Warning: This chapter includes a boring training regimen unless you're into that body-building stuff. Think of as Izuku Midoriya's training, except with Pokémon and it involves monster hunting and magic.

"What a joke!" I yelled as I flew back to my house/apartment on Fearow. It was about noon, so I decided to get a little bit of rest and then "binge-train" Sort of like binge-watching except more intense.

"I never should've underestimated him. I'll never underestimate anyone until I know what they're capable of. even so, I doubt I could've beaten him at this stage, even with my new evolution. I'm gonna call a rematch when I'm stronger, I swear. Until then..." I ground my teeth together and clenched my fists. "I'm going to train like hell until my heart bursts. Sure it'll hurt, but nothing hurts more than what I'm going through. My god, I can't stand it!"

A couple of minutes later, Fearow landed in front of my house. I didn't want him to stay outside, so he went in with me, and was fortunately able to fit in the door.

"Fearow, get some rest now. Once we wake up, you'll train with me too. You'll begin stamina and endurance training."

"Fear?" "Wait, what?" Fearow was confused about the sudden comment about the training.

"Don't question it. You want to get stronger, don't you?" He slowly nodded.

"Fearow Fear?" Fearow asked. "What about my Pokéball?"

"You'll have to do without it for a while. If only that asshole Erigor hadn't knocked it off the bridge..." I muttered. I Summoned my other Pokémon too; Pikachu, Breloom, and Mewtwo. I refrained from Summoning Gyarados and Tyranitar because they were obviously too large for the house. Pikachu, Breloom and Mewtwo looked around, confused as to why they were sent out if not in battle.

"Pika?" "What's going on?"

"Bree?" "What's up?"

"Let me explain. Fearow has been out of his Pokéball for a while now. It's not his fault, however, you all need to get used to it too. Why? Because we're going to start training again."

"Pi-ka!" Pikachu jumped in excitement. "Yes!"

"Bree!" Breloom reacted much the same as Pikachu. "Finally!" Mewtwo simply nodded his head.

"I'm your trainer, right? This is what I'm doing. I'm training you guys. But not just you guys, me too. Ever heard of a Pokémon training their trainer? It sounds totally bizzare, but as a fellow half-Pokémon, I'm your friend as well, so you guys will train me too. Get some rest. We will start training tonight."

xxxx

"Alright, listen up guys," I said. My Pokémon were all standing in a line, facing me. I had slept until about 9:00, and regained my energy. "Starting tonight, we will begin our super intense training. However, not only will you guys be trained, you'll also be training me as well.

Pikachu, you'll be training your agility and accuracy. You'll also be training me in speed.

Fearow, you'll be working on flight maneuverability, speed, and agility. You'll train me in accuracy.

Tyranitar, you'll work on your speed and power especially, as you'll be training me with that.

Gyarados, you're training is also power, and water maneuverability which you're also going to train me in.

Mewtwo, your training is in precision and concentration. You're training me in concentration as well.

Breloom, you're going to train your all around combat skills and train me in combat and defense.

You will all have two roles as both Pokémon and trainer, training and honing your skills beyond max. Even though you were all meant to fight against Pokémon you will fight monsters that are out of your league. Be prepared for the toughest training ever. When I take on quests, we will all fight together and train everyday. We only get a few hours of sleep every night, so make the most of it, as we will be training almost 24/7. I want you all to get stronger through training. I need to get stronger too. Let's get to it!"

So began the super intense training regimen that boosted my power beyond maximum, what made me strong. What made me beyond strong. I almost regret it, even.

But that's another story.

The days began with nonstop training, and by the end of the first day, all my Pokémon looked so tired that I thought they would pass out from exhaustion. But they were loyal to me, and I appreciated them pushing themselves even when they were about to pass out. Our training rarely took a break, even only lasting thirty minutes at that. But when I saw that we all needed a break, I agreed to stop for a bit before starting again. On top of the little bit of sleep, we also fasted for a few days every week. When we did eat, we didn't eat too much. We had to eat something to replace what we burned off, but we only ate what we needed.

Every week, I entered the guild, taking a monster hunting quest as usual and quickly leaving to complete it. Maybe greet a few people, say hi to Mira, and resume training. Sometimes Natsu and the others were on their own quests, or sometimes together, so I didn't always see them. I did take the time to at least say hi to them when they were present, though. A lot more people started looking up to me, according to Mirajane. That boosted my confidence, I will say, and pushed me to do better.

I followed a daily exercise routine for myself as well. I stretched, then did push-ups, sit ups, legs ups, running, Every day, I noticed a slight change in my physique and overall performance, as well as my Pokémon's performance and skill. Sometimes I sparred with my Pokémon, making them used to physical combat and stengthening their attacks.

It was almost awkward at first, but as my Pokémon continued to teach me, the better they became, and they were good trainers at that.

Mewtwo trained my concentration, hard. He trained me to concentrate by strengthening my fire power, concentrating it into different parts of my body so that I could move it to parts of my body quickly. With it, I learned how to manipulate my fire power to add density to it, learning a new move called Magma Core. The attack would blast out of my hands with great speed, swirling around the foe and encasing them in a ball of hot lava, incinerating them. I trained Mewtwo's concentration, training his precision as well, training his telekinesis to be more precise, strengthening his attacks like Psychic to become much stronger.

Breloom trained in me hand-to-hand combat, training me for real situations with hand skills and combat. He trained me, well, more like we trained each other, to block effectively, how to counterattack, how to dodge, etc. I trained his moves as well, strengthening them as well as my own. By training with Breloom, I learned how to strengthen my physical fire attacks, such as Flame Punch and Flame Claw.

Gyarados trained his movement speed in water, and strengthened his moves as well. In water, I found one of my greatest flaws: I was too dense in water. Even while holding my breath, I had no buoyancy and I couldn't move very quickly. I also found that my fire powers were useless in water because it was too wet. Gyarados ended up training my power instead. With power training, my strength increased to a point where I was actually able to lift him.

Tyranitar trained in speed by racing with me and Pikachu and running when I exercised. I trained him to lighten his footsteps and to not be so heavy when walking or running by running on the front of his feet, and soon, he was even able to beat me in a race, but not quite Pikachu yet. He also trained my power and strength, training me by having me break boulders he created with my fists, until I could break it with my steel arm.

Fearow I trained most of all. Since I flew on him quite often, he needed to build his endurance and stamina. I trained him by flying out long distances and back without stopping. The funny part about it was that he always pushed himself before, just to carry me at the most. I didn't know whether to take it as an insult or a joke, but I thought it was pretty funny and sad at the same time. Fearow trained in aerobatic stunts and dodging my attacks from the ground. By flying out long distances with me on his back, he was able to strengthen his wings and overall strength. I learned how to increase and decrease the level of my power output when Fearow was training me. By decreasing the output level, I was able to minimize damage done to Fearow when he flew around as a target to help train my accuracy.

Pikachu started out training his agility, practicing dodging quickly and awareness. When sparring, dodging Pikachu's attacks also raised my evasiveness, reflexes, and speed. However, while training with Pikachu, I discovered my other fatal flaw.

When sparring with Pikachu, he dodged most of my attacks, so he wasn't going easy on me. Then, the moment came when a big bolt of lightning crashed down upon me, sending jagged, white, bolts of plasma through my metallic skeletal structure, reaching my brain and paralyzing my movements completely. Thank god I had a full heal out just in case, otherwise I would've been stuck there forever.

"Pika! Pika Pikachu!" Pikachu apologized. "Crap! Sorry, are you okay?" Mewtwo kneeled down and sprayed me, with the full heal, unparalyzing me slightly. However, I was on the verge of passing out, so I allowed a break until I recovered. Problem was, a full recovery took up to a week, but I continued to train, even if made more difficult from my stiffened movements, but I pushed past it anyway. In the end, I had discovered that I was vulnerable to electric attacks.

I also trained my endurance and resistance to certain environments. One day, we woke up and walked all the way to Mt. Hakobe, which took all day. Let me tell you; it pretty freakin' far from Magnolia. When trekking up the mountainous regions, I was reminded of the time we saved Macao from the Vulcan. On the mountain, I set up a camp for a two week endurance trial as a part of our intense training. Gyarados dicovered that his Ice Fang's power was doubled in the blizzardy environment. Every day during the week, we spent a solid hour meditating amongst the monstrous, howling winds, building up our resistance to the cold climate. To prevent us from getting hypothermia, I lit a fire periodically for us to stand around. Even with my heat, I couldn't help being a bit cold as well. As for my Pokémon, they were all starting to catch colds, but they continued to train nonetheless. Our training trained more than just strength and capabilities; it was also a test of determination. However, despite our training, I couldn't help but feel that something was missing like holes in cheese; unbearably unsatisfying. I figured it was Magic or different moves I hadn't learned yet, but I couldn't decide for sure.

Speaking of Magic, throughout the several weeks of training, I had learned a few more spells in my Book of Magic, and a new useful Dimension Magic spell called Dimension Switch that allowed switching between different dimensions, like turning 2D and plastering myself to a wall, or back to the 3rd dimension. The spell had another function as well, as use for teleportation; by manipulating quantum wormholes in the Dimension Space, I was able to open up dimensional portals and travel to previous locations I'd been, but only since the time I learned the spell. So that meant no fast travel back home, I would have to fly or walk back to home, which would take almost a year. That was part of the reason why I trained Fearow the most. When I learned the spell, I trained Fearow to fly long distances so that I could travel back home quicker, maybe within a few days and set a travel location back home. Granted, Fearow would have to take short breaks along the way, but I concluded that we could possibly get there quicker if I trained Fearow's speed as well.

As for other spells and moves, besides the Magic I already had, (before training, I had learned Water Magic, Stone Magic, Wind Magic, and Shadow Magic) I learned Ice Magic, utilizing it in various situations in battle. Ice Magic was the first Magic I added to the book, as the other spells were already there for me to use. That's not to say that I didn't spend time strengthening my other spells. In fact, more often than not, if I wasn't training my capabilities, I was out fighting monsters and learning new spells to use. Or basically, more than half the time. I found the more I used my spells, the more it increased my max Magic Energy limit. My first time adding a new page felt so gratifying, so whole.

It was a few weeks into training, and I had already completed four job requests as a part of my training, within two weeks. That brought my quest total up to 24 requests within the time I had been at Fairy Tail, nearly two months. It didn't seem like a lot compared to completing four quests in two weeks, but that was about to become 25 in two months as I stood in front of the request board searching for the monster quest among all the other requests.

"Aha. 'Eliminate troublesome forest dwelling beast! 20,000 J.' I mean, 20,000 to kill a beast? Seems like it should've been more..." I muttered to myself amidst the lively bustling guild. I called to Mira, "Hey Mira, I'm taking 'you know what'!" waving the request paper. She nodded and gave a thumbs up.

"Go get em', badass!" she called, making me hide a smile with my long scarf.

"Hey, Vin!" called Natsu who was sitting at a table with Erza, Gray, Happy, and Lucy.

"Oh, hey man. What's up?" I said.

"I was wondering. We weren't going out for a job request, all of us, but we were going with Makarov to investigate Clover Canyon. Wanna come with us?"

"Sure, why not?" is what I would've said if I wasn't in the midst of my super intense training.

"Sorry man, can't. Training. I'll catch up with you guys another time, though," I assured.

"Oh. Okay, then. I guess I'll see you around," said Natsu with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Good Luck, Vinny! Go defeat those monsters like it's no one's business!" encouraged Lucy.

"I wish you the best of luck, Vinny," added Erza. I nodded in acknowledgement and darted out of the guild. I noted that my running speed had definitely increased, only slightly.

"Damn. It's not enough, I'm not fast enough! I need to do more!" I muttered, running back to my house. Fearow and the others were waiting, training amongst themselves.

"Okay guys. I got a new request, so let's get this done and over with," I said, Summoning their Pokeballs. Everyone but Fearow entered their Pokeballs and I stored them again.

"Fearow? Fear Fearow?" Fearow asked. "Hey, Vincent? How are you able to Destroy them without killing them?"

"I don't know. Even I can't explain my Dimension Magic sometimes. All I know is that I can't Destroy organic or living material directly. I think it has to do with the Pokeball acting as a shield for them, keeping them safe from the nothingness of the Dimension Space. It doesn't come with instructions, you know," I explained. Fearow smirked.

"Fearow. Row Fearow Fear." Fearow patronized. "Yeah, duh. Also, we still need to get my Pokéball fixed."

"Yes, I know! Why do you think I'm training you to fly farther? I know I gotta go back home and replace your Pokéball, but one, I don't know how to, and two, I don't have any Pokeballs with me." Although slightly annoyed by Fearow's patronizing, I couldn't help laughing. "Alright. Let's get on with the quest, shall we?"

"Fearow!" Fearow cried mightily. "Let's do this!"

"Yeah! Let's go kick some monster ass!" I added as Fearow took off towards our destination.

xxxx

"Alright give it all you got!" I yelled to my team, bringing my fist down onto the large beast. The forest beast was a sort of anthropomorphic gorilla monster with red eyes, large horns sticking out of its head, and plate armor. Its body more resembled a human on steroids than that of a gorilla, and it wielded a huge, hulking claymore than even I would struggle to lift. The beast was rather fast and very agile, making it more difficult to hit. But with all seven of us teaming up, we defeated the monster in no time. With Mewtwo using Psychic and telekinesis, Pikachu shocking with all his might, Fearow using Drill Peck to stab holes into the gorilla, Tyranitar heaving boulders at it with great speed and timing, Gyarados trying to land an Ice Fang on its neck, and Breloom skillfully brawling the gorilla monster while on its back. It was a pretty large monster too, as large as my Giga Evolution, even. But we did defeat it, with me finishing it off with a Flame Punch. The monster crumbled, and its soul converted into Magic Energy in which I absorbed. My Book of Magic automatically Summoned, like any other time I learned a new spell, except this time was different. It flipped to a new blank page and the heading, "Ice" appeared, with a new move: Freeze Wave.

"Not bad," I said quietly. Though slightly anticlimactic, it was just a taste of what was yet to come.

But I still felt something missing... what could it be?