Unbroken Disguise

“Would you run the analysis on the latest data set for me, please?”

“Of course, Professor,” his state of the art computer replied.

Kukui leaned back in his barely held together by duct tape office chair with a sigh as the Rotom got to work.

Sometimes he wished every day could be action packed. Practice some moves with his Pokemon, maybe put on his mask… just let the adrenaline run through him.

But he was old now.

This wasn’t the good ol’ days where he was blazing through the island challenge or testing his mettle against the Indigo League. He had responsibilities now. He had a wife now. Which, while awesome for various reasons, meant that he couldn’t just run off and do crazy stuff anymore.

Part of him wanted to open up a league of his own. Not joining the League league, but just a league. Give himself a way to recapture his youth while pushing his home to new heights. A chance to do that crazy stuff at the level he craved, but without having to go so far from home that the missus would worry.

But that just wasn’t in the cards at the moment.

Alola is a small region, geographically speaking. And while their spirit was mighty, and their Tapus even mightier, they had to tread a very thin line if they wanted to continue their way of life.

While Kukui personally supported stepping closer to the League, he could fully understand why the others were so hesitant. They’d all seen what had become of Unova after the war ended, even if most of the details were hush-hush. Poor Alder is basically a lap dog for the real Champions, and that was with Unova’s minor support of the League during the war! Staying neutral on paper instead of giving outright vocal support had been enough to leave them in such a state.

“If that’s how they treat a region that could tenuously be considered on good terms, then how will they treat us?” Hala always liked to say.

Which, given that Alola had assisted with supply lines of the opposite side of the war, wasn’t exactly an unreasonable thing to think about.

But that was a small hurdle!

Well. Maybe not so small. But not insurmountable, either!

Lance was a stand up guy. Kukui was sure of it. You could lie and deceive with your words all you wanted, but battle is where your true nature would shine through. The image that Lance put out to the world with his harsh glares and theatrical cape flares wasn’t enough to hide how much of a genuinely good person he showed himself to be in his battle style.

Lance didn’t hold all of the power in the League, of course, but if that was one of their heads of state, then surely the League would be understanding about past…erm… transgressions?

He’d have to think more on how to pitch it to them once he convinced the Kahunas that he wasn’t insane for wanting to associate with the League.

“The analysis is complete, professor!”

Kukui nearly jumped out of his seat as Rotom jolted him from his thoughts.

“What have you got for me then, buddy?”

“The readings do not appear to have deviated beyond expected levels, Professor. They are elevated when compared to previous months, but that can be accounted for by the reports of citizens having heard Tapu Koko’s cry last week which indicate that the guardian deity has been on the move. The only thing of note would be that the increased levels are not as high as the last time Tapu Koko was heard.”

Kukui frowned. “Ehhh, that’s probably less to do with an actual difference and more to do with where we took our readings. We might have been closer to the actual trail last time. Set a reminder to take readings from more locations next month.”

“Of course, Professor.”

That was the other problem with the possibility of having a stronger relationship with the League.

The Tapus radiated Fairy energy wherever they went.

Was that a bad thing? Not as far as he could tell, and he’d been keeping track of it for a good while now. Plus, his correspondence with Sycamore indicated that nothing had happened to the Kalosian Pokemon where they had a… similar situation.

But this is the League. Kukui was sure that in their heads, the entire damn war was about Fairies. They weren’t going to change their minds about the topic so quickly.

Though it was starting to look like they might not have a choice in the matter.

There had been no official communication on the issue, of course. But Kukui had noticed things.

A comment that didn’t quite make sense here, a lack of information on various topics there…

Though what really sold him on his little pet theory was the incident with the Joy family.

Did he like having to censor information? Not particularly. But the Joy of Tapu Village sending information to Sinnoh about Mimikyu was a red flag if he’d ever seen one. If that information had gone through as is and Cynthia had found out…

Well, sometimes you have to do things that you don't enjoy.

But it had gotten him thinking. Why would a Sinnoh Joy need that information? It’s not like Mimikyu were terribly common outside of Alola, and if one of the islanders had suddenly decided to travel to Sinnoh he would definitely have heard about it through the grapevine. That still left the option of a Mimikyu from outside of Alola of course, or maybe some sort of smuggling operation…

But whatever the case, however it had happened, the only thing that made sense in his head was that somehow a Mimikyu had ended up in Sinnoh, and now the Fairy type was spreading.

Was he absolutely certain of that? Not at all. But he had a gut feeling that it was true, and he’d learned to trust his gut long ago.

But perhaps beyond that gut feeling, he wanted it to be true.

If the League got filled with Fairy types, then there would be no need for caution regarding the Tapus or the other Fairies living in Alola. It would be a major barrier out of the way for bringing Alola closer to the League.

Assuming that the League didn’t conclude the Mimikyu was from Alola and that he was at fault for ruining their isolation.

Hmmm. Maybe he should try to clear that up.

“Rotom, could you send an email to Lance for me? Start it by challenging him to a rematch, like always, but then I need to…”