Ru-Ru The Minccino

Name: Ru-Ru
Gender: Female
Personality: Very shy, fearful, and quiet.

Trainer: ~xLeylunax

Background Story
"Ru-Ru had nightmares about that day. She would toss and turn in her hidden grotto, consumed by the din of blocked sunlight and her own memories. The feeling of abandonment was overwhelming, and when she awoke—alone and cold—it only caused her to bite back tears. Despite the pain, she couldn’t blame her trainer for what she had done. Besides, she wasn’t the only one whose life was shattered that day. It was only a few months ago, although to her it still felt as if it had been yesterday. It was team Plasma, she would recall in her later nightmares, who had stepped up in Accumula town, a place her and her trainer were visiting family in. Ru-Ru was in ecstacy, she loved to visit her trainer’s family, who always pampered her and made her delicious poffins, but that joy was about to be taken away and stepped on.

They spoke words she couldn’t quite understand. Like “liberation” and “ideals”. But her trainer stopped to listen anyway, as men in cloaks and what looked to be followers spoke about something that seemed to be of great concern to the humans. She had been happily riding on her trainer’s shoulder as they strolled through the town, but as the demonstration continued, Ru-Ru couldn’t help but notice the grave expression on her master’s face. In a swift motion, her owner suddenly plucked her off her shoulder, placing her onto the cement floor lightly, with what seemed to be some solemn disdain. Ru-Ru looked up at her with questioning eyes, taking in the gleam of her trainer’s own hazel ones. In what felt like a painfully long few minutes, her trainer had reached into her bag and pulled out the tiny pokemon’s pokeball, which was adorned with pink jewels. As her trainer spoke, Ru-Ru twitched her large, fluffy ears, with worry.

“I’m sorry for doing this to you,” she said in her beautiful, soft lady voice. “You can go now… back to your family, if I haven’t already destroyed your life…”

The Minccino sat down, confused by the words her trainer was speaking. Although she didn’t have a full understanding of them, she felt the feeling of loneliness and abandonment drowning her beneath their waves. As her trainer turned, Ru-Ru bit her pant leg and tugged, but with small tears in her eyes, her trainer kicked her away, running off towards the dreamyard. As the pokemon went to chase after her, one of the men in the cloaks blocked her path. He looked down at her, and the pokemon’s hair began to stand on end.

“Go now,” he said. “You’ve finally been liberated.

But Ru-Ru wasn’t having any of it. She dodged the man quickly, turning sharply around him and rushing towards the dreamyard, but in an instant she was being returned to her pokeball, unable to continue after her beloved trainer, and forced into and unwanted rest.

When Ru-Ru next woke up, she was surrounded by grass, and Deerling. She didn’t know where she was, but her head shot up and she scoped the area, hunting fr the one thing that mattered to her in her life—her trainer. The Deerling around her looked sad, however, and one stepped forward, nudging the tiny critter gently. “You’re the tenth one so far,” she said.

“What do you mean, ‘the tenth one’?” Ru-Ru asked quietly.

“There’s been a few other pokemon too, they were brought here by a man in a uniform… they all did the same thing you did. They ran for their trainers.”

Ru-Ru’s heart sank. “W-Where am I?”

“This is rout six… “ another Deerling chimed in. He sounded just as saddened as the other.

Ru-Ru left her memory, returning to the reality of her grotto and the quietness within it. It wasn’t her trainer’s fault… she repeated to herself, adjusting the pink bow around her neck, which her trainer had given her when they had first met. Ru-Ru had never been in a pokemon battle before, because her trainer was a rich lady, who preferred beauty contests and groomings… Adjusting to life in the wild was harder than she had thought it would be. So many pokemon were out looking for battles, picking fights over territory, and just plain bullying the weaklings. Ru-Ru was lucky enough to get her grotto from one of the kind Deerlings who no longer used it.

As the little pokemon snapped out her daydream, she decided to take a peek outside, and see if any winter snow had fallen. As she did so, she caught a glimpse of a young girl walking past, looking around at all of the trees. For some reason, a feeling of warmth overcame her tiny body, and she felt herself inclined to venture into the frigid air in an attempt to get a better look at the girl. She was beautiful, from what she could tell. Her hair was brown, and fell in curls from a pony tail erupting out of a white hat with a pink pokeball pattern. Despite it being winter, the girl was wearing shorts and low cut boots, with a pink messenger bag strung around her shoulder. She seemed to be searching for something.

Just as the pokemon was about to get closer, the girl let out a shrill scream and three shady looking men were grabbing her by the arms. Ru-Ru jumped back, horrified for the ghost humans who appeared out of nowhere. Hiding behind a nearby tree, the Minccino watched as the trainer tried to reach for her belt, grasping at a pokeball, but being shaken aroud and out of place by the three scary men. Suddenly they began to drag her away as she cursed at them, still trying to call out to her pokemon.

A sudden burst of adrenaline rushed though the small critter, and she charged forward, jumping into the air and slapping one of the men with her tail. The girl was baffled, but didn’t hesitate for a single second as her arm was released, grabbing her pokeball and calling out her pokemon. “Teppi! Go!” With a roar of light, a Pignite stood proudly before his master, ready to defend her with his life.

Ru-Ru shrunk away for a moment, but was lunging at another of the men as soon as he tried to call out his own pokemon, stopping him mid grab and latching her rodent teeth into his flesh. He would not hurt this girl! Ru-Ru thought angrily. Beside her, the trainer’s Pignite was administering punch after punch to two of the three men, and when Ru-Ru was violently flung off and collided with the ground, the Pignite sent the three men running with a smoldering fire blast.

The trainer sighed with relief, wrapping her arms around her Pignite proudly. “Thank you, Teppi!” she said, squeezing him tightly. Teppi smiled and rubbed the back of his head modestly. Then, she turned her attention to the Minccino collapsed on the ground, breathing rapidly. “We’ve got to get you to a Pokemon center!” she exclaimed, gathering up the little girl in her arms and rushing off towards Driftveil.

When Ru-Ru awoke, she was lying on a cot, under a soft, warm blanket, with the girl trainer sitting right next to her. “Good morning, cutie,” she said to the pokemon. “What’s your name?” Ru-Ru thought hard about her name, repeating it in her head and somehow, it got through to her. “Ru-Ru?” she asked, smiling. The Minccino nodded shyly. “Well, I’m Touko. And this here is Teppi, one of my best friends,” she said, pointing to her Pignite who was standing close by her side. “He’s not my only friend though,” she added, “we have plenty more, and so, I was wondering. Would you like to come along with us? You were really brave back there, Ru-Ru, and we could really use that on our team!”

Ru-Ru’s eyes widened in shock. Her? Brave? She couldn’t believe it. And what’s more, she could understand every word Touko was saying to her! Is this what they called a “bond” between trainers and pokemon? Ru-Ru thought about her cold grotto, and the silent darkness of it, and before she knew it, she was nodding her head to the beautiful girl trainer.

Touko smiled with enthusiasm. “I’m so happy! Teppi,” she squealed, turning to her friend, “isn’t this great?”

Teppi nodded and held up his hand as if to show a thumbs up.

Ru-Ru couldn’t help but feel ecstatic, as well. Even though she was still shy, and fearful, Touko showed her that she could still be brave. And even though she was left behind once, she could put her faith in this new trainer, whose smile was bright, and her friendship, strong. She would grow with her, and prosper, and be brave for her. Maybe this is what the real “bond” felt like. Ru-Ru couldn’t help but smile, and the trainer, and her best friend, Teppi, smiled back, warming every last bit of coldness left in the tiny pokemon’s body. Yes, she would be brave. She had to be."

(Written by ~xLeylunax)

Pokemon (c) Nintendo