After resting at home for a day, time quickly came to Wednesday.
Today, the news that Sunshine Gym had reopened spread throughout Naranja Academy. Many students who had been eagerly awaiting this moment gathered together and made their way toward Sunshine Gym.
After all, Teacher Azure now only personally guided a few "lucky contestants," and the battle styles of the other Pokémon stationed at the gym had already been basically figured out.
If one wanted to play it safe, they could directly challenge Sableye, whose moves had already been mostly understood, and easily obtain the gym badge.
However, for those students who were so eager to improve that they continued to challenge Teacher Azure even after failing multiple times, the value of being personally guided by Teacher Azure was much higher!
I'm not the same person I was last week—this time I'll definitely defeat Teacher Azure head-on!
Many students set out with this mindset, filled with confidence.
Meanwhile, Aiden, having returned to his gym leader persona, was already sitting on the living room sofa, waiting for challengers to arrive while chatting with the quietly seated Mewtwo.
"So, if you want to grow together with your companions, I still recommend you try learning to become a trainer."
"After all, those cloned Pokémon should also want to become stronger and gain the power to protect you. And if you want to grow together with them, you'll need to imitate human behavior and learn how to become a trainer."
Seeing the timing was right, Aiden decisively spoke up, beginning his grand scheme of persuasion.
Having Mewtwo become a trainer wasn't something he was doing haphazardly—it was a result he had already discussed with Mew.
Although it seemed he couldn't understand Mew's language either, from Mew's enthusiastic nodding, it was clearly giving its full approval.
This matter should have originally been explained by Mew to make it easier for Mewtwo to accept.
But...
Upon waking up, there was no trace of Mew to be found anywhere in Sunshine Gym.
Mew, you've tricked me!
No sooner had the incident been resolved than this street wanderer immediately continued its journey of roaming everywhere?
Aiden was very helpless about this and had no choice but to take on the task himself.
"Trainer..."
After murmuring about Aiden's suggestion for a moment, Mewtwo lifted its head, its eyes having become much more determined.
"I understand. If it's for the sake of those children, I will work hard to learn how to become a qualified trainer."
Although theoretically trainers should only be limited to humans, since Aiden had said so, perhaps it really did have the corresponding qualifications?
However, to become a trainer, it would still need to learn quite a bit of new knowledge from scratch.
Mewtwo couldn't help but think this way.
It actually had no resistance to learning—in fact, it was somewhat looking forward to it.
From the moment of its birth, it had been constantly learning and imitating humans, trying to understand what they wanted to express, and fantasizing that it would eventually be able to communicate normally with them.
But in the end, its fantasy was never realized...
However, from just one day of living together, it could see that Aiden was definitely an excellent trainer.
Whether it was his partner Pokémon or the rental Pokémon at the gym, they all listened to him obediently, and during battles they completely trusted his commands—a level of trust it had only witnessed with a man named Giovanni.
But there were obvious differences between the two.
In Mewtwo's view, Giovanni could command an entire Ground Army mainly through his own formidable strength and pressure, making other Pokémon submit to him.
But Aiden was completely different—he didn't have anything particularly special about him, yet this affability achieved what even Giovanni couldn't—
Even the cloned Pokémon who had been hurt by humans had already developed basic goodwill toward him after just one day of contact, at least not showing any resistance when he approached them.
In Viridian Gym, any human would have been met with their hostility...
Such a change also meant they had a very high level of recognition for Aiden.
"So... what should I do?"
Mewtwo quickly asked this soul-searching question.
Although its learning ability was strong, it still needed direction first. It was completely clueless about how trainers should cultivate Pokémon.
For Mewtwo's question, Aiden merely narrowed his eyes and said mysteriously:
"You'll know soon enough."
"Before practical battle exercises, let's first develop the most basic awareness of being a trainer."
As he spoke, Aiden took out his phone.
Don't know how to be a good trainer?
No problem—just follow Teacher Azure's teachings, and after a full course you'll become a qualified trainer!
Soon, Aiden skillfully opened Pokémon TV and opened his personal homepage.
Several rows of popular videos with view counts in the millions or even tens of millions appeared on the screen, causing Mewtwo to blink in confusion.
"For Pokémon breeding techniques, you can just look at the notebook I gave you. Breeding doesn't refer to mating but to the daily care and maintenance of their conditions. As for how to command battles, besides these videos I've posted before, I should also have several guidance matches with other newcomers this afternoon—you can watch how everyone commands their battles."
The notebook Aiden mentioned was naturally the breeding notebook he had given to Blue and Red before.
Coincidentally, "Blue's Breeding Notes" mostly contained Pokémon from Kanto, which matched very well with Mewtwo's companions, and covered everything from basic to advanced breeding content—perfect for it.
Mewtwo, having reached maturity with its powerful psychic abilities, had an absurdly strong learning ability and quickly understood the content of the notebook.
So Aiden didn't actually need to worry too much.
As for being a trainer—wasn't there ready-made online courses to watch!
Teacher Azure's detailed teaching—everyone who's watched it says it's great!
?
Although Mewtwo was somewhat confused, under Aiden's very confident gaze, it quickly imitated Aiden's actions, extending its finger to touch the screen and immediately sliding down to the bottom, beginning to watch the first video.
Soon, its eyes instantly brightened.
"What is this? Is this some special ability that can simulate Pokémon battles?"
Mewtwo immediately discovered the foundation of the video content—
"Pokémon Champions"
"You don't know about this?"
Aiden was momentarily stunned, then quickly realized.
Oh right—Mewtwo probably hadn't even been online yet, might not even know how to use a phone, so of course it wouldn't know about this game.
"This is a computer game that can, to a certain extent, simulate practical trainer battles. If you're interested, I can take you to experience it."
Mewtwo slowly nodded, accepting Aiden's invitation.
Thus, Aiden and it quickly got up and went to his bedroom.
In the room, Sylveon was sound asleep.
Since returning to Sunshine Gym last night, it had directly buried itself in the room, spending the entire night drawing the rough outline of the black Rayquaza.
Aiden had also seen its drawing—compared to before, the progress was indeed significant, enough to see how much effort Sylveon had put in.
Perhaps it should have originally been trained primarily as a painter?
However, the only imperfection was...
The Rayquaza in this painting didn't have eyes.
Probably because with Sylveon's current skill level, it still couldn't draw Rayquaza's sharp and confident gaze...
Aiden didn't think too much about this.
After all, if Sylveon wanted to, there might be more opportunities to see it in the future—slowly practicing from life would be fine.
Aiden and Mewtwo unconsciously lightened their steps, quickly approaching the computer.
After launching "Pokémon Champions," Aiden looked at Mewtwo behind him and smiled:
"Want to try a match?"
"..."
Mewtwo thought for a moment, then silently nodded.
If there was such a game that directly simulated trainer battle methods, as long as it learned more about what tactics to use with its cloned Pokémon companions, it should be able to quickly get the hang of becoming a trainer, right?
Aiden immediately saw through Mewtwo's thoughts, so he decisively stepped aside to let Mewtwo sit in front of the computer.
"Then, let me see your level."
Aiden revealed a pleasant smile and stood behind Mewtwo without speaking further.
Venusaur, Blastoise, Charizard, Ninetales, Tangrowth, Alakazam...
Sure enough, it was using the final evolutions of the cloned Pokémon as its main team, without any awareness of building an overall team composition.
And it hadn't actively selected abilities or items either—apparently it completely didn't know such things existed.
Come to think of it, he hadn't matched against a new player in ranked matches for quite some time now. A newbie like Mewtwo was a "rare species."
So, he might as well not mention that his account was at Ultra Ball rank and often matched against Master Ball level experts.
After all, only by falling into pits can one grow faster and remember more deeply!
Precisely because Aiden had extremely high expectations for Mewtwo, correspondingly, his requirements for it would also be higher.
...
About half an hour later.
"..."
Staring at the prominent red "Defeat" characters on the screen, Mewtwo couldn't help but take a deep breath to calm its expression.
"Lost again..."
Although it was just a newbie, on the path of learning to become a trainer from zero, these failures were inevitable, and it had already mentally prepared for this.
But—
Being so decisively and continuously defeated, not even having a chance to fight back, was still somewhat humiliating!
Seeing this, Aiden smiled faintly.
"Although a Sunny Day team is indeed the optimal solution for this current lineup, relying solely on brute force offense makes it very easy for opponents to see through your strategy."
"In this match, the opponent used a very standard hazard team. Stealth Rock poses a great threat to offensive Pokémon like Charizard, so the main goal should be to disrupt the opponent's strategy, not giving them opportunities to set up hazards."
"And for Charizard, which is very weak to Stealth Rock, it's generally considered to have it hold Heavy-Duty Boots to avoid this weakness."
"If you want to know how hazard teams work, you can watch this video."
As he spoke, Aiden had already handed his phone to Mewtwo.
"..."
Mewtwo silently took the phone and first glanced at the avatar above the video.
Sure enough, this video was also made by Aiden.
In the lineup it had just faced, aside from the Rain team which Aiden didn't have a matching video for, all other strategies were content Aiden had already developed long ago?
The opponent it had just faced also had a battle style that more or less carried Aiden's shadow, firmly controlling the match rhythm during the battle.
"I understand."
Mewtwo nodded and stood up from its seat.
"Compared to practical battles, what I lack more right now is understanding of various basic strategies. Only by knowing the opponent's thoughts can I make reasonable judgments."
With its super brain, it quickly understood Aiden's intentions.
That's right—Pokémon battles aren't just about being a trainer yourself; observing the opponent's intentions allows you to plan ahead and counter them!
But to win using such methods also means needing to learn various different styles of strategies.
However, what it lacked least right now was time.
Take it slow.
Mewtwo nodded to itself internally, while looking at Aiden.
"I want to see how you play this game—may I?"
As long as it benchmarks against Aiden and learns according to his given thoughts, at least getting started shouldn't be too difficult.
Aiden wasn't surprised that Mewtwo would ask this question.
"Wait until the weekend. Judging by the time, students should be arriving soon."
Aiden shook his head lightly and walked out of the room while continuing to speak to himself.
"Besides games, real battles can't be neglected either."
...
Because of taking two days off, there were exceptionally many students coming to challenge Sunshine Gym today.
And in the online live stream watching "Teacher Azure educating newcomers," there were even more.
[Ohhhhh! Teacher Azure is finally back, and he's personally accepting challenges too! It seems the newcomers have recently been blessed!]
[Two "genius youths" have already been swiftly carried out, today's Teacher Azure seems to be firing on all cylinders...]
[By the way, what's that Pokémon always standing next to Teacher Azure today? Did Teacher Azure catch a new Pokémon?]
[You call it a Pokémon, but it doesn't feel quite right? What kind of good Pokémon doesn't enter battles but just watches from the side?]
[And it's been taking notes the whole time, seems to be learning Teacher Azure's battle methods—so ridiculous...]
[These days, even Pokémon have to start learning from Teacher Azure? Teacher Azure, you've done terrible things!]
"I see—using special battle techniques can intimidate opponents at the start, creating an effect where they're unable to use moves for a short period."
Standing not far behind Aiden, Mewtwo murmured to itself while silently recording all the details it observed in its notes.
In the previous battle, the challenger had chosen Incineroar as their opponent—a Pokémon Mewtwo had never seen before, but from its fierce eyes, it could tell its combat ability should be excellent.
But...
In actual combat, its fighting style seemed different from what it had imagined?
It wasn't as wild as its physique would suggest—instead, it was relatively more... Sun team tactics?
Mewtwo didn't know how to describe it, suddenly remembering Aiden had said this gym was called "Sunshine Gym," and inexplicably felt this term was very fitting for describing Incineroar's style.
"And the skill of using the 'Taunt' move proficiently during battle to predict the opponent's actions and disrupt their status-changing moves..."
"The fierce roar at the start also seemed to affect the opponent's combat ability to some extent—perhaps it has the same effect as the 'Intimidate' ability researchers mentioned?"
While taking notes, Mewtwo thought to itself:
So this is what kind of noble profession a trainer is...
Pokémon battles really aren't as simple as I thought!
To be able to easily handle any Pokémon like Aiden, I wonder how much effort lies behind it.
I still have a long way to go.
However...
Why does it feel like in front of Aiden, these human trainers' strength is about the same as mine?
Could it be that I'm actually not bad, just chose the wrong benchmark?
But if I want to become an excellent trainer, benchmarking against the strongest person around me shouldn't be a problem, right?
Then, Aiden is the best choice.
Mewtwo quickly convinced itself internally, silently waiting for the next battle.
"Next contestant."
After briefly explaining how to optimize their strategy to the previous challenger, Aiden quickly revealed his "devil's smile" and spoke elegantly once more.
The Victory Road had unknowingly been open for over a month. During this time, these inexperienced newcomers seemed to be maturing, and their command abilities were becoming more reliable.
Besides himself, they probably hadn't spared challenging nearby gym leaders or practicing with each other at school either?
However...
As their strength improved, he could finally be slightly more serious and dynamically adjust the difficulty a bit.
Today's challengers were all quite good, and their tactical usage already showed basic forms—they should soon be able to confirm their most correct path.
Such contestants were perfect material for Mewtwo, using abundant battle memories to enlighten its tactical literacy.
After a few more days, once he tested Mewtwo's progress, he could have it command the cloned Pokémon as gym apprentices to share his workload.
Perfect!
...
In the blink of an eye, four days had passed.
After these days of practical battles and game simulations, Mewtwo's progress speed was indeed as Aiden had expected.
From initially not knowing how to use any tactics, not even understanding what basic items were, it quickly grew into a "rookie" with basic understanding of Pokémon battles.
Just this single leap had already allowed it to climb from zero to Ultra Ball rank quickly.
That's right—to help Mewtwo grow quickly, Aiden considerately helped it create a smurf account so it could truly match against "equally matched opponents."
Mewtwo, with its extremely strong learning ability, also gradually began to learn to use various convenient services in human society.
Such as phones, computers, and the Pokémon Pokédex.
Currently, Mewtwo was like a newborn baby, greedily learning various knowledge from the internet.
For humans, long videos or movies that merely skim over knowledge without leaving much memory—after watching once, it already had a general understanding, and could even chat enthusiastically with Aiden, frequently expressing its own insights.
Aiden was very pleased with this, even specially providing it with a computer and phone to help it adapt to human society sooner.
Although occasionally Mewtwo would ask some abstract questions like "Why are humans interested in Gardevoir?" or "Is Parasect's evolution method really a fungus taking over Paras?"
But overall, for Mewtwo, the benefits outweighed the drawbacks.
After all, for these strange questions, Aiden could casually give convincing answers.
"Why like watching Gardevoir? The heart that loves beauty is universal—is there anything wrong with simply liking beautiful and cute Pokémon?"
"As for Parasect... actually Parasect is already dead—what's controlling its body now is indeed that big mushroom on top..."
"Just kidding—that's just a Pokémon urban legend, don't take it seriously!"
These ambiguous answers were just right for fooling the pure-hearted Mewtwo, whose mind hadn't been contaminated by the internet world.
As for how to prevent it from being contaminated—the answer isn't simple?
Anti-addiction!
Counting from its birth, Mewtwo had been alive for less than three months at most. Even by Pokémon world standards, it was still just a baby.
There are some things children shouldn't see, so anti-addiction measures must be strict!
Under various restrictions, the information Mewtwo could receive was naturally positive, upward, sunny, and healthy~
Thus, Aiden's strangely satisfying "Mewtwo cultivation plan" began operating normally, allowing Aiden to spend a relatively fulfilling weekend.
Time quickly came to Sunday evening.
After solving dinner for this big family at Sunshine Gym, it was almost time for Aiden's usual live stream.
Having skipped a week last week, Aiden still needed to maintain his "diligent streamer" persona this week.
Sitting in his room, Aiden skillfully opened his computer, with a Mewtwo standing behind him, its face full of thirst for knowledge.
Mewtwo was quite interested in Aiden's weekly showcase of interesting strategies, so Aiden let it watch his live stream.
After all, his online audience had already stabilized at seven digits—he didn't mind having one more offline viewer.
According to the groundwork he had laid during previous live streams, this week he should talk about Rain team single battle strategies.
Originally, Aiden had actually wanted to delay the Rain team a bit and introduce hail teams first, but an announcement in the game quickly made him abandon this idea.
On Friday, the long-awaited new version of "Pokémon Champions" finally launched.
Along with the lengthy update time came newly confirmed forms for some Pokémon.
That's right—the Mega Evolution familiar to most Kalos and Hoenn residents!
It was said that recently another batch of new Mega Stones had been discovered, and Professor Sycamore from the Kalos region was urgently researching them.
However, the plans the game company had already set clearly wouldn't be changed—Mega Evolution was launched on schedule.
If subsequent research made progress, they might also arrange these Pokémon into the game.
This also gave Aiden confidence to talk about Rain teams.
After all...
"If a certain One Punch Man is missing from a Rain single battle team, who else dares to sit at the table for a meal!"
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