With the advancement of technology and science, not to mention the existence of internet, led to the creation of a place where mysterious creatures were born and could live - the digital world. The creatures that live in the digital world are known as the digimon. Naturally like in the human world, there are good and evil digimon. In order to keep the evil digimon at bay, chosen children from the human world were partnered with certain digimon to fight evil. Among the various parallel worlds that exist, in one of them these chosen children are known as 'Tamers.'
However, evil cannot be vanquished so easily. Five years after the defeat of the D-reaper, another storm seemed to be brewing in the Digital World. In the darkest part of certain island, four digimon gathered. The cave of their rendezvous point consisted of four pillars with inscriptions on them. They seemed to be acting as a seal to contain something trapped in a black cell. In front of the cell was a table on which was a slot containing a pitch black D-Arc. On the next slot were black and silver cards with the symbol of an eye.
"The most powerful digimon lays trapped here like a little bird," said one of them. "Quite a sight I must say. We must find a way to release him."
"But to release him, we need the strength and power of a Tamer," said another. "How are we to hand-pick the one?"
"Fear not, we already know the chosen one. That child will be the one to release our lord and become his strength."
"Nonsense! Why should we have a tamer take of us? We can become strong on our own!"
"Then tell me why have we failed so far? Why have we failed to taint the world in darkness?"
The shadow cloaked digimon remained silent. The others continued. "Before we go after the tamer, there is something we must do. We require a certain 'data' in order for our lord to wake up. And we the four dark lords will retrieve it no matter what. " With that the four dissipated into the darkness.
In Nishi-Shinjuku (West Shinjuku), a young brown haired tamer was busy helping his parents at the bakery on Christmas Eve. He was in bright spirits for their shop was very busy seeing as Christmas was around the corner. He had just pulled out a Guilmon bread from the oven, when he heard the thumping of a tail.
"Mmmmm...It smells good. When can we eat, Takato?" asked Guilmon, the red dinosaur and his digimon partner.
"You'll have to wait till the others get here, Guilmon. Don't worry, it won't be long." Just as he said those words, there was knock on the backdoor. Takato opened it and before him stood all his friends with their digimon.
"Hey, Takato," greeted a brunette-haired girl. "Hope we aren't late."
"Of course not, Juri," said Takato with a blush. "You're all just in time."
"Hey, gogglehead, are you going to let us in or what?" asked the fiery haired girl with a smirk. Takato sweat dropped. 'So typical of Ruki' he thought as he let the troop in.
"Head on to my room on the second floor. It's the first one on the right. I'll join you guys in a few minutes." The group quickly made their way into Takato's room where they made themselves comfortable. Guilmon went along with them. The green rabbit digimon bounced from his blue-haired partner's head and landed on Guilmon's. "Momentai! Guilmon give me a ride," demanded Terriermon.
"Terriermon, you've been having a free ride on my shoulder all this time," said Jian.
"Momentai! So what?" protested the rabbit.
"He probably means you need exercise or you'll get fat, lil' rabbit," jabbed Ruki.
"Oh really?" Terriermon raised his brows.
"Culumon wants to ride on Guilmon as well, culu!" cried the little happy-go-lucky digimon, interrupting them. The chirpy digimon jumped on the dinosaur's head.
"Sure, sure, join the bandwagon. Guilmon will probably have to digivolve to Locomon at this rate," commented Ruki.
"My, my princess. You're on fire today," teased the cerulean eyed boy, behind her. "Did something good happen?"
"Oh, shut up, Ryo. You're still as annoying as ever," snapped Ruki.
"Now, now, you two. Don't start another fight you two," chided Juri.
"Yeah, Ruki" chimed in Hirokazu. "You'll still lose to Ryo, either way."
"Yeah, lose to Ryo," repeated Guardromon, his machine digimon partner.
"Hirokazu..." warned Kenta, his best friend.
"Say that when you beat me, dumb-head," snapped Ruki. Renamon who was standing quietly placed her paw on Ruki's shoulder and shook her head. Ruki hmphed but let the matter drop. Hirokazu, on the other hand, looked like he had a thing or two to say but Kenta stopped him by clamping his mouth shut. At that moment, Takato walked in with a large tray filled with various types of digimon bread, juice and a Christmas cake.
He placed the tray on the centre table. "It's a little early but Merry Christmas everyone!" he greeted.
"Merry Christmas!" yelled the others. Together, the 7 children cut the cake and helped themselves to generous portions of it along with their digimon.
"This cake is yummy! I want seconds!" said Monodramon.
"Hey, hey you can't be a glutton Monodramon,"chided his partner. "The cake is for every-" Before he could finish, Monodramon made a beeline for the half pound of cake that was left. Seeing him, Guilmon, Culumon and Terriermon ran as well, with Guardromon joining them thinking it was a game. As the tamers tried to restrain their respective partners and Juri trying to catch Culumon, the cake toppled from the table due to the tug O' war and fell on the fiery haired girl who happened to have been sitting nearby. A cold silence followed as everyone feared the wrath of the Digimon Queen.
Ruki stood up, caked with red velvet icing all over her face and dress, her arms clenched against her sides. Veins could be seen popping from her head as she shook in anger. All those who saw the dark aura radiating from her, paled instantly. They waited with abated breath for her verdict. All of them had shocked looks on their faces except for one digimon. This little digimon did not seem to read the mood. Instead the white digimon happily jumped on Ruki and dared to lick a bit of the icing off her.
"So sweet, culu!" cried Culumon happily. Ruki stood motionless, fixing her glare at the carefree digimon.
"M-Momentai...It was nice knowing you Culumon..." prayed Terriermon with folded hands.
"R-Ruki?" stuttered Takato. 'Oh boy... As if the cake falling on her wasn't so bad... Poor Culumon...' he thought, silently offering prayers to the little digimon.
Taking this as a cue, Ryo went beside the fiery haired girl and scooped some of the cake from her. He then proceeded to lick his fingers clean.
"Wow, Ruki. Who knew you were so sweet?" he teased nonchalantly. "Maybe I should have another taste of you, just to make su-"
"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, RYO!" exploded Ruki. Her booming voice knocked Culumon, who bounced off the floor into Guilmon's paws. The Digimon Queen was fuming from head to toe.
"LOOK AT THIS! WHY CAN'T YOU GUYS BE MORE CAREFUL! UGH, THESE VELVETY STAINS PROBABLY WON'T GO OFF! AND THIS WAS MY FAVOURITE DRESS TOO!"she ranted. Ryo continued to smirk at her.
"Well, I think this new do suits you quite well, princess," he said, bursting into laughter.
"STOP SMIRKING RYO AKIYAMA, OR ELSE I'LL WIPE IT OFF FOR YOU!"
She was about to launch herself at him when Renamon held her back.
"LET ME GO! LET ME AT HIM, RENAMON!" growled Ruki, thrashing against her partner to break free.
"Calm down, Ruki. You're causing a scene," said Renamon.
"I DON'T CARE! I'M GONNA KILL HIM!"
Jian and Juri acted quickly to control the situation. The others were too petrified to even move. "What happened to forget and forgive?" muttered Takato, before helping Juri get a towel. Jian calmed Ruki then gave the fiery haired girl his handkerchief to wipe her face with, till Juri brought the towel. The two girls then left the room with Renamon whilst Jian, Takato and the others cleaned up the mess.
"Some Christmas party this has been," said Hirokazu. "Really, you'd think Ruki could take a joke for once. But no, she has to throw a tantrum."
"Hirokazu, please shut up. If Ruki hears you, there's no telling what she'll do," warned Kenta.
"Kenta's right. Besides, the party's just begun. Let's play a game or something to lighten up the mood," suggested Takato.
"Good idea, Takato. Let's have a Digi-card battle!" declared Hirokazu, enthusiastically. "Ryo-man, will you play against me?"
"How about we play something else for once?" suggested the tanned boy. "Like poker or something?"
"Good idea Ryo," said Jian, just as the girls and Renamon returned. Ruki had changed into a plain blue shirt and khaki's that Takato lent.
After much contemplation, they all decided to play Cardfight! Vanguard in a tournament format. Even the digimon joined in as individual players. Guilmon had trouble holding the cards and his partner had a tough time teaching him. Terriermon tried to cheat by looking into Guilmon's cards during their match but Jian caught him by his bunny ears and reprimanded him. The game was going well and it was finally down to two players - Ruki and Jian.
"Who knew Ryo would actually lose at something?" said Hirokazu, in shock.
"Hey, I ain't perfect you know," replied Ryo, coolly.
"Quiet you guys. The game is still going on," shushed Juri.
Ruki stared intently at the two cards that Jian held. The blue-haired boy kept a pleasant but poker face. The violet eyed girl stared at the damage zone. She had 4 cards as did Jian. If she could deal him double damage she could win. Although, if he pulled a heal trigger, it would be in vain. She glanced at her cards once again. It was now or never. She drew a card from the top of the deck. As she had paid the cost in the previous turn, her Amaterasu gained +5000, making it 17000. "I use Fumino to boost Amaterasu to attack your Vanguard!" she declared.
"I intercept with Jakotsu girl and Left arrester!" said Jian, moving the said card in front of his vanguard, Zanbaku.
"Twin drive check," stated Ruki. 'I really hope I get a critical trigger!' prayed Ruki as she drew the card. It wasn't a critical trigger. She pulled the second card. "Critical trigger!" exclaimed Ruki, excitedly. "I give all the effects to Amaterasu!"
"Damage check," said Jian. He pulled the first card. It wasn't a heal trigger. He pulled the second card and looked at it. Ruki held her breath in anticipation. Jian smiled and her and revealed the card.
"I won!" she cried in joy, as he placed the card in the damage zone. "That was a good game!"
"Congratulations, Ruki," said Jian, shaking her hand. The tamers spent the rest of the party, chit-chatting and recounting the various battles with the Devas and the D-reaper. After the party, Takato escorted Juri and Culumon to the train station. Hirokazu and Kenta headed their own way with their respective digimons while Ryo, Ruki and Jian and the rest of the digimons headed in the direction towards Ruki's home.
"So, you're staying at Jian's place, Ryo?" asked Ruki, as they walked down the pavement.
"Yup. Why, do you want me to stay at you're place, Ruki?" he asked, arms folded behind his head. "You know I wouldn't mind."
"In your dreams," retorted Ruki. "Good luck keeping him, Jian."
"Yeah, yeah," replied Jian. "We'll be going this way. You sure you don't want us to escort you till your home, Ruki?"
"I'm sure. Renamon's with me."
"Alright. But do message us when you reach, ok?" said Jian, concerned.
"I will. See ya guys."
"See ya, Ruki."
"Goodnight, M'lady," said Ryo. Ruki rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless. "Good night Ryo, Jian."
As she walked, Renamon materialized beside her. The two walked in silence watching the snow fall in the starry night. "The snowflakes are beautiful, aren't they Renamon?" whispered Ruki, when a very pretty flake landed on her glove.
"It is indeed," answered Renamon.
"Merry Christmas, Renamon."
"Merry Christmas Ruki."
They turned into a corner near her home when an icy chill ran down Ruki's spine. She stopped and turned back to see if anything or anyone was around. But there was no one.
"What's wrong Ruki?" her partner asked, concerned.
"I-It's nothing. Let's hurry up and get home." Ruki pulled her jacket closer, the wind around feeling colder than usual. From a distance, a eerie shadow observed the two before disappearing into the darkness.
A/N: Hope you like it. I updated this chapter since I made a few errors in the previous one. Mainly with card game segment. I changed the game from old maid to vanguard as I thought it would be interesting (and also as I'd messsed up the rules of the previous game...)