Through this pain, through all that's happened, it's too late to turn back now. I knew it, Janis knew it, everyone in the 'Gaurdians' believed it. I stood, the innocent child, battled as an Angel, and walked away as perhaps something a little more than what I had been before, and that former self was just a shadow, and I stood once more-completely new, as if born again. Immortal.
Part V REDEMPTION
The people, abandoning their homes due to the monster attacks, saw the metal-winged child hovering above. Ken's parents soon joined in the crowd,
"What…?" His mother gasped, and his father was just confused.
Ken opened his eyes after much thought, then flew over to the congregation of monsters. Who was leading them? Mummymon, none other. He scowled, and landed in front of the crowd of demon-like digimon, and the insane phantom standing before him, laughing madly as he did usually.
"Well, kid, nice to see you again!" Ken scowled, wings still unfolded and ready to fight.
"Hm? What's wrong, child?"
"Stop this. Stop it now," Ken commanded simply. Mummymon glanced at the demons behind him, then they all laughed insanely.
"This World is ours for the taking, boy! Besides, why should we listen to you? Oh, and I haven't forgotten about our little run-in earlier…" he pointed to an area on his face where his right eye should have been, but when Mummymon cautiously removed the bandages, all that was there was a bloody eye hole, nerves streaming forth from it, looking like little red strands of thick hair. Mummymon's left yellow eye was fixed on Ken, with an expression that mixed anger and joy,
"You'll pay for this, kid."
"I'll ask you again, Mummymon," Ken stated, staring at the ground, grabbing his guns and somehow making them dismantile themselves, their metals going straight into both Ken's arms, "Please, leave…before you suffer the consequences for upsetting a God," when he had lifted his head, he had a demonic smile and expression, eyes burning with the flare inside him. Mummymon and his league of demons laughed at the boy once more,
"God? GOD?! HA! That's funny, boy…URK!" He soon found himself lying on the ground, a sharp pain in the side of his face. Ken had attacked him, the metal of his dismantiled DIJITs must have fused with his arms. Mummymon stood, staring into Ken's maniacal face. The phantom grunted, then pointed to his servants, "YOU! LEAVE AND DO SOMETHING! I'll handle the child…"
Ken smiled a bit more as the insane mummy pulled out his large laser rifle.
"Ready?" Ken nodded, his dark blue eyes glistening maniacally.
Mummymon came forward, trying to slam the arm into him, but Ken's size was an advantage. He merely rolled under him and his attack, standing behind him and striking him severely in the back. Mummymon recoiled in both shock and pain. "Ar….DAMN KID!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He shot while running, managed to grab Ken, and only succeeded in shooting up Ken's shoulder. Blood poured, but he "prentended" not to feel any pain. He merely smiled once more,
"Is that all?"
Mummymon scowled, then shot… nothing! His laser rifle didn't shoot. Ken's smile grew wider, his teeth shining. His opponent tried his hardest to fire. He glanced at Ken and then recoiled in fear. His opponent, the child, the innocent, if apathetic child that had no major sins on the big blackboard of life, now stared at his opponent, eyes wide with fury, malice, and wickedness. His expression showed ravenous qualities like that of a wolf, his hair sticking up straight on end. His eyes were particularily different, complementing his new, voracious smile: dark, reflecting the shadows stirring inside his soul. No longer the eleven year old boy, but a little more than a man, a little less than what he had claimed much to be, a God. He suddenly lunged, arms forward, slamming Mummymon into the nearby building's wall. Ken laughed a little bit, his eyes still showing his inner maniac. He was insane. Absolutely crazy, unable to control his feelings of hate, rage, and malice. He would win, destroying his opposition and all who stood in his way. All who denied he was God, Master of each World and beyond.
Ken pulled a metal-fused arm back, and slammed it into the gaping hole that had been Mummymon's right eye. His laughter became louder, loudest ever. It was more like a scream, but his voice quivered like a laugh as he brutally beat Mummymon to nothing more than a bloody pulp, curled up on the ground like a cockroach. Ken stopped laughing abruptly, striding up to his fallen opponent.
"Never mess with a God," he smiled and faced each of the new gathering demons. Ken laughed a bit more,
"Bring it ON!" He dashed into the crowd, completely slashing each forthcoming demon one by one with his bare hands. He laughed more. Had he not been so cocky, he probably would have spared himself much torment. Even so, Ken could not control any feelings inside him. Everything he did was completely spontaneous, and he was… crazy. No longer the child, but a God.
Suddenly, the demons had seemed to get stronger.
'Yes, yes, destroy him…' a voice commanded.
"WHAT?!" Ken screamed, feeling each demon claw at him, scratching, slashing into his skin. He screamed, tortured by the demons, now carrying scythes and knives, each shadow stabbing into Ken. The knives of the first onslaught tore into his arms first, cutting open his flesh with ease, then –clang-, hit the metal from the DIJITs fused to his arms. Then, the next barrage came: teeth, scythes, polearms, any item imaginable, tore into the muscle in Ken's arms. He screeched in agony, living through the terrible pain, no longer feeling his arms. Demons gnawed, slashed, grabbed, pulled, and snatched, destroyed each sinew, muscle strand, and bones in his arms. He stopped screaming suddenly, knowing no amount of screaming could save him from the intense, blinding pain. Demons had their arms lodged in his shoulders, wrists, ankes, waist, and neck, preventing him from moving. Ken closed his eyes, tears falling with the much blood that splattered across the ground with bone, metal, and… metal feathers. Ken had forgotten from the intensity and craziness that he still had his wings out, and the demons endured their own pain by the minor cuts of each feather, plucking each one out, one...by...one. Ken couldn't explain, think, or anything… He didn't want to, but he managed to force himself to look at what remained of his arms. The demons suddenly let go of him, letting Ken fall onto the ground, onto the mess of blood, muscle, metal and sharp feathers. They cut into his back and what remained of the once heavenly wings. He stared, eyes wide, but expression blank. Gaping holes in his arms, blood poured out, and all he could see left inside his arms were traces of was once bone and the layers of flesh inside. He could feel the gashes in his neck, back, shoulders, wrists, ankles, knees...everywhere. Ken stared forward, blank once more.
"What do you say to that, KID?!" Arachnimon, the fallen phantom's partner, strode up suddenly, smiling at the boy's condition. Ken glanced at her for a second, hoping for sympathy in that dark place inside him. No. Nowhere, not anywhere in the cruel World existed a place or person that cared. He had no time to feel sorry for himself. Ken closed his eyes, then aimed his gaze at the bloody ground beneath. Arachni smiled, until Ken did something completely unexpected. He laughed. First it was quiet, then it became louder, insane once more.
"You won't ever win," he muttered. "Remember, bitch, I am more than a God, more that Master of the Worlds…" He staggered to his feet, his lifeless arms ignored, "I…AM THE DIGIMON KAISER!"
She staggered back in shock, and Ken laughed insanely, "I WILL REIGN SUPREME, IN THIS WORLD, THE GENJITSU, THE DEJITARU, THE DARK WORLD, ALL WORLDS! REMEMBER, ALL OF YOU! REMEMBER THE NAME THAT STRIKES FEAR INTO YOUR HEARTS! THE DIGIMON KAISER WILL REIGN SUPREME!"
He laughed, with a tone of lightheadedness while bystanders muttered confusedly. Arachni stared, unable to speak.
"What do ya think of that?" He smiled, eyes angry and ready, smile wide as if he were to murder.
"I-I…WHAT?!" Ken's arms suddenly sprang to life, holding the platinum staff, Redeemer, in his now working hands, the blade ready to strike. "How…?!"
"I can do anything…I am more than anything…" He pointed the blade to her. "En garde, bitch!"
"Stop calling me that!" She unsheathed out her own polearm spear, and the two struck at each other, and Arachni eventually fell to the ground.
"Who…are you, boy!?" Ken hesitated and then smiled. Ken's smile.
"I, Arachnimon, am the black Angel of DEATH!" He slammed the blade forward, but she had disappeared mysteriously. "Damn, she backed down…" The demons and Mummymon had retreated, along with the bystanders.
"Hello, then, Kaiser…" Ken turned to see the reason everyone left. An Angel with ten wings, five white and feathery, the other five demon, bat-like wings.
"Well, who are you, I ask…" Ken coolly replied.
"I am Lucemon, and I'm glad to see I have met the Biologica...at last..."
"Excuse me?"
Lucemon, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, child-like Angel, about Ken's size and age (in appearance), came forward with a blade like the Redeemer suddenly, but Ken easily parried it.
"How about a little fight, then, Kaiser."
"You're ON!" Ken smiled, and slashed forward, sending Lucemon back a bit. Both pairs of eyes flared. Both looked like children, but inside, they were fierce, evil demons.
"Ryou!" Chiisu screamed, running with Upamon in his hands. "There's no way we can defeat them!"
The mentor Ryou sighed with a tone of futility as he fired barrages of fire spells at the oncoming demons. There was no way to win... under these conditions.
"This is it..." Chiisu shouted. "We're gonna die...! We're gonna die!"
Suddenly, a blade cut straight through the barrage--pink, ethereal...
"J..." the boys stammered, "...J--Janisu!!"
The girl, sans the metal helmet, gracefully swung the blade another way, causing more demons to fall. It looked so simple to her, but her eyes were focused. Inside her reddened eyes were black crosses along her pupils. Her eyes were flaring as the demons died, one, by one, by one. Her skirt flipped up as she kicked at a few of them, chimes tied along her neck clanging rapidly. Chiisu had never seen such a sight; a girl taking down thousands upon thousands of opponents, all much, much larger than her, and defeating them with ease. Upa-chan was confounded. Ryou readied his staff for a battle with the assassin. She stopped her graceful, brutal dance of death when no more shadows remained. Janis, more like Shirubi, strode up to the boys,
"You should get out of here. The Lucifer Cult is everywhere."
Chiisu was indignant,
"Bu--But our friend is somewhere...around here...fighting them!"
Janis's eyes closed, reverting back into their normal red,
"He will handle himself. You two, I'm afraid, must find shelter."
"And you?" Ryou added, "Just what the bloody f---ing hell is going on?!"
She turned about and started walking away from them, her blue hair swaying gently in the night breeze.
"There are things going on that none of us can ever comprehend... but that kid is in immense danger..."
"What...?"
"AAH!" Ken was thrown back, but he landed cautiously, the drills of his former wings attatching to the broken ground.
"Good. Adaptation," Lucemon put his large blade aside, then lunged forward with blade of white marble. Rimmed by a golden border, it shone as it sliced into Ken's arm, for he had been trying to dodge out of the way.
"But you still don't get it…do you...Machina...?!"
"What…?" Ken muttered. Holding his blade of translucent light ahead of him, the two began to fight once again.
Lucemon chuckled, a slight smirk on his face. He grabbed Ken's bleeding shoulder and stabbed into him. Ken felt everything begin to fade. It felt over. His life flashed before his eyes as he forced himself to once more gaze into the wound in his stomach. The blade was completely lodged into him. Though he felt no pain whatsoever, it still caused him great pain to look…He felt the sharp, quickened beating of his heart suddenly stop, and the blood stopped flowing. Ken tried to look away, but doing so resulted in him seeing his arms with similar cuts. The blood no longer poured. "Learn to understand, child…" Lucemon's wild, psychotic blue eyes glistened in the same way Ken's had, "…then you will know, know what it's like to be a God…" The cuts looked more like... they were from a surgery of some sort...
"What's going on...?!"
"You aren't a pathetic human..."
Everything began to fade...
"...and you never were!"
There was a brief flash of red light. Ken's opened eyes saw where he was. There was an electrical display ahead of him, all he could see was red and blue. He felt cold. Various wires were attached to him, in his arms, neck, waist, ankles, knees, and the back of his head, actually drilled into the skin/bone. What had happened...?
Ken's tired eyes looked wearily around the room. He saw Arachnimon with her partner, covered in medical bandages. Then there was the man he had run into an eternity ago. He had dark blue hair and wore a trenchcoat. His eyes were darkened, and his skin was pale.
"Well, well," he said in a gruff voice, eyeing Ken with some kind of approval, "it seems that the project went just as planned..."
"Project...?" Ken parroted. "What project...?"
"Wait, boss," Arachnimon jeered, "tell him what he did to that Dejitaru Rebel guy!" They all shared a large laugh, while Ken sat in confusion and fear.
"What the hell are you talking about...?"
"You see, Machina..." the man started, "...it was like this..."
Ken stood, standing over the curled up Mummymon.
"Ken-chan!" Ryou and Chiisu made their way onto the scene, being "reluctantly escorted" by Janis. Ken stared back at them. His eyes were blank and dark. The ravenous qualities remained on his face.
"Alright, kid..." Janis urged quietly. "Just...step away from him...."
"KEN-KUN!!" Chiisu screamed. From the skin on Ken's arm emerged thousands of sharp, whispy drills. They stabbed into Ryou, first grabbing him by the shoulders, then arms, separating them by a single seam, drilling into the wound and pulling out each sinew, muscle, and bone. Then drilling into every other part of Ryou Akiyama's body, cutting and pulling out organs, blood, bones, first his rib cage, then his very heart. Then tearing into his lungs, the pink turning white and everything inside Ryou was suddenly all over the road.
"RYOU-KUUUUN!" Chiisu cried, tears coming into his eyes. Janis covered her ears. She wanted no more death. Enough was enough for the assassin.
Then it made sense.
"Why…did you…Ken-chan…?!" Chiisu sighed with his tears falling into the blood. Janis stood,
"Damn you, CHAO-Fi... why must you make more innocent children suffer...?!" she pulled Sakura out of the air, then aimed it at the demonic Ken's face. His eyes were glazed over. "Please. Control your anger…control your fear. I don't know how it happened or why..."
"I have no fear…" He replied with a robot's voice. Ken leered at the girl assassin. Both of them faced each other with their blades. Janis sighed to herself, slowly lowering her blade and walking away.
She smiled feintly, "…new technology... you have made me obselete...someday, kid. Someday..."
"I…I killed…" Ken muttered, eyes wide with shock. The three laughed insanely,
"You thought less of 'The Digimon Kaiser'?!" Ken fell to the ground,
"You---you made me do this!" He screamed, tearing drills and mechanical miscellania out of his body, though it caused him great pain.
"No, but you have passed the test..." The man muttered as his two assisstants closed in on Ken, still lying in his own misery and electrical wiring. They held knives in one hand, syringes in the other.
"You know what to do..."
"Yes, sir." They snatched him by the shoulders... he couldn't breathe...
"Wha...No...! NO!" The world suddenly drew to an aprubt close as Ken lost consciousness.
Where am I...
What am I doing here...?
Who am I...?
Am I real...?
He opened his eyes, staring at a vast, beautiful horizon. Colours mixed together as he felt the cold rush of the wind in his face and hair. The ground was far, far below. He was falling with no parachute, but it was true freedom. For the first time in awhile, although cold, alone and falling into oblivion and death, he smiled. His fading blue eyes, tortured by the world around him, closed slightly. He titled his head down, staring at the distant land. He couldn't move. Wind and rain whipped his face. He didn't care. For the first time in his life, he felt alive.
A city rapidly approached. Not a single soul was in the streets. Instead of hitting the ground, though, something else happened...
A teenager with scruffy blue hair and a black robe had smiled at him, standing in the darkness.
"Hello, Kaiser."
Carrying an unconscious Ken in her arms, Janis followed Chiisu to his parent's apartment. The boy was curled up in a ball, his metal wings dangling helplessly in tatters.
"Lemme carry him!" Chiisu hollered. "I'm his friend! I can't trust you with him!"
Janis shrugged and handed the boy over, whom Chiisu immediately dropped.
"D--Dammit! He's heavy!" Janis picked him up again and lay him on Chiisu's bed, ignoring the tears in the sheets the wings had made. Ken looked pathetic. His eyes looked forced closed, as if he never wanted to wake again. Scars covered his arms and face. It looked almost as if he'd gone through some kind of surgery...
"W...wh..." Chiisu stammered as tears forced their way out of his eyes, "...what'd they do to him...?!"
Janis closed her eyes and then examined Ken's arm. Her eyes opened wide as her hand touched his worn skin.
"He's..." she stated slowly, "...he's cold..."
"He's not...dead...is he?!"
Janis shook her head. "No... I sense internal movement... but he..." she stopped herself, due to Chiisu's ominous, worried face. She shook her head,
"It's nothing." She was going to tell him that Ken had no pulse, either...
An awkward silence fell in the room.
"My name is Shirubi, by the by."
"Chiisu Kimura," he greeted. "Nice to meet you..."
"Ek…ir…" They all glanced at Ken, waking up slowly. "W-where am I?"
"Chii-kun's…" Janis, Shirubi glanced at him, putting her goggles around her head once more, turning to leave.
"HEY! Where're…?" She glanced at Ken once more, scowling,
"You cannot be forgiven for what you've done." Thus, she left. Ken didn't even know. Ken stared at the doorway she had exited through, hoping she'd return to add on to her statement, but she didn't. Ken was silent, then stood, fingering the scars along his arms, legs, everywhere.
"Do..." Chiisu began, "...they hurt?"
"Not at all, really," Ken sighed. He clenched his fist. A little tired. He strode over to the door.
"Ken-chan? Where are you going?!" Chiisu whispered, unable to really speak anymore due to what had happened. Ken strode out the door, grabbing the jacket and digivice. Then he smiled back at his co-hort, his real smile,
"...I assure you, we shall meet again, Chiisu Kimura..."
"Ken-chan...wait..." He dashed out the door after him, but Ken was gone. He was again worried. His friend seemed to be a totally different person...
Shirubi stood at her door. Her head ran in circles. She had disbanded from CHAO-Fi, mainly because she was sick of it. All the killing, all of the pain... Memories of all her victims replayed again and again in her mind.
"Were they all like...when Ken killed him...?"
She felt a tinge of guilt, and opened the door to her apartment.
"What the hell did they do to that boy...?"
But when she opened the door, a familiar face greeted her.
"Hello, Shi. Feeling better today?"
Ken and Lucemon fought continuously, each movement ending up in a stalemate.
"You're good...real good..." Ken muttered.
"Too bad must destroy you, Deus ex," he was suddenly thrown backward. Lucemon was shocked. Ken laughed insanely once more,
"There'll be no desroying of me, that's for SURE!" He slammed Redeemer forward, but Lucemon caught it with his hands! Ken snatched the blade from his opponent, but Lucemon tossed it aside.
"You obviously don't understand what happened, do you?"
"Shut up and fight!" Ken shouted, but Redeemer disappeared. Lucemon laughed,
"You need time. You're not used to your new self. I shall see you again, Deus ex Machina." And with that, he left and Ken was alone. Alone and confused.
"...New self...?" He stared at his hand, tired but not in pain.
Shirubi stared in shock.
"Y---YOU!"
It was Osamu.
"I have a proposition for you..." he stated. "You want to disband, don't you?"
She nodded slowly, readying to summon her blade.
"Well..." he started, "...its like this. If you disband, you'd come back anyways."
"If this is all about that stupid contract..."
"It is," he spoke with a strange smile.
"That contract means nothing to me..."
"Really now?!" He shouted while he waved his hand violently. Shirubi's body seized up. She couldn't move. Her arms were fastened tightly to her sides. Osamu drew nearer to her.
"Let's see..." he said, reaching out to her and touching her face softly, "How did that contract go again... oh yes... that's right. That as your sworn duty as a makenshi and CHAO-Fi, you, Shirubi Janis Karaki, must serve and protect the leader of the organization, the great Lord Chaos. Correct?"
She closed her eyes and replied with a scowl. His fingers ran across her lips,
"So if you disband, it doesn't matter. You'd just come back to me."
"You?!"
"Haven't figured it out yet?" His face was, once again, about a centimetre away from her face, eyes maniacal and desiring.
"I am Chaos."
In a desparate attempt, the girl managed to look away from his eyes, break away from his invisible grip, and dash as fast as she could.
She'd never, ever stop running. His eyes burned into what she could call a fragment of a soul. She heard his voice, laughing away and screaming after her,
"Don't you DARE forget, Shirubi! You BELONG TO ME!"
"Ken-chan..." Chiisu began, typing a letter to his former accomplice, "I just wanted to say that I'm kinda worried about you... but I'm sure you'll be okay...right? After all, you DO have Osamu around, ne? Anyway, I'd like to say you won't be hearing from me in awhile... I'm going to New York! Whee! Ain't it exciting?! My dad got a job there, somewhere in Albany, or something... I haven't really studied anything about the United States. I hope I know enough English to get around. I'm trying my hardest not to say the F-word, like Ryou, Worm-chan, Upa, and you told me to, but I do occasionally say 'hell' and 'damn', but it doesn't really go past that.
Look, I know you really couldn't control what you were doing when you did that to Akiyama-san. I blame the Fighters... Shirubi...er...Janis told me, though, that she had a 'trick up her sleeve' to deal with it, so I think we can trust her. I sent Upamon to go back to the Dejitaru and report any activity, but thus far, nothing. Oh, speaking of the devil, Upamon evolved! Like Sting-chan! He turned into this... armidillo-like thingy called Armadimon. I think there's a clothes company in America called Armadi... I dunno. Ha ha... I'm really not looking forward to living with Christi, she always picks on me...
Rr.... Well, pal. I'll see ya in a couple of years.
Sincerely...:" Chiisu hesitated, "No, not sincerely... how about..." He smiled, then typed:
Your friend..." he thought again,
"Your friend for life,
Chiisu Kimura."
"Whew..." He sighed, leaning back in his chair. That was the second last thing on his list of things to do before he moved. The last one was to actually leave. He examined the e-mail, then began packing his clothes.
"Hey, baka!" The brown-haired, blond-highlighted, green-eyed Christi Kimura stormed into the room, "You done?! We gotta go!"
"But Chris-chan..."
"No EXCUSES!" Christi screeched, then she saw the laptop on the floor of the near empty room, "Ah..." she sighed irritably, "you're still messing with MY computer?! That's IT! PACK UP, NOW!"
"Christi, I am...DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Christi had pulled the plug and shut off the power of the computer... before Chii-kun had sent his e-mail to Ken! He stared, horrified and angry at his sister, and she merely stormed out of the room, screaming, "PACK UP, SHRIMP! WE'RE LEAVING IN FIVE MINUTES!" Chiisu stared at what remained of his room, emptiness, and sighed, "Well...he'll remember me... I hope anyway. Besides, not a lot can happen in four years." He smiled, then grabbed his three suitcases and ran out the door after Christi.
"...Right?"
"Ken-chan? What're you doing?" Wormmon asked while Ken was furiously digging through his closet, which then he replied, "I think I should tell Osa-chan...about the whole Dejitaru mess."
"Why?!"
"I just...don't like lying to people."
"You weren't lying."
"It felt like I was..."
"Ken-chan...if you wanna ruin your secret..."
"Well, putting it that way..." Ken smiled deviously, sitting back in his closet, putting on the jacket that he had gotten when the mess began, relaxing for the first time in awhile, "...it's always nice to keep some things to yourself, ne? I mean...I'm sure I can keep quiet about the whole thing. I like it all being obscure."
"Good resoning, kid."
"Stop calling me kid."
"What do I call you then?"
"...I dunno. How about Ken, just...Ken."
"Alright, Ken.....chan." He glared at the little bug momentarily, then Worm-chan shrugged,
"It's natural! I'm too used to calling you Ken-CHAN!"
"...bug..."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Ken sat up and screeched into Worm-chan's face,
"BUG!" Worm-chan screamed back,
"STUPID KID, KEN-CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"
"Wait a sec..." Ken thought a moment, "...what happened to Koushiro, Ruki, and Taichi?"
"Hmm...odd. I haven't heard from them..."
"Wait...I know. Koushiro and Taichi told me that they had to go back to the Dejitaru...and Ruki's somewhere in America for a card game tournament."
"Oh...I thought they'd be dead..."
"Yah...they were a bunch of stupid kids..."
"You're a stupid kid..."
"SHUT UP, BUG!"
I don't think I should tell anyone about this... I haven't been feeling any pain recently... and these scars aren't healing. At all... They wouldn't understand...
What the hell happened at CHAO-Fi...?
Ken decided he should've told Osa-chan about it, to an extent of acknowledging it happened. His brother had just gotten out of school (insert editor note: "riiight....!") when Ken came running up (he had the day off, for the teachers STILL thought he was sick.) Ken had a backpack in his hands, and he and Osa-chan sat at the techno café Ken had been at when he met Ruki, Taichi, Kou, and... Janis. It was near silent, and, surprisingly, normal looking people sat around. It looked like a normal, everyday café, even though Ken knew what it was at night.
"So, what'd you wanna tell me?" Osa-chan asked, leaning back in his chair. Ken hesitated,
"Uhh...I don't really know where to start..." Suddenly, the green bug, Worm-chan, emerged from the backpack screaming,
"KEN-CHAAAAAN! I CAN'T BREATHE IN THAT THING!!" Wormmon stopped yelling and noticed Osamu.
"GOOD LORD!" Osa screamed and recoiled, "Wha-What the hell is that?!"
"This...is Wormmon," Ken introduced. Osamu looked at the digimon, then at Ken,
"So-So you're..."
"Yep, the Gaurdians." Ken smiled, envisioning the flag Chiisu and Upamon had created.
An hour passed, Ken explaining nearly everything, except the places he went crazy. That was to remain obscure.
"Whoa..." Osamu sighed, "You had guns?"
"Yah..." Ken replied with a sigh and a nod, "...but somehow they fused into my arms. Sorry I can't let you see 'em..."
"Nah, it's alright..." they sat in the awkward silence, Worm-chan happily eating some ramen.
"So...why'd you keep this from us?"
Ken shrugged,
"I dunno, I guess it just never came up..." Again, silence. Ken decided then to ask for advice,
"Hey, Osa...?"
"Yah?"
"I...haven't really been feeling like myself lately..." This time, Osamu shrugged,
"Well, Ken-chan, it must just be a phase. Believe me, I know how you feel... Besides, I know my brother would never get into any trouble he couldn't handle, ne?" Ken hesitated, then nodded with a fake smile.
"Right."
With a laugh, the two walked out.
"Well, I had better meet up with Shirubi..." Osa-chan lied. Thus, the two walked in different directions. Ken began to cross the street, when he heard the dreaded sound once more...
Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing...
Ken immediately stopped walking.
"Hmm?" Worm-chan asked, "What's wrong?" Ken stared at the ground, for he saw something no one else could.
"What...?" Ken questioned quietly.
Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing...
"KEN-CHAN! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!" Still, Ken didn't listen, and what happened next would haunt him for the rest of his life.
A shadow, a shadow of himself... but he looked different... like he had when he had defeated Millenniumon, the crazy, insane Ken...
"KEN-CHAN! WATCH OUT!" Osa-chan's voice pierced through his daze, and all of a sudden, he felt a great force against him, then falling to the ground.
"W...What...What happened...?" He glanced at Worm-chan, who was unconscious next to him. The side of Ken's face was scratched, but not bleeding. It was nothing, however, compared to what had happened to the one that saved him. He heard voices, quiet, worried voices. An ambulence suddenly appeared, and by getting up onto his knees, Ken saw the terrible, horrifying, mind-bendingly immoral sight. "N....No..." His eyes widened, the tears coming fast, his skin turning pale in both shock and sadness. Osamu...was hit. Terribly... dying. Ken had seen many things, and a few people, die, but nothing like this... oh, no, nothing like this. His brother had been hit... killed... bleeding, only clinging to his life by a single thread. "O-Osa-chan!" Ken found the strength to stand, and tried to chase after the ambulence. Tears streamed from his face as he screamed, "OSAAAAAAAAAA-CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"
I had never really been that close to Osa...
Why... why couldn't it have been me!?
WHY?!
WHY, GOD, WHY?!
About a half an hour later, Osamu was in the hospital, but his condition was not improving. Nothing was working.
"A—Sumimasen?" The girl, came up to the front desk, not looking too happy, not to mention well. She looked tired and sick. "Could you tell me where Osamu Ichijouji is...?" The serious-looking receptionist replied blankly,
"Room 12, but don't get your hopes up..." Shirubi thanked her, and ran as fast as she could.
"Osamu-sempai?" He immediately recognized her voice.
"Come in, Shi....chan..." the voice replied, and she stepped in quietly.
"So...it's that bad, ne...?"
"Yah..." He replied with a calm sigh. Shi clenched her fists,
"C'mon, Osa-chan! You can't die!" He put a hand on her cheek,
"Shi-chan...you're the only person I need to see...before...well..." Her eyes welled up with tears, but she tried hard to ignore them,
"Osa-chan...NO! YOU WON'T DIE!" She screamed, "...you...you can't..."
"Shirubi Karaki, you can't always hold back your weaknesses and sadness...all your tears and anger...I promise..."
"Huh..." She sniffed, wiping her eyes.
"I promise...I will come back to you..."
"Osa...Osamu-san, wait!"
"Good....bye...Shi....chan...." He closed his eyes, then whispered his final words, "....I...love...you..."
The heart rate machine suddenly emitted a straight tone. "Os...Osa-chan..." she couldn't fight her tears anymore. Too much had happened, and now Osamu Ichijouji was dead. This also meant the contract was obselete...and that meant...
"OSA-CHAN!" She screamed through her tears, falling to the floor. She was ill, and soon, she may have been in the same condition Osamu was. A nurse passing by the room saw her, coughing up blood and collapsed on the floor, and she was immediately rushed to another area...
If Chaos...Osamu...was really, truly dead...
The contract would be obselete...
Meaning...
She was obselete...
"How's he doing...?" Otoko, Ken's father, stood by his wife and son, who sat in the waiting room, asked.
"I'm afraid he's..." Otoko closed his eyes, then asked,
"And Ken?"
"A few minor scrapes, but he's okay..." The doctor coughed, looking at Ken oddly. The three adults stared at the boy who had a bandage on the side of his mouth, but he was okay, like the doctor had said.
"It's actually strange... he should really have at least a...bleeding injury..."
Ken found no other alternative than to stare blankly at the floor beneath. A weird feeling, a shiver, came across him, making him look up. The girl who had rescued him with Chiisu was being wheeled to an Emergency Room, the several doctors saying things like "NOT ANOTHER ONE!"
Then their eyes met. No words could be exchanged, but there was something about that precise moment that told him life would never return to what it had been. She reached her arm out to him, but then the moment ended, and she was gone.
"Who...who was that...?" He asked himself.
Thus, the Gaurdians ended. And everything was over... No...
So much has happened.
Chiisu sat on the airplane, regretting that he didn't send the e-mail, and his sister nudging him every five minutes since she was asleep.
Too much has changed.
Life was once boring... useless before this began.
It all seemed like... a game...
"Ken-kun..." Chiisu sighed, "...please be okay."
"Uh..." Everyone in the car hesitated.
"Is it...some sort of game?" Chii glanced at Ryou, Ryou glanced at Ken, who had suddenly came up to say-calmly-,
"Yes. Y-Yes, Kimura-san, it's a game."
Ryou and Chii glanced at him and each other again, and the three of them nodded weakly.
Shirubi stood next to a row of gravestones, marked
KOUSHIRO IZUMI
TAICHI YAGAMI
RUKI MAKINO
OSAMU ICHIJOUJI
She had a boquet of white flowers in her hands, then sets them down by Osa-chan's grave.
"I'll never stop running," she told Osamu, "...I'll never stop running for you...okay...?" Always screwing everything up, always in the wrong, Shirubi began to run, and she ran like she never had before.
I should've known it wasn't a game.
To the contrary, it was 100 percent real.
Osamu...
Ken, alone and confused, trudged along. He felt empty. His body was tired and cold. He felt weakened, like the world was pressuring him to do something...
...It's weird...
Ken turned, to see the three that were always together, Arachnimon, Mummymon (who's eyehole was completely unnoticeable by then), and the blue haired man.
...I can't really feel anything anymore.
It's like... I've become something else...
Someone who I don't want to be...
I just live out my life...
However...
He stared at the group, and hesitated. Arachni says quietly,
"Well...are you ready?"
More hesitation...
It's like...
I don't know...
Like I'm afraid to grow up... or something like that...
I think I grew up.
I'm not really Ken anymore.
Ken is dead.
CHAO-Fi stood ahead.
He died in battle. He died when Osamu did.
I linger around mainly because... I've become this thing....
A heartless machine...
I know I sound crazy, but it's true...
I lost who I was. Who I am...
What do I do now, you ask?
Metal bracers were attached to his wrists, neck, and ankles, and he wore an outfit much like Janisu's. He had been brought in front of the crowd of Fighters, all of them staring at him with mixed looks. His hair was once more sticking up on end, and he wore the glasses Janis had given him. Arachnimon glanced at him. Ken stared at the ground, he didn't know how to respond to becoming a Fighter, more accurately, the second human Fighter in history.
I dunno.
I'm never growing up.
I'm never becoming an adult.
Ever...
Why?
Ken smiled, the same way that he had when he had gone insane many times before.
...Because I guess its time for the Kaiser to shine...
To be Continued...
AFTERWORD:
Muahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahahhahahhahahahahahahahahhaha!
Finally... I got it done! I don't really like it... it's a tad rushed... But I tried my best (and succeeded) in making the underlying elements and plot devices for DC02 esoteric. Some things only really should exist in my head, but I wrote them. Why? Because I am lazy. Very lazy...
And crazy, too.
And does anybody know WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO KEN?!
I never do this anymore... but I think I'll bring back a good tradition... (with my old, defunct story ULTCO, I did this for awhile)
REVIEW TIME, BOYS und GIRLS!!!! : ) Muahahahha! (cough)
I:
Character Development
12345
(1 ha...ha...ha...puke, 5 This person's related to you...right? WHAT?! They don't EXIST?! WTF...?!)
Favourite Character... and why? (big emphasis on WHY here)
Second Favourite Character and why?
II
Plot
12345
(1 there WAS no plot, you deadbeat! : ( , 5 wha---?! Its over?!)
Favourite scene(s) and why:
Second Favourite Scene(s) and why:
Any memorable quotes?
What were your thoughts as you finished the last few sentences and reached "to be continued"?
III
Misc. Quesions.
Uhh...Yeah...That part in Part IV... (you know...!)...thoughts?:
Should I compile supplementary materials? (art, character designs, CD, etc?)
Should I get off my ass, spend about $800 on Code Red and toilet paper (don't ask... --;;;) and write the sequel story, DC02?
What were your thoughts on:
Ken
Janis/Shirubi
Osamu
Ken's Parents
Ryou
Other crap you need to say to me before I die from over-caffienation (aka: too much sodie pop?)
Alright, see you all later, oompa-loompahs...Uhh... Go away! (Shall I write the Epilogue?)
-s-T-e-R-e-O- (your deadbeat writer pal disturbed psycho sociopath...uhh...yeah! COOKIES!)