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the-digimon-tamer · 5 years ago

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Chapter 19 - The King and The Droid are out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Going to do something a little different and actually post the chapter here too. Find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

Synopsis: In the next adventure of the Digimon Tamer, the lives of Juri, Rika, and Henry change forever when digimon begin crossing over into the human world. But it’s all just a story, right? Just a book series by an author no one has seen in a long time. Why are they here and can they save their world before something worse follows the digimon?

Chapter 19: The King and The Droid

Juri sat quietly at the dinner table, fiddling with her rice and contemplating if she should actually tell her parents. Her stepmom was too busy feeding her baby step-brother to notice she wasn't eating. Her dad on the other hand did notice and asked, "Eat up Juri. You need to eat."

"I'm not feeling very hungry," she replied, "May I be excused?"

"Well at least eat your rice," her stepmom pointed at the half eaten bowl of rice, "It's not healthy for a girl your age to eat so little. Are the other girls making fun of your weight?"

Juri wasn't sure what to say to that, but she did know she hadn't felt ever felt self conscious about her appearance until now, "Do I look fat?"

"No, of course not," she replied quickly, assuring her that her step mom thought she was fat. That didn't help her at all. Juri wanted out of this conversation now and pushed her plate away, "I think I'm done eating now."

"Not until you eat young lady," her father insisted, sliding her plate of food her way. She sighed and shoved a spoonful of rice into her mouth, before pushing it away again and getting up to leave, "Thank you for dinner."

She hurried upstairs to her room, ignoring her father calling after her until she was upstairs. Once she was in her room, she threw herself face first into the bed and buried her face into her pillow. Part of her felt guilty for not telling them, but somewhere in the back of her mind was the knowledge that it didn't matter. All it would do is make them worry and she wasn't worth worrying over. Life...had a way of giving her the short end of the stick.

...

Zhenyu Li looked at Henry from across the desk in his office, trying to process everything that had happened earlier that day. It all seemed like a terrible dream, knowing that his work as a college student was now affecting his family. As he waited for the computer to finish loading the appropriate programs, he attached some custom made scanning equipment he built himself and reflected on everything he'd learned.

His son came back from his camping trip, only to have to run off again because he was...friends with a digimon. And they were fighting to save the world. He and his son always had the easiest time talking to each other but, for the first time in his life, he felt like his own son was a total stranger to him. And Xiaochun. She was involved in all of this too. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be impressed or amazed that the little girl was actually able to keep a secret with how talkative she was.

After a while, he broke the silence between them, "Henry...no, Jiangliang. If I hadn't stumbled onto you two, would you have ever told me?"

His sone was quiet, and he couldn't blame him. Then he answered, "I didn't want you guys involved. I saw what happened to Terriermon during his first fight. He almost died. I didn't want him to fight. But if we didn't...it would just mean someone else would get hurt. So...I figured it'd be best to just keep you guys out of it."

"But you told Xiaochun," he pointed out calmly, trying to avoid losing his temper. His son nodded, guiltily admitting, "We needed someone energetic enough to keep up with Calumon. And I didn't want her to freak out if she saw Calumon start walking and talking. That digimon's too hyper to keep quiet for too long. So I told her. Believe me, I wasn't too keen on it."

From the way the little Calumon was prodding everything in the room with his fingers, he wasn't surprised. Which brought up another issue: the rest of the family. He turned to Henry, "When are you going to tell the others?"

"Tomorrow," he answered sheepishly, "It's been a long day and all I want is to eat dinner and go to bed."

That was fair. It had been a busy day for the kids. Once the computer finished loading, he asked to borrow his son's 'digivice' and set it on the scanner. Right away, the scanner identified its electromagnetic spectrum as off - more specifically, it was not resonating as if it were any known material in the world. Whatever it was made of, it wasn't from this world. Then another window opened, perhaps prompted by the scan of the device, that began displaying code. Computer code. His eyes widened in surprise as he read through it, Henry and Xiaochun peering over curiously, "What is it, dad?"

"Just some strange code. It doesn't look like anything malicious. Scanning the device probably triggered a launcher to read the code," he rattled off without thinking, realizing his son was probably just barely following him and his daughter was completely lost. Now even the digimon were curious, reaching their hand into the scanner and watching with bemusement as their hands became ghost like. Calumon laughed, "It tickles."

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you," he warned, "We have no idea what'll happen. It won't affect us as humans but digital beings...anything could happen."

The digimon leapt away like they'd touched something hot, and Xiaochun giggled. He continued reading through the code when he noticed something. It was subtle at first, something so innocuous that one could glance over it without noticing. But once he doubled checked, he was sure he recognized the code. It was just a signature left by whoever programmed it. Except he recognized the signature: it belonged to an old friend of his and a colleague on the college project: Shibumi. But he hadn't heard from him since the project shut down. He'd assumed the man had dropped out of college in grief. To think his signature would be on this. Was he involved? His mind raced with the possibilities when he heard his wife call for dinner. It would have to wait. He shut the program down and returned the digivice to his son.

Once dinner concluded, Jianling and Xiaochun excused themselves to her room. He assumed it was for digimon related reasons. He was about to barge in when there was a knock at the door. He needed time to consider how he was going to approach his two kids about their digital friends, as well as the code from his old colleague. He decided it would be better to deal with the door until he was sure he wasn't going to start screaming at them. Oh how wrong he was.

On the other side was another familiar face - one he hadn't seen in a long time although he wished it would've stayed that way. Yamaki stared back at him with his sunglasses that obscured his face and that damned black suit of his. He should've known. If his kids were involved in his college project, then so was he. Well he would be damned if Yamaki got anywhere near his kids. He frowned, "Hey, Zhenyu. Long time, no see. How have you been?"

"What do you want?" he replied with just a mark of bitterness. Yamaki seemed unperturbed, "Is that a way to greet an old friend?"

"You took my college project, turned it into a government defense program, then shut it down before we could see what would become of it," Zhenyu replied, barely hiding any of the harbored resentment about that. Yamaki smiled for the first time he had ever known the man. It was unsettling to see, "That's exactly why I'm here. May I come in?"

"No, you can't," Zhenyu opened the door just enough to slip out of the apartment, and closed the door behind him. He wanted to be sure this asshole had to go through him before getting anywhere near the door, "What do you want?"

"I'm sure you've already pieced together what's happened based on the news," Yamaki began softly, trying to remain calm despite what he was about to say, "There's going to be a press conference about it tomorrow. The whole situation is getting out of hand and our top expert was seriously injured working on a project to contain this mess. So we need to get to the next best thing - the makers of this little project."

"You didn't want us involved any more. Go clean it up yourself," Zhenyu answered with a scowl, about to go inside. Before he could even try to open the door, Yamaki blocked the door, "Don't forget what happened. The number of dead children. It's getting out of hand. We're containing this as best as we can but we can't do it on our own any more. And when that happens..."

He paused, obviously reading Zhenyu's reactions through those shades of his. Then he added, "I've heard you've gotten married since then and had kids. You don't want what happened in the past to happen again, do you? A lot of parents buried their kids that day."

Yamaki was right. Something Zhenyu hated to admit. Jianliang and Xiaochun could die if they got any more involved in this. And no parent ever wanted to bury their child into the ground. He hadn't forgotten from the first time it happened. But something about that bothered him. He remembered it happening clear as day. So why were the appearance of digimon surprising to him now? Especially when it only happened a year ago? Thinking on it gave him a headache that was piercing so he massaged his temple and tried to focus on the matter at hand, "What do you want from me?"

"If you're interested, then come to the metropolitan government building tomorrow. We're going to have the first meeting," Yamaki replied, "You'll be doing the right thing if you come."

He let go and Zhenyu retreated back inside, making sure to slam the door extra loud. He massaged his temple as he tried to sort the memories out in his head. They were crystal clear - digimon attacking...hundreds of children dead...the clean up in the aftermath...the world appearing in the sky...they were all there! So why did thinking about it feel like someone was driving an axe through his skull? And why did he remember it being just another normal work day?

...

It was hard to tell how long Juri lay face down in her bed, wishing she'd had the guts to tell her parents. But she couldn't - she was sure they wouldn't care anyway. She stirred only when she heard a soft rumble outside. It sounded like thunder, and she hurried to her bed side window to see for herself what it was. It had been clear skies earlier that evening but it was foggy now, the stars hidden behind a blanket of clouds.

When had it gotten foggy? She peered as hard as she could into it but saw nothing. Wait, there was something. Something big and it was moving fast. That was when it dawned on her that fog appeared whenever digimon were crossing over to their world. There was a digimon out there. She panicked for a moment as she tried to figure out what to do. She would need to get Takato, Rika, or Henry. But how was she supposed to get any of them without going out there herself? She couldn't. But she couldn't do nothing either. She panicked, mind racing as she thought about what she should do. What she had to do.

She hurried back down stairs, taking care not to be noticed by either her dad or step mom before going outside into the fog. It was surreal to feel unsafe in her own neighborhood but she had no choice here. She needed to be out here if she was going to alert the others. She peeked out past the gate to make sure it was safe before hurrying on. Once she was sure there was nothing else out, she opened the gate and took her first step outside.

RAARRRRGGGHHH!

She froze at the sound of the roar, fear overriding her ability to move. That sound came from just ahead of her. But that was the way to the others. Maybe she could find another way around?

"GATLING ATTACK!"

"FIST OF THE BEAST KING!"

There was a flash of light ahead, followed by a fireball coming her way. Juri knew she had to get out of the way, but her legs were still frozen in fear. This was it. This was what destiny had planned for her. She was going to die here.

"LOOK OUT!"

A large figure appeared just in front of her and deflected the light with the broad side of a sword. For that brief moment, the light illuminated her rescuer just long enough for Juri to get a good look at him: a giant lion wearing only black pants. He must've been twice as tall as her dad, and he certainly scared her as much as him. The lion looked over his shoulder at her, and she let out a small squeak as he fixed his gaze on her. Then he looked ahead back into the fog, "Enough, Andromon! You almost hurt an innocent!"

Andromon. At least she had a name to call it now. The fog was starting to thin a little enough for her to see ahead at who he spoke to. Its shape was vaguely humanoid, beneath layers of metal and wires. Altogether, it resembled a robot with a laser cannon for an arm. The android grunted, "Observation: You interfered!"

"You attacked!"

Its eyes started to glow a harsh red, "Counter: I need to find the digimon tamer. Stop interfering with my search, Leomon."

The digimon tamer. Juri looked from the android to the lion, wondering if they meant Takato, Henry, or Rika. But why would they be looking for them? They weren't Devas, were they? She noticed the lion sigh, "Andromon, even you have to understand the dangers of jumping from world to world. We're not the Sovereigns. We're not even Devas. I want to save our world as much as you do, but this is too dangerous!"

They weren't devas. But what were sovereigns? Was that important? In fact, now that she thought about it, these digimon were different. They were actually stopping to talk to each other instead of just attacking everything in sight. Maybe these guys weren't dangerous. At least, she thought so until the android made a sound like grinding metal which she assumed was meant to be a snarl, "Query: If it was so dangerous, then why did you follow me? Conclusion: you're either a hypocrite or a coward who can't do what needs to be done."

The android's cannon clicked and whirred, until a long metal blade emerged from the deep within. It raised the blade and declared, "Suggestion: Stand aside."

"Ancient technology is dangerous if used improperly! You need to return it before we cause more damage!" Leomon retorted, looking back over his shoulder at Juri, "You might want to leave, kid. It's going to get dangerous."

"Um...are you a good digimon?" Juri asked, finally managing to get her mouth to work. Leomon roared his reply, "Go! Now!"

Juri was still frozen in place, too scared to run away properly. This also gave her a great view of a fight as she watched the lion and the android leapt at each other with their weapons drawn. They crossed blades several times, taking turns to strike or parry the other's attack but neither was able to deal a decisive blow. The two were clearly experienced, casually trading words as easily as they traded blows, "We need to return to the Digital World before we cause any lasting damage to this one!"

"Observation: We're in the human world! Conclusion: If we can't find the digimon tamer, then we can at least help find the Catalyst!" Andromon responded bitterly. Juri gasped as she realized they were after Calumon. That couldn't be good. She turned around, intent on finding another way to any of the other's houses as the two digimon continued to duel. She reached the end of her street and turned the corner just to see the fight had followed her. Andromon was pushing Leomon back.

"Query: Don't you understand, Leomon? I have to do this for the good of all digimon!" Andromon shouted, swinging his blade and scratching the side of Leomon's face. The lion howled, stepping back and raising his sword defensively while Andromon countered, "Declaration: First blood is mine. Please don't make me continue, old friend."

Leomon held the cut on his side, wincing in pain while countering, "That's why I'm continuing! Because we're friends. Crossing over to this world may do more harm than good."

"Statement: If we find the tamer, they can fix it," Andromon replied, "Plea: I don't wish to fight but I will if I have to."

The two charged at each other again, pushing past her and continuing on. This was her chance to get past them. She turned and hurried towards Takato's house. He was the closest and he always seemed to have more ideas than the others about what was going on. She ran as fast as she could just to Andromon be thrown past her, rolling along the ground until he stabbed his sword into the ground to catch himself. He used the moment of the roll to turn himself upright and returned to a defensive posture. Juri would've been impressed if she wasn't caught in the middle of this fight with nothing more than just a deck of cards in her pocket.

Andromon readied his weapon, pressing forward towards Leomon while holding his side, "Observation: Operational capacity at 94 percent. That was a good blow. You're learning to guard your blind spots. Counter-point: You still haven't learned follow through!"

He charged forward with his weapon raised. Juri gasped, realizing the android was charging straight at her and raised her arms up in defense. The android seemed to realize his mistake and managed to stop his charge just short of her, "Insult: You coward, Leomon. Using a child as a shield!"

"Me? You're the one who charged in blindly!" Leomon protested from just behind her, "Don't you get it, Andromon? You're too rash! You charged in without thinking and almost hurt the girl."

Juri felt herself be picked up and looked over to see Leomon holding her with one arm. He set her down on the sidewalk and said, "And I thought I told you to get out of here! It's not safe, kid."

Juri nodded, trying to be thankful but really just being fully confused now. The two of them bickered like an old married couple. Andromon even grunted, "Query: Are you trying to play the hero when you're the one who stood behind her in the first place?"

"Don't read this for anything other than what it is," Leomon replied, pointing his sword at Andromon, "She was in trouble and I helped save her."

The android grunted and charged again, the two clashing blades to try and finish the other off. Maybe they weren't so different from the Devas after all. Juri tried to use this chance to run past, hoping to safely escape their brawl and get help. As soon as she rounded the corner, she bumped straight into Takato and Guilmon. Takato caught her before she fell backwards, "Sorry about tha-Juri!?"

He helped her stand up and quickly let go, stammered out, "What're you doing here?"

She answered as quickly as she could, "Getting you! Two digimon just popped up outside my house and-"

She wasn't fast enough - Leomon came flying past again and rolled along the ground, stopping just short of crashing into another wall, "A fine parry, Andromon. But this will end with the next bout."

Andromon raised his sword, "Statement: Agreed. I will end this without taking your life old friend."

Juri wasn't sure what possessed Takato to do it but he suddenly raised his voice, "Or, and this is just a thought, maybe you could try talking this out? Y'know, without the weapons and trying to kill each other? Just a thought. I mean, that's what I do when I have a disagreement with friends."

Both Leomon and Andromon stopped what they were doing and looked at him curiously, still keeping their weapons drawn and minding their distance to each other. Leomon asked first, "Who are you?"

"Takato," he replied plainly, strolling up to the two of them and placing a hand on their weapons. Then, as if in defiance of all expectations, he lowered their swords and asked, "What are you guys fighting about anyway?"

Both Leomon and Andromon examined the boy as he proceeded to guide their hands into putting their weapons away. Guilmon followed along and started sniffing them, "Friends?"

Both digimon became uneasy as Guilmon continued to sniff them as Takato went on, "I mean, it's the middle of the night and you guys are causing all this racket. It's a miracle you haven't woken up the neighborhood! I mean a midnight brawl!? I'd fancy a snack myself."

"Our affairs are none of your concern, Takato," Leomon replied coldly. He turned to Andromon, "Are you ready to return to the Digital World?"

"Negative," Andromon replied, "Mission is the same: Find The Digimon Tamer and return him to the Digital World. Priority: Absolute. Digital World in danger. Threat Level: Absolute."

"Absolute," Takato repeated mockingly, "Absolute what? Madness? Coz your not wrong. Who goes to another world just to pick a fight? Just stay in your own world. You don't waste the time. How'd you even do that?"

Leomon thumbed at Andromon as he answered, "Not that it's your business, but Andromon over there used Ancient technology to travel to this world. I tried to stop him. That technology is too dangerous to be left around...Wait, why am I telling you any of this? You probably have no idea what I'm talking about!"

"I have an idea of what you're talking about but it's probably wrong. Trouble in your world so you came here to find a solution," Takato replied nonchalantly, turning to Juri, "That sound about right to you Juri?"

She was still trying to process what she was seeing. Takato's luck appeared to be changing since he successfully convinced two more digimon to stop fighting. Granted these two digimon were different from the others, it didn't change the fact that this hadn't happened before. Eventually, she managed to nod and Takato looked back at them, "So Leomon, did I get all of tha…hang on a minute. Weren't you dead? Like…didn't you die? Or am I remembering that wrong? Puppetmon killed you."

Leomon frowned, crossing his arms and turning to Andromon, "That was a different Leomon. The real Leomon. Can't say the same for him. He's theAndromon - The android created by the Ancients to protect their technologies and servant to The Digimon Tamer himself."

"Correction: I do not serve The Digimon Tamer. I serve the Agents, of which The Digimon Tamer is the sole remaining member," Andromon started monotonously. Leomon sighed, "So you do serve the Digimon Tamer."

Andromon grunted disapprovingly and looked back at them. It was actually kind of funny in a disgusting sort of way. The digimon turned on Leomon, "Declaration: I will continue my mission now. Stand aside."

The two looked ready to get their weapons out again. Juri gasped and Guilmon started growling at them; a fight was about to start with Takato in the middle of it. But instead, Takato called out to get their attention, "You're looking for a digimon tamer, right? What if you already found one?"

"Clarify one," Andromon demanded. Takato clapped his hands together excitedly, "Well, we've got three already and another two who are definitely looking for a partner! I've already got Guilmon, Rika has Renamon and Henry has Terriermon so-"

"Query," Andromon interrupted, "Are they the digimon tamer?"

"Yes," Takato answered with a pointed finger. Andromon gave no reply. In fact, his silence suggested he had no idea how to answer the question. He became perfectly still. It was like he'd been turned off. Juri took a step forward, waiting for a response. When nothing happened, she stepped closer and poked him in the side, "Is he okay?"

"He's processing," Leomon frowned quietly, "Whenever he's presented with information that's…not wrong or…how do I phrase this? He needs a moment to make sense of a confusing answer."

Juri had no idea what that was supposed to mean. She looked at Takato who answered, "Think of it like this: what's the true color of the sky?"

"Blue," Juri answered quickly until Takato answered, "Then why's the sky red when the sun sets?"

She blinked. He was right. The sky was red when the sun set. And kinda purplish too. He snapped his fingers and answered, "What just happened to you is happening to Andromon but in a more…complex way. Just give him a minute."

Juri looked at Andromon who still hadn't moved and felt sorry for the guy. What exactly was going through his head? She thought about his question and Takato's response. He asked if they were the digimon tamer, and Takato replied yes. It sounded like that thing Renamon talked about. So did Andromon mean a digimon tamer or the digimon tamer? She looked back at Takato who had finally grown impatient and snapped his fingers in front of Andromon to get his attention, "Hey, you okay?"

"Processing," Andromon replied. Takato turned back to Leomon, "How did you get here again?"

"Ancient technology in Andromon," Leomon pointed at the android's arm and lifted it for them to see. He opened a panel and Juri saw a myriad of wires, cables, flashing lights, and other assorted electronics she'd never seen before. But that wasn't the weird part. It was the fact that the inside seemed to go on forever despite the size of Andromon's arm. It was…bigger on the inside. It didn't help that Leomon managed to fit his whole hand inside the panel and pull out something that resembled the broken old digivice Takato had. He explained, "It took him a long time but Andromon was able to retrofit himself to act as a gate - giving himself the power to go back and forth between worlds. The problem is…we weren't sure if it was going to work or if it would blow up the Digital World when he used it."

A look of joy crossed Takato face, and he beamed up at Andromon and Leomon, "This is it. We can use this and go to the Digital World!"

His excitement quickly turned to panic as he pushed the digivice back into the panel and closed it shut, "That is very not good! We need to get off the streets as quick as possible."

"What's wrong?" Leomon looked at the boy frantically starting to push him and Andromon forward. Takato spoke quickly, "You are two digimon standing out in the open in the Real World. We need to go before those crazy government shooty guys show up!"

Leomon seemed to finally understand and turned to help move Andromon. They just barely managed to make it into a nearby alley when several white vans pulled up in the dark. Men wearing hazmat suits jumped out, obscured by the bright flashlights they equipped on their rifles. Juri immediately threw her hands up while Takato jumped in front of them all, "Wait!"

It was too late. Guilmon was already growling, ready to go on the attack and Leomon readied his swords. One of the men called out, "Minimize collateral damage. Single fire only! Don't hit the kids! Take 'em down!"

"You won't lay a hand on these children!" Leomon roared, pushing both Juri and Takato behind him. He drew his sword and readied it, "I'll die before I let any harm come to them!"

"Activating Emergency Jump!" Andromon finally spoke. Suddenly, she was blinded by a bright flash of light and several loud bangs. Then she felt the sensation of falling, followed by something hard hitting her. She'd been shot. She knew it! She was dead. This was it. This was how she died! Not like this! Not like this! She didn't want to die! Not yet!

"Juri!"

She opened her eyes as soon as she felt someone shaking her from the shoulders. It was Takato, with a relieved look on his face, "It's alright. Everything's fine. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" she replied, taking a moment to compose herself. She was lying on the ground now, and it was pitch black out. No, there was sun light. A little bit of sun, not a lot. But enough that she could start to make things out, "What happened?"

Takato took a look around, "I think Andromon tried to open a gate to the Digital World to get us out of danger. Instead, we landed at the park where I hide Guilmon."

"I…huh," Juri looked off to the horizon, at the rising sun, "But, why's the sun coming up? It was almost midnight!"

"I think it also threw us several hours into the future. That's kinda dangerous. Let's not do that again," Takato answered uncertainly, helping her stand up. She dusted herself off and examined her surroundings to be sure. They were definitely in the park. As far as she knew, they were thrown into tomorrow morning. Then she noticed Andromon and Leomon beside them. Andromon was busy tinkering with the open panel on his arm and Leomon was helping him, "Maybe if you try rerouting power?"

"Power is not the issue," Andromon responded, "Key components are damaged, requiring either repair or replacement. Scan indicates this world's technology is not on par with necessary tech. Parts cannot be acquired in this world. We are stuck in this world."

Leomon grunted at the news, folding his arms and turning to Takato, "It would seem that we are in your care then. Takato, correct? You said Guilmon is your partner. Are you a digidestined?"

"Not even close," Takato answered quickly, going over to have a look at Andromon's panel, "Repair isn't going to be easy. We'll need a place for you to lie low. There is the shed but…never mind, bad idea. I really should clean that thing out one day."

"Yeah you should," Juri agreed, looking up at Leomon thankfully. He didn't know them but he'd jumped in the way to protect her so many times. She was a little embarrassed by it too. Leomon looked at the pacing Takato, "Who were those men? The ones who shot at us. Why would they do that?"

"No idea, but they keep popping up," Takato answered quickly, still examining Andromon's arm carefully. Eventually, he sighed and closed the panel, "Yeah, there's nothing we can do about that."

Andromon examined Takato carefully, "Query: Who are you?"

Takato looked up at the large digimon silently before answering, "You know who I am. I'm Takato. I said that already."

Andromon stared back for the longest time before finally answering, "Scans do not sugg-"

"Guys!" Henry called out from behind them. They all looked over their shoulders to see Henry hurrying along with Terriermon and Rika just behind him. Henry called out, "We've been looking for you guys all night! What happened?"

"That's…kind of a long story," Takato replied sheepishly, looking back at Andromon and Leomon as if hoping they would offer some kind of assistance. Instead, they stared down at him silently as if they were expecting more from him. Rika sighed, "Well you better start talking because we want to know what happened. We got to you guys just as those crazy people with the guns showed up. Then there was this flash of light and you were gone. We spent all night trying to avoid those guys while finding you. So what happened?"

Juri raised her hand to offer up an answer, "Leomon and Andromon showed up outside my house, fighting each other. Takato managed to get them to stop."

"Surprise, surprise. It worked for once," Rika spat out in shock, looking from Takato to the two giant digimon in disbelief. Juri wasn't sure how else to explain it to them, because she was still having a hard time believing that Takato had finally managed to get some digimon to stop fighting and work together. Leomon put a hand to his chest and explained, "I am Leomon, and this is Andromon. We're not here looking for a fight, just to save our world."

Rika placed a hand on her hips, "You and every other digimon since the Devas started showing up. So why should we believe you?"

Andromon beeped out in his monotone, "Response: Because if we wanted to fight, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Observation: she's not smart."

"I think she's one of the smartest people here. At the very least, she's observant," Takato replied matter of factly, before crossing his arms, "Now where to hide you guys? The shed's out because you're just too big for it. Maybe the access tunnel?"

"It is big enough," Henry thought until Terriermon laughed, "So they're just supposed to hide out in the tunnel all day?"

"Negative. Mission Critical: Locate the digimon tamer," Andromon said again, turning to walk away until Takato ran in front of him, "I'm right here!"

Andromon scanned the boy carefully, seemingly disbelieving of Takato's claim, "Scan complete. Data inconclusive. Further evidence required."

"Then how about this?" Takato held up his old digivice, the one he claimed once broken. Andromon looked at it for a long time before answering, "Scan complete. Identity verified. Greeting: Digimon Tamer, it is good to see you again."

Then the oddest thing happened. The mechanical man bowed, as did Leomon, "It's an honor to meet you."

"Hey, what's happening?" Terriermon asked, looking to the others for some kind of explanation. Unfortunately, none of them had one. Takato looked back at them, "I already said, didn't I? My name is The Digimon Tamer. But Takato works just fine by me."

"So...should we be bowing too?" Henry asked. Rika maintained her adversity, "I'm not bowing."

Renamon's answer was more conflicted, "I feel like I should out of respect…but every bit of data in my body wants to be sick at the idea."

Takato shrugged, "I'm right here y'know. Not bowing is fine though, I don't particularly care for it. Do you mind standing up? It's starting to get embarrassing."

Andromon straightened out his posture, "Query: if you are the Digimon Tamer, why didn't you say so when I first said I was looking for you?"

"That was the old me. New face, new rules, new likes and dislikes," Takato answered matter of factly, "That and I wasn't sure I could trust you at the time. Not until I saw the Ancient tech that was built into you. If you had ancient tech, that had to mean I could trust you. Otherwise, you might've been one of the digimon trying to kill me. And that'd be a whole 'nother problem I don't want to deal with right now."

"Digimon are trying to kill you?" Henry asked. Renamon nodded, "The Digimon Tamer is said to have made many enemies. There are plenty who would like to hang his head over their mantle."

Everyone suddenly felt uneasy standing next to Takato like this. Andromon seemed satisfied by his answer, and Takato looked at the rest of them with a big innocent smile. Juri thought back to what Rika had said - not to trust him. He said he was trying to not keep so many secrets and he'd kept the part about digimon trying to kill him secret. Although, it was the more like he'd just neglected to mention it instead of lied. But didn't that count as a lie? And between that, finding out he wasn't the real Takato, and learning that the names she'd been calling her teacher was wrong, she began to wonder just how much of the world she'd come to live in was not as it seemed. Then a thought occurred to her, "Wait, we've been out all night!"

"Yeah we have. Our parents are going to kill us!" Henry picked up Terriermon and turned to leave, "We'd better get going before we end up in trouble."

"Speaking of parents, have you guys told them yet?" Takato asked, looking specifically at Rika when he asked that. She frowned, "No. And stop looking at me. It's freaking me out."

"That's good," Takato said, crossing his arms seriously, "Because, full disclosure, I'm not going to beat around the bush with Kari any more. I'm just going to flat out tell her and hope the revelation of multiple converging realities doesn't overwhelm her brain. Worse case scenario: her brain permanently rejects the idea in self-defense."

"Wait, is that what happens?" Terriermon gasped, his jaw hanging open. Takato shrugged, "Well yeah. Anything a brain can't process, it either correlates with something it can process or ignores it. She's had experience with digimon before so this shouldn't be weird to her."

"But why now?" Rika asked, watching Takato as he began pacing, "You had plenty of time to tell her before. And you never did. So why now?"

Takato's gaze looked downward, "I was trying to open her eyes slowly. But the risk is getting too great. Between the Devas and everything else going on, someone needs to stay on this side and protect the Real World because if we fail...one of the few things I can remember from my old life is they're the back up plan. They're the ones who'll save the day when I'm not around. And they haven't been doing that. It's about time we found out why. I hope you don't mind, but we're going to have a team meeting at your place tomorrow."

"Wait, what!?" Rika blurted out in shock. Takato raised an eyebrow in surprise, "Why do you think? Your mom is a part of this too. If I'm going to tell Kari, I might as well tell her too."

"This is going to end well," Rika smiled devilishly. Juri had a worried feeling in the pit of her stomach, wondering what Rika knew that she wasn't sharing.

...

Yamaki sat in his car, listening to the report from the QRF. Those kids were there again. Worse, they'd disappeared in a flash of light with the digimon as they were called. There were issues in place that needed resolution. Thankfully, most of the Monster Makers seemed willing to come back and help. All of them except for Zhenyu. Finding them was the easy part - trace their lives through the system to their current addresses. It was convincing them that was the hard part. And it wasn't hard to press the right buttons considering some of them had kids of their own.

Once he finally found the will to get his car started, his phone rang. He was annoyed at the timing - the last 24 hours just wouldn't stop rolling with the punches. He let his car stay in park as he answered, "Yamaki."

"Boss, it's Izumi. He's awake," came the voice of the agent on the other side. If Yamaki believed in hope, he felt a small glimmer of it in his heart somewhere, "I'm on my way. Keep him conscious. I want to talk to him as soon as I get there."

"Yes sir," the agent replied, hanging up. Maybe things were going to work out after all. Maybe things were starting to look up. The idea brought a small smile to his face. He knew better than to do that.

Preview for Chapter 20:

Kari set her stuff down on her desk and turned to face the class. It wasn't hard to miss the dazed looks on some of her students: Juri Katou, Hirokazu Shiota, Kenta Kitagawa, and Takato Matsuda. Takato especially. Like they'd been up all night even though they'd spent all weekend camping. She sighed and picked up her lesson plan to start the day's lesson. She would handle her students after class. But that didn't stop her from fixating on Takato, although she tried her best not to.

The idea that her brother had been just a few feet in front of her after all this time weighed heavy on her. She had so many questions she wanted to ask him. Not the least of which was why he never said anything. Then she remembered how the last time they'd met, he said she wouldn't recognize him. How she shouldn't wait for a brother who isn't coming back to return. But that would have to wait until after she confirmed it.

After what felt like the longest day, she dismissed her class but made a point of announcing, "Except for you Takato. We need to have a talk."

There were a lot of oohs from the rest of the class - kids being kids when someone got into trouble. It didn't help that he remarked, "That's okay! I wanted to talk to you too!"

#The Digimon Tamer #digimon tamers #fanfiction #archive of our own #digimon #chapter 19

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blame-my-muses · 2 years ago

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I had the weirdest, stupidest, most delightful dream last night, but y’all it was a trip so buckle up.

It took place in a house that might have been my grandma’s old house (but definitely wasn’t, for all that the driveway and the garage were hers), and which might have been the falling down old house we looked at a few weeks ago during our endless search for a house in our price range that isn’t falling down (again, it wasn’t. It just shared a very unique bathroom placement). I was at this strangely familiar house on a mission of justice. Or perhaps revenge. Dream!me knew why she was there, but awake!me is definitely a bit foggy on the details, because my waking brain is locked in, instead, on the most glorious ridiculousness that was happening as a subplot.

The cast: Me, my mother, an old man, a young man, and my brother (off-screen).

The young man was the target of my ire for some reason. I think he was a criminal who had escaped justice after hurting someone i cared about, but I really am just hypothesizing at this point, because I only saw him briefly at the start of the dream. My brother is only on the cast list because he was also living in the house, apparently, but I never saw him because he was in his room dealing with a spider. This is important. So my mom and I are there as vigilante justice, to take out the young man for whatever crime he’d done, when my mom gets called away to help with the spider situation. I’m left alone in the living room with the old man, who I believe was the young guy’s father or grandfather. And this old man. Like, we’re talking conservative racist grandpa vibes. But he’s sitting there (in my grandma’s old recliner) watching -- Wait for it. The Digimon/Spider-man Musical Crossover.

Like, a live action stage production, not a cartoon crossover. Folks, my brain had lyrics ready, and the singing was really good. It was the cast of Digimon Tamers, and classic blue and red suit Peter Parker Spider-man. And he kept swinging in to save the kids and their digimon from fights where they were over-matched. Rika’s singing voice was very much that of Original Broadway Cast Lydia Deetz, but instead of singing about her dead mom, she was singing about how much her mom didn’t get her. Very big, angry emotional number, right. Lots of moving around the stage. Jeri’s song wouldn’t have been out of place in Dear Evan Hanson, except she was singing about how Henry should hold tight to Terriermon because apparently this was post-Leomon’s death. Very sweet, sad, and tender. The digimon were portrayed by a combination of actors in costumes, or complex puppets. I believe their voice actors were positioned just off the stage with microphones, because there was no way some of those costumes would have allowed dialogue and singing. The human costume design was so bad, though. Like, everyone had on these weird little kid church play kind of over-sized heads? Like, with a cut-out for their faces, but gigantic cardboard heads/hair/etc and really big shoes. Presumably to give everyone that classic Digimon silhouette, but fuck was it a bad look! XD And so dream!me is standing there, quest for justice forgotten because I couldn’t look away. And then, plot twist. Remember how this is season three’s cast, right? And it was the first time in the show where humans could digivolve with their partner digimon? Remember Spider-man? Peter Parker, Digidestined. XD He had a weird little blue spider digimon (not any canon digimon, obviously; my childhood hobby involved designing literally hundreds of my own digimon, and apparently my subconscious has never grown out of it) and actually the digivolution sequence was pretty cool. They had really good light engineering for the stage, and good use of screens and wires and quick changes. I mean. It was a dream stage, so everything was a bit hand-wave-y, but it was still impressive. I’ll be honest, there was more to the main plot of the dream. The old man kept talking to me over the TV, so I missed a bunch of details about the musical. At one point I wandered away and came back, so I never heard a whole song. And eventually I went and sat on the back porch to wait for my mom to finish helping my brother with the spider in his room, and when she came out we were both exhausted, but ready to go do the revenge thing against the young man, but then I woke up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Idk, friends, it’s been years since I’ve had a dream about Digimon, but this isn’t my first digimon crossover dream, either, so I guess I’m not totally surprised. It just came a bit out of nowhere, and it was funny, and now I really want a Digimon musical...

#kai dreams #dreams #my dreams #long post #story time

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tumblunni · 8 years ago

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ANYWAY! I’mma gonna talk about my playthru of Digimon World Next Order, to distract me from the fact i’m rapidly approaching the ending and have to wait to sate my JRPG tastes on Persona 5 afterwards...

* it is really really REALLY REALLY really REALLy great to finally be able to play a game in the DW series as a female character. Holy SHIT, man this is overdue! And it isnt handled awfully like in Cyber Sleuth where everyone constantly calls you male and the character design is really oversexualized and doing weirdass poses for everything. There’s still a lil bit of ‘cliche girly option traits’ but seriously she’s like the least stereotyped design we’ve had in the games since Dusk and Dawn! She gets to wear SHORTS and A HOODIE! A hoodie that has an inexplicable hole in the back for some reason, but whatever! xD Also I actually like her version of the Protagonist Hair better, even tho I think its lame they colour coded them in the ol cliche genderedness. Boy character just has one streak of coloured hair at the front, but girl has a spiralling streak on the end of her ponytail that looks like a punk poison sort of fashion~! And it leaks pixels when she runs, and has a really nice glow effect that kinda makes it draw patterns as you swing her model around. Makes me wanna run in circlesssss~ Her dubbed voice is a bit boring cliche anime love interest tho, a bit squeaky after you’ve been hearing it for hours. But the dude is Like Every Shonen Hero Voice Ever, so i think its meant to be intentionally generic for both of them. I could swear he’s voiced by a bad Tai impersonator! XD Also I’m just kinda thankful cos every other girl in the plot gets a REALLY squeaky unbearable english voice, thank god protagonist is spared...

* its a lil bit of funnyness tho that for some reason the skill list is the only place where the translators forgot about the protagonist options. Like.. a LOT of Tamer Skills are weirdly gendered when it would have taken five seconds to change that. Why does it have to be stuff like ‘Cooking Boy’ and ‘Cooking Man’ instead of basic and advanced cooking? Especially cos the other one in between is called Gourmet Cooking...

* I love forever that so many of the virus type recruitable digimon are sweethearts of hugs and joy. Now THAT reminds me of the original Digimon World! Seriously I am SO GLAD that Literally The Same Myotismon has a sidequest about rescuing his precious myobrella so he won’t faint in the sun. or like.. if its not the same Myotismon then MAN he would totally be a great ship with the other equally helpless one in the first game XD He has a nice new function as a townsperson, instead of just being ‘a manager’ in the colloseum and never even being a fight. (That annoyed me as a kid! He just stands there!) Now he runs the card gallery, cos you collect ‘antique cards’ in this game and he restores them with his painting skillz. its a nice lil in-joke cos they’re all the original first trading card artworks from waaaaay back in the first season! And Piedmon is in this one too, yay! He’s actually like the only morally dubious virus type AT ALL, he talks like a cliche mwahaha mad scientist even as he does nothing particularly evil. His sidequest is a funny thing of playing hide and seek and he sucks at it. While yelling hammily about being an evil genius! And then he has quite a useful function in the town, he does a random effect on you once per day with his evil science, and it could be good or it could be bad, but if its bad he actually pays you compensation money for it! EVEN THE EVIL GUY IS TOO KIND And OH MAN I am so happy and sad for Skullgreymon! A good guy skullgreymon was always one of my ideas for a DW fangame, im so happy it happened for real! In this game Skullgreymon is a fashion designer with low self confidence, and you recruit them by finding weregarurumon who’s their biggest fan and becomes their first friend. Its so sweet! They never actually interact once you recruit them both tho, cos they work at different parts of the town. But im still gonna assume they keep in touch! Its also a shame skullgreymon doesnt actually run a fashion shop, cos there actually WAS a fashion shop in Digimon World Redigitize aka the one damn game we’ll never see dubbed T_T Instead skullgreymon gets this kinda depressing role of just standing around outside the entertainment area saying ‘i wish i could work with children but they’re always scared of me’, and then if you bring a newly hatched digimon to see them then they gain bonus stats from being terrified somehow?? NOOO WHERE IS THE OPTION TO TEACH MY CHILDREN THAT SKULLY IS A FRIEND

* Anyway, my main digimon are (still) Hershey and Zephyr, and I love them! I’m still working on hoping to eventually get the full terriermon and lopmon canon digivolution lines with them, wow its hard. But I adore them no matter what form they take at the moment! I ended up loving them so much that i never raised any other digimon ever. i just rename them the same name every time they reincarnate, and pick the same eggs! I’ve gotten close to unlocking every single variation of the bunno brothers evo lines!! But it IS getting really annoying that you have to type the name manually every time, why no option to just stick with the previous name? DW1 had that and it was on way worse hardware! Oh, and its funny that I started off calling them the bunny brothers cos thats what they were in adventure 02, but then after playing the game for ages I’ve settled on headcanoning hershey as female and zephyr as nonbinary. And also I started off with the cliche personalities of sassy rebel terriermon and stoic lopmon like in Tamers, but Hershey ended up being the rebel instead and Zephyr is like a shonen hero cinnamon roll! They’re both equally sassy and eccentric tho XD I’m not quite sure yet what would be their ‘canon’ final mega forms that I wanna keep them in for the final boss and stuff. But hershey’s made me regain my appreciation of Ladydevimon after I stopped liking her as soon as I grew old enough to understand that most of her fans only liked her for being ‘a stripper’ :P Like.. she’s a really damn good design even without the fanservice?? I like her way more than devimon, myotismon and etc, I wish she’d gotten to be a major villain! i mean it sucks that devimon got to be one when she’s literally his evolved form. (And yes I am happy that it continues to be canon that ladydevimon can digivolve from devimon and the same for angewomon and angemon. DIGIMON AINT RESTRAINED BY HUMAN GENDER ROLES YO) So yeah anyway, I kinda headcanon Hershey as a hypothetical less skimpy redesign of LadyDevimon? or like.. if she got her own unique Mega form that kept a similar design, rather than just being retconned into lilithmon and rosemon’s evo lines. I just don’t think the skimpyness fits with Hershey’s personality but the rest of the design just has such a cool piratey thiefy type look?? And she’s like THE BEST monster girl in the franchise, she’s the only one who really gets to be monstery looking, even if she’s still an hourglass figure sex object. i mean i always thought it was meant to be a subversion of that?? She has that giant monster claw hand and is really vicious and powerful in battle! All her animations in the game are her shredding things with it and doing the classic dracula rise-from-the-grave when she’s knocked out, and just... ITS REALLY BADASS!! I didnt know how cool a fight with her could be, cos she just got that stupid ass fanservice joke slap fight in the anime... ANYWAY Ladydevimon is good I appreciate her I like her even though she’s in the general genre of fanservice digimon that I dislike. She’s like the one single one I dont hate! (Tho I still wish we had more than like.. two un-fanservice female digimon in the entire damn series) Buuuut I dont think her design quite fits Hershey even though she’s the digivolution I keep using ingame. Maybe if I can find a different Mega that I prefer, and make up a fanmade digivolution line? or I could do a fanart variation of the digimon...

* ANYWAY I kinda ended up headcanoning Hershey as a former member of the broken apart pirate crew in Mod Cape. Cos like.. what if your digimon had backstories of what their life was like before they met you! like Gatomon in Adventure, they were chosen to be partners to a destined hero but had to wait so long they’d become disillusioned. Cos when you meet em at the start of the game they’re mega level and only get poofed back into eggs cos of machinedramon’s attack. WHAT LIFE DID YOU LEAD WITHOUT ME. I AM HERE TO PROTECT YOU NOW AAAAAAA!! So yeah it would be cool to headcanon Hershey as a former highway bandit type character who has trouble adjusting to living in a city surrounded by happy innocent people and hugs. I dont see her as grumpy tho.. like, she’s kind of a bombastic trickster archetype but she’s still super cynical and ‘I only care about myself, anything else gets you hurt’. I was thinking maybe if I designed a fanmade mega for her she could be like a magician pirate zombie demon??? Like.. yknow piedmon is a deck of cards clown guy with those four daggers? i actually got Piedmon as her digivolution when she was a Ladydevimon and I was thinking MAN it could be so cool if we had like a zany zombie digimon who attacks by stabbing a sword through her own back! Like ‘watch me saw a woman in half’ XD A design where she has a load of weapons stuck in her and uses them to fight with! like how mummymon is a mummy + soldier in a leg brace design, hypothetical zombiemon could be a zombie + actual tragic assassination victim. Plus a magician. Or a clown. And ladydevimon. And a pirate. LOOK I JUST HAVE A LOT OF MUTUALLY CONTRADICTORY HEADCANONS OKAY xD

* I don’t really have as much development ideas for Zephyr yet, aside from that they’re Hershey’s more cheerful and positive sibling. But I see them as also being kinda creepy and battle-hungry and stuff? Like.. both these twins are total virus types, clown type, typical final villain type of acrobatic doom! And both are good guys deep down. But Zephyr is a more cinnamon roll type of good and Hershey is grumpy unwillingly dragged into goodness. And like.. Zephyr is a bit dotty and only accidentally creepy, not really understanding how to socialize properly. And probably they would be like ‘NO BIG SISTER, STEALING IS BAD’ *currently stabbing a guy* I think maybe my headcanon for Zeph might be that they were for some reason left completely alone while waiting for the protagonist? Hershey at least found some companionship with the pirates, even if she became super bitter after the team broke up. I think Zeph maybe started off as a wild forest mon that’d even forgotten how to speak, until by pure chance they bumped into their long lost twin sister and then met the protagonist. So like an innocent angel who’s all new to the city and excited about everything, but also kinda fighty and dangerous because of the same stuff that makes them innocent. I dunno, I might make them an angewomon or ophanimon to match with Hershey? Tho I wanted to make them both good guy virus types, it could be an equally interesting contrast to have a vicious battle-obsessed angel who’s the absolute opposite of softspoken fancyness! And I also kinda associate them with the colour green even though I ended up picking a grey themed digivolution for Hershey instead. But all of Terriermon’s natural digivolutions are all machiney and don’t suit this personality as much... I dunno, maybe I could make up another headcanon/variant type thing? Cos after all lopmon’s line gets two champion level forms and two megas but terriermon only has two recolours for the same ultimate level. Maybe even it out, lol! Or like, I’m thinking like.. what if Terriermon had a mega that suited Henry more? i was reading someone’s review where they said it was weird that pacifistic Henry got a giant robot specializing in attack while Rika got the humanoid pacifist digimon. And yeah, that IS totally weird! And it got me imagining what if Terriermon got a humanoid digivolution that was like a martial artist?? or maybe like a speedy superhero lookin armour thing! Like just a more humanoid rapidmon! or I dunno maybe if puppetmon is in this game then zephyr could be puppetmon. I miss puppetmon. puppetmon never got to be in ANY games except dusk and dawn! I WANNA SEE A 3D PUPPETMON YO!!

* Man I just spent this entire post rambling my headcanons for silent protagonist characters instead of actually talking about the game... aaaa...

#bunni plays next order

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the-digimon-tamer · 5 years ago

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Chapter 25 - Nightmare Motorcycle is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

The Tamer v2.0: In His Name

Chapter 25: Nightmare Motorcycle

Henry ran up and down the sand where their friends has been a moment before, “Crap! Where’d they go? We have to find them!”

He was about to chase after the beam of light when Leomon grabbed a hold of his shoulder, “No dice! Do you have any idea what’ll happen if you just jump in that? There’s no guarantee that you’ll go where they did. You could end up anywhere! And what good will you do them then?”

“We can’t just leave them!” Henry argued back, amazed that the lion was barely breaking a sweat as he tried to get free. In fact, the lion lifted him up into the air casually, dangling in front of his face, “Don’t worry. They have Renamon and Andromon with them. I can’t think of anyone better to have at your side. Those two can take care of them. What’s important now is that we keep a level head.”

“Moumantai, Henry!” Terriermon patted his partner. Juri looked to Takato, who was still staring off into space silently and tapped on his shoulder to snap him out of it. He didn’t react. It took Guilmon nuzzling him with his snout to finally snap him out of it, “Huh? Oh, hi boy.”

“Are you out of your funk, now?” Terriermon asked gesturing at the beam of light as it moved along the desert sand, “Because we’ve already run into a serious problem and I’m pretty sure you didn’t even notice.”

“Sorry, what’s going on?” Takato looked between them in confusion, finally noticing half of their group were not present, “Where’d everyone go?”

Terriermon chuckled at being proven right while Leomon groaned in frustration. He really hadn’t noticed their friends getting sucked up into the pillar of light! Juri pointed him towards the ever growing distant beam of light and explained, “They got sucked up into this beam of light that went past us!”

Takato raised an eyebrow in surprise, tracing the beam of light skyward, “Beam of light? From what? It’s not connected to anything! It just…sort of goes up forever.”

He traced its path with its finger up the sky until he was pointing straight up, “Well, crap that is a problem. They could be anywhere. They could even be in a completely different world!”

“Yes, we know! How do we find them?” Henry demanded, “Because we’re not going to find them just sitting here doing nothing! Who knows what trouble they’ll get in by themselves? Especially Kazu and Kenta. And you know Rika’s probably going to try and pick a fight.”

“She hasn’t been that bad lately,” Guilmon offered in her defense.

“I think they’ll be fine. They have Andromon and Renamon too. Really, the only one I’m worried about is Kazu,” Takato answered sheepishly, “But if we’re going to find them, we can always go to the Hallowed Bastion. I can track them from there. Come on!”

He turned on his heels and started walking off in a random direction, stopping to check his digivice, and then continued on in a slightly different direction. Guilmon raced after his partner while the rest of them swapped nervous glances. There were so many questions now and Henry asked first, “What’s the Hallowed Bastion?”

“Home City of the Ancients,” Leomon answered quietly, lifting Juri up on to his shoulder, “We should keep up. We don’t want to fall too far behind.”

“How far is it?” Terriermon asked, climbing up onto Henry’s head to sit without asking. He was heavy on Henry’s head, until the digimon spread out his ears to offer some make shift shade. Takato pointed ahead, “That way! Maybe a few days? Actually, we’re going to stop by an old house if that’s okay. I want to get something first.”

“I see time has done nothing to modify your concern for others,” Leomon commented quietly, something Takato chose to ignore. Juri was less sure of that statement. As far as she could think, Takato had always been trying to help others. He’d even been trying to stop fighting between other digimon! She poked Leomon’s head and asked, “What does that mean, Leomon?”

The lion grimaced, “The last time I saw The Tamer, he was less concerned with the well being of others and more concerned with ensuring they fulfilled their destiny. Whatever that would be. Even if it meant forcing them to watch the people they cared for die.”

None of that sounded like the Takato she knew. Then again, she realized that this wasn’t even the Takato she knew. This Takato was just someone wearing his face and running around with his name. The real Takato was lost…possibly in this world. Thinking about all of this made her heart feel heavy.

And why did Leomon feel the need to bring up destiny? Did he know something she didn’t? She looked back at Leomon, “How do you know all this?”

“I don’t know all the details because I wasn’t there, but supposedly he allowed someone’s mother to die to ensure that certain events happened the way they were supposed to,” Leomon answered. He looked her way and offered a small smile, “It’s alarming but I’ve learned it’s better not to worry about it. It’ll make you paranoid. Make you do things that you normally wouldn’t. I think another one of the digidestined said it best: destiny will work itself out either way, so why worry about it?”

That hardly made her feel better. She felt a lump forming in her throat and tried to swallow it, but couldn’t it. Maybe it was just too hot and dry to do it? Yeah, that had to be it.

…

Impmon followed Makuramon and the hostage Calumon through the endless desert and complained, “Hey! How much farther is this place yous was talkin’ ‘bout?”

“Not much farther, dear Impmon,” the monkey answered playfully, poking the cage he was using to hold Calumon hostage, “Isn’t that right my dear little pet? Oh, what fun we’ll have when I return you to Lord Zhuqiaomon!��

“I don’t think I’ll like your idea of fun,” Calumon’s voice quivered in fear. Makuramon answered by shaking the cage as violently as he could, “Oh, come now Catalyst. I’m sure you’ll enjoy all the little games we’ll play when we finally meet our Lord!”

“I hope you ain’t expecting me to bow coz’ I don’ got no lords,” Impmon folded his arms, growing irate the longer he followed this monkey. It was the smart decision at the time - the monkey had him in a death grip and he’d be dead if he didn’t agree. But now he was wondering if death would’ve been the smarter choice. It would’ve saved him from having to listen to this monkey chatter on and on about crap he didn’t care about.

A small bright light appeared in the distance, one he hadn’t seen before. Impmon’s eyes narrowed and he looked at Makuramon with a raised eyebrow, “What’s that?”

“That is my destination. I do have a gift to present. But don’t worry, Caturamon will take care of you,” Makuramon cackled. Impmon didn’t like the sound of that laughter and turned to see a snarling dog just inches from his face. He leapt back, preparing two balls of fire in his hands, “How’d you do that?”

“Why is that the first thing everyone asks me?” the dog asked, noticing the cage in Makuramon’s hand, “Is that it?”

Makuramon held out the cage with a big old grin on his face, “Indeed it is! The catalyst given digimon form by the Sovereigns themselves! And do help this poor little fellow. His services were useful in the acquisition of our goal.”

“Alright,” the dog nodded, getting so close to Impmon that his breath made him gag, “Listen well, little one. I am Caturamon, servant of the Sovereigns and guardian of this area. Tell me what you seek and I will help you acquire it.”

Impmon rolled his eyes, skeptical of the wish granting and keeping the fireballs close, “Hey, I ain’t da wishin’ type.”

Caturamon grunted his disapproval, snarling at the imp before blowing out the flames in his hands. Impmon panicked and reignited another set of flames quickly only to have them blown out again. Caturamon then added, “I can do this all day idiot. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Anything you want, you can have at our lord’s grace. But this offer will only come once and won’t be given again. What do you want, child?”

Impmon continued staring skeptically before finally answering, “I want the same thing I’ve always wanted: to survive. If that means bein’ strong or smart, I don’t care. I want to not need anybody’ or anythin’!”

Caturamon stared at the imp in surprise, and that annoyed him, “WHAT?”

“Who hurt you?” was all he asked. Impmon was taken aback by that question because of how close it hit to home, “Who says anyone hurt me?”

“No ‘mon is an island,” Caturamon explained, “To want no one or anything...who hurt you?”

“NOBODY!” Impmon snapped angrily. Caturamon closed his eyes, taking a long and deep breath as if to indicate his frustration. Then he sighed, “Very well. I will grant your heart’s desire: but what that means is power. Power unlike any other. And only one can grant that power. The sovereign himself! Lord Zhuqiaomon.”

“I told you, I ain’t got no lords!” Impmon protested, suddenly finding Caturamon taller than he was a second ago. That couldn’t be right. He was eye level a moment ago. Unfortunately, it took Impmon just a second too long to realize he was sinking into the ground like he were stuck in quicksand. He tried to step out of it, but the struggle only made him sink faster, “HEY! WHAT GIVES!? What kinda trick is this? Get met outta here!”

“Do not resist. All will be well,” Caturamon said, failing to be any more reassuring than that stupid monkey. Impmon growled, trying to grab at Caturamon in vain to keep himself above the ever rising sand. But it was too late now. His arms were now submerged in the dirt, leaving only his flailing hands reaching desperately for something. As it made its way up to his face, he tilted his head up to keep it above the rising earth. With his last breath, he cursed the damned dog and the monkey. He cursed himself for being so careless. Darkness took him, followed by a vision of large bird wreathed in flame. Then a flash of fire swallowed him.

…

They walked for the rest of the day, stopping only at the end of the day to eat bread from Takato’s bag and sleep out in the open. As the night grew colder, they tried to get a fire going but had nothing but the bread wrappers to burn - something that only lasted a couple of seconds before the flames burned out. So they spent that night mostly going cold - something Guilmon vocally complained about despite being in a large desert.

Juri slept by Leomon’s side, since his fur and his large size made him nice and warm. Sleeping beside him reminded her of when she was younger and her dad had been more open with her. It reminded her of all the times he’d let her fall asleep on his lap while he was working or watching TV, before carrying her to bed and tucking her in for the night. It was probably her best night’s sleep in a long time. When she awoke the next morning, she found that the others had also moved in to be beside Leomon at some point in the night. Maybe he was just too warm to resist in this frigid cold desert. And she was well aware how insane that sounded when she thought it out loud.

They headed out again after a quick breakfast of some more bread and hurried on in the direction Takato led them. It was another day of endless trekking through arid heat under a baking sun until they saw what looked like several small mounds in the desert. From afar, it looked like a mass of hills. But the closer they got, the more it began to resemble igloos of mud with their doors sealed shut with scrap metal.

“What is this place?” Juri asked, looking around curiously at the many huts. The place was almost like a ghost town, except ghost towns had signs people used to live there. But there were clothes hanging off clothes lines and smoke coming from the chimneys. So someone had to be living here now, right? Takato took one look around, “A village by the looks of it. Let’s see if anyone’s home! HELLO! Anybody here? Were friendly! I promise! Don’t mind the lion! Or the dinosaur. They’re the nicest. The bunny dog thing is more dangerous than they are.”

“Hey!” Terriermon grumbled, sticking out his tongue at Takato and turning his head in disapproval. Takato ignored him and knocked on one of the doors. When no answer came from inside the abode, he banged harder, “Anybody? Somebody? Hello! I swear we’re friendly!”

“Takato!” Henry pulled him back, “What are you doing?”

“Knocking,” he answered quietly, “What does it look like I’m doing?”

“No, I mean why are you banging on the door? We don’t know who lives in there!” Henry corrected him anxiously, “For all we know, it’s some crazy dangerous digimon who’ll eat our face.”

Despite his concerns, Takato shrugged it off and patted his head, “Don’t be ridiculous Henry. Only Kuwagamon do that and they tend to live under the sand, not in huts this small.”

“Okay, so what if it’s something else? Something that wouldn’t mind eating us!?” Henry pointed out. He and Takato stared at each other for the longest time before he knocked on the door again, throwing all of Henry’s concerns out the window with it. Henry groaned in frustration, just as the metallic door slid open for a little brown bear made of dirt to peek out, “Hello?”

Takato put on his cheeriest face, “Hi! We’ve lost some friends and are looking for them. Then again, we’re also a little lost ourselves. Do you have any water or some food?”

“You’re not with that demon, are you? The crazy demon motorcycle,” the little brown bear asked. Takato looked back at the rest of them with a raised eyebrow, skeptically remarking, “Demon motorcycle? Don’t be ridiculous! We’re not with a demon motorcycle! I’ve seen a crazy puppet, statues comes to life, and even world ending monsters from outside reality and not once have I ever seen a demon motorcycle!”

“What kinda digimon is that?” Juri pointed at the brown bear, “I’ve never seen one before like this.”

“Chuchidarumon. They’re a subtype or Frigimon only made with mud instead of ice and snow,” Takato answered knowledgeably, “They’re a really docile digimon too. Normally friendly. This motorcycle must have you guys really spooked if you’re locking all your doors!”

“Get away from the door! If the motorcycle sees you, it’ll come back!” a voice rang out from inside the hut. The door slammed shut after that, followed by the unmistakable sound of the click of several locks. Terriermon frowned, “Well that was rude.”

“What do you suppose they mean by demon motorcycle?” Leomon asked. Henry shrugged and pointed out, “More importantly, why do they keep talking about the motorcycle and not the rider? I’d think the rider is more dangerous.”

“Does anyone else hear that?” Takato asked, holding up a finger for complete silence. Juri closed her and cupped a hand to her ears, hearing only the distant sound of the wind blowing past. She opened her eyes and answered, “I don’t hear anything.”

Terriermon’s ears perked up and he added, “I do! It’s like a...a rumble.”

“Something’s coming,” Guilmon added, lifting up his nose to sniff the air. Juri closed her eyes again and tried to listen carefully. Nothing. No wait, there was something. A soft hum or rumble. Like an engine. A motorcycle engine! And it was getting closer and louder. Turning her head towards the noise, she saw the unmistakable shape of an unridden motorcycle roaring their way with no one riding upon it. And the headlight of this motorcycle flashed a grim blood red as it raced towards them, like a singular eye pierced into their very being to judge them. She gasped and Leomon groaned, “You’ve gotta be kidding me! They were serious!? A demon motorcycle!?”

“Oh, that is new,” Takato said almost too gleefully, “A self driving motorcycle!”

“Uh...it’s coming right at us,” Henry pointed out.

“We should run,” Terriermon added, pulling on Henry so that he would turn and start moving. Everyone did just that, hurrying towards one of the huts and climbing on top of the mounds to avoid the rampaging vehicle. At first, it seemed they would be safe but that did nothing to slow the machine down or hinder it as it rammed at full speed into the side of the hut. It shook violently, Juri grasping on to her partner for dear life while he dug his sword into its side to anchor them. The others were hardly fairing any better, trying to keep from getting knocked off and hanging on only by digging their hands straight into the mud. The hut shook one more time and motorcycle emerged from the other side, throwing a Chuchidarumon forward onto the ground and running it over. The digimon let out a single pained cry before disappearing into data. During that brief moment the motorcycle passed under them, Juri swore she saw what looked like a small metallic rabbit riding on its seat - so small that it was hardly noticeable. In fact, it was smaller than Calumon of all things. And it didn’t look to have any arms or legs! How was it driving the motorcycle?

The motorcycle turned on its spot and revved its engine at them, producing a loud roar as it charged again. This time, it raised up its front wheel to transfer its momentum and raced up the side of the hut.

“JUMP!” Takato shouted, as they all leapt off the hut in time for the motorcycle to fly past them and land on the other side. Leomon kept Juri on his shoulder, “Hang tight, Juri. This motorcycle really is a demon!”

“No, there’s someone riding it!” Juri pointed out, “A little rabbit thing!”

“A rabbit?” Takato repeated, eyeing the motorcycle carefully. It had already regained its footing and was readying itself again, rushing their way. Takato ran in front of them and shouted, “HEY! LOOK AT ME! COME AND GET ME!”

“TAMER! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Leomon roared out, rushing forward to stop the boy. The motorcycle had already turned though and was rushing right at him. Takato continued onward though, flailing his arms above his head, “That’s right! Over here! Come and get me!”

“What is he doing!?” Juri gasped, closing her eyes to avoid seeing what she thought she was going to see. There was a loud thump and soft crash. Her heart stopped. The only person who had any idea how to get them back had just thrown himself in front of a motorcycle! They were doomed! Royally doomed. She peeked her eyes open a little to see Takato on the sand, cradling something in his arms as he looked over his shoulder at the motorcycle continuing into the distance. Now with Guilmon riding upon it. As he stood up, Juri could make out the metallic rabbit in Takato’s arms and it weakly apologized, “I’m sorry! I saw everything. As soon as I was on the seat, I lost all control. It was like the motorcycle was making me do those things!”

“It’s alright, MetalKoromon,” Takato assured the little bunny and stroking its head. He handed the digimon over to Leomon and announced, “Do you mind holding this? I need to go save Guilmon!”

“HERE I COME TAKATOMON!” Guilmon roared at the top of his lungs, turning the motorcycle to face him. There was something off now about the red dinosaur, something different about him. Almost like he was possessed. MetalKoromon urged Takato, “Don’t do it! If that motorcycle gets you, it’s all over! All it wants is to find stronger riders! As soon as it does, it kicks off whoever is on it and kills everything else. Please! Don’t do it!”

“I’m not letting anything happen to Guilmon,” Takato said, adjusting his goggles over his head to cover his eyes. He looked back at Leomon and declared, “Be ready to knock me off as soon as you can!”

“What are you going to do?” Henry asked. Takato shrugged, “Get on the motorcycle, see what happens, maybe take it for a ride afterwards.”

He ran forward again and Henry groaned, “What’s with the throwing himself in danger act? Is he crazy or stupid?”

“We all know it’s both,” Terriermon remarked.

The motorcycle revved again, and Guilmon shouted, “YOU’RE ALL MINE NOW!”

“Then come get me!” Takato shouted back, standing in front of the motorcycle with his arms wide open. The motorcycle roared its engine and charged in again, going faster than it had before. Still, Takato didn’t move. Just as she was sure he’d get run over this time, the motorcycle’s brakes shrieked as it slid to a stop in front of him. It idled there with Guilmon staring Takato down, “YOU KNOW WHAT I WANT!”

“Yeah, I’m right in front of you. No need to shout. Or be rude,” Takato rubbed his ear. He stepped onto the side of the motorcycle and took hold of the handle bars. Immediately, Guilmon fell off in a daze so that Takato could get on the seat. He was hilariously small on its large frame, scooting as far forward as he could to grab both the handle bars and the foot rests, “So how does this work? Is it immediate or - CONTROL ACHIEVED! NOW WE RIDE! FIND STRONGER! KILL ALL ELSE! Yeah, I don’t think so. Also, why do you sound like Rika? IMPOSSIBLE! CONTROL HAS BEEN OVERRIDDEN! SURRENDER TO MY WILL! I AM THE BEAST! With all that shouting, I don’t doubt it. YOU WILL RESPECT MY WILL! Don’t tell me how to live my life. It’s my body and it’s my choice!”

It was weird. One second, Takato was screaming at the top of his voice and the next he spoke with the calm he’d shown before. And he was arguing with himself using the two voices.

“Tamer, what’s happening?” Leomon shouted at him. Takato answered, “The demon motorcycle is trying to take over my brain, I think. It’s not very good at it. I HEARD THAT! That’s because I said it as loud as I could. YOU WILL BREAK BEFORE ME BOY! Boy? I’m older than you, I think. Also you look really familiar, have we seen each other before? HOW DO YOU RESIST!? BREAK! BREAK! BREAK! Not with that attitude, I won’t. Maybe you ought to try asking nicely? It’s not going to hurt. AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! I WILL RUN YOU DOWN!”

“Is it safe to get close?” Henry asked aloud. Takato shot him a dirty look and roared, “TRY IF YOU CAN MEAT BAG! TOUCH MY TREADS! I DARE YOU! It’s probably safe. I still have control over the finer motor functions so it’s not like it can make me rev the handle bar. WHY WON’T YOU SUBMIT? You didn’t say please. SO YOU WILL IF I DO? I didn’t say that. I HATE YOU SO MUCH! GET OFF! But I just got comfortable.”

Henry stared at him quietly before asking the obvious question, “Okay, so what happens now that you’re on there? If we knock you off, does the motorcycle just topple over or does it start moving on its own?”

“WHY DON’T YOU COME CLOSER AND FIND OUT MEAT SACK! LET ME RUN YOU OVER! KILL! KILL! KILL! Don’t be rude. Those are my friends and you should treat them with respect. THEY CAN RESPECT MY TREADS! KILL THEM ALL! YES! KILL THEM ALL! Okay, that’s totally uncalled for. And I don’t know, Henry. It’s not going anywhere so I think I’m in control of it but who knows what’ll happen,” Takato replied with a shrug. Leomon readied his sword and marched over to Takato, quietly answering, “There’s only one way to find out. Hah!”

He swung it as hard as he could so that the flat end of the blade struck Takato in the chest. The boy grunted, thrown off the bike and landing beside it with a frown, “Wow! What a trip! I’d do it again if I didn’t have to fight a killer bike for control of my own body. Now where did you come from? I mean...you weren’t here last time I was in the Digital World. Another world? Another version of the Digital World? What’s your story?”

“Not knowing things seems to be a theme for you, doesn’t it?” Terriermon observed. All eyes were on the motorcycle now as it sat there unmoving. Its engine was still running despite having no rider, but it had lost all ability to propel itself forward without a rider to steer or keep it balanced. Then it toppled over into the sand. Guilmon sniffed the motorcycle and Takato dusted himself off, “Well, that’s that. We should not do that again.”

“We? That was all you, Takato,” Henry slapped his back, then looked back down at the motorcycle. They were all thinking the same thing, even though they weren’t saying it. They should probably destroy it. Leomon raised his sword above his head, “Well, let’s finish this!”

“Wait!” Takato interrupted, “If we destroy this, someone’s going to need to absorb its data. The last thing we need is for its data to get loose into the Digital world! Who knows what kind of damage that could do if all that...killing intent ended up scattered. It might drive us all crazy. Or, worse, it could just mean the motorcycle reformats somewhere else. And then we’ll be right back where we started.”

“Are you sure about any of that?” Leomon asked, poking the motorcycle with the pointy end of his sword. The motorcycle revved its engine in protest but that just made Leomon jab it harder. Everyone else leapt back in surprise, covering their ears as it roared even louder. Terriermon commented, “I guess it’s still kicking.”

“But it doesn’t look like it can do anything without a rider so who cares?” Henry pointed out. The motorcycle continued to rev its engine in protest, trying in vain to do something other than just lay on the ground. The noise started to draw attention though as the mud bear digimon started to emerge from their huts en masse to see the motorcycle for themselves. One of them looked at it, “Is it…is it beaten?”

“Looks like it,” Leomon said, continuing to poke it with his sword, “As long as no one else climbs on it, it’ll just lay there and gather dust.”

That announcement drove the motorcycle into a rage as it started roaring its engine as loud as it could, making its rear wheel spin so fast that it began to spin in place on the ground. The Chuchidarumon retreated away in terror until Leomon jabbed his sword between the spikes of the rear wheel to stop it from spinning. The sword made a sickening grinding noise as the wheel became stuck on the sword and the engine finally died. Takato pointed at the motorcycle, “Are you done throwing a tantrum? Because it’s not going to help you get out of your situation. And it’s not going to make us help you get up. So why not stop with this and-”

As Takato continued to lecture the motorcycle, another soft rumble caught their attention. Juri clung on to Leomon, “Earthquake!”

“Not an earthquake! A sink hole!” Takato said, moving back from the motorcycle as the ground opened up just ahead of them. As they retreated away, the hole widened large enough to swallow the motorcycle into it. About a meter down into the hole was a layer of boiling hot magma that consumed the motorcycle. The motorcycle revved its in engine, creating a horrible grinding noise as it sank into the molten crag and burst into flame. One of the Chuchidarumon threw a rock at it as it sank in, “Good riddance!”

“That stupid thing has been terrorizing us for weeks! We could only leave our homes for a few moments at a time before it came to attack us!” another added, “Thank goodness it’s all over.”

Juri shared that sentiment - watching Takato go half insane like that was terrifying. What would possess the motorcycle to even behave like that? Why was it so driven to destroy everything? What had the Digital World ever done to it to make it like that?

The earth began to rumble again, and the surface of the lava began to ripple outwards until the motorcycle emerged. It flew out of the pit that had opened in the ground, driven by a new rider - a tall man wearing all leather under black armor. It wore a violet mask over its face, concealing everything but three glaring eyes full of blood thirsty glee. The rider cheered, “OH YEAH! THIS IS POWER, RIGHT HERE! REAL POWER! OH, I CAN FEEL IT! ALL OF IT! LISTEN UP! I AM BEELZEMON, RIDER OF THE BEHEMOTH, KING OF THE DIGITAL WORLD, DESTROYER OF WORLDS, AND WRECKER OF YOUR SHIT!”

“Well now I’ve seen everything and I hate it,” Takato threw up his hands in frustration, “I mean what did I miss? The Digital World is a lot more surreal than I remember.”

“He smells familiar,” Guilmon sniffed in the Beelzemon’s direction, “He smells like…Impmon.”

Juri squinted her eyes at Beelzemon, unsure there was a resemblance between the digimon. She had only seen Impmon once, and this was definitely not him. But Guilmon seemed to recognize him. Takato blinked and pointed at the digimon in disbelief, “That’s Impmon? He’s a lot taller than I remember.”

“Wait, Impmon is the one who kidnapped Calumon, right?” Henry pointed out. Beelzemon grunted, “Hmph.”

“Where is he!?” Terriermon shouted, “Don’t you know what you did by giving him over to the Devas!”

“So what? That ain’t my problem,” Beelzemon growled, revving the engine of the motorcycle. Takato snapped his fingers, “I got it! You’re infected by the motorcycle! It’s in your head and making you exceptionally violent! We just got to fix that and knock you off.”

“Knock me off? What? Are you mockin’ me!?” Beelzemon roared. He cracked his knuckles and reached for a strap on the side of the motorcycle, producing a double barreled shotgun which he cocked by spinning it in his hand. He pointed it straight at them, “I’ll show you! TAKE THIS!”

“DUCK!” Takato shouted, diving onto Guilmon and pushing him to the ground. Henry followed suit, holding Terriermon close as he dove for the dirt. Leomon followed suit, removing her from his shoulder and hugging her tight as he leapt for safety behind one of the buildings. All of the Chuchidarumon ran away in a panic, running into their homes for safety while Beelzemon roared, “THAT’S RIGHT YOU LITTLE SHITS! RUN! RUN AWAY! AH-HA-HA-HA!”

“So did he always swear this much or is that just the motorcycle?” Terriermon asked, watching Beelzemon rev the engine again as he turned the motorcycle towards them. He grinned ear to ear and revved his engine one more time before turning away from them. He raised his middle finger at them and rode off into the distance, taking one last chance to shout, “I DIDN’T NEED HUMANS’ THEN AND I DIDN’T NEED ‘EM NOW! SCREW YOU DWEEBS!”

“Well, at least we know Impmon’s safe,” Takato said dryly, taking a moment to dust the sand off himself before helping his partner up. Guilmon frowned, “He seemed really mad. I hope he’s not mad at us.”

“I doubt it,” Takato frowned, “We got two choices: go after him to find Calumon or keep going to the Bastion to find the others.”

Juri didn’t like the fact that they had two equally difficult choices to make in front of them and frowned at Henry’s answer, “That shouldn’t even be a question. We find Rika and the others, then we go after Beelzemon. Besides, without Calumon, none of our digimon can digivolve. We’ll need as many of us together as we can to stand a chance. Rika’s our best fighter and Juri’s still new to all this. No offense, Juri.”

“None taken,” Juri waved it off, putting on her biggest smile while feeling more useless than she had a in a while. Leomon was probably the strongest digimon on their team right now, and she hadn’t done anything with him. Rather, he’d taken initiative on everything. She felt like a horrible partner right now.

#Digimon Tamers #Fanfiction #archiveofourown #He swears a lot now #Or maybe he always did in his head #Tamer #Digimon

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