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The conveyor belt whirred, taking the unchosen pokéballs into the dark abyss that was the Battle Factory’s storage system, all while the arena mirrored on its shiny exterior reminded Emerald that he had a battle to get back to. Well, it was more like a skirmish. Emerald trounced Noland in five minutes, beating his previous record of six and a half minutes. By the seventh minute, he was outside the building, yawning and stretching his limbs. He recoiled them when he heard a certain jester trying to sneak up on him to which said jester tucked away its ring.
“Not today, Hoopa.” He gently pushed the disappointed Pokémon away, who looked at him quizzically.
Emerald found a nice patch of grass to lay on while Hoopa continued floating circles around him, trying to goad him into a game of ‘guess the item I’m about to throw in your face.’ He wasn’t swayed in the slightest. Eventually tired of being ignored, the mischief Pokémon poked him on the shoulder and expanded a ring in front of his face. Emerald braced himself for whatever “toy” would come out of the ring.
Nothing came out. Instead, Emerald was greeted to Ruby and Sapphire waving at him across the portal. They were holding hands. Sound couldn’t pass through the barrier, but Emerald understood what they were saying. He waved back before the portal closed. He should see them sometime, but he felt a sinking feeling at the thought.
“I’m happy for them. I really am...”
He was struck by a sudden exhaustion and faded into sleep. If he had stayed awake for just a second longer, he would see Hoopa opening another ring...
“Alola!”
Emerald scrunched his eyes, still groggy from his nap. As he slowly regained function of his limbs, his ears registered the noise. He opened his eyes and blinked. There was a man in swim shorts standing over him looking very curious.
“Wah!” He jolted from his spot on the grass- no, sand!
“Hoopa!” Emerald grit his teeth and dusted off as much sand as he could, which only made him more aware of the sand in his clothes and hair.
“Is that how you greet people where you’re from?”
Emerald spun around. He shook his head, giving up on getting rid of the sand, and scanned the area. He was at a beach, that much was certain. There were umbrellas and people dressed like the swimmer all around, and Hoopa was nowhere in sight.
He finally addressed the man. “Er, where am I?”
“Hano Beach! You’re not a tourist?” He looked Emerald up and down as though to confirm that Emerald was not native to the region.
“No, I’m Emerald. I’m a... dexholder.”
“Nice to meet you, Emerald! I’m Logan.” He smiled. “So why are you here if you’re not a tourist?”
“Well, there’s this Pokémon...” Emerald did another run-through of the beach, not finding the mischief maker. “Let’s just say it likes to surprise me.”
“I see...” The swimmer’s face scrunched in an impression of understanding, but he was likely far from it. Emerald still didn’t understand Hoopa after weeks of being around it. Figuring he was stuck here, Emerald settled back onto the sand and decided to wait until the Pokémon got bored and came back to him as usual. Which took approximately two and a half seconds.
“Hoopa!” Emerald glared at the Pokémon who responded by pulling a keychain of some Pokémon from a ring. Noticing the swimmer, Hoopa pulled another souvenir for the man.
“Whoa, that’s one awesome Pokémon! You don’t see stuff like that everyday!” Logan took the keychain without hesitation, not considering that it could be a trap. Or maybe that was just Emerald’s experience with Hoopa talking.
Emerald prodded Hoopa’s forehead. “Take me back, now!”
The Pokémon staunchly refused, floating up higher out of Emerald’s reach. It opened a new ring, letting two more keychains fall on Emerald’s head. That was enough for the Calmer to lose his composure. He picked out Sceptile’s ball and aimed it when-
“Why don’t you stay here for a bit?” Logan asked, unaware of the destruction Emerald was planning. He was holding all the keychains, each of a Pokémon Emerald didn’t recognize. “The beach can broaden your mind if you let it!” Hoopa was now behind him, nodding its head as though it knew whatever secrets the beach could impart.
Grumbling, Emerald returned the ball to his sash and plopped back onto the sand. He wasn’t winning this battle.
“These are the Tapus!” Logan showed Emerald the keychains.
“The Tapus?” He could only see them from the corner of his eye, because to turn his head would be to show interest. Emerald thought they were pretty funky-looking from what he could see.
The swimmer picked the pink one up. “This is Tapu Lele, the guardian deity of Akala Island. Er, I can’t remember the other three, but they’re definitely Tapus.”
“Guardian...? Aka-what?” He held up a hand. “You know what? I don’t want to know.”
“That’s a shame, it never hurts to learn something new!” Logan placed the pink Tapu onto Emerald’s head. “Take it, your Pokémon wanted you to have it.”
Deciding it was a waste of energy to protest to the brick wall of a man, Emerald strapped the keychain onto his sash. He called out to Hoopa. “Are you done playing?! We have to get back!”
“Why’s that?”
The innocent question only caused Emerald to glare at the swimmer. “Because- because I have to, okay?!” The swimmer’s nonchalant curiosity along with Hoopa’s unusually high stubbornness were getting on his nerves.
“You know, you’re a little high-strung for a child.”
“I’m NOT a child!”
“How old are you?”
“...14.” He glared when Logan snickered. “You know what?! Fine! Age-wise I’m a child. But I’ve been through more than you will ever go through. Who are you to tell me how high-strung I should be?!”
Logan’s jaw dropped at Emerald’s outburst, and Emerald’s would have too if not for his simultaneous embarrassment. So he did the only reasonable thing and ran away. Or he would have if he hadn’t stepped on something slimy and immediately slipped back onto the sand. And was subsequently punched in the face.
“Ow! What the hell was that for?!” He punched back into the air, thinking it had been Logan, but there was nothing there.
“Emerald! You okay? That’s one feisty Pyukumuku!” Logan picked up Emerald from under the arms, his bewilderment forgotten.
“Pyu-what?” Everything hurt, his back especially. For all its softness, sand was a terrible fallbreaker.
“Pyukumuku. They’re all over this beach, and they get angry when you step on them. This one looks like it’s half-buried.” Logan started digging up the sand around the Pyukumuku.
“So it’s a ground-type?” Emerald questioned, still rubbing his back. Or maybe a fighting-type with that powerful swing.
“Look at this guy’s color!” Logan held the guilty critter, which didn’t appear powerful at all. It was as small as a pokéball and was a familiar green with yellow dull spikes. Its face was indifferent, and most importantly, it didn’t have any limbs.
“That can’t be it! What I stepped on punched me!” As if to prove him wrong, a white hand shot out of its mouth and took another swing at Emerald, but he dodged this one. However, his back didn’t like the quick movement and sent a sharp pain down his side. By the time he recovered, the hand had disappeared back into the pokémon and it had a blank expression again.
“Hahaha, almost got you again! Hmm, but this guy’s all off-color, he must be severely dehydrated!” With a hefty throw, the Pyukumuku was flung into the sky. Logan looked mighty satisfied with himself.
Emerald watched the Pokémon turn into a green dot plopping into the water. “What’d you do that for?”
“Pyukumuku are common Pokémon here and they never move, so we have to chuck them back into the water to make sure they don’t dry up.”
Emerald blinked. “You’re telling me these Pokémon will die if you don’t chuck them into the ocean?!”
“Strange Pokémon, heh?” Emerald looked at him in further disbelief. “ There’s always people on the beach to save them, so don’t worry about them dying.”
At the boy’s silence, Logan added, “And if you want to make some side cash, you can spend an hour looking for Pyukumuku to throw back!”
“This place is weird,” is all Emerald had to say to that.
Emerald said his goodbye, leaving the swimmer with three well-crafted keychains. He was careful to not step on anymore of those small creatures, but he didn’t see any on the way to the Hotel, that according to Logan, owned the beach.
Hoopa followed him into the building, but still refused to send him back to the Battle Frontier. So he called Anabel from the hotel phone while Hoopa went to play games with the guests. In other words, scare the living daylight out of them.
“Emerald, where are you? We’ve been searching for you all day!”
“Sorry, Hoopa did another dimensional jump-thingy so I’m stuck here until it decides to let me go back.”
“Oh... where are you?”
“Hano Beach? It’s not Hoenn, that’s for sure.”
He heard her mutter some indiscernible words away from the phone. “...You know, I think you should stay there.”
“Excuse me?!”
“A while ago, you said Hoopa takes people to places when it can sense their inner thoughts. You must be there for a reason, and Hoopa won’t take you back until you figure out what that is.”
“I guess that makes sense...” He should have called Tucker...
“Lighten up, it could be fun! We’ll be waiting for you back here, but take your time, all right?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Emerald hung up. Slumping onto the adjacent armchair, his mind raced with potential reasons why he would be at a random beach in the middle of nowhere. He’d traveled the world as a younger boy, but nothing about beaches or islands stood out in his memory. But thinking back on the day, there was something still bugging him...
He returned to the shore, where only a few people remained. He ran to the edge of the water and sent out Mantine, pointing it towards the exact spot the Pyukumuku had landed. Emerald trekked several inches deep into the still water, not caring about his soaking pants. He moved back a few minutes later when Mantine returned with the green Pokémon on its head and slid it onto the wet sand.
Emerald moved the Pyukumuku right behind the water line on the dry side. It hadn’t reacted in the slightest, carrying its blank expression the whole time.
So Emerald waited. And waited. And waited. And watched the Pokémon’s outer skin dry up. Eventually, the beach was empty and only the moon offered any light. Hoopa floated back to him, bored of the lack of people to spook.
Emerald gave up. “Why aren’t you moving?! You’re one bounce from reaching the water!”
No reaction.
He paced around the small Pokémon. “I don’t get it! You’re going to die if you doesn’t move. I’ve heard of lazy pokémon, but this...” he gestured to the Pyukumuku, ”...thing has no sense of self-preservation!”
Emerald sat down in defeat beside the Pokémon. Its eyes tilted towards him. The only movement it makes all night and it’s to judge him. How ironic.
He sighed and waited some more, partially out of defeat and partially out of desperation. Hoopa floated a few circles around Emerald before reaching into a ring. It was rummaging for something, and eventually pulled out-
“A Memory Lighter?!” He plucked the lighter out of the air when Hoopa tossed it. “Have you been recording my day?” Hoopa moved the ring behind it in feigned innocence.
He figured it couldn’t hurt to watch for a minute, especially since neither he nor his companions were going anywhere. Turning on the lighter, the images began flashing, picking out pieces from his day.
The Battle Factory... Hoopa trying to get him to play on the grass... Ruby and Sapphire... the keychains... Anabel’s words... and finally, his rant to the Pyukumuku. It was all him, which of course it was, but it also wasn’t him. He looked bothered by some invisible force all day, none of his usual spunk or rambunctiousness.
“W-what? These are all...” He eyed the oddly colored Pokémon, which had uncharacteristically wriggled its body to face Emerald. His face softened.
“Say, do you want to come with me?”
“Puke...muke!” It wriggled its body closer.
“All right, but if you want to be my friend, you’ve got to jump one foot into the ball!” Emerald stepped back and held out an open poké ball. Pyukumuku seemed to understand him, because it did just that. Hoopa flew circles around them, throwing rings around but taking an uncommon amount of care not to summon anything.
Back at the hotel, Emerald left a voicemail for Anabel.
Emerald here, letting you know I’ll be staying here for a little longer. I... found the reason... and I think I want to try something different... See ya later.
That night, he could have sworn he saw Tapu Lele travel high over the island. Whether or not that was true, he felt that he was traveling with them.