Alone on the seaside street, Kaili forced himself to pull it together. He had things to do, a whole island challenge to get back to. He wasn't going to let himself be distracted, he had to get moving. Passing the pokemon centre, he neared the end of the road at a T junction. To the left was a grassy path framed by trees, leading back toward the water and fire trials. The path to the right crossed a bridge to an enormous estate. A lush hedge wrapped around an expansive courtyard, with a staircase emerging down to a small dock.
Though the huge place wasn't lit, the young man simply assumed it wasn't his next trial. When he'd first arrived on Akala island, he'd met the Kahuna; Olivia. She didn't seem the sort for a place like that. Not that it mattered, she'd introduced him to a lass named 'Mallow', one of the Trial captains. She had to be next by definition.
A part of him suspected he might find her in the estate. He could feel himself turning, starting to head right and across the bridge, while simultaneously turning left. It felt as if shadows of himself passed in either direction. There was a path past the volcano he'd not explored. Trusting his gut, the young man turned left into the wooded path.
Not far along the path, movement caught his eye. Slowing for a proper look, the young man noticed a glint of metal in a nearby shrub. Throwing caution to the wind, he plunged his hand in. His fingers wrapped around something surprisingly large but somewhat light. Pulling it out, he was momentarily confused by the sight.
It looked like the kind of medallion you see emerging from the head of a Meowth, attached to a string. But it was larger than any he'd seen, being slightly larger than his trainer ID card. Just as he had that thought, Kaili noticed an indentation down one side of the amulet, as if for him to swipe a card.
"Rotom?" He pulled out his phone, pointing the screen at the strange necklace. "Is this what I think it is?"
"That izzz an Amulet Coin"
"Thanks" He returned the phone to his pocket. Eagerly swiping his trainer card along the indent before hanging the necklace around his own neck. Even if Mohn was crazy, this would earn him some extra money.
A loud noise grabbed his attention ahead. A massive horse pokemon, very different to Zebstrika. It looked almost ground type. The creature stood beside a short woman with long black hair and a strange purple bonnet. They were facing off against two youths in black clothes and white bandanna's.
"You! Over here." The woman called out to him, placing her hands on her hips as she did. With a sigh, Kaili approached, only noticing a familiar rotund purple shape floating in the midst of the group as he grew closer.
"Yo, yo, yo! Don't go turning your backside on us!" One of the youths spat, prompting the woman to turn despite how close Kaili had gotten. Kaili simply nodded to Liam, trying not to smile as the boy tried to take an intimidating pose.
"And you! You're that guy from Melemele, yo!" Liam added as Kaili stopped beside the short woman. With a tap of one of his pokeballs there were suddenly two Drifloon in the area. Their excited whistling conversation making it hard to hear anything else. And their bouncing playfully off each other making it just as difficult to look away.
"These scoundrels are Pokemon thieves. And you're on familiar terms with them?" The woman looked up at him accusingly.
"Never seen them steal anything, myself." He shrugged, still watching the balloons play.
"I am Hapu. Life in the big city sure is something else. Pokemon thieves roam around brazenly."
"Yo we ain't steal it!""Shut up old lady""Mind yo business" The voices of the other skull kid started to echo in Kaili's head, only distantly drowned out as one of the drifloons whistled past his head, followed quickly by the other.
"They were beating it in plain sight, and Drifloon aren't native to Akala"
"We weren't beatin it yo. It liked it!" Liam snapped back, suddenly taking two steps away as the horse pokemon reared aggressively. Curious, Kaili tapped Mr. Balloon's pokeball again, sucking the pokemon away in a flash of red light.
After a few seconds glancing around, the other Drifloon floated back to the boy who's name Kaili didn't know. It settled at about waist height on his right hand side.
"Would it do that if it was being mistreated or stolen?" Kaili asked flatly. The woman giving a small huff before she mounted the steed and rode off back to town. "Leave you guys to it too then." The young man nodded, not meeting their eyes as he turned and continued on his way up the road.
Turning down the branch road to the right, heading toward the fire trial area, Kaili couldn't help but glance back at the two teens. Liam was in front of a tree, moving from side to side with his arms out to his sides as he watched the other teen. The other seemed to be trying to find a way around him; his hand on top of the drifloon's head. As he moved, the boy would push the drifloon down, or let his hand move back up quickly, the balloon merrily bouncing along to the movements.
Passing into the area with the large sign showing Kukui in a wrestling mask, Kaili heard an ongoing whistle followed by a "dammit" in the distance behind him.
Suddenly remembering his team composition, Kaili quickly ducked into the pokemon centre across from Kukui's sign. At the pc he withdrew Kladenets before continuing on his journey. It felt like a longer walk around the island without Ivy bounding along beside him.
Emerging onto the road to the volcano, Kaili noticed that the fishermen he'd seen last time were gone. But the woman standing by the entrance to a long tunnel ahead still remained. She wore similar clothes to the trial guides on Melemele island. Her eyes narrowed as he approached the low barrier.
"Hey are you the guy Kiawe said to keep an eye out for?" She asked. Kaili simply shrugged. The woman rolled her eyes and settled back into the chair. "Firium Z?" She nodded, closing her eyes and relaxing again after the young man held the small red stone out for her inspection. She didn't even look at it properly, maybe enough to note its size and colour.
Even in the darkness of the night tunnel, Kaili could make out a familiar shape ahead.
"It is most fascinating to learn that there are a variety of construction methods made possible by the Pokemon that lend their aid to humans." The man spoke clearly, as if dictating to a machine. The woman beside him suddenly looked down at a device in her hands. Kaili couldn't properly make it out, though he continued to approach nonetheless.
"What is this? The numbers keep climbing in my aura readings." She held the device up, as if attempting to divine better reception or something.
"Soliera, do you feel that? It feels to be growing thinner here."
"Ah, it is this one again!" The girl finally noticed him, turning and doing a strange square version of the Alolan wave to him. A sudden noise from her device drew her attention as she closed the gap between them.
"Perhaps it is him. Perhaps it is a side effect of the Alolan Island Challenge. That such a trainer would exude aura after coming in contact with so many Totem Pokemon awash in aura." Kaili sighed at the man's words. It was taking all his willpower not to simply charge and attack. To not beat the man within an inch of his life.
The woman suddenly shoved the device she was holding close to his ear and Kaili couldn't help himself anymore. He snatched the device and began peeling it apart at the seams while yelling at her.
"Either you back the fuck off right now and leave me the hell alone or I swear I'll. I'll. I'll drag you up the Volcano and show you a kind of pain I'm sure your pale fucking skin would have never experienced."
"We do have a meeting" The man spoke up, pulling the girl away before she could comment on his destroying her little toy. As they disappeared around the corner at the end of the tunnel, Kaili lashed out in frustration. His elbow slammed into the concrete wall of the tunnel, sending a heavy metallic clang ringing in both directions.
Out the far end, the tunnel opened onto a cliff road wrapping around to the young man's left. The cliffs stood only as tall as himself from the water level, at their highest. But it did create an interesting illusion of the crass simply giving away suddenly to a two toned sky. The volcano rose opposite the sea, but the rock face here was far too steep to consider climbing.
He could see the road curving around the island ahead, though from the lights shining around the corner, he suspected a pokemon centre's presence.
But what drew the young man's attention proper, was the sheer amount of people training amid the grass here. Tapping a pokeball, Kaili felt the tongue on his ankles before he saw the quilava materialise behind him. Kneeling, he moved the amulet from his own neck to Blep's.
"You in the mood for some fights?" He asked, rubbing the base of the pokemon's neck as it desperately tried to lick his wrist. "right, let's go see if this works eh?"
It took almost an hour to fight all ten trainers. But strangely, it felt like most that time was simply moving from one to the next. The first was a backpacking woman, staring out at the sea.
"Eevee!"
"Brick Break-"
She was shocked at how quickly it was over. Kaili simply shrugged, offering her a fat purple berry and moved along. The next fight was against a sporty teen who seemed quite proud of a medal pinned to his chest.
"Phantump-"
"Flamethrower"
The little haunted piece of driftwood didn't have time to hear its trainer's order before it was returned in a flash of red light.
"Trumbeak-"
"Flamethrower"
"You can't win every fight with one move!" The kid started to throw a tantrum, so Kaili simply moved along. He'd considered offering a rawst berry. But the teen seemed too stuck in himself. Next along was a young girl who had been sitting on a nearby cliff laughing at the fight.
"Extrasensory" Kaili said, as the red light had begun to emerge from her ball. He'd heard himself say it, and it continued to echo even after he repeated the command. The strange teddybear pokemon had barely appeared before it was returned in another flash of light.
A man in a white lab coat crawled out from under a rock nearby as Kaili approached. He seemed to be surprised he was noticed, but a white coat in night tended to stand out.
"Amaura-"
"Brick Break"
"Oman-"
"Again"
So it continued, over and over. Each trainer would challenge the young man to a duel, only for Blep to trample them before the trainer had a moment to consider what move to use.
The onslaught finally slowed by the time he reached the pokemon centre. Pleased with himself for a moment, the young man took out his phone. At the look on his face, Rotom slipped aside to give him proper access. A quick check of his account told him he'd just earned $51,288 in that one hour.
"Well Blep, Guess I gotta get you a big treat then." He chuckled, picking the pokemon up to carry in his arms as he checked a little further around the corner. He'd head into the pokemon centre soon. But he wanted to make sure he knew where the trial site was first.
The road curved around completely, almost lining back up perfectly with the straight path he'd found the amulet coin on. At the end of the hook sat a small tent and a campfire. To the camp's left stood a curtain of vines draped between two trees of a dense thicket.
A familiar green haired woman sat by the campfire, quietly roasting some unknown meat. The young man slumped into the grass by the fire opposite her.
"Oh Kaili!" She smiled, turning the meat as she looked up. "Bit late to be out isn't it?"
"I'm nocturnal" He put the quilava down as he talked, trying to figure out what the meat was. "Do you not have a house?"
"Fair, no I just prefer camping." Mallow smiled, leaning back with a big grin. She snickered slightly as a burning coal was knocked around by a small pink tongue. "Don't worry, the trial will be ready tomorrow morning. You won't have to wait long."
"I was hoping I could do it tonight, while it's cooler."
