Coughing, Jed, the old rancher sometimes called "Uncle Jed," tried to warn what looked to be a young tamer away from his catch.
"Hey, you, get away from her! She's MY property! I own her, and she's coming with ME!"
Taking a deep breath, Jed thought, "That should at least get this upstart tamer to back off long enough to make a deal, or, worst case, a pokebattle."
Uncle Jed was not, however, expecting the response he got. The voice he heard challenging him seemed almost condemning him. The voice sounded like he was going to fight on the pokegirl's behalf!
"If you want this girl, you'll have to get through ME," was the exclamation he heard, and that full of contempt.
Jed knew what a battle aura was, he's seen that in several of the fighting type pokegirls before. Never, though, had he seen a human with a battle aura, nor had he seen one so intensely bright.
In an instant, images of how he got here raced through Jed's mind. The odd-looking aircraft, spiraling out of control, and it's crash near his outdoor training grounds. He and his trusty lupina sniffing out the sole survivor, a skunk-like pokegirl. He remembered her screaming something about a solution*, and that she wasn't a pokegirl. He remembered the defective pokeball he threw at her, not wanting to let a possible reward or new stock get away. The chase, afterwards, led to this conclusion. His only confusion was how his lupina could have missed this threat while she was scoping out the area.
"Are you going to give it up, old man," came the taunting voice.
"Wait," Jed replied with a tired sigh, "why are you defending a pokegirl like she is a real girl?"
The look on the boy's face told Jed all he needed to know; this was no tamer. The young man's eyebrows had raised, his mouth opened, and he could see the unspoken question, "What the hell is a pokegirl?"
"Son, I don't know how you got here, but that there is a pokegirl. Look at her fur, the ears, and her tail. She's a genetically manipulated remnant of wars past. Whoo boy! I didn't think there was anyone left, and I mean ANYONE, who didn't know what a pokegirl was!"
"Wha'?" was all he could hear the boy say, just before the kid's muscles tensed up again.
"That's just my Alpha-pokegirl, she's tamed. A tamed pokegirl won't attack a human. Well, at least they can't legally, and I'm a law abiding poke-rancher."
"Ah hell," the rancher thought, "The boy is all confused again. Well, if he was ready to fight me himself, he could be a good tamer. Hmm.. Yup, if there ain't a reward out for that one, she'll make him a good starter pokegirl, and he could be a good advertisement for da' ranch. Yessir-ee, that'll make him feel a little bettuh'."
"Ya' gotta' name, son?" Jed asked, thankful his lupina didn't interrupt.
"Ranma Saotome, heir to the 'Anything Goes' school of martial arts," came the reply, and Jed could see the pride gleaming off of the kid.
"Well, if'n there ain't a rewa-hd out for this little pokegirl, I'll let you have her. Hell, I'll even teach 'ya how to win some pokebattles!" His smile grew earnest, he could see that this kid had compassion. While it was rare, a compassionate trainer could get the most out of his harem, and could become a near legend. Well, if they didn't settle down to become a rancher, as he himself had done.
.:: ::.
"Well, shit," Asrial thought while laying behind her would be savior, "My ship is screwed, I can't buy shit because everyone thinks I'm some stupid pokegirl-thingy, and now the one person who doesn't immediately jump to that conclusion is going to be convinced otherwise. I'm a princess god-damnit, why does this shit always happen to me?!"
Her muscles ached from running zigzag in her attempts to escape that dog-girl pokegirl thing, and she was tired. Still, she wasn't going to be treated like some sex-animal that she had observed of the few real pokegirls she saw. With the owner of that damned dog trying to make some kind of deal, Asrial decided that maybe this guy, who seemed willing to defend her, might help her out.
"I'm not a pokegirl," she tried to sit up, "But, I'd be willing to stick around this guy until I can get off of this world."
She could see the old guy's face twist around what she said; then, the old codger grinned. "Probably thinks I agreed to be his pokegirl or some-such," she thought.
That's when the guy above her said, "So, you aren't from this world either?"
.:: ::.
* The old rancher mistook what Asrial said. She said "Salusian,"
and he thought she said "solution."
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(Posted Sat, 15 Nov 2003 09:51)
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