Officer Jenny's efficiency was maxed out. Early the next morning, Kawaki's Daycare received the Pokémon Eggs provided by the Hoenn League.
Officer Jenny helped Kawaki move the eggs to the incubation room on the second floor of the Daycare. This room was equipped with specialized incubators—devices that resembled bird nests, simulating the nests of some avian Pokémon.
During the earlier renovations, Kawaki had installed a total of fifty incubators, and today he used half of them right away.
The Hoenn League had delivered a total of 20 Pokémon Eggs.
The two of them placed the eggs in the incubators together. Officer Jenny said, "Alright, the Hoenn League only has these suitable Pokémon Eggs for now, but they know about your situation. If they have enough Pokémon Eggs in the future, they'll send more over."
"Thanks for all your trouble, Kojun-nee [Sister Kojun]," Kawaki said. After a night of thinking, he felt that constantly calling her "Officer Jenny" was too formal, but calling her "sister"... they weren't actually siblings. After much consideration, this form of address seemed most appropriate.
Officer Jenny was slightly stunned, then her face broke into a smile. "If you need anything later, feel free to come find me anytime."
It was clear she was in a very good mood today.
Kawaki smiled, then extended an invitation: "I just recently opened this place, and I don't have much to thank you with for all your help these past few days. If you don't mind, would you stay for lunch?"
Officer Jenny was quite surprised: "You can cook?"
"Just learned," Kawaki said without changing expression.
Officer Jenny's smile became even brighter: "In that case, I'll really have to look forward to it."
With that, she accepted Kawaki's invitation.
Yesterday afternoon, Kawaki had Bewear take him to Petalburg Town where he bought some fresh ingredients, which would come in handy now.
At lunch, Kawaki simply stir-fried a few dishes, and he sat around the dining table with Bewear, Growlithe, and Officer Jenny to eat together.
Looking at the dishes on the table, Officer Jenny was quite surprised: "Looks like you're not only talented at breeding Pokémon, but also at cooking!"
Kawaki replied: "After all, from now on I'll be living alone—not just me alone, but also with Bewear and Growlithe."
Officer Jenny understood. She used her chopsticks to pick up a piece of mushroom and tasted it, finding the flavor surprisingly good.
"By the way, Kawaki," Officer Jenny looked at the young man across from her and asked, "I have a question I'd like to ask you. Why didn't you want to return to the family back then?"
Surely the Jenny family would have been a better choice than the orphanage, right?
Officer Jenny was quite puzzled about this point.
Kawaki: "..."
He didn't know what the original owner had been thinking either.
After pondering for a moment, Kawaki said: "Because this is the place where I grew up, and Mom and Dad are also in this place... so I didn't want to leave."
In his memories, the original owner would return to check on the Daycare from time to time. He probably really couldn't bear to leave this place!
Officer Jenny nodded and didn't say more.
The two chatted while eating. After lunch, she said goodbye to Kawaki and rode her motorcycle back to Petalburg Town.
After Officer Jenny left, Kawaki went to the incubation room, scanning each of the twenty Pokémon Eggs in front of him.
Immediately, information began floating up in Kawaki's mind.
[Lotad Egg: A Pokémon Egg that can hatch into the Water/Grass-type Pokémon Lotad.]
[Health Level: Healthy]
[Father: Ludicolo (Superior Level)]
[Mother: Tropius (Superior Level)]
"Lotad, huh... Only Superior level..."
Kawaki continued looking down.
[Skitty Egg], [Poochyena Egg], [Zigzagoon Egg], [Wurmple Egg], [Trapinch Egg], [Cacnea Egg], [Chingling Egg], [Wynaut Egg], [Castform Egg]...
They were all very ordinary and common Pokémon Eggs, with quite a few duplicates among them. The strongest parents of the Pokémon in the eggs were only Gym Leader level, and there wasn't a single Champion level among them.
However, for wild Pokémon, these were already quite good.
Kawaki carefully scanned through them all. These eggs had different incubation periods—some as long as two months, others as short as a few days.
For those kids living in the countryside around Petalburg Town, these Pokémon Eggs were already an excellent starting point.
Much better than having them risk countless dangers to capture wild Pokémon in the wilderness.
Now that the Pokémon Eggs had finally arrived, the first person Kawaki thought of was that young man who had come to the Daycare wanting to buy a starter Pokémon Egg.
The boy's name was Youngster Ryo, and he really loved Dragon-type Pokémon.
The Daycare didn't have Dragon-type Pokémon like Dratini or Dragonair, but among this batch of Pokémon Eggs, there was one Pokémon with Dragon typing.
Trapinch.
Although Trapinch was only a Ground-type Pokémon at that stage, when it evolved into Vibrava and then Flygon, its typing would include Dragon-type.
Uh... rounding up, it could be considered a Dragon Pokémon, right?
It should be able to satisfy Youngster Ryo's needs.
With this thought, Kawaki immediately took out the contact information Youngster Ryo had left behind and dialed it using the phone he'd recently installed.
After hearing that the Daycare finally had unhatched Pokémon Eggs, Youngster Ryo immediately rode his bicycle over from Petalburg Town.
"Boss!"
The boy burst through the Daycare's front door with extreme excitement.
Kawaki was behind the counter grooming Growlithe.
As soon as he entered, Youngster Ryo noticed that the Daycare had changed quite a bit since his last visit.
It had become lively!
Last time there had only been the boss, Bewear, and Growlithe—three individuals total. Now there were many Clefairy!
Some were sitting on the sofa resting, some were holding brooms and cleaning, and some were tending to flowers on the windowsills.
So, so many Clefairy!
Youngster Ryo was somewhat shocked. Were these all the boss's Pokémon?
"Long time no see, Youngster Ryo. This morning the Daycare received a new batch of Pokémon Eggs. I wonder if there are any Pokémon you'd like among them." Kawaki stopped grooming Growlithe.
"I want to take a look!" Youngster Ryo said hurriedly.
Kawaki nodded and led Youngster Ryo toward the incubation room. As soon as they entered, Youngster Ryo saw the twenty unhatched Pokémon Eggs placed in the nest-like incubators.
"Wow! So many!"
There were too many to introduce individually. After brief consideration, Kawaki asked: "Do you have any requirements for your starter Pokémon?"
Youngster Ryo: "I want a Dragon-type Pokémon! I really love Dragon Pokémon—they're so cool!"
Seeing this, Kawaki thought to himself, "Just as I expected."
He walked over to the Trapinch egg and introduced: "Among this batch of Pokémon Eggs, only one Pokémon meets your requirements."