The World Flows Through Me

by Social Coyote

Alola is a region of beauty and connection, but how much can spirituality and scenic views really fix? Moon must find out whether or not Alola can truly solve the pains life has thrown at her, or if she's beholden to fate after all. She's not the only one with something to run from however, and soon she may question whether she's running from fate, or towards it.

8. Give and Take

Chapter 8: Give and Take

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"In understanding's embrace,

I found solace true.

Deeper than your touch,

Was the breath that I drew."

~ Roxanne 'Roxy' Simmons, "No Intimacy for Hand Holding" ~

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Moon flicked her toothpick through her mouth, pointing it up with her tongue as she sat leaned up against the decayed tree trunk, her arms held leisurely behind her head as her eyes flicked between Lillie and Hau. Her legs were crossed, one foot swinging in the air to a beat that only she could hear as the evening noises of bug-pokemon took over for where the songbirds had left off.

"I mean, look at this way, how many other trial goers have actually faced off against a ticked off tauros and come out as fine as we did?" Moon asked, raising an open hand for emphasis. "I'm not saying it's a sure thing, but like, that's gotta count for something, right?" She held back a yawn and instead pretended to wipe at her cheek; if she showed weakness they would surely use it against her and argue that she needed the rest. She didn't need rest, she needed progress.

Lillie frowned, sitting at the slope of cement that led up to the highway across from Moon. Her back was to the support pillar as she frowned at the blank screen of the rotom-dex in her hands. "Perhaps it shows you can focus in a tumultuous situation, but frankly I do not see how you could gain much experience from one battle. Admittedly, it was rather… I suppose, 'exciting' is the best word for that scenario, but excitement does not equal training." Lillie sighed, setting the rotom-dex aside. "As the facts stand, neither of you have battled any trainers on the journey here since you have been avoiding trainers for my sake."

They sat on the edge of Route 2 just beneath the highway as the day yawned its way into dusk, leaving an orange glow beneath the overpass that they were taking a break under and discussing their plans going forward. Moon and Lillie were debating the pros and cons of jumping straight into the trial, which they would arrive at tomorrow sometime in the late morning if they kept a good pace. Moon was all for rushing to meet their challenge (And Iliima) head on, while Lillie was advocating that they take their time and practice.

Hau was just a few feet away, squatting with his arms hanging over his knees as he watched the both of them go back and forth. He rolled his newly occupied pokeball on the ground back and forth with his palm; the pichu that had ransacked their camp that morning safely tucked inside. His contributions thus far had simply been adding, "Well, she's got a point there." whenever one of them made a counter argument. That is, until both Lillie and Moon had stared him into submission with all the deadly glare a couple of fourteen year-olds could muster. Between the three of them sat the genesis of their debate: the rotom-dex.

The rotom-dex, as it turned out, had access to a wide repertoire of strategies and styles for pokemon compiled across regions by hundreds of trainer-submitted reports and studies by countless pokemon experts the world over. As Lillie had excitedly shown the both of them, some of the techniques and combat maneuvers had even been written by Professor Kukui. Another feature of the dex, this one substantially less useful in Moon's opinion, was an assessment of their individual pokemon and its respective chances of survival against local pokemon.

It gave Moon a three out of ten.

Lillie had just pulled up a technique for using a pokemon's natural endearing qualities to make an opponent less viscous when the eyes on the rotom-dex began to close, it let out a soft "Zzrrrrrt…" and the screen went dark. It had taken a solid ten minutes to convince a very distraught Lillie that she had not killed Rotom, and that the device had simply run out of battery. Moon had personally been the most disappointed by this news, but she held it together for Lillie's sake.

"Just because we arrive at the trial site, doesn't mean you are required to take part in it immediately. I do not need Rotom to know that much is true." Lillie countered, but before she could continue Hau stood and stretched his arms as an unnecessarily loud yawn overtook him. Lillie shot him a dirty look. "Ultimately though, the choice is yours. I'll stand by your decision, but I really must urge you to get some kind of training in with your pokemon. How do you expect them to listen if you've only known them for all but a day?"

Moon huffed and opened her mouth for a rebuttal, but the argument died on her lips. Maybe Chlorine she could slip by, but her two rockruffs? She'd not even played any music with them yet. What would they do, tap their paws? Bark in rhythm? The walking made the days feel long and sluggish, especially in the mid-afternoon Alolan heat. But now? It felt like everything had gone by so fast. Time was slipping away.

Lillie glanced over to where Hau was still stretching and asked, "What about you, Hau? And please do not say that I make a good point. Again." Hau opened a single eye at her, glanced at Moon, and shrugged.

"I mean, I'm probably not going to give it a shot until I get my pichu settled down a bit." He said, taking a hotdog from his bag out of the tinfoil. He turned to Moon. "I'm not really in a rush, but I don't mind going after the trial tomorrow either. If you change your mind and want a bit more preparation under your belt, I'd be happy to train with you though. If I can stay awake." Lax and accepting of the winds as they came, that was Hau alright.

Moon groaned and buried her head. The light from the rotom-dex glowed for a faint second as a staticy voice materialized between the three of them. "Zrrrt, they're right, you know! You've had very little practice in battles against humans who can strategize beyond basic animalistic intuition. You should… try… zzzzrrrt…" Just like that, Rotom was asleep just as quickly as he had woken up. She gaped at the dead tablet and turned to Lillie with a look of utter bemusement.

"Did he really use the last of his battery just to sass me? The hell, man?" She threw her hands in the air as Lille picked it up and tapped a few times at the screen of the rotom-dex, as if hoping that it might light back up again, but the pokemon-electronic hybrid was out for the night. For real this time. In truth, Moon couldn't blame him. If she had to pick a way to go out, getting one last lick in would be her preferred manner in biting the dust.

"Again, this is partially my fault as I've requested we avoid strangers on the route up until now." Lillie sighed, and stared at the rotom-dex. "Nebby's secrecy is unfortunately holding you down, and yet I must insist we don't bring unwanted attention to ourselves if possible. Now more than ever..." Was it because of Nebby being let loose on the free-way that she was so worried? Moon scratched her head; she wished someone would tell her why Lillie's pokemon was such a big deal. If it was, why didn't they just leave it with Professor Kukui?

"Do I get to know about Nebby yet?" Hau asked Lillie hopefully.

"No."

"Aw, shucks."

Moon blew through her nose and leaned her head back to stare up at the overpass above. It was incredibly uncomfortable given the trunk stopped just below her shoulder blades, but she was positive it looked cool and didn't want to back out and look like a loser. She knew they were both right, that there was no way she could realistically take on the challenge when they hadn't done any real training, not without walking out of the trial as a failure.

She could just imagine the smug face of… she was pretty sure it was 'Elios' or something, watching her leave the trial with her head down. Or Ilima shaking his head at her and discrediting her to Lillie, patronizing her with reasons as to why she had almost made it through the trial but came up short. In Kalosian.

Boy, spite sure is a good motivator for things.

"Fine, fine." Moon said, forcing her neck back upright and waving her hand. "I'm sorry for wanting to rush, I just… I dunno, I want to feel like I'm actually getting something done. I'm antsy for getting off the highway and into the island. Speaking of which." She stood up alongside Hau, stretching and yawning even louder than he did as it echoed beneath the highway and out into the open air. Lillie narrowed her eyes, clearly unimpressed with the both of them, but Moon just smiled.

She offered her hand to Lillie, who took it reluctantly as Moon pulled her up to her feet and they all began to shoulder their packs. "How do we even know the trial will be fighting against a trainer, anyway?"

"We don't, as a matter of fact." Lillie said as she fell into line between the two of them. "Each trial is apparently decided by the Captains themselves, and varies from each Captain respectively. But, as much as I detest the thought, battling in general seems to be undeniably intertwined with the Island Challenge. For you to go in ill-prepared in any regard will only hinder us in the long run, I suspect." They trudged out through the overgrown grass that tickled their calves while Moon picked up a green bottle wedged in the dirt, and glared up towards the overpass.

"Fair enough." Moon grumbled, slowly climbing up the hill towards even ground. The smell of diesel and something akin to rotted eggs was starting to get to her; why on earth did Route 2 have to follow the highway for half of the island? The sun was setting once more to their left as they followed the strip of grass beside the highway, and the stars were twinkling above like glistening eyes that grew bolder with each descending ray.

Moon hummed softly and stretched to look at a travel sign on the opposite end of the high. "So, if our smart-ass GPS is dead, how do we know where to go? I'd use my phone, but my cheap cell service only gets calls and text out here, no internet." Lillie reached toward her duffel, but the zipper was at the top over her shoulder, resulting in Moon watching with mild amusement as Lillie did several circles before giving up and letting out a sigh.

"We don't know that either, I suppose. Perhaps someone would be willing to stop and allow us to recharge him so that we may travel safely?" She looked to Moon with brief hope, and Moon didn't have it in her to tell Lillie that the chances of getting someone to pull over to let them use their cigarette lighter to charge her magic tablet was effectively non-existent.

So instead she simply smiled and replied, "I'm sure we'll find somewhere that'll have an outlet before it gets dark. I know we're not far from the berry plantation, but otherwise? Not a clue." The cars that drove with gentle roars that rose and fell as they passed had started turning on their headlights, and as Moon watched a jeep them by she felt a thought occur as the group fell into silence.

"Hau?"

"Sup?"

"I think yesterday you said something when we were leaving Hau'oli about still being allowed to use transportation in the cities?" Moon said, and Hau looked to her as a sign he was listening. "I didn't even think to ask, but like, are we not allowed to hitch rides or anything like that? Not that that's an entirely safe option, but you know…"

"Oh yeah, nah that's kinda… frowned upon." Hau nodded. "It goes against the integrity of the trial or something, kinda like how our folks aren't supposed to help us after the trial begins. You're supposed to keep it natural, though I guess you wouldn't be disqualified from continuing the challenge or anything, because the only way the captains or the kahuna would know is if someone tattled on you." He slowly turned back towards Lillie, and Moon mimicked him.

Lillie looked up at the both of them, frowning. "What? I wouldn't tell on you guys! Granted, I don't think we should break the traditions because those are really important, but I'm part of this too, even if I'm not a trainer. You can trust me." She looked a bit hurt from that, and Moon instantly fell back to nudge her with her shoulder, smiling. The divine urge to cheer Lillie up was not one Moon could resist, after all.

"Coolio, because boy do I have some secrets I need you to keep. Like the massive pound of drugs I've been carrying in my purse. Why else would I want to travel across the region?" Moon giggled and grabbed Lillie's shoulders, shaking her gently. "Since you're a part of this too, that makes you my drug lieutenant or something! Oh dude, imagine a crime spree across Alola! Peddling poisons, sharing stimulants, uh…"

"Marketing medications?" Hau suggested, cracking a grin. Moon snapped and pointed at him in acknowledgement as they chuckled to one another, while Lillie let out a low whine and tried to shake Moon off. She let out a "Hmph!" and crossed her arms, the rotom-dex hanging limply from her fingers as she scrunched up her face.

"I am not a criminal!" She pouted, but after a moment Moon saw a glint of a smile and knew she had broken through, if only a little. "Honestly! How can you two go from having a regular conversation to- to hypothetical crime sprees!? You're completely ridiculous, the both of you." Moon snorted, and Hau offered her a low five that she immediately took. Lillie rolled her eyes, but her little smile soon grew into a full blown grin as she pointed at Moon and playfully poked her in the shoulder. "But frankly, if I had to pick between the two of you, I would indeed guess you to be the one most likely to commit a crime."

"And frankly, I'm kinda flattered. Oh, what do you think my crimes would be? I'm betting reckless endangerment, but I'm open to suggestions."

And soon they were going back and forth deciding what laws Moon was most likely to break, and how severe her mounting sentences would be, and whether or not she could get away with each. It was a completely nonsensical conversation, the kind that only three friends could have after a long day of walking on sore feet and light bellies. They had just decided on how many life sentences Moon could receive for disturbing the peace (A respectable twelve.) when the stagnant lights of a building rose from the crest of a hill.

Sitting just beside the highway, and in front of a similar hill to the one they stood upon, was a single-story motel, small and unassuming with crumbling plaster walls and a parking lot that was laden with more cracks than the kintsugi cups Moon had seen in Kanto. Of the twelve rooms within the "L" shaped lodge, only four had cars parked outside. The sign that towered above them had a few bulbs that had blown out, but even in the fading light Moon could make out the words "Seashore Motel", and just below that on a white backdrop, "Free Wi-Fi".

"Nice, love me some free wiffy." Moon whispered. "If we can't get a charge, I can at least check where we are on my phone." She hadn't been to a motel since she had originally lived in Alola as a toddler, but the faint memories of sleepy car trips and shabby motels was a comfort to her in a strange way. The nostalgia of knowing those memories could never be replicated. Moon began to trudge down the hill and made to point it out to the others, only to quickly find herself barreling down toward the parking lot. Fast.

Before she knew it she had kicked off of the metal guard rail that separated the grass from the lot, landing with a sharp smack on the pavement before turning to see Hau and Lillie swept up in the same burst of speed that the slope had given her. She held her arms out as Lillie flailed hers, and carefully stopped her from tumbling over the rail while Hau slid on the grass to stop before he could crash. Lillie let out a relieved sigh, taking the hand Moon offered as she carefully climbed the rail and stared at the humble little roadside stop before them.

"Thank you. A 'motel', hm? I've heard of 'hotels', but I'm afraid the difference is lost on me. Do they have a way to charge Rotom?" Lillie asked, dusting the hem of her dress off. She was pondering it curiously, like it was a work of art at a museum that she didn't quite understand. Meanwhile Hau looked as though they had stumbled into a five-star resort instead of a modest highway motel. His eyes sparkled and he readjusted his pack with renewed vigor as he marched across the parking lot.

Moon glanced at Lillie with a smirk and a shrug. "Guess we'll find out, won't we?"

The lobby was cramped and dingy, filled with furniture that Moon felt would've looked out of place twenty years ago, much less today. There was also an underlying smell of tobacco despite the sign that clearly read, "NO SMOKING" right beside the front desk, and the little fan that sat atop of it did little but spread the smell around. Moon approached the empty desk, craning her neck over in the hope of spotting someone just out of view, but the adjacent hall was empty as well.

She glanced behind her to see Hau flipping through a rack of pamphlets while Lillie inspected herself in a gaudy mirror that had a few smudges visible in the light. Lillie tilted her head at her reflection, appearing dissatisfied, and began to adjust single strands of hair into position behind her ears. It took only a few moments to notice Moon watching her, and she quickly straightened back up with an embarrassed smile. Moon turned back to the counter, drumming her fingers on the edge when she spotted the recognizable metal dome of a miniature bell just behind the fan.

Haha, shiny clink-clink.

Moon tapped the bell with an audible drriing that echoed throughout the lobby. Almost immediately, a stout woman with a natural golden tan stepped out from the door down the hall, her salt and pepper hair flowing freely behind her as she peered over the counter at the three of them and gave a small click of her tongue.

"Alola, kamaliʻi." She said, though the gesture was drawn out and her voice unenthusiastic. She pulled open a notebook as they greeted her in return, and looked at Moon pointedly. "How long are we staying, hm?"

"Oh, uh no. We're not looking for a room actually." Moon said, and instead took the rotom-dex from Lillie. "We were wondering if you had, like, an outlet or something we could plug our oversized GPS into? Does this thing have an adapter? I don't even…" She turned it over, flipped it on its side, but before she could find a port the receptionist shook her head with a sigh.

"Ah, sorry dear, but bathrooms and outlets are for guests only." She shrugged. "It's house rules. Owner is very strict about these things. Very kapu." Moon frowned, and Lillie walked up beside her with her fingers over the counter's edge as she pulled herself up to her tip-toes.

"Please Miss, we're traveling on foot and are sure to lose our way if we do not have a map to follow. Perhaps we could pay a bit of money in exchange for an electrical outlet?" Lillie begged, and Moon was sure that her soft and gentle plea would secure them an outlet, despite the fact that paying for the use of an outlet seemed a little scuzzy to her. The receptionist shrugged again in indifference, leaning across the counter to meet them.

"If you were willing to pay a small convenience fee, I'm sure the boss wouldn't mind, no." She said, eyeing Lillie specifically. Moon rolled her eyes, pulling out her phone and clicking on the internet service symbol, only to be blocked by a password. She glanced up at the lady running the reception desk, who seemed to guess her next question and nodded knowling. "Internet is for customers only, dear, I'm really sorry."

Because of course it was.

Moon quickly found herself fed up with the grinding gears of bureaucracy and reached for her purse, because she knew that Lillie probably had less money than her or Hau, and she owed her for the lemonade regardless. She was stopped, however, as Hau pushed past her gently. He adjusted his pack, smiling brightly, and pushed Moon's hands back down.

"Howzit, aunty?" Hau said brightly, but the inflections of his voice had changed to the one Moon recognized from his talk with Elio in Iki Town. "Eh, da three of us actually be out on da Island Challenge; cruising up to our first trial at da end da route, yeah? We be staying pau with money though, them grindz down by da watah, makai? Mad prices. You can lend us one hand, maybe two, yah?" He leaned against the counter as casually as though he were a regular guest at the hotel, and simply smiled.

The woman raised an eyebrow, but when she looked down at Hau there was a sly smile on her face as though he were a grandson she was sharing a secret with. "Tink you slick, yeah nephew? Actin' tantaran for da wahine, huh?" She asked, and Hau merely beamed at her. She rolled her eyes and reached down below the desk, pulling up a sleeping charjabug that she set on the desk and motioned for the rotom-dex. Lillie handed it to her, and the receptionist inspected it confusedly for a minute before pulling out a wire embedded within the case's clasp.

Once she had finally connected it to the sleeping pokemon's teeth, she turned once more to the three of them with a tolerant look in her eye. Lillie was looking disconcertingly at the charjabug as though she wanted to say something, but she held her tongue and merely looked at the tiled floor.

"Anything else?". The receptionist asked.

"Yeah," Moon said as she stepped in front of Hau, "What's the difference between a hotel and a motel?" The receptionist raised an eyebrow at Moon, but must've realized she was being genuine because she stopped and scrunched up her face for a moment in concentration before teetering her hand in a middle-ground gesture.

"Motels, they be for the highway. Hotels are usually by airports, cities and the like." She answered. Moon nodded and turned to Lillie, who seemed mildly mortified that Moon had even asked. The receptionist sighed in a way Moon had heard her mother do many times as she looked over them all one more time. "Anything else, kamali'i?"

Hau shook his head. "Mahalo nui loa, aunty. We be back 'bout one hour." He flashed the shaka and motioned for Moon and Lillie to follow him back outside, as both girls gave quick waves to the receptionist and turned out the sliding glass door into the warm summer air once more. Hau turned the corner and began walking down the brightly lit cement sidewalk, the fluorescent street lights illuminating their path around the motel and towards a flattened strip of grass that led to another hill that rivaled the motel's rooftop.

The sun had dipped below the horizon and the yellows and oranges that reflected off the sea quickly turned to the dusky hues of indigo and dark teals, giving way to the shadows of the night like a curtain call. The extent of the street light's reach ended just before the slope of the hill, providing a decent amount of open space before descending into the dark that was only briefly lit up by passing headlights. From behind them, Lillie spoke up.

"Did she have that pokemon beneath the desk the whole time?" She asked nobody in particular. Moon and Hau swapped glances, shrugging at one another before turning back to Lillie.

"Dunno. Probably keep it there in case a couple of dorks like us come through." Moon shrugged. "Surprised it didn't cost just to look at the dang thing. Why do you ask?" Lillie did not answer however, be it because she didn't deem it important, or simply had decided against voicing her concerns. As Lillie fell silent, Hau grinned and turned back to Moon, and when he spoke his voice was back to normal as Moon usually heard it.

"Perfect, huh? It's early enough we won't bother anyone, and we're away from the motel just enough that we shouldn't have to worry regardless. Plus-" He turned mid-step and pointed at her for emphasis. "Plus, we have just enough time for a couple practical battles before Rotom should be charged, assuming the little guy charges as fast as my phone. See? I know what I'm doing." Far in the distance, sirens from the highway stirred up at what was likely a crash. Out of the corner of her eye, Moon saw Lillie tense up.

She snorted and kicked a patch of grass as they walked deeper into the flat patch of green. "Fair enough. What was with the whole… like the accent, the dialect? Did she really just let you charge for free because you're Alolan?" She didn't mean to sound envious or bitter, but a part of her was envious about it. Not because Hau saved them a couple of bucks, as nifty as that was, but because he was recognized as a local. "How do you even switch like that, anyway? You did it with Elio back at the festival, like your voice just completely changed."

Hau scratched the back of his head like he had been called out for cheating at a game, giving a limp shrug as she slung his backpack off of his back. "Oh, uh… yeah. Yeah, it's cause I'm local. It's called a 'kamaʻāina discount'. You see it officially in like, stores and big businesses even, hotels, that kinda stuff. Sometimes little local-owned businesses like this do it in a less official way, like not charging for the charjabug."

Moon's initial response was, That's not fair, but it felt childish and presumptuous of her. Something that a tourist would whine about, and by all the Tapu if her mother ever heard her talk like a tourist. Hau must've noticed the look on her face because he gave her a smile both sympathetic and embarrassed as he unpacked his pokeballs.

"It's mostly to help deal with prices that all the heavy tourism brings, you know? Tourists come and want to spend the big money, and locals gotta deal with the outrageous costs." He sighed as though he wanted to say more, but left it at an apologetic shrug. "Gramps could probably explain it better. Don't take it personally sister, it's not a dig at your or Lillie. If she had known you lived here-"

"Nah, it's all good." Moon interjected. She didn't want a pity party just because Hau had gotten special treatment and she hadn't. She hated pity parties in any capacity, at least for her. Moon pulled out her three pokeballs and latched them onto her belt. "I get it. Mom gets them most times, I just hadn't really been on the end of like…" She sighed, and started taking position opposite Hau for their practice battle. Talking was hard. "Anyway, what's it called when you talk like that, with the accent and everything? Like, it's not full Alolan cause I still understand it, but…"

"It's Alolan Pidgin." Lillie said matter-of-factly from between them. Both Moon and Hau turned to stare at her, and Lillie's confident smile slowly flickered under the gaze. "W-well, technically it is classified as a creole, but it is commonly known as a pidgin throughout the region." She looked between the two somewhat frantically as though waiting for some kind of approval or dismissal to her interjection, and when neither did the edges of her cheeks flushed themselves pink. "Why must you two stare at me whenever I say something, it's so very distracting and makes me feel as though I've said something unintelligent!"

Moon chuckled at her. "Just didn't expect it, that's all. Like we know you're a bookworm, but your lack of experience with everyday stuff means that we never really know what might or might not be common knowledge for ya." She tried not to sound insulting when she said it, but damn it all if every time she spoke to Lillie she didn't feel dumb in some manner. Perhaps that was simply the cost of speaking to someone far more intelligent than she was.

Lillie too looked as though she wasn't sure how to take it, and the leery look she gave Moon resulted in a sigh as she began to dig through her own duffel. "You forget that I was Professor Kukui's assistant for the past three months; I am not completely inept in terms of Alolan culture. That along with the fact my procedural memory was kept completely intact, as well as my semantic memory. I know how to tell time and speak, just like you. It's my episodic memory, my past, my personal history, that seems to have been affected by Nebby's transportation."

Moon raised an eyebrow at her. So what was life like before if you didn't even know what a school was like?

"Hold up, woah." Hau said, giving Lillie the 'time-out' signal. "The mysterious pokemon thingy you guys won't tell me about took your memories away?" Lillie looked as though she had swallowed a grubbin as her eyes bulged while frantically zooming across the grass for a response, and seemed to remember that she had been mad at Moon and Hau earlier that day as shel finally huffed and pulled a book from her bag and crossed her legs.

"I don't want to talk about it. Please, commence with your… battling." She spoke the last word as though it were profanity, and buried her face within the pages where neither of them could see. Hau and Moon looked at one another, shrugged, and passed one another as they took their places a little under a hundred feet from each other.

"So, how come you're so good at speaking pidgin and also like how I do?" Moon asked.

"Gramps thinks I'll be next kahuna." Hau rolled his eyes as he took a quick swig from a water bottle. "Wanted me to learn how to speak to anyone on the island from the time I was small, tourist or local."

"Ah, neat."

It was evident Lillie had personal secrets that she didn't want to share, and Moon respected that. They were all still getting a feel for one another, and it was apparent her mishap with Nebby from that morning had still irked her, even if she didn't say so. She really wanted to apologize properly and talk to Lillie, but somehow with all the time they spent walking right beside one another, she hadn't found the right time to do it. She sighed and did a little stretch before bringing out her ukulele, holding it over her shoulder with one hand as she released her first pokemon onto the field.

It was a sort of unspoken agreement that they'd pit their new catches against each other first. From the opposite end of their imaginary arena, Hau threw his pokeball high and let out the little yellow demon that had caused them such a stir earlier; the pichu landed softly in the grass and scratched at its ear a few times, looking around curiously. From out the corner of her eye, Moon saw Lillie bring her legs in a little closer, her eyes peeking warily from over the top of her book.

Moon held out her first pokeball, and from it came the excited hopping form of a rockruff as it materialized onto the grass before her. This one had been the whiner when they had stumbled across it that morning, but Moon had taken the time to take both him and his sister out to try and familiarize herself with them and vice versa during their lunch stops. Once she had started to play with them, she had found that the brother was both incredibly playful, and incredibly bitey.

It was after one incident of hearing him playfully growl like a chainsaw whenever she tried to take the stick away from him, only for him to pull so hard that he fell backwards, that she had decided on the perfect name for him. One that Lillie could only find a general fault in. ("Your naming schemes are nothing short of both puzzling and frightening, Moon.")

"Alright Kickback, ready for your first battle boy?" She asked, ruffling his bristly fur between her fingers as he gave a mighty shake like he was shaking off water. "Atta boy, I have no idea how we're gonna do this, but now's the time to figure it out!" Moon got her ukulele into ready position, her feet evenly spaced apart as she narrowed her eyes at her target across from her. Her focus was interrupted as Lillie spoke up from beside her.

"Are you… actually going to use them for battle?" She asked, though her voice held more concern than judgment. Moon glanced over at her with a look to signify she wanted an explanation, and Lillie looked away, back towards the highway. "It's just… isn't it cruel, to ask them to fight when they have so recently lost their brother?" It was when she looked back and they locked eyes that Moon understood: Lillie was asking her because she had experience in the matter.

Moon kicked the tip of her foot into the ground, and turned back to face Hau. "I've found that a distraction can do wonders when the heart hurts." And that was all she said. From the corner of her eye, Lillie slowly nodded; but she did not look away. It wasn't that Lillie was scared Moon would get her pokemon killed (She hoped not, at least.) but it was a matter of how the pokemon felt. It wasn't a perfect solution, and Moon knew that, but the fact of the matter was that there simply wasn't one. Not for this.

"Follow the beat, boy. Let's play."

Moon's eyes locked with Hau's, and she didn't need the pichu between them to see the sparks that were flying. She readied her ukulele and pressed her strumming palm to the strings – a neat little trick she was fond of that her neighbor, Ms. Ohtori, had taught her – and let out a few percussive strums to set the beat in the hopes that Kickback would pick up on it. Maybe she could get him to tap his paw, or wag his tail to the rhythm? Instead, he opened his maw and barked.

"Ruff! Ruff ruff, ruff!" Playful and boundless energy echoed through the empty lot, as Kickback didn't just bark to a single rhythm like Chlorine did, but at the beat she was setting with her percussive strums and taps. "Rrruff, ruff ruff, ruff!" Not perfect, he wasn't exactly on the beat, but his barks weren't too far from the mark. A little bit of practice and who knows what they could do?

Common time, one, two, three, four.

"Eh, let's try a tackle on him, Haupia." Hau batted his hand outwards in an almost lackadaisical manner, and the pichu zipped forward.

Oh that Hau, naming his pokemon after food, what a silly- OH SHIT IT'S FAST.

The term 'lightning-speed', while cliched, was terrifyingly accurate as the little electric mouse busted his head directly onto Kickback's. Both the rockruff and the pichu were thrown backwards from the impact, and Moon struggled to find her rhythm once more. Hau was trying not to smirk, and it was absolutely not working as Moon's fingers desperately hit the strings.

"Hop away, just like how you jump and play… but take it slow, and just try and match his tempo." Her fingers were like her commands, slow and deliberate so she could react to the battle accordingly. The pichu was fast, stupidly fast even, and she couldn't match it in a test of speed. So she was taking Ms. Emily's advice, and going on the defensive with a slower and softer tune… waiting for the moment she could up the tempo and strike.

"Ruff, ruff ruff!" Kickback hopped back and forth, snapping his jaws animatedly to Moon's melody. Hau's pichu tried another tackle, but Moon's beats were timed well, and this time the little rodent dashed right past her rockruff. Did she go in for the bite? It had zoomed a bit past Kickback, but if they were quick enough…

"Snap his tail, make him wail, twirl him 'round, without fail!" She urged her rockruff forward, but the change in the tempo was too fast. His barks didn't line up, and his paws stumbled just enough to trip him up and leave him helpless if only for a second. A second was all it took.

"'Ae, Haupia! Thundershock!" Hau called like a father cheering on his son at a little league game, and the pichu matched his excitement. Its cheeks were crackling with energy that had slowly been building since it had been released, and it raised its head skyward and let loose the cry that summoned a bolt of roaring electricity out of its body and directly into Moon's poor, vulnerable, rhythmless rockruff.

Which was a solid foot and a half away from it.

There was a thunderous boom that erupted, and Moon found herself blinking as the flash of lightning lit up their makeshift arena, the silhouettes of both Kickback and Haupia thrown in opposite directions like rockets. They rolled in the dirt and slowly came to a stop, whereupon Kickback slowly got to his paws and let out a few chipper barks as though he had merely stumbled. Haupia, however, remained in the dirt, and Moon didn't have to take a closer look to know that the little pichu had knocked itself out. Again.

"Oh yeah, rock types. Sturdy little bastards." Moon mumbled as she scratched her chin, glancing at her pokemon. "Totally forgot, heh. Hey, Hau? Think your 'mon knocked himself out again!" She gave Hau a smug little wave as her friend buried his head in his hands, letting out a groan loud enough that even she could hear it. He already had the ball in his hands as he crossed the distance to where his pichu sat face first in the grass.

"Man, you gotta be kidding me…" He muttered, kneeling down to press the ball to his pokemon. It disappeared into a flash of red light and he turned to give Moon an embarrassed grin. "You know, Lillie mighta been onto something. Can you imagine me taking that guy up to the trial? This little guy ain't got no self-preservation whatsoever, talk about… man, who is that?" Hau's face had dropped and he was no longer looking at Moon, instead his gaze fell behind her towards the highway. She turned, following his eyes towards a figure silhouetted by the dark of the night, transitioning from a jog into a full on sprint in their direction.

Moon felt her body freeze up.

He was running straight towards them, and as he passed beneath the streetlight Moon saw the face beneath the shadows: pale, masked, glistening with the sweat of sprinting. Over his shoulder was a duffel, practically stuffed to bursting. Lillie had seen him too, and as she stood she quickly backed up towards the motel, away from the man, away from Hau and Moon. The man stumbled for only a second, but it made his movements all the more disorganized and jerky. Then he turned towards Lillie, hand outstretched with a single finger pointed directly at her. His approach never wavered.

"Phone. Give me your- give me your phone, now! Give me your phone… YOU!" He ordered, his voice shaky but steadily rising as he pointed a dirty finger at Lillie. Lillie cried out as his hands wrapped around her wrist, and Moon's body went from frozen solid to melting fluidity in a second. Her ball released at the same time Hau's did, and never before had Chlorine the Popplio and Alonzo the Litten looked so intimidating as they bared their fangs and let out a dissonant howl at their foe. Perhaps they could hear from within their balls, or perhaps the feelings of their trainers could be sensed even through their metallic coverings. Regardless, the message was clear.

The man turned to them, as if only just remembering they were there. His free hand raised towards them now, as Lillie yanked her arm and pulled, grunting and begging incoherently as she slammed her fist into his wrist repeatedly. When he finally let go, she turned and scrambled through the grass before sliding behind Moon and Hau. The blood in Moon's body was pumping panilike a wildfire, and the feeling of confused panic was eating away at her sense of reasoning.

"I- I thought you looked… sorry, I-" He shook his head, and the gritty resolution in his voice vanished for just a moment.

Who is he, what does he want, is he gonna hurt us, is he dangerous, what's in the bag, what do we do? It made her head spin with a growing sense of nausea that was entirely unhelpful to the situation at hand. I'll beat him bloody.

"I- please, just give me your phone. Now! This is an emergency, come on!" He urged, and the panic in his voice mirrored the panic that she felt inside her. Beside her she could see Hau's determined expression, along with the shake of his arm as he held his ball outwards still. She was trying to think, trying to rationalize, trying to figure it all out, because this was obviously not a normal scenario. What even was this? It was the tauros all over again.

"Who are you, what's going-" She asked, her voice uncertain and weak, but the man pulled down the bandana that covered his mouth, eyes wide as his voice echoed throughout the empty lot.

"I don't have time for this- ONE OF YOU GIVE ME YOUR PHONE RIGHT NOW!" He roared, and his eyes flickered between them desperately while Moon recoiled from the sudden outburst. Lillie's breathing was growing faster behind her, her heart was speeding up and demanding she take action, and the sirens in the distance were growing louder.

Not louder, she realized. Closer.

All three of them seemed to have this same instant realization, because in a second they all stiffened as the man hurriedly turned around in the direction of the highway, looking back and forth for the flashing lights that followed him. Lillie's nails dug into Moon's wrist, her voice high and breathless as she hissed into her ear, barely distinguishable from babble.

"Moon, what- what if he- weapon?!" She asked, but despite the sound of the sirens, despite the pumping of blood in Moon's ears that was surely loud enough to be heard by all, Lillie's voice carried. It carried to the man, who had gone from shifting nervously and watching the highway to facing their pokemon once more, hesitance fading from his eyes and being replaced with sudden determination.

"Yeah, yeah I'm armed." He said suddenly, and his hand began to reach down to his belt that they could not see in the confines of dusk. "I'll leave you alone once you give me what I want, now give me one of your fucking phones, or else I'll-"

"FIRE FANG!"

"WATER GUN!"

It was a sudden cacophony of noise and light as Hau and Moon ordered their pokemon forward, with Alonzo speeding along the grass and sinking his teeth into the man's shin, and his cry of pain joined the din. His cries were just as quickly replaced by gurgling as a jet stream of water shot directly into his face, and then the man went down in a tumble. Another flash of light; another pokemon released as the pokeball rolled away from his hands, and suddenly a dark shape was flapping through the air, headed right towards them.

"Kickback, bite! No respite!" Moon sang without thinking. Her rockruff sped past from behind, leaping into the air to meet the zubat that had made a beeline for them. They too fell to the ground in a scuffle, biting and smacking at each other as the pokemon growled, the man cried out, and Moon began to circle their foe as she gently pulled from Lillie's grasp. He rolled in the grass, flailing wildly and screaming obscenities that made Moon jump, all while he tried to shake off Alonzo.

The little litten had managed to hold onto a raging tauros however, and Moon knew that no matter how intimidating, this man was nowhere as strong as Old Amoka. Chlorine was still circling the man, spraying his face at any available opportunity to blind and disorient, as Moon was instructing through quiet melodies and pointing. Once Moon had gotten close enough, she held a hand up for Chlorine and with her other hand raised her ukulele high like a bat.

"Call your zubat off. Call it off or I'll bust your teeth, dude!" She yelled, hoping that he couldn't hear the shake in her voice. She had never dealt with something like this. This was new, and this was scary, but she had to stay in control. "Raise your arms up, a-above your head or something, and we'll call off our pokemon. Now, asshole!" This was not the brave spirit of Mahina sailing to the riverbed. Her shoulders of all things were shaking, and her stomach was on the same wavelength as television static.

"I'm unarmed, I'm unarmed!" He cried out, raising shaking hands over his face."It was a bluff, it was a fucking bluff, I swear to God!"

"Call the zubat off! NOW!" Her sweat was slipping down onto the head of the ukulele. Would she be able to keep a good grip on it if she had to swing? She quickly glanced at his belt and didn't immediately see anything deadly, but who knew if he was being completely honest? The man murmured something she couldn't make out through the ringing in her ears, and the zubat tore itself away from Kickback, flecks of blood trailing across its left wing. Across from her, Hau was steadily walking over to where the man's ball had rolled away, and he quickly retrieved the zubat with it before stuffing it onto his own belt.

Alonzo was no longer latched onto the man, but instead sat at what was undoubtedly within biting distance of the burn hole he had left in the man's pants.

"Lillie?" Moon asked, not looking up from her overhead swing position. "Could uh, you… could you go inside and call someone? The cops? Please?" But Lillie was already sprinting back towards the motel. On Moon's right, Hau looked down at their assailant.

"Tink dey be on their way now, yeah?" He asked, breathless. His fingers dug into the bridge of his nose and he let out a long sigh, running his hands through his hair as he paced back and forth in obvious relief. Moon would not afford herself such a luxury. Instead she stared down at the man who was silently cursing and hitting his head against the dirt.

He was older than her, by far. Probably around Kukui's age, she reasoned, but his stubble was noticeable and he had bags under his eyes. Sandy hair slipped beneath the white beanie he wore, and she recognized the circular black markings on it from the clowns who had tried to take Old Amoka. Beside him, his black duffel bag lay slung in the grass, and the only thing that Moon could see poking out were slips of paper and cursive handwriting.

This wasn't your everyday back-alley mugger.

"What… what did you want our phones for?" Moon asked, and this time her voice did not come out nearly as strong. She forced the quaver out of her throat. "You coulda just asked to use one, instead of running at us like some kind of psycho-"

"Kid, just-" He let out a breath and moved his hand towards his eyes, but Moon's jerkiness as she nearly made him kiss her ukulele stopped him in his tracks. "Please just shut up, and let me mull over my failure in peace. That cool? Cool." He gave a sharp inhale that Moon recognized as one of pain, and then exhaled. In and out, much like she was doing. She didn't know what to say after a request like that, and so for once she abided and said nothing, waiting in silence as the sirens grew closer with each passing second.

"Man, shit. I'm so screwed." He grumbled, rolling back and forth. If he was going for pity, Moon wasn't entirely keen on giving it. "Fuckin' little blonde twit, shoulda came back and helped me."

After Hau ran to meet the two squad cars and an old four-door coupe that had been blaring along the highway, he returned with four police officers in tow as well as two people in suits that seemed somewhat out of place. If Moon was a guessing gal, she'd have said they were the owners of the duffel's contents. She could hear Hau explaining the situation to them, and two of the officers stepped into action, taking Moon's place as one assessed their assailant's leg while the other gently steered Moon away, and she finally lowered her ukulele. Her arms were aching.

The flashing lights and sirens had drawn the attention of the motel residents; she could see a couple figures peeking around the corner or standing outside their doors to watch it unfold; a teenager in a hoodie carrying a bag of groceries stared from the sidewalk, and she forced herself to look away. There were so many things happening at once that she felt herself being mentally tossed around as she slowly tried to back away from what was slowly becoming a crime scene.

"Dispatch, suspect has sustained a small but deep bite and third-degree burns on the shin. Requesting medical assistance. Over."

"... empty lot behind the Seashore Motel. No sign of the second suspect, gonna have officer MacReynolds patrol the shore. Over."

She kept backing up, taking a deep breath and waiting for all the noise to settle just a little bit, when she felt a hand gently press against her back. She jerked her head around to find one of the suited individuals, a woman with a long wavy ponytail the color of lavender, giving her a gentle smile as she stopped their collision.

"Easy there. You're alright." The woman soothed. She was pretty, Moon thought, even with her formal attire there was an air of lightness about her even in a situation such as this. Her eyes had the unique quality of being soft, but with a hidden sharpness beneath the irises that reminded Moon of her mother. This was a sharp contrast to the man standing next to her, with a stern demeanor and dark bristly hair that didn't move as the wind blew in from the shore.

One of the officers that had been speaking with Hau, who was now sitting in the grass and petting his litten, turned and raised a hand in greeting to Moon as he approached. "Hey sweetie, I'm Sergeant Yamamoto with the Hau'oli Police Department. I was wondering if you would be okay giving a statement about what happened?" He whipped out a notepad and pen only for the radio on his shoulder to let out a loud ring that caused both him and Moon to recoil. He grimaced, grabbing it and speaking quietly into the receiver.

The woman behind Moon smiled. "Anything we can do to help, Sergeant? " She asked, her tone innocent. The sergeant sniffed and mumbled into his receiver again before turning to the suited woman and nodding.

"Uh, actually yeah. Pinap is freaking out about whatever it was this guy got a hold of, and since we're the ones who were already on the scene they want us to go looking for the second suspect pronto. It'll take longer for any other available units to get up this way otherwise." He sighed and rubbed tiredly at his face. "If you wouldn't mind getting a statement from her, that'd save me time – we've already got one from the other kid. Just, make sure their stories match and send them home, or whatever." Without so much as a dismissing wave, the sergeant turned around and returned to where the other two officers were hoisting up Moon's attacker.

Well screw you too, buddy, I did your job for you, Moon grumbled internally. The woman however gave a respectful bow of the head to the sergeant, jerking her head for Moon to follow as they stepped away from the scene which gave Moon a welcome reprieve from all the back-and-forth of the officers. The woman and the man led her a good fifteen feet off whereupon she turned once more to face Moon,

"Sounds like you've had the rough of it, dear." The woman murmured. Her posture was loose, a far cry from the rigidity of the man beside her, who'd yet to say a word. "Is it okay if we ask you some questions about what happened, get down your version of things?"

"You're not cops." Moon's gaze flicked between the two of them and her eyes narrowed. Surely not even the highest rank of any police force she knew of, and admittedly that number was very few, would allow for such a different state of dress amongst their officers? A trimmed suit, a three piece under an overcoat; this was not Alolan-friendly attire. The woman exchanged a glance with her second, and after a light shrug she turned back to Moon.

"Would you prefer it if we were?" She asked, her voice now lying beneath a hint of caution. Moon thought about it for a moment before finally shaking her head; definitely not. The woman nodded at this and leaned against the squad car as though it were her own and gave a brief smile. "In that case, no. We're not officers, we're investigating a separate issue and are currently working alongside Alolan police. Think of us as… we'll go with 'detectives'. Sound good?"

It wasn't like Moon knew enough about police forces or anything of that nature to say otherwise, but it was still… odd. There wasn't anything damning or obviously wrong about it, but it still just struck her as unnatural and because of that she felt a need to put her foot forward and try to even the field. Granted, this wasn't exactly how a witness statement was supposed to go down, but they'd already clarified they weren't regular police officers, so she felt she had that to leverage on.

"Before I give you my name, what are your names?" She asked. The woman's only sign of surprise was the brief raise of her brow, but she quickly whipped out a little notepad and a pen that she held with an audible click, despite the commotion. She twirled it between her fingers and pointed it towards the tall man standing beside her.

"This is my lieutenant, Agent Looker." As she introduced him, Agent Looker glanced down at Moon and gave her the ghost of a smile. "And I'm Agent Chase, but you can call me Anabel if that makes you feel a bit more comfortable. So, would you be okay with telling us your name, and everything that happened leading up to where we are now?" Her tone wasn't indifferent or hurried, but rather patient and nonplussed by the entire situation as though it were merely an appetizer to her fancy dinner.

Moon was a girl of her word however; she gave them her Alolan name and her common one. She told them she was practicing for her trial with Hau when the man came out of nowhere and immediately ran towards them. She described his frantic and almost feral-nature, how he had grabbed Lillie's hand and continuously yelled for her phone-

"Wait, you said this girl's name was Lillie?" Agent Looker spoke finally, and the softness of his voice surprised her. Frankly she had been expecting a gruff and hard voice since to her he looked like a, pun intended, dick. His eyes did a quick scan over the empty lot and back towards the road, and when they returned to meet Moon's she found there was a surprising keenness to them. "Who might this 'Lillie' be? Is she still here?"

Agent Chase leaned forward. "Can you tell us what she looks like?" Her lax and carefree attitude suddenly shifted into one of interest and focus. If there was one thing Moon had unfortunately gotten the hang of, it was noticing the little changes in demeanor that people had when it came to talking. Like when people told her she could talk about her father and how he died, except when she did they got uncomfortable, they would avoid eye-contact, and if their eyes did meet they would be constricted. Awkward. Disinterested.

But then when she would change the topic, talk about something happier or sillier to take away their discomfort and make them feel better, the eyes grew. They always dilated when they shifted subjects into something more pleasant, something they were actually interested in talking about. She'd come to learn that it was universal; the eyes didn't lie when you caught someone's actual attention. Here, in this moment, she had done just that, but unintentionally. It unnerved her in a way, because of all the pieces that suddenly clashed into place like a magnetic chess board.

Detectives, huh? That means they're going to be looking at my face as much as I am theirs. She shrugged her shoulders, and stuck her chin up a little higher as she met Agent Chase's stormy gray eyes. Lying had become an easy thing for her, especially when it came to herself. But lying to the police? To detectives- or agents? Wait, what the hell kind of detective calls themself an agent? There was something intrinsically inside of her that told her she should tell the truth, especially to someone with authority.

But a promise she had made burned brighter.

"Brown hair, kinda short and cropped. Big ol' blue eyes. Definitely local" She said in earnest, keeping eye contact as made a flat motion with her fingers. "I met her at the Iki Town festival and we were just chatting for a bit cause we crossed paths on Route 2 – then that guy showed up and she ran off. Probably got really spooked, hope she's alright." She stood on her tiptoes, looking past the two as if she hoped to see her make-believe friend just beyond the lot.

This brings up the real question, where IS Lillie? She's not come out of the motel yet…

Both Agents Anabel and Looker looked at one another again for only a moment, and Anabel shook her head. Did they believe her? What would she do if they didn't? Finally Agent Looker sighed, and mumbled something to Anabel that Moon couldn't hear. She gave her partner a small nod, and a soft, "Worth a shot." before turning back to Moon.

"Glad as we are that your friend is okay, there is something we'd like to ask you. You were at the Iki Town festival, you said? Maybe you've seen this girl?" And then, Agent Chase held out a picture that she pulled from within her suit. Had Moon not already prepared herself for maintaining her expression and emotions, she surely would have given herself away in that moment. The face that stared back at her was Lillie's, but it wasn't this that surprised her. It was the fact that it was a smile she had never before seen on her.

It was unburdened, and it was beautiful.

"You recognize her." Agent Looker said. It wasn't a question. Moon silently cursed herself, knowing she had accidentally let her surprise show if even for a moment. These were professionals, they knew how to read people better than she did, that was for sure. Flat-out lying would be risky, and she wasn't even entirely sure they had bought the "Other Lillie" story she had given them. She had to keep a hold of her lie, but she needed some truth in there somewhere.

"Yeah, actually. Saw her at the festival in Iki." Moon scratched her chin, but gave a little shrug. She loved shrugging, who could blame someone for being unsure, ever? "She was pretty stand-offish though, so I didn't exactly hang around her much. Is her name 'Lillie' too?" She looked between the two, both to wait for an answer and to see how her lie had come across. The resignation that Anabel wore was a good sign, or at least she hoped it was.

"It is indeed. We're actually looking for her right now, as we believe she might have stolen something of significant value from a local research facility." Anabel nodded seriously. "It's our belief that she might be working for a larger group, possibly a gang, and acting on their instructions. She could frankly be in incredible danger without realizing the consequences, and it's very important that we find her before she gets hurt." Anabel looked to Moon, and Moon looked back.

Moon wondered if she knew, if deep down she knew Moon was lying and was trying to warn her. To test her. It was too bad for this detective that she hadn't bothered to study.

"Dang, that sucks. I've not seen her since Iki, but I'll definitely keep an eye out." She lied. Anabel sniffed, stuck the photo back into her suit pocket, and nodded. 'What uh, what'd she steal anyway? Was it like a capsule of engineered super pokerus, or…?" Anabel flipped back through her notepad, exchanging a brief chuckle with Agent Looker who shook his head. It seemed as if the realization their quarry wasn't here had allowed them to act like humans again, as opposed to bureaucratic robots.

"I'm afraid we can't really give that information out." Agent Looker said, rubbing his nose with his thumb. "But I think we can safely tell you that, no, it was not 'super pokerus'." He let out another chuckle, another crack in the facade. "But I think you should be warned that this young lady is reported to have stolen something from a poke-physiology laboratory down in Hau'oli. It was a sort of modified poke-dex, with a pokemon inside of it, and we suspect she plans to-."

"That aside," Anabel cut in, giving Agent Looker a stern look, "If you happen to see her on your travels, we ask that you contact the police immediately, but don't directly approach her. Leave that to the professionals. We currently believe she may be headed up around the island, so any help at all you can give, we'd be grateful – for her sake, and for ours."

At that moment there was a slight scuffle from behind them, and they turned in unison to see the man who had tried to attack Moon shouldering against the police as they shoved into the back of the cruiser. Unsurprisingly, the man in handcuffs was quickly out-shouldered, and he cast a final dark look towards Moon before seemingly accepting his fate in the backseat. Moon tried to resist the urge to put up as many rude gestures as she could remember, as she felt it probably wasn't appropriate in front of members of authority.

Then she remembered she didn't really care about that, and decided to give him a solid thumbs-down. Why insult him when she could express her utmost disappointment?

"Ahem." Anabel coughed in a way that was somehow still polite despite being an obvious callout. It wasn't quite motherly, but still trying to remain friendly. Sisterly, perhaps. "Is there anything you can tell us about what's happened here, Miss Kanoa, or is that about the gist of it? I'm sure you'd like to put this behind you as soon as possible." Moon couldn't quite tell if she was trying to get out of having to take her statement since she didn't have any information about Lillie, or if she could just tell that in some way, somehow, dealing with the police hadn't been on her to-do list that night.

"Oh uh, nah. That's really about everything I remember. Everything else was kinda fast, and Hau flagged you guys down after we had our pokemon take him down." The adrenaline of the entire evening was starting to finally die down now, but a sudden thought jolted her with a bolt of panic. "You're not gonna call my mom, are you? Because I kinda haven't called her since I started this and she's gonna have me come home if the first call is from the police."

Anabel chuckled and shook her head, flipping her notebook closed. "Considering you're unharmed, and helped us catch one of our culprits, I think that's a fair request." A sharp but brief whistle rang from the other squad car, and Anabel turned to see the sergeant giving a hand signal to wrap things up, twirling his fingers in a circular motion as he climbed into the driver's seat. Anabel sighed and mumbled something about the "principle of due diligence" before turning back to Moon with one last small smile.

"Well, that's all from us. Look, if nobody else says it, thank you for your involvement. Kids like you shouldn't be dragged into stuff like this, but you were, and we can't take it back." She bit her lips and looked off to the side for a moment as though struggling with her words, before finally meeting Moon's eyes with her own. "All we can do is thank you for stepping up, and apologize that we let you down."

With that, she gave Moon a pat on the shoulder and turned away. Agent Looker followed behind her, turning to give Moon a simple, "Call your mother sometime." as the both of them hopped into their old coupe. It started up and rumbled off onto the highway, following the police cars as they left Moon in the abandoned lot beside the motel. The entire world felt much more quiet in that moment, and the peace clashed unnaturally with the dreaded silence of being alone once again.

Or at least, it did until a pair of bright orange sandals flopped through the grass beside her. She turned to see the familiar sight of Hau, hands stuffed into his pockets as he watched the highway with her for a brief moment. They glanced at one another with matching expressions of mental and physical fatigue as they both took in a breath, and let it out in the form of a long sigh. Without a word, they both turned and started walking towards the motel. Neither had to speak to know the other wasn't in the mood to continue their training.

And I need to find Lillie, like, right now.

The silence didn't last long as they wrapped around the corner of the Seashore Motel, hopping onto the cement as it met the grass. Hau glanced over at her.

"Can't believe we made all those jokes and then actually ran into the police." He mumbled, and Moon found herself smiling slightly as she shook her head. "You sure Tapu Koko didn't give you some weird future sight when he saved you?"

"Honestly?" She said, "That'd be pretty neat. Not my first choice of a divine boon, mind you, but neat. For my next prediction, I see us all finding warm beds and twenty-thousand bucks. And some food, because Mew on a malasada I'm starving dude."

"See, if you had actually been carrying a pound of drugs, that wouldn't be an unreasonable prediction."

"Ah, touché."

They stepped into the cool, tobacco-smelling air of the lobby and looked around; Moon was surprised to see the receptionist was still at her desk, with the blinds looking out towards the highway suspiciously bent open. The receptionist herself on the other hand didn't seem surprised to see them at all, and gave the both of them a look that clearly said she wasn't sure whether or not she should allow two kids who had called the cops within thirty minutes of being on the premises into her establishment. Non-paying ones at that. Regardless, she straightened up and crossed her hands as she put on what could only be described as a strained smile..

"Alola, kamaliʻi. Should I ask why I've had police behind my motel for the past half hour?" She asked, eyes darting between the two of them. Moon ignored her and noticed that both the charjabug and rotom-dex were missing. Her eyes narrowed. From beside her, Hau gave a half-hearted chuckle and shrugged with his hands behind his head.

"E kala mai mākou, auntie. Got one lolo guy runnin' from da cops, came from the berry plantation. He wanna rip off with our phones o' sometin'." He explained. Moon looked around the lobby, but it was just as empty as when they had come in earlier. She stepped in front of Hau and looked at the receptionist, nodding towards the empty desk.

"Uh, eh auntie, you seen our, uh… da kine, wahine?" She asked, trying to enunciate like Hau, but she'd barely finished speaking when Hau put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head like a disappointed parent. It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling.

"No, no don't… don't do that." He murmured. His eyes flicked up towards the receptionist apologetically, who merely rolled her eyes in an unimpressed manner; something else that Moon wasn't unfamiliar with. Her sight leveled on Moon and she pointed to a plain looking door at the end of the room on their side of the counter. It sat behind a dusty cloth wall-divider, and had a plaque reading "STAFF ONLY" nailed to the front.

The receptionist sighed. "Your friend came in and begged to use the bathroom a while ago, took that tablet with her. If you need to use it, you'll have to wait for her… I won't make you pay since she already did, and it sounds like a rough night, eh?" With that she pulled out a small pack wrapped in cellophane and walked off towards the door behind the counter. "I'm on break, kamali'i. Be good." The door shut behind her, and Moon turned to give Hau a look.

He shrugged in a way that very simply said, What do you want me to do? And the two of them walked towards the opposite end of the lobby where the bathroom was. Moon didn't hear any movement from the other side, and gave a couple light knocks when she remembered what the so-called "detectives" had told her. She turned to look at Hau once more, who was decidedly not interested in Moon's silent suggestion..

"Nah, don't look at me. I'll eat pyukumuku meat before I go into the wahine bathroom. Now that is kapu." He said with hands raised in avoidance. Moon rolled her eyes.

"It's a staff bathroom, dude. Staff is gender-neutral. Probably." But she understood where he was coming from. Sorta. She didn't really want to walk in on Lillie either, albeit for different reasons. What was she worried about, that Lillie was secretly some kind gang member? As if she was going to attack her the moment she opened the door? That was stupid, unfounded, and probably a little insulting to her own intelligence, minute as that was.

'Leave it to the professionals', yeah right. I'm the most professional girl approacher there is, bub. With newfound determination, Moon gave a couple more knocks, firmer this time, against the bathroom door to a little melody.

"Lillie? You in there-"There was a sudden thwack! that seemed to echo throughout Moon's skull as well a flash of lights and colors as she suddenly found herself on the lobby's tiled floor. Her head ached something fierce, and she found herself clutching at her nose as warm liquid began to dribble down against her lips. All of her senses were swimming, and she mumbled something so incomprehensible that she didn't even know what she'd said.

It was probably something that would've grounded her had she been in front of her mother.

Hau's voice was the most distinct thing she heard, talking urgently to someone else that she couldn't see. After a moment's pause he let out a long-winded hiss and she made out his blurry silhouette leaning over her.

"Dang, she got you good, sister. Man, and you wanted me to open that door. Come on, you good?" He grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her up, and no sooner had she found her balance had something else slammed into her. This one was admittedly much softer, warmer, and did not cause her nose to gush blood like a broken faucet. Lillie's arms held her steady, pressing the two together as stinging sniffles buried themselves into Moon's shoulder, and beneath sharpened breaths were the same words, repeated over and over.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" Lillie whispered, and it was the closest she had ever been to Moon. "I t-thought you were someone else, I'm so sorry…"

"Lillie, 'm gettin' blub on your dress." Moon mumbled, wiping the blood from her lip. Lillie stiffened, her hands slowly lifting up from Moon's back as she turned from Moon's shoulder to her own. It was like an internal conflict was waging behind those emerald green eyes, and Moon silently wished she hadn't said anything at all, selfish as it sounded. Lillie sniffled again, slowly looking more distressed that neither of them had any napkins as she looked around for anything they could wipe with.

Hau grabbed a few coffee filters off of a nearby counter and dispensed them to both girls. Moon tried to stop Lillie from wiping the blood from her nose, insistent she could get it herself, but her friend wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. After a moment of tear-wiping, blood smudging, and nose blowing, Hau clapped Lillie on the back with a sympathetic smile glowing on his face.

"Man, that mugger had you shook, eh?" He chuckled, giving her shoulder a squeeze as he slowly herded them away from the lobby and towards the door. Moon understood, not wanting the receptionist to see them risk trailing blood anywhere either. Lillie nodded, but said nothing as they walked out into the warm night air once again. She wouldn't look at Moon either, no matter how much she tried to meet her eyes.

Because it wasn't the mugger you were scared of, was it?

As appealing as the prospect of sleeping in a motel room with beds and walls were, especially after the night's events, they all agreed that their money was a frugal thing that would have to last them until they could sufficiently win a few battles. Lillie took out the rotom-dex, and the look of disappointment on her face didn't slip by Moon. After a moment of her tapping away, she informed them there was a nice looking clearing not too far from the motel, so they traveled down the route for another twenty minutes until they found the spot pinned on Lillie's satellite app.

The clearing itself beneath a hill overlooking the highway. Despite their exhaustion and the decent weather, they set up the tent at the foot of the hill with the silent understanding that nobody really wanted to sleep alone after what had happened. There was a light tension in the air as they finished off the last of the hot dogs, but nobody felt like talking. Even Moon, who desperately wanted to talk to Lillie, couldn't find it in her to bring it up.

Hau turned in almost immediately, declaring that between the pichu, the burial, the training, and the mugging, he really needed a good night's rest. Who could blame him? After dinner the three of them took turns slipping into the tent to change. Moon had finished changing into a black band-shirt that she used as nightwear and some loose pajama shorts that suited her well in the warm temperature, and as she came out so that Hau could go in, she noticed one of their party was missing.

"Where's Lillie?" She asked, craning her neck up. Hau, who had another tank top and board shorts slung over his shoulder, shrugged and pointed towards the hill.

"Went up there, I think. Something's eating her, but I don't think we're close enough for me to pry, so…" He gave her an awkward sort of shrug that she completely related to, and moved to head into the tent. "She uh, she's… man, she is flat-out the weirdest tourist I've ever met. But like, not in a bad way, you know? She's got everything that would make you think she's stuck up or snooty, but she's really respectful. 'Bout Alola, people, you name it." He sighed and scratched his head, giving it a shake.

Moon nodded in understanding. "It makes you want to help her, doesn't it? Even though she barks at us sometimes, she's… fricking, what's the word? Enduring? No, uh… endearing! That's it." They shared a brief chuckle, and just as Hau was about to creep inside he pointed straight at Moon's nose.

"Hey uh, you still got the uh, da kine-"

"What? Oh, right. Mahalo, brother." She pulled the rolled up coffee filter out from her nose, which had thankfully stopped bleeding by now, and Hau bid her goodnight while stuffing a half-eaten hotdog bun into his mouth. He closed the tent flap shut behind him, and Moon turned to stare through the foliage where the top of the hill was. After a moment, she grabbed her ukulele and left her pokeballs in her purse by the tent; her little goblins had more than earned a good night's rest. Instead she slowly made her way past the trees to where the slope led.

Her bare feet crinkled in the grass, and she trudged up the slope as a slight glow took from over the crest from afar, and she clambered over the top to find a beautiful sight waiting before her. There she found Lillie, sitting with her legs crossed and a small bundle of purple and blue dozing in her lap that Moon recognized as Nebby. In the distance, past the lights of the highway, there was the glow of several yellow lights strategically placed around what might've been hedges and a large building, but the darkness of the night swallowed those shapes up beyond recognition.

A slow wind blew, tussling their hair and whipping Lillie's hat gently as she stared off into the darkened hills of Alola. Moon didn't want to startle her, and purposefully made her footfalls heavy as she approached until Lillie turned and spotted her. Lillie gave her a soft, tired smile as she brought a finger up to her lips and motioned down towards Nebby. Moon nodded, making sure her steps were much lighter as she took her spot beside Lillie, and for a moment the two of them said nothing. They simply stared out into the night sky as her namesake floated lightly above them.

After a few minutes, Moon glanced over at Lillie, and was relieved when their eyes were allowed to meet this time.

"Can't sleep?" Moon guessed, and Lillie nodded.

"More or less. I try to make sure this one gets to sleep first, otherwise he gets scared." Lillie murmured, rubbing her fingers tenderly over the puffballs that sprouted from Nebby. "He senses my distress, I think, and has been having a hard time sleeping lately because of it. Seems like it takes longer and longer for him to relax." She hummed softly, but her eyes left Moon's for only a moment. "What about you, are you not tired after today's events?"

"Nah." Moon partly lied, rolling one leg over the other and leaning back on her hands. "I'm prone to bouts of insomnia myself, unfortunately. Was real bad when I was younger, but it's starting to come back again." She sighed and watched as the flickering light of a plane darted between the stars overhead. Lillie nodded solemnly.

"I'm very sorry to hear that. I know the feeling well." She said, and Moon did not doubt her. After a moment, Lillie leaned forward and pointed off towards the glowing lights in the distance. "Moon? What are those lights for, if I may ask? They look like they're lighting something up, but they're too dim and I cannot make it out from here." Moon looked back towards the glowing lights across the hedges far in the distance, and chuckled.

"Oh, that? Think that's the Pinyap Plantation. Big ol' berry farm that's got history on Alola. I think my mom told me it used to be a big deal, but a lot of the locals have bad blood with it, and now it's just a tourist attraction… like everything else on Alola." She grumbled the last part, shrugging her shoulders as the winds of indifference blew past her. "I swear, if the entirety of the journey is like this, just blowing past tourist trap after tourist trap, digging past highways just to find my culture… I'm gonna be really peeved, man."

Lillie chuckled, but it fell flat as she stared down at the ground. "I see. The world is so much bigger than I imagined. Alola holds so much beauty, and yet I feel like there is much of that beauty that has been strangled, restrained and hidden away in the wake of… convenience. I wonder if the rest of the world has this shameful sadness to it as well." She sighed again, and looked at the grass that waved against her ankles. "I would like to see all that I can, while I can."

Moon let out a breath through her nose. She didn't have any words for that.

"Tell me, have I… been a bad friend?" Lillie said, and there was a familiar hint of uncertainty and nervousness that so often seemed to dot her words. Before Moon could answer, Lillie continued, turning away. "I feel I do an unnecessary amount of lecturing, as well as interjecting things that are probably not relevant to people like you and Hau. I am snappish, and just… in general, not the person I would like to be. I hope you do not think less of me, and I am so very sorry… for, well, everything."

Moon thought about it for a moment, and slowly pulled her ukulele out from beside her and plopped it atop her lap. At Lillie's unsure gaze she held a hand up to show she wouldn't play it loud enough to disturb Nebby, and gave it a few precursory test strums.

"Aside from nearly breaking my nose? You're good." Moon promised with a light chuckle. "I've not been a great friend either, but we're still learning right? We're still new to this, the both of us." A few plucks, a strum here. Oh yeah, she knew what she wanted to play now. "You were mad because we almost lost Nebby. That's fair, even if it was harsh. I hope you can learn to trust us again. Not just with watching Nebby for a few minutes, but with telling Hau about Nebby. And tell me why you're so scared of sirens and the police."

Lillie balked, turning with wide eyes to face Moon. "I'm not- why would you suggest-" But Moon shook her head.

"It's alright." Moon said, and she truly meant it. "No, seriously, I know you have secrets. That's okay, because I do too. I hope that one day, we'll both be comfortable sharing them. I hope I can be a good enough friend that you don't feel like you have to carry whatever this is alone." And she left it at that, scooting into a comfortable position while Lillie's open-mouth stare slowly turned back to the grass. Moon smiled.

"Can I play you a song?" She asked suddenly, disregarding everything they had talked about up to that point. "It's this old Unovan lullaby that shows up in my recommendations online, sometimes, and I like to listen to it whenever I get sleepy." Lillie looked at her, almost incredulously, but slowly nodded while seemingly relieved at the change in topic.

"I suppose… I do not often get to hear you play, outside of your little battle melodies. So, yes." A small smile grew upon her face, and it was the best kind; a genuine one. "I think I would like that very much right now. What is it called?" She looked down to Nebby to make sure he was still asleep, and then scooted an inch closer to Moon, much to the latter's delight.

"Uh, something like 'An Unwavering Heart'? I think? I think. I don't know, it's something sappy like that." She closed her eyes and felt the melody rise through her, quietly begging to be let out like it came from the very ground she sat upon. As her fingers moved down to the strings of her beloved instrument, Lillie spoke again from beside her, and when she peeked open an eye to look at her she saw she was staring skywards towards the heavens, the stars, and the moon shining down upon the both of them.

"An unwavering heart… what a gift such a thing would be. Can you imagine?" Lillie whispered, and Moon's fingers hit the strings as the gentle melody sprouted forth between them. It was calm and loving, soft and sad, and it spiraled up into the endless black sky high above them. Lillie listened, Moon played, and Nebby sat in what was clearly his favorite spot completely asleep. It was a peaceful moment in the midst of two crazy lives that were slowly starting to intertwine, and they were so distracted by their reprieve that neither one noticed the rotom-dex on Lillie's opposite side light up momentarily as a notification took up the screen.

For a brief moment, a message could be seen before the screen went dark once more.

(User) Lillie: Professor, please, you have to help. You cannot just leave. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I can't do this anymore, I never could. Please. Please. You're an adult, you are supposed to help with these things!

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Strum, pluck-pluck. Strum, pluck-pluck.

"Maybe one day, we'll both know."