Postmortem

In the chaotic morning after the storm, Blue visits his grandfather in the hospital. He is shocked to find the normally invincible Professor Oak frail and bedridden, having pushed his body to the limit to stop the rampaging steelix and snorlax. Blue confesses his feelings of inadequacy during the crisis; despite his training, he was largely powerless against the real threats. He realizes he needs more than just combat strength—he needs "social power" to effect meaningful change and protect the people he loves.

Elsewhere in the makeshift hospital, Leaf wakes from a haze of painkillers. As she walks the halls helping the wounded and witnessing the sheer scale of the tragedy, her grief crystallizes into a radical new purpose. She deduces that since their tamed pokemon are conditioned to ignore Pressure and not attack humans without orders, she could theoretically capture every wild pokemon, alter their programming to prevent human aggression, and release them to maintain the ecosystem. It is an audacious, region-spanning goal that would effectively eliminate the threat of wild attacks and render the role of a "trainer" obsolete.

Her newfound resolve is shattered when Red arrives to deliver the devastating news: Aiko is dead. Red coldly explains that Aiko chose to follow Vermilion Gym's Second into a burning, collapsing hospital. Recognizing it as a suicide mission, Red refused to go in after her. Leaf is crushed by the loss of her friend, but before she can fully process Red's detached recounting, Blue arrives.

When Blue learns that Red stood by and let Aiko die, a bitter and foundational argument erupts. Blue accuses Red of cowardice, arguing that being a friend and a journeymate means standing together, even if it means dying together. He insists Red's clinical risk-management approach makes him untrustworthy in a crisis. Red fires back, defending his choice as the only rational response to an unsalvageable situation, and accuses Blue of caring more about maintaining a "heroic persona" than actually saving lives. The argument reaches a breaking point when Blue yells that Red should have died with her. Looking to Leaf for support, Red finds her paralyzed by her own conflicting emotions and inability to side with his cold calculus. Feeling completely alienated from his friends, Red declares that his journey is over and walks out.

Red spends the rest of the day wandering the ruined city, using the time to practice manipulating his mental partition to manage his crushing grief. That evening, he meets with Sabrina—who is conferring with Gym Leaders Giovanni, Koga, and Erika—and demonstrates that the trauma has granted him partial, conscious control over his partition. Impressed by his assessment, Sabrina formally accepts him as her psychic student, permanently altering his path.