"Greninja, are you ready? I'll count to three, and we'll throw together."
The Blade in Ash's hand dissipated into particles of Aura before being replaced by a shuriken shaped like a plum blossom throwing star.
"Gren!" Greninja nodded. In its hand, a blue Water Shuriken had similarly taken shape.
However, there was a subtle difference between the two.
The shuriken in Ash's hand was pale blue, formed entirely from Aura. The one in Greninja's hand was a deep azure blue, condensed from the purest Water-type energy.
"Three... Two... One..."
Swish ×2!
The moment Ash finished counting, Trainer and Pokémon moved in perfect unison. Their shuriken flew through the air simultaneously toward the cross-shaped bullseye carved into the wooden target ahead.
Water Shuriken had an exceptionally low energy cost and belonged to the category of moves that could continually evolve and improve. Because of that, Ash had long designated it as one of Greninja's core moves for training. By now, its proficiency had already reached the pinnacle—Grandmaster level.
As for Ash, ever since he began his Aura combat training, besides practicing Jujutsu, Aura Laijutsu, and Aura Sphere, he had also trained alongside Greninja in shuriken throwing techniques.
After all, shuriken techniques were closely related to the future development of his Rasengan combat arts.
As things stood now, Ash's proficiency with throwing shuriken was no less impressive than Greninja's own.
Thud!
The sound of sharp blades piercing wood rang out as the two differently colored shuriken struck the very center of the target at exactly the same time.
Seeing this, both Ash and Greninja revealed delighted expressions before simultaneously turning toward Rotom.
"Rotom, how did it go? When Greninja and I threw our shuriken just now, did our heart rate graphs become more synchronized?" Ash asked excitedly.
"They did, Rotom! (^^)" Rotom replied happily after comparing the two sets of heart rate data displayed on the smartphone screen.
"Excellent! Although the degree of synchronization isn't particularly high yet, this proves that my shuriken training plan is headed in the right direction."
After examining the collected data himself, Ash couldn't help but smile happily.
"Greninja, let's continue."
Seeing that there were no flaws in the overall direction of his plan, Ash's enthusiasm immediately soared.
"Gren! (_)" Greninja nodded before returning to stand beside him, and the Trainer and Pokémon resumed their shuriken throwing practice.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
...
...
For the entire hour of their morning training session, Ash and Greninja did nothing else besides practicing throwing shuriken upon the riverbank.
Later, when Gary and Green arrived and witnessed the scene, they naturally grew curious.
However, Ash didn't elaborate much.
While Mega Evolution was already considered an exceptionally advanced power within the professional Pokémon world, and the academic community had yet to fully understand it, most Trainers who paid attention to the Pokémon profession at least knew of its existence.
Bond Evolution, however, was entirely different.
It was something unheard of and unseen throughout the entire professional Pokémon world.
Ash had no intention of revealing information about Bond Evolution at this stage. After all, he couldn't possibly explain where his knowledge of it originated.
Furthermore, he wasn't a Pokémon researcher. Although becoming the first person to discover and formally introduce Bond Evolution would undoubtedly bring him tremendous fame and recognition, such things were ultimately optional to him.
If he truly wanted that recognition, he could simply reveal it in the future once he had become sufficiently powerful. After all, Greninja's Bond Evolution form would inevitably be revealed to the world eventually.
For now, helping Greninja develop and master Bond Evolution was simply another hidden trump card for his team—much like Pidgeot's Mega Evolution.
Aside from the initial experiments and the time he used it during his battle against Gary, Ash had never allowed Pidgeot to Mega Evolve before anyone else or in any other setting.
To this day, no outsider knew that either Ash or Pidgeot possessed the power of Mega Evolution.
And Bond Evolution was even more mysterious and powerful than Mega Evolution itself.
At least for the foreseeable future, Ash had no plans of revealing it to anyone—including Gary, his childhood friend and closest companion.
This wasn't because he was selfish or secretive. He simply didn't wish to bring unnecessary trouble to those around him.
If Bond Evolution were a universal power that could be mastered by any Pokémon—including Gary's partners—Ash certainly wouldn't keep it to himself.
...
After telling Gary and Green that he was merely conducting synchronization training with Greninja, the two accepted the explanation without suspicion before taking their own Pokémon elsewhere to begin their morning exercises.
Meanwhile, Ash and Greninja continued their shuriken practice without interruption.
After every attempt, Rotom would report the results of the comparison between their heart rate graphs.
Although the synchronization fluctuated slightly from throw to throw, the overall trend continued steadily upward—their heart rates were becoming increasingly synchronized.
However, shuriken throwing was merely the very first step in their "unity of hearts" training.
After all, Trainers and Pokémon were independent living beings. They possessed different personalities, different ways of thinking, and different perspectives.
Even understanding what another person was thinking was already incredibly difficult. Achieving complete unity of thought was naturally far more challenging.
Shuriken throwing was merely beginner-level training.
It allowed both Ash and Greninja to focus upon the same target while performing the exact same action. By emptying their minds of distractions and concentrating solely upon a single objective, it became much easier to enter a state of mental synchronization.
The entire scenario was incredibly simple.
When both parties were fully focused and free of distracting thoughts, the things occupying their minds naturally became nearly identical.
Ordinarily, achieving mutual understanding between a Trainer and their Pokémon was extraordinarily difficult. However, by simplifying both the situation and its prerequisites, pursuing that goal became significantly easier.
That was precisely what Ash and Greninja were doing now.
They were throwing shuriken together, aiming at the same target, while thinking about the same thing. Under such circumstances, achieving unity of thought naturally became much more attainable.
Yet even so, it had still taken them a tremendous amount of time just to achieve ninety percent synchronization between their electrocardiograms.
Reaching one hundred percent synchronization remained frustratingly out of reach.
And this was under circumstances where Ash had deliberately simplified everything.
If they attempted the same thing amidst a far more complicated battle scenario, achieving complete unity of thought would undoubtedly become even more difficult.
"Originally, I planned to have Greninja spar with Pikachu and the others during our formal training session this morning so that we could pursue mental synchronization amidst actual combat."
"But looking at our current progress... I've seriously underestimated just how difficult this goal really is."
"It seems we'll have to take things slowly and devote much more time to this than I anticipated."
Ash sighed inwardly.
The path toward Bond Evolution was proving to be far more challenging than he had imagined.
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