Into the Darkness

Lyra

PG – 13

Couples: Takouji, Kouichi/Izumi

Chapter 3 – Enter the Digital World

'italics' = Thinking

"...." = Talking

Italics = Flashback

/Italics/ = Dream Sequence

Kouji stopped and gasped for breath as he looked at the entrance of the train station. He could hear the other's voices and footsteps behind him. He took another huge breath, ignoring the chill of the air, and started sprinting again.

"Kouji!" cried Izumi as she struggled to catch up to him. She sprinted through the crowd, grasping tightly to Kouichi's hand as she pulled him along. Junpei and Tomoki followed slightly further behind. She stopped for a minute as she realized she had lost sight of him.

"We're never going to catch up to him are we?" she muttered.

"Not likely, the only one who could ever run faster was Takuya," replied Kouichi.

"Well we're screwed then aren't we?" Izumi sighed.

Kouichi looked up as he realized Tomoki and Junpei had caught up with them.

"He's probably going to the elevators," whispered Tomoki.

Izumi went to reply, but instead cried out as a boy crashed into her sending her flying to the ground. The boy turned and apologized before continuing to sprint through the train station.

"Izumi, are you alright?" asked Kouichi and Junpei simultaneously.

Izumi didn't reply she just stared at the boy who was soon disappearing into the crowd. She suddenly pulled herself to her feet and started to sprint after the boy.

"Izumi?" asked Kouichi as he and the others followed her. He caught up to her soon enough, and gave her a questioning look as they ran.

"Didn't you see it?" she asked, slightly gasping for breath.

"See what?" he asked.

"That boy, he had something that looked like a Digivice attached to his hip."

Kouichi's eyes widened slightly.

"Tomoki, Junpei! Go to the elevators and see if you can find Kouji. Kouichi and I are going to follow the boy who ran into me. Tell Kouji we'll see him soon," she ordered.

Junpei went to say something, but Tomoki pulled him along. Izumi turned and passed through the people trying to find the boy. Then she saw him.

"Hey! Wait!" she cried out.

The boy whirled slightly, obviously distressed, and then he stopped when he saw Izumi and Kouichi running towards him. He slumped against a wall as he waited for them to catch up to him.

He raised an eyebrow as Izumi slowly approached him, then she pointed to the digivice in his hand.

"You have a digivice. Are you a chosen?" she asked.

The boy's eyes showed a mixture of emotions. However his face looked completely neutral, "I'm sorry for running into you. I was trying to follow someone."

Izumi frowned as the boy had ignored her question. She pulled an object out of her pocket and smiled. She showed it to the boy.

"Well I suppose I should have been expecting that since you asked me, "he whispered.

He stood up to full height and held his hand out, "Ichijouji, Ken."

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Kouji sighed as he looked at the empty terminal. He could hear Tomoki and Junpei groaning as well.

"No trailmon," stated Junpei.

"Well I think we all noticed that one Junpei," snapped Kouji.

"Hey, don't go there with me! I'm not the one running after Takuya like some love sick puppy!" yelled Junpei.

"What?!" yelled Kouji, stepping rather close to the boy.

"Junpei! Kouji! Stop that right now!"

Kouji turned to see Izumi and Kouichi stepping off of the elevator. He was about to tell her to shove it, when he noticed another slim figure step off as well. The boy looked to be about 16, with ebony hair that glinted with a color close to his own. Small slits of lavender also ran through it, matching the pale boys eyes.

"Meh, I'm sorry Ken. You'll have to forgive them. They're both a bunch of hotheads," stated Izumi.

Kouji shot Izumi a look; Izumi returned it with a sickeningly sweet smile that just radiated 'bring it on.' Ken watched the exchange with curiosity and then coughed slightly to get their attention.

"Oh! I almost forgot! You better be grateful Kouji Minamoto! My wonderful eyesight has made it capable to take us to your precious Takuya-chan."

"My what?!" Kouji sputtered.

"Kouji, Izumi, stop it. I don't know about you two, but I think our friend here is just as eager to get to the digital world as you two are," stated Kouichi calmly.

Ken smiled sadly and then walked over to a bench and set his laptop down.

"What are you doing?" asked Tomoki quietly.

"You see Ken here has been to the digital world tons of times before. He just uses his laptop, it seems we took the hard way, "Izumi replied for Ken.

"All you need is your digivices and everyone should be able to go through. Later you'll have to meet a friend of mine, Koushirou. He'd love to hear about how you were able to make it to the digital world without a digivice first. Now just hold your digivices up," stated Ken.

Everyone dug their digivices out and held them up the computer, not entirely sure what was going to happen.

"Digital Gate, open!"

Ken closed his eyes as the familiar sensation took over. He frowned a bit, 'This doesn't feel quite the same.'

Soon the whirlwind of sensations and colors were over, and the group found themselves lying just outside of where they had found Takuya's spirit. Ken dusted himself off and looked at their surroundings, he realized immediately that they weren't what he was used to. "Well this explains some of it," he whispered.

Izumi turned to look at him, a question in her eyes. She blinked in surprise as her digivice suddenly lit up. She watched slightly in awe as everyone's, but Ken's did the same.

"Hey! I got my spirits back!" cried Tomoki.

"Well, it seems that there is definitely something going on here," replied Kouichi.

"That's nice and all, but honestly where do we start? I mean we're not even entirely sure if Takuya is here or not. Even if he is, we have no clue where to look," stated Junpei.

"Takuya?" questioned Ken.

"He's the friend who we're looking for. See a lot of events happened in the real world before we ran into you," stated Izumi.

Ken sighed, "Well I suppose we might as well start searching. I'd like to hear more about what happened."

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Kouji sighed, it was nearly nightfall and they hadn't seen anyone much less Takuya. He turned around as Kouichi put his hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Kouji, I know you don't want to stop, but we need our rest. We're not going to find anything in the dark," Kouichi stated.

Kouji frowned and nodded in agreement. He settled by a tree while the others slowly worked on building a fire. He closed his eyes, and didn't open them when he felt a slim figure settle down beside him. He heard typing and knew automatically who it was.

"Your name's Ken right?" he asked without opening his eyes.

Ken mumbled a small yes, and continued typing.

"Why are you here?" Kouji asked bluntly.

"Kouji! Stop being so rude!" yelled Izumi.

Kouji frowned at Izumi, sometimes he felt like she was trying to be his mother or something. Ken smiled sadly at the exchange and then shut his laptop.

"I suppose it's rude of me to ask why you're here and not explain myself. I'm looking for a friend of mine."

Ken set his laptop down as he began to explain his story.

Ken frowned as he looked up at the sky. It seriously looked like rain. He didn't really understand why Daisuke had wanted to go to Shibuya. He mentioned something or other about something he wanted to show Ken.

Now as usual Ken was sitting there waiting for Daisuke to show up. He smiled as he heard the patter of a pair of feet dashing towards him.

"Ken! Sorry I'm late, Jun had to introduce me to her new boyfriend. You know it's near to impossible to get out of the house then. She kept on yammering on about how great of a guy he was, I swear the guy must have been beat red. I don't know why anyone would want to go out with anyone who talks that much!"

Ken raised his eyebrow in amusement, "And you have room to talk how?"

"Shut up. Now do you wanna see what I wanted to show you or not."

"Shortly after that we had a fight of sorts. I was trying to catch up to him when I ran into you Izumi," stated Ken.

"I don't understand. Why do you think he's in the digital world?" asked.

Ken frowned slightly, "Well you see..."

Ken stopped as his digivice suddenly started beeping. He blinked and then stood up quickly.

"Daisuke!"

Izumi titled her head to the side, "How so?"

"Our digivices are interconnected, they let us know when one of us is near each other. It works like this with the rest of us as well. I'm a little surprised it worked here, due to the fact that this isn't my digital world," stated Ken.

Everyone's eyes widened at this statement, but Ken ignored them and started heading in the direction that his digivice stated.

"How isn't this your digital world? Isn't there only one?" asked Kouichi.

"We once came up with a theory that there might be multiple worlds other than just the ones that I've been to. I've been to four different places. Our earth, my digital world, and another reality where emotions held great power. The final place, was one full of darkness," replied Ken.

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Takuya groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. He blinked as his eyes focused on a pair of chocolate brown orbs.

"Are you alright?" asked the owner of those eyes.

"Yeah," Takuya replied as he sat up, "And you are?"

"See... I was sorta hoping you could tell me that," replied the boy.

Takuya ran his hand absently through the grass as he took in the boy's appearance. The boy had warm chocolate eyes, and honey glazed skin. His hair was a brownish red, and a pair of goggles hung around his neck. He looked to be about 16 or so.

"Uhh... I've never seen you in my life," stated Takuya.

The boy sighed dejectedly, "Hmm... well who are you? And do you know where we are?"

"Kanbara, Takuya. It looks like we're in the digital world. I have no clue how I got here though, the last thing I remember is falling asleep on Kouji's shoulder," stated Takuya.

"Kouji?" asked the boy.

Takuya blushed slightly, "Oh, he's a friend of mine. Actually there were a couple of us there. We were trying to figure out why I was being attacked."

"Oh, well I'm not sure how you got here either. In fact I don't even remember how I got here. I woke up not too far from here, and I started wandering and found you unconscious. So I figured better to have company," stated the boy.

"Hmmm, well if I'm here the other's might be here as well. Now let's see, we have to give you a name. I can't just go around saying 'hey you'. What sounds good?" asked Takuya.

"Uhhh.... how about Yuki?"

"Yuki, it is then. Now let's see if we can find my friends, and hopefully someone who knows you."

The pair wandered for a while, before a beeping noise got their attention.

"Yuki, what is that noise?" asked Takuya.

Yuki look just as confused as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a digivice.

"A digivice?" questioned Takuya.

"Digivice? What's that?" asked Yuki as he examined his digivice.

"Uhh... well yours is different than mine, and I'm not too good at explaining it. Mine turns me into a digimon," muttered Takuya.

"Digimon?"

"Daisuke!"

Takuya and Yuki looked up to see a boy Yuki's age running towards them. Takuya grinned as he saw Kouji, Junpei, Izumi, Kouichi and Tomoki following close behind.

"Hey guys!" he yelled.

"Takuya! You're alright!" cried Izumi.

Takuya grinned as everyone except Kouji who stood slightly further away made a fuss over him.

Ken smiled as he ran up to Yuki/Daisuke.

"Don't do that again! I was afraid I wouldn't find you," he cried.

Yuki/Daisuke blinked, "Who are you?"

Next Chapter – Shackles of the Soul

AN: Also plenty of wonderfully Takouji moments coming up in the next chapter. Ja!