A Digimon Frontier AU Fanfic
By: Sakura Martinez (a.k.a Haru Glory)
A/N: Well, the internet connection over here is still pretty much slower than a turtle and so I have found a hard time just uploading a single chapter. I have to apologize for the delay of updates though for that reason. I have no idea just when the internet connection would be back to normal.
Anyhow, thanks for the constant reviews, guys…although at the moment, the number of reviews I am receiving from this fanfiction is pretty small, I still would like to thank all those who are reading this fanfic – both those who do review and who don't have time to do so. You guys are the reason why I continue to write at FFN. Thanks a lot.
Well, I've hold you guys up for quite a long time already. So without further delay, here is the next chapter of The Rabbit on the Moon! Enjoy and Happy New Year to all!!!
The Rabbit on the Moon
Leave it to me! An Escort Mission!
"What? Why do I have to be the one sent on that place, father?" Izumi asked, her temper flaring. "I'm not even a knight! Not only that, this is not a job for a lady!"
"Knight or not, you are the only person whom I can fully trust to go on this journey." Her father, Commander Kintaro replied sternly.
"That's not the case, father." She argued back, "You don't expect me and my bodyguard to just travel to that Bandit Territory by ourselves, do you?"
"Of course not." He replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "That's the reason why I have already sent word to the Knight Academy to send us the most experienced Apprentice that they can offer."
"What?" Izumi could not help but exclaim, "You're calling for Apprentices rather than full pledged Knights?"
The commander nodded, stood up and walked towards the large window in his room and look beyond the view that the window could offer him. He sighed…
"At the moment, I cannot dispatch any of my knights at the same time, I cannot ask for any other full pledged knights in the academy."
"Why not, father?"
"You fully know the reason why, Izumi." He replied, "If the Council, the Four Imperial Generals and the other commanders find out that I am doubting the King, then they could very well throw us out of the Kingdom and ban us as traitors. Surely they would smell something fishy if I would have requested for Knights rather than Apprentices."
"Even so father, you know how I feel about traveling with Junpei."
"I know that, my daughter, that is why I am reassigning him to another duty for the time being and sending the Vice Commander along with you."
"The Vice Commander?" Izumi asked, blushing a bit. "But you just said that you cannot afford to send any of your knights and surely when the Council hears that the Vice Commander of the Eastern Corps is escorting me, they would wonder why, especially if you have told them in your letter that I am going on a vacation."
"You don't have to worry about that either, Izumi." Her father replied, "The Council doesn't know that you are heading out somewhere, what they do know is that Kouji's sister would be going on a vacation and that Kouji would only be escorting her up until you reach Guara, from there you will be protected by the Apprentice Knights."
"I still don't understand why I have to go there undercover."
"Don't worry, I would never send you to a place that I know holds so much danger."
"Are you serious about this, Captain?" Kouichi exclaimed, surprise evident on his voice.
"Of course," the Captain replied. "since when did I joke about such things."
"But why choose us?" Takuya asked, "We're not the best among the Apprentices, not only that, but you're only sending both Kouichi and myself."
"I'm not the one who decided this." He retorted with an annoyed tone, "It's the Academy's decision, not mine. Don't tell me you boys do not wish to take on this mission."
"OF COURSE NOT, CAPTAIN!" The two Knight Apprentices replied in unison.
"So, who are we escorting again?" Takuya asked, his eyes beaming.
"Well, according to the memo from the council, you'll be escorting Vice Commander Kouji Minamoto's younger sister." The Captain said as he read the piece of paper containing the request for Knight Apprentices aloud.
"I don't get it, if she's the Vice Commander's sister, why doesn't the Vice Commander escort her along with some of his Knights?" Kouichi asked.
"Well, apparently, the Eastern Corps Commander didn't allow such a request." The Captain replied, "However, according to this memo, Vice Commander Kouji would be accompanying you boys up until you reach Guara."
"Well, it's a good thing that the Vice Commander would be accompanying us." Takuya said not caring about the fact that this Vice Commander was the Vice Commander of his father's rival. "If we were to escort her sister by ourselves who knows what'll happen."
"Yeah." Kouichi nodded, "I don't know much about the landscape heading towards Guara, but I hear that bandits usually attack there. Not only that, but I am quite curious about Sir Minamoto."
"Well, since you already know most of the mission details, I'll leave you two boys to prepare for the trip to the rendezvous point with the Vice Commander and for the trip towards Guara as well." The Captain said standing up, "Make sure you prepare well, lack of preparation could be critical to this mission. I'll call you for further briefings tomorrow before your departure."
"Yes, sir!" Kouichi and Takuya said in unison as they saluted their superior.
"Finally," Takuya said, "A real mission!"
The morning breeze swept over the Karm Train station blowing off a bit of sand over the atmosphere that Izumi and Kouji had to shield their eyes to not allow the gust of sand to irritate it.
She sighed as her hair was flowing with the breeze and as the sun illuminated it making her hair seem golden in color.
They have not been standing on the station platform for that long waiting for the two Apprentice Knights that her father had hired. On the contrary, they had just arrived at Karm five minutes ago.
She did not understand how her companion's mind works. First, she was woken up by one of her female attendants even before sunrise for their departure, then she was dragged half-sleepy to this almost-abandoned train station south of the large city, Wingdum to wait for the apprentices with an hour or so more before the appointed time that they were supposed to meet them.
She was, without a doubt, annoyed, and she did not try to hide it.
"Tell me again, Vice Commander, the reason why we have to be here earlier than expected?" she asked, annoyance visible in her tone of voice.
The Vice Commander who had a long black hair tied in a ponytail, whose face looked stern and serious with those black jet eyes of his looked over at his companion and replied.
"I'm sure the Commander, your father, had already informed you that we are supposed to be siblings, Lady Izumi, and for that matter, you cannot expect people to see us leaving from the manor together."
"I still don't understand why we have to be an hour earlier."
The Vice Commander sighed, "We still don't know if, as your father had suspected, we are going to be trailed for this, so we had to leave before sunrise since, if we are to be trailed they would be suspecting that we would be leaving much later in the morning since this train station is not that far from the city. Not only that, but it would be rude for the Apprentice Knights if we were to be the ones late for this meeting when we are the ones asking for their assistance, wouldn't you agree, my lady?"
She sighed and gave up talking with her companion. She had to admit that this Vice Commader Minamoto is good-looking, a gentle man and, as her father had pointed out, dependable, however, he can sometimes, if not mostly, be cold-hearted especially when it comes to communicating with others.
She had heard from the other Knights of the Eastern Corps that Kouji Minamoto, her father's most trusted Knight was a lone wolf. It sometimes makes her wonder just how he became a Vice Commander in the first place since she had always thought that Vice Commanders needs some communing skills just like the other Vice Commanders.
Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when Kouji suddenly spoke up.
"There is one other precaution that we have to agree with, Lady Izumi." He said.
"One other precaution?" she asked.
"Your name." he bluntly said. "Your looks alone could make people wonder if we really are siblings, so we have to create a made up identity for you. An identity that you would be using as long as we are on this journey and you will keep that identity until you return back to the mansion."
Izumi thought for a moment, and although she never did like playing pretend, she could not see any other way out of it, and so she agreed.
"What do you have in your mind then?" she asked.
"Well, you will act as my step-sister, I would tell a story that my parents are divorced and that you are the daughter of my step-mother." He explained in a hush voice making sure that no one would be able to eavesdrop on them, even though the whole place was half deserted. "The fact that my step-mother and father had only been married means that we don't know much about each other and thus, we are on this little vacation."
"Well, that sounds believable." Izumi said, quite amazed at how fast Kouji's mind was able to make something up like that. "That would steer us clear from any suspicion especially when they ask me about you and I am not able to answer anything or vice-versa."
Kouji nodded, "That's exactly my point. Anyway, for your name…"
"Let ME decide on that." She said immediately cutting him off, "I don't want you to make up something silly."
"Alright then, you decide."
It took a couple of minutes before Izumi was able to come up with something to her liking.
"Megumi." She said, "How's that?"
"Megumi Minamoto…" the Vice Commander muttered to himself, then nodded, "That sounds pretty good, Megumi it is."
"Just how long does it take to get to Karm Station?" Takuya muttered, he was already getting bored of their carriage ride which seemed to have been going on for days when in fact, it had only been two hours of travel.
"You really are an impatient one, aren't you, Takuya?" Kouichi said.
"Impatient?" He asked, "I don't think anyone would be able to sit for any much longer in this bumpy carriage, horse-back riding is better than this."
"Not really, Carriage rides suits us well, I think."
"Speak for yourself."
At that, they both laughed, the scenery outside their windows moving along as their carriage went on forward to its destination.
"Hey, Takuya, do you wonder what the Vice Commander Minamoto's sister is like?" Kouichi suddenly asked.
Takuya looked over at his companion as if Kouichi was asking the most stupid question in all of Frontiria.
"What?" Kouichi asked noticing that odd look.
"I don't really know just where the heck that question came from, Kouichi, but I suggest you keep your thoughts to yourself." Takuya said as he looked back outside the window. "If the Vice Commander hears you talking about her sister, who knows what'll happen to you – if you will ever graduate the Knight Academy or not."
"Hey, I didn't mean anything bad about that, I was just wondering." Kouichi retorted, "Besides, aren't you the least bit curious?"
"Not at all."
"Whether she's sweet, charming, kind-hearted?"
"What's that got to do with our mission?"
"Whether she has the same jet black hair as her brother, as tall as him, if her eyes are full of innocence?"
"Kouichi, if you keep thinking about that you will be out of focus for our mission."
"If she's like her brother or if she can't even hurt a fly?"
"Aren't you even listening, Kouichi?"
"I bet she's really good-looking!"
"…you're not acting like yourself…"
It went on for more minutes before Kouichi stopped daydreaming.
"Finally, Kouichi Kimura is back in Frontiria." Takuya commented.
At that Kouichi laughed, "I bet you were imagining just what she looks like, weren't you?"
"Don't start with me again, Kouichi…"
Kouichi laughed once more. He really like irritating his friend once in a while to lighten up the mood. It was then that he suddenly came into a realization…
"You know, Takuya, I think we may have forgotten something very important about this mission." He said.
"Something important? Like what?" Takuya asked.
"Like the fact that we are going to be working under the Eastern Corps' Vice Commander."
"So, what of it?" he asked, not getting what Kouichi was trying tosay.
"So, do you think it would be safe if you were to go as Takuya Kanbara?" Kouichi asked, "You know, as far as I've heard, it's really dangerous to be affiliated with your father at the moment, especially with dealing with the Eastern Corps and especially if it would be dealing with their Vice Commander."
Takuya thought for a moment.
He had heard of it as well, some of his father's Knights were already killed by the worst kind of Knights of the Eastern Corps and most of them were those who held a high position or who were seen closest with his father.
He could not help but think that what Kouichi might be saying is right.
"I see what you mean." He said finally, "So, what are we going to do then?"
They both sat in the carriage thinking of a way to solve their current dilemma. It was when they were already half an hour's journey away from their destination that they came across a plan.
"It's dangerous to go on this mission as Takuya Kanbara." Kouichi said, "So, if that's the case, you would have to go as someone else."
"That's right, it's a good thing that the Academy doesn't send the information of those who are going to respond to a mission." Takuya said.
Kouichi nodded, "So how about you go as someone else? You don't have to act like my brother or something since that would be way out of the question."
"Right, I can't even see any hint of family resemblance." Takuya laughed. "So how about I just change my name or something."
"That would work quite well."
"It's decided then," Takuya said grinning, "I think I have just got the perfect name for myself."
Dust clouded the place where the carriage stopped.
Izumi with Kouji looked over to where the carriage stopped. They both knew that the people they were waiting for were the ones who are in that carriage, and how would they not when the carriage held the insignia of the Knight Academy?
With their bags perched on their back, they went over to where their superior and his 'sister' were standing and saluted.
"Knight Apprentice, Kouichi Kimura, reporting for duty, sir!" Kouichi said as he saluted.
"Knight Apprentice, Shin Hirugizawa, reporting for duty, sir!" Takuya said as he too saluted.
Kouich shot a look at Takuya as if asking where the hell the name come from, but Takuya just shrug him off.
"Nice to meet you, Knight Apprentices." Kouichi said saluting back, "I don't believe I would need to introduce myself, so let me introduce my step-sister instead. This is my step-sister, Megumi Minamoto."
As he said Izumi's made up name, she stepped forwards and said, "It's nice to meet you both."
He didn't really understand what was happening then, but when Takuya saw Izumi that day, he felt glad to see her. He really didn't understand what his feeling meant, and so, he just shrug the feeling off as pre-mission jitters.
Unknown to him, Izumi was feeling the very same thing. She did not understand it as well. She had only met the guy a few minutes, even seconds, ago and yet, there was something about him that made her feel at ease. She really didn't understand what she was feeling and so she shrug her feeling off thinking that perhaps it was only because of the fact that Shin has an auburn hair.
"Alright then," Kouji said as he took Megumi's belongings and as the two Knight Apprentices helped him with it. "Time to board the train."
As if on cue, a rusty train suddenly screeched to a stop right in front of the station.
"Uh…Nice…train." Kouichi said as he gazed upon the train.
"Well, everyone, get on." Kouji said, not minding Kouichi's comment. "We have a long way to go before we reach our destination."
"Right." His three other companions nodded.
And with that, they board the train that would take them to the small village of Ciel.
To be continued…
A/N: This chapter was pretty longer than what I had first anticipated. From this chapter is where the real story begins as the plot will thicken a bit, so you guys better stay tuned and keep constant watch for updates on this fanfiction.
Also, for all those who mailed me and gave me an early birthday greeting, thanks a lot, tomorrow (December 31) would be my birthday so you guys can bet that I won't be able to update tomorrow.
Also, I hope I don't get any questions concerning the names that Takuya and Izumi/Zoe chose on this chapter since the names are kind of spur of the moment things (I have nothing better to think of and it was the first names that came into my mind, lol).
Anyways, keep reviewing guys!
Until next time!! Ja ne!!!