Part Two: Red Eyes and Ice Cream Fights
***
Remember: Only the plot is mine. All mine. Everything else? Belongs to the suits at Toei, Saban, Fox Kids, etc. They won't sell it to me for the fifty three cents I found under my pillow from the tooth fairy when I was seven. Can you believe it? They drive a hard bargain. On with the story.
***
Ichijouji Ken was no dummy. Not by a long shot. And he was absolutely certain that someone was following him. Positive.
At first he had thought it to be paranoia. Maybe he was going insane. He was pretty insane anyway, maybe this was proof. Surely he was imagining it when he saw the glowing red eyes peer out at him from his balcony in the middle of the night. A leftover from his nightmares.
It was only his imagination, he convinced himself, when he saw the strange red eyes peering from one of the lockers in the hall at school, or from outside the classroom. He was truly loosing it. Being in the digital world for so long probably had weird effects on his mind.
But then Minomon had seen them. The little bug type had been resting on his bed while he worked on his homework. It was a futile effort, he realized. He wasn't able to concentrate on school work. He had been a vicious tyrant and now they wanted him to do calculus? The strange transition must have been taking more of a toll on his mind than he had realized.
But Minomon saw the red eyes while he was working on the computer. "Ken-chan!" he had squeaked in surprise, and he had turned to see the little digimon staring with fear at the window. Ken had looked towards the window and managed to catch a quick glimpse of the eyes before they had disappeared. After that, he shut the curtains.
"You saw them too?" Minomon stammered.
"I've been seeing them all week," he confessed. "I thought I was going insane. But I guess I'm not." He paused. "Unless you're going insane with me."
"We're not crazy," the digimon insisted. "There's someone – or something – watching us."
Ken considered his options. He considered calling the police, but had quickly ruled that out. Most likely this had something to do with digimon, he was certain. But exactly how - he was unsure. His only collaborative witness was Minomon. He certainly couldn't have the police talk to a digimon, so therefore they would think he was insane.
He couldn't go to his parents. They were still so shaken up about his disappearance that any slight danger to his health would worry them both so much. Especially his mother. He really didn't want them to go through that.
Osamu, his brother, was an option, but, he decided, only if all else failed. There was no reason to involve Osamu in digimon. He didn't need to know quite yet. If nothing else, Ken was convinced that his family would not suffer any further for his mistakes. That meant keeping them in the dark about digimon. About Minomon. As much as he'd wanted to share his new friend with Osamu and his parents, he'd remained silent.
There was really only one option. Ken would have to contact himself.
Well, not himself, really. His self that had visited him from another world. If it hadn't been for that version of himself, he would still be an insane, dark tyrant in the digital world. He was extremely grateful to that version of himself.
Naturally, Ken found it easiest to speak with himself. They had many shared experiences. His other self had once been the same insane dark tyrant that he was. The other Ken would certainly know if he was going even more insane or if he was really in danger.
And so, he made up his mind. He would contact himself.
***
Elsewhere…Wormmon tapped his partner softly on the head. "Ken-chan?" he whispered. The boy's response was to roll over and groan. It was still early morning, and it was Saturday morning. There was no reason for him to be up. "Ken-chan?" Wormmon repeated. "You said we would have ice cream with the others this morning."
With a groan, Ken finally sat up. "I was having the weirdest dream," he mumbled in explanation to the curious digimon. He climbed down from his bed and stretched.
"What about?" Wormmon questioned.
"Meeting myself," he replied. "I've been having them for the past week. Ever since I did meet myself. It was very strange."
The digimon was still perched on his bed. He remained silent for a few moments as his partner dressed. "Most people don't get to meet themselves, I suppose," he admitted.
Ken couldn't help but smile. "No, that's true, they don't." He finished buttoning the shirt he'd chosen to wear that day. "Ready for ice cream?"
"Yeah!" Wormmon cheered in response.
Suddenly, there was a strange beeping noise from somewhere on his desk. "What - ?" he wondered. Quickly, he located his d-terminal. "E-mail?"
"Probably Daisuke wanting us to hurry," Wormmon stated as he climbed down the side of his bed.
"No, it's from me," his partner replied. "The other me. He thinks he's being watched."
"Being watched?"
"Yes," Ken replied. "By these – red glowing eyes." He frowned in his digimon's direction. "That doesn't sound good."
"Do you want to go back there?" Wormmon queried.
The boy frowned even more deeply. "I'm not sure. It's pretty dangerous to go alone."
"We could bring the others."
He shook his head. "No, there's no reason to involve them. I think I'll just send an email back. No need to miss the ice cream." He smiled at his digimon. Wormmon seemed to cheer at the prospect of the frozen desert, and thoughts of the other Ken's problems in the other world vanished from their minds.
"We'd better hurry," the digimon advised. A few moments later, they were on their way.
***
"About time!" Daisuke half-scolded his friend. "You're late."
"Only by about five minutes," Hikari assured him.
"Sorry," Ken apologized in response. "I got an e-mail this morning and needed to answer it before I left."
"An e-mail?" Miyako questioned.
He nodded, shrugging slightly. "Nothing important."
"Let's order already!" Chibimon interrupted from his partner's lap. "I'm hungry!"
A few minutes later, everyone was happily gulping down their ice cream. All was peaceful until Daisuke attempted to steal the cherry from Miyako's sundae. It wasn't really a big issue. Daisuke had one of his own, and Miyako didn't really like cherries. But she got mad nonetheless, and responded by hurling the cherry at his face.
Daisuke immediately forgot about wanting to eat the cherries, and instead threw his own back at her.
Miyako caught the cherry before it could hit her and threw it back. It missed her opponent and hit Takeru, who was sitting next to Daisuke, in the nose.
There was an awkward silence then. Takeru rubbed his nose thoughtfully, deciding how to respond. Miyako gulped nervously. Daisuke laughed forcefully. Takeru heaved the cherry back at Miyako.
Miyako ducked and the cherry hit Hikari. It rolled through her hair and landed in her ice cream.
"Ew!" she commented, and hurled the cherry back at Takeru. It landed in Iori's ice cream. Iori rolled his eyes slightly and then tossed it at Hikari, somewhat half-heartedly. It hit Miyako.
A few moments later, everyone except Ken and Iori had taken their own cherry and several globs of ice cream and begun throwing them at whomever they could hit.
For a few minutes, Ken and Iori both ate their ice creams silently while the others fought. Iori calmly ignored the food fight. Ken observed it with some caution. He didn't want to get caught up in it, yet he thought it somewhat fascinating.
By the laws of probability, one cannot sit anywhere near a food fight without getting some sort of food heaved at them. Iori had avoided involvement after the cherry incident, but a few drops of ice cream inevitably flew in his direction. He ignored all but the largest. Upamon gulped a few that flew past him, eager for more food.
Ken somehow had managed to not get any cherries or ice cream thrown at him. He stared with some amount of fear at the situation. If one of them accidentally hit him, was he supposed to retaliate? Was he supposed to sit there and take it? What was he supposed to do? Get mad?
Meanwhile, Miyako was busy trying to drop a significant bit of her ice cream down the back of Daisuke's shirt. Daisuke was trying to shove a cherry up Takeru's nose. Takeru was heaving chocolate chips and sprinkles from his own sundae at Hikari. Hikari was tossing them back. A few sprinkles flew towards Ken, but no one seemed to notice, including Ken himself.
He was just staring to become entranced in watching this when Miyako heaved some ice cream.
Looking back later, he realized he could easily have ducked or avoided the ice cream. It wasn't aimed for him, in fact, even Miyako was uncertain of whom it was aimed for (having had ice cream dripping into her eyes at the time), and it was thrown rather weakly, but Ken didn't dodge.
And so it was that a mass of chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream smacked right into his face.
For a few seconds the fight went on. Then Hikari gasped. Miyako turned to see what she was gasping at, wiping the ice cream from her own face. Daisuke turned to see what Miyako was looking at. Takeru, having no one left to fight, turned as well. Iori looked up from his own sundae to see why it had suddenly gotten so quiet.
There was an extremely awkward silence that persisted for the next few moments. Some ice cream dripped down Ken's face. He reached up with his hand and wiped some of it from his eyes, enabling him to see.
With eyes that reminded everyone just who they were dealing with, he scanned the table. Hikari nervously hid the spoon she had been using to fling the sprinkles. Daisuke promptly swallowed the cherry he'd been using as a weapon. Takeru stared blankly. Iori scooped another spoonful of ice cream with out taking his eyes off the former Kaiser.
Miyako's eyes were wide and she gulped. "Um – Ken – I – um," she began, stammering. "I, uh, didn't mean to, um, throw it," she apologized weakly. "That is – I did, but I didn't mean to – uh - at you."
There was silence once more. Miyako realized that she wasn't going to astonish anyone with her words, and so she merely stared. Then, the most amazing thing occurred.
Ken's lips curled up into a smile. He licked some of the ice cream off his nose. And he laughed.
Not the evil, sadistic, creepy, crazy, scary laugh they had all heard before.
But a genuine happy laugh one normally has when they enjoy themselves. That was even more shocking to the others at the table than the ice cream hitting him in the face at all.
Daisuke couldn't help laughing as well. Ken did look kind of silly, with ice cream dripping into his nose and laughing like that. Not that he looked any better, with sprinkles stuck in his hair and ice cream smeared on his own face. He laughed heartily, and then everyone joined in.
***
Elsewhere…
"The spies have been watching him," a small figure reported. "So far they haven't seen him interact with the others. One boy approached him, but he seemed reluctant."
The taller figure hidden by darkness snorted in contempt. "Daisuke would do something that stupid," she commented. "Are you positive Ichijouji will not join up?"
The figure shook its head. "No. I can't be sure. All we can do is watch him and hope for the best."
Another snort of contempt was the creature's response. "We do not hope for the best here. You should know that. If we want to assure our success and his lack of involvement, we must do something."
A nod was the reply. "Of course."
"Have him brought back here," she ordered. "He cannot join the Chosen if the Chosen cannot find him."
"As you wish."
***
Ken frowned slightly as he rubbed his forehead again. He'd washed it in the bathroom at the ice cream shop, but it was still sticky. At least he hadn't gotten anything stuck in his hair. Daisuke would probably be pulling out sprinkles for the next month.
It was pretty quiet in the digital world. More control spires fell under the combined strength of the digimon. The newly evolved Aquilamon was able to join XV-mon, Stingmon, and Angemon as well as Nefertimon and Digmon. Miyako was more and more pleased with her digimon as time went on.
They'd been working hard all day and barely noticed the sun was beginning to set. By the time anyone did notice, it was near dark.
"Wow, I can't believe it's dark already. It seems like we just got here," Ken observed.
"Time flies when you're having fun," Daisuke noted cheerfully.
"Or doing hard work," Hikari corrected.
"Hey, you weren't doing any work. We were!" Tailmon corrected her partner. Hikari turned to see that the little feline was looking quite tired.
"Well, lets get home and rest," Miyako declared, yawning exaggeratedly and stretching. "Then we can come back tomorrow and do it again."
"We did make a lot of progress today," Takeru commented. He was already holding Patamon in his arms as he stood looking out at the field of towers they had toppled. His little digimon looked as exhausted as Tailmon did.
"It was a good day's work," Iori agreed. "But we'd better get home now." He turned towards the nearest television set, ready to return to the real world.
***
Elsewhere…
Ken turned to re-enter his apartment building after the refreshing walk. Minomon was tucked safely in his arms, and they were both eager to get back inside where it was safe.
"Ken!" Minomon squeaked suddenly, despite his promise to stay quiet in public. "I see them again!"
His partner looked around and quickly noticed what he was talking about. The strange red eyes were staring at them from a nearby alleyway. Ken pretended to ignore them, walking back towards his building.
'I don't think so,' a voice hissed. A few moments later, he felt something hit him, hard, and he blacked out.
***
Standard notes: This is the sequel to my story "A Stranger Digiworld." If you haven't read that yet, it's advisable to do so. This one might stand on its own, but it probably won't. Read that one first. It's at:
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=326235
Boy, parts of this were really, really cliché and used and old. Try to forgive me for my lapse of judgment, won't you? It gets more exciting later. Thanks for reading this far, tune in again soon to see what will happen to Ken.
In case you were wondering, I screwed up the timeline of 02 a bit with these stories, so we'll just say that this one takes place sometime after all the 02 kids have achieved adult (champion)evolutions, but before Daisuke and Ken have Jogressed. And in the alternate world, champion level hasn't been reached by any of them, yet.
Thanks for reading!