"It's okay."
Seeing Trapinch stubbornly clinging to Growlithe and unwilling to continue the battle, Shiro let out a soft sigh and called Corvisquire back.
After the match, the overly friendly Growlithe seemed to have become good friends with Trapinch. The latter also grew a bit more familiar with the rest of the Pokémon and no longer had that distant, wary look in its eyes.
It was slowly becoming part of the team and had begun following commands.
With his goal accomplished, Shiro saw no reason to waste time on further battles. He soon had the Pokémon line up neatly, then laid out the lunch boxes. After that, he took out the berries he'd just bought and placed one in front of each Pokémon.
Haunter took one look at the setup and instantly knew what time it was. It narrowed its eyes and stood guard over its box, drooling nonstop with its mouth wide open.
"Here's yours—"
As soon as Shiro dropped a Ghost-type berry into its box, Haunter lunged forward and began devouring it like it hadn't eaten in days.
With plenty of experience eating berries, Haunter didn't care what they looked like. It had long learned that seeing or smelling them wasn't as reliable as just taking a bite, unlike the nearby Growlithe and Trapinch.
The two of them were still staring at their berries like curious kids, carefully examining the patterns on the surface.
It wasn't until Haunter finished its own and sneakily reached out a greedy claw toward their boxes that the pair finally snapped to attention and began scarfing down their food in a hurry.
"Haaun..."
Finishing its meal, Haunter lay on the ground, squinting its eyes in satisfaction. It was clearly having a great time.
"Coor!"
But a sharp cry came from nearby. Corvisquire, now strapped with its weighted gear by Shiro, flapped its wings and flew up to the horizontal bar mounted high on the wall. It began its usual training.
"Haaunteeer~"
Haunter's expression instantly turned bitter. It wanted to train like its big brother Corvisquire, but the floor felt so comfortable…
"Growl-grow~"
When even Growlithe and the dazed Trapinch teamed up to begin training, Haunter couldn't stay still anymore. A sense of urgency kicked in, and it floated up immediately, drifting toward Shiro to ask for its daily task.
"Hmm... Growlithe, start by practicing your fire control. Focus your moves on the alloy target. Trapinch, try wearing the weight and see how it feels. As for Haunter..."
Shiro paused for a moment, then continued, "You're not training moves today. I want you to try evenly wrapping that alloy target with Ghost-type energy. Remember, evenly."
"Haaaun?"
Haunter tilted its head, puzzled.
Wrap an alloy target with ghost energy? It sounded simple enough… but was that really going to help?
Still, a command was a command. Haunter didn't argue. The only way to find out if it worked was to try it.
It floated over to the nearest bronze‐colored, rabbit-shaped target. Lifting both claws, it calmly released ghostly energy and began wrapping the rabbit little by little.
"Haunn~" (Easy peasy~)
Feeling confident, Haunter kept releasing energy while occasionally glancing back at Shiro with a proud look.
The latter only gave a slight smile. He had expected the Pokémon to underestimate the task.
Wrapping a target evenly in ghost energy might sound easy, but the real challenge was the word 'even'. It demanded extremely precise control. Unless a Ghost-type could treat its energy like a thread, it wouldn't be able to keep it consistent.
Sure enough, within just a few seconds, Haunter's energy had turned the rabbit target into a black, twitching mass. The ghostly energy squirmed like sludge, constantly shifting and rolling.
"Maintain even coverage across every part," Shiro instructed calmly.
The relaxed look on the Ghost-type's face quickly faded.
"Haa...uunn…ter…"
Blanketing the target with energy in one go wasn't hard. But when it came to fine control, keeping that energy perfectly even, Haunter suddenly felt like its head, claws, and tail were all acting on their own, refusing to listen.
Every part of its body strained. Every inch twitched and trembled. For a ghost Pokémon to feel this kind of physical fatigue… it was like having a solid body for the first time, and all the discomfort that came with it.
Seeing Haunter dripping with sweat, spiritual or otherwise, Shiro merely shook his head and smiled.
This was a training method he'd learned from Edgar. It was one of the most efficient and thorough ways to train a ghost Pokémon's control over both its form and energy.
After all, most Ghost-types were essentially living energy bodies.
"Not bad." Shiro gave Haunter another glance, silently acknowledging its serious attitude and persistent effort.
But then, something caught his eye. Drakloak and Dreepy, who were supposed to be napping, had floated over. They watched Haunter with curious eyes, and before long, began mimicking it—coating a target with Dragon-type energy.
"…Huh?" Shiro scratched his head, unsure whether they were training or just messing around.
He let them be and turned instead to a cabinet along the wall, pulling out some weighted gear designed for humans. One by one, he strapped it tightly to his limbs and torso.
'Now that my body's been enhanced by Zamazenta… just how far can I go?'
He kept adding weight until his movement began to feel slightly restricted.
"Two hundred kilos… about four hundred total?"
Even Shiro was taken aback by the numbers. And this wasn't even his limit—it was just enough to start affecting his normal actions.
"I'm basically a humanoid Pokémon now," he muttered. "Still… I need more intense training. Not just to get used to this new strength, but to unlock even more of this body's potential."
He moved his arms and legs a bit, loosening up, then dropped straight into a series of deep frog jumps.
Though his current physique might already outclass most trainers in the world, he wasn't about to get cocky. Compared to beings like Bruno, Ash—actual humanoid Pokémon—he still had a long road ahead.
At his current level of combat ability, even if he counted as a "super soldier," he knew that against someone like Sabrina, he might not even make it close; he'd be turned into a doll before taking a single step.
He had to become strong enough to end a fight with her in a single strike.
With that thought burning in his mind, Shiro pushed himself even harder. And seeing their trainer work so relentlessly, none of the Pokémon had any excuse to slack off either. One by one, they threw themselves into training with renewed determination.
The afternoon flew by.
By the time the sun began to dip, Shiro was slumped against the training room wall, gasping for breath as he pulled out his communicator.
"Whew… It's only 5:30. Still got some time."
He stripped off the weights and stuffed a handful of Fighting-type Pokéblocks into his mouth. These high-energy Pokémon foods were no problem for his body now. He could absorb and process them with ease.
After a brief rest, he planned to test his current strength against his Pokémon. He wanted to know, if his body were a Pokémon, what level would it be?
"All right!" Shiro clapped his hands and called out to his team, who were now slumped around the room in exhaustion.
"Take a short break, everyone. At six, we're doing an experiment."
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