"Huh?" Ash responded. "What thing? She ain't some sorta freak, is she?"
"No, no, she's a good girl." Oak assured him, before the professor's expression turned grave. "She was brought up by a preacher in a remote outpost, and she had an... unpleasant time there."
"What? Why'd she..." Ash started to ask, then cut himself off. "Ya mean he was one of those fanatic morons? Why'd someone like that be raising a Pokegirl in the first place?"
Despite the confirmation that there were indeed greater powers out there, and that they didn't care one bit for the fate of humanity, religion was still one of the things that had survived from pre-Darkness culture. Most had adapted their teachings to match the changes in the world, but every now and then one sprang up proclaiming that Pokegirls were the spawn of the Devil, and God-fearing men and women should have nothing to do with them or the "Satanic arts" that surrounded them.
Most didn't last long: you couldn't preach something like that in the big Forts, where Pokegirls and their Tamers were the center of daily life, and trying to hold a wilderness outpost without Pokegirls to help was a good way to find out if there really was an afterlife. There were a few leaders with the money, the connections or the sheer charisma to arrange for their borders to be kept clear without the faithful having to soil their own hands, though, and some could last many years; there were always people who wanted to believe they could be saved, and they'd happily pay to have someone tell them it was true.
Professor Oak frowned. "As near as we can tell, she wandered into the outpost when she was still a kit. She was too young to be able to change, and none of her adult features had started growing in either."
"So they took her for a human child?"
"Yes, they assumed she must have been orphaned by an attack in the wilderness. It wouldn't be the first time; the outpost is close to a small trading halt, so they see travellers pass by from time to time. The preacher adopted her as his daughter, and started teaching her the things she'd 'forgotten in the trauma'."
"Close enough to trade, far enough to pretend they can't see who's buying, huh? So what happened?"
"She grew up." the Professor sighed, stopping outside the door to the girl's room. "When her Wolven features started showing, the people at the outpost started gossipping about her being 'tainted'; after the first time she changed forms, the preacher swore he'd 'beat the Devil out of her', and locked her in the basement when he wasn't doing that. If it weren't for her Pokegirl toughness, I don't think she would have survived. She only got away when a Tamer happened by at just the right time, and went into the outpost instead of on to the trading halt. She was in no shape to be bonded, so he brought her here, and we've been trying to help her since then."
"But she's okay now, right?" Ash asked, looking up at the older man.
"She's... better. She's still very wary around people, though, so you won't have an easy time time with her. Are you sure you don't want to choose another Pokegirl?"
Even without the thought of Gary mocking him for chickening out, Ash's (and Ranma's) natural stubbornness wouldn't let him back down. He nodded. "I'm sure."
"Very well. We've been calling her 'Wolfsbane' - apparently that's what the preacher was calling her, and she seems to respond to it."
Ash's brow furrowed. "But that guy hated her. Doesn't she have another name?"
Professor Oak shook his head. "I'm afraid I don't know, Ash - she's hardly made a sound since they got her out of that outpost." With that, he opened the door.
Ash knew what Wolven looked like; he'd studied all the common Pokegirl species. The breed was known for its physical strength, and Wolven pokegirls looked like it: in attack mode, they were a sleek but formidable package of fur, claws and fangs, even in their "passive" mode, they tended to be powerfully built. Some were positively Amazonian - and less Shampoo, the cute and bubbly purple-haired fiancee from Ranma's previous life, than Dowel, the huge opponent she had beaten on the Challenge Log just after Ranma arrived at her village.
They weren't supposed to look like the girl crouched before him. She looked about thirteen, maybe fourteen if you discounted her thin figure. It was clear she hadn't been eating properly for some time, and the worn and somewhat ragged dress she wore only heightened the effect. Her red hair had been hacked brutally short in the recent past, although it showed signs of starting to grow out again, and her green eyes were narrowed as she watched him warily.
Ash wouldn't have recognised the posture - there was little room for pets (other than Pokegirls) in the world the Darkness had created, and less for strays. But as Ranma, he'd seen it many times in the back alleys and town outskirts Genma had tended to travel through: it was the stance of a dog that expects to be beaten, but isn't willing to submit just yet. She wasn't growling, and she didn't look hostile yet; many of the dogs he'd met as Ranma still wanted to be your friend, if you'd let them come to you and not do anything to scare them, even after the shouts and the kicks and the beatings they'd seen before. (Or - he winced inwardly - an balding, overweight martial artist trying to kill them and cook them in a stew. Eventually he'd learned it was easier for everyone if he just kept away from the strays.) But some of them didn't growl at all; they just crouched, and waited, and bit you the moment you got close enough.
Keeping his movements careful and deliberate, and his body language as unthreatening as he could manage, Ash stepped cautiously through the door.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Wed, 11 Jan 2006 16:12)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.