— — — — — —
"Shut up!!"
Eevee Renzo snapped, slamming its hind legs against the table and launching itself at Uchiha Renzo with claws outstretched, aiming to scratch his face.
Too bad he dodged effortlessly.
Seeing Eevee ready to attack again, Renzo quickly waved his hands to stop it.
"Hey, hey, cut it out! Don't just focus on me! You should be thinking about how to survive instead!"
"The Pokémon world might not seem that dangerous... but that's only from a human's perspective! As an Eevee, you're far from safe!"
"Huh?"
Eevee froze in place, stunned, as memories of the past three months flashed through its mind.
Tears welled up in its eyes....😭
It was truly a time best forgotten.
To this day, it still had no idea where it was, only that it was stuck in a forest.
Being weak, it didn't dare to stray too far.
On top of that, its parents had vanished two months ago on a trip outside.
And the month that followed?
Only Arceus knew how a baby Eevee like itself had managed to survive.
Thankfully, some Pokémon in the forest were kind enough to help it. Otherwise, it would've been done for.
It suspected its "parents" had either been killed by other Pokémon or captured by trainers—or worse, Pokémon hunters.
Now that it had outgrown infancy, it could at least fight, but its skill set was abysmal: Tackle, Tail Whip, Growl, Helping Hand, and an inherited move, Wish.
Most of these were practically useless in a real battle.
The only saving grace was its Hidden Ability: Anticipation, which had saved its life dozens of times.
"So, what do you think I should do? Pokémon can't just shapeshift into humans! Am I supposed to find myself an owner? A trainer?"
Just the thought of being someone's Pokémon—forced to train under the whip and rod, treated as nothing but a pawn—made Eevee Renzo shudder.
If it found a good trainer, maybe life wouldn't be too bad...
But what if it ended up with a cruel one? That would be the end of its freedom!
Besides, even though it was an Eevee now, deep down, it still saw itself as human!
What kind of human willingly finds themselves a "master"?
"Wait... now that I think about it, didn't that happen quite a lot in my past life?"
Eevee's thoughts took a sudden turn.
"No, no, no!"
It shook its head vigorously before lifting its little chin with a stubborn huff. "No way! I'm not getting myself an owner! Hmph!"
"Don't be so quick to dismiss it." Uchiha Renzo rested his chin on his hand, smirking.
"A bad trainer would suck, sure, but you know the original storyline. You could seek out a strong, reliable trainer from the main series—like Cynthia, Lorelei, Touko, or Dawn…"
Eevee squinted. "Why are all the names you listed female? 😒"
Uchiha Renzo smirked. "C'mon, we used to be the same person. Who are you trying to fool? Would you honestly prefer a male trainer? 😏"
"Stop pretending."
Eevee scratched its head sheepishly. "Uh... fine, you got me! But let's be real—male trainers are usually rough, dirty, and irresponsible! Female trainers tend to cherish their Pokémon more! 😊"
"Heh..." Uchiha Renzo smirked.
"Yeah, right."
Seeing his look of disbelief, Eevee felt awkward and quickly changed the subject. "That only applies if this world follows the original Pokémon timeline. What if I ended up in one of those fanfiction versions?"
"Dammit! Why ruin a good story by making a fanfiction? Why did I read all of them?"
"There are a ton of those, you know."
And many of them were absolute nightmares.
"Why don't you just check and find out?" Renzo shrugged.
Did this really need explaining?
Did turning into an Eevee really drop his IQ?
Seeing Renzo's judging stare, Eevee flared up. "Stop looking at me like that! You think I don't want to check? I'm just too weak! It's too dangerous for me to move around! I'll wait until I train myself up first!"
On this, they were the same.
Why did Uchiha Renzo train so hard for ten years?
Because he was terrified of dying.
"You sure?"
Uchiha Renzo scoffed. "Before your cheat ability unlocked, sure, you were weak as hell. But now? You've fused with all my strength. Even though I was just a low-level Chūnin, I wasn't weak."
"With my skills and your Eevee abilities, you're more than capable of scouting the area carefully. You should at least figure out where you are."
His strength alone wasn't weak, and Eevee's powers only added to it. The sum of their abilities was greater than the parts.
"Oh?"
Eevee's ears perked up as it realized, "You're right!"
"No kidding."
Renzo rolled his eyes.
Had he really fallen this far? His intelligence was completely out of sync now!
How had he not figured out something so basic?
"Hmph!"
Eevee huffed, hopping back onto the table. It cast a smug glance at Renzo and smirked. "Don't just focus on me! Let's talk about you instead! You're getting sent to the battlefield tomorrow, aren't you? Have you figured out how to keep yourself alive?"
Don't laugh at others when you're in the same boat!
"Uh..."
Renzo dragged out the sound. "For now, I'll just take things as they come. Your power should help me too. Together, I think I'm at least Chūnin-level now, right? As long as I'm careful, I should be fine. They wouldn't send fresh genin straight to the front lines anyway."
Then he looked at Eevee with expectation. "By the way, have you decided which evolution you want?"
Eevee's unstable genes gave it the most evolution options of any Pokémon.
The anime had already revealed eight forms, but there were eighteen types in total, so who knew if more existed?
"Not really. It's still early for that, isn't it? Any suggestions?"
Eevee tilted its head.
It was only level five—far from evolving.
"I suggest Espeon!" Renzo said immediately. "It has Psychic abilities, meaning you'd be able to talk through telepathy, teleport, and even use moves like Heal Pulse. How awesome would that be?"
.
.
.