Hau's finger traced down the list of classes. A long sigh escaped him.

  Inside the southern Heahea pokecenter, on a set of fliers on a corkboard by the wall, a schedule of short courses were made available for all. As a Trial-goer we had free access to most of the beginner-level classes, and already a few of the more coveted ones had been entirely filled up for the week (Baby Pokemon Care, Training Techniques 101, Pokespeech & You).

  Lillie and her Clefairy already had a reservation for a specific course (Field Healing Basics), Kahuna Hala's 'punishment' for the desperate medical care she had provided Hau back in the Melemele Jungle. 'He's not technically wrong,' she had told me. 'My healing license doesn't extend to the Alolan isles– doing this class won't exactly give me the green light but it will at least be a refresher!'

  We had made our way through the winding pathways of Heahea, through cramped markets and busy streets, to finally reach the city's pokecenter – or rather, one of many, because the city was so spread-out that it needed pokecenters by the dozen. Before we left for the rest of our journey, we had a lot of things to prepare– and we would have to stay in Heahea long enough for Lillie to do her classes. Might as well occupy our time.

  "I don't know, girls, none of these classes really speak to me," Hau sighed out. "I might just skip this one and hit the local training center." At his feet, Loa the Torracat gave an anxious flick of the tail, her claws flexing on the carpet floor.

  Then Hau gave me an odd look, and said "...Hey, you heard from the others yet?"

  I answered, but couldn't meet his eyes. "Nuh-uh."

  "Alright," and Hau just shrugged, slinging his bag over his back.

  My pokegear felt like a cold weight in my pocket.

  It had been just over a week and a half since I had talked with the group we had travelled with on route 3 – Tuula, Rui and Sawney. A little longer since I learned that there was a group convo for people in school that I wasn't invited to, and even longer since I had spoken to anyone in class, really. When Hau turned around entirely and I left his sight, I let out a shuddering sigh.

  I held up my Oddish to the flier, reading out the course names one by one. Anything coveted was totally filled up. Any practical or physical course seemed already taken. The literary classes weren't really Petal's cup of tea yet, though we could look into one that would help teach Pokemon how to read– though instead, they tapped a leaf to the paper at a familiar course.

  "That's the course that Lillie and Stella are registered to." I blinked in surprise. Petal quickly nodded, feet dangling under them. Their leaves pointed at the class then at my chest, signing out [Good].

  I felt Lillie's interest piqued as she shuffled a little closer, my Oddish tapping the paper for emphasis.

  The day after we arrived at Akala, we went right back to school.

  In some ways, sitting at a desk in a classroom was comforting. I was with a friend, I could sit and listen and take notes, I was focused on a task. I was focused because the teacher had said we would do exercises, and exercises had the implication that there would be a test and I would like a good grade please and thank you.

  In some other ways, this was unlike any school I had been to. There were not just teens my age but older kids and adults too, and nearly all of them had their partner ′mon out of its ball– a coughing teen had a Comfey around their neck like a choker, fretting over their hair; a Popplio balanced a berry on its nose as her bored-looking trainer checked her phone; a Chimecho floated over an older man letting out the faint sound of bells.

  There were so many cool Pokemon hanging out their trainers here– it was probably for the best that I didn't talk to any of them.

  Our teacher was a mature woman with a half-cut hairdo, her hair-dyed in the style of Saint Joy. For a few hours, we'd been given a very traditional lecture with graphs and charts, numbers and bullet points. The history of how field medecine evolved; what techniques had been common in the past that turned out to be mistakes; simple remedies that had stood the test of time to this day.

  And so the first class had been nothing but a lesson on what not to do, on precautions and prerogatives, tools and practices. An intense insistence that to learn assisted healing was the process of a lifetime, not a three-day course, and that the best we could learn from the class was the bare minimum needed for a teen on their Island Challenge.

  My nocturnal plant had stayed up the first hour but no longer.

  The second day after we arrived at Akala, we went right back to training.

  Cities like these had arenas of all kinds and sizes at every corner. Here, each center had its own parking space on one side and its own fighting space on the other; public parks had their own dedicated arenas (not that that stopped trainers from dueling on the grass); and sometimes you'd see two wild mons have a scuffle in an empty alleyway because Pokemon never stopped fighting ever.

  Not far from the center we were staying at, a small gym was made available for trainers to practice in– this one had distinct Kantoan roots, a mostly wooden building in an otherwise stone town.

  The sound of exertion and the smell of sweat permeated the gym, an open-air room with a large recessed indoor field of sand and grass. In the center, Pokemon could train on their moves and techniques in a natural environment, while employed Psychic-types helped with barriers and targets. On the sides, gym equipment was available mostly for the humans to use (though a few specialized machines were employed by Pokemon as well).

  "Hey Selene, who's your favorite trainer?"

  Hau asked me this question while riding an exercise bike. He had been at it for under half an hour; while I hadn't been able to do more than five minutes on the treadmill!

  The floor was cool on my butt as I tried desperately to catch my breath and lower my racing heart. "C'mon, Hau." I heaved between gasping breaths. "No fair!"

  "What? I'm just asking!"

  "You can't ask that." Huff, puff, heave, I kept looking around the crowd, thinking I could spot the familiar face of someone I knew. "It's embarrassing."

  Just to my side, on another treadmill, Lillie spoke up as she made great strides. "It's not, Selene. I'm curious too."

  She was wearing white form-fitting gym shorts and a tank top– a far cry from her usual outfit, and she kept tugging nervously at it like it was a size too small for her body.

  Hau leaned forward on his bike, grinning widely. "When have I ever tried to make fun of you? Name one time."

  My brain couldn't work properly with how exhausted my body felt, but still– admittedly, I don't think Hau had ever been intentionally embarrassing.

  I was with Hau and Lillie and a bunch of strangers. Noone I knew would pop out of the crowd at any point and make fun of me.

  I rose a water bottle to my lips and took greedy gulps. "Okay. My favorite trainer is…" Nowadays? I couldn't really care less– I wasn't keeping up with the trainer scene that much, especially with how many new ones there were every year in every region. But history has lots of cool trainers, and one certainly stood above the rest. "...Professor Samuel Oak."

  "Hehe," chuckled Hau; "Told you," quipped Lillie.

  What the actual frick! Treason! "You said you wouldn't make fun of me!"

  The girl hid her smile behind a hand as Hau giggled uncontrollably, dumb smile on his face. "Hehehe– listen, I'm not, I'm not making fun of you, I swear, it's just–" He slowed down his exercise pace, one hand coming to his face to hide his stupid grin. "It's just a very Selene answer!"

  What does that mean?? Oak had been an awesome trainer– the best– okay, it had been over half a century ago and everything, but so what? "Yeah, well, who's your favorite trainer, wise guy?"

  Hau hummed, slowing down his riding pace and seemed to consider the question deeply. "Like, I guess I could say Nemona Menzi, that's a very me kind of answer."

  "That doesn't count," I said with a pout. "Nemona is everyone's favorite. She's, like, the most famous Alolan trainer overseas."

  "Wait, really?" Lillie did a double take, nearly tripping off of her own treadmill and caught herself. "She's Alolan? Isn't she Paldean?"

  Hau gave her a big grin and a snap-quick "Nope! She's from Akala, even. She was invited to Naranja Academy after she finished her Island Challenge and built her fame up then, but you know. Born and raised Alolan!" He continued with a wistful smile. "But yeah, I mean– she reinvented herself, you know? Starting a team from scratch in a new region is crazy to me. I couldn't even imagine leaving Alola!"

  Lillie interjected. "I'm not keeping up with up-and-coming trainers, but I really thought she was Paldean. She started from scratch?"

  "Basically, yeah!" Hau responded. He dismounted his exercise bike as it came to a stop, exhaustion starting to show. "I think she still has her Lycanroc and Kommo-o around, but she's been tackling the Paldean challenge with nothing but newcomers. Her battling style is totally different."

  "Huh." Somehow, looking at their battling styles hadn't occurred to me.

  "No wonder, but it's mega inspiring to me," he said as he plopped his butt next to mine, towel around his neck. "Remember what Loa did during our Grand Trial? Switching up her stance on the fly? If we could pull it off again and on a bigger scale– that would give us some serious edge." He pumped his fists confidently. "That's the plan."

  Classes at the trainer's school came and went.

  Finally, time for me to focus– time to turn my brain off, concentrate on taking notes and surlining, absorb information and fill the ever growing well of understanding. If I focused hard enough I could pretend I wasn't surrounded by people with fascinating Pokemon as partners.

  While Lillie didn't have any trouble striking conversations with strangers, I already knew– they probably didn't want to be bothered, right? I didn't have anything to add to the conversation. I kept my distances and kept to my note-taking.

  We had laid out most of the basics and theories, and now the teacher was talking to each student (and their partner Pokemon) in turn. When Lillie's turn had come to talk with the teacher, and she had explained that she'd already gone through a similar course in Kalos–

  "Let's test your knowledge," the teacher asked Lillie. Now, she was seeing each student one on one in turn. "Say, you find– a Pikipek with a small visible burn on its leg. How would you treat it?"

  "...Cool the burn under water for a bit, clean, apply a rawst ointment, pulse."

  "How long is 'a bit' ?"

  "Twenty minutes."

  "To cool down the burn, would ice work?"

  "N-no, absolutely not."

  "Correct. What if it's infused?"

  "Er–" and Lillie's eyes darted to her Clefairy for a second, faltering under the onslaught of rapid-fire questions. "Slow-pulse waves under water. At the start and an hour after."

  "Good!" The teacher leaned back with a wry smile. Lillie stood there like a Pidgey that had been through a hurricane, trying to gather her wits once more. As Stella gave her trainer a reassuring pat-pat on the arm, the teacher continued. "You want to drive off the Fire energy before you attempt to clean the burn, otherwise it'll just stick– or unattune the ointment, and no one wants that.

  "But in any case–" the teacher continued as she retrieved papers from her bag , "Since you've clearly been trained on pulse-healing in another region, we can skip the preamble. Your Clefairy was your partner then, I assume?" Lillie and Stella nodded. The teacher promptly handed her a test. "Good! Fill those up and let me know when you're finished."

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  The teacher turned her attention to me. I– I wouldn't get a test right away, wouldn't I? Right?

  "You–" She took a glance at Petal, taking in my plump Grass-type. Softly, she bent forward to look at them closely.

  "...You are in pretty good health, aren't you?" The teacher gently lifted Petal's leaves and inspected their skin, careful in her motions. "Your leaves are glossy, your body is slightly larger than average and just bouncy to the touch. Hm-hm, you are well taken care of."

  Petal held their head high, blossoming under the praise. The teacher took a glance at me then. "It must not be easy to take care of an Oddish in Alola."

  "...Um. It's not." I shrugged. "But I manage."

  The teacher relented, taking her hands away from my starter and straightening up. "But in any case. You and your friend are on your Journeys, aren't you? What do you want to learn from this class?"

  I don't think anyone has ever asked me that.

  I hadn't signed up for the course with a goal in particular– I was just going with Petal's whim at first. I had enjoyed learning the theory and the history of these techniques, but I didn't particularly want to put them in practice. That said…

  "Um. I don't know what I want from it, but–" and with that I brought out my pokegear, thumbing through the application for the Pokedex. "I thought this course was only permitted to people with a partner Pokemon that can learn some kind of healing Move." My eyes were on the Oddish section of my Pokedex app, searching through the paragraphs. "Can Petal do that? Can a Poison-type do that?"

  "Your Oddish should!" She clapped her hands together, then retrieved a boxy red device – a genuine Pokedex, one of the older models from half a century ago. "Plenty of Poison-types are involved in medecine. A lot of modern medicine relies on chemicals that've been processed or broken down with the help of Poison-types. In Sinnoh in medieval times, they used Sneasel venom as an anesthetic, back when– but we're getting distracted."

  She thumbed through her clunky device, pressing on the thick keys. "Ah, there. Hmm…

  "There's different doctrines when it comes to Pokemon-assisted healing, based on what kind of techniques a given Pokemon can employ. Your friend and your friend's Clefairy could be trained in Pulse-Assist if she learned Healing Pulse, but they could also be trained in Tone & Tide if she learned Heal Bell and Life Dew."

  "Erm–" My pen danced its furious waltz on my notebook, scribbling it all down. Pulse-Assist was the sort of healing that Lillie had done to help our Pokemon's wounds, and Tone & Tide were words I had seen on the side of healing cradles at the pokecenter. "What about my Oddish, then?"

  She looked at the pokedex for a long time, getting more wistful. She hummed, then leaned down to ask:

  "An Oddish wouldn't quite be able to learn any of the moves classically employed in healing wounds and such." And she raised a finger, silencing me before I could voice my disappointment. "In theory, any Pokemon can learn any Move. How quick to learn or how good they'll be at it depends on their line, their ancestry, their affinities– lots of factors they don't have any control over.

  "You'd have to ask Professor Kukui about that, but good luck getting an appointment any time soon, hah." She let out a sardonic chuckle. "But Oddishes are good at manipulating chemicals, so perhaps the best first step would be to learn how to neutralize a toxin that's just been applied.

  "So! Little Grass-type from Kanto," the teacher asked my alert starter. "How would you like to learn Aromatherapy?"

  In the central training field, Hau's Torracat performed a set of swipes, spun around and delivered two powerful kicks– her sparring partner, a Medicham, caught the attacks with projections of Reflect shaped into focus mitts. With each powerful blow Loa pushed back the Medicham by a few inches.

  My Dunsparce was doing training drills– in the literal sense, as in drilling through the ground, focused on improving his speed and movement control. Oran Juice had turned his little slice of ground space into a minefield of holes and tunnels that held. There shouldn't have been enough structural stability for that to work but we were maintaining a delicate balance with Secret Power.

  The latter Move was turning into his specialty – I had lit a fire in his mind with how I had encouraged him to practice, and he now found himself fond of building little structures whenever he had time...

  (He had even built a little hovel for other Pokemon to live in back in mom's apartment courtyard in Hau'oli, and as adorable as it had been, I had to ask him to undo it because it was public space!)

  "Keep it up, OJ, you're doing good." I paused the timer on my phone and recorded his latest performance– up to four holes at a time, connected to one another, dug out in under twenty seconds and staying stable for just over a minute…

  I kept taking furtive glances at my phone, expecting it to buzz any moment now. I was getting so distracted lately. My mom had sent me a quick text during the morning and when the notification had rung it had felt like the sky was about to fall over.

  Quick look to the door; quick scan through the gym. Nobody I recognized yet. I clenched my fingers.

  "How's the 'Sparce doing?" Hau asked, looking up from his own charts– more of a chaotic scribble of numbers, but I was helping him straighten it out so that it made some amount of sense.

  "He's doing… pretty good." I flipped through my notes. "He's getting faster, and getting really good at building his tunnel network. I'm not really sure what to work on next, though."

  Hau crouched next to me, resting his elbows on his knees. "Alright. Walk me through it. What's the tunnels for."

  "Um." I tapped my chin in thought. "Well. It's good at… concealing information, I guess. When OJ goes underground, the opponent won't know where he'll pop up or how we'll pop up– and once he sets the tunnels proper, we can start to play with the opponent's expectations and prime attacks underground as well."

  "That's sick!" He grinned wide. "You got something weird– and weird is good, in battling. It'll keep people on their toes. What's next?"

  "...For the moment, I'm thinking of continuing down the same path we've explored so far– his control on the environment is good, he can set tunnels and ramps and obstacles and I'm thinking he could…" I made a twisting motion with my hand. "Propel himself out of a tunnel with Rollout. It's flashy and it could be strong, but it won't do much against a flying opponent, still."

  Hau raised an arm and pointed at my training Dunsparce, popping out of the ground with such force he was in the air for over a second. "What about his uh. His little wings? Can he fly?"

  "Sort of? Not any time soon, that's for sure. Those are less wings and more like ears. His 'wings' are like… Popplio flippers that can sense vibrations through the ground."

  Hau hummed, deep in thought. He leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, the wood creaking under him. Then he snapped his fingers and jolted– "He's a snake-kinda Pokemon, right? Can't snake Pokemon do some kinda thing with their eyes?"

  "Uh–" and I quickly searched through my phone, looking through the Dunsparce tabs on my Pokédex app. "Maybe…"

  Right there on the app, a little video demonstration played for the move Glare. Here, plain to see, an Ekans widened its eyes and hissed menacingly at a flying Pidgey on the other side of an arena– and the Flying-type's wings suddenly locked up, dropping to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

  "That… would work," I whispered. Hau whistled at the video, clearly impressed, but it was hard to imagine my pudgy little serpent do the same.

  Hau looked around.

  "You know, Cora's right here."

  O-oh.

  He pointed out to the opposite side of the gym at the other side of the central open-air garden. There, the short brown hair of another classmate, and sure enough, her Ekans was practicing on the other side of the field.

  Hau turned on a dime, heading towards her position, and I tentatively retorted back, "Hau, I, I can't–"

  "I promise she's nice," Hau cut me off, "She and her 'mon can get OJ to learn that move lickety-split! Let me get her."

  Hau walked over around the arena– he walked and I watched, mutedly, as any and all drive to train drained off from me, suddenly aware of a tingling at the tip of my fingers and a staccato to the beat of my heart.

  Hau didn't know any better. Cora probably didn't want to see me. No one wanted me here.

  I stuffed my phone and my notes back in my bag. I threw my towel over my shoulder. With a flick of the wrist I recalled OJ out of mid air and I walked off without looking back, the noise of exercise drowning out all other sounds.

  I only made it to the lockers before my Dunsparce forcefully popped out of his ball, bellowing out a sound of surprise– another pop, and now my Oddish righted themself, alert on the locker room floor.

  "S-s-sorry, OJ, didn't mean to surprise you. Or, uh, wake you up either, Petal, I'm sorry." I gathered my clothes in my bag, slipping between my trembling fingers.

  OJ and Petal made a few more sounds of alarm. They wedged themselves between my bag and I–

  What were they doing? I was losing time. I needed to leave. The worst thing that could happen was Hau or Cora coming here to look for me, and then my humiliation would be made practically public.

  "We– we have to go. Now." In one jerky motion I tightened my bag strap and stumbled out of my Pokemons' space, ignoring worried cries.

  I needed out.

  I needed to leave.

  One foot in front of the other. Leave. The footsteps of other people around. Leave. The shuffling and yipping of my concerned Pokemon. Leave. The uncomfortable chafing of my sweaty skin against my clothes. Leave. Sunlight reflected off the windows in a dizzying kaleidoscope of shapes. Leave.

  I made my way outside and turned onto the street. Down this path for a while, right, then left, and we would be–

  A pair of hands pushed me and all of a sudden I was thrown to the ground butt first. In shock, my mind cleared up, and I was suddenly aware of how fast my heart was beating and how afraid I felt.

  Petal and OJ rushed to my side. A chorus of brays and yelps pushed back my aggressor.

  I opened my eyes to find the seething, scowling face of Tuula Tuari looking down at me.

  Her Spinda clung to her leg, trying in vain to hold back its trainer on her warpath. A new addition to her group flittered from above, a screeching yellow Oricorio in a growing shouting match with my other Pokemon.

  That was it. That was the consequence of my actions. I never should have tried to connect.

  "What," she hissed, "is your fucking damage?"

  Tuula leaned down, arms crossed. "Why are you not responding to my texts? Is your phone broken, or am I just too fucking poor for you?"

  Huh?

  What's money got to do with this?

  "I, uh, I mean, it was," I scrambled for an answer. I had been so focused on the Grand Trial that I hadn't found the time, and then it had been a while and I didn't know what to say, then I hadn't said anything in so long I didn't know how to apologize.

  I forced my mouth to make proper words as I got to my feet. "I'm– I'm just– I'm sorry, I should just get out of your sight." It was for the best. It was better that she stayed away for her own benefit. I didn't want her to be isolated from everyone else too.

  "Fuck no!" She practically screeched as she grabbed my hand. "We're talking, and you're not running."

  Tension grew. Our Pokemon interposed themselves between the two of us and we were forced apart, before they got right back to hissing and bellowing at one another in chorus.

  "Fine. Let's do this as nature fucking intended, then." She pointed down the street to a nearby arena. "We fight."

  Thank you as always for reading, and big thanks to my lovely partner for proofreading!

  Uh-oh, Selene is having an especially bad bad-brains moment.

  I post this chapter from my partner's home, in an entirely new timezone for me (EST), so I am changing the uploading time to fridays at around 6PM est! I will try to keep to a chapter every three weeks, down to two weeks if writing goes exceptionally well.