"Have you the confidence to take on this project? I think there is a great deal of feasibility in it."
Professor Oak said it in earnest. If the work could be carried through and a new type shown to have appeared, then for the Pokémon world it would be nothing less than a great earthquake in scholarship.
It would bring a great many changes with it.
Leaving the far-reaching effects aside, from the point of view of battle alone the consequences would be considerable.
With Pokémon of a new type, tactics too would change.
And above all for whatever this newly appeared type held in check.
Take the Fairy type. Before it appeared, the type that held Dragons in check most strongly was Ice.
But Fairy holds Dragon in check even more than Ice does.
To a degree it is even immune to the attacking moves of Dragon types.
For the powerful Dragon-type Pokémon that would be a considerable threat.
And Dragon types are another word for strength; the mainstay Pokémon of many a Trainer are Dragon types, so the shock of it would be no small one.
Still, this is only one type checking another, and that does not necessarily decide the victory.
A type advantage means only that: an advantage. In the event, whether a battle can be won remains unknown.
A battle changes a thousand ways; and with outstanding Trainers turning out tactics one after another, there is no shortage of cases where a fight was taken against the type and won all the same.
If a type advantage alone settled who won and who lost, this Pokémon world would not be half so brilliant and various as it is.
Human beings are forever looking for the splendour inside the impossible; the plain and the settled hold no anticipation and no excitement.
So the appearance of the Fairy type is a threat to Dragon-type Pokémon and a shock to them, but it still does not touch the strength of Dragons.
Because Dragon types look magnificent, are strong, and have high potential besides.
"These are only the findings I have. I am still putting them in order, and it will take a good deal more time."
Vance answered.
"Of course, of course. A discovery is not the business of a day or two." Professor Oak understood it well enough; where in research does a result come out in a day or two? It is experiment after experiment, and only when everything is confirmed without error does the true result come.
"Let us do this, then. After the Conference, find what time you can and put it into this research. You may talk over the particulars with me as they come up. The authorship and the ownership of it are yours, of course; I shall only help you to put it in order and publish it."
Professor Oak said it openly.
"Though of course, if there are results, put down my Oak Laboratory as the address for correspondence. Let me have a little of the glory, ha ha."
Professor Oak added it, his manner perfectly open; great as this development was, he had no thought of swallowing what Vance had put forward.
"That doesn't seem right. It was only after seeing your own draft, Professor, that I had the idea at all."
"Ha, there is no right or wrong about it. The draft is of no use as it stands. That it could strike a spark in you here is the best use it could be put to; I had meant to seal it away and let it gather dust."
"If you are grateful to me, and if you trust me, then get the results out quickly. I'll help you publish them, and take a little reflected glory for myself."
Professor Oak said it with great largeness of spirit.
"Thank you, Professor. I'll do what I can."
Vance said it gravely. It seemed he would have to spend some effort on this and get the thing out early.
With Professor Oak standing surety for him, the benefit and the name that came of this research would fall to him alone, and no one else would carry it off.
And at the same time he counted himself fortunate to have met a professor as open-handed as Professor Oak, and as willing to bring on those who came after.
With anyone else, there would very likely have been some who tried to seize the results outright.
Though of course, with anyone else, Vance would not have spoken at all.
That he dared say it in front of Professor Oak came partly from the childhood filter left on him by the anime he had watched, and partly from what he had felt in these few exchanges with the man: that he was a kindly old gentleman, generous to those who came after him.
"Put your back into it. Research and being a Trainer do not clash, you know — you have only to look at Steven and Cynthia to see it. What Trainer has no interest of his own? Steven here is a celebrated collector of rare stones, and Cynthia is an expert in Pokémon theology."
Professor Oak said it by way of encouragement, and brought out these two future Champions as examples for Vance.
"Ha ha ha, a man must have some hobby or other."
Finding the talk come round to himself, Steven laughed and spoke up.
Cynthia spoke up after him.
"To pursue what is ancient, and to come to know it, is a very beautiful thing. In it one can find where the present stands. It is what I pursue and never tire of."
Well. She studied theology, and it showed. Vance felt a breath of mystery come at him — mysterious, and of a high order.
"You young people should exchange ideas more. It would be a most interesting thing. Each of you shining in a different field — and where light touches light, there may well be some marvellous discovery."
Professor Oak was much gratified to see three outstanding young people here.
"Vance, that stone I gave you last time — have you got anything out of it?"
Steven said it with great animation. This discovery of a new type did nothing much for him, but a discovery about a rare stone was another matter; that would interest him greatly.
"Not yet. I'm still working on it."
Vance said it lightly. The real results could not be spoken of now; the arrival of Mega Evolution would strike the Pokémon world harder than the arrival of the Fairy type.
And at the same time Vance was still turning over how he might turn a profit in the field of Mega Evolution.
That was another of his transmigrator's advantages, and he must take a firm hold of it.
"Ah. If you get a result, you must tell me."
Steven nodded as he said it.
"Have you studied theology as well?"
Cynthia, who had said little until now, spoke and put the question to Vance.
She had a feeling all along that Vance must know something, and that talking with him might get her something.
"Sinnoh's theology? I have studied it a little, but not a great deal."
Vance said it with a smile. The theology of Sinnoh is in great part a body of doctrine grown out of that region's supreme Legendary Pokémon — Dialga, the god of time, and Palkia, the god of space.
Of those two great Legendary Pokémon Vance naturally had some knowledge.
And besides those two supreme Legendary Pokémon, he had done a little study of Giratina as well.