(A/N: Hello, all! So, right off the bat, I have to clear up the "shipping situation" of this fic. The ships of Maya/Phoenix and Pearl/Apollo are both referenced at least one time by another character as romantic, HOWEVER, whether or not that's actually true is up to the reader. In other words, everything I've written CAN be taken platonically if you so choose. Any ships besides the ones I just mentioned MUST be taken platonically, no exceptions. Thank you for respecting my wishes :3 The only other things I gotta clear up are that this fic takes place months after Home(sick) For the Holidays, although you don't need to read that one to understand this one, and that I DID already finish writing this so don't worry about me dropping off midway. I'm just spacing out posting the chapters. For anyone interested, there will be 8 chapters plus a bonus chapter at the end. :D) (OH one more important thing. I... actually haven't played through every Apollo Justice game; I'm halfway through the first one and I've played all of Spirit of Justice, but nothing from Dual Destinies yet. It's implied in Spirit of Justice that Apollo and Pearl have met before but aren't super close or anything, and that's about all the information I have on them. So if anything here is uncanon, I apologize in advance.)

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A word to the wise: housing in Kurain Village is much more affordable than in Khura'in. Homesickness is also extremely mild by comparison, at least if you live elsewhere in the United States. And studying spirit channeling practices is far less depressing than solving stacks of murder cases for weeks at a time. Therefore, Kurain Village should be considered a mild and peaceful place to live.

The only problem is, "mild and peaceful" quickly turns into "boring and dull" when you've been living in the same small house studying the same two books for over a month.

"Training for the practice of channeling involves many aspects similar to those of a formal or especially important Channeling Rite. Common shared practices include the burning of incense as an offering to the spirit being channeled, candles being lit to show honor and respect to the deceased, and special clothing to increase the focus of the channeler. Due to these commonalities, the aspect of training is often misunderstood to be a more important or more difficult practice than casual channeling; when in reality, channeling is, of course, a much more difficult feat, and does not include most ceremonial traditions solely because they are not needed to…"

Suddenly, my reading was interrupted by the loud ringing of my cellphone. I silently fist-pumped, thankful for the distraction (no matter how temporary it might be), and checked the number— it wasn't one I recognized, but a call from a telemarketer was as much of a distraction as a call from Athena or Mr. Wright. (Talking to Trucy was like talking to a telemarketer anyway, so there was no real comparison to make.)

"Hello, Justice Law Offices," I said into the transmitter.

"Hey, Apollo!" an overly cheerful female voice said from the other end.

I blinked in confusion. "Um… Ms. Fey, is that you?"

"Yup!" I heard the familiar voice reply. "Nick gave me your number in case of an emergency."

"Umm… okay…" I started awkwardly. "But why didn't you just come over? I live literally a two minute walk away from you." I resisted adding a comment about laziness, since it really wasn't my place to criticize my superiors. Especially superiors who happened to work with my boss.

"Yea, see, I'm not exactly home right now," came the casual reply. "I'm actually on a train to Texas. Or, at least, I will be in less than five minutes."

"I— what?" I asked, even more lost than I was before.

"Something came up," Ms. Fey explained, "You know, mysterious murder in some gold mine… anyway, Nick asked me to come along to help take care of it. He wanted me to let you know he was gonna be out of town, since he forgot his cell phone, because of course he did." Her voice was slightly pouty, like a little kid who'd been told to do the dishes.

"O-oh," was all I could say back. I was disappointed that Mr. Wright was going to be gone for a while, but at least he'd made sure I knew he'd be gone. There wasn't a big chance I would've gotten an excuse to visit him, anyway. "Thanks for telling me. Is that all?"

"Of course not," Ms. Fey giggled. "Since I'm gone, I need a favor from you, if you're not too busy. And I know you're not 'cuz you're always talking about how bored you get studying those books."

"Heh… yea, you got me there," I laughed nervously. Partially due to homesickness and partially because it felt rude not to, I'd gone out to lunch with Ms. Fey and Pearl a couple times since moving to Kurain Village, and I'd talked plenty of times about how overly peaceful my work had become.

"Good! So, anyway, Pearly is going to need someone to watch over her while she trains, and since I'm gone, you'll have to do. You know enough about spirit channeling that I'm sure you won't screw up, but all you really have to do is be there in case something goes wrong," she said casually.

"W-wait," I stammered, "I don't mind watching over Pearl, but what am I supposed to do if something does go wrong? I've only read about spirit channeling, and watched you do it once in Khura'in months ago. I have no idea what to do if a spirit goes rogue or something!"

"Pearls will tell you everything you need to know, but if worst comes to worst, you can always just run back to the village and get help," Ms. Fey assured me in a not-very-assuring voice. "The waterfall where she trains is right outside the village. I'm sure even you can run that short distance if you need to," she teased.

"O-okay, well, if there's nobody else available," I sighed. "I just don't want to cause any trouble because I'm inexperienced."

"You won't! If you do, I'll deform you for life. So you won't," came the cheerful reply. A train whistle went off faintly in the background. "Oops, that's the train I'm supposed to meet Nick on. Tell Pearls I said hi!" Then, I heard a happy-sounding click and the conversation was over. I sighed and slumped against the wall. What had I gotten myself into this time? Scratch that, this time it wasn't even my fault. Trouble really did have a way of finding me.

I glanced up at the digital clock on my desk. It was almost twelve. What time had Pearl mentioned she trained, again? I racked my brain for answers, then looked down at the thick, open book in front of me. My eyes fell on the middle of the page, where black font on faded paper and several old-looking diagrams stared back at me.

"…furthermore, the differences between formal Channeling Rites and beginner-to-amateur level training sessions cannot be overlooked. For instance, Channeling Rites, although there are exceptions, are often held during the evening so that the light of the candles may illuminate the area in an aesthetically pleasing glow. Training sessions are, in contrast, usually started at high noon for multiple reasons, including but not limited to: safety in numbers, warmer temperatures to make focus easier for the spirit medium, physical strength of the possessed body…"

Noon? I glanced at the clock again. As if I had cued it, it suddenly changed from 11:58 to 11:59. Oh, brother, I thought as I rushed out the door. Why do these things always happen to me?