Ragtime Mouse The Ragtime Mouse , also known as Ragtimer , is a special creature in " Final Fantasy IX " whom the party can encounter multiple times in various forest s throughout Gaia . It acts as a quiz master , asking the party a yes or no question every time it is encountered . It flees if attacked ( even if the player inflicts more damage than his maximum health ) , and the only way to defeat it is to answer all sixteen questions . The Ragtime Mouse is always encountered with True and False , which resemble and respectively , on the PlayStation controller . The player attacks one or the other to answer true or false to the Ragtime Mouse ' s question . If the player attacks all enemies with a group - cast ability the Ragtime Mouse will act the same as if the player only attacked Ragtime Mouse and run away . Finding Ragtime Mouse . Ragtime Mouse appears randomly in the forests on the world map . The number of times it can be encountered is limited per disc , but cumulative : Thus it is possible to meet Ragtime Mouse 16 times on disc 4 if it has not yet been encountered on previous discs . The chance of Ragtime Mouse reappearing in the same forest is not high . By having an airship or a flying chocobo the player can roam the world map from forest to forest , switching to a new forest after having encountered it . The chances of encountering Ragtime Mouse appear to be higher in forests that the player hasn ' t visited previously . There is an exploit to find the Ragtime Mouse many times in succession : if the player taps the movement buttons in only small increments while walking on the world map , one is unlikely to get into random encounters . Because the Ragtime Mouse encounters are unrelated to this trick , the player can force Ragtime Mouse encounters by tapping the button repeatedly while walking through forests filtering out regular encounters . The Ragtime Mouse appears more likely to be encountered if the player has not had any random encounter s since they last entered the world map , either by loading the game or by exiting a location . This means an easy way to encounter the Ragtime Mouse is by entering a forest one hasn ' t encountered it in yet , saving and then loading the game , and tapping the movement button repeatedly until an encounter starts , and resetting if it is not the Ragtime Mouse . This can be done by tapping the movement button very lightly . If the forest around Zidane appears to have been disturbed , then it has been pressed too hard , but if undisturbed , then the player is pressing lightly enough . Ragtime ' s pop quiz . The following includes the Ragtime Mouse ' s questions , including the correct answer . The questions will be asked randomly except Question 16 , which is always the last . After answering the questions above : For answering every question correctly , the player can win up to 70 , 000 gil . If the player answers the last question correctly , the Ragtime Mouse explodes and the party wins a Protect Ring . To get the Protect Ring the player needs to find him one last time and Ragtime Mouse will tell the percentage of correct answers . If the player answered all his questions correctly they will also get EXP and gil . Musical themes . The theme during Ragtime Mouse encounters isn ' t the regular battle theme , but a song called " Faerie Battle " that also plays during the friendly enemies battles . Etymology . The name " Ragtime Mouse " is probably a mistranslation of " Ragtime " Mouth " " as the transliteration of the English words " mouse " and " mouth " are the same in Japanese . The alternative name " Ragtimer " only appears in the NTSC version . The enemy is named " Ragtime Mouse " , however the final true or false statement it proposes is " You can defeat Ragtimer " . The enemy ' s Tetra Master card is also named " Ragtimer " . Both of these instances were changed to " Ragtime Mouse " for the PAL release .