[...Okay, there are obviously some things that should be said and some things that shouldn't, but Ishimaru has never really been good at the whole...topic-avoidance dance. He's never seen the point, for one thing; he's always had all the subtlety of a steamroller, for another. For yet another, he tends to have a bit of a hard time knowing what he can say and what he can't - the ability to do the mental speed chess required, to know what will get further questioning and what won't, has always been something he has difficulty with.

However, this is reasonably straightforward, right? Obviously don't explicitly say what he was actually doing (and if he can avoid it, don't bring up the damn tranquilizers, as apparently that worries people), avoid mentioning Rocket activities, just try to power through this as best he can. When in doubt, brute-force it. Come on, Ishimaru, you can do it.]

W-Well, I'm sure you remember what we told you back in Cherrygrove - about how we might need to leave on business once in a while! That was what we were doing; business took us to Pewter City for a little while, that's all!