Hapu went through a ritual with Tapu Fini the following day, confirming her in her title as Kahuna, then paused and frowned.

"I should ask," she said. "While Ash is available to translate. Where do I get the Z crystals to hand out?"

"That's my job," Tapu Fini replied. "Though I suspect that, if I was for some reason unavailable, you could probably go via Ash and Nebby to get some straight from the source."

Ash translated that, then elaborated by explaining that while both he and Nebby knew the Blinding One it was Nebby who actually had the ability to go and visit them.

"...right," Hapu decided. "I think I'm just going to accept that."

She frowned. "Are you here for an Island Trial, actually? It occurs to me that I think you've completed most of the other ones."

"Only if you've got the time!" Ash answered. "And, uh, actually that's a point, I should mention some advice from my friends who are Gym Leaders. See, I don't know how much a Gym Leader is exactly like being a Kahuna, and there's probably a lot of differences, but one thing that's the same is that you're a really strong trainer and yet a fairly large chunk of your battles are ones that you should lose – and that's okay. Because what matters is making sure you give your opponent a good test, not necessarily winning."

"In all honesty, I would strongly recommend that your first Island Trial is not against Ash," Tapu Fini said.

Ash translated that one as well.

"Well," Hapu said. "If you're willing to wait?"

"Sure," Ash confirmed. "Though I might go and find Kiawe and Sophocles and see if either of them are interested!"

As it happened, Ash's whirlwind tour around Poni by Dragonite (which didn't involve any actual Whirlwinds, at least not deliberately) to check on Kukui's students revealed that his guess about who might be interested was slightly off.

He was right that Kiawe liked the idea, though he wanted a day or so to get back in the swing of things after his race to Tapu Lele. And Sophocles thought it would be a good idea too, though mostly after he'd managed to get Charjabug to evolve as that way he would have a Pokémon that wasn't some combination of being slow and worryingly weak to Hapu's preferred type of Ground.

Togedemaru wasn't slow, once she'd built up momentum, but she was also very weak to Ground.

Lana, meanwhile, had learned a lot already from the Seafolk. Her Popplio wasn't a Popplio any more, in fact she was a Brionne, and she'd learned Surf and been given a Primarium Z so that one day she'd be able to use the special Z-move unique to Primarina.

...that being said, there were still some things that needed to be done before Lana could challenge the new Kahuna.

"I should probably be in Alola," Lokoko said.

She didn't make any attempt to move, and Absol nuzzled her.

"You deserve the break," the Dark-type replied. "And I'm proud of you for taking on a challenge like that."

Lokoko nodded slightly, and Absol thought for a long moment before raising a paw.

"Remember, things that challenge the heart are the hardest of all to deal with," she said. "They come from inside your defences. And that's okay, because it's okay to be vulnerable."

The Fire-type nodded slightly.

"You always know just what to say," she said. "Are you doing that because it'd be a disaster to get it wrong?"

"Perhaps," Absol replied, with a teasing smirk.

"If that had not happened…" Lokoko began, stopped, then continued the thought. "If my life then had been different, I hope it would still be the same now."

"Okay, I'm done!" Lana announced, later that day, and patted Dragonair. "Thanks for the flight… I know this is one of your days off."

Dragonair made a pleased noise.

"It's okay to ask for a lift, so long as you're willing to accept it if the answer is no," Ash provided. "So, you did the Totem Trial?"

Lana nodded a confirmation.

"The Kommo-o was really tough, but Sandy helped out a lot!" she replied. "And Brionne used Surf to help give him platforms to use to attack from, so it was a real teamwork trial – and I got one of these out of it."

She showed it off. "I think it's a special one?"

"Yeah, that's not a normal typed one," Ash agreed, giving it a quick look. "I think it must be a special one for Eevee, that tail looks about right… I don't know what the basic move for that is, but I'll ask Necrozma if they know next time I get a chance."

Lana smiled. "Thank you, Ash… okay, now I should do my Island Trial!"

For Lana's Island Trial, Hapu said it was to be two Pokémon a side – one at a time – and began with a big Mudsdale.

Lana opened with Brionne, then immediately frowned. "Wait, can I switch Pokémon?"

"That's actually a good question," Hapu admitted. "I think… wait, the Kahuna sets the rules for their challenge. So in this case, yes, you can switch Pokémon."

Lana recalled Brionne again, and sent out Sandy instead.

"Ooh!" Sandy gasped, looking up. "You're a big Pokémon!"

"Let's get this going, Sandy!" Lana said. "Begin with Tackle!"

She got her new Eevium Z and slotted it into her Z-ring, ready for use in case it was going to work out. "And watch out for his hooves!"

"So…" Tapu Fini began. "I didn't actually see that Eevee before, he's very nice and doesn't have anything in his past he wants to come to accept. Why did she switch him in?"

"Sandy only knows Normal moves," Pikachu replied. "And Lana does know one of Hapu's Pokémon is a Golurk, because Mallow told her, but if she'd started with Sandy then Sandy would have been almost guaranteed to be knocked out if Golurk came first unless switching was allowed. I'm not sure she thought through all the combinations but it's about keeping Sandy away from that Golurk, as he can't damage it."

Tapu Fini blinked a couple of times.

"And you're sure it's not just that she acted on impulse?" the Guardian checked. "The analysis is reasonable, but-"

"It was a lesson about foreshadowing!" Ash replied brightly. "She remembered it and now she's using it!"

Sandy threw his all into battling Mudsdale, and when he eventually went down after a High Horsepower attack Lana switched in her Brionne and kept going. That quickly reduced it to one-on-one, and Brionne eventually pulled out a surprise Aqua-Jet-turned-Hydro-Vortex which pre-empted a Z move Hapu was about to use and defeated Golurk.

That won her a Normalium Z, and Lana showed the still-woozy Sandy what they'd managed.

"Ooh," the Normal-type said. "You mean I could use that to do one of those really, really big attacks?"

"Sandy's asking if that means he could use it to do a Z-move," Ash passed on.

"That's the idea!" Lana confirmed.

Sandy carefully enunciated that that sounded interesting, wobbled slightly, and fell over.

Lana giggled. "Oh, no… Sandy, are you okay?"

"Bleh," Sandy said, sticking his tongue out.

"I'll… take him to the Pokémon Centre," Lana decided. "You, too, Brionne…"

"So, I have to ask," Hapu said, once Lana had left. "How many Pokémon should a Kahuna have? I don't want to constantly be making trips to the Pokémon Centre and back."

"I'd guess it's something to do with the appropriate challenge thing?" Ash suggested. "And not battling to exhaustion every time. But… well, you have some Oricorio around your farm, right? I bet Mew could teach them Heal Pulse so they can refresh your Pokémon."

"I actually have that move myself," Fini said.

"Or Tapu Fini could do it, but that depends how much she wants to hang around," Ash added. "Is it okay if I have an Island Trial now, or would you rather wait?"

"If Tapu Fini can heal my Pokémon up, I wouldn't mind one now," Hapu answered. "I think just Mudsdale, this time. Who are you going to use?"

She sent out the Ground-type, who looked distinctly woozy, then recovered considerably as Tapu Fini bathed him in the light of a Heal Pulse.

"Well…" Ash said, thinking. "It'd actually be great if I could use Pikachu!"

"Hmm," Mudsdale snorted. "Yeah, I'll give it a go. I'm sure it'll be hard for me to beat your Pikachu."

"Hey, I'm not an average Pikachu," Pikachu said.

"Oh, no, I was being serious." Mudsdale tossed his head. "I was snorting because it's sort of how my breathing works."

He snorted again, which was either because he was running a long con or because he was being accurate, and it was hard to tell which it was.

"Though…" Ash added. "It'd be kind of cool to have Pikachu try out a Z crystal, we never got around to it. We can probably do that later though, or back at Kukui's house or something."

"I'm sorry?" Hapu said. "Your Pikachu is distinctly famous. Have you two never tried doing a Z move together?"

"Not backwards," Ash shrugged, which didn't help, and took Pikachu's Thunderstone out of his pocket. "Here you go, Pikachu!"

Hapu watched in some shock as Pikachu didn't turn into a Raichu, then closed her eyes.

"Right," she said. "Okay, Mudsdale… when we begin, let's go for a High Horsepower! Begin!"

Mudsdale reared up, hooves ready to slam down, and Pikachu responded by using Surf to skid out of the way. Then he used Iron Tail, mostly to give his Thunderstone a whack, and it pinged off Mudsdale's muzzle before flying back to Pikachu as if it was magnetized.

Which it was.

Hapu let out a sigh. "I'm sort of glad this wasn't my first Island Trial, so thank you, but at the same time-"

"Sky Uppercut!" Ash called.

"Heavy Slam!" Hapu ordered immediately. "Get back down to ground level!"

The impact of Mudsdale landing again was immense, and the whole area shivered slightly.

The next morning, following the instructions on a letter she'd got, Hapu phoned a number she didn't recognize.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Oh, good, you're here," Nanu said. "You're the new Poni Kahuna, right?"

"Yes," Hapu confirmed. "You're… Ula'Ula I think?"

"Well, all four of us are on here," Hala said. "This was Nanu's idea. He thought it'd be good to welcome you to the position of Kahuna, and console you on having battled Ash Ketchum."

"Well, thank you," Hapu said. "Is this conference call a regular thing?"

"Not yet, but perhaps it should be," Olivia told her. "in fact, we should come to a decision on that before the end of the call… but, anyway, how did your battle against Ash go?"

"Just so we're clear about this, his Ninetales tricked me and my Pokémon into wasting a Z move," Hala contributed.

"Evolved his male Salandit into a Salazzle," Olivia said.

"I said no Legendaries, so he used a brand new kind of Lycanroc on me, but I think mine was relatively normal," Nanu admitted. "Which is saying something. What about you, Kahuna Hapu?"

"His Pikachu," Hapu replied.

All three other Kahunas gasped in sympathy.

"Though I should ask," Hapu added. "Do any of you know what he meant by his Pikachu trying Z moves in reverse? He said it before the match but I think he'd forgotten it by the end…"

"How would a reverse Z move even work?" Hala asked. "Doing the poses in reverse? Attacking yourself? What is there to reverse about a Z move?"

There was silence, except for a sort of groan from Ula'Ula.

"I think I know," Nanu said. "Normally, Ash does the Z move poses for Pikachu. So reverse that, and… Pikachu does the Z move poses for Ash."

There was a long silence as they contemplated that.

"What crystal did you give him?" Hala inquired, in the tones of someone who wanted to know but at the same time very much did not.

"Steel," Hapu answered.

"I suppose it could be worse, possibly," Nanu decided.

Olivia snorted. "Yes, she could have given him an Alolan Raichu one, and then where would we be…"

AN:

Sandy doesn't actually know the requisite move for his special Z move yet, but Lana wanted to be prepared.