Author's note: Hey! Thanks for joining me. And welcome to my second Guzma/Reader fic! Everyone's hype for Beauty and the Beast right now, myself included, and so we have this AU. A few notes to understanding: basically disregard game plot. Reader is not game protagonist and this is going to more closely follow the plot of BatB rather than having much to do with the plot of Sun and Moon. This is also set in, I guess, modern day Pokemon world? Just don't picture old time-y is what I'm getting at. Also don't expect this to follow the plot of BatB 100%. Definitely gotta have a least a few surprises for you, so I'm taking some liberties with plot points and characters.

Any other confusions? Let me know! My Guzma trash blog on Tumblr is Bugaboozma. You can directly ask me questions there! I also will often discuss fic I'm writing there, and I occasionally will put things to a vote there too. So head on over if you wanna talk!

They say that Po Town was once magnificent. The entire town was owned by a wealthy family, who only let the most prestigious of Alola live among them. It was a beautiful and immaculate gated community, and its crown jewel was the enormous mansion where that family lived. There was the kind mother, the cold father, and their troubled son.

Try as they might to encourage their son to become the prim and proper man they felt he should be, he could never live up to their expectations. He was a misfit in the town he would one day be expected to lead. In the shadow of their disappointment, he grew more troubled. The father, in turn, grew even colder, and the mother grew ill. When she died, coldness turned to cruelty, and trouble turned into delinquency. The son took on unsavory friends from outside the town and became a leader in his own right.

He called his band of outcasts Team Skull. His father called them criminals. The rift between them became irreparable. Father and son would never see eye-to-eye, not even on the day the father died, and suddenly Po Town was left in the son's hands.

The son, now truly free to do as he pleased, ran the wealthy and opulent out of town. Po Town was now the headquarters for Team Skull. They terrorized Alola, stealing Pokemon, destroying property, and claiming what they could in the name of their leader. The son used his team as a means of lashing out, wanting to inflict as much fear and pain on the region as he had felt growing up. He longed to become powerful, and so had his team steal only the best Pokemon they could find. As he and his team grew stronger, he also became more selfish and shallow. Soon it seemed as if his brutal grip on Alola would be unstoppable.

But those who disturb the peace of Alola may find themselves facing the wrath of the Tapus. When the four island deities grew wary of watching Team Skull's antics, they came to Po Town one night, disguised as four children, and walked up to the mansion. There, they offered the son a simple Comfey in exchange for shelter from the terrible storm outside.

He laughed at them and rejected their offer, saying he had no need for such a weak Pokemon. The four asked if he was sure this was the path he wanted to go down, as perhaps there was more beneath the surface than he realized. Again, he dismissed the children and their Pokemon. It's then the Tapus revealed themselves, and the son saw his mistake, but it was too late. They cursed him, Team Skull, and Po Town with these words:

If you act as beasts then beasts you will be

And by the moonlight all shall see

At night your outside will match what's within

A grotesque appearance to mark your sin

And like a beast you will be caged

Here you'll remain and shall not be aged

To leave this place will bring you death

Cross the border to breathe your last breath

Those you've harmed will know you as rumor

You'll grow forgotten sooner and sooner

They'll fear this place as well they should

For the terror you've brought this neighborhood

But should you learn to love another

By the time the flower's life is smothered

And earn another's love as well

You will be released from this hell

And so Team Skull continues to haunt Po Town, or so the story goes. No one even goes near the gate, believing the town to be cursed. Some say they've seen the beasts that they turn into at night, prowling the perimeter, waiting to snatch up anyone or anything that gets too close. As for the son, he turns into the most horrific beast of them all, so he stays alone and despaired in the mansion. There he guards the enchanted Comfey the Tapus brought. He keeps it safe for with its death also dies the chance for breaking the curse. He only has until its last petal falls. As time goes on, he and Team Skull continue to lose hope. For who could ever learn to love a beast?