Hau has a little too much confidence, but at least he has fun.
The cousins started down Route 4 immediately after getting the Zygarde Cube, agreeing to pretend it never happened unless they found a Zygarde piece. They got a few battles in, triggering Robbie's evolution - and another Pokedex experiment.
"It says that a punch from a Torracat's front legs can bend an iron bar," Rotom announced, getting a "Cool" from everyone who listened, including the Torracat.
"Where's an abandoned building?" Robbie asked, alone, the look in his eyes matching the look in Diana's.
"I wonder if we can test this..." Diana said under her breath, looking around for the very same thing that Robbie was searching for.
Rotom cringed. "Well, that's creepy."
Eli, who couldn't understand his Torracat and had learned to not pay attention to every single one of Diana's experiment ideas, gave Rotom a disappointed look. "I thought you knew Diana wanted to challenge Pokedex entries."
"I did." Rotom gestured to Robbie. "I was talking about how Robbie is apparently willing to be her test subject."
Eli looked over at Diana, who was now watching something else. "At least she has a short attention span," he said hopefully.
Rotom snickered. "But I got the Pokedex entry and her reaction to it on video. It's on YouTube now."
"That doesn't mean that she'll remember it before Robbie becomes an Incineroar."
Diana suddenly turned back. "Hey, Rotom! There's a weird-looking slug up here, I need a Pokedex!"
The slug crawled into Diana's bag, and was immediately zapped into the cube. The entire group of heroes went silent.
"Never mind, I know what it is," said Diana, and the adventure continued.
Entering Paniola Town brought them face-to-face with Hau again. This wasn't a surprise, since he did come with them to the island, but Diana found herself wishing that she could continue exploring without him. He was a nice enough boy, but she had more important things to do than accept every single challenge he gave her.
And, because she had no sense of when not to be a jerk, she said so out loud.
Fortunately, Hau didn't seem to care. "We're rivals, Diana," he pointed out. "That means we have to battle each other every time we meet. One of us has to be stronger, right?"
"It's pretty consistently been me," Diana reminded him. "I like you, Hau. I don't want to be responsible for crushing your hopes and dreams."
"You won't!" Hau promised. "Especially since I'm going to beat you!"
Diana looked at Eli for help, but he just stepped back, clearly telling her that he wanted no part in this conversation. She sighed. "Fine. Let's do this."
"Awesome!" Hau tossed his first Pokeball. "Ok, Pikachu! Let's show her what we're made of!"
Clearly, he thought she was still a Flying-type specialist. "Rockruff, let's go!"
Sure enough, Hau was surprised by this. "What happened to 'Di rhymes with Fly?' I thought you were giving your cousin some company in being a type specialist!"
Diana shrugged. "I figured having a more diverse team would help me with collecting Z-Crystals."
"Can't argue with that," Hau agreed.
"Good." Diana pointed at Pikachu. "Rock Throw!"
It took more than 2 hits to take down Pikachu. But, just as Diana had predicted, Pikachu was called back, and replaced with a Pokémon that had to be the second stage of Popplio.
"Rotom?" Diana asked, and Rotom buzzed, pulling up several Pokedex entries.
"It says that Brionne likes to dance and assault opponents with water bubbles," he told her. "Not the typical Bubble attacks, but more like making its own water balloons. Does it need further investigation?"
"Nope."
Hau laughed. "Well, since you took a turn looking it up...Brionne! You know what to do!"
And Rockruff fell to type disadvantage. Diana didn't flinch, merely called out Stanford to do the same thing to Brionne.
"That's too bad," Hau said to his starter as soon as it was declared unable to battle. "I should get something to counter Grass-types."
"Probably," Diana agreed. "And you should probably stop challenging me, at least until we both finish up our trials."
"That's not gonna happen." Hau plopped an arm over her shoulders, ignoring her cry of surprise. "I'm going to beat you someday, Diana! You can count on that!"
"Only if I take it easy on you." But she was smiling now, too. "So, I'm hungry. Is there anywhere we can go?"
"You'll have to find out yourselves." He nodded at Eli, then let go of Diana. "I'm heading up to Paniola Ranch. I'll see you later!"
He ran off, stopping at a Pokémon Center on his way. The cousins decided that this sounded like a great idea, and followed him to the building.
They spent the night there at the Pokémon Center, and left early in the morning to head through Paniola Ranch. It was, according to the map, the only way to get to the next trial, so they had no real choice.
Just like Diana had no choice but to get a Stoutland registered on her Ride Pager, courtesy of Captain Mallow.
"Why?" was all she could say to that.
"Stoutland can find items buried in the dirt," Mallow explained. "It'll be super helpful!"
"I was kind of hoping you'd just give me my trial while I was here," Diana said, and Mallow shook her head.
"My trial's up past Brooklet Hill, where my friend Lana's is. Then there's the Wela Volcano, where Kiawe's trial is set up. Then there's mine."
"I see." Diana called Rotom to show her the map to Brooklet Hill. It didn't look too far away. "Then I guess I'll see you at your trial?"
"Probably." Mallow laughed, then disappeared.
Eli watched her go. "She seems nice," he said suspicuously.
"Annoyingly nice," Diana agreed.
"What do you think she's hiding?"
She carefully looked him over. He didn't seem to be kidding. "If I had to guess? I'd say she's a cult leader who feeds those who fail her trial to the Miltank goddess so she can have the tastiest Moomoo Milk in Alola."
"Stop encouraging him!" Rotom complained.
Eli paid no attention to the Pokedex, and simply nodded as if that confirmed everything he was thinking. "You're learning fast, Diana. Here I thought you'd use logic and facts and say she was a normal girl. I'll make a conspiracy nut out of you yet."
Diana shook her head in disappointment, but said nothing. Eli had always been like that. The strange part about him wasn't that he talked about cults and Dittos impersonating people like they were everywhere. It wasn't even the spontaneous fires, or the claims that he was descended from an alien race.
If you asked her, it would be how he sometimes sounded like he didn't even believe himself much anymore. That was a theory she'd have to investigate herself.