It was finally time to train my first Pokémon. Though before being reborn I never imagined this could happen. Since being reborn I'd always imagined it with my own Pokémon and not as a service to someone else.

  Either way I was over the moon. My heart was thundering just thinking about it as I walked into the park.

  The park itself was a large flat grassy area with a few trees dotted around it and battle courts in the corner. It was a community park where high level training was forbidden but low level training was common. In fact around the park was a mix of older people taking their house Pokémon out and new trainers training their new partners. Though given the season was almost over it was more of the former than latter.

  Once I was in a more secluded part of the park I released Lillipup.

  “Bark” he exclaimed as he materialised, looking around at his surroundings before looking up at me with enthusiasm and a little bit of confusion.

  “I heard you want to get stronger and possibly evolve Lillipup,” I said gently, looking down at the small dog Pokémon.

  “Pup!” He exclaimed with a serious look though his body language spoke of hesitation as if he was putting on a brave fa?ade.

  “Hmm, why do you want to get stronger? Is it to protect grandma Heidy? Or to evolve? Or to become the strongest?” I ask, understanding a client's motivation was always important. There's a massive difference between training someone who wants to get a little leaner and someone who was trying to become a bodybuilder after all.

  “Woof” he barked with conviction…

  “I have now idea what that means,” I replied apologetically. Lillipup just laughed at that.

  After a brief conversation/ game of charades I was able to understand he wanted to grow stronger and evolve to protect grandma Heidy in thanks for her adopting him.

  Luckily this is what I expected so the training plan I'd made could stay the same.

  Getting strong enough to protect grandma Heidy wasn't just about being strong enough to defend her; it was also about being about to pull her out of a fire and things like that. All of which were linked to strength but required control too and didn't mean he had to be a world class battler.

  With our goals set it was time to start training.

  “Okay, at first we’re going to work on your basics, with that said let's start with a run. Bet you can’t catch me,” I say, taking off running around the park.

  After a brief moment Lillipup takes off behind me yapping at my heels. Being a young Pokémon it was important to make the training engaging and fun as well as effective. It didn’t take him long to pass me, though he kept running with me chasing him.

  After around 20 minutes of running I could tell Lillipup was flagging slightly as he had long stopped barking and was starting to slow. Which for a Pokémon was slightly shocking, Pokémon were renowned for their physical abilities after all.

  I pushed it by continuing for another 5 minutes before ending our run. We have a lot to cover and I don't want to run him into the ground now.

  “Good… Job… Lillipup…” I gasp between breaths, hands on my knees. As much as I was saying about Lillipup flagging I didn’t have much left in me either. Similarly, Lillipup was laying out on the ground panting swiftly.

  Giving us a few moments to recover I looked around the park. A few people had glanced our way whilst we were running giving us looks of amusement, a boy and his Lillipup was an entertaining site after all, at least to the elderly in the park. Most though had ignored us completely, focusing on their training, most of which similarly resembled playing (usually more playing than training).

  With the running done it was time to test his strength. This was something I was going to have to do in two parts: first his bite force, as a dog Pokémon bite force would be excellent for preparing a good foundation for his future moves; second his overall physical impact, this would be important for other physical moves like tackle and his speed.

  Speed was something that is a strange thing to consider as a definitive stat. In principle it makes sense, if you have higher speed you are faster. But in reality many Pokémon who have low ‘speed’ are capable of extremely fast movement over short distances if trained properly. That and moves like quick attack can help further reduce the gap in genetics.

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  Luckily for me, as expected of a society that loves battling, the park was outfitted with machines that take hits and grade strength for Pokémon below the 4th badge rating. A Pokémon would use a move on the machine then they were then given a rating out of 4 based on power and energy output. This service wasn’t free but as a subsidised service it was cheap, that said you could pay more and get a full report of things like energy density etc. This would give a trainer an idea of what is lacking. Though at this point such a deep level of analysis was useless and possibly detrimental to Lillipup's training as everything was technically ‘lacking’.

  The design of the machine is fairly simple; it was just a box with a pad on one side for the Pokemon to impact. With a second machine next to it for measuring special attacks.

  “Okay Lillipup, time to test your strength, we’ll do this every two weeks to track your improvement,” I explained to the young Pokemon, who was still panting slightly.

  I go over and turn the machine on and set it up for Lillipup.

  “When you're ready, use tackle on the pad there, make sure it's as strong as possible so we can get a good measure of your strength.” I say getting a tired but firm nod in return.

  After a short rest he stands up, braces himself, eyes the target, barks and charges. As he speeds up a soft pale glow appears around him. As he approached the bag he jumped and seemed to tense mid air before slamming into the machine with a thud.

  Despite Lillipups obvious relative weakness compared to other Pokémon his moves were clearly still strong enough to harm a human. Such strength in such a small and frail being was slightly disconcerting.

  Looking over at the panel it showed a level 1 as the strength. This was the lowest score it gave which could be anything from freshly hatched to just failed the second gym badge. But more importantly it confirmed what we already knew and gave a solid starting point to progress from.

  Before moving on I recorded the score in the notepad I had for Lillipups training, I also recorded how long the run was. Tracking progress was probably the best way to progress in any physical endeavour. It not only allowed you to see your progress over time but also understand if you were pushing yourself hard enough to progress at all.

  “Good job! Now do the same for Bite” I said to the little dog who was wagging his tail happily.

  This time Lillipup stayed up close, closed his eyes in focus before opening them suddenly and biting down on the pad.

  The number was the same at 1 but I also noted down that the move needs to be worked on before being used in any kind of battling scenario.

  “Ok Lillipup, good job! We have one more thing today.” I say making my way over to another part of the park.

  This are had a kind of agility course. It was basic in design with it just being sticks in a line made for you to weave between.

  “Why don't you try this exercise, run forward whilst jumping between these sticks,” I explain.

  “Pup” he exclaimed, taking off running he jumped, landed and immediately slipped and fell.

  “Are you ok?” I ask, running over to him.

  “Lillipup” he nodded, thankfully looking more embarrassed than hurt.

  “Haha, don't worry little guy you'll get it, try it a bit slower,” I say with a smile.

  “Pup,” he barks enthusiastically and immediately takes off at a slower pace jumping through the poles. Taking his time ensuring he doesn't mess up another landing.

  In that way he completes the final task. This shows its approximate agility and allows me to have a baseline to measure against though this one would be a lot less accurate than the others.

  “Well done, you did it!” I say excitedly.

  “Lil lillipup” he barked in response, his little tail wagging at a million miles an hour.

  “Good boy, you want to come with me to the shops or just go back in your ball to rest?” I asked crouching down to talk to him directly.

  “Lillipup” he says suddenly less excited and more tired. As if he just remembered that he had just been made to do tough exercise.

  “Enjoy your rest,” I say returning him to his pokeball.

  Now that the training was done I needed to buy some things for Lillipups training and diet, he’d never make progress if he had a poor diet after all.

  On the way to the shop I just took my time enjoying the atmosphere of the city.

  Cities on earth are often marred by smoke, waste and other forms of pollution. These mundane problems didn't reach the main roads of Nacrene. This was partially due to the rarity of cars with Pokémon serving the function of travel mount if needed.

  That was not to say it was a utopia, just that the pollution was reduced. Due to the tendency to attract certain poison types it was very important that trash wasn't left on the street. Deeper into alleyways such trash could still be found though and some dumpsters were infested with rattata or more troubling trubbish. That said these problems were often used for young trainers to gather experience and if they got too bad the police would get involved.

  With that my thoughts drifted to what I needed to buy. Lillipup needed a sled or some other device that could be weighted, such as a vest, for his training. That and some kind of grip for training bite force would work nicely, though it might be tough to stay on budget.

  As for food I’d need to buy all the ingredients to make his relatively balanced dinner. Though admittedly it’d have a higher dose of protein to make sure he grew physically stronger. It was important for a young Pokémon to receive all the nutrients in one dose or another.

  Actually whilst I’m out I might as well pick up something for mine, Leos and Grandma Heidy’s dinner too. I’ll make her favourite and get Leo some ice cream for good measure. With a smile on my face I walk further into the city to the shops.