...
Five days later, on the training ground, Natsu watched his Weedle, a tiny terror, slam into a beefy, unsuspecting Squirtle.
"Weedle, Bug Bite!" Natsu bellowed, his voice echoing through the gym.
Weedle, with the ferocity of a starved Raticate, latched onto Squirtle's tail. That poor, unsuspecting bastard of a Squirtle let out a yelp that could curdle milk.
"Sqirtle!" the Trainer shrieked, his voice laced with pure, unadulterated panic as Squirtle teared up, on the verge of a full-blown meltdown.
"Stop!" the Trainer yelled, and Weedle, ever the obedient little shit, let go, scampering back to Natsu's side like he'd just pulled off the heist of the century.
The Trainer recalled Squirtle, still whimpering, and turned to Natsu, a wide grin plastered across his face.
"Holy shit! Your Weedle is a goddamn superstar! The best I've ever seen, hands down! Thanks for the sparring, man!"
Natsu, trying to keep a straight face, just nodded, crouching down so Weedle could clamber up onto his shoulder, puffing his chest out like he'd just won the Pokémon League.
"I swear, I never thought a Weedle from the Silph Pokémon club, especially the biggest club in Saffron City, could be such a force of nature," the Trainer muttered, shaking his head in disbelief as he walked away, probably still trying to figure out what the hell just happened.
This, folks, was Natsu's daily grind. His client today? Some junior high kid named Kenji, who, bless his heart, still had to go to school.
So, sometimes, other club members would rope Natsu into a sparring session. Most of 'em chose him because, let's be real, they thought Weedle was a pushover. But after tangling with Natsu's Weedle, their opinions tended to shift faster than a Scyther in a tornado.
Weedle, perched on Natsu's shoulder, practically preened.
"Wow!" he chirped, his tiny head held high, radiating pure, unadulterated arrogance.
"He said I was the best Weedle ever!"
Natsu, stifling a laugh, gently flicked Weedle's head. "Don't get too cocky, you little bastard," he chuckled. "He only said you're the best because he hasn't seen enough other Weedles. You and 'the best' still have a Grand Canyon-sized gap between you, buddy." Giovani's Beedrill had left an impression on Natsu that no mere Weedle could erase.
"Wuu~~" Weedle whined, but it was a familiar sound. He was used to Natsu's blunt reminders to keep his ego in check. Just as he was used to Natsu's comforting words when he screwed up and blamed himself.
As sparring partners, Natsu and Weedle had faced down a shit-ton of Pokémon and Trainers. Not every battle was a cakewalk for Weedle, and yeah, they lost their fair share.
But Natsu wasn't the type to chew out his Pokémon for every defeat. Instead, every damn night before hitting the hay, he and Weedle would debrief, dissecting their failures and shortcomings, aiming to avoid the same pitfalls in the next brawl.
Still, most of the trainers who picked Weedle as a sparring partner weren't exactly Elite Four material, so Natsu and his Weedle usually ended up winning more than they lost.
"Your connection with that last Bug Bite was a bit clunky, and the move's power isn't quite at your level yet," Natsu mused, recalling the previous battle. "That's a weakness, and we need to pound it into shape."
"Woooo~~" Weedle nodded, looking up at Natsu with a sad, almost pleading expression.
"You.." Natsu said, a fond smile creeping onto his face, knowing exactly what Weedle was thinking. He pulled a glistening, crystal-clear Pokéblock from his pocket and offered it to Weedle.
"Wuu~~!" Weedle shrieked with joy, snatching the Pokéblock with his tail and stuffing it into his mouth, humming a happy little tune as he devoured it.
"Eat up, buttercup," Natsu said, standing up. "If we don't have any more customers after this, we're back to training." He strolled to the corner, pulling out a book titled "Bug-Type Pokémon Abilities: Relationship Development and Battle Ability."
Natsu remembered Weedle wasn't exactly a scholar when it came to learning new moves. Besides String Shot, Poison Sting, and Bug Bite, the only other move he was supposed to learn was the notoriously difficult Electro Web.
Teaching Weedle that move had been a royal pain in Natsu's ass. Right now, Weedle could spin webs of spit, but couldn't tap into Electric-type energy for shit. It was like trying to teach a fish to fly – damn near impossible for a Bug/Poison-type Pokémon to master an Electric-type move.
"Take your time," Natsu mumbled to himself. "The main goal is still to master the moves he already knows. Beedrill's String Shot and Poison Sting are practically at mastery level. Bug Bite? That's still only 'proficient'."
From his reading, Natsu had learned that a Pokémon's ability to execute and link moves in battle was categorized into stages:
[Learn]
[Advanced]
and [Master].
A Pokémon's energy was finite, and there were so many moves to learn. It was impossible to train every single one to the Master level.
That's where the Trainer came in – it was their job to pick the moves that perfectly matched the Pokémon's unique characteristics and fighting style.
As long as a move reached the [Advanced] level, it was usually good enough for actual combat.
Fortunately, Weedle wasn't bogged down by too many moves, so training him to master all of them wasn't as daunting.
Oh, and another thing. After all this training and battling, Natsu was pretty damn sure that Weedle's true ability was "Run Away", not the common "Shield Dust". It was an "Hidden Ability," apparently.
In the games, "Run Away" was pretty useless, only guaranteeing an escape from wild Pokémon. But here, "Run Away" gave Weedle a serious speed boost. Not a bad characteristic at all, even if the speed increase wasn't earth-shattering.
Night fell.
Natsu and his Weedle saw Kenji and his Bulbasaur off.
Before he left, Kenji, still buzzing from the battle, practically begged Natsu to join him for an adventure in the dense forest the day after tomorrow.
After five days of non-stop training and battling, Natsu and Weedle's skills had skyrocketed. The "dense forest," supposedly under Alliance control, shouldn't pose much of a threat. So, Natsu, being the accommodating guy he was, agreed.
Just as he was about to call it a night and head back with his exhausted Weedle, Anna, the receptionist and sparring coordinator, popped up.
Over the past few days, Natsu and Anna had been in constant contact, and they'd grown pretty damn close.
"You're training so late, you maniac!" Anna exclaimed, stepping into the training room. She saw Natsu and Weedle, drenched in sweat, and her eyes sparkled with a growing admiration. She'd seen her share of strong Trainers, but none worked as hard as Natsu and his Weedle.
Natsu stopped, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead. "Yeah, It's normal."
"Here, your earnings for today, you workaholic," Anna said, handing him a fat stack of money.
Thanks to Kenji's patronage and the occasional sparring gigs during the day, Natsu had been pulling in a steady $400-500 daily. Over five days, that amounted to over $2,000 – barely enough to keep Weedle stocked with Pokéblocks, but hey, it was something.
"Thanks!" he said, wiping his hands on his clothes before carefully tucking the money away.
"There's something else, something important the director mentioned. This could be your big break," Anna added, her voice dropping a notch.
"Oh?" Natsu's eyebrows shot up.
Anna continued, "Two days ago, the club got a mission from the Pokémon School in Saffron City. They want us to send some people to clear out the dense forest outside Saffron City tomorrow. It's not a high-difficulty mission, so the director decided to send the Primary Rank sparring partners."
Natsu's expression shifted, a strange mix of confusion and recognition. Dense forest?
Anna, oblivious to his internal processing, continued, "The director wants each of you to be responsible for a specific area, clearing out any potentially dangerous or aggressive Pokémon." She paused, as if realizing she hadn't stressed the most important part. "This mission is probably directly tied to your Primary Rank. If you want to earn some serious cash, this is your shot, buddy!"
Is this how I get promoted? By doing quests for the Silph Pokémon Battle Club?
"Got it," Natsu nodded. Looks like he could rake in double the money in that dense forest. Sweet!
"And this is a map of the forest and your assigned area," Anna said, handing him a document.
"Thank you," Natsu replied, taking the file.
"Oh, and by the way, there's an evaluation of you and your Weedle in there too. Might be helpful. Get some rest tonight, work starts bright and early tomorrow morning."
With that, she turned and left, leaving Natsu alone with his thoughts and a map to a potentially profitable, albeit slightly dangerous, forest.
...
(End of this goddamn chapter!)