DM: Digital Mutants: Series 02: Part 9
[A/N:
Someone remind me to draw nine-year-old Shinji in her cabbit PJs!]
[Disclaimer:
Don't own.]
"HOW COULD YOU LET HER ESCAPE?!" Kusan
roared. "I'm very sorry, Mister Igan,
but this weird little rat-thing came up and bit me—" the policeman said,
pointing to a bandage on his nose. "I
DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR DAMNED EXCUSES!" Kusan shouted in rage, "FIND HER OR
ELSE!" "Mister Igan, I was unable to
keep watch, and besides, you have no right to speak to me in this manner—"
A bang echoed in the room, but the
sound reached no further. The policeman
fell to the floor, a smoking hole in his head. Kusanagi angrily shoved his Oblivion Gun back into his arm and turned
from the dead man, cupping his chin in thought.
"From what I've seen, my little sister
leaps at any chance for a revenge fight." his mind growled, "Ken was able to
get her thrown in jail. She should have
leapt at the chance to fight him by now! It's been two days! Where the
hell is she?!"
"Oh, there you are." Myotismon landed
on the roof and strode over to the small figure. "Still moping?" he chuckled, sitting down next to the still
girl. "Wouldn't you be a little inclined to mope if your body was turned into that of a nine-year-old's?" the girl
muttered. "I wouldn't know." Myotismon
leaned back on his hands and stared up at the sky, "I've never experienced
being nine years old."
The girl sighed and kept staring down
at the lush grass of the barrier between the school and the forest, where the
various ages of children and teenagers practiced their skills. "I hated being nine years old when I really
WAS nine." she sighed angrily, "Why in the world would I be enjoying it
now?" "You can act like a complete
idiot and get away with it." Myotismon smiled. "If I wanted to do that, I would disguise myself as Davis." the girl
shot back.
Cody stared up at the sky, which was
graying slowly. Classes were starting
up again, thank the gods, but it wasn't the same somehow. Ever since the problem on the trip, and no news
on the whereabouts of the head teacher, the other students had slowly begun to
fall back into a small place of fear that hadn't been there before.
Cody was developing his powers at an
incredible rate for a ten-year-old, and knew his power was possibly stronger
than most his teachers. But still not
stronger than… Cody let out a soft
breath, and then looked at a tree beside him. The trunk began to crack, and Cody's expression never wavered. Then, the tree burst into shards, and fell
to the ground. The small boy sighed as
he turned from the broken tree, a breeze pulling away his growing hair. He normally kept his hair neatly trimmed, so
his grandfather wouldn't nag him, but… He stifled back a sob and wiped the tears from his eyes sadly.
Ken stared at the graying horizon. Wormmon lay draped across his shoulders as
he stared at the forest that lay on the horizon. "Wormmon, are you ready to fight?" he asked. The digimon leapt off of his partner and
nodded. Ken held up his black digivice,
and Wormmon called out his digivolution command. As the light of digivolution faded, Ken concentrated and shifted
to his shadow form. The two vanished in
a flash, heading towards their target.
Shinji blinked and straightened
up. "What's wrong?" Myotismon wondered. "Ken." Shinji replied, "He's… Myotismon! Get the others to get the children inside! Ken's coming and he wants a battle!" "What?" Myotismon nearly shouted, "But you're only nine! You can't fight!" "Hey, Cody's just ten, and he's nearly level to me!" the head
teacher leapt to her feet, "Just get everyone inside before Ken gets here! I'll set up a diversion!"
The shadowy form that was Ken slid up
from the ground, and took solid form to create Ken. Stingmon landed soon after. "Ken, where do you think she is?" the Champion level digimon asked.
"Well, howdy mister!"
Stingmon quickly de-digivolved and
ducked behind Ken while the purple-haired man looked towards the origin of the
voice. It was a small, blond-haired
girl that was wearing a pair of blue jeans, a backwards cap, and a
long-sleeved, tan shirt.
"I just started here at this school."
the girl said, "Now, you look like you're lookin' for someone. Can I do anything for ya?" "Where is the head teacher of this school?"
Ken tried to sound as if he was coming for a visit, "I must speak with her."
"Well, I'm not all that sure where she
might be." the girl scratched the side of her face in thought, "You might ask
Takaishi-sensei or—" Suddenly, Ken let
loose a blast of shadow energy. The
girl tilted her head in time for the energy to pass safely. It slammed into the ground and exploded in a
large range.
The girl closed her eyes and put down
her hand. "You must have sensed my
energy, didn't you?" she asked, her voice becoming that of a more recognizable
tone. "Yes, I certainly did." Ken
growled, "You're no student, Shinji." The girl smiled and chuckled, and she suddenly dissolved. In her place stood the nine-year-old Shinji,
staring at Ken.
"Do you still think that you can defeat
me?" she questioned, "Even if my body is nine, my mind is far beyond
yours." "Does that matter, if your mind
is unable to work?" Ken grinned. He
held up his hand and a ball of what looked like shadow formed in front of his
hand. Shinji raised an eyebrow, but
suddenly, the shadow shot forwards from Ken's hand with tremendous speed and
hit her before she could move.
Cody ran through the hallways, his
sneakers clapping loudly. He was told
to stay put in his dorm, but he didn't want to stay there. He ran as fast as he could towards the
outside field.
Shinji
blinked, and then looked around. Everything was black, solid darkness. "The Shadow Realm?" the nine-year-old wondered aloud, "Did you bring me
here, Ichijouji?" "Yes." Ken's form
appeared, "And it won't do you any good to try and use your psychic
powers. The Shadow Realm nullifies all
powers except those of Shadow Warpers."
"Yeah?" Shinji scoffed, "I am a
Shadow Warper! My partner has been
teaching me how to manipulate shadows to my liking!" Ken laughed loudly. "Not
this Shadow Realm!" he chuckled, "I have my own Shadow Realm! I designed it! That's why I had to draw you into it!" Shinji gasped and jerked back as Ken started towards her.
Cody slowly peeked out from a door and
onto the field. Nothing was there
except for Ken. His eyes were closed
and a throbbing purple-black aura surrounded him. He looked like he was smiling.
"But where's Shinji?" Cody wondered,
"It doesn't make sense."
Ken slowly tightened his grip. He grinned sadistically as Shinji choked,
tugging weakly at his hands. "So this
is how one of the strongest mutants on the planet is going?" he asked, "Being
choked to death?" Shinji stared at Ken
with nearly shut eyes, trying to just breathe.
Cody opened his eyes in shock. He had just searched through Ken, and found
where his spirit had gone. Along with
his teacher. He raised one finger and a
small amount of energy gathered at his command. "I've only got one chance." he pondered over it, "If I miss,
Shinji will die." He took careful aim…
Shinji's hands were slowly starting to
stop tugging at Ken's hands. He
grinned, but then suddenly, something hit his physical form, and he was jolted
from his Shadow Realm. Shinji vanished
from it as well.
Ken's eyes opened and he looked around
furiously. "WHO THE HELL IS THERE?!" he
cursed angrily, "FACE ME!" Cody ducked
behind the doorway before Ken saw him. A half-conscious Shinji materialized out of nowhere and dropped to the
ground. Ken stormed over to her and
knelt down, grabbing her by the throat again. "You will still die!" he hissed.
Suddenly, his hands were pried away and
he was forced away. Shinji sat up with
a dark gleam in her eye. "So, you have
so little honor that you try to kill a defenseless person?" she asked, her eyes
dark. Ken was slammed against a tree
forcefully, shouting out in pain.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Stingmon shouted,
coming out from his hiding place. His
Spiking Strike was ready to strike, but Cody let loose a psychic blast. It hit the digimon, but only lightly.
The other teachers suddenly rushed onto
the grassy field, Yolei darting forwards quickly. "I found the counter-spell!" she screeched, "I got it!" "Then use it!" Shinji snapped. Yolei almost nervously flipped through her
small notebook and started to chant the incantation.
Ken tried to strain against the psychic
hold, but it only grew stronger. There
was a flash of light, and finally, Yolei's spell was broken. Ken strained as hard as he could against the
bond, but it was completely impossible to move. He stared at Shinji in terror as she started to walk towards
him. She was much more foreboding when
she was an adult, and Ken was already terrified to face her.
She stopped a few feet away from Ken,
and stared at him carefully. "You're
hiding something." she spoke to him telepathically, "Something perhaps…my
brother is forcing to be hidden." She
raised one hand and put it before Ken's frightened, wide eyes.
"Let me see it." she said directly to
Ken's mind.
Screams of pain…a cold laugh…a crying young
boy…and Kusanagi. Shinji concentrated
harder, and drew the memory into full view.
"Mom!" an eight-year-old Ken laughed,
"Dad! Sam! Come look at this! It
just came out of my computer—" Ken
opened the door, a Fresh Leafmon in arms, and gasped as he saw a horrifying
sight. A man in a ripped apart
trenchcoat was standing with his back turned to Ken, pale arms and legs covered
in blood. Ken started hyperventilating
as he saw his family's mangled bodies on the floor, expressions of horror upon
their faces.
The man laughed as Ken dropped to his
knees, sobbing. Leafmon scooted in
front of Ken, hoping that he could save him from this horrible man. The man turned around and Ken nearly stopped
crying at the sight of his blood red eyes. "Now be a good boy and come with me, Ken." the man said in a strange
tone, "I'll be your family, I'll make sure that great power of yours is
well-trained." He held out his hand and
grinned, "I promise."
Ken sniffed sadly, eyed his dead
family, and then reached out for the man's hand…
Shinji opened her eyes and looked at
Ken. He was shaking, but with
rage. Davis grinned, albeit no one else
saw it. This was the chance he had been
waiting for. Quicker than the blink of
an eye, he had stabbed Shinji in the back, literally.
"C'mon!" he shouted, "We've gotta
run!" Ken took the opportunity, grabbed
Davis' hand, and the two of them sank into their own shadows. Blood spurted out from the three deep wounds
in Shinji's back and she gasped, struggling to breathe against the pain. She vaguely heard the shouts of her friends,
but everything swirled down in black.
"…hard to say if she'll be fine…"
"…traitor bastard! I knew we shouldn't have trusted him!…"
"Shinji?"
Shinji slowly opened her eyes and
stared right up at the dark ceiling of her personal room. Someone tightened their grip on her hand and
she looked to the side. Myotismon was
sitting in a chair at her side, looking more worried than he ever had.
"We thought you had died." he murmured
softly, "It's quite a feat that you're still alive." "He missed my spine, right?" Shinji squeezed Myotismon's hand
slightly, smiling. "Yeah, that's why
you aren't dead." Myotismon chuckled weakly, "Kari and Joe say that you'll be
fine in a few days, more or less." "That's good." Shinji let her head roll back to look at the ceiling,
"But I did lose a teacher."
Myotismon suddenly snorted with
laughter, covering his mouth and trying not to laugh. "What?" Shinji asked. "Davis." Myotismon snickered, "He really is a backstabber!"
Shinji blinked, and then smiled and
chuckled, unconcerned of Davis' betrayal.