Zatanna and I stayed out in the training ground for the next couple of hours. I watched her as she explored the area. Eventually I called her to me and began working on the next part of the taming process. I taught her to listen and follow my commands. She learned quickly, and in a matter of minutes, I had her following commands such as 'sit' and 'stay', not very different from training dogs and cats.

Once we had all the basic commands down, I decided to try some simple attack commands. "Zatanna. Look," I said to her. I pointed to one of the wooden practice dummies close to us. Zatanna looked at the dummy then turned back to me. "Zatanna," I said, "Scratch." Zatanna didn't need me to say it twice.

She began running at the practice dummy. Just before Zatanna reached the dummy, she leapt and scratched it in the face. The dummy's head shook for a second but remained undamaged. Zatanna turned to look at me. "Good girl," I praised. "Good job." She wagged her tail slightly and barked at me.

We kept practicing her Scratch and then eventually moved onto other attacks like Fury Swipes and other moves that Zatanna would likely know. By the time the sun started to set, I had trained Zatanna to the point where she could use Scratch, Fury Swipes, Pursuit and Hone Claws on command without hesitation.

At that point, I called it a day.

I pulled out her pokeball and Zatanna immediately began to tense up. "Stop!" I commanded. She quickly lied down. "You'll have to get used to being inside this ball. I can't keep you out all the time. I'll be sure to let you out whenever I can. Understand?" I told her firmly. She didn't do anything. "Do you Understand?" I repeated firmly. She rolled over and presented me her underbelly again. "Good." I pointed the pokeball at her. "Return." Zatanna did not put up any struggle as she was recalled into her pokeball.

I gathered up my things and began to head back to the Centre. Once I reached it, I entered the computer room and logged into my account. I placed Zatanna's pokeball in the device and activated the healing program to help her get back her energy. While the device was working on Zatanna, I made a call to my family.

My aunt and uncle were overjoyed to see that I was alright. They were both relieved that I passed my Ordeal in one piece. Despite the harrowing experience, most of my injuries were simply scratches and bruises, nothing a few sprays couldn't fix.

They enquired further about my Pokémon and I explained all the progress I made today. They were worried about me dealing with a Dark type Pokémon but happy that I was doing well. My aunt asked me when I would be able to visit. I told her to give me a week or so. I wanted to make D-rank first and take a couple missions before I made my visit. I spoke to Rosa for a few minutes as well.

She was really excited to see me on the screen. She relentlessly asked me questions about my Ordeal and Zatanna. Finally, I told her that it was getting late, and I had to get up early and train some more. I said my goodbyes and promised to keep in touch.

When I entered the barracks, I found Bradley lying on his bed with a bag of ice on his forehead.

"You look like shit," I said bluntly, earning a glare from Bradley. "No luck with the Whismur then?"

"You guessed right," he sighed, breaking the glare. "The little bastard did not listen to a word I said. Every time I released him from the pokeball, he would hit me with Supersonic then blast Echoed Voice at me. I gave up once the headache got so bad, I could barely see straight. I'll try again tomorrow."

"You may want to rethink your method for taming him." I suggested. "Talk to one of the middle-ranked trainers. I'm sure one of them can give you a good idea you can try."

"Right," he replied sourly. After a moment he asked, "so how was your day?"

"It went much better than I hoped." I told him. "I think I have Zatanna half trained at this point..."

***

The next morning Bradley and I woke up early to continue with our Pokémon. Instead of eating in the cafeteria today, I grabbed my food and left the Centre. I took Zatanna to different training ground to work on her some more. She continued to obey my commands without resistance.

The only brief setback we had was when we came across another trainer at one of the larger training grounds working with his Pokémon. As soon as Zatanna spotted them, she growled and Dark energy surrounded her like a bubble. Before she could reach her target, I recalled her quickly. After apologising to the trainer, I took Zatanna to an empty training ground to deal with this issue.

I lectured her firmly for some time. I kept stressing how she could not attack other humans or even other Pokémon unless I gave her the command to attack. Once I was done with the lecture I decided to see if she would obey the rules. We wandered around for a bit to see how she would react when coming across other trainers.

Although she was tense whenever I talked to one, she did not attack them. I decided to reward her by letting her run free in one of the empty training grounds. After a while I gave her some of my sandwich and recalled her when she finished eating.

I decided it was time to train my Rookidee. An hour later, after swapping out my pokeballs, I arrived in a small forest. I made sure that I had everything with me.

A burst of white light and a small, dark-blue bird appeared. It hopped about inspecting its new surroundings before its beady red eyes settled on me. It cocked its head analysing me whilst it perched on a branch.

Surprisingly, it had yet to attack me. Man, and bird. We stared at each other. Sky-blue vs dark red. Then, without warning, it resounded a strange war cry and dived straight at me. Almost casually, I recalled it back to its pokeball, releasing the bird after a moment.

"That," I reprimanded, "Is no way one should greet their saviour."

Giving an angry squawk, it moved to attack again, and I recalled it again. This repeated several times until I was fed up with its belligerent behaviour and knocked the persistent bird out cold for a while.

When it was conscious it perched itself from afar. Slowly, once I made sure that it wouldn't attack me again, I reached into my pockets and presented some dried fruits, placing them on a nearby branch. I used the same method with Zatanna, promising that he'll get stronger if he were to listen to my commands, this time sweetening the deal with revenge.

"Synin," I said. The dark blue bird lifted its beak from the fruits and stared at me. "Your name is Synin from now on."

Learning from my mistake, I laid out some ground rules for Synin to follow. Afterwards, I trained him in simple commands, and then onto attacking when commanded. By the time the sun began to set, I was able to get Synin to use Peck, Fury Attack and Sand-Attack on command.

Nearby, another trainer had seen me training him. After watching me for a bit, he walked over and gave me some advice on teaching him specific type moves among other things. I kept an eye on Synin, in case he tried to attack like Zatanna did, which he surprisingly didn't. Probably because he was able to learn Power Trip, a Dark type move that deals more physical damage the more buffs he gains.