"Wan-jie~" As soon as the call connected, Su Wen's voice became unusually gentle, with a clear hint of flattery.
"What is it? While I was away, you called me seventeen or eighteen times, and your messages were so long I couldn't even be bothered to read them." The voice on the phone was tinged with a heroic spirit; you could tell at once it belonged to a decisive girl.
Su Wen thought for a moment and asked, "Is Uncle Zhou home? I want to learn fighting from him."
Zhou Wan was surprised. "Aren't you uninterested in fighting? Back then, I had to drag you along just to get you to practice for a month. Why the sudden change of heart?"
Su Wen was slightly embarrassed. "Oh, come on, Wan-jie, times have changed. With this small frame of mine, of course I have to train properly."
Inwardly, however, Su Wen was wailing, "If it weren't for Charmander, I would never touch fighting in my life."
Zhou Wan let out a cryptic laugh over the phone. "Hehe, my dad dropped me off and then left to run some errands. You can just train with me."
Su Wen was dumbfounded. He instantly understood why his own father had been laughing so strangely yesterday. It turned out he already knew Uncle Zhou Li would be busy, and Su Wen would most likely have to train with Zhou Wan.
His tongue subconsciously licked his dry lips. Su Wen steeled himself and, before she could get impatient, replied, "Okay, Wan-jie, I'll come find you this afternoon."
Zhou Wan replied, "I have to watch over the gym in the afternoon. Come in the evening. Meet me at the gym's training field at six-thirty. Remember to bring your Charmander for me to see."
"Wan-jie, what's your starter Pokémon?" Su Wen wasn't surprised that Zhou Wan knew his starter was a Charmander. His father must have bragged about it to Zhou Li, since it was, after all, a Pokémon obtained with the tentative approval of an Elite Four-level Charizard.
Before hanging up, Zhou Wan left him with one last sentence: "You'll know when you get here."
Looking at Charmander training on the side, Su Wen strode over and squished its face into various shapes. "Oh, Charmander, my dear Charmander, I'm sacrificing a lot for you this time."
⊙(?◇?)? Charmander had no idea what its trainer had sacrificed and could only tilt its head, looking at Su Wen in confusion.
At six-thirty in the evening, Su Wen arrived punctually at the training field of Zhou Wan's family gym. The students had already left. Only Zhou Wan was there, dressed in loose white training clothes, her hair tied back in a ponytail, sitting cross-legged on the floor waiting for him.
And the Pokémon that had been sitting on the floor beside Zhou Wan with its eyes closed was one Su Wen recognized instantly.
"Farfetch'd!"
However, it was different from the Farfetch'd commonly seen in the Xia Country. The Farfetch'd of Xia were covered in brownish-gray feathers, with a cream-colored chest and belly, a triangular sawtooth pattern separating the belly and beak, and yellow feet. Three strands of hair stood upright on its head. It had a black "V" shaped mark on its forehead and carried a leek in one wing.
But this Farfetch'd was more robust than those from Xia Country. Its feathers were a darker shade, its gaze was sharp, the "V" marking looked more like eyebrows, and its signature leek was much thicker than that of a Xia Country Farfetch'd, held on its shoulder like a long spear.
This was a Galarian Farfetch'd! No wonder Zhou Wan had taken so long to find a starter Pokémon.
Arriving in an unfamiliar place, Charmander timidly followed beside Su Wen, step for step, one small claw tightly gripping the corner of Su Wen's clothes.
"Get changed."
Zhou Wan tossed a clean set of training clothes she had prepared to Su Wen, who fumbled and almost failed to catch them.
After changing and returning, Su Wen adjusted his belt and asked, "Wan-jie, where did you find this Galarian Farfetch'd? It can't have been easy to catch."
Countries were wary of each other. It was difficult for Pokémon from the England region to circulate in the Xia Country, just as the Xia Country controlled the outflow of its own Pokémon to prevent other nations from studying them.
The difficulty of catching this Farfetch'd was no less than that of Su Wen catching his Charmander. But Xia Country had no shortage of Fighting-type Pokémon, and Uncle Zhou Li was even a Gym-level Fighting-type trainer. Why go to such lengths to catch a Farfetch'd?
Zhou Wan patted Farfetch'd's back. "Because this is the only one who can resonate with me."
Su Wen had a sudden realization.
The reason Zhou Li was such an outstanding Fighting-type trainer was because he possessed a special ability: he could transfer his own martial arts experience to a Pokémon that could resonate with him at an extremely fast rate.
Therefore, Fighting-type Pokémon became Zhou Li's first choice.
As Zhou Li's daughter, Zhou Wan had naturally inherited this ability. However, her resonance ability was considerably weaker than her father's. None of the starter Pokémon at the gym could resonate with her.
Thus, after a long talk with Zhou Li, Zhou Wan had even been forced to give up on the Machop she had originally considered catching.
Zhou Li and Zhou Wan's resonance ability was somewhat similar to a part of Su Wen's Aura ability. However, their ability was far more limited, only allowing the transfer of martial arts experience. Su Wen felt that he, on the other hand, could probably impart everything he mastered to his Pokémon.
In other words, if Su Wen thoroughly analyzed the principles of Flamethrower and mastered it, even if he couldn't use the move himself, he could use his Aura to help Charmander learn it very quickly.
"What about you? Why the sudden interest in fighting? Does it have to do with your Charmander?"
Zhou Wan had wanted to pet Charmander, but it twisted away, and she could only withdraw her hand sheepishly.
Su Wen scratched his head. "Actually, I've awakened an ability similar to yours, Wan-jie."
"Oh?" Zhou Wan looked Su Wen up and down as if he were a strange new animal, then said with regret, "You only awakened it after catching Charmander? Do you want to switch Pokémon? Catching a Fighting-type starter would be the most helpful for you."
Zhou Wan clearly assumed Su Wen's ability had the same effect as her own. Charmander, who had been hiding behind Su Wen, seemed to understand her meaning. It poked out half its head and glared at her indignantly.
"Char, char." (╬￣皿￣) Charmander waved its claws in protest.
Su Wen smiled and soothed it, "Of course not, my Charmander is the best."
Zhou Wan stood up, flicking her ponytail behind her with a toss of her head. "There's one week until school starts. After that, there probably won't be much time for training. Let's master as much as we can before then. Charmander and Farfetch'd, too."
Su Wen had some basics, so Zhou Wan decided to start him on advanced training. And she certainly wasn't going to let the spectating Charmander off the hook, not after the little guy refused to let her pet it.
A smile tugged at the corner of Zhou Wan's mouth, sending a shiver down the spines of both Su Wen and Charmander. Charmander, especially, had never imagined that it would have to train too.
What happened to the deal where it was responsible for cultivation, and Su Wen was responsible for fighting?
Charmander didn't dare to challenge Zhou Wan. It could only look pleadingly at Su Wen, but Su Wen just held up Charmander's hand and said, holding back a laugh, "It's fine, come on! Double the training, twice the fun!"
Although he had originally planned to wait until Charmander broke through to Tier One before starting fighting technique practice, seeing that Zhou Wan's Farfetch'd was only at the peak of Tier Zero, he figured it should be fine for Charmander to start now. After all, thanks to his nurturing during this period, Charmander's growth had been quite stable.
"Chaaar!" 〒▽〒
In the end, under Zhou Wan's intimidating presence, Charmander had no choice but to train alongside Su Wen.
However, compared to Su Wen's "training by getting beaten up," Charmander and Farfetch'd's training was much gentler. The two Pokémon were still just working on the basics.
It had to be said, after all these years, Zhou Wan had really learned seventy to eighty percent of her father's training methods.
"Wan-jie! Go easy on me!" Su Wen's only thought was that next time, he would definitely trick that guy Chen You into coming over to get beaten up with him. After all these years, the taste of her fists hadn't changed one bit.
Meanwhile, far away in a dark and gloomy place, Chen You couldn't help but sneeze. "Achoo."
Wiping his nose, Chen You muttered to himself, "That must be that dog Su Wen talking about me. He's probably up to no good. I'd better wait until school starts before I go back."