I chased after Kawami and Toma as they chased Kumī and Waiola through Hau'oli. I could smell the Sweet Scent that trailed behind Waiola, but it had a way of making pokémon forget about it. I'd need to work on making my team more aware of those kinds of effects, but I'd wait until Waiola and Kumī were able to beat Kawami and Toma to prioritize it. They needed every advantage.
The crowds of people and pokémon cleared ahead of us, revealing an empty street without the Salandit or Grimer in sight. Kawami and Toma looked around in confusion, the Sweet Scent making them less coordinated. I spotted the telltale signs of Kumī's residue on a sewer drain, but my other teammates didn't.
Right from under Kawami, Waiola and Kumī popped out of a manhole and began their surprise attack. The Poison-Type was not one for raw power however, like Normal or Fighting were. Instead many Poison-Type moves relied on good timing; Attrition, preparation, and decisiveness were the name of the game. Rather than an opening barrage of crippling strikes, Waiola sent a dark magenta wad of Corrosive Toxic stew at Kawami's back and Kumī washed Toma with a paint stripping greenish Acid Spray.
Kawami spun rapidly with her four wings to face her challengers, already picking up speed for a Wing Attack. She was getting used to being poisoned by Corrosion from the constant fights, but she still didn't like it. The shimmering blade of Wing Attack stood out as Kawami was engulfed in the crackling silver-blue flames of Waiola's Dragon Rage.
Meanwhile, Toma had set up a sprawling Spider Web that filled the area and began driving an Infestation towards Waiola. Even as an Ariados, he lived up to Spinaraks' classification as the string spit pokémon. With practiced efficiency, he had strung together a net of sticky silk and a posse of more heavyset Infestation constructs in seconds. Now those constructs followed up on Kawami's Wing Attack to hound Waiola.
With a grin, Waiola just looked at Kumī, who looked at Toma as its eyes flashed a bright blue. Kumī had Disabled Toma's ability to use Spider Web, and Toma nearly fell to the ground as he found himself unable to form the web around him as he moved without the use of Bug-Type energy. Sloppily, he retreated deeper into the existing network. The Sweet Scent was still doing its job.
On that note, Kawami slashed across Waiola's back with her wings in an ineffective Cross Poison. Even if it was quite different from the mouth focused Poison moves they were otherwise limited to, the move came very naturally to Crobats, which was probably why she'd defaulted to it. The attack still left Waiola staggering, but she maintained enough presence of mind to follow through on her and Kumī's plan.
A spinning ball of Flame Burst through Toma's web and roasted his already weakened shell. He was down, and his Infestation became noticeably clumsier than they had been even with his intoxicated commands. The fires quickly spread, sweeping through the webbing and turning it to a thin smear of ash along the ground before I could fumble Toma's nest ball out of my pocket and return him to it.
Kawami, staring too long at the embers fluttering in the air, never thought to get back into the air away from Kumī. Even with her surprise at his harsh Bite digging into her, her Inner Focus kept her from flinching. The Crobat used her three free wings to slip free of the ooze and began a high speed maneuver as soon as possible.
In a stupid state of mind, but still determined to win, Kawami arced upside-down in a smooth curve that helped maintain her momentum right over Waiola and Kumī before launching herself in a straight line right back at the pair. Her hindwings flapped so quickly they buzzed as she stretched her forewings wide for a devastating Wing Attack. The Zubat family were already known for their manginess, rabid and unflattering, but with the Dragon Rage, Bite, and Toxic all eating away at her, Kawami was the epitome of mangy in that moment.
There was a hiss as the air was cut apart by Kawami's attack, then a crash. Waiola rolled across the ground, unconscious. Kumī was split in two and slapped messily back into the rest of its body after the Wing Attack cut through it. Kawami flipped over herself after the force she'd lost in the swipe left her off balance, slipping into rest on the ground as Waiola's Toxic poison finally punched her ticket.
I returned the two fainted pokémon and approached the standing victor. "Well Kumī," I announced, "congrats on catching up to Kawami and Toma, but I think we need to clean this mess before we get in trouble." As usual, the dark green goop didn't sweat the small stuff and began eating up the burnt webs and flecks of poisonous liquid. I got to work stomping out embers.
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"Toxic teaching, round two!", I declared, hands on my hips in front of my team, on the beach again. "And what's your plan of action?", Ilima asked, standing next to me in somehow professional looking swim shorts. "Well the first step is knowing the pokémon. I mean biologically knowing, okay? Where are they toxic? How are they toxic? How does that connect with the move Toxic?", I rambled. Ilima's hand moved far too little to be getting every word, and he would get every word, so he must've been using shorthand. "Can you explain more?", he asked, and I obliged.
"Well I've already taught Toxic to my Alolan Grimer and my Salandit. Grimers are pretty much all poison all the time, so for them using Toxic is just a matter of gathering the really Toxic toxic stuff without anything else in-between. Salandit have corrosive venom in their blood and fluids they use for Poison-Type moves in different ways, so for her the trick was separating out the venom from the blood."
"For these two, well I have different plans. Come here Kawami, Toma.", I ushered them over. "So you guys don't 'naturally' learn Toxic like Salandit and Grimer do. It's a challenge, rather than a natural progression of your abilities that a wild pokémon would make.", I preempted, Ilima continuing to take notes behind me.
"Kawami, you're similar to Waiola, you've got venom. But unlike her it's not in your blood, it's separate already. But you're also like Kumī, you're a little bit toxic all over. You wouldn't be primarily Poison-Type if you weren't a little anathema to the world at large. Cross Poison doesn't use your venom, it uses your general grime. I think you need to use all of that to make Toxic work, but I'm gonna need your help figuring out what that means." Kawami let out a squeak of excitement. Ilima quirked an eyebrow at my use of the word "anathema".
"Toma, you aren't a primary Poison-Type, so this will be harder for you. You also have to mix different sources of poison I think, your venom that comes out of your fangs and stinger and your stomach acid. I'm guessing it'll be something like using Acid Spray and Poison Fang at the same time, then launching the result out. Not gonna be easy or fun to put together, but we can do it.", I explained. Ilima looked very focused on what I was doing. "Now let's get started!"
Toma was always the type to have a good first idea, so I left him to it and supported Kawami first as she almost tried everything that came to mind to mix her grime and venom. I held her back from biting herself with Poison Fang, cutting her mouth open with Cross Poison, and several variations on those same basic ideas. We were going nowhere fast, so I asked Ilima to have one of his pokémon keep her from hurting herself. As much as he tried to keep up appearances, he was very clearly patronized by my reminder of her Infiltrator ability.
When I switched to focus on Toma he was making that same retching noise he had when he was learning Acid Spray a month ago. "What's the deal?", I asked him, crouched slightly to be at his level. He evacuated a stream of sewage-brown liquid from his mouth into the seawater and stared at me with an awkward, self-defeated look. Looking closer at the liquid, I could see the yellow color of his Acid Spray blended into the vivid purple of his venom.
I stood up and addressed everyone present, "I've figured out something about Toxic. I said it before with Mikala, but I wasn't thinking about it. Toxic is about concentration in the chemistry sense, how pure and rarified the toxins are. Toma, don't just hack up your acid and dribble in venom, get it dense with that nasty shit. Same goes for you Kawami. I think this is gonna be less physical and more based in type energy, so you guys will probably better understand what to do, in fact I bet it's involved in how Waiola and Kumī use it too."
Having come to that conclusion, I released Kumī and Waiola from their balls. "Both of you, explain how you use your type energy for Toxic. Toma, translate so me and Ilima get it too." Kumī immediately began blabbering while Waiola was still going through her indignant act over my sudden orders.
Toma drew directional waves and ripples, somewhere between arrows and stink lines in a comic strip, which this arguably was, to represent the Poison-Type energy that pushed a simplified cloud of particles together. In the following panel the Poison-Type energy wrapped around the gathered ball in a bubble and radiated empty bubbles. Titration? Precipitation? Reduction? Was I gonna have to learn chemistry to be a better Poison-Type specialist? The final panel showed a pure black ball of the starting particles being launched outward.
Waiola's explanation was much the same, showing how the type energy helped her in keeping the blood from following the venom into her mouth to form the move. I would need to ask for more of these explanations going forward, but I was confident I had enough for teaching Kawami and Toma Toxic.
"Kawami, you gather gunk onto your wings for Cross Poison right? Just gather it where you can mix it with your venom instead. Both of you, use your Poison-Type energy like they described to concentrate your Toxic, then we can work on faster methods of doing that same thing.", I ranted again. I was getting into it now.
The rest of the training went by in a flash. Kawami struggled for a while until we landed on dragging the venom out of her mouth instead of dragging her grease and grit in, then launching her dark purple Toxic with her wings like a tennis racket. Toma had the same struggles with Toxic that he'd had with every special attack he'd learned. He was a physical sort of spider, the complications of hoodoo type energy confounded him all the way until they didn't. After that he just acted silly about shooting his dark black Toxic balls with their faint orange hue.
"You're certain that this methodology is reliable?", Ilima questioned me once it was all done. "Certain? No. It's gotta be at least useful though. I mean, even though most pokémon can learn Toxic, this method requires familiarity with Poison-Type energy, so honestly it's probably not that applicable. Lots of those pokémon don't even learn other Poison-Type moves! If you can figure out some way to acclimate other pokémon to Poison-Type energy, for one tell me, but for two, that should complete the method.", I replied, getting out another monologue. I idly wondered if I was acting like this because I'd eaten something I shouldn't've.
Ilima hummed, again writing down every word of my feverish rant. "There is the Terastallization phenomena of Paldea, but even if you lived there it would still be less accessible than a technical machine for Toxic.", he said, as if he was obligated to be accurate. "I have no idea what that means.", I told him flatly. "That's understandable.", he commented.
"I'm gonna get going. I've got a fight with Hala to get in order.", I told him, already returning everyone on my team but Waiola. "I have one last question.", he prompted. "Can't figure out what to do from what I already told you?", I asked, incredulous. He shook his head and continued, "No, it's unrelated to Toxic. Why didn't you want Mikala here? The two of you are, ostensibly, friends."
I felt my forehead flush with sweat, but it was shrouded in the faded purple nest of my hair. I really needed to get it bleached and redyed. "She was here the first time, no need for redundancy.", I spluttered. "Kau'i are you a lesbian?", Ilima suddenly asked, straightforwardly serious. I choked, then coughed, then answered, "WHAT?! FUCK YOU!"
"Actually, that's a fair reaction. Sorry for the offensive phrasing. Do you like girls in that particular manner?", he doubled down. "I'm not an ANYTHING, and I don't like ANYONE in 'that particular manner.'", I spat back at him. He quirked his eyebrow at me again. "I know what you're thinking.", I said, staring at his face. "I'm thinking that this is exactly like your refusal of the identity of Poison-Type specialist that Mikala told me about.", He confirmed.
I roiled, frothing at the mouth, "YOU WEREN'T EVEN THERE! And for the record, this is completely different!" He tried to talk again, to apologize a second time maybe, but I didn't care. I raised a hand to stop him, then walked away. Like the honorable fuck he was, he just let me.
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After two straight days of arduous planning for Hala's team, I was stood across from the kahuna on the ceremonial stage in the center of Iki Town. There were a few possibilities I just couldn't win against, but they depended on an abundance of critical hits only landing in favor of Hala. You would think that since I used Poison-Types and he used Fighting-Types it would be an easy win for me, but no, he'd picked out a powerhouse roster just for me.
Hau had come to be our referee while the actual trial guide whose job that was stood off to the side, maintaining the protective barrier around the field with her pokémon. A few people watched from the sidelines, but it was mostly those who just happened to be free and passing by. Hala fought these grand trial fights several times a day, so it didn't particularly draw a crowd all the way out in the boonies.
Hau counted us in, "Ready! Set! Go!" Me and Kahuna Hala both said, "You know the plan!", at the same time as we released our pokémon, Kawami facing his Scraggy for our opening bout. The difference was that I had a pretty good idea of what Hala's plan would be and he had no way of knowing mine. Scraggy held his pants up, Intimidating in a way I felt might be how other people saw me. Shaking off his presence, Kawami dived down to get behind Scraggy, and Hala's eyes widened when he saw that, instead of attacking, she was enveloped by the darkness of a Curse.
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"Hey Hau.", I greeted over the phone. "Hey!", he replied excitedly, but I just kept talking. "So I've got my fight with your gramps scheduled in two days," I continued, "and since my team's at a weird level I wanted to see if he was okay with giving me the information about his special team like a typical trial-goer would have for his normal team. Also, like, establishing the rules in advance, posterity stuff."
I could hear Hau grin on the other end. "I can go ask him right now.", he agreed, followed by a mute tone. I stared at the extensive history of recorded matches of Hala on a League website. It wasn't as long as some foreign gym leaders' records, since Hala wasn't a League figure and didn't have every official match recorded, but he'd been at it so long that it hardly mattered. His oldest recordings predated the modern Pokémon League by decades, home videos of Grand Trial and Lanakila Festival battles that had been archived through some miracle.
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Hau unmuted and said, "He told me what you need to know, said something about making it a battle of planning." "Okay, so what's the deal?", I pressed. He answered, "Three switch outs, four pokémon each, one held item per team, Z-Moves allowed. He's using a Bewear, Passimian, Scraggy, and Hariyama, all specially for your team. That was all he said to tell you, but I should say that those pokémon are all being personally raised by him, not one of his students. Grandpa Hala isn't called a Fighting-Type Master for no reason."
"Thank you Hau.", I said harshly, and hung up. I was already focused, looking at the various wiki pages for the team of pokémon Hau had given me and trying to find fights Hala had used them in before. I combed through footage, picking out the Fighting-Types I would be fighting and analyzing them to put through the Kukui equations. After three hours, I had each of their last known capabilities plugged into an online calculator for the damage predicting equations, along with several scaled up versions to match or slightly surpass my own team.
Just looking at the numbers, Scraggy was the obvious opener for Hala's team, which forced me to open with Kawami or get my ass torn apart by a lizard constantly pulling up his pants. He wouldn't set up on me like Toma could, just tear holes in my team I couldn't repair. With Shed Skin, Moxie, and Intimidate for abilities, that unevolved pokémon could run roughshod over my team if I wasn't careful.
Wing Attack couldn't take even the most generous estimations of Scraggy out in one hit, not that I'd be planning based on those, and would boost the Payback Kawami received to boot. Even still, Hala was sure to have as many plans spiraling off this one starting point as I needed to make. No, I would open with my strongest mix-up, something only my team and Totem Kommo-o knew Kawami could do.
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Scraggy's shadowy backhand lacked the righteous vengeance that made Payback such a feared move, barely moving Kawami's darkened body as it hit. Hala called out, adjusting to my curveball maneuver, "Press!" Slowing with the spectral weight of her Curse once again, Kawami was unable to move out of the way of Scraggy's brightly glowing head as it met her own in an unnatural echo. The Zen Headbutt rippled across her body, worse than the Payback had been, but still not enough.
With a powerful flap, Kawami rose above Scraggy, then pushed forward with all four wings. A gust of pressure glimmered against the psychic barrier around the field behind her as she sliced through Scraggy's scales with a single Wing Attack. His pants fell to the ground, out of his grasp, and he disappeared into digitized red light. Some other pokémon would have to deliver Payback in his place, and they would.
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"If we assume that Scraggy goes down to that first Wing Attack, with two Curse stacks you could sweep through everyone but Hariyama.", I explained to Kawami, looking at the calculator, "Hala might give us a freebie, but I doubt it. I also doubt that Hala lets us get the third or fourth Curse to one shot Hariyama. The thing is, I still want you facing Hariyama." My eyes gleamed, looking at the flowchart of events I'd been sketching out over the last day and a half. My eyes hurt, but my hands hurt much worse.
I went on, "Hariyama has Belly Drum, and we don't really have any good options for if that somehow goes off. He tears through at least two of our team with Sheer Force before going down, and from there we're thoroughly fucked. He's got Guts, so we can't outlast him, and Thick Fat keeps us from having Waiola take him down. This is why the whole opening goes towards forcing Hariyama below where he can use Belly Drum, okay?" Kawami nodded vigorously. "Unless you get a crit, in which case I will be very happy, you go down to Hariyama to achieve that."
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You could say that Hariyama took Scraggy's place on the field, but that would be misleading. Hariyama filled an entire third of the arena with his behemoth stature, a mountain of heavy muscle and fat. "Poni one!", I shouted, the name of our mainline plan. We might've shifted over to the Melemele plan if we'd gotten a crit or another lucky break, all but guaranteeing a win, but for now it was standard. "Press!", Hala repeated to his own pokémon.
Both pokémon rocketed towards eachother and before anyone watching could force themselves to blink, myself and Hala included, the glowing white forehead of Hala's Hariyama met my Crobat's own glowing wings. The slice of Wing Attack continued across Hariyama's entire body, seeming to imply the creature had two different sets of skin stitched together vertically, agitated and sore around the seams. Zen Headbutt on the other hand was much less subtle. Kawami spasmed in the air, wrapped in pink light, and involuntarily spat up a ball of fluids before falling to the ground.
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"How the fuck are we supposed deal with that!?", I exclaimed, earning a few looks from the other people in this area of the pokémon center, none of them understanding. No matter who I put Hariyama up against, there were no good options, even if I ignored Belly Drum. If I took each matchup on its own, each of Hala's four against each of mine, Hala beats me with ease.
Toma's not bulky enough to setup against him, Kumī gets trounced by his same type attack bonus Fighting-Type moves, and Waiola is as vulnerable as ever to his coverage moves. Kawami could last, but not long enough to matter. She might get him low if he decided to use Belly Drum after getting Wing Attacked, but I'd still have to lose my only good answer to Scraggy. Nothing seems to put the beast down.
I looked down at the flowchart I already had of what I planned to do. I played out the way I expected it to go in the calculator again, ending up with Kawami with two Curses having taken out Scraggy. 'Who does Hala switch in against that?', I wondered. I switched the Scraggy stat sheet to a middling estimate of Bewear's. Kawami destroys him. I switched to a higher estimate. The same result appeared. I did the same with Passimian. She'd also get destroyed by Kawami's Curse stack.
With a jolt of excitement, I put in a high estimate of Hariyama instead. She wouldn't flinch from a Fake Out due to Inner Focus, so we could rely on her to outspeed him. Her Wing Attack would get rid of more than half of his health, but she'd get wiped out by Zen Headbutt after that, which this team would definitely have learned before going against me. 'Is Hala trying to teach me a lesson? This team is ridiculous!', I thought, avoiding more stares by keeping my complaints to myself.
This did look good, it was the best outlook on Hariyama I could find, but I still didn't know how to seal the deal without sacking a second pokémon to him. If that was what I needed to do, I'd do it, but I wanted advantages. I put each of my pokémon in against the post-Curse Wing Attack Hariyama, and it was still bad. They all needed two rounds of attacks to finish him and all fainted to one attack. I just needed a bit more damage.
My eyes fell again to the open notebook. The page for the move Camouflage had a full page next to it with only a dotted outline of a Kecleon, which I had covered instead with all the moves my teammates already knew. Just a bit more damage, that's all I needed. 'Is there a way I can get an extra turn? Bribe the ref?', I pondered.
Then my eyes fell on the third ever move Waiola learned, Fake Out. My thumb locked up as I rapidly put the damage from Fake Out and Dragon Rage through the Kukui equations. It was a guaranteed knockout. Again, I couldn't keep the stares away. Can't miss an opportunity for an evil cackle.
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She was in her ball before she touched the ceremonial wooden platform, and just as fast, Waiola was on my side of that platform. The joints of my hand and everywhere around my wrist throbbed in protest, but my brain knew better than to get distracted. While Hariyama sized up his new opponent, finding she was indeed quite small, Waiola took a step back as if to avoid Hariyama. I hadn't needed to say why Waiola was out on the field right now, there was only one set of actions here.
When Hariyama finally advanced on Waiola, rumbling the stage, Waiola immediately switched her demeanor and sprung towards his face, slapping him with her tail. Despite his training and the minimal damage, Hariyama couldn't help but flinch at the Fake Out.
While he stood still in shock, Waiola didn't wait, bathing him in sparkling Dragon fire fueled by her persistent Rage at the world. It poured from her mouth and sunk into his tough skin, attacking something central about him rather than the Thick Fat that protected him from other kinds of fire.
With a creak that echoed around the small town, Hariyama collapsed onto his belly like a felled tree and shook the earth. I could see Kahuna Hala's belly jiggle as the monster was returned. Waiola smiled, wide and toothy, and rolled her eyes haughtily. Plumeria had been right when she gave me her egg, she was a princess. No lucky breaks for me, but none for Hala either. Onto the next stage of the plan.
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I stared at the Able Salac page for Passimian's Receiver ability. What a nightmare. It gains one ability of the pokémon that faints before it. I looked through the other abilities on Hala's team. What if she came in to receive one of Scraggy's abilities instead of Hariyama or Bewear's? Intimidate might be useful, but I doubt it. I spent twenty minutes mapping out where that result led anyways. A tough fight, but it would work out in our favor. Shed Skin and Moxie were useless against Kawami's Curse stack, so that would bring us back to the main plan at an advantage.
Hariyama's Guts seemed useless, banking on my team slipping up and poisoning Passimian to do anything significant. For a bulky pokémon like Hariyama it did wonders to limit me, but it wasn't the same with Passimian. It was an easy win. Thick Fat was similar, though slightly tougher to wrangle. I'd need to use some of my switches to do it. Sheer Force... Sheer Force was scary.
I exhausted myself planning the route for Sheer Force, going to bed to plan more in the morning. When I woke up, I was faced with more of the same as I ate breakfast. I had Kumī with me practicing to use what he'd learned with Toxic to realize Poison Touch. I couldn't rely on it in planning, but it would absolutely be useful.
Bewear had Fluffy, Klutz, and Unnerve. Fluffy was similar to Thick Fat when given to Passimian, just easier to circumvent if it worked out for me and harder if it didn't. Unnerve was situationally useful, but like Guts I didn't see Hala wasting Receiver on it. I was convinced Receiver was a lynch pin of this team.
When my eyes fell on Klutz, my fresh and awake mind knew it was exactly what I needed to worry about. Hala had specified that we could use one held item for a reason. Klutz ignored the effects of a held item. Passimian could learn Bestow, which forced the user's item onto the target. Hala was going to stick us with a detrimental held item effect. I opened Held Salac, groaned at the joke built into its name, and began my search.
I planned out the lines for a few of Klutz Passimian's options, ultimately deciding that the most likely possibility was a Flame Orb, which she could pass to Toma to shut down any attempts to sweep unless I set up Toma before Passimian even came in, which is what I planned to do. It made Bewear more tricky, but it was worth it for the certainty. It also locked in my earlier musings that I would need to give Toma a sitrus berry for the fight. The day rolled on, and I planned for every crit and strategy I could foresee. Melemele, the easy route, Poni, the expected amount of challenge, and Ula'ula, for an extra unlucky streak.
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Standing on Hala's side of the stage was Passimian. 'Okay,' I thought, 'we might be on the Melemele route after all.' Then I saw the Flame Orb under her arm like a football. 'But... without Klutz...', I pondered, before it hit me. Guts. I quickly raised my hand and switched out Waiola before the Guts-boosted lemur could wipe the floor with her. I ignored the waves of shame and pain that washed over me and thought over my options.
I hadn't planned for this, but I knew what it took to take out Passimian and generally how dangerous her attacks would be. Hau looked at me expectantly as he counted down to when I would effectively forfeit the match by not sending a pokémon out. Toma or Kumī? Toma or Kumī.
I threw out the level ball with a different hand from my last throw. I was ambidextrous, so it just made sense. Kumī hit the deck and I shouted, "AKALA THREE!" Why Akala? Because I'd never been there, so it was the obvious choice for callouts for when all my planning flew out the window. Before Kumī could act on my callout though, Hala bellowed "Destroy!" and Passimian ran right at it, Thrashing.
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I finished my explanation of the branching plans to my team with one last piece, "And if, somehow, none of that is what happens, we have the Akala callouts. One for offense, two for defense, three for support moves like Confuse Ray or Disable, four for other support moves, five for Toxic. Not hard, but you probably won't have to remember them anyways."
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The composed and serious Passimian suddenly turned into a tornado of limbs bearing down on Kumī. Splashes of green liquid smeared the psychic barriers, but abruptly stopped as its eyes flashed blue. Her Thrashing had been Disabled at the source, her type energy. Once again in her right mind, Passimian stood back from Kumī, coated up to the shoulders and hips in green and flecks of yellow. Her eyes sagged under the weight of poison.
Before she could attack again, I raised my hand again. I much more slowly raised Kumī's level ball to return him and lobbed Toma's nest ball underhand. Despite the calm appearance of those actions, my heart clenched in my chest and a determined sneer was glued to my face. I just didn't need the pain in my hands distracting me. I was going to run out of switch outs just on this one pokémon.
By this point Passimian was waiting for my next pokémon, and Toma took a full speed charge head on when he appeared. The Take Down rattled her head, but Passimian wasn't much worse for wear from that compared to the stacked effects of the Flame Orb's burns and Kumī's poison. "BROOD WEB!", I yelled at Toma, hoping he could act as fast as I hoped on the old command.
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"Regardless of all that, we're a Poison-Type team, okay?", I concluded, "We outlast, we dig in our heels, and we win. They run out of energy, we keep goin', they get sick, we shrug that off, they go in believing they'll win, we win anyways." I scratched Kawami's head as hard as I could, just like she liked, nudged Waiola softly with my head while she sat on my shoulder, and smiled wide at Toma and Kumī. "Now let's get some good sleep for tomorrow!", I announced.
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Having already barreled through the arachnid once, Passimian bounced right off the psychic barrier for another Take Down the other way. As she approached though, Toma pulled himself out of the way with a broad smile like a matador, going straight up into his Spider Web. Then his Infestation dropped out of the web right on top of Passimian as she kept running. She hollered and fruitlessly tried to shake the little web creatures out of her fur. Toma chewed on his sitrus berry with a smile on his face.
I raised my hand, getting a boo from a man who'd stopped to watch. 'I don't like it any more than you buddy.', I thought, switching the nest ball back for the level ball. Toma flashed back to his ball as red light. His Spider Web fell gently to the ground without the support of his Bug-Type energy and Kumī slurped up the bit that it appeared on top of.
With a final mad dash, having lost all of her presence after three different irritants had been laid onto her in the form of her burns, poisoning, and Infestation, Passimian Took Down Kumī and herself at the same time. "Sorry Kumī.", I whispered to his level ball. It didn't feel good to sacrifice him when I hadn't planned to, but it helped that he probably wouldn't mind anyways.
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"And here, we have Toma Acid Spray Passimian and switch to Waiola to finish her off with another Fake Out and a Flame Burst before Defiant can make a difference. It's not a one hundred percent reliable plan because she might be faster than Waiola or we might not do enough damage, but we need it. That'll be Ula'ula three for both of you.", I explained carefully before moving on to the next step of this branch.
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Hau counted us in again, since both sides were sending in a pokémon, "Ready! Set! Go!" In a repeat of earlier, I put Kumī's level ball back in my pocket and grabbed Toma's nest ball. Hala grabbed his own love ball, something far more tacky than I expected from the Kahuna of the island, and Bewear, the only pokémon left on his team, cracked his neck. Toma was on his last legs against the Unnerving bear, even after you factored in the sheer number of legs he had and the sitrus berry he'd eaten.
"Ula'ula three!", I yelled. Another bystander groaned, because apparently they didn't like my callouts either. Toma agreed, showing a raised eyebrow on his stinger even as he continued to face Bewear. Toma had always been the first to question me when I did something questionable, and with Waiola's clinginess and Kumī's unflappability that wouldn't be changing soon, but he knew to follow my lead in a fight even when I was being weird.
"Retaliate.", Kahuna Hala declared, smiling for the crowd but still very much focused on our fight. And so, even though we both knew it would make Bewear's Payback all the more painful, Toma hosed him down with an Acid Spray. Bewear's fur sizzled and smoked in the sickly yellow liquid, but his face still didn't change expression as his massive paws grew pitch black with anger-fueled Dark-Type energy. The overly expressive insect fell to the flat faced mammal with a resounding thunk as Payback was delivered.
Finally, I'd done it. I grinned madly as I reached for Waiola's luxury ball. Hala could see it too, and gave me a proud smile. He hadn't expected to lose, but his job was to give trial-goers a good challenge, and he'd certainly achieved that, so he was happy regardless.
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I picked up a piece of trash someone had left on the side of Route 1, an empty potion bottle, and stuffed it in my bag with enough precision that I'd count the move as my dexterity exercise for the day. "Always, always recycle.", I told Waiola sagely as she thrummed with heat on my neck. We were nearly to Iki Town.
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Waiola's back burned a bright red as she faced Bewear. "FLAME BURST THIS FOOL!", I yelled, giggling. With a matching laugh, Waiola stood on her hind legs and began to glow even brighter, pure white now. Bewear charged at her, still wearing that same eerie smile, but was engulfed in popping balls of fire that seared into my vision. Waiola's laughter grew, through some magic, even more prideful and conceited. When we all opened our eyes, Bewear had ragdolled on the floor and Waiola wasn't a Salandit anymore.
I pushed against the psychic barrier around the central part of the stage, stumbling as the trial guide dismissed it, and rushed to hug my wonderful Salazzle friend. Just as I'd expect of her, she was watching me out of the corner of her eye as she showboated. Her flames fell back into her skin as I wrapped around her, and we cackled in unison.
Slowly, with proper hesitation, Kahuna Hala approached us as well. As he did, Waiola pushed me off of her with her two shorter tails, making distance as she became aware of the onlookers again. She had three of them now. I shook my head to get at least a little bit of my hair out of my face, then turned to the kahuna.
"Congratulations Kau'i.", he said jovially, still smiling. "That team you put together was evil, you were trying to make me lose.", I accused Hala. He let out a laugh of his own and responded, "I will not deny that, but it is always more satisfying to lose when you did not think that you could, going no-holds-barred. Thank you for giving me a good show, I never would have seen that Curse coming." He offered his hand to shake, but given his reputation, I just bumped it down with my fist rather than letting myself get squeezed. More gently than his handshakes, he placed a Fightinium Z in my hand.
With the fight out of the way, even though Hala was still a huge and powerful man, the atmosphere was soothingly friendly. "Kawami learned Curse and Frustration tryin' to learn Steel Wing actually.", I explained, walking off the stage with him as Waiola strutted behind me. Hala chuckled good-naturedly and replied, "Ho! That sounds like a story! How about you tell me and Hau all about it over some sweets? Food is the heart's reward for a good fight, that is what I was taught."
"Yes!", I barked in approval, and Hau joined us as we piled into Hala's rusty old truck not far from the town center. More accurately, me and Waiola climbed onto the bed while Hala and Hau wedged themselves in the cab. We trundled down Route 1 towards the nearest malasada shop, and neither me nor Waiola took our eyes off eachother to look at the island passing by. I'd leave the rest of the team in their balls for a bit, today was the princess's special day.