Dad! Aren’t you going to stop them?!"
Asher was sitting in a chair with a helpless expression.
"There’s nothing I can do~"
He shrugged.
"Your aunts mean well. You should simply accept it."
"Dad!"
Raina’s expression completely collapsed.
Realizing that she couldn’t rely on her father, she turned her pleading gaze toward her mother.
Misty also looked helpless.
"Don’t look at me. I tried to stop them."
"What exactly did you stop?!"
"They originally planned to set off smoke bombs outside."
"They were planning to use smoke bombs?!"
"That’s why we moved the ceremony indoors."
Daisy approached with a cheerful smile and cupped Raina’s face in both hands.
"Come here and let your eldest aunt look at you... Oh my, you’ve lost weight! Have you been eating properly while traveling?"
Lily walked around behind Raina and began inspecting her hair.
"Your hair has grown quite a bit. What shampoo have you been using?"
Raina remained silent for a moment.
Then she gave up resisting.
Not every battle was worth fighting.
Confronting her three aunts, for example, was something she had been losing at for ten years. She had no expectation of winning this time either.
Eevee and Gengar had already retreated to a corner.
Gengar pointed toward Raina, but Eevee shook its head. The two Pokémon unanimously decided not to involve themselves in human family affairs.
[VIP Chat Group]
[Mallow]: Raina’s family is so lively~ Her three aunts arranged an entire welcoming ceremony together. It might be embarrassing, but it also feels so warm!
[Lana]: And the handwriting on that banner really is completely different from word to word. You can immediately tell that all three of them wrote separate sections and joined them together.
[Steven]: I noticed that Brother Asher never moved throughout the entire scene. He didn’t even adjust his sitting position.
[Wallace]: That comes from experience. He knows exactly when to play dead.
[Lance]: Intervening in a situation like that would only redirect everyone’s attention toward him.
The video continued playing.
Cerulean Gym.
Daisy placed a plate of sliced fruit on the coffee table. Lily pushed Raina down onto the sofa, while Violet emerged from the kitchen carrying a steaming cup of cocoa.
"Here. Drink something warm first."
Violet pressed the cocoa into Raina’s hands.
Raina took a sip, and her eyes immediately lit up.
"It’s our family recipe!"
Violet chuckled softly.
"Your mother made it especially for you. She said you would definitely want some when you came home."
Raina immediately hugged Misty’s arm.
"Mom treats me the best~"
Misty poked her forehead.
"So you do remember that I’m good to you. Yet the moment you came home, you started putting on that ridiculous act."
Raina playfully blinked.
"But I was being serious~"
Misty looked at her and remained silent for a moment.
Then the corners of her mouth curved upward.
"...All right."
Misty turned and headed toward the Gym’s battlefield.
"Since you want to battle, then let’s do it~"
Raina froze for a moment before rising and following her.
[Regular-Seat Chat Group]
"It’s here! It’s finally here! The Cerulean Gym battle!"
"Mother versus daughter! This is what I’ve been waiting for!"
"Misty must have been waiting for this moment ever since the day Raina left on her journey."
[VIP Chat Group]
[Leon]: The moment has finally arrived. Raina has returned to the starting point of her journey, this time as a challenger.
[Erika]: Misty watched Raina grow up, so she knows all of Raina’s battling habits. Conversely, Raina also understands Misty’s tactical style extremely well.
[Gary]: That means this battle won’t be decided by who prepared more thoroughly. Since they both understand each other, victory will depend on who can produce a strategy the other doesn’t expect.
Cerulean Gym’s battlefield.
Daisy stood on the referee’s platform. Once both competitors had taken their positions, she raised one arm.
"This will be a two-on-two Gym battle. Only the challenger may freely switch Pokémon."
"Raina, although you haven’t been traveling for very long, I’ve witnessed how much you’ve grown. As your mother, I’m proud of you."
Misty paused before throwing her Poké Ball.
"But that is exactly why I’ll give this battle everything I have."
Red light flashed.
A powerfully built Blastoise landed atop one of the floating platforms in the pool.
"Raina," Misty said, "show me how much you’ve truly grown."
Raina remained silent for several seconds before taking a deep breath.
"I understand!"
"I’m counting on you, Blastoise!"
Raina’s Blastoise likewise landed on a floating platform within the aquatic battlefield.
The two Blastoise stared at each other and simultaneously lowered their bodies, preparing for battle.