C098 - Meeting Professor Kukui and his wife

AN: This is the map I'll be using for reference. We'll start top left in Melemele Island's Hau'oli City to meet up with Professor Kukui and getting his Popplio. Later, Pete goes to Akala Island to meet up with the Nurse Joy he told about Comfey in Heahea City + another destination. And, finally, he goes to the artificial island of Aether Paradise before going back to Hau'oli City for the finale.

Please note that 'island kahunas' still exist instead of gyms and gym leaders, but I think it's stupid for simply 16 people turning up to decide Alola's champion seemingly randomly like in the anime's 'Manalo Conference'. So the kahunas will act like gym leaders first with televised battles instead and weed out contestants.

Oh, and I sped up canon events for Professor Kukui, so they happen before Ash arrives at Alola. If you know the anime story, you'll know. If you don't, just ignore this note.

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It turned out Elm and Pete miscalculated the massive power spike and increased stamina Mega Reuniclus got with the mega evolution. Instead of taking a full day, Pete arrived at the closest island to his home, Akala Island, in less than 15 hours. He reached the port of Hau'oli City on Melemele Island three hours later because they refrained from teleporting too much to enjoy the view of Alola in the early morning hours just after sunrise.

As he reached the gigantic commercial port of Hau'oli, Pete saw a character he vaguely recognized. A young girl who looked to be no older than 10 by his old world standards riding on a Lapras who looked gigantic compared to the little girl. In the girl's hand was a flimsy fishing pole that looked like it would break if even just a newly hatched Magikarp looked at it funny.

If Pete was forced to take a guess, he would place the little blue-haired girl as one of Ash's potential future companions, but he had no real reason to introduce himself to her even if she was a potential future champion of Alola without coming off as a creep so he steered the ship past her.

When he docked Steven's speedboat and paid the port's fee, Professor Kukui was already waiting for him in a cafe near the entrance to a port with his wife, Professor Burnet, who looked very pregnant. No 'fairy vision' was necessary to see if the woman was pregnant like he did with Elm's wife Vivian because Burnet looked like she was just about ready to give birth on the spot.

"Pete! Over here, over here! We just ordered, come sit with us and enjoy a nice Alolan breakfast," Kukui shouted as he noticed Pete walking over with two birds on both of his shoulders an Eevee in his arms, and an Espeon following behind him.

"Ah, professors! Good morning! Looks like we timed this perfectly," Pete greeted with a wide smile.

"Just call me Burnet," the white-haired and incredibly tanned woman waved away while resting a hand on top of her bulging stomach.

"Yeah, call me Kukui already. We talked about this," the bare-chested but white lab-coat wearing professor ordered while patting the head of his Lycanroc who lounged in the sand with the professor lazily sitting in the low beach chair of the cafe.

"I hope you didn't come here to wait for me?" Pete asked unsurely as he sat down on a chair of his own in front of the two Alolan natives. "I'd feel bad that I didn't consider contacting you about my arrival."

"Nah, mate. We came to the port because Burney here craves all kinds of yummy food, and this cafe serves grilled fishmeat even this early in the morning. This is a lucky coincidence," Kukui explained with a wink.

"I still think it's crazy that Alolan beaches are the only known waters in the world holding non-pokemon fish... I only know about non-pokemon birds in the far north continent of Ransei, non-pokemon critters in Sinnoh, and of course, non-pokemon bugs in woods all over the world. It's a little weird if you think about-" Pete stopped to look at both professors and saw them smiling at him. "Sorry, I sometimes talk before thinking. Didn't mean to bore you this bright and early."

"All good, mate. You sound smart enough that it would take a while for me to get bored," Kukui answered with a grin before his wife kicked his shin.

"Don't listen to the idiot. And don't apologize for being an intelligent young man. You obviously have something smart to share, so don't limit yourself," Burnet suggested with a warm smile while ignoring her husband's aggrieved expression.

The three took almost three hours before they finished breakfast at the cafe with Burnet ordering everything on the menu but only eating a bite from it before handing it over to the other two. Pregnancy really messes with a woman's wants and needs.

As they slowly walked to the couple's home in the outskirts of the city, Pete released his other pokemon and called over Reuniclus and Milotic, who were exploring the surroundings. Kukui was mighty impressed with the two mega evolved pokemon and talked about how he wanted to find a mega stone compatible with his many pokemon, but he wasn't successful yet.

And what a line-up Kukui had. When they reached his home, Pete saw a group of Incineroar doing physical training, two Decidueye competing in a sort of archery competition where they landed various attacks on targets in varying distances, four Lycanroc in differing forms wrestling each other without moves and there was a singular Alolan Ninetales cooling the tropical area around the house down to a warm summer's breeze all on her own in concentration.

That didn't even mention the sleeping mountain of a Snorlax behind the house, the three Primarinas catching food for everyone, and the two Magnezone Pete would later find that were currently in the basement of the building working on something for Professor Burnet.

"Uh, by the way. I brought you some gifts. Elm mentioned to me that you have a huge place here but don't really grow berry trees. They don't take a lot of care and you just have to keep them watered, maybe have a pokemon use ground type energy from time to time for nourishment and if you want more berries, ask a grass type pokemon to hurry the growth along," Pete explained before he noticed he was about to go on another tangent. "Anyway, I brought you these from my farm. A few trees you can find anywhere, but I cross-bred these Oran-Occa for fast burn healing, Leppa-Liechi for fast stamina recovery during physical training, and Rinka-Nanab. The last one is my newest creation, and it cures sore throats and aids even humans in faster recovery from almost any illness. My wife's family and I didn't find everything they could do yet."

"Oh yeah, I read in one of your papers that humans can eat as many Rinka Berries as they want without any side effects. Did the cross-breed retain this characteristic? That's what cross-breed means, right?"

As Burnet and Pete lost themselves talking all about berries and cross-breeding, Kukui called over the Decidueye to help him plant the trees. The professor had picked up enough through the conversation just now to know the appropriate spacing, and they were aided by Pete's Nidoking and Mega Milotic, who were both intimately familiar with the workings of a farm.

To get on great terms with the pokemon around the professor's house, Pete eventually opened up his bag to release a small mountain of pokeblocks and other food his pokemon liked at noon while Kukui himself prepared a few snacks for the three humans.

"So Pete, you have a meeting with Dana, one of our resident Popplio breeders, to get yourself your very own Alolan starter at 4?"

Pete looked at his watch and was shocked, "Thanks for the reminder! I was totally lost in our conversation! I guess I should get going! The map says they live on the other side of Hau'oli, and I'd rather pedal on my bike than have Reuniclus or Metagross just teleport me there!"

"Yeah, mate," Kukui interjected as he handed his wive another cool sweetened tea. "You can relax, though. No need to hurry - we live in different frames of mind on these islands."

"I'll embrace that on a day after my first. For now, I'd like to be punctual," Pete countered as he scratched his ear. "Is it okay if I leave my pokemon here and only take Togekiss, Espeon and his son? Mega Milotic is bonding with your Primarina, Arcanine is sleeping next to Snorlax, Mega Reuniclus is conversing with Ninetales, and Nidoking is playing around with my two birds and the Rowletts he found in the woods."

"Don't forget your Metagross making screeching noises together with the Magnezones and your Serperior looking for trouble deep into the forest," Burnet added with a laugh. "Are you sure it was okay to let your Flygon fly off like that, though? Dragon pokemon can be terribly irresponsible if they think their pride is challenged."

"Eh, she recently had a humiliating defeat. I think she needs a challenge to get some confidence back, and she'd rather find it on her own than stay at my side."

"Well, you're the trainer, so you do you," Kukui relented with a shrug. "I'll trust that your pokemon don't unnecessarily disrupt the peace on this island."

As Pete drove on the foldable bike that could be placed in his bag all the way from Route 1 in the east of Hau'oli through the northern outskirts towards Route 2 with only two of his pokemon accompanying him, one in a basket on the bike the other running along, the young professor-to-be took in the vastly different flora of the tropical island in fascination. There were palm trees everywhere, flowers with hard, rocky leaves that didn't take as much water as regular flowers and so much more.

Flexing his grass affinity a bit, Pete stopped here and there to pick up seeds, offshoots, and saplings and placed them in his bag to possibly grow them at his farm.

He passed a waypoint telling him to go right for the Hau'oli Cemeterey by staying on the path straight ahead and reached the western beachbront at route 2 a good hour after leaving Professor Kukui's home. He wasn't even going slow to give himself and Espeon a good workout while Togekiss floated along quite relaxed, which just goes to show how big this island truly was.

On the way, he had seen hundreds of wild pokemon just living their life. Even the very elusive Abra line lived in the outskirts of Hau'oli City, which was rare for psychic pokemon. And while he thought about psychic pokemon, Pete saw a few Pichu playing catch in the woods under the watchful eye of an Alolan Raichu.

It reminded him that he wanted to possibly catch one of his own or at least evolve a Pikachu while in Alola, but for now, that was on the lower end of priorities.

It took a while until he reached a small settlement that looked like a small town of fisherman with wooden houses built half into the water while on wooden stilts, yet from photos online he knew that this was where the breeders of the royal alolan water starter lived.

They were a small collective of five or six small families that lived here to breed these pokemon not for money but for a 'sacred promise to their ancestors'... apparently. Reaching the small circular bay area they claimed for themselves, Pete could at the very least appreciate the tranquility living at a place like this would bring.

"Ah, over here! You must be the rising star of the scholars, Professor Pete?"

Pete looked to a young tanned woman with blue eyes and blue hair and two small toddlers waddling next to her. He unsurely asked, "Dana? And, uh, it's just Pete. Not a professor yet."

"Yet! And yes, the very same! These are my two youngest daughters, Harper and Sarah. Come, follow me. The matriarch of these waters wants to see you," Dana greeted with a warm smile.

Pete first greeted the two toddlers who hid behind their mom's skirt and turned to Dana once more, "Oh? Is the matriarch a Primarina?"

Dana nodded with a happy expression on her face, "She is the great-great grandmother of most pokemon here. My grandmother told me she was already a strong Primarina when she was a little girl."

"Wow, I can't wait to meet a pokemon as old as her! What would she want to talk about with me?"

"Hmm, that's hard to say. As old as she is, I can only talk to her, and she shakes her head or nods at my questions. So you will have to talk to her more than the other way around," Dana answered with a dreamy smile.

"Oh, that's also no problem. I have quite a bit of experience talking to pokemon," Pete stated with confidence.

Dana led Pete forward and looked at him briefly before saying, "Who knows? Maybe she wants you to help rescue some Phione for some rewards. My grandmother said the old Primarina can talk to the Manaphy living in these waters."