Rug

Rug ラグ Rug
Rug
Gender	Female
Eye color	Purple
Hair color	Purple
Hometown	Unknown
Region	Unknown

Rug (Japanese: ラグ Rug) is a character in the Pokémon RéBURST manga.

Character

Rug is a wandering bandit notable for her manipulative personality. She is more than willing to use others to accomplish her own goals, but will also directly work to get what she wants, including by using the capabilities of her Burst form, Purrloin.

After Ryouga returned the Purrloin Burst heart to her, it has been hinted that she may be developing feelings for him, as she even goes on to get closer to Ryouga and discuss about him with Miruto.

History

Rug is first seen spying on Ryouga, Miruto, and Yappy while plotting to steal Ryouga's Burst Heart so she can sell it to Great Gavel for money. She enlists the help of a group of thugs led by a man named Torahige to fight against Ryouga. Knowing that they are so weak that Ryouga can fight them without using Burst, Rug sneaks past Ryouga while he fights Torahige to swipe his Burst Heart unnoticed. Unfortunately for Rug, Ryouga's newest traveling companion, Karuta, takes the Compass of Light holding the Burst Hearts before Rug can grab it. Karuta uses the Compass to find out that Rug is a Burst Warrior as well and prepares to fight her by using his Burst. Rug activates Burst as well, and faces the Accelgor Burst Warrior with her Burst form, a Purrloin.

The two do battle, but Karuta has the clear advantage in the fight. Just when he is about to hit her with an attack, Rug feigns defeat to lure Karuta into a false sense of security. With his guard down, Rug takes control of Karuta's body with her special technique, "Lovestruck Capture". Having taken control of Karuta's body, Rug forces him to attack Ryouga. Ryouga eventually manages to defeat Rug's technique by shooting an electrical attack at her while Karuta attacks, forcing Rug to dodge and drop Karuta's heart, breaking her control over him.

Rug and Karuta battling Ryouga

As a last ditch effort, Rug fakes her leg being injured to lure Ryouga into a false sense of security. However, when she attempts to use her Lovestruck Capture on him, Ryouga is unaffected by her charms, shocking Rug in the process. With the battle over, Yappy decides to take Rug's Burst Heart, but Ryouga decides to give it back to her. This action causes Rug to take a liking to Ryouga, and she begs him to let her join the group. Despite Miruto's angry outbursts of disapproval, Ryouga decides to let her join them, much to Rug's happiness.

Later, with Rug's Burst Heart added to the Compass of Light, Ryouga uses it along with the other Burst Heats to find the locations of the remaining three original Burst Hearts. Rug and Miruto begin arguing that they should take the left and right paths of light, respectively. Ryouga decides to take the center path of light, due to the fact that the light is the thickest, which means that the person who owns the Burst Heart is the strongest between the three.

As they track the beam of light, Rug decides to ask Miruto if she likes Ryouga. When Miruto accidentally says she does, they begin arguing over who is a better match for him. When Miruto argues that she has known him longer, Rug states that she and Ryouga are both Burst Warriors, and can have a connection that Miruto will never be able to have. Eventually, they ask Karuta who he thinks likes Ryouga the most; Karuta mistakes it as a platonic type of liking and states that he does, angering Rug. The both of them activate their Burst Forms and begin to fight until Ryouga arrives with a sign and stops them. Ryouga reveals to everyone that he found about a competition in another village with a Burst Heart as a prize.

After Ryouga joins the Strongman competition, Rug fights with Karuta to see who will get the last spot, only to lose it to Yappy. After Ryouga wins the Burst Heart prize, a man covered in bandages named Sabin steals the Compass of Light from Ryouga and runs off. Despite Ryouga's protest, Rug and Karuta chase after Sabin to retrieve the Compass. Despite their best efforts, Sabin proves too powerful and the both of them are defeated by the Sigilyph Burst Warrior. Later, Rug and Karuta show up injured, but still alive after it is revealed that Sabin is a good guy.

Sometime later, Rug has her Burst Heart stolen by Ryouga so he can meet Arcades alone due to him not wanting to keep putting his friends in danger. Before he can put the Burst Hearts in the Compass, Rug and the others stop him and clarify that they are not separating, each with their own reasons for doing so. Hearing that his friends are together with him to the end, Ryouga decides to let them join him.

As Rug, Ryouga, and Karuta fill the Compass of Light with Burst Hearts, they are interrupted by three people, Amu, Rovy, and Ganku. The three people introduce themselves as the Three Generals of Great Gavel and turn into their Burst forms, the legendary Pokémon Cobalion, Virizion, and Terrakion. Faced with new enemies, Rug, Karuta, and Ryouga each Burst as well and prepare to fight the Three Generals.

Rug and friends setting off again

Amu picks Ryouga as his opponent and goes off to fight him alone, leaving Rug and Karuta to face Ganku and Rovy together. Despite her best efforts, Rovy proves too powerful for Rug and she easily defeated. Although defeated, the group is saved by Hariru and Carola, who battles the generals in their place. After Hariru manages to defeat the two, Miruto heals his and Carola's wounds before they decide to separate from her and the others. They see the two off as they go to take their revenge on Fraud for what he has done to them.

Later, Ryouga senses that Fraud has revived, with a new, much more powerful strength. Fearing that he has become too powerful to be defeated, Ryouga takes the Compass of Light at puts all the Burst Hearts into it. All five grab the compass, which starts floating and flies off to where Arcades is. They eventually reach an unknown island, where they find a statue of Garyū atop an altar.

Ryouga expresses pride that his father is great enough to have a statue, only for a young woman to correct him on the figure being a statue. The woman introduces herself as the manager of Arcades, and reveals that the statue isn't a statue, but Ryouga's actual father turned to stone. She goes on to explain that the name "Arcades" and the power belonging to it isn't something that belonged to the person Ryouga once knew, but rather to several people over the years and that Garyū is the current one.

She goes to say that if Ryouga can touch the statue, he can gain the power of Arcades, but at the cost of suffering the same fate as his father. Rug and the others immediately protest against this, only for Ryouga to claim that he needs to in order to beat Fraud. Before he can touch the statue, Arcades' manager stops Ryouga and says that he has to pass a test in order to gain the power of Arcades.

Ryouga agrees to the test and even has his friends help him try and stop the caretaker from moving, but all attempts to beat her end in vain. As Ryouga continues the test, Rug discovers a tracer on Yappy's person. Realizing that they are being tracked by Fraud, Rug and Karuta goes to buy time for Ryouga before Fraud arrives. They find Fraud there on the island, but are easily defeated by his powerful Reshiram Burst. Before falling unconscious, Rug tells Fraud that Ryouga is going to get the power of Arcades, intriguing him.

Later, Rug and Karuta are taken to a hospital while Ryouga battles Fraud at the Eternal Tower for their final battle. The fight ends in Ryouga's favor after Fraud turns into a statue from having abused the power of Arcades he stole far too much.

Several months later, Ryouga decides to leave his home to go on another journey. After doing some research, Ryouga has found a place where he can free Zekrom from its Burst Heart. Together, the five friends set off on another adventure.

Pokémon

		Purrloin
		Purrloin is Rug's only known Pokémon. Rug uses Purrloin to Burst, allowing her to use the abilities that Purrloin possesses.
Debut	Mysterious Beauty, Rug

Burst

As a user of Burst, Rug can use many of the abilities of the Pokémon she combines with, her Purrloin. While using her Burst, Rug seems to use a Capoeira-like fighting style that uses kicks and allows her tail to be used as a bladed weapon.

Known techniques

• Lovestruck Capture (Japanese: 恋心捕獲, literally Awakening of Love Capture; read as メロメロキャプチャー Mero Mero Capture). Rug lures in her opponent with her charms and seizes her opponent's heart. Using the heart, she takes full control of her opponent. This technique loses its effect when the heart is broken.

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  Rug in her Burst form

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  Rug's Burst Heart

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  Taking her opponent's heart. Named "Lovestruck Capture"

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  Controlling her opponent. Named "Lovestruck Capture"

Conceptual artwork

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  Concept art of Rug's design and Burst form

Names

This article is part of Project Manga, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each series of Pokémon manga.