Summary:
When the Ichijouji home is attacked, Ken and his brother are rescued by an Angel, who then brings them into an unseen world they never thought existed.
This is a repost of a work I have on Ao3. Thought since I've gone back to one of my first fandoms, I'd also post on the first fanfic site I ever used. It has been a minute, so bear with me. I finally got use to Ao3, now hopping back here.
warning for Minor character death. Ken's parents get killed off, but his brother lives.
The title was kind of inspired by Marvels what if series
Notes:
(See the end of the work for more notes.)
Diginatural
What if Ken became a hunter
Daisuke looked curiously at the items being packed. It had been strange when the chosen of kindness invited him hunting. Cause killing stuff just seemed odd for someone kind and gentle. Daisuke chucked it up to Ken's American upbringing. Though as they prepared, things just kept getting weirder. "Okay so why do we need salt, gasoline and metal rods for a hunting trip? The heck we hunting?" Daisuke asked. "Ghosts." Ken said casually. "Haha, very funny." His friend replied. Wormmon shook his head. "Keeen You didn't tell him! It's dangerous to throw someone inexperienced into a hunt." He stated. "It's just a little haunting. Something easy." Ken replied
"Didn't a ghost throw Osamu from a window just last week?" Wormmon questioned. "He was fine!" Ken retorted. "Besides it's not like I'm dropping something like wendigos on him." "Are we actually hunting ghost?!" Veemon asked. "Yeah, and how exactly do you hunt one? They're like, already dead." Daisuke questioned. "That's where all this stuff comes in. They are repealed by iron so that's what these rods are made of, swing them at the ghost if they come at you. The other stuff is for burning their bones. Only way to truly get rid of a ghost is to find their bones and cleanse them with salt then burn them. Daisuke nodded. "K, cool, cool, um how do we get their bones?" He questioned. Ken shifted awkwardly for a moment. "So,...um, some aspects of hunting get a little…well less than legal." He explained. "We gotta dig up their graves." Wormmon plainly stated. "WE GOTTA WHAT? Dude people go to jail for that!" Daisuke exclaimed. "It's fine, we know a couple sheriffs. It'll be fine." Ken assured, though those tend to be famous last words for a hunter.
-‐-
Wormmon finished tightening his makeshift sticky net wrapping around Ken's abdomen. "That should hold but you're probably going to need stitches." Wormmon piped up to his partner. Ken groaned and leaned back against the wall of the warehouse. "Son ova bitch, Osamu's gonna be pissed. I can't believe I forgot the med kit." He stated. "I told you throwing new people into this was a bad plan." Wormmon explained. "If you'd told us ghost can be so strong I would have been more prepared!" Daisuke exclaimed. "You said it'd be fine."
Ken couldn't help but laugh then cringe and grabbed his side. "You're not wrong, though we also said Osamu got thrown from a window heh, ok can you get my phone? I'm afraid to move too much." Ken responded. "I honestly thought you were joking! I thought it was weird that the one with the crest of KINDNESS even wanted to go hunting." Ken shrugged. "Saving people, hunting things. It's my family's business." He stated. "Though don't get paid for it, so it's really more of a hero thing."
Wormmon made his way to their gear bag. "Who should we call? Your brother?" Wormmon asked. "Nooooo, he's gonna be sooo mad. Uhh…" Ken considered his options. He thought of his adopted father, he wasn't one to get too upset and with his abilities. "Dad, he can heal me quicker. He'll be worried but won't lose his temper over it." "Got it!" Wormmon got to their bag and riffled through it until he found their cell phone. He selected dad in contacts and let it ring. A gruff voice answered. "I'm already on my way, Ken's thoughts count as prayers. Send me the exact location."
As they waited Daisuke got curious. "How'd you get into all this anyway?" He asked. Ken smirked, "Well, it's a long story but, it'll take my dad a bit to get here, what without his wings." Ken explained. "HIS WHAT?" Daisuke asked.
Several years earlier
Ken sat gloomily in his room after Osamu took his device away. "It wasn't even yours." He grumbled to himself. He could hear outside his door in the apartment his parents had guests over, probably bragging about Osamu. So he had no intention of leaving his room. He wished he could go see his new friend Wormmon but he'd have to find a way to sneak that device out of his brother's room. He sighed and laid back on his bed and drifted a bit.
He wasn't sure how long he was asleep before screams awoke him. Osamu flung his door open, rushed in and slammed it shut and attempted to pull Ken's desk in front of it. "Wha..what's going on big brother?" Ken asked, startled. "Hide! Under the bed, in the closet! I don't know! Just hide!" His brother shouted, which did nothing to calm Ken. He remained frozen in place, so his brother grabbed him and pulled him into the closet. "Try and be quiet Kenny boy." Osamu said, holding him close.
Ken wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, but nothing had come into the room so far. They heard fighting, screaming and struggling echoing in the halls. Ken so badly wanted to know what it was. Where were their parents? But Osamu told him to stay quiet, so he did. Things quieted down and footsteps could be heard wandering the halls. Obviously checking rooms. The boys stiffened when the steps sounded outside their door. The knob was tried and when met with resistance the thing pushed it open desk and all with ease.
Ken let out a panicked yelp and Osamu moved to push Ken behind him in a defensive position. A tall man approached the closet slowly. He looked to be dressed for a business meeting with a tan trench coat over his suit. He gave the boys a calm smile. "It is ok, I killed the monsters, you are safe." He spoke quietly but his voice was very low and gruff. "What about our parents? And their friends?" Ken asked before his brother could shush him, not trusting the man. He gave a sympathetic smile. "I am sorry, your parents are gone, those people were not friends. They were werewolves." He explained. Ken couldn't believe it, his brother shifted up. "And what are you?!" He questioned. "You took those things down, then broke our door like nothing." The man smiled. Looking between the boys. One brother fiercely protecting the younger. "You remind me of a friend. My name is Castiel and I'm an Angel of the lord." He spoke.
—-
"Where the hell is Cass?" Dean questioned. "Dude hasn't checked in for days." He slumped against his chair next to his brother. "He mentioned meeting some other angels in Japan." Sam explained, while looking over some articles for a case. "The hell are angels meeting in Japan for?" Dean responded. Sam shrugged. "A relic of some kind?" He suggested. "Yeah, well he better not bring back a mess to clean up." Dean stated. He may have spoken too soon as the door to the bunker opened. Both men gazed up. "Son of a bitch." Dean mumbled as Castiel ushered two young children down the stairs.
—-
While the boys were settled at the map table, Sam placed 2 pbj in front of them. "Just hang tight, and don't touch anything. We are still figuring out what's cursed and what's safe in this place. Sam laughed as he went to speak with the resident angel who seemed to like randomly adopting kids.
"I get Claire, and heck even Jack, but damn Cass these kids are from a completely different country!" Dean put a palm to his face, shaking his head. "I just couldn't leave them." Cass explained. "They went through so much, and you know how things are. Once one has experienced the supernatural, they inevitably end up a hunter. I figure these brothers could learn from brothers who are 2 of the best hunters in the world." "We are not role models, heck I nearly screwed things up with Jack." Dean argued. Cass gave Dean a soft smile. "You had your reasons, and, in the end, everything worked out. Jack thinks you both are wonderful role models. "He's not wrong Dean. We got plenty of space and between us three and mom, we can alternate staying home with them. I really doubt Jody has any more space, given all the girls we've sent to her. But I bet they'd be down for babysitting if needed." Sam reasoned. "Okay fine, but this place isn't exactly kid friendly." Dean pointed out. "Well, we'll work on that. Gotta start teaching them anyway. Speaking off Ima go check on them." Sam said, wandering off.
‐—-
"There are sooo many books here! Do you think you could read them all big brother! You probably already have, you read through most of our city library." Ken said looking to his brother. Osamu thumbed through a rather large tome. "Can't say I've seen anything like these. A lot of them are handwritten, probably never saw publication. And most of this stuff is on topics I didn't think were real…till now." He explained.
Ken tilted his head and gazed over the book. "I thought that tall guy said not to touch anything. How come you can, but when I do I get in trouble?" Ken demanded, the earlier fight still on his mind. Osamu gave a sigh. "Ken, I was worried about you. That device appeared out of nowhere. It could have done anything." He explained. "I guess I hadn't thought of that." Ken said quietly as he subtly put his hand in his pocket where he had snuck the device before leaving with the angel.
He glanced over at the book his brother was reading. "What language is that?" He questioned. Ken learned English and even some Spanish wanting to keep up with his brother, and he saw some words he thought he recognized but the language was unfamiliar. "Latin. It's where a lot of languages came from. No one speaks it now; it's mainly used in medicine. But man, a ton of these books are written in it." Osamu explained. "It's used for spell work. You can exorcize demons with it too."
The boys spun around to see Sam enter the room. "Thought I said not to touch anything?" Sam remarked. " Yeah well, don't got much reason to trust you to do as you say." Osamu rebutted. Sam smiled he was seeing what Cass saw. These kids were a lot like them when they were young, Sam thought. "Well, I wasn't joking about the curses. This place was used by the men of letters. Supernatural anthropologist if you will. There's a lot here that can be dangerous. Heck once we knocked over a jar that contained the honest to god wicked witch of the west." Sam told them.
"No way!" Ken said, clearly interested. "Yup, she almost killed a friend of ours." Sam decided to leave out that she had killed Charlie but did not want to bring up the Gadreel situation.
—-
It had been a week before the boys decided they were ok with having their own rooms instead of sharing. However, the first night, Ken found himself waking up terrified. He tried his best to go back to sleep but ended up getting up to rush to his brother's room. He made it to the hall when he noticed the light in the library on. "I wonder if big brother couldn't sleep either." He said as he made his way down there.
He was surprised to see, instead of his brother, Castiel seated at the table flipping through a book while writing on a notepad. He was still fully dressed. "Did you not go to bed?" Ken questioned. Castiel looked over to the boy. "Ken, why are you up? You need your rest." The angel said. "I asked you first." Ken insisted. Castiel smiled softly. "Angels don't require sleep. So, when I'm here I try to work on research." He explained. "Now young one, why are you up?" He asked. Ken fidgeted a little. "I got scared…I thought maybe my brother was down here." He answered. Castiel scooted the chair back and beckoned Ken over.
Ken obliged and Castiel scooped him up and sat him on his lap. "You've been through a terrifying experience. It's understandable for you to still be uneasy." He gave the boy a reassuring hug. "But know that you and your brother are very safe here. This place is warded against many things. And two of the best monster hunters in the world are here. Also, you and your brother are my charges now. I will always protect you and do everything in my power to keep you safe." Castiel explained. Ken smiled and borrowed against Castiel's chest. "Does charge mean we're your kids now? Like are you our dad now?" Ken asked. "It's more you're under my protection, like Sam and Dean…but I do plan to care for you as my own. If you want to consider me a dad." "I do! You're nicer to me than my dad. Him and mama liked Osamu better." Ken said.
Castiel frowned. "I'm sure your parents loved you very much…perhaps they just had a different way of showing it. If it helps, I've only seen my father twice in several millennia." Ken looked surprised at that. "That's a long time." He stated. Castiel nodded. "He was what you'd call an absent father. Now then are you still scared? You are welcome to stay out here with me." Castiel said. Ken smiled. "Yes please!" He turned to look over at the books.
"What are you working on? I didn't mean to interrupt." Ken said, getting a closer look. One was filled with unfamiliar symbols while the notebook had notes in English. "I'm translating some of these Enochian texts into English for Sam and Dean." Castiel explained. Ken looked questionably at his new father. "Enochian texts?" He asked. " Yes, while Angels have knowledge of all languages on earth, Enochian is our native language." "Whoah! Angel's have their own language! I wanna learn, can you teach me?" Ken asked, getting excited. Maybe he can learn something before his brother. Castiel chuckled a bit at the boy. "Yes, I can begin teaching you. It is a tough language though; Sam and Dean have been at it a few years now and still struggle."
For the rest of the night Castiel went over the text he was translating with Ken, till the boy nodded off in the Angel's arms.
—-
"Dude, you got adopted by a freaken Angel! You must be the luckiest orphan in the world!" Daisuke exclaimed, then paused with a sheepish look. "Sorry, that came out wrong." "Ya think?" Veemon commented. Ken waved it off. "It's cool, I was pretty young. And most of my parents ' attention had always been on my brother so I barely remember them." Daisuke gave a sympathetic smile. "Still rough. So, do you know what was it, Enochian? Do you know how jealous T.K and Kari would be that you can speak that when they are the ones with angel digimon?" Ken laughed. "I know a bit, mainly for spellwork and translation. Not sure I could hold a conversation with Angemon or Angewoman anytime soon." "Ha fair, so, they started having you hunt monsters? Do they know about Wormmon and digital monsters?!" He questioned. "Not at first. I quickly learned that hiding stuff from people familiar with the supernature is next to impossible." Ken explained
—-‐—-
"So, this jumbo-sized Caterpillar came from the computer?" Dean questioned. Ken stood awkwardly holding Wormmon. He thought to keep him secret, but that proved to not be an easy feat when your new family consists of hunters of the supernatural, an Angel, a Nephilim, and an overly protective brother. "The heck is it? A pokemon?" He continued to question. "I beg your pardon, I'm a digimon." Wormmon stated.
"He can speak?" Sam questioned. "I guess if he is made out of data, language would be programmed in. Digital world…I wonder, did Chuck make it, or did it come into existence from humans creating computers and the internet?" Sam pondered. "Can you stop nerding out over this and be more concerned that there is a world of monsters little kids have access to?!" Dean exclaimed. "You did say there were other kids right?" He turned to Ken. He perked up. "Yeah I made another friend named Ryo. There was also another group of kids we ran into and talked to for a bit."
While seeing Wormmon sporting a pair of soundproof headphones was very amusing, Osamu was uneasy about the situation while he watched Dean instructing Ken with aiming a shotgun in the shooting range of the bunker. Sure, he had been given lessons as well, but that was expected. He was meant to protect his younger brother. Logically he knew Ken needed to learn to handle weapons just as much as he did, but he wasn't going to be happy with the idea. He'd nearly had a heart attack the week before. While cataloging some of the men of letters archive with their uncle Sam, Osamu had walked into the map room just in time to see their adoptive father letting Ken twirling around an angel blade.
He felt a hand squeeze his shoulder. He turned to see his Uncle Sam. "Hey, coming from a younger brother, we like to be able to protect people too and have our older brother's back." Sam explained picking up on Osamu's uneasiness. He sighed and shook his head. "Doesn't mean I have to like it." He commented. "Osamu look!" Ken rushed up to the two showing the target page. "Got em in the head and chest." He said proudly. Dean gave them an impressed look. "Kids a good shot." He said.
-‐—-
Ken perked up at the sound of a car pulling up outside signaling the arrival of his dad. Castiel rushed over and kneeled down. "You really need to be more careful." The angel mildly scolded. He examined the wrapping. "This is excellent work, Wormmon." He commented. Wormmon beamed a bit. "Thank you! Though the injury is pretty bad." the digimon explained. "Not a problem." Castiel said and gently pressed a hand to his son's bandaged wound. A light glow emitted in the area and Ken let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks Dad, sorry I wasn't more careful." "Dude! That's freaken awesome!" Daisuke exclaimed.
Castiel rose and helped his charge to his feet. "While I healed your wound, I think its best we get you home." Castiel started. He turned and glance at the other child and monster duo. "Your friends should probably come as well. If the wish to enter into this life, they should know how to find the bunker and make use of its resources." The Angel explained as he ushered the group into the vehicle he brought.
Daisuke took a moment to look at his friend. "What is the bunker? Like a headquarters? Or Base of operation?" He asked. Ken just gave him a soft smile. "Yes, but, it's also home."
Notes: A few things, I sprinkled in just in relation to characterization.
One I have Ken very firmly referring to TFW as family. I would have liked in the series for Jack to call Cass dad more than deserves it. I feel it would have come naturally to Ken because with the time frame I bring Cass in, Ken didn't feel very connected with his parents and at that young I could see him just being like dis Angel is my father now.
Two: I put in mentions of him meeting Ryo, but choose to exempt the whole dark spore just cause I think if he came home with that Castiel would be immediately able to sense it and purge it. If not sense it, Wormmon would have definitely brought up him being sick and Cass should do a check up.
Three: I figure since we are going all AU I put in mentions of Ken and Ryo meeting others as a way to imply they ran into Tai and the 01 group because why not?
Four: I put in a lot of references to parallels. The close relationship we see Osamu and Ken have despite Osamu being on a pedestal. It just seems like if something like this happened I could see Osamu going all Dean and after an encounter like that being fiercely protective of Ken. Also after being considered a Genius, Osamu would absolutely be like Sam and throw himself into lore books after discovering a whole world of unknown. While Ken would probably be more into the hunting aspect with Dean, cause for once hes getting lessons and acknowledgement from family. And you know he'd be jumping into fights along side Wormmon.
Five: I grew up with the dubbed version. I chose to go with the Japanese names though simply for the reason we have Sam Winchester and Sam Ichijouji and its like yeah thats totally not gonna get confusing.
Let me know if you want this continued, maybe Ken joining in digital fights and being like wait you guys dont fight monsters with your partners? Or maybe taking other teammates on hunt and introducing the whole group to the supernatural. With sprinkling in snapshots with story's Ken tells them.
The idea came from this for a few reasons. SPN is my current fandom but with the series and movie resurgence with digimon i have rediscovered my love for Ken, he was like my first comfort character. So decided to merge the 2, another was just the double sams, and the idea of merging the fandoms came from a meme where its a bakemon holding a thing of salt and the caption being the ghost has the salt. Where is your god now?
I have since made this a series and plan to post the next part on here as a multi chapter fic. Hope people liked it. I did a smidge of editing from the one I have on Ao3.