24 Heading Into the Mountains

"Are you packed?" Gerald asked Daikon.

Daikon nodded, showing his backpack.

"Good. We can leave now." Gerald said.

"Remember what I said." Professor Oak said to Gerald.

"Yes you old fogey I'll remember, be back in 8 months for that competition thing." Gerald said, brushing Professor Oak off, pushing Daikon out of the pokemon center with Vibrava and Togekiss following him.

They walked to the outskirts of the city before Gerald released his Aerodactyl.

"Return your Vibrava to his pokeball and jumped on that fairy. Follow me." Gerald said before jumping on the back of Aerodactyl and taking off.

Doing as he said, Daikon sat on the back of Togekiss and took off into the air. This was his first time riding Togekiss but the ride was still smooth. Loosening his grip from her feathers, Daikon spread his arms like a bird and let out a loud laugh.

The air screamed in his ears while his clothes flapped in the wind. This was the most freeing feeling Daikon had ever felt.

"Toooo!"

Letting out a cry of joy, Togekiss started to dive and pull up, causing Daikon to laugh louder.

"Keep up!" a loud yell from in front of them was heard.

Shaking his head with a smile, Daikon patted Togekiss' head before she sped toward Gerald and Aerodactyl. They were headed north and soon a large mountain range appeared. Daikon felt so tiny compared to these ancient rocks as they flew past them.

As they flew, a beautiful green valley came into view. The valley had a large lake with trees covering one side of it while the other was open grass. Pokemon could be seen everywhere, relaxing or eating.

Daikon's grandfather started his descent into the valley and Daikon followed him. Feeling the arrival of a powerful pokemon, the wild pokemon fled in the trees.

Landing on the ground, Gerald's Aerodactyl returned to its pokemon.

Daikon rubbed Togekiss' head and thanked it for the ride.

"Before we begin, you need to learn somethings. Take a seat." Gerald said as he sat against a tree.

Daikon listened to him and sat, crossing his legs.

"What do you know about aura?" Gerald asked him.

"It is the essence of life." Daikon gave a text book answer.

"Yes it is. Do you know people can harness aura?" Gerald asked another question.

"Yes, Guardians they are called." Daikon recited from his memory.

"That is a generic term. There are three branches of aura cultivators: body, mind and soul. Body cultivators strengthen their bodies by tempering them with aura. This allows them unmatched strength and defense. Bruno Siba from your Elite 4 is a good example of this kind of cultivation. Mind cultivators focus on strengthening their minds with aura, allowing them to control physical objects, communicate telepathically and have a some foresight. Sabrina Natsume, also from your Elite 4 is an example of this. The last one, and most difficult, is soul. Soul allows someone to sense everything around them without using their eyes and able to condense aura into an attack- Aura Sphere and also create barriers of aura. They are also able to create bonds with pokemon like we can with dragons." Gerald explained, letting Daikon take it all in.

"They're 4 stages of aura; student, master, grandmaster, saint. Each one increases the control you have over aura and the power of it. Do you know how humans came to learn how to control aura?" Gerald asked looking at Daikon with a smirk.

Daikon rolled his eyes, this grandfather of his has a flare for the dramatic.

"As you could imagine, our tribe was the strongest which caused jealousy and resentment from the other tribes. Soon they joined forces and attacked us but thanks to our bloodline and the powerful dragons they tamed they were able to repel them. But our tribe was generous and tried to teach them how to harness energy from dragons. Of course it was unsuccessful but thanks to a genius from one of the tribes took our method and applied it to life essence, letting them reach new heights and tame pokemon like us." Gerald gloated as he told the story.

"You are going somewhere with this old man, can you get there already?" Daikon said running out of patience with his grandfather's story telling.

Gerald glared at his grandson, "Fine you impatient bastard. Our tribe is unable to cultivate aura but the energy we cultivate, draconic energy, is similar but different. Aura users draw their energy from nature while we draw ours from our dragons. This means without dragon pokemon we aren't able to cultivate. Of course we grow stronger while our dragon pokemon grow stronger. We only have one path of cultivating, our bodies grow increasingly stronger and we are able to create bonds with dragon pokemon. So I am here to train you to harness draconic energy the proper way as well as teach you proper swordsmanship. Of course I will be training your pokemon too." he explained.

Daikon nodded his head as he understood. "So let's start." he said not wanting to waste anytime.

Waving his hand over the ring on his hand, two black bracelets appeared in his hand.

"Put them on each of your wrist." Gerald said, handing them over to Daikon.

Daikon put them on and the second the last bracelet clicked an immense pressure pressed down on Daikon almost causing his knees to buckle. Gritting his teeth, Daikon stood up straight.

"Not bad." Gerald grinned as he watched Daikon struggle. "These gravity bracelets are used to train humans and pokemon in the clan. Right now it is 2x the amount of normal gravity."

Daikon was barely listening to his grandfather but focusing on his breathing trying to stay upright.

"Idiot, rotate your draconic energy." Gerald said to him.

Doing as he said, the pressure was reduced significantly.

"What are these!?" Daikon said looking down at the bracelets.

"A gift from Giratina. We have three main families in our clan, each representing a dragon of creation. Giratina gave us these stones that increase gravity. Palkia gave us stones that allow us to make interspatial rings and Dialga gave us large rooms to increase our cultivation." Gerald said rubbing his interspatial ring.

Daikon nodded his head, his every move was strained.

Taking out an axe from his ring he said, "Now go cut down some trees for some firewood tonight."

Gerald closed his eyes and started to sleep, leaving Daikon standing there. Glaring at his grandfather, Daikon grabbed the axe and walked toward the trees along the edge of the lake.

Daikon chopped wood the rest of the day, physically exhausting himself. When night came he released his pokemon and asked Quilava to light a fire for them. He sat down cross legged and started to cultivate with Dratini and Vibrava. Daikon noticed he was absorbing almost 3x more energy from before, shocking him.

"Tomorrow all of your pokemon will wear a gravity bracelet and train against mine. That old fogey told me that in 8 months a tournament will be held for young trainers and he wanted you to join it. So that gives me 7 months to train you so you will not embarrass me." Gerald told him.

'A tournament? Does he mean the U20 Pokemon Tournament?'

The tournament happened right before the Indigo Plateau Conference and would showcase the young talent of Kanto. It happened ever 3 years, same as the Indigo Plateau Conference.