Words: 12,329/82,250||Chapters: 7/47


The first thing Daisuke saw when he opened his eyes was the ceiling overhead. He wanted to think for the first few moments that everything had been some kind of disastrous nightmare and now he would get up, have breakfast, go to school, go to the Digital World, and kick Kaiser around extra hard.

He wanted to think that, but he recognized almost at once that the ceiling above him was cold steel and not the painted wood that he was used to. He could feel the walls around him, too, unlike his room at home. He didn't have the biggest room, but if he stretched his arms out there, he didn't touch the walls.

Stretching his arms out there meant that he did just that.

Another fact wriggled into his mind: the bed underneath him was far too soft and comfortable to be his bed at home. That bed was good enough, but this one he could almost sink into. It was exactly the kind of thing he would imagine the Kaiser having for himself.

Which didn't quite explain why it was here underneath him, but if he'd picked up one thing since the first day of school that year, it was that the Kaiser very seldom made ordinary sense.

He stretched again, this time to get the kinks out, and winced when another memory bestirred itself. Raising his hand, he touched the collar around his neck, flinching at the feel of it. It felt like soft leather; if he'd decided to wear it because he wanted to for some reason, it would have been fine. But wearing this because the Kaiser wanted him to? No. Not happening at all.

Growling under his breath, recalling that the Kaiser's own bedroom was right outside the door and not wanting to wake the monster up, Daisuke ran his hands over the collar, trying to find the buckle on it. There had to be one. He hadn't noticed one when Kaiser put it on him, but he'd been far too busy being steeped in hating himself for what was going on, and the nightmarish experience of that room, to notice much of anything.

Just thinking about that room made him shudder all over, hands dropping from the collar to dig into the bed beneath him, biting his lip to keep the screams from his lips.

He wouldn't be heard; he couldn't even hear himself. He could feel the weight of his body and the walls around him, but it wasn't the same, it wasn't someone else there, he was alone, alone, alone, alone...

Daisuke slammed a fist into the nearest wall, snarling. "I'm not there anymore!" He growled to himself. "I'm not!"

The door slid open. Daisuke jerked his head up to see Kaiser standing there, as perfect and flawless as he was every other time they'd encountered each other. The smile on his lips was full of mockery.

"Good morning."

Seeing Kaiser standing there slammed it home to Daisuke how far from home he was, how much his life now depended on the Kaiser's pleasure, and how little control over anything he had now. He started to turn away, when Kaiser's hand caught him by the chin.

"I don't have to teach you how to be polite to me, do I?" Kaiser asked, one dark blue eyebrow lifting.

Daisuke didn't want to think of this maniac as Ichijouji Ken. Even after seeing the other's face, he tried to separate them in his mind. Ken wasn't that bad of a person. Maybe a little arrogant. The Kaiser, on the other hand, did all of this to him, and would gleefully do more.

But now Kaiser lifted his head up more, their eyes meeting even through the Kaiser's visor, and Daisuke dropped his gaze first. Those eyes burned with smoldering fury that put him in mind of that room.

"Good morning, Kaiser-sama," he murmured. Kaiser's hand slipped from his chin to brush through his hair.

"I think when I come to get you in the morning, you should say that while you're on your knees," Kaiser mused. "In fact, unless I tell you otherwise, you are to kneel in my presence. I own you. It's only right that you respect your master, isn't it?"

Daisuke's head started to jerk up faster, a protest on his lips that died the moment he saw the hideous grin on Kaiser's.

Kaiser wanted a fight. Kaiser wanted a reason to punish him and hurt him and make him scream all over again.

So Daisuke chose not to. At least not in the way that Kaiser wanted him to. It wasn't a way of fighting that he liked, or one that came close to being natural for him, but he pressed his lips together and slid down to his hands and knees, staring at the floor.

"As you wish, Kaiser-sama." He wasn't sure if the honorific tasted better or worse the more times that he used it and he wasn't sure if he really wanted to know.

Kaiser's hand rested on the back of his neck for a few seconds. He'd removed his glove and the hand was just as warm as it had been when Daisuke stepped out of the punishment room. He shivered at the touch and at the feel of those fingers.

Then Kaiser attached the leash to the collar and tugged on it.

"It's time for breakfast. You may walk after me," Kaiser told him. Daisuke shuddered as he started to get to his feet, then stopped, something occurring to him. "Speak."

Daisuke hated how Kaiser treated him like a pet that needed to be trained. He hated how he could tell he was being trained, like it or not.

"I don't need to be led. I can see now. Kaiser-sama."

Kaiser started to walk out of the tiny room. "I know. But I think you look very good either on your knees or on my leash. So that's how you're going to stay, until I choose otherwise."

Daisuke hurried after him. Hoping his questioning privileges hadn't been revoked, he asked something else.

"Why can't I get this collar off? Doesn't it have a buckle?"

That got a laugh. It was one of those laughs that Daisuke knew he didn't like.

"Because I don't want you to take it off. I designed it so only I can remove it." He stopped and turned toward Daisuke, reaching out to rest a finger on the collar. "It has my symbol on it, so anyone who sees it knows that you are mine. I've had it made for you for almost a month now."

Daisuke didn't have the best internal calendar, but he clicked to this regardless. He couldn't peg the exact date but just from that…

Something must have shown on his face, because Kaiser started to laugh. "Yes. I made it for you after your first day in the Digital World. My original plan after I Ringed V-mon was to collar you and train you to be useful." His hand closed on Daisuke's throat, eyes boring into Daisuke's own, not letting him turn away. "It's taken me longer than I thought but you are going to be very useful to me."

Daisuke's heart beat faster as Kaiser stared at him for what seemed to be forever. Finally he dropped his hand, took a better hold on the leash, and started to walk again. Daisuke hurried after, hoping he had some sort of free time to process all of this. To think the Kaiser's plans reached that long…

He couldn't hold back a shudder and Kaiser's smirk made it plain what he thought of that.

At least he could put it aside when they arrived in the dining area. He didn't remember much of it from the night before, mostly because he'd had his eyes closed most of the time, but now he saw an elegant table, a plushly cushioned chair, and a cushion set before the chair.

His eyes fell on the cushion at once. Like the bed, it looked far too soft, and it was covered in blue silk, just like Kaiser's uniform and cape. The same symbol was stitched onto it as well. Clearly this belonged to Kaiser.

"Kneel." Kaiser ordered, indicating the cushion. Daisuke vividly recalled doing it the night before, hardly even hesitating. He'd been so tired, drained of any real energy to fight back. Now was different. Now he could…

Kaiser tugged the leash and Daisuke stumbled forward, slipping, and crashed to his knees on the cushion. His first instinct was to get back up, but Kaiser's hand on his shoulder told him otherwise.

"When you eat, I'll feed you, and you'll eat like this. On your knees to me. You won't eat any other way. You understand that."

Daisuke's screams of rage hovered unspoken behind his lips. He jerked his head in something that was sort of a nod. Kaiser tapped him on the cheek.

"I want to hear you speak."

I could tell you how much of a jackass you are, Daisuke thought, before his mouth opened.

"Yes, Kaiser-sama," he heard himself say. He bit his lip and stared down at the cushion. Wasn't anything going to go his way at all?

A quick peek upwards told him that Kaiser ate his own breakfast before he offered Daisuke a bite. Daisuke had to stay there, kneeling, hungry, waiting for his turn.

At least he could figure out what this was. He'd smelled rice and fish and fruit many times before at breakfast. His family wasn't always traditional but his mom enjoyed making familiar breakfasts from when she'd been a kid.

I don't think I really want to ask what I had last night. Kaiser would probably tell him and it would unsettle his stomach.

Kaiser caught his attention. "Time for your breakfast," he said, bringing over rice. Daisuke opened his mouth at once, taking it in. It wasn't as good as his mom's, but it was pretty good. He wasn't going to turn it down.

Bit by bit Kaiser fed him, pieces of fish, a good serving of rice, and then bits of a banana, washed down by a cup of delicious tea. Kaiser seemed to judge how much he needed to within a hair.

With breakfast taken care of, Kaiser guided him next to what Daisuke thought of as the control room, when he didn't think of it as the throne room. Another cushion provided him with a place to kneel and Kaiser stared down at him.

"This is how you will start to be useful to me. You will answer my questions, and these are the first ones: tell me of all of the Chosen and which Crests they wield."


To Be Continued

Notes: So, just an average morning with Kaiser and his new … toy? Pet?

Also, since 02 started on the first day of the school year (April in Japan) and Golden Week (which is the last week of April/first of May) happened during the week Mimi visited the gang, then the soccer game/revelation of Ken as Kaiser would have been loosely a month after that. Seems like longer, doesn't it?