As other tamers in different dimensions, Soyokaze was destined to be linked to a Digimon partner of his own. But, at what cost? What chains remain attached to him that he simply wants to forget?
First Chain - Shame
"Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle."
-Charles Dickens
Chapter 1: A New Beginning
It's been almost two years since we moved to Tokyo. My younger brother, my sister and our mother. Because of a disease my sister suffered, we found ourselves forced to move to Tokyo where she lived so we could take care of her and she could keep on her studies.
Honestly, I did not mind moving, since there was nothing I would be leaving behind to make me feel nostalgic or sad about leaving the such awful region we lived in.
By the time that passed from then to now, I can tell I have been doing very good, compared to the past. My memories of how I used to live then are not that happy, if I am honest to myself.
Moving on, there a lot of things that have changed in my life since we moved to Tokyo. Not only have I been able to relax when I arrive from school, but also, I have found my balance to focus on what I will be doing from now on.
"Life has become easier."
The only though that comes to my mind whenever I think about it.
My mother founded her own sewing workshop. Maybe it doesnt reach the top tier when it comes to sewing, but she does her best and the reward because of it has made her known around.
My sister, after recovering from her "Glomerulonephritis", which almost killed her, returned to her studies as she was being treated by the nephrologist and her diet corrected for her to work optimally. Lately she has proven that hard work can lead to good things as she has recently been hired by the older brother of one of her friends to cooperate with the architects of the fast food restaurant lines of "Yori-awase". Ramen and that kind of food which you can quickly buy with some yens.
"You dont even feel it. "
A voice said in the dream.
"You think you are done with what has happened."
The voice said as whatever was emitting it rounded around Soyokaze.
"Who are you?"
Soyokaze asked. He found himself in a dark, blank space. Nothing but a light pointing at where he was, with a deep, dense fog surrounding him, with echoes on each sound that was produced.
"The chains have been selected. You still havent purged your sins and liberated your soul from what it has been of you."
The voice whispered on Soyokaze's ear.
Soyokaze closed his eyes with strength so he was able to wake up. A headache invaded him in the moment he stood up from his bed. The window was open. The white curtains flowing with the wind almost touching his face since the window was right next to his bed. A Gaomon statue was standing in the fitment which was at a side of the door. The blue walls filled with posters related to either a videogame or anime. His backpack hanging on the door.
Irritated, he walked off his room and descended into the main hall of the house on his way to the kitchen for some pills as the headache became more intense.
Once in the kitchen he found a man standing in a corner with a pistol in hand. Over the table, a bottle of Cognac almost empty and a broken cup with the liquid spilling out.
"This is the point of no return."
The man said staring at Soyokaze as he aimed at him with the gun.
"Dad?"
Soyokaze called with confusion as the headache became more intense and began to hurt enough to make him groan. He closed his eyes immediately as he held his head.
When the hurting stopped, the bottle, the cup, the spilled liquid and the man with the pistol were no more in there. He was incredulous of what he had seen.
"A hallucination?"
The headache was no more after that, so he went upstairs looking for his mother.
"Mom?"
He called but having no response. He kept searching for his mother, who didnt answer.
"Probably she is out. Aiko is probably on the university."
Soyokaze thought, as he wanted to tell someone about what happened. With no other choice but to wait until someone arrived, he decided to take a shower to clear his thoughts.
"Why would I see my father?"
He asked himself as the water fell over him.
"Sins… Chains…"
Those were the words to come to his mind. No meaning, no reason; just empty concepts with no context generated by his subconscious?
Once he was done with the shower, he dressed up and prepared lunch to make his way to school. His pair of headphones, his phone and the backpack with everything he would need. The only thing left to do was to visit Ueno Park to play Digimon Fighters. Recently a mobile MMO had been released, Digimon themed. Since it was online, PvP was something that could be played locally or worldwide, and people all over the place were constantly online. Maybe he wasnt a pro player, but he was a casual with some decent experience. With the phone in the pocket, Soyokaze headed to Ueno Park while hearing music to clear his mind.
Once in the park, finding another kid with phone in hand playing Digimon Fighters was not difficult. The was a child, blonde haired, with a red vest and a white t-shirt. Military camo pants and carrying a black backpack.
"Hello" Soyokaze presented as he approached to the other kid. "I can see you are playing Digimon to. Do you mind if I play with you?" He asked.
"Uh?" The player asked. "Oh, sure, why not?" He accepted. "Just send me your ID." he called while booting the PvP hub.
While they began the process of connection, Soyokaze seemed to be a little excited about the battle. He would always feel nervous on each fight, thing that could be the reason he lost many battles.
"Fighters, engage!"
Called a drone which looked like a sphere with a camera, as a timer displayed on the arena which had just loaded. The arena was in the middle of some deserted plains. Our fighters were facing each other as our digimons appeared from behind.
Coming from the other player, a Ryudamon; a beige furred reptile with a black cuirass that looked like samurai armor, emerged from the ground coming from a tunnel the Digimon dug. And from Soyokaze, a Renamon; a humanoid yellow furred fox with purple gauntlets with Yin and Yang symbols on each gauntlet appeared out of nowhere. Just to finally sit and meditate while the counter was still on.
"10 Seconds to go!"
Exclaimed the drone. Soyokazes heart began to race and the other kid began to breathe heavily.
"This guy has a virus Digimon." Soyokaze though as he stared at the Ryudamon. "I got to make it on this one. Just need to watch his movements and I should be able to beat him."
"5"
The drone counted. Renamon stood up and prepared to engage combat setting on guard. The Ryudamon crouched preparing its paws to do a full-frontal attack.
"3"
"There is no "coming back" on this one." Soyokaze though as everything went silent. The people around, the cars passing by, not even a single noise could be heard by him.
"2"
The counter was about to end. Soyokaze held his breath as he prepared.
"1"
"We got this, Renamon." He said on his mind.
"FIGHT!"
The drone exclaimed. Since it was turn of the Ryudamon, Soyokaze prepared to handle his Digimon, as the RPG combat system lets you defend and protect from enemy attacks, and control all of the attacks coming from you.
The Ryudamon finally moved and made a normal slash which Renamon almost avoided by crouching, to then jump when the next slash from the Ryudamon approached, avoiding completely the attack.
The turn of the Ryudamon was over. It was finally the chance for Renamon to strike back. Soyokaze chose to use a common attack. When the decision was taken, Renamon performed a low-kick which the Ryudamon avoided by jumping. But the attack wasnt supposed to hit. Mid-air, Ryudamon was stroke by Renamon with a high-punch which resulted to be a critical hit.
"Nice!" Soyokaze though as he began breathing again. He found himself in all his senses, watching over Ryudamon carefully.
"Nice one." The other kid said. "I did not see that coming." He said as he began taking choice.
Again, Soyokaze took a deep breath and prepared for the attack of the Ryudamon.
The Ryudamon emitted three razors which fired in different directions. The Renamon stood guard and blocked some damage of the razors, while Ryudamon approached performing a slash which was also blocked by Renamon.
"That was a good combo." Soyokaze admitted as he looked at the other player. The decision was his to take, so he went for Renamon performing a descendant kick which Ryudamon blocked. But suddenly, Renamon's paws began to emit a blue flame and stroke hardly multiple times Ryudamons guard, which finally broke him to received high damage.
Ryudamon was knocked down, very weak until it finally fainted.
"Wow, that was some skill over there." The kid congratulated as the combat ended. "You should try participate in JIGGs tournament coming next week." He suggested politely. "I heard many skillful players are meeting." He added as he saved his phone back onto his pocket.
"I dont know." Soyokaze rejected as he saved his phone. "I have heard the players in those tournaments are simply out of rank." He mentioned. "I dont want to get my butt kicked so epically, yet."
"Aw, how do you say that?" The other kid said kind of disappointed of the reply from Soyokaze. "I dont think you lose anything trying. Maybe you even get along with some of those powerful fighters."
Soyokaze replanted the suggestion and though about it for quite a bit. "Alright then, I will assist the event." He said. "But I wont have my expectations too high."
"Nice." The other kid said. "By the way, my name is Kazuki." He presented.
"My name is Soyokaze." He presented while both stretched their hands. He looked at his watch just to see he was late for school.
"Oh my god!" Soyokaze exclaimed. "I have to go now!" He added as he sprinted right away in direction to school.
Not much time had passed since he left the park running towards the school. When he finally arrived his respective classroom, he noticed his classmates were already in class. Soyokaze sighed and stood right in a side of the door.
"Soyokaze?" His professor called. "Is that you?".
"No, no, no, no." Soyokaze thought as his expression turned into fear. "Yes, its me." He said embarrassed.
"Look, if you are so embarrassed you got here late, I will let you pass if you can answer at least one of these math problems in the dashboard." His professor offered while opening the door.
Soyokaze looked at his professor ashamed as he passed into the classroom. Students in the back barely contained their laughter as Soyokaze came into the room. He dropped his backpack right in a side of his chair and returned to the dashboard as his professor handed him the felt-tipped pen. Soyokaze took his time reading each of the problems in the board.
"Hmm… These are transcendental functions from the last class." He whispered as he examined the equations. He took a deep breath as he began solving one of the problems planted. Five minutes passed when Soyokaze was finally done with the equation; he handed the pen to his professor and sat down on his chair.
The professor proceeded to read Soyokazes resolve of the problem. He sighed as he turned around and looked towards Soyokaze, who was expecting the problem the be properly solved.
"Very well." The professor said as he picked up his list. "I will give you the assistance point this time. But next time do not arrive late." He said as he marked Soyokaze a point in his list and saving it on the desk.
Soyokaze stood up and thanked his professor. "Yes, professor Kenshin." He said as he made a reverence to sit afterwards. The professor returned to the class and asked everyone to pull out their books. Soyokaze did sigh as he whispered. "Thank you."
He proceeded to pull out his book for the rest of the class to proceed normally.
During recess, Soyokaze stood on his place eating his lunch, chilling. Then, he heard the entrance door opening to the classroom as one of the prefects entered calling everyone in the place.
"Hello, children." The teacher saluted. "Recently we have received news of some little pranksters terrifying people at Ueno Park." She said as she looked at the children, who were mostly confused about what she was saying. "So, by now we are not suspicious on any of you, but I came here to tell you to go directly to your home right after classes are ending. We dont want any sort of problems or any of you to get hurt because of these pranksters." The teacher said with a clear concern expressed on her face.
After the prefect was done with her monologue, she left the classroom and the rest of the classmates began to talk between each other about the warning of the prefect.
"Probably its someone from here." One of the girls in class said. A girl wearing a white shirt, black skirt and red sleeves, black hair and a piercing in the lips. "Many boys around here are very problematic and are always doing jokes and the sort of stuff." She argued as she looked with anger at the group of boys who were playing in the back.
"What are you talking about?!" Exclaimed one of the kids. "We havent done such things!" He answered. "Barely any of us visits Ueno Park, to begin with."
Soyokaze would only be looking at the discussion concerned of the situation. Not much time passed until he felt a hand touching his right arm.
"Dont worry." A female voice said. "I doubt much its someone from here." The girl next to Soyokaze said as she smiled. She had brown hair with braids and her eyes were cyan color. She had a pair of glasses, a pair of golden earrings; she was wearing a beige shirt, black pants and a wrist bracelet with the word "Botho", which was still unknown to Soyokaze at that moment.
"Kimiko." Soyokaze said as he looked at her, returning the smile she had given. "Thank you." He nodded.
Before he could say anything else, the professor Kenshin returned to the classroom. "Okay, kids. Save all of your belongings into your backpacks." As soon as he ended the phrase, the whole classrooms faces turned into horror.
"Nobody told me we were having an exam!" Exclaimed somebody in the back as he turned nervous.
"Of course, no one did." The professor said as he pulled a bunch of papers. "Thats why its called "Pop Quiz"". He said handing the papers to each classmate in the front.
It was 2:00 pm when the bell rang, signing the end of the school day. Soyokaze was heading back to his home as the professor had indicated, not only because of the warning, but also because he needed to talk with his mother about the hallucination he had in the morning.
As he passed nearby Ueno Park, in front of a drug store, he spotted a bunch of kids from his class entering to the park. Soyokaze stopped in that moment to think.
"Could it be?" He asked himself. "If they are doing pranks in the park, at least I should grab some evidence." He thought as he crossed the road to enter the park.
Once in, he had been following the kids for a while around the whole park, waiting for the kids to do something.
"Hmm…" Soyokaze sighed as he was getting impatient. Around an hour passed just to notice the kids stopped to buy some ice cream with a man who carried his cart to then leave the park. He got quite irritated because of the whole show made following them for too much time, but he felt better since his classmates werent giving any problems around.
Soyokaze found himself surrounded by the great woods, hearing a looking at some birds flying around. It was all peaceful and calm. He putted on his earphones to hear some music and sit in the middle of the park, just to chill and relax, clearing his thoughts. He might have fallen asleep as sunset was not so far from arriving. Soyokaze stood up and headed back home. Soon to reach the exit of the park, he heard something moving through the bushes.
Suddenly, his head began to hurt, just like in the morning. But this time, he could hear arbitrary whispers around him. Nothing could be understood in the moment. Just voices.
As in the first occasion, the pain was so intense he groaned. And the same way the hurt began; it was gone. he was breathing heavily and his heart pumped rapidly as he tried to calm himself.
The sounds in the bushes were heard again, and Soyokaze looked straight at them. The only thing he could see, were a pair of eyes. One red, and another green. Suddenly, a growl could be heard. Soyokaze altered and in no time, he was rushing, exiting the park. He didnt took long to arrive home.
"What the heck was that?" Soyokaze asked himself as he approached the entrance of his house. Perplexed, he entered trying to understand what had happened.
"Mom?" He called. His mother came from upstairs talking through her phone to a client.
"Hello, Soyokaze." She saluted with a kiss on Soyokazes cheek, which he returned. "What is it?" She asked.
"Hello mom…" He said capturing some nervousness. "Should I tell her?" He thought. "If I tell her, she might run hysterical as she usually does. She might not even let me walk back to school alone anymore." Soyokaze nodded. "Uh, nothing. Its not relevant." He said as he walked upstairs.
As he walked through the corridor, Soyokaze noticed his brother playing on his room with some toys. The yellow colored room was lit with lights in shape of stars. A rocket was in the corner of a fitment next to the window, which was closed with the curtains covering it.
He entered his room and with a sigh, he proceeded to close the door. The room was dark and silent. The only light that could be seen was from the moon through the window. Soyokaze sat on his bed, looking through the window.
"Beauty and a frightening feeling. Things that are so different, but in the moon, fitting so right with each other." He said marvelous. "Am I in love with the moon?" He opened the window and the wind from outside flowed inside the room. With his skin being softly caressed by the cold breeze.
Soyokaze pulled out his phone, just to notice that it looked different. Instead of being a regular smartphone with a simple black plastic case, it had a blue metallic case which was even bigger.
"What the hell?" He said as he pressed the Home button to check if that was his actual phone.
"This is my phone, but. I never changed the case." He looked incredulous at the phone. He roamed around the phones menu and indeed that was his phone. Apps, wallpapers, configuration, accounts, etc. Everything was in place.
"This has been a very weird day." He said as he placed the phone on the fitment next to him and left the room to take a shower to finally go to sleep.
While Soyokaze was taking a shower, the phone turned on displaying a bunch of binary codes "randomly". Suddenly, a huge lightning stroke and the thunder that arrived a few seconds later was very loud.
Soyokaze entered his room, tired and confused. He grabbed his phone just to witness an egg displayed in a blank space. The egg was pumping and doing a weird cracking sound, like if something was trying to release itself from within.
"What is this?" He wondered. In no time he realized the egg, was not just an egg. "A digi-egg?" He was even more confused of what was going on. "What is going on here?" With nothing else to say, he just connected his phone to the charger which was on the fitment and left his phone charging, while he just went to sleep.