CH100 (230), Using Pressure To Train (6)

For the next few days, Hashirama/Ivysaur was the sole focus of our little trips to Mt.Moon. I got so into it, that I had to be reminded about my approaching birthday at the beginning of the second week by my parents.

My 9th birthday was in four days on Dialday the 10.19.2179. My parents were going to return early because of that, so instead of returning on Kyoday morning, they were going to be back on Palkiday night.

All that told me in my current grind mindset was that I still had 4 more days including today to do some pressure training. A piece of good news for me was that Eggy's check-up schedule had returned to a 6-hour interval after a week without any negative reactions.

Before I went out to Mt.Moon I remembered to invite my friends to my birthday party. Misty and Aaron were currently on different continents so it was unlikely that they could come, but I still gave them a call so that they could not complain about not even getting invited.

As expected they apologized for being unable to attend, but I told them that it was ok. Rose and her family were going to show up either way, but I still called her out of courtesy.

After getting her confirmation, I called Jessica to ask her if she could come. Poor Jessie was super busy because of her internship at the PokeCenter as a nurse, so I could understand it if she could not attend due to various reasons.

Still, she said she managed to ask for an early leave on Dialday, and that she was definitely going to show up. Weiss and Ace both affirmed that they would be there, which left only Kinji/Samurai in my group of close friends.

I wrote a message asking if he was busy and after he answered that he was free, I called him. He accepted my invitation and told me that he would show up around 5 p.m after I gave him my address.

The others did not know my real identity but the alias they met me as, so I did not invite them. I would tell them my identity once I felt our friendship become closer, but for now, we were not close enough.

Well, there was still Erza whom I had met as Mikail. I would classify our relationship as friends, so I called her to ask her if she had time on Dialday and if she wanted to come to my birthday if she did have time. Erza gave her consent and I gave her my address.

After that, I quickly did a mental check to see if I forgot anyone before I remembered Yu but decided against calling him since that poor guy was now in Orre.

I made a quick prayer for poor Yu, before sending my parents my guest list. Afterward, I left for Mt.Moon and went around finding silver stage Pokemon for Hashirama to battle against. Except for the one time where we had to run due to a fight abruptly erupting between a Steelix and an Aggron.

Going by the feeling they were giving off they were both at the dark gold stage, but I had no idea what sub-stage since even I was not reckless enough to get into the clash zone just to check their status screens. So, after running away with our tails between our legs, we changed our search direction.

That evening I received some good news, but they were not from Hashirama. No, Optimus and Luna managed to use Teleport for the first time within a few minutes of each other.

Thankfully, Mewday had no sudden death events, and the search on Giratiday also went by calmly. The only surprise was coming across a Salbeye, but that was a welcome surprise. It actually ambushed us as we walked by a cave entrance, so I had Hashirama beat his ass for a bit.

He was only at the (high) bronze stage, so the fight while not easy did not cause any pressure on Hashi. Since Salbeye was the one who ambushed us, we left it there after Hashirama knocked it out.

During the evening training session, Hashirama's Strength got elevated to SSS, which meant that only his Agility was left. Once that happened, he would first evolve to Venusaur, before directly breaking through to the silver stage.

Well, I decided to give everyone the day off on Palkiday, so I just spent the time before dinner, which was when my parent arrived, relaxing and playing with everyone.

At dinner, my parents told me that we would be heading to the city tomorrow after breakfast to buy stuff for the party at 4 p.m. It was going to be a grill party, and they were planning to buy some great meat since I told them that I did not want any extravagant gifts.

To be honest, I was worried that they would show up with another egg or Pokemon when I said that. The next morning, I barely avoided death by suffocation. Once the birthday congratulations were out of the way and we ate a hearty breakfast before we went out to purchase the meat for the grill.

We bought 10 kg of Farfetch'd wings, 2 kg of breasts, 5 kg of Tauros filet, sirloin, as well as ribeye each, and finally 10 kg of Seaking fillets. That was not as much as it sounded but should be enough for 15 people.

I personally felt my parents spent a bit too much for some birthday grill meat since they dropped nearly 28k Poke for all of it. At least, they did not try to buy any D-class meat or that price would have been much higher.

Once we were back home, we prepared everything so that all that had to be done once the guests arrived was to start grilling. Dad set up two large grills since one would not be enough, or rather it would take way too long to go through all the meat with just one grill.

Once everything was ready we just watched a movie to pass the time until 4 p.m. 10 minutes before 4 p.m the guests began to trickle in, and Rose and her parents were the first to arrive.

Jessica was the second, she came just a minute after the Fields, which made me wonder how they managed to not meet outside. I introduced her to Rose and her parents and while I was doing that Weiss and Ace arrived.

They came together, and as they told me beforehand, they both brought along their parents. Erza came punctually at 4 p.m, so the only one missing was Kinji who informed me that he would arrive around 5 p.m.

We introduced everyone to each other before we separated into two groups, parents and non-parents. Our group, also known as the cool kids, began to talk about the things we were doing.

Everyone was very interested to hear Jessie's part since they were all curious about what she was doing in her internship as a Pokemon Nurse. They were impressed by the stuff she had to do especially when she mentioned the night shift and the lack of sleep.

I gave her a sympathetic look when she mentioned the night shift since I was the only one in our current group who knew how tired and overworked she was whenever she had to do those or during any emergency call ups. She gave me a small smile in return.

When Weiss told Rose and Jessie about her ice training, Rose asked her for a demonstration and Weiss humored her. She began showing off her ice creation as well as manipulation and I got flashbacks that made me hear "let it go" in the background.

The parent group pause their conversations to watch her impromptu performance as well, and after she was down everyone clapped. Rose asked her if she could create a small ice rink and Weiss nodded her head, before looking over to my parents.

They showed her the lawn-free area we used for our sparring matches and move training. Weiss called out her Jinx and (Alolan) Ninetales and together they froze the surface of the field. Then she told those two to supply just enough cold/ice energy to keep the rink from melting.

While we did not have special ice skates, we had enough body control to slide around the ice rink in our regular shoes even if we couldn't go as fast. Even Rose's balance and body control were good enough to avoid slipping.

We skated there for a bit and the parents joined us as well. At 4:50 p.m Kinji arrived and I introduced him to everyone. They were suitably impressed when I told them of Kinji's prowess. I obviously got permission to reveal that before I did, but he said he had nothing to hide.

Kinji himself showed interest when he learned that Uncle Roger was a Champion-class trainer and that Uncle Schnee was an Elite-class trainer as well.

Kinji mentioned that he was trying to reach the King-Rank/Champion-Class and that he wouldn't mind the experience of fighting against a trainer in that bracket.

Uncle Roger saw that everyone seemed interested, so he agreed as long as they could find a good enough place to fight since our property was not an appropriate place for a fight between Pokemon at that level.

Seeing his agreement everyone gets excited and my parents look over at me. They ask me to lead us to a big empty place close by that could be used for the battlefield, so I did just that.

Once we arrive at the place Uncle Roger calls someone and tells them that he is going to battle with someone. He said that he did this to avoid startling the Rota forces and rangers.

They would inform everyone else about the event so that we did not get stormed by others because they noticed champion-class fluctuations near the city.

That made perfect sense, but I see that I was not the only one that had not considered that because except for Uncle Schnee everyone had the same expression of understanding as me.

Uncle Roger calls out two Pokemon, a Slowking and a Poliwrath, both at the platinum stage. He told us that the Slowking would be responsible for keeping the fight contained to a certain area which would allow the Pokemon to go all out without a worry. Poliwrath would be the one that would fight Kinji's Pokemon.

Kinji would only use his (high) dark gold stage Pokemon, which were his Pinsir, Volcarona, and Scyther. The rest was not strong enough yet. Each of Kinji's Pokemon went all out when it was their turn to fight, but all three lost without being able to knock out Poliwrath.

Still, their performance was great and everyone was spellbound for the whole duration of the fight. At least Kinji's group manage to exhaust Poliwrath if nothing else.

We all applauded both while Kinji thanked Uncle Roger for letting his Pokemon experience the power they were trying to achieve. After they both recalled their Pokemon, we returned to our home, and dad decided that it was time to fire up the grill.

The men decided to man the grill. It took nearly two hours to go through all the meat and we were eating whenever a portion was done to eat them while they were freshly done.

An hour after we finished eating everyone handed over their gifts and I had asked them to keep the gifts inexpensive. Still, I left the unpacking for later when I was alone.

After the gifts, it was the turn of the cake, and after that everyone began to go home. Uncle Roger offered the teleportation services of his Slowking and everyone accepted the offer. Once they had left, I helped my parents with tidying up the terrace.

I opened the gifts before going to bed. Rose and her parents bought two hoodies, one had a Butterfree on the back, and the other had a Xatu. Jessie bought me a cap and fingerless gloves, while Kinji gave me a half mask with web motives along with a straw hat.

Weiss gave me a guidebook about known species around the Seafoam Islands, while Ace gave me a book about survival tips on the sea. After putting away all gifts my parents gave me their gift, which was a family hug.

That, and the book they imported from Alola that was about Salandit-line. I thanked them before we split for the night. The days following my birthday flew by like the wind, which considering that this was the last month of the vacation meant that the start of the second academic year was getting closer and closer.

I was hoping that Hashirama would achieve his goal before that happened but each day passed without the awaited improvement. It went on like this until the first of the new month, which was two days before the academy restarted.

That day his agility finally reached the SSS value, so we quickly moved to his habitat. There I began pulling out the materials I had prepared for his evolution and once the circle was complete, and the paste was applied I called everyone over.

Then Hashirama initiated his evolution and evolved into a Venusaur. Once the light died down we saw him in all his glory. He looked no different than a regular Venusaur except for his larger-than-average size, so it was obvious that he had not unlocked any genes during his evolution.

Everyone cheered after his evolution ended, but I held them back before they could rush up to him because we were not done yet. After his evolution was complete Hashirama directly initiated his breakthrough to the silver stage.

Only after the second light show had settled did I allow them to rush up to him. I went up to him as well and joined them in congratulating him, but I also checked his status to see the changes.

'Name: Hashirama

Species: Venusaur

Gender: Male

Age: 5+ years

-

Type: Grass, Poison

Potential: Deep Blue (89.76%) -> Purple (62.03%)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Overgrow, Chlorophyll

Talents: Solar Overgrowth (new)

Affinities: Grass, Poison

-

Bond: Mikail (weak)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Silver Stage (mid)

Vitality: D

Strength: D

Endurance: D

Agility: D

Energy Capacity: D

Energy Density: D

----

Resistance:

Grass (Major), Water (Minor), Electric (Minor), Fighting (Minor), Fairy (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Fire (Minor), Ice (Minor), Flying (Minor), Psychic (Minor)

-

Standardized:

Psychic (in-progress)

----

Condition: Healthy, Excited

----

Masteries:

Grass Energy Manipulation (Advanced)

Poison Energy Manipulation (Novice)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

Sleep Bomb, Poison Bomb

-

Novice:

Growl, Take Down, Sweet Scent, Worry Seed, Petal Blizzard (new)

-

Beginner:

Tackle, Double-Edge

-

Proficient:

Vine Whip, Growth, Poison Powder, Sleep Powder, Mega Drain, Solar Beam, Sunny Day, Giga Drain (+), Sleep Vine (+), Poison Vine (+), Sweet Vine (+)

-

Advanced:

Razor Leaf, Synthesis, Seed Bomb, Leech Seed (+)

-

Mastered:

N/A

-

Combo:

Sleep Vine, Poison Vine, Sweet Vine, Sleep Bomb (in-progress), Poison Bomb (in-progress)'

The most obvious change was that the species had changed to Venusaur, but that was no surprise since I was not blind. Hashirama's breakthrough after his complete limit break had helped him go from deep blue potential straight to purple.

Moreover, his potential was already more than halfway to deep purple. The biggest surprise was the new talent that he seemed to have unlocked. Whether that happened during his evolution or breakthrough I did not know, but I had to say it was a great talent.

Solar Overgrowth was obviously derived from his existing two abilities, and the talent created something akin to a pseudo-grassy terrain as long as the conditions of a Sunny Day were fulfilled.

Now, the reason I called it pseudo grassy terrain instead of a regular one was that the effect slightly differed from the original. While his ability did boost the effect of all grass moves within the area, the difference was in the healing aspect of the move.

While Grassy Terrain slowly healed all earth-bound individuals within its influence, Solar Overgrowth only healed Hashirama. This was both an improvement and a decrease.

It was an improvement because our foes would not be healed, but the same was true for any other of my Pokemon hence the decrease. Still, the advantage outstripped the disadvantage by far in my opinion so I was extremely happy with the talent he unlocked.

Well, other than that there was the fact that he was already pretty close to the (high) silver stage since all his parameters started at the D-value thanks to the high racial value of the Venusaur species.

This was also the reason I had him evolve first before breaking through since his starting value would have been lower if he chose to break through before evolving.

Furthermore, he had learned the move Petal Blizzard during his evolution, but that was something that 90% of all Venusaur did upon evolution. Nothing else had changed, including our bond, but that would turn to "strong" soon enough now that he was at the silver stage. I gave it a week at most.

Anyway, now that Hashirama had evolved and broken through, I could focus on the others on the priority list. However, I was declaring a vacation for the last two days of the vacation. The second round of pressure training would begin with the second academic year.

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