Title: Running
Chapter 10: Welcome
Disclaimer: I do not own, you do not sue. Or, the whole thing starting with 'Kay-fuzz does not own' and ends with, 'Kay-fuzz not a company. Kay-fuzz sad'.
Warning: Insane stupidity here- not me, the peoples. Darn them... well, me too, I guess...
Rating: NC-17! HA! Naw, it's not... it's actually PG-13 for later chaps, but... mreh...
10/05/02: Hidden Village of the Desert Tribes, Desert Level, Southern Quadrant, RoC 17:08:43
A month had passed since Kiken had been brought to the small Village. Amazingly, it wasn't all that hidden at all. He had had no problem finding it, even from a distance when everyone else had been saying, "Don't look, you won't see it until we're practically in front of it."
He proved them wrong.
While Shar and Shurri had been surprised, the Old One only laughed and commented on how special Kiken was- and that the young human would undertake Armor-level training, before going onto Champion. Kiken, not remembering anything, simply nodded and followed the three into the village. A large feast ensued (for what, the human had no idea), but he was given tons of food, a small hut, and a place at the Head Table (for being an "Honoured Guest with Great Potential").
Training was, at first not that bad. After spending half the day doing cardio and endurance exercises (like running), he took a quick lunch break and got right back to work barely half an hour after he stopped, doing weight-lifting to help tone his muscles. After one week, though, he was expected to do everything that he used to do in one day in the morning (which meant that now he had to get up before the sun, not with it), followed still by lunch, and then some mental exercises with the Old One.
It seemed that everyone took part in the mental exercises, no matter what, and were able to meditate quite easily when they wanted to- the Old One taught them newer, better, easier ways to calm one's mind each time.
Then, after the second week, after-dinner was no longer 'rest' time. It was "now that you've lived here and are no longer a guest, then you have to help gather supplies, wash, and clean the dishes like everyone else". Then more mental exercises. Bed time was about two hours after sun set, leaving everyone enough time to get ready for the next day.
Kiken took all of this in stride. He did what he was asked, listened to what the Old One, Shar and even Shurri had to say, and worked hard with his training. Of course, during the training, he learned some important lessons- that everything, whether you were tired, hungry, thirsty, whether you could breathe or not, was all controlled by your own perspectives. And that at meal times, you didn't so much 'eat' as you did talk to who ever was sitting beside you, as there was no real need to eat.
That didn't stop some digimon, though.
"Hey, Kiken, pass the salad?"
"Which one, Shurri?"
"Meh... just give me all of them."
Kiken mearly sweat-dropped as he passed Shurri the six different salads on the table. Seeing the samurai devour them all in one minute flat, Kiken happily lost his appetite, and instead started helping with the clean-up, knowing that where ever he went, the Old One, Shurri and Shar would know exactly where he was.
Shurri and Kiken had become partners, completely inseperable- from doing chores to skipping training (where they were soon found by their Master, Shar, and punished aptly), they did everything together. Kiken often thought that he could somewhat remember doing something like this with a red blob, but refused to mention it- the first, and only time he had made that mistake, the whole Village treated him like a God.
Which both Shar and Shurri (for once in their existance, it seemed) worked together to end. After all, Kiken wasn't a God- he was a human with no memory, training like a digimon.
Kiken didn't comment- at least, not on that. However, he did happen to comment on his 'training' clothes: red, long, baggy shorts, black thick belt into which was stuffed a number of random things to help him with his training (inclding herbs, daggers, poisons, and a water-bag), a single shoulder-guard, which straped crossed over his now nicely-toned chest, arm bands made of a leather-like material and ankle guards of the some kind of 'flexible metal', that changed into leather shoes. His gloves with the metal arm-guards finished off the outfit. He had grown a bit of a mouth on him since training with Shar and Shurri, and his comment on "looking like a barbarian" did nothing to calm down his always annoying aide, who insisted that it was needed to keep him safe. His next comment ("With a bare chest? C'mon, tell me that this doesn't scream out "AIM FOR THE HEART!" or something like that") had ended him with a week kitchen duties- all kitchen duties.
For the next three, almost four weeks, the Hidden Village of the Desert Tribes (including all different kinds of digimon, who all looked to the Old One for guidance) lived and worked in harmony, community, and even prosperity- by the end of this time, they had saved up enough gathered food to last them through a ten-year famine. And the community aspect was in general- with Kiken and Shurri around, there was quite a bit of laughter as the two fought to up-stage the other in pranks, ideas, eating habbits, and ranks.
However, the harmony aspect was soon cut short as a strange feeling swept over the village on this beautiful, sunny, clear-skied afternoon- clear-skies with the acception of the data streams and the floating Earth above them.A weird, blue light seemed to fall from the Heavens- well, the Earth-sphere, but fall it did, and Kiken, Shurri and Shar (who now had to follow the two anywhere they wanted to go, as he was both their Master, and now also their junior in rank) decidedly stopped all motions else and, with a single sentence to the Old One ("We're... going for a run outside of the village- and yes, we'll be careful!"), went to go... examine this new phenomena.
10/05/02: Normal landing place for inter-world travel, Desert Level, Southern Quadrant, RoC 17:08:49
Rika graoned as she shakily stood up on the rim of the crater her fall had created. The green and red mists swirled around her once before disappearing into her D-Arc. She thought it weird, but dismissed it and looked around at the landscape. Some rocks over there, what looked like a mountain in the VERY far distance, and about twenty data streams in her range of vision. Perfect. And the few things that she had brought with her were now either scattered around her, or were forever lost somewhere out there in the Desert.
"Someone's really got it in for me..." She muttered as she went around, grabbing the one or two things she thought she might eventually need- pocket knife, check. Brush? Honestly, could anyone blame her for not brushing her hair in this heat? Throw. D-Arc? Check- no, she was going to just leave it behind for another digimon- or worse, a human- to stumble upon. Stuffing that into her pocket along with the knife, she glanced down at the other things littered around her feet.
After a few more minutes, a drastic change had taken place in the area around Rika. Instead of whole pieces of... well, by now who knows what they used to be, little scraps, odds and ends were strewn about, the most useful part of everything making it's way either onto her hands, into her pockets, or into the small satchel that her mother had told her to bring. The same color as her body suit, it was small enough to be no burden on her, but big enough to put either her clothes or the body suit into whenever she grew tired of wearing them.
After making one last check around, Rika decided to just do whatever her D-Arc told her to do: the Digital World, especially the Desert Level, was BIG, and there was no real way to honestly do anything without walking around in circles.
So, if you're going to be walking around in circles, why not use the D-Arc, and when ever she found this pile of garbage again, she could just curse the piece of technology, instead of herself?
Her D-Arc led her in a relatively straight line, once in a while making her go off in random directions, where she ended up finding even more random holes in the structure of the Desert Level, or gigantic data packets, which she would much rather not touch. Eventually, the D-Arc led her to a group of rocks that provided some shade, and deciding that rest was good for now, she slumped down near a group of Poyomon and fell asleep.
Of course (as the usual anime/manga plot line goes), the Poyomon were the same ones that had looked after Kiken,and they all looked at her curiously, wondering if she had anything to do with either the strange boy called Kiken, or their Sovereign's strange attitude lately.
However, all thoughts were swiftly cut as a low rumbling signalled the approach of either a BIG digimon- or a stampeed. Now, as fun as a BIG digimon would be (and as fun as it is to type BIG like that), it was, indeed, a heard of Mamothmon. Okay, they are big- just not BIG. Rika, though, did not wake up- one of the downsides of the rules of the Southern Quadrant was that you only woke up if you needed to. And, as Rika didn't know that she had to, she didn't.
The Poyomon of course were long gone by the time the heard of Mamothmon appeared, hidden by either more rocks, ontop of some rocks, into some holes, or away into the distance, hopping as fast as their little blob-by bodies would allow. Therefore, the only thing that the Mamothmon found was Rika, curled up in the shade of the rocks.
The Mamothmon talked for a bit, thought for a bit, talked for a bit longer, and then picked up the girl. Afterall, she might please the Sovereign to make him stop his rampage. And if not- well, none of them had ever had human before...
10/05/02: Normal landing place for inter-world travel, Desert Level, Southern Quadrant, RoC 17:42:36
Shar, Shurri, and Kiken arrived at the crash site just over half an hour after what ever had fallen had left. They found pieces of weird, strange, and undiscernable gadgets laying on the ground, semingly abandonned by whoever had left them. And they knew that someone had been here- the random footsteps and scent (in two cases), and aura (in one case) leading off in one direction distinctly marked where someone had been.
Shurri gaped at everything in amazement, surprise, shock, bewilderment and... what could be loosely defined as happiness on his face. Well, before he took off quickly, searching through everything, moving so quickly that even Shar (who was able to sense his two student's presences where ever they may be) was having trouble keeping track of the young digimon.
Kiken just looked on in amusement, before looking at the items and garbage himself. A plastic bag with the name "Konohan Groceries" caught his attention, and he bent down to look at it. His movement caught Shar and Shurri's attention, and both stopped what they were doing to watch (Shar having decided that Shurri was giving him a head ache, and had set out to stop the other digimon).
"Kiken? What's up?" Shurri asked, as he then moved deftly away from Shar and walked over to look at what had caught the human's attention.
"I feel like... I know this... "Konohan Groceries" thing. Like I've been there..." He stated, touching the bag with his finger tips. The strange symbol on the back of his hand flashed once at this action, before turning back to it's normal black color. Both Shar and Shurri felt the weird energies that Kiken gave off when the symbol flashed, but decided not to comment.
Kiken, however, did not notice anything- his attention was focused on the weird white, slightly trampled plastic bag. Wait a second... 'Slightly trampeled? That's the other aura!'
"Shar! Shurri! A heard of Mamothmon went through here- after whoever, or whatever it was landed."
Shurri rolled his eyes. "No duh, smart one. There's usually a stampeed of one kind of digimon or another through here."
"Not like this, though."
Shurri rolled his eyes again, while Shar looked quizically at the only human he knew. "What do you mean?"
"Look- the trail- it either leads to where ever whoever landed here was going, or away from it."
"And you're point is...?"
"Either way- they might be in trouble."
10/05/02: The Tall Rocks, Desert Level, Southern Quadrant, RoC 17:59:12
"Well, theMamothmon were certainly through here." Shurri stated as they surveyed the area. The Poyomon were slowly appearing again, among the large hoof prints and tracks that Mamothmon had a tendancy to make as they stood still.
"And they stayed here for a while." Kiken stated as well, walking over to where he firstwoke up, and saying hello to the Poyomon there, who greeted him happily.
Shar sighed. 'Leave it to these two to state thepainfully obvious.'After a sigh, he walked over (Shurri following) to where the smell of the human (as they had decided it must be, after much conversation) had obviously rested for a bit. "Hmm..."
"Shar? What's up?" Shurri asked, looking at the marks and smells, too. Then something hit him- both figuratively and physically. "Ow... what was that for, Kiken?"
"Just that the Poyomon saw what happened, baka."
"Leave off! It's not my fault- I don't speak stupid."
"Ha ha."
"Quiet, you two. We didn't need the Poyomon's info- although, it certainly confers what I thought." Shar said slowly, wondering how touchy Kiken was about other humans.
"What?" Both asked simultaneously, startling Shar when both then called out, "JINX!"
The older samurai sighed, and addressed them, gesturing to the imprints. "They found the human- not you, Kiken, the other human- here, talked about what to do with them, picked them up, and brought them with the herd."
Kiken rolled his eyes. "And we can stop refering to them as 'them' or 'the human'. It was a she- and not just a 'she', but one of them humans who helped saved the worlds- Rika Nonaka."
Both digimon were silent, pondering this, when Shar asked (seemingly randomly) "Kiken, do you know this... Rika Nonaka?"
Kiken thought briefly, before responding (with an overly-bright smile which scared both digimon- especially since it was coming from Kiken), "Nope! And if I do, I don't remember her! I'm going to go talk to the Poyomon some more, see if they know anything else."
As Kiken turned his back to them, Shurri leaned over to Shar and whispered, "I'm not sure, but- that smile really scares."
Shar responded with a nod, before they realized that they were having a civilized conversation and promptly glared at each other before turning away.
Kiken came over barely five seconds later, and stared at them. "Er... did I miss something here?"
"Nope! Nothing!" Shurri said quickly, Shar refusing to say anything at all. Kiken sighed.
"Well, it looks like the only thing that the Poyomon can seem to agree on is that the Mamothmon took Rika only for two reasons- eating, and something about the Sovereign... what?" Kiken blinked as he saw the semi-guilty looks on Shar and Shurri's faces, before he turned his third-most powerful glare on them (they had only seen the second-most two times, both towards digimon who were harming his friends... although it wasn't harming so much as taunting and mentally-harassing his friends, and neither had ever seen his most powerful, although all had come to the consensus that they didn't want to), and said slowly, "What aren't you two telling me? Or is the whole village keeping something from me?"
"Er... the... whole village?" Shurri stated, not sure if he liked being on this side of Kiken's glares.
"What. Is. It?" Kiken ground out. He knew that there was some things that people were keeping from him- that didn't bother him. However, the fact that they would keep something from him- something that had to do with maybe the life or death of another human being- a human being who saved the worlds, none-the-less, was just... not right, to put it lightly.
Shar coughed, before stating slowly (the Poyomon looking on in interest), "Well, the Sovereign has been searching the whole Southern Quadrant for something or someone- who they are, or what they are, we have no idea, but we do know for sure that he's on a rampage, deleting anything and everything in his way."
Kiken sighed, depressed. "Great. Well, I guess there's only one thing we can do now."
"Go back to the village, eat, use those things we found back at the crash site to play pranks, and act like this never happened?" Shurri asked hopefully.
"You wish." Shar replied, knowing instinctively what Kiken was going to say. "We're going after them."
Shurri groaned, turning to first Shar, then Kiken to try to change their minds. When both obviously were not going to change their minds, he appealed to the Poyomon- who quickly said "No way" and returned to what they were doing before hand.
Shurri sighed. "Alright then, O Great One. Where to next?"
10/05/02:Meeting place of the Sovereigns,Eastern Quadrant, RoC 18:19:59
Azulongmon, Ebonwumon, and Baihumon stared at Zhuqiaomon as he landed in his usual spot in their circle. He fluffed his plumage, smoothed it out again, and, when he noticed his movements were being watched, ruffled his recently-cleaned feathers irrately. "Why, may I ask, Brothers, are you staring at me?"
The other three exchanged looks, before Azulongmon began speaking. "Well... we have heard reports...that you have been on a rampage in your own Quadrant, Zhuqiaomon. We were meerly wondering if the reports are correct- and, judging by your facial expression, they are. Tell me, why have you resorted to such... drastic measures, Brother, to find Matsuki?"
The Sovereign of the Southern Quadrant glared. "As, with those in my Quadrant, are the only ways to make them see that I mean business, especially after the Restoration."
"What does the Restoration have to do with anything?" Baihumon asked slowly.
"Because many believe that D-Reaper caused the Digital World to be deleted, and therefore caused the Restoration. However, some know that another power helped to increase the destructive capabilities and the speed at which the destruction could commence."
Azulongmon realized what the fire bird was talking about moments before Baihumon and Ebonwumon. "A power that only one person can control, that was supposed to work against D-Reaper, not with it."
Zhuqiaomon nodded as eyes (all... 18, not including Zhuqiaomon's) went wide.
"The Hazard."
10/05/02: The Black Caves, Desert Level, Southern Quadrant, RoC 20:00:05
Kiken groaned as Shar finally said that they could stop for the night- this coming only five seconds after the sun went down, however, made it loose some it's good news. He cast a glance over his shoulder at the mouth of one of the thousands of caves that littered this certain part of a certain out-cropping. He slowly recalled through his exhaustion that Shurri had called them "The Black Caves". It was a very fitting name, as the only thing one could see anywhere more than one foot into the caves was darkness.
They promptly settled just inside, about three feet into the cave- enough to both avoid the wind chill, and to be covered in darkness should any hungry digimon came by. Shurri of course, having been this way in the past (many, many times by the looks of it) kept wanting to dissapear further into the caves- but told Shar and Kiken to stay where they were. Shar, of course, said they all go in, or none go in, regardless if Shurri had friends in here. Shurri pouted, and instead found a nice, comfortable sport by the small fire they had set up and fell asleep.
Kiken and Shar soon followed suit- but, not after doing their, by now, built-in 'breath/meditate before sleeping' thing.
10/05/02: Meeting place of the Sovereigns, Eastern Quadrant, RoC 20:15:06
Zhuqiamon grumbled as he departed from the meeting place. He and his brothers had come up with- well, nothing, really. Although the other three had agreed to enhance, lengthen, and even (in Baihumon's case) work alongside everyone to find Takato, like the fire bird was doing.
However, other than Takato should now be found sooner than they had original thought he should be found (which meant that he would have to be found within the next 0.000001 milliseconds), nothing else was really done at the meeting. Well, other than the other Sovereigns still telling him to relax his search a bit. But how was he ever going to get information if he didn't find it himself, as the digimon in his Quadrant refused to go anywhere near him?
Sighing, he returned to his castle, having been re-built in much more splendor after the Restoration. The still remaining Devas were there to greet him, and offered him a rest. He shook them off, sending them all on seperate quests in different parts, looking for information.
Before Mihiramon left, however, he turned to Zhuqiaomon and told his Master, "There is a special group of guests who want to talk to you."
"Mmh?"
Mihiramon spoke up. "A group of Mamothmon from the Desert Level. They heard about your search (who hasn't?), and wanted to bring you something that might help. If not, it should make a tasety treat. It is currently sleeping in one of the guest chambers- though, why there are some for humans, I have no idea..."
As Mihiramon left, Zhuqiaomon thought this over. What ever those low-level, no-brained, useful only for data Mamothmon had brought him was in a guest chamber? And in the human chambers? It couldn't be Takato- Mihiramon would have told him if it was. Something to aid the search? He didn't really pay much attention after that to the human part- it was a common annoyance amongst his Devas that there were rooms for humans in his palace, but he didn't really mind.
After all, if the humans should come, they should be excellent oponenets- especially Takato with his Mode Change.
What ever this guest was, it was probably some low-level (lower than Mamothmon? Well, it would be possible... but for them to be taken by the Mamothmon, and a potential snack?) digimon, not even worthy of being looked at.
He entered the Great Room, and looked at the herd of Mamothmon. This was going to be a LONG night.
11/05/02: Zhuqiaomon's Palace, Sovereign's Level, Southern Quadrant, RoC 07:02:49
The red headed girl groaned as she slowly regained conciousness. Of course, she knew she had been moved while she slept (especially if the soft, fluffy blankets and pillows on the bed she was using were any indication), and that whoever did move her was going to get pounded.
She also knew that she was hungry, thristy, and... 'oh, thank god. So this isn't one of those dreams I've heard about where you walk around naked...'
Rika swung her legs out of the bed, looking around at the room. A canopy bed, decorated in blues and yellows, a dresser, a vanity and seat and a large, winged, arm chair, complete with too many pillows, all made out of what appeared to be wood. She blinked, and looked towards the large, pine, double doors. Walking over to them and tugging on the handles, Rika found herself to be locked inside the room.
She growled- being locked anywhere was not what she wanted to be. So, Rika turned away from the doors and instead faced the large window which she had somehow failed to notice before. Hoisting herself onto the extra-wide ledge, she leaned back against the cold stone walls, relaxing her body as she realized where she was, due to the mainly red scenery spread out before her.
'Zhuqiamon's castle? Then I guess it could be good that the door is locked- I honestly don't want any digimon that might have thought even a single bad thought about humans having access to my room while I sleep. Although, this does make my job harder... maybe ol' bird brain will have some info...?'
Notes
1) Shorter than usual. I'm sorry, but I think I'm gonna start with the usual 'quicker updates and shorter chapters' instead of the 'longer updates and longer chapters'. Of course, chappie lengths will vary. But... who really cares about that? "What will happen will happen, and though our choices will change the time, place, and people the events effect, they will happen eventually, and the only thing we can do is prepare". Yeah... random quote there from Jacqui, aka the Belldandy clone. Really, as blond as she can be sometimes, she says some really deep stuff...
2) Yeah! We got somewhere... ish... in this chappie! I wanted to leave off there as a semi-cliffie, 'cause I wanted to start working again on Secrets. Honestly, I think I should really update things quicker,ore. It will really help me from getting writer's block- which I get a LOT. Also, deciding to read YGO/HP x-overs doesn't really help...
3) Shar, Shurri, and Kiken. Why does that remind me of "Ed Edd and Eddy"? Ah well. That group will figure prominently in the chapters- and, eventually, x-overs, to come. Really. I dunno why, but I just plain like Shurimon. They're samurai and are "one with the True nature and ideals of the universe"- another Jacqui quote, might I add. And I think that they play as awesome side-kicks to dear old Takato.
4) Speaking of Takato and Shurri, yes, Takato is a bit OOC. And there's a very good reason: no memory + 'growing up'/being taught/just plain LIVING with someone like Shurri would do that to a person. Oh, Shurri is based off my friends Heidi and Danny. Although, I could just say one- their personalities are similar enough... I shudder when I think of what will happen when those two get together as a couple... oi... weirdos... :)
5) Shar is actually based slightly off Jacqui (who has also taken up a role as 'okaa-san' for myself, Anjel-chan, Heidi-chan, Celly-chan, Vic-chan, Jen-chan, Sam-chan, Wanda-chan, Mehwish-chan, Helein-chan, Nova-chan, Era-chan and Kristy-chan. No, really. Jacqui acts like a mother- but one of those cool mothers who you can do anything with and say anything to (well, anything if you really want to be TKD'ed... SHE'S A DAMN BLACK-BELT, FOR GODS SAKE! Well, Jacqui and Mrs. DeCiantis, Soave, Heron-Howell, Poliwka (pronounced Pole-leaf-ka), Bada, Latchman and Mr. Van Poppen, Prince, and Win-Williams. And my grade eight teacher, Mr. Sorine... Yup... scary thought, actually...
Song
Das Wandern from the .hackSIGN soundtrack. Ah, I love this song... can't pronounce a single word properly, but I love it all the same...