Ryo's Appearance in V-Tamer
V-Tamer was the longest running Digimon manga, regularly published in V-Jump magazine from 1998 to 2003. It follows an alternate Taichi Yagami, who is summoned to the DigiWorld where he partners up with Zero (Veedramon) and Gabo (Gabumon) to defeat the evil Daemon.
Ryo appears in a special chapter of Volume 8, titled "Hot Blooded! The Shining Battle!!". According to Hiroshi Izawa, the mangaka of V-Tamer, he decided to put Ryo in the special, since V-Jump published a special issue about WonderSwan. The chapter came out in January 2002, while Digimon Tamers episodes were still being released.
The chapter is still available to read online, translated by Megchan and Pazuzu.
THE STORY
Taichi, Zero and Gabo are wandering around the DigiWorld when a portal opens and Ryo and Monodramon enter their world. Ryo immediately recognizes Taichi, since he's met him when he first came to DigiWorld in Anode/Cathode Tamer, but soon notices the Taichi he knew looked different. He realizes he must have turned up in a different dimension.
He tells Taichi passionately how defeating Millenniummon is his destiny and the two immediately connect. Gabo even mentions how similar (similarly hot-blooded) they are. (Izawa even describes Ryo as hot-blooded in introduction)
An evil Vikmon suddenly appears and Taichi and Ryo both want to fight him. They start arguing with eachother, since they both think they should be the one to protect the other (RYO: "Don't be stupid Taichi! Leave this to Ryou, the wandering Tamer!"). Ryo says it should be him because he's defeated Milleniummon before but Taichi mocks him for it.
Gabo notices that their hot bloodedness is weakening Vikmon. Vikmon freezes Monodramon and Zero and the two stop fighting for a moment to rescue their Digimon barehanded. Afterwards their argument escalates into face punching, which turns into a feeling of mutual respect and defeats the evil Digimon without an actual fight. The story ends with Ryo and Taichi going their separate ways, their fondness for eachother restored.
