Of Relations and Rocks
I do not own Digimon, the characters in it, or any other franchise I may accidentally mention. This is fan-made, and not for profit. Enjoy.
"Kouichi?"
I looked up, startled as I met my own eyes. Or rather, my twin brother's eyes. Even then, it took me a moment to realize that Kouji wasn't some kind of oddly distorted mirror. I'd only actually really gotten to know him a week ago, so it was still a little startling to know that I had a brother in the first place.
"Kouichi, are you okay?" Kouji asked again. "You should watch where you were going." He pointed to the lamppost I'd just accidentally walked into. It was an accident, okay? I'd been spacing out while thinking about the situation we were in, more importantly the whole digital world was in. It's a long story...You'd probably be better off hearing it from one of the others, since I hadn't even joined the others until a week before, and I'm really not very good at talking. But if you want the short version, we were trying to stop a pair of nutcases called the Royal Knights from destroying the whole Digital World in order to bring back a bigger monster called Lucemon.
I smiled awkwardly as he reached a hand down to help me to my feet.
"I'm fine, thanks," I said softly. I don't really have a loud voice. People are constantly asking me to speak up, especially in big crowds like the one we were currently in. The trailmon terminal at Aquamarine city, one of those few cities left that the Royal Knights hadn't gotten around to scanning yet. Or at least trying to scan. We'd have to worry about that when they got here. Anyways, the Trailmon terminal was crowded, far too crowded for six humans, plus three child digimon, to stand out. I think it was mostly refugees from the Royal Knights' attacks, plus some digimon who were fleeing the city in hopes of finding some place where the Knights wouldn't attack them. I sighed and turned back to hear what the others were saying.
"...We need to find some way of warning the city," Takuya was saying. "The big cities are usually where they keep the Digicode, right..? They'll be here, and we'll be ready for them."
"But when are they going to be here?" Junpei asked. "We should try to evacuate the city, but that's assuming we have enough time for it."
"And that's if they believe a bunch of humans," Izumi added. "That Rosemon we met on the Trailmon kept shooting off her mouth about the Royal Knights being no match for the city's defenses."
"Look, we'll worry about that when the Knights get here," Takuya snapped, irritably.
"Yeah, but what if the Knights decide they're going for this place last?" Tomoki asked. "We have to find out where they're going next."
"Any ideas, Bokomon?" Kouji asked one of our digimon companions. The little grayish-white child level responded by hauling his book out of his belt. The other two digimon, the eternally clueless Neemon and Bokomon's adopted "baby," Patamon hovered over him, literally in Patamon's case.
"According to this Aquamarine City is the biggest city in the Water region," he squeaked pompously. "It's famous for its' gems and crystals..."
"That doesn't tell us anything about the Royal Knights," Izumi pointed out. Bokomon threw down his book in frustration.
"What are you expecting, a magical map of the Digital World? I'm doing the best I can!"
"Well, maybe we should split up and ask around," Junpei said. "There's a lot of digimon here, maybe one of them knows something about 'em."
"That sounds like a good idea," Takuya remarked. "Let's get cracking."
"Right," Kouji said. "C'mon, Kouichi."
It was about this time that Bokomon suddenly realized that his book was no longer on the ground, and that Neemon was using it as a hat.
"You idiot!" He snapped. "Give me that!"
Maybe I should tell you what Aquamarine City looks like. It's a large, diamond-shaped island in the middle of a river. We didn't really need Bokomon to tell us that the place was famous for its' gems, it was right there in front of your face. There were jewels everywhere. Lamp posts, tables, plates, almost everywhere you could see were jewels. Some of the fancier buildings even used rubies and sapphires as shingles for their roofs. The buildings were mostly normal, though. And the sidewalks were normal concrete, at least as normal as you could get in this world. Still, I couldn't help wondering if anyone ever stole any jewels, and what would happen if they got caught? It was a good question, especially with all the refugees coming in.
I never liked crowds. Maybe it's the fact that I don't like noise too much...I don't think Kouji liked the crowd too much either. It mostly showed in how tense his shoulders were. Still, we went from digimon to digimon asking about the Knights. Most of what we got were the usual horrifying tales of friends and relatives who'd either fell to the Knights or hadn't been able to make it out when their homes were scanned. It was heartbreaking, to say the least. But beyond that, the digital refugees had no idea where the Knights had headed next.
"This is getting us nowhere," Kouji grumbled as we pulled out of the crowd and onto a neighboring sidestreet. "You'd think one of those digimon would look back to see where the Knights were going."
"I can't really blame them," I said. "I mean, if someone destroyed your home, wouldn't you be more interested in looking for survivors than seeing where they went?"
Kouji scowled. "Probably. We should see if the others found anything useful."
As we turned to go, something caught my eye in the row of stores. It was a bookstore. I hadn't been near any kind of place with books in such a long time...
"Kouichi? What is it?"
"Huh?" I hadn't realized that I'd stopped walking. "Oh, sorry. It's just that I haven't been able to read a book since...Since we got here."
"You like books, big brother?"
I winced a bit at the reminder that, in terms of birth order, I was the older brother. "-Ichi" means "One," after all, and "-Ji," the way it's written in Kouji's name at least, means "Two." In a way, I still thought of myself as an only child. Then again, I'd had more time to adjust to suddenly being twins than Kouji had.
"Y-Yeah," I said. "I...Well, Mom's usually out working, and there isn't much for me to do, so I usually end up at the library. Besides, there's a lot of good fantasy books there."
Kouji cracked a grin at me. "Well, I guess we can spend a few minutes there before we meet the others, at least."
The bookstore was run by a slightly ruffled looking Hawkmon. He looked up as we entered and harrumphed.
"Human children. Just what I need."
I ignored him and went directly to the bookshelves. About half the books were readable, the rest of them were in that strange code that was in Bokomon's book. There was one on the shelf just above my head that caught my eye. In Darkest night: The element of Darkness, huh? I grabbed it and began skimming through it. Behind me, I could hear Kouji trying to get some information out of that Hawkmon.
"Hey, you got any books on the Royal Knights?"
"Every book on the Royal Knights and the war on Lucemon was bought when the Knights started scanning everything," the Hawkmon said exasperatedly. "And since they're scanning everything, there's no other cities or towns to get new books. Do you understand me?"
Kouji rolled his eyes and wandered over where I was standing.
"So much for getting information," he sighed. I poked my nose out of the book long enough to nod agreement. Kouji curiously leaned over to look at the title of the book.
"Sounds like your kind of thing," he remarked. "I wish human money worked in this world...I could've gotten it for you to make up for some of those birthdays and Christmases we missed."
"Yeah," I said with a sigh as I put the book back. "If it weren't for the Knights, I'd be looking for a library right now."
If it weren't for the Knights...It was such an easy thing to say. If it weren't for them, I thought, I'd be at home, trying to get used to life with a brother. Not to mention a father and stepmother...
As we turned to go, there was suddenly a earth-shaking rumble, like something nearby had exploded. The Knights! I thought in horror as Kouji and I exchanged a quick glance, then ran out the door.
It wasn't the Royal Knights this time. In fact it was a house a few houses down that was going up in flames. We both staggered to a stop just outside it where a crowd of onlookers was quickly gathering, but because of the raging flames nobody seemed all that eager to try and help.
"Did everyone get out safely?" Kouji asked a nearby Piccolomon.
"I don't know," it squeaked back. "But there was a Muchomon living on the top floor with her brood of Poromon. I think they might still be in there!"
"C'mon," Kouji said, grabbing my arm.
In the midst of all that chaos it was easy to slip out of the crowd and find a quieter alley to Spirit Evolve. Spirit Evolution is like...It's a little hard to describe from the inside...Well, the best description I can think of is it's a little bit like flying. Or...Actually, it's more the thrill you feel when you're on a roller coaster, going down that first big dive. One minute you're human, the next the rush kicks in and that spirit engulfs you, that part's like growing into a giant. Actually, one could say it is growing into a giant. I think it might be different for the others, but for me it's kind of like soaring off into outer space. On the outside all you see is a swirl of digicode engulfing the human and the digimon comes out. Instead of Kouji and I, it was Wolfmon and Lowemon.
Anyways, once we evolved it was only a matter of jumping off a nearby tree to the house next door, then on top of the burning house. Once we were inside, we carefully began looking for any digimon who were still inside. This job was made harder by the swirling smoke that clogged the throat and blurred vision. Still, we searched through the rooms on the top floor and soon found one room which was blocked off by debris falling from the ceiling. A Muchomon huddled in the corner farthest away from the flames with about five or six Poromon squawked in surprise as Kouji-Or should I say, Wolfmon kicked the debris away enough to open the door.
"It's all right," he reassured the panicked Muchomon. "We're here to get you out!"
The Muchomon gaped at him for a second or two, then nodded.
"Come on, everyone," she chirped. "Stay together."
They all followed her except for one. I think it was too scared by the flames to move.
"What are you waiting for?!" Wolfmon snapped brusquely. "Get moving!"
The Poromon flinched and dove under a nearby bed.
"Honey, you can come out," the Muchomon told it. "I think these two are Legendary Warriors. You remember, from those bedtime stories?"
There was no response. The flames were getting closer, and I had no idea how much longer this place was going to stay intact. I sighed and de-evolved back to being human.
"Kouichi, what are you doing?" Wolfmon demanded.
"Well, you can't fit under the bed in that armor," I said, crawling under the bed myself. The Poromon stared at me with huge eyes as as I held out a hand to it. I've always liked birds. Not even my experience as Velgmon changed that. My grandmother, when I was really little, had a pet canary. He would sing all day, making a big noise for such a little bird. I was nine when he died. My mom had told me that if we ever moved into an apartment which allowed pets, she'd get me a canary just like him. Of course, that had been before her last job had laid her off and she'd gotten that other job...
"Hey," I told the Poromon. "Everything's gonna be okay now. I've got you."
The Poromon blinked, then took one or two hops towards my hand. Finally, after what felt like an eternity it hopped within reach. I stood up with the Poromon cradled against my chest.
"Let's get out of here," Wolfmon said, as he left the room. The Muchomon and the rest of her brood followed, and I brought up the rear, still carrying the one Poromon. As we headed down the hall, I noticed that the digimon were having a somewhat easier time getting through all the smoke than we were, because they were so small. Then I could see the light from a nearby window. Wolfmon held up his arm and blew it out with one blast from the laser on top of it.
"Everyone get ready!" He picked up the Muchomon, with one hand, and was trying to scoop up the Poromon with the other, when there was another massive rumble, this time right on top of us.
"Kouichi!" Wolfmon yelled. I had just enough realize that the house's ceiling was collapsing around us and to lean over the Poromon protecting it before a part of it hit me and everything went black.
Author's Notes: First time I've tried this in a very long time...I probably should've gotten it beta read, but my computer gave me a recent scare. That, and it's better written than some stories I've read here. So the actual notes...Not much for this first part. This 'fic probably needs some more polish, even the name was kinda thrown in at the last second, because I couldn't think of anything better to call it.
I'm trying to stick to the Japanese version as much as possible (sorry, dubbies) but I'm also trying to keep all the Japanese terms to straight English so I won't confuse those few people who don't know what "Nii-san" means (sorry, purists) Anyways, that's all I got for now. The story's all finished, I just want to upload a chapter every day or so so you guys won't have to wait long. See ya' next time!