Lulu looks at the running path then back to Julian, shaking her head. Without verbally elaborating, she steps forward and presses a paw to Julian's back, urging him to bend at the waist. After that, she steps behind him and takes both of his wrists, pulling his arms behind him until they're parallel to the ground. At the same time, she gently unballs his fists until his fingers are free and straight. This stance is almost like…!
"Oh no!" Julian straightens up and feels his face burn with secondhand embarrassment, mind instantly going back to the poor nerdy kids who ran in such a stance back in high school gym class. Few people were kind to them. "That might work for you since you're fast enough that air resistance is actually a problem, but not for humans. I'm not running like that."
The high-speed, low-drag run of the Lucario is cool to watch, of that there is no doubt. It thrills a boyish part of Julian to see ninja dogs do ninja dog things, and he doubts the stunts will ever get old. It simply appeals to him on a level that cares little for practicality.
But a normal human replicating such a thing? Ha!
Lulu's frown deepens into a scowl. She steps closer once again, pushing his back to bend and pulling his arms back out before pointing back at the track. "Ririon, lua!" She says with a short, irritated growl.
"And I'm telling you," Julian straightens up again. "It doesn't work like that. Do you want me to prove it to you?" Honestly, what is she thinking?
Lulu nods resolutely, crossing her arms as she does so.
"Fine." Julian sighs and runs a hand through his sweaty hair, inwardly cringing at how gritty and rough it feels. "Let's do this."
He and Lulu walk away from the stomped-dirt track over to a shrub-flanked tree that makes up one of the natural walls around the encampment. 'Let's see, I just need something I can… aha!'
Roughly thirty or so meters away is a large boulder that the Riolu of the pack love to clamber and play on. It'll work just fine.
"Okay, here's how this is going to go," he points to the boulder in the distance. "I'm going to run as fast as I can from this tree to the rock using both my way and your way. When the way I do it inevitably gets a faster time, you'll quit bothering me about it, okay?"
Lulu nods easily, appearing completely unbothered.
"Right…" The blonde blinks at how easy her agreement is. "Here I go…"
Taking a deep, steadying breath, Julian pushes off the ground as hard as he can with his lead foot and focuses everything on his run. One foot in front of the other, and arms pumping to keep him balanced in the wet grass. 'One, two, three, four, five, s- '
Just before he can begin to count the sixth second, the man-turned-teen passes the rock and slows to a stop, standing for a moment to catch his breath. 'It feels like I've been doing that a lot this morning…' He turns and slowly walks back to Lulu and the tree, placing a palm over his chest and feeling his heart beginning to settle once more.
"Just a little over five seconds," Julian comments as he reaches Lulu and leans back against the tree. A second later he decides against leaning his back into the bark as it makes his shirt stick to his sweaty back uncomfortably. "Once my heart settles, I'm going to try again with your… ninja run." He hesitates to name it. "Trust me on this, Lulu. You're going to feel a little bit silly wasting your time like this."
The Lucario just raises an eyebrow and even has the gall to smirk. She says nothing else.
After a moment of rest, the blonde teen sighs and takes the low-drag stance that Lulu insists on, trying and failing to distance himself from the embarrassment burning his cheeks. Like last time, he pushes off as hard as he can with his forward-most foot and sprints forward with all his might, arms splayed out behind him. 'One, two, three, four, fi-'
He zips past rock before he can complete five.
'-ve, six. Wait-!'
He tries to stop, but overestimates his momentum and instead tumbles to the ground in a heap when his heels slip in the grass. Julian grunts when the fall knocks the wind from his lungs.
"Ririon!"
Lulu is by his side in a flash and quickly hoists him to his feet as if he weighs nothing.
Julian, however, is too lost in thought to ward off her fretting. 'How did I do that? I used everything I had for my first run, but the second one was faster?'
Coming to terms with the supernatural powers wielded by the pokemon around him took time, but was doable. How did he do that?
That was another day that Julian spent mostly in thought. From there on out, he ran as the Lucario did without any protest.
'What was the world record for the 30 meter sprint again? Was that even an official record?'
Regardless, Julian found his time dropping a little more each day.
On his seventeenth day, the next clue of what might be going on revealed itself.
Julian sighs, taking deep controlled breaths as he finishes his morning stretches with Lulu. As per usual, his Lucario partner settles beside him with her legs folded in her forepaws in her lap. She glows a faint blue as wisps of aura dance around her. What exactly she's doing, Julian isn't 100% sure. Aura training? Some kind of cooldown? He's got some doubt that it's the first one as he looks around.