I thought up this story when I started to remember the digimon tv shows, and thought back to my favorite of them all: season three. This takes place a year after the final events of season three (I know, a year time difference is very cliched). Please read and feel free to tell me what I need to work on to make this story an even better one. Reviews are coveted and sought after as well (hint hint). Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Hmm . . . to tell the truth or not to tell the truth? Honesty is the best policy I guess . . . in truth, I own neither Digimon nor its respective voice actors and sound effects.

italics = thought

Let it begin . . .

It's a funny feeling knowing that your in a room full of people, yet you can't even tell they're there. The only person I could see was the girl that sat across from me, my opponent. We were sitting face to face at either end of a table, cards expertly laid out across its surface. She was wearing a white shirt with ice blue sleeves and the cartoonish figure of a broken heart at its chest, it was blue as well, her red hair was pulled back into a short and spiky ponytail. She stared at me without even a hint of emotion in her violet eyes, the perfect poker face. It was my turn, I realized, and I flipped over the cards for my final run; do or die time. Chibimon digivolves to Garrowmon! The cute little digimon's card replaced with a fierce new one, Digimodify, hyper speed and plasma blade, the lifeless cards painted a vivid portrait in my imagination of the ninja-type digimon charging in speedily with the blue lazer sword raised. She flipped out a card of her own in response, horror filled my mind as I saw its picture. System Crash. In my mind's eye I saw my charging warrior's blade shatter and his speed decrease like none other. No! Keep going, we can win this! Just a little more! In less than ten seconds my mind's portrait was blurred and smeared with the erupting pixels that had once been my key to victory. Game Over . . .

I woke with a start, a wave of adrenaline and frustration shuddering up my spine. The last night of summer break and I was still having nightmares of that! I looked over to my alarm clock, it must have been early because it was still dark. 5:27 almost three hours before school, what a ridiculous time to wake up! I bunched up the covers and tried to get myself to fall asleep, though I knew that I never would; once awake I can't sleep. The stars and the moon gave my room just enough light for me to make out my few possessions namely my school bag, my little netbook laptop, and above all my cardboard box of Digimon cards, anything else was just the random junk that a fourteen-year-old would hoard.

Usually my dreams would wake me just before eight, giving me the necessary time to cram and get ready for school, but this wasn't one of the those times. The worst of it was that I had no homework, or distraction, to consume my time since today was the first day of school for 8th grade; lucky me. I rolled over and repositioned myself yet again, looking at the glowing red letters of my clock once more. 5:29, no friggin way was I going to do this until eight! I reached out for my Netbook, finding it just out of my grasp. I hung my upper body over the bed as I reached further, fumbling in the dark for my computer. I finally found purchase on one of its edges and dragged it across the floor toward me, then lifted it up onto my bed. I stayed on my side as I started to browse the internet, looking up anything from my school's policies to the newest releases of cards.

By the time I looked up from my web surfing the clock showed 7:44, now I could go about doing what I was supposed to be doing. I got up from my bead, setting the laptop off to its side, and flipped the covers back on in a feeble attempt to make my bed. I got dressed and went out of my room for breakfast, which consisted of me frying and egg and heaping it on a piece of toast to make an opened faced sandwich. I ate at the dining room table in silence, munching happily at my breakfast, not even bothering to use a plate. My chewing slowed for a minute, something was missing . . . I snapped my fingers at the realization that I had forgotten mustard. After squirting a couple shots of the yellow paste onto my sandwich I continued to chew. I'd be walking today, like every other day, because my parents worked early in the mornings and got off around five. I picked up my backpack and checking for anything missing . . . nope, before gently placing my box of cards in the top of the jumbled mess inside. I walked out, grabbing the keys off the peg next to the front door as I did so. The day had begun . . .

My name is Rein Kashi, I'm five foot five, male, have shortish brown hair, brown eyes, and extremely pale skin. I don't tan easily, and can never be too hot or too cold. I haven't caught a cold since I was five, and have been called "healthy as a horse" at all my check ups. I am currently enrolled in jr. high as an eighth grader, and have never gotten below a 3.0 gpa. Pretty much I am the average, the cut off line, the bit of chocolate in a coffee shake. I have lived in Japan since the day I was born, and have moved with my parents to an apartment a whole district away from the school I attend. Life is good.

"Hey Rein! Goin' my way?" called a familiar voice behind me. This is Kete, I don't know his height and don't really care, his hair is blond, and his eyes are brown. He is one of my first and few friends, his favorite pastime is annoying the heck out of me. He caught up and then fell into pace with me, walking like all the cool kids do.

"Depends, you going to East J?" I asked sarcastically, he chuckled lightly. Of course he was going to East jr., I would have gagged if he had decided to go to the private academy. Bleh!

"Yeah, yeah, hey I'm rounding up some people to go down to the arcade, wanna come?" Kete asked nonchalantly, acting like he didn't care if I came or not. Deep down I knew he wanted me to be there; he always had something planned when he "rounded up some people", he's just that sort of guy.

"S'long as we're done by five." I replied, stating my expectations, and knowing that we'd probably be doing something till six or seven. He's just that sort of guy.

"Sure we'll be out and gone by five, I promise." he always made those sort of promises, the ones that he never remembers. School's out early today so why not? I decided, resigned to being told off by my parents later. He's just that sort of guy.

School was always a breeze on the first day, extremely short classes, an assembly to talk about the do's and don'ts this year, and best of all no homework! The assembly had consisted of the usual if you do this, this is what will happen, except the one new difference: Digimon are not allowed. The regulation seemed stupid to me, there weren't that many Digimon in the real world anyway, but I guess the school had taken notice of the growing appearances of in-trainings in backpacks. This was a weird transition, a year ago Digimon were just part of a TV show and card franchise, but now they were live and commonly appearing beings; why just the other day I had seen an old lady being walked across the street by something that looked like a Clockmon, children in the park were playing tag with fun loving rookie levels, I'd even seen one working in a store. Definitely odd.

Kete, as it were, had only rounded up one other person for his arcade invasion. He said that people all had "plans", no, people just don't understand you enough to want to put up with you! I had thought when he told me that. The other guy's name was Roland, funny how the name fit. We had now reached the arcade, my ears were flooded with noise as the doors opened. There were already a mass of yelling and screaming children there, flooding towards the games that they didn't have to think to play, a small group of teens like us were hanging out where we aimed to be: the card tables. Navigating through a sea of kids is not easy, I found out, but nevertheless we emerged at that end of the arcade triumphant.

"Hey, you guys any good?" asked a bored looking boy sitting at one of the tables, holding up his deck in challenge. Roland and Kete pushed me forward, I yelped in surprise, They have got to be kidding! Reluctantly I drew my deck out of my back-pack and placed it on the end facing me, then sat down. This is going to end badly. I thought hopelessly as we drew our first hands.

It was over surprisingly quick, I had started with the perfect set for a strategy and employed it mercilessly. Things were going very well, the closest to victory I had been in a long time. Close, but no doughnut. System Crash, those two little words had destroyed my entire chance as soon as I saw them. My imagination lucidly displayed my defeated Shinobumon being broken down into teeny tiny particles. Why! That card haunts me everywhere I go! One little slip up at the tournament for the title, one little mistake . . . I was on the verge of tears when I heard my challenger snicker at my traumatized expression.

"Never heard of System Crash? You gonna throw a tantrum kid?" the player laughed out, his tone patronizing. From my guess he was only a year older, what gave him the right to call me a kid! My face reddened with the insult, but paled back up as I sighed and stood to leave. I was about to bolt toward the door when Kete and Roland caught me by the arms; I struggled for a moment, but stopped when I couldn't get away. They guided me away from the table with the laughing card jock and sat me down at another table, this one was just a round table for eating.

"You're not a bad tactician, Rein, your just using the wrong Digimon." Kete started encouragingly, the way a friend was supposed to "Your strategies would work better on anything but Chibimon and his evolutions."

"Then why should I be a tactician if I can't even win with one of the weakest? My aim is to prove that the weak can be strong!" I had had this talk with him for the dozenth time, he just kept trying to prove that I would work better with anything else! Chibimon was my project, if I could win with him then I could win with anything I so chose; that was my ambition!

"You have it all backwards! You start with the strong and work your way down to the weaker, not the other way around!" I was too ticked at his argument that I didn't see his reasoning, which made perfect sense. I want to be the exception! Why can't you see that? I sighed angrily and he softened his tone.

"Listen here, for this one time fight with someone stronger. After that I'll leave you alone to do whatever you want." Kete proposed gently, a tone of voice I had never heard before. I breathed in heavily and let it out slowly.

"I don't have any other sets with me." I stated flatly, hoping for an easy way out. I had said this once before during one of our last debates, and regretted ever saying it again when he pulled a shiny foil packed out of his pocket. I recognized it as the random card packs that were sold at retail stores. He handed it to me, I noticed that it hadn't been opened yet. I knew what he wanted, I ripped open the pack and pulled out a thin wad of cards. I started to look through them, most were modifies except for the one at the end. Renamon, I remembered the name from a newspaper talking about the heroes who had taken out D-reaper. I looked up at Kete, he pointed at one of the game sims built into the wall and crossed his arms.

I walked dejectedly to the screen and put my deck in the card reader. The machine hummed for a few seconds before the screen flickered to life, showing a cartoon version of the hand I was dealt. I clicked the card I would use and a small sprite of Renamon appeared on the screen in response. I looked at its stats, this was going to be a cakewalk! Oh how wrong I was. Nine turns later I was making my final run; do or die time. I didn't need my imagination this time, the screen depicted it perfectly. The Renamon was running down the screen towards the computer operated enemy, paws blazing with Meramons flames, traveling at speeds unheard of. The computer flipped out a card of its own in response, my heart sank as I saw the picture. System Crash, her flaming fists extinguished and her speed dropped considerably. No! Keep going, we can still win this! The pixel version of Renamon shattered into a million little pieces on the screen, the cartoon deck showed an animation of its cards scattering across an animated floor. I stared at the screen in anguished dismay, pausing before letting my forehead slam into the monitor. I hate this game . . .

I looked back to where Roland and Kete had sat, but they weren't there. Tears stung at my eyes, but I wouldn't let them out. I guess I really am just a horrible tactician. I say that I want to make the weak strong, yet I can't even help the strong win. My eyes had become puffy with unshed tears, I refused to cry here. System Crash, that card had followed me ever since I had lost to a girl who was labeled as "The Digimon Queen" after my defeat. I remembered the last thing she said to me: "that was easy".

The screen blurred into a blue background with a message in the center. "Try Again?" the screen asked. I reminisced back to the many times I had lost to the darn computer, every time it would whip out that same card. What was the point? Every time I tried again I failed miserably, it was proven. "That was easy", the words brought back the embarrassment of losing to her. What had she done to make it easy? I decided to put myself in a winner's shoes, if only for a second, and looked back at the screen. I clicked yes . . .

Dun . . . dun . . . blah . . . not really that suspenseful is it?

So this is the start of something, the next chapter won't be up until the week after next; sorry about that. Second of all I am sorry that I put English names in Japan, but I only speak english and couldn't think of a cool Japanese name for my protagonist.