To grow up in the Oak family meant starting from higher ground than ordinary people, and what you could get your hands on was out of the ordinary as well.
"My Pokémon were trained for me by my grandfather. Without that I wouldn't even have reached Gym-class. Set beside you, it really does make me ashamed."
Daisy Oak said it with feeling.
Vance smiled and said:
"Everybody has the things they're good at. These happen to be mine."
"Is he really that impressive?"
Hearing them talk, Ash stopped eating and looked at Vance, and then at Daisy Oak.
Advanced Breeder this, and a great many breeding terms besides — he did not understand a word of it, but it certainly sounded impressive.
He had no idea what it meant, but it was clearly a great thing.
"Idiot, of course he's impressive. This is Vance — he's an Advanced Breeder, and from what Grandpa says he's a Gym-class Trainer and a Psychic as well, and he does research on Pokémon science. You tell me that isn't impressive."
Gary rolled his eyes, and still explained it quietly to his friend.
His friend had seen nothing of the world. He, Gary, understood it well enough.
Any single one of those, taken on its own, was already outstanding; put them all together, and in a young man at that — and that was not impressive?
Even Gary, who had seen a great deal and had his own share of pride, could not help feeling that he did not measure up.
There were a great many fields where no amount of effort would do him any good — psychic power, for one.
"Is that so. I still don't understand it, but never mind, it's impressive and that's that. One day I'll be more impressive than Vance."
Ash thought about it, could make no sense of it at all, and stopped trying. All he need remember was that it was impressive.
"You......"
Seeing Ash so blithely free of care, Gary was left choking on it.
"Mm, mm, Ash has it the right way round — cheerful and full of ambition. Gary, you ought to learn from Ash."
Professor Oak put in a word at just the right moment, looking at Ash with warm approval. His grandson thought about things far too much. Ash's way was very good indeed.
"Hahaha, did you hear that? Even Professor Oak says you should learn from me."
Ash said it smugly.
"I certainly won't."
Gary said it with contempt and turned his face away.
He was not about to learn from Ash — thoughtless, mindless, hare-brained all day long, not the least bit grown up.
"This is entertaining."
Vance was smiling as well. Watching Ash and Gary bicker as children was rather entertaining.
As he recalled, of the two of them Ash went further along the Trainer's road, and won a Championship as well; whether he ever got his wish and became a Pokémon Master, Vance did not know.
They were soon finished with the meal. Daisy Oak cleared away the bowls and chopsticks, and Vance was invited by Professor Oak into a quiet, elegant side room for tea and talk.
"It isn't nice at all."
Ash took one mouthful and started complaining.
He really could not tell what these grown-ups were about. There was nothing nice about the tea, it was bitter and it puckered your mouth, and not the least bit sweet.
Gary drank a mouthful after him and, strange to say, thought exactly what Ash did.
"Off you go and play, the pair of you. You're still young, you can't taste it. Wait until you've grown up and it will come."
"Hee hee, off we go."
Ash and Gary put down their cups and ran out to play together.
Inside, Vance and Professor Oak were left kneeling on the mats, tasting the tea and talking at their ease.
"Legendary Pokémon and ordinary Pokémon — leaving aside a certain few of them, the difference isn't really so great. They simply command more power, they touch the power of heaven and earth more easily, and the rules by which power flows within a domain. But at the Elite-Four-class level, an ordinary Pokémon with good tactical direction behind it can still beat them. Don't let yourself be frightened by them."
Professor Oak said it clearly and firmly, having come round to the subject.
"Naturally not. I trust my partners aren't any worse than they are."
Vance answered with a smile. At the same level he was arrogant enough to believe he would not lose, and even in defeat he would not lose by much.
"Confidence is a good thing, and with your ability I don't believe you'd lose either."
"Professor, can a Legendary Pokémon be replicated?"
"Replicating Legendary Pokémon?"
At that Professor Oak's brows drew together slightly; something had come to him.
"Do you mean this business of the Godbeast Gang?"
"Yes. I came across the organisation once while I was travelling."
"No wonder. You saw a great many Legendary Pokémon and were rather astonished by it?"
"Somewhat."
"Those are not true Legendary Pokémon. Flawed copies at best — the shape of the thing with nothing real inside it."
Professor Oak answered. He too had been invited to go and study them, and the study had produced a real answer.
Those so-called Legendary Pokémon had less vitality in them than some ordinary Pokémon; there were some of them that could not even stand comparison with a Raticate.
For the sake of that power they had already drawn far, far too much on themselves.
The League might be corrupt and its internal struggles a tangle, but there were still strong men in it who genuinely did the work, and they had taken notice of the organisation some time ago.
"Don't let yourself be tempted by it — though I don't believe you will be."
Professor Oak said it with certainty. He had some judgement of his own left, and the Vance in front of him was not a man to be tempted by so paltry a gain.
"It did move me a little at the start, but only a little. Real Legendary Pokémon, now — those I might have been more interested in."
Vance lifted his tea and took a mouthful.
"Good. I see you have a real feeling for research. Have you ever studied at Celadon University?"
Professor Oak turned the conversation and talked of other things, and came round to this in passing.
Vance shook his head, indicating that he had never been to Celadon University.
It was not that he had not wanted to. There had been no means of it at the time — eating at all was a problem, and he was bullied constantly, let alone going to school and studying.
"Would you be interested in studying now? I could put in a word. I know several of the professors at Celadon University."
Professor Oak said it with a light laugh and lifted his tea for a mouthful.
"Thank you, Professor. I've no thought of changing course for the present. I'd like to dig deeper along the Trainer's road."
Vance declined politely.
It was rather a pity. A recommendation from a figure of Professor Oak's standing would have an effect that went without saying.
In the Kanto region Professor Oak's place in the field of Pokémon research was that of a colossus; this was, one might say, a great compliment to him.
"Good, good. If you change your mind you have only to tell me. Or come straight to this little laboratory of mine — able young men like you are welcome here."
"Thank you for the compliment, Professor. I'll think it over."
Vance said it respectfully. Professor Oak was very willing to bring young people on, particularly young people with potential.
And Vance was plainly one of them.
Add to that the part Vance had played in saving his granddaughter Daisy Oak, and he thought all the more of him.
They went on to other subjects, and Vance could keep up with nearly all of it; in some areas he even had understanding of his own.
The system had poured no small amount of knowledge into him, and Vance himself studied hard whenever he had the time. In the field of knowledge his foundations were thick — no worse than an ordinary researcher's.
The two of them went back and forth, question matched by answer, each finding the other good company, and the atmosphere was thoroughly easy.
It was late by then, and under Professor Oak's warm pressing Vance thought it over, did not refuse, and stayed the night at the Oak Laboratory.
To meet Professor Oak and Ash and the rest here, to sit and talk with people who had once been on a television screen — the feeling of it really was extraordinary.