Love in the Time of Trials

Chapter 5: A Tension

This chapter may seem a little slower than the last two, but pretty soon, things will begin taking off. So in the meantime, please enjoy Chapter 5!

Chapter 5

A Tension

Ash returned silently to the waiting room, letting the sounds of the retreating crowd fade into silence. He had already returned Greninja, and Pikachu had come back on to his shoulder as they walked down the hall. Halfway through, Ash came to a stop, breathing heavily. His hand with his Z-Ring reached up, wiping the sweat he hadn't realized he'd accumulated on his forehead. The material glinted in the faint light of the hallway.

"Kiawe's trial is next..." Ash whispered out. Pikachu looked to him and then the Z-Ring before him. Kiawe was probably the one who had most helped him in figuring out how to use Z-Moves. Now they would likely face each other. He was excited, but at the same time, worried. Why had Tapu Koko given him the Z-Ring? Was the crystal he and Greninja found the key to bringing out their true power? Was he really growing through the Island Trials?

Or was Guzma right?

"Pikapi, chu pika pika," Pikachu told him kindly, tapping lightly to the Z-Ring. Ash looked at his best friend, the little mouse smiling at him kindly.

"I know, I know," Ash laughed out. Thinking about things like this wasn't going to get him anywhere. Sure, from time to time it could, but every instance along the way, he had to remind himself that moving forward and striving through every obstacle was the only way to grow and get better. He certainly hadn't beaten Paul by moping and thinking, but by getting up. Then with Wulfric, he had, "Serena. Let's go back to the others, huh?"

"Pi!" Pikachu agreed. Ash now picked up the pace, dashing for the waiting room that was his ultimate destination. The roar of the crowd almost completely vanished now, especially when he returned to the near empty room. Hau didn't seem to be there, the boy likely having run on already. That suited Ash just fine; they'd renew their challenge any time. However, it did leave him alone in the room with a rather sulky figure in the form of Gladion. The boy was sitting on the same bench from earlier, with what was presumably Null's pokeball held in his hands. The door to the lobby was open, and Guzma appeared to be framed in it, his posse from earlier right on the other side.

"Why do you look like ya've been through the meat grinder?" he was asking of the two. Ash couldn't see them, but the two Skull thugs looked to be rubbing their heads, faces or back. Regardless, Ash felt that if they had tried to steal others' Pokémon, it sort of served them right.

"Sorry, boss, but this crazy Pokémon got in our way!"

"It was crazy big, too! Like...like twenty feet tall!"

"Oh...Guzma, what is wrong with you, leavin' your sisters to fend for themselves like that." He quickly reached forward, taking the two girls into his arms, like some kind of devoted father that was just looking after them. It was a different side to Guzma that Ash saw, though it disappeared when the man smirked right back at him before departing.

"What a weird guy, huh?" Ash asked of Pikachu. Now that he really thought about it, everything he'd heard of Team Skull made him realize how different they were from people like Team Rocket or all the other crime syndicates he and his friends had fought against in the past. Sure, they were stealing Pokémon, but other than that, it seemed all they did was cause trouble for no reason. Compounded with the fact that no one seemed to care about them, dismissed them as do-nothings that would never amount to anything (an assumption that stretched to upper echelons of Alolan society), Team Skull suddenly seemed like...