Wild Bull Club

Time flew by, and before long, Ninetales and Spoink had been away filming for quite some time.

During this period, Yuga occasionally kept in touch with Diantha to check on how Ninetales and Spoink were doing on set.

The filming was going smoothly, and Ninetales and Spoink were thriving there—especially Ninetales. Although it wasn't the friendliest, everyone liked it.

Diantha said that Ninetales had real talent for acting and would probably have a great chance at becoming famous someday. Yuga was noncommittal; fame wasn't a priority. It wasn't like they relied on Ninetales to support the household.

In fact, Spoink's scenes had already wrapped up, but it refused to come back, insisting on staying until Ninetales finished filming so they could return together. Normally, they squabbled like there was no tomorrow, but now they were pretending to be the best of friends.

One day, Yuga called Diantha again to chat a bit about how Ninetales and Spoink were doing. After that call, he received another one—from Professor Oak.

A while ago, Audino had asked him to get a batch of Shuckle to make juices, so Yuga had contacted Professor Oak, and finally, there was news today.

Yuga didn't have high standards for the Shuckle; they were purely for juice production, so their quality didn't really matter. As a result, Professor Oak didn't have too much trouble finding someone willing to trade Shuckle.

The person willing to trade was the owner of a juice factory. However, instead of a monetary trade, they wanted to exchange Shuckle for some Miltank upon learning that Yuga was a daycare owner.

The juice factory was currently working on developing a new product that required Moomoo Milk.

The owner of the factory did have a herd of Miltank himself, but his stock of Moomoo Milk was too limited to meet the needs of both research and production.

After listening to Professor Oak explain the owner's terms, Yuga immediately agreed. He had never sold Miltank from his ecopark before, and after years of breeding, there were now quite a few. With someone willing to trade Shuckle for them, it would save him the hassle.

After negotiating with the other side, Yuga selected a batch of young Miltank that were currently in their milking period to exchange for the Shuckle that Audino needed.

This batch totaled fifty Shuckle, with generally ranging between red and orange potential, so Yuga settled them all into the new ecopark.

With these Shuckle on hand, Audino started frequenting the new ecopark, and before long, customers at the Paradise Restaurant noticed a new drink on the menu.

This new beverage became incredibly popular in the restaurant, earning Yuga yet another stream of income.

After clearing out a batch of Miltank, Yuga began thinking about handling another batch of Tauros.

Originally, Yuga brought in Tauros to solve the "lifelong matters" of the Miltank in his ecopark. Over time, as the Miltank population grew, so did the number of Tauros. Now that the surplus Miltank had a place to go, it was naturally time for the surplus Tauros to be dealt with as well.

When Tauros and Miltank were first introduced, their potential were fairly average, and even after all this time, only a few high-potential Miltank and Tauros had been born.

Since Verdanturf Town started using riding Pokémon as public transportation, YoYo Day Care had donated some Tauros to the town's transportation department. However, there were still some leftover Tauros in the ecopark.

But Yuga already had a plan for where to send these Tauros.

In the Pokémon world, there are also competitive sports, one of which is Pokémon riding competitions. Riders can compete by riding specified Pokémon, similar to racing in Yuga's previous life.

The species allowed for riders to compete on are fixed, with some common choices being Rhydon, Gogoat, Tauros, and Rapidash.

Among them, Rhydon riders are the rarest. Yuga recalled that in the original anime, Serena's mother was a Rhydon rider.

Unlike the car racing in Yuga's previous life, in order to ensure fairness, the Pokémon used in riding competitions are usually provided by the organizers, rather than by the riders themselves.

This is because riding competitions test the rider's skills, not the Pokémon's strengths or weaknesses.

Riding competitions are organized by riding clubs, each of which trains its own riding Pokémon and riders to compete in events.

Naturally, high-potential Pokémon aren't used for training as riding Pokémon, as clubs have to consider costs. Nowadays, most riding competitions explicitly forbid high-potential Pokémon from participating.

The ban on high-potential Pokémon is not only to prevent clubs from blindly pursuing high-level riding Pokémon, turning riding competitions into showcases of expensive Pokémon, but also to emphasize the rider's skill to the fullest extent.

Of course, even low-potential Pokémon have their differences, but this rule generally ensures fairness in competition.

The cost is what limits Rhydon from becoming a mainstream riding Pokémon.

Imagine if, after all the training, the Rhydon evolved—then the club would suffer a huge loss! Once Rhydon evolves, it is no longer suitable as a riding Pokémon.

If a riding Pokémon that has required so much time, money, and effort to train suddenly becomes unusable, the financial loss alone would be devastating, not to mention the frustration.

Rapidash, Tauros, and Gogoat don't have these worries.

In fact, Tauros and Rapidash are still the mainstream riding Pokémon. While Gogoat is well-suited as a riding Pokémon, it serves another purpose too—just like Miltank, it can produce milk.

The grass-flavored milk produced by Gogoat, called Gogoat Milk, has many uses and sells very well on the market. For this reason, people generally raise Gogoat for milk production, not for training as riding Pokémon.

Riding Pokémon are not irreplaceable, and since Gogoat isn't mandatory for riding, it doesn't enjoy the same popularity as Tauros and Rapidash.

Still, the Rhydon riding competition, although a non-mainstream event, persists because it is the most challenging and thrilling of all the riding competitions.

Riding competitions are divided into categories. There's a separate competition for Rapidash racing and another for Tauros racing; you won't find a Tauros rider mixed into a Rapidash event.

Therefore, there are many types of riding clubs, including mixed-type and single-type clubs.

Mixed-type clubs train multiple kinds of riding Pokémon and participate in various riding events, while single-type clubs focus on training only one type of riding Pokémon and compete in only one specific event. Both types of clubs have their advantages.

This time, Yuga planned to sell his Tauros to a single-type riding club that specializes in training Tauros riders, and he had already set his sights on a specific one.

Between Verdanturf Town and Mauville City, there is a pasture, which serves as the training base for the Mad Bull Club's Tauros riding program.

A few years ago, the Mad Bull Club held a high reputation in the riding competition field, especially in the Hoenn region, and often won awards in major tournaments.

However, in recent years, signs of decline have appeared, and they haven't won a competition for a long time. They haven't taken home a gold medal—or even a bronze—in recent years.

But Yuga had specifically looked into it and learned that this club was well-regarded for its reputation and for treating its riding Pokémon with care, which was why he chose them.

Of course, just because Yuga had chosen them didn't mean they would immediately agree to work with YoYo Day Care. Business is always a matter of mutual agreement, so Yuga still needed to negotiate the deal himself.

He found out that the Mad Bull Club recently planned to introduce a batch of new Pokémon, though he wasn't sure what they had in mind, so he decided to go in person. Beforehand, Yuga contacted them, received their approval, and then brought ten selected Tauros to the club's pasture.

Although these ten Tauros weren't high-potential Pokémon, Yuga had carefully selected each one, and each surpassed others of its kind in endurance and running speed.

Tauros competitions differ slightly from Rapidash competitions.

Rapidash has great bursts of speed and incredible velocity, so the competition places more emphasis on speed, with shorter tracks. Tauros, of course, can't match Rapidash's sprinting speed; they're slower but have better endurance, so their tracks are longer.

Thus, training Tauros for competition requires a focus on both speed and endurance.

Moreover, the Tauros Yuga selected were all young and had high potential for development.

Yuga traveled on his Charizard since his Dragonite and the others were off in the Distortion World again and wouldn't be home for a while.

Although the Mad Bull Club's pasture lies between Mauville City and Verdanturf Town, it's slightly closer to Verdanturf Town, so Yuga reached his destination in just half a day.

Since he had informed them in advance, the person in charge of the pasture was already at the gate waiting for him with a small group of people when he arrived.

Only someone with Yuga's unique status would even get a chance to meet with the Mad Bull Club; otherwise, they might not bother with visitors.

While Yuga didn't intend to use his status to pressure them, it certainly brought him great convenience.

"Hello, everyone, I hope I'm not causing too much trouble," Yuga said to the group from the Mad Bull Club. "Are you Mr. Fostor?"

Mr. Fostor, the middle-aged man leading the group, was also the person in charge of the pasture and managed all of the Tauros there.

Just before Yuga arrived, he had been checking on the Tauros' health, and his clothes were still covered in bits of grass.

"It's an honor to have you here, Gym Leader Shimizu. It's no trouble at all. Would you like us to give you a tour of our pasture first?" Mr. Fostor asked with a broad smile.

Yuga nodded. "Alright, thank you."

At that moment, he noticed a young boy beside Mr. Fostor sneaking glances at him.

Meeting the boy's gaze, Yuga smiled warmly at him, but the boy, like a startled rabbit, quickly looked away.

Am I really that scary? Yuga thought to himself.

Fostor noticed the boy's reaction and, while leading the way, explained to Yuga, "This is the boss's son. Don't let his age fool you; he's actually one of our club's top riders!"

Yuga was surprised. He hadn't expected this timid-looking boy to have such an impressive status.

"H-Hello, my name is… Ray," the boy stammered, blushing as he greeted Yuga, his voice barely above a whisper, like the hum of a mosquito.

"Hello," Yuga replied, doing his best to appear less intimidating. Although he was tall, he considered himself handsome and hadn't expected to frighten someone today.

The Wild Bull Club's pasture was enormous, and under Fostor's guidance, Yuga soon saw Tauros galloping freely across the field.

Regardless of their qualifications, these Tauros were indeed impressive in appearance, clearly well-cared-for and meticulously trained.

However, Yuga noticed that the number of Tauros here was far fewer than he'd expected. After a bit of explanation from Fostor, Yuga learned that only elite Tauros could remain at the pasture; all of the Tauros here had been rigorously selected for competition.

After they toured the grounds, Yuga asked in confusion, "Are there only Tauros here? How are their physiological needs handled?" After all, Tauros were known for going into heat easily.

Fostor explained, "We strictly control the breeding frequency of competitive Tauros. Excessive breeding can negatively impact their performance on the track, so we don't keep any female Pokémon here to avoid disrupting their training."

Yuga nodded in understanding.

Fostor continued to share information about competitive Pokémon in the riding world, giving Yuga more insight.

It turned out that if the Wild Bull Club saw potential in Tauros like the ones Yuga had brought, they would train them according to competitive standards, but these Tauros would not actually compete.

The Tauros they brought in would serve as breeding Pokémon, much like high-potential Pokémon in Yuga's day care.

Once the Tauros had undergone training and produced offspring, their offspring would then be trained, and so on. After three to four generations, only then would a Tauros have the chance to become a competitive Pokémon.

Yuga was dumbfounded upon hearing this; he realized he had been naive, as he hadn't anticipated that the selection process for competitive Pokémon would be so stringent.

Fostor explained that this meticulous approach served two purposes: to ensure the purity of the competitive Pokémon's bloodline and to create a subtle influence from one generation to the next.

Although competitive Pokémon don't require the same qualifications as those trained by individual Trainers, cultivating a high-potential competitive Pokémon still demands an extraordinary investment of time, money, and energy.

Yuga felt that this process was a kind of "internal competition."

Even though official rules prohibit high-potential Pokémon from competing, clubs still find other ways to compete—this time over "appearance" and "bloodline."

The competitive service life of these Pokémon is short. After retirement, the Tauros here on the pasture become breeding Pokémon. During their competitive years, they are not allowed to breed freely, but once retired, they can do as they please.

Although Yuga was unfamiliar with this industry, he was greatly affected by what he'd heard from Fostor, feeling that his decision to come had been rather impulsive.

After seeing the Tauros showing off their strength in the arena, Yuga noticed a small group of Tauros lying listlessly in a corner.

"Mr. Fostor, what's the matter with those Tauros? Why do they seem so unenergetic?" Yuga asked curiously.

Fostor sighed deeply and replied, "That's been giving me a headache. Lately, Tauros have started to act like this for no apparent reason. This is almost the twentieth one."

"I had a Pokémon doctor check on them, but he only said they were weak, with no other issues. We provide them with the best food and scientifically sound training. They aren't sick, so how could they be weak?"

Yuga also found this puzzling. Surely, it couldn't be from… too much mating right?