Principal Oak stared at the broken fence for a few seconds, then up at Kukui as if waiting for some kind of explanation. For his part, Kukui could only shrug. It wasn't like he could have stopped the guardian deity from causing it.

Which Oak seemed to understand, because he only paused another few seconds before stepping forward to lean over and gaze down at the hard rock path below. "Now I look at it, it's quite the drop. Never quite occurred to me before."

Kukui shook his head. With the fence there, he'd never really worried about the cliff or its height. Now he couldn't stop thinking about how dangerous it was.

"I heard from the students that Ash dove over the edge."

"To catch Pikachu, yes," he said, shifting his weight. He still wasn't sure how he felt about the whole thing. It was probably the bravest and stupidest thing he'd ever seen. And while he doubted Pikachu would have survived the fall alone, he honestly couldn't guess at what Ash had been hoping to accomplish by jumping after. Yes, he might have saved Pikachu, but what kind of shape would he have been in after hitting ground?

And yet he hadn't even hesitated a split second – he'd almost been running before Pikachu hit the fence. Kukui's heart had leapt into his throat and he'd barely had time to realise before it was all over.

"He was saved by his opponent, I hear," Oak said slowly. "Tapu Koko, if the rumours are true."

"They're true," Kukui admitted. "It's the second time it's challenged Ash."

"The first being… his second day of school, correct?"

"That's right."

"Interesting," he said, and folded his arms over his chest with a wry grin. "Maybe we should start advertising! Come to the Pokemon School: get a Tapu Kokorriculum!"

Kukui closed his eyes and furrowed his brow, letting the pain of such a horrendous pun further calm his nerves. "Maybe."

They were silent for a few seconds, and Kukui slowly realised the principal was watching him from the corner of his eye. He raised an eyebrow in return, and Oak lifted the side of his mouth in a crooked smile.

"It must be quite a change for the boy, staying in one place rather than travelling. How is he fitting in?"

"Uh, great," he said, caught off-guard by the change in subject. "You'd almost think he'd always been in the class. And he loves Alola – fits right in to our way of doing things."

"Hm… what did Kahuna Hala think of him?"

Kukui faltered again, then settled into the question with a deeper frown. Hala had mostly seemed intrigued, wondering what Tapu Koko was thinking to have taken such an interest in Ash. At the time, Kukui had assumed that was why Hala had occasionally stopped and just looked at him for a few seconds at a time, his expression slightly clouded as if in judgement. But even so, it had seemed odd. And there had been that strange conversation they'd had, when they were all preparing for their impromptu celebration…

"So tell me, Young Ash: what made you want to stay here, in Alola?"

"Because it's so much fun here! There's so much to see, and heaps to learn! I want to be a Pokemon Master, and that means I need to battle and learn as much as I can about pokemon from all over the world! Alola's so different to anywhere else I've been, it's so amazing! I really love it."

"I see. That's the reason, is it?"

The way he'd looked at him… Kukui knew that really was why Ash had decided to stay in Alola – he told pretty much everyone the exact same thing when they asked. The answer never changed, never hinted at anything else. But Hala hadn't been convinced.

"He seemed to like him well enough," he said eventually. "And he met Ash in battle without holding back, so he was impressed with his skills. Why do you ask?"

"I was just curious to see how our exchange student was finding his way here," he said blithely, closing his eyes for a moment before reopening them with a broad grin. "You know, I've been thinking about our Open House day. What do you think about having Ash give a presentation for our guests? Really show how much we've taught him about Alola and our pokemon!"

Kukui raised his eyebrows, once again feeling like he'd lost the conversation somewhere. With the lack of puns and how serious Oak seemed, he'd been expecting it to go somewhere much heavier. "Uh… sure. That sounds like a great idea. And it would be good to give him an assignment the others don't need to do – he's one behind on them at the moment."

"Magikarple! I'm always seaking opportunities for our students to eggsecute their talents! Wynaut take the opportunity when it's delibird? It'd be tentacruel not to!"

Kukui twitched, and Oak just grinned all the wider. He should have known it was just building up.

Later, he tried to tell himself that Oak's strange mood and atrocious puns were cause enough for Kukui to all but forget the entire incident. He certainly didn't have any other explanation for why he calmly went home and didn't bother speaking to Ash about the fact he'd once again battled a god, let alone worried over his boarder's apparent willingness to get himself killed for little benefit.

The weird thing was that as the days passed, it really did just filter out of his attention. It wasn't until he was in the middle of class, literally three days and a completely separate adventure later, writing a type-advantage formula on the board and explaining how a psychic pokemon using a fairy-type move would fair against a steel-type pokemon, that it really registered with him that Ash had perfectly described Tapu Lele after coming home the day before. Which meant he probably really had seen it. Which meant he'd met two legendary pokemon in the space of forty-eight hours.

And last night, Kukui had just laughed, smiled, and told him he was lucky.

Lucky.

His boarder had a personal encounter with a living god – an actual fight with the guardian deity of battle. Then the next day—without even knowing such a thing existed—claimed to have been healed by the guardian deity of life. And Kukui had just laughed, and called him lucky.

The chalk squeaked in protest as he mentally processed that.

He tried to justify it to himself. After all, Ash hadn't been that invested or all that impressed by Tapu Lele. He'd been more curious about the wimpod.

He battled one god, was personally healed by another, and then got all excited about a common water louse.

Right.

Yes.

"Professor?" Lillie called, and he blinked hard, suddenly realising he'd been gaping at his chalkboard for several minutes. He coughed and tried to focus. Because, well, honestly… what else could he do?

In hindsight, it was only more distressing that he managed it.

Another thing that only occurred to him in random, forgettable moments was that for such a cheerful, hyperactive kid, Ash sometimes got into very odd moods.

Not depression, or anything like that. That might have made a kind of bipolar sense. It was more like he would just go quiet and serious, watching things with dark, thoughtful eyes… while insisting he wasn't thinking about much at all.

He looked at Rotom's pictures of Stoutland training Litten like that.

"Something wrong?" Kukui asked as Ash slowly pulled away from the bench. "Let me guess – you want to help Litten learn Fire Fang?"

Ash's eyes flicked to him a moment before he grinned. "Yeah, kind of! But Litten doesn't want my help, so I need to stay out of it!" His smile faded slightly as his eyes lowered back down. "Don't I…"

"Pika pika?" Pikachu asked, hopping a little closer to Ash. He glanced at it, then closed his eyes in a brief but reassuring grin before turning away. Kukui frowned.

"Ash?"

"Yeah?"

He hesitated, not completely sure how he should handle the situation. Because it wasn't that Ash seemed upset. Kukui didn't even suspect he was just doing a very good job of hiding it. He just seemed… "You're worried about Stoutland, aren't you?"

He didn't immediately answer, eyes flicking off to the side before coming back. "I wouldn't say I'm worried. It doesn't want help."

Hearing the repetition he could guess Ash hadn't meant to give, Kukui shifted his weight to one leg and folded his arms. "You keep saying that."

"Saying what?"

"Litten and Stoutland don't want your help. You keep saying that," he said. "It makes me wonder if maybe you're trying to convince yourself of something."

Again, Ash just stared at him for a second, before he suddenly laughed and turned around, hooking one foot behind the other ankle while his hand reached up to rub the back of his head. "I guess I am! I'm not very good at keeping my nose out of other people's business. I'm trying to get better at it."

Kukui glanced at Rotom, trying to silently tell it to follow Ash's example and stay out of this, before leaning back over the bench. "Self-improvement is always a good thing, but I don't know if this is actually something you need to work on, Ash. I haven't seen you do anything like that so far."

"It's more that…" He grimaced, shifting his stance again so he was steady on two feet. "A little while ago, when I was in Kalos, I started thinking like I had to do everything myself. Like it all depended on me."

He raised his eyebrows slightly. "What depended on you?"

"I dunno. It got the worst in battles, but I think I was doing it with everything," he said vaguely. "And that's not fair, I mean… people are strong. They're strong on their own, even when they need help. Sometimes they just need someone to believe in them. And… I guess I forgot that. I forgot to believe in my friends. My partners. Even when I need to."

From the corner of his eye, Kukui noticed Pikachu's ears drop down behind its head, and it hopped a step closer again. "Pikapi…"

"With the people here… Lillie, and Kiawe… Litten…" Ash looked off to the side again, not quite awkward. "I can see myself doing it again, a little. I… I need to not do that. Litten… and Stoutland… if they want to do this on their own… then I have to let them. I have to let them be strong."

For his part, Kukui could only gaze back at him in silence, quietly floored. It wasn't unlike what he'd said when talking about Lillie, and just like that time, there was logic to it. A kind of deep, heart-felt logic that spoke of something much bigger than Ash was actually saying. Something bigger than Kukui felt able to comprehend.

"So I will," Ash said firmly, giving one of his broad, defiant grins. "Simple as that."

"Fair enough," Kukui murmured. Even if he didn't understand… he didn't feel like there was anything else he could say.

As much as there was something in him that wanted to sweep that moment away as just an out of character moment, things with Litten didn't get better, and Ash's mood only got heavier. At least until Litten came to him for help, and for a moment, it seemed like he would bounce back to normal. His call from the Pokemon Centre, while serious, had him sounding much more like himself than he had the night before.

It didn't last. Kukui hadn't expected to see Ash again until Stoutland finally passed away, but when Kukui got up in the morning it was to find Ash in the kitchen, Pikachu on his shoulder, quietly making breakfast. They both looked exhausted, and quiet beeps and snores from the loft implied the others were still sleeping, hinting that he'd been home for a while.

"Ash? What are you doing here? " Kukui asked. "Is Stoutland…?"

"Mm-mm," he said. "It and Litten left the Pokemon Centre last night. They went home."

"But… from what you said…" he said slowly, but Ash didn't meet his gaze, picking up his bowl and heading over to the couch.

"Yeah."

"I…" He watched Ash walk over and sit down to begin eating, though he didn't look all that enthused about it. He was just going through the motions, Kukui realised. Trying not to interfere.

Like so many of these odd moments with Ash, he could see the theory, but that nagging feeling in his gut was back, reminding him that this wasn't something a normal kid should be doing. Kukui glanced at the kitchen, but decided caffeine could wait for the moment and instead headed over to sit on the other arm of the couch, elbows on his knees as he watched Ash avoid looking at anything.

"Have you ever lost anyone?" he asked gently.

Ash shrugged and shook his head, but it felt more like a non-answer than a denial. All the same, Kukui decided not to pry. "It's never easy, is it?"

"It… doesn't seem fair," he said, and lowered his spoon back into the bowl, eyes dark. "Everything that happens, all the close calls… but sometimes there's nothing you can do."

"Yeah," he breathed, certain now. Ash had seen death before. Enough to process it, in the same sad, twisted way everyone did when it hurt too much. Understanding wasn't always acceptance. And, he reminded himself quietly, grief could be acknowledged without being dealt with. "Let's go and find Litten after school today. Together."

Ash kept staring into his cereal for a long time, but eventually he swallowed and nodded. "Thanks, Professor."

True to his insistence on 'letting Litten be strong', Ash let himself be guided away from the grieving cat, and went back to the motions. He ate dinner, went to bed. The next day, he nibbled his way through some toast, sat in class, listened to the others talk at lunch… he went home via the market and bridge but came home soon after and even made at an attempt at doing homework.

If he kept breaking off to stare out at the rain, well…

Pikachu barely moved from his shoulder, staring at the nothing just like its trainer. Rowlet slept through most of it, but Rockruff watched them both with wide, worried eyes. Kukui picked it up on his way past, empathising more than he was willing to admit.

"Ash, dinner's ready," he called. When there was no immediate response, he raised his voice. "Ash. It's time for dinner. Come on, your pokemon need feeding and you should eat before it gets cold."

The reminder about his pokemon seemed to get through at least, and he pulled himself away from the window with visible effort.

"Yeah, thanks, Professor," he said. "I'll be right there."

While Ash poured out the pokechow, Kukui set out the human food and watched his boarder from over his glasses. He knew Ash was worried, but this was getting a little out of hand. "How was Litten when you saw it this afternoon?"

He shrugged. "I took it some berries, but it didn't eat. It wouldn't look at me."

Like Ash wouldn't look at him, Kukui thought but didn't say. Instead, he waited until Ash had sat down and picked up his plate. "It's mourning its family. It will get through this, Ash. Everyone does."

"Not everyone," he said softly, but didn't expand on that, poking at his food a few times before apparently forcing himself to eat.

Kukui turned his attention to his own food, debating the best way to deal with this. He was out of his depth and he knew it, but he also knew that no one was great when it came to this sort of thing. Everyone stumbled with grief, even when it wasn't their own. Not to mention that he wasn't entirely convinced that was the only thing going on here – Ash was struggling with more than just what Litten was going through.

So he focussed on that. It was hard, but he tried to remember what Ash had said before – about letting Litten be strong on its own. He seemed determined, but why…? Or perhaps, as Ash had once said, the why didn't matter. It was the how that was hurting. He had all but admitted he was still learning how to take a step back from things.

There were a lot of different ways to help someone be strong.

"Ash," he said as he put down his empty plate. "I know you're trying to respect Litten's wishes, and that you think it doesn't want your help right now. But I wonder if that's really the right thing."

He paused, turning his head slightly to show he was listening but not looking up.

"I understand what you're trying to do," he said gently. "Sometimes we make assumptions. Just like you told me once – we try and force others to think, feel, and do things in ways that we think are right, and that's… You were right; that's never a good thing. So I understand why you want to respect Litten's wishes to be left alone. I do. But Ash, the thing is… just because somebody doesn't think they need help, that doesn't always mean they don't. People are strong, yes, but even the strongest people need help sometimes."

Ash quietly set down his plate, his head bowed and eyes almost shut, but he didn't say anything. So Kukui dared to press a little harder.

"Those strong people… they get so used to dealing with things on their own that sometimes they don't even realise they need help. So they won't ever ask for it," he said softly. "That's when we need to help anyway."

"But I…" Ash actually curled in on himself a little, as if trying to hide from what he didn't want to hear. His hands were curled into fists on his knees, pulling on the fabric. "I don't know how…"

Again, Kukui could empathise. He didn't know for sure what he was doing either. But he knew it needed to be done. "I'm not sure anyone does. But we try, Ash. That's all we can do. If you want to help—if there's something you want to do for Litten—then do it. Staying away like this, just worrying from afar, that… it's not helping either of you."

Ash didn't immediately respond, just stayed still and silent for several long seconds that seemed to stretch into hours. But eventually, he swallowed hard, and when he spoke, his voice was only a little shaky. "I – I don't think it should be alone. I'd like to stay with it, a- at least until I know it's eaten something. I just… I just want to see it's okay."

Kukui nodded quietly, watching for something he wasn't sure of. "Okay. But not tonight. Not in the rain, not at night. Tonight, you sleep. Litten might need help, but I'm not letting you get sick over it, understand?"

He smiled briefly, glancing up for a split second before going back to his lap. "Yeah, okay."

Despite Ash's promise to be back in time for dinner, Kukui had been all but certain he would have to go and get the kid. So it was shocking when he got home from school to find Ash already there, crouched in front of the pokebed with three bowls of pokechow, a lecturing RotomDex, and fourhappily chattering pokemon.

"—should be fed a healthy diet rich in spices and hot berries," Rotom was in the middle of arguing. "This will better feed the inner flame, building it up to be hotter. However, as Litten eventually evolves into a fire/dark type, many trainers instead prefer to feed litten a heavier diet rich in red meat and other proteins."

"Uhh… I don't know about that stuff," Ash said blankly. "Isn't it just the kind of stuff they like that's better for them?"

"You like ice cream and french fries!" it pointed out, but Ash just stared back.

"So what?"

"Ash," Kukui interrupted, and they all turned around. The newest addition to the group glared at him, and Kukui stared back, trying not to make assumptions.

"Oh, hey Professor!" Ash said brightly. "Welcome home! How was school?"

"Fine," he said. "I didn't expect to see you so soon."

He grinned and gathered Litten into his arms before standing up. "We got back a little while ago. But look, Professor! Litten decided to join my team! We had a battle and everything! It's so strong!"

"Really," he said slowly, and then bent down to meet its gaze a little easier. "Welcome, Litten. I'm glad to see you're feeling better."

It blinked, then gave what was unmistakably a crooked feline smile and snuggled a little closer to Ash's chest. "Mrrow."

"We'll get through things together," Ash said, and then turned as if to show off the food. "Even the simple stuff, like figuring out what kind of pokechow Litten likes. Rotom says I shouldn't feed all my pokemon the same type, but they all seem to like it no matter what I give them, so I don't get the problem."

"It's not about liking things!" Rotom complained, and Kukui couldn't help but chuckle a little as he straightened up.

"No, but pokechow is pretty nutritionally balanced, so it really does come down to taste," he said. "Though I have to say, I was a little surprised when Rowlet liked the same food as Pikachu and Rockruff."

Ash grinned. "I'm not. Pokechow's super tasty no matter what kind you get, right guys?" Ash called over his shoulder, and the other three cheered. Kukui did a double-take, surprised to see Rowlet looking so alert when it wasn't a battle, but Ash's smile only softened a little when he noticed Kukui's look. "Everyone's really happy that Litten joined the team. So we're all pitching in to make sure it settles in okay."

"I see," he said, still staring for a moment before he was able to focus on Ash. He definitely seemed happier. But that was the thing about Ash, wasn't it? He always bounced back impossibly fast, especially when there were pokemon to see it. Kukui knew it should worry him, but with Ash's easy smile and obvious enthusiasm…

He felt relief beating down any concerns he might have still had, and wound up smiling with a shake of his head. "Well, I'm glad to see it. You let me know if there's anything I can do to help."

"Sure thing, Professor!"

They went back to the food, and Rotom went back to explaining the benefits of different diets, so Kukui shrugged, accepting that he would just be in the way if he stuck around. But he'd barely passed the kitchen when Ash called for him again.

He turned, and the kid finished hurrying over to stand in front of him, an unreadable smile on his face.

"About last night," he began, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Sorry about how I was acting. I let myself get carried away again, huh?"

Kukui blinked, and then frowned. "I wouldn't say that. It's not an easy problem to deal with."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't be better at it," he said. "So I wanted to say thanks. For puttin' up with me, and sayin' the stuff you did. It really helped."

"I'm beginning to feel like I've been hit by an Encore, but again," he said, brow furrowing slightly, "anytime, Ash. It's not even a hassle."

Ash closed his eyes in a self-deprecating laugh and shrug. "I better get back. I just wanted to say that – sorry, and thanks. I'll be better next time."

He opened his mouth to argue the point, but Ash was already trotting away, and so was the moment. He let his hand drop with a soft sigh and turned away.

It seemed he had other things to focus on anyway.