The New Normal – 5-8 – Interlude – Bruno
Bruno rested near his newly built campfire and tent as he watched the sun slowly setting in the distance, a fitting reward for another hard day of training. He had taken the time when he had entered Viridian City, where he had issued his letter of Challenge towards John, to also restock his supplies for the next 2 weeks while he continued his training on Mt. Silver.
Unlike what many likely thought of him, Bruno had no particular political reason why he chose John as his target for his challenge. Indeed, many might have thought that Bruno should have been patient and waited for Will's and Lorelei's grace period to expire before challenging them for their title of the Elite Four.
It would have been the smarter thing to do, which was entirely beside the point and completely undermined what Bruno really desired.
Ever since he had won his year's Indigo Conference, he was dissatisfied with himself. He had spent much time ruminating over his victory, and how narrow it was. He may have won against his final opponent, but it was a victory that had little to do with his skill and training and almost everything to do with luck.
When he appeared on the victor's podium, he felt no happiness or joy. Instead, all he felt was the burning desire to continue his training and bring his Pokémon to further heights.
And so, he disappeared into the wilderness as he and his Pokémon underwent a vigorous and extensive training regime to better himself in the best way he saw possible. With his pure Fighting type team, that meant training them in being the absolute masters of close quarters combat, to let none best them in a battle of technique.
Furthermore, Bruno was diligent and would not neglect training his Pokémon's mental discipline. He knew all too well that being a martial artist was more than just hitting hard, it was also about training your mind and body to be able to wall off most common mental intrusions. Especially with his Pokémon's weakness to Psychic types, he made sure that common status moves like Confuse Ray or Hypnosis that were frequently employed by said Psychics would not easily take hold in his Pokémon.
Now, some may find it odd, or perhaps even stupid, for him to field a team consisting entirely of pure Fighting types. These were the type of people that could often be found on the Pokénet screaming about why one trainer would win over another because their type was weak against another.
Bruno despised those kinds of people, because they failed to understand that type matchups were only the most basic level of battling. There was far more consideration to be had beyond that. Oh, Bruno admitted that it would probably be smarter to at least have Fighting types that had another type to protect against common Fighting weaknesses, but that went against his desire as a trainer.
Bruno understood that he wasn't really a conventional trainer, nor would he label himself as one, but rather as a martial artist that just made use of Pokémon. It was like running a pseudo dojo, where he and his Pokémon aimed to reform themselves into the best that they could be, both physically and spiritually.
As a result of that, Bruno prioritized very different things to most other trainers. He cared little about creating a 'balanced' team that covered each other's weaknesses. Indeed, his Pokémon were all very similar in both fighting styles, speed, and method. Rather, his goal was to mould and craft his Pokémon into the ultimate martial artists by tempering them with sufficient experience and training.
Therefore, he deliberately left in those weaknesses, such as his Pokémon's near inability to use long-range Special Attacks, so his Pokémon could strive to overcome them with their own techniques and methods. The fact that all of his Pokémon shared similar skills, techniques, and weaknesses meant that any solution created by one could be shared with all. This led to all his Pokémon often competing against each other to discover their own breakthroughs first, and Bruno was always quick to foster such cohesion to boost their motivation and teamwork.
Thus, after around two years of dedicated training, where he alternated between training in the wild and participating in every battle competition he could find, he finally wanted to test out his Pokémon, and see how much they improved.
And because of that, he challenged John not because he yearned for his position in the Elite Four, and in all honesty he wasn't very interested in the political responsibilities such a position would force on him, but solely because he saw John as a fitting test for his skills and an appropriate wall for him to overcome.
While some debated that Agatha might be the stronger of the two, Bruno had absolutely no intentions of challenging the old lady.
Not because he was afraid of losing, but rather Agatha's Ghost types wouldn't be an effective tool to measure his Pokémon's strength against. Fighting Ghosts required a very different methodology and training than fighting other types, and Bruno knew that his Pokémon weren't ready for that yet.
With that in mind, he knew that John would be a formidable opponent for him, having already solidified his standings within the Elite Four with his defeat of Drake and his subsequent defense of Olivine. He had watched the battle against Drake with restrained excitement and realized that John's way of fighting was exactly the perfect opponent for him to test his Pokémon against.
It would be even more ideal if John was a Fighting type trainer like himself, instead of using Pokémon that he had a type advantage against. However, Bruno was confident that John's Pokémon were trained to resist and overcome their inherent Fighting type weaknesses, meaning that Bruno shouldn't have an unfair advantage because of that.
He clenched his fists excitedly as he thought about the battle ahead. He looked forward to overcoming it with his Pokémon.
A.N. I hope the way I described Bruno's inner thoughts was satisfactory. I wanted to highlight some differences he had with 'normal' trainers, and how he prioritized different things. I didn't want to portray him as a pure musclehead, but just someone outside of the norm.
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