I don't own digimon.

Story 16

Untitled South African Story

Kabelo gazed about the fields around Cape Town Stadium. While not normally a place that he would spend, something about it called out to him. Normally, his days were spent helping book trips all across Africa for people. Regardless of the resurgence of digi-ports in dang near everything and the possibility of an economical crash unlike anything the world had ever seen, most people were in good spirits. On the bright side, it made it a heck of a lot easier just to stay competitive in this industry.

"Kazi uphi uzakwethu? (I wonder where you are, my partner?)" he thought and continued to gaze across the field. What Centarumon would give for a place like this - galloping around while he did his best to emulate whatever soccer star was in the news or they had seen on the television at the time. Sometimes, they would even have a bunch of other kids and their partners go all out. Okay, 'all out' was perhaps the wrong term to describe it. The larger digimon would have to stay at the back, while the smaller digimon got to run about with the humans. On the bright side, that did mean they always had a goalie should the need arise. As for the ball, they could always substitute in a mamemon. The only worry was having to make sure none of them kicked too hard and broke their foot. Or worse, piss the mansion off enough that it just lashed out at them and brought a premature end to the game. Those truly were the days. While Kabelo sometimes missed those times, it would usually drift away as quickly as it entered his head. That didn't even factor in work and other activities more important than daydreaming the time away. Yes, it was very much the early half of the weekend. But his time would be better spent elsewhere, doing other things. So why did he come back here? Was there something lost amid the grass, somehow untouched by the stooping of feet, mowers or whatever walked about these grounds on a daily basis. Odd as that thought sounded, it was better than nothing here.

Carefully bending down, Kabelo began running his hand across the grass. If there actually was something there, this was his best chance to find whatever it was. Probably just some kind of toy that got misplaced that held some sentimental value then, but had no place in the present. Perhaps it was a picture of friends, back when he and everyone he considered to be his friends actually had time to reliably do stuff together. No need to make plans or try to work it into their schedules. They would go outside and have fun with their digimon partners. Simple as that. Nowadays, just getting even a quarter of the people together in one place was a task on par with herding cats. Possibly even harder than that at times. Not that he had ever wanted to do either of those tasks. His job consisted of a lot of those tasks. The rest consisted of just filling out paperwork and online forms. While there was never a dull moment, it did make the travel agent a touch jealous. One of these days, he would get out of South Africa and see the rest of this continent. Once he had enough money of course.

Pushing that thought out of his head, Kabelo returned his focus to the ground. While he hadn't found anything yet, he had to be getting close. Or perhaps not at all. If he could just remember what exactly he was looking for in the first place. Closing his eyes, Kabelo took a moment to compose himself. He must have forgotten something... right? There had to be something within that big head of his that could give him the answer to this conundrum.

Eyes shooting open, he was eleven now. All of his friends were scattered about the area. Their digimon partner's right beside them. But not his. No, Centarumon was off in the distance. Wearing a brown shirt with a fancy white and gold pattern, he was facing down a drimogemon. Where the heck did this digimon come from? There weren't any mining operations nearby. Where exactly could it have come from in the first place?

"Uyigwala yini? (Are you a coward?)" the drimogemon announced and stood up on its hind legs. Drill nose spinning about, there had to be something that his partner could do here. The soccer game went so well today. This couldn't be how it ended - two digimon trading blows and forcing everyone to head home with their digimon partners. Of course he would stay with Centarumon. That was his partner after all. What kind of chosen would he be otherwise?

"Cha, kodwa impela kunjalo. (No, but you most certainly are.)" Centarumon countered and raised his cannon arm up. Energy began to gather in front of the appendage, the heat given off felt even by Kabelo. Bracing himself, he waited a moment. While the danger of getting blasted was quite low, that didn't mean he should be reckless here. No, that would just open himself up for attacks from the drimogemon. Centarumon had enough on his plate without him adding more to that mess.

Ukuzingela Inganono (Hunting Cannon)!

The gathered energy shot forth from the arm cannon in a massive beam. Making a beeline for the drimogemon, it's met by the drimogemon's nose. Knocking the energy blast up into the sky, they charged right for Centarumon.

Sishisa Phezulu (Heat Upper)!

Waiting a moment for the drimogemon to approach, energy began to gather around Centarumon's arm cannon once more. Unlike his previous attack, no beam came out. Instead, the centaur digimon charged right at his opponent and delivered a fiery uppercut right below drimogemon's drill nose.

"Uyawina ngalesi sikhathi. (You win this time.)" the drimogemon announced as they turned around, scurrying right back to the hole they had come out of. Not even looking in the direction of either Kabelo or Centarumon, they muttered something under their breath. Afterwards, Centarumon headed to his partner.

"Ngabe konke kulungile, kabelo? (Is everything okay, Kabelo?)" he announced, his body flickering about. Far as Kabelo could tell, the drimogemon had been the one who was truly hurt. Not his partner. Did something occur? No, this was something else and there was nothing that he could do.

"Lokhu kuyavalelisa. (This is goodbye.)" Centarumon continued and reached out to Kabelo's hand. Grabbing hold for just a moment, tears began to roll down his face. "Ngiyathembisa ukubuyela kuwe. (I promise to return to you.)"

The words roll out, only to be followed by a small 'thump'. Looking down for just a moment, Kabelo wasn't completely sure what dropped. But when he looked back up, Centarumon was gone. Now, he was standing all alone in this field.

Flushed back out to reality, Kabelo let out a deep breath. Hand still searching the dirt, he had to be getting close to whatever he had dropped that day. The travel agent just knew it. Part of him felt like an idiot for misplacing something this vital.

"Ngicela ungitshele ukuthi awuzami ukudla ukungcola. (Please tell me you're not trying to eat the dirt.)" a voice called out and Kabelo's hand stopped. Grabbing hold, he pulled the appendage back up. In his hand was a very dirty digivice. Nothing that a bit of time and a wet rag couldn't fix. But then he looked up. There Centarumon stood in all his glory. Still sporting the same shirt from all the years ago, even if it did look to be on its last legs. The shirt's pattern had mostly faded and a number of holes and tears had formed across the garment.

"Vele akunjalo. Yini engakwenza ucabange ukuthi benginayo? (Of course not. What would make you think that I had?)" Kabelo answered and got pulled into a careful side hug from his digimon partner. "Manje njengoba ubuyile, yini ofuna ukuyenza kuqala? (Now that you're back, what do you want to do first?)"

Centarumon shrugged.

"Udlale ibhola? (Play soccer?)" Centarumon answered and got a chuckle from Kabelo in return. Some things never did change.

Notes:

Try as I might to come up with some kind of witty title, I hit a wall when it came to actually titling this. One idea was 'Eat Dirt' (in reference to an actual fad in South Africa where people have taken to eating actual dirt), but that didn't quite fit for our story.

As for why South Africa? To be honest with you, I wanted to do a story in relation to the Arabic digimon dubs (Digital Heroes 1 - 3), but didn't have a good idea on where exactly they had run. Frustratingly, I found the information I needed right after finishing writing this. Something to keep in mind for the future.

On the bright side, we do know that Digimon Adventure and 02 were shown there on M-Net (A subscription-based tv channel in South Africa) now defunct K-TV block. Beyond that, there's nothing that I could really find.