Chapter 5

Aina's Kitchen was located quite close to the edge of Hau'oli City. It was this little restaurant that emanated a warm, welcoming aura. Justine liked its feel right away. She eagerly walked in, ready to check out some local food. Her camera was already recording and she had taken the time to observe the restaurant from outside.

"Welcome!"

"Hello!"

A green-haired man was behind the 'kitchen'—he seemed to be the chef. The construction of the building was sort of like a bar with a table attached to the kitchen where customers could see the cooking live, and tables in the rest of the room for people to sit at. Everything was made of wood with the seats of the chairs covered with comfortable foamy cushion.

Justine quickly went to the 'bar' section and sat there, smiling in acknowledgement of the chef. She turned off her camera before turning to the man. "Is the manager or the owner of this restaurant here?"

The man looked a bit confused as he replied, "Yes, that'd be me."

"Oh! I'm so sorry I didn't realize that." The owner simply smiled at her as she apologized. "I just wanted to know if it was fine to record here."

"Record?"

"I'm a vlogger and am on a tour of Alola. Yours is the first restaurant that I'm visiting here, so I just wanted to make sure it was fine to record a video here—including how you cook."

The man seemed thoughtful for a moment before he nodded. "Only if the recipe stays a secret. I can't show you everything."

"Oh, I won't need everything," Justine clarified with a smile. "I just need some delicious shots like they show in adverts."

"Then that's fine. Please feel free to record. I'd suggest getting our special dish if this is your first time eating an Alolan dish."

"Then one of that please."

The chef nodded and set to work. Justine nodded back and set to work as well. She re-started recording and set the camera upfront ensuring that whatever the chef was doing stayed within the lens.

Alola, being a tropical region, bore more fruits on average with coconuts, nanab berries, and pinap berries being the most popular among the local farmers. As a result, these three ingredients were used in many, if not all, dishes created locally and these fruits formed a staple part of the Alolan diet. One would think one would grow fed up of these fruits being present in one's diet all the time but that was obviously not the case—as Justine noticed around her.

People obviously enjoyed those fruits. Well, the best way to know was to experience it herself.

"Here you go, one Aina's Special!"

Justine turned back and focused her camera onto the plate that was now placed in front of her. The aroma was mouth-wateringly appetizing. It seemed to be a dish made of spiced berries stuffed in some sort of bread. That stuffed bread had then been slowly roasted over a flame with a special spice mix being sprinkled over it.

"Oh, that smells goooooooooood," Justine said as she breathed in the scrumptious aroma. "Let's dig in."

She had been provided a knife, a spoon and a fork so she could choose however she wanted to eat it. She held one of the roasted bread balls in place and cut it open with the knife. Steam escaped from the opening; evidently, it was the water inside the berries. Inside, the berries had practically turned into a weird spicy mush that smelled amazing.

Scooping up one half of the ball, she ate it. It was hot and made her huff. But the taste… The spices were mild but they lent a tingling sensation to her tongue that seemed to hit her just right. It wasn't too spicy but it wasn't too mild either. The spiced fruit mush left behind gave a weird but tasty mix of sweet and zesty flavours. It just… worked.

"That's amazing!" She told the owner before returning her attention back to the food.

The owner simply smiled and then went back to his job, serving the other customers. Justine on the other hand spent quite some time enjoying the food, and recording herself eating it. She got some stares but that was nothing new to her. She could understand why; it was always weird seeing a person talk to a camera as if it were another person.

"Justine, Pinap Juice goes well with that. Would you like to try it?"

It was the owner, having returned from serving other customers. She immediately said yes. She thought that if the owner was saying it, it probably was right.

The owner, who introduced himself later as Abe, produced one of the most popular items on his menu and Justine immediately took a sip.

She regretted it.

The juice washed out all the spices that she had been enjoying, and the mixture of flavours left behind was anything but pleasing. That said, she did not want to put a damper on Abe's mood—he obviously was proud of the item—so, she simply smiled at him as she slowly chugged the juice. It was obvious to her that she would find the juice more enjoyable if she ordered it separately and drank it first.

"I'm home!"

The voice made Justine look up and she saw a girl, a few years younger than herself, walking in. She was obviously Abe's daughter, sharing the same green hair and green eyes.

"Welcome back, Mallow," Abe said as he looked up briefly to greet his daughter. "How did the welcome party go?"

"It was excellent. We even got to see Tapu Koko fight Ash!"

Tapu Koko? Justine thought to herself. She turned towards Abe. "Isn't that one of the island guardians?"

"It is," the man replied. "I'm surprised they got a chance to see it, let alone fight with it."

"Hm, interesting…"

"Hello, are you new here?" Mallow asked as she paused for a moment to talk with her.

Do I evidently stand out as a tourist? Justine couldn't help but wonder. Nevertheless, she replied to the girl's question with a smile. "Yes, I'm touring Alola for the next couple of months."

"Welcome to Alola! I hope you have a nice time."

"Thank you."

Mallow then bowed to her and went to the back of the kitchen, presumably to help her father. Justine too swiftly finished up and after thanking Abe, left the restaurant, satisfied.

Once she was out of sight of the restaurant, she turned on her camera and focused the lens on herself. "Well, that was an excellent dish. It was called 'Aina's Special' and despite being a fruit- and berry-based dish, it was amazing. That said, the Pinap Juice sort of ruined the lingering taste from the special. I'd not recommend the two together. The chef said it tasted amazing but to me… meh. I guess it's more of an acquired taste like alcohol is."

With that quick review, it was time to talk about what had transpired at the restaurant. "Now, if you heard me talking with a girl, that was the chef's daughter. I believe she's one of the school students here. Said she and her classmates met Tapu Koko, one of the island guardian deities, and even fought it. I don't see any reason for her to lie about something like that, so I believe that she had told the truth. I hope I see it too at one point during my stay here. For now, let's focus on getting to the Ruins of Conflict."

And then, she set out earnestly in the direction of the ruins of conflict. She did not speak much for most of the time, instead opting to record interesting sights along the way that she could include in her next video. It was fun even though she was travelling alone… or she had probably gotten used to it by this point. In either case, she was definitely enjoying her time in the tropical region.

It took her quite some time to get to the Ruins. It was a surprisingly 'full' walk to the location with many interesting observations and whatnot. By the time she reached the Ruins, it was already way past four in the evening. Considering the distance she had travelled so far, she would either have to skip out on meeting Professor Kukui, or find a lodging to stay in the city.

Well, that could be decided later.

She stood outside the Ruins of Conflict, considerably surprised at the lack of any crowd whatsoever. She had thought it to be a significant tourist spot. But that couldn't have been further from the truth. It was practically deserted. Not even other pokémon seemed to be around.

Justine did not find the quiet eerie; in fact, she found it oddly relaxing. Perhaps, she had not gotten as used to the stares of others as she had thought. She wasn't sure. In any case, this was the perfect time to record this location.

She checked the remaining battery on the camera. It was still half full. Perfect.

She set the camera rolling. "And now we are here at the Ruins of Conflict." She moved the camera all around her to show the area. "It's all beautifully green and natural, and empty. I was actually expecting some crowd today, but there is no one. Should I be worried? Probably. But I might not get such a chance again later. So, let's have Patrat out here."

She released her Patrat. Patrat stretched himself before looking around, and then back at her. He noticed the camera almost immediately and waved at it. The action made Justine wonder if the pokémon understood really what or who he waving at. The thought made her chuckle.

"Patrat, I need you to be alert. Since there's no one here, be on guard and let me know the moment you see or hear something suspicious."

"Pat!"

And he immediately ran ahead.

Justine nodded to herself and started walking towards the entrance of the ruins, cautious but curious.

"If you look around, the entrance can actually be really well-hidden," she said, pointing up at the growing vines above the stone gate of the Ruins. "The vines need to be just long enough to hang above the entrance and then it will be super-easy to hide it. Seeing that they are not just moved out of the way but also trimmed short, I think we can say that the entrance is maintained."

She turned back in the direction she had come from, pointing her camera all around her once again. "Just look at how… well, there's not much to see here and inside, there's probably just a statue or something like that, that represents the guardian deity of this island. So, I can see why this isn't really considered a tourist spot. At least, not right now anyway." She paused a moment, surveying the rather open area. "The tourist bureau should really just set up food stalls here though. Food is one thing people will travel any distance for."

She waited another moment, before resuming her walk into the Ruins. "Anyway, let's continue."

Inside, the entrance became a tunnel which soon opened into a wide walkway. Justine paused for a moment, showing the well-lit walkway to the camera. Patrat stood on the other side where there was another doorway. There wasn't much to see around the walkway really, except two deep pits in the middle for some reason. Justine had no idea what those were.

She continued on. Patrat gave no indication of anything suspicious.

Through the doorway she went, and it opened up into a cavern. It was obviously hand-built, judging from the wooden structure that surrounded her. It was oddly bright inside. A quick look around showed a hole up in the roof of the cavern that opened directly onto the hillside.

Up in front of her, a wooden staircase climbed up to a platform where the altar was. Supposedly, Tapu Koko had been shrined there. The staircase looked terribly unsafe with no railings for support. Despite that, Justine wanted to record how the altar looked so she slowly and carefully climbed up them. To her surprise, despite how the stairs looked, they were quite sturdy.

She climbed them and soon stood on the altar, showing it all to the camera. It was interesting to say the least, but she could not make much sense of whatever the shrine was—except for the fact that it enshrined Tapu Koko. Perhaps, she should have read up or learnt more about the Alolan history. She said as much aloud before climbing down the stairs, feeling rather unsatisfied at the anticlimactic experience.

Patrat walked beside her, seemingly unconcerned. His little ears stayed pricked and alert, though.

Justine turned off her camera and sat at the bottom stair of the altar. Glad that she had done a decent amount of recording, she stretched her stiff arms. Patrat noticed them and immediately jump onto them, taking her by surprise. A squeal escaped her as she laughed at the pokémon's actions. She let Patrat nestle in her arms, lightly petting his head.

Sometimes, sitting like this in quiet with no person to bother her, and not having to record anything was an amazing reward. At the moment, there was not a single person present there in the altar; it was understandable given that it was quite a hot day. In the evening, more people would likely show up. Till then, she had the quiet place to herself.

Despite the heat outside, the air inside was cool, and refreshing. Not having to worry about recording anything for the time being helped relax her. As she did, her mind wandered, and she thought about her recent thoughts regarding pokétubing.

Her channel had just started to take off, but somehow, she was starting to feel the burnout. Perhaps, doing it alone like she had started was what was burning her out. Teaming up with someone else would work. But who should she collaborate with? Any other vlogger might not be down for it since that would mean one of them would have to drop their own channel—either that or they create and start a new channel from scratch which would end up making both of their channels defunct. She herself would not accept that despite the burnout.

A random stranger? Nope. She cut off that option right away. They won't know how to interact in front of a camera, or worse, their personality could ruin the vibe her channel had created. That could kill her subscriber base. That said, she could very well be overthinking it and it could also revive her base. It was a decision she would have to take after a generous amount of thought was given to it. A hasty or impulsive decision would not be a good idea.

Patrat squirmed in her arms, snapping her out of her thoughts. She had inadvertently tried to bring her arms close to her head and squeezed her partner rather tightly. She loosened her arms and let the scout pokémon out of her grip.

Patrat jumped away and shook himself clean. Justine checked the time; it was already past six. She would need another hour or so just to get to the city again and find the professor. As she mulled whether to continue with her plan for the day, Patrat froze, his ears perked.

Justine noticed it immediately and jumped to her feet, cautious and alert. She stared in the general direction where Patrat seemed focused and noticed something—or someone—peering out of one of the many trees and bushes around them.

She could never mistake the coloured arm that peered through the bushes. She might not have done extensive research prior to her trip here but even her superficial research had shown her enough photos of the pokémon.

It was Tapu Koko.

Tapu Koko noticed that he had been caught and zoomed away, leaving a confused but elated Justine behind.

"Well, Patrat," she said, attracting her partner's attention, "it looks like we are going to have an excellent trip."

Patrat seemed to agree with her as he grunted and started towards the exit. Justine followed suit after making sure she wasn't forgetting anything.

As the two walked outside, noticing the growing crowd around them, Justine's thoughts returned to what she had been thinking. Should she, or should she not? After a few moments of consideration, she decided to follow through. She badly needed a laptop. She didn't want to make do with her current one even if she could.

With that goal in mind, she set off at a brisk pace, intent on catching the professor before he shut everything down for the night.