The incident with Aza put me out of commission for a few days as my hind paws needed to heal. This meant that I had to spend a lot of time in my room, and beyond the books, there wasn't much to look at. I would only go downstairs if I had to eat, and even then I hastily retreated back into my room.

I would often catch myself thinking about how I would like to decorate my room to make it more appealing. Unfortunately, I had neither money nor an affinity for rocks I could pick up off the street.

When I decided I was confident enough to walk around, I went into the kitchen, as per my usual routine, and while not much else was discussed, Toz gave us an interesting suggestion in the form of an off-hand comment.

"We should make a guild team!"

I could tell that "guild teams" were something that everybody knew about, so I was afraid to ask what it was. I needed to know, thus I chose my words carefully.

"Well, what's a guild team?" I made sure to exaggerate. Luckily, Toz played along with it.

"I'm glad you asked! Most of their things are pretty boring, like sorting mail. However, you can also choose to do more interesting things, like investigate crimes or gather food."

Toz moved to the edge of the room to face all of us. "From what I hear, that can get boring after doing it so many times."

I was trying to take mental notes of what they said, as it sounded relevant. "The last bit is doing things like exploring, and from what I hear, that's actually interesting. Now…"

Toz continued on with his rambling. I could see everyone else's face contort to his endless spiel. I, however, could not get enough. Other things he mentioned were that the guild teams were actually a legacy system, as "The Guild" had long since been disbanded, and the existing members got taken in by the government.

As Toz was explaining the different types of teams, Tony got fed up and interrupted.

"I don't recommend joining an expedition team. You might hear about it being super cool, but I've seen many expedition teams get assigned to try to cross the horizon, and every single one of them died. There was no surviving team- nay, not a single surviving pokemon…"

Tony paused for a moment, ready to leave. Just then, he thought of a critical question to ask; "Why do you even want to make a team anyway?"

Toz swayed back and forth before giving his reply.

"Well, I wanted money and it seemed like an easy way to get money, but now I don't feel like reading mail either. So might as well just scrap the entire idea-"

"Wait!" I interrupted, still interested in the prospect of money.

"What is it?" Tony asked, and I reconsidered my idea, "What were you going to say?"

"Didn't you mention a third type of team? What about that?" I was able to recall what Toz had just said, as I was the only person there who actually listened.

"Nice ears," Toz commented (Probably because that was the first time he met someone who would listen to anything he said longer than 3 words.), and then continued.

"Everyone always considers the dangerous stuff teams do, or the boring stuff they do. But nobody thinks about the necessary, yet forgotten work. So that's why I think that-"

Tony realized that Toz was going to ramble again, so he quickly interrupted before he could get started.

"We should probably have a serious discussion on this before doing anything."

In the absence of Elizabeth, Tony called everyone down, and over the next hour, we had a discussion about the topic. What had started as an off-hand comment from Toz, was set to become a reality. Things moved very fast; Ian was shockingly willing to join, despite having only just met us. He thought it might be a good team-building exercise. Elizabeth, Tony, Mark, Aza, and Toz were quickly on board as well, eventually leaving Gray as the only one left that was still reluctant. Everybody else was very excited about the idea, including me somewhat. After Tony gave him assurances that he could back out later, he caved and joined us.

Everyone was in. Together, we would make a guild team.

"What about our team name?" Gray asked, prompting everyone to start throwing around team names. Beyond the first suggestion, the room delved into chaos as everyone split off into smaller groups to talk to each other. I could only make out a small select few of the many, many suggestions and their responses.

"Drift Walkers?" Ian was the first to make a suggestion.
"What does that even mean?" Aza crooked her head.

"Team Life!"
"A bit presumptuous."

"Team Aid!"
"Now that one just sounds stupid."

"Team Water!"
"Aza. You're the only water type here."

"Team Fragile Leaf!"
"Don't underestimate us, Mark, also what? Why would you think that was a good team name?"

"How about 'Team Family'?" I suggested to Aza, as she was the only one who could hear me through all the noise.

"Sounds bad, but better than the rest," Aza replied. "Wait, I have an idea! … Uhh…" Aza trailed off, trying to remember what it was that she was going to say.

"Team Fam?" I tweaked my idea while I was waiting.

"Sounds much better." She stopped focusing on what she was going to say, and turned to face everyone else. "Thoughts? Everyone? Do we like 'Team Fam'?"
Everyone else stopped for a moment and silently nodded in agreement.

Now I'll admit, 'Team Fam' does sound a bit weird, and I personally suspected that people only agreed on it so we could move on, either that, or people just didn't hear what Aza said and decided to just go along with it. "Team Zac" was what it was actually pronounced like, in case you were wondering about that whole translation thing. However, I'll continue to refer to it as "Team Fam" for your continued understandable experience.

There was a moment of silence where everyone was unsure of what to do before Toz broke it.

"Well, what are you all waiting for? Let's move!" He started walking out, forcing everyone to get up and follow him. I figured we were going to sign up, but I didn't know where we would do that.

The path we used was beaten up, being a mix of rocks, bricks, and of course, concrete. As I looked around, I noticed the buildings had deteriorated slightly since the last time I was outside. Through an alleyway, I saw that one of the houses on the road where I once lived had completely collapsed. I could tell it wasn't the house I was in, but it still made me nervous about what could have happened to me if I had stayed.

As we all walked to sign up, Gray was still a bit hesitant.

"I mean, this is all so sudden, what if we don't like it?" Tony again reaffirmed him and reminded him that they could easily quit if Gray didn't like it. Gray asked about a possible doomsday scenario, and then another, and eventually he was just firing questions non-stop at Tony. Tony answered all of them so easily that Aza noticed.

"Tony, where did you learn all this stuff?" Aza asked.

"Oh, a friend taught me when I was young."

"Really? Who?"

"They're dead now." Aza gave himself distance from Tony.

"Oh. Sorry to hear that." Aza's face dipped, and he started looking for a polite way to exit the conversation.

"Don't worry about it. It's been like 40 years already." Tony replied to everything that Aza asked as if he was on autopilot and didn't care. Still, from how he dipped down after he answered, I could tell that it was someone he deeply cared about.

It wasn't a long walk and it ended after that conversation. It didn't need to be one, as it still not only taught me more details about the guild's team system, but also the relevant word for death.

Looking at the guild base, it was different from all the other buildings. While everything else was made up of thin concrete or carved up from large trees, the guild was intricately crafted with thick log walls covered by wide slate. It only had one entrance guarded by three pokemon. They were all wearing incredibly baggy clothing, which looked like it was designed to conceal their form. The only other structure relatively close was a large concrete slab with just a few tables to eat at. Tony stared at the guild for a moment, evaluating what to do or what to say, before turning to me.

"It's not much, especially because they had to move it a few years back. It was so beautiful back then."

I recognized the pokemon which gave me food at the food bank working the front desk, but I didn't get to talk to them because Tony approached them to do all the talking.


AN: I'm sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out. For some reason, it was just kicking my ass. This was by far the most edited chapter, but I won against these fighting words in the end, enjoy!