Perception

Red and Blue analyze Koga's likely team composition, mapping out branching possibilities for Blue's upcoming Gym battle. Red finds himself increasingly fascinated by the competitive meta, a shift from his trauma-tainted memories of Vermilion. Blue decides to rely on his newly evolved kadabra, "Tops." The pokemon grew and evolved rapidly thanks to Red's psychic projection of mortal terror, proving the brutal "adverse improvement" method works. However, Red is terrified of the ethical implications and fears Leaf's reaction if the technique spreads and trainers begin mentally debilitating their pokemon for power.

Satori arrives, radiating a profound calm after successfully using Miracle Eye to merge minds with her Dark-type sister. She confirms the technique bypasses Dark immunity without causing harm, meaning Dark humans can now be targeted by Teleport. Blue tests this with Tops, and they discover a complication: the kadabra instinctively initiates a merger with Blue, a natural side-effect of their training bond. While his immunity is suppressed, Blue is vulnerable to any psychic attack. Though briefly hesitant to surrender his lifelong shield, Blue embraces the risk.

During the Fuchsia Gym battle, Koga publicly praises Blue's vision and announces that Fuchsia will embrace a new culture of innovation. The six-on-six match begins highly tactical. Koga relies on his weezing to lay down Toxic Spikes, while Blue counters with Light Screen from his magneton. Observing with his partitioned mind, Red realizes his detached state allows him to predict the battle flow, seeing the threads of potential futures collapsing as the trainers skillfully swap through an ivysaur, golbat, slowbro, forretress, rhydon, and arcanine. When Koga sends out his Alolan muk, Blue finally brings out Tops. The kadabra effortlessly sweeps the muk, along with Koga's haunter and venomoth, earning Blue the badge. Addressing the stunned crowd, Blue credits the Miracle Eye breakthrough to Red and Satori, and boldly declares he will return to Saffron to challenge Sabrina next.

At a Saffron Gym press conference the next day, Red reflects on how much he enjoyed collaborating with Sabrina as she eagerly learned Miracle Eye herself. However, he is carefully restricting his partitions around her, knowing he cannot bring up meta-honesty without exposing that he suspects she is hiding a dark secret regarding her missing student.

Sabrina gracefully cedes the spotlight to Satori and Red. As Red fields scientific questions, he notices the conspicuous absence of Rowan, one of Sabrina's older students, and feels a pang of unease when Elite Karen angrily questions the political implications of their discovery—realizing that Dark individuals might now be pressured into unwanted mind-reading. The conference concludes with an impassioned speech by Satori. Sharing the profound joy of finally feeling her sister's emotions, she urges society to abandon its lingering superstitions against Dark humans, affirming they are no different from anyone else. Watching from the stage, Red notes that both Blue and Sabrina react to the heartfelt plea with unusually vulnerable, uncertain expressions.