Chapter 1: Here's Ranma!... and Six More?!
Author's Note: This story takes place about a month after the end of the Ranma ½ Manga and a week after the end of Digimon Frontier. I do not own Ranma ½, Digimon Frontier, or any related elements. I own only my own ideas of how these worlds should collide.
Ranma had just been once again sent flying via Air Akane. He had gotten so used to this that, instead of screaming, he merely looked at his landing point and said one thing:
"Figures…"
Ranma got into a diving position as he impacted with a large splash. The location? The waterway that runs throughout much of Nerima. Ranma, now a short girl with scarlet hair in a pigtail, dragged himself onto the bank and jumped up to the fence he normally walks along. He notices that he's traveled farther than usual. He was near the edge of the Nerima ward and it will probably take him the rest of the evening to get back to the Tendo dojo. However, his mom's house was closer and he would be able to spend some time with his mom.
A little while later, Ranma was sitting in his old room at his mom's house. He had enjoyed having her cooking again and spending some quality time with his mother for the evening. He was ready to hit the sack, but first he made sure to hide some money away while he was here where the baka panda he calls his father can't find it.
He then takes out his cell phone (with a water-proof casing) and sets it on a nearby table. He had gotten it as a gift just before the wedding was supposed to happen, only for it to get trashed in the fight. Luckily, it was new enough that the warranty covered it and they repaired it, while throwing in the casing as a bonus since one of the workers knew about his curse. It was a simple model that he didn't use for much, but it made it much easier to get in contact with Kasumi if he was going to be late, call his mom once in a while, or inform Dr. Tofu that he'd be coming in because of a fight. He plugged in the charger and lied down to go to sleep. He had to make sure to get up early tomorrow for his morning training exercises. Can't get sloppy, after all...
The next morning, Ranma is already out in the dojo doing a few katas. Afterwards, he exits the dojo to head in to take a quick bath before breakfast when he comes face to face with a jet of water headed right for him. With a quick spray Ranma is a girl once more. He looks over towards where it came from and sees Nodoka standing near the garden with the hose.
"Sorry, Ranma. The hose went out of control. Why don't you go have a bath? Breakfast will be ready in as soon as the rice finishes."
"Alright. Be there in a few minutes."
A few minutes later, Ranma is sitting at the breakfast table with his mother, eating at a slower pace than he usually does, since he doesn't have to worry about a certain panda-man stealing his food instead of just reaching onto the table for more. Once they were finished eating, Ranma and Nodoka say their goodbyes to each other and Ranma leaves on his way back to the Tendo Dojo.
As he was walking along the fence once again, his phone goes off and displays a strange symbol. It looked like a circle with a dot in the center with two halves of a circle above and below it with a line going out from it. To the left and right were exact replicas of the half circles. Then, a woman's voice mysteriously came from the phone.
"Ranma Saotome. It's time to decide your future."
"What? Who is this?! How do you know my name?! "
"Your destiny is calling. Take the 8:45 train to Shibuya."
"Fine. If this is a challenge, then I accept!" With that, Ranma ran off towards the train station.
On his way to the station, he noticed out of the corner of his eye a little kid rushing out into the street to retrieve a ball that had rolled out into the roadway. Just as the boy picked up the ball, a truck came into sight, going too fast to stop in time. He blew his horn at full blast to warn the kid, but he either ignored it or didn't hear it. Thinking quickly, Ranma turned in midair to get to the boy before the truck. When Ranma landed next to him, the truck was about a meter away. Ranma swiftly grabbed the boy around the waist and leaped high into the air, avoiding the truck by scant centimeters!
He landed back on the sidewalk and placed the little boy down. Pulling out his phone, he once again checked the time: 8:43! He had to hurry if he was going to make it in time!
Ranma jumped back onto the rooftops and sped to his destination as fast as he could, which is pretty fast considering his Umisenken training. He managed to get to the station with one minute left before the train was scheduled to leave. He went over to the ticket machine and realized he didn't have enough money to pay for the ticket! He for sure wasn't going to sneak on the train, though that's exactly what his father would do. Out of frustration, he punched the ground, creating a dent in the flooring. That was when a ticket popped out of the machine on its own. He looked confused, but took it nonetheless and boarded the train without further problem.
On the train, Ranma got another message. Once again, the same voice spoke to him, though it seemed only he could hear it.
"Transfer to the 9:00 train."
At first, Ranma was angry since that meant he'd have to get to the next train almost immediately, but then he just shrugged it off and focused on his ki to prepare himself for when he got to his destination. When the train stopped, he went to find the next terminal where the train he was supposed to take was scheduled to leave from. He went down the elevator that was supposed to take him to the train platform, however, it kept going down at an even faster speed. It looked like this was just going to be another thing in his life that goes wrong.
When the elevator got to the bottom and stopped, he stepped out into a circular room with several empty tracks lining the wall of the room. Hanging from the ceiling was a clock, indicating that the time was 8:59. There was only one red train sitting on the tracks directly in front of him. His phone once again gave him a message, displaying the same symbol.
"It's up to you now. You can board the train and find your destiny, or you can take the elevator back up and never return here again. Choose wisely."
Ranma wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean, but he was certain of one thing: this train would take him to his opponent. So Ranma chose the only thing that made sense to him. He was going to get on that train no matter what.
The clock struck 9 and the door on the train slammed shut. Ranma swiftly moved to get on the train just as it started to move, and he was able to climb onto the back. The train then entered the tunnel, bringing along Ranma, wondering just where exactly this train was going to...
After a couple seconds of just standing there, Ranma decides to walk inside the train. Inside the first car, he doesn't see anyone, and so moves on to the next. There are six people in this one though, all of which look up in surprise upon hearing him enter.
The closest person to him on the right side of the car was a girl with long blonde hair. She was wearing a midriff-baring purple striped shirt, a short purple skirt, and a purple hat that looked like it had cat ears on the top. She had kind smile on her face that seemed to almost mirror that of Kasumi.
Sitting next to her was a little brunette kid with a giant orange hat. In addition to the oversized headgear, he was wearing a white t-shirt and yellow cargo shorts. Despite his apparent age, he had a look I his eyes that said he was almost as confident as Ranma, but also had a much more care-free attitude.
On the other side of the little boy was a boy that was a few years older, around the same age as the girl. He was wearing an open red jacket over a yellow shirt with a symbol resembling a spiked horseshoe with a circle inside and a pair of green cargo pants. On top of his head was a green backward facing hat and a pair of square goggles. He had the same care-free look as the little kid, but also seemed to have that certain trait that was defining of a leader.
On the other side of the aisle sat the other three. One of them was an overweight guy that looked a year or two older than the others in the car. He was wearing a blue jumpsuit with yellow cuffs and pockets. He was also busily eating a chocolate bar before Ranma came in, as evidenced by the chocolate around his mouth and the half-eaten bar in his hand.
Sitting beside him was a black haired boy. He had on an open teal button-up shirt over a reddish-purple long-sleeved shirt and a pair of khaki pants. He was emitting a slightly dark aura, but it was barely visible and was surrounded by much happiness.
The last one looked to be a twin brother to the previous one, though he had his long black hair tied up in a loose ponytail. He was wearing a similar outfit to his brother, consisting of an open blue jacket over a yellow shirt and a pair of black pants. He also had on a dark blue hat with black tiger stripes. He had an indifferent look on his face, but you could clearly see the emotion in his eyes if you looked.
The one in the red jacket was the first to speak. "Did you get a mysterious message telling you to come here?"
Ranma nodded and described the messages and the symbol that appeared.
The boy smiled. "Well, if Lady Ophanimon sent you, then that must mean you're needed in the Digital World like us."
Ranma was confused by that. "Who's Ophanimon? And what's this about a Digital World? You mean like a computer?"
"We'll explain later. Bokomon will probably be able to explain better once we find him and Neemon. Anyway, I'm Takuya. Nice to meet ya!"
The others then introduced themselves one by one.
"Hi, I'm Tommy!"
"I'm Zoe!
"You can call me J.P."
"Name's Koji."
"I'm Koichi."
"It's nice to meet you all. My name's Ranma."
"Well, have a seat!" Takuya gestured to the seat next to him. "You'll be glad to be sitting down when we cross over."
Again, Ranma was confused, but sat down anyway. He was already glad that he was able to sit down instead of standing. Suddenly, the train jerked and tried to knock everyone to the floor, but Ranma's training allowed him to keep his balance and the others had been expecting the bump.
The others then had something strange happen to them. It looked like six ghosts had appeared over them for a brief instant. Takuya was replaced by a man with long, wild, blonde hair dressed in red armor with two long horns coming out of his helmet. In the center of his helmet and on his belt buckle was the kanji for fire.
The ghostly image over Koji also had blonde hair. He wore white and gray armor with a helmet shaped like a wolf head and a high-tech laser cannon on his left arm. A long white scarf with purple tiger stripes reached all the way down the length of his body. The kanji for light was on each shoulder.
Tommy's ghost was a white bear-like creature. It wore a green outfit of a helmet, vest, and boots. There was also a green blaster strapped to his back. The connector for the vest had the kanji for ice on it.
Zoe was blocked from view by a tall girl with long purple hair. She wore a skimpy pink bra and panties and had large butterfly wings and a white visor blocking her eyes from view. She also had metallic gloves with the kanji for wind on the wrists.
JP had been obscured by tall man covered from head to toe in armor, leaving only his eyes exposed. The armor was navy with silver and yellow markings. His helmet had a large horn sticking up from it like that of a beetle. The back also had a sort of shell that looked like it could open up to reveal wings. The kanji for thunder was written on the top of his shell as well as on the plates just above his knees.
In place of Koichi, there sat a man wearing black armor with yellow markings. The chest, helmet, shoulders, and kneecaps were in the shape of a lion head and a wild mane of yellow hair stuck out from behind the helmet.
Everyone's phones then started going crazy, causing them to pull the small devices out. Each phone transformed into a strange device, each one a different color. Zoe's transformed into a purple device with gray buttons and a pink grip on the right side. Tommy's was light blue with white buttons and a green grip. JP's was dark blue with white buttons and a yellow grip. Koichi's was black with white buttons and a grey grip. The all had a small screen surrounded by a six pointed figure with the space between the screen and figure being the same color as the grip. They also had a sort of scanner on the top.
Takuya and Koji had different ones though. Takuya's device was red with a black grip and had a golden ring around the screen. Koji's device was similar in that it had the black grip and the gold ring around the screen, but it was colored blue instead. These ones seemed to be upgrades of the ones the others had, as the shape was the same and also had a scanner.
Ranma's phone then began to change shape, taking on the same design as the ones Zoe, Tommy, JP, and Koichi had. It was colored scarlet red, the same shade as his cursed form's hair, and had a deep blue grip that mirrored the color of his battle aura.
As Ranma stared at the phenomenon, the others smiled as they recognized the devices they had been using to save the digital world for months. Their smiles broadened as the symbols of their respective Legendary Warrior appeared on each of the small screens, with Ophanimon's symbol appearing on Ranma's instead.
"Welcome to the Digital World! This is your D-tector."
"Okay, what is this 'Digital World' everyone is talking about?"
"Why don't you look out the window and see?" Zoe pointed to the window behind him.
Ranma looked in the direction she was pointing and saw dozens of small flying jellyfish all around the train, which was riding on a single narrow track floating in the air. "So, we're in a separate world now?"
"Pretty much," JP affirmed.
"Feels different than last time we were here," Koichi noted.
"Well, that's probably because only your spirit was here before, remember? You didn't physically come to the Digital World like the rest of us."
"Hey, guys!" Takuya called out, looking out through the door that he had opened. "Looks like we're about to pull into Flame Terminal! And guess who's waiting there for us?"
The train pulled into the station and threw them out dropping them in front of a white creature with a horn that was wearing a pink haramaki and a yellow rabbit with very large red pants.
Ranma immediately got up and, ignoring the two creatures, turned to the train and began to yell at it. "Hey! What's the big idea, ya stupid train?!" He then lightly, or at least compared to his usual strength, kicked it, earning a yell of pain from the engine.
"OW!" The trailmon yelled out as he rocked to the side from the force of the kick. Ranma stumbled back in surprise as the living train regained his balance and turned towards him. "What's the matter with you attacking a trailmon like that?!"
Takuya jumped in to Ranma's defense. "Hold on, Worm! This is his first time being in the Digital World or seeing a digimon. He probably thought that you were a normal train, like in our world and didn't know you were alive. But you should really stop knocking others out every time…"
"Ahem!"
Everyone turned to the white creature. It had pulled a large green book out of somewhere and was flipping through a few of the pages. "I don't mean to interrupt, but you said it is this young man's first time in this world, didn't you Takuya?"
"Uh, yeah, I did."
The creature then turned to Ranma and held out a hand. "Greetings. I am Bokomon, and this is Neemon."
"Hi there!" the rabbit said. "I like your hair!"
Ranma sweatdropped at that last statement.
"And what is your name?"
"Ranma Saotome."
"Well, Ranma, do you have a D-tector?"
"Um, I don't think so. What is a D-tector?"
Tommy pulled the device out and showed it to him. "He means this! It lets us spirit evolve into the Legendary Warriors, but you probably won't be able to until you get your spirit."
"The Legendary Warriors?"
"Allow me to explain." Bokomon then flipped to one particular set of pages in his book and began to tell the story of the Legendary Warriors. He explained how the other humans defeated Cherubimon and later Lucemon. Because of his past in Nerima, didn't find this tale to be so far-fetched as it would seem to most other humans.
"I see. So, us being here means that the Digital World is in danger again and Ophanimon needs our help, right?"
"That is correct."
"Alright, so which way to Ophanimon's castle?"
"Wait a minute. Don't you need a spirit to be able to fight?" JP asked. The others admitted that he brought up a good point.
"What are you talking about?" Ranma sounded offended at her assumption that he couldn't fight without a spirit. "I've been training in martial arts since I could walk, I'm sure I can take care of these digimon without a spirit."
"If you say so. We'll find out who's right in time."
"All right, now how do we get to Ophanimon's castle?"
"Well," Takuya said, "we could probably just get there the way we did last time."
"Which is?"
"We flew."
Before Ranma could ask how they were supposed to fly there, a bunch of little gray digimon with long ears started running out from the rest of the city, a large black werewolf-like digimon wearing green pants with a skull and crossbones running after them. Bokomon pulled out his book and flipped to a page that displayed the digimon and some information about it.
"That's ShadowWereGarurumon, a nasty version of WereGarurumon. Watch out for his Shadow Claw attack. It'll tear you to shreds in no time!"
Takuya got angry at seeing him again, remembering what he did during the Great Trailmon Race. He was about to run in and confront him, but Ranma held out an arm, stopping him.
"I'll take care of this. You guys want to know if I can handle myself without a spirit and now it's time for me to show you what I can do." With that, he ran towards the digimon to stop him. When he got within a good distance of it, he stopped. "Hey!" The werewolf stopped it's attack and turned towards Ranma. "Stop attacking these digimon! They didn't do anything, did they?"
"Stay out of this, Human! Or else I'll beat you up as well!"
"I'd like to see you try!" Ranma ran towards him in what seemed to be a suicidal charge before leaping into the air and delivering powerful kick to the digimon's jaw. What was surprising to the wolf and the on-lookers was that he was actually KNOCKED BACK!
"Argh! I don't know how you managed to do that, but you're gonna pay for it! SHADOW CLAW!" He slashed outwards with his claws, sending off a projectile that looked like slash marks.
Ranma flashed his battle aura, which absorbed the attack, leaving Ranma unscathed. "Pretty nice attack. Now check out mine!" Ranma drew back his hands and focused his ki between them. A small, glowing blue sphere of pure energy formed there.
"How in the world is he doing that?!" JP asked.
"Are you sure he's not a digimon?" Neemon asked. Bokomon grabbed the back of his pants, stretched them back, and let go, causing them to painfully snap back. "Yow!"
"Of course he's not a digimon! He was on the trailmon with the others and he has a D-tector! Did you see him spirit evolve, cause I sure didn't!"
"Whatever he's doing, it looks really cool!" Tommy said.
Ranma was feeling confident he would win. VERY confident. He finished charging his attack, the end result being a baseball sized sphere of energy. He then thrust his hands forward, palms out, firing off the small projectile. "MOKO TAKABISHA!"
The digimon looked at it and laughed. "You call that an attack?! That won't harm me one b- AAAAAHHH!" The sphere hit him and he was suddenly thrown back from the sudden explosion.
Ranma just smirked and said, "Big surprises can come in small packages. Never underestimate an attack." ShadowWereGarurumon suddenly turned pure black and a ring of fractal code appeared around his body. "It's time to purify you." He brought his empty hand up and flicked his wrist, making his D-tector appear out of nowhere and pointed it at the down digimon. "Fractal code, digitize!" The code swirled into the scanner, leaving behind an egg that flew upwards into the sky and off to Primary Village to be reborn.
Ranma turned around and walked back over to his new friends. "So what did you think?"
Tommy was the first to speak, as the others were still in shock at what the seemingly normal human had done. "That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen! And you didn't even spirit evolve!"
Bokomon was the next. "I must say, I am impressed, young warrior."
"Yeah, how'd you do that?" Takuya asked.
Ranma shrugged. "Same as you would learn anything else in martial arts. Through practice and hard work."
"THAT was martial arts?!" JP was even more shocked now. "I always thought martial arts was just kicking and punching and stuff!"
The screen on Ranma's D-tecter suddenly started to glow. He pushed one of the two buttons and a fractal code flew out of it, putting back the buildings that ShadowWereGarurumon had destroyed. "Fractal code, rendered."
Ranma flicked his wrist and his digivice disappeared from his hand. The others stared confused at where the device was until Ranma gave the simple answer of "Hidden Weapons Style of martial arts. I picked it up from one of my enemies back home. Now, how exactly are we supposed to fly to Ophanimon's castle?"
"We spirit evolve," came the simple answer.
Takuya, Zoe, and JP then pulled out their D-tectors.
Takuya made a ball of fractal code surround his hand. "EXECUTE!" He moved the scanner on his D-tector to a position where the scanner was scanning the fractal code surrounding his hand. "BEAST SPIRIT EVOLUTION!" He pulled the D-tector away, pulling the code with it, which then grew longer until it was long enough to completely surround his body in a bubble made entirely of fractal code. When the bubble cleared, instead of Takuya, there was a large, winged, reptilian digimon with a white scull for a helmet and large orange wings. He was wearing red armor that showed black skin between the torso and the legs. There were three metal talons coming out of each foot, one in back and two in front, and his gauntlets had golden diamond-shaped protrusions that were about as long as the forearms going back from the wrists. He struck a pose and yelled out what was assumingly his name: "BurningGreymon!"
Zoe and JP only made a ring of fractal code appear, instead of a ball. "EXECUTE!" They moved their D-tectors to scan the code. "SPIRIT EVOLUTION!" They pulled them away to make the code surround their bodies in a bubble. When the bubbles disappeared, the ghostly beings that had appeared on their forms were standing in their place. They struck a pose and also yelled out their names: "Kazemon!" "Beetlemon!"
Ranma took in their forms in awe at their transformations. And they didn't even have to use water or anything!
"Ready to go?" BurningGreymon asked them.
After receiving an affirming nod from everyone, the three human-turned-digimon took to the skies, each carrying two of the others. BurningGreymon was carrying Tommy and Ranma, Kazemon had Bokomon and Neemon, and Beetlemon was holding Koji and Koichi. They were soon three distant dots in the sky.