Disclaimer: Digimon does not belong to me. All characters and items within are all based around both the television show and the card game. None of these belong to me. (though I wish they did, like probably everyone else...)
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A Meeting Of Tamers
By Lady Geuna
Rated: PG
Summary: There is the Dark World, Dream World, Digital World, Real World, and the Tamer World. But what if Takato of the Tamer World discovers a key that could force all the worlds into one? The balance of the very worlds will shift like no one would've ever expected.
Another Universe, but mostly canon. Takes place some time before they meet Ryou and the Devas, and before their digimon are able to digivolve to Ultimate.
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PLEASE keep in mind, I know ALL about Ryou thanks to authors who've given tips and important info ^__~ Authors ~ Ajora (Wind Crystal), Alex Warlon, and WithoutMorals, Thank you much!. The thing is, a lot of this information contradicts each other. But I'll do my best, at this point, the only thing that's different is the Daisuke and Ryou have different digimon of the same type, though I know they are one and the same.
EXTRA special thanks to FF. Net author Ajora (Wind Crystal). Ajora is the most amazing digimon author I've ever known when it comes to Ryou. She's like the.... the Ryou GURU! ^__^ She's really awesome, and offered a LOT of help without being asked, and that was so very kind of her. Thanks, Ajora.
Geuna~
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"..." speech
'....' thoughts
/.../ around a SENTENCE will mean a flashback or memory.
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Names to know:
Rika: Ruki Makino
Henry: Jenrya Lee
Susie: Koharu Lee
Jerry: Jyuri Katoh
Kazu: Hirokazu Shioda
Riley: Reike
Riley's Coworker(?) : Megumi
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Translations other than the ones here can be seen in Chapter Two: Transferring... /Data Downloading/, k?
Wata kushi wa name desu- "My name is name."
anno...- "excuse me..."
oi- hey
doko/doko wa- where?/where is...?
Ja/ Ja ne- "good-bye" or "bye", wither in the quick form, or in the casual or friendly form, as you would you to someone younger than you, or to a close friend.
matte!- "what!"
kuso- "cr*p", "sh*t"
gomen- "sorry"
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Chapter Five: Darkness rising...
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Taking a deep breath, Ryou tried to regain his composure... But with Ken like this...
"Please," he said slowly, "Can someone just give me one straight answer?" Was that too much to ask?
The kid with the goggles, Takato, immediately jumped to attention. He surprised Ryou by jumping forward and grabbing his hand, shaking it furiously. "I'm Takato!!! Matsuda Takato!! This is my partner, Guilmon!" He gestured to the red digimon who was now trying to sniff Chibimon curiously. Chibimon was trying to jump down to meet him, but Ryou refused, whispering something about, 'You don't know what kind of people these are...' "And you're Akiyama Ryou! I've played the game a million times! You're in a tone of games with Taichi and Ken and stuff, played them all!" Ryou was frozen and completely stumped as Takato turned to Ken, grabbing his hand in a similar fashion, nearly ripping his arm out of it's socket. "And Ichijouji Ken! I've watched every episode!"
Ryou was almost dizzy now. This was too much to take in all of a sudden... Though when he thought about it, he'd had worse things thrown at it...
Takato didn't seemed to listen to him anyway.
Well, at least he could try talking to him. Maybe the boy would calm down and start talking sense? "So, you're Takato...? Who are you?" He pointed the other two kids and their digimon, who had been standing in silence during Takato's rambling.
Lee bowed. "Wata kushi wa, Lee Jenrya desu. This is Terriermon, who I think you've met."
Terriermon grinned, waving. "Hiya!"
Ryou nodded at the digimon, smiling. "Yeah, I remember..."
"And this," Lee said, pointing at the girl behind him, "is Makino Ruki ("Who you seem to know...") and Renamon." Ryou noted that he looked as jumpy as his friend, but was controlling himself with much more success. "It's kind of hard to say this isn't a surprise..."
"What's a surprise," Ken asked, standing with Wormmon in his arms. Ryou smiled a bit, happy to see the Ken had collected himself. Then Ken asked Takato, his eyes slightly cold, "How did... you know about "me"?" There was some meaning to Ken's words that Ryou didn't get, but he was sure it wasn't something pleasant.
Ruki groaned loudly. "Can we please do this somewhere else? The police should be coming any moment now." She turned, Renamon following her slowly. Boy, she hadn't changed at all since that card tournament... "Or better yet, you guys do it somewhere else. I'm going home."
"Oi, matta!" Ryou jumped up, running to Ruki's side. She glared at him, refusing to say anything that might start a conversation. "Hey, I know we got off at a bad start... again... but..." He glanced back at Ken, who was now under the very intense attention of Takato, but he looked like he was taking better now... Ken's eyes were glued to the kids goggles for some reason... "My friend and I are.... Well, we're not from around here, you see..."
Ruki snorted. "And where are you from, Miyazaki? Osaka? No, let me guess, Hokkaido?
He sighed. "You're right, actually..." She gave him a look of disbelief, but he continued. "And Ken's from around here but not from around here," he thought for a moment, trying to think of the right words. Being polite was the best was to go with this girl, but she didn't seem very cooperative. "But... We don't have any money, you see, and--..."
"I'm not giving you money," she interrupted quickly, still looking very disbelieving, and sort of apprehensive now.
"No, no, that's not it," he insisted, keeping a totally straight face. "We really need somewhere to at least get dry, Ruki. Come on, can you help us out once?" She just looked at him now, her face expressionless. There was a long pause, where added, "Please...?"
Still no reaction.
"You... expect me, to let you come to my house. You, who I'm less than fond of, and-and...," She glanced at Ken, "and a total stranger?"
Ryou sighed. "You're still angry because I beat you at the card game, aren't you?"
There was a sudden silence, and even Takato and Lee were looking their way, both looking surprised.
Ruki had gone as still as a post, her eyes narrowing dangerously. For a moment Ryou thought she was about to slap him, but she didn't move a muscle. Renamon leaned over and whispered something into Ruki's ear.
Ryou strained to hear, but Renamon had already straightened up, eyeing him.
Ruki looked torn, her eyes narrowing even more at Ryou, her jaw clinched. "Fine!" her voice creaked ever so slightly, her cheeks flushing. "But don't expect to stay!" Then she stomped off. Renamon vanished.
'It.... worked...? It actually worked?'
Ryou smiled, looking down at Chibimon. "Yes! Now Chi--" Chibimon wasn't on his arm anymore. "Chibimon... Doko...?"
He turned to find Chibimon playing furiously with Guilmon and Terriermon. Wormmon stayed quietly with Ken, who was waiting for Ryou patently. Takato had calmed down completely, and was talking with Ken and Lee.
"We're going with Ruki, Ken, come on!" He snatched up Chibimon from his new found company, quickly saying his apologies, and rushed over to his friend, grabbing his arm. "We can go with her," he jabbed a finger in Ruki direction, "and get warm. We're going to die out here if we stay wet like this." He noted that Ken was shivering just as badly as he was. He didn't like seeing his friends so uncomfortable.
"Y-You actually... How do you know her, Ryou-san?"
"I.. I'll explain later if I can, okay?" Ken agreed to this, and Ryou bowed quickly to Takato and Lee. "Thanks for your time. Ja." He began to rush off when Lee stopped him.
"Matte! I mean..." Lee paused. "Why you're here, I mean... We're just as confused as you guys are..."
"There's been a misunderstanding," he said flatly. Ken's expression said the exact same thing. "I very big misunderstanding..."
"And, well..." Lee couldn't seem to find the right words.
"Come on," Ruki called in an annoyed tone. She had stomped up ahead, waiting for them impatiently. "I don't have all day, and I think I hear sirens."
Ryou didn't like the sound of that. "We need to go, now."
Ken nodded, and together them ran after Ruki after she began to leave again.
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Takato watched as the two "fictions made flesh" ran off after Ruki, the older boy practically dragging his friend along. He still couldn't believe it... "Lee... They're really here..."
Lee nodded. "Yeah..." He glanced back, his eyes widening. "Uh oh."
Takato looked too, seeing flashes of red in the distance. "Police!!"
'I'm too young to go to jail!! They'll see Guilmon, they'll lock him in a cage in the zoo!! Do tests on him!!!'
Guilmon saw the flashes of red, smiling. "Oooh, pretty. Anno... Takato, what's wrong?"
"I'll explain later, Guilmon, but we gotta run! Maybe we should follow Ruki...?"
Terriermon sneezed, rubbing his nose. "Gomen. Excuse me..."
Lee nodded. "I guess since they're going to get warm, we might as well. Our digimon'll catch cold out here, and so will we. And if the police get a look at Guilmon and Terriermon...," He patted Terriermon on the head, "I don't want to know what they'd do."
He smiled. "If they managed to get Ruki to let them come to her house, we shouldn't have problem..."
"But Takato," Guilmon said, "I remember not being very welcome at her house..."
Lee shrugged. "It doesn't matter! Let's get out of here!" He began running down the hill, dodging rubble and uneven earth which had been the aftermath of the earlier battle. Takato followed instantly, Guilmon close behind. "Guilmon better hurry up, something big and red is easy to spot!"
One way to make Guilmon move a bit faster. "Hey, Guilmon, bet you can't outrun me!"
Guilmon laughed. "I bet I can!"
And Lee screamed, "Enough of that already and just run!"
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Yamaki stood, watching from nearby as the now much larger group of children ran off from the disaster sight. He'd just gotten there, but he'd seen enough. Those two boys and their creatures... The two at least, they were the ones that came from the alien plane. They must be.
He heard his cell phone ringing in his jacket pocket. Yamaki pulled it out as he watched the police draw nearer.
It looks like the "higher powers" had managed to hold the police off long enough. If they saw a digimon... Well, Yamaki didn't want to think of that. People who don't know what's really going on will make far too big a deal of this than necessary. They would end up walking into forbidden territory and end up getting in the way.
He stepped into the car and slammed the door shut, signaling for the driver to leave. He flipped out his cell and pressed 'talk'. "What?"
"Sir." It was Reike, who sounded very out of breath. "We have some new information that you should find interesting..."
"It'd better be good." He starred out the dark window at the bay, which was now creaked and ravaged, like someone had tried to tear it apart (they probably had, too). "Is it something to do with these new signals?" On this thought he looked around to see if he could catch sight of the two "boys", but didn't see them. It was either too dark or they were out of visual range.
"Yes. We've uncovered a few interesting things, actually. It seems... We've found data streams, similar to those found entering from the Digital Plane to this one. Only, these streams enter somewhere totally different." She paused. "Sir, I think we've discovered more planes other that the Digital and our own."
"How is that possible. There aren't any other planes! There can't be!"
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Reike rubbed her eyes with one hand while holding the phone with the other. Sometimes Yamaki tested her patience. Oooh, she could be at a spa right now, but no, she had to deal with all these Hell.
"We are sure, sir, there is no mistaking it, I assure you. But unlike the Digital Plane, these others are no "open". Nothing that may be identified as an anomaly can pass through them as far as we can tell. Megumi is doing the research now. However, it seems that a few of these Planes are very active."
""Active"?" Yamaki sounded very skeptical. "What do you mean by "active"?"
"As I said," she explained, "there are multiple Planes. I can only see possible, not definite, entry into one or two of them. While I tried analyzing them, I sent in a prob into one. It consisted of mostly what appeared to be some sort of Dark Matter. It tried to..." She stopped, remembering the event that happen only a few minutes ago. "... It was like it was trying to absorb itself into our system. I don't know any other way to describe it sir..."
That had been just a few minutes ago. It had been an unexpected reaction, but they had been able to stop it...
"We managed to lock it out of the system, and it was probably only acting after being stimulated by the prob-"
"I don't want anymore unauthorized probes."
"But sir-"
"I don't want to hear any arguments, I want to hear results."
".... I will have the data ready for when you get back. And I must seriously recommend that we try to delete any Planes that seem hostile."
"I'll take that under advisement. Keep monitoring these "Planes". If anything odd happens, or if another try's invading the system, shut everything down. You are the only on to blame for what almost occurred, and it well also me your fault if it happens again."
Reike bit her tongue, holding back an insult she so desperately wanted to spit out. "Yes, sir..."
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A little while later....
Ken understood everything now. But didn't... "This is...."
"Confusing," Ryou offered seriously.
"Yes..."
Ryou sighed, testing his hair for dryness. "Gomen... Maybe you should try opening the gate again?" He frowned when he found his hair was still damp, muttering, "Kuso," under his breath.
All of them sat in Ruki's old Japanese style living room. She had a very nice house, the shoin-zukuri architectural style with symmetrical rooms and sliding paper doors. Ken loved it. He was only used to living in an apartment...
They had to be quiet, as to not waken her mother or grandmother. She had been less than pleased when Takato, Lee and their digimon followed, uninvited, but she didn't have much of a choice in the end. Each one of the boys now sat with a large towel, the heat to the room turned up, trying to get dry as they finally made some sense of all hat had happened in the past few hours.
"I can't say I'm too surprised," Ken said. "I've known there were different worlds out there to begin with. Takeru told me about them, and I've seen them for myself... But I never expected there to be one like this..." He looked to Ryou. "I'm not from this world, but you are, aren't you, Ryou-san..."
Ryou nodded. "Yeah... But I don't understand how I couldn't 've seen something like this. There's no explanation... The TV shows, that games... And somehow I never noticed...?"
"I never played the video games," Ruki said, "or watched the TV show." She was standing the corner with Renamon, not really wanting to be apart of the little gathering. Ken was becoming uneasy by the way Renamon kept starring at Wormmon, but his partner hadn't noticed, far too engrossed in a conversation with Terriermon to care.
"Maybe you were never meant to know," Lee offered, leaning back. "Maybe we were never meant to know..." He pondered, muttering, "A balance... Maybe that's it..."
"What do you mean," Ken asked.
"If what you say is true," Lee explained, "than every world has a sorta of 'balance', right? Maybe we were never meant to know. Maybe Ryou was never meant to know..."
Ryou held up his digivice, a D-3... "I can understand that, but I don't understand this. Why would my D-Ark degrade to a D-3 like this?"
Lee shrugged, shaking his head. "I have no idea..."
He spoke to Takato, who was listening intently and thinking hard, "You say that you're responsible... The... card, and the 'D-Ark' ("Like Ryou used to have, right?")...?"
Takato nodded sheepishly. "I really didn't mean to... I mean, I didn't know..." He blushed. "Gomen..."
It was obvious by now that seeing Ken and Ryou in reality was like a fantasy come true for Takato. Sure, Ken was used to the attention as the "Rocket" in his world, but this was ridiculous. Ryou didn't seem to care at all. Lee had been startled by their appearance, but now seemed over that, and Ruki didn't care one little bit. Any thoughts of Ryou seemed to under-whelm her...
Ruki rolled her eyes. "What were you thinking, Takato? Trying to open a Digiport."
"I didn't know," Takato insisted. "It wasn't anything close to what I thought would happen..."
"Can you think of anything," Lee asked, "anything that might explain why this happened?"
Guilmon, who had Chibimon sitting on his head, smiled at Ken happily. "Takato says he watches your show all the time!"
Ken looked first at Guilmon, a dragon type, and then at Takato, eyeing the boys goggles. He couldn't help but smile. "Two guesses of who your favorite digidestined is..."
Takato blushed even deeper, but a wide grin spread over his face. "You can tell!?" His hand reached up and touched his goggles almost unconsciously.
"They look like Daisuke's," Chibimon said, looking up at the goggles as well. "But we're late for the picnic now, Ken! Daisuke's going to be worried!"
Ryou frowned deeply. "And that's another thing. Chibimon has already found his own partner, and Monodramon is gone. Can't work that way."
"Do you have any idea where Monodramon could be," Lee asked.
"Back in Hokkaido, I'm guessing, but I can't leave Ken until we can find I way to get him back to his own world... I'm not sure what I should do..."
Ken said, "Then I need to find I way back as soon as possible."
"You can't open a Digiport," Ryou said. "It's useless."
"We were in a "Digital Field" when we appeared here, right?" Ken suggested. "Based on what you've told me about them, they may be my ticket out of here. If I can somehow get to the Digital World, we can just go to the Real World from there."
"It makes sense," Ryou agreed. "But we can't be sure... This Digital World may be very different from the one you know, Ken."
"It's a risk he may have to take," Lee said sullenly.
Ken really didn't like that thought... "Can you call one of them up," he asked. "Like a digiport, I mean."
Ruki shook her head. "They just show up, and we never know when or where."
Ken felt defeated somehow. "What do I do then until then? Just wait around? I mean, what if one never shows up...?"
"They'll show up," Takato assured him. "They always do!"
"It's be okay as long as be keep a clear head, right?" Ryou said. "We can wait it out, we've been through worse, right?"
Ryou was really getting to him. 'How can he be so calm about this!?' Ken sure was, being stuck here, with no way of getting back or communicating with his friends. He'd tried his D-Terminal (which had been in his pocket) once was able to sit down and think, but for some reason it was unable to send. Ryou had tried the same with his D-Terminal (which appeared in his duffel bag at some point), but he couldn't send, either. But after all, Ryou didn't have that much to worry about. He was already in his own world.... And that was also a very negative thought... What if he never saw Ryou again after this...? Then a thought occurred to Ken...
"Chibimon."
Chibimon blinked up at Ken. "Hai?"
"You... I'll need to take Chibimon back with me. He doesn't belong here, either. Daisuke will be missing him-"
"Wait-a-minute," Takato said suddenly, slapping his palm. "I think I get it... It makes sense now!" Everyone looked at him, wondering exactly what he was talking about, and then to Lee he said, "Lee, you remember the WonderSwan game, right?"
Lee nodded slowly. "Yeah, but-" He stopped, his eyes widening as though in realization. "That's it! Of course! Takato, you're a genius!"
"What are you talking about," Ruki demanded. Ken was wondering the same thing...
"In the video game," Lee explained, "Tag Tamers. Ryou's digimon was a Veemon. This Chibimon." He gestured to the Chibimon sitting in Ryou's lap. "Also, in the game Ryou... Well, I think he had a D-3 in the game at some point... They both did. It's been a long time since I've played the game..."
Takato continued, "I had the game out on my computer when I slashed the Digiport card, and it got totally fried... I guess it has something to do with all this..."
There was a long silence.... Then...
Chibimon spoke up loudly so Ryou could hear. "I'm hungry."
Ryou frowned, plucking his digimon from Guilmon's head. "That's rude... You really haven't changed a bit since I last saw you. What would your partner think of that?"
"Daisuke would be hungry, too!" he replied.
Ken sighed. "He's right. Daisuke would... Actually, Daisuke can be even more rude than Chibimon, sometimes..."
Ryou blinked at Ken, and after a moment he continued pointedly, "You can't just expect food every waking moment..." He turned to Ruki with a clam expression that almost too clam... "Anno, Makino-san, may we...?"
"NO! You're dry now, don't expect me to feed you now." She looked at the floor, refusing to look at Ryou face. It was a bit dark, but Ken saw her cheeks pinking slightly. Ryou hadn't seemed to notice, though, his face still set and serious. He wouldn't be intimidated. It seemed that Ryou and Ruki had some sort of history that didn't have anything to do with romance. Ruki had some sort of grudge against Ryou...
Ryou had managed to get along very well with Takato and Lee now that they'd been properly introduced. But Ruki... My, Ryou really did get on her bad side... But what she'd said did raise a point.
"Ne, where are we going to stay...?"
Takato groaned. "I wish I could take you guys in, but I don't think it's a good idea to be bringing friends over at 1:30 in the morning. I'm probably grounded for life as we speak..."
"I'll take one of them."
All eyes turned to the one who spoke. Ruki still stood with her eyes to the floor, a blank expression on her face.
"I'll take one," she repeated, glancing up at Renamon, who didn't even blink or look down at her. "Ichijouji and Wormmon can stay in the guest room... You'll have to clear it out yourself, it hasn't been used in years."
Ken paused, seeing the once again mystified expressions on the two boy Tamers' faces, but nodded thankfully. "Arigatou... But what about Ryou-san?" He looked at his friend hopefully, who looked not too pleased that he would be leaving Ken. His eyes were set on Ruki's form, but Ken couldn't figure out why. Maybe he didn't trust her? He hadn't known Ryou to be so, and he knew Ruki, after all. But... It had been a long time. Ken didn't want to be separated from him so suddenly...
Lee raised his hand helpfully. "I'm sure my dad won't mind. You'll have to handle Koaru though, she's a real pain. And keep Chibimon away from her."
Terriermon shivered.
He smiled kindly at Ryou. "How about it, Ryou?"
Ryou nodded his head, glancing once at Ken. "Thanks. Uh, how far away do you live...?"
Lee looked toward the door and said, "On the other side of town."
He grimaced. "That's going to be a long walk, but..."
Ruki stepped into the middle of their little circle, a stern look on her face. "I hate to say this... No, correction, I don't hate saying this. Get. out. of. my. house."
Ryou raised an eyebrow at her, muttering, "That's rude."
"No, this is rude." She closed her eyes, turning her face toward Renamon. "Renamon, could you help these boys find their way out?"
Renamon stepped closer, cracking his knuckles loudly.
All the boys, including a very reluctant Ryou, were on their feet instantly, discarding there towels in a mess on the floor, hurrying for the exit. Lee opened the sliding door as Terriermon hopped into his head. "You don't have to be all rough and tough, Ruki, we're leaving."
Ryou grabbed up his duffel bag, looking reluctant to leave Ken so soon. "Are you going be all right here? It doesn't feel right leaving you alone...."
Ken nodded. He realized his stomach was knotted. Maybe he could go with Ryou...? No, that would be intruding...
"And if she try's pushing you around," Ryou continued, "just send me an email." He held up his D-Terminal. "After all, Ruki doesn't have the most endearing personality..."
Ken nodded with a half smile. He really hated that Ryou had to be so far away after seeing him again. "Yeah, I think I will. Don't worry, I'll have Wormmon with me after all." He smiled down at Wormmon, who was saying goodbye to Terriermon and Guilmon. Chibimon was attached to Guilmon's head not, seeming very content with his fellow dragon type digimon. "Can we meet tomorrow...?"
"We usually meet at Guilmon's hideout," Lee said.
Guilmon nodded excitedly. "We have lots and lots of bread!"
Takato grinned. "This is so great! I can show you around! You can meet some of my friends! Oooh, Kenta and Kazu won't believe this! And Jyuri!"
"Urusai, Goggle Head," Ruki hissed under her breath, "My Mother will hear you!"
Lee shook his head in exasperation, looking between Takato and Ruki. "I don't think telling all your friends is the right thing to do, Takato."
"We can have fun," Terriermon said excitedly, looking toward Wormmon, who returned the motion.
'They were getting along well, at least.'
"Ruki can bring you tomorrow... That is if she doesn't mind..." All eyes turned toward the girl in question.
Ruki just shrugged, refusing to speak in the presence of Ryou. Boy, did he bring out her bad side. When they made no signs of movement she finally said, "It's almost 2:00 a.m., leave!"
This time they obeyed. Ryou and Chibimon (still attached to Guilmon's head) waved at Ken and Wormmon as the group left into the hall, disappearing toward the front door.
It was suddenly very silent.....
Hopefully things weren't as bad as they seemed...
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Outside, a black car watched the dark house, making sure to keep a close check on one of the house new occupants...
"We have the target located, sir," a man said into the car phone. "What are your orders?"
"Very good. Make sure he doesn't go anywhere without us knowing. Continue watching until I tell you otherwise, understood?"
"Yes, sir."
Yamaki hung up on the other end, and the man continued to watch the house...
But Hypnos wasn't the only one watching...
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To be Continued in Chapter Six: Understanding and learning...
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I don't know exactly how to play that card game, but I'm reading up on the rules not. I understand the basics, though.