I don't own digimon

Story 46

Out on a limb

Sealsdramon loved to think that he was one of the top dogs in the digital world. With Yggdrasil now out of the picture and Homeostasis now likely out of the picture, killing was now an almost consequence-free activity. Not that Sealsdramon would kill for fun. Far too many of his comrades had stooped to easy marks, leaving them with lackluster kills with just as boring experiences. But not him. No, he liked his kills to have a challenge. Which made it all the odder that he was down in the human world. Who would want his services on this side? A human? Another digimon? Perhaps another chosen? He wouldn't mind meeting one that wasn't his partner. Less because he had a grudge with his partner, but more to expand his horizons when it came to those partnered with digimon. More knowledge was always good, even if it sometimes felt that it would've been better just not knowing in the first place. That was just the nature of life. Everything couldn't be sunshine and roses all the time, nor a perpetual series of disappointments where things rarely worked out. Instead, it was a strange balance. One that ebbed and flowed. At least, that was how it felt in Sealsdramon's mind. Whether or not that's actually the case, remained to be seen or at least proven.

"What do we have here?" Sealsdramon thought, his left eye zooming in on a house. The front had been done up in key lime green paint, with what looked to be white accents to somehow compliment that color. Not that the assassin digimon particularly cared for it. No, he was more of a fan of gray and silverish colors. Those almost always looked nice. Up until you were covered in something sticky. Then you just looked incredibly silly. In this line of work, that was the last thing that you wanted. But Sealsdramon shifted his focus away from that and over to the garbage can placed in front of the curve. Lid unable to close securely, that provided the perfect view of a human hand sticking out for all to see. "Oh my. Have you finally accepted my life of work, my partner?"

Zooming out, Sealsdramon slowly approached the garbage can. Tempted as he was to crack a smile right about now, the assassin digimon held back his judgments for now. At least until he had a better picture of what they got themselves into. They were heading into high school the last time he had seen them, bringing with it all kinds of opportunities and uncertainties. They had likely completed that part of their education and were now heading onto far greater things. What those things were, Sealsdramon would just have to ask them. If they were willing to talk about that. Conversations were never their or his strong suits. Opportunities to speak with targets were relatively limited and rarely brought forth anything of value. The few times that it had, it was canceled out by finding documents that said all the same things the target had announced. Quite an odd thing to have on your person. Wouldn't it be better to have a bunch of fake documents? That way, the person who hired would be deceived and think they were on the right track when they very much weren't. A win-win for everyone involved, but beyond the point as Sealsdramon lifted the lid up. Staring in, he was met by a mix of body parts and white garbage bags. Part of him wanted to just open one up to see what was inside, but he let better judgment guide him here. Probably wasn't anything in the way of clues. No, they would have disposed of that kind of stuff in a secure place that no one would ever find. Or at least take a considerable amount of time to find in the first place. But that was just him.

Shifting his focus away from the garbage bags, Sealsdramon pulled an arm out of the trashcan. Holding it up in the light, the assassin digimon found the limb absolutely roached. Pieces of the bone stuck right out, while the muscles and veins appeared human. But at the same time, why would his partner throw these all out? It just didn't make a lick of sense. At least, not till he

"Quite the development I've found here." Sealsdramon thought and cracked a smile. Lasting only a couple seconds, the euphoria was more than enough to push him to continue investigating further. But where exactly?

Closing the lid, the assassin digimon turned his attention to the house itself. Beyond the bizarre front that looked like it had been ripped from a 70s housing magazine, a brown wooden fence served to differentiate between the front yard and the backyard. There was likely to be no one actually manning the front door, but the back door was likely to be unlocked. At least, Sealsdramon hoped it would be. Making his way towards the fence, he looked for a gate. But all the assassin digimon found were vertical wooden planks. Reaching up to the top of one of the planks, he carefully grabbed hold.

"Here goes nothing." Sealsdramon announced, just in case someone could see him do this dangerous stunt. If they could, he just brought a whole lot of attention to himself. Attention that was likely not to disappear in a timely fashion. Instead, it would grow exponentially and bring with all sorts of strange and bizarre characters. But if there weren't, he would only have himself to blame should the fence break or part of him got caught on a board. Thankfully, the result was a relatively clean jump over the fence. "Phew."

Checking for any splinters that might have gotten on him, Sealsdramon scanned his surroundings. As backyards went, he had seen far better attempts. The grass alone looked like it desperately needed water and perhaps nutrients to grow, while the plants weren't looking better. Perhaps that was why his partner had put up the fence. Don't want kids randomly wandering in where they don't belong. Even if that was the very thing his partner did when he was a kid. That couldn't be that long ago… right? Between Ordinemon and Eosmon, it probably had been. A perfect explanation for all the body parts he discovered in the trash.

Shifting his attention away from the grass, Sealsdramon found himself looking for anything else of note when it came to the rest of the backyard. But all he the assassin digimon could see was a small step that led right into a sliding glass door.

"I thought you were better than this." Sealsdramon thought and reached for the handle. Giving it a tug, the door refused to budge. Figures. Just his luck, right at a critical moment to boot. Something as simple as a door was not going to defeat a master assassin like himself. So he went for the obvious option - smashing his way right through. By no means the cleanest nor quietest way through, it did get results. Though Sealsdramon had a feeling that he would be the one having to clean up the mess. Not that he minded. This was a price he was willing to pay for making entrance into the lair of another assassin/possible assassin. While the body parts implied someone with quite a high body count, one wouldn't go through the trouble of disposal like th-

Sealsdramon didn't get a chance to finish that thought, an object slammed into his head. Scanning the room about, he was met with a fairly standard dining room. The walls had been done up in gaudy wallpaper decorated with flowers and bows. The decoration kind, not the weapon kind. That would've been far better in his book. Not working with the flowers, be damned. As for the floor, that was carpet. What color exactly, the assassin digimon couldn't say. It was either mocha white or vanilla. A leg of all body parts sat at his feet, taunting him with all its mysteries and secrets that could shine a light on everything. Picking it up, Sealsdramon took a moment to examine it. While it appeared human, could he really be that sure? While out on assignment, a couple digimon had claimed that a guilmon had made contact with intelligent life. What that 'life' was or how a guilmon of all digimon managed to do just that, he wasn't sure. Probably blowing smoke in the hopes of getting him to give out better information. They were sadly mistaken and he had gone on his way. Yet, the information clung tightly in his head. He wasn't sure why though. Just one more thing to ask his partner when he found him. Maybe after calling him out for throwing someone's leg at him. The least he could've done was use a fresh one. This one was very clearly not. The nerve of him. He had supported him to the best of his abilities, but this was how he rewarded him? Absolutely rude. But Sealsdramon pushed that thought out in favor of heading on further into the home. His partner couldn't be that much further within. This house was pretty small. Just a process of elimination before he found wherever it was. Shouldn't be that hard. Or at least, the assassin digimon hoped it wouldn't be.

"Kid, it's me! Your digimon partner!" Sealsdramon announced and waited for a possible response back. Instead, he got a hand slamming right into his head. Catching it mid-fall, Sealsdramon took the briefest of moments to examine this new body part. Done up in a neon orange color, this felt like an outlier to all the other limbs he had found so far. Why would someone even want a hand that was this bright? The last thing that person needed was a bunch of people making fun of them for having such a disability… unless something had changed in the years that he was away. But for such a large shift to occur, a just as big event would've needed to occur to cause it in the first place. Taking a moment to think it over, the answer hit the assassin digimon - Eosmon. Part of him felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner. Letting out a deep breath, tears began rolling down his face. Not out of sadness or joy, but sheer embarrassment. He was a trained hitman, but right now he felt like a complete idiot of the highest caliber. Even more so as the sound of footsteps echoed his way and drew close. There, a tall lanky man stood. Chest on full display, two sets of incisions hung a bit below the upper chest, a tiny bit of muscle hanging just below that. As for the man's lower half, that was covered by a pair of pants. But that wasn't where Sealsdramon's attention had chosen to fixate on. No, that would be the left arm. No longer flesh, it instead looked to be a mix between metal and plastic. Done up with a black finish, it reminded the assassin digimon of Andromon for some reason. He wasn't sure why, but that was the first thing that came to his mind. Moving away from that, a set of hazel eyes stared back and locks of blonde hair had been cut short.

"Let me guess. You actually thought that I was a trained killer due to all the prosthesis in the trash?" the man announced and Sealsdramon nodded. Watching the man approach, he found himself embraced in a hug. "If you really need to know, an Eosmon decided that my arm was a tasty treat."

Sealsdramon nodded, another question coming to him. One just as important if not more so than the whole debacle of his partner's arm. Something that needed to be rectified right now.

"Did you choose a name?" Sealsdramon whispered and watched his partner bend down and whisper something back. Cracking a smile, he didn't answer. Wasn't really a need too.