The three other grunts that had been with me on guard duty pushed their way through the haze of grunts fleeing the scene. The Socket boy raised his arm to throw a pokéball, but Plumeria stopped him. "Stand down! We're done. We can't beat Tapu Fini without my team and we definitely can't keep them contained. Your pokémon will just be shot down.", Plumeria's tone was bitter, resentful, and clipped as if she wanted to keep the words in, but with the other grunts at risk she pushed herself to admit it. They all stopped, stunned, before seeming to think better of continuing to intrude in the sanctum of a pokémon that could destroy a village. Tapu Bulu had done it, Tapu Fini could too.

"Adrenaline's a helluva drug, huh Kau'i?", Plumeria asked as she stared at her shaking hands. "I don't think I felt my legs that entire fight.", I agreed. "Yeah.", she sighed. The air hung still for another long moment before it was broken again. "Why switch teams?", the admin asked me as we both sat there on the smooth stone floor. "Hapu, that girl", I pointed to Hapu as she was being treated by Tapu Fini's Heal Pulse ", was the closest thing I had to family. Her and her grandma were who I stayed with the most and they were responsible for me when I did anything.", I explained. "She's the old Kahuna's grandkid you talked about?", she questioned with a disbelieving look, moreso at reality than me.

"Yeah. When it comes to why things work the way they work in Alola, she knows all there is to know. When she said that shit about 'threats you can't imagine', I knew we'd fucked up.", I told her. "I think I trust my fellow admin more than some girl I just beat up, no offense. If you are right though…", Plumeria trailed off, imagining what our plan really meant if Hapu was right. "Will you hear her out?", I bargained. "Sure, I'll hear her out.", she tersely allowed.

I released Kawami, the Golbat still burned from the fight, stopped her from rushing at Plumeria, and sent her to Tapu Fini to get healed with Hapu. Toma followed, his carapace cracked from the heat of the attack that did him in. "It's over already, do you mind healing Plumeria's pokémon too?", I asked Tapu Fini. They slowly nodded while continuing to focus on healing, and Plumeria's team joined the circle of the wounded around the guardian deity. Slowly, in silence, Hapu and the pokémon were restored.

Waking up, Hapu turned from her sprawled position, suddenly pushing herself off the floor in a motion halfway between a push up and a squat. Looking down on Plumeria for once, she burst into argument, "What is this scoundrel still doing here!?" "Scoundrel?! Did you only ever learn to talk from your grandpa?", Plumeria retorted, coming out of the classic Team Skull squat to loom over Hapu. "If only you could be as wise as he was, miscreant!", Hapu continued, headstrong. Using the only controlling tone I knew, that of giving orders to pokémon, I interjected, "Both of you! Shut up!"

Plumeria sent me a bitter snarl, which I returned, while Hapu looked on in shock, not having realized I was still present. "You said you'd hear her out.", I reminded Plumeria. "I shouldn't've", she mumbled bitterly. "Kau'i, what were you thinking joining these people?! Trying to capture a guardian deity?! Are you fucking stupid!?", Hapu berated me, in a rare instance of her swearing. "Definitely didn't learn that from your grandpa.", I joked. At least Plumeria laughed.

As Hapu was hoofing it across the floor to continue laying into the both of us, a slender hand calmly held her shoulder and ushered her in the opposite direction. Her face fell, becoming conscious again of something important to her that had been left at the wayside. As Tapu Fini led Hapu to the altar, Plumeria began to open her mouth to taunt Hapu further, but I stopped her with a sharp, "Shhhp!" I'd been present for the traditional rituals and celebrations of Poni, and I recognized this was not something to be taken lightly.

As Hapu approached the platform, her expression was disbelieving, before filling with awe. She reached the center of the wooden structure, facing the stone totem with arms at her sides in utter silence. Tapu Fini rose above her with unparalleled serenity, and from the legendary figure a captivating swirl of yellow light enveloped a sparkling stone. The stone floated down into Hapu's reach as the light played off its surface and again off of the surface of the tidepools at our sides. The ruins were awash with motes of its brilliant glow. Her hand quested toward the stone, flinching for a moment with doubt before cupping it in both hands. As an unseen weight lifted off of her shoulders, Hapu held the stone in front of her and began to speak.

"I give my thanks…", she started, "for your great blessing.", reverence dripping from every word, "As kahuna, I will do my best for the people…", she paused, seeming to bask in the ritual of the moment, "and the pokémon of Alola." And Hapu closed her hands around the stone, plunging us back into near total darkness.

As our eyes readjusted to the low light environment, Hapu descended the stairway and retrieved her phone from her front pocket. The backlight lit up the side of her face, smiling seriously, as she called a number from her contacts. I was just barely able to make out Plumeria's confused and indignant face mouthing the word "kahuna?" as the phone rang for several awkward seconds. I just shrugged at her.

Finally, the phone picked up. "Team Skull tried to capture Tapu Fini, Kau'i showed up and helped me defend them, now I'm the kahuna.", Hapu explained succinctly to the person on the phone. Through the quiet the reply was clear. "Most people say hi, or hello.", Nanu said over the line. "Hello.", Hapu dryly replied. "I figured about Tapu Fini, good job protecting them.", he said.

"You're really the kahuna!?", I loudly whispered to Hapu. "Yes Kau'i! What else would I be!?", she bit back with her hand clenching around the phone's built-in mic. Her tone held a self-confidence that wasn't there before. Plumeria remarked, "Pretty young for a kahuna.", under her breath, getting an angry look as Hapu's frustration built. Right when Hapu expected to continue talking to Nanu, he beat her to it. "They got Tapu Bulu already. I even showed up to stop 'em and they still beat me.", he confessed. Hapu was shocked at the revelation, while Plumeria was the complete opposite.

Hapu erupted at him, which made Tapu Fini's discomfort at our lingering presence very clear. I returned my pokémon and motioned for Plumeria to do the same. Then, I stood at last and began pushing Hapu's still tiny body out of the Ruins of Hope. As Hapu continued shouting century old insults through the phone, digging her boots into the ground, Nanu hung up. She tremored for a moment longer before calming.

"So", Hapu huffed as we made it out of the Ruins ", what have you been doing all this time Kau'i?" Plumeria gave me a sidelong look that said, 'This is not important right now.' "Later", I said quickly ", Plumeria's still unconvinced Team Skull's in the wrong." Several more antagonistic looks were exchanged before Hapu conceded. "If you insist, I'll give you this one opportunity to change, crook.", she said, letting the anger drop out with one last word. "The story is slightly different depending on who you ask, but I can give you the version known on Poni. Honestly it's shocking you don't already know this!", Hapu gave as foreword before beginning her tale. Plumeria and I exchanged a clear look, agreeing that she was the weird one for knowing this stuff and not the other way around.

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"After the sky had broken

and the beast of moon crowned victor,

island guardians were awoken

and dealt with strange invaders.

Beasts of terrible power

with a light from outside Alola

appeared in the fragile sky

and laid waste on lands below them.

The guardians stood not idle,

bringing defeat and capture.

And still these strangers come,

raging against their power.

We give thanks with each year

to our guardians and protectors,

for the safety of our people

against the beasts from between the stars.", Hapu recited.

"Beasts from between the stars? What's that supposed to mean?", Plumeria asked, resisting the information. Hapu seemed happy to oblige the question though, answering, "Scholars used to debate that, and some still do, but in recent years the Aether Foundation has documented creatures called ultra beasts that appear from ultra wormholes around Alola, which most agree are the beasts mentioned in the story. And now, Ula'Ula has no defense against them." "It can't be that bad.", Plumeria bickered.

At the same time, waking to find xirself in the perfect confluence of coincidences, was UB-06 Adhesive. With xir captor unconscious, xe burrowed straight up through the igneous enclosure and toward that wonderful, hopeful feeling. Zipping around for the first time in at least a few months, xe relished the feeling of the warm alien air xe had grown used to in the last three years, not that time held much weight for xir kind.

As if to disprove Plumeria's argument, bursting out of the ground that stood above the Ruins of Hope, a powerful presence suddenly arrived to circle around the three of them. They shredded through pillars of stone jutting out of the irregular beachhead as a luminescent grin stayed pointing toward the humans. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?", Plumeria shouted, attempting to turn and follow the purple and fuchsia creature but failing to match their speed. "An ultra beast?", I asked, unsure of the words leaving my mouth. "An ultra beast.", Hapu confirmed with vitriol.

"UB-06, Adhesive if I'm remembering correctly.", she went on, more academic now. "Why are you so smarmy about that!? And what do we do?!", Plumeria shouted as the adrenaline hit her again. The beast chose that instant to move in. In a snap the strange scaled thing was hovering giddily in front of my face, not attacking. Xir glowing "eyes", like shifting divots in the slick armor of the beast, beamed at me as UB-06 was content to fidget in the air in front of me.

"Why're they doing this?", I asked Hapu, a previously absent concern and vehemence touching my voice in the literal face of otherworldly terror. "I don't know, but everything seems fine. Normally ultra beasts rampage when they're in our world, but this one seems to have their head mostly screwed on. I guess they're just better at handling the change in scenery?", she shakily offered. "And what would happen if this ultra beast thingie did go on a 'rampage'?", Plumeria asked from behind me, a harder question in my question game before Hapu would get the grand prize. Not so often we get a guest questioner. Hapu just pointed to one of the bored through pillars, then brought her arms out wide and stomped with both feet to set her conclusion. The action was more evocative than her words would have been. Plumeria was in shock, dropped head first in the consequences of her and her team's actions, as the beast began to hover around me, accessing. "Are you sure it's fine?!", I questioned further, my tone more exasperated than scared at the escalating ridiculousness of the situation.

An instant later, Tapu Fini was back and snapping their shell around the beast. All eyes were on the guardian as they just stared at me. Plumeria was breathing heavy, Hapu was still with respect, but between me and Tapu Fini a strange feeling stretched out. They looked into me, seeming to notice something that had been too faint before now, drowned out or unremarkable or both. In that ethereal moment, where Hapu couldn't see it, Tapu Fini's hand sneaked out of their shell holding another sparkling stone, lacking the brilliant spectacle of Hapu's. Years of felony and misdemeanor guided my hand, and with none the wiser I slipped the sparkling stone into a pocket. Just like that, Tapu Fini left again for their Ruins with the ultra beast in tow. "What was that look about?", Hapu asked with suspicion. "What look?", I asked, playing dumb. "That look from Tapu Fini.", Hapu pressed. "You're the kahuna now, aren't you the Tapu Fini expert here? You tell me what that look meant.", I pushed back.

All the while, Plumeria stayed behind me, her once imposing stature shrinking with doubt. "Big sis?", I asked, noticing her sorry state. Hapu flashed a look of confusion before realizing that I wasn't referring to her. Plumeria sighed, phlegm catching in her tired throat as she tried to steady herself. "I can't even stand myself right now…", she managed, the words full of resignation. "What kind of numskull surrounds herself with dummies and thinks she's smart? What was I thinking? Gladion's just a kid, I out of anyone should know how stupid he is, and Guzma?!", she rambled before letting out a long, suffering sigh.

Hapu just peered over my shoulder as I grabbed Plumeria's hand. "What are you gonna do about it then?", I asked her firmly. "What?", she gasped. "What are you gonna do about it?", I asked again. Her face recoiled when she finally took in my question. She grabbed a love ball from her pocket, released her Salazzle, and the two curled around eachother in a hug as she began to cry. She hiccuped and babbled and gasped for air and dug her face into the scales of her partner as the make up ran in rivers down her cheeks. For my part, I backed away, grabbed Hapu by the shoulder, and lowered us both to the ground to wait for Plumeria.

Used to long silences with eachother even after the years apart, Hapu and I waited several minutes for Plumeria with nothing but the sound of her crying and the waves crashing into the stone. I could tell from her face she was planning out everything that needed doing now that she was kahuna. I had my own things to think about as well, what would I do now that I presumably wasn't a part of Team Skull?

'I guess I could stay in Team Skull, do something about the guardian deities from the inside and keep in touch with my friends. But is that what I want?', came my first question to myself. The answer was obvious. 'No. I joined the Team to get stronger, to be independent, to do what I wanted to without question. The plan got in the way of that, but I shrugged it off. I shouldn't've done that. But what do I do if not stay? What was my plan originally?' My mind went back to the night I first caught Kawami, the mental rush and chatting through the night. 'I'll take the island challenge. Then I'll become a professional trainer. Maybe I could be a move tutor? Whatever. The long-term plans don't matter. Just take the challenge, simple. Now how do I get big bad Kahuna Hapu to let me do that?' Then, excitedly, my fist clenched around the sparkling stone and I smiled.

Finally, Plumeria sniffled, Salazzle drying her tears as she composed herself. "I'm done.", she declared. "Guzma will be mad, but fuck that thickskulled dipshit. I have a place to hide away, if they find me anyway who cares. Call Eva for me Kau'i, I may be leaving the Team but those dummies don't deserve to be left starving again. I'll buy supplies and have her 'steal' them.", she explained. Then, she reached up to her head, pulling the skull hair clips free and chucking them underhand into the air. "Sludge Bomb.", she ordered, and the hair clips were melted into slurry, falling to the ground.

Next, she turned to me. "One last thing. This is my way of saying sorry, okay? I'm in no place to raise a baby pokémon right now. Take care of our little princess.", she said solemnly, before pulling an egg from the bag on her back. It was a grey lavender tone with pink flame patterns wreathing it. It was a Salandit egg. "What!? I can't…", I blurted as the egg was pushed into my hands. "Take. It.", she insisted, poison on her tongue. "So she can steal with ease but hates gifts. How counter-cultural.", Hapu of all people joked. "Fine! Fine.", I said, exasperated. "Thank you, big sis. I'll see ya later, okay?", I pushed. "Yeah, I'll see ya.", she said before hugging me awkwardly around the egg.

Then she switched her Salazzle for her Golbat, attached her harness and flew off. Hapu turned to me, a contented smile on her face. "And what are your plans Kau'i?", she asked. "Take the island challenge.", I replied curtly. "Not for another year, you're still just 10.", she replied, unphased. Then I pulled the sparkling stone from my pocket and she groaned. "Chosen by the guardian deity?! You uppity little shit! Going right to my boss already!?", she swore at the sky. 'Two in a day, that's a new record!'