So you were the one who drew Sabrina as a villain

"Ghost Pokémon?"

Ash perked up as soon as he heard the mysterious man's suggestion.

"Right! Why didn't I think of that!"

He clapped his hands excitedly, startling the Pikachu in his arms into lifting its head.

"Pika?"

"Pikachu, think about it! Ghost Pokémon appear and disappear without a trace. Maybe they really do have a way to deal with Sabrina's Kadabra!"

Misty stood beside him, looking rather unhappy.

"Wait! You're not seriously planning to go to Lavender Town, are you?"

"Of course I am!"

"But there are lots of Ghost Pokémon there!"

"That's exactly why we're going!"

Ash answered as though it were perfectly reasonable.

Misty stamped her feet in frustration.

"Ash! Did you even understand what I meant?"

Seeing that the two were about to argue again, Brock had no choice but to step in and smooth things over.

"All right, Misty. This gentleman does have a point. Kadabra's psychic powers really are strong. If we keep using our previous tactics, it'll probably be hard to win."

As he spoke, he turned back to the middle-aged man in the hat.

"But, sir, can Ghost Pokémon really handle Kadabra?"

The man considered for a moment.

"Psychic Pokémon are usually good at sensing their opponents' positions and using mental power to control their targets.

Ghost Pokémon move in unusual ways. If you can use their abilities to interfere with that judgment, you might create an opening."

"But that also requires the trainer to know how to work with them."

Brock nodded thoughtfully.

Listening nearby, Shiraishi Ritsu rather agreed.

Ghost-type Pokémon did have plenty of strange ways to fight, but that did not mean catching a Gastly or Haunter would make beating Sabrina easy.

Especially since the Gastly line also had the Poison type, they needed to be particularly careful against psychic moves.

What truly decided the outcome was whether the trainer could bring out their Pokémon's strengths.

At that thought, he could not help giving the middle-aged man another look.

He knew so much about Kadabra's abilities, and he had stepped in to save people in time when Sabrina lost control...

And then there was the obvious concern in his voice.

A suspicion gradually formed in Shiraishi Ritsu's mind.

Could this man be Sabrina's father?

In the Original Series anime, the psychic who had kept trying to help his daughter return to a normal life seemed to have dressed just like this.

"Sir."

Shiraishi Ritsu could not resist speaking up.

The man turned his head.

"Is something the matter?"

"You seem very familiar with the Saffron Gym?"

"I used to go there often."

"Then do you know Miss Sabrina?"

At the sound of Sabrina's name, the man's gaze briefly paused.

After a moment, he nodded.

"I do."

Shiraishi Ritsu wanted to ask more, but the man had already pulled the brim of his hat down a little.

"It's getting late. If you're really planning to go to Lavender Town, you'd better prepare first."

With that, he turned and left the exhibition hall.

Watching him leave, Ash said with some regret, "I wanted to ask him a few more questions."

"He's already helped us so much. Don't keep pestering him."

Misty sounded exasperated.

Brock turned to Shiraishi Ritsu.

"Mr. Masuda, did you notice something just now?"

"Huh?"

Shiraishi Ritsu froze for a moment, then smiled and waved a hand.

"I just thought that gentleman seemed very concerned about Gym Leader Sabrina."

He did not explain further.

After all, the man's identity was still only his own guess.

Still, since Ash was planning to go to Lavender Town...

Shiraishi Ritsu glanced down at Smeargle by his feet, feeling tempted himself.

Ghost Pokémon, huh.

Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar, which he had only ever seen in games and anime before.

If Smeargle could observe their movements firsthand, it should get plenty of interesting material for its drawings.

"Smeargle."

"Smear?"

"Want to go see some real Ghost Pokémon?"

Smeargle blinked.

The next second, it raised its paintbrush excitedly.

"Smeargle!"

Shiraishi Ritsu smiled.

It seemed this fellow was very interested too.

That evening, on the streets of Saffron City.

Ash took Pikachu back to the Pokémon Center to rest, while Misty and Brock also prepared to sort out what they needed for the next leg of their journey.

Shiraishi Ritsu parted ways with them for the time being and headed back to the hotel alone with Smeargle.

Today's promotional event for his new book had ended, and the formal interview arranged by the publisher had gone smoothly too.

According to his original plan, he should have returned to Celadon City tomorrow and resumed work on the serialization of Pokémon Adventures.

But Lavender Town was not that far away.

Having finally run into Ash's group, just in time for this classic Saffron Gym storyline, he felt it would be a shame not to go and see it.

Shiraishi Ritsu pondered as he walked, then suddenly spotted a familiar figure standing on the street ahead.

It was the mysterious psychic from earlier.

The man stood outside a shop with a photograph in his hand, seemingly lost in thought.

"Huh?"

Shiraishi Ritsu stopped in his tracks.

Hearing him, the man looked up.

"Oh, it's you, Masuda Senbei."

"You know me?"

"I heard them call you that earlier."

The man slipped the photograph into his pocket, his gaze falling on Smeargle.

"Besides, promotional posters for Pokémon Adventures have been everywhere lately. It's hard not to know."

"Haha, I see."

Shiraishi Ritsu approached with a smile.

Smeargle studied the man curiously.

It still remembered that this gentleman had mentioned Ghost Pokémon earlier.

"You haven't gone home yet?"

"I'm out for a walk."

As he spoke, the man turned to look toward the distant Saffron Gym.

Shiraishi Ritsu followed his gaze, growing a little more certain of his guess.

He hesitated, then finally asked, "Sir, your relationship with Miss Sabrina must be rather special, right?"

The man turned his head.

"Why do you say that?"

"Just a feeling." Shiraishi Ritsu rubbed his nose. "Whenever you mention Sabrina, you seem to be worrying about her."

The man was silent for a while.

Finally, he sighed softly.

"You're very observant."

With that, he took the photograph from earlier out of his pocket.

The photograph was several years old, its corners slightly yellowed.

In it, a little girl with dark green hair sat on the grass, smiling happily.

She held up a doll, seemingly showing something to someone outside the frame.

Shiraishi Ritsu recognized the girl.

Sabrina.

Only the Sabrina in the photograph was clearly much younger than she was now.

"This is..."

"Her, when she was little."

As the man gazed at the photograph, a trace of nostalgia appeared on his face.

"Back then, Sabrina loved to smile, and she loved playing with other children too."

Something stirred in Shiraishi Ritsu's mind.

"Are you Miss Sabrina's father?"

The man did not deny it.

"That's right."

He put the photograph away.

"I'm Sabrina's father."

Just as I thought!

Shiraishi Ritsu could not help taking another couple of looks at him.

The mysterious psychic who had saved Ash and the others at the Saffron Gym really was Sabrina's father!

Still, seeing the somewhat forlorn look on the man's face, Shiraishi Ritsu did not show too much surprise.

"Then why don't you just go and see her?"

The man gave a bitter smile.

"It's not that simple."

The two sat down on a bench by the roadside.

Smeargle also sat obediently beside Shiraishi Ritsu, making no rush to take out its paintbrush for once.

After a brief silence, the man slowly began recounting Sabrina's childhood.

As it turned out, Sabrina had displayed an astonishing talent for psychic powers when she was very young.

At first, she had simply liked moving small objects with Confusion.

Whenever she learned a new ability, she would run excitedly to her parents to show them.

Sometimes it was a floating cup; sometimes it was a building block that spun on its own.

Back then, Sabrina had been little different from an ordinary young girl.

But as she grew older, she became more and more fascinated with psychic powers.

To become stronger, she began devoting a great deal of time to training.

"Her talent far exceeded anything I'd imagined."

The man spoke softly.

"Some abilities took me a very long time to master, but she only needed to practice a few times to succeed."

Shiraishi Ritsu listened attentively.

"Doesn't that sound like a good thing?"

"If she could have stayed as happy as she was before, then of course it would have been."

The man sighed.

"But later, she gradually stopped wanting to spend time with other children, and she spoke to her family less and less."

"She practiced her psychic powers every day. She even lost interest in the games she'd once loved most."

At this point, the man paused.

"By the time I realized there was a problem, it was already very difficult to make her stop."

Shiraishi Ritsu thought of the rag doll in Sabrina's arms.

That strange being that could talk and laugh, and even turn other people into dolls to play with it.

In a sense, wasn't that precisely the childhood Sabrina had once been denied?

"So you've stayed in Saffron City all this time because you wanted to help her?"

"Yes."

The man nodded.

"I've tried many things, and I once tried to get her back into ordinary people's lives."

"But she always felt those things would only waste her training time."

With that, he looked at Shiraishi Ritsu.

"You've met her, haven't you?"

"I have."

Shiraishi Ritsu smiled.

"More than once, in fact."

"Oh?"

The man was a little surprised.

"Do you know each other well?"

"You could say we know each other."

Recalling the first time Sabrina had come looking for him, Shiraishi Ritsu couldn't help rubbing his nose.

"When we first met, she had quite a few issues with my manga."

"Manga?"

"Pokémon Adventures."

Shiraishi Ritsu explained, "I borrowed the likenesses of several Gym Leaders to create different characters in the manga. Miss Sabrina was one of them."

After hearing this, the man immediately understood, and a slightly strange expression appeared on his face:

"So it was you! You're the manga artist who drew Sabrina as a villain."