I didn't want to use this title, but I had to.
The cousins and Rotom went back to the previous route to prepare for Kiawe's trial. It took the rest of the day, and Poliwag still hadn't evolved. This meant that Diana was sitting and sulking when they returned to the Pokémon Center for sleep.
At least the others tried to cheer her up. "Maybe he ate an Everstone," Eli suggested. "Ilima gave you one, right?"
"It's still in my bag," Diana said into her pillow. "It's in with my ring collection."
Rotom patted her on the back. "So it wasn't time for Poliwag to evolve. You have Rockruff! He can type advantage his way through the trial!"
"But I promised Kiawe that I'd try not to steamroll the trial this time! Do you know how hard it is to be completely awesome and have to restrain yourself?"
Eli rolled his eyes. "Someone's conceited today."
"If you've done what I have, you'd want to gloat, too." She rolled onto her back and stretched her arms out, taking up the whole bed in her starfish position. "And I can't do it this time!"
Murkrow, from his perch on a chair, watched his trainer have her drama queen moment. Then he flew over to her and dropped something on her stomach before landing near her head.
She sat up to investigate. The ring she gave him when they first met fell onto her leg. She looked over at Murkrow, who stared back, determination in his eyes. She understood, without Rotom needing to translate, that he was promising his loyalty no matter what they faced. She should say something that told him the same thing.
"I thought you kept this in your ball," was what came out of her mouth.
Murkrow's determined look turned to disappointment. "I'm trying to have a moment with you. Don't ruin it."
For having that moment with her, Murkrow got the privilege of leading her team when they went up the volcano. It surprised no one when Eli picked up a Pokémon known as Salandit...though it was a lot more surprising to learn that he hadn't actually captured it.
"I'm not sure if I want to be a Fire-type specialist," he said, and Diana wasn't sure if he was talking to her and Rotom or to the Salandit. "Two Fire-types is ok, a lot of trainers have more than one of a type without specializing, but three? That's half a team."
He could have been talking to a wall for all the attention Salandit was paying. It didn't seem to expect him to turn around and start throwing Pokeballs at it, but it wasn't showing any signs of leaving, either.
"Hey, Rotom, ask it what it wants."
Rotom immediately did. Salandit considered, then answered carefully.
"She says that she's never seen humans like you two before," he told them, "and that she wants to get a front row seat to the chaos." Salandit added something else, and Rotom laughed. "I'm a Rotom! This body was programmed for me to be able to speak human, so I do the translation for them!"
"Interesting." Salandit swished her tail, streaking the dirt. "What do the humans do for you?"
"They let me see the world. They're my friends."
"They don't use you for battle? What do you even do?"
"Translate Pokémon speech, film their adventures, read off Pokedex entries, and most importantly, keep them alive."
"So shouldn't you stop them from jumping into a volcano?"
"They're not going to -" Rotom suddenly remembered who he was talking about, and turned around in horror. "Oh my gosh!"
Diana was kneeling next to a lava pool, her hand hovering above the heat.
"Don't do it," Eli told her, even though he seemed conflicted about that himself.
"But we're the only ones who can!" she protested. "My 'alien' ability is temperature resistance. Your weird fire thing probably protects you from the effects of heat, too. We can touch lava! Do you think it will be hard? Wet? Both?"
"It'll feel like our hands melting off our bodies," Eli told her, grabbing her hand before she could do anything too stupid. "Just because we're immune to uncomfortable heat doesn't mean that we're immune to melting."
Diana remembered when she broke her arm years ago, and reluctantly admitted his point. "So what do you suggest?"
"I suggest you get to the top and face Kiawe's trial," said Rotom, speaking like he had been paying enough attention to know her plans before Salandit had told him. "This science is too dangerous for a girl your age."
Diana rolled her eyes. "Ok, Dad. I'll stay on track."
Rotom turned back to Salandit, pleased. "As you can see, it is a 24/7 job."
Kiawe was waiting on a platform surrounded by torches. Eli reached out to touch it, testing Diana's theory - he hadn't had enough experience with cold to see if he was affected by it, but he could certainly attempt to see if he could touch fire.
He seemed oblivious to the fact that he now had a long train of wild Pokémon following him. Two Fletchling, four Cubone, a Kangaskhan, five Salandit (counting the original) and no fewer than ten little Magby. There was even a Magmar poking its head around the corner. Counting his Growlithe and Torracat, both of them outside of their balls to do as much damage control as possible, he had a small army. Diana was slightly jealous.
Kiawe clearly had a speech prepared, but it flew out of his head when he saw this. "I...what? How? He couldn't have captured all of them!"
Diana nodded wisely. "My cousin and I are descended from aliens," she said, not believing but figuring it into her plans. "That's part of his power set. Just hand me the Z-Crystal, and I won't have to use mine."
Kiawe took a deep breath, counted to five, and let it out. He was calm again. "I've prepared for people like you," he said, and he pulled a whistle from his pocket. "I've prepared for this. When I blow this whistle, six trained Marowak are going to drag the boy down the volcano and leave him there. He'll have to climb all the way up again."
Diana shrugged, never having expected just demanding the item to work in the first place.
Kiawe blew the whistle. Just as he'd told her, six Marowak (not looking much like the Marowak that Diana knew, but Rotom confirmed them to be Ghost/Fire types native to Alola) arrived and dragged Eli away. The cluster of wild Pokémon followed.
"We should probably stay with him," Growlithe decided after a moment.
"Probably," Robbie agreed, and they followed the troop down the volcano.
With that out of the way, Kiawe continued, pretending it never happened. "As I was about to say before all this nonsense began, welcome to Wela Volcano. My trial is different than the trials you've faced so far. You can't go through it with just a Dartrix."
"I figured."
"This trial will test your powers of observation! First one dance, then another. You will have to find the difference between those two." Was that a smirk? "I've trained three more to dance. Come, Marowak! Let the trial of Kiawe begin!"
Murkrow defeated the Marowak without taking any damage himself. Then came the trainer battle with the random hiker, who was clearly in on it with the Captain and was defeated with three of Murkrow's Night Shade attacks. But when the Totem Pokémon arrived, just as suddenly as the hiker, Diana could barely restrain herself from making a sarcastic comment.
But she did not make the sarcastic comment. She wanted this over with.
It was obvious that the Totem was Salandit's evolved form. Diana heard Rotom say something about it being a female-exclusive evolution and keeping a reverse harem of male Salandit around, but her attention was much more focused on the battle.
The Salazzle looked at Murkrow, half-amused, as if he was part of said reverse harem. Then she spit out a Flame Burst, took Murkrow's Night Shade, and called a Salandit for help. Murkrow, still weak from battling the hiker, fainted quickly. But Diana still had Rockruff.
Rockruff used Rock Tomb to take out Salazzle in two hits, then Salandit in one. Diana had completed the trial, and had kept her promise to Kiawe while she did.
The sound of applause brought her out of her thoughts. Eli had returned, and the whole squad of Pokémon had come with him. All of them were cheering for Diana.
The Salazzle gave something to Kiawe before she wandered off, and he passed it to Diana. "She had the Firium-Z," he explained. "I'm the one who shows you how to use it."
He demonstrated the Fire-type dance. Diana, despite always feeling a little silly when she did this, followed his example.
"And for when you find a Pokémon you want to make your companion," Kiawe added, "here's a gift from me." He handed her 10 Quick Balls. "I'm assuming you know how these work?"
"I have been studying," she confirmed, hoping she didn't sound too insulting.
Kiawe didn't say anything, but he did look down at her in disappointment. "You also get access to a Charizard for your Ride Pager. Keep your commentary to yourself, and I'll give you one that actually knows how to carry a human."
As Diana handled that, Eli turned to the Pokémon that had followed him. "I'm not going to have a full team of Fire-types," he told them. "That's something I decided a long time ago. It's just too expected, you know? But I can take one more Pokémon here. Type doesn't matter. Which of you is the hardest for trainers to find?"
Most of the Pokémon groaned and shuffled off, leaving behind only the Kangaskhan and the female Salandit that had started the little parade. They stared each other down briefly.
"You saw him first," Kangaskhan decided, and left to show her baby how lava bubbled.
Eli borrowed a Quick Ball from his cousin, and just like that, his team was half Fire-type and half empty.