Daisuke's Journal

[Purpose in Another World]

The sun shone down brightly as the children of Odaiba elementary played around before the first bell. A couple of kids were playing soccer, while others chatted while walking around, and a few kids had started a game of marbles near the door.

Daisuke smiled his famous, one-of-a-kind, happy-go-lucky, 100% fake smile to his 'friends' and team-mates as he raced along with them on the field.

"Pass me the ball!"

"Kick it!"

"Look out!" A couple of kids laughed as their friend tripped over a shoe that was marking the goal post, and landed in the mud.

"Here you go Davis!" A redhead called to him, nudging the ball over.

Daisuke kicked the ball and tried to pass to a messy haired brunette girl who had been the one to try and warn the goalkeeper of the shoe-post.

"Get it!" He called, kicking as hard as he could. Unfortunately the girl, despite being a lot older then any of them, and just hanging out before the High school let in, was also much shorter than everyone on the field.

"Yikes!" She missed.

Just then a kid wearing a White hat, a yellow and blue long-sleeved shirt and shorts came in through the gates, following Inoue Miyako – Momoe's younger sister – and Hida Iori.

He had stopped following them to stare at the game with an unreadable look on his face. Daisuke would have been irritated at the fact that he didn't recognise the look on the blonde's face, if he hadn't been too busy worrying that the soccer ball flying at him might break his nose.

"Look out!" A few voices cried as one, including him and the brunette teenager – who everyone called Muddy. To their surprise, however, the blond easily caught the ball and gave it a bemused look.

"Basketball players." Daisuke heard someone mutter. He quickly hurried across to get the ball – his own soccer ball from when he was 7 – back from the new kid.

"Nice kick Davis-Kun!" Muddy laughed as she dusted off her high school uniform. Wincing at his American name Daisuke went up to the blond and waved to get his attention.

"Hey! Kick it back!" He didn't want to say 'Give it back' because that would be rude, no matter how tempted he was to say it. He'd known a blond kid back in his old school that liked to steal his things and money from him.

Apparently this blond hadn't heard him so Daisuke tried another approach.

"Hey! Thanks! Great catch!" The kid looked up and smiled, passing the ball back. He then eyed Daisuke carefully.

"You look familiar." He said. Daisuke blinked, slightly stunned. How could anyone say such a thing about him? It was impossible wasn't it? Did this guy see a crude picture of himself on his web site? The kid finally stopped staring and smiled. "It must be the goggles!"

"Huh?" Was all Daisuke managed to say, feeling utterly confused.

"Hey Davis!" Called the redhead kid, named Jasper. "You're holding up the game!" Muddy laughed at the blank look on Daisuke's face as he turned to look at them.

Daisuke quickly kicked the ball back and ran towards them, forgetting about the strange blonde kid. Muddy bounced the ball off her head and kicked in the direction of the opposite goal line.

*

Later Daisuke made his way to Class A, his soccer ball under one arm, the other tugging at his bag strap. He carried the small bag around with him everywhere, since it had his 'work' in it, though with nothing much to do with school.

He came in to see a young girl with chin-length chestnut Brown hair, and bright Amber-Brown eyes, a lot different from Muddy's dark Aquamarine. This was Hikari.

"Hey 'Kari!" He said dropping his bag under his desk. "What luck your in my class again!" It was an old joke, and it never ceased to make her smile.

"I wouldn't call that luck Davis." She replied, smiling happily at her friend. He only smiled back, sitting at his desk and dropping the soccer ball beneath. He pulled out his notebook and wrote down a few ideas for songs and stories. Once Hikari had asked him what he was doing and he'd told her was just writing out some things.

"What like strategies for soccer?"

"Yeah, kind of." It wasn't really a lie, but it was close enough.

Hikari pulled out her textbook and was flipping through until she came to a White, pink and purple bookmark and started reading.

"Hey," Daisuke remembered. "The weirdest thing happened earlier." Hikari looked up at him, interested. "This new kid said I reminded him of someone. Probably thinks I'm a movie star!" He tried not to laugh at his own joke, though Hikari rolled her eyes and gave a quiet giggle.

Just then the teacher stood up, causing everyone to scramble to his or her seats and quiet down.

"Hamasaki-Sensei desu," He droned. "I'll be your teacher. And now I'd like you to welcome a new student." He waved to the door as a young boy came in and smiled at the class.

"Hajimemashite," [Pleased to meet you] he told them all with a bow. "Takaishi Takeru to mooshimasu." [My name is…]

"It's that kid!" Daisuke said to himself, though he was certain Hikari might have heard him too.

"Take a seat next to the girl with the camera around her neck," Hamasaki-sensei told Takeru. That was Hikari, who enjoyed taking pictures of almost everything.

Daisuke watched as Takeru scanned the room before he noticed Hikari, fingering the small metal object on a yellow string, her camera. He grinned, his eyes instantly lighting up. He took a seat next to her, opposite Daisuke.

"Together again!" He told her quietly, so as not to disturb the teacher who was busy writing about tenses on the blackboard. This however caught the attention of the goggle-boy beside Hikari, across the small aisle.

"Just like old times!" Hikari grinned. They looked happy together, as if they had never been apart.

'What?!' Daisuke thought, knowing he was making one hell of a funny face. 'That kid's making a move on my girl!' Now to be honest Daisuke knew very well that Hikari wasn't 'His girl' but he would refer to her as such in a friendly manner. Though half the time he'd sometimes call her his sister just to get her to laugh, especially when she didn't seem to be having a good day.

But right now all Daisuke could think of was how Hikari was his one true friend, and how now that this new kid was here, she was ignoring him. If he'd have made the very expression he was making now, to probably someone else, she would have taken a picture of it and laughed. She laughed all right, but not because of Daisuke.

"Our teacher looks like Ogremon!" Takeru whispered to Hikari, though Daisuke could hear him just fine. Hikari laughed, but quietly. Daisuke knew one thing: today was not a good day.

**

Daisuke wandered home, feeling somewhat ill. He half felt like throwing up, half felt like jumping around laughing. But still a part of him was too caught up in his thoughts that the other halves didn't matter. The Dejitarukai [Digital World], to say the least, was pretty cool.

Coming back to this world had kind of been like waking up from a dream. They'd accidentally landed on top of Koushiro, though, so that told him it probably wasn't.

Everything was so beautiful and peaceful in the Digiworld, at least at first glance, then everywhere you looked there were monsters, danger, dark rings and Kami knows what else! It made Daisuke dizzy again. He continually remembered two things very well, and surprisingly they had nothing to do with people putting him down or laughing at him or anything similar.

--Flashback--

He looked up and found he was hurtling through a small area of light and colour, like what you might only see in your dreams. Only a gasp later and he was standing on lush grass, with Takeru and Hikari standing just in front of him. The dizziness was gone, replaced by a faint feeling of warmth, like he was wearing a jacket of some sort.

"Woah…" He managed, blinking in astonishment. "I just got downloaded… Cool!" Might as well lighten the mood before he completely freaked out.

All around them was a lush green forest with gorgeous flowers and types of trees he didn't recognise.

"So this is the Digital World, huh?" He asked getting amused looks from Takeru and Hikari. He grinned to make them happy, knowing that it always worked before. He then peered down and noticed that he was no longer wearing his normal get up of shorts; a long sleeved Black-blue top, and a sleeveless denim jacket. He now wore a fake-fur rimmed, dark purple jacket, embroidered with a flame design in orange, yellow and red. Under the jacket were a tan coloured t-shirt and a pair of yellow gloves. "This place comes with a new wardrobe!" he exclaimed, startled. He was greatful for the gloves, which he could feel hid his bandages.

What if the bandages hadn't materialized along with the rest of the new get up? Would his wrists start bleeding again? He ignored this thought and became immensely greatful for both the gloves and the fact that the bandages were still firmly fastened.

"Over this way," Hikari called. She'd started up ahead while Daisuke was carefully inspecting his gloves. The two boys hurried after her, their feet making little to no noise on the soft, springy turf.

The sun shone brightly overhead, in a clear blue sky. There was a faint warm breeze, and everything appeared calm and peaceful. Daisuke breathed in the scent of the closer wild flowers, smiling slightly.

*

"This place doesn't seem so scary," He scoffed as he followed behind Hikari and Takeru, both of which were still looking rather anxious. He knew he wasn't talking very loud, so they might not have heard him. "Taichi made it sound as though there were monsters everywhere." He looked to his right, still peaceful and amused, only to see the strangest thing you could ever find in the middle of a forest.

"Hey guys, check it out!" He called to his friends, pointing at the sight. "A vending machine." Sure enough there was the aforementioned machine, sitting on a faint angle, hidden against a few trees.

Daisuke, wondering if the thing might work, dug into his pocket for some spare change. He didn't find any, having given it to the resident school bully to pay for not having his nose flattened.

Just then the machine shook, causing the ground to do so as well, and then hundreds of little green, slug-like creatures with eyes on tiny stalks, poured out of the machines slot.

Daisuke was petrified as the things all swarmed towards him, causing him to fall on his backside in the dirt, as they wound around him, making strange gargling, muttering sounds as they went past.

Needless to say the look on Daisuke's face was somewhat priceless. So much in fact, that when he looked over to Takeru and Hikari for help, the two were too busy cracking up at the sight.

The creatures – Numemon – all wandered off, leaving the trio behind. Daisuke got to his feet, still shaking slightly and wishing for even just a little compassion. He got none, as the two others were still laughing slightly.

"Ha, ha, very funny." He muttered to them as he absently caught his balance and wandered towards them. "Were those things Digimon?"

"Yep!" Hikari grinned. "There's tons of other Digimon, too, that are a lot cuter than those."

"And a lot scarier ones, too." Takeru added, almost as if reminding Hikari.

'Okay,' Daisuke thought, trying to hold his fear and keep the blood from leaving his face. 'So some Digimon are cute, and some are scary, and some of them look like bug-eyed slugs… great.'

"I just have one question," Daisuke tried aloud, more to be cautious then to joke. "Do they all come out of vending machines?" But the others merely ignored him, though Daisuke still debated over wether that was a good thing or not.

"They're real close by," A Human voice said suddenly. A moment later Taichi stepped into view, followed by three odd creatures. "There!" Taichi cried, grinning as he noticed his sister and Takeru.

"T.K.!" The one creature squeaked. It was orange and tan, with bat-like wings for ears, and sparkling blue eyes.

"Patamon!" Takeru cried as the orange bat-pig tackled him in a friendly, I-missed-you, puppy type way. "Boy, am I glad to see you!" Daisuke didn't know what scared him more, the fact that the strange creatures could talk, or the fact that they seemed to be friends with the others of the group.

The white cat-like creature wearing yellow gloves, striped with dark orange, bounded over to the brunette girl, shouting:

"'Kari!" Hikari scooped the Digimon in to her arms, hugging her happily.

"Tailmon!" She cried.

The other Digimon stayed next to Taichi. It looked like a small orange Dinosaur, with big emerald eyes, which had golden flecks glinting in them.

"Hi guys!" Taichi waved. "I'm glad you made it."

"Tai, I told 'em you'd be all right." Daisuke nodded, smiling slightly. Taichi suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked as though he were going to fall over.

"Daisuke?!" He cried; using his full name cause he kept forgetting the shortened version. "What are you doing here?"

At that moment Hikari's smile faded as she noticed something different about her partner.

"Your tail ring…" She said seriously. Taichi ignored Daisuke to look over at his sister and her Digimon. Daisuke breathed a sigh; not liking the look Taichi had been giving him.

Tailmon looked at her tail sadly and nodded – her healing ring was gone.

"Tell me what happened." Hikari urged gently.

"I was being chased by Unimon," Tailmon started, her soft voice filling their ears. "He was using his Horn Blaster attack. I ran as hard as I could, but he caught up with me. His hoof landed on my ring, so I had to slip out of it and then I dashed off as quickly as I could." She finished, looking saddened.

"But I don't understand," Hikari shook her head. "Unimon is usually a good Digimon. Why would he be attacking you, Tailmon?" Tailmon snarled slightly.

"It all started when this bossy Human appeared and began making Digimon into his slaves." She explained. "And he's got this strange new Digivice that makes us unable to Digivolve."

Takeru looked strangely mad, yet thoughtful at the same time. He turned to Daisuke and pointed to where his new Digivice was attached to his shorts.

"Show her your's." He commanded. As this was a command, Daisuke had no other choice but to obey, and so pulled it off of his shorts, and held it out for the Digimon to see.

"Like this one?" He questioned the white cat.

"That's it!" Tailmon suddenly stepped back in terror. "You work for the Digimon Kaiser!" Daisuke was taken aback, and so retreated his hand before Tailmon decided to attack it.

"What?! I don't work for anybody!" He protested. 'Now is that a lie? I don't know…' "I just got this thing when it came out of the computer!" 'Beautiful! She's got to believe you know!' He notice Taichi watching him, eye brows raised. They then narrowed, scrutinising the younger boy. Daisuke quickly looked away, frightened of the older boys gaze. 'I wish people wouldn't look at me like that. I was being too loud again, wasn't I?' He didn't know.

**

Daisuke watched as Takeru tried to lift the strange thing Taichi had called a Digimental. He said that it had the crest of Courage on it. Daisuke had been examining it from where he stood, somewhat confused as to how something so small could seem so important.

'It's weird,' He thought, feeling vaguely numb. 'It's like I'm drawn to it…'

Takeru gave up and stood, avoiding cutting himself on the spike which came out of the red and orange flame design of the Digimental.

"It won't budge." The blonde said firmly, turning to eye his friends apologetically.

"Guys, I pump iron all the time, let me do it," Daisuke said suddenly. 'Now why, in the name of Great Kami and everything that is good, did I just say that?' But he knew why. He was trying to be tough, trying to look cool, so they couldn't 'kick him out' though he doubted they would.

He noticed Takeru eyeing his scrawny arms wearily. There was no doubt in Daisuke's mind that if Takeru decided to deck him one, he would go down, and probably stay that way!

Plus there was a strange… niggling in his gut – a faint hum in the back of his mind –, which told him that he could, and should lift the small object. There was something about it, something that was only meant for him.

He bent down and curled his fingers around the oval-shaped thing, and gave a tug. He used all of his strength, thinking that maybe the thing was really heavy, but it wasn't, in fact it was almost as light as a feather, innocently resting in his hand. That is, after he fell over backwards with the momentum of his pull, sitting there babbling something or another as he tried to get over the shock of having landed on his butt.

"What did I tell you?" He gave a laugh, which was also an automatic reaction, other than a fake. "Light as a feather. You guys need to work out more." 'Oh, like you do?' He finally stepped back into reality, only to realise he was the only one smiling. No one cheered, no one laughed at him, they didn't look too shocked, but it was enough. Only problem was that they were completely ignoring Daisuke and looking past him to where the Digimental had once lay.

"There's a problem," Taichi said softly. Daisuke slowly turned to see there was a stream of light flowing out of a small hole in the ground, which the Digimental had made.

Inside the stream of light a strange creature appeared, slowly materializing the thing seemed to be asleep. Just then, however, it woke up and leapt out of the light, which almost instantly disappeared.

"Yahoo!" It cried in pure ecstasy, freed from beneath the Digimental. It looked like a small Blue and White Dragon, with golden markings on its face.

Daisuke, however, was so stunned all he could do was gape at the strange creature, which took one look at him, still on the ground, holding the Digimental, and instantly bounded over in front of him. It was grinning so happily that Daisuke felt himself calming slightly. Beside's he was kind of cute.

"Free at last!" It said, landed in front of him. "My names Veemon!" 'Suitably.' The gold markings took on V patterns.

"H-hi," Daisuke stuttered, still shocked. "I'm Daisuke." He wasn't about to make the mistake of giving this little guy his shortened name.

"I've heard of Veemon," The orange Dinosaur, Agumon, spoke up. "Supposedly he's a fun-loving, adventure-seeking little Digimon that brings you good luck. But I thought he was a legend!" 'Good luck?! That's good… right?'

"Nope, I'm real all right," Veemon said, still grinning at Daisuke, much like a dog to its master after he'd been away too long. "And I've been waiting a very long time to meet you, Daisuke!"

"Uh, I think you've got the wrong guy…" Daisuke replied, feeling somewhat faint. Too much depression and adrenaline in one day was not good for the body.

"No, you're the one," The blue guy insisted. "'Cause you're the only one who was able to move the Digimental of Courage!" 'Oh… joy…'

--End Flashback--

Daisuke smirked at the memories. Of course after then a Monochromon had shown up and tried to kill them, but that wasn't in his likely-to-be-remembered-anytime-soon list.

He gave a sigh, wishing Veemon could have come back with him. But then he'd have to hide behind his mask so as not to scare the little guy. He didn't want to hurt him, or make him worry, so he smiled despite himself and held his head as high as he dared.

He was now part of a group who protected both this world and the Digital World, though it was mostly the Dejitarukai, and Daisuke didn't quite understand the link between the two worlds very well.

'I guess,' He thought as he entered his building. 'That it wasn't too unexpected. Being in any way needed, if only for another world. Oh well, it's not like it would affect who am, or… maybe it will.' He shook his head, hoping not. The last thing he needed was for people to be hurt or go into sudden bouts of depression because he wasn't holding up his task of being equilibrium for the world, or something to that extent. His mind was known for working in strange ways.

As he came into his room he sat at his desk and sketched an almost flawless picture of Veemon. His sister yelled at him from behind the door to do his homework, and that he'd have to get his own food. She was probably going to spend most of the evening on the phone with Momoe and Chizuru, the Inoue twins, talking about 'that cute guy in the band'. Frankly Daisuke could care less.

He himself spent most of the evening lying on his bed, either tossing his soccer ball up and down, or looking at the sketch he'd made of Veemon.

He cried himself to sleep that night, trying to stop his mind telling him that whole thing was a dream, or worse, a prank pulled on him by his… 'Friends'.

Tomodachi. [Friend] The word had little to no meaning for him, and in actual fact, was something he placed on anyone who talked to him, and hung around him, but didn't punch him or insult his family. They could insult him all they wanted, he didn't care, just so long as they left his 'friends' and family out of it.

~*^*^*~

There is a place I want to go,

A place for which I am known

As a friend, a protector,

One who is strong, and is brave.

But this place is so very far away,

And I am but one, though with others

I am not brave, not strong,

I am stupid and always wrong

But there is a place,

Such a strange world

Where I am needed

And I am all I am not here

+ From the 'Gallery of Youth's Poetry'; a book by M. A. D. +

A/N: All poetry is (c) Me. Yes I know, Muddy isn't supposed to be there. Shameless character plug in. She is actually Marcia, Iori's cousin. Read about her in 'Forgiveness is the Key to your Unhappiness'. Shameless, shameless, I know.

[Blah] = Jap. Translation