Development Direction

"Mom, Dad and I are back! Look at my starter Pokémon!" Xinhai called out loudly the moment he reached the shop entrance.

"We're back. Sit down and rest for a while first. Let me finish what I'm doing." His mother, Nami, replied with a gentle smile as she tended to the flowers.

Xinhai looked at Nami and presented the Torchic in his arms to her as if offering a treasure. "Mom, look, this is Torchic. Torchic, this is my mom."

Nami turned her head and was instantly charmed by Torchic's cuteness. The corners of her lips rose as she smiled. "What an adorable little fellow."

Torchic called out shyly, "Chamo~ Chamo⁄(⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄"

Yantai looked at his wife and deliberately spoke in a serious tone. "Honey, the mission has been successfully completed. Please issue the next instructions."

Nami rolled her eyes at him and continued tending to her flowers.

Seeing this, Xinhai smiled and carried Torchic aside. "Torchic, let's go outside and play."

Once outside, Xinhai looked down at Torchic in his arms and pondered to himself. He had already checked Torchic's moves with the Pokédex, but he did not know how well Torchic had actually mastered them.

With that in mind, Xinhai gently set Torchic down, then found a watering can and a broom. He placed the watering can to one side and leaned the broom against the wall.

"Torchic, show me your moves by using them on the broom. Be careful when using Fire-type moves. Don't burn anything else." As he spoke, he pulled a small notebook from his pocket.

"Use Growl."

Torchic nodded and let out an adorable cry toward the broom. As it cried, it flapped its little wings and blinked its clear, bright eyes.

"Chamo~ Chamo~ (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡"

Watching from the side, Xinhai felt as if his little heart had taken ten thousand critical hits. It was seriously too cute!

After crying out, Torchic looked at Xinhai expectantly, waiting for his evaluation.

Xinhai gave a light cough and praised it. "Very good, Torchic. Your Growl was used very well!" He wrote it down in his notebook as he spoke.

Move: Growl—high mastery, obvious effect. However, its effect might decline after evolution. It could be used during the Torchic stage.

"Chamo~" Upon hearing that, Torchic drew in a deep breath of Qi and proudly puffed out its little chest.

"All right, all right." Xinhai stroked Torchic's little head. "Torchic, it's time for the next move."

"Chamo~" Torchic replied energetically and confidently, as if saying, Bring it on!

"Very good, full of spirit. Torchic, use Scratch."

Torchic took a running start, spread its little wings, and rushed at the broom. It knocked the broom over with one claw, but also crashed into the wall and fell down.

"Cha, Chamo~ (x_x;)" Torchic barely supported itself with one foot, spun in a circle, then collapsed onto the ground.

"Torchic?" Xinhai had sensed that something was wrong the moment Torchic started its run-up, but it was already too late to stop it.

Xinhai hurried over, picked Torchic up, and carefully checked it for injuries.

When he discovered that Torchic only had a small bump on its forehead, he finally felt a little relieved and let out a small sigh of Qi.

His parents in the shop had also heard the commotion outside and asked worriedly, "Xiao Hai, what happened?"

Xinhai hurriedly called back, "Nothing. I accidentally knocked over a broom."

"As long as you're all right. Be more careful," Nami said.

"Okay, Mom. Mom, I want to go home first," Xinhai replied.

"Go home? All right, here are the keys."

Xinhai quickly recalled Torchic into its Poké Ball, accepted the keys, and ran home without stopping.

After opening the front door, Xinhai rushed straight to his room on the second floor and pulled a bottle of healing spray from a drawer.

He released Torchic and saw that it still had not woken up. Its eyes were tightly shut, and it looked pitiful.

The sight made Xinhai's heart ache. He gently sprayed the medicine onto the bump on its forehead.

Before long, the swollen bump slowly subsided.

After a while longer, Torchic finally woke up. It sat up, looked around at its surroundings, then looked at Xinhai, seemingly confused about how it had gotten here.

"Chamo~ (・◇・)?"

Seeing Torchic's dazed yet adorable expression, Xinhai smiled helplessly. "Torchic, does anywhere else hurt?"

The moment Torchic heard that, it jumped up energetically and called out with complete confidence, "Chamo~ Chamo✧٩(ˊωˋ*)و✧"

Seeing the lively Torchic, Xinhai smiled. "Then let's go down and continue checking your moves."

Torchic patted its chest after hearing that. "Chamo~ Chamo!"

"All right, let's head downstairs." Xinhai gently picked Torchic up and walked toward the stairs.

After arriving in the yard, Xinhai set up a wooden target in front of Torchic and looked at it.

"Torchic, are you ready?"

"Chamo~ (ﾉ)`ω´(ヾ)" Torchic patted itself with its little wings and cried out loudly.

"Good. Torchic, use Ember on the target."

Torchic took a deep breath of Qi, held its Qi, focused its mind, and opened its mouth toward the target.

A cluster of orange-red embers shot rapidly toward the target and struck it precisely.

With several sizzling sounds, a patch of charred black marks was left on the target.

Xinhai nodded in satisfaction at the sight and carefully wrote in his notebook:

Move: Ember—very high mastery, great power, and a large ember cluster. This indicated more energy within its body. The darker color indicated that the energy was more condensed.

"Very good, Torchic! The fireball was big and powerful. Great job!" Xinhai did not hold back his praise as he raised a thumb in encouragement.

"Chamo~" Torchic raised its head high after hearing Xinhai's encouragement.

Xinhai smiled and continued giving instructions. "Torchic, use Flame Charge. Run circles around the target."

Torchic began running at his words. Before long, flames wrapped around its body, making it look like a tiny burning fireball.

However, just as it completed half a lap, the flames around its body suddenly went out, and Torchic slowly came to a stop.

Torchic turned to look at Xinhai and lowered its head in disappointment. "Chamo~"

Seeing the dejected Torchic, Xinhai walked over, picked it up, and comforted it. "All right, Torchic, don't be sad. Your level is still too low right now. It's normal for the move to fail. You'll be fine after more training."

"Chamo~" After hearing Xinhai's words, Torchic seemed to have its fighting spirit reignited. It immediately jumped from his arms, its little eyes filled with determination.

Seeing Torchic regain its energy, Xinhai smiled in relief and recorded what had just happened.

Egg Move: Flame Charge—low mastery, speed too slow, flames lasted too briefly. More training was needed.

"All right! Torchic, this is the last one. Use Bulk Up," Xinhai ordered.

Torchic struck a series of Bulk Up poses, and a dark red glow appeared around its body. Finally, its whole body expanded by a size, as though it had been inflated with Qi like a balloon.

Xinhai carefully calculated Torchic's preparation time for using Bulk Up with his navigator while focusing intently on the glowing areas of its body.

Seven seconds? That was a little too long. It would be hard to use in battle! Xinhai thought as he recorded the result.

Egg Move: Bulk Up—initial mastery. The activation process was relatively long and required more practice.

Egg Moves in reality were definitely different from those in the games. Through League research, the conditions for the appearance of Egg Moves had gradually been discovered.

Under normal circumstances, only the offspring of Elite-level Pokémon could possess Egg Moves, and those Egg Moves were the moves those Elite-level Pokémon had mastered best.

According to researchers, Pokémon could generally inherit at most four Egg Moves. The offspring of Elite-level Pokémon might inherit one move, Gym-level Pokémon might pass down two, Elite-level Pokémon might pass down three, and Champion-level Pokémon might pass down four.

As for whether Legendary-level Pokémon could pass down even more, nobody knew.

After all, Pokémon that inherited three moves were already quite rare, while those with four were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

Only the heirs of major families had a chance to obtain such Pokémon. Ordinary people would not even dare dream of it.

After seeing the effects of Torchic's Bulk Up, Xinhai nodded in satisfaction. As he wrote, he said to Torchic, "All right, Torchic, you can rest for a while now."

Upon hearing Xinhai's order, Torchic sat down tiredly and let out a soft breath of Qi. "Chamo~"

Looking at the notes in his notebook, Xinhai considered Torchic's future development direction.

Speed Boost Torchic had inherited Flame Charge, which showed that Torchic had great talent in speed and needed focused training in that area.

Not only that, but Torchic had also inherited Bulk Up, which showed that its Fighting-type talent was just as good.

During the Torchic stage, he would focus on speed training first. Once it evolved into Combusken, he would teach it some Fighting-type techniques and concepts.

In fact, it was somewhat strange for Torchic to have inherited Bulk Up. After all, attacking moves were used much more frequently in battle than status moves, so their chances of being inherited were also much higher.