Hama called for me and Hapu and I left the guest room for breakfast. Hapu came in from the backdoor, already in another set of tan synthetic work clothes and speckled with dirt. I sat down in my usual seat across from Hapu's and reached into my top left pocket for Kawami's pokéball.
Hand still in my pocket, with a grin cracking my face but my tone neutral I said,"Hama you're missing a bowl." Hama stared at me, then at the table as she counted the bowls in her head. She looked back at me with a look of kindness and said, "No Kau'i, I've got it right. Three bowls for us people, one for my Delibird, and two for Hapu's Shellos and Trapinch. Mudbray and Sandslash are eating outside." Now I was barely containing my laughter. "You forgot my Zubat.", I squeaked out. Hama gave me a confused look and I couldn't hold it anymore. I took the pokéball out of my pocket, released Kawami, and laughed.
Kawami flitted around the table before wrapping her wings around the top of my head. Hama looked on, dumbfounded. Hapu froze on her way to her seat and stuttered, "W-w-where did you get a pokéball? Where did you get a Zubat?! When did this happen!?" I looked her in the eyes and said, "It's a secret, can't tell ya." Hama took that awkward moment to ponder and grab a bowl and food for the Poison Type. Hapu released Tipi and Paina, sat down in her chair across from me, and gave me a piercing look as she tried to decipher what I had done. Hama placed the bowl of thrown together pokémon kibble and berries to my side. Kawami was eating out of it before it had been set down.
Hapu's eyes suddenly glinted with realization, and she looked up at me accusingly. "You stole that pokéball from the recycling plant.", she stated. I swallowed the oatmeal and pecha berries I was chewing on. "I can neither confirm nor deny.", I recited haughtily. That was another tip I learned from my Unovan friend. Hama stepped in, "Kau'i if that is what you stole from the recycling plant you could've just told me. It wouldn't have survived the recycling process anyway, no one would argue you shouldn't keep it. Plus, Zubat's using the ball now." Hapu didn't concede yet, continuing by saying, "There aren't any populations of Zubats near Malie City. She caught it here on Poni, and the only time I haven't been there to see what she was doing since she got back was yesterday after she went to her room. She snuck out and somehow caught her Zubat in that time."
The tables had turned and I was now the one giving Hapu the evil-eye. Hama took a moment to gather her thoughts again and said, "Kau'i I thought we were over this sneaking out habit of yours. Since both of you have made such shortsighted decisions, Kau'i you'll be joining hapu in her week long grounding here. We'll get you up to speed on taking care of Zubat and you'll both be getting along, understand?" I was aghast. "But I was gonna take on my island challenge!", I said. Hama just sighed and said, "Kau'i, you're only seven years old. You're just not ready for it." "BUT", I tried to say. "No buts. If you're still insistent on this we can discuss it at the end of the week, at the earliest.", Hama finished.
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It hadn't yet been a week, but already Kawami was fed up with helping out around the ranch, not that I blamed her. Because Hapu was busy working the field on Mahā and installing new panels for the awning outside Sandslash's frozen cave nook, we'd been doing essentially all the menial work feeding and cleaning in the stables. Day in and day out we cared for the Mudbray, Mudsdales, Rhydon, Ponyta, and Rapidash that filled the odorous stables. Kawami wasn't actually doing much to help, but she could still get bored, which she did readily and with reckless abandon.
I had been wearing an oft forgotten pair of trashy sweatpants after the contents at the bottom of my usual baggy cargo pants got wet with mud and started to release a smell like the fungal corpse of a beached Wailord. When you have the option, it's best to avoid that kind of scent. I looked like a kid in one of those disaster movies who gets dug out of rubble by the strong partner pokémon of one of the main characters. My expression even matched.
We had fit in a few lessons getting me used to caring for Kawami. I learned what she would need to eat (just typical pokémon food with the addition of poisonous fruits and allowance for her heartier gut), what sort of jobs Zubats can help with (mostly surveying, tracking, and exploration with an inclination towards caves), and how to keep her clean (which I tuned out, she kept looking at me during the lesson like I was betraying her to a mortal enemy). All those lessons served to do was make me more aware of what I could be doing with Kawami but wasn't allowed to.
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After having enough of the grunt work, I trudged back into the dust-blown house, tracked mud through the dining room and hallway to the guest room, and threw the sopping sweatpants into the corner to change into my cleaned cargo pants. Kawami lifted the trinket laden pants from the dresser and over to me, and I pulled the tarp like fabric patched and pocketed with denim, polyester, and many other eclectic pieces of discarded cloth onto me. At that, Hama's Delibird knocked on the frame of the open doorway. I flushed red before pensively following the festive creature past my faint muddy trail and into the living room, where Hama stood waiting for me.
"You've still got work to do Kau'i. What are you doing inside mucking up the house?" Hama interrogated cooly. I retorted, "I've been in the stable all day. My legs would've hardened into clay if I stayed out there cleaning up any more turds." She sighed. I continued, "When can I start my island challenge?" "The year you turn eleven, like everyone else Kau'i.", She recited. I groaned at the stock answer, practically right off the shelf of a convenience store. She glared at me with eyes like twin Ice Beams freezing my uncooperative behavior.
"Whaddya want me to do then huh!?", I asked, exasperated. "Tend to the stables.", she answered, sending a critical hit to my ego. I sweeped out of the room and through the backdoor, Kawami only behind me because she couldn't open the door. Hapu wasn't around to stop me and Delibird couldn't do anything if he was confused. As Hama and Delibird followed me out the door, I called to my trusty partner, "Kawami, Supersonic both of them." She dived past Delibird and let out a pulsating shrill of sound at its head, then swung back around to do the same to Hama. Delibird tried to hit the Zubat out of the air with a move I didn't recognize, but stumbled in its confusion and froze its own feet to the ground instead. Hama just clutched her hand over her ears. Before they could look up to see me, Kawami had disappeared in red light and I had slipped over the fence into the darkness of dusk.
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As I approached my place hoping to think through what to do next, I heard an odd sound. A cry of a pokémon that's not native to the off-route jungle or the Ancient Poni Path. A grumbling, horn-like sound. As I rounded a tree, I saw a Drowzee and a young man with neon green hair in all black. "Hey! Why're ya here?", I asked, stanced in the eroded doorway with Kawami hovering over my shoulder. "HOLY!.. Shit kid you scared me. Just checking out an old hangout spot, okay? Why're you here kid?", the thug said. "I live here.", I answered. "Whoa this dig's yours now? Good choice freaky girl, I've done some stupid shit here and it still hasn't come back to haunt me. That's special.", the weirdo expounded. "Who are you?", I asked, still very suspicious of the outsider in my sacred sanctum. "Oh it's a pretty typical story, outcast punk loser turned Team Skull grunt. My friends call me Rich, cause I ain't.", the apparent Team Skull grunt replied.
I let myself into my hovel, sitting on my makeshift mattress, and continued my interrogation. "What's with the Drowzee?", I queried. Rich chuckled, "Howey? He was making trouble in my town when I was young, pokémon center wanted him dealt with. If anyone but me caught him it woulda been seen as helpful, but from me they just saw it as making that trouble double. That's pretty much what led to me joining the Team." That caught my attention. I went deeper, "Why join Team Skull anyway?" "What's with all the questions kid? I don't owe you any answers!", he said, getting defensive. "You're 'hanging out' where I sleep", I reminded him.
He took on a sheepish grin, "Alright, fair's fair. It's where you go when you don't have a place to be. Not a halfway house like with those Aether creeps, a proper place. After I left my hometown I lived around here a while, it wasn't as bad, but it wasn't, like, what I needed either. Team Skull, it's like a family for people without a family. Ya know kid, you fit the description to a tee."
I paused. The praise he sang of his Team was persuasive, in that way only an ignorant, innocent soul could intone. "Would I be able to train my pokémon with the Team if I joined?", I jumped. "Whoa!", he said, "Big questions! Uhh... Well yeah, it's a do what you wanna do thing, and it's outside government systems. You know Po Town, yeah? Whole place is ours, girl!"
I had heard about Team Skull, hoodlums and petty crooks that had bones to pick with the establishment of the island challenge and the pokémon league. They weren't on the level of teams like the infamous Team Rocket or Team Aqua, but they still made a reputation for themselves in Alola. Hearing what Rich had to say about them from the inside put their actions into perspective, they were just making a living for the whole of the Team outside the systems of polite society. Team Skull were just a buncha boneheaded misfits.
"How do I join?!", I blurted out, on the edge of my makeshift mattress. "Again with the big questions, you little goblin! Honestly!", Rich sighed. Then, a jesterish smile spread through his lips and he laughed, saying, "You know? I think just askin' that question like that means you're in. I don't think big bro Guzma or big sis Plumeria will even sneeze at you joining!" I jumped up and swung Kawami around my head by the legs in joy. Rich interrupted me, "Now, I have one question. What's your name kid?"
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With Rich's help, I got everything I owned either in my pants pockets, slung over our shoulders, in a cord-wrapped bundle of fabrics, or stuffed into his wimpy drawstring excuse for a backpack. With my things collected, we slowly waddled towards the Seafolk Village, carrying my life's accomplishments.