"I know you want to be training right now but this is important. You may not need to do anything for the Team, but you sure won't be getting invited to any parties like last night. No one likes someone who won't step up.", Will lectured. They were right that I wasn't thrilled about it, but their tone offended me a bit.

We'd taken a boat around the north side of Ula'ula to get to Malie City, for one reason in particular. It was full of easy marks. Will had brought me here to show me the ropes of stealing. "Alright, stealing 102; Knowing you, you have the 101 down. Your pokémon are your partners in all of life, not just battles, and that includes stealing shit. Toma might be able to pull some things from people's pockets with String Shot, but Kawami is gonna be better cause she can distract and grab at the same time. My team's still better for stealing, with more experience to boot, but yours won't be half bad.", Will continued.

I just nodded and released my team to prepare. Toma and Kawami stretched, each finding a comfortable spot. A passing sailor, seeing the Spinarak crawl up my legs to sit on my back, jumped, freezing for a long moment. Seeing that, an idea to steal a buncha stuff flashed in my head, so I grabbed Toma and set him down while Kawami followed to hear my plan.

"Toma, you'll be on my back while I walk around, make a scene of it, no one likes seeing a Spinarak on some poor kid's back. Kawami, you're swiping from people, but we have to find a dark spot for you to go to or people will catch on that you're not wild. Also, we need to figure out what to steal." Will overheard my plan and whistled, impressed.

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It was funny, I was doing almost exactly what I'd been doing the last time I'd been in Malie, walking around aimlessly taking any trash I felt like, but in the couple of days I'd been away I had caught two pokémon who now doubled the output of this little venture. In the process of fleshing out the plan we'd added more steps.

Toma tapped the nape of my neck; Though I pretended not to notice, I registered what he meant, Kawami had found a mark. Toma skittered, turning counterclockwise to tell me to go left. I veered left and heard a short gasp, followed by a slowing of steps behind me. Before the shock died, a shriek rang out, indicating Kawami's success. I turned down an alleyway, which as luck would have it was filled with some great trash.

I'd gotten enough rotten berries for my team and snacks for me for the day, so I moved to the back of the alley to move on. "Toma, could you make me a ladder?", I asked. He shifted up and down in excitement, then clambered down my back and began forming a net of thick webbing for me to climb. In moments it was ready to scale, so I did.

Once on top of the smooth tile roof, I scanned the area for Kawami. The city stretched out before me, only a few buildings rising above me with their terraced roofs. On the back of one two story building, a restaurant, Kawami rested in the shade guarding a pile of stolen goods. Seeing where I needed to go, I made my way down the ladder and toward my partner.

Down the alleyway to the restaurant I saw Will waiting for me, arms crossed but smiling. "You did good, but anyone who paid attention would know it was your plan, not the Zubat's. You're lucky Kahuna Nanu quit working as a cop here, he would've caught you just from stealing trash.", Will chided. "He did actually, last time I was here. Got away with the pokéball I used to catch Kawami though.", I said. They held their hand to their temple, head lowered. "You're so fuckin' lucky, you know that?", they asked rhetorically. "If you count being a homeless orphan in a gang as lucky, then yeah I guess I am.", I snapped back. Will just chuckled.

Taking that as an end to that line of conversation, I called up to my little friend, "Bring down the haul Kawami!" A sudden clang came from above and a smartphone came sliding off the roof. Will caught it. A few seconds later, Kawami groggily flapped down with a stuffed purse hung from her mouth. Will sighed, sending out their Ratata and pointing up at the roof where the stash was with their middle finger instead of their pointer. In moments the Ratata had brought the entire pile down.

We looked down at what I'd gotten. "Too many fucking phones, we only have so many people without them Kau'i. You'll need to set up priorities and limits for certain items next time if you keep using your pokémon to find marks.", Will advised. "Alright I get it. No more advice, jeez!", I said. "You're gonna need it.", they said, taking the hiking bag from their back and opening it to reveal a horde of supplies with a smug look.

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"I'm not goin' on another supply run, Rich! I need to train!", I bickered. "We need all the help we can get Kau'i, this is the fifth time this week someone's asked me to get food. I ain't watchin' my friends starve and big bro's money isn't covering for everyone like it should, we should be helpin' out!", Rich imposed.

He was right, though exaggerating, Team Skull's food was being stretched thin. Nothing had been said by Guzma about it, but everyone knew something was up, most of all the people stealing shit. Since Rich's posse originally bonded over those kinds of trips, we had all been in and out of town in the last week as the demand went up. Malie City, Tapu Village, the suburbs on Route 17, and even the Route 13 oasis were all stops on our supply runs.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"It better be somewhere close.", I grumbled, seeing his point. Rich just grinned, and began gathering his bags for a stealing trip. I would go above and beyond today so we would have an excess to give out and I could get back to training with Kawami and Toma. I equipped my most pocket-heavy cargo pants, shirt, and jacket in addition to Will's hiking bag and two shoulder bags.

Rich gave me a worried look, saying, "That's a shit ton of bags Kau'i, you're gonna hurt yourself and have a harder time stealing carrying all that." "I'm getting this over with for a while, I need to train Rich! Also, I'm not carrying all this the whole time.", I bit back.

"No need to get feisty you little gremlin. How old did you say you were again? You don't act like a kid should.", Rich defended. "Seven. Being a street rat makes you grow up quick.", I responded. "Doesn't look like it.", Rich mumbled. "I heard that!", I shouted back at him as we made our way out of Po Town.

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Route 17 was our first stop, as it was necessarily on the way to Tapu Village. Neither area was easy for this work. The people living on Route 17 were used to Team Skull and knew to keep their guard up around grunts, while people in Tapu Village lived modest lives since the devastation of Tapu Bulu and didn't have much to steal in the first place. To anyone else it seemed like a useless excursion, but we were the best of the best in the world of petty theft.

I huddled at the gates of Po Town, ready to set my plan in motion. "Toma, set up a zone subtly with your webs, preferably along the route to get lots of traffic. Don't get caught, use String Shot to grab stuff and hide away if needed. Kawami, spread out and bring everything back to somewhere dark like we did our first day in Malie. Run away at the first sign of trouble, you're fast so it'll be better to just keep going."

I got up at that, looking to Rich and asking, "Can Howie keep track of my pokémon? If one of them gets caught they're in trouble if I don't get them back in their balls. Also I'm mostly gonna be sticking with you, I can act as a distraction while you do the slick shit." "Yeah, yeah I'm in!", Rich said.

I passed the shoulder bags to Kawami and the hiking bag and jacket to Toma, returning to my look as a normal Team Skull grunt. We spread out from there, setting my plan in motion. Rich, Howie, and I all strutted down the streets of these suburbs. I slipped in and out of alleyways while strangers' possessions slipped out and into my pockets. Rich walked across one side of the street as Howie snuck things from passersby to Rich in the blindspot created between the three. Occasionally, Kawami would fly overhead carrying one of the shoulder bags.

In the middle of our walk, Howie suddenly looked frightened and stared across the street to a rundown police station. Through the windows I saw a familiar man slowly messaging a Meowth. "Shit!", I exclaimed and pulled Rich into an alleyway not in view of the station. "What got into you?", Rich asked, confused. "That's Kahuna Nanu in that station, this plan just got ten times riskier!", I nearly shouted, but kept my volume down in spite of my panic.

"What would the Kahuna be doing here? Plus, there's tons of grunts out stealing right now, wouldn't he be doing something about it?", Rich said, trying to calm me down. I breathed out long and slow, "You're right, thanks Rich."

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Nanu looked lazily out of his window, 'Oh huh, it's that girl again, Kau'i was it? So she ran away to join Team Skull, that makes sense.', he thought idly before returning to petting one calm and cold Meowth.

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When we reached the other side of Route 17, Howie mentally poked at Kawami and Toma. Being Poison-Types, they could feel Psychic pressure from much farther away. Just being near Howie as he did it made me uncomfortable. After a few minutes eating snacks on the street corner with Rich, Toma and Kawami returned with their spoils.

At that we began our trip off-route against the side of Mount Lanakila to go around the watery Route 15. For a few hours it was just me, Rich, and our pokémon talking about anything and everything. About this hike, Team Skull, Will, Eva, and me. It was a reprieve despite the arduous walk across mountainous terrain burdened with the goods from one town.

Finally, we made it to Tapu Village. Rich and I took one more break from walking, heaving and coughing under the strain in our chests. "You're pretty tough for a seven year old.", he said laughing and scruffing my hair. I knocked his hand away. "So what's the plan?", he asked. "Give me a minute to clear my head.", I grouched.

"Ok, ok, I got it.", I said after the allotted minute, "We just take straight from their houses, out of the chimneys and pokémon doors. Almost everyone here is straightforward and reverent, they'll be pissed but they won't have camera's up or anything." "Huh. Ya know that's more illegal than I tend to go, but I like it. Howie, you're our eyes in the walls for this. I assume Toma and Kawami will handle actually going in?", Rich said. "Yup!", I confirmed.

Over the next hours we went house to house down the residential alleyways, lifting calories upon calories from pantries and cupboards. When all was said and done, we were weighed down by as much food as I'd gotten in all the trips of the last week. With that we began our journey back the way we came.

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Type: Null was not very cooperative, but they'd learn to get along. Gladion was finally nearing his destination, Po Town. He'd been slowed by running the Aether Foundation boat aground, needing to walk from the northeast side of the island outside Malie City to the northwest. He had foolishly chosen to hike over Mount Hokulani and through the off-route rainforests and jungles, but luckily the unfamiliar presence of Type: Null at his side drove off any pokémon that would attack him, so it only cost him time.

Now, he was on Route 17 making his way to Po Town to talk to Guzma. The people around him gave him strange looks as he walked through their little suburb in dark black and red clothes ripped and torn by Type: Null, but he just continued on. They didn't know what he knew, and they didn't have to do what he had to do.