Lucario entered the dojo at sunrise, surprise flashed across his face as he saw Roland sitting cross legged with his eyes closed in the middle of the dojo, his surprise soon turned to annoyance when he realized Roland hadn’t gotten up early to start training but instead had never slept.

  “I thought I told you that you would need your rest.” Lucario said, trying to mask the annoyance in his voice.

  “You did, however you also said my control couldn’t be anything less than perfect and that I could use my aura to energize myself, it seemed like a much better use of my time.” I replied

  Lucario did not look impressed by my response so instead of pushing the point I bowed my head, "I'm sorry, I know I have a lot to learn, this is all very new to me and I simply wished to feel in control over my own life again, something I haven’t felt since I arrived here.” I explained.

  Lucario’s face shifted to one of understanding, “It matters little right now I suppose, we shall get started on your training.”

  “Alright, I don’t suppose I have time to make some food for my Pokemon, they haven’t eaten since last night.” I asked, kicking myself for letting time get away from me.

  “Breakfast will be brought once you have earned it.” Lucario replied with a grin.

  “Not sure I like the sound of that…” I muttered trailing off as Lucario came and sat down in front of me.

  “In the morning we will practice aura control, I will attempt to pull your aura from you while you resist me, then after breakfast we will move on to move training, your Pokemon will practice siphoning aura from you to empower their moves, this will continue until lunch at which point we will start physical conditioning. Any questions?” Lucario lectured while staring at me, almost daring me to challenge him.

  “How long do you expect us to be participating in your training?” I asked, trying not to learn his stern face put me off.

  “As long as it takes for you to get control of your aura.” He deadpanned.

  “Yes I understand that.” I sighed, “How long do you expect that to take, I'm not looking for any short cuts or anything just trying to get an idea of what im in for, if I get it in my head that ill have this down by the end of the week and it ends up taking 6 months then it will effect my mental state significantly compared to if I knew this before hand.” I explained.

  It was Lucario's turn to sigh, “Aura training is intense, demanding and most of all time consuming. Individuals train their whole lives and won't end up with as much aura as you have, so if anyone told you how long it would take to get it all under control they would be lying to you, there simply isn't the data on it. However that being said, with intense training I'm hoping you will graduate from my training within the next five years.”

  I sat there in stunned silence, FIVE YEARS?! Did they expect me to stay here for five years? That can’t be right. “I see… and how long until my control is good enough to leave here?” I asked, nervous I already knew the answer.

  “You will not leave here until your training is complete, I may not be able to train you everyday in which case another instructor will be provided.”

  “So you want me to train all day every day for the next five years?” I asked in disbelief.

  “You will stay here until your training is complete, your aura poses too much of a danger to let you out without you having perfect control, you should be thanking me people would pay immense sums of money to receive training from one of the Champion’s Pokemon and you are getting it for free.” Lucario chided me.

  He probably has a point here, but still I have no intention of being stuck in this room for five whole years. Hells a month in that cave was bad enough. Still I was expecting to be here for at least six months so it’s best not to make to much of a fuss, learn everything I can and evaluate my situation again at a later point.

  Schooling my face I bowed my head, “I apologize Lucario, five years was a much longer time than I was expecting, however all that does it show my ignorance and just how much I have to learn. I wish to thank you for being willing to take the time to teach me.” I said keeping my bow low trying to show respect while hiding my face as I doubt I could keep my internal thoughts from displaying.

  In hindsight Lucario was an aura master and could probably read my emotions but currently I had no way to counter this so it was useless worrying about it.

  Lucario looked at me for a moment before nodding his head, “You should release your Pokemon now.”

  Walking back over to the kitchen I released Nereus into the sink and Nerissa onto the table. Lucario joined me before addressing my Pokemon, “Lu, Lu Lucario.” It seemed that unless the Pokemon was speaking directly to me I still wasn’t good enough at mixing my aura skills with pokespeak to understand them.

  A heated exchange took place between the three Pokemon which came to an end when Lucario growled showing his teeth.

  What was that about I wondered, Luckily Lucario explained before I had a chance to ask.

  “They are unhappy after I informed them that this training would be unpleasant for you, I wont lie this will likely hurt but it is necessary, now go and sit in the center of the room.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that although I didn’t really have much of a choice in the matter, sitting down I looked over to Lucario who had taken a seat facing me.

  “Close your eyes and start to meditate, I want you to feel your aura as much as you can, in a moment I am going to start pulling it away from you. I want you to resist me, keep a hold of your aura, I'll start with a gentle tug and we will work up from there.

  After a short moment of silence I could feel Lucario gently pulling on my aura. I still wasn’t great at resisting Pokemon from stealing my aura but I was better than when Nereus had first drained me dry. That being said my little resistance I put up was nothing compared to Lucario's ability to strip my aura away.

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  Something else I learned was while a Pokemon pulling on my aura was uncomfortable, a Pokemon pulling on my aura after overpowering all of my resistances was an entirely different experience.

  I screamed in pain as blood started to pool out of my pours. “FOCUS!” Lucario snapped at me, infusing aura into his voice which forced my attention back to the task at hand. Trying to force my consciousness into fighting back against Lucario’s pull only heightened the pain causing me to spit blood.

  Looking into Lucario’s eyes I was begging him to stop yet I couldn't speak, all I could manage was more screaming. He held my gaze for a moment before turning the intensity up, my vision started to blur as I fought to remain conscious.

  Luckily Lucario seemed to deem that I had enough after only a brief moment of the higher intensity and cut the connection, I fell forward throwing up a mixture of vomit and blood.

  I didn’t say anything for a while, instead I just rested on my hands and knees, trying to catch my breath as blood dripped from my nose, when I finally regained my composure I spoke, “What the fuck was that.” I demanded.

  “That was the easiest lesson you will be getting out of me.” Lucario replied coolly.

  Easy? He thought that was easy? He nearly killed me. I thought.

  “Aura training is not easy, honestly I am not sure you have what it takes but you have to much aura to ignore so you will get the training even if it kills you, now sit back down and going again.

  Like this the morning continued with Lucario stripping my aura from me without a care for the pain I was experiencing, eventually the nightmare came to an end when Cynthia entered the dojo carrying a tray of pastries alongside Alakazam who swiftly connected us to a mental network.

  She looked down at my pitiful state, blood had stained my clothes all over and small puddles of vomit covered the floor, it was not a pleasant sight.

  “Well I was hoping things would have gone better than this.” She said, setting the tray down, “go take a shower while we get this all cleaned up.” She spoke with a smile that honestly terrified me, like all of that pain and suffering was a mild inconvenience for her.

  Not having the strength left to argue, I walked over to the bathroom and stepped into the shower, letting the warm water wash the blood and grime away. Surprisingly the water didn’t sting at all, it seemed that the blood that had been pulled from my skin with my aura had not left any open wounds, small mercies.

  After getting out of the shower I found a clean pair of clothes folded waiting for me, another grey tracksuit, after drying and getting dressed I walked out to find someone had ruined part of the dojo floor by pulling large rocks from the ground and filling the center with water, creating a small pond inside of the room, Nereus and Nerissa were both splashing around creating a mess.

  The grime from the morning's training session had been cleared up. “Come eat, it will help make you feel better.” Cynthia said, looking me over.

  I still felt rather out of place after my harrowing ordeal so I simply sat and slowly ate a pastry that was handed to me, it didn’t taste of anything.

  “How was your first training session?” Cynthia asked, her voice soft, I wanted to scream at her, to curse her name for the torture that she had put me through but all I could manage was a timid nod.

  “That bad?” She asked.

  Swallowing a small piece of pastry I spoke with a broken voice, “Why?” The one word was all I was able to manage.

  “Roland, in those games you played, where you went on to become champion, how did you do it?” She asked, choosing to ignore my question.

  The surprise question seemed to help my mind shift slightly, allowing it to focus on this new train of thought instead of dwelling on the pain it had recently experienced, “You get a starter pokemon, go on a journey catching and battling other Pokemon to get stronger, you then just had to beat every fight until your champion.”

  “And during these battles, do your Pokemon get hurt?” she asked.

  “Yes, if they take too much damage they faint, in the games they can’t die although I doubt that's the case in real life.” I said back. It was strange a moment ago. I felt so hopelessly broken that I wasn’t sure I would ever recover, yet Cynthia had got me talking as if nothing was wrong with only a question and a pastry.

  “Pain comes with growth. That goes for humans as well as Pokemon. You have potential, so much so that not training you is more of a danger than not, for what it's worth I am sorry, if there was an easier way to help you get control of your aura in a reasonable timeframe than I would happily accept it, unfortunately there simply isn’t. The training you will go through will be brutal but as a result you will grow, if after all of this you decided you want nothing to do with me or even Sinnoh it’s self I wont stop you from leaving, Legendries I will even help arrange travel to your preferred location, but you need to get control over your power first, at least to an extent where you can defend yourself against others who would use you for their own ends.” Cynthia explained.

  “Kingdra’s training wasn’t like this.” I tried to argue, I wanted to find fault in what Cynthia was saying, to call her a liar. It would just be so much easier if she was the bad guy, if she was the villain who wanted nothing more than to cause me pain and suffering because at least then I could comprehend the hurt she had caused me.

  “I take it that the meditation you were doing all night was part of Kingdra’s training?” Cynthia asked, resulting in me giving a small nod. She let out a sigh, “Meditation is the most common starting point for aura training, it helps build up the required will to infuse your life force with, in your case you already have the resulting aura so a more… A unique training schedule is needed. I realize we never asked this but what is it you actually want Roland?”

  The question caught me off guard, I wanted to hate Cynthia for the pain she had put me through but her explanation made a lot of sense and she was the Champion of Sinnoh, if aura users could be as powerful as Lucario said then letting an someone like me walk around would be similar to a walking bomb just waiting to go off. “What do you mean?” I asked, more so trying to buy time while I got my thoughts in line.

  Cynthia’s face grew into a light smile, “Well did you actually want to become a Pokemon trainer? You have two Pokemon already so its certainly the most obvious route but it doesn’t have to be the only one available to you, you could move to a city, get any number of jobs. It all depends on what you want.”

  “What I want” I repeated while lost in thought, “Honestly I don’t really know.” I finally said.

  “That's okay, I didn’t expect an answer right away but it is something you should think about, having a goal you are working towards is vital in training as hard as this, without one it becomes hard to push through all the pain, anyway it’s about time we moved onto the next stage of your training, using moves!”

  “Actually, I was wondering if we could do something else first, the idea of anyone pulling on my aura right now is still kind off…” I started before Cynthia cut me off.

  “No, we scheduled things this way for a reason, having aura forcibly taken is a painful and often traumatic where as sharing aura with a Pokemon can be a soothing and pleasant experience, what we want to avoid right now is you becoming so traumatized you don’t use aura ever again so after the harsh training we will have a much softer session.” Cynthia explained to me.

  “Right… that makes sense I guess, so what should I do?”

  “Today we will keep it simple, Lucario will stand over there, he wont dodge attacks, all you have to do is direct your Pokemon to attack Lucario, their objective is to make him move.”

  “That’s it? I don’t have to do a certain amount of damage or anything?” I questioned her which got a chuckle out of the Champion and a snort out of Lucario.

  “If you manage to injure Lucario then we will reward you with the rest of the day off training.”

  “You hear that guys, it’s time to go all out!