Pokémon Sun and Moon: Champion of the Stars- Volume 2 -ULTRA BEAST MISSIONS-

32. Trial Among Friends

At least an hour prior

Narrator POV

Strolling on the ruinous stone bridge leading to the temple of the monochrome stone temple that is the Lake of the Sunne, Luma walked to the interior of the temple. The temple was dark with an abundance of rubble scattered about the slated tiled floor. With each echoed step down the one-toned hallway, she seemed to be growing more unsure of her reasons for bringing Gladion here. Yet as the light from the end of the tunnel grew with the diminution of the distance closing with each faint step closing the distance. When she finally reached the other side of the tunnel, the sun had set with the familiar colors of the sky blending into an inky shade of blue with the stars lightly sprinkling the sky as they materialized in a slow fashion. If anything had caught Luma's eyes, it was Alola's calming night sky. Somehow, it had only made her feel at peace with her thoughts as the fog enveloped the top of the lake as she waited patiently for her friend sitting on the top of the next flight of steps just ahead of the last flight filling the air around her with silent sighs and stuffing her head with a variety of thoughts swimming in and out of her head.

After a while, she started to lay on her back and watch the stars dance and sparkle above Alola with her eyelids hanging heavy with each passing second flying from the future, onto the present, and into the past. It was slow yet comforting, even with the heavy feeling weighing on her chest.

"Maybe... Should I contact him? See if he's going to show up at all... At least the sky is clear."

A pair of footsteps could be heard echoing from afar, at first she didn't react too rash, only opening her eyes and crooking her neck up toward her chest, her eyes plastered in front of her. As the footsteps slowly come to a crescendo to the girl's ears, she jolted up to a seated position on the first set of stairs and again on her feet, nearly losing her balance as the source of the footsteps had gotten closer and closer, finally revealing themselves to be not the teen who accompanied her earlier today, but her best friend and her companion throughout her island challenges who accompanied her and Lillie for some time of their trials together. It looked as though Hau seemed to be on a mission of his own accord. As she made eye contact with Hau, there was something that clicked from the last time; the promise the two made to one another before Elio took the ferry back to Kanto, looking to her hand with her brain registering the handshake from back then and reading the air around the two of them with a smirk on her face.

"Hey, Luma. So what brings you here?"

"Just stargazing. So, how did the battle with Hala go?" it was already obvious from the look on his face that he was able to beat his grandfather in a battle with his sudden presence toward Luma, but allowed him to answer with his own words regardless.

"He went all out on me and we had a serious battle. It was tough but my team and I pulled through. He says that I just might have a chance at being the next Kahuna. But I don't want to get too cocky and go straight to the Ruins of Conflict. After all, I promised you that after I defeated Gramps that I would battle you."

Pokeball in her hand, Luma had smiled at Hau and kept her distance in order to initiate the up and coming battle between her and Hau, with him pulling a Pokeball from the bright orange backpack and preparing himself for the battle ahead of them. They wished each other luck and initiated the battle with Hau bringing out his starter Pokemon; the Heel Pokemon, Incineroar. Meanwhile, Luma had decided to bring out her starter, Primarina, who attacked the Incineroar with Moonblast but missed his target with Hau's shout as he switched from Incinceroar to his next Pokemon, his Alolan Raichu who spontaneously advanced toward Prim with Quick Attack and charged with Thunderbolt after, doing sufficient damage against Prim, who was sent flying toward the water, surprising Luma who didn't seem upset, but more proud of Hau for picking Incineroar first as a decoy and instantly switched to what would weaken Raichu. It was nearly a knockout toward Prim, but he still rose up and albeit he the receive a substantial amount of damage, he still stood ready to fight.