Insightful Practitioner: Having surpassed the Insightful Initiate stage, your enhanced understanding allows you to be more efficient. Grants minor increase in non-health recovery speed, slight increase in SpDef, and minor decrease in point usage. Further increases perception skills and chance of detecting sneak and deceptive attacks.

Special - Inherent: Title is always active and does not occupy a slot.

"I see, so that's why it's like that."

The owner of the grocery store had a large forehead, and a few wrinkles and the angle of his brow made his gaze look even more intense than his sharp eyes already did; he had a narrow face with bags under his eyes, a hooked nose, slightly-pointed chin, and small mouth with a small hint of an overbite - and on top of everything else his neck and shoulders bent slightly forward as if he was leaning in all the time.

In other words, he looked skeevy as all get out; most trainers wouldn't feel much inclined to listen to the request of someone that looked so much like a rat, and with a raspy voice that forced him to speak softly, making him sound dishonest as well... it was sadly understandable; using Observe had felt kind of redundant once she heard him speak.

Which was unfortunate, because he had an amazing aura of fine steak, both tender and fragrant. It actually made it hard to speak to him for an entirely opposite reason.

It may not have been Odor Sleuth, but she was more than good enough with her nose to track down the Rattata that had been taking produce from the man's store.

Rattata could be picky eaters, at least when good food was within reach, and the shopkeeper being from a family of farmers (thus having preferential access to fresh vegetables) made the store a tempting target.

The bonus condition was to manage to get the Pokémon to agree to become the owner's child's Pokémon - honestly, the mouse had almost begged to, since it meant more food.

The Pokémon's aura was more or less a salad. Plain, yet fresh and crisp, but mostly best described as inoffensive in its blandness; Theresa predicted that along the way, the Pokémon would gain dressings and more ingredients during development.

She did ask the Rattata about the shampoo scent that had directed the Riolu like a trail of neon signs, which was apparently because of the Abra from the spa, whom some of the stolen veggies went to for it (not that the Rattata had told the Abra that they were stolen).

It did make her curious, though - with an Abra, wouldn't it be easy to determine if the place was actually haunted?

Vanessa, wearing her hat in her stead on account of being a hat right now, did point out that it was weird that food was accepted as payment, at least, in a world where money is supposed to be so important.

It was still something to ask about, just of less importance, given that there could be a hundred and one situations that could end with such a trade.

With the bonus condition fulfilled, the man had been so happy he had given her a packet of flower seeds in addition to the strawberry seeds one.

The Gamer gave her a sheet of stickers to decorate the Pokémon room. It didn't even give her physical ones, just added them right into the Pokéwalker's item menu.

A quick detour to help out a couple looking for help with their moving into their recently-acquired home, with the bonus condition including giving them the flower seeds to spruce up the place, and then she walked away with a pink scarf.

Which went around Vanessa's neck, because the Spa's bonus condition didn't say just how high, only that up to three Pokémon would be taken into account.

Handling large boxes had been a bit awkward due to her size, but not a real problem; the rewards were nice for just a few minutes of her time, in any case. Even if she had to give up some of the rewards in order to complete another request, she was nonetheless gaining EXP both for herself and some of her skills - plus, she had little idea of what to do with an eight-to-one figure of Gligarman that, for all she knew, had been spontaneously pulled out of the aether.

Might as well give it to the parents of the butter-fingered kid that had lost his own in the lake, and get seashells that, unbeknownst to them, could be a resource for those sensitive enough to tell.

They were full of energy; they must have had a great spot to live in.

People passing by took her picture from time to time, which was perfectly understandable - with her outfit, Vanessa, her titles, and her being a canid, the bonus charisma on humans alone was 30, or about enough for entering a contest, if using Observe was any indicator.

Having Vanessa on her head blunted the feelings from the stares, too; she wondered if it would be like wearing a Faraday cage for an Electric-type.

She was glad for the clothing, since it, and the fact that she moved with purpose, made it quite clear that she was not a wild or escaped Pokémon. She did not fancy being stopped every time she crossed someone's line of sight.

While they waited for the spa to be done for the day, they had their lunch break; Theresa would have used a rooftop, but the way she had chosen to wear the skirt wasn't really conductive to climbing and jumping, what with her tail being on the outside and everything - maybe if she had used it over everything? then she wouldn't have to worry about-

Nah, they just had to do a quick stop by the Pokémon Center again to eat.

Dry Pokémon food was cheap (at least the general-purpose one was) and lasted long; mixing in fresh berries according to taste made it all better, making it good for rations... Oh, sure, she wanted a burger, but among other things, Vanessa and Edgar needed to get used to a more varied diet - and she felt it would be better for the four of them to eat together.

Plus, she already had weeks' worth of food ready; she wanted to get a feel for the travel expenses while she had a surplus of funds still.

Not that she thought she was at risk of running out or anything, but why chance it?

Because she just had to think of the burger, didn't she?

Between The Gamer and certain Aura trainings, she no longer had to pay mind to what she ate. Like, at all. Or even eating anything. It was no longer important, outside of healing or any desirable boosts granted by specific foods.

Which just made the burger a guilt-free option. More than that, any excesses would go to her Aura right away, so she could indulge if the chance presented itself.

So, even as the sun set, even as she approached the spa, and even as she searched the settings for any form of Mystery/Investigation Game interface, she could only think of how her uncles had made her try all kinds of insane foods.

Some better than others.

...

She was going to be craving that burger for a while, wasn't she?

Why?

Grampa did it ever so often, but it was the first time he'd had anything to drink mid-day.

So, now he was laying down, on the sidewalk, again.

Thankfully not on the road to Pewter like that time, when a lot, and it was a lot of people saw him and a trainer almost stepped on him. Not that lying down on a side street was any better, although she would concede that it was quiet and nice when compared to a main throughfare.

As it was, though, she was waiting for the moment when her grandfather would be able to lift himself up enough to take the antiacid and the sport drink she had prepared; it paid to be ready, since she had heard gramps just had to catch up with an old friend, and just had to share a few glasses with him.

She rubbed her eyes and sighed, more out of not knowing what to do than anything else.

Then, a little Pokémon wearing a skirt, and a Caterpie wearing a hat as a hat, padded up to her grandfather.

Also, the little doggie had a (relatively) huge bag hanging from her shoulder; it did not go well with the little outfit, but it nonetheless made her look that much more precious.

"My grandfather just needs his coffee." As soon as she said that, she realized how bad the excuse was - maybe if it had been morning, or really late at night.

The two Pokémon did not reply, not that she expected them to, but the canine's brow rose in a clearly questioning look.

Great, now she was in a stare-down with a puppy, and the puppy was winning.

Right, the likely-female little 'mon would certainly pick up the smell.

She broke the staring contest first, to sit on the curb to wait for her grandfather to recover the ability to swallow without wanting to vomit.

"He's going to be fine." She said, still a little concerned herself, but she could tell the puppy was eyeing her grandfather, inspecting him for any sign of something going wrong.

Much like she had done every two minutes, really.

The little Pokémon moved like she wanted to take something out of the bag she carried, but hesitated, eyes moving from side to side.

A moment later a protein bar was offered to her, and it was one of the large, long-travel-through-the-region types that really filled one up.

"For my grandfather?" She asked, softly, of course, as the man in question still had his hands covering his eyes trying to ride through the worst of the headache under an empty stomach.

The Pokémon both nodded, letting go of the bar as she took it.

He really was going to need something just like it pretty soon.

Again, so long as he could keep it down.

"Thank you." She gave the both of them a brief scritch, and saw how they preened at the attention, but thoughtfully made no noise for her grandfather.

It may have been his own fault, and they may not have any obligation to accommodate him, but she appreciated the effort.

"I'm going to back later to see if he's OK." The Pokémon with the skirt said, making her blink; she hadn't been expecting that one.

With a bit of a blank stare, she waved good-bye as the puppy and her hat-wearing hat crossed the street, waving back at her.

Well, her grandfather wasn't going anywhere for a while, so she'd get to see them again.