Lucas carried Petilil to the grassy area by the Lake.
"How about you sunbathe here for a while?"
Petilil likes to inhabit soil rich in moisture and nutrients, and the Lake area happened to meet this condition, so Lucas carried Petilil over.
"Laji..."
Petilil weakly nodded her head.
"Alright then, I'll come back to pick you up later and take you home. If you have any problems, you can call me, Gengar, or Machamp."
Lucas set Petilil down. She turned to look around, then closed her eyes and began to sunbathe. Her trimmed leaves, from a distance, looked like an onion growing on the ground.
No longer disturbing the sunbathing Petilil, Lucas and Gengar quietly left. He greeted Machamp, asking him to keep an eye on Petilil.
Machamp gave a thumbs-up. They also liked this new little sister.
"How does it feel to have a new sister?"
Lucas asked, looking at Gengar, who was grinning beside him.
"Koujie?"
Sister?
Gengar's eyes lit up: "Koujie! (ﾉ≧∀≦)ﾉ"
Back in the kitchen, Lucas told Gengar to watch the front counter to avoid missing any customers, while he started preparing today's lunch.
"Gengar, what do you want to eat today?"
When Gengar floated out from the wall, he pointed to two dishes. He decided to start from the beginning and try everything.
After lunch, Lucas and Gengar sat in chairs, dozing off.
The Machamps, meanwhile, were in the back, clearing some uncleared weeds and gravel, and looking after Petilil.
"Rumble~"
The sound of an engine woke Lucas. He glanced out the door and saw Jenny parking her car.
"Taking a nap?"
Jenny walked in, looking at the sleepy Lucas, and chuckled.
"It looks like your Breeding House is open for business?"
Jenny passed the wooden sign, saw its content, and realized the Breeding House was open.
"No customers came, so I just took a nap."
Lucas yawned and replied.
"That's because not many people know there's a Breeding House opening here yet. Trust me, in a few days, you'll be busy."
Jenny patted his shoulder and said, "The pokémon eggs the Alliance sold you have arrived. Take a look."
After she spoke, she had people move the pokémon eggs in. Lucas looked at the pokémon eggs before him, a little surprised.
Such high efficiency.
Lucas checked them one by one, and the status bar also displayed the detailed information of the pokémon eggs.
[Starly's Egg] [Buizel's Egg] [Kricketot's Egg] [Shinx's Egg] [Pachirisu's Egg] [Mime Jr.'s Egg] [Burmy's Egg] [Cherubi's Egg] [Glameow's Egg] [Chingling's Egg]... All of them were Sinnoh Alliance Pokémon, all very common, but for Twinleaf Town, a place without a Gym, they were perfectly sufficient.
After Lucas paid, and after Jenny left, he returned to the incubation room and carefully observed the group of pokémon eggs.
He suddenly remembered that he had a stethoscope whose description seemed to indicate it could observe movement inside pokémon eggs. He asked Gengar for it, put it in his ears, and then gently placed it on the eggshell.
Closing his eyes and quietly sensing, a blurry figure suddenly appeared in his mind, and he saw a small hand move.
[Incubation Progress: 28/30]
"Wow..."
How amazing, Lucas opened his eyes and looked at the Mime Jr.'s Egg before him, exclaiming in surprise.
He could really feel the life inside, and even the incubation progress.
He looked at the stethoscope in his hand, then continued to observe the other pokémon eggs:
[Chingling's Egg] [Incubation Progress: 12/30]
[Pachirisu's Egg] [Incubation Progress: 11/30]
...Is this what a pokémon egg is like...containing new life..."Gengar, you try."
Lucas placed the stethoscope on Gengar's large ear, and then Gengar, imitating Lucas, gently placed it on a pokémon egg, acting even more carefully than Lucas.
After a while, Gengar finished listening.
"How was it? Did you feel it?"
Lucas chuckled.
"Koujie..."
Gengar shook his head.
He patted Gengar's head. Perhaps only he could feel it.
Then he looked at the Mime Jr.'s Egg, which had the fastest incubation progress, and fell into thought.
Mime Jr. evolves into Mr. Mime, a Pokémon as famous as Indeedee. He's a good helper for housework, and his Breeding House just needed a housekeeper, so he would keep this one at the Breeding House.
Lucas nodded lightly, then walked out of the incubation room with Gengar, who was wearing the stethoscope and a white coat. He went to the door to modify the wooden sign, crossing out the parentheses after "pokémon eggs for sale."
Then he quietly waited for customers to arrive.
Until evening, still no customers came.
Lucas stood up, took the wooden sign back, and then closed the door.
He returned to the back, went to the Lake to pick up Petilil and bring her back to the Breeding House, then began preparing today's dinner.
After dinner, Lucas gestured to Gengar. Gengar gave an OK sign, then secretly sneaked out with a shovel and a large flowerpot.
He held Petilil until Gengar returned, then, after instructing Gengar to wash the dishes, they all returned to the bedroom together.
On the bedroom balcony, there was now a flowerpot filled with fertile soil.
Carrying Petilil to the balcony, Lucas placed Petilil in the flowerpot.
"How about staying here tonight?"
Hearing Lucas's words, she glanced at Lucas and Gengar. They were looking at her gently. She had just seen Gengar secretly run to the Lake with a shovel.
This was the soil Gengar brought back for her. She swayed her body.
"Laji..."
"It's alright, Gengar and I are inside, and the Machamps are downstairs, so there's no need to be scared."
Lucas patted her small head and said.
"Koujie~"
Then Petilil closed her eyes.
A gust of wind moved the dark clouds in the sky, completely blocking the moonlight.
"Laji!"
Petilil cried out, waking from a nightmare. She looked at the moonlight obscured by dark clouds, but this time she wasn't afraid of the darkness caused by the blocked moonlight.
She turned around. The warm-toned light in the room enveloped her entire tiny body and the flowerpot beneath her. Lucas was sleeping soundly in the room.
A crimson gaze suddenly lit up on the ceiling.
Petilil turned around, looking at the pitch-black area in front of her, feeling the warmth of the light behind her, recalling everything that had happened today, and what Lucas had told her.
"Koujie~"
She snapped out of it and glanced to the side. Gengar was sitting on the balcony next to the flowerpot, his two small feet dangling gently in the air off the balcony.
He turned his head to look at Petilil, then showed a cute smile.
Petilil didn't speak, and Gengar quietly accompanied her.
After a long while, Petilil spoke:
"Laji?"
Why isn't the light turned off?
"Koujie."
He said you're afraid of the dark.
Gengar swayed his little feet.
After another long while, Petilil continued to speak, though it was unclear what she was saying.
Gengar gently replied. At this moment, another gust of wind blew, cool but not cold, dispersing the clouds that covered the moon. Silver frost once again covered the earth, the balcony, and the flowerpot... Two Pokémon softly conversed in two different tones, one of whose leaves on her head quickly fell off and grew back just as fast, their color a deep emerald green, swaying gently in the wind.