While the others hurried back to the school, intent on the food they'd left behind, Kiawe hung back to walk alongside Kukui. They went in silence for a few minutes, both of them watching Ash. He was laughing and chatting with the others, looking forward to the future.

"That Gigavolt Havoc," Kiawe said quietly. "Did you notice? It wasn't just around Tapu Koko; it ripped up the ground almost straight from where Pikachu stood."

"I noticed," Kukui replied.

"I earned my Z-Crystal and I've seen plenty of battles," he said. "But I have never seen a Z-move cause so much destruction."

"No, it surprised me too."

"Do you think it was because he didn't earn the crystal?" he asked. "Was it unstable?"

Kukui glanced at him sideways. "I suspect you were right about the crystal cracking because it wasn't earned, but that attack didn't look unstable to me."

"And he'd never even seen an Electrium-Z used before," he said, his voice going harsh with urgency. "Professor…!"

"Tapu Koko seems to trust him," he pointed out. "I'm not saying you have to, but don't you think it would have done something if it sensed any ill intentions from Ash or his pikachu?"

"It's not that I think he'd try to hurt anyone," he said. "But Professor, think about it. That much power… in someone who doesn't understand…"

"You're absolutely right," he said. It was why they had the Trials, after all. "So it will be our job to ensure he learns."

Kiawe hesitated, then nodded once.

Originally, when he found the Rotom infesting his computer, Kukui was a little annoyed. Rotom weren't native to Alola, so it was yet another example of someone bringing in a foreign species without realising how it could disrupt the local wildlife.

Not to mention that ghost-types were frustrating at the best of times. And difficult to study, so it wasn't even like Rockruff, who could at least make itself useful while running rampant through the house.

Not that it had made itself all that useful. Rockruff wasn't particularly interested in being studied, or doing anything beyond hanging around long enough to get fed before disappearing again.

Until Ash showed up, anyway.

Kukui hummed, leaning back from his sparking computer wires as that thought processed through his head.

In the last two days, Rockruff had spent more time in the house than it had in the entire six months Kukui had been trying to study it. There didn't seem to be any reason behind the change, beyond the fact that it apparently wanted to be around Ash and Pikachu. And all it had taken was Ash opening his hands and telling Rockruff to 'come'.

Such a strange kid, that Ash…

He'd met the Guardian Deity multiple times. And, having only seen a single unrelated Z-move one time, pulled off the most powerful Gigavolt Havoc Kukui had ever witnessed. He liked battling, which Kukui studied, and pokemon, which Kukui proudly called himself a professor of, and the Professor Oak had just now called him a 'fascinating case study'.

The words rolled around his head, rebounding off bad ideas.

Rotoms didn't make very good study subjects. But as Professor Oak had published in an article only recently, if you used them in the right way, they could make excellent study tools…

And one of his own colleagues at the lab had recently built that custom-pokedex…

"Kukui used Nasty Plot," he muttered, reaching into his back pocket for his phone.

"Rotom," Kukui called as Ash headed into the bathroom, "Could I speak to you for a moment?"

"Of course!" it chirped, and flew over to hover in front of him.

RotomDex was much less mischievous than most rotoms tended to be. Kukui wasn't yet sure whether that was because it was protective of its possessed casing, or if it was just this one's specific personality. Either way, aside from its mildly obnoxious personality, it was mostly just interested in fulfilling its casing's function. It wanted to collect information. Which was fascinating in its own way – Kukui's colleague would be thrilled when he got the data.

Not that it mattered to Kukui. He had other areas of interest. "So now that you've had a full two days as the RotomDex, how are you finding it?"

Rotom beeped and shook in the air. "Ash is very strange. He is not like what a pokemon trainer is supposed to be!"

Kukui raised an eyebrow, intrigued. He'd planned to work them up to talking about Ash, but here Rotom had just jumped straight into it. "Oh?"

"Wild pokemon are caught through battle!" it insisted. "A pokemon trainer uses their existing pokemon to weaken it, and then throws a pokeball to catch it. If compatible, the pokeball creates a soothing environment designed to encourage friendship and trust in the wild creature, which—when combined with proper training—creates a strong bond between human and pokemon."

Kukui smiled patiently. "Yes…?"

"Ash did not use his existing pokemon to weaken the wild pokemon before catching it!" it wailed, electrical beeps and static colouring every word. "The wild creature was not soothed by the pokeball's environment! Rowlet practically caught itself!"

"Oh, well, now that might affect his grade," he said playfully. "The assignment was to catch a pokemon, not have one catch him."

"Look! Look!" it cried, and lit up with an image of Ash kneeling down, turned away from the camera. As it began rolling, he stood up and turned forward, wearing an odd, unreadable smile.

"Okay guys, let's go home."

"Go home?" Rotom's voice was heavily distorted in the video, but just understandable. "I thought you were going to catch Rowlet."

"It's okay."

Kukui frowned, folding his arms and leaning forward in interest. He knew, of course, that Rowlet wound up caught, but that didn't match what he was seeing here.

When Oak had warned him that it often seemed like Ash's pokemon chose him, he hadn't been entirely sure what the man meant. It could have been like Rockruff, who seemed to have adopted Ash whether the kid liked it or not, or (and this was what he'd actually suspected) Ash could have tricked his pokemon into it.

It wasn't a nice strategy by any means, but some trainers that knew how the pokeball connection worked were inclined to use it to their advantage. They would trick pokemon into lowering their guards, convincing the poor creatures that they didn't want to catch anyone. That they were just training their existing pokemon through random battles in the wild. Then, when the pokemon felt safe from capture, they'd throw the ball and let the machine do the rest of the work.

But he wasn't seeing any hint of that in the video he was watching. As Ash explained, he honestly seemed to think Rowlet would be happier in the wild. And that was… apparently enough for him.

Then the video flickered, obviously moving ahead in time to a shot of Rowlet flying and hooting excitedly, Rotom's distorted voice asking, "What's Rowlet doing?"

"What d'you think?" Ash's voice shot back, sounding excited. "You want me to catch you, right?"

There was no possible way Rowlet's response could be construed as anything but an emphatic 'yes'.

"Alright, then here we go, Rowlet!" Ash said, and the camera focussed down onto Ash almost lazily tossing up a pokeball. "Go: pokeball!"

As the pokeball came down, Rowlet actually bounced up a little to whack itself against the button. And then, against all logic considering how strong the bird had looked, the pokeball barely shook before accepting its new charge.

"Huh," Kukui said, as the video ended and Rotom's 'face' returned to the screen.

"That is not how pokemon are supposed to be caught!" it cried, and then flew back a foot before coming forward again. "I have updated my data, but according to all scientific evidence, this should not be the case. Further study will be required!"

"It will indeed," Kukui agreed quietly, before he remembered why he'd actually wanted to talk to Rotom and blinked. "So you don't mind continuing to help Ash; acting as his pokedex?"

It buzzed a little, screen flickering across data and graphs before settling on its moving mouth image. It was currently a small frown. "He is very interesting. I would like to study him further," it said, and then flickered into a smug emoticon. "Also, Ash is not very well versed on pokemon, and I can provide a great deal of information! I will be able to teach him how a pokemon is supposed to be caught and trained! I will be an extremely useful pokedex! The RotomDex!"

Kukui chuckled and didn't argue.

Most people that had never been a part of higher education thought that Pokemon Schools were about teaching people how to be breeders or day care operators. Others thought that it was more like a full-time summer course – you spent mornings learning pokemon types and then your afternoons playing. Those people annoyed Kukui a little bit.

The truth was, most lessons at the School were actually theoretical, and it quickly became obvious that Ash was really going to struggle with that.

He understood the concepts. He knew how to battle and raise pokemon, and he followed most of the explanations he was given.

But if you asked him to define type advantages, the most complex explanation he could give you was 'water types are strong against fire types'. He was absolutely floored by the fact there was an actual mathematical formula to predict how effective one type was against another, let alone the idea of more complex formulae that added in levels and ability modifiers.

They'd spent most of the day working through calculations. Overall, the class had done acceptably well – Sophocles and Lillie were of course miles ahead of everyone, while Ash and Kiawe struggled with every step. Even Mallow had been exhausted by the end of the lesson, but the two battlers looked like absolute wrecks, and Kiawe had been very close to lashing out at someone. Kukui had decided to end things a little early and instead remind everyone of tomorrow's field work.

That had thankfully lightened everyone's mood – extra-curricular lessons usually did. But he was surprised by how effective it was – Ash cheered up almost immediately, and was in a positively ecstatic mood by the time he got home, testing the weight of his borrowed fishing rod and chatting with Pikachu about all the water types they could meet.

Having just started preparing dinner, Kukui watched from the kitchen as Ash carefully carried the rod up the ladder to his loft.

"Well, now that surprises me, Ash," he said as the kid disappeared from sight. "From what Professor Oak told me of your team, I didn't really pick you as someone who enjoys spending a lot of time on the water. Totodile, Squirtle, Buizel… they're all land-based water pokemon, aren't they?"

"Yeah. I've never tried to train a fish-pokemon before," he called back. "But one of my best friends wants to become a water-pokemon master, and she taught me how to fish. I even have this special lure she gave me. Works like a charm! Didn't think to bring it to Alola though."

"I bet there's a lot of things you would've brought if you'd come here planning to stay," he pointed out, before his attention was redirected by the poke-flap swinging open. As he'd half-expected, it was Rockruff, who got less than a metre inside before stopping to look around, ears and tail lowering in obvious disappointment. Kukui scoffed. "What, am I not good enough for you anymore?"

"What?" Ash, Pikachu, and Rotom all peeked over the landing, and Rockruff immediately perked up again with an excited bark. Pikachu leapt up onto the railing to wave excitedly, while Ash just grinned and leaned a little further over. "Hey Rockruff! When did you get here?"

As Rockruff barked happily back, Kukui shook his head with a mock-glare. "You know, a man shouldn't be made to feel so unwanted in his own home. I fed you this morning, remember!"

Rockruff ignored him, and Ash chuckled before ducking out of sight again. "Man, I can't wait for tomorrow! I really hope I meet some cool pokemon. Hey, RotomDex, are there any Alolan variants for water-types?"

"Don't answer that, Rotom!" ordered Kukui. "We have a test on regional variants next week and you're not allowed to help him!"

"Aw, come on, Professor Kukui!" Ash whined playfully. "I need all the help I can get!"

"He really does," Rotom said, still hovering over the railing. When Kukui gave it a dry look, it flew down to hang in the air in front of him, effectively stopping him from chopping vegetables and forcing him to pay attention to it. "It's true! While completing the set problems today, Ash's success rate was less than forty-seven percent, and he did not complete them all."

Kukui gently pushed it out of the way with a stern look. "I appreciate that you want to help, but those aren't the kinds of statistics Ash needs in his first week at school, Rotom."

"It's not wrong though," Ash pointed out.

Kukui looked up to find Ash climbing back down the ladder, not even pausing for balance as Pikachu leapt from the railing to his head. He hit the ground and turned toward the kitchen, still unconcerned as Pikachu scampered down his back in order to tackle Rockruff, and the two pokemon began play-fighting as he stepped up to the counter. "I didn't do so great in class today."

"That is an understatement," Rotom reported cheerfully, and Kukui slanted yet another look at it before going back to Ash.

"It's your first week," he said again. "And there are a lot of very good trainers that never even try to learn this stuff. No one was expecting you to master type mathematics in one class."

Ash shrugged. He didn't seem concerned so much as resigned. "I've never been that good at classes. Honestly? I barely graduated from normal school."

"Oh?" he prompted. "And yet you enrolled here."

"Yeah. I mean… I've seen plenty of Pokemon Schools before," he said. "And I've met loads of people that do that math stuff all the time. Even some trainers that refused to battle me at first because they did the calculations and decided they'd win too easily."

Kukui raised an eyebrow. "I'm sensing that isn't usually how the story ended."

"Nope! I'd make 'em battle me anyway!" he said cheerfully, then rubbed the back of his neck with an awkward laugh. "Is it mean of me to say I really enjoyed beating them?"

"Probably better to say you found it 'satisfying'," Kukui advised with a wink. "I'm glad to hear it though. It's important to remember that while type mathematics are all well and good, there's a lot more that goes into training a pokemon than what you can measure with numbers."

"And that's why I like the Alolan Pokemon School so much."

It seemed like a bit of a non-sequitor, so Kukui put down his knife and leaned over the counter to focus. "I'm afraid I'm not following you there, Ash."

"It's different here," he said with a shrug. "Every other Pokemon School I've gone to, all anyone seems to care about is the science. They talk about how important it is to care for your pokemon, but then they don't use real pokemon in their lessons. Everything is done in classrooms, all shut up and closed off, and they use pictures and diagrams. Sometimes they have pokemon on campus, but they're always locked away and the students barely see them. No one ever has their own pokemon out of their pokeballs – if they even have pokemon!" he added, and then grimaced, glancing over his shoulder to where Pikachu and Rockruff were playing peek-a-boo around the table. "Any time I went to places like that, even if it was just a Summer Camp or something, they always asked why I didn't put Pikachu in its pokeball. They were supposed to be learning about how to work with pokemon, but they all thought it was weird to actually live and work with a real live pokemon."

Kukui nodded. It was something most Alolans noticed when they went to other regions: the divide between human and pokemon that was… if not absent, at least certainly less prominent here, where pokemon were both gods and family members. He was surprised Ash, who came from the region that was probably most infamous for the clear divides it put between human and pokemon, had noticed it.

"But here," Ash continued, glancing up at Rotom, "you didn't just let me keep Pikachu around, you gave me a pokedex that carries a real pokemon inside it! Just to help me learn about the region! Almost everyone at school has a pokemon that they keep with them. And every lesson uses real pokemon, even if it's just to look at! And – and even with what we learned today, you don't get mad when I say stuff like 'type isn't everything'."

"Well, it isn't," he said blankly. "Anyone who's fought in a Pokemon League can tell you type advantage doesn't mean anything against a really great team."

"That is not logical," Rotom interrupted, lifting a wing in point. "Type advantage is one of the basics of pokemon battling. A good team is one that balances types to ensure that every possible weakness is covered by a strength! Therefore, type advantage means everything in a great team!"

Ash smiled wryly, and met Kukui's sideways glance with one of his own. "That's kinda more like what I always expected from a school. But here… learning from you and Principal Oak…" He trailed off for a second, then looked up again with a warm smile. "I didn't get that calculation stuff today. I might never get it. But you didn't make me feel like that makes me a bad trainer. Or just dumb in general. And Kiawe is so smart, and so strong, but he didn't get it either. And when he got mad, and said none of it matters, because he believes in the strength of fire and fire-types, with the soul of Akala… you actually said that was fair enough."

Because it was, in Kukui's opinion. He'd been in enough battles, seen enough strange things, experienced enough Z-moves, to know that there was more to battling than numbers. If you believed in yourself and your pokemon, you could move mountains.

But he'd also studied enough and travelled far enough to know that it wasn't how most of the world thought. Belief and trust were not measurable, which to a lot of people meant it was inconsequential.

"For the first time," Ash continued, one hand rising to rub the back of his neck, "for the first time, even though I don't always get what you're talking about, I don't feel like that means I'm doing it all wrong. And that makes me think I actually can learn, for once. And so, even though I know it's gonna be hard, and I'm probably not gonna pass the year… I feel like I actually am gonna learn stuff. I'm gonna learn stuff that's gonna make me a better trainer. So I'm gonna do my best. Even if it's not good enough, I'm gonna do it anyway, because it's worth doing. Right?"

Again, Kukui found himself thinking of his trips to other regions. He'd originally left Alola angry and defiant, with a goal to fight 'real battles' and prove himself better than the Trials he hadn't been able to finish. So when he got to Kanto, with its serious, hard-line trainers and strict rules on how battles should be fought… he'd felt like it was just what he'd wanted. It wasn't until he met the Elite Four, and Lance showed him just how pig-headed he was being, that he realised Kanto was actually a very harsh place.

In Kanto, people lived and worked with pokemon, but they weren't normally considered family. It was strange to even refer to pokemon as friends. They were partners, or more commonly just pokemon you trained. They had jobs to do, and trainers made them more effective through hard work and dedication. For pokemon trainers, Kanto was a serious, busy place, with clearly defined boundaries and limits.

He wondered how Ash had found that kind of environment. It didn't seem to make any sense – Ash was so excited and enthusiastic about everything. He saw all pokemon as potential friends, and they all seemed to love him just as much as he did them. He would regularly just stop and take a moment to appreciate the world around him. He took joy in every moment, even when it was hard, and was always looking for new ways to do things.

Which had eventually brought him here, to learn in a way he had never done before.

Kukui wasn't sure whether to be impressed or just exasperated. So he picked up his knife and went back to the vegetables.

"You know what?" he asked. "I think you're right. And if you think you can learn, I am more than willing to try and teach you."

"Neither of you are making any sense," Rotom noted, and they both looked at it again before exchanging glances.

In the end, Kukui just had to laugh.