Early that morning, Eichi arrived in Viridian City and went to the Johto Department Store.
As soon as he entered, he went straight to the fifth floor by elevator.
The saleswoman immediately recognized him and greeted him with a smile.
"Sir, your order is complete. Please follow me."
Eichi followed her to the counter.
She took a few items out of a backpack and placed them in front of him.
It was a black vest-like device.
Eichi touched it.
It was thinner than he had expected, about as thick as a normal shirt.
This was really high-tech.
Something so thin could actually generate gravity.
Then, she handed him a black remote control.
It had a small screen on top and three buttons below: Power, Increase, and Decrease.
The saleswoman demonstrated how to activate and remove the device, as well as how to attach it to Beedrill.
She also explained that the device had very high durability.
Unless struck at full strength by a Gym Leader, it could not be damaged.
Eichi released Beedrill and put the gravity vest on it.
It looked a little cooler with the device equipped.
Beedrill shifted left, then right.
Eichi asked, "How does it feel, Beedrill?"
Beedrill buzzed a few times.
It did not seem to feel any difference, and its movements were not affected.
"Alright," Eichi said. "Let's turn it on and see."
Beedrill nodded.
After getting its consent, Eichi pressed the Power button.
Beedrill, who was hovering in midair, suddenly dropped.
Just before it hit the ground, it steadied itself and slowly floated back up.
Beedrill sent a signal to Eichi.
"This weight… is fine."
Satisfied, the saleswoman continued,
"Besides the gravity vest, we also prepared the stinger guards you ordered."
She took two black stinger guards from under the counter.
They could also adjust gravity and train the strength of Beedrill's twin stingers.
Eichi nodded.
He made the payment: the vest cost 60,000p, and the stinger guards cost 20,000p.
He also bought three human-shaped training dummies.
Those would be very useful.
In total, he spent 100,000p.
His wallet instantly felt much lighter.
He packed everything into his backpack and took the stairs down.
On his way home, he carefully calculated his remaining money.
After his big purchase last time, he had around 180,000p a few days before.
He had spent about 30,000p in the past few days.
Now, with another 100,000p gone, he had about 50,000p left.
That amount was not enough to buy a TM.
Each TM was very expensive.
Eichi felt the need to make money; thankfully, he already had a few ideas in mind.
***
Eichi and Beedrill returned to the small grove.
He released it and put on the gravity vest.
Then, they began training.
The first exercise was circular flight.
After Beedrill got into rhythm, Eichi turned on the device, starting at double gravity.
He used a timer to record Beedrill's performance.
For the first five laps, Beedrill's flight speed did not change much, but after the fifth, it began to slow down.
By the tenth lap, Beedrill was clearly exhausted.
Eichi stopped it.
It was the first day of testing, so it would take time for Beedrill to adjust.
He said, "From now on, you'll wear this every day."
They would begin with double gravity.
Once it became ineffective, he would increase the load.
Beedrill nodded confidently.
Eichi smiled and told it to rest.
After a short break, they began today's skill training.
Yesterday they practiced several moves, so today they would work on different ones.
The fifth training was for Focus Energy.
It was a move that involved taking a deep breath to gather Bug-type energy and raise accuracy for a short time.
The training method was simple.
Eichi told Beedrill to keep using Focus Energy, again and again.
It needed to concentrate energy inside its body and release it as quickly as possible.
Eichi's goal was for Beedrill to use the move within one second.
Right now, it still took six.
Six seconds was far too slow.
By then, Beedrill could already be defeated in battle.
That was unacceptable.
Beedrill continued using Focus Energy.
Its body was surrounded by yellow light that kept gathering and fading.
Once Eichi thought it had practiced enough, he told Beedrill to rest before testing again.
After recovering, Beedrill nodded.
Eichi raised the timer. "Go!"
Beedrill's energy gathered quickly, then vanished.
Eichi stopped the timer.
"Five seconds."
He smiled and patted Beedrill's head.
"Not bad, Beedrill. You already improved by one second."
Beedrill raised a stinger proudly, meaning "That was nothing."
Eichi laughed. "You little show-off."
***
Next would be Agility training, but since it was Beedrill's first day with the gravity vest, Eichi decided to skip it.
Instead, they moved on to Acid Spray.
This move gathered poisonous liquid and fired it at the enemy.
When it hit, the move's power increased for the next attack.
Eichi considered it a situational move, but still worth practicing.
He told Beedrill to face a tree trunk.
A blob of purple venom shot out and struck the bark.
The wood began to corrode almost instantly.
The power was quite good.
Eichi gathered more branches and logs from around the grove.
Then he had Beedrill repeat the attack over and over.
By the end, its Acid Spray had clearly improved.
Next, Eichi decided to test the new stinger guards.
He fitted them onto Beedrill's arms and set up the human dummy.
Then he told Beedrill to keep using Twineedle.
Its twin stingers stabbed the dummy again and again, like someone hitting a punching bag.
The guards prevented the sharp stingers from tearing through the dummy, so Beedrill could strike freely without holding back.
A barrage of rapid hits landed one after another like a storm.
Eichi could tell from the sound and rhythm that the results were excellent.
After letting Beedrill continue free training for a while, he saw that its stamina was nearly spent.
Eichi nodded, satisfied, and took Beedrill home.
***
That night, Eichi removed the gravity vest.
He cleaned Beedrill's body and gave it a long massage.
After the massage, he put the vest back on Beedrill again.