Ariela sighed. "You could have waken me up again..."
Craw smiled. "You were sleeping so peacefully that I didn't want to bother you. Also if you sleep in from a massage then you must have been pretty tired. You should relax a bit more."
She smiled. "Easier said than done..."
Craw smiled and kissed her softly. "Maybe I can help you with that." He stretched himself. "I am taking a bath now."
Ariela smiled and looked to him. "You want me to join?"
He blushed a bit. He thought about it for a moment remembering what she said some weeks earlier. "If you want to."
She giggled and looked to him. "I was just messing with you. You can go alone. I still have to prepare for today's job."
Craw smiled and nodded leaving her alone taking a relaxing bath. He sighed relaxed as he went into the hot water that soaked into his fur. He turned off the water and used some soap. He sighed and scrubbed his fur. He still felt a bit irritated by how natural this body felt to him. He shook his head and grinned. It was his body now. This was his life now. He quickly washed himself clean from all the soap and rubbed his body dry with a towel. He smiled and went back into his and Ariela's room earning a giggle from her. He looked to her confused. "What's so funny?"
She smiled and looked to him amused. "You look so fluffy."
He went to the mirror and chuckled a bit himself. His fur was all puffed and he looked much more fluffy than usual. He started brushing his fur down again using his paw. "Yeah... That happens after a bath pretty often. I just forgot to brush my fur down again."
She giggled and hugged him from behind giving him a kiss on his cheek. "You look so cute like this."
He chuckled. "Yeah..." He smiled and looked to her. "We should talk about yesterday again later OK?"
She looked to him. "What else do you want to talk about?"
He looked to her and smiled weakly. "Let's talk about that later OK?"
She sighed and nodded then she left for the bathroom herself.
Craw sighed and took some papers looking through them. He never thought the job as team leader would be connected with so much paperwork. He signed some of them and put the others onto the pile that he work through after training. He then left the room and went to the dining room that they also used as conference room. He put down the sheets and sighed looking through them. Some minutes later Damion and Fletcher entered the room as well. Craw smiled and looked to them. "Good morning."
Damion smiled. "Hey there."
Fletcher chirped. "Hello Craw."
Craw grinned and looked back to the papers. "You got some jobs for today?"
Damion nodded. "Two rescue missions. They are in a small forest dungeon and a cave dungeon that's rather long but not so hard."
Craw nodded. "Good. I will have to talk with Anubis today..." He wrote some more things down. "These are the plans for today. I trust that you two can handle the rest." He stood up and stroked his cast. "I will be back before you go to your jobs."
Damion looked to him nervous. "What? We should do this?"
Craw smiled. "You two chose the jobs. I wrote some things down for you that should help you with your decisions but I think you could do that without my help as well." He turned to leave.
Fletcher looked to him with curiosity. "What are you planning now?"
Craw sighed. "Well... There is something that bothers me and I have to talk with Anubis about it. See you later." He then simply left them alone. He slowly made his way to the upper part of the tower and stroked his arm. He really hoped that the hunch he had was right.
The guards at the elevator stepped aside. Anubis seemed to have told him to let him through whenever he wanted to since they didn't seem to bother the Riolu anymore.
Craw stepped into the elevator and drove up. As he passed the statues he thought that the one of Anubis looked a bit cold. It just didn't really fit him. He sighed as the elevator reached the floor of Anubis' office. He went to the office and knocked on it.
"Yes?" Anubis voice seemed to be a bit surprised.
Craw opened the door and stepped in.
Anubis looked up from some sheets and blinked for a moment. There wasn't much light in the huge office but Craw learned a while ago already that Anubis preferred it that way. "Good morning Craw. How are you?"
Craw smiled. "I am pretty fine... I would like to ask you something."
Anubis smiled and looked to him. "What is it?"
Craw smiled and went to him. "The one day before we started our training you said something... You said that my arm would heal much faster if you only... Then you stopped and looked at me. It was like if you wanted to say something but stopped because you didn't want to tell me everything."
Anubis looked to him. "Maybe I said a bit too much that day."
Craw sighed. "It is something about my past isn't it?"
He tilted his head. "Do you really want to know it?"
Craw sighed and stroked his arm. "Is it something that would trouble me right now?"
Anubis seemed to think about it for a moment. "Not if you ask further questions about it. I can tell you what it is but if you ask more background you will hear some things that you maybe don't want to hear."
Craw nodded. "OK. Then tell me."
Anubis nodded slowly. "Well back then you... found an item that was very helpful. It was a very rare item and it was one of your favorites back then. When you were hurt by anything you were able to use the item to heal you from nearly everything. But everything has a price... Whenever you used it you... You lost your aura ability for some time. The harder the wounds were the longer you lost your aura ability."
Craw looked to him excited. "Does that mean it could heal my arm right now?"
Anubis shook his head. "Not instantly. It would make your arm heal faster. Instead of a month it would only need some days but..." He looked to Craw serious. "Your broken arm is very complicated and you would probably lose your aura ability for about a month maybe even two."
Craw grit his teeth. He looked at his arm and sighed. "That's OK. I hate sitting around not able to do something. I mean sure I can do stuff but... Seeing the others go on jobs and missions while I sit here and just do training is really annoying..."
Anubis sighed and nodded. "That's the downside of being a leader."
Craw sighed. "I would rather do things than sitting around filling papers and wait."
Anubis stood up. "We can talk about that later. But now let me bring you the item I talked about." He left the room and Craw was left alone in the office.
He sighed and looked around. The office was rather empty and didn't look like if Anubis really spend much time in here. He went to the only painting that was hanging on the wall. He smiled seeing some Pokémon he saw already or better he guessed that he saw them already. They were two Riolu, a Larvitar, an Aron and a Gothita standing in front of a building that was signed as a guild. Craw smiled. The one had blue eyes and nearly looked like himself whenever he looked into a mirror but the other had red eyes like Anubis. So this was how Anubis looked as teenager. Craw chuckled. That little tuft of fur on Anubis' chin nearly looked like if he tried to grow something like a beard.
The door opened again but not Anubis but Serene entered the room.
Craw looked to her with curiosity. "Serene. Anubis isn't here."
She smiled and nodded. "I know. He looked to Craw and then to the painting. "Ah... The day we formed our team... That were the good old days... Back then we were so carefree and innocent..." She sighed and went next to him. "Oh I can remember that day very well..."
Craw chuckled. "What's up with that tuft of fur at Anubis' chin?"
She giggled. "Well you told him a lot about the human world as he was still a child and you also told him that some humans grow something called a beard to look older. Back then he tried to impress a certain female and so he grew that thing trying to look older." She smiled. "Needless to say that it didn't work."
Craw chuckled and nodded. "It's kinda funny."
She nodded and looked to Craw. "How are you?"
He sighed. "Why is everyone always asking me that?"
Serene smiled and looked back at the painting. "Because we care for you. You might not remember it but to us you are our dearest friend and for some of us you were even more than that." She sighed.
Craw wondered if she was talking about Anubis or if she was talking about someone else.
Serene smiled. "But beside that I am also the psychologist of the guild."
He looked to her with curiosity. "I didn't know that Pokémon have something like that too."
She chuckled. "We don't have that to be honest. It was your idea that I take that job. As Psychic type it made it very easy for me to take care of other Pokémon worries."
Craw nodded. "That sounds logically... But why you worry about me? I am very fine at the moment."
She smiled. "Yeah but you still worry about something... Or better someone."
He sighed and looked to her. "It is Damion. He seems to feel very lonely. I mean sure... We do many things together but he somehow... I don't know how to put it into words..."
Serene nodded. "I understand what you mean. I can see it in your mind. You think that he sees you and Ariela and Brighton and Kathrin and feels very lonely now since he has no mate himself..."
Craw sighed and nodded. "But not only he. I know that Fletcher feels like that too even though he doesn't show it."
Serene nodded. "Sadly love is something that I can't help much with. But I could talk with them. Maybe I will find some words that will help them a bit."
Craw nodded. "That would be great. Thank you."
She smiled and nodded.
Then the door opened and Anubis entered again.
Serene smiled. "Now I will let you two alone again. Maybe you could send Fletcher to me today before he goes to training."
Craw nodded. "I will."
Serene smiled and left the two alone.
Anubis looked to Craw with curiosity. "Is everything OK?"
Craw nodded. "Yeah. We just talked about Damion and Fletcher. Also we talked about your beard."
Anubis sighed and shook his head. "Yeah... Just one of the silly things of my youth..."
Craw chuckled. "Well it was partially my fault too as I heard."
Anubis grinned. "Yeah... However. Here it is. I needed to search a bit for it." He showed Craw a glove that had a blue crystal on it. It seemed to be pretty simple and the glove was fit for a Riolu. "The glove is just for placing the crystal on the right position of your paw. The crystal is the main item. It is called an aura exchanger."
Craw took the glove and looked at it. "So I just have to send my energy into it?"
Anubis shook his head. "Not really. It needs your aura. You need to use your aura for it."
Craw nodded and tried to take on the glove. "Uhm... Could you help me a bit?"
Anubis chuckled and helped him putting on the glove.
Craw sighed and closed his eyes concentrating onto his energy. He tried to find his aura energy and as he finally found it he opened his eyes again. "What now?"
Anubis looked to him calmly. "Just send it into the crystal and move the crystal over that what you want to heal."
Craw sighed and nodded. He sighed and concentrated onto his aura again sending the energy into the crystal. He moved the crystal over his broken arm. He felt a prickle in his arm and it started to get very warm. Also the numb pain stopped and after about ten minutes he felt that the flow of his aura stopped. He looked at his arm and then at the crystal. "It stopped..."
Anubis nodded. "You don't have any aura left then."
Craw looked at Anubis surprised. "That was fast... I thought I have such a strong aura and so much of it..."
Anubis smiled. "Well that is your luck. If you wouldn't have so much you would maybe lose your aura forever. Or at least that is what we know about the crystal."
Craw looked to the Lucario nervously. "Wait... But I get my aura back right?"
Anubis nodded. "You used that item several times in the past. You don't need to worry about that. Your aura is special..."
Craw nodded still a bit skeptical. "I hope so..." He looked at his arm. "I probably will visit the nursery later. Now I have to go back to the team meeting tho. We will see later at training..."
Anubis chuckled. "You forgot that Siver and Silver will take care of your training from today on."
Craw sighed. "Right..."

Kathrin looked to Damion. "I am fine with that but why didn't Craw make the meeting with us?"
Fletcher chirped. "He needed to talk with Anubis he said. He put us in charge of this meeting instead since we chose the jobs."
Ariela smiled. "That's totally OK."
Brighton sighed. "Why did he make me second in charge if he doesn't even talk with me about this kind of things?"
Ariela smiled. "I think he did this because he wants you to fully concentrate onto Kathrin right now." She whispered to him.
He looked to her with curiosity and sighed. "Yeah... Probably you are right..."
Kathrin looked to them. "Are you talking about me?"
Brighton looked to her nervously. "Uh... No don't worry..."
Ariela giggled.
Damion chuckled. "However. He put me in charge for now and I say you Kathrin go with you Ariela. And Brighton you come with me. We will take the longer dungeon and you will take the shorter but harder dungeon. You two will take the Koffing and the Fomantis with you. We will take the Absol and the Flabébé with us. That should be all."
The others nodded.
Fletcher stretched his wings "I am going to the training again today but before that I will visit the nursery. They said that I would heal fast and maybe I can go on jobs again soon."
Brighton nodded. "Yeah but you shouldn't overdo it."
Fletcher nodded. "I will be careful."
Then Craw entered the room again. "I am back. You finished with preparing?"
Damion nodded. "We just finished."
Craw smiled and nodded. "Good. For the next few days I will be a bit occupied in the morning so I would like you two work together with Brighton and Kathrin to organize and prepare the jobs."
Damion and Fletcher nodded while Brighton grinned.
Craw looked to Fletcher. "Miss Serene would like to speak with you before the training Fletcher."
Fletcher tilted his head. "Why that?"
Craw smiled. "You know Serene. She is a bit... mysterious at times."
Fletcher nodded.
Craw smiled and went to Ariela kissing her onto the cheek softly. "Maybe I have a little surprise for you later when you come back."
Ariela giggled and kissed his cheek softly. "I will be excited to see that."
Craw smiled and looked to her. "You will have to wait till you are back." He then looked to Brighton. "I would like to talk with you for a moment."
Brighton nodded and they went to Craw's office.
Craw grinned. "I found a way to heal my arm. Or at least let it heal much faster."
Brighton looked to him confused. "What? How that?"
Craw grinned. "It is a special item that I had in my last life as Riolu... Anubis said something before the training two days ago something that hinted that there was a way to heal faster. It was an item that uses my aura energy to heal any wound. In exchange I lose my aura ability for quiet a while but I think that shouldn't be much of a problem compared to the broken arm."
Brighton looked to him surprised. "Wait... Are you talking about an aura exchanger?"
Craw smiled. "Oh you know it?"
Brighton looked to him shocked. "Craw! That item is not only healing but uses your aura completely! Anyone without aura abilities that use this item even lose their lives! That is an extremely dangerous item!"
Craw looked to him a bit puzzled. "Well... Anubis told me that I used it several times in the past. My aura seems to be special. It seems to be so strong that I will never lose it completely."
Brighton looked to him unsure. "If you say so..." He sighed. "I hope you are right..."
Craw nodded. "Don't worry. I will go to the nursery before the training. Maybe I will already get rid of this annoying cast."
Brighton nodded still looking nervous about the item.
Craw smiled. "Don't worry too much. I am fine."
Brighton sighed. "OK. But please be careful."
Craw nodded.

Craw looked at the Chansey. "And?"
She looked at his arm surprised. "That is a wonder! It is nearly completely healed! You still have to take care to not to strain it too much but according to how fast it healed it should be fine in a week."
He smiled. "That is great." He sighed relieved. "So the aura exchanger worked."
She looked to him confused. "What is an aura exchanger?"
He smiled. "A special item. It is very rare and is normally extremely risky to use."
She looked to him. "Well it worked. I would like to see that item. It would be really helpful."
He shook his head. "No. Pokémon who don't have aura abilities risk their lives using it and even for us aura users it is very dangerous if not used correctly."
She nodded. "Well... But maybe you would help me some time then when I have really hard cases."
Craw nodded. "I will if it is an emergency but right now I can't use it for quiet a while. My aura abilities are blocked from the usage. It uses the aura energy completely and it seems like if I need some time to recover my energy."
She nodded. "That's OK. I am still thankful for the opportunity of help then."
Craw nodded. "I thank you for the help with my arm."
She smiled. "That was nothing."
Craw smiled and looked to the cast. "Can I keep that?"
She looked to him and shrugged. "Sure. We can't use it anymore."
He smiled and nodded taking the cast and went to his training.

Craw sighed. "Why do I have to fight dummies? I thought that you wanted to train me."
Siver looked at him. "You have to show me how you fight first. Then I can evaluate how to train you."
Craw sighed and hit the dummy again. "This is annoying..."
Siver grinned. "You don't really have a real fighting style do you?"
Craw looked to him confused. "What do you mean?"
Siver smiled. "The most Pokémon train some sort of style fitting it to the moves they know or the move items they use. Myself for example. I use a mixture of aggressive and defensive moves. I am pretty slow in attacking so I have to be able to defend myself against fast hitters like Anubis. That's why I know Iron Defense and Circle Throw for defending myself and use Giga Impact and Superpower when I have to attack someone."
Craw sighed. "Anubis said something similar to me... I only know offensive moves... Should I maybe learn new moves?"
Siver looked to him. "Well. Learning a completely new moveset is definitely not the best way to handle that. You should think about maybe switching out one move first. The move you use the least often would be the best but you have to think really hard what move you want to learn instead. Also you can't just learn any move. You have to know what moves you can learn and what move fits to you. How did you fight till now?"
Craw shrugged. "I don't know... I just fought. Mostly by dodging and hitting the enemy with the most effective move I had."
Siver sighed. "Well... You are good at dodging and at hitting. So you use a hit and run fighting style. That has many benefits but also some downsides. If you get hit you don't have any defense what is why you should maybe learn Protect. That is a good move for emergency cases when you need to shield yourself from an attack that you can't dodge. Or maybe double team. That causes clones of you that confuse the enemy to maybe attack them instead of you what would enhance your hit and run style even more."
Craw sighed and thought about it for a moment hitting the dummy with a Blaze Kick. "Yeah... Maybe that would be a good idea... On the other side... How about move items?"
Siver looked to him. "They may be useful but they have a drawback. They need more concentration to be activated than a move you learned."
Craw seemed to think about it for some seconds. "Siver? Can you explain me something? Why can Pokémon only learn four moves at the same time?"
Siver looked to him surprised. "Hmm... That is a really good question... To be honest I really don't know..."
Craw grinned. "Then why is everyone convinced that it is the truth? Could it be that it is only a theory that lacks of a true proof because nobody could proof the opposite?"
Siver looked to him with a grin. "That might be true. Do you want to tell me that it might be possible that a Pokémon could learn more than four moves at the same time?"
Craw looked at his fist grinning widely. "It is a theory at best but the possibility is there." He hit the dummy with an Ice Punch. "If I remember correctly most moves a Pokémon learns are just an evolution of a move they already know. Even when they learn a completely new move it is probably just a different way to use the energy of a move they already know. Aqua Gun becomes Hydro Pump. Force Palm becomes Aura Sphere... Fire Punch, Ice Punch and Thunder Punch are basically the same moves just by slightly changing the flow of the energy... I think if you know exactly how the moves work..." He looked at the dummy. "But that would need a lot of training and testing..."
Siver looked to him with a wide grin. "The mind of you humans always surprises me."
He chuckled. "It surprises me sometimes as well..."

Craw sighed as the training came to end. He went to the kitchen to cook something. He was a bit surprised to see Fletcher taking some seeds himself. "Hey. What did Serene say?"
Fletcher chirped. "We talked about me and how good I am fitting into the civilization. We mostly talked about my problem with finding a mate and so she showed me a building where everyone can go to to mate. It costs some money but it is very good there."
Craw looked to him surprised. "Oh... You probably talk about a brothel... You shouldn't talk so openly about it since they have a bad image and others... Well lets say some Pokémon don't like those buildings and think of them as something bad and think every visitor of those brothels are bad Pokémon. You can still visit them if you want to. I won't stop you from that but maybe you should not talk about it to everyone. Also you should always remember that for the females there it is just a job. They won't love you and won't let you breed them. They won't get eggs from you."
Fletcher nodded. "Miss Serene explained me everything. I just think it is a good way to calm my instincts down a bit. Especially since for my species it would be breeding season now."
Craw nodded. "That is good. But don't give up on finding a mate just because you can mate there now."
Fletcher chirped. "Of course not! Even though I am civilized I want to spread my genes."
Craw looked to him smiling slightly amused. "You mean you want to have children."
Fletcher tilted his head. "Yes, is there a difference?"
Craw smiled. "Well... It is just a bit... nicer to say having children than spreading your genes. In civilization the bond between Pokémon is more important than just for simple survival reasons. The bonds between family members are the most special and the deepest of all bonds we can form. Especially the love and care a Pokémon can feel for their own children is so deep that words like spreading your genes when talking about creating a family sounds... well it sounds like if you just care for survival and not for the fact that you create a new life! It is really hard to explain. Maybe you will understand it yourself one day when you have a child."
Fletcher nodded. "So it is one of the terms that you rather not use in civilization?"
Craw nodded. "Forming a family would be a better term."
Fletcher tilted his head. "There are so many confusing things about civilization..."
Craw smiled. "I know... But you will learn them all. You are very smart."
Fletcher nodded.

Craw looked at them. "So only none of the ones today..." He sighed and scratched his cast. He had put it on again before the others came back so they didn't know about the aura exchanger yet. "It is harder to get a fitting seventh member to the team than I thought..."
Brighton nodded. "Yeah... They really didn't perform well... The Flabébé even got defeated..." He sighed. "She got herself into a teleport trap and since we found a room full of feral Pokémon she probably teleported into a monster room..."
Craw sighed and nodded. "How about the Absol? I really hoped for a dark type for the team..."
Brighton shook his head. "He concentrated so much on performing well himself that he didn't care for what was happening to his team partner."
Craw shook his head. "OK... Then let's hope for better results tomorrow..." He looked to his team. "That's all for today. You are free to do whatever you want." He looked to Ariela.
Ariela just grinned back.
Craw stood up. "Till later." He went to his and Ariela's room.
Ariela smiled. "I will go too. Maybe we can do something later."
Brighton smiled. "Have fun you two."
Kathrin rolled her eyes. "Stop it already Brighton."
Brighton chuckled. "Aw c'mon. Let me have some fun."
She sighed.
As Ariela entered the room Craw smiled looking to her. "You ready for your surprise?"
Ariela smiled and nodded. "What is it?"
Craw smiled and took off the cast. "I healed my arm." He stretched his arm.
Ariela looked to him surprised. "What? How?"
Craw smiled. "Well there is an item that I used. It is dangerous to use it if you are not an aura user and aura users normally lose their aura but Anubis told me that I used it in my last life already and that I always recovered from it even though my aura ability was blocked for some time." He wen to her and kissed her. "In about a week it should be completely recovered and my aura ability should be back in about a month but I can better live without my aura ability than without my arm."
Ariela took his arm and stroked it a bit. She looked to him. "Are you sure that is such a good idea?"
Craw nodded. "I just hate sitting around and do nothing but paperwork and training..."
Ariela sighed. "I can understand that but wasn't it a bit risky?"
Craw shook his head. "Anubis said I used it in my last life already several times so everything is fine."
She sighed and nodded.
He grabbed her and pulled her into a hug. "C'mon. Don't be like this. Be happy with me." He kissed her softly. "Now can we do some other things too." He lifted her up a bit grinning widely. "How about we go dancing?"
She giggled and looked to him. "That sounds great."
He let her down again. "Sadly I don't know a place where we can dance but maybe you know something."
She smiled and kissed him softly. "Sure I know something."

Author's note: Another chapter done! Another mysterious item that is really rare landed in Craw's hands from his past life. What other mysterious surprises may lay in Anubis' chambers that belong to Craw? Only I know the answer and I won't tell you :D