Creation began on 12-28-19
Creation ended on 12-30-19
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Onto the Next Journey
A/N: All great journeys have to begin with the most essential location of any destination: Home.
The Rayquaza flight from Sinnoh to Kanto wasn't as bad as Fuyutsuki had expected it to be. For one thing, it was the first time he had gone from one place to another on a Pokémon that could carry a dozen or so humans due to its size and endurance. The second thing was the speed of which this dragon was capable of achieving. If there were Pokémon capable of high speeds on the ground and in the water, then the Pokémon that were capable of flight had to be the fastest of them all if Pokémon Trainers that caught them could travel nearly anywhere in a given region they've been to.
And Ikari wants to exploit Pokémon as expendable pawns, not seeing their glory or benevolence, he thought as the town of Pallet came into view. So, this is Pallet Town, huh? This is the town where Shinji learned all that he knows about the Pokémon world. In a way…this town is where his life began anew.
The Rayquaza landed on the ground and everyone got off and got a look at the place that had been Shinji's starting point.
"It looks underdeveloped," Ritsuko stated her opinion. "More space, less buildings."
"Pallet's a small town," Shinji explained. "It's always been this way. The chances of it getting a population or construction advancement boom are a few years from now. Nobody that lives here is in any rush to build more houses or anything of societal significance to the town structure. Besides, most of the space is needed for the Pokémon at Prof. Oak's lab."
"Including the ones you've caught and sent back, right?" Asuka questioned.
"That's right," he said, pointing over to the large building on the small hill away from them. "That's Prof. Oak's lab over there."
Unfortunately, because they had shown up as the afternoon sun was going down, it was getting late and probably not an entirely good idea to go over to Prof. Oak's during a period of rest. This meant that all of them would have to recoup at Shinji's place.
"Shinji," went Rei, getting his attention as she pointed over to a structure that was nearby and looked like it was but recently than any other structure in the town, looking almost…Asian or modern-styled zen architecture, "whose home is that?"
Two stories tall, a basic white coloring, a sliding panel door and floor-to-ceiling windows, the place looked almost parasitic to the town in one sense…and almost futuristic in another sense.
"That's mine," he answered her, which surprised everyone.
"Get out of here," Misato reacted. "There is no way is that house over there is yours."
"If it's not his, then why does it have his name on it?" Kensuke asked her, pointing to the front door, which had a sign on it that was written in Japanese. "I've been with Shinji for over three years, and I would know where he crashes while in Pallet Town."
This was true, since the blackout caused by NERV had affected the subconscious traveling experiment with Kensuke, resulting in a large gap in time that spanned over three years in this world and less than three days in the other world where the blackout occurred.
"How long have you had this place, Shinji?" Antonio wanted to know.
"Shortly after Kensuke and I returned from the Johto Region did Prof. Oak and Mrs. Ketchum reveal that it was mine, less than two years ago," he explained the length of time he had owned the house.
They approached the house and Shinji just realized something and stopped.
"What is it?" Toji asked him.
"The lights are off," he explained his realization, pointing to the windows where light would've been exposed to the outside.
"And that's a bad thing?" Misato decided to question.
Picking up his Eevee, Shinji answered, "If the lights are off, that means she's not here to mind the house, which means she's still at Prof. Oak's."
"Who is?" Hikari spoke up.
"Jynx!" They heard a sound and looked away from the house towards a Jynx, most likely the same one they saw in Shinji's victory portrait in the Hall of Fame due to her skin coloration being black instead of purple. "Jynx!"
The Human Shape Pokémon was running towards them and came to a halt in front Shinji, entrapping him in a bear hug.
"Aaurgh!" He groaned, not even fighting back against her. "Yeah, I've missed you, too."
"Jynx," she said again, letting him go and then bowing in front of everyone else present.
"You've never been formally introduced," he told them. "Everyone, this is Katsuragi, my Jynx. Whenever Kensuke and I aren't around, she watches over the house for us."
"Eevo," Misato greeted Katsuragi, who received a pet on her head from the Jynx.
"Jynx."
"I didn't know Pokémon could mind houses," Fuyutsuki uttered.
"Oh, they do just about everything people can," Kensuke expressed as Katsuragi held up the key to the house. "Unfortunately, Katsuragi here picked up Shinji's neat freak qualities. She never likes to leave a mess lying around. One time, she slapped me."
"Jynx," Katsuragi fumed, tapping the boy on his chest as if to remind him of his mess. "Jynx."
"Is she strict?" Toji questioned.
"Put quite simply, if you make a mess, she will make you clean it if it's left alone for too long."
Katsuragi let them in and turned on the lights, illuminating the whole place. Then, she performed a curtsey in front of them.
"Arigato, Katsuragi," Shinji praised her as he sat his backpack down on the floor in a small cupboard. "Please, everyone, come in. Make yourselves at home."
As she came inside, Rei found such a thing impossible for her to do; her place was a… Well, it was nothing like this place. She had only the minimal of what she needed to live on, but Shinji, he had many things that made the place seem like a home, even if he was only a transient resident of Pallet. Furniture, appliances, and even someone he trusted to look after the place. It just had that welcoming sense that her apartment lacked.
Asuka stepped inside and sat on a large bean bag, looking at a picture on a nearby cabinet that was of a Pikachu and Eevee.
"Cozy," said Ritsuko as she sat on one of the three sofas in the living room.
"Thank you," Shinji praised as he walked towards the back of the house, presumably to the kitchen with his Eevee and Jynx.
"Yarp!" Pen-Pen went, looking at a picture of a group of Piplup hanging on the wall.
"I guess Pen-Pen wouldn't mind seeing the Piplup that Shinji caught," uttered Misato as she looked at a picture of a Lugia and Mewtwo. "Say, Kensuke, did you take these pictures?"
Kensuke came over and looked at the photo she was looking at.
"Most of them," he answered her. "Shinji doesn't have steady hands when holding a camera. It takes five minutes for him just to take one photo."
"Why is that?"
"It was because of one of his worst encounters with Team Rocket during our time in the Johto Region. Believe me when I say there's a side of Shinji that is protective of Pokémon that most people on the wrong side of the line between right and wrong are better off not seeing. Even Shinji isn't himself when an opportunity to express that protective side of him is unleashed."
Misato got the impression that Shinji rarely took any pictures due to shaky memories of actually hurting some grunts for this Pokémon criminal organization. The thought of him demonstrating violence against other people that were deliberately cruel to Pokémon, it was almost as discomforting as the very idea of him returning to pilot the Eva.
"How does he keep from going too far in any situation?" She asked him.
"His Eevee actually saved him once," he answered her. "She looked at him as he was about to cross the line…and he stopped to look at the guy that was prodding a Kangaskhan protecting her children, seeing that he was more afraid of him than going to jail. He handed the guy over to the police and gave his statement, though he kept a keepsake of the experience to remind himself not to let go of his humanity. I think whenever he's involved in matches or contests where he's pitted against other trainers, he can escape his more negative thoughts and just…be himself."
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, grateful that he left Katsuragi in charge of minding the house, Shinji gathered several vegetables for dinner.
"Eee?" Misato got his attention as she hopped onto the countertop and sat down.
"I know, it's crazy, being back after so long in Sinnoh," he told her as he put water in a pot, "but it is good to be back."
"Eevo," she pointed her left paw to a small photo that Kensuke had placed by the sink on the windowsill, depicting Shinji, herself, Kensuke and Brute-Chand, and Hanmyo and her cats.
"You think I'm upset that Hanmyo only came to the Sinnoh League to see me participate in the finals before she left to where we'll see her later?" He asked her as Katsuragi set the stove on. "I'm not that upset. I'm happy that she showed up. And we know where she'll be later…because that's where we'll be later on. This is just recovery and planning for the next region."
"Jynx!" Katsuragi gasped, and ran over to a small closet by the refrigerator and pulled out a small package. "Jynx!"
She brought it over to the table and pointed to Shinji.
He came over and looked at the package, seeing that it was addressed to him from Hanmyo. Opening it, Shinji found that it was a green-colored, hardback book with a picture of a Master Ball embossed on the front cover; it was a journal that Hanmyo had expressed getting for Shinji, who kept details about his life as a Pokémon Trainer written in other diaries that he had here. There was a note behind the journal that read, "You were right about this world, Shinji. It truly is a whole new world that we live in. I understand that now because of you and Kensuke. Mata, Kemi and I aren't sure where we're heading, but I know that you'll know when we do. I hope that one day in the future, you will achieve the goal of returning to your world and the people that await you. If you can reach that end of the road, then maybe one day, I can do the same and return to mine. Best of wishes, your friend, Hanmyo."
"Thank you, Hanmyo," he expressed as he set the journal down on the table and returned to preparing dinner for everyone.
"Hey," he heard Misato's voice behind him and turned to face her, seeing that Hikari, Asuka and Rei were with her. "Need some help?"
He smiled and responded, "Yeah. I never had to cook anything for a lot of people before."
"Jynx," Katsuragi said, assuring him that he was doing fine.
"I never asked, but," Misato stated, "why my last name for her?"
"I caught her once trying to drink a beer can when she thought I wasn't looking…and discovered that she had a tendency to drink whatever she could grab. As independent as she is, I was still the trainer…and had to be responsible for her. She's kinda like you, in a way, Misato, independent…but also a dependent. Who else would willingly put up with a degree of craziness caused by someone?"
"I don't think I've been able to drink anything other than canned coffee since you've been here," she told him.
-x-
Shinji had explained to her that the Pokémon League in the Unova Region would be suspended for some time even if a Pokémon Trainer traveling there did obtain all the badges necessary to compete, but there were still sights to behold for a former assassin with no other goals beyond exploring this foreign land, so Hanmyo would go to Unova for a few weeks before heading to Kalos where the Pokémon League there would be going on. It was her hope that by the time the league over there began, Shinji will have already been there and have gained the badges necessary to compete. As she boarded the plane destined for Unova, the girl took one last look at where she and her cats were and sighed.
"See you next time, Shinji Ikari," she uttered and boarded the plane.
-x-
Setting his badge case of Sinnoh Region badges on the mantle over his desk in his room alongside his cases for his Kanto, Johto and Hoenn Region badges, followed by his Sinnoh League trophy, Shinji sat on his futon and contemplated how many days he would spend in Pallet Town before heading to Unova for his head start in gaining entry into the Pokémon League there before going to Kalos for their Pokémon League.
"Eevo," went Misato to him as she lay on her pillow beside his futon.
"We'll probably be here for a few days before we go anywhere, girl," he told her, deciding to turn in for the night after he got everybody settled as best he could.
A four-bedroom house and over seven people meant some would be sleeping on the floor wherever they could.
-x-
He was checking the posts of people that had watched the last match and found nothing but praise, acceptance or even positive criticism about Shinji's victory against Cynthia and the defeat-by-default of the previous champion, Tobias. This left Gendo feeling more miffed towards his son than ever before, feeling that nothing NERV did would amount to the success the brat had achieved from his universal displacement. That…and knowing about the past he had forgotten about thanks to whatever Psychic Pokémon he had to aid in his recollection, making his usefulness in his scenario more uncertain, whether he was able to return to this world or not. With virtually nothing left to lose, he wrote his own review on the latest post, expressing his belief on how Shinji was, in his own words, a ridiculous embarrassment of a child that didn't deserve to win the Sinnoh League.
If he could at least discredit his son to some degree, he could make himself feel a little better over his lack of progress in finding a Palkia or Dialga to return to this world. But if that didn't work, then he would take more drastic measures to put a dent in the Giovanni Corporation's dimension experiment that didn't seem to be taking the path that was initially the desired goal.
Worthless pilot, he thought as he revisited the other online video posts that people across the world had commented. You think that you're special just because you won one tournament? You're as fallible as everyone else is! You're an insignificant waste of space!
-x-
"…Ah…" Ritsuko groaned as she awoke to the new day. "I don't suppose that Shinji keeps any coffee lying around here, does he?"
"Unfortunately, he doesn't drink anything stronger than herbal tea," Misato told her as she awoke. "He might have some canned coffee, though."
Meanwhile, in the living room, Antonio, waking up on the sofa, sighed as he got up; he was used to sleeping on couches to the point where it was either a sofa or the floor.
"Jynx," went Katsuragi to him as he saw her in the hallway.
"Good morning," he greeted her.
Stepping into the kitchen, the man noticed Shinji outside in a garden patch, presumably having awoken earlier than the rest of them had, and he was picking oranges from the tree in front of him, assisted by his Eevee.
"Um, Katsuragi, do you care for the garden, too?" Antonio asked.
"Jynx," she answered with a positive nod; as the appointed caretaker of the house, she was responsible for everything around the house, including the garden.
Apparently, Shinji was relying on Misato's judgment before he picked an orange and tossed it into the basket. The Eevee would climb the branches and examine each orange, and then use her tail to stir Shinji to the ones that were ripe until they had enough for orange juice.
"When did he get up?" Antonio turned around and saw Asuka and the others walking into the kitchen, looking irritable.
"Your guess is as good as mine," he responded to the redhead.
"An hour ago," they heard Shinji's voice.
"Gah!" Antonio gasped.
"I sleep early, I wake up early," the boy explained as he and his Eevee returned to the kitchen with a basket of oranges. "Uh, anyone hungry for…pancakes?"
"I don't see any pancakes," Toji told him, and Katsuragi walked over to the stove and opened the oven, pulling out a large saucer of recently-made pancakes. "Oh. Yes, please. Who doesn't love pancakes for breakfast?"
"I've never had pancakes," said Rei to them, which surprised Shinji.
"You're about to enjoy something that tastes delicious," he informed her.
To be continued…
A/N: This is just a rest and relaxation chapter until Shinji can get himself together and prepare for the next journey. Also, we needed to see where Shinji would crash and burn upon his return from each region and who looked after the place whenever he wasn't there. Development-wise, Shinji's place would be the only building that has a look that stands out from other homes and Pallet may not look anything like it did in Pokémon Origins for quite some time. And as for Gendo, anyone have any idea as to what he might do?