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"Darumi and Melty... the students of the great hero Chili," he said wistfully, framing the words by slowly sweeping his hand out in the air, "I like that," his fingers bunched into a fist, "Right! As soon as you're ready, I'll teach you everything there is to know about fighting with fire!"

"The first rule of fire training is never apologise!" Chili announced as he put his hand to Henrietta's back and led her out of the room, "the second rule is to never touch the fire. That's kinda important, so you may wanna remember that as like, a joint Rule 1 or maybe even a Rule 0."


--

As Chili guided Henrietta to where they'd be doing their training, he continued to list off rules. They seemed made up for the most part and others were just stating the obvious. When they finally stopped, it was on the outskirts of town; the ground was open space without any nearby trees, people or anything else flammable.

"Rule 34 is- wait, we're here," Chili said, jogging over to be in front of Henrietta, "Alright, let your Fire types out and I'll show you a thing or two. Oh! Here's my good buddy Pansear."

Chili pulled his balls out. He selected one and put the others back, tapping the button on the side to make it enlarge before tossing it into the air. A small, red monkey with a mop of hair in the shape of a flame appeared in a shower of light.

"Sear," it said, looking at Henrietta like a pervert. It wasn't a pervy pokémon, that was just the way it smiled. Chili caught the ball, span around as he put it away and then stopped, posing with a, "Ta-da!"

"Sear. Sear," Pansear said gruffly with a wave each time, greeting his fellow fire types. Chili stepped forward, puffing out his chest importantly.

"Now fire pokémon draw their flame from in here," he told Henrietta, tapping his diaphragm with his fist, "they turn the fires in their belly into real FIRE!"

When he yelled, Pansear obliged, tipping his mouth open and pointing it to the sky, sending a flaming column of fire upward. The heat from it was eye-stingingly strong and the flames themselves were thicker than Chili was. Very thick.

"So what you need to do first is scream," Chili punched his fists together, "scream Henrietta! At the top of your lungs! As loud as you can!"

"That's not a scream! Do it like this!"

Chili threw his head back and released the loudest bellow imaginable; it seemed to shake the air as he shouted, "FIRE!" and while he was doing this, Pansear released a flame. This one wasn't just big like that last one, it was huge.

A mountain of twisting flames that dwarfed its creator, blocking out the sky and, to Henrietta, turning Chili and Pansear into soundless silhouettes. The building-sized flame subsided and Chili fell forward, out of breath.

"Y-you see? This is what it means to go beyond the impossible," he grinned, "Pokémon fight to their limits but that's not enough sometimes. The trainer has to have fighting spirit. If you're close to your pokémon, they can pick up on your fighting spirit and do incredible things! Incredible!"

Chili took a few slow breaths and beat his fist into his palm, "Alright then, Henrietta. Give me your scream! Show me your fighting spirit!"

Chili's expectant face dropped like a ton of bricks. He peered over to Pansear, who shook its head with disappointment and then looked back to Henrietta.

"Aww, well, that..." he straightened up, closed his eyes and coughed into his fist, "that was good for a first attempt."

Deciding to skip this part of the training for now, Chili turned to Henrietta's two fire types, "Show me what they can do," he grinned, pointing to the pair, "What fire attacks do they know?!"

"That's called a starting point!" Chili said, flicking his thumb past the tip of his nose, "It's real name is Incinerate though; it's not very powerful but it can burn any berries the other pokémon is holding into cinders. Other fire attacks can't do that for some reason."

Chili nodded to himself. He was like a Fire edition Pokédex given human form.

"But this is good - your pokémon can make flames. That's actually the hard part, y'know? Try explaining to something how it can magically produce fire from its stomach. It ain't gonna happen!" Chili knelt down to Darumi and Melty, "Remember what I said before about fighting spirit? Your will to fight is what keeps you in the battle! Don't be let down by your inhibitions! You're fire types, you're meant to light up the battlefield! Tell 'em, Pansear."

[Whoa,] said the tiny simian with a dull, slightly amused look on its face, [you can like, breathe fire. No way...]

While he couldn't understand what the monkey was saying, Chili could still pick up on its slow drawl. Frowning, he asked: "Wait, have you been smoking Pansage's leaves again?"

[Err... no?] Pansear said before breaking off into a clumsy snigger. Squint-smiling back at the other pokémon, he carried on with, [so like, when you're breathing fire, you need to err... do it more, like, faster. Then you get a big burn.]

"Look dude, this is lame. Just battle me, already," Salieri commanded at the entrance of the Striaton City Gym, folding her arms and tapping her toes impatiently.

"I already told you, if your starter is weak against Fire then you have to battle my brother, Chili," Cilan calmly told Salieri as he hoisted two unconscious teenage girls onto his shoulders. "And as long as these girls from town keep coming here and fainting, I'm too busy to get him for you. I'm sorry."

"Well do you know where I can find him? Salieri asked as he moved out of the way for Cilan. The green haired gym leader walked down the stairs and made his way towards the pokemon center, with Salieri tailing behind him.

"I'm not sure. I haven't seen him all day," Cilan informed the Battle Girl. On the sidewalk, a young woman with her husband turned her head to see Cilan. Instantly, hearts began popping out of her eyes and she fell down to the ground. Her husband facepalmed his forehead.

"Crap, not again," he muttered as he dragged his wife by the ankles inside, curisng the Striaton Gym as he closed the door. Cilan and Salieri reached the inside of the center, and the Nurse's Audino came over right away to take Cilan's two girls off of his shoulders and to the medical ward.

"Aren't gym leaders always supposed to be in their gyms?" Salieri stammered. She remember training in the Saffron Dojo as a child, and that her father was there from dusk til dawn everyday, keeping up with the strict regiment that had run in the family for generations.

"A gym leader is not just defined by their profession. It means commitment, but that doesn't mean we are bound to the building. Is this your first time battling a gym?"

"I...yeah." Damn. Read like a book. "Well, it would be. If I could find this Chili guy."
"Excuse me, are you looking for Chili?" Nurse Joy asked. Salieri cocked her head back to the counter attentively. "I overheard him here before saying he'd be training someone outside of town-"

Salieri was already out the door, jogging down the streets to find the gym leader. Cilan waved the dust trail she created out of his face, coughing lightly as he did so. "...Nurse, what was my brother doing here before?"
"Oh, some girl he had found was unconscious before him. The usual, Cilan."
"Ugh, why does this keep happening to us?"