It took mere 5 minutes for Zubat to eat the star-shaped cookie that was as large as it, and another minute to help Zubat start metabolizing the protein. Right now, they're inside their mini-farm.
Besides them are numerous Pokémon that have established a friendly relationship with the Pokémon of Hana, creating cries of admiration while flying or jumping around in the training obstacle created and tailored just for Zubat. Some Oddish and Pidgeys are even using it to play with each other when Anthony and Zubat entered the farm. Good thing that these magical creatures are intelligent, prompting the playing Pokemons to immediately step aside and become spectators. Of course, they continue to admire the string-based obstacle course that's modifiable by size and steepness.
The area of the mini-farm of Anthony's family's house is quite large, it was just called a mini-farm because the trees are scarce, and just about the middle of the farm, and some scattered ones at the front for the sake of a shed during plays with pokemons and/or with Hana and Ben. If Anthony is to give an estimate, then it's a little bigger or smaller than a basketball court, or in this world, a Pokémon battlefield.
This actually makes Anthony wonder if it's really appropriate to call something so big 'mini' when farmers in his country literally goes into inter-generational rivalry for the rights of using such large patch of land, but then again, there's are towns in this world that has a full pledged lab, so disproportionality in the scale of reference is normal.
"Alright, let's start."
Anthony looked at Zubat on his shoulder; however, for some reason, even after nodding, the Pokémon didn't fly. Instead, it latched onto the back of Anthony slowly and started making 'Zuu... Zuu...' sound IN his ears, causing the human to be quite disoriented.
_Do you think I'm the King of Team Plasma who can talk to pokemons?_
Anthony sighed; however, judging from the demeanor of Zubat, he immediately said.
"Erm... ladies and gentlemen who want to spectate... It seems like Zubat here is not so keen on having spectators... If you're just so kind..."
Anthony tried to speak as politely as possible, and thankfully, his plea was heard with agreement as all the pokemons, even the Golbat parents of Zubat, either flew away from the mini-farm or went back to the densely forested area of the mini-farm. Zubat and Anthony sighed in relief before Anthony looked at Zubat and picked it up using his hands and crouched down before picking up the weight harness and fitting it to Zubat.
"Is it comfortable?"
Anthony asked as the whole reason for the training will go down the drain if the trainee is not comfortable with the equipments that will be used to it from now on. Zubat made a 'Zuu Zuu' sound as it nodded. Anthony smiled faintly and then started to explain his plan to Zubat.
"Okay, Zubat, for the next months, or even years if you're not so adaptive, will be focused on two things: Flight Endurance and Agility training. These two trainings will be divided into morning sessions and afternoon, with endurance allotted to the former and agility to the latter."
"Depending on your performance today, the time gap between the two trainings will be reduced, however, irrespective of your performance, we will be adjusting the time gap nearer and nearer from each other every end of the week and increase the intensity intensity accordingly and the moment you're able to consistently perform the trainings in one go, meaning you don't need or need very little rest between the exercises, we will use the remaining time to relax you and the afternoon to train your flight control and skill proficiency and will be targeting the acquisition of specific moves."
This training method is the most familiar training strategy for Anthony in his past life, he doesn't know what it was called but he was able to make tons of progress in endurance even with just 3 work outs in his solo sessions in his room by slowly tightening the time gap between the three until there were practically no rest time in-between. Yes, it's tiring, but Anthony, someone who's an amateur in working out, was able to make himself fit to the point of at least not gassing out of air when going up and down the stairs. And now that Anthony has even heard the approval of his mother on this method, he can't see any problems with not implementing it.
After Anthony finished explaining the details of the exercise to Zubat, the Pokemon grew nervous, doubting itself if it can do something so tedious, however, as a trainer, Anthony has to be a little stone hearted, for in being stone hearted will he able to showcase his trust, thus, he ignored Zubat's expression and asked.
"Do you understand?"
Zubat, who's anxious about its ability was startled and 'looked' at Anthony with its metaphorical eyes, and seeing the genuine trust imbedded in the face of its trainer, Zubat knew that whether it can do such a gruel-looking regiment or not, it won't betray the trust put on to it by the trainer who have accepted an otherwise unwanted Pokemon species as a partner.
"Zu... Zuu."
Zubat nodded as it responded while affirming its resolve, which made Anthony smile faintly- if you're scared, then do it scared, as they say.
"Alright, for your first exercise, I want 20 laps from the rightmost corner circling all around the half of the mini-farm with one weight slab put on your back. I'll go inside to grab some books for me to read. If I ever got a report from your parents or any other Pokemons over there that you're slacking off, I'll have you do 30, okay?"
Zubat nodded while landing on Anthony's hands as the man put the slab in the compartment before walking towards the furthest right. A giant umbrella with a chair and a table is already prepared by the construction Pokemons, as they knew Anthony would be hands-on in training Zubat from now on.
"You can start."
Anthony said, in which Zubat, who's on the table, did. It started flapping its wings with difficulty before finally taking off and going straight at a jogger's pace. Anthony looked at the sight of the wavering height of Zubat's flight and sighed. He didn't say anything anymore in fear that he would take further pity and went back to his room to get books. The books that Anthony will be studying will be on the chemistry side, especially analytical chemistry. He doesn't have any problems in converting SI units; however, it's the gravimetry, titration and etc. that he has to know the concept of, and if lucky, to properly learn how to do it too.
While on the way, Anthony grabbed a glass of water and the bed of Zubat in his bedroom.
_Oh, I should also grab a protein cookie._
Anthony chuckled a little on this before going to the dehydrator of theirs to grab a protein cookie before going back to the mini-farm, and as he did, it was just like he anticipated, according to the gestures of mama and papa Golbats, Zubat is only at its sixth lap, but long 'Zuuuuu...' and 'Baaaaaat...' can already be heard, its fur has long been soaked by what seem to be its greatest perspiration in its whole life, these beads of sweat dropped to the ground and made a small trail of the hard work of Zubat. Anthony felt his heart sting a bit at this; however, all of this effort will come to fruition for Zubat, so he again steeled his heart and smiled at the Pokémon, which didn't even have the energy to give such greetings back due to its hardships.
As Anthony sat, however, he could see that despite the wavering height of Zubat's flight and its slow progress, now just going for the 10th circle, the Pokémon was not willing to give up, which made Anthony smile whilst a fulfilling sense of warmth spread in his heart. It feels like a parent saw their child, for the first time, invest their time and energy in a hobby.
Pride, yes, such is the feeling that Anthony has felt just now, which is weird as it's not even a month since Zubat became his Pokémon.
_This is perhaps one of the charms of the world of Pokémon..._
Anthony smirked a little and didn't think of anything anymore as he sat down to read while letting Zubat take its time in completing its 20 laps. He doesn't need scratch papers to solve for titrimetric and gravimetric problems- these topics have a lot of concepts that are harder to understand, while the computation is just like how to convert between meters to kilometers and vice versa.
Or so what he understood on the tour, and he hoped that he could still understand them later at night. And thus, the grind of the Pokemon and its trainer starter and continued for many times, Zubat felt like its little heart is about to explode, every flap of its wings will make it pound like a hammer, even its habit of making small 'Zuu Zuu' sound became a bane of its existence as it made its throat dry faster, however, if Zubat ever dared to stop doing as such, it would render it blind and probably hurt itself more than how its chest already hurts. The flapping sounds of its wings are too unstable to be used.
Thus, Zubat persevered, its once embarrassed demeanor due to its parents being present now draws strength from their silent cheering, and after the most grueling 30 minutes of its life, Zubat was finally able to return from the 20th lap, slumping into the table of Anthony, who immediately gave Zubat the glass of water.
"Zhurghll~~"
Zubat didn't even give itself a time to catch its breath and immediately gobbled down all the contents of the cup before it slumped to the table stomach first. Zubat looked at Anthony, as if checking if its trainer is satisfied with its performance. Anthony, of course, smiled as a response, which prompted Zubat to smile too as it continued to pant. Anthony patted his Pokémon's head before slowly removing the vest.
_As expected, Zubat would be too tired if I tried to make it have a go at the obstacle course. If I ever attempted that, Zubat would be more prone to injury as its flight will be very unstable due to its shaky wings and exhaustion, and might be detrimental to its training rather than the other way around..._
Anthony already knew that it would take a long time before Zubat is able to be efficient in using its stamina, after all, it's just a child and is used to being a fruit bat in a mini-farm that doesn't shoo Pokemons away. He can only be patient in training the kid.
"Zuu... Zuu..."
Anthony, while thinking, suddenly heard the peaceful snores of Zubat.
"He passed right out after drinking water..."
Anthony muttered and just let the Pokémon rest. After all, its next training is still scheduled in the afternoon.
________________
"Are you ready?"
As Anthony and Zubat had lunch, a protein cookie for Zubat and an egg mayo sandwich for Anthony, the trainer asked his Pokémon if they really wanted to continue the agility training. Zubat still looked gassed and barely recovered despite hours of sleeping and resting, which made Anthony worried; however, as expected, Zubat is not someone to just give up, and as a response, it immediately went in front of the rope-based obstacle course that forms a snake-like trajectory all over the half of the mini-farm. Rope-based, as Anthony has said, in a way that instead of having rings as the main obstacle, there are arrows that would guide Zubat where to go, and limbo racks-like obstacles, as well as those military nets that Zubat needed to maze around past, and many others.
All in all, Anthony estimated that, alongside the stamina and endurance training, Zubat would be able to manage doing all the exercises in the morning in 3 or so months.
"Isn't Zubat eager to prove itself to you?"
Anthony looked at his mother, who had just returned this afternoon from her work, and came straight to watch how Anthony trains his Pokémon (though Anthony is not that hands-on). At the question of Hana, Anthony nodded, smiling.
"Yes, I'm glad Zubat's not disheartened by the harshness of the training. Maybe the huge time gap also helps, so I'm not the one to talk."
As Hana nodded and admired the dedication of the human-pokemon duo to becoming a strong two-man unit, Hana's phone rang. She picked it up and saw a profile picture of a boy holding a Treecko.
"It was from Glen."
As Anthony made Zubat start its training, Hana said and picked up the video call.
"ANTHONY! TREECKO STARTED ITS TRAINING!"
The mother-son duo craned their neck away from the phone due to the loud sound.
"I see, isn't that nice?"
Anthony replied.
_____________
Just like that, 3 months have already passed.