Something wet and lukewarm touched my hand, and a stinging sunburn kind of pain radiated out of the extremity. I stirred and my scalp dug against the bark of the tree I had slept under. My eyes finally opened and I pulled my arm away from the Grimer. Toma lowered himself down by a thread to give me the ritual smile and wave good morning. I wasn't normally one to care about bed-head, but this was the kind that people found Joltiks in months after the fact. "Toma, the brush. It's at the bottom of the felt bag in the middle pocket."

I kept looking sideways at the Grimer while I forced the brush through the clog of my hair. It was supposed to be a detangling brush, but advertising and reality were two different things. The effort of the brushing flared the pain of the burn the Grimer had given me. I hoped the burn was chemical and not something worse. A shockingly large clump of... something... came out with one heaving pull, and the wild thing swallowed it up. 'Better him than my hair.'

I got up and beckoned Toma to pass me my backpack. He hoisted it over to me and I buried the brush back inside before mounting it on my back. "Web down.", I ordered, and Toma first cut out a sighing resented face from the walls of silk around the tree before tearing away the rest of it. "Grimer, do you wa... Okay, you do, cool.", I said, the wild pokémon already eating the fallen webs I was about to ask about. That was Toma's least favorite part of the whole spinning process.

Professor Oak jogged over after spotting that the shroud was gone. "Kau'i! You were in there quite a while, I assume you've talked things out with Grimer here?", he asked in that way that said there was an answer he expected, the way he hadn't sounded when giving his big advice. "Nah, just doing some... special training.", I lied lamely. The lie wasn't what disappointed him, but he was disappointed.

"You should talk with Grimer about it joining your team.", Oak all but ordered me in his friendly tone. But he hadn't ordered me. "Why?", I challenged, "It's just some wild pokémon that's following me around. It hurt me and nearly hurt Lillie. I don't need to train some multicolored toxic mess that hurts people because it doesn't know any better." Oak laughed lightly at me, staring at my purple and green hair, before he composed himself. "Something funny?", I bit. He shook his head no. 'Weird old man.'

"My point is that you should consider it. This Grimer seems attached to you already, and you have the experience to train it. You are a Poison-Type specialist, are you not?", he asked rhetorically. It annoyed me, not that he was right, but that he'd figured it out all on his own.

"Yeah. Okay. Fine. Grimer, do you wanna join my team?", I short-temperedly sprayed out. The Grimer just looked even more confused than usual. "See? He doesn't get it.", I told the professor. Oak seemed to understand something I didn't about the situation. "Grimer," he prompted, "are you part of Kau'i's team?" The top of the Grimer sludgy body waved back and forth while he smiled. A nod.

I looked between the two of them, stupefied. "I didn't say that!", I protested. Then I turned to Toma, hanging on the last thread in the tree. "Help translate, I'm figuring this out.", I told my Ariados, then turned back to Professor Oak, "And you, get out of here." The professor smiled and said, "You know, Dark-Types are immune to Psychic-Type attacks." "I know that already, and it doesn't matter! Go!", I urged him. "The door is closing.", he said sagely.

The Grimer stayed perfectly still through it all, looking up at me with toxin glazed eyes. Finally, Professor Oak acquiesced, walking back across the campus to Mikala. Impotent discontent seemed to be something Professor Oak was trying to harvest from me. I sighed and spoke to the Grimer. "You're not on my team. Why'd you think you were?" Grimer bubbled something in response, and I only understood some of the intent.

Toma drew out the pictogram translation, a drawing of me (which Toma had gotten very good at making over the years) with a speech bubble expanding out to show the next panels were representing something I had said. Then, a drawing of Grimer behind me, walking, with an analog clock design in the corner at twelve. Then the same panel, again and again, the clock moving to a different position and the shading matching the supposed time of day each time, until the final panel, showing a broken clock face with the scene drawn in thin strands to represent pitch black night. 'Are you really going to keep following me around forever and ever?'

I looked down at the sludge on the ground, surprised. "Why?", I asked it. It flapped its lips a while in response. The translation showed the Grimer looking through a pair of binoculars at me and my team, smiles and action lines from where we were moving were emphasized and a series of fireworks were above us. "You saw us and wanted to join us?" Grimer shook his three-fingered hand in a so-so gesture, leaving a few splotches of acid around, then said something again. Simplified from the last drawings, Toma drew the pair of binoculars pointed at a smiley face. 'It seemed fun.'

"Let me think about it.", I told him. I grabbed the textbook and rifled through the pages. I'd long since marked every page relevant to my team, but the textbook was not a pokédex, it was a resource on abilities and moves and what pokémon could use them naturally. I found Alolan Grimer and Muk listed on some of the same pages as my teammates, since it could learn some of the same moves, but I wasn't getting a comprehensive view of his capabilities.

I didn't like mucking up where I did my research and where I talked to people, "Don't shit where you eat.", as they say, but this needed to be done without bringing Grimer into a public library. I pulled my phone from a pocket near the ankle of the skirt Toma had made me all those years ago, where I kept it to weigh the thing down. It was low on power, so I pulled my brick of a portable battery from another low pocket.

Then I went to the FormeSalac page for Alolan Grimer, a Salacpedia branch that focused on pokémon with different forms. It was always a good idea to go to the most obsessed community available for this kind of info; Breeder Salac could tell you more than you would ever want to know about Dittos, for example. I did my usual researching tango, something I'd gotten much better at since losing to Mina.

I was dancing between FormeSalac, where Samson Oak was hailed as a god, for all the known moves and abilities of Alolan Grimer and Muk while I skipped the included biology lesson, Able Salac, for the details on Gluttony and the line's signature hidden ability Power of Alchemy, Tacklepedia, where Kukui was hailed as a god, for most of the related utility and Z-Move information, and Poison Salac, for the details on Poison Touch, the line's Poison-Type moves, and the forum and talk pages of specialists sharing their personal discoveries. I would've checked Dark-Salac too, but that site was so full of malicious editors that it was useless.

I wrote my notes on a sheet of blank paper rather than dedicate space in the textbook to it before a decision was made. Finally, I had my key for what an Alolan Grimer could be, if the internet was to be believed. I looked it all over and my eyes twitched reading the giant wall of information. It was too much all in one place, so I opened the textbook to various tabbed pages while covering most of the Grimer notes with my hand.

My brain filled in the parts that gelled with my own team's capabilities. Acid Armor, a powerful defensive utility move, on a team that lacked defense. Knock Off, another option along the lines of Haze, which I'd planned for Kawami to learn. Clear Smog was an egg move, but incredibly tempting in its synergy with my existing plans for similar moves. The more I looked, the more I saw. Something about the strategy of it, the place it held in my new plans as a Poison-Type specialist, skipped over my hesitation to choose. I could feel it bubbling in my stomach, urging me to stop, but I was already getting out my array of poké balls.

I kind of made it a thing to steal poké balls after that first experience in Malie City, and there had been plenty of demand in Team Skull, so I had a dozen standard poké balls, half a dozen great balls, a small clutch of ultra balls, and a smattering of different odd balls. I rolled them out on the ground in front of Grimer, who I had yet to give a name, and said, "You're in. Pick a ball."

Its gummy smile parted the sea of its face in a happy arc as it looked at me. He'd already forgotten about the balls. I pointed down at them. His eyes widened again, and he poured over the selection, metaphorically. Finally, after some slow-drip deliberation, it pointed out an ancient ball I was surprised was empty. The white bottom had yellowed with time, creating a funny effect with the intentional yellow on the top. A level ball, the only one I'd ever seen, and I'd stolen it.

I picked up the level ball, enlarged it, and carefully pressed the button against Grimer's outstretched finger. It was wrapped in red light and pulled into the ball, mimicking the red V shape on the ball's cap. It swirled around in my hand, then fell still. That smile when I'd told him I would let him join the team was still sticking in my mind, and it gave me the first idea for his name. I let him back out immediately and asked, "Are you okay with the name Kumī?" He smiled that dopey smile again and nodded too fast, sending out specks of poison. My own smile faded as I realized something else.

"Shit! Kawami's still hurt!"

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"Kumī is registered and your other pokémon will be healed shortly.", the nurse said, handing me the level ball that held my least trained pokémon. "Okay.", I said as I took it. She was slightly aggrieved by my short response, but let it pass with a service industry smile. I made my way up into an empty training ground with Kumī still in his ball so he didn't leave a mess. Then, I shat where I was supposed to shit, metaphorically.

The phone rang once, then again, then a couple more times. Then it started going to voicemail and I hung up. Then I called again. It rang four times before she picked up, "Hello?" "Heya big sis, how's retirement?", I greeted Plumeria. "I'm not anyone's 'big sis' anymore, and I shouldn't be.", she said. I defended myself. "Well you were my big sis before, and we both left at the same time, and we're both Poison-Type specialists, and at the end of the day what is family?", I said, vomiting up sarcasm fast enough to make her miss the news for a few moments.

She sputtered, then said, "You're not a Poison-Type specialist.", in a confused lilt, before I heard the pause and smacking of her forehead through the crappy phone speaker. "THIS IS HOW YOU TELL ME?!", the one and only ex-Team Skull admin shouted at me. "Yup.", I said, self-satisfied. Then Plumeria continued in a much more restrained tone, "Why now?" "Samson Oak is some kind of wizard. Turns out I have this complex about making choices now, he figured that out and got me through it for the specialist thing.", I explained.

"Right, Professor Oak. He tried to get me out of Team Skull before it even formed, should probably apologize for how I treated him about that. He's a ridiculously good teacher.", Plumeria said, mostly to herself. I replied anyway, "Yeah, he is, it's really annoying." "That would be how you see it, numbskull.", she commented. "Can't be a numbskull if I'm not in the Team anymore.", I snarked. "Right.", she said, and her voice was distant in spite of being right next to the receiver.

"I... Uh... Are you..?", I choked out, trying to be reassuring. Plumeria interrupted me, "I don't know Kau'i. I've got alot to think about and not alot to get me to stop thinking. Nanu and Molayne check in sometimes, talking to them again is nice, and Eva delivers my supplies herself most times, but it's bad here. Maybe I deserve it. I don't know." "Okay.", I said, taking it in.

Finally, I found something to say. "Should you really be telling this to a ten-year-old?" She snorted a little and answered, "No, I probably shouldn't.", then shifted topics, "Um, how are you? The egg, your journey?" After that, we talked for a good while about me and my island challenge, about the Vast Poni Canyon, the Ultra Recon Squad, Mina's trial, my reunion with Gerald, Ilima's trial, running into Gladion in Hau'oli, bootcamp, and finally Kumī.

"I'm still new to this whole Poison-Type thing.", I said, eliciting a laugh from Plumeria. I cleared my throat and asked, "Well, do you have any tips on fighting as a Poison-Type specialist?" "Uh, poison them? Use status conditions.", she instructed simply. "What? That's your advice, poison them?! I was doing that before, and honestly it's kind of losing its luster at my level.", I told her. She sighed. "I was... never that good of a Poison-Type specialist.", she admitted. "What do you mean!? You were an admin of Team Skull!", I exclaimed.

Plumeria sighed again, and began to talk, "I knew the facts and I could learn what any pokémon could do pretty easily, I was great in school, ya know, but I never had a real connection to Poison-Types! And Team Skull aren't exactly hot shit, even colder shit back when I was promoted. Fuck, I'm not giving you my whole life story Kau, but I sorta just did whatever my friends thought would be cool! I had my Salandit, and they said I should get more Poison-Types, cause they thought a punk style suited me, and then they're copying me after that and we're following Guzma around, and he doesn't get the trial captain spot and Team Skull forms, and it all just happens!"

I let the word vomit settle for a moment before speaking up. "So you were Plumeria, Alola's greatest Poison-Type specialist and admin of the devious Team Skull... because of peer pressure?" "AND I WAS GOOD AT IT!", she agreed loudly. We laughed together. "Holy shit," I chuckled, "my Poison-Type specialist mentor is a worse specialist than me!" "I could still kick your ass, but yeah, you're probably better with the type than I am.", she told me through giggles. She was twenty and giggling. We had never been this candid in Po Town.

"Alright," I declared, swallowing my laughter, "it was great talking to you, but I've got that Grimer to train." Plumeria caught her breath and replied, "It was great. Good luck with that Grimer, they're messy, and come visit me when you come to Ula'ula! See ya Kau'i." "See ya.", I said into the phone and hung up. I texted Eva the news rather than bother her, since it'd either take away from the time she was using to support us ex-grunts or would linger too long the same way the call with Plumeria had, then I took the stairs back down to the lobby.

My poké balls and an agitated nurse were waiting for me, so I grabbed them quickly and slipped out of the door. I released the team all as one as I walked back to the school. Maybe I couldn't keep people from stepping in Kumī, but the presence of the whole team definitely could. Waiola stayed draped over my shoulders, watching the three of them behind me. I could hear Kawami squeaking out rapidfire questions to Kumī and Toma answering the questions on his behalf. I smiled venomously as we passed scared and awed tourists.

In the outskirts of Hau'oli, before we could reach the school, Hau walked up to us with a wave, a massive piping hot malasada in his other hand. "Hey Kau'i!", he said cheerfully, speaking perfectly around the bits of malasada in his mouth. "Hau. What're you using your self study for?", I asked poisonously, which was a tone that had immediately grown tenfold in effectiveness when I'd dedicated myself to the type. "Not. Training.", he announced. He seemed over the moon about it.

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"Not training? How's that work? I can't imagine it's very good for your battling.", I questioned him. "It's not! That's the idea.", he answered. I gave him a puzzled raise of my eyebrow and responded, "Uh... Okay? Just a heads-up, dinner's in a few hours, so maybe try something other than 'not training' before then." "I won't.", he informed me before taking another bite of his malasada. Somehow, he seemed more genuine about this than I'd seen him the entire time he was at boot camp. 'Weird.', I thought, and kept moving.

Now that my team was all raring to go, I wanted to fit in Kumī's inaugural fight before dinner. It would be best to do it with one of my peers, and Hau and Lillie were otherwise occupied, so Mikala was the obvious choice. I went straight to the library after getting to the school campus. I found Mikala in a veritable fortress of books, tablet and laptop bathing her dorky face in blueish white. "What's up?", I asked in a completely normal manner, if you ignored how I had put my mouth right next to her ear while she wasn't paying attention.

"BWAUGH!", she said, eloquent as always. "No, seriously, what's up?", I repeated in the same position, but now significantly further from her ears since she had tumbled away from me. "Self study.*", Mikala said, trying to be feisty while still holding herself up between the adjacent chair and the table. I looked at the books she had in the short pile on the inside of the book fort, "Trial Captains: Alola's Legacy" by Holly Malpighi, "Evolution" by Franz Klawfka, and "Helping Hand: How Pokémon Help Us Help Ourselves" by Rem Moreaid.

"You sure look like you're studying yourself.", I joked, "Sure you don't need a biology textbook?" Mikala just pointed to one brick in her wall of knowledge. "A Complete Guide to Human Anatomy, Twelfth Edition" by Dr. Nurse Joy. "No time for a battle? I caught a Grimer, really wanna show him the ropes.", I continued on, letting the sting of my joke being right worm its way into her brain instead of poking at it. "No, I can't.", she replied humorlessly. "Can't, or won't?", I inquired. "Can't and won't.", she said without looking at me. I took that for the sign it was, shrugged, and left the library.

That only left one other person in boot camp who might be down for a fight. Selene had gone to her dorm room, and as far as I could tell, she was still there. I had Toma lay some invisibly thin threads outside her door for detection, then waited in my own room so as not to look like a creep while in the process of being a creep. I don't know exactly why I didn't knock, it felt weird.

I got to show Kumī around while we waited for that signal, but there wasn't much to show, so it was down to just hanging around before long. I'd done enough hanging around that day, so it annoyed me. Kawami was in the same boat as me, but the rest seemed content to chat and play little nothing games. I grabbed Kawami in a tight hug to spend the time, and it devolved into an overly loud wrestling match.

I was hanging several feet off the ground from Kawami's hindwings when the thread signal snapped and Toma began urging me to the door. I landed too hard on the ground and left my temporary dorm room entirely too fast. The door swung open and scraped at Selene's elbow as she passed. She turned to look at me, fearful, eyes red and puffy, and rubbed at the scrape with her hand. All that dribbled out of my mouth was an "Uh...", before she began fast-walking away.

Kawami caught up to me, she had been busy talking about the signal with Toma, and began pushing me forward once she saw Selene getting away. It didn't take me long to start running on my own. "Wait! I caught a Grimer, do you mind if we have a match?!", I shouted to her. She stopped long enough for me to catch up, then kept walking without responding. I followed as she went to the dorm's common area, filled a disposable cup with water, and went back inside her room. I was left in the hallway to wonder if I'd done something wrong.

Before I could freeze up too much, Selene exited the room, a belt strapped to her waist with poké balls attached and drinking from the cup of water. "Only a short match.", she said timidly. I opened my room's door to get the rest of the team in their balls, then guided Selene and Kawami to the practice fields at the front.

The atmosphere was strange without people using the other fields. The air was still and empty of most sound. "Best of three one-v-one's, no switching, I won't use my Crobat.", I announced the rules, anticipation building in my stomach. "Agreed.", she replied. I counted us down right away, not wanting to have to cut the match short for dinner, "Ok! Three, two, one!"

I tossed my level ball forward, and Selene matched with a great ball. Kumī met Selene's Inkay. "Bite!", I ordered, while Selene pointed at Kumī and directed, "Peck." Kumī looked at me confused while the Inkay took the opportunity to float up behind him and Peck a hole into his jelly body. Kumī spun to face the assailant, but the Inkay had already floated all the way over his head to stay behind him.

"Any Poison-Type move!", I tried desperately. The Inkay Pecked him in the back again, and Kumī was too focused tracking her to follow my directions. "KUMĪ! POISON FANG!", I screamed at it like I was being run through with a chainsaw, to get its attention. Kumī just looked vaguely scared. "Use your mouth on her, poisonously.", I explained. Inkay came in for another Peck and I shouted, "NOW!"

With a clumsiness unique to a creature made of liquid, Kumī wrestled Inkay out of the air and wrapped his mouth around her like she was a lollipop. 'This is going awful.', I thought. Then, I had a brilliant idea. "Kumī, you're cleaning this up afterwards, f.y.i.", I said offhand. I reached into my backpack and grabbed a special baggie from the pocket where the designer intended for me to put a phone, with a hole so a headphone cable could run out of the backpack. Then I took a crystal from my baggie and placed the Poisonium Z in my Z-Power Ring.

Selene was looking at me with a mix of awe, jealousy, and disbelief. "Acid Downpour!", I announced, performing the z dance. The basic form, the turn, the claws, and the lunge. Energy poured out, and I directed it to Kumī. The orange and silver and gold flames left me behind, and I was immediately back to how I was under that tree. Tired as shit. I began falling to the ground as Kumī's mouth exploded with a stream of acid, and Kawami caught me before my head cracked on the pavement.

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Hau didn't remember when he woke up, but he was now at breakfast. He knew he would be focusing on his goal again, but as soon as he'd gotten back from "self study" the pressure had hit him again like a Dusknoir's Shadow Punch. He was able to smile genuinely in these moments between the pressure, and breakfast was good. His best friend, Pecha the Pikachu, stood in his lap eating. It was a nice moment. Professor Oak started talking, and he could feel himself start stressing again.

"Well students, today won't be as exciting as the last few days, but it will be just as important.", the professor said, and Hau missed the next sentence in a wave of dissociation.

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When he came up again, he was in a classroom, a real classroom, with a long string of numbers and mathematical symbols on the blackboard. The other kids from boot camp had their heads down, filling out a worksheet, but whoever had been teaching the class wasn't present. Hau breathed out, his ever-present smile turning more relaxed.

The worksheet was about the calculations you could do to predict how much damage one pokémon could do to another, something he could remember Grandpa Hala being excited about when Professor Kukui had developed it. The memories helped him stay in control as he filled out the sheet at a leisurely pace. The stress threatened to creep in again, especially with something so potentially... important, and the absence of his pokémon wasn't helping.

Three quarters of his way through the math problems, the door opened and a teacher he didn't recognize walked in.

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A different set of problems was in front of him now, and the blackboard had a new series of equations on it. If he was less experienced with his dissociative disorder, he would've slipped back down right then. Instead, he took the fact that he was present as a good sign, calmed himself, and got to work on the new worksheet. He hoped that whatever part of him was at the helm when he wasn't there had done a good job finishing the last assignment.

The menial work, problems, and puzzles that he convinced himself he would never be able to apply to his training due to his condition were a respite. He was only present in the respites, and that wasn't so bad at the end of the day. There was a reason humans' brains would start working that way. Did it steal a huge portion of his life? Absolutely. Was it terrifying? Yes. But another thing about humans is that they can get used to pretty much anything, so Hau was used to it.

These problems were about financial calculations: price by weight, budgeting, repeated purchases, and compound interest, that sort of thing. Hau was familiar with these problems, and he knew if he dissociated he would still pass with flying colors, so he was able to stay present the whole time. It was strange, the familiarity with these problems was entirely due to what had given him this disorder in the first place, and yet he was calm. He didn't, wouldn't, let it get to him though. He wanted this time to be himself. He never wanted to lose himself to dissociation for months at a time like he had before, so he focused on the math problems.

The teacher reentered, and he held onto his composure with a mental deathgrip and a smile on his face. The math teacher was a middle-aged woman in semiformal attire, her brunette hair done up in a braid and semicircular glasses perched in front of her pupils. "Finish those problems, then you'll move to the next class.", she said, and sat down at the wide desk in the corner of the room.

Hau complied, rounding off the last of the thirty or so questions. The teacher stood up a few minutes later, retrieving everyone's finished work and ushering them to leave. The walked down the hall to the next classroom. The calmness fell out of Hau as he approached the door.

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Hau was in the new class, and the teacher was behind him out of sight. The board read "The Law and Trainers". The stress welled up again.

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He was present again, still in the law class. He had to force down that feeling that would steal his time away. Reading material had been handed out, he didn't know by who, and it sat in front of him on the desk. Kau'i was seething with anger in the chair next to him, but he ignored it with a smile. The teacher was silently watching, which wasn't helping him hold on, but he kept his head down and ignored it.

Dissociation was a defense mechanism for not feeling something that made you feel like shit, so the most simple way to avoid falling into it was to ignore those feelings the mundane way. That was still easier said than done though. The thick pamphlet about pertinent laws for trainers to know was full of landmines for Hau's stress, the main trigger of his dissociation. He had to be smart about where he held his eyes.

Carrying capacity was simple and stoked no fires in his brain. Every trainer had a maximum of six combat ready pokémon they could carry with them at any time, and would be disallowed from releasing one of those six if they caught another over their carry limit. Exceptions were made for newborn pokémon and pokémon being cared for temporarily under assignment or approval from the League.

Off-route and travel laws were more worrying, so he hopped around to where he knew he wouldn't be stressed. Off-route areas had pokémon that weren't cataloged in the regional pokédex, though that wasn't a concern here in Alola. That added danger meant the League required additional precautions and measures trainers had to take when off-route. Travel was similar, extended time in the air or over the water drastically increased your chances of encountering high-level and aggressive wild pokémon. It wasn't so much all of that that pushed his buttons, just the associations, so he was surprised by how much he was able to read.

He turned the page and cursed himself for forgetting to check the page numbers for what he'd seen in the index at the beginning. Trainer employment practices were a sore spot for him, even if he ignored the trainer part. 'You were fine with the financial problems!', he told himself.

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He was walking out of class, thanking muscle memory for making walking easy to keep up with after coming back. They were passing by the classrooms without going in. 'Lunch!', he realized with excitement. He'd get to see his pokémon again. Some friends in the past had been worried he had an eating disorder, but he didn't care either way. Meals were almost always a stress free haven in Hau's days, plus, he'd dissociated through dinner and most of breakfast, so he wanted to actually feel it.

He let Pecha out as they walked, and his friend climbed his back to stand on his shoulder. A right down one hallway, then straight through the section full of computer and science labs, then a left towards the double doors. He gave Pecha a rub right above his neck at the back of his head, his favorite spot. The contented squeaks were a balm on Hau's soul. After getting nearly the entire day to be him yesterday, it stung to go back. He was used to it, but that balm still helped immensely.

As usual, Selene broke away to eat her pre-prepared meals with her pokémon. Kau'i forced herself as far forward in line as she could manage, which got her well ahead of the rest of the kids in bootcamp. Hau was left in front of Mikala and Lillie as the queue plodded forward. Conversations chattered on, the regular students getting ready for the big tests of the year in a bit over a month.

He grabbed a tray and a carton of chocolate Miltank milk, then shuffled down the line. A "pizza boat", as the students called it, was his entree, along with a cup of cheese and broccoli for himself and a bowl of kibble for each of his team members. Then he grabbed a bag of chips and a lemonade at the end of the line where the items that cost extra were. He balanced the three bowls on the remaining space of his tray while slowly walking to the table. Pecha caught his bowl before it could spill from his rough set down.

He released the rest of the team before digging in, Leppa the Litten at his left and Nomel the Noibat at his right. The other kids watched him as he counted him and his team down, "Three! Two! One!" They all began stuffing their faces with the delicious food. Hau Tackled the cheese and broccoli first so he could squeeze the ranch out of the bottle onto his pizza with his free hand. The saltiness and savoriness of the cheese gift-wrapped the crisp, subtle bitterness of the broccoli.

Hau paused before moving to his pizza, assisting Pecha in pouring some ketchup on his kibble. Then they both got their serving of tomatoes. Whether the "pizza boat" nickname was meant to refer to the cheese floating on the sauce, the grease floating on the cheese, or the general shape of the whole thing was unclear, but it didn't matter in the face of culinary perfection.

Everyone at the table except Kau'i was giving him dirty looks, even Lillie's assistant. He felt judged by the older man.

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His pizza was gone and he was halfway through his chips when Hau found himself in control again. He slowed down to savor the aftertaste of what he'd eaten while he was gone. He was angry with himself for falling into such an obvious trigger for his disorder, but he didn't let it stop him. The chips were crunchy and salty and slick with oils that coated his tongue. An excellent distraction.

He washed it down with the chocolate milk while his mouth was still full of salt. The frothy rich ambrosia was only accentuated by the sharpness of the lingering salt, and he was mildly disappointed when the aftertaste faded. Even on its own though, the sweet creamy liquid was a treat to his palate. He left the lemonade for later in the day, an emergency grounding tool if he needed it and a cherry on top of his day if he didn't.

With food out of the way, it was time for the other great part of his day, the talking. "Our fight's not over, Selene.", Kau'i announced between bites. "It is.", Selene replied simply. Kau'i swallowed a large something in her mouth and spoke at length, "'Best of three one-v-one's, no switching, I won't use my Crobat.', those were the rules. We only did one of those three, and I won! Are you gonna continue the fight or are you gonna lose?" "Why'd you only finish one of the three fights?", Hau asked, intrigued. "She passed out.", Selene answered quietly. "From a Z-Move that won me the fight.", Kau'i clarified. He continued his questioning, "Didn't you stay awake using a Z-Move before?" "Not this time clearly.", Mikala jeered.

Kau'i was fuming by the end of their dialogue. "It's not my fault I passed out! Probably Kumī couldn't handle the energy properly, he is a fresh catch.", she defended herself. "You knew the risks.", Lillie's assistant noted. Hau smiled while Kau'i took an exaggerated swig of her chocolate milk. "So Kumī is your Grimer? How'd you have the time to catch a pokémon yesterday?", Hau asked, shifting the topic to keep her from exploding. He knew he sometimes made bad jokes when he dissociated, but he liked to think he was a good conversationalist normally.

"Went on a walk off-route, I'm such a great Poison-Type specialist that it couldn't help but follow me back here.", Kau'i bragged sarcastically before taking a final bite of her meal. "I thought...", Lillie started, but trailed off. Hau finished for her, "Didn't you say you weren't a Poison-Type specialist?" "I wasn't, now I am. Only a stupid person would have a team of four Poison-Types without being a specialist.", Kau'i argued with no one. She seemed off-kilter, and Hau empathized. He was always fighting to be on-kilter.

"What's everyone else's newest pokémon? Mine is Nomel here!", Hau said cheerily, scruffing his Noibat's head fur. "My Minior. They're a rescue.", Mikala replied succinctly. "Ken, er, my Seel, is my last catch. I don't regret him, but I think I regret catching him, if that makes sense. Sorry.", Selene said, off-kilter in her own way. Hau looked to Lillie with his hands down on the table, arms wide, to hopefully move the conversation along to her. "Brionne.", Lillie squeezed out suddenly, then clarified, "We got her from Professor Kukui after the challenge season started. She's already pretty much caught up to the rest of the team."

"Professor Kukui is a good guy.", Selene commented. "Yup!", Hau agreed, trying not to guide the conversation too much and just enjoy where it went on its own. Kau'i joined in while scratching her Ariados's back, "Never met 'em, though I can't say I wanna meet more pokémon professors right now." Hau jumped in, "He really is nice!" Kau'i shrugged. Mikala added, "His thorough research is the reason the Pokémon League adopted Alola's existing Z-Move regulations when Alola joined. He is a personable, practical, knowledgeable, and powerful man." When she finished, Mikala looked at Hau and Selene with naked envy. Clearly a big fan.

Kau'i looked annoyed as she said, "Jeez, I was just makin' a joke about Professor Oak guys. Is Kukui really all that?" All at once, everyone at the table except Kau'i responded, "He is.", even Lillie's strange follower. Kau'i laughed a bit, and Hau found himself laughing along. A wave of cheer rippled around the assembled pokémon. Pecha and Leppa giggled behind him. Kau'i's Crobat and Ariados snickered around her. Espy the Sylveon, Ken the Seel, and Mikala's Buneary spread the laughter around the table.

The laughter slowly cleared like a fog bank dissipating. The bell rung, and Lillie stuffed her usual leftovers into a refrigerated pouch in the fancy backpack that blended into her costume. Her assistant spoke up, "I've already been told where your next lecture will be, allow me to chaperone you all." Hau leaned down, gave each of his pokémon a solid petting, clicked the buttons on their poké balls, and followed the other kids in a cluster back through the double doors.

Down the hall the way they came, a right back into the labs section, and the green haired man stopped them in front of a computer room. "We'll remain here until your instructor arrives.", the assistant said. Hau was getting more and more unnerved with him. He couldn't recall the man's name even after nearly a week around him, and he made a point of remembering names. It was a warning sign. The teacher arrived, a man fresh out of college with a bushy beard and round frame, and they were let into the computer lab.

"Campers!", the teacher said, forgetting to introduce himself, "I'm going to be splitting you into two groups for this one. Selene, Mikala, and Kau'i, you'll be one group, Hau, Lillie, and Faba will be the other." He finally knew his name, Faba. The teacher continued, "Each group will receive a random unevolved pokémon to focus on. You will then research and outline a complete care guide for that pokémon, including grooming, diet, environment, and training regiment and goals. This should include that same information for any evolutions that pokémon may experience. This class will be twice the length of the others, you have until the end to complete the project!"

Everyone separated into their groups, and the teacher went to grab something. It was a hat filled with shreds of paper. The man held the hat out to the other group, and Kau'i pushed Mikala forward to pull from it. "Pawniard", she read from the paper before handing it back to the teacher. The hat moved to Hau's group, and he immediately stepped forward to grab a slip. "Crabrawler", he announced, giving the paper to the teacher. With everything decided, he joined his group as Faba guided them to one side of the computer lab.

He could hear Kau'i and Mikala get down to business dividing different tasks among their group. Faba stood over the two, cleared his throat, and said, "I will write our findings into a digestible format. I have over a decade of experience doing such things, it's only natural. The two of you will research Crabrawler and Crabominable. Hau, you're the grandson of a Fighting-Type Master, I expect you to handle the training side of things. Lillie, you will pursue the other half of this research. Is that all clear?"

It was clear. The expectations were written all over Faba's face. He tried to distract himself, to focus on the other group when they exploded with a mix of shock, awe, and annoyance, but it wouldn't work. Hau didn't come back to himself until breakfast the next day.