What the Heck?

Bai Shi had high hopes for his newly caught Stantler.

He hoped it could become his trump card, stepping up at critical moments to save him from dire straits.

So, without spending much time getting to know it, Bai Shi eagerly took it along to train.

Naturally, the results were far from ideal.

That was partly because they had yet to build much rapport, but Stantler's bizarre personality also played a role.

At first, when Bai Shi proposed training, Stantler seemed extremely cooperative.

It even volunteered to show Bai Shi several moves it knew.

They were Tackle, Confusion, Confuse Ray, and Stomp.

Bai Shi was thrilled, exclaiming that he had struck gold.

He thought it was considerate and began to trust it a little.

After seeing Stantler start its endurance training as instructed, he went to check on his other Pokémon.

After all, Bai Shi now had three Pokémon.

Each needed a different training regimen, so they had to train separately.

Bai Shi couldn't devote all his attention to a single Pokémon.

What he never expected was that the moment he left, Stantler would start slacking off.

When Bai Shi came back to check, it would put on an act and try a little harder.

Staravia, who fancied itself the team's boss, happened to notice something amiss while inspecting its "new underling." It got into a dispute with Stantler, drawing Bai Shi over.

Only then was Stantler's slacking fully exposed.

Otherwise, who knew how much longer it would have kept Bai Shi fooled?

Upon learning the truth, Bai Shi gave Stantler a stern scolding.

Unfortunately, it did little good.

Stantler remained utterly unconcerned, as shameless as ever, its attitude practically screaming, "I was wrong, and I'll do it again."

It nearly drove Bai Shi up the wall.

Having finally caught a Pokémon with such great potential, he certainly wasn't going to let it waste away.

To prevent this from happening again, Bai Shi came up with a special solution.

He staggered Staravia's and Dunsparce's training schedules.

Then he assigned them to take turns supervising Stantler.

Little did he know that Stantler was always one step ahead.

During their time together, Stantler had already gotten a rough grasp of the other two Pokémon's personalities and knew how to handle them.

With Staravia, which was fairly strong and had a rather overblown sense of grandeur, Stantler relied mainly on flattery.

It often used breaks in training to chat up Staravia as it stood watch nearby.

With all sorts of compliments, it lowered Staravia's guard and let the praise go to its head.

That gave it room to pull little tricks on the sly and get away with slacking off.

Dunsparce, which was neither particularly strong nor brave, was even easier to deal with.

All Stantler needed was a mixture of coaxing and a little intimidation to cow it.

Then Dunsparce wouldn't dare tell Bai Shi when it slacked off.

Against the crafty Stantler, the two innocent Pokémon were no match at all. It had them wrapped around its hoof.

On top of that, Bai Shi noticed that the usually energetic Staravia often grew drowsy while supervising Stantler's training.

Once, it even fell fast asleep.

Bai Shi couldn't help suspecting that Stantler was behind it.

He remembered that Stantler could learn Hypnosis.

If Staravia let its guard down, it could very well fall victim to the move.

"In other words, it's been holding out on me?"

"No wonder it volunteered to show me its moves back then."

"It still had an ace up its sleeve!"

Bai Shi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

What sort of bizarre luck had landed him a Pokémon like this?

If only Stantler had put all that cunning into getting stronger, it wouldn't have ended up in its current situation.

It might still have been lording it over everyone in Illusion Forest.

Then it wouldn't have been caught by him and forced to train.

As far as Bai Shi was concerned, its priorities were completely wrong.

The only consolation was that Stantler still knew where to draw the line.

It hadn't used Hypnosis on him.

That was why Bai Shi remained willing to try to straighten it out.

Otherwise, with such an unpredictable presence at his side, he would have had no choice but to release it.

"If you won't cooperate, don't blame me for getting tough!"

Bai Shi resolved to turn up the pressure on Stantler.

He would teach it what it meant to "grow through battle."

So he gathered all his Pokémon around him.

He intended to force Stantler to improve through battling.

"Stantler~"

Upon learning what Bai Shi intended, Stantler sighed helplessly.

I'm just bad at running and want to take it easy. Why does he have to push me?

Maybe I should find a chance to steal my Poké Ball and make a run for it!

After some thought, Stantler decided to put up with it a little longer.

Aside from demanding that it train seriously, Bai Shi treated it quite well.

He didn't put on airs as its Trainer in their day-to-day interactions, either.

He also regularly brought out all sorts of strange foods to supplement the Pokémon's meals.

It had recently grown accustomed to having a "free meal ticket" and wasn't ready to leave just yet.

Besides, Bai Shi's personality meshed well with its own. They were both sneaky schemers.

He wasn't like some Trainers it had seen, who let hotheaded enthusiasm get the better of them.

He just barely qualified to be its Trainer.

But getting it to train seriously?

Absolutely impossible!

It still had a secret weapon it hadn't used yet...

"Staravia, use Quick Attack!"

At Bai Shi's command, Staravia turned into a streak of white light and charged at Stantler.

Bai Shi figured that no matter how much Stantler wanted to slack off, Staravia's attacks would force it to dodge.

That way, slacking would no longer be an option.

Yet Stantler's next performance opened his eyes all over again.

As Staravia hurtled toward it, Stantler didn't react at all, as though it had frozen in terror.

Without making any attempt to dodge, it took Staravia's move head-on.

"Stantler~" (Ah, I'm done for!)

With a miserable wail, Stantler collapsed.

It lay motionless on the ground, looking as though it could no longer battle.

Most infuriating of all, after falling, it secretly cracked one eye open to observe Bai Shi's and Staravia's reactions.

"Staravia~" (Heh heh heh, I'm just too strong!)

Staravia was too caught up in the joy of defeating its "underling" in one hit to notice Stantler's little trick.

"..."

Bai Shi, who had been watching Stantler the entire time, fell briefly silent.

He had never seen such an absurd, shameless Pokémon.

Just to avoid doing any work, it had the gall to throw the fight so blatantly and play dead.

Did it really think his intelligence was on par with Staravia's?

After fuming for a while, Bai Shi gradually calmed down.

These incidents had made Stantler's fierce commitment to slacking off abundantly clear.

Continuing to force it would likely backfire.

He might as well set the issue aside for now and wait for a suitable opportunity to address it.

"Sigh. Forget it!"

After weighing everything up, Bai Shi could only give up.

He also revised Stantler's training plan.

He drastically cut back on physical conditioning and shifted the focus to training Stantler's Confusion.

He would only need to properly supervise its Confusion training.

As for the other exercises, he would leave it to its own devices!

This change was exactly what Stantler had wanted.

As long as it didn't have to do physical conditioning, everything was negotiable.

Stantler stopped resisting so fiercely and began practicing Confusion in earnest.

The training actually produced pretty good results.

"Raising Pokémon really is a profound field of study!"

"I still have so much to learn."

This unexpected turnaround left Bai Shi reflecting aloud.

His battle of wits with Stantler had given him plenty of experience.

He now had a deeper understanding of raising Pokémon.

In the future, he would have to be more cautious when catching Pokémon.

He would focus on assessing their personalities to avoid catching another Pokémon as difficult as Stantler.

With that, the turmoil brought on by catching Stantler gradually subsided.

All his Pokémon's training began to get back on track.