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

[ellf]

With this snippet, I can say chapter end:


It really was nice to be with friends who had no expectations of her again. Ranma hadn’t realized how much she missed being with friends from Shinjuku until this moment. Jenrya wasn’t a fiancée or a rival, and he was helping her walk even though she was injured. Yeah, she’d prefer to be a guy right now, but the Doc said that she needed some time for her body to recuperate before changing. She didn’t want to be out of the next fight because she didn’t listen to the Doc.

Speaking of Doctor’s orders, Ranma pondered over where to go. The Nekohanten wouldn’t be a bad choice, but she really wasn’t in the mood for Ramen. Plus Ranma wasn’t exactly in any condition to fight Mousse and protect her friends if the blind duck tried anything. Best choice would be Ucchan’s then. Okonomiyaki was delicious, and Ucchan deserved to meet some of her other friends who weren’t related to the mess that Pop set up.

“Doc said I need to eat to help get my energy back, Jenrya.” Ranma commented.

“This is your home, where should we head?” Jenrya was blushing. Well, something he had in common with Ryouga then. Lucky for Jenrya she didn’t like to take advantage of her friends. If it were a fight though, all bets were off.

“I know a good Okonomiyaki place. The owner’s a friend of mine; she’ll probably give a discount.” She’d also probably give Ranma her meal free. One of the best reasons to go there was the good food with the good chef and the good price. “It’s just down this street up here. Okonomiyaki Ucchan’s.”

“Right, let’s go.” Jenrya continued to help her down the road.

Ranma glanced down at the digimon nearby and nearly burst out laughing at the sight. Terriermon sat on Gatomon’s shoulders like a child would on their parent, and he seemed to be playing with her ears. “Everything alright down there?”

“Hmm? Momentai! We’re having lots of fun here!” Terriermon continued stroking Gatomon’s ears.

Gatomon snorted and her ears twitched. “Yeah, we’re okay, Ranma. What’s Okonomiyaki?”

“Oh, it’s awesome; you’ll have to see it when we get it. And this person is the best Okonomiyaki chef in all of Japan.” Ranma said as they stepped inside the door.

“Well, I’m glad to hear that praise, sugar. Here I was thinking I might not see you today.” The chef behind the grill was a brown-haired girl with a bow in her hair and a huge spatula on her back.

Ranma smiled at her best friend. “Hey Ucchan, how’s business?”

“Lunch rush was rather high today. You came in at just the right time, Ranchan with your friend... and... what the heck are those things?” Ukyo pointed her giant spatula at Terriermon and Gatomon. Maybe it was a good thing that Terriermon had reverted.

“Hey! We are not things! We’re Digimon!” Terriermon said from his perch before leaping up to the counter. “I’m Terriermon and this is Gatomon. And that’s Jian, but he’s not a digimon, he’s my tamer.”

Jenrya for his part face palmed and muttered, “I think it was obvious that I’m not a digimon, Terriermon.”

“You never know. She doesn’t know what a digimon is, and we’ve been around for about six years and been on the news and everything! She must have been hiding under a rock or something.” Terriermon cartwheeled across the counter.

Ucchan didn’t seem to know what to make of Terriermon, but she responded. “I was so focused on training to beat Ranma and his father the past ten years that I didn’t focus on much beyond that and school.”

“Beat Ranma? I thought she was your friend... Why would you want to beat up your friend?” Terriermon was now doing a handstand on his ears.

“Because he is my fiancé and he left me behind!” Ukyo exclaimed and Ranma winced. She hadn’t told Gatomon about that yet.

“I thought Akane-san was Ranma’s fiancée, though they don’t really want it to happen.” Gatomon spoke up.

“Pop engaged me to Ucchan too. And then there’s Shampoo, but let’s not talk about her for now. Ucchan, meet my friends, Li Jenrya, his mouthy partner Terriermon, and my partner Gatomon. We just got done with a big fight and the Doc said I need to eat, and I know the digimon need to eat too. Can we get a round of specials, please? Also, everyone, this is my best friend from when I was little, also my cute fiancée, Kuonji Ukyo.” Ranma needed to flatter her before she decided to wallop Terriermon for not keeping his mouth shut.

Luckily, it seemed to be working. Ukyo nodded. While Jenrya helped Ranma to a seat, he bowed his head. “It’s nice to meet you, Kuonji-san, and I’m sorry for Terriermon. Sometimes he doesn’t know when to shut up.”

“Hey!” Terriermon turned toward Jenrya using his ears, still staying in the handstand position. “Mo-men-tai, Jian. Momentai! Ukyo here is Ranma’s friend, and she wouldn’t do anything!”

Ukyo shook her head. “Four Ranchan specials coming up, and want any hot water, Ranchan?”

Ranma smiled. “Thanks for the offer, but the Doc said that I should probably stay a girl for the rest of the day. I’ll change back before bed. Plus I’m a bit lighter as a girl, so Jenrya doesn’t have as much trouble helping me around, but hopefully he won’t need to after your food is in me.”

“Yeah, it’s no trouble to help you, Ranma.” Jenrya commented. “But I probably should be heading home in a bit.”

Ranma nodded. “Right. Well, maybe if digimon are going to pop up here more, you should spend some more time over here. It’s about three weeks before school starts back up again, and I’m sure there’s a place you can stay while you’re here.”

“I’ll think about it.” Jenrya smiled.

“So Ranma, why do you have more than one fiancée? Aren’t you supposed to only get one who you want to marry after deciding who you love is the best person to be with? Do you have an evil twin somewhere whose child you are carrying and was turned into a vampire?” Terriermon asked.

“Uh... The answer to the first question is that it’s mostly Pop’s fault. He got hungry and promised that I’d marry someone in exchange for food, and he also had that engagement with the Tendou family too. Ucchan’s one of the few who stuck around. And I’d been saying since we got here that I don’t want to marry anyone yet. We’re not even out of school yet, but I have three girls who are here with obligations.” Ranma spoke rather low. She didn’t want to get Ucchan angry, and reminding her about the other girls and her own opinion on the situation was one way to have that happen. “... and evil twin? Where are you getting this from Terriermon?”

“Well, when Jian is at school all day, sometimes I watch TV and there’s some shows with weird things happening on them...” Terriermon shrugged.

After that, Ukyo came over with four plates of Okonomiyaki, laying them down in front of each customer. “Here you go, four Ranchan specials. So Ranchan, what does having a digimon partner mean?”

“It means that I am together with someone who is my best friend, and we fight alongside each other. And that we can do a lot together. Jenrya and Terriermon can fuse into a single digimon... or at least they could. That didn’t seem to work today.” Ranma gestured to the other pair. Gatomon had started eating.

“Momentai... we’ll do it again, I’m sure of it. We just need to figure out why it happened.” Terriermon said and then took a bite of his meal. “Oh, this is good, Ukyo! Thank you!”

“I bet I am the first okonomiyaki chef to cook for digimon.” Ukyo smiled with pride. “Wait, Ranchan you said best friend?”

“Ah.... Human best friend meet digimon best friend?” Ranma scratched the base of her pigtail and laughed a little nervously.

“Oh... Ranchan...” Ukyo shook her head.

**********************8

Later that afternoon, Jenrya had dropped the pair off at the Tendou dojo, and Ranma went to lie down as she still wasn’t feeling all that well. Gatomon decided that she needed to have a little bit of a talk with Uncle Genma. He put Ranma through so much, and she needed to make sure he knew just how she felt about that. Of course, she still respected the man as he had taught her some.

When she got to the living room, she saw Uncle Genma playing some board game with Akane’s father. She walked up and took a look at it before looking to Uncle Genma’s face.

“Excuse me, Uncle Genma; can I please talk to you outside?”

“Ah, Gatomon?” Genma looked over at her. “You needed to evolve today and haven’t reverted yet?”

“Ranma pushed through a bunch of energy at me. I should revert soon though. Still, can we talk outside?” Gatomon did not want to do this discussion in front of Akane’s father.

“I suppose. Tendou, we will continue when I get back.” Genma stated.

“Of course, Saotome, feel free to walk off as you are losing.” Akane’s father prodded.

“I’ll beat you when I get back.” Genma stood up and walked over to the shoji, opening it and gesturing for Gatomon to go first. She did, and Genma followed her, closing it behind him. “So, Gatomon what did you want to talk about?”

She respected the man, and she even liked Ranma’s father a bit. However, she needed to discuss what happened. “Ranma and I went around today and met up with another old friend or two of his, and during this time I learned quite a bit about how Ranma’s life was without me. It seems like you had a rather eventful time training him.”

“Yes, and the boy took to the training like a fish to water, even if he’s not as perfect as I want him to be about it.” Genma stated with confidence.

“Right, and Uncle Genma, I want you to know that I love you like family and respect you very much.” She stretched out her hands, wiggling her claws a little bit. “So it brings me no joy to express my displeasure about the Neko-Ken.”

*******************************88

Just outside the entrance to the Nerima Zoo that night, a small digital field expanded, barely enough to cover the parking lot. A swirling distortion in the air formed, creating a portal of some sort. The portal seemed to spit out two figures. One was human, dressed in shorts over a pair of khaki-colored pants and a grey shirt with a single shoulder pauldron on his right arm. The human also had a red scarft tied around his neck and had a gauntlet over his right arm. The second figure was a purple dragon-like digimon. Its arms and hands were clawed and it had bat-like wings.

“Well, Monodramon, we’re back on Earth.”

“Yeah, Ryo, it’ll be good to see everyone again...”

 

[Capito Celcior]

Woah, woah...that makes NO sense. I mean, the thing in the doctor's office. Yamaki sees female Ranma and sees the similarities of the HAIR? You could say that she wears clothes in the same style, but there is a HUGE difference between black hair and red. I mean yeah, red blood turns darker if it dries, but that's not hair. I'm sorry, but you make no sense. And saying the girl was female feels redundant.

But the HAIR? I'm sorry, but that bit keeps me occupied. I couldn't even read the rest of the story you have up yet because I HAD to post this. Ranma has black hair. A blueish black, at least that's what it looks like with the sun. And Ranko (to differentiate between the two forms) has very bright red. I mean, it is firetruck red almost. In anime-terms that's perfectly acceptable, sure. There are very different colors of hair in anime and manga, while real life Japan has only black and brown hair (or dyed) but that doesn't mean that when we translate it into a written work we can just say that it looks the same. If we dampen it down to "believable" gradations, I'd still say that Ranko has reddish-brown to keep closer to the source material. Even in the gray-tones and black and white that is the manga (the original work and thus the absolute definitive soursce) I do not think you'll find then with the same grayscale used.

So I do hope you fix that, Ellf. SOrry, but that is a huge deal. Or did Ranko change her hair color? If so, I don't recall it written in yoru story...

Still Tatewaki Kuno does keep calling out for his "red-haired tigress", doesn't he? So yeah, Ranko is a redhead. Yeah, sorry but you have to change that back.

 

[ellf]

Excuse me, but you are wrong about manga Ranma.

In the manga, Ranma has black hair in both forms. The red hair is an anime thing only.

 

[WarGiver]

Well actually since the manga was in Black and White and no reference was made ever to color, including anything Kuno said, it could be neon green. But with the side art that takashi did the hair color varied vastly between colors, even pink in some of her works, green in others, blonde was another color used.

On the cover of many of the volumes it had a picture of Ranma by her with purple hair. But mostly it was Red even before the Anime. So well anything goes where hair color goes for girl type... Truthfully At the start of the series Ranma-chan had color consistancy compariable with Ryoga's sense of direction.

Boy type was always black across the board.

Ultimately since the anime had red hair mostly to differenciate Ranma-chan from Ranma-kun most people are familiar with that.

Thus any arguement about color is generally invalid since the author never really was consistant herself.

 

[Capito Celcior]

Ah...well that's true. And Ellf never had Kuno mention what color hair the pig-tailed girl had...so unless I feel like going through everything written before, I don't have an example of him saying that Ranko is red-haired. That being said, the author herself gave female Ranma all those different hair colors, so presumably her hair differs from real Ranma...and then the Anime...

Ah, I stick to what I said. The hair should differ between real and female form. It doesn't feel right otherwise.

 

[ellf]

Actually, there's a good reason to not have the hair be different. At a few points in the manga, girl type Ranma is mistaken for boy type Ranma and vice-versa.

 

[WarGiver]

I can agree with that much I suppose, but there were other times that it should have happened but didn't. As with all fanfiction for Ranma, its the author choice which to use in my opinion.

(On that note I have never seen a fic with Ranma-chan with purple hair... Saw green once or twice but not purple.

 

[happerry]

And besides, I've never seen "red-haired tigress", only 'Fierce Tigress".

 

[ellf]

Akane worked diligently in the kitchen. She took out the various pots, pans, bowls, and utensils she knew she needed for this dish. Akane knew she wasn’t that great a cook. Still, she aspired to get better and the only way to do so was to cook. Lucky for her, she had a bunch of people here ready to try her cooking. Ranma, Salamon, Ranma’s friend Jenrya, and Terriermon were out in the living room talking. Considering they hadn’t seen each other in quite a few years, Akane knew they had a lot to say. She wouldn’t interrupt them until the food was ready.

Now what to make? Well, they had some meat in the refrigerator, some flour, some sugar, some of that stuff there, some of this stuff here... Ah-hah! She’d make some cookies topped with bacon and chili powder. That looked like it would taste delicious. Ranma would have to appreciate her cooking now. She opened up a cookbook to make sure she had the ingredients necessary. Eggs, flour, sugar, oil, cayenne pepper, cumin, water, thyme... yes, it seemed like everything was here. Oh, the cookbook may have a couple pages stuck together. No matter, she should just put it all in a bowl together and mix it into a batter.

Akane poured the ingredients into a mixing bowl and got out the industrial strength hand mixer to start mixing. At first the items didn’t want to mix, but a little elbow grease here and there, and they’d be all thrown together quite well. She preheated the oven to the appropriate temperature. After all, cookies needed to be baked. She continued her mixing, and mixed some more. Another ingredient or three was added in. After all, she wanted this to taste delicious. It would be the best thing Ranma ever had from her.

Akane didn’t exactly notice the white fog forming around her until it was too late. The wall of the kitchen blew outward loudly, and the mixing bowl Akane had been holding dropped onto the floor, its metal ringing in the now empty kitchen.

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

Ranma and Jenrya had been talking for an hour or two, their digimon piping up to add to the various stories as appropriate. Ranma couldn’t believe that much had happened to Jenrya and the others while he’d been gone.

A foreboding feeling began to settle in Ranma’s stomach during the latter half of the hour, almost as if something was triggering his danger sense, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. A glance at Salamon showed that the fur on the back of her neck was sticking up, and he could see Terriermon turning. They must have felt it too. Then, the sound of an explosion from the kitchen rocked the living room.

“A digimon...” Salamon growled out. Ranma leapt to his feet, joined shortly by Jenrya. The pair headed to the kitchen to find it a chaotic mess. Ingredients were scattered everywhere, batter lined the walls, flour was scattered on the floor, several eggs with their shells were scattered into the batter that ended up on the floor, and a metal bowl lay upside down next to the counter. All of these were signs that Akane was cooking, and whatever it was, Ranma knew that it wasn’t good. Oh, and the wall was blown out too. That was likely a big clue.

“It’s like a bomb went off here.” Jenrya commented as he touched some of the splattered batter on the wall.

Ranma took a little off the wall and tasted it. He spat it out onto the ground immediately. “Definitely Akane’s cooking. Don’t try it, Jenrya, you’ll end up in the hospital for days.”

“I think I can handle a little bad cooking...” Jenrya commented.

“Yeah, but would you want to?” Ranma moved toward the blown out wall. Interesting. It looked like the wall was actually destroyed from the inside, judging from the debris. This wasn’t a Bakusai Tenketsu style explosion, nor was it Shampoo’s favored method of entry. Something had been trying to get out. There was also no sign of Akane. If the explosion had hurt her or killed her, there’d be some sign of blood there in the kitchen. Ranma was safely certain he could rule out death. All that left was... “I can’t believe it. I guess I always knew this day would come, but I still can’t believe it.”

Jenrya looked over to Ranma in obvious confusion. Ranma really couldn’t blame him. “What can’t you believe?”

Ranma shook his head. “Akane didn’t walk out of here on her own; she was kidnapped.... by her cooking.”

 

[ellf]

A bit of writer's block, but here's the beginning of the next scene:

While being kidnapped wasn’t exactly a new experience for her, this particular method of kidnapping was brand new. Rather than an arm wrapped around her waist, a vine performed the same function, coming off of the red-skinned vegetable as it hopped along. Akane had never really been that big a fan of digimon; she knew it existed, but the cards never piqued her interest. Even after the events involving the D-Reaper, Akane was too worried about her martial arts to know much.

Obviously, it wasn’t that hard to guess that the vegetable creature carrying her was a digimon. What kind it was? She really didn’t know. At the end of its vines were what looked like spiked clubs, and if what Ranma said was true, she probably didn’t want to anger this thing. Of course, that didn’t mean she would just go quietly. She was a martial artist too, you know.

“Hey, let me go! You’re rocking me with every move you make!”

“Hold still, girl. You’re going to be our special helper! After all, everyone knows that Veggiemon need proper cooks to help them evolve! RedVeggiemon too!”

 

[ankokudaishogun]

So, he'll evolve into a Gerbemon. Either that or Death by Cooking.

 

[ellf]

It's been a while since I've touched this fic, but bam:


Akane being kidnapped, sadly, was nothing new to Ranma. In the short time he’d lived with the Tendous, kidnappings had happened on a semi-regular basis. First it had been Mousse in an attempt to win over Shampoo by doing... something. Didn’t matter, he kicked the blind duck’s ass. Another time, Akane was kidnapped by Pantyhose Taro, in an attempt to get the Jusenkyo guest book. Taro’s cursed form kinda resembled a digimon; Ranma had wished that Salamon was there to support him during that fight, but Taro was handled handily.

This would be the third kidnapping of Akane this year. Of course, the circumstances surrounding it were obvious. The hairs on Salamon’s head were up, and Terriermon practically mirrored her. A digimon clearly kidnapped Akane. To what end? Ranma wasn’t sure, but when digimon took humans, it rarely was to take them out for tea.

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

A veggiemon turned to Akane. “More tea, Master Chef?”

“Yes, please.”

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

Ranma turned his attention to Jenrya. “Well, more seriously, a digimon probably has her. And while that tomboy can take care of herself most of the time, she hasn’t got a digimon partner.”

Salamon nodded. “We should go find her then!” The dog-like digimon sniffed at the air, and Terriermon joined her. A few seconds later, both were covering their noses.

“Pew! What’s that stench? Why’s it smell so bad in here?”

“Terriermon...” Jenrya scolded.

At the same time, Ranma answered, “Akane’s cooking. If you two can’t get a scent, we’re going to have to do this the old fashioned way. Salamon?”

“Right.” The digimon jumped to his shoulder.

“Jenrya, you and Terriermon go on foot, keep an eye out for anything that might be a digimon.” Jenrya nodded. Good. They really didn’t have time to argue, and he wasn’t much into herding c... things that don’t like to be herded. “Salamon and I will take the roofs. The D-Arks should probably let us find them. If you find the digimon... give me some sort of signal. If I find it, I’ll signal you.”

“What sort of signal?” Jenrya asked.

“I’m sure you’ll think of something. You’re smart.” At that, Ranma dashed out, not even bothering to look back. As he passed Kasumi on the way out, he said, “Gotta run, Kasumi, will try and have Akane back in time for dinner.”

He could feel Salamon waving in her own fashion as he took to the roofs. Normally, the rooftops were simply a quicker way to travel. You could get pretty much anywhere in Nerima by rooftop, without having to stop. They also remained a wonderful vantage point for viewing what was going on below. If Akane was anywhere in Nerima, he was certain to find her this way.

As much as Ranma disliked being forced into the situation with Akane, and having that choice taken away from him was something he vehemently opposed, Akane was Ranma’s friend. Nobody messed with Ranma’s friends and got away with it. It didn’t matter if they were a ghost, a ghoul, or a digimon. Ranma would face them all to keep his friends safe.

Ranma continued his musings as he looked throughout Nerima, but it was Salamon’s ears that heard what there was to hear first. “Ranma, listen!”

“COME BACK HERE WITH GREAT GRANDMOTHER’S POT!”

Ranma looked for the source of the voice, and sure enough, there was a purple-haired girl wielding massive maces, chasing after a yellow digimon holding a pot. What the hell did a Veggiemon need a pot for? And why did it steal it from the Nekohanten?

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

His name was Calumon, and he liked to say, that now again it was time to play. Floating around this part of town, helped him decide not to frown. People here were extra nice, and they gave him food with sugar and spice. If Juri came here today, he would certainly get to play! YAY!

Calumon floated from rooftop to rooftop... What to play today? Would he go be a soccer player? Have people cheering his name? Or perhaps, he would be a super robot pilot, ready to save the galaxy. Or maybe he would track down Guilmon and they’d go play hide and seek. Or maybe he would be a super powerful fighter that would stand like this and yell loudly for thirty and forty minutes at a time and then talk a little and yell more and then shoot giant energy blasts! Actually, that game sounded like it would be tiring. Too tiring. With all that yelling and screaming, one had to wonder how those heroes managed to get anything done.

“WHAT A HAUL, WHAT A HAUL!” Oh look! There was someone coming! Maybe he could play with the someone. Oh! He was dressed like a ninja! Or maybe like Santa Claus. He had that big pack on his back. Santa-ninja-Claus maybe? Was it Christmas already? Oh, he loved Christmas. All the food, and toys and people and food! Christmas was awesome.

He floated down to meet up with Santa-Ninja-Claus. “Hiiii! I’m Calumon! And I’ve been a really good digimon this year, Santa!”

Santa blinked at him. “Oh, well, you’re new... You say you’ve been a good digimon?”

“Uh-huh! The best! I make so many other people happy and I really save people!” Calumon boasted. After all, Santa needed to know how good he was so he could get an awesome present.

“Ah... Well, I guess I owe you a present then, don’t I?” Santa looked over his shoulder, but Calumon couldn’t see what he was looking at. Maybe it was the giant bag! Was he going to get the whole bag? “Let’s get it out for you...”

Santa reached into his sack and pulled out a round ball of clothing. “Here you go, young one... now remember, be good!”

“I will!” Calumon would too. Now he just needed to unwrap the present as Santa bounded off behind him.

“AHAHHAHAHA SWEETO!” Funny, he thought Santa was supposed to say “Ho ho ho...” Anyway! Present! He unwrapped and unwrapped the ball of clothes... they looked like the stuff that Ruki and Juri wore under their shirts and skirts. He continued to unwrap and pretty soon he was covered in the pile of clothes... and there wasn’t anything else. Santa had given him a pile of clothes!

“Look girls! The pervert left some stuff behind!” Oh wow! That was a bunch of girls! And they were all looking at him. He pulled his ears in and looked up at them from within.

“Oh and look, he left a digimon stuffed animal with it...”

“Aww, it’s so cute...” The girls approached and took some of his present’s wrapping paper.

“Hey that’s mine! Santa gave it to me!” Calumon had to stop the thieves, so he stretched out his ears. He’d be as big and intimidating as possible! Of course, then one of the girls picked him up.

“Oh look, it can talk! That just makes it cuter....” And now he was being nuzzled... Though the girls still picked up his presents. Of course, given what they were... maybe they weren’t his presents.

“You know... I don’t think he was Santa after all...” Calumon observed.