Chapter 7: Highway Interlude


"And at some point on that misty road, well-traveled or abandoned, you will come to the realization that not every day can be what you thought it was. It will be dull in the same way that sitting by the window on a rainy evening is dull, in that it is only by the comparison of what comes after that you realize it was not dullness you found, but serenity. Humans are so very terrible at realizing the beauty in the now until it is too late."

~ Marta Marcia, From Forecast to Frontier: An Autobiography. ~


"Why don't you run me through exactly what's happened? As much as you're at liberty to say, of course." Kukui remained where he stood, leaned against his kitchen counter with a mug of Reno's Mamaki Tea that he sipped from gently. He had brewed a cup for Agents Chase and Looker as well of course, with the former taking periodic sips while the latter simply observed from where they sat at his breakfast bar. Let nobody say that he didn't show guests some good old fashioned Alolan hospitality. Agent Chase nodded and retrieved a notepad from her breast pocket.

"Obviously we can't give all the details, as this is still a developing case. Currently the information we're allowed to share with specific members of the public, such as yourself, is as follows," She coughed into her hand and flipped open the pad, "Three months ago on the twelfth of April, earlier this year, security divisions from the Aether Foundation were alerted to a breach within their research centers where the aforementioned P.C.N. was located. Said P.C.N. is reported by records submitted to Interpol's conservation bureau nearly a decade ago, from the Aether Foundation, to have been approved by the proper authorities for secured study by Aether's specialists."

She flipped the page and continued reciting. "Security members arrived on the scene where the individual under suspicion was apprehended while attempting to transport the P.C.N. via watercraft. The pursuit led to a confrontation on the second floor of a conservatory, during which the suspect managed to evade capture by provoking the P.C.N., resulting in an extraordinary reaction. This event led to severe injuries sustained by multiple members of the security division due to the explosive force generated by the P.C.N. as it underwent a spatial manipulative event, taking the suspect with it."

At this point Agent Chase paused and looked up at Kukui. Was she studying him, trying to detect recognition or familiarity? Was she looking for shock and confusion? He merely raised his eyebrows and took a sip of his tea; the reserved reaction of a man woken up by the police at the stroke of midnight.

"Must've been a heck of a pokemon." He said simply, waiting for her to continue.

Three months. Three months for someone to finally ask where this kid went. Why now?

"Indeed." Agent Chase said cooley. "The Aether Foundation combed their recruitment records and upon a deeper look they found that all the volunteer's personal information, background, and even trainer identification all led to unproductive leads and fictitious identities." From beside her, her lieutenant let out a small "Tsk." and they glanced at him. He wasn't focused on the conversation, or at least not visibly, and instead was inspecting the room again.

"Professor, if I might ask, do you have a daughter by chance?" The man's voice surprised Kukui with its gritty tenderness. At first he thought that perhaps Agent Looker was taking a sentimental approach, but he soon followed the agent's gaze up towards the second floor loft on the opposite end of the room. A dresser was visible with several stuffed pokemon plushies sitting atop it, as well as a small bookshelf and a futon bed. Several posters were tacked to the slanted ceiling.

By the Tapu's balls, I didn't clean the loft yet.

"Oh, ahah. Nah, that's a loft I let my niece use when she comes over." Kukui explained with a dismissive wave. He hoped it was convincing enough. "My friend Leilani can work late often, so I set up a space for her daughter since she's always coming over. Doesn't like being alone, you know, and that way she doesn't get in the way while I'm working. Kids." He let out a small chuckle and sipped his tea, waiting for some kind of reaction from his guests.

Agent Looker nodded, apparently satisfied with this answer, and Agent Chase turned back to Kukui. "Needless to say," She continued, "This is a very serious situation that holds the potential to become hazardous to the public's health. Illegal wildlife trading has been on the rise in Alola recently, and the sooner that we're able to secure this pokemon away from where it might fall into the wrong hands, the better it will be for everyone."

Kukui sighed and scratched at his head, motioning towards her notepad with an outstretched hand. "It would certainly seem so. Unfortunately, I'm no detective like you two, so I'm afraid finding your runaway volunteer is a bit out of my range. I'd be happy to share any information that might prove useful regarding this pokemon however." He gave them both a small smile as he sipped his tea. "I can only figure that's why you're here, given my profession."

They're telling me far more than I expected. Either they really think I know something of value, or…

Agent Chase nodded, and the smile she gave told Kukui that they were finally getting to the point of this impromptu visit. "Actually, this volunteer is in fact why we're knocking so late. Naturally, we're working very closely with the local police force given the nature of this case, and they were able to inform us about a missing person's case that cropped up roughly three months ago." She turned to Agent Looker and nodded, and the older man pulled out a slip of paper along with a pair of glasses that he swung open and sat upon his nose.

"On the twelfth of May, at approximately zero six eighteen hours, an unidentified individual was found washed up on the eastern Hau'oli beachfront in front of the local poke-physiology laboratory." Agent Looker said, his eyes unwavering. "The individual appeared disoriented and suffered from multiple bruises and electrical burns to the skin, and could not provide any form of identification. The person's physical description is as follows: Gender: female."

Why now? What changed?

"Age: Fourteen."

Who would wait three months to report a missing child?

"Ethnicity: caucasian."

Especially if they took a valuable pokemon with them?

"Hair color: blonde."

Lillie's excuse was that she couldn't remember, but why after all this time…?.

"Eye color: green."

They couldn't report it stolen immediately for some reason, they had to wait. What changed? The professor put his fingers over his lip in thought; a look of concentration that would fit in well while the agent spoke. Were they waiting for something to make them seem like the victims? Or maybe they thought Lillie and Nebby were dead, drowned at sea, and somehow now they know she's still out there with their cosmog. He didn't have enough information, but with everything that he had learned tonight he felt he might be onto something. He needed to call Hala, and Burnet, and most especially Lillie.

"... left under the care and supervision of one Professor Mako Kukui of the poke-physiology laboratory, who willingly volunteered to work with law enforcement by invoking Section Four, Subsection 'D' of the 'Good Samaritan Act, and taking on all legal responsibility and accountability for the aforementioned individual until further information on the case can be provided." Agent Looker took in a breath and closed the folder, setting his hands on his lap and looking at Kukui. Agent Chase did the same.

"As you can see," Agent Chase said, a hint of self-satisfaction decorating her words, "Based on the proximity of which these events occurred, as well as the matching descriptions of both girls, we have reason to suspect that the volunteer who mysteriously fled the Aether Foundation three months ago, and the girl who was washed up on your beach are one and the same." She smiled then, but it no longer held warmth nor lightness in it. It was the cold and determined smile of someone who was utterly determined to do their job, and not the lateness of the hour nor the inconvenience of the setting would deter her.

It reminded him of Leilani, and that was enough to strike a spark of fear within him that no pokemon could rival.

"So, now that you are aware of just how serious this situation is, I would like to ask my original question to you, Professor." Agent Chase's steely gaze bored into him as she spoke, and he prayed thanks to the Tapu that he had had practice in meeting that same gaze many times before without flinching. She held the photo of Lillie in between her fingers like a business card, flipping it up for Kukui to see as if he would have trouble remembering the face of the girl he had cared for the past three months.

"Where is your assistant?"


It was so dark here, and yet bright at the same time. How did that work? She had never wondered the "why" or the "how", it just seemed like a staple of existence. There was not a brightness shining down on her, nor was there any white to be found. It was blackness without a doubt. A void, endless and inky like a sea or a sky in the sense that it felt like there might be some kind of tangibility far, far away, but even accessing that tangible bit of the black would surely only lead to even more black. Therefore, it was infinite. Even if she could see the edges.

The darkness was bright in the sense that outside of this void was a light of some kind, but at the same time the void went on forever so there could be no real "outside" so to speak of. A void where you could not fall, could not run, she could only float. Direction had no meaning; if she thought of herself as upright then she surely was, and if she was on her back then that must be true too. She would not spin like a top if she imagined it though, nor would she do front flips or cartwheels or funny poses, because she was floating. Just floating.

It was a very anxious state of floating, because she knew something was coming. Something was coming even though nothing existed except for her, so there was no way she could know about anything in the darkness, not the brightness, not the edges of the void that did not exist, and certainly not the group of rubber hoses tunneling out of the darkness and sticking into her back. It was impossible to know about these things, without a doubt.

But she did know.

The hoses were funneled like comically oversized needles, pen-line with their pointed tip on the bottom. The kind that would probably gouge out an entire vital organ when it stuck her, but when they plunged into her back, her shoulders, her arms, her calves, she didn't feel them. She didn't feel anything, but she knew they were there, as if she was watching herself from an outside perspective. She hung there in the sky-like void, limply floating like the shirtless beer bellied tourist that you always saw in a lazy river at a waterpark.

Non-existence was weird.

When the tubes started to gush liquid inside of her, she didn't explode or vomit, they simply disappeared inside of her like oil into a car. Then the hoses shed their skin like snakes or particularly crumbly brownies, chips and flakes splitting away as the hoses gave way to thin black cables. The fittings of the hoses exploded their shells and revealed themselves to be amp cords, already snugly plugged into the holes bored by the rubber hoses, and when they unleashed their torrents it was not the rush of liquid, but of sound.

She screamed, her body the medium, and all that came out was the garbled buzz of a song. The song of her life from that point on. She couldn't stop the song; it would have to stop on its own, but she wasn't the one playing it anymore. It was playing her.

When she woke up on the ground, her first instinct was to kick, and kick she did. Her ankle collided with the trunk of the tree she had fallen asleep against the night before, and a low hiss emitted from between her clenched teeth as she grabbed at her ankle and rolled back and forth slowly, painfully. She had done it; she had lived stupid, died stupid, and now she had dreamed stupid. If she could transcend into some sort of spiritual enlightenment stupidly, she would have every state of being, but stupid.

Man, morning thoughts are fun.

She lay there for a moment and simply massaged her ankle and groaned until she opened her eyes fully and glanced over to see Lillie staring at her from over the top of a book, with a rather concerned look on her face. For a moment neither of them said anything, both of them merely watching and waiting until finally Lillie broke the silence in the softest voice possible.

"Are you alright?" She asked, and there was a genuine bit of worry in there that surprised Moon. She nodded, and rolled onto her back as she stared at the crisp baby-blue sky of morning far above them. The sun hadn't bared down on the islands long enough for it to be hot, and she welcomed the cool breeze that blew through her hair.

"Had a funky dream." She mumbled, not looking away from the sky.

"So it would seem."

"Kicked my ankle."

"So it would seem."

"Hurts like hell." She glanced back at Lillie now, and could see the faintest hint of a smile cropping up just below the cover of the book she had open. It was awkward, a little unsure, but it was still a smile. That was a sight worth a sprained ankle any day of the week. Rather than continue on their little verbal back-and-forth, Lillie instead sighed and rustled through her bag, though the little smirk didn't leave her face and it was then Moon noticed that Lillie was wearing her hat again already. Moon's lay discarded in the dirt beside her, and she slapped it against her knee a few times.

From her bag, Lillie hummed softly. "Oh, good morning Nebby. Yes, it's morning little one. I know it's hard to tell from your bag… would you like to get a bit of sun?" With all the gentleness of a mother to her newborn Lillie lifted Nebby out of the bag, setting the little guy on her lap as she took a hairbrush from beside her bag and began to gently brush at their fluff. Whether Nebby's form could actually be brushed was up for debate, but their face lit up and sang out pleasant notes, so Moon could only assume that the feeling was like having someone gently scratch your head. Comforting.

She sat against the tree and sniffed, a little regretful she hadn't bought a sleeping bag. That was definitely something she would have to invest in if she was to continue journeying through the islands. Alola's land was pretty, but hardly comfortable. She lifted Chlorine gingerly from where she had been resting against her calf, figuring that at least one of them had slept comfortably during the night.

Can't believe me and Mom both forgot a sleeping bag. Dang, I did not think ahead at all. I was literally at the mall yesterday too, son of a bisharp! She pulled out her bag of trail mix and popped a couple nuts into her mouth, glancing over at Hau's bag. Hau did mention a tent, but maybe that would be weird to sleep in a tent together. Although if it rained, she supposed the three of them wouldn't have a choice unless they wanted to catch a cold. She'd take awkward sleeping situations to being stuck in a storm.

Wait, where the heck is Hau anyway? His bag was where he had left it the night before, and the tupperware of foiled hotdogs sat beside it, but their owner was distinctly missing from their campsite.

"Hey Lillie?" Moon asked. She reached over for the tupperware and popped it open, grabbing her a dog and splitting in half for Chlorine who was slowly waking. She was fairly certain he hadn't been snatched by a hungry pokemon in the night, since the smell of heavy mint and lemon still faintly lingered in the area, if only just.

"Hm?"

"Where's Hau at? Also, you want one?"

"Ah, thank you, but I already ate. He um… he saw a pokemon." Lillie lifted her hand from Nebby and pointed off deeper into the woods with her brush, behind Moon. "It was the same one he saw yesterday, or at least the same species. He rushed off a few minutes before you woke up, as a matter of fact." She didn't seem concerned, and so Moon would be either. Instead she focused on unwrapping her hotdog, taking a large bite and listening to the morning sounds that she had come to know of Alola. The light whisper of the wind, the gentle hum of early traffic in the distance.

During this peaceful lull, she pulled out her to-do list from her music journal and looked over it to see if there was anything she could cross off while Chlorine ate beside her. It had been such an exciting first day of her pokemon journey, there had to be something she could cross off. Sure, doing the island challenge and the trials was a good motivator overall, but this was her list of her goals. That made it special. She checked over the ones she had already crossed off, but eraser smudges and crossing out marks had left the page messy and nearly illegible.

With a heavy gust of air through her nose, Moon tore out the paper and crumpled it into her purse so she could dispose of it later, and started over on the next page. She started writing down the ones she'd already done and leaving little check marks instead of anything scribbly, for future Moon's sanity.

1. Go back to Alola! Check!

2. Eat native cuisine! Check!

3. Convince mom to get a native pokemon! Sorta Check!

4. Participate in a cultural event of some kind! Or multiple! Or all of them! Check!

5. Ride a pokemon! (Meowth does not count; you will crush him.)

Moon stared at the small number five and felt a wave of frustration slowly wash over her like an uncomfortably hot shower and screwed up her face. It had been right there, right there in front of here. A tauros had been stampeding around in front of her, and she didn't even try to ride the dang thing. What was wrong with her? She was losing her edge, clearly.

"Can't believe I frickin'…" She muttered under breath as she regretfully left it unchecked. So much for doing them in order. What else had she crossed off?

6. Explore the deep wild with no adult supervision.

7. Stay in a fancy hotel and order room service like you always wanted!

8. Punch a grown man. Reason need not be specific, but it must be justified.

9. Fly on a pokemon! If a fall from the altitude wouldn't kill you dead, it doesn't count!

10. Get your first kiss.

Nothing. She almost crossed off number six, but she figured if she could still see the highway she probably wasn't "deep". She started to wonder if perhaps she had been a bit too unrealistic with her to-do list.

11. Swim with some finizen!

12. Perform in front of a crowd worthy of police attention!

13. Learn how to play dad's favorite song.

14. Sneak a beer when mom isn't looking.

15. Learn how to make a lei or kupe'e.

Now some of these seemed a bit more reasonable! Admittedly she still hadn't done any of them yet, but this was only day two. She had plenty of time, right?

16. Find a really high cliff and watch the sunset with something fancy (Dr. Pelipper) to drink.

17. Wear a nice dress and learn to dance.

18. See the stars, all of them, with no pollution.

19. Speak a second language semi-fluently, at least. Alolan or Kalosian?

20. Just live.

"Bingo." Moon grinned, penning number twenty at the very bottom of the page. Nice, clean, and organized. Sure, it was probably the only thing in her life that was organized, but that was fine by her. She glanced up and saw that Lillie was watching her, and the moment their eyes met Lillie immediately looked away, much to Moon's amusement. She had taken out a different book now, writing down things of her own much like Moon. This book was thinner and with a velcro-clasp around the front that kept it shut: a diary.

When it was apparent that Moon wasn't going to look away, Lillie glanced back up at her and smiled slightly, waving her book. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare. I just saw you writing and I guess I was… curious if you wrote in a diary too. Sorry." But Moon smirked and waved the apology aside.

"Psh, you don't have to apologize. It's not like you were snooping over my shoulder or anything. You're good, promise." They shared a small smile where Lillie nodded, and Moon took it as a sign to continue. "It's not really a journal or a diary or anything, this is just where I put down my sheet music and stuff. Lyrics, notes, that kinda thing. I just crammed my to-do list of stuff I wanna do in Alola here so I wouldn't lose it."

Lillie nodded and patted Nebby who remained on her lap. "I see. That sounds like a good idea, actually. I should consider making one myself. There's a lot I would like to do, and yet, I wouldn't even know how to start." There was a melancholy look creeping up on her face now, and Moon felt a strange pull inside of her that compelled her to prevent that. She took another bite of her hotdog and pointed at Lillie's diary, trying to prevent from spitting mushed up food on her new friend.

"You use dat ta keep twack ov yurr memories?" Moon asked mid-chew. Lillie looked as though she hadn't even considered the idea before, or perhaps she was simply caught off guard by the fact that Moon would speak with her mouth full. She glanced at the diary thoughtfully and bound it up, stuffing it back into her duffel bag.

"I've been keeping track of everything since I arrived, yes. Though I suppose I had been so busy with everything going on, I hadn't even written down what little I can recall." She smiled and nodded off to the right, where the bushes and trees were thick. "Thank you for the idea. I'm going to freshen up real quick, before Hau comes back, if you'll excuse me." Moon responded with a thumbs up, though she wasn't sure what more Lillie could do to freshen up. Her hair was brushed, her face washed and devoid of the crust of sleep, and she was almost positive she had donned light amounts of makeup already.

How early had this girl been awake?

Lillie took Nebby into her arms and was gently coaxing the little guy back into the bag, but as soon as she knelt down Nebby began to squirm and the chime turned to a whirling whine.

"Pe-eeew!"

"Oh, come now, we have to go soon. Nebby- Nebby, please." Lillie sighed, pulling back and trying from a different angle. It didn't work. "Nebby! Oh, why are you so fussy this morning? Please be good, I promise as soon as I can take you out again I will." The pained expression made it obvious Lillie didn't want to force Nebby back into the bag, but wasn't left with a lot of options that didn't put them at risk. Moon decided to speak up.

"Hey, want me to watch 'em while you freshen up?" She asked. "It'll give him a little bit more time out in the sun, and he can play with Chlorine a bit until you come back. Fair trade, Nebby?" She leaned over and tickled an exposed part of Nebby's cosmic fluff, eliciting a pleasant noise that Moon took to be giggling as the little pokemon bounced in Lillie's arms. Lillie looked slightly apprehensive on the matter, but she reluctantly handed Nebby over to Moon who took him and set him on her stomach with one hand over him to keep him from wandering.

Lillie breathed through her nose and let out a small humming noise, but it was clear she was trying to keep her fretting to a minimum. "Alright… but, keep a good eye on him, okay? I'm trusting you with him, and that's a big deal for me. As for you," Her reserved and polite tone suddenly dissipated as she pointed at Nebby with a hand on her hip, and Moon was startlingly reminded of her mother again. "You're going to be good for Moon, understand? I'll only be gone for five minutes, if that. If Moon tells me you're acting out, I'll make sure to stuff my socks next to you in the bag. Got it?"

Nebby chimed, and Moon waved Lilly off in a friendly manner. "Go on and brush your teeth or whatever, dude. I'll let Hau know where you went if he comes back before you." She laid back with her neck against the trunk of the tree, which was admittedly insanely uncomfortable but she thought it might look cool from Lillie's perspective, and smiled reassuringly at her friend. Lillie took one last look at the two of them before nodding her head and carefully making her way through the underbrush and out of sight.

Without anyone around to impress, Moon scooted down and laid her head against her purse, staring at the treetops while bopping Nebby's little puffballs absently, listening to the early morning pokemon in the distance. Chlorine waddled up and sniffed Nebby curiously, cocking her head as though she wasn't quite sure what to make of this strange little pokemon. Moon didn't blame her; if she remembered Rotom's analysis of Nebby correctly, not even it knew what to make of him. Her? Them? Just what was this thing, and where did Lillie find it?

Moon leaned her arm over and scooped Chlorine closer, cradling both of her little weirdos. Time to be a mom.

"What'cha think, Chlorine? Is Nebby made out of friend material?" She asked. Chlorine sneezed in response, and Nebby let out its pleasant little laugh-like chime again. Chlorine seemed to find the sound pleasing just as much as Moon did, because soon the two of them were trying various methods of making Nebby laugh. Poking, tickling, and licking (A Chlorine only attempt.) granted them nothing, but when her popplio started blowing a bubble out of her nose, Nebby's eyes stared up at the silvery water bubble as though it was transfixed. Did the little guy mistake it for something else?

"Congratulations Nebby," Moon murmured as she reached over and popped the bubble, sending Chlorine off-balance, "You might be the first creature to enjoy Chlorine's snot." Chlorine pouted and stood back up on her tail, but before she could blow a bubble Nebby bounced up atop her nose instead. Moon watched as Chlorine wobbled again, undoubtedly surprised by the sudden presence sitting atop her nose, but after only a second of panicked teetering she held her flippers out stiff and stood on the tips of her tail, all while a giggling Nebby rolled atop her nose like a ball.

Moon grinned and clapped her hands from where she lay. "Heck yeah, atta girl! Man, look at you go. You're a little performer too, aren't you?" Both pokemon squeaked happily, with Chlorine clapping her flippers together to an invisible beat as she wobbled to and fro. This was cute, unbelievably cute, and Moon knew that Lillie would probably want to see this. Fearful that she might miss it, she raised her head and looked for the rotom-dex in the hopes of snapping a picture, but was distracted as something yellow suddenly leapt overhead. She watched as it collided into Chlorine, sending both pokemon tumbling to the dirt in a mess of dust and fur.

"Woah, what the hell- augh, shit!" She hissed through clenched teeth as suddenly something firm grinded against her ribs sending a burning pain through her side. Her eyes jammed shut as something big tumbled into the ground in front of her, letting out a groan itself as she rolled back and forth clenching her side. When she opened her eyes and pulled back her shirt, she saw the little white flaps of scraped skin and only a faint trail of red down her side, and let her shirt fall with a light wince. She turned to her attacker and saw Hau rolling beside her, cradling his head where it looked as though he had collided into the remains of the campfire.

"Dang dude, that hurt… I think your foot slid down my ribs." She grimaced and stood from the ground, as inviting as laying in the dirt seemed. She held her hand out to Hau, who grabbed it with a similar expression.

"Yeah, sorry." He mumbled, one hand dusting the soot from his hair. "Didn't even realize I was headed back to camp, been chasing the dang pichu in circles. You good, sister?" He leaned over and dusted her off as she nodded, but when he turned back towards the fire they both had a very similar realization at the same time. "Wait, where'd it go?"

Moon looked around with increasing panic at the kicked up dirt, because it wasn't just the pichu that had gone missing. Chlorine and Nebby were both nowhere to be found as well. Her eyes scanned the area frantically, trying to glance behind trees from where she stood for any sign of either pokemon but it was her ears that picked them out after a few seconds.

"Bwark! Bwark bwark!"

"Shit, oh shit shit shoot shit, Hau come on!" Moon scooped up her purse and sprinted off in the direction of her pokemon's barks. The direction of the interstate. She scrambled through brush and thistles as her feet kicked the dirt up behind her, ignoring the little scratches and pulls of the briars she leapt through. If she was quick and careful, she could probably grab Nebby and Chlorine before Lillie returned, and everything would be okay. So naturally it made sense that as she thought this to herself that she saw the flow of a white dress pushing past some branches just as Moon sprinted out of camp.

"Moon?" Lillie asked, wiping her mouth as Moon sprinted past her. "What on earth are- wait, where's Nebby? NEBBY?!" And just like that Lillie was running behind them, neck in neck with Hau as the trio broke through the path at top speed. It was such a confusing and disorganized sprint; only Moon had probably grasped the full complexity of everything that had happened since Hau didn't even know about Nebby's existence, and Lillie had been late to the party.

Despite this they ran as one, searching the ground and the bushes without stopping as Hau and Lillie called out for their quarry.

"Nebby! NEBBY, WHERE DID YOU GO?! NEBBY?"

"Nibby! Come out Nibby, whatever you are! Auē! Anyone see where they ran off to?"

Moon didn't answer. She was straining to listen to Chlorine's barks, but she had yet to hear any more. Was Chlorine in danger and unable to bark? Had they run into something more nefarious than a freaked out pichu? She wished she wasn't so out of shape, but she supposed hiking around the islands was supposed to counter that.

Lousy luck I have to sprint before I get used to all this exercise, she thought to herself. She strained her ears again as Hau and Lillie shouted just behind her, but she couldn't hear Chlorine's barks. What she did hear was just as good however; pressured water scraping the trees like when she'd hold her thumb over a garden hose as a child. She forced herself just a bit further despite the strain in her lungs already, and burst through the bushes to find a tiny clearing where Chlorine was locked in battle with the pichu.

Chlorine spewed a jet of water at the little electric rodent as it tried to make a getaway, pushing it against the tree through sheer water pressure where it writhed and cried out. Apparently this had happened several times already judging by how wet the ground was beneath them, and Chlorine had been keeping it occupied until they had arrived. Moon was pretty proud of her partner pokemon, but as she stepped into the clearing proper and Chlorine turned to bark at her, the pichu took its opportunity to strike.

"P'chu!" A streak of sharp blue electricity snaked along the ground and latched onto Chlorine's flipper, sending a jolt through her and eliciting a shrill yelp as slapped her flipper against the ground and whined. The pichu turned to Moon as Hau and Lillie came rushing through the brush, and Moon had to hold them back to avoid trampling the pokemon and risking a nasty shock. She remembered the words her junior-ranger acquaintance on the beach had once told her about pokemon.

"The cornered pichu will shock the raichu."

There was a tense few seconds where none of them moved while the pichu crouched low and hummed with electricity, eagerly awaiting them to make the first move now that it seemingly had the upper hand. Hau tried stepping to the right, and the pichu turned on him and growled. Moon tried stepping to the left and it growled even louder. She didn't even notice as Lillie pulled out the rotom-dex and tossed it into the air like a frisbee until it was already circling the pichu from above the branches and beginning its audible scan of the creature.

"Zzrrrt! Pichu, the tiny-mouse pokemon! Weight: 4.4 lbs! Height-"

"Zip it spark plug, just tell us how to knock it out without getting electrocuted!" Moon shouted. Lillie was already getting antsy beside her, dancing on her feet with her fists balled up towards her cheeks, but at least she had the sense not to rush out and get zapped. The pichu began growling louder, a sound that was too high-pitched to be intimidating, but was duly compensated by the growing surges of static zipping around the sacs on its cheeks. It was charging up. Moon got ready to punt it with her ukulele if need be, mildly disturbed by how frequently this was becoming an option.

"Zzrrt! So impatient! Pichu has sacs capable of producing electricity that can shock even adult humans despite its small size!" The pichu's growl was getting louder. "It is common for pichu to touch tails and set off sparks as a test of courage." The bolts of electricity around its cheeks were practically constant now, and Moon held her arms out as they stepped backwards slowly. "However, due to its inept skill at electricity storage, this pokemon will more often than not-"

"P'chuuu!" There was a blinding flash of light for a split second that left Moon seeing colors, but through it she could see as the surge of electricity blew up in the pichu's face and sent it flying backwards into the tree once more with an audible thunk! It fell to the ground, unconscious, with a pitiful flop.

"Zzrrt! That." Rotom said as it hovered down in front of them all. "It will do that." Moon pushed past the hovering rotom-dex and slid by Chlorine, patting her cheeks to check if she was still conscious. Thankfully her popplio shook her head and barked, and Moon let out a small sigh of relief. There was a small burn on her flipper but nothing more, and Chlorine turned towards the direction of the street and began barking once more.

"Bwark! Bwark!"

"What's that, girl?" Moon asked with wide eyes. She was briefly aware of Hau and Lillie moving behind her. "Little Nebby is trapped in the well?"

"Moon! Please!" Lillie exclaimed. She was pacing back and forth, eyes darting from the ground to the trees as though she expected to find Nebby hopping from branch to branch. She reached up and pulled at the sides of her hat, turning back and then again as if she couldn't decide where to go. "Oh God, oh my God, oh no no no… he's gone. He's gone, he's gone…" Moon could see tears welling up in her eyes, her chest rising and falling in trepidation.

Oh, oh man, is she having a panic attack? Oh she had chosen a poor time to be facetious. God, what was wrong with her?

"I- hey, Lillie, I was just trying to- Chlorine's barking this way, maybe she's trying to tell us that's where Nebby went!" She insisted, pulling her still barking pokemon up into her arms. She wanted to calm Lillie down, but every second they waited for any reason was another second Nebby could be getting away. If she was wrong and Nebby hadn't gone this way, then there would be no chance of finding him afterwards. It wasn't like the little guy had feet or left any tracks, no wonder Lillie was freaking out-

Nope, bad thoughts will distract you Moon. Stuff them in the forever box and kick that thing to the curb.

"I'm gonna keep going to the road, if you guys want to spread out or- maybe check back at camp, Nebby might've gone back? Just, split up!" She sprinted off once more, ignoring her friends calls as she leapt over branches and rocks with Chlorine's barking to lead the way.

"Moon, wait! Moon!"

"Wait, I don't even know what we're looking for! What's a 'Nibby'?!"

She kept going, putting her new hiking boots to work as she kicked off the ground as hard as she could with each step. She could hear the sounds of traffic getting closer now; she was close. She hoped Nebby was actually there at the road, but then what if she was too late? It would be her fault and Lillie would despise her if she got there and Nebby was nothing more than a stain of cosmic jelly on the highway-

Oh God, oh shut up shut up, stuff it all in the box moon. Punt that box far away from you, somewhere far away. Like a highway! Then it'll get hit and be a stain of cosmic goo- SHIT, STOP THINKING LIKE THAT. LA LA LA LA LA!

She recognized that little dirt path they had taken to get off the road the night prior, and found herself at the highway once more as she ducked under a green guide sign planted into the dirt. Her lungs were still tender from her sprint from the campsite, and when she stopped she nearly tripped herself into oncoming traffic from how suddenly she had skidded. Her eyes bulged and her chest wheezed as she looked up and down the road. No Nebby southbound. No Nebby north.

As she looked north and saw the metal sign she had nearly clotheslined herself with, she paused as the directions on the sign caught her attention. It was only two miles ahead on the highway, on the next right going through Route 2. She had thought this road looked familiar, though in the three months of her living in Alola she had only come this way once, and that was for one reason only.

She clenched her jaw and returned to searching the road proper, looking for any signs of a hit pokemon despite her mind telling her not to. When she looked between the cars towards the strip of grass that was the median, she was surprised to find not just one pokemon, but three. A little further northwards in the strip there were two rockruff huddled around a bundle of some kind, and though she could not hear them over the roar of traffic she could see the incessant manner in which they barked.

In the opposite direction though, almost parallel to where Moon stood, sat the violet and black swirls of Nebby as the little pokemon shook and cowered against the metal guardrail. From where Moon stood it looked relatively unharmed, though its face was scrunched up and it shook itself back and forth like a child having a breakdown. It was with a pang in her chest that she realized that her analogy probably wasn't far off.

Immediately she returned Chlorine to her ball; the traffic was a recipe for roadkill it seemed. As she was considering if she could underhand a pokeball across a road and nab Nebby with it, the foliage spread apart behind her and she turned to see a still panic-stricken Lillie climbing over briars and branches, stumbling out onto the stretch of dirt that kissed the pavement. A silver sedan flew past with only a mere foot of space between its mirror and Moon, who quickly took several paces backwards and practically bumped into Lillie.

"Woah, oh hell, you startled me." Moon said, her hand rising to her chest. She glanced back briefly before turning back to the road and pointing across. "Okay, so… I found Nebby. Good news, yeah, that's uh, the good news. I think it's alright, but getting across is going to be a real- oof!" Moon was suddenly knocked forward, throwing her arms out on either side to keep balance as Lillie pushed past her and rushed forward.

Directly onto the highway.

Wait, oh God, oh SHIT, WHY?! Her mind didn't really seem to be grasping the "why" or "how" of Lillie leaping headfirst into morning traffic, but for some reason she was able to comprehend the two most important parts of this development. The first was that her new friend didn't seem to have much upper body strength and stumbled just as much as Moon did when she shoved past her. The second was that because of their mutual stumble, she was still just within Moon's reach, and Moon did not have to think as she kicked off the ground. Moon did not think as she wrapped her arms around Lillie and twisted like a drunken ballerina so that her back was to the road.

Moon, in general, did not think.

So when she felt herself stumbling towards the road, the sounds of wheels and engines and speeding hunks of metal just a leap away, she didn't think of a way to stop herself from continuing her leap. Momentum and all those fun physics things she didn't understand? They kept going whether she understood them or not. Moon did not think, and she hoped in that single second of awareness that she would have the willpower to continue to not think when she got splattered.

An arm reached out and took hold of Moon's, her heel the only part that remained attached to the earth. Because Moon did not think, not beyond her initial plans in such tense moments. But Lillie?

Lillie did think.

The car sped past, loudly blaring its horn as two teenagers stood just at the edge of the pavement with their arms wrapped tightly around each other. Their breaths were as rapid as their heartbeats, each pressed against the other so tightly for stability and reassurance that Moon couldn't tell which breaths were hers and which weren't. Lillie's hands shook as they gripped Moon's back, until slowly they released and both girls stepped away from one another.

Moon felt her fingers flex and unflex as she stepped away. In the wake of something like that, a hug had been surprisingly nice. She hadn't been hugged by someone who wasn't her mother in a while, and a part of her thought it just felt right having someone there, physically, against her. With her. Did other people like this? She didn't really care who it was on the other end, admittedly, but the fact that it was Lillie was just nice for some reason. Like they were bonding, in some weird way despite it being such a minor interaction.

Then she remembered why it had happened at all, and her sappy submission to affection was replaced by concern and frustration.

"The heck is wrong with you?! Did you not grow up with roads, either?!" Moon barked, palming Lillie's shoulder none too gently as they split apart. Her mind was still racing from her near intimate experience with the fender of a minivan, and it kept leading back the path of intrusive thoughts she had experienced earlier.

Imagine if she had run out there. A limp hand connected to a red stained dress; glassy green eyes staring back without focus, because everything would've happened before she realized.

Lillie's face turned from mild ambivalence, to hurt, to vexation so fast that Moon was still an emotion behind when Lillie returned the slug to her shoulder. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?!" She retorted, her usual reserved tone cracking as her voice ascended an octave or three. "Of course I know what roads are, don't be ridiculous! You act like you don't know what they are, the way you practically threw yourself into one! If I hadn't grabbed you…"

Moon scoffed, and rolled her eyes. "I would've been clipped, like, at the very worst. Also, real nice rebuttal there, like you weren't the one who ran out in the first place!" Outwardly, she was red-faced and irritated. Internally, she knew they were both just panicking and worried about each other and were too stupid to show that. "I've got a duty of care you know, I can't just let you go and have a playdate with every minivan that storms past."

Lillie groaned and pulled at the brim of her hat again. "Oh, for goodness sake, that is absolutely not an appropriate way to describe what just happened! Why must every near-death experience be a joke to you?" She rubbed at her eyes and shook her head, pacing back and forth in front of Moon who stood there awkwardly, unsure if she was going to get a full lecture or not. "I have a duty of care as well, if you remember. I am along on your journey to ensure that you stay safe, and I cannot very well do that if… you're having to rescue me. Constantly."

She sighed, and rubbed her eyes again. Moon blinked. She wasn't sure if Lillie was crying, or if she was just recovering from what had happened in her own way, but the sudden change in attitude had certainly caught her off guard. She thought about going in for another hug, because that sounded like a really great way to recover from a near-death experience in her professional opinion, but something told her to hold off for now. Lillie took a breath, straightened herself, and gave Moon a look of utmost apology.

"I'm… sorry for almost running into the road. That was very… not smart of me." Another breath. She swallowed, and seemed to put on her most determined expression. "Nebby… Nebby tends to have a reaction whenever something puts him in danger, or scares him severely. You saw this on the bridge, remember?" Moon certainly did remember. It was without a doubt one of the coolest moments of her life thus far. "If a car swerves too close to Nebby while he is already under duress, I fear he might… react, and I cannot say how exactly.. Which, as you can imagine, would be terrible on a populated road such as this."

Moon slowly looked over to Nebby, who still floated limply on the other side of the road with little harmonic sobs escaping from its mouth. She imagined a sudden burst of blue and flashing lights that could easily flip cars and send debris flying through windshields. Rocks, railing, other cars. There was no telling what might get sent flying to anyone unfortunate enough to drive by. They probably weren't excluded from the crossfire either. Nothing would be.

With Lillie's warning giving Moon some new perspective, Moon couldn't entirely blame her for her rush. Still, she held her arm out to stop Lillie from getting any more frantic ideas, and turned to glance at her.

"Next time," She sighed as a smile crept up on her face, "Look both ways, alright? I don't want to see you get hurt." She looked left, then right, then left again. Clear. Where was this empty road a minute ago? She skipped across the pavement, eyes flickering back and forth on either side as she made sure no sudden trucks decided to wheel around the bend down the way. It wasn't even five seconds, for all the fuss it had caused.. She reached the other side, pushing the rail to stop herself as she glanced over and saw Nebby still crying just a few feet away.

"Hey, Nebby. You little blobbo, you gave us all a heart attack." Moon knelt down so that she was eye-level with Nebby, putting on a big smile and gently reaching a hand forward. "What happened? Did that mean little pichu zap you, huh? Did he scare you?" Nebby sniffed and looked up at Moon, who gently took him into her arms and held him close. She fingered around his fluff and found a dark mark just above his eye where he had likely been shocked. This was Lillie's specialty, but she could sub in for a second.

She hoisted Nebby up under her arm and waved over to Lillie, signifying a successful mission, but Lillie wasn't looking at her. She was leaning up on her tiptoes and gazing over at the two rockruffs, her hands rubbing together in apparent apprehension as Moon followed her gaze down the way. Without the sound of cars zooming by, she could actually hear their mournful whines, could smell the harsh tang of copper, could see the corpse of a third rockruff halfway into the shoulder of the road.

Moon was still for but a moment before she felt her feet bringing her forward, just a few steps. It had to be fresh because there was no rot in her nostrils despite the sun beating down on it, and what she could only guess were its siblings were still at its side. The first one was pushing it with its nose, letting out a sharp whine every time its insistence was met with futility. The other simply sat with their chin to the ground, silently staring mere inches away as if it was hoping if it stared long enough, their loved one would magically sprout to life once more

Or maybe it just knows that you can't fight death, Moon thought as she knelt down once more. The first turned to her and started pawing at her bent knee frantically. It knows that the only thing left is to mourn, to accept that what is gone is gone. However hard that may be. Pokemon were emotionally intelligent, to try and claim otherwise was nothing short of willful ignorance, and if they could feel grief, the pain of loss in seeing someone disappear right in front of your eyes, with no control whatsoever, well…

She couldn't just stand there and watch. Not for this.

Keeping a firm arm around Nebby, Moon dug around in her purse for a moment as she tried to pet the skittering rockruff in front of her in the hopes of soothing it. "Easy, boy. Easy…" She didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, she didn't care. Grief wouldn't wait for formalities. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry, there's nothing I can do. I can't bring him back." The rockruff put its paws up on her knee and barked, over and over again at her as though desperately begging for her to fix it. But she couldn't. "I know, I know and I'm sorry. It won't be okay, but it'll be tolerable, one day."

A motorcycle sped past, startling Moon so bad she nearly let go of Nebby. It was by chance that her reaction was to squeeze her elbow instead of loosen it, but the rockruff siblings did not react. The first one barked, and the second one remained silent. That was when Moon made up her mind.

"You guys gotta keep going. You can't just sit here all day, or you'll join him." She mumbled, pulling two pokeballs out of her bag. She tapped the clasp of a ball gently to the first rockruff, who finally stopped barking as he transformed into a flash of light, and was gone. "We still got a good couple of working legs, yeah? Let's use them together." The second rockruff glanced at her as she held out her arm, but didn't react. Not to the disappearance of its sibling, not to her attempting to do the same thing to it. It just laid there, and accepted it.

That was okay too.

Placing the two pokeballs in her purse, Moon took out a spare shirt and gently wrapped the dead rockruff in it. She couldn't tell exactly, but whatever had collided with it seemed to have snapped its neck due to the lack of blood except for around the muzzle. That, or all the damage was internal and the body was keeping everything contained.

God, gross, stop thinking like that man.

She looked both ways and hurried across the highway, both passengers tucked firmly under her arms as she crossed back into the dirt where Lillie was waiting. Nebby immediately flew out from Moon and into Lillie's arms, who welcomed him back with a soft sigh of relief and a tight hug as she squeezed him to her chest. The smile on her face was so bright, so utterly reassured now that Nebby was back in her arms where he clearly belonged, that it made Moon jealous. Not for herself, but for the one who she held in her arms.

"You silly, utterly ridiculous, nonsensical creature…" Lillie whispered, and Moon couldn't tell if she was talking to her or Nebby for a second. Then she gave Nebby a once-over that quickly turned into a twice and third-over. "I am absolutely livid and overjoyed, oh you're going to be the death of me. We do not run away, do we? No, no we do not." She was gently coaxing him into his spot within the bag, and for the first time he seemed wholly accepting of slipping inside. "You're going to get such a lecture later, mister. But I am overjoyed that you are alright… that you're safe."

Moon moved to carry the bundle in both hands, and Lillie turned to it as she zipped up her bag. "Is that…?" Delicately she lifted the shirt and peeked inside, her eyes clenching shut a moment later as she lowered it. Moon felt pity for it, as there was always regret and mourning in the loss of life, especially a young pokemon, but Lillie looked distraught. All the joy and relief at Nebby's return was sucked out from her, as though this pokemon had been no less dear to her despite neither having ever seen it before.

"What will you do with the body?" Lillie whispered, as though afraid she might disturb the dead. Moon shrugged, but she had already decided what to do because she knew what was close by. Just as she parted her lips to speak though, the foliage brustled behind them and Hau came clambering through the underbrush, his hand pushing aside branches and leaves as he hopped out into view.

"Okay, uh, checked the camp again, did a circle around the perimeter for like… I don't know, a hundred feet? But I don't- oh, oooh man." Hau stopped as he caught sight of the shirt bundle in Moon's arms, and slowly looked between the two girls. "Oh man, don't tell me Nibby got hit…"

"Nebby." Moon corrected. "And uh, no. No this is a rockruff that got hit by a car. Its siblings were pawing at it and I couldn't just leave them, you know? They'd end up dead too, or starved, or… something." She patted the spot in her purse where two pokeballs sat, and started shifting through the trees as Lillie and Hau carefully followed back in after her. "Nebby is uh… safe, and…" She glanced awkwardly back at Lillie, who seemed to be thinking on the unspoken question between them.

"I'll explain later." Lillie murmured in a tone that suggested she wanted anything but.

"Oh, yeah no worries. Man, sucks seeing pokemon end up as roadkill." Hau said. His face was grave as he ran his hands through his hair, looking between both Moon and Lillie. "Well uh, I caught the pichu. Knocked itself out, nice and easy, so we don't have to worry… about…" His voice trailed off for a few moments as he turned and saw Lillie's hardened glare boring into him like a drill. It was so strong that Moon felt it, and it wasn't even directed at her.

"You're keeping it?" Her tone didn't give off the feeling of an 'ask' so much as it did a 'demand', and Moon saw Hau take several subtle steps away from them. "That pichu electrocuted Nebby, and sent him running off into traffic where anything could have happened! It nearly got Moon hit by a car, and-"

"Actually, if we're being really honest here, I only tripped because I was trying to stop you from running into the road." Moon said, her voice casual as she raised her finger for input. Lillie immediately turned on her, eyes sharp and feral not entirely unlike a wild pokemon's (A thought she kept to herself.), and pointed her finger directly at Moon with a glare that would have been downright homicidal if looks could kill.

Ain't no Tapu gonna save me from this.

"You." Lillie hissed, her voice icy cold as she took a step torwards her. "I was gone for five minutes. Five! What- I don't even understand, how?! I asked you to look after Nebby for five minutes while I freshened up! Do you not understand how important it is that Nebby is kept safe and hidden away?!"

"Not… really, no." Moon admitted honestly. She glanced over to Hau for help, but he just shrugged, evidently glad Lillie's ire was no longer focused on him.

Traitor!

Lillie's hand shook and for a second Moon worried she was going to start poking her in very painful areas, until finally she clenched it and threw it down by her side.

"Of course not. That's not your fault. But I- you knew it was important to me, that Nebby be protected and watched over, you knew that meant a lot to me, and you didn't take it seriously." Her mouth swished from what Moon suspected was the grinding of teeth, and then with a huff she shouldered her duffel bag into its normal uncomfortable position, and began to storm off ahead of them. "You were the first person I trusted, outside of the Professor! Well, at least now I know better than to make that mistake again."

Now Moon felt hurt. Admittedly she also felt a little upset that she was getting all the blame for this; how was she supposed to know a pichu would come storming through the woods and Hau would trip over her? That wasn't fair!

"I got him back for you!" She called. She really wanted to do that thing where people spread their arms wide in disbelief, but the dead pokemon in her arms more or less prevented that. Lillie did not look back as she responded.

"Yes, and I am most certainly glad you did, but you should have never let him get that far in the first place! Who knows how many people saw him on that highway?" She shot back. Moon watched her continue towards the campsite, her mouth opening and closing several times as Hau stepped up beside her. They looked at one another for a moment, then back at Lillie, before letting out a sigh in unison. There was a comfort in shared defeat.

"I'm real sorry about that, sister. I won't lie, I kinda hoped that if I herded the pichu back towards camp, one of you guys would be able to help me corner it…" He shrugged apologetically, pulling out a pokeball that Moon suspected housed his new catch and patted Moon on the back. "I don't even know what a 'Nebby' is, man."

Moon shook her head and continued on, awkwardly adjusting the strap on her purse. "Honestly? Neither do I." They walked on towards the camp in mutual silence; the only sound being the crunch beneath their shoes and the gentle taps of Lillie pulling up something on her rotom-dex ahead of them, giving neither of them so much as a glance as they trekked.

"So, we gonna bury it where we set up camp?" Hau whispered. Moon shook her head.

"No, I don't think so. We're only two miles south, and I don't mind carrying this guy for thirty minutes. It just seems like a better option than out here in the woods."

"Where's that, sister?"

"Ah." Lillie's voice rang from ahead of them, still sharp and audibly agitated, and when she glanced back towards them finally she had the image of a street map on the glowing screen of the rotom-dex. Lillie's anger seemed to subside somewhat as a bleak look of understanding spread over her face, and she read aloud the point of interest that had appeared as a blip on her screen, holding it out for the both of them to see

"The 'Regional Memorial Cemetery of Alola'," She said, "Two miles north."


Perhaps it was the leftover adrenaline of such an exciting morning, but clearing out their campsite by packing their things and properly disposing of their campfire ("Professor Kukui was very adamant about ensuring we leave no trace for the sake of the environment." Lillie had told them.) took little to no time at all in Moon's eyes. They kept strictly to the route, avoiding the highway by a wide margin whenever possible as they walked, and were able to make it to the cemetery just at the stroke of noon.

Moon had only been to the cemetery once with her mother roughly a week after she had arrived in Alola. The cemetery itself was massive, a stretch of solid green grass too short and neatly cut to sway in the summer wind with hundreds upon hundreds of flat granite headstones occupying it. Guarded by a swath of monkeypod trees on either side, at the farthest end of the cemetery was a grand stone staircase that led to the monument itself: a colonnade with walls that ended in a semi-circle facing the cemetery in its entirety.

On the forefront of the memorial was the statue of an indigenous woman of Alola clutching a pair of flowers to her breast: a chrysanthemum in one hand, and an orchid in the other. The entire stretch of wall on either side of her held thousands of names, and below her was a plaque etched into the memorial that Lillie read aloud as they passed by.

"Before you lies our cemetery; within lies eternity. These gardens are engraved with the many Alolan lives whose final resting place is known only by the divine, but their valor and sacrifice shall forever be etched in the collective memory of our region." Lillie stared at the monument for a moment before turning back and gazing at endless rows of gravestones. "So all of these names, they are of those whose bodies could not be recovered for a burial? How terribly sad." From anyone else, Moon might've thought her choice of words to be insultingly obvious, but it was the weight in her voice and the slight crack as she spoke that told Moon there was nothing but genuine heartbreak in there.

"The main part is strictly for servicemen and women, or rangers." Hau explained as they continued down the brickwork path laid out for them. "And I think the field on the left is for kahunas and people who have done Alola great services or something. Uh, on the right side of the trees is everyone else. Think there's a spot for pokemon further back too, which is why it's the biggest cemetery on any of the islands as far as I know." Moon nodded but said nothing as they walked down past the trees, past the private graves of those in the military, around the graves of the hundreds of kahunas from a time before her.

She paused at the front line of the graves, beneath one of the few palms that had been planted along the cemetery as she stared just over the hills and off into the twinkling of sun-dappled waves. The wind blew through her hair and the wide leaves of the tree, and she closed her eyes for a second. She imagined the faint hum of peaceful music, of the ocean in the distance silently slapping its waves against a beach she could not see. She wondered if the dead were peaceful here. If she had to pick a place to be laid forever, in eternity, well…

This was a better spot than most.

The three of them continued along the brickwork road and into a smaller grove nestled within the bowl of several hills that rose along the perimeter. The grove was peaceful as well; there was only one other visitor, a young woman in a stetson and overalls who tipped the brim of her hat to them as they entered. Even here, the graves were nothing like the ones back in Kanto. Rather than family headstones, individual pokemon were given their very own graves, and unlike the uniform nature of the flat slabs out in the fields, here there was a different marker for every grave.

They passed a misdreavus floating atop a grave marker of the simple cross-wheel that most people used for graves: Arceus' symbol, "The Divine Nexus". It merely watched them, vanishing into the ether as they passed by on their way to find a nice patch of unbothered dirt. Lillie shivered visibly beside Moon, her indignation momentarily forgotten as the misdreavus slowly faded back into view, grinning at the lot of them as they passed by, and it let out a quiet sound that could've been mistaken for a snicker.

"I am quite glad that we are here in the daytime." Lillie murmured to Moon as she glanced backwards.

"Aw, they're not so bad. Just, you know, spooky pokemon who like to hang in graveyards." She replied, though she purposefully did not look back at the misdreavus, nor the other sparse few pokemon who silently watched them from afar. Nor did she poke any fun when Lillie sidled up behind her as they walked despite their earlier argument. The spot they decided on was relatively flat, free of any other tombstones or obtrusive brush, and as Moon set down the corpse of the unknown pokemon to the side, she came to the realization they had no trowels, shovels, or spades.

So she said to herself, To hell with it, and started digging at the dirt with her hands.

It was only a few seconds of scraping away at the soil before Hau, completely unprompted, got on his knees across from her and began to lend his strength to the task. Moon felt a surge of affection for her new friend, and knew that aside from Hau just generally being a good person, that this was intrinsically a part of Alolan culture to a degree. A responsibility to the land, and its inhabitants. Malama ka 'aina.

Lillie teetered around them as they dug, looking both uncertain and uncomfortable as though she wanted to help but simply did not know how, or perhaps didn't feel comfortable doing so in the place of their tensions. Moon didn't blame her for it; she didn't strike her as the type of girl who got dirty very much if her rigorous morning routine was anything to go by. After ten minutes of awkward pacing, unsure glances, and quiet rotom-dex browsing, Lillie finally spoke up.

"Would it help if you brought out those two rockruffs?" She asked, causing Moon and Hau to both look at her. "I uh, well I don't think I really have the hands for digging, but Rotom says they're quite proficient at digging with their claws. And they might uh, appreciate being able to help." She shrunk her head down, as if she thought had suggested something offensive, but Moon was completely onboard. She released them beside the pitiful hole they had dug so far, and pointed at it once they'd materialized fully.

"Hey. You guys wanna help? We're digging a hole for your buddy." She said plainly. There was a brief moment where Moon found herself appreciating how intelligent pokemon were, that they were able to understand through her tone and other linguistic nuances she knew nothing about, what she was communicating. The one that had been pawing at her initially let out another whine and began pawing at the dirt, spewing it under its belly far faster than Moon could have in her most feral of moments. The quiet one remained so, but followed in its sibling's lead of helping dig, and soon the four of them were trudging away in the dirt.

In less than half an hour, they had made a reasonable sized grave. That was such a strange thought to Moon, that on her second day as a trainer she was digging a grave for a pokemon that wasn't even hers. But she knew it was necessary, vital even, that she do this. She couldn't explain why. It was with gentle and steady hands that she lowered the unnamed rockruff into the hole, and took two steps back.

Should she say something? It was a bit different than with a human, or even with a pokemon she might've been close to. She had never even seen this rockruff alive. It had no name, no identity to her other than that it was most likely the sibling to the other two she had found. Perhaps it was this lack of identity that compelled her to say something, anything, for the creature.

"Uh, we are gathered here today to mourn the life of this rockruff." Her voice came out scraggly and rough, and she forced out a cough. She looked to Lillie, who smiled ever so slightly and gave a nod of encouragement. "I don't know if pokemon have names for each other, but it doesn't feel right to send you off without something to call you by, so I'm gonna give you the name… Tapsolom the Kickass."

"Moon, come on…"

"What? That's a good name! Alright, uh… you were Tapsy." Moon blew a gust of air through her nose and scratched at her head; she'd never been good at eulogies. "Look, I don't know what kind of pokemon you were. You were probably just some little guy trying to scrounge for food, and ended up on the road at the wrong time. Your sibs almost got hit with you, trying to pull your body… must've been the older sibling, huh?" She chuckled, hollow and devoid of humor as it gave way to a greater realization.

She turned to the two remaining rockruffs; the first one sat in the same pose Moon had found it in, absently looking into the hole without so much as a whine, while the other did nothing but let out little cries as it circled the grave back and forth. What would they do now? Stay by their sibling's gave until they starved? Follow him over that unmarked line? Not a chance, not if she could help it.

"I'm sure keeping watch over these two meant a lot to you." Moon said. She scooped the small mound of dirt they had dug back over the hole, clump by clump. "I'm sorry you weren't able to fulfill that duty, so I hope you don't mind if I take up the mantle for you." Clump by clump, scoop by scoop she filled the hole, until all that was left was the little mound of uneven dirt with Tapsy the rockruff buried below. Lillie put something in her hand, and she turned to see a bundle of twigs and tree vines carefully pieced together to make the divine nexus of Arceus.

"It's not perfect, but I thought it might look nice." Lillie said, and Moon had to agree as they stuck it into the softened dirt at the head of the mound. Hau had crudely etched the name "Tapsy" into a rock, and they sat it at the base of the grave. For a few moments each of them stared at the grave of the unknown little pokemon they had never met, and never would until, slowly but surely, each of them packed up their things and began to walk away. First Hau, then Moon as she returned the rockruffs to their balls, and then finally Lillie.

They left that little grove, the clear open skies of Alola giving off a slight melancholic feeling as they traipsed across the paths through the field. On the one hand, it was a hopeful sign that after such a dismal and concerning morning that they would be able to move onto more fun and pleasant experiences on their journey. Yet despite that there was the nagging feeling that it was wrong. It was wrong for the world itself to exude such a sign of hope and happiness after something as forlorn as the burial of a nameless, forgotten pokemon. Moon felt it, and so did Hau, and Lillie, but none of them mentioned it.

It was as they reached the monument and crossed the steps that Moon stopped and looked off over the field of graves to the farthest field; the one they hadn't crossed where members of the public lay beneath the ground. Those graves were considerably more numerous.

"My dad's buried over there." She said as Hau and Lillie turned to look at her. She wasn't sure why she had said it so suddenly, and a part of her felt embarrassed at announcing something like that, as if she wanted their comfort or pity and was purposefully drawing attention to it. Mentally she lectured herself, but Hau turned and glanced off towards the meadow and nodded with a conviction that Moon recognized in herself.

"ʻAe, both my makuahine and my makuakāne are over there. You see the big tree there, on the right? They're a few rows from that." Hau pointed the tree out to Moon and Lillie, but even then to tell which graves specifically belonged to his parents would've been nigh impossible. Even from where they stood with a view of the entire cemetery, Moon couldn't begin to pick out where her father's grave was amongst the many exactly like his.

Lillie looked between Hau and Moon with a look of growing remorse, her hand gently covering her mouth as she wore her sympathy fully and unapologetically. She reached out towards Moon.

"I- I am so sorry, to both of you. I had no idea…" She took Moon's hand into her own, and Moon tried to act like that didn't make her whole skin tingle and chest lighten, because they were in a cemetery talking about her dead father, but her body shivered regardless. Perhaps Lillie thought her shaking was from grief, because she squeezed her hand and gave her a comforting smile that made Moon want to turn right around and march directly into the ocean.

She took Hau's hand as well, although if her touch garnered the same reaction from him he sure didn't show it. "If you would like we can go and visit them? Perhaps we could clean their graves, if you haven't been here in a while." Then she smiled with all the rays of the sun and all the stars fueling her like a generator, all traces of frustration and indignation at them momentarily forgotten in the wake of unbridled compassion and warmth. "We could use Chlorine for water, assuming she doesn't mind, and I have some spare washrags packed that might help if we're gentle."

Moon stared at her, gobsmacked. What innocence, what unrestricted kindness to put aside feelings of anger and pettiness for such a generous act. It made her heart thump in such an unexpected way that she hardly realized she was reaching up with her free hand and covering Lillie's, slowly pulling it away as she shook her head. It hurt to reject that kindness, to decline when she knew it came out of the deepest and most purest forms of love one could offer: selfless and without expectation.

"No." She said softly. "No, I don't think I would. That's incredibly considerate of you, Lillie, but I don't really want to see his grave. I've seen it enough." And that was all she said. She patted Lillie's hand, mostly because she wanted to, and turned to continue their walk out of the graveyard. She didn't turn back, not to look at Lillie, and not to look at the cemetery as she left it behind once more.

Lillie stood on the brickwork, staring at Moon as she continued on with a walk that was almost as chipper as it was casual, arms held loftily behind her head. She turned to Hau, evident confusion on her face as he nodded solemnly and shouldered his bag to follow after Moon.

"Neither of you?" Lillie asked. Hau glanced at her, but said nothing. "We'll likely be unable to visit again for a while, especially if we are to travel around each of the islands. It seems like a pertinent choice to at least stop and say farewells, or to ask for luck for a journey such as this." She frowned then, and Hau looked up to the sky overhead for a moment before posing a question of his own.

"I know you don't remember, but do you think you might've lost a parent before? With your memories and all?" He asked, his voice sincere. Now it was Lillie's turn to look away. Was the hesitation in her eyes that of trying to remember a set of parents? When she turned back after a few moments, her eyes gave no answers.

"Even then… even if I had lost someone like a mother, or a father, I would think it would be important to visit them, wouldn't it?" She held onto her hat for a few seconds as a gust of wind blew by them, and she stared out towards Moon again, who was suspiciously reaching for her ukulele. "I just don't understand."

Hau's hand landed firmly on her shoulder, with warmth and kindness, and it reminded her of Professor Kukui. He smiled at her, and she could see pains and fears that could never be vocalized in that one smile as he met her eyes.

"I hope you never do, sister." He said, and just like that he started walking down the path as well, whistling to the lazy tune Moon had started to play. Lillie watched him for a moment, watching as the both of them left the cemetery behind and forged onwards towards the new. In a way, she thought she did understand their reasoning, because much like them she too was trying to look towards the future instead of the past. She sighed as she repositioned her duffel, patted the top to reassure Nebby, and took a deep breath.

Then she followed her friends out of the cemetery, and back onto Route 2 once more.