Halfway through the night, Tamao awoke feeling cold. Man didn’t think it could ever get so cold anywhere. It just continues to come down out there, I need to get some sleep but it's so cold! Tamao found himself shivering uncontrollably for several minutes until he saw Inari looking at him from the corner of his eye.

When she noticed he saw her she looked out the window before glancing back at Tamao.

“Are you cold?” Inari asked Tamao nodded in response.

“Well, it may not help much but here.” Tamao looked over at Inari confused before he saw she was moving her nest closer to Tamao’s before laying down and laying her tails over Tamao’s back. “Is that better?”

Tamao nodded in response before drifting off to sleep. Inari realized what she was doing and a blush grew on her face before she decided she should go to sleep as well.

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“RISE AND SHINE, ALL MONS’ ON DECK!” A voice shouted from the hallway startling Tamao and Inari awake, both of whom smacked into each other in confusion. When they got their bearings a few seconds later they rushed out of their room and saw Ignis sitting in the middle of the hallway.

“Alright, everyone! The storm and hit fast, we have several buildings that have parts of the ceilings caved in, mons are trapped in their homes and need to be rescued! Every team that doesn’t have a fire type joins up with one. That is all, get out there and save some lives!” Ignis then turned towards the exit of the guild and made his way out.

“Come on Tamao, we got this.”

As the two made their way outside Tamao took note of just how tall the snow was, it was well over twice his size (even if he was relatively short even for an Eevee). Ignis had already cleared a path through the snow which was shown by the puddle of water sitting on the ground. Even though the snow was still barreling down to the ground Tamao couldn’t feel the effects of the cold.

“How are you holding up Tamao?” Inari asked as she began creating a diverging path with some of her flames.

Could be a lot worse. Tamao thought shrugging in response to the question. They eventually came upon what Tamao thought was a market stall. As he started moving some snow with his paws Inari was carefully melting some of the snow off the side until she saw the wood, then she would stop and move to a different part and let Tamao finish unburying it.

This process continued as they moved through the market, Inari took this opportunity to inform Tamao about all the different stalls and the purposes they filled. “That’s Kangaskhan storage, the name is pretty self-explanatory that is where we can store items we get from exploring and rewards. Right next to it is the local bank, owned and operated by Miss Poppy a Floragato. Then the Kecleon Market which is what we are currently digging out.”

Tamao nodded along when he felt his paws completely fall through the ground and he was sent tumbling into what he could only describe as a snowy abyss. The snow surrounding him had him trapped. Unable to move or call for help Tamao attempted to come up with a logical way out of this predicament but found no ideas came to mind.

“Tamao, where’d you go?” Inari asked from Above Tamao, or was she below him? Was he upside down?

Tamao could feel his body temperature rapidly falling as he could barely stay awake. I need to do something to stay awake, if I fall asleep here there’s a good chance I’ll never wake up again.

Try as he might, however, Tamao could not fight the exhaustion plaguing his mind. Feeling his limbs go limp he gave in and accepted his fate.

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“You do this… clean kid we may let you... Hehe.”

Tamao opened his eyes to see what he could only describe as shadows walking by his sides. He couldn’t quite make out their shapes but he could tell the one who spoke was a male. But he didn’t understand why his voice would cut out and cut back in.

“But remember kid… You got that?”

Tamao felt his head nod against his will as they continued walking, it was then that Tamao noticed that it appeared they were walking through a blank white abyss.

If Tamao was being honest he had just realized how little he remembered of the past, he remembered why he traveled forward but that was about it. He didn’t remember his parents, he barely was able to remember his friends Neko, and Olly.

The two mons beside him were neither. But they gave off an energy that Tamao didn’t like at all but also felt familiar… terrifyingly familiar.

“Follow the… and… kid…”

“Just survive…”

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“Tamao! Where are you?” inari was shouting as she walked around the stall they had been digging out.

As she walked over to where she last saw Tamao she noticed that some of the snow on the ground looked off, like it had been shifted slightly. Slowly pushing a paw into the snow she noticed that it didn’t feel like solid ground at all it felt like there was a hole in the ground.

Carefully, inari began digging in the snow while shouting Tamao’s name at the hole hoping to hear some kind of movement. Several minutes of digging ticked by as Inari’s panic started to grow the longer Tamao was missing. In most cases, she wouldn’t worry about someone she just met but there was something about him. Maybe it was the mystery about him showing up here by falling from the sky and being unable to talk?

Finally, she saw what appeared to be brown fur poking out of all the snow, with renewed vigor she dug faster until she could pull him back up to solid ground, and as she did she could feel him shivering even in his unconscious state.

I need to get him warm fast! Thinking quickly she put Tamao on her back and rushed back to the guild, that way he would be in a space that wasn’t surrounded by snow. As she ran with Tamao on her back she saw some weird looks from different mons along the path who were digging out more buildings.

Eventually, she reached their room and made a small fire on the stone floor before laying next to Tamao hoping desperately that her warmth from her body plus the fire would be enough. But until he woke up it would be a painful waiting game. She watched as his chest rose and fell slowly, counting the seconds that passed.

Please be okay. Surely if you survived falling out of the sky you can survive being buried in snow… that’s sound logic, right?

Hours seemed to pass before Inari fell asleep and her worry calmed enough to let her dreams wander.

For several hours the time ticked by and Tamao started to stir which woke Inari up as she glanced around before seeing Tamao start to open his eyes.

Where am I? Tamao thought as he looked around before noticing something warm lying beside him, then he saw the fire. What happened?

“Oh thank Arceus you’re awake!” Inari yelled from his side before hugging him.

Surprised by the sudden embrace Tamao could only think to pat her on the back as acknowledgement that he was okay.

“In the two days I’ve known you you’ve had two near-death experiences. I hope this doesn’t become a trend or it’ll be painful to be your partner.” Inari said as she pulled away from him. “You’re feeling okay, right?”

Tamao nodded his head before glancing around the room when he suddenly noticed Ignis standing in the doorway.

“Sorry for the intrusion, I just wanted to check on you two after I saw Inari come running back to the guild with you on her back.”

“Everything is okay now, Tamao just got buried by snow for a few minutes and he passed out, so I wanted to get him somewhere warm to make sure he was okay and didn’t get sick.”

“Well it’s a good thing you brought him back to the guild, there was another thing I would like to discuss with you two but that can wait until tomorrow morning when your minds aren’t being plagued by exhaustion and you can think straight.”

“Thank you Ignis, you still need me to keep you warm Tamao?”

It certainly would feel nice to not be shivering all night. After seeing Tamao nod Inari got comfortable and stayed beside him before they both drifted off to sleep.

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After the wake-up call, Inari and Tamao went to Ignis’s office which was located near the rear of the guild by a ladder that led to some dungeons for criminals. As they sat down Ignis grabbed some papers from under his desk and set them in front of the two before Inari’s mother walked in.

“Ah, perfect timing. Now that everyone is here we can get started. Firstly thank you Neesha for lending your assistance with translating for Tamao, and thank you tamao and Inari for being punctual.”

“Anything that concerns my daughter and her teammate I will gladly assist with.”

“Perfect, so firstly in all the chaos I forgot to get you two fully registered. You are already partially registered so you have gained your rank points from the work you did yesterday, so our first order of business is naming your team. What are you two thinking? Tamao, how about you do some team name suggestions.”

Nodding Tamao thought for a second before writing out some possible names. Heuristic, Adficio, Candidus, Salvator. When he was finished he noticed Neesha giving him a strange look, then it clicked in his head that she knew the full meaning behind the words he chose.

“I have to say, quite the selection of words you put down there. Heuristic is an interesting one since it acknowledges that you find solutions through trial and error. But no one would know that with Zocar not being taught and no one knowing the meaning behind words.”

“I like that name, it’s saying we aren’t perfect but we still work to get the job done no matter what. Plus it’s better than anything I can come up with.” Inari spoke up glancing at Tamao who was smiling.

“So, Team Heuristic it is then?” Once Tamao and Inari nodded in agreement Ignis continued. “Alright, next order of business is figuring out what type of team you two want to be. Our guild offers a wide range of team types, including a brand new team type that I am offering for the first time. But I’ll start with the basics, first is the normal rescue, and explorer team types, and then we have the caravan Escort team type, not a very popular option but some teams like it. Your job would primarily be to escort caravans as the name implies, then you have Dungeon Divers, who look through newly discovered dungeons to see what dangers wait for anyone who goes in them. Then there’s also the Guard teams who act as security, like at a museum. Then lastly the newest team type that you two have the opportunity to be the first legends of, the Disaster Rescuers team type. You see, lately, there has been a very large increase in natural disasters worldwide. So your job would be to go to locations they occurred in, rescue survivors, and try to find out the cause if there appears to be any foul play.”

Tamao perked his ears hearing that last bit. I like the sounds of that, plus it sounds like we’d travel a lot. And I love traveling.

“I like the sound of the Disaster Rescuers, what do you think tamao?”

Tamao nodded his head in agreement as Ignis checked off a box and handed them both badges that had what appeared to be a tornado in the center.

“Alright, then that takes care of everything that requires paperwork. Now I shall go more in depth with all your roles. Firstly, you will get a lot more days off when there isn’t anything going on in the world, but your work will be more grueling and dangerous. You won’t work as much, which means you could go days without earning any Poke, but on the flip side, you will get paid more for your work and be the only team exempt from the guild tax. So you get to keep all of your earnings, and lastly, you will have a few more privileges, you will get access to a larger bag immediately to more health resources for any wounded civilians, and all the markets in town have agreed to give you discounts on health-related items like reviver seeds, Oran berries and stuff like that. So until you are called upon I would rest and also train to make sure you can handle whatever is thrown at you, but I’d recommend resting after what you two did yesterday.”

“Thank you, sir, come on Tamao! Let’s go get something to eat.”