Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Chapter 7: Dragon Breath Mastered

In a corner of the Pokémon House, Rio, still in his wheelchair, suddenly sneezed.

Then he pointed at himself and said: "Charmander, you see—this is what happens when you don’t take care of your body. You sneeze out of nowhere. Don’t follow my example. Get plenty of rest and protect your health."

"Rua~" Charmander gave a rather perfunctory cry from where it lay on the ground, lazily flicking its tail.

"Good night, Charmander."

After staying a little longer, Rio wheeled himself back to his staff dormitory.

With his departure, the Pokémon House fell into darkness.

About ten minutes later, Charmander, which had been lying down resting, suddenly stood up. It looked around to confirm that all the other Pokémon were asleep, then hopped onto the windowsill. It opened the window and jumped out, landing in the empty garden.

"Rua~"

It opened its mouth slightly, tilting its head back. Two seconds later, a stream of hot breath came out.

Charmander began practicing Dragon Breath on its own.

Meanwhile, twenty meters away in the staff dormitory, Rio stood at his window, watching the diligent little Pokémon practice. He shrugged helplessly.

"I knew you’d sneak out, you little rascal."

"But since you’re so hardworking, your soon-to-be trainer will stay up with you."

Rio pushed his wheelchair over to the window.

...

The next morning.

Rio, who had fallen asleep in his wheelchair, was jolted awake by his alarm clock. He looked around in a daze for a moment. When he remembered that he’d stayed up to accompany Charmander’s training, he rubbed his slightly red eyes and peered outside.

Under a fruit tree, a small flame was flickering.

He left the dormitory.

Soon, he saw Charmander resting under the tree. The info panel above its head showed that Dragon Breath had changed from "Learnable" to "Mastered."

"What a hardworking little one."

Rio took off his jacket and draped it over Charmander.

"Rua~" The movement woke Charmander, which let out a soft, sleepy cry and slowly opened its eyes. When it saw Rio, it was startled at first, then a look of pure joy spread across its face.

"Rua~"

Charmander immediately scrambled to its feet, pointed at itself, then faced an empty space, opened its mouth, and tilted its head back. Scorching energy gathered in its mouth. Two or three seconds later, a jet of burning black energy burst forth.

After unleashing it, it looked at Rio expectantly.

But Rio’s expression remained calm.

"Rua~" Charmander let out a confused, slightly dejected cry, as if asking whether it hadn’t performed well.

But two seconds later, it got the reaction it had been hoping for.

"That’s amazing! Charmander, you’re absolutely incredible! You’re a genius!"

"In just one day, you’ve mastered Dragon Breath—that’s a talent that other Pokémon can’t even dream of catching up to. You really are the super genius I knew you were!"

"Wow, that’s just too awesome!"

Rio gave two huge thumbs up and showered it with praise.

"Rua~" Charmander grinned sheepishly, its eyes narrowing into little crescent moons.

Rio kept up the praise for a full two minutes, stopping only when he ran out of ways to say it. Charmander kept smiling along for the entire two minutes.

Its friendship increased by one point.

"Rua~" After basking in the praise, Charmander pointed toward the building where Munchlax slept.

Rio understood—it was asking whether it was time for revenge.

He shook his head: "Not yet. The time isn’t right. Munchlax is three levels higher than you. You still have other training to do."

"Rua~"

"Here’s my plan for you today: first, raise your level. Second, increase your proficiency in all your moves. So today, you’ll be battling—constantly battling other Pokémon—and constantly practicing your moves. It’s going to be tiring, but it’s the only way to unlock your latent talent. Do you have the confidence?" Rio said.

Move proficiency, in a sense, was equivalent to move power. The higher the proficiency, the stronger the move. For example, when two Pokémon use the same move, sometimes one is much stronger than the other—that’s because the stronger one has much higher proficiency in that move.

At the same time, move proficiency had level caps. When a move’s proficiency reached a certain value and couldn’t increase any further, that meant the Pokémon’s level needed to be raised before it could continue improving.

"Rua~" Charmander clenched its little fist and gave a confident cry.

"Good. You really are the super genius I knew you were," Rio said approvingly. "Let’s go have breakfast together. After that, we’ll head to the park for training."

"Rua~" Charmander responded with high spirits and followed Rio back toward the Pokémon House.

Gradually, it noticed something odd.

Today, Rio wasn’t sitting in his wheelchair.

"Rua~" Charmander darted in front of Rio and stopped him.

"What’s wrong, Charmander?" Rio looked at it, puzzled. Then he followed its gaze downward—and realized with a start that he wasn’t in his wheelchair.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he instantly switched into actor mode.

"Whoa, I’m actually standing! Charmander, I didn’t even notice until you pointed it out. Looks like my injuries have healed!" He gave Charmander another big thumbs-up, beaming.

"Charmander, you’re not just a super genius—you’re a lucky charm too! After just one day of training with you, my wounds are healing faster!"

"Rua~ Rua~" Charmander nodded repeatedly, its face beaming with joy once more.

After breakfast, Rio took Charmander back to the park.

This time, not only Rina came along, but Mr. Fuji as well. He said he wanted to see how Rio conducted Charmander’s training.

The previous night, when Charmander had returned, both Mr. Fuji and the volunteers had been astonished. They couldn’t believe that the same Charmander that had been so listless in the morning was now full of fighting spirit by evening—all in just one afternoon.

"Bro, my Squirtle needs you to check its training progress!"

"Bro, look at mine first! My Scyther has been practicing Agility for a week with no results!"

"No, no—mine first! I bought a Magmar at an auction and I want to know how to train it. I can pay extra!"

The moment Rio arrived at the park, the same group of trainers from yesterday swarmed him. They had all come out before dawn, hoping to be the first to get Rio’s advice. Little did they know, many other "bright minds" had the same idea.

"Charmander, you go practice your moves on your own for now. I’ll come to you after I’ve given them some pointers," Rio said, facing the crowd of eager trainers. He had promised them yesterday, after all.

"Rua~" Charmander obediently headed to an empty patch of ground.

"Rina, could you buy me ten bottles of Max Elixir and ten bottles of Super Potion? I’ll transfer the money to you later," Rio called out to Rina, who was following behind him.

He needed Max Elixir for proficiency grinding—every time a learned move was used, it consumed a portion of the Pokémon’s energy. Once depleted, it took a long time to recover naturally, and PP supplements were the fastest way to restore it. The Super Potions were for healing Charmander after battles—Rio planned to boost its confidence through a string of victories.

"You sure know how to boss people around," Rina said with a roll of her eyes, but she went off to buy the items anyway.

"Grandpa, I’m going to get his stuff."

"Alright."

After his granddaughter left, Mr. Fuji found a stone bench nearby and sat down to observe Rio.

He watched for a good while, then couldn’t help but marvel: "He makes money way too easily!"

He noticed that Rio received two thousand League coins from every trainer he helped. All he had to do was glance at the person’s Pokémon and give an answer—then the trainer would happily go off to train. Mr. Fuji had never seen a faster way to earn money.

"But could what he says really be one hundred percent accurate?" he wondered.