I’m the Owner of the Pokémon Day Care In the World of Pokémon

After Rand left, Yuga continued to manage his shop.

However, after waiting for an entire afternoon without any customers, he felt quite bored.

As he thought about it, Yuga realized that he truly needed to hire an assistant to help him with the shop. After all, he was destined to become a world-renowned figure, so how could he continue to manage the shop all by himself? A true boss needed to have some employees, right? What was the point of being the "commander" with no one else to help? What kind of boss did everything on their own?

Nevertheless, even as he thought about it, Yuga hadn't made up his mind to immediately hire an assistant. After all, this wasn't something to rush into. At the very least, he needed to wait until the Ecological Park was completed.

As for Ms. Suzuki, Yuga had no choice but to make her wait a bit longer. Even if she couldn't wait and decided not to work for him, he could always find someone else. After all, while three-legged frogs might be hard to come by, two-legged people were everywhere.

Four days later, the Verdanturf Town Youth Pokémon Battle Tournament took place as scheduled. The venue was right in front of the Verdanturf Town Pokémon Center, and Yuga left early in the morning to register.

However, he wasn't alone on his way there; he was accompanied by a little tag-along named Rand.

Given that the town was finally hosting a formal Pokémon battle competition, it made no sense for Rand, a Pokémon enthusiast, not to go.

But he was still quite young, and it was a bit worrisome for him to go alone. Unfortunately, his father, Uncle Kate, was busy and didn't have the time to accompany him to the competition. As a result, the responsibility fell on Yuga, who was also going to the competition.

Originally, Luna, that little girl, was supposed to come along as well. However, something seemed to have come up at her grandfather place, so she couldn't make it. If it weren't for that, Yuga wouldn't have needed to compete today—he would have just taken care of the child.

On the way to the competition venue...

"Big brother Yuga, I heard Dad say you're going to participate in the competition. Didn't you not want to become a Trainer? Why are you joining the competition?"

Yuga hadn't told anyone about his decision to become a Trainer, not even his Aunt Meiko or Uncle Kurosaki, let alone Rand.

Although Yuga trained with his Pokémon every day, the others rarely saw him in action, let alone knowing about his desire to become a Trainer.

Yuga former self had been a bit lazy, and his acquaintances were well aware of his personality. He had never considered becoming a Trainer before, and everyone knew that. That's why Rand was so curious when Yuga suddenly decided to participate in a Pokémon battle competition.

Hearing Rand question, Yuga chuckled and bent down to him, saying, "Why? Did I not want to become a Trainer before? Can't I change my mind now?"

Rand hadn't expected Yuga response to be like this, leaving him a bit flustered. He stammered, "We-... we-..."

To Rand, Yuga had always been someone who lacked ambition. He had opportunities others didn't, yet he never seemed to put in any effort. While Rand couldn't say he disliked him, he definitely didn't like him either.

When someone who had never been ambitious suddenly wanted to work hard, Rand didn't know how to feel about it.

However, Yuga former self had indeed been a person lacking in ambition.

Without any goals in mind, he had drifted through life until the age of sixteen, when he graduated from a mid-level school with poor grades.

Although his family ran a Day Care, he had never considered becoming a Trainer. The school he attended wasn't a Trainer-oriented school; it was just a regular one.

In the world of Pokémon, people who didn't become Trainers usually completed their education through all three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced. Even though some schools were mixed, the majority were separate.

Yuga had attended a regular school, and after graduating from the intermediate level, he didn't pursue further education. Primary education was mandatory, but the intermediate and advanced levels were not. As he was meant to inherit the family business, Yuga former self stopped studying after graduating from intermediate school.

Usually, in the Pokémon world, those who didn't become Trainers would complete all three levels of education. After all, they needed the knowledge gained from these schools to make a living. Yuga parents had spoiled him, their only child, but they hadn't turned him into a menace to society. However, they had made him into someone with no accomplishments to his name.

After graduating from intermediate school, the Shimizu couple hadn't forced him to continue his studies. Believing that their son would eventually take over the family business, they didn't push him further. Consequently, aside from occasionally helping out in the store, Yuga former self spent most of his time as a homebody.

After graduating, Yuga former self remained idle at home. While he occasionally helped his parents, most of the time he lazed around doing nothing. His mental resilience was also extremely poor, and after his parents' death, he was unable to cope and chose to end his life.

Therefore, in the eyes of someone like Rand, who was a grown-up, Yuga, a person who seemed to do nothing all day, didn't leave a favorable impression.

"Does Big Brother Yuga really want to become a Trainer?" Rand asked curiously.

"Yeah, why not?" Yuga chuckled and pinched Rand little face. He found it quite amusing that Rand always tried to act mature despite being only six years old.

Rand wriggled out of Yuga grip on his face, didn't answer, and ran ahead.

The place for registering the competition was at Nurse Joy Pokémon Center. The registration process was straightforward, given that it wasn't a large-scale competition.

With Rand in tow, Yuga registered at Nurse Joy and received his competition number before heading to the competition venue.

Although Yuga knew that this was just a minor competition, upon arriving at the venue, he realized that the scale of the event was even smaller than he had imagined.

But Yuga wasn't surprised. After all, Verdanturf Town was at most a small town with few local residents and not much foot traffic. Most of the people visiting were elderly individuals seeking recuperation.

Apart from that, even though the competition was organized by the prestigious Devon Corporation, it was just a small branch. While it might be considered a big company in Verdanturf Town, its influence was limited to the town itself.

However, Yuga found it a bit strange. Why would the Devon Corporation organize such a Pokémon battle competition? Could it be that they were using the competition for promotional purposes?

But no matter how strange it seemed, Yuga had no intention of probing further. As long as he could compete in peace, that was enough.

Speaking of which, the rewards for this competition were quite generous.

The first-place prize was a complete set of evolution stones, including common ones like the Fire Stone, Water Stone, and Thunder Stone, as well as precious ones like the Dark Stone, Light Stone, Awakening Stone, Leaf Stone, Sun Stone, Moon Stone, and more. However, the exact quality of these stones was hard to determine.

Even if all these evolution stones were of the lowest quality, the fact that they were offered as prizes for a low-tier competition showed that the Devon branch was being quite generous. After all, this wasn't a major tournament by any means.

The second-place prize was a Pokémon with a yellow-quality pedigree. While its pedigree might not be exceptional, the fact that it wasn't a native species of the Fanyuan region made it a rarity. However, the specific Pokémon wasn't disclosed by the organizers.

The third-place prize was a set of specialty Poké Balls, or rather, five of them: Friend Ball, Moon Ball, Love Ball, Net Ball, and Dive Ball.

If someone managed to assemble a complete set of these special Poké Balls as a prize, it might even be more rewarding than the second-place prize, considering the individual price of these specialty Balls.

However, Yuga wasn't particularly interested in these Poké Balls. He had his own exclusive Poké Balls as system rewards, so these Poké Balls he'd be getting would serve no purpose other than collecting.

As for the prizes beyond third place, the organizers hadn't set anything up. After all, this was just a small-scale competition.