Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Chapter 37: The Psychic Beauty Sabrina

Cynthia, who had expected Rio to have some sort of defensive measure, watched from the window as he walked in and then just stood there—seemingly doing nothing but waiting to be hit. Her eyes went wide.

"Crazy—he’s completely crazy. He just walked in and stood there!"

She was about to rush in and drag him out when the other volunteers watching let out shocked gasps.

"Whoa—what’s that black mist?!"

She turned to look. A cloud of black mist was emanating from Rio’s body. When Mankey’s stick swung at him, it passed right through him as if he were a ghost.

Her already-wide eyes grew even wider. Her mouth fell open in disbelief.

"Good heavens—how is this possible?!" she murmured in astonishment.

Inside the room, Mankey was swinging the stick wildly at Rio like a maniac. But every swing passed through him as if striking air.

"Ho-ja~!"

"Ho-ja~!"

"Ho-ja~!"

The more Mankey swung, the more frantic it became. Meanwhile, Rio grew more relaxed—his last shred of unease had vanished.

"Silph Co. really delivers—their products are incredibly reliable," Rio praised internally.

He then took the outfit’s adjustment button and lowered the Ghost-type immunity slightly. Earlier, fearing he might get killed by a single strike, he’d maxed out the ghost effect so the stick would pass through him entirely. As he dialed it down, the black mist around him faded a little, and he began to feel a faint impact from the stick strikes.

It didn’t hurt—barely noticeable, in fact. He dialed it down a bit more, and the impacts became more pronounced.

Throughout, he kept a close eye on Mankey’s reactions. At first, when the stick passed through empty air, Mankey showed clear confusion, followed by even greater rage—swinging with even more force. But when Rio lowered the immunity and Mankey could feel it making contact, although still angry, its fury gradually diminished. Its rage was finally finding an outlet.

Taking this feedback, Rio adjusted the ghost effect to the optimal level—one where Mankey’s strikes felt like a massage.

Soon, to the amazement of everyone watching outside, Rio lay down on the floor and began taking a nap while Mankey kept pounding on him.

"Are you kidding me? How is this even possible? What goes on in that guy’s head—how does he come up with this stuff?!" Cynthia felt like she’d just been schooled again. A wave of helplessness washed over her.

She realized that no matter how long she thought about it, she would never have come up with a solution like this.

Two hours later.

The room grew quiet. Having vented its anger, Mankey lay down beside Rio to rest.

Seeing this, Rio pulled out some snacks he’d prepared in advance.

"Ho-ja~" Having vented its fury, Mankey actually seemed polite—it accepted the food with a grateful cry and even split the treats in half, offering one portion back to Rio.

Though Rio couldn’t understand what it said, the smile was enough—it must have been gratitude. And it had shared its food with him. What a polite little child. When it wasn’t throwing a tantrum, it was practically a perfect angel.

After that emotional release, Mankey’s friendship had risen from -27 to -17—a full ten-point jump. Its brain had clearly calmed down enough to think rationally.

Soon, full and satisfied, Mankey fell asleep in Rio’s arms.

"This guy really is two extremes—one when it’s angry, and one when it’s not," Rio thought, gently poking Mankey’s distinctive pig-like nose.

"A few more sessions like this, and I should be able to catch it. But the tricky part is—once I do catch it, will I have to wear this outfit forever? Eh, I’ll deal with that when the time comes. Every gain comes with a cost. For such a strong Mankey, a little inconvenience is worth it. Maybe later, when I have more money, I’ll get Silph Co. to make a lighter version."

Ten minutes later, taking advantage of Mankey’s sleep, Rio quietly slipped out of the room.

"Pay up," he said bluntly, walking straight up to Cynthia.

Grinding her teeth, Cynthia reluctantly transferred the money.

"Thanks, boss." With the payment received, Rio smiled and turned to leave.

Now that Mankey’s anger had been vented, it was time for his next task—taking Charmeleon to grind levels and evolve into Charizard as soon as possible.

Recently, after repeatedly challenging him and losing every time, his Gym trainees had temporarily given up on challenging him, which had significantly slowed his leveling. He’d have to find other ways. For now, his plan was to hunt wild Pokémon outside Lavender Town, or act as a roadblock—challenging any trainer who passed by, just like in the games: if they crossed his path, they had to battle, no refusal allowed.

Over the past two days, he’d already made four passing trainers cry.

At the same time, on a mountain outside Lavender Town.

Sabrina—a high-ranking Team Rocket executive and the Psychic-type Gym Leader of Saffron City—stood on a cliff, overlooking the entirety of Lavender Town below.

Behind her stood an Alakazam, each hand holding a spoon. And behind Alakazam was Temu, a mid-level Team Rocket executive, scratching his bald head as he reported to Sabrina.

"Commander Sabrina, as you ordered, all members searching for the Ice-type Pokémon have returned."

After hearing this, Sabrina said coldly: "Any trace of that Ice-type Pokémon?"

"No—we haven’t found a single sign in the past half-month," Temu said, wiping the cold sweat from his face.

Half a month ago, the news of the ice that had frozen half of Lavender Town and Route 8 had alarmed Team Rocket. Based on the intel, the organization speculated it might be the legendary Articuno or some extremely powerful Ice-type Pokémon. They dispatched numerous Rocket members with high-tech equipment to secretly search the area without alerting the locals.

But after more than half a month, they’d found nothing—not even a single decent rare Pokémon. This had displeased Boss Giovanni, who transferred Commander Sabrina—who had been stationed in Saffron City—to take over the operation.

"No trace at all—so you’ve found absolutely nothing?" Sabrina frowned upon hearing Temu’s report.

Then her eyes began to glow faintly. She pointed her right finger at Temu and lifted it.

The next second, Temu was levitated into the air and moved to the edge of the cliff.

Temu screamed in terror: "No, no—Commander Sabrina, we did find something! I sent people into Lavender Town to gather intel. They learned that in the two days following the ice incident, two highly unusual phenomena occurred in the town."

"What phenomena?"

"Several residents reported that on the afternoon of the day when half the town was frozen, for about one minute, it felt like the end of the world—the sky went dark instantly, gale-force winds swept through, and spatial rifts kept appearing. But after that minute, everything vanished, as if nothing had happened."

"The end of the world? Spatial rifts?" Sabrina murmured, her gaze fixed on the peaceful-looking town below. "And the second phenomenon?"

"The second one happened the next morning. The end-of-the-world scene reappeared, but this time there were no spatial rifts—instead, time itself seemed to slow down. People said they watched leaves fall in extreme slow motion, and they themselves moved the same way. Just like the first day, the anomaly disappeared after a short time."

"Spatial rifts on the first day, time slow on the second?" Sabrina muttered, her brow furrowing deeper.

After a moment, she said coldly: "Baldie, are you messing with me?"

She began to release her psychic hold, ready to drop him from the height.

"Commander Sabrina, I’m not lying! It’s absolutely true! To confirm the intel, I even brought in two locals and used hypnosis to verify it—you can ask the others, they’ll vouch for me!" Temu screamed desperately, a strong smell of urine suddenly emanating from him.

Seeing him in that state, Sabrina glanced back at the crowd of ordinary Team Rocket members gathered about ten meters away. They were all trembling in fear under her gaze, drenched in cold sweat.