Chapter Text
The one thing that no one ever tells you about becoming the champion of anything is that people are constantly trying to take your title. And if it applied to whoever could eat the most malasada in one sitting, it sure applied to whoever was the Champion of the Pokémon League.
Fortunately(or unfortunately), the person who was the Champion of the Alolan Pokémon League was you. After being forced to endure eight (?!) consecutive battles in a row with people who wanted to also to be the Champion, you begin to wish for the days where you were simply a Pokémon trainer.
They, at least, could just complete their Pokédex and hang out with their friends whenever they wanted.
During one of the (rare) days where no one comes to challenge the Pokémon League, you offer to help Professor Kukui with his field research, and luckily enough, he agrees. You don't often get to see him, so you jump at the chance of meeting up, even if the time spent with him was short.
While studying the very interesting (read: not very interesting at all) phenomenon of why certain patches of grass rustle and what Pokémon were know to cause it, your conversation drifts off to different topics.
"It's a shame," Kukui sighs. "Po Town used to be one of those hidden getaways that the locals loved to visit."
You have trouble picturing Po Town as anything but the hot mess that it was currently, but you ask him, "Really?"
"Yeah! Well, it was a long time ago," Kukui muses, and rubs his chin thoughtfully. "Probably maybe about half a decade ago or more. I remember that I used to play hooky from work so that I could go and visit, ha-ha! They used to serve the best loco moco at one of the Pokémon Centers there."
"I could do it," you say immediately, and Kukui is taken aback. "Fix up Po Town, I mean."
"You think so, cousin?" He cups his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm. The Champion doesn't usually just Pokémon battle- they're responsible for the welfare of the region, as well. You could take it on as one of your responsibilities."
"It shouldn't be too hard," you say. "The town wasn't in terrible shape when I was last there- there's only some graffiti and overgrown bushes. I bet I could get it done in a week."
"Woo! That's some wager you've placed there, cousin!" He grins. "Hey, why can't you get it done in a week? You're the Champ, after all! Say, if you get that place cleaned up, I'll free up my schedule for once and we'll have a big celebration! Lillie's supposed to be visiting from Kanto soon, anyway. We'll get all of the old gang back!"
"It'll be like old times," you say.
"Exactly," he nods. Kukui then adds, "Make sure you get permission from the Kahuna before you do it, though."
You assure him you will, and point to a spot in the grass. "Hey, that's rustling!"
When you finish conducting the research experiment with him, you go your separate ways. On the way back to your house, you think on the conversations you've had today- but more importantly, the bet that you've made.
It really didn't seem like that much work, to be honest. You defeated the leader of a gang and saved the Alola region from city-terrorizing monsters! In comparison to those feats, cleaning up a small town should be a cake walk.
And who knows? It could be a welcome break from the Pokémon battles you were constantly being challenged to as Champion, and people say that painting, gardening and home repair are pretty therapeutic, anyway.
A small voice hisses inside you, that's not exactly the truth, is it?
I'll free up my schedule...
It'll be like old times.
You wave away those unhappy, ingenuous thoughts, and try to focus only on the task you've set for yourself ahead.
But you secretly hope you aren't in over your head.
Even though you don't exactly have high hopes that the Kahuna of Ula'ula Island would help you in your reconstruction efforts, you figure there's no harm in asking him. After all, Nanu had chased that Ultra Beast, Guzzlord, into Resolution Cave- he couldn't be THAT bad.
....although you still weren't sure if he remembered your name, due to his calling you either 'girl' or 'kid' whenever he saw you.
A couple of days after your conversation with Professor Kukui, you fly to Po Town's police station and knock on the door. "Hello?"
There's no answer: but you're not one to be deterred so easily, so you say again, "Hello? Is anyone there?" You can see a sliver of light from inside the building, and notice that the door is slightly ajar.
You push open the door. It creaks open, and you tiptoe in. You call out, "Kahuna Nanu? It's me," you say your name.
You nearly trip over a sleeping Meowth, and realize that there must be at least five of them in the police station. After lifting the small Pokémon off its resting place at the front door onto a nearby carpet, you peer around the room. There's Meowth hair everywhere, and you pick some of it off your clothing. You say softly into the dimly-lit room, "Officer Nanu?"
A hoarse voice says from behind you, "That's my name: don't wear it out, kid."
You yelp in surprise, and jump at least a foot in the air. You turn around to see Nanu, standing next to a microwave in an area of the police station that you had never seen before.
"Sorry for intruding, Officer. My name is-"
"Hmph... I know who you are," he says, and takes the dinner out of the microwave. He then takes a seat on the couch and turns on the TV.
"So," Nanu props up his sandal-clad feet on the couch and peels off the plastic wrapper to his readymade meal. "Why are you here, girl?"
"Well, I figured I should start fulfilling some of my duties to Alola, considering I was just made Champion a couple of months ago," you say, and curse yourself for the hesitation present in your voice. "Po Town's still a mess, even though it's no longer really controlled by Team Skull. I'm sure plenty of people'd appreciate it if the place was cleaned up."
Nanu flicks through the channels on the TV, and spoons some of his food into a curled-up Meowth's mouth. It purrs in appreciation, and he pets it on the head.
After a annoyingly long wait of watching him lazily flip through channel after channel after channel, Nanu opens his mouth to speak. "Why bother?" he asks, finally.
You narrow your eyes slightly and raise an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"Some things aren't worth the time or effort to be worth bothering with," Nanu continues. "That town is one of them."
What? How could he give up without even trying...?
"I heard that Po Town used to be really nice," you say. "That people used to come there to vacation or to take a break from the city. But right now, it doesn't even have a functioning Pokémon Center."
Nanu shrugs. "Fix the Pokémon Center, then."
Your lips tighten into a thin line. "I don't think many nurses would work at a Pokémon Center in a town where there's graffiti on the streets or broken windows in the houses, ha-ha." you say, laughing to disguise the exasperation in your voice.
"You asking me to help you out with Po Town? Not worth it," he says, and continues to flick through the channels on the TV. "It's a lot of hassle for not a lot of thanks."
Trying to not get irritated, you insist, "It would be great for the locals, and for the people of Ula'ula Island. But-" you cut him off as Nanu opens his mouth to protest, "You don't have to help out if you don't want to. And if it's a lot of hassle- well, that's my decision to make, isn't it?"
Nanu sighs. "I guess everyone has their own reasons for doing what they do. Do what you want."
He then turns to you and scoffs. "Don't clean the town up too well, girl. No one's asking you to- you'll drive up the cost of rent."
"Okay," you say, and figure that's as much of a blessing Nanu's capable (or willing) of giving to you, so you roll up your sleeves and get to work.
Unfortunately for you, it had been a while since your last visit to Po Town, and the condition of the small dwelling was either even WORSE than you had remembered, or had deteriorated further since then.
Neither possibility sounded particularly appealing.
You grit your teeth and assess the damage. Upon entering, you can see that much of the sidewalk and streets have been tagged with graffiti, as well as the sides of some of the houses. Many of the houses had broken windows, and the boards that make up their walls broken, missing or both.
After traversing the town, you decide that a trip to some kind of store would probably be in order, and fly to the Thrifty Megamart on Royal Avenue.
You think back on the condition of the town, and decide that the graffiti was, by far, the damage that stood out the most. (It was also coincidentally probably the easiest thing to fix in the town as well.)
You pile as many canisters of paint(labeled water-resistant) in every muted shade of red, grey, beige, and white as can possibly fit in your cart, as well as several different types of paintbrushes.
"Wow, that's a lot of paint!" the cashier remarks, while ringing up your items. "Redecorating your house?"
Yeah, sure, if I lived in a cemetery or hospital, maybe.
"Something like that," you laugh, and pay for your purchase.
Upon your return to the police station, you drop your purchases inside the room with a thud.
Nonplussed, Nanu looks up from his oatmeal and says, "How'd it go? You start fixing up the place yet?"
"Just fine," you say, a little irritated that he saw you with this heavy paint and wasn't even going to attempt to lift a finger to help. "I'm going to start with painting over the graffiti."
"Okay, whatever you say." Nanu shrugs nonchalantly. "Nobody'll blame you if you give up and run on home, kid."
"I won't give up," you stubbornly say, and lug the bag of paint canisters and brushes over your back. "Po Town's going to be great."
With the assistance from your Pokémon, you lug several canisters of differently colored paint and paintbrushes into the town. You pant, and put your hands on your thighs after dropping them by the side of the curb. It's a good omen- it isn't raining for once, so you decide to start painting immediately.
You push your hair back and breathe, "Okay, time to get to work."
You slap paint on the poorly spray-painted skull, and spread it around with a large paintbrush. It's a lot of hard work, and you make a mental note to employ the help of Smeargles in the future.
After you cover up the skull with matching paint, you put your hands on your hips and grin.
"Oh, you should just run on home, kid," you sarcastically mutter to yourself, in a poor imitation of Nanu's voice. "Pfft. See? It wasn't that hard...."
And then you see a drop of rain fall on your freshly painted sidewalk.
Whatever. You bought water-resistant paint, you aren't dumb. No big deal.
You hear a rumble of thunder in the distance, and that 'drop of rain' turns into a drizzle. You try not to worry, but you notice that that previous drop of water had worn away some of the paint where it had landed.
You can just paint over it, it's not a big deal.
But then you hear a loud CRACK! of thunder, and see lightning split across the sky.
Oh, no.
And the innocent drizzle of rain turns into a full-fledged downpour.
No-no-no!
"Seriously!? This paint is supposed to be water resistant!" you cry, as your hard work is washed away.
After attempting to furiously paint over most of the graffiti covered sidewalk over and over and over again, only to have it washed away, you sigh and close your eyes in frustration. The only accomplishment you had made was getting paint all over your hands and clothes and face.
Okay, so painting over the graffiti isn't going to work....
You blow up a tuft of hair, gather up your 'construction' materials, and call your Pokémon back into their pokéballs.
"I'll be back tomorrow," you say to the now depressingly gray buildings of Po Town, and close the gate.
That night, after you arrive back home, you think, and think, but you can't find a solution to the graffiti in Po Town without running into snags with the ridiculous ever-present rainstorms in the area.
After calling all of your friends, and coming up with little helpful advice, you decide to call Professor Kukui.
"Hey, cousin!" He waves at the PokeFinder. You are surprised to see the blueness of bags underneath his normally-energetic eyes.
You say, concerned, "Sorry for calling so late...you're still at work?"
He removes his glasses and rubs his eyes. "You know me, I'm always working, ha-ha. Do I look that tired? What's up?"
"Do you know of any ways to remove graffiti?"
He smiles widely. "Started cleaning up Po Town already, huh? Woo, you work fast! Did ya try painting over it?"
You sigh. "Yeah, but the rain just washed it away...."
Kukui laughs, but when he takes a look at your unhappy face, he apologizes. He then looks up, lost in thought. "Hmm...then you'd think the rain would've worn away the spray paint by now. What kinda surface is the paint on?"
"A better question is what it ISN'T on!" you nearly shout, but then you remember your mother sleeping in the room beside yours. you say softer, "It's on bricks, wood, steel- everything."
Kukui offers, "Well, you could try blasting it with water."
Confused, you cock your head to one side. "Huh? I just pointed out that the rain didn't wear away the graffiti."
"Yeah, but it's how powerful the pressure of the water is that matters. You've heard of pressure washers, right?" he asks, but you had to admit that you weren't familiar with the concept. "Anything above 3000 psi is typically powerful enough to clear away most types of residue on a lot of surfaces. If you have any strong Water-type Pokémon, I'm sure a Hydro Pump from 'em would clear away that graffiti in no time flat."
"I would've never thought of that!" you smile gratefully, and thank him.
He says, "Don't sweat it, cousin, it's what I'm here for! They didn't make me the Pokémon Professor here for nothing, yeah?"
"Wait," you say, and raise an eyebrow. "You know that because you looked it up in a textbook, or the Pokédex, right?"
" 'course," Kukui says, and clears his throat nervously. "But I may have had some personal experience with it-"
You mutter, "You tested that move out on yourself, didn't you."
"Hey, experience is the best way to learn," he points out. "And if it just so happens that experience comes in the form of a Primarina's Hydro Pump-"
"So you spray yourself with water-resistant paint and blast yourself with a super-powerful Pokémon move to remove it often?"
He laughs, and shakes his head. "Nah, nah. Man, what're you doing, busting my chops like this? I thought I'd be free after Lillie left!"
You put your hands on your hips, and point out, "Now that Lillie's not around, you need to have SOMEONE making sure you're not going to kill yourself!"
"Hey, I've survived this long!" He folds his arms across his chest. "You think I'd leave my wife and all you guys behind without at least warning you? You know I'd never do that to ya!"
Right, you'd never worry Burnet like that.
...because you love her.
Doing your best to shake off those inconvenient thoughts, you laugh, "Okay, I'll give you a break! Don't work too hard," you add.
"Likewise, champ," he says. "Get a good night's sleep. Hey, you know that adult humans need 6-8 hours of sleep a night to function properly, yeah?"
"You should take your own advice, Professor! Good night," you say, and turn off the Pokéfinder.
As you sit there lying in your bed with a renewed sense of hope, you resolve to work even harder tomorrow in your efforts to clean up Po Town, and fall asleep.