Just like yesterday, Akira was the one who woke Eichi up, washed up, got dressed, went downstairs, and had breakfast.
Then he left the house. Of course, not long after Eichi went out, Akira did too.
He arrived at the small forest and started his warm-up. Scyther and Beedrill ran ahead, quickly vanishing from sight, while Eichi jogged behind them.
They were supposed to regroup at the starting point. When Eichi finished his run, Scyther and Beedrill hadn't returned yet. The distance they had to fly was much longer than what he had to run.
After they both came back, they rested a little before starting today's training.
Eichi patted Scyther's head and carefully observed it. Scyther had completely grown up now. In human terms, it was about the age of a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl.
He had measured it yesterday: Scyther's height was now 1.48 meters, and its weight was 55 kilograms. It was still a little below the official average, but its growth rate was impressive.
Although the Scyther species was Bug-type, their growth speed wasn't quite like other Bug-types.
Its whole body radiated a dangerous aura, much like Beedrill's.
However, Beedrill was already learning to control its aura, not letting its presence leak out. This was very important in battle.
Scyther, on the other hand, didn't yet need to control its aura that precisely.
Its scythes looked extremely sharp, and the Pokémon itself exuded a fierce presence. But it needed strength to match that aura.
Eichi took out his training notebook from his backpack and flipped to the plan he made yesterday.
Today's session was still move training. Yesterday's time had been too short, and both Pokémon had many moves to practice. Today and tomorrow would likely continue with move training.
Eichi's schedule began at 7 a.m. with waking up, then training at 8 a.m.
At 11:30, he would go eat lunch, then take a nap for an hour and a half.
Training resumed at 2:30 in the afternoon and ended at 5:30, when they went back for dinner.
Evenings were for massage and study. Honestly, both Scyther and Beedrill had no other hobbies. Their only interest was training.
Perhaps, for them, training was their hobby.
Next came the continuation of yesterday's training. Yesterday, Beedrill worked on attack moves like Twineedle and Karate Chop. Today's focus was on speed.
Agility, Aerial Ace, and Swords Dance were the key moves for today's session.
After Beedrill went to train on its own, Scyther's training differed. It continued with what it had practiced yesterday.
It was training its newly learned Fury Cutter and Vacuum Wave. In truth, Eichi wanted to see if Scyther could learn Slash earlier. That move was quite good too.
There was only one character difference between Brick Break (劈瓦) and Slash (劈開), but while both were cutting moves using scythes or claws, Slash was a Normal-type move, and Brick Break was a Fighting-type move.
The difference was that Brick Break could destroy effects like Light Screen and Reflect, while Slash couldn't.
That was why Eichi wanted Scyther to learn Slash first. If it later learned Brick Break, its proficiency with that move would increase much faster, reaching Mastery in less time.
Otherwise, once he bought Brick Break for it and taught it later, Slash would become meaningless and waste time.
Learning Slash early would save a lot of training time.
Scyther kept striking at the humanoid training dummy with determination.
Its expression was focused, unaffected by distractions. That was what it meant to be strong.
Suddenly, it sensed something and called out toward the nearby trees.
"Come out, I know you're there."
Beedrill and Scyther both turned, watching the tree cautiously.
From the forest emerged a person, no, a boy.
"Akira."
"Why are you here?"
Akira looked embarrassed, like a child being scolded. "I didn't mean anything bad. I just wanted to see your Pokémon."
Eichi smiled and lightly scolded him. "I'm not a bad person, and I don't have anything to hide. If you want to watch, you can just ask me. I won't mind."
Akira still looked shy. "I was afraid of bothering you."
"It's fine, you won't bother me. Come here."
Hearing that, Akira's eyes lit up in joy, and he quickly ran over to Eichi's side.
Eichi led him to sit off to the side, while Scyther and Beedrill continued their training.
Akira watched them excitedly.
Then he said, "Eichi, your Pokémon are really amazing."
Eichi tilted his head. "Why do you say that?"
Akira said, "There have been many passing Trainers in town before. I watched their battles.
Some of their Pokémon were really strong, but those Trainers were all much older than you. The ones around your age, I've seen their battles too, and none of their Pokémon are as strong as yours."
"Eichi, I'll tell you something else. I saw your battle at the terraced fields."
"You know, that Trainer and his Servine had never lost a single battle before you came. They were really strong.
But even such a strong Pokémon lost to your Scyther."
"And you even have an even stronger Beedrill. I've never seen a Beedrill as powerful as yours."
Hearing Akira's words, Eichi felt a quiet pride, like a father being praised for his child. He smiled. "Yes, that kid really is something special."
Akira didn't realize that Eichi's "something special" meant something quite different from what he imagined.
Eichi asked, "Akira, how old are you?"
"Me? I'm ten. My birthday was last month."
"Then you can have your own Pokémon now. Do you have one yet?"
Akira's expression turned gloomy. "Not yet."
"So, have you decided what Pokémon you want as your first?"
"I don't know yet. I haven't thought about it."
Then Akira said, "Eichi, my dream is to become the strongest Trainer."
"You won't laugh at me, right?"
"Of course not. That's a great dream. My dream is to become the strongest Trainer too."
"Every Trainer in this world wants to be the strongest."
Akira added, "I want to catch a powerful Pokémon, so I can become the strongest Trainer."
"But my family situation doesn't allow me to get rare or strong Pokémon."
"So now, I don't know what to do."
"Akira, have you heard this saying?"
"What saying?"
"There are no weak Pokémon, only weak Trainers."