CHAPTER 35

It had taken almost ten minutes to wake Denzel up from his slumber. The man hated waking up early, and he kept asking me for ‘five more minutes’. We quickly made our way to the Pokemon Center’s lobby with our Pokeballs. I was shaking in anticipation. What secrets to Pokemon training did Cecilia hold? I was excited to find out. I wasn’t used to seeing the lobby so empty. It was usually crammed with trainers at all times of the day, but so early in the morning, there were only a few people here. Cecilia was leaning against a wall with a hoodie and jogging pants. I frowned and then realized that Denzel was wearing warm clothing too. Meanwhile, I just had a t-shirt on and some jeans that I had hurriedly thrown on.

“Good morning,” Cecilia told us. “I’m sorry we’re doing this so early, but my team needs to wake up at six every day.”

“No problem!” I smiled. “I’m just excited to see what you have in store for us.”

“Mornin’” Denzel yawned.

“Sorry about him, he’s not a morning person,” I said.

Cecilia nodded, and we made our way to the outskirts of the city. I hugged myself as I felt a cold gust of wind. It was still dark out, and the temperature had dropped fast. It was still October, for Arceus’ sake! Not wanting to waste time, I decided to tough the cold out and kept going, following closely behind Cecilia— but not too close. When we reached our destination, Cecilia opened her Poketch.

“Five-fifty-five,” She muttered. “My team can wait. Let’s start with the basics. Obviously, you two have won a badge, so I’ll assume you at least know a little bit about what you’re doing, but I still need to make sure. Explain to me how you train your teams.”

Denzel and I looked at each other, wondering who should start. I nodded in his direction, telling him to go ahead.

“Well, I—” He was interrupted by his yawn. “I usually just have Eevee train his body and do his moves over and over so he can improve. The other members of my team… aren’t that usable at the moment.”

“And Grace?” Cecilia asked.

“I do the same with my team, but I sometimes send them off to do their own thing to build up their teamwork. I’ve also started seeking out wild Pokemon to practice on recently.”

“You did?” Denzel asked in a surprised tone.

“Yup. Figured I needed to get past that block if I wanted to get stronger.”

Cecilia crossed her arms. “Hm, that is an effective method, but it is as I feared. You’re doing the basic minimum.”

My shoulders slumped at the unexpected criticism.

“What do you mean?” Denzel asked.

“Well, what you’re doing now is working because you’re still early in the Circuit. It’s worked for you so far, but your Pokemon lack one distinctive thing,” She said, lifting up a finger. “And that is battling experience.”

“What? We’ve battled plenty!” Denzel protested.

“Not enough. Pokemon thrive in battle, and the more fights they are in, the faster they’ll improve. But that’s not all. What about diet? Supplements? Bodily care? A regular schedule? All of these little things add up, but they do matter.” She said, looking at us. “I can see the look on your faces. I realize you are… less fortunate than I am, so let’s just stick to what you can do for now.”

Cecilia looked at the time before releasing her Slowpoke, Deino, and Fletchling. I gasped when I saw Slowpoke’s tail. A huge chunk of it was just missing.

“What the hell happened to your Slowpoke?” I asked worriedly.

“Deino bit it off during one of his fits,” Cecilia said, waving her hand nonchalantly. “It’s been slowly regrowing, and he felt no pain, so don’t worry about it.”

“Arceus…” I muttered.

Deino released a fierce roar. It was my first time seeing the dragon up close, and I instinctively backed up. Slowpoke stared off into the distance, and Fletchling perched on top of Cecilia’s shoulders. The girl clicked her tongue at the Deino, whose head angrily whirled toward her. He screamed at her, sending drool all over her pants.

“Ugh… bad Deino! Bad!” She said, clicking her tongue and snapping her fingers multiple times. Deino finally relented and became quiet. “Good. Now, he’s not used to you yet, so don’t get too close. He bites.”

“I figured,” Denzel nervously said, eyeing the Slowpoke’s missing tail.

“Now, trainers at lower levels can make do with battling whoever they find out in the wild, or in cities, but people like us? We crush anyone that we challenge, except once in a while. What I meant by battling experience was battles that actually challenge your Pokemon. When was the last time that happened aside from the tournament?” She asked.

My heart fluttered at the idea that she considered me a good trainer.

“Um… that would be Roark, I think,” Denzel said.

“Exactly! Ages ago! Now, one of the best ways to challenge yourself is to make your team fight each other.”

We looked at her like she was speaking gibberish. I had used Frillish’s Bubblebeam to help Togetic improve her Fairy Wind when she was still a Togepi, but making them fight each other seemed…

“Isn’t that kind of too much?” I asked.

“It’s necessary. Now, since Deino’s too strong, I usually have Fletchling and Slowpoke attack him together. Today, I’ll be commanding them instead of Deino. Let me demonstrate.”

We gave her team some space and observed carefully. I didn’t want to miss anything she said or showed us.

“Deino, keep your Dragon Breaths at fifty percent, and no biting,” Cecilia ordered. The dragon grunted, which was one of the few times I saw him listen to her without protest.

“Slowpoke, Water Pulse. Fletchling, keep your distance until Deino gets angry,” Cecilia said.

Slowpoke immediately snapped out of its daze and spat out five consecutive rings of water that were bigger and faster than Frillish’s, and every single one hit Deino. The Dragon hadn’t even bothered to dodge, and simply started charging up a Dragon Breath.

“Get ready to intercept with Confusion,” Cecilia said.

Deino released his Dragon Breath, but Slowpoke’s eyes shone and the attack curved to the right before hitting the ground. It was the same trick she had done with Water Gun from her battle with Roark, except now she was using it on enemy attacks. Deino let out an enraged scream, seemingly angry that his attack had been dealt with so easily. He charged ahead, and Slowpoke kept hitting him with Water Pulse.

“Now, Fletchling.”

The bird chirped and flew off of her shoulder, going so fast it was hard to keep track of.

“Ember behind him,” She said.

Fletchling spat out dozens of little flames, hitting Deino’s back. The dragon turned and let out another Dragon Breath, aiming at the flying type, but another Water Pulse interrupted his attack. The battle kept going like this for seven minutes, with Deino constantly having to juggle between two opponents and getting more and more irritated.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Holy shit, how is it not going down?” Denzel asked.

“Well, dragon types are tougher than other types, but we’ve trained like this for months. Deino’s scales have hardened due to all the beatings he took."

The dragon roared out an Incinerate at the Fletchling, lighting up the early morning sky. He was still standing, but he was noticeably slower and panting.

“Why doesn’t he just rush the Slowpoke if he can ignore Fletchling’s ember?” I asked.

Cecilia smiled. “Because he’s stupid as a bag of rocks. You see, this training serves another hidden purpose. When I command Deino, he wins, but when he acts out on his own, he loses. Why do you think that’s important?”

I pondered her question for a second before figuring it out. “To show him that without you, he’s weaker!”

“Exactly. He knows this, but I still have to remind him sometimes. Training a dragon type is a constant tug of war between their desire to become stronger and evolve into their final forms, and their hatred of being held on a leash. They like their independence and freedom, but you have to show them that they need you. Otherwise, you get… accidents.”

“Accidents?” Denzel probed.

“You know my brother’s the Champion of Unova, but what you probably don’t know is that he was almost killed by his Hydreigon when it first evolved. It took his entire team at once to take that monster down, and he had to stay in the hospital for months after that battle,” Cecilia said grimly. “He’s been helping me train Deino so I won’t repeat his mistakes.”

Deino collapsed on the ground after Fletchling hit him with a powerful Peck.

“That’s enough,” Cecilia told her team. “You two did great today, you weren’t hit even once.”

Fletchling flew back to her shoulder and rubbed its head against hers, and Slowpoke returned to staring toward nothing in particular. She walked up in front of Deino and crouched, looking at its face. The dragon stood back up with much difficulty, but ‘stared’ right back at her with a low growl. Cecilia smiled and rubbed his cheek before recalling her team.

“I see the benefits of training like this,” Denzel started. “But won’t this create… animosity in the team? I already have a problem with my Budew…”

“It might. There are relationship dynamics to consider. For example, Pauline’s Charmeleon gets so frustrated every time she loses to foes she sees as weaker than she is that training her is a… hassle. Louis’ Gible hates the other members of his team and simply can’t train without putting too much strength into his attacks. This means he only trains against my Deino, which is the only Pokemon it respects in our entire group,” Cecilia said.

“But you let him win every time,” I scoffed.

Cecilia eyed Denzel worriedly.

“Don’t worry about him, he won’t spill your secrets. I trust him one hundred percent,” I told her.

She placed her hand over her heart. “I do let him win, but I have to keep going until I’m strong enough to fight back against anyone my father could send. So for now, I’ll keep following my father’s plan.”

“Plan?” I asked.

She gasped and put her hand over her mouth.

“You don’t have to tell us more if you don’t want to,” Denzel said. “Don’t worry about it.”

The girl composed herself and returned to her explanation. “It's fine. So yes, it might affect how your Pokemon view each other, but it also might not. Pokemon aren’t as smart as humans, and some…” She trailed off, looking at Deino’s ball. “Some aren’t as smart as others, but you should give them more credit. They can tell the difference between training and a real fight.”

“I see,” I said.

“Now, release your Pokemon and start training!” She said with a smile.

——

Two hours later, my team was beat. It took a long time to explain to Frillish that this was just training, but he felt so bad about hitting Togetic that I could tell he held back in his attacks. Togetic, meanwhile, had been pretty doubtful, but she was now having the time of her life, even though she was bruised and battered. Elekid had fun, too, mostly training with Eevee because of Budew’s aversion to doing anything Denzel told her. Strangely enough though, she ended up joining in once Elekid delivered a vicious Thunder Punch to Eevee’s chin. She had been screeching furiously, reminding me of the time we’d first found her in that forest, and she made quick work of my tired Elekid. All in all, I felt like we were about to make a lot of progress.

I shivered as we walked back to the Pokemon Center to heal our teams.

“Why didn’t you wear anything warm?” Denzel asked me.

“I didn’t even think about it.”

“I’m used to the cold. You can have my hoodie if you’d like,” Cecilia said.

“R—really?” I stammered. “I wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable…”

“Just take it,” She sighed as she wrapped her hoodie around me.

“T—t—thank you,” I stuttered— and it wasn’t because of the cold. I was so incredibly nervous, and I was trying to find out why. “I’ll make it up to you somehow!”

Holy shit, I thought. Am I crushing on this girl?

“Fuck,” I whispered to myself

Really, Grace? The girl with the Arceus damned fiance?

Cecilia quickly left back to her room right after we gave our Pokemon back. She was going to meet her friends soon, and it was probably wise to stay separate so she could smooth things over before our travels. I walked into Denzel’s room and sat on the floor.

“I thought I was going to die,” I muttered to myself. “She even left me her hoodie.”

“Okay, you obviously like her, and you’re really obvious about it,” Denzel said. “I would say I would try to be your wingman, but she’s already dating someone else.”

“How did you already figure it out when I just did?” I groaned.

“T—t—thank you,” Denzel imitated me, his eyes fluttering. He laughed and opened a window.

“Ugh, stop being such a dick,” I sighed, placing my face in my hands. “I really need her not to know.”

“I honestly had my suspicions with how much you stared at her all the time, but I figured I must have been imagining things. Today settled it.”

“Yeah… damn it.”

“I don’t want to rain on your parade, but she has a fiance. You should probably give up.”

“Yeah, I figured. Like you said, she’s dating someone else, and she’s not into girls. Plus, I’d rather focus on training my team with her instead, anyway.”

I did want to train my team with hers, but the words still felt like a lie.