patreon_loskro
patreon
(RPJ)Chapter 354: Oak(2)
🕑 Added 2025-06-28 14:57:31 +0000 UTC"Well I wouldn't go so far as to call the other a failure. I personally have seen great progress with it controlling its destructive tendencies after much effort." he said with a shake of his head. "Perhaps but the fact of the matter remains that it has those tendencies to begin with. Celebi are nurturers by nature, not destroyers. The closest natural exception to this that it may fall into is how a forest fire clears away the land for new life to grow but even you must admit that seems far fetched in this case." I said bluntly.-
He frowned "Your lack of faith is disappointing my boy. I had assumed you of all people would not be so closed minded, especially with how close to godhood you claim to be." he said with that look all old folks have when they feel like you let them down. "Spare me your ignorant disapproval, it is precisely because I am so close to godhood that I understand that the role of that creature in the world is not decided yet. Powerful and well defined though they are, not even the gods themselves are set in their roles absolutely." I say firmly.-
"It seems I misunderstood you, I apologize. It is not that you were disregarding that ones existence but merely that you understood it more clearly than I. It's not often these days that I have my own misconceptions so readily disparaged. Sadly that is the price I pay for my influence." he said with a sigh. I nodded in understanding as I was well aware of the subtle cost that influence had. By gaining the reputation as THE Pokémon professor Oak also gained this sort of "I'm always right" image in the minds of the vast majority of people.-
The vast majority of people as a result simply wouldn't question anything he said, much less try and correct him if he was actually wrong. While I respected the man as a wise and extremely knowledgeable person I had no need to hold back in correcting him if I thought he was wrong. This topic was one of the few I was confident enough to say I was more knowledgeable than anyone else in. The mistake he made was an easy one to make, especially if you were optimistic like he was.-
See the longer something is around the more it affects the world, albeit in very different ways. If you are open minded or experienced enough you might notice these influences and as a result mistakenly think that all things in the world have a set place or path. A rock will always be a rock and water will always be water, that sort of thinking. The truth of the matter as I have found it is that the world, gods and all, is nothing more than a vast collection of choices and probabilities. A rock may become a mountain or sand or maybe a grand sculpture.-
It's all about the choices made and the probabilities encountered. In the case of living thinking beings like that Celebi or any other person or pokemon the path and place of them in the world is more about their own choices then the probabilities. There is no absolute role anyone is set to play but the one we ourselves choose. Oak missed this as all he saw was the result but not the choices and probabilities that led to it. Without someone to tell him otherwise he never would come to see the truth either, a choice I made.-
"Regardless of all that you do realize that this visit of yours won't end with me leaving Kanto and Johto right?" I asked as I walked towards a furniture shop. He paused at the abrupt return to the main topic but adjusted quickly. "I am aware that the probability of that outcome is quite unlikely yes. Still I can at least say I tried even if personally I would prefer not to get involved. There's too much that doesn't add up. I've long since suspected that the league had been infiltrated at a high level but until now it's only been a small problem at most."-
"For all the ill this infiltrator or infiltrators have accomplished with their position the league did more than enough good to counter act it. Now however with all but one major criminal organizations having been struck down these people are starting to lash out like a beast backed into a corner and it's harming the league more than expected. Disunity is at an all time high and there is even signs of the regional war being sparked again in the near future as these people purposefully sow discord. You've already discovered one such individual I suspect given your arrangements in the city, or am I wrong?" he said seriously.-
I gave him a deep look as I am genuinely curious how much of what he said is a trick and how much was not. Oak is an old hand at this game so I doubted he'd so willingly share such information without some angle in mind, the trick being finding out what that was. If I didn't know any better I'd swear he was actually ENCOURAGING me to speed up my takedown of team Rocket but I found that hard to believe.-
The man from all I know is NOT a hardliner, not the sort of person to try and brute force solve a problem like this. He wasn't just fishing for information either as simply asking me if he was wrong more or less told me he already knew he wasn't and he definitely knew I knew this. 'Ah! I see! So he's trying to understand exactly how much I've figured out rather than what exactly I have learnt. Clever old fox.' I thought once I pieced together everything after a moment.-
"Yes, you can say I've learnt a thing or two already. I have no intention of rushing this matter however." I answered in such a way that told him nothing he didn't already guess by now. A thing he clearly figured out from the slight upward twitch at the corner of his mouth. "I see, then I suppose I'll have plenty of time to speak to you about other things then. Like my most recent breakthrough in the study of Tauros droppings in agriculture." he said with a smile before going on to explain the subject.
Comments
Cole Bromley
Thanks for the chapter!
TOS SOT
That's a nice sweeter chapter, love it
