While Snivy continued practicing the dual-form technique of Leaf Tornado, Hayashi Kaede pulled out a stool from the storage ball and sat down with his phone, beginning to browse.
He wasn't slacking off—he was searching for merchants who might buy his crops.
Hayashi Kaede planned to store up the current harvests from the plantation and combine them with the season's other peaches and oranges to produce detoxification and physical energy blocks. These would be easier to preserve and could also be sold as goods through the cultivation center.
Some would be set aside for Takagi-ojii-san.
The rest would be sold.
As for the sales channels...
Hayashi Kaede wasn't worried.
Back when his parents were around, they'd traveled all over selling their produce. Among the many buyers, the most well-known was Spicy Gal Fruit & Veg Supermarket.
But as he scanned online listings now, he saw the name had changed.
It was now Grand Bloom Foods, Inc.
Apparently, a lot had changed in the past ten years.
"This is the one…"
—
Grand Bloom Foods, Inc. – CEO's Office
Tanaka Haruki, the head of the newly listed Grand Bloom Foods, Inc., sat at his desk looking worried. The company had hit its first real obstacle—industry pressure.
Specifically, it was pressure from another supermarket—not exactly a direct rival, but one with just enough of an edge to make trouble.
The problem was that supermarket was the largest chain in all of Aogiri City: HappyMart.
Even back when Grand Bloom was just Spicy Gal Fruit & Veg Supermarket, HappyMart had already started squeezing them.
Now that Grand Bloom had gone public, the attacks were much more blatant.
First, massive price slashing in their fruit and veg section.
Then they started intercepting delivery routes by outbidding at the source.
As a result, Grand Bloom's markets and stores couldn't sell their stock and couldn't secure fresh ingredients either.
If this kept up, bankruptcy was only a matter of time.
What they desperately needed now... was a stable supply chain.
"Still worried about the supermarket?" a gentle voice asked.
Tanaka Haruki looked up. A beautiful woman in a yellow floral dress walked in. Her figure was curvaceous and elegant, her hair tied back in a ponytail. Her youthful face still bore traces of her school days.
He sighed, shook his head, and said nothing.
An older man with a young wife—and a daughter currently in high school.
He needed to stay strong, but he was only in his forties and already losing hair from stress.
"There's nothing we can do. HappyMart's pressure is relentless. Without a stable supply, we might go under right after going public."
He finally opened up to his wife.
"Then let's just drop the whole supermarket plan," she said softly. "Luna doesn't have to get a pseudo-legendary Pokémon. A strong Starter is more than enough."
"Training a pseudo-legendary costs a fortune, and if we can't train it right, it's a complete waste…"
She tried to console him.
"I know, but… the child…"
Tanaka Haruki sighed again.
They were up against a national-level chain.
He was just a local business in Aogiri Town. How could he compete financially?
The only chance they had was to offer fruits and vegetables that completely outclassed the competition in quality.
But to do that… they'd need the help of a professional breeder.
And not just any breeder, but one specialized in cultivation.
Those kinds of breeders were rare—extremely rare.
"…Maybe I'm overthinking it," he muttered, ready to give up.
Just then, the landline rang.
"Loto, it's the purchasing department. Should I answer?" his wife asked.
"Purchasing?" he blinked and quickly picked up the Rotom phone. "It's me. What's the situation?"
"…A new supply channel? The samples look good? It's in… Got it."
He hung up the phone. Even though the news was positive, his face didn't brighten.
His wife noticed and asked, "Isn't that good news? Why the long face?"
Tanaka Haruki smiled bitterly. "Yeah, it's a new source."
"But it's from a plantation back in Aogiri Town. You remember the Hayashi family's old fields? Their kid's taken over."
"Think about it… what could a teenager possibly grow? The quality's probably not even close."
His wife raised her eyebrows. "You mean Kaede? Isn't he skipping high school to take over the family plantation?"