Respect or Regret?
By: Aubrie1234
Dear Readers, another Digimon story! What can I say, the main character is Ryouma! What I don't get is why my favorite characters are Matt (seasons 1 and 2), Takuya (season 4), Thomas (season 5), Christopher (season 6), and Ryouma (season 7 [not sure if it's apart of season 6 or if it's just its own season]). Anyway, I made up a digimon just for this story, who I dub ShamanWereGarurumon, and Ryouma's little sister, Ava. And one more thing! Matsuri Kazehana, I would like to tell you that my beginning for this story is sort-of based on your story, Digimon Xros Wars: Toki wo Kakeru SHOJO Hunter-tachi!.
"This way, guys!"
"We're coming, we're coming!"
Tagiru, Mikey, and Yuu were with their digimon and were chasing after a wild one. Tagiru and Arresterdramon almost got lost, until Yuu showed them the right direction. Overhead, standing atop one of the many crumbling buildings of DigiQuartz, were Ryouma, Red, and Airu. They were also after the digimon, but were waiting until they cornered it before they could help. It was a bit of a strategy they devised after the Quartzmon Incident, as they liked to call it.
"Who do you think is going to get to it first?"
"My bet is on Mikey, though Yuu has a considerable chance."
"I bet you five yen that Yuu gets to it first."
"You're on. Seven on Mikey."
"Why are you two betting?" Ryouma asked his two teammates with a raised eyebrow.
"We're betting on who will get to the digimon first. I think it'll be Yuu." Airu said.
"Mikey's still got it in his sights, so I think he'll get there first." Ren said.
"I'll honestly say, I never thought you two would ever bet, let alone on which Hunter can get to a digimon first." Ryouma shook his head, "But, we might as well get down there and help them out now, since the digimon has stopped running. And P.S., Tagiru managed to get to the digimon first." That last comment made both of them sigh.
"Should have known it'd be Tagiru."
"Him, the underdog. Ugh..."
Anyway, Mikey's group managed to catch up to the digimon, who was actually waiting for them in the abandoned street.
"Why are you chasing me?" it asked. It was completely covered by a brown cloak except its hand (which had four fingers [including a thumb] and whitish-blue and dark blue striped fur), which was holding onto a staff with a round, gold jewel at the end. Its eyes were the only other thing they could see of it, since they were glowing yellowish-orange.
"We're Hunters. We hunt digimon who come to DigiQuartz and cause trouble." Mikey said.
"I haven't caused any trouble, so why are you chasing me?" That made the two seniors think, while Tagiru was getting a bit impatient. As they thought, the digimon smirked under its cloak. It then jumped at them, swinging its staff.
"Battering Staff!" it said. The Hunters quickly moved out of the way, barely missing getting hit.
"He's not on our side." Arresterdramon said.
"We might as well hunt him, then." OmegaShoutmon said. Just then, the second group of Hunters were now catching up to them. Astamon prepared his guns.
"Hellfire!" he said, firing at the digimon. It easily dodged, but narrowed its eyes at him. He flinched slightly.
"Ryouma, I don't have a good feeling about this digimon. Maybe we shouldn't hunt it." he said. The boy acknowledged it, but he wasn't sure about it himself.
"Crescent Kick!" the digimon suddenly shouted, hurling a crescent-shaped wave of moonlight at them. They dodged, but the digimon used this to its advantage. It used its speed to get close to them and attacked them from different angles, knocking them all out. The only ones left standing were Astamon and Ryouma (who was on the digimon's shoulder). They were both amazed and scared. Astamon put his right hand on Ryouma, trying to make both him and himself feel safer.
"Is this the best the greatest hunters of DigiQuartz can do? Pathetic. But," the mysterious digimon said before turning his eyes onto the still-standing duo, "Are you treating your digimon with respect, human?"
"What?" Ryouma asked, surprised.
"I said, do you treat your digimon partner with respect?" it repeated.
"I-I don't really know. I've never been asked that question before..." Ryouma muttered, casting his eyes downward.
"Ryouma..." Astamon hissed, gently squeezing his hand. He wanted his partner to keep an eye on the digimon, not look away from it. Ryouma flinched, but quickly looked up and back at the digimon. If they could have seen it, the digimon raised an eyebrow at their behavior.
"Ryouma does treat me with respect. Why did you even ask that question?" Astamon asked, free hand trailing down to rest on his gun. He didn't want to take any chances with this digimon, since it managed to defeat five of their friends so quickly.
"I've seen what humans do to their digimon partners in the past and it seems to me those who have wolf or dog-like digimon treat them with the least respect, like they were only pets or tools. It has become my job to teach those certain humans to respect their digimon." it explained before raising its staff out in front of it horizontally, "And it looks to me that your human partner needs a few lessons of his own." Before either of the duo could do anything, the digimon swept his staff sideways and then in an upwards arc towards the ground. Once the jewel hit the dirt, it shined a bright blue and a weird beam shot out of it and struck the two. They instantly felt major pain and cried out. It was unrelenting until they both collapsed from unconsciousness. Before Astamon blacked out he heard the digimon say one more thing:
"By the way, I'm ShamanWereGarurumon." it said, then he only saw total darkness.
When he woke up, he found the others (except Ryouma) had awoken and had taken them to an apartment building in DigiQuartz so they could recover. He also found out that he had dedigivolved back into Psychemon. But, his waking up wasn't so smooth.
"RYOUMA!" Psychemon yelled suddenly, shooting up on the couch the others had placed him on. They all jerked their heads in his direction worriedly.
"Calm down, Psychemon. Ryouma's okay." Shoutmon said to the digimon, whose eyes were wide and fearful.
"Are...are you sure, Shoutmon?"
"We're sure." Mikey answered. Psychemon sighed in relief.
"Thank goodness. I was having nightmares about what that digimon might have done to Ryouma."
"So you were knocked out before Ryouma was?" Opossumon asked.
"No, but we weren't knocked out when all of you were. Now that I think about it, I remember the digimon's name."
"Who was it, then? I have an awful feeling it was a digimon that I once knew, after I saw its attacks and how it moved." Gumdramon said, crossing his arms.
"It was ShamanWereGarurumon, I think." At that, all the color in Gumdramon's face drained away.
"Oh man... I can't believe it was him, of all the digimon we could have faced!" he ranted.
"What are you talking about, Gumdramon?" Tagiru asked. The little dragon sighed.
"I'll tell you guys, but please don't tell anyone else!" he begged. When the others nodded, though they gave him strange looks, he continued.
"ShamanWereGarurumon is a digimon who isn't like others. When I was still the Wild Child of the DigiWorld and Betsumon was still working with me, we got wind of a digimon who needed some help taking down some bad digimon guarding a warehouse. The thing was, the bad digimon were actually the police, and high-ranked officers, too. We didn't know that until we finished beating them up, though. After that, ShamanWereGarurumon showed up. Once I realized the digimon we had beaten up were apart of the police, I knew we had gotten mixed up with the wrong sort and I tried to stop him. He beat me so easily it was like he was going on a relaxing walk. Betsumon helped me get away, since ShamanWereGarurumon knocked me out, and later we found out that we were the ones held accountable for a robbery in that same warehouse."
"I heard about that. It was one of the best selling top stories in the DigiNewspapers. 'Wild Child and Wardrobe Wrangler Steal Locket of Caninemon', as the newspaper heading was." Dracmon added. Gumdramon nodded.
"Yeah, and after that, I wanted to look into who ShamanWereGarurumon was and what he stole. Turns out he was a assassin digimon and had a high rep as a crimelord. Not the best digimon you want to face, I'll tell you that. Anyway, the Locket of Caninemon is a small yellow orb with mysterious powers, as I found out."
"That small jewel on the end of his staff, do you think that was the Locket of Caninemon?" Ren asked.
"I sure do."
"The strange thing is, though, is how all of this went unnoticed by ME." Shoutmon said sternly, glaring at the little dragon, who shrunk away from his king's glare.
"Were there any recordings on the Locket's powers?" Psychemon asked.
"No, not at all. Why?"
"Well, this might come as a shock..." Psychemon then explained to them the exchange between him, Ryouma, and ShamanWereGarurumon up to the point where they were knocked out.
"Looks like ShamanWereGarurumon has learned how to use the Locket." Yuu said sadly.
"But that means we have to keep an eye on Ryouma and Psychemon, dame dame." Damemon said.
"How did we get ourselves caught up in this?" Airu groaned.
"I have no idea, but Damemon's right. Someone has to look after us. By the way, where is Ryouma?" Psychemon asked, worriedly looking around the room.
"In the bedroom next door." Tagiru instructed. The digimon was gone before he even finished.
"Should we go after him?"
"Leave him be. He'll want to be alone with Ryouma for a while before he'll want company." Shoutmon said before turning to Gumdramon, "Now, will you please explain how all of that criminal stuff went unnoticed by me?"
"Uh...um...well, you see..."
In the other room, where Tagiru had said Ryouma was, Psychemon had just gotten to his friend's side when the boy started to wake up.
"...Psy...Psychemon?" Ryouma asked quietly, slowly opening his eyes. He had a terrible headache and didn't think he should sit up anytime soon.
"I'm here, Ryo."
"Don't call me that." Ryouma snapped. Psychemon smiled. He knew that would get his tamer back onto normal terms. Except for one person besides him, no-one else was allowed to call Ryouma by that nickname. Only that person and Psychemon knew Ryouma's nickname, anyway.
"...You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Psychemon shrugged.
"What do you think?"
"...You did." Ryouma sighed, "Did you tell anyone else?"
"No, why would I?"
"You want me to answer that?"
"No. No thank you." Ryouma smirked. He knew just how to get under Psychemon's skin and irritate the digimon, even in the most dire of situations.
"Is everyone else worried, too?"
"You want me to answer that?"
"...I'll take that as a yes." Ryouma said. Ever since he had gotten Psychemon back, he and his digimon sometimes got into this type of verbal play, which had cheered both of them up when either was feeling down.
"When are you going to sit up, Ryouma?" At that, the boy's smirk faded away to be replaced by a frown.
"I don't know, Psychemon. Right now, I have a bad headache and I don't want to risk making it worse if I even sit up."
"This just makes me worry more." Psychemon said sadly. Ryouma turned his head to look at the digimon for the first time since he awoke. He was surprised at those words.
"Is something wrong, Psychemon?"
"Yes." The digimon then explained everything that he had discussed with the others earlier. Afterwords, Ryouma turned his head to look up at the ceiling a confused and troubled look on his face.
"Psychemon..." he said slowly, "Something's wrong with me."
"What do you mean, Ryouma?"
"What you just explained, I feel like it should make sense, but it doesn't. I remember that you flew me to the place where the digimon was supposed to be, but I can't remember anything after that." Ryouma then put a hand on his forehead, "Something's wrong with me, Psychemon, and I don't think amnesia is the only thing." Now, Psychemon was worried. Ryouma was right. If he didn't remember anything after arriving at the battle ground, then that meant ShamanWereGarurumon didn't want him to remember anything about him, even their first encounter. Psychemon slowly and gently grabbed his friend's hand, squeezing it gently. Ryouma looked at him it surprise, and he gave a small smile.
"We'll figure this out, Ryouma. We'll get your memory back and find out what's wrong, don't worry. The others have even promised to keep an eye out for us, so we'll have them looking after us if something happens."
"What if something happens that they can't fix or comfort? Like...like..." Ryouma couldn't say the words, put Psychemon knew what he meant. If something happened to those he cared about, there would be no chance of helping him then. He had already lost two people close to him and had almost lost his digimon; He probably would break if he lost anyone else. Psychemon looked up again and was amazed to see tears, even though they were small, at the corner of his friend's eyes.
"You know that nightmare, Psychemon? The one I have every once in a while? While I was out, I had it again." At this, Psychemon was astonished. His eyes were wide and full of fear for the boy.
"What?"
"It was worse this time." Ryouma continued, ignoring the digimon's comment, "Everyone was gone. I was the only one left." By this time, the tears were free and streaming down the young teen's face. Psychemon knew what he was talking about. Ever since a certain bad event happened in Ryouma's past, before he came along, every so often the white-haired boy would have a horrible nightmare. A reoccurring one, no less. But, as Ryouma described when they happened, they keep getting worse each time. He had it at least once a year, and each time it was worse than the last. Psychemon knew that this one must have been bad, since Ryouma wasn't crying immensely, like last time, which meant he was in a bit of shock from it. He put his other hand on top of Ryouma's hand (which he still held with his other hand) and rubbed it in circles.
"It's gone now, Ryouma. It's not going to come back." he tried to reassure his friend. He knew it would come back it at least a year's time, but the best he could do was to tell his partner it wasn't coming back. One time, he had said it wasn't going to come back until the next year, which had made Ryouma so worried he wasn't able to sleep until Psychemon told him it wasn't coming back. He made a note of never saying that sentence to Ryouma ever again as well. After a while, the tears had subsided and Ryouma was just staring at the ceiling blankly.
"...Ryouma?" Psychemon tried asking. His tamer wasn't usually this quiet, even for him.
"I'm fine, Psychemon." he said as he sat up, his headache now completely gone, "Let's go, okay?"
"If you say so..."
They then left the room, going back to the others. Ryouma had let go of Psychemon's hand as soon as he got off the bed. Psychemon knew he probably didn't want to show weakness in front of the others, but it still worried him. Even if it had been an hour after he had the dream, Ryouma would still have needed comforting. Psychemon knew it from experience. Gumdramon and Shoutmon were missing when they got there, though.
"You guys okay? It was quiet in there." Opossumon asked.
"We're okay. Psychemon was just helping me get awake."
"You sure? It shouldn't have taken as long as it did." Mikey said.
"We're sure. Where are Gumdramon and Shoutmon, anyway?" Psychemon asked, looking around. Ryouma did as well.
"Well," Tagiru said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, "Shoutmon dragged Gumdramon off for questioning, since he couldn't seem to tell the whole story in front of everyone."
"Speaking of stories, there's one we need to tell you." This got everyone's attention.
"What story, exactly?" Ren asked.
"You see, after Psychemon explained to me everything you had talked about, I found out that something was wrong with me. I can't seem to remember anything after we arrived at the place where he said we fought against ShamanWereGarurumon." Ryouma explained, "After we got there, I can't remember anything."
"That's not good." Yuu said.
"Of course it's not good. That isn't the only thing that's worrisome." Shoutmon said from another room, coming back in and dragging Gumdramon behind him by the tail, who looked as though he wished to die right then and there.
"What else is there for us to worry about now?" Dracmon asked. Shoutmon gave him a blank look.
"Please tell me you didn't just say that. Saying that instantly means you jinxed us, you know." he said, facepalming. Anyway, he continued.
"I learned a bit more about what's going on in the criminal circuit from Gumdramon, and it isn't good. ShamanWereGarurumon is an assassin and has a high rep as a crimelord, but those aren't the only things." He then held Gumdramon upside down by his tail, "Gumdramon also said that what Psychemon said before checks out, but that the digimon isn't just doing it for that reason. For one thing, he HATES humans; More than other digimon, too. It also seems that ShamanWereGarurumon has something big planned."
"Whatever it is, it's big alright." Gumdramon interrupted, "Before I left the DigiWorld and came to DigiQuartz, I managed to hear something about how ShamanWereGarurumon was coming here and that he was planning to use everything he stole in the past for a big plan of his. I also managed to overhear that it involves a certain digimon, who I don't know, and humans with wolf or dog digimon partners."
"Hideaki!" Tagiru suddenly said, eyes wide, "He's another Hunter who has a dog digimon!"
"Then we have to warn him!" Airu said as Shoutmon dropped Gumdramon, "He might be in danger right now!"
"Let's go!" Mikey said. As everyone cleared out of the room, he grabbed Ryouma's shoulder, effectively stopping him.
"Are you sure you're fine?" he asked.
"Wouldn't I have told you guys if something was wrong?" Ryouma shot back. Mikey smiled.
"You would. Now, let's catch up." he said, letting go of Ryouma's shoulder. They then both ran out of the room, following the others.
LONG...FIRST...CHAPTER! Ugh... What a long write... Anyway, review or PM! I want to know what you think!