Things Change
Disclaimer: Same ole phrase minnas. Don't own, don't sue, so don't bother.
Yes, this is Japan, but I don't feel like using any Japanese this time around, maybe a tidbit every now and then, but otherwise...nah.... It was too much trouble due to translating, and it seemed to confuse some readers anyway.
blah blah ... thoughts
"blah blah" ... dialogue
"blah blah" ... action during speech
blah blah / "blah blah" ... emphasis
(Word after Japanese word) ... Translation
((Pssst...)) ... I'm talking to you..
Daisuke wiped the sweat from his forehead. "What a workout."
He was standing on a thin, wooden post embedded in the ground. His left hand held a wicked-looking sword. It was long and slim with a strange leather-bound handle. The leather bared four slots. Each slot was engraved with a symbol. The top slot showed the symbol of Courage, the second Friendship, the third Miracles, and the last...well, for some reason the last was different. There was something there, but it wasn't legible.
"Thunder Strike!"
Daisuke jumped high as a thick, and large bolt of lightning charged by. "Watch your aim there!" Daisuke waved his sword around in a mock-threatening manner at his digimon.
"Just keeping you on your toes." Raidramon was standing there, but he had changed. The training he had undergone with his partner over the past years boosted his strength and he achieved levels of power and accessed attacks he never had before. Whereas Raidramon used to be blue with gold armor, he was now blue with silver armor. His eyes glowed with a strange, continuous blue color.
"Funny." Daisuke continued to jump from each wooden post to another, swinging his sword at invisible enemies.
"Hey Dai?"
Daisuke stopped at the calling of his nickname. "What's up partner?"
Raidramon took the current moment to study his partner. He, too, had changed over the years. The redhead played as a 'freelance player' part time. Daisuke had told him that this was used to depict someone who is so good that they can play without any restrictions. He can appear whenever he pleased. Daisuke usually made it to all his scheduled games and even showed for practice, but sometimes he couldn't or didn't feel like it.
His partner's appearance had changed as well. He had cut his hair after graduating from high school. Now it was short, but as spiky as ever. Not out-of-control spiky, but a calmer style of spikes. Whereas, it had looked like it could pass for brown under certain lights, it was now a full-blown dark red color. Daisuke's taste of clothes had changed as well. He was presently wearing black denim shorts with a black and dark blue flame-emblazed, button-down shirt. The first five buttons were always undone and this showed a bit of his chest, but he didn't care. He usually felt too hot to button them all anyway. For whatever reason, his partner took to black fingerless gloves, a dark blue bandana, and black shades. Daisuke had told him it made him feel better somehow, so he just took the boy's word on it.
The both of them had taken to cloaks. They had developed an issue with drawing attention. Neither of them cared for all the attention they now received, so they used the cloaks to conceal themselves. However, Raidramon could only wear a cloak in his alternate rookie form, Vee-Eldramon. ((You'll hear about him later, but not now.))
Daisuke was staring at him with a peculiar, questioning look. Raidramon suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be asking him a question. "Oh yeah. Why do you suppose we have these powers? Is there some new threat?"
Daisuke thought about it. "I don't know. It could be a coincidence. But then again, it might be fate." Despite being a digidestined, Daisuke never really took to believing in destiny. He favored fate. For more than one reason... "I mean, there had to be some reason for us finding that cave. We weren't looking for one to stay in or anything. We were leaving the Digital World for the day. It was just there and, for whatever reason, we went in. It was like something in there was calling out to us."
FLASHBACK
A younger Daisuke and Veemon walk in a strange cave. Veemon sniffed around. "I don't know about thish Davish." His lisp was shaking with his voice. "Shomething ishn't right here."
Daisuke waved it off and said that Veemon was just imagining things. "Don't worry. We're not doing anything wrong... Hey! What's that?" He was pointing to a lighted area. It appeared to be the only lighted area in the cave. It seemed to be some type of platform with three pedestals. Two were right beside each other and one was off to the side. Daisuke approached the two closer ones slowly. Veemon hesitantly followed behind.
As Daisuke approached the two pedestals, they began to glow softly. Daisuke either didn't notice or didn't care. When he touched one pedestal, three balls of light appeared. The glow around them died down until they took shape. The three balls formed into three crests, complete with tags. The Crests of Courage, Friendship, and Miracles floated in front of him. Daisuke wasn't sure why he did this, but he took the crests and hung them around his neck, tucking them into his shirt. He turned to the pedestal next to him and a figure appeared in front of him and a bewildered Veemon. The figure was a woman with eyes glowing a silver-white color, giving her an ominous look. Violet hair floated about her as she read the inscription on the pedestal to them.
"A day will come of foretelling darkness and the Light will be chased to the Ocean. A larger darkness will rise behind this and one will be blessed with the power to rise against and strike down this ultimate evil. He and his faithful partner shall become stronger and steadily reach their true potential upon reaching this cave. He will be given the power to tap into the strength of his crests and overcome his enemies. His partner will receive and reach new levels of power and strength that hold true to his mythical background. Before the Day of The Dark Rising comes, 'There shall come the time when he and his partner shall be declared Protectors of Both Worlds, alias the Chosen Ones.' So says the Fates."
She looked directly at Daisuke and Veemon. Both of them were more than a little scared, but didn't move. They couldn't. She pointed at them, and both of them were half-expecting for some freakish beam to come out and shoot them. "You two are the Chosen Ones, Protectors of Both Worlds. With those crests, you have now been graced with the aforementioned powers. Your digimon will receive powers from his special link to you. After you leave this cave, it will be no more." She closed her eyes and began to disappear.
Daisuke reached to the strange woman. "Wait! What about you?"
The woman opened her eyes and arched an eyebrow. How peculiar. "Me? I reside here, my Prince."
Veemon spoke up. "Prince?"
The woman nodded. "Yes, Prince." She repeated the word as if it were common knowledge that Daisuke was to be called that. And to her, it was common knowledge. Believing that to he all, her form began to fade once more.
And of course, Daisuke stopped her again. "Where are you going? Who are you?"
The woman tilted her head. Such a strange prince I have. Why does he ask me such questions? He needn't worry so. "I reside here, therefore I stay here. I am...what I appear to you."
Daisuke shook his head. What? "What's with these riddles? Will you at least give me a name?"
The woman sighed. "Persistent little prince, aren't you? You may call me Iysis."
Daisuke scratched his head. "Iysis?" That's a weird name.
The supposed-entity, now identified as Iysis, nodded. "Now go and train- so that you may be ready for this evil."
Daisuke turned to leave. "But wait...what's that third pedestal for?" Upon his questioning, a light beamed from it a knocked him to the floor. He reached up to regain a standing stance, but came in contact with cold steel. Steel that was slowly warming beneath his fingertips. "Huh?" What is this?
Iysis was not surprised. "It appears that the Fate's Fury has chosen you. Along with this sword comes a rather strange...quirk."
Daisuke frowned. Uh-oh... That doesn't sound good. "Quirk? What's the catch then?"
Iysis shook her head again. It seemed there were some questions she could not, or perhaps would not, answer. "You will see, my Prince. Until we meet again." With a wave of her hand, Daisuke and Veemon blacked out.
When they woke up, they were outside and the cave was gone.
Veemon looked to his partner. "What do we do?"
Well, I guess it's up to us. That was too..too real to be some dream. If that's true then there are a lot of people and digimon counting on us now. I can do this. We can do this....we have to do this. Daisuke had a determined look. "We train. If we're supposed to protect this place and the real world, we have to become stronger and open these new powers. Right?"
Veemon agreed. "You're right Davish. We need to learn how to use thesh powersh."
Daisuke chuckled to himself over his partner's adorable, though sometimes annoying, lisp. "We can do it after school and whenever we can on weekends." He paused, making a split-second decision. "But we can't tell the others."
Veemon looked confused. "Why not? We should tell them right?"
Daisuke looked to the sky. That's just how it has to be now. I..I don't think I can face them anyway. Not even with something like this. "No way. They don't have anything to do with this. They'll ask questions that we don't have answers to and then they'll just get in the way." The chances of them sticking their noses in this is just amazing "We have to do this alone. After high school, we'll move away and start over as I go through college."
Veemon nodded happily. "Okay. I'm your partner and I care for you Davish. We're besht friendsh, sho where you go, I go." For Daisuke, I can do this.
Daisuke grinned. At least I know there's one person..erm..digimon I can always count on. "Thanks buddy. Now let's go home."
FLASHBACK
And that's how it happened. He graduated from high school and then left everything behind. Even his family. He called every so often, and they would see him on TV or maybe they went to a couple of his games. He didn't know. On very rare occasions of pure boredom, he would visit for a little while. But only them. He attends college now and finals are coming up. He had already done the needed essays so he wouldn't panic later on. Thank Kami for that. It was hard- between football, school, and training to save both worlds, he hardly had any time to himself. Not to mention the...'minor details' in between.
"Let's get back to Gramps, Raidramon. De-digivolve," Daisuke said as he placed 'Fate's Fury' in a sheath slung across his back.
"Raidramon de-digivolve to Vee-Eldramon!"
Vee-Eldramon was a taller and more lithe form of Veemon. He was still blue and white, but the horns were gone. He had a long, but not bulky, tail that was lined with spikes all the way up to his back. He had sharp claws and a separate streak of pale violet under each eye. His eyes were a sharp ruby color. The two grabbed their cloaks, put them on, and ran 'home'.
An hour later...
"Ah...here we are." Daisuke stood in front of a thick grove of trees. As he and Vee-Eldramon walked through, the grove of trees proved to be an illusion, as it shimmered while the two walked through it. A door appeared and Daisuke opened it. "Oi (Hey), Gramps!! We're home!"
An old man rounded a corner to greet his 'grandson'. And guess what? That's right, it was none other than Gennai himself. "Hello there. I see you've finally come home. It was getting late."
Daisuke grinned boyishly. "Yeah, for lunch."
Gennai laughed and nodded in agreement. "Ah yes, the one 'weakness' of the both of you...your appetites."
Vee-Eldramon shrugged. "Actually, most digimon are wary of our appetites."
Gennai chuckled. "True. They're afraid you may eat them out of house and home."
Vee-Eldramon didn't understand. "Isn't house and home the same thing?"
Daisuke laughed. "It's a figure of speech buddy."
Vee-Eldramon moved towards the kitchen down the hall in front of the doorway. "Yeah, yeah. You humans have too many of those things."
Daisuke and Gennai both laughed at this. Gennai tapped Daisuke's shoulder as he headed to his room to store his sword. "We have company."
Daisuke frowned, not understanding. What? "Company? What digimon are over here now?" Sometimes, certain digimon would be allowed over- under certain circumstances/emergencies.
Gennai smiled. "Well you see...it's not just digimon. The other Chosen are here as well. It's everyone: Jyou, Taichi, Yamato, Sora, Mimi, Koushiro, Miyako, Ken, Iori, Takeru, and Hikari. They have brought their respective digimon with them."
Gennai was saddened a little by Daisuke's quickly paling face. He knew the other Chosen weren't exactly nice to Daisuke. Knowing what he knew now, the elderly man could hardly say that they were really friends at all. It was more like passing acquaintances. That's one reason why he let Daisuke and Vee-Eldramon stay here. It was an escape from the Human World, as it was called, and a place to train . A safe house, if you will. Besides that, Gennai enjoyed their company. The two were amusing and sweet. They had become so close that Gennai had, out-of-the-blue, called Daisuke his grandson. Afterwards it sort of just stuck and Daisuke, in turn, began to call him Grandfather/Grandpa or just "Gramps" as he usually said it. Gennai sighed to himself as Daisuke silently excused himself to his room. He headed to the kitchen first. This made Gennai laugh to himself. That boy will never forget his stomach. Even in an awkward situation like this. I have to love him for it though. Gennai walked back to the other digidestined, situated in his living room. The room had a TV to a side wall, a desk and computer in the corner by a window, a large couch on the opposite side wall of the TV, a good-sized roundtable in front of the couch, and various chairs around the table.
Bwahahahahahahahahah! Cliffhanger. Had to cut it here. Sorry...well not actually.
Next time: What will Gennai say? Does Daisuke make an appearance? Do the other Chosen figure out who Gennai's 'grandson' is? Will Vee-Eldramon reveal himself? Who knows? I do!
Ja!
