I was just a high school student about to become a Pokémon Trainer. Was I really worth the trouble of having a Gym Leader like you keep such a close watch on me? Have you no shame?!
After furiously ranting to himself, Ash slumped to the ground. Just thinking about the days ahead gave him a headache.
Ugh, life as a Pokémon Trainer was tough.
Early that morning, Ash took Applin out for a jog around the neighborhood.
Applin, however, had to use Rollout the entire way as it accompanied him. This was also meant to help it become more proficient with the move before the Pokémon Trainer high school term began.
There were still two weeks until school started. Before evolving, Applin could rely on little more than its egg moves to hold its own, and it could not learn more moves through Technical Machines.
For now, Ash could only have it master its existing moves as thoroughly as possible, hoping that would get it through the assessments early in the school year.
Since Dragon-type Pokémon were generally late bloomers, expecting it to evolve before school started was clearly unrealistic.
Besides, rushing Pokémon into evolving would not only waste most of their potential, but could even leave them with permanent physical defects.
That was why Ash would rather be patient than make Applin evolve prematurely. It was his starter Pokémon, after all, and his emotional attachment made that even more unacceptable.
Once Applin got used to regularly using Rollout on their morning runs, it should be able to apply the move more flexibly to dodging and movement in battle. The improvements to its stamina, endurance, and speed would also open up more ways to use its other moves, killing two birds with one stone.
Although getting home with Applin