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Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX & Digimon Frontier
Title: Children of the Shadows: Chapter 4: Goodbyes and Hellos
Characters: Kimura Kouichi & Yuuki Juudai
Word Count: chapter: 2,114||story: 8,517
Genre: Drama, Adventure||Rated: PG-13
Notes: This takes place some years after the end of both series.
Challenge: Advent Calendar Day #6 (Yu-Gi-Oh GX), Advent Calendar Day #9 (Digimon), Diversity Writing Section H, #8: a multichap with exactly four chapters; Crossover Challenge.
Summary: [4/4 chapters; Kouichi, Juudai; 2014 Advent Calendar, Diversity Writing, & Crossover Challenge] Cast adrift, Kouichi finds himself in the home of the primal Darkness. The primal Darkness has brown hair, brown eyes (when they're not gold) and offers him miso soup.
Fighting like this wasn't entirely like fighting as Lowemon. He had no armor and he wasn't quite as fast or as strong as he would've been with the full strength of the Spirit of Darkness infusing him. This meant that he had to be faster, because if he could avoid blows by not being where they were going to fall, then so much the better.
And for that, shadows were very, very useful. Kouichi dodged and flowed from one point to another, taking any chance he could to dart in and get an attack. Kouji, from what he could see, did much the same thing, only his fighting skills were much stronger and sharper than his twin's. Kouichi wondered briefly if he should look into getting some fighting training of his own.
What really surprised him more than anything was how Juudai fought. Or precisely, how he didn't seem to fight at all, but simply wandered here and there, Yubel hovering protectively over him, and whenever someone struck at him, those spiked vines appeared, and with a soft murmur of "Nightmare Pain" from the two of them, the would-be attacker fell backwards, their own attack turned against them.
Kouichi wondered if he could learn that trick. It certainly looked useful.
He would ask later. Right now they were all too busy fighting their way through the guards around the others for something like that.
There were plenty of guards to fight through as well. Kouichi couldn't remember having seen this many, not since everyone had been trying their level best to get away from the encroaching Royal Knights back in the day. There might not have been that many now, but with the way they fought and got in the way, it certainly seemed that way.
His hands ached. His legs throbbed. His back sent sparks of pain all throughout him. Sweat ran down into his eyes, and he had to wipe them every now and then, taking the chance that he could lift his hands from his spear without getting attacked. He needed to breathe and there was never a spare moment in which to do so. The call of attacks and the blaze of their energy ripped through the air. He leaped over a slicing sword, kicked a muzzled face, and strained to get to the hanging cage.
What is it with Kagemon and hanging cages? The irrelevant thought passed through his mind just long enough for him to be aware of it before he ignored it in favor of ramming the tip of his spear into a Devimon – thank goodness not an IceDevimon, facing one of those had been more than enough even when he'd had his full power – and seeing it disintegrate. He stumbled a few more steps and looked around, knowing there had to be another enemy somewhere.
And finding none. Kouji and Juudai also seemed to have run out of Digimon to fight, Kouji straightening up from a fighting crouch and looking all around as if he expected some kind of ambush out of nowhere.
When none came, each of them started to move closer to the imprisoning cage. Kouichi drew in great gouts of air, not entirely ready to believe that this was all over.
"Where's Kagemon?" he murmured, looking for any sign of their enemy. "He's not going to just let us do this, is he?"
"If he doesn't turn up to gloat, then I'd say he's probably got something worse in mind," Juudai observed. Takuya nodded from within the cage.
"Yeah, that's the kind of thing bad guys do."
Kouichi couldn't argue. He'd never been the gloating type himself, but he'd seen it in others before. Wherever Kagemon was, they'd likely wish he was there gloating before all of this was over with.
A few good whacks with Kouji's swords and Kouichi's spear sprung the cage open. It hadn't been sealed in the same way that Kouji's had, and what that might mean, Kouichi's mind shied away from. Some things were best left unthought, even by him.
"So, now what do we do?" Junpei asked, brushing himself off once they were free once more. "I don't think going back home is an option just yet."
Tomoki shook his head fiercely. "Kagemon's still threatening the Digital World. We should try to find Bokomon and Neemon and see what we can do."
Kouichi nodded, but his attention flicked to Juudai. "I can't ask you to stay. You helped us get my friends back, and that's more than I could ever ask."
Juudai laughed a little. "Hey, don't worry about it. You're kind of like a distant cousin or something, right? Family's family, even if we're kind of far apart."
"Separated by a few dimensions," Kouichi added, finding a smile on his lips. He glanced from Juudai to the other warriors and was abruptly reminded of his manners. "Everyone, this is Yuuki Juudai. He's..." How did you introduce someone who held the power of Darkness like you did, but so different?
Juudai smiled brilliantly, as if he did this every day of his life. "A friend. Kouichi landed in my place and I helped him get back here to you guys. That's all."
Kouichi's mouth all but hung open at that. Juudai had done so much more! He wanted to explain all of that, but Juudai caught his eye and gave the tiniest shake of his head.
If that was what Juudai wanted, then Kouichi wasn't going to argue against it. He drew in a breath and turned to Kouji.
"I think Tomoki has the right idea. Bokomon and Neemon might be able to help, or tell us who can." Perhaps the Great Angels would be available as well? He had no idea of how much time had passed in the Digital World since they left it, but surely they'd evolved more by now? They were likely strong enough to do something.
"Then I guess the next thing is to get out of here?" Kouji said, taking a look around. This cell didn't look like anywhere in particular, hung in an odd gray nothing that made Kouichi's skin itch the more he looked at it. "Think we can do that same trick to get out of here that got us in?"
Kouichi and Juudai looked at one another again. "Are you sure you want to?" Kouichi asked. He hadn't at all forgotten about Kouji's reaction there, and he wasn't sure of how any of the others would do either. "It's not exactly comfortable for you."
Kouji shrugged casually. "Staying here isn't either and I don't think we have any other way to get out anyway."
There was that. It wasn't something that Kouichi liked, but their options remained limited at the moment. He turned to the group.
"We're going to take a very special way out of here. All of you need to keep hold of me or Juudai. I don't know what could happen if you let go, and I don't want to find out."
Juudai's eyes glittered with a quick mischief. "You could probably get lost in the endless darkness and never, ever find your way out again." He paused for a moment, and Kouichi just knew it was for the effect of it. "Not that it's ever happened... that I know of."
Izumi cast a glance at him, then at Kouichi and Kouji. "Is he for real?"
"I'm more real than you can imagine," Juudai replied at once. "But Kouichi's right. For people like you, it can be very dangerous going through the shadows. You never know what could be going through them at the same time you are. We're not the only dark users out there."
Kouichi hadn't thought of that. And he decided now was a very good time to keep not thinking of that. "We'd better go, then. The sooner the better."
It took a few moments of fiddling to get everyone sorted out, and Kouichi wanted to make certain Kouji was beside him, just in case anything happened in the shadows as it had before. It wasn't that he didn't trust the others, because he did, with his very life.
His life. This, however, was Kouji.
"Everyone ready?" Juudai asked. He brought up the rear of the group, while Kouichi was at the head of the line. That way the shadows would enfold everyone.
"As ready as we can get," Junpei muttered, clearly not trusting this. Kouichi didn't blame him. If it weren't for his own experiences, he probably wouldn't have either.
With nothing more than that, dark shadows folded all around them, and they weren't where they'd been anymore.
"Did anyone think about where we're going?" Juudai asked a few seconds later. "Because I think we should know that."
Scattered noises of surprise spread among the group. It likely wasn't the first time in the history of any world that a group had started out on a journey without knowing their destination, but this was still one of the more dangerous ones.
"Let's try Flame Terminal. It was a good place to start last time," Takuya suggested.
"Think of it and we'll be on the way," Kouichi told him, and could almost at once feel those thoughts forming. His senses were so much sharper here in the darkness. He wondered if that would stick once they were in their own world.
Of course it will. What have I been telling you all this time? Juudai's voice rang in his mind and Kouichi smiled.
Sometimes I'm a slow learner.
Don't worry abut it. It's a darkness thing, I think.
Kouichi wasn't close enough to see Juudai smile, but he could feel it anyway.
After a moment that was an eternity and not nearly long enough at the same time, the shadows fell away to reveal the familiar environs – at least to some of them – of Flame Terminal. Digimon wandered here and there, though none of them seemed to notice the strange arrivals in their midst.
"Wow, it's almost like when we first came here," Takuya said, staring all around. He glanced down at his hands and back up again. "Well, not entirely."
Kouji breathed in a little, his movements somewhat less fluid than they normally wore. "Let's see if we can find Bokomon and Neemon. The sooner we get on this the better."
"I think I should be going. I've got some things to take care of back home anyway." Juudai took a look around the place himself, eyes clearly fascinated. Kouichi could not help a small stiffening. For all that they'd known each other only the briefest amount of time, he knew he'd miss Juudai.
The other looked toward him and smiled. "But that's not to say I might not turn up again, now that I know the way here."
"You're welcome to visit any time. Here or our world," Kouichi said. "I think we have a lot we should talk about anyway."
"You're right." Juudai rested one hand on Kouichi's shoulder and smiled at him. "And you could probably use some lessons, too, couldn't you?"
Kouichi grinned at him. "I think there's a few things that you could teach me. If you'd like."
"I haven't met anyone like you in a long time. So, yeah, I would like." Juudai turned his attention to the others there. "I'm pretty sure you guys will protect this world. You've got that kind of look about you." His smile sent a jolt of warmth through each and every one of them. "So, see you around."
With nothing more than that, Juudai headed for the nearest shadow, murmuring something under his breath that only Kouichi could properly hear, and he didn't properly understand at that.
"A world that doesn't have dueling? Man, I need to come and show these people how it's done."
And then the shadows folded over him and he was gone. Kouichi stared at where he'd been and sighed. As much as he cared about his friends, there was nothing like having a brother around. Even when that brother wasn't entirely related to you by blood.
"Kouichi?" Kouji rested a hand on his twin's shoulder. "Everything all right?"
Kouichi held back a laugh, but only by a breath or two. "I'll get back to you on that once we've dealt with Kagemon." But aside from that, things really were looking up. He knew he'd see Juudai again.
In fact, he knew he was there in every shadow, just like Kouichi himself was.
"Takuya-han! Kouji-han!" The familiar voice rang out and everyone turned to see Bokomon and Neemon running toward them. Kouichi smiled. Time to get down to saving the world again.
The End