4.11: The Prodigal Brother

  Kanoa

  March 23, 2020

  There’s an early morning mist in the air. The forecast predicts it’ll become a proper drizzle in a half hour or so. Just in time for Kekoa’s trial.

  You glance at Mallow beside you. The older girl is leaning back on a tree and lost in her smartphone. It’s weird that you, Grace, and Mallow can all be captains. Grace looks and acts like a child and Mallow’s practically an adult.

  Mallow locks her phone and slides it into her pocket. “How’s the jungle?” she asks. It was her trial site for five years. Every time you meet up she asks about it like an anxious mother interrogating her child’s babysitter. You feel bad about it because she didn’t want to move and the current situation is kind of your fault. You got promoted when Ilima went off to college. Oranguru are only native to the jungles up north, so when you picked your totem Olivia shuffled Mallow and her lurantis down to Akala Meadow.

  “The plants are fine. Definitely not as bad as it could’ve been if volcarona stayed in her cave.” A few of the most fragile flowers wilted. The comfey and lurantis are already restoring those. “Most of the surviving raticate moved south when the light came back.”

  There have been raticate in the jungle since the rodents arrived in Alola. The forest adapted. The Blackout sent half of Alola’s raticate scurrying north. Even with the gumshoos following and a captain working overtime to kill them off, they still ate through a good chunk of the forest’s wildlife. The damage could take a generation or two to recover.

  Mallow sighs. “At least the meadow has fences.” The raticate almost ate their way through Akala’s oricorio once. Much of Akala’s central meadow was fenced off with reinforced barriers. The meadow and its birds have been slowly recovering since then. You know that they didn’t get as many castform as Mallow wanted during The Blackout. You’re curious to see how it looks today.

  Someone walks towards you through the mist. They look about Kekoa’s size. Not that anyone else is walking up to a gated-off trial site at the same time he has scheduled. You get a good look at him as soon as he’s fully visible. He’s slouched over with his hands shoved deep into his pockets. His acne’s definitely gotten worse since the last time you saw him. And his face seems to have lost some softness. You’re happy for him.

  There are five pokéballs on his belt. Good. He still has room for another. If he’s up for it. There’s a pokémon that needs to get some more fresh air and would fit him really well, but… well, she’s a bit of a handful. Let’s see how he is as a trainer these days.

  You walk forward and wrap your arms around him.

  Mallow walks closer and politely waits until your hug is finished. “Welcome. You ready for your sixth trial?”

  “Yeah.” His voice is deeper, too.

  “Alright. Just letting you know that the last three trials are going to be harder than what you’ve faced before. Still up to it?”

  “Yes.” He sounds annoyed that he’s even being asked.

  “Let’s do it, then.”

  Mallow walks over to the gates and you follow with Kekoa. You shoot him a sly smile meant to say that it’ll be okay. He smiles back more timidly.

  The gate swings open. When you walk through you can hear and even feel the electricity from the fence buzzing around you. The gate automatically closes once you walk through. The meadow itself is… well, this part seems dead. Just a few woody shrubs left, the skeletons of past flower bushes. The castform must not have reached out this far.

  “There’s more life deeper in the meadow,” Mellow says. Then she pulls out four pokéballs from a pouch hanging from her belt. She releases the pokémon inside one by one to reveal a sudowoodo, a red floette, a yellow petilil, and a blue fomantis. “I’m going to give these four time to hide in the meadows. Then you’ll have a half hour to find them all. Any you don’t find you’ll have to battle. Questions?”

  Kekoa shakes his head no and Mallow motions to the pokémon. They all run off. Well, the sudowoodo runs off. Petilil and fomantis shuffle off. Floette floats off, flower propelled by an invisible breeze.

  Then you wait. They’re slow pokémon, and even if the trial site is only a fairly small portion of the meadow it’ll still take them time to reach their positions. You wonder how their usual hiding spots have changed with the dying. All of them have at least a half dozen because of people sharing info online. It’s unsporting and Mallow complains a lot. Olivia still won’t investigate anyone who does it.

  After five minutes Mallow glances at her watch and speaks up. “You can go. Half hour on the clock.”

  Kekoa finds three of them, even without being allowed to use defog. Mallow always stays back for a moment to comfort the pokémon that get found. At the end you find your way to the central clearing, an area of the meadow with a small pond, some bushes, and a little less fog. The petilil he couldn’t find comes out and gets devastated by his drifblim. Powders don’t do any good when they’re heading upwind. The most the little flower could do was land a leech seed.

  Kekoa immediately withdraws his pokémon and the seeds fall to the ground, the one sign of the battle undone.

  Mallow withdraws the petilil a second later. “Well. Hope you’re ready. The totems won’t be holding back anymore.”

  A massive shadow appears in the fog. The lurantis walks off the boardwalk and slowly becomes more visible. She’s eight feet tall with gorgeous pink flowers and long, wicked scythes. Most people think of lurantis as a soft pokémon best left to breeders and coordinators.

  They forget lurantis are related to scyther.

  A loud hissing roar echoes through the meadow. It’s met by a warbling war cry as an oricorio jumps from the flowers and a splash of water as a lileep rises up from the edge of the pond.

  Three on one. Trial’s on.

  Kekoa takes a few steps back to the corner away from the three pokémon. You and Mallow walk past the totem to stand on the boardwalk.

  Kekoa reaches to his belt and a cloud of red light falls to the ground.

  It forms into… a charjabug? Wouldn’t have been your first choice. They can barely battle at all. Theoretically, bug- and electric- make the perfect typing for this battle. In practice…

  Before Kekoa even gives an order the charjabug starts spewing out lines of web. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern. Just blasting them out and letting them fall. The trial pokémon aren’t idle. Lileep rears back his head and tosses jagged rocks into the air. They stay levitating several feet above the ground. Stealth rock. That’s going to be really rough for Kekoa’s birds. The oricorio stands on one leg and stays perfectly still. Calm mind. You’re really questioning Kekoa’s choices here. Lileep barely move and lurantis are bugs that can move around webs decently well. This is really only going to slow down the oricorio, but they’re ranged attackers anyway.

  The lurantis lumbers forwards as his allies set up. He reaches out and picks the charjabug off the ground, just giving him more height to spit webbing from. The totem’s fangs gleam and Kekoa finally withdraws the charjabug. After… okay it was probably less than thirty seconds. Still got a good coating of webs on the field. And on lurantis. She flexes her arms. They move, but there’s more resistance from the joints are bound up. The field has a good coating, too, with lileep’s rocks hovering above it. Hazards are a double-edged sword. They can hit both sides equally. The trick is to setting ones that your team has trained for maneuvering around or that hurt the other side more. We’ll see what Kekoa has in mind.

  A rufflet takes the charjabug’s place. It isn’t the choice you would have made. There are fights where it’s worth starting slow. Then there are the ones where all three opposing pokémon can set up, too. When the rufflet screams to the sky and the winds begin to blow the fog and stealth rocks away, you can’t help but think he’s making a serious mistake. Lileep stops setting up and starts throwing out oddly shaped chunks of glowing stones at the rufflet. Ancient power. Another move that will make the lileep stronger as the fight goes on. Oricorio continues to meditate. The totem once again moves, slowly, against the wind and the webs that bind her.

  She wreathes a scythe in darkness before bringing it down on the rufflet. Who dodges. Impressive. Many of them won’t bother, however strong the attack is. See it as an attack on their honor. And you know from experience that the lurantis’s strikes are damn hard to dodge once she’s in motion. Maybe it’s the wind, maybe it’s the webs, maybe it’s being a small target, but the rufflet just keeps dodging. He weaves between hits and keeps pecking or slamming a wing into the totem’s legs for over a minute. The totem struggles to safely hit so close to his own body and the lileep gives up his ancient power for the moment. But the totem is old and clever and the rufflet is young and untrained. Eventually a wicked night slash launches the bird across the arena. He’s withdrawn before he hits the ground.

  Kekoa’s next pókemon forms and immediately launches into the air. Trumbeak. His starter. Frail, but at least fast.

  “RS, lileep.” The trumbeak dives down as the oricorio twirls around, a small tornado forming around her. The taller plants that had just stopped swaying in the wind stir again. Lurantis moves forward. Too slowly. Trumbeak’s hit lands on the lileep’s flower with a mighty crack. Then another.

  Oricorio’s hurricane flies in and the trumbeak launches away. It’s not enough. She gets caught in the winds and falters in midair. An ancient power hits the trumbeak’s wing, sending her into a tailspin. The totem lunges in and snatches the bird up with the most dexterous part of her scythes. She brings the trumbeak high and bites down with her fangs. The bird screams and thrashes ineffectually. Leech life. It’ll buy the lileep time to recover while dealing some damage.

  Out of the corner of your eye you see Kekoa go through the steps of a ritual dance. It seems like the normalium dance. Why? As much as you can appreciate someone using your Z-crystal, what’s he hoping to do here?”

  When the dance reaches its zenith light flares up around trumbeak.

  “Supersonic!” Kekoa shouts.

  The trumbeak answers in a horrible, warbling shriek. Lurantis drops her and the oricorio staggers back. Lileep stands still and the rocks swirling around him drop back to the ground.

  Z-Supersonic. Again, not the play you’d make. It buys time but doesn’t take any of his opponents out on its own. Just gives him an opening. Now to see what he does with it. “RS lileep,” Kekoa calls again. The trumbeak gets airborne on shaky wings before diving back down to the pond. The lileep notices a bit too late as the trumbeak strikes a solid blow with her beak. The oricorio tries to send out another hurricane but it flies far wide. The lurantis is still stumbling around in confusion.

  So that was the point. Letting him take out the lileep without getting triple teamed.

  The lileep’s rapidly coming to his senses and forming another cloud of swirling dust and stone. Another hit rings out but the trumbeak is visibly shaking. Maybe not enough strength left for another blow.

  It doesn’t matter. The lurantis staggers forward and lands a lucky strike wreathed in black energy and trumbeak goes flying. Knock off. Kekoa’s starter collapses in a heap as the oricorio begins to return to her senses.

  Kekoa pulls the trumbeak’s ball back out and moves to withdraw her. Bright light illuminates the clearing.

  White light. Not red.

  Evolution.

  A little earlier on the challenge than yours evolved… wait, no. Sixth trial. Forgot for a moment that he’s doing the weird VStar path.

  You’ve been trying not to think about that. Trying to tell yourself that it’s not his fault that he’s so removed from the 'āina.

  The new toucannon rises out of the flowers with an angry squawk. She’s smaller than yours. Colors are a bit more muted. That’s not necessarily bad—new evolutions usually have a bit of growing to do, and most people don’t get the exact supplement blend right for maximum vibrancy. You’re glad you’ll have another person to talk to about toucannon. Too many people just think the birds are beneath them just because they’re common.

  The new toucannon charges towards the lileep with wings held out to the side flapping uselessly. To make her seem bigger? To fly? It’ll take a lot more than that with her new weight. A fiery glow appears around her beak as she rushes to the lileep and stabs it hard in the flower. She hits the stem uselessly with a wing before going for another hard peck.

  “Lileep’s down,” Mallow calls out before withdrawing the fossil. “Carry on.”

  “Up!” Kekoa orders. The toucannon flaps her wings and gets a foot or so off the ground. It’s far too slow and awkward. Another hurricane catches her wings, sending her tumbling right back to earth.

  The lurantis greets her on the ground with another night slash, launching the bird into the flowers at the edge of the field. Toucannon are ungainly on the ground and awkward fliers at best. Their real strength is in their ranged seed attacks. Those have to start being prepared well before the battle starts. The evolution bought the bird a second wind but she won’t really be able to use it.

  “Supersonic!” Kekoa sounds desperate. He must have realized the same thing.

  This supersonic isn’t nearly as loud. Unpleasant and grating more than debilitating. It’ll buy one or two strikes, tops.

  “Pluck.” The toucannon stumbles forward, tripping over her own ally’s webbing, but trips into the lurantis’s thorax with a powerful peck. On a follow up she opens her beak wide and partially closes it around the bug. She continues to squeeze until there’s a soft crack of the exoskeleton chipping. It’s enough to knock the totem back to her senses. With one final hit with the flat of her scythe she launches the toucannon back into the flowers.

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  She doesn’t get back up.

  The crack’s pretty small, but it’s still something to work with. He has two pokemon left to end things. The oricorio had a chance to setup and Kekoa’s still facing two pokémon at a time.

  It’s a good first try. Maybe he can go all the way. You hope he does. You’d bet he won’t.

  He had so much potential. A family line of good trainers, friends with multiple future trial captains, a sense of bravery and a willingness to fight mixed with good manners and discipline. And then he got yanked away from it all. It seems he’s been left adrift.

  Kekoa picks out his dusk ball and unleashes his drifblim. It immediately floats into the air above the lurantis’s reach. Both of the trial pokémon crane their necks back look up at the ghost.

  Kekoa smiles. “Hypnosis.”

  You’ll learn something strange later: lurantis don’t have eyelids. The totem can’t just close her eyes and avoid the attack. The leaves and grass around the totem rise up and twist into sharpened arrowheads before blasting off towards the ghost. The attack lands true and at least three of the darts puncture the balloon. The air around the pokémon distorts from the oricorio’s revelation dance, but the drifblim is already blasting away at a far greater speed than you’d expect from the round ghost. Punctured drifblim go faster but last less time. Let’s see if Kekoa finally uses an opening to the fullest.

  “Gust.”

  Huh. You’d figured he’d have a stronger flying attack than that by now. Drifblim learn air slash, right? Or at least air cutter? You’d figured he’d only been using gust against the petilil just to save energy and blow back the spores.

  Still, the vortex is at least decently big. Shadowy spirals pulse in eddies from the drifblim’s body and make the shape of the wind visible. The lurantis’s next attempt at a leaf storm ends with half the leaves blowing away before they can be sharpened. The rest fall to the ground as the totem’s head dips.

  Drifblim is using the gust and leaking cuts to keep moving ahead of the distortions from revelation dance. You wonder what her fourth move is. Roost? Hidden power? Neither is helpful here.

  The next leaf storm lands true. It opens more shallow cuts and the drifblim zooms off. More and more purple is mixed into the gusts. The problem with spirit attacks is it’s hard to tell just how hurt the victim is. Lurantis could easily outlast the drifblim or topple any moment.

  An air slash from oricorio just misses drifblim. A second flying move, huh? Looks like she’s just going for anything that might hit now.

  The battle stays in a holding pattern for another two minutes as the drifblim slowly depletes, dodges or takes trivial damage from leaf storms and revelation dances, and keeps on hitting the lurantis with gusts. That must’ve been the point of throwing everything at the lileep: a lucky ancient power hit could’ve ended this. As it is. the trial pokémon can’t really touch Kekoa’s.

  The totem collapses before the drifblim deflates. She slowly bends over and falls, catching himself with a scythe before lowering all the way to the ground. Seems like she wants a nap. Fair. Totems don’t always go to their limits every fight, even when the captain says they should.

  You would know: your totem is probably the laziest of the current set.

  The drifblim turns back to the oricorio and launches a volley of shadow balls. They don’t do nearly as much as they should because of the calm minds Kekoa let the bird set up. It means the drifblim has to stay still long enough to fire that a revelation dance can finally land. The balloon deflates and crumples before red light snatches her out of midair. The oricorio turns to Kekoa. Even with the boosts she’s not holding herself with the same confidence as before when she could attack with two allies.

  Kekoa spends out his final pokémon: a carbink.

  This is going to be a spectacular stallfest.

  The oricorio’s revelation dances don’t do much to a pokémon with as weird a nervous system as carbink’s. Hurricanes will just annoy them. The rock type’s ancient power attacks also do way less than you’d expect from a super effective hit. Carbink aren’t really offensive powerhouses until… well, ever, but certainly not until they get power gem and moonblast. But the hits do add up, and there isn’t much the oricorio can do in return.

  You can respect stall. It’s a good tactic, and one that your team is well-suited for. Honestly, you didn’t think he had it in him. A lot of boys (and he is very much a boy now) want battles to be all about hitting the opponent really, really hard. More passive approaches, especially with a dainty little fairy type, irritate them. The rufflet, charjabug, toucannon, that’s all classic aggression. Drifblim’s a bit of an edge case. Their trainers can go either way. Carbink is a fun little addition. It speaks well of him.

  At long last the oricorio gracefully twirls down to the ground in defeat. Mallow withdraws her.

  “Congratulations on completing your sixth trial. For the efforts of you and your pokémon, you have earned the Grassium-Z…”

  Mallow drones on and shows the basic steps of the ritual dance. She’s not even pretending to be enthusiastic. Is that because of the length of the match? Some personal dislike? Or is she just always like that. You at least pretend to be excited during yours.

  Kekoa grins smugly nonetheless. If he minds it doesn’t show.

  He’s a bit weaker than you had hoped. You’ll have to find someone else to deal with Anuenue. She’s a bigger headache than Kekoa can probably handle.

  The warm water runs through your hair and down your back. The grime and blood from the hunt is washed away with the water. Showers are always most satisfying after a day of hard work. Admittedly, most of it was just spent in a tree. You had to bait out a stoutland. The local dogs are usually pretty tolerant of trainers stomping around their territory. They even like to give some of their puppies to trainers who want them. But these aren’t normal times. The whole food web is shot and one stoutland decided that small humans are easy prey.

  Thankfully he wasn’t rabid, just desperate. A rabies outbreak… you shudder despite the water’s warmth. Thankfully, the biosecurity protocols have kept that out of Alola.

  After your body is clean you turn off the water and grab a towel. Now that the unpleasant business of the morning is over you have something big to look forward to in the afternoon: Kekoa’s coming over. It will be the first time he’s been to the ranch in years. He’s different now. Obviously, you’re different, too. You grew up. But you feel like you grew up in a way that made sense for the girl you were. Kekoa just feels angry and empty. Given what happened it’s easy enough to imagine why.

  When you’d found out about his parents you had a long talk with your parents about why they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, take him in. Money, they’d started. A lack of knowledge on traumatized kids, they’d continued. And, when pressed far enough, they’d never really liked him.

  They thought he was a lesbian and a bad influence. It took you months to get reassurances that they wouldn’t misgender or deadname him to his face if he came to visit. You hadn’t thought your family would’ve had a problem with it. Perhaps it’s better that he didn’t end up living with you. Your parents have been great to you and your sister, but it turns out that love was always conditional.

  You’ve been spending a lot more time by your trial site lately.

  You rush to the door when the doorbell rings. Kekoa’s in front with his traveling partners beside him. He seems nervous and only gives a half-hearted smile when you hug him. Probably not sure how to feel about being back here after all this time. You can understand. Well, not understand, but at least imagine what he’s going through.

  You’ve met Cuicatl and Lyra before during their trials. Kekoa’s talked about them a little. Cuicatl’s dressed in something woven and colorful. Probably traditional for her culture. Your parents will ask her about it. Lyra’s wearing a glossy light jacket and stylish jeans. Chic hiker aesthetic. Cuicatl seems uncertain and is fidgeting with her cane. Lyra gives you a confident and friendly smile. From what you’ve been able to figure out her parents are socialites down in Heahea. Figures that she can at least pretend like she’s in her element.

  “Come on in.”

  Kekoa moves Cuicatl’s hand onto his elbow and helps escort her in. Lyra steps ahead and walks beside you. “Nice place,” she says.

  “Thank you.” It is a nice place. Your great-grandfather and his pokémon built it themselves out of wood and brick. It was meant for an extended family. These days its home to you, your sister, your parents, and your paternal grandmother. (Oddly enough, your grandmother is completely fine with Kekoa being who he is even when your parents aren’t.)

  “Smells nice,” Cuicatl adds. “Is it real meat?”

  “No. We only kill tauros that are too unruly for trainers. Haven’t had one in a while.” You almost never eat those yourselves. Best to make sure the kill happens off-site. That way the other tauros can believe it just went to a trainer. Eating the flesh of something you helped raise also feels deeply wrong to you.

  And real tauros meat is way out of your family’s price range, anyway. You can’t afford to not sell it with the profit it brings.

  You end up walking to the kitchen first. At least your grandma is there. Your mom shouldn’t make a scene in front of her. You walk in with Kekoa and Cuicatl. Lyra lingers back by the door. Grandma perks up and smiles at Kekoa. She starts walking over, arms outstretched for a hug. Kekoa steps forward and gives it to her. “Good to see you again, dear.” Your mother watches on and doesn’t say anything. Kekoa nods at her and she nods back.

  “Anything I can do to help around here?” Cuicatl asks. “I’m a good cook, despite…” She trails off. Her cataracts and cane do a good enough job of explaining.

  “You’re a guest, darling,” Mother says. “We couldn’t possibly—”

  Grandma waves her hand and turns around. “If she wants to help, she can help. There are some vegetables that need cut.” She glances back. “Can you do that?”

  Cuicatl nods. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Good. Follow my voice and I’ll show you what needs doing.”

  You take that as your excuse to leave the room. You’ll talk more to them at dinner, for better or worse.

  Your Father is waiting in the living room. He looks up at Kekoa and curtly nods, muttering out something that might’ve been ‘welcome,’ before going back to reading his magazine. ‘Modern Farming Monthly.’ There’s a photograph of cracked earth on the cover with a signpost saying something in Spanish.

  “Reading up on Argentina, huh?” Lyra asks.

  “Yeah.” He sets the magazine down. “Shame what’s happening over there. We get out of our disaster and they plunge right into theirs.”

  “It should keep tauros prices high, won’t it?” Lyra says. “More if it turns to riots and the socialists take over. I’ve heard some interesting rumors about that.”

  She waves you away with a hand clasped behind her back. Was there a strategy here? Cuicatl and Lyra deal with unsupportive parents to keep Kekoa away? Or were they just planning to let you have Kekoa to yourself. You and Kekoa walk away without a word from your dad.

  “How does she know anything about Argentina?” you ask. “She doesn’t look like she’s from there.”

  “Her family’s rich. Probably heard it from them.”

  Perhaps. You were surprised when you found out he was traveling with a socialite given what you know about the boy he’s become. There’s probably a story there. Maybe you’ll get it before the night’s over. You walk towards the back porch and hold the door open for him. He rolls his eyes but steps through without complaint. You follow.

  It’s shaping up to be a good night. Sunset on the horizon and cool air. There’s a moisture to it that feels like incoming rain. Even a slight breeze that runs through your hair. Down in the valley behind the electrified fences the tauros herd is moving towards their shelter while Pikilia keeps an eye on them from the other side of the walls. In the less fortified kennel by the porch, Umi’Umi is digging in the dirt while Lutanela and Palupalu are napping beneath their shelter. Palekeiki is tending to some of your sister’s newborn mareep, gently guiding the sheep back into a shelter while trading soft hits with the most rambunctious one. Once he’s had his fun playing with the blissey he’ll go in with all the rest.

  It's a good night. The kind of night you’d really miss if you had to leave this place forever. You wonder how Kekoa’s feeling right now. You look back to him and see his lips spread thin as he looks at the tauros. “Your parents don’t like me much, do they?”

  “They… ‘don’t approve of your choices.’” You make big air quotes to show that the words aren’t yours.

  He scoffs. “I’ll walk out of dinner if they start shit.”

  “I’ll walk out with you.”

  “Good.”

  You settle into comfortable silence, watching the ranch wind down for the evening. The wind gusts again and you wish you’d worn a jacket out. It’s not cold, not in the way The Blackout was, but it’s not pleasant anymore.

  “So, toucannon?”

  He smiles. “She’s proud of herself. I am, too.”

  “Cool. I have one. If you want some help on caring for him, I wrote some things up. Can give it to you now. Oh! And I have some supplements to mix into her fruit. Don’t use too much! A little goes a long way. It just makes up for some vitamins that she might not be getting with the cheap and common fruits.”

  “Thank you,” he says. “I, uh, didn’t know about the supplements. They weren’t in the ‘dex entries I read.”

  “Still an emerging field. Most trainers don’t use them, and they aren’t strictly required, but mine likes them and it makes his feathers pop more.” You stop yourself. If you don’t, you could talk about this for hours and waste your chance to reconnect. “I wrote about it and a few other things. Thought it might help.”

  “Cool. It will.”

  Maybe you misjudged him. There are a lot of people who won’t take correction on how they’re raising they’re team. That means admitting they didn’t know something or were even doing something wrong. That’s hard to admit when you’re defining yourself as a trainer. And he did pull out a win, even depriving himself of a satisfying endgame in the battle to take it. Didn’t squirm when told that people who were once like aunts and uncles are judging him. Didn’t even flinch. You know it must hurt, but he doesn’t show it at all. And is he really so adrift if he’s found people who have his back without a second thought?

  He’s always been stubborn. Maybe he’s stubborn enough to handle an old cow. Besides, if he has problems, he has people who can help.

  “Kekoa?” you ask.

  “Hmm?”

  “Do you want another pokémon?”

  He looks over at you. “I will need six, yeah.”

  “We have a miltank. Freemartin. Not quite male, not quite female. Uh. I’m not saying that’s what you are, you’re a boy. Didn’t mean to offend you.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “Good. Good.” You collect your thoughts before going on. “I, um, she did make me think of you a little. And she’s getting a little stir crazy. Keeps attacking other miltank and even the tauros when she gets a chance. I think she’d do well with a trainer. Might like all the fights and the chance to explore.”

  Kekoa gets to his feet and tucks his hands into his pockets. “She strong?”

  “As strong as any miltank on the ranch.”

  He nods. “Alright, you have me sold. Where is she at?”

  You get up as well and start walking to the main tauros barn. “There’s not really ancient wisdom on miltank,” you tell him. “Not from here, at least. But I’ve learned a few tricks. I think you’ll only need a proving battle for now. Let her see just how strong your pokémon are. That’ll get her curious. I can fill you in on all of the other things you should know if that works.”

  “She have a name?” Kekoa asks.

  “Anuenue.” Rainbow. “Sis named him when she was ten. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, I know.”

  “Pride,” he says. “I think it still works.”

  It does in its own way. You unlatch the door to the barn and walk in. You brought Anuenue in from her pasture earlier. She probably hasn’t been thrilled about that. You walk through the barn to a smaller side paddock. The miltank and tauros have their own main areas and stalls. Anueneu isn’t welcome in either. She’d try to mate with the miltank and fight the tauros. Most of the year she has to be kept on her own. You try to be social with her, but she still isn’t getting the attention she’d get from a proper trainer.

  When you reach her stall Anueneu looks up at you and Kekoa. She snorts in greeting before going back to eating hay from her trough. She’s big for a miltank, over six hundred pounds, but not quite as big as the average tauros. Her fur is deep black typical of the females of her breed. Tiny nubs grow from her head. Not horns, but at least the start of them. Once you have her ball in hand you open up the stall. She takes a step forward. Not aggressive, just curious. You weren’t expecting her to lash out but it’s worth planning for the risk. “Meet me outside,” you tell Kekoa. As soon as he’s out of the barn you slowly walk backwards away from the miltank. She matches your pace and follows you. When the cool evening air hits her fur she huffs and stamps the ground before looking around. It’s rare for her to be outside her paddock entirely. Probably trying to figure out what’s going on.

  “Kekoa, send out your strongest pokémon.” That’s almost certainly his starter, but maybe one of his others has some trick they didn’t use in the trial. He reaches to his belt and sends toucannon out. Miltank’s eyes narrow and she stamps a foot in challenge. The toucannon flares her wings out in her own display of dominance. Then Anueneu moves. It’s not a full charge, that takes time, but it will be. The bird just sneers before opening her beak. Seeds spray across the battlefield, each with its own sonicboom like bullets. At least three hit Anueneu and she bellows in pain and confusion.

  “Now supersonic,” Kekoa orders. The screech isn’t nearly as bad as the one in the grass trial but it still stuns the miltank. She stomps the ground and bellows while swinging her head from side to side as she looks for the toucannon right in front of her. Probably not the best idea to get a miltank angry and confused during a proving battle. Palekeiki is leaving the mareep and waddling over towards the battle to take care of any pokémon that get hurt. What a good blissey. Hopefully Kekoa ends this before too much damage is done. Or before Anuenue can break any of the toucannon’s bones.

  The toucannon’s eyes narrow and she opens her bill once again. More little gunshots blast out grazing the miltank’s sides and carving deep burrows in the earth where they hit. It’s a good thing you’re standing by Kekoa or you could have ended up in the blast radius. He really needs to work on accuracy before he gets a citation.

  Anuenue moos in a very strange harmony. The breeze stills and the grass seems to stand a little taller. Her eyes narrow and she stares down the toucannon. Heal bell. Huh. Didn’t expect her to remember to use that. Miltank aren’t exactly the brightest of pokémon.

  “Good trick,” Kekoa says. “I can teach you more.”

  Anuenue almost certainly doesn’t understand the words. But she knows the intent. She’s known that from the start. After a moment of consideration, she slowly bows her head. Palekeiki rushes in to tend to the miltank’s wounds while you hand her pokéball over to Kekoa.

  “Good job.”

  “Yeah.” He’s smiling. It’s one of the first real smiles you’ve seen from him since your reunion. Maybe the very first. “I think I’m getting a hang of the whole trainer thing.”

  “There’s always more to learn, but I’m sure you’ll do great.”

  And you mean it. He surprised you in the grass trial. Didn’t take the approach you’d thought he would. Didn’t here, either. But he got the job done in the end. He’s learning. Becoming his own man. You’re happy for him.

  Even if he couldn’t come into his own here with you.