Tension left my body like a great dam being released.

Laying onto the flower fields of Melemele Meadow, all biological processes that had kept me running and alert during the Trial shut down at once. I collapsed onto Petal the Oddish, the latter first objecting then leaning into the motion when they noticed the state I was in.

Adrenaline had completely left my body, and with it all stress that I had backed up during the trial rushed through me and left me bawling my eyes out. Tears left my face not because I was scared or sad - but because the panic I had held in all time now had nowhere to go. My mind kept going back to the split-second sound and sight of limp bodies hitting the ground– and so I cried and curled around Petal and buried my face into their leaves that smelled of pepper and mint.

“ Sob– sorry P-Petal, I must be all gross-” and my Oddish shushed me with a leaf and pulled me tighter against them.

There was a soft flash of red light at the corner of my eyes and Oran Juice the Dunsparce released himself from his ball and wormed himself between Petal and I.

So there I was. Tension leaving my body and arms squeezing against my squishy plant and bulbous snake. One’s soft plant flesh and the other’s smooth scales felt soothing against my skin, and I felt my heartrate slowly return to normal.

“...Hey, Selene, you alright?”

A warm hand landed on my shoulder and I shuddered involuntarily. It left, and so I turned, and here was Hau.

Hau looked pleased and exhausted like an athlete having finished a marathon, but it was muted, hidden behind a layer of worry. His retracting hand paused in the air, then moved to help me up once more.

I wiped my tears and snot - eugh, gross - with the back of my sleeve in one motion, and got back up with Hau’s help in another “...m’okay. I’m just– all frazzled from that fight, I guess.”

“No kidding!” Hau’s eyes shone with excitement, and the worry and wariness lifted away as he spoke excitedly. “Did you see how Loa jumped onto that Noivern and blasted its neck?? That was mental! And that Ledyba swarm that Stella called, how did that even happen–”

Tuning out the boy and casting a glance around my surroundings, I now only registered the situation we were in.

We were on the other side of Verdant Cavern. We’d finished the Trial.

Laying on the fresh grass among delicate flowers of the Meadow, we stood only a few dozen feet from the cavern against the cliff wall. The rising sun shone on the rolling hills of Melemele Meadow as swarms of Bug-types and Grass-types fluttered lazily in the distance. A floral scent hung heavy. Not far, a medical tent and lodgings for Trial attendees laid against the cliff wall, one of which was fussing over Lilliane at the moment, the teen looking frazzled but no worse for wear.

Stella the Cleffa looked pleased as a button at Lilliane’s side, talking excitedly with a fluttering Ledyba - the Ledyba, the one that Stella had made a deal with. Lilliane looked confusedly between the attendee and the bug, seemingly at a loss as to what to deal with first.

Step, step, wobble, step . A newly evolved Loa the Torracat wobbled her way out of the flower patch. Hau’s starter looked so strangely off and unfamiliar in her new body: her limbs were longer and thicker, body weight shifting toward her front, now coming up to our waist in height. Loa who had been lithe and graceful as a Litten now looked like a newborn Deerling for a moment, a mess of trembling legs and distressed mowing.

Hau’s prattling paused at my side, as he took notice of Loa’s state. “Uh– I should go check up on her. Congratulate her and all.” He patted my shoulder and stood up to return to his starter.

We’d only finished the Trial, and yet I still couldn’t quell my anxiety.

I wiped my face and stood up on shaky legs, patting my Oddish and Dunsparce one final time.

Tentatively, I approached the Trial attendee.

He– they turned away from Lilliane to face me, with short peach hair and a non-binary flag pin to their cyan Trial attendee uniform, their expression shifting to something like worry when they saw me approach. “Alola– are you okay? Nothing hurt, or–”

“N-no, no time,” I cut them off, “Zubats, inside the cave, uh, they got struck down when the Noivern evolved, they’re bleeding out, we have to help them, please–”

It was their turn to cut me off, both of their hands clasped on my shoulders, soft grey eyes focusing into mine. “Take a deep breath, little miss. My colleague already went inside to check on them.”

I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding. Maybe they saw the looks I couldn’t help but shoot toward the Verdant Cavern entrance, and so the Trial attendee followed it with “ …We could take a look together, if that would calm you down. Boss– the Gumshoos should have taken care of that Noivern by now.”

I saw Lilliane wince at those words, and our eyes locked. I had already decided, but she was not, and her dilemma was whether she felt comfortable enough to accompany me back inside. She exchanged a glance to her side, where Stella and the Ledyba gave her a reassuring smile, and she turned back to nod at me. Wordlessly I nodded to the Trial attendant and we turned to enter Verdant Cavern one last time.

There was something strangely surreal about going back in so soon after we had left the cave.

Only a few short minutes ago, we had been running ourselves ragged through a gauntlet - trekking through stalagmites and uneven terrain while a swarm of fliers battled above, then facing a juvenile dragon head on - and here I was, walking back in like nothing had happened.

My nerves felt on edge. The image of blood on cave ground was fresh on my mind, but instead of it making me want to run away from this place, it pulled me in– like I had gotten past the flight instinct and slammed straight into the fight response. Lilliane walked close to my side holding her starter to her chest, the Ledyba flying in front of us with a buzzing sound.

Still, my guide walked confidently, a Herdier having been summoned to their side.

We approached the bend where on the other side, we’d enter that final cave room where we had fought that dreadful Noivern, and a little ways away there would be still bodies on the floor, and from there I could already hear growling in the distance–

This isn’t quite what awaited us.

What I first heard was the Gumshoos. Its gruff, scratchy voice rang out through the cavern in angry bursts, in a tone that reminded myself of a father scolding their child– and indeed. There was the Noivern, significantly more bruised and battered than we’d left it, cowering before the towering Gumshoos and listening to its berating.

“See? Boss took care of it.” My guide piped up, and pointed towards deeper in the cave. “And look.”

Some ways away, closer to the stalagmite field, we saw them– the Zubat and Noibat swarms, in neat separated piles on the ground, munching messily on berries. Dried blood was still visible on their skin and scales, though it didn’t stop them from enjoying their meal. The other Trial attendee stood between the two groups, them and their Audino tending to two prone bodies on the ground, a medical box open nearby–

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I buckled, and lost my balance for a moment. The Trial attendee grabbed me before I could hurt myself, and we locked eyes and my voice poured out before I could control it– “Are they okay? Are they– are they dead ?”

I saw them grimace for just a second in a way I couldn’t help but dread , but they caught themself and responded quickly with “No. They’re most likely unconscious. We were monitoring you through the Trial, and while the swarms were fighting among themselves for a while and they took a fall when the Noivern evolved, they should be fine.”

“I’m– I’m gonna take a look.” Lilliane started walking like she hadn’t been crying in that same room a few minutes ago and the Ledyba followed in her steps.

I tried to go after her and found that I couldn’t. I watched wordlessly as she approached the other attendee and their Audino - the nurse, maybe - and started to speak with them. I couldn’t hear them from here.

“...Pokemon are really hardy, kid. They’ll be fine, I promise.”

I turned and lost myself in the concerned gray gaze the young adult attendee.

“It’s–” – it was hard to put words to what I was feeling, when assumedly we should be cheering for our victory, and yet we had to fight in such a dirty way for it – “It’s. It’s just…” and so I closed my eyes and tried to focus my thoughts once more.

“...Is it always like this? Do we have to fight our way through Pokemon territory and leave bleeding Pokemon behind?”

“Hmm… Not always.” And they steeled their gaze for a moment. “Let me be clear: it’s bound to happen. The world of Pokemon is a world defined through combat. You will always find Pokemon that won’t move aside until you’ve given them the fight they want. But you can always heal them up a little if you feel bad about leaving them to lick their wounds.” Their gaze softened, and tension I hadn’t noticed I had been holding in started to go down.

“Now, this wasn’t quite the same scenario. You didn’t have the opportunity to turn back to help those downed Zubats; you were already dealing with a bigger problem yourself.” They pointed at the cowering Noivern. “Your safety goes first, that of your team, and that of your companions. Sometimes you’ll just have to leave hurt Pokemon behind.”

“And what if next time there aren’t people like you around to heal them?”

A grunt, and a tap to my shoulder, and there was the lumbering form of the Gumshoos standing right over me. Brow furrowed, it angrily wrote on its notepad and handed out a piece of paper for me to read.

Don’t think of us so helpless without your human help. We have our healers and our medicine. Our allies and our ways.

You can’t traverse our lands without hurting us. The hurt you do will heal. Little ones will get up and get stronger.

And if they cannot get up, then they didn’t have long for this world anyway.

“Congratulations. May the Tapus see you and bless you on your journey.”

The attendees and Gumshoos led us out and it was finally time to officiate our success. Opening up their satchel, the non-binary attendee retrieved three Trial beads: simple pieces of polished gray stone with a hole bore through.

“So! You also get a cash reward.” Now they tapped on their tablet, and we all heard a chorus of pings as notifications rang out from our phones. “This should be enough for you to sustain and house yourselves for a month, assuming you head off to Iki Village for your Grand Trial.

“And finally– this is new regulation, but here, you three get one of these.” Retrieving another case from their bag, they procured a small plastic box through which shone a disc - a TM. “This is False Swipe. This is… less of a Move, more of a social practice, a way for you to fend off wild Pokemon and clearly send the message that you don’t wish to continue battling.”

And that was that.

One down, seven more to go.

With a flick, Hau threw his trial bead in the air where it reflected the sunlight and he caught it in one deft motion. Lilliane held hers in her hands like it was about to leap off.

Congratulations from my teammates faded into the background noises of singing Flying-types and fluttering grass.

My eyes bore a hole into the grey bead. Mechanically, I tied the bead to my Island Challenge amulet, tying string the way my mother had taught me.

This didn’t feel like success.

We had technically made our way through the Cavern but I couldn’t help but think like we had cheated ourselves, somehow. We’d decided, stupidly, to just rush through a warzone. We hadn’t faced danger head on or proven our worth in battle, we had hurt pokemon and then kept on running with our tails between our legs. I couldn’t care less about battler’s pride, but I cared about battler’s safety , and in some way it felt like we had failed at both.

Still. My Pokemon seemed satisfied, and that counted for something.

…

I needed to be better, then.

More information, better tactics, hone out our Moves so that we didn’t do unnecessary harm. Understand Pokemon better so I can predict their behavior. Work out a strategy with Hau to properly fight in tandem.

Don’t call yourself a researcher until you’ve become a Master , Selene.

“Selene, you doin’ alright?” Hau’s amused voice snapped me out of my train of thought and a warm gentle hand pushed against my shoulder. “Frown any harder and it’s gonna stick, you know– cheer up! We’ve done it! One down!”

Hau’s cheer was, as always, a strange kind of magic that cleared away the doom and gloom with a snap. And here, too, I was feeling the effect, my brows unclenched and I chuckled and stammered in the affirmative.

Next time we’ll be better. This time we could relax.

“No, seriously, what we did was badass– I never imagined that we’d face a Dragon during our trial!”

“Let’s… try and avoid that, next time, if we can,” I gasped out. “We could really have done without the added excitement.”

Lilliane nodded. “I concur.” She shook her head and put her Island Challenge amulet back into her bag. “But I shouldn’t complain. I, uh– I can’t even begin to thank you two. You five. You– you seven. ” All of our Pokemon straightened a bit at the praise, Stella and the Ledyba included.

Lilliane fiddled with her fingers and continued. “I know I haven’t made things simple. And my demands have been selfish. But I’m really thankful for your efforts to keep Stella and I safe so far.”

Hau couldn’t stop the grin on his face as he rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. “No problem! And you know, I can’t exactly complain - I had a blast. That was a boss fight and a half there, that’s free EXP for Loa and I!”

Loa the Torracat wasn’t there to comment on that– just before, when we had left the cave, I recall stealing a glimpse of Hau administering an antidote and recalling her. Had she been that winded by her evolution?

“There is one thing I have to make clear, however. Selene, Petal, I will need your help with this.” My Oddish and I straightened at her words.

Lilliane took a deep breath and faced the guest that had been following her since we had left Verdant Cavern.

There is an expectation shared between young trainers and Pokemon. It is a universal experience, one not carried by cultural conventions or language but by something shared between the two. Perhaps there is something spiritual that draws one to the other, perhaps it’s just what scientific people would call a symbiotic relationship.

The result is the same: Pokemon and trainers want to partner up and work together. Stella the Cleffa had recruited that Bug-type and its swarm to help, but it had stuck well afterwards and seemed intent on following along.

“Ahem. Hello,” Lilliane began, and the Ledyba squeaked and waved a hand in response.

“Thank you again for your help. I don’t know how things would have gotten if you and your swarm weren’t there to escort us out. Thank you.”

The Bug-type’s wings fluttered a little quicker for a moment and it rose up a little higher in the air, two of its pairs of arms pressing against its hips. “Dy- ba!”

Lilliane’s smile strained, brow furrowed, seemingly unsure on how to phrase her thoughts– “I– I’m not a standard Trial-goer, Ledyba– I don’t know what I’m doing the Island Challenge for. You could find much better partners than us.”

She looked around for a second, making sure there wasn’t anyone who could listen in (and there wasn’t, the attendees had returned to their places and their tents). “And I think Stella and I might be in danger. You would be in danger too.”

It slowed down, and its arms returned to its side. It considered Lilliane’s words, then nodded with its eyes closed. “Le-ba.”

I felt a leafy tap at my leg, and crouched to meet Petal’s height.

They pointed at Ledyba, then at my head. My eyes widened when I understood the implications of Petal’s translation. “Lilliane– it just said it already knows. Stella must have told it.”

Lilliane looked shocked, for a second, and there was confusion and genuine hurt and I did see Cleffa look away from her trainer before she returned to a concerned gaze.

For a moment, no one spoke, as Lilliane put her thoughts in order.

“Stella and I might be in danger, and because of that, I’m afraid to send her into battle. And I am afraid– I am afraid that if I start to care for you, I will stop you from fighting as well.” And I saw the fortress of her composure crack for a second, her hands clenched into fists so tight that her knuckles turned white. “I really want to stop being afraid. I want– I want to be able to fight. Knowing that, do you– do you want to come with Stella and I?”

----------------------------------------

Back in the mid 1900’, the Johto region was late to explore the growing television industry, which hadn’t started to broadcast battles just yet. It began with adaptation of local folk practices like retellings of The Three Beasts or Kimono Maiden dances - which certainly has its own appeal, of course - but then swerved into a new direction with far more traction: fiction.

Humans and Pokemon donned clunky suits and painted their body to embody titan-sized monsters and heroes, traipsing around in styrofoam city-sets. It becomes much easier to portray wanton destruction when a ‘building’ can be knocked down with a ‘tsunami’ that’s just a simple Water Pulse .

So, the tokusatsu genre established tiny heroes of massive stature, protectors of cities from monsters far bigger than them.

To my surprise, I was starting to understand that Lilliane might be a fan of Ultramon.

And so Toku the Ledyba took to his new role with enthusiasm and gusto.