After receiving "financial support" from the Devon Corporation, Haruki's resource concerns were completely resolved.
At the same time, in order to better train Marowak and Skiploom, Haruki also unapologetically requested their respective Training Manuals.
Because Skiploom's individual situation was so unique, Haruki had never exchanged for its Training Manual through Team Rocket.
After all, he'd never had many points to begin with, so this made up for it.
But after comparing the Ground-type Pokémon Training Manual from Team Rocket, Haruki realized that the same-tier content was actually better than the official one.
And then he remembered… the leader of Team Rocket was Giovanni. A thought immediately took root in Haruki's mind.
He couldn't afford to sever his ties with Team Rocket, not if he wanted to pave the way for Marowak's future.
---
Haruki timed it carefully and fed Beldum a dose of Purified Energy Pokéblock, watching it fall back into deep sleep once more.
This was now the ninth day of Beldum's eat-sleep routine.
Over these nine days, its small body had slightly shrunk, but the metallic sheen of its frame had grown more intense. The difference was now visible to the naked eye.
Beldum had become purer!
To ensure nothing happened during Beldum's deep rest, Haruki had stayed in Jubilife City the entire time, switching from the Pokémon Center to a Devon hotel.
During the day, Haruki trained Marowak and Skiploom in the training room, while Beldum slept in the break room.
At night, Haruki would bring Beldum back to his room, where it continued to rest.
Late at night, the moon in Haruki's mind remained bright and clear.
While neither Marowak nor Skiploom noticed anything unusual, a faint pinkish-purple glow radiated from Haruki's body, gently extending toward Beldum.
In response, Beldum also emitted a faint glow. Its furrowed brow relaxed as it slept, as if a weight had been lifted…
The next morning, Haruki woke up feeling refreshed. His quality of sleep had been excellent lately, and it clearly showed in his daytime energy.
A fully revitalized young man!
After confirming that the sleeping Beldum was in perfect condition, Haruki finally went to wash up.
Marowak and Skiploom were up too.
The former instinctively began polishing its Thick Club, while the latter chased Haruki into the bathroom: it wanted to wash its face and brush its teeth too.
Only after Haruki and Skiploom came out did Marowak lazily put down its bone and walk into the bathroom.
Though it disliked water, it would still make sure to wipe clean the skull mask on its head.
"Beldum, wake up, it's time to eat~"
Haruki took out the last two Purified Energy Pokéblocks and fed them to a half-asleep Beldum.
Today was the final day of the purification "treatment." Once Beldum was fully awake and showed no abnormalities, it would be time to hit the road again.
By midday, Haruki returned to the training room's break area with Marowak and Skiploom to eat lunch.
The food had been delivered earlier by hotel staff and was quite a feast.
Maybe the aroma was too tempting, it seemed to stir the sleeping Beldum nearby.
Beldum opened its eye slightly, only to see one human and two Pokémon feasting away.
A wave of hunger stirred in its core, and the long-unfed Beldum instantly snapped to full alert.
"Beeeel~"
Beldum let out a whimpering cry full of both excitement and grievance as it shot through the air.
Then…
It flew straight past Haruki…
And slammed into the glass wall.
"…"
CRACK
The tempered glass didn't fully shatter, but the web of fractures it left behind showed just how powerful that collision had been.
Beldum turned around, completely bewildered.
The three diners -one Trainer and two Pokémon- were just as stunned.
'Why did it wake up only to rush headfirst into the glass? Was its head that itchy?'
"Beel~ Beel~"
Beldum looked utterly aggrieved. It just wanted to eat, so why wasn't its body listening to it anymore?
Then, it started inching… inching… inching through the air toward Haruki, giving him the most pitiful look.
Haruki understood. This was likely due to its increased purity, which had awakened latent power within its body, causing a temporary lack of control from the sudden change.
"Eat first. A couple more days of training and this won't happen again. And by then, you'll be even stronger!"
At the words "stronger," Beldum's eye immediately lit up, nodding obediently.
Haruki took out the pre-prepared meal specially made for Beldum.
Having gone so long without eating properly, Beldum instantly devoured it like a wild beast.
After finishing its lunch and taking some time to digest, an hour had already passed.
Beldum shot out of the break room full of energy, joyfully zipping around the field.
But from the constant crashing sounds, it was clear it still hadn't gotten its bearings. Haruki could only shake his head.
"Come back, Beldum. Flying around like that won't help."
"Bel~"
Beldum was very obedient and immediately zipped back.
…But nearly slammed into the glass wall behind the break room again.
Luckily, it stopped just in time. Carefully maneuvering, Beldum finally floated back to Haruki's side, staring at him without blinking.
"Let's take it one step at a time. Start by testing your moves strength. Use a full-power Take Down on the target to the left."
"Bee bee!"
Beldum responded and gathered all its strength, charging straight toward the target. A flash of silver light shot out; it was one of the targets built to withstand full-force attacks from Veteran-level Pokémon.
Crack!
It split open…
Haruki raised an eyebrow. That was a bit too much power.
But Beldum, unaware of the target's durability, thought its strength had weakened.
"Bee!"
Frustrated, Beldum wanted to charge again, but Haruki called it back.
"Yeah, your power's definitely gone up, but you still need to work on control. One step at a time."
"Beldum?"
"This target isn't like the ones before. It's much tougher."
"Beel beel~"
Relieved, Beldum finally relaxed. So it wasn't weak after all…
Haruki patted Beldum's head reassuringly.
'Ouch~ That kind of hurt.'
Since Beldum's new power came from within itself, full adaptation wouldn't take long.
After a day of training, Beldum could already move and hover as freely as before. More importantly, the bottleneck it had always felt before had now completely vanished.
According to Beldum, it could now sense whether the energy in its body was sufficient. Once fully charged, it could evolve on its own. And that moment would come -at the latest- within a month.
In other words, Haruki was about to have a shiny second-stage pseudo-Legendary.
Overcome with excitement, one Trainer and three Pokémon packed their bags and left Jubilife City, heading north once more.
Their next stop was Floaroma Town, a place Haruki had long dreamed of visiting: a town said to lie in the heart of a sea of flowers.
As always, Skiploom stayed close by his side on the road.
And whenever they encountered a worthy wild Pokémon, Haruki would send out Beldum, giving it more opportunities to battle and grow, accelerating its evolution.
However, because Jubilife City was so developed, the surrounding wild Pokémon were generally lower in quality and level.
Once Haruki realized that detouring for training wasn't worth the time and effort, he decided to prioritize travel.
Before long, he arrived at the foot of a low mountain range.
At the base, a crooked sign pointed toward a nearby cave entrance.
Ravaged Path.
He had arrived.