Creation began on 05-05-21
Creation ended on 05-07-21
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Professor Oak's impression
A/N: What exactly did Shinji do for two weeks before leaving Pallet Town with his Eevee to travel to Celadon City to pickup Prof. Oak's parcel?
It was quite a surprise that, despite having only the barest understanding of Pokémon, Shinji Ikari was learning much faster about them from the most brilliant mind in all of Kanto. After the first week of learning about the types and abilities each creature possessed or could learn to possess, Prof. Oak then had Shinji participate in what was called the Pokémon League Admissions Exam, which was currently happening in Viridian City.
"What makes you think that Shinji has the skills necessary to be a Pokémon Trainer, Prof. Oak?" Tracey asked.
"Nothing more than a hunch," Oak explained to him as he examined the Eevee's healing injuries after a few days of bed rest. "Even if he doesn't have the skills necessary to be a trainer, there are other options for him if he's stuck here for the time being. Even though he didn't have any understanding of Pokémon, he still made a conscious decision to try and help this Eevee."
"Yet, he's never seen such an animal until he woke up outside of Pallet, dressed in a strange, diving suit."
"Eee," went the Eevee, not sounding very upbeat about her recovery.
"How's Eevee?" Tracy asked, changing the subject.
"Most of her injuries have recovered, including this strange one at the base of her tail," Oak responded, "but this is only physically. I'm not sure how she got injured the way she did out there. None of her injuries are consistent with any of the local Pokémon."
"Is it possible that she was likely being abused by some people?"
"That's possible. If so, the question is why, though? What reason would there be to torture an Eevee like this?"
"Well, Eevee are not a Pokémon you'd find out in the wilderness often. Maybe a tracker or collector, someone being employed by someone else to look for wild Eevee and procure them."
Professor Oak examined the Eevee's left ear and mouth and cleared her for walking around.
Slowly, the Evolution Pokémon got off the table and walked around the lab.
"Eee…" she sighed.
"She…seems depressed," Tracey pointed out to Oak.
"Yeah," he agreed with his assistant. "She's only physically recovered so far, but has yet to recover mentally and emotionally from whatever happened out there."
-x-
"Identify this Pokémon," the instructor told the participants as they were shown a body part of a Pokémon on the screen behind himself.
Shinji, looking at the appendage, got the feeling that he had seen it somewhere before…and recalled where he had seen it before.
It's that furry part of the Eevee where the head meets the body! He realized and chose the Pokémon that best matched the appendage. I wonder how the one I found is doing back Prof. Oak's? I hope she's feeling a little more better after a week.
Although he was suggested to take this test by Prof. Oak in order to challenge his recently-acquired knowledge of Pokémon, Shinji found himself thinking about the Eevee after he left Pallet Town to Viridian City. He wasn't really sure if he would even pass the exam, as he felt like he was inadequate to have any success in something that seemed so…out of his league, wherever his league even was.
"…And the answer is…the fur around an Eevee's neck," went the instructor to the participants.
"What?!" A woman gasped. "I thought it was a Primeape!"
-x-
"Scyther," Tracey's Scyther uttered to the Eevee as it walked down the hallway. "Scy."
"Eee," she responded and walked past the aged Mantis Pokémon.
It wasn't personal, her ignoring others around herself, including the two humans that were there, but she did go through a horrible and traumatic experience that was most unfortunate and was trying to put it behind her. Yet the human she met when she was thirsty and unable to get a drink of water from a nearby source was not here…and it felt depressing. Where was he at a time like this and why wasn't he here with her?
Sniff. She sniffed the air and got a scent of the human that brought her here to recover nearby.
"Eevo," she chirped and ran further down the hall, finding a small room.
Upon entering it, she found nothing but the strange outfit the boy had on when they first met, lying on a futon. Disheartened, she hopped onto the futon and slumped onto the discarded outfit.
"Eee," she sighed.
-x-
"Huh?" Shinji went, getting the feeling that he had heard something from nearby.
"Is something wrong?" The woman in front of him asked, and he turned back to face her.
"I just thought I heard a… I thought I heard a voice calling out to me," he explained, looking down at the individual belts that held three Poké Balls. "It sounded like an Eevee."
"An Eevee? Maybe you're just hearing things," she suggested. "Then again, this is a city. Eevee are more likely to be around here than they are in woods or on mountains."
As much as he wanted to believe that, Shinji couldn't for some reason. After he had completed the first two tests of this admissions exam, he was about to be tested on how well he could handle commanding Pokémon in a battle. So far, his theoretical and practical knowledge of Pokémon he had studied the past week had scored him an average among twelve other participants, but none of this would amount to anything if he couldn't deal with the pressures of battling. The only issue so far was just making sure he picked the right Pokémon to battle the instructor with. His chances, along with everyone else's, were completely random and up to his decisiveness.
Eevo! He thought he heard the Eevee again, and his left hand picked up the belt on his far left.
"Are you ready?" The woman asked him.
"Yes, ma'am," he answered, and left towards the practice field. I think I did hear her. I was hearing her.
"You look like you're troubled by something, young man," the instructor told him.
"Just nervous and hearing a Pokémon that isn't even here, sir," he responded.
"Are you ready to begin?"
"Yes."
The instructor threw his first Poké Ball onto the field…and Shinji saw a large bundle of vines with two eyes and feet.
A Tangela? Shinji realized, holding one of his balls and wondering what kind of Pokémon he'd be using in the first match. Grass-Types are vulnerable to Fire-Types and Ice-Types, but I don't know what Pokémon is in this ball. It could be anything. A Cubone, a Spearow, maybe even Poliwag. I don't know what'll happen.
He then threw the ball onto the field and it opened up to reveal…a reddish-yellow Pokémon with fluffy fur on its head, body and tail.
"Flare!" It growled.
A Flareon? He realized; Eevee was among the earliest Pokémon he had to study, and it surprised him with how it was the only known Pokémon to possess such a unique evolutionary family, able to turn into any variety of evolved Pokémon under a different attribute, depending upon the environmental requirements it's met with. It's a Fire-Type, so Tangela won't be able to stand up to getting burnt if it's at a high enough level.
"Begin!" The referee declared.
"Tangela, use Stun Spore!" The instructor ordered his Pokémon, and Tangela shook its body, releasing a golden dust into the air.
"Uh, Ember, Flareon!" Shinji commanded, and Flareon spat out a stream of fire from its mouth, burning the Stun Spore and scorching Tangela.
"Tang…" Tangela groaned, and fell back.
"Flareon wins," the referee declares.
"Not bad for a beginner," the instructor praised Shinji, "but can you handle round two?"
"We'll see," Shinji responded, feeling like he was starting to get the hang of this; even if it was mere luck and not skill, he couldn't turn away from this until he finished the test and got his final results. "Let's go."
-x-
"…I found her," Tracey told Prof. Oak, leading him to the room where Shinji had left his plugsuit lying around, where the Eevee had fallen asleep on it. "What do you think?"
Professor Oak had gotten the impression that this Eevee had developed a trust issue and probably didn't trust humans as far as she could tolerate some to a degree. But, given that she was brought to his lab for medical care by a stranger that was not from around here, it was possible that she believed that she could trust Shinji. As Pokémon with trust issues stemming from traumatic experiences often needed to be around people that were least likely to reopen fresh wounds that had yet to heal. Still, this was only a theory, as they needed to wait for Shinji to return from the Pokémon League Admissions Exam.
"It's only a theory, but she might trust only Shinji to be around her," he told his assistant.
"Why Shinji?"
"Sometimes, when you don't know who to trust in a place you don't have any familiarity with, the best person to try to trust is a complete stranger that may have no hidden agenda. That may actually be what she needs right now."
"I was getting the impression that she was becoming somewhat attached to him."
-x-
Thud! The instructor's Graveler fell to Shinji's Vaporeon, winning him the entire match.
"I…I won?" Shinji uttered; the second round had been against the instructor's Wartortle and his Jolteon after the first round against his Tangela with a Flareon.
"Not bad," the instructor praised Shinji. "You might have what it takes to win the Pokémon League one day."
Shinji wasn't too sure about that; he was still learning about Pokémon and where he needed to go in order to pick up Prof. Oak's parcel. Worse was that he had no clue as to how, or even if, he could find his way back to his world, which, just because he was thinking about it, had probably moved on without him.
Eee, he heard that Eevee in his head again, and he found himself looking at his final results.
Out of the seventy-four participants that took the exam, only fifteen of them would pass…and Shinji found that he had made it in fifth place with a ninety-seven percent out of one-hundred. Even if he didn't know everything and had more luck than skill, he still qualified to enter the Pokémon League without having to travel so far and obtain the badges necessary to compete in the league or even face other trainers. And yet…he didn't feel at all cheerful as he thought he probably should've. Sure, he passed the exam, but he didn't feel like he had achieved much.
Why do I feel like I cheated or something? He wondered.
-x-
"…So, how did you do in the exam, Shinji Ikari?" Tracey asked Shinji when he returned to Prof. Oak's lab late in the afternoon.
"I passed with a ninety-seven percent score," he revealed.
"Huh?!" Professor Oak gasped, his shirt and lab coat covered in a wet spot. "You got ninety-seven percent?! That's stupendous! Did they give you a badge for passing?"
"Yes (Shinji reached into his right pocket and revealed the badge that would guarantee him entry into the Pokémon League). This is it."
"You don't seem happy about it, though," Tracey realized.
"Every once in a while, I thought I was hearing the Eevee I found and brought here," he explained. "Is that unusual here, hearing things that nobody else hears?"
"No," Prof. Oak answered. "It may actually be a sign."
"Of what?"
"Maybe you were supposed to find that Eevee when you showed up here last week. She didn't seem in high spirits when you left to take the exam. Practically slept on that diving suit of yours that you changed out of."
"Well, where is she now?"
"Eevo!" They all heard the Eevee as she ran from down the hall and stood in front of them, followed by Tracey's Scyther and Marill. "Eee!"
"We believe that she has become…attached to you, Shinji," Tracey informed him.
"Yeah… I think I might be attached to her, as well," he responded, and then pointed to the wet spot on Prof. Oak. "What happened there?"
"Oh, Eevee went and… She seems to have a problem with being picked up and held by people," Prof. Oak stated simply.
This led Shinji to get the impression that the Eevee…relieved herself on him.
"I wonder," he expressed as he walked over to the Eevee and then lowered to meet her gaze.
He picked her up off the floor and held her. So far, just a moment had gone by…and nothing happened to indicate that she would have any spills with him.
"I don't think she's going to have accidents with you, Shinji," Prof. Oak suggested. "She seems to trust you."
"Why me?"
"You found her first and brought her here. She seems to have trust issues stemming from abuse from whoever harmed her before you met. Trust isn't something easy to earn with Pokémon that have been harmed by people for whatever reasons they had to have done so."
"But that's just terrible. No reason, whatsoever, should justify harming Pokémon for some…whatever it is that people like that do."
"Sometimes, it's greed. Oftentimes, it's for scientific advancement. And once in a while, some people do what they do to Pokémon because they think they can get away with it in some reckless pursuit of some ambitious goal."
"Like power?"
"Yeah."
For the first time since he showed up here, Shinji actually felt disgusted by what certain people chose to do with Pokémon. He knew battling was one of the legal things they could be used for because it helped them to get stronger and adaptable against other Pokémon, and there were people like Prof. Oak that studied Pokémon for scientific purposes…but were more moral and knew where and when to draw the line…for the most part. But to treat Pokémon as though they were…expendable…made Shinji want to puke in disgust.
"That's just horrible," he told them, and then petted the Eevee on her head. "How many Pokémon are there in the world?"
"In this region alone or globally?" Tracey asked him.
"Uh…regionally?"
"Well, this is the Kanto Region, and there are at least one-hundred-fifty known species of Pokémon," Prof. Oak explained. "There are other regions in the world with Pokémon that can only be found there, while nationally, there are more than three-hundred known species of Pokémon in the world. New species are being discovered all the time."
Shinji then put the Eevee down and took out his admissions badge that would get him automatic entry into the Pokémon League. Then…after a heavy sigh, he put the badge down on a nearby table, feeling like he just made a big choice for himself.
"What exactly is a Pokémon Trainer?" He questioned.
"Someone at the age of ten or older that travels on a journey to discover, capture and train Pokémon to face other Pokémon owned by other trainers and to compete in the Pokémon League," Prof. Oak answered him.
"How long a journey?"
"It depends on the trainer."
"And facing Gym Leaders?"
"Facing Gym Leaders and winning against them to earn a certain number of badges to gain entry into the Pokémon League," went Tracey.
"All of which are reasons to take the traditional route instead of the route taken by those that have obstacles keeping them from going down that path, like their age, health or jobs. I should go out there and see what there is in the world and find my way."
It sounded as though Shinji had given it some thought and realized that while he could've gone the easy way to the Pokémon League if he wanted to now, he wanted to explore the possibility of being a Pokémon Trainer rather than a regular person. Regular people rarely had anything to do with Pokémon, while Pokémon Trainers often had much interaction with them almost everyday.
Professor Oak's impression of Shinji was that he was similar to Ash in that he wanted to see the world and meet new Pokémon, but had different reasons for wanting to get out of his initial safe zone and explore his foreign surroundings.
"Eevo?" Eevee went, noticing that Shinji had walked over to a desk where a row of empty Poké Balls lay and picked one up.
"When do I begin?" He asked.
Professor Oak definitely had a positive impression of Shinji having potential to be a great Pokémon Trainer…if he wanted to.
-x-
It was almost surprising to know that Eevee had an issue with Poké Balls; apparently, she was just uncomfortable with being confined, not all that different from other Pokémon that didn't enjoy being inside Poké Balls. Not that Shinji minded; if it was him, he wouldn't want to be inside a Poké Ball, either, and he'd been inside an Entry Plug of an Evangelion for hours at a time, the last of which was over ten hours before the entire system started to give out. He had remembered being cold, tired, hungry…and just wanted the situation he was in to stop. And then…he found himself outside the plug, outside the Eva, in another place where there were no such things as a world ruined by giant monsters that had an agenda to destroy the human race, where people had never heard of Second Impact or Angels or NERV, and where, to his surprise, the only phenomenon that was a constant reminder of how he knew he was in a different world were these strange animals that lived alongside them.
"Okay," he went as he held the Poké Ball in his hand and shrunk it down. "We won't use the ball unless it's absolutely necessary. Can we work with that?"
"Eee," the Eevee agreed with him; she really didn't want to be inside any Poké Ball at all, not unless absolutely necessary, like her life was in danger or something.
Just two minutes ago, Eevee had been a wild Pokémon that was injured…and now was the first Pokémon of Shinji Ikari. And surprisingly, she didn't resist being caught by Shinji; she really wanted to trust the boy.
"Congratulations, Shinji," Prof. Oak praised him on catching Eevee. "What will you call her?"
"Huh?" Shinji reacted, confused.
"Certain Pokémon Trainers give their Pokémon nicknames," Tracey explained to him. "It gives them more of an identity, separating them from other Pokémon that are in the wild or owned by other trainers."
"Oh."
But Shinji wasn't sure what to call his Eevee. She was the first Pokémon he had, and she was among the majority of strange creatures that spoke out their names or a fraction of their names as a form of communication. He didn't know what to address her as, but he was sure he wasn't going to keep calling her "Eevee". And then…just one name came to mind; the last person he had screamed out to, the first person he met since showing up to a fortress city to meet his father.
"Misato," he uttered to the Eevee, smiling. "That's what I'll call you. Misato."
"Eevo," she replied, accepting her nickname.
To be continued…
A/N: This was just to get the impression that Prof. Oak had an opinion about Shinji that was positive after they met. Also, what would've compelled Shinji to go on a Pokémon journey and not just go to Celadon City for Prof. Oak to pick up his mysterious parcel that he couldn't ask Ash to get for him because he was on another journey in the Johto Region, so I had him take the Pokémon League Admissions Exam…and he passed with adequate success, even getting the badge to enter the league. But what did y'all think of Prof. Oak's impression of Shinji and Shinji's limited time spent taking the exam and putting his knowledge of Pokémon to practical use in a battle?