Having been put through all that by Vance, in what looked very much like a practical joke, Flint was as hearty as ever about it, and pressed Vance to stay and eat with him.
He did the cooking himself, at that.
Vance did not refuse, and having tasted it found it very good indeed. Brock's cooking in years to come, he supposed, must have come down from this man.
Afterward Vance took his leave, politely declining Flint's efforts to keep him, mounted his Pokémon and flew off toward Cerulean City.
The next Gym for inspection was the one in Cerulean City.
The Cerulean City Gym was a Water-type Gym, currently held on a temporary basis by Daisy, the daughter of the former Gym Leader, who was in charge of the Gym's affairs.
When Vance arrived at the Cerulean Gym there was none of what he had met at the two previous Gyms — no city officials turning out to receive him. Not even the Gym Leader came out to meet him.
*Can they not have got word that I was coming to inspect?*
Vance thought it rather odd, though he did not much care about that sort of surface business.
Better that there was none of it, in fact. Had there been, he would have had to spend some energy dealing with it.
Since the previous Gym Leader had fallen in battle, taking the better part of the Cerulean Gym's best with him, the Gym had dropped in one stroke to being among the very worst in the Kanto region.
The Gym had declined, and yet just now the front of it was lively indeed, thick with people going in and coming out.
Because inside the Gym there was an underwater dance show.
The performers were not only human — there were Water-type Pokémon as well, and that had drawn no small number of people to come and watch.
"The Gym side of the business has fallen off badly, but this show business of theirs is thriving."
Vance stood in front of the Gym watching the crowd file in, laughing among themselves and talking over how Daisy's performance would be this time.
A difference of tastes, perhaps, and it had pulled the whole direction of the Gym's development off course.
And the League, perhaps out of regard for the late Gym Leader, had been turning a blind eye to it.
That had been the burden of what Pemberton had told him before he came. As far as they were concerned, they knew perfectly well how the Cerulean Gym was faring; but they would keep the Gym in place, and however bad it got they would go on propping it up.
"Couldn't get a ticket, mate? I've still got some here, just a little extra on the price and it's yours. This underwater dance is Gym Leader Daisy and her sisters performing, all three of them — you don't get the chance often."
Seeing Vance standing outside the Gym, wanting to go in and yet not going in, with the look on his face of a man turning something over, a young man in a flat cap and sunglasses sidled up and spoke to him.
Taking Vance for someone who wanted to go in and watch but had not managed to get a ticket.
"I'm not here to watch them dance. I'm here on other business. Find someone else."
Vance gave him a glance and answered flatly.
"Come off it, I know, I know — you're just haggling. What else does anybody come here for, if not the underwater dance? Mate, that excuse is one I get all day long."
The man heard him out and brushed it aside.
"Tell you what, meeting's fate — I'll do you a good price. Fifteen hundred Poké Dollars and it's yours."
"No, thank you."
He had already told the Gym he had arrived; why was there still no response? This Gym really was rather poor at responding to things.
"Look at you, you don't look like a man who can't afford it. I'll come down a bit more — thirteen hundred Poké Dollars, how's that?"
"That's enough. Move aside."
Vance put out a hand, moved him out of the way and walked on. Several people had appeared at the Gym entrance, looking somewhat flustered, and once outside they began casting about as though searching for someone.
Vance put on his uniform jacket and walked over to them.
The young man who had been trying to sell him a ticket took one look at that brand-new inspector's uniform and was quite dumbfounded. So the fellow really had not come to watch the show; he really did have business at the Cerulean Gym. That was followed by a rush of relief — thank goodness he had only been touting and had not given the man offence. To have given offence, judging by the look of all this, would have been a bad business indeed.
Vance was not, of course, going to make trouble for him; he was busy meeting the people from the Cerulean Gym.
The one who came out to receive him was not Gym Leader Daisy but other members of staff.
"Inspector Vance, this way, please. Our Gym Leader is already on her way."
The middle-aged man who had come to receive Vance had sweat running down his forehead, and still kept a smile up as he invited Vance inside.
A proper failure of duty, this was. Nobody had read the notice sent days ago; they had all been busy preparing this underwater dance, and it was not until the inspector was at their door that they came to their senses and turned out to receive him.
Worst of all, the Gym Leader was not there in person to receive the inspector. Had she genuinely been away it would have been one thing; unfortunately she was not — she was inside the Gym performing, and that was truly fatal.
He rather felt that the Cerulean Gym was finished this time.
"Yes!"
Clap, clap, clap—
As they came into the Gym, cheering and applause carried out from inside.
Vance smiled, his interest caught.
"Come on. Let's go and have a look over there."
Vance pointed toward where the sound came from as he said it.
"Yes, yes, this way, please. This underwater dance was put together with great care by our Gym Leader. The idea was to build up the Cerulean Gym's name and make sure it doesn't lose its following — to develop a character of its own alongside the Gym battles, and to do something for tourism in Cerulean City as well."
The man explained, trying to patch things up a little for his Gym.
"Mm. A very good idea."
Vance gave a slight nod as he said it.
"It's all right, yes, which is why our Gym Leader is still busy, and we've been a little remiss."
"Remiss?"
Vance looked at him with something that was and was not a smile. This had gone well past remiss — there had been no response at all.
Handled this way, the marks for first impressions were straight down the drain.
"Yes."
The man realised he had said the wrong thing, but answered gamely all the same.
They reached the performance area just then, which put an end to the conversation for the moment.
The performance area was very spacious, converted out of what had been part of the battlefield.
At that moment, in the middle of the floor, several young women were dancing in the water to a flowing melody, graceful in every posture, with Water-type Pokémon alongside them keeping to the same underwater dance.
Vance stood to one side with his escort and watched the underwater dance for a while. It was danced well enough, and a dance performed by a troupe of beautiful girls was a pleasant enough thing to look at.
"Clap, clap, clap—"
In the water, the girls finished a difficult sequence and drew applause and cheers from the crowd.
Vance had never studied the subject, so he had no idea how much artistry there was in it; he only thought it looked good.
Vance simply watched quietly and did not disturb them.
The girls in the water went on with what they were about.
Only the few escorting him wore embarrassed faces, and kept a smile up all the same as they watched alongside Vance.
At any other Gym, at an ordinary inspection, it was the Gym Leader who came out to attend to the inspector. Where else would you get anything like this?
"Rroaar—"
"Hm?"
Vance's heightened perception caught something wrong in another room, and his brows drew together.
There was a low roaring coming from there, and human screaming with it.
By the sound of it, a little girl?
The moment he sensed it, Vance sent his psychic power out to probe, through the wall and straight to the scene on the other side.
He saw a Gyarados thrashing in a pool as though gone mad, roaring over and over.
Beneath it, a little girl in a swimsuit was paddling through the water, weeping loudly, trying to get away from it.
The Gyarados looked the way it did, but it seemed to be holding itself back all the same; it had gone no further, and only went on thrashing in that pool.