The peaceful dawn at the Tendo dojo was interrupted by a cry of "Baby Salamander" that all of the neighbors could hear. Most of the neighbors simply adjusted their earplugs and returned to dream land. A couple people let out a minor curse to the gods to strike Genma Saotome down. The elder Saotome was no doubt involved in this new battle cry and no one was happy about it. That man really needed to learn some basic consideration for the neighbors. Several people could understand that the man wanted his son to get in martial arts training before school started. However, the noise level Genma's morning spars caused were very disruptive.
If anyone had bothered to look at the Tendo Dojo, they would have seen a panda shaped fireball rocket out of the bedroom window used by the Saotomes and into the koi pond. There was a massive hiss of steam as a third of the water in the pond was converted into steam. Once the steam cleared, Genma could be seen half-buried in the edge of the koi pond holding his chest in pain. Genma winced from the pain and raised his head to make sense of his surroundings.
Flamemon stuck his head out the window and yelled out, "Don't try to attack Ranma again while he's sleeping you jerk. You're lucky I was able to reign in my instincts or you'd be pushing up daisies instead of taking a mud bath. If you want to spar with him you'll have to wait your turn. He's my digidestined so I get first rights to knock his block off in the morning once he wakes up!"
Seconds later, Flamemon was thrown out the window by an irate Ranma who had been woken up by the commotion. The rookie slammed head first into Genma who was trying to stand up knocking both into the koi pond. Ranma hollered out, "Don't yell in the morning Flamemon. I appreciate you watching my back, but you know I can't stay asleep if you raise your voice." Ranma's adventure in the Digital World had taught him to wake up instantly if Flamemon started yelling. That meant that a digimon was about to attack.
A barbell blindsided Ranma knocking him out of the dojo and towards the koi pond. Both Genma and Flamemon tried to dodge Ranma. However, the duo tripped each other up and Ranma with the barbell collided with them in the still steamy pond. Akane let a sniff out as she closed her window and got ready for the day. How could a girl get her beauty sleep with the Saotomes and the pyromaniac causing such a ruckus?
Unwanted, a shiver ran up Akane's spine as she recalled the beat down Agunimon had delivered to her father last night. It had been a fast, harsh, and utterly ruthless match on Agunimon's end that left her father having to be bandaged like a mummy to hide all of the burns and bruises. It also drove home to her what Ranma meant when he insulted her by saying her fighting skills were only average for a rookie. He had been speaking about a rookie level digimon instead of a beginner.
This point had been driven even further home when Ranma had sparing matches with his partner as Flamemon and Agunimon to showcase the digimon's skill. Both had boasted that Flamemon's abilities were in the upper percentages of fighting potential in all his forms. The power that digimon commanded was rather frightening for Akane. She had worked hard for years only to reach a level of ability that was regarded by digimon as only average for a child.
What made Akane even more uneasy about Agunimon's beat down of her father was the subsequent display of skill and power by Ranma. Akane wouldn't consciously admit it, but she was terrified by the fact that Ranma eclipsed her in strength and skill. She still had mental scars from the antics of Kuno and dealing with his hentai horde for almost a year. The thought of a boy overpowering her and taking what he wanted from her without any regard for her wishes was always present in Akane's mind. It gnawed at her every time she talked to men or boys she hadn't known as safe since childhood like her father or Dr. Tofu. A major problem Akane had with the engagement with Ranma was the fact that in her mind her father and sisters had handed her over to someone who could take what he wanted from her at any time with their full support. All too often, the youngest Tendo's sleep had been plagued by nightmares of Ranma raping her. Another shiver ran down Akane's spine as the unwanted memory of her latest nightmare featuring Genma, her sisters, and her father holding her down so that Ranma could "Unite the Schools" came unsummoned.
In her heart, Akane knew that Ranma would never do such a thing. She could admit in her mind to herself that her unwanted fiancé was too noble to treat her like that. Hell, with his curse Ranma could understand her fears better than any boy her age that she knew. An outside observer would have noted that Akane's issues with the engagement would have been fixed if Akane and Ranma were given sufficient time to know each other in a supportive and comfortable environment. Ranma had his own issues which were mainly focused around his poor social interaction skills. His issues were just far easier, quicker, and required less delicate handling to correct than Akane's did.
Such an observer did not exist and such sound advice would likely be impossible to implement. Soun and Genma were too wrapped up in their wish to join their families and desire to see it happen to give Ranma and Akane the space they needed. Genma's poor judgement regarding marriage promises added to the tension. The usual zany misadventures kept the tension on a slow boil. To top everything off, Happosai and his 'antics' constantly reinforced Akane's fears regarding boys and what they would do to her if they were stronger than her. Akane's blow ups and attacks on Ranma, while unfortunate for the young man/woman, allowed the youngest Tendo to release some of the fear and rage building in her before she had a complete breakdown.
Akane got dressed in her jogging outfit and headed downstairs. She could hear the start of a three way spar in the backyard as she exited the house. The youngest Tendo sister had a standard route that she always went on when she jogged in the mornings. It was a familiar route that she had jogged on for years. Akane would occasionally nod her head to some of the older residents who were outside for one reason or another. The ones who saw Akane's nod would give her a polite nod in return. After a twenty minute run, Akane returned to the Tendo dojo ready to face the organized chaos that was breakfast.
Flamemon joined Ranma up on the fence as the trio headed to Furinkan High. There was no way that Flamemon was going to let Ranma be by himself for hours on end. Besides, the digiportal was in the high school so he had to be there for Ranma and him to return to the Digital World. Several of the citizens passing by gave the digimon a weird look before deciding it was better to not ask any questions. Best not to poke around something strange that was next to Ranma Saotome.
The trio rounded a corner and arrived at Furinkan with plenty of time to spare. This time was needed because the resident self-important idiot spotted Ranma and Flamemon. "Halt," a voice called out which everyone in school quickly identified as belonging to Tatewaki Kuno. The upperclassman had his bokken out pointed at Flamemon. "You go too far Saotome. Is it not bad enough that we must tolerate the pollution of this sacred institution of learning with you mere presence? Now you drop all pretense of disguising that you are a sorcerer by bringing your demonic familiar here as well!"
Several ears perked up when they heard something different from the usual variations in Kuno's almost daily rant against Ranma. A couple of students turned their heads to look at Ranma and were surprised to see Flamemon. These students quickly got the attention of their friends who quickly joined in observing the upcoming show down. Furinkan students were an exception to the usual rule of people trying to ignore the weird things that happened around Ranma. The students paid close attention so they'd know who not to piss off and how to best avoid the fallout of anyone trying to fight Ranma. One needed to know if it was better to duck, dodge, or run away from possible bodily harm with so many high powered martial artists fighting.
Ranma rolled his eyes and shot back, "Wrong again as usual blunder." The young martial artist turned to his friend and said, "You want to correct the fool's delusions or should I do it Flamemon?"
Flamemon rolled his head and said, "Let me handle this partner." He took a step forward and spoke in a completely neutral voice, "Alright lame brain, since you're the village idiot I'll speak slowly and simply so that your mind can understand. I am a digimon a being who usually lives in another world. Ranma is my digidestined partner chosen for me by one of the gods of my world to help defend my world. Now, you have ten seconds once I've finished speaking to get on your knees and beg for forgiveness before I destroy your stick and break your arms. If you try one of your stupid attacks in the face of my generous offer than I will break your back so that you'll be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of your life. Don't tempt me on this because I will follow through with my promise."
Many of the students pulled back in fear when they heard Flamemon's proclamation. Part of it was because some students didn't want to annoy someone chosen by a foreign god. There were already rumors floating around school that Ranma was the secret devotee to some sort of deity of chaos. One also had to consider that a religious connection had to come up eventually in the rotation of bizarre reasons for strange visitors coming for Ranma.
However, most of the students pulled back out of a sense of self-preservation. Anyone making threats of bodily harm was taken seriously by the students. Shampoo and especially Ryoga had proven that debris could fly in a fight. Flamemon's threat and the manner he delivered it sent shivers down many students' backs. It wasn't the usual rage fueled manner they were used to hearing such threats leaving one to wonder if the speaker even realized what they were saying. Flamemon had been perfectly clear and completely calm as he spoke showing that he was fully aware of what he was saying. The regular students could also sense that he was willing and able to back up what he was saying.
Nabiki opened a window from the second story of Furinkan High and yelled out at the top of her lungs. "He's not joking Kuno! Flamemon is on a completely higher level than you and he's currently only relaxing. If Ranma lets Flamemon get serious than he could kill you. Swallow your pride and back down!" Nabiki had watched Flamemon's beat down of father just like everyone else at the dojo. She had also paid close attention when the digimon and Ranma talked about their past together and was able to read between the lines when the duo tried to gloss over some details. Nabiki had figured out that the duo's battles in the Digital World were lethal for the combatants instead of just property destructive like the previous battles in Nerima. There was no way she could hope to fleece Kuno of money if he was crippled or dead.
Hearing Nabiki's call strengthened Kuno's survival instinct enough to shut down Kuno's higher brain functions. While everyone tried figure out what going to do, Flamemon could be heard steadily counting. "8, 9, and 10 seconds," the digimon took a look at the confused village idiot and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I don't have my apology so that one lost bokken and two broken arms for Kuno." Flamemon activated his baby salamander attack creating an aura of fire around his body and rushed at the still puzzled Kuno.
The digimon ran one of his hands along the length of the bokken blade setting it on fire. Flamemon canceled his baby salamander attack just as he was about to reach the hilt of the bokken. He knocked Kuno's wrists to force the shocked teen's arms apart and cause him to drop the burning bokken. Half a second later, the digimon grabbed kuno's arms near his ulnar bones and pressed down hard enough to cause everyone nearby to hear twin snaps. Half a second later Kuno let out an unholy scream of agony.
Flamemon stepped away from Kuno who curled up into a screaming crying ball on pathway to the school. The digimon looked around at the shocked students and said, "Why are you all so shocked that this bully was given a taste of his own medicine? This buffoon used the threat of violence to cause a crowd of people to attack Miss Tendo for a year. He constantly attacks my digidestined Ranma while spouting lies about Ranma's character and threatening to smite him. Had he been a fellow digimon threatening Ranma I would have killed him already. However, since humans aren't automatically reborn like digimon are after deletion I spared him."
Hiroshi and Daisuke nervously walked over to Ranma and Hiroshi asked, "Is your friend serious Ranma?"
Ranma turned to look at his school buddies and casually nodded his head. "Both Flamemon and I have deleted our own share of rogue digimon. It's not something we're proud or happy to have done. However, it was something that was necessary to do." What really drove what Ranma was saying home to those who could hear him was the calm lack of emotion Ranma told them this. There was not even a shred of cockiness that would have been expected if he had been bragging or exaggerating things. There also wasn't the usual nervousness that happened whenever Ranma tried to lie.
The digidestined teen walked over to Kuno and picked the crying upperclassman up. He then sighed and said, "Okay Kuno. Let's get you to the school nurse so that those breaks can be treated."
T.K., Patamon, and Kari were sitting in Kari's bedroom next to the nest Kari had created for her digiegg with the door wide open. Patamon was sitting next to the nest doing his impression of a guard hamster. Kari had her D-terminal out and was rapidly typing in notes as T.K. went over his knowledge of baby digimon care. The girl looked at her friend and asked, "So is it fish in particular that baby digimon need to eat or is it simply protein?"
The blond haired digidestined thought about the question and said, "I think it's just the protein and the fish was simply the closest source Elecmon could get to since he didn't want to leave the baby digimon alone. You might want to stick to feeding Gatomon meat when she hatches. Last year, my science teacher mentioned something about how veggies didn't have everything that meat does when it comes to proteins."
Kari nodded her head and replied, "Sounds good to me T.K. I think you're right about the meat. I overheard mom mentioning something about needed to get the right portions of different veggies to make up for a lack of meat several times when she was on her vegetarian diet kick." Kari shivered slightly as she recalled some of the particularly gross meals her mother had tried to serve at that time. She loved tofu before then and afterwards she could barely stand the taste of it for months. Why did her mother have to have the weirdest tastes and poorest abilities as a cook compared to all other mothers on the block?
Said mother was listening in on T.K. and Kari's conversation from the kitchen. Yuuko penciled in some fish to the weekly shopping list and continued to work on the new fungus recipe she had found in a health food magazine. She held back a sigh as she wished she could do something to help her Little Light deal with Gatomon's temporary loss.
Being a mother of two digidestined was not easy. Yuuko had to worry about her kids spending time in a completely different world where she couldn't get to if they needed help or her children being called upon to fight some evil threatening two worlds. That was on top of the worries any mother had for her children. Part of Yuuko wished that Taichi and Kari had never met their digimon partners so they could be safe at home. The rest of her felt guilty for wishing that. Agumon and Gatomon were like the other halves of Taichi and Kari bringing the best out of her children. Besides, her children had made wonderful friends with deep bonds thanks to the digimon. She just had to accept the good with the bad.
The phone on the counter started to ring and Yuuko quickly picked up and said, "Hello, this is the Yagami residence Mrs. Yagami speaking. May I ask who is calling?"
From the speaker she heard the reply, "its Hiroaki Ishida. I've found something or rather, someone, who'd make a good ninth candidate for our kids' summer camping group."
Yuuko's eyes widened when she heard Hiroaki say that. All of the parents had agreed that 'summer camping group' would be their code phrase to signal something relating to digimon and their children's status as digidestined. She replied, "Really? Is the candidate someone we know?"
Hiroaki quickly answered, "I doubt it. This candidate is currently living in Nerima and is around Yamato and Taichi's age. Found out about it because one of our amateur reporters was in the area reporting on some of the strange things that happen in the area. He took a few pictures of the ninth candidate and the teen's pet as part of his report and sent in everything involving an incident this morning. The amateur needs to learn a bit more discretion in picking news stories. Had the editor seen it then the kid would have gotten black balled from the industry thinking the kid was insane or trying to turn us into a tabloid."
"Yuuko, could you please call the other parents and arrange for all of us and the kids to meet soon? I would make the calls, but I've got several things that have to get done before the evening news. I don't want the kids to go looking for the new kid without you, myself, and the other parents agreeing that this is a good thing. Nerima is on the other side of the Special Wards. Furthermore, there are a lot of very uncomfortable rumors coming out that part of Nerima suggesting that it could be a rough place."
A frown appeared on Yuuko's face when she heard that. She then slumped slightly in resignation and said, "Okay. I'll call the other parents and then I'll call you with the meeting time. Try to be there on time."
Hiroaki's eyes widened in surprise on the other end of the line and then he said, "Hey! I'll let you know that I'm excellent at making all appointments on time."
"That's not what Nancy told me earlier when she dropped T.K. off to visit with Kari."
Mentions of his ex-wife left Hiroaki rather nervous. There was also the fact that Nancy knew he had a tendency to be late to anything that was not related to work. He then said, "Okay, I look forward to the call. If I'm not at my desk just leave a message on my answering machine and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
Yuuko smiled and said, "Have a good day and I'll call you to let you know about the meeting time. Goodbye." She then hung up the phone and thought about who to call first. Rounding up everyone on such short notice was going to be a bit of a headache. Hopefully, it wouldn't take them too long to get everyone to the meeting. Part of Yuuko hoped that there was a ninth child since extra help would mean less of a chance of her kids or their friends being hurt. Another part of her worried what kind of danger was coming their way that so many digidestined were needed to stop.
Two days later, T.K. with Patamon resting on his head was walking down the streets of Nerima. Last night, all of the parents and the digidestined had a big meeting over at Joe's house to discuss what they should do about the just discovered ninth digidestined. After much debate, and extreme disapproval from Yamato and Hiroaki, it was agreed that T.K. and Patamon should try to contact Ranma Saotome by themselves. After all, they were the only digidestined-digimon team the group had on earth at the moment. Bringing a large group could cause Ranma to become skittish and would draw unwanted attention. Given that Ranma was supposedly the center of everything crazy in Nerima, drawing more attention to the group was the last thing they wanted.
Hiroaki had raided the vault, an informal description for a section of the news station's archives where all of the crazy or inconvenient facts for scuttled news reports were kept. After all, one never knew when some politician or other important person would annoy the editor and there would be a need for some investigative reporting to turn up those facts. Hiroaki used his access to copy all of the recent bizarre incidents in Nerima and had found out far more than he expected. The information was presented at the parent-digidestined meeting and it caused everyone's eyebrows to rise in surprise.
T.K. had thought that bizarre things only happened in the Digital World, but the hidden news stories proved that the bizarre was just as at home on Earth as it was in the Digital World. In the past half hour he and Patamon had watched a teen with purple hair ride a bicycle on a fence, a martial arts battle between two teams of construction workers, and an old man with a massive bag being chased by enraged ladies. What really surprised the duo was how casual everyone in Nerima seemed to be to these antics. The preteen came to a corner and paused to check the map of Nerima he had before continuing on to his destination. After a few more minutes of walking, T.K. and Patamon reached the front door of the Tendo dojo. The blond put away his map and took a deep breath to calm his nerves before he rang the doorbell.
Kasumi opened the door a few seconds later and blinked her eyes in surprise when she saw T.K. and more importantly, Patamon on T.K.'s head. She bowed her head politely and said, "Hello and good afternoon. My name is Kasumi Tendo. Can I help you?"
T.K. returned the bow and answered, "Yes ma'am. My name is T.K. Takashi. I was wondering if this was the Tendo Dojo and if someone by the name of Ranma Saotome was staying here? I have some questions regarding a place that I was informed he might have visited a few years ago."
Now this was a bit of a surprise for Kasumi. She was familiar with martial arts rivals showing up to challenge the dojo and/or Ranma. However, T.K. looked too young and didn't have the right build for a martial artist. His questioning was also too polite and seemed to be focused on a location instead of on Ranma himself for the kid's question to be related to a family member that had been accidentally promised something by Genma. The little creature sitting on T.K.'s head carefully trying to not reveal that it was alive clinched the deal for Kasumi. She nodded her head and said, "This is the Tendo Dojo and Ranma Saotome does stay here. In fact, Ranma should be in the dojo training. Would you like to come in so that you can talk to him?"
T.K. bowed again and said, "Thank Ms. Tendo."
Kasumi stepped aside so that T.K. could come into the house. She pointed to the shoe rack and said, "Please just call me Kasumi." T.K. nodded his head careful to not cause Patamon any real trouble and then took his shoes off. Once his shoes were in the rack, Kasumi quickly lead the young digidestined through the house and out the short paved path to the dojo.
As the duo approached, they heard a feminine voice yell out "Tempest Twist!" A second later there was a thud and the same voice let out an "urmf" of annoyance.
T.K. was confused and Kasumi had to hold back a smile as a male voice called out, "Focus Kazemon, focus. You may be the same general size as you are when you're Agunimon, but you're proportions are completely different! Your legs and arms are a couple cm shorter and your balance is not where you're used to thanks to those wings and boobs your armor form has. It's just like when you became Vritramon or Aldamon. Start from the basics and refine things so that you can use your skills in your new form to their fullest potential."
Kasumi knocked twice on the door and then opened the dojo's door. She, T.K., and Patamon gazed into the dojo where Ranma was standing over a face down Kazemon that had just been thrown to the floor. Ranma and Kazemon turned their heads to see the trio and both said at the same time, "Good afternoon Kasumi. Who are the guests?"
Before Kasumi could say anything, Kazemon took the opportunity to dedigivolve causing a dull red beam of light to shoot out of the fairy like digimon and into Ranma's digivice. T.K. and Patamon both opened their mouths slightly in surprise in seeing a digimon digivolve like Kazemon did back into Flamemon. Ranma turned his head back around to face Flamemon and said, "And just what do you think you're doing? I guess you forgot that we're supposed to be training you to get used to your Armor form."
Flamemon rolled his eyes and shot back, "The stupid digimental only had four minutes left to its charge and we have guests. The only way I'm staying in my armor form to hold a casual conversation with a previously unmeet digidestined is if you agree to change into your curse form and dress up in a playboy bunny outfit." Flamemon paused to sniff the air and stare at T.K. for a moment. His eyes widen in surprise and said, "Well I'll be. It seems we actually are meeting another Chosen Child instead of just another Digidestined."
Patamon decided that the proverbial cat was out of the bag, stretched his ears out, and gently took off from T.K.'s head. Kasumi was a little surprise to see the little orange digimon fly in a lazy manner for a few seconds to get all of the kinks out from having to play stuffed animal for so long. Patamon landed on his hind legs in front of Flamemon and said, "What do you mean meeting another digidestined? None of the other kids or their partners ever knew you two existed until T.K.'s dad found some information on you from someone reporting about Nerima trying to get onto the news. We called Gennai and he apparently didn't know about a ninth digidestined until recently."
Ranma pulled at the chain around his neck to reveal his Crest to Patamon and T.K. who both widened their eyes in surprise at seeing an intact Crest again. He then said, "I guess that confirms that you guys are actually a Chosen Child and his partner if you can recognize a crest by sight. Not that I doubt Flamemon's ability to sense that sort of thing up close. It's just that, your crest isn't emitting like an active Crest should and you don't seem to have the skill of a high level martial artist to control your chi which would be necessary to control the energy of your crest."
T.K. looked down and his cheeks got a faint dusting of pink to them. The loss of his physical Crest was something that T.K. and the other digidestined in his group never liked. He tried to get things back on track by asking, "So Ranma, why didn't Gennai know about you until recently? I know he's not infallible or all knowing, but he is very knowledgeable about the Digitial World."
With a shrug of his shoulders, Ranma answered T.K. "I don't know Gennai so I can't say why he particularly didn't know about me for a while. Sounds like he might be a member of the Agents, but I haven't had much interaction with them over the years. I was discovered to be a digidestined and more particularly a Chosen Child by their boss and directly work a little higher on the proverbial food chain. From what I was told, I was never discovered by the Agents because only like 1 in a million humans can become digidestined and of those digidestined less than 1 percent have Crests to become Chosen Children. From what I was told, they never tried to look for another Chosen Child after they found your large group. After all, they had basically gotten the biggest jackpot in the history of lotteries in their laps and they weren't going to question their good luck. Boss knew that there were two more Chosen Children besides the group the Agents found and he enlisted Kenny and me to help."
Flamemon then jumped in and said, "Each digidestined and Chosen Child had their role to bring balance back to the Digital World four years ago. The regular digidestined kept the forces of darkness from consolidating and strengthening their position. Basically, they acted like gruella fighters in an occupied country. Ranma and Ken with me and Ken's partner Wormmon disrupted the Dark Masters plans almost like Special Forces do for human military forces. You and your group of Chosen Children were basically like the regular Army sent in to smash the enemy. After all, several megas and ultimates with a few of the ultimates being angel-types is a massive force."
T.K. and Patamon blushed at the comment of the ultimate angel-types. However, a question came to T.K. "Ranma, who is Ken?"
Without thinking Ranma replied, "Kenny is a friend, practically my adopted little brother, who I met in the Digital World years ago. We met several digidestined together, but we were the only Chosen." Ranma stopped talking as some facts caught up with his mind. T.K. didn't know who Kenny was. T.K. called him the ninth digidestined and didn't seem to know about the digidestined spread around the world. Huanglongmon had said that there were only 10 Chosen Children. One of the Chosen Children had been corrupted to become the Digimon Emperor. All of these facts were adding up to a possibility that made Ranma sick to his stomach.
