The Digital World… an entire reality, separate from that of the human, physical world and reality. A world where beasts walk around, ranging in levels of intelligence and civility. Going from being nothing more than wild animals, to being comparable or even smarter and more civil than humans. These beasts are called Digimon, Digital Monsters.
Digimon range in appearance greatly, some take a mammal-like form, such as bipedal foxes, some reptilian in nature such as orange lizards… some even take mechanical forms that look like gears. Despite this, they all had things in common, the world they reside in and the fact they are comprised of data given form and life, something that no human expects, being far too closed minded to comprehend or think of it, until it stares them in the face.
Sadly, the Digital World is not always a place of prosperity or peace, such as the ages of the Shadow Lords, five high level, and dark Digimon who took control of the world after a set of six humans, Digidestined as they are called, chased the old dark ruler LadyDevimon from the world and into theirs. By the time they returned, the Digidestined had found the world changed, under new rule and in a war between those who support the rule of the Shadow Lords, be it willing or unwilling, merely supporting them for the sake of self preservation… and those who wish for the Digital World to return to how it was before LadyDevimon and were helped by the Digidestined in their travels, with no ruler.
We start our journey with a view into this battle between the Shadow Lords and the Digidestined, now reduced from the original six, down to a now measly five humans. After a long and hard fought battle, the leaders of both sides decided to make a deal, to avoid the deletions of their soldiers and friends, they decided to have a duel to decide which side will live… and which shall die.
The meeting space they had decided on was a small plain that existed in the middle of a forest known to those in the area as 'The Forest of Truth' an old ground for those who had secrets to hide to reveal those secrets and repent for them. Strangely, it was the Shadow Lord who had suggested the plain as their place of conflict, but even so, the Digidestined went along with it, deciding it was the best place if any nearby for the battle. Far away from any of the villages that had joined the battle, and far enough out of the way of battle that no soldiers would interrupt either side in their fight.
The first of the two groups to step out was a tall humanoid figure with light blue skin and three red eyes with slitted pupils and a white ring in each eye. This figure was 'dressed' in a dark grey, skin-tight suit of some kind with a zipper, that showed off the muscles on his torso rather well, while a dark grey baggy, long sleeved biker style jacket with a light grey fur collar covered his arms and went halfway down his torso and led towards his hands, which ended in five sharp silver claws, the hands covered in dark grey gloves that had a metal plate on the back of each, his forearms protected by a metal plate each as well. His shoulders also had silver shoulder pads to add protection to his body while a red bandana was tied around his left arm. Between the well defined muscles of his chest laid a yellow star connected to a chain that went around Beelzemon's neck, holding the necklace together
Across his waist was two grey belts that hid the separation between the 'suit' top and his dark grey pants, comparable to trousers in a way, being slightly baggy looking, but not too baggy looking. Small metal shapes were seemingly sewn into the hip and upper leg areas, with two brown bands being located above the right knee. His knees also had silver knee pads covering them, the actual knee pad having a triangular shape to lower legs on the other hand had three thick bands on each leg, the right three and top left one being the same dark grey as the pants under them, while the bottom two left bands were silver, connecting them to a silver holster of some kind. These bands also hid the separation between his pants and boots, which were just as dark grey as the rest of his outfit, with silver toecaps and spikes jutting out of them.
Upon his face was a blue mask that seemed avian in nature and covered the top half of his face, a slow being free to reveal his third eye. His jaw was also lined with a black material that seemed to step from the suit on his torso, two plug-like shapes connected by silver 'cables' came down from the mask. The mask ended out in sharp points, which mimicked his spiked, and sharp looking light yellow hair. And waving behind the being was a silver, metallic looking tail that seemed to be made out of segments.
This figure was that of the Shadow Lord, Beelzemon. The strongest of the Shadow Lords, a being who had wiped out village after village, rumours said he searched and destroyed villages that the Digidestined had helped early on in their adventures through the world to see if there was anyone strong enough to challenge him to an actual fight.
Beelzemon looked around the plain in the forest and sighed as he reached down and pulled his gun out of its holster, said gun being reminiscent of a pure silver double barrelled shotgun. Beelzemon would practice sudden aiming with the gun, taking aim at trees and leaves in a moment's notice before the rustling of a bush caught his attention and he quickly turned to aim towards the bush
Out of the bush came a human teenager, no older looking then nineteen. He had dark brown hair that bled down into dark orange hair that spiked out at the sides of his head. He also had dark brown eyes that were partially hidden behind a pair of black rimmed glasses. The teen was dressed in a dark grey, nearly black shirt that was slightly hidden under his dark brown, short sleeved jacket that had an orange 'X' marked on the right sleeve. On his legs were a pair of dark blue trousers that showed signs of extensive use, if the rips and tears in them were anything to go off of, said pants being held up by a black belt with a silver buckle and covering some dark brown shoes, dark merely due to use in a seemingly dirty environment, said assessment being more visible thanks to the rips a tears in the pants showing skin that had been stained by dirt and grime. The teen also wore dark red and black fingerless gloves on each hands, his left wrist having an orange watch of some kind, the face of it being a screen instead of any kind of clock, the screen having a black circle around it.
This teenager was Ryan, the current leader of the Digidestined, and Digidestined of Justice and brother to the Digidestined of Serenity, Ellie, who along with the other Digidestined that had followed Ryan into the forest, against his orders, were hiding in the trees to watch the battle.
"Greetings, Digidestined of Justice. It is good to see that you stuck to the terms of our agreement and met me out here alone." Beelzemon greeted Ryan, making the human nod his head as he flicks his left wrist, causing the screen on his watch to light up, data and code spewing out of the screen at a rapid rate, forming discs around his entire arm
"Digital Shift: Mega!" Ryan called out as the discs on his arm grew outwards, rapidly enveloping his body in a bright glow of light that obscured him from view as his body began to change, he grew taller, tall enough to stair Beelzemon in the eyes, who himself was larger than any human could be. His orange hair slicked backwards as it lost all colour, turning a light grey colour, nearly silver colour. Meanwhile his muscle mass increased to become just as muscular as Beelzemon while orange fur began to cover his body, forming a firm, but sturdy fur coat on his body, the only place not covered were his abs and pecs, but only in an 'X' shaped scar0like mark. His ears shifted to the top of his head and became pointed lion ears. His face pushed outwards into a muzzle, complete with a small black lion nose and sharp teeth designed for biting and tearing.
What was once his shirt and jacket merged and turned into a singular, dark purple jacket with a red inside that hung off of his shoulders, the bottom of the cap having four golden rings going through it. On his head formed a small hat that had a black rim with a golden border in the shape of an arrow point with a red inside. On his wrists white wrappings formed, connected to a red pad with a golden border that went over his fists, which had their fingernails replaced with sharp, black claws. Coming out over his arms from his armpits were black, scar-like markings that added to the dangers air he had.
His belt began to thicken to accompany the growth that Ryan had gone under, his pants shortening as the rips and tears repaired themselves while the pants shortened, the ends of the legs becoming furred while the waistband shredded. His shoes vanished into thin air before his feet burst out into paws, covered in pale orange fur with five, small black claws replacing his once toenails. A lion tail formed off of his tailbone, said tail having a golden band near the end of it. His eyes lightened from their brown colour to a lighter blue colour, his left eye gaining a black 'scar' over it while his pupils slitted. On his back, hidden by the jacket and his body formed a blade, specifically a tanto blade, the blade itself having chips and marks, but despite this was still as sharp as a razor blade, being able to easily cut through most things standing in Ryan, no, BanchoLeomon's way.
"Indeed. Now then, let's get this show on the road." Ryan said as he pulled his tanto, known as the Otokodama and quickly got into a more fighting-style pose while Beelzemon pulled a second shotgun, seemingly out of nowhere he pointed both guns towards Ryan as the two warriors seemed to wait for some kind of symbol to start their fight off. A symbol that was given to them as a leaf off a nearby tree fell off, floating down between the two in a way that only a movie or the Digital World could have happen. The leaf began to slowly fall to the ground between them, and once it landed on the ground between them, they went into action with Beelzemon jumping back to fire his two shotgun-like weapon, both guns sharing the same name, Berenjena, towards Ryan, who ran forwards, slashing at the lasers that came out of the barrels of the Berenjena, deflecting them into the ground around him as he rapidly approached the Shadow Lord
"Ha ha! Nice to see you aren't as weak as you were last time we fought. This time there won't be any conveniently placed explosion to save you from me, so fight! fight and show me your might!" Beelzemon shouted at Ryan as a quartet of wings grew out of his back, the top two of those wings being large enough to cloak his body while the smaller two wings were comparable to his fingers in size. Once his wings had grown out to their full size, Beelzemon took to the air, still firing his Berenjena towards Ryan, who quickly began to hide under his jacket, the accessory helping to ward off the blasts from Beelzemon, the blasts that missed due to the distance kicking dust up into the air, beginning to form a smoke screen for Ryan before Beelzemon stopped firing and just stayed in the air, floating in place while staring down at the dust cloud he had created out of the plain, his shoots somehow not touching the trees at all, even the one with the Digidestined hiding in it
Suddenly, out from the dust that was kicked up, Otokodama flew out of the dust and stabbed Beelzemon through the arm, the Shadow Lord's eyes widening in a mixture of shock and pain while in his ears rung a soft shattering noise as something itched in his head, making his eyes widen even more as he let a small smirk cover his face as he pulled the Otokodama out of his arm in one quick motion, making him flinch slightly before the blade seemed to glitch a little, almost as if being held by Beelzemon was having an effect on it. Despite this, the blade did not visually change at all.
Ryan stared up towards Beelzemon, not having been able to see Otokodama stab into his arm through the dust, which was now beginning to settle, allowing both Digimon to stare each other in the face before Beelzemon flew down towards Ryan and slashed at him with Otokodama, missing him a few times before nicking him on the cheek, at first causing a few data flakes to fly off of him before blood leaked out of the cut, a feature exclusive to the Digidestined themselves, the ability for a Digimon to bleed. In retaliation to being made to bleed, Ryan kicked back at Beelzemon, making him drop Otokodama before, with another stronger kick, Ryan sent Beelzemon flying, forcing the Shadow Lord to use his wings to stop his movement and inertia.
Ryan picked up the Otokodama once more, not having noticed that the blade turned red once it had been dropped by Beelzemon, nor that the red was slowly dripping off of the blade. Ryan would quickly pull his unarmed fist back, a golden glow beginning to come off of it as Beelzemon's eyes widened and he quickly raised his hand into the air, his claws beginning to be coated in a shell of darkness
"Flash Bancho Punch!/Darkness Claw!" The two shouted at the same time, Ryan thrusting his fist forwards, firing a fist made out of pure energy out and towards Beelzemon, who used his darkness covered claw to shred the attack into peaces, or at least try to as the conflicting energies exploded in his face, blasting him back, but thankfully not doing as much damage to him as the Flash Bancho Punch would have done on it's own. Unfortunately, out of the smoke created by the explosion of the attack was Ryan, Otokodama now cleared of its red colouring and reared to stab Beelzemon through the chest, without any time to get out of the way, Beelzemon did the next best course of action, moving just enough to avoid getting skewered, sadly this implied getting stabbed through the other arm and the wing, the blade glitching once more… and this time even some of Ryan's fur seemed to glitch, sadly this went unnoticed by Ryan, but not by one of the Digidestined in the tree, who was using their Champion Form's smaller size and better eyesight to watch while hiding, said Digidestined squinting their eyes to try and see what the glitch was about, but being unable to see what it was, although they did notice the star on Beelzemon that seemed to glitch and crack slightly.
The two fighters kicked away from each other, Beelzemon taking the blade with him as his wings receded into his body, having sustained enough damage to be more or a hinderance than a help to the Shadow Lord as he pulled the Otokodama out of his arm before tossing it into a random bush and then rushing towards Ryan to engage in close quarters combat, his Berenjena long forgotten by this point in time. Ryan would try to punch Beelzemon, only for the Digimon to dodge the punches with a surprising amount of grace as the 'Bancho' would use a slugger style in combat, focussed on slow but powerful attacks that would do massive damage if they hit. Emphasis on the IF part of that statement. On the other hand Beelzemon had a more movement based fighting style that used quick movements and minimalist approaches to fighting back.
Eventually Ryan would catch a left hook from Beelzemon and hold him still with one hand before throwing his own punch towards the Demon Lord of Gluttony, who returned the favour Ryan sent him by grabbing his fist, leaving the two in a grapple where they tried to get their captured hand free while trying to force the other to submit by twisting the wrist of their respective captured fists. That was of coursed before Ryan decided to go the savage route in the combat and use his fangs for their designed purpose and quickly bite into Beelzemon's shoulder, causing the Digimon to scream in pain and let go of the fist he had captured, the white ring in his eyes shattering before he growled and quickly placed a hand on Ryan's chest
"Bada Boom!" Beelzemon shouted, harnessing the power of his lower form to unleash a torrent of fire into Ryan's chest, causing him to scream in pain, letting Beelzemon go while the 'Lion Man' Digimon patted the fire down. While the attack was strengthened by being used by Beelzemon, it was still a low level attack, and as such was easy to get rid of for the Mega 'Bancho'. Before Ryan could get his bearings back, he was kicked in the face, he was unable to hear what Beelzemon said next as the Shadow Lord began to release fast paced kicks towards his torso, aggravating the pain from the 'Bada Boom' earlier.
The Digidestined could only watch in shock as seemingly, for no reason other than he could, Beelzemon seemed to gain more skill and power, as if he was holding back. The speed of his kicks made it nearly impossible for Ryan to respond to the assault unless he timed his counter perfectly. Throughout this, three of the Digidestined gained a strange sense of deja vu from watching Beelzemon fight in close quarters, but the last Digidestined noticed something that caused their eyes to widen… Beelzemon had no marks on him at all, despite being stabbed in the arms and bit in the shoulder, there were no marks… Something that the more puncture style damage he sustained should have left…
Beelzemon ends his chains of kicks to Ryan's chest with a backflip kick, sending the Digidestined backwards and onto his back before the embodiment of Gluttony stumbled and gripped his shoulder, gritting his teeth before he panted, seeming staring at Ryan, but not doing anything more, even as the Bancho rose back up onto his feet and pulled his arms back, one glowing with golden energy while the other one glowed white. Beelzemon took a step forward before he stumbled, his eyes closing temporarily before he opened one of his three eyes, just in time to see Ryan slam his glowing white fist with a cry of 'Otokogi', sending a shockwave through the ground that fired Beelzemon into the air, twisting him around in the air before Ryan fired his other arm forwards, firing another Flash Bancho Punch towards Beelzemon, who was unprepared for the attack and was subsequently blasted backwards into a tree, which fell over from the might of his body's speed.
"Haaa…haaa… you… you win…" Beelzemon panted as he tried to get back up to his feet, only to fall backwards as a grim smile grew on his face, the star on his necklace now cracked to a point a single tap could probably shatter it to a million pieces. The smile that Beelzemon flashed caused one of the Digidestined to freeze, their mind going back to the past, the memories flashing through their head causing their legs to tremble as Ryan nodded his head and pulled his fist back once more
"You put up a good fight Shadow Lord Beelzemon. Despite your evil, you stayed true to your word and fought your all. Now, let the power of this Bancho's fist of justice lead you to a better life after rebirth." Ryan said, his voice having a tone of respect to it as his fist glowed gold, the glow taking on a more fire-like appearance to it "Burning Bancho Punch!" He would scream as he shot his first forwards once more, unleashing what could only be described as a lion's head made out of burning energy towards Beelzemon, who closed his eyes, the sound of the attack blocking out almost every sound… Almost.
"AAAAAAH!" Screamed a young, female voice that caused Beelzemon's eyes to shoot wide open and stare in horror at the scene in front of him, a small feline-type digimon with black fur, golden eyes and ears that ended in three purple tips. On her front paws were indigo gloves that had red stripes on the sides and opening for her three black claws, her tail had three purple segments that leaded to the purple end of her tail, which like her ears, ended in three points. This Digimon was known as BlackGatomon… or better yet…
"ALICE!" Beelzemon and all four of the Digidestined screamed out at once as the small feline Digimon fell down, her back scorched with small flames nipping at the fur surrounding the area where the attack had hit Alice, one of the five Digidestined fighting against the Shadow Lords.
Why…? How…? Those two questions are very important to know, why would one of the Digidestined risk their lives for a Shadow Lord, much less one that they were fighting before the deal had been struck, why did Beelzemon's smile seem familiar to Alice… and how did this all come to be? To answer that, we must look back in time, back to when LadyDevimon held rule over the land, to when the Digidestined first arrived.
Maybe by looking into the past, we can judge the future that will befall the Digidestined, Shadow Lords and the very Digital World itself. Maybe then, we can see why it is, that this all came to be.