DISCLAIMER: I own neither the game, original storyline or the script. I do however, own the newly edited plot and the expansion.
Digimon Continuity
Brave Tamer
Chapter 26
A Bad Deed… or a Good One?
:. Real World – Japan, Shinjuku
Local Time: 2.10 p.m.
Ryo's Time: 6 Days, 05:10 hrs AR
Takato Matsuki took a deep breath, glancing nervously at his two friends outside the store.
Why… why me? He wondered again.
Right now, he was in the card shop, pockets empty. There was no way he could buy any of the cards there, the cards that they needed. However, Daisuke suggested the idea of 'borrowing' the cards instead.
"Wouldn't that be stealing?" Takato asked.
"Well," Taichi pondered. "When you look at it that way… but when you think about how we are not doing this for our own gain and using it to save the world… well…"
"It is still stealing…" Takato groaned.
"Sorry, Takato," Daisuke said with a mischievous smile, one that Takato knew meant that the other gogglehead was about to pull something… and experience from watching the show was telling him he was sure that it would be something he wouldn't like. "It's the only way. Unless you can make money magically appear."
"Then why don't one of you guys do it?!" Takato knew that he would not be able to do such a thing. Years of building moral values with his parents meant that anything that was considered 'wrong' was… well, wrong for him.
"That's easy…" Koromon began, before halting in mid-sentence, clearly trying to find a good reason… Or excuse… Takato thought darkly.
"Well, there's one thing," DemiVeemon said. "You are the pro in the cards, so you know exactly what to 'borrow'."
"But it's still stealing!!" Takato exclaimed for the umpteenth time. "Come on, Guilmon, back me up here!"
The red reptile put a claw to his chin, deep in thought. "But Takato, I thought borrowing was perfectly fine…"
Takato could hear several sniggers as Takato's jaw dropped in horror and he quickly tried to reason with his partner. "Guilmon!!" Takato stressed Guilmon's name in his equivalent of getting irritated. He never truly could get irritated for some reason or another. "This is not borrowing. This is stealing."
Guilmon's features shifted into a frown. "But isn't this like how you would 'borrow' bread for me to eat?"
Takato groaned at Guilmon's apparent logic. However, the others chose to further add on.
"Besides," Koromon said. "I think I remember you saying that we were part of a show. That means that Taichi and Daisuke can't go in without being hogged like celebrities."
Takato's shoulders sagged when he realised that they were all for him stealing… and all against him.
"Hey! I want to do that!!" Daisuke exclaimed as he tried to rush forward and announce that he was a superstar, only to be knocked out by Taichi first.
"Hello? Remember? We need to 'keep a low profile' here."
"Not really working…" DemiVeemon said as he tried as inconspicuously as possible to look at their surroundings. People were indeed staring at them.
One kid, averaging about the age of five, walked up to them. "Hi… is it dress up like Tai and Davis day today?"
"What?" came the surprised response of Taichi and Daisuke.
"Uh yeah," Takato said with forced cheerfulness.
"Then where did you get those costumes?! They look so real!!"
"Uh… you can get it at your favourite Digmon store?" Takato replied with an unconvincing grin.
"Okay!! Thank you!!" The kid exclaimed, running back into the crowd.
"Okay… weird…" Daisuke muttered.
"They must think that you're some kind of cosplayer… or something…" Takato told them.
"So come on, Takato," Taichi encouraged. "Let's do this and get out of here before we get too famous."
Takato groaned yet again.
Much to his surprise earlier, the shopkeeper had apparently recognised him when he entered, waving and giving a friendly smile as he walked in, both his shoulders tense.
The only problem was… Takato did not recognise the shopkeeper.
It was infinitely eerie.
Now, his hands hovered over two decks of cards, cards that Takato believed would suit Taichi and Daisuke best. The shopkeeper had paid him no heed, apparently believing that he was the Takato that the former knew. If the shopkeeper had paid attention to him, he would realise that Takato was acting very suspiciously… like someone who was about to shoplift.
Oh please forgive me, Mom, Dad, guilty conscience, whatever God that's up there. I'm only doing this to save the world…
With that, Takato snatched up the two decks and made a break for the door.
:. ENIAC's World
6 Days, 05:15 hrs AR
"Oh brother…finally."
"Old bladder… nanny?" the white haired Digimon shook his head in disappointment. "You must really learn some manners young man! You don't call old geezers names when you want help from them!"
Ryo Akiyama hung his head, then tilted it back as far as it could go. This was going nowhere. It was hard to even make conversation with Jijimon. The eager enthusiasm that had filled him had long evaporated. What was left now was a weariness that seemed to fill his bones. His wounds, both his fresh and not-so-old ones, had began to ache, adding to his irritation.
And say nothing of his head as well.
This is going nowhere…
"No, Jijimon," Karatenmon said. "I think that your hearing may need some working on."
"My bearings need some porking on?" Jijimon looked at Karatenmon in horror. "Karatenmon! Now I see where those bad manners come from! You must have set a bad example to the poor young lad!" Jijimon gave Ryo a pat on the back that almost made him lose his balance.
Karatenmon sighed and rolled his eyes in an imitation of up to the ceiling, before closing them and rubbing them slightly. It amused Ryo slightly that even Karatenmon was losing his patience. Turning to Monodramon, Ryo could see that even the ever respectful Rookie was having trouble in resisting the urge to shake some sense into Jijimon… or something to make him hear better. The boy rested a hand on his partner, causing the latter to stop fidgeting and give him a small nod to say that he understood Ryo's silent message.
"Karatenmon," Ryo began, turning back to the Ultimate. "Isn't there any other way to find out about this 'cure' other than Jijimon?"
"Well…" Karatenmon considered. "None that I know of. Though I am quite certain that at least one of the other Digimon might have encountered the effects before, I still think that Jijimon is the best choice for these things." Ryo frowned. In contrast to his words, Karatenmon's tone said that he was not at all sure that there was someone else who might know.
"What are you two doing now?" Jijimon asked suspiciously. "Are you planning some evil prank behind my back or sharing some tips with each other on bad manners?"
"But…" Karatenmon closed his eyes and rubbed them again, looking as though he did not even hear Jijimon's words. Then, not bothering to answer Jijimon, Karatenmon about faced and left the room, leaving Ryo staring dumbly at the portal through which he disappeared.
"Uh… Ryo? What's Karatenmon doing?" Monodramon inquired. "Why did he leave us with… um…"
Ryo shook his head. "I have absolutely no idea…"
Jijimon, on the other hand, appeared to be frowning under his immense beard. "Now that's one disrespectful youngster."
But before either Monodramon or himself could comment on Jijimon's words, Karatenmon returned, holding in his hands a thick slab. Ryo didn't ask where Karatenmon had gone or why he was bring back a slab. He simply watched, deciding that answers would come, since waiting for answers was all he ever did anyway. Monodramon, however, decided that waiting for answers to come was not his style.
"Karatenmon? What's with the rock thingy?"
Jijimon, on the other hand, was studying the slab in Karatenmon's hands and Karatenmon himself with interest.
Smiling in his mysterious bird-like way, Karatenmon set the slab on the ground and drew his blades. A sharp intake of breath came from Monodramon while Ryo held his in mute horror. He watched as Karatenmon pointed his two swords toward the ground, looking for all the world like he was getting ready to attack. For a split second, despite knowing otherwise, Ryo thought that Karatenmon would leap at the defenceless Jijimon.
What Karatenmon did was far unexpected.
With a graceful frenzy, Karatenmon began slashing at the slab on the ground, using accurate and precise cuts on the slab to begin forming crude runes of a size roughly the width of two fingers. Both his swords were blurs as he moved them from left to right and vice versa, cutting the rock as he would an enemy. Ryo admitted that it took remarkable swordsmanship to judge the resistance of the rock and the amount of force needed to create such a small line, not to mention a series of them such that they formed a rune.
When Karatenmon finally sheathed his weapons, several sentences of the runes marked the surface of the slab. Gingerly, the bird warrior picked it up, as though worried that it would break when he did, and passed it to Jijimon, who took the piece with equal delicacy.
"Whoa…" Monodramon uttered, stunned. "I didn't know you could do that Karatenmon…"
The Ultimate gave Monodramon one of his bird-like smiles and gave Ryo a nod. With a start, Ryo smiled back in return, realising that Karatenmon had solved their problem.
:. Real World – Japan, Shinjuku
Local Time: 2.14 p.m.
Ryo's Time: 6 Days, 05:14 hrs AR
"Um… Taichi?"
"Hmm?"
"Have you ever thought about… you know… our situation?" Daisuke asked, while they were waiting for Takato to emerge from the card shop. "I mean, Digimon is supposed to be a big secret… but when you look around now, Digimon is everywhere. They even have cards out in stores for crying out loud!!"
"I… guess," Taichi replied hesitantly, giving it a moment's thought. He never really had the time to think it this way before. Truth to be told, he never even thought about the possibility of Digimon in any world other than the Digital World, as every day in his adventures with the other Chosen required them to be alert (as much as they could) and to keep moving, finding a way home.
The latter meant that they had to first save the Digital World, which meant that Taichi spent most of his time wondering what kind of enemy required their aid and what it would take to defeat them. Etemon was one example, but according to Gennai, the monkey was only one of those enemies.
Thus, the possibility of Digimon in the Human World was just too… out there. Taichi just couldn't visualise it.
Furthermore, all this about time travelling was enough for Taichi. He could barely get his head around that. It was all he could do to just follow the flow. He knew that Ryo, Takato and Daisuke needed his and Agumon's help.
Originally, the reason he had fought was to go home. That was his sole reason. But now… he wasn't so sure. He felt now a bond that linked him to the other Chosen and the three other time travellers. Even a bond to all those other unknown people who had the fortune (or misfortune) of having a Digimon partner and being involved in the affairs of the Digital World. It felt… wrong should he go home without giving them a hand.
But giving a hand was all he could do. Understanding the base reason for this whole fight in the first place was beyond him. Understanding anything short of the simple concept of 'defeat the enemy in front of you' was beyond him. It was all too much for him to accept without time. Time which they did not have as every second was filled with anxieties for the next day or questions or preparations for battle.
Thus, he had no answer for Daisuke's question.
"I don't know, Daisuke," Taichi admitted. "This whole thing is giving me headaches just to think about. But if you say so… I guess that maybe you're right. It is kinda weird." Taichi walked out of the alley in which they were waiting for Takato in, looking at the poster covering half of the card shop's display, advertising about some kind of Digimon Card competition and showing an Agumon in a battle stance in the background.
"Yeah… seeing myself is weird," Koromon commented from Taichi's arms. "And they even got my nose wrong!!"
Guilmon's box popped out of the alley they were in, a single golden eye peeping through the hole in the box. "What? What is it?"
DemiVeemon jumped up from Daisuke's head to Taichi's for a better look, shaking his head at Guilmon. "No… it looks the same to me," the blue In-Training commented.
"I can't see anything!!" Guilmon pouted, though no one paid attention to the poor Rookie.
"You're not an Agumon, you wouldn't know," Koromon dismissed.
"Nor are you… at the moment anyway," DemiVeemon countered.
Koromon was about to retort when Takato came bursting out of the card shop, followed shortly a second later by a man, who was presumably the shop's owner.
"AH!!! HELP!!!"
"Takato!! Come back!!" The man exclaimed, already panting. "What are you doing?! Didn't your parents teach you not to steal?!"
"They did…" Takato muttered, head drooping.
But he still kept running, as though he could run from his guilty conscious, his first intentional act of crime. He was always an accident waiting to happen. His parents had said it. His friends had said it. He knew it. He was always late, he was always forgetting to do his homework due to his Digimon obsession, he was always tripping and falling on everything.
The only true crime he actually did was 'stealing' bread from his parent's bakery. However, that was easily justified by the fact that he always used the previous day's bread. His parents never ever put on sale those bread, as they did not want complains of bad quality bread. It was always sent to the garbage eventually anyway. He might as well give it to Guilmon.
Okay, except the occasional time I get a bit to broaden Guilmon's taste buds… seeing how he tastes dirt to do so…
Still, the point was this was an outright wrong thing to do. Shoplifting. It was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. It was so wrong he could not emphasise how wrong it was. It was wrong beyond all the wrongs that he had ever committed.
And his only 'excuse' was that he was doing so to save the world.
It was some excuse.
Turning quickly, Takato entered an alley, skidding in and quickly regained his footing to keep on running. The shopkeeper was hot on his heels.
Too late, Takato realised his mistake. Dead ahead was a dead end. There was nowhere else to go.
However, Daisuke's voice quickly gave him an option. "Takato! Left!!"
Instinctively, Takato obeyed…
Only to meet the brick wall.
"Ow…"
The bend he was supposed to turn into was two steps away.
He had turned too early.
Ouch.
He clutched his nose, which he was surprised to find not bleeding, but hurting like someone put a white-hot poker to it. Stars filled his vision as he rolled onto his back, straining his eyes to find the shopkeeper skidding to a stop, panting.
"Takato…" the man breathed. "Why did you steal? Don't you know that I can report you to the police for this?" Finally, the man straightened, putting a concerned hand on his arm. "Are you okay?"
Takato nodded, not knowing what else to do in the face of the shopkeeper's unexpected kindness.
The man sighed. "It's not like you to steal, Takato. Did someone dare you to it?" the man asked, before continuing without awaiting his reply. "You should know better than to accept a dare such as this. Look at the trouble it got you into. You probably need to see a doctor for that nose now. And I'll be forced to call your parents to tell them about this. They are not going to be happy. But I'll try to lighten up on the stealing bit. That's the least-"
The rest of the shopkeeper's words were abruptly cut off when he slumped to the ground, Daisuke holding his D-Power in his hand.
Takato blinked.
"Uh… sorry," Daisuke apologised sheepishly. "I thought that you might be in a tad bit of trouble… and I had to figure out something before you got into further trouble."
"You knocked him out with your D-Power?" Takato asked in disbelief, deciding not to mention that the shopkeeper had been trying not to get him into further trouble. It would only make Daisuke guilty for his actions, and in Takato's opinion one guilty party was enough.
Daisuke shrugged. "I couldn't find anything else… and the others were too slow," he said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder.
"You sure he's all right?" Takato proceeded to ask in worry.
Daisuke bent to check the man he had just knocked out with a blow to the head. "No worries… he's still breathing," Daisuke told him.
Though he'll likely wake up with one heck of a headache… Takato thought.
"Yeah, I agree."
Oops… the thought flashed through his mind in the realisation that he had said his thoughts aloud… again.
However, just as Takato was getting to his feet, Guilmon, rid of his box, pounced on him, pushing the breath out of his lungs in one whoosh.
"Takato!! Are you okay?!" the red saurian asked in worry, before adding, "Your nose looks a little funny."
"I'm okay, Guilmon," he barely got out, his lack of oxygen taking effect as his face was slowly turning purple. "But… get off me!!"
"Sorry," Guilmon said, obeying and stepping off.
"So, Takato, you got the things that we need?" Taichi asked, having two In-Trainings on his person slowing him down as he ran up to them.
Takato quickly got to his feet, giving the shopkeeper an apologetic glance before scratching his head. "Uh… yeah… kinda." He gave Taichi and Daisuke their plastic wrapped decks, which they unceremoniously ripped open, browsing through the cards. "Uh… about the stealing thing…"
Taichi looked up, sudden guilt clear on his features. "Well… I guess we had no choice about that…"
"But guys," Takato said uncomfortably. "I don't think I want to steal again…" However, he did not mention about how very guilty he was feeling at the moment at both stealing and the knocking out of the shopkeeper with a D-Power when he had been so kind.
"We won't," Taichi said with conviction. "We just need to get yen… somehow…"
"Well, we could take it from this guy's store…" Daisuke suggested. Takato and Taichi both glared at him, causing him to wither under their combined might. "Just a thought…"
"Not a very good one, Daisuke," DemiVeemon quipped as he jumped from Taichi's to Daisuke's head.
"I agree," Takato said, releasing a breath he did not know he had been holding due to the fear that Taichi would agree. Daisuke seemed a little… different from the one depicted in the show Takato had watched from young. He seemed more… reckless in real life, with less regard for moral values. Though that may just be my imagination…
"So… we go back now?"
Taichi nodded, taking charge. "Yeah, we got what we needed… there's nothing else left right?" The brown-haired boy looked around at them with an inquiring gaze.
"FOOD!!" All three Digimon immediately announced.
"Bread!!" Guilmon added. "With peanut butter!!"
A series of groans issued from their respective partners at how they could forget such an important thing.
"But we have no money…" Takato reminded. "And you guys promised stealing was out of the option."
"But how else are we going to get food enough to feed an army?" Daisuke asked. "Of Digimon that are bottomless pits?" He added as an afterthought.
The three stood in the alley in silence, alongside with a man who lay sprawled on the ground, forgotten, wondering how on earth were they going to solve their dilemma.
Fate, however, had other plans for them.
It began almost unnoticeably, but it did. The world began to twist ever so slightly. Solid concrete and steel rippled.
On the road, beyond the alley in which the three 'leaders' of their respective groups stood, the world was beginning to end.
At last!
Ah well, I at least am able to set up the beginnings of an idea I had in mind for quite a while... and I really mean the end of the world is coming when I said the end of the world is coming...
And let me just thank Crazyeight for beta reading and reviewing as well as the anonymous reviewer who managed to correct my grammar mistakes. Thanks a whole lot!
Well, review!!