"Hey!" Dawn shouted as she and Ash entered the pokemon centre: Dawn entering first with Ash following slowly behind her with a now awake, and well rested Pikachu sat on the shoulder of his brand new jacket. The triplets, Max, Hau and Hala all looked towards the duo, smiles crossing their faces, "Finally!" Hau shouted loudly, making Ash and Pikachu flinch from the loud boys voice, "What took you so long?"
"We went shopping" Dawn simply stated, tilting her head back towards Ash as an indication, making the others look towards the newly clothed boy. Nicole allowed a dark red blush to cross her face as she stared at Ash's tightly showing abs, that wear showing through his black top.
"How is Hariyama?" Ash suddenly asked, slightly uncomfortable with all the attention being on him, so he chose to ask Hala the question in hopes to turn the attention away from him, "Hm? Oh, Hariyama is doing well" Hala said, slightly surprised that Ash had even asked about the pokemon, "Good to here...that reminds me. Hau, hows Vaporeon? Has his bruise healed yet?" Hau blinked, but smiled widely with a nod and a thumbs up, "He is doing great! Nurse Joy said he will fine to battle in no time!" Ash nodded slowly as he looked away from the boy, sticking a hand into the pocket of his shorts.
"So, how and when do we move on to the next island?" Ash changed the subject once more. Although he had been concerned for the two pokemon he had inevitably injured, Ash knew that showing to many emotions would leave him vulnerable to be hurt. So he only allowed his kindness and concern to shine through in short episodes, and to only selective people. Although he didn't really like Hau or Hala, as they were to loud and a little obnoxious for Ash. He was still kind enough to show slight concern over their pokemon, as most of his kindness was and always would be mostly directed towards trainers pokemon, rather than the trainer themselves.
"Why! That is where i come in my boy!" A familiar voice suddenly spoke up, making the group of trainers turn towards the entrance of the centre, where good old professor Kukui was stood with an ear-splitting grin on his face, "There are actually a few ways to get to the next island!" Kukui continued, making Ash raise his brow in slight curiosity - other than travelling on a boat, how else could one get to the other island?
"We should do the Mantine surf!" Max suddenly pitched in with a smile, "The what?" Dawn voiced her confusion, making the Hoenn native grin as he looked at her, "The Mantine Surf! It's sort of like a game - you basically ride on the back of a trained Mantine, do tricks and it takes you to the next island! Plus you can score points depending on what tricks you pull of, and you can win things called battle points! They let you buy cool items and TM's" Max explained, makign Ash raise a brow.
"How do you know so much?" Max blinked and blushed with a sheepish grin, "I did a lot of research on Alola before i travelled here, and the Mantine Surf was one of the first things that came up when i searched ways to travel to the different islands" Ash shrugged and looked around at everyone with a blank look, "I will make my own way to the next island - which way do i need to travel?" The professor blinked at the boys words as he and everyone left the pokemon centre, heading towards the beach.
"Just to the east of this island - how do you plan to get there? You don't have a boat, and form the sounds of it, your not going to do the Mantine Surf..." Kukui trailed off, making Ash roll his eyes, "I'll have my Floatzel carry me across. I prefer to travel alone anyway" Before anyone could say anything, Ash began to remove his shoes and socks, placing them into his bag as he reached to his belt, plucking one of the poke'balls from it and throwing it into the air, revealing his powerful looking water weasel pokemon.
"Let's go Floatzel - we are travelling to the east" Floatzel nodded, not paying attention to the other trainers as he aloud Ash to climb onto his back before setting out swimming.