Part 9: The tale of a Motomiya
Being humble and selfless is needed to conquer trust, friendship and even love. You can have the most valuable and precious stones within grasp, but you'll always be alone if you're arrogant.
Loneliness.
A word he hated to hear, and an experience he detested to have.
"You know, you're just a crybaby. Stop being selfish!"
"I'm not selfish!"
"You; look at me. You ate all the cookies! Those were for my friends. Sometimes it's hard to have nice things when you're around, Daisuke."
He hated those words. He hated her. His sister was always mean, her bullying him was the main reason he had no friends.
But he never tried to see the good things in her. Jun liked her little brother, but she didn't want him to be spoiled by their parents. Except the way she was talking with Daisuke, it wasn't correct.
"She's just a stupid teen! She hates me, she would like to be a lonely child!"
Jun was his major problem in life.
You must ask… Why? You must remember that there's a story behind every hero. It's not a dark story with a tragedy. It's just the tale of a boy who was underestimated by the others.
Daisuke had only one friend, because the other kids didn't like him - how much of a troublemaker he was. A child who taught Daisuke the art of lying, to never let what the others think of you be your reality. His name was Shinichi, a boy with a strong personality and his watermark was his big grin.
That friendship was interrupted by Vamdemon.
"What. Why are you moving to another city?! Shinichi, convince them to stay here!"
"I'm sorry, Dai. I can't. But someday we will meet again. Take care, bye."
With no friends, and the Big-Sister-Problem, a young, innocent and naive kid felt betrayed by destiny. He hated it. He felt lost and lonely. Jun kept fighting him, and saying bad things that wounded his heart. Without Shinichi… He felt weak.
His dreams were nightmares: That creepy vampire appeared every night when he fell asleep. He dreamed of himself running away, crying, calling for help. His parents and Jun repeating that name, under the monster's mind control.
But where there's darkness, there shall be light.
"Y-YOU!"
And in those dreams, the little Daisuke saw him. A boy with goggles riding on a dinosaur with a brown skull helmet. The mysterious figure he had seen that terrible night. He didn't know the name of that boy, but he was sure he was a real hero, someone a bit older than him…!
That was a real person, not his imagination.
He met his hero later. By accident. A ball hit his head, the boy with goggles came to apologize. The little, innocent Daisuke recognized him and tried to tell him about that incident. The older boy just chuckled and said Daisuke was creative.
After that day, Daisuke started to go to the park every day, just to check if his idol was there. Once, he was caught by a little girl as same as his age. That girl… The goggle boy's sister. Daisuke felt his heart racing, not because of "love" but because of "panic". He didn't want her to call him a stalker! But she was very gentle, and prevented her brother from spotting Daisuke who was stalking him. Her name… Hikari. That girl became a light in his life.
The light that led him to his new destiny.
"I swear, the monsters were real!"
"You're lying! Monsters don't exist!"
Daisuke's frustration had became his attempt to make everyone believe in what he saw. Most the people laughed, thinking it was all silly thoughts out of his young mind. That caught Hikari's attention, and she was the first person who said…
"I believe you, Daisuke-kun"
But she said it privately. And then Daisuke learned the other side of her, how the light can burn you.
"You shouldn't say that to others, do you want the digimon and us to get caught?"
"I… I'm sorry, Hikari-chan. B-but, your brother doesn't believe me!"
"He does, but he doesn't want to get you involved."
"B-but, why can't he… Tell me?"
The Chosen were having a conversation regarding him, and about how he seemed to be the only one who had seen the battle against Venom Vamdemon. The battle that would change Daisuke's life forever.
With Hikari's help, Daisuke was introduced to Taichi properly. And then, to Yamato, Koushirou and Sora. The only ones he couldn't meet were Takeru, Jou and Mimi. Takeru because he didn't live in Odaiba, Jou because he had always been studying, and Mimi had moved to New York. Except they might knew but they couldn't tell Daisuke.
Hikari was an exception.
Two years later…
A new crisis. And new Chosen Children elected.
"W-what do you mean that I… I'll have to protect the Digital World?!"
Daisuke felt confused. And scared. After going home, he called Taichi asking him lots of questions about Digimon and what Taichi had said to him when he passed the goggles to him. But while he had fear of the unknown and the future, he was excited. Something he desired for a long time. Having the power to protect people. But it wasn't an easy task.
His adventures in that mysterious new world was began.
Alongside Miyako and Iori, he had to learn stuff from the other former Chosen. Takeru and Hikari were there in that new team as the bridge connecting the young team and the older group. But Daisuke refused to hear Takeru, and it was because of that strong feelings he had towards Hikari. A childish rivalry, something that caused a certain damage to the group. But Daisuke… He changed. Battle by battle, he learned from his mistakes and discovered what he hated the most in the world:
Loneliness.
The illness that corrupted Ichijouji Ken's heart.
Daisuke fought them all, and wanted to be Ken's friend. He wanted it. He wanted to heal Ken's heart with his kindness and friendship. And then they were blessed by a new power: Jogress Evolution. Two hearts combined in one, a powerful perfect-level digimon was born. And then it made those new bonds of friendship get stronger, and invincible.
The new Chosen fought many enemies. Most of them brought despair and sadness, misfortune and chaos. But they won, because Daisuke was there pouring all his efforts in the team. There's no I in TEAM. He always considered every victory "theirs".
Every battle won… Every new friendship made… He conquered by his own efforts.
He was thankful for all of that.
He was glad to know he had finally found his place in the world.
And that everyone around him loved him. That they always would be there for him.
~Forever Friends~
Don't worry, no one is ever alone
There is no such thing as an unreachable tomorrow
It draws closer to your dreams all the time,
Little by little, until you reach the day you attain them
00000000000
A writer's thoughts:
This chapter was planned a few days ago; the purpose of it was to add my headcanon backstory for Daisuke. Unlike the others, I think Daisuke doesn't need a sad dark backstory. He's portrayed to be a kid who knows how to deal with his own problems and never let those ruin his mood, but it doesn't mean he has no desires (sorry Kakudou, but I don't like how Daisuke never got development in 02). To be very honest, I lie to myself saying that Daisuke's biggest desire is not making the best ramen of the worlds or date Hikari, but that he wants recognition, and strength to beat his own demons.
So I believe Daisuke was a normal child that never had friends - with exception of this side character for my headcanons, that was named after another character voiced by Kiuchi-san (Daisuke's seiyuu) in "Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z" - thanks to Jun's false rumors and to being an infamous troublemaker. I never drew this Shinichi guy, because I'd prefer to keep it open to the readers. But if you're curious about him, I'd recommend you to watch PPGZ and the episode where Kaoru/Buttercup teaches a kid name Shinichi to play soccer. I love this episode and how cute Shinichi is, and dang his voice is so cute just like tiny Daisuke in "Goggles" track from "Digimon Adventure 02 Original Story ~Spring of 2003~" Drama 3
And there's more. This chapter is more a flashback kind, I'm really planning to make some stuff vague so I can keep it following the canon timeline. More three months and we will know what's the context of that shot in the PV.
If you're interested to read more about Daisuke's backstory, there are two oneshots about it published on my AO3 account.
I'm planning to bring them to FF too, I just need to pass them to a .doc archive format...
PS.: If you noticed, the last lines of this chapter is actually the translation of "Ashita" song, from the "Digimon 10th Anniversary" Album. This song is sang by Daisuke (Kiuchi), and I really REALLY love this song. There's a reason behind it, but all I can say is it gives me strength, hope and makes me keep fighting for my dreams.
