Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, but this story is my own.
Other stuff: I mostly referred to the English dub version so the personalities of the characters align more closely with the English dub version than the Japanese version.
But I also looked to the original version for inspiration when I needed it, so perhaps the relationships between the characters or something else is more similar to the original.
Also, though this story is mainly Matt x OC, I made it so it still supports the canon pairings, especially Matt x Sora.
I hope you will enjoy this story. Many thanks for coming here to read~
(Fingers crossed, I hope you'll like it!)
~W
Matt's Reason
December 2002
Day One
1.
I woke up that morning to find that I had left the real world.
Where was I and how did I know this?
I'll answer the second question first.
The reason I knew, before I had even opened my eyes that not only was I not in Odaiba but in a different world was because of a strange noise I heard.
It was a strange but not unfamiliar sound. If my memory serves me, I had first heard it three years ago, back when Tai, Sora, Mimi, Izzy, Joe, and my little brother T.K. were still getting to know the Digital World.
We were locked in a sea of pink then, running for our lives with at least a thousand Yokomon, trying to put as much distance between us and a raging Digimon covered in cackling crimson flames.
Our friend Sora fell behind helping the Yokomon escape. I think she felt a special bond with them because her Digimon partner Biyomon had digivolved from a Yokomon, and this walking, talking pink bulb with a blooming flower on its head was the first Digimon she had encountered on waking up in this new world.
Up until then, we had been in the Digital World for at most one week. The oldest of us only 5th graders then, ignorant and totally inexperienced, but even we were not naïve enough to believe that we had landed in a video game, that everything could be reset by simply hitting a button. On our very first day we had seen these strange creatures risking their lives to save us. They had digivolved—altered form, become stronger—because they wanted to protect us. Though there were so many things that we couldn't quite understand—where we were, how to go home—after seeing them digivolve for the first time, our hearts seemed to have grasped onto something way more important than every technical truth about the Digital World combined. These creatures who called themselves Digimon, Digital Monsters, were our best friends. They would do anything to protect us. Armed with this snippet of knowledge there was no limit to what we were able to overcome.
While the rest of us were running away she alone stayed behind to make sure that Biyomon's friends were also safe. She almost didn't see Meramon sneaking up from behind her but luckily Biyomon's senses were sharp like an eagle's and blasted away that black gear lodged in the poor Digimon's back in the nick of time.
It was the first time Biyomon digivolved into her Champion form.
It was the first time we saw Birdramon soar and heard her ear-splitting cry.
Hearing that distinctive scream again I knew I was no longer in my world. I was in that world when I fell asleep but I must have tripped and stepped through some weird portal while I was dreaming because I was back in the Digital World when I opened my eyes. I felt something soft and prickly nipping at the nape of my neck and noticed that I was lying on a patch of grass at the top of a small hill instead of in my bed at home. I thought it was still early in the morning because the grass was still wet with dew but the sun was shining directly over my head. Against the grass my wrists were cool yet my face was warm. I could already feel beads of sweat gathering on my forehead. I had opened my eyes with some difficulty but the world around me still refused to come into focus. Squinting I managed to catch a blurry glimpse of a fiery orange storm soaring across the pale sky.
I knew at once that it was Birdramon.
In that instant Sora's face flashed across my mind.
If Birdramon's here she must be close by too, I thought. Could she be in some sort of danger?
If Tai had been there he would have run straight to her without a second's delay. But somehow I still had doubts about whether this was the real Digital World.
How did I get here? I wondered. What were the chances that I had slipped through time and space as I was sleeping, coincidentally fell through the correct portal and landed back inside this world?
And where was Gabumon? If I really was where I thought I was, Gabumon should already be beside me. Wherever I was he was never too far off. In this world danger lurked behind every corner and Gabumon always made sure he was around to protect me.
This was another reason I wasn't too concerned about Sora. What tough, evil Digimon hadn't we faced and defeated back in the day? As long as Birdramon was with her I wasn't so worried.
I had no doubt though that Tai would have scolded me for not rushing off to help our friend. In case the subject was ever to surface the next time we talked, I couldn't let him know how I just lay back and waited as his girlfriend and her Digimon battled tooth and nail against whatever huge and ugly monster they were currently facing. With still no idea how to go about the fact that Gabumon was nowhere to be seen and that I had started leaving my own digivice in my sock drawer instead of keeping it close at hand, I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Slowly, after almost a minute, I was able to see my surroundings clearly. I looked up to the sky. Again I heard Birdramon's screech but didn't catch the scorching red nebula shooting across it a second time.
At the top of the green hill I could see Primary Village in its entirety. Three years had passed since the eight of us came home, but I recognized it for its bright, playful colours and the buildings that seemed to be made of the toy blocks that T.K. used to play with when he was still a kid.
To the left was a huge sandpit and to the right a Tsunomon village extended towards the horizon. A dense forest of trees was stationed behind me, and I couldn't shake off the impression that I had seen it somewhere before.
Birdramon had flown into the sea of dark swaying treetops and disappeared. Thinking that Sora must be inside the forest or in a similar clearing on the other side, I stepped inside after her, calling out her name repeatedly at the top of my lungs.
"SORA! Are you there?! SORA!"
Strangely though, the more times I called out for her and the further into the forest I walked, the warmer my heart grew. I recalled happy memories and at the same time I felt the old ache thumping against my chest once more.
I kept shouting but I guessed Sora couldn't hear me because not once did she answer my calls. Hastening my pace, a strange feeling that I would never reach the end of this forest suddenly came over me. But I didn't slow down as I could already see the speck of light that marked the edge of the clearing.
Somewhere along the way, in the fuzzy shade of the towering trees, I began to feel an awful heaviness around my neck. About the same time the place where Gabumon bit me years ago started to hurt. To be honest I had fully forgotten about that incident since the wound disappeared almost immediately after Gabumon and I escaped Darkness and it had left no physical scar. This was the first time I had felt any pain from it in three years. The first time I was able to sense the intensity of Gabumon's helplessness and despair at the time.
Soon I also noticed that my left wrist was still bandaged from the time I was stung by a Flymon in an attack.
I remember thinking that it was very odd. The Flymon attack and my falling into Darkness happened on completely separate occasions—weeks or even months apart. There was no way the sting injury hadn't healed already by the time we faced the Dark Masters, I thought, could it be that I had not only tripped through a portal bringing me back to the Digital World but was now victim of a technical error, a vengeful virus, that was scrambling around the sequence and timing of events that had occurred here before?
I was confused but I didn't slow down and as I ran I started asking all sorts of funny questions.
Was this Birdramon really Sora's Birdramon?
What if this other Birdramon was only luring me to a trap set up by the enemy?
What if the person on the other side of the forest was not Sora?
What if this was all a dream?
Would I really find her?
I ran for about another two or three hundred metres with these wild questions echoing inside my brain. No matter how I tried I couldn't get rid of these voices. They were like warnings, telling me that I had to prepare myself for the worst. I didn't have my digivice on me and I didn't have Gabumon. The Digital World seemed a truly unpredictable and malicious place without Gabumon beside me.
All reviews are welcome! Thanks :3
