Also I would like to respond to part of Some1call4MR-E's comments. Namely the allegation the Digimon Fusion was canceled because of its censorship when... not really?
First, it went on to dub the Dark Generals arc so it did go past Tactimon.
Second, I wouldn't blame you for not being aware of this because Fusion was marketed in a very poor manner. Nicktoons was its main host for all the 20 kids that actually viewed the channel. It didn't even get to streaming on Crunchyroll like the sub which at least would've gotten it a hate viewership. Saban Brands was all in on Power Rangers first and foremost with other titles they got falling by the wayside.
Thirdly... Fusion wasn't a farcry from Xros Wars any more than previous seasons were with their English dubs. Many censorship moments that occurred was clearly very last minute like certain physical slapstick getting replaced with a weird starry screensaver that they clearly threw together.
Overall, it's a dub that has great voice acting and some pretty darn funny lines intertwined with the more action-y and dramatic beats. It was the season that got me into Digimon of which I own it. It's on for those curious.
Fourth, I have no intention of changing the rating over a perceived lack of maturity. The story I intend to tell isn't going to get super-de-duper dark or emotionally devastating any more that other Digimon seasons so... why rate it higher than it needs to.
Fifth, while you're free to prefer the dub or sub terminology of Digimon, I wish to honor the version that got me interested in the series overall. I intend to rewatch the dub and even the sub when outlining my adaptation but what you see is what I stick with.
Though SlushAngemon will not remain. What was up with that? The one doing the text really needed better spellcheck.
Erm, anyways...
Shoutmon's resistance is on the ropes before Lisanna works her magic.
Chapter 6: Don't Think, Feel
Original Story By Riku Sanjo
Dialogue Adapted from Monica Rial, Jessie James Grelle and Mark Ryan
-Earthland X782, Six Days Later-
It was sunset by the time they got out in the woods near town.
Happy looked ahead at the dome-shaped wooden hut in front of Natsu while he set down the stones with a bittersweet lump in his throat. He had heard a lot of stories about how he had been kept warm as an egg with some a bit more exaggerated than others. However, one thing was consistent amongst them all.
This was where Natsu and Lisanna went out of their way to bring him into this world.
The two wizards often came up to play here with Happy before puberty kicked in and made them way too big to fit. They visited less often after they got old enough to go on missions above C-Rank. Now? The blue cat would've given all the fish in the world to have more time for this place.
For Lisanna.
"Hey, Natsu...?" Happy anxiously began, hoping to break the ice. "Why'd you make a grave for her here when there already is one out in the church's cemetery?"
Natsu was already standing back up and stepping backwards to reveal what he had laid to his little buddy. A small block was place before a small coffin shaped plague marked with the Fairy Tail emblem. All topped off with flowers that he had picked personally wrapped in plastic.
At last, the long second of silence ended.
"This was one of her favor places," Natsu reminded Happy, stilted as it had been for the last near week or so. "She loved..." He paused with slight swallow. "...to sit and watch the sunset." Another pause in his processing. "As long as this is here... she'll never miss a single one."
"Aye..." Happy sighed wistfully.
"I just wish..." Natsu began with a choke in his throat, "...I could keep my promise."
"Huh?" Happy pondered aloud, vaguely remembering something about that from when they were all little.
"I don't think..." Natsu started to whimper, "...I'll be able to find her this time."
"Aye..." Happy sighed once again.
He remembered it more clearly now. Guildarts had helped Natsu search for and save Lisanna from a nasty vulcan. She was so touched that she asked him to promise that he'd always find her no matter the distance. It just seemed like just wild things little kids tended to spout at the time.
"You always knew the little things about her, Salamander..."
Happy was the only one of the two to look behind them and discover Elfman six feet behind them. The solemn faced young man had his uniform repaired, compliments of Mayor Kamiya's tailor, with bandage across his forehead and over his eye for his lingering wounds. He was trying hard too look as stoic as he possible could but Happy could tell...
Natsu didn't turn around.
"But there's... some you don't," Elfman went on with a shake, barely hiding the anxiousness in his voice. "Like... how she really died."
Natsu didn't turn around once more but Happy swallowed hard.
"I, um..." the blue cat began awkward, his wing appearing on his back, "think I left my fish back at the hall." He began to float away after feeling the shift in the atmosphere.
"Please stay, Happy," Elfman insisted, holding up for the moment. "You should hear this too.
Happy had only flown a few feet to the left before the slight crack in Elf's voice beckoned him to stop and turned around. However, he was concerned about coming any further if his gut was right this time around.
"What's there to hear?" Natsu asked, his blunt tone barely lighting a spark. "We've all hear it to the last detail from Mira."
"Not... the last one..." Elfman struggled to say, clenching his teeth for a second. "It's true the Beast got her but..." His fist clenched up while his mouth forced itself to at least form the words. "...only because I botched it up!"
Happy swallowed hard at the implications while landing on the ground. "You were just out cold," he anxious tried to comfort Elfman. "There's no way you could've-"
"I mean that I tried to Takeover the monster myself," Elfman cut in through his gritted teeth, already tearing up in his left eye. "Lisanna... tried to bring me out of it but the Beast's soul... I was so pathetic..." His choking sobs were soon impossible to hold back with his left cheek becoming soaked.
Happy felt rooted to the spot when he finally put it altogether.
Natsu did nothing much less flinch.
"So... you..." the blue kitten barely put out with a dreadful gulp.
Elfman clenched his right hand unable to unfeel the strike. "I killed Lisanna with my own hand," he finally confessed, his stoic front softening up into sorrow. "Mira just... fudged the details out of pity."
Natsu still did nothing.
"I'm so sorry, Lisanna," Elfman choked out with his voice not cracked by shattered. "It's all my fault you're gone." He shut his eye in a vain attempt to stop the tears. "My little sister... if only we'd taken you with us, Natsu, this wouldn't have happened!" He raised his right sleeve to wipe his soaked cheeks. "She'd still be alive!"
Happy managed to step forth close to Elfman's left foot with a very forgiving if teary eyed expression. He would've said something to console his fellow guildmate in mourning when...
"Would you just shut up!?"
Natsu's long overdue outburst managed to jolt Elfman and Happy out of their immediate grieving. They both looked up at the Fire Dragon Slayer to make out how his shoulders were trembling more than they thought.
"Enough with the blubbering already!" Natsu demanded in his pent up frustrations before letting out a deep exhale. "Do you really think Lisanna would want you to carry around that guilt?" His fists clenched more by the word. "How she's suppose to smile if her brother's feeling sad?"
Elfman let a long second pass before swallowed ever so slightly. "You're right..." he conceded if only from how bold Natsu was being.
"No matter what happened..." Natsu went on, his shoulders trembling more than ever, "...she always had a smile on her face." He couldn't help but replay her final farewell in his mind, that smile still there. "Remember?"
Happy first felt that Natsu was being too hard on Elfman but soon caught on that he wasn't just talking to the middle Strauss sibling.
"Even at the very end..." Natsu paused for a shaky breath, "...she never lost her smile." He swallowed silently. "If she were here now... I'm sure she'd say... whenever you're feeling down... that's when you need to smile the most."
At long last, Natsu turned his head around to reveal his mournful frown and the tears beading up in his eyes to Elfman.
"So buck up!" he demanded forcefully. "Show her a smile like a real man."
Elfman's tearful left eye widened upon hearing those last three words.
"A real man..." he repeated, his face hardening into something more stoic.
More... manly.
Without another word, Elfman turned and walked away from his sister's true grave. Happy, despite his anxiousness, gave chase on his stubby little legs and came up to his fellow guildmate.
"I-I'm... sure he didn't mean to put it like that," Happy promised in an attempt to be reassuring. "He's not one for pep talks." However, he looked up and found himself taken aback by how Elf's soft face of sorrow had replaced by something more focused.
"He said just what I needed to hear," Elfman declared with a strong cadence in his throat. "It's time this man stopped moping around got back into the saddle." He began to walk faster than Happy could keep up with. "Tell him I appreciate it."
The blue cat stopped in his confusion and let Elfman walk on ahead down the well-worn forest path. He was too busy trying to figure out what his friend had gotten out of Natsu's outburst.
All Happy could do was look up at the orange dusk sky. Who knew? Maybe if he could fly Natsu up high enough... they'd be able to find her together. Maybe become strong enough to fly anybody else out of danger too.
"Hey, wait up!" Happy called out to Elfman while unfurling his wings to fly faster.
A mere turn of his head to the right would have revealed Mirajane leaning on a tree, her right arm in a cast. Having heard the whole thing, a faint smile however subtle started to curl on her face for the first time in nearly a week.
"Balistamon, Stamon, Pickmonz!" Shoutmon rallied while racing headfirst into the advancing enemy. "Cut loose and give Lisanna a show!"
He made a beeline for the Troopmon that were breaking off from the Mammothmon and doing their duty as cannon fodder to assess the enemy. All while the Machine Digimon brought up the rear while Starmon streaked ahead.
"ROCK N' ROLLER!"
Shoutmon screamed out his attack name into his microphone and extended its staff by his will. With passionate fury in a really mean look in his eye, he smashed, bashed and trashed any Troopmon before they could take aim.
A SMASH to one in front of him.
A BASH another just three feet to his 7:00 as he jumped around in the air.
And a trash to a two more at his 1:00. He had both of his hand gripping the staff to knock their blocks off.
All the while, Balistamon had gone ahead of his little red buddy to boldly face the Mammothmon. He let them come just close enough for one to nearly bring its massive foot down on him before...
"SEISMIC SPEAKER!"
Balistamon's round speaker on his metallic belly emitted high frequency soundwaved strong enough to physically strike his opponents. The Mammothmon's great girth was used against them when the force not only hit them hard but cause them to tumble over. Any Troopmon staying to flank them were quick to regret it before being crush.
"METEOR SHOWER!"
At Starmon's command, the silver and white Pickmon streaked ahead while spewing out others of their kinds. A swarm of one hundred of them buzzed up to the remaining Troopmon and Mammothmon like bee's from a battered hive.
Some flew around enemy Troopmon to make them dizzy and disoriented. Others spun in mid-air and drilled into multiple Mammothmons. The behemoths were too big to shake them off and lacked the limbs to swat them away. All they felt were a million little pricks digging into the furry coats and making them stumble about.
Lisanna had hung way back for her protection with only the red Pickmon bouncing on her head for what passed for a guard. She was completely transfixed by the chaotic war that spread out across the plain before her, slackjawed by how fast things went from one to eighty on the insanity meter.
"Betcha don't get action like this in the human world!" the red Pickmon cheered with an excited but rather croaky voice. "Does Shoutmon know how to throw a party or does he know how to throw a party?"
"You should see my guildhall, Red," Lisanna claimed, her slackjaw rising into an eager grin. "This war zone's got nothing on the usual brawls back home."
Lisanna wouldn't find herself on the sidelines for long when her ears picked up on long whistling noise behind her. Her face fell while she swung around and saw a small spiked ball free-falling towards her from five feet up closing.
"FINAL CHIKURIMON!"
No.
It was clearly making a beeline for her.
"Gyah!" Red cried aloud in alarm. "Fire in the hole!"
"Hold onto something!" Lisanna wanted the panicking Pickmon before leaping out of the way. However, she only raced fast enough to avoid the direct hit three feet behind and get flung forward by the explosion shockwave.
"What I wouldn't give for thumbs!" Red grunted, biting onto the back of Lisanna's hair.
"Takeover!" she cried out desperately during their free-fall. "Harpy Soul!"
Her body felt her magic spread throughout and morph her arms into wings while her legs became long talons. She flapped hard to pull up almost on a dime and ascended fast.
"Talk about perfect timing!" Lisanna exclaimed to her surprised, grinning again.
Red fell off of her head and was saved by a hair by the wizard's left talon. However, it was hardly a reprieve when he looked ahead.
"Look out, Liz!" Red cried out, spotting two Chikurimon gunning for them. "Two bogies at our 6:00.
"Ew!" Lisanna balked in her misunderstanding of militant jargon. "Pick your nose on your-"
However, she looked behind just in time to see the two spiked bombs zooming right for her and gaining. The look of their red eye blinking like flickering candle lights told her that they were ready to make roast bird out of her with extra steps.
"FINAL CHIKURIMON!"
"Brace yourself!" Lisanna warned Red. "Major turbulence coming!"
She opened up her wings while rotating herself upright in order to stop herself in mid-air and lifted her talons up just in time. The Chikurimon raced past her and were too fast to stop before they both collided in a brilliant explosion. Lisanna had thankfully flown backwards far enough to avoid any shockwaves this time.
"I take it back, Red," she sighed with exhilaration, stopping for a hover. "This is a close second to Fairy Tail."
"At least one of us is having fun..." Red muttered, feeling like her was about to barf.
Shoutmon was mentally kicking himself for letting gormless Troopmon pin him down. About seven had time to group up and blast a barrage of laser fire to heavy to dodge. The most he could do was grit his teeth and spin his mic staff fast enough to deflect most of the bullet.
"Balistamon, I could use some back up here!" Shoutmon grunted on his wrist com, feeling his arms aching.
"So could I," his metallic comrade radioed back, audibly grunting in his own efforts. "Small world, huh?"
Shoutmon glanced to his 3:00 and saw Balistamon having his hands literally full with one last Mammothmon's foot attempting to flatten him.
"No way I'm not going down swinging," he declared, turning back to the Troopmon marching forth with every shot. "I can at least keep Lisanna safe."
"Shoutmon!" he heard her voice cry out by coincidence. "Clear the way on my mark!"
The Small Dragon Digimon looked up and gasped at the sight of not just Lisanna's new feathery look but her diving down his way. It was enough to get the Troopmon to cease fire and look up at the new incoming threat from the skies.
"This girl's crazy!" Shoutmon exclaimed, clearly one to talk.
"TAKEOVER!" Lisanna belted out while her body magically glowed in accordance. "RABBIT SOUL!"
She felt herself expand in morphing into her giant purple rabbit form and somersaulted to fall bottom first at a faster rate. Without claws to grip him, Red yelped helpless when he took went into free-fall slightly behind Lisanna.
"BUNNY BOMBER!"
The simple-minded Troopmon were too bewildered to fire their weapons let alone aim any of them before the big bunny made landfall. Lisanna took a cue from the Mammothmon by squashing most of them into data particles with her big butt. A slight tremor knocked Shoutmon and a few Troopmon off their feet.
"Who says a rabbit's foot isn't lucky?" Lisanna quipped in a rush of cocksure with Mirajane in mind. She even held out her right paw to catch Red almost too casually.
"I don't even know... what a rabbit is..." the red Pickmon slurred and groaned, floating up in a wobbling stupor, "and I agree..."
"Crazy awesome!" Shoutmon corrected with a mad smile, recovering quickly to run up to the over ten foot rabbit. "You really are a wizard, Liz!"
"A Fairy Tail wizard," Lisanna boasted, setting Red down so he could report to Starmon. "Believe me, there's a distinction."
She would've liked to enjoy Shoutmon's boyish enthusiam but her big ears picked up on jet fire from above. It made her lift her head to catch sight of a Pteramon gunning for them in a dive-bomb.
"Case in point!" Lisanna quipped, smirking like a battle hungry Natsu. "Pull!" She hopped up just in time with a twist and kicked the Pteramon with the back of her left foot to Shoutmon's surprise. It veered out of control from the impact while trying to stabilize
"Sharing is caring," Lisanna playfully offered while landing more softly.
"Now ain't that sweet?" Shoutmon replied with a grin, eager to flex himself.
"FIERY FASTBALL!"
Shoutmon belted out his attack while a ball of fire ignited within his fingers. He stretched back with his left hand and pitched it hard enough to hit Pteramon with a perfect aim. The metal menace of the skies burned far faster than it could crash.
"So who else wants a piece of this?" Lisanna demanded to know with a cocky raise of an eyebrow. "Well..." She turned towards any remaining Troopmon just getting up and flashed an eager grin just as Mirajane would at Erza.
The foot soldiers displayed a rare moment of self-preservation and dropped their weapons to bow with their head to the ground in but a second. Their muffled speech was unmistakably cowardly in their collective tone.
"That's what I thought, boys," Lisanna gloated while Shoutmon slapped his knee in laughter. "This girl's all fired up now!"
The young wizard would've been prudent to remember that the worst thing a fighter could do was tempt fate during a battle. For it was when Lisanna was pretending to flex his muscles like Elfman would that her bulky bunny body reverted back to that of a fair-skinned, noodle-armed girl.
"Uh oh..." was all she could mutter in her embarrassment.
-Earthland X782, Eight Days Later-
"That's Mirajane?" one voice questioned, probably Max. "Somebody cleans up nicely."
"Dude, she is right there!" another voice warned in a whisper, probably Warren. "Think those thoughts with me."
Not that it mattered as far as Mirajane was concerned while her chin rested on her palm. The once She-Devil idly sat at the bar's circle chair with her usual punk ponytail undone and a modest red dress that Master Makarov forced her into for formal occassions. Her Satan Soul magic had fallen into disuse too much to be in the mood.
It didn't help that Mirajane hadn't taken a mission of any class since... then. Nobody held it against her but it was hard to not be concerned whenever they found her just sitting around the Guildhall like stray they took in.
"Where's a shot-glass when you really need it?" Mirajane groaned in growing irritation, letting her head flop to the table.
"Don't get your hopes up," she heard someone call out drolly behind her. "Laxus took his Thunder Blunders on a "mission" to Akane Beach." Mirajane looked to her left to see the ever shirtless Cana Alberona sit two seats from her.
"Flaking again?" Mira balked in annoyance. "If he's the Fourth Master, I'm joining Cait Shelter." She leaned her head back when she caught sight of a card that Cana was staring at in her right hand, her gaze ever solemn. "You've... been looking at that card a lot lately."
"I did a reading for Lisanna the day before," Cana confessed, her apathy masking her true turmoil as usual. "The cards promised her that 'tomorrow night' would be a crossroads in her destiny." She flicked it over her shoulder with a scoff. "Fate sure has a sick sense of humor."
A long pause hung between them while the guildhall's usual chatter carried on without them. At last...
"Well, to hell with this!" Mirajane declared, slamming her hands down to lunge herself over the bar. "I'm choosing my own destiny, thank you very much."
Cana snapped out of her jaded demeanor over this surprise turn and saw Mira rummaging below the bar for any good labels. A few guild members that had been passing by caught sight of this and paused to see more.
"I knew it!" Mirajane laugh triumphantly, pulling out a big glass bottle of vodka. "Laxus was holding out on us." She effortlessly popped the top open.
"He's gonna raise this place to the ground when he finds out," Cana snorted with mischief when Mira slide her a shot glass.
"Not if Master finds out first," the She-Devil sneered, pouring out the vodka. "And he will." She was so casual with it but managed to fill her and Cana's small shotglasses with but two tips.
"Not even a little drip," Cana observed when holding up her glass. "Now that's a good omen."
Mirajane smile more sincerely on that note before raising her shot-glass. "To Lisanna," she proposed with slight solemnness this time.
"To Lisanna," Cana warmly agreed to, tapping their shot-glasses without a spill.
Cana downed her vodka with a single swing but Mirajane had only brought her glass up to her lips when...
"Hey, while you're back there, could you see if we have an brandy left?"
The girls looked back to find Wakaba strolling up to the bar, still sporting a pipe in his mouth and the dumbest pompadour on his head they swore was a glued on wig.
"I won't tell Master if you don't," the sly old dog grinned like the fun uncle he liked to be. "He's out with Erza on some council brouhaha."
"Not like I'm going anywhere," Mirajane shrugged with a roll of her eyes before checking the bottles below. "On the rocks in a mug?"
"Am I really that predictable?" Wakaba snickered while sitting down near Cana.
"You could stand to mix it up better," Mirajane giggled while pouring brandy into a mug. She added four cubes of ice before noticing that her cadence was becoming higher in pitch. Almost like she was twelve again.
"Anything good to eat?" Macao chimed in while strolling up behind Wakaba, his partner in crime. "My... wife's insisting on cabbage stew for dinner."
"Huh, haven't cook in a while," Mirajane pondered, forgetting her train of thought. "Don't expect any miracles." She stuck out her tongue rather playfully before turning towards the kitchen.
While Mirajane turned towards the kitchen, Cana joined Wakaba and Macao in a smile over the same sentiment.
"The She-Devil as a busgirl," Cana remarked with a chortle. "Not even I could've seen that coming."
To Be Continued...
The Strauss Siblings go their separate paths, wounded by their divide but making strives to heal.
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT AS TO HOW YOU'VE BEEN ENJOYING THIS FANFIC SO FAR. I don't mean to be pushy for those who may be shy but I only wish to improve my craft or know how I'm doing in general. Rip me to shreads YouTube style even.