Luther had pitched his tent at the far edge of the entire Pokémon Trainer campground. From where he sat, he could see Trainers, bursting with energy after dinner, launching into a fresh wave of battles. The Trainers who had lost earlier were now busy helping their Pokémon recover and treating their injuries.
With no one left to challenge him, Luther decided not to continue training his Pokémon tonight either. After all, they'd accumulated plenty of fatigue over the course of the journey.
Light training sessions before and after meals had become routine, and since they also took turns on night watch duty, it was important to give them the occasional break.
The Pokémon, upon hearing there'd be no training tonight, were as ecstatic as school kids who'd just learned there was no homework. After a round of cheering, they each found a place to rest or grouped up to play and mess around together.
Luther's training plans were always based on the current condition of his Pokémon.
In his view, a Pokémon Trainer's job was to set up a reasonable plan. Beyond a few key points of guidance, there wasn't much a Trainer could do during the training process. Most of the effort came from the Pokémon themselves. In that sense, the Trainer's silent companionship was often the greatest support they could offer.
Just knowing someone's watching and caring can be incredibly reassuring.
At the same time, Luther didn't believe in correcting mistakes too abruptly during training. He'd seen many Trainers get hung up on the exact poses used during moves or the timing of move execution. Most of them would point out the issue directly and ask the Pokémon to follow their method instead.
Take Espurr's Dark Pulse, for example. She used to have a large, stiff movement whenever she cast it. After a training session, Luther wouldn't immediately point this out. Instead, he'd first praise her hard work and gently stroke her fur to help her relax after the stress of training.
Only after that would Luther begin talking about the day's session. He would ask Espurr how she felt when using Dark Pulse, whether that specific pose felt natural to her, and finally, he'd offer his suggestions, hoping she could try casting it as swiftly and subtly as when she used Psyshock.
Acknowledging the Pokémon's effort first, then expressing his own thoughts and feedback, this approach made it easier for them to accept, reducing resistance and preventing self-doubt.
Communicating with Pokémon, like communicating with people, is a complex and profound skill.
Pokémon think in their own ways, just like humans do. They have emotions, too, but many Trainers overlook even the most basic emotional needs of their Pokémon.
When a Pokémon made a mistake in training, some Trainers would break their rhythm, forcefully inserting their own methods into the process.
If the Trainer was highly skilled, with plenty of hands-on knowledge, that might still work. Despite some flaws, they could at least prevent the Pokémon from taking too many wrong turns. That was still acceptable.
But many Trainers just parroted methods they saw from others. They wouldn't even consider their own Pokémon's preferences or habits and would blindly give commands. That kind of approach quickly chipped away at the Pokémon's confidence.
Some Pokémon had specific, unusual ways of using certain moves because that was the form they were most comfortable and skilled with. It's not as simple as saying all Pokémon of the same species can train and fight in the same way. Those Trainers failed to realize that.
After listening to Luther's suggestions, Espurr enthusiastically experimented the next day during training. She made a real effort to be stealthier and began searching for a pose that felt natural and easy to use.
Though she was still figuring things out, Espurr's self-reflection allowed her to notice flaws in how she had been releasing her moves.
Luther knew he lacked the advantage of native-born Trainers, those who'd grown up alongside Pokémon all their lives. His shortcoming was that he had come to understand this world far too late, and he now needed to spend considerable time catching up.
He had read a lot of books from Hearthome City, but the more he read, the more he realized that while he had learned the cold, hard data… when it came to living, breathing Pokémon, he was still far behind the carefree, journeying Trainers who simply hit the road without overthinking.
Luther chose to play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses. Since at this stage, his knowledge was mostly theoretical, he decided to use that theory to guide his Pokémon's training. By gathering experience through practice and analyzing the recorded data, he hoped to gradually develop his own approach to raising Pokémon.
Of course, he always kept an eye on his Pokémon's moods, too.
Chewing on a piece of dried meat, Luther glanced at Marill beside him and tore off a small strip for her.
Marill gobbled it up in three quick bites and then sat with Luther, staring into the dark forest.
Beside them stood a large tree with a deeply grooved root section.
"I did say no training tonight, didn't I? And yet you still sneaked off to train on your own?"
Luther vigorously rubbed Marill's head. In protest, Marill stuck out her tongue and licked his hand.
"I know you've been slipping away to secretly practice Ice Punch when you and Corsola are on night patrol."
Marill's tail twitched, and she shook her head as calmly as she could, pretending she had no idea what Luther was talking about.
"You do realize that your punching sounds aren't exactly quiet, right? Even if you sneak off pretty far, I can still follow the noise straight to you." Luther shrugged. "What gave you away was… well, I just happened to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I noticed that every Pokémon on patrol was present, except you. So I got curious and went looking."
Luther scooped Marill up into his arms.
Marill tried to struggle for a moment, but the second Luther gently squeezed the springy middle of her tail, she went limp, letting him hold her without resistance.
"Whoa, you've gotten heavier," Luther said, weighing her in his hands. "And here I thought all you did was eat without gaining anything."
"You're rushing too much. We've still got plenty of time."
Marill was silent for a while. Then she pointed at her mouth and gestured a huge circle with her arms.
"What's wrong with eating a lot?" Luther smiled. "Don't take Cynthia's words too seriously. She said you might become really strong after evolving because you eat so much, but that's all just speculation. She didn't have any actual research backing it up. It was just an offhand comment."
"You're not thinking I'll abandon you if you're not strong, are you? You're one of my very first Pokémon! Don't you remember? If it weren't for you helping me that night, I might've gotten hurt, or worse, failed to catch Mismagius."
"You don't need to feel ashamed that you haven't shown some massive boost in power after eating so much, or that you've hit a wall with learning new moves. Honestly, the reason you're frustrated is because everything went so smoothly before. That's a good kind of frustration."
"Think about it, didn't you learn 'Blizzard', 'Superpower', and 'Focus Punch' all with surprising ease?"
Marill scratched her head with her tail and, after thinking for a moment, realized that Luther was absolutely right.
"You've had it easy so far. Even your evolution went by in a breeze. That gave you the illusion that everything would always go smoothly. But hitting a bottleneck? That's totally normal."
"Kirlia was stuck at her evolution stage for ages. You just took a single step and crossed right over it."
"Espurr is working hard every day to refine how she releases her moves. Jumpluff is constantly thrown into resistance training to improve the accuracy of her debuffs. Chansey trains her speed and endurance daily by acting as the team's punching bag."
"They're all working so hard for just a tiny bit of progress. You probably don't realize how much they envy how quickly you improve."
"You need to get used to this. Almost nothing in life goes perfectly. If someone sails through everything without a hitch, we usually call them the 'chosen one.' Look at Mai, she's one of those people. Ridiculously lucky, almost freakishly so. And yet, even she's dealing with family stuff that's made her miserable."
"To be honest, I think this whole journey of hers is more of an escape from her family than a real trip. She's never said it out loud, and I've never asked."
"The point is, you need to understand: if everything in life goes exactly your way, you're probably a god. For the rest of us? Life's full of bumps, missteps, and a few lucky tailwinds along the way. That's what's normal."
(End of Chapter)
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