Chapter 757: Celebration
Not long after Yuga's Pokémon Paradise was fully established, it was time for the New Year's celebration.
This year marked Yuga's second New Year since arriving in the Pokémon world, and there were more family members than in previous years, making the atmosphere even livelier.
Just like last year, Yuga invited his aunt's family to celebrate the New Year together.
This year, Yuga's aunt had become an employee in his store, and she had been a great help.
In addition to them, Yuga also invited Uncle Kate and Rand.
Uncle Kate could be considered half of Yuga's employee now, and the father and son were alone at home during the New Year. Since there were already so many people in Yuga's house, he decided to invite them along.
Those who stayed at the YoYo Day Care for the New Year included Beidou, Akihito, and Anya, the brothers and sisters, Windy, Suzuki Koen and her son. Along with Yuga, his aunt, uncle, Luna, and Uncle Kate and Rand, there were a total of 17 people celebrating together.
Misaki and Arata Sena had returned to their own homes, and Lain had gone back to Mauville City to be with Ryuichi.
Yuga had thought about inviting his mentor and Ryuichi to celebrate the New Year in Verdanturf Town, but his mentor wasn't willing.
Before the New Year, he had gone to the temple alone, leaving Ryuichi and Lain in Mauville City to take care of the manor.
The temple still housed some of the older Pokémon from their lineage, and according to Ryuichi, his mentor visited them every year.
Most Grass-type Pokémon were long-lived, so there were quite a few living on the island where the temple was located. However, they rarely appeared in public.
Because there were so many people celebrating together, Yuga decided to have the New Year's Eve dinner at the Gym. The Gym had plenty of space, and it could easily accommodate over a dozen people for a meal.
During the New Year, there were no challenges at the Gym, so the Gym staff had all gone home to celebrate.
Preparing the New Year's Eve dinner was done mainly by Audino, Yuga, and his aunt.
Of course, Yuga and his aunt were just helping Audino; he was the main chef. Yuga and his aunt could only make some home-cooked dishes, while the feast relied on Audino's expertise.
Everyone had dinner together and stayed up late playing games until the early hours of the morning.
During the New Year, Yuga had a lot of free time because the YoYo Day Care was temporarily closed for business. The Pokémon didn't need to train during the New Year, and there were no challengers at the Gym, so this was the most leisurely time of the year for him.
However, on the first day of the New Year, Verdanturf Town held its own event. Every year on this day, the town would host a celebration to pray for peace in the coming year.
In previous years, the event had been organized and hosted by Mayor Ishida. This year, Verdanturf Town had its own Gym Leader, so Mayor Ishida invited Yuga to participate as one of the hosts of the celebration.
Verdanturf Town was considered an agricultural town. While it couldn't compete with the more famous Fallarbor Town in terms of agricultural production, it still primarily relied on agriculture.
Thanks to the Grass-type Pokémon from YoYo Day Care, Verdanturf Town had a bountiful harvest in agricultural production this year. Everyone was grateful to Yuga and the YoYo Day Care.
The lower potential Grass-type Pokémon from YoYo Day Care weren't expensive, costing only a few thousand Pokédollar each. As a result, almost everyone involved in agricultural production in Verdanturf Town had a Grass-type Pokémon purchased from YoYo Day Care.
Furthermore, due to the establishment of the Gym, Verdanturf Town had seen an increase in the influx of outsiders, leading to improved business in the town.
Thanks to Yuga and YoYo Day Care, Verdanturf Town had become more prosperous.
Verdanturf Town's celebration could be considered a community event. Yuga had also participated last year, but he hadn't been very involved, so he didn't feel much about it.
However, after actively participating this year, Yuga truly felt like a part of Verdanturf Town.
The celebration included a large parade, dance and acrobatics performances, New Year's wishes, early-year shrine visits, and an evening fireworks display, among other things. In addition to these major activities, there were also many lively smaller events.
As one of the hosts of the celebration, Yuga was quite busy, so he didn't have much time to relax. Nevertheless, he found the experience very fulfilling.
During the New Year's celebration in Verdanturf Town, many trainers who had traveled outside the town had returned. This year, Mayor Ishida organized a special battle competition as an additional event for the celebration, open to all young trainers in Verdanturf Town.
As YoYo Day Care had developed, more children in Verdanturf Town had begun their journeys as trainers this year. Mayor Ishida arranged this competition with the hope that these young trainers would persist in their path. The growth of a place's trainer population was a sign of its true development.
The judges for the competition were Yuga, Liliana, and Joyka. Mayor Ishida wished that the children of Verdanturf Town could follow Yuga's example and become strong and responsible trainers.
Before the competition, Mayor Ishida praised Yuga extensively during his speech, making Yuga, who was sitting in the judges' seats, want to turn and leave, much to the amusement of Joyka and Liliana.
The overall skill level of trainers in Verdanturf Town wasn't very high, especially among the young participants in this competition.
Yuga also saw Kazuma, who had once applied for a deferred payment plan at their Day Care, along with his brother, Shin.
Kazuma had paid off his debt to YoYo Day Care a long time ago, and his Trapinch had evolved into a Flygon, making him stand out among the participants.
His brother Shin also had decent skills. While he didn't have high potential Pokémon in his hands, his Pokémon had a solid foundation.
Besides Kazuma and his brother, Yuga also saw his former classmate, Eisuke.
Eisuke was now considered an old customer of YoYo Day Care, as he regularly bought Pokéblocks from them.
After buying an Pokéblock from YoYo Day Care once, he realized that the quality of the Pokéblocks here was outstanding, and the prices were reasonable. So, he became a member of YoYo Day Care's fan base.
Like Yuga, Eisuke had also started his journey as a trainer midway. However, he had started earlier than Yuga.
Yuga had only heard that he had become a trainer but didn't know the specifics of his strength until now. He was quite impressive!
No wonder he chose to become a trainer midway; his talent was indeed remarkable. He had a powerful Starmie.
To be honest, it was a bit awkward for Yuga to serve as a judge for a competition where his former classmate was participating, but he had no choice since he had agreed to it, and he was quite well-known now.
The first-place prize for this competition was a green potential Hoppip, sponsored for free by Yuga on behalf of YoYo Day Care.
Verdanturf Town rarely had such activities, and Yuga, like Mayor Ishida, hoped to stimulate the energy of the trainers in Verdanturf Town.
In YoYo Day Care's sales of Grass-type Pokémon, green potential Hoppips or Oddishs were seldom available because, although the Ecopark had many of these two species, most of them had yellow potential.
Most of the lower potential Pokémon available at YoYo Day Care were these two species. The better ones were kept for breeding. Yuga's willingness to provide one for free was also part of promoting YoYo Day Care.
Only one chapter today; I apologize as I have some family matters to attend to and haven't had the time and focus to update in the past few days.
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