Nurse Joy greeted me with an, “Alola,” and a smile as I entered the Pokecenter. “How was the Trial?” She looked a lot better than yesterday, or maybe this was one of the other Nurse Joy’s? I took a moment to examine her as I walked to the counter, trying to look for any subtle details, but couldn’t spot anything.

  “Alola. It went pretty good,” I said as I started to put pokeballs down on the tray. “I’ll be doing the Grand Trial tomorrow.”

  Dee burst out almost the moment her pokeball was placed on the tray. Always eager to help out. Nurse Joy also seemed happy for the assistance. “How exciting. It’s sort of the… I guess you could call it the off season for Trials, so hearing about a Grand Trial is quite big news.”

  I nodded and chuckled a bit. “Yeah, Hapu seems rather excited about it?”

  “She hasn’t done many Grand Trials since becoming a Kahuna,” Nurse Joy said as she turned.

  “Ah, before you go, can you also do a checkup on this one?” I asked as I pulled Eevee from my hood, who grumbled at being woken up again. “She’s still recovering from Manepox.”

  Nurse Joy didn’t hesitate to reach out and take her. “Oh dear… Well, it does look like she’s over the worst of it…”

  “Yeah, it’s been a couple months and as far as Dee or I can see, she’s recovering well. But you know, it doesn’t hurt to get her checked up every now and then.” I still had a lot of medicine for her mixed into pokeblocks, and in the base mush form that it came in. “She sleeps a lot, and I wasn’t sure if that was normal.”

  She nodded. “That’s pretty common for about the first eight to nine months. While the initial onset of Manepox shows up as thinning fur, dry skin, scabbed bald patches, severe fever, and muscle degradation, those can be recovered from fairly quickly. One of the most severe detrimental effects is the damage done to a Pokemon’s ability to create, store, and use energy. To compensate for this, they sleep a lot since a Pokemon regains energy most efficiently when sleeping.”

  That made a lot of sense, and was a lot more information than the Kalos Nurse Joy had given me. She had mentioned that it weakened a Pokemon’s energy, and the other effects, but this was a lot more detail. Mostly she had just told me how to care for Eevee. I wondered why my knowledge had nothing on pokediseases. “So it mostly affects their energy?”

  “And memory.” That wasn’t something I was told about. That sounded like something that should have been mentioned… Maybe Joy forgot to mention it? She was busy after all. Although it was also possible that diseases weren’t her area of expertise and she didn’t know all the details, or maybe the other Joy was the one doing Eevee’s treatment. “Pokemon with Manepox will even forget moves they knew, or even people they’ve met.” She was gently petting the small Eevee in her arms as she spoke, who had fallen back asleep.

  “Is it possible for them to even forget their Trainer?” I asked, curious if that was the reason she was so against searching, or why she never mentions them.

  She nodded. “If they are separated during the fever stage. You’ve probably noticed that she has trouble walking? Or didn’t communicate a lot?”

  I nodded in response. “She said it was painful.”

  “That’s because she mostly forgot how, so was probably not doing it right. It’s something where the Pokemon knows it should be able to do something, but can’t do it right. The memory problems can get so bad that it’s possible for a Pokemon to even forget what it is. Thankfully, it looks like her treatment started fairly early in the fever stage, and being around so many other Pokemon has helped her retain her communication abilities and mobility.”

  “That really sounds like a dangerous disease…” I muttered, furrowing my brow.

  Again she nodded. “Thankfully it’s rare and not very contagious. But despite a lot of research, we can’t find what causes it. Cases seem to crop up randomly, and we think it’s because it has an extremely long incubation period and can become infectious without ever actually affecting the initial infected Pokemon.”

  “That sounds like it’s something harmless to most Pokemon, but reacts to a certain genetic trait of a Pokemon to turn harmful,” I said, rubbing my chin a bit.

  “We’ve come to a similar conclusion. But we just can’t find the trigger… And a Pokemon that makes it out of the fever stage has no trace of the disease and can’t get it again.” She sighed, shaking her head. “We aren’t quite sure why the recovery period is so long, either.”

  “Their body is trying to relearn how to properly make and use energy,” I said, still rubbing my chin as my knowledge actually kicked in and gave an answer. “At least that’s what it sounds like to me.”

  Joy had a thoughtful expression on her face for a moment as she thought it over. “That was one of the ideas posited. But we have no way of testing.”

  I nodded slowly as I thought over the problem. “With such a disease I imagine that the window to collect samples would be extremely small, especially because you are more worried about the survival of the Pokemon.”

  “Right? Right?” she responded in an almost exasperated tone. “And the Association just refuses to understand that. We’ve tried so hard to explain it to them, but they practically refuse to accept that we can’t just magically cure a disease.”

  “That’s to be expected of an organization like them… This is a lot more information than I had previously,” I mused aloud. “Thanks for telling me. I wasn’t told all this at first.”

  “Most Joy’s wouldn’t know a lot of the details. Mostly just about how to treat it if it comes up, or who to contact if you don’t know. Medicine has so many different areas of study… My mentor specialized in Pokediseases. I plan on taking the same path once I’ve finished my required Pokecenter years,” she said with a smile. So it was a difference of expertise and area of study? That was also good information to have.

  I laughed softly, looking at Dee, who had a rather impatient expression on her face as I was preventing her from doing her job. “Anyways, I’ll be at the cafe.” I hadn’t really paid any attention to the cafe on my previous visits, as it wasn’t actually in the same area like it was in the games. It was more like an attached building that was sort of in the Pokecenter? There were windows looking in, and I could see a few people in there.

  “Ah! Right.” She cleared her throat, her face a bit red. “It’s been a while since I’ve blathered on like that… I’ll have your Audino bring your pokeballs to you when we’re finished.”

  “Thank you,” I said with a smile as she turned away and retreated through the back door, quickly followed by Dee.

  As I walked into the cafe I was immediately hit with the smell of coffee. As far as I could see, no one even looked up from whatever they were doing. Some were reading, some on their phone, and a couple people were talking quietly. The exception to this was the man behind the counter who gave me a big smile. “Alola! What can I get for ya?”

  “Alola.” I was about to order a coffee, but that was a slippery slope I didn’t want to fall down. Coffee addiction was dangerous and expensive, and I didn’t want to get hooked again. Glancing over the menu for a moment I made a better decision. “Tapu Cocoa in the large size, please.”

  “Sure, sure, sure,” he said before turning around and beginning the prep. After a moment he looked back over his shoulder. “I saw you in the Pokecenter yesterday, talking to those Team Skull kids.”

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  He looked at me for a moment longer before turning back to what he was doing. “I dunno what you said to ‘em, but Nurse Joy seemed pretty pleased.”

  With a sigh, I shrugged a bit. “They’re just kids. Sometimes all it takes is talking to them like they’re a real person.”

  I could see the way his brow furrowed a bit in the reflection of the machine in front of him. After a moment of thought he gave a bit of a nod. “Yeah I s’pose that’s true.” He gave a short laugh before turning around and placing the disposable cup down.

  I pulled my ID card out of my bag and tapped it on the little machine. It was interesting how most places used a sort of tap pay system. Although I had yet to find a place that only used physical money. After it gave a soft beep noise, I put away my card and grabbed the drink. “Thanks. Alola.”

  He gave me a smile. “Lemme know if you want anything else. Alola.” He turned away to go back to some other task, cleaning most likely.

  Looking around the room, I found an open booth that looked out over the water. I could see a few of the pokeboat houses, particularly one that looked like a Magikarp. The Tapu Cocoa was pretty good, though it was missing something. Whipped cream? Yeah, whipped cream.

  It wasn’t long before the door flew open with a bang, startling several other patrons. Standing in the doorway was Dee with a tray of pokeballs and wearing Eevee as though she were a hat. She scanned the room a moment before she spotted me and happily waddled over. “All done,” she said as she put the tray on the table.

  I chuckled a bit as I started to put the pokeballs back into my coat. “Thanks. Anything to worry about?”

  “Rio needs more rest,” she said bluntly. “Mikyu is upset at the damage to her costume, and wants to work on that. Other than that, everyone is okay.” As she spoke, I watched the way she took occasional curious glances at what I was drinking.

  “Good, good.” I picked up the cup and held it out to her. “Want to try? It’s a milk and chocolate drink.”

  She tilted her head a bit and took the cup. When she did, I reached over and took Eevee off of her head, putting her back in my hood. She took a few hesitant sips, a rather confused look on her face. “It’s a bit weird, but it’s not bad.”

  I nodded a bit as I got up from the table. “That’s what I thought. Needs whipped cream.”

  We walked out as Dee continued to sip at the drink. “Whipped cream? Like for pies?”

  “Yeah. Or marshmallows. Or maybe both.” I was trying to think about how to make them. Whipped cream was pretty easy, and I vaguely remembered that marshmallows were basically just sugar, water, and gelatin.

  “Marshmallows? You would put marshmallows in this? Wouldn’t that make it too sweet?” Dee looked around a moment before waddling over to a garbage can to dispose of the cup.

  I followed her absentmindedly. “I don’t think it does. But maybe I just like sweet things more than you,” I said as I rubbed the top of her head.

  She just huffed at me before opening my coat and disappearing into her pokeball.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. It was really good to see that she seemed to be recovering quite well mentally. Pokemon seemed rather strong both physically and mentally. I wondered how Pokemon psychology would work?

  Walking back out to where Hapu had said to set up camp, all of the Pokemon jumped out and immediately started to set up camp after getting their afternoon pokeblock. “Go light on the training,” I called out with a laugh, knowing exactly what most of them were thinking. “Especially you, Rio!” I knelt down a bit. “And here, Mikyu.” I gave my bag to the little Pokemon after retrieving my cell phone. “Set up a good spot inside the tent where you can work on your costume without anyone seeing you.”

  She nodded, her head flopping in an extremely exaggerated manner due to the broken neck. It actually made me wince a bit because it looked really bad. Like it was so bad I thought it might actually fall off. But it didn’t seem to bother her as she immediately retreated into the tent with my bag and began setting up a little area inside.

  Before I could even turn around there was an explosion. “Rio, I said take it easy!” I didn’t even have to turn around to recognize the noise of her fighting with Scoly and the others. When I turned around, everyone did their best to look like they weren’t doing anything. “It’s either light training now, or several weeks of no training when you hurt yourself.”

  Rio’s face scrunched up before she nodded. “Okay…”

  I nodded as I turned my attention to my phone. The first thing I did was send a message to Professor Juniper. I asked her if she had ever heard of someone being referred to as a Bridge. Before I sent it I realized that I would need to be more specific, so I elaborated saying that an extremely powerful Pokemon referred to me as a Bridge and I wanted to know if any of the other transmigrators, or any other historical events of someone being called that.

  I also asked her if she had ever heard of something that a Pokemon would call the Earth Mother. This question was also something I sent to Oak, Kukui, and Sycamore. If any of them knew, it would probably be Juniper or Oak, but I wanted to spread a wide net. Then I had a thought and hesitated. I sat for a moment before I sighed and sent the same question to Professor Sada.

  It was an hour of watching the Pokemon train, Rio being rather restricted by Dee, before I got a call from Oak. That was interesting. “Alola, Professor,” I said with a smile as I answered.

  “Alola? Are you on vacation?” The familiar face had appeared on the screen, and he had a bit of a puzzled expression.

  I chuckled a bit. “Not quite. But sort of?” I waved a hand vaguely.

  He just chuckled as well. “Are you planning to stop by Kanto on your way back to Kalos?”

  That was an option. I rubbed my chin a bit as I thought. “No. I wouldn’t be able to spend much time there, and I would rather have a lot of time there when I visit.” I had a league to prepare for.

  “Understandable.”

  “I assume you calling means you have some information on this Earth Mother?” I asked, glancing over at the Pokemon to help Dee keep an eye on things since Rio was taking much of her focus.

  “It’s a term that I have heard before. Celebi said it, but only in passing. It stuck with me because I remember being confused. Where did you hear it from?”

  I frowned a bit. That wasn’t helpful… “One of the Totem Pokemon here on the island referred to them. They had called me the Bridge, and when I asked why they called me that, they claimed they heard it from someone called the Earth Mother.”

  He rubbed his chin a bit. “Interesting. What sort of bridge?”

  “I had the same thought,” I said with a short laugh. “My immediate assumption was a bridge between worlds, but their evasiveness to my questions and the way they said that the Earth Mother would reveal it in time leads me to believe that this bridge purpose hasn’t been fulfilled.”

  “That is very interesting…” We talked for a bit longer, after I explained in more details the events and what led up to the odd discovery, we began to theory craft. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to give any insight that I hadn’t thought about already, but it was nice to know that he had a similar line of thinking.

  Eventually he had to go. Even if no progress was made on figuring things out, it was really nice to talk to him. While I was familiar with other Professors, Oak was the one that I felt the most comfortable talking with. He had this sort of manner of speaking as if he saw you as an equal. Kukui was a lot like that as well. And while I tried to get along with Sycamore, there was something about him that rubbed me the wrong way. I just wasn’t sure what it was, but sometimes people just don’t mesh, so it might just be that.

  No one else contacted me for the rest of the day, and as it started to get late I moved into the tent to get my bag back. All of the cooking tools were still in there, so I needed it. I had to be very careful, and announced my presence before looking anywhere, “Mikyu? I need my bag to start preparing dinner.”

  There was silence as I slowly started to look around. Eventually I spotted my bag and headed towards it. It was beside a pile of things and cloth. It took me a moment before I realized the thing in the center was a sort of makeshift tent within the tent, one that wiggled every now and then, or had a shadowy hand reach out of to grasp at something piled around the tent.

  I knelt down a bit to get my bag, making sure to not look at the tent before I spoke again, “Mikyu, I’m going to start prepping dinner.”

  The tent stopped moving for a moment, before a shadow hand came out and gave me a thumbs up.

  I let out a bit of a snort as I stood back up. “Start wrapping up for the night so we can eat and go to bed.”

  “Can…can I work more… tonight?” came her voice from the tent.

  I looked over, spotting a slight slit in the tent that had opened to reveal what I could only guess was an eye. “That’s fine,” I said with a nod. “You can keep working until we pack up camp. But you have to pause for a bit to come and eat.”

  There was a few seconds of silence before the tent began to shudder and Mikyu came out shortly after. Her costume was still in rough shape. “O-okay.”

  I slung my bag over my shoulder before reaching down and picking her up. Looking over her costume it looked like she was making a new one rather than repairing the one she had. She leaned against me as I walked back out.

  Just as I did, I watched as a streak of blue was sent flying and smashed into a nearby wall. It took a moment before Rio pulled herself up out of the debris of the now more ruined ruin wall. She shook her head, before spotting me staring at her. “Uh… They started it?” she said, pointing.

  Turning to the rest, I saw Scoly, Primarina, Cara, and Dee immediately turn away and try to do something else. “Scoly and Primarina I understand… But you two as well?”

  “We were being careful,” Dee said after a moment.

  My attention turned to her. This was a very unexpected thing to see coming from Dee. I opened my mouth to say something before there was another explosion. Slowly I looked over at the other battling group, consisting of Keo, Diancie, and much to my surprise, Banette. For a moment I wondered where Goomy was, but before I could ask she hit the ground.

  Apparently the explosion had launched her into the air. I was actually rather impressed that she had landed so well, and was trying to pretend that nothing happened. That was way too much for me and I just started laughing. It took a bit before I managed to calm down enough to actually get a word out. “Okay. Clearly all of you are bored. I get that. But can you not fling each other around so much?”

  I shook my head, still laughing a bit as I started to pull out my cooking supplies. Thankfully performing that action really caused everyone to shift gears. Mikyu began helping me prep, and Banette and Dee both came over to assist. I asked Primarina for water, since we didn’t have a source nearby. It was super convenient that Pokemon could turn water energy into actual water. The water itself wasn’t actually coming from inside her, but instead the energy was turning into water as it left her. It was an interesting process.

  Once everyone had their food, they all seemed to settle down. A big warm meal was a good way to end the day and really calm them all down. And a pokeblock on top of that really filled them up. Once all the dishes were clean and put away, all of us went into the tent. Mikyu ran to her little makeshift pile to continue her work, while I prepared the bedding. She was really excited.

  As I laid down I was almost immediately flopped onto by a large seal, causing me to let out a rather substantial, “Oof.”

  Primarina paused and then giggled as she rolled off. “Oops. I’m too big now.”

  I coughed a bit, having a feeling she had done that on purpose. But her new size did change our sleeping arrangements a bit. Though the only thing that really changed is now Primarina was laying on top of Scoly with her head on my chest. And this night there was no Mikyu on my stomach.

  ~

  The morning felt a bit weird, as I was actually the last one up. Or it would be better to say that all of the Pokemon getting up woke me up. Watching them all stand and stretch, following Cara and Dee’s routine caused me to laugh a bit. “Everyone’s really excited for the day, huh?”

  “It’s hard to sleep after yesterday,” Cara said, and everyone seemed to agree.

  I nodded a bit as I got up, stretching a bit. “Right.” I looked at them all for a moment. “Dee.”

  She flinched. “Y-yes?”

  “You’re going to be fighting first.” I sat down, gesturing for her to come over. “Depending on who Hapu sends out, I want you to do different things.”

  She waddled over, slightly dragging her feet as if she was in trouble. “Right…”

  This was going to be the first time that she fought together with me, and I wanted her to know what to expect. “Hapu is a ground type Trainer. That means all of her Pokemon won’t be damaged by lightning energy, but will take more damage from ice, so focus on Ice punch.” It was the only ice energy move that she knew.

  “Ice Punch…” she mumbled.

  I looked at her for a moment before reaching out and grasping her hands. “You don’t have to fight,” I said softly. “But if you want to, I’m going to do everything I can to help you win. This is your choice, and always has been. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, or scared of.”

  Her hands gripped mine as she took deep breaths. “Right… I… I want to fight. I can’t…” she hesitated, “I can’t protect anyone if I don’t fight…”

  I rubbed the back of her hands with my thumbs. “I just want you to know that nothing is going to change with us. Win or lose. If you fight, or if you don’t. You’re part of this family.”

  There was a bit of moisture collecting in her eyes, but she nodded. “I want to fight.”

  “Okay.” I held her hands for a moment longer before letting them go. “Anytime you have space, if they back away, or if you knock them away, heal yourself. You’re a tank, so your biggest advantage is going to be staying up and outlasting any Pokemon she sends out. If she uses her Golurk, the big metal armor, don’t use normal type energy.”

  She nodded slowly. “Don’t use normal energy on the Golurk…”

  I smiled a bit before standing up. “Just try and have fun with it. If at any time you want to back out, just tell me and I’ll return you without hesitation.”

  Again she nodded, though this time seemed a bit more stern. “I won’t back down.”

  “Good.” I rubbed the top of her head. “Now, c’mon. Let’s go find Hapu.”

  However, that was unnecessary. The moment I stepped out of my tent I could see the miniature Kahuna standing in the battle field not too far away. But that wasn’t what really surprised me. That award went to the crowd.

  I hesitated a moment before I started to head over. Dee froze the moment she was out, and it took Rio and Cara pushing her along to get her to actually follow. Honestly I couldn’t blame her, as there were a lot of people. I could even see a Nurse Joy and a Comfey, probably here to assist in case of worst case scenarios.

  When I spotted Kukui, I made a beeline straight for him. “Even you’re here?” I asked, glancing around. A lot of folks were just chatting to each other.

  “I’ve missed every other battle you’ve been in, I’m not gonna miss another,” he said with a rather large smile.

  “Okay…but what’s with everyone else?” I gestured around to the crowd.

  “It’s a Grand Trial,” he said as if that would explain everything. I just stared at him, waiting for him to continue. He cleared his throat. “Well there hasn’t been one in a few months, and with you being a foreigner, people are interested.”

  I took a moment to look at him and then sighed. “Alright. But…you might want to have everyone back up a bit more,” I said as I continued my way forward. “They’re too close to the arena.”

  In fact there were even some people in it, talking with Hapu. I saw the one I had battled yesterday, I think Hapu said his name was Eric? Either way, if he was giving her pointers about my Pokemon she was going to get nothing but a bunch of useless information.

  Taking my spot opposite her, the murmuring of the crowd started to die down, which is when I started to hear the cacophony of crows. Glancing over, I could see the flock of Murkrow all chattering away on the ruins of a building nearby. Espurr was there as well, staring at me.

  Looking back at my group of Pokemon I gestured to Dee. “C’mere Dee.” She hesitated a moment before coming over as I reached into my bag and pulled out the remote. It took a few seconds of fiddling with it before finally turning it off.

  She seemed to immediately stand up more, blinking a bit in surprise. “Oh…” She looked down at her hands with a complex expression on her face.

  As she adjusted, I reached out, pulling the few little cord-like straps off of her. “You’ll do wonderfully,” I said as I tucked the things into my bag.

  All she did was nod, remaining quiet as she continued to look at her hands.

  Slowly I turned my attention back to the arena and Hapu at the other end. “You ready?” I called out, a bit of a smirk on my face. “Or do you need a few more minutes to talk strategy?”

  That seemed to be enough to mostly silence the crowd as everyone who wasn’t already looking in my direction, turned to look at me and my group of Pokemon. I saw her make a slight tsk motion with her mouth, but I was too far away to hear the actual noise. “There’s nothing to talk about. I’ve been ready since yesterday,” was her response.

  I nodded, smiling as I pat Dee on the shoulder. She took that as her cue to move forward into the arena. There was a bit of mumbling, some people confused at my choice. It was no secret that this Audino was a trained nurse Pokemon. Looking over at Nurse Joy, she had a concerned look on her face. I was certain she was watching what I was doing, and had noticed that Dee had the weight harness. I just gave her a thumbs up before focusing ahead.

  If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  Suddenly a man pushed his way through the crowd, the same man that had refereed the battle between Mara and I. “This is an official Grand Trial battle between Kahuna Hapu, and the Pokemon Expert Jason,” he announced, pointing out both sides. As he spoke all conversations seemed to stop. “Three versus three. No swaps. Any Pokemon that is returned will be considered knocked out. Kahuna, are you ready?”

  Hapu threw out a pokeball, releasing the large suit of armor that was her Golurk. “Ready!” She called out, a rather large smile on her face. Most people knew that Audino was a normal type, so she was sending out her ghost type. Or she always led with the Golurk, it was rather hard to say.

  “Challenger, are you ready?” He pointed towards me with his hand.

  I shuffled in place for a moment as I fiddled with my bag, pulling out my phone and setting it to record before putting it into my bags slot. “Ready,” I responded with a nod.

  “Begin!”

  “No mercy, Golurk!” Hapu called.

  Immediately the massive Pokemon rushed forward, surprising me with just how fast it was. It was hard to not be surprised by something that large moving fast. Orange energy burst from its fist as it raised it upwards. It was a move I’d seen before, Hammer Arm.

  However I could see that Dee wasn’t moving, just staring up at the Pokemon that was three times her size. I frowned a bit as I realized what was happening. She locked up. “Dee,” I said, which caused her to flinch and seemingly realize where she was.

  Her arms went up to block the blow as it came roaring down, the speed and force actually making noise through the air. The resulting force caused Dee to sink slightly into the dirt arena, and several people in the crowd gasped. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nurse Joy put a hand over her mouth.

  A moment passed before I saw Dee look around a bit, a confused expression on her face. In a rather nonchalant manner, she pushed the Golurk’s fist to the side so that she could look up at him. “Was… was that it?” Dee asked, looking back at me, and then back at the Golurk. I could see the clear bruise marks on her arms, but they were already starting to fade as she healed herself. “Uhm… you don’t need to hold back,” she offered.

  There was a beat of silence that covered the area before I doubled over laughing. I was laughing so hard that I nearly fell over. It actually started to hurt and I clutched my stomach. No one else seemed to understand my amusement, but that was to be expected since no one else knew what Dee had said.

  Golurk looked down at Dee for a moment, and then back at Hapu, clearly unsure what to do.

  Hapu seemed pretty confused as well, looking at the Pokemon and then over at me as I was trying to catch my breath and stop laughing. I actually started coughing, choking on my own breath as I tried to settle. Cara was quick to come and pat my back.

  Now everyone was looking at me rather than the Pokemon. I managed to calm down after a moment, taking a deep breath. “Dee… They didn’t hold back,” I said as I wiped the tears from my eyes.

  The poor pink Pokemon just looked even more confused. “But… but that was like getting hit by Rio… Shouldn’t he be stronger?”

  I saw the way Rio puffed up a bit out of the corner of my eye, but I shook my head. “I told you that you’re much stronger than you think. Maybe now you’ll believe me.”

  Before she had a chance to answer, she was suddenly struck again. This time the Golurk had taken a moment to charge the attack, using her distracted position to use Focus Punch.

  The massive fist connected with Dee’s torso, causing her to slide a few feet back, but she remained on her feet. She hadn’t even broken eye contact with me when she was hit. But now her attention turned back to her opponent. “Ow,” she said as she rubbed her chest.

  Golurk got into a fighting pose, preparing to strike again. I watched as Dee’s hands slowly clenched, light blue energy being formed around them and little ice crystals forming in the air. Suddenly she launched herself forward, with a force that surprised everyone, including herself as she slammed into the massive suit of armor.

  I should have taken the weight device off of her earlier so she could get used to the change. Thankfully she had the mind to put her hands forward, though that seemed to be more instinct to try not to crash than anything with purpose. It did cause the large Pokemon to stagger back a step, two icy fist imprints on its chest.

  Even from this distance I could tell that it had hardly done any damage, but that was to be expected. Dee hardly used this move, and she wasn’t used to attacking aside from throwing things. Even the Golurk realized that it hadn’t hurt very much, and so he stepped forward and delivered another Hammer Arm.

  Dee took the blow with one arm this time, delivering another Ice Punch with the other. And the Golurk retaliated with another fighting energy invigorated punch, which Dee took and then countered with her own ice energy punch.

  Blow after blow was exchanged, like they were taking turns hitting each other. However, while every blow that hit the Golurk built up, the bruises and marks on Dee slowly faded away like they were never there. The crowd seemed to wince at the sound of every blow, the ring of ice on metal, followed by the heavy thud of metal on something meaty.

  It was nearly a full minute of this before something finally changed. Dee went to throw another punch and hit nothing but air as the Golurk disappeared in red light. Hapu was frowning, clearly having not expected that when she had seen Dee.

  “Kahuna, please send out your next Pokemon,” the referee called.

  Even as she reached for her next pokeball, everyone could see the bruises that Dee still had slowly fading. She had honestly gotten scary good with healing, and since she didn’t know any other psychic type moves, all of that energy would be used on healing.

  It was clear that Hapu was hesitating, most likely trying to work out how to knock out this Pokemon. I tried to think of how I would do it as well, putting myself in her position and thinking about her Pokemon. Her Gastrodon would be the worst option. Flygon would be her best choice. Drag the fight out, keep range, use the fact that they can fly for the increased maneuverability. Dee had proven that a full on physical confrontation was bad, so she would have to drag out the fight and wear down her energy reserves.

  The ball was thrown and all my theory crafting was tossed out the window as a large quadrupedal brown horse with a black and orange mane appeared. That choice confused me a bit, until I saw her take a stance. Oh, yeah I suppose that was also an option. Z-Move and hope to blitz her down with a hard enough blow that she won’t be able to recover fast enough.

  When she hit the final movement, her hand on the ground, her Z-Ring burst with energy that rushed at the Mudsdale. It reared back, and both the horse and Hapu shouted, “Tectonic Rage!” Their hooves slammed into the ground and the earth split open.

  Dee let out a yelp as the ground beneath her suddenly vanished and she started to fall. Before she had the chance to realize what was happening, Mudsdale rushed into the newly made fissure, its body glowing with the intense power of the move. It crashed into her and there was an explosion as the earth suddenly collapsed and exploded into what looked like a miniature volcanic eruption that launched Dee into the air.

  It soon settled back into the arena as the Mudsdale leapt back away before Dee hit the ground. She hit really hard. Hard enough that I wondered if she could get up, as I held her pokeball and considered returning her now. But she did get up. She looked really rough, covered in bruises and mud. I was about to call out to her and ask if she wanted to keep going, until I saw her expression.

  She was pissed.

  The Mudsdale was huffing slightly, staring at the pink Pokemon that was now angrily stomping towards them. It lowered its head and charged, igniting the brown ground energy as it tried to Bulldoze into her.

  Dee put up her hands, grabbing hold of their head as they slid back several feet. Eventually the struggling Mudsdale couldn’t push her any further, its hooves digging into the dirt as it tried to move her. But she was having none of it. She brought her face close to the equines. “I. Am. Covered. In. Mud,” she snarled through gritted teeth.

  It was at that moment, as its hooves left the ground, that it realized it made a mistake. Everyone gaped as this little pink Pokemon lifted the horse off the ground by its mane. That was extremely impressive, considering Mudsdale was over two thousand pounds. I could actually see muscles bulge in Dee’s arms as well as white normal energy covering her arms.

  And then, with hardly any ceremony, she twisted and slammed the horse into the ground. She had… She just chokeslammed a horse. I… really don’t know what to think about that. That was clearly a well executed wrestling move, but when did she learn that? There was also a large burst of normal aspected energy when she did it.

  That was extremely interesting. Were wrestling moves normal type, and not fighting type? Or was this her channeling some other move in order to perform it? Maybe it was the fact that this was not an actual move so it was defaulting? This was going to require some testing.

  My thoughts were broken as there was suddenly cheering from the crowd, the loudest being Kukui. Of course the luchador would be excited about wrestling. Or, wait, his focus of research was moves, wasn’t it? Maybe he was excited to see a new move.

  Even with the cheering crowd, it was clear that Dee wasn’t done. As before the Mudsdale had a chance to recover from just having its world flipped, she picked it up again, holding it over her head. “Uh… can we talk about this?” the horse tried to reason with her as it struggled.

  But Dee was having none of it.

  I made a mental note that the pink Pokemon really did not like mud on her coat. In the past I had noticed her making quite the effort to keep herself clean, but this reaction was to a degree I had not expected.

  Her arms were still coated in the soft pulsing white of normal type energy, clearly using it to be able to lift the Mudsdale. With a twist, she brought it around, now holding it around its lower waist and then… Suplexing it into the ground with another burst of normal energy.

  Did she watch wrestling? Was that a thing? Clearly it had to be, since luchadores were a thing. I would have to ask Kukui about it.

  Dee rolled over and to the side, getting up and spreading her arms as she was about to go in for another grab. However, before she could, the Mudsdale disappeared into red light. Her arms closed around nothing and her gaze snapped over to Hapu, causing her to flinch.

  I could see that Dee was out of breath, the exertion had clearly exhausted her. But I mean, who could blame her? She had just tossed around a horse nearly three times her size, weighing nearly thirty times her own weight.

  “Dee?” Her head snapped back towards me, softening slightly when she saw that it was me speaking. “Are you okay to keep going?”

  She took a moment before sagging slightly and shaking her head.

  I nodded a bit and gestured for her to come over. “She’s withdrawing,” I said to the referee who nodded in response.

  I watched as Dee walked past me, sitting down and then almost immediately flopping onto her back, utterly exhausted. She hadn’t healed herself very much after taking the Z-Move, having apparently run out of psychic energy. Hapu’s technique had worked, however Dee had also managed to take out the Mudsdale before she was done.

  If Dee hadn’t gotten so mad and used unconventional tactics, I don’t think she would have been able to beat the Mudsdale. Or if she had, it would have been a much closer fight.

  I turned my attention back towards Hapu, who had a rather sour expression on her face. As we both looked at each other, I could tell we were both thinking whether we should continue or not. This was a one on two fight, and I had an ice type Pokemon, as well as a Primarina that was good at ice moves. Mudsdale was her ace as far as I knew.

  With a sigh, she just nodded in response to my unasked question. “Yeah. I think we’re done. I surrender.”

  I nodded and smiled. “That was a good fight.”

  The referee shot up a hand to point towards me. “Kahuna Hapu has surrendered. The winner is Pokemon Expert Jason!”

  There was immediate cheering and I watched as Nurse Joy quickly rushed over. For a moment I thought she was coming to scold me, but she completely ignored me as she went straight for Dee, who was still panting on the ground. “Oh dear… that was really rough…” Joy mumbled to Dee, and Comfey began to look her over and clean her up with Primarina’s help.

  I had just stopped the recording on my phone when there was a voice to my side. “That was a good fight,” Hapu said, having walked over.

  I turned to her and nodded, holding out a hand. “A very good fight.”

  She hesitated before pulling out the Groundium crystal.

  I blinked. “Ah- No, I wanted to shake your hand,” I said with a bit of a laugh.

  Her brow furrowed a bit before her cheeks went a bit red. “Oh. Uh…right.” She reached up and shook my hand.

  The crystal had completely escaped my mind. It wasn’t really high on my priority list, but when she offered it to me again after the handshake, I accepted it. “Thank you.” I attached it to the bracelet. Looking at the six crystals. I opened my mouth to say something, but was cut off as Kukui threw an arm over my shoulder.

  “Now that was a battle!” he said with a laugh. “Your Audino is incredibly strong.”

  “I don’t think Mudsdale has ever been tossed around like that,” Hapu agreed, a bit of a frown on her face.

  “This is what I was talking about,” Kukui said with a smile. “There’s just something about people from places that have Leagues that make them ridiculously strong.” He shook me a bit for emphasis. “Right Jace? Those battles are crazy.”

  I looked at him for a moment out of the corner of my eye, but I nodded. “From what I’ve seen, yeah. While I don’t think the average League Trainer is on the same level… One of the Elite Four’s Pokemon could probably one on one, or two on one a Totem.”

  That caused both of them to stiffen a bit. It had been something I was comparing in the fight against Durn. And I was fairly confident that that was what level they were at. And that was the level that I had to get to.

  “They’re that strong?” Hapu asked softly.

  I nodded. “I’ve no idea how strong the Champion is, but from my battle with Durn I’m pretty sure that some of the Elite Four’s Pokemon are at that level, or close to it.”

  There was a moment of silence before Kukui nodded. “Yeah. They are really strong. That’s why we need a League here, so that we can get Trainers up to that level.”

  I wasn’t sure exactly how the two were related, but I suppose it was similar to moving the goal post. If the Grand Trails were the current goal, then it would make sense that if you moved it and made it more difficult, you’d get stronger Trainers. “I guess,” Hapu said with a shrug. She turned away, waving. “I’m going home. Alola.”

  A soft snort escaped me. “Alola.”

  “Alola,” Kukui said with a laugh. “Alright. You have anything else to do on the island?”

  I shook my head. “Nah. Let's head back to Melemele.”

  ~

  I was immediately regretting my decision to get on the boat with Kukui. I was honestly thinking about learning how to drive a boat just so that I never have to be a passenger when this man drives. At least Eevee was enjoying herself, loving the rush of the wind.

  “So, about your text,” he said after a bit of driving. “Where did you hear about the Earth Mother?”

  “Durn mentioned it,” I said, looking at him. I had no reason to be suspicious of Kukui, but it was obvious that he had waited until we were alone to bring it up.

  He was silent for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, that makes sense. That’s something that the Kahuna are told about, so it makes sense that Totems would know about Her.”

  “What do you know?” I asked, trying to focus on the conversation and distract myself from getting sick.

  “Not much. She’s apparently extremely powerful, and the Totems hold high respect for Her. Part of the ceremony to become a Kahuna is asking for permission from the Earth Mother.”

  “So She’s above the Tapu?” I asked.

  He just shrugged. “I guess so? They won’t tell us anything about Her.”

  That wasn’t a lot of new information, but it was interesting to know that she seemed to be above the Tapu in hierarchy. “Has anyone ever asked the Tapu what they think of Arceus?”

  His head tilted back a bit as he looked up at the sky, apparently attempting to recall something. “Not that I know of.”

  “That would probably be a good place to start, then,” I said with a nod. “Sort of get a gauge of if they think better or worse of Arceus in comparison to the Earth Mother.”

  I barely heard let out a snort. “You make it sound so easy to talk to the Tapu.”

  “Well… I’ll have to ask myself when I come back after winning the League,” I said with a bit of a laugh.

  He just shook his head, chuckling. “You think you can do it?”

  “I think so,” I said, reaching up and petting Eevee. She leaned into my hand, and rubbed her face against it.

  The rest of the trip went by rather quickly, since Kukui drove the boat like he was some kind of action movie star. I tried to ask him about wrestling, but he seemed to purposefully avoid the subject. Probably trying to make sure there wasn’t a connection to him and his wrestling alter ego. He did mention that he was very impressed with Dee’s moves.

  I also asked him where all the saddles were produced for the Ride Pokemon. Since I’d forgotten to ask Hapu about it, Kukui was my next best option. He mentioned there was a place in Hau’oli City, and gave me a general area for it.

  Stepping off the boat, I was extremely glad. Burnet was there, frowning at Kukui. “If you were going to pick up Jace, you should have mentioned it instead of disappearing.”

  He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. “Sorry.”

  My eyebrow arched upward before realizing that he wasn’t going to mention the actual reason. “Pick me up? I thought you just wanted to watch my Grand Trial?”

  He flinched, looking at me with an absolutely betrayed expression. “How could you…” he muttered.

  “You what?” she snapped, her hands clenching. “You ditched me to go watch his Grand Trial? You didn’t think that I might want to watch, too?”

  “I… I only got the text in the morning, and you were out,” he tried to explain. “I wasn’t sure when the Trial would be, or when you would be back.”

  She glared at him for a moment longer. “This conversation isn’t over.” She turned to me, her expression softening. “So how was the Grand Trial?”

  “Pretty good.” I held up my arm to show the Z-Ring, and pointed out the Groundium. “It was a good fight, and helped Dee feel more confident about fighting.”

  “Yeah, that Audino is extremely strong, and tough,” Kukui said with a nod, folding his arms.

  “She still needs work on her attacks, but she can take a lot of hits,” I said, also nodding.

  “Ugh.” Burnet folded her arms. “I wish I had seen.”

  I smiled a bit as I pulled out my phone. “I recorded it, if you want to watch.”

  All three of us spent the next few minutes watching the fight. We had to pause a few times because they asked me what she was saying, and I translated it. Kukui laughed that it was the mud she’d gotten mad at, but Burnet just agreed that that would have pissed her off, too.

  “So when do you plan to return to Kalos?” Kukui asked as we were walking through the research center.

  I shrugged. “Have to look at ticket prices. If I can afford it right now, I’ll leave tomorrow. If I can’t, then I’ll stay till the end of the month.”

  “Those tickets are rather expensive…”

  I nodded. “Thankfully the Association pays me a lot,” I said with a chuckle. “Though a lot of that just goes right into the Pokemon.”

  He laughed. “Having that many must be costly.”

  “It would be so much more if I didn’t make food and pokeblocks myself… I definitely wouldn’t be able to afford it.”

  He seemed to agree with that, and we parted ways with an exchange of Alolas. I didn’t know what he was busy with, but I had plans for the rest of my day.

  After letting Scoly out, I rode towards the city. My first stop was the airport, to inquire about how much a ticket to Kalos would cost. Thankfully it was cheaper, only thirty thousand. I bought a ticket for the next day, which left at three in the afternoon, and then went off in search of the saddle place.

  It took a while, and I had to ask quite a few people to find the right place. The building didn’t have a sign, and it actually looked more like a residence than a shop. But when I got close there was actually a small sign placed in the window that read ‘Pokesaddle’ so this had to be it.

  Knocking on the door, it took a moment before the door opened. There was a hunched older man, balding, with glasses the size of saucers. “Can I help you?” he asked, clearly annoyed but trying to remain civil.

  “Yes, Professor Kukui said that I could have a saddle made here?” I explained, doing my best to be polite.

  “We don’t take walk-ins,” he scoffed and shut the door.

  I stared at the closed door for a moment, blinking. I looked back at Scoly, who looked annoyed, then I looked down at myself. After the whole restaurant debacle, I had done a bit more than I normally did to clean up and look presentable. Did I still look that bad? I would agree I probably wouldn’t try going to one of the restaurants like this, but I looked at least good enough for a casual day at work.

  With a shrug I walked away. It’s not like I really needed a saddle. “Maybe we can have Mikyu make something?” I suggested as I climbed up onto Scoly.

  Scoly made a sort of shrugging gesture as best as she could. “I dunno? Why do you even need a saddle?”

  “It’s so that you can go faster without me falling off,” I said with a chuckle as I pulled out Mikyu’s pokeball. “Let’s head back to the beach.” Scoly nodded and began walking quickly.

  The little ghost had been rather upset that she had to stop working so we could pack up camp and head out. Her new costume still wasn’t done. When I released her onto Scoly’s back, it was clear she was still upset, and she just sort of turned away from me with a huff.

  I laughed softly as I picked her up and hugged her. “Why are you so mad, hm? You can work more when we set up camp.”

  Again she huffed, wiggling a bit to make it look like she was making an effort to escape my grasp, though it was clear she wasn’t committed to it.

  “Do you think, when you’re done with your costume and Banette’s coat, you could make a saddle?” I asked, gently petting her.

  Her head flopped from side to side with an extremely exaggerated motion, since the neck was still broken. “I think so? I would need special materials, but yeah?”

  I smiled and pet her more. “Thank you. You’re such a skilled little thing.”

  She wiggled a bit more and then settled down into my lap for the rest of the ride. We went back to the beach that we’d been staying at, and everyone happily jumped out and began setting up camp. Alma wasn’t there, which was a shame. I would have liked to see him again and say goodbye. If he didn’t come by, I wouldn’t be seeing him again.

  Everyone got their afternoon pokeblock before we started to set up camp. Once that was done, Mikyu grabbed hold of my bag, wanting to get back to her work. I had to fight her a moment to get my phone out before she disappeared into the tent. Everyone just seemed amused at the interaction, not helping at all since everything they wanted was already outside.

  I let out a soft sigh, shaking my head as I moved over and sat down on one of the blankets that was set up. It was a nice view, which would have been perfect if not for the immediate ruckus that commenced as several of them began training.

  Reaching back, I checked on Eevee. It was honestly amazing that she slept so much, but it was good to know that it wasn’t anything bad and was helping her. I then turned my attention to my phone. Professor Juniper had messaged me back saying that she would check, while Sycamore apologized that he’d not heard of them. Sada hadn’t responded.

  The other messages I had were from my liaison. I hadn’t even opened the little chat, and when I did I had quite a number of messages. However the last one was two days ago, and all it said was to let her know when I would be returning, and that when I did return the Association wanted to see the new Pokemon as well as assess the others in my group.

  That sounded like it was going to be annoying. I was probably going to have to answer a lot of questions about things. And of course they would complain, and demand I give them more information on Totem Pokemon and the Trials. But I guess it is my job to help them out with things. So I sent her a text saying that I would be flying back tomorrow at three in the afternoon, Alola time.

  That was something else I was curious about, the time difference. I honestly had no idea what time it was in Kalos, but I guess it also didn’t matter. I did hope that my message hadn’t woken her up. She was very considerate of that towards me, so the least I could do is try and do the same. It was too late now, though, since I’d already sent the message.

  Before I could even think about sending an apology if I had woken her up, I received a reply saying she would prepare for my arrival and inform the Director. I had to think for a moment, trying to remember if I knew who that was. Maybe the old man that I had seen a few times? That was probably him. He had never introduced himself. Then again, I hadn’t introduced myself either.

  Maybe I was just a bit too wound up from everything that happened… This trip to Alola had at least calmed me down in a good way. I felt like I could think a little more clearly. Maybe being thrown here was a bit more traumatic than I’m letting myself feel.

  There was a splash and I looked over to see the large figure of Alma coming out of the water. “Ah, I thought I heard something.” He moved over and laid down near where I was sitting. “It is good to see you.”

  I smiled a bit and nodded. “The feeling is mutual. I was hoping to see you before I left.”

  His head tilted a bit to the side. “You are leaving already?”

  Again I nodded. “Tapu Koko gave me a Trial, and in order to accomplish it I have to go back to Kalos.”

  He had a thoughtful look on his face before he nodded. “I see. Then this will be our final meeting,” he said as he shifted, finding a more comfortable position. “That is unfortunate, I would have liked to converse more with you, and watch your family.”

  I looked over at the training Pokemon. “Yeah.”

  We fell into silence as we watched the training. “I am quite glad that you came to see me,” he said after a few minutes. “If you had not, I would have simply passed alone in that cave.”

  That didn’t sound like a very pleasant thing. But I had a question. “What happens to a Pokemon when they die?”

  “We return to the Earth Mother, and She judges what is to happen to us,” he explained, glancing at me before looking forward again. “Reincarnation is common, and I hope that I will be allowed to do so.”

  “Is there an afterlife?” I asked, curious that Alma seemed quite knowledgeable about this.

  “There is. But She tells us nothing about it. Perhaps She will tell me when I see Her.” He had a rather thoughtful expression on his face, which turned into a smile. “I am looking forward to it.”

  “I’m not allowed to ask about who the Earth Mother is, huh?” I asked, looking at Alma with a bit of a smile.

  “She will connect with you if She sees it necessary,” he said with a rather low rumbly laugh. “But She is far more kind and proactive than Arceus.”

  “From what little I know of Arceus, he’s a jerk.”

  Alma let out a laugh, loud and rumbly that actually caused everyone training to stop. That gave me a rather large smile. “Indeed,” he said eventually after getting over his laughing fit. “He’s rather a piece of shit, all things considered.”

  “If you see him, can you like… yell at him for me?” I asked, chuckling a bit. “Because he just dropped me without explanation in a forest and I nearly died. And now I’m finding out that I am… the Earth Mother called me a Bridge?” I looked up at him, hoping that he would give me some sort of hint.

  His brow furrowed a bit. “I have not spoken to the Earth Mother in… a very long time… that is why I am looking forward to it. Hearing Her voice is…” He paused to think of the proper word. “Soothing.”

  “That must be nice…” I said with a sigh and leaned back on my hands.

  Again we fell into silence, simply watching. As the sun started to go down, he shifted. “I believe that this is farewell,” he said, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. “I have places that I wish to visit before my passing, and I shall not return to this place for many weeks.”

  “I hope that you get what you want, and live a good next life,” I said as I sat up a bit, wanting to watch him go.

  He laughed softly, and looked down at me for a moment. “Would it be selfish of me… to make a request of you?”

  I shook my head. “If I can, I would like to help.”

  There was a moment of hesitation. “If I am reincarnated as I wish, I will not remember this life. But I…” Again he hesitated, slowly turning away. “I would like to have a Trainer like you. Perhaps you… If the Earth Mother allows it.”

  That actually caused quite a warm smile into my face. “If She allows it, then I would be happy to.”

  He had a smile on his face as he leaned his head back. “That sounds like it would be nice…” he mumbled before turning and heading back out into the ocean.

  I watched him leave, and continued to watch the ocean for a few moments after I could no longer see him. Reincarnation… I wonder if he will get a choice of what he comes back as? Probably not. But it sounded like this might not be the last time we meet. I wonder if I will know him on sight…

  With a sigh, I got back up. Well, hopefully we meet again, even if he won’t remember me. That conversation really filled up my head with a lot of complicated information. Something to think more on later. Right now, I have to prepare dinner for everyone.

  To my surprise, everyone stopped training to help out. I guess everyone was really hungry? Either way, it all went by quickly with everyone's help, although a few of them, particularly Scoly and Diancie, caused more problems. But it was hard to get mad at them since they didn’t know. I just had to spend the time to teach them and show them how to do things. Diancie seemed particularly pleased when I held onto her hand to guide her movements.

  With everyone’s encouragement, we ended up making a bit more food than normal. That was apparently their goal, as everyone wanted to eat extra. I was a bit surprised that everyone was eating a lot more than normal. When I tried asking them, Cara said, “It’s in preparation for tomorrow. That plane ride is going to be so long…” Scoly and Rio both agreed.

  Which made sense I suppose. Though I wasn’t sure how gorging themselves would help with that. Either way, once everyone was fed, and the dishes and cooking stuff was put away we all moved into the tent. Mikyu rushed back to her makeshift pile again rather than joining us to sleep. I was wary of Primarina pulling another little prank and flopping at me, which got quite a grin from her. But she behaved.

  Surprisingly, the one who didn’t was Goomy. She seemed frustrated about something and was instead pacing back and forth. “What’s wrong?” I asked softly, reaching out a hand to scoop her up when she got close.

  “Why am I the weakest?” she complained. She had been struggling to join the battle training under Diancie’s Gravity, and it was starting to frustrate her.

  “Mmm…” I pulled her over and placed her in her normal sleeping spot. “You’re getting there,” I said, patting her softly. “We’ll start doing more combat focused training, alright?” I had been rather lax in my training methods lately, since I was treating this like a vacation.

  She sighed, her entire body sagging as she did. “Okay…”

  “We’ll do more serious training once we’re back in Kalos to make sure that we’re good and prepared for the gym battles,” I said with a smile as I settled in.

  Everyone seemed pleased about that, especially Rio and Keo. Those two were shaping up to be serious battlejunkies. Although even Diancie expressed her desire, “I want my Gravity to be stronger. It didn’t bother that big dragon at all…”

  I chuckled a bit. “Alright, we can do that.”

  Sleep came rather quickly, a bit quicker than normal. Usually I had a bit of trouble getting to sleep, but not tonight. Maybe I should ask Primarina if she would sing me to sleep? That sounded nice.

  In the morning, we followed our normal routine until lunch time. After everyone got a pokeblock, I returned everyone aside from Scoly and Eevee. I went into the research center to find Kukui and Burnet to give them one last Alola before heading to the airport. I took a longer route so that I could pass by the back side of the restaurant to see if I could see the Skeledirge. When I did spot him, he was sitting inside a small alcove, moving his flames upwards.

  “Skeld,” I called out with a smile.

  His eyes opened and he looked at me for a moment. “Ah, you are the one from that time.”

  I nodded, chuckling softly. “Yeah. Just wanted to say that I’m leaving Alola, so let that old man know I stopped by.”

  That got a bit of a huff of laughter out of him. “Alright. I’ll let him know. Thanks to you I get to eat that tasty charcoal stuff.”

  I smiled a bit before waving and then heading to the airport. Once there, I returned Eevee and Scoly. It was always a weird feeling to suddenly be alone. As I waited for my flight, I tried to keep an eye out, wondering if that Espurr would be on this plane as well. But I never saw them, and decided that it wasn’t really my concern.

  As I boarded, I sent my Liaison another text saying that I was boarding and would be in Kalos in fourteen or so hours. She didn’t respond before I turned off my phone and put it into my bag. The flight honestly didn’t feel as miserable this time, but it still felt like it took forever. Maybe it didn’t feel as long this time because I slept most of it.

  When we landed and I exited the plane I was immediately hit with how freaking cold it was. It was winter now, and there was even a light dusting of snow over everything. After I released Eevee and put her back into my hood I checked my phone. The Liaison had replied, saying that she would be at the airport. I grimaced slightly at the thought of seeing her, mostly because that meant we would be heading directly to the Association headquarters.

  Lucario - Mother of Rio

  Lucario - Craves violence

  Scolipede - Pokemon transport unit

  Primarina - Doing big seal things

  Audino - Trained Nurse Pokemon

  Diancie - From Reflection Cave

  Eevee - Living that sleepy hood life

  Goomy - Full of dragon slug vibes

  Mimikyu - Collected from the Supermart

  Banette - Collected from the Supermart

  Vulpix (Alolan) - Bread and butter Ice Beams