"So, how does dibs work for the upcoming League?" Torracat asked, bouncing on her paws. "Do we have to call dibs and then that's what decides if we go? Or what?"

"I usually try and make sure that Pokémon I got in that region all get a good chance," Ash informed her. "When that's possible, anyway. There's fewer slots than usual for this one, but… well, I guess it depends on who's interested in what part of the League, a bit. Like the Battle Royal."

"Oh, I'm interested in that bit," Torracat said. "I guess other Pokémon might be too though."

"There's… Dartrix, Lycanroc, you, Salazzle, Nebby, Naganadel and Meltan," Ash counted off. "Meltan it's probably best to have in one of the later battles just so they're not carrying the whole thing on their own… but yeah, I should be able to avoid reusing anyone in the tournament."

"What about Necrozma?" Nebby asked, rolling over on his back before springing back upright again. "They're mostly busy with being a source of light, but they did mention that if they were going to be anyone's Pokémon it would be yours. Did that come up in your conversations with them?"

"No, but I'd be glad to have them!" Ash said. "I guess maybe they'd make more sense in an exhibition match though. Or a Contest."

"Would Necrozma fit in a Contest hall?" Pikachu asked.

"Based on Contest halls I have seen, the answer is maybe," Zygarde contributed.

"Seems about right," Pikachu concurred. "I don't know if there's any rules about which Pokémon you can or can't use in Contests, though… does it seem like there should be those rules? Or not?"

"If they haven't yet banned our teammates from Pokémon Leagues, I don't think there's much likelihood of anything being banned from any tournament," Salazzle said, shrugging. "Of course, I could be wrong."

"Maybe they just think that if they banned Ash's Legendary Pokémon, he'd have no choice but to use the rest of us," Lycanroc suggested. "It's not like the Legendaries are especially more likely to be the nonsense ones, is it?"

"Hmm," Salazzle frowned. "Yeah, good point there. And even if they banned all of the boss's Pokémon, he'd just be able to enter as himself or something."

"Maybe I should enter a League at some point," Pikachu said, then shrugged. "Nah, wouldn't be fair on everyone else Ash had picked up in the last while."

"Or your opponents," Zygarde said.

"Or that," Pikachu agreed.

Arc went bing, and Ash read the message. "...huh."

He sent out Meltan. "Hey, Meltan, do you have any idea why there's lots more of the Meltan back at the Ultra Guardians base, but there's just one of you?"

Meltan shrugged.

"Well, I should probably get you some lunch," Ash decided. "Let's see… where did the screws go…"

"I'll get them," Naganadel volunteered, then did a twirl and made an Ultra Wormhole.

"Thanks!" Ash called.

"I would say we're being too casual about making holes in space and time to travel around, but honestly it's less extreme than Arc doing it," Pikachu yawned.

"That's the whole truth, all right," Dartrix chirped.

Then a Celebi appeared, stopped, and looked at Ash.

"Hmm," he said. "You're late."

"I am?" Ash asked. "To what?"

"The past, obviously," Celebi answered. "I'd like to see you be late to the future."

"You joke, but this is Ash, he could probably do that," Pikachu noted.

"Oh, hang on, I think I know what this must be," Ash said, checking his things. "Okay, uh… yep… right, I should be ready! Who should be with me?"

"I don't know, it's your appointment," Celebi said, then dropped Ash into the past.

"Hi, Ash!" Dawn said, as Ash and Torracat landed. "What Pokémon do you have with you?"

"Just Torracat, Arc and Ibid," Ash replied, picking himself up. "You?"

"I'm not actually allowed to answer that," Dawn replied. She looked older than Ash knew her, and she winked. "I'm stopping off here to make sure you're properly set up. Sort of a detour. But since you're set up, I'm off!"

She vanished in a flash of blue light.

"What was that?" a young voice asked.

Then a five-year-old boy came out from behind some trees, saw Ash, and stopped. "Whoa! Are you a Pokémon trainer?"

"Sure am!" Ash agreed.

"This person's familiar…" Torracat said, sniffed, then nodded. "Oh, yeah, that explains it."

"What does?" the boy's Litten said.

"I haven't seen you before," the boy frowned. "You've got a Torracat, but does that mean you're from Alola? Or are you from somewhere else?"

"I'm from Kanto!" Ash told him. "But I've been to lots of places."

"What's Kanto like?" the boy said. "I've heard they do things differently there."

"Oh, yeah, they do!" Ash agreed. "Well, they do things there that are a lot like a lot of places, but they don't do that in Alola back in this time so I guess that is different."

"Whoa, you're a future guy?" the boy asked, impressed. "How long have you been in Alola, then? Do they still do the Island Challenge in the future? Have you done the Island Challenge?"

Ash showed off his collection of Z-crystals.

"Whoa!" the boy gasped. "That's so many! You must be some kind of Move Kahuna!"

"Thought so!" Ash said. "I know you in the future! You told me we'd meet up! But, don't bother memorizing anything specific, because vague details kinda work themselves out."

"This is extremely bizarre," the Litten muttered.

"...so there's lots of things that are different about Pokémon Leagues," Ash explained, as Mini-Kukui led him through the forest to a cool place he'd found. "I mean, between different Pokémon Leagues, and sometimes between different ones of the same League."

"Really?" Mini-Kukui asked. "Huh, I always thought there was just one thing called a Pokémon League! Like what?"

"Well…" Ash began. "So some Leagues, the thing they have as the first test for all the people who entered is seeing who can do the most damage to a target! Others they do a set of round-robin battles, and then others still just start straight in on the elimination tournaments."

He counted off another point on his fingers. "Then, uh… some Leagues like the Silver Conference are always in the same place, but others like Kalos do theirs in different places every year. So I guess the only thing that's really guaranteed between all the Leagues I've been to is… actually, huh, even those bits depend if you count the Orange League…"

"I've heard of Orange, I think," Kukui said. "Is that a Pokémon League?"

"It's hard to say?" Ash replied. "It's a lot different to usual ones. But really you've got, uh… an Elite Four, but that's not something you have to do because even if someone doesn't battle the Elite Four they've still won the League… an elimination tournament as the finals… oh, I guess you usually have more Pokémon per trainer as you get towards the end… there really isn't much at all that's required about a Pokémon League."

"What about gyms?" Kukui asked.

"Oh, yeah, Leagues do generally use gyms," Ash agreed. "But you don't have to have those either! Where I grew up there are ways people can enter a League without having done any gyms… in a way you can think of it that gyms are really there for two reasons, firstly to give people a structure to growing up on a Pokémon Journey and secondly to limit how many people apply to be in a Pokémon League. But here in Alola you've already got the Island Challenge."

"Yeah, I guess so," Kukui said.

"So if you are from the future," Litten began, glancing at Torracat. "Why isn't your trainer just saying exactly what happened? Like, how the Alola League is? Why is he talking in these general terms?"

"Well, possibly he doesn't remember the exact format," Torracat said. "But honestly I think it's more that Ash is giving general information and then letting your trainer make the decisions and connections himself. That way, it actually is him doing a lot of the set up."

"Set up to what?" Litten asked.

"See, at that point I think I'm supposed to not tell you any more…" Torracat replied, shrugging. "But, well, Ash is a school teacher. So maybe it's just something he's internalized rather than something he's doing deliberately – you can never tell with him…"

"Here we are!" mini-Kukui said, from up front, drawing both their attention.

He'd brought them to a large tree, which turned out to be a Totem Trevenant.

"Oh, hello there," the big Grass-type rumbled. "And who's this?"

"Hi!" Ash said. "I'm from the future! Don't worry, it's all scheduled so it won't actually break anything."

"...what," the Totem Trevenant said, with significantly less aplomb.

"See, there's several kinds of time travel!" Ash provided helpfully. "First there's the kind where you can go back in time and change things just fine, like with this hotel I visited back in Kalos. Then there's the kind where you have to go back in time because something about the past is broken and you need to fix it, like the time in Michina I think? And after that there's the one where you have to go back in time to make sure things work out the way they always did, which is a pre-destination one, that's the one I'm doing right now. I actually first used a Z move in another one of those! And apart from that the rest are minor categories."

"I don't think that's what he was wondering about," Torracat said, sniggering.

"Oh, right!" Ash said. "I can probably get Arc to get Dawn if that would make things easier…"

Ash demonstrated a couple of Z-moves for Kukui and the Pokémon, one of them an All-Out Pummelling where Ash did the poses and provided the attack and Torracat just sort of stood there, and after that the Totem Trevenant just sort of stared at him for a bit before dropping a Z-crystal on his head.

"Thanks!" Ash said, catching it. "Oh, cool, it's Fire! There's a lot of Pokémon who could do something with that… I wonder if Lokoko would like to."

He sighed. "Actually it's a pity I can't go and get her now, but that probably would break time or something. Ah well."

"I am very confused," Kukui's Litten said, not for the first time.

"Anyway, uh… let's see…" Ash said, counting things off under his breath. "Well, I don't think I've forgotten anything, so I should probably head back to my own time as soon as Celebi shows up again."

"What am I like?" Kukui asked suddenly. "If you know me in the future, I mean."

"Smart and pretty cool to work with!" Ash answered. "You're one of those – uh, those guys who just gets it when I have Pokémon that freak everyone else out. Like Legendary Pokémon."

"...thanks for the warning, I guess?" Kukui decided. "You're so cool, wow."

"Hey, that's embarrassing," Ash protested.

"...is he coming back?" Meltan asked. "Sad."

"Yeah, he'll be along in a moment," Pikachu shrugged. "That's the good thing about time travel."

"Time travel?" Meltan repeated, then turned as Ash and Torracat appeared in a flash. "Oh! No, not Ash. Meant Naganadel! He has snacks."

"Hi, Meltan!" Ash waved. "Hi, guys! How long was I gone?"

"About two minutes," Dartrix said.

Then Naganadel fell through an Ultra Wormhole along with a whole toolbox.

"Sorry!" he said. "Turns out, I'm too big for that room now."

AN:

Gotta close those timelike curves.

For the avoidance of doubt, please stop assuming I've injured myself or something when I'm not updating a single fic for a period as short as a week – especially when I have other fics that update over the period in question.