The Idea of Compensation

You could say that most Pokémon are simple creatures. As long as their little Tentacool could be healed, the Tentacruel couple would agree to any of Yuga's requests. And thus, the conflict was resolved by Yuga.

When Yuga arrived at the Pokémon Center with the Tentacruel couple and the little Tentacool, Joyka had just finished healing Eelektross.

"Perfect timing. The Eelektross you sent over with Dragonite is all better now. Take it back and let it rest for a while, and it'll fully recover," Joyka said as she and her Blissey wheeled Eelektross out on a cart.

At that moment, Eelektross had already woken up. Yuga looked at it and said, "I saved you and even helped you resolve your grudge with the Tentacruel. How do you plan on repaying me?"

Hearing that the feud between itself and the Tentacruel had been settled, Eelektross showed a look of surprise, but soon after, its expression turned confused. It wasn't until Yuga explained the terms he had negotiated with the Tentacruel that Eelektross finally understood.

"I don't think you have much to offer me as thanks, so how about joining me?" Yuga suggested, taking the opportunity. He was well-practiced in "demanding repayment" for his help.

Eelektross thought about it for a while but didn't agree right away, as it was concerned about its subordinates.

Upon hearing its concern, Yuga reassured it, "Don't worry, I'll take good care of your fellow Pokémon."

Although none of the young Eelektross in the group had potential that caught his eye, since the leader Eelektross had agreed to follow him, Yuga would ensure it had no lingering concerns.

Besides, he still had the Innovation Potion, and among the young Eelektross, there were a few with yellow potential. Surely he could manage to upgrade a few to green.

With Yuga's assurance, Eelektross agreed to follow him. A life-saving favor deserved such repayment—there was nothing wrong with that!

Joyka, who had been listening to Yuga's conversation with Eelektross, was baffled. Seeing this, Yuga explained the situation at the Sunflora Power Plant to her. After hearing it, Joyka laughed, "You quietly went off and handled another big problem!"

The young Eelektross were not opposed to their leader following Yuga. Earlier, Yuga's actions in facing off against the Tentacruel alone had convinced them that he was someone worth "entrusting their future to."

Yuga had Dragonite escort Eelektross and the young Eelektross back to the YoYo Day Care first, and then he returned to the power plant. They were still waiting for the situation to be resolved there!

When Yuga returned to the power plant, the manager was overjoyed to learn that the issue had been handled and thanked him profusely. Unable to bear the manager's overwhelming gratitude, Yuga quickly explained what had happened and then intended to head straight back to YoYo Day Care.

However, as he was leaving the power plant, he noticed a large group of people gathered on the grass of the ranch, seemingly arguing about something.

Normally, Yuga wouldn't get involved in such matters, but he saw that Salamence was the one surrounded, so he had no choice but to approach. From a distance, he could see the menacing look on Salamence's face, as if it was about to incinerate the crowd with Flamethrower at any moment.

"What's going on here? Why are you all gathered around?" Yuga asked as he pushed his way through the crowd.

"Isn't that Gym Leader Shimizu? Gym Leader Shimizu is here!"

Some people in the crowd recognized Yuga immediately and called out his identity. Those who didn't recognize him soon understood when they heard the words "Gym Leader Shimizu."

Mr. Harrison was among the group. Yuga turned to him and asked, "Mr. Harrison, what happened?"

Before Mr. Harrison could respond, Shelgon rushed over, nuzzling against Yuga in a pitiful manner, and began to recount the events.

Earlier today, Shelgon had been on the hillside learning skills from its father when a group of tourists suddenly appeared. One of the tourists, upon seeing Shelgon, immediately tried to capture it.

Shelgon is destined to become a pseudo-legendary Pokémon—what Trainer wouldn't be tempted? Unfortunately for this person, they lacked the skill. Salamence, the boss, hadn't even made a move, and this individual was already beaten black and blue by Shelgon. After losing the battle, they tried to get their companions to gang up on Shelgon.

At this moment, Mr. Harrison, who had been tending to Sunflora nearby, noticed the commotion and immediately rushed over to inform the group that Shelgon already had a Trainer.

But Mr. Harrison didn't expect these people to be so shameless. They assumed Mr. Harrison was Shelgon's owner and demanded compensation for their injuries, making outrageous claims. It was obvious they were trying to take advantage of Mr. Harrison's age to extort him.

Could Mr. Harrison tolerate such behavior? Even though Shelgon wasn't his, he couldn't stand these people's lies. So, an argument broke out.

After listening to Shelgon's account, Yuga looked up and scanned the crowd surrounding Salamence and Mr. Harrison. The group was startled by Yuga's gaze and instinctively took two steps back.

"Shelgon is my Pokémon. Who here got injured and needs compensation? Step forward so I can take a look!"

Hearing Yuga's words, the group fell silent, too embarrassed to speak. One young man, in particular, looked pale and trembling, pitifully scared.

Seeing no one speaking up, Yuga asked again, "Why isn't anyone stepping forward? Didn't you ask for compensation? I'm right here, so why isn't anyone saying anything?"

At this point, who would dare step forward? Offending Yuga could ruin their reputation in the Trainer community.

Seeing that no one was going to come forward, Yuga let out a cold snort, causing the group to shiver again.

"Since no one wants compensation, leave at once and stop disturbing the ranch staff!" Yuga said icily.

Upon hearing this, the group felt as though they had been pardoned and hastily left the ranch in a flurry.

To Yuga, this incident was just a minor episode—he didn't take it to heart at all. After thanking Mr. Harrison, he returned to the YoYo Day Care.

The first thing Yuga did upon returning to YoYo Day Care was, of course, to resolve the electrical energy issue in the little Tentacool's body, to avoid the Tentacruel couple thinking he was trying to deceive an innocent Pokémon.

Yuga took the family of three to the shallow seaside zone of the reserve and called on Dragonite. Together, Yuga and Dragonite used their special abilities and the power of the Yellow Orb to successfully eliminate the stubborn electrical energy in Tentacool's body.

Without the burden of electrical energy, Tentacool still appeared frail, but its vitality was immediately different. Only then did the Tentacruel couple fully trust Yuga.

"The chronic problem in Tentacool's body has been removed, but to fully restore its health, it will need a lot of nutritional supplements, which I'm sure you don't have. But don't worry, I'll help you. Your family can stay here and rest assured," Yuga said, sounding righteous as he addressed the Tentacruel couple.

At this point, the Tentacruel couple believed Yuga completely, not realizing his "ulterior motives." Of course, Yuga was someone who honored his promises. He provided Tentacool with a series of items that could help restore its health: energy cubes, Moomoo Milk, Honey, Pollen Puffs…

Next, it was time to handle Eelektross and the Tunamo.

Audino went to the lab to get the Innovation Potion and administered it to the yellow potential Tynamo. As for those below yellow potential, they were ignored.

From Yuga's perspective, Pokémon below yellow potential wouldn't improve much even with upgrades, so it wasn't worth wasting resources on them.

After counting earlier, Yuga found there were just over 200 Tynamo, with only around ten having yellow potential. After using the Innovation Potion, only five successfully advanced to green potential.

Audino escorted the five newly green potential Tynamo and Eelektross to the shallow seaside zone, where they trembled upon seeing the Tentacruel family.

Realizing they would have to live with the Tentacruel family from now on, Eelektross and the Tynamo felt their future looked bleak.

The Tentacruel couple, upon seeing Eelektross, gritted their teeth in anger. Although they had agreed to settle their grudge with Eelektross at Yuga's request, seeing it in person made it hard to suppress their rage.

Fortunately, the couple only glared at Eelektross fiercely without taking any actual action.

Out of fear of the Tentacruel couple, Eelektross and the five Tynamo cautiously settled in the spot farthest from them. Coincidentally, this was also the residence of a few Shellos, marking the beginning of a new connection.

With the addition of Eelektross and the Tynamo, Yuga's progress toward completing his side mission advanced yet another step.

As for the remaining Tynamo, Yuga assigned them to the patrol team. Their thumb-sized bodies made them perfect for the role.

Though they are fish, Tynamo don't necessarily live solely in water. In the Unova region, they can often be found in electricity-filled areas on land, like caves. Their Levitate ability is their greatest asset for surviving on land.

The small, fast-moving Tynamo provided a different kind of support for the patrol team compared to Ghost-type Pokémon or Persian.

After the successful collaboration between the Verdanturf Town Police Station and Persian in the Rattata and Raticate capture operation, Yuga appointed the Tynamo as patrol Pokémon while also forming a partnership with the police station.

From now on, the Tynamo would become an integral part of Verdanturf Town's public security, with 200 of them secretly spread throughout the town.

Tourists visiting Verdanturf Town soon heard a rumor: in the shadows of the town, a mysterious group of watchers existed, and if you dared to commit any wrongdoing, the police would soon be knocking on your door.

But that's a story for another time.

The Tynamo in the patrol team were marked with a special emblem to prevent them from being accidentally captured. Though their small size and speed made them difficult to spot, the possibility of such an event wasn't entirely impossible.

After resolving the situation between Eelektross and the Tentacruel couple, Yuga enjoyed a couple of days of peace. He didn't give up monitoring Honoka, but to his surprise, she hadn't taken any action in the past two days, as if she had given up on buying the two Raticate.

Now Yuga could only hope the White Light Intelligence Agency would quickly uncover the results of their investigation. Whether Honoka's actions were connected to Kanda or not, he wanted an answer soon.

On this day, Yuga invited Dawn's mother, Aunt Johanna, to YoYo Day Care.

Yes, Aunt Johanna had come to Verdanturf Town again for work. The last time she came was for a pre-event planning meeting, but this time, the event had officially begun.

Previously, because the event details were not public, Yuga didn't know what the event jointly planned by the Sinnoh and Hoenn Contest Spectacular officials entailed. But now that it had started, Yuga naturally knew.

However, this time Dawn didn't come along because she had already set out on her journey. Yuga learned about this and invited Aunt Johanna over as a result.

"Aunt Johanna, today I invited you here to discuss something," Yuga said, getting straight to the point.

"Go ahead, tell me. No need to be so formal with me," Aunt Johanna replied. Over time, their relationship had become much more familiar compared to when they first met.

"It's like this: Since Dawn has also started her journey, I want to prepare a Pokémon for her."

Yuga had a reason for this. Logically speaking, Dawn's grandmother's side of the family, particularly her great-aunt, had inheritance rights to Yuga's grandfather's YoYo Day Care. Back in the day, Yuga's grandfather and great-aunt were the only two left in the family, and there wasn't any rule preventing women from inheriting family businesses.

So, in theory, half of the YoYo Day Care should have belonged to his great-aunt. But after she married into Sinnoh, she never mentioned it. Now that Yuga knew about it, he naturally felt he should offer something in compensation to her descendants.

Of course, this small compensation was nothing compared to the current YoYo Day Care. But Yuga had built up the YoYo Day Care little by little, so giving it away was out of the question. The only thing he could think of was this gesture.

Yuga planned to give Dawn a Pokémon with blue potential.

Pokémon with blue potential were incredibly valuable. Back during the auction in Kalos, a blue potential Finneon was sold for over 4.3 million, and a blue potential Growlithe was auctioned off for 13 million, purchased by Malva.

So, a well-chosen blue potential Pokémon could easily be worth half of what Day Care was when it had fallen on hard times before Yuga took over, when it wasn't worth much at all.

"That's not acceptable!" Aunt Johanna immediately objected when she heard Yuga's words. "How can Dawn accept such an expensive gift for no reason? Absolutely not!"

"Aunt Johanna, don't be so quick to refuse!" Yuga then explained the reason he wanted to prepare a Pokémon for Dawn.

"Even so, it's still not acceptable!" Aunt Johanna remained firmly opposed even after hearing the explanation. "If your great-aunt didn't bring it up back then, we shouldn't bring it up now either. She must have had her own reasons for staying silent."

Yuga hadn't expected Aunt Johanna to be so stubborn. He continued to persuade her, "Well, at the very least, I count as Dawn's cousin, right? Is it not okay for me to give my cousin a starter Pokémon as a gift? I gave Luna a gift before. She's also my cousin, so it wouldn't be fair to treat them differently!"

"That's not the same!" Aunt Johanna silently grumbled in her heart, "Luna is your proper cousin, but Dawn is more of a distant relative."

Luna was currently on break at home, and since Aunt Johanna had met her before, she naturally knew who she was.