Jacky woke up as Cinnamon knocked over a figurine of a Mega Gallade from a tv show he watches. "What the...Cinnamon, come on!" He swept the sheets off with a groan as he rose up from his bed, strolling over to the figure and placing it back on his desk.

"Mrroww!" Cinnamon pawed his hand and meowed multiple times needily. Probably hungry or something. Jacky looked at his clock, reading 1:52 in the afternoon. A bit too early for his wake-up time. "Mrrooooow!" Cinnamon hopped to his hind legs and pressed his front paws against Jacky's arm, as if trying to get him to hurry up.

"Alright, alright…" he sighed, leaving his bedroom to look through the pantry for something. After a bit of shuffling, he found a plastic box filled with a variety of colored beans. "Alright, Cinnamon, how do you feel about Pokebeans?" He pulled out a red one and held it out to him, the little cat sniffing it briefly, but gobbling it up quickly afterwards. He seemed rather satisfied by it, so Jacky fed him one more bean before capping the box and putting it back.

Just as he had closed the pantry, his mom emerged from her room. "I thought I heard noises," she sighed, opening her door a bit more to let her Meowth out of the room. Cinnamon was immediately on guard and growled at the other cat, urging Jacky to pick him up and pacify him with some chin scratches. Much to his surprise, Cinnamon didn't get along with his mother's Meowth, Purr-chase. While Purr was perfectly fine with a new cat in the house, Cinnamon was apprehensive of him.

"Come on, Cinnamon, be nice." He went to his room and grabbed his Litten's pokeball and returned him for now. Just as he'd finished up, he heard their doorbell ring and stepped out of his room to see who it could be, only to find Kukui already in the kitchen conversing with his mom. "Why do you even bother using the doorbell, professor…"

Kukui turned to face Jacky offering a boisterous laugh in turn. "Don't be like that, cousin! I'm just excited for the festival! I came by to bring you along for the ride! Lillie and Hau and Hala will be there, and there'll be food too! Besides, I forgot to give you something last night…" He reached into his bag and pulled out a red handheld device with a small screen and a few buttons. "There you go, a pokedex of your very own! You know what that does, right?"

"Yeah, it shows you info on any Pokemon in the region. This one looks a bit...different from the ones back home, though." He examined the odd shape of the device and couldn't help but imagine why it would ever be shaped so oddly.

"You'll get used to it. And one more thing…" He pulled from his bag ten pokeballs and (I think it was) thirty potions. "You'll be needing these, yeah!"

Jacky was surprised he'd given him so many potions, running the numbers through his head about how much it must've cost. However, something else came to mind at the same time, which took personal priority. "Actually, Kukui, you can go on without me. I've gotta shower and eat breakfast. You know all the et ceteras and stuff." Plus, now that he had some empty balls, he can try grabbing a new Pokemon. Jacky's one hope is that Cinammon doesn't try to maul them after they've been caught.

Kukui gave some pause before nodding in agreement. "Alright, well while you're out there, try to show me some Extreme Speed and get to the festival soon. The main event is a series of battles to appease Tapu Koko!"

"Should've figured," Jacky sighed. "I'll try to be quick about it, I promise. Anyways, I'd better get started." He turned away from Kukui and his mother and headed for the bathroom to take his shower. What a start, getting woken up early and now a festival? Sucks to be a night owl sometimes.

Jacky had finally finished all his business and threw on his utility jacket and backpack. Stepping out of his room, he saw his mom enter the house from the front door with a few pokeballs on hand herself. "What are those for?" He recognized a couple of them, the luxury ball and the ultra ball in particular.

"Don't think I didn't hear Kukui mention the main event, hon! I'm getting in on this action!" she declared excitedly. "It's been so long since our last fight, it's sure to be a blast!" She pumped a fist through the air as her balls opened up for an Espeon, a Dratini, a Swoobat, an Excadrill, a Pansage, and her trademark Serperior.

As his mother's team moved about the house curiously, he made an inquiry. "Aren't you going to bring Thanatos along, mom?"

Mary simply waved her hand dismissively and sighed with a clear disappointment. "He wasn't up for it, I'm afraid. I guess he's not the festive type or something…"

"Alright then, well, I'll see you there!" He moved towards the door and headed out towards Route 1 to get some practice in and catch a new Pokemon. After he got a good distance away from the house, Jacky tossed up Cinnamon's pokeball and let the little fluffball out.

Cinnamon darted his eyes around, looking for Purr-chase, taking a moment to notice their new surroundings. "Mrrewww…" It followed Jacky as they headed down Route 1 towards Iki Town, keeping his ears up for any suspicious noise. As they journeyed along, a small shape glided in from the side and dove down, a small black and red bird pecking Cinnamon on the head before flying around and coming back. "Rrrrooww!"

"Birds again!?" Jacky exclaimed. "Cinnamon, you know what to do!" As the bird flew in for another hit, Cinnamon spit a small fireball at it and knocked it off course. The small pokemon wound up flying right towards Jacky, who quickly grabbed a pokeball and held it out just in time for the bird's body to collide with the button, drawing it into the ball. After a few shakes, the ball stopped moving, and a tiny star popped out, signalling its capture.

A moment to process everything that just happened, to come down from the adrenaline brought on by the heat of the moment, in spite of how brief it was. As everything registered, Jacky grinned and clenched his fingers around the pokeball and pumped it into the air. "Yes! We got one!"

"Mrewww!" Cinnamon trotted around proudly as Jacky celebrated, before hopping off into the tall grass to battle a Ledyba. While Cinammon was busy singing a bug pokemon's poor feet, Jacky popped the bird out of its ball and pulled up his pokedex, getting a good look at it before browsing through the index. Until finally he found its entry, Pikipek.

"You're a pretty fast featherhead, huh? You practically shot at Cinnamon like a bullet, didn't you?" He chuckled a bit as a name quickly came to mind off the top of his head. "How's about I call you Deagle?" The bird seemed to mull it over for a minute before chirping happily, flying up and going as fast as it could, almost like it was bragging."

"Alright, let's get moving!" He and his two pokemon headed along and repelled a number of assailants and trainers on their way up. Deagle and Cinnamon were pretty versatile for such small creatures, it made him all the happier that he didn't turn away having pokemon.

Eventually, they made it to the festival, with time to spare. There were people aplenty with food and drink and even more pokemon as well. He couldn't spot Hau or Lillie just yet, but he was certain he'd find them at some point, or vice versa. Till then, there was food to eat and he wasn't gonna turn that down. Some roast beef here, some tomatoes there, maybe even a few helpings of candied sausage. Finally, he skirted down the line and looked upon the beverages, of which he narrowed it down. Soda, OJ, some weird purple stuff, and two kinds of Sunny V...He grabbed a cup of OJ ultimately.

After selecting his spread, he walked over to one of a number of tables set up around the open arena at the base of the hill that led up to the temple and took his seat, looking over the people and pokemon present in the area. As he made a passive search for Lillie and Hau, his hands moved on autopilot and impaled pieces of beef on his fork, shoveling it into his mouth while Cinnamon and Deagle were busy scoping out the competition. "Mm...could use a bit of pepper."

"Alola!" Out of the crowd, a familiar face came barreling over to his table, while that young blonde girl followed as well as she could. Hau and Lillie reached Jacky without issue, if you couldn't count trying to match pace with Hau as an issue. "Yo, Jacky, good to see you again!"

"H-Hau, did you have to run so fast…?" Aside from that very understandable questioning, Lillie devoted no time to words and simply focused on catching her breath.

"Oh, sorry about that, Lillie!" He laughed for a brief time but sounded apologetic enough about it before turning his attention back onto Jacky. "So, you stoked for the main event, because I know I am!"

"Yeah, I'm sure creaming you in a battle again will be fun too," he said with a small smirk, of which Hau gave a wider grin and punched his shoulder.

"Well I'll just have to give it my all, won't I? Don't go getting comfortable with that win yesterday, because I'm gonna pay you back for it!"

"We'll see about that!"

Lillie looked between the two and seemed a bit concerned, but offered a smile to them and then encouragement. "I'd like to remind you that I'm not too fond of seeing pokemon hurt each other, but I'll watch your fight, so do your best."

"Pew!" Lillie looked down at her bag just in time to see Nebby try to make an escape again. Quickly, she urged him to stay inside and keep out of sight, especially after the events of yesterday.

"No, Nebby, you need to stay in the bag. Who knows what could happen with a crowd like this, and all these pokemon too!"

Jacky watched her as he picked up a sun-dried tomato and took a bite with no warning. Looking at her again after what happened last night, he seemed to confirm to himself of her beauty, though it seemed oddly diminished in the sun, as if the bright light of the greatest star seemed to show something he couldn't quite place that seemed to lessen the aesthetic appeal he'd witnessed when they first met.

Finally managing to subdue Nebby's excitable curiosity, Lillie looked up from her bag and noticed him looking at her almost absent-mindedly. "Um...Jacky is there something wrong?"

"O-Oh, nothing, sorry. I was just thinking something over, don't mind me…" He immediately shot his eyes towards his plate of food as he chastised himself within the confines of his mind over having been caught staring at her again. What's worse is that Hau was right there and could potentially tease him about this.

"Hey, hey, you got yourself a new pokemon!" Hau couldn't care less about that, it seemed, or perhaps he simply doesn't take notice of such things. Either way, it did seem like he was all the more excited for the main event than before. Actually, his expression seemed to turn somewhat sinister as he looked at Deagle, as if he was aware of something.

"...Yes, I got a new pokemon, Hau. This is my new addition, Deagle, named after the gun, y'know," he responded, wary of Hau's demeanor. "She's female though, so don't go making that mistake, okay! Something tells me that Deagle won't like it if you get that wrong just because of the name."

Hau's expression went back to its usual bright and sunny impression as he nodded in agreement to Jacky's statement. "I promise I won't go forgetting that!"

After that exchange, Lillie and Hau went off to get some food for themselves and came back to Jacky's table to converse with him. At some point, his mom stopped by to eat and join the convo, but ultimately left them to be amongst themselves for the time being.

As the sun began to near the horizon, Hala came out and called the crowd to attention, announcing the beginning of the main event, a series of pokemon battles between anyone who wished to take part. "The time has come to battle for the appeasement of our great guardian, Tapu Koko! Now, who wishes to step forth first?"

Hau took immediate action and hopped atop his seat, shooting his open hand towards the sky as he shouted at the top of his lungs. "We'll go on first, Tutu, me and Jacky!"

Though somewhat embarrassed by his new friend's lack of tact, he had to admit that Hau's energy was something to envy. He couldn't get nearly as excited for much of anything as Hau did for these kinds of things. Apparently the kid's grandfather had similar ideas as he laughed upon his grandson's unabashed declaration. "Of course, Hau, of course. Hurry to the arena, and you as well Jacky, if you accept his challenge."

Jacky rose from his seat and looked to Hala and Hau as the latter chased off towards his end of the arena for the battle. "Yes sir, I accept his challenge!" He looked back to Lillie and offered her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, we won't go at it too hard!"

She smiled back and nodded and offered him a gesture to go on, watching as he joined Hau in the ring. "Good luck, you two!"

Hau looked Jacky dead in the eyes with a determined fire in his brown irises as he held up a pokeball, tossing it up and sending out a small, yellow pokemon. A very unmistakable pokemon, Pichu, to be very, very worryingly precise.

Deagle tried to hop forward to challenge Hau's Pichu, a spunky brashness being sported at the forefront of its disposition before Jacky held his foot out in front of the small bird, followed by a tense gaze and a shake of the head. "Cinnamon, you're up for this and the next fight."

"Mrrowww!" Cinnamon leaped into the ring's center, lowering its body close to the floor in a ready position.

"Aw, I was hoping to see what Deagle's made of! Oh well, let's go for some Charm, Misa!" As he commanded his Pichu to act, the tiny yellow rat pressed its cheeks together and seemed to hum cutely, putting Cinnamon a bit off.

"Cinnamon," Jacky started, grabbing the cat's attention. "Fry 'em!" Cinnamon confirmed his command and blasted Misa back with two swift fireballs, getting a bit more Charm in turn, but ultimately managing to best the small baby pokemon. "Sorry, Hau, but I'm not an idiot. Even against a baby pokemon, a flying type against an electric type is not a wise match-up!"

"Fair enough, buddy! Looks like you might just take the win again, but that doesn't mean we can't have a bit more fun! Come on out, Robin!" With another toss, Hau's Rowlet emerged from his pokeball and took Misa's place in the ring.

"Cinnamon, let's confirm this brutality and flame cook 'em!" With a bold meow, Cinnamon launched himself towards Robin, smoke brimming from his mouth as a flame welled up inside.

"Robin, use Leafage and make it quick!" The Rowlet hopped up and took flight, its wings sweeping up several leaves faintly shimmering with a green glow, sending them out in a flurry just as Cinnamon unleashed his flames upon the bird. The two attacks knocked each opposing challenger back a bit, but Cinnamon made a speedy recovery and unleashed one final blast of searing heat upon Robin, knocking him out of the air and consciousness.

"Cinnamon and Jacky have won the match!" The crowd gave a brief cheer before a thunderous cry silenced them and took everyone's attention by figurative storm. "Tapu Koko seems to be pleased with the start of our celebrations! You both were in passionate fighting spirit and displayed good thinking and determined heart!"

Jacky and Hau smiled at each other as they gathered their pokemon to leave the ring to let others step up. Mary was the next to volunteer and challenged anyone and everyone to try and best her if they can, to which a number of older trainers took that challenge, feeling ever so competitive.

Unfortunately, Mary is a very, very experienced trainer and wiped the floor with many people and only her Dratini and Espeon lost in all that time. After a while, people stopped accepting her challenge and waited for her to step down before people started engaging in battles again, something that Jacky took humor in, especially when his dear mother displayed her brimming confidence and unbridled joy in the midst of battle, even up to the point where she was clearly ruining it for everyone else.

"Wow, man, your mom's incredible!" Hau could hardly believe she was so good, but it didn't take long for Jacky to inform him that most of the people present likely didn't have a full team or even had much experience, so while it was fun to watch, and even funny, it wasn't particularly surprising when thought was put into it.

The festivities eventually came to a close as the moon came up and the sun disappeared over the horizon. Jacky basked in the moonlight with a relaxed and welcome feeling, happy to greet the night again. Before he could get too comfortable, however, Hala approached him and congratulated him once more in his battle, giving Hau a bit of praise as well. "I'd like to give you this, Jacky. Remember the Sparkling Stone you had lent me? That stone is particularly special, in that it is typically fashioned into that of an accessory that, when paired with a special crystal, can provide a powerful asset to battle. And so, having been given such a gift by the guardian himself and proving to have heart and a passion for battle, I offer you this Z-Ring and implore you to pursue the Island Challenges."

Jacky received a white bracelet with a small indentation on top, slipping it on and looking it over before gazing up at Hala. "The Island Challenges?"

"Yes, a series of trials you must overcome, migrating from island to island in order to fully complete, facing many a captain and four Kahunas in order to become stronger and grow into a truly great trainer! I'm sure it must be different from what you're used to, but it will surely be worth the journey."

"W-Well, I don't know...Mind if I sleep on this?" He probably wasn't going to decline, especially after he was given the Z-Ring by Hala and indirectly by Tapu Koko himself, but he still felt as though now wasn't the time to just up and accept something like that.

Hala nodded and offered the boy a hand upon his shoulder, in an effort to offer comfort and assurance. "Of course, you are free to think upon this as long as it may take."

"Good, because I need to get home now. Hau, Lillie, it was good to hang out with you two again!" He pat Hau on the shoulder and teased him a bit about working harder for next time before receiving some words of thanks from Lillie for the time she had spent.

With farewells out of the way, Jacky and his mother took off towards home, conversing along the way about the fun they had with friends and fights.

So many more in store for Jacky in the near future and beyond, if only he knew.