[fic] "Tenimon," part 1 | chibi, gen, crack
humor, though a bit tame. mine is dime-store crack compared to yours, my love. rikkai-centric for now.

also, not crack of my invention, but my sister's. whom i miss. and i'm not sure she'll take kindly to my spreading this idea around, but hey, something has to happen to it ^^

disclaimers and notes at the end.






Tenimon



"AKAYA! AKAYA! AKAYA!!"

15-year-old Sanada Genichirou was rudely awakened by this chant, and the heavy pounding that came with a wooden crate marked "FRAGILE - HANDLE WITH CARE" throwing itself around.

He'd thought he could knock it out for half a day at least with a piece of drugged raw meat. The little creature seemed to like the taste, and went out like a light as it was licking its lips. The night was relatively quiet after that, or at least Sanada's sleep was undisturbed by the rather loud snoring from within the box.

He made a mental note to put something stronger on the meat next time.

"AKAYA! AKAYA!"

Sanada sat up and threw a pillow at the crate on the floor that had started to violently roll around in circles. That seemed to stop it, but there were still wailing sounds, indicating that a very unhappy tenimon lay inside.

Sanada groaned. He didn't think he was going to get into THIS when he decided he was going to get a Wild Akaya for his first tenimon. Before now, he had only been an avid spectator of the fine sport of tenimon dueling; he decided that if he was going to enter the arena, he was going to immediately prove himself a fearful adversary.

Thus it was that he became determined to collect only the strongest tenimon for his arsenal. The first on his list was the very rare, the very dangerous Wild Akaya.

Sanada didn't have his copy of the Big Book of Tennis Monsters* at the moment, but he had memorized the passages about the Kirimon species -- specifically the Wild Akaya** -- by heart.

Much has been said about the Wild Akaya, but little has been documented as official information. We are only certain that its natural habitat is the jungles of the Amazon and that to an extent, it is worshipped by crocodiles.

The word "Akaya" has gained ritual importance for the tribes living by the river. It is used by the natives to scare away hostile reptilian predators. It is said that the act of banishment is most effective when the word is screamed at the top of one's lungs, with arms raised high above one's head and hands formed into claws.

"AKAYAAAA!" the box yelled.

"SHUT UP!!" Sanada yelled back. The yelling stopped, but one could still hear incoherent grumbling from inside.

One survivor of an encounter with the Wild Akaya reports that she had tried to capture the Wild Akaya with her strongest tennis monsters, including the Kebimon and the Tachimon, but the Wild Akaya simply disposed of these offenders by eating them.

Remembering this, and taking it as a warning, Sanada decided not to bring any tenimon. He did, however, bring lots and lots of tranquilizer darts.

And if there was anything to be said about Sanada, he was a damn good shot.

The Wild Akaya is known to generate enormous amounts of damage while in red-eye mode. It is also known to be much stronger and more violent than the tame Kirimon. In general, this species of tenimon is not recommended for the weak of heart.

Sanada sighed. Well, he was going to have to tame this Kirimon; he wasn't prepared to release it into the wild after all the trouble he took to acquire it. Before he left for school, he was going to have to trap it inside a monsterball, so he could at least carry it around and show it off.

On impulse, as someone would reach for his eyeglasses first thing in the morning, Sanada reached for his baseball cap, which he always kept on the bedstand. It didn't register at once that the cap seemed slightly heavier than usual; by the time Sanada realized it, he had turned the cap over, ready to put it on his head.

Something that was the size of the palm of Sanada's hand tumbled out of the cap, onto Sanada's lap. As he sat stunned, it rolled up onto a sitting position, rubbed its eyes with its tiny fists, then blinked up at Sanada sleepily.

"Hm...?" it squeaked.

Sanada frowned at the creature on his lap. It was small, blue-haired and very pale. It was also very naked. Sanada supposed that it might be a wild tenimon, like the Kirimon in the box, or it might just really like the breeze.

Ultimately, it seemed unclaimed. For how else could it have wandered into Sanada's cap, if it had no owner to keep it safe from the elements?

It didn't seem like a very strong tenimon, either. It was cute and wide-eyed; Sanada guessed it belonged to an ornamental species. He really couldn't remember having seen a tenimon like this before... though that was probably because he was especially interested in fighting tenimon, merciless killermon like the Wild Akaya.

The naked blue-haired creature smiled, stood up, waddled cautiously up Sanada's thigh, and hugged him while he was deep in his thoughts.

"Seiichi~!" it happily remarked.


*


Determined to find answers, Sanada brought his newfound tenimon to the club room, where he had left his copy of the Big Book of Tennis Monsters for the rest of the Rikkai tennis club's perusal. It was a very rare book, there were only a thousand copies in existence, and hence it was an invaluable resource for serious players.

His teammates were there, taking a rest from tenimon sparring. Marui, Jackal, Niou and Yagyuu greeted Sanada by staring at the creature sitting on the cap on his head.

"...Cool beanie," Niou said presently. "It has to whirl around, though, right?"

"Seiichi?" The blue-haired creature tilted its head to the left and regarded Niou curiously.

"It's a tenimon!" Jackal exclaimed, pointing. "You have a tenimon on your head!"

Sanada shut his eyes right, and carefully removed his cap. The tenimon dutifully sat still while it was being removed along with the headgear. Then it turned around, and looked up at Sanada inquiringly.

Meanwhile Sanada's teammates had started to gather round, drawn by the strange little creature. "What is it? And where did you find it?" Yagyuu immediately piped up.

"I didn't find it, it found me," Sanada said, though more puzzled than irritated. "When I woke up this morning I found it sleeping in my cap."

"It's so cute! I want to turn it into a keychain," Marui said. The blue-haired tenimon smiled up at him, as if pleased with this remark.

"I want to buy it lots of pretty dresses," Jackal said distantly. For some reason the tenimon fascinated him.

"Get the Book," Sanada said ominously. Marui and Jackal snapped to attention and raced each other for the huge tome behind the trophy case.

Jackal was about to hand the book to Sanada, whose hands were full with the cap and the mysterious tenimon anyway, when Niou stole it from him with a quick swipe. Niou leapt back quickly before Jackal could do anything.

"Hmm...let me see...ornamental tenimon...killermon...cookingmon...what else is in here..."

It took a while, but Sanada was willing to wait. Meanwhile the tenimon amused itself by playing with the tiny buttons on the tiny green pajamas Sanada got it to wear.

After a few minutes, Niou looked up. He seemed distressed. "It's not here," he reported.

"It can't be 'not here'!" Yagyuu protested, walking up to him. "It's a tenimon, right? That book has everything."

"Dude. I'm telling you it's not here. Look."

Niou handed the book to Yagyuu. Yagyuu looked through it. Fast reader that he was, he read through the book twice at the same time that Niou took to go through it.

"It isn't here," Yagyuu declared at the end.

"It's got to be." Sanada carefully lifted the blue-haired tenimon from his lap and deposited it in Jackal's hands. He promptly ignored Jackal after that, otherwise he would have seen the delighted glow on the dark-skinned boy's face. Then he grabbed the large book from Yagyuu's hands and placed it on his lap.

He flipped through the regular contents quickly, until he got to the chapter called "Legendary Tenimon." There were no photographs in this page, instead there were artistic renditions -- and rather impressive ones, by Sanada's reckoning.

Sanada had read that section of the Book several times, though he had never memorized the pictures in it. He figured every other serious reader of the Book had done the same. Tenimon mythology was a thing of special concern to hardcore players. What respectable tenimon warrior didn't know about the predecessors of all tenimon champions: Yamamon, Sumimon and Nanjimon? Or Konomon, the god of all tennis monsters?

As it turned out, there was one entry in this section that Sanada always overlooked: the Yukimon. The illustration was a mere silhouette -- but one that seemed to match the blue-haired tenimon to a tee. He looked at the silhouette, then at the giggling thing that Jackal was throwing in the air and catching, and back at the silhouette again.

A perfect match!

" 'According to lore, there is only one Yukimon in existence,' " Sanada droned. " 'For 1000 years, this tenimon hibernates in a cave far beneath the surface of the earth. No living creature can reach it and crawl back up alive, if any could in fact find the dwelling-place of the Yukimon.' "

Niou, Yagyuu and Marui gathered around Sanada, and he continued to read: " 'It awakens once every 1000 years, and bequeaths itself to a human tenimon warrior whom it deems worthy -- and together, the Yukimon and the tenimon warrior spark an Armaggedon of tenimon duels, where only the strongest tenimon survive to procreate. The coming of the Yukimon is said to herald the destruction of the weaker tenimon species... '" He paused, and his puzzled frown grew deeper. " '...and it has been said that the final appearance of the Yukimon means the end of the tenimon race.' "

There was a dreadful pause, in which the faint sound of something rattling was heard in the background. And was ignored.

" 'If the Yukimon exists, it would be... the most powerful tenimon in the known world,' " Yagyuu read aloud, breathless. There was a moment of silence as everyone pondered this, then turned as one to the small, cute creature now playing with Jackal's extricated shoelace.

"...Doesn't look powerful to me," Marui muttered.

"Looks like all it'll do is squeak if you step on it," Niou agreed.

"Hm?" the Yukimon squeaked, blinking, as it realized everyone was staring at it. Then it looked off to one side, and that was only when everyone noticed the rattling sound. It was coming from Sanada's backpack.

"Oh sh-- " Sanada threw the Book aside and rushed to his backpack, which had started to vibrate. Someone had left an angry battery-powered toy inside. Or...

"A monsterball...?" Marui frowned in disbelief. Sanada had removed it from the backpack and was holding it up with both his hands, barely able to contain the tenimon cage's violent shaking.

"Shut up and help me," Sanada commanded. The boys in the room stepped over to him, then became unsure what to do, since Sanada already had both his large hands around the ball. But that certainly was a strange way for a monsterball to behave... it was almost as if the creature inside was willing to kill itself trying to get out.

"Let go of it!" Yagyuu suggested. "Let it escape. It's just a tenimon, we can deal with it -- "

"It's not. Just. A tenimon," Sanada was starting to argue. But the ball had slipped from his grasp. It fell to the floor with a loud TACK.

And there was a flash of light.

When the flash of light cleared, there was a small chubby naked creature standing in the space that the boys had vacated. It had wild black hair that fell all over its face, and large red eyes filled with demonic glee.

"AKAYAAAAA~!" it announced, arms raised high above its head, hands formed into claws.

"Stay clear," Sanada warned beneath his breath. The boys in the club room all kept a careful distance from it. All being top-grade geeks of the fine sport of tenimon dueling, they knew what it was and why they had to keep their fingers away from its teeth.

The Wild Akaya could move at extraordinary speed and strength, for a tenimon. If it wanted, it could waste their entire club room and none of them would be able to lift a finger to stop it. And for a moment it seemed like it was about to do just that. It regarded the humans in the room -- even its own master -- with a hungry look, cast a predatory glance at the meticulously arranged trophies and immaculate lockers.

But suddenly the Kirimon's gaze fell onto the other tenimon in the room. From where it stood the other tenimon seemed to show no threat, and no fear. It was even slightly tangled in shoelace, which was indeed not a familiar sight in the Amazon, where other tenimon came by rarely -- and shoelaces even moreso.

The blue-haired Yukimon greeted the newcomer with a sunny smile, and unfettered as it was, the Wild Akaya fell completely still.

"...Akaya?" it asked, arms still raised and quite befuddled, the redness in its eyes already starting to fade.




(to be continued)


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

* - Out of stock.

** - Think Stitch from Lilo and Stitch, only meaner.


NOTES:

• working on illustrations... chibis are all i can draw, and not all that well. part of the fun of it is in making visual aids though :D
  
  
• i don't know how many parts this will take. there is no plot, but i still have to detail some things. ever wondered where renji went? >P
  
  
• have to make a list of the tenimon names, just as a rough guide. will try to do so next time.

DISCLAIMER:

Konomi Takeshi owns Tennis no Oujisama. Nintendo owns Pokemon. My sister owns the idea of Tenimon. I will not burn alone <3