There's a game like no other. Because it has a mind of it's own. It is an ancient game where a wild spirit can leap out and take hold of the world. And those who play or have played the game, know of the dangers. The wild spirits can be tamed but only by those who possess a link between them. Those who play the game that are not linked are doomed to fail.
Year: 2000
*Takuya's house*
Though his mother couldn't see it, Takuya rolled his eyes as she droned on about the field trip he was leaving for.
"Have you packed the..."
"Yes, Mom."
"And the... "
"Yes, and the paper and the extra pencils."
She hugged her son tightly before letting him go, brushing his hair away from his eyes. "Just please be careful. And listen to your teacher."
"I promise."
It was going to be a big field trip. One that other schools were going to be joining his school for. He was pretty excited since it meant getting out of the schoolroom and seeing something new.
*Next Door, Meredith's house*
Meredith finished packing for the big field trip. She was so excited she didn't think she would sleep. Tomorrow, her entire school was going to the biggest museum in Japan.
*Koji's house*
Koji zipped up his backpack and sighed. Tomorrow was going to be a big day. He was looking forward to seeing Kouichi without sneaking around. Ok, so they'd still be sneaking around, but only because they didn't want the their parents to find out. It was just easier that way.
With everything all packed, Koji paced his room. For some reason he felt a bit anxious.
*The next day at 8:00*
Takuya waved at his mother as he sat down at the far back of the school bus. Meredith saw him and sat down beside him.
"Hi Takuya."
"Hi Meredith."
"I've been waiting a long time for this day. It's my first field trip!" Meredith beamed.
"What about the one in first grade?" asked Takuya.
"I was sick, remember?"
"Oh, yeah. But it was boring anyway. You didn't miss much." The boy replied in attempt to make her feel better.
The redhead gave him a weak smile. "So how long is it 'til we get there? Do you know?"
Takuya shrugged. "The bus driver said it was going to be a half hour. Why do you ask?"
"No reason, but it's just that, everybody's getting kind of restless."
Takuya sighed inwardly and rested back against his seat. He was worried about Meredith but didn't say it.
With everyone loaded up and ready to go, the bus started moving. Takuya stared at the passing scenery, wondering what they might see at the museum.
*Half hour later*
"We're almost the museum, kids," announced the bus driver.
"This'll be so much fun." Meredith said to Takuya.
"It will. I heard this is the biggest museum is Japan."
"I wonder what all they have?"
"I dunno, but it's bound to be pretty cool. I also heard they've got a section about aliens."
Meredith laughed. "You really believe in those things?"
"And you don't?"
"Well, I mean... I'm not really sure."
They fell into silence then. The bus driver pulled into the parking lot of the museum and opened the door for the kids to get out.
"Remember! Stick to our group!" The teacher shouted to be heard over the rowdy students.
As they got out, the student's eyes widen in awe at what they saw. Every room held a display with information and interesting items throughout the centuries.
"This is so cool!" Meredith said, oohing and awing as they passed a mannequin dressed in old samurai armor. "Kinda reminds you of Agunimon, huh, Takuya?"
"A little. " He admitted. "It just feels like yesterday we were there, you know?"
"Yeah," Meredith lowered her eyes. "I can't believe it's been four months already."
The group stopped to look at some old paintings done in the eighteenth century then started moving again. Takuya stayed by Meredith to make sure he wasn't over heard.
"Do you ever think about it sometimes?" He asked her.
"A lot of times, I wish we could got back and visit for a day."
"Me too" Takuya stopped suddenly and Meredith stared at him curiously.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
He gestured behind him. Meredith didn't understand, she didn't see anything. And then Koji poked his head out from behind a statue. The group didn't seem to notice they weren't following along and kept walking forward. When they turned a corner Koji and his twin brother came out of hiding.
"Guys!" Takuya exclaimed happily. "What are you doing here?"
"It's a field trip, duh." Koji rolled his eyes then gave Takuya a half hug.
"How are you?" Kouichi inquired, looking at both of the goggleheads.
"Better now." Meredith said, smiling. "We were just talking about the digital world, and…"
She stopped as she heard something.
"What's that sound?" Koji asked, looking around the room.
"I dunno." Takuya said. "It's probably something from one of the displays."
Kouichi and Meredith started walking away as though drawn to the sound. "Guys? Where are you going?"
They didn't answer. Koji glanced at Takuya who shrugged. "Let's follow them."
"Let's just hope we don't get caught roaming around by ourselves." Koji muttered.
"Does anybody but me think it sounds like drums?" asked Meredith.
"I hear it, too." Takuya chimed in.
As they continued to follow the sound, it was leading them to the basement. The lighting was dim and flickered every few minutes. The four kids followed the sound of the drumming; it's rhythm almost hypnotizing. They stopped abruptly, surprised by the source.
"It followed us to a wall?" asked Meredith, annoyed.
"Doesn't this remind any of you of the time we were all summoned to the digital world? I mean, we all got that weird text and then..." Koji said, staring blankly at the wall, then reached his hand toward it. The stone began to crumble at his touch. He looked at the others who slowly reached out and also touched the wall.
"Wow." Meredith gasped. "It was a fake."
"Hm. Who'd have thought." Kouichi said with a small laugh.
"Let's look inside." Koji suggested.
On the cold stone floor lay an old wooden box.
"I wonder what it is." Takuya said as he bent down to examine the strange box further.
"Looks like some kind of board game." Koji remarked.
"A really old board game." Kouichi corrected.
Meredith picked it up to see that the wooden box had one to the following on each side, a SaberLeomon, a Rhinomon, a Monmon and an Elephantmon. An arrow went across the middle with the word 'Dimanji' on top.
"Dimanji," she said, reading the front of the box, then opened it. Koji was right. It was a board game. There were four paths through to the board, which all lead to the green glass in the middle.
"Cool." Takuya whispered in awe.
"I wonder why it's here. You know, in the basement." Meredith said.
"Who knows," Kouichi shrugged.
"Let's play it." Takuya said, and opened a compartment to pull out the dice and tokens.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Koji muttered.
"Oh, don't be such a Debbie Downer." Takuya shot back.
The gogglehead handed out the tokens. Meredith chose the Leviamon, Koji chose the Elephantmon, Takuya chose the Rhinomon, and Kouichi chose the Monmon.
Just then, the pieces flew out of their hands and onto the corner paths.
Meredith tried to remove them, but it was like they were glued on. "Hey, they're stuck."
Together they sat down in a circle around the board.
"How do we play it?" Kouichi asked.
Koji then noticed the instructions painted on the wood on the side. "Dimanji. A game for those who seek to find, a way to leave their world behind. You roll the dice to move your token, doubles gets another turn. The first player to reach the end wins."
"Sounds easy enough." Takuya said. "Who rolls first?"
Koji shrugged when he looked at him. "Lady's first."
Meredith took the dice, shook them up and let them go. It came to a four. That's when she noticed something weird. "Guys..."
The crocodile token moved four spaces on it's own.
"Okay... That's weird." Takuya said.
"What happens next?" Kouichi asked.
"Something's forming in the glass," Meredith announced. There was an eerie green glow in the glass center, as words were appearing.
"At night they fly, you better run, these winged things are not much fun." She read out loud wondering what that meant.
Koji's brows furrowed in thought. "That sounds like a warning."
"I'm sure it's just a part of the ga-" Meredith started to say but stopped when she heard something. It was an odd squeaky sound. Everyone started looking around the room.
"What was that?" Takuya asked quietly.
"At night they fly, you better run, these winged things are not much fun." Kouichi repeated the strange rhyme. "Could that mean..."
Just then, a swarm of bats began to overwhelm them. The kids covered their heads with their arms. Only the closer they looked they realized they weren't normal bats.
"DemiDevimon? What's happening?" Meredith shouted through the sound of many flapping wings.
Takuya put on his goggles and tried to fight off the mischievous digimon. "Where'd they come from?" He shouted.
The evil little bat-like digimon laughed at them. Then Takuya got an idea. "Everyone, open the windows!"
Scrambling through the plague of Digimon, they did as he said. To their relief the bat-digimon immediately flew out the open windows.
"What was that all about?" Kouichi said, exasperated.
Meredith glanced at the game sitting in front of them. "Could the game have something to do with this?"
"Stranger things have happened." Kouichi pointed out.
"I'll go next. " Takuya said and started to roll the dice. Koji tried to stop him but he was too late. The gogglehead let go of the dice and it rolled onto the board. He got six.
The bandana boy shook his head in dismay. As Takuya's token moved, he read the message. "This will not be an easy mission. Monmon slow the expedition."
They waited nervously for something to happen. And just like they were expecting something did. A loud crashing noise came from above.
"Now what?" Meredith asked.
The four friends glanced at each other, and then ran upstairs. When they opened the door, there was absolute chaos.
"No way this is happening!" Kouichi said in horror. Monkeys with green fur and over sized slingshots on their backs were running all over the place. Some were swinging from statues others were smashing old vases and ripping and chewing on paintings.
People were running and screaming in all directions trying to escape the violence.
"Monmon? What do we do now?" Meredith yelled. Then, one of the monkeys came running at the group then jumped onto goggle head girl.
"Get off! Get off!" She screamed as it started pulling her hair.
Takuya became furious. Suddenly a red glow surrounded his hands. And the next thing he knew, he punched a fireball. The monkey-like digimon, afraid of fire, let go of Meredith and ran away.
The girl looked at the boy in surprise. "How'd you do that?"
He looked at his still glowing fists. "I don't know. But I think they don't like it."
He threw another punch and sent a ball of fire through the room. The Monmon scattered like ants in a frenzy of fear. "Keep doing it!" Koji shouted through the chaos.
Takuya dodged the screaming people and kept throwing fire until all the digimon fled out the door or windows. After they were gone, the kids retreated back to the basement.
"Those digimon came from the game. I know it," Koji said when they sat back down.
"But that doesn't explain how Takuya got those fire powers," Kouichi pointed out.
"Maybe they're connected." Meredith suggested.
"How?" Koji countered.
"Don't look at me like I'm crazy. We've seen some pretty odd stuff."
"Yeah, but we've never seen Digimon come from a board game before."
"Guys, come on. The Monmon are gone now. Let's just keep playing the game." Takuya interrupted their bickering.
"No." Koji said. "I'm not playing any further. This thing is dangerous."
"Oh come on, Koji!" Takuya crossed his arms.
"Guys?" Meredith said.
The boys looked at her curiously. "What?"
The girl pointed to the board. Something was written on the other side, upside down. She turned it around and read it. "Adventurers Beware: Do not begin unless you intend to finish. The exciting consequences of the game will vanish only when a player has reached Jumanji and called out it's name."
Meredith looked at the boys in deep concern. "We're in big trouble."
"Told you it was dangerous." Koji muttered grumpily.
The others glared at him. "Looks like we have no choice. We've got to finish this thing." Takuya said.
What will happen? I thank popofcolor123 of deviantart for helping me. I don't own Jumanji rhymes or Digimon. I just own my OC.
