The morning in the Pokemon Center was abuzz with activity, with me introducing Cet to Joy, Gengar and Joy berating me for purchasing TM’s and pointing out I won't have money for new clothes, shoes or more importantly food and berating me again after I blurted my plan for hunting in the deep jungle for food.

She only calmed down after I promised I would win some trainer matches instead of going into the jungle.

But she made me promise that if she doesn’t think that Cet can win any matches 10 days from now on, which is the date every trainer’s License becomes legally effective, I must do some part-time job or buy less expensive food for Cet.

I promised readily fully believing in myself and my Pokemon.

With me feeding Cet highly nutritious food, he is going to come out of his baby phase by tomorrow.

I was hoping Cet will grow into a higher size than normal for his Pokemon species, he is male so at least he will be bigger than the female of his species. I want to develop him into an agility-based damage dealer, so getting too big can also be a problem.

So, I spent the whole day playing with Cet and strategizing about move usage, Pokemon battle deploy position and combo moves when he is asleep, which is a very common occurrence as after playing for some time, he eats and takes a nap for an hour or more.

….

Cet outgrew his baby phase, so I brought him to the Centre’s battlefield for training.

“Use Gust, Cet,” I called out, brimming with excitement, pointing my hand away from myself.

My Zubat circled me landed on my stretched arm, cutely tilted his head and called out his name.

“Zuuubat.”

I nearly fell on the ground on seeing his cute behaviour, When I read that Unawakened Pokemon doesn’t understand human language, I didn’t think about it too deeply.

But now I face every trainer’s first hurdle- communication gap.

I at least hoped he would understand his attack names, but it seems I hoped for too much.

It seems I used my protagonist's luck with scoring a Zubat with two egg moves. But I still think that luck isn’t much as both are flying types, I could have trained the other move quickly with one egg move as a base.

If I think about it I don’t have any luck at all, arriving in the world with not enough time to prepare for the exam, starting with a common starter.

I shook my head and tried to make Cet use any of his moves, with no success.

Now I understand why the league does not provide certain typed starters, with communication being difficult, If the Pokemon are unruly and do not pay attention to trainers, then the time required to properly train them will be too much.

This problem becomes more apparent when the said Pokemon can teleport away(Psychic), become invisible(Ghost) or play with your emotions(Dark).

Thinking for a second, I know the answer is obvious but playing a video every time is tedious or at least I told myself it is the reason.

As I didn’t have money to subscribe to Pokenet, but with PokeCentre providing free wifi I didn’t think it was necessary.

Double-checking whether I can access the wifi from the field, I came to the depressing conclusion that I cannot.

I discreetly checked whether Joy was watching and prepared myself for the coming humiliation.

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‘At least no one is watching,’ I consoled myself.

I looked at Cet with a serious expression and clearly pronounced the word ‘Gust’ and I started flapping my hands like they were wings.

I thanked the heavenly goat for small mercies as Cet started to copy me.

But no matter how much time passed Cet was just flapping his wings, no air was getting generated.

Just as I was feeling tired flapping hands, Joy’s Gengar appeared in front of me and started giggling and mimicked me mockingly.

I blushed and blushed even deeper when I saw Joy joining Gengar in its laughter.

“Don’t be embarrassed now, Leo” Joy giggled and continued speaking.

“Why don’t you use the recommended training methods instead of… whatever this is you are doing.”

I nodded deeply and walked towards the centre.

Near the door of the centre’s battlefield entrance, I accessed the Pokenet using the centre’s wifi.

I showed a battle video of Pigdeotto using Gust to Cet on repeat 3 times.

There was no video of Zubat using gust in the Pokenet. I was able to find a Golbat using it, not a Zubat.

As it was a battle video, not a TM the angle was not good, I made most of the video even by slowing it and pausing at appropriate times.

With a new appreciation of how rare my starter is, I walked back to the battlefield.

Nurse Joy watched and tried to help me with no success, consoling me that these things take time and using egg moves is generally tougher for the first time when compared to normal moves, she left after suggesting letting Zubat practice Supersonic for some time.

Pokemon are aware of their moves after exiting the baby phase, but it is different for egg moves. Egg moves take time for the Pokemon to discover and sometimes it can take very long, nullifying some of the advantages, but not all of it.

Using egg moves helps Pokemon better regulate their aura or energy which helps in mastering the same type of moves easier.

Just after I started making Zubat use Gust I got a crazy idea, but I shelved it because .... it’s crazy.

Telling Gengar to look after Cet, I ran into the centre’s lost and found room to find a lighter.

I thought over my crazy plan once more, dismissing the part of my brain that said we could take it slow.

I explained my plan to Gengar, and it readily accepted it. I thought I would need some convincing, but it is a ghost type for a reason, I guess.

The Gengar has a big role to play in my scheme.

Cet did not actively dislike sunlight, maybe because he was born here instead of in a cave, but he certainly likes to hang upside down.

I lit the lighter and showed it to Cet, he didn’t have much of a reaction until I hovered the flame over him for a second at which he screeched and flew up.

I repeated my actions two more times being very careful not to burn him.

After making sure he knew fire hurts, I placed a dry leaf on the ground and lit it up.

I called Cet and caught his body facing his front side toward the fire, leaving his wings free.

I started bringing him closer to the fire, the lovable goof he was, he didn’t react until he could feel the heat after which he started beating his wings to fly away.

As I was holding him, he couldn’t get away but the wind he generated extinguished the fire.

“Zuu,” he said surprised at the sudden change.

I made sure he understood he put the fire off and repeated the same thing two more times, before calling him back.

‘Now comes the tough part,’ I thought and grimaced.

My plan wouldn’t work for freshly caught wild Pokemon as it depends on the Pokemon’s willingness to keep something it loves safe.

I can confidently say Cet loves me as I am the person it ‘saw’ after hatching and I was the one who fed him and played with him.

' I believe in you, you overexcited bat,' I thought looking at Cet's luxury ball.

Hoping my plan works, I collected more dry leaves and rocks.

With that I made a trail with leaves with rocks on either side, to not let the wind scatter the leaves, near the Pokemon Centre’s door.

I checked the wifi and opened a video from Pokenet before I lit the fire on the end away from the centre’s door.

After lighting up an end, I ran towards the other side.

I tightly packed the dry leaves between the rocks to make an illusion of substantial fire.

I nodded towards Gengar who transformed into a big shadow with scary eyes and hands on my shoulders, making it look like he was holding from moving.

Taking a deep breath, I released Cet perpendicular to the trail of fire and very near to the ground.

Just after he appeared darkness spread towards him and from it two claws appeared holding Cet, leaving his wings free, immobilising.

Cet cried out in surprise and tried to move with no result.

I hollered, shifting his attention to me.

He freaked out after seeing a dark shadow holding me in the line of fire, which was making its way towards me slowly.

“Use Gust” I cried out.

He didn’t appear to hear me as he frantically beat his wings to reach me.

I shouted again and showed him a video of a Pidgey using gusts to scatter the ember move of a Pokemon.

He stopped his struggle for a brief moment and started flapping his wings without moving his body.

The distance between him and the fire is enough to serve as a gentle reminder of the heat but without the risk of burning him.

I gave encouraging shouts even knowing he won’t understand.

‘ Work. God damn it,’ I thought as I watched the fire creeping towards me slowly.