I wake up. For once I actually feel awake. I'm not even tired or anything! I feel great! I'm ready to face the day!

"Oh, so you're finally up. You really do like to sleep in, don't you?" Cyria's voice says. I look around, startled, she's to my left. But Avia's nowhere to been seen.

"Where's Avia?"

"She's spending the day with her brother. She told me to tell you when you got up, we didn't want to wake you," Cyria says.

"So what's on our mission agenda for today?" I ask. Cyria gives me an odd look.

"We have the day off. The guild training may be cruel, but Wigglytuff would have to be a monster not to give us the day off today," Cyria says.

"Why, what's so special about today?" I ask.

" You don't know? You're not from around here, are you?" I shake my head. "Well today's the festival of the moon. It's based off some old stories and stuff. But basically, the day is spent with family, and the night is spend with love interests, usually, or friends, if the whole 'love interest' thing doesn't apply. Anyway, Avia said she was going to spend the whole day and night with her brother, I think she said they were going to train."

"So it's just you and me, then?"

"You don't have any relatives in the area?" I'm pretty sure I don't even have relatives in this world.

"No."

"Well, I'm busy today. But I do know someone else who doesn't have any family in the area. I'm sure she wouldn't mind some company. I could introduce you, if you want. It beats being alone all day, right?"

"I suppose so, yeah."

"Perfect. I've got enough time to introduce you two, I suppose. You'll love Verity, she's the best."

Cyria leads me into the residential part of town (which I previously didn't know existed) and to a small building. She knocks on the door in an odd rhythm. It must be a tradition between the two of them.

"Come in, the door's unlocked!" An obviously female voice says from the other side of the door. Cyria opens the door to reveal a small room with one bed to the left, and one to the right. A small female shinx smiles at us.

"Oh, Cyria! What an unexpected surprise," the shinx says hugging Cyria briefly, "Good timing, too, I finished my essay just a little bit ago, and was getting bored. But don't you have family around here?"

"I can't stay for long. I just thought you might be interested in spending the day with my friend here. He doesn't have any family around, and I'll be busy, so I figured you two could spend the day together," Cyria says.

"It's good to meet you. I'm Verity," she says, nodding to me.

"I'm Jiro," I say.

"Well, I'll leave you two be. I'm sorry I couldn't stay for long, Verity, but I'm sure you two will have a great night," Cyria says. With that she leaves the house, closing the door behind her. Well, if Verity and I end up hating one another, I'm screwed. I hope we get along.

"So what do you do?" Verity asks.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"What takes up most of your time? For example, I'm a psychology student at Candor University, a university not too far from here," she says. A psychology student... She must be very smart, then.

"That's pretty cool. I'm an apprentice at the Wigglytuff guild in town," I say.

"Really? That's so cool! Are you on a team with Cyria, then?"

"Yeah, it's us and our friend Avia."

"So you must go on all kinds of adventures, then."

"You could call them that, I suppose." She giggles.

"Well that's awesome. I've always looked up to rescue team members. I could never join a rescue team though though, I can stand fighting with anything more than words."

"But you must be good at fighting with words, given your psychology knowledge."

"I guess I'm okay at it. I'm more of a therapist than anything, though."

"Hey, the world needs therapists. How else are we supposed to keep everyone mentally stable?"

"You've got a point there."

"So I couldn't help but notice that you have a second bed, do you have another student living with you or something?"

"Yeah, that's for my roommate, not that she's ever really here anyway. She's always off somewhere, it can get pretty lonely around here, it's often just me and countless essays to be written."

"What, essays aren't the highlight of your life?" She laughs.

"Yeah, I love them almost as much as I love being beat up by thugs."

"Thugs? Do you need any help? I can-"

"I was just joking, don't worry about me. I may detest fighting, but I can handle myself, if I need to."

"Alright. But if you ever need any help, I'm sure the team would be glad to."

"Thank you, that's very sweet of you... You know, you're not like I thought you'd be."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when you think of a rescue team member, you usually think of a large guy who loves nothing more than a good fight. You have the air of an intellectual more than anything."

"Well, technically I'm part of an exploration team, so I can't speak for rescue teams. But anyway, I'm the team strategist, so it's more important that I be smart than that I be strong."

"A battle strategist. So then you're kinda like me. You have to figure out how the other pokemon thinks, and how to penetrate those weaknesses. Only I'm looking for mental weaknesses so that I may heal them, and you're looking for psychical weaknesses so you can destroy them."

"Well, that's not entirely true. I look for any type of weakness, mental, psychical, heck, it can even be the environment around them. My job is to figure out what to exploit, and how to exploit it."

"So you must know psychology, then."

"I'm not formally educated, so I doubt I know nearly as much as you do, but I do know some things."

"It's cool to know that psychology can be used to harm pokemon as well as help them, it makes me feel like I'm wielding more power." I laugh.

"I'm on the opposite side of the spectrum. It's refreshing to meet someone who uses psychology to help others."

"Well, not yet. I'm still learning. But someday, yes... Hey, since you're on an exploration team and all, would you mind telling me a story? I don't really get out as much as I'd like, it'd be really cool to hear about the outside world. And we've got the time."

"Sure, I don't see why not."