Anthony also realized that Hana, his mother, most probably has this philosophy when training Pokemons, after all, before a Charizard becomes a Charizard, the imposing and terrifying dragon that never was, it's still a relatively frail, and rather childish Charmander. There's no way someone so doting can make an already built for greatness Charizard greater than its bred counterparts with a different philosophy, after all.
_Is Anthony treated as a Pokémon?_
Anthony can't help but muse; however, he knew that the times when he could ask his mother about hands-on intervention of his mother on his training, and he is sure as hell that he won't waste it, thus, he immediately asked.
"The... Then... what should I do, especially at this time when Zubat is still a child?"
This is what Anthony is curious about, after all, this is also the reason implied by his mom that caused him to neglect the ability of Zubat to adapt to his demands. However, Anthony was a salaryman and not a teacher that is taught to balance leniency and expectation imposing in their students without looking like a weak person or a terror teacher, so he's not adept at such things.
At the inquiry of her son, Hana chuckled.
"You don't need to do anything, just set a deadline, a reward when it's met, and a punishment when it's not. That's basically it, this way you can train yourself when to reign in the leash and when to loosen the grip while also training Zubat and your other future Pokemons to work and train under time pressure."
Hana paused, looking at the sky.
"As you were able to catch keen interest in becoming an Associate Field Researcher, time is your greatest enemy besides poachers, and if you ever had one, a dream of becoming a Breeder higher than Breeder I."
Anthony nodded in enlightenment at this, though he's a little disappointed that, just when he was about to say bye and again train alone, however, Hana suddenly asked, seemingly not noticing the disappointment on the face of the rather unexpressive mug of her son.
"Actually, now that we're here, how about I watch how you train Zubat?"
As Anthony's mother proposed as such, Zubat made a 'Zuu...!' sound as if thrilled, after all, it treats its trainer's mom as something of a good friend, so hearing Hana willing to supervise its training made it overjoyed, causing it to forget its fatigue from being thrown repeatedly as it jumped around Anthony's head as if to convince him to agree. Of course, as this was Anthony's wish, he would never reject such an offer.
"Of course, Mom. Let's go."
Anthony clutched the hand of Hana, making his excitement apparent, and dragged her towards the place where the heavy-duty fan would be set up. Anthony then told Hana to wait and went inside the house, ignoring the cut-off words of Hana that seemed to be a question of whether he wanted her help. Soon, he got out with the stand of the fan and put it outside with a huge heave.
"Do you wan-"
Seeing her son heaving like a working Ponyta, Hana reiterated her request; however, Anthony again cut her off with a dash to the door, and soon, Hana saw him barely cradling the head of the fan while walking slowly towards the door. Hana and even his Pokémon, Zubat, looked at him strangely as he put the head on the stand.
"Huff... Huff... Let's go..."
Hana sighed at this. It seems like her son is already gaining some ego, either as a man or just a cheeky phase of independence.
_Well, it's not too bad as he didn't reject my help in training Zubat and is actually eager for my assistance._
With a sigh, Hana invoked her all-powerful ability called 'I'm the mother' and stopped asking permission to help her son. She grabbed the head of the heavy-duty fan and put it in the sheath part of the tripod of the fan. Anthony smirked in his mind as he was able to portray the excitement a child would have when having a joint activity with their parent. Anthony is actually quite satisfied with his acting skills, especially the fact that he can balance the child side of the original owner and his independent side.
Though he is aware that the childish side is taking a little bit of a backseat since he became Anthony.
"Alright, that should do it. So, how do you train Zubat?"
Hana, after screwing the bolt tight using her bare hands stepped back two steps and asked such a question, Anthony, who felt like all his fingers is going to dislocate when he tried such a stunt every average adult does because of laziness to find a screw driver stared at the hand of his mother for a moment, even Zubat who saw its trainer just yesterday struggle doing such a thing is speechless.
Anthony didn't dwell on this matter and just consoled himself that he's now just a kid as he nodded before starting to explain.
"I was not able to explain my plans to you these past few months because you were busy. You just look so tired during dinner that I can't ask you about these, so I have to say it one by one."
As Anthony tersely explained, he coaxed Zubat to get out of his head, which the Pokémon did with excitement. Anthony then pressed the 1st button that indicated 'one' and made Zubat do the peregrine falcon pose, and pushing it in the middle of the tumultuous winds, Anthony then explained the principle of the training, something that Hana immediately commended. Air currents are the greatest enemy of non-streamlined Flying types, especially her Charizard, which is famously known for having small wings relative to its bulky body. She needed a lot of time in the Hoenn desert to be able to train it as a qualified Flying type that can lift her and her son and 'flash step' their travel throughout the Indigo regions. Even though she could see Zubat still struggling with knowing when to maintain the streamlined position and flap its wings, Hana was satisfied with two things: First, his son immediately imposed a one-week deadline on Zubat while explaining the training method, and second, he could see that Zubat was trying hard for his son.
This means that the bond between the two can now be considered good. Though from a breeder's perspective, it might not be that impressive given how social the Zubat line is, but given Anthony's age, this is still impressive. After which, Hana continued to watch the training regime of Zubat. Anthony also made the Pokémon demonstrate how it goes around the obstacle course and the endurance training. Zubat, however, didn't really make dashing moves within the rope-based obstacle course as it was quite tired from being pushed to the limit of the baseball play of it and his trainer's mother.
Hana pointed out in the baseball game earlier that Zubat is already more than capable of the steepest and maxed out obstacle course, so Anthony made the lever go to its max. At this moment, Anthony realized that the lever worked like the gear shift lever of semi-automatic motorcycles, though it was just a passing thought. After the demonstration, Anthony went and grabbed the rejected water glasses at the side of the table on the rightmost side of the mini-farm whilst he put on his goggles. Hana, without even letting his son start explaining the principle of the training, immediately squinted her eyes and asked.
"What are you doing?"
Hana can't help but grab the glass from the table, not letting Anthony start what he was about to do, and as she did, she also noticed the small sparkling shards in the loamy soil that were reflecting the light from the sun. Anthony, who was startled that his mother initiated the conversation before even starting the demonstration, immediately replied.
"I want Zubat to learn how to adjust the volume of its Supersonic move by making it able to destroy the glass layer by layer."
Hana shook her head at this, which caused Anthony and Zubat to be shocked. However, Anthony, who was more worried and anticipating a feedback from his mom about what mistakes he might be making so that he can address it or them as soon as possible, didn't linger on his shock and peeled his ears on the words of his mother, who also didn't let Anthony wait for much.
Holding the worn and yellowed out glass in her hand, Hana asked.
"In your sound training, your goal is for Zubat to be able to make the volume of Supersonic high and low without relying on instinct, right?"
Anthony nodded while Zubat also did. Indeed, what he imagined is like teaching a human to breathe manually instead of by instinct; this is something some athletes do to properly conserve their stamina. After Hana confirmed this, she continued.
"Then, why are you making it destroy glass layer by layer, relying only on its instinct?"
Anthony furled his eyebrows at this, obviously confused, which prompted Hana to explain through did.
"Think of it like this, if we say Zubat has hands and you tasked it to break the glass layer by layer, it would go like this..."
Hana paused before clenching the butt of the glass and then smashing the mouth into the table horizontally. With Hana's unusual strength, it was obvious that the mouth of the glass shattered immediately, shooting in all directions. This sudden demonstration startled Anthony, and he immediately put on the goggles while Zubat casually dodged two or 3 big shards before going back to the table.
This demonstration continued until only the gripped butt of the glass remained. Anthony looked at the shards and shards of the mutilated glass with confusion.
_What is this supposed to mean?_
Such were his thoughts, and whether Hana knew or not the meaning of her son's expression, she continued.
"It's easy, right? Why do you think this is the case?"
Anthony, letting his mother educate him on his mistake, answered tersely.
"It's because you have hands."
Hana nodded at this, whisking her hand to pour out the small shards that were sparkling through the sun on it. She then continued.
"Do you think, even with all of the talent of Zubat or all the intelligence of Pokemons in general, that your Pokémon can use something intangible like sound as good as a hand?"
Anthony, once had eyes full of confusion, suddenly had them brightened, finally being enlightened on his mistakes, and he then answered.
"Surely, it can't..."
Anthony can't believe that he was able to mess up and forget something so simple. Though it was partly due to the fact that the training methods are not checked by Hana beforehand, the fact that he, an adult in a child's body, forgot the fact that sound is very hard to control is something embarrassing. Of course, for Zubat, controlling the sound it emits is something as basic as breathing due to its adeptness at the matter on an instinctive level; however, just like how breathing for humans is almost impossible to do manually, it was still hard for Zubat to use sound, lower and heighten its volume on command without something like a guide.
_This is like when you forgot the name of a very common fruit._
Anthony felt like smacking himself; however, before he could do such a thing, Hana already continued.
"I see you understand, you have to give Zubat a proper guide to train with. A triathlete will not be able to learn how to swim if they just bulldozed their way into the water; they would drown."
Anthony already knew what to do and how to revise the training plan. He was especially thankful that his mother had corrected it before he got stumped months into training using the glasses, though he will be able to notice it eventually, it would undo months or even years of progress at worst.
"Then what should I do?"
As a way to act like a kid, despite already having a solution, he still asked his mother such a question. Hana smirked at this. Even though she is more of a hands-off parent, it still feels good to flex her knowledge to her son. Without talking, she pulled out her phone from her back pocket and then started typing. Anthony, who's still lacking in height, can't see what his mother is typing; however, because he already knew what kind of solution was needed to amend the training plan, he is not in a rush to see it.
And as Hana put down her phone on the table, Anthony confirmed his guess on what the amendment in the training should be.
In the glowing screen where Zubat and Anthony are seeing is a song, or well, a file with a .mp3 format, in it is the title: Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do