The people of Melemele Island have worshiped Tapu Koko from the first days that Man stepped onto this island, but they have never quite agreed upon how, nor has the dominant answer remained consistent from generation to generation. Many historians of Melemele blame the island's history of sectarian conflict for its failure to equal Akala or Ula'ula as a regional power – an argument at times employed as an argument for tolerance and letting people honor Tapu Koko however they desire, and far more frequently as a way to blame one's sectarian enemies for provoking the guardian deity's wrath.
Tapu Koko did not set out to create this state of affairs, but it is not blameless in provoking the conflicts of its followers. It is an ever-curious deity, who appears to a wide and disparate number of mortals, but who gives little thought to the significance they place upon its appearances. At best, when it feels particularly reluctant to mess things up by being seen, Tapu Koko tries to appear and disappear in a flash. But its famed speed only leads to a different kind of dispute, with some convinced Tapu Koko appeared before them, and others equally certain they only saw a lightning bolt.
Yet even Tapu Koko's intentional blessings appear to flow more from its mercurial whims than from obeying any sort of dogma comprehensible to the minds of Man, and how to avoid its wrath is no easier to discern; a child once gifted with a Z-ring by Tapu Koko was later forced, after winning the inaugural Island Championship, to defend their own life from that same pokemon with only a badly wounded team to protect themselves. Unsurprisingly, at least to those who know Tapu Koko, a Z-move saved the champion's life.
