Umbreon and Gengar were both asleep, but for entirely different reasons, with drastically different consequences.
Gengar had fallen asleep because Umbreon's Ability, Synchronize, allowed it to transfer its own status conditions to the opponent.
But because Gengar was part Poison-type and couldn't be poisoned, only the sleep condition was synchronized.
However, Umbreon had fallen asleep due to Gengar's Hypnosis -not through the move Rest- so it wouldn't regain stamina, health or recover from status conditions. Meanwhile, Toxic was still taking effect.
One wrong move… and the result of the battle was practically decided.
"Gengar, Snore."
"Umbreon, Sleep Talk!"
Gengar let out a thunderous Snore while still asleep; and even in sleep, Umbreon's brows furrowed involuntarily.
The next moment, Umbreon suddenly sprang up and let out a few "Um Um" cries toward Gengar.
Sato pressed his lips together. The Eevee line doesn't use sound-based moves, so judging from the behavior, the move was… Charm?
'…'
Karen couldn't help twitching at the corner of her mouth. Now even luck wasn't on her side. Although Umbreon also knew Snore, Normal-type moves had no effect on Gengar.
"Gengar, Snore!"
"UMBREON, SLE…E-EPP TALK!" Karen nearly gritted her teeth shouting the move.
Snore didn't have particularly high base power, but it was a consistent and reliable source of damage.
As for Sleep Talk…
"Umbre!"
Umbreon suddenly lunged at Gengar and chomped down hard on its head: Bite.
Umbreon's expression didn't go full dark, but using Bite through Sleep Talk was enough to cancel out the damage from two Snore attacks.
"Gengar, S…" Sato began to call out again, but stopped mid-command.
In the arena, Umbreon suddenly let go and collapsed straight to the ground. Its sleep-induced sparkle eyes had turned into spirals, and upon closer inspection, its body was continuously bubbling with poisonous mist.
Amid the astonished stares of the crowd, Umbreon had succumbed to the effects of Toxic while still asleep.
"Umbreon has lost the ability to battle. Gengar wins, and the winner of this match is Gym Leader Sato!"
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
-----
…One month later
Johto Region, Shadownight Town, Shadownight Intelligence Shop.
Sato stepped into the former boss's office. At the desk, Wester was buried in paperwork, not even looking up as he sighed and said, "Have you found someone? You've had me doing free labor for a whole month… I haven't even kept up with training."
Just as he finished speaking, Wester noticed from the corner of his eye that two people had entered. He quickly looked up toward the door.
"Things at the Gym have more or less stabilized. I asked Amber to take over here so you'll stop complaining every day," Sato said, as cheerful Amber followed behind, smiling while examining the elegant and refined room.
"Good, good… Amber, we can transition duties anytime. The Intelligence Shop is pretty stable now too. Whether to expand or shift direction, that'll be up to Sato," Wester said, setting down his files with a relieved expression.
"Thanks for everything this past month. If there's ever anything you need, just let me know. I'll help however I can," Sato said earnestly, offering a sincere thank-you.
One month ago, Sato had thought everything was in place for the Gym's opening ceremony. Yet in the end, they'd still run into a shortage of manpower.
Victor, the former owner of the Shadownight Intelligence Shop, turning against them had been something Sato didn't expect. But under those circumstances, there was no way Sato could continue letting Victor control Shadownight Town's most iconic core industry.
After all, while Sato wasn't the mayor of Shadownight Town, he already regarded it as his stronghold.
How could he allow someone to snore next to his pillow? The Shop dealt in intelligence gathering, and over the years had amassed an enormous amount of data and information. It had detailed insight into every aspect of Shadownight Town.
So after resolving the "issue" with Victor, Sato had only one thought in mind: the Intelligence Shop had to be brought fully under his control.
That way, the Gym wouldn't need to run any side businesses, the revenue from the Shadownight Intelligence Shop alone could provide a steady source of funding.
At the time, however, Sato didn't have the right person on hand to manage the Shop. In the end, he had to turn to Wester from a large family to take over and stabilize the situation.
As for Sato himself, this past month had been spent handling the aftermath of the Gym's opening ceremony.
At the opening, Sato had battled both Lance and Karen, scoring one win and one draw, an incredible performance that instantly made Shadownight Gym a must-visit challenge destination for nearly every Trainer in the Johto Region.
Each day, the number of challengers registering to battle started in the double digits. From dawn onward, people crowded outside the Gym; half of them local residents just watching the commotion, the other half an endless stream of Trainers coming to register.
Fortunately, most average challengers were stopped by the newly recruited registered Gym Trainers, like Sina and Akira.
For them, this month had been as intense as any training they'd ever experienced… maybe even tougher. But the constant battles had pushed their growth at an incredible pace.
And because most of them were locals from Shadownight Town, they were actually more favored by the townspeople than the rarely seen Sato.
After all, these were their own kids. Seeing them achieve success brought a real sense of pride and joy when people talked about it.
As for the stronger challengers, Sato had to handle them personally. Even then, he was averaging no fewer than five battles a day, and every one of them was "high-quality".
Although there were plenty of challengers, not many Badges had been awarded. Most of them were given out in cases where Sina and Akira failed to hold off the challenger, and the challenger performed decently enough for Sato to approve it.
But those handed out directly by Sato were extremely rare.
Each time one was awarded, it caused a minor sensation.
Gradually, challengers began to understand that while Shadownight Gym didn't restrict participants by level, only those with five or more Badges stood a chance of facing "Gym Leader Sato" directly.
For proud and ambitious Trainers, once they realized the Gym's "unspoken rule," they no longer sought such "low-value" Badges.
With the challengers' enthusiasm slightly tapering off, everyone in the Gym could finally relax a bit. After all, handling that level of challenge frequency had made even support and logistics a heavy burden.
Just look at Joseph… after being overworked by Sato, he had visibly lost weight. Even Chansey and the others were starting to give Sato less-than-friendly looks.
"I didn't bring Amber here just for you two to hand off responsibilities. I also want to talk with you about what direction the Intelligence Shop should take moving forward. Are we really going to keep running it the same way as before?"
Sato sat down with Amber in front of Wester and continued speaking seriously.