Ash held Pikachu in his arms, gently stroking its soft fur.
"Pikachu, and everyone... this time, I'm afraid, is the battle where we need calmness and wisdom the most."
...Although he said that, Ash had a bad premonition.
Murphy's Law tells us: the more you don't want something to encounter something, the more likely you are to encounter it.
Ash felt that with his luck, he would definitely be targeted by Sabrina.
Don't ask why.
It was just a feeling.
Generally speaking, this kind of sixth sense was quite accurate.
"Pika Pi!" Pikachu rubbed its head against Ash's hand, its eyes determined.
"Mis, mis~" Misdreavus also floated out from his shadow. Although still a bit timid, it tried hard to nod.
Even the other Poké Balls at Ash's waist shook slightly, as if responding to their Trainer's resolve.
Misty and Brock looked at each other—filled with the mood of spectators waiting to watch the drama unfold.
Although Sabrina had some bad tastes, she had no record of killing anyone.
Simply put, people disliked Sabrina because she was too strong.
Or rather than dislike, it would be better to say it was fear.
But Sabrina herself wasn't the type to commit many crimes... she was even using her psychic powers to protect the entire city.
Even if a Legendary Pokémon came to attack the city, Sabrina could block it for a while.
Saffron City had the highest level of security among all cities.
There was a reason this place could become the economic center of the entire Kanto region.
If anyone wanted to commit crimes here, they would have to ask the Psychic-type Pokémon of this city if they agreed.
Sabrina wouldn't bother with such small matters.
But the Psychic-type Pokémon army and the Psychic Trainers would.
...Of course, this also meant that if any major problem occurred, it was definitely tacitly approved by Sabrina.
Anyway, as long as Ash didn't stubbornly provoke Sabrina head-on, it shouldn't be a big problem... or so Misty and Brock thought.
"It's best if you can think of it that way~" Misty stood up. "Then rest well, I'm leaving first."
The three of them actually had one room each.
Misty and Brock had really just come to check on Ash's emotional state.
Currently, it seemed very stable, which was good.
"Rest for today." Brock also prepared to leave. "There is no need to rush the challenge at the Saffron Gym."
There was still some time before the Indigo League.
No matter how you looked at it, there was enough time.
Ash nodded. "Yeah, everyone rest well."
Having ridden bicycles for so far, they were indeed tired.
Speeding is fun for a moment.
Speeding all the time is fun all the time.
But they were flesh and blood after all.
Riding bikes is exhausting.
Lying on the bed, Ash took out his Pokédex, preparing to contact the Team Rocket trio.
Those three guys said they had come to Saffron City... he wondered if they had caused any trouble there.
Anyway, he needed to collect intelligence first.
Northeast corner of Saffron City.
Deep within the Saffron Gym.
Inside a meditation room absolutely isolated from light and sound.
This was also a place no one could find.
Because aside from Teleport, there was simply no way to enter by normal means.
Sabrina hovered in mid-air, her legs crossed in meditation.
She wore a dark purple tight-fitting outfit and a short black skirt, outlining a perfect figure. Her long dark green hair moved without wind, fluttering gently behind her.
Her eyes were closed tight, and her long eyelashes cast faint shadows on her cheeks, which were pale to the point of near transparency.
The noise and prosperity of the entire city, and even the thoughts of countless living beings, slid past the edge of her vast and boundless spiritual ocean, yet could not disturb its core in the slightest.
She was not prying, but feeling.
Like the ocean feeling the tides, like the sky feeling the wind and clouds.
In this field woven by her psychic power that enveloped the entire city, any overly intense emotional fluctuation was like a stone thrown into a calm lake surface; it would naturally ripple and be perceived by her.
This was the power of the world's strongest Psychic.
When Ash's trio stepped into the city boundary, the Gym Leader-level main Pokémon carried by Misty and Brock were like stars suddenly lighting up in the night sky, attracting her attention.
There were too many weak existences; she would not perceive them specifically, but powerful existences were still very obvious.
Sabrina opened her eyes, ending today's meditation.
Even though she was already the strongest Psychic in this world, she did not stop her own cultivation.
From a young age, Sabrina had displayed extremely powerful psychic talents.
Obsessed with psychic powers, Sabrina's personality became withdrawn and eccentric.
The stronger Sabrina became, the more others feared her.
The more others feared her, the further they stayed away from Sabrina.
The lonelier Sabrina was, the more she cultivated, and then the stronger she became.
Although it seemed a bit like glitching the system—stepping on her left foot with her right foot to spiral up to heaven—Sabrina indeed became stronger and stronger.
In the end, only a few strong individuals could be her friends.
For example—Erika of Celadon City, the Kalos region Champion Diantha, and the master of the Battle Castle, Caitlin.
As for the likes of Lt. Surge and Koga, they could only be counted as colleagues.
The reason for supporting Giovanni was even simpler... because she lost the fight.
Before her, an extremely exquisite miniature model of Saffron City hovered.
High-rise buildings, streets, the Silph Co. building, the Pokémon Center... even the shuttling vehicles and blurred human figures were moving vividly.
And above this model, a transparent shield emitting a faint glimmer, composed entirely of psychic power condensed into substance, was like an inverted giant bowl, enveloping the entire city model within it.
This was the manifestation and control core of the psychic protective field that shrouded the entire Saffron City in reality.
Through this model, she could maintain this massive barrier, sufficient to resist the attacks of Legendary Pokémon at critical moments, with minimal consumption.
Sabrina was very skilled in technique, not just using brute force.
Her gaze fell upon the three tiny points of light that had newly appeared on the model.
"It can be like this?"
Sabrina's voice rang out in the empty secret room... carrying a hint of confusion.
Generally speaking, for Sabrina, who could use Future Sight, goals were very clear.
But today, an accident occurred.
The light and shadow in the air distorted for a moment.
A little girl wearing a white dress and holding a rubber ball appeared silently in front of her.
The little girl had facial features extremely similar to Sabrina's, only her eyes were more lively, even carrying a weird sense of mixed cunning and innocence that did not match her appearance.
In short, at a glance, she didn't look human.
This was a part of her personality that Sabrina had actively cut off and sealed away during her childhood to resist loneliness and control her rampaging psychic powers—Little Sabrina.
She was both Sabrina's past and an independent consciousness, often jumping out to say words that the main Sabrina would absolutely never say.
Yes, Sabrina had a dual personality.
"I know, you know," Little Sabrina tilted her head, shaking the rubber ball in her hand.
"Did you 'see' him? What is the future like?" Little Sabrina seemed to ask curiously, her voice sounding very immature.
Sabrina's gaze remained on that brightest point of light, and ripples of faint light surfaced in her deep eyes.
She was activating her psychic powers to perform Future Sight again.
"Blurry."
Sabrina answered, concise and to the point.
"Like looking through a sheet of glass covered in water vapor, only able to see some twisted lights, shadows, and outlines."
"What I can capture is limited to some fragments within three years... and they are filled with uncertainty."
This was extremely rare in Sabrina's experience with precognition.
The fate lines of most people were clearly visible in her eyes, like a play performed according to a set script.
Even for those so-called Champions and Elite Four, their future trajectories mostly had traces to follow.
But this boy named Ash... his fate line seemed to be shrouded in a cloud of mist, constantly branching and recombining, filled with infinite possibilities.
This meant his (Ash's) future was powerful beyond imagination.
The weaker the person, the more obvious the future was in Sabrina's eyes.
The stronger the person, the harder the future was to see in Sabrina's eyes.
Because the stronger the person, the more choices they could make, and the more variables there were in the future.
So-called fate was never set in stone, but constantly changing.
"—Even you can't see it clearly?" Little Sabrina widened her eyes exaggeratedly, hopping once while hugging the ball, but a smile like a successful prank appeared on her face.
"But, I 'felt' it!"
Little Sabrina mysteriously leaned close to Sabrina, using the ball to cover half her face and lowering her voice, as if sharing a heavenly secret.
"I felt... inside a certain future fragment, you and he..."
Little Sabrina paused intentionally, looking at Sabrina's face, which remained as calm as an ancient well and cold as an iceberg, before giggling and continuing:
"...Were taking a bath together!"
"Right in that steaming open-air hot spring! You even scrubbed his back!"
Little Sabrina: Although this is courting death.
Little Sabrina: But the feeling of courting death is truly interesting.
This was also something only Little Sabrina dared to do.
Really, no one else dared to provoke Sabrina like this.
The psychic field that originally flowed constantly within the secret chamber experienced a momentary stagnation, imperceptible to most, due to this sentence.
On Sabrina's face, which hadn't changed in ten thousand years, her brows furrowed—this cut-off personality was becoming more and more outrageous.
Sabrina: I see you need to be reset.
"Shut up."
Her voice remained flat, but the temperature in the secret room seemed to drop several degrees instantly.
Little Sabrina, however, seemed completely unaware, smiling even more brightly instead, with childlike bluntness:
"Are you shy? Sabrina?"
"I see that in your heart... you actually quite... enjoyed that!"
"After all... old~ cow~ eats~ tender~ grass~..."
Little Sabrina only looked small.
Essentially, she was the same as Big Sabrina.
Just with a different personality.
It could even be said that Sabrina placed most of her humanity, playfulness, etc., onto Little Sabrina, resulting in Little Sabrina's personality actually being quite arrogant.
Little Sabrina played around all day.
Big Sabrina meditated and cultivated all day.
That was roughly how it was.
"Die." Sabrina didn't even make a move.
A blast of formless, substanceless, yet terrifyingly powerful telekinetic force erupted instantly, like an invisible giant hammer, ruthlessly bombarding the location where Little Sabrina stood.
"Ya—!" Little Sabrina let out a short exclamation. Her entire person flew backward like a kite with a broken string, slamming heavily against the cold metal wall of the meditation room.
It made a dull thud.
The ball in her hands flew out.
And the moment she impacted, her body rapidly became stiff and solidified, the colors fading away.
Finally, with a soft clack, she fell to the ground, turning into a doll made with exquisite craftsmanship, with eyebrows and eyes identical to Little Sabrina, but with eyes completely devoid of spiritual light.
The secret room returned to dead silence.
Sabrina hovered in her original spot, not even the corner of her clothes swaying.
She looked at the Little Sabrina who had turned into a doll on the ground, her eyes showing no fluctuation.
This was just like two thoughts appearing in a person's mind, and then one thought suppressing the other.
I want to steal something, I don't want to steal something...
Eventually, "I don't want to steal something" gained the upper hand.
"I want to steal something" was passed and died.
And that part of the restless and outspoken personality belonging to childhood stored in Little Sabrina was sealed and suppressed once again.
Like a good student constantly suppressing the bad kid thoughts inside.
Only she remained in the meditation room, along with the psychic shield eternally operating above the city model.
Sabrina's gaze returned to the model. The bright spot of light representing Ash had now moved to the location of the Pokémon Center.
Her fingers tapped lightly in the void unconsciously. Psychic power condensed at her fingertips, rippling out circles of subtle spatial fluctuations.
"...Future..."
Sabrina muttered to herself in a low voice again.
It was the first time such a large blurred area had appeared in her ability to foresee the future; this alone was enough to arouse her greatest interest.
And although Little Sabrina's words were absurd, her perception originated from fragments of Sabrina's own subconscious.
To some extent, Little Sabrina represented Sabrina's emotional instincts, the most intuitive side of her thoughts.
Big Sabrina was the rationality suppressing her own emotions.
Big Sabrina could lie and deceive, but Little Sabrina could not.
The corners of Sabrina's mouth raised extremely slowly into an arc that was almost impossible to perceive.
She wanted to smile, but seemed unable to smile anymore.
The iceberg face was already accustomed to facial paralysis.
As an extremely powerful psychic girl, after learning Future Sight, she often used this method to determine what would happen to her.
But Future Sight also left her life with no expectations or surprises.
Life was like it had been spoiled.
She couldn't work up interest in anything; it was quite disappointing.
It was like knowing you would do something once, and still having to do it a second time.
And Ash, this variable that exceeded her Future Sight, obviously brought new meaning and emotional fluctuations to her flat life.
She was very curious; what kind of future would this boy, who could make the threads of fate blurry, have?
She looked forward to it... like a patient collector waiting for a unique collection piece to walk into her showroom on its own.
The meditation room fell into absolute silence again.
Only above the city model, that invisible shield continued to flow slowly, guarding this huge city...
...And also imprisoning, or perhaps accommodating, this lonely and powerful Psychic Empress.
Far away in the Pokémon Center, Ash inexplicably felt a chill rush up his spine, making him shudder involuntarily.
He looked around in confusion.
"An illusion?" Ash muttered a low sentence, suppressing the inexplicable uneasiness in his heart, and continued to focus on the Pokédex in his hand.
He had already received a reply message from Meowth.
Meowth: [Although it was said there would be an operation against the Silph Co. headquarters, it has been called off~ Meow~]
____
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