Reading Guide.
"Dialogue"
'Toughts'
[Systems, Special Moves, Special Tags, Special Pokémon, Voice through devices.]
"Telepathy" Italics for telepathy
"Whoaaa!" Bolds instead of CAPS for SHOUTING!
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Ditto's injuries had delayed special training by a full half month.
But Gastly hadn't been idle during that time. Tetsuya hadn't added any new training tasks, instead having it repeat Shadow Ball condensation drills and perfecting already-mastered moves.
By now, Shadow Ball had taken on a clear spindle shape. The iron spikes they had bought back then had been worn down into little iron rods.
They had abandoned the idea of condensing Shadow Ball energy onto the iron spikes and now used Shadow Ball directly, essentially removing the previous weight.
The spindle-shaped Shadow Ball had a sharp front end, which reduced air resistance during flight. As a result, its speed and power were significantly improved compared to before.
Sludge Bomb was used in almost the same way as Shadow Ball, so its launch speed had now become comparable.
However, Gastly's Ghost-type energy was much stronger than its Poison-type energy, and with the Spell Tag's bonus, Sludge Bomb's condensation speed and power couldn't compare to Shadow Ball. But its Poisoning effect was something Shadow Ball could never match.
The power of a move couldn't be explained by mere numerical values.
Ditto had finally rejoined training. After a half-month delay, it struggled a bit to keep up in mock battles with Gastly.
Meanwhile, Morty and the other two had already begun practicing new moves. After clearing the fourth floor of Brass Tower, each of the four had selected a TM, and after half a month of practice, Morty and the others had nearly learned their new moves.
At the time, Tetsuya had chosen the TM for Psychic. Even now, he hadn't used it yet. Instead, he repeated training with existing moves every day.
Morty and the others couldn't understand this. But in truth, no move could be relied on simply by "learning" it. If one wanted to ensure it wouldn't fail at a critical moment, it had to be forged through relentless practice.
Most importantly, Psychic wasn't an easy move to learn.
Psychic-type moves typically required strong mental power. Psychic attacked the opponent's brain using overwhelming telekinetic force. To make it even more effective, the user had to possess tremendous mental strength, and Gastly didn't have that yet.
Forcing it to learn the move now would only result in weak power and mental backlash.
Right now, the priority was to master the existing moves to perfection, and also begin practicing synergy between different moves.
But didn't that mean the Psychic TM was useless!?
There was no way Tetsuya would pick something worthless…
Of course Psychic had to be learned.
It's just that a TM could only teach the method of training and usage.
To truly "attack" with Psychic was a long journey. Gastly would have to build up its mental strength bit by bit, step by step. Only when it could release telekinetic force would it have taken the first real step.
Psychic existed on a level above mere telekinetic power. For a non-Psychic-type Pokémon like Gastly with no innate mental ability, the process of learning Psychic and becoming able to use it in battle would take at least three years…
---◓---
After spending the whole day battling Ditto, and having dinner, Tetsuya took Gastly to the lecture hall.
The Psychic TM playback lasted a full hour, almost like a short movie.
The footage featured an Alakazam, the face of Psychic types. Though its speech was unintelligible, its body language was clear enough. It covered everything from how to train mental power to turning it into a powerful weapon. Judging from Gastly's expression, the explanation had been quite detailed.
Once it finished, Gastly immediately closed its eyes and entered a meditative state.
This was a critical moment. It mustn't be disturbed.
Gastly was processing everything it had just learned, beginning its mental power training.
At the start of practice, Gastly could only last ten minutes before it couldn't go on. For a Poison-type like Gastly, mental training was even more difficult. Since Psychic-types had a natural advantage over Poison-types, the slightest mistake could cause self-harm.
Progress would be very slow…
When it came to mental power, the most terrifying example was once a Slowbro owned by Elite Four Will. In Tetsuya's past life, after becoming a Gym Leader, he had the chance to exchange words with Will.
That Slowbro was said to have come from the Slowpoke Temple near Blackthorn City.
The temple -unlike the anime, where it has been just a home to Slowpoke for many generations- specialized in raising Slowpoke. In front of the temple was a lake called Lake Slowpoke. The Water-type Pokémon there -especially Shellder- were highly intelligent. Only people with completely desireless hearts could catch them.
Will had faced a difficult path as a Trainer in his early years, narrowly missing the champion title in various League Tournaments and Conferences. Disheartened, he went to the Slowpoke Temple to train.
Opportunities like that only came by chance, and fate clearly favored Will…
At the temple, Will met a Slowpoke. It was unimpressive. Most Slowpoke in its generation had already learned many moves, but this one only knew Confusion. Worse yet, it was incredibly sluggish. Still, Will saw himself in it. With the temple elder's approval, he accepted it as his Pokémon.
That very Slowpoke's mind was always in a meditative state, pondering only the question, "Where did I come from? Where am I going?" A true embodiment of being free from desire…
One day, Will took it to Lake Slowpoke, never expecting that this seemingly useless Slowpoke would catch a Shellder on its first try and evolve into Slowbro. It became the first Slowbro in nearly a century at the temple to evolve through catching a Shellder from that lake.
That Slowpoke instantly went from an ugly bug to a legendary. Though it still only knew Confusion, from birth it had remained in meditation. Its mental power had grown to a terrifying degree.
With that kind of mind power, a single Confusion could split the earth and move mountains!
Well, not mountains… but the idea's there!.
From then on, Will transformed rapidly. In just a few short years, he became the strongest Elite Four member in the Johto Region.
'Will…
In this life, I hope you're just as lucky.'
Gastly could never achieve the kind of mental power that Slowbro had. Even if it fully mastered Psychic, its power wouldn't be great, simply because its mind wasn't strong enough.
In truth, Tetsuya's main reason for having Gastly learn Psychic was to protect himself.
Psychic-type moves were especially effective against humans, fast and direct. The human mind was filled with desires, including Tetsuya's own. That made the human mind extremely fragile. One use of Psychic could bring down a grown man.
Of course, there were humans with powerful Psychic powers as well. Many people devoted themselves to developing such powers. But that came down to talent. An ordinary person could spend a lifetime training and still not bend a spoon with their mind.
Not everyone was Sabrina… a woman with terrifying psychic power. Even if hundreds of brawny men stood before her, to her, they were just air.
Tetsuya had several Poison-type Pokémon to raise in the future. Now that Gastly had started learning Psychic, it could help them develop resistance to Psychic-type moves later on.
Tetsuya nodded, watching Gastly closely.