Dark Future: Chapter 1
By Liahgeron"Nothing of this world is pure. All things are a twisted balance of Dark and Light…
But sometimes it is hard to tell which is which."
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. If I did, Season 3 would have continued. Most of the characters and concepts are my own, but are free for the taking. I only ask you to tell me first.
September 26, 2344, TAUS, Apple, Hikari High School Yard, 3:45PM
"Umph!" grunted a pale haired girl as she was shoved to the ground by a much
larger boy, part of a gang of three.
"Take that you criminal!" asserted the second boy.
"B-but, I di-didn't do anything," stuttered the girl in a weak voice.
"Hmph!" the leader of the group, a blond-haired boy of about 16, stepped forward and kicked some dirt at her face as she flinched away. "You're Partnered to a virus. What more do we need? You're a crook by nature. Even if you haven't done anything today, you've done it before and will do it again! You and your kind are a plague!" The boy looked over his shoulder at his Partner and called, "Agumon! Show her what we do to Viruses!"
"You got it, boss!" the yellow dino replied, kicking a small, humanoid digimon at his feet.
"No! Impmon!" cried the girl in protest, only to fall back, clutching her ankle, having found it to be badly twisted and unable to hold her weight. The "righteous" bullies just laughed and encouraged their Partners, a Kotemon and a Gotsumon, to join in. The downtrodden, literally, Impmon called out repeatedly as the blows fell, and the girl could only cry in helplessness. Finally, the digimon gang stopped and threw the beaten digimon at the girl, who did her best to catch her partner, only to fall over before she could fully support the weight, her Impmon rolling out of her arms.
"Ha! They look rather pitiful, don't they, boys?" the leader taunted, his cronies chuckling at the comment. Their laughter grew as the girl tried to crawl over to her badly injured partner, who was having trouble remaining conscious, but managed to rise unsteadily to its knees to stare defiantly at the opposing digimon.
The leader's eyes narrowed at the resistance, then laughed cruelly, saying "Let's put them out of our misery, boys! Agumon! Finish that Impmon with Pepper Breath!"
The girl could only watch in horror at the blue bandana-wearing dino opened his mouth and formed a glowing fireball while the other two digimon cheered him on. In fact, some of the other students, milling around after school, had gathered to watch and were cheering on the "good guys." Tears filled her eyes as she watched her only friend, whom she had only gotten back a few weeks prior, defiantly rise to its feet to meet the attack. She could heard her heart thumping in her ears…wait, those aren't—, her thoughts were interrupted as the sound grew, sounding like a silenced machine gun or a charging digimon. Suddenly, the bullies were knocked away as a form darted between, carrying a weapon of some sort.
"Pepper—," called the Agumon as he reared back to fire his attack, only to be interrupted, unexpectedly. The charging figure knocked away the Kotemon and Gotsumon with two quick blows, then struck the back of the lead digimon, causing him to tip his head forward. "—Breath!"
The resulting attack was released point blank into the ground, detonating on impact and throwing the 3 aggressor digimon high into the air, over the huddling forms of their partners, who were shielding themselves. Oddly, the figure weathered the blast without being knocked back or over. As the shockwave died down, the figure slowly pulled his back leg out of his deep, forward stance(1) and stood upright, slowly flexing its limbs and popping its neck. As the dust cleared, the crowd saw that the figure was not a digimon at all, but a teenaged boy, just shy of 6 feet tall, wearing simple khaki trousers, a white t-shirt, and a light, black jacket. Calmly, he turned and, with deceptive carelessness, swung his weapon, a black bokken(2), across his shoulder.
Recovering from the shock, the bullies pulled themselves to their respective feet to look at the idiot who interrupted their "fun" and injured their Partners so easily. The leader's eyes narrowed with recognition.
"Xi' an," He hissed, spitting the name out like a poison. His two cohorts took a step back, eyes widening as the remembered the reputation this one had.
The boy, now identified as Xi'an, nodded in recognition and replied calmly, "Morgan."
"Why are you doing this? We made a deal!" Morgan spat, forming a fist with his right hand.
Xi' an didn't flinch at the implied threat of bodily harm, saying in a calm, matter-of-the-fact voice, "I'm expanding its coverage. I'm tired of walking away from your pitiful attempts to prop up your low self-esteem by the bigoted persecution of those weaker than you." He finished with a grin.
Morgan and his companions blinked, not comprehending the meaning of the words.
The Impmon, still on its feet, laughed out loud and called back in a voice that revealed it to be female, "He said your weak-minded cowards who beat up on people to make yourselves feel better."
They continued to blink, though some in the crowd began to chuckle.
The Impmon laughed harder, finishing her statement, "And he basically implied you were idiots."
Her Partner, wiping tears from her eyes, began to laugh too. Morgan and his gang, on the other hand, were starting to change colors, finally realizing they had been insulted.
Xi' an smiled wryly at the little viral digimon, "My thanks to the peanut gallery for providing the necessary translation."
The little demon grinned back, commenting to the bullies, "That's 'dumbing down' to you guys."
"Why you!" shouted a livid Morgan, his limited, though bulky, muscles bulging. "Agumon! Trash him!"
The yellow dino tried to get to his feet, only to fall over with swirls in his eyes, obviously still disoriented from the blast. Morgan frowned an ordered his lackeys to get their digimon to do it. After a brief pause as the two minions gathered enough of their limited wits to order their Partners to attack the one nerd they had avoided bullying for years, the one person they knew of who could take on a rookie digimon with only limited weapons (according to gossip, the first time he tried it, he used a bamboo support left over from the school's remodeling) and stand a chance of winning.
The Kotemon was the first to recover and leapt forward, swinging his short shinai, calling, "Thunder Gauntlet!"
Almost lazily, Xi' an waited for the Kotemon's feet to clear the ground before responding. Meanwhile, the Kotemon had reached the apex of his flight, bringing his weapon above his head and beginning to swing downwards to complete his attack. He never reached Xi' an. Shifting with a rapid twist of his body, swinging the bokken low to the ground as he came 'round, tip whistling, Xi' an struck the digimon before he could even realize a counter attack had been made. The Kotemon folded around the blow, dropping his sparking weapon, and was carried higher into the air, flipping over his stunned partner. This delay would cost him. Not pausing for even a moment, Xi' an seemed to flow into his next attack, a strange left-handed punch that left the index and middle fingers unclenched, using them instead to form a type of point. The Gotsumon reacted at the last second, turning his rocky forehead into the attack, meeting the fist with a head butt. However, he was shocked to be knocked back by the initial contact, then to feel a second blow dealt almost simultaneously in the same place with the knuckles of Xi' an's left hand, now in a proper fist. This second blow was a little too much for the data-type rookie's defenses, which literally "cracked" under the pressure, shattering the stone armor around the impact point and knocking the little digimon out before he even hit the ground. The gathered crowd could only stare in shock at the speed and ferocity the usually quiet and polite nerd displayed.
Now Xi' an paused, left arm extended and bokken held almost horizontal near his head, a ready position to stab the fallen Gotsumon should he rise or strike down a second charge by Kotemon. Realizing his opponents were down for the count, he relaxed slightly.
"Huh. What do you know. The Futae no Wakami(3) actually worked," he commented in surprise, calming his battle nerves to prepare for the next round. Xi' an then calmly retracted his fist and brought it in front of his face. Wincing at the damage he felt and saw, he spoke out loud, saying, "But it's hell on the hand I use. At least it was just my left hand."
Unclenching his injured hand, both his knuckles and fore knuckles badly bruised and scraped raw by the double impact, even oozing a little blood, he turned to face the human bullies and their one remaining threat, dropping his bokken to the better-known chudan no kamae(4) with the tip pointed at the throat of the opponent and the handle at mid-level.
"I've gotten better. Have you?" he taunted, hoping to intimidate them and avoid continuing the battle as his muscles were already protesting his earlier charge and the explosion, and he would soon feel the aftereffects of this latest exchange.
The two lackeys, now thoroughly frightened fled, grabbing their stunned Partners and running to what they thought was a safe distance…their own rooms. However, Morgan remained, his color having returned to normal. This restoration of calm worried Xi' an. He remembered what it meant from when a younger Morgan had picked on a younger and much weaker Xi' an. It meant Morgan had something new he wanted to try. While Xi' an had been dealing with the others, Morgan's Agumon had finally recovered and was again standing, waiting for the order to attack.
A broad grin split Morgan's face as he saw his Partner again on his feet, "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that, Xi' an. Unlike you, I always have a trump card, my Partner. I've been dying to try this out for awhile now. In fact, that girl was meant to be a trial run for this!" Morgan grabbed his D-Holo, in the form of a flashy pendant shaped like a dinosaur tooth, and pointed it toward his Partner. "Now Digivolve!" The D-Holo began to glow brightly.
"You got it, boss! Agumon! Digivolve to…!"
A white glow enveloped the half-pint dinosaur and he began to grow…and grow…and, well, you get the idea. Toping out at just over one story in height, the amorphous form sprouted several horns and grew very bulky with new muscle.
"Greeeeaaaaatttt. He figured out how to digivolve," Xi' an comments in a sarcastic tone, breaking out in a rash of sweatdrops as he watched.
The glow died down and a large, reddish-orange digimon stood up and roared its name, "Greymon!"
Morgan could barely restrain his glee at the sight of his Partner towering over his childhood enemy. "As you can see, we're always going to be a cut above you, Xi' an! I got my digimon to its Adult level years before I should be able to. I bet the army is just waiting to recruit someone of my talents!" he laughed evilly. "Now you see why a Partnerless freak like you is so weak compared to me! Greymon! Crush him like the bug he is!"
The large reptile sported a toothy grin to match his Partner's, rumbling, "With pleasure, boss!" He lifted a massive paw and slammed it down. The tremor produced shook the windows of the school and knocked several bystanders off their feet, including the defiant Impmon, who had managed to walk over to her Partner to help her up, only to fall back down with her before they could get clear.
Meanwhile, Xi' an was now sporting one large sweatdrop as he took a measure of his opponent…too big for him to fight. As the Greymon took slow, deliberate steps in his direction, Xi' an could think of one thing he could really attack:
Damn. I hope he has an Achilles Heel! In my current state, I can't jump high enough to hit any vitals…
Sinking again into a non-standard kamae, his bokken held edge up with a 45 degree twist in his right hand and pulled back so that the tsuba(5) is actually just behind his ear. His left arm is extended and the fingers fanned out next to the tip of the weapon, acting as a kind of sight. His legs are in a reverse forwards stance with his left leg in front, fully-extended and his body slightly twisted to the right. Once in position, he waited for the time to strike, giving him a moment to ponder his own stupidity and rashness.
Mentally, Xi' an reviewed his knowledge of the technique he was about to attempt, The Gototsu(6), which I could never get quite right, is supposed to be left-handed … I hope right-handed works better…If I miss, he's gonna' trample me. Even if I hit, he might just fall on top of me…Damn. These odds really suck.
Noticing the Greymon was just one step away from crushing him, he ended the depressing internal monologue and shouted, "Here goes the long shot! Ha!"
First he twisted his body and took a long step, covering over half the remaining distance, then he twisted his torso further, spreading open his chest muscles and stabbing with all his might at the major tendon of Greymon's ankle. The impact rocked his body, but Xi' an gritted his teeth and followed through, hearing a very satisfying snap as the tendon broke free in mid-step. The Greymon roared in pain as it fell…backwards and away, thankfully, from Xi' an, hitting the ground with a great crash that threw up a large dust cloud. Several members of the crowd, former victims of Morgan's crew, cheered as the titanic lizard fell, crying out in pain.
Panting in exhaustion, Xi' an rocked back and forth a little, regaining his balance, then took a deep breath before turning 'round toward the girl he had protected. Walking up to her and her weakened partner, he switched his bokken to his left hand with a slight wince, then offered his right hand to help her up. Eyes glistening with her unshed tears, she took his hand, and he pulled her up and put her arm over her shoulder to support her.
"Ryoko, right? We have Bio together," he asked, ignoring the continued cries of both Partners behind him, one in pain, the other in anger.
The pale haired girl nodded as she leaned on him, replying, "Yeah. And this is my partner Impy the Impmon."
The sassy digimon with a broken heart plastered upon her chest saluted Xi' an with a bright neon pink glove, "Yo! Nice to meet ya'!"
Xi' an chuckled, he was beginning to like this digimon. Ryoko grinned as well at her Partner's antics.
"Thank you for saving us," she said shyly, trying to catch his eyes with hers.
Xi' an blushed and averted his eyes, realizing what she was doing, though not the proper response due to his total lack of experience with the opposite gender. A little embarrassed, he replied, "No problem. I was just walking by. I might not have decided to help if Morgan decided to go so far. When I did I just barely had time to throw down my bag and grab my bokken out of it in time. Do you need help getting home?"
Ryoko nodded, "If you don't mind. It's not too far, but Impy won't be able to support me that far."
"Hey! I'm not that weak! I had those digimon right where I wanted them when he jumped in!" The dark digimon puffed out her chest as if to prove she could've taken them.
Ryoko just laughed at her overbearing partner, and Xi' an joined in, both slightly giddy at the dangerous situation they had just gotten out of. However, both failed to notice that the whimpers of pain had died down…and were replaced with a low growl. Impmon, who was the only one facing in the right direction, was, therefore, the first to notice the glowing ball of white-hot power being formed in the kneeling dinosaur's mouth. Her response to this situation of impending doom was very appropriate, well-reasoned, and very well-established, she froze in fear like a deer seeing the headlights of an ancient transportation vehicle called an automobile. Xi' an noticed this when he nearly tripped over the little demon and turned his head over his shoulder, following her line of sight. His response too was well-established.
"Aw, shit."
Unable to do much of anything to dodge in his current condition, he put Ryoko down as gently as he could, then turned, launching his bokken into the air, aiming for the Greymon's oversized eyes. Unfortunately, his aim was a little off. The weapon flew wide, eventually landing hard on Morgan's head, knocking him out cold. Wincing inwardly at his poor aim, Xi' an turned and crossed his forearms in front of him, preparing to act as a shield against the incoming attack. Impmon put herself in front of Ryoko and was forming the largest Fireball she could manage to help break up what was left of the attack, Fortunately, the noble sacrifices of both human and digimon were not called for this day.
"FIST OF THE BEAST KING!" roared a powerful, deep voice as a lion-headed blast of fire flew from behind the living shields, striking the forming attack and detonating it. The resulting explosion blew the opposing digimon all the way back to a Koromon. Morgan, still groggy from the blow to the head, stood and stared in shock, along with the rest of the present student body at the unexpected reversal.
Regaining his senses, Morgan turned to the tall figure who had snatched his guaranteed victory over his most hated person from his grasp and demanded, "Who are you!"
"He is Leon, my Partner," called a smaller figure, leaning against the larger's leg. The angle of the sun, which had concealed their identity up to that point, was interrupted by a passing cloud. The pair was revealed to be a unusually tall Leomon, his left fist still extended and slightly smoking, and a tall, tanned girl with dark brown hair bound in a high ponytail.
Realizing the severity of this new situation, Morgan stumbled back a step, grabbed his still unconscious Partner, and fled. This tactical retreat was an unusually wise decision for the bully as his new opponents were feared in the local area for their fighting prowess. The tall girl, Sara, held a shodan(7) in Aikido and a nikyu(7) in Brazilian Jujitsu, not to mention a formidable reputation in kendo as the only female captain of the school team in its entire history. Her digimon's species was also, arguably, considered the strongest of the Adult/Champion levels, and this particular feline warrior was known as the 2 years running local Digital Rumble champion in the 18 and under, non-military division. Rumor had it that the only reason she hadn't been drafted into the elite military was that her father ran special training sessions for those same squads. Needless to say, she was not someone you wanted to challenge in any form of combat without a serious strategic advantage.
Grinning at Morgan's fleeing back, Sara called out to the assembled crowd, "Alright, folks! Show's over! Nothing to see but a coward running away!"
The assembled students dispersed, many chuckling at the outcome. Morgan's reputation when and if he ever showed his face again had taken a great fall that day. The members of the crowd having returned to their previous occupations, Sara strolled over to Xi' an, who had decided to calm his nerves and take a break…by falling over backwards.
Sara, taking note of the significant imprint his form made on impact, frowned and began to lecture the exhausted teen, "Xi' an Kaze! Were you stupid enough to try fighting a gang of digimon, including an Adult-level while wearing your training weights!"
The tired boy cracked an eyelid at the reprimand, sighing, "Yes, sempai."
The Amazonian girl shook her head in mild disgust, "You could have gotten yourself seriously injured, even killed pulling a stunt like that! You're lucky I got out of
Kendo practice early and saw the commotion!"
Xi' an began to sit up, chuckling as he rose, "Well, I'm alive, aren't I? Though the former consequence is well fulfilled." Groaning, Xi' an took off his light jacket and rolled up the sleeve on his right arm, revealing a strange, almost armor-like, dark blue gauntlet wrapped around his fore- and upper-arm. Working with practiced precision, he untied several black cords and unlocked a couple joints, allowing the entire contraption to fall off, hitting the ground with a solid thunk without a bounce. Slowly, Xi' an began to rotate and flex his arm, checking for permanent damage. Satisfied that his mobility was intact and the majority of the pain was just overexertion, he put the device back on and repeated the process with his left arm. Meanwhile, the girls could only stare in shock at the obvious weight of the pieces. Ryoko, who sat nearby the left arm piece, made an attempt to lift it, only to let it fall almost immediately.
"Holy Angemon! That thing is heavy!" she cried, rubbing her strained biceps and writs.
Sara, frowning at Ryoko's exclamation walked over to Xi' an and grabbed the piece before he could put it back on, almost dropping it at the unexpected weight. "What the! Light, Xi' an! This thing weighs a ton!" she exclaimed.
Xi' an snatched back his training weight and reconnected it to the rest and donned his jacket to conceal them again. "What? You knew I trained hard, Sara!"
She looked at him incredulously, commenting sarcastically, "Hard, yes. Suicidally, no. For Azulongmon's sake! The weights I'm wearing right now weigh less than one arm! How much are you carrying!"
Xi' an paused a moment, trying to remember the exact weight of the harness, replying thoughtfully, "About a hundred kilos. Give or take a few."
Those present dropped their jaws, including the digimon. Sara was the first to respond.
"Are you nuts! That's more than you! I only use 30!"
"Well, I have been doing this for the last 6 years while you only started 2 years ago," Xi' an replied dismissively, tying his left leg weights back on. "It only follows that I've built up more than you have." He stood and bowed to the Partnered pair, "Thank you again for your aid, sempai(8)."
"Oh no you don't! You don't get out of this that easily!"
Xi' an suddenly straightened, "Huh? What"
"You heard me, kohai(8)! You haven't come to training in a little over a year and a half! We're going to lose our championship position at this rate!" To Xi' an's eyes, Sara seemed to grow as she took a step towards her errant protégé.
"What? I told you why I quit! I even gave you 3 months notice!"
Ryoko and Impy had sat down against the outer wall of the school to watch this amusing spectacle. In fact, Ryoko had grabbed a bag of chips from her discarded bag and was sharing it with her Partner.
"'I think this is a sport,' is not an explanation!"
"Well, it is! For crying out loud, they switched to a point system now! It was bad enough that the standard weapon is even lighter than the shinai(9) we learned with!"
"I thought you would like the neoken! They're shaped and balanced like a shinken! You used to complain about the shinai too!" Sara retorted.
Xi' an snorted, "So? They're bad too! But at least they have some weight to them! Those new polymer neoken weigh exactly 200 grams! That's less than half the weight! And the point system is stupid! It was bad enough that the old style was mostly sport, often just striking as fast as you can and hoping to hit first to get a point, but now they have driven it even further from practical fighting! Lucemon! I can just stand still and pound the opponent as fast as I can and win nearly every time by running down his 'hit points! Do even get me started on the so-called 'style' system!"
Sara glared at the ronin(10) member of her team, countering, "It makes the battles more interesting! We're getting loads more attention and funding now than 2 years ago! Besides, like you said, you would dominate the new format!"
Now Xi' an was getting a little angry, growling, "Kendo is not a simple game for the masses! It is an ancient art designed to hone one's skills both in battle and in life! It's not a daned LARP(11)!"
Ryoko, noticing the rising tension, jumped in, "Woah, you two! We just stopped one fight. Let's not start another!"
Impy, not to be left out, put her two cents in, "Yeah! You two are arguing like a married couple!"
Leon, quiet and stoic up to this point, cracked a grin, adding, "The little one is right: you two are acting like you did as kids. Always trying to one up the other in something!"
"Hmph! Fine!" both huffed in unison, turning their heads. The others began to chuckle at the sight, and after a several seconds of futile attempts to remain angry, the arguing "couple" joined in. After all had a good laugh, they organized themselves for a trip home. As Ryoko's home lay in the same general direction, north of the school, of Sara's home/dojo, Leon volunteered to carry the injured Pair home. Waving goodbye, and promising self-defense lessons to Ryoko and a return to some practices to Sara, Xi' an turned west into the descending sun and began the long walk toward the apartment complex where he lived…
Time Unknown, Digital World…
The digital world was a place of great beauty with huge forests and mountain ranges, with tranquil desert landscapes scattered in between. Generally kept at peace by regular patrols of troops from all nations and, of course, the huge firewalls that isolated the sections accessible from said nations, the serenity of undisturbed nature could still be found if one was willing to look. This calmness is what drew Kor, the Kougamon, to this quiet grove deep within the borders of the great island chain of Peripheral. There he meditated and trained, hoping to break through to the next level of Digivolution, having shunned Partnering till he had reached his own limits. He enjoyed the isolation the location provided, allowing him uninterrupted time to train.
Delving deep into his innerself in meditation, he searched out the inner well of power that would allow him to digivolve to Perfect. Reaching his previous limit, Kor bore down with his will, forcing himself to push through. Starting to lose power, Kor faltered, almost giving up.
No, he growled inwardly. I refuse to fail again!
Muttering that mantra, he drove forward again with restored might, struggling against the internal barrier, until he felt it start to crack. Drawing strength from his success, he pushed harder, breaking through. He reveled in the power and prepared to loose himself to it and ascend to Perfection…only to be abruptly knocked out of it as a heavy object fell out of the sky to land on his head. Knocked forward to sprawl on the ground, Kor lay there, stunned for a moment.
"Owwww…." moaned a high-pitched voice. "I hit my head…"
A small, roundish form sat up from its landing site and began to rub its head. Kor, regaining his senses, was not amused at the cute creampuff with a solid skull. Growling, he threw the lightweight off his back and quickly turned on it, drawing his sword from his back.
"Do you have any idea what you just did!" he roared, pointing the blade at the UFO, Unidentified Fallen Object.
The tiny digimon adopted a thinker pose for a moment, before cutely shaking his head and grinning, "Noooooooooooo."
Kor suddenly developed a chronic twitch in his left eye. "Are you dense or just plain stupid!"
The puffball blinked his huge eyes twice before leaning toward the razor sharp edge hovering in front of him. Ignoring the previous rhetorical question, he asked, "Umm…What's this? It's shiney…Oooooooo!"
Sporting a large sweatdrop, Kor demanded of the world, "How can anything be this dense! Arggggg!"
As Kor began to wave his blade wildly about, the white and purple digimon came to a conclusion, "Oh! You're dancing! I want to too!" And with that, the tiny digimon began to spin around on the tip of his left foot, giggling.
Shocked at the sheer naïveté of the annoyance, Kor stopped and stood, dumbfounded at the spinning Child-level. In blissful ignorance, the younger digimon continued to spin…and spin…and spin…until he at last got dizzy and spun out.
"Ooooo…The world's all spinny…"
The eye twitch spreading to the rest of his body, Kor jumpstarted his senses and decided at the very least, the little data the rookie could supply may allow him to again break through to Perfection. It was only fair that the little one would pay him back, after all.
"Shi-ne!(12)" he roared, bringing his blade down on the puffball…
Well, there's my pitiful attempt at a cliffhanger. I apologize for this and any future artificial-feeling breaks. I originally intended for this to just be part of one large chapter and to break future chapters up between major events….but due to my overzealous detailing of battles and exhaustive background details, I'll have to break them up into smaller pieces or spend months at a time writing 20+ page chapters. Anyway, I'm sorry for anyone left wanting at the end of chapters. This chapter and the next couple are not as dark as the initial, but it depends on my mood when writing. Now for the first time in my writing career, reviewer responses:
'Knight of the Staff- Yay! Someone was paying attention! Most Partnered digimon become wholly dependant on the energy supply provided by a human Partner, but there are ways for them to stay around after the death of a Partner…Some good…some bad…and some down right evil. Also, when the Human side of a Partnering dies, the digimon is generally drawn back into the Digital World without an anchor to the Real, often falling into Child-level or lower, then slowly fades and is recycled to be reborn and await their next Partner, who often shares many of the characteristics of the deceased one.
Sustaining higher levels like Perfect and Mega have additional costs associated with them…but those will come into play later.
Appendix:
1. Forward Stance- The most common martial arts stance with many variations. Generally it has one, often the right, leg forward and the other leg behind and held straight.
2. Bokken- also called bokuto, literally means "wooden sword," the most basic practice weapon for Japanese sword arts. It is generally shaped like a single-edged, Japanese sword called a katana. Kendo practitioners use this instead of the shinai(9) to perform kata or forms. Originally, this was the primary weapon in kendo as well, but after many years of a high attrition rate due to the hardwood (white oak) construction, the more flexible shinai came into use.
3. Futae no Wakami- a powerful double-strike technique from Rurouni Kenshin used by Sanoske. The idea behind it is that an initial blow stresses an object's structure to a significant extent, at which point the entire object generally starts to move and absorbs the rest of the energy without much more damage, then an almost immediate follow up strike at the exact same point "catches up" with the now moving object and pushes it past the breaking point, shattering the structure of the target. This technique allows more energy and, therefore, damage to be delivered to the impact point. Here, the extended foreknuckles of the hand deal the initial blow, then the rest of the body follows through to hit with the knuckles. It requires a great deal of base strength, speed and control to make this technique effective, otherwise, you just waste half or more energy by making to small blows rather than one powerful strike. However, it does allow one to bypass the efficiency limits of a punch if you can get the timing and accuracy down,
4. Chudan no Kamae- one of the 5 basic kamae or "ready positions" of Kendo and Iaido. One holds the sword with both hands with one leg, generally the right, forward and the other held back and straight with the heel slightly up. The sword is held angled in front with the tip pointed at the opponent's throat and the handle at about waist level.
5. Tsuba- the hand guard of Japanese swords. Generally made in a rounded-square shape and ornately decorated.
6. Gototsu- an atypical stab using the left hand. The signature technique of Hajime Seito in Rurouni Kenshin. As the left hand is considered the power hand in kendo and iaido with the right acting as guide, a stepping stab with the left is supposed to put out amazing amounts of power. However, the coordination of this stab or tsuki leaves the arm fairly unstable and easy to deflect as I've seen in kendo matches, but it is one of the fastest moves in kendo. Also, in RK there are a number of variations to improve power, anti-air ability, and close-range/penetration ability respectively. The most powerful defensive element to this move is the ability to switch into a sideways slash after a missed stab, or vice versa.
7. Ranking System- Generally in Japanese martial arts, kyu ranks are those under dan or "black belt" ranks and run in reverse order from around 9th or kukyu to 1st or eikyu. Dan ranks run in ascending order of sho, ni, san, yon, go, roku, hatch, and nana. Most styles limit ranks to eighth(nana) dan with any higher reserved as honors granted by the Emperor. Some even reserve eighth for the founder and that's it.
8. Honorifics- For those who are unfamiliar with Japanese culture, sempai designates one superior to you in experience. In school, senior students are always called sempai and younger students, kohai. In this story, Japan is badly devastated by the Demon's assaults and the remaining population compensates in the dark times by becoming a formidable Empire, conquering parts of southern Asia for resources and using their defense against Digital attacks granted both by BlackWargreymon's and Pendramon's data to become a stronghold. Although eventually forced to negotiate and join TAUS by the rebellion of Hong Kong, creating a new independent Alliance of the Dragon to contend for power in Asia, the Japanese became a strong, if small, upper class in the early TAUS government and industry, therefore bringing a number of cultural influences, such as these honorifics.
9. Shinai- a bamboo sparring weapon made of 4 sections. More flexible than a bokken, this practice weapon has become the standard for kendo competitions. Straighter, rounder and having a longer handle, it provides a safer implement, but feels a little different to one used to a bokken or iaito.
10. Ronin- a term that used to be applied to masterless samurai, generally like some mercenary knights of Europe, but it was a broader term, including a variety of situations and characters. Most were little better than bandits, others were mercenaries, some were honorable men whose master had been killed. It has also been applied to high school graduates who choose to wait a year and retake entrance exams instead of going to a lower ranked college. I'm not sure, but I believe it can also be applied to those who don't fulfill responsibilities like a club.
11. LARP- Live Action Role-Playing game. Generally, people act as characters in a game Like Dungeons and Dragons) and play out in real life the scenarios normally seen in games, whether fantasy or otherwise. In this case a "boffer" LARP is the reference, where players fight off a hit-point system with padded weapons.
12. Shi-ne- roughly, "Die!" in Japanese.