Nine o'clock in the morning.
John had just finished showering. After drying his hair and changing into comfortable casual clothes, he headed downstairs. With no challengers scheduled for the day, he was looking forward to a leisurely morning.
In the living room, Togepi and Wobbuffet were happily playing games together. Delibird flew in through the window with a white cloth bag strapped to its back. It had been wandering around the ranch since early morning, distributing Pokéblocks to the other Pokemon.
John accepted the steamed bread and milk that Gardevoir brought him. While eating his breakfast, he made his way to the backyard where the daily Pokemon training had already begun.
He stopped in front of Greninja. Just a few days ago, it had mastered Aura Sphere. Judging from the speed at which it had learned the move, its talent for aura manipulation was impressive.
"Try to condense the Aura Sphere at the slowest speed possible," John instructed Greninja.
"Gre-ninja!" it agreed, raising its hand. A light blue energy flow appeared, swirling around its palm.
Soon the energy gradually condensed into a solid form until it coalesced into a light blue orb. This wasn't the complete version of Aura Sphere, however, throwing it would cause it to gradually collapse during flight.
To ensure it wouldn't dissipate before hitting an opponent, the sphere needed to be compressed 160 degrees. Compression reduced the volume of the Aura Sphere, then added the force of aura, compressing it again until it became dense enough to maintain integrity during flight.
Pokemon could compress Aura Spheres different times according to their mastery of the technique. The more compressions applied, the more powerful the resulting attack would be.
To keep the aura from collapsing entirely, it had to be compressed at least three times!
In John's current Pokemon lineup, four had mastered Aura Sphere: Hariyama, Greninja, Blaziken, and Vigoroth.
As the king of Fighting-type moves who had mastered aura manipulation for awhile, Hariyama could compress its aura up to eight times. Greninja could manage five compressions. Blaziken and Vigoroth barely reached the minimum threshold of three.
"Now try to condense the Aura Sphere in a spiral pattern," John suggested, an idea forming in his mind.
Greninja immediately furrowed its brow in concentration.
It guided the aura from all directions, gathering it in a spiral formation around its hand. Almost immediately, twisted energy tendrils appeared on the surface of the Aura Sphere, transforming it into a vortex that seemed to absorb any ambient aura from the air.
"Try to compress and stabilize it!" John called out.
Greninja nodded, it was already attempting to do just that.
Though the Aura Sphere maintained its spherical shape rather than becoming a vertical twister, its apparent stability was deceptive. Inside, the aura forces were rotating chaotically. If not for Greninja's constant control, the sphere would have exploded immediately.
As for the compression process, it continued to absorb external aura without increasing in volume. Where was all that energy going?
It was being compressed within the sphere itself.
"Throw it and let's see what happens," John said.
Greninja raised its arm and launched the Aura Sphere.
The sphere traveled barely three meters before the compressed aura suddenly erupted, sending a shock wave directly toward John.
Before John could react, Gardevoir teleported in front of him, clasped its hands together and formed a Protect barrier.
BANG!
Even the shield created by Protect cracked under the pressure.
Fortunately for John, the remaining force was reduced to little more than a cold gust of wind against his face.
"Gre..." Greninja scratched its head in embarrassment, realizing it had nearly injured its Trainer.
"It's okay," John said, excitement overriding any concern. "This is exactly what I wanted to see!"
The spirally compressed aura was clearly more difficult to control than standard aura manipulation. It naturally exploded after traveling a certain distance from Greninja, lacking the stability of an ordinary Aura Sphere.
However, the power of this spiral-compressed Aura Sphere was at least twice that of the normal version!
At the explosion site, within a five-meter radius, the grass had completely vanished, leaving a substantial crater in the ground. It was as if that section of terrain had been erased entirely.
And that was from a mid-air explosion!
The power was truly terrifying.
"Hariyama, come over and try this too!" John called to his Fighting-type Pokemon, who had just finished helping in the kitchen and was removing its apron.
Hariyama approached and attempted the same training exercise that Greninja had performed.
Compared to Greninja, Hariyama mastered the spiral Aura Sphere with remarkable ease. After throwing it, the Pokemon could still direct it toward a target with pinpoint accuracy like a standard Aura Sphere.
Upon impact—BOOM! Double the power!
"Impressive," John remarked. "There will be very few Pokemon that can withstand your spiral Aura Sphere in future battles."
Hariyama, wearing its Black Belt, could potentially reach the destructive power equivalent to four standard Aura Spheres with just one spiral-compressed attack!
"Boss, there's a notice from the Trainer Association!" Emerald called from inside the house.
"I'll be right there," John replied. He had originally planned to coach Blaziken and Vigoroth as well.
"You two teach Blaziken and Vigoroth the technique," John instructed Greninja and Hariyama before walking back into the house.
The training method he'd just developed was inspired by the "Rasengan" technique from an anime he'd watched before his journey into the Pokemon world began.
John had always felt that aura power shared many similarities with chakra, not just in color, but in being a fundamental energy of the world. Both energies were naturally adaptable, accommodating various applications such as offense, defense, healing, detection, and amplification.
That's why John wanted Greninja to try learning the spiral technique. After all, Greninja was also a ninja-like Pokemon! If successful, this would provide Greninja with a pathway for growth, potentially elevating it to Champion level.
Standard spiral Aura Spheres were just the foundation. Stronger variations could be developed in the future, perhaps a spiral shuriken? Or a giant spiral sphere?
Back in the house, Emerald was dressed in professional attire, holding a tablet.
"What notice did the Trainer Association send?" John asked.
"The annual Gym Leaders meeting is about to begin. You're invited to attend at the Trainer Association Headquarters in three days' time, on June 1st."