About three hours ter, Shiro was so exhausted he could barely move. He simply y on the ground, watg Rookidee train with full tration in midair.

  Rookidee’s proficy with Air Cutter was improving rapidly. After many attempts, it had shortehe time o form the attack to around a sed. However, trying to jure two wind bdes at once was still beyond its ability, its trol over Flying-type energy wasn’t quite there yet.

  Meanwhile, Gastly, who had initially wao be zy, was inspired to give its all when seeing Shiro push himself so hard. But after just a few attempts, it ended up pletely drained and colpsed onto the ground.

  Using a move beyond its level ed far too muergy.

  Shiro decided to take out all the Pokéblocks he had, piling them up against the wall so Gastly could eat whe got hungry.

  Uhis interaining, Gastly’s proficy with Shadow Ball was improving at a visible rate. If not for its current limitations—mainly a ck of raw power—it might have already been able to unch the attack with ease.

  Yet despite the struggle, Gastly seemed captivated. It refused to give up on Shadow Ball, obsessing over the move.

  Seeing this, Shiro remi that it didn’t o make the Shadow Ball se, it could use smaller versions for attacks instead.

  That simple suggestion seemed like a revetion for the not-sht Gastly. Excited, it quickly formed a series of Shadow Balls, each about the size of a human fist, and hurled them at the alloy training dummies.

  That ted as pleting the task, in a way.

  Gastly’s talent was clearly far superior to Rookidee’s. Not only did it ily know more moves, but its trol and uanding of energy developed at a much faster rate.

  In other words, its elemental affinity was extremely high.

  Shiro even suspected that Gastly was already on the verge of reag the Beginner level. The pile of Pokéblocks he had pced against the wall had been devoured at an arming rate, nearly aire week's worth of food gone in no time.

  "Roo-ki-dee!"

  Notig Gastly’s progress, Rookidee trained even harder. No matter what, it refused to fall behind its teammate.

  But some gaps simply couldn't be closed with effort alone.

  "Rookidee, e down a for a bit." Shiro leaned against the wall, calling out to it.

  Rookidee was already panting heavily, its yellow belly fluff rising and falling with each breath. It had been training so hard that even the blue feathers on its back had started shedding, scattered across the floor.

  Yet it still hadn't mastered juring two wind bdes at oo Rookidee, Flying-type energy felt like two spinning iron balls—one wrong move, and they slipped out of trol.

  “Rooki…deeeh..."

  It wobbled midair, fpping weakly before finally tumbling to the ground in front of Shiro.

  It had actually been at its limit for a while, pushing itself purely through willpower.

  "Rookidee!" Shiro quickly scooped it up, crushed a few Pokéblocks into water, a. Then he pced a Flyberry—the one he had bought off the bck market—by its beak.

  Shiro had taken time to ask several league trainers about recovery methods. They all said that feeding a Pokémon special berries right after exhausting training yielded the best results.

  After eating, Rookidee curled up into a small ball.

  Shiro gently stroked its feathers, pnning to feed it the remaining Exp. dies o woke up.

  Right now, Rookidee had just reached the Beginner-level, around Level 11. If everythi as expected, it should be able to reach Level 16 or 17 in the hree days, right on the verge of evolution.

  Its rapid growth artly because of its low level and the abundance of resources Shiro into it.

  Oraining was done ihree days, and it had sharpes moves a bit more, it would be ready to evolve.

  Shiro had also thought about Rookidee’s future at the Hammerlocke Stadium after evolving.

  At Level 16 or 17, it would probably be the stro among its kind there. But o evolved into Corvisquire, that wouldn't be the case anymore. There were bound to be many Advanced-level Corvisquire peting for the position, all over Level 30. A freshly evolved one wouldn’t stand a ce.

  By then, Shiro could only s it out for araining partner—Gastly.

  With its superior talent, Gastly would probably reach a simir level by the time Rookidee evolved, giving it some solid battle strength.

  ……

  Afternoon.

  After quickly having a meal at a nearby restaurant, Shiro returo the training room, diving straight bato his training.

  Rookidee, havien the Fly Berry, had already woken up and was full of energy, chirping and eager to train.

  Bang!

  Iraining room, Rookidee fpped its wings in mid-air. The surrounding air visibly densed, quickly transf into two wind bdes that sshed toward the metallic target.

  It had mastered the flying-type energy much better than in the m. Not only did it effortlessly create two wind bdes, but after just a few more tries, it successfully formed a third one.

  Rookidee traiirelessly, enjoying the rapid growth of its strength. Ever since Shiro fed it the Fly Berry, its body had bee noticeably lighter and mile.

  Bang, bang, bang...

  Four or five small Shadow Balls shastly, flying in a orderly fashion and hitting various parts of the metallic target.

  “Gaa-gaa-gastly!”

  Gastly giggled, floatio Rookidee and showing off.

  Rookidee g Gastly with its red eyes but didn’t pay it any mind. Gastly felt a strange chill run through it, as if a cold breeze had blown by. It shrank baervously calling out.

  “Gaasss~”

  Gastly, feeling slightly intimidated, backed down.

  It had lost to Rookidee the st time they fought. Now, Rookidee was already at a higher level, faster, and had moves that could actually deal damage to it. There was no way it could win.

  Besides, Gastly could feel that if it kept showing off in front of Rookidee, it would be caught aen up.

  Seeing Gastly give up so quickly, Rookidee didn’t bother with it anymore and tiraining on its own.

  At this time, Shiro was carrying a weight of several dozen kilograms, pushing himself through his exercises with great effort.

  Gastly, who wao sck off, looked around, feeling a strange sense of guilt. It decided to tiraining as well. In this atmosphere, both people and Pokémon were slowly but steadily improving their strength.

  The evening soon arrived.

  The training room's timers sighat Shiro's session . The maes began fshing and beeping, reminding him that it was time to renew his session.

  But Shiro, along with Rookidee and Gastly, had already been training for over ten hours.

  Although Rookidee and Gastly still had plenty of energy and cimed they could keep going, Shiro was ed that they might overstrain themselves and cause injury.

  Training could bee addictive, but taking appropriate breaks was necessary to maximize effid avoid harm.

  So, Shiro recalled his Pokémon, quickly tidied up his things, ahe training room with his bag.

  In the hallway outside, several trainers were leaning against the wide copper windows, gazing out at the city of Hammerlocke and chatting casually.

  "Hey, Shiro, you're done already?" A man in an e-red tight training suit with curly hair waved at him from he window. His name was Hugo. Shiro had spoken with him earlier in the day and had asked him about the recovery method for Pokémon.

  "Yeah, I firaining for today. Hugo, I’m heading out." Shiro waved back.

  Hugo nodded, watg Shiro take the elevator down, theuro his versation with his panions.

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