And chapter 2 complete...
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.â€
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!â€
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!â€
“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!â€
“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?â€
“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.â€
Ranma leaped off the fence, and after that, Salamon jumped down off his head. “Terriermon! Hi!â€
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.â€
“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?â€
“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.â€
“That’s... actually pretty neat... Salamon didn’t show up till last night, herself.â€
Huh. He wondered if last night Salamon was the Wild One that Yamaki was tracking. “Oh?â€
“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.â€
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?â€
Ranma chuckled. “Sure Salamon, I think I might have a card or two that can help with that.â€
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?â€
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.â€
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.â€
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.â€
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.â€
“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.â€
“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.â€
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.â€
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?â€
“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.â€
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...â€
“Momentai. I’ve got them...â€
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...â€
Ranma gave an affirmative sound. “And in the water’s a Seadramon. That’s going to be a pain to deal with.â€
“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...â€
Wait... what? Why weren’t they together right then? Jenrya tried again. “Biomerge Activate!â€
“Terriermon ... aww forget it...†Terriermon sounded disappointed.
“Jenrya, what’s wrong?â€
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.â€
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?
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.â€
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!â€
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!â€
“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!â€
“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?â€
“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.â€
Ranma leaped off the fence, and after that, Salamon jumped down off his head. “Terriermon! Hi!â€
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.â€
“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?â€
“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.â€
“That’s... actually pretty neat... Salamon didn’t show up till last night, herself.â€
Huh. He wondered if last night Salamon was the Wild One that Yamaki was tracking. “Oh?â€
“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.â€
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?â€
Ranma chuckled. “Sure Salamon, I think I might have a card or two that can help with that.â€
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?â€
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.â€
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.â€
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.â€
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.â€
“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.â€
“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.â€
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.â€
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?â€
“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.â€
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...â€
“Momentai. I’ve got them...â€
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...â€
Ranma gave an affirmative sound. “And in the water’s a Seadramon. That’s going to be a pain to deal with.â€
“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...â€
Wait... what? Why weren’t they together right then? Jenrya tried again. “Biomerge Activate!â€
“Terriermon ... aww forget it...†Terriermon sounded disappointed.
“Jenrya, what’s wrong?â€
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.â€
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?