Since it was the first day of training, and perhaps Eevee needed an adaptation process, Minato didn't have the heart to be ruthless. The special training meant to exercise multiple basic qualities ended up becoming stamina training.
A bit of time in the morning, a bit in the afternoon, a bit in the evening—over the course of one day, Eevee and Minato ran 100 round-trip.
Minato himself was nearly collapsing, barely managing to persist, his legs aching terribly. But to set an example for Eevee, he absolutely couldn't be the first to fall. So Minato gritted his teeth and accompanied Eevee through the day.
After returning home...
Eevee was tired.
Because she wasn't injured, and with rest periods during the special training, it wasn't necessary to send her to the Pokémon Center for recovery.
Minato gave her the Oran Berries he had purchased in advance to restore her stamina. Then Eevee drank a lot of milk, replenishing sufficient nutrition. After they finally took a hot shower, Eevee quickly rolled up in the Silk Scarf and fell asleep.
After exercising all day, Eevee slept soundly. Although Minato was also extremely sleepy and tired, he still had to summarize today's special training results and plan tomorrow's training first.
"At this rate, progress is too slow..."
Looking at the messy notes in his notebook, Minato felt a headache.
One hundred round-trip times, and Eevee's round-trip time finally entered under 2 minutes, but this was still far from enough.
Still too slow.
"I need to increase intensity tomorrow."
With that, Minato put down the notebook, collapsed onto the bed, and fell asleep too.
The next day, the sun rose, and the alarm clock rang, waking Minato and Eevee, who had been sleeping soundly.
Upon waking, Minato only felt his entire body still aching. He glanced at Eevee—this one was fine, full of energy and vitality. It seemed the Oran Berries had taken effect.
Oran Berries were a type of Berry, produced in Special Zones. Among the plants with miraculous effects in Special Zones, Berries were typical. The function of Oran Berries was to restore a Pokémon's stamina. Although the recovery amount wasn't large, for Eevee's low-consumption special training, it was sufficient.
However, although Oran Berries were the most artificially cultivated among Berries, consumption was also high, so the price wasn't low, more expensive than most ordinary fruits. For Minato and Eevee, this kind of special training was already burning through money.
And when they later needed to use the Pokémon Center, expenses would increase further...
One could say they had bet most of their savings on the Little Ho-Oh Cup.
This was also why Minato felt anxious.
A new day, according to the training schedule, Minato dragged Eevee to the old place to start training, but Eevee suddenly started dawdling.
Her desire to retreat was very obvious. Yesterday's session had exhausted her, and now she didn't want to repeat that boring training at all.
"Listen, Eevee!"
Minato looked at Eevee, who had shrunk into the Silk Scarf and rolled herself up, and pretended to be angry: "This isn't how you agreed with me back then."
"You said yourself that you wanted to participate in the Little Ho-Oh Cup."
"Eevee..."
As Minato spoke, Eevee slowly poked her head out, showing an expression of "I'm desperate too."
Enthusiasm that can last a day is already impressive, okay Eevee!
But thinking of the promise with Minato, and those cool Eevees from the movies, Eevee's expression changed. It was as if she had made a major decision, then reluctantly jumped onto Minato's shoulder.
"That's more like it... We have to work hard today! Together!"
That day, Minato and Eevee began the second round of special training. Because yesterday, Minato hadn't emphasized it specifically, Eevee was still subconsciously slowing down to avoid obstacles. Minato watched for a while and sighed.
Fine, looks like he had to use the killer move.
"Eevee, come here."
"Listen, to prevent you from subconsciously slowing down, we're changing the starting method today."
"Eevee?" Eevee was confused and didn't understand.
Minato drew a white line: "Start from here, use the 'Tackle' move to accelerate, using the explosive power of 'Tackle' to gain acceleration. Then, you're not allowed to slow down from start to finish until you hit an obstacle. Of course, if you can dodge it, that's best."
"Eevee!!!!!"
Minato made it very clear, and Eevee's fluke mentality instantly shattered.
"Come on, come on, look." With that, Minato took out a white spray bottle from his backpack.
"I've already prepared the Potion for you."
Eevee: (╬￣︿￣), even more worried.
The special training had to continue. Eevee carefully prepared and began following Minato's requirements to use the Tackle move. As Eevee sprinted out, accelerating for only a few seconds in the dense forest, she "bang" crashed into a tree with a thud. The strange trees in this forest were extremely hard. With Eevee's small frame, even using the "Tackle" move could only leave a shallow white mark on the tree—knocking it down was impossible. Moreover, her Tackle currently didn't have much power at all.
At this moment, Eevee was like a meat patty stuck to the tree trunk. As she slowly slid down to the ground, Eevee nearly cried from the pain, immediately looking back with tear-filled eyes.
Minato slapped his forehead. Although he had already prepared for training Eevee's body strength, seeing Eevee have an accident like this, he still immediately grabbed the Potion and ran over.
He was now somewhat reluctant to let Eevee participate in battles. If crashing into a tree trunk was like this, if hit by something like Flamethrower or Thunderbolt, it would take little Eevee's life.
No wonder they said Eevee wasn't suited for battling. The experts didn't lie to him.
The problem Minato now faced was that although he had already used film and television works to make Eevee less averse to special training, it was still difficult to make her overcome the nature of fearing pain and fatigue. If a beginner Trainer captured Pokémon with stubborn, irritable, aggressive, or wild personalities as partners, that would be fine. But for a new Trainer like Minato who chose a gentle-tempered Eevee, this was undoubtedly a hell-mode start.
"There's no other way." Minato had actually already done extensive research and asked upperclassmen and seniors. The current training intensity between him and Eevee wasn't very high. Pokémon had much stronger adaptability than humans imagined. It was just that Eevee's mentality hadn't shifted yet—he had to be ruthless.
Actually, the situation wasn't simply due to mentality alone.
Minato's start was harder than 99.9% of new Trainers, and there was a reason for this.
Because earlier, he had vaguely discovered Eevee's Ability... was Anticipation.
Abilities were special powers that every Pokémon possessed. For example, the Overgrow Ability would increase a Grass-type move's power when the Pokémon's stamina decreased. Another example was the Guts Ability, which would increase a Pokémon's attack power when it was in abnormal conditions like burn or poison.
Most Abilities were beneficial for Pokémon to perform in battle, but there also existed Abilities like Truant or Slow Start that were disadvantageous for battling. Flexibly utilizing a Pokémon's Ability could yield unexpected effects in battle. And now, Eevee's Anticipation Ability was like a double-edged sword.
Currently, Pokémon Abilities haven't been fully excavated. At least Anticipation was an Ability on Eevee that hadn't been revealed.
This Anticipation Ability had great tactical value in battle—it could detect and sense dangerous moves possessed by opponents in advance, relying on subconscious body perception to avoid danger.
However, the premise was that the Pokémon had already mastered this Ability proficiently.
Little Eevee clearly hadn't mastered the Anticipation Ability. Instead, the Anticipation Ability was like a burden, constantly affecting her.
Every time danger approached... like when she was about to hit a tree trunk, Eevee would strongly shrink back. This clearly had the Anticipation Ability, which she hadn't fully mastered, causing trouble.
Abilities could also be seen as part of the Pokémon itself. Personality was affected by Abilities, and Minato didn't find this strange.
So if Minato wanted Eevee to overcome some mentality factors, he was indirectly letting her overcome the drawbacks that the Ability brought to her personality.
This Tree Stump Training Method could be said to kill multiple birds with one stone, because in Minato's special training plan, besides basic qualities and moves, he also planned to use this training method to help Eevee exercise her Ability.
However, that was for later. He had to wait until Eevee adapted to the current special training before proceeding. The general content would have her repeat the current special training while blindfolded.
Relying on... no longer eyes, but the instinct brought by Anticipation. This way, the Ability could be trained well.
"Eevee..." As Minato sprayed the Potion on Eevee, looking at the scrapes that disappeared almost instantly, he spoke helplessly: "The road is long and arduous..."