After passing through the Forest of Confusion and catching Ursaring, the two were getting closer and closer to their destination, Jubilife City.
One bright, sunny morning, after they and their Pokémon finished breakfast, the two began their daily training.
"Sceptile, there's not much I need to say to you. Just keep up your daily exercises. When I get the chance, I'll find you a worthy opponent to help you push past your limits."
"Turtwig, your task today is still to practice using your moves. You were a little too slow when you battled Big Bear earlier. Your current goal is to get the time it takes to launch Energy Ball down to under five seconds."
Xiaoyun turned into a strict drill instructor. After giving the two Pokémon their assignments, he turned his gaze to Ursaring.
"As for you, Big Bear..."
"Roar." (Just say the word, boss.)
Feeling Xiaoyun's eyes on him, Ursaring immediately stood ramrod straight, his gaze as resolute as though he were about to join the Party.
"It's fine~ Don't be nervous. Relax a little. I'm not going to eat you. Sit down first, and we'll talk."
Xiaoyun quite appreciated Ursaring's attitude. Who said Ursaring had bad tempers and were hard to tame? He looks very "cute" to me. You really can't trust rumors~
"Roar." (It's fine, boss. I think this is pretty good.)
Ursaring very meekly shook his head, indicating that he liked standing. Mainly, he had thought Xiaoyun was just a rich "meal ticket," and his earlier compromises had all been for the sake of his stomach.
He would act obedient in front of Xiaoyun, then settle the score with the little turtle that night. Even if he couldn't deal with Xiaoyun, surely he could deal with Turtwig.
That lasted until he saw Sceptile at dinner that evening. The instincts he had honed in the wild told Ursaring that he couldn't beat the green lizard before him.
If he went up against him, he would probably get beaten so badly that even his own mother wouldn't recognize him. And seeing how Sceptile obeyed Xiaoyun's every word and was clearly very close to him, Ursaring could only resign himself to his fate.
"Come on, then. Let me take a look at the moves you know first."
With that, Xiaoyun picked up the Pokédex to examine Ursaring.
"Ursaring: Hibernator Pokémon" "Ability: Guts" "Type: Normal" "Known moves: Leer, Lick, Scratch, Slash, Hammer Arm, Brick Break, Scary Face, Bulk Up, Rest, Snore, Superpower, Hyper Beam." "Overall strength: Gym Stage."
Hmm... Overall, for a wild Pokémon, both his move pool and his strength could be considered quite good.
If the trio hadn't worn down almost all of this Ursaring's stamina, Turtwig's little body really wouldn't have stood up to a single punch from him.
As for the Guts Ability, it was pretty much standard for the Ursaring line.
Guts: When a Pokémon with this Ability had a status condition other than fainting, its Attack increased by 50%. If it was burned, it ignored the burn's effect of reducing Attack to 50% of its original value.
After some thought, Xiaoyun had an idea and began devising Ursaring's training plan. With a serious expression, he said to Ursaring:
"Come on, Big Bear. Let me put together a training plan for you."
"Overall, while you may already have your own attacking habits, and your moves are quite powerful, you clearly lack ranged attacks."
"Your only ranged attack is Hyper Beam. Although it's powerful, if you miss, you'll suffer the aftereffect of being unable to move."
"The wild Pokémon in the forest might not attack because they're afraid of you, but in the arena, things will turn out just like your earlier battle with Turtwig. You were clearly stronger than Turtwig, yet because you lacked certain ways to attack, you were worn down until you couldn't battle anymore."
"For now, I want you to learn moves like Rock Tomb and Stone Edge to broaden your move pool and improve your coverage. Once you're proficient with them, I'll move you on to the next stage of the plan."
"This is a video of Rock Tomb. Your task today is to watch it, then try to gradually get the move working. Off you go."
"Roar."
After Xiaoyun seriously explained his current situation, Ursaring more or less understood. It was indeed his lack of ranged attacks that had let Turtwig toy with him by kiting him. Obediently taking the Pokédex with its instructional video, he went off to study it carefully.
The video showed a Torterra gathering energy beneath its feet, then releasing huge rocks from the air to smash into the opposing Pokémon.
Watching Ursaring study earnestly, Xiaoyun nodded. He really was a bear with potential. No wonder Paul had taken an interest in him.
"Let's leave it at that for now. Once Ursaring expands his coverage, we can develop him in a more targeted direction."
Ursaring's future role would be a fighter, capable of both explosive bursts and sustained combat. Once Ursaring learned ranged moves, Xiaoyun planned to have him learn moves like Belly Drum and Counter. Making good use of Guts on top of that would practically set him up to sweep entire teams.
Guts: When a Pokémon with this Ability had a status condition other than fainting, its Attack increased by 50%. When burned, it also ignored the burn's effect of reducing Attack to 50% of its original value.
He just had no leads on evolution yet. Ursaring could evolve. From what he remembered, in the Hisui Region, Ursaring could evolve into Ursaluna by using a Peat Block during a full moon. Evolution made its body larger, improving both its stamina and its Attack.
But where could he get a Peat Block?
Hisui Region was the Sinnoh Region of ancient times. Around 1,000–2,000 years ago, the earliest humans to live in Hisui were called the "Ancient Sinnoh People." The Ancient Sinnoh People worshipped Arceus and built Hisui's ancient sites, such as the Solaceon Ruins and Snowpoint Temple.
An ancient hero and ten Pokémon of Hisui received Arceus's blessing. They collected Plates to find and challenge Arceus. To commemorate those ten Pokémon, which were the ancient forms of today's Pokémon, the ancient people enshrined them on the battlefield and carved statues of the ten Pokémon in the Temple of Sinnoh atop Mt. Coronet.
Since the Hisui Region's earliest days, Celestic Town had existed, inhabited by the "Celestica People." But the ancient Celestic Town had perished, and its former inhabitants had scattered.
There were also rumors that the reason ancient Pokémon hadn't survived to the present was that they were simply too ugly. No Pokémon were willing to mate with them, which had led to their extinction.
Wouldn't evolving Ursaring require traveling through time and space? Right now, only Celebi or Dialga could do that. One's hard to find, and the other's hard to communicate with. What a headache.
While Xiaoyun was still deep in thought, over on the other side, Dawn's own training wasn't going very smoothly.