A/N: Welcome to Daisuke's side of things. If you haven't read Prologue: The Exchange (posted as a seperate story on my page) then you probably should, because some stuff here may not make sense. But if you want to have a sense of adventure by not reading the Prologue and doing some guesswork for this story, feel free.
Hope you enjoy.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Digimon. I own this fic.
CHAPTER 1: FIRST CONTACT
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Will someone please turn off that annoying sound?
Daisuke opened his eyes slowly and light flooded his vision. His eyelids dropped again, trying to shield out the glare as his pupils slowly adjusted to the sudden brightness. Once his sight cleared, Daisuke found himself looking at a white room. There was a vacant bed at the other side of the room and the place smelled like antiseptic spray. The window next to him was open, and the curtains lifted and fell slightly as an occasional breeze entered the room. Then he realized what the sound was and where it came from.
I am in a hospital.
Daisuke tried to sit up but winced because his back was sore. His limbs felt heavier than he remembered. The boy looked down at his body and saw white bandages wrapped around his torso. He had an intravenous tube connected to his wrist as well as several wires to the cardiac monitor next to his bed.
"Good morning, Davis." A young doctor walked into the ward with a clipboard in hand. He had dark blue hair and he wore square glasses, a white doctor's coat and a stethoscope hung around his neck. A nametag was clipped above his left chest pocket and it read "JOE KIDO".
Daisuke frowned and replied slowly, "Are you talking to me? Because my name is Daisuke, not Davis."
Dr. Kido raised an eyebrow and consulted his clipboard, "Really? You are registered as Davis Kamiya. Did your accident cause you to forget your real name?"
Daisuke opened his mouth to protest but he caught the word accident. He tried to recall what had happened but his brain answered with a stab of pain and then… Nothing. He couldn't remember. "What happened to me?"
Dr. Kido walked closer to Daisuke's bed and peered at him over his glasses. "I was hoping you could tell me, but apparently you suffer from amnesia. Two days ago, a man who looked like your older brother, I mean he looked exactly like an older version of you, appeared with you unconscious in his arms and asked us to attend to your injured back. Then he left and never came back."
Flipping the top page to look at the note underneath, Dr. Kido continued, "You had three large slash marks across your back, starting from the right shoulder down to your left hip. It's a miracle you survived and you weren't even bleeding much from the wounds." He replaced the top page and studied Daisuke's face. "We categorized this under freak accident, because we have no idea what caused it.
Daisuke had a bewildered expression on his face. He opened and closed his mouth, making a very accurate impression of a goldfish. This is madness, he thought. Freak accident? Older version of me? I don't even have a brother. "My name is Motomiya Daisuke and I don't have a brother, only a sister called Motomiya Jun."
Dr. Kido pondered for a moment before asking, "Are you saying that Motomiya Is your surname?"
"Duh, obviously. Surnames come first."
Kido scratched his chin and muttered, "Old style naming, huh? Interesting…" Finally, he said, "I'll look into it. Maybe you're related to Kari Motomiya, who does have a sister called Jun. Meanwhile, I'll go check on my other patients before coming back to you. Rest well for the time being." He walked out of the ward, leaving Daisuke dumbfounded and even more confused.
Daisuke lay on his bed and sighed. His mind was sluggish but he knew something was off. For one, he definitely didn't have a sister named Kari, and secondly Kari sounded a lot like his affectionate nickname for his crush, Hikari. He blushed when he imagined Hikari rushing into the ward and holding his hand, asking tearfully how he was feeling and expressing deep concern for him.
"Why are you grinning like a lovesick puppy?" A familiar female voice asked.
That jerked Daisuke out of his thoughts as he turned towards the source of the voice. Standing at the door with a raised brow was Yagami Hikari. He grinned even wider.
More footsteps were heard from the outside. Huffing as he brought forward a gigantic bouquet of assorted flowers, a new blonde boy answered, "Maybe he hit his head really, really hard." He placed the bouquet on the cabinet next to the bed and wiped his brow.
Daisuke's initial excitement at seeing his friend disappeared, replaced with confusion. "Who are you?"
The blond boy's jaw dropped, then he turned towards Kari while jabbing a thumb at Daisuke. "He really hit his head hard."
Kari walked closer and rolled her eyes. "Don't be silly, Ishida. He's not even wearing a bandage around his head."
"Yeah but—"
Kari glared at him and he closed his mouth. She turned her attention to Daisuke. "How are you feeling? Do you really not remember who TK is?"
Squinting at the blond, Daisuke shook his head. "TK Ishida… Never heard of him." But he grinned at Kari. "So nice of you to drop by."
Kari pulled back and frowned at Daisuke. He was not acting like himself. First of all, he hadn't thanked them for the flowers and secondly, he was grinning like a madman. Maybe TK was right and he had injured his head.
"We heard that you were absent due to an injury so we came after school."
TK sniffed and added, "And we bought you some get well flowers. Too bad you don't even remember who I am. That means you won't remember that you owe me 300 yen."
Kari slapped his shoulder playfully. "You're the one who owes him 300 yen, not the other way around." TK pouted and she laughed.
Meanwhile Daisuke was getting anxious and jealous that Kari was being so friendly with TK. He tried sitting up quickly but winced. Kari noticed and helped him up, so he calmed down a little. "Why the hell are you called TK? Is that even a name?"
TK rolled his eyes and answered, "My real name's Takeru. It was stupid nickname that Matt came up for me. It's short for The Kid."
Daisuke snorted, "I should probably call you TI, meaning THE IDIOT." He expected TK to get insulted, but he was surprised. The blonde boy pointed at him while facing Kari. "You see? Even he gets it!" He shook his fist at the ceiling and hollered, "Thank you, Matt for being such a nice brother!"
Daisuke stared at him with a dumbfound expression. He turned to Kari for an explanation but she shook her head amusedly, as if this was normal behavior for him.
"Please refrain from making noise in the hospital." Dr. Kido walked into the ward again. Kari's face lit up and she greeted him, "Hello Dr. Joe."
He spotted Kari and said, "Ah, Hello Kari." Remembering their previous conversation, Daisuke's already wide eyes bulged even further. The doctor addressed the girl, "Kari, Are you related to anybody named Daisuke Motomiya? He claims to have a sister named Jun."
Kari knitted her brow as she tried to recall her family members. "No, I don't have any direct cousins. June and I are the only Motomiyas I know."
Joe nodded, satisfied with the answer. "Alright, Davis. Does that—"
THUMP!
"-answer your question?"
The three people in the room looked down on the twisted up face of the unconscious Daisuke. The boy had fainted and his eyes were rolled up. His tongue stuck out animatedly.
Kari realized why the doctor asked her the question. "Oh no, did he think he was…"
"Daisuke Motomiya? Yes, he did." Kido completed grimly.
A silence filled the room, before—
"I told you he hit his head."
After he woke up half an hour later, Daisuke was discharged. He traded his patient's robe for a set of casual clothes, which Kari helped get from his place. Or Davis' place, whatever. Whoever this Davis Kamiya was, he shared Daisuke's taste in clothes.
At first, his mind went back to the reason he fainted in the first place and he was tempted to curl up into a ball and lie there. Even though he was pretty sure Hikari wasn't related to him, his intentions of dating her had abated because that would be incest and really, really gross. Also, he didn't understand why everyone knew him as Davis Kamiya. As far as he remembered, he had never changed his name before.
Then again, my memories are quite fuzzy. Who knows what had happened over the past few weeks?
Another funny thing was, Kamiya was an anagram for Yagami and that meant that even if Daisuke was really a Kamiya, he would still be related to Yagami Hikari. And therefore, still dating a relative.
Double gross!
The whole idea didn't make sense but Daisuke decided that he would not think of this again if he didn't have to. Finding out that your once-crush is now inexplicably related to you can work wonders to your sanity.
He, Kari and TK walked out of the hospital wing of the Odaiba Academia. At the main entrance, he stared at the building. He asked his friends about the new place but they looked at him funny and answered that the hospital wing was built many years ago. When they offered to walk him home, he declined and said that he wanted to walk around. To breathe in some fresh air, he told them. His main purpose, however, was to see how much had changed while he was unconscious.
They walked the streets of Odaiba, relaxing and enjoying the sights. The city was buzzing with life. Men and women alike walked hurriedly, wanting to get to their destination in the shortest time possible. Occasionally the trio would stop in front of a store and peer into the glass pane where all sorts of goods were on display. Finally, they stopped by Ichigo's Ramen for lunch.
Kari and TK each ordered a regular ramen, while Daisuke had an extra-large serving. His friends gaped at him, for in their memory he had never ordered so much. He surprised them even further by ordering seconds.
At least the Ramen tastes the same.
He asked Kari about the Academia, and she explained that every school in Odaiba including Odaiba Elementary was demolished years ago so that a single central learning institution could be build. They spent most of the day walking around and Daisuke was satisfied that other than the Academia, everything else remained the same. He still couldn't believe that all of this happened in two days.
Am I in a dream? Or have I awakened to the real world like in that Matrix movie and everything I once knew was just a lie?
He sincerely hoped that it was the former.
The sun had just risen, shining its rays of dawn across the land. A new day had just begun in the Digital World.
A cloaked human stood on top of a small hill, overlooking a tiny village at the foot of the mountain. The cottages had a dirty, worn look, having survived years of wear and tear. A pink blob with large red eyes bounced out of his house. The place was called Koromon Village, named after its inhabitants.
"What are you doing up so early, Tai?" Agumon asked as he walked out of the cave behind the waterfall, rubbing sleep from his eyes and giving an enormous yawn. He never understood why he got up so early. It didn't make sense to him why they couldn't sleep in, at least until noon.
The teenager's name was Taichi Kamiya, but he usually went by Tai. Shrugging, he replied, "I'm used to it. I had to get up early for school. Besides, I'm not the only one who thinks that waking up early is not a bad thing." He looked back towards the village where more and more Koromon had appeared.
"It's so nice, isn't it? If only there wasn't a war going on to disrupt the serenity."
Tai nodded in agreement. He regretted that he was powerless to stop Yggdrasil's army from advancing. Yggdrasil was once a deity of the Digital World, and it was said he was the god of all Digimon. No one had ever seen him, although there were rumors that he lived in a giant Tree of Life somewhere in the Digital World. The Sovereigns and Yggdrasil watched over the Digital World without truly meddling in affairs. They only mediated the battles and performed damage control. Everything had been peaceful, until Yggdrasil suddenly decided that he didn't just want to be a god who only watched over the Digital World. Instead, he wanted to conquer it. He felt that giving the Digimon too much freedom would result in chaos.
The god abducted and brainwashed a human to be his messenger and to do his bidding and made him the Digital World's first Digimon Emperor. They amassed an army of Digimon, many tempted by the promises of power and the ability to digivolve freely; others were forced to submit under threat of being deleted. Five generals were elected to serve under the Emperor, who was never seen away from the grounds of Tree of Life.
Yggdrasil's army began their conquest to "spread order and unity". At first many stood up to Yggdrasil, but they were utterly crushed.
The first to go was the Veemon colony. The blue dragons and their evolved relatives were of the strongest clans in the Digital World. The Veemon were versatile, and their Digivolution chains were unpredictable. They also had the ability to digivolve freely. However, the Veemon were peaceful and never picked a fight if they didn't have to.
The Veemon, along with many of their Dramon (Dragon Digimon) relatives vocally disapproved of the digital god's dictatorship and military oppression. So, Yggdrasil stirred the discontent and envy of the other Digimon towards the Dramon's superior fighting abilities. He preached equality among the Digimon, claiming that no clan should have the ability to digivolve freely if others could not do so.
Most of the Digimon did not realize that their emotions were being manipulated by Yggdrasil and joined together to launch an attack on the Veemon colony. Various Dramon habitats were destroyed too, and the dragons surrendered. But not the Veemon; they would not give up no matter what. They could hold their own because of their Digivolving abilities and omnipotent digivolved forms.
At least, that was how things were before a black obelisk appeared on the mountain were the main Dramon city and Veemon home was. Suddenly, the Veemon had lost their ability to digivolve and could not fight back. The Emperor had finally found a way to suppress Digivolution.
In a few days the whole city was annihilated and no survivors were found. Veemon everywhere were deleted mercilessly and the remainder vanished completely, going into hiding. The leader of the Veemon, an Aeroveedramon named Razor was personally deleted by the Emperor. His Majesty decided that it was a perfect opportunity to show the Digital World what will happen to those who defy Yggdrasil.
Tai bit his lip. He was brought to the Digital World for none other mission than stopping Yggdrasil and the Emperor. He could somehow take the Emperor, but there was no way that he could defeat Yggdrasil. IF the entity was really a god as the rumors said, then he might just as well surrender. Come on, how could a 14 year old teenager come up with a way to defeat the almighty god of the Digital World? It was insane.
He had been in Digital World for almost three digital weeks, although the time difference made it a week in the real world. During this time, he had not accomplished much. His companion took him to visit various villages, towns and cities, all of which did not agree with Yggdrasil's gain in power. They tried to spark a rebellion but it was harder than he thought. Razor's example had left the rest fearful and reluctant to ever rise up against the regime again. When the Emperor caught find of his actions, he was branded an outlaw and hunted down. In the end, Tai and Agumon went into hiding and they ended up in a cave behind the waterfall near Koromon village.
Damn you, Gennai. What were you thinking, sending me alone and expecting Agumon and I to accomplish something suicidal, Tai cursed inwardly. He was approached by a cloaked man after soccer practice one digital month and a half ago—in the real world, three weeks ago before going to the Digital World —who proposed that he had to save the Digital World where time travelled three times faster. With his face was hidden by his hood, the man had called himself Gennai and gave Tai a digivice. Like any logical person, Tai didn't accept some strange thing offered to him by a stranger.
Tai ran home, as fast as he could to get away from the man. Back home, Tai found the digivice in his bag and wondered how it had gotten there. There was also a folded note attached, telling him to point the digivice at his computer screen.
Curiosity got the better of him, but heaven knows why he had to point it when his little brother Davis was next to him at the time. Well, he thought that it would be harmless if the computer wasn't on. However, the computer, which had been off at the time, suddenly turned itself on. The last thing he had heard was Davis calling after him.
"I am going to be in so much trouble when I get home…" Tai muttered. How was Davis going to explain that Tai had vanished into a computer? His parents would probably go out of their minds with worry. Then again, they were rarely ever around so they wouldn't. Davis would, though.
Poor Davis… I wonder, how is he coping?
Tai had arrived in the middle of a busy town that resembled one from the Edo period, except the place was crawling with various creatures that he had never seen before. They all stared open-mouthed at the apparition and Tai scrambled for cover, as shocked as they were. Later, he met Agumon who had pounced on him and called him his partner. Things were awkward at first, but Agumon explained that Tai and a few others had once been there before.
Tai and the gang had to overcome many obstacles and defeat evil Digimon like Devimon and Myotismon. After they defeated the Dark Masters, the humans were forced to return and have their memories erased. It had been hard to say goodbye, but they still left with promises to meet again. Tai didn't believe a single word the talking orange dinosaur said, but a small part of him urged him to believe the story. Eventually his memories returned and they were truly reunited.
A faint squeal and groan came from inside the cave, ending Tai's thoughts. Tai and Agumon ran into the cave, where a bundle was wriggling.
"The egg has hatched!" Agumon exclaimed. He was referring to the egg they had found under the ruins of the Dramon City. Tai unwrapped the bundle of clean clothes he had gotten from friendly Digimon they had met along the way, revealing a small blue Digimon with large red eyes. Chicomon peered back at them curiously and introduced himself.
Tai's mouth twitched. They had an extra person to feed now, and he was looking at one of the last descendants of the Veemon lineage. Agumon introduced himself and Tai, who nodded absent-mindedly. He was thinking of what to do with the baby Digimon, when he got an idea.
He spoke to his partner who disagreed with him. But after some persuasion and seeing Chibomon devour half of their food supply for the next three days in minutes, Agumon gave in. The next day, Tai and Agumon woke up to an in-training level Digimon bouncing off the walls of the cave they were in. The amount of food consumed had given Chibomon enough energy to digivolve into DemiVeemon, further cementing Tai's decision to hide the little dragon in the real world. Once he digivolved into a Veemon, they would have trouble coming their way.
Yesterday, he had recalled Gennai telling him long ago in his first adventure that only certain people can see Digimon for what they are. The rest would probably see some sort of animal. The problem was sending him to the real world. During his journey, Agumon had once half-disappeared when they passed through a place. According to the Digimon nearby, the black towers (known as Control Spires) were weakening the barriers around the Digital World. A number of Digimon had gotten themselves trapped randomly in the human world after accidentally going through a rift in time and space. Such incidents were becoming more frequent, but only young or weak Digimon were drawn to the other side, as they didn't have enough energy to remain anchored to the Digital World.
That was the basis of Tai's plan. He told DemiVeemon about it, and to his surprise the little Digimon agreed without hesitating. When asked why, he said, "I don't want to be a burden to anyone. And I also want to explore the other side. I hope they have nice food." Tai and Agumon guffawed at the explanation.
"They do, I guarantee that," Tai winked.
Poking Tai's elbow, Agumon hopefully asked his human companion, "Tai, can we go there and eat something once this whole thing conflict is settled?"
Tai rubbed the dinosaur's head affectionately. "Of course."
Daisuke spent the rest of his day catching up with Kari and TK.
Of course, he had gotten over his initial shock of the facts being twisted inside out and his memories (or what remained of them) screamed with utmost certainty that whatever his friends said was not true. But he gave up trying to convince everyone else he was Daisuke and not Davis anyway.
Now the boy approached the subject warily, trying to learn as much as possible. He wanted very much to believe that the whole ordeal was a practical joke, but it was impossible that the world had transformed just to make the joke seem realistic.
For example, there were buildings that were not there a few days ago, but everybody appeared perfectly normal with it. Upon closer inspection, one could see that the buildings were constructed many years ago. So the practical joke theory went out of the window.
Being someone who had spent most of his time reading comic books and watching sci-fi cartoons, Daisuke came up with another idea. He hypothesized that the world history had been changed therefore everybody was acting normal. But if that was so, why was he the only one who wasn't affected by this change? Maybe because he was the one who made the change?
That doesn't make sense, because I'd have remembered the changes, mused Daisuke.
Lastly, maybe he was abducted by aliens and put into a simulation world in order for the extra-terrestrial beings to examine his mind.
"… I really have to stop reading this kind of stuff," Daisuke decided.
So after a long day, Daisuke went back to his apartment (with help from Kari and TK, who were worried about Daisuke's condition) and wasn't surprised to find himself in front of the Yagami– no, it's Kamiya– residence. He found an extra set of keys under the flower pot, just like Kari told him. According to her, he told this secret to her long ago, when he was locked in once and wanted to get out of the house. He had called her over and sheepishly told her his family's secret location of the extra keys.
Daisuke envied this Davis for having such a good relationship with this Kari. Last time, he tried to get close to his crush by sticking around her all the time. He wasn't sure if it worked, because Hikari-chan didn't really seem to pay attention at times. Davis, however, had a perfect friendship with Kari. Kari was exactly like Hikari-chan—caring, friendly and humorous. However, she displayed a stronger personality, probably a side-effect of being a Motomiya.
Daisuke hoped he wouldn't ruin this friendship by impersonating Davis, although he might have already started doing so by acting weird in her eyes. Who could blame him? He was just being himself. Daisuke couldn't help it if Davis Kamiya had a personality that was the total opposite of his own, and he had no intention of acting like somebody he was not.
Inside the house, Daisuke surveyed the apartment. Having been to Taichi-senpai's house a few times, he recognized most of the furniture and their arrangements. The difference was, Taichi-senpai's old box TV was now a 50' inch flat screen and there was a PS2 system connected below. Daisuke's old PSX system was nowhere in sight, but he recognized some of his stuff arranged neatly on the coffee table. He checked his room, and his bed turned out to be a double-decker like Taichi and Hikari's. Again, Daisuke's books and belongings were arranged and stored neatly.
Huh, weird. Davis has most of my stuff yet he's a neat freak.
He exited the room and opened the balcony's sliding door to allow some ventilation. The cool night air flowed into the apartment, replacing the stale, stuffy air in the living room.
He checked the phone recorder and phone and found that there was a new voice message left on the machine. It was from Yuuko Kamiya.
"Davis, if you are hearing this that means you're awake and home. Kari called us and we were worried sick. I'm sorry that we couldn't be there with you, but your dad had a lot of work to do so please understand. Make some food for dinner from what's left in the fridge. We will be back tomorrow. You know where to get money for food if the fridge is empty. Give us a call if Tai is home. Take care!"
The recorded message ended with a blip.
Daisuke sighed. Of course he didn't know where the money was and he would have to ransack the house for it. Taichi-senpai's dad was a businessman and his mom was supposed to be a housewife back then. But now, she is following her husband out on business trips. Daisuke was surprised that she had dared to leave Tai (who he assumed is Taichi) and his brother Davis alone at home for days. No wonder Tai went missing.
He had heard from Kari about how Tai had disappeared into a computer screen last week and had never been seen or heard from since. TK had told his brother, Matt Ishida about the incident since Tai was Matt's best friend. Nobody could explain what happened, although the older Ishida had seemed more thoughtful than usual, according to TK.
Putting everything out of his mind, Daisuke stepped into the shower. He didn't notice a pixelating hole appear in his living room and a little blue creature fall out of it. Shaking its head and groaning, it looked around with huge, curious red eyes, fascinated by the unfamiliar objects in the place. There were big wooden things and the floor was cold and hard but smooth. Demiveemon's mouth hung open as he stared up at the big, spinning thing hanging from the ceiling. There was a black, flat surface on one of the giant things and he walked towards it and saw his reflection.
I look so cute, he thought.
Instinct took over as Demiveemon followed his nose towards a cookie jar placed on the counter. He tried to lift the cover, but it was too much for the tiny stubs he had instead of hands. After a few failed attempts he kicked the jar in frustration. That caused the jar to lose balance and tumble onto the floor, where the glass shattered with a loud crash. With a yelp, he hid himself from view as a shadow appeared in the hallway.
There was a human that looked like Tai. Before he was sent through the portal, Tai had warned him not to simply come in contact with other humans. He observed quietly, careful not to be seen.
The crash had brought Daisuke into the living room, water dripping from his hair and he had a towel around his waist. The boy located the source of the commotion and scratched his head.
The jar should have been on the counter in the dining room. How did it drop onto the floor?
Now, 8 round cookies lay on the floor among the shards of glass.
Scratching his head in confusion, Daisuke shrugged and hurried off to finish his shower. Demiveemon came out from his hiding spot and blinked. There was something about that boy that he felt. It wasn't something he could put his finger—or stub, in his case—on, but he sensed that no danger would come.
Demiveemon turned his eyes towards the mess he had created. Uh oh, I made the place dirty, he thought. Putting that thought out of his mind, he leapt off the counter and landed on a shard-free spot. He swept the glass pieces away and plopped down, grabbed one of the round pieces close by and took a bite.
He changed into comfortable clothes he found in his supposed room and went to clean up the mess. He stopped in his tracks when he noticed that only half of the cookies on the floor remained and there sat a small blue bunny-like creature munching happily on a cookie. Crumbs smeared all over its face as it chewed with a rapid crunch, crunch, and crunch.
Daisuke's gasp got its attention and the blue bunny looked up from its snack.
Demiveemon panicked for a moment but he chewed a few more times and swallowed. Since he had already been spotted, he might as well try to make friends.
He raised his tiny right hand and waved. "Hello! This is really tasty. What is it called?"
Daisuke paled, then his facial muscles twitched. Gulping, he tried to calm himself. "It's called a cookie…"
Then he lost control. "…BUT WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!"
A/N: I've begun to revisit some of my older chapters to give them some touch up. This is the first one to receive treatment. Most of the chapter remains the same though.
Hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review to tell me what you think!