“I think that’s enough for today!”.

Professor Kukui stretched his back and arms while sitting on his chair in the basement. It was already well into the night, something the professor could only tell by checking on the clock, the basement not having any windows that showed the darkness from the outside and being well illuminated. He surely didn’t enjoy sitting down and writing papers over and over. He always preferred field research, but he knew very well that was also part of his job, noting down his findings and sending them to his partners. There was still a pile of papers on his desk, but he had already done a lot that day. The professor deserved some rest, so he turned off the lights and went upstairs. Slightly dozing off, he walked along the dark kitchen, only thinking on his fluffy bed.

*BAM*

“Aaaah!”.

“Woaaaah!”.

Kukui jumped in shock, his heart beating fast at the sudden noise and the mysterious scream. He quickly turned on the lights of the kitchen, revealing Selene was standing in front of the fridge with a bottle in her hands. She was still wearing her nightgown, her hair kinda messy.

“Sorry, professor. Didn’t know you were still awake”, murmured Selene shyly. Then, shaking slightly the bottle in her hand, she said: “I just wanted some juice…”.

However, the professor knew there was something more. Selene was a bit sleepy, but nervous at the same time. And that was not from their sudden midnight encounter.

“That dream again, right?”, asked Kukui with concerned look.

Selene hesitated for a moment before nodding, confirming the professor’s suspicions, who sighed and invited the girl to sit on the kitchen’s table and share that juice.

It had already been one week since Selene’s encounter with Tapu Koko, the Guardian Pokémon of Melemele Island. After such a fruitless expedition, the girl decided to put her amnesia problems and her strange dream aside for a while… but that was easier said than done. Not only she kept having the same dream every night, but it also changed, now seeing Tapu Koko clearly in her vision. She expected it would stop happening eventually, but it felt realer than ever before. However, the only person who knew about this was Kukui, who heard the girl waking up in the middle of the night. She didn’t tell her friends, not wanting to trouble them again with that problem. She wanted to know the truth, but those dreams were proving to be more troublesome than she initially expected. Kukui could see Selene’s hesitation while drinking his midnight juice.

“So… Anything new about those dreams?”, asked Kukui.

“Well…”, murmured Selene while fidgeting with her glass of juice. “It’s just… I see Tapu Koko right in front of me and… It’s talking, it’s telling me something… But I can’t hear it clearly…”.

“It could be because you met it in person”, reasoned Kukui, with Selene agreeing with him. “Anything else?”.

Selene scratched her head while thinking, trying to remember her dream. It was a bit confusing. Tapu Koko was there for sure, but the other figures were still shadows. It was that thought that made her remember something.

“At one point, one shadow appears in front of me… It’s that one with little wings in its back”, explained Selene.

“Oh, you mean Tapu Lele? That’s the Guardian of Akala Island”, said Kukui while looking for his phone inside his pocket.

The professor put the phone on the table, showing a picture similar to the one everybody saw in the book at school. From the four Guardians floating in the air, Kukui was pointing at the smallest one, with oval shape, little wings and what seemed to be antennas in its head. Selene nodded. That was the one that approached her in her dream. Unusual from his usual behavior, the professor frowned his eyebrows and put his hand on his chin while humming. Somehow, the girl found that vision quite funny, even though she was not in the mood for laughing. She couldn’t enjoy that image for much longer, because the professor smiled and kindly slammed the table with his hands.

“Well, I guess it’s time for a trip to Akala, doncha think?”, asked Kukui cheerfully.

Maybe it was because she was tired and a bit sleepy, but Selene didn’t completely understand what the professor meant. The professor giggled before the girl’s puzzled look in her face.

“Come on! We are gonna search for Tapu Lele and check if it knows something!”, added Kukui.

That was it. Selene finally understood the professor’s intention. However, she wasn’t happy about the idea, instead turning nervous and sad.

“No, professor, it’s… it’s okay. I don’t want to trouble you anymore with this”, said Selene.

“Trouble? It’s not trouble at all! We all can…”, said Kukui.

“Yes it is!”, exclaimed Selene, interrupting the professor. “I dragged you all onto those ruins for nothing! You have done a lot for me and I’m just troubling you more and more and…”.

That time, Selene was the one interrupted by the professor, who grabbed her by her shoulders. The shock made her shut up and look at Kukui with trembling eyes. Kukui could see that she really felt bad for all the help everybody was offering to her. A part of her was still aware that she was the ‘lost girl’ who was washed up on that island and depended on everybody’s generosity to keep going. But the professor wanted to make sure Selene understood that was not true.

“Listen, Selene. I’m happy for having you here, and all your friends do as well! We ain’t helping you because of pity. We care about you, got it? And it’s obvious there’s something going on with those dreams and the Guardians. If unraveling this mystery will make you feel better, we’ll do whatever it takes to help ya!”, explained Kukui.

Selene let out a brief “But…” while she shed some tears. She couldn’t help but blaming herself for making everybody go to that extent to help her. Kukui and her friends, they were all so nice and good people. In a way, the professor could see her thoughts: she thought why anybody would help her that much. And that thought made him smile.

“Let me put it this way. If it were Mallow or Lillie the ones in trouble, you’d help them, right?”, asked the professor, getting only a shy nod from Selene. “They’re your friends. Wanting to help them is natural. Well, it’s the same here. It’s not bad to let yourself be helped when you need it”.

‘Friends’… Selene knew they all were friends, and still, there was something inside her telling her that word was something so distant, impossible to reach. Like she didn’t deserve to have friends. Where did that feeling come from? She couldn’t know for sure. However, she knew the professor was right. They were her friends. She wanted to be there for them. Maybe it wasn’t that bad to ask them for help. Calming down after his comforting words, Selene and Kukui decided it was time to rest. It had been a long night for both of them.

On the next day, the professor revealed his intentions to prepare a trip to Akala Island to the whole class. The kids were surprised to hear they were going after Tapu Lele and didn’t wait long when their first break arrived to ask Selene what was going on. The girl explained them about her dreams, trying to diminish the scale of the problem or how recurrent they were. However, following the professor’s advice, she was open about inviting them all to come along her, only if it wasn’t troublesome. But of course, following that Alolan spirit they had shown since the first day, everybody smiled, willing to go with Selene wherever she needed.

“In that case, I guess you can all come to my house and stay for the night!”, exclaimed Kiawe. “But you gotta help with the farm, got it?”.

“Wait, your house? What do you mean?”, asked Selene confused.

“Don’t you remember? Kiawe’s from Akala”, explained Lana.

“Yeah, I knew he was from Akala, but… you actually live there?”, asked Selene in shock. A bit confused, Kiawe nodded, which made Selene come up with another question. “But… how do you come and go to school everyday?”.

Kiawe didn’t feel the need to answer that question. Instead, he stepped aside, revealing the group of Pokémon playing at the back of the classroom. Everybody’s partners were there, including Charizard, which was still wearing the seat Kiawe used to ride it. Even though it seemed impossible at first, Selene understood Kiawe rode Charizard every day to commute to school. It was so amazing… and so simple at the same time, she felt ashamed for not realizing before. Everybody, including Selene, giggled in unison. Even if it was for something stupid, that brief moment took away some tension from the conversation, making the girl feel closer to her friends.

And so, a few days passed until everything was ready for their trip to Akala Island. Even though it was the second time Selene sailed the seas, contemplating the openness of the sea was still fascinating. However, what made that experience even better was sharing it with all her friends, even though they had a bit more of experience in sailing. The biggest surprise for the girl was seeing her friend Lillie so relaxed. Apparently, she was used of traveling in yacht to visit her mother at her company in Aether Island, an artificial island somewhere close to the archipelago. Akala Island was next to Melemele, so it barely took them a couple of hours, reason why they decided to travel on Friday afternoon.