Summary: While returning home, Ken encounters a ghost from his past. Initially he believes it to be nothing more than his imagination. But then Ken encounters a young woman who claims to know the person he thought he saw. Soon Ken and his fellow Digidestined end up working with this girl to find out the truth behind what really happened to the legendary Digimon Tamer who had been thought to have been dead for many years.
Setting: Takes place about one week after the events of Book 1: Lust.
Author's Note: So now we come to the second book in my epic multi-part sequel to Digimon: Home by the Sea. There are a few "guest stars" in this story, and by now you've probably figured out who they all are (heck, one of them is listed in the description).
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.
BOOK II-DARK TAMER
Prologue
Ken Ichijouji exited the bus and began walking back to the apartment building where he lived with his girlfriend, Yolei Inoue. It had been a long shift at his part-time job. One of Ken's fellow employees had called in to work sick, so he had to work twice as hard. As he walked, Ken glanced across the street and saw a young man, who was perhaps a little older than he was, standing on the other side looking at him. The young man in question had short brown hair and eyes, and was wearing a grey shirt, dark-blue jacket, and black jeans. Ken instantly thought he knew whom the stranger was.
"Ryo?" Ken called out to the young man.
Suddenly a large truck passed in between the two, and when Ken looked again the young man was gone. Naturally he looked around for a moment to try and figure out where the young man had gone, but very soon gave up and continued on home. Of course Ken could not forget about what he saw. Yet the more rational part of his mind kept telling him that had imagined what he had just seen. It was a very unlikely possibility that the person Ken had just seen was still alive.
When Ken entered the apartment he found the green caterpillar-like creature that was his Digimon Wormmon and the large brown bird with white head that was Yolei's Digimon Hawkmon, sitting on the couch watching T.V. A moment later Yolei had emerged from the kitchen and saw the troubled expression on Ken's face.
"What's wrong Ken?" Yolei asked with a tone of concern. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"I think I just might have." Ken replied as he sat down on the couch next to Wormmon.
"What do you mean?" Yolei asked as she sat down next to Ken.
"…Years ago when I was little my family and I lived near a boy named Ryo Akiyama." Ken began after a long pause. "Ryo was a little older than I was. The first time we met we both saw Matt and Tai fight the Diaboromon army on the Internet. I guess that's when we became Digidestined, or at least when I did. Not too long after that I received a Digivice, but you already know that part of the story.
"What I didn't tell you about was what happened when I first went to the Digital World. When I first got there, I was in a forest. That's where I first met Wormmon. Not long after that I found out that Ryo was there too. We went on a journey together to battle a really evil Digimon called Millenniummon. I actually don't really remember much about the final battle. All I remember really was waking up to find Ryo and Wormmon tending to me."
"That's because the battle with Millenniummmon was when you were infected by the Dark Spore." Wormmon explained. "It came from Millenniummon when he exploded."
"…So, what happened to Ryo?" Yolei asked after another pause.
"A few days after I had gotten back to the human world Ryo dropped by to see how I was doing." Ken replied. "While he was there he asked to use my computer. The moment he turned it on he found some kind of quiz on there. It was for finding participants for something called the D-1 Tournament. Ryo was curious, so he took the quiz. As he took it, he told me that he thought the quiz was rigged, like it was made for him to answer. Ryo asked me if I knew anything about the quiz, but I told him I had no clue.
"When Ryo answered the last question he was suddenly sucked into the computer. I don't quite remember what happened after that. I was kinda out of it because I was still pretty sick from the Dark Spore. I remember speaking to Ryo over the computer a few times, but I don't know what about. The only thing I do remember for sure is that Ryo never came back from the Digital World. Not long after that my brother Sam died in that accident and… well… you know the rest of the story."
At that point Yolei gave Ken a hug. She already knew about most of Ken's tragic past, but she had no idea that he had lost such a good friend around the same time he had lost his brother.
"…So, why are you telling me about all this now?" Yolei asked after a moment.
"…Because on my way home I thought I saw Ryo standing across the street from me." Ken finally answered. "It looked like he was there one moment and then he was gone. I thought I was losing my mind there for a moment. For years now I've been sure that Ryo was dead for some reason, but now I just don't know."
"Whatever is going on, we'll figure it out." Yolei said reassuringly as she took Ken's hand. "We're meeting Izzy tomorrow. Maybe he could figure out what it is that you saw."
"Maybe…" Ken said sounding very unsure. "If Ryo really is alive though… than where has he been all these years? That's something I'd really like to know."
Author's Note: So by now you've probably all figured out that this second book is a small crossover with Tamers. I was originally going to write this as a separate story from the Demon Crisis stories, but when I was in the planing stages I decided to put it into the series. It actually wasn't until years after Tamers had ended when I learned that Ryo was originally from Adventure/Adventure 02. And when I did I thought to myself, "Man! This would've made an excellent element for a crossover. I don't know why none of the writers ever used this." So of course that's what I'm doing now.
As you might have also guessed, this story is heavily influenced by the events of the video games that Ryo originally stared in. Of course when I read about the games on the Digimon Wiki, it didn't look like they quite meshed with the events of the anime. So I'm making a few changes here and there to smooth things out.
Review and let me know what you think.
