After bidding farewell to Flannery, Yuga continued his journey with Floette, Absol, and Chimecho, leveling up as they traveled.
In the afternoon, Yuga, covered in dust from the road, returned to Verdanturf Town with Floette, bathed in the warm glow of the setting sun.
Thanks to their training along the way, Floette was fortunate enough to level up once again, going from level 21 to level 22.
Absol, being over level thirty already, wasn't as easy to level up and remained at level 32.
As for Chimecho, it hadn't participated in battles and its level didn't change, but its skill proficiency had improved quite a bit since it had been using Heal Pulses all along without any interruptions.
Opening the shop door and gazing at the empty shelves and the lush tree, Yuga felt like he had been away for years rather than just a few days.
Yuga made a call to the breeding center and confirmed that the delivery truck hadn't arrived yet. Since it had to take a longer route, even if they were to drive, it wouldn't arrive until the next day.
In the evening, Yuga went to have dinner at Aunt Hisako house, which she had instructed him to do before he returned home.
At Aunt Hisako house, Floette was once again welcomed with enthusiasm by Luna the Little Witch, even though it had teary eyes and looked towards Yuga for help, he ignored its plea.
As for Absol and the others, after preparing Pokémon food for them, Yuga had placed them all in the shop. Although today was their first time at YoYo Day Care, they seemed to like the place, especially the large tree in the shop.
After spending the whole day outside, they were physically and mentally tired. So, after finishing their meal, Absol, Houndour, and Vulpix all collapsed under the tree, closing their eyes and falling asleep.
Murkrow ability is Insomnia, which means it doesn't sleep as much as other Pokémon. It flew up to a branch on the tree and kept its large eyes open, observing the situation inside the shop.
After finishing dinner, Yuga went to find his Uncle Kurosaki for a favor. He wanted some help with something.
Yuga had decided to build an Ecopark, but he didn't know any reliable construction teams, so he sought help from Uncle Kurosaki.
"What! You want to build an Ecopark?"
Uncle Kurosaki was surprised by Yuga words.
"Building an Ecopark isn't that simple. Otherwise, your parents wouldn't have taken so long and still not completed theirs. And with the savings you have and even the compensation from the breeding center, it's probably not enough."
Uncle Kurosaki was insightful. He knew very well how much it would cost to build an Ecopark, and it was definitely something that small, well-off families like theirs couldn't afford.
"Little Yuga, listen to your uncle. Let's not rush into building an Ecopark. Rome wasn't built in a day. Let's wait until business at the Day Care improves a bit before considering this."
Uncle Kurosaki knew that he was saying these things to calm Yuga down. He wanted to discourage him from the idea of building an Ecopark.
The hope of building an Ecopark was slim, and the business at the Day Care wasn't something that would easily turn around.
If the business at the Day Care could have improved earlier, it would have already. Instead, it had been struggling along until now.
But he couldn't just let Yuga open an endless pit due to a momentary impulse.
Building an Ecopark wasn't just about completing the construction. The management of the park environment and the maintenance of its systems would all cost money.
With Yuga current financial situation, building a complete Ecopark was already a problem, let alone the subsequent maintenance and management.
Yuga listened to his uncle well-intentioned advice, feeling somewhat helpless.
With the system he had, he could easily build the external facilities of the Ecopark and let 1314520 handle the management and system setup inside the park. But he couldn't reveal this to Uncle Kurosaki.
"Uncle, I'm not trying to rush things. I just want to build the external facilities of the Ecopark for now. We can take our time with the rest. I'll save up gradually, and eventually, we'll complete the whole project."
Yuga couldn't tell his uncle that with 1314520, he could complete the Ecopark in a short time. So, he had to tell a little white lie.
Uncle Kurosaki pondered for a while, but in the end, he couldn't resist Yuga persuasion and agreed to help.
Kurosaki thoughts were that building some external facilities first would be okay. He believed that once Yuga experienced the taste of failure, he would give up his childish idea. As for the money spent on constructing the external facilities of the Ecopark, he considered it a lesson bought with money. After all, it was Yuga own money, and he was an adult now. Even though he was his uncle, Kurosaki didn't want to intervene too much.
Yuga also took the opportunity to tell Kurosaki about the shop recent renovation, so he wouldn't be clueless the next time he visited.
Kurosaki didn't have any objections to the shop renovation; in fact, he was quite supportive. After all, Yuga brother and sister-in-law had passed away not long ago, so changing the shop environment could help change the mood.
However, he also sighed, realizing that Yuga had indeed grown up. He now had his own ideas, even though some of them might not be fully mature. But it showed that he was facing the world in his own way.
In the past, Yuga wouldn't have bothered with these matters.
After reaching an agreement with Kurosaki, Yuga discussed the details of building the Ecopark. Yuga wasn't very knowledgeable about this area, so most of the time, Kurosaki did the talking while Yuga listened.
Yuga couldn't deny that having someone who had been in society for many years like Kurosaki was helpful. Yuga himself had no issues with social interactions, considering he had lived almost thirty years in his previous life. However, he was still unfamiliar with this world, and most of his knowledge was based on the memories of the original host.
The original host wasn't particularly knowledgeable either; his memories were often unreliable. So, whenever Yuga had something to deal with, he mostly relied on his uncle, Kurosaki.
With everything settled and the matter of hiring a construction team entrusted to Kurosaki, it was getting late. Yuga made his way back home, bathed in the moonlight.
Opening the shop door, everything was pitch dark inside. Suddenly, Yuga spotted a pair of glowing eyes staring directly at him from the darkness, and he was almost scared enough to scream.
Only when he heard a "Murkrow, Murkrow" chirp did Yuga realize those were Murkrow eyes.
Turning on the lights, he found that Absol and the others were still asleep, and only Murkrow was awake and alert.
Floette was also exhausted. It had to deal with battles during the day and Luna at night, so it was completely drained. It flew back to its little nest on the tree and fell asleep in no time.
After reminding Murkrow to rest well, Yuga went upstairs to prepare for sleep.