Single post in Life of a trainer

Chapter 10 – The dojo Following the path in the forest, Andy looked at the Pokéball in his hand. He had just caught a Mankey and he was glad he had found him. “Hey, Benny.” Andy looked up, stopped and looked around to see where his Butterfree had gone to. He noticed him a little further away, in a field of flowers, flying from one flower to the next. “Alright then,” Andy said, laughing. “We’ll take a lunch break.” He walked back to the field and noticed a small path. Following the path with his eyes, he soon discovered a wooden building on the other side of the field. By the looks of it, a dojo. “Perfect!” Benny stopped taking nectar from one of the flowers and looked at Andy, a quizzical look on his face. “The dojo over there, “ Andy explained. “I promised Bear I would train him, what better place is there to train a fighting type then a dojo? Let’s go there.” First things first though, he had to get to know his Pokémon before going to a place like that. He let Bear out of the Pokéball and offered him some canned Pokémon food he had with him, an offer the Mankey seemed to accept happily. He also offered some to Benny, but Benny seemed pleased with the flowers and returned to the field he had been flying through earlier. As Bear ate, Andy sat down with him and talked to him. He just talked to him, he told the Mankey who he was, where he was from, what his goal was, how he met Benny and things like that. After a while he pointed to the dojo and said it was a perfect place to train fighting types, especially awesome ones like Bear was. The Mankey looked at the dojo in the distance for a bit and nodded, but then turned his attention back to the food, it was the first time Bear had something like this, but he seemed to like it. When both Pokémon and Andy had enough, they packed up and started walking to the dojo, with the exception of Benny, who was flying. After a short walk through the field, Andy arrived at the open gate and looked inside, with both the Butterfree and the Mankey behind him. On the courtyard he noticed several trainers and their fighting types, training with their Pokémon, or battling against each other. In the doorway of the wooden building behind it, an older man could be seen, watching the trainers with his hands on his back and a stern look on his face. Andy turned to the Mankey. “Here’s what we do. You go back in your Pokéball and I will make sure we get to train here for a while.” “Key?” Bear asked. “I can’t have you go on some rampage because someone looks at you in the wrong way, then we’ll never be allowed to stay!” Andy explained, making slightly exaggerated movements with his arms. “Mankeeey,” Bear growled lowly, glaring at Andy. “Oh, don’t look at me like that! You attacked me when I just looked at you. Me! The most fantastic person who ever lived!” The Mankey blinked, surprised that Andy didn’t seem the least bit intimated. “What do you say?” Andy then asked. “Will you go back in your Pokéball for a bit? I’ll let you back out as soon as we get approval to stay.” Now the Mankey nodded and Andy returned him to the Pokéball. After that he turned back to look at the older man, who obviously was the one in charge. With Benny hanging on his shoulder, Andy walked forward, straight to the man. “Hi,” Andy said, without any further introduction. “I would like to train here with my Mankey.” The eyes of the man moved slowly to Andy. “You think you can just walk up to me and request to be trained?” he asked with a calm voice, but with stern expression on his face. “I think I just did that, yes.” Andy faced the masters stern face with a confident one of his own. “As for the training, I’ll take care of that myself, but I don’t have the proper attributes to use for the training. This place seems perfect to train my Mankey.” “If I’ll allow you to join the dojo to train your fighting-type, you’ll have to abide to the rules of the dojo.” “That’s fine.” “It’s not just the Pokémon who’ll receive training.” “That’s fine.” The dojocho, the owner of the dojo, examined Andy calmly. “You seem really bold.” “That’s f- I mean, I know what I want and I’ll go for it.” Andy shrugged. “I’ll abide to your rules and training if it’ll allow me to train my Mankey, but I’ll leave when I want to. I didn’t start this journey to spend the rest of my life here.” “You seem determined,” the dojocho mentioned, merely stating the observation. “Of course, this is a determined expression.” Andy pointed at his face as he said that, but thought about something and a grin appeared. “Or at least, I think so, I don’t have a mirror to check.” He turned to Benny. “Did I look determined?” The Butterfree nodded. “Ah, there we have it.” Andy looked back at the older man with a cheerful expression on his face. “Seems you were right.” The master of the dojo stared at Andy for a moment, but suddenly burst out in laughter. “Alright kid, you’re accepted to the dojo. You’ve got spirit, I’ll give you that much. How you are as a trainer will soon be revealed.” The older man nodded at him. “I’m called Master Juno or just Sensei.” Andy nodded once and reached out his hand. “I’m Andy Bansing, I don’t carry any titles yet.” Juno smiled and shook Andy’s hand. “Give it some time, you will earn any title you wish. I’m certain of that.” The days followed each other rapidly as Andy spent his time in the dojo with the newest addition of his team. In this time he got to know his Mankey. Even though the Mankey, just like others of his kind, had a very short temper, he learned it had a playful nature. The first day he had stood on the sideline and just let his Mankey watch, allow him to get used to both Humans and Pokémon. The second day the training started. Andy let his Mankey practise his moves on a wooden dummy, but also stepped up as training partner himself, strapping a wooden plank on his arm, patted with cotton and wool on the inside to absorb the blows the Mankey made on the wood. And he let him train with Benny. Both Pokémon grew stronger and Andy was pleased with how well the training went, but there was one thing he couldn’t control: Bears temper. The Mankey still got angry or aggressive very easily, but not at Andy. He liked his new trainer, who trained with him, wrestled with him and played with him. All the rest of the dojo, that was a different story. Many times Andy had to call him back to his Pokéball, or have Benny use his sleeping powder to put him to sleep or have Benny use a tackle to divert the attention of the Mankey. His time in the dojo also allowed him to observe and he was often seen with a notebook and a pen, to write down things he noticed about the behaviour of Pokémon and the interaction between Pokémon and their trainers. It didn’t take long for Andy to have talked with everyone at least once. He could get along with some just fine. With others not so much. Some were fun to hang out with, others not. But overall he enjoyed himself there. At one day, most the attendants of the dojo had gathered in a large room inside the building for a series of battles. There was no structure, anyone was free to challenge anyone and those who didn’t battle, observed from the sideline. Andy was standing in the middle of the room, two other battles were taking place at the same time, but he hardly noticed. His attention was focussed on the opponent in front of him. A Machop with his trainer, a guy called Matt and who was five years older then Andy, but relatively new with fighting-types. “Alright Bear, let’s show them what you’ve got.” The Mankey jumped up, landed on his hands, walked around on his hands a bit, jumped back up and landed on his feet. Andy smiled, enjoying the playful nature of his Pokémon, but his opponent couldn’t laugh with it. “Hey! A battle is serious business!” Matt shouted from the opposite side. Andy sighed, wondering why he always ended up with such serious opponents. Bear glared angrily towards the opponent and started breathing through his nose. “Let him talk,” Andy said, before Bear would rush towards their opponent. “He’s just jealous he can’t do what you just did.” The Mankey calmed down, hearing Andy’s words and calm voice. He gave it a moment of reconsideration and raised his arms in a victory sign. Andy couldn’t help himself and burst out into laughter. “That’s the spirit, Bear! Now, are you ready to fight?” A sudden serious look came over the Mankey as he faced his opponent, placing his feet firmly on the ground and holding his arms in striking position. “We’re ready,” Andy announced to his opponent. “Feel free to make the first move.” Bear looked over his shoulder to Andy, who winked at him. “We’ve got to give them a fair chance, right?” Bear nodded enthusiastically and returned his attention to the opposing Machop again. As the Machop run forward for a low kick, Andy ordered a focus energy for Bear. Then he ordered fury swipes and the Mankey run to the Machop, hitting him several times, before jumping back to where he began. When their opponent ordered a karate chop, Bear jumped aside or leaned backwards to escape the chops and after Andy calmly asked it, landed a low kick himself. After a well places karate chop, the battle was over. “Nicely done! So. Who wants to be Bears next opponent?” Andy asked looking around, but no-one came. Bear was jumping from one foot to the other, happy with the victory and because it was just fun to do. “Nobody?” Andy looked at his Mankey, clearly still full of energy and took his Pokéball to call Benny out. Bear immediately turned to Benny, ready to fight. “Man, Mankey, Man?” Bear asked him. Benny nodded. “Freee!” The two engaged in battle, Andy stood aside, watching them and giving out orders to both. Bear was at a disadvantages and the Mankey knew that, but he always seemed to like the challenge Benny posed to him and Benny usually stuck with tackles and evading attacks, instead of using the moves Bear was weak to, like gust or confusion. On the other hand, Bear had gotten stronger and more agile, so it wasn’t long before both Pokémon were panting. “Alright you guys, that’s enough.” Andy took Benny’s Pokéball and called him back. “I’ll battle your Mankey,” a voice behind Andy spoke and he turned around face one of the students of the dojo, a guy about his age called Jason. Unlike Matt, with whom Andy actually got around with pretty well, Jason was just annoying. “So let me get this straight,” Andy said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “When I asked if anyone wanted to battle, you didn’t come. Now that he’s tired from a battle with Benny, now you want to fight? No way.” “What?” Jason asked with an artificial innocent tone in his voice. “Is your Pokémon to weak? Or a coward perhaps?” Andy wanted to reply to that, but Bear jumped up, landed between them and glared at Jason. The eyes from Andy moved from Jason to his Mankey. “Bear, no. He just wants an easy victory. Don’t let him talk you into a fight like that.” The Mankey ignored him, breathing heavily through his nose. “Bear! Don’t give into his taunting.” “Mankey,” the Pokémon growled. “Bear,” Andy sighed, as he walked around the Pokémon to stand in front of him. “Now listen to me. You don’t have to prove how awesome you are. I know how awesome you are, you know how awesome you are. Benny knows how awesome you are. That’s all that matters. That Jason doesn’t know is his loss. You don’t have to prove a thing. You are neither weak nor a coward, you know that, as do I. You are the most awesome Pokémon in the building, so you don’t have to feel attacked if this nitwit doesn’t know that. It’s a waste of time to prove him wrong, all that matter is that we know how fantastic you really are. Got it?” Bear nodded, but Andy wasn’t done yet. “This one here is a waste of our precious time. He had the chance to accept our challenge and was too chicken to do so. Now that he sees you’ve had an exhausting battle with Benny, now he wants to battle. He really just wants to defeat you, don’t give him that pleasure.” Bear shook his head, looking fiercely towards Andy. “Really Bear, as awesome as you are, you must know your limitations as well. You are tired, what point is there to deny that?” “Mankey! Mankey, mank!” “Seriously Bear, you get all worked up over nothing. He is not worth our time.” The Mankey calmed down a bit and leaned to the right, so he could watch the student behind Andy, then shrugged and jumped up to one of the wooden beam, which he held onto with his tail and feet and gently swung, watching the trainers and their Pokémon below him. “If you really want to battle, Jason, come back in half an hour, after two battles he deserves a break.” Andy didn’t look at Jason when he said this, and he meant it, he would give Jason a chance to battle Bear, but only after Bear could rest for a bit. Jason left without saying a word, but his place was quickly taken by the dojo’s master, Juno. “You made a good decision there. I think, with some time, your Mankey will be able to control his temper. He has already made a great improvement since the first day under your guidance.” “I do my best,” Andy said with a confident smile, but the smile faded and he looked towards the open gate. “I think I’ll be leaving soon,” he continued. “There’s only so much he can learn here, and the same counts for me. I feel we learned pretty much we can learn here and all there’s left is to improve those skills. I can do that on the road, I don’t have to stay here for that and I don’t want to. I want to explore what else is out there.” “You’re right about that,” Juno agreed. “It was good having you here, Andy. I’m sure you’ll do fine on your travel.” “Thanks for your confidence.” Andy grinned and turned to the dojocho. “But I agree.” Juno laughed. “With a positive attitude the battle is half won and the goal half reached. And you seem to have an unending supply of optimism. Take your benefits from that and good luck.” He reached out his hand and Andy took it to shake it. “Thanks for the experience, master Juno. I’ve enjoyed my time here. I’m sure Benny and Bear had a great time as well.” When he let go of Juno’s hand, Andy turned to Bear, still swinging on the wooden beam. “Bear! We’re leaving!” The Mankey jumped down and landed next to Andy, who took Bears Pokéball and called him back. After a final goodbye to the other trainers and the master, Andy left the dojo to continue his journey.