I don't own Digimon, I wish I did...
I'm considering changing the rating this fic some point soon... it's probably
going to head down the dark angsty side (not in terms of romance) but it's
probably going to get a bit darker.
Note: I'm going to get somewhere with Taichi-folkies eventually... really!
Digital Convergences Chapter 4 - "Descent"
by Vivi-Chan
-----
Jianliang's mind was racing. A Jogress? Digi-Egg? It didn't make any sense and
yet it did... He'd heard the term Jogress - it was something the Digimon of
the same level in the card game could do to form a more powerful Digimon. Was
it possible to Jogress a Child-Level with an Ultimate?
None of the rules in the Digimon Card game covered anything like that.
"Wait... your Digimon was hatched from data gained from Milleniumon?" Takeru
had stood up in surprise.
Based on everything he'd heard this evening, something finally clicked inside
of his mind as Jianliang spoke, "Ryo-san.... Is that why you have so much
difficulty controlling Cyberdramon?"
Ryo was silent for a moment, glancing to Monodramon. His partner had dropped
off to sleep after eating and faint snores could be heard issuing from its
snout.
Ryo nodded once, gripping his D-Ark. "Yes. As Cyberdramon, more of
Milleniumon's data is expressed... I guess the more data it has access to...
the more and more destructive - like Milleniumon it becomes."
Jianliang wondered what it'd be like to be partnered to a Digimon that had so
much potential for evil.
"You know..." said Daisuke. "It sounds almost like when Ken-"
The lavendar-haired girl had knocked down Daisuke again and was trying to put
him in a head-lock. "I thought we agreed we wouldn't go into that!!!!!" she
exclaimed.
Jianliang had no idea what sort of issues Miyako had with Daisuke... maybe
Daisuke had a tendency to forget what he wasn't supposed to say... He watched
Miyako try execute some sort of head-lock wrestling move on Daisuke. These
kids were insane.
"What about Ken?" asked Ryo. It seemed to have gotten Ryo's attention.
"It's nothing..." said Takeru glancing anxiously at Miyako then at Hikari.
"Don't worry about it."
"Are you sure?" asked Ryo. "If it's that important..."
"You should wait for Ichijouji-san to tell you... when he feels ready..." the
girl, Hikari had said. She looked slightly troubled. "I think it needs to come
from him..."
What exactly... were they hiding from Ryo? Jianliang frowned slightly,
glancing at Takato. Takato was busy staring at Guilmon. Doublessly wondering
how it would be to have a Digimon like Cyberdramon.
Guilmon was blisfully oblivious to the attention. It sat there next to Takato
gnawing on a loaf of bread. Finally sensing that Takato's attention was on it,
it blinked turning to Takato. "Eh? What's wrong Takato?"
"Nothing.... nothing at all..." replied Takato, looking dangerously on the
verge of tears.
Then again, it might not be that hard for Takato to imagine. During the battle
at Zhuqiaomon's Southern Gate... when Beezlebumon had attacked and loaded
Leomon's data. Takato had allowed anger to rule him. It had caused Guilmon to
evolve into the uncontrollable Megidramon.
Remebering Megidramon made him uneasy, even if just for a moment. It had been
a very close thing.
"Mou~man~tai...." mumured Terriermon reassuringly. His partner was in his lap,
staring up at him. Looking down Jianliang saw a smile on his partner's lips.
Jianliang smiled back mumuring a like reply.
No problem.
----
Taichi had never been happier to get off of Whamon. "We're here!" he said
leaping from Whamon's back to the cliff. Whamon had taken them further north
than their previous trip. They would continue directly west the rest of the
way. "Thanks Whamon!"
There was a faint eerie cry that was similar to a whale's. "It was my
pleasure, Chosen Children."
"Taichi!" a voice in the distance attracted his attention.
Looking around, he caught sight of the yellow-orange form of Agumon running
towards him.
"Yamatoooo~!!!" It was Gabumon. Yamato's partner.
And Tentomon, "Koushirou-han!"
"Gabumon!" exclaimed Yamato as he hopped off. It was one of those rare moments
that Yamato would emerge from his usually aloof shell. There were other
occasions, but they were mostly reserved for his best friend and partner.
"Tentomon...!"
Taichi broke into a run towards Agumon, "Agumon!!!" He caught Agumon as the
smaller digimon leapt into his arms.
Yamato was hugging Gabumon while Tentomon hovered just above Koushiro speaking
in that uniquely Kansai accent of his. "You look well, Koushiro-han!" the
insectoid Digimon declared.
Hearing Koushirou's response, Tentomon dropped like a rock on the ground. If
Taichi wasn't holding Agumon, he'd have facepalmed. Four years... and
Koushirou STILL spoke to Tentomon like they were strangers.
"Tentomon! Are you all right?" Koushirou asked in alarm.
"Fine. Fine... You havn't changed a bit Koushirou-han." Tentomon had raised a
taloned arm and waved. "Don't worry."
"Gennai-san sent us to bring you to his place," said Gabumon.
Taichi set down Agumon, noding along with Yamato and Koushirou. "We're
counting on you," he said. They'd have to journey across the
"Right!" the Digimon echoed back.
Taichi grinned.
----
Ken's head was hurting abysmally. It had gotten worse with the fall of night.
Of course it was quite probably because he was tired. He was feeling rather
off humor too. Then there was all this blasted wind, whipping his hair this
way and that. He's spent quite a while trying to fix it after Ryo had messed
it up. Now the wind was undoing all his work.
Ryo looked familiar. That was it. There hadn't been any sort of feelings that
had come with seeing his former travelling partner. It sounded like they had
gotten along well - especially with that greeting.
He still had so many gaps in his memory. He remembered Ryo's face... he even
remembered the clothes Ryo had worn... but he really couldn't remember any of
the feelings connected to Ryo. It was so frustrating!
"Ken-chan... perhaps we shouldn't wander too far away from the others." That
was Wormmon speaking as it trailed after him. "It's dark and dangerous... we
don't know what's out there."
Ken grit his teeth. How could such a simple statement like that annoy him?
Wormmon always had his best intentions in mind. What had he been thinking of?
Oh Ryo... He continued to comb through his memories trying to remeber anything
he could about Ryo.
"Ken-chan?"
Wormmon had startled him and what nebulous thought he had managed to find was
lost. How was he going to think with someone interrupting his thoughts every
few minutes?
"What?" snapped Ken, whirling on Wormmon.
Wormmon instantly cringed cowering. "I'm sorry Ken-chan!"
What had he been thinking? "I'm sorry Wormmon... I'm trying to think right
now..." He massaged his temples... the headache had to be the source of his
bad temper. Ken leaned down to pick up Wormmon. "I didn't mean to yell at
you..."
"If your head still hurts, shouldn't you go lie down? It might make you feel
better?" Wormmon suggested looking hopefully up at Ken.
Ken smiled, "Perhaps you're right. Let's go back." The camp was a tiny
pinpoint of light in the distance as the wind slowly picked up. Time to go
back....
----
"Anyways.... This is a D-Ark," said Ryo holding up his D-Ark. In his other
hand he held the D-3 that Takeru had lent him. "It's not really much like a D-
3 as you can see....The D-3 has three functions. Digimon. Detect. Discover,"
said Ryo. "Which is why it's called the D-3."
Ruki found THIS vaguely interesting.... even if it felt like Ryo was being a
bighead again. She had moved closer, sitting down next to the Hikari girl.
Hikari smiled at her and lifted her hand in a wave. Ruki smiled back faintly
then returned her attention to the conversation.
Ryo had been one of these people? She would never have believed it. Not with
his legendary status among the card battlers. Great. So she lost to a
dimension hopping cornball. That really stunk.
"Wow... You seem to know alot Akiyama-kun," said Hikari-chan.
"Just call me Ryo," he said flashing his even white teeth as he grinned. Ruki
rolled her eyes. "Gennai-san taught me alot about this sort of stuff. Since I
was his favorite rent-a-kid."
"Rent-a-kid?" asked Daisuke.
"Nothing... nothing..." said Ryo trying to wave off the question. "- I don't
know why there are multiple Digivice types... but anyways... this is a D-Ark.
It's got a slot on this side - " he indicated to the reader slot while he held
up his blue device. "For reading data from cards."
"Cards?" asked Daisuke. "Takato was saying something earlier about Card
Slashing. What's that like really?"
"We use these," said Jianliang pulling out a card. Ruki caught sight of the
image on it. Super Evolution Plug-in S. "When Slashed, the data encrypted in
the card gives our Digimon a temporary boost.... items, attribute increases or
attacks."
"That sounds so cool," said Miyako. "You think we could do that with our D-
3's? Would that make it a D-4?"
"Unfortunately, I don't think so," replied Ryo with a laugh. "The D-3 doesn't
have a reader slot. All in all, I think they even out since you can used
Digimentals."
"If we believe hard enough we can make 'em change!" said Daisuke hopping to
his feet. "If Ken changed his digivice to a D-3 with a simple wish then I can
too!"
What was that all about? Daisuke was Hirokazu and Kenta balled up into one
single sloppy package. Daisuke had pulled out his D-3 and was staring at it
intently, "D-Ark. D-Ark." he could be heard muttering. "Turn into a D-Ark."
All his friends seemed to sigh collectively and look at their shoes. Well at
least THEY knew he was goof too.
"A... anyways...." said Takeru. "Thanks for explaining your Digivices. I think
it's so neat."
"I think so too," said Hikari. "I'd love to learn how to play the card game,
it looks so interesting."
"I know! We can teach you!" said Takato. "There's plenty of time right now! We
can trade stories and stuff."
"That sounds like a great idea," said Miyako leaning forward. "Are we going to
pair off or something? Ah...! Ichijouji! We're learning to play their Digimon
card game! Come join us!"
Ruki looked up to see the dark-haired boy wandering back in. Frankly, she
thought he didn't look to be in ANY shape to be joining them.
"I'm sorry... Miyako-san... I'm still not feeling very well... I think I'm
going to go to bed now..." He gently set down his partner before sort of
dragging his feet towards the rows of sleeping bags.
He hadn't looked at all well dropping off to sleep. Ruki wondered why a boy
like him was even a Chosen.
"Ne! Ne! Ruki-chan!" said Miyako. "Will you teach Hikari-chan and me how to
play that card game?"
"Would you please not use '-chan'? It's not like I'm a kid." She HATED that
diminutive. She really did. It was childish. It was stupid...
"Well, no need to get all upset about it!" mouthed Miyako.
"Miyako-san!" exclaimed Hikari.
"I didn't mean it that way.... " said Miyako. "I'm sorry..." She didn't look
at all contrite about it.
"Whatever," said Ruki. Not like Miyako's good opinion of her mattered.
Ichijouji had the right idea. "I'm going to bed."
----
Jianliang came awake at the feeling of a hand on his shoulder, gently shaking
him. Opening his eyes, it took a moment to focus on Ryo. He was yawning. "Your
turn..." he mumbled.
Jian sat up, wondering what time it was. It was next to impossible to tell
what time it was - there were no gradations of night/day. It was one or the
other. Terriermon was asleep next to him.
He had offered to take the last watch. Meaning he was relieving Ryo. The older
Tamer had all but dropped back to sleep. He simply crawled into his sleeping
bag and seemed to start snoring instantaneously.
Jianliang stood up.
"Jian..." mumured Terriermon rubbing at his eyes as he roused slightly.
"Go back to sleep, Terriermon," he spoke softly.
"All right..." mumured Terriermon.
Looking around, he caught sight of people in various positions of repose.
Daisuke had somehow managed to sprawl out of his sleeping bag, and took up
nearly twice the space that everyone else was.
Guilmon lay next to Takato saying in his sleep, "No more....... Guilmon can't
eat anymore......"
Jianliang would have liked nothing more than to go crawl back to sleep.
Without any sort of distraction - he wasn't really interested in sorting
through his cards. Not that anyone else was awake to play.
He caught himself almost nodding off in the silence.
He stretched standing up and strolling leisurly towards the edge of the camp.
There he began a series of deep breathing before starting on a series of
moves.
Martial arts certainly helped to wake him up. It got the blood running it also
helped him to focus. He'd certainly been so focused that he hadn't realized
that someone was watching him.
He was wiping the sweat from his brow when faint applause greeted him. Turning
around, Jianliang caught sight of a silhouette in the shadows of the cliff
that they had taken shelter against.
"Who's there?" he asked warily. Wasn't everyone still asleep? It was like 4am.
"Very well executed," said Ken, emerging partially from the shadows. There was
something odd about the boy. He just looked plain eerie with his face half-
cast in shadows.
"Ken-san, wasn't it?" Jianliang asked. Ryo had interrupted Ken's interruption
so Jian had never caught the boy's last name. It would have been more polite
to address him by his last name.
"Ken Ichijouji," Ken supplied in that low husky voice of his. It was barely
above a whisper, forcing Jianliang to strain to catch what he said.
"Ichijouji-san, then," said Jianliang with a smile. He felt much better
knowing that they'd been properly introduced. "Jianliang Lee. I'm pleased to
meet you. You couldn't sleep?" he asked.
"I did go to sleep considerably earlier than everyone else," he replied
walking forward. "I'm truly sorry that I wasn't in much of a mood to join
everyone."
"I understand," Jianliang smiled. "I'm hoping you feel better now? Is your
headache gone?"
"Yes. It seems to have subsided," Ken replied. Jianliang noted the much larger
vocabulary. It was certainly nothing like talking to Ruki or Takato. Ken
seemed by far the most mature of the other children - with the young boy, Iori
running a close second.
It was getting a bit chilly. Especially after working out like that. "Let's go
back over by the fire." Falling in step with Ken they made their way back to
the camp.
The fire had died down a bit, and Jianliang added some more fuel to coax it
back to a cheery warmth. Ken seemed to be the aloof type, even with his
friends he had seemed somewhat distant. Trying to decide how best to break the
ice, Jianliang came to the conclusion that he'd have to make the first move.
"Would you like to learn how to play the card game?"
"Certainly." replied Ken with a ghost of a smile.
Jianliang sat down, pulling out his deck. Most of his cards were still at
home, so he'd had barely enough to make into two sets. Ken had moved to sit
across from him, looking intent. "It goes like this-" began Jianliang.
I'm considering changing the rating this fic some point soon... it's probably
going to head down the dark angsty side (not in terms of romance) but it's
probably going to get a bit darker.
Note: I'm going to get somewhere with Taichi-folkies eventually... really!
Digital Convergences Chapter 4 - "Descent"
by Vivi-Chan
-----
Jianliang's mind was racing. A Jogress? Digi-Egg? It didn't make any sense and
yet it did... He'd heard the term Jogress - it was something the Digimon of
the same level in the card game could do to form a more powerful Digimon. Was
it possible to Jogress a Child-Level with an Ultimate?
None of the rules in the Digimon Card game covered anything like that.
"Wait... your Digimon was hatched from data gained from Milleniumon?" Takeru
had stood up in surprise.
Based on everything he'd heard this evening, something finally clicked inside
of his mind as Jianliang spoke, "Ryo-san.... Is that why you have so much
difficulty controlling Cyberdramon?"
Ryo was silent for a moment, glancing to Monodramon. His partner had dropped
off to sleep after eating and faint snores could be heard issuing from its
snout.
Ryo nodded once, gripping his D-Ark. "Yes. As Cyberdramon, more of
Milleniumon's data is expressed... I guess the more data it has access to...
the more and more destructive - like Milleniumon it becomes."
Jianliang wondered what it'd be like to be partnered to a Digimon that had so
much potential for evil.
"You know..." said Daisuke. "It sounds almost like when Ken-"
The lavendar-haired girl had knocked down Daisuke again and was trying to put
him in a head-lock. "I thought we agreed we wouldn't go into that!!!!!" she
exclaimed.
Jianliang had no idea what sort of issues Miyako had with Daisuke... maybe
Daisuke had a tendency to forget what he wasn't supposed to say... He watched
Miyako try execute some sort of head-lock wrestling move on Daisuke. These
kids were insane.
"What about Ken?" asked Ryo. It seemed to have gotten Ryo's attention.
"It's nothing..." said Takeru glancing anxiously at Miyako then at Hikari.
"Don't worry about it."
"Are you sure?" asked Ryo. "If it's that important..."
"You should wait for Ichijouji-san to tell you... when he feels ready..." the
girl, Hikari had said. She looked slightly troubled. "I think it needs to come
from him..."
What exactly... were they hiding from Ryo? Jianliang frowned slightly,
glancing at Takato. Takato was busy staring at Guilmon. Doublessly wondering
how it would be to have a Digimon like Cyberdramon.
Guilmon was blisfully oblivious to the attention. It sat there next to Takato
gnawing on a loaf of bread. Finally sensing that Takato's attention was on it,
it blinked turning to Takato. "Eh? What's wrong Takato?"
"Nothing.... nothing at all..." replied Takato, looking dangerously on the
verge of tears.
Then again, it might not be that hard for Takato to imagine. During the battle
at Zhuqiaomon's Southern Gate... when Beezlebumon had attacked and loaded
Leomon's data. Takato had allowed anger to rule him. It had caused Guilmon to
evolve into the uncontrollable Megidramon.
Remebering Megidramon made him uneasy, even if just for a moment. It had been
a very close thing.
"Mou~man~tai...." mumured Terriermon reassuringly. His partner was in his lap,
staring up at him. Looking down Jianliang saw a smile on his partner's lips.
Jianliang smiled back mumuring a like reply.
No problem.
----
Taichi had never been happier to get off of Whamon. "We're here!" he said
leaping from Whamon's back to the cliff. Whamon had taken them further north
than their previous trip. They would continue directly west the rest of the
way. "Thanks Whamon!"
There was a faint eerie cry that was similar to a whale's. "It was my
pleasure, Chosen Children."
"Taichi!" a voice in the distance attracted his attention.
Looking around, he caught sight of the yellow-orange form of Agumon running
towards him.
"Yamatoooo~!!!" It was Gabumon. Yamato's partner.
And Tentomon, "Koushirou-han!"
"Gabumon!" exclaimed Yamato as he hopped off. It was one of those rare moments
that Yamato would emerge from his usually aloof shell. There were other
occasions, but they were mostly reserved for his best friend and partner.
"Tentomon...!"
Taichi broke into a run towards Agumon, "Agumon!!!" He caught Agumon as the
smaller digimon leapt into his arms.
Yamato was hugging Gabumon while Tentomon hovered just above Koushiro speaking
in that uniquely Kansai accent of his. "You look well, Koushiro-han!" the
insectoid Digimon declared.
Hearing Koushirou's response, Tentomon dropped like a rock on the ground. If
Taichi wasn't holding Agumon, he'd have facepalmed. Four years... and
Koushirou STILL spoke to Tentomon like they were strangers.
"Tentomon! Are you all right?" Koushirou asked in alarm.
"Fine. Fine... You havn't changed a bit Koushirou-han." Tentomon had raised a
taloned arm and waved. "Don't worry."
"Gennai-san sent us to bring you to his place," said Gabumon.
Taichi set down Agumon, noding along with Yamato and Koushirou. "We're
counting on you," he said. They'd have to journey across the
"Right!" the Digimon echoed back.
Taichi grinned.
----
Ken's head was hurting abysmally. It had gotten worse with the fall of night.
Of course it was quite probably because he was tired. He was feeling rather
off humor too. Then there was all this blasted wind, whipping his hair this
way and that. He's spent quite a while trying to fix it after Ryo had messed
it up. Now the wind was undoing all his work.
Ryo looked familiar. That was it. There hadn't been any sort of feelings that
had come with seeing his former travelling partner. It sounded like they had
gotten along well - especially with that greeting.
He still had so many gaps in his memory. He remembered Ryo's face... he even
remembered the clothes Ryo had worn... but he really couldn't remember any of
the feelings connected to Ryo. It was so frustrating!
"Ken-chan... perhaps we shouldn't wander too far away from the others." That
was Wormmon speaking as it trailed after him. "It's dark and dangerous... we
don't know what's out there."
Ken grit his teeth. How could such a simple statement like that annoy him?
Wormmon always had his best intentions in mind. What had he been thinking of?
Oh Ryo... He continued to comb through his memories trying to remeber anything
he could about Ryo.
"Ken-chan?"
Wormmon had startled him and what nebulous thought he had managed to find was
lost. How was he going to think with someone interrupting his thoughts every
few minutes?
"What?" snapped Ken, whirling on Wormmon.
Wormmon instantly cringed cowering. "I'm sorry Ken-chan!"
What had he been thinking? "I'm sorry Wormmon... I'm trying to think right
now..." He massaged his temples... the headache had to be the source of his
bad temper. Ken leaned down to pick up Wormmon. "I didn't mean to yell at
you..."
"If your head still hurts, shouldn't you go lie down? It might make you feel
better?" Wormmon suggested looking hopefully up at Ken.
Ken smiled, "Perhaps you're right. Let's go back." The camp was a tiny
pinpoint of light in the distance as the wind slowly picked up. Time to go
back....
----
"Anyways.... This is a D-Ark," said Ryo holding up his D-Ark. In his other
hand he held the D-3 that Takeru had lent him. "It's not really much like a D-
3 as you can see....The D-3 has three functions. Digimon. Detect. Discover,"
said Ryo. "Which is why it's called the D-3."
Ruki found THIS vaguely interesting.... even if it felt like Ryo was being a
bighead again. She had moved closer, sitting down next to the Hikari girl.
Hikari smiled at her and lifted her hand in a wave. Ruki smiled back faintly
then returned her attention to the conversation.
Ryo had been one of these people? She would never have believed it. Not with
his legendary status among the card battlers. Great. So she lost to a
dimension hopping cornball. That really stunk.
"Wow... You seem to know alot Akiyama-kun," said Hikari-chan.
"Just call me Ryo," he said flashing his even white teeth as he grinned. Ruki
rolled her eyes. "Gennai-san taught me alot about this sort of stuff. Since I
was his favorite rent-a-kid."
"Rent-a-kid?" asked Daisuke.
"Nothing... nothing..." said Ryo trying to wave off the question. "- I don't
know why there are multiple Digivice types... but anyways... this is a D-Ark.
It's got a slot on this side - " he indicated to the reader slot while he held
up his blue device. "For reading data from cards."
"Cards?" asked Daisuke. "Takato was saying something earlier about Card
Slashing. What's that like really?"
"We use these," said Jianliang pulling out a card. Ruki caught sight of the
image on it. Super Evolution Plug-in S. "When Slashed, the data encrypted in
the card gives our Digimon a temporary boost.... items, attribute increases or
attacks."
"That sounds so cool," said Miyako. "You think we could do that with our D-
3's? Would that make it a D-4?"
"Unfortunately, I don't think so," replied Ryo with a laugh. "The D-3 doesn't
have a reader slot. All in all, I think they even out since you can used
Digimentals."
"If we believe hard enough we can make 'em change!" said Daisuke hopping to
his feet. "If Ken changed his digivice to a D-3 with a simple wish then I can
too!"
What was that all about? Daisuke was Hirokazu and Kenta balled up into one
single sloppy package. Daisuke had pulled out his D-3 and was staring at it
intently, "D-Ark. D-Ark." he could be heard muttering. "Turn into a D-Ark."
All his friends seemed to sigh collectively and look at their shoes. Well at
least THEY knew he was goof too.
"A... anyways...." said Takeru. "Thanks for explaining your Digivices. I think
it's so neat."
"I think so too," said Hikari. "I'd love to learn how to play the card game,
it looks so interesting."
"I know! We can teach you!" said Takato. "There's plenty of time right now! We
can trade stories and stuff."
"That sounds like a great idea," said Miyako leaning forward. "Are we going to
pair off or something? Ah...! Ichijouji! We're learning to play their Digimon
card game! Come join us!"
Ruki looked up to see the dark-haired boy wandering back in. Frankly, she
thought he didn't look to be in ANY shape to be joining them.
"I'm sorry... Miyako-san... I'm still not feeling very well... I think I'm
going to go to bed now..." He gently set down his partner before sort of
dragging his feet towards the rows of sleeping bags.
He hadn't looked at all well dropping off to sleep. Ruki wondered why a boy
like him was even a Chosen.
"Ne! Ne! Ruki-chan!" said Miyako. "Will you teach Hikari-chan and me how to
play that card game?"
"Would you please not use '-chan'? It's not like I'm a kid." She HATED that
diminutive. She really did. It was childish. It was stupid...
"Well, no need to get all upset about it!" mouthed Miyako.
"Miyako-san!" exclaimed Hikari.
"I didn't mean it that way.... " said Miyako. "I'm sorry..." She didn't look
at all contrite about it.
"Whatever," said Ruki. Not like Miyako's good opinion of her mattered.
Ichijouji had the right idea. "I'm going to bed."
----
Jianliang came awake at the feeling of a hand on his shoulder, gently shaking
him. Opening his eyes, it took a moment to focus on Ryo. He was yawning. "Your
turn..." he mumbled.
Jian sat up, wondering what time it was. It was next to impossible to tell
what time it was - there were no gradations of night/day. It was one or the
other. Terriermon was asleep next to him.
He had offered to take the last watch. Meaning he was relieving Ryo. The older
Tamer had all but dropped back to sleep. He simply crawled into his sleeping
bag and seemed to start snoring instantaneously.
Jianliang stood up.
"Jian..." mumured Terriermon rubbing at his eyes as he roused slightly.
"Go back to sleep, Terriermon," he spoke softly.
"All right..." mumured Terriermon.
Looking around, he caught sight of people in various positions of repose.
Daisuke had somehow managed to sprawl out of his sleeping bag, and took up
nearly twice the space that everyone else was.
Guilmon lay next to Takato saying in his sleep, "No more....... Guilmon can't
eat anymore......"
Jianliang would have liked nothing more than to go crawl back to sleep.
Without any sort of distraction - he wasn't really interested in sorting
through his cards. Not that anyone else was awake to play.
He caught himself almost nodding off in the silence.
He stretched standing up and strolling leisurly towards the edge of the camp.
There he began a series of deep breathing before starting on a series of
moves.
Martial arts certainly helped to wake him up. It got the blood running it also
helped him to focus. He'd certainly been so focused that he hadn't realized
that someone was watching him.
He was wiping the sweat from his brow when faint applause greeted him. Turning
around, Jianliang caught sight of a silhouette in the shadows of the cliff
that they had taken shelter against.
"Who's there?" he asked warily. Wasn't everyone still asleep? It was like 4am.
"Very well executed," said Ken, emerging partially from the shadows. There was
something odd about the boy. He just looked plain eerie with his face half-
cast in shadows.
"Ken-san, wasn't it?" Jianliang asked. Ryo had interrupted Ken's interruption
so Jian had never caught the boy's last name. It would have been more polite
to address him by his last name.
"Ken Ichijouji," Ken supplied in that low husky voice of his. It was barely
above a whisper, forcing Jianliang to strain to catch what he said.
"Ichijouji-san, then," said Jianliang with a smile. He felt much better
knowing that they'd been properly introduced. "Jianliang Lee. I'm pleased to
meet you. You couldn't sleep?" he asked.
"I did go to sleep considerably earlier than everyone else," he replied
walking forward. "I'm truly sorry that I wasn't in much of a mood to join
everyone."
"I understand," Jianliang smiled. "I'm hoping you feel better now? Is your
headache gone?"
"Yes. It seems to have subsided," Ken replied. Jianliang noted the much larger
vocabulary. It was certainly nothing like talking to Ruki or Takato. Ken
seemed by far the most mature of the other children - with the young boy, Iori
running a close second.
It was getting a bit chilly. Especially after working out like that. "Let's go
back over by the fire." Falling in step with Ken they made their way back to
the camp.
The fire had died down a bit, and Jianliang added some more fuel to coax it
back to a cheery warmth. Ken seemed to be the aloof type, even with his
friends he had seemed somewhat distant. Trying to decide how best to break the
ice, Jianliang came to the conclusion that he'd have to make the first move.
"Would you like to learn how to play the card game?"
"Certainly." replied Ken with a ghost of a smile.
Jianliang sat down, pulling out his deck. Most of his cards were still at
home, so he'd had barely enough to make into two sets. Ken had moved to sit
across from him, looking intent. "It goes like this-" began Jianliang.
