UNDYING
Ch1
Laughs and chuckles could be heard across the street by a blue-haired teen as he made his way towards Matsuda's bakery, those laughs were very distinct to his ears. It's those two again, he confidently guessed, they must be throwing some banter or laughing at something else. Suddenly, those laughs stop and he hears a girl shouting, not too loud but enough to silence those laughs. He sighs and lets out chuckles, they never change.
Opening the front door, he knocks softly first and immediately goes to the top floor. Waiting for someone to come down isn't necessary, they're already waiting for him, and it's not like one of them could hear his knocks from those loud laughs.
"Morning" Everyone's focus quickly shifted to the new guest.
"Jian! Geez, what took you so long?" Said the tallest boy in the room, he looks cheerful and carefree like any other day. "We're starving here, and your highness over there won't let me eat first." He says it with a pout on his face.
A red-haired girl walks towards him and gives him a little smack on the head. "Ow-Ow-Ow! Come on, it's just a joke!"
"Yeah, sure, haha. A funny one from the guy who arrived first."The other boy in front of Kazu laughs at her sarcastic remarks, but he quickly falls silent when Ruki glares at him. "Alone?"
Jian sighs and nods, he then shrugs his shoulders before taking a seat. "My relatives come, and this is their last day here. My cousin is the same age as her so.. she doesn't want to go" Jian looks around and he finds that they're missing one person. "Where is he? Isn't this something important about his D-Ark?"
"Who knows? He might be just bored and want us to come over." Holding her own D-Arc, Ruki expects something to happen, anything. But alas, it stays silent like a dead phone. "That Goggle-head, how long till he-"
"Hey" Jian tilts his head in the direction of other girls, there is a younger boy as well. "He might be just preparing some bread for them, I'll help him."
Ruki nods in agreement, she then sits near the younger teens who are still playing the Digimon card game. It's boring, and the worst part of it is that they play very sloppy. This game would be done if it's a pro like her who's playing. What intrigues Ruki is Juri, the older girl kindly help them learn about the cards, she won't have as much patience as Juri and that impressed her a bit.
"J-Juri, I can do this alone, don't help me!" Said the youngest. "Hehehe, I'll win this, Ai!" Mako takes two cards on his hands.
"Hmph! You'll regret refusing her helps!" Reply the older sister, not going easy on her own little brother.
Both older girls giggle at them, their enthusiasm and competitive spirit are really similar to his. They are also loud and could be annoying for the most part. While watching them, Ruki moves closer to Juri. The game is quite intense for Ai and Mako, complete with banter in between moves, even Kazu and Kenta stop their own game to watch them play. In the end, Ai wins. Everyone in there is not really surprised, she's the older one after all.
Lost to his sibling, Mako pouts and shuffles his cards while Ai recklessly challenges Kenta as her next opponent. One card gets his interest, it has a bright white wings painted on the middle of it. He didn't get a chance to use it before.
"Juri, if I use this on our D-Ark, will Impmon get wings?" he asked.
"Hmm? Of course! He can also fly with it too, not just a costume."
Mako lost inside his imagination, thinking about how Impmon would look if he got those white wings, or how his final form would look when those black raven-like wings were replaced by this. "Whoa..." After a moment, he snaps back to reality. "How about your partner, Juri? Wouldn't it be cool if Leomon had wings!? He's a brave lion with a big sword, right?" asked the boy. "I don't think Impmon would be happy to have this kind of thing, it's too bright" he added.
That question left a bit of a sour taste in Ruki. Meanwhile, Juri giggles and smiles towards the boy, which surprises Ruki. "Ehhh, I think both look cool with that, well, maybe Impmon looks better with his own wings."
The boy gasped. He shuffles through his cards once again, trying to find any card that would give his partner an interesting upgrade. Ruki taps his shoulder and points at Kenta. "Look, there is another challenge waiting for you, you don't want her to left you in the dust right?"
"What? No! I'm the better player!" her taunt work, and he walks towards Kenta, who gladly accepts his challenge.
What Ruki wants is a little private talk with Juri there, all while the others are focused on their games. "Still keeping that from them?" she bluntly asked her, to which she replied with a simple nod. "You okay, Juri?" Ruki puts her hand on Juri's. They're still watching those younger teens playing with their older friends, all of them look happy and cheerful.
"What's with that question?" She asked Ruki back. "This isn't like you, Ruki~" she teases her a bit by pinching her hand gently.
"W-Wha-Hey!" Ruki pulls her hand back with an embarrassed face. "Fine, do what you want then, I don't care!"
Juri giggles watching her friend give her an annoyed huff. "Aww, sorry, it's just rare to see you show this side of yours. And thanks for being worried about me." She was able to soothe her friend's anger a bit, then shift her tone into a more serious one. "They're younger than us, not that much, but.. I don't think telling them about his action too much would help."
"It's not about-hahh.. I'm talking about you. Remember that disgusting thing that copies your face? You have some problems on your own and-"
Before Ruki could finish her words, she stopped by Juri who held her hand again. "It was scary, I'm scared.." she said to Ruki, followed by a long sigh. Then, she smiles again. "But I can't keep thinking or being scared about that, or him, he almost died because I'm too scared to reach his hand. You know, he had the hardest time trusting his partners. How many times did he almost die again? You saved him once right?"
Ruki shakes her head. "That's not me, Renamon did that"
"Oh really? 'I'm not going to leave living things', wonder who said that~?" she ai
Ruki really wants to smack or get angry at her like she always did with the boys, but she just can't. What's important is that Juri is okay now and even in a good mood when talking about her past or Impmon. She grabs her D-Ark again, why did she do that? Saving him, are they closer to each other despite having very different views? She sighs. She will ask Renamon herself on the day they meet again.
Suddenly, a sweet, pleasant aroma tickles everyone's nose. It's coming from the kitchen, it getting intense as Takato and Jian come out with two trays of freshly baked bread. Ai and Mako rush to them with the older teens follow behind them. The breads have very different shapes, they resemble each of their partners heads, filled with different flavor of cream that matched the colour of their Digimon.
Takato handed over a quite bigger bread to Kenta, unlike the other bread that shaped like their Digimon's head, this one is full body. "Tried my best, how's that?"
"Whoa! You really good at this man! Thanks!" he praised Takato while checking a bread shaped like MarinAngemon's body. Takato chuckles as his effort pays off, that was the biggest and hardest bread amongst these.
"Hah, of course he could do that. Your Digimon is the smallest amongst us~" says Kazu, taking a bite on Guardromon bread. "Oh! Chocolate!"
"The smallest but the strongest one, mine's level is the highest, okay~? and isn't the rusty one here~" reply Kenta.
"Hah!? What did you say?"
The two throw their banters once again. Meanwhile, the two youngest are busy eating their fourth bread, and the rest of them are talking to Takato. Juri stares at the bread first, then eats the one that is shaped like Leomon. "What's the deal Takato? You suddenly baked these breads for us and-Oh, it's sweet!"
"If you just want to bake us some bread, don't text us like it's something urgent, Goggle-head" says Ruki, tasting the Renamon bread. "You make a fresh pineapple jam? I won't lie, this is good" she added.
Takato nods. "Cause it's practice, to greet them."
"To greet.. them?" Jian frowns. He puts some Lopmon bread in a paper bag for her sister later.
Takato couldn't hold back his smile, it made everyone more curious. "Yes, them. My D-Ark turned on by itself last night."
Worlds apart, two rookie level Digimons lay on the ground near an oasis, resting. Both have bruises all over their bodies, they're clearly exhausted and still panting from the fight they just had. Just a moment ago, they weren't just two Digimon but three, the other one unfortunately got swept away by data stream along with their enemies. To make things worse, the one they lost is the strongest of them all, at least in terms of level. There is still one Digimon who is able to warp digivolve into his mega form. Sadly, even that Digimon himself knows that his mega form only lasts for so long.
One of them gets up and sits, then slowly forces himself to stand up even with his injuries and stamina. Unsurprisingly, he falls to the ground just a second later. He rolls himself and this time he chooses to rest for a bit longer.
"Impmon, moumantai..." says the other Digimon beside him. The small white-green rabbit-like Digimon rolls his body and pats Impmon's arms with his big ears. "Get some rest first, there is no one.. to fight.."
Impmon slaps his ear away from his arms. "Tch, don't touch me you useless bunny!" Terriermon glances at his friend, he looks so pissed off. "I can't just rest like we're on a picnic, our tin can is gone and.." The purple imp can't help but take a breather, his body won't keep up at this point. "and.. and.."
Again, Terriermon pats Impmon's hand with his ear, doing the only thing he can think of to calm his friend. "Moumantai.. he can run away with his rocket or even fight them back, I'm sure he's fine without us." He doesn't move his ear away, and it seems that Impmon calmed down his time by letting his ear stay on his hands. Despite what he just said, Terriermon himself doesn't know if Guardromon would be safe. But he needs to keep Impmon's anger in check, he has the shortest fuse of all the Digimons in their team.
What follows after that is silence, both of them not saying a single word for some minutes, which is quite weird since these two are always bickering at anything. Slowly but surely, they get their composure back.
When he feels that his right ear moved a bit, Terriermon takes a glance and sees that Impmon already sitting beside him. He puzzles a bit because Impmon still lets his ear rest on his hand. "For someone who's worried about his safety, you still called Guardromon a tin can." says Terriermon, trying to start a conversation because he's bored.
"He's a tin can you dumb bunny." replied Impmon.
"I'm not! I'm not.. a bunny."
"Not me problem, you do look like a bunny."
Terriermon starts to regret his choice, this friend of his is really annoying for a lot of things. He gets up from laying to sitting position as well, and they look at each other. Still exhausted and got no plan whatsoever, at the very least Impmon looks a bit better than him. The purple imp had a harder life than him or any of them, maybe that's what makes him a bit different, he thought.
"What now?" asked Impmon. "I don't have a giant magnet to find him, so where should we go?"
"Where we-what? Are you out of your mind?" Terriermon asked him back with concerned looks on his face. "What if we got ambushed like last time? Can you even grow from your pathetic form for so long?"
"Oh at least I can do something! Not like someone who can't even run properly!"
They fall into silence once again, and the tension gradually wears off. Both stare in the opposite direction, not even taking a glance at each other. But then Impmon sighs and turns to Terriermon.
"Fine, sorry." he says half heartedly. "What's your plan then?" he continued, trying to brush off the heat between them.
"We rest." Impmon gets up and about to walk away. "Hey! I said-"
"I'm scouting for us stupid bunny, that's my duty as the stronger one." he said with a smug grin plastered on his face.
Annoyed, Terriermon hops on to Impmon's head and holds on there. The imp about to push him off but refrains himself from doing so, instead of that he just walks to the edge of the oasis where Terriermon pointed out.
The place they're in is surrounded by desert, and this area also lower than the surroundings, like a puddle on the middle of nowhere. Only sand could be seen as far as their eyes could see, just a hot and arid land with nothing interesting. Impmon sits against a palm tree with Terriermon right next to him, both stare at the empty sand with nothing to do.
"Why this spot again?" asks Impmon.
Terriermon shrugs. "I think I heard something from this direction."
"Wow, didn't know you could hear wind blowing off some dust before, guess that big ears aren't just some ornament."
There is not much energy they have for bickering, especially for Terriermon, who prefers not to respond to meaningless remarks from Impmon. That sounds, he actually heard something before. Although he can't even makes up what that sounds was, he's not joking about it. He hopes that sounds is something good coming to them, or even better, his partner Jian. He missed him so much.
"Hahhh... wish I had someone to talk to.." said Impmon.
Irritated and fed up, Terriermon slapped his arms, only to be met with a chuckle from the imp. "Bet you wish to trade me with someone else."
"Ding ding ding, you got something right for once, heheheh." Impmon chuckle stops after a moment, it was a good little stress relief even though it was just for a moment.
"Of course you want to trade me, I would happy to trade you for anyone else too, for the record. Let me guess, hmm... yeah, bet it's Renamon." He could see Impmon's eyes widen when he said that, and he couldn't hold back his grin. "Oh my, can't even deny that~?"
Impmon couldn't come up with anything for a minute or two. Terriermon was right again, and this one pisses him off. "Then who? That bottomless pit? Rusty tin can? Or a gloomy version of you? No thanks." he snorts then stares at the sky. "Oh don't forget about the other lizard and that flying thingy who can't talk. At the very least she can understand me if she's here, not that I expect she talks back to me." Impmon added.
"Pfft, so you wanted her to talk more with you?"
"Wha-I-I.. I didn't say that! Shut up!"
Embarrassed, Impmon moves his body a bit so he faces a different direction and only shows his back to Terriermon. He can hear him laughing at him, and then his back touched by Terriermon, snapping him.
"What do-hmmph!?" His mouth quickly shuts tight by Terriermon's ear.
Something clearly wrong when Terriermon expression looks very serious, no more that teasing or smug grin from him. He even gives Impmon some hand gestures to be quiet, then he pulls his ear back. "I heard it again.." whispered the bunny. "There." he says, pointing his finger in the direction in front of them.
Nothing there, Impmon couldn't hear a thing. He just assumes that Terriermon heard something beyond that. This could be a problem if it's that group of Digimons again, they were heavily outnumbered in the last fight. "Let me check it real quick" said Impmon. "You stay here, can't run fast while carrying your fat ears."
Suddenly, they hear an explosion coming from that direction, startling them both. Then, a second one heard along with sand flying everywhere. Whatever that is, it's getting closer to their position. They face so many problems. Is that even their enemy? Should they check it out? Run? Fight? Hide? Unable to decide, they just stay and wait for it.
A little figure descends in their direction, a familiar figure. At first, they don't know if it's actually their friends, but when that Digimon waves at them, both quickly run in its direction. Seeing their friend makes them a bit reckless, and they didn't consider what come after him. A giant dog-like Digimon runs towards them, it seems that their friend is their target. "Watch out!" yells Impmon.
The roar from that Digimon is so loud, like an explosion, hitting their friend from behind and sending him flying before lands on the sand.
"Lopmon!"
All of them sit around 'a big table' by combining multiple square tables into one. Each of them has their D-Ark placed in front of them, their expressions are serious except for three people. Ai, Mako, and Kazu look relaxed unlike everyone else. Ai and Mako are busy still eating another bread while listening to their older friends, no one can really blame them, they even think it's good that these two aren't as stressed as them. Meanwhile, Kazu is just being Kazu, always carefree, and this time even excited by the news that Takato told them earlier.
"I'm not up for jokes, especially this kind of joke." said Ruki sternly, still glaring at Takato.
Jian raises his hand and gestures for Ruki to calm down first. "Is that true, Takato?"
Their friend nodded. "Yes, it was last night when I was drawing. Almost midnight, but I'm sure of it."
"Anything else?" asked Jian. "Any message? Text? Symbols?"
Takato shakes his head. "No, only shining a bright light for a moment."
Ruki wants to speak and get angry, for her this is not enough to be an excuse to call them all here as 'emergency'. Yet nothing comes out of her mouth, because deep down she also wants to believe this to be a sign for her reunion with Renamon.
The same feelings can be seen across the room, everyone takes a glance at their own D-Ark or even grabs theirs like Kazu and Ai. That day, everything went so fast that they didn't even get a chance to say a proper goodbye. Their enemy is gone, they saved the world from serious dangers or even its destruction. It's a great triumph, and the cost of that battle is just as big as the reward. For some, their journey is quite long, like Takato and Jian. The others weren't as lucky as them, and one particular tamer had the worst end for their journey as partners.
Sun finally passes by, the night comes, and that room becomes gloomy. They all look tired and dejected, even Kazu isn't cracking any jokes for them. Suddenly, the lights turned on, surprising them all. Takato, who's the host of this place even more surprised, he quickly looks at the light switch and sees Juri.
"Don't lose hope guys, it's not the end of the world." She said with a smile. It's like a hard slap for anyone in there when she's the one who's trying to cheer up the whole team. "Takato didn't mean anything bad when he called us, right?"
"Y-Yeah.. thanks Juri" replied the boy.
"I wish I could meet Impmon sooner" said Mako. "You also wish the same with Leomon right, Juri?"
"Of course!" she replied with a smile on her face.
That stings everyone in there, and they can tell that her smile is genuine as well, which makes it more painful to see. Kazu about to say something to Mako but Jian hold his shoulder and shakes his head. With a big sigh, Kazu nodded to him and said nothing about it.
"Maybe if we wish more often, they might come to us sooner right, Ai?" Kenta who didn't say much from earlier, suddenly helped Juri to cheer up the mood. Although his voice wasn't convincing enough for the older tamers, Ai still nodded happily to him.
"I wish I could see him now!" says the girl.
"Hehe, that's the spi-" Kenta stopped by a flash of light from his D-Ark. "G-Guys! M-My D-Ark! My D-Ark turns on by itself! Look! Loo-"
One by one, their D-Ark turns on by itself, everyone holds their own D-Ark. It shows nothing, just flickering lights on the screen. But this isn't a normal electronic device, and it's always off since their partners depart from this world.
"What's happening? Even a wish shouldn't be this strong." Ruki says, staring at her D-Ark.
Beside her, Juri also stares at her own D-Ark. Hers had a crack when she dropped it in the Digital World, quite some time ago. "R-Ruki, even mine, my D-Ark turned on as well!"
Everybody focus shifted to Juri. They're thrown into more confusion, except for Ai and Mako. Juri's D-Ark turned on is a big thing, because all of them thought that it wouldn't be used ever again. They stare at their D-Ark, Kazu even tried to press it or slash his cards, yet nothing happened. When everyone focus is glued to her, Jian notice something else because he's in a spot to see the outside from the windows.
"Hey! Look there!" he pointed out to the outside.
There is a light shining not far from Matsuda's Bakery, the tamers know it too well and they can fell something is coming. Takato looks at Jian and then at Ruki, confirming what he is seeing right now. A data field that comes with a chance of Bio-Emerging, possibly the second one after that day.
"Is it them? Are they really coming to us!?" Kazu asked, he got a mix of excitement and fear at the same time.
"Let's take a careful approach, we have no guarantee that this is them." replied Jian.
A sound of car tires screeching could be heard from outside of bakery, right in front of the store. The tamers looks outside and a man comes out of the car, a blond-haired man with dark suits and black glasses.
It was just for a moment when he watched Lopmon fly in the air, blasted by a loud roar from a bigger Digimon. The brown bunny seems to have nothing to fight back, he's wounded and full of bruises, he even had a hard time getting up on his feet after that attack. Not wasting time, Impmon and Terriermon run towards him. Before they could get to him, the Digimon behind Lopmon charged forward. The moment Impmon sees its face, a bitter memory comes back. It's that Deva, the one who tricks him when he's desperate for power.
"Aaaahhhh!" Impmon screams startling Terriermon, he moves faster even with his current condition, leaving Terriermon behind and running past Lopmon. His anger multiplied after what the Deva did to Lopmon. Filled with anger, he throws his signature fireball at the Deva.
Terriermon takes this chance to aid Lopmon, helping him to get up. "You okay?"
"Hel.p.. help him first.. ugh.." Lopmon is too weak to even stands, he's not fully regained his composure after that attack. "Caturamon.. not... him.."
Meanwhile, Impmon keeps throwing fire at Caturamon. The Deva isn't fazed by those attacks, it's just too weak to hurt him. It's not just that, lots of Impmon's attacks miss completely, and even if they're hit, those attacks aren't as powerful as it should be. He's blinded by rage and too exhausted to unleash a proper attack in this form. Caturamon keeps moving forward and rushes to the imp, he only realizes that their distance is gone when it's too late.
"Terrier Tornado!" A small twister hits Caturamon's face. It's not hurting the Deva, but enough to distract him from attacking Impmon. "Get yourself together!" he yells at Impmon.
Impmon jumps back to Terriermon's side, they stand in front of Lopmon, like a wall.
"We need to run." says Terriermon. "None of our attacks works at that big dog right now."
"No, I have things to settle down with that Deva."
"Are you insane!?"
A loud roar interrupted them, and Impmon rushes towards Caturamon again despite Terriermon's warning. "Just a moment." His steps become bigger and longer. "I'll finish this.." The Deva who also charging heads on suddenly stopped, he felt a sudden fear. "I'll do this quick, so please.." All three of them watch as the imp in front of them is nowhere to be seen. "Please, work with me!"
CLACKâBANG!
Not saying much for this first chapter but you can tell that I used the Japanese name, because I watched it with sub. The english name is fine but I'm more familiar with the jpn one. A little problem, when writing the story, the Digimon name and skill is a bit weird (cause I write in english, duh) so right now I used english Digimon name and skill. There might be a change, and I will put a note about it.