Chapter 441: Gym Opening in Three Months

The four were still in the thick of bonding with their Pokémon, but the fastest one to finish wasn't Sina, it was his sister, Sia.

Marill's Ability was, unsurprisingly, Huge Power, which allowed it to deal with Murkrow with ease. Every punch left the opponent squealing, and since Murkrow was famously cunning, it gave up the moment it saw no way to win.

Not long after, both Sina and Trish completed their bonding almost simultaneously. Gligar collapsed on the ground, panting heavily, while Houndour and Sneasel had both lost their ability to battle.

Trish's case was even more impressive. Her two Pokémon had already become full-on fanboys and fangirls, completely obedient to her commands. Their relationship was clearly the most advanced among the four.

In the end, only Akira was still struggling with his Eevee, which even delayed bonding with his second Pokémon, Houndour.

Just as Sato was frowning and considering whether to give the chubby kid a little nudge, Eevee was finally coaxed out and reluctantly agreed to be "bonded".

After that came the battle between Phanpy and Houndour. Thanks to the type advantage, Phanpy managed to defeat Houndour.

With that, the first day of training for the four came to a close.

But by now, they'd learned their lesson.

Seeing that Sato was still sitting in his seat, none of them dared leave. Only Sia went to find Joseph and asked him to come help heal the Pokémon.

"Leader, I'll be taking Sia with me then," Joseph said as he walked up to Sato after finishing the treatment.

Sato paused his thoughts, looked up at Sia, and said, "Your training will be tougher than theirs from now on. Besides the breeding courses Joseph assigns you, you'll have to train with the others whenever you're free.

Don't think that just because you're doing support and logistics that you don't need strength. In this Gym, aside from me, Joseph is the strongest. Breeders and Trainers are tightly connected, understand?"

"Mhm, I understand!" Sia nodded obediently, then sneaked a glance at Joseph. She hadn't expected him to be strong.

"Let's go," Joseph nodded to Sato and turned to leave, with Sia quickly following behind.

Sato watched them walk off, then turned back toward the training field where the remaining three were pretending to be busy. After a moment of thought, he put down his notebook and walked toward them.

"Leader!"

"Boss!"

"Sato"

Three people, three different titles. Sato couldn't be bothered to correct them and got straight to the point.

"I'll briefly go over your training schedule starting tomorrow. From now on, everyone gathers at the training field at 7 a.m. sharp for morning runs. I'll assign different workout loads based on each of your physical conditions, so no one gets to slack off.

Breakfast is from 8:00 to 8:30 a.m in the cafeteria. At 9:00 a.m, we begin basic training. For newcomers like you, this is extremely important, and it will continue every day until lunch.

From 12:30 to 1:30 p.m is your break time, but you are not allowed to leave the Gym.

At 1:30 p.m we start specialized training. The content will change daily, and I won't be the only teacher, Joseph and Amber will also be involved.

Specialized training includes a lot: Pokémon introduction, move instruction, practical battle training, tactical guidance, wilderness survival, item breakdown, city defense drills, and more. So don't worry… training won't be boring.

Specialized training ends at 5 p.m. every day. But anyone who fails the day's training will continue after dinner until they meet the standard.

My standards will not be low, so if any of you can't keep up during this period, you can tell me directly. As long as you sign a confidentiality agreement when you leave the Gym, I won't make things difficult for you.

But at the same time, the door of Shadownight Gym will never open to you again. Throughout the entire training process, we, teachers, will be fully involved. We'll know clearly who is putting in effort and who isn't.

I'm done. Do any of you have questions?" Sato looked at the three whose expressions kept changing and spoke calmly.

"Leader, um… will I be living in the Gym from now on, or going home?" Akira asked cautiously.

"Up to you. If you think you can have your parents bring you here by seven every morning and pick you up again at night, I don't mind."

"Then… then I'll just… live at the Gym," Akira shuddered and quickly said.

Seeing the chubby kid trying so hard to be "obedient", Sato thought for a moment and added, "If your parents miss you, they can visit the Gym, but they can't interfere with training."

"Mhm mhm, thank you, boss!"

"What about the others?" Sato turned to look at Sina and Trish, and both quickly shook their heads.

"Mhm. One last thing, remember your current strength and condition. After a period of training, look back and see how much you've grown. Believe me, I won't let you regret it."

Sato had trained subordinates in his previous life too, so he was pretty good at mixing discipline with encouragement, painting a big future for motivation.

"Yes, thank you, Leader!"

"Alright, boss!"

"Got it, Sato!"

Hearing the same three completely different forms of address again, Sato finally fixed his gaze on the chubby one.

"Why did you call me 'boss' too?"

"Be-because you're Mark's boss, so… you're my boss too," Akira stammered, startled by being singled out again, on the verge of tears (-----__-----)

'…'

"…The rest of the time is yours. Enjoy what little free time you have left. When Sia gets back, repeat everything I said to her. Dismissed."

Sato finished his final sentence, turned around, and picked up his notebook before leaving the training field.

He had already written down the names of all the friends he wanted to invite, but there were still some people who weren't friends but definitely had to be invited. He'd need to confirm those with Amber.

Also, the opening date for the Gym had to be finalized. Without that, the invitations couldn't be sent. Some of his friends might even still be exploring in the mountains, so the date couldn't be too early.

These were all real matters, and going through them one by one would take quite some time; on top of also supervising the training of the newcomers. Sato realized that opening a Gym wasn't easy at all.

---

In the midst of all this busyness, time seemed to turn into a flying Dragonite, its small wings moving at astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, three months had already passed.

During that time, many things had happened. First, Mark had picked one new recruit from each of the two villages.

They were Ponyo from Shadow Water Village and Sosuke from Shadowgrass Village. At first, their performance didn't even compare to the few people Sato had previously rejected.

But considering the need to support both villages, Sato still let Mark "pick the tallest among the short ones" and chose the two of them.

Maybe because they knew their backgrounds gave them no advantage, they cherished the opportunity greatly. They trained with intensity and dedication, and even after passing daily special training, they voluntarily pushed themselves further, motivating the others too.

Naturally, this was something Sato was happy to see. After all, talent only determined the starting point.

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150 Pw=1Chap