Digimon World Tour
Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Adventure, Digimon Data Squad, etc. 1999-2014 Toei Animation, Akiyoshi Hongo, Studiopolis, Saban Brands, etc.
Chapter 8: Vexations, Truth, and YouTube
Matt
I listened to my dad's video again. "...And Matt, just so you know, I spoke with your mother. She claims T.K. apologized to you, and I believe him. She feels the exact same way I do. Just because we're not married doesn't mean we don't work together on matters like this. So, you just think about this carefully. Think long and hard. I wouldn't do this if I didn't love you. Goodbye for now." I closed the video and slammed down my laptop lid. "Oh great, just what I need. Now everybody thinks I can't do anything without Dad," I grumbled. Gabumon tried to cheer me up. "Think of it this way, Matt. Now you can write more songs," he said. I brought my lid back up and searched all the entertainment websites. TMZ had a whole video on it, with the title "Ishida's Reporter Papa Lays Down Law". Others included "The Wolf Gets Muzzled" and "The Wolf is Tamed". I grabbed my hair in frustration. "Grrrrr..." "Why are you so upset, Matt? I thought this is what happened to a lot of famous people," Gabumon tried to reason with me. "Yeah, but I never thought it would happen to me, especially when it's T.K.'s fault!" I shot back in anger. In fact, I got so mad, I had to start doing some breathing exercises just to calm myself down. "All right. Whatever's happened has happened, now I gotta deal with it," I decided out loud.
Gabumon
Ever since the band made their first appearance on Music Station, Matt's changed for the worse. What's become confusing for me is his relationship with T.K. I remember that soon after I met Matt, he wanted me to keep his little brother warm. Those boys have their fates intertwined with each other, they're that close. I hope Matt won't let this get between them.
Matt
I didn't spend any time hanging out with the guys after sessions at the studio. If I was going to get punished, I might as well follow the rules.
A week after Dad released his YouTube video, Kazuki laid out the plans of our tour at our usual meeting in DATS HQ. He caught our attention with a giant map. "All right, y'all. Can the lip and turn up the stereo." Marcus seemed a bit confused. "Huh? You want us to turn up the stereo? OK!" So, he turned up the radio, and Bruno Mars' "Locked Out of Heaven" was playing. That inspired the ponytailed blockhead to start dancing.
Kazuki had to turn off the radio and laid out the plans. "I meant listen up. Geez... Now, the cool cats at Sony and I have laid out what has to be the ginchiest world tour in the history of the world, you dig? Now, here's how it's all goin' down. We leave from Japan on February 9th so we can make Sydney, Australia in time for our first concert on the 11th at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. We play there the 11th through the 13th, take a day off, then play the 15th and 16th. On the 17th, we fly to Melbourne for a two night affair at the Westpac Centre, plus an appearance on this swinging soap called Neighbours. By the 21st, we'll be in Coomera on the Gold Coast for a three-night tour of duty at Dreamworld Studios. Dreamworld's this wild theme park, I mean swinging like sixteen. On the 26th, we go back to Tokyo for a televised shindig at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium, followed by a hootenanny at Fukuoka Dome. On the first of March, we've got a one-night-only gig at Osaka-jō Hall, followed by Yokohama Stadium the next night. That'll conclude the Australia/Asia tour. Any questions?"
Thomas raised his hand. "I have one. What about education? Surely a tour of this magnitude will require a large amount of time outside of school." Kazuki let out a disgusted sigh. "Are you really gonna be bugged about that, man? I spoke with all of your teachers and they've agreed to pass out all their classwork for the rest of the semester. You cats are accountable for your own homework and grades and jazz. But since you brought it up, Norstein, you get to be the tutor." Thomas' eyebrows widened, but they quickly lowered again. "Guess that'll teach me to keep my mouth shut," he murmured.
Our beatnik manager continued. "Now, our opening act for this leg is PurityxSpirited." Marcus, Greg, and T.K. cheered, but the manager shut them up. "I know you're all excited to add them to our galaxy of stars, but they'll only be here for this leg and some of the North American leg. I'll send you all an e-mail about this later. But right now, we've got bigger fish to fry. I've been reviewing the performance, and you did all right. There's just one minor detail, and that's your vocal harmony. Greg, Matt, Marcus, and Thomas. You hipsters make like the vultures, dig?"
"Do we have to?" Marcus complained. "I agree, the Sherman Brothers have always disagreed with my musical tastes," Thomas sniffed. "Dummy up, you dummies. You guys brought this on yourselves. This should be a money run, now get going!" So, the four of us got together in a quartet and practiced going through the scales in unison, then adjusting for harmony.
["That's What Friends Are For (The Vulture Song)"
Written by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman
Performed by The Teenage Wolves Quartet (Marcus Damon [Quinton Flynn], Thomas H. Norstein [Crispin Freeman], Greg Logan [Doug Erholtz], and Yamato "Matt" Ishida [Michael Reisz]) with Richard Sampson (Jamieson Price)]
Kazuki blows into a pitchpipe and begins conducting this makeshift barbershop quartet. Greg no has problem with it, but the other three do.
Quartet:
We're your friends
We're your friends
We're your friends to the bitter end (Thomas/Matt: the bitter end)
Marcus:
When you're alone
Remaining Three:
When you're alone
Matt:
Who comes around
Remaining Three:
Who comes around
The four of them lift Agumon up in the air.
Greg:
To pluck you up
Remaining Three:
To pluck you up
They then set him down gently.
Thomas:
When you are down
Remaining Three:
When you are down
Matt:
And when you're
Quartet:
outside, looking in
Who's there to open the door?
Greg:
That's (Quartet: That's)
what (Quartet: what)
Quartet:
friends are for!
Who's always eager to extend
A friendly claw?
All four of them shake each others' hands vigorously. T.K. joins in with the acoustic guitar. Kari claps along, as do the Digimon. Rika and Renamon look on in indifference.
Quartet:
That's what friends are for!
And when you're lost in dire need
Who's at your side at lightning speed?
The four start marching around the table.
Quartet:
We're friends with every creature
Comin' down the pike
In fact we've never met an animal
We didn't like...
The four bunch up together again.
Quartet:
Didn't like!
Silently coming in to witness this spectacle is Commander Sampson, with Kudamon resting on his neck. Joining him is Dr. Spencer Damon, one of the researchers, and Marcus' father. Kazuki goes back to conducting them.
Quartet :
(split up various ways)
So you can see
We're friends in need
And friends in need
Are friends indeed
Marcus:
We'll keep you
Quartet:
(in unison)
safe in the jungle forevermore
Sampson joins in, aiming for the baritone part with that notorious low note. He nails it.
Sampson:
That's what friends...
are for!
Agumon and Kudamon applaud while the others are surprised to see him there.
Thomas
"Commander Sampson! Dad! What are you two doing here?" Marcus asked in surprise. They approached us. "Well, we do work here. The real question I should be asking you is why you're practicing your four-part harmony in the War Room," Sampson responded. He sat down at his usual spot and continued. "Thomas, I received your e-mail about the Pure Spirits, and I'm sorry I haven't explained sooner. To assist me in this lesson, I've brought in Dr. Spencer Damon." Dr. Damon bowed. "Nice to meet you all," he said. "Same here," we all replied.
Dr. Damon used a remote to bring down a screen. He later switched off the lights and started a multimedia presentation. "Now, everyone sit down because this could take a while to explain. Long ago, when the Digital World was pretty young, and long before the DigiDestined arrived, Human and Beast Digimon began a war against each other. The war was ended when the angelic Lucemon descended to the Digital World to bring peace and order. However, his power corrupted him, transforming him from a benevolent and loving ruler into a tyrannical despot. In a revolution, the Ten Legendary Warriors appeared, fighting Lucemon and managing to seal him away within the Dark Area. The war eventually took each of the Warriors' lives, but they managed to pass on their powers in the form of the Spirits, which they left to the Celestial Digimon—the Spirits of Wind and Light were given to Seraphimon, Fire, Ice, and Thunder to Ophanimon, and Earth, Wood, Water, Steel and Darkness to Cherubimon. Eventually, these Digimon died as well. Their spirits were scattered throughout the Digital World, and were forgotten and neglected. But five months ago, on my most recent expedition, I discovered the spirits of Earth, Wood, Water, and Steel. I brought these relics back with me to this world, where Commander Sampson and I did some more research on them. About a month later, Davis brought in four girls with him." "Lily, Naomi, Sadie, and Charisse," T.K. realized. Sampson picked up where the doctor left off. "It was then that I was reminded of the spirits. So, we decided to test the Spirits on these four girls."
Video footage played. Dr. Damon gave each of the four girls white Digivices I'd never seen before. "All right, girls. Now, I want each of you to pick a spirit, then point your D-Tector at it," he instructed. The girls each stood in front of a spirit, but as they approached, it suddenly transformed. Naomi chose one that resembled an armored creature kneeling, but it changed into a gold and cyan-blue figurine of a dog with a blossom on it. Charisse's armor and hat model became a brown and green bee figurine. Sadie's, which was originally armor with a mirror, became that of a purple and magenta fox. Lily excitedly bounced when what looked like an aquatic outfit became an icy-blue and fuchsia-pink penguin. Each of the girls pointed their D-Tectors at their respective relics with a two-handed approach. A white beam shot out of each one and absorbed each relic. The kanji for each of their elements appeared in the screens, and the D-Tectors changed colors to reflect those of the spirits. Commander Sampson continued. "We did more research after that unexpected event. It seems that what we thought were the spirits of Earth, Wood, Water, and Steel were actually quite different in the presence of these remarkable young women. This is pure speculation, but Dr. Damon and I believed these new spirits were the Pure Spirits. After doing further research, we made an earth-shattering discovery. One of these spirits was a highly respected Digimon princess and daughter of Cherubimon. That spirit belongs to Naomi." Almost all of us, with the exception of Rika, gasped at that.
"Oh brother. What does that have to do with us?" she demanded to know. The commander delivered the news very sharply. "Well, Rika, it should matter to you because they'll be accompanying you. Our branches in Australia have reported some suspicious Digimon sightings. That's why!"
Next, it was Marcus' turn. "Oh yeah? Here's the real question! Why didn't you tell us earlier about these guys?!" "Marcus, calm down. We didn't want to worry you," Dr. Damon answered, trying to calm down his son. "Yeah, but now it feels like a plot dump," Greg pointed out. I nodded.
Matt
The rest of the month was spent getting ready for the tour. One day, we all got our physical exams, and they covered the whole enchilada. On top of that, we received every vaccine we could get (even though you don't need any to get into Australia) plus a shot of gamma globulin. I ended up with a sore arm. Rika and Kari had more tests than the rest of us did. Usually, Japanese kids get the whole gauntlet of tests at school between April and June. The school doctors check your height, weight, sitting height, eyesight, hearing, tuberculosis, electrocardiogram, urinalysis, and they even check you for parasites. They keep saying something about "a healthy Japanese student is a happy Japanese student". Well, we checked out all right, but the doctor asked me for my autograph.
Then, we had to take our passport pictures and get interviewed for visas because we'd be out of the country for work. I never knew being a rock star could require so much work.
Marcus
Finally, it all came down to the night before we left for our tour. Agumon and I ate dinner with the family for what could be the last time for a while. We scarfed down our food, and it tasted a lot better than it usually did. "Geez, Marcus, why don't you just start eating the table, too?" my little sister Kristy quipped. "Ha ha, very funny, squirt. This food is awesome!" I said.
Mom looked so happy. "I'm glad you enjoy it. It's just a shame we won't see you so much," she said. Dad joined in. "Now Sarah, Marcus and Agumon are going to Australia to do something important. Something that could affect our world." "Doesn't stop me from worrying about them. Now, have fun on your tour, but just try to come back alive. All right?" I looked up, then smiled. "Don't worry, Mom. Agumon and I will be just fine. I promise," I assured her.
"Man, you're lucky. You get to go to Australia. But are you gonna understand everyone?" Kristy asked. "You must not have listened to the album. All the songs are in English, pipsqueak. I've done radio interviews in English, so this tour should be a piece of cake." "Yeah, it's amazing you even picked up English that quickly, knowing your grades," she snorted.
Matt
After dinner, Dad directed me to his laptop. "Hey, Matt. T.K. sent me a video. You want to see it?" he asked. "Nah, not really," I answered. I had no choice but to watch it when Dad pulled it up using the YouTube app on the HDTV.
["Foolish Games"
Written by Jewel Kilcher
Performed by Takeru "T.K." Takaishi (Michael Cunio)]
This appears as a YouTube video. T.K. adjusts his camera as he sits down in his family room. Patamon is absent. "Hey, Matt, and hey everybody out there." He addresses the audience. "This is mostly to my brother, but the rest of you might like it." Then, he goes back to addressing his brother. "Matt... I know we've been through a lot lately. As I've said before to you privately, I'm sorry I did. I just don't know what's gotten into you, and... I'm worried. If there's anything I can do to make things better, just let me know, and I'll do it. OK?" He pauses. "All right. Anyway, I guess I can address my real feelings in this song. I hope you like it." He gets up and adjusts the camera as he moves to a stool. He wraps the guitar strap around his shoulder, makes some silent last-minute tuning to his acoustic guitar, and then starts playing.
T.K.:
You took your coat off and stood in the rain,
You're always crazy like that.
And I watched from my window,
Always felt I was outside, looking in on you.
You're always the mysterious one with
Blue eyes and careless hair,
You were fashionably sensitive
But too cool to care.
You stood in my doorway, with nothing to say
Besides some comment on the weather.
T.K. delivers a heartfelt yet masculine performance of a traditionally female song. You can sense the feelings of concern, frustration and agony as he stares directly at the camera during the chorus. The YouTube annotation that pops up reads "The original line is 'Dark eyes and careless hair'. Thank goodness for artistic license. :) - T.K." He waits for the pause between the chorus to double check his fingering.
T.K.:
Well in case you failed to notice,
In case you failed to see,
This is my heart bleeding before you,
This is me down on my knees, and...
These foolish games are tearing me apart,
And your thoughtless words are breaking my heart.
You're breaking my heart.
Another annotation reads, "I know it's not the second verse you hear on the radio, but Matt doesn't smoke or enjoy Mozart. He is brilliant in the morning, though. Just so you know, this verse is from the album version. - T.K."
T.K.:
You'd teach me of honest things,
Things that were daring, things that were clean.
Things that knew what an honest dollar did mean.
I hid my soiled hands behind my back.
Somewhere along the line, I must have got
Off track with you.
The tension mounts up as we hear T.K. deliver even more soul and power into his performance than ever, still managing to keep control of his emotions, and his voice.
T.K.:
Well, excuse me, guess I've mistaken you for somebody else,
Somebody who gave a damn,
Somebody more like myself.
And these foolish games are tearing me,
You're tearing me,
you're tearing me apart.
And your thoughtless words are breaking my heart!
You're breaking my heart.
You took your coat off,
and stood in the rain.
You're always crazy like that.
He strums the last chord as he finishes. He humbly bows his head, silently thanking his audience. The video fades to black.
Matt
"Just great," I grumbled. Dad bought the whole thing hook, line, and sinker. "Well, that was very nice. I think he handled that song quite well. Masculine, yet sensitive." "Dad, you don't get it! This is going to make the band look bad! This is going to make me look bad!" Dad just shook his head. "You still don't get it, do you? You still think this is about you. Well, it's not! I thought this whole band was about you and your brother spending more time together. A year ago, you two were so close, and now this! If you don't get your ego in check, you could lose everything!" My eyebrows shot way up, and I got up and walked into my room, slamming the door behind me. I had to pack.
Rika
I finished packing my clothes and zipped up my suitcase. Renamon was busy staring at the moon, so I joined her. "What is it tonight, Renamon?" I asked. "Waning gibbous," she answered wistfully. I let out a half-grin. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" "Yes. We didn't have any moons in the Digital World."
I joined my partner outside and leaned up against a column. "We'll be seeing the same moon in Australia," I reminded her. "I know. It's just... pretty, matched up against the cherry blossom trees," she said. "Yeah... I guess. I mean, I never thought about it like that before." "So pure, so innocent, so beautiful. Like you." "Ugh! Renamon!" "I'm serious. When you want to be, you can be very beautiful. You heavily underestimate your femininity, preferring to push your sexuality." "And what would you know about sexuality?" "I know that I wouldn't just want to push myself on a boy. You're only fourteen, still a human child." "Uh, no. I am a full blown woman. Want to see proof?" Renamon let out a sigh. "A mature woman would not flaunt her body the way you do." "And again, what would you know about being a woman?" "...You'd be surprised." "Whatever. Come on, it's getting late. We've got a long plane ride tomorrow."
T.K.
Just as I was brushing my teeth, my phone rang. I quickly spit out the toothpaste and answered it. "Hello?" "T.K., it's Matt." "Oh, hey Matt. What are you doing calling this late?" "I saw your little video, and I hope you're planning on releasing that as a solo act. I know why you did it," he said in an accusatory tone. I decided to go along with it. "All right. Why did I release that video?" "Because you're trying to cash in on this YouTube thing. You hope it'll go viral. Well, I'll put a stop to that. From now on, you're no longer allowed to post songs on YouTube by yourself without either Kazuki's or my permission. You got that?" "Matt..." "You got that!?" I let out a sigh. "Yes, Matt. I'm sorry." "Fine. See you at the airport." With that, he hung up.
Kari
After dinner, I challenged Tai to a game of poker using M&Ms. Big blind four, small blind two. "OK, I'll see your five and raise you two," Tai said with a smirk as he put in seven candies. I called, adding in two. "Why don't you go first?" I offered. Tai smirked again. "Right. Full house, Jacks and nines." He laid down his hand. "Not bad, big bro. But how about this?" I laid down my hand, a straight flush, Two through Six of Diamonds. Tai just laughed as I collected my winnings. "Wow, I didn't see that coming. In fact, I haven't seen a lot of things coming. Like my baby sister going to Australia." "Don't worry about me, Tai. I'll be fine. I've got Gatomon and T.K. with me," I assured him. "You sure? I mean, I'll be right there with you, if you need me." I shook my head, smiling. "No, you can't. You've got school. Besides, somebody's got to stay here in case they attack Japan. Besides..."
I looked around to make sure nobody was listening in, then whispered into Tai's ear, "I've got the Crest of Light." "Huh? The Crest of Light!? But I thought we gave those up. How'd you get yours back?" "I got it in a dream on Christmas Eve. T.K.'s got his old Crest, too. It's kinda complicated, but my younger me-" "Wait, you got visited by yourself? That's awesome!" I put my hand up. "I'm not finished, Tai. My younger me said it was only an amplification of my own light. I don't know all the specifics yet." "Oh. So, when am I gonna get my Crest back? And what about the others." I shrugged. "I really don't know if you will. Just focus on your DigiSoul right now. How far have you gotten?" "Agumon's only at Champion so far, but I'm working on it." I smiled at that. "Good."
Author's Notes:
Yes, that was a bit of a plot dump. Don't worry, the action will heat up soon enough. I just want to bring them in at the right time. This is one of the harder fanfics I've written since the story is more original than its predecessors.
And yes, Matt is a bit more of a jerk than in the previous two series. I'll make sure to bring that down a notch until the appropriate time.