Deceitful: A Pokemon Transformation

Chapter 32: Persistence

I pounced towards Greninja to strike, which only led to me fumbling to the ground and struggling to stand back up. I was exhausted, but then again, when wasn't I? Greninja's training was no easy feat, and it never will be. He's been pushing me past my limits alright.

It's been nearly three weeks since we began training, and whenever we weren't training we were running, eating, and sleeping. It was like an impossible full time job if I could compare to anything. All work and no play began to drive me insane as the time passed, but whenever I wanted to complain, I just didn't. If there's anything I've learned about Greninja these past three weeks it's these things.

He hates complaining and crying, he refuses to let me give up, he doesn't stop training until I've stopped training, he's not afraid to take extreme measures to get his point across, and best of all he does each of these with an iron fist.

The past three weeks consisted of the most torturous training exercises that just seemed impossible at the time. We went over more dodging and he showed me the best technique as a result of my success. A few days after some more disciplinary training, he showed me more on blocking and countering. Week one was only the easy part according to Greninja and myself.

He told me I would be need to face psychological and mental obstacles in my situation, so that's when the brain training began. I know it sounds easier than physical training, but it definitely is not. Greninja's goal for me was this... Instead of fighting with emotion, I'm going to learn to fight with my mind. When he said he never wanted to see another tear from me again, he was going to do everything in his power to prevent it from happening.

The test was this... I stand across from Greninja as he says many hurtful and shunning statements. Things like, "Because of you, Buniot is without a home" or "You've put so many lives on the line for your own. How selfish can you be?" or "Where were you for Blaziken? He was your friend and all you could do was abandon him." One can't imagine the times I wanted to cry. Times I've wanted to simply punch Sir Greninja with all my might. The times I just wanted to give up.

Everything he said had truth to it, though. And it was that that gave me the strength to carry on. The hardest part, though, was fighting the tears. As he used the statements, I was forced to admit to these mistakes and what I could have done better as the training exercise required. At times I wondered if I'm becoming emotionally healed or emotionally scarred.

Today I was only glad to be done with the psychological training for now. Greninja assured me we would be continuing next week, but this weeks focus was on combat. Today's exercise was no easy feat, as is with the others. Wrapped around Greninja's neck was his scarf, in which I was required to remove and manage to hold onto it for ten seconds without Greninja snagging it right back. So far, I haven't even managed to pass the first step. And the closest I've ever gotten wasn't close at all.

As I fumbled to the ground, I swiftly stood to my feet and turned to face Sir Greninja.

"What did I tell you about striking head first?" Greninja snapped.

I sighed, "That every time I do it, I'll fall down making it easier for my opponent to attack."

"Exactly! We may not be battling now, but if we were you would have been completely exposed. Now stop messing around and take the scarf!" he exclaimed.

I grimaced, gained my footing, and rushed after him once more. He sidestepped in the knick of time as I extended my arms towards the scarf and jumped. The exercise wasn't just difficult because he was fast, but because he was twice my size. I had to jump if I ever wanted to reach the scarf, and that always slowed me down.

Greninja followed his maneuver by smacking the back of my head with his foot. I fell to my knees from the strike, but I quickly recovered. At that moment, my head felt twice as heavy. I shook it off and focused on the task at hand.