"So," Professor Kukui said. "I hope everyone's Stockpiled for our field trip?"

"This is going to be a weird kind of field trip," Kiawe muttered. "I'm going back to where I live."

"Yeah, which means you can show everyone around," Ash pointed out. "Or, if you can't, instead you're finding out new things about Akala Island. Both of those are great results!"

"You've got a point," Kiawe agreed. "Yeah, I…"

He shook his head. "It's always so strange when you point out something like that and suddenly it seems obvious."

"Now, we're going to be staying over on Akala Island for at least a week," Professor Kukui reminded them. "Everyone's got what they'll need from home for the week?"

Lillie muttered under her breath, checking her pockets and then her bag, then sat back.

"I think I've got everything," she said.

"Anyone who thinks they're missing something?" Ash asked, waited a moment, then went on. "That's great! Of course we can come back to pick something up, but it's better to have everything the first time. Now… who wants to pick first?"

After a moment of confusion, Mallow raised her hand in a sort of vague way. "What do you mean, pick first?"

"How you're going to be getting to Akala," Ash explained. "You could take a normal Ride Pokémon, or have your Pokémon take you if they can do that, but a lot of my Pokémon have volunteered to be available to give you rides as well! So, well, I guess if you like the sound of riding one of the Dragonite you don't need to go first, because there's lots of them, but there's only one Suicune and only one Zacian and so on. And there's Zapdos, but I'm taking Zapdos because most people have more trouble with static electricity than I do."

Of the members of Kukui's class, it was naturally Lillie who had the most trouble with the journey.

Mostly that just meant she sat with Snowy in a seat and Zekrom carried the entire seat to Akala, declaring firmly that it would Not Be Ideal for anything to go wrong and therefore this situation was perfectly safe, which seemed to work well enough.

Kiawe elected to fly with his Charizard, as the Pokémon he was familiar with, while Mallow didn't have an option like that and decided that she quite liked the sound of meeting Noivern. Noivern quite liked the sound of meeting Mallow, which was in accordance with how he quite liked sounds in general, and Sophocles took the trip by Cresselia mostly because she seemed to hit it off with Togedemaru in a shared philosophy sort of way.

Lana just opted to be given a lift by Dragonite.

"In our old classes, we never got lifts like this!" she called across to Professor Kukui, who was sitting on Suicune's back. "It's still amazing to see a Water-type do something like that, too!"

"I know, it's great!" Kukui called back. "Between you and me, I'm quite glad that there's Zacian down there on catching duty, though… it's not you, Suicune, it's just there are some things about being on a Pokémon running through the air half a mile up that make part of my mind want to curl up and whimper."

He shaded his eyes. "There's Akala island, up ahead! Hey, Ash!"

Ash's Zapdos swooped left, then right, and fell in next to Suicune.

"We're going to meet Olivia at the Heahea City Pokémon Centre!" the Pokémon Professor said. "Do you need Suicune and I up front to help you find where to go?"

"I will ensure that where Ash lands is the right place," Arc told them. "Correction. I will ensure Ash lands in the right place."

"Sounds good to me!" Kukui said, with a thumbs-up. "Let's go!"

The procession of Pokémon, students and teachers all landed at Heahea City without much trouble, and the Island Kahuna came out to meet them.

"I've met Kahuna Hala before, but only once," Lana said. "It's nice to meet you, Kahuna Olivia."

"Alola!" Olivia said, giving them all a wave. "Wow, that's quite a collection of Pokémon you've arrived with there…"

She gasped slightly. "Oh, you poor girl."

"Is something wrong?" Kukui asked.

"Not at the moment, but there was," Olivia explained, stepping forwards towards Suicune and promptly tripping over her own feet.

Dragonite caught her with a forearm.

"Thank you," Olivia said, looking briefly embarrassed.

"If you mean what I assume you mean, then don't worry about it," Suicune advised. "You're right, it's something that has been part of my life for a long time, but because it has… well, as I say, it's not something to worry about."

"Well, if you say so," Olivia decided.

"Can you do the same thing as Ash can where he can understand Pokémon?" Sophocles said, seriously impressed. "We can't do that without one of Ash's Pokémon to translate for us."

"Do I count as one of Ash's Pokémon?" Rotom checked. "I do not think I do."

"You could be translating all this time?" Sophocles asked.

"I do not feel like it!" Rotom replied. "Besides, I would have no time for anything else!"

Olivia chuckled. "Well, it's not quite understanding what Pokémon say… instead, I look at them, and see how they are on a level that goes beyond just seeing them. It's also seeing what there is about them, and a bit about how they got that way."

"Oh, right, Aura!" Ash said. "That bit about knowing a Pokémon's history is a neat trick, I didn't know you could do that with it. But I guess it makes sense since Aura is about someone's personal energy."

"If you can see things about Pokémon, what can you see about Snowy?" Lillie asked.

"She's young, but she's definitely a companion of yours," Olivia judged. "That much is clear to see. It's very impressive, so well done to both of you."

"Now I want to know what there is about Ash's other Pokémon!" Mallow announced. "Mostly so someone else can get an idea."

"Um, wow," Olivia said, catching sight of Pikachu. "That's… a very strong bond. It's like that time I saw a Mega Evolved Pokémon, but not quite the same."

"That's because it's Pikachu who can Mega Evolve and Bond Phenomenon me, I guess!" Ash decided, rummaging in his pocket. "Hey, Arc, can you-"

Olivia shaded her eyes.

"Is something wrong?" Kukui asked.

"Am I the only person who can see the ineffable golden light coming from that phone?" Olivia asked.

"I would be hard to use if my ineffable golden light was continually shining forth," Arc stated. "I will attempt to tone it down. Would anyone who wishes to go home return to their Pokéballs?"

Zapdos, Zacian and Suicune all duly did so, as did Noivern, and Ibid vanished with them. A moment later the Ditto appeared again with the Pokéballs for most of Ash's Alola team, plus an antique Apricorn ball.

"I heard something about someone who could see the true nature of whoever she was looking at!" Aten declared, springing out of his Pokéball. "I demand recognition of my true status!"

Olivia duly looked at Aten.

"What's that smirk for?" Aten demanded. "What is that smirk for? That is not a smirk I enjoy."

"Maybe she can see what you actually think about your teammates?" Ash suggested.

"Silence!" Aten insisted. "I do not have to tolerate this!"

Then an Alolan Raichu zipped up.

This time Olivia fell over where she was standing.

"Are you okay?" Ash asked, worried.

"There's just… so much," Olivia said, a little faintly. "I wasn't ready for that."

"Ooh, that's cool!" announced the Raichu, scratching her head. "Hey, wait, if you can see a Pokémon' s history and stuff then where did I leave that cool shiny rock I found a while ago? I forgot where it was!"

Kahuna Olivia's first actual planned event came after she'd informed presumably-Mew that, no, she didn't actually get a sense of where the now-lost shiny rock might have been left, and after showing them around the city for a bit she took all seven humans – and their Pokémon – out of town to a barn full of Stoutland.

"The Stoutland around Heahea, and on Akala island in general, are experts at hunting down hidden treasures," she explained. "So we're doing a treasure hunt. And, yes, Raichu, that might mean they find whatever it is you're after. If it's here."

"Great!" Raichu said, doing a kickflip possibly just because he could. "Then let's go!"

"It's best to pick a Stoutland you get on well with," Professor Kukui said. "And you can search wherever you want, but you'll have to come back at the sound of the bell in a couple of hours. Understand?"

There were some nods, and Lana had already begun checking on the Stoutland one by one to see which one had the most fitting personality for her.

There was a flash as Snowy came out.

"Are you going to be okay?" she asked her trainer.

"Oh!" Ash realized. "I should get Lokoko… that reminds me, actually, Kahuna Olivia – that thing you do where you look at a Pokémon and you know about them? My Ninetales, Lokoko, has a wife who can do something like that."

"She can?" Olivia asked.

"Well, I think so," Ash said, with a shrug. "It's similar, at least. Apparently I'm AAAAAA."

Ibid returned with Lokoko's Pokéball, and Snowy repeated her question.

"I… well," Lillie began. "I don't know, Snowy, but I want to be. And I know that maybe this isn't the best way to do it, but… I want to try. And maybe it won't work."

She drew in a breath, and let it out. "But I don't want to have not tried."

"Just so long as you know that nobody else is going to think anything bad about you if you can't," Ash said. "Except Aten, but he thinks bad things about everyone anyway."

"Not. A word. From you," Aten snarled, whirling to look at Olivia. "She's doing the smug smile again!"

"Well," Olivia said, that evening. "Let's see… Sophocles?"

Sophocles showed what his Stoutland had found, and Olivia smiled. "Ah, a Star Piece! This is a bit of a fallen meteorite, so that's very impressive."

"Huh, maybe I should have brought back the rock Rayquaza ate," Ash said, scratching his head, then shrugged. "Well, she was hungry."

"Kiawe has… two fossils!" Olivia went on. "A Skull Fossil and a Plume Fossil, both very well preserved. We might even be able to get these revived."

"They're both Rock-type, neither are Fire-type, so it's up to you, Kahuna," Kiawe said.

"And Mallow has a collection of ingredients," Olivia said. "Some of these mushrooms are quite rare… and I don't think I've ever seen a berry quite like that before."

"I have!" Raichu said. "It's an Enigma Berry!"

"Oh, that's an Enigma Berry!" Ash said. "I recognize the name because I've been working with Salandit and that's the one that makes the strongest Bug type Natural Gift attacks."

Salandit came out to inspect the berry, which made Olivia do a double-take. "That's… a very big Salandit."

"Yeah, he was training to be a Totem Pokémon but it didn't work out," Ash explained.

"That is a really unusual scent," Salandit said, waving his tail. "Sort of… fresh and earthy? Maybe a bit of sulphur?"

He gave a whole-body shrug. "I'll figure it out."

"Thanks, Mallow!" Ash said. "Sorry about interrupting!"

"Right," Olivia said. "Let's see… Lillie?"

"I found that I can touch Stoutland, eventually," Lillie said. "And I found a Pokéball belonging to Snowy, but only because I dropped it."

"That's great," Ash told her. "Really, problems like that are really hard to get over, so making progress like that is excellent."

"And I found this," Lana revealed.

"Ooh!" Raichu said, zipping over to have a closer look. "Hmm… it's not quite like I was thinking of, but that's really close! I wonder if there's more of them!"

"There certainly are," Olivia told him. "It's a Sparkling Stone – those are what we use to make Z-rings. Lana, if you want, I'll see about getting this turned into a Z-ring."

"That would be great!" Lana replied. "Thank you, Kahuna!"

"It's the least I could do," Olivia said. "Ash, I know you went off with a Stoutland and your Phanpy, did you find anything? Apart from the meteorite you mentioned before."

"Phanpy did find this," Ash replied, bringing out a crystal. "I think it's another Z crystal, do you know which one it is?"

Olivia looked at it, then looked closer. "I… don't, no. It's not quite any colour I'm familiar with, it's got a shape like Lycanium Z or Kommonium Z but with a different symbol… no, no idea."

"I think you'd best keep that one, Ash, you'll probably meet the Pokémon it's for at some point," Kukui advised.

"Yeah, probably," Raichmew agreed. "That's Ash for you!"

AN:

Poor kitsune who are on the receiving end of smug looks. It's not a good environment for them.

Especially if they know why they're getting the look.