Biting her tongue and looking into the middle distance, Mina rifled through the athletics bag on her back with her arm hung awkwardly up and over its own shoulder. "Is this actually the trial?", I asked, thrown off by the captain's odd behavior. "Kinda.", she answered, leaving nothing actually explained. Finally, she pulled two paint splattered poké balls, one actually being a specialty cherish ball, and released two pokémon onto the field. A Ribombee and Jigglypuff each landed on the thick rug of natural fibers, confident expressions on their faces.
Hapu and Mina's parents looked around the paper divider, all of them disappointed. "Not in the house!", Mina's mom admonished, though Mina seemed to be deaf to it. "I specifically disallowed double battles, your trial already oversteps certain boundaries Mina.", Hapu berated. Shaking off the disconcertion from Mina's behavior, I spoke up, "I'm fine with it, I got this." Mina's eyes widened, shimmering with inspiration as she gazed at me. Hapu looked at Mina's expression, hardened herself before a smile could break the surface, and nodded. Calmly, I pressed the button on the luxury ball to call Waiola to my side to watch the fight. Then, I tossed two balls forward, placing Kawami and Toma across from Ribombee and Jigglypuff in the center of the room. Hapu stood against the folding screen to referee the fight.
"Do whatever!", Mina said with a totally straight face. The cartoon mustache of hot pink paint that continued onto her brushy dry hair almost visibly curled up in excitement at the bobbing of her head. Ribombee zipped across the room, air dropping a Pollen Puff onto Toma while he was distracted waving to Jigglypuff. "Fang the bee, Spray the puff!", I called.
As if in the midst of an aerial dogfight, Kawami swerved in a tight spiral to catch Ribombee in-between her dripping Poison Fangs. Ribombee slipped out a blink later, the excess poison somehow falling off of her in doughy clumps. Below the fluttering combatants, Toma Sprayed the stationary Jigglypuff with Acid as instructed. Jigglypuff wiped its face of the acid, revealing a furiously Competitive scowl glowing with pink light and covered in caustic pockmarks. With an adorably raised hand, Jigglypuff sent a crackling Charge Beam through Kawami. As the sparkling energy lingered around Jigglypuff, Kawami flapped desperately to course correct from a collision with the ground.
I began to shout, "Air Cu-", when Ribombee buzzed out a Round of song. Kawami was momentarily buffeted and Toma stumbled in his skitter. Jigglypuff was hit the hardest, the sound shaking her violently, but the whole time she had a devious smile on her face. Staring slack-jawed, I watched as Jigglypuff picked up the Round. The room was filled with her powerful melody, sparkling rainbow light following the waves of sound that pounded Kawami, Toma, Ribombee, and even Waiola into unconsciousness.
"Mina wins!", Hapu declared with uncharacteristic smugness. I stuck a finger in my ear and cleared out a bit of wax. "Did I hear you right?", I asked, the overload of the Round fading from my ears. "Mina won.", Hapu repeated, smugness unwavering. "Shouldn't there be some sort of repercussions for causing Waiola to faint? I wasn't gonna send her in, she just hatched!", I said bitterly, continuing the millennia old tradition of arguing with the referee. "We didn't know that, and since your other two pokémon fainted first it's legal enough. This isn't a gym Kau'i.", Hapu said, defending her decision in keeping with the same tradition.
"Well you lost either way.", Mina yawned, "Try again some time I guess." "We get to do this again!?", Zossie exclaimed. "No, I'm doing the trial on my own next time.", I fumed as I returned my team to their balls. Zossie and Phyco began a huddled conversation with Mina, who was much better equipped to handle them than I was. I just walked out of the Whishcash shaped houseboat, Hapu following behind me.
"Right now, which are you more: angry or disappointed in yourself?", Hapu digged. "Right now? Angry.", I spat. "That's the wrong answer.", she piled on. "You're not helping with that.", I stung back. "Nor should I be, I am the Kahuna of Poni and you are a trial-goer. I am the challenge, you, the challenger.", she said with pride. Then, we entered the Seafolk Village Pokémon Center. The atmosphere was strange, everything was clean, white, comfortable, and kempt. "Are pokémon centers always like this?", I asked, my nose scrunched up slightly. "Like what?", Hapu asked back particularly informally. "So... bright?", I specified. Hapu chuckled. Normally, she would either laugh boisterously or not laugh at all, but here, she chuckled. "What? Are you usually too busy keeping your head down, away from the cameras!", she joked, still choking on every breath. I shot her a withering look and continued to the front desk.
"Welcome to the Seafolk Village Pokémon Center!", the receptionist greeted brightly. "Uh-huh.", I replied distantly as I placed the poké ball, nest ball, and luxury ball on the counter. The receptionist's smile cracked slightly as she looked over my black and white ensemble of clothes. "Can I see your Trainer ID little miss?", she asked with a broad customer service smile. "Trainer ID...", I dribbled out, then raised a hand to forestall her while I dug through my shoulder bag for the slice of ever-important plastic. Having foraged it out, I passed the ID to her. She held it up to the light, brought it back down, marked it with a marker, wiped the mark off, shined a backlight on it, and finally set it down on the counter with a frown.
"The ID is real. She was a scoundrel of Team Skull within the month however, so I don't judge you for your apprehension.", Hapu butted in. The lady looked at Hapu and was dumbstruck. "I'm not being shown an illusion, right?", she asked without any of the propriety of her job. "Indeed you are not. I happen to have a... history... with this hooligan. While she is on Poni Island she's my responsibility as Kahuna, and I've arranged for surveillance of her that will remain when she continues on from Poni. If there's anything to worry about, I'll be the one worrying.", Hapu stated. The poor receptionist's customer service abilities were completely outclassed by Hapu's lifelong training for taking responsibility for anything and everything. "Do I look that bad?", I interjected. "Yes.", Hapu stated.
Taking the poké balls, the receptionist turned away from us and into the back, using the opportunity for a moment to think rather than leaving it to one of the pokémon on staff. "How did her Jigglypuff get the power for that attack?", I asked, still considerably mad about my loss. "You're the trainer, it's your job to know that sort of thing.", Hapu said dryly. I made a display of rolling my eyes. She pointed to a computer booth on the wall. "Look it up Kau'i. There's so many ways to find the answers for that on the internet that I'm not sure where to start." Her tone said I was an idiot so many ways that I wasn't sure where to start. "I just don't like it... Maybe I know I'll get sucked in or something, but there's just nothing backing up the words of people online.", I receded.
"Kau'i, best in her age bracket at separating trash from tools, isn't confident she can use the internet without getting duped.", she quaked sarcastically. "Fine. Fine! Shut up, okay?", I grumbled, sitting down at the computer. "You have a phone.", Hapu pointed out. "For now, not on the phone.", I insisted. Not bothering to overcomplicate things, I used the default engine and searched for "Jigglypuff abilities". Salacpedia, a mind bogglingly huge online encyclopedia, listed Jigglypuff's ability as Cute Charm and its hidden ability as Friend Guard. Neither explained the power of the Round Mina's Jigglypuff had used, and other information about the Fairy-Type seemed to be missing as well.
Moving awkwardly back to the original search results, I instead opened Jigglypuff's page on FairySala, an equivalent encyclopedia site specifically for Fairy-Type specialists. Here, three abilities were listed in total: Cute Charm, Competitive, and Friend Guard. I moved to the page for the Competitive ability, but the FairySala page was confusingly adventurous and buried the effects of the ability in advice for training various Fairy-Types to gain the ability. I moved back to Salacpedia and found the page for it there instead. Competitive heavily raises a pokémon's special attack if their other stats are lowered by an opponent, which would've triggered when Toma used Acid Spray on Jigglypuff. Already knowing about Round's boosting effect, I moved through Ribombee and Jigglypuff's page on both sites and pieced together what had happened.
Ribombee's Shield Dust had kept it from being poisoned by Poison Fang, Jigglypuff's Charge Beam had given her an additional damage buff, and the Round had cleared everyone out before anything could be done. Mina knew the reputation of Fairy-Types being weak and tricky and went with a full force strategy, relying on her pokémon's ability to cover the gaps, to counter anyone who underestimated her like I did. If I had been less confident in our Poison-Type moves and used a more cautious strategy, Hypnosis would have failed thanks to Ribombee's Sweet Veil and Pollen Puff would ensure Jigglypuff had the time to ensure that same finale. Most of all, Mina's one order at the beginning of the fight, "Do whatever!", was brilliant. My stumbling with having to order my pokémon led to a predictable strategy with a delay between call and action, whereas her pokémon synchronized wordlessly and acted as needed. Hapu's words bounced around in my brain, "You're the trainer, it's your job to know that sort of thing."
"Kau'i! Your pokémon have been healed! Kau'i!", the receptionist called, breaking me from my researching fugue. I placed my backpack in front of the screen, reserving my spot, and moved to the counter. "Miss Kau'i, there is one issue.", she said, still holding onto the small tray of poké balls that held my team. "None of these pokémon are registered to a trainer."
"Well they wouldn't be. I've never properly been to a pokémon center before. Like Hapu said..." She interrupted me there, "Kahuna Hapu." "Right, yeah, her; I was part of Team Skull a month ago, so I would've been in trouble if I went to a pokémon center. And after the season started I went straight into Vast Poni Canyon for my trial, so I haven't needed to visit since I got the option. You could release my pokémon right now, they'll show you I'm their trainer. My Ariados could even spell it out for you with pictograms."
She sighed. "I believe you, if only because Kahuna Hapu seems to trust you at least that much. I'll go have them registered to your Trainer ID. What are their names?" I gave her a thankful smile and answered, "The Golbat is Kawami, the Ariados is Toma, and my Salandit is named Waiola." She wrote down the names on a notepad, and after I confirmed she had the right spelling, she left again.
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I stood in front of my team on the wooden training platform behind the pokémon center, hands on my hips. "Alright guys! We've got one goal: fight alot! Mina gave us the runaround and I won't stand for it. We need experience to make up for all of our failures. If you think you can make progress somewhere in the thick of it, go ahead, but the main goal is overall improvement.", I announced. Kawami shrieked approval, Toma bowed, his back limbs outstretched comically, and Waiola nodded silently. From there, I introduced myself to any fellow trial-goers and pushed for a battle. After a good few odd looks that I was immune to, one strange kid came up to me in exactly the same way I had been doing.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Hey!", the girl said in a vile manner, "Me and my team need to get stronger for Mina's trial.", she continued in the special matter of fact tone of a thug proposing a deal with an attached threat, "You wanna fight?", she finished simply. "Yeah, I've been going around asking for that.", I said. Her pigtails swung as her posture became less hunched and her face more cheery. "Okie-dokie! How'd you like my impression of you?!", she said, her voice lacking any of the underpinning distaste from her "impression." "Is that really what I sound like?", I grumbled. "Yup! Your Team Skull roots are suuuper obvious. Honestly, wear as little white and black as you can, anyone with a brain will still spot you a mile away!", she practically sang. I frowned.
"We gonna fight?", I asked venomously. "We gonna fight?", she copied in that impression again, laughing after. "Oh yeah we are! I've got two pokémon, so how about two 1v1s and the stragglers fight if we're tied after?", she proposed. "Okay.", I confirmed. She mouthed the word but didn't give voice to the impression while she grabbed two plain poké balls from her belt. I snapped my finger, and Kawami flew down from above, Toma hanging from her in what had become a well practiced routine. "Oh that's a good one! I'm sure Ori'orio will love that!", my opponent cooed, releasing her Senshu Style Oricorio across from us. "Toma, you're up, do your thing!", I ordered. "Three!", the girl shouted. She looked at me expectantly. "Two?", I dribbled. "One!", she continued, pausing before staring at me again like I was the biggest idiot there ever was. 'You said one, is that not good enough?', I thought before conceding. "Go!", I declared with frustration.
Toma scampered out, creating thread monkey bars to maneuver through, all the while moving his legs in the practiced motions of a Swords Dance. "Air Cutter!", the impressionist called, finger pointed out in the style of so many famous up and coming trainers of the past. Ori'orio followed after Toma in a graceful flying arch, his Dancer ability copying Toma's Swords Dance before he twirled for a spiral Air Cutter. Toma pulled back from the sting of the super effective attack, taking the opportunity to slip into a Shadow Sneak. "Feather Dance!", the other trainer yelled, trying to secure higher damage for her side, but the irritating feathers never caught onto Toma before he struck the bird in the back with a devastating super effective attack of his own. In one strike, Ori'orio collapsed.
The girl didn't flinch for a moment before moving on. "Welp, that's round one! You're pokémon are tough, how long have you been training them?", the girl with jungle green hair said, returning her first pokémon to his ball. "Around three years, but it mostly wasn't for fighting until these last few months. My Salandit just hatched though.", I explained, more cordial with a win under my belt. "Okay!", the girl announced, getting on with things, "Round two, Sue's turn!" Appearing in the Oricorio's place in front of her was what appeared to be a small potted bonsai tree. My eyes narrowed and I stamped my foot. As expected, at the slightest signal, Kawami rushed to the field. "It's a Rock-Type, not a Grass-Type. If it's on our level it'll be tough, so wear it down like back in the day okay?", I laid out our strategy. Kawami wiggled her ears, annoyed she was being told not to just Bite the thing, but still readied for battle. "Sue is a she, not an it!", my opponent shouted. "Go!", I announced again, not waiting for the little girl's little routine.
"Copycat!", the other trainer yelled dramatically. Sue the Bonsly opened her eyes, watching Kawami carefully. Then the two locked eyes, each hitting the other with a Confuse Ray. "Now a Rock Throw!", came the order for Bonsly. Dutifully, a stone was formed, flew through the air, and crushed Kawami's wing, bringing her down for a moment. In her confusion, her wing swung up into her face and she bit down on it. "To your left!", I directed, hoping to push through the confusion. "More rocks!", the impressionist directed, copying my hope as well. Kawami slammed into Sue, Biting down on the fake tree while Sue swung around, Throwing her hanger-on into the Rocks she had littered around herself. After a few seconds of this repeating, Kawami fell off of the tree-mimic, unable to move.
"Well, that's tie game. You never should've won in the first round, made it easier to copy you!", my opponent joked. "What's your name? I just realized I don't know it.", I asked as we walked into the pokémon center to heal up for the tiebreaker round. "I'm Copy Kathy, mimicry specialist!", she said with rehearsed bravado. "Kau'i, ex-Team Skull grunt, and supposedly I'm a Poison-Type specialist.", I reciprocated.
"Supposedly I'm a Poison-Type specialist. What's that supposed to mean?! Are you or aren't you?", Kathy questioned, all the while handing the receptionist her poké balls and ID behind her back. "I don't care about the title. If it gets me a job someday, sure, I'll be a specialist, but I'll do whatever I need to do at the end of the day.", I explained. "Do whatever I need to do...", she mocked under her breath, stifling a laugh and turning away to give me access to the counter, "That is the most Poison-Type thing I've ever heard. Definitely using that if I need to come off as a Poison specialist.", she commented. "People always say shit like that! And wouldn't you need a Poison-Type pokémon for that to work?", I bickered. Kathy just laughed.
Our loudness was attracting attention from the other trial-goers at this point, which Kathy seemed to bask in. For a moment, I felt bad for her that Alola didn't have a pokémon contest circuit. "You really should just dedicate yourself to being a specialist. Not to toot my own horn,", here Kathy played a bit of air horn, "but being a specialist is a good move. Why do you think 90% of the top trainers are specialists? Being a generalist is messy and overcomplicated, but once you have that focus of a specialist, you have a path forward." Kathy rubbed her nose pridefully, clearly thinking she had won me over. "Nah!", a boy shouted from behind us, "Generalists are better! The top of the top, Champions like Cynthia and Steven, are mostly generalists! Don't you wanna be strong? Don't you wanna be like Red?"
"Nope. I don't wanna be strong, I wanna be happy.", I said, concentrating my perspective down into a few words. "And Red is not someone you should aspire to be like, I've talked to people who've met him; You've gotta have something wrong in your brain to make you that obsessive, and lucky to have it work out. None of you are gonna be like that.", I continued, essentially throwing tear gas on the kid's dreams. "How about this? Copy Kathy, if you beat me in our final match, I'll become a specialist. If not, I'll continue to do whatever I want.", I offered. In truth, I would do whatever I wanted either way, but it seemed like a good way to keep the crowd from killing me for heresy. Not like I could bet money I didn't have. "You're on!", Kathy declared with gusto. And then we sat down and waited for our pokémon to be healed, which took some of the air out of the crowd's sails.
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"Three! Two! One! Go!", the crowd cheered. Toma leaped forward at the Bonsly. "Copycat!", Kathy directed, preening in the attention of the spectators. "Hold out!", I countered. I wasn't just gonna sit back while she took away our advantages. Toma didn't Infest little Sue just yet, instead twisting around to hit with the weak Poison Sting. While Sue's Copycat Poison Sting barely left a scratch on Toma's carapace, Toma's was potent with poison. The hairline fracture on Sue's face festered as she winced. "Now go.", I said smugly. Both pokémon generated Infestations of tiny critters to attack the other, Toma's crawling towards their target while the fake tree just chucked her constructs right at her opponent. Toma seemed genuinely impressed to see another pokémon use his beloved techniques, even if poorly, but it wouldn't distract him from the fight.
Toma was shrouded in darkness as he rapidly circled his enemy. Sue was angry and in pain, but still she Threw Rocks at the predator she had lost any way to defeat. One hit Toma, causing the shadows to fade and marking his moment to end the battle. Toma ran to the Bonsly and Constricted her in tight thread before sinking his Fell Stinger into the other pokémon until she fell helplessly limp in her cocoon. After the fight was done, he cut the cocoon open and it took on its second purpose, a blanket.
"I've been bested!", Kathy wailed like she was performing a play. "Yup. I get to do whatever I want to. Still.", I responded unseriously. "Fair is fair.", she said regally. I laughed a little. She had her moments. While she returned to the front desk to have Sue healed, the crowd collapsed in on me for some reason. All I did was win, Kathy did all the theatrics, so I was confused. I also never received that kind of concentrated attention in a positive way. That much attention had only ever come with a botched thieving before that point.
After pushing most of the people away, I was able to arrange battles with some of them. A generalist needed help training his Trumbeak's Skill Link ability, which made dealing with its Rock Blasts a nightmare. The speed and reflexes garnered from that fight would serve us well. One trainer's Buneary seemed to Endure any attack and dodged expertly any attempt that would whittle down its health to circumvent Endurance. Waiola got practice with a Magikarp to work on her positioning and with a Fighting-Type specialist whose pokémon offered unique opportunities for her. A Stufful pushed her to use Ember due to its Fluffy ability and a Mienfoo demonstrated a proper Fake Out right in her face. By the end of the day we were in prime condition and I had learned everything I could about Mina and her Fairy-Types.
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As Jigglypuff's boosted Round ended, Toma finished her with his Fell Stinger. "Alright, I guess it's time to stop holding back.", Mina said, scratching her chin. Responding to her trainer's words, Ribombee turned and crushed Toma to the ground with a Psychic attack, causing him to faint despite being decently healthy. Kawami didn't stand by, fighting through her paralysis to cut into the frightened Bug-Type with a retaliatory Wing Attack. Ribombee too fainted. "Ready for the boss fight?", Mina asked, slipping an ultra ball from her oversized sleeve and tossing it forward. I expected this, having read about Mina's propensity for forgetting to mention extra pokémon online. "Yeah, I am!", I shouted defiantly, slinging the luxury ball from my pocket. In the middle of Mina's home studio, Kawami and Waiola faced off against a fearsomely Intimidating Mawile.
Immediately, Waiola slithered up to the Steel-Type and clapped in her face, the Fake Out causing her to flinch for a moment. Waiola used that time to get back away from the beast. Kawami tried to shoot an Air Cutter at Mawile in her moment of weakness, but her wing froze up and she was forced to twirl away. The twirl left Kawami open, and when Mawile moved again she swung her Iron Head into Kawami like a baseball batter. Kawami didn't flinch at the forceful attack thanks to her Inner Focus, and properly sent an Air Cutter back at the Mawile that hissed against her tough skin. While the two were distracted, Waiola let out Corrosive Poison Gas toward Mawile's side of the room.
Mawile hacked a cough, experiencing something it clearly never had before, poison. Kawami looked at Waiola with wonder and swooped her up in her legs to get out of Mawile's reach. Rather than swing fruitlessly at the attackers, Mawile breathed out a Fairy Wind from her crocodilian jaws like a dragon. Only thanks to her resistance to the Fairy-Type did Waiola not faint then and there. Joined together, Kawami's Air Cutter sent Waiola's full force Ember forward, where it was caught inside Mawile's mouth. The critical hit licked at the inside of Mawile, burning her badly.
Mawile would not give up, choking on her spit and sweating profusely, she trained her eyes on the bat and salamander. As Kawami flapped for another Air Cutter, Mawile pushed herself into the air with her massive mouth and pushed Kawami to the ground with a Sucker Punch. Kawami, Waiola, and Mawile all fell to the floor in a bundle. Waiola was crushed under the two larger pokémon, fainting, Kawami Attacked furiously with her Wings, and Mawile stalwartly followed gravity's pull. Kawami then quickly backed away from the humanoid pokémon, ready for a fight despite her battered state. Instead, Mawile swayed and finally collapsed under the stress of the poison and burns.
"Well, you won.", Mina said, returning Mawile to her ultra ball. "Is it okay if I go heal my team up before facing the totem pokémon?", I asked as I gave Kawami a vigorous victory petting. "That'd be a very good idea, yeah.", she said. I could hear the grin she was hiding. "What are you not telling me?", I hissed. "Lots of things.", she answered nonchalantly. "Have I earned a fight with the totem pokémon?", I asked clearly. "No.", she said, a seelie smile smearing itself across her face, right under the paint mustache. I groaned, she laughed, then she held a resin encased pink flower petal out to me.
"What's this?", I queried. "The pink petal of the rainbow flower. Every trial captain has a different color petal, you have to fight each one to get them all. Once you come back with the full flower, you can face the totem pokémon.", she answered, brazenly cheerful. "How is that allowed?!", I asked, floored. "Mostly it's not, I only get to do this with Poni natives or certain special cases that can make it around the islands faster.", she explained. "And what's the trial for everyone else?", I continued. "Oh I just have them paint paintings until Totem Ribombee likes one.", she said offhandedly. I snatched the stupid petal from her hand and whirled my backpack around to stick it in the darkest corner where no one would think to steal from, scowling all the while. As I left, all the little things Mina and Hapu had said to purposefully obfuscate this part of Mina's trial bubbled feverishly in my brain.