Chapter Seven

Davis groans as he reaches school that day, this was the big day, the game against Tamachi and he had successfully gotten his wind sprints time down to 6.71 seconds. The morning jogs and the extra training he had been putting in with Serena had made a huge difference. Serena looks up as Davis enters the classroom and she can see the tension radiating throughout his body. - Dai, relax, treat this as any other game, just have fun.- she signs to him.

- Thanks, Serena, I needed that reminder. Keep me grounded, please.-

- You know I will, Dai. Now, have you noticed the tennis jocks have been picking on Takeru?-

- I have, so how shall we teach them the error of their ways, oh diabolical one?- Davis asks.

They are still going over plans when Kari and TK arrive, " Since when do they know sign language? "

TK blinks, " Well, I know Serena had to learn because there for a while she wasn't speaking at all, so Matt and dad had to learn to, don't know why Davis knows sign language though. "

" I have a mute cousin, TS, and I'm the only one who actually took the time to learn the language to actually be able to converse with her, she's only six. " Davis answers him.

" Was she born mute? " Kari asks.

" No, she wasn't, her mother's boyfriend attempted to strangle her. Obviously she survived with her intelligence intact but there was irreparable damage done to her vocal cords, she was two. " Davis answers.

Horror fills Kari at this, " Where is she now? "

" Still with her mom. Aunt Midorika had called him in as an emergency babysitter. Luckily she had forgotten her purse at home, she's a single mom, the father of her child is a bum. She has my cousin attending a school for the mute, deaf, and hearing impaired for now. Aunt Midorika has weekends off so Marina is home on the weekends and lives at school during the week. Now I do have permission to pick her up to come to my soccer games or just to have a fun outing. One of her teachers will be dropping her off here so she can watch the game, Marina's been looking forward to this one as much as I have. " Davis says.

" Good thing I'll be there, I can interpret for her. " Serena states.

The rest of the students filter in and the school day officially begins. Davis sighs wearily half way through the math lesson, he already knew this crap, though he could tell from the glazed over look in Serena's eyes that the teacher had lost her. Looked like he'd be re-teaching her this lesson too and helping her with her homework. Thankfully today they had a Study Hall at the end of the day so he could get a jump start on that. When the final bell rang Davis raced to the front of the school to get Marina from her teacher. " Are you sure she'll be all right? "

" You remember Ishida Serena, right, " Davis says aloud and in signs for his little cousin, " She'll be here too. Marina will be in good hands. "

" All right, because Marina really has been looking forward to this. " her teacher says and walks off. Once she was gone Marina lunges for Davis in a tackle hug. Davis grins at this and picks her up, " How about we go meet up with Serena, as I have to go get ready for my game. I'll introduce you to my other friends too, okay? "

Marina nods at this, while she wasn't deaf she did appreciate someone who spoke her language, so to speak. Davis understood this so he made sure when he talked around her he also signed. Marina smiles brightly at seeing Serena, - Hey, gaki, how ya doing?-

- Not a gaki! I'm great, I really like my school, but I love doing things with you and Davis even more.-

- Ready to see Davis make Ichijouji-san work for his points?-

Marina nods eagerly at this and Davis smiles, then he begins introducing everyone and pointing to them for Marina, " Marina, this is Hikari "Kari" Kamiya, Takeru Takaishi, Cody Hida, Taichi "Tai" Kamiya, Kari's big brother, Sora Takenouchi, and lastly we have Inoue Yolei, she's here just to see Ken play. "

" Marina, call me TK, please. " TK adds.

Serena takes the six year old and Davis heads for the locker room, leaving Demiveemon with Serena. The digimon were also going to be watching the game as well. " She's only mute, right? "

Marina nods as Serena replies in the affirmative, there was some time before the game began, but they wanted to get good seats, so they head for the stands and take their seats. Matt comes running up minutes before the game and Serena flashes through a few signs. Matt nods and in signs introduces himself to Marina. Marina smiles widely at this, she loved it when her language was spoken. Davis wanders over, " I wonder where the wonder boy is. "

" Don't think about him, don't play all out unless Ken is on that field, got it, Dai. "

" Yeah, I hear you, Serena. I'll make sure to keep my team competitive, though maybe you should put them through the training you put me through, might do them some good. " Davis says.

Tai had actually been present for some of that training, giving Davis someone to compete against for wind sprint times. Tai was at 6.9 seconds for his wind sprints, Davis had been really motivated to be able to compete with Ken Ichijouji. He didn't want to been made a fool of on the field. It was half time when Ken made his appearance and Davis' body language changes to battle ready, his entire team noticing the change. Davis would be dealing with Ken, they just had to keep the rest of the Tamachi team off of their captain.

Ken is startled to see the burgundy haired boy staring at him, measuring him up. No one out right blatantly challenged him anymore, this would be interesting. The match turned explosive the instant play started up again as Davis suddenly kick his level of play up a level and stole the ball from Ken, passing it to an open teammate before keeping Ken in check. The prodigy was stunned, no one had ever been able to out play him, yet this number fifteen was easily doing so. The entire Tamachi team is startled, it had been so long since Ken had been out played that none of them quite knew how to react. Play went on like that for the rest of the time. Ken managed to score three goals with Davis marking him so easily while Odaiba ended up with six more, making the final score 9-5 in favor of Odaiba.

Ken was shell-shocked at the fact that number fifteen, whom he found out is named Motomiya Daisuke preferring to be called Davis. Marina charges the field and actually manages to tackle her cousin. Davis laughs even as he falls to the grass, " I take it you liked the game, Marina. "

The little maroon haired girl nods emphatically at this, Serena and Tai were the next one to reach him, " Looks like all that extra training paid off, Davis. " Tai says.

Ken's eyes widen, he had trained extra just for this game, just to match him, no surpass him on the field. He walks over to Davis whom was just getting back up from his tackle hug, " Very well played, my worthy adversary. "

Something about the way he said that put the hackles up for Davis and Serena, " Good match, Ichijouji-san. " Davis says, shaking the proffered hand.

As Ken is walking away Davis' eyes are narrowed, wondering if he had just met the Digimon Emperor in the Real World. It was after the celebrations were over and Marina snuggled in bed that Davis met Serena in a spire free zone of Digiworld, " You're thinking that Ken's the Digimon Emperor as well, aren't you? It would make sense, as we've both actually had physical confrontations with him when we went to rescue Gomamon. "

" Yeah, but there's no way the others would believe it without proof. Thankfully TK and Cody were close enough to hear what he said to you though, so if he should give himself away you'll have more than me backing your word. "

" I did nail him with that tackle, didn't mean to get cleat in that, but well… "

" Which gives us another way to ID him. Are we going to destroy some spires while we're here or what? " Serena asks.

Davis sighs, " Promise me that you will not do something stupidly reckless. I need you to make me that promise. "

Serena sighs at this, " I wish I could, Dai. Saving people and planets is hardwired into me. "

They had found the footage of the betrayal battle and Serena had dropped to her knees after it was over, clutching her head in agony as so many memories unlocked at an alarming rate. " I'm the leader, this is on me, not you. You've suffered enough. "

Serena lets him pull her to him and she lays her head on his shoulder, no one had ever told her that the weight of responsibility wasn't on her shoulders. " Dai, you're probably the only person who has ever told me that saving the world isn't my job. "

Davis frowns at this, how bad had her life been before Matt had found her and she had been adopted by Ishida Hiroaki? He almost thought he didn't want to know, " Before, well, school was hell for me, my ADHD went undiagnosed so I was just assumed to be lazy. "

Damn, she had, had it bad. Her parents would have been coming down on her all the time for her grades. Then if you add in a double life as Japan's beloved heroine, she was better off as a digidestined. At least as a digidestined they were a true team, well, most of them were at any rate. Yolei would need a very loud and rude wake up call as she still hadn't quite grasped that he was the leader. Tai had named him leader at an all digidestined meeting shortly after Kari and TK had joined. Yolei had a family thing and couldn't attend. Point was he wore the goggles, he was the leader, simple as that.

Of course, Tai could have remained leader but he was busier than Davis himself was. That didn't mean Tai didn't find time to come to Digiworld. Tai was first and foremost a digidestined. Mimi had tried her best to teach Yolei some tact, but alas that was an almost hopeless battle. The next day the Digimon Emperor catches the others and almost gets Serena, the girl leaps away at the last second, her eyes narrowing in anger. " He's trying to isolate you and most likely present you with an impossible choice. "

Another hole opens up under her and Serena swears violently, leaping up and doing a handstand on Davis' shoulders, " You want to keep me with you then you'll have to carry me. "

" Piggyback work for you? " Davis asks.

Serena nods and swings down, her legs locking around his waist. The Emperor curses, that girl was entirely too instinctive to capture. Why the hell couldn't she just be unaware of her surroundings like the other four had been Davis sends an email to Izzy explaining the situation as it stood and to send a team to get the others, they'd keep the Emperor busy. When they reach the Emperor he glares at Serena, " Troublesome girl, you just couldn't be a good enemy and let yourself be captured, could you? "

Serena blinks as the Emperor pulls his play, her eyes narrowing, " They're fakes. "

" How can you tell? " Davis asks.

- Been there, done that with the Doom and Gloom Girls.-

The Emperor curses, why hadn't he taken the time to learn sign language? Davis' eyes widen as he remembers a story Joe had told him, " Bakemon, they're Bakemon, digimon that can shape shift. "

" Digi Armor Energize! " the pair call out together.

" Veemon armor digivolve to… Flamedramon, the fires of courage. "

" Renamon armor digivolve to… Juéxīnmon, the determined warrior. "

" You need to come up with something new. "

Serena's glares at him, her crest starting to glow a brilliant amethyst once again, " Nova Blast! "

" Howling Blaster! "

" Hand of Fate! "

" Celestial Arrow! "

" Gold Rush! "

" Tempest Wing! "

" Mach Grinding! "

" What's this? " the Emperor demands.

" Simple, I sent an email requesting a rescue team while Serena and I came here to deal with you. " Davis says nonchalantly.

" You are my worthy adversary. "

TK's eyes widen along with Tai's, " You're Ken Ichijouji! "

Yolei's eyes widen at this, her dream hunk was the creep out to destroy the Digital World? No, it couldn't be so! " Yes, that's right. "

Davis snorts, " Dude, I hate to break it to you but you're being used. Don't know by who, but you are being used. "

" What would you know about it? " Ken demands.

" It's so obvious that a genius like you should be able to figure it out. " Davis replies, he couldn't be bothered to explain it all to Ken.

Serena rolls her eyes at this, only Dai would think it was too much trouble to tell Ken how he knew he was being used. Tai looks at Davis and the burgundy haired twelve year old smirks. Tai begins to grin, now that he thought back to his adventures it would make sense that Ken was being used. Just beating Ken would be too easy, there had to be a puppet master out there somewhere and they had to find said puppet master.

Once back in the Real World Davis rolls his shoulders before heading for the Ishida place, they were ordering pizza. Davis calls his mom to let her know and he was off, Serena making sure to grab the digimon though Tai also was coming over, terrified to face his mother's cooking. Kari wasn't as fortunate as her brother to be working on a partner project with anyone, namely Matt. She watches as Serena and Davis laugh and joke their way out of the school. She wanted to have a deeper bond with Serena, but Tai had told her he suspected she had been betrayed by her best female friends, making it harder for her to trust girls. Mimi had somehow wormed her way past her defenses but then again Mimi was always sincere, she was never playing any games with anyone.

" Hey, Matt, are you hair care products under a bodyguard's protection 24/7? " Tai asks his best friend.

Matt groans at this, " Sis, Davis, I hate you both right now. "

The twelve year olds spin around, smile, and then stick their tongues out at him before racing off, laughing the whole way.

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or Sailor Moon.