Chapter 36: Monodramon Training
The morning came and after a breakfast, Ryo, Taichi, Monodramon and Agumon were outside. When Taichi and Agumon heard about the training, they decided to tag along, having nothing else to do.
"I hope you are ready to train Monodramon," Ryo told his partner with a smile.
Monodramon looked at Ryo and said: "You know...Maybe we should wait until we digest."
"Why are you saying that?" Agumon asked suspiciously as he was walking closer to the purple dragon.
Monodramon chuckled nervously and moved at the other side of his partner, using Ryo as a shield before replying: "I don't want a cramp or something."
"Are you sure you aren't trying to procrastinate?" Ryo asked with a small smile.
Monodramon gasped and replied: "When did you learn such a big word?"
"Don't try to change the subject. I gave the right answer right?" Ryo said without really asking a question.
"Nope," Monodramon said before looking the other way while inflating his cheeks.
Agumon giggled and replied: "A little lazy," before giggling more when Monodramon glared at the orange dinosaur.
"You shouldn't try to do it later Monodramon, neither wanting to become stronger faster. I tried this with Agumon and" Taichi stopped talking for a few seconds before looking at his partner with regret: "...I almost killed everyone when I triggered a dark evolution."
"Dark evolution?" Ryo asked.
"A dark evolution happens when dark emotions come in place. It is something extremely frequent with digimons like me. Monodramons are known to turn into dark digimons frequently. Most of my kind has our heart tainted with darkness as they gave up their Vaccine attribute and chose to become beast. The Devidramon you encountered Ryo one of the few who retained his self and never truly became a beast," Monodramon explained. None of them said anything as they heard that. Monodramon gasped and moved his hands while saying: "But it's not the case for me. I evolved into Strikedramon and not Devidramon. ENIAC was nice to me, just like you Ryo. I didn't have a reason to give up my heart to the darkness."
Ryo smiled at his partner and when they reached a part of the village, free of anything breakable, Ryo said: "We should start the training you asked Monodramon. You want to become stronger after all."
"You're not going to escape it," Agumon said with a smile.
Monodramon glared at Agumon and replied: "I know. Want to fight Agumon?"
"No. I'm stronger than you even if we are both at child digimon. I fight for longer than you," Agumon replied.
"Also, the training isn't about fighting Monodramon. It's just a physical one for now. You didn't travel that much compare to us," Taichi said.
"That's true. I was always with ENIAC or around his domain," Monodramon replied before sighting. He then took a deep breath and said: "It's to protect Ryo I'm going this," to motivate himself. Not really helping...Sadly. "What should I start with?"
Ryo thought about it for a few seconds before he answered: "We should start with jogging. You are never sure how long a battle could be. The Erasers are tough and a battle will surely be longer than normal one." Monodramon sighted when he heard he was going to run for a while. He looked at his partner when he added: "I'm not going to let you job alone Monodramon, I'll do it with you."
Monodramon smiled a little when he heard his partner said that.
Millenniumon and Devidramon watched Ryo and Monodramon run at a circle. Millenniumon smiled while Devidramon wondered what was going on.
"What is going on with them my lord?" he asked.
"They are training. This is what they are doing right now," Millenniumon replied.
"Why aren't they trained for a battle right now? They aren't learning how to fight."
"What they are doing is about the battle, but not directly. Their objective is to increase their endurance," Millenniumon explained. He thought it was simple enough.
"I didn't hear them, I just thought they were running around without any purpose and- Monodramon is down," the dark dragon noticed.
"The digimon gave up first. That's a surprise," the dark god commented. "Nope. He just felt."
"It's not easy to fun with those feet. When I was a Monodramon I felt a few times."
Millenniumon nodded, half interested in thinking that his servant was a little clumsy before: "Good thing you aren't now."
"Well...My tail is longer, so my balance is stronger than before," Devidramon said twisting his tail and looking at it.
"I get what you mean," the dark god replied with a smile.
Monodramon and Ryo were panting in exhaustion after running for a while. Monodramon still had some energy compare to Ryo, but not that much.
"That will not...help me evolve," Monodramon said.
"You will be stronger at your adult form as you train for it," Agumon replied. He added with a small smile: "If you are a stronger child digimon, you will be a stronger adult digimon."
"As Ryo said, the enemy we are fighting is a tough one and we need to tough ourselves if we want to defeat them. We just shouldn't rush it," Taichi said.
Monodramon nodded as he regained his breath with Ryo. Once he stopped panting, he asked: "What's the next thing?"
"You have to train by doing a lot of things like push-ups and etc. After this, maybe you can fight against Agumon. It won't be as intense as your adult form," Ryo suggested.
"Maybe it will be better if you trained in your adult form. It will be better that way. Monodramon will fight the Erasers in his adult form and not his child form," Taichi said.
Ryo thought about it and nodded: "You are right."
Monodramon looked at Agumon and wasn't sure if he'll end up intact after the battle.
"We will wait for a while before practice. I think we should train at other things and give you a rest before doing the rest," Ryo told his partner.
"Okay," Monodramon said. This is going to hurt. He thought, but he showed his fist and said: "This is for Ryo."
Ryo looked at his partner and smiled.
Millenniumon watched the training with a smile. He loved to see Monodramon suffering and especially his face when it was time for the push-ups. It was just the best for him. He sat there and watched everything with a smile. He crossed his arms on his chest and his smile grew bigger when the purple dragon slipped and face-plant.
Devidramon was by his side and was also enjoying it. He loved when the force of light failed at something or suffer any ways possible. It was his dark nature that spoke, but the darkness was made that way.
"My lord. You are taking pleasure in seeing your rival failing?" Devidramon asked.
"Not really. If he is stronger, he can protect my partner better, but seeing his suffering is my own pleasure," Millenniumon replied turned his head at the direction of the dark dragon.
"I understand. I also enjoy seeing an enemy suffering in any ways, even as simple as insignificant as that," Devidramon replied.
"He can't do push-ups. Anyway, I have something else to do," Millenniumon said.
"What is it?" Devidramon asked.
"I also need to train myself Devidramon. If the enemy is powerful, I need to be stronger too or I might get rusty," He then thought: I almost lost the fight against VictoryGreymon too. I was a little overconfident on my power.
"I understand my lord," Devidramon replied and bowed to him.
The dark god turned around and walked away and prepared himself to increase his power while his servant followed him.
Millenniumon sat on the ground and gasped before putting his hands over his mouth and shouted painfully, thankfully, his hands covered the sound.
"What is it my lord?" Devidramon asked.
"I...sat on the ground," Millenniumon grunted painfully.
"You're butt isn't heal yet?" Devidramon asked, hiding his smirk.
"Meditation will be later," the dark god grunted standing up. "I'll do anything that doesn't require sitting on the ground."
Devidramon didn't comment it, but thought: Like when you slept on your stomach with your ass in the air last night? That was funny to see.
Monodramon was on the ground and his eyes were spinning. His mouth was wide open and was knock out.
"Too intense...Toooooo intense," he quietly whined after everything he did.
"You will have some trouble standing up," Ryo warned him. "Next day, you will feel your muscles aching a lot."
"Curse the training," Monodramon quietly whined. He looked at his partner and asked: "Why aren't you in pain?"
"I do it often, even then..." he lowered his head and shook it before looking at Monodramon again: "Anyway. My parents told me to train often and I do it," Ryo replied with a smile.
Taichi and Agumon looked at each other's. They knew what passed in his mind, but didn't say anything about it.
"Later, we will see how you can hold on against Agumon," Taichi said.
That was too much for the poor Monodramon who felt on the ground and his soul flew out of his mouth.
"Don't worry Monodramon. First day is the worst...Only the next day is even worse, but you are a digimon and you heal faster than humans," Ryo told his friend.
"That's right Monodramon. Stop playing dead and stand up. We are going to eat something," Agumon told him.
Monodramon quickly stood up and said with a smile: "Great. I'm hungry!"
Monodramon and Agumon walked away.
Ryo looked at Taichi and said: "I think we should wait for another time. Monodramon won't be able to fight Agumon in this state," before watching Monodramon slowing down when pain came back to him.
Taichi sighted and replied: "You are right. He needs to rest. I think the training was a little too much for him. Since he's a Digimon, he will get over it pretty fast. I'm sure tomorrow he'll be ready for a duel."
"Good." Ryo looked at Taichi and sighted: "I still have the Victory Egg you know."
"I know. You showed us. Why are you saying this?" Taichi asked.
"I am starting to wonder why I was the one who should have it. With all that happened, I kind of forgot about it until today. There was nothing distracting my mind after all. As you know, it made Agumon evolved into VictoryGreymon, but why didn't you were the one to be chosen?" Ryo asked looking at Taichi.
Taichi raised his shoulder and replied: "It's clear that you were chosen to wear this gear."
"But the keys to reach it appeared for you, before I came here," Ryo replied.
"Maybe you were coming soon here and reacted...to Millenniumon because he is your destined partner," Taichi supposed.
"Maybe it's about him. Does that mean the Victory Egg will make him evolve even more?" Ryo asked. Taichi was nervous when he said that, but Ryo quickly said: "I won't let it happen. I was just wondering."
Taichi chuckled and smiled. After a few seconds he replied: "I know you won't do that, but those Erasers are powerful, even if they are only at their Adult level."
Ryo nodded and they didn't say anything about it. They looked at their partner's waiting for them.
"We should hurry up Ryo. They are getting impatient."
"Right," Ryo replied before they accelerated and joined their partner's.
AC: Done for chapter 36.
Chapter 37: Friendly duel: Greymon vs Strikedramon.