After taking a much-needed shower, I reentered the guest bedroom to find that Oak had oh-so generously taken the time to wash my clothes for me. He had also (thankfully) taken Eevee out of the room. Wouldn’t want ‘em to see my length, male or female.

  “Huh. Gonna have to thank him for that later.”

  After swiftly throwing on my clothes, I exited the room and looked around the living spaces, trying to find him. Strangely enough, he seemed to just have disappeared out of existence, which wouldn’t be too different from what happened to me, actually.

  “Uhh, hello? Professor Oak? Anybody here?” I call out. Turns out, there is somebody here. The Pikachu. I see him walk into the fa?ade of the doorway, fresh cup of coffee in his hand, look at me, roll his eyes, and continue on his merry way.

  It’s pretty clear that Professor Oak isn’t in his living quarters, so I decide to check out the other parts of the lab, to see if he’s over in those sectors. I checked the main atrium, which was more like a museum/visitor center, now that I’m actually looking through it. No Oak there.

  “Where in Creation’s name could he be?” I mentally ask myself. “Well, there’s still more to go through, and if he isn’t inside, chances are he’s outside. I decide to try to open the unmarked door to the right of the main room. Key word: try. As it turns out, it’s locked. I’m out of options, so I go through the only room I haven’t looked in. The lab.

  I try to open the door, and it isn’t locked, for a change. I’m now standing in a gargantuan room that is just screaming sterility at me. Rightfully so, wouldn’t want any important samples/research getting accidentally contaminated. I begin to walk through the rows and rows of scientific equipment and experiments, and eventually come upon Oak hunched over a desk, doing… something.

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  “Hey, Oak?” I quietly state, as not to startle him.

  “Oh! Hello there, Ajax!” Oak responds. I take a seat on a stainless steel stool as he pushes off whatever he was working on to the edge of the table.

  “So, whatcha’ working on?” I question.

  “Oh, I can’t tell you the specifics, unfortunately, but I can tell you that it’s something for the Pokédex.” He replies.

  “Okay, gotcha. Say, have you seen Eevee anywhere? They aren’t in the lab, and they might have wandered outside somehow, but I thought I’d ask you first.”

  “Eevee? Oh, they’re right here! I was going to leave it with your clothes, but that didn’t seem like the right time. ” Oak states, pulling out a Pokéball from his pocket. “Also healed them of any nicks and cuts that they might have sustained during their brief stay in the wild.”

  My brain immediately short-circuited, and I froze up.

  Did Eevee just become my starter Pokémon? I don’t even own them! For everything in existence, I don’t even know if they’d be willing to travel with me!

  “But if you want to find their old trainer, they need to travel with you anyway.” The voice in the back of my head whispered again. I figured that if they went this far with me, then they would most likely follow me to find their trainer. I’d have to ask them later.

  “O-okay.” I said as I hesitantly took the Pokéball from his hand, and it immediately shrunk down to half of its regular size, like it did in the anime.

  “Huh. Neat.” I remarked, as I stuffed it in my pocket. We proceeded to sit in silence, only making occasional small talk as he continued working on his thing. Suddenly, I had an interesting thought cross my mind.

  “Hey, Professor Oak?”

  “Yes? What is it, Ajax?”

  “How many Pokémon Professors are there?”

  “In the world, or just in Kanto?”

  “In Kanto.”

  “Well, just because I am head professor doesn’t mean that I am the only professor in Kanto. There are many other professors out there, but I am head professor for a reason, after all.”

  “Interesting…”

  not include those, at least not for a while.