I had everything packed, I had called ahead for Eva to get all the stuff I left in Po Town to a spot she knew on Melemele, I was ready. Hama even sent me a document guiding me through the Z-Power dances that weren't tied to a trial or grand trial, which the League gave out to trainers in the know (thanks to Hapu, I now fell into that category), and a separate public document on the Dragonium Z dance. Nothing was keeping me on Poni Island. 'Time to Fly!'

I gripped tightly onto Kawami's feet, and I was confident that we would make it all the way to Melemele. Kawami was shrouded in the darkness of a powerful Curse, which should help her last through the journey. "Let's go!", I shouted, and with a few strong wingbeats we were off. We started low, my feet barely above the ground as Kawami picked up speed. The air rushed behind us as we passed over the Poni Breaker Coast. I looked back at the retreating island as we flew a few dozen feet above the water and was confused to see Hapu waving back at me with an expression she only wore when she knew something I didn't. Then, we fell.

Kawami dropped into what the aviation community calls a "death spiral", dragging my arms down before my grip slipped and setting me in an uncontrolled spasmatic frontflip. My hair swung below me and back into my face as I turned upright again. Every limb flailed in a desperate attempt to find equilibrium. I heard a loud splat as Kawami hit the waves, wings outstretched, then swiped the hair from my eyes just in time to join her. The entire front half of my body felt like it had been slapped. I was underwater now, the Magikarp bolting away from me. My bags were trying to sink me and my brain screamed for solutions that I didn't have. I used all my effort to stay up, gulping down air whenever the waves brought me close to the surface. Then, an oozing mass came up under me, situating me on its back and rising out of the water.

I blinked my eyes clear of the salt, cleared my lungs of their ballast water, and spun my head around to take in my surroundings. Kawami had carried us maybe forty feet offshore before we fell, where the water was deep enough that we could fall into it and not hit the bottom but not so far out that the waves would take us out to sea. Hapu was standing on the shore, hands on her hips. If I needed any more confirmation of who had perpetrated our Snack Down, Hapu's Gastrodon, Paina, bringing me right back to her pretty much confirmed it.

I winced when I looked back out at the water and saw Kawami trying to fly with her wings half submerged and still red from the impact on the way down. I decided to return her to her poké ball instead of letting that play out long enough for a fish to come along and try to swallow her. As the steady Surf Gastrodon carried us on dropped away, I dismounted and stood in front of Hapu.

"Why.", I demanded. Hapu rolled her eyes, answering, "Because you would have never made it to Melemele. Safer that you fall close to shore where Paina can pick you up than falling miles from land." "Even assuming you're right,", I gave her a look to make sure she knew I didn't think she was right, "why not just stop me before I'm in the air?" Hapu avoided the question. "I'll get you to someone who will take you to Melemele. Ready?" "No, I'm not ready, you just dumped me in the ocean.", I replied. "Good.", she said. Paina disappeared, a Claydol filled her place, and with one of its hands on each of our shoulders, Claydol shifted the world around us. Hapu, Claydol, and I glowed white for a moment before the air snapped and we were somewhere else.

While I didn't recognize the ephemeral feeling, some deep part of my nervous system did.

Every panic signal I had was sent in waves through my body.

My ears rang.

I was struck with vertigo that buckled my legs out from under me.

My heart palpitations shook my chest in polyrhythm with my ragged breaths.

The distant smell of vomit was disregarded as just another untouchable stimulus.

What I was seeing seemed irrelevant to my current state as my body shuddered, until Hapu's face was in front of me.

I hadn't even realized she had lifted my head.

"Kau'i! KAU'I!" Her shouts dug past my muddled senses. I forcefully blinked away some of the fog clouding my thoughts. "Are you trying... to hurt me?", I squeaked out. "No, no, no, Kau'i! This was a mistake! I didn't know you would respond like this!", Hapu was frantic. "Okay," I said, still hyperventilating, "just never do that again." Slowly, Hapu helped me up out of the pile of slimy throw up that I had just then realized was mine.

The twinge of acid left behind in my throat and mouth was grounding. I had been Teleported, had a reaction or several, and freaked the fuck out, but now it had passed. I was shaken, but I was present, and if anything was seriously wrong, I was in a pokémon center and could receive care. I was in a pokémon center and had just appeared in the middle of the lobby, soaked in seawater and loaded with bags, collapsed to my hands and knees, up chucked at some point, and then blearily accused the kahuna of trying to hurt me. Everyone who could stand the sight and smell was staring at us, including, to my chagrin, Copy Kathy and Mina. "Private room.", I imposed on Hapu. She complied and we were soon in an empty treatment room.

I closed the curtain, dropped my soaked through bags with significant disregard onto the tile floor, and began digging for anything dry. Not necessarily clean, just dry. I almost laughed seeing what made it through. A pair of deeply synthetic white parachute pants and a thin black puffer jacket had shrugged off the water, protecting my skull tank and nothing else. Fate wanted me in Team Skull uniform. I put on the dry clothes and a pair of soggy flip flops and began sorting through my other pockets for anything that wouldn't recover from the water damage.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"That doesn't sound like you're putting on clothes, are you decent?", Hapu asked. "Who says 'are you decent'? Also, yes, I'm decent.", I grumbled. Hapu opened the curtain and immediately turned up her nose, which didn't do much since she was barely above eye-level with my disposal pile on the raised operating table. "Are you gonna help fix this? I'll accept that the Teleportation thing was an accident, but you definitely meant to dunk me and this is all because of that.", I asked. She sighed, a regretful expression plastering her face, then she put a hand on my shoulder. I flinched away. She retracted her hand. "I'm sorry Kau'i.", Hapu said. "Sorry for what?! I don't even know for sure what you intended and what just happened!", I bit back on reflex. Hapu looked taken aback for a moment before composing herself.

"You're right, I should explain.", she began, taking my outburst in stride, "I knew that you would try to Fly with your Golbat to Melemele, the Meowths reported you practicing for it. I also knew you wouldn't make it, like I said, so I intervened. For anyone else, I would have stopped them before taking off like you said earlier, but you take things to heart when you learn them the hard way, and we know eachother, so I decided to drive the point home. As for the Teleportation, it's a known phenomenon that those experiencing it for the first time get nauseous and often vomit, but I have never heard of, much less seen, a reaction like yours. That was an accident."

I gripped the travel sized sewing kit in my hand to hide the shaking. "Do you think that's good kahuna behavior?", I said, pushing the words through my teeth. Hapu stayed as still as a statue while she apologized, "No. In retrospect, it was obviously a misstep. I hope I can make it up to you." I paused and let out a long sigh. "As long as the way you're getting me to Melemele isn't Teleport... I'll be fine.", I admonished. I continued parsing the contents of my bags and pants pockets, and Hapu joined me at my side.

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"Why do you have all of those things!? You have a biohazard strapped to your back!", Hapu exclaimed good-naturedly as we walked under the awnings of the Seafolk Village's town square. "Good thing we cleaned it out in a medical facility then, biohazard disposal was right there on the wall.", I bantered. I was feeling mostly better, but if I wasn't on a boat with a washer and dryer, I would slip something into Hapu's drink the next time we met. We passed many people, native, local, and fully foreign, and many boats from pokémon shaped contraptions and glittering yachts to rust-lined fish trawlers. When we stopped, we were faced with both of the latter. "Gerald!", Hapu greeted, buttering up the crabby old man in front of the decrepit fishing boat.

In the intervening years, the pepper in the Galarian sailor's beard had been drowned entirely in the salt of the sea. His rough face still carried that power to float above it all or dive into something with everything he had. After years, Kawami would finally meet the confidant who gave me the opportunity to train her. "Been a while you old dog.", I introduced. "Hapu, I heard aboucha becomin' Kahuna! Poor button-tosser who told me had to listen while I put morse code through a Fishious Rend. Now who's the little punk lass to be callin' me an old dog, ay?", Gerald spouted.

"I guess you wouldn't recognize me.", I said offhandedly, then kicked him in the leg and slipped the still trash encrusted poké ball Kawami now called home out of my pocket to show him like it was a closely held secret. His eyes lit up. "The theivin' lil' orphan! Forgive a sailor who's seen too much, but I can't say I remember yer name lass.", the seafarer said excitedly. "It's Kau'i. I'm on my island challenge this year, only through the grace of Tapu Fini.", I explained. "Sounds like a story, I do hope ya've gotten talkative enough to tell it.", he joked.

Hapu cleared her throat. "I'm pleased this is going well, but my work leaves no room for idle words. Gerald, you will take Kau'i to Melemele Island, yes?" The look on her face was stiff and unreadable. "Don't worry little lady," Gerald said, getting a sharp glare from Hapu, "I'll get yer little sister here to Melemele, safe as can be." I joined Hapu with my own stink eye. With a wry smile, Gerald turned away from us and walked up the ramp to his boat. "Come 'ere Kau'i, let's not waste more of the Kahuna's time.", he called.

Rolling my eyes, I moved to join him when Hapu grabbed my shoulder and turned me to face her. "Goodbye. When you come back, make sure Kawami Flys you here, ok?", she said with a stoney face that she barely kept from crumbling. I tilted my head down a tad to look her right in the eyes. 'Three years ago, she was taller than me.', I thought. I answered her, "Yeah, alright, just don't dunk me in saltwater again." She buried me in a hug despite her size, hiding her face in my poofy hair. I brushed one of her pigtails out of my face, saying quietly, "Since when did I matter so much?" She brought her head up to look me in the eyes, answering, "You've always mattered." "Ugh!", I groaned, rolling my eyes at the sentimentality and breaking the tension. A smile cracked Hapu's face that looked wider than the Vast Poni Canyon ever had. I broke away from Hapu and with a simple, "Bye.", that she returned, I slipped up the gangway and down below deck.

A few minutes later, the boat lurched forward and we began moving out to sea. First, I searched for a washer and dryer to clean my still damp bags. I found none outside of Gerald's quarters, which I wouldn't enter. Next, I set up the hammock I'd once stolen from Gerald right back in the spot I'd found it. It had a few patches where it didn't before, but that just meant I'd made it mine. Setting down my bags and wiping my hands on my pants, I went back up the stairs to the deck. "Diligent lass arenchya?", Gerald commented at my return.

"It'll be a short trip, no need to pack everythin' away like we're sailin' to Indigo.", He continued. I told him, "Call me cautious, but the last time I ended up unexpectedly in the ocean, my bags nearly drowned me." "And when was that?", He inquired. "This morning, when Hapu shot me out of the sky.", I remarked venomously. His eyebrows raised and he said, "Ya don't say? I'd've sworn you two just conquered the world together with the way yer goodbye went." I pulled my hood over my head and backed away from him to take a seat on the deck. "Sensitive subject? Ya'd think after so many years I'd have more… tact, but alas.", he said as I retreated.

As I slumped into the artificial straps that connected the empty frame of a chair, Gerald busied himself with jobs to do on the boat. He called to his pokémon, Moby the Wailord and Miser the Dhelmise, to organize something, and then pulled everything that wasn't bolted down on the deck into storage. Finally, he came to my chair. "I've gotta put this below deck.", he said, ushering me off the thing, "We'll be using a poorly advised sailing technique, since we're carrying special cargo.", he said. Then, he winked at me. I groaned a little. "Come on, yer gonna like it! Here, to the helm!", he cried, setting me down in a seat with an array of buttons. Most of the controls had their original labels covered with masking tape that read "DO NOT TOUCH" in red marker.

Gerald left me alone in the helm while he made a course around the ship. He stopped next to the back of the ship, returning Miser to a ball on his belt, then did the same at the front of the ship as he returned Moby. Finally, he moved to the center of the deck and pulled out his third ball. "FULL POWER YE MAGNIFICENT BEAST YOU!", he roared as Argona the Gyarados began to circle above the ship in an Intimidating, no, terrifying, Rain Dance. In moments, the sky and sea turned black and rain pounded down on the deck. A terrible Tailwind pushed through Gerald's trenchcoat as Argona called forth mighty Surfs, Waterfalls, and Whirlpools to will the ocean to carry us forward. The bright blues and greens on the horizon stood in stark contrast to the force of nature Gyarados had called down in service of my quick transport. All the while, Gerald held is head to the sky, cackling like a madman.

I got out of my seat, found a contraption Gerald had hooked together so he could pull a cord hanging from the ceiling of the helm to sound the boat's rusted horn, and pulled it. Gerald finally broke from his madness, pushing through the wind and into the helm. "Ya know, sometimes, I wish I had one'a them old sailboats. With a proper galleon, Argona could take me across the seas faster than this damned engine I have to finagle e'ry two minutes!", Gerald thought out loud after closing the heavy door behind him.

"What are we supposed to do while that's happening?", I questioned him, pointing to Argona still dancing in the air above the ship. Gerald held up a hand placatingly. "Before that, a quick confirmation. You're in Team Skull, yes?" "I was, pretty much the whole three years since last time I saw you.", I answered. "Good, that means yer the repeat offender, not me.", He said, pulling bottles of liquor out of a box beneath the steering column that was disguised as a footrest. "How are you friends with Hapu?", I asked him. "I hoped ya'd figured that out on yer own. I'm great at keepin' secrets. Now! I doubt those Skull punks know how to make even a half-good Mai Tai!"