[Episode 30929] [Episode 30929]Near the centre of Nerima stands the Ono Medical Clinic and Pokegirl Healing Centre. Its proprietor, Toofuu Ono, is a former Watcher who chose early in his professional career to dedicate himself to the healing of the lovely descendants of one man's world-shattering outburst of revenge. Staffed with one wise Saint Bernatit and a sextet of lovely Nurse Joys atop the good doctor itself, the Ono Clinic has, in the last couple of months, become a place of pilgramage for another pokegirl seeking a life away from servicing an emotionally shattered father.
"You know he has trouble dealing with very-near-humans like you, Kasumi," Hiroko places a comforting paw on the Ingenue's shoulder.
Kasumi sniffs, wiping her eyes, then gazes out the window of the clinic's waiting room. "He tames the Joys, doesn't he?"
"I know," one of the Bernatit's ears perks on hearing Kaori's orgasmic grunts from the doctor's office; the eldest of the Joys working for Toofuu was due to be Tamed sometime today. "It's weird that he can keep control of himself when he deals with the girls here, yet confront him with a very-near-human of another breed that needs Taming and he falls totally apart. Personally..." she winks at Kasumi, smiling in hopes of trying to cheer the Ingenue up, "...I think it's got to be some weird Blood Curse he has."
Kasumi sniffles, then jolts on hearing Kaori's rapturous cry of delight as she hits the big "O." Hearing that, Hiroko grimaces on seeing fresh tears spill down the other pokegirl's cheeks, then she draws Kasumi into an embrace. "There, there, Kasumi," she coos into the other pokegirl's ear. "You'll find another Tamer sooner or later. I'm sure of it..."
"No!" Kasumi pushes the Bernatit away from her, then rises, moving to depart. "Excuse me!"
Before Hiroko could call her back, the Ingenue storms out the main door. Silence falls over the waiting room as Hiroko hugs herself, then she shakes her head. "You can't live like this forever, Kasumi..."
"You have to have SEX with them?!!"
Ranma's jaw now sits on the table of the outdoor kiosk where he and Mamoru are now trying to enjoy some coffee before proceeding to the Tanenobu residence. "Afraid so," Mamoru sips her expresso, then glances around the other tables. The proprietor of this particular coffee shop had a mixture of Ingenues and Taverngirls serving as waitresses. "It's something almost everyone's gotten used to by now, I'm afraid."
Ranma blinks, blinks again as his mind nearly short-circuits from the sheer CONCEPT of dealing with a place like this, then he shakes his head. "Oh, maaaaaaaaaaaaan...! What am I doing in a place like THIS?! This is something Ataru could get used to, but not me!" Taking a deep breath, he reaches for his coffee, then stops, his eyes shooting out of his head as he nearly drops his cup.
"What?" Mamoru blinks, then looks to see two of the Ingenues chatting with each other, their free hands in the other girl's panties in plain sight of all the patrons. "Oh..." she chuckles, then turns back to see Ranma's cup slipping from his fingers. A quick snatch by the tomboyish girl's hand prevents the hot liquid from spilling over the extradimensional visitor's lap. "Hey!" she calls out after putting the cup down on the table, then she snaps her fingers in front of his face, making him jolt. "Relax! That's normal here!"
Ranma blinks, turning away from the two Ingenues for a second, then he looks back to see both girls walking into the kitchen area, suckling their fingers before he shakes his head. "Geez, doesn't that bother you at all?!" he gazes hopefully at his host.
"Not one bit," Mamoru shakes her head. "Look, I explained to you about the whole matter of pokegirls goin' Feral and how Taming puts a stop to that for a time being, right?" Seeing Ranma reluctantly nod, she takes a deep breath. "Look, Ranma. It's a survival requirement for every pokegirl on the planet. Why it all turned out that way? I don't know. Sukebe isn't here to answer that question, so, in essence, we're stuck with dealing with this whole mess as best as we can. You can understand that, can't you?!"
"Um...! Y-yeah, I guess so!" Ranma shakily nods, then shrugs. "But ain't there people trying to put a stop to all this, Mamoru? I mean, try to figure out why this Sukebe guy made pokegirls that way? I'm sure there're folks who don't like any of this at all..."
"Few and far between, Ranma," she shakes her head. "Most humans living here happen to like the idea of keeping pokegirls on the type of 'leash' that the whole Taming/Feral exercise creates. There are those who are trying to help pokegirls live their lives without having to worry about Taming altogether. But they're WAY too far few and between, if you know what I mean. And unfortunately..."
"...the vast majority of people don't want that to get changed?" Ranma gives her the look of a student trying to get the right answer.
"Right on."
Silence falls as the visitor from another world considers that, then he sips his coffee. "So what about you?"
Mamoru perks, then her eyes narrow as she slowly glances around the kiosk. Ranma watches as the younger woman's golden-brown eyes turn pitch black for a moment, then after they revert to normal, she gives him an apologetic look. "I don't need Taming," she whispers.
He considers what was just said, then sighs. Given his present circumstances, Ranma didn't want to do anything which could upset things between him and his host, especially when it came to the overall question of locating Kikuko and the Moroboshis, then trying to find a way to get back to their home dimension. Clearly, there was a lot more to Mamoru Itou than met the eye, yet she was wary about letting that sort of information loose in public. Giving his host another piercing look with his chi senses, Ranma is quick to notice some similarities between her and those women Mamoru indicated were these "pokegirls." At the same time, though, most of those similarities in Mamoru's chi patterns were also shared, to one extent or another, with a lot of the men surrounding him. And those chi attributes which seemed unique to pokegirls were nearly non-existent in the "human" males around him, to speak of anything about Mamoru herself. Taking up his cup, he glances around the kiosk before sipping his coffee. "Are you a pokegirl?" he whispers so softly, he hopes she could still hear him.
Mamoru gives him a curious look, then sighs. "Some of us don't take offense if we're called that," she replies, keeping her voice down. "I mean, to be frank, I'm a generation removed from actual pokegirl blood. But there're many girls my age alive today around the world who can say the same thing, you know. The thing is..." she holds up a finger, "...is that those girls have to worry 'bout facing Threshold sometime in the next few years. That won't..." she pauses on sensing one of the waitresses approach, then waits until she passes by before carrying on. "That won't happen to me. If you made love to me, Ranma, I'd run the risk of getting pregnant just like a normal girl from your Earth would. So in that way, I'm 'human,'" she makes finger-quotes. "But a lot of my powers are really no different in their own way from the powers most pokegirls have. So in that way, yes, I'm a pokegirl." She shrugs. "Which way should I choose?"
Ranma gazes at her, then nods. "I guess that's a tough thing to think about, huh?"
"Yeah, it is. It's the reason almost all of my kind live way beyond the reach of normal humans, especially the dopes who run most of the pokegirl leagues," she shrugs, then falls quiet again as the waitress passes by. "Hey, Ranma?"
"Yeah?"
"Wanna go somewhere else to talk?"
"Sure!"
With that, they finish their coffee, then Mamoru calls for the cheque...
I love Master Toofuu, Kasumi thinks as she walks back to the Tendou Pokegirl Ranch and Training Centre (Indiscriminate Methodology Pokegirl Taming/Mastery). I want to be Tamed by Master Toofuu. I want to be his pokegirl. Yet he can't do a thing about Taming me when I'm with him since he can only deal emotionally with less-than-human pokegirls. She gazes heavenward. Oh, Creator, why couldn't I've been a Catgirl like Nabiki?! Or maybe a Grizzlar or a Growlie?! Why did You make me an Ingenue when I went through Threshold?! Why?!
She takes a deep breath, then glances across the street briefly before stopping in her tracks on seeing a particularly nice-looking boy walking in the same direction as she, a younger girl in a leather jacket and jeans beside him, one arm wrapped around one of his. Noting the black hair wound in a nicely-braided pigtail and the most lovely blue eyes she had EVER seen on a man, Kasumi starts to shudder as her heart begins to pound rapidly in her chest. It had been over a year since the Tendous had last heard from him, but still...
"Master Ranma..." she hoarsely gasps, then moves to follow...
"Okay, here looks nice," Mamoru gives the small children's playground a sweep with her Gift of Sight, then she walks Ranma over to a set of swings. Since it was early in the afternoon, the playground is deserted; human children would be at school and whatever pre-adolescent pokegirl children there were in Nerima lived full-time at one of the several ranches in and around town.
Ranma takes his place on one swing while Mamoru sits beside her. "So you don't live here, right?"
"Nah. My real home town's a place called Crest Hill. It's on what you might know of as Madagascar, off the coast of Africa."
"Africa, huh? That's almost halfway around the world from here if this used ta be where Fuji-san was."
"Yeah, it is, but since all my kind can teleport, it's not as bad as you might think," she giggles.
"What do you guys call yourselves, then?" he asks.
Mamoru pauses again, using her Sight to see if anyone might be eavesdropping, then sensing it was safe -- all she could detect was an Ingenue approaching from the centre of town, still some distance away -- breathes out. "We call ourselves 'Sanctuary Goths,' but when we're not in the Dark Continent -- that's what we call what's left of Africa as you'd know it -- we normally say we're 'Goths from That Place.'"
"'That place?'" his eyebrow arches, then he chuckles. "Oh, I get it. You don't want to say the 'S' word, right?"
"Uh-huh," she smirks. "There's more problems when it comes to eavesdropping here than you might've been put through back in your home dimension, Ranma. Atop sharp ears and mechanical bugs, there're Psychic, Magical, Dark and Ghost pokegirls, plus guys who have Blood Gifts that run in those same veins. Now, for the most part, those who DO know about That Place are pretty okay about it and us. They understand the things we do and why we do it and pretty much leave us alone. But there are those who're jealous of us. Those, we watch out for."
"Why?" he gives her a curious look.
"Because when the Founders of That Place became like I am now, they were given other gifts. Gifts that humans would NEVER want pokegirls to have, especially those 'pokegirls'..." she makes finger-quotes, "...like us. And the big, crazy joke about it is that we sure as hell don't want those humans to have those gifts either," she spits out, then gazes nowhere in particular. "And we don't even know..."
"Know what?"
"Who created my kind, anyway," she rocks a bit on the swing. "Just like you and your sis and your friends. You don't know who it was that brought you here. You don't know why that person killed your fiancee and all your friends. And we don't know why we're the way we are. Why we were given the ability to make others like us, much less create Dolls and SmartDolls, even have the knowledge to create whole new pokegirl breeds like the Dameosaurs, Pterodames and Nessidames." She stares at Ranma. "So when we sensed you were coming here, well..." she pauses, then reaches over to grasp his hand, "...we sorta said to ourselves, 'What the hell. We help them and they can probably help us.'"
He blinks as Mamoru's fingers squeeze his, then Ranma smiles. "I can understand that."
They gaze on each other, then Mamoru lift herself off the swing. Walking over, she gently sits in Ranma's lap, her face not ten centimetres from his. Ranma blinks, then feels the Sanctuary Goth's beautiful eyes focus on his, his cheeks reddening slightly as the very close proximity of a very beautiful and desirable woman triggers long-repressed urges deep within him. Her hand reaches up slowly to brush past his cheek, making his skin heat even more. "Am I beautiful, Ranma?" she whispers, her own cheeks colouring.
An automatic do not answer command surges through his brain at that moment, but unlike the many times his late fiancees had cornered him with a question like this, Ranma feels the strength necessary to ignore it. "You are, Mamoru-chan," he hesitantly reaches up towards her face, then pauses as her other hand comes up to seize that, then place it against her cheek. Sensing the accepting look on the Sanctuary Goth's face, Ranma feels himself relax, then blinks as a questioning urge wells up from deep within his heart.
Why?
Why was it he felt a hell of a lot more comfortable doing this with Mamoru than he ever did with Akane, Ukyou or Shampoo?
Why...?
"Master?!"
Both jolt, then spin around to see a quivering form standing at the gateway to the park. Quickly focusing on the loose ponytail of brown hair draped over one shoulder, the deep brown eyes and the mature, friendly face which had symbolized one Ranma viewed of more as a mother figure than his own birth-mother, he leaps to his feet, sending Mamoru sprawling. "KASUMI!!!!" he cries out, then suddenly remembers who else was there. "Urk!!" he gazes warily at the Sanctuary Goth. "S-s-sorry about th-that, Mamoru-chan..." he stutters.
"S'okay..." she chuckles, rubbing the side of her face...
Moments later, the door to the Tanenobu residence opens, revealling Mamoru and her guests. "Karen, Marie, Nabiki, we're back!"
"Welcome back, Mamoru," Karen steps into the foyer, then perks on noting who else is there. "Ah, Kasumi, hello! I see you've met our visitor from another world," she reaches over to grasp the Ingenue's hands before gazing on Ranma. "Hello, Ranma. I'm Mamoru's friend, Karen Tanenobu. And this is our friend, Marie Susumu. And I think you'll be able to recognize our planet's..."
"C-c-c-cat..."
Eyes lock on Ranma, who is now as pale as a ghost on seeing the brown-furred Catgirl standing now beside Marie. As the initial shivers of that unconquerable, unstoppable, undeniable phobia start to overwhelm his conscious mind, letting his soul slip into the abyss of the Neko-ken, the three Sanctuary Goths exchange surprised looks before jolting on hearing Nabiki call out, "He's got ailurophobia?!"
"Oh, my!" Kasumi gasps, covering her mouth.
Mamoru spins on Ranma, her eyes automatically going pitch-dark as she unleashes the basic power all her kind possessed: the Aura of Menace. "Ranma, stop!" her voice booms deep in the extradimensional visitor's mind. "That is NOT a cat!! That's Nabiki!!"
Ranma stops, the terror burning in his eyes fading quickly as a rasped "Nabiki...?" escapes his lips. Tears spring in his eyes as images of the middle Tendou daughter HE knew disintegrating before his eyes flash through his mind, then they slowly melt into the image of what now stands before him. Blinking as his mind is forced by Mamoru's Menace Aura to ignore the felinoid features this universe's Nabiki Tendou possessed as a birthright, he blinks away his tears, then slowly approaches her. Stopping right before the Catgirl, he reaches up with his hands to gently cup her cheeks, feeling around her whiskers as he reaches up to brush strands of her hair away from her forehead. Nabiki quakes as the lovely feeling of his fingers brushing over her skin sends jolts of pleasure right into her mind, then a soft purr escapes her.
That makes Ranma start to stiffen up again until Mamoru's hands squeeze his shoulders. "No, Ranma. This is Nabiki," the Sanctuary Goth's voice echoes deep in his mind. "Is that the howl of those who cut your body, cut your soul in that dark pit so long ago that you now hear? No, Ranma. That is a purr, a happy sound, a sound of friendship, that you now hear. Let the purr wash away your fear, Ranma. Let it wash it away and be free of the madness once and for all. Let it wash away..."
He blinks, then focuses again on Nabiki before a new surge of calm solidifies over his heart, locking the mindless paranoia in place as he gives the Catgirl a detailed look. "So much like my Nabiki..." he whispers, his eyes tearing anew. "Mamoru...?"
"Yeah?" Mamoru whispers, her eyes still dark as she focuses the Menace Aura on him.
"Could you stop whatever you're doing, please?"
The tomboyish Sanctuary Goth blinks, then nods, her eyes going back to normal as the Menace Aura fades. Karen and Marie brace themselves, ready to use their own powers in case Ranma's ailurophobic fear came roaring back to the surface again. Fortunately, that is not the case; Ranma continues to gaze on Nabiki, his fingers tracing over her skin, even probing into her hair to brush past the catlike ears perched at her temples. "You're so beautiful..." he flecks at one tuffed eartip, making Nabiki quiver. "Why...?"
"Master, are you alright?" she reaches up to place her hands on his shoulders, taking a step closer to him.
He stops, then looks at Marie. "Do all pokegirls always call humans 'master?'"
"In public, it's expected," the bespectacled teenager from Sanctuary wryly smiles. "But I think Nabiki can stand easy now, ne, Karen?"
"I think so, too," Karen reaches over to gently embrace her lover from behind.
Ranma stares at them, then quickly sensing the powerful empathic bond holding the Catgirl and the Sanctuary Goth together, nods. "You're her Tamer, right?" he stares quizzically at Karen, then seeing her nod, reaches up to gently pull Nabiki's hands away. "That's good."
"Um, excuse me...?"
"What is it, Kasumi?" Karen stares at the Ingenue.
"Well..." Kasumi waves to Ranma. "Miss Itou here told me that this isn't OUR Master Ranma. But I know what he looks like..."
"That will take some time to explain, Kasumi," Marie holds up a hand. "So why don't we go into the living room, give everyone some of the cake that our friend made for the occasion, then explain everything to everyone. Okay?"
The others nod...
(Posted Mon, 03 Mar 2003 06:46)
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.