AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Let's play: spot the difference! Enjoy!

AND SO IT BEGINS

The bell was a peal of victory that cut through the classroom like a hot knife, signalling that he'd made it to the end of another day. Daisuke was the first to have his things in his bag and he tore from the classroom, barely hearing the tired warning from his teacher to slow down.

There was no time to be slow; not today. He'd already traded his pudding cup with Ryoji so that he could get out of cleaning duty, and he intended to make use of every second. Today marked the fifth practice in a row that Daisuke had forgotten to bring his soccer kit to school which meant he would have to run home, change, grab his water and a towel, and get back to the school field in time for practice. Sure, he had an hour to do it, but if he could do it half the time then there was a chance he could catch Yagami Taichi at the field before practice started with a quick session of one-on-one.

Taichi was nothing short of legendary, and Daisuke was the first to correct anyone who thought differently. Taichi you had been Daisuke's soccer hero for as long as he could remember, and Daisuke had gone to every school match even before he had been old enough to join the team. Daisuke could recite every game-saving goal, every tight pinch, every perfect penalty of Taichi's career to the point where Taichi's victories almost felt like his own.

He was reminiscing about a killer last-minute goal when he felt a blinding pain at the base of his skull. He yelped I'm surprised, his bag falling heavily to the ground as his hands flew to his head to protect himself from a further attack.

"Ow – hey! Watch it!" he yelled, but his voice was lost under the crowd. With a huff he readjusted his goggles (a style he had adopted in homage to his idol) and scooped his bag from the floor. Something fell from a fold of fabric and clattered against the floor and Daisuke scooped it up for a closer look.

It seemed like some sort of gaming device, although Daisuke didn't know what game was small enough for its tiny, square screen. Maybe one of those virtual pet games that his sister had been obsessed with… Definitely not a soccer game, that was for sure. The body was white with a blue trim, and the silver border around the screen was engraved with tiny black symbols. He jabbed a few of the buttons, but nothing happened.

"Hey – anyone lose this?" he cried, holding it high above the crowd. "Anyone?" A handful of nearby students eyed the device but nobody stepped forward to claim it. After a moment of waving it in the air Daisuke cursed and lowered his hand, studying the device for any marks or engravings – a name, perhaps, or some kind of mark that might identify its owner – only to come up empty. The device was smooth and flawless, as though it had only just been taken from its packaging.

"Must be something from the computer lab," he mused, twisting it over in his hand. His eyes travelled to his watch and he cursed again. He was tempted to drop it back on the floor and let the jerk who threw it collect the stupid gadget, but if someone told on him (and, with his luck, someone would tell) it would mean a week's detention at least – more if it was half as expensive as it looked. With a groan he scooped up his bag and set off toward the computer lab.

It was Daisuke's least-favourite classroom. It always smelled musty, and the air – warm and thick from a lack of proper ventilation – made his eyelids heavy. He was sure he'd spent more time asleep than awake in this room. The blinds had been drawn over, blocking the afternoon sun, and a projector in the centre of the room was humming a slow whir as it cooled. The lights were off and the computers were all asleep, and Daisuke shivered. There was something about dark classrooms that set his teeth on edge.

"Hello?" he called, leaning through the doorway. "Anybody home?"

The lab was usually occupied by someone – a teacher, a technician, the computer nerd from the middle school – but today it was empty. The top drawer of the teacher's desk would be the best place to leave the gadget, Daisuke decided as he grit his teeth and slipped inside. Or perhaps the store cupboard, if the desk was locked. And if he couldn't get in to the cupboard… well, Daisuke thought it was pretty good of him to have brought it all the way up here after it had been thrown at his head. Maybe if nobody claimed it he could keep it. He could ask one of the computer nerds if it could play Donkey Madness.

He was halfway to the teacher's desk when a nearby computer monitor flare to life, casting a pale glow over the room. Daisuke glanced at it, confused by the strange boxes that were scattered across the screen. Each one was filled with a series of short symbols that Daisuke didn't recognise – not Japanese, but not Western letters either (he couldn't read English, but he could recognise what it looked like, and it definitely didn't look like that). The largest screen, set a little to the right, showed a strange colourful landscape that Daisuke didn't recognise from any of his geography lessons. He couldn't say that he'd ever really paid attention, but he was certain that he would have remembered blue trees.

Something flickered on the screen; a small flash of white in the lowest corner of the landscape. Daisuke blinked and leaned in closer, peering at the pixels. The blur looked almost like a cat with a long purple-striped tail, although it was the strangest cat Daisuke had ever seen. Its green-gloved paws were way too big for its tiny body, and its oversized ears ended in tufts of purple fur that stood straight up into the air. He pressed his face closer to the screen to get a better look, and the screen brightened around him.

He felt a strange sense of weightlessness, like the time he'd fallen off the wall beside the river, only this time he didn't feel like he was falling. He was surrounded by a vortex of numbers and colours and shapes that span around him as a tingling wave started at his toes and raced up to the top of his skull, making his skin crawl with a strange warmth. Everything was oddly silent, and Daisuke almost felt like he should have been screaming but he wasn't.

And then it was over, and Daisuke was standing between the strange trees he'd seen on the screen. It looked even weirder up close; the ground was pale yellow, something between dirt and sand, and the tall trees looked almost blue-green now in the shade cast by their intertwined leaves that swayed in the breeze. Some of the trees were tall and narrow, disappearing in to the sky, whilst others were shorter and wider stood several feet above the ground on a tripod of thick roots.

He raised a hand to his head in wonder, only to freeze. His hands, which had been bare just moments before, were now covered in thick suede gloves. Glancing down, he noticed that his pants and striped shirt had been replaced by a pair of khaki shorts, a pale t-shirt and a thin navy jacket that was decorated with flames along the waistline and wrists, whilst his neck was lined with a thin strip of soft fur. He panicked and lifted his hands to his head, breathing a sigh of relief when he found his goggles still firmly in place.

"Where am I?" he breathed. He stared at the thick foliage – at the vines and the dew-covered leaves – but he didn't recognise any of the plants. He folded his arms and tried to listen for water (because water would lead to people and people would get him help; his dad had told him that when they used to go camping), but it was hard to hear anything over the deep rumbling noise that made the ground shake beneath his feet. An earthquake? He glanced down, watching a clump of sand-dirt shiver along the ground before he lifted his gaze and turned around.

The trees behind him were trembling; leaves tumbled to the ground as vines crashed together. Something was coming, and it was big, and it was fast. Daisuke felt his eyes bulge as panic flooded through his veins. He wanted to move, but his feet were planted to the floor as a shape finally broke through the trees, barrelling past him in a white and purple blur.

"Run!" it cried. The sharp command snapped Daisuke in to action. He twisted and scrambled through the trees, keeping the strange white cat in his sights.

"Hey!" he cried. "Wait up!" The cat was darting nimbly through the trees, covering ground at an impressive speed, and Daisuke was so focused on trying to keep up that he didn't notice the stray root until it had snared the toe of his sneaker and sent him falling face-first into the dirt.

The creature that had been chasing them burst through the foliage, knocking over several of the taller trees as it skidded to a halt with a deafening roar. It looked like some kind of rhinoceros covered in gleaming armour, and the thick spike on its snout was wrapped in a thick black band. It narrowed its angry red eyes at Daisuke and lowered its head, letting out a huff of air that made Daisuke gag. It smelt worse than the time Jun had tried to microwave fish.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" Daisuke glanced up to see a figure standing on the weird rhino's shoulder. He couldn't have been much older than Daisuke, though he was dressed in a weird costume that made it hard to tell. There was a navy cape trimmed with gold, and a navy jumpsuit with gleaming silver cuffs at his wrists and ankles. The boy also sported spiked hair and goggles, though he wore his over his eyes and his lenses were tinted purple. Daisuke wondered if this boy was a fan of Yagami Taichi too. He leapt off the rhino's shoulder and landed gracefully in the dirt, his cape falling heavily behind him as he straightened, peering down his nose at Daisuke.

A shadow leapt over Daisuke and he flinched, burying his face in his arms, but nothing happened. The boy chuckled and Daisuke slowly he lifted his head. A girl had appeared, planting herself firmly between Daisuke and the caped weirdo. Unlike the boy's dark clothes, she was dressed in muted greens and browns; a large tunic bound at the waist and billowing pants tucked in to cloth wrappings around her calves. A thick strip of fabric was tangled in her hair, keeping it tied in a messy knot. She stood firm, her arm pulled back as she drew her wooden bow taught, staring at the boy down the shaft of an arrow.

"A friend of yours?" the boy asked casually, as if the girl wasn't about to turn him in to a pincushion. She didn't answer and the boy chuckled again. "I was wondering when you would show yourself. You caught up to me in record time, I'm almost impressed. Pity you weren't fast enough to save your little friend-"

The arrow pierced the dirt between the boy's feet. The cat hissed. In the blink of an eye the girl had knocked another arrow, pointing it at the boy's chest, but he merely laughed. He swept his cloak aside with a flourish before dipping in to a bow, a mocking smirk on his lips.

"I grow tired of this game," he announced. "It's gotten old. Besides, I have more important matters to attend to. The Caprimon are of no interest to me now that I have your little friend in my clutches." The girl loosed another arrow but the boy leapt up impossibly high, landing back on the rhino's shoulder. It gave a deafening bellow before turning sharply and crashing back through the trees. It quickly disappeared from sight, but it took several more seconds until the ground stopped trembling, and when the world finally fell silent Daisuke released a shuddering breath.

"That was amazing!" he cried, springing to his feet. "Thanks for-" The words died in his throat as he found himself staring down the length of another arrow. The girl's eyes narrowed.

"Who are you?" she demanded. The bow creaked as she pulled it taught and Daisuke's hands flew to the air.

"Whoa! Hey! I'm not gonna hurt you-"

"What is that?" The tip of the arrow twitched towards Daisuke's waist. He glanced down – with his hands in the air his T-shirt has lifted, revealing the little blue gadget that was now clipped to the waistband of his shorts. He reached for it, pulling it off with a quiet SNAP and offering it towards her. She took half a step back, the bow creaked again, and Daisuke froze.

"I found it," he answered. "Look, if it's yours you can have it back. I was just trying to return it." Her eyes flicked from his face to the device and back again, and after several tense seconds that seem to stretch for an age her expression shifted. The bow relaxed a little, though the arrow still remained trained between Daisuke's eyes.

"The Kaiser has one just like it," she said quietly.

"A black one," the cat added sharply. Her eyes flashed. "How do we know you're not working for him?" Daisuke cocked his head at the question with a confused frown.

"The Kaiser? Who's the… Oh! That kid?" The girl nodded and Daisuke waved his hands, glancing nervously to the arrow. "I've never seen him before. I just got here, I swear! I'm not even sure where here is…" He scratched his head and offered her what he hoped was a charming shrug. It didn't have the desired effect (or any effect, in fact) and she continued to stare at him like he was some sort of alien.

"Did you come from Earth?" she asked. Daisuke blinked.

"Uh… yes?" He hated the uncertainty that leaked in to his voice. Of course he had come from Earth! Where else could he have come from? Wait… "Come from? Are we… are we not on Earth anymore?" The arrow lowered a little as the girl seemed to study him closely with a confused frown.

"How did you get here?" Her voice was softer now, and the anger in her eyes seemed to have melted away a little. Daisuke swallowed thickly and slowly lowered his hands.

"I dunno," he answered with a shrug. "One minute I was in the computer lab and then I was runnin' for my life. No idea what I missed in the middle but I figure I musta missed somethin'." The girl's fingers twitched around the bow as she glanced to the cat who blinked its large blue eyes and offered a silent shrug in return. The girl turned her gaze back to Daisuke and adjusted her grip on the bow. Daisuke's breath caught in his throat, and it stayed wedged behind his Adam's apple until at last she stepped back and lowered the arrow.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "It's just… You reminded me of someone I knew. I thought the Kaiser might have been playing some kind of trick. We can't be too careful."

"We should get going," the cat urged, still eyeing Daisuke warily. Daisuke eyed it right back and it narrowed its eyes at him before turning to the girl. "It's not dark yet. The Kaiser could come back." The girl's expression tightened and she nodded.

"I know," she murmured. She turned as though about to leave, but she seemed to decide against it as she turned back to him with a frown. She glanced around, peering in to the shrubbery and eyeing the undergrowth before asking: "Where's your partner?"

"M-my what?"

"Your partner," the cat retorted dryly. "Your digimon? Where are they?"

"My… digimon?" He frowned, glancing between them. "I'm sorry… I don't know what that is."

"But then how are you here?" the girl asked. "You're… you are human, aren't you?"

"What else would I be?" he asked before he could stop himself. After seeing an armoured rhino and a talking cat, he supposed there were a lot of other things he could be. Maybe this was some kind of simulation! Like those virtual games he'd seen in sci-fi anime shows. Maybe they weren't fiction after all, and this was some kind of exclusive demo-

"Trust me," the cat said, its nose crinkling. "He's human." Daisuke's relief quickly faded to confusion and annoyance as he took in the cat's expression.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"So you don't have a partner?" the girl interrupted before the cat could answer (it closed its mouth and folded its arms as its tail twitched irritably). Daisuke shrugged.

"I mean… I guess not. Where do I get one?" The girl flinched a little, her expression hardening, and Daisuke couldn't help but think it had been the wrong thing to say.

"You can't just get one," the cat sneered. "That's what the Kaiser does."

"He doesn't have a partner either?"

"I hope not." The cat shifted its weight and glanced up to the girl, jerking her head towards the trees behind them. "Let's get going." It quickly span towards the bushes and the girl almost followed suit, but her eyes were fixed on Daisuke and she hesitated. The cat turned back several paces away, and it narrowed its eyes over its shoulder. "Hikari."

The girl – Hikari – seemed torn, though her indecision was soon replaced by a determined frown. She turned to the cat.

"We can't leave him here-"

"Hikari-"

"He doesn't have a partner," Hikari countered. "We can't abandon him."

"We can't trust him! That's exactly what the Kaiser would want you to do-"

"What if he's not working for the Kaiser-"

"What if he is?" The cat sat down heavily and glared at him. "The last time a human appeared out of nowhere, it was bad news."

"But the time before that was good, right?" The cat stewed for several long seconds, and Daisuke thought he saw it fighting a smile.

"It wasn't all bad," she finally answered. Hikari gave her a smile and after a moment the cat rolled its eyes. "You really wanna take him back with us?" When Hikari nodded the cat sighed and stood, tugging at its gloves and flexing its claws in Daisuke's direction. "All right. But I'm not carrying him." Daisuke's stomach twisted.

"C-carry me?" he spluttered. Hikari's eyes widened.

"Tailmon!" she scolded. The cat paused and Hikari frowned. "Don't hurt him." Tailmon rolled her eyes and turned back to Hikari.

"You wanna draw him a map so he can hand it over to the Kaiser?" she growled. Daisuke shook his head.

"I'm not working for the-"

"Of course not," Hikari answered, "but I don't want you to knock him out. Maybe we could blindfold him."

"Yes!" Daisuke exclaimed. "Blindfold! Great idea!" Better than being knocked out, at least. Hikari was looking at him strangely and he laughed nervously (maybe he was a bit too excited about the blindfold). Tailmon's tail twitched and she glanced back to Hikari.

"You really sure about this, aren't you?" she drawled in a tone that sounded like she knew the answer. Hikari stared at Daisuke, chewing the inside of her cheek for several long seconds before finally nodding.

It took several minutes for them to find a suitable blindfold. Hikari tried weaving several broad blades of grass together, but they were silky-smooth and quickly came unravelled. Tailmon suggested tearing off a piece of Daisuke's shirt and Daisuke made an awkward joke about crop tops and belly buttons which fell painfully flat. Eventually Hikari reached behind her head to unravel the thick strip of cloth that had kept her hair up off her neck. It took several minutes of careful untangling to separate it from the chocolate strands that fell down her back in a wild waterfall. She stepped towards Daisuke but Tailmon planted herself between them and glared up at Daisuke.

"You touch her," she hissed, "and I'll touch you." She lifted a paw, flourishing several gleaming claws, and Daisuke swallowed thickly.

"No touching," he said, waving his hands in the air. "Got it." The cat stared him down for several seconds more until he offered her a nervous smile. She huffed and twitched her tail one last time before stepping back to allow Hikari to tie the fabric over his eyes. She reached out to take his hand and he stiffened, hearing Tailmon's warning.

"Relax," Hikari laughed. "Tailmon was only joking."

"No I wasn't," Tailmon's reply came from some distance up ahead. Hikari laughed again and Daisuke felt a weird kind of warmth in his stomach. He kinda liked it.

And we're off! The adventure has officially begun – no turning back now. See you next time!