While Diamond and Asher trained, two females watched without blinking.
Kagari leaned against a tree the whole time, studying Asher's special training. It was as if she had grasped something free and unbound from it, and every so often a silly, delighted smile would spread across her face.
Flare, meanwhile, watched the two of them grow more and more in sync, and the more it watched, the more anxious it became.
These seven days, it hadn't been idle. Or rather, it simply couldn't be.
Day after day, it watched Asher and Diamond practice boxing, watched the two of them build smoother and smoother coordination, and a kind of pressure it couldn't suppress welled up inside its body, driving it forward with force.
That urgent feeling made it want to do something, anything, to get closer, to join in, to wedge itself into their interaction and find some sense of presence there.
So while the two of them sparred, Flare trained its own punches off to the side like mad.
Granted, a human-style martial art looked ridiculous on a stubby three-head-tall body with a belly instead of a waist.
But Flare, which at least barely had the body structure of a two-legged creature, still practiced it with everything it had.
And through that disciplined training, its hand-to-hand combat underwent an unexpected, almost miraculous change.
After seven days of polishing himself, Asher was nothing like before. He had already awakened a basic level of Aura Power, enough to direct Diamond in battle with relative smoothness.
He still needed words as a medium, but now he could guide Diamond's every move instead of stumbling around in confusion like before.
But whenever he thought back to Principal Roxanne's terrifying Nosepass, he still couldn't relax.
Since he was about to face a Rock-type Gym, Asher had given Diamond a special training focus: punching rocks.
Rock-type Pokémon might be hard to find in Petalburg Woods, but actual rocks? Those were easy.
Picking out a boulder twice their height, Asher gave Diamond a gracious little gesture. "After you."
Truth be told, he had always been curious why Fighting-type Pokémon had an advantage over Rock-type Pokémon.
Was there some special striking method that worked particularly well on stone?
Watching Diamond sway from side to side in eager anticipation, Asher was sure he was about to find out.
Waist and stance aligned, body in one line, punch!
Bang!
A deep, muffled impact rang out, and Asher immediately lit up, ready to witness a miracle.
Except...
The boulder in front of him didn't exactly explode into pieces.
Still, when he stepped closer for a careful look, he found that the punch had left a deep crack in the stone.
He instantly broke into a grin.
"Ha! I knew it worked! Diamond, you did great, you really did great!"
Praised by Asher, Diamond scratched its head shyly.
Then, right at that moment, a fiery red figure stepped forward.
It stared at the crack on the boulder, its whole body trembling.
Asher...
Th-that... I can do that too!!!
"Gwah!!!"
In front of the boulder, Flare twisted its body sharply and unleashed the technique it had practiced so desperately.
Scrrrk—
The harsh scraping sound made Asher spin around in alarm.
When he looked back, he saw Flare raking the boulder wildly with its claws.
Asher hurried over for a closer look, only to realize that... there was actually a claw mark on it.
Compared to Diamond's crack, the difference didn't even seem that big.
Yeah...
Now Asher felt awkward. He had originally brought Diamond in as an anti-Rock weapon.
But now it turned out Diamond's attacks didn't seem overwhelmingly effective against rock after all.
"Gah!"
Flare proudly lifted its head, as if trying to prove that they would be completely fine even without Diamond.
Asher rubbed its head and said happily, "That's amazing! Flare, you've been working really hard too! Looks like you've learned something incredible!"
"Guga!"
With Asher petting and praising it at the same time, Flare's whole body grew warm with delight.
Then Asher turned to Diamond and said with a bright smile, "Yeah! It's such a good thing we met you, Diamond! Even Flare has picked up a lot from you. I'll be counting on you to teach us more from here on out!"
"Gah?!"
Flare's face went blank. W-w-w-wait...
"Baru!"
Diamond puffed up proudly, as if saying, Leave it to me! No problem at all!
Asher still had no idea whether attacks at this level would really work on Rock-type Pokémon, but he firmly believed that the power of Bond could create miracles.
Besides...
Type advantage was part of Principal Roxanne's curriculum. He understood now that using a Fighting-type Pokémon to beat up Rock-types was guaranteed to earn a perfect score.
The problem was what came next.
He needed to keep working with Diamond in real combat and further sharpen the battle rhythm between them.
But Kagari and Dopey weren't suitable sparring targets no matter how he looked at it.
Whether in strength or style, they just weren't right for what the two of them needed.
Silver and Chikorita were about the same, and besides, the two of them were busy every day chasing bigger things and hunting treasure all over the place. Asher didn't feel right bothering him over something like this.
To solve the problem of finding battle targets for Pokémon, battle clubs had naturally come into existence long ago.
Rustboro City already had several professional battle clubs.
As long as you became a member, there would be all kinds of opponents and every kind of facility inside for Pokémon to battle and train.
As for the membership fee...
Naturally, it was a very classy number.
But after glancing at Diamond, Asher quickly came up with a great idea—one that would let them train without spending money and maybe even make some.
...
The underground boxing ring.
Under the dim lights, the atmosphere was as intense as ever.
The raw blows and bloody spectacle kept stabbing at people's nerves, driving them into a constant state of excitement and obsession.
Through the sea of people, a pinkish-purple figure walked through the crowd, and someone shouted excitedly, "Yo! That little guy's finally back!"
"Hahahahaha! I almost thought it got beaten to death! So it finally recovered from its injuries?"
But it didn't take long for people to realize something was off.
"Huh? What's with that red-capped kid? Someone actually caught that thing?"
"Whoa, he's got a Charmander with him! That's a Kanto starter Pokémon!"
"No way, is he actually a Trainer?"
Amid the crowd's chatter, Asher walked up to a thick-bearded brute built like a Machoke.
Behind the man stood a massive four-armed musclebound guard, carrying himself like the enforcer of the place.
The bearded owner of the underground ring gave Asher a warning. "Kid, you know the rules here? No Poké Balls, no elemental powers. Only fists."
Asher smiled and nodded. "No problem. I'll follow the rules."
The brute nodded and arranged a match for Asher and Diamond.
Ordinarily speaking, something around Diamond's level wouldn't even qualify to get on stage.
The ones who came here to fight were usually evolved bruisers in their twenties, guys like Machoke and Primeape.
But Diamond had become something of a crowd favorite here, and the owner had basically started treating it like the ring's mascot.
Since someone had picked up this little gem, he figured it could do a few exhibition matches for fun and help liven up the atmosphere.
After several rounds, it was finally their turn to take the stage.
Their opponent was the very same Machoke who had beaten Diamond flat last time—Mr. Mighty!