Do Digimon Dream of Digital Sheep?
By Ellf
Chapter Two: Monster Friend to the Boy Girl
Disclaimer: I own nothing here. Each character belongs to its respective owner.
Jenrya stepped off the train once it got to the station at Furinkan, Nerima. The sun barely peeked over the horizon, signaling the time. If this digimon took too long to beat, he was going to have to find a place to stay for the night. Good thing it was still summer break. If he'd had to get up really early the following morning to make it to school on time, he'd have words with Yamaki.
"Whatcha thinking about, Jian?" Terriermon asked from his shoulder. His partner always could tell he when he was lost in thought.
"Just that we don't have much information about the digimon that appeared, Terriermon. " He pulled out his D-Ark, and its projection displayed a pair of dots in a northward direction. He turned toward the direction, keeping his attention on the D-Ark.
"Whoa! Jian, look at that!" He followed where Terriermon was pointing. A tornado? That tightly coiled… and there weren't any clouds… He and Terriermon came to the most logical conclusion at the same time.
"The digimon!" He took off running. He'd never been to Nerima before, but he knew that if he followed the digimon signal and well, the giant blue tornado, he'd get to wherever the digimon bio-emerged. The buildings here were a little shorter than those in Shinjuku, a bit homier. Perhaps this district was a little taste of suburbia. Of course, he wasn't exactly paying attention to the buildings. He had to get to the digimon before it caused more damage.
He idly passed a decent looking girl in a red shirt and black slacks about two minutes before his D-Ark beeped. Yes. He had to be close. He looked at the D-Ark for confirmation.
Signal Lost…
Ranma rolled her eyes up to the sky, almost begging the ground to swallow her whole, and when it didn't, she knew she'd have to deal with a very inquisitive child digimon. Salamon had always been a curious little monster and whether she liked it or not, she'd have to answer some of the digimon's questions.
"No, Salamon, humans don't evolve the way that digimon do, at least not without a digimon partner." Ranma recalled what happened with Takato and the others. Biomerge evolution they called it. She'd never done it with Salamon; he never had the chance to. Working with Salamon and her evolutions was enough.
"Then what happened, Ranma? It is you, there, right?" Salamon looked at her suspiciously. Ranma hoped that she still had the link between partners here. The curse couldn't take that away, could it?
"Yes, Salamon it's me. I've just got a curse that causes me to turn into a girl when cold water hits. Hot water turns me back… and since we're still outside, and it looks like rain, we'll have to wait until we get back home before I can turn back." Ranma patted the digimon on the head the way she always did. The movement seemed to assuage the worry she knew Salamon must be feeling, and despite her injuries, Ranma felt a bit of warmth doing it. Her best friend was with her.
"A… curse? You mean like magic… like what a Wizardmon does?" Ranma guessed she had to associate it with something familiar. Salamon was smart, like she was, but the digimon needed context to get things.
"Something like that, Salamon. Only it wasn't cast by anyone… Pop and I fell into some water which cursed us." Might as well let her know the Old Man could turn into a Panda now. It might save some grief later if it happened in front of her. "Except he doesn't turn into a girl, he turns into a panda, but not a pandamon. Just a panda."
"I know the difference between real animals and digimon, Ranma." Salamon nuzzled the crook of her neck. Thank the kami she didn't nuzzle lower. Ranma didn't think she could handle something like that.
Ranma continued walking and idly petting Salamon. She barely noticed when a guy around her age ran by with what looked to be some sort of plush on his shoulder. Of course, to be staying on when he was running that fast, it had to either be pinned or holding… on… Wait, was that another digimon? Didn't matter. She was heading home.
"Ranma, this doesn't look like the way home." Oh right. When Salamon lived with him and the Old Man, they were in an apartment in Shinjuku. Nerima was definitely a different style of area than there.
"That's because we moved since you and I last saw each other. A few times, actually. Pop and I went over to China for a bit, and now we're staying with a friend of his. He's got three daughters. If we're lucky they won't be home when we get there, so we can get up to our room and you can hide."
Salamon made a sound of assent and relaxed in her perch. Her relaxing was a good thing as they came up on the Tendou household and dojo. Of course, once it came into view and Salamon could see that they were heading in, she perked up.
"Oh! This is like Ruki's place!" To be honest, she was right. Both places had old-style Japanese architecture. The Makino household didn't have a dojo attached to it and was a bit bigger, but it bore some similarities to the Tendou household.
"Shush now, Salamon, we'll head in." Ranma didn't want anyone to find out about Salamon just yet. She needed some time to be with her partner and have it be like it used to be, her secret. Unlike before, there was very little chance of someone trying to take Salamon away from her, but she knew Nabiki might try something if she found out. Luckily, nobody seemed to be home, and with a soft mutter announcing her presence, Ranma headed upstairs to her room.
Normally on a day like today, Ranma would rush straight to the furo after getting home, partially so she'd change back into a man, and partially so she could relax the pain away. What was different this time was she had the responsibility of her partner to worry about.
"This room is mine and Pop's. That futon right there is where I sleep, you can sleep next to me, Salamon."
"Alright! It's been a long time since I slept on a cushion!" The canine digimon jumped on the futon and pushed herself under the covers, curling up. Ranma couldn't help but smile at her antics and moved over to grab her traveling backpack. She began digging through it, knowing what she sought was likely at the very bottom of the pack. It had been there for at least five years. Got it! First she pulled out a belt-buckle deck holder and flipped it open. It looked like all the cards were there, though she was disappointed that there was no blue card. Next she pulled out a digivice. Her red and black D-Ark had long ago lost power and she didn't want to try replacing its batteries. It felt like it was the same size it had been when she last used it.
A light came from the futon where Salamon was under the covers. Well, more specifically it came from the ring around Salamon's neck. Ranma instinctively held the D-Ark facing toward Salamon, and a beam of light went from the Holy Ring to the digivice. Ranma heard the tell-tale beep indicating that it was active. Once the light faded, Salamon locked eyes with Ranma, and both nodded, reaffirming their bond as partners.
And then, as one... their stomachs growled. The spell now broken, Ranma couldn't help but laugh nervously. She was shortly thereafter joined by Salamon.
"Guess we're both pretty hungry, huh? When was the last time you've eaten, Salamon?" Ranma recalled that the digital world had a few unique properties including a lack of need for food.
"Umm... I think it was when we had that Guilmon Bread before the final push against the D-Reaper." Salamon said, pondering.
"Let's head downstairs and get us both something to eat then." Ranma stood up and scooped the child digimon into her hands. "And get me some hot water."
She walked down the stairs down the hall when the smell of... something... assaulted her nose. She wasn't quite sure what to call it. There was the slightest hint of rosemary... and maybe a bit of paint thinner. Crap. Akane was cooking again.
She made a shushing motion at Salamon and tried to sneak past the dining room on the way to the door when that damnable floorboard just had to creak at the wrong moment.
"Oh, Ranma you're home! Good, dinner will be ready in just a moment! I don't know where everyone else went, so it's just you and me." Don't respond. Don't respond. If you don't respond, she can't...
"They probably left to get away from your cooking." Why the hell did you respond? Hanging her head, Ranma made her way into the dining room.
"Ranmaaa..." Akane growled dangerously from the kitchen. "I tried really hard on this meal, and you're going to eat it and like it."
"Wonderful." Ranma ground out. "I don't suppose you can get me some hot water too." If she was going to face her doom, she'd face it as a man, damnit.
"Fine, fine, the kettle's on." Good, she didn't sound too angry about that comment earlier. She was still injured from the two fights she had today. What was an upset stomach compared to the other crap?
Ranma looked to the digimon in her hands who was perfectly playing a stuffed animal. She whispered to her. "Don't worry, Salamon, we'll head out and get some other food after this."
Akane came out two minutes later, holding a plate of something that vaguely resembled sausages and rice in one hand and a kettle in the other. She poured the kettle over Ranma's head, having mastered the precise temperature necessary to turn Ranma male a while back, and her form shifted to his. She then put the plate down in front of him... and seemed to notice Salamon.
"Where'd you get that, Ranma? That's an adorable stuffed animal."
Ranma wasn't really the best of liars, so he put Salamon on the table carefully. "Oh, I found her in an abandoned lot today. She reminds me of something I had when I was younger, and I was going to go out and look for who she belonged to earlier."
"I didn't know you liked digimon, Ranma." Akane smiled.
"Yeah, it was something I got into about six years ago. I kinda just fell into it." Ranma had to stall. If he stalled long enough, the food would get cold and he could throw it out.
"Well, I'll go get some tea and come back." Akane went to head to the kitchen, and Ranma looked down at the food. To his horror, Salamon was now turning green with some of the food visibly gone from the plate.
"Ghrk..." The sound that came from Salamon was not unlike any sound he might have made when eating bad food. That wasn't paint thinner, it was castor oil. The recipe must have called for canola oil or something and Akane got the labels mixed up.
Akane spun around. Ranma could see the anger in her starting to take hold. "Ranma... You better not be making fun of my cooking..."
Admittedly, Ranma was more worried about Salamon at the moment. "Akane, what did you put in the food? Salamon's getting sick."
Akane blinked. Ranma didn't have time to worry about explaining to her. He couldn't lose Salamon now that he just got her back. He pulled out his D-Ark and deck of cards, flipping through them. There. These two cards should make a combo that would help.
"Card Slash!" Ranma swiped the first card through the D-Ark. "Hi Fortitude Plugin B!"
Almost immediately as the card's effects started to take hold, normal color began to return to Salamon's cheeks, but she wasn't out of the woods yet. Ranma prepared the second card.
"Card Slash!" Ranma's swiping here wasn't quite the swift motion he used in combat, but it did resemble it. "Speed Plugin D!"
Speeding up the metabolism, it didn't take much longer for Salamon to return to normal, and Ranma breathed a sigh of relief before turning to Akane. "You really need to pay more attention when cooking, Akane. Salamon shouldn't be eating things like that."
Akane was in a state of shock. It wasn't that she didn't know digimon were real. They were all over the news six years ago after the incident with that red blob and the giant pig whatever. It was more that she never really expected to see a real live digimon up close. Let alone hurt one with her cooking. She'd tried so hard on that dinner too, but she hurt the digimon. Idly, she noted that the food was supposed to be for Ranma, and he didn't eat it, the digimon did, so it could be his fault that the digimon got sick. Still, it was her cooking. She doubted the digimon would fake being sick like Ranma and her sisters would.
She barely registered Ranma's asking to order pizza, but she slowly made her way to the kitchen and picked up the phone. She ordered the usual order that they got for the whole family, charging it to her father's credit account with the Pizza place and returned to the dining area. She blinked twice. The digimon was still there. Still moving.
Akane shook herself out of her daze upon her return. "... that stuffed digimon was real? Ranma, that's a real live Salamon right there?"
Ranma nodded. While he would have rather kept Salamon under wraps for a little while longer, he supposed it was inevitable. "Salamon, meet Akane. My uncute fiancée." Of course he couldn't help but get in that label.
Salamon let out a burp coupled with a jet of fire. "Hi, I'm Salamon, and I'm Ranma's digimon partner!"
It looked like the uncute comment pulled Akane fully out of her daze and got her focused. It was obvious that Akane was starting to get annoyed, but when Salamon spoke, a look of regret flashed on the tomboy's face. "I'm sorry Salamon, I didn't mean to hurt you."
"It's okay, it didn't taste too bad at first, but it was really really strong and gave me a tummy ache." Salamon's stomach chose that second to rumble again. "Guess I'm still hungry."
Ranma nodded. So was he, for that matter. "Well, Akane ordered something for us to eat, and when it gets here we'll eat together.
Akane nodded in confirmation. "It should be good." Ranma supposed that Akane felt a bit guilty over what happened to Salamon. She usually did when a person got hurt by her who wasn't him. And occasionally when it was him. "So, Ranma, Salamon said she was your digimon partner. That means you're a tamer, right? Why didn't we find out about this before now?"
"Well, Salamon got sent back to the Digital World after the big blow-up with the D-Reaper was done along with the other digimon. Pop and I left Shinjuku after that to continue the training journey. I heard that there was an incident in Shibuya with a Locomon not long after that point, but Pop and I were halfway to Hiroshima by then. So before today, I hadn't seen Salamon in about six years."
Salamon spoke up. "Guilmon and the others left the digital world a couple months after we got back there. Takatomon came and got them, but I didn't want to come back if you weren't there, Ranma. I knew we'd see each other again though."
Ranma smiled and patted Salamon on the head. Akane, on the other hand, looked lost. "Wait, Takatomon, Guilmon... Shinjuku was where the red blob thing happened... maybe you should start at the beginning, Ranma."
"I guess I could, Akane..." And Ranma began his story.
I guess I can tell you how Salamon and I met, Akane. Just don't interrupt too much, either of ya. To understand how I met Salamon, you probably have to understand how I started to get into digimon. I said that I sorta fell into it. That was actually a bit literal.
You see, Pop and I had moved to Shinjuku as a part of the training trip. Looking back, I suppose we could have been in Nerima or at Mom's house if Pop wanted, but apparently there were some people in Shinjuku who Pop knew and wanted me to learn from.
Anyway, the event that got me into digimon happened about two months before I met Salamon. Pop and I were practicing outside, and he hit me pretty hard so I flew out of a tree. Landing practice, he called it. Would have worked too, if I hadn't bumped into someone. I managed to slow myself down enough that neither of us got hurt, but I bumped into a girl that was around my age. She got knocked to the ground and a bunch of what she was carrying fell on the ground and spread out.
I managed to get myself to my feet and, being the caring guy I am, I looked her over.
"This better not have been in a perverted way."
Akane, I was ten.
"Are you okay?" I asked. I could have really hurt her if I hadn't slowed myself.
She nodded and asked me. "Where did you come from?"
"I uh... fell into you. I'm sorry about that, I should have tried better to dodge." Pop always did drill into me that non-martial artists shouldn't be hurt by us.
"You... fell. Into me?" The girl's voice was a little disbelieving. I got a decent look at her, she was a redhead with her hair up in a ponytail. She wore a t-shirt with a broken heart on it, and shorts and sneakers. You know, normal stuff for someone her age. "How, exactly, did you fall into me?"
"My Pop has me doing some landing training so he threw me out of a tree."
I don't think she knew how to answer that statement. Normal people don't tend to understand that training is training. Pop would never intentionally seriously hurt me. He always made sure that I was capable of pulling off whatever crazy training he wanted me to do. Well, except that one time, but it was supposed to be for a secret technique.
I helped her up at that point, and it turned out those things that spread out all over the floor were some digimon cards. Some were still sealed in booster packs, but some were loose cards. She freaked. "Oh, you idiot! Help me get these up..."
I did help her pick everything up and get it situated in her bag. That was when I first saw a Salamon card. "Huh, what's that?"
"You don't know about digimon?" The girl seemed surprised. I guess I was in the appropriate age group to get interested in the stuff, but with Pop and I moving around so much, it never came up before.
"No, what's that?"
"It means Digital Monsters, and that card in particular is a Salamon." She explained a bit about the cards to me, and I explained a little about Pop training me to her. I guess we both recognized a bit of something in each other. A drive to be the best.
We introduced ourselves to each other after that... and she let me keep the Salamon card and a booster pack. That was my first meeting with Makino Ruki, and how I got into digimon.
Over the next couple months, I pretty much devoured any and all digimon media I could get my hands on. When I wasn't training, I was checking out card shops and meeting up with kids who had digimon cards to play with them. There were a few groups at the school I went to, but none of them were as good as I knew Ruki had been. The Salamon card was important to me. Partially because it was from the first friend I had in the area. And partially because it won me a lot of games.
Of course, it was a day about two months later that I first saw a real digimon. Now digimon can only come over to our world under certain circumstances, and when they come over, there's an almost electric fog that forms. I woke up one night in the middle of the night, and I went out to our roof. I couldn't fall asleep, so I thought I'd check out how my card stats interacted with each other with the new card reader I picked up with the allowance Pop gave me.
I was going through my deck when I noticed a card that hadn't been there before. I hadn't seen it before and it didn't look quite like any of the other cards in the set. It was a blue card with a pixelated English D with a shadowed Agumon coming out of it on it. The card was slightly holographic in that the symbol faded in and out depending on the angle I looked at the card.
I swiped the card through my card reader... and the glowing fog formed around me. I could see a tear between our world and the digital one, and I saw quite a few digimon through the tear.
"He's not the queen, but he has the drive to make me stronger!" Came from a Tyrannomon.
"His strength and skill will rise immeasurably and he will be mine." I think that one was from a DemiDevimon.
"I want to protect people with you!" That was Salamon... who in a flash of golden light jumped out at me. I couldn't believe it. My very own digimon... and the others seemed to be arguing over me. But as the card reader turned into a digivice, I knew Salamon was the one for me. None of the other digimon would have worked as well as she did. Plus, she didn't argue so much as just come.
The digital field closed after that, and Salamon and I began to work together as partners. We eventually met up with the other Tamers of Shinjuku and worked with them to protect the city. I think Ruki was surprised that I managed to get a digimon partner. I know I was when I saw she had one.
This was a new place where Calumon hadn't been before. Giddiness welled up inside his little digimon heart and he knew that he had to explore. Stretching his ears out so he could fly, he took to the sky to look around.
There were so many people! He didn't know who he wanted to play with first. He could go with that man who was walking with that woman, or he could go with that woman over there. Or, ooh... ooh! There was a thing over there... He liked things! Things were neat! This thing was big, wooden... it actually looked a little spooky.
"Oh... maybe I shouldn't go in... Old temples are supposed to be haunted..." Calumon muttered to himself. Of course he wasn't scared. Why should he be scared? He was the great Calumon! Savior of the Digital World! Stopper of the D-Reaper! Savior of the Human World! He didn't need any partner to help either! But... it was night. And he could hear the creaking of the boards.
"No! I am not afraid of you, thing! I'm coming in!" Calumon charged into the old temple... thing. And once he made it ten feet in, he crashed face-first into a giant bell. Once his head stopped ringing, he took a closer look at it.
"Oh, that's a big bell, and it kinda hurts too when I run into it. Hmm... maybe I could do something..." Calumon pondered. The bell was really big. It was the size of his entire body, even. What could he do with that? Maybe he could play with it. Roll it around, hear it ring. He could possibly even use it to make music! Yes, he could be the best musician in the world! Calu Monzini! He would have loads of fans, and they'd all be chanting his name.
"Calumon! Calumon!" He'd be the best and they'd feed him ice cream and cake and hug him whenever he wanted! And they'd play with him too!
"Nyeraow! What are you doing with my bell?" Calumon blinked out of his fantasy and turned toward the source of the voice. He looked up. And up. And up. Whatever this was, it was shaped like a cat... only it had giant eyes and was about six times the size of a normal cat. It didn't smell like a digimon though. It didn't smell like much of anything.
Calumon's reaction was typical of him. "Kitty! You're a big kitty and I always knew kitties could talk, but nobody believed me. And you aren't a digimon, but just a big kitty and I want to play!"
"Play? With... you?" The cat sounded annoyed. "You interrupted my nap..."
Calumon landed and his ears pulled in. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you..."
"Nyeraow... I'm up... I guess I can play a little bit with you..." The cat sighed.
"Yay! I'm Calumon, by the way, what's your name?"
"I'm Maomolin. How about we play... hide and go seek? You hide, and I'll come find you..." The giant cat purred out.
"That sounds fun!" Calumon laughed. He loved making new friends!
The giant cat nodded and told Calumon the rules. "Okay, so I'll count to one hundred and you need to find a hiding spot outside the temple. When I'm done, I'll come find you. Okay?"
Calumon nodded. He was the best at hiding! Maomoling wouldn't know what hit him.
The giant cat laid down and covered his eyes with his paws. "One... Two... Three..."
Calumon dashed outside the temple. No way would he let himself be found!
Back inside the temple, the bakeneko known as Maomoling purred out a sigh. "Why is it I can't just find a girl to be my bride rather than a hyperactive little monster? At least he's gone now..." And he faded into his bell.
Ranma woke up the following morning in his usual fashion, flying through the air out the window of the bedroom and into the yard. He managed to adjust himself in the air so that he landed on his feet, and a few seconds later, Salamon landed next to him.
"Morning, Pop!" Ranma called as his father jumped out the window after him. He did it as cheerfully as possible as he could tell his father had a hangover.
"Time for practice, boy!" Genma leapt into the air, and Ranma joined, a smile decorating his face as he knew his father probably hadn't noticed Salamon there yet. The two exchanged blows before landing on opposite sides of the koi pond, and Salamon, out of her daze moved to watch.
It took two more volleys of blows before Salamon received a subtle nod from Ranma and she joined the fray, cutting off Genma mid-leap. "SLEDGE DASH!"
Genma's momentum was redirected entirely by the headbutt and he ended up landing face-first in the koi pond. A panda emerged and gave a little panda roar before it seemed to notice what had hit him.
"Oh, that's so cool, Ranma!" Salamon squeed as she walked up to the panda. "It's like he evolved into a Pandamon!"
"Growf!" Genma held up a sign. [Salamon?] He flipped it over. [Boy! Why didn't you tell me Salamon was back?]
Ranma grinned as he picked up his partner. "You were out late last night, Pop, and you didn't notice her this morning. You think I'm going to give up an advantage like that?"
Ranma ignored the sign that Genma was now displaying about how he was a disgraceful son for keeping Salamon from him and headed in.
Breakfast was already on the table and at Ranma's usual spot there was a second bowl of food next to his.
"I thought that Salamon-chan could have her own place at the table." Kasumi said as Ranma walked in.
Having long given up finding out how Kasumi found out things Ranma nodded and placed Salamon down next to him. Salamon, to her credit, managed to remember the correct thing to say before diving face-first into eating.
"Thanks for that, Kasumi." Ranma began his own eating as Genma came to the table.
"So Ranma, what are your plans for today?" Nabiki seemed to be eying Salamon. He'd have to keep an eye on that. He didn't trust the middle sister at all.
"I'm going to show Salamon around town. If she's going to be living with us here, she needs to know the city." Ranma answered.
Nabiki smirked. "Well, having a digimon around should be... interesting, Ranma."
And this was one reason he wanted to keep Salamon secret for a while. Nabiki would likely have information out to everyone who would listen by the end of the day.
Akane smiled at Salamon. "You keep Ranma out of trouble, Salamon."
Salamon, having finished her food, nodded. "Kay! So, Ranma, do you think we'll find any other digimon?"
"I... If you asked me yesterday morning, Salamon, I'd say all we'd have to worry about is whether Ryouga managed to find his way back here soon enough. However, after that Ogremon appeared last night... Maybe. We might see more digimon."
"Ogremon?" Nabiki perked up. "There's more than just Salamon in Nerima?"
Ranma nodded. "If you see any glowing fog, that usually means a digimon's appearing. If you see that, you should probably get away. Digimon that come out of the digital world aren't always the most rational when they appear."
Ranma continued, "And fighting them if they're a higher form than child is dangerous. I think even the Old Ghoul or the Old Pervert would have trouble with an Adult or higher. Depends on the Adult though."
Salamon perked up. "Old ghoul? What's a ghoul?"
"Kind of like a Bakemon, Salamon." Ranma idly commented.
"Ranma! That's not very nice... Even if she is old..." Akane trailed off. "You shouldn't teach her that kind of thing."
Ranma scooped Salamon into his arms. "I'll teach her what I want, she's my partner. Besides, she's smarter than she acts."
Salamon climbed up to Ranma's shoulder and then onto the top of his head, plopping herself down so she could be comfortable.
Ranma blinked as a camera flashed. "Hey!"
"Have to preserve this moment for posterity. Also it might be worth a few yen." Nabiki said with a smirk.
Soun finally seemed to have broken out of his likely hangover-induced stupor. "Ranma, you should take Akane with you."
Akane shook her head. "I'm sorry Daddy, but I have plans with Yuka and Sayuri today. We're heading to the mall."
Ranma nodded. "I'll see you all later." He turned and headed out. Now Ranma knew that Salamon had seen much of Shinjuku during the time where they all had lived there. So she didn't really need things pointed out that could be seen from Shinjuku as well as Nerima, just from a different angle. She needed to see the ward itself. Ranma took to the fence so that Salamon would have a higher vantage point, and he idly noted something flying across the roof to the side.
Since it didn't seem to be coming after him, Ranma didn't give it further thought.
"Where are we going, Ranma?" Salamon hadn't moved from her perch on his head.
"Well, I figured the best place to start might be the zoo. You can see a lot of real world animals which some digimon seem to also look like." Most people walking by Ranma didn't tend to give the martial artist a second look, even when he was speaking to the digimon on his head. Nerima had become slightly desensitized to such things.
"That sounds fun..." Salamon murmured.
"It's coming from over there, Jian!" Ranma blinked. That voice sounded familiar.
"I'm coming, I'm coming... you know you're not supposed to scare people..." That voice also was a tad familiar, but Ranma couldn't quite place it.
"Ah, who's scared? The people around here seem a lot more relaxed than back home. They even offered me breakfast at the hotel, Jian!" Ranma looked toward the voice's source, and it took a bit before it came into view, even with his bouncing, Terriermon was still a small digimon.
The Terriermon was with a human. His tamer, obviously. Ranma felt he should recognize this person, maybe even remember a name, but it wasn't coming to him. The tamer paused. "A Salamon and a guy standing on the fence... Saotome Ranma? That you?"
Jenrya never found that wild digimon the previous night, and he'd reported as such to Yamaki. Neither he nor Terriermon knew what that meant. Did the digimon just go back to the digital world on its own, or did someone handle it? Regardless, Yamaki had encouraged the pair to stay in Nerima for a couple nights, setting them up with a nice hotel and a stipend. If anything, Jenrya was glad to have a little bit of a vacation from Shinjuku, though Terriermon seemed a bit sad that he couldn't play with either Lopmon or Shiuchon.
That morning, Jenrya and his partner set out to find out whatever dealt with the digimon or to find it or something. He wasn't quite sure why Yamaki had him doing this. It had been a bit slow recently; maybe this was just Yamaki worrying over nothing.
"Come on, Jian... Let's take a look around! I haven't seen this part of the city before and I don't think you have either!" Terriermon certainly seemed enthusiastic. Of course, with school out for summer break, the little guy was just happy to be around him.
"All right, all right. Let's go, Terriermon." He was rewarded a few seconds later by a weight on his shoulder, indicating his digimon had joined him, and he headed out. The hotel was near a few restaurants that seemed to be preparing for their lunch rush early in the morning. There was a ramen place, the Nekohanten, a barbecue place, Kim Chung's, a sushi place, named of all things, Ichiban, and there was an okonomiyaki place, Okonomiyaki Ucchan's. Maybe he'd be able to get something at once of these places with the money that Yamaki sent him.
After they got past the restaurants, Terriermon perked up. It wasn't quite the way he did it when there was a feral digimon that he was sensing. His fur remained unruffled by whatever instinct that he had. "Jian, there's a digimon nearby."
Jenrya paused for a second. It wasn't that he doubted his partner, he'd been with him too long to doubt such instincts, but just because there was a digimon nearby didn't mean much unless they found it. "Are you sure it's not just indigestion?" Jenrya joked.
Terriermon leaped to the ground and glared at him. "Come on, Jian! It's this way! And it's not Calumon or Guilmon either!"
Terriermon headed off through the streets. Jenrya, without any better ideas, had to follow his partner if only to keep him out of trouble. There were a decent amount of people around as they were running through the streets, and Jenrya idly wondered why they weren't reacting to Terriermon. Yeah, people knew digimon were real and had for the past six years, but a digimon still wasn't something normal to see. Why these people weren't even batting an eye confused him.
"Hold up, Terriermon! We don't even know where we're going!"
"Momentai, Jian! It's definitely this way, I can feel it!" Terriermon was almost bouncing at this point. He was dashing through the crowd at this point. "It's coming from over there, Jian!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming... you know you're not supposed to scare people..." Jenrya followed, and he could see past the people he was weaving through toward the fence. On the fence was a guy around his age dressed in a red Chinese shirt and black pants tied off at the bottom. On top of the guy's head was... was that a Salamon?
"Ah, who's scared? The people around here seem a lot more relaxed than back home. They even offered me breakfast at the hotel, Jian!" Jenrya just shook his head as he continued forward.
"A Salamon and a guy standing on a fence..." This reminded him of someone. Who did he know that was partnered with a Salamon? Oh he hadn't seen him in a while! "Saotome Ranma? That you?"
"Yeah, that's me..." Ranma seemed to not quite recognize him, but it was now fairly clear that he had a D-Ark. "And you are... hmm... Henrii... no, ah! Li Jenrya! Been a long while."
Ranma leaped off the fence, and after that, Salamon jumped down off his head. "Terriermon! Hi!"
Jenrya smiled as Salamon tackled Terriermon. "Yeah, it's been a long time, Ranma. Haven't seen you since you left town after the D-Reaper."
"Yeah, well, Pop and I had to get back on our training journey. We ended up doing quite a bit after that. I see you managed to get Terriermon back too, when did that happen?"
"Well, about a month after you left, Takato managed to find his way back into the Digital World and came back with all our partners. Ryo ended up joining Cyberdramon back there, but everyone else came back here."
"That's... actually pretty neat... Salamon didn't show up till last night, herself."
Huh. He wondered if last night Salamon was the Wild One that Yamaki was tracking. "Oh?"
"Yeah, she ended up helping me finish off an Ogremon. Guy wasn't that tough, but I don't know if humans can actually disperse digimon."
Salamon perked up. "Yeah, Ranma made a tornado! It was awesome. I wanna make a tornado too, Ranma. Next time we fight can you swipe a card that lets me?"
Ranma chuckled. "Sure Salamon, I think I might have a card or two that can help with that."
Wait. Tornado. Ranma made a tornado. How the hell did he make a tornado? Maybe Salamon was mistaken. Of course, he'd heard of crazy things that supposedly could be done with martial arts, but that was something right out of a manga. "Tornado? Ranma, was that you last night and not a digimon?"
Ranma scratched the back of his head, below his pigtail and laughed. "Yeah... It was a martial arts technique I learned. One of my most special attacks. Hey, you're a martial artist too, right? Maybe we could spar later."
Jenrya blanched a little. While he did practice Tai Chi, without biomerging with Terriermon, he wasn't too sure he'd be able to effectively use it against someone who had been practicing crazy martial arts that let you produce tornadoes. "Yeah, I've kept up my Tai Chi practice."
Ranma smiled. "Ah yeah, I remember MegaGargomon using that against the big phoenix jerk. That was impressive back then. Should be interesting to see how well you do without digimon help."
That's what he was afraid of... "Momentai, Jian. Ranma probably won't hurt you! He's probably got a lot of control if what Salamon was saying is true. "
Before Jenrya could respond, his cell phone rang. He flipped it open. "Moshi moshi. Li here."
"Li-kun, this is Ootori Reika. We have two Wild Ones moving in on your position. They're both displaying power levels consistent with Adult digimon bordering on Perfect. They should bio-emerge soon."
"Right, let Yamaki know that Terriermon and I are on it with the person who dealt with Ogremon last night. He might remember Saotome Ranma."
Ranma seemed to be paying attention to the phone call and subtly looking around. Jenrya pulled his sunglasses from his pocket to put them on before the digital field formed.
"Will do. Be careful, Li-kun. HYPNOS out." Ootori-san cut out without giving him the chance to say goodbye. He put his phone away.
"So, two digimon incoming, right?" Damn, Ranma's ears must be good or he had that turned up too loud. Jenrya nodded. "Well, we'll just have to make sure that they're handled."
The hairs on Jenrya's arms began to stick up and he could almost taste the static charge on the air. Ootori-san wasn't kidding when they said that they were closing on them. "Ranma, you have anything to cover your eyes?"
"Not yet, my old sunglasses broke a while ago." Ranma had already gripped his D-Ark, much the same as Jenrya.
"Well, Terriermon and I should be able to handle this, you don't have to get involved."
Ranma looked at him like he was nuts and then a manhole burst upwards as the digital field erupted from both it and the water. "Terriermon..."
"Momentai. I've got them..."
He glanced down at his D-Ark, and it displayed the first digimon's data. "Ranma, that's a DarkTyrannomon, we'll have to be careful of its Fire Blast and Iron Tail..."
Ranma gave an affirmative sound. "And in the water's a Seadramon. That's going to be a pain to deal with."
"Don't worry about it, Terriermon and I have this. Biomerge Activate!" Jenrya thrust out his digivice as he called out the activation phrase.
Terriermon jumped up in preparation... "Terriermon shinka... or not..."
Wait... what? Why weren't they together right then? Jenrya tried again. "Biomerge Activate!"
"Terriermon ... aww forget it..." Terriermon sounded disappointed.
"Jenrya, what's wrong?"
Jenrya looked at his D-Ark as he heard the roars of both DarkTyrannomon and Seadramon echoing through the area. The readout said, "Biomerge Failure."
Both Adult Digimon roared again. "It's not working... Terriermon and I can't biomerge..." Why was this happening? Why now? What were they going to do?
Author's Notes: Well, that was a fun chapter to write. Little bit of a pain in some areas, but overall I think it flowed pretty well. There's a tad bit of foreshadowing here, but I'm not sure anyone will catch it. Now, I'm not going to commission this, and I don't have the skill, but I'd love to see a fanart of Ranma mid card slash animation. Either form would work, but what I'm envisioning in my head involves something like a vertical split showing both male and female half in the relative same position. Eh... mind things.