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In Vermilion City, Leaf is overwhelmed managing the group's sudden media explosion. The market impact of their abra distribution is reshaping Kanto's economy, but Leaf finds herself compulsively arguing with toxic forum commenters, eroding her sleep and focus until she asks Red and Blue for help managing the PR. Taking a break on a skyscraper roof with Aiko—whose shiny eevee is now recovering from genetic lung surgery—Leaf learns of Aiko's ultimate ambition: to become a Tracker and find mythical pokemon. Aiko reveals she once witnessed Ho-Oh, the Guardian of the Skies, an encounter marked by an unnatural, bone-vibrating Pressure.

Blue begins training at the Vermilion Gym, a sprawling, military-style campus. During a lesson with the Gym's Third, Sabra, Blue is introduced to "Objections"—wooden tokens trainers wager to resolve disputes and earn trust—and the Gym's fluid Priority command system. In a mock drill against a rampaging dragonite, Blue demonstrates his leadership by proposing a dedicated field-medical strategy, impressing an older trainer named Glen who gifts Blue an Objection token.

Red receives his official Researcher License. Feeling content, he signs up for beginner classes at the gym and tests a new battle-code system inspired by Aiko's hidden commands. Facing two trainers, Taro and Chie, in a double battle, Red uses generalized strategy commands disguised as words like "Hold" to coordinate his charmander and oddish, alongside numerical directional cues to dominate the match against their mankey and drowzee. His celebration is cut short when he checks his email: Sabrina Natsume, Saffron's Gym Leader and Kanto's strongest psychic, has invited him to a private meeting. Realizing she might probe his mind, Red panics as he remembers he is carrying a dangerous secret.