I don't own Digimon, I wish I did...

Okay I'll admit Daisuke is not a character I'm very good at capturing (which
is why I don't RP him). I really prefer writing for characters like Koushirou,
Digimon Kaiser/Ken, Milleniumon, Ryo... Oh! Guilmon and his bread!

Guilmon: (running around) "Waaaai! Guilmon is loved as much as Guilmon bread!"

Koushirou: Should we be afraid for our lives if we're lumped into the same
category as Guilmon bread?

Ryo: (watches Guilmon crash through a wall) I'd say... yes.... although I'd be
more worried about being in the same category as Milleniumon.

After braving fumigation whereupon I think the pest people probably gave my
muse a fatal dose of Vikane gas, I think I've replaced Milleniumon with Moon=
Milleniumon as my new muse.

Digital Convergences Chapter 6 - "Paths of Divergence"
by Vivi-Chan

----

As they sat around the fire in the evening, Takeru mused over what he had
heard today. The place was weirder than their own Digital World. Well not
really - it seemed more... unforgiving. The stories that Takato and the others
had regaled about their adventures painted a very stark picture of a strong
eats weak world.

"The Tournament must have started by now..." said Ruki slowly, staring up
towards the glowing sphere in the sky. The others had explained it as being
the real world. The one they came from.

"What's this tournament...?" asked Daisuke.

"The D-1 Tournament," replied Takato. "It's a national competition to find the
best Digimon Card Game players in all of Japan. Ryo-san and Ruki were previous
champions."

"Wow..." said Takeru faintly, his friends voicing similar opinions. Was that
why Ruki had seemed so upset at losing to Ken? There seemed to be something
more behind the anger. "I didn't know that. What about you, Takato-kun?"

"Ah... I'm not a really good card player," Takato replied. "I'm nowhere near
the level of Ruki and Ryo-san..."

Takeru grinned, "I'm sure you're better than you give yourself credit for."

Takato smiled, "Thanks..." He goggle-boy resumed poking at a curious PDA-like
device, half-heartedly it seemed before finally, setting it down.. "I don't
think I can communicate with Yamaki-san with this... I've tried sending him
messages but none of them seem to have gotten through."

"So we're stuck here without a way back. Great," replied Ruki, although it
wasn't necessarily an angry sort of comment.

"Does Yamaki-san have an email address?" asked Hikari as she sat down next to
him. "Maybe... we can email him using the D-Terminal."

"It's worth a shot," said Jianliang.

Hikari offered her D-Terminal to Takato. Takato seemed to find it quite
fascinating, oohing and umming alternatively while she tried to explain how it
worked.

"Could I possibly borrow it when you're done?" asked Jianliang. "I want to try
to email my father."

"You can borrow mine," offered Takeru. He fished out his D-Terminal. "We've
all got one."

"Thank you, Takeru-kun," replied Jianling accepting the terminal. "It's like a
pocket PC. Pretty impressive."

"It's pretty nifty," replied Takeru. "Our Digimentals are stored in its
memory."

Jianliang wanted one of these D-Terminals. They seemed so neat. He quickly
composed an email. Hoping that Takato was having luck contacting Yamaki. He
returned the D-Terminal to its owner. "I'd love to have one of those someday."

Takeru chuckled, "Maybe you will." He started to put it back when it there was
an alert that mail had come in. Takeru opened the display scanning the header.
"It's from a Lee Jianyou. Is that your father?"

Jianliang leapt to his feet, nodding, "Yes it is..."

"I hope the D-Terminal data is compatible... I can't make heads or tails of
what he wrote," said Takeru handing it over.

"I wrote in Chinese, sorry..." Jianliang replied sitting down to skim the
email. "He must have just automatically answered back the same way."

Jianliang skimmed the message, it was indeed from his father - and not some
stranger from where they came from like he had feared. "My father apparently
just received a call from Mr. Yamaki."

"Then he received my email?" asked Takato hopefully.

"I think so..." Jianliang replied.

As if to emphasize the point, the D-Terminal that Takato was holding beeped
with an incoming message.

"It's from Mr. Yamaki!" exclaimed Takato. "He's going to get everyone together
and bring us home!"

----

By about day four, enforced idleness was beginning to take its toll. Even
Jianliang was beginning to feel it. Things were too quiet.

The Digimon - the ones that were awake.... were making enough noise to wake
the dead. Yet somehow Ryo, Miyako and Daisuke were still snoozing up a storm.

"Where's Ken...?" asked Takato.

Takeru exchanged a look with Hikari before replying, "I think he might have
gone for a walk.... Hikari-chan? Can I talk with you for a moment?"

"Sure..." she said standing up. "We'll be right back."

The two had moved off to quietly discuss something. Something about Ken seemed
to be bothering them, although he wondered what? "Jiiiian!" It was Terriermon
trying to catch his attention. It worked as he turned around to see what his
partner was doing.

Armadimon was at the very bottom. Guilmon was balancing on his hands, atop
Armadimon's shell. Guilmon was one large Digimon - one of the largest child-
level Digimon he'd ever seen with the exception of Renamon - Ruki's partner.

Atop Guilmon, each one balanced more and more unsteadily atop each other was
Monodramon, V-mon and Hawkmon. Wormmon was atop Hawkmon and Terriermon was
using its ears to balance atop Wormmon. Right now, Patamon was trying to land
on top of Terriermon to form the Digital World's first ever Digimon Tower of
Pisa.

As Patamon landed, A bit of dust tickled at Guilmon's nose and with a sneeze,
the Digimon Tower crumbled into a heap of laughing Digimon.

"It's amazing how well they get along," said Takato. "I mean... we've only
just met and look at them."

Jianliang nodded, glancing back towards Takeru and Hikari. Were they? Or was
he just reading a bit too much into things?

Terriermon had been the first to disentangle itself from the pile.
"Mou~Man~Tai!" chimed out Terriermon running around madly in circles around
the camp. "Moumantai! Waaaai Waii! Moumantai!"

Jianliang smiled. His Digimon hadn't changed one bit, being as cute as ever
and as hyper as ever.

"Moumantai! Moumantai!" chimed Guilmon with its paws raised in the air in glee
as he started chasing after the hyperactive Terriermon.

V-Mon had gone to harass Daisuke into a state of wakefulness. The noise had
also successfully roused the remaining two sleepers - both of which were
groggily peering about. Miyako was cleaning her glasses while Ryo was crawling
out of his sleeping bag.

"Takeru~" Patamon winged into his arms. "What does 'Moumantai' mean?"

"It means, 'no problem' in Chinese," answered Jianliang. He had approximately
one second to brace himself before his hyperactive Digimon leapt into his arms
laughing. He staggered nearly falling back on his rump, saved only by the fact
that he had seen it coming.

"Moumantai? I like it," announced Takeru after what seemed to be a moment's
deliberation.

He glanced to see Hikari reviewing her D-Terminal. She jogged over, holding it
up. "There's an email from Yamaki-san," she called out.

"What's it say?" asked Ruki, sitting up. The first bit of activity from her
since breakfast.

"He says that they're still trying to get an Ark set up but there's some sort
of problem.... I don't really understand what he's saying..." Takato handed
the D-Terminal to him.

Jianliang frowned reading the contents slowly, "Apparently, the Digital World
and the Real World are falling out of synch, and it's causing a problem trying
to establish a solid connection. So far only twelve hours have passed compared
to our four days since we sent them email. They're guessing it'll take a few
more days - their time..."

"We're spending at least a MONTH stuck here?" asked Ruki. She was definitely
not happy.

"Maybe we can help," said Daisuke, cramming his goggles onto his head as he
walked over. "I'm not sure how... but we'll help. We just gotta work together
on this."

Jianliang had to admire Daisuke's optimism. "I suppose it'd be best if we
replied to Yamaki-san... perhaps one of you could explain how things work
where you come from."

----

Daisuke had no clue what Miyako was jabbering about - the Digivice did this
and that... this function and option... his head was spinning from it all. He
was just a leader-type really!

V-mon was eating a bar of chocolate by his feet. He was being about as much
help as Takato was - well hopefully more. He was out of his league on this, a
fact he cheerfully accepted. Looking around, he noticed that Wormmon was at
the edge of the camp, looking about anxiously.

Daisuke stood up and walked over, "What's wrong Wormmon? Where's Ichijouji?"
he asked the green Digimon.

"Ken-chan went out for a walk as soon has he woke up," answered Wormmon. "It
seems like it's been so long. I'm worried for him."

"Maybe he wanted some time alone," Daisuke replied. "You know what he's like
sometimes. I think having this many people around him might have driven him
just a bit nuts."

Ken was always really quiet. Really tended to lone wolf. It was hard to tell
what was on his mind alot of the times. Ken was also the nicest guy Daisuke
had been priviledged to call a friend. Always went out of his way to help
him.... but something had changed about Ken recently, and it didn't ring right
with him.

"I'm just worried," Wormmon replied. "He's been gone longer and longer every
day. What if he's hurt? Renamon's mentioned how Digimon are always looking for
Tamers here... what if one of them kidnapped Ken-chan?" Wormmon looked so
miserable.

"Why don't we go looking for him? I think they're being a bit too geeky for
half of us." He pointed a thumb to Jianliang who was using the Reload Machine
to communicate with Gennai. "I'll see if anyone else wants to help so we can
cover more ground."

"Really?" Wormmon's eyes instantly lit up like Christmas lights.

"Heeeey guys! If any of you are free. Wormmon's worried about Ken. I think we
should look for him just in case he's hurt." Daisuke waved his hands for
attention.

Hikari-chan. Takato. Ruki. Iori. Takeru. Ryo.

"If you don't mind, I'll stay and help Lee-kun," called out Miyako.

"I'm counting on you!" called out Daisuke. She was best at it anyways. And it
meant that they could still stay in touch through their D-Terminals.

"We can split into three teams," said Ryo. "Ruki and Takato can pair up with
you guys."

"Right..." said Daisuke.

"I'll go with Iori. We can Jogress if things get ugly," said Takeru. Iori
nodded in assent.

Daisuke couldn't believe his luck. He'd be with Hikari-chan then! Score one!

"I'm looking forward to working with you, Takato-kun," Hikari-chan said with a
smile at the other boy. GAAAAAAAH!!! Why was the universe so intent on
throwing all these obstacles at him?! Wait... if Hikari was with him and
Takato... and Takeru and Iori were with Ruki... "Akiyama... Who's pairing up
with you?" asked Daisuke.

Ryo grinned, giving a thumbs up. "Nobody. I'll be fine on my own. After all, I
spent 10 months here on my own with Cyberdramon." He turned to walk away with
his partner. "I'll take this way."

"Showoff..." muttered Ruki, turning to walk away. "We're going. Renamon!"

Ruki's response echoed his perfectly, and he was glad he wasn't the only one
that thought that way. "Well! What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Daisuke
called out. "Ken's waiting for us!"