"Well, never mind. I'm just sleepy."
Mira turned her flushed face to the side and said in a meek voice, "I'll go make breakfast now. You should go and wash up."
"Okay."
Watching Mira leave the room in a hurry, Kai got out of bed and went to the bathroom to wash up.
After enjoying a hearty breakfast at home, he made his way to the sports center like the day before.
After an hour of jogging, he took Charmander directly to the Pokémon training room.
Since Charmander was usually adept at long-range combat, Kai decided to focus on honing that first.
"Let's start with the disc launcher," he said, pointing to a black device. Though it was called a disc launcher, it was more like a projection device. When a Pokémon hit the disc with a move, the projection would disappear, making it efficient and environmentally friendly.
After setting the number, interval speed, and other options, the device started—
A buzzing sound echoed as a projected disc appeared and flew past them.
"Ember!" Kai commanded.
Whoosh!
A wisp of flame flew out of Charmander's mouth, approaching the moving disc with incredible speed, only to whiz past it, missing the projection by an inch.
Seeing this, Charmander followed up with another Ember, which managed to hit the target, causing the projection to disappear with a buzzing sound.
"Power is more than sufficient," Kai pondered thoughtfully. "Aim could be improved."
For the next half hour, they continued with the target practice, and by the end, Kai was beaming with satisfaction. Charmander's aim had increased by leaps and bounds, and he no longer missed the target.
Charmander even took Kai's advice of controlling the power seriously and tried to tone it down, producing smaller yet faster Embers. Although the progress was little in that department, it was still a start, and Kai believed that given enough time, this would give him an edge against other apprentice trainers.
As they were training, Kai noticed through his aura that Charmander seemed to be pressing certain emotions—an impulse of rage and destruction coming from within.
"Could it be?" Kai frowned.
To confirm his thoughts, Kai pointed to a nearby wooden post and commanded, "Charmander, use Scratch!"
"Roar!" Charmander let out a low, restrained growl upon hearing the command and dashed toward the wooden post. His claws glowed with white light as he slashed at the post, sending wooden chips flying into the air.
One after another, Charmander continued slashing the post with his claws, seemingly venting his frustration. A couple of seconds later, after shredding the whole post to an unrecognizable state, Charmander panted and sat on the ground.
"Is this due to his bloodline?" Kai, who witnessed all this, pondered as he approached Charmander.
Such inherent rage and violent tendencies weren't normal for a newborn Charmander, so he naturally attributed it to his father, who was violent by nature.
Moreover, Charmander's Scratch was significantly stronger than his Ember, suggesting that his physical or melee attacks were stronger than his elemental or long-range ones.
This threw Kai into a dilemma: whether to ignore Charmander's desire for melee combat and focus solely on long-range skills or to embrace his inherent destructive tendencies and train him in close combat.
Though he could choose to hone both in the future, for the upcoming exam, he needed Charmander to specialize in one while using the other as a supplementary skill. Since Charmander could learn melee skills and his innate talents in close combat weren't inferior, pursuing melee combat seemed feasible. He also possessed Dragon Dance, which further bolstered this path.
"Charmander, if you had to choose between close combat or long-range attacks, which would you prefer?"
After some thought, Kai decided to directly ask Charmander. As a trainer, considering his Pokémon's opinions was important.
Upon hearing the question, Charmander immediately lifted his arm and showed his small claws, trying to appear intimidating. He even made them glow.
Seeing this, Kai smiled. "I see."
With that, Kai decided to focus on training Charmander's melee abilities, with long-range attacks as a secondary skill.
With a clear plan, Kai began to intensify Charmander's close combat training.
Time passed quickly, and at mealtime, Kai felt like he still hadn't done enough. Since Charmander felt the same, Kai sent a message to Mira, telling her he would be late, and continued training.
They trained for a full seven hours, taking small breaks in between, before finally deciding to return home at 5 PM.
"Training so hard, is everything alright?" Mira asked, resting her chin on her hand, curiously staring at Kai and Charmander, who were eating so fast it looked like they were afraid someone would come and snatch their food away.
"It's alright, it's alright," Kai said, his mouth full of a patty roll.
Mira sighed. "You're such a fool. Although it's good to train hard, you need to be mindful of Charmander's health; his energy consumption is much higher than yours."
"That's why we took breaks. To allow Charmander to recover," Kai said as he took another patty roll and stuffed the whole thing into his mouth.
Mira glanced at Charmander and shook her head. "Still, the intensity of the training you described is a bit much for a newborn Charmander."
"Really? But I've read that continuous depletion increases a Pokémon's overall energy."
"Not in such short time intervals, dummy," Mira sighed.
She then went to the kitchen and retrieved a deep blue machine that looked like a box with a lid.
Seeing Kai's puzzled expression, Mira's lips curled into a grin. "Never seen this before? This is an energy cube maker."
"I've read about them," Kai said, surprised.
In his knowledge, energy cubes were a type of pill made from Pokémon berries using a special method.
There were different kinds of energy cubes with varying effects and quality depending on the combination and quality of berries used in the process.
High-quality energy cubes were popular on the market and very expensive. Kai hadn't expected Mira to have a pill maker at home.
"It's my mom's. The tricky part is the berry combinations and the process," Mira explained. "Just knowing the recipe isn't enough; if the process isn't done right, the effect will be greatly reduced."
"It sounds like alchemy from those fantasy novels," Kai joked. "When did you learn to make energy cubes?"
"I watched my mom use it a few times."
Mira opened the fridge and took out three or four fruits, each no larger than a fist, but emitting a strong fruity aroma. Pokémon berries were expensive due to their difficult cultivation and low yield. Even the ones Mira had pulled out must have cost thousands.
"These three berries, leafgreen berry, Ivory berry, and blosum berry, can restore stamina when eaten directly. By making them into energy cubes, we'll be able to maximize their effects, and proper pairing might even enhance their restorative properties."
As she spoke, Mira placed the berries into the machine, set the rotation speed and time, and pressed the button. The machine began to operate with a soft hum.