Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Digimon Xros Wars/Young Hunters Leaping Through Time
Title: Hunter, Retired
Character: Ryouma
Word Count: 500||Status: One-shot
Genre: Angst||Rated: G
Challenge: Diversity Challenge: sectoin A, #57: write a 500 word drabble
Summary: [one-shot, Diversity Challenge, Ryouma] He's not a Hunter anymore. Ryouma wonders if he ever really was.
Ryouma knew the Digimon Hunt reigned once more. It was hard to miss, with Yuu and Tagiru and some of the others running here and there with that excited gleam in their eyes. He'd even seen Ren and Airu on the go.
He refused to take up his Xros Loader again. There were times he wanted to. Times when he'd seen Digimon and his thoughts turned at once to the best way to lure them to where…
But that was why he didn't. He didn't have a partner anymore. He hadn't seen Psychemon or Astamon since that last, horrific moment.
Maybe he'd never seen his partner at all. Maybe he'd never had a partner. Everything Quartzmon said rang repeatedly in the back of his mind. It had all been fake. He couldn't even call himself a real Hunter. Real Hunters had genuine partners who would go through anything for them. If he met Psychemon again, would the Digimon even recognize him? Would it even be 'again'?
Maybe he could find another partner, if he truly looked for one? The thought only briefly passed through his mind. He couldn't imagine Hunting, or even having, another partner. When he thought of anything Digimon related, his mind always envisioned the partner he'd thought that he'd known.
He could imagine what Tagiru or Taiki would say if he ever brought this up to them: that he should get over it and not let it keep him down like this. He knew they were right, at least on some level. But that didn't get him up and moving. They were heroes. It was their job to have eternal faith in themselves and those around them.
He was not a hero. He'd thought he could be, but he'd seen what that brought down. He wouldn't deceive himself again.
He wasn't a villain, either. He could think of plenty of names for himself, and had used most of them over the last few months, but 'villain' wasn't one of them. He especially favored 'idiot', 'gullible', and 'ignorant'.
How many, he wondered. How many Digimon had he hunted who weren't in his Xros Loader but had been fed to Quartzmon? Only one answer rang true: too many.
He didn't have any Digimon there anymore. He'd checked, torn between fear and concern, shortly after the battle ended, and found them all gone. That was good; he wanted them to be safe in their own world. He'd checked again after realizing the Hunters hunted once more, and relief flooded through him to realize they hadn't returned.
Regardless of if he'd ever been one before, he wasn't a Hunter now. He would be all right with that. Even if he woke up at night and thought he saw a Digimon going by, perhaps chased by two other forms, perhaps not.
He could not be a Hunter without a partner, and he did not have one. The Hunt would go on without him. He was retired. And he would stay that way.
The End