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detectiveichijouji · 7 months ago

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Final Case - The Young Prince Detective’s Gambit

[AO3 version]

The enemy who once was a beloved friend of Ichijouji Ken and Akiyama Ryo was Nokita Yuu’s true identity, Hikawa Yuuichi. After hearing Yuuichi’s side of the story and be forced to face Daisuke, who was turned into an unstable Wolfmon, Noel, as Arsenemon, appeared and prevented Wolfmon from hurting Ken. The elusive gallant phantom thief then revealed that Yuuichi’s facts were twisted, and then gave his own witness of the events. Then… something made Wolfmon attack Yuuichi’s body, out of the blue and confusing Ken’s head -- Since Daisuke himself wouldn’t be able to kill a human. Turns out that It wasn’t exactly Daisuke who did that move, and yes the good part inside Yuuichi, which possessed Daisuke’s body. With the damage of Wolfmon’s holy light blade, Yuuchi’s body was damaged, but the corrupted vessel plotted something against them all. Once Miyako and Iori were rescued and healed, thanks to their jogress partners and Soleil & Lune’s help, the group reunited at the rooftop. And witnessed the vessel summon a dormant YukiAgumon in front of them, only to fuse the last two fake shards with the digimon and evolve it into Chaosdramon.

What should we do now…??

“Ken, please… destroy my body quickly, before it uses the portion of that digimon’s power on Chaosdramon.”

“Wait, what do you mean, Daisuke-kun?” Hikari asked, frowning.

“He’s not mon ami Motomiya for a while,” Arsenemon said.

“The good part of Hikawa-kun is within Daisuke right now,” Ken told the others.

“With the remaining three shards it might be a little bit more powerful than the usual, but… I beg you, Ken, everyone… End me now, I’m not even human anymore… And I do not belong here either…”

“...”

“That’s creepy to hear coming from Daisuke’s mouth,” Miyako commented.

“... Are ya sure of that, Yuuichi?” Daisuke was pitying him, “There could be… another way--”

“There’s no other solution,” Hikawa sighed, “I’m not human anymore, I’m just… ‘something’ who once was a human.”

“Man…”

“Just… Promise you all will… Take care of Ken for me.”

“Hey, Ken’s tough. He had witnessed a ton of bad things and he knows we will always be on his side. No need to promise you that, dude. He got our backs, and we got his.”

“Oh might be sooooo easy peasy to beat that critter with a hole in the body” Crescemon smugged, “After all, We’re like, six digimon against one.”

“Didn’t you forget someone…?” the vessel said. And thus, Matadrmon appeared in front of it.

“Ah nice, the annoying vampire…” Daisuke complained with a displeased expression on his face, but outside his body was only glaring at the new opponent.

“Hehe, oopsie…?” Crescemon chuckled nervously…

Youta cracked his fist, “I have a score to settle with that digimon, guys. So stay away from them, they’re mine .”

“Let’s leave Matadrmon to Youta and me ,” Mizuki said, stepping forward, “You guys take care of my nonexistent brother and Chaosdramon.

“M-Mizuki…?” the boy blinked.

“That digimon caused us trouble before and is going to cause even more right now.”

“Alright,” Miyako said, looking at the others, “Everyone ready?”

They all nodded in agreement.

“Do the honors, Miyako” Daisuke chuckled, “I know you’re itching to say that line again.”

Despite not being able to hear Daisuke, Miyako grabbed her digivice and pointed it to the sky:

“Chosen Children… Let’s roll!!”

Ken was still not sure about what to do about Hikawa. Everything said to him right now was too much for his heart and mind. But Daisuke was right about him though.

“Hey, maybe there’s a reason for that! Like, maybe he’s brainwashed or somethin’?? Evil clone? Maybe he’s not gone mad!”

[...]

“Can you really kill a human being, Ken??”

As always… Daisuke’s heart was in the right place. He might not be a talented genius strategist who could come up with a very logical resolve for a battle or a dilemma…

… But Daisuke understands people and their hearts pretty well. His emotional intelligence is over the charts of this group.

“... There might be another way to solve this,” Ken muttered. The digimon (except for Arsenemon) had started their respective fights while the kids watched them. But Ken was just looking at the vessel still struggling with the critical hit caused by Wolfmon’s holy light attribute.

“What do you mean?” Daisuke (Hikawa, actually) asked him, “No, you have to listen to me, Ken! There’s no other option, you have to--”

“Daisuke is right about it, I can’t do that. If I were the Digimon Kaiser, if I still were a cruel cold hearted arrogant brat… But…”

“You never had the guts to do it, right?” Arsenemon completed it.

“... Daisuke knows me well enough. Even if back in time… When we were enemies… If I knew that humans can die for real in the Digital World… I wouldn’t have tried to hurt them at all.”

“You were shocked when you hit me in the face with your whip,” Takeru commented, “So, guess this tracks.”

“... Sigh, yes.”

“Yeah, there might be another way to save you too,” Daisuke said, “I mean… Maybe something… Like, Uhh… Purifying you? Like in some TV shows--”

“I don’t think it’s possible,” Hikawa shook his head, “Having false hopes might make it worse for Ken. I… I already hurt him enough, so I don’t--”

"Ken doesn't want to save you just because you're an old friend, he wants you to have a chance to fix your mistakes and start over, just like he did".

“A… second chance?”

"Yes, you screwed up badly, and I would understand if none of us forgave you. But everyone who shows they're willing to do better and do the right thing deserves a chance to start over.”

“Why… Are you saying that to me?”

“Because… You might be the reason I got to meet Ken in the first place? It’s not Ken who created this new reality. It was you who did it, Yuuichi. And I can’t think about a world where I’m not friends with Ken, or with Miyako, Iori, Takeru, Hikari-chan, Noel, the others… Everyone.”

“...!!”

“And because you’re using my body right now, so please don’t do anything reckless I can’t get another scar for some… Stupid decision.”

Hikawa laughed lightly, and it made Daisuke protest, “Hey, I’m not kidding! This ain’t a joke, dude!”

“I guess I know why Ken liked you, and I’m glad you’re his friend.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Paildramon asked them.

“...” Ken started to analyze the environment, the enemies and their allies. It would be better if they just kept Imperialdramon’s power as backup, but they now have Valkyrimon and Dominimon in their deck.

Valkyrimon has the power of resurrecting fallen allies. Meanwhile Dominimon has the power of healing them. If they have to kill Hikawa Yuuichi’s body -- which is now just operating the vessel for a part of MIlliummon power…

But doing so, would make Hikawa’s good part to cease existing and leave Daisuke’s body…

He's not sure if this could work... But how long can his connection to Daisuke last?

“You got a plan, right Ken-kun?” Miyako asked.

“It’s risky. But we have to try it.”

“Whatever you're thinking of doing, I believe you,” Daisuke said with a smile, but now it didn’t seem to be clear if it was either Daisuke or Hikawa.

“... Arsenemon, can you do a favor for me?” Ken turned to the magician phantom thief.

“Hmm?”

The fighting style Flaremon and Crescemon had was nothing like the 02 group at all: They would just unleash their most powerful attacks and leave no room for counterattacks.

Though they tended to ram, intending to destroy the target, they were also perfectly synchronized. The graceful dance moves of Crescemon covered up the more brutal and insane rampage of Flaremon.

It becomes hard to target one or another when they’re constantly moving. Matadrmon had to keep defending themself from the mad flurry of punches thrown by Flaremon but had no time to dodge all the ice arrows shot by Crescemon.

It was a tragic disadvantage. Maybe if they could make the sun-moon duo hit each other…?

But while they looked like hostile beasts just attacking nonstop, they didn’t seem to be careless. Which was odd for this fighting style.

Matarmon could target Flaremon for being the one in a melee combat with them right now, but Crescemon’s shield was protecting him. There might be an exact moment Matadrmon could exploit and hit one of them.

“It doesn’t matter.” Matadrmon whispered, and then tried their best attempt at taking both down at once -- “Thousand Arrow.”

Then, the enemy fired countless rapiers under their sleeves. Soleil smirked, watching that desperate move, until Lune had a deja-vu.

“They’re NOT aiming at our digimon, they’re…!!”

Yes. Matadrmon knew the only time a digimon partner would let their guard down is the moment their human partner is in danger.

Crescemon and Flaremon backed up to protect the human duo, and with this they got hit by that such reckless move. They would use their own bodies (and Crescemon’s shield) to protect their partners.

The difference between Soleil and Lune and the 02 kids (plus their seniors) is that they don’t seem to care about protecting themselves in a battle. This is why Daisuke and co. snapped at their antics and approach regarding Kayono’s partner. Or even, the possible reason why Ryouma’s Psychemon partner got brutally hurt to the point it returned to DigiEgg state since then.

Tactless.

“Crescemon!!” / “Flaremon!!” They called their partners the moment the digimon shouted in pain.

“You’re still reckless brats. Just like your siblings.”

It was implied that Matadrmon was their enemy. The enemy that had been haunting them since their first digimon adventure with their own group. An unknown enemy who knew about them. But neither Soleil nor Lune knew about them.

Because he came from that old forgotten timeline.

“G-get up, please!” Soleil said to their partners, “We can’t let that monster beat us!!”

“An omen…” Lune whispered, “Is it… because of siblings that we… We’re like this?”

“Get yourself together, Mizuki!!” Soleil snapped, “They’re messing with us like they messed with everyone else before!!”

“... I just realized I had a brother once, and he… committed a mistake. And he was connected to your sister, and Ichijouji-kun. And to whoever this Akiyama Ryo is. We’re fated to fail.”

“It doesn’t matter if this is fate or not! We should go against the odds! We can… We can win, right?!”

“Youta, Matadrmon will keep using this dirty trick because we lack strategy! All of our victories were because we had Noel on our side!”

“...”

“We’re not like the heroes everyone loves and cherishes. We’re the bratty rogue kids everyone wants to disappear.”

“DON’T GIVE UP!!” they heard someone’s voice coming from behind them.

Soleil and Lune looked back, and saw Daisuke-or-Hikawa just screaming at them. But judging from the speech pattern, it wasn’t Hikawa at all.

“Motomiya(-kun)?” the duo said together.

“You have to work together with your digimon, and trust each other!” Daisuke just stood behind them, “It doesn’t matter if you’re a hero or not! Just do what is right, not what you think is right!!”

He put himself at risk just to say that to them, while the entire group was facing Chaosdramon and the evil vessel. He, who was angry at their behavior before… Was just encouraging them now.

“Fight together with our digimon…?” Lune repeated, and looked at Crescemon.

“And trust each other…?” Soleil did the same as well, but glancing at Flaremon.

They then looked at each other and nodded.

“We’re not heroes, but we’re still on the good side” Youta grabbed his digivice, “Can you stand up, Flaremon?”

“Aye, sir.”

“We’re the ones who will make our own destiny now. Go against the odds, Right?” Mizuki took her digivice as well, “We can beat this creep, Crescemon!”

“YEAH!”

Then… a Miracle happened: The digivices just showed the two symbols on their respective screens. A Scale on Youta’s, and a Moon’s reflection on a water surface.

Two lights covered Flaremon and Crescemon.

Flaremon ultimate evolve to… Iustimon ! Crescemon ultimate evolve to… Dianamon !

“... What is this,” Matadrmon wasn’t impressed but didn’t feel they should underestimate those two anymore.

Iustimon was in the form of a two-legged Firamon, wearing armor and wielding a sword in one hand. In the other, he held a mysterious symbol of a scale.

Meanwhile Dianamon was wearing a moonstone colored like armor, wielding a twin scythe-like weapon in her hands.

“This won’t be enough to beat me.”

“Don’t judge your enemies like that, you weirdo!” Dianamon shouted, and dashed against them trying to hit Matadrmon with her blades.

“You still lack intelligence.”

“... No, you do.”

Iustimon seemed to be only on standby, but he was using the scale to measure both sides’ power and abilities.

“Hm?”

“Fair Judgement.” Iustimon said, and then when the scales synced…

“...??” Matadrmon was unable to use their special technique, Thousand Arrows , anymore.

“Whoa, you balanced the game!!” Daisuke exclaimed in awe. That digimon was so cool…!?

“Heheheh…” Soleil chuckled.

“... I’m still able to fight.” the enemy warned the duo.

“We won’t let you beat us this time!” Lune shouted.

The only payoff for turning Matadrmon unable to use that technique is that Dianamon was unable to use her strongest special ability, Crescent Harken , which could finish that fight immediately.

But that didn't change the serious look on Dianamon and Lune's faces.

“You’re done for,” Dianamon said with a terrifying tone.

“Face your judgement,” Iustimon added.

“Never…” Matadrmon replied, and then kept defending themself from Dianamon’s twin blades. The enemy knew if they wanted to beat those two at once they needed to take down Iustimon first. So Matadrmon tried to move faster than Dianamon and exploit any opening in her attack patterns, and then directly attack Iustimon.

And when they finally thought they had found a way to get out from under Dianamon's attacking pattern…

“Divine Slash.”

Iustimon would simply slash them in half very quickly.

“?!?! H-how…?!”

Matadrmon fell on their knees.

“Because you underestimated us,” Iustimon said calmly. His noble composure was so cool in Daisuke’s opinion. Dang it, Youta your digimon is so cool?!

“This was for what you did to Kayono and Ryouma too,” Daisuke noticed Soleil fists clenching as the boy said that.

“...” Matadrmon reverted into a DigiEgg form, in front of their eyes.

“You killed him…?” Daisuke asked, out of curiosity.

“No, he has been purified,” Iustimon explained.

“Aren’t you busy with that thing??” Lune then gestured to Chaosdramon fighting the other three digimon, with an angry face;

“Oh…”

“Don’t ‘Oh’ at us!!” Dianamon snapped, stomping her foot on the floor and clenching her hands.

“You can beat me…!”

“I beat you before, remember?” Ken smirked, “I can do it again.”

“I’d love to watch you try and fail this time.”

“We won’t fail and we won’t let you take Hikawa-kun away this time…!”

Imperialdramon was wrestling with Chaosdramon as they talked, Dominimon was protecting the kids, and Valkyrimon…

… Was on standby?

“How do you plan to beat me without the Digimental of Desire now?” the vessel scoffed, “I’m an anomaly with part of Millenniummon’s powers. You should’ve heard your ex-friend and killed me.”

“We will save Hikawa Yuuichi-kun this time, and I’m sure about it!”

“I asked you a question,”

“I’m not fond of explaining my plans. Sorry, you will have to figure it out.”

The vessel kept being cocky, watching the good guys not doing well… They didn’t attack at any instance…Then, they watched Chaosdramon easily beat Imperialdramon. Dominimon came immediately to heal the Imperialdramon but…

“I think it ends here…”

… Chaosdramon threw missiles against Dominimon, who used their shields to protect themself and the human kids.

“Do you think we can win??” Takeru asked Ken, concerned. At this point everyone was…

“Don’t lose your hopes!” Daisuke came back, and stood in front of Imperialdramon, “You can do it, Imperialdramon!! Everyone!!”

“Valkyrimon, do something!!” Miyako ordered. But the digimon was still on standby.

“Pathetic.”

The vessel was sure he was winning. He laughed loudly , creeping Hikari out.

“Is this your plan? Chaosdramon, end them all already!!”

Chaosdramon was ready to do something when… It stopped moving?!

“..?! What??”

Ken smirk did not leave his face. What did he do?!

“I think you forgot you weren’t only fighting only us ”

Ah yes... they had taken full use of Arsenemon's abilities. What actually happened was that Imperialdramon, Dominimon and Valkyrimon were holding back, in order to distract the vessel and Chaosdramon so Arsenemon could execute his special furtive ability -- Malchanceux -- to steal the shards and then weaken Chaosdramon.

Once the phantom thief was back to the side of the kids, he gave the signal to Valkyrimon, who moved at the speed of the light and attacked Chaosdramon, making it actually step back from Imperialdramon for a moment.

“How…??”

It was when Imperialdramon used their positron cannon on their arm to hit Chaosdramon, who was his guard down.

“Some people here are good at acting,” Ken said with a smug smile while the others chuckled or smiled just like him, “Besides, I’ve lost countless times to my friends that… I’m good at ‘losing’ too.”

“It was… a façade?”

“It’s called ‘gambling’, monsieur imposteur ~ ” Arsenemon answered, with a sensible chuckle, “But I guess this was more likely a gambit, non? ”

“Y-you…!!” ire consumed the vessel, pretty much he LOATHED that stupid phantom thief and that cocky Ichijouji so much.

“We’re NOT over yet!!” Takeru screamed.

“Transcendent Positron Laser!!”

Imperialdramon firmly planted their feet on the ground and charged a very powerful version of their Positron Laser.

“Zero Heavens!!”

Seconded by Dominimon firing their ultra-high-temperature lasers from their shields on their shoulders in Chaosdramon’s direction.

“Laser Javelin!!”

And then finished by Valkyrimon summoning their javelin and shooting a laser from its tip.

The three attacks combined managed to beat Chaosdramon immediately. The opponent digimon reverted back into a DigiEgg in the end of the explosion caused by the chain combo-attack.

“No…!!” The vessel shouted but before it could do something, it felt something piercing its body even further…!!

When it looked back, Iustimon and Dianamon had used their sword and an arrow of ice on the same place Daisuke-and-Yuuichi had stabbed it previously.

“...!!!”

At the same time, Arsenemon destroyed the remaining three shards (yes, Daisuke still had one) which cut the connection between Hikawa Yuuichi and Daisuke. Takeru quickly held Daisuke in his arms, who fainted immediately due to exhaustion.

“W-what…”

“You messed things up for everyone” Soleil and Lune said together, “We won’t allow you to hurt anyone else, not even Noel or Ichijouji(-kun)!!”

The vessel fell on its knees. And then… Valkyrimon came and used their special ability.

“Fenrir Sword.”

They pierced the vessel with their cursed, absolute zero sword to the vital points of the enemy, and then… Killing Hikawa’s body.

Combined with Iustimon’s Divine Slash , which extinguished the evil power of Millenniummon’s shard from Hikawa Yuuichi’s body… There was nothing left there. Except…

Valkyrimon used their special ability to resurrect the fallen, and it brought it back little by little.

Except…

“... Huh… What happened…? Who are you people…? What are those monsters…?”

… Hikawa Yuuichi ceased to exist. The human in front of them had lost memories, he didn’t even know the digimon.

“... I will never be able to know… What does it feel like to have a sibling…”

Arsenemon could notice Lune and Ken were a little anguished by that closure, “... I’m sorry, he couldn’t exist as his original self. This is what would happen in the end…”

“He might not be the same person we briefly met,” Takeru said with a serious tone, “But if Daisuke-kun were awake he would’ve said something like… ‘It gives him a chance to restart anew’, right?”

“Yeah, he would say that,” Ken turned to Takeru and smiled.

“I knew mon ami Motomiya would be important for the closure of this case,” Arsenemon said, “I think… He’s the kind of person able to change people’s hearts for good.”

“Yeah, I’m aware of that,” Ken laughed lightly and gave a soft gaze at Daisuke, still in Takeru’s arms.

And then… The fake shards’ case was finally solved.

Noel Leblanc and the other two, Hino Youta and Hikawa Mizuki, offered to help the boy who once was known as Hikawa Yuuichi to readapt to daily life. Since Hikawa Yuuichi didn’t exist in this reality in the first place, he had to keep the identity of Nokita Yuu instead.

I didn’t hear about them for a while… But I hope they all are okay.

As for us…

“Ya know, being a detective was fun and all BUT! I have a life goal to achieve!!”

… Daisuke went back to his ‘ramen business’ plan.

“Huh, but you clearly were having fun with it,” Patamon blinked.

“I don’t think I can do it for life… I did not catch Arsenemon! Arsenemon who caught me!”

“You mean…” Hikari wasn’t sure if she got what Daisuke had said.

“Like, we became friends. Have you ever seen a detective being friends with the phantom thief?!”

“Hmm…”

Better not tell him that there have been cases in the Phantom Thief genre, according to Takeru-kun and Iori-kun.

“So… We won’t be using that website BBS anymore?” Wormmon asked the others.

“There might be something we can do with it…” Miyako mused, “A-after all Izumi-senpai allowed me to use his own server to host it…”

“Koushiro is always involved with our activities, dagya” Armadimon shrugged.

“Would’ve we survived without him though?” Iori said, looking at his digimon partner, “Most of the apps and devices we used through these activities came from him after all.”

“...” I was still silent, thoughtful. Thinking of all that I had been through in the span of a whole year, almost two years to be exact.

“Hey, are you still thinking about what happened?” Tailmon asked Ken, out of the blue. Everyone turned to him.

“He said Ryo-san… Went after Millenniummon to avenge me… Do you think he’s fine…?”

The group didn’t know what to say, alas.

“He disappeared… And we never had heard about him ever again…”

“Do you want to, like… Search for him?”

The group looked at Daisuke, who had just said he wanted to stop playing the detective role.

“But didn’t you say--” The digimon were asking the same question at the same time.

“I didn’t say I don’t want to keep doin’ this. I said I want to go back to work on my life’s goal!”

“When you said ‘I can’t do it for life’ you were stating you didn’t want to keep doing it” Iori pointed it out, calmly.

“Bingo,” Miyako agreed.

“No, I mean like… If anyone needs me I will not hesitate to come and help! It’s just… I want to do my own thing. And I’m not good at thinking about complicated stuff!”

“So our next case is the whereabouts of that Akiyama Ryo guy?” V-mon asked.

“Only if our mr. Detective Ichijouji Ken wants to!”

I never doubted that Daisuke would deeply care about me, or about the others. He likes to help everyone who’s in need. He saved not only me, but other people before. He’s the glue that keeps this group together.

I wasn’t sure if investigating the mystery of Akiyama Ryo’s disappearance was right. It felt whatever is the closure of that case could end up bittersweet or a tragedy.

Do I want to know what happened to Ryo-san? Or am I afraid of what’s the answer to that question?

“...”

“Maybe you’re not ready for that yet” Daisuke added immediately, “Sorry I thought you--”

“No, you’re right. I admit I’m afraid of what we could discover about that one. If he’s dead it would just… Make what Hikawa-kun said about him going after Millenniummon…”

“I think one day you will be ready to open that case then” Miyako looked at him, “And when that time comes, we all will be with you.”

“Exactly!” Hawkmon added with a nod. The others nodded and smiled at Ken as well, as some sort of agreement and to reassure that they would always be on Ken’s side.

“Thank you, everyone” Ken smiled back, his cheeks turned a bit reddish.

Maybe, someday… I will uncover this mystery. For my own sake, to know what happened to Ryo-san…

For now, I won't take responsibility for what is beyond my control.

This case is officially closed.

…

A tall man, tan skin and hair similar to a Young Gennai just arrived in Tokyo… After spending the rest of his life in a country town since early 2003. It had been a while though, he had just a few vague memories of living in Tamachi since he was born. But…

He couldn’t remember that much. A blurred memory of being in another place with a kid… Them being both children, to be exact… Doing something that felt like a dream adventure.

“Ah, I took a nice nap…!” he exclaimed, stretching his arms.

A digimon was on his side, dragging the luggage. The digimon, a purple-like dragon creature with bat wings attached to the hands (which also had drills as claws-or-fingers), growled, “You can’t be that careless, Ryo! Don’t leave me carrying your stuff all alone!!”

“Ah right, sorry Monodramon.”

Although he looked like a cool, responsible adult, this guy was kind of a carefree type. But his potential was off the charts, and his skills in certain categories were extraordinary.

Not wanting the tiny Digimon to carry the luggage for him, Ryo took it carefully. It was unfair to let his partner (?) carrying that, he agreed with Monodramon with a nod and a smile.

“Now where should we go?” Monodramon asked, curious with Ryo’s plans and intentions to move all back to Tokyo.

“That’s a good question, but first we have to go to our new home and then readapt to the environment. And Then… We will go look for him .”

“That person…? The one that mysterious woman mentioned to you before…?”

Ryo nodded with a grin.

“I wonder who this person is though…” Monodramon shrugged as they walked to the exit of the train station, “You said you don’t know who is either.”

“I will know when I find him for sure!” Ryo chuckled, playfully, “I have a feeling we might meet soon or later.”

Monodramon sighed, it was pointless to argue with his partner (?), sadly.

More and more mysteries have been uncovered and unsolved so far. Not all of those have a closure and will remain unsolved.

But maybe, one day… Some of those will be resolved and closed.

A new gate to the adventure might open again.

#young prince detective ichijouji ken #02 team digimon case files #stabbing tw

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