This chapter is more background to stuff than anything else
If you see anything like wrong with my 'explanation' of the digiworld then please don't hesitate to tell me what an idiot I am ;P
Chapter dedicated to NoRatCat and Ravn MTM, my reviewers and supporters in this fic
you both rock!
Jijimon was waiting patiently for the digidestined to arrive. He was now in the company of only a select few, his closest friends, as they discussed events in the secluded wing of the tower.
With Centaurmon and AncientWisemon on his right hand side, and Andromon, Pegasusmon and Nefertimon on his left, he was completely surrounded by his trusted council and most respected peers.
Nefertimon inclined her head humbly to Jijimon. "Jijimon-sama," her clearly pronounced voice cut through the room and caught everyone's attention. "These children, are they really the answer? Are we right to pin all of our hopes on them?"
Jijimon nodded sombrely. "It is written that these children are handpicked from the immense race of humans, and that the power is inside of them to defeat Him and rid the world of evil. The digidestined cannot fail."
The ancient lady digimon mulled this over for a moment before nodding. "Then I should not doubt, forgive me."
"Already done," he smiled slightly.
After a short while there was a small noise outside and the six wise digimon stood to alert.
Knock, Knock, Knock.
There was an oddly rhythmic knocking sound at the door of their assembly hall and the six digimon raised their eyebrows.
What on earth was going on? Was someone trying to take over and ambush them by breaking down this sturdy three feet thick door? If they were they were doing a pitiful job. Those tiny knocks would get nowhere and worse they had already alerted the digimon inside to their presence.
How odd.
Then the baffled elders heard a small voice coming from behind the thick door, very faintly. "What are you doing Jeri?" it whispered, bemused.
Jeri...? That wasn't a digimon name. Was this a digidestined trying to break down the door?!
"I'm knocking on the door Tsunomon, it's only polite. We don't wanna disturb anything important." A voice hissed back.
Knocking on the door? What a strange custom. Nefertimon couldn't help herself, she giggled slightly. What an odd creature. This was who they were trusting the future of their world to?
Jijimon glanced at Nefertimon and she ceased giggling immediately. He was unsure of what to do now, was this human child ever actually going to join them or not?
They waited patiently and nothing happened.
Why did the human not enter?
There was nothing for it, Jijimon decided. Clearing his throat and blushing slightly at the absurdity of it he bellowed "Enter." in a commanding voice. He had taken to calling after children, what a strange turn of events.
The door creaked open and in walked a young male human carrying the Tsunomon Jijimon had sent out earlier. The human was handsome and radiated confidence, yet acted meekly, bowing upon entering the room and kneeling down when he reached just in front of the six powerful digimon.
Centaurmon raised an eyebrow at the newcomer and stared at him critically for a moment.
"Get up," Jijimon commanded the boy as he knelt before him. "We are all free digimon here... and humans... and we kneel before no one, is that clear?"
Startled, Jeri sprang up and nodded his head meekly. Out of instinct he bowed slightly to acknowledge that he had understood and would comply, but this just caused Jijimon to frown.
"No bowing either..." Jijimon was beginning to feel uncomfortable.
"Oh uh... okay. I mean…" Jeri cringed, not making a good impression despite his best efforts. Not knowing how to act now he began to pick at his finger nails and stare at the floor, nervous around these mature creatures that seemed to him to be like adults, yet insisted he did not bow to them. Having had etiquette drilled into him from a young age he felt like a fish out of water now that he was told to abandon such practises.
He sighed and glanced up at the digimon before him apologetically.
"Your name?" Jijimon asked
"I'm Jeri, Jijimon-sama... sir." He had to fight the urge not to dip his head in respect, instead he fidgeted even more.
"Jeri, I see... and where are the others?" He demanded.
"Others?" Jeri looked up startled. There are others?
"Yes, the other four digidestined. Where are they?"
Jeri looked to Tsunomon for help, until now he hadn't even known there were others.
"We got split up, Jijimon-sama, long before we even found the children. We agreed we would all go our separate ways and head back here. They should be here any minute now." Tsunomon piped up.
Jijimon scowled, what was taking them so long?
Knock, knock, knock.
There was another faint staccato knocking at the thick door, despite the fact it was still ajar from Jeri's entrance.
The six ancient digimon again raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
"Yumi..." a small voice whispered, "What are you doing? Go on in."
"Manners," Yumi snapped. "You said these people were important."
Nyaromon sighed. "Of course, I see. So that's why you're chipping away at their door...?" the digimon's tone sounded exasperated. "You humans are weird."
"Whatever. Just shut up, you're being rude." Yumi hissed, quietening the small digimon.
"Enter," Boomed Jijimon's voice, slightly frustrated. Would he have to do this for all of the digidestined children?
In crept a girl who bowed at the doorway and then came forward to kneel at the six digimon's feet. She did not smile in greeting, in fact her face was cold and almost emotionless. Her digimon followed her miserably and Yumi ignored her. She gave a strange look to the other human boy, Jeri, and scowled when he smiled at her.
What a friendly young lady, observed Centaurmon.
"Stand please, and try not to bow." Jijimon commanded.
Yumi leapt up and nodded, not saying anything.
"And your name is?" Jijimon prised when she offered no information.
"Yumi. Yours?"
"Jijimon." He smiled slightly at her attitude. She would soon learn.
"Ah, yes." She mused. "This creature here," she waved to indicate Nyaromon, "said you could give me answers."
"Me too," Jeri butted in.
"Yes, and I will soon enough." He said dismissively.
Knock, Knock, Knock...
The ancient six digimon sweat dropped.
"Enter" Jijimon shouted, scratching the back of his head and sighing.
In came a group of two humans and two digimon together, bowing infuriatingly at the door then coming forward and kneeling at the feet of the powerful six digimon.
"Up." Jijimon told them sternly.
Benjiro and Renjiro jumped up to attention and bowed again, DemiDevimon and Gomamon watched this with barely concealed amusement.
Then the twins saw the other two digidestined, Yumi and Jeri. Benjiro smiled at them cheerfully and Renjiro raised his eyebrow, his signature gesture at the moment.
"Names?" Jijimon asked.
"Benji..." Benjiro bowed respectfully.
"Renjiro." Renjiro dipped his head.
"No more bowing." Jijimon snapped. He then glanced down at the twin's two digimon, now at rookie level. "You evolved?" He asked, impressed.
"Yup," Gomamon piped up cheerfully, "Benji and Renjiro were in trouble, so we evolved to protect them."
DemiDevimon then added gloomily, "But we had to defeat a Mushroomon, his eyes wept."
Jijimon nodded and sighed sadly, another fallen friend used for evil by Him.
The six ancient digimon fell silent, clapped their hands together above their heads and lowered them slowly, eyes closed. They then bowed their heads and whispered "Moishe..."
The digidestined digimon closed their eyes too and whispered "Moishe" in return. The four digidestined children exchanged glances as the digimon once again opened their eyes.
DemiDevimon saw Renjiro's confusion and whispered, "It's a sign of respect for the fallen, Moishe means journey. It's the end of their journey and we honour that."
Renjiro nodded, touched. He remembered the eyes and the expression of that digimon, something he would never forget. But even more disturbing he now saw that that digimon was just a pawn in a higher evil plan, and this made him more of a victim than anyone. It was sad.
"And where is the fifth?" Jijimon asked impatiently. He was a digimon who was not used to being kept waiting, especially on matters of such importance.
Just then, as if on cue, in flew a purple bat, out of breath and apologetic, followed by a nervous child who could be no older than nine judging by the looks of him. Yumi softened as Roka sidled nervously into the room. He stuck close to the little monster as it gasped hurried apologies to Jijimon.
"Oh I'm so sorry we're late, we ran into some unexpected... company on the way." Tsukaimon panted.
Roka blinked, remembering the Betamon they had come up against, especially its eyes.
"And you managed to evolve?" Centaurmon looked impressed that the youngest child's digimon had rose to the occasion. Of all of them Roka had been the one Centaurmon worried about, being so young. Tokomon too had been quite weak and unreliable looking, but he had proven himself and for this had now gained Centaurmon's respect.
"Yes, I'm now Tsukaimon, I had to evolve to save Roka," he explained, still panting lightly. "His strength and care gave me the power to evolve and defeat the possessed Betamon who attacked us."
Another digimon fallen, the six ancients once again clapped their hands above their heads, closed their eyes and said "Moishe."
"Moishe," the digidestined digimon echoed. Renjiro joined in mumbling it under his breath respectfully.
They opened their eyes and Jijimon held out his arm, indicating they go in that direction. "Follow me," he said, "And I will explain everything."
He led the way down a long corridor lit with candles and smelling strongly of incense as the digidestined and ancients followed him. After just a short while they arrived at a big door with a large brass handle and gold patterns on the woodwork. The patterns were symbols of some sort and they looked important. Jijimon opened the door slowly, it appeared to be heavy from the effort the powerful digimon put into opening it, and they filed in nervously.
Good, no more knocking or bowing, Jijimon thought.
"Take a seat," the ancient digimon said, relaxing and indicating to the large wooden chairs positioned around a table in the middle of the room. Each of the chairs looked massive and grand, with high backs and arm rests, made out of polished wood with patterns on the back. It was a set up like the old Knights table in the movie Arthur and Knights of the Round Table, thought Jeri smiling to himself.
The children and digimon shuffled around to grab a seat and Jeri decided to sit next to Yumi, grinning at her goofily. She glanced away haughtily and Jeri smiled. How adorable, she's playing hard to get.
Jijimon took the seat at the head of the table and cleared his throat. "It is time to reveal why you are here." He proclaimed.
Everyone was now silent and attentive to the digimon at the head of the table as he began to explain their purpose.
"Okay then, where to start," he scratched his head for a moment then smiled, "ah yes, that's it. I'll start at the very beginning, with a simple explanation of the digital world. Right from the very start of time," he began, "there have always been worlds parallel to the one that you existed in, did you know that to be the case?"
"Erm," Jeri wasn't sure about that, but since he was now sitting in another world he couldn't really argue. Well, he could but he would sound quite stupid. "No, I didn't but I guess it's true, if you say so."
The others were willing to accept this too, although they had never thought of it before either, so they just nodded.
"Good, okay. Well we digimon knew of the existence of such worlds, or dimensions, as we call them, but no-one had ever been able to prove that they actually existed, as its scientifically impossible to 'jump' dimensions.-"
"But then how-" Roka began.
"I'll get to that in a minute." Roka nodded and Jijimon continued, "Anyway, as I was saying, it's scientifically impossible to 'jump' dimensions because there is no crossover point between any two parallel worlds, because they run parallel, you see?"
Yumi nodded, the twins shared glances, Roka looked blank and Jeri scratched his head. "No," he said "I don't get it at all."
Yumi sighed in exasperation and turned briefly to him to explain, speaking slowly as if to an infant which caused him to scowl. "Parallel means they run side by side perfectly, always the same distance away from each other."
"Yeah, okay" He frowned, he already knew that much at least.
"Well, if they're always the same distance away from each other they will never meet, or cross over, right?"
"I guess."
"So if they don't meet then you can't go from one to the other." She sighed in exasperation at having to spell it out for him to such an extent.
Jijimon looked at Yumi, she was quite a smart kid, he thought, even if her manner with people left much to be desired. He could work with that.
Jeri nodded, and so Jijimon continued.
"So, we had to accept that, even though we knew that there were other parallel worlds out there, we could never prove it, or find out about them, ever. It was just scientifically impossible. Quite unfortunate.
"However, completely by accident one day, we learned of another dimension that was not parallel but instead existed on complimentary planes to our own. We had coexisted alongside each other for, well, goodness knows how long. This complimentary world is intricately linked to the digital world, the very fibres are fused together as it were, and we are each a shadow of the other. Such a discovery was a turning point in the way we viewed everything around us. We had never even begun to think that there could be such a thing as a complimentary world, in any circumstance, for reasons too complicated to go into now. Yet there it was; the digital world's very own complimentary world, your human world.
"But as intrigued as we were, we never even suspected how closely our two worlds were connected, we never knew that in fact our worlds rely on each other to survive. We had no idea of this at all... until the book was revealed to us from the lake of sulphur. The tide washed it up onto the shore of File Island four centuries ago and since then myself and my five companions here have pored over it tirelessly in the hope of learning its mysteries.
"The book writes of you five children being the last hope for our world - and in effect your world too, since the two are fused together, meaning that what effects one must affect the other. It speaks of the prophesy surrounding your entering into the digital world, which has been fulfilled. It also says that you will be able to make your digimon partners evolve, which three of you have already.
"Remarkable," His eyes glazed over slightly, "I would not believe it had I not witnessed it... The power of the digidestined..."
"Digidestined?" Benjiro looked intrigued.
"Yes. You are the digidestined" said Jijimon proudly. "I will explain what that means. It was written that in the time of great evil there would come five children from our shadow world - Rokune it was referred to as - in other words your human world, and they would save us and restore order, peace and goodness back to our world. Only at the time when evil was at its worst would these children be summoned by the incantation, at this time the ancient devices which are known as digivices would be used to bring you to us. And here you are," he flashed a rare smile.
"So we're all a digidestined?" Asked Roka uncertainly, his eyes widening as he took this information in.
"Yes," Jijimon replied, "Now to be a digidestined is to be a child who possesses the ten founding virtues within them; these are love, friendship, wisdom, reliability, courage, integrity, Peace,Truth, loyalty and kindness. Plus also you must have in balance within you the two states of being, darkness and light; yin and yang.
"However, as a digidestined this alone is not enough, you must also be able to call on these virtues in order to overcome evil in the world, this you can do through the crests or spirits as we sometimes call them. There is one crest for each virtue, as well as the crests for darkness and light. You are each destined to have two crests of virtue, plus two of you will have a third, the crests of the states of light and darkness. Since light and darkness are not virtues but states, they are an extra, and their power is superior to any other power when used properly. Together they are invincible; for together they unleash the power of yin and yang."
The digidestined all nodded solemnly and then Roka asked "So these crests, do they like pick us?"
"Yes, they do."
"But what about our digimon, don't they get crests too?" Roka asked, looking down at his friend Tsukaimon.
Jijimon scratched his head nervously, "I see that I forgot to explain what it was the crests are for."
He cleared his throat. "In the book's prophesy it states that these five children -you - will have the power to make their partner digimon evolve. But it is the power of the crests that allows this, and so when you have a crest, it is really not just yours, but a shared power of you and your digimon. The power of the crests gives them the ability to evolve and save the world, and it is you children who harness this power. Do you understand?"
"What do you mean when you say 'evolve'?" asked Jeri, intrigued.
"Oh yes, of course, allow me to explain. Look at your digimon," Jijimon pointed to Tsunomon and smiled tenderly, "he is small, cute and helpless – at the moment." The five digidestined nodded in agreement, however poor Tsunomon look offended by the word helpless and was about to protest when Jijimon continued.
"This stage in his development is called the 'in-training' stage, I believe it to be the digimon equivalent to your stage of being toddlers or young children. Well, over the course of time digimon naturally change, they become bigger, stronger and meaner, much like you humans do, you grow up - at least from my understanding. Only for digimon this growing up is called evolving, and instead of happening gradually over a period of time, it happens rapidly, instantly even. One moment they'll be an adorable little 'in-training' Bukamon, the next they'll have evolved, changed, grown, into a completely different creature; a fun, spirited Gomamon, a digimon of the 'rookie' level which is the equivalent to an older child or young teenager. This is our nature. And this is what happened to our three rookie level friends here, who were just this very morning only in their in-training forms, yet look at them now.
"But what's so amazing about the digidestined children is that, with the power of the crests, they have the ability to make digimon, or more specifically their partner digimon, evolve whenever they need to. Like for example when you were in danger they evolved to rescue you, isn't that right?" He glanced briefly at the twins and Roka for confirmation.
They nodded.
"But when they evolve, they'll be different?" Jeri asked, looking fondly at Tsunomon.
"Yes, they will change completely. However, I believe that in the case of digidestined digimon the evolving process is not necessarily permanent, for the energy needed to sustain such transformations is immense. So once the danger has passed your digimon should revert back to their foundation form, to how they are now." Then he paused thoughtfully, "Well, actually they seem to prefer the rookie form. It could be possible that they are permanently able to sustain it so that could become their foundation state."
"So, the rookie form is what Tsunomon'll be next?" Jeri prised.
"Yes, and after that the champion, then the ultimate, mega, magna, ultra and so on and so forth. Not forgetting DNA evolving of course. I've hypothesised that that level of evolving could reach the NOVA level, although I have never had the experience myself, not being a chosen digimon. My level is Mega."
The digidestined looked at him in awe. Mega... wow.
"But in order to make the most out of your power you need the combination of both your crests, or spirits, and your digivices."
Benjiro held out his black device, "You mean this?"
Jijimon nodded. "They are powerful ancient devices, no one yet knows exactly what they are capable of, but it is written that they work with the crests you possess to give you and your digimon ultimate power. They allow you to unleash your full potential. Use them wisely."
"These things? Ultimate power?" whispered Benjiro in awe, looking at the small gadget in his hands.
"Yes. It is said that they have infinite functions and they are said to feed off the faith in your hearts. If you have faith in yourselves and each other then they can harness that positive energy and do some truly amazing things."
"Oooh, like what?" asked Roka eagerly.
Jijimon laughed, "You'll find out soon enough my young friend, who am I to tell you what your digivice can and cannot do? That is for you alone to discover, and then perhaps one day you can tell me." Roka grinned at him.
"Infinite possibilities..." Benjiro mumbled with shining eyes.
"Yeah?" Renjiro frowned, "how about like getting us home?"
"You will be taken home when our world is saved, for then your job here will be done." Jijimon assured.
Roka looked troubled for a minute at the thought of going home. Still, saving the world wouldn't be done in a day right? He would have plenty of time to enjoy this adventure.
Plenty of time.
He reached out to stroke Tsukaimon gently.
Plenty of time to spend here in this new and exciting world with his new friend.
He smiled. Friend.
I have a real friend.
Tsukaimon fluttered into his lap and curled up, settling down comfortably. Roka enjoyed the physical closeness and held his partner tightly in a sort of cuddle. Jijimon raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing and the meeting continued.
However, Roka wasn't listening any more, instead he was smiling to himself imagining all of the adventures ahead for him and his new friend. The amazing times they would have, the laughs and the memories they would make. He had decided in the forest that he wanted Tsukaimon to be his best friend forever.
He never wanted to leave the Digital World.