Challenges:
The Prompts in Steps Challenge, 5.01 – gracious
The Diversity Writing Challenge, h59 - write a fic that focuses on one of the seven sins in some way
Valentines to White's Day Advent (2016), day 28 - roll a dice. That'll determine how many dice you're to roll after that. The second lot of dice determine how many chapters will be in your fic (eg. if your first roll is two, roll two die and the sum is how many chapters in your fic. If your first roll is five, roll five die after that, etc.), and review a fic with that many chapters. (2 - 2,2 = 4)
.
.
Who We Should Thank
Chapter 1
Ken and Osamu
.
He only wished there was someone he could feel clearly towards. But it was all mixed up. Taichi who he'd respected so much at first had betrayed him. Milleniummon who he'd hated so much had loved him. And the Ichijouji's…they were the least and the most complicated of them all because he really had no idea how much they'd known, how much they'd suspected, how much they'd been simply innocent victims of all that had occurred.
But no matter how much blame they carried, they were the only ones in the end, apart from him, who paid a hefty price.
.
He didn't know at first. He was in this new world and there was no way of knowing what had happened before. And there was only Cyberdramon, who ran rampart and who constantly needed attention, constantly needed to be tamed. He didn't know what it had cost those two boys to become involved with him.
But then he stumbled upon a television and learned it all.
At first, he was horrified. Horrified that Milleniummon's gibing had in fact roots in truth – and it was the truth. He saw the adventures he knew. He saw his adventures. And now he was seeing Ken's adventures – and what he'd cost the boy…and his brother.
.
He met Ken first. Which was unusual because most people tended to meet Osamu first, simply because he was a genius. But most people didn't get the benefit of the digital world. Or the weight.
In any case, the only reason he met Ken before Osamu was the digital world. The only reason he met them at all was the digital world too.
So he met Ken. This was after he met Tai and Agumon, and Milleniummon, and Gennai and Piximon too. Before Diabolomon stalked the internet though. Back when the gate had opened up in the real world and they'd watched, awestruck, as the children were sucked through it.
And he remembered a time four years ago where he'd seen a similar thing – and then caught arguing voices, one saying exactly the same thing.
'But there were monsters in the sky, Onii-chan!'
Of course, he knew what that boy's big brother was going to say. There's no such thing as monsters.
But he'd been to the digital world by then. He knew that was a lie.
And when the little boy fell behind, upset no-one believed him, he snuck up to him and whispered: 'There were monsters in the sky four years ago.'
The boy yelped in surprise. And Ryo grinned almost wolfishly at him. 'Hiya,' he said. 'I'm Akiyama Ryo.'
' Ich – Ken,' replied the boy.
'Just Ken?'
And then the rest of the family came along, and he worked out quickly why he hadn't wanted to say his surname. Poor kid wanted to see someone outside of the context of his big brother. His genius big brother – who also didn't believe the existence of digimon and the digital world. But this kid did. And he'd probably be a Chosen.
'I've got lots of stories,' he whispered to the boy, before they dragged him off. 'Come back tomorrow, and I'll tell you about them.'
He came back. And they became fast friends between those tales.
And the tales were oh so innocent back then.
.
Of course, Osamu wasn't too thrilled that a stranger was filling his little brother's head with stories of monsters. But he let it be. Said something about fairytales being alright for some kids. Hoping they'll be alright for Ken as well. But he disliked Ryo enough on that principle alone and Ryo never tried to fix that, because the fact that Osamu disliked him had to be a comfort to Ken who only otherwise saw people from Osamu's shadow.
Maybe that was all wrong, in the end.
Maybe Osamu had realised something else. Guessed at something else. Guessed that this talk of monsters was going to destroy him, destroy his little brother. Maybe he'd been sharp enough – he was a genius after all – to realise that associating with Akiyama Ryo meant getting caught up in a grand plan that was going to rip the boy out of this world.
And these two were the ones who wound up paying the price in the aftermath, too.
.
So, he never got along with Osamu. He became fast friends with Ken though. And then they got swept away into the digital world, and Ken found his partner digimon.
Ryo was happy. He really was. He was disappointed too because Ken got a partner and he still had temporary ones, this time a V-mon with some kid yet to meet him as his other half. This was before he learnt that Milleniummon was fated to be his partner. This was before he believed what he'd learnt. But he was happy Ken had another friend besides him. He felt for the kid, stuck in his brother's shadow but too kind to try and worm his way out.
He needs to get stronger, he thought.
Oh, how wrong he was.
.
Ken did get stronger. Made mistakes along the way. But never let go of that kind soul.
The Ken he was watching now was like someone else entirely. Dark. Cruel. Like…Milleniummon…except where was the love driving him?
He saw it, finally. The fixation on V-mon. On Agumon. The resemble to Osamu he didn't put together until the amnesia, until the dreams. And then he understood. His love for his brother had twisted, just like Milleniummon's for his partner. Under separation. Under the darkness.
And then there was the flash of something black and his panic, his terror – and he recognised its source.
.
Whatever Ken's seen had been – if indeed there'd been a sin at all – he didn't deserve that. He didn't deserve that bit of Milleniummon's twisted consciousness ripping apart his own fragile soul. And he didn't deserve to lose his brother: the thing that kickstarted its growth, made it all go wrong. Was that one of Milleniummon's backup plans? To have his seed grow and consume the other's mind and reform his soul? And then get him to create or orchestrate the vessels? He'd gotten as far as Kimeramon until V-mon had pulled the plug on that little project, and it was all his fault for not protecting that kind little boy until the last.
But the guilt had faded at some point. After the D1 tournament. After those shadows of the Kaiser he'd met in the future with Milleniummon. Because Ken was Chosen too. Chosen, not a Tamer. Had Ken betrayed him just like the others? Ken had certainly forgotten him like them – but, and he almost didn't want to remind himself of this – Ken had a good reason to forget. And he'd lost much more.
Whether Ken had a part in the blame or not, he didn't deserve to have his soul crushed like it had been.
And Osamu… Osamu, for all his feelings against Ryo and even against Ken, did not deserve to die before he could make sense of it all.
.
But the Ichijouji brothers were the ones he regretted leaving the most, in the end. Because they'd paid with blood for what he'd wrought…and was that okay? No, of course he wasn't. Had they taken the weight of the others' blame as well? Maybe.
He still blamed them though. It was why he'd chosen this: this stranger world and a second chance.
But the Ichijouji brothers… did he blame them? Sometimes… But seeing the weight they'd been crushed under, he felt sorry for them more.
It didn't matter, anyway. Ken and Osamu were in that faraway world. A world he could see through a TV screen but never again know.