Jagi’s presence made Selene’s new island life funnier and more enjoyable than ever. Going to school, hanging out with her friends, playing with her Pokémon, exploring Melemele… The young girl woke up every day with excitement for the new things awaiting her. There were no signs yet of her memories coming back and nobody knew if that would ever happen or not. However, while Selene wanted to know about her past and how she arrived into Alola, a part of her believed it wouldn’t be so bad if that never happened. She felt that place could be her home, that she could find a new path for herself there, along with her friends and professor Kukui. Thus, two months passed since the girl first woke up in the hospital.

However, something strange happened one night. Selene could vaguely remember it, that dream. Everything was dark, except for some shiny color lights floating in front of her. Inside those lights, there were shadows with strange shapes. She couldn’t see them clearly, but they seemed familiar. “What a weird dream”, she thought the first time she had that dream. Selene didn’t give it that much relevance. Everybody has weird dreams now and then, right? But it wasn’t just that time. From that moment on, every night, she had the same dream, the same lights, the same shadows. After one week, the girl was worried about that strange vision. She couldn’t even concentrate at school, mindlessly doodling in her notebook the shadows she saw.

“Selene, can you hear me?”.

Selene jumped. Lillie was right by her side. Seeing her friend so down recently, the blonde girl was worried and wanted to talk to her, but Selene didn’t listen to her.

“Sorry, Lillie! What do you want?”, asked Selene casually.

“Nothing, just… You look worried. Is something wrong?”, asked Lillie with worried tone. Then, she looked at Selene’s notebook, noticing her drawings, and asked: “What is that?”.

For those days, Selene didn’t say anything about her dreams. They were nothing more than that, right? But she felt something special for Lillie, there was something that made her trust her friend so easily. If she couldn’t find the answers by herself, maybe she could ask for help. That was something she learned: everybody in the region is there to help each other.

“Well, I… I’ve been having this dream for a while. These shadows appear, but I don’t know what they are”, explained Selene.

“Hey, something’s wrong?”.

Mallow’s voice surprised both Selene and Lillie. The cheerful girl was accompanied by everybody else, surrounding Selene in her desk. After some explanation, everybody kept looking at the pictures the girl drew on her notebook, trying to come up with any plausible explanation.

“Are those… statues?”, asked Sophocles.

“More like masks, don’t you think?”, added Lana.

“Dunno, but I got the feeling I saw them. But can’t remember when”, said Kiawe with confusion.

All the kids hummed in unison. They all had that strange feeling. Those shapes really looked familiar, even for Selene. But what could they be? It was only Lillie who had this sudden inspiration, a memory crossing her mind that made her jump. Without saying anything to her friends, the lady ran towards the shelves in the classroom and glanced over the collection of books. Selene and the others stared at her from the distance, watching her murmuring to herself while looking for something. Then, she took one of them and ran back to the desk, quickly passing the pages. Lillie put the book on the desk, above her friend’s drawings, its pages revealing its content.

“I knew I saw them in a book! They are similar, right?”, said Lillie satisfied and enthusiastic at her own discovery.

The book displayed pictures of some strange creatures Selene had never seen before. Four of them specifically, looking like masks, just like Lana described. Their shapes were interesting: a bird, some kind of insect, a bull and something that looked like the head of a fish. All of them were decorated with tribal patterns and designs. When comparing those pictures with the shadows Selene drew in her notebook, the girl could notice some similarities in the overall shapes. She found those pictures interesting, with some mysterious aura surrounding them, but she couldn’t recall seeing them before. Unlike her, those pictures caused the same reaction in everybody else, who claimed “Of course!” at the same time.

“How didn’t I recognize them? Our Guardian all around during our festival!”, exclaimed Kiawe.

“I mean, Selene’s pictures are all dark, that’s why!”, commented Mallow jokingly. “But yeah, they really look like Guardians!”.

‘Guardians’? That’s something Selene never heard about, but her friends surely knew what they were talking about. Intrigued, she asked them:

“Guardians? What are the Guardians?”.

The chatter continued for a few seconds until everybody noticed Selene’s question. Everybody looked at her in silence. Before, their reaction would have been much more extreme, everybody exclaiming in shock. But after so long, they knew their friend and how she was still learning things about the region’s culture. Instead, they all giggled casually.

“Sorry. You probably never heard of them. They are Pokémon!”, said Lana.

Selene looked back at the book, frowning her eyebrows. She had learned a lot about Pokémon and she had seen a wide variety of them to understand there were creatures in all shapes and sizes. Still, she couldn’t believe those strange figures were actually Pokémon, believing it was another lie from her friend. Like reading her mind, Lillie interceded:

“Lana’s right. These are the Guardians of Alola: Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, Tapu Fini and Tapu Bulu”, explained Lillie while pointing out at each of the figures in the book. “They are very powerful Pokémon and each one protects one island. They oversee humans and Pokémon alike. But it’s very rare to see them”.

“Wow, they sound amazing!”, exclaimed Selene. Then, her face turned a bit serious. “But then… why am I dreaming about them?”.

That was a really good question. Selene had never heard about those so-called Guardians of Alola. And contrary to what Sophocles later suggested, she had never seen them in any book or TV show. It was strange that she was dreaming about them every single night. Not even her friends could come up with a possible answer, thinking it could be a mere coincidence. After coming to an impasse, they decided to explain professor Kukui the whole situation. Their teacher couldn’t know either why Selene was having those dreams but, following his cheerful nature, he proposed something:

“Why don’t we visit the shrine? Who knows? We may find it lurkin’ ‘round!”, said Kukui.

“Really? I don’t want you all to worry about this”, commented Selene.

“Nah, ‘tis fine! We can do a field trip there! Gonna be a great chance for ya to learn more about Alola!”, added Kukui.

Although the professor used that excuse about using the field trip as a lesson, Selene knew her tutor wanted to help her. However, she didn’t want to inconvenience everybody. They all had already done enough for her during those last months. Dragging them around the island for one stupid dream was asking for too much from them. Just as she was about to complain again, she felt a soft touch on her shoulder.

“And don’t worry! We’re here to help! If it ends up as nothing, at least we had fun together”, said Mallow with a big smile.

Selene turned around and looked at her friends. They were all around her, smiling, willing to accompany her in her journey. They were ready to support her, just like they had been doing during all those past weeks. The girl felt a strange mix of guilt and happiness. She didn’t want to trouble her friends, but seeing them wanting to walk her strange path by her side was comforting. And just like Mallow said, it still could be fun even if nothing came out from that adventure. Selene showed a shy smile and nodded. It was worth giving it a try.

Having settled on that plan, the group gathered together in front on the Pokémon School the following morning. Their first destination was Iki Town, a small village slightly on the north from Hau’oli City and residence of Hala, Kahuna of Melemele Island. Their first meeting was a bit impacting. Even though his brown skin and traditional clothing, Selene had the impression she was meeting a sumo fighter, tall and heavy. However, his nature was contrary to his looks, showing a kind side to the children interested in learning more about Tapu Koko, the Guardian of that island, the one that looked like a bird.

Without revealing their original intention about finding out more about Selene’s dream, the group learned more about the creature under the pretext of it being just one more lesson from the school. Hala described Tapu Koko as a playful Pokémon, used to make jokes and tease people, but also a fight-loving monster. For a moment, Selene feared that dream could be one of those jokes, but according to how the Kahuna described Tapu Koko, it mostly did childish jokes like stealing an item or running around. Maybe something like that strange dream was not something the Guardian would do. The only way to find out was searching for him, a difficult task since the Guardians didn’t usually appear in front of other creatures, but there was a place it could be found: the Ruins of Conflict, where the Kahuna prays for the Guardian’s approval and protection.

Bidding farewell to Hala, Selene, the other children and Kukui began their journey towards the Ruins of Conflict. Selene could feel her heart beating fast. How couldn’t she be nervous? There was a possibility that Pokémon could know something about her memories. That nervousness made her mind wonder about all the possible outcomes.

The trek to reach the ruins took the group deep into the jungle. The lush vegetation covered the sky almost entirely, with a few sunlight rays going through the few gaps between the leaves. At one point, they all had to cross a hanging bridge that, even though it seemed safe enough, it made some of the children gulp in nervousness at the distance between them and the river down below. After around one hour of walking, Selene and her friends finally glimpsed the ruins at some distance.

Living up to its name, the Ruins of Conflict was an old building in the middle of the jungle. Huge stone blocks served as the foundations, walls and ceiling of the place, all of them eroded and covered in moss and vines, proof of all the time the building had remained in such a location. Even though, you couldn’t say it was entirely abandoned, because the Kahuna had to go there to pray for the Guardian and receive its approval. It still was a place of tradition, a ceremonial legacy from old times. Selene and the other kids were marveled at such sight, carefully contemplating the view in front of them, until some noises caught their attention.

“Keep lookin’! It gotta be sumwhere!”.

The group could hear some voices, young people, arguing against each other. They all thought that was strange. Who else would go to such a place? They didn’t have to wait much more to find out. A few minutes later, they arrived at the entrance of the ruins, finding its strange and enraged tourists who quickly noticed their presence.

“Yoh, ain’t them the brats from the Pokémon School! Watcha doin’ere?”.

Unfitting to the place, there were three youngsters, two boys and one girl, that looked like they came out from a dark alley between buildings. Black outfits, sleeveless shirts and bandanas covering their heads, displaying a white skull symbol on them. One of the boys was short, quite fat, with fearful eyes and nervous fidgeting. The other one, a tall, slim boy with a menacing look in his eyes, who had been shouting loudly to other boy, was then talking to the group. In the meanwhile, the girl, with shiny pink hair and a relaxed aura around her, spent her time merely contemplating her reflection on her smartphone, not paying any attention to the fight between her two mates. Selene couldn’t even imagine where they came from or what they could be doing in such a place. However, right when she was about to ask her friends, she could see it. The displeasure in everybody’s faces was so obvious that she found it surprising.

“Do you know them?”, asked Selene confused.

“Team Skull”, answered Kiawe briefly, frowning his eyes at their direction.

“They’re the worst! They pick up fights with everybody and try to steal their Pokémon”, explained Mallow angrily.

“Hey, thanks for the compliment, brat”, said the Team Skull girl from the distance with some mocking tone.

Selene couldn’t believe what she was hearing. People stealing Pokémon from their human families and friends… How could that be? The mere thought of losing Jagi from someone like them was scary enough, but that didn’t seem to bother the group of delinquents, who seemed proud at being described as ‘Pokémon thieves’. From the back, professor Kukui asked:

“What are you all doing here? This is a sacred place!”.

“Hah, like we’re gonna tell a bunch of losers like y’all!”, said the Team Skull boss in a condescending way.

“Yeah, we ain’t tellin’ ya that we wanna steal Z-Crystals from the Guardian!”, added the Team Skull boy proudly.

His intelligence might not be his forte, revealing their plan unconsciously. The boos turned around and scolded him, while the girl put her hand on her face, sighing at the pathetic view of her friend. However, that unintentional revelation seemed to anger Kiawe, much more than Selene had ever seen before.

“How do you dare? The Z-Crystals are the relics granted by the Guardians! You can’t just steal them like that”, exclaimed Kiawe enraged.

Even Selene knew that at least from her lessons at the school. Z-Crystals were rare items, only to be found in Alola, with the power to unleash powerful attacks called Z-Moves. But to achieve such milestone, a Trainer had first to overcome a Trial, and one of the most important conditions to use them was that Trainer and Pokémon had to have a strong bond between each other. However, once again, that was something Team Skull didn’t care about at all. Even if she had met them just a few minutes ago, she already found them annoying and despicable.

“Hah, watcha gonna do? You wanna fight? Go ahead, no-shirt brat! Let’s go, everybody!”.