đź““ Evan's Journal đź““
Month 1, Day 27
Location: Near Professor Kukui's Home, Melemele Island
Time: 6:00 AM
Today is Monday. And today... I begin hell.
[Pokemon: Bug catcher]
(Evan's POV)
I rose with the sun, the air still cool and laced with ocean salt.Â
With my team at my side, I walked to the familiar open clearing near Professor Kukui's cliffside house. It was quiet here, far from the town's buzz and perfect for what I had in mind.
I had a plan—a mad one. Inspired by the legendary Saitama routine.
100 pushups. 100 situps. 100 squats. 10 km run. Every single day.
No breaks. No excuses.
Thanks to Bugforce's minor healing boost that had been gradually awakening in me, my body could take more punishment than the average person. No muscle tearing, no burnouts. Just exhaustion. Sweet, merciless exhaustion.
Time to earn strength.
Pokémon Speed Training Drill:
While I hit the ground for pushups, my Pokémon didn't get to sit around. Far from it.
I had set up a rugged obstacle course made from old wooden posts and thick branches, jammed into the ground like training dummies. They created a chaotic labyrinth—narrow gaps, uneven spacing, and no clear path forward.
Thorn, my Alolan Beedrill, zipped between them like a living rocket. His twin stingers glinted in the rising sunlight as he shot through tight gaps with impossible agility. His drills hummed with power, but control was the goal, not speed alone.
Grubbin, hidden just beneath the surface, played the part of an unpredictable attacker. At random intervals, he fired String Shots, webbing up the gaps between posts like a chaotic spider's lair. Sometimes the threads caught on the dummies; other times they floated loose, just waiting to tangle wings or legs.
Then, without warning, he'd burst from the ground—his antennae glowing—and launch a surprise attack toward Thorn and his training partner…
Trixie.
She danced in the air behind Thorn, her wings shimmering with iridescent blues and purples. The tight space was a nightmare for her wide frame, but she refused to falter. She twisted, rolled, and dove through the dummies and string webs, dodging Thorn's rapid movements and Grubbin's sabotage.
They weren't just dodging. They were retaliating.
Thorn responded to ambushes with sharp bursts of Poison Web, sending clouds of toxic threads toward where Grubbin had last emerged. Meanwhile, Trixie shot arcs of Freeze Web—shimmering icy threads designed to trap Grubbin's surface movements or at least slow his next strike.
It was chaos. Beautiful, violent, calculated chaos.
Every movement forced reaction. Every reaction sharpened instinct.
I kept training through it all. Pushups. Situps. Squats. Sweat poured from my brow as I pushed my body harder than I ever had. The sun rose higher, casting golden rays over the training field.
"Don't stop until I finish my hundred!" I called out, my breath ragged.
Trixie barely avoided a string that wrapped itself around one of the dummies. Thorn spun mid-air to avoid slamming into her, and Grubbin squeaked as an icy thread zipped past his antennae.
They were getting faster. Sharper. Better.
We all were.
⏳ One Hour Later...
I dropped to my knees, muscles burning, lungs on fire. My team lay sprawled out in the grass around me—wings twitching, legs shaking, bodies steaming from exertion.
I placed a hand on the ground and activated Bugforce. Soft pulses of green light flowed into each of them. Scrapes closed. Soreness eased. Breathing steadied.
But just as the tension faded from my body, I felt it again.
That presence.
The same mysterious one that had stalked us for the last few days… watching from the shadows. I felt it on the edge of my aura—close. This time, I wasn't letting it slip away.
Aura Sight—ON.
My vision shimmered into a glowing landscape. Threads of energy lit the field around me like veins of blue lightning—but I only caught a flicker. A shadow moved—fast—faster than I could follow. It bolted past the edge of the training area and vanished over a ridge.
I didn't hesitate. I sprinted toward the spot it had passed through, heart pounding with adrenaline.
When I reached the place where the shadow had stood… something was left behind.
A small object, half-buried in the grass, gleaming black with a crimson outline.
I knelt, eyes wide.
"...No way."
I brushed the dirt aside and held it up.
A Z-Ring.