Pokémon: Midnight Blue

Almost

Giovanni took a step back in awe of his terrible defeat. He stared at us, teeth gritted so hard that it seemed like he was trying to push them into his gums. His glare scanned past the three of us and locked on me. He picked up his massive hand and pointed a sausage-like finger at me.

"You," his voice trembled with frustration, "Who are you?"

"Me?" I looked at him, completely unaffected by his demand for information, "That's of no importance to you. All you need to know is that I, along with my friends, have defeated you, and you will abandon this operation unless you want to meet the rest of our Pokémon."

"Your fighting style, the way you handle yourself," Giovanni's voice trembled more and more as he spoke. "Why, it's almost as if you were..."

"Almost as if I were who?"

The Rocket Leader regained himself, "No. It can't be. You are far from being a trainer anywhere near his calber."

"Whose caliber?"

"A trainer I've faced many times in the past. I have yet to prevail against him once. He is my greatest enemy, but he also has my respect as a trainer. You are nowhere near being as strong as him."

"Says the guy who just got his ass kicked," a sudden outburst from Robin, "Who is this guy that you keep rambling on and on about?"

"Many trainers fear to speak his name. I do not. I simply loathe the sound of it. In that one name I remember so many times that he has put me to shame."

"Would this trainer, by any chance," the wheels began turning in my head, "be Kira Fakir?"

Giovanni snapped his glare over to me again, then grinned sinisterly, "I believe you've made it clear, young man, that I have overstayed my welcome. Farewell, children. I look forward to facing you all again, individually." His eyes remained fixed on me, "Especially you."

With that, a thick cloud of smoke appeared from nowhere and filled the air to impede my eyesight. As it cleared, we realized that Giovanni had vanished.

"Do you really think," Kylie looked over at me, "that Giovanni was comparing you to Kira?"

"He said it himself," Robin pointed out, "It's almost as if he were."

"What did he mean by 'almost'?"

I stared coldly at the empty space in the room where Giovanni once stood, "Exactly what he said. I'm nowhere near as stong as him yet. But I'm gonna get there. One day. Really soon. And I'll make sure he sees the day."