They entered the battlefield, a sealed space.
The lights were off, shrouding the room in gloom.
"Heh… new challengers."
A child's voice echoed from all directions, making Misty shiver.
"This feels more like a Ghost-type Gym…"
"There!" Brock pointed ahead.
Everyone looked. Out of the shadows, a doll floated toward them in someone's arms.
Sabrina's voice was cold and low:
"You—ah!"
A blinding, wide-reaching beam of light suddenly shot forth. Sabrina instinctively shut her eyes, and the once-dark Gym became bright as day.
"Ah—Natsume, what are you doing?!" Misty and the others squinted, unable to open their eyes.
"Natsume, that flashlight's awesome!" Ash covered his eyes, Pikachu doing the same.
*Pika—!* Midchu leapt off Ash's shoulder in shock.
Daylight?! Not just daylight—Midchu felt like he was standing right beside the sun, the glare searing.
Sleeping next to the sun? Now that was a challenge.
Yawning, Midchu shut his eyes again.
"Turn it off." Sabrina's face darkened. The doll in her arms spoke in a cold tone.
The next second, the massive, research-grade portable cave spotlight in Natsume's hand glowed blue.
*Crack!*
A sharp snap—the flashlight shattered into pieces.
Just as Sabrina lowered her hand, Natsume flipped his wrist and pulled out another.
Her face grew colder.
*Crack!* The flashlight broke again.
Natsume pulled out another.
*Crack!*
And another.
Sabrina: "…"
*Snap!* She forced a smile, snapping her fingers.
In an instant, the Gym lights switched on.
Seeing this, Natsume finally turned off his flashlight and put it away.
"Do you have a bottomless bag or something?" Misty covered her face.
"Natsume, why do you even carry so many flashlights?" Ash asked curiously.
"With this flashlight, Solar Beam's power doubles."
Natsume said it with a straight face—though in truth, he used them to count Pokémon in his daycare at night.
When he turned one on, the place lit up like daytime.
But for some reason, a Pokémon always managed to break it by the next morning. So he kept plenty on hand.
As the group ignored her and started chatting among themselves, the veins on Sabrina's emotionless face began to twitch.
An icy blue glow surged forward, blanketing them.
*Fzzzt—* Ripples spread through the air, but something blocked her attack.
"Wait—we might've been a little rude." Brock pointed at Sabrina.
When they turned back, her face was once again calm, cold as ever.
"Wow, she looks so young…" Misty whispered in awe.
What they saw was a girl of about eighteen or nineteen, long pale green hair down to her waist, violet eyes sharp as ice beneath her bangs.
She wore a black high-neck dress hugging her tall frame, a golden headband marked with strange Unown-like symbols, and bronze psychic rings on her fingers. The hem of her dress swayed without wind, as though invisible psychic currents moved beneath her skin.
"This must be the Saffron City Gym Leader—Sabrina." Brock said seriously.
"Oh? A true beauty. And for once, you're acting normal." Misty was shocked.
"I like gentle older women," Brock muttered to the group.
"But this one… she has no expression at all. It's terrifying."
"Isn't that what people call *cool and aloof*?" Misty asked, puzzled.
"No, no, no—cool and aloof should be like Giselle!" Ash interjected.
"Ash is right." Brock nodded in agreement.
Meanwhile, Sabrina had just picked up the doll from the floor, only to notice that the group had started chatting among themselves again.
"You're… truly disrespectful." Sabrina's face stiffened into a false smile as the doll in her arms spoke.
But the voice that came out was Professor Oak's.
Everyone froze. Even Sabrina was stunned.
She looked down—and realized the doll in her arms now had Professor Oak's face.
???
Upon checking, she discovered her doll had long since been swapped out, dressed only in its original clothes over an Oak-themed plush.
For the first time, Sabrina's emotionless face cracked, a flicker of confusion surfacing in her eyes.
"So the doll is actually your true form?" Natsume's voice drifted over.
They turned to see her real doll already in Natsume's hands.
The bare doll was being turned over curiously as Natsume examined it, while Rotom Phone snapped pictures from every angle.
"What's the principle here? What's the mechanism?" Natsume muttered.
The doll emitted waves similar to a Pokémon, but the Pokédex couldn't identify it. It almost felt like… an egg?
*Ding!*
[S-Rank: The Reversed Curse]
[Subject] Sabrina's Doll
The system's voice rang in his mind, surprising Natsume.
So this doll held an S-rank research subject?
"Give it back!" Sabrina snapped, her tone tinged with embarrassment.
"Whoa, so you can talk!" Ash exclaimed.
"Hey, she's showing expression now." Brock added.
Natsume turned back, glancing at Sabrina.
As expected, the doll was her true self.
"Here." Natsume didn't press further and tossed the doll back.
Sabrina's face darkened, and at her feet the Oak plush instantly crumbled to dust.
"Get out. You're not welcome here." Hugging the doll tightly, her cold voice echoed again.
"I'm here for a Gym Battle!" Ash declared loudly.
Sabrina frowned. Instinctively, she tried to use telekinesis to throw them out, psychic ripples stirring through the air.
But these people had some method of resisting her powers.
"…Fine. Then face me." The doll spoke, signaling Sabrina's reluctant compromise.
In the next instant, the entire space lit up with a ghostly blue glow.
The ground beneath them twisted into a battlefield as if reality itself had been reshaped—yet none of them felt a single tremor.
"Incredible!" Ash gasped in awe.
Clearly, compared to Lucian, this Gym Leader Sabrina truly embodied what it meant to wield psychic power.
"Whoever's battling, hurry up and finish." Hugging a Pokéball, Sabrina's face returned to its mask of calm indifference.
"I'll go first." Natsume raised his hand.
"Heh!" the doll sneered, tossing the Pokéball, which rolled to the center of the field.
*Flash!* Red light burst forth, and an Alakazam appeared.
**Alakazam, Lv.66. Psi Pokémon. The evolved form of Kadabra. It is said to remember everything and possesses immense intelligence.**
The Pokédex's voice rang out, and Natsume drew a deep breath.
He recalled Sabrina was supposed to send out an Abra…
But this was an Alakazam—and such a high level. Clearly, this was her ace Pokémon.
"Hurry up and start. The sooner you finish, the sooner you can leave." the doll spoke again, unceremonious.
Sabrina's face remained cold and unreadable, though Natsume had a feeling that in her mind, she was tearing him to shreds.
"Fine. If that's the case, I'll go all out too."
With that, Natsume pulled out a stick of spicy sludge and lit it.
You can read more (around 100+ free chapters) of Natsume's adventure ad-free at [https ://ravenarchives .com/book/pokemon-who-let-him-leave-pallet-town]. Bulk uploads is a mess here, so updates here might be irregular.