blue card hearts
Chapter 9 - Otabek Altin
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He'd known of Otabek before the digimon came to their world, but hadn't known him all that well. He was in Phichit's class, like Leo was, but unlike the other two tended to keep to himself and, unlike Yuuri, was immune to Phichit's charms.
Funnily enough, it turned out he wasn't immune to Yuri Plisetsky's charms. He and his Solarmon became frequent visitors at Yutopia while Yuri was working, and always insisted on paying for his share of katsudon even when the Katsukis attempted to convince him otherwise.
It did mean, at least, that Yuri got to play Kingdom Hearts III on Yuuri's console during breaks. And the three of them could play a few rounds of something or other after dinner (or poker with the rest of the Katsuki family and Minako joining in). And Leomon was always there, in the shadows or sitting beside him or watching from the stands as he skated… The only thing was his bed felt a little cold, sometimes, with no Vicchan there.
Otabek also helped Yuri out with his homework, something they were all thankful for because none of the Katsukis could convince Yuri to accept help from Yuuri (and Mari was too long out of school to help much herself. 'It's because you're his idol,' Mari laughed, 'as weird as it is to think my little brother is someone else's idol.')
Sometimes Phichit came over too, and the others. It was fun, all in all.
But all of them were still waiting for the other shoe to drop.
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They'd been lucky so far, with the wild digimon. A few Ultimates, but for the most part they were Champions that they could all handle solo if needed… except Phichit and Cameramon who weren't really fighters, but they also had the insane luck of never getting caught by themselves for very long to ever need to.
And Phichit didn't seemed too down on lacking a Champion mode at the time being. Yuuri only hoped the pair wouldn't find themselves caught out or something.
But before Phichit got caught out, trouble came towards Yuutopia. It was only Yuuri, Yuri and Otabek that day… and that turned out to be a very good thing when they found themselves trying to keep a Slayerdramon from mowing down the onsen… and stop the rest of the Katsuki family or any of their patrons from looking outside and seeing what was happening on the street.
Luckily, Meicoomon had a talent for breaking windows on the other side of the onsen. Unfortunately, that meant more cost for the Katsukis and Nishigoris, but at least this time it wouldn't be pinned on Yuri and it kept everyone out of the battlefield.
Now the problem was dealing with Slayerdramon with three Champions, once Meicoomon digivolved and joined them. Slayerdramon was a mega, and none of their three digimon could even reach Ultimate level.
In other words, not even thinking outside the box was going to get them out of this mess. Viktor's Monodramon could digivolve to Ultimate, but Viktor was at least half an hour away. Could they even stall that long?
They had to, and Yuri and Otabek both seemed determined to pull it off as well.
'We'll work on a rotating schedule,' said Otabek. 'Considering we have no hope of defeating a Mega, all we can do is keep it distracted and that means being nimble and avoiding as many attacks as possible. And while we'd take less damage going in all at once, to actually last a half hour –'
'We need to go one by one to give the other digimon time to recover.' That wasn't ideal. That was far from ideal, but the truth was none of them (much less the digimon) were going to last a half hour straight fighting an unbeatable opponent.
Otabek and Tankmon went first, to give Yuuri time to clear his head and come up with a strategy, and Yuri time to get Meicoomon back and digivolve her. Tankmon was, however, unfortunately slow and needed to be buffed up by both Speed and Hyper Wing and was still getting hammered by attacks.
'Try WarGreymon's shield!' Yuuri yelled. While technically a Mega, it was a support card as opposed to an attack and Terriermon had used it in the Digimon Tamers universe to no detriment.
'I don't have it,' Otabek replied.
Yuuri tossed his over, and to his credit Otabek scanned it without missing another beat. 'WarGreymon's shield activate!'
It took a few hits, but in the face of Majiramo's claws it eventually crumbled as well.
By then, though, Yuuri had a working strategy… assuming pokemon rules applied, of course. Ice-type attacks would be most effective, and Leomon had an ice-type mode he could utilise. As Viktor had mentioned off hand one time, cards to change resistance and modes existed in the mega, but they were notoriously difficult to come across. But Leomon did have another mode and Viktor was the Digimon King and thus had more cards than the rest of them (and a good many of them he never used) and had practically shoved it into Yuuri's hands the next time they met. 'I don't use it anyway,' he pointed out, when Yuuri tried to give it back.
Yuuri was slowly getting used to the fact that Viktor Nikiforov had very different priorities than his fans. He'd seen the posts of social media, the amount people would pay for cards Viktor had long since taken out of his deck and here Viktor was giving one of the rarest in the meta away for free. But as Viktor said, he never used it, and it was beyond useful to Yuuri… and likewise he had cards that he never used that were useful to the others. They'd done a massive trade that afternoon, at Yuutopia. But, of course, they'd still failed to beat Viktor.
Yuuri was a little grateful to that. Because he didn't want to defeat Viktor just because his deck had received an upgrade. And he was even more grateful now, because IceLeomon's Frozen Fury and Blizzard Breath would be far more effective. And Leomon had trained in the wilderness of the digital world: from mountains to frozen tundra and so had earned this mode change. All that was left to do, now, was make it official.
He swiped the glittering card through his digivice. 'Mode-change, activate!'
'Leomon mode-change to IceLeomon!'
And Leomon glowed with icy power as his mane lost his yellow hue and turned white, and his pants their black dye as well.
'Frozen Fury!' he screamed, and threw a punch at the dragon.
It roared and Slayerdramon slashed towards Leomon with his claws.
'Evasion, activate!'
And luckily IceLeomon was nimble even on land, and evasion helped dodge a little more. But ice attacks, though annoying the dragon, were still too low in level to actually do much damage. How many rounds of attacks would it take from them to defeat Slayerdramon? Far too many. Could they slow him down, at least?
Yuri was picking out all the ice-attackers from his deck, apparently, to help that strategy along. And they made a fairly good team. It was just a shame they had to drag this out for so long, because otherwise Otabek could have covered the defence, leaving the pair of them on the offensive. Not that it would have made much of a difference, Yuuri reflected. If they thought they had any chance of defeating Slayerdramon, they'd be fighting with that in mind, instead of playing it safe while Yuuri's home and family were just down the street from that monster.
He gritted his teeth. It wasn't Leomon's fault. It wasn't his fault either, but they were just so woefully inadequate right then. There was no guarantee even Viktor would be able to help. After all, Monodramon could reach his Ultimate form of Cyberdramon but Slayerdramon was still a Mega. Very rarely would an Ultimate be enough and, on top of that, Cyberdramon was a dragon as well. He was resistant, but his attacks were also only half-effective. Could Cyberdramon use a mega ice-type move, like MetalGarurumon's Ice Wolf Claw? That was the big question, in the end.
And whether they'd last long enough.
Leomon's energy was flagging now, even after an Endurance support card.
'Pull back,' said Yuri in his ear. 'I won't let anything happen to your family or home. They didn't have to be that kind, but they were. They treated me like family. And I'm going to pay them back.'
'Okay,' said Yuuri, and he pulled back with Leomon, scanning his Heal as often as the digivice allowed.
Meicrackmon leapt into the fray, with IceDevimon's Frozen Claw to assist.
Frozen Claw… Something was wrong with this picture. Meicoomon's line was a new addition to the Digimon franchise, but there was something about it… Meicoomon digivolved into Meicrackmon, then Raguelmon, then Ordinemon – No. Yuuri shook his head. 'Raguelmon was in Digimon Links as Meicoomon's Mega form, which means Meicrackmon is an Ultimate.' How had he made that mistake? And why had no-one corrected him?
Mabye it just hadn't come up. Or maybe Yuri thought that even if Meicoomon could digivolve to Ultimate, it still couldn't handle a Mega by itself. But that changed the playing field. Just a little bit, it changed it. 'Yuri, use a more powerful ice card!'
'I don't have any!' Yuri yelled back. 'You know I don't have that much in the way of elements.'
That was true. Yuri's deck was mostly light and dark attackers, mostly felines like Salamon and all the cats it could evolve into. Magnadramon had a fire attack but that wouldn't help them; dragons were resistant to fire. SIlphymon was a wind attacker. Again, dragons were resistant. But an Ultimate level digimon with an ice-type move… There had to be something. Yuuri's heart hammered. His mind raced.
Leomon straightened up. Of course.
He wasn't helping anyone by panicking. He knew the digimon. He knew the cards. He just needed to relax and think about it. Ice-type attacks. Digimon who lived in the glacier. The obvious place to think of a particular element would be Digimon Frontier, though, with the ten Legendary Warriors. The fusion spirit for ice was Daipenmon.
He didn't carry Daipenmon around, but… 'Can you guys hold for a minute?'
Otabek nodded, and Yuuri dashed through the onsen and to his room. That was probably the only good part about being close to him.
He found the card, and Blizzarmon just in case, and shot right back out and past a Mari yelling after him. 'Later!' he yelled.
Please don't follow me, he thought immediately after.
Luckily, Mari didn't. And Yuuri made it back just as Meicrackmon was starting to take heavy hits from the dragon. 'Here!' he tossed the cards to Yuri.
'Icypoles?' Yuri deadpanned.
'I didn't design the cards!' Yuuri yelled back.
'Daipenmon's Strawberry Death, activate!'
Slayerdramon grunted and stumbled back, but a swipe of its tail sent Meicrackmon crashing into the ground. Tankmon dove forward to take its place while Leomon dragged the protesting cat away. 'You're our best chance at victory,' he scolded. 'So get healed and think about how to use that attack more effectively the next time.'
'Excuse me for having claws instead of swords,' the feline hissed, but wisely sat quietly and let Yuri scan Heal for her.
Meanwhile, Yuuri thought. What else did they know about Slayerdramon? It showed up in Digimon Links as an event digimon at some point, and in Hacker's Memory, and that was about it. It could digivolve to Examon when DNA-digivolved with Breakdramon but they were trying to defeat Slaydramon, not make it stronger. It didn't have much in the way of defence but that didn't help when it was two Champions and an Ultimate against it… unless they could poison it somehow? None of their digimon used poison moves, but maybe…
'We poison it.' Otabek had been thinking along the same lines and come to the conclusion a little faster. 'This battle is beyond us, otherwise.'
And he went ahead and did just that. And hopefully between that and the ice attacks of an Ultimate and a beefed-up form change, they would hold off Slayerdramon.
Yuuri offered Blizzarmon's card to Otabek, just in case. Otabek took it gratefully.
Still, Viktor and Cyberdramon couldn't arrive fast enough.
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They were running out of options. Recharging their digimon could only accomplish so much, after all, and Slayerdramon was slowly creeping closer.
'Stay away from there, you bastard!' But Yuri's voice was slurring with tiredness, and only by some miracle had no-one come out of the Katsuki's residence to see what was going on. Yuuri's heart was pounding again. He couldn't let anything happen to his family, not after already losing Vicchan and not after all the good Digimon had brought with them. He just couldn't. And Yuri was shaking, gritting his teeth in determination and shouting at Meicrackmon to hang in there just a little longer but it still wasn't enough.
And Tankmon, poor Tankmon, had taken all those hits to protect the two of them. They'd stopped rotating. They couldn't keep it up any longer. It was some mishmash of three against one until someone got knocked out and they were almost there.
They needed more power. They needed a miracle. They needed to be stronger but the only way to do handle a mega was to digivolve to at least Ultimate. They needed more Ultimate level digimon.
'You're thinking too much,' said Leomon's voice, soft with fatigue. 'There comes a time where thinking won't help anymore.'
'Then what?' Yuuri snapped. 'I can't help you anymore than I already have, and you're still no match for that Slayerdramon.'
'All you can do now…' Leomon closed his eyes and breathed heavily. 'Is believe in me. Believe I have the power inside of me, inside of you, to protect you and the things you care about. I am using your power, yes, but your heart… You have a courageous heart, but steadfast…'
Doubt made his heart flicker like a candle in the wind. It was far from steadfast. But what Leomon was asking was faith without reason to back it up, was faith that only came from desperation. Was that how the Chosen felt: that prepice before they tipped into either a miracle or despair? Was that the only option left? Gain a greater power or lose it all?
It wasn't that easy to do, though. It wasn't that easy to calm his pounding heart. 'Yuuri! Focus! Believe!'
He believed, he did, but they were too close, too much…
Blue light exploded from somewhere, and he blinked hazily. That wasn't Leomon, was it? That wasn't blue dragon fire engulfing Yuutopia, was it?
The blue light swallowed him whole.
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He slept. He dreamt of blue fire engulfing everything and when he woke, it was to a pitcher of ice water emptied over his head and a flannel mopping up the excess.
'Mari, be gentler with your brother,' Hiroko scolded, mopping up the rest of the water and smoothing Yuuri's wet bangs back. 'There you are, sweetie. How are you feeling?'
'Confused,' Yuuri mumbled. 'Dizzy.'
'No wonder.' She petted him again. 'You had a panic attack. Your friends brought you back. They're in the onsen, now. They looked a little worse for wear themselves. Did something happen?'
'…no.' Because he couldn't tell his mother. And if they were here, and the onsen was here, then somehow they'd managed to defeat that Slayerdramon.
No thanks to him, it appeared. He stared at his lap with still blurry eyes.
'You sure it's nothing?' Mari asked, raising an eyebrow. 'You look down in the dumps, little bro.'
'Why don't you relax in the onsen too?' Hiroko offered.
He went and did just that. And just like his mother had said, Otabek and Yuri were there as well.
'You're finally up,' Yuri grumbled. 'What the hell was that earlier?'
'Yuri,' Otabek chided, before turning to Yuuri. 'You missed the end.'
'I'm sorry,' Yuuri replied. The digimon were nowhere in sight. 'Where are –'
'In your room,' Yuri replied. 'Leomon sends his apologies, by the way.'
'He wasn't wrong, though.'
'About what?'
Yuuri explained.
Otabek hummed. 'Correct in principle, but every person and every partnership is different. Leomon is naturally powerful, and with your collection of cards, he's become quite versatile as well. That functioned as a sort of cushion for you, and you don't do well under pressure when that's no longer enough. Both you and Leomon are aware of that.'
'Still awfully dangerous to choke like that,' Yuri muttered. 'What would you have done if Otabek hadn't been there?'
'Otabek?' Yuuri repeated. 'Then that blue fire –'
'Blue light,' Yuri corrected.
'Matrix digivolution,' Otabek confirmed. 'It would have been a huge failure on my part to let Slayerdramon loose on your home after imposing so often. But, also, this isn't my home. As cold as it is to say, I had an easier time keeping a level head for that reason. It wasn't my family and friends. I could be comforted with the knowledge that they were safe, regardless of what was happening in front of me. I call that war mentality.'
'I suppose,' said Yuuri. 'Still, you kept a cool head and you saved us all and my family and home as well. Thank you.' He bowed his head. Otabek nodded back.
And everyone was telling him to keep his own head cool and he hadn't managed it when he'd really needed to. Yuri was right. If Otabek hadn't been there, they'd have been destroyed: his parents, his sister, Minako who was like a second mother to him, all the patrons he'd grown up with and the place they'd always lived and fostered…
'Hey, nothing got destroyed. Stop crying.' Yuri gave him a few awkward (and frankly too strong) pats.
Yuuri gave him a watery smile in return.
'It was an unfair test in the first place,' Yuri muttered, 'if you want to call it that. Of course someone's going to choke if you put all their precious people at the edge of a cliff and threaten to shove them off if you don't produce a miracle. Digimon don't have families, remember. Not in the human sense, anyway. Maybe that was what Leomon was apologising for.'
But he'd only know that by talking with Leomon.
