The Gap Between Plans and Reality

Bai Shi carefully looked through the Pokémon guidebooks he had bought in Jubilife City.

He searched their lists of learnable moves.

From them, he picked several moves as training goals.

They were Take Down, Protect, and Agility.

Together, they covered offense, defense, and speed.

"Protect is too difficult for us right now."

"Take Down also demands a lot from a Pokémon's body."

"Agility is a Psychic-type move, but it works much like the Quick Attack Staravia already knows."

"Hopefully, with Staravia leading the way, the other two can learn Agility too."

After weighing his options, Bai Shi chose Agility for his first experiment.

Once the two injured Pokémon had fully recovered, Bai Shi eagerly took them out to put his new training plan into action.

"Everyone, eyes on me. Listen carefully..."

Bai Shi gathered all three Pokémon in front of him and launched into an explanation of the Agility training method he had devised.

For this, Bai Shi had found a fairly open area near Oreburgh City, with a straight fifty-meter stretch like a running track.

He had them start with short sprints in a straight line.

For Staravia, who already knew Quick Attack, that was as easy as breathing.

"Star!"

After two days of rest, Staravia was back in the familiar sky, and its spirits soared.

With a whoosh, it shot forward, leaving the other two Pokémon far behind.

It had completely forgotten Bai Shi's instruction to lead the others in training.

Dunsparce wriggled forward as fast as it could, but it could not even get close to Staravia.

Frustrated, it put the little wings on its back to work too.

It beat them hard, stirring up a current of air.

It lifted off the ground and floated less than half a meter into the air, struggling to chase after Staravia.

Unfortunately, it could only keep that up for a few seconds.

Smack! Dunsparce fell back to the ground.

It was clearly trying its best.

Even so, the training produced little result.

Stantler was even worse. It was barely trying at all.

When Bai Shi watched, it ran a little faster. The moment he looked away, it slowed down as though someone had pressed a button.

Anyone who did not know better would have thought it was out for a stroll!

"This... isn't right..."

Bai Shi scratched his head as he watched the chaos, nearly pulling his hair out.

His idea had sounded wonderful.

In practice, the results were hard to describe.

After all, the three Pokémon differed enormously in body structure, movement, temperament, and preferences.

Even if they shared a type, getting them to move in sync was difficult.

To achieve his training goal, Bai Shi would have to overcome those differences.

Otherwise, they would keep training separately, just as they were now.

That was nothing like the group training he had planned.

Could my training method really be unworkable?

The gap between expectation and reality hit Bai Shi hard.

He began to question whether his entire training plan had any value.

"Star!" (Haha! I've got it! I've got it!)

Just as Bai Shi was considering scrapping the shared-type training, he heard Staravia cry out in excitement.

His thoughts interrupted, Bai Shi immediately looked toward it.

To his surprise, Staravia had learned Agility in such a short time.

It was now showing off its new move to the other Pokémon.

"So the Agility training method works."

"It just doesn't suit the others?"

Realizing this, Bai Shi wore an expression caught between laughter and tears.

In other words, he had succeeded, but only partly.

Staravia had learned Agility, just as he had hoped.

The other Pokémon, however, had made no progress at all.

"At least this proves my training plan wasn't a waste of time."

"It's effective when used with the right Pokémon."

Staravia's success gave Bai Shi a little comfort, and he watched it a while longer.

He paid no attention to how the other two were doing.

Stantler, which had been "strolling," suddenly darted forward.

But it soon stopped and returned to its former pace.

"Stantler."

Ignoring Staravia's display, Stantler looked on with a hint of disdain.

It had learned such a simple move after watching it a few times.

What was Staravia showing off for?

Did it think Stantler was as slow to learn as Dunsparce?

All it took was putting one foot in front of the other.

Oh, right. It had forgotten that Dunsparce did not seem to have feet.

"Stantler."

At that thought, Stantler quietly glanced at Dunsparce.

Dunsparce was still wriggling determinedly along the ground, occasionally flapping its wings and flopping back down.

That enormous difference in their bodies was probably the main reason it still could not learn Agility.

Stantler would keep that to itself rather than discourage Dunsparce.

And there was no need to announce that it had learned Agility either.

That would only draw Bai Shi's attention and earn it more battles and training.

"Since Staravia has learned Agility, but the new training method hasn't worked as I expected..."

"We might as well set it aside for now and try again when we have time."

Without the ability to read minds, Bai Shi naturally had no idea what Stantler was thinking.

He still naively believed Staravia was the only Pokémon that had learned Agility.

He was already thinking of moving elsewhere for a different kind of training.

This experience had taught him something.

Pokémon had to be trained according to their individual traits, not his own wishful thinking.

Blindly applying the same method to all of them would only lead him in the wrong direction.

Still, the training plan had not been a total loss.

At least Staravia really had learned a new move.

With some improvements, it might yet become a good training method.

For now, though, he would leave it alone.

Once he abandoned the current training plan, he needed a new place to train as well.

"I hear Oreburgh Mine is a good place for intensive training."

"After we finish training, I'll go take a look."

Without thinking much of it, Bai Shi turned his gaze toward the mine.