The afternoon was originally supposed to be Eevee's relaxation time.
Warm, cozy scribbling together with Qingyu, or casually watching a blockbuster produced by the Movie Studio.
But after the intense battle that morning, Qingyu decided to take this chance to properly study Eevee's "King Engine."
The TV was playing a movie with extremely high name recognition.
The Ghostly Dream of Mismagius.
As everyone knew, the Pokémon world also had its own version of Hollywood, so it was perfectly reasonable for some classic masterpieces from Qingyu's previous life to exist here as well.
That said, having most of the actors replaced by Pokémon was still pretty novel.
Technically, it was a romance film—but certain scenes leaned a bit toward horror.
Eevee sat in Qingyu's arms, completely absorbed. Whenever a scary scene appeared, its entire body would instinctively shudder.
And then—
thump, thump-thump-thump—
King Engine, activated!
At this distance, Qingyu felt like his skull was being rattled from the inside, his head buzzing nonstop.
Thankfully, outside of battle, Eevee quickly returned to normal.
No wonder Pawmi had reacted so strongly back then. Anyone would've been stunned on the spot…
Powerful. Truly powerful.
This proved that being timid wasn't entirely without benefits.
Because Eevee had spent its whole life nervous due to personality, Ability, and various other factors, it had somehow trained up an absurdly strong heart and lung capacity…
Yeah. That actually made sense.
A naturally powerful heart was, without a doubt, the key to becoming strong.
That said, trying to fully draw out Eevee's potential right now was still a bit unrealistic.
After some thought, Qingyu came up with a compromise.
If Eevee couldn't be strong yet, then why not just make others think it was strong?
Just like Nemona's Pawmi—too intimidated by Eevee's pressure to even get close, unintentionally creating a huge advantage.
So then, what move would best fit this style?
The answer was obvious—
The same move used by the "Number One Pokémon in the Universe," Incineroar.
Snarl.
Perfect timing—Qingyu even had the TM for it.
As for the other move, Skill Swap, which Eevee still hadn't learned, he had already given up on it.
He'd originally chosen it to eliminate the negative impact of Anticipation in actual combat, but now it seemed completely unnecessary.
Who said this Ability was bad? This Ability was amazing!
If Anticipation could be fully developed, Eevee's strength after evolution would absolutely qualify it as the Gym's lead Pokémon—maybe even far beyond that.
Two hours passed in the blink of an eye. Completely engrossed in the movie, Eevee hadn't noticed time slipping away at all.
"Eev!"
Only after the credits rolled did Eevee finally let out a long breath.
Sure, it was a bit scary—but the story was genuinely interesting! The bond between humans and Mismagius was so strong it could even defeat a Totem Trevenant!
Wait.
Where did my Trainer go?
When Eevee snapped back to reality, Qingyu was already sitting on the other side of the couch, fiddling with a disc in his hands.
Seeing Eevee look over, he quickly put on a gentle, warm smile.
"Abu, you've been watching movies for so long—you must be tired."
"How about taking a break and watching a training video to get moving a bit?"
"Eev…"
Eevee stuck out its tongue. Of course—good times never lasted long.
Still, if it wanted to keep living happily with its Trainer in the Gym, it really did need to get stronger.
It knew that Pawmi from this morning wasn't actually very strong, but instinctive fear had still made it tense to the point of almost screaming.
Eevee didn't like being this weak.
At the very least, it wanted to protect this home—and its silly Trainer.
With that thought, Eevee nodded, obediently lying down beside Qingyu, tucking in its paws and waiting for what came next.
"Don't worry. This move is also really easy."
Qingyu smiled and rubbed Eevee's round little head.
High-power moves that required repeated intense training? Even if Eevee wanted to learn them, he wouldn't agree—what if Eevee got hurt?
So he deliberately chose more support-oriented moves, planning to combine them with some of his own creative ideas. Together, they should work pretty well.
Snarl—a very famous Dark-type special move.
Just like its name implied, it attacked with a roar meant to intimidate the opponent, dealing both damage and severe psychological pressure.
The way to use it was simple—
Open your throat and howl, releasing Dark-type energy through sound.
If paired with Eevee's automatically activated King Engine when it got nervous, it might straight-up terrify the opponent.
Full of anticipation, Qingyu watched the TM's instructional video together with Eevee.
This time, the demonstration Pokémon was Mabosstiff. Its voice was indeed loud—but Qingyu still felt this move really should've been taught by Incineroar…
Pure stereotype bias.
After replaying the video several times, a problem quickly became apparent.
With previously learned status moves, Eevee had at least been able to imitate them by "sketching" elemental energy using its tail.
But Snarl?
No matter how you looked at it, this had absolutely nothing to do with sketching.
There was no clear way to imitate such an abstract move.
"Rrr…"
Eevee tried dry-roaring experimentally several times, but there was zero presence behind it.
"I can't hear anything. Literally nothing!"
Qingyu pressed his forehead in helplessness.
If Incineroar's Snarl was the full-powered version, then Eevee's was at best a "Quiet Snarl."
It seemed simple move practice wasn't enough for Eevee to learn this one.
Since that was the case, Qingyu didn't force it.
"Eev…"
Eevee looked a little dejected.
Seeing this, Qingyu immediately grabbed Eevee's cheeks with both hands and gently squished them.
"It's okay. You did great today."
"Who knows—maybe tomorrow I'll come up with a way to help you learn Snarl all at once?"
Looking at Qingyu's gentle smile, Eevee symbolically struggled a bit, then easily wriggled free from the cheek-pinching before slowly nodding.
...
Time quickly reached 6:30 p.m.
Probably because it had been focused all day, Eevee passed out immediately after dinner, lying belly-up on the couch.
Qingyu still needed to stream that night, so he didn't carry it back to the bedroom for now.
When it was time to go live, the stream started right on schedule.
Since he'd already streamed twice and his tactics had left a deep impression, the number of viewers camping in the chat was noticeably higher.
[I must be here on time to eat content!][It's my favorite tactical torture session again—Teacher Yu, can we get something easy to use today?][Streamer, streamer, your self-destruct hazard setup is insane, but I think there's a small problem…][I know this one! It's only been a day and ranked is already full of hazard teams—same master taught them all, I can't counter it!]
"Oh? Getting disgusted by hazards already?"
Spotting a few messages in the rapidly scrolling chat, Qingyu immediately laughed.
"I taught you the combo, but you didn't learn how to counter it—now you're stuck, huh? Didn't I teach you how to remove hazards?"
"Answer me! Looking my eyes!"
While interrogating his "students" who hadn't studied properly, Qingyu smoothly launched Pokémon: Champion.
"But it's fine. Teacher Yu is kind—I can't stand seeing my students getting bullied in ranked."
"So today, I'll give you a Paldea-exclusive hazard-removal strategy."
"Guaranteed—once you learn it, you'll never be afraid of Spikes again~"
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