[He laughs at the comment about country water. Pallet was close enough to Viridian that he considered it more of a suburb than a truly rural village, the way some towns in Johto were- but for sure, it was peaceful enough that even its proximity to the city could be overlooked. There wasn't much there, other than the lab....]

Hah? Ah.... I never really met with anyone else doing my Gym challenge.... I guess I'll admit that might be one advantage to the way you guys do things over there.

[And little does he know, he never will. Too bad, that; Blue was really looking forward to seeing Red destroy Raihan, the gleeful, prideful kind of schadenfreude he got from seeing Red beat down anyone other than himself.]

[...Red was the only ongoing 'company' he'd had all that time, and that said something, he supposed, considering what 'company' meant in this context. He chews morosely on that fact, and feels himself grow slightly envious.]