"Remember this! Treat your Pokémon with your heart, and use your Bond to strengthen your teamwork! Bond is your greatest power!"
Since Professor Oak had only given Asher the bargain-bin starter set of Poké Balls, a Pokédex, and a trainer license without saying a single word about how to actually train Pokémon, Asher could only rely on his own understanding.
So he gave Kagari broad, straightforward guidance from the top down, then immediately threw her into live practice to sharpen her battle instincts.
"Come on! Use all your strength to direct your Pokémon! Let it feel what you're trying to say and fight by your side!"
Kagari nodded hard and called out brightly, "Dopey, let's go! Special training starts now!"
"Numel—"
Facing an opponent weaker than himself, Asher had no choice but to control things with extreme care.
"Watch the angle of this claw carefully! You need to make up for the speed gap with prediction!"
[Flare, slow your swipe down a little. Do you even know how to feint?!]
"Be careful. If that fire hits you, it won't be pretty. Pay attention to the elemental fluctuations coming off your opponent!"
[Flare, control the fire output. Don't actually blast it!]
"Faster reactions! Faster movement! Better communication! Your judgment is slow, your Pokémon is hesitating, and your teamwork is a mess! Can you dodge this one?!"
[Control the fire! Control the fire! Control the fire! Control the fire! Control the fire! Control the fire!]
Flare was panting, drenched in sweat, and more exhausted than it had ever been in its life.
This was the first time it had ever felt such intense suppression.
Before now, it had always fought with everything it had, going all out, throwing itself into the struggle and trying to crush whatever stood in front of it.
But now Asher was suddenly giving it one restriction after another. The feeling of being tied down and held back was suffocating.
Deep inside, its nature hated these restraints. A violent impulse made it want to slap that little fool of a Numel right out of existence.
And yet, paradoxically, because those restraints were coming from Asher, Flare loved every bit of them.
It gave it a strange sensation, like it was going against its own nature...
And somehow finding a weird kind of joy inside that restraint.
It was a very strange feeling!!!
Like the door to a whole new world had just opened, Flare vaguely found a path to controlling its own power within that odd sensation.
Using a powerful Bond to suppress its own instincts, taming itself through restraint, making its strength no longer a primitive beast but something it could command with the ease of a trainer handling a well-trained partner...
As it gradually found that feeling of self-restraint, Flare's control over its own power started becoming smoother and smoother.
After sparring all afternoon, both Asher and Kagari were soaked in sweat and gasping for breath from the sheer mental strain of staying focused.
Numel was exhausted too, drooping its head and looking completely spent.
Only Flare seemed like it had endless energy. Even after moving nonstop all afternoon, it was still bursting with motivation.
When someone can feel happiness from doing something, they'll naturally push themselves to keep doing it.
That was intrinsic motivation.
[Rotom! The fragrance always lingers on the hand that gives the rose. Flare has unlocked Weird Insight!]
Weird Insight?
Feeling the unusually joyful emotions coming from Flare, Asher wiped the sweat from his face and said, "Flare, you seem especially happy! Just as I thought... you must've realized the true meaning of helping others."
"When you help someone else grow, you gain happiness too. You're already a mature, wonderful teacher."
Flare covered its big head with its claws and squirmed awkwardly.
Asher rubbed the red fuzz on its head and laughed cheerfully, thinking Flare was just embarrassed by the praise.
This proved once again that the stupidest mistake people make is assuming they can truly understand someone else.
Even two beings whose hearts were connected could never fully understand each other. At best, they could only feel one another.
And when people used that feeling to arrogantly assume they had achieved understanding, stories tended to take unexpected turns...
Whew-whew—
Suddenly, Asher heard a familiar whistle.
His expression shifted slightly, and he said to Kagari, "You should head home for now. I've got something I need to take care of."
Kagari didn't ask any questions. She simply left obediently with Dopey at once.
The moment she was gone, a red-haired young man stepped out in front of Asher.
Silver seemed to know everything happening in the entire forest. Slapping a hand on Asher's shoulder, he said, "I heard you got into it with a League trainer recently and ended up in the hospital. Heh. Look, brother, I'm not a fan of those guys either, but right now we should keep our heads down. We need time to grow."
Asher was speechless. Who exactly had been spreading that story?
There had only been three people there.
Was it possible some passing Taillow had carried the news?
[Rotom! Silver really admires what you did! Affection +66! Your relationship has risen to: "a brother with guts"!]
"Forget that. Today there's a big score waiting. Come on!"
After following Silver through the forest for a while, they arrived at an open clearing.
A group of wild Pokémon had gathered there for some kind of meeting.
In the middle of the clearing, hanging from a dead tree, was an oversized purple Berry.
[One-glance Rotom! Identified as a Bluk Berry!]
[An astringent fruit used in beauty products.]
Beauty products?
Asher grinned.
Anything connected to those two words had money written all over it.
But once he got a better look at the Pokémon in the clearing, the smile slowly faded from his face...
A level-sixteen Buneary.
A level-eighteen Roselia.
A level-seventeen Illumise.
...
Every single one of them looked like trouble.
Silver was feeling the pressure too. In a low voice, he started plotting.
"Damn it. That Taillow told me there were only a Roselia and a Buneary fighting over the Berry here. Why are there suddenly so many Pokémon? Little Asher, let's wait until they start brawling, then swoop in and take the prize."
But after watching them for a bit, Asher felt like they didn't look ready to fight at all.
"What's going on? These guys are acting weird. It looks more like some kind of social event."
Silver narrowed his eyes and listened for a moment, then gave a strange smile.
"No way. They're holding a beauty contest? Looks like they're planning to decide who gets the Berry through flashy performances."
As he spoke, the Buneary had already hopped into the center of the clearing and started bouncing around like it was doing a rabbit-hop dance routine...
After watching for a moment, Asher suddenly got an idea...