The New Normal – 2-18 – Interlude – Giovanni
Giovanni sat back and watched the re-run of John's winner interview against Drake. He was being truly genuine when he gave his congratulations to John about his victory, and he was very pleased to see that John wasn't someone who let their anger guide them into making bad decisions. He wasn't lying when he said that John's decision to not announce Pryce's failings at the moment was the correct one.
And yet, even then, he was taken aback by John's victory over Drake.
Despite all of the information that Giovanni had compiled about John, somehow the fact that John's battle prowess was so high seemed to slip under his radar. This obviously had Giovanni rearranging his evaluations about John's team and power. He remembered previously asking Petrel if he had a chance of beating John in a fight, and now he realized that Petrel's cautious estimation of John's strength was actually a vast understatement! Giovanni knew that he had no chance to win, not unless he played dirty.
Giovanni felt that it was very fortunate that they discovered John's true strength like this; it would have been disastrous if he had made an enemy of John without realizing just how strong he truly was. Of course, he never intended to break his friendship with John, not when they had accomplished much together, and Kanto's future was, for the first time in a long while, looking very bright.
He was very pleased about their cooperation together as it brought the both of them many benefits. John was very active in making new connections with important figures in Hoenn, and he never forgot to share some of that credit back with Giovanni too. It was good that John understood the need to pay back his debts.
The joint research project that they established in Petalburg was already in the process of being set up, and the fact that he had indirect control over the entire project through Ariana could only be a good thing for Kanto's future. Obviously, he would ensure that any new discoveries and inventions made there would be sold and distributed in Kanto first.
However, the real winner in Giovanni's eyes was the building of the new Devon Corp branch offices in Viridian. International cooperation aside, so long as Johto never gets their own Devon Corp branch, anyone looking to purchase Devon Corp products will be forced to come to Kanto to do so. He felt that it would do wonders for our balance of trade.
Not only that, but with the new branch's inevitable success, more foreign businesses will look to Kanto as a means of increasing profits and set up their own branch offices here as well. The more that foreign businesses invest in Kanto, the more jobs that can be potentially created in Kanto. Thus, the more businesses get established here, the better for Kanto.
An unintentional benefit for Devon Corp's new branch offices that John would likely never realize is that it provides a legitimate reason why Viridian City remained so prosperous despite Kanto's poor economy. Before the new branch was set up, Giovanni had to be very careful about how he used his less legitimate funds into improving Viridian City and its infrastructure.
He knew that savvy investigators would realize that the amount of money flowing around Viridian City was unusually high, and they might unravel Giovanni's schemes as a result. However, with the new Devon Corp branch being created, Giovanni thought that many would just see how successful the Devon Corp branch was and immediately assume that they were the reason for Viridian City's prosperity, not bothering to look further into Giovanni's underground funds.
This also meant that Giovanni would be able to increase the amount of underground funding into Viridian if he wanted to, but he didn't see the need for that at the moment.
He went to pour himself another drink and thought carefully about the future of his cooperation with John. With Lance making a move to be the next Champion, he remained cautious that a Johtonian like him would make for a good Champion, though he certainly would be better than Pryce. Likewise, he agreed with John's assessment that this would be a perfect time for the both of them to capitalize on the political turmoil to grab some extra political capital for themselves.
As a 'mere' Gym Leader, his actions were far more restricted than John's, so he hoped that John would be able to fulfil what he said he would do. He would wait and see and guide John if that ever became necessary. As always, his guiding hand was always ready to steer Kanto in the right direction. Giovanni let out a content smile as he leaned back in his chair and enjoyed his drink.
However, just as he did that, his phone pinged as someone sent him a text.
Giovanni took one look at the message and shot out of his seat with his drink long forgotten. He grabbed his coat and hat and hastily made his way out of the office.
He bumped into Petrel on the way out, and he simply told Petrel to handle his calls and inform everyone that he would be unavailable for some time. Petrel saw the uncharacteristic alarm on his face and immediately nodded without questioning his orders.
Giovanni then made his way out of the Gym in a rush and into the night.
A.N More foreshadowing!
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