Tour day was going better than the day before, they could go outside without being invited for one. It also helped that Raffi was their guide, they didn't need someone with community authority. In the games Iki town had about 10 houses, which is more than most starter towns, it was as big as a residential district for a small-medium city and it was pretty much residential, with a few restaurants and convenience stores mixed in, probably a couple thousand people in all. Being visitors they didn't have reason to go to the ruins, unless called by the Tapu or a Kahuna, N would probably be, but they were shown the trail signs denoting the way.

  The only development around where the players house in the games would be was Oaks' school, a research lab, Kakuis' house on the beach, and the construction of secure homes for those who were going to be here in two months. But mostly it was a grass plain, well outdoor activities wouldn't be especially difficult. Kakui joined them to give a tour of the school. It could hold about two or three classes of students. The school pokemon kept animals and pokemon that might be problematic away. While habitats were definitely bigger than could be perceived in the Anime or Games, it was not all pokemon, Creig estimated that 10% of wildlife was pokemon, the rest being regular animals. Pokémon farms and Ranches were also rare, and needed special licensing due to caretaking concerns. Kakui was explaining for Creigs' sake for obvious reasons.

  Hau'oli city was about half the size of one of Portlands' districts, a metropolis could fit on the island, it was just unlikely to grow that big. but it was still smaller than it would be in a few years, though part of that was height. Hala joined them to explain international relations, which could be exemplified in the city. The Tapu had been unsure at first, but a demonstration of building materials allowing upward growth, not just outward (The School), meant that even with some expansion to the currently wood city, a lot of the islands land would actually be reclaimed by the wilds. Aether Paradise had yet to be built, in fact it wasn't even a concept yet till Creig discussed it as part of the crisis that would happen. It was also such that the Po town disaster had yet to happen, Creig had inadvertently created a rift between the Kahuna. The city also didn't have proper ports yet, though it had little need for a major shipyard on the other hand, but the movement of incoming goods was a bit congested. The market center was being partially converted, while there were no plans for the thrifty mart that would be destroyed, the warning was taken to heart and Hala saw to it that the city and any large marts or malls were made pokemon accessible/friendly. There were neither hotels nor motels so tourism was a no go for now, though Hala said there were some reluctant plans.

  On the way back Hala apologized to Creig, since Creig didn't start anything, he just brought to light problems that had been brewing, and his objections to coming were the same most of the Islanders would have if they left for elsewhere, but Creig didn't have the option to "stay home".

  "Upholding the way of the island has been my purpose for so long, I overlooked that three of you had such newly broken lives, I am deeply regretful"

  "Defending ones' faith and thereby ones ways is something I definitely understand, you did me no wrong and were in fact mirroring my own concerns"

  "Well even so, I shared with the fellow Kahuna that would listen, and introduced the thought properly the rumor mill so it could get around."

  "Mr.Hala!, you're being too kind, you're being a good leader, and you're going to teach Sir.N what a real leader is like, unlike....unlike" Rosa couldn't finish her interjection, her own sadness and concern over Ns' reaction shutting her down. N looked conflicted, but patted Rosas' head in consolation.

  "Well I still felt guilty, and felt I should do something"

  "Either way we are grateful for your benevolence, you are doing more than you have to, and I believe I heard you implying that problems have arisen, we can at least listen."

  "Urgh, well, haaa... normally I would just say it's island business, but it does concern you at least, since you revealed the problem. The Ula'ula Kahuna has been falling to temptation, unfortunately we can't stop them, in a way each Kahuna represents a different aspect of life, yet also an opposite of their Tapu." Hala smiled sadly "Tapu Koko is spontaneous, and I'm reliable and steady, and am the most community driven. Poni islands' Kahuna keeps our history and tradition, Tapu Fini is a curious explorer. For Akala, Tapu Lele is shy, so the Kahuna is outgoing, they know the most about how the pokemon are doing. Tapu Bulu is lacidaisy and peaceful. The Kahuna is supposed to be the leader of the warriors, defenders of Alola."

  "And now instead of vile invaders, outsiders are gaining a foothold by the hands of friendship." Creig took a moment "Retribution, resistance to change, distrust, or just conquest?"

  "We haven't been able to find out, though we are concerned, the small facts you knew actually paint a worst case scenario. The portal you warned Lusamine about may not have been random, like will be believed, especially since both the Po town incident and that incident ended up both taboo, and seem to have occurred close together."

  "I hadn't pieced that together"

  "It would be hard to, also the child Acerola,,, she's the Kahunas' young daughter, but without solid proof we cannot accuse, and even if we did, they are the warriors, it would be an uphill fight for the rest of us, it is the greatest betrayal to invite those whose incursion into the world we guard against, we need to talk to the Tapu when we can." Hala sagged from the weight of responsibility and from the helplessness. Creig and N clapped Halas' shoulders, unaware that the other would do so. N had been trained to be a leader, Creig that the only thing more important than brotherhood was the bond with The Father. Everyone went to bed with heavy hearts......again.

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  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Nobody felt good when they awoke the next day, everyone creaking like old men. But it was the first day of school, new life might fix some of their problems. Creig really hadn't thought about what season it was yet either. He got to that morning, it was early spring, the league "started" in summer and had its' tourney at the end of winter. There were also two different Leagues, the militant league, which is the one from the games, and the civilian league, which has mostly become a sports league from the anime. Which is why Ash took so long to be a pokemon master, the government preferred to get their trainers from the militant league. Actually did this world define pokemon masters?, the only media it was described in was Dengetsu Pickachu, AKA The Electric Tale of Pikachu, and that timeline had futuristic hover cars. The militant league had a hard year timeline, but other than during the tourney, if they had the badges they could challenge the Elite 4. Since Creig could not be loyal to one region, he would participate in the civilian league, after getting some school in of course. The morning mist really helped keep his head clear and felt nice.

  The professors had arrived first, and the only ones as excited as them were the pokemon, everyone else was a bit nervous. This was actually the first time Creig wasn't weighed down by his and/or the worlds fate to pay attention to the others pokemon. N actually had a lot toddling about with him, technically they were all wild, though the zorua seemed extra loyal, somehow. Nate had his in pokeballs, but Rosas' was currently on her head a foongus, Creig was pretty sure it was called foongi, Clicker, made Creig smile wryly. Sandshrew and scraggy were getting along as they both toddled along.

  In the classroom, other than the assistances' chair, which would be Creigs', nobody knew where they should sit, the normal attendees' likely had their own seating they had already gotten used to. The three unsure where to sit temporarily sat on the floor, and started reading their extra-curriculars. Creig talked to Kakui, learning that the two moves he didn't put names to were scratch and mist, scratch was just forgettable, but he hadn't heard of mist before. considering Creigs plans, mist was mostly detrimental. Creig was discussing how safe certain trainings would be and alternate usage ideas when an aether employee showed up. It turned out to be Wicke who introduced herself as an assigned advisor.

  It wasn't too long before the other students got there, probably a bit after ~8. The usual students had heard about the four outsiders, but had yet to see, the meet and greet being for the adults to assess the outsiders, though the adults attitudes did a drastic shift afterwards. The whiplash left the students unsure. Samson took charge of introductions, he started with Nate. There was some confusion, partially because people weren't very interested in _another_ younger police kid in their midst, it was Creig pointing at Nate going "Licensed, Active, _Interregional_, Detective" and the teen Jenny "Civilian with relatives" that made them realize. N and Rosa being raised in isolation into a cult managed by an evil organization through gaslighting who saw the cult as a tool made the students cry, hearing Rosas' mom was still stuck in that situation redoubled the crying. The change when Creig could finally be introduced was palpable, they had grown up with interdimensional incursions, they were mostly seen as bad, they were quiet and needed some explanation to understand that he wasn't a Faller, and that he would be an afternoon teacher from now on, Samson assured them that Creig had given freely of important otherworldly knowledge that was having a positive effect on their world already, including Alola. They were surprised that the Kahuna were acting upon Creigs' word.

  As for the students themselves Creig recognized a good portion of them. The oldest were a kid named Molayne, not recognized, and Olivia, yes, the future Kahuna she had yet to learn to control her peppiness as of yet. The young teens consisted of Ulu, Mallows chef brother, Kahili, she didn't have her clubs but was wearing a sports outfit, Guzma, despite being a warriors' kid already looked like an outcast, Creig felt bad for him considering what would happen soon if he wasn't as affected by Ice energy as he was he would have lost facial control, and the for-mentioned Jenny, she would probably go to cadet school in a few years. Then were Ilima and Kiawe, rich boy and ranch boy. The youngest group were sleepy Mina, Mallow, Gladion, and.... Plumeria, who was in a similar situation to Guzma. Others who would be recognizable were too young at this point. This also put the class at a total of 15 students and 4 teachers, almost 4-1.

  After Creig took a few minutes to pull himself together, and not blab the terrible fate of Po town to children he had just meant potentially scarring them even more than they were already headed for, or get them killed, and with a short "some truths are terrible to know" to explain, Creig introduced the subjects he would be teaching. Math as one of the major subjects, some chemistry, some physics, some geology, English would be attempted, they didn't know if it would be permitted, for a break some other world trivia/history. The other major subject mythology, the students didn't understand the idea that ideas crossed dimensions via sympathetic resonance and that some fundamental laws remained the same because definitions of a thing/being could not fundamentally be changed due to, well a thing/being can only exist with a singular core definition, any other definition would not be that thing/being, but the got it across that it was relevant to the nature of pokemon. The difference in education expectations showed by how the students looked either burned out considering the workload or just intimidated

  They almost missed their chance to be shocked at the four newbies getting to work on extra-curricular learning. The thick book of regulations, procedures, and pertinent laws that Nate pulled out almost intimidated Jenny away, but this was her chance to make early friends in a fellow law enforcement group. N also had a packet about laws and organizations about interacting with pokemon he was looking through, then Hala picked him up to have him be Halas' shadow, there was some jealousy but nothing major. Rosa being a more normal youngster that Nate, was quickly surrounded by the other young members of the group, but she did manage to turn their discussion toward medical questions for pokemon, where she would look them up in the packet Nurse Joy gave her, mostly by just exclaiming her want to learn to be helpful. Creig explained his basic lessons on pokemon with "Other-worlder" , the idea of a world without pokemon hadn't properly set in for the students yet. Maybe it was region bias, but they quickly accepted the idea that the primary reason for him being in Alola was that it was the safest place for him, though it had more to do with an already established interpol presence and lack of villain team.

  The students when they got home found that they felt compelled to discuss their experience. It provided a great bonding experience, and hearing how knowledgeable the otherworlder seemed to be and that he was passing it on willingly pleased the parents. They felt strange about Nate though, to hear he was an active agent wasn't what they expected, he seemed too young to many. The adults also hoped that their kids would be inspired to find a goal to work towards as the four had. The students went to bed even as what they had learned settled in their minds and reached true understanding. Ula'ulas' Kahuna went to bed scared, scared of the outsiders knowing his plans, scared they would amass a mighty war band and strike before his plans fruition.