Chapter: 1

Ryo Akiyama was tall for his 8 years, smart, athletic, and completely ignored by his family in favour of a variety of hobbies and jobs. His fathers contact with him consisted of odd dinners, although his mother made sure that like all her children, his needs were taken care of. His older sister Anita rarely saw him at all, while his older brother Kurogane saw him all too much, his younger brother Takahashi was only 4. Thus, the second youngest Akiyama child became independent, living in the large house his mother meticulously cleaned and his father furnished with the latest technology and most stylish furniture.

When Ryo was 10, his mother left, his eldest sibling moved out, and Takahashi turned 6. It was an eventful year, to say the least. The house was significantly quieter with Anita gone, but she had been a distraction to Kurogane, with her she'd taken that distraction, meaning that because of Takahashi's annoying ability to cry at will, Ryo was the only amusing target. Ryo often supposed it wouldn't have been so bad if his father ever caught Kuro in the act, he was hardly ever home though, and Ryo knew he could suppose all he'd like, the reality of it was that his father would tell him he wasn't good enough, and he should handle Kuro on his own.

"Hi stick." Kurogane greeted him as he passed the living room on his way upstairs, an amused smirk playing at his lips. Ryo ground his teeth together, feeling his whole self tense. I've been home for less then a minute, and already he's on to me. Ignoring his brother, he continued as if uninterrupted on his path. "I said 'hello'." The older boy drawled, a little miffed at not getting a reaction. Ryo kept walking. Now Kuro was annoyed, honestly, you'd think the brat could at least reply, grade 5 isn't that tiring. He stood up, all 6 feet of his 17 years sliding off the couch and striding towards his younger sibling.

Can't he just leave me alone? Ryo asked himself. Once he was sure his brother was off the couch and truly coming after him, he gripped his backpack tighter and changed his pace to a dead run. As he reached the landing and chanced a look behind him, he saw Kuro thumping up the stairs. Damn him! "Go away!" Ryo yelled as he raced down the hall towards his room, whipping through the door frame, slamming the door and bolting the small chain lock expertly with his fingers. He'd been very proud once he'd installed his lock, it had taken him a whole Sunday afternoon to buy it, read all the instructions, and carefully place it on the inside of his room door. It had been put in over 3 months ago, and his father still hadn't noticed.

BANG! Kuro hit the door, rattling the lock, and making Ryo smile. Get through that, jerk. As Kuro cried bloody murder, Ryo calmly deposited his pack on his bed, and sat down at the PC on his desk. He pressed the 'on' button and the machine whirred to life, signaling him with a soft beep when it was ready for his user name and password. Ryo typed both in and spun himself in a circle on his chair, whistling quietly while Kuro's muffled voice continued to yell.

"Give it up Kuro! You'll never get through!" He called back, it had almost become a daily routine.

Spinning his chair back to the monitor, he changed his desktop picture to a fall scene with sakura blossoms falling over a bike path, mixing their pink and white with the bold reds and oranges of the other trees leaves. It reminded him of a scene he'd once seen while wandering the digital world with Ken, when they were younger. He smiled at the memory, I miss him, so much fun to just talk to… wonder what he's up to now? Idly staring off into space, a final, rather violent sounding BANG from his door brought him back down to earth. He smirked, such a moron Kuro, today is no different from yesterday, or the day before it.

Still grinning slightly, he opened his e-mail account and sifted through his inbox, there were three new messages. The first was junk mail, delete. The second a forward from Damian, an American boy who was also in his grade, but in the classroom across the hall, I'll read his later. The third was from someone he didn't recognize, a female was the first impression he got from her screen name: bladedrain.

He opened the message curiously, surprised when he read it.

Hello Akiyama-san,

I'm Raina Sahari, and I also have a digimon waiting for me somewhere in the digital world.

This alone took Ryo's breath away, how could she know I've been there? He kept reading.

I'm not familiar with the part of the digital world that matches up with Japan, as I come from a different country. I was wondering if you could maybe show me around if you know how to get there? I'm going to be here for a few years, so it'd be nice to see how things are done in Japan.

I get to school early, so if you want to meet me early on the playground tomorrow that'd be great, if not just e-mail me back. Thanks…

bladed rain

Ryo stared at his computer screen. This is… unexpected… mind you, I suppose there are other Tamers. She's certainly very blunt. Leaning back, he tapped his fingers on the wood desk pensively, I think I may be going in early tomorrow…

-

The next morning, Ryo awoke and prepared for school early, making sure that his D-3 was in his jacket pocket before he left his room. Breakfast was a small affair of jam on toast, and after he'd brushed his teeth and combed his hair up, he quietly slipped out the front door.

It was a still morning, the sun had risen only a little while ago and very few people were out on the streets. Whistling a tune he'd heard somewhere, Ryo wandered down the sidewalk to his school, hardly 5 blocks away. He got there about 45 minutes before school was due to start, surveying the brightly coloured playground with his azure gaze.

There were more kids running around then he'd expected; a pair of boys no older then Takahashi were pushing each other on the tire swing, there was a group of girls maybe a year older then Ryo giggling by the fireman's pole, and a set of three kids standing on the highest platform of the playground, two girls and a boy. The girls were complete opposites by appearance, one with long raven black hair, cool silvery blue eyes, a black blouse and matte black shoes. The other girl had bright, coppery-auburn hair clipped to just below her ears, it stayed mostly closer to her scalp and the ends flicked out a little. She was wearing a white T-shirt reading 'my imaginary friend thinks you have serious mental problems', a pair of blue-jean Capri's and some well loved runners.

"Hey! Akiyama-kun!" One of the figures called, it took Ryo a minute to recognize him as one of the boys in the classroom across the hall. It was Damian, with his chin length white-blonde hair and trademark bomber jacket.

"Domitsu-kun!" He jogged over to the base of the playground tower, dropping his backpack and shinnying up the side, perching himself on the railing in front of the group. "Hi all." He greeted.

"Good to see you could make it Akiyama-kun, I'm Raina Sahari. No need to be formal." The coppery-haired girl introduced herself, smiling and watching him with her dark brown and green eyes.

The black-clad girl nodded a greeting from beneath her veil of hair, before introducing herself properly, she tucked it behind her ears. "Yukari Higurashi, nice to meet you."

Ryo nodded, taking in everything he could about the strange group. "Right…" He looked at them all once more. "So… how do you all know each other? Didn't' you just move here?" He directed the last question at Raina.

Damian answered his first question. "Yuka's been in my class since the beginning of the year- "

"My name's Yukari." She interjected, rolling her eyes at him.

Damian ignored her and went on. " - and Raina moved in next door."

Raina smiled. "I did a little bit of research on Tamers in the area before I got here, so mom convinced dad that it would be a good idea to move in next to someone who we knew had common ground if it was possible, Damian's neighbors had recently re-located, so that's where we moved in."

Ryo's eyebrows went up. "You're all – " They nodded. "I had no idea."

"Hm, neither did we until Raina came. Apparently there're a few others at the school, two in the grade 6 classes for sure, and three scattered around in the 2/3 split who haven't found their digimon yet." He let Ryo absorb this tidbit of information before asking brightly. "So, when's our first adventure? Anyone found a computer terminal with a portal?"

"My mom's, in her office at my house." Yukari replied coiling her dark hair around a mahogany chopstick and pinning it up in one smooth motion.

Damian's face lit up with a practically demonic smile of glee. "Excellent, so your house after school today?" She shrugged.

Raina looked to Ryo for support. "You coming too? It'll be fun!"

He debated for a moment, mentally running through his schedule and checking for anything he had to do. Better to go to the digital world again then home and let Kuro bother me. There was no question. "Of course I'm coming! Is this all ok with you Yukari? It's your house."

She smiled at him. "It's perfectly fine, my parents don't come home until at least 6 o'clock and I don't have any siblings." Lucky, Ryo thought.

"Excellent! All settled then, who's up for a game of grounders?" Raina asked brightly. The group decided unanimously that Damian should be it ("What? Why me? I'm always it!"), and scattered over the various equipment.

Ryo was surprised at how well the two girls were doing, at one point while he was sitting on top of the monkey bars, he watched Raina slide down the twisted pole, reach out to the foot-hold on the platform beneath the one Damian was on, then wrap her hand around it and swing wildly onto another platform before scrambling up the side of the equipment.

Where Raina was all energy and bursts of quiet movement, Yukari preferred to simply fade away from Damian. At one point he watched as Damian's fingers reached out towards her on the bridge connecting two parts of the playground. Yukari slid through the bars on the railing and hung herself out of his reach, gripping the yellow metal with one hand and balancing on one foot as Damian continued past. It was while Ryo was still baffled that Yukari hadn't been tagged that Damian ran into him.

"You're it!" He cried triumphantly as he opened his eys, then turned and saw Yukari slip back onto the bridge and Raina wave from the two-by-four that the tire swing hung from. They were both less then 10 feet from him. "How'd? I don't get it! I had no idea you guys were there!"

Ryo laughed. "Don't worry, I'll be it far longer then you were if what I've seen is really just the tip of the iceberg." Smiling, he launched himself off the platform he was on, landing on the gravel. "One!" He cried, closing his eyes. "Two!"

Damian knew he was expected to head to the opposite side of the playground, so he decided to be bothersome, clamoring up to sit on the top part of the fireman's pole. Ryo finished counting and looked around, as if he could be missed, there sat Damian like some sort of large ungainly bird. "That was really dumb." Ryo commented, grinning.

Damian shifted himself on the top of the pole. "Well, I didn't think you'd look up." He let a challenging smirk cover his face. "So come and get me Akiyama! I'm waiting…" Ryo tried to judge the moment, leaping at the ladder and climbing up as fast as he dared, eyes now closed.

Both boys were strong, and Ryo wasn't surprised when he heard a sharp exhale of breath, a pair of feet landing, and then quickly leaving the wooded platform in front of him. "Twit." He muttered. He also felt a movement travel through the bars behind him to his right. He feigned a step forwards and then ducked and stretched his arm back, catching Yukari's ankle.

"Gah! How'd you do that?" She asked once he'd opened his eyes and let her go.

He grinned. "My secret."

The game continued until the warning bell rang, calling the now large group of students playing on the playground and loitering on the steps into the building. Ryo jumped down off the two-by-four Raina had previously occupied and caught the sleeve of Damian's bomber jacket. "Hey, where do we meet to go to Yukari's?"

The blonde boy thought a moment. "I'd say just inside the door by the library, that's where we all met yesterday." Ryo nodded, and turned to retrieve his backpack when Damian grabbed his shoulder.

"Hey, have you ever been to the digital world? I mean, with a group?" Damians grey eyes met Ryo's azure ones.

He thought about his answer. "I've met people there before, other kids. I've never actually traveled there with a group though."

"Ok." The other boy nodded. "Any ideas on how we'd get back? I don't know about you, but my parents expect me home for dinner."

Ryo shrugged. "Raina seems to know what she's doing, she found all of us, right? I don't think she and Yukari would have just sat there silently if they didn't know what they were doing, it'll be fine." Damian nodded, letting Ryo go and heading for the door. Well, Damian's sure nervous. It's not like we couldn't handle anything we ran into, Besides, I want to visit primary village, hehe, that place was so great… Thinking his distracted thoughts, Ryo grabbed his pack and entered the small elementary school.

-

s/k: So, there's the first chapter. It's going to be a little AU-ish throughout, I actually have no idea what Ryo's family situation is like so bear with me. ' Otherwise, I'm pleased with it, I had no idea Damian or Yukari were going to come into the fic until they were standing with Raina on the playground, shrugs ah well. R R!