Rakesh POV
By the time we finished our morning run around the academy grounds, the sun had properly risen above the horizon, bathing the training sectors in warm golden light while the coolness left behind by the night gradually began fading from the air.
Even after running several laps, the academy grounds were already overflowing with activity.
Battle arenas echoed with impacts and shouted commands, professors supervised early practical sessions in open fields, and students moved constantly between facilities alongside Pokémon of every shape and size, creating an atmosphere that felt more like a constantly functioning ecosystem than an ordinary educational institution.
After grabbing water from one of the public stations, the three of us headed toward one of the indoor training halls.
Today's training focus had already been decided beforehand.
Speed.
Or more specifically—
Agility.
During the entrance examination, I had noticed something that became increasingly obvious whenever we faced stronger opponents. While both Meowth and Charmeleon possessed excellent offensive capability and adapted well tactically during battle, their movement speed and reaction timing were still slightly lacking compared to some of the academy's faster Pokémon.
Most of our victories during the examination had come from battle sense, pressure, and attack power rather than overwhelming speed.
Against weaker opponents, that advantage was enough.
Against stronger ones—
It wouldn't always be.
Especially after entering the academy, where more and more students had begun developing specialized battle styles, I realized that allowing such a weakness to persist would eventually become dangerous.
Because no matter how strong an attack was—
It meant nothing if the opponent moved first.
Or worse—
If they never got hit at all.
The indoor training hall itself was enormous, with reinforced flooring divided into multiple adjustable sections designed for different styles of Pokémon training. Some students were practicing endurance drills in one area, while others worked on move precision under professor supervision.
We moved toward a relatively open section near the far side of the hall before I finally turned toward Meowth and Charmeleon.
"Today we focus entirely on agility training," I said while placing my bag near the wall. "Not just running speed. Reaction time, acceleration, movement control, and move release speed too."
Charmeleon's tail flame burned slightly brighter immediately.
Meowth, meanwhile, looked considerably less enthusiastic.
"You're doing it too," I told him before he could even think about pretending otherwise.
He sighed dramatically.
I ignored him completely.
The first phase of training focused on reaction drills.
I borrowed several academy-issued launcher devices from the nearby equipment rack before activating them around the field in a loose circular pattern.
The machines immediately began firing soft rubber projectiles at irregular intervals from random directions.
"Dodge everything," I instructed.
The moment the exercise began, both Pokémon exploded into motion.
Charmeleon reacted aggressively at first, relying more on physical movement and instinctive bursts of speed to avoid the incoming shots, his claws scraping lightly against the reinforced floor as he changed direction sharply whenever another projectile came flying toward him.
Meowth's approach was completely different.
Rather than constantly moving, he minimized unnecessary motion, weaving between attacks with smaller, cleaner adjustments while observing the launch timing carefully, his naturally sharper reflexes allowing him to evade with surprising efficiency despite his lazy demeanor.
Still—
Neither of them were fast enough yet.
Several projectiles struck Charmeleon during the first few minutes whenever his momentum slowed slightly after aggressive dodges, while Meowth eventually got clipped as the launch patterns became increasingly chaotic.
"Again," I said immediately.
The machines accelerated.
For the next thirty minutes, the training hall echoed with repeated impacts, movement, and increasingly frustrated sounds from Charmeleon whenever he narrowly failed to avoid consecutive attacks.
Sweat gradually covered both Pokémon as their breathing became heavier, yet little by little, improvements began appearing.
Charmeleon's movements grew tighter.
Cleaner.
Less wasteful.
Instead of reacting after attacks were launched, he started anticipating trajectories earlier, reducing the amount of energy needed for each dodge.
Meowth, meanwhile, became increasingly efficient at reading patterns, his body moving almost lazily at times despite the precision required to avoid the projectiles continuously.
After finally stopping the machines, I gave both of them a short water break before immediately moving to the second phase.
Short-distance sprint training.
The academy hall contained adjustable running lanes specifically designed for Pokémon acceleration drills, allowing trainers to modify terrain resistance, incline, and environmental pressure depending on training goals.
For today, I kept things simple.
Pure acceleration.
"Short bursts only," I instructed while positioning them at the starting line. "Maximum speed immediately after starting. Don't pace yourselves."
The moment I gave the signal, both Pokémon launched forward.
Charmeleon exploded ahead aggressively, relying almost entirely on raw power to generate speed, his footsteps striking the ground heavily as he accelerated down the lane.
Meowth started slower—
Then suddenly blurred forward halfway through the sprint.
I narrowed my eyes slightly.
Interesting.
His acceleration pattern had become sharper recently.
Probably connected to the gradual changes professors mentioned regarding his approaching evolution into Persian.
"Again."
The next sprint started immediately.
Then another.
And another.
The repeated acceleration drills gradually pushed both Pokémon toward exhaustion, but the improvements became increasingly visible with each repetition as their starting hesitation disappeared and movement efficiency steadily improved.
By the time the sprint training ended, Charmeleon was breathing heavily with sweat running down his arms while Meowth had abandoned all attempts at pretending to be lazy and simply collapsed dramatically onto the floor.
"We're not done yet," I said.
Meowth groaned.
The final phase focused on move release speed.
One of the biggest mistakes beginner trainers made was focusing entirely on move strength while ignoring activation timing, but in real battles, the speed at which a move was executed often mattered just as much as raw power itself.
I activated moving targets throughout the hall.
"Fast release only," I instructed. "Don't focus on strength. Focus on activation speed."
Charmeleon immediately began launching Flamethrowers toward the moving targets, but his early attempts were still slightly too delayed, the attacks arriving moments after the targets had already shifted position.
Meowth experienced similar issues with Slash and Fury Swipes, his attacks technically accurate but lacking immediate execution speed.
"Faster," I called out repeatedly. "Don't think after seeing the target move. Your body should already be responding."
The training continued relentlessly.
Again.
Again.
Again.
As time passed, exhaustion gradually stripped away hesitation and unnecessary thought, forcing instinct and muscle memory to take over naturally.
Charmeleon's Flamethrower activation became noticeably quicker, the flames erupting almost immediately the moment he locked onto a target, while Meowth's slashes began flowing more naturally without visible delay between recognition and action.
Hours passed without any of us properly noticing.
By the time training finally ended, all three of us were exhausted.
Charmeleon lay flat on the floor breathing heavily while Meowth had completely given up maintaining dignity and sprawled across my lap the moment I sat down near the wall.
Yet despite the exhaustion—
The results were obvious.
They had become faster.
Not dramatically.
Not enough to transform them overnight.
But enough that the direction of growth was clearly visible.