Digimon [Digimon Tamers/Ranma] Do Digimon Dream of Digital Sheep?

[ellf]

It was twilight when Ranma was able to convince the doctors to release him. He was mostly better by then. Ryouga never did much actual damage to him. A few bruises, a popped shoulder, honestly if it weren’t for the Lost Boy’s immense toughness, Ranma would have been worried about him instead. His rival had taken much worse than he’d given Ranma, but he’d gotten lost in the middle of the fight. Ranma only ended up at the doctor’s because he’d been exhausted from blasting Ryouga with confidence.

Mokou Takabisha. That technique was not an easy one to develop, nor was it easy to consistently use. He had to know he was going to win. Of course, there weren’t many people who could beat him, after all, he was Ranma Saotome. He always won in the end. It was just sometimes, the cost of winning didn’t seem worth the result. He’d lost friends that way. They’d won, but then his father had to drag him off… and his best friend couldn’t come with him. She had to stay.

Still, he kept his memento of her in the bottom of his pack, buried deep beneath where Genma couldn’t find it. It had no power now without her here, but it was still something he could remember her with.

A white fog began to roll in toward an abandoned construction site nearby. It drew his eye because the nearest body of water was two streets over. Okay. That wasn’t fog. Fog didn’t produce light of its own. It couldn’t be what Ranma was thinking of, but if it was and he didn’t investigate, he’d feel like a heel.

As soon as he stepped into the fog, the hairs on his arm stood on end, and he squinted. It was so bright. This right here is why he and the others wore sunglasses. Well, one wore goggles, but he wasn’t so sure about that one’s intelligence. Of course, his own was a bit debatable as well. Ranma shook his head and continued heading into what he now knew was a digital field. If a digimon was emerging here in Nerima, it was his job to deal with it. How he dealt with it depended on what was inside.

He made it to the electrical fog of the digital field and looked over the construction site. Where was the digimon? His hand twitched, reaching for a pouch that wasn’t at his waist. He had no method of tracking it other than his eyes.

There! A flash of green skin dashing across the exposed I-beam. No real world creature had green skin. It had to be a digimon. His eyes narrowed as the full digimon came into view. It had white hair, viciously sharp teeth, wore a loincloth and in its hand it held a bone-white club. It was an Ogremon.
Ranma’s mind idly called up its statistics. Ogremon, an Adult level digimon. Ogre type. Virus attribute. It evolved from a Goblimon, and its attacks other than the bone club were a pummel ability and Tyrant Fist, an energy wave.

Maybe he could convince it to just go back to the digital world. Ranma scoffed. Like that would happen. Oh good, it looked like Ogremon just noticed it wasn’t alone.

“Well, if it isn’t an Ogremon. Long way from the Digital World… How you doing tonight, buddy?”

Ogremon roared in response, and if that wasn’t telling about what was likely coming, nothing was. “Don’t suppose I can talk you into going back to the Digital World on your own.”

Ogremon’s roar echoed through the construction site and it leaped upward onto another I-beam.

“Didn’t think so…” Ranma ran after it.

*********************************
An alarm blared through the headquarters of HYPNOS, and Mitsuo Yamaki dashed up to the central level so he could see the room’s domed screen representation of the network and Tokyo. This was the first alert they’d had in a few months, and while the last one wasn’t that dangerous, that didn’t change the fact that whenever a digimon came through, he needed to know. He might not have been able to prevent it, but he had field agents now whose judgment he trusted. The screen’s light reflected off his sunglasses and he resisted the urge to run a hand through his graying hair; instead his left hand found his zippo lighter.

“Get a lock on that wild one.” He looked to his two sysops. Reika Ootori sat back to back with Megumi Onodera, each with their personal screens over their eyes and keyboards in front of them. The machine arm that their chairs sat on rotated them with a frequency that would likely have made him sick if it were him.

“Almost have it, boss.” Megumi probably did too. Between both of his sysops, they had thirteen years of experience dealing with bio-emergence events. Yamaki flicked open his lighter and closed it idly as he watched them work. The last actually dangerous bio-emergence event happened five and a half years ago, when a Locomon became a runaway train on a Shinjuku track. It had been taken over by Parasimon in a plot to crack the digital world wide open so that a number of the creatures could invade. Luckily that was stopped by his field operatives.

“Locked, Yamaki.” Reika Ootori, his on again, off again girlfriend and confidant spoke confidently. He had a thing for redheads, but that was neither here nor there. He needed to find out where this wild one was so he could send someone to deal with it.

“Good, do you have a location yet?”

“Working on it.” Reika said as she typed. Reika and Megumi’s typing had to be something like in the thousands of words per minute with that speed of operation. “Got it! It looks like it’s emerging in Furinkan-cho, Nerima.”

Fuck. This would have been easier if it were Shinjuku, it was nice and local, and he’d be able to send all the field agents without worrying about exposure. Matsuki was right out. Guilmon was too large to get on the train safely. Makino was out of town with her mother on business. Kitagawa had a preparatory test that he needed to focus on. Shioda had the same issue as Matsuki. That left… “Get Li on the line, send him there. Tell him to take the train. He needs to get there as soon as he can.”

“Right.” And Megumi dialed out. There hadn’t been many bio-emergence events lately. None of them were all that dangerous either. So why did this one cause a pit in his stomach?

******************

Feral or not, this Ogremon was smart. It had to be luring him in, there’s no way a feral digimon would just not attack a human without reason. It had to be feral too. It had ignored his attempt at communication. Ranma leaped onto an I-beam after it. He could see it heading toward one of the corners… there was no way it didn’t know Ranma was after him.

There! Ogremon’s right hand curled into a fist and a dark aura formed around it. “TYRANT FIST!” Ranma had less than a second to drop off the I-beam and cling underneath as a wave of dark energy passed over above him, crumbling the barely finished wall behind it.

Using his momentum, he swung himself a t Ogremon, foot first. “METEOR KICK!” If the digimon was going to call out its attacks, it’d only be fair for him to call his own out.

Oh. That wasn’t good. Ogremon swung its bone club down and grazed Ranma, deflecting the kick into the ground nearby. Ranma flipped back to his feet and Ogremon batted him hard with the bone club, sending him downward to a lower floor. This thing was at least as tall as Tarou’s cursed form, and it had good instincts. This was going to be a fun fight.

Ranma got his feet under him and cushioned his landing on the ground, it giving way just enough to slow him down. He winced, his shoulder was acting up. He really didn’t need that to happen right now. Looking over the building, he could see where Ogremon was standing. All he needed was one good hit… There!

Ranma kicked at the wall, and a crack propagated upward and into the floor below Ogremon. It collapsed under the digimon’s weight and Ranma jumped at its falling form. Ranma kicked the Ogremon midair, driving it into the wall and kicking up some dust.

“TYRANT FIST!” Ranma dropped to his back to let the energy wave pass over him. Jumping to his feet, Ranma ran into the dust cloud after Ogremon and had to dodge a bone club swipe.

“Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!” Ranma’s fists blurred as he hit the Ogremon several hundred times, taking the same strategy as fighting Ryouga. Ogremon was a big tough digimon, so several punches to the same area should work.

As the dust cleared, Ranma could see the look of surprise on the digimon’s face. There was no way it was expecting a human to fight back. Not successfully, at least. Ranma kept the projection of confidence up. He’d beat this digimon, after all, Ranma Saotome never loses.
*************************

“Jenryaaaa….!” His little sister’s voice rang out through the Li household as he finished up his phone call. While Shiuchun had turned thirteen a couple months back, he swore sometimes she acted like she was still seven or eight. She met him in the hallway, and on her head was the dark three horned form of Lopmon. “That was Yamaki-san wasn’t it? Talking about a new digimon appearing?”

Jenrya sighed. His sister was a bit perceptive. “Yeah, he couldn’t tell me what it was, just where it was emerging. “ Normally the D-Ark would have picked it up, but he guessed that the digimon emerged out of range of its detection zone. This wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened.

“So where’d Yamaki want us to go, Jian?” Terriermon waddled out, his ears tied into a bow. Jenrya looked at his little sister and the pristine Lopmon and back at Terriermon. Color tinged the child digimon’s face as he glared at Jenrya. “I was hungry and Shiuchun said my ears needed to be out of the way!”

Of… course she did. At least Terriermon wasn’t wearing make-up this time. He wasn’t going to begrudge his digimon’s life choices, but seriously… “Right, Princess Pretty Pants, we’re headed to Nerima. We’ll be taking the train, and Yamaki-san is paying.”

“We’re going too!” Why couldn’t Shiuchun be out with one of her friends… or even Ai and Mako. They weren’t that much younger than her, and he knew he saw them at her juku.

“Absolutely not. Terriermon and I are headed there alone. We’ll handle Nerima.” No way was he getting in trouble for letting his little sister go on a train this time of day.

“I’m older than you were when you fought digimon!” Shiuchun sounded angry.

“Yeah, but we fought them here in Shibuya. Besides Mom would kill me if you got on the train and something happened. Come on, Terriermon.”

He turned to grab his D-Ark and a pack of modify cards as Terriermon jumped to his shoulder. He could hear Lopmon whispering something to his sister, but he didn’t know what.

“Fine, we’ll just patrol the area around here.” Shiuchun caved pretty fast there. Something wasn’t quite right… but he didn’t have time to mull over that. A digimon was coming out on the other side of the city.

Why couldn’t this happen when Ruki got back?

 

[Sunder the Gold]

Interesting.

How was/is Ranma's life different as a Digimon's human partner?

 

[ellf]

Well, his life in Nerima hasn't actually changed much. He left Shibuya sometime between the end of Tamers and the Runaway Locomon movie. Also around that time, Genma taught Ranma the Neko-ken. Later this chapter, it will become obvious why that is important.

 

[Jimbobob5536]

I would assume because his partner was some kind of feline Digimon. Interesting start, by the way.

 

[Emerald Oracle]

This is relevant to my interests.

As far as Feline digimon go the first that come sto mind as a female is Gatomon or a viral varinat thereof, but that might be a bit obvious? Perhaps Ranma had a Liamon? they actually look like regular cats and eventually grow into BantyoLeomon who is always awesome.

In any event, an interesting start and I look forward to learning more about how the timeline has been altered by the cross.

 

[Garahs]

You all think it has to be a cat. What if it's a mouse?

 

[TerraBull]

So a Digimon? Speculation?

Elecmon

to

Leomon

to

IceLeomon

to

SaberLeomon

to

BanchoLeomon?

Unless it is a Girl version instead..

 

[ellf]

Unfortunately, Leomon was killed by Beelzemon. Ranma doesn't have a Leomon variant.

I'm using a Digimon not seen in Tamers.

Next scene has her in it anyway. Salamon is Ranma's partner.

 

[Emerald Oracle]

Rookie of the Gatomon line then, that works, though Salamon looks more like a dog than a cat to me. Clearly though she'll go for Magnadramon eventually so Ranma can do the Hiryu Shoten Ha with her?

 

[TerraBull]

New Speculation?

Confirmed?

Salamon

perhaps to

Mikemon

to

Persiamon

to a varient

Lilithmon?

 

[ellf]

Well, not going to confirm/deny any evolution chains until they pop up in story. I will say that Lilithmon being in as a biomerge would be interesting considering the villain(s) of this story.

 

[TerraBull]

Would it be the Actual Lilithmon or one reaching that Level?

I admit I would find it amusing, would it be "Love at First Sight?" of more than one of themselves or "There can be ONLY ONE!"

 

[ellf]

And incoming more!

She jumped half a meter to the left. It had been six years since she last made this trip, and if she did this wrong, she could end up somewhere even the Sovereigns wouldn’t be able to find her. Why was she trying to leave the Digital World now?

The child digimon spun around, dodging another beam. Good question. She wasn’t quite sure herself why she felt the need. But the pull was coming from up ahead. And one thing was certain. She wouldfollow this pull, and then she’d go find him. Instinct was a funny thing.

The real world wavered above her as light beams touched down at seemingly random intervals. Below her paws, she could see the mountains and forests of the Digital world as she ran along the grid dividing the two worlds. She just needed to get the right beam. A crevice opened up in front of her, but she couldn’t stop… she wouldn’t. She just needed to make a leap of faith. She would see her partner again, she knew it.

Salamon jumped. As she passed over the rapidly enlarging crevice, a beam shot down from above and struck her, forcing her to close her eyes to avoid being blind.

Her nose twitched as suddenly she was assaulted by the scent of wet grass, asphalt, and humans… and a... digimon! Her fur stood on end. There was a human near the digimon… but she could smell its hostility.

She opened her eyes and ran down the streets of the city. Salamon had to make sure the human was alright. The holy ring around her neck tingled as she ran. She would help the human! She would fight the enemy digimon! She would…. Watch the unfolding fight between a human and an Ogremon?

How was the human fighting the Ogremon? He seemed to weave around Ogremon’s bone club as it attacked. His fists blurred as he attacked back. Oh, Sovereigns! Ogremon got a lucky hit… that looked like it hurt.

The human…. Ranma? She found him, and he was fighting Ogremon? He landed on his feet, and she could see the clear smirk on his face. He had to be planning something.

She should have jumped in just then, but she remembered what Ranma had said about individual fights. She wasn’t going to interrupt him when he had a plan.

“TYRANT FIST!” At least she hoped he had a plan, that energy wave was heading straight for Ranma. Wait, was Ranma glowing? She almost missed it by blinking as Ranma thrust his arms out and called out his own attack.

“MOKOU TAKABISHA!” Ranma had his own digimon attacks? What did he need her for now? What was that? Well, the energy that came out of Ranma connected with the Tyrant Fist, and both exploded at the center of the battlefield.

She had to move closer so she could get a better view…

*******************

That ki blast took a lot out of him, and the longer this fight lasted, the more likely it was he was going to lose. At least Ogremon didn’t look too much better than he felt. He needed to end this. Fast. Otherwise he was going to be a smear on the pavement.

Ranma put on a brave face. It was actually quite easy to be confident after the Mokou Takabisha. He always had an overabundance of the stuff anyway; it’s why he chose it. But he couldn’t use another one just now. No, what he had to do was shut out emotion. Empty himself. Soul of Ice.

Ranma ran up and clocked Ogremon in the jaw. “Didn’t think I could do that too, did you, ugly?” After Ogremon swiped at him, he ducked and continued. “Yeah, you may be feral, but you understand me don’t you?”

Ogremon roared and swung its club again, but Ranma focused on dodging, stepping back and to the right.

“So, what’s wrong? I’m a human. You’re an Adult Digimon. Shouldn’t you be able to beat me?”

“TYRANT FIST!” That was close, but this close to him, it was easy to move with his move telegraphing.

“See, that’s my theory about most digimon. You can’t make it in the Digital World. So you run away.” Club over the head. Sidestep, avoid. “You’re a failure as a Digimon. I mean, you can’t even beat one lousy human.”


“STRONG MAUL!” And Amaguriken speed needed to block those swipes, using just enough force to push them around him. Five more steps.

“Come on, Ogremon. You can do better than that.” Ranma ducked a horizontal swing. Just a couple more steps.

“RANMA!”

That wasn’t Ogremon… but he didn’t have time to think about that as he completed the spiral. Ogremon’s fist was rearing back for another Tyrant Fist. “HIRYUU SHOUTEN HA!”
Ranma punched the air with a corkscrew motion, and the wind picked up. A tornado rose around him, carrying Ogremon into the sky. Soul of Ice, mouth of bullshit. Ranma backed away in case for some reason, Ogremon evolved mid-tornado.

A tiny canine blur dove at his chest and he instinctively caught it. Looking down, he saw the golden ring around its neck. “Salamon?”

“Ranma!” So it was her voice he’d heard. “I’m so glad to see you but you were fighting Ogremon and you did two digimon attacks but I hadn’t heard of them before and now Ogremon is in a tornado! How?”

“Uh… those were ki attacks, something humans can do with enough training. I’m just that awesome. I mean, what other humans can say they fought an Adult digimon and won.” Ranma said with a smirk. Well, he hadn’t won yet, but the fight should be more or less over. Whenever the wind died down. Hopefully.

Ranma looked up at the tornado, trying to spot Ogremon. This wasn’t quite lasting as long as Happosai’s version, and Ranma knew it couldn’t last much longer.

“I missed you so much, Ranma.” Salamon nuzzled into his chest.

“Likewise. If you’d been here, Ogremon would have been data a while ago.” Ranma may have been a proud martial artist, but he was an even prouder tamer. “But you’re here now and that’s what matters.”

The tornado dissipated as the wind died down. Ranma finally could spot Ogremon’s falling form. He jumped backwards, taking Salamon with him as he perched on an I-beam. The adult digimon crashed to the ground, doing a belly flop… and then a couple seconds later its bone club landed on its head before falling down next to it.

Ranma cocked his head. “Huh, well, it looks like he’s knocked out and beaten, but he’s not data.”

“Ranma, should I?” Salamon jumped out of his hands and onto the ground.

It wasn’t very honorable to hit someone while they were down, but Ranma wasn’t sure they should leave an unconscious digimon out where it could wake up and cause havoc. Ranma was about to shake his head in the negative when Ogremon made the choice for him as it opened its eyes and grabbed its club.

Honed instincts kicked in, and Salamon attacked Ogremon with a glowing headbutt. “Sledge Dash!”

The accumulated damage coupled with an actual digimon attack dispersed Ogremon into bits of data. Salamon looked to Ranma, who gave a slight nod. She could absorb Ogremon’s data. He’d allow it.

Ranma leaped down and scooped up his digimon once the data faded. “Let’s go home, Salamon.”

The canine digimon climbed up to his shoulder and nodded. “Let’s go.”

The familiarity came back so well after six years of being gone. It was as if a part of him was missing and now it had returned. Ranma mused over his digimon partner. He’d have to get his D-Ark out of his bag when he got home. He had reason to use it again.

A truck drove through a puddle at high speed, splashing him. “Wait, humans can evolve too?”

******************************************

Calumon loved traveling on trains! Locomon were neat, and people were nice and he loved to feel the wind in his ears! And there was food! So much food! Candy! Bread! Cakes! He would eat them all! Guilmon would be jealous because he couldn’t join him and play on the trains!

This train was going especially fast, and he’d been on it for a while. But there was so much to see! Lots of lights! Lots of people! Funny people! He’d have to get Juri to come along sometime! She liked seeing new things like he did! It was fun!

Oooh! That was awesome! It was a blue tornado and he saw a digimon in it!

(End Chapter One)

 

[Sunder the Gold]

A truck drove through a puddle at high speed, splashing him. “Wait, humans can evolve too?”

*snrk*

 

[ellf]

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…

 

[ellf]

And a bit of the next scene:

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… Oyaji 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. Oyaji 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.” 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 oyaji’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.

 

[Lost Star]

Ahhh the true master of the Satome line speaks at last!

 

[ellf]

And now, the completed scene.

**************************

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… Oyaji 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. Oyaji 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 oyaji’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 seemed to come out of whatever daze she was in. “... wait, that's not a stuffed animal? Ranma, that’s a real live Salamon right there?”

Ranma nodded. “Salamon, meet Akane. My uncute fiancée.”

Salamon let out a burp coupled with a jet of fire. “Hi, I’m Salamon, and I’m Ranma’s digimon partner!”

Akane looked like she was about to start on him for the uncute comment but she melted at Salmon’s talking. Something distracting was always nice. “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.”

Ranma stood up. “I’ll go order us some delivery.” Akane began to start. “Not from the Nekohanten. I’m not up for any ramen tonight anyway. I was thinking pizza.”

“When you get back, you’ll have to tell me how you and Salamon met.”

Ranma nodded. He thought she might ask that. “No problem.”

As Ranma went to make the call, Salamon and Akane began to talk. Then Salamon’s voice cut in pretty loudly. “Wait, fianceé means you two are going to be married?”

 

[ellf]

Made some edits to the scene suggested by some people on spacebattles.

 

[Capito Celcior]

...too shallow. Akane is too casual about a genuine Digimon. Yes, Digimon might have been revealed to the world, but to so casually accept that one is before you...it feels too easy.

Other than that, I guess it's ok. Sorry if this seems harsh. I like this story. What little of it there is so far. It has a lot of potential and can go many ways. It can of course still fail, but I'm looking forward to reading more. Just, please, make it so that Akane is at least somewhat shocked when seeing a real live Digimon? Maybe simply have her not "melt" by her cuteness, but just feel dazed and go through the motions to call food, without any real emotion. THen the moment she hangs up she can freak out. Not too many changes, but at least give us SOMETHING.

 

[ellf]

Right. Rewrote the ending of the scene.

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.

 

[ellf]

Woo... new scene! From Ranma's perspective. Remember, Ranma is not a reliable narrator.

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.

 

[WarGiver]

Looking good, the back story while needed seems to be dragging, but that might just be from reading it as a forum post with corrections. I do hope this story reaches conclusion. (not too soon though, I just want it to not go unfinished)

 

[ellf]

And now for something completely different.

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.

 

[ellf]

More story


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?”