Disclaimer:
Pokemon is a copyright of Nintendo. Pokègirls and Pokèwomen come from the Pokewomon Forum.
"Wild Horses and Pokègirls" is the creation of Metroanime.
' Schizotypal Personality Disorder.' Aside from the medical diagnosis, it means no Pokègirls, not now, not ever. At that point, you're supposed to run around, offer prayers or curses to the gods, then fall into a funk and die. Unless you've actually got it, then you really don't much care what anybody thinks of you having a lifelong ban on having Pokègirls. Sometimes the Sunshine League does the right thing for Pokègirls. Because a person who really can't make a connection with other humans shouldn't be entrusted with the welfare of creatures who can't take care of themselves. Maybe a Loner Goth, but none of the needier breeds.
While I had disappointed my father, it was my mother's disappointment that bothered me. Not in a deep sweeping way like other people had described in their parental relationships, but because she was always careful to use reasoned arguments to point out the value of serving the community. She and her harem had done this for a few years before settling down with a well-to-do farmer. Later, I and my siblings were born. My dad had simply gotten mad that I could never be a Tamer, or even a Pet-Owner, and was 'marked' and 'flawed'. My mother and all the Pokèwives understood that it didn't bother me, but I would have to compensate in other ways to deal with a lack of comfort, support and protection.
So I went to Nuevo U., studied magic, graduated respectably, and returned to work at the Grierson Library, on the night shift. My main job was filing books away. With my magic, that took about 30 minutes the first time, and about five minutes each night to the present. The books knew where they belonged. The old Pokèwoman who ran the Restorations department took me under her wing. Furthermore, while she understood I'd never connect with other humans very well, I could be swayed by other passions. Restoring books is one of them.
While the rest of the world was burning books as 'containing impure knowledge', or simply to keep warm, Caesar's Prank was collecting them in libraries. Seekers knew they had an eager client for their wares, so many libraries were being ignored, that the Seekers stripped them bare to fill the Grierson Library and other Libraries in Caesar's Prank almost to bursting. Many books are still recovered, and 300 plus years of neglect hasn't improved their condition. The techniques used are both common knowledge among bibliophiles and deadly boring to anyone who doesn't know what bibliophile means, so I won't detail them here. Suffice it to say, add magic, and many lovingly stored, but formerly hopeless cases were returned to their former glory.
Enough about me, I think I've told you enough to conclude my life used to be boring, except for the occasional restoration job for the police, which provided vicarious thrills, or the occasional thief or vandal, which let me use the spells I rarely used otherwise, or my martial arts classes, exercise and protection against my fellow humans. Against Pokègirls, I have magic, and the wisdom to run away.
I enjoy fishing, no this isn't the boring part. Fishing is one of the few sports where dozens of people stand around, and you are expected to be quiet. Consequently, on my vacations, I go fishing. I always found it disturbing that several of my colleagues try to volunteer to escort me, despite their knowledge of my ban. Nothing against them, but I simply have no interest in that kind of intimacy. There's a lake nearby, and it has a real sweet spot in the early fall, where the fish go deep, and a bait of meat or cheese means you'll catch your limit every day. The hollow itself is perhaps 60 feet/ 18 meters deep. I know, I fell into it once, all the way down, with all my gear. The best spot to cast into it is a promontory some 30 feet/9 meters tall. It gives you the range to reach the spot with the baits and weights and bobbers necessary, without breaking your line, or snagging it on someone else's. Just a flick of the wrist. Sorry, like I said I do have passions, but people and people-shaped things aren't one of them.
So on a lazy fall day, hot sun, cool breeze, a cooler full of beers for now, and soft drinks for when I'm ready to drive home, and I'm casting into that sweet spot. Another cooler had the three fish I'd already caught since lunch. Said lunch being the morning's catch. The bobber on the surface telling me what's happening some eight to ten feet below, and I'm watching and waiting. The book on newly discovered electronic circuits fascinates me. Three hundred years after his death, I thought, And we still haven't mastered all of Sukebe's secrets.
The sound behind me makes me rise and turn. A woman, tall, buxom, blue hair, and brown eyes. The latter two the color you'd normally see in blue eyes and brown hair, respectively. She wore a chain mail shirt that didn't cover her midriff, and a skirt of metal-studded, brown leather strips. She also carried a very long, very functional-looking spear.
She's either an extra from a period piece who's gotten very lost, or an Amazon-/Herowu who's gotten extremely lost, I thought as I prepared for either eventuality, Sensei Jacob always reminds us that staying calm in a battle, is the highest aspiration of the art. When facing a Fighting-type, it is easier said than done. I calmed and centered myself.
She screamed with rage and charged.
Much harder! I thought as I cast my back up line at her, which made her flinch. I caught her wrists and let a hip throw and her momentum carry us both over the side. Keep two things firmly in mind, I told myself, First, I've got to make sure she hits the water first, and second, I hope she doesn't notice where my knees are. She didn't, she was too intent on trying to wrest her wrists from my grip, so she could use her spear.
She hit the water flat on her back, and my knees drove into her guts and solar plexus. Which hurt like the devil! Me, as well as her. So when I passed through the water's surface, it was amid a cloud of bubbles atop a stunned and shocked Pokègirl. While her chain mail dragged her down, I pulled the spear from her unresisting hands, surfaced and threw it on shore.
As the weight of my clothes and equipment pulled me down, I cast my spell to let me breathe, and another on the lake's surface. So I've set my trap, I thought, If she's a Herowu or Amazonwu, then she'll take the bait. Otherwise, I'm dead. I swim to the `pit` and rest on a stone to watch and await developments.
She quickly came to her senses, and swam for the surface.
She should have dropped the armor first, I thought as she swam desperately for where she'd last seen her weapon. She hit the surface of the lake and rebounded, the weight of the armor quickly dragged her down. Thirty extra pounds doesn't help your buoyancy, I thought as she again swam frantically to the surface and pounded on the barrier. The force of the blow driving her deep into the water. Leverage and physics are against you, I thought as her expression tightened and her struggles weakened, You could always ask for my help, and promise to let me get away unharmed.
Her blows weakened and slowed. Her face contorted with the effort of still holding her last few breaths and not releasing them.
Her lungs must be on fire, trying to hold her breath and exerting herself that way, I thought, waiting for her to seek an accommodation, or give up. She did neither, although she understood the horror of her situation, when she accidentally let part of a breath out and the bubbles passed through the barrier and out into the air beyond it. She covered her mouth with both hands and remained absolutely motionless as the weight of her gear slowly pulled her down. She knows that little slip cost her more than any slip in combat, I thought, then mentally offered, Now might be the time to seek some sort of compromise. It's not like you aren't looking right at me. It's not like you can't see me breathing. Is it your faith in yourself, or your pride greater than your common sense? Conversely, do you believe no human can ever defeat you?
Whatever her reasoning or emotional reaction, she refused to change tactics or compromise. She redoubled her hopeless attack on the barrier, until a thin stream of bubbles and the slackness of her limbs as she descended marked either her defeat, or a trap.
I have a spell that lets me breathe easily underwater. If she's trying to trap me, I still have too many advantages, I thought, Even if it is some last ditch offensive, I can't just let someone die of stupidity. She wasn't laying a trap, or anything else. She was genuinely out cold.
I dragged her ashore and got the water out of her. Once I saw she was breathing on her own, I hastily packed my gear, tossed her spear to her and got out of there. I do not want to be around when she wakes up, I thought as I drove my grav truck through the track to the main highway, all the while searching for some sign of a Tamer I could direct her way. She's in prime capture condition, I thought idly, Too bad I'm not allowed to even own a Pokèball without special permits. I should get those permits and a 'ball. I didn't before because I didn't want to bring attention to myself or the Library. Now I think I should have decided the other way, and dealt with the scrutiny. I could have just caught her and turned her in to the first Pokècenter or police station I encountered.
I arrived at the nearest police station, a lone OfficerJenny waited behind the front desk. I've dealt with enough OfficerJennies to not take the frank once over they give as an invasion or harassment. "I'd like to report an attack by a Herowu or Amazonwu."
"Were any of your Pokègirls hurt?" the Jenny asked.
"No, I don't have any Pokègirls. I knocked her out and left."
She seemed to find my story questionable, until I show her my police I.D. with the crimson border, marking me as a wizard. I'm not going to tell her I only do forensic work, I thought, Because I am more than capable of a wide variety of attack spells, and if she contacts the police in town, they'll tell her that.
"Oh."
"If she's out there, and you have any help you can call on, you may have to. She's attacking with a spear."
For some reason, that gets the Jenny's full attention. "Spear?! Long, thin shaft?" she asked excitedly.
I nodded. "Like an oversized Roman pilum, without the hand guard, but nearly 12 feet long," I told her.
Even I could read her distress. "The Rite of Artemis. An Amazon from the Reserve goes out to fight some large animal, but male humans are preferred."
"I got away," I remind her, "Someone else might not be so lucky."
"No one else has to be lucky," she sighed, "They just have to get out of her way. It would have been better if you'd slit her throat when you had the chance."
"I've never heard an Officer Jenny suggest such a thing."
She looked sadly at me. "That's because the men and Huns around the Joketsuzoku have learned to simply surrender and force them to seek game elsewhere. She'll be going after you, because you defeated her."
I was very familiar with the lunatic laws of the Amazon nation. "If this is a joke, it is in extremely poor taste," I told her, "I just came in to notify you about a crazed Amazon, and you tell me I have to look over my shoulder for her vengeance? That's not funny."
"It wasn't meant to be," she assured me.
I left the station, got back in my grav truck and headed back into town. With no tracks and no spoor, I doubt I'll have anything to worry about, but I'll alert the authorities back home and make sure the guards at the library and my townhouse area know. My decision made, I put it out of my mind.