Writing Alola! A Shrine Maiden's Adventure

Attix

Electric Delivery Driver from Washington
Member
For the past couple of months, I've been working on a fanfic over at AO3 which is a Pokémon SMUSUM/Touhou Project crossover. I will reprint each chapter here in their entirety as they are posted on AO3.

It was the beginning of summer.

The cherry blossoms had long since bloomed. The hot, muggy and overall oppressive climate of summer in Gensokyo was in full swing, as villagers down in the human village sought ways of cooling themselves down, from wearing as little clothing as socially acceptable in public, to resting their feet in the river, to leaving the windows open – and stuffing them to the gills with anti-youkai and fairy wards to compensate for them being open. All over, the heat and mugginess was being felt. The long days did the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion no favors, the Buddhists were trying to resist the urge to go for a high-altitude cruise on the Palanquin Ship to seek relief from the heat, and on the Youkai Mountain, the horseflies... oh God the horseflies. In fact, the doctor of the Bamboo Forest was busy formulating and selling insect repellent, since just because you're a youkai or a celestial or a goddess, that doesn't protect you from biting ticks and mosquitoes. It was barely July, and already she'd gotten many cases of Lyme disease and West Nile from careless bamboo cutters and the like. It was so hot, even the fairies didn't feel like playing, and instead lounged on the shores of the Misty Lake, where Cirno made them crushed ice baths to stick their feet in. If there was one area where she wasn't an idiot, it was making sure her fellow fairies didn't succumb to heat stroke.

When it wasn't hot, it was storming cats and dogs. Torrential rain, lighting, and strong winds were a common feature of the monsoon season in Gensokyo, and it wasn't unusual for a building in the human village or two to collapse during these storms and the streets left as impassable mud the day after. For the mistress of the mansion, it was even more depressing, since when the sun didn't keep her inside, the rain did, and so morale dropped significantly there as a result. It was also hard on Yuuka's flowers, which often died from literally drowning in the soil they were planted in during these storms.

One such storm had wreaked across the valley the night before. This morning, however, the clouds had dissipated, and as the sun rose over the mountains to the east, the haze left over from the night burned off and revealed the tile-blue sky above. One feature missing from the sky that many had grown accustomed to was the portal to the Netherworld; instead, it had been moved to a remote corner of one mountain, so that Yomou could still come and go from the village as needed. This made for an unblemished ceiling of cerulean as far as the eye could see.

As the sunlight rose above the mountains, slowly but surely it trickled down the mountainsides and tickled the outside walls of the Hakurei Shrine, where the shrine maiden was still asleep in her futon. The light creeped into her room, and soon licked her face. This was enough to stir the groggy girl from her slumber and prompt her to turn and face away from the light. It was too early, she thought, given how early the sun came up in the summer, she wanted to sleep in more. Soon, though, it proved for naught, and she had no choice but to wrench herself off the floor and face the day ahead.

As she got up, Reimu rubbed the sand from her eyes and looked around. No freeloader youkai to be seen, it seemed. For her, that counted as a success, given how often her youkai-extermination shrine somehow managed to attract rather than repel them. So, she could just focus on getting through with her chores: cleaning the floors and counters, checking the donation box, sweeping the walkway, and, of course, her daily offerings and prayer to the god whose name she didn't even know, much less what they looked like. It was a routine she'd followed ever since she was a child, the only significant breaks occurring during incidents, like the recent Lunar incident, the scars of which were still visible on some of the hillsides. Now eighteen and technically an adult, she thought constantly about what life ahead of her would bring, such as who would she marry, or prepare to hand the torch of the shrine to, and how much more different other things would become. For now, though, she simply focused on the now.

She got ready for the day, washing herself, brushing her teeth, unfrazzling her hair and getting the fussier aspects of her shrine maiden's dress into place, before making and having breakfast, which typically consisted for her of some fruit, leftover rice and fish from the night before, and, of course, the morning “cuppa.” You can't resolve incidents or hold up danmaku battles without a healthy dose of caffeine running through your veins, especially when facing down hell ravens and goddesses and the like.

After breakfast, she got down onto her chores. She started by filling a bucket up with water and wiping down the tables and counter tops, before moving on to sweeping and mopping the floors throughout the shrine. After that, she took the broom outside, set it against the wall, and opened up the donation box to see if there was anything. Surprisingly, there were a few gold coins; she would have thought that with all that rain yesterday no one would be in the mood to go outside, much less haul up here and make offerings. She took the coins out and placed them in the repository inside the shrine before sweeping the front steps, then working her way down the steps beneath the torii until they were free of leaves and detritus blown in by the storm.

It took her until about eleven before she got through with everything. Normally, at this point, she would have lunch, then take a brief flight above Gensokyo to patrol for possible incidents before spending most of the rest of the day in prayer unless a guest decided to show up. Today, however, seemed different. The sun was shining, the air was crisp an pure from being cleansed by the rain, and unlike most days the temperature was pleasant. There was a mild breeze working its way down the mountains, and from her perch the whole valley seemed to open up like a book.

She looked on, and reflected. “You know,” she mused, “it's been so hectic lately with all the incidents. Perhaps I should just slow down, and take everything in... the birds, the sound of fairies rustling in the bushes, the gentle breeze...” She thought it might be nice to hit a new café that opened up in the human village that made some really good tea and biscuits. She had enough funds to get her through the next couple of weeks at least, so she felt she could afford it. However, rather than fly there, she decided it would be best to walk and enjoy the slower pace to take in the day.

So, she got ready to go out. Being a youkai extermination shrine maiden, she never left the shrine unprepared, and even on short trips she was always ready for a high-class spell card bout. She grabbed a pre-made deck of spell cards off the shelf as well as her yin-yang orb, and stuffed them inside a satchel she kept underneath her dress, since she didn't want to look like she was looking for trouble unless she was (which is more often than you'd think, given how boring the shrine gets). Aside from those, she also got some basics together, like her purse, some chapstick courtesy of Eirin, and other bits and pieces, before setting off. She resisted the urge to run down the walkway that also served as a runway and made her way down the steps, taking care not to trip and fall.

The shortest path between the shrine and the village was lined with wards to keep the path clear of wandering youkai who might try to torment the humans as they made their way to give offerings, and these often had to be changed due to weather damage and the like. Because of the rainfall the previous night, she looked around and already knew she would be busy the next couple of days doing exactly that, but that wasn't her concern now. Days like this were rare, she reckoned, so why not take advantage? There's always tomorrow, she thought to herself.

Looking around, there seemed to be nothing particularly amiss. The closest thing to something resembling an incident she could see or hear was a fight between two fairies over a piece of food, but that was normal and none of her business. Fairy scuffles usually ended quickly whenever they so much as heard her coming by anyway, so she paid it no mind. She looked up at the sky, which slowly started filling up with small, bandy clouds as the moisture from last night evaporated and drifted upwards. There were no signs of any evident spell card duels, even though it was the perfect day for them; the skies were clear of fighters and the only things flying around were birds, and perhaps the occasional Aya taking pictures for her newspaper. For all intents and purposes, it was a perfect day as she strolled down the path.

All that serenity was slowly broken, however, as a faint humming noise could be heard emanating from the northwest. At first, Reimu brushed it off as just some huge bugs, but as it grew louder it seemed to almost have some electrical effects added to it.

“What's making that noise?” she wondered as she attempted to look for the thing making it. Her attention slowly turned to the sky, which had what appeared to be a subtle distortion forming and electrical bolts coming from it. She thought it could be a spell card duel before looking closer and realizing that whatever it was seemed to be a distortion in space-time, much like the Netherworld portal. If that's what it was, she realized, this was deathly serious; ANY threat to the Hakurei Border was treated with all the urgency of a confirmed nuclear attack occurring on the Outside.

The distortion soon ripped open and revealed a circular wormhole with a flowing fishnet pattern and dark blue/purple energy radiating inside. Without hesitating, Reimu sprinted down the path and took to the air, towards the wormhole, ready to face who or whatever opened it. As she rose above the valley below and barreled straight towards the wormhole, she thought to herself “and here I thought today would be boring, but turns out, there's an incident after all.” A mild smirk drew across her face as she drew closer to the anomaly.

The wormhole, however, soon intensified. As she approached, Reimu slowly realized she was losing control of her flight and was being pulled in. She tried to turn around, but the force was too great. Soon, she was flailing about trying to escape its pull, but it was too late; she was already past the event horizon.

“Wha-wha- no, I can't let it – gaaah!” She tumbled around before, swiftly, she was sucked in and disappeared within the void.

And so began the adventure that would change her life and that of the rest of Gensokyo – and worlds beyond – forever.
Meanwhile, from ground level, a stunned Hong Meiling looked on as the hole in the sky ripped open seemingly out of nowhere and hummed so forcefully she could actually feel it in her bones. To her, it seemed as if some otherworldly force bent on destruction was making its grand debut in Gensokyo.

Her first instinct was to warn the mistress. She vaulted over the gate, blew through the front doors of the mansion, and started running down the halls straight to Remilia's bedroom. She didn't care if she was asleep, there was a hole in the sky and she needed to know, NOW.

As she plowed through the fairy maids like a mad bull, a focused Sakuya was busy tidying up the china cupboards before she heard what she swore was a freight train coming down the halls. She paused her work and saw the fairy maids get tossed in all directions while a green-and-orange blur came straight towards her.

“OUT OF THE WAY!!!” Meiling screamed before Sakuya, who had just barely fathomed what was going on, came just shy of getting bulldozed before hastily stopping time in order to sidestep Meiling, freeze her in place, and try to figure out what on Earth was going on.

“What is the meaning of this?” she asked in her typically sharp tone. “Why are you not at the gate? What's the hurry and where are you intending to go?”

“No time to explain,” Meiling replied. “I- we gotta warn the mistress! Something's happening!”

“What is it?” Sakuya asked. Meiling then showed her to a window with a clear view of the wormhole in the sky. “THAT is it.”

It took Sakuya a second to understand the ramifications of what she was seeing. Slow as Meiling was at times, she did know a threat to the mistress when she saw one. Her refined expression soon turned into a face of pure, wide-eyed terror as she stared at the enormous hole emanating in the sky.

A split-second later, they were in Remilia's bedroom trying desperately to wake her up. The summer climate meant that she wasn't at her best, so she was none too pleased about waking up in the middle of the day with a pair of panicked voices screaming into her ear.

“Wake up! Wake up! WAKE THE HELL UP, REMI!” Their desperate voiced echoed inside the vampire mistress's ringing ears and head as she rolled over and up, revealing a less than kept face with messy blue hair going every which-way, half-open eyes with dark bags under them, and a mouth from which groans of displeasure were emanating. She looked up at the two wondering what the hell was going on that would warrant this behavior when all she wanted was some beauty rest.

Her head turned towards Sakuya first, and with a choppy, raspy voice, she grumbled “what is it?”

Meiling attempted to respond, but her panic and anxiety at that moment foiled all attempts at a coherent sentence. “There's a big-uh-there-a-ah-dah-buh-la-kooh-la-fra-da-”

Sakuya's hand slapped across Meiling's trap as she turned towards her mistress with a sharp but very clearly concerned look on her face. “There's a huge hole in the sky outside.”

“Oh, is that so?” Remilia rasped as she still shook herself awake. Typical Remi, Sakuya figured; even in a crisis she always kept her composure despite her immature tendencies at times. She handed her mistress a robe and led her out to the back balcony, which was always shaded thanks to a charm they wrung out of Marisa the one time Meiling stopped her stealing books and defeated her in a duel. There, she pointed out the hole in the sky, which Remilia studied. She quickly surmised that this was not Yukari's doing, nor was it likely that any other group such as the Lunarians or Celestials would be behind this anomaly.

Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the wormhole closed up, and the disturbance dissipated.

The two women at her side, still visibly shaking in place, attempted to regain their composure to ask her of her thoughts on the matter.

“Well? Sakuya inquired. Meiling was still too terrified to speak.

Remilia thought silently for a few seconds before turning around to her maid and replying “something bad has happened. And if nothing is done...” She paused, looked down, then looked up again before continuing. “...if nothing is done, then all of us – this whole land – we are all fated... for disaster.”

Sakuya was stunned. Remilia had never responded with quite this sort of tone before. Not during the endless night, not during the faith incident, not during the religious war, not during Seija's uprising and not even during the recent lunar crisis. This, she could tell, THIS, whatever it was, easily trumped all of those.

“Disaster?” she asked.

“Whatever is behind this, it clearly wants Gensokyo destroyed or disrupted in such a way as to endanger its balance and the lives of every living thing here. It has the means to do so.” She paced around a bit, and then turned around to the maid and the gatekeeper. “And this may be its calling card, its way of signaling our doom.”

“What should we do about it? Meiling asked. “We can't just stand here contemplating our dooms!”

Remilia, in spite of her disheveled appearance, still managed to give her that piercing look of playfulness that suggested maybe she shouldn't have asked that question.

“Obviously,” she told the gatekeeper, “this is a job for the shrine maiden. So I want you to go track her down and bring her to me.”

Meiling took a second to suck that sentence in. “M-me? But, what about the gate? What if that blasted magician, her lover and that doll-thing they call a kid come by to, er, borrow books?”

“Realistically, given that hole in the sky, I think stealing books is not going to be very high on their respective priority lists right now,” Sakuya responded. “And besides, it's about time you got off your napping ass and solved an incident for us,” she said with a smile.

The gatekeeper looked between the two in front of her for a few seconds, before looking straight forward, realizing the task she was given. After all, she never ignored the lady's orders, and dark times were facing her home.

So she puffed up her chest and bellowed out “yes ma'am! I will go find the shrine maiden and then I'll beat up the ne'er-do-well causing this mess!” The goofy expression on her face really sold it, as Remilia couldn't help but smile and smirk.

After that, she promptly ran to the edge of the balcony and jumped over the railing.

The mistress and her maid couldn't help but stare forward confused. As Sakuya walked over to the railing and saw Meiling scramble across the ground in the general direction of the shrine, wondering why she didn't just fly, she looked over her shoulder and saw that her mistress had already shown herself back to bed.

She looked forward again and mumbled to herself “y'know, I've worked with that strange woman for decades and I still don't get everything she does sometimes, even if I just excuse it as her being a youkai.”

After that, we went back to roughly where she was working before this whole mess started, trying her best to peel her brain off of the disturbing scene she had just borne witness to. But she knew, in the back of her mind, that whatever this was, it was only the beginning of an incident the likes of which Gensokyo had yet to see.

Across the valley, similar reactions were erupting in response to this strange wormhole. The Taoists interpreted it as Chang'e somehow tearing a way into Gensokyo, something which only served to enrage Junko considerably more. The residents of Eintei thought this could be another invasion attempt, despite the peaceful resolution of the Lunar incident; perhaps one of them didn't get the message. Sanae saw it an frantically started conjuring up miracles to try and counter it. Even in the underground, whose residents didn't physically see it, Satori still sensed widespread terror on the surface about something horrible, causing her to toss around going up there with her pets to see what it was.

And those were some of the more measured reactions. In the human village, discord spread like wildfire as people were running about back into their houses or the nearest building, screaming and cursing at the wretched hole in the sky all the way. Because of how muddy the streets were from the night before, mud kicked up all over the place, causing people to slip and fall and kids and small animals to be trampled in the frenzied panic. Dogs were barking up a storm and the chickens were scattering all over the place.

The discord made its way to the schoolhouse, where Keine hurriedly rushed the kids back inside to try and shield them from whatever threats might spill out of the ominous portal looming over the town. Among the kids wondering what was going on and confusingly rushing back inside was not biologically human, but rather an animate doll in a yellow dress with a smaller doll floating behind her.

As the herd tried to cram into a too-small door, she took a moment to turn back and stare at the gaping maw that tore itself into the sky above. Her moms had described many crazy incidents, including one with a similar portal and spring being sucked through it, so she wondered if this was possibly a repeat of that incident. The past winter had been long, and she wasn't sure she wanted it to come back so quickly.

“Sunshine, dear, what are you doing? Get inside now!” Keine grabbed her hand and dragged her in just as the portal above closed.

Inside, all the kids were chatting among one another, trying to come up with explanations of what they just witnessed, but to no avail. Their teacher, miss Keine Kamishirasawa, walked in with Sunshine, her face still half-paralyzed with fear. She ordered the living doll back to her seat and stood in front of the class. Everyone could tell she was immensely terrified, but they were too nervous or confused themselves to really question it.

She set her things down and addressed the class. “Class...” She hesitated before continuing. “...in light of what has just happened, we will be practicing lockdown for the rest of the day. No more recess until it is time to go home.” At first some of the kids groaned about there not being any recess, but upon recalling the bedlam going on just outside the school's walls, they changed their minds about the matter.

Being in school for just a few months, Sunshine didn't really understand the concept of this “lockdown” other than that it involved not going outside for the rest of the day. She also still wasn't too good with emotions yet, but she could tell something was seriously wrong, in the way miss Kamishirasawa was acting, the way the other students were acting, the mayhem going on out in the streets... she wasn't too terribly sure how to take it all in. So, she decided to just act concerned about it like the other kids, even if she didn't understand what was going on; after all, the more like them she could be, the less many of them gave her a hard time about being a doll and the more she could fit in.

Barely a few minutes passed by before a horde of parents were outside the schoolhouse, asking to take their kids home early for the day. Keine was annoyed by this given that she still had important lessons to get to for her 3rd-6th years, a group that included Sunshine, but given recent circumstances she decided not to question it and decided to let them off early. That way, at least, she could devote some time at the town hall crafting a response to this latest incident.

As she dismissed the class, Sunshine made her way down the hallway looking for her moms. Once outside, she saw them, clear as day, looking right at her.

Before she could even speak up, Marisa grabbed her, threw her on the back of her broomstick, and the three of them took off back towards home.

At home, Alice offloaded Sunshine's books and bags while Marisa gave her the rundown on what just happened.

“So... mom,” she stumbled, still not that great with words. “What happened?”

“Well,” Marisa started, “me and your mom were out huntin' mushrooms so we could sell them at the market tomorrow, when all of a sudden, she was like 'Marisa, look over there!' and she pointed at the sky. So I look and, well, a big, huge hole opened up and scared the living daylights right outta both of us! So we knew, right then, 'we need to get Sunshine home right now, otherwise she's gonna get run over by dumb, panicky villagers!' And you know, she didn't complain one bit.”

Sunshine took her turn by explaining how everyone was out enjoying lunch recess before a couple of kids pointed out the sky distortion, which some were looking at when it opened straight up, revealing the violet-blue void with the white light at the end with fishnet patterns flowing out, and how the teacher called them back in as soon as it happened. She also described the general pandemonium in the streets and how it seemed like the whole place was falling apart.

Marisa took this all in before it hit her: this was a barrier incident, and barrier incidents required only one red-and-white clad shrine maiden for the job. So she got some things together and began to head out.

Alice came back from the other room when she spotted Marisa gathering things together like she was going somewhere. “Where are you going?” she asked. Marisa replied “the shrine. Reimu's gonna need all the help she can get, and we missed out on the last incident with the Lunar invasion so this will make up.” She grabbed Sunshine by the hand. “And I'm taking pipsqueak with me.”

Alice was furious upon hearing that last bit. “No, absolutely not! She's staying here where it's safe, I'm not letting some wormhole eat her up because of you!”

“Why not?” Marisa shot back coyly. “It's not like it's going away, if anything it's just beginning. And besides, this'll be her first real incident, and there's sure to be more, so why not now while it's fresh?”

Alice sighed. Marisa was always hot-headed and headstrong in her ways, and she did make a fair point: this would catch up to them if nothing was done. So she responded “alright, fine. But, if she's going, I'm going with you.”

Marisa nodded. “You got it, girlfriend.” The puppeteer threw together some combat dolls in a basket and got a couple spare decks off the shelf, and in no time flat they were outside. Marisa thought about taking the Black Arwing for a spin, but decided that would probably be overkill for the freaked-out villagers and youkai who's minds were already overloaded by the wormhole. Maybe if the situation got even more out of hand, but until then, she was content with her broomstick.

The trio flew straight to the shrine, and upon arriving were surprised to see another, unrelated figure had beat them there. Just as they landed, Meiling made it up the last of the steps, and was huffing and puffing as she staggered towards the shrine when she spotted the magicians. Of all the people she wanted to see right now, she thought, these were probably clear on the bottom.

She approached the magicians. She wanted to say something that clearly expressed her displeasure, but she just got done running a marathon so all she could manage was a slightly annoyed “hello.”

“Well, hi,” Marisa responded. “Fancy seein' you here. I take it the lady sent ya?” Meiling nodded in response. They all knew why they were there.

As they approached the shrine, they skipped the wash basin they were supposed to use before entering; when you're dealing with a crisis, what's skipping the proper procedure once gonna harm anyway? They also walked past the donation box, but Sunshine couldn't help but leave an offering, so she tossed a couple coins and made a quick wish before catching up to her parents and the gatekeeper at the front door.

Marisa banged a couple times. “Reimu, you there?” There was no response. She banged a couple more times a little more vigorously. “Reimu, this is Marisa, c'mon, we got an incident to swat!” Still no response. Marisa then just thought “screw it” and threw the sliding doors open and started looking everywhere for the errant shrine maiden, but she wasn't to be seen.

“Where is that blasted brunette when you need her?!” she scowled, looking all over. It was then that Alice suggested “maybe she's already out trying to resolve the incident.” Marisa turned around with a frustrated expression and yelled “GEE, YA THINK?!?” As they walked out the back to see if she was there, Meiling walked in file behind Sunshine, and couldn't help but stare at Ichigo levitating behind the living doll child. If only she had a doll assistant, she thought, that would make guarding the gate easier since she didn't have to be awake half as often.

“She's not here,” a voice called out. Marisa instantly knew who its owner was. They looked over in the direction it came from, and saw a gap where a small pond normally was. Out of it crawled Yukari, still as much of a troll as ever, but this time she seemed much more focused and serious.

“I thought you were supposed to be sleeping,” Marisa said. “You always do that, y'know.”

“Not when an incident of this magnitude crops up, I'm afraid.” She clearly sounded different. Usually, when she spoke, it was with a slight haughty air with a dash of demeaning and sarcasm, but this time her tone was noticeably more serious and grave. That's when you knew it hit the fan, Marisa realized: when Yukari was actually dead serious.

“So, I'm assuming you know where she went?” Marisa inquired the boundary youkai. Yukari didn't hesitate. “I'm afraid so,” she responded, “for it seems... she was a little too zealous in investigating this incident.”

Of course.

They didn't really need an explanation to puzzle out what had happened to her. “That damn idiot, always rushing to save the day without caring about her own safety, you'd think the Hakurei shrine maiden would be a little more careful when literally the weight of this valley sits on her shoulders,” she snarled.

“Now,” Yukari responded in a rather subdued tone, “what an interesting assessment. Is that not what some would call, the pot calling the kettle black?”

Alice tried hard to hold back a snicker at that statement. As much as she didn't care for the hag sometimes, she had to admit, that was too true to balk at.

They stared at the sky where the wormhole had been hours before. Meiling was still confused, so she spoke up. “So, now, what does this all mean?”

“Well, for one, she'd better not be dead without a replacement,” Marisa said, “'else this place'll come crashing down on our heads. Or at least that's what I've been told.”

“No, she's not dead,” Yukari replied. “Not yet, at least.”

“Well then, where is she?” Alice asked.

Yukari took a moment in her response before delivering a crushing statement.

“For once, I do not know.”
It had been an interesting morning for Lillie.

It all started as she was steeping some breakfast tea while the sounds of Professor Kukui wrestling his Lycanroc were all too audibly rumbling up from downstairs and shaking the floorboards. She had left Nebby up in her room, where it was messing around on her tablet with a bubble-popping game meant for cats.

She looked out the window, trying to ignore the brawl in the basement, where the sun had just cleared the horizon, its rays glistening across the sparkling waters of the Melemele Sea. Early morning surfers were taking advantage of the lack of crowds on this part of the island to paddle out and hit the tides. Trainers were busy wandering the beaches, hoping to snatch up the Staryu that often buried themselves in the sand or the Slowpoke that often lounged in the grass. The nearby Ten Carat Hill cave also served as a magnet for trainers hoping to score some rare Pokémon to add to their teams.

Lillie herself didn't train Pokémon. After all, she'd been raised around Pokémon who had been brutalized by bad apples or saved from the grips of predators, so she had a somewhat dim view of the art. That didn't stop her from fantasizing, though. Her whole life, she had always wanted a cute Alolan Vulpix. She had only ever seen one, brought in by an ace trainer to the Aether Paradise once, and she was immediately lovestruck. Sadly, they tended to hole themselves halfway up Mt. Lanakila and rarely came down, so it seemed a distant goal to her.

As for Nebby, she still wasn't quite sure what to make of it, or, really, what drove her to make off with it with several Aether employees chasing after her. All she knew now was that she was a fugitive of sorts; that her mother hadn't actively tried to go after either her or her brother at this point seemed proof positive that she didn't care anymore.

But Nebby didn't seem to mind; it just seemed grateful that she saved it, and adopted her as a mother of sorts. She was also lucky enough to find Professor Kukui, who was nice enough to give her a place to lie low. She could keep going to school, and when she wasn't busy with schoolwork she would sometimes visit Hala in Iki Town who would show her how to do traditional Alolan stone carvings and sculpture. It was a fun activity, one she got really good at. Good enough, in fact, that she was recently entrusted with a spare Sparkling Stone, one which she intended to make a Z-ring out of. She set out to make a masterpiece, because this one, which she had just put the finishing touches on, was meant for Hau, whose eleventh birthday was tomorrow. The boy, who was Hala's grandson, just couldn't wait to get his first Pokémon and start his Island Challenge, and the amount of energy and tenacity exuding from his bubbly exterior was just touching to her.

The tea was ready just as a scratched-up and bruised Kukui came upstairs, his Lycanroc all ruffled up and with a bone in her mouth. He took a big whiff of the scent thrown out by the tea kettle as Lillie started on the toast and eggs.

“Good quality time with your pooch?” she asked the professor with a subtle dash of condescending mixed in.

“You know it!” he responded with his usual bombastic energy. “I was just testing out some new techniques with her, see if I could get her to learn Earthquake!”

“If that happens, this whole place is going to come falling on our heads,” Lillie responded. “I already spent most of yesterday after school mending the thatching from your fights with your dog.” She set a plate of bacon on the table and filled up Kukui's cup with tea from the kettle before checking on the scrambled eggs and getting the toast out of the toaster.

She sat down with the professor, who began discussing his plans for the day. As he drank his tea, she couldn't help but wonder how on earth he was able to drink it straight without wincing; she always took a couple spoonfuls of sugar with hers. He also liked his bacon extra greasy for whatever reason, which she found off-putting and so did Burnet to an extent, but neither of them really criticized him for it, and Burnet just took it as part of his charm.

“So, after I get done programming that Close Combat TM I've been working on, I was wondering if you wanted to come with me up to Iki town and visit Hala. I know Hau's been dying to see you.”

Lillie always thought it funny why Hau liked her so much, given she had a good three years on him, but then again, this was a boy who apparently tried to throw himself into a sumo match when he was six, so eccentricy was something she had come to expect from him – he was just a boy, after all. And she did honestly enjoy seeing him. It was Saturday, and school had just ended for the summer so it wasn't like she was in a hurry to do anything.

“Of course I would like to go!” she said with a smile and bright eyes.

“That's my Lillie! Alright, I'll just be an hour or so and then we'll head up!”



Moves like Close Combat were tricky to program into TMs because of how complex some of the more specialized techniques were. In particular, that's why certain moves like Superpower had to be tutored; you just couldn't shove that onto a disc efficiently. But Kukui felt he was nearing a big break; the moves professor had always prided himself on coming up with new and easier ways for Pokémon to duke it out, and to let things like Dragonite and Bewear have it, he felt, was a big draw, given how coveted the move was. But in order to actually get it to work, you have to first convert a technique into data form, which required extracting it from a Pokémon in the PC. Then you had to hotrod it to make it compatible with certain DNA bits present in Pokémon that dictated whether or not they could actually conceivably use the attack, and you had to do that for everything that couldn't learn it naturally, which took time. Finally, you had to compress it all onto a disc for use in special cases or ray guns trainers carried with them that allowed for the teaching of those moves, and make sure the compressed data still worked. It was a daunting task, one that had taken him months, but he was finally on the brink of having a functional Close Combat TM that he could trademark and sell for buckets of cash.

As he pulled out the freshly pressed disc, he recalled his Lycanroc Suzie into her Ultra Ball, placed it in his case, then put the disc in. After a few seconds, it prompted him to make her forget a move. He selected Bite, which was redundant as she had Crunch already, then waited a few more seconds before it announced a success.

He then took the ball out, sent out Suzie, and instructed her to use Close Combat on a training dummy in the corner of the room. She hesitated for a few seconds before growling and lunging at the dummy, clawing, biting, slamming and tearing at it with all her might. Afterwards, she got down from it and just looked at him with that derp look dogs often give to their owners.

Success.

He got down and started praising her. “Who's a good girl? Yes, you are! You are a good gir-” he gave her a raspberry as she licked his face. He then gave her a treat and took her upstairs.

“Ya ready?”

“Give me just a minute, professor!” Lillie responded. She quickly dug out a Pokéball and called Nebby into it. Even though she wasn't a trainer, Professor Kukui still convinced her to keep Nebby in a Pokéball to make it easier to conceal from people who might be too interested in it, which she ultimately agreed with and followed through on. Even so, it was still really good at just letting itself out, which made her question whether it was a Pokémon at times. She put the ball in her duffel bag, got her things together, and walked out the door with the professor.

The trip to Iki town was a bit inconvenient given that there were no paved roads and most people just walked in, so Kukui would often just call up a Tauros and ride into town from his lab that way, with Lillie riding behind him as the bull charged through the grass scaring off varmints that would otherwise try to give them trouble. In fact, cars were rare outside of Hau'oli City, the biggest city on the island and all of Alola for that matter, giving the island a relaxed, rural feel of the kind that attracted hikers and nature lovers from other regions. Alola had some killer bird watching, with birders coming from as far-flung as Kalos to watch nesting Toucannon taking care of their hatchlings, or catch a glimpse of an elusive Oricorio.

Eventually, they pulled up into town and dismounted. As the Tauros was recalled back to the ranch where ride Pokémon not in use were cared for, Hala was already walking up to them.

“Professor Kukui!” the large, elderly man exclaimed, walking up to him with arms open.

“Hala, what's up?” he replied as he gave the elder a man-hug.

Just behind Hala, Hau was already bouncing out, ready to greet them.

“Hey Lillie!” he said waving his hand with a smile.

Lillie knelt slightly to his level to meet him. “Hi there, Hau. I'm doing fine, how about yourself?”

“Can't wait!” he said cheekily. “Just another day, and I'll have all summer to tear up the islands and become the next Island Champ!” The energy in his eyes and speech was simply bursting.

“Well, I'm sorry, but I don't have a Dialga on me,” Lillie said to the boy, “or I could turn time forward and we could have your party right now!” She stifled a laugh, but Hau didn't seem to notice or care. He was just blinded by the prospect of his very own Pokémon, so much so he hadn't even seemed to have given much thought as to what he wanted said first Pokémon to be. He could probably be given a Magikarp for all he cared and he would still be happy.

“Why don't you all come on inside?” Hala asked them. “I got my boy Hau to cook us all up some salt pork and glazed sitrus skewers to snack on!” They all made their way inside and sat around the table on the back patio, which had a carving of Tapu Koko chiseled into it. Hau laid out the snacks on platters in the middle and got everyone some plates and some fresh leppa juice, except for Kukui who helped himself to a cup of coffee.

Kuki told Hala about his latest invention and proudly waved it in front of the kahuna's face. “And THIS,” he commented, “is the fruit of five straight, painstaking months of work. And now it's ready for market.”

“Well done,” Hala said whilst slowly clapping. The old master of Fighting-types was nothing less than satisfied that his young but close friend and pupil had managed to fit Close Combat, of all things, onto a TM. “Have I told you I've always admired your dedication to your research?”

“It's only matched by my passion for battles,” Kukui chirped back. Hala gave a big belly laugh as they toasted his accomplishment.

Meanwhile, Hau was busy describing to Lillie how he read up on all sorts of cool strategies and how he was ready to become Alola's strongest trainer. “But Hau,” Lillie asked him, “how are you going to do that if you don't even know what to start with?”

“That's easy!” he told her, “cause I already know what I want!” He pulled out a crumpled piece of paper with pictures of Rowlet, Litten and Popplio on them, with Rowlet circled.

“Oh,” she remarked. “So you DO know what you want.”

“Why not?” he responded. “It's round, it's an owl, it turns its head around when you're telling it what to do, and I hear it's got a really cool evolution!”

The “head spinning around to see its trainer” part creeped Lillie out a bit, but she had seen stranger, such as how Pyukumuku apparently spit their internal organs out at you in the form of a fist as a defense, so she just took in his words and nodded as he went on about how he and Rowlet were going to go and find all of Alola's rarest and strongest Pokémon, from the powerful Salamence of Melemele to the wise Oranguru of Akala to the mysterious Mimikyu of Ula'ula to the elusive but steadfast Kommo-o of Poni, and everything in between. He even dared to say he would capture one of the Tapu and add it to his team, something no one had done in over five centuries.

“And that's how I'm gonna conquer the islands,” he said.

“Well,” Lillie responded, “sounds like you have quite a bit in front of you!” She smiled and sipped on some more leppa juice.

“You bet!”

She was enjoying the boy's enthusiasm about becoming a trainer. So much so, she hadn't noticed Nebby had snuck out of its Pokéball and began wandering off the porch towards the forest behind town. That is, until Lillie got up to go refill her glass, when she noticed it in the corner of her eye heading into the trees.

She just stood there, and looked on with a mild sense of terror on her face.

“Uh, professor... I uh... gotta go check something, if that's okay with you.”

“What is it?” Kukui asked.

“I, uh, well... bye!” She took off towards the trail.

The two men and one boy looked on as the girl in the white dress jumped into the jungle on the Mahalo trail.

“What's with her? Shouldn't we go after her?” Hau asked the professor.

“Nah, I think I know exactly what's going on,” he replied. “I kinda figured that thing would want to see a Tapu at some point. It just seems... attracted to them, whenever we walk by a statue of them, it flails its puffballs around.”

“That's odd,” Hala responded. “Most Pokémon and other animals avoid the Tapu if they can, unless they think they can take them. I wonder what's so special about... what's it called, Nebby, that it wants to see them so badly.”

“I guess that's true,” Hau said. He didn't actually know what either of them were talking about, but he just kind of went along. “By the way, why didn't she just say Nebby ran away and then took us with her?”

Hala knelt down to Hau's level. “Hau, I think you'll understand this a little better when you're older and you start dating, but women often do things that seem strange to us. I remember back in the day your grandmother used to do things that I didn't really get, and your dad was the same way, and you'll be the same way, too.”

Yeah, his dad... Hau didn't pay it too much mind. He figured, well, I'll just focus on being a master now and worry about girls later. After all, it wasn't like his grandpa's advice was going to be applicable to him right this second, it's not like he was going on his quest to meet a bunch of girls after all.

At least, that's what he thought...



Reimu suddenly woke up with a gasp. She didn't even realize she had passed out. One moment, the wormhole was sucking her in, the next, this.

She could tell she was floating in a void. Her limbs were numb. She flailed them around a bit to try and get some feeling back into them. It was really stiff and painful once she did, but the feeling subsided after a while, and once it did, she took a moment to more closely survey where she was.

It was definitely... different. The fishnet patterns seemed to be going in all sorts of different directions against the background of purplish-blue energy. Various bits of light were flashing everywhere. It was really hard to get a clear point of reference which way was up and down – maybe it didn't matter, so she just tried to adjust her position to what she thought was up.

She found she could control her movement... at least somewhat. Enough to where she wasn't spinning around, at least. Again, there was no point of reference to speak of. If she was moving, she didn't know it.

She looked around to try and find an exit, or at least a surface to get her bearings, but the lights everywhere were making it difficult to tell what was an exit – she assumed it would be a large, white orb of light, since that was what was inside the wormhole that appeared in Gensokyo.

This was so strange, she thought. Normally, she could manipulate barriers and fly through worlds with no issue, but whatever this was, it was stymieing her efforts. It was just so unlike what she was used to – so alien, it felt – that she couldn't immediately wrap her head around...

Then, she heard a noise. Flash. It almost sounded like chimes.

She immediately drew her gohei and stuck it forward. “Who's there?” No response. “Show yourself!”

Then, it appeared. It flickered in front of her for a couple seconds, then it materialized. It was a glassy creature, it almost looked like a jellyfish. And it looked like its head – or something, she couldn't tell – was a hat.

“What are you?” she asked forcefully. The creature gave no reply.

“Are you a youkai? If you are, and you did this, then I, the maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, must destroy you for your crime against the barrier.”

Again, no reply. It just stared at her listlessly... or maybe it wasn't, it didn't seem to have eyes.

“You are defying the laws set forth by the erectors of the Hakurei Border. If you do not answer –”

“...nihhhiiihhhhihhhiiiihhhhhhhhhhhh” It made a sound, and a slight backward jerking motion, which made it look like its “cape” was blowing forward. It then lunged at her, and she took a defensive stance, but instead of physical contact, reality seemed to flicker for just a moment.

She looked behind her, and the creature was making its way into the abyss, like she wasn't even there.

“Gahhh... what's going on here?!” She felt herself losing control again. A huge, bright ball of light was moving closer to her... no, she was moving closer to it. “What is this? I'm losing – ahhhhhh –”



As she rushed up the trail, Lillie looked everywhere for Nebby, but it was nowhere to be seen.

“It can't possibly move that fast, can it?” she said to herself as she rushed up toward the bridge across the Maholo stream that led straight to the Ruins of Conflict. She could sense the Pokémon in the trees eyeing her... this was a bad spot for someone without a Pokémon to be. Good thing repels existed.

Eventually, she made it to the rickety bridge, and right in the center was Nebby.

“Nebby!”

Nebby turned around and saw her. It knew it was in trouble, but it wanted to see the Guardian so bad...

She took out her Pokéball that she kept it in. It immediately started pouting. “Pew! Pew!” it exclaimed.

“Look, I know you want to see Tapu Koko, but this place is dangerous! Please come ba –”

She was interrupted by the sound of a Spearow up above.

“Caw! Caw! Speeearcaw!” Crap, there were three of them. And they saw Nebby, thinking it was food. The three birds bore down and started circling Nebby like vultures.

“Pew! Pew! PEW!” Nebby cried out and flailed its puffs to try and scare them off but, obviously, it didn't quite work. Meanwhile, all Lillie could do was just watch on in horror as what she feared would happen, DID happen.

“NO, get away!” She tried to cross the bridge to scare them off herself, but it started swaying violently, and she was worried about falling over.

She then cried out. “Please! Anyone who can hear me! Please help me! Please save Nebby!”

There was no response.

Then, as if on cue, a wormhole opened up in the sky. Lillie looked up. She knew what this was. She'd seen them before and Professor Burnet talked about them a lot in her tales. It was an Ultra Wormhole. Did Nebby open it? Well, maybe, as a defense mechanism, but it didn't seem to be straining itself to do so. Maybe another force opened it, or it just appeared randomly.

The wormhole on its own didn't seem to faze the birds, but then she looked closer, and swore she could see an object coming through.

She squinted. Yup, it was an object alright. Then it got bigger, and she heard sustained screaming. Then it got big enough for her to establish that it was a person. Wait, a person falling out of the wormhole?!

When the figure came through, it barreled straight down towards Nebby. The Spearows saw it and immediately scattered. It landed right in front of Nebby with an audible BANG on the wood of the bridge. Nebby jumped in the air in surprise.

Lillie looked closer. It seemed to be an older girl or a younger woman, dressed up in a manner similar to a kimono girl.

The girl looked up, and saw Nebby. Lillie called out “oh my... m-miss, are you alright?”

She didn't respond. Instead, she groaned softly whilst still looking at Nebby. She was clearly delirious. She just looked forward, and barely managed a sentence. “Ohhh... oh, oh. A-are you, a...” Nebby looked at her with a puzzled expression on its face.

Then, the ropes on the other side snapped, and the bridge started to collapse.

“Wha... Wha, OSH-” Without thinking, she grabbed a hold of Nebby, who was both scared and ticked at being handled by a strange lady. “Pew, Pew!” It struggled against her for a second, before realizing what was happening. As the two started falling down as the wood planks fell in all directions, she screamed, it screamed, all Lillie could do was look on paralyzed with fear as Nebby and a person she didn't know fell down into the canyon.

Then, a yellow dot shot out of the sky, and into the canyon with a magnificent woosh. “Tapu kokokokokokokoko!!!!!” It sounded like an oversized chicken as it grabbed a hold of the girl and brought it back up to safety on Lillie's side of the canyon.

As she was set down, Reimu let go of Nebby, then turned her head around to get a look at her savior. It was the most bizarre thing, black with an enormous orange mohawk and what looked like white face paint, a torso that terminated in what seemed to be large, orange feathers, and two halves of a yellow, ornately painted shell with black pincers on them. They just stared for a second, before the... thing called out loudly “KOKOKO!!!!” and took off into the air, dropping a sparkling object onto the ground as it did so.



Lillie knelt down to the beleaguered shrine maiden's level and talked to her softly. “...you okay?”

Reimu pushed herself off the ground, a few bones and joints cracking as she did so. At least she didn't break anything, she thought. “Yeah... I'm okay... sort of.” She had some scrapes on her arms and hands, and one of her sleeves was partially torn, but for falling out of an ultra wormhole onto a bridge, she looked great.

Lillie brushed some of the dust off of her, then helped her back up onto her feet. “You... you saved Nebby.”

“Nebby? Oh, that thing,” Reimu responded. Nebby gave a pouting look at her for a second, but then returned to smiling like it always did.

She looked at the shiny thing that whatever had saved her had dropped. It looked like a strangely patterned stone of some sort. She was about to grab it, but Lillie did it first.

“Here, I'll get that for you.”

She then recalled Nebby and led the confused girl back down the hill towards town.



When she returned, Hala and Kukui were already there waiting for her to return. They saw Reimu being helped by her as well.

“Oh, well, who do we have here?” Hala said in a surprised tone.

“Well... it's a long story, I suppose.” She didn't want to come off as saying she saw an ultra wormhole when most of the town didn't even know what that was.

Reimu looked up and looked around at all the various faces looking in her general direction. People dressed in ways she didn't recognize. Unusual trees and plants everywhere. At least two youkai-looking creatures, three if you counted the thing in the wormhole. This all was way above her cognitive pay grade at the moment.

“W-where am I?” She managed to get out, still smarting from the fall.

“She, uh, I think we should take her back to your place, professor. Then I can explain everything.”

“Hey gramps, can I go with them?” Hau asked Hala. But Hala seemed to understand the gravity of the situation a little better than his excitable grandson.

“I think it's best if you stayed in town. This poor girl seems to need a lot of rest, from the looks of what she went through... oh?” He noticed the sparkle in Lillie's bag. “Lillie, do you mind?”

Lillie looked, and then nodded. He reached into her duffel bag and pulled out what was unmistakably a Sparkling Stone. “She found it.” Hala looked at Reimu. “Young lady,” he asked her, “where did you get this?”

“Um, well...” She didn't quite know how to respond. “I... well, I fell out of this hole in the sky and onto a bridge... then I grabbed this purple puffball as the bridge collapsed... then we were saved by this... this huge yellow thing that sounded like a chicken and...”

Hala didn't even need to hear the rest of it to know where this was going. Not only was she saved by Tapu Koko, but it clearly saw something in her worthy of a Sparkling Stone. It was rare for non-Alolans to be blessed with one. But apparently she fell out of a hole in the sky? Well, obviously, that was nothing short of a miracle! This girl was very unusual indeed.

He looked at her again. “Do you mind if I hold onto this, just for a day? I'll give it back to you, you'll want it.”

“Sure, I don't mind,” she said. She still didn't really understand what was going on here. This all was strange and new for her. She didn't really resist when she was loaded onto the back of a Tauros and taken to Kukui's lab down on the beach. It all just seemed a blur.



“Thanks for the help!” Kukui waved at Hala as he went off on his Tauros.

“Always happy to hear it!” He took off back towards the village.

As this was transpiring, Reimu tried to get a better grip on her surroundings. In front of her was... a lake? A river? It took her a moment to realize... that was the ocean. She'd always heard stories of the ocean, but of course, Gensokyo was not on the sea, so she never thought she would see it. But there it was. She didn't know what they were, but there were several Wingull flying over trying to catch some of the fish Pokémon that would occasionally come close to the surface, mostly Wishiwashi.

As they made their way inside the shack that passed for a Pokémon lab, an unexpected face greeted Kukui.

“Oh, honey, you're back!” It was professor Burnet, apparently back from the lab and making a quick snack.

“Oh hey! Wasn't expecting you back so quickly. What's up?”

Burnet responded to him, “well, it was a pretty slow day at the lab, so I just left early, got on my boat and drove back here.”

“Well, lemme tell ya, you missed the show,” Kukui boasted. “A bunch of things happened and, well, we found this young lady, or rather, Lillie did.” Reimu walked up sheepishly towards the strange white-haired lady.

“Now, honey, what did I say about dragging in more vagrant girls? One's enough already!”

“I saw it,” Lillie said. “She came out of an Ultra Wormhole.” Ultra Wormhole? Is that what it was? Reimu didn't even know anymore.

Professor Burnet stood there for a moment, before she said “...I see.” If what Lillie said was true, then this was huge. “...well, why don't you have a seat over there? I'll make you some tea, if you want it.”

After all she'd been through, the fact that these people at least knew what tea was was comforting.



After Lillie put a few bandages on her harms and fixed up her sleeves, Reimu sat down at the table with these people. They looked at her with curiosity, which unnerved her, but then, she was a strange person who got thrown out of an interdimentional portal, so it only made sense.

“Can you tell us your name? Do you know what we're saying?” Burnet asked.

It was strange. They clearly were not speaking Japanese, but for some reason, she could understand them perfectly... maybe she was just imagining things. Their script was a little strange, too, almost like those books back in Patchouli's – hold it, this was English or something like it. What was going on here? Strange portals don't just make it so you instantly know languages!

...she decided not to overthink it and just give out a response. “...my name.... My name is... Reimu Hakurei....”

“Reimu?” Burnet said. “That's a pretty name. I think I remember a colleague from Johto named Reimu as well.” She looked over the shrine maiden. “But you don't look like you're from Johto. In fact, you probably don't know what Johto is, or what any of this is.”

What's a Johto? She'd never heard of anyplace on the Outside that went by that name. “Please tell me... where am I? Right now?”

Kukui spoke up. “Well, if you want the straight answer, you have landed in the sunny Alola region, a chain of paradise, right smack in the middle of the great, blue ocean!”

Wait, what? She was on an island far out in the ocean?! No other land for thousands of kilometers?! She'd spent her whole life not knowing the ocean and now it surrounded her on all sides! This was all way too much for her to absorb, but it at least helped her understand her place in this world. She was pretty sure it was a different world.

So, she decided to test it. “Do you know... which way Japan is from here?”

“Japan?” Kukui asked. “Never heard of it.”

Yup, definitely a different world. And yet so much like her own.

She picked up the tea in front of her and took a sip. A little bitter compared to what she was used to, but otherwise pretty decent. She stirred in some sugar to help even the taste out.

“It seems I've landed in an alternate reality. Please tell me, do you know what happened?”

Burnet spoke up. “Well, if what Lillie over here is saying is correct...” Lillie? That was the girl's name? Well, she did look a little bit like Lily White, what with the white dress and the blonde hair.

“...then you came out of an Ultra Wormhole. It's a phenomenon people associate with Alola, because it happens here the most. I work at a place called the Dimensional Research Lab, where we study these sorts of things.”

Reimu's ears perked up. This woman might just know how to get her back home if she studied these sorts of things. But, one way or another, she knew she was probably going to be here a while, stressing Yukari out to no end, but even so, the sooner she could find a way back, the better.

“I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name,” Reimu said to Kukui.

“Oh, I'm sorry, I'm Professor Kukui, and I serve as the regional Pokémon professor here in Alola.”

Wait, a Pokémon? What was that?

“What's a Pokémon?” Reimu asked.

“Oh, right, a Pokémon. Well, for one, the thing that saved you back at the bridge is one. And there are hundreds of species of them in this world, and they come in all shapes an sizes!”

He pulled out a sphere from his coat pocket with a white bottom and a black top with yellow bands on it. He tossed it in the air behind him, and out in a burst of energy came what looked like a wolf. A wolf with a mane that had rocks sticking out of it.

“This here is one species that graces these islands, and also my best bud!” He gave the wolf some pets on its head. “Yeah, who's a good girl, yes you are!”

“So,” Reimu continued, “what other kinds exist?”

Then, out of the basement, came a sound, “bzzzrrrrrrrrt!” A small, orange thing that looked like a sprite came up from the basement, zipped around the room, then floated onto the table right in front of Reimu's face.

“Well, I think someone wants to say hi,” Kukui said. The sprite then looked over at a shelf, towards a red thing. It floated over to it, then in a split-second, transferred itself inside.

The red thing began to stumble a bit, then flew off the table right back in front of Reimu's face. The black screen in the middle lit up, and blue bolts shot out of the sides while the sprite's face lit up on the monitor.

“Bzzrrt! Hello there! I'm a Roton-Dex! I can tell you everything you need to know about everything there is to know!”

...it was so weird. These Pokémon, from her observation, seemed extremely similar to youkai, but were not feared by these humans; if anything, they seemed to coexist as if they were inseparable.

“So... these Pokémon... how do you use them?”

“Well,” Burnet began, “Pokémon and humans have been together since time immemorial. At first, they were feared by early humans...” Aha, so they were like youkai, at least at one point. “...but then we learned how to control them, work with them, coexist such that one can hardly live without the other. Pokémon and humans have fought wars alongside each other, built cities with each others help, restored habitats, advance technology... but perhaps the thing they're most famous for, is their immense fighting spirit. There isn't a single Pokémon alive who doesn't enjoy a good fight with others of its kind, or other kinds. And we have taken advantage of this, not only to quell their urge to try and take it out on humans out of boredom, but also to settle conflicts, or just for fun. In fact, battling Pokémon is so widespread, that not only do leagues and tournaments for it exist, but we even settle international disputes with them; there hasn't been a major war in hundreds, nay, THOUSANDS of years, and lethal weapons are extremely rare.”

So basically, Pokémon battles were these people's version of spell card duels. Something she could latch onto, at least. Perhaps this place was almost an alternate Gensokyo blown up to global proportions?

“Sounds like a pretty good place to live in. And I just happened to get dumped here.” She took another sip of tea. “If you don't mind, can I tell my side of the story?”

“Sure, go right ahead, I'm sure you come from a strange land with all sorts of strange things, and we'd just love to hear from you! You know, to get to know you, at least.”



She told stories about her past adventures long into the night. She started by briefly explaining to them just what Gensokyo was, then started from where things got interesting. She told them all about the incident with the red mist, the one where Yuyuko tried to make the Saigyou Ayakashi bloom, the story about Suika, the endless night and the lunar princess, the sixty-year bloom, Kanako's faith plot, the unstable weather caused by Tenshi, the crisis in the former Hell, the tale of the Palanquin ship, the resurrection of Miko, Seija's uprising, the Lunar crisis... the further she got into her yarns, the more the three were spellbound by how strange an bizarre the place she hailed from just was.

“So,” Lillie asked the shrine maiden, “a sort of safe-haven for things that people no longer believe in.”

“Well, I wouldn't say 'safe-haven' is the right term for it. Maybe more of a refuge, if you see half of what goes on there,” Reimu replied.

Both professors laughed. After all, Kukui wasn't all too sure himself what he would do if he ran into a nuclear hell raven with a control rod on one arm and all the temperament and intelligence of a six-year-old child. Maybe try and get Suzie to use Stone Edge on it, he supposed, and then run the opposite direction.

“So,” Burnet asked Reimu, “these 'youkai' you're describing seem like interesting creatures.”

“They're a piece of work, that's for sure,” Reimu replied. “Some of them try to eat humans, although they don't do that to humans living in Gensokyo anymore, just errant outsiders. Most of them these days are just content with giving humans as rough a time as possible. A few try to hide their traits and fit into human society. And then there are others that aren't youkai, but they act in more or less the same way. My job is to make sure they don't get out of hand, but also to make sure they're still around, because if they were to disappear, Gensokyo would become highly unstable.”

Burnet looked on. “I think I mentioned this already, but they say that in prehistoric times, Pokémon used to act in, well, essentially the same way around humans as these 'youkai' you're describing. But then, ancient civilizations learned to tame and control them. Even now, however, there's still some Pokémon that remain the stuff of legends, and are revered as deities. Like the one that saved you.”

Reimu spoke up. “Yeah, what WAS that thing that saved me at that canyon back there?”

“That was Tapu Koko, one of the Guardian Deities of the islands,” Kukui responded to her. “They're responsible for safeguarding Alola from outside threats, but they can be very finicky at times, and don't operate in ways we or even other Pokémon expect them to. For it to save you and give you that stone was highly unusual, which meant it saw something special in you.”

He continued on, “there are four Guardian Deities, one for each major island in Alola. Tapu Koko is the Deity of this island, Melemele Island. It loves itself a good fight, and in addition to Pokémon battles, we please it by holding regular Alolan sumo matches in its honor. It always watches them from afar, and gives its approval if it thinks the fight was intense enough... and boy, do we know intense fights!” He clapped his hands and slapped the table, startling the others.

“If that bridge hadn't collapsed, you would have been able to climb up the hill and visit the Ruins of Conflict, which is a shrine that ancient Alolans built for all the Guardian Deities thousands of years ago. It's where we pay tribute to it, and where new kahunas are appointed, but... it doesn't always show up. Like I said, these Deities are very finicky, and don't always care for human company. Sometimes, though, they can't get enough of it.”

It sounded like, even in this very different and advanced world, faith was still going strong. That was at least one thing like home that Reimu could relish in. Speaking of which...

“Hey,” she spoke up, “I was wondering, did you want to see some of the battling techniques I was talking about?” She probably knew better than to simply show some outsider humans her powers, but this was a different dimension and these people didn't seem too phased by magic and magical battles – according to Burnet, human mediums were apparently a thing in this world.

“You know, I think that would be great,” Kukui responded. “I always like seeing some new moves I could shove onto Pokémon.”

Burnet smiled, while Lillie just looked at her with a look, then smiled and said “yeah, let's see it!”

“Alright then! But, hey, we gotta take this outside. Spell cards are not things you really ought to fire off in small, indoor spaces,” Reimu told them.



Outside, the tropical air of the islands whipped across the beach and stirred up the sands. The sweet smell of ocean spray was a new one to Reimu's nose, and it was unlike anything she had yet experienced. And even though it was twilight, it was still pleasantly warm, the glow of the lab that doubled as a house contrasting nicely with the dark-salmon banded sky. Around them, the bushes rustled, obviously from Pokémon hiding inside them.

As she looked for a nice, open spot in which she could do a demonstration, she suddenly heard a voice yell out “hey, Reimu, watch your step!” When she looked down, she what appeared to be a small, dark lump in the sand. Kukui rushed over and picked it up, revealing what she was about to step on. It was a small, brown thing with pink spikes on top and a face with beady, white eyes and a puckered mouth. At that moment, the Rotom-Dex from inside came outside and hovered right next to her. “I can tell you all different kinds of Pokémon species, if you want,” it told Reimu. It then proceeded to pull up an entry on the thing in front of her in Kukui's hands:



“Pyukumuku, the Sea Cucumber Pokémon. These peculiar sea creatures wash up on shores and scour where they wash up until there's no more food, then wash back out to sea with the tides. They don't like being stepped on, and will attempt to use their innards to form a fist shape to punch away the offender, often releasing foul-smelling scents from its glands in doing so.”



“Pyuku?” the sea cucumber chirped at Reimu briefly before Kukui stood back and hurled it back into the sea, after which it began to swam off.

“You gotta watch your feet when you're walking on Alola's beaches,” he told Reimu. “You're actually lucky it was just a Pyukumuku, those things are mostly harmless. Sandygast, on the other hand, are much harder to see and might try to possess you to build them up with sand if you're not careful.” Reimu didn't know what a Sandygast was, so she decided to ask the Rotom-Dex what it was.

“Hey, Rotom, can you show me a Sandygast?” she asked. The screen went blank for a second while Rotom loaded another page, this time showing what looked like a lump of sand with black eyes and white pupils and a red toy shovel stuck on top.



“Sandygast, the Sand Heap Pokémon. Said to be born from the grudges of deceased Pokémon, they are a common feature of Alolan Beaches. It is a test of courage in Alola for a child to stick their arm inside the hole in its body, and attempting to grab the shovel on its head is said to allow it to possess children to heap more sand onto it to make it bigger and allow it to grow into Palossand.”



There was a prompt to see this other Pokémon, which she clicked. The new page depicted a larger sand pile in the shape of a castle with similar features.



“Palossand, the Sand Castle Pokémon. Palossand suck smaller, unsuspecting Pokémon down into their sand pits, where it is said they steal their souls and use those souls to make more Sandygast. If it is injured, it can absorb more sand to build itself back up, and can harden its body if exposed to water.”



If this thing existed in Gensokyo, it would definitely qualify as a youkai. But, suppressing the urge to try and exterminate them, she decided to inquire as to how one Pokémon morphed into another.

“So, professor, what is the relation between these two Pokémon on the screen?”

He looked at the Rotom-Dex and then said “oh, that? Palossand is what we call an evolution of Sandygast, although it's not really 'evolution' in the scientific sense, more like a metamorphosis, but evolution sounds cooler to the kids. Most Pokémon start out as small, weak species, but eventually grow into much stronger beasts that can hold their own in serious battles. The more battling experience a Pokémon gets, the faster this happens. Of course, some Pokémon evolve in other ways. Sandygast is one of the easy ones that only needs to battle a lot, but others require stones, having enough experience at a certain time, such as at night, some need to bond with their trainers sufficiently, all sorts of things. The Rotom-Dex can tell you how different species evolve. And then there are some, like that Pyukumuku, that don't evolve; they're born that way, live that way, and die that way.”

Fascinating stuff, she felt. “Tell me, how many species of Pokémon exist in this world?”

“How many species?” the professor responded. “Thousands. There are over four-hundred known to inhabit Alola alone, including some rare ones that can't be found in any other region, at least not in the wild.”

If there were thousands of species, it seemed as if they were far more diverse then even the hundreds of different kinds of youkai she knew off the top of her head. Truly, this world was a strange, wonderful place that she wished she could explore more thoroughly, if only for the stories she could tell once she managed to get back home.

Getting back to the task at hand, she found a clearing free of hazards and instructed the other three to stand back while she demonstrated.

“The first thing I should mention is that, as the maiden of Gensokyo's most important shrine, most of my powers are sourced from the blessings of the god of the shrine. First, and foremost, is flight. Most powerful people in Gensokyo can fly, of course, but mine is a special kind of flight which allows for travel between different planes of existence. And all of that, comes from this, my yin-yang orb.” She pulled it out of her satchel... and was instantly taken aback both by how heavy it was, and how it both refused to float and was dull as a hunk of lead. She wondered why this was, and then attempted to fly... except all she did was jump off the ground a few times, flailing her arms.

The professors didn't quite understand what was going on. Neither did she. Why were her powers not working today?

She saw Lillie stifling a chuckle. Exasperated, Reimu asked her “what's so funny?”

Lillie looked up at her, then with a straight face, inquired “you know, don't you suppose being sucked through that Ultra Wormhole maybe separated you from that shrine and the source of your powers?”

Crap. She had a point.

And that also meant that the majority of her spell cards, which were faith-based, were duds. This was highly embarrassing for her; thankfully, Yukari didn't have the ability to gap here and make fun of her situation. At least, she assumed Yukari didn't, otherwise she probably would have gapped here and pulled her back home by now.

So she flipped through her deck to find a card that could work here on its own. She found a weak counterattack card she didn't remember the name of, pulled it out, threw it in the air and hoped for the best.

As it flew up, it froze in the air and began to glow, before streams of laser bullets began to stream in a fireworks pattern. In the twilight sky, it made for a spectacular (for the other three – this sort of thing was normal for Reimu) light show, all the different effects scattering across the place. Fortunately, they dissipated before hitting the ground, and the only thing hit by the bullets was a Trumbeak that seemed mildly irritated before flying off.

After a few seconds, it stopped. Luckily, no one else was around, or else they would have asked what on Earth that was.

“It almost looks like Dazzling Gleam,” Kukui said, “so if anyone asks, we'll just say we had a Pokémon battle here on the beach and someone used Dazzling Gleam at one point.” She was surprised that they weren't more mesmerized, but then, it was just a weak counterattack card, and if there were Pokémon attacks that were like this, then they've probably seen a lot of crazy stuff themselves, too.

Going back inside, the four exchanged some more stories for a couple of hours, including a tale from professor Kukui about how he apparently had an encounter with a herd of wild Bouffalant that almost ended badly, before they decided to hit the sack. Oddly, it seemed, Lillie was mostly silent, making Reimu wonder what she was hiding, or if she was just always quiet.

As the two professors headed for the other side of the cabin, Lillie decided to show Reimu to the room she had up in the loft. Normally, she didn't really let anyone else up there, but she felt comfortable letting another girl sleep in her room.

After they brushed their teeth, she showed Reimu up the ladder. Her room was rather sparse, with just a TV set with a computer attached to it, her tablet, a bed, and a dresser. Nebby was still on the desk, this time snoozing.

“I'm sorry I don't have another bed for you,” Lillie apologized to Reimu, “just this sleeping bag.”

“That's okay, I'm used to sleeping on the floor.”

Reimu didn't really have “sleeping clothes” to speak of, so she wondered if Lillie would be fine at all with her just in her bloomers and her sarashi unwound with no top, but then saw her grab a nightgown out of the closet. “I have one about your size, would you like it?”

Reimu decided to take her up on her offer. It was really soft and silky, she was amazed. As she laid out the sleeping bag, she decided to shoot Lillie one last question.

“Hey, Lillie, so, how did you end up here? If these two professors aren't your parents, who are? You seem a little young to be out on your own.”

Lillie hesitated at this question. She didn't quite feel comfortable telling Reimu the whole story of how she wound up there just yet, so decided to tell only a little, maybe some lying.

“Um, well, I... Nebby. Nebby is why.” She pointed at the ball of mist sleeping on top of the modem. “You see... I found Nebby... some bad people want it. As for my parents, my father went missing, years ago. And my mother... mmm, can I not talk about it, please?”

Reimu seemed to understand. She never knew her parents, and she knew Marisa was estranged from her father for various reasons. So, she decided to lay the subject to rest, satisfied she at least knew the gist of it. “Alright, I understand.” She cut the lights and lied down while Lillie did the same.

“Good night,” she told Lillie.

Outside, she could hear the comforting sound of night bugs, of the type she was used to at home, but there was also the gentle sound the ocean waves made as they came in and out. It was all very soothing, and soon, she melted away into sleep, into dreams.
“Now, I hope each of you know why you are here and why I have called this meeting.”

Normally, Yukari wasn't the type to organize huge meetings such as this one, no less in the only place in Gensokyo big enough and formal enough for this purpose, which happened to the Scarlet Devil Mansion's banquet room. However, at the behest of the other two sages, which came out of hiding specifically to address this latest situation, and with the Remilia's blessing, she appeared in Aya's news office and instructed her to round up every name on a list of individuals she had written up, each one specifically hand-picked by her due to either their power or previous incident-resolving experience, or both. She told her that by order of the three Youkai Sages, they were to meet in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's banquet hall that night. Yukari also bent the separation pact in order to let Satori and her pets attend the meeting as well. Even though the underground youkai were dangerous for one reason or another, this situation was simply too grave and exceptional for her to afford to hold back any option.

Normally, during mansion banquets, the lady herself always occupied the head of the table, but this time deferred to Yukari, given the purpose of this gathering. So she resigned herself to an overhead balcony with a sweeping view of the hall down below, her presence set to establish that, even though this was Yukari's meeting, this was still her house, and no one could forget that. She had Sakuya busy making and serving tea to her and her guests, as was customary.

To either side of Yukari were Kasen and Okina, the other two sages charged to maintain the integrity of the border and Gensokyo's society. In front of them, more than thirty humans, youkai, goddesses, and otherwise, either at the main table or sitting at side tables with a clear view of the sages. As per usual, Ran stood at Yukari's side, while Chen was left to play with the fairies outside. Of the guests who were to attend, only Alice failed to show up: she had requested to stay home to look after Sunshine, a request that was granted; Marisa showed up both in her stead and because she herself was asked to come as well. Everyone else arrived no later than five minutes earlier than they needed to. It didn't matter who you were in Gensokyo, or your motivations; when all three sages requested a meeting such as this, you knew something was both huge, and seriously, seriously wrong.

The room was silent as Yukari's piercing, violet eyes seemed to stare into the souls of everyone in the room. To see her this serious, it meant that something had really hit the fan this time.

The only one who answered her question was Satori, who raised her hand and let Yukari point at her to let her have the proverbial podium. “It is because a most serious incident endangering Gensokyo is occurring. And no one knows what it is or who is behind it.”

“That is correct,” Yukari replied. “One point for the mind-reading pink-haired closet furry.” Satori scowled at that last remark; then again, this was Yukari, no matter how serious she was, her trollish nature was going to be there, no matter what. This was partially why others were going to be slow to answer her questions tonight.

Yukari then snapped her fingers. A few seconds later, three kappa entered the room, two carting a large, white screen and a third carrying a rounded, rectangular object (a projector) and a power source. The kappa carrying the projector used some indeterminate magic to make it float in the air above the banquet table, before handing Yukari a clicker. The two other kappa positioned the screen against the wall behind Yukari and directly opposite of where Remilia was observing the meeting.

Pressing the red button on the top, the projector flipped on, projecting a slide with some Japanese characters on a blank background which translated to “The Wormhole Incident: What We Know.” Most in the room had never seen a projected image before, so for them, this was something very fascinating, especially since it came from the kappa and wasn't overly complex, like half of what they did.

She pressed a button to reveal the first slide, an image of the wormhole captured by Aya just after Reimu was sucked in. Yukari got up from her chair and walked towards the screen, then started walking back and forth in front of it, lecturing everyone in the room on the incident and how it was being handled.

“This,” she projected to the crowd, “is an image of the wormhole that appeared earlier this afternoon for about five minutes before closing, for those who did not see it. After it appeared, there was general chaos and bedlam across the valley, especially in the human village. Now, seeing as how this valley sees incidents as frequently as twice a year, something like this causing this amount of pandemonium is unusual. That means, surely, that this portal is just a symptom of an incident beyond incidents.”

She took a sip of tea before setting it down and continuing. “Now, some of you were probably wondering if I perhaps caused this, if this is similar to the Spring incident several years ago. The short answer is no, I did not cause this portal to appear. And I shall elaborate why.” Some in the room weren't fully convinced Yukari was being sincere, given her rap sheet, but they listened along anyway. “Obviously, I possess a powerful ability to manipulate boundaries: the boundary of life and death, between worlds such as Heaven and Earth, in between Gensokyo and the outside, fantasy and reality, truth and lies, and so on. I can use this power to close the distance between places and things, and travel to and fro. However, I am not a goddess, this power comes with limits, and in particular, there is one type of boundary I am unable to breach: ones between parallel universes and dimensions. And that's what we're dealing with here: a portal to alternate worlds. This means that whoever or whatever created this wormhole is far stronger and much more capable than any being inhabiting this valley, or at the very least, has powers whose context allows for manipulation of things beyond the scope of this realm.”

There was a hand raised in the back. It was Mamizou's. “Yes?”

“So in other words, we're dealing with something which is completely alien to our universe.”

“Ten points to Gryffindor,” Yukari exclaimed. No one was sure what Gryffindor was, but again, Yukari.

“Now, the maiden of the Hakruei Shrine has disappeared through this wormhole. So far, we know she's alive, but in another dimension, because we have seen no anomalies in the border... don't ask me why this is the case, I'm just guessing. Also, she's most likely cut off from her powers here in Gensokyo, as she cannot access or draw power from the shrine's god. This means we cannot say she is definitely safe where she is, because she will be only a little above an average human. Now, can anyone tell me what happens if she dies?”

Marisa was next. “Basically, all Hell breaks loose.”

“To an extent,” Yukari replied, “but I don't think Hecatia would use it as a cue to try and expand her establishment. But what would happen is not only would the the Border become unstable, since the barrier maiden is a crucial component, but generally, the next person in line to deal with major incidents is the Dragon God – who does NOT like being disturbed and possesses tremendous and horrible power. Combined with the weakened barrier, and there is an extremely high chance – which becomes inevitable after long enough – that unless a replacement maiden, preferably of the Hakurei bloodline, is found, the Border will come crashing down and all Gensokyo destroyed. This would have three undesirable effects: first, everyone in Gensokyo not named Kaguya, Mokou or Eirin when this happens will be killed. Second, it would cause the mass extinction of almost all magical beings across the world, severely disrupting the order of life, death and nature – according to some calculations, it would take centuries to recover from this. And third –” She flipped the next slide, showing a map. “This event would resemble a nuclear detonation on the outside. Not only would the event be visible from space and flatten most of Nagano, but across the sea here, on the northern part of this peninsula that you see,” she pointed towards Korea, “is a government that really hates the Japanese and has weapons that could do this. Assuming a cover story is not disseminated, the most likely domino effect of this calamity would be a nuclear war that engulfs the region, especially if Japan and southern Korea's American and Australian allies got involved, and then there would be no Japan – and if it got really out of hand, no rest of human civilization either. And that means no more youkai as well.”

It seemed a chilling prospect to all in the room, how this one shrine maiden had not only the weight of Gensokyo on her shoulders, but to an extent, the rest of the world too. It almost made one wonder if she really knew how awesome her responsibility was, for a person known to be a lazy, crazy lady.

“This is just the worst-case scenario, of course, but we always have to assume the worst case.” She flipped to the next slide, another blank background with the words “The Plan” on it.

“Now, we the sages have already enacted contingencies to counteract this threat, and act on it as much as possible. We've begun vetting girls in the human village to serve as potential stand-ins in case Reimu cannot be found or does not return. However, we simply do not know how stable the border would be with an untrained maiden not of the Hakurei bloodline or some relation to it. Now, before I get to the main point, I want to point out that until the incident is resolved, there are some... restrictions in place. Humans in the human village, as of now, are not permitted to leave the town limits, and a curfew is in effect. Keine is helping safeguard the human's well-being as well as helping enforce this rule. Furthermore, anyone living outside the village, apart from Marisa, Alice, Yomou, Sakuya, people in this room right now and any students at Keine's school are not permitted to enter under pain of lethal enforcement from us. No human-youkai contact outside of people in this room, plus Alice and schoolchildren, is permitted, and outside human hunts are canceled until further notice.” That last one got a few groans from some of the youkai in the room. “I'm sorry, but we cannot afford to permit anything right now that could potentially leave anyone unaccounted for, because of the nature of this threat.”

Speaking up again, she then made an announcement. “Everyone invited here today is invited to join a task force to help resolve this incident with us. All of you have been chosen due to your exceptional abilities in solving incidents. Your task will be to monitor any and all anomalous activity, notably the appearance of portals, which you are to log and report to us immediately. Kasen will set up a point of contact where she will take all reports. Furthermore, you will all be asked to be ready to fight, 24/7. If anything other than Reimu is to come out of a portal, it has a high chance of being our perpetrator and you would be under orders to engage, capture, and turn it in as soon as possible for interrogation. All who wish to join, say aye.”

Everyone in the room did. And because Marisa did, Alice was bound too.

“Excellent, I figured no one would turn this down. Now, the first thing we need to do is come up with a code name for our task force, something easy to remember so we remember who's in on it. Any suggestions?”

“How about 'Hakurei Hunters,' since we're hunting for Reimu?” Reisen called out.

“I like your thinking, but it sounds too much like we're hunting her for food.” Yukari couldn' help but chuckle a bit. “Any others?”

“How about 'Border Guards?'” a voice came from Yuyuko.

“Border guards... oh, wait, I have an idea!” Yukari said excitedly. “How about 'Border Patrol?' I think that describes what we're doing perfectly. All in favor, say aye.”

Again, everyone did, even Reisen.

“Alright, Border Patrol it is.” She clapped and turned off the projector. “You may break.”

As people scattered and chatted with each other, Yukari went up to Remilia at her perch. “I want to thank you again for letting me use your banquet hall. You have no idea how important this all is.”

“It is my pleasure,” Remy said nobly as she took another sip of her blood tea. “After all, I always serve to please my guests the highest possible experience, no matter their purpose. And I don't underestimate the gravity of the situation. Because if nothing changes, our fates would be most unpleasant indeed.”

“...yes, our fates.” Yukari felt a chill up her spine for the first time in decades as she stepped down back towards the others.

Reimu slowly woke up from her sleep, a little groggy and briefly unsure of where she was, before remembering her predicament. It was still a little dark, the sun only starting to rise up over the horizon. Lillie was still sound asleep, and so was Nebby. However, she did not feel tired enough to go back to sleep, so she decided to get up, get her clothes, and head down towards the bathroom to wash up.

She'd been in here a couple times, and was still getting used to the idea of a flush toilet. She looked inside the shower, supposedly where people in this world cleaned themselves unless they were out in the sticks. Investigating the knob, she wondered how the shower was operated, since there wasn't a distinct on/off switch on it to help her out. She turned it one direction, before being blasted in the face with cold water.

“Gyahh!” she exclaimed. The water remained cold, and she was used to cold of course. But she was told it was warm, too, and she thought that might feel better than cold, running water which your body never heated up. So she turned the dial toward red, and it started heating up. Eventually, the temperature was just right, and she climbed in.

She put her hair under the water and started washing it. She looked around and saw various bottles of chemicals claiming to be for hair care. Some were marked with names saying who they were for, such as Lillie's name on one bottle saying it was for “smooth, silky hair.” She decided Lillie wouldn't mind to much if she used some, so she put a dab on her hand and lathered it in. She wasn't sure how this was supposed to be good for hair specifically; wasn't that what soap was for? But she digressed; as long as she stayed in this world, she needed to act it. After washing her hair, she grabbed the bar of soap on the side and a cloth and scrubbed her body of dirt and sweat, then got another cloth so she could wash her... feminine places.

After getting out, she dried herself off with a towel, then figured out how to operate the blow dryer so she could dry her hair off quicker. She then briefly styled it so it looked neat, before briefly washing her clothes off so she could wear them again – she really didn't have anything else at the moment. She got her bow and hair tubes on, got her dress together, looked in the mirror to make sure she didn't mess anything up, then went out to the kitchen to see if she could throw together something to eat or drink.

The sun was a little higher in the sky. As she walked out, she saw professor Kukui outside jogging on the beach in shorts and a sweater, and Suzie running alongside. She decided to go out and meet him. It was a little nippy outside still, but nothing like Gensokyo winters sometimes.

The professor started some push-ups when he saw Reimu come by. “Oh hey, Reimu! Didn't think you got up this early!”

“Well, I don't usually, but I couldn't get back to sleep so I just decided to get up. What are you doing?”

“I'm doing my morning exercises! It's how I keep up and how I keep my pecs and six-pack from turning into a keg!” He was dedicated to his physique, that's for sure. Why else would he wear a jacket that showed that he was shirtless all day?

As he did more push ups, Reimu heard a sound of a roar in the sky, and looked up. It appeared to be a large, orange European dragon with what looked like a large sack on the side. It landed right next to the house near a post with a box on it – a mailbox. A boy in a blue-white striped shirt, brown khaki shorts and a black cap with a white design dismounted the dragon carrying a bag with letters in it, pulled out a couple and a rolled up paper, put them in the box, shouted “mail!” got back on the dragon's saddle, then took off again towards the west. Is this how mail is delivered around here? They really use dragons, some of the most powerful beings in existence, as flying mounts to deliver things? She knew the rules here were probably different, of course, but being brought up knowing dragons were the highest being in Gensokyo, it was a little jarring.

As they walked back inside, Kukui got the letters and the paper out of the mail box. When they got in, they could see both Burnet and Lillie were now both up, with Lillie cooking breakfast. Kukui put the paper on the table in front of Burnet, who started reading it while sipping some coffee.

“How was your workout?” she asked Kukui.

“Excellent! Lemme tell ya, Suzie's a piece of work since I managed to get her to learn Close Combat,” he replied. “She's like a new pup!”

“Oh, so it's actually working now?” she asked him, regarding the TM.

“Yup! Now I can copy and sell it!”

Burnet smiled. This sore of enthusiastic and over-the-top energy matched only by his dedication to his work was exactly what attracted her to him in the first place, and despite his eccentric tendencies he was one of the best Pokémon professors she had come into in terms of how much work he was able to crank out and how much his theory translated into practice – Suzie, for instance, had 6-0'd entire teams of Pokémon Rock was weak to before.

She looked over at Reimu, who had gotten herself a cup of coffee, perhaps thinking it was tea. She watched as the girl grimaced for a couple seconds as she swallowed it, then reached for some sugar to try and sweeten it.

“Egh, what kind of tea is this?” she asked.

“That's coffee, dear. It's a little different then tea. It's something else people here drink.”

Reimu didn't really know what coffee was. No one in Gensokyo drank coffee or grew and ground beans, and while she had read bits and pieces about it from culinary magazines that fell in from the outside, she never really paid it much mind since it wasn't tea. She saw Lillie putting the kettle back inside the coffee machine, before getting some hot water out of the microwave and steeping a bag inside it. Guess she didn't really care for coffee, either. And really, she couldn't blame her. The taste was very strong and different from the tea she was used to.

For breakfast, Lillie cooked up some omelettes with bits of ham, cheese and cilantro mixed in. Reimu could see there was cheese in it; cheese was rare in Gensokyo since there wasn't much in the way of dairy livestock there, and she'd only had it once when she was a child and Yukari gave her some she had brought in from the outside. She also was used to eating things with chopsticks, but didn't see those here. Instead there were forks and knives like what used at banquets and “bring your own sake” Cards against Youkai nights at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She was familiar with their use; she just didn't use them often. So she cut off a piece and put it in her mouth, letting the earthy, salt-and-peppery taste of the eggs mixed with those of the savory ham, the gooey cheese and the fresh aftertaste of the cilantro meld together in her mouth before swallowing.

Lillie might be shy and awkward, but hot damn, she was a really good chef. No wonder she cooked meals around here.

“Do you like it?” Lillie asked her.

Reimu swallowed first before responding “it's really good! It's... not really like anything I've ever had before, but in a good way.” Trying new food was something she always enjoyed doing, especially since she didn't have the funds to buy much aside from the basics. Lillie seemed pleased by the comment, confident that at least one more person enjoyed her cooking. She picked up the dishes and rinsed them off before sticking them in the dishwasher, which she had emptied from the night before. As Reimu watched her actions, she could tell that even though she was a permanent guest of sorts here, she could easily pass for a live-in maid with her skills.

About an hour later, Burnet took off for work at the lab. As she did, Reimu followed her out to her boat, chatting some more the whole way.

“Oh, you boat to work?” Reimu asked confusingly. There weren't any bodies of water large enough in Gensokyo for anyone not named Komachi to need a boat to get anywhere, so the concept of using a boat in that fashion, especially a power boat like Burnet's, was a bit strange.

“The lab is in a town on another island. So like how most people use a car or ride on a Pokémon to work, I take a boat to work.” She powered the boat up, waved at Kukui, and sped off into the blue horizon, although Reimu could make out another island in the distance; that must be the island her lab is on.

As Burnet's boat disappeared in the distance, the familiar sound of a Tauros pulling up in front of the house echoed across the beach. It was Hala, the man who helped her here yesterday.

“Hey Professor Kukui! Thought you could use a hand getting some more people to Hau's party!”

“Sure do!” Kukui responded. “Reimu, would you like to come to Hau's birthday party with us? He's really excited to see you.”

Oh, Hau. That boy from yesterday. It was his birthday? Well, she guessed it might be a little rude for her not to, and it's not like she had anything better to do. So, she hopped onto the back of Hala's Tauros while Kukui loaded Lillie onto the back of his. The gang made their way back towards Iki Town, where Reimu had fallen near yesterday.

Once they arrived, there was already quite a scene going. Alolan Luau dancers were performing with their Oricorio in front of a crowd, drummers and pipers were making music, children were making arts and crafts. Some birthday party for one kid, it seemed. How important was Hau, or his father or grandfather?

Hau was waiting in front of Hala's house, impatient to see the shrine maiden from the sky. The kid seemed full of energy, because he just would not stop jumping up and down and all around.

“Hau,” Hala said whilst dismounting the bull. “I know you've been dying to see her, so here she is.”

Reimu walked forward, still a little overwhelmed. “Wait, hold on, who are you again?”

“Oh... oh! Well, I apologize. I must not have properly introduce myself.” He did a stomping routine much like sumo wrestlers do, then struck a pose with one palm and foot forward, before standing back up like normal and answering her question. “My names is Hala, and I'm the kahuna here on Melemele Island. And this is my grandson, Hau.”

Hau waved his hand cheekily. “Hi there!”

Reimu walked over to him and knelt down to his level. “Well,” she smirked, “you're a funny little boy, aren't you? So how old are you? I hear it's your birthday today.”

“Eleven!” he said excitedly. “And I can't tell you how long I've waited for today to come!” He then stood up and stopped jumping around so much, and switched to a more laid-back tone. “By the way, where are you from? I heard you came from the sky!”

Reimu knew she could tell the truth, but the truth was a long story and she knew he might not care. So she came up with an answer for him. “Well, I guess you could say I was sent from the heavens down here to this island.”

“You sure look like you came from the heavens!” Reimu wasn't sure how to take this comment from an eleven year-old boy, knowing what he meant, so she blushed up a bit.

She decided to distract herself by asking Hala “hey, so, what's so special about eleven? He makes it sound like he's gonna get crowned today.”

“Ohoho, I'm glad you asked! Eleven is when boys and girls in Alola can get their first Pokémon and start their Island Challenge!”

“What's an Island Challenge?” Reimu asked him.

Kukui decided to step forward. “The Island Challenge is a rite of passage for kids in Alola. You get your first Pokémon, then you venture across all the islands, where you face different trials, headed up by Trial Captains. Each one is a kid who has completed their Island Challenge, and who passes the torch when they reach twenty to another kid who has completed their challenge. It's mostly aimed at kids, but anyone who comes into possession of a Z-ring is eligible for it, even if they're an elderly monk from Sinnoh.”

Kukui continued on. “Anyway, each trial has different rules. Some ask you to fight a certain number of wild Pokémon, others might call for one or two fights against other trainers, or even entirely unique tasks like answering quiz questions or finding ingredients for a soup. Whatever the trial is, they all end with a battle against a Totem Pokémon, which are much tougher versions of a normal Pokémon of their species. Each trial is themed around one type, and if you clear a trial, the captain gives you its Z-crystal, and you move on to the next. Clear all trials on one island, and you gain the privilege to face that island's Kahuna – in the case of this island, you'd face Hala. Grand Trials, as they're called, consist of just a battle against the Kahuna, which is chosen by the Guardian Deity of each island. Like regular trials, each Kahuna has a team themed around one type. Once you defeat a Kahuna, you get their Z-crystal, and a special stamp in your Trainer Passport saying you've cleared that island, after which you go onto the next. You can to the islands in any order you want; the traditional route, though, is Melemele-Akala-Ula'Ula-Poni.”

Reimu asked the obvious question. “What happens if you clear all the trials on every island?”

“Well,” Kukui trailed on, “traditionally, you then climb Mt. Lanakila, the tallest mountain in Alola. Up there, you'll face all the Kahunas in rematches without breaks. If you manage to do that, you're crowned an Island Challenge Champion. However, due to some, ah, recent events, plus a little suggestion of mine, this year we're changing that up to a new system. But, you'll see what I mean when you get there.”

Wait, had she been signed up for this without her permission, or was he talking to Hau? She was very confused. So, she decided to ask some more questions. “What's a Z-ring?”

“This!” Hala produced a stone ring similar to the rock she found yesterday. “I spent last night carving it into a Z-ring for you. Would you like it?”

“Well, I guess the more appropriate question is, would you like to take on the Island Challenge?” Kukui asked. “You don't have to if you don't want to; if you want to focus more on finding a way back home, I completely understand. But this might give you an opportunity to find that way back home as you travel all over the islands, instead of just sitting on one spot hoping it appears.”

Reimu thought about it. On one hand, she never passed up a good challenge when offered one. On the other, she really didn't want to get distracted much from her main goal, which was getting home. However, she supposed, if she scoured the islands with a purpose, she might be able to find some clues about what brought her here, and how she could go back. Also, imagine the kinds of stories she could tell when she did get back. Marisa would be jealous. She also didn't have her spell cards or powers; getting a Pokémon would be a good way to ensure she stayed safe until then.

After sitting on it for a minute or two, the answer seemed clear. “I accept your challenge.” She took the ring from Hala's hands, clipped it onto her wrist, and flashed it like a champ. A big, fat smile grew across Kukui's face.

“Lookin' good with that bling there, miss Hakurei!”

Lillie watched this scene unfold, and felt this would be the perfect time to present her gift to Hau.

She walked up to him. “Hau, I made you something as well!” She got the ring out of her bag and showed it to him. “I made it myself! For you, for your birthday!”

“Oh wow, thanks!” he said. Lillie smiled.

“...but I already have one.”

She fell face-first onto the ground.

Hau walked up to her. “Hey, sorry, I didn't mean THAT. I just meant grandpa already gave me one this morning!”

Hala gave a big-belly laugh at the whole situation. “Oh, I'm sorry Lillie. I guess I should have told you he would get one.” He then regained his composure. “But I do have an idea.”

Lillie got up off the ground, clearly embarrassed. “What's that?”

Hala looked at Kukui, who then started speaking to her. “Lillie, me, Hala and Burnet have been talking about this for a while, and I think now is the perfect moment. You've got a new, strong friend here, and this wonderful boy of Hala's. You're no longer a child, and we think it's time you took on the Island Challenge for yourself.”

Lillie hesitated. She feared he might one day suggest this. There was a reason she was trying to lie low, and it wasn't because of the law – in fact, a restraining order should be keeping her away from... her, and in Kukui's and Burnet's custody as godparents. That didn't mean her and her goons weren't after Lillie, and there was only so much the law could do to keep them at arm's length. But then, she didn't train Pokémon, and even though it went against what she grew up with, if she trained strong Pokémon, she had a chance, just in case. Plus, if anything happened, Reimu seemed perfectly willing, perhaps a little too willing, to intervene on her behalf.

So she took her own Z-ring, clipped it onto her wrist, and displayed it a bit awkwardly. She then saw that Hau had done so as well.

Hala gave out another laugh. “Well now, we've got a power trio on our hands!” He clapped his hands, and showed them to the stage in the center of town.

Once there, he produced three Pokéballs, tossed them all at once, and out from them popped three Pokémon, an owl, a cat, and a seal. One of these, Reimu knew, would be her first Pokémon.

“I'll let the birthday boy get first pick,” Hala announced. Hau didn't hesitate before gravitating towards the owl. He knelt down to its level, with a big, dumb, toothy grind plastered across his face. The small owl responded by turning its head all the way around with a “koo!” of approval, before flying on top of his head and sitting there like a hat.

“I suppose Rowlet thought you were the right choice too!” Hala told him.

Lillie decided to defer her turn to Reimu, who looked at the two remaining choices. The seal seemed a bit haughty, standing up on its hind flippers and puffing up its chest in a “look at me, I'm so strong” fashion. The big, pink nose and frilly collar-thing also didn't really appeal to her so, no thanks, she thought.

Her attention then turned to the cat, which she noticed had gotten a little closer to her and was eyeing her closely. There was just... something about it. Maybe it was those huge, yellow eyes, or the oversized head compared to its body, or the strange marking on its head, but it gave her a deliciously otherworldly vibe. It was also nowhere near as expressive as the others, or if it was, it wasn't showing it.

Of course, behind Litten's stoic and calculating exterior, it was already imagining Reimu giving it raspberries on its belly, playing spin-the-kitty on the floor, giving it a whole, straight-from-the-sea stack of Wishiwashi in a bowl the size of a semi-truck, and, of course, snuggling in with her to protect each other from monsters at night, before putting its butt in her face at five in the morning with a troll expression on its face.

The only thing it let out was a high-pitched “nyaa” while looking down at the ground near Reimu's foot. Reimu, in turn, looked at it, wondering if maybe one of Rin's siblings had somehow gotten misplaced, since it reminded her of the soul-toting kasha.

After a few seconds, Litten walked forward to her, rubbed her leg while purring, and let her pet it. It then ran out in front of her, faced her suddenly, let out a “nyaa-ha!” whilst smiling, then jumped into her outstretched arms while she stood up and held it in the air, still smiling.

“Looks like he loves you!” Hala said. Oh, it's a boy cat. Alright, then. That was fine.

Lillie looked at Reimu's new cat, then down at the one remaining choice. Or, well, she would have, had the Popplio not decided to do a jumping tackle that forced her down to the ground and started licking her face like a dog.

“Ah, ah, ahahahaha,” she exclaimed, then laughed. “Alright, alright, you can get off me now!” She held Popplio in her outstretched arms in front of her, and all it did was wriggle for a bit, then stop before giving a single “bar?”

“And I think you'll have lots of fun with that big girl over there,” Hala said to her.

So, it was settled. Hau got the grass owl, Rowlet; Reimu got the fire cat, Litten; and Lillie got the sea doggo, Popplio.

Reimu looked at her new cat Pokémon and told it “I think I ought to give you a name.” Unfortunately, finding out it was a boy cat kinda ruined her plan to name it Orin, so she had to think of a substitute. “How about if I named you... Sasha?” Sasha was a boy's name in Russia, after all. It was a girl's name too, and it rhymed with kasha, so why not?

The other two were inspired by Reimu's action, so decided to name their new Pokémon as well. Hau loved old magician movies, and when he learned his Rowlet was female also, decided to name her Hedwig. Lillie named her Popplio Adele, since she knew what the silly clown seal would grow up into and would fit the name in due time.

It did not take long for the next logical step after this to come to mind: the inaugural battles of each trainer. But first, Reimu, being an outsider, needed to be drilled on the basics of type effectiveness and commands. And no one was better qualified for the job then the Rotom Dex, which stowed away in Lillie's bag and flew straight out at the shrine maiden.

“Bzzzrt! So, is it true?! You don't know how types work?!”

Reimu still wasn't too sure what to think of the prospect of having a fairy companion, something reserved for certain youkai back at home. But, it was her most helpful and handy source of info on, well, everything related to Pokémon, so she felt she had no choice.

“No, I do not know how types work,” she responded. “Will you show me?”

“Absolutely!” It seemed just a little too enthusiastic about even the most basic topics. It quickly pulled up a screen on its monitor displaying the three Pokémon she just saw, including Sasha, whose species name was apparently Litten. Appended to each were words describing which elemental type each one belonged to; in the case of Rowlet, both of them. Red arrows showing type effectiveness were also present.

“Professor,” Reimu asked, “what am I seeing here?”

Kukui walked forward and studied the screen. “This is showing how strong these Pokémon are against the others. The red arrows going back tell you that that Pokémon's main attacks are strong against the target. In this case, your Litten is Fire-type, which is strong against Rowlet's Grass-type. Rowlet is also part Flying, but that shouldn't matter for this demonstration. It also takes less damage from Rowlet's Grass attacks. However, Popplio is Water-type, which is strong against Litten's Fire, and resists Litten's Fire attacks. Finishing the cycle, Rowlet is likewise strong against Popplio.”

It was decided that Hau should first battle Lillie, so that Reimu could watch and understand this a bit better. So, the stage was cleared, and spectators looked on. Hau and Lillie looked each other in the eye. Hau was confident. Lillie was still wondering if all this was a good idea.

“I challenge you to a battle!” Hau exclaimed energetically. This startled Lillie, who, after a few seconds, managed to spit out “I-I accept your challenge!”

They both sent out their new Pokémon. At this point, each stood ready, ready to receive their trainer's orders.

“This is important,” Kukui told Reimu. “Pokémon that respect their trainers will always wait to act. All you have to do at that point is give it a command that it knows and the target, and it will act accordingly.”

Reimu seemed to understand, but still had some questions. “How do I know what to tell it?”

“Well,” Kukui responded, “each Pokémon can know up to four commands which we call 'moves.' A move can either be an attack meant to damage the opponent, or a special technique that has another effect which either makes the user stronger or the opponent weaker.”

“And how do I know what moves it knows?” Reimu asked him.

“Well, for the most part, you're supposed to commit that to memory, but the Rotom-Dex can also reveal what attacks your Pokémon knows.”

At that point, Hala immediately declared that the bout was on, at which point Rowlet swiftly took to the air. “Hedwig!” Hau commanded her. “Circle the air and use Leafage on Popplio!”

And Hedwig did precisely that. After ruffling her wings a bit and letting out an excited “koo,” she leapt into the air and started harassing Adele with a bunch of leaves shot out of her wings. Lillie responded by trying to get Adele to use Water Gun to shoot the Grass Quill Pokémon out of the air, but under duress, most of them missed, and the ones that did hit were too scattered to do anything other than make Hedwig shake the moisture off in mid-air above the reach of her opponent before going back to dropping leaves onto the poor sea dog.

Reimu studied this fight closely, and thought about how to go about dealing with Hedwig. Because she possessed years of experience in spell card dueling (having partially helped Yukari make the system back when she was only five), it did not take her long to zero in on Lillie's errors and how Hau was taking advantage of them, whether or not he was consciously aware of it. She thought about ways she could apply years of aerial and physical combat to a fire cat she just met and come up with a win.

Before long, the fight was over, and Adele, battered by the constant pelting of super-effective leaves, was too tired to keep fighting, forcing Lillie to recall her and concede the match to Hau, who was satisfied about winning his first battle. She looked a bit glum, both because her Pokémon was injured and because she just lost her first real battle, but she was soon comforted by the boy, who walked up to her in a rather humble fashion. “Hey,” he said patting her on the back, “don't get down. You're still new at this, and you were at a disadvantage. Just keep doin' it, and you could probably get back at me!”

She looked up. This kid had every reason to gloat, but instead he was being surprisingly mature and professional about his win for his age. She smiled. “Thanks.” She walked over to a lady who offered to heal her Pokémon back up.

Next up was Reimu vs. Hau. As she walked up the stage and met him right in the eye, she didn't hesitate to try and intimidate him. Even though he was just a child still, he was still clearly more mentally mature than some of the people she's had to deal with, so she felt it didn't quite count as picking on someone smaller than herself, especially since, if anything, she should be at a disadvantage here for not knowing any of this world's lore on battling.

“Well now,” she said in a cold, collected tone. “I might be worlds distant from it, but I still represent the Hakurei Shrine, and it is my duty, as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, to emerge victorious against anyone opposed to me or it.”

“Whatever you say!” Hau shouted back as he threw his Pokéball and re-summoned Hedwig.

Reimu followed in kind. “Go get 'em, Sasha!”

As soon as Sasha hit the field, Hedwig, sensing her trainer's will, took to the sky again. Sasha has a type advantage, Hau realized, but since it was also grounded like Adele the same strategy of staying in the air and pelting it with leaves should still work. So he ordered her to use Leafage again, with Sasha as the target.

Reimu, however, was not prepared to let Hau win as easily as he did against Lillie. With a strong voice and a forceful hand, she looked at Sasha and pointed to a spot out of the leaves, looking at them as she did so. “Dodge there!” she shouted, and Sasha did just that. None of the leaves hit him.

Hau ordered another salvo of leaves be shot at the fire cat, and again, Reimu ordered it on where to dodge. As he dodged wave after wave of leaves, he developed a sort of taunting grace in doing so, and even figured out where to go to be safe without Reimu's input, or at least anticipating where she would ask it to go.

This went on until Hedwig started to tire from using too many Leafages in a row; they were now less accurate and thinner. This was her moment to strike, Reimu thought. She briefly examined Hedwig's trajectory, then pointed to a space in the air in front of her.

“Sasha, use Ember right there!” Sasha was a little confused as to why he was being asked to shoot the air and not the target, but did so anyway. The small flame lined up exactly with where Reimu predicted Hedwig would fly, and the shot successfully intercepted the owlet mid-flight. Now on fire, she landed and tried to roll around to put the flames out, but was so exhausted that it didn't work. The flames took their toll as they burnt out on their own; Hau tried to get her to tackle Sasha, but she fell flat in doing so, and she was declared unable to battle.

Rush with victory, Reimu walked over to the boy, who seemed a bit mopey after his loss. “Y'know, I might be new to Pokémon battles,” she said to him, “but I've got years of experience fighting all manner of ghouls and crooks, so don't take it so hard.” She patted him on the back, which seemed to get his spirits up, as well as his curiosity.

“Ghouls and crooks?” he asked. “What sorts of ghouls and crooks?”

“Well,” she said to him. “I'd be more than happy to tell.” The three were led back towards Hala's patio, where there was tons of barbecue, birthday cake and ice cream waiting for them.

“No way,” Hau exclaimed through a mouthful of kebab. “SUNS??? Like what's up in the sky?!?”

“Yes, suns. Tons of them, and with tons of laser bullets scattered in between going in all directions.” Hau was absolutely spellbound by her story of how she dove into the underground and dealt with the denizens below, but the idea of a hell-raven girl with a control rod on her arm shooting literal suns at Reimu seemed a tad ridiculous. If nothing else, then holy tapdancing miltanks was the idea of him in that situation scary. So her describing the experience as casually as one might mention buying milk impressed on him a person who's been through some really crazy experiences. He wasn't sure how much of it to believe at first, especially since Reimu couldn't really demonstrate to him how she did any of this, but even seeing her inert yin-yang orb and deck of spell cards was enough to convince him that what she was telling was most likely the truth.

And he wasn't the only one. Several guests at his party were also listening intently to her stories, of how this strange maiden from beyond the wormhole dealt with what sounded like horrifically strong monsters, aliens, demons, vampires, magicians and fairies. Of course, none of them knew that basically all of them were cute, but slightly mentally unstable magical girls with drinking problems, something Reimu used to her advantage to make her stories sound more impressive. It was Hau's party, but at least at the feast, she stole the show.

At one point, the inevitable question came from the crowd as to how she wound up here. So she responded earnestly: “well,” she began, “it was kind of sudden. It was a slow morning before it appeared, and when it appeared I immediately went to investigate it. And then, well, it sucked me right in, and now here I am.” She left out the part about the jellyfish creature, thinking it might confuse them.

After she finished her stories and most of the party guests finished their food, they shared cake and ice cream while Hau opened his presents.

“Oh wow!” he exclaimed, holding up a box and showing it around like it was some unearth holy artifact. “It's a Nintendo Switch with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe! Thanks, professor!”

Kukui took off his glasses and winked. “Figured you'd like it!” Reimu wasn't sure what Hau just got, and why he was so excited about what looked to her like just some black box, but hey, she did come from a society with essentially medieval levels of technology throughout most of it, so she most likely didn't understand why a Nintendo Switch was such a big deal, or whatever Mario Kart was. So she just kind of nodded and did her best to look happy for the kid.

By the time they got out, it was getting late. As they waved goodbye at Hau, he asked Lillie and Reimu a question.

“Hey, so, I wanted to start my journey tomorrow, and we've all got Z-rings and Pokémon now, so, hey, wanna come?”

Lillie still wasn't sure whether she wanted to do on this journey, but unfortunately for her, Reimu took the liberty of answering for her. “You betcha!”

Hau beamed as he shot back “thanks! I'll meet you down at the professor's lab in the morning, and then we can get going!”

As they walked away from the village, Kukui offered them a rid back on his Tauros, but then Reimu told him “actually, would you mind if we just walked back?”

“Not at all,” he responded. “It might take you a little while, especially since Ratatta like to pounce on you this time of day, but you're trainers now! You should be able to kick it to the curb and handle it like champs!”

Reimu grasped Lillies hand. “Don't worry,” she told her. “As long as you've got me, you'll be alright.” Lillie nodded in understanding. “...thanks.” A soft grin appeared on her face.

It was decided that Nebby should go with the professor back to the lab, to minimize the risk of it running off on them. He also left the girls with some potions, and instructed Reimu on their use. As he charged off into the distance, the two girls hiked through the grassy bluffs over the beaches between Iki Town and the lab.

It was a lovely scene: the sunset turned the sky a brilliant orange, the gentle sea breeze bristled through the beachgrass, and the palm trees swayed with the breeze two. Looking closer, Reimu could notice the Crabrawler who climbed up some of the trees, attempting to knock down coconuts for the others on the ground and each trying to prove themselves the best by being at the top. Of course, as they wandered through the grass, no shortage of Pikipek and Alolan Ratatta gave them trouble, but they were swiftly dealt with by Sasha and Adele. As the two battled together, it almost seemed to the two girls as if Sasha enjoyed fighting alongside Adele despite being type-weak. Perhaps friendship isn't defined by type advantage, Reimu surmised, and in any case, that was a good thing, in comparison to some of the racism present back home.

When they got back to the lab, Kukui already laid out some grilled fruit and veggies for them to eat. They were decent, Reimu felt, but now she knew why Lillie usually cooked. There wasn't as much to talk about from the day, and professor Burnet was not there; apparently she had to stay overnight on Akala to help a colleague out with a project. This sort of thing happened all the time, Kukui explained to them, and it wasn't unusual for her to be here only a couple days a week. So Reimu decided to tell the some more stories, this time some more low-key ones relating to daily life in Gensokyo and how she was sometimes called on by Marisa for help with whatever insane new scheme she had cooked up that week.

“You must have the worst friends,” Lillie joked “for them to come to you for help stealing aircraft from a bunch of duck people.” Reimu thought that sometimes herself, but people here in Alola didn't seem to get the concept of a place where rational thought was an endangered species, and how laid-back and easygoing their lifestyle was in a tropical paradise where it was warm year-round and there was nothing waiting outside the town limits trying to eat you or burn you into the nearest rock face, so she wasn't sure how else to characterize it.

“Yes,” she responded to Lillie, “yes I do.”

The two others went to bed, but Reimu decided to stay up a bit to bone up on some more Pokémon knowledge with the Rotom-Dex. She was amazed as to how there were eighteen types total, with a complicated web of effectiveness against each other; how strange many of these Pokémon got and all the different sorts of shapes and sizes they came in; how many other regions of the world there were beyond these islands – enough to confirm that this wasn't the world just outside Gensokyo, but an alternate reality entirely. And she did this all with her new companion curled up on her lap and keeping her warm, literally. As she went to bed and drifted off, Sasha plopped himself down where her legs were, curled up into a ball and dozed off himself. The beginning of a long, fruitful friendship indeed.
The morning after the meeting, the sage's rules went into effect: with exceptions, no one allowed in or out of the human village until the incident was resolved. This also meant that any youkai who happened to be living undercover in the village had to be evicted for the time being, since youkai were completely barred from access under the threat of getting their brains blown halfway to the Nameless Hill.

The knock on Sekibanki's door came way too early in the morning in the rokurokubi's opinion. She was not one of the people invited to the meeting the previous night, and had no knowledge of the wormhole's appearance due to her sleeping through it; she only later suspected that there was an incident due to the general tense state across the residents of the village, as well as talk of a rift in the sky.

It took her a minute to get herself back together – quite literally, due to her head falling off the bed an onto the floor the night before – before she walked up to the door to answer it. It was Keine. What did she want?

“Good morning,” Keine said firmly. Sekibanki groaned in response, still not fully awake. “I've come to you with bad news. Yesterday, there was a major incident, and now the shrine maiden is missing.” She didn't really care, since she never really meddled in other's affairs much; so what if she was missing, as far as she was concerned?

“We had a meeting last night with the sages. We decided that until this incident is resolved and the shrine maiden found, no one from outside the village other then certain humans and their families are allowed in, and that includes all youkai.” Keine paused for a moment. “I know I let you live here undercover as long as you cause no trouble, but for now I'm going to have to ask you to leave at once.”

What?! Leave? Now? She didn't do anything wrong, she didn't cause the shrine maiden to disappear. But, orders were orders she supposed, and if it came from the Youkai Sages then she had essentially no veto power in the matter.

She was given until sundown to pack up her essentials and relocate outside the village to wait out the incident. At least Keine solicited help from Sakuya to help make this quick. Sekibanki still had a rather dim view of the maid ever since she was sliced to shreds by her knives back during the uprising, and that animosity was shared by the way Sakuya shot her the occasional dull glare in her direction as they rushed belongings to a cave close to the Mausoleum where she was to stay until the incident was resolved. She was never a big fan of the idea of youkai being cave-dwellers, which was part of why she moved to the village in the first place.

After the last of the items that she needed were moved out, Sakuya confirmed with her that everything she wanted was now out, since she would not be able to go back to the village later to get anything until the incident resolved itself. She confirmed, and so Sakuya pulled out her pocket watch. A second later, she was back at the mansion resuming her chores there.

Sekibanki looked around. Being as prideful as she was, it was a bit humiliating to her to be forced to live in this uncomfortable and dank place by two humans, even if it was supposedly for the greater good. If she weren't promised up and down that this was temporary, she would probably head out right now to see if she could find Seija and convince her to restart her rebellion; according to rumors, Seija was living in a hole in the ground concealed by flowers in the Nameless Hill.

Of course, she was still interested in heading out, but not to find food or anything like that (she had enough for two weeks; very few incidents lasted longer than a few days). Instead, she was more interested in finding out what the heck was going on that was causing things like this to happen. She knew Yukari was a lazy jokester, so for her to completely shut Gensokyo down like this was completely out of character for her. That combined with the looks of dread on the human's faces in the village and the level of seriousness Keine met her with despite doing nothing wrong indicated that this was huge.

This could be highly entertaining, she thought.

She recalled that she was close to the Mausoleum, suggesting that this cave was part of the same system as the one leading to it. By extention, this also meant she was close to the Myouren Temple, which was right on top of it. Either of those places could have good people to go ask about whatever was going on.

She stepped out of the cave to go searching for the temple, when she noticed the soil in the ground near her was being disturbed. After a few moments, a head popped out of the ground which she recognized as belonging to Miko, covered in dirt.

“How are you today?” Miko asked the rokurokubi.

“Well, considering I've been kicked out of my house, not too great.” Sekibanki decided that as long as the taoist hermit was a head in the ground, it would be most proper if she were a head on the ground, so she took her head off and placed it on the ground next to Miko's.

“I sensed your desire,” Miko told her. “You wish to know why you're living in this cave for the moment, and why everyone is on edge.”

“Generally speaking,” she replied. She was still wondering why Miko was now reduced to burrowing through the ground, but she guessed it had something to do with Senkai and cracks or something, so she decided not to question the ruler's judgement.

“Well, I supposed the best answer to that question is... the truth.” She trailed off into a more serious tone. “I suppose you deserve to know what is going on.”

Rather than speak, she raised one arm out of the ground holding a picture. She was present at the meeting, and these pictures were handed out to everyone present. It depicted the wormhole in color, which was all Seikibanki needed to be convinced that this was a serious incident.

“So, what is being done about this?” she asked Miko.

“Well, we've put together a special task force called,” she paused for a bit, as if to be dramatic, “the border patrol. Our job is to comb the land for every piece of evidence we can find to figure out who the mysterious culprit is, and if we see any more of these wormholes, to report them and engage as necessary.”

“Border patrol” seemed like kind of a cheesy name for a group literally trying to save Gensokyo, but if Yukari came up with that name herself, then it was a little less surprising.

“I've already roused my followers to assist me in this hunt. If you wish, we can recruit you. That way, you might get your house back faster!”

She'd rather not. She never really cared for meddling in other's affairs, and preferred instead to just let the trained incident resolvers do their thing. Besides, she wasn't a powerful enough youkai to take on Gensokyo's highest-level battlers, much less whatever caused this. So she respectfully declined the offer.

“Well, alright then, I suppose,” Miko replied in a sort of defeated tone. Her head receded back into the ground, and there was no trace of her after that.

With her questions answered, Sekibanki knew there was no reason for her to really go anywhere, and just veg in this cave, but curiosity struck. She wondered where her buddies Kagerou and Wakasagi were, and she was kind of interested in this hunt for the shrine maiden, if for no other reason then to see people's reactions to the whole affair. So she got together a few cards and some snacks, threw them into a sack, and decided to start poking around to see if she could find anything in her immediate area.

The area surrounding the cave was mostly forest, and there were animals and fairies playing around as usual. Being a youkai herself, she never really gave much thought as to the things hiding in these woods as a human might, since any that saw her would just assume her to be a denizen. That said, she still preferred life in society to this, since she felt that life was more interesting there even if everyone and their mother would be after her if her secret was found out.

After a short while in the woods, she heard some rustling. At first she just assumed it to be a deer or a fairy, and continued on. A few moments later, however, she heard a rather strange cry that sounded like a gaggling of alien turkeys to her. Intrigued, she went off in the direction of the cry, but upon reaching a clearing at the edge of the forest found nothing. She decided to turn around and head back when, out of the bush, a most bizarre figure popped out and shouted the same cry at her, perhaps attempting to scare her.

Of course, she wasn't fazed, so instead she approached it and decided to interrogate it. It was a weird thing: a seemingly wobbly noodle thing with white high-heeled “shoes” with a pink and blue ball on them each and stocky legs, a thin body with a pink, yellow-and-blue swirling pattern and arms with delicate “gloves” at the end which she guessed were its hands, a frilly collar around its neck and a white head with pink and blue dots all over it and starbursts on the side.

“You're pretty bizarre-looking,” she told it. “What kind of youkai are you?”

The figure realized that its attempt to spook her didn't work, so it decided to pull another trick. It briefly rolled its head around its “collar” in a silly fashion before removing it completely and tossing it in the air, creating a brilliant, smoky explosion that sent out sparks in all directions like fireworks.

As strange as it was, Sekibank realized that she might just have met another of her own kind. She responded by removing her own head and levitating it in the air. The figure seemed to fidget with excitement. Alright, I got its trust, she told herself, before placing her head back on her neck.

“You're the strangest other rokurokubi I've ever met. What brings you out here?”

It seemed to hesitate for a moment, as if it didn't understand what she was telling it, before it began to seemingly pantomime a scene, using its arms to form a circle shape before pointing at a part of the sky above them.

“Ok, hold on. So, a circle, the sky... are you trying to tell me you came out of a wormhole?”

The figure shook with excitement as if to say that was correct. “And what led you to Gensokyo in the first place?”

The figure responded by gathering some sticks and holding them in its hands before leaping into the air and giving out as intimidating of a shout as it could provide while holding the sticks out as if they were claws, before returning to the ground and miming itself being chucked through the hole.

“I'm not sure I understand. So, what, a big, scary creature threw you through the hole?” It nodded in affirmation. “And let me guess: you're trying to find a way home?” It nodded again.

She asked it another question. “Have you seen a girl in a red-and-white dress with brown hair?” It looked down for a second, the looked up and shook its head to say no. “No? Well, that's okay.” She asked it one more question. “Would you like to come with me? I have a place you could stay.”

It stood in place for a moment as if to think it over, before its dots lit up, it let out another cry and gave a short, silly dance. “I take that as a yes! Alright, come with me.”

The figure followed her back to the cave she was living in for the time being. After arriving, she felt the need to apologize for her situation. “Sorry about the mess,” she told it. “I was asked to stay in this cave while this incident is being resolved.” The figure didn't seem to care; it was just happy it found someone who accepted its ability to use its head as a weapon.

“By the way,” Sekibank asked, “this might sound funny, but do you eat? Are you hungry?” She got some rice cakes she had stashed and gave them to the figure. Its head tilted back on its “collar” slightly, revealing the hole underneath, while it seemed to absorb energy from the rice cakes. “Well, I guess that answers my question,” she surmised.

That night, she made a fire and they played games over it, while she asked it if it knew any other tricks. It demonstrated the ability to conjure and hurl a shadowy blob as well as spew flames from the hole underneath its head, demonstrating that it could also fight if it needed to. Satisfied that she had a battling partner, she then went to sleep, while it seemed to petrify itself in place, which for it was probably how it “slept,” she felt.
“C'mon, are ya girls coming or what?!” Hau shouted back at Reimu and Lillie. He had gotten up bright and early, and popped down to the lab so that the three could start on their adventure. The problem? It was way to early in the morning for them. Reimu alone probably drank three cups of tea and still was not feeling ready to face the world. But, here they were, like it or not, being dragged along by a boy who was so excited to start his adventure.

“Is he always like this?” Reimu asked Lillie.

“Pretty much, at least as long as I've known him,” she replied.

Reimu went on, “I'm surprised they let youngsters like him out loose to catch and battle with dangerous creatures; back where I'm from, children aren't allowed to leave the confines of the village until they're at least sixteen, myself exempted because I'm the shrine maiden and have – or had, at least right now – powerful magical abilities to fight off youkai with.”

“You'd be surprised,” Lillie replied. “I've seen kids as young as four with fully-evolved and trained Hydreigons; not borrowed from anyone, mind you, although they might have received it as a present. Technically, kids need to be at least eleven before they're allowed to start battling Pokémon, but there's no rule saying kids can't own one and then let someone else like their parents train it up for them so they have a strong start.”

“That seems like cheating,” Reimu said.

“It sort of is, and to tell you the truth, you mostly see that in hardcore trainer families,” Lillie answered. “You know, the types who battle to win.”

“Sounds like a lot of people I know,” Reimu chuckled.

As they walked down the trail, it turned into gravel, then into paved road. And in the distance, the Hau'oil City skyline crept over the horizon and came into view.

Reimu stood for a second, awestruck. Of course, she was aware of cities that seemed to pierce the heavens in the outside world from back home, but she never imagined she would get to see it in person. The sleek, glassy facades of the tallest buildings with many shorter ones at their sides were unlike anything she had seen before in her life.

“That's Hau'oli City,” Lillie told her while pointing at it. “It's the capital and largest city in the region.”

Hau came back up to them. “Everyone who's anyone on this island lives, works, or visits there. And they got all sorts of stuff! They got all sorts of places to eat, beaches, stadiums, parks – there's even places where you can nab Pokémon while having a malasada!”

Reimu was puzzled. “What's a malasada?”

Hau was all to eager to respond. “Only the best food in the world! They can be sweet and filled with jelly, or nice and spicy and filled with all kinds of meat and veggies, and thrown together and fried until they're all crispy! You can even feed them to you Pokémon!”

“Sounds like health food to me,” Reimu replied sarcastically. Hau was less then thrilled, giving a bored, annoyed look at her dry sense of humor.

As they wandered along, they passed a white building with a pink roof. “Oh, Reimu,” Lillie said suddenly, “I don't think you've been in a Pokémon center yet. Wanna go inside and see?”

“Uh, sure,” Reimu said. She wasn't sure what a Pokémon center was, but she guessed it was important. So they went up the steps and through the automatic door.

Inside, directly in front of them, was a large stall with a pink-haired nurse and a large computer in the background, a café to the left and a couple of guys in aprons behind a counter to the right.

“So, what's this place all about?” Reimu asked.

“This is where you can go to get your Pokémon healed,” Lillie answered. “I've seen people do it a lot, but I've never done it myself. You just give them your Pokémon, and they take a few seconds and then they're fully healed. It's also free.”

“Free, huh? I wonder how they do that.”

“Taxpayer supported,” some guy said, although Reimu didn't see who. She actually thought it was impressive that a miracle machine that healed Pokémon back up to full health could be supported by taxes of all things, and it made her wish that she collected taxes for her shrine as a way of making money.

She noticed the laptop next to the Nurse Joy, and went over to inspect it. “Can I ask what this is?” Reimu asked her.

“Oh, that's the PC,” Nurse Joy responded. “You can use that to access the Pokémon Storage System. All you need to do is make an account, then you can put your excess Pokémon in at any time, anywhere.”

“So you mean you can actually convert Pokémon to data form and they rest in this... network?”

“That's pretty much it!”

Converting life forms to data... yeah, she was pretty sure at this point that the level of technology in this world must surpass even the outside by a wide margin. It almost sounded like Lunarian technology.

“Also, what do you mean by 'excess Pokémon?” Reimu asked again.

“Well, trainers are only allowed to carry six. Any more than that, and extras have to get sent to the box. This happens on the spot, so you don't need to go back to a PC every time you catch a new Pokémon.”

“I see.” Reimu got some help setting up a new account, and after that the nurse helped Hau and Lillie set up theirs.

She wandered over to the café to see what it was all about. She saw some travel brochures as well as a newsstand for the Hau'oli Register on some racks off to the side. As she walked up to the counter, she saw someone insert a coin into the newsstand and grab a paper out of it. That's interesting, she thought; papers sold by the various Tengu news companies were either kept behind the counter or subscription-only; these were kept in a cabinet that opened when you put your money in. That's something she might mention to Aya if she got back to Gensoyko, then she could get her to shut up about Hatate stealing her business by putting newsstands all over the human village and then keeping them stocked.

“Welcome to the Pokémon Center Café!” the man behind the counter said to her as she walked up. “What can I get you today?”

“I don't know,” Reimu told him, “what do you have?”

“I can go ahead and show you our specials for today,” he told her. He pointed to the chalk stand over to the side that listed the specials; since it was Monday, that meant Roserade Tea with oat bagels for only ₽300. Before they left, she had been given a decent amount of spending money, and also knew Lillie had a lot more, since she apparently came from a wealthy family. She decided to get that, which the barista behind the man immediately got started brewing.

“Also,” he said, “we give these out once a day to our customers.” He handed her a paper-wrapped galette and a dozen blue, glossy heart-shaped beans. “Those are Poké Beans,” he explained. “Pokémon here in Alola just love them, so we give 'em to them as treats.”

She got her drink and her bagel and sat at one of the tables. She saw some people with their Pokémon out of their balls, so she decided to let Sasha out and, thinking about what the man said about the beans, let him nibble on one while she read some more info on battling Pokémon and what kinds of Pokémon were found in Alola.

After a few minutes, she got up and gestured to Sasha to follow her. By now Lillie and Hau were done setting up their accounts and were over at the Poké Mart getting some things. Lillie handed her some potions and extra Poké Balls, explained how to use the potions, and then they all place their items inside the “hyperspace pouches” Kukui had given them before they left, which were made using an ability of some Pokémon not found in Alola named Gardevoir.

As they left the Pokémon Center and continued down the road, Hau opened up a map of the city and started looking for things to do while they were there. That's when he noticed something.

“Hey, guys,” he said, “there's a Trainer's School on the way to the city. Wanna go check it out? We could probably learn a thing or two about how to do awesome battles!”

Hau had a point; other than the spar with each other the previous day, neither of them had any real experience catching and battling Pokémon, so it was at least worth a look. It was a half-mile up the road, so it was also fairly close. So they began heading towards it.

When they got there, they came into a somewhat large painted cement building, with a large arch over the entrance that proclaimed the school the “Hau'oli City Official Trainer's School.” On each end of the arch was two triangles, with the left side having a yellow and a red triangle and the right side having a pink and a purple triangle, as well as four designs impressed into the sign behind the letters. One of them Reimu could tell was Tapu Koko; she wasn't sure who the others were supposed to be. She decided not to ask, at the risk of sounding like an idiot, and they proceeded into the courtyard, where they were immediately confronted by a boy in a green shirt and shorts and sporting a slicked-back haircut.

“You must be new trainers, aren't you?” he asked slyly.

“What makes you say that?” Reimu said, attempting to sound intimidating. She could tell this boy was obviously full of himself, going by the way he looked and talked himself up. But, of course, Hau had to bounce up in front and shout “of course we are! Why else would we be here?”

“I think you should watch out, because I'm the strongest trainer at this school. I practically eat new trainers for breakfast.”

Yeah, he was full of himself, Reimu figured. If she threw him in front of Yuuka, it would be more than enough to make him eat his words before his slow, painful death by having flowers grow out of his skin while she beat him over the head with her bare fists. She was just so eager to prove this punk that she was more then she seemed, and so were her friends.

“Well,” she sneered as if she were about to throw down with a lesser youkai who was also too sure of their strength, “if you're so tough, why don't you prove it?”

“I don't just fight random people,” he retorted, seeming sure and secure about himself, but Reimu had dealt with these kinds of characters for years and could hear the faint fear in his tone. To Lillie, though, he did sound intimidating, while Hau was just wondering what was holding up the fight. “These kids are all out for morning recess. If you can beat them I'll, I will challenge you.”

Reimu decided it was best if she played his game. “Challenge accepted.” Lillie breathed a sigh of relief, thankful she didn't have to fight this kid right now, right then.

She turned to Lillie and Hau. “Why don't you two go around and battle some of these kids for me so I – we, have less work.” Lillie reluctantly agreed, while Hau was already on the other side of the courtyard battling a girl with a Yungoos.

She decided to ply the grounds herself, battling the various kids who were scattered about. Most tried to show off their knowledge of battling by spouting off random facts; unfortunately, she already knew everything they were telling her, since she did her research beforehand and knew about type matchups that they hadn't even learned yet, plus a few other factors. And these kids proved to put up even less of a fight than Lillie and Hau, mostly because they were using weak, common scrubs like Yungoos and Caterpie that Sasha could easily outfox and outmaneuver before landing one or two decisive blows, with maybe a couple scratches along the way if he messed up his dance-like timing. She took pride in attempting to make Pokémon battles as much of a work of art as danmaku bouts, and was surprised how easily this came to her.

After beating down a few frustrated students, she decided to practice some more by venturing into the grass and bushes to seek out some wild Pokémon to deaden Sasha's bones against. Most of what little she found were just some weak Pokémon that she knew weren't really worth the bother; she wanted something strong that Sasha could fight against.

As she wandered around, she heard some metallic screeching coming from near the fence. She walked over to it, but didn't see anything. So she turned around, and noticed a large, metal ball near the building's generators. She decided to send Sasha out, figuring it was a Pokémon, and have him sneak-attack it with an Ember. Sasha shot the flame, which hit the metal ball, who immediately turned around startled and started shooting electricity everywhere, which caused the generator to overload and the building to black out. Yup, that was a Pokémon, alright. She decided to sic the Rotom Dex on it to find out what it was before it caused more damage.



“Magnemite, the Magnet Pokémon. Magnemite generates a magnetic field which allows it to levitate off the ground. True to its magnetic nature, it is attracted only to strong trainers, and can be a powerful fighter if befriended.”



The wild Magnemite immediately attempted to flee, but Sasha, blood knight as he had already become, was having none of it, and actively blocked the Magnemite from escaping, forcing to it fight by trying to slam into Sasha. Reimu expertly commanded the fire cat by ordering it to dodge all of Magnemite's attacks, wearing it down enough to open up potential weak spots.

As it was worn down but Sasha's fighting spirit still riding high, however, Reimu thought of something. According to the Dex, Magnemite was Electric/Steel. Steel, she read, was very good defensively because it resisted a lot of things, and she thought that having something that could deal with Water-types for Sasha would be a good idea.

So she ordered out to Sasha to hold back. The cat, who had grown so used to landing decisive victories, was confused, but sensing his trainer was plotting something, was willing to oblige. The wild Magnemite was too tired to do anything, giving Reimu the opportunity she needed to reach into her bag, pull a Poké Ball out of it, and toss it vigorously at the Magnet Pokémon. It provided basically no resistance; the ball snapped it in easily, officially earning Reimu her first caught Pokémon.

The first thing she did was let it out and heal it back up to full strength, to make sure she could use it immediately if she needed to. After she did, she attempted to gain its trust by holding out a Poké Bean; she wasn't sure if the thing even ate solid food, but it was worth a shot. She held it out, and the Magnemite grasped it between its two magnets, then ran a charge through it and held it in the air for a few seconds. Reimu started to wonder what it was doing, and Sasha had taken an interest in it too.

Eventually, the charge created a spark, and the charred remains of the bean fell to the ground. Like a child inspecting their broken toy, it levitated down to the ground to look at the bean, then looked up at Reimu in a sheepish manner, its big, white eye with a tiny pupil looking at her as if it were a child about to be scolded by their mother.

She gave it a gentle pat, then a playful punch. It responded by jutting forward and attempting to tackle her, but it just lodged itself in her stomach instead. She grabbed it and held it out, and it had the most adorable happy face a faceless eye could provide plastered all over.

“Welcome to the family,” Reimu told it with a confident smile. She felt she had the prefect counter to whatever that boy out in front was packing.

After recalling both of her Pokémon into their balls, she made her way back out to the front courtyard, with a most sinister smirk and a spring in her step as she pressed forward ready to give the boy his medicine. He found him confronting Lillie and Hau, and got ready to challenge him...

...only to discover that Lillies' Popplio Adele had already given the boy's Grimer the once-over, so much so that he was still mopping parts of it out of the cement so that he could recall it into its ball. She still looked visibly startled.

“I'm sorry!” she exclaimed holding her hands up to her red, embarrassed face. “I swear it was an accident! I think she just got a little too into fighting!”

The boy looked up with an annoyed expression as he wrung out the rest of his Grimer and recalled it into the ball. “You need to learn to control your Pokémon, because otherwise they get a little overboard with their attacking.”

Reimu sneered, “I think you're just mad because you lost to a girl.”

He looked at her with a blush. “Am not!” But she could tell all too well how flustered he was. It was cute and funny to her.

She walked over to Lillie. “Nice job, whatever you did.”

Lillie just looked at her with a confused expression. “Um, thanks? I just told her to attack, and, well, she just blasted a bunch of bubbles at his Pokémon, and it became all soaked and runny and –”

Meanwhile, off to the side, Adele was having fun bouncing Hedwig around in a bubble off her nose. Hedwig didn't seem to mind much, and just rolled with it.

At that moment, the generator rebooted and the lights came back on inside the school. A PA came on, saying “the power has been restored. Recess is over; please come back inside. And would whoever beat Joseph please come to Ms. Snyder's office?”

The three realized that the PA was talking about them. Did they do something wrong? Lillie was worried she might have done something wrong, but the other two didn't seem too concerned, and walked with her inside the building.

They were led by the boy, Joseph, to the teacher's office. Inside the building, it was fairly well-organized, but also larger than it looked from outside – hallways that seemed to go on for miles, and a huge gymnasium where kids trained with their Pokémon, mostly Fighting-types but it wasn't uncommon for kids to cheat at basketball with their Ghost- or Flying-types. The gym alone seemed bigger than Keine's entire schoolhouse. On the walls were obvious signs of past kerfuffles, such as claw marks, chars and burns, places with mold and mildew leftover from wayward Water Guns, Scalds and Hydro Pumps; all these were being cleaned up by janitors all over the building. Various aspiring trainers walked down the hallways, chatting about various things going on in their lives like family matters, how well their training was going, what they did last weekend, and all sort of other idle banter. Outside in the courtyard were just kids, but the students at the school represented a diverse age range from small children to full-grown adults in their 20's.

Reimu elbowed Hau just a bit. “Psst, Hau,” she whispered. “I thought you said something about your school being over for the summer.”

“Oh, that's just regular school,” he answered. “The Trainer's School is open pretty much all year, but I've never gone because dad and grandpa always wanted my help at the ranch at home taking care of the Tauros, and I learned all about Pokémon doing that! But, I've heard from friends this place lets you just drop in and take a couple classes if you need to know some stuff, and that's why I thought it would be a good idea to drop by.”

She looked around. All these kids, she realized, were taking classes to learn how to be trainers. Perhaps that's just how some people learned to do it, she guessed, but in her experience, fighting wasn't something you learned to do by reading a book; you went out there, practiced against weaker foes, made mistakes, then worked your way up. She spent a good part of her early years fighting fairies in the forest before her first “big game” incident with the red mist when she was eleven, so she was used to jumping into new things and learning by trial and error – actually, she was prone to just jumping into anything, period, which was probably how she got herself into this mess in the first place, she realized. But, it was too late to cry over spilled milk, and she focused on the task at hand, which was the teacher's office door in front of her, Hau and Lillie.

As it opened, it revealed a petite, black-haired lady with glasses working on her computer and gathering some papers together in a folder before class. She was a lot less imposing than Keine, that's for sure, but to her credit she didn't sound like the headmaster, just a subordinate teacher, so was probably more comparable to one of Keine's assistants.

They shut the door behind them, and she glanced over towards them. She didn't seem too angry, at least. Then again, Yuuka doesn't usually look angry before she mauls you, so Reimu still played it cautiously and signaled to Lillie and Hau to do the same.

She looked up from her work toward them. “Oh, I assume one of you beat one of my students down to a pulp in a match?”

“That's one way you could put it,” Reimu responded. She slightly nudged Lillie to fess up to the deed. “Just be honest,” she whispered in Lillie's ear. “We're not leavin' till one of us says we did it.”

Lillie gulped as she stepped forward. “It was me,” she said, with a certain amount of trembling and nervousness in her voice.

The teacher, Ms. Snyder, looked at her for a few moments, before she stood up. “Then you must be a strong trainer!” she said with a smile.

“Oh, uh... thank you?” Lillie asked confused.

Hau butted in, “well, he did boast about being the strongest trainer at this school, but we're all brand-new to training Pokémon, so, that means we're better than the whole school?” He put his hands behind his head and gave a toothy smile.

“Well, I wouldn't say the whole school...” the teacher replied, “but he is the strongest in my class. And I hear you all pretty much gave the rest of my class the business, as well. How recently did you become trainers?”

“Like yesterday,” Reimu told her.

“I see. Well, if you don't mind, would you all be willing to hang around until after my next class period? I feel like I need to show you something.”

Neither of the three knew what she had in mind, but they agreed to stay around until about eleven, which was when her next class got out. They followed her to her class, which was composed of everyone they faced out in the courtyard, including Joseph. They stood at the back of the class, but even there they still got stares from the people they had wiped the floor with only a few minutes before hand.

Ms. Snyder walked up to the front of the classroom, where the write-on projector board was already fired up and am image of a fruit was on it.

“Welcome back, class,” she told her students. “I've that you've all battled those three in the back,” she pointed at the trio with her stylus, “and that they totally creamed you. Is that right?”

No one wanted to fess up to the failure.

“Well, either way, I all want you to go out and practice battling some more, and not just think that your theory work is enough. I know that you all have been skimping on your practical experience, and I want this to serve as a stern lesson.” She turned her attention to the board. “Now, with that out of the way, we will now talk about berries. Can anyone tell me what this is on the board?”

A student raised her hand. “Yes, Mia?”

“That's a Sitrus Berry!” the student said.

“Correct. And can anyone else tell me what it does?”

A boy raised his hand. “Yes, Satoshi?”

“You give it to a Pokémon and then they will eat it if they're injured to get back some energy.”

“Excellent. So you all have at least been doing your assigned readings. Now, up here I have a basket of berries, and before next recess I will give them to you so you can practice battling with Pokémon holding them. For now, however, I'm going to demonstrate to you how these berries work. So I'm going to call up a volunteer and we'll have a mock battle.” Some students raised their hands, so they could battle the teacher and try to redeem themselves, but she already knew who she wanted. She pointed at Lillie and said “Lillie, can you come up here and show my students how its done?”

She was stunned – she wasn't that good of a trainer, was she? No, she couldn't be, she was very new at this after all! That win was just a fluke! But Reimu was already shoving her up forward, so she didn't really have a say in the matter.

“Rock the house, sistah,” she whispered in Lillie's ear. This was going to suck.

Up in front of the class, her knees nervously shook, and she introduced herself to the class. “Um, hi, my name is Lillie,” she uttered. “And I'm going to show you all how to... use berries, I guess.”

To some of the students, it was hard to believe she was the one who stomped Joseph's face into the curb. She just seemed so delicate and awkward. But, maybe that was her tactic to lull the opponent into a false sense of security.

She and the teacher exchanged bows, and sent out their Pokémon, Adele and a Magnemite. Before they began exchanging blows, the teacher handed each one a Sitrus Berry. “So, in this battle, we will be demonstrating the use of these berries. Lillie, I will let you attack first because you are at a type disadvantage here and you only have one Pokémon.”

Lillie nodded in agreement, then ordered Adele to use Water Gun, which she happily did. It was just a short spray – but it was somehow enough to send Magnemite rocketing out the door and into the wall outside the gymnasium, leaving a three inch crater in the wall as it fell down to the ground and fell apart, clearly unable to battle, defeating the purpose of the tutorial.

Ms. Snyder looked outside, wide eyed, then looked back at Adele, then back at the Magnemite before recalling it. “Okay, let's try that again!” she said with a false smile. She sent out her other Pokémon, a Meowth, and then asked Lillie “try using a weaker attack this time so these students can see how a Sitrus Berry is used.”

“Alright,” Lillie responded. “Um, Adele, use Pound this time, and don't do it so hard. I know you enjoy fighting, but just... go a little softly.”

The sea doggo again nodded in agreement. The Meowth bared is claws and began smirking as it thought about the dirty trick it wanted to pull to counter the attack, only to get a bunch of seal landing on top of it licking its face and panting like a dog in affection.

Trouble was, the Meowth was female. She pulled itself out from under Adele and wrapped herself around her trainer's leg as if she were trying to escape a raging butch lesbian, staring back at the seal in fear.

“C'mon, Meowth, use Scratch!” She didn't want to; in her mind, the scent of raging ladies was already filling up the room ready to bear down on her any second, as that... thing stared back at her as if it were totally coming on to her.

Of course, all Adele was doing was giving her a confused look as to why she wasn't fighting back. She even offered the Meowth a berry to try and get it back out from under its trainer, but by now, it was too late. The Meowth fell to the ground covering her head and eyes wide and mouth open, worried about getting gang-Stolen by steaming ladies at any moment.

Reimu could swear she'd seen this sort of thing somewhere before, but couldn't put a finger on it right then. From her perspective, it just looked like the Meowth didn't want to fight for some reason.

The only thing the befuddled instructor could do was concede defeat and recall the Meowth. She gave a confused stare at Lillie, who stared right back at her. “Well, uh, I guess you really are a strong trainer!” was all the teacher could say.

After the rest of her lesson, she dismissed the students out to the courtyard and then met the three again, specifically Lillie. “You have a really strong Popplio,” she said. “Are you sure it isn't over its level?”

“I don't think so,” Lillie said. “I just got it from Hala yesterday and she lost to Hau's Rowlet. I'm not sure why she's so strong, all of a sudden.”

The Rotom Dex checked her power level, but it only indicated that Adele was at a normal level of power for a newly issued starter Pokémon.

“Well, perhaps she's just special. Be careful with her so she doesn't hurt anyone,” Ms. Snyder told Lillie.

As they were about to leave, she stopped them one more time. “Oh, yes, I did say I wanted to give you something.” She got some berries together. “You can have these Sitrus Berries for your time.” She gave a few to each of them, waved them off, and they were on their way.

“Well, that was dumb,” Reimu said to both Lillie and Hau. “But at least I got a new Pokémon out of it!”

“I don't think it was dumb,” Hau told her. “We got to see Lillie's awesome Pokémon in action!”

“Uh, sure,” Lillie said, holding her hand up to a smile.

With the school behind them, they set their sights on the city in front of them, ready to tackle everything within.
As they walked down the main avenue, Reimu looked up, and she was amazed. Buildings reaching dozens of stories into the air. Expansive luxury hotels overlooking the ocean. Sunbathers on the beach. All sorts of buildings lining the maintained roads and alleys, and plenty of park space in between all of it. Behind the Lunar Capital, it was the most beautiful town she had ever walked through.

“Wow... look at all this,” she told Lillie. “I wonder how much money and manpower went into creating a city this big and modern.”

“Well, it is the largest city in the islands,” Lillie told her. “All sorts of people from all over the world come here.”

“Not hard for me to see why,” Reimu replied. “This place is beautiful.”

“Yeah...” Lillie trailed off. “Hey, Hau, I was just wondering if –”

He wasn't there.

“Huh, well, I guess he already ran off,” Lillie said.

“Should we go looking for him?” Reimu asked her.

“He's probably fine. Knowing him, he's probably stuffing himself and his Pokémon full of malasadas. He might also be out catching some new Pokémon as well. There's a lot of parks here where there's wild Pokémon. And I was about to shoo him off anyway.”

Reimu was confused. “Why?”

Lillie looked at her. “Because it would be weird if a little boy were with two older girls out clothes shopping, of course!” She put her hand up to her mouth and snickered a bit.

“Wait, hold on. Clothes shopping? Don't we have enough?” Reimu asked again.

Timid as Lillie was at times, it was amusing to her that Reimu wasn't familiar with the time-honored practice of hitting up the mall and looking at clothes and buying some. To be fair, though, Reimu was from a more backwards society in which shopping for clothes for fun was a bit of a foreign concept, but to Lillie, this was a chance for her to show her something and be the one in charge for once.

“You can't just go around dressed like that here all day, can you?” Lillie asked Reimu. “People will think you're a kimono girl on your way to something all the time. I think you should loosen up a little and try different things.”

Well, technically it wasn't a kimono, but there were people in Genoskyo who didn't care about the difference either, so it wasn't surprising that there might be even fewer people in this world who cared either. But, the thought of her wearing clothes like what everyone around her was wearing was a little daunting. She supposed that she would need to in order to fit in more, though, so she went along with Lillie's plan.

Going into the mall, Reimu was taken aback. An entire concourse of shops, diners, children's playstructures, all under a tall, glass roof with hundreds of people crisscrossing each other, some walking with their Pokémon as if they were pets, or even other people. This place continued to amaze her with surprises more breathtaking than the ones before.

Lillie led her into a store specializing in more casual wear, as opposed to other shops, such as the prestigious Gracidea outfit where her family were regular customers. Inside the store was a large selection of shirts, shorts, pants, skirts, blouses, hats and other articles for women.

Reimu pointed out some of the shorts for sale, including many of the “short shorts” that she had seen many other girls wearing in addition to the longer shorts and skirts. “These seem awfully short,” she commented. “Wouldn't my bloomers stick out from under them?” Contrary to popular belief among those in Geonsokyo, Reimu didn't actually own panties; she WAS vaguely aware some youkai wore them, but the idea of her wearing such small undergarments with her miko dress never really occurred to her, given how drafty it would be especially during Gensokyo's cold winters.

“Oh, yeah, that,” Lillie responded. “I didn't really think about that, did I?” She seemed embarrassed. “I guess we should go ahead and address that, first.” She decided she would just help Reimu pick out some basic women's undergarments for now, the kind packed tight in vacuum-sealed bags, just something in bulk so she had a decently large change of clothes. Fancier lingerie could wait for another time. After that, they could pick out some shirts and shorts, some new, comfortable shoes and socks, maybe a cap or visor and some sunglasses to keep the sun out of her eyes. She led Reimu into a dressing room and used a tape measure to quickly get her measurements so they knew which sizes of clothes to get. Medium shirts. 28 waist, 30 length. Size 8 shoe. 34B. She took notes, she didn't want to mess this up.

Once she got all the measurements, she took Reimu for a tour around the store in order to fill out a good traveling wardrobe. They went ahead and snatched some underwear that fit Reimu's sizes, then Lillie paid for those so they could open the bags up and let Reimu change right away so the trying of other clothes would be less awkward. Reimu gravitated towards things which matched her miko outfit, which meant picking out, among other things, a red tank top and white shorts, as well as a matching pair of sneakers and some sturdy sandals. She also found a red-and-white Pokéball visor to go along with all this, and a pair of sepia-tinted sunglasses as well.

As she came out of the fitting room, bag in hand, Lillie absolutely fell in love with what she saw.

“Well, what do you think?” Reimu asked her. “Did I do alright?”

“I think you're adorable!” Lillie answered. “Did you see yourself in the mirror?”

Reimu looked in the mirror, and looking back at her was someone that she swore didn't look like Reimu Hakurei at all, but it was. She still had the hair tubes on the side, but that was just kind of her own personal signature. Then again, she was still wearing something that exposed her armpits, so maybe old habits die hard.

After paying for everything, they briefly looked around to see if they could find Hau anywhere inside the mall, but he was still nowhere to be seen. No worries, Lillie figured, she had his cell number just in case. So they just wandered around for a while, looking at all the various quirky storefronts, before exiting back out to the street.

Just across the street from the mall was the Alola Museum of Culture, which collected all sorts of artifacts from all over the islands, as well as items brought in from abroad that had had an impact on Alolan culture.

“Hey, Reimu,” Lillie asked. “Would you like to go check out the museum?”

Reimu had to ask “what's a museum?”

“Oh, well, it's a place where there are many objects on display, and you look at them and there's descriptions of them saying what they are,” Lillie responded.

Actually, there was a place kind of like that in the human village – just a small place that you could wander into that had murals depicting Gensokyo's early history, as well as various objects collected from that time period, plus things that fell through the Hakurei Border and were put up on display for all to see. It wasn't terribly interesting, since she'd seen it a million times, but this museum was both very large and most likely contained objects depicting culture she had no idea of. She figured that visiting the museum would give her a better idea of the land she was in, its history, and how it got to where it is now.

“Sure, why not?” Reimu told her. Lillie smiled. So they went inside the museum.

Inside, they went up to the front desk. Lillie could see the museum was behind rotating bars to track access, so she knew that they had to go up to desk to get in.

“Good morning,” the receptionist said to them. “Two of you?”

“Yes, please,” Lillie told her.

“Alright. General admission is ₽100. We can also provide you with an audio guide for ₽200, or one of our guides for ₽300 per person. The next in-person guided tour is in ten minutes.”

Lillie decided to get into the guided tour group, that way Reimu could ask the guide any question she wanted and get the answers she needed. Once they got in, they just waited for the guide to show up and begin the tour.

She showed up after a few minutes, then waited a few more to see if anyone else was going to be in the group. Once it was clear Reimu and Lillie were the only ones, she commented “well, it looks like it will just be the two of you. Welcome to the Alola Museum of Culture. My name is Jennifer, and I will be your guide.” She bowed at them politely, then asked them “may I start with your names and where you are from?”

Lillie started “well, my name is Lillie and I'm actually from this island.” Then she looked over to Reimu. She couldn't exactly say she was from Gensokyo, otherwise the guide would wonder what the heck that was. So she decided to just come up with something quick plausible.

“And this is Reimu. She's visiting from Johto.”

“I see,” Jennifer responded. “Welcome to Alola, Reimu.”

Reimu decided to just bow politely to her and go with Lillie's lie. They then started off on the tour.

The first place they arrived at was an exhibit explaining Alola's early history. The tour guide explained all about how Alola was first settled by seafaring aboriginals thousands of years ago, and how each island developed its own civilization, before being united under a chieftain from Melemele Island. On each island, there was a guardian deity who protected that island from destruction, and who would fight each other on occasion to see who was the strongest, inspiring the Battle Royale four-way battling format.

“Can I ask who they are?” Reimu asked Jennifer. “The other three, though; I already know about Tapu Koko.”

The guide responded “so, the guardian of Akala Island is Tapu Lele, then there's Tapu Bulu of Ula'ula Island, and Tapu Fini of Poni Island. Each of these guardians are skilled, strong fighters, so much so that humans and regular Pokémon usually avoid them, unless they think they're strong enough to take them. They're also very finicky, and tend to avoid human affairs; each island has a shrine dedicated to them, but they're not guaranteed to show up.”

“How finicky?” Reimu asked.

“Well, for instance, Tapu Koko loves to fight. It is constantly flying around, looking for a strong opponent, such as a strong trainer or powerful wild Pokémon. Historically, the people of Melemele would hold ceremonies such as Alolan sumo matches to pay tribute to it, because fights get its attention. It may or may not help out in times of need, since it is ultimately driven by its desire to fight and little else.

“Tapu Lele is not quite as active as Tapu Koko, but it is often seen flying above Akala Island, especially on bright, moonlit nights. It constantly sheds scales which have healing properties; however, in excess these scales can cause people to go mad, which in the past cause warriors to quarrel to the death, either to the indifference or excitement of Tapu Lele.

“Tapu Bulu is very physically strong, strong enough to uproot entire trees and swing them around like nunchucks at aggressors and wrongdoers. In the past, a landslide and storm destroyed a village built on sacred grounds, thought to be its doing. However, its also thought to be the most benevolent of the Tapu, since legend tells of it visiting farms and causing crops to become very bountiful, and spends most of its time lounging near the Ruins of Abundance.

“Tapu Fini is the least personable of the four Tapu, isolating itself on a remote part of the already sparsely populated Poni Island. It can surround itself in a disorienting mist, which in the past caused sailors from other lands to crash into the jagged rocks surrounding the island. Legend has it that those who can meet it can benefit from its special mists that possess healing properties.”

This sounded a lot like the sages and some other youkai in Gensokyo; protectors with an alien sense of morals and tended to isolate themselves from society. Reimu found this highly interesting.

The next exhibit was about how Alola was settled by outsiders, mostly from Kanto and Johto but from other places as well. Around them were some other exhibits making mention of dates AGW (after the great war).

This got Reimu asking, “What was the Great War?”

Jennifer answered her question. “The Great War is the largest conflict in all history, and occurred over three thousand years ago. It started as a dispute between the Kalosic peoples of the west, and the Novograd Empire to their east. In time, however, it soon encompassed more than half the world. Millions of men, women, children and their Pokémon died, and it would have gone on for a long time, had the war not been ended in tragedy.”

She continued, “one man, known only as AZ, developed a weapon capable of massive destruction. Just to power this weapon required a most abhorrent power source: the souls of Pokémon. This ultimate weapon was fired just once, which was enough to decimate over 50,000 square kilometers of land and kill thousands upon thousands of soldiers. The weapon was strong enough, it stopped the war single-handedly. However, it also created permanent, irreversible effects, such as introducing the radiation that mutated rocks into the first Mega Stones, which would be used later by trainers in battles.

“No war has been fought since, out of fear that an even more destructive weapon would be built and used that could end civilization as we know it. Every dispute since then has been settled with the Pokémon battling system still used today, which was developed as an alternative to armed conflict. The world has enjoyed an era of peace ever since.”

Wish I could say the same of home, Reimu thought.

They continued on to a third section, which detailed all the myths and legends of the world's various regions. All around them were large portraits and landscapes, depicting all the various legends from all over the world.

“And this is a mural depicting the conflict between Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre,” Jennifer told them. “This is a legend from long ago, even before the war. Ancient aboriginal Hoennese believed the fight heralded the end of the world, as the storms brought on by Kyogre and the drought created by Groudon brought great destruction to their land. The aboriginals pleaded to the skies above, praying for Rayquaza, the titan's keeper, to settle the fight once and for all.” She pointed to the figure up top. “Their prayers were answered by Rayquaza, who gained enough power from their prayers to mega-evolve. This is thought to be the first case of a mega evolution in history. It came down from the heavens and used its power to seal away the two titans forever, and brought peace to the land.”

Reimu had heard this term “mega evolution” a few times, but wasn't quite clear what it was. She figured she could just find out for herself if she ever came across it somewhere; her main goal was still finding a way home, so she figured she didn't have to learn every single thing about this world and how it worked. But what caught her attention was Rayquaza; as depicted on the mural, it bore a striking resemblance to the Great Dragon of Gensokyo, and was described as having similar abilities. Was it this world's equivalent of the Great Dragon? Was it even the same entity? It seemed far-fetched, but the dragon was described as having awesome power beyond anything that lived in Gensokyo.

“Rayquaza is interesting in that it travels the world, so many cultures have their own stories about it. In Kanto and Johto, it was seen as a somewhat enigmatic figure, a powerful being that seemed to cancel the effects of the rampages of the legendary birds and their keeper, Lugia, and its appearance seemed to calm the monsoons, so it was often regarded as the herald of the dry season, and a protector thought as superior even to the legendary birds.

“In Sinnoh, it was interpreted as a powerful being who was another one of Arceus's creations, and a god of the sky. It is said that it appeared in the skies above Jubilife City the day the city was established.

“And in Novograd, it was believed that Rayquaza was one of the war animals that served the nordic gods, since it frequently appeared in the skies above the battlefields of the Great War.”

She walked over to and pointed out another picture. This was a newer-looking picture, depicting a fight between Mega Rayquaza and a bizarre blue-and-orange humanoid figure in space.

“A few years ago, a trainer from Hoenn flew on the back of Rayquaza to shatter a meteor that was headed straight for Hoenn, and would have destroyed it had it reached the surface. She then battled an alien figure named Deoxys who emerged from the meteor and attacked her and Rayquaza. She managed to capture it for herself, and to this day uses it in various world circuits.”

That woman must be a complete badass to ride a legendary dragon into space and destroy a meteor with an alien hitching a ride in it, Reimu realized. Maybe she would be lucky enough to meet her.

“Does Alola have its own legends? Beyond the Tapu?” Reimu asked the guide this question because she wanted to know about the Ultra Wormholes and their creators, to see if she could figure out a way home with that knowledge.

Jennifer responded by walking them over to a stained-glass window depicting three figures. “Ancient legends tell of a variety of cosmic beings who visit the Alola region for unknown reasons. Chief among them are two which we call Solgaleo and Lunala.” She pointed to the left figure, a large, white lion against an orange background. “Solgaleo is regarded as 'The Beast who Devours the Sunne,' because in its first appearance it seemed to jump out of the sun in a way that made it look like it was eating it. It is considered the emissary of the sun, responsible for giving life to Alola and making its idyllic climate and fertile soils possible. It is also thought to have introduced the knowledge needed to control fire and forge metal to Alola.”

She pointed to the figure to the right. “Lunala is regarded as 'The Beast who Calls the Moone,' because in its first appearance, it swooped out of the sky and seemed to cry to the moon. Lunala is said to lead lost spirits to the afterlife, and is also said to be the bringer of pleasant dreams; it is said that its wings act as a dream catcher, absorbing the nightmares of people and Pokémon that it flies over. All told, it is charged with defending Alola from evil spirits. Both these Pokémon are capable of appearing out of Ultra Wormholes, which they are also said to be able to make. What lies on the other side of these wormholes is a mystery, but tales tell of strangers from other worlds who have appeared from these wormholes.”

She wasn't the first one, apparently.

“What's that one in the middle? Reimu asked.

“The middle one is a bit more mysterious,” Jennifer commented. “Ancient islanders referred to it as Necrozma, since it was thought to be, in essence, the grim reaper, taking souls to the underworld. Legends say that darkness followed it wherever it went, which islanders attributed to it actually absorbing light to power its abilities. According to legends, it first appeared during a total eclipse, which led to a nickname of its own, 'The Beast who Steals the Light.' Like the other two, it too is said to be able to open Ultra Wormholes.”

She got something out from behind some files tucked near the stained-glass design. “No one in the modern day has ever actually seen these beasts, so artists impressions were created based on carvings and clay designs from the tribal era.” She showed them to Reimu and Lillie. “These and the stained-glass design behind me depict what they could look like, and these are what you'll find in the Pokédex if you look them up.” Reimu decided to pull out the Rotom-Dex and asked it to bring up their entries. Naturally, there wasn't much on them, just these hypothetical designs and the lore behind them. Unlike other Pokémon, their typings, abilities, and possible moves were simply listed as “unknown.” Scanning the artist's impressions here in the museum was apparently enough for them to count as “seen” for her 'dex, however.

“The ancient Alolans built shrines for both the Tapus and the cosmic beasts. Two sites in particular stand out: the Lake of the Moone on Ula'Ula Island, said to be where the moon shines brightest even on the darkest of nights, and the Altar of the Sunne on Poni Island, constructed by the islanders as a way to try an “reach” the sun and honor the beasts. In addition, as I said before, each of the Tapu have a shrine on each island, carved out of the ruins of ancient cave hollows. They are the Ruins of Conflict, Ruins of Life, Ruins of Abundance and Ruins of Hope.”

“And what about the Island Challenge?” Reimu asked.

“The Island Challenge is an ancient rite of passage that goes back thousands of years. For reasons not fully understood, radiation from the appearance of Ultra Wormholes irradiates gemstones with a special power that allows Pokémon that utilize them to use powerful techniques, known as Z-moves. Just occasionally, this same radiation finds its way to regular Pokémon and causes them to dramatically increase in power and size. The ancient islanders considered these mutated Pokémon to be sacred beings, known as Totem Pokémon, and that the appearance of these and Z-crystals were gifts from the Tapu and the Beasts. They utilized them to set up a challenge called the Island Challenge, where youths from all over the islands would go around and challenge these Totem Pokémon, which are cared for by Trial Captains. Each Trial Captain is someone who has completed their Island Challenge previously, and passes the torch to another person upon reaching a certain age, usually 18-22 but most commonly 20. It is not, however, unusual for a Trial Captain to reach elderly age before a suitable replacement comes along. In between, they must challenge the island's kahuna, after defeating all the island's Totem Pokémon and collecting their Z-crystals. The final challenge is a rematch against all four kahunas with no break in between each. Each kahuna is selected by the Tapu themselves. Becoming an Island Challenge champion was considered a requirement for children to become adults.”

“Fascinating,” Reimu replied. Lillie just looked on, amazed how the museum curators knew so much.

“Early explorers who came to these islands were fascinated just as you are right now by this challenge and how it was set up. In fact, upon returning to their homelands they attempted to set up similar challenges, and this is believed to be the origin of Pokémon Leagues in other regions. Gyms were supposed to emulate the individual trials, with powerful trainers called Gym Leaders specializing in a particular type in place of a Totem Pokémon, and badges instead of Z-crystals, capped with an Elite Four at the end emulating the match against the four kahunas on top of Mt. Lanakila, after which one can become champion. But I suppose if you're from Johto you already knew that.”

“Er, yeah.” She wasn't, but she and Lillie had to keep lying at this point.

After a while, the two exited the museum, and their thoughts turned to food. Lillie remembered an excellent traditional Alolan grill pit close to the waterfront, so she decided to lead Reimu down in that direction.

“So this place has a very rich history,” Reimu commented to Lillie. “You should be proud. And yet,” she looked around, seeing all the tourists sunning themselves on the beach, the high-rises, the kids carrying ice cream cones stacked three high, “it almost seems as though there are many who don't care regardless. I wonder, if there were an equivalent to Gensokyo here, how much of these stories and myths would have been sent –”

As she was talking, she bumped into two guys in black skull shirts and baggy shorts.

“Oof! Watch where you're standing!” She exclaimed.

“Yo, say excuse me next time!” one of the punks said. “Yeah, say excuse me!” They made dumb hand gestures.

“Oh. Oh no.” Lillie looked on.

“Well, if that's how you're gonna play it,” Reimu said brushing herself off, “I guess you two are looking for a high class bout. In which case,” she sent Magnemite out, “bring it.”

One of them look wide-eyed at the other. “Whoa, you see that? Now she's lookin' for a fight already!”

“Yeah, why don't you fight her? She's obviously not backing down, and look at those eyes, can't you see she's ready to knock up our stuff?”

“Yeah, I'm not gonna mess with that, you crazy? My only mon's gonna get totally zapped by that things electric shocks, y'know? I can't deal with that!”

“Hey, man, what if the boss finds out you turned down a fight with a girl? Then what, everyone's gonna laugh at –”

“GET ON WITH IT,” Reimu yelled. One of the grunts snatch the Pokéball out of the other's guy's pocket and sent out his Zubat, which was instantly zapped with Thunder Shock and had to be recalled.

“Hey, why'd you do that?” the grunt yelled at his mate. “Now I gotta give her all the money I saved up for today!”

“Hey, it's not like you were any help back there with the kid with the Rowlet who messed up my Yungoos, now we BOTH gotta haul down to the Pokémon Center and spend the rest of the day without our lunch or dinner money all because you didn't help me out back there –”

“Well maybe if you gave it Rock Tomb like I told you a million times to it wouldn't have ended with my having to be your personal bodyguard –”

“Hey man, look, we gotta head up to the Center now. And we can't tell anyone we got beat by a kid and a lady, ya hear?”

“Oh. Right! Yeah, I forgot about that. Let's do that. But, we gotta give her the money first and –”

They already left.

“That was stupid,” Reimu said to Lillie as they walked towards the grill joint. “Who were those ruffians supposed to be?”

“Team Skull,” Lillie replied in a somewhat fearful tone. “They're the biggest and meanest gang in the islands.”

“Biggest? Meanest? Please, I've flossed my teeth with fairies more dangerous than those guys,” Reimu said. “I wonder if the rest of their gang is like that. If it is, they really gotta come up with something better to do with their lives, or at least spend more time training than bickering at each other.”

Lillie might be having a good start as a trainer, but she was nowhere near the lady blood knight that Reimu was. If only she had Reimu's confidence, she felt, then maybe she could stand for herself against the people after her without fear.

Just as they were going inside of the grill joint, they were approached by a boy with pink hair and a white shirt and vest.

“That was impressive,” he told Reimu.

“Oh, I'm sorry, who are you?” she asked.

“Oh, I suppose I should introduce myself, apologies. I am Ilmia, and I am the trial captain on this island.”

Reimu adjusted her gait. “Oh, so you're the trial captain. Is the trial in this city or...”

“No, I just live here. You didn't think I lived in the cave with the Totem Pokémon, did you?” His tone was still formal and professional, but with a dash of joking in there as well behind his sly half-smile.

“Wouldn't be the worst living conditions I've seen or endured,” Reimu retorted. “So, what, are you coming in?”

“Well, why else would I be here?” he replied.

Inside, they finally found Hau messing around in the arcade, and Lillie briefly let him know they were there. He had already stuffed himself full of malasadas at the malasada place, and was just here to try and earn the TM for Thunderbolt that was behind the counter. He had apparently caught a Pichu while he was out, and said he wanted a strong move for it.

They sat down at a table and talked about many things for a while over food, such as how Ilmia was a graduate at the Trainer's School and how he was regarded as a hero among the kids there. After getting to know him, Reimu decided she was comfortable with telling him about how she got where she was now, which was that she was spat out through an Ultra Wormhole, and what the world she was from was like.

“Well,” Ilmia replied, “it sounds like all that tenacity carries over into your battles here as well.” He didn't seem to be particularly fazed, as if crazy stuff happens all the time in this world that made her story seem relatively uninteresting in comparison.

“I supposed beating my figurative and literal fists thousands of times against monsters and crooks since I was little has that effect,” she smiled. “Anyway, where is your trial site? We're all itching to get on with our trials.”

“Just head up Route 2 on the north side of town; you'll find it near the end. It's a few hour's hike, though, so you might not get there until nightfall unless you literally left right now.” He looked aside. “I was just about to head back there myself. I can just fly there, but it doesn't look like you've got your Poké Rides yet, so you'll have to walk.” He walked out of the establishment, and Reimu, Lille and Hau followed him outside. “Until then, farewell.” A Charizard appeared out of the sky and picked up up, before disappearing in the distance.

“I wish I could fly here,” Reimu commented as she looked on. “Sadly, it seems my god's powers don't extend beyond the Earthly realm, so I have to make do with whatever I'm able to find here.

“By the way,” Hau said, “you're looking good!” He folded his hands behind his head and smiled cheekily.

“Oh, uh, thank!” Reimu replied awkwardly.

After healing up at the Pokémon Center, they decided that there was no longer any point in hanging around the city, nice as it was. There was only one way they were going to get stronger as trainers, and that was to forge ahead.
Shoving up the long trail towards the north side of the island where the trial site was, the three were anxious to challenge all the trainers that lie in their way, check out all the cool Pokémon that lived in the bushes and under dirt mounds. And they were not disappointed in that regard, as there were numerous Pokémon waiting in the grass to pounce on nearby trainers, and just as many who were out for the hunt. And the trail was lined with enthusiastic trainers waiting to show off their skills, not that many of them were actually in any shape to take on Hau's enthusiasm for fights, Reimu's tenacity and fiery skill, or Lillie's overpowered Popplio. As they went along, collecting prize money and items form trainers as well as dropped items that were just lying around. Their Pokémon weren't even getting tired that quickly, since they were at most only taking one or two hits per battle before unleashing the business all over them.

Hau was eager to show off his Pichu to Reimu. The mouse Pokémon stood in front of her, presenting itself as if it were a performer on stage, and trying to charm her with its high-pitched, squeaky cry. She knelt down to its level and scratched it behind its ears, which gave her a static shock on her hand.

“Ack!” she exclaimed as she pulled her hand back in surprise. “No wonder this is an Electric-type, it's brimming with energy!” It did a cute little dance and a chirp. “Chu~~”

“Isn't he the best? I can't wait to evolve it, then it will be really strong!” Hau was literally brimming with excitement at the prospect of having his own Pikachu, and then Raichu. Lillie just looked on and stifled a chuckle while Reimu was still shaking her hand in the air trying to get the static charge off.

It was at that moment that a chill went up her spine.

Reimu took notice. “You okay? You look like you just had a shudder.”

“No, I'm quite fine, really... in fact, I wasn't really thinking about anything in particular and then... well, I just got a chill up my spine!”

“Could it have something to do with the fact that were standing next to a cemetery?” Hau commented. Lillie looked behind her, and there was the sign: “Hau'oli Cemetery.”

Now, Reimu was no stranger to the concept of ghosts living in cemeteries and then popping out on humans who walked near them and try to startle them, and she knew that Ghost was a type that existed, so her immediate thoughts went to a Ghost Pokémon of some sort.

“C'mon, let's go check it out,” she said, gesturing to them to follow her in. Lillie wasn't too sure about it, Hau just went along with her idea.

Entering the cemetery, they looked around, but didn't really see anything other than bushes, gravestones, and people mourning their deceased loved ones. Reimu wasn't daunted, though; she knew darn well that ghosts, while they liked pranking humans, were also terribly shy and didn't like being sneaked up upon themselves; Yuyuko was just about the only ghost she'd met that wasn't like that.

“I have an idea,” Reimu whispered, not wanting to disrespect those who were there mourning graves. “I'll go out there and act all clueless like I don't know what I'm doing. I want you two to hide in the bushes over there, with your Pokémon out. Now, I don't want you to make any noise, or that will scare the ghost back into hiding. Instead, when it appears, I want you to sneak up on it and then silently gesture your Pokémon to attack it, at which point I'll turn around and then we'll corner it and catch it. Alright?”

Lillie was still unsure. “Are you sure this is going to work?”

“We won't know if we don't try, now won't we?”

She stepped out of the bushes and feigned not knowing what she was doing there, looking around and then taking the Rotom-Dex out and using it like she was taking pictures of the landscape, as well as using the Poké Finder to take pictures of various critters in the area.

“Say, Reimu, did you happen to hear about that –”

“Shh!” Reimu had to quiet the Rotom-Dex so as not to scare off any ghosts – then again, Rotom was a Ghost-type itself, so it was completely in-character for it to be acting like an ass when she didn't want it to.

For a few minutes, nothing was happening. Hedwig was getting restless, and Lillie was having to steady Adele to keep her from just jumping out, on top of having to keep Nebby in the bag; its Pokéball still rattled from time to time, reminding Lillie that it really did not appreciate being locked up in that thing, even if it was for its own good.

As Reimu was looking around playing dumb, Hau whispered to Lillie “do you think she knows what she's doing?”

“I don't know. It looks like she's confident this will work though, so –” At that moment, Lillie froze in place and stared.

“What is it?” Hau asked her, not noticing the Gastly right behind him.

“L-l-ook!” she whispered.

He turned around, but the Gastly disappeared. Hau looked puzzled. “I don't see anything.”

“It was behind you...” she replied, before looking over at Reimu. It was now hovering over her and was flailing its tongue about while Reimu obliviously continued to take pictures.

Lillie hesitantly looked over to Adele. “Water gun,” she quietly commanded, pointing at the Gastly. She complied, then shot a jut of water at the Gastly over Reimu, scoring a direct hit on it. Immediately it yelped and turned invisible.

Reimu noticed this as well as the water left over from the attack dripping down onto her head. “What was that?”

There was a few seconds of silence, where the three just looked around awkwardly.

“Are you kids looking for something?” an older woman asked them.

“Uh, oh, um, well, we're... we're ghost hunting,” Reimu replied. “My friend over here felt a chill up her spine, and we were just trying to find the thing that was causing it.”

“Oh, I understand,” the woman responded. “This cemetery attracts all sorts of ghost Pokémon. It would be a shame if you let them sneak up on you... a very big shame...”

Suddenly, an enormous tongue came out of her mouth and licked the air in front of Reimu, only because she flinched backward onto the ground. When she got back up, the Gastly was in front of her was already cackling to itself, apparently quite pleased at its latest surprise. Kogasa would be proud.

Reimu immediately sent out Sasha and ordered him to use Bite. He jumped into the air just as the Gastly attempted to dematerialize; however, the Bite managed to catch just before this happened, and the super-effective attack was enough to weaken Gastly enough to keep it from escaping and force it into fighting. That lick was the only offensive attack that it knew, so it kept attempting to lick Sasha, but he just kept the pressure coming with his flames. Eventually, the slippery Ghost Pokémon was weak enough that Reimu felt confident a Pokéball would be able to capture it, so she reached into her bag and started to fish one out...

...only for one to fly out of the bush and capture it. A few seconds later, it clicked, indicating a successful capture.

“Hey, that was mine!” Reimu cried out. She looked into the bushes and summoned Hau and Lillie out of them, each with an adorably sheepish look on their face.

“Alright, whichever one of you caught it under me, fess up or I'll give both of you a bad time.” Her intimidating, piercing gaze went right through their souls, and was forceful enough to paralyze a Pokémon, literally. They just stood there like statues, unwilling to fess up to it.

“Was it you, Hau?” Reimu questioned forcefully. He shook his head. “You sure? I know you tend to do things recklessly. It would be a shame if I had to teach you a lesson with Sasha again.”

She continued to scrutinize him, before she spotted Lillie trying to hold back a grin out of the corner of her eye. So she went over to her.

“Know something I don't? She asked Lillie. She tried to continue to look dignified and timid, before a dumb, wide grin holding back laughing spread across her face. After that, she let out a big laugh and brushed Reimu aside to grab the Pokéball. She let the Gastly out, who joined her in laughing.

Reimu just stood there. From what she knew of Lillie so far, this was unlike her, so what was going on? Where did she become a jerk like that Gastly all of a sudden?

“Care to explain?” Reimu asked her.

Lillie decided to tell the truth. “Well, you two have two, and I only have one. It wouldn't be fair for either of you to start getting greedy, now would it?” At the same time she was telling Reimu this, she was trying to keep Gastly from licking her like a dog before eventually tossing a Poké Bean its way to pacify it.

Fair point, Reimu supposed; with this development they now each had two Pokémon to fight with. Still, stealing a fair catch right under her nose? That was something she expected from a certain other blonde-haired girl she knew. She decided just to set it aside, and get on with their journey.

As they were leaving the cemetery, Hau had an idea. He reached into his bag and grabbed a disc out of it.

“Hey Lillie,” he asked her. “You remember that ray gun the professor gave you before you took off? Could you get it out?”

Lillie paused before realizing what he was talking about. “Oh, sure. Hold on.” She felt and rustled about her bag for a bit before pulling out what Hau was talking about. It was a ray gun-type device which had a disc drive in the back of it.

“What's that?” Reimu asked them.

Hau held it up as if he were Flash Gordon. “This is a TM device,” he proclaimed. He held up the disc in his left hand. “And this is a TM.”

“Oh, so you actually managed to win it?” Lillie asked.

“Yup! Got lucky twice and got the max prize on the big wheel! Now I can teach everyone here Thunderbolt!” He sent out his Pichu and demonstrated the move, to show that he had taught it the move.

Reimu decided to quickly look up Thunderbolt's TM on the Rotom-Dex to see what was compatible with it. Magnemite, obviously, but also Lillie's newly caught Gastly, which was interesting. She decided to let Hau zap her Magnemite so that it knew the more powerful Thunderbolt instead of Thunder Shock, and Lillie let him zap Gastly as well – after all, Thunderbolt would be the only strong move that it knew at the moment.

Once they taught their Pokémon new moves, they let them all out and had them simultaneously shoot lightning into the sky as a grand proclamation, you do not mess with them!

This was even visible from Iki Town, where Hala looked on and realized, it had to be them, having a fierce battle of some sort. In fact, it caught the attention of Tapu Koko, since Hala could hear its rooster-like cackle through the canyons below town. He couldn't help but smile.

They continued up the trail, battling and trouncing all the trainers who were along the way. In fact, it started to get to the point where people further up seemed to avoid them, as if someone from further down warned them about the trio.

As they walked along, they noticed a palm tree with a pile of berries beneath it. “Oh, look!” Hau called out. “A berry tree! We can pick up some berries here, then give 'em to our Pokémon so they can fight better!”

Reimu decided to scan some of the berries to see what was in the pile. According to the Rotom-Dex, mostly Oran, Perism, and Chesto berries. She decided to focus on the more useful ones as she picked them out and placed them into her back.

Suddenly, the berry pile began to shift. This caught them by surprise as they jumped back. A claw poked out of the pile, which lifted a crab out of the pile, who then put up its dukes and challenged them to a fight, which Hau obliged. Obviously, it was helping itself to some berries, and was none too happy that it was being disturbed.

Reimu was curious what this critter was, so she looked it up.



“Crabrawler, the Boxing Pokémon. It uses its large pincers to punch trees to knock berries out of them, which it then feeds on. They are a proud species, getting into competitions with each other as to who can climb higher than all the others.”



That explains the berry pile. They knew they would need to be more careful with them going forward, since one of those things could be hiding inside. She looked up from the Dex and saw that Hau had somehow managed to capture it and add it to his team. More power to him, she supposed, and they were just about to continue when they noticed a red-and-white bird with a sack walking over and picking up what was left of the berry pile before running back towards a fence near the hillside.

“What's that bird doing with the berries?” Reimu asked. “We should probably go after it.” They followed the bird inside a fence. Within the fence were many dirt plots, some of them with bushes growing out of them. When they got near the house, however, the bird was suddenly abducted by two men, and began kicking and flailing it and its pouch all about. It was the two Team Skull grunts.

A man came out the door to the house and demanded them to unhand the bird, which was apparently a Delibird. “That Delibird is one of my assistants! You must unhand it!”

“Dude, we're just lookin' for stuff from it so we can sell it and make ends meet, y'know?” one of the grunts told him. “Yeah, that's what we're doin'! How much stuff does the bird need anyway?”

“Stealing is stealing, and the items in Delibird's bag belong to it! Perhaps you should work on getting a job if you need money. Now unhand it!” the man told them.

“Alright, how about if you challenge us to a match, then if you can win, you can have it back with all its stuff in it!”

The man crossed his arms and began reaching for something. “Well, if that's how you want to do it...”

“Unhand the bird,” Reimu projected at the grunts, who immediately turned around and had all the blood run out of their faces in fear.

“Oh snap, it's the Reapers!” one of them yelled.

“We'd better split! Here, you can have the bird!” the other one shouted as he dropped the Delibird back onto the ground as they took off running.

Reimu walked forward to the man. “Sorry about that,” she told him. “I take it this is yours?” she said, referring to the Delibird.

“It is,” the man replied. “And I do thank you for driving them off for me. For them to just run away from you like that, you must be strong trainers who buried them before.”

“Pssh, they didn't even stand a chance,” Hau said. “I took on one of them and my Rowlet got out of it without a scratch.”

“And my Magnemite won against the other one before the fight even started,” Reimu added on.

The man thought for a second before saying “ah, you must be the trio of unbeatable trainers I've been hearing about. Please, come on inside, I've got something for all three of you.”

Surprised at the sudden invitation, the three of them followed the man inside of his house, where there were five or six more Delibirds in addition to the one they saved, as well as a couple stacks of bags on one of the counters.

“My name is Diego, but most just call me the Berry Master, because of my farm here, which has all sorts of different berries from all across the islands and beyond.” He went over to the counter and got three of the bags, and gave each one of them one bag apiece. “These are berry seeds,” he told them. “Just find a suitable plot to grow them in, take care of them, and they'll grow in to bushes that you can harvest more berries from.”

They each looked at their bags of seeds which claimed to be assorted. They didn't really have a plot they could plant them in, but they guessed they could dig one in Iki Town or something. Reimu bowed politely to the man while thanking him, and had the other two do the same.

At the same time, the Delibird they saved unloaded its berry harvest onto the counter. “What do these birds do?” Reimu asked the Berry Master.

“They go out and find more berries for me so I can harvest their seeds and make more bags of seed. It's not much, but it does help when my crop isn't ready for harvest yet,” he commented. The Delibird then went over and pulled one last item out of its bag, a TM for Brick Break, and handed it to Reimu, seemingly as thanks for saving it.

“Oh. Well, thank you!” she said. The Delibird chirped at it joyfully as it went back over to its brethren.

Just as they were heading out, the Berry Master said “oh, by the way, I actually get one or two of those grunts once every couple of weeks or so. They try to frisk my Delibirds for goodies they find to sell on the street.”

“Sounds like you need a better security system,” Reimu joked.

“I do have a better security system,” he said, pulling out an ultra ball from which a Salamence came out, the beast calling out as it came out of its ball. He petted it under its chin as he thanked them again for sticking up for his Delibirds. They left his farm and continued up the trail.

It wasn't long after the Berry Master's house that they finally arrived at the Trial Site, as well as a Pokémon Center conveniently located right across from it. “What's a Pokémon Center doing out here in the middle of nowhere?” Reimu asked.

A man in a vest came down from it and answered her question. “Well, they serve weary trainers away from town. In addition to healing Pokémon, centers like this out in the backcountry have rooms and camp sites for traveling trainers out on their Island Challenges and whatnot.” He looked over at the trail site, which was inside a cave and marked with a fence with triangles on it. “And because its across from the trial site, it usually gets a lot of business.”

That makes some sense, Reimu thought, but it still came off as odd that a place like this out in the countryside was able to get so much business. She didn't imagine enough kids came out to this trial site to make it worthwhile.

They took advantage of the convenient location to heal up their Pokémon and stock up on some more healing items, and because it was early evening and, according to the map, there weren't any services between them and the route looping back to Iki Town, they decided it was best if they each did their trial and spent the night here.

Walking up to the cavern, they saw Ilmia leaning against one of the gate posts, having anticipated them all afternoon.

“You made it,” he told them.

“What, you didn't think we would show up? We would just waste time in Hau'oli doing whatever?” Reimu said sarcastically. “So, what's the deal with this trial?”

“Each trial has their own rules, but they all end with a fight against the Totem Pokémon. In this case, all the Pokémon in this trial contain Normal-type Pokémon, and your task will be to defeat three of them emerging from their dens, before you will be allowed to wrestle the Normalium-Z out of the clutches of the Totem Pokémon at the end. You cannot capture any Pokémon here until your trial is finished. However, you may return to any trial site you have cleared to capture the Pokémon and find any goodies within.”

He paused to catch his breath and clear his throat before continuing. “You must clear all the trials on each of the four islands before you may challenge the Kahuna in the Grand Trial, then earn your stamp and move on to the next island.” He directed their attention toward the trial gate. “Once you pass the gate, you cannot leave the challenge until you either win, or are forced out because you have no usable Pokémon left. You can try a trial as many times as you need in order to win, but just know that. Only one trial-goer is allowed in at a time. Now, who wants to go first?”

Hau instantly volunteered. “I'll go!” he smiled.

“Eager as ever, aren't we, Hau?” Reimu remarked. “In any case, if it's mostly Normal-types in there, you might wanna use our Brick Break TM on that Crabrawler of yours to get through it more easily.”

After she got Hau set up, he went bounding through the trial gates. Reimu and Lillie decided to kill time while he was off doing his trial by talking about idle things, which mostly included pepping Lillie up for her first trial. Then, the conversation drifted towards a topic that Reimu had been thinking about.

“So, Lillie, where exactly did you get Nebby from? And why do these bad people want it so bad?”

Lillie decided to speak in a quieter tone, just in case someone was listening in on them. “Uh, well, I stole it from them. They were planning on doing inhumane things to it, but I wouldn't stand with it. So I went in one day and swiped it in my bag.”

The Pokéball containing Nebby wiggled around a bit and a “pew!” could be heard coming from inside. Lillie had to steady it to keep it from popping out where there were a bunch of people.

“What kinds of stuff?” Reimu asked. “Were they gonna stick needles in it? Because I know that's what Eirin likes to do to her rabbits, especially Reisen.”

“I'm not sure exactly what they were going to do with it,” Lillie responded, “but I can tell you it might have something to do with you ending up here.”

Reimu's eyes widened when she heard this last bit. “What do you mean?”

“I'm not sure, exactly. However, I was cornered by the bad people when I was trying to escape, but Nebby teleported us to safety to get us out. However, this knocked it out for quite a while afterward. I heard them talking about some kind of dimensional holes, and after we got out of the museum I started thinking, and I realized they might have been wanting to see if it can open Ultra Wormholes.”

Reimu put her fingers up to her hand in a thinking gesture as she said “hmmm, interesting.” She started thinking about what this might mean. Why would such a small, seemingly weak puffball have the ability to do things that she was under the impression only gods could do? Why would these people be so interested in it? What were they trying to accomplish? What implications could this have for her prospects of getting back home? And what would happen if they found another avenue to pursue their experiments, or even captured Nebby and Lillie so they could resume whatever it was they were trying to do? What would happen if they succeeded, and what were they plotting to do with their success?

It sounded like an incident beyond an incident.

She thought about what this all could mean, but decided she might be getting ahead of herself and brought herself back to the present. She told Lillie that she would hang onto Nebby for her while she was out during her trial to make sure it didn't try to run off in the middle, especially since it couldn't fight. Lillie agreed it to it; Reimu was someone she had come to trust, and she felt she could trust Nebby to her while she was doing trials. Even so, she still saw herself as Nebby's caretaker, and wanted to prove she was capable enough to guide it onto a safe path, away from the people pursuing her.

After a while, Hau emerged from the trial site, holding his shiny new Normalium-Z in the air like a child holding their first baby tooth that fell out. He then clipped it right into the Z-crystal shaped slot on his Z-ring and showed off his brand new bling to each of them.

“Look what I got!” he boasted.

“Don't get so full of yourself, kiddo,” Reimu cautioned. “We'll be joining that club with you soon enough.” She patted him on the head, as if to say “that'll do donkey, that'll do.”

Ilmia told Reimu he would need a few minutes to reset the trial site for her, so they would have to wait. While they were waiting, Reimu decided it would be fun for Hau to demonstrate Z-moves for her and Lillie. So she got some rocks from a pile on the side of the hill that the trial site cave was buried inside of, set up a mock target in front of Hau, and asked him to send Hedwig out.

She was surprised when, instead of the small, round owlet that Hau had started out with, a larger barn owl popped out of his Pokéball. “What do you think?” he asked. “She evolved while we were in there.”

As usual, Reimu got out the Rotom-Dex to check out this new development.



“Dartrix, the Blade Quill Pokémon. The evolved form of Rowlet, it is very fussy about its appearance and spends most of its time grooming itself. It can shoot sharp leaves with pointed stems at its targets from under its wings.”



As she looked up from the Dex, she could see Hau brushing and cleaning Hedwig, who almost seemed to instruct him on where to brush, where to wipe off the dust and mud, don't touch her head quill, and so on.

“Hey, Hau, focus,” Reimu told him. “Could you demonstrate your shiny new Z-move for us?”

Hau looked up and smiled. “Oh, yeah sure, I would... if I didn't make her forget Tackle, which means she can't use it.”

Reimu was puzzled. “Wait, what?”

“Yeah, so, the way Z-moves work is that the Pokémon has to have a move matching its type and then it upgrades the move, is what Ilmia told me. Or something like that.”

“Well, that's a little disappointing,” Reimu told him. She was looking forward to seeing what she could use before she actually got the ability to use it. She did realize that Magnemite still had Tackle, so she could probably find out for herself what the move was all about once she got the Z-crystal for herself.

After a few minutes, Ilmia emerged from the cavern and waved Reimu inside of the cave, which she did. Getting her things together, she stepped up forward and marched right in, ready to face whatever was lurking inside with confidence.

Inside the cavern, the air was muggy with moisture from small streams that flowed through it. All the nutrient-rich basaltic rock walls were covered in thick layers of moss, which glistened in the light of the sunset beaming in from either side of the cave. Logs bridged across precipices, and holes could be seen in the sides of some of the boulders and under stumps where Yungoos had made their dens.

“Welcome to the trial,” Ilmia greeted Reimu walking alongside her inside the cave. “Your task if fairly simple: just make it from one side of the cavern to the other, and grab the Z-crystal inside the stone obelisk at the end.” He swept his hand out across the cave. “However, Yungoos will jump out at you and attack you as you pass by their dens, and you are required to defeat at least three of them before you may proceed. This being a cave, Zubat and Alolan Diglett will also sometimes appear and attack you; whether or not you decide to deal with them will not affect the outcome of the trial. As a reminder, you may not capture any Pokémon here until after your trial is complete.”

Reimu could live with not catching any Pokémon. It didn't sound like anything lived here that she was interested in anyway. Ilmia was quickly flown to the other side of the cave by a Charizard that came out of nowhere, and he stood at the exit, overlooking the cavern. This marked the start of the trial.

Beating three Yungoos sounded easy; after all, she had chewed through at least twenty of them over the course of the day, and she was thoroughly familiar with how they fought (not well at all despite their scowls). So she intentionally walked in front of one of the dens, and sure enough was “ambushed.” “Ambushed,” because Magnemite instantly sent about 50,000 volts through it, knocking it out.

She quickly scoped out a path through the cavern to figure out the quickest route, then scanned the area for all the Yungoos dens that were present. She went over to the next one, knocking out a wayward Zubat along the way, and got ready to engage the Yungoos within. However, this one decided to withdraw, and not come out.

She needed to knock it out in order to proceed, so she sent out Sasha and had him go in there and smoke out the critter, which he did. Seconds later, black smoke came out of the den as the Yungoos rushed out, with Sasha in pursuit. He managed to Bite onto it and shake it around several times before throwing it back at the rock wall around the den, then sent an Ember at it to finish it off.

Alright, cool, she thought. Just one more to go. She saw a dust cloud coming from one of the nearby dens, so she quickly climbed the rock wall just above her in order to reach it. As she did so, she kicked off a chunk of rock, which fell to the ground and glimmered on one side.

Noticing this, when she got to the top, she sent Magnemite out to go retrieve it and bring it back. While inspecting the rock, she realized that it concealed a piece of gold. So she threw and slammed the rock against the ground and the walls a few times in order to dislodge it from the surrounding black rock, and was rewarded with a small, rough nugget of pure gold. Amazed, she stuck it inside of her bag, and continued with her trial.

As she approached the dust cloud, it retreated back into the den, just like the last one. She then noticed another dust cloud in front of another hole. She went over to it to try and trap it, only for it to retreat again and another dust cloud to appear in front of a third hole. So she went over to the third hole, only for it to go back over to the first.

This was annoying, she thought. How am I supposed to go after it and beat it if it just keeps running away? It's almost like I need three of me in order to stand in front of each hole and...

Then she got an idea. She sent out both Magnemite and Sasha, and ordered each of them at one den hole each in order to block it, and to fire moves into them in order to force it into the last hole. Once they did, she got down to the ground and stuck her arms in.

Once she felt fur, she grabbed on. “C'mere, you little creep!” she exclaimed as she yanked it out of the den, the Loitering Pokémon squirming and wiggling around in her hands. She then threw it into the air, and was about to order Sasha to fire an Ember at it, before a Skarmory flew in out of nowhere and caught it in its mouth before flying out of the cave.

“Well... that didn't go QUITE as planned, but I hope that still counts as a KO,” she said to herself. Recalling both her Pokémon, she approached Ilmia and asked him for his opinion on whether she should proceed.

“Okay, so, yeah, I probably didn't deal with that last one 'correctly,'” she stated, “but I hope that and everything else counts as three KOs for you.”

Ilmia thought for a bit, then responded “I've never seen anyone else try and trap and beat a Pokémon themselves; that's actually supposed to be illegal except in self-defense. However, I think it was creative to trap the Yungoos in the way that you did; that puzzle trips most people up. Sad to see it end up as a Skarmory's dinner, though...”

“Yeah, sorry, didn't mean that,” Reimu told him. “I was going to order Sasha to Ember it in midair and let the impact finish it off.”

Ilmia clapped his hands. “What excellent synergy you have with your Pokémon to be able to fight alongside them! Alright I'll let you pass.” He got out of the way, and she quickly rushed out.

Outside, there was a grass field with a rocky outcrop in the back behind a single stone obelisk containing the prize. Reimu walked forward cautiously, constantly looking to each of her sides looking for this Totem Pokémon. The closer she got, the more her eyes widened to scan a larger area, the more attuned to sounds her ears got, and the slower her steps became. She looked behind her occasionally, just to make sure it wasn't going to try and sneak up from behind, something many youkai such as Rumia were known to do in order to try and sneak-attack humans like her. Lots of these Pokémon were youkai-like, she noticed, so it didn't hurt to treat them more or less the same way.

Eventually, she reached the obelisk. She looked around. Still no sign of the Totem Pokémon, or any Pokémon for that matter; not even so much as indiscernible bugs could be seen. It was silent, the distant sound of the ocean waves the only ambiance to be had.

She eyed the Z-crystal with anticipation, the shimmering, brilliant milky-diamond gemstone with a symbol on it reflecting the soft orange rays of the sunset off if it. What if its appearance were triggered by her grabbing this? Many thoughts went through her mind in that moment.

She clenched Magnemite's Pokéball with her right hand, and with her left swiftly grabbed the crystal out of the stone and shoved it inside her Z-ring in one deft motion. She then decided to make a break for the exit, just to see if she could beat the Totem Pokémon's game without fighting it.

Whatever hopes she had of being able to do this, however, were soon dashed. An echoing bellow could be heard behind her in the distance, before the figure that made it leapt off a rock peak behind her high into the air, and landed on the ground in front of her with such force as to create a small earthquake, knocking her down to the ground and causing rocks to fall down onto the ground all around the field.

Reimu recovered from the shock of being knocked down and got back up onto her feet, and once she fixed her sunglasses saw the behemoth standing in front of her, staring her down like a predator eyeing its meal. It was blocking the exit and was NOT letting Reimu out without challenging her to a red-hot bout.

This – THIS, she realized – was the Totem Pokémon. It was a truly massive Gumshoos. It wasn't happy. It was surrounded in a bunch of orange energy. And it wanted the blood of a maiden on this night.

The monster stood up and let out a deafening roar before bending down to the ground and challenged her.

“Alright,” she said after a few seconds. “If a fight is what you want, then I, the maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, will cast you to the forlorn pile of hopers wishing to question my authority, and that of the line of Hakurei maidens before me.” She sent out Magnemite. “Let's rock.”

The monster began by letting out another bellow, which summoned two Yungoos out of their hiding spots to back it up in the fight. It then ordered them to attack Magnemite, and they immediately began rushing toward it. But Reimu was having none of it. She ordered it to use Thunderbolt on both of them, which it did, putting its magnets together and letting out a concentrated electrical blast which blasted them apart. Once the dust settled, she saw one was down and out, and the other covered in electrical energy and struggling to move – paralyzed. She simply ordered Magnemite to Tackle it to finish it off.

That left the main beast to tame. It lashed out with its claws, knocking Magnemite back a few feet but otherwise not dealing much damage. It then lunged at it with its teeth hoping to crunch down on it, but Magnemite fired a weak bolt into the beast in self-defense, causing the Gumshoos to stagger back.

This gave Reimu the opening she needed to unleash a can of whoopass. She briefly looked up the Normal-type Z-dance on the Rotom Dex, and then ordered Magnemite to get ready while the Gumshoos was still distracted. Activating her ring and putting her arms up in a Z-shape, she called out to Magnemite “now's you chance! Unleash Breakneck Blitz!”

This caused Magnemite to absorb a massive amount of orange energy from the space around it, similar to the aura surrounding the Gumshoos. It then proceeded to take off like a rocket at high speed. The Gumshoos was able to look up from nursing its jaw long enough to see the train of incoming pain coming straight at it before being knocked down backwards onto the ground. Magnemite then flipped into the air straight above the Gumshoos, looking right down on its target.

“Now, blast it with Thunderbolt!” Reimu called out. A stream of electricity blasted down from where Magnemite was onto the Gumshoos, singeing it as the energy dissipated into the ground around it.

As it landed back on the ground, it stood – or, well, floated – in place, waiting for its next command. But Reimu had other plans. She recalled it, and sent Sasha out.

“Now, Sasha,” Reimu said in a low tone with her arms crossed and her eyes closed, “finish it off in any way you choose.”

Sasha looked at her with a look of determination and understanding across his face. He wasn't going to let his beloved master down at this critical moment. He wound back as if getting ready to pounce while whipping his tail around in the air, focused on the heavily weakened and struggling, but still conscious, Totem Pokémon in front of him. He emitted low growls as he stalked his prey; in his mind, he imagined himself Godzilla-sized and making off with the Totem in his mouth like a mouse he just caught.

Finally, he made his move, leaping high into the air. As he did, he was engulfed in light, his form beginning to change in midair as he just floated there. Finally, he began to fell back down to the ground and the light wore off, revealing a form which was larger and more feral-looking than the cool-looking kitten that had leapt into the air initially. He then turned around, and kicked the Gumshoos in the face with his newly muscular hind legs. The kick was strong enough to send it up and back, crashing back down into the ground.

The beast let out a low grunt as its arms and legs dropped, signaling defeat.

Reimu was proud at Sasha's accomplishment. She realized he must have evolved, so she took a moment to look up his new form, which seemed to grin right back at her.



“Torracat, the Fire Cat Pokémon. The evolution of Litten, it is considerably more expressive and wild than its previous form, its temperament matching its fiery powers at last. It uses powerful swipes and kicks to pound its opponents into submission, and it can fire streams of fire from the bell-like flame sac around its neck.”



Sasha purred loudly and rubbed against her leg. She gave him a big shake, and he yowled in affirmation. He sounded more wild now, too.

Moments later, she was approached by Ilmia, who had watched the whole thing. He was clapping his hands and had a happy expression painted all over his face.

“Bravo! Bravo! I have never seen such a spectacle of a fight in my life before. Do you intentionally make your battles as spectacular as they are intense?”

She replied “well, where I'm from, fighting is practically an art. Part of winning a spell card duel is that your attacks are as pleasing to watch as they are powerful. I decided that myself when Yukari helped me come up with the spell card rules to begin with. And I expect my Pokémon to fight the same way I have trained myself and others, with grace, splendor and an overwhelming amount of force.”

Ilmia was impressed. Here in front of him was a true lady of war, a knight who commanded her Pokémon like a general his men, who fought with honor but who was not above cunning tactics. And her tone suggested someone who could fracture your skull in a single motion underneath a seemingly delicate frame, and whose voice projected with an interesting mix of cheekiness, boredom, humor and hard authority. If you were around her, you were beneath her, and she made sure of it whenever possible.

If only his girlfriend was anywhere near as motivated and forceful.

“You're quite the warrior, Reimu. If I were to end up where you're from, I'd probably end up dead pretty quickly,” he remarked. Reimu smirked; a pretty boy like him? Yeah, he'd be youkai chow pretty quickly, and even the people in the village would consider him weak, whether or not he actually was. But, if it was a facade, and she was starting to be sure it was, then he could theoretically hold his own.

He led her back out of the trial site, to a waiting Hau and Lillie. Again, he told them he was going to need a bit to reset the trial, especially since a Skarmory made off with one of his Yungoos, the third time that happened in two weeks. Once he was done, it would be Lillie's turn to face the music.

As he stepped back into the cavern, Reimu was approached by the both of them, brimming with curiosity about her performance.

“You did great in there!” Lillie beamed.

Reimu said in a lazy tone, “I did okay.”

“Okay?” Hau replied. “I could hear the lightning bolts all the way out here! I'd say you did better than okay, I think you did even better than I did!”

“Well, maybe I did,” Reimu told him.

As agreed, Lillie handed over the Pokéball containing Nebby to Reimu as they waited for the trial to be reset. It took thirty minutes, but eventually Ilmia came back out and motioned for Lillie to come challenge his trial.

She hesitated. She wasn't so sure about going into the trial chamber all by herself. She was visibly trembling. However, both Reimu and Hau gave her encouraging looks and words.

“You can do this,” Hau told her. “It's honestly not that hard.”

“You've got that overpowered Popplio with you, I think you'll rock house. Just believe in yourself.”

Lillie nodded her head in understanding and smiled. “Alright. I won't let you down.” She then disappeared inside the cave.

Reimu decided to sit down in front of the Pokémon Center with Hau. She decided to let Nebby out for a bit so it could play; if anyone wanted to steal it, she would beat them up. She wasn't worried.

As the blue-and-purple puffball bounced around the ground and played with a bean Reimu had thrown it, she sat there with Hau while staring at it.

“Hey Hau,” she asked him, “this might be a bit of a loaded subject for an eleven year-old, but I was about your age when I had to start facing the real world, so I hope you get it. Have you ever thought about there being forces beyond our worlds who pull the strings and, just occasionally, send us zingers just to mess with us and see how we cope with them?”

He seemed a bit puzzled by this question, but tried to answer nonetheless. “Y'know, I just like to live my life and discover new things as I go along, and if some sort of jerk god decided to mess with my life somehow, I would just find a way to roll with it and then punch back if I can.”

“I see,” Reimu responded. She continued to monitor Nebby. “I was brought here by some force who wanted to separate me from Gensokyo for whatever reason, beyond the scope of what I'm used to dealing with. And to give you an idea, I've visited the Netherworld, been to Hell and back, traveled through the dream world to infiltrate the moon, stepped into a world parallel to the “real world” which was accessible through any crack if you believed hard enough... heck, my own ability is flying between alternate planes of existence at will, or at least, it is when I have access to my god's blessings.”

Hau was intrigued by that last bit, and decided to ask her “how important is faith where you're from? Because here, we give our thanks and blessings to Tapu Koko whenever we can, but it sounds like you go further than that.”

Reimu sighed. “Hau, where I'm from, faith, belief and religion are all very serious business. The reason Gensokyo exists to begin with is because when humans no longer fear the unknown or come up with rational explanations for stuff with scientific backing, mystical and magical beings and gods, well, they tend to disappear. Die, if you will. I know after a magazine explaining how echoes actually worked fell through the border one day, echo youkai started poofing out of existence like that,” she said while snapping her fingers. “The last ones are being holed up by Miko in Senkai for that reason. The problem is that the people in the outside world from where I live lose faith too easily, lose things to believe in, put spiritual value into. I've heard things about the outside from Yukari's exploits there, how it's an uncaring world, full of corruption, famine, war, poverty and inequality. I've even heard they maintain weapons at all times for seemingly no purpose but to commit mass suicide. And I mean, sure, youkai are dangerous, but I feel humans without faith are infinitely much worse than even the strongest youkai or goddess. Without magic, whimsy, faith, spirituality, they're reduced to the animals they are deep inside, acting on instinct and survival of the fittest. So Gensokyo was created as a last bastion of all that stuff, where magic and faith could live and breathe freely, where humans could have something to believe in, where youkai and fairies could still roam and prank and torment humans without fear of facing extinction. Locked away from the outside world for all eternity. And my duty is to be the gatekeeper, the stewardess who makes sure no one steps out of line and that the integrity of the border separating the land from the outside is maintained.”

She took a breath before continuing. “But here? You never let go of faith. Magic and stories are still alive and well here, even with technological advancement. You've learned to live with all that makes the world tick and even control it. I envy you; I wish I could bring my friends in Gensokyo here to see a wider world that might accept them.”

To Hau, that was a lot of words. At the same time, it hit him significantly how a teenage girl like her knew so much and thought so much about the world around her. He was amazed at how wise she was, even if she was a bit of a lazy jokester at other times.

Their train of thought was broken when they heard a loud bang coming from the direction of the trial site. They both looked up and saw a column of smoke, dust and debris rising up and forming a mushroom cloud above the cavern.

“I think Lillie won,” Reimu remarked. Hau just nodded at her in unsure agreement. Nebby didn't even know what was going on, because it was still focused on that bean.

A few minutes later, Lillie emerge from the cavern, covered in dust, the only thing shiny on her person being the Z-crystal she won from the Totem Gumshoos, who was currently having max revives shoved down its throat by Ilmia in an attempt to resuscitate it.

“I take it you were successful,” Reimu told Lillie.

She looked down at Adele, who had now evolved into a Brionne, then looked up at Reimu and said “that bang happened right after she evolved. I simply can't explain it. After I won, Ilmia looked at the Totem Pokémon and then told me in a funny voice that he probably wasn't going to be able to run the trial for a few days.” She seemed a little embarrassed. She was always concerned about trainers abusing their Pokémon, but never really thought about the Pokémon themselves being capable of such wanton destruction to the point that others did not want to fight it. And yet why didn't Adele display this when sparring against Hau and Reimu for practice?

Whatever the case, they had all now passed their first trial. Ahead of them was the grand trial against Hala back in Iki Town. But now, they would rest. So they checked out a camp space behind the Pokémon Center, which also included a three-person pup tent and sleeping bags. They had an excellent view of the ocean, which was almost a half-mile beneath them at the bottom of a large sea bluff. Even from their perch, they could see the waves gently rolling in and out, crashing against the rock walls, and the various Wingull and Pelliper gliding over the surface hoping to snatch up some tasty fish who were near the surface, before returning to den in hollows in the side of the bluffs rising over the thin beaches at the bottom.

As the sun set over the horizon, tinting the sky pinkish-orange and casting a far reaching glimmer across the sea, Reimu stood at the edge of the bluff, the winds whipping in against her and causing her hair to flow like the waves the winds helped push in.

“'mazing, isn't it?” Hau commented as he walked up to her.

To Reimu, “amazing” didn't do the sight justice. She had never seen the ocean before in her life, and was still amazed at how it seemed to go on forever. Of course, she knew it didn't really go on forever, but it was so vast that it overtook the horizon and made it certainly seem that way. She wondered just how far out in the ocean Alola was, how far she would need to travel before encountering other land, or indeed the continent.

As the light died down, people began to make campfires or fire up their grills to cook dinner. Dinner for the three was some hot dogs that they had picked up back in Hau'oli, which they cooked on skewers and roasted over the fire while telling each other some more stories.

“Alright, so, there was this one time where Remilia was hosting a talent show in the ballroom of her mansion,” Reimu told Hau and Lillie as they listened on. “Cirno got up onto the stage and tried to show us how she was the strongest fighter of anyone in the room. Now, keep in mind, she's the most powerful fairy, which still isn't much because most fairies will go down to so much as smacking them with a broom.”

She took a bite out of her hot dog before continuing. “So she had Daiyousei bring up a wood target and tie it down so she had something to demonstrate her new technique on.” She used hand gestures to describe what happened next. “She pulled out a spell card no had seen, which struck me as impressive because Cirno actually managed to come up with her own spell card by herself. After she played it, she put her hands together like this, then shot a massive wave of snow and ice out from them. Now, this wave was HUGE, and knocked down everything in the room that wasn't bolted down, froze people in place, and there was just this white haze for a few seconds before we saw that the entire ballroom was covered in snow and enormous ice crystals.”

Lillie sipped on some punch. “And then what?”

“Well, we pretty much beat the crap out of her after that, before Remilia herself impaled her with a spear. She respawned, of course, since all fae respawn instantly after dying. So we just continued to beat on her the rest of the night while Keine managed to get Mokou to come to the mansion and melt all the snow and free everyone who was frozen, who then started to beat on Cirno after that. I think Cirno died about 1,283 times that night – no, I wasn't keeping count, one of Nitori's friends was – which was a new record. She still walked away from it like nothing happened, no worse for wear.”

She paused before dropping the punchline: “and the best part? The target was still intact.” All three of them had a good laugh over that one, even if dying over a thousand times seemed really brutal. “So, is she really that stupid?” Hau asked.

“Well, I wouldn't quite call her stupid – she's actually pretty sharp and clever by fairy standards. But, again, that's not really saying a whole lot, since she only has about the common sense of a mentally restarted nine year old, and looks like she's nine, too, even though she's actually older than Remilia, who's past five hundred despite looking about thirteen. So she tends to get herself into situations with a lethally high amount of cockiness about her strength, which usually gets her killed.”

Hau decided to ask a dumb question, just because he thought of it. “So if she's fairy, would that make her immune to Dragon-type attacks?”

Reimu scratched her head. “I wouldn't know, because he have neither something with a Dragon-type move nor Cirno here with us to test it. If nothing else, she got vaporized the one time she met a dragon, but I guess it didn't really use an 'attack,' per se, since it barely registered that she was there to begin with.”

“What kinds of Dragons are in Gensokyo?” Lillie asked.

“Not many, but they're all very powerful. Dragons are actually the most powerful type of being in Gensokyo, since many of them can manipulate the weather, change the landscape, affect life force, lead and guide spirits, and in the case of the Great Dragon, travel in and out of the Hakurei Border itself.”

She finished her hot dog before asking “and it looks like you have some really interesting Dragon legends here as well. Like that Rayquaza the museum lady was talking about. Looking at it gave me a lot of vibes of the Great Dragon.”

A new voice chimed into their conversation “the Tao trio.”

The three of them looked around trying to find the person the voice belonged to, before catching sight of a man with long, green hair and a black cap.

“Would you mind if I joined your conversation?” he asked them.

Reimu was a little apprehensive. “Who are you?”

He held his hand to his heart. “Oh, sorry, I should have introduced myself. I am N.”

Lillie then spoke up. “Wait, that N? I've heard about you, you're that guy who – ”

“ – led Team Plasma before walking out on it. You would be correct.” He sat down in front of the fire between Hau and Lillie, facing Reimu.

“Wanna hot dog?” Hau asked him.

“I'm fine,” N told him. “I just came over here because I heard about you three talking about dragons.”

“What do you know about dragons?” Reimu asked him.

He took a breath before starting a story. “Thousands of years ago in Unova, a large meteor fell out of the sky near a village. After the impact, the villagers inspected the crater, which was massive and went down seemingly forever.

“They made it down to the bottom, where a large rock sat in the middle of the impact. The rock cracked, and then blasted open, revealing a powerful dragon with control over fire, ice and lightning. The villagers revered it as a deity, and for centuries afterward, a prosperous civilization grew in Unova, and the being which they called Kyurem, came to be central to Unovan Taoism.”

He continued, “however, one day, two princes, who were brothers, got into a dispute over truth and ideals. This dispute eventually grew into a bloody civil war, which was part of the larger Great War. With its civilization split between truth and ideals, Kyurem split into three beings: the fire dragon Reshiram, who represented truth; Zekrom, the lightning dragon who represented ideals; and Kyurem's own icy husk, which represented void.

“The war soon ended, leaving behind immense ruin, and both brothers were dead. Anguished by the loss of his sons and the dispute which had led them to war, the king attempted to bring the land back together, in order to bring Kyurem together. But by then, it was too late, as the two light and dark dragons had disappeared, and Kyurem cast in self-exile at the bottom of the Giant Chasm.

“Millennia passed, and the events of the war faded into the stuff of legend as Unova built itself up as a modern land. But Ghetsis never forgot. He was a descendant of the royal line, resentful at the actions of his forebears that had led to the collapse of their kingdom. So he set out to find the dragons and reunify Kyurem, so that he could take over Unova and rule like his ancestors before him.”

He continued, “I never knew my parents. They were killed in a building collapse when I was an infant. In my first few years, I lived out in the wild and was raised by Pokémon. I came to see Pokémon as my friends, and bonded with them as such. Ghetsis took advantage of this when he found me and took me in. You see, he wanted someone who he could control to be the head of his scheme until he felt it was time to come out with his plan more openly. So he created Team Plasma. He found six other royal descendants to form the Seven Sages, and cast me as the 'king' of Team Plasma. I told him I wanted it to be an organization which encouraged friendship between humans and Pokémon. He didn't exactly agree with this at first, but soon twisted it to mean that humans and Pokémon should be separated so that Pokémon could be free from the tyranny of human control and being made to fight. In reality, he wanted to control all the Pokémon in Unova so that he would have no serious challenge once he reunited Kyurem. I was resentful of what he was doing, but had no choice but to go along with it.

“In came a strong trainer. Like you, he was starting his Pokémon journey. I decided to battle him on a whim, and was amazed by the amount of passion and drive he had for battles, and the love and caring he expressed for his Pokémon. So I followed him through his journey and secretly helped him obtain the Black dragon, Zekrom, while I controlled Reshiram, the White dragon. We faced off in the Plasma Palace, and he won the fight both against me and against Ghetsis. After the battle, I decided to release Reshiram so it could be free, while entrusting Zekrom to the trainer's care. After that, he disappeared, and I ditched Ghetsis.”

He continued, “but the story doesn't end there. A couple of years later, another trainer who was starting her journey dared to take on Team Plasma, who by now was more openly led by Ghetsis and plotted to take over and control Unova with an iron fist. I helped her along by jinxing many of their plans, which culminated in a battle at the bottom of the Giant Chasm, where Ghetsis had succeeded in fusing Reshiram and Kyurem. She defeated him, after which he was reduced to a broken, mad mess. Nobody knows what happened to him after that, but Team Plasma disbanded, and the girl was entrusted with both Reshiram and Kyurem.”

He looked out towards the now-moonlit ocean. “I still look for the other strong trainer, and wonder where he may be now. I've always wanted to tell him something, but I could never find a trace of him anywhere. But I know he's out there, with Zekrom, traveling the Earth and challenging trainers.”

They took in his story, before Lillie asked him, “do you think we are strong trainers?”

He looked back at them and said “I came to this island a few months ago and have watched other new trainers struggle with their first trial. I like to observe the fights from there,” he pointed at an outcropping just above the cavern. I think you three all have the potential to be excellent trainers, especially you,” he looked at Reimu. “What is your name?”

“Reimu,” she told him.

“Reimu... what a lovely name. I saw how you fight, how the bond you have with your Pokémon allows your fights to not only be completely one-sided, but works of art. I think you have the potential to exceed everyone I have ever met.”

Reimu smiled. “You know, I've faced off with all kinds of things in my life. But, I still feel like there is much for me to learn, like I haven't seen everything that life has to throw at me, even in a predicament like what I'm in. All the mysteries, the tricks, y'know?”

“Mysteries and tricks....” N murmered.

There was a voice just like his calling out from the distance. “Shadow, it's time we went home. Please come back to me so we can leave.”

He looked at the three. “I think master N is calling me.” He poofed into smoke before a black, fox-like creature with red hair emerged where he had been sitting and cried out before returning to his master.

The three just sat there wide-eyed wondering what had just happened.

“This place gets just a little weirder the longer I'm here,” Reimu remarked.

The moon was at a waxing crescent as its light shimmered across the sea. The three were still huddled around their campfire, and Hau was teaching Reimu how to cook up s'mores. She thought the treats were kind of strange, but otherwise tasted good. It soon got to be late, and everyone around them was putting out their fires, so Lillie had Adele put out the fire with a squirt of water, while the other two jokingly braced for the fireplace to blow up, which of course didn't happen.

Just before going to bed, they spent some time looking up at the stars in the skies above. They could see the constellations formed by the various stars up above, all the sorts of shapes that the imaginary lines formed in between the small white lights that dotted the skies above. In the distance, the faint glow of Hau'oli city shined from behind the hillside.

Reimu bumped Lillie and asked her “where's the north star?”

Lillie pointed at a constellation. “You see that? That constellation where I'm pointing up at?”

Reimu looked for a bit before seeing it. “Yeah, I kind of see it.”

“That is Ursaring Major. They call it that because it looks like an Ursaring. And the North Star is in the ring on its 'belly.' Why do you ask?”

Reimu replied “when I was a child, I was taught how to navigate using star charts, so I could easily find my way if I ever got lost or disoriented. I didn't want to get lost while I was here, so I just wanted to know which way was north and which way was south.”

“They don't teach us star charts,” Lillie told Reimu. “In fact, they don't really teach you how to navigate in school unless you go into something like boating. Everyone just relies on their phones to get them where they need to go, their GPS's. But I'm a licensed boater, so I was taught how to navigate using old-fashioned methods, maps and compasses. And even then, I never thought about navigating using just starts, like you. I think that's pretty impressive that you know how to do that.”

Reimu smiled. “When it's all you have, it's what you get good at doing.”

They decided to huddle inside the tent, where Hau was already sleeping. They got into sleeping bags next to each other, and buried themselves inside the bags.

“Good night,” Lillie whispered. “You too,” Reimu whispered back, as they each rolled over and went to sleep.
It had been an interesting past couple of days for Yuuka.

It started when she was tending to her flowers, in the massive field on the Nameless Hill that she maintained, when the hole in the sky appeared for a few minutes before disappearing. After that, she began hearing rumors that the shrine maiden had vanished, supposedly within that same hole in the sky. Following that, a crack coalition of Genoskyo's most powerful fighters began patrolling the land for any clues that might be used to bring her back, or stave off any threats brought upon by this incident.

She was not one of them. She was feared, all across Gensokyo, for her power, and most importantly, her notoriously volatile attitude, especially when it came to anyone who so much as laid a finger on her beloved flowers. She was so reviled, even other youkai avoided her, and it was told in the human village that seeing her meant certain death.

This was a reputation she could do without, however. The truth was, even though she was very powerful, the only reason she ever attacked anyone was because they threatened her flowers. After all, she WAS a flower youkai; to her, her flowers were her children. And you don't threaten a parent's child, no matter your species. She was actually fairly personable and affable, provided you didn't threaten her flowers. It was an odd twist of logic, but then, youkai do tend to operate on logic which differs from that of humans, part of the reason the feud between them was so long and rocky. In this case, this twist of logic meant a general lack of friends, and she spent most of her time alone, which only fed into her reputation.

She had been taking some personal enjoyment out of the ruckus caused by the shrine maiden; it's not every day you see Yukari absolutely freaking out, that's for sure. And it isn't every day that you see Mokou and Kaguya on the same side, if grudgingly. This whole incident was very amusing to her, and it would be a shame if it ended quickly, so generally she didn't act on it and just went about her life, taking care of her flowers and guarding them from intruders.

This morning, she had gone out early, the result of the summer sun rising so early in the day, dressed in her gardener getup and armed with tools, seed, plant food, fertilizer and a little bit of magic. Today, like most days, she went out to her vegetable garden, where she got most of her food from, and started picking out roots and tubers, harvesting lettuce, picking berries in season and placing them in her basket, before feeding them and using some magic in order to make them grow faster to provide more food more quickly. She was a very meticulous artisan when it came to gardening, making sure plants were arranged very specifically in perfectly straight rows with enough space to walk between them without harming them; so much as a couple of centimeters off was enough to grate on her to no end. And she also tended to and cared for her plants such that they grew into big, strong specimens that she could be proud of when her few visitors saw them.

After tending to her vegetables, she brought them inside her small cottage. Most went to the cellar, where they were stored to help get through Gensokyo's icy winters. The rest were thrown into a pot above the fire and cooked – breakfast, which she enjoyed with tea that she grew herself in her garden, a rather pungent breed of green tea which was enough to awaken the senses of even the most sleep-deprived sloth, whose scent wafted through even the most stuffed up of noses. Everything a flower youkai needed to perk up and be ready for anything sent her way.

After breakfast, she washed up, cleaning off the dirt smudges that materialized all over her body while working the garden. After drying herself off and styling her hair – she was very conscious about her hair – she changed into her usual dress, grabbed her parasol and a pail, and walked out the front door and into the vast fields of flowers surrounding her establishment in all directions.

It was a beautiful day, with no clouds in sight and the hot sun bearing down on the flowery fields. The pail she carried contained a special water designed to give them the nutrients they needed and protect them from being dehydrated by the oppressive summer sun. It helped to maintain a vast field of yellow which stretched for countless acres all around. From her position, the flowers seemed to stretch out over the horizon, a veritable idyllic setting masking a deadly secret. And this was her life, walking through and tending to these fields and maintaining their vitality. For a flower youkai, it only came naturally.

Many insects visited the fields, most notably butterflies and bees who served to pollinate the flowers. In general, these were the only things she allowed to touch her flowers, and their presence was even welcomed. One such bee buzzed up and landed on her sunhat, apparently confused as to why it wasn't a flower. Yuuka was flattered, because she took it to mean that she was as beautiful as the flowers she so carefully maintained, that it was no wonder the bee had mistook her for one.

She reached a small roll overlooking the rest of the fields. Walking up to the top of it, she was greeted by a view across the valley, with the towering Youkai Mountain to the northeast and the various temples and shrines dotting the sides and tops of the mountainous fence, the rivers and creeks cascading down from their sources and flowing lazily into the Misty Lake, then somewhere beyond into the outside. It was a splendorous scene, one which made Yuuka proud of the place she called home, even if it was populated by people who didn't care too much for her flowers, and she looked on as the breeze picked up slightly and flowed through her hair and dress, gently rustling the flowers.

Moments later, however, she heard a noise. At first, she wasn't too sure what it was, so she just ignored it. Soon, however, it grew loud enough that she could recognize it as horrendously loud buzzing, which almost made her want to cover her ears. But what insect was loud enough to make buzzing that loud? This was easily much louder than the famously forceful buzz of the cicada, and she knew of no insect youkai capable of making the noise.

She got her answer when it swooped directly over her, creating a wake which made her flinch and which blew the flowers near her sideways. She looked over to the south, where the object had gone, and saw a massive red blur whose form she could not discern from where she stood.

She chased after the creature, wondering what it was and what it was doing in her fields. If it was another youkai who wanted to pick a fight, they chose the wrong woman to do so with. After a short while, the buzzing stopped, indicating that it had landed. However, this also made it more difficult for her to find it, since it had disappeared into the maw of the fields, forcing her to fly up a bit in order to try and find it.

She found it standing in the middle of a field of sunflowers, so she landed and began approaching it. As she did, she could make out a most bizarre creature: it seemed to have the head of a mosquito, with a very long proboscis, and what appeared to be massive, bulging pecs, abs, and highly muscular arms with tough fists at their ends, supported by four stands resembling insect legs. And it stood over two and a half meters tall. As she got closer, she saw it was holding one arm out with a finger outstretched and it seeming to look on as if there was something on it, which she soon determined to be a butterfly.

She accosted the figure, asking politely but with clear agitation “now, excuse me, who are you?”

The creature turned its head towards her in notice, causing the butterfly to flutter off. It then struck a pose with its arms above its head as it let out a screeching sound, presumably a warning sound of some sort. It then put its arms down and began facing Yuuka with seeming scrutiny.

Yuuka stood back a bit, her hand on a single spell card ready to be played any second, as she confronted the creature. “If you're a youkai looking for a fight here in my flower fields, intent on harming my flowers, then you should be ready for me to treat you to a very, very bad time indeed.” She then paused. “But, I shall be merciful first. Who or what are you, and what is your purpose?”

The creature seemed to stare at her for a few seconds, although she couldn't tell if it was staring at her or not since it lacked recognizable eyes. After a few seconds, it struck another pose, this time with its left arm held straight in the air with its palm flat and its right arm bend beside it in a similar fashion while it looked on in the sky. Then it struck another, this time a lumbering strongman look with it bent down and its arms flexed down below it in a circular shape.

This is a very odd creature, she thought, communicating by striking bodybuilding poses. She asked it another question. “Can you understand me?” she asked. It responded by first pointing at her, then pointing at its antenna or whatever it used to hear, then gave a thumbs-up. “Interesting,” she remarked. “Please tell me: I have not seen you before. Are you new to Gensokyo? Where did you come from?”

It took a moment to process these words, before it pointed up at the sky, in the general direction where the hole was a few days ago. It then made a circle shape with its hands and fingers, then pointed at the sky again.

“Hmm, I don't get it. The sky, then you make a circle with your hands...” she thought about it, then responded “you mean to say you came out of that hole?” It responded with another thumbs-up.

She then asked it another question, this one in a slightly more accusatory tone. “Why did you come to Gensokyo? What is your reason for being here?”

It started by pointing at itself, then holding at its palm whilst doing a gesture with its other hand to represent a walking figure, then pointed at itself again then back at the walking hand.

“Is that supposed to be you?” Yuuka asked, and the creature nodded. It then held out its hands as if to suggest “suddenly,” before lurching forward and letting out another shrill call with its arms stretched out in front of it and its hands open like it was trying to lift something, before reeling back with an even louder shrill and its arms stretched out to its sides, its hands still open. It then made the walking gesture with its hand again, and pretended to “punch” it to the side and made it go through a loop it made with its other hand.

Yuuka wasn't sure what to make of what it was trying to communicate here. “So you were forced through the hole somehow... are you trying to say that some big, scary monster kicked you through?” It gave another thumbs-up. Yuuka was smarter than she was scary, so she could figure these things out very quickly.

She then asked it yet another question: “why did it throw you through the hole?” The creature shrugged; it wasn't sure why it was thrown through, but it did manage to communicate that other figures had been forced out the hole the same way.

“Are you trying to find a way back home?” she asked it. It nodded. She then asked “would you simply fly through another hole if one were to appear.” It shook its head. “Why not?” It then made the same pose representing the big, scary monster. “The big, scary monster would throw you back out, and you can't beat it in a fight?” It lowered its head in sorrow and nodded.

“I see,” she responded. “Now, why are you here of all places in Gensokyo? This is a dangerous place, and many feared youkai live out in these fields.” It swept one swole arm over the fields, pointed back at the sky, then swept over the field again with its other arm.

“I'm not sure I understand,” Yuuka replied. “Are you trying to say there's a flower field on the other side of the hole?” She asked. It gestured in a way as if to say “eh, kind of.”

She then made the next logical bridge: “do my fields remind you of home?” It looked off to the side, then struck a more vigorous thumbs-up.

She was amused by this strange encounter with something related to the incident. And interestingly, it appeared as if it had the opposite problem Reimu did: she was flung through the hole and was trying to get back to Gensokyo; this creature was stuck in Gensokyo and was trying to get back to the land beyond the hole.

She then decided to see what this thing was capable of. “What sorts of things can you do, with those big, bulging muscles of yours?” she asked.

It held out on finger in front of her, as if getting ready to demonstrate a trick. It then jumped into the air, then slammed down to the ground, its arm piercing the soil beneath it. She was wondering at this moment what it was doing, hopefully not ruining her flowers.

It moved its hand around, clearly feeling around for something, before stopping as if it had found whatever it was looking for, deep down inside of the ground. Using its free arm, it pushed up and began slowly pulling its arm out of the ground before quickly uprooting a screaming, yelling black-haired girl in a white dress with red and blue arrow accents.

Yuuka instantly knew who it was. It was Seija, the runaway amanojaku that was wanted all across Gensokyo after her failed rebellion. The girl flailed around in the air, cursing the ears off the creature. “Unhand me, you evil, grotesque monster!” she yelled, her arms and legs flapping about as it grabbed her by the collar.

“Well, well, well,” Yuuka sneered as she looked on. “If it isn't the amanojaku who tried to invert the barrier. I've been looking all over for you, hoping to claim the handsome reward for myself, but it seems my friend here has accomplished that for me.” She walked closer to her, and was amused. All the most powerful characters in Gensokyo had been after her for many months, whipping out their most dangerous and lethal spell cards to try and stop her, and only now was she captured by a big, red musclebound mosquito thing that didn't even know how to use magic.

“I think I'll hold onto you for the night and then turn you over to the border youkai tomorrow,” she said slyly. She then turned back towards the creature holding on to Seija. “I think I'll reward you by showing you back to my house for the night. I could always use more company.” So she started walking back, only to be suddenly grabbed under the creature's other arm as it flew the both of them back to Yuuka's house.
Meanwhile, in Alola, it had been a busy morning for Reimu, Lillie and Hau, who got up early and left their campsite in order to circle back to Iki Town before day's end, so they could challenge the Grand Trial and move on to the next island. The shortest route back to Iki was along the northeast shore of the island, along Route 3, a scenic but notoriously rough and craggy area infested with Fearow and Mandibuzz hoping to pick up a quick snack in the form of the critters which inhabited the jagged rock outcroppings and canyons below, but which were also counter-hunted by the Electrike and Manetric prowling the grass and bushes that lined the sea cliffs. None of these were any match for Reimu's posse, though, and such was their reputation already that even Ace Trainers gave pause before deciding to challenge them. This actually proved to be somewhat of a problem, since battle winnings had become their primary source of income, and having to literally beg for fights was inconvenient and tiresome, never mind not supposed to be necessary since the rules stated if two trainer's eyes met and they had healthy Pokémon, they had to fight.

All morning, they blazed a veritable trail of destruction along the path, and their Pokémon were barely breaking a sweat, let alone getting injured enough to warrant using a bunch of healing items on them just to get them back into fighting shape. Of course, after the trial, Lillie decided to keep a bit of a tighter leash on Adele, lest she accidentally do something which caused the entire island to blow up and sink into the sea. So she let her Gastly do most of the work, which was a little problematic since Gastly can't exactly take hits.

After a while of hiking, it was close to lunchtime, and they were getting close to Iki town; Reimu estimated it would only be about another hour or two from where they were before they got there.

“Yo, guys,” Hau said, “where do you think we should have lunch at?”

“To be honest,” Reimu told him, “I'm not that hungry yet.” She took another swig of water out of her canteen.

“What do you mean you're not hungry?” Hau exclaimed. “We've been walking and battling Pokémon and trainers for hours! I'm starving after all that!”

“We don't exactly have a little boy's metabolism,” Lillie said with a soft grin.

“I AM NOT A LITTLE BOY!” Hau yelled out as he stamped the ground. Reimu and Lillie couldn't help but laugh as they watched his frustration.

As they stifled their laughs, Reimu noticed Nebby out of the corner of her eye, and asked Lillie “hey Lillie, did you mean to let Nebby out of the bag? Because its going into that small cave over there.”

Lillie's smile quickly morphed into an expression of pure terror as she processed what had just come out of Reimu's mouth, and looked over at the cave, but Nebby wasn't there. She dashed into the cave, calling out “Nebby, get back here! You're not supposed to wander off like that!”

Reimu and Hau couldn't think of anything else to do but run in behind her and try and recapture the wayward puffball. As they did, Reimu wondered what kind of Pokémon it was to just seemingly be able to let itself out of its Pokéball whenever it wanted, no matter how close an eye Lillie kept on it.

They went through the cavern, which quickly opened up into an open-air flower field, with light shimmering down from the sky above onto the carpet of yellow flowers, in which Oricorio played and Cutiefly danced between the petals and buds. None of this really impressed upon their minds at the moment, however; their main objective was to get Nebby back in the back.

“Looks like Yuuka's flower fields,” Reimu remarked. “We'd best be careful, or else she might pop out and rip us all in half!” she joked. But of course, no one was laughing, although she wasn't sure if it was because they were focused on finding Nebby, the sheer morbidness of her remark, or both.

They all knew finding Nebby in these thick flowers was going to be a challenge, made all the more pressing due to the fact that it couldn't defend itself from anything that decided it would make a good snack. So Reimu, Hau and Lillie all went off in separate directions, whacking and hacking through the flowers, quickly dispatching or scaring away anything standing in their way.

“Geez,” Reimu said. “You'd think finding a blue-and-purple puffball in this field of yellow flowers would be easy because it would stick out like a sore thumb. But the thing is so danged small that you might not see it until you step on it and it starts crying and stuff.” She called out to the others “you finding anything?”

“Not yet,” Hau shouted back.

“Me neither,” Lillie shouted as well. For her, this was a challenge due to her general aversion to charging straight into tall grass and flowers and Pokémon jumping out at her, but she had developed a maternal instinct with Nebby, and things like it running off made her do things going against her nature in order to make sure it was safe. At least the weaker Pokémon seemed to run in terror at the sight of her Gastly, so she kept it floating behind her for exactly that reason.

It had only been a few minutes since they started looking, but it already felt like hours. For Reimu, her primary concern with finding Nebby was because she had begun to develop a sense that it might hold the key to her finding a way back to Gensokyo, based on the sorts of experiments that Lillie was talking about before she escaped with it. However, she also found herself legitimately concerned about its well-being as a living creature, as well as concerned for Lillie's well-being in turn. She always did treat people in the same way, open but also a little wary until good intentions were confirmed. This was why she made friends so quickly, even with foes.

Then, a terrible shriek sounded out and instantly got their collective attention, especially Lillie's. “NEBBY!!!!” she screamed as she rushed toward where the sound came from. Reimu and Hau each broke off their respective searches and ran beside Lillie.

They emerged from the flowers onto a rock clearing rising above the fields. There they saw Nebby, who was crying out and flailing in the arms of a mysterious female figure.

Lillie rushed up with determination in her eyes and confronted the figure, ready to fight if necessary to save Lillie. She had only been a trainer for a few days, but that combined with having Reimu at her side was enough to give her the confidence she needed to do something like this.

She stood and accosted the figure. “Unhand Nebby, you bitch!”

The figure looked up at her in response, and her appearance gave Lillie some pause. Her eyes appeared shadowed out beneath her pale-blonde hair, and her dress was also washed-out shades of black, gray and burgundy. She also had a washed-out bow, and floating behind her was a small, purple creature with blue eyes, a bulbous head and a long tail.

Reimu studied the figure as well, and it took a moment to process what she was seeing.

“Hold on... is that – is that Medicine Melancholy?” she said.

Lillie looked behind her. “Medicine what now?”

Reimu walked up and gently armed Lillie aside. “I think you'd better let me handle this one, Lillie.” Lillie really wanted to save Nebby herself and prove she was capable to Reimu, but she realized that Reimu knew what she was doing, and deferred to her judgment.

Reimu approached the figure herself and sent out Sasha, who was itching for a brawl. “Unless that thing behind you is a Pokémon, I'd suggest you hand over the puffball now and you won't get hurt.”

The figure looked up at her and revealed her eyes. One was normal-looking, if a bit doll-like, but the other was truly bizarre: it appeared to be a conglomeration of crystals which lit up and dimmed to show different facial expressions, with a yellow circular crystal face in the middle standing in for an iris, and black, obsidian-like crystalline material on either side of it. Examining it further, Reimu also realized the figure had some other unusual features – in addition to the washed-out colors, she had more stark black, diamond-like features across her person, including sharp crystalline joints where her doll joints would be, and although one hand had normal-looking doll fingers, the other hand had sharp, black, claws holding Nebby in place.

She set Nebby aside but closely guarded it. She then directed the creature behind her forward to face Sasha.

Reimu was curious, so she sent out the Rotom-Dex to examine it. However:

“Unknown Pokémon identified, bzzrt,” it told her. “I'll try to give you some info, but it might take time.”

Unknown Pokémon? Is it a new species? She wasn't sure – the only thing she knew was that it resembled a character from one of those Dragon Ball mangas Yukari brought her sometimes for show-and-tell. But, a promise to fight was a promise, so she ordered Sasha to assault it with Fire Fang at once, which he did, pouncing up into the air for the kill; however, it managed to dodge the attack, moving swiftly to the side.

“Hmm,” she wondered. Maybe direct attacks won't work against it with agility like that, she thought. She decided that just using Ember for now would be best until it was too weak to dodge Sasha's contact attacks.

It was then that the creature began attacking by spewing a stream of poison from its hands, which Sahsa evaded, but barely. He reeled from the foul stench of the poison stream, which soon dissipated.

“Sasha, focus,” Reimu told it. “Use Ember!” Sasha obeyed his order's master without so much as a second thought – after all, he didn't want to disappoint a strong trainer such as her, and it wanted her affection more than anything else. So he shot the fiery bolt at the creature, leading the target just like Reimu instructed him to. Boom, direct hit, as the creature flinched and tried to put itself out.

At that moment, Rotom called out “got it! Here's some info for you! Sorry, best I could do on short notice.” Reimu had Lillie read it off to her. Pure Poison was the creature's type. Reimu decided a tactical switch was needed at this point, so she recalled Sasha and sent out Magnemite to handle the threat, confident that it was immune to Poison.

But the mysterious visitor had an ace up her sleeve. She pointed one clawed finger forward and spoke, but what came out of her mouth was an indecipherable language that sounded like the clanking and shattering of ice and glass. The creature then bowed forward, with the stinger on the top of its head pointing right towards Magnemite, before shooting a stream of violet liquid right at it, covering Magnemite and sticking to it like an adhesive.

It didn't hurt Magnemite by any means – it was immune to the attack, after all, due to being Steel-type – but it was now completely blinded and couldn't tell its left from its right. It sent electric sparks in random directions trying to hit its opponent, forcing Reimu to command it to stop. The figure and its servant couldn't help but laugh at Magnemite's predicament.

Of course, Reimu wasn't one to lose easily, so she grabbed Magnemite and bent its magnets forward toward the purple creature. She then ordered “okay Magnemite, shoot Thunderbolt straight in front of you!” It did as it was told, shooting a blast of electricity so intense it knocked Reimu backwards and struck the purple creature with tremendous force.

In the aftermath, the creature lie on the ground, paralyzed and unable to battle. The mysterious figure saw this and recalled it back into its ball, a strange blue ball with gold ridges which neither of them had ever seen. It then silently cursed at them – or, at least, they assumed it was cursing, given the figure's angry expression and tone – before being enveloped in energy and disappearing into nothing.

Lille rushed over to Reimu. “Are you all right?” she asked in a worried tone.

Reimu managed to get herself off the ground and dust herself off. “Yeah, I'm okay. Been through worse.” She still had Magnemite in her hands, and it was still covered in sticky poison. Worse still, so were her hands. She didn't know how potent the creature's toxins were, but she was well aware of what Medicine's could do, even if it was an imposter.

“What am I going to do about this poison?” Reimu asked. She couldn't just sit there with poison all over her hands and her struggling Magnemite blinded. It seemed a problematic predicament.

Then, Hau got a brainwave. “Hey Lillie,” he asked, “maybe your Gastly could help us out here!”

Lillie wasn't sure how the gas cloud ghost could help, but she decided to let it out anyway to see if it could help Reimu. With the same scary smiling expression on its face, it drifted over towards her and Magnemite, let out a short cry as it hovered over them, then began absorbing all the toxin into its body.

“Of course!” Lillie said. “Poison-type Pokémon have the ability to absorb poison from their surroundings to power themselves up!” And that was exactly what Gastly was doing, and Reimu was amazed that it could remove the adhesive toxin so easily.

In just a few seconds, it was all gone, off of Reimu's hands and off of Magnemite. She let go of Magnemite and had it face her. “You okay?” she asked it. It turned around and made a happy expression in response. Seems as it getting covered in poison doesn't stop it or get it down, she guessed.

Lillie went and got Nebby, still scared and cowering from what had just happened. She looked at it and lightly scolded it, “please don't do something like that again! You could've gotten hurt, or worse, and you got us into serious danger in order to save you!” It looked down, sad that it made its adoptive mother upset, before looking back up with a “pew!” and getting back in the ball and the bag with it.

“Well,” Reimu said standing straight up, “that was hairy.”

“Yeah,” Hau responded, “but, what was that strange figure? It seemed like you knew her?”

Reimu looked at him, looking down and thinking about the whole encounter. “Well, the figure at least resembled Medicine Melancholy, one of the youkai that live in Gensokyo. She's a doll youkai with the ability to manipulate toxins, and hates humans. But, that wasn't the real one – or at least I'm assuming it's not her. And the way she teleported away, it seemed she was escaping into one of those 'Ultra Wormholes.'”

Lillie was confused. “What does that mean?”

“I'm not sure,” Reimu replied. “What I do know now is that this incident could be far larger than I imagined. Maybe what's causing this is endangering not only Gensokyo, but this place as well. What it wants from both, I don't know.”

She turned around and faced them both. “Of course, I would like to get home, but I feel that if I do that without getting to the source of the incident, the problem will come back worse than before. And this affects not just me, but both of you, and everyone in this island chain as well.”

Lillie looked up at Reimu. “Well,” she said in an unsure way, “to be truthful, I'm trying to get Nebby home as well. It's not from this world. I've been wanting to travel the islands, because it seems interested in the Tapu, as if they know a way for it to return home. It seems... connected to them, somehow.”

Reimu thought about the Tapu for a second, and how the bridge to the Ruins of Conflict was blown out. “Are there any alternatives to Tapu Koko?”

“We could try the guardian of the next island, Tapu Lele,” Lillie responded. “Although I've heard Tapu Lele is very timid and finicky, so it might be even harder to track down than Tapu Koko.”

“Better than nothing,” Reimu replied. “C'mon, we got business to take care of. To be honest, this whole Island Challenge is invigorating, because of how much we get to see and experience. And it might be easier to secure a ride to the next island if we tell people we've punked Hala – ”

Hau pouted. “Gramps is a strong trainer! He won't just get 'punked' easily!”

“With Adele around,” Reimu said looking at Lillie, “I'm not sure how true that's going to be with us.”

They made their way out of the meadow and continued down back towards Iki Town.

They continued down Route 3 as it looped back down south toward Iki Town. The route was located along sea cliffs rising above the sparkling blue waters of Kala'e Bay down below. As they traveled over bridge above the gorge of the stream roughly cutting the island in half, Reimu looked down and happened to notice a very large number of moving objects on the beach down below.

“Excuse me, but what are those?” she asked.

Hau looked down. “Oh, it must be breeding season for the Samurotts and Primarinas! Wanna go down and see?” He pointed toward the staircase chiseled into the cliffside which went down to the beach below.

“I dunno,” Lillie said. “Do we really want to mess around with animals during the breeding season?”

“Oh, come on, Lillie! I go down to see them every year! They're super friendly as long as you don't try to hit their kids,” he said. Reimu had never really seen sea lions up close, so she decided it might be a fun detour on their adventure, and they could eat lunch down there as well.

Down on the beach, it was incredibly noisy, as the various Primarina attempted a choir concert, but only managed a mangled and disjointed concerto of high notes and shrieks. Of course, given what was on their minds at the moment, it was small wonder they had a hard time coordinating. This combined with the orks and grunts of their male counterparts made it almost impossible to communicate without shouting.

As the trio came down the stairs covering their ears, the singing slowly died down as the Primarina briefly observed their visitors, before returning to their haphazard choir practice.

“Do they always do this?” Reimu asked Hau slightly shouting.

“I think its their mating call,” he responded. He looked around to see if he could find the male of the harem. Samurott keep harems of Primarina, and will fight each other over groups of mates. Off to one side, one such battle was unfolding as two Samurotts were sword fighting using the horns on top of their shells, and one was visibly bleeding. Off to another was a lone Samurott watching over his harem, and interestingly, this one had sunglasses.

“Hey girls,” Hau said, pointing towards him. Reimu looked, and saw the Samurott commanding his area, stoicly looking over it and instilling a strong sense of dread to anyone that dare challenge him.

“What's with the sunglasses?” she asked.

Hau replied, “well, that Samurott is something of a living legend on this beach. They say he's far more powerful than any other Samurott, and once towed a sinking cruise ship back into port all by himself. And basically no other Samurott questions his authority, and the ones that do, well, they learn a painful lesson quickly.”

“Seems like he would be one heck of a teammate,” Reimu remarked.

“Yeah, well, you're not the first one to think that. Gramps told me stories about people who try to catch him, but he decimates all their Pokémon like that,” Hau said snapping his fingers. “You just can't go near him. I even heard some poachers were trying to get him one time, but he just sliced through their ropes and swatted their darts out of the air before blasting them away with a really strong Hydro Pump.”

As Lillie was listening to this conversation and observing the Pokémon on the beach, she thought she felt something in her bag, like a Pokémon was letting itself out. Oh no, she thought, Nebby got out of the bag again. She looked in her bag, but confusingly, it wasn't Nebby's ball that was open, but Adele's. She then looked up and saw the errant pinniped bounding her way over to the sunglasses Samurott.

“Ah, Adele!” she cried out, trying to chase after her, but once she got too close to the Samurott, it was too late, since Lillie knew it would be unwise to approach him. Instead, she hung back, hoping Adele would come back unharmed.

Both Hau and Reimu looked up. “What's she doing?” Reimu asked Hau. “I don't know,” he responded.

Adele seemed to bound up enthusiastically to the Samurott, and once in front of him presented herself with a cheerful smile and a high squeal.

It took the Samurott a while to notice her, but when he did, he slowly looked down in her direction, and the two eyed each other for a few seconds before the Samurott uttered something that broke the thick silence.

“...Git Gud.”

And then Adele seemed to nod with a determined look on her face, before returning to Lillie.

The three humans were stunned. Did the Samurott just speak? That was almost unheard of outside of Psychic and Ghost-types, and even then it was exceedingly rare and mostly limited to telepathy, not vocal speaking. And what did he mean by “gid gud?” Did he think that Adele was weak? And why did she respond with such a determined expression, as if to say “I won't let you down?”

The three decided not to try and strain their brains trying to answer these questions, instead just finishing their lunches and then heading back up the stone stairs to the cliff side above.

“What was THAT all about?” Reimu asked the other two.

Hau shrugged. “I don't know. That was so weird. It just looked at Adele with that glare and, well, I don't know.”

“That was very strange,” Lillie said. “I wonder how the professor would react if we just told him we literally saw a talking Samurott, and it was the Sunglasses Samurott of Kala'e Bay to boot.”

“I bet he would think it was the coolest thing ever,” Hau chuckled. “Imagine, all he needed was one of those chip bags and a joint, and he could have been one of those MLG types!”

Lillie glanced at Hau. “I think you need to get off the internet.”

“Oh, alright, mom,” Hau said said sarcastically as he put his hand behind his head. Lillie pouted as Reimu chucked while they continued down the path.

As they made their way down the hill back towards Iki town, Reimu caught sight of what looked like a baby dragon standing near the edge of the cliff, looking down.

“What's that thing, Rotom? Is it a Pokémon?” She pulled out the Rotom-Dex. It scanned the little dragon and came back with a reply.

“Oooohh, you're lucky,” it told her. “That's a rare Bagon! It's a Dragon-type Pokémon known for jumping off cliffs while trying to practice flying!”

Reimu just took this in for a moment, then looked up wide-eyed and turned over to the Bagon, who conspicuously lacked visible wings, and yet it was trying to practice flying.

Maybe it was her miko instincts acting up, but given how exalted dragons were in Gensokyo, she couldn't help but rush over to the errant baby dragon as it was rushing towards the cliff edge, jumping and sliding across the ground on her belly while her hands stretched out to catch the little dragon in midair just as it jumped off flapping its arms.

Needless to say, the baby dragon did not take kindly to being manhandled by a human just as it was attempting to realize its dream of flying, so it flailed about trying to free itself from her grasp. Unfortunately for it, Reimu's grip was hardened by years of beating up youkai with her bare fists, so about all it could manage was bonking its steel-hard head against her chest and kicking her with its legs while she held it tightly to keep it from running off again.

“Oof! Ow! Stop it!” Reimu grunted as it struggled. “I'm just trying to keep you safe, little guy! I don't want you to hurt – OW! Lillie, Hau, can one of you give me a hand here?!”

Lillie looked on for a second, before she got an idea. She reached into her bag and pulled out a Poké Bean, then held it out in front of her where the Bagon could see it.

“Over here,” she called out. “Do you want some food? Are you hungry?”

After a few moments, the Bagon stopped struggling so much as it sniffed the air, then caught sight of Lillie's offering. It looked at it for a few seconds, then tugged at Reimu to try and get her to put it down. Carefully, she did, blocking the way back to the cliff as she did so.

Lillie knelt down to its level, holding the bean out in her hand, while it waddled over to her. It stopped just in front of the bean, which it sniffed for a bit, making sure to do so from all angles. It slowly put its mouth near the bean, then licked it a bit before gently mouthing it out of Lillie's hand and began chewing on it.

“Well,” Lillie said to it, “do you like it?”

It swallowed the bean, then looked up at her for a couple seconds before giving an approving grunt.

“That's the way!” she said smiling. Then, at that moment, she could feel something letting itself out of its Pokéball. She looked at her bag for a second to see who it was, before looking back and seeing Nebby in front of the Bagon.

“Nebby!” Lillie said, a little startled. She wasn't sure whether it was safe for Nebby to interact with other Pokémon, even the weak ones like this Bagon. She looked on, ready to recall Nebby if need be.

The little dragon was curious of the puffball, who circled around it checking it out. It tried to reach out to Nebby, but Nebby backed off a bit to keep it from doing so. Then, Nebby faced it, and covered its face with its pom-poms. The Bagon looked at it confused, and tilted its head trying to figure out what it was doing.

Then, Nebby let out a “Pew!” as it suddenly raised its pom-poms and gave a forceful smile. This caused the Bagon to do an adorably dumb happy dance as it spun around and smiled while letting out a happy growl.

“I think they like each other,” Reimu smiled. “And I think it likes you too, Lillie.”

Lillie blushed. “Oh, uh, thanks!”

“So why don't you take it in? Make it strong?” Reimu asked casually. Lillie paused. Dragon-type Pokémon always seemed daunting to her, their fierce personalities making them difficult to control at times. She wasn't sure if she could do it, but the little guy seemed awfully attached to her, the way it played with Nebby and gnawed on her leg lovingly. Maybe when it grew into a powerful Salamence, it could be a protector for Nebby, keep it away from bad guys and other Pokémon until she could get Nebby home.

So she took out a Pokéball and showed it to Bagon. “How would you like to come along with me?” she asked, kneeling down to Bagon's level. It stared at the Pokéball, and then gave it a butt with its rock-hard head. This caused the ball to pop open and suck it in, close up, and shake a few times before clicking, signifying a capture.

Lillie wasn't sure what to think. Did it just catch itself? She was slightly embarrassed, and just to make sure, she sent it out, and when it materialized on the ground, it turned its head around and grunted at Lillie.

“Uh... use Headbutt! On that tree!” she commanded. It looked at the tree that Lillie pointed at, processed the order for a couple of seconds, then charged at the tree and butted it with full force, causing it to shake and drop a pile of berries on top of it.

“Bagon?” Lillie said concerned. The three of them walked over to the berry pile that formed under the tree, and Lillie began to sift through it, before it rustled, causing her to jump back.

A second later, Bagon popped out, chewing on some berries that had fallen out of the tree. Relieved, Lillie patted Bagon on the head.

“Oh, thank goodness you're alright,” she said. “Please be more careful next time!”

“Hey, you ordered it to headbutt the tree,” Hau said, “and now it's got a bunch of berries all over it.” He took a berry out of the pile and began chewing on it before spitting it out. “Ech, bitter. I don't like the bitter ones.” He took a pink one out of the pile, and popped it in his mouth. He then smiled in approval. “I've always liked sweet ones, like a berry should be!”

“Oh, so that's why you're naive,” Lillie commented. Hau wondered what that meant before thinking about it for a second, and then scowled at her while she was laughing. “Oh, har har, very funny. Well, I hope dry is your least favorite flavor.” Upon hearing that, Lillie immediately stopped laughing and started scowling right back at him. “You take that back!”

Reimu didn't quite get what was going on here. “What do these berries have to do with your personality?” she asked.

Hau looked over at her. “Oh, well, they say you can determine someone's personality based on their favorite berry flavor. Here, try this yellow one,” he said, handing her a Sitrus berry. She tried it, and absolutely loved the tart, sour flavor.

“Wow, that's some of the best fruit I've ever had!” she commented. Hau smiled. He then handed her a green one like what he had spit out. She tried it... and also spat it out. Too bitter for her, it seemed.

“Oh, so it seems you're Lax,” Lillie said.

...yeah, that was an accurate descriptor, Reimu thought.

They decided to gather some more berries from the pile before heading back down the hill towards Iki Town, eager to knock their Grand Trial out of the way and head to the next island.



Peering out of the bushes observing them was a sphere-like energy creature, who let out a quick cackle before flying off into the distance.
 
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