Olivia's mouth finally cracked into a smile as Kaili called Tiny back into its pokeball. She nodded several times before finally speaking. "Diamonds only sparkle after coal is pushed to its absolute limit. You took what I threw at you without breaking a sweat." Her hips continued to sway almost tortuously as she approached. "I am slightly worried that you would have been willing to let your pokemon go to far at the end there. Had I not recalled Lycanroc, you may have done something we'd both regret."
Her tone wasn't angry, instead a well practised rebuking that he'd heard before. People who could get to this tone, seemed to believe they were the only ones to ever pull it off. The young man suspected it worked better on those who hadn't heard it a dozen times already.
"Here" the native woman held out her hand, a brown crystal, the same shape and size as his other 'Z Crystals' jutting out from between her pointer and middle fingers, her thumb to its side. Kaili gently took the gemstone, somehow on edge as he reached for it despite knowing what it was. "Rockium Z. Mallow told me that you weren't interested in Z dances, so I won't subject you to it." Her smile was warm, but there was a strange glitter in her eye, as if she was daring him to ask. "Your next stop is Hokulani Observatory on Ula'Ula island. Good luck"
Unwilling to respond, the young man simply nodded, stowing the stone with the others. It was cruel, he thought, that to get that kind of power, you have to willingly embarrass yourself. How many fights could be beaten near instantly by the employment of one of these 'Z-moves'. How quickly would he be able to amass funds, train his pokemon. But then the worst thought of them all hit him.
This was the second grand trial, and the first time he'd encountered the move. What if the point was you to get use to experiencing them before getting to this point. Was he about to encounter more and more Z-moves as his trials continued? Sink or swim, head held high or absolute mockery. What would he choose? He had an out though, a way to not decide just yet without seeming himself indecisive.
Ivy was trotting excitedly over to him. "Wow!" She was clearly trying to figure out which pokeball Tiny was hiding in as her eyes raced along his body. "That was so cool Kai! You knew exactly which pokemon to use when! And I didn't know you had a Larvitar!" She had taken his arm and was pulling him toward the side of the area while continuing to talk a mile a minute. "Daddy likes to call Clay his Tyranitar! And that Mimikyu! I've never met a Mimikyu, but it looked like a pokemon Tess would love!"
They had stopped by the path back to Konikoni city, Kaili leaning against a low wall as he looked back toward the centre of the arena. He was still surprised she was even talking to him, but he wasn't going to bring up why, in case she was intentionally avoiding the topic.
"Kaili? What's up?" Ivy turned, looking in the direction he had. The woman, Olivia, was at the far end of the arena with her back to the groups.
"Nothing. Hau stayed to watch my trial, figured it'd be rude not to watch his too." He shrugged, settling back in the shade against the sunset, leaning and watching. Ivy glanced from him to Hau and back before skipping to stand next to the young man, leaning against the wall as she eagerly waited with him.
The normally excited boy looked over, the colour draining from his face a little as he flicked the two a faint smile and nervous wave. He'd been so happy to watch Kaili's fight, was Hau having a little stage fright? It wouldn't surprise him.
"YOU CAN DO IT HAU!" Ivy seemed to almost scream in his ear, enthusiastically waving at the other boy who gave a stilted wave and nervous smile in response. Kaili's right hand rose enough to mimic the general gesture of a wave, though he didn't actually wave.
"Just a moment dear." Olivia nodded warmly, feeding her pokeballs in turn into a small machine perched on a rock. It beeped three times each time she put a ball in, and three further beeps prompted her to remove them again.
With an almost sadistic single chuckle, Kaili tapped all his pokeballs, allowing his team to linger around him and Ivy as Olivia began walking back into the arena, her eyes on Hau. The young man could feel Kladenet's banner wrapped around his arm, while a single one of Mr. Balloon's tendrils grabbed his upper left arm. Looking over, he could see the other tendril holding Ivy's shoulder. She was giggling quietly and patting the drifloons head as Olivia gave her opening speech to Hau.
With a deep breath, Hau grabbed one of his pokeballs. He took up a weird stance, it almost looked to Kaili like he was intending to pitch a baseball. Olivia's hip swaying dance, whatever you want to call it, resulted in another flash of red light and again the strange bug pokemon took to the field. Winding back, Hau launched his ball forward with an emphatic grunt.
A blue, scaly fish-like pokemon reminiscent of a dog in many ways, appeared in the middle of the field. Its finned tail slapped the pokeball back toward the boy, who caught it and returned it to his hip.
"Hey, Uhp!" Hau cheered, hopping to the left excitedly. Olivia had begun to tap her foot, though the poor pokemon likely didn't get a chance to feel the command before a massive torrential gout of water seemed to explode from the mouth of Hau's pokemon. For a second Kaili thought maybe the poor thing had drowned, before noticing it several meters away, unconcious slightly up the rock wall behind Olivia.
He couldn't hear what Olivia said to her young challenger as she returned her pokemon, Ivy's cheer beside him was far too loud. Another flash of light from the Kahuna's side and the strange plant pokemon had reappeared.
"Uhp, Uhp!" Hau clapped once excitedly as he stepped backward. The Vaporeon between him and his opponent slid backward slightly, unleashing another gout of water just as some strange tendrils struck it in the side of the head.
Of the two, the vaporeon seemed the worst for wear already. Grabbing two pokeballs, Hau lobbed one high in the air before throwing the second more directly. The direct throw tapped the vaporeon on the back, bringing it back in a flash of red light. Just as the light vanished, the lobbed ball came down, striking on top of it and unleashing a flash of light of its own.
The boy seemed to have forgotten everyone watching, too absorbed in the fight with an excited bounce to his step as he caught each of the balls batted back to him by the wings of the feathery green pokemon that now took centre stage.
"Yeah go!" The boy took a step forward for the first time, Olivia holding her ground as the bird rushed her strange plant.
The plant struck back, hitting the Dartrix with several tendrils as it pecked hard at the top of its head. "Go, go!"
It was a flurry of motion, Kaili could see the worry starting to paint Ivy and Lillie's faces. Ivy was screaming excitedly for the bird to win, Lillie seemed to simply be paralysed by fear. But as the young man looked at the fight, a strange sensation swept from his brow and through to the back of his head. He could see echoes of the Dartrix, shadows of itself. And shadows of Olivia's plant. Every echo, every shadow, ended the same way. Three pecks and the plant crumpled to the ground as the bird fluttered to landing in front of Hau again.
The boy had a bounce to his step, hopping side to side, forward and back in a flurry, a crowd of shadows and echoes. A migraine started to build in Kaili's head but he refused to look away. He knew if it did, Hau would take that moment to look over.
Doing his best to push the shadows away, the young man focused on Hau himself, and the Dartrix. The bird pecked hard several times at the plant, fluttering around above it to avoid attacks as best it could. All it took was three, three hard pecks to the top of this strange plants head and it crumpled to the ground. Hau's arms shot up as he cheered. Why was he so excited to beat the plant? The Lycanroc had the Z move, and here it came.
As the canine pokemon appeared in the middle of the arena in a flash of red light, Hau stopped his little bouncing dance. The boy took a weird stance, both legs together and arms crossed in an X in front of his face. The air around him seemed to strangely echo, thickening without adding any more air or smoke, it just seemed, thicker. He swung his arms in arches on either side of him before bringing them to cross wrists in front of him. It didn't look that strange, especially with the concentration on Hau's face. Not that he could see it all that clearly, the air around the boy seemed dark and heavy. And it seemed to spread to the Dartrix.
He brought his hands together as he crouched as if praying. The shaking of his body could have looked to most like he was attempting to sway like a plant, but there were strange rips in the air around him, echoes of small holes that shoved him from side to side as the boy stood and finally opened his hands. "UHP"
What followed almost knocked Kaili backward over the wall behind him. It was almost as if there was a massive explosion from the Dartrix. Grass and weeds flooded the ground of the arena and shot out under the spectators feet. But only Kaili and the Lycanroc seemed to be struck by any kind of tangible force.
"Well done, a part of me expected you to attempt to defeat me with only the vaporeon." Olivia nodded, strolling up to the boy in front of her through the flower patch that had replaced the open dirt arena. "I'm sure you and Kaili are destined to get far in the trials. Best of luck young man." She smiled as she held out the crystal for Hau too too take.
Once he took the stone, she stepped back. The start of the dance was similar to what Hau had done, but instead of crouching with her hands together, she flexed both arms upward to her sides before striking a hilarious anime pose; one foot bent forward and the other extended as far back as she could, one hand flexing up in front of her and the other flexing down behind.
"Make sure to remember the hip movement. The hips are always crucial to Z dances." She nodded, stepping back a little more as Lillie and Ivy rushed up to congratulate him as well. Kaili busied himself returning each of his pokemon before it came to be his turn.
