Chapter 3

Justine made sure she looked presentable before starting her camera. Once she was satisfied, she started.

"Hey guys," she said, smiling to the camera. "I'm finally here at the hotel now! I was too tired yesterday to show anything, so I had to rest first. Now today, I can show you around the place where I'm going to be staying at."

She got up from the bed and picked up the camera, holding it to show around the room, and pointing out what showed up in the camera screen. "Then, next, the bathroom," she said as she opened the door. "Very clean and well-maintained. Super fresh. And nothing out of place. We have towels, a shower with a curtain, no bathtub. If you want a bathtub, there are deluxe suites on the upper floors of this hotel. I paid for the cheapest suite so… yeah, I wasn't expecting much but I'm surprised."

She then closed the bathroom and went to the balcony to show the beautiful, late afternoon view from her room. The sun was still high up in the air so the sunlight didn't enter her room. She would have to remember to draw the curtains close in an hour or so or the sun would heat up the room.

"And this is the beautiful view from my balcony," she said, moving her camera slowly to cover the entire view. "You can see the beach from here in that direction. The sunset will be visible from here; I saw it yesterday. It looks amazing as it sets into the ocean, between the two islands. It's honestly a good romantic getaway if you could find a spot on the beach there where you can stay away from the public eye."

She then went back in, closed the balcony door, and drew the curtains close. Pausing the video recording, she quickly changed in her street clothes, and then set the camera rolling again. "Alright time to go! Let me pack up some bottles, first aid kit and other stuff…"

She did so swiftly, picked up her backpack and the key to the room, and set off after locking the door. As she passed by the reception desk, she made eye contact with the receptionist and smiled at her, getting a smile back. Alolans were friendly and welcoming people—especially this city. Heahea was known for its 'welcome-ness' towards foreigners. So far, her experience had corroborated that.

As Justine left the hotel, she wondered if she would be allowed to record how the hotel looks like inside out. Perhaps, she could ask the manager if he would let her explore the deluxe and super deluxe suites? Definitely an idea worth considering. He seemed amiable enough while discussing Alolan culture; he should be perfectly fine with her recording the hotel, right? Besides, even if he wasn't, it wasn't like there was any law about it. She could just record anyway…

"You see that road?" She said as she slowed down a bit to stabilize her camera. She pointed towards the road that led them down the little hill where the hotel was. "That's where I came walking up yesterday, and saw that magnificent nightlight of this hotel." She turned the camera to bring the hotel's entire front in the view.

If she were being honest, she would find the daytime view of this white-washed of a front of the hotel very dull. Nothing really stood out; it was just white-coloured walls. But it was intentionally painted like that. After all, a white wall was just a clean canvas waiting to be painted in colourful lights at night. Which was why the front of the hotel had looked so beautiful the previous night.

"I guess we'll have to see the sight at night. Right now, it's too dull," she said, as she resumed her walking. "Well, we can see that when we return at night today. Let's go out for a short walk, and let me show you around a bit."

The hotel was built on a considerably tall but narrow-topped hill. In fact, Justine was quite sure that the hotel builders had bought out the entire land on top of the hill. The main building stood in the approximate centre of the hilltop and a wall formed a perimeter around the building with the area in between open for parking in the front. At the back facing eastwards was a playground for kids.

The manager had told her that the hotel was purposefully built like that. Kids were usually quite energetic in the morning and that's why the playground was on the east side of the building. And the family-oriented rooms were all in that side of the building as well, so parents could keep an eye on the kids.

On the other hand, sunsets usually formed a romantic backdrop for couples proposing to each other or newlyweds on their honeymoon. If kids were involved, they were either out enjoying with their friends or they were too tired to do much. That's why the west side of the building was full of couple suites and rooms. "With attached bathrooms with all facilities," the manager had said with a knowing smile.

Justine knew what he meant. She simply smiled back with a nod, indicating she got it. She had been thankful when the manager had continued with the next thing he wanted to talk about. Too often did men turn creepy with her whenever she showed even the slightest hint that she was interested in sex. Sometimes, she had to wonder why it was that hard for people to accept that women could think about sex too.

'Dumb shit,' she called it.

Her room was one of the couple suites. That was understandable since she was technically a single woman booking the room; the hotel would probably earn more by letting a family book a family room.

"Let's take a good look all around the hotel," she said as she started walking along the perimeter of the land. "The views are spectacular all around. And if you get a chance to take one of the super-deluxe suits at the top floors, definitely do it. It will be worth it. I'll see if I get permission to explore those deluxe suites. Until then, check this out."

She now stood facing south away from the hotel towards the remaining island of the region. On that side, the wall was intercepted by a stony staircase that went all the way down to a beach there. Apparently, the hotel itself owned the beach. A private beach for everyone to enjoy. There was also a hidden section of the beach out of view from the hotel as well as the main beach, reserved for couples. Obvious reasons.

The sun was still in the sky, indicating that there was still a significant amount of time remaining till it darkened. The view looked oddly mesmerizing with the island somewhat to the left and the sun well to the right, shining on the island from the side, as if trying to bring to light one of its dark sides.

"Looks great, doesn't it?" She said as she quickly glanced at the camera.

After capturing the moment on camera, she continued on to the back of the hotel, showing the kids playground as well as the park in which it was. The manager had told her about the park but it wasn't until she saw it for herself that she realized just how well-maintained and flowery it was. The scents of all the flowers filled the air and invaded her senses, refreshing her even though she had been tired. A true family spot.

"The flowers here are amazing. You can probably see it all on your screen but I can't convey just how amazing it is here, in this little private park of this hotel. It's absolutely worth the money spent."

She continued on soon, going northwards where she could see the rest of the city and the island, and then back to the front of the hotel.

"And that's the place I'm staying at," she said with a smile, before cutting off the camera.

Her favourite spot was definitely the park from what she had seen so far of the hotel. Truly amazingly maintained and taken care for. She decided to have a quick chat with the gardener or the supervisor of the gardeners who worked there; it would be worth knowing how much time they spent on the park. That was a good video idea.

But first, rest. It was already late afternoon. She had all the time in the next few months. The region was far smaller than the other mainland ones; she shouldn't have too much trouble covering most of it, if not all.

She was on her way back to her room when she realized she had almost forgotten about buying a new laptop. She quickly walked to the receptionist—it was a different one now—and asked her about it.

"You can order it online on-"

"Yes, I know that," Justine cut the woman off, "but I want buy it offline. It's an expensive purchase, so I want to make sure everything I need on it works the way I want it to."

The receptionist thought for a moment before shaking her head. "If you want to buy a laptop here, the best option is buying it online. There are no offline stores here yet; the closest offline stores will be in Kanto."

To say she was disappointed was an understatement. Justine simply sighed and thanked the woman for her help before walking to her room. After a few moments of consideration, Justine decided her next best bet was Professor Kukui. He was quite likely to have access to something given that being a professor meant he would need some high-tech equipment for his research anyway.

Definitely her best option.

But that was tomorrow's task. For today, she still needed to edit all the videos she had recorded today. That was going to be a slow task.

She booted up the laptop, patient as ever, and connected her camera to it. Her laptop storage showed full. She recalled that she had not deleted all the old footage. Despite having a 2 TB storage space, she often ran out of it. Side effect of recording stuff in 2K.

Well, it was worth it.

She deleted the many old videos, her laptop whirring loudly. Having a hard drive in a laptop was a real pain; they were just so slow. The newer laptops with SSDs were far faster. But their problem was their measly storage. And she needed a lot of storage space. She would probably have to buy either a hybrid variant or an external hard drive for her videos.

Once the old files were deleted—which was a far faster operation than copying—she started copying the new files from her camera. Then she got up and stretched. Copying would take quite long; she had quite some time to spend at the moment.

As she walked over to the balcony to take in the view, she finally felt herself fully relax. It was a strange feeling. She was doing something that she really loved but it still somehow managed to stress her. So much for 'Do what you love and you would never have to work a day in your life.' People that said that probably didn't understand just how much work it took to turn a hobby into a viable income source. And that work was not all enjoyable to 'never work a day in life'.

Idiots.

As she quietly watched the sun set, she considered what to do the next day. She had planned to meet Professor Kukui, but what else could she do other than that? After some thought, she decided it would be for the best to just meet the professor first thing in the morning. Perhaps, talking with him would give her a better idea of what to do that day.

Which reminded her, the professor ran a school. It would be interesting to see and record what they taught to trainers. Trainers generally always stayed on the move so as to catch as many strong pokémon as possible. So, keeping them at the same place under a protective eye… sounded counterintuitive.

Justine came to a decision. That's it. That's what I will do tomorrow. Explore the schooling part alongside the professor's research.