Chapter 1: "Digimon World?"

Legend

Italics shows character thoughts

Word shows Date, time, and location

-Word- Shows Noises, or actions such as sighing

N/A: I did this ASAP since I thought the Prologue might not be enough for the readers to judge my story. Now we meet the kids! Or some of them anyway. Enjoy their introductions!

PS: Thanks to Broken Angel 01 for her help in making this story! I really am very thankful!

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POV: Taiki Yamada

"Oh, there you are. Wake up, Taiki!" A shrill voice commanded.

Huh?

Taiki Yamada slowly opened his eyes, closed them again, and repeated twice before he realized that he had been sleeping again. He blinked as the shade shifted and a ray of sunlight caught him in the eye, forcing him to turn away from the gentle stab.

"TAIKI! WAKE UP!" The voice came at a trumpet like volume.

"Huh!" Taiki suddenly jerked up in response to the noise and lost his balance. He was then instantly reminded that he was up in a tree, straddled on a thick branch where he fell asleep. As his body obeyed the law of gravity his hazel eyes open in surprise as he began to plummet!

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Taiki yelled at the top of his lungs with powerful force as he came crashing down to Earth.

"ACK! TAIKI!" The voice called out in alarm. More screaming was heard and then the loud thump of two people hitting the ground hard. From the small rising dust cloud one could make out the moaning of two very upset ten year old children.

"Oww…." Taiki murmured, laying flat on his stomach, the hood of his grayish-blue hoodie falling over his head.

"Get…off…Tai…ki…"

Taiki looked down to see he had flattened his best friend, Tommy Draggers , into a pancake. The boy quickly scrambled off of his friend and helped him to his feet. Afterwards both boys went about dusting themselves off in silence.

Taiki patted out his gray cargo pants, and unzipped his hoodie, splitting the image of a fox in half, to shake out the dust that had gotten under his faded blue tee-shirt that his brother handed down to him. He then checked his other items, his brown army boots that his dad gave to him and his grandfathers pocket watch. He also shook his messy hair to get all the dust out. People always said that Taiki looked like a badly groomed dog with a coat.

"Geez, how many times have we done this, Taiki?" Tommy asked as he checked himself as well.

Tommy dressed like he had just gotten back from a war. Dark camouflage jeans, a dark green sleeveless shirt under an U.S. Army Flak jacket. He then ran a hand through his very short hair to make sure he didn't have an dust or twigs hanging around with him. It fit him perfectly though. Everyone knew that Tommy wanted to go into the Military like his dad, who was stationed here from the U.S. In fact, Taiki knew that when Tommy grew up he would probably be an exact clone of his father! They were so much alike, right down to their black hair and crew cuts. The only exception being his blue eyes while his father had green.

"Sorry…I just fell asleep.." Taiki mumbled. He always waited for Tommy to get out of recreational soccer practice so they could hang out after school. Tommy was the all-star goalie that everyone wanted when recess was in play, the elementary schools didn't have official teams like the Jr. and High School levels.

"That's not the problem. It's the fact you fall asleep in a tree!" Tommy groaned as he pointed to the only oak on the school grounds, which allowed all recreational sports use to host games. It was big, old, and no one could remember when it hadn't been around. Some people went as far as to say it was older then the school itself.

"Yeah…well…" Taiki mumbled again, trying to think of a good reason to excuse himself. Taiki hated to argue with people and could not stand to have people mad at him so he never stood up for himself and always tried to make people happy. He was a peace loving person and that was that.

"-Sigh- Forget it. I know you love trees and nature and all that. I just wish you wouldn't fall asleep and then land on me!" Tommy joked as he jabbed his friend in the side.

Oww. Taiki looked the other way to avoid showing Tommy that the jab had hurt his side. He hid the expression by zipping up his hoodie all the way up and throwing his hood back and shook his head again to make sure no dust had been stowed away somewhere. He stuffed his hands into the pockets and turned his gaze back to his friend.

"I heard a game store opened up today. Want to go check it out?" Tommy asked.

"It doesn't matter to me. If you want to go then lets go." Taiki smiled.

"…Taiki, I asked if YOU wanted to check it out!" Tommy stated while turning to face his friend head on.

"I know, and I said it doesn't bother me. Lets go." Taiki said again, unsure of what Tommy wanted to hear.

"Okay, then I don't want to go." Tommy said, trying to act annoyed.

"Oh, okay." Came Taiki's quick reaction.

Tommy stared at his best friend with a dumb look on his face. It was a known fact that they were the most obscure best friends ever conceived, the nature lover and the wannabe soldier. They had been introduced to one another through their fathers, Tommy's being in the U.S. military and Taiki's being in the Japanese military.

Despite how odd the pair looked no one could say they weren't best of friends. They did practically everything together, where ever Tommy was Taiki couldn't be to far behind, even if he was just tagging along. When Taiki was being made fun of or pushed around, Tommy was there to help him. When Tommy needed help with school or studying, Taiki was there for him. Two very different people, true, but the two just seemed to be two halves of an equation that came out evenly.

At this time though Taiki was staring at his friend who's left eye was twitching and who's right hand was tightening and un-tightening. Taiki wondered if his friend was having some stress related problem.

"You okay, Tommy?" Taiki asked as he punched his friend softly on the shoulder.

"Argh! TAIKI! Why do you always do that!" Tommy demanded, as if triggered by Taiki's obliviousness to the situation.

"Do what?" Taiki asked, completely unaware of his own actions.

"Always agree with everyone? Why don't you say what you want? Do you want to go to the store or not!" Tommy asked, this time with real seriousness.

Uh oh…Tommy's getting that look in his eye again. I had better say something to make him happy. Let's see…he likes those war games so I'll just say we should go check them out! Then he'll be happy cause he can get a game and I'll be saying that I want to go too!

"Uh…well. I heard that it might have some pretty cool games. We can even look at some of those war games you like!" Taiki said, trying to sound as interested as possible. Truth by told he didn't care much for games and preferred to just sit outside all day in the woods and do…well…. whatever came to his mind.

"Finally! You need to speak out some more, you know?" Tommy asked as he put and arm around his friend and they began down the sidewalk after leaving the school grounds. Taiki found it funny that even though Tommy was the big bad military guy he was an inch shorter then Taiki. Taiki believed it was the vegetables he loved so much.

"Hehehe, sorry." Taiki apologized.

"Don't apologize for voicing your….ugh…never mind, Taiki, just never mind…."

Taiki looked oddly at his friend as he hung his head, removing his hand from around his shoulder and putting them in his pockets. He took a deep breath and then put his smile back on. Taiki smiled at his friend for that, no matter what you did to Tommy he always bounced back stronger then ever. It was one of the reasons he admired him so much.

"OKAY! Race you down the sidewalk, Taiki! Ready, set, go!" Tommy declared as he bolted down the street.

"NO FAIR!" Taiki whined as he ran after his friend, attempting to close the gap between them. He didn't care much about winning but it still wasn't fair for Tommy to just run off like that!

Down the street, around the corner, across two streets, and a final turn brought them to the street they needed to be at. The whole street used to be a bunch of dead stores that the government bought and sold to people wanting to start a new business, to try and bring some life back to the place.

Tommy and Taiki walked, after exhausting their strength at the second street crossing, and were now slowly making their way down the street, slowly this time. The street itself wasn't too packed, many of the adults still being at work meant that only kids could check the stores out at this time of day. The two paid attention in case they saw something else that might be cool to check out, they had saved up a months worth of allowance to splurge here after all.

Taiki had stopped to pet a ladies dog as she passed by, not noticing that Tommy had gone on ahead. When he did notice he quickly bolted down the sidewalk, through the sparse crowd of kids and the few adults who weren't working.

"WHATCH OUT!" A voice yelled at him, prompting him to slam on his breaks. Too late. For the second time today Taiki had collided with someone. The two people hit and then repelled off of each other and fell unto their butts.

"I'm sorry! I was trying to catch up too…" Taiki slowly stopped his talking as he noticed who it was that he ran into.

Of all the people in school, there was no one he feared more then Ayumi Fujiwara, the infamous tomboy of the 5th grade. There was never a meaner, rougher, and louder girl then her. Taiki had only been at this school for a year but he had a lot of history with her already. Ayumi was a girl who wanted to be a boy so bad that she absolutely hated girls for being girls and hated boys for being lucky enough to be boys.

She even dressed like a boy. Loose baggy blue pants were held around her slim waist by a belt, refusing to wear skirts or dresses, though Taiki did notice that her pants had a wing design at the ankle of all her pants. She wore a shirt that is was pretty loose as well, with a big logo saying, "Girly girls make me sick!". She then wore double red wrist bands on each arm.

Not only that but she hated Taiki more then any other boy. She said that he was a bad boy, in the sense that he didn't know how to be a boy. She picked on him everywhere, in soccer she would kick the ball right at him as hard as she could and if Taiki couldn't stop it she yelled at him until her head was ready to explode! When Taiki refused to stand up for himself she called him a coward, idiot, spineless, and so on. Anything she could pin on him for being soft she would do it, with a burning passion.

"Grrr…Yamada…you clumsy…fool!" She barked at him. Taiki had never seen someone stand up so fast in his life. She was on his feet and yelling at him already.

He looked up at her and winced as her voice continued to grow in volume and rapid words that streamed together into a foreign language that Taiki couldn't understand. He looked at her and just nodded guiltily and waited until she had finished, while mumbling how he was sorry and that he didn't mean to hit her. Taiki kept his head down feeling that her eyes, the same shade as his, felt like they were drilling into his skull.

"Leave him, alone, Fujiwara!" Tommy cried out, as he returned to save Taiki.

"This doesn't concern you, Draggers!" Ayumi called out, flipping her red hair, held in a ponytail, over his shoulder. That was the biggest mystery about her, why she wanted long hair but dress like a boy. Taiki thought it must be her family or something that makes her have it long. Her face was also very girl like, in Taiki's words, though she was always frowning and scowling so she ruined what was probably a pretty face.

"He's my comrade! I won't abandon him, so back off!" Tommy snapped as he got between Taiki and Ayumi.

"This isn't a war, you dolt! And you aren't a soldier!" Ayumi spat back as she glared at Taiki menacingly.

"I said I'm sorry…" Taiki muttered under his breath.

"What was that!" Ayumi asked loudly.

"Don't apologize to her, Taiki. It was an accident! And for your information, Fujiwara, any friend of mine is a comrade!" Tommy proclaimed as he stood his ground against the relentless assault of Ayumi.

The three stood in silence then. Tommy staring down Ayumi who was staring down Taiki who looked down at the ground with his hands shoved as far down into his coat pockets as possible and with his head sunk down between his shoulders to hide himself as best he could.

Why does she hate me so much…I didn't do anything to her. It really bothered Taiki when people disliked him and he couldn't figure out why. He felt that he was being a bad person if people hated him.

Tommy looked over his shoulder and shot his glare back to Ayumi, he knew too that it ate away at Taiki to be hated by someone. Tommy reached around and grabbed Taiki's arm and dragged him into the store they had been heading for, blowing past Ayumi who stuck her nose in the air.

"Sheesh, Taiki. You've got to stand up for yourself!" Tommy lectured as they entered the new game store.

"I'm sorry…" Taiki mumbled as he was released from Tommy's grasp.

"Stop saying you're sorry. You don't need to apologize for everything." Tommy sighed and went to look at a game just to their right.

"I'm sorr--"

Tommy glared at Taiki suddenly which caused the boy to jump slightly and refrain for his normal reaction. Taiki then decided to go throughout the store and look around. Nothing really interested him though and he just went about looking at a few things that caught his eye.

He filed through the war games to see if anything interesting was in for Tommy, he loved those games that put you in a past war. So he set out to find something for his friend, even though a fire was starting to brew behind him.

"Draggers! What are you doing here!" A voice demanded loudly, it seemed a lot of people were being loud today.

"Me? What are you doing here Sakamoto!" Tommy responded.

For some reason it took a moment to register the names being called out. Draggers, an American name, was Tommy and Sakamoto…

NO! Not him!

Taiki spun around and was instantly proven this was not his day. Standing in front of him was Riku Sakamoto, who was in second place for people who hated Taiki the most. Riku Sakamoto was the biggest bully to ever come to Taiki's school. He came in during the middle of the year after being thrown out of his last school for fighting, pranks, verbally abusing other kids, and just being a trouble maker.

Everything about him made Taiki shiver. Tight black pants, with a chain on his right hip and holes tore in the pants as well. A long sleeved white tee-shirt under a sleeveless leather jacket, painted jet black with. His hair was a deep chestnut and slicked back, but it didn't look like gel held it in place, it seemed natural. He had a white bandana around his head with the word, "BAD" on it, with his bangs pulled down over it. People said that he thought he had a big forehead which was stupid since all the teachers thought his face was the most perfectly shaped and arranged face on earth. If not for the clothes some people might think he was a saint.

But, like Taiki and Ayumi fought all the time, so did Tommy and Riku. It was a classic good versus evil thing. Riku the Bully and Tommy the Protector. They fought, competed, and struggled against each other on everything. Once Taiki watched them play Tekken for two hours, playing over thirty matches to decide who was the winner. Even after Tommy won they weren't happy.

And to make things worse, Riku loved picking on Taiki. In fact he was his favorite person to push around. Whenever he got a chance, Riku made sure he took it. Gumballs, fake notes, shoving and one fight, well he was fighting while Taiki was backed against a wall. Thankfully, Tommy found out and intervened. Taiki wanted nothing to do with Riku.

Taiki decided to slowly get behind Tommy, to hide himself, and that's when he noticed it. A game that sat by itself. He had never seen it before.

"Mister, can I look at that game?" Taiki asked, pointing to the game.

"You…want this game?" He asked and pointed, as if unsure of what Taiki meant. When Taiki nodded the man suddenly lit up and quickly handed it over.

"Digimon World?" Taiki read aloud.

Oh, yes, it's a very, very interesting game. You play in a world of monsters known as Digimon, you fight with your partner Digimon and try to save the Digital World. it's a very neat game with choices to make, battles to fight, and a world that changes based on your actions."

"Hey, Monsters! I bet my monster could beat yours Draggers!" Riku spat out, grabbing the game from Taiki.

"What! I can beat you at anything! Mister, how much is it!" Tommy asked quickly.

"Oh, no charge. This game is free, trying to advertise it for the next one coming out, take it. You just need a computer." The clerk said and Taiki's, Tommy's, and Riku's face fell. None of them had computers at home and you can't put games on the school computers.

"I got one." Ayumi called out casually. Apparently she had been standing behind the three for sometime now.

"Really! You'd let us use it?" Tommy asked.

"Sure, as long as I get to play with you guys." Ayumi was also famous for wanting to go do anything that involved boy stuff. Playing video games was one of those things.

"Alright. Lets go right now, I want to beat Sakamoto's monsters face in!"

"Hah! I'd like to see you try!" Riku spoke out boastfully.

"Alright, let's go." Ayumi said as she waved them to follow.

Taiki looked at the man behind the counter and he just smiled brightly. He then raced off after his…company to play a game….one very special game.

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A/N: Well, there they are! I'll admit, I have a thing for making unusual characters so I don't blame you if some of the characters don't appeal you all. But! What did you all think of them anyway? Sure, some of them don't get along, but that is part of life, isn't it? Kind of gives it a spice or realism to it when you think about your elementary days.

Next chapter is the Digimon! Stayed tuned for that!

-Arc, short for Arcaner.