The next morning, Eichi woke up to the sound of Ishimoto Akira knocking on his door.
Since he had been traveling lately, he had gotten used to waking up late. His biological clock was completely off.
"Eichi, time to get up!"
"Eichi, are you awake?"
Eichi shouted back loudly, "I'm up!"
From outside the door, Ishimoto Akira replied, "Alright, hurry up. Breakfast is ready."
"Got it."
"Then I'll go ahead."
Eichi washed up in the bathroom, got dressed, and went downstairs.
As soon as he came down, he was greeted by the aroma of breakfast. Grandpa Ishi and Grandma Ishi had already prepared the meal. Everyone was already seated, only waiting for him.
Grandma Ishi smiled kindly when she saw him. "Sit down and eat, dear."
"Thanks," Eichi said as he sat down.
He released Scyther and Beedrill from their Poké Balls, then took out Pokémon food and Pokéblocks from his backpack, feeding each of them two cubes.
Scyther should be able to eat Intermediate Pokéblocks now.
Beedrill, however, still needed Advanced Pokéblocks, and Eichi still couldn't make Pokéblocks himself.
After serving their portions, the two Pokémon began to eat happily beside him.
Eichi joined the table and started eating as well. During the meal, Akira kept glancing curiously at Scyther and Beedrill.
The elderly couple and Eichi only smiled quietly and kept eating.
Grandma Ishi's cooking was excellent, so Eichi discussed paying them for the meals. They agreed that he would pay 30p per day for the next seven days. He handed the money to Grandpa Ishi on the spot.
After breakfast, he thanked the couple and left the house.
Today, he planned to train Scyther and Beedrill.
It had been a while since he last did proper training. He had spent his days wandering from place to place, playing around in cities, and occasionally battling a few trainers. It was far from enough.
He couldn't go on like that. It was time to train seriously again.
There was a main road that ran through the middle of the town. All the houses were built along both sides of it. Eichi followed it toward the outskirts, memorizing the way as he walked so he wouldn't forget where Ishimoto's home was.
Beyond the town ran a small river. Following it, he saw a small grove he had noticed before when he first arrived.
After a short walk, he reached the grove.
Beside it stretched a wide open plain, the two areas separated by the river.
Here, the river split, one branch flowing into the grove.
Eichi entered the trees and found a spacious clearing.
He decided this would be their training spot and released Scyther and Beedrill.
He chose the grove instead of the plain because he didn't like people watching his training. It felt awkward.
"Alright, let's warm up," he said. He had Scyther and Beedrill run a few laps around the grove with him.
The trees here were similar to those in the Viridian Forest, but this grove had grassy ground everywhere, soft and pleasant to step on.
They finished a full lap quickly and returned to their starting point.
This grove was much larger than the one back in Viridian Town, probably over five thousand meters around.
Eichi stopped and said to them, "When I say go, run(fly) straight ahead at full speed. If there's an obstacle, jump or dodge. Compete to see who's faster. Scyther, don't think it's unfair. Beedrill still has its weighted vest on."
At the word "race," Scyther's eyes lit up with excitement.
It had grown a lot recently and felt the gap between itself and Beedrill wasn't so large anymore.
Beedrill didn't react much outwardly, but it was clearly tense.
Eichi drew a line on the ground for the starting point.
"Ready?" he asked. "Go!"
Scyther and Beedrill shot forward like lightning.
The blast of air from their start whipped Eichi's clothes around him.
In the blink of an eye, the two vanished into the trees.
Left alone, Eichi decided to stretch his own body.
He stretched his arms and legs, cracked his joints, spread his chest, sank into a horse stance, then switched into a bow stance and rotated his body.
It had been a long time since he had done real exercise. His body felt stiff.
Feeling the energy rising, he started shadowboxing.
Even that wasn't enough. Spotting a nearby tree, he grinned.
He leaned forward, tensed his legs, and kicked off the ground.
In a few quick steps, he reached the tree, planted his feet against the trunk, and ran two steps up before grabbing hold and climbing.
Pulling himself up onto a branch, he stood and looked down. From this height, the view was great.
Activating the Eye of the Bug Emperor, his vision expanded further. Suddenly, he spotted two familiar shapes in the distance.
One in front, one behind, the gap between them less than half a meter.
They were, of course, Scyther and Beedrill returning from their run.
They weaved around obstacles skillfully, sometimes using moves to block each other.
They were nearly neck and neck now.
Just ten meters left. Both had pushed Agility to its limits.
At the very end, Beedrill's eyes flashed red. It suddenly accelerated, pulling ahead and crossing the finish line first.
Scyther followed close behind, frustrated. No matter what, big brother was still big brother.
Even with Beedrill's weighted vest, Scyther still couldn't win.
Eichi jumped down from the tree and walked over to them.
"Scyther, you lost, but don't be discouraged," he said. "Just keep working hard."
Then he turned to Beedrill. "Beedrill, not bad. You managed that even under triple gravity."
Beedrill raised its twin stingers proudly, as if saying it was nothing.
Eichi chuckled. "Looks like that triple gravity isn't pushing you enough anymore. Let's add one more level."
Beedrill buzzed in agreement.
Scyther crossed its blades with a soft "hmph," clearly wanting one too.
Eichi patted its head. "You want one too? We don't have another here. Once we're back, I'll have them make one for you."
That calmed Scyther down.
Next came move training.
Eichi took out the humanoid training dummies. They were worn and nearly falling apart from the power of the Pokémon's recent hits.
Both Scyther and Beedrill were improving rapidly, their moves growing stronger every day.
It was probably time to replace the dummies, or better yet, order custom ones that could last longer.