Chapter 140: Inheritance

Blue gets his old battle purity back at Viridian

Blue arrives early to Viridian’s biggest arena and immediately slips into the headspace he had at Pewter and Cerulean: just dirt, matchups, and Pokémon. He realizes this final gym gave him something he’d missed for a long time — the “purity” of letting battling crowd out everything else, from Red to ninjas to Rocket.

The dream team, and the guilt inside it

He mentally runs through the team he built for Giovanni: Corviknight, Breloom, Blastoise, Weavile, Gliscor, and the glaring exception — a newly purchased Dragonite. Blue loves the power and symbolism of it, calling it an inheritance tied to Oak, Lance, and Indigo, but he also knows exactly why people will judge him for buying a fully evolved monster instead of raising it himself.

Arno zeroes in on the real question: why Dragonite?

Viridian’s second, Arno, doesn’t make small talk; he asks Blue to show him the new pickup and then asks the uncomfortable question: why this Pokémon? Blue answers with ambition and mythmaking — Oak’s legacy, Lance’s place, Indigo’s signature dragon — and Arno immediately shifts from admiration to concern about whether Blue can actually control something that strong.

A surprise 2v2 turns into a trap for Blue’s assumptions

Arno announces a 2v2 challenge even though Giovanni doesn’t normally run doubles, and he pointedly refuses to explain whether this predicts the badge match or just tests Blue’s adaptability. Blue reads the whole thing as Viridian trying to force him to operate under uncertainty, but he still can’t quite see the lesson.

Corviknight and Weavile get punished fast

Blue opens with Corviknight and Breloom and instantly gets hit by doubles-specific tech he forgot to account for, especially Toedscruel’s Rage Powder redirect. The battle snowballs hard: Stunfisk tanks contact, paralysis ruins Corviknight, and Excadrill helps finish the collapse, leaving Blue staring at how brutally Arno is willing to press the injury-risk edge.

Dragonite wins, but only after Blue hesitates over how much force to use

With Dragonite facing Mamoswine and Excadrill, Blue sees the ugly truth: the safe moves might not one-shot, and if he holds back too much, his Pokémon could get overwhelmed. Arno silently counts him down, and Blue finally commits — Dragonite tanks an icicle spear, unleashes a scorching Heat Wave that burns and cripples both opponents, then blitzes them down with follow-up slams.

The aftermath makes the cost feel real

The win isn’t triumphant so much as intimate and tense: Blue feeds Dragonite chunks of fish, wipes pink blood from its scales, and waits for the melted icicle to fall out before spraying potion. Arno’s only clear feedback is that Blue “almost took too long,” and his cryptic warning — keep Dragonite or something equally powerful on the team — tells Blue the lesson has everything to do with power, timing, and responsibility.

Leaf’s paper trail leads from ninja influence to Giovanni

The chapter then swings to Leaf, who is quietly abusing her investigation access by scattershotting records requests and recruiting Laura, Janine, and Bill, who sends her a hardened computer with an AI backdoor for Eve that she still doesn’t trust herself to use. Janine’s network map of investors, politicians, and suspicious prosperity spikes leads them through names like Erika Yamamoto, Masado Kagayama, and Amanda Kikuchi before a key family line surfaces: Hiromi Tsuru, old Viridian warlord stock, had a secret son — and Janine flips her screen to reveal who that descendant is: Giovanni.