"Would I always need to ... take off my clothes for this stuff?", Arthur's uneasiness returned.

"Eh, no, if you reach a certain level it wouldn't matter either way, but you aren't ready for that. Baby steps first."

"You see, usually children learn the methods stubbornly by the textbook without understanding what's actually important during breathing. The results are pathetic in the beginning but over time they slowly develop a better sensitivity for the correct execution with increased understanding of the theoretical knowledge behind everything.

Sadly, we don't have time for that in your special case. It wouldn't work if I just told you what to do. You also need to understand it with your body and soul if you want to make real progress!

"Even with intense training a normal person would still need a couple of months at the very least to sense the energy particles around them. The reason why I am attempting it though is ... your strong sense of awareness!"

"My, my awareness?", was that a compliment?

"Your energy perception to be exact. Or that's what I assume you have developed somehow. Otherwise you shouldn't have stood a chance against that Rico brat at all. Yet you got a hit on him, a Infinity force practitioner and even saw his energy enforced attack coming."

Arthur felt insulted and appreciative at the same time now.

"Does that mean that I have superpowers? Is that rare"

"Hmm, superpowers? No. It isn't very rare but also not common. Especially in your age at the least. I can imagine that your little trip into the Viridian Forest unearthed some deep hidden potential in your body haha! Maybe it's because of the enormous stress you had to go through. Aren't there always stories about the people showing unusual powers in emergency situations? Whatever, the most important thing is that you learn to take advantage of this ability.

"Can this help with my Infinity Force training?"

"Of course! If your perception were to mature sensing and possibly manipulating the energy particles would become a piece of cake for you! Well, right now, it won't give you that many boons. But it could help you understand what it really means to 'breathe'. Only then can you take the first step in your training.

Enough talking now. Close your eyes and breathe in and out. If you want to, you can even try imagining a vacuum cleaner, hahahah!"

Arthur did as ordered and ignored the last remark. He slowly breathed in, expanding his abdomen, and breathed out, clearing out his CO2.

"Ignore all sounds, scents or any signals in your surroundings and only concentrate on my voice. In general there are four principles when it comes to breathing methods: Accumulation, Purification, Concentration and Conversion. You aren't ready for any of those, but we can try and see if you can do the initial steps of the accumulation phase.

Imagine yourself in this place right now in your mind. Imagine yourself sitting in a crowd of Pokemon with ... a weedle sleeping on your head, pfff hahah!"

"Gary!"

"Okay, okay, serious-mode activated! Hahaha ehem, imagine yourself in this beautiful small place surrounded by the peaceful Pokemon. Imagine my grand manly picture talking to you. Imagine the river in the distance, the endless trees here, the blue sky, the faint wisps of wind travelling through this garden. And then ... erase it."

Arthur wrinkled his eyebrows and wanted to ask when Gary continued:

"Erase the feelings of your skin, erase the noise in the background, erase the wonderful scenery piece by piece. River, water, stones, ground, sky, wind, the grass and the trees. The Pokemon, the ground you are sitting on and myself included. Erase them all from your mind. What is left?"

"Nothing ...", Arthur whispered under his breath. He saw himself floating in a black void, continuously breathing in and out.

"Perfect. But is there really nothing else? Try to concentrate on some spot."

He tried. He looked around in this endless void but everything was just ... empty. He only saw himself and nothing el... Suddenly his mind noticed a faint movement in a corner. It might have been just his imagination though.

"What's wrong? What happened?", Gary noticed his sudden puzzlement.

"There was something moving, I am not sure, was nothing probably..."

"No! That's good! Zoom in on that and observe further!"

Arthur's vision closed in on the spot he saw just now and then he dicovered ... something glittering.

"There is something glittering, almost like weak sparks."

"Zoom in! Further! Even further!", Gary ordered excitedly.

Arthur tried his best and his concentration rose to the extreme! Everything was blended out except for that glittering part of the space which was approaching him as time passed. Breathing became harder and harder and his brows wrinkled even more because of his increasing focus. The mental strain this action put on him became more and more difficult to control. But ... he succeeded!

The glittering came to an end as he finally approached the mysterious goal, and what revealed itself before him was a ball. A ball of light. A small glowing particle actually that moved around in no specific order. It just moved around endlessly in the infinite darkness around them.

"What do you see?", Gary asked in a soft voice anticipating the result.

"A small ball of light. It doesn't do much, it just moves around and that's it."

"That's it?! Arthur, you see a small ball of light in your mind and that's it?! That's huge?! Your energy perception must have helped you detect it otherwise I can't imagine a novice seeing an Infinity particle on his first try! WOW! I couldn't do that! What colour does it have?"

"Hm, white, why do you ask?"

"Hmm, white is it ... forget it, it's too early."

"What do I do now?"

"Ah, yes, the next crucial step is, attracting it! You need to influence the particle towards your position!"

"Okay."

Arthur tried concentrating on the particle a little more, imagining a hand that grabbed the particle ... but that didn't work out. Then he tried a rope wrapping around the particle and pulling it towards himself ... nope, no success either. He tried a couple more mental pictures but none really worked out. The particle didn't even stop or showed any kind of signs of having been influenced anyhow. The longer it took and the more he tried, the greater the strain on his body was and in the end the pain was just too much.

Sweat poured down his body like a river as he opened his eyes again. His breathing was unsteady, almost like that of a person who had run a marathon. The weedle on his head was gone, and Arthur felt like collapsing and taking a small short nap on the spot.

"Hahaha, I see you are quite exhausted. Normal, I guess when overusing your 6th sense. You will get used to it. What happened? Did you manage it?", Gary asked while giving him a bottle of water.

"No, huh huh huh, couldn't huh huh do it huh huh ...", Arthur exlaimed while leaning back with his arms on the ground. The water reminded him of how thirsty he actually was.

Gary frowned a little:

"What do you mean exactly? Do you mean you could and then stopped because of the exhaustion?"

"No, huh huh ...", he calmed a little," I couldn't do it at all. It just didn't work out no matter how I tried."

"No signs of a reaction?"

"No."

"Hmmm, that's not good."

"Why?", Arthur didn't like direction the conversation was going.

"How do I explain it hmm ... You know, when I first started practicing breathing with my grandpa, I didn't see anything like you in the beginning. And even in the later stages my sight didn't increase by much. But I kinda sensed the particles around me after a while. I felt them, their existence, and I could also attract them and absorb them. Do you see my point? Our perspectives are completely reversed. I couldn't see them at all but attract them. You are clearly able to observe them but ..."

"Not control them?"

"Exert some basic form of influence on them at least."

"And that's bad?", Arthur asked agitated.

"Huuu, Arty, haha, my friend, being able to see Infinity particles, even if your ability isn't very advanced in its current from is a huge achievement! You have surpassed most kids who tried their hardest for months or possibly years exercising breathing to even reach half of your awareness level. It's the first step after all and integral for all the following steps after that. But ... ", Gary stopped suddenly and looked uneasy. As if he was the messenger of a death sentence, he just didn't know how to convey it properly without making the prisoner worried. This worried Arthur even more.

"Just say it please.", Arthur prepared himself for the worst.

"But without any way of attracting the particles, and only seeing the particles is kind of ...

Arthur buried his face in his hands and said:

"Useless."

"Useless."

" ... "

"..."

"The funny thing is that everyone has some talent at attracting particles. It's a natural function of our bodies yet the fact that you aren't able to show any visible signs probably means that ..."

"I have garbage talent, you don't need to say it, I get it, sighhhh", Arthur interrupted him.

"Well, I wouldn't say garbage talent. Garbage isn't a very nice word.", Gary tried consoling him.

"Garbage is garbage, no way to mistake it. So I have a hidden ability to see these particles but it doesn't give me any advantages? Even worse my talent for breathing is lower than, seemingly everybody else?"

" ...", Gary kept his silence, not knowing how to respond.

"So the chances of me learning Infinity force are very low?"

"Not necessarily. It just means that you need to put even more effort into it and that it may take even more time to achieve the average results. Possibly years. I am sorry."

"Is there no other way?", Arthur asked desperately grabbing for the last straws.

"Nope, well there are some, but they very very costly and currently out of your reach."

"Forget it then."

"Its okay Arthur, not everyone can be a great genius like me.", Gary tried to console him somehow, "I am sure you will be a great Pokemon Trainer anyhow. Just take yourself a little more time, remember, step by step.

"No, I can't ...", Arthur mumbled frustrated and threw his gaze onto the ground.

"What did you say?", Gary asked back.

"N-nothing.", it was hard for Arthur to explain Gary why he felt this sense of urgency towards learning the control of his natural energy. It was clearly the right path, his guts told him so. Nevertheless he couldn't change anything about the results. The way things stood right now, it would take a long time for him to learn Infinity Force and find out more about these mysterious thoughts in his mind.

"If you don't mind I ... I would like to go home now ...", Arthur said and changed his clothes.

Before Gary could even say anything Arthur was gone from that small tranquil place.

"Sheeesh, kids these days. I know it's disappointing but, why the rush? He should enjoy his youth some more ..."

....