~~~ Saffron City ~~~
If Vermilion was all steel and sea breeze, Saffron was something else entirely which is a city that breathed silence. Its skyline shimmered under the late afternoon sun, golden glass towers rising from a sea of paved streets. The air felt clean, still, almost too still. Even the hum of traffic seemed muted, swallowed by the quiet hum of something unseen with your ordinary eyes.
I stepped through the southern gate, boots scuffing the brick path, and for a moment I thought I'd stepped back into the Mysterious Garden. There was the same soft pulse in the air which is alive, whispering, like the whole place was breathing in rhythm with me. Kirlia walked beside me, her gaze drifting toward the horizon as if she too felt it.
"Do you sense it, Kirlia?" I asked.
Her ruby eyes glowed faintly. "...Yes," her voice brushed faintly through my mind. "Many minds. Strong ones. But one… very bright."
That made me stop. "Bright?"
She nodded once, her tone oddly reverent. "Like a star. But sharp. Dangerous."
I didn't have time to ask what she meant.
Because at that exact moment, the crowd ahead parted ways like they could all feel something too and the girl walked out of it.
A girl. Slim, poised, with black hair that moved like ink when the wind passed through it. Her expression was unreadable, but her presence was anything but subtle. The crowd went quiet without needing to be told.
She didn't just stand there like a statue. She commanded the air around her and had some kind of aura which makes people feels uncomfortable.
Long black hair, trimmed around her face. Eyes which is deep, reddish-purple, cutting through everything they saw. She wore a red dress lined with black at the waist, a slit at the side, yellow cuffs, and matching boots. Every step she took was deliberate.
Sabrina.
The Psychic Queen of Kanto.
I knew that face even before she opened her mouth.
Her gaze locked onto mine. For a second, it felt like something invisible pressed against my chest. A weight, light but impossible to ignore. Kirlia stiffened beside me, her body trembling slightly as she looked up.
Her telepathic voice was a whisper in my mind.
"Master… her power, it's enormous."
'Yeah, I could feel it. The air around her shimmered faintly, like heat over a desert road.'
She stopped in front of me, studying my face. Her tone was calm, but every word carried a weight that made me feel like I was standing in front of a storm.
"Who are you?"
Her eyes narrowed slightly. "...No," she corrected herself. "What are you?"
The crowd around us fell dead silent. Even Eevee, perched on my shoulder, froze.
I blinked. "What kind of question is that? I'm a human, obviously."
Her gaze didn't waver. The way she said it, it didn't sound like she believed me.
"You're… strange," she murmured, her voice faint but cutting through the quiet. "You don't feel like a normal human. Your aura. It's fractured, mixed. Like… Pokémon energy."
That made me tense. She could feel that?
I tried to laugh it off. "You must be mistaken. Maybe your sensors are off today."
For a second, something flickered in her eyes which is filled with amusement, maybe but it disappeared just as fast.
Then, flatly: "You're coming with me."
"Huh?" I barely managed before the world dissolved around me.
It wasn't like teleportation through a Poké Ball. It wasn't even like Kirlia's teleportation. Hers always had a brief flash of light, a blink between two points. This was silent, cold, and instant. One moment I was standing in the middle of the street, and the next, everything went white.
When the light faded, I was standing inside a vast indoor space.
The air smelled faintly of paper and incense. Bookshelves lined the walls, old and heavy, and the floor gleamed with polished wood. At the center of the room was a long table filled with crystals, relics, and what looked suspiciously like psychic amplifiers.
And there, standing with calm composure, was a middle-aged man.
Sabrina's father.
He looked nothing like his daughter, except for the sharpness in his eyes. He wore a simple brown coat over a black shirt, his hair silver at the temples. But there was something about his posture which is relaxed yet alert and that made him feel just as dangerous as his daughter in a different way.
"Sabrina," he said, looking up from a stack of notes. "What is this?"
"This man," she replied evenly, "isn't ordinary."
He turned to me, his expression softening with intrigue. Then, before I could even blink, he was suddenly standing right in front of me.
I didn't even see him move.
His presence hit me like a wave not psychic pressure, but awareness. He was studying me like a scientist would study a strange organism.
"You…" He tilted his head slightly, eyes glinting with interest.
"You have many kinds of energy surrounding you."
He stepped back, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "Can you feel that?"
I hesitated.
Kirlia tensed beside me, reading the intent. I could feel her unease echoing faintly in my mind.
The man smiled faintly. "You have potential," he said. "More than most. Tell me, do you want to learn how to control those energies? I can teach you. Properly."
"I don't even know you," I said carefully, trying to keep my tone neutral. "And I'm pretty sure I've been kidnapped. You gonna explain what's happening before I call Officer Jenny?"
That earned a chuckle from him. "You're funny. Good humor means you're not afraid. That's useful for survival."
He turned to Sabrina. "He doesn't understand yet. The bond energy. His type signature is unstable unlike you. It feels like multiple Pokémon type energies are woven into his aura."
Sabrina folded her arms, watching me. "It's like he's been… touched by them. Changed into something....."
Their words blended into background noise for a moment. Because in my head, the system's voice chimed in, calm as ever.
[Because of the Trainer's Strength, you can harness Pokémon-type energies, abilities, and move sets,]it explained.
[The more bonds you form, the stronger the resonance between you and your Pokémon. But without control, it will eventually overwhelm you.]
'Overwhelm me? Like how?'
[Your body adapts now because of your partners' shared attributes,]the system continued. [But as their strength grows, the burden will increase. The psychic recognized that instability. It's natural she would sense it.]
'Great. So basically, my energy is leaking like a busted Poké Ball and every psychic in a ten-mile radius can feel it.'
When I tuned back into reality, the man was still watching me, a faint smile on his face.
"Allow me to introduce myself," he said. "I am Dr. Fujita, a specialist in psychic energy and human resonance studies. And this," he gestured toward the girl standing silently behind him, "is my daughter, Sabrina."
He waited expectantly for my introduction.
***************
Thank you for reading my book.
If you like this book, you can vote and support me with some power stones.
Write the reviews and comments for this book because it will help me a lot for better experience in writing.