Tetsuya came to the Pokémon Center alone and immediately stated that he needed to use the TM player, thus avoiding the awkward situation of Nurse Joy proactively asking him to register.
After paying a rental fee of 500 Pokédollars, he entered the sealed room with Koffing. Once the TM was played, a Typhlosion demonstrated and explained the use of Flamethrower. For the entire afternoon, Typhlosion performed the demonstration from beginning to end three times.
"Have you remembered the principles of Flamethrower?" Tetsuya asked.
Koffing nodded, looking quite confident.
Tetsuya also went early to the place where Catherine was training. She still did not know which inn he was staying at. Although the town was not large, if the two of them separated, it would still be difficult to find each other.
After having dinner near the inn, Catherine went back to training. The so-called Pokémon Balloon Race was held in two rounds, one during the day and one at night. The champion was determined by the combined scores of both rounds, so many participants had gathered to train again that evening.
Only half an hour later, the entire field was empty.
They had all flown into the sky.
The whole field now seemed like his personal training ground.
Tetsuya released all of his Pokémon. He personally fed Slowbro and then let it sit on the grass and "admire" the moon.
The other Pokémon were not so fortunate…
After eating dinner and drinking Miltank milk, they had to "endure" special training under the effects of Helping Hand.
After a round of warm-up exercises, Tetsuya called Koffing over.
"You still remember Flamethrower, right?" Tetsuya asked.
Koffing nodded. Although having two heads looked somewhat awkward, it also meant that there were two brains remembering the method of using Flamethrower. Seeing both heads nod at the same time reassured Tetsuya even more.
If one brain forgot, there was still the other one!
Trainers would never have to worry about its learning ability again.
"Then let's do it. Try using Flamethrower."
After Tetsuya finished speaking, Koffing began trying to gather Fire-type energy. Every step of the process and every posture was completely correct.
However, what Koffing released was still Icy Wind mixed with fine snow and Ice Shard…
"How… could this happen…?"
Tetsuya was also completely puzzled. According to the research he knew, Koffing was capable of learning Flamethrower, while being unable to learn a move like Icy Wind. Yet his Koffing had turned that completely around. It could not learn Flamethrower at all!
After repeated attempts, Koffing was unable to produce even the slightest flame no matter what it did. On the contrary, the power of its Icy Wind became even stronger…
Koffing anxiously spun around in the air, while Tetsuya fell silent and carefully considered the reason. Koffing had been with him ever since shortly after it was born, and more than two and a half years had already passed.
In truth, Koffing's birth had been entirely his own doing.
While still inside the egg, Koffing had already undergone a mutation due to the poisonous gas of the poisonous forest and Mamoswine's cold energy, afterward, it absorbed everything. From birth until now, what its body had been exposed to was essentially cold aura. Asking it to learn Flamethrower now was practically in direct conflict with its own body.
This was the only explanation he could come up with. It just went to show that some research was not truly authoritative. This time, Koffing had genuinely broken the established rules. Unfortunately, it also meant that his 5k Pokédollars had gone to waste…
As a result, Koffing still had a weakness when dealing with Steel-type Pokémon. Its toxicity was powerful, but it was cold poison and could not melt steel. Relying solely on Icy Wind, although its power was already considerable, made it easy for opponents to target that single move.
Koffing's level was already quite high. Aside from very powerful Steel-types, few Pokémon could defeat it, because once they were poisoned, the battle was essentially already lost. However, this conjoined Koffing had no way to evolve.
A normal Weezing evolved through the fusion of two Koffing. However, this Koffing, unless it encountered another conjoined Koffing and evolved into a "four-headed Weezing", there was no possibility.
Yet this conjoined Koffing was already extremely rare. Tetsuya did not dare imagine being lucky enough to encounter another one, so the matter of Koffing's Evolution could only be set aside for the time being.
What was more unfortunate was that such a Koffing could not even learn Flamethrower.
"Since you can't learn Fire-type moves, then spend more time practicing Ice-type moves with Mamoswine," Tetsuya could only comfort Koffing this way. It truly was not Koffing's fault. The problem lay entirely with its body.
After saying that, Koffing could only throw itself back into training under Miltank's Helping Hand.
---◓---
The next day, Catherine's race had already begun. Tetsuya did not need to worry much about her, and Catherine was determined to win. She entered Skarmory into the race, while Chatot had long since perched on a certain balloon. If any balloon managed to surpass Catherine's, it would immediately take action without hesitation. Such a "weak" Pokémon would not attract anyone's attention.
Meanwhile, Tetsuya continued his own training. Koffing had taken his words of comfort from the previous night seriously. After finishing its workout, it remained around Mamoswine the entire time, naturally in order to learn how to use Ice-type moves to their fullest potential.
Mamoswine also taught Koffing methodically. With two brains, its ability to absorb knowledge was excellent. Combined with its naturally cold poisonous body, it could quickly mobilize the cold aura within itself and gather Ice-type energy.
Although it was still simply Icy Wind, because the temperature it produced had become even lower, fine snow, ice shards, and biting cold currents naturally formed within it. Its power was much greater than before.
Koffing continuously practiced this enhanced version of Icy Wind, and both its scale and momentum steadily increased.
---◓---
As expected, Catherine took first place in the daytime round. There was no suspense during the nighttime round either, and she won by an overwhelming margin, obtaining the Brave Bird TM as she had hoped.
Skarmory was a Pokémon passed down through Catherine's family and already knew most Flying-type moves. Chatot mainly trained sound-based moves, so a move like Brave Bird would be wasted on it. Honchkrow, on the other hand, was a Pokémon she had caught on Shadow Island, and its lack of moves genuinely limited its combat power. Therefore, the TM naturally went to Honchkrow.
The next day, they went to the Pokémon Center, where Catherine had Honchkrow learn Brave Bird. They then spent another full day training on the grass.
Honchkrow completely learned the move, while Koffing strengthened its enhanced Icy Wind even further.
After being delayed in this town for three consecutive days, Tetsuya could not wait any longer. After resting for one night, they set out once again.