"Uncle～"
Lucas had just gotten off Latias's back when he saw a red figure throw herself into his arms.
"You're back."
Shauna looked up, a bright smile on her face as she looked at Lucas.
Lucas coughed silently twice, then bent down to pick up the little cannonball. After catching his breath, he smiled, "Did you miss your uncle?"
"Mm."
Shauna nodded heavily, then she saw Celebi perched on top of Lucas's head. "Celebi, you came too."
"Cele~"
Celebi flew up from Lucas's head and landed on Shauna's head.
Shauna giggled, then slid down from Lucas's arms. Just as she was about to take Celebi to play, she noticed Zorua peeking its head out from Zoroark's mane. "Can you play with me?"
Seeing the smile on Shauna's face, Zorua looked at Lucas. Lucas nodded. "Feel free to be yourself at the Breeding House."
Hearing Lucas's words, Zorua jumped out from Zoroark's mane, spun in the air, landed, and transformed into Shauna.
"Heehee."
Shauna's eyes widened, her mouth open in a circle.
Seeing Shauna's shocked expression, Zorua covered its mouth and giggled, looking quite mischievous.
The Pokémon at the Breeding House, like Gengar, either closed their eyes or looked up at the sky when they saw Zorua transform into Shauna.
In the eyes of Lucas and the others, Shauna remained in her state of shock. With her mouth open wide enough to fit a pigeon egg, she naturally threw a right hook, smashing it heavily onto the right cheek of the Zorua that had transformed into her.
Watching Zorua fly backward and revert to its original form, Lucas couldn't help but cover his face.
The reason Shauna threw the punch was that during her time living at the Breeding House, many Pokémon would play pranks on her. For Pokémon who liked to play pranks, Shauna always responded with a heavy punch.
This led to her reflexively throwing a punch even while she was in a state of shock.
Li Oka and Kurute looked at Shauna, who had sent Zorua flying with one punch, then looked at Zoroark. They noticed Zoroark didn't have much of an expression; in fact, it was smiling, its mouth open even wider than Shauna's.
Breeding House — — — — Is this how people greet each other here?
Zorua scrambled up from the ground, shaking its slightly dizzy head, as if it hadn't realized what had happened yet.
"Ah — — — —"
Shauna came back to her senses and hurriedly ran to Zorua's side, picking it up. "Sorry, I'm used to it. I thought you were Aipom and the others — — — —"
Shauna apologized to the Zorua in her arms. As Zorua sniffed the scent radiating from Shauna, it vaguely reminded it of home, and its mother's embrace, making it unable to help but want to rely on her.
"It's okay."
Zorua's voice echoed in Shauna's mind. Shauna's eyes widened again, but she quickly recovered.
"Uncle, can it talk too?"
Lucas nodded.
"Hello, my name is Shauna. What's your name?"
Shauna asked crisply.
"Zorua, you can call me Zorua. I can let you be my friend~"
"That's not right."
Shauna shook her head, and Zorua looked confused.
"It's you who should be asking me to be friends, because I have more friends than you. If we're going to play together, you have to ask me to be your friend."
"???"
Following a long string of words from Shauna, Zorua nodded in a daze.
"Then can I be friends with you?"
Shauna nodded with satisfaction. "Of course. Let's go play. I'll introduce you to my other friends."
With that, Shauna ran past everyone with Celebi on her head, Zorua in her arms, and Chingling on her shoulder.
At this moment, Lucian also walked into the backyard from the entrance. Seeing Lucas and the others, he asked, "The manager is back?"
"Yo, Lucian, you haven't gone back to work yet?!"
Lucas was extremely surprised the moment he saw Lucian. Did he have such a long vacation this time?
Lucian smiled and greeted Ash and the others when he saw them, then looked at Lucas. "I'm leaving in a couple of days."
"Your vacation is this long?"
Lucian was holding a cup of tea. He took a sip, then said naturally, "I skipped work for a few days."
Lucas: — — — —
Heavens! Lucian actually skipped work?!
Seeing Lucas's exaggerated expression, Lucian continued, "I learned a principle at the Breeding House."
"What?"
Lucas was puzzled.
Lucian took another sip of tea and said, "I think it's time to train the work capabilities of those two guys, Flint and Aaron. So, I've been staying at the Breeding House these past few days, teaching them how to handle affairs remotely. I've simply handed over all the relatively simple tasks to them."
Lucian straightened his smooth, long purple hair. "They've improved a lot, and they've handled many tasks very well. So, as a reward, I've decided to let them handle tasks for a few more days."
"You're rewarding yourself, aren't you?"
Lucas narrowed his eyes, looking at Lucian suspiciously.
Lucian didn't feel embarrassed at all. "I deserve it."
"If I don't rest any longer, all my hair will fall out."
"You don't need to worry about that."
Lucas interrupted him. "Lucian-san, Gothitelle and I have long developed a type of herbal medicine that is very effective for hair. If you need it, I can let you try it tonight."
Lucian's eyes lit up. "Please, by all means, let me try. Please."
"Small matter."
Lucas snapped his fingers and led everyone to the garden to sit down.
Lilligant returned to the front counter to sit and guard the Breeding House. Having been away for a few days, it missed this spot.
Gothitelle went to the kitchen to prepare afternoon tea with Alcremie.
Ninetales lay at Lucas's feet as usual, while Dash put on his backpack and, without pausing, took an order and headed to Twinleaf Town.
"Nin Nin!"
Make money, make money!
After venting during the Gym battle, Dash felt light and full of energy.
Gengar and Latias went off to play with Shauna and the others.
Lapras returned to the Lake area to tell its sister about what had happened over the past few days.
After listening to Ash and the others finish talking about what happened in Crown City, Lucian pushed up his glasses.
"I see. So it was a Zorua created through projection, which was then used to threaten Zoroark into transforming into the Legendary Beasts to create panic in the city, driving everyone out so they could complete their goal?"
Lucian sorted out the sequence of events, and Ash nodded.
"In the end, the real Legendary Beasts came too, but fortunately, the manager and Gengar and the others stopped them."
Listening to Ash, Lucian looked at Suicune lying by the Lake in the distance, as well as Entei standing in the rocky area and Raikou on the roof.
They were all Shinny.
Lucian looked at the Legendary Beasts, all of which were Shinny, and thought to himself.
The manager's strength has indeed become much stronger.
"Manager, I will report this to the League later. It won't be long before the League issues rewards to you and the Breeding House for this."
Lucas waved his hand. "No need to be polite."
"Just transfer the money to my account."
Lucian laughed. "Money cannot measure the value of what you have done."
"Crem~"
Tea and snacks are here~