"Well, here we are!" Ash said, looking around and adjusting his backpack. Zygarde crawled out, then reformed into Dog Mode, and Ash hoisted his backpack onto his back. "Melemele Island!"

He held up a Safari Ball. "Thanks for the help with the last leg of the journey, Dragonite!"

"My pleasure!" King Dragonite said, then gave Ash a big hug before returning himself.

Ibid sent the Safari Ball back to Kanto, and Ash got out Arc. "So, uh… we're in Hau'oli City, right?"

"Correct," Arc confirmed. "The Pokémon School is also in Hau'oli City. But Hau'oli is quite big. I recommend following this waypoint."

A map appeared on Arc's screen, with a route marked out that went along the roads and the beach.

Pikachu leaned forwards slightly, balancing with his tail to get a good look. "Are you sure that's a good way to get to the Pokémon School?"

"I am not, because it is not," Arc denied. "I am sure that it is a good way to meet someone who knows where to find the Pokémon School."

"Sounds good to me!" Ash decided. "Then let's go!"

Hau'oli City was built right along the coast, with sky scrapers and a beach road barely metres from the top of the fine, sandy beach that spread in an arc along the whole inside of the bay, and Ash looked in every direction at once to see what Alolan life was like.

There were several Pokémon he'd never seen so up close before, and it seemed like there were a lot more Pokémon fitted with riding harnesses than he'd seen in Unova or Kalos or anywhere else.

"I smell pancakes, I think," Pikachu said. "Or, whatever it was Mew called them when she taught me how to Fly."

An Alolan Raichu materialized next to them with a pop.

"Did someone mention me?" she asked. "I'm going to assume yes!"

"If you're Mew, then yeah," Ash told the Raichu. "Otherwise, kind of."

"Yep, that's me," Mew confirmed. "Thinking about it, Alolan Raichu is one of those ones where it's a little bit harder for me to break my cover by mistake… instead of on purpose, anyway. Or do I mean it's harder to break my cover on purpose?"

He did a kick-flip off his own tail. "Long tail, gets around by flying, psychic… anyway! Welcome to Alola! I'm not technically native but I lived here really early on. I could show you around! So, this is Hau'oli City!"

"Yeah, we know!" Ash said. "King Dragonite did a really good job landing us here!"

"I am Kalosian," Zygarde pointed out. "Would it help if I swapped out the active core of the Ash Node for a core from Alola?"

"Eh," Mew shrugged. "It's more fun to show people around!"

"A Hisuian, two Kantonians, a Kalosian, a Sinnohvian Probably… where's Ibid from?" Pikachu asked.

"I am a citizen of the world, probably," Ibid decided.

"Anyway, so, Hau'oli City on Melemele Island," Mew resumed. "Melemele is a neat place, there's some fun wilderness, the island guardian here is a real laugh…"

"Hey, Move Kahuna!" someone called, waving to Ash and then jogging along the beach. "Quick question, have you done the bit where you met me when I was five yet?"

"Don't think so!" Ash replied. "What's a Kahuna?"

"Yeah, that answers that question," the man replied, then thumped his thumb into his chest. "Professor Kukui! Alola to Alola, Ash, Oak tried to spring it on me as a surprise but he forgot that I check class schedules. So we'll be colleagues?"

"Seems like it!" Ash agreed. "And this is Pikachu, Arc, Ibid, Mew, Zygarde, Marshadow and Don't Know."

"Don't Know?" Kukui asked, looking at the backpack Ash was holding out. "Is that a joke name or do you not know? Wait, I did hear you have a Ditto with a funny name, is that Ibid or Don't Know that's the Ditto?"

"Ibid's the Ditto," Ash clarified. "I don't know what's in the egg Professor Oak asked me to deliver to Headmaster Oak, though, so I didn't want to be committal."

"I'll have to introduce you to my Pokémon, then," Kukui said. "They're back at home, though, I was walking along the beach to try and work out how to solve a problem I've got… it's a technical thing, don't worry about it."

"I might be interested, but I don't know yet," Ash shrugged. "Did I really meet you in the past?"

"Yeah, you were a real inspiration," Kukui said. "A Kahuna is an expert, master, wise man, shaman, someone who's good at something and demonstrates it by example. That's the Alolan way! You even knew a whole collection of Z-moves."

"Oh, yeah, Gary showed some of those off," Ash nodded. "I've only used one with Mew, I think, but I can't do that any more because I had to give the Z-Crystal to Sammy so he could become Professor Oak and give them to me. They're kind of like Bond Phenomenon, I think? You need to sync up with your Pokémon and that means doing poses to make the bond stronger."

Kukui nodded, seeming to get what Ash meant about the bootstrap paradox associated with the Z-crystal, then brightened. "Oh, yes, I think I heard about the Bond Phenomenon, there was a paper on it… was that what you did with your Greninja in the finals of the Lumiose League? I didn't see the actual battle, though, something else interrupted it."

Ash looked slightly embarrassed.

"Yeah, but… I just remembered I forgot to go back and finish that battle," he admitted. "Who won the League?"

"Alain," Kukui answered.

"Well, then I maybe didn't go back to finish the battle, so I won't bother asking Dawn for help," Ash said. "By now it'd be kind of rude to."

"This kind of thing is why I'm so glad we met," Mew said, lounging on their hovering tail. "Any ideas for the first lesson plan, Ash?"

"Yeah!" Ash replied. "Meet everyone first!"

"If you don't have somewhere worked out to stay, Ash, I can put you up," Kukui offered, as they turned towards the Pokémon School. "My house is on the outskirts of Hau'oli itself, and it'd be nice to get to meet your Pokémon."

"That would be great!" Ash agreed. "Lokoko's still on her honeymoon, so you won't be able to have a conversation with most of the team just yet without a translator, but I bet you'll get on with them! Even Aten, he's a bit touchy but you just need to know how sincere his threats are."

"Hah, I know the feeling," Kukui laughed. "Incineroar always wants to make sure I'm in good shape, whether or not he remembers that I'm a scientist…"

He held out a hand. "Watch out, there's some Tauros coming through."

Three Tauros went thundering past, all with riders, then Kukui judged that it was okay to keep going.

"We've got a lot of Ride Pokémon in Alola, you've probably already noticed," he said. "You get used to it."

"Yeah, riding Pokémon are a lot safer than cars, they can actually see you themselves to stop," Ash said. "Hey, who are those guys?"

Kukui looked ahead, shading his eyes, then grimaced. "Team Skull," he said.

"Hey, that Charizard of yours is pretty cool," Zipp said, looking between Kiawe and his Charizard.

"No, man, it's not cool, it's warm!" Tupp corrected. "Because it's a Fire-type, yeah?"

"That's so right!" Rapp said. "It's a Pokémon that's full of Fire!"

"Can you get off?" Kiawe asked.

"Hey, now, you want us to go away, yeah?" Tupp asked. "Then what about a battle for it?"

"Yeah!" Rapp agreed. "That's a great idea! A battle, and if you win, we stop bothering you!"

"But we've got to get something too if we win, right?" Zipp asked.

"Exactly!" Tupp agreed, sending out his trio of Salandit. "So, you win, and we go away, but we win, and we get your Charizard!"

"That's so fair!" Rapp announced, sending out her three Zubat with a flash of white light.

Zipp's three Yungoos came out as well, and Kiawe released his Turtonator in self-defence.

Then Zygarde came padding over.

"Excuse me," they said. "Is this an official battle?"

"What?" Zipp asked. "What's this Pokémon saying? Does it know we don't understand Pokémon, yo?"

"Zygarde was asking if this was an official battle," Ash supplied. "And I guess I've got a question too! How were you expecting it to work if you won?"

Tupp made a gesture with his hand that probably wasn't meant to be rude, just for general emphasis. "We win, and we get this Charizard, yeah?"

"That's what I mean!" Ash replied. "Because, first, it's really weird conditions for a battle, and second, that's up to Charizard! If they like their trainer they don't have to leave for a new one, and it'd be unfair to do a Pokémon trade like that but if you're talking about winning a Pokémon in a one-sided thing then… it just doesn't make sense!"

"What do we care?" Rapp asked. "You're just saying stupid nonsense!"

Kiawe had been looking at Ash, and he frowned. "Wait…"

"And no, this isn't an official battle," Zipp said. "We're Team Skull! We don't do things officially!"

"Excellent," Zygarde said. "Bonjour. Je m'appelle Zygarde."

They nodded their head, respectfully, then used Thousand Arrows.

This turned out to work quite well.

"I hate Z-moves!" Tupp declared, returning his Pokémon to run along with the rest of Team Skull.

"That wasn't-" Ash began, then stopped. "Hey, Zygarde, do the moves you use count as Z-moves because you begin with Z and you're the Z-Pokémon?"

"Good question," Zygarde stated. "I will get back to you on that."

"You're Ash Ketchum, right?" Kiawe asked.

"That's me!" Ash agreed. "I'm still getting stuff sorted out just now, but if you're a student in Kukui's class here I'll see you in class!"

"Seriously," Kiawe insisted. "Ash Ketchum told me he was in our class!"

"Ash Ketchum?" Mallow repeated. "Is this the same Ash Ketchum I'm thinking of?"

Kiawe threw his hands up. "I don't know what Ash Ketchum you're thinking of, but he had the Pikachu and stuff so he's got to be the famous one."

"What would he be doing in our class?" Mallow asked.

"Maybe he's going to be learning the basics of how Pokémon work with humans on Alola, and then he'll have even more ideas about how to do crazy things," Sophocles suggested.

"Or maybe he's just here for a break?" Lillie suggested. "It's got to be tiring doing so many Leagues in a row."

"Could be," Mallow admitted. "Or… maybe he's trying to be incognito, and just not very good at it?"

"I'm still not sure it's the same person," Lana said. "Or maybe he just got mixed up? There's not enough desks, right?"

"Oh, yeah," Kiawe admitted. "Still, he did say Kukui's class… and he got me out of a tight spot with Team Skull, too. Maybe the chairs thing is still being sorted out?"

The door opened, and Kukui came in.

So did Ash.

"Hi, everyone!" he said. "My name's Ash Ketchum, from Pallet town in Kanto! And this is Pikachu, he's my starter Pokémon, and this is Zygarde!"

Pikachu waved, and Zygarde cleared their throat.

"Zy," they said.

"For today's class we're just getting to know everyone," Ash resumed. "That means everyone gets to introduce themselves, and their Pokémon!"

"Pikapi, pi," Pikachu pointed out.

"Oh, yeah, and that includes translating things so everyone can ask the Pokémon questions too," Ash said. "It'll be a bit awkward without Lokoko but that's just a great way to break the Ice-type, right?"

"Wait, wait," Mallow said, waving her hand in the air. "Shouldn't Professor Kukui say what the class is? He's the teacher, right?"

"I'm teaching you too!" Ash explained. "Who wants to go first?"

AN:

Does Yveltal use Y-moves? Is there such a thing as an X-move, and if so, does Xerneas know them?

These are all questions.