Chapter Six: The Destination
Never meet your heroes was a statement Daisuke had personally disagreed with for years. But then again, his hero was Yagami Taichi, a kid who could mess up and be human and not be utterly distraught over it. It was no one so overblown and all-mighty that he could live with the disappointments and admire him more afterward.
The more he was around Ryo, who was heroic, the more the sentiment started to make sense.
Not that Ryo was a bad guy. He was a bit cocky, and he took up a lot of Ken's time right now, but it had to be necessary. It had been years since the two of them had seen each other. That meant something, right? It had to mean something.
It wasn't that Ryo was rude or mean, but there was a distance to his face and eyes that came from being old in a world for kids. Sometimes Taichi-san or the others were the same. Often when everyone wasn't looking, their eyes would go dim, or they'd stop talking, or something equally uncomfortable. He did avoid looking at Taichi-san and the others for very long, but so did they. Something was missing there.
So if you meet your heroes, you'll realize they were human.
He looked at Ken, who looked more reflective than anything. "you good?" he asked, out of curiosity more than anything.
Ken nodded. "It's about what I expected," he said. The portal, more like a tunnel, rippled around them, and Daisuke looked away. This crap made him nauseous. Ken flashed him a look of sympathy. World plus dimensional travel was a rougher transition than going from the human to the digital world. Then again, he had probably just built up immunity. He pitied those tamer kids or whomever. "We both have gaps in our memories, stupid little holes that mean something but don't know what it means, and stuff like that. It's frustrating more than anything."
"Is it all that important to remember, though?" Daisuke asked. Then he paused. "Shit, I didn't mean to say it like that."
Ken laughed. "No worries, I know what you meant. And I don't have an answer."
Daisuke shrugs. "Fair enough."
Neither of them noticed Ruki's eyes on their backs.
…
They land in a world of muted color and mildewed plants.
"It's hot," Daisuke mutters, tugging off his jacket and tying it around his waist.
Ruki grimaces. He's not wrong. She sheds her jacket (it was late spring in Japan when they'd been whisked away to adventure, and she'd needed pockets.) and ties it, just a bit tighter.
It was not even hot, but more like a trapped condensation of it. It feels like all those trips her mother made her take with her to the sauna but thicker. She felt ready to swallow the air itself and have a full three-course meal as a result.
"I'm not sure what's worse," she said before she could stop herself. "How everything feels like a swamp or how damn empty the place is."
"Going with the latter," said Jenrya quietly by her ear. Takato is stretching, concern and fear in his eyes all at once. "Things could live in this sort of weather, but there's nothing living."
"Gennai warned us there might be Digimon," said Ken, politely ignoring the way Ryo tensed up as if expecting something to fall out of the goddamn sky. "But they also might not be Digimon, more like copies of Digimon."
"Is this like the Diablomon thing?" Takato asked, and Ruki looked away to pretend she did not know what the fuck he was talking about.
Ken thought about it, then nodded once. "I think so. Copies of data of Digimon, but they would lack a digicore to keep their form. Like images on a screen but not the actual item."
"Did he give anything about how to tell them apart?" Jenrya was already cycling through his cards.
"A digicore," Daisuke replied. His group - the special Chosen Children - were already splitting into teams; they'd talked about this earlier. Ruki glanced at Takato, who was now petting Guilmon and examining the local area. He already had a set of five cards out, his favorite basic skill set. Hmph. Google head was getting good. She slid out a few cards. "It, uh, distorts less. Digimon is more solid for longer, you know?"
Ruki thought about it, Renamon solid and steady at her side, and then she understood. "Right." She shared a look with the other two and tried to meet Ryo's gaze. He refused.
Hm. Okay, that wasn't going to fly. She nodded at everyone and grabbed Ryo by his shirt sleeve. "Come on, star boy," she grunted. "Over here for a minute."
Ryo blinked, pulled from his thoughts. A cocky grin crossed his face but didn't reach his eyes, and he followed her over.
"What's up, Ruki?" His voice didn't even wobble. She'd admire it if it weren't a legitimate problem right now.
She didn't put her hands on her hips, but she did watch Renamon and Monodramon (when did they become friends?) sit down on some mossy rocks to keep watch. "Whatever your problem is," she said, getting right to the point so he couldn't dodge and vague and be… himself. "Either talk about it or take some deep breaths and drop it for now, okay? You're here. If you weren't going to help or be angry and spaced out like this, you could have stayed back. We'd have been… not fine, but like, no one would have looked at you cross-eyed. We'd be kinda terrible if we did."
Ryo looked at her a moment, cocky grin threatening to dissolve into a frown, or worse. Ryo didn't get angry in the same way she did, or anyone did. But he didn't cry either or emote. Not that she was saying people needed to be Takato, or even Daisuke and his well-rounded emotional noise or whatever. But that couldn't be healthy.
She thought this, as someone who suppressed most everything until like two years ago.
Then he sighed. "I didn't know you were watching me that much."
"It's not like you didn't make it super obvious." Ruki shrugged. "Do you remember something?"
Ryo exhaled and made to speak. Then his eyes widened, and he grabbed his D-Arc. Ruki turned with him, and their partners dove into the fight, pouncing on a Snimon each without hesitation. The two of them slash a card each, and their partners evolve. Their opponents fall in seconds, their battle hardy Digimon likely unimpressed.
"I didn't even hear them," Ruki grumbled as Daisuke and Ken ran to meet them. "I'm getting soft."
"I didn't see them until they were right on top of us," Ryo said with a groan and a wave of his hand at Ken. "DOn't bully yourself now."
She couldn't even glare at him. She turned to Jenrya, who she noticed was now dodging attacks. "Okay, we're sitting ducks out here; we need to evolve."
"We may need the energy later," Jenrya calls back, Gargomon giving Chrysalimon a concussion with a single blow. "Make a blue card, fast!"
That was probably true. Still, this wasn't very pleasant.
Gritting her teeth, Ruki shut her eyes and thought of hope, a shirt with a whole heart, Renamon's fur under her hands as they nearly said goodbye forever, and let her world light up blue.
A/N: Apologies for the delay, the giftee to this fic has passed but I am all the more determined to finish it as a result, along with his others. Thank you for your patience.