novelraw Chapter 136: Cinnabar Island
Chapter 136: Cinnabar Island
Chapter 136: Cinnabar Island
Midchu clutched the blanket with its tiny hands like a net, but Celebi suddenly vanished.
Pika!
After a while, Midchu threw the blanket to the ground and sat to the side, pouting.
Trainers really are more trouble than they're worth!
"Always thinking about sleeping on people, and you're still just a kid," a righteous fist seemed to descend from above.
Midchu covered its head and, teary-eyed, burrowed into Giselle's arms.
"To witness the Mythical Pokémon Celebi in person, this trip was truly worth it!"
Misty held her face in delight.
"Everyone, let's keep moving. Cinnabar Island seems to have developed some hot spring tourism recently," Brock's voice rang out.
"Alright! Let's hurry to Cinnabar Island and soak in the hot springs!"
Except for Natsume, who felt something strange, everyone else was overjoyed and pressed forward eagerly.
On Cinnabar Island, Ash was breaking down.
"Along the way, we helped a Ditto improve its Transform skill."
"Mm," the blond elder nodded.
"And we passed through a forest full of Pikachu. Midchu even got beaten up by them," Ash continued, pointing to the Pikachu on his shoulder mimicking Midchu's parted hairstyle.
Pika! Midchu nodded seriously.
Those Pikachu were too wild; all Midchu did was eat a season's worth of their berries.
In the end, Pikachu and Natsume witnessed it, and Midchu got a second and third beating.
"Oh, you just said that," the elder said casually, while Ash kept talking.
"We also defeated the rampaging Exeggutor gang and Aerodactyl, and my Charmander evolved all the way into Charizard!"
"You've said that three times already, little brother," the elder said with resignation.
"We went through so much, crossed the sea to Cinnabar Island with great effort, only to find out the gym's closed!" Ash thumped his chest, out of breath.
"But there's nothing I can do about that," the elder waved his hand.
"This is the remains of Cinnabar Gym. You can look around; maybe you'll find a Cinnabar Badge."
He pointed to a collapsed ruin by the roadside.
"But I checked the League records. Cinnabar Gym is still registered," Brock said, approaching with the Pokédex, his voice full of doubt.
As soon as they arrived, Natsume disappeared. The group, led by Ash, excitedly reached Cinnabar Gym.
But when they got there, there was nothing—just ruins.
"The paradise where trainers get stronger…?" Ash hung his head dejectedly.
Not only was Cinnabar Gym gone, but almost no trainers along the way were willing to battle Ash—they were all there on vacation.
They hadn't even seen battle arenas; it was all hot spring resorts.
"This is too strange. Even the Pokémon Center has hot spring services," Misty said, approaching.
"All because of that blasted researcher from three years ago!"
The blond elder suddenly clutched his chest, furious.
"Researcher? What happened?"
The three exchanged glances, thinking of the suddenly vanished Natsume.
"Three years ago, a damned researcher came to Cinnabar Island to conduct Pokémon mimicry experiments using the volcano," the elder said.
"He wanted to see if Onix could transform into a Crystal Onix in this environment."
The elder paused, then ground his teeth.
"The experiment failed, but it blew up the volcano and created a bunch of hot springs."
"Three years later, it became like this. Every household started a hot spring resort, the gym saw few challengers, and gradually it couldn't operate anymore."
"Oh, I see now," Ash said, regretful.
"But Grandpa, tourism is profitable. Shouldn't you be happy about this? Why do you look so unhappy?"
Giselle looked at the blond elder curiously.
From his tone, it seemed he didn't actually want Cinnabar Island to end up like this.
"Cough, cough… of course I'm happy about it. If other hot spring inns are full, you're welcome to come to mine," the elder said, handing everyone a few business cards and coupons.
The cards had four large characters printed on them: Cinnabar Hot Springs.
"Alright, but Grandpa, do you know where Cinnabar Gym Leader Blaine is?" Ash asked, passing the Pokédex image of Blaine to the elder.
"I think Grandpa Blaine should still be on Cinnabar Island. If I defeat him, I can get the Cinnabar Badge!" Ash exclaimed excitedly.
"Oh?" The elder removed his sunglasses, giving Ash a surprised look.
"You really want to challenge Blaine? He's a very strong trainer."
"Ah, as a gym leader, if he can't adapt and follow the trend of opening a hot spring that caused his gym to close, his brain is probably similar to Ash's," Misty said.
"What… can't adapt?" The elder stammered, his face turning red.
After a moment, realizing his lapse, he quickly put his sunglasses back on.
"Grandpa, are you Blaine's friend?" Ash asked, puzzled.
"Cough, cough… since you want to challenge Blaine so much, you really should come to my hot spring inn," the elder said, leaving the remark and turning to walk away.
"Such a strange grandpa… but every other place really is fully booked," Ash said, looking down at the business cards.
Elsewhere, Natsume stared at a hot spring inn, bewildered.
"Hello, wasn't this the League's research base on Cinnabar Island before?" he asked, stopping a visitor entering the inn.
"Oh, it used to be a research base. Now it's a hot spring inn," the visitor replied.
Natsume was speechless.
He had come to borrow Mecha Robots Toys.
Along the way, he had fused many of the market's toys with Rotom 2. Although he hadn't had time to implement full transformation procedures, he could at least check each Rotom's stats and make a simple chart.
So far, all Mecha Robot Toys fused with Rotom displayed Electric/Fighting types.
Cinnabar Hot Springs.
"No entry for Natsume and dogs."
At the entrance, the group stared at the sign, lips twitching.
Several eyes turned to Natsume.
"Natsume, you're not the researcher who blew up the volcano three years ago, are you?" Ash's voice called out.
"Yes, and to commemorate my contribution, there's even a statue of me in the center of Cinnabar Island," Natsume said.
Cinnabar Hot Springs was halfway up the mountain, with an excellent view, overlooking most of Cinnabar Island.
Looking around, behind the Pokémon Center, there really was a statue-like structure. Many tourists were lined up in front of it, setting off fireworks as if in celebration.
"Don't listen to his nonsense," the blond elder reappeared, handing the group several copies of Cinnabar Island Folklore Encyclopedia.
The sixth attraction—Chasing the Volcano Spirit:
Legend says that every three years, the Volcano Spirit appears on Cinnabar Island to trigger eruptions.
The Volcano Spirit fears loud noises, so when the volcano erupts, it runs away.
The diligent, brave residents of Cinnabar Island set up Volcano Spirit statues and light fireworks to drive it away.
Reading the description, they looked at the Volcano Spirit statue in the book—and it was unmistakably Natsume!
You can read more (around 150+ 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.