Z-ringShipping

Z-ringShipping is the slash ship between Ash and Kiawe from the Pokémon fandom.

Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon
Ash and Kiawe meet for the first time in the episode "Alola to New Adventure!", when Ash was visiting Alola region for the first time. At that time Ash notice that Kiawe was having an argument with some gang members, who wanted to steal his Charizard. The argument turns into a Pokémon battle between the three recruits against Kiawe. Ash intervenes as he doesn't think the fight is fair, but Kiawe tells him that he doesn't need help. Ash sends Pikachu and Kiawe chooses his Turtonator. Kiawe is surprised by Pikachu's attack speed while Ash is fascinated by Turtonator. Among the trees, the mysterious Pokémon continues to watch Ash during the battle. Kiawe ends the battle by using the fire-type Z-move Inferno Overdrive.

In the next episode "The Guardian's Challenge!", before the class began, Kiawe arrived with a delivery from Ula-Ula. He knew it was quite far away, but he was confident that his Charizard would endure that journey. Once Ash arrived, Kiawe and the others listened to his story of how Tapu Koko visited him and gave him the Z-ring. Sophocles recalled that Kiawe got his after completing the challenge in Akala. Kiawe pointed out that Ash could not simply use a Z-move, as he first had to synchronize his feelings with his Pokémon, and he should have a consideration of the world. Ash didn't fully understand her words, but decided to treasure the Z-ring as much as he had. When classes were over, Kiawe was with her friends as they prepared a surprise party for Ash. The next day, the group welcomed Ash for his surprise party. Once Ash went through some tests, he and Kiawe had a race on Tauros. Kiawe won, though he praised Ash for his effort. After a series of challenges, just as Professor Kukui was challenging Ash, Tapu Koko arrived and snatched Ash's hat. The group went after Ash and watched as he fought Tapu Koko and performed the Z-move Gigavolt Havoc. After the battle, Ash decided to confront the island's Kahuna. Kiawe had some misgivings about it, but was forced to pledge his support to Ash.

In the episode "Young Kiawe Had a Farm!", Kiawe heads to his farm in Akala, along with Ash, on his Charizard Poké Ride. When they arrive at Kiawe's home, a farm with green esplanades filled with herds of Miltank, Tauros and Mudbray. Ash meets Kiawe's family, his father Rango, his mother Sima and his younger sister Mimo, who was complaining about her brother being overprotective of her. Ash decides to stay there at dawn. At night, Ash notices Kiawe training with his Turtonator and leaves where he is sleeping, but Kiawe reacts apologetically and explains to him that this is his routine, working on the farm all day and at night training with his Pokémon. Kiawe tells Ash how he got his Z-ring, as it originally belonged to his grandfather, the former kahuna of Akala and that in fact the Charizard Poké Ride also belonged to his grandfather. In order to claim the ring, he first had to pass the test of the current Kahuna, Olivia.

At dawn, Kiawe and Ash set off in their Poké Rides for Harry's house, but during the flight Ash's Pelipper is attacked and they have to make an emergency landing, only to discover that they were attacked by Tupp, Rapp and Zipp, the recruits of Team Skull. They attack simultaneously and break Charizard's leash with one of the milk containers. Kiawe manages to rescue the milk and Ash defeats the recruits with Pikachu's Z technique Gigavolt Havoc, defeating them with ease, forcing them to retreat.

In "Alola, Kanto!", Kiawe went to Kanto with Ash and the rest of his class for an extracurricular activity- During the flight, he was appalled at how high they were, and introduced himself to Brock and Misty. When the group compared the regional differences of the Kanto Pokémon to the Alola Pokémon, Kiawe were horrified to see that the Kantonian Dugtrio lacked the sacred "hair" that the Alolan Dugtrio had, placing a wig on top of one of the Kantonian Dugtrio's heads, but Ash calms him. When Brock sent his Kantonian Marowak, Kiawe introduced Brock to the Alolan Marowak, which began fighting the Kantonian Marowak. He did his best to hold off his Marowak but failed. Later, he went with Sophocles/Chris, Ash and Brock to get his Marowak, which caused damage by angering a wild Onix. He was also relieved that his Alolan Marowak and the rest of his Pokémon were rescued by Ash's Lycanroc, Brock's Crobat and Misty's Staryu from Team Rocket's Meowth robot controlled by Meowth before Bewear catches them in mid-flight.

In the next episode "When Regions Collide!", Ash supports Kiawe in his battle against Brock. Despite this, Kiawe's Turtonator loses because it is not strong enough to defeat Brock's Mega-Steelix.

Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon - Ultra Adventures
In the episode "The Young Flame Strikes Back!", Viren wanted to buy the farm from Kiawe and his family, who refused the offer. Seeing the family's refusal, Viren began to sabotage the activities of Kiawe and the others, which led to Kiawe challenging him to a battle. Ash sees them and wants to join Kiawe, but Rango stops him saying that he should let the three of them handle it and asks him to support them instead. Viren did not accept defeat so he proceeded with his men to raze the farm, however they were stopped by officer Jenny, who arrested him.

Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon - Ultra Legends
In the episode "Run, Heroes, Run!", Kiawe went to an island where Tapu Fini is located and wanted to accelerate his steps before Ash. When they both try to walk quickly, they both bump their cheeks and rub and rub against each other for a few seconds until Kiawe decides that this should be resolved with a race where the winner would face Tapu Fini. However, the race ends in a draw.

At the Transit Ruins, Ash and Kiawe engage in a Pokémon Battle with Torracat and Pikachu vs. Turtonator and Marowak. This causes many explosions in the area, until suddenly a thick fog covers the entire area. Ash and the other Pokémon find themselves trapped inside a dome of energy. At that moment they see Tapu Fini descend from the sky and a mysterious old man appears, reprimanding the two of them for having aroused Tapu Fini's wrath by damaging a sacred area of the island with their battle. The old man tells them that those who desecrate the sacred place must pay the death penalty. Ash and Kiawe try to apologize to Tapu Fini, but he gives Kiawe a water watch and a case, where he has a limited time to go to Akala and bring back some scales from Tapu Lele, otherwise he will never see Ash and the others again. Determined, he takes out his Charizard and flies as fast as he can to Akala. Kiawe arrives in Akala and asks Tapu Lele for some scales. Tapu Lele refuses to give them, so he activates his psychogenesis ability and challenges his Charizard to a battle, but he loses it.

There Ash and the other Pokémon are released from the energy field and the old man tells them they can leave, arguing that Kiawe has abandoned them and will not return. Ash refuses to believe that and decides to stay with the others. Kiawe manages to reach Poni island, but Charizard falls exhausted and he alone rushes off to rescue his friends, proving to have a fiery perseverance with which he arrives in the time limit. Tapu Fini uses Tapu Lele's scales to heal Charizard and gives Kiawe a new Z-crystal with which it can perform a new Z-move.

In the ending episode "Thank You, Alola! The Journey Continues!", Ash informs Kiawe and his friends that he will return to Pallet Town so he must leave the Alola region. Kiawe has only to wish him luck in his next adventures.

Pokémon Journeys
Kiawe returns in the episode "That New Old Gang of Mine!" where with the help of his Pokémon School classmates he plans to throw a party to welcome Ash and his new friend, Goh. Upon meeting Goh, he introduces himself as Ash's biggest rival in Alola and is surprised to learn that Goh doesn't battle his rival very often, despite sticking with him, so he decides to challenge him to a match to find out how worthy he is to be Ash's companion. Kiawe uses his Turtonator to face Goh's Raboot and is impressed to see how good his opponent is at dodging, he decides to call off the fight when he sees Goh's courage, even when he is about to receive a pyric hecatomb before being saved with Marowak (as he had planned). Subsequently, he asks the boy to take good care of his friend, even if he doesn't see him as a rival. Finally, Kiawe and his companions accompany Goh to catch an Alolan Exeggutor before departing with Ash back to Kanto.

Fanon
started to be popular since the beginning of the Sun & Moon series. Even though this series was not the most watched by the fans, this ship was one of the most popular in this series due to the great friendship and rivalry between Ash and Kiawe, even if they had to do it romantically. There were even memes about this ship.

However, with the arrival of the Pokémon Journeys series, this ship started to lose popularity and is overshadowed by the more-popular JourneyShipping (Ash x Goh). Despite this, far from being a rare pairing, it still has a following. However, they are currently paired more as friends than romantically.

This pairing rivals with other Ash's slash ships such as BoulderShipping (Ash x Brock), PalletShipping (Ash x Gary), CafeMochaShipping (Ash x Cilan), DiodeShipping (Ash x Clemont) and JourneyShipping.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Ash/Kiawe on FanFiction.net
 * Ash/Kiawe on FanFiction.net

Trivia

 * The ship name  comes from the fact that both Ash and Kiawe have Z-rings.