The four stood there silently for a good few seconds before a question finally occurred to the eldest of the group. Kaili turned to Hau. "What are you even doing here? I thought you'd have done your Grand Trial already."
The two Skull youths looked to Hau at this question before backing away very quietly. The native teen blinked a couple times, apparently processing the change in tone of the situation for a second before grinning. He didn't back any further away from Kaili, instead making eye contact as he answered.
"Oh! Grandpa holds trials regularly because apparently it doesn't usually take long to do the Verdant Cavern Trial. But there's so much to do on Akala that Ms. Olivia can't do that. We have to find her and organise when we wanna do the grand trial!"
"Good to know, doesn't really ans-"
"So I'm trying to find her!"
"Ah" Kaili looked around, the tail of the trench coat sweeping the rocky ground about his feet as he did. "I don't think she's here." He smirked, Hau laughing as he rubbed the back of his own head slightly.
"Yeah well, I figured it was like, a secret trial or something y'know? Like we have to figure out where she hides to be able to organise the proper trial. Like how all the normal trials are doing something like a puzzle before you fight a totem? But way more open ended y'know?"
The young man nodded along. It was a reasonable idea to come to. But he didn't think it was quite right. "How about we go ask around in Konikoni? There's basically no houses in the town on the other side of the cave so people probably live over here. We'll just find her home, right?"
Hau's mouth seemed to tauten at the notion for a moment as he considered it. He looked out at the dark sky over the ocean before his shoulders slumped slightly as he nodded. "Konikoni's just that way. It's mostly a big intersection. I'll take the left, you go the right?"
The entry to the city was marked by a large japanese style archway. He'd seen similar in pictures of Kanto, so Kaili wasn't sure what the purpose of the aesthetic was here. It didn't matter though, the young man had a job to do and wasn't going to waste his very little brainpower trying to figure out tourism ploys.
After passing about four houses, Kaili's attention was pulled left as a man was trotting toward him, waving and doing a strange 'quiet' shout in the night. The man had strangely shifty eyes. He ducked half into an alley between two houses. "psst, hey, don't come any closer but I need your help."
The young man's right eyebrow rose at this weirdo's behaviour. Looking back across the road, he could see Hau reading the mailboxes as he moved from house to house. At least he wasn't rude enough to knock on the doors at… what even time is it-
"Hey, listen, My name's Looker, International police." The man pressed himself deeper into the night thickened shadow of the alley. Such that even his silhouette was hard to make out. "I need your help. I believe several people in Konikoni city are secretly, Ditto's." He paused for added effect. But all Kaili could hear was a tone dripping with paranoia. "I'll pay you $2000 for each ditto you can expose!"
"Hmm" the young trainer nodded pensively for a few seconds. "I'll keep my eyes out. Thanks." He nodded, tapping the side of his nose slyly before advancing past the alley and further down the street. He continued to hear the man shifting around in the alley for several strides past, but at no point did the footsteps seem to emerge to follow him.
|| Konikoni Motel ||
|| Vacancies ||
He wasn't much for paranoia himself. But people like that should always be watched. He'd encountered enough muggers and psychos on the street to know the best thing to do right now. The young man turned, climbing the two stairs to the door of the small building, letting himself in with the chiming of a bell.
He'd considered this place when first planning his trip to Alola, but as he was required to start in Melemele island, it made little sense to book a room on a completely different island. It was by far the cheapest accommodation he'd heard of in Alola, being about the price of a Pokeball per nights stay. But meals weren't included.
He was surprised to see the receptionist still awake behind the counter, actively staring quite blankly at him. The clock behind the man read 2AM, making the person's wide-eyed alertness all the more bizarre to him. Sure, he was awake, but few other people were this alert at this time. Especially at their job! Without a word from the receptionist, Kaili booked a room for the day, with checkout at 8AM the day after. Score, 6 hours for free.
Instead of heading straight to his room, Kaili returned to the front window of the reception room. Peering out into the darkness with his hands cupped around his face, the young man could see the silhouette of a weirdo hiding by the entry arch. As his eyes swept back, he spotted Hau stepping out of a house across the street and slightly further down than himself. A large sign over the front window advertised gemstones and evolutionary rocks.
As Hau's feet hit the curb, the lights in the store behind him clicked off. Looking back left, Kaili noticed the shadow of the man inch closer by a house, keeping to the alleys as much as he could. With a sigh, he opened the door, calling into the night. "Hau!" he waved the boy closer, glancing at the shadow in the alleys occassionally as the other trial-goer approached.
"Hey Kaili" The young boy grinned sleepily as he trotted closer, almost tripping over his feet as he did. "I found her! Organised our trials both for sunset tomorrow. I know you're not big for the heat of the day after all." He grinned drowzily, not noticing as Kaili moved to only partially occupying the doorway.
"Thanks man. I just paid for a room for the day, you can crash on the floor if you want. Save trying to sleep with the bustle in the centre. It gets noisy, trust me."
Hau looked confused at him for a second before nodding slowly. The boy trudged up the few stairs and into the brightly lit reception area. Kaili stared across the road into a shadowy alley. He couldn't see anyone inside. Yet continued to stare as he slowly closed the door.
The next day found Kaili wrapped up as if cocooned by the coat and the sheets on the bed. The curtains had been pulled closed and blocked almost every bit of light from filtering in as he'd slept. No-one else lingered in the room waiting for him though. Looking over at the clock, it read 4PM. The young man blinked several times as the first thought through his mind was surprise he'd managed to sleep that long.
Rolling out of the bed, the young man gathered his things and trudged downstairs and a little down town toward the pokemon centre. Plenty of people were about, but he didn't see the strange man from last night anywhere.
He ate quickly, skulling his coffee as fast as possible. The gentle din of the pokemon centre was growing into a cacophany in his mind and he had to escape. He needed to leave the city as soon as possible. Perhaps he could train his pokemon a while on the way to the grand trial.
So quickly was he out of the city, Kaili thought for a moment that perhaps he'd sprinted. He'd been too focused on the growing headache and raging echoes to properly see the world. Past the cave entrance he'd emerged from last night, Kaili found a strange hedge maze filled with gravestones. A large sign hung over the entrance to the maze.
|| Memorial Hill ||
What surprised him for a moment, was the sight of people battling wild pokemon near to the graves. Zubat, Golbat, Gastly, and a ghost pokemon possessing a stump of wood. It almost looked as if this was how people were trying to show respect to their loved ones who'd passed. Swallowing the uncomfortable feeling about fighting in such a place, Kaili proceeded.
It was terrifyingly easy. With the exception of one man's Umbreon, Mr. Balloon was able to win every battle for Kaili on his own. Buzz had some fun 'dancing' with the Umbreon while that fight lasted too. There were barely any echoes of his opponents words as they battled. Enough that he was able to keep his attention where it was needed and earned $68,472.
As the young man emerged from the other end of the hedge maze, approaching the Ruins of Life, three people came into sight. Two skull youths; One of the boys from last night, and a girl Kaili had never met. As well as a tall thin man in a white outfit.
"Give back that pokemon, hooligans." The tall man sneered down at the two kids. As Kaili approached, he noticed a sick looking slowpoke behind the youths. It had a strange gold pattern on its head and ears but did not seem at all distressed. The skull teens and the slowpoke were slightly down a hill, as if the man had positioned himself to loom over them as much as possible.
"Don't give me trouble! I'll reduce you to rubble!" The boy snapped, waving his arms in front of him as he tried to be as intimidating as possible. The girl smirked and nodded along, her arms crossed in front of her.
"That's right! You want it, you're gonna have to take it!" there was a much better flow to her speech than her friends, but she was still as dweeby as the boy.
"Ah! Here is a promising young Trainer!" The tall man looked over at Kaili's approach. "Fight in my stead, child, and rout these Team Skull ruffians. I will bestow honour upon you, if you do!" he turned back to the skull pair, head back to make it all the more pronounced how much he was looking down his nose at them. Shaking his head behind the man's back, Kaili stormed closer. His intentionally heavy footfalls dinting the already packed earth. Reaching out, his hand came in contact with the man's upper arm. He'd intended to pull the man around to look at him. But instead he found himself looking at the aftermath of a battle just down the hill.
He was kneeling over an unmoving pokemon's form, staring up at the man who was looking away with a level of boredom that burned the young man's blood. They were within the maze of graves, corpses of pokemon littering the ground between them, each with their backs to Kaili, as the man stood there with a condescending eye raise.
As more images started to form, the young man wrenched his hand open. The moment he'd let go, he was again at the top of the hill, looking up into the face of condescension. With a sigh, he hung his head before looking down at the two teens down the ramp. A flex of anger at himself rippled across the young man's shoulders and down his back as he resigned himself to what had to happen. Walking down the hill, he could see the smile around the eyes of the boy.
"Look" Kaili whispered when he reached them, a pain moving from his jaw down his neck as he spoke. "You gotta get out of here. Just go." As he closed his mouth it almost felt like he was about to shatter his teeth. He could hear their reactions before they even responded.
"Yo no way dude!" the boy snapped, stepping back. The girl stepped up as if to get in Kaili's face in her friends stead.
"We ain't leavin' without the slowpoke Yo. An' there aint nothin you or bug eyes up there can do to make us!" He wanted to be on her side. Wanted so much to turn and fight the stranger off. But the thought churned his stomach. He couldn't help but imagine their bodies alongside his pokemon. Not like when he touched the man's arm. It was just his imagination, but the idea still made him sick.
"Listen." He looked from the girl to the boy. "Thanks for last night, I needed to be talked down before I did something stupid. Something that could get myself hurt." He stepped back, knowing how this was going to sound and hating himself for it. "So it's my turn. You are so far out of your league here, I don't want you getting hurt."
There was a snide scoff from behind him. The teens looked at each other before looking at him and back again.
"Ain't this that K guy?" The girl whispered. But her voice didn't echo, he could feel shadows moving over them, as if reaching for their pokeballs. The boy nodded. Both looked toward the slowpoke then back. Kaili felt like the world was weirdly fractured. There was a scene playing out in his ears, echoes of battles starting, shadows dancing across the teens and the ground between the two groups. But the two didn't send out their pokemon. They didn't even say anything as they left, simply running away past Kaili and the tall man. Away into the hedge maze.
