Jubilife City at this particular time of day was surprisingly quiet. No adults were around because of work, and very few younger kids because of both the trainer's school and going to work with their parents, so the only people wandering the streets around where Buck, Mira and Cheryl walked were the odd retired couple or a few children late for school.

"You know," Buck suddenly told them, "I've thinking of something."

Cheryl turned her head to face him. "What?"

"Well," he said, "I've been thinking of how I've been travelling with you two over the past couple of days, and I've realised that, above all else, I've seriously enjoyed it. Talking to you, capturing Pokemon together, everything. At this point, I'm not sure if I'm as willing to simply leave you guys once we reach Floaroma Town as I was previously. So, my point is, would it be alright if I travelled with you? It'd mean that you might have to divert your path somewhere else away from the next gym whenever there's a contest hall nearby, but-"

"No, it's fine!" Mira interrupted, "Mira realised that she and Cheryl were getting along well with you over the past couple of days too! Mira would be very happy to travel with you!"

Cheryl nodded. "I'm perfectly fine with it, too. Welcome to the team, Buck."

Buck was practically beaming. "Awesome."

Their glee, however, was interrupted by a voice calling from behind them.

"Cheryl! Mira!"

The group turned around to see none other than Lucas thundering down the path towards them, nearly tripping over his own feet from the speed he was going at. He slowed down to a stop as he reached them.

"Hey, Lucas," Cheryl told him with a smile on her face, "what do you want us for?"

Lucas paused slightly as he tried to get his breath back, before speaking up. "Well, two things actually. One is that I'd recommend going to the trainer's school before you leave Jubilife, since they've just started doing lessons on a new discovery that's going to be crucial in both battling and Pokedex filling-"

"Awesome!" Mira interrupted. "I'm gonna need to go see that class if I'm gonna become Sinnoh's champion."

Lucas tried to hold in a sigh. "Good, but can I continue?"

The pink-haired girl nodded. "Sorry, go on."

"Right. So, the other thing is..."

He took his backpack off his shoulders, placing it on the path before kneeling beside and rummaging through it for something.

He took his Pokedex out of his bag, before closing it and hoisting it onto his back.

"I've been needing some motivation to fill my Pokedex recently, and I think the solution is to have a rival in finding and scanning Pokemon. I was thinking of Dawn, but she's always off doing her own thing and probably wouldn't even reply to me if I asked her since she almost never speaks. Barry was also an option, but I have literally no idea where he is. Meanwhile, I was sent by Professor Rowan to tell you about the new trainer's school lessons, and so I had an opportunity. So, Cheryl, could you be my Pokedex rival?"

Cheryl shrugged. "I'm not really as passionate as you for filling it up, but if being your rival helps us discover more about Pokemon faster, I'm all up for it."

Lucas grinned. "Thanks a ton! So, how many Pokemon have you scanned in so far?"

Cheryl took a moment to get her own Pokedex out of her bag, holding Turtwig under her arm as she did so. "Let's see... as of yet, I have successfully scanned eight Pokemon into my Pokedex, one of which was completely new to this region supplied by Buck here."

Lucas turned to Buck, who smiled a little sheepishly. "It's really not much, it's just a Pokemon originating from Hoenn that hadn't yet been added to Sinnoh's Pokedex."

"It still helps though," Lucas explained as he opened up his Pokedex. "Right... I've seen twenty different species."

He bit his lip. "Ah. I've seen a lot more than you. It only makes sense since I've been collecting data for a lot longer than you, but now my request seems a little odd. Ah well, I guess I could motivate you to develop your Pokedex, which will then make me think I have competition and go further out to find more Pokemon?"

Cheryl nodded. "I do feel a little more competitive now."

"Well I guess it worked out well," Lucas said with a sheepish smile, shutting his Pokedex. "Now, how about we all make our way to the trainer's school together? I need to hear this new information too."

The school building, Mira thought as she stood just in front of it, was pretty plain. It didn't really have anything that made it stand out from the other buildings in Jubilife City, and the only way anyone could really even tell it was a school upon first visiting would be to check the sign by the door. This made it feel particularly different to the trainer's school in Kanto, which had felt considerably larger and grander.

Mira thought about some of her memories created back in Kanto, and sighed. It wasn't really a negative sigh, however - more of a reflective one on how those old days felt so far behind her now, as her new adventure was unfolding right before her.

As she stepped into the building, her and the three others with her were confronted with a corridor branching to their left and right, with a staircase situated directly in front of them. A bright pink sign pinned to the staircase bannister read:

"TALK ON THE NEW DISCOVERY OF THE FAIRY TYPE - 12PM - CLASSROOM 2B"

Lucas pointed at the sign with a look of anticipation on his face. "That's where we're headed! As far as I can remember, classroom 2B is..." he pondered it for a moment.

"It's this way," Cheryl told him before he came up with an answer, "I remember this place like the back of my hand."

The small group wandered down the corridor, before coming across the door to the aforementioned classroom. As all four entered, they were confronted by a classroom filled with budding young trainers, all intently listening to a woman with black hair cropped to her shoulders and a lab coat by the blackboard at the end of the room.

"Ah!" The woman suddenly said upon their entrance. "More people just arriving! Feel free to sit or stand anywhere. You're lucky you arrived right now, I've only just began talking myself."

All of them smiled politely at the woman, before closing the door quietly behind them and finding a place to sit near the back of the room.

"Right," the woman began, "so, I'm here today to explain-"

Just as the speech was about to start up again, however, they were interrupted by the door suddenly bursting open again with two people standing in the doorway.

Mira looked at who it was and began beaming. "Barry! Dawn!"

Barry flashed a smile at Mira, before turning towards the woman at the front. "Hello! I'm very sorry if I arrived late or interrupted anything! I was about to leave the city, but then Dawn here said that there was this important talk going on and that it would be good for a trainer like me to hear it-"

"Alright, alright," the woman said reassuringly, "calm down. You're literally just on time, so you don't need to be worried. You two find somewhere to sit or stand, now."

Dawn instantly walked to Lucas's side without saying anything or making eye contact with anyone, before bringing up a chair and sitting beside him. Meanwhile, Barry sped over to Mira and Cheryl before simply sitting on the table nearest to them.

The woman sighed, as though she was internally feeling very exasperated, before masking it with a smile and starting up her speech. "Finally. So, I'm here today to explain a brand new discovery found by the Kalos region. If you saw the sign downstairs, then you should know that it's about the newly discovered Pokemon typing - the Fairy type. At first, several Pokemon from around the world that had previously been placed under the Normal typing were beginning to confuse scientists - the Pokemon seemed to have adapted over time, as while they used to only be weak to Fighting-typed moves, they were now completely unfazed by them. As scientists looked into this anomaly, they discovered certain other things - these Pokemon were becoming more effective at damaging Fighting, Dark and Dragon-types, with the latter's moves being completely ineffective against these adapted Pokemon. However,they seemed particular vulnerable to Poison and Steel-typed moves as a drawback to their newfound power. We realised that this was indeed a new type of Pokemon, and christened it the Fairy type. This new discovery has greatly affected Pokemon battling, and so that's why we sent out a notice for trainers to come here - so they could get the low-down on the new types. We are also offering a Pokedex upgrading service for anyone owning one. Any questions?"

A teen with black hair and a blue hat who was sitting next to Mira held up his hand.

"You at the back there," the woman said, pointing to him, "your question?"

The boy spoke clearly. "I was wondering how the type resistances would work. So Steel and Poison-types also resist Fairy as well as attacking well against it? And Fighting and Dark-types are also weak to Fairy as well as Fairy resisting it?"

The woman nodded. "Yes. Types that are weak to Fairy are also resisted by it, and types that are strong against Fairy also resist it. As an additional discovery, Fire-types also resist Fairy and Fairy also resists Bug-types. Does this make sense to you?"

The teen nodded. "Yes. Thanks."

The woman smiled slightly before looking at the rest of her audience. "Are there anymore questions?"

A few seconds passed of complete silence.

"Great!" The woman said happily. "Now that the main speech is over, feel free to either get a refresh on the typing advantages and disadvantages that the Fairy type holds, update your Pokedex with new information or, if you need to, you can simply leave."

All the kids began chatting among themselves, standing up from chairs and finding their way to either the door or the woman.

Cheryl looked at Mira. "Me, Barry, Lucas and Dawn all have to get the Pokedex upgrades. You and Buck can chat, or you can go read a book. I don't really mind too much."

Mira nodded. "Mira wanted to look at the books on the bookcase anyway."

Mira sat cross-legged by the bookshelf, immersed in the words of the first book that had piqued her interest.

"Aura is a strange energy that was first discovered many hundreds of years ago. Due to its properties and method of discovery, it is believed to be some sort of life force that runs through every living thing. Aura was found when a young scientist stumbled across a Pokemon named Riolu, which happened to have the special ability of bringing out its own aura from within itself and being able to utilise it as a tool for both battle and safety. To this day, every Riolu and its evolution, Lucario, have been able to use this ability, but very occasionally, another species of Pokemon will have an anomaly that can use aura, and even more rarely, a human. When aura is utilised by a human or Pokemon, it comes out in many different ways - however, the two most commonly seen are spheres and shields, both glowing blue. The-"

"Hey Mira!" Barry called out as he rushed towards where she was sitting. "I've got so much to talk about!"

She looked up at him. "Yeah?"

He sat down beside her as she closed the book. "I've been having so much fun already. I battled a couple of fellow trainers, caught a new Pokemon, met some new people and-" he glanced at her wrist, and then forgot about his last train of thought entirely. "Wait, is that a Poketch?!"

Mira looked at her wrist herself. "Yeah. Cheryl managed to get us this really cool promotional case of them. Hang on... does yours have the Cross-Transceiver feature?"

Barry nodded. "Yes! I got it when it was first released. Hey, why don't we register each other? I can also register Cheryl if she has one."

Mira grinned. "Hey, why not? You can register us. If you want you can also register Buck. He's the boy with the red hair who was with us when you first burst in. He's been travelling with us, and is also really kind."

Barry nodded. "He seems nice enough. Anyway, let's do this!"

The two of them swapped Cross-Transceiver numbers, registering them in their Poketches.

Afterwards, Barry looked at Mira with a slightly nervous look in his eyes. "Hey, Mira?"

"Yeah, what?" She replied curiously.

"I was wondering if you wanted to battle me once we get out of his class. Like, on Route 203 or somewhere. I've got a feeling I might lose, but I think I've gotten stronger. I want to prove that I've not been slacking as a trainer this whole time. Do you want to accept the offer?"

Mira looked directly at him. "Why not? Mira enjoys battles quite a lot! Mira will just ask Cheryl and Buck if they don't mind, and then hopefully get to battle you!"

Barry smiled. "Awesome."

The midday sun felt strangely cold to Mira today as her, Cheryl, Buck, Barry, Lucas and Dawn emerged from the school.

"So," Lucas told everyone, "me and Dawn are both going back to Sandgem Town now to see if Professor Rowan needs us for anything. See ya!"

"Bye!" The remaining four people waved at Lucas and Dawn as they walked back towards Jubilife City's southern entrance. Lucas waved back, but Dawn simply continued on without looking back.

"You know," Barry said once they were out of earshot, "I hope I don't sound rude, but I don't think I've ever had a harder time trying to talk to someone than when I was with Dawn. She's almost like a robot - she'll say what she's been told to say, and go where she needs to go, but won't do anything else. She doesn't talk about anything outside of the main topic at hand, and she doesn't show many of her emotions at all."

Buck piped up. "She might just be introverted, or maybe a little shy. Some people seem to just be like that. You can tell she feels a lot safer with Lucas, most likely because of a friendship bond, but apparently she doesn't even talk much to him either. I guess she may just be a really quiet person."

Cheryl shrugged. "You never know without talking to someone. Anyway, Barry, you said you were gonna battle Mira, so let's all head to Route 203 and let this battle get started."

At that moment all four of them were startled by Turtwig crying out as it woke up, causing a chain reaction of laughter.

As Buck asked to permanently join the duo of girls and the two accepted, they were confronted by one of Professor Rowan's assistants, Lucas, who asked all three if they could follow him to the the Pokemon School for a presentation. They all agreed, but not before Lucas asked Cheryl to be a rival to him in finding Pokemon for the Pokedex! Cheryl accepted as the four all went to the local Pokemon School, where the presentation was revealed to be about a brand-new Pokemon type - the Fairy Type! It was so important, in fact, that the meeting reunited Mira and Cheryl with Barry, who had been brought by Dawn - Professor Rowan's other assistant! After the presentation was over, Barry asked Mira for a battle, and Mira agreed! As the six trainers left the school and Lucas and Dawn made their way back to the professor's lab, what awaits the trio and Barry? The adventure continues!

Hello dear reader! I'm so sorry I forgot to post on Tuesday again please forgive me. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this part! It mostly had exposition and foreshadowing (both for characters and later plot points ooh aren't I clever), but it should still be fun! Anyway, next part is, as expected from what Barry asked Mira, a new battle chapter! It's gonna be an even three-on-three match with unexpected twists and turns, with Shinx finally making its battle debut! I hope you're looking forward to it.