Chapter Eighteen - Shonen Protagonist Training Montage!

"Bun...." He focused, eyes narrowed into slits.

"Buuunnn...." Sweat pooled on his forehead, and he brought an ear down to wipe it away.

"Buuuuuuun!" With a great big push of effort, Buneary created a small sphere between his paws. It was tiny, no bigger than a marble, but it was stable. The glowing ball spun on itself, and Buneary grinned as he watched it swirl around.

"You did it!" Broccoli exclaimed. "Oh, oh, sorry," she said as she stopped herself just before giving him a hug. "Try to hold onto it, we'll see if we can make it last."

Buneary nodded, but now that he had the move down, it was a lot easier to keep it going. That was normal, right? Once a pokemon knew a move, they just knew it.

"Wow, it's really stable. You did great!" Broccoli said. "Now... make it fly forwards!"

He looked up to her, then across the yard. They were in a little park a block away from the pokemon centre. There were swings and slides and a big sandpit in the middle. Their only company at the moment was a trio of hoppips, little pink pokemon with tufts of grass sticking out from the tops of their heads. They were half-buried in the sand, leaves spread to catch as much of the morning sun as they could.

There was a tree not too far away. Buneary aimed his paws at it, then willed the little ball of energy forwards.

It zipped over, but halfway to the tree the ball unravelled and what hit was little more than a splash of Cleaning-type energy.

"Well done!" Broccoli cheered.

Buneary laughed as he was picked up and spun around at the end of Broccoli's arms, his ears trailing behind. "Bun!" Yeah!

"Okay! Are you still up for more practice, or are you a little too tired for that?"

"Bun, buneary bun bun!" No, I want to get better!

Broccoli grinned. "Okay then," she said before flomping down onto the ground with her legs crossed and Buneary set just in front of her. "But first, let's talk strategy."

He nodded.

"So, that last battle at the gym was tough! It was a bit closer than I think either of us would like, and the truth is that while Cleaning magic is really strong, it's kind of weak against things that aren't dirty. That means that we're going to have to work out some sort of strategy for the upcoming fight. We only have five more days, that's not a lot of time to practise."

Buneary nodded. He was stronger already, but if the gym leader was that much tougher than the gym trainers, then he'd need to be way stronger. Plus, he'd be fighting not one, but two pokemon this time!

"I was thinking about it, and I came up with two strategies," Broccoli said. She raised both hands to her sides. "Ideally, we figure out how to do both, but that'll take more than the time we have, I think. It's best to perfect one."

He nodded again, listening attentively.

"The first option is to get really good with physical attacks. That means practising together until the fact that those birds can fly doesn't matter. If you can move fast enough, jump high enough, and hit hard enough, then that might counter their advantages!"

Buneary nodded along. He liked that idea.

"But that plan doesn't use any magic, and that seems like it's a shame," Broccoli said. "You're a quick learner. So, there's option two. That's the magic option. We spend the next couple of days working hard to practice magical moves. I'm sure I can teach you how to make homing Cleaning missiles, and learn how to cast at least basic Fireballs. That way, the fact that birds can fly won't matter, because they'll have to dodge your attacks the entire time."

Buneary looked at both hands that Broccoli had raised and thought about it for a while. It was obvious she wanted him to tap a hand to make a choice.

Buneary thought hard, then thought even harder. "Uuuuun!" He closed his eyes, then flicked his ears out. They both smacked lightly against Broccoli's hands.

"Both?" Broccoli asked. She laughed. "Alright! We can do both. It'll mean being a bit weaker with both than if we focus though."

Buneary shrugged. He wanted to be strong, and that meant being strong at everything, not just one thing.

Broccoli rubbed her chin while thinking. "Okay, let me think...." She slowly flopped backwards, then stared up at the sky while still rubbing her chin. Buneary leapt up and landed on her chest, waiting for her thinking to be done.

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"Okay!" Broccoli said. "So, here's an idea. We'll lower our focus for both. First, I'm gonna teach you how to jump really well."

"Bun," he agreed.

"And then... we'll learn how to use Cleaning magic to block attacks. That move with the mini-tornados, Gust? Yeah, I'm pretty sure we can use Cleaning magic to negate some of that. So, the fight will all be about moving towards the other pokemon and avoiding attacks. Jazz said that people don't know about Cleaning-type, so maybe we can use that to our advantage too!"

"Bun?" How?

"Well, if a pokemon sent a move flying at you." Broccoli snapped her fingers and a tiny mote of light appeared above her, then zipped at Buneary's face.

He eeped and jumped to the side, but not before the attack hit him in the face and... did nothing? "Bun?"

Broccoli giggled. "That's right! We make them dodge when they don't have to! Later on, when we have more time to learn stronger moves, then it'll be worth dodging, but for now, we'll have to be clever. Remember what Jazz said about four moves?"

He nodded. He remembered that. He was sure he could do more than four though.

"I think it kinda makes sense, especially if we only have a few days to practice. So! We're going to master five moves in five days!"

"Bun!" he said. He was ready!

Broccoli grinned. "Okay! So, that defence move, the ball one? That's super cool! We need to work on making it faster. Then we learn ranged Cleaning-magic. A Cleaning-magic shield of some sort, and we practice jumping attacks. You have that Pound move already, we just need to get you used to moving vertically to use it in the air with less difficulty!"

"Bun, bun, buneary?" What about my eyes?

Broccoli blinked. "You mean that Baby-Doll Eyes move? Jazz says that it's strong, but... but Buneary, that's using cuteness. You're not cute." His ears drooped. "You're super cool!" His ears perked back up.

"Bun!" he said with a nod.

Broccoli sat up, then bounced to her feet. "Okay! Let's practice!"

Buneary nodded. Practice was good! It would make him strong, and fierce. He raised his paws for uppies.

"Nuh-uh! We need to build up your strength! The best way to do that is to keep moving, so let's go for a jog! And we'll find things to work on along the way!"

Buneary hopped after Broccoli as she took off running. It wasn't the fastest run, but it was enough to get his legs pumping to keep up.

He wasn't sure what kind of practice they'd get up to, but Broccoli soon found something. There was a shop a street over from the pokemon centre where an old lady was trying to swipe some sticky spider webs from the hangy bit on the front of the building with a broom.

Broccoli stopped, then asked if she could help. The next thing he knew, Buneary was being held way up high above Broccoli's head and he had to shoot his new cleaning move at the spider webs to clean them off.

Some fell on his face and he got tangled up, but the old lady was so happy she gave him and Broccoli ten pokedollars each!

Next, she found a store that had pidgey poop all over the edge of the roof, and Buneary was sent up to clean it by bouncing as high as he could before launching his new attack.

The next place was an ice cream parlour. They didn't clean anything there, instead Broccoli spent the pokedollars they made on ice cream. He did learn how to use Defence Curl to resist the Ice-type damage of a brain freeze.

They helped a woman in a clothing shop next, which had him jumping up while carrying folded clothes to put them into tall racks, and then there was a small drug store that needed its floors swept.

By the time supper-time rolled around Buneary was exhausted. Every part of him was sore. The fight against the pidgey had taken less out of him than Broccoli's training, but at least they got some nice rewards out of it! Broccoli had a potion that they could use later, and Buneary had earned a small scarf for his work too.

It was hard work, getting stronger, but he knew that when it came time to fight that gym leader, he'd be kicking his pokemon's butts!

***