I'm the Owner of the Pokémon Day Care In the World of Pokémon-Chapter 1412: The Disappearance of Phoebe

Before the New Year, Daichi and his team finally managed to rush and complete the final touches on the new YoYo Day Care store. Soon after, Yuga packed up his things and moved out of the gym.

The renovation materials used in the Pokémon world are very different from those in Yuga's previous life—they are extremely eco-friendly, so the building can be occupied immediately after renovations are finished.

The newly built YoYo Day Care is a four-story building. Although not especially tall, it had incorporated two adjacent plots that once belonged to neighbors, so this entire stretch of storefront along the street now belonged to YoYo Day Care. The result is that the store's area is not small at all—on the contrary, it's quite large, already giving off the impression of a prestigious and well-known establishment.

Daichi designed the exterior of the new YoYo Day Care to be very sleek and bright—one glance and it gives off a classy, high-end vibe.

The old store was simply too small; it didn't quite live up to the YoYo Day Care name or Yuga's status. Now, this new setup finally looked respectable and presentable.

In addition, Yuga also discussed with them and added some special features to the new store in certain areas.

For instance, since the Great Flygon liked sunbathing on the roof of the Day Care, Yuga specially built a sunbathing area on the roof just for it.

This time, the Great Flygon had teamed up with Duo Duo to fight against Heatran with its Elite level strength. Because it protected Duo Duo during the battle, it sustained serious injuries, and even with Yuga's healing, it took several days to recover.

What Yuga did could be considered both a reward and compensation for it.

Also, since the surroundings of the YoYo Day Care always had Zubat, Golbat, Crobat, Xatu, Natu, and Ghost-type Pokémon lurking or patrolling in the dark, Yuga added hidden spaces in the corners of the building—spaces that allowed them to stay concealed without making them too uncomfortable.

As for the distribution of the four floors in the new store, Yuga had already made up his mind: the first floor would be dedicated to selling Pokéblocks, the second floor would specialize in incense, and the third floor would sell various miscellaneous goods—such as held items, evolution stones, and so on.

Naturally, the fourth floor would be where Yuga lived.

However, the fourth floor was quite spacious and had many rooms, so Yuga let Duo Duo, Nana, and Ninetales move in as well.

Once the reconstruction of the old store was complete, Suzuki Koen and Ayaka also returned from the new location to help organize the storefront and stock inventory. Because there was so much to do, even Aju was roped in to help.

That setup process kept them busy for several more days. But Yuga wasn't in a rush to reopen—the grand reopening would wait until after the New Year.

Now that the store had expanded, Yuga felt it would be wise to hire a few more clerks. Suzuki Koen and Ayaka definitely wouldn't be able to manage a store this large on their own.

Once Yuga had settled into his new home, the New Year arrived. Luna, Rand, Sena Arata, Ayashi, the twins (Anlin and Anmu), and all the children who had been away—returned one after another, and YoYo Day Care suddenly became lively again.

As for the little girl Ayamu (Aya and Ayashi's younger sister), the reason she hadn't been at home was because she had gone away to study.

Originally, Yuga had planned to have her become a Pokémon breeder like Anya by apprenticing under Mr. Harrison, and it just so happened the girl was interested in this field as well.

Unfortunately, after taking on Anya, Mr. Harrison refused to take in Ayamu no matter what. Yuga tried persuading him over and over, but the old man wouldn't budge.

However, Yuga's efforts weren't in vain. Mr. Harrison recommended a place for Ayamu—a secret academy that few people knew about.

This academy had trained many high-level and even top-tier breeders, but its admission process was unusual and based solely on recommendation.

Mr. Harrison had studied at this academy when he was younger and held a recommendation quota. He gave that quota to Ayamu.

After coming to Verdanturf Town, Yuga had taken good care of Mr. Harrison, and Anya even saw him as a real grandfather. So, in a way, this was Mr. Harrison returning the favor.

Yuga really knew nothing at all about that secret academy, but his master, Mr. Kuni'o, had at least heard of it. However, even he didn't know exactly where the academy was located—after all, it wasn't part of his circle.

On New Year's Day, Yuga and Duo Duo prepared a lavish feast together, inviting his aunt's family, Suzuki Koen—who lived alone with her son—as well as Beidou and the children from the gym. They all celebrated the New Year together, which also doubled as a housewarming party for Yuga's new home.

It was rare for everyone to be home this year, so YoYo Day Care had a very lively New Year celebration.

After the New Year, everyone went their separate ways again, each returning to their own business.

On the fifth day after the New Year, YoYo Day Care officially reopened. But before that, Yuga recruited two new clerks through Forest Home.

These two clerks were one male and one female. The boy was named Kobayashi and was sixteen years old; the girl was named Chiyuki and was seventeen. Their shared trait was a lively personality and the gift of gab.

After a period of training under senior clerk Ayaka, Kobayashi and Chiyuki officially took up their posts. Kobayashi was in charge of the "General Store" on the third floor, Chiyuki handled incense sales on the second floor, and Ayaka managed the sale of Pokéblocks on the first floor.

In addition, Yuga assigned each of them a helper—one Lopunny each—not only to help deal with customers but also to provide backup force in case any customers caused trouble.

As for Suzuki Koen, she was officially promoted to manager of YoYo Day Care, overseeing all employees at both the old and new stores.

Since the New Year had just ended, and given that the store had been closed for several months, YoYo Day Care was flooded with a large number of customers as soon as it reopened. The first few days were so crowded it could practically be described as packed to the brim.

Shortly after YoYo Day Care reopened, the Hoenn League launched a project titled "The Rise of Verdanturf Town."

Soon, the League sent professionals specialized in urban planning and development to Verdanturf Town.

The first part of their plan was to build a north-south highway through Verdanturf Town, connecting Mauville City, the future Verdanturf City, and Rustboro City, forming a triangle-like transport network.

Mauville City was already a major transportation hub in Hoenn, with a well-developed traffic network. Connecting Verdanturf Town to it would mean Verdanturf would also be integrated into that network.

As the saying goes, "To get rich, build roads first." The future development of Verdanturf City would revolve around this new highway.

Actually, Verdanturf Town had already been connected to Mauville and Rustboro through Route 117 and Route 116 respectively, but these two routes had not been well-maintained and had become quite run-down. The League now planned to completely rebuild both roads.

In addition, the League also restructured the agricultural development plans for Verdanturf Town.

Verdanturf Town was originally an agricultural town, and in recent years, due to the rise of specialty agriculture, its tourism industry had been doing quite well. The League didn't intend to abandon this path.

However, to ensure that the town's agricultural development didn't conflict with the League's new support plan for Verdanturf, the League had to reorganize it under a more rational and sustainable model.

Most of these matters were being handled by Mayor Ishida. As an outsider to these affairs, Yuga didn't plan to get too involved.

However, when the officials sent by the League encountered indecision, they would occasionally come to Yuga for advice. After all, Verdanturf Town had earned this development project largely because of Yuga, so his opinions were taken seriously.

While Yuga was leisurely staying in Verdanturf Town, Steven—who had been sent out on a mission by Wallace—was still running all over the place, unable even to return home for the New Year.

It seemed that his resignation as Champion was truly all for nothing.

After several months of traveling and following leads, Steven tracked Athena all the way to the Unova region. For reasons still unknown, Ariana had come into conflict with the local dark organization—Team Plasma.

In just a few months, Ariana had already destroyed several of Team Plasma's bases, yet Team Plasma still couldn't do anything to her.

In the end, Steven decided to hold back and stay put until he figured out the reason behind their conflict.

Meanwhile, due to the ongoing development of Verdanturf Town, Yuga had been communicating with Wallace more and more frequently.

One day during a phone conversation, Wallace suddenly said, "Do you still remember that mission related to Lance?"

"Yeah, what about it? I remember you said you sent Phoebe to follow Lance. Did something go wrong?" Yuga asked, puzzled. He thought to himself: That shouldn't be—Phoebe going up against Lance shouldn't be a problem!

"Ai!" A sigh came from the other end of the phone—Wallace's voice. "Something did go wrong. Phoebe has already been out of contact for several months!"

"Phoebe is missing?!" Yuga said in disbelief. "How come you never mentioned this before?"

"How could the disappearance of a League Elite Four member be something that's casually talked about?" Wallace sighed again.

Upon hearing that, Yuga felt it made sense. The position of an Elite Four in the League held extraordinary significance. News of Phoebe's disappearance indeed couldn't be made public. Then he asked again, "Then why are you telling me?"

Wallace thought for a moment and said, "I want to ask you to help me capture Lance!"

"Capture Lance?"

"Yes. I recently received intelligence that Lance has appeared in Hoenn. Phoebe went missing because she was tracking him. If we can capture him, we might be able to find Phoebe. But this guy is not easy to catch." That's why Wallace had been struggling to find the right person for the job—until he thought of Yuga.

It was also because Phoebe disappeared without a trace—without any warning at all. By the time the League realized something was wrong, it was already too late. Otherwise, things wouldn't have been delayed until now.

"You sure are good at ordering us around," Yuga said irritably. "As I recall, Steven is still out there and hasn't even returned home for New Year's, has he?"

"Cough cough cough..." Wallace let out a few awkward coughs. "Well, they say those who are capable should work more..."

"I don't mind going, but I'm just afraid..." Yuga said with concern in his tone. He had a good relationship with Phoebe—they had even taken down Bridges together. Now that Phoebe's whereabouts were unknown, he was truly worried.

Wallace understood what Yuga hadn't finished saying and sighed quietly. "Yeah... I'm afraid something might have happened to her... You should make a move as soon as possible. The sooner Lance is caught, the better. I'll send you his whereabouts later."

"Got it!"

After speaking, Yuga hung up the phone, but he couldn't shake off the worry he felt for Phoebe.

Soon after, Yuga received the message Wallace had sent over. To his surprise, Lance had appeared in Oldale Town, which wasn't far from Verdanturf Town.

After roughly reading through the intel, Yuga made up his mind—he had to capture Lance, not only to find Phoebe, but also to avenge the great humiliation he suffered at Giovanni's hands.

Yuga had been on the fourth floor in his room when he was on the call with Wallace. After hanging up, he was just about to leave the room when he saw Gothita slowly strolling in while riding on the back of a Cubchoo.

Gothita looked left and right, like a little lord patrolling its territory. Its cute and squishy appearance was utterly adorable.

"How did the two of you end up together?" Yuga asked with a smile.

This Cubchoo was one of the many that had hatched from the eggs Yuga brought back from the snowy region in Kalos, when he helped Aegislash search for its original Trainer.

"Gothita~"

Just as Yuga was about to reach out and pick up Gothita, he didn't expect Gothita to slap his hand away to the side, glaring at Yuga with a face full of "rage."

How dare you! I'm Her Highness the Princess! How could you touch me so casually!

Cubchoo also flung its snot and bared its little teeth at Yuga in a show of defiance—but those big, watery eyes of its had absolutely no intimidating effect.

Speaking of which, it was actually a coincidence that Gothita and Cubchoo even got to know each other.

This morning, Gothita had been playing with Hawlucha for a while, but found it boring, so while its parents and Hawlucha weren't paying attention, it secretly sneaked out of the main Ecopark and unintentionally wandered into the snowy mountain sub-Ecopark.

At that time, in the snowy mountain sub-Ecopark, Weavile was leading Diggersby and the Glaceons—who had always been its rivals—in a fight.

Coincidentally, Cubchoo was napping under a large ice boulder not far from the battlefield. It was affected by the fighting, and the massive ice boulder came crashing down, about to hit the completely unaware Cubchoo.

Weavile and the Glaceons were all shocked by this scene. If Cubchoo were to get hurt because of this incident, Yuga would definitely flay them alive once he found out.

The lesson from Mr. Mime, Clefairy, and Jynx was still fresh in everyone's memory!

At that critical moment, Gothita made a move. It used its Psychic skill to instantly freeze all the falling ice boulders in place.

Gothita was an indigo potential Pokémon, and its mental power was far beyond that of ordinary Psychic-types. Even though it had only just been born not long ago, it had already begun to show its exceptional nature.

It was only then that Cubchoo was startled awake. When it looked up and saw those massive ice boulders mere inches from its face, its soul was almost scared right out of its body.

Because of this life-saving favor, Cubchoo quickly became good friends with Gothita. After learning that Gothita wanted to go out and play, it enthusiastically volunteered to accompany it.

Unlike Gothita, who had just been born and knew nothing about the Ecopark or YoYo Day Care, Cubchoo was already quite familiar with the whole area. It knew which Pokémon were easy to get along with and which ones weren't—everything was crystal clear.

Gothitelle and Alakazam had originally been searching all over for their child, but once they saw that Gothita had Cubchoo with it, they felt reassured and let the two of them go play together.

And so that led to the current scene Yuga was witnessing—the adventure journey of Princess Gothita and her noble mount Cubchoo.

"Gothita~"

Charge!!!

With a wave of its tiny hand, Gothita signaled, and Cubchoo began to gallop around Yuga's room carrying it on its back.

Clop clop~ clop clop~

The floor let out dull thuds beneath Cubchoo's running, while Yuga helplessly followed behind them in pursuit—only making Gothita laugh even harder.