Author's Notes: Here's the second module. Sorry for the lateness of its arrival.
Disclaimer: I'm just writing this story purely for fun. If I do get contacted from the owners of Digimon telling me to take this down, I'll do so right away.
Ascension – V 4.0 (V-Tamers Module)
A shrill sound rang in the air as an alarm clock went off at around seven in the morning, signalling the start of a new day. It continued to beep loudly until the bed's occupant sat up and raised a hand to slam the button to shut off the clock. He yawned and stretched before getting his clothes for the day. 'I hate morning exams…' He dragged himself into the bathroom for a morning shower to clear his senses.
He emerged ten minutes later, refreshed and dressed for the day. He wore a white t-shirt, a blue vest, a pair of jeans and socks. His brown hair had been dried and gelled to the old hairstyle that he had as a kid and a pair of goggles rested on top of his head. He tossed his pyjamas into the laundry basket before heading to the kitchen for breakfast. His parents and his younger sister were already diving into their morning meal. "Hi, mom. Dad. Squirt."
"Stop calling me squirt!" fumed Hikari Yagami. Her older brother simply grinned before grabbing some toast from the toaster.
"Nah. Too much fun. I gotta get going. See ya tonight!" Taichi grabbed his backpack with the things he'll need for the day and left the family home. He walked down the familiar route to get to the subway. It would be a brief trip to get to his exam location and he could use the extra time to revise some of the exam material he has to cover.
When he boarded his usual train and found himself squeezed inside the crowd, he saw a familiar face that he had known for the past ten and a half years sitting down on a train seat. "Hey, Hideto!"
The young Japanese man looked up and noticed his friend's large hairdo sticking out of the morning subway crowd. There were mutterings of 'excuse me' and 'pardon me' as Taichi slowly made his way to where he was sitting. "You got morning exams too?"
"That's right. It's Advanced English and I often wonder why I picked this course when I could have probably gotten something easier."
Hideto Fujimoto simply smiled. "Because you had plans to head to North America and make easy money by translating anime, manga and other Japanese media there?"
"Maybe I should have picked out a physical program so I could become a professional football player." Taichi paused as the train stopped to pick up even more passengers. Outside, he could see attendants struggling to push passengers inside the subway car.
"Since when were you interested in that sport with the tackling, the running and the carrying of that odd shaped ball like on Eyeshield 21?" The train chime rang thrice and eventually, the subway train was allowed to depart the station.
Taichi snorted. "Not that one! I'm talking about the real football which some countries call soccer for some reason. To be honest, I don't get how they can call their sport over there football when the feet don't do that much except for a few minor kicks and running. At least with the real football, players have to use their feet to control the ball and score goals!"
Hideto nodded. "I see. When do you finish up your exam?"
"I'll wrap up by around lunch time. That's more than enough time before our little gathering this afternoon. To be honest, I shouldn't have been invited at all. Not after what I did." A look of guilt appeared on Taichi's face.
"How many times do we have to tell you that it wasn't your fault? Neo… he…" Hideto trailed off, feeling uncomfortable about the subject.
"I know. But I still feel a bit guilty over how I couldn't have done something more for him, you know?" Taichi noticed the subway train slowing down and saw the familiar signs of his stop. "Here's my stop. I'll see ya later, man."
As Taichi squeezed himself through the crowded subway car and braced himself for moving through the crowd on the subway platform, he thought to himself that it was times like these that he wished he didn't have to commute. But tuition is pricey and being able to live at home gave some relief to his family's financial status. He gave a sigh of relief when he got on to the streets near his school.
When he sat down at the library to do his review, his thoughts kept drifting back to how things had progressed since he came back from his big dimensional adventure where he had teamed up with other kids to stop two powerful Digimon. His initial meeting with Hideto and Mari had been a bit rough since they jumped to a bit of a conclusion when they saw a comatose Neo leaning against him. If it hadn't been for Sigma's level head, there would have been a meaningless battle. It took time for the trio known as Alias III to know Taichi but once they did, they were able to feel at ease around him.
As for Neo, he and his sister Rei woke up at roughly the same time approximately a year and a half after Taichi returned to his own dimension. Neo seemed to be fit, both mentally and physically since he treated Hideto as his friend again and even apologized for his nasty behaviour towards him and Taichi back in the past. Rei was glad to see her brother had started to mend the friendships that he had broken. Then five years ago… the incident happened.
Taichi shook his head and mentally told himself to focus on his studies instead. It wouldn't do any good to waste his last minute review time on those memories. After half an hour had passed, he packed up his things and left the library to get to his exam room which is a large lecture hall. Several other students were also taking their seats, along with Taichi's good school friend of three years (with their relationship status recently upgraded to a little more than friendship) Sora Takenouchi. She briefly waved at him before taking her own seat.
'Okay… you can do this!' Taichi placed his backpack on to the side wall of the room and took only his pencil case which had his pens, pencils and erasers. He sat down in a seat which had a test booklet. Once the invigilator announced the beginning of the exam, Taichi opened the booklet, read the first question and proceeded to mentally panic when he realized that he's not 100 sure about what the first passage said.
When the invigilator called for the end of the exam three hours later, Taichi was still scrambling to scribble down some more answers. The invigilator had collected all the other papers and was waiting for him to finish up. "Today, Mr. Yagami…"
'So Alex is the noun here… and nagged would be the verb! I think…' He scribbled the last bit of kanji to correspond with the last English sentence that he had to translate. He then handed the paper over to the invigilator and gave a huge sigh. "That exam was plain brutal…" He collected his things and just as he exited the room, he noticed his girlfriend waiting for him.
"So how did you do? I think I did well for the sentence translations." Sora carried a backpack on her shoulders and an extra bag for athletics in her hand. She was dressed in a sleeveless yellow top and a pair of shorts made of denim. Considering how she was involved in athletics, she wore sneakers for obvious reasons.
The pair walked out of the examination building and outside to campus grounds. "I think I bombed the first section. The rest of it was stuff that I had to carefully read over before answering. In any case, I'll have to wait and see when the results get posted."
She briefly nodded. "I see. Well, I got soccer practice in an hour and a half…"
"You know, I had a talk about that this morning on the subway with a friend of mine. Technically, it's football! And don't bring up that stuff about Eyeshield 21!" retorted the young man.
Sora blinked in surprise. "Uh… yeah. In any case, you want to come with me for lunch?"
"That sounds nice. Where do you want to go?"
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It was about two in the afternoon when Taichi arrived at the gateway in front of a mansion, which was located in one of the wealthier neighbourhoods of Tokyo. The building itself had two storeys with grey bricks. Two vehicles and a motorcycle were parked on the driveway. The young man stepped up to the intercom and spoke. "Are you there, Siegfried? It's me."
The gateway opened up to allow Taichi to enter. Before he stepped on to the property, he saw a wheelchair ramp specifically set up for Rei (and other wheelchair bound visitors to the household) to use right beside the small set of stairs that lead up to the front door. He made his way towards it and just as he stepped in front of the door, it opened for him. A young man (who was slightly shorter than Taichi) with brown eyes and brown hair greeted Taichi warmly. "Glad you made it." (AN: The appearance here should be Kenny from Beyblade but without the glasses. Source is from V-Tamer profiles located at 'Digital Starlight')
"Good to see you're in good health, Siegfried." After letting Taichi inside the home, he led him downstairs to the furnished basement where Hideto, Mari and Rei were quietly having a conversation near the home theatre system. About four feet in the opposite direction of the system was a desk that had a computer resting upon it. Mari's blonde hair was tied back in a single ponytail and she wore a dark skirt with a white summer dress shirt, which was far more modest than what she had been wearing when Taichi met her the first time. The trio greeted Taichi warmly.
The wheelchair bound Rei was dressed in an athlete's uniform with a logo specifically identifying her as part of Japan's Paralympics team. She had made a strong debut at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, winning a bronze medal, a silver medal and a gold medal in track and field events. "It's almost time to go visit some friends of yours."
Siegfried nodded. "I can hardly wait to see my partner Piedmon again. I hope he's been doing well."
Just as he finished that last statement, the LCD monitor of his computer started to glow. "There's our ride. Let's go!" said Mari.
Before Taichi knew it, he and his companions were in the continent of Folder where it all started for him. He glanced around to see that Siegfried's hair had changed colour from brown to grey and it was in its ponytail style which was the same style that he had seen when they first met. The white mask with black eyeholes, a black vertical streak only a few centimetres thick covering the left part of the mask (and subsequently part of the left eyehole) and the tiny Greek letter Sigma on top had also appeared on his face. Mari's blonde hair was now in pigtails and Rei had full use of her legs again. 'Do I have the right to even be here?' Taichi could still see certain parts of the landscape scarred from the incident.
Rei noticed Taichi's distress and tapped his right arm to get his attention. "I'll race you to the shrine. Last one there's a rotten Digi-egg!"
That temporarily snapped him out of his daze. "I'm no rotten Digi-egg! Hey… no fair! You got a head start!" He started to run after Rei, forgetting his problems for the time being.
"They're so childish…" murmured Sigma.
"And I wouldn't have them any other way." Hideto's Digivice began to beep, indicating that his partner Digimon were getting closer. A few seconds later, Metalgarurumon and Wargreymon flew in and landed by the trio. "It's good to see you two are healthy. You mind giving us a lift to Lord MagnaAngemon's shrine?"
"No problem!" Wargreymon lifted Sigma on to his right shoulder while Mari and Hideto hopped on Metalgarurumon. Needless to say, Taichi ended up as the last to arrive at the shrine (and partially out of breath).
The reception towards the humans was warm with Lord MagnaAngemon treating them as special guests who had helped them in times of crisis in the past. Gabo had a new job being an administrative assistant for the guardian of Folder. Leomon and Shogungekomon had higher responsibilities now and were unable to meet the humans (which may be a good thing since they still aren't too sociable around humans).
As Taichi chatted to Zero about his school experiences and his new relationship with Sora, Zero found himself wishing that he could speak with his Tamer like this more often. But for security purposes and the fact that the human world isn't ready to learn that the Digital World is indeed real, Lord MagnaAngemon could only allow the humans to visit their world twice a year (once around New Year's Day and once in the summer such as today). It has been like this ever since Taichi and the Alias III group left the Digital World and their partners behind for the first time. There had been one disruption that caused the group not to visit the Digital World for an entire year and that disruption occurred around five years ago.
(The flashback that you've probably been waiting for)
"I seriously don't know how you talked me into this. I thought I already gave good arguments about why I shouldn't visit the Digital World!" protested Neo. It should have been simple for him to say no, just like he did when he said no for all the other invites to the Digital World. Actually, at those times, he had a semi-decent excuse to be absent but not this time.
"First off, during your time in the Digital World, your interactions with the normal Digimon population were kept to a minimum with you committing your time to your project. So when they see you, they'll only see a normal human and nothing more. Just in case, you should just stay with us," said Taichi in a simple tone.
"And the fact that you don't feel that you should be in the Digital World? Well, everyone deserves another chance. With how you've changed when I first reunited with you back in the other Digital World, you certainly earned your chance!" exclaimed Rei who briefly adjusted her pendant since some of her sweat had smeared on the chain that was attached to it. It was a special pendant that had been with her since she first landed in the Digital World and was very special to her.
An idea came to Neo's head. "But shouldn't we be studying for university entrance exams or something?"
Mari rolled her eyes. "You'll only be gone for one day. We still have enough time to study for those exams so just chill already!"
Before he could protest further, the portal from Lord MagnaAngemon arrived and in the blink of an eye, he was in the Digital World in the continent of Folder with his clothes shifting to a pair of long white pants, a blue scarf, a white t-shirt with black sleeves which had the peace logo on it and white rags wrapped around his exposed arms. Within moments, Zero and the partner Digimon of the Alias III joined up with their Tamers, ready to go off for a fun day out with friends. "Let's go have some fun, guys!" shouted Hideto enthusiastically.
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Two hours later, Taichi started to grumble. "Damn! Where did he disappear to? Neo!" Org (Wargreymon) and Meruuga (Metalgarurumon) had found a forest on near the continent's border some time back and suggested that the group spend the day just enjoying the wilderness. That seemed to be a good idea until Neo went missing about an hour ago.
The group had split up to search for their missing friend. Taichi and Zero headed to the northern end of the forest; Mari and Rosemon explored east; Hideto and Org searched south while Sigma and Piedmon looked west. Rei and Meruuga went their own direction with the girl counting on the mechanical wolf Digimon's sense of smell to find her brother. Her bet on Metalgarurumon paid off as they found Neo slumped against a tree stump, breathing heavily. "Neo!" Rei ran up to him to check if he was injured but there didn't seem to be anything.
He glanced up briefly to see his concerned sister. "Rei…"
"Are you okay? What happened?" asked the girl frantically.
"It's… nothing serious. I just needed to get away from Taichi for a while."
His response confused her and Meruuga. "What do you mean?" asked the Digimon.
"It's nothing… I'm just weak. That's all." He took a breath before beginning to explain. "The year we spent together with you trying to help me release my hatred and the other Neo. It wasn't totally effective. Although my hatred towards Hideto has diminished, I can still feel some hatred for Taichi gnawing away at me day after day. I honestly thought I can deal with it. After all, I went about three and a half years dealing with it but it's starting to get to me. As I said, I'm weak."
"You're not weak, brother! Being able to admit all of that took some courage!" exclaimed Rei.
A sad smile graced the boy's lips. "Heh… I don't suppose you'll be able to help me, will you? I want to let go of the hatred and be a really good friend to Hideto, Mari and Sigma. And I really want to be the best big brother for you."
The girl could feel a surge of emotion in her heart but she kept her composure. "You already are. I'll do what I can to help you! What do you need?"
"Can I just hold your pendant for a moment? Maybe it'll calm me down some." His request seemed to be reasonable. Rei took off the pendant and placed it in her brother's outstretched palm. "Thank you." He clutched it briefly and exhaled. "Rei?"
"Yes, brother?"
"Would you mind standing back for a moment?" Partially frightened by her brother's odd tone, she did what he asked of her. Neo then held the pendant in both of his hands and concentrated. Rei gasped as her pendant glowed strangely and hovered right in front of Neo. He brought both of his Digivices together and pointed them towards the pendant. The Digivices fired a stream of data towards the pendant and before Rei knew it, Neo was enveloped by a sphere composed entirely of black data.
"Rei, get back!" shouted Meruuga in alarm.
The black data sphere grew larger and solidified into black fur. On top of the black fur ball, a greyish torso formed along with a pair of large gauntlets for arms. There was a bit of black fur at the end of each gauntlet. On the side of each gauntlet was a large black shaped diamond with a yellow eye embedded in it. A small head was the last to appear on top of the torso. The newly formed Digimon looked down upon Rei and Meruuga. "I'm going to go release my hatred, Rei. I'll be back. Wolf… if anything happens to her, you're scrap." The Digimon's voice sounded a lot like Neo's voice except with there was a bit of an echo… like there was another presence in the voice.
"N-Neo?" Before Rei could try and make sense of what happened, the new Digimon flew off, in pursuit of one thing only: The 100 Percent Combination.
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One hour later, Alforceveedramon made a barrel roll to the right in the air to avoid another deadly strike from his opponent. When they first encountered the new Digimon, they were shocked to see that it was ArcaDemon (in a newly evolved form) that they were facing. What was worse was that Neo was a part of ArcaDemon in this form just like Taichi was a part of Zero when he became Alforceveedramon. "Neo, stop this madness! We can help you!"
"Dystopia Lances!" Multiple red energy projectiles were shot out of ArcaDemon and formed into lances before converging on Zero. The holy knight Digimon deflected as many as he could with the energy blades on his gauntlets but those lances seriously HURT. A lance tore through the left wing and caused Zero to roar in pain.
"We can't fall back further. Otherwise, we could endanger Lord MagnaAngemon's shrine and the Digimon residing there!" Taichi knew that Zero was right and growled in frustration.
As Zero landed to try and catch his breath, ArcaDemon hovered a few feet in front of him. "I told you before. My hatred of you has continued to gnaw at me and the only way to move on is to either kill you with my own hands in a duel with Digimon or die in the process! You may have thought that I overcame it earlier. I thought I did too. Apparently, we were both wrong. When you killed ArcaDemon years back, some of the leftover data was absorbed by my hatred. When we banished Daemon, the overall hatred I felt in my body had been partially relieved and so it lay dormant until six months ago. I'm not sure why it never manifested before but thanks to the leftover data and the power of my sister's pendant… my partner Digimon came back to me and now we will finish what we started: the quest to crush the 100 Percent Combination."
"Dammit, Neo! Can't you see you're hurting Rei by taking this course of action?" shouted Taichi using Zero's voice.
"I know that. But I also know that if she knew of my silent suffering, she would be hurt even more because of the fact that she can't help me and that her previous help never bore any fruit. I couldn't do that to her so I chose the lesser of the two evils," droned ArcaDemon.
Zero snorted. "If you kill me, will you truly be able to move on? I don't think so. The hatred will rise again and then you'll claim the lives of Hideto and his Digimon. Then maybe it'll be Sigma and Piedmon or Mari and Rosemon. You have to break the cycle of hatred!"
"I will. After I kill you, I can live again." ArcaDemon raised his right gauntlet. "God Matrix!"
Before Zero could react, an energy cage had been formed to trap them to the ground. "Alforce Saber!" No effect in dispersing the cage. "Shining Vee Force!" No effect as well.
"Now it ends…" With a gesture, ArcaDemon activated the cage's unique ability and began to send high amounts of electricity through Zero's body.
"AAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!.!.!.!.!.!"
"Neo! Taichi!" ArcaDemon turned to see the Alias III, their Digimon and Rei finally catch up to the duelling Tamers.
"Keep Rei out of this! If she gets hurt, I'll have your heads!" roared Neo at the other Tamers.
"Brother, stop this! I beg of you!" cried Rei.
"This is a meaningless battle! Cease your assault, Neo!" exclaimed Sigma. He hoped that his words could reach his friend since in his present state, his power levels are way out of their league.
"This is a battle for my pride and is far from a meaningless battle, Sigma! I have to regain my self-pride and release my hatred before I can live on with my life!"
Mari looked at Neo in disbelief. "Are you still ticked off because he tied you at that tournament years back? Get over it already!"
ArcaDemon made a wild gesture. "The tournament means nothing! His continued victories over me has injured my pride as a Digimon Tamer and I will restore it!"
Rei felt a sense of numbness as the thought of nobody being able to reach Neo flooded her mind. 'I was only able to do so much but it wasn't enough! And I don't know if Sigma, Mari or Hideto can help! But what about Taichi?' She hopped off of Meruuga's back and shouted a message to Zero. "Taichi! I believe that you can help Neo! I believe in you! If you have to beat some sense into his thick skull, then go for it!"
Her words triggered a response from Zero as he felt a new surge of power rise within him. "Alforceveedramon mode change to… FUTURE MODE!" A pair of new shoulder spikes appeared on both pieces of shoulder armour but overall, he had changed very little. He could still feel the pain from God Matrix but it wasn't as severe as before. "Alforce Vee Saber!" His strengthened energy blades shattered the cage that ArcaDemon had set up for him.
Neo felt a new fury rise within his body. "Dystopia Lances!"
As the energy projectiles took form, Zero used a new technique. "Tense Great Shield!" A protective barrier surrounded his body and caused many projectiles to deflect and cancel each other out. However one projectile got deflected and headed on a course towards Rei.
Neo gasped, realizing that at the projectile's speed, there wouldn't be enough time for Meruuga to grab Rei and jump away to safety. Without thinking twice, he propelled himself forward and blocked the lance with his own body. As the commotion died down, Taichi started to stumble on his words. "I never wanted… I never knew that…"
As the Bewitching Beast Digimon's body landed on the ground and began to dissolve into data particles, Neo whispered his last words. "Rei… I love you…"
"NEO!.!.!.!.!.!"
(End of the action packed flashback)
It had taken months for them to come to terms with their grief and pain. Taichi and Rei took it the hardest with the both of them placing a large share of guilt on themselves. Rei buried herself in school and wheelchair athletics while Taichi did the same but focused his energy on soccer activities. The Christmas season for that particular year had been highly emotional with both of them letting all the pain out of their hearts and the Alias III trio helping them with their grief. Only when the spring came did they have some semblance of their previous selves before the incident.
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"Hi, brother. I'm training hard for the upcoming Paralympics games in 2016. It's hard work but a lot of fun. I'm sure you're proud of me and I'll continue to do my best." Rei placed a bouquet of flowers that had been provided to her from Lord MagnaAngemon's garden. The group stood in front of a simple memorial (with a small tombstone attached to the ground) to Neo Saiba that had been erected four years ago when they came to terms with their pain. Today was only their second trip to the memorial (with Taichi skipping the first one two years ago since he still felt guilty at that time).
Mari stepped forward next. "With Rei working hard as a Paralympics bound athlete, I've started helping her a few months ago. You don't have to worry because I've got her back!" She placed her own bouquet alongside Rei's.
Sigma stepped forward along with Hideto. "Rather than flowers, we thought it would have been more meaningful to bring along some additional memories that we found recently." An old school yearbook and a photo album were placed beside the flowers.
Taichi was the last to speak. "I'm not sure what I should be saying as the person who you swore that you would defeat. But I guess I should keep it simple. I hope that you were able to find peace on the other side." He took out a brand new electronic device that was used to compete in the Digimon Tamers convention and placed it on top of the photo album.
Lord MagnaAngemon looked up from his reading when he heard the shuffling of feet coming from Neo's memorial. "Taichi Yagami? I have a message for you from the Guardian. It seems that some friends of yours in the Southern Realm are getting married and they have extended an invitation for you and your partner to come to the wedding."
"Who's getting married?"
"The names are… Rika Nonaka and Takato Matsuki…" He paused when he heard Taichi gawk in surprise. "So… should I send a reply that you'll be coming or not?"
To be concluded…
One more module to go and then epilogue time. WHEE!