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"That's it—your training is to lift your claw and keep it up for half an hour. Only then will it count as passing…"
Reiji took out the hourglass and explained to Krabby what time was—essentially the same amount of time Poliwag spent running laps.
"Krkk," Krabby raised its claw and nodded at Reiji, as if to say, "Got it."
After breakfast, Poliwag resumed its running drills, while Krabby began its own workout—lifting its claw.
At first, Krabby couldn't even last a full minute.
Gradually, it worked its way up to two minutes, then three. Reiji had it rest every half hour, just like Poliwag—drinking water and eating to recover energy.
Once the hourglass emptied twice, Krabby went right back to lifting again. With each attempt pushing its limits further, it eventually managed to hold its claw up for five minutes.
While supervising the two little Pokémon during their training, Reiji also prepared lunch. That way, as soon as their morning session ended, they could eat right away.
By noon, lunch was ready.
"Poliwag, Krabby—morning training is over. Time to eat!"
With a new mouth to feed, Reiji had grilled five extra fish today—for a total of fifteen, just enough to match yesterday's fishing haul.
During lunch, he also grabbed some random seaweed from the shore and tossed it to Magikarp and Wishiwashi. Those two dummies didn't need anything fancy—as long as they didn't starve, seaweed would do.
After lunch, Poliwag napped in its water bucket, Krabby rested in a basin, and Reiji dozed off under the shade of the trees.
Once the sun wasn't quite as harsh, Reiji woke both Poliwag and Krabby.
In the afternoon, Poliwag continued its Water Gun training—and Reiji decided to have Krabby start working on Water Gun too.
Looking at Krabby's skill panel and overall condition, it was clear this Krabby was underdeveloped—and it had even lost one claw.
[Krabby]
Type: Water
Gender: Male
Potential: 56%
Level: 6.85%
Ability: Hyper Cutter – 0.62%
Hidden Ability: Sheer Force – 0.53%
Known Moves: (Hammer Arm – 0.22%) (Leer – 0.43%) (Water Gun – 2.41%) (Harden – 4.34%)
Because Krabby's body wasn't in great shape, Reiji couldn't let it do anything too physically demanding. Even for move practice, it was limited to Water Gun and Harden.
Forget about Hammer Arm—that's a Fighting-type move requiring strong limbs. Krabby could barely lift its claw; expecting it to swing one was just wishful thinking.
The prerequisite for training Hammer Arm was simply being able to lift and move its claw in the first place.
It would have to build its body back up first. Once it grew stronger, the claw would just be another weapon it could use however it liked.
Still, Krabby's afternoon shouldn't be wasted. With Poliwag already a pro at hitting three floating targets with Water Gun, it could definitely help train a newbie like Krabby.
As for Reiji? Obviously—he was going fishing!
Not like he had anything better to do. If he could catch something for dinner, all the better.
"Poliwag, there are a bunch of floats here. Give Krabby one to practice its Water Gun. If it doesn't understand anything, teach it."
Reiji brought the two of them to the shore, reminded Poliwag to take care of the new guy, then headed off to yesterday's fishing spot to continue his journey as a fisherman.
"Yo yo, yo yo," Poliwag nodded, then led Krabby away.
Watching Poliwag's back, Reiji called out again, "Poliwag, keep working on hitting three floats!"
"Yo yo!" Poliwag responded as it waded into the sea with Krabby in tow.
"Krkk," Krabby followed along in a daze, completely lost. Training? Water Gun? Floats?
It desperately wanted to understand what was going on.
"Yo yo," Poliwag told it not to worry, just to watch and learn.
Pff pff pff—
Poliwag fired three Water Guns in a row, hitting three stationary floats.
Pff pff pff—
Then three more shots—this time hitting three floating, bobbing targets. It turned proudly to Krabby and asked, "Pretty cool, huh?"
"Krkk," Krabby's eyes sparkled as it watched Poliwag show off. In that moment, it became Poliwag's number one fan.
Poliwag's Water Gun was amazing. Hitting the stationary targets was already impressive.
But hitting moving ones too? That was next level. Krabby was in awe—it wanted to learn how to shoot Water Guns like that.
"Yo yo," Poliwag, flattered by the praise, got even more smug. It came ashore and pointed at the floats, then demonstrated: "You aim like this, do this, and then blast the Water Gun out!"
Just like Reiji had taught it, Poliwag passed along the technique and had Krabby give it a shot.
Krabby, full of confidence, let out a Water Gun—and missed completely. First try, total whiff. It couldn't help but feel disheartened—the gap between what it imagined and reality was just too wide.
But Poliwag immediately jumped in with encouragement, just like Reiji once had.
"Yo yo, don't get discouraged! Take it slow—you'll hit eventually!"
"Krkk." Inspired by the encouragement, Krabby gave it another try—firing a Water Gun at the float.
Thwack—
It hit! Krabby's eyes lit up with joy, its spirits instantly lifted. "Krkk! Krkk!"
As the Water Gun training went on, Krabby became more and more excited. It couldn't wait to become as skilled as Poliwag.
"Yo yo, yo yo!" Poliwag jumped up excitedly the moment Krabby landed the hit, shouting encouragement. "That's it! Keep it up!"
From a distance, Reiji saw it all—Poliwag coaching Krabby. His little tadpole had grown up—it was actually helping out the new guy now. He felt proud.
It was like a father seeing his kid finally making something of himself… though, well, he was still single. Thinking of it that way felt kinda weird.
As Krabby and Poliwag's training hit its stride, Reiji opened up Poliwag's skill panel again:
[Poliwag]
Type: Water
Gender: Male
Potential: 33.72%
Level: 14.72%
Ability: Damp – 1.13%
Hidden Ability: Swift Swim – 2.53%
Known Moves: (Mind Reader – 0.21%) (Ice Ball – 0.31%) (Refresh – 2.51%) (Hypnosis – 0.82%) (Double Slap – 6.12%) (Water Gun – 8.92%) (Water Sport – 3.21%)
Poliwag's potential had stopped increasing—after all, they didn't have any more Beedrill honey.
But its experience was still climbing steadily. It was nearly level 15 now.
Refresh, which cured burns, had seen a bit of progress too.
Reiji couldn't help but laugh when he realized the move was used most often to treat Poliwag's mouth.
Why couldn't it just eat slower? Let the food cool off first?
Lastly, Water Gun was almost at 9%. After yesterday's practice, it was nearly there.
Tomorrow, it would likely pass that threshold. Time to increase the difficulty—make it four floats instead of three.
Everything was moving in a good direction. And that… was a wonderful thing.
(End of Chapter)
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