DISCLAIMER: We don't own Digimon, we're fans and decided to write this, it's not for profit, just for fun and lulz. Though it is very dark. Also Hikari isn't ours, but a friend's, so credit to Psyshock for her, and to Bandai/Toei for Digimon.

Walking away from school, through the brisk air, feet crunching in the snow, Hikari Akarui couldn't quite get the hang of Canada. It was too cold here, and she'd do anything to be home. If she'd never left home, then maybe… she shook her head. No, can't think about them here. Show weakness. There'd be questions. Questions that she couldn't answer. And yet, why was she stopping? What was that yearning feeling in her chest? She turned, eyes almost devoid of light, and walked back, past the students; happy, laughing, talking in their alien accent and language. This feeling…

"Stop," a voice said. It was American. Screw them. "No, really, stop. You wouldn't want to end up like them, do you?"

"What…?" How the…? Scared. Scared. Get away.

"Don't be scared," the boy was ginger, tanned and smiling broadly. He was teasing her, and yet, Hikari felt like her limbs were being held down. "Just walk away. This isn't the place for pretty little girls like you. So scram, get outta here, or else I might have to… Never mind. Please just leave."

"How did you…?" Hikari felt her eyes stinging.

"Sorry," he sighed. "I can't, I really can't. This isn't a joke… But I'll see you. You've got that scent about you." His choice of words confused Hikari, not less so than the feathers adorning his fiery hair, which fell down in dead-straight tumbles right to his mid-back. And then he walked behind the school. But Hikari didn't follow. She ran, feet thumping on the ground. She wasn't stupid… she didn't even want to know.

Episode One: Forget Everything You Know

Tap. Tap. Tap. David's fingers pounded the desk thoughtfully. He was tired, so tired that he couldn't lock onto what his tutor was saying. The Apple Mac sitting in front of him was saying there was some kind of error, flashing irritatingly, forever reminding him of its presence. Flash, flash, flash…

"Ah, screw it," he muttered, his voice under the hum of the many computers sitting around the room. "I can't pay attention anyway…" he found his fingers typing furiously onto the keyboard, discovering the site and opening it up. He sighed in relaxation; Hunting was barbaric and awful, but he was far from unused to it by now. The site was displaying a notice; there was a new hunter that had recently been contracted. David thought about The Contractor and hummed tunelessly, trying to conjure his image back up. He stayed a blur of black, large and intimidating. "Hikari Akarui?" he tried the name out. Japanese. He gasped sharply, thinking of the fierce hunter of the east, Kaoru Arakawa.

Might as well check what he's doing… David liked to check up on Kaoru; it was too much weight on his fragile mind not to. He was such a bastard.

Kaoru Arakawa

Discovered a new hunter in my area. Tsukaimon's injuries have healed. Destroyed some crates to get bullets. Full revolver. Will stop hunter.

DigiMemory Count: 27

"Twenty-Seven?" David exclaimed. Everyone turned around to look at him, craning their necks. Julie, the tutor was sighing, most unimpressed.

"Yes, David, of course there were twenty-seven camera developments. Because that makes so much sense," Julie sighed. "Please, I don't care what you're doing, but stop." David's mind flared softly, and an uncoordinated flame started burning in his chest. He was starting to sense a field.

"J-Julie…" he was trying to act sick, but it was no lie that the way he was alerted to Digital Fields was sickening, and even ten years wouldn't be enough to get over it.

"You've gone pale," Julie sighed. "I wasn't that angry with you…"

"No, I feel…" the flame turned into a fire- a full-blown field- "Really sick!" David dashed from his seat and Julie could only gape as he dashed past.

"G-Go to reception!" she yelled after him, awed by his escape, but he had looked sick… She wasn't about to go chasing him.

x x x

David felt the flames increase, a fierce heartburn that wouldn't stop, trying to tear him down as he ran towards the field. He lifted his phone, biting his lip as he ran (idiotically, not looking as he did so). The field was located near the local hospital; Good Hope.

Zhane! He thought, before tripping over his feet in his haste to get to the hospital before it was too late.

x x x

"Kumamon," a voice echoed numbly through the corridors as David ran through them. The hospital's walls had been eaten in ivy; some rooms had sprouted leaks, leaving rivers breaking the small-tiled ground. In each room there was a small voodoo doll; pin-less and not decorated in any way; sometimes there were multiple, laying in groups on the floor. David shuddered, knowing that these dolls were once people; people that would never check out.

Thundering through to the next corridor, David gasped, not checking his feet and catching them on a particularly large root that the ground had sprouted. He flew forwards, face-planting into the hard, shiny hospital floor.

"Zhane…?" he whispered. He wasn't dead. That was wonderful, yes, but he was kneeling beside a digimon, looking malicious. Was this better than him dying…? Yes. Yes. Because David would show him the ropes.

"David? It's you! I can't believe it!" Zhane grinned, dashing over. "You're a hunter?" His legs were working.

"Your legs…" Zhane, a hardened motorcycle rider, had recently had a horrifically nasty crash; a lorry had spiralled out of control and Zhane's cycle had hit it, catapulting him atop the lorry's bonnet and then down to the unforgiving concrete. His condition hadn't stabilised and it was presumed he'd die within the day. But here they were, two days later, and Zhane was very much alive. Not a scratch on his pale face.

"Yeah, The Contractor fixed them! It's so great…" Zhane's eyes were bright, filled with life… No, his contracting was a good thing. It had to be…

"Do you know how Contracting works?" David swung himself up, not having noticed (or being too busy to notice) the small, flaming lion a few paces behind him, grimacing murderously at Zhane and the small bear cub, which had followed Zhane curiously, giving evil glances at the lion, Coronamon.

"Not quite… But you do, right?"

"Yeah," David nodded. "Alright, here it is; Hunters, also known as a Penultima Kilo- what you and I are- are people with enough will to survive death upon the creation of a Digital Field. These are created because the Digimon, which don't exist in the Real World, only in an unreal plane of data (which you can't touch, see?), need to "eat" human's brain waves, consequently killing them, which generally happens upon the creation of one of these, as I mentioned earlier. If you do this, a man known only as The Contractor will come and… Well… He'll ask you to contract with him. What exactly this entails, no-one is completely sure, but it only happens once: if you decline the contract with him and wander into another field, the digimon will kill you. But a bonus to contracting is…"

"Stop talking! Yes, bonuses include injury healing, getting one wish and some kind of power, right? What's yours?" Zhane seemed overexcited, cheerful and empowered; much happier than David had seen him in quite a while. But Hunting wasn't like TV. It wasn't like those Digimon anime. They were a lure. If you thought that when you met a digimon, it would be nice, then you'd let your guard down… and then die. David had almost learnt that lesson the hard way. He shuddered, the bright colours and idealism in his once-favourite anime haunting him as he remembered that it was all lies. Lies to get you killed.

"My power is elemental manipulation," David said quietly. "My D-Arms is a sword hilt; I can make a blade for it with my power…" D-Arms were like the Digivice of the real world. They manifested themselves in the form of anything, though usually they were weapon-related.

"My D-Arms is a glaive… It's extendable and everything…" Zhane sent out the glaive, causing David to shake a bit. "And my power is fear manipulation… I can actually change Digital Fields to represent this!"

"Great…" David wanted to tell him that it wasn't a game, but what point would there be? He'd likely not listen. "Would you consider a partnership with me?"

"A partnership?" Zhane didn't even consider it. "Yes! Of course, it'd be fine… We'd be better off together…" He smiled and David sighed in relief. He'd be able to keep him alive a little longer this way.

x x x

Megane Michihiko was walking self-confidently through a field, questioning, thoughtfully, where everybody was. His partner, a confident, vicious Palmon, was padding beside him. He was out of his element, but excited. His first hunt!

"Hey," a voice. Clear, loud and cruel. It didn't seem very digimon-like, though Michihiko's only experience was the anime series.

"Yeah?" Michihiko said indignantly, though Palmon was more apprehensive, lifting her vine arms with her eyes slits.

"Don't 'yeah' me," a person sprang out from seemingly no-where, mist heralding his appearance as his hands gripped Michihiko's arms. "What do you think you're doing, in my territory?"

"Yours? This is my home too," Michihiko pulled free, though Palmon was backing off fearfully, seeing the near-full pouch at the tall, alarmingly thin boy's belt.

"Shut up, you idiot," Palmon hissed warningly.

"I'd listen to her. Polite warning; leave." It was the only thing the boy said. Michihiko blinked, taking in the boy's appearance. He was fairly tall, not strikingly, but taller than Michihiko, and his pale face was adorned with a mop of strikingly blonde hair, clearly bleached.

"Don't order me around, listen, you-"

Bang.

"Too slow," the boy said quietly, his fingers stroking the trigger of his D-Arms- a revolver. Michihiko fell rapidly; collapsing in a gasping, bloody heap, as Palmon fell forward too, clutching her chest.

"Pal…" Michihiko wheezed, though his vision was blurry and the cold air chilled his skin and bones.

"Oh, right. Might as well tell you; A digimon and partner are linked, so that when you die, they do. When you die, they do. Guess I forgot…" he shrugged, though he was now blurring… A smirk was visible on his pale face.

"Let's go, Kaoru!" a high-pitched voice cried. The creature's lack of honorific-usage went to show how close the pair had become. Michiko felt tears run down his face, his mind reciting his murderer's name: Kaoru.

x x x

Hikari was typing listlessly on the computer at school. She was making a programme; how could she have left the school and forgotten? The foreign letters were a challenge, but she struggled through, making simple mistakes that her programme mostly fixed naturally. She was still shaken by her earlier encounter, but otherwise okay. Not even that would knock her down.

It was oddly quiet. Even at this time, teachers lounged around, talking, laughing, the track team dashed across the field, cheering. Did they meet today? She was pretty certain… in fact, as Hikari turned on her chair; she noticed that the room had been… pinkified. The normally-black, boring computer chairs had suddenly grown fluffy, pink cushions, cuddly toys sprawled over the tables, computers were fluffy or devoid completely and the windows had grown kiddie-locks.

Disconcerted by this, Hikari backed away from her computer, its screen now blank.

"Hello…?" she asked, her voice shaky and loud, but it echoed back, devoid of reply. "Konnichiwa?" she slipped back into her native language in fear, shaking her head as she left, shaking as the only things in the hall were dolls, horrible with staring glass eyes. 'Ugh,' she cried, kicking one and running down the hall. However, she saw a student up ahead, trying desperately to push something away. Blood… Silence… Hikari, however, couldn't turn and run as the cream blur attacked her, too, teeth biting, but somehow Hikari's skin was immune to her bites. It wasn't Hikari, but rather another force…

"Hello..." It was a blind man in a heavy-looking coat. "Do you wish to contract?'

Next Time:

A young, cheerful girl is almost killed by a digimon, but is protected by a mysterious hunter named Deep – that's me! She is inspired by yours truly to find her own Digital Field and contract… But that's crazy, isn't it?

Meanwhile, Hikari learns of the horrors of hunting from her stalker and Kaoru, the mysterious, villainous hunter learns that digimon are getting even stronger…

Find out in the next episode: "Far Away, Across the Deep Blue Sea! The Swirling Vortex of the Whirlpool Ocean Hunter!"