Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ken couldn’t get the blush off his face for the whole day.

His heart was pounding.

He was embarrassed, of course, because his identity as the Kaiser was revealed, and he sort of lost.

No, he didn’t lose!

The insects could never even come close to beating him.

He just...er...

”Ken-chan? What’s the matter?”

Ugh. Of course the little worm would come and intrude on his sulking.

He of course, didn’t respond and got to fiddling with the buttons on the control panel, Wormmon assumed steering to the next area he planned to get under his control.

”Ken-chan?”

He skittered closer to the Kaiser’s chair, a choice he instantly regretted.

But looking at Ken’s face, he looked more flustered than angry.

Maybe a little of something else...

”T-That disgusting insect, he...He figured out who I was today. No! No, I revealed it, he’s too stupid to figure it out.”

”If you revealed your identity yourself, why are you blushing?”

Wormmon immediately jumped back when the Kaiser snapped his head towards him with a death glare.

”Nobody said you could speak!!”

He hit Wormmon with that whip he never seemed to put down.

Once, then twice.

And he turned his attention to a more worthy being, the incomplete Chimeramon on his computer screen.

Wormmon fought back tears, he wasn’t sure if it was because of the pain of the whip or the pain of losing the real Ken-chan.

Maybe both.

He decided just...not to speak more.

Good, Ken thought, he’s finally leaving me alone.

But the blush just wouldn’t go away.

Why?

Why was he still so humiliated? He would create Chimeramon, and then he would crush them all.

”It’s exactly as you think,” The Digimon Kaiser said, taking off his shades. “I am Ichijouji Ken.”

Motomiya just stared at him in horror.

Ken loved that reaction, he loved the fear he would always elicit from Digimon.

But rarely had he succeeded in getting the same reaction out of Motomiya Daisuke.

Then Motomiya started to scream.

Ken fought back a laugh.

He ran over to him, causing Ken to stumble backwards a bit.

Motomiya just stared into his eyes, scanning for answers.

Ken just looked back at him.

H-He’d never been so close to an insect before.

They could’ve kissed if they wa-

What?! Kiss the insect?! W-What in the Digital World?!

“You,” The insect’s shoulders slumped. “You really are Ichijouji Ken...”

Ken felt an instinctual reaction moving him closer to Daisuke’s face.

His eyes...they were mesmerizing...

Maybe he wasn’t such an insect-

No!! Stop it!! S-Stupid, disgusting, argh! The insects had corrupted his brain!!

He quickly pulled himself backwards, he almost fell down before he caught himself.

His humiliation would be even worse if he’d allowed that to happen.

”Why...why would you do something so horrible, Ichijouji-san? I-I looked up to you...”

There were tears in the insect’s eyes.

Ken felt something.

Was it...was it guilt...?

No! Of course not!

He really needed to get out of here.

He didn’t have time for this.

He whistled and Airdramon immediately swooped in to pick him up.

”Hey!! Digimon Kaiser!! Ken!! Wait!!!”

He didn’t wait. He couldn’t wait. He got out of there as soon as possible.

Ken still didn’t understand why the blush wouldn’t leave his face and the image of Daisu-THE INSECT LEADER wouldn’t leave his mind.

Maybe there was more to it that he wasn’t letting on...

He was feeling so many things, but...anger wasn’t one of them.

That was incredibly strange. Ken was usually angry, angry at the world, angry at the insects who just waltzed into his world to ruin his plans.

But he wasn’t angry at Daisu-He wasn’t angry at Motomiya.

It was preposterous. He’d gotten so close to the Digimon Kaiser, he should’ve whipped him or punched him, or something like that.

But he just...got closer.

He almost...

No. Don’t even think it.

I almost kissed him...

Agh!! No!! Stop it!! Stop!!

”GET. OUT. OF MY HEAD, DAISUKE!!!”

Wormmon flinched at the sudden outburst, he was now hiding in the corner under some machinery.

”Ken-chan...are you okay?”

He knew it was a bad idea to talk, it always was, but he had to make sure Ken-chan was alright.

He sounded really confused.

”I-It’s Daisuke,” Ken found himself spluttering. Ridiculous. He never talked to that worm. “He...h-he...”

”Did he hurt you?”

”W-Well, no...I mean, yes, he punched me, but...I...”

Ken hadn’t talked like that in a long time.

It almost seemed like maybe...maybe he had his kind Ken-chan back, if only for a moment.

”He...he walked closer to me to try and figure out if I was really Ken, I guess, and then I...and then...”

Ken ran his hands through his spiky blue hair, not enough to make it completely straight, like it was in the Real World, but just enough to make him look like Ken-chan again.

“I...I just...”

Ken’s heart skipped a beat now at the idea of kissing Daisuke, and his eyes widened as realization dawned on him.

Wait...

No...

No!

No, absolutely no-

I think I’m in love with him.

I love the look on his face when he defeats me.

I love the way he laughs, and smiles.

I love him. And of course he loves everyone but me.

I’m his enemy.

But I love him.

T-The Digimon Kaiser...in love with that insect...

T-That was the only stupid idea Ken had ever had. Kissing Motomiya?

B-Being in love with him?

Ken quickly shook his head, tousling his hair to make it messy again.

”Wormmon, never speak of this again or you will be punished.”

”...what?”

He wasn’t back to the kind Ken-chan...

Wormmon knew he shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up...

”What do you mean, ‘what?!’ Do you or do you not understand?!”

”I-I understand.”

”Good.”

Ken scoffed, slamming on the control panel, and storming out of the room.

All the screens turned into a red screen with the message, “Error,” pasted all over it.

”There has been an error, master.”

Even the computers called him that...

”Yeah...I think there has been.” Wormmon mumbled, before following Ken into the hallway.

Chapter Text

Daisuke lay in his bed.

Demiveemon was already asleep next to his pillow.

He snores pretty loudly for someone so small.

Daisuke snorted at that.

But his smile quickly faded.

Ichijouji Ken...the Digimon Kaiser...

Why...?

He seemed so nice, so wonderful, and amazing, and cute, and smart, and cool, and-

Just...everything Daisuke wasn’t.

He wasn’t cool.

He definitely wasn’t smart.

If he was, he’d never use that for evil.

Why would Ken do that?

He was the same age as Daisuke, he was just a kid.

And still...

Daisuke sighed, petting Demiveemon gently on the head.

Now that Daisuke thought about it, he couldn’t deny that he had some feelings about Ken that maybe his friends didn’t have.

He’d admired him for a long time.

And he was cute, he was really cute too.

Even as the Digimon Kaiser, with his cute messy hair and his silly shades that he thinks make him look cool.

But he was evil.

Stupid Daisuke.

He couldn’t let anything happen to his friends just because he might be in love with the Kaiser.

In love with the Kaiser?

No, he never said he was in love!!

Like, sure, he was cute and smart.

But that wasn’t enough for Daisuke to love him.

He just...he saw something.

Something in his heart or something that told him he wasn’t evil.

It was stupid, Miyako and Jun would surely think so.

But it couldn’t be any more stupid than the stuff he usually said, right?

And Wormmon, too, he still helped the Kaiser out despite him whipping him and kicking him and just insulting him.

So maybe Wormmon saw it too.

Maybe Daisuke was just being delusional.

He honestly didn’t know if he wanted to kiss or punch Ken.

He groaned in exasperation.

But he knew there was something about him.

Just...just something they didn’t know.

”Hey, Demiveemon...?”

Oh, right.

He was asleep.

Daisuke was going to ask him if he’d ever been in love.

Did Digimon fall in love?

That was a whole other thing, and Daisuke wasn’t ready to get into it right now.

And he knew Demiveemon had never been in love with an evil genius who wanted to control his best friend’s entire species and take over the world.

Next time Daisuke saw the Kaiser, he didn’t know what he was going to do.

Should he tell him how he felt?

No, that was a terrible idea.

He’ll just fight.

Just fight him like usual.

Take down a Dark Tower, and watch Ken get all mad.

Just as he always had done, and as he always would.

That’s how it’s supposed to be.

He yawned, and pulled the blankets up. He was too tired tonight for more brain-rambling.

”Night, Demiveemon...”

Chapter Text

The wind blew through Ken’s hair as he raised up his Dark D-3.

But something wasn’t right.

Agumon.

He...that wasn’t what he was supposed to look like when he digivolved, was it?

The Chosen Children’s Digimon battled with Meramon, throwing punches back and forth.

SkullGreymon didn’t move.

”Hey!! SkullGreymon! What are you waiting for?! Attack them!”

SkullGreymon glanced back at Ken.

Flamedramon lunged at Meramon, ripping off the Dark Ring.

”NO!! SKULLGREYMON, DO SOMETHING!!”

SkullGreymon shot Ken a glare.

It was horrifying.

Before Ken could bark more orders at him, he grabbed him by the throat and held him up over the lava.

Ken screamed.

”W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

”KEN-CHAN!!”

Now, this...this was unfortunate, wasn’t it...?

Ken hadn’t felt afraid in a long time.

He was supposed to be the strongest...everyone else was supposed to be scared of him...

Was he...about to die?

That thought sent a shiver down his spine.

He never thought about death.

He didn’t think he’d be dying so soon.

But...he hadn’t conquered the whole Digital World...

He hadn’t finished Chimeramon...

Would Daisuke be sad if he died?

Agh!! Stop it with that stupid insect!! Of course he wouldn’t.

”KEN-CHAN!! LET HIM GO!!”

Wormmon was hopelessly ramming into SkullGreymon’s leg.

Wormmon cared...

But Wormmon was worthless.

And such a perfect human like Ken didn’t deserve to die, not here.

Now...how to escape.

As Ken was glancing around for something he could use, Flamedramon rammed into SkullGreymon harder, knocking him off-balance and sending Ken flying.

He didn’t even have the time to whistle for Airdramon.

So...this was it. He would probably die anyway.

Oh well.

And everything went black.

But you see, the weird thing about that is when you die, you’re usually supposed to stay that way.

But Ken slowly opened his eyes, and he wasn’t dead.

”What...what happened...?” His words were mumbly and hard to make out, he was still kind of half-dead after all.

When he tried to sit up, he winced at a horrible pain in his head.

”Lay back down,” An indistinguishable voice said. “You hit your head very hard.”

Ken listened.

He surprised himself with that.

This stranger wasn’t worthy of giving him orders.

But...his head did hurt really bad...

Then everything went black again.

When he opened his eyes again, everything finally came into focus.

He was propped up against a rock, probably not the best place to be sleeping, but eh.

The Chosen Children were talking, not too far, but enough that it was just barely out of earshot.

”Hey!! Insects!!”

He wasn’t going to risk sitting up again and hurting his head, not if he could help it.

The Chosen Children all turned back to him, one of them he didn’t recognize, he must’ve been who spoke to him earlier.

Wormmon, who was talking with the other Digimon, ran over as fast as he could, and hugged Ken as much as his little bug legs would let him.

When Ken got on his feet again, argh...

”Hey. I’m glad you’re not dead.” Daisuke said.

Ken looked up at him with surprise.

He...he was?

Did he...feel the same...?

No. Of course not. Ken didn’t even feel anything towards Daisuke in the first place.

”Likewise. It would have been a shame if the perfect human died so pitifully.” Ken said instead, which clearly annoyed Daisuke.

”Anyway, Kido-san said that it’d be best for your head to get proper medical treatment or rest in the human world.”

”What?!” Ken hissed. “I’m never going back there again. This ‘Kido-san’ knows nothing about me!!”

”Yeah, dude, none of us know anything about you. I don’t think we’d like to. Anyway, are you going to rest like he says or are you going to beat yourself to death?”

Wow.

The insect had a way with words.

He could be very...persuasive.

”The...well...I-In the human world, they don’t deserve my-”

”Just shut up.”

Ken’s eyes widened.

He should...he should hit him with the whip now, right?

Where was the stupid thing...?

Agh...

H-He shouldn’t stop talking, that’s what the insect wants!!

”You will not disrespect the Digimon Kais-”

As he tried to get up, his head started to spin. He felt faint.

Then he actually did faint.

Daisuke caught him.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about that decision.

”Um...he passed out again.”

”Yeah, I can see that.” Takeru chuckled, trying to make light of the situation.

”Give him to me, I’ll lay him back down gently.” Jou said in exasperation.

Daisuke held him tighter.

Agh! Stop, stupid, stupid Daisuke!

He immediately loosened his grip on Ken and handed him to Jou, who set him down in front of the rock again.

He wondered how Ken would’ve reacted to the situation if he was conscious.

“Well...What are we gonna do?” Miyako finally prompted. “He won’t go home, but we can’t just let him die, can we? Then we’d be as bad as he is.”

”I say let him work himself to death if that’s what he wants to do. It wouldn’t be our fault.” Takeru muttered.

”We could make him our prisoner?” Iori suggested.

”That’s a great idea! Nobody gets hurt, and he gets a taste of his own medicine!”

Miyako clapped, and nodded.

”But, uh...where would we keep him? It’s not like we have a dungeon...do we have a dungeon?”

”No.” Hikari laughed.

”We could use his base, I guess,” Takeru suggested. “Though, he could probably escape, he knows that place really well.”

”Mm...we could set up a camp?”

”Maybe there’s a village of Digimon that would let us stay for a bit.”

Daisuke nodded.

”That sounds good.”

”Well...I guess we won, guys!”

”We can’t be sure. But for now? Yeah. Let’s celebrate.”

The Chosen Children raised up their hands in a big group high-five.

Chapter Text

Ken blinked the sleep out of his eyes.

Did he faint again?!

If this was going to be a regular occurrence, he’d have to do something about it, because he had to admit it wasn’t very intimidating.

“Agh! You’re awake!”

He turned his head towards the voice.

It was that little insect boy, Hida Iori, wasn’t it? And Armadimon in tow, of course, that was something all their Digimon had in common, they clung to them like their lives depended on it.

Oh.

Wait.

Because of Ken, maybe they did.

“Yes, I am awa-”

Ken glanced back at Hida. Wait...he was looking at him through bars.

The Chosen Children had captured him.

”What have you done to me?! You’ll pay once I get out of here!!”

”We only did what you would’ve done. Oh, wait, if we did what you’d have done, you’d be mind-controlled or dead.” A deeper voice added.

It was Takaishi, putting his hand gently on Hida’s shoulder.

Ken’s eyes widened.

Well...they were right...

The insects were right...

No! No, of course not, if the insects were right, that’d imply Ken was wrong, and he...he couldn’t be wrong. He was perfect.

Hida slipped a plate of food inside, and Ken pushed it away.

”I refuse to eat prison food.”

”Then have fun starving, I guess.”

Takaishi and Hida walked away.

Ken couldn’t get them to stop, or come back, or do what he said.

He was the lower life form now.

“...hello?”

His voice echoed through the cold stone room.

The Digimon didn’t have any prisoners.

Ken was alone.

He didn’t mind! Of course he didn’t mind, he was always dying to get away from Wormmon always annoying him.

Wormmon...where was he? Were the Chosen Children treating him well?

Wait. Why did Ken care?!

He didn’t care about Wormmon. He didn’t.

Absolutely not.

Wormmon was worthless.

The Chosen Childr-insects were worthless.

Everyone was worthless except for him.

...but he was the one behind bars right now.

He glanced back outside to see if Hida and Takaishi were coming back.

No...of course not.

People didn’t waste their time talking to prisoners.

Ken couldn’t blame them for that, as Takaishi said, it’s...what he would have done.

Ken slapped himself to try and pull himself out of his thoughts.

Stupid.

Ken was not stupid.

With a sigh, he grabbed the plate of food Hida and Takaishi had left for him, and took a bite.

It was bad. But it wasn’t that bad.

It...probably wasn’t as bad as the food he gave the Digimon serving him.

After a few more moments alone, footsteps echoed through the room.

Ken quickly hid the plate behind his back, he couldn’t let them know he’d swallowed his pride, if only for a second.

”Hey. Iori and Takeru told me you were awake.”

Oh no.

It was Daisuke.

“Um...yes. I think you can see that.”

Daisuke nodded.

”I’m...I’m sorry for capturing you, it’s just, we’re enemies, y’know, and-”

Wait. This was an opportunity.

”I know. I don’t mind.”

”Uhhh,” That spilled out of Daisuke’s mouth before he could stop it. “Really?”

”Yes. And, really, I’ve been thinking about everything I’ve done...and I’m ready to turn over a new leaf,” Ken smiled warmly. “If you’ll let me.”

Daisuke blinked.

He...didn’t know what to say to that.

If Ken wasn’t their enemy anymore, then...they could be friends! Or...more than friends...

“I-I’d love that.” Daisuke spluttered.

Ken’s face lit up. He was even cuter when he was excited.

”You would? So you’ll let me out of here so I can make up for everything?”

”Well, I’ll...have to talk to the group...”

”They hate me. They won’t listen...but you trust me, Daisuke-kun, right?”

Ken clasped his hands over Daisuke’s and looked up at him with puppy dog eyes.

Daisuke wanted to glance away, but he couldn’t. He smiled instead.

”I do trust you, Ken-kun.”

The smile on Ken’s face widened even more.

Daisuke turned the key, unlocking the cell, and let Ken out.

He wasn’t sure what he’d tell his friends...

Maybe this was a bad idea...

But he really, really wanted it not to be.

”Thank you, Daisuke-kun,” Ken grabbed his hands again and whispered into his ear. “I like you a lot more than the other insects.”

Daisuke’s face turned red.

There was no way this was happening.

Someone should pinch him to make sure he wasn’t dreaming, maybe it’d pinch some sense into him too.

“K-K-Ken I like you too.” Daisuke blurted, the blush on his face only getting redder.

The same went for Ken, though you couldn’t see it as well through his shades.

”I like Ken better than Kaiser.” Daisuke muttered, finally snapping himself out of this daydream, and taking off Ken’s shades. (Okay, maybe it was partially to see his cute face, BUT THAT WASN’T THE POINT.)

”I’ll be your Ken from now on, Daisuke, I promise.”

Aaaand the blush was back.

His Ken.

T-This couldn’t be real.

”Thank you for trusting me,” For the first time since being let out of the cell, Ken got more than five inches away from Daisuke’s face. “I’m going to explore the pretty village.”

”O-Okay. See you later.”

Ken smiled at him, and all he could do was wave shyly.

Once the boy was fully out of sight, Daisuke realized how unreasonable he just was.

Oh. Oh no, I let the Digimon Kaiser out of his cell, Miyako and Takeru are going to literally KILL ME.

But Ken said he was turning over a new leaf...

Daisuke did tell him he trusted him.

Yeah...Daisuke trusted him.

Meanwhile, Ken was smirking to himself.

He thought being captured would be bad, but it was actually an amazing opportunity.

Now he could spy on the insects, get their trust, and eliminate them when they let their guard down.

Perfect.

“Hey!!”

Oh, great.

Time to put on that ‘innocent Ken’ smile again.

”Digimon Kaiser!! H-How did you get out?!”

Chapter Text

Ken stood out of earshot again, with his hands tied up with a rope.

The insects were arguing loudly, it was mostly Inoue doing the yelling, she seemed to like doing that.

Ken sighed and glanced away.

Well, they were distracted, he might as well go see if he could capture their Digimon and use their data for Chimeramo-

“YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE,” Inoue grabbed him by his cape and straightened her glasses. “YOU DON’T SERIOUSLY TRUST HIM, DAISUKE?!”

”I do!! I-I mean, I...”

Daisuke looked over at Ken, who had a sad pleading look in his eyes.

Now Daisuke felt horrible.

”I do trust him, Miyako, he’s trying to be better...”

”Is he? Because he was just about to run off and go do evil stuff again!!”

Well, she wasn’t wrong.

She was probably the smartest of the insects, Ken’d give her that.

”He just wanted to explore!”

”Explore?! Pfft! Like he’s never seen this village before while riding around on Airdramon coming to capture everyone in it!!”

Ken rolled his eyes.

”Can I leave now?”

”NO, YOU CAN NOT LEAVE!!”

”You’re scaring him, Miyako!!”

Daisuke ran over and grabbed Ken’s hands. He felt his heart rate increase. But if this plan was going to work, his feelings for Daisuke had to be fake. He couldn’t care.

“Ignore her. She’s a lot.”

”I’M THE FUCKING REASONABLE ONE IN THIS SITUATION, MOTOMIYA!!!”

“See what I mean?”

Ken snorted.

”I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!! YOU REALLY TRUST HIM MORE THAN ME?!”

”Well...kinda.”

Miyako scoffed.

”I thought you were on our side, Daisuke.”

Iori, who hadn’t added anything to the argument yet, nodded.

”I can’t believe you’d trust him...”

”I can’t believe you’re being so stubborn!! He’s changed!!”

”Has he changed, or do you want him to change?”

Daisuke froze.

This was bad...Ken couldn’t get the insects’ trust, and at this rate, he would lose Daisuke’s trust as well...

He had to do something to get it back, quickly.

”I-I can release the Digimon. Or destroy the Dark Towers.”

He fought back a wince saying that.

Destroy all his hard work...

But if his plan worked, he wouldn’t need it anymore.

”You’d better. You couldn’t even think about being our friend otherwise.”

”So...you’ll consider it? You’ll make me your friend?”

”No!!”

Ken sighed.

Daisuke placed his hand on his shoulder, and he glanced back at him.

Woah.

Woah, that smile...

Suddenly his face felt hot.

No. No attachment.

As Miyako stormed off, Daisuke’s grip on Ken’s shoulder tightened.

”She’ll come around. In the meantime, you can stay at my house. We should let your head rest too, and it’d be better in the real world.”

”Do you just want me to stay at your house?”

Daisuke chuckled nervously, blushing.

”Well, maybe.”

Ken chuckled too.

”It sounds nice.”

”But you’ll have to go home after.”

Ken froze.

“...of course.”

”Well, let’s go!”

Daisuke held out his hand.

Ken grabbed it.

He had lots of callouses. It was to be expected, he played basketball after all.

Ken’s hands were plenty calloused too.

”I’ll make popcorn, we can have a movie night! And Veemon and Wormmon can hang out too!”

Wormmon.

”Where is Wormmon?! Is he safe?”

”Oh, yeah! He’s with Hikari, so he’s definitely safe.”

Ken breathed a sigh of relief.

It was fake, of course.

”Good.”

Daisuke and Ken went to get their Digimon (Ken of course filled Wormmon in on the plan so he wouldn’t ruin it), and they headed to the Real World.

Ken hadn’t been to Odaiba since the soccer match, he wasn’t really sure how many days ago that had been, since he didn’t know how long he passed out for.

It was sunset now, though.

For once, Daisuke wasn’t looking at it.

He had a more beautiful thing to look at.

When they reached Daisuke’s house, he basically kicked open the door and threw his coat off.

”Make yourself at home!”

He ran into the kitchen, grabbing popcorn and other snacks with loud clattering noises.

Ken was surprised at how loud he was. Everyone in his house was much more quiet.

He wondered if Daisuke was secretly doing it to annoy someone. It sounded rather fun, to be honest.

So Ken threw his coat straight at the wall, and kicked off his shoes, following Daisuke into the kitchen.

”Do you have pajama-”

Daisuke bonked his head on the cabinet, responding with a loud; “OW!”

Ken couldn’t help giggling.

Daisuke just smiled at him.

Then he started to laugh too.

How intriguing.

Laughing at himself without a care in the world.

Ken would go destroy something out of humiliation.

”Aaaanyway, here’s the popcorn.”

Daisuke stuffed it into the microwave, and brought some candy over to the coffee table.

”To answer your question, no, I do not believe I have any pajamas. At least, not any I brought.”

”Oh. Well, you’re really tall, so mine probably won’t fit you. Maybe you can steal some from my parents,” Daisuke snickered. “Or my sister.”

”You have a sister?”

”Well, yeah, her name’s Jun, but she’s annoying, and I don’t really like her. But that’s just siblings, I guess.”

Ken looked at the ground.

”I see.”

”What about you? Do you have any annoying parasites otherwise known as siblings?”

Ken could feel his eyes welling up.

”No, I...I don’t.”

”Hey...”

Daisuke walked over, and threw his arm around Ken. How could he tell he was sad? He was so good at hiding it.

”I guess if you’re an only child, hearing me complain about my sister must be hard. I’m sorry. You can have her instead if you want.”

Ken laughed, though it was airy and sad.

”No, I...I don’t want your sister, thank you. I’m,” He swallowed. “I’m not an only child.”

”But you said you don’t have any sibli-”  

Daisuke’s eyes widened in realization.

“...oh. I-I’m so sorry, Ken, I...I can’t even imagine what that’s like.”

”No, you can’t.”

Daisuke just hugged him tighter.

But Ken didn’t cry.

He didn’t understand.

But no tears escaped him.

Maybe he just didn’t feel anything anymore.

The microwave beeped, and both boys jumped.

”Oh, the,” Daisuke sniffled, pulling away, much to Ken’s sadness. “The popcorn is ready.”

”That’s great, Daisuke. I...I guess I’ll go look around for pajamas.”

”Okay. I’ll wait for you.”

Ken gave him a sad smile, before heading down the hallway.

Chapter Text

Ken’s eyes fluttered open.

Light was shining through the windows.

Oh. It was daytime.

Daisuke was still sleeping, with his arms around Ken, and his head on his chest.

He looked so peaceful.

He never wanted to wake him up.

Oh. Oh right, the plan.

Ken slowly got up, and set Daisuke back down, though he quietly groaned, reaching for Ken again.

“Shh. Keep sleeping.”

The boys’ Digimon were asleep on the couch, hopefully Daisuke’s family had thought they were stuffed animals.

Ken carefully stepped over Daisuke, and snuck into his bedroom.

He’d left his stuff In here...if he found it, maybe he could learn more about his enemies.

Now, where was it...

”Hey! Are you my brother’s boyfriend?”

Ken yelped and turned to the figure in the doorway, slamming the drawer shut behind him.

”Uh, no.”

I wish.

”I heard him mumbling about you in his sleep. If you’re looking for his diary, it’s there.” Jun pointed to the book on the desk. 

“Uh...”

Before Ken could say anything else, Jun had just slipped out of the room.

Okay, he understood why Daisuke thought she was annoying now.

But she helped.

So he opened it and flipped through the pages.

None of it said anything very surprising. Except for one page.

”My parents hit me and called me stupid again today. Though it’s not exactly a rare occurrence. I knew I should’ve studied harder. Stupid Daisuke.”

Ken quickly closed the book.

Maybe his plan of not getting attached wasn’t working.

Because he could instantly feel a burning rage and a want to protect Daisuke from anyone who was hurting him.

Then his heart sank.

It’s me. I’m the one who’s hurting him.

Ken shouted out in frustration, trying to mess up his hair, and make it as close to his Kaiser hairstyle as he could in the Real World.

He was the Digimon Kaiser!!

He didn’t care about this insect, this stupid boy, his enemy.

The foolishness ended now.

”Hey! Ken!”

Ken yelped again, snapping his head towards Jun.

”Motomiya-san, stop I-”

Ken paused.

”Oh. Daisuke.”

Daisuke laughed.

”I told you she was annoying. What did she say to you?”

Ken could feel his face heating up again.

”Nothing much.”

“Well, I’m glad she didn’t annoy you too much.”

Ken just nodded.

”Anyway, if you still wanna try and  make friends with the others, maybe helping out around the Digital World would help?”

”Helping out how?”

”Like, destroying stuff you built, fixing stuff you destroyed...y’know...”

”Ah, yes. That sounds good.”

”Great! I woke up kinda late, so they’re probably waiting for me...”

”You go ahead, Daisuke. I’d like to grab some food for the Digimon. If that’s okay.”

”Yeah, of course! I did say make yourself at home.”

Daisuke gave Ken a smile, before running back out into the living room.

More crashing sounds, bonking, what was he doing?

Then the sound of the computer sucking him inside.

After a moment, Ken headed out into the living room.

Oh. Some decorations on the end tables seemed to have gotten somehow knocked off onto the floor.

Ken chuckled, shaking his head.

”Motomiya Daisuke, you’re impossible.”

Wormmon jumped up off the couch, and skittered around, seemingly trying to pick up the decorations.

Ken rolled his eyes, before getting down on his knees to help him.

Well, more like do everything.

Silly little bug legs.

“Oh my goodness! What happened here?”

Ken quickly grabbed Wormmon, and hid him behind his back.

”Mrs. Motomiya, uh...Daisuke accidentally knocked some stuff over.”

She sighed and shook her head as Ken had, though it seemed more genuinely angry than amused.

He supposed that was just the difference between parents and friends, though.

Wait, friends??

No, not friends!

Enemies who...act like friends.

”What am I going to do with that boy? Where even is Daisuke?”

”Oh,” Ken chuckled. “He just left.”

“He left you to clean up his mess?? Daisuke...”

”No, I volunteered to clean up! Trust me, Mrs. Motomiya, he wouldn’t leave until I reassured him many times that it was fine.”

The woman just looked at Ken for a second, before sighing.

”You seem like a good kid. Please keep him out of trouble.”

And with that, she left.

A good kid?

Ken huffed in frustration.

Of course he was a good kid.

A good kid like...like Osamu...

Ken was pulled out of his thoughts when Wormmon skittered out of his arms to pick up the last thing.

”Humans are confusing, Ken-chan.”

”Yes...they are.”

Agh! Talking to Wormmon?!

Snap out of it!!

Ken quickly snatched the decoration from Wormmon and placed it back on the end table.

”You’d better not ruin the plan.”

Wormmon looked down sadly.

”I won’t.”

”Good.”

Ken walked into the kitchen, grabbing some snacks from the fridge and stuffing them into his bag.

He changed out of his borrowed pajamas, made sure his hair was perfect, and held out his bag for Wormmon to crawl in.

”Don’t eat all the snacks.” Ken said before zipping up the bag.

Then he held out his D-3, and the portal pulled him inside.

Chapter Text

Miyako grinned at the bright sky, letting her hair blow into her face.

Since their last picnic was kinda...interrupted (let’s just leave it at that), she and her friends agreed to have another one today.

They planned to invite Daisuke, but...

Argh!! How could he even think about trusting the Kaiser?!

She knew Daisuke could make dumb decisions, but she never thought he’d do something that dumb, like, y’know, LETTING THEIR FUCKING ENEMY GO AND BECOMING, WHAT, HIS BEST FRIEND OR SOMETHING?!

Hikari placed her hand on Miyako’s shoulder, immediately easing her worries.

It was like Hikari’s presence was just...like an angel or something.

”Miyako-chan, are you okay? Are you still thinking about yesterday?”

Miyako sighed. Time to dump all her feelings on the literal angel now.

”Of course I’m still thinking about yesterday!! Daisuke trusted the Kaiser!! OVER US!!”

Hikari hummed knowingly, looking out at the forest around them.

”I think Daisuke probably has some feelings about him, considering the way he looked at him at that soccer game, and...well, every time he saw him after. Sometimes when you love someone, you try to see the good in them no matter what.”

Miyako blinked.

How did Hikari always know what to say?

She sounded like she was speaking from experience, too.

”Love?? Daisuke loves the Kaiser???”

”I don’t know. But it does seem like he might at least have a crush on him.”

”A crush on the enemy?!”

Hikari tried to stifle a giggle.

”To be fair, Miyako, you had a crush on him too.”

”NOT ANYMORE!!”

Hikari just giggled more.

She even laughed like an angel.

Soon, Miyako was laughing too.

She didn’t think she laughed like an angel much.

She just laughed like a girl.

”But...I guess you have a point, Kari-chan.”

”I just think he wants to give him a second chance, y’know?”

Hikari smiled at Tailmon, who smiled back.

”Yeah. I guess I can understand that.”

”Hey!! Guys!!”

Miyako sighed.

Great. Now her newly-learned lesson was about to be put to the test.

Sure enough, Daisuke ran over the hill, waving enthusiastically, with Ken in tow, wearing the backpack he took to the soccer match.

He wasn’t wearing his signature shades, but he still hadn’t ditched the Kaiser outfit.

”Are you having a picnic without us?”

”We were having a picnic. He,” Miyako gestured aggressively to Ken. “Isn’t part of the group. And I’m starting to think you shouldn’t be either.”

”Miyako-chan...” Hikari chided gently.

She sighed.

I mean, how could you not listen to an angel?

Oh.

Was that how Daisuke felt yesterday?

Oh...

”You...you can join the picnic. Both of you.”

A little bit of frustration may have still snuck into her voice, but she was sincere.

”Really? Thank you, Inoue-san,” Ken grinned. “Oh! I brought food for the Digimon too.”

He set down his bag and unzipped it, pulling out some snacks as Wormmon crawled out.

”Convenient you were already having a picnic, huh?”

”Uh...yeah.”

Clearly the Digimon didn’t share her resentment, as they quickly ran over to Ken and grabbed the snacks.

”Food!!”

What if it was poisoned?

What if this whole thing was a trap?

”Want one, Daisuke?”

He shook his head.

”They’re for the Digimon. And besides, they’re from my house anyway.”

Oh.

So they weren’t poisoned.

”How about you, Inoue-san?”

”Oh...um...”

Miyako glanced away, before looking back at Ken.

She didn’t get the same feelings looking at him as she did with Hikari.

Like, he was cute, at least, from what she’d heard about cute boys, but he wasn’t an angel.

Maybe he never was to Miyako.

Maybe he was Daisuke’s angel.

”Yeah. Okay.”

Ken smiled as he handed the snack to Miyako.

When she glanced at Hikari, she was grinning at her with that beautiful smile, and a thumbs-up.

Miyako tried her best to return it with her best beautiful smile.

Yeah.

She was so lucky.

Ken was Daisuke’s angel.

And Hikari was hers.

Chapter Text

Iori didn’t expect everyone to forgive the Digimon Kaiser.

He definitely didn’t expect him to help them take down the Dark Towers and that arena he’d built for Digimon to fight each other.

And he definitely, definitely didn’t expect to leave his room in the Digimon village to see everyone hanging out with him and talking like he was one of them.

”Oh, Iori,” Miyako rubbed the back of her neck. “Did we wake you?”

”No. I got up to get a drink of water.”

Iori turned to Ken, who had his arm around Daisuke, smiling at him.

How...?

How did everyone forgive him?

How did he change so quickly?

Was Iori just going crazy or something?

”I’m...just going to go back to bed.”

”Oh. Okay. Goodnight, Iori-kun!”

He quickly walked back into his bedroom and shut the door behind him.

”Armadimon, this doesn’t make any sense...”

The Digimon headed over and climbed into Iori’s lap.

”What doesn’t make sense, dagyaa?”

”Everything. Just...the Digimon Kaiser, he...he seems so nice now! And...everyone forgives him. But...it just feels so wrong and I...”

He gulped, glancing away from the Digimon.

”I don’t think my dad would forgive him.”

Armadimon nuzzled his partner, even though he knew it wouldn’t make him feel any better.

”I think you’re right, Iori.”

”Do you really?”

Armadimon nodded.

”You just do what you think is right.”

With that, the Digimon curled up and drifted off to sleep.

Iori softly pet him, looking over at the picture of his dad he brought with him everywhere.

”Dad...please tell me what to do.”

He didn’t respond.

Of course he didn’t.

Iori sighed.

He didn’t say anything more.

After a few moments, the silence was broken by laughter from outside again.

Miyako and Daisuke.

Then everyone.

Even Ken.

Iori wanted to join them, he really did, he just...couldn’t.

He couldn’t bring himself to laugh with someone who’d hurt so many Digimon.

So he just climbed into bed, and set Armadimon down next to him.

Maybe he’d know what to do tomorrow.

“Hida-kun...?”

Iori groaned at the light that had pulled him out of his slumber.

Once his eyes adjusted, he noticed it was Ken.

Great.

”What? And can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

Ken chuckled nervously, shutting the door behind him.

”I guess so. I just wanted to talk to you.”

He walked over and sat down on the bed next to Iori’s.

Usually Armadimon slept there, but he’d slept in Iori’s bed tonight.

”What do you want to talk about?”

”I know you still don’t like me.”

Iori glanced away.

”How did you figure that out?”

”I’m good at reading people. But anyway, is there anything I can do to earn your trust? Anything that would help you forgive me?”

Iori hesitated.

Well, he just didn’t know what to say.

He wanted to say no.

That he probably just couldn’t forgive him.

But that felt like it wasn’t fair.

He should at least get a chance, right...?

That’s what Hikari-san said...

Well, technically, she said it to Miyako, but Iori overheard.

And he tried to take the advice too.

”Well...”

He still didn’t know what to say.

”Maybe...release all the Digimon? Destroy all the Dark Towers?”

”I’ve already destroyed so-”

”Not some. All. After all the Dark Towers are gone, I will forgive you.”

Ken just looked at him.

”Is that a deal?”

He quickly nodded, and held out his hand.

Iori shook it.

”Thank you, Hida-kun.”

”Don’t thank me.”

Ken just glanced away, before walking back over to the door.

”Goodnight.”

”Goodnight.”

He shut the door, and all the light disappeared from the room.

Iori hoped he wouldn’t regret this.

Chapter Text

As the Dark Tower fell to the ground, Ken and Daisuke high-fived.

“Bingo!” Miyako shouted, making Hikari chuckle a bit.

”That’s one more,” Iori added. “...thank you, Ichijouji-san.”

“Of course, Hida-kun.”

“You know what we need?” Miyako prompted, playfully leaning on Hikari’s shoulder.

”What?”

”Ice cream!! Let’s get ice cream!!”

Ken chuckled.

”That sounds good.” Iori smiled.

”Alright!! C’mon, everyone!”

Everyone let their Digimon climb into their bags, and held up their D-3s.

”Digiport, open!!”

Daisuke took a big bite of his chocolate ice cream.

”Ow! Ow!! Owowowowowowow brain freeeeeze!!”

Miyako laughed.

“Y-You’re not supposed to bite into it!” Ken shouted.

”Owowowowowowow!!”

Takeru started to chuckle too.

”This is ridiculous, Daisuke.”

”Says you!!”

Iori chuckled, and facepalmed.

“Here Hawkmon,” Miyako held out her ice cream cone to the Digimon. “You have some of mine!”

Hawkmon happily obliged, taking a big bite like Daisuke.

”Agh!!”

”Didn’t you see what happened to Daisuke??? What are you doing???”

Ken laughed.

”Ken, you should give Wormmon some too.” Iori suggested.

He had been horrible to the little Digimon in the past, so he just wanted to test.

”Then you give Armadimon some,” Daisuke grumbled. “What kinda double standard?”

Iori sighed.

”I was going to! Let’s just all give some, okay?”

Nobody seemed to argue, giving their Digimon a small portion of their different-flavored ice creams.

”Mint chocolate chip! But that’s your favorite, Ken-chan...are you sure I can have some...?”

Ken glanced back. The insects were still watching. He just smiled.

”Of course. Have as much as you want.”

Wormmon’s eyes filled with tears, as he took a bite of the ice cream.

Iori smiled.

Maybe Ken really had changed.

”C’mon, guys, let’s keep this day going! Let’s go shopping!!”

Hikari chuckled.

”Everyone might have things to do...”

”No, nothing.” Ken reassured.

Nothing more important than figuring out more about the Chosen Children.

So far, all he’d learned was their favorite ice cream flavors, and that was not going to help him.

“I’m free too.” Iori added, and Takeru and Daisuke nodded.

”Then we can go!! Pleeeease?”

Hikari chuckled again.

Everyone unanimously agreed, so they headed to go shop.

Everyone returned to the Digimon village at sunset with full bags of clothes, accessories, and various other things that they probably didn’t need.

But no more information about the Chosen Children.

Ken sighed, he guessed that was to be expected, not like the Chosen Children would just randomly spill their deepest fears while shopping for new shoes.

He was still a bit miffed about it, though.

”Hey, Ken-kun?”

He turned to the purple-haired girl.

All the other Chosen Children had already headed back to their own rooms, so it was just the two of them.

”Am I annoying? Or, like, bossy?”

”Why would you ask that?”

”Well, sometimes I get called bossy in fights, and since I know you’ll be honest, I wanted to ask if it was true.”

Ken almost scoffed at ‘since I know you’ll be honest.’

He wasn’t being honest.

What did she think she knew about him?

”I don’t think you’re bossy, Miyako-san. You just...care. A lot.”

She tilted her head.

”Well, that’s weird. I like to think I don’t care what others think. But...I guess I did come to you for your opinion on whether I was bossy,” She chuckled nervously. “So maybe I do. I know I care a lot about my friends, though. As all of us do. I just want them to think I’m nice.”

”I can understand that.”

”Wanting us to think you’re nice?”

Yes, exactly, insect.

Maybe she did know about him after all.

“Yeah, with everything, I get that. I know I was against it at first, but Kari-chan thinks you’re nice, and Daisuke-kun. And I forgive you.”

Ken smiled, and praised himself internally.

Perfect.

Genius.

”Anyway, I’d better go put my stuff away. Seeya, Ken-kun!”

”See you soon, Miyako-san!”

Well.

Maybe this day wasn’t a waste of time after all.

Chapter Text

Ken sat on the swings in the village with his laptop.

He thought if he was going to stay here now, he might as well work on Chimeramon while he was at it.

”Heyyy, what’s up?”

Daisuke ran over and threw his arms around Ken, who immediately slammed the laptop shut.

”I’m...um...writing. What are you doing still up?”

”Couldn’t sleep. And, writing? I didn’t know you liked to write.”

”You don’t know a lot of things about me, Daisuke.”

Daisuke chuckled, and sat down on the other swing.

”I guess that’s true. Then you can tell me. Geniuses love to talk about themselves, right?”

Ken laughed.

”Do they?”

”I thought you did. You’re always saying you’re perfect.”

Ken laughed again.

”Yes, I suppose I am.”

Daisuke leaned back, starting to swing back and forth.

”Have you like doing sports since you were a kid?”

”No. I started a few years ago.”

”Really? Wow. You must improve fast.”

”You could say that. How about you? How long have you been doing soccer?”

”Oh, my whole life. My parents say I was basically born doing it, sports are my only talent. Maybe if I stopped doing them so much, I wouldn’t be so stupid.”

Ken stopped swinging.

Daisuke stopped too.

”I think your parents are wrong.”

Daisuke’s eyes widened, and he turned to Ken, who was looking up at the sky.

”I think you’re smart, Dai.”

His eyes widened even more.

And tears started to stream down his cheeks.

”K-Ken, I...you do?”

Ken looked back at Daisuke.

Oh...

He was so beautiful.

Ken got off the swing so he could walk over and sit down in front of Daisuke, clasping his hands over his like he’d done in the dungeon.

Though this time...

It was real.

”Of course I do. You’re the smartest person I’ve ever met.”

”Y-You’re the smartest person I’ve ever met...”

The two boys found their faces getting closer and closer.

”I love you, Daisuke.”

And Daisuke pulled him into a kiss.

As soon as their lips touched, Ken could feel tears start to form in his eyes too.

He wrapped his arms around Daisuke.

In that moment, his stupid plan didn’t matter.

Daisuke...Daisuke actually cared.

And Daisuke...he’d never seen anyone as beautiful as Ken.

And that...that was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to him.

Neither of them ever wanted the kiss to end, they both just loved each other so much...

And nobody else was awake anyway...

So they could just kiss until the morning.

They both intended to.

Daisuke’s lips tasted like candy.

Ken wasn’t sure if that was metaphorical or not, but either way, he loved it.

”Hey! Ken-chan!!”

Both boys yelped, and quickly pulled away, causing Daisuke to fall out of the swing.

Wormmon skittered over, and Ken tried to hide the idiotic grin on his face.

”It’s getting late. You should go to bed.”

Okay, good.

He didn’t see him kissing the enemy.

”I-I’ll be right there. Just gotta finish up on the laptop.”

”Okay!”

The Digimon skittered away, and after he was fully out of sight, both boys let out a sigh of relief.

”Are you okay?”

Ken reached out a hand, and Daisuke took it, pulling himself up.

”Yeah, fine. I’ve had worse injuries.” He chuckled.

”Well, I’ll...see you tomorrow.”

”See you tomorrow, Ken-kun...”

Daisuke could barely get words out, he hoped this dream would never end.

Ken waved, and set his laptop down on the ground, before walking back to his room.

Once Daisuke heard the door shut, his heart started pounding.

”YES!!! YES, YES, YESSS!!!”

He danced around, and ended up accidentally kicking the laptop.

”Oh. Uh...”

He opened it to make sure it wasn’t damaged.

Then his eyes widened and his smile faded.

”Chimeramon...plans...I-Infiltrating the Chosen Children...?”

He just stared in horror.

He...he was so STUPID!!

He...Ken...he...Ken was...

Of course he hadn’t changed...

Iori’s words echoed in his mind and stung even more now.

Did he change, or do you want him to change?

Iori was right.

Miyako was right.

He couldn’t believe it.

As tears stung the corners of his eyes, he clutched the laptop, and ran to Ken’s room.

He kicked the door open, and shoved the laptop out in front of him.

”ICHIJOUJI. WHAT. IS. THIS.”

The Kaiser looked at him with widened eyes.

“You looked through my work?”

”Yes. And I’m glad I did.”

Daisuke kicked the laptop across the room, making Ken wince as it crunched against the wall.

”You fucking tricked us. I fucking loved you.”

Ken just stared at him, with still-wide eyes.

”You were the one stupid enough to trust me.”

Daisuke screamed, punching the other boy right in the face.

Ken punched him back.

The two boys fought, throwing punches back and forth until they both had bloody noses.

”I. LOVED. YOU!!!”

”IT WAS A MISTAKE!!!”

Ken grabbed his whip, and hit Daisuke with it, who flinched at the cracking sound, but didn’t move.

So he hit him again.

He still didn’t move.

He hit him again.

”AGH!! REACT, YOU-Y-YOU-”

”STUPID KID?! INSOLENT, BRAINLESS MORON?! I KNOW!! I KNOW, I’M ALL OF THOSE THINGS!! I JUST THOUGHT YOU DIDN’T!!!”

Daisuke’s words echoed through the room, only amplified by the complete silence that followed it.

Daisuke’s clenched fists loosened.

Ken’s only got tighter.

”I know everything.”

“No you don’t.”

”Yes, I do.”

”You don’t. You’re just as stupid and insolent and brainless and lost as I am.”

”I don’t have the time for this.”

Ken whipped him again, before heading to the door.

Wormmon skittered after him, and he kicked him away.

”Good riddance, Motomiya.”

”Goodbye, Ichijouji.”

And he left.

Just like that.

And Daisuke broke down sobbing.

Chapter Text

Ken-chan hadn’t spoken since they left the village.

He just kept his eyes glued to the screen of the monster he was creating.

Wormmon had seen Ken and Daisuke kiss.

He acted like he didn’t, but he did.

Maybe if Daisuke hadn’t found Ken’s plans, he could’ve actually changed him.

But now Wormmon feared he’d never even have the hope of getting the real Ken-chan back again.

At least in front of the Chosen Children, he had to pretend to be nice to Wormmon so his plans would work.

Even if it was fake, it was better.

Wormmon just wanted his best friend back...

Ken-chan...

Ken.

Ken, who typed furiously on the keyboard like it had personally offended him.

His eyes burned, but he refused to cry.

You betrayed him. He loved you.

Shut up.

You’re a horrible person.

He was a perfect person.

He did what he had to do.

You never hated Daisuke. You never hated Wormmon. You never hated Osamu.

You hated yourself.

A gasp somehow escaped Ken’s mouth.

No. No, no, no, no, no.

No.

No.

No.

Ken put his shades back on. He’d taken them back from the dungeon before he left.

Now he was perfect again.

And Chimeramon was almost ready.

He gripped the controller, and steered the ship closer to the whirlpool they were approaching.

This was where he’d find the final Digimon.

Devimon.

Wormmon hid behind the machinery again as they got closer and closer.

”I found you~” Ken sang tauntingly.

“A HORRIBLE MISTAKE.”

That wasn’t Ken.

And it wasn’t the stupid worm.

It was Devimon.

”I’m going to-”

Ken and Wormmon both yelped as the ship was turned to its side.

“YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR ME. YOU ARE NOT DARKNESS. YOU ARE JUST A BOY.”

Ken crawled back over to the control panel, looking up through the windows.

”We’re being sucked into the whirlpool.”

”...what?”

”OH, YES. GIVE UP. YOUR PITIFUL LIVES ARE OVER.”

”Y-You’re the one with a pitiful life!!”

Ken held up his dark D-3, if he could collect Devimon’s data, then Chimeramon could fly him out.

Sure enough, some data collected into his D-3, though his hand started to burn.

Everything burned, actually.

So he screamed in pain.

”I TOLD YOU. YOU ARE PITIFUL. JUST GIVE UP.”

”Ken-chan!!”

Wormmon ran over, and grabbed Ken’s leg.

”He is not pitiful!! He’s strong!!”

”HE IS WEAK. HE IS JUST A HUMAN. A SMALL, INSIGNIFICANT HUMAN.”

Ken screamed again, collapsing onto the ground, though he refused to let go of the control panel.

”Daisuke...” He mumbled.

Then everything went black.

He was surely dead this time.

He could feel the cold water seeping into his clothes, seeping into his very conscience, and pulling him down.

Was this what the darkness felt like...?

Splendid...

Wait.

Dead people can’t feel or think.

So he opened his eyes, only to shut them instantly when they stung.

He was in the whirlpool. There was no hope of getting out.

Did he have his D-3?

No.

Not until a small hand placed it in his.

Wormmon.

He held up his D-3, and tried to whistle.

He couldn’t.

So he just tried to scream for Airdramon.

He was as loud as possible.

But he couldn’t even hear his own scream.

It was over.

Good riddance, Motomiya?

That’s what I said.

Ha.

Good riddance, Ken.

Good riddance, me.

And he shut his eyes tight. He grabbed Wormmon and braced for the emptiness.

And then he found himself in the base, coughing and spluttering water.

He was still soaking wet.

It made his stupid hair straight again.

“Airdramon...How did you hear us?”

”Your D-3, master.”

”...right,” Ken coughed again, his chest still stung. “You saved my life.”

”You’re my master, I serve you, I do anything you ask.”

”Yeah, a-about that...I think...I...”

Ken crawled weakly over to the Digimon, and snapped the ring around his neck.

”...you’re free.”

Airdramon just stared at him with widened eyes.

Then he flew away.

Ken wouldn’t need him anymore anyway, he’d have Chimeramon.

Right, Chimeramon...

He stumbled to his feet, and added Devimon’s data to the Digimon.

”There...he’s ready.”

Chapter Text

The Chosen Children had quickly set off to find Ken’s base.

Oh, Miyako and Takeru were going to kill him.

Daisuke was still so angry, but...he was mostly sad. And confused.

Ken was just manipulating him?

Just manipulating all of them?

Then why did his feeling always feel so real?

”Hey,” Hikari placed her hand on his shoulder. “How are you doing?”

”Fine.”

”Okay.”

She knew that was a lie.

She did the same thing.

But she wouldn’t push him.

”Hey!! Guys!!” Takeru’s voice echoed through the forest.

”I think he found something. Should we go?”

Daisuke just hummed in agreement, and everyone headed over.

Takeru stood on a cliff, pointing at a metal flying thing.

”I think we found it.”

Miyako nodded.

Then something flew out of the base.

Some...Digimon?

”Oh no.” Daisuke muttered.

”What?”

”That’s the Digimon I saw on his laptop. He really created it.”

The Digimon, Chimeramon, starting setting fire to everything it could see.

Daisuke could’ve sworn he heard Ken’s evil laughter.

”We should go fight. Halsemon, Nefertimon, and Pegasusmon can fly us up to the base.”

”Yeah. Let’s get up there.” Takeru agreed, with his eyes glued to Chimeramon with a death glare.

Everyone flew up, Iori rode with Takeru on Pegasusmon, and Daisuke rode with Hikari on Nefertimon.

He should’ve been thrilled.

Hikari was talking to him so much, and he got to spend time with her, but...

All he could think about was Ken.

As they approached Chimeramon, it snapped its head towards them.

It found some new targets.

It shot a blast at Halsemon before anyone could even react.

And Halsemon and Miyako went hurtling through the sky.

”MIYAKO!!!” They all screamed.

They were all worried.

But none more than Hikari.

”DAISUKE, JUMP TO PEGASUSMON, I HAVE TO SAVE HER.”

Hikari didn’t get angry very often.

But when she did...

Daisuke jumped towards the Digimon, and Takeru grabbed his hand, pulling him on.

”Be careful, Hikari.”

She nodded, and Nefertimon flew down to where Halsemon fell.

Now they were down two team members.

That was really bad.

Especially with Chimeramon now focused on them.

When it fired a blast, they narrowly avoided it.

”I can fight,” Pegasusmon said. “I need to get you guys inside the base.”

”I’m not leaving you with that thing, Pegasusmon.”

”I promise, Takeru, I will be okay.”

The blonde boy glanced away, before sighing.

”Okay.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, the Digimon flew towards the entrance like a torpedo.

”Jump!”

”Okay! On three!”

The three boys grabbed each other’s hands, and Daisuke started to count.

”One! Two! THREE!!”

And they all leapt from the Digimon’s back, landing inside the base.

The entrance slammed shut above them, leaving the hallway in almost complete darkness.

And against all odds, they laughed.

This was Daisuke’s favorite thing.

The exhilaration, the action, his friends.

He felt like he was back to himself again.

And himself wanted to defeat the Kaiser.

”Let’s split up. Takeru and I will try to destroy the place from the inside, Daisuke, Veemon, you look for the Kaiser.”

Daisuke nodded, and they ran in opposite directions.

Takeru was going to destroy this place so hard you couldn’t even dream of replicating it.

And the Kaiser...

Well, if he saw him, he’d punch him. Real hard.

”Takeru-san...why would he lie like that?”

”Huh? The Kaiser?”

”No, Daisuke. Acting like he didn’t care.”

”Maybe it’s easier that way.”

Maybe it was.

Takeru was no stranger to being angry at someone he loved, he had a brother, but Yamato would never do anything like this.

And neither would Hikari.

Now, the discussion on how he felt about Hikari was a whole other discussion, and he and Iori were not having that discussion.

”Takeru-san...look...”

His eyes widened.

Digimon. So many of them.

Locked up...

”The Digimon Kaiser...”

Takeru clenched his fists.

He would pry those cells open with his bare hands if he had to.

”We have to get them out.”

Iori nodded, and Armadimon quickly Armor-Digivolved, drilling open the cells.

Iori felt even better about their decision to capture the Kaiser now.

Too bad it didn’t work out.

When all the Digimon had been freed, Takeru and Iori helped them escape, they found a rope and used it to climb down, clutching the Digimon close as they did.

“Make sure to hide if the Digimon Kaiser comes back, okay?”

The Digimon nodded.

Iori secretly knew that wouldn’t help them evade him, not for long anyway, but he wanted to give them some advice on what to do.

Even though he barely knew himself.

Once they got back into the base, Takeru had one goal.

”Iori, you go find the engine and destroy it with Digmon. You don’t need to see what I’m about to do to him.”

Iori wanted to argue.

But if he was as strong as Takeru-san, he’d probably feel the same.

”Okay. I will.”

”Be safe,” Takeru tousled the little boy’s perfectly neat hair as Yamato used to do to him. “I don’t want you hurting yourself.”

Iori nodded.

”I’ll be careful.”

And Takeru walked away, Patamon following closely behind.

Takeru didn’t think he looked very intimidating.

But oh, he felt intimidating right now.

And he hoped the Digimon Kaiser would be terrified.

”ICHIJOUJI!!”

He snapped his head towards the blonde boy.

”How did you get in here?!”

”You are nothing. You think you’re perfect, do you? Well, let me snap you out of it. You are not perfect. You are evil.”

Ken just stared.

”SHUT UP!!”

He whipped him hard, Patamon recoiling in fear.

He whipped him harder than Daisuke.

Blood trickled down Takeru’s cheek. It was warm.

“Ah, that’s the best you can do. I see,” A smirk crept across his face. “My turn.”

He lunged at him, punching him, equally as hard as how he’d whipped him.

He had him pinned down, he just kept punching and punching.

Blood.

Takeru wanted blood.

”SHUT UP!!”

”I’M NOT TALKING!!”

He was talking.

He was talking with his punches.

Every one said the same thing.

The Kaiser finally managed to toss Takeru away, getting back onto his feet and wiping the blood from his nose.

”You’re going to regret that.”

His grip tightening, he swung his whip.

He waited for the crack sound.

But Takeru grabbed it.

Ken stared in horror.

And Takeru took it, Ken didn’t even know how he-he managed to do-

Crack.

Blood dripped down his chin and onto the floor.

Crack.

Now blood dripped down his back too.

”Look. This is what you’ve been doing to Digimon this whole time. Feel it.”

CRACK.

“TAKERU!!” Patamon screamed, desperately trying to pull his partner away.

Tears streamed down his face.

Takeru looked down at him.

And he let go of the whip.

”This isn’t over. I hope you’re in pain. I hope you understand.”

And as Patamon pulled Takeru away, he gave Ken a smirk.

A smirk that sent shivers down his spine.

A smirk that felt more proud than any he’d ever made.

A smirk that terrified him.

Then something crashed through the wall, bringing Ken, Takeru, and Patamon all out of the base and into the hot sand with it.

Chapter Text

Takeru was confused as to why Veemon (he was pretty sure that was Veemon) was now a golden Power Ranger thing.

Daisuke was confused as to why Takeru and Ken had both crashed through the wall. Uh, and why they were bleeding.

But both of those questions were for another time.

Ken got up from the ground, though his legs were shaky, and whistled for a Digimon.

It didn’t matter what Digimon, Airdramon was gone now, but anything that flew so he could watch Chimeramon crush the insects.

Devidramon answered his call, picking up both him and Wormmon.

”Go, Magnamon!!! You can do this!!”

Magnamon.

So that was the cool Power Ranger guy.

It didn’t matter how many Power Rangers they had on their team, they were still going to lose.

Chimeramon was the perfect Digimon.

And Ken was the perfect human.

So they were perfect partners.

“Chimeramon!! Get them!!”

Deep down, there was still some fear that Chimeramon would try to kill him like SkullGreymon did.

Turns out, that fear was correct.

He sent a blast towards Devidramon, who quickly dodged it.

”N-Not me!! What’s wrong with you?!”

Magnamon lunged at Chimeramon, punching him.

But Chimeramon knocked him away easily.

”MAGNAMON!!”

”It’s no use,” Miyako mumbled weakly. “We can’t defeat him.”

”Hey!! Don’t be so negative, we...we can do this!”

”The situation is negative, Daisuke. Miyako’s just being honest.” Hikari added.

Everyone...

Were they all really giving up?

Even a miracle wasn’t enough to beat Chimeramon?

”Ken-chan,” Wormmon skittered over to said partner, who glared down at him. “This isn’t you.”

Ken rolled his eyes.

”You don’t know anything about me.”

”Yeah I do. I know everything about you, Ken-chan. I know how much you love mama’s birthday cakes, I know that you used to like the ocean, I know that you never hated Osamu, I know that you’re Ken-chan. Deep down, you’re still Ken-chan.”

His chest tightened.

”YOU KNOW NO-”

The small Digimon rammed Ken off of Devidramon.

He rolled across the sand, until he stopped, and just looked up in shock.

”And I love Ken-chan. He’s my best friend.”

”YOU-”

He steered Devidramon into Chimeramon, who hit him off with no problem.

“Magnamon, please win.” He whispered weakly as he flew through the air.

Then he landed, without even a crash or a thud.

The sand made it so quiet.

”MAGNAMON, NOW!!”

Magnamon shot a blast of light at Chimeramon, it didn’t look stronger than his attacks, but something about it radiated power.

And it pierced Chimeramon right through the heart.

Chimeramon, who turned into data that blew away with the wind and then was gone.

”Chimeramon...?”

Ken fell to his knees.

”Chimeramon...lost. I...I lost.”

The Chosen Children all walked over and gathered in front of him like a wall.

If walls could have death glares.

Miyako’s was bad.

But Daisuke’s...

Daisuke’s was worse.

“How...? Everything was supposed to be perfect...I was perfect...I was perfect just like Osamu...”

”How does it fee-“

Daisuke put up his hand, and Takeru stopped.

Daisuke just looked at Ken.

That look...ugh, that look...

”I’ll just...I’ll just go back to the Real World and delete all the files for the Digital World on my computer! Then I can start again.”

”Come on, I-I mean, are you serious?!”

Takeru pushed Daisuke’s hand away, storming over to Ken.

”Digimon are living beings! They’re not toys or just some video game characters!! They’re alive!!”

“A...live...?”

Ken looked over at the other Chosen Children.

They were holding their Digimon.

Miyako held Pororomon, Daisuke held the now de-evolved Magnamon, Demiveemon, Takeru held Patamon, Iori, Armadimon, and Hikari, Tailmon.

Real...?

Ken’s heart dropped into his stomach.

”You...were at the soccer match. And at Daisuke’s house, and the mall yesterday...”

His eyes widened in horror.

”Digimon are real...? Then...this whole time, I’ve been...”

His mind flashed back to those times, throwing Dark Rings towards Digimon, whipping them, forcing them to fight each other...

He’s been doing that to living creatures?

He let out a piercing scream, as he yanked off his shades and threw them as far away as he could.

He stumbled backwards, more and more, until he collapsed into the sand and the Digimon Kaiser outfit disintegrated into nothing, leaving the human Ken-chan in its place, wearing the gray Tamachi school uniform he always wore.

Though...could he even call himself human anymore?

He was a monster.

”Wormmon...”

Takeru’s voice pierced through Ken’s heart.

But he couldn’t digitize and fade away.

He quickly got up from the ground, and stumbled over to the Chosen Children.

He was empty.

”Ken-chan...you’re back...I’m so happy...”

He fell to his knees again.

And he softly cradled the Digimon with his shaky arms.

He was so cold.

”Wormmon...have you always been this light...?”

”Ken-cha...”

His voice trailed off and faded before he could finish speaking.

”What?! Ken-chan what?!” Ken frantically choked out.

There was no reply.

Just little Wormmon, with cold, lifeless eyes.

No...

No, no, no...

Wormmon...!

No!

”NO!!!!!” He shrieked. He shrieked until his voice turned into broken sobs.

And Wormmon faded away.

He doubled over and sobbed harder, trying to grasp at what was no longer there.

”I didn’t come here to relive this feeling...Wormmon...Osamu...”

He tried to grasp at the sand now, but it just slipped through his fingers.

Why could he never keep anything?

The Digimon weren’t sure whether to glare or comfort him as they stared at the broken boy.

They leaned more towards the former.

”Go home,” Daisuke hissed. “Your family misses you.”

”No they don’t.” Ken mumbled weakly.

”Just shut up for once in your life and go home.” Takeru said this time.

There was no pity in his voice.

He’d watched his Digimon die too, but it wasn’t because of his own mistakes.

Letting your own Digimon die...

It was just another reason to hate him.

Ken tried to choke back his sobs, and got up, though he couldn’t stop his knees from wobbling or his lip from trembling.

And he just walked away.

”GO HOME!!!” Daisuke screamed.

The boy didn’t respond.

Just stumbled back and forth and disappeared into the endless desert.

”We should go home too,” Miyako tried to put a smile on her face. “We’ve been staying on a ‘camping trip’ for a while.”

Hikari nodded.

”Miya-chan is right. We’ve all been through a lot today. I’d like to sleep in my own bed.”

Nobody argued, nobody had a reason to.

So they lifted up their D-3s and returned to their home.

Chapter Text

“Japan’s boy genius Ichijouji Ken returns home after being missing for a few months. We still have no information about why he left, or why he returned, but-”

Daisuke switched off the TV.

Takeru sighed.

”Well, It’s good he went home.”

”I hope he never even thinks of going back to being the Kaiser.” Iori muttered.

”Don’t worry,” Takeru placed his hand on his shoulder. “I don’t think we’re ever going to see him again.”

Ken lay asleep in his mother’s arms, who sobbed into her husband’s shoulder.

”I-I’m so glad he’s safe...I-I’m so glad he’s home...”

”Me too...He seems so tired.”

”K-Ken-chan,” His mother placed a kiss on his forehead, hugging him tighter. “Baby, I’m so, so sorry...”

He didn’t say anything to that.

Would he forgive her...?

Either way, she loved him.

She loved him so, so much.

Daisuke sighed, and collapsed onto his bed.

”Big day, huh?” Demiveemon asked, punching at the air.

Daisuke chuckled.

”The biggest. You were awesome, though.”

”Yeah I was!” That got him another chuckle.

“Okay, buddy, time for bed.”

Daisuke climbed under the covers, and Demiveemon climbed in next to him.

”Night.”

And he switched off the lamp.

Ken had been in a deep coma for a couple days now.

His parents would cry and beg anyone who would listen for him to be okay.

Today was no exception.

Now, his mother sat next to him, reading him a book, it had been him and Osamu’s favorite when they were little.

She would read it to him until he woke up.

But he didn’t.

Every day, she would read to him, and kiss him goodnight, but he never woke up.

So she sobbed to her husband again, who hugged her as tight as he could.

”H-He’s never going to wake up,” She mumbled. “We lost both of our sons now.”

He just hugged her tighter, and kissed her on the cheek.

”H-He’ll wake up. He has to.”

”What if he never does?”

”He will.”

It was hard to reassure his wife of that when he barely believed it himself.

But he did his best.

Then they heard Ken’s bedroom door creak open.

He stood there.

He was really there.

He woke up.

”KEN-CHAN!!”

They ran to him and pulled him into the biggest hug ever.

He choked back a sob.

He hugged them back.

”I-I’m so sorry we weren’t better parents...We should’ve been. To you and to Osamu,” She felt her heart sink when he flinched at his brother’s name. “I’m so sorry, Ken-chan.”

His lip wobbled, and he looked up at his mom, she was crying too.

”It’s okay, mama.”

She just sobbed more and hugged him even tighter.

”We love you, Ken-chan,” His dad smiled. “I love you.”

”I-I love you too, papa. I love you, mama.”

He rested his head on his mother’s shoulder.

He didn’t deserve their love.

They certainly deserved his.

But did they want it...?

Ken was horrible at loving people.

He was only good at hurting people.

He didn’t want to hurt anyone else...

”Oh, Ken-chan, baby,” His mother wiped his tears with her hand. “Is there any food you’d like? You must be hungry.”

”I-I don’t need any food.”

”Of course you need food, you haven’t eaten in days.” His father chided.

”In that case, I...I’ll eat anything you cook, mama.”

”Okay. I’ll make you something warm. Like soup or ramen?”

”Ramen sounds good.”

”Okay.”

She headed into the kitchen, and Ken’s father gave him one more hug.

”Welcome home.”

Chapter Text

Ken shoved his D-3 and Crest into a drawer and promised himself he’d never open it.

He’d never, ever go back.

And he returned to his normal life.

Well, not really.

He got much worse grades, and he didn’t feel like playing soccer anymore.

It reminded him too much of that familiar feeling of kicking Wormmon across the room when he hadn’t done anything wrong...

Ken stepped inside, shutting the door behind him.

He remembered when Daisuke would just kick his shoes all over the place.

But Ken slipped them off and left them neatly in front of the doorway.

”Ken-chan! How was your day?”

He looked over at his mother, who had started cooking dinner.

”It was great, mama.”

”How did your test go?”

He froze.

He knew his parents wouldn’t react badly, they loved him and didn’t want him hurt, but he still didn’t want to disappoint them.

”I got an A, mama.”

”That’s great!! I bet you studied really hard.”

Ken hummed in agreement.

”Now, you can go hang out in your room and play video games if you’d like, I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.”

”Okay.”

Ken headed to his room, and shut the door behind him again.

He sighed.

Play video games?

Well, he could, but...

But...that was what he always thought Digimon were, just some video game characters, but...

But they were real!

What if-w-what if he ended up hurting someone again?!

He needed to find a way that he’d never hurt anyone, ever.

His gaze drifted to the drawer.

No.

No, what if he became the Digimon Kaiser again?

But...he needed to figure out why he became the Kaiser, he needed to make sure nobody ever got hurt because of him.

So he opened the drawer, and grabbed his D-3.

He took a deep breath, and held it up.

As always, the green light engulfed him, pulling him into the Digital World.

His mother pushed open the door.

”Ken-cha-”

Her eyes widened.

”KEN-CHAN?! N-No, Ken-chan...Ken-chan...”

”What happened?!” His father asked, running over.

”K-Ken-chan’s gone...”

Ken stood there, again.

Well, he assumed he was standing there again. He couldn’t remember.

He was In the middle of a grassy field, maybe a mountain, there were a few cliffs.

“Hey! You!”

He looked over at the voice.

”YOU’RE THE DIGIMON KAISER!!”

His heart sunk and he stumbled backwards.

”I-I was, I...I-I hurt all of you, I-I’m so, so sorry...”

“Don’t be like that!! You’re just tricking us like you did the Chosen Children!!”

Oh...right...he did do that...

”We thought you were dead or you’d never come back here. It’d be better that way.”

”It’d be better if I was dead...”

”Yes! It would!!”

He glanced over at the cliff.

If he jumped off of that, he would die, wouldn’t he...?

”...yes. It would.”

So he walked over.

It looked like a canyon. Whatever it was, it was a really far drop.

Good.

He braced himself for the impact.

He imagined his bones crunching as he lay motionless in a pool of blood.

And he liked it.

It didn’t scare him.

So he just let himself fall.

The Chosen Children walked, chatting, as they looked for the next Dark Tower to destroy.

Then Daisuke caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye.

No.

Someone.

”OH MY GOD, KEN!!”

”What?”

But he was already sprinting over.

He wrapped his arms around Ken, pulling him back from the edge.

”Ichijouji!! What the hell did you think you were doing?!”

He broke down sobbing, hugging Daisuke tight.

”...hey...what happened...?”

The other boy’s words were so choked and mumbly that he could only make out, ‘Digimon Kaiser,’ and ‘dead,’ though that was more than enough to understand.

”WHY DOES EVERYONE GET TO DIE BUT ME?!” Ken screamed with all the pain and anger in the world. “OSAMU, WORMMON, THEY BOTH DIED, BUT I NEVER CAN!! WHY?! WHY WON’T YOU JUST LET ME?!”

Daisuke gently caressed the other boy’s face, he didn’t even care that his hand was getting all wet from his tears.

”Because I care about you. Lots of people do. I may not agree with everything you’ve done, but that doesn’t change that fact.”

Ken choked back more sobs.

”It should!! You should hate me!!”

”I probably should,” Daisuke hugged the other boy tighter. “But I don’t.”

Ken returned the tightening of the hug, soon it seemed like neither would ever let go.

”Daisuke, I...I-I’m so, so sorry for what I did, I’ll try to make up for it, for real this time...”

”I know you will. And guess what we found...? Hey! Miyako!!”

The girl ran over, looking at the two boys in confusion.

”Gimme the thing!”

”To give to him?!”

“Just give it to me!!”

Miyako rolled her eyes, before reluctantly handing Daisuke a pink DigiEgg.

”An...egg...?”

”When Digimon die, they get reborn in Primary Village. So, this egg...”

Ken softly gasped, as his eyes widened.

”Wormmon?”

Daisuke quickly handed the DigiEgg to Ken, and a blinding light enveloped it.

A pink light, like the Crest of Kindness.

And Leafmon appeared.

Ken gasped again.

”Wormmon...?”

”Ken-chan!”

”WORMMON!!”

He pulled the small Digimon into a hug, mumbling various things, though nobody really understood them.

”Wormmon, I’m so sorry...I promise to be a more worthy partner from now on.”

”You were always a worthy partner, Ken-chan!”

He choked back another sob, smiling warmly at the small Digimon.

”Motomiya-san...thank you.”

Daisuke looked a bit surprised at the honorific, but he chuckled.

”No thanks needed. You would’ve done the same thing.”

”Would he?” Miyako muttered.

”I think he would. For real this time.” Daisuke smiled.

Miyako sighed, patting Daisuke on the shoulder, before heading back to the group.

”C’mon!! We have more Dark Towers to destroy!!”

”Well, I have to leave. You take care of Ken, okay, Wormmon?”

The little Digimon giggled.

”Okay, Daisuke!”

The boy ran over to his friends, and they set off.

”Are you gonna go with them? They’re your friends!”

”No. Mama and papa are probably really worried, and I was never their real friend. I don’t deserve to be.”

“I think you do, Ken-chan!”

”Of course you do,” Ken chuckled, tickling the little Digimon. “You always believe in me.”

”Yeah! You’re my partner, Ken-chan!”

Ken smiled.

”I’m so glad you’re my Digimon. Not anyone else, just you.”

Leafmon giggled again.

”Yay!!”

”Now, should we head home?”

”Mhm! Home!”

Ken held up his D-3 and returned to his room.

He probably had a lot of explaining to do to his parents, but he was ready now.

Wormmon was here.

Chapter Text

Daisuke groaned, rolling over for the millionth time.

”Daisuke, how come you’re not sleeping?”

He couldn’t.

How could he explain to his little Digimon that Ken almost killed himself?

Just the thought of it made Daisuke sick to his stomach.

And a few tears escaped his eyes.

What if he hadn’t been there to save him?

He and Ken...well, a lot had happened between them.

When Daisuke learned he was tricking all of them, he got so angry.

Rightfully so.

But Daisuke had always been passionate about his emotions.

And love...well, love was stronger than anger.

Wanting to punch someone in the face didn’t change the fact you loved them.

At least, not to Daisuke.

He knew how stupid it would sound to his friends.

’Oh, I know he tricked us into believing he was good before and then betrayed us, but I promise he’s actually good this time, trust me!’

Maybe that whole ordeal not only broke their trust in Ken, but Daisuke a bit too.

He was shocked Miyako even gave him the DigiEgg.

But he saw something in her eyes, looking at the boy who used to be her enemy broken and sobbing with Daisuke holding him like nothing else mattered.

Maybe she could tell what had happened, from how close they were to that cliff and how scared Daisuke had sounded.

He choked back a sob.

Fear had never controlled him. Not like Ken.

He kinda just did whatever.

But now...he felt he could be reduced to a sobbing mess at the mention of Ken’s name.

Why?

He was okay.

Daisuke saved him.

He shouldn’t be so afraid.

”Daisuke? Why are you crying?”

Oh.

He touched his cheek, and was met with cold tears running down it.

He chuckled sadly, quickly wiping his tears away.

“Um...well...”

Unlike Ken or Hikari, even Takeru, he also didn’t ever hide what he felt.

What he felt about Ken, that was the first time he’d ever done that.

“It’s nothing, Demiveemon. Just tired.”

”Is it why you seemed so scared earlier in the Digital World?”

Daisuke glanced away nervously.

Of course, he couldn’t even think about being able to hide his feelings from his Digimon partner, he knew him. Better than anyone.

He wished Ken knew him so well.

And vice versa. He’d love to know more about Ken...why he did everything he did...heck, even just what went on inside his mind and how Daisuke could get it to stop hurting him.

“...yeah. It is.”

”You can tell me!”

He could.

But...Demiveemon was kinda like a baby.

Like the little sibling he never had.

You wouldn’t tell your baby sibling about this kind of stuff, would you?

Daisuke wished he had someone to talk to about it.

Someone older who would give good advice.

Not his parents.

Definitely not his parents.

Maybe he could go to Taichi-san?

It was pretty late, but...he really needed advice...he’d understand, right?

”Um...Demiveemon, you up for a little adventure?”

Demiveemon bounced up and down on the bed.

”Yeah!! Where are we going, Daisuke?”

”We’re gonna go talk to Taichi-san.”

The Digimon tilted his head.

”Why?”

”I’d like to ask him for some advice. You can hang out with Tailmon if she’s still awake.”

”Yayy!! Tailmon!”

Daisuke chuckled, picking up his Digimon, and climbing out of bed.

He threw on a coat, before placing Demiveemon gently in his backpack.

Since it was nighttime, nobody would notice he wasn’t a plush anyway, so he didn’t zip it up.

And he headed outside, it wasn’t too far of a walk to Taichi-san and Hikari-chan’s house, though due to his tiredness, it felt a lot longer.

Not once did his eyes flutter closed, though.

He was still too scared to even think about it.

Once he reached the apartment, he knocked on the door, hard, so hopefully they’d hear it if they were awake, or wake up if they weren’t.

He did feel bad about waking them up, but it was too late now.

A tired Mrs. Yagami opened the door, raising her eyebrow.

”You’re my daughter’s friend, right? What are you doing here at this hour?”

”I’m actually here to see Taichi-san. I know it’s late, but I could really use some advice...”

She sighed.

”I’ll wake him up, but he might not be happy about it. He gets grumpy in the early mornings.”

Daisuke snorted, which got him a small smile from Mrs. Yagami, before she disappeared back into the dark apartment.

A few minutes later, Taichi-san walked over to the door like a cranky toddler.

”My mom said you wanted advice? Like, urgently? Digital World stuff?”

”No,” Daisuke chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Just...I couldn’t sleep, and it’s about someone I care about.”

Taichi looked back and forth from his bedroom and Daisuke, before sighing.

”Alright, c’mon in. Don’t be too loud, though.”

Daisuke nodded, letting Demiveemon go play in Hikari and Taichi’s room, shutting the door just in case he did start crying.

He didn’t want her to see her team’s leader like that.

”Alright.”

Taichi collapsed onto the couch, and Daisuke sat next to him.

”Shoot.”

”Well, It’s...It’s Ichijouji. The Digimon Kaiser. But he’s not anymore, he’s better now! H-He’s trying to redeem himself.”

”Okay. What about him?”

Daisuke swallowed.

It was going to hurt him to say, but he’d come this far.

”H-He tried to jump off a cliff in the Digital World earlier today.”

Taichi’s eyes widened.

”I-I know he’s fine, I saved him, but...but I’m so scared he’s gonna try to do it again, to-to hurt himself and-”

Daisuke started to sob, and Taichi pulled him into a hug.

”Hey...I...I’m sorry you had to witness that. It’s horrible to watch someone you love try to hurt themself.”

”Have you ever...been through anything similar?”

Taichi glanced away sadly.

”Well...Yamato...he told me once he wanted to do it. It was during our adventures. I told him it was the stupidest idea ever. Because Takeru needed him,” Taichi’s voice started to break. “I needed him.”

”Did he ever...try?”

”No. I talked him out of it before he could plan anything, but...I still remember the look in his eyes. I think that’ll haunt me forever.”

“How did you...go on? Knowing he could try to hurt himself? That...maybe he still wanted to, that...that next time, maybe you wouldn’t have been there to save him...?”

”I...well, I don’t know. I guess just...the happiness he made me feel was more than the fear. And it got easier. It will get easier. You just have to heal. What you saw...he may have been fine, but it was still horrible. You can’t expect yourself not to think about it at night, or...any other time, really.”

Daisuke sniffled, wiping his tears.

“Thank you, Taichi-san.”

”Of course, Daisuke. I’m glad you came to me. Now go home and sleep so I can go back to bed!”

Daisuke laughed, and nodded, going to get Demiveemon.

He opened up the door, and the Digimon immediately ran out into Daisuke’s arms.

”Good talk?”

Daisuke nodded.

”Good talk. Night, Taichi-san! Thanks again!”

”Night, Daisuke!”

He smiled at the older boy, before stepping outside, and shutting the door.

Chapter Text

Ken woke up a bit early today.

Well, maybe a bit more than a bit.

He woke up gasping and choking back sobs, Leafmon tried to comfort him, but it was like he couldn’t even hear him.

”D-Digimon Kaiser,” He muttered, still gasping for air. “S-Stupid, horrible, worthless me.”

”No! Ken-chan, don’t say such horrible thi-”

“I-It would be better if I died. If I drowned in that whirlpool-”

”NO!! KEN-CHAN, NO!!!”

Leafmon’s desperate cries finally shocked him out of his nightmares.

“...Leafmon, I...I’m so sorry.”

”Don’t be sorry, Ken-chan! I’m sorry!”

”Why?!”

”Because I couldn’t save you.”

His eyes widened.

Both of them just looked at each other sadly for a few moments.

”L-Leafmon, that...that wasn’t your fault.”

”You need to go see your friends, Ken-chan.”

”I-I told you. I’m not worthy of being their friend.”

”But Ken-chan!”

”Please...try to go back to sleep, okay?”

”What are you going to do?”

Ken glanced away.

”Nothing.”

”I’m not leaving you alone.”

”But you’re so tired. And you’re in your baby form, you need a lot of sleep.”

”NOOO!! I DON’T WANT KEN-CHAN TO DIE!!”

His lip wobbled.

”I...I won’t. I won’t die.”

”YOU’RE LYING!!”

He looked down guiltily.

“...maybe I am.”

When Leafmon cried, it was heartbreaking.

That was Ken’s fault.

That was because of him.

”Leafmon, I...”

”You’re gonna die!! You’re gonna die and leave me all alone!!”

“I...”

Ken swallowed.

He didn’t know what to say.

He hated making Leafmon sad, but...he was going to...try again...

”L-Leafmon, you really should go to sleep.”

”NOT WITHOUT KEN-CHAN!!”

Ken glanced away, before finally looking back at the little Digimon.

”I...Okay. I’ll try to go back to sleep too.”

Leafmon still had a bit of distrust in his eyes, but climbed in next to Ken once he lied back down.

”Okay, blanket wave! One, two, three!” Ken grabbed the blanket and tossed it into the air, before it eventually settled back down on top of the two of them.

”Night-night, Ken-chan...”

”Night-night, Leafmon.”

He hugged the Digimon close, and he fell asleep pretty soon.

Now...

Ken knew he wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. At least not for a few more hours.

And he still...

No. Leafmon needed him.

Maybe he could work on some homework.

So he slowly climbed down the ladder, and grabbed the books off his desk.

”AHHH!! NOOOO!!! KEN-CHAN!!!”

He gasped and turned back to the Digimon, who was crying again.

”Leafmon, I thought you went to sleep!”

”KEN-CHAN!! YOU LIED!! YOU WERE GONNA GO...you were gonna...”

His voice broke and he started to sob again.

”Leafmon, I wasn’t! I just wanted to get some homework.”

The little Digimon only cried louder.

”Leafmon...”

He climbed back into his bed and gently cradled Leafmon, maybe neither of them would be getting sleep tonight.

”Hey...I won’t do that, okay? I’m safe. I’m okay.”

”B-But you said you still wanted to!! What if I wake up and then-a-and you’re really not there?”

Ken held the Digimon closer, softly running his hand back and forth on his leaf in soothing motions.

”I will be here. Let’s make a pinky promise, okay? Neither of us will leave each other. We stay together. Forever.”

”But Ken-chan, I don’t have pinkies!”

He chuckled.

”You can use your leaf. Does that sound good?”

Leafmon nodded, linking his leaf with Ken’s pinky.

”I promise I’ll never leave you, Leafmon.”

”I promise I’ll never leave you, Ken-chan.”

”Okay, now sleep!”

Leafmon and Ken both giggled, before eventually settling down again.

”I love you, Ken-chan. I’m so happy you’re back.”

Ken smiled.

”I love you too, Leafmon. You’re the best friend ever.”

The two of them hugged each other tight, finally at peace.

And they drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Text

Miyako hummed to herself, as she hammered in the shingles on the roof.

She didn’t think she’d enjoy rebuilding villages, but she didn’t mind it.

She glanced over at her friends, Daisuke and Hikari were running around playing with the baby Digimon.

Hikari...In her long white dress and her sun hat, her short hair blowing into her face.

Miyako just smiled to herself.

Then she got back to building.

Yesterday...she knew what Ichijouji had tried to do.

She didn’t forgive him.

But how can you hate someone who’s sobbing like that?

She wasn’t sure if she’d regret giving that DigiEgg to Daisuke.

But if he had just saved a life...

Then she couldn’t have done anything else.

“Hey, Mi-chan, Takeru and I are gonna go see if we can grab some snacks, anything you’d like?”

”Just a soda’s fine.”

”K! We’ll be back in a bit!”

Miyako waved, at least, as much as she could without falling off of the ladder.

”Bye, Kari-chan!”

She heard the other girl giggle as she disappeared from sight.

And Miyako got back to building again.

”Hey, Miyako, can I talk to you?”

Daisuke.

She put down the hammer and slid down the ladder.

”It’s about yesterday. With Ichijouji, right?”

Daisuke slowly nodded.

”Did you...know?”

”I could tell.”

He sighed.

”Um...why did you give me the DigiEgg?”

”Because against all odds, I trusted you, Daisuke. I probably shouldn’t have, it didn’t exactly work out before, but I did. And I wanted to help you save him.”

Daisuke choked back a sob.

”M-Miyako-san, thank you.”

”C’mere. Are you okay?”

He let the purple-haired girl pull him into a hug.

”Yeah...yeah, I will be. I asked Taichi-san for advice on it last night, and it really helped.”

”You could’ve come to me, y’know. Or Kari-chan, Iori, or Takeru.”

”I know. I just wanted his advice. Aaaand, while we’re on the topic, you and Kari-chan~?”

Miyako shoved him away by his face.

”You had to ruin it.”

He chuckled.

”I think she likes you too.”

Miyako’s face turned red.

”I-I don’t know. And...you’re not upset? I thought you liked her.”

”Eh, I used to, I guess. But maybe I just thought she was nice and cool and wanted to be her friend.”

”Like me with Ichijouji.”

Daisuke looked over at her, and nodded.

”I guess we both have some things to figure out, huh?”

”I guess so...anyway, if that’s all, I think I’d better get back to building. And don’t you DARE tell Kari-chan about this.”

”I wasn’t planning on it. Thanks, Miyako-chan.”

”Of course, Daisuke-kun.”

The boy ran back to the baby Digimon, and Miyako climbed back onto the ladder.

Ichijouji...she hoped he was alright.

Maybe she could ask him to join them or have another picnic or something.

Though, she still didn’t forgive him herself, and she knew Iori wouldn’t.

Oh, and Takeru...

He was gonna be hard to convince...

But Miyako wanted Ichijouji to know he was welcome in their friend group, even if it would be a long process.

“We’re back!! Miyako, catch!”

Takeru threw a soda towards her, which she just barely caught.

”Hey!! You almost hit me in the face!”

He chuckled nervously.

”Sorry.”

She rolled her eyes, and just shook her head, taking a sip of her soda while working more on the roof.

Kari-chan had returned to playing with the Digimon alongside Daisuke, running around and laughing.

She had to admit, she didn’t think Daisuke of all people would be amazing with babies.

But he really was empathetic and gentle when he was with the right people.

When he was with Ichijouji.

She smiled.

It was courageous, trusting him when nobody else did.

The Crests of Courage and Friendship really did make perfect sense for him.

Sometimes she felt she didn’t live up to her Crests, at least to the previous bearers, but she did her best.

And it didn’t matter that much anyway, she liked to help the Digimon, and that was the most important thing.

Miyako just liked helping people.

Maybe she got that from Kari-chan.

Chapter Text

Daisuke hadn’t seen Ken since...what happened a couple days ago.

He probably planned never to go back to the Digital World again.

But Daisuke had to talk to him.

To make sure he wouldn’t try that again, and make sure he knew he could be their friend.

And Miyako-chan and Hikari-chan agreed!

So the three of them rode the train to Tamachi, with their Digimon in their backpacks as always.

Ken chopped up some meat and vegetables.

”Thank you for helping with dinner, Ken-chan. You didn’t have to.”

”I know. I’d like to help in any way I can, though.”

To make up for everything he did.

He’d hurt his parents too by leaving. Now they were so worried about him all the time, he felt horrible.

Before he could get too deep in his thoughts and accidentally chop his finger off, the doorbell rang.

”I’ll get it!”

He ran over to the front door and pulled it open.

”Hello, I’m Mr. and Mrs. Ichijouji’s son-”

Oh.

He was expecting one of his parents’ coworkers or the mailman.

Not the Chosen Children.

Why would they even come all the way to his house...?

”...hi. Motomiya-san, Inoue-san, Yagami-san.”

”You don’t have to add the honorifics, you know,” Hikari smiled. “We’re all equals.”

”No. No, we’re not. W-What are you doing here anyway?”

“Well, uh...”

What were they really doing?

Ken was here, all in one piece, that was all Daisuke really needed to know.

“We just wanted to make sure you were okay.” Miyako said.

Ken seemed a bit surprised.

”You...did?”

Daisuke and Hikari nodded.

”Well, um...you came all this way just to check if I was okay...?”

“Yeah,” Daisuke’s lip wobbled. “I did.”

Ken’s eyes widened.

Daisuke came.

Daisuke was worried about him.

“Well, I...I should at least ask if you’d like to stay for dinner. I’m sure my parents won’t mind.”

”We’ll have to ask our parents-”

”Yeah,” Daisuke interrupted. “I wanna stay.”

Ken nodded, and led him inside.

Miyako and Hikari glanced at each other, and the older girl shrugged.

They followed the two boys inside.

”Mama, papa, these are Motomiya Daisuke, Inoue Miyako, and Yagami Hikari.”

His mother smiled, and started to tear up.

”Your friends?”

”Well...not exactly. But I know them.”

”Ah...well, you three are welcome to stay for dinner.”

”That’s what we were about to ask!” Miyako chuckled.

Ken gave a small smile in return.

”I like your apartment, Ichijouji-kun,” Hikari looked around. “It’s cute!”

”Yeah, it is. It’s just the three of us, so we don’t need much space.”

”Ah. Jealous. I wish I was an only child.” Miyako grumbled.

Daisuke shook his head as she spoke, but she didn’t seem to get the message.

”Yes, it’s very...quiet here.”

”I don’t think anywhere Miyako is could be quiet.” Daisuke teased, which got him a playful shove from Miyako.

”I don’t mind having an older brother. He can be a lot sometimes, but he really cares about me.” Hikari added, shrugging.

Ken almost jumped when Daisuke softly placed his hand on his back.

He turned to the other boy, who was giving him a sad smile.

Oh.

He was trying to comfort him.

So Ken gave a sad smile back.

He honestly didn’t know what the two of them were.

Ex-almost-boyfriends?

Ex-enemies?

Acquaintances?

Whatever they were, Ken still loved Daisuke, and it seemed like Daisuke hadn’t stopped caring about him.

It only made him feel more guilty.

After everything he’d done, Daisuke didn’t even hate him.

”You’re right, Ichijouji-kun,” Miyako muttered. “It is quiet here.”

He chuckled nervously.

”We can talk in my room until dinner’s ready.”

Nobody seemed to dislike that idea, so Ken led them all to his bedroom and pushed open the door, quietly shutting it so they could let all their Digimon play too.

Demiveemon, Pororomon, and Tailmon climbed out of their backpacks, and looked around at everything.

”Ken-chan! You brought your friends!”

He smiled at the little Digimon on his bed.

”They came over, so we offered for them to stay for dinner.”

”Yay!!”

Leafmon jumped down, running over to Demiveemon.

”Hi! You’re Daisuke’s Digimon!”

”Yeah! You’re Ken’s Digimon?”

”Yeah!!”

The two boys smiled.

They had talked about each other so much that their Digimon knew their names by heart.

“Everyone, I...now that you’re here, at least some of you, I just want to say, I’ll make sure that I make up for what I did. I-I’ll destroy as many Dark Towers as I can, and I can help you rebuild some of the villages.”

”That sounds nice, Ichijouji-kun. We could all hang out more too.” Miyako smiled.

”You’re...you’re really not mad...?”

Miyako shook her head.

”I might not completely forgive you, but I can tell, and Daisuke and Kari-chan, that you’re good now.”

”Thank you. All of you.”

”Of course, Ichijouji,” Daisuke smiled. “We wanna be your friends.”

He wanted to hug Ken, though he wasn’t sure they were really at...hugging level yet, like, they didn’t know each other that well, and...

Maybe he was overthinking this. They hugged a couple days ago.

”Do you want a hug?”

Ken blinked.

”Right now?”

Agh!!

Stupid Daisuke, stupid...

Then Ken wrapped his arms around him, and held him tight.

”Yeah.”

Daisuke beamed, and hugged him back.

Daisuke had saved his life.

And he would keep him here, he promised himself that.

He would protect Ken from anything and everything.

Because Ken was...

Ken could probably string together words and make it sound really cool or, like...poetic.

Ken was...

Hm...

Well, Ken was Ken.

And Daisuke just loved him for that.

Chapter Text

Ken watched TV with Wormmon, the smiles and laughter from last night still echoing in his head.

His eyebrows raised when the doorbell rang again.

Wormmon ran to skitter behind the couch and Ken pulled open the door.

”Hi, I’m-”

Takaishi-san?

Gasping for air like he’d just run all the way from the train station at full-speed.

”...Takaishi-sa-”

He put up his hand.

”Before you say anything, I really didn’t want to come to you of all people, but-but we checked everywhere and I think she may have g-gone back there, and-”

Ken softly and hesitantly put his hands on Takeru’s trembling shoulders.

”Slow down. Who? And...went back where?”

”Hikari-chan,” He gasped for air again. “She...she disappeared, and we don’t know where she is...she went to this weird other world one time, and I...I’m scared she may have gone back.”

”I can try to help you find her, but I don’t know if I’d be much help. I’m just one boy.”

”Well, I was hoping you could check your Dark Tower computer map thing. That’s how you always tracked us, right?”

Ken slowly stumbled away, running his hands through his hair in soothing gestures.

”Well, um...”

Wormmon got out from behind the couch and came over, softly nuzzling Ken’s leg, before he picked him up and hugged him tight.

”I don’t like it either. I hate what you did to all the Digimon. I hate what you did to the Digital World. But I need to know if Hikari went back there. I-I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

Takeru wasn’t trying to guilt-trip Ken into helping, really, it just spilled out.

And he didn’t know what else to do.

Ken eventually sighed.

”Okay. Leave your shoes at the door, and you can come inside.”

Takeru nodded, slipping off his shoes and following Ken to his room.

He sat down in front of his computer, quickly powering it on and clicking over to his map.

”Here. The black dots are Dark Towers, and you guys should be blinking red dots.”

”Yeah, we have the same map on the computer at school.”

Ken just hummed in agreement, his once sharp eyes scanning the screen for anything resembling that blinking red dot.

That blinking red dot that had once caused him so much annoyance, but now was maybe his only way to prove to the Chosen Children (and maybe to himself) that he could make something of himself.

That he would be a good teammate...a good teammate...

No...

”Zoom out.”

”I’ve zoomed out as much as-”

”ZOOM OUT MORE!!”

He flinched.

It reminded him of that all-too-familiar sound of him barking commands at the Digimon, the cracking of that all-too-familiar whip.

Though, this time, it was directed at him, as it always should have been.

”Takaishi-san, I can’t. Yagami-san...is not in the Digital World.”

He swallowed.

He could basically see Takeru’s glare burning through him.

His fault. His fault.

His fault, his fault, his fault.

Hikari could be dead and it was his fault.

He couldn’t find her.

Takeru would hate him even more now.

Daisuke would too.

And Iori would be disappointed.

Miyako would be devastated.

He just knew she would never speak to him again.

None of them would.

Stupid.

He was so horrible and stupid.

”Ichijouji-kun!! Are you even listening?!”

He flinched again.

Oh.

He ignored Takeru.

Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

”I’m sorry.”

What probably should have been a casual apology almost sounded like a cry, filled with guilt and despair.

Takeru just sighed.

He was so tired of Ken.

Of course he was.

Ken was so tired of Ken too.

”Thanks anyway, Ichijouji-kun. I have to go find her.”

As Takeru started to leave, Ken almost knocked over his swivel chair standing up.

“Wait! Please...let me help.”

Takeru just looked back at him.

He couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

He looked angry, but he usually saw Takeru angry.

”Fine. But don’t ruin it. We’re getting Hikari and then getting out of that horrible place.”

Ken’s face lit up.

”Of course, Takaishi-san,” He bowed slightly to show his seriousness. “I promise, I’ll be helpful.”

They both headed outside, looking back, Ken probably should have let his parents know where he was going, but he wouldn’t be long.

”So...where exactly are we going?”

”The Dark Ocean.”

Ken froze.

A lump formed in his throat.

”...the Dark Ocean?”

”Have you been there?”

He quietly nodded.

”Then maybe you know how to get there! Can you take us?”

He quietly (and hesitantly) shook his head.

”What do you mean?!”

”I-I’ve only been once. It turned my Digivice into the Dark D-3. But...I haven’t been able to go back.”

”Well, maybe you can open a portal!”

”I...I could try.”

”Try. Please.”

Looking at Takeru’s face, he knew he had to help him find Hikari.

So he held up his D-3, though his arm shook.

”D-Dark Portal, open?”

And cracks in the sky started to form, opening up like the very fabric of the universe was being ripped apart.

And there it was.

So familiar it was like he’d never left.

He gulped as sweat trickled down his neck.

”Ken-chan...?”

The little Digimon hugged his leg, though Ken couldn’t pick him up.

”That’s the portal! Come on, hurry!”

He grabbed Ken’s arm and Wormmon, pulling them all with him as he jumped through the portal before it closed.

But the cracks in the sky didn’t disappear, leaking ever so slightly into the streets.

The Dark Ocean.

Chapter Text

The black sand spread out for what seemed like forever, only broken by the crashing waves.

A haze of darkness seemed to cover everything, not enough that they couldn’t see, but enough that it rendered nearly everything colorless.

Gray.

Everything was gray, like an old movie.

Except a lot less funny.

Ken, Takeru, and their Digimon were sprawled out across the sand.

That was until Takeru slowly opened his eyes, and groaned.

”Ichijouji-kun, we made it.”

Ken blinked a few times before his eyes fully opened, sitting up after Takeru.

The two of them nudged their Digimon awake, and looked out at their surroundings.

”Come on. We have no time to waste.”

Takeru quickly got up, brushed the sand off himself, and headed off in some direction.

Ken didn’t have the time, as he just stumbled to his feet, scooped up Wormmon, and ran after the other boy.

The beach had always seemed to go on forever, Takeru thought, though it seemed much more that way when he really didn’t know when it would end.

They just kept walking and walking.

”HIKARI!!”

”YAGAMI-SAN!!”

”HIKARI-CHAN!!!”

No reply.

After a little bit more walking, they ended up in front of some kind of cave or tunnel.

”...oh...oh no.”

”What?”

”I know what happened to Hikari.”

”What ha-”

Takeru bolted to the ocean, quickly falling under the waves with a splash.

”TAKERU!!”

Ken ran over as fast as he could, collapsing into the cold water before swimming back up for air.

”TAKERU!!!”

He immediately dove back down, barely hearing the muffled cries of both boys’ Digimon.

Takeru was deep underwater, looking for Hikari, and trying to call for her, though no words made it out.

Ken swam down to him as fast as he could, stupid sneakers, he should’ve taken them off.

And he grabbed Takeru, pulling him back up to the shore.

Ken crawled out of the water, soaking wet, and Wormmon ran over to him.

”KEN-CHAN!!”

”I-I’m sorry, Wormmon.”

Ken, Wormmon, and Patamon all flinched and snapped their heads towards Takeru when he screamed.

”T-Takeru, what happened to Ya-”

Ken tried to put his hands on Takeru’s shoulders again, but he punched him in the face, like he did in the base.

”Ken-chan!!”

Ken just looked at Takeru, still in shock.

”SHUT UP!! I LET YOU COME BECAUSE YOU SAID YOU WOULDN’T MESS IT UP!! YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO CARE ABOUT ME!!”

”But I-”

”You’re our friend?! Ha. Nice try. Hikari might be trusting you because she’s a fucking angel, and Miyako going along with her because she loves her, but I can see through your disguise. And you will never be our friend.”

Everything was silent for a few moments.

Tears streamed down Ken’s cheeks, though he knew Takeru was right.

He was right.

He would never be their friend.

”I’m going to save her. Do not stop me.”

”Takeru, wait!”

He didn’t even listen to Patamon, as he kicked off his shoes and once again dove into the black water.

Wormmon scurried into Ken’s lap, looking up at him.

Other than the obvious tears and red eyes, his expression was completely blank and unreadable.

Like he was numb.

”I think Yagami-san is dead.”

Both Digimon turned to him.

His voice was low, though other than that, again, no emotion in it.

”She’s not!! Why would you say that...?” Patamon mumbled, ever hopeful.

”Because Osamu is dead. Osamu is never coming back. Hikari is never coming back. Takeru is never coming back.”

Patamon stared at him in horror as his eyes filled with tears.

”...Takeru’s not coming back?”

”Ken-chan! He’s just a kid!”

”I WAS JUST A KID WHEN OSAMU-”

Ken inhaled sharply, before letting out a sob.

“P-Patamon, I’m so sorry. I didn’t...I shouldn’t have said that.”

”I wanna go home...”

”Yeah...I know. Me too.”

”But what about Takeru...?”

”He told me not to follow him...”

There were a few more moments of silence, until Wormmon skittered over to Patamon and hugged him.

”You can stay with me and Ken-chan until he comes back!”

”...okay.”

Ken scooped up both of the little Digimon, he would love Patamon like he was his own partner, since Takeru wouldn’t...until Takeru came back.

He took one more look at the ocean.

Takeru wouldn’t just come out carrying Hikari and forgive him.

The universe didn’t work like that.

Ken held up his D-3 and let the portal suck them back to Earth.

Once his feet hit the street, they felt...

”...huh?”

There was water in the streets.

It must have rained a lot while they were gone.

Oh no.

How long had they been gone for?

Ken ran back, every step making a bigger splash.

When he reached the apartment, he opened the door.

His parents weren’t there yet, that gave the Digimon enough time to scurry into his backpack.

And then his mother walked into the living room from the hallway.

”Ken-chan!! You didn’t tell us you were leaving, your clothes...they’re soaking wet.”

”I’m sorry, mama, I should’ve told you, but there was an emergency.”

”Oh...that’s okay, Ken-chan, you could’ve told me!”

No.

No, he couldn’t.

”I know. I’m sorry.”

”You don’t have to be sorry. Come take a warm shower, I don’t want you to catch a cold.”

He did have to be sorry.

”Okay,” Ken stepped out of his shoes, and headed over to grab some towels. “I won’t disappear again without telling you, mama. I promise.”

She smiled.

”I know.”

Ken headed into his room and set the Digimon down, along with one towel for each of them.

”I’ll be back in a little while, you two can dry off, and then feel free to...talk, and Patamon, you make yourself at home, okay?”

Patamon just nodded.

”Okay.”

Ken smiled reassuringly at the two of them, before stepping outside and shutting the door.

Ken walked through the hallway wearing his pajamas, and with his towel still in his arms.

He pushed open the door to find both Digimon snuggled up together having a little chat.

He didn’t want to interrupt them, so he just dried off his hair more, before hanging up the towel on the doorknob. He’d put it back later.

“Hi, Ken-chan.”

He waved to the Digimon.

“I think this is about my and Wormmon’s bedtime. Are you tired, Patamon?”

Patamon hummed in agreement, he wasn’t sure if that was because he was actually tired or because of the day he had, but either way, he was.

Ken climbed up to his bed, and tucked in the three of them.

”Goodnight.”

”Wait. Ken, if Takeru hates you so much, then why are you taking care of me?”

”Because I deserve to be hated.”

Wormmon wanted to protest, but he was just too tired right now.

Patamon just responded with an “Mm,” before falling asleep.

Ken really was worried about Takeru and Hikari.

He wanted them to come back.

But maybe, when they inevitably don’t, it would be easier if he already convinced himself of it.

Maybe...

He didn’t think that would’ve fixed what happened to Osamu.

”Goodnight, Ken-chan.”

Oh.

Wormmon could always tell when he was getting too deep in his thoughts.

Or maybe he just tended to interrupt at convenient moments.

Either way, Ken was glad.

”Goodnight, Wormmon.”

Chapter Text

Ken headed into the living room.

Today he was going to talk to Daisuke.

He had to apologize for letting Hikari and Takeru go missing, and if he hated him...h-he should! He should.

”Mama? I’m heading over to a...uh...acquaintance’s house.”

She turned to him, and smiled.

”Okay. Be careful, though, there’s water in the streets and nobody is sure why.”

Ken glanced over to the TV, they were talking about it on the News. The water looked higher up than yesterday.

”What about the storm drains? Those should stop it, shouldn’t they?”

“Well, they should, but for some reason the water won’t drain.”

”Hm...”

Ken just stared at the TV for a few seconds.

”Two high schoolers from Odaiba have gone missing recently, Takaishi Takeru and Yagami Hikari. Yagami disappeared recently, though Takaishi only last night,” Two pictures of Hikari and Takeru showed up. “If you see them, please alert the authorities so they can take them home.”

“Hey...Yagami Hikari, that’s the girl you had over the other day, isn’t it?”

”Yeah.”

”Oh...why would she go missing?”

”...I don’t know.”

”I’ll keep an eye out for her if I go out today.”

”Thank you, mama.”

He knew she wasn’t going to find her, she was in the Dark Ocean, but he couldn’t exactly say that.

”Now, you said you were going to an acquaintance’s house?”

”Oh, right!”

Ken ran back to his room, grabbing his backpack.

”Sorry I took so long, guys, the news was on.”

”It’s okay, Ken-chan!”

Ken held out his bag and both Digimon hopped inside.

”Ready?”

”Ready!”

He zipped up the bag and put it on, running back into the living room.

”Bye, mama!”

”Bye, Ken-chan!”

He put on his shoes and headed outside.

Wow. The water really was higher. Almost up to his knees.

He rolled up his pants and kept running.

He didn’t have that much of a reason for running, but he wanted to get there quickly.

Once he reached the train station, he got on the train and sat down next to the window.

Thankfully, there weren’t many people trying to get on right now, maybe they’d gotten the day off due to all the water.

Everyone on the train was pretty quiet.

Maybe it was dangerous to be traveling in these conditions, but Ken was incredibly stubborn when he set his mind on something.

Then a piercing roar rattled the entire train, leaving his ears ringing.

He quickly turned around to look out the window.

A Digimon.

It looked sort of like an octopus? Whatever it was, it was destroying buildings.

”Please hurry, please hurry.” He muttered under his breath.

The train stopped relatively quickly, and Ken sped out, pushing past people, running down stairs and through streets to get to the Digimon.

How did it even get here?

Digimon can’t open up portals themselves, can they...?

He unzipped his backpack once he’d reached the Digimon.

”Wormmon!”

Wormmon hummed in agreement, jumping out of the backpack.

A bright light enveloped him, before fading quickly.

”Stingmon!”

He flew over to the Digimon and started fighting him.

”Patamon, can you digivolve?”

”Not without Takeru!”

”Then I won’t make you fight. You stay safe in the backpack, okay?”

”But Ke-”

He zipped up the backpack, only to look up at the exact time to see Stingmon be hit into a building.

”STINGMON!!”

He ran over to Stingmon, who quickly de-digivolved into Wormmon.

”He’s too strong for me, Ken-chan...”

“Thousand Whips!!”

Tentacles flew towards the three of them, and Ken shut his eyes, hugging Wormmon and his backpack tight to protect them.

And there was the sound of a couple cracking noises, the tentacles hit something, but it wasn’t them.

So Ken slowly opened his eyes to see Daisuke.

”M-Motomiya-san?”

”Hey, Ichijouji-kun.”

”A-Are you okay?”

”I’m great. And I’m ready to pummel this guy into next week! What about you?”

”We’re not strong enough. And Patamon can’t digivolve without Takeru.”

”Oh...wait, you have Patamon with you?”

Ken nodded.

”In the backpack.”

”Well, you can just let us handle this.”

”But you’re missing two members of the team! You can’t-”

But Flamedramon, Shurimon, and Digmon were already lunging at the Digimon.

Ken hated just watching and doing nothing.

But he didn’t want to push Wormmon.

He just wished he was strong enough to fight himself.

When he was the Kaiser, he would’ve been.

He could have just put a Dark Ring on the Digimon and that was that.

But he was horrible for that.

And he was never doing it again.

Pretty soon, all three other Digimon were knocked into buildings, hit into the ground, just...they were no match for him.

The kids ran over to their Digimon, doing the classic Chosen Children; “Are you okay? Good. Now, let’s keep fighting and never give up!”

It was admirable to some extent.

But they would just wear themselves out this time.

”Ichijouji-kun, do you know where he came from?!” Miyako asked.

”No. I’m sorry, Inoue-san.”

He looked around for any kind of portal.

Wait.

The portal from yesterday.

The water in the streets...it wasn’t from the Dark Ocean, was it?

...it was all Ken’s fault. Again.

“I...think he came from the Dark Ocean.”

”What?” They all responded, basically in sync.

”It’s this other world separate from the Digital and real worlds, Yagami-san and I have been there before, Takaishi-san thought she might have gone back, so we went yesterday to look for her, and...I think the water in the streets, this Digimon, they’re both from the Dark Ocean. It’s my fault.”

They all just stared at him for a moment.

”You didn’t know,” Daisuke finally stated. “It’s not your fault.”

”But-”

”I don’t wanna hear it. You made a mistake. So? We’ve all done it. I make mistakes every day.”

”I guess...”

”Now, do you know how to beat this guy?”

”Maybe we can send him back to the Dark Ocean. I can use my D-3 to open the portal.”

”Yeah! Let’s do it!”

Ken nodded, raising his D-3 like he did yesterday.

”Dark Portal, open.”

The sky started to crack again, for a moment it looked as if a few stars fell out.

”Try and hit him into the portal!”

Flamedramon hummed in agreement, punching the Digimon into the portal.

Ken quickly pulled away his D-3, and the rift closed.

”Alright!! Great job, Ichijouji-kun!”

”We didn’t defeat him. For all we know, he could just come back. We just stalled him until we’re stronger.”

”Well, either way, today we won! High-five!”

Daisuke shoved his hand out, and Ken shyly slapped it.

”We should all go get lunch,” Miyako suggested. “I know a great place not far from here!”

”Is it just the ice cream place again.”

She glanced away nervously.

”Uhhh...”

”It’s the ice cream place,” Iori added in a monotone voice. “Isn’t it.”

”Okay, maybe, but didn’t we have fun last time?”

Daisuke shrugged.

”Pleeeease, can we go, Ichijouji-kun?”

”Why are you asking me? Motomiya-san’s the leader!”

”Dai-”

“Yes!! Yes, we can get ice cream!!”

Everyone waited for Hikari to chuckle, but she wasn’t there.

Iori tried to fill in with awkward laughter.

”Well, um...let’s go.”

“So, you said you went with Takeru yesterday...when he went missing?” Miyako asked, twirling around the straw in her sundae.

”Yeah...he didn’t want me to come, but I really wanted to help, so he let me. He ended up diving into the ocean trying to find Hikari...and he told me not to follow him.”

”And you listened?!” Iori shouted.

”He was really serious about it, Hida-san, he would’ve killed me if I followed him!”

”Well, better you dead than him!!”

”IORI!!”

Miyako glared at the younger boy, while Daisuke just looked at Ken.

What if...what if that prompted him to try it again?

What if he believed it now?

Daisuke quickly turned to shoot Iori another death glare, before going to sit down next to Ken instead of across the table.

He put his hand on his shoulder gently, and just looked into his eyes. He hoped he gave the message he wanted without even having to speak.

”Thank you.” Ken mouthed to him.

Daisuke just smiled, and wrapped his arm around his shoulder.

Ken smiled back, albeit sadly.

”Ichijouji-san, I’m really sorry. That was a horrible thing for me to say.”

He looked over at Iori. He could tell he was sincere, and that he wasn’t just doing it because Miyako told him to or something.

”It’s okay, Hida-san. I deserved it.”

”No you didn’t. You did not deserve to be told that it would be better if you were dead.”

His eyes widened a bit.

A few tears may have slipped out.

“T-Thank you, Hida-sa-”

“Hida-kun. If you insist on the -san, then call me Iori-san.”

”Oh. Okay. Iori-san.”

”You can call me Miyako, too!”

”Yeah, call me Daisuke!!”

Ken chuckled nervously.

”I will.”

Daisuke’s face lit up.

He was still so cute.

”Well, we should all probably head home, huh?”

”Er...do you think I could sleep over at someone’s house,” Miyako muttered. “Normally Kari-chan and I do sleepovers on Fridays, but...”

”You can sleep over at my house, Miyako.” Iori suggested.

”Really? Thank you, Iori-kun!”

”Of course.”

”Hey, me and Ken-kun can come too! We can all sleep over!”

Daisuke linked his arm in Ken’s, making him blush at the sudden contact.

Oh, and also the fact he called him Ken-kun.

The way he said his name...

”That sounds fun! Please, Iori?”

”Well, that sounds fine. I’ll just call my mom.”

”Yay!!”

Iori stepped outside to head over to a pay phone, and Miyako quickly took his spot to lie across the booth dramatically.

Daisuke snorted.

”Daisuke, you’ve never been to Iori’s house, have you?”

”I don’t think I have!”

”Then there’s a first time for everything!”

Iori headed back inside, glaring playfully at Miyako to reclaim his seat, and Miyako begrudgingly complied.

”My mom said okay! Just no staying up too late.”

Daisuke and Miyako both cheered and threw their hands up in celebration.

Ken chuckled.

”Chosen Children, let’s roll!! Sleepover time!”

Miyako jumped up from the booth, running outside.

”H-Hey, Miyako, wait!!”

The three boys grabbed their bags and quickly ran after her.

”Miyako runs fast when she wants to!” Iori muttered, out of breath.

”I bet we can catch up to her. What do you say, Dai?”

”I bet I can catch up to her first!!”

With that, he sped ahead of Ken and Iori.

”Uh-h-hey!! Cheater!!”

He sped after Daisuke, trying to quickly get enough momentum to pass him, even with him getting the head start.

Iori sighed, trying to catch up with them, or at least, not fall behind.

Miyako reached Iori’s apartment first, touching the door with a; “BINGO!!”

Daisuke, Ken, and Iori sighed, all out of breath by now.

”You win this time, you...” Daisuke muttered, fumbling to think of an insult.

”And I win every time after! Miyako for the win!”

Daisuke rolled his eyes.

”That was fun.” Ken smiled.

”No it wasn’t!” Iori still gasped for air.

”Fun for everyone but Iori!”

Everyone (but Iori) burst out laughing.

”Hey!”

Iori eventually gave in, and started laughing too.

”Okay, okay, come on in. My mom should be making dinner by now.”

Iori pushed open the door, and everyone followed him.

Despite everything, Ken had a good day.

He felt so welcomed.

Though, maybe that was only because Takeru wasn’t here...

He shook the bad thoughts away. Today was a good day.

And it wasn’t over yet.

Chapter Text

Miyako sighed, placing the telephone back down on the stand.

Still no leads on Kari-chan.

She’d resorted to contacting basically any authority she knew of, they were good at finding missing kids, right?

Maybe she wasn’t even in the Dark Ocean!

Maybe she was just...somewhere.

She huffed in frustration and stormed outside without even letting her friends know she was leaving.

Oh. The water had gotten much higher. It just kept rising. That was probably concerning.

She ran down the stairs, and almost fell headfirst into the water.

When she jumped in, only her head stuck out if she wanted her feet to touch the ground.

”This is ridiculous!!”

She quickly took off her backpack, holding it up over her head.

This had gotten to be too much.

Hikari and Takeru missing, all the flooding, and still trying to make sure Ken felt welcome.

Gah!!

It was exhausting.

Miyako was so tired.

But she couldn’t give up.

She’d never even thought about giving up.

She just didn’t do that.

So she trudged through the streets, trying her best to stay afloat while keeping Hawkmon in her backpack above the water.

It would be so much easier to sink.

Yet she kept pushing through.

Kari-chan...if she was in this situation, she wouldn’t decide to sink, would she?

To give up?

She’d always been much more submissive than Miyako.

But give up?

Kari-chan wouldn’t...

She...she wouldn’t...

She was gone...wasn’t she?

The darkness had become too much.

It had swallowed her.

Miyako should’ve got her to talk about it, or something!

Before it got this far.

Where was she even going?

The Dark Ocean.

Right.

She was going to the Dark Ocean to save Takeru and Hikari.

Alone.

She reached a bench, and climbed onto it, finally getting a good breath.

”Dark Ocean!! Hey!!”

Her voice didn’t echo.

Against the ambient sounds, she sounded so small.

She hated feeling small.

”HEY!! I KNOW YOU’RE OUT THERE!! I’M GONNA COME FUCKING KILL YOU!! I’M SAVING HIKARI!!!”

Still no response.

So she just made a sound, too loud to be a groan, but too much like a growl to be a scream.

A battle cry.

”LET ME IN!!!”

That was a scream maybe not just to the Dark Ocean and that weird Digimon they saw, but to Kari-chan.

To let her in, to talk to her, so she’d know what was wrong.

So she’d know what to do to save her.

A portal started to open.

It was kinda freaky, like the sky was breaking apart.

But it didn’t matter.

They accepted her challenge.

So she didn’t hesitate, and she leapt through.

Miyako landed in the sand, it reminded her of that day looking for the Digimon Kaiser’s base, when she was knocked off of Halsemon.

She wasn’t injured, at least not really, maybe a couple scratches or bruises, but other than that, she was fine.

Agh!! Why was she thinking about that?!

It didn’t matter if she was fine!!

Hikari-chan was the only thing that mattered.

Oh, a-and Takeru-kun, of course.

But her best friend was the most important thing to her.

”Miyako, wha...what exactly are you doing?”

”Going to save Hikari. Are you coming?”

”I-I’m not an aquatic Digimon!”

”Then go back.”

”But I can’t leave you here!”

”Take this,” She tossed her D-3 to the Digimon. “Head back and tell the others where I am.”

”But Miyako-”

”We can’t have anyone else going missing. Tell them not to come.”

”Knowing them, it probably won’t make a difference.”

”Just go!! You can’t...you can’t die, Hawkmon, I’d never forgive myself.”

He sighed.

There was no arguing with Miyako.

He knew that more than anyone.

”Okay. Be careful.”

Miyako flashed him a smirk at that.

”I’m always careful.”

And she placed her belongings on the beach, along with her socks, shoes, and bandana, before running into the ocean.

She took a big breath.

She was going to need it.

And she dove under.

She’d say she was a decent swimmer, but she had to be better if she wanted to find her friends.

She kicked the water behind her, swimming ever deeper and deeper into the darkness.

She was starting to run out of breath, but she didn’t swim up.

She wasn’t afraid of her own death at this moment.

She’d always whined about not wanting to be in danger, as maybe she’d die and she’d never get to get married or have kids, or...live.

Miyako had always wanted to live.

But right now it didn’t matter.

She swam faster, as black spots started to dot her vision.

And then she saw it.

Some kind of cave, it looked like there was an air bubble too.

If Hikari was anywhere in this empty ocean, it had to be there.

So Miyako swam over as fast as she could, and tumbled through the opening into the air bubble.

Somehow the water just seamlessly transitioned into breathable air. It must’ve been something the Digimon did.

Now, Kari-chan and Takeru.

She made her way through the dark tunnel, there was nobody to be found.

She didn’t often go places truly alone. After all, Hawkmon was always with her if not her friends.

Then she heard screams.

They sounded like Hikari.

So she ran as fast as she could.

And there they were.

In a large section of the cave, Hikari and Takeru were chained up to the ceiling, with the Digimon from before constantly hitting them with his tentacles.

“KARI-CHAN!!”

The girl’s eyes widened at the voice, and she turned to Miyako.

”M-MI-CHAN!!”

”You came!!” Takeru said in relief.

”Yeah. And I’m gonna beat that Digimon by myself if I have to.”

Said Digimon turned to Miyako, who cracked her knuckles.

”Do you even know who I am?!”

”Oh, I know who you are. My fucking mortal enemy.”

”I AM DRAGOMON, GOD OF THE DARK OCEAN!!”

”Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

He quickly shot his tentacles toward Miyako, who narrowly avoided them, grabbing Hikari’s D-3 from the corner.

”Kari-chan, catch!!”

She threw it to the other girl, who caught it perfectly.

As the only two members of the team that didn’t do some kind of sport or martial art, Miyako would say they were pretty good at catching things rapidly hurtling towards their faces.

And Hikari quickly held up the D-3, shining a bright pink light towards Tailmon, who transformed into Angewomon.

”You’re going to regret messing with Hikari.”

”FORBIDDEN TRIDENT!!”

”CELESTIAL ARROW!!”

The kids just watched as the Digimon’s attacks collided, and they kept throwing blow after blow, each one stronger than the last.

Miyako took the opportunity to sneak over and pick the locks on Hikari and Takeru’s shackles, setting them free.

They were both pretty roughed up from Dragomon’s attacks, Hikari especially, who had multiple pretty serious-looking wounds. Miyako guessed they were probably mostly aiming for her.

It made her blood boil.

”CELESTIAL ARROW!!!”

The three kids’ eyes were drawn to the battle as Angewomon’s arrow pierced through Dragomon, who screamed in pain.

”HOW CAN THIS BE?! Y-YOU’RE JUST SOME KIDS!!”

”You shouldn’t have messed with me. That makes Takeru and Miyako pissed.”

Dragomon disintegrated into data, and Angewomon de-digivolved, running over to the Chosen Children.

”You did great, Tailmon.” Hikari pet the small Digimon’s head.

”Now come on, let’s get you home. Everyone will be so happy to see you.”

Hikari nodded, and Miyako pulled Takeru to the side.

”Patamon’s been staying with Ken-kun while you’ve been gone. I think you owe him an apology.”

Before Takeru could protest, Miyako had walked over to Hikari, clinging to her tight.

He smiled sadly.

Maybe he had a lot of things to think about.

The four of them left the cave, and finally, the team was back together.

Chapter Text

The Chosen Children jumped out of the portal and crashed into the water, before quickly pulling themselves up.

“What...happened here?”

Takeru looked around with widened eyes.

”Was there a hurricane or something?”

”We think the Dark Ocean is leaking into this world,” Miyako answered. “That’s what Ken-kun said.”

”Oh...oh god, Ichijouji-kun...I was so horrible to him.”

Hikari softly put her hand on his shoulder.

”You can make up for it. I know you can. But right now, we all need to go home. Our parents must be worried sick.”

”Oh, yeah...and Yamato...I hope he wasn’t too worried.”

”MIYAKO, HIKARI, TAKAISHI-SAN!!”

The three kids turned towards the voice, and saw Ken, Daisuke, and Iori running over.

”TAKERU!!”

Iori basically tackled the older boy into a hug, a surprise to everyone as he rarely gave hugs, even to Miyako.

”Hey, Iori. I’m sorry I left without telling anyone.”

He tousled his hair, the same as he’d done in the base, which made him smile.

Maybe that could be their thing.

“Hikari-chan, Takeru-kun, I’m so glad you’re both okay,” Daisuke smiled. “And MIYAKO!! WHY DID YOU JUST DISAPPEAR?!”

”I WENT TO LOOK FOR THEM!!”

”YEAH, I KNOW THAT!! BUT WE WERE WORRIED!!”

”Okay, okay.” Ken chuckled nervously, pulling the two of them apart.

”Good to know it’s really Miyako and not some Digimon disguised as her.” Takeru joked, and Daisuke laughed.

”Yeah, that’s our Miyako, alright.”

”That’s not funny!”

Ken started to giggle.

“Hey!! It’s not!! Stop laughing!!”

Once the laughter had settled down, their serious expressions returned.

”Ichijouji-kun, I...I’m so sorry for how I’ve acted. I know you’re trying to make up for what you did, and I should’ve let you.”

Ken just stared at him for a moment, before walking over.

He hugged him tight.

”Ichijouji-kun...”

Takeru hugged him back.

“Call me Ken. Everyone else does now.”

”And call me Takeru.”

He hummed in agreement.

”I-I’m so sorry too, Takeru...for everything, for hurting the Digimon, for hurting all of you, especially you, in the base...”

“Hey, it’s okay. We’re even.” He chuckled.

Ken smiled warmly, chuckling too.

“I-I’m so glad we’re all good now.”

Daisuke nodded.

”You’re our friend now, Ken. And there’s no getting out of it, so you’re here to stay.”

”I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

”How about we all walk Hikari-chan and Takeru-kun home? Then maybe I can walk you home too?”

Ken nodded.

”At least to the train station. I don’t want you to have to walk all the way back.”

”Ah, it’s fine. I’m used to it.”

So the six of them, along with the Digimon on their heads, headed to Hikari’s apartment first.

”I’ll ask the older Chosen Children about the water. I thought since we’d defeated Dragomon, it would go away, but...”

”Yeah, I think we’ll have to fix the rift, whatever that entails.”

Hikari nodded, waving one more time, before shutting the door.

”I’m glad you found them, Miyako-chan,” Ken said. “But you can’t just go disappear without telling anyone.”

”Isn’t that what you did?”

”Uh...no. I told...my parents?”

Daisuke and Miyako burst out laughing.

Ken rolled his eyes, gesturing forwards as he started to head towards the apartments.

Daisuke quickly headed over to him so he could link his arm in Ken’s again.

Ken just smiled and blushed, he didn’t think he was ever going to stop doing that.

When the five of them reached the apartment building, Miyako, Iori, and Takeru waved and said their goodbyes before disappearing into the elevator.

”Well, now it’s my turn to walk you home, Ken-kun!”

Ken blushed even more.

”I-I suppose it is. I’ll try to make the walk quick so you can head home soon.”

”Ah, it’s fine. My parents won’t care either way.”

Without a second thought, Ken grabbed his hand.

”I care about you.”

Both boys’ faces turned bright red, but neither let go of the other’s hand.

”W-Well, we should...um...right, get you to the train station.”

”Right. Yes.”

The two of them walked hand-in-hand, neither of them knowing what to say.

”Er...how’s...soccer, Daisuke?”

”Good! They moved me to a permanent position, so now I get to play all the time!”

”That’s great, Daisuke!”

Daisuke smirked.

”Why do you keep saying my name?”

”Um...uh...”

”You just like saying my name, don’t you?”

Ken tried to stop himself from smiling at how cute he was by biting his lip.

”I-I do.”

Daisuke’s eyes widened slightly.

He didn’t expect him to admit that, but then again, Ken had always been pretty open about what he felt when he wanted to be.

He wanted to kiss his beautiful face so bad, but they’d only really become friends a little while ago, and he wasn’t sure if Ken still felt the same about him.

Yeah, he admitted to liking to say his name, but that was probably something friends did, too.

”Why are you staring at me?”

Oh. Uh...

He chuckled nervously.

”I just...uh...I like you. I-I-I like looking at you, a-at your face. Y-You have a nice face.”

Ken blushed again.

”I...I have a nice face?”

Agh!! He was so obvious!

Stupid Daisuke!

”Y-Yeah...”

The two boys just looked at each other blushing for way longer than what could be considered normal for friends.

“U-Um, we...we made it to the train station.”

”...so we did.”

Ken reluctantly let go of Daisuke’s hand, though he didn’t stop looking at him.

”Alright, um...I-I’ll see you soon, Daisuke.”

”See you soon, Ken.”

Daisuke kept waving until the other boy completely disappeared from sight.

Then he sighed.

He loved him so much.

Ken and his father ate dinner while his mother switched on the TV.

”The missing high schoolers from Odaiba, Yagami Hikari and Takaishi Takeru have been found and returned to their homes.”

”Oh! Ken-chan! Your friends! They’re safe!”

Ken smiled.

”Yeah, mama. My friends are safe.”

Chapter Text

Daisuke opened his eyes.

Everything was dark.

He got up from the ground, which splashed under him.

Water?

But it didn’t look like water.

Just darkness...like everything else.

Where...

”You’re the leader of the Chosen Children, are you not?”

That was...Ken’s voice.

But...not...

The Digimon Kaiser appeared from the darkness, walking over to Daisuke.

”...Ken?”

“Answer me. Are you the leader of the Chosen Children?”

”Um...yes.”

He already knew that.

At least...Daisuke thought he did...

”Well then, so-called leader, let me ask you something. Do you know what you’re messing with?”

”Messing with?”

”I’M THE ONE WHO ASKS THE QUESTIONS HERE!!” Daisuke felt that familiar stinging pain as the whip cracked against his arm. “DO. YOU. KNOW. WHAT. YOU’RE. MESSING WITH?!”

”...no.”

A smirk appeared on the Kaiser’s face.

”And do you understand how close you are to the power of darkness itself?”

I’m the one who asks the questions here.

He...he didn’t care if he got whipped. He had to figure out what he meant.

And...why Ken was...

”What do you mean by that?”

The Kaiser shot him a death glare, hitting him with the whip again, in his face.

Ken had never whipped people that often, even as the Kaiser...

”Fine. I’ll give you that one. That Ichijouji boy...that Yagami girl...they’ve already been taken by the power of darkness. And you are teetering on the edge, boy, by messing with me.”

”That Ichijouji boy?! So you’re not Ken!!”

”That’s all you got from that? Tch. You really are a stupid boy.”

Daisuke felt rage start to burn in his eyes as he processed everything he’d said.

”WHAT DO YOU MEAN KEN AND HIKARI HAVE BEEN TAKEN BY THE POWER OF DARKNESS?! WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM?!”

The ‘Kaiser’ laughed mockingly.

”Oh, I didn’t do anything to them, Daisuke. They’ve done all of this to themselves.”

”What?! Where are Ken and Hikari?! Where am I?!”

”Ken and Hikari are sleeping in their beds. They’re just fine...ish. You, on the other hand...”

”Did you capture me?! What do you wanna do?!”

”Well, I just know if the Chosen Children’s precious leader dies, they’ll lose all of that fleeting hope. Weak children. Like all humans are.”

Daisuke growled.

”Dragomon. How did you come back?! And why do you hate humans so much?”

”Well, it’s simple, my dear captive, I am superior. Humans don’t know anything about the Digital World, your beloved Ken almost destroyed it, but he didn’t truly understand the power of darkness. None of you do. That’s why it’s my job to drown both the Real and Digital world in darkness. I will rule them both.”

”What are you?! Are you even a Digimon?!”

”I am not a Digimon,” Dragomon walked over to Daisuke and whispered to him with a smirk. “I am a god.”

”Wha-”

Daisuke’s eyes shot open.

He was in a gray room. A cell.

Two Scubamon guarded the entrance.

”Hey!! Let me out of here!!”

”No can do. Master Dragomon ordered for you to be captured, and without Hikari’s light, we can’t take him down.”

”I’m not letting you capture Hikari again!! Dragomon was torturing her!!”

”He was only doing that because he knew she could defeat him. We didn’t want that. We hate him as much as you do.”

”Oh...”

Daisuke sighed, sitting back down on the cold floor.

He didn’t like the Scubamon, but they had a common enemy, so maybe they could work together?

Agh, that didn’t matter right now.

Oh...oh, Daisuke had to get back to Ken.

He knew he’d saved him from jumping off that cliff, but if Daisuke wasn’t there, would he try it again?

”KEN!!”

He grabbed the bars and tried to shake them or pull them apart, anything.

”KEN!!!”

”Shut up!! You don’t want Dragomon to hear you!”

“KEN!!!!”

He gasped for breath, sighing as approaching footsteps started to echo through the dungeon.

He had to get home.

Chapter Text

“Just as Yagami Hikari and Takaishi Takeru had been found and returned home, another high-schooler from Odaiba, Motomiya Daisuke has gone missing.”

Ken’s eyes widened.

It felt like his heart stopped.

No. No, this couldn’t be happening...

”Motomiya is in the same class as the previously missing kids, so their disappearances may be somehow linked. We’ve investigated, but we’ve found no leads so far. We’ll report when there’s more information. Now, onto the weather-”

Ken switched off the TV.

”Ken-chan...? Motomiya Daisuke, that’s...”

He swallowed.

”My best friend.”

“Oh...I...I’m so sorry, Ken-chan, I can try to look for him?”

”No. Y-You won’t find him. And this is all my fault, I don’t want you to do that.”

”All your fault? How would it be your fault?”

”M-Mama, I...I have to leave.”

”What? Where are you going?!”

”To look for Daisuke.”

”But you said-”

”I know where he is.”

”Then I should come, I don’t-”

Ken grabbed his backpack, rushed to the door and ignored his mother’s shouting.

He stumbled down the stairs and into the water.

He felt sick.

Daisuke...Daisuke...Daisuke...

”Ken-chan? We’re not going back to the Dark Ocean, are we...?”

”I’m sorry, Leafmon, we have to.”

”But I don’t want you to get hurt! What if you go missing too?”

”I won’t! Remember our promise?”

Ken froze as all the screens in the city glitched, showing nothing but static until Dragomon appeared.

His eyes widened.

”D-Dragomon.”

”Hello, citizens of Tokyo! And Chosen Children,” He smirked. “You know me as Dragomon, the god of the Dark Ocean. Now, you’re probably wondering where your precious leader is.”

He pulled Daisuke into the frame, with his hands tied up.

”DAISUKE!!”

”Everyone, please, don’t worry about me. I’m alright!”

Ken breathed a sigh of relief, though his breath hitched when Dragomon spoke again.

“Actually, I wanted to give you all the front seat to watch me kill him! And don’t worry, all of you are next.”

”NO!!!” Ken choked out. “DAISUKE!!!”

But neither of them could hear him.

”K-Ken, please, don’t blame yourse-”

Daisuke gasped sharply, followed by a cry of pain when Dragomon shoved his Forbidden Trident into his chest, before quickly pulling it out.

”DAISUKE!!!!”

It burned.

God, it burned.

But Daisuke fought back a wince, trying to apply pressure to his wound with his hands.

He wasn’t exactly taught what to do if he got stabbed.

”K-Ken-”

He coughed up blood as he collapsed in the dark room.

He couldn’t get up.

”D-Dragomon, just let me see him...please...”

He laughed.

”You think I’d do that? He could save you. No, insolent human. You will die alone.”

He walked away, leaving Daisuke on the floor.

”Agh...Ken...no...Ken...”

He coughed up blood again as black spots started to dot his vision.

”Please...Ken...Veemon...Miyako, Iori, Hikari, Takeru...”

His breaths became more infrequent and weak as he felt his own life slipping away.

”Taichi-san...Yamato-san...mom...dad...Jun...”

He never thought he’d be calling for his family, the family who didn’t care about him.

But he had to get to Ken...he had to make sure he’d be okay...

”Ken...pleas-”

He gasped for air, a cry being strangled from his throat as he tried to speak.

”Ple-”

He wheezed as his words refused to come out.

Only more blood did.

He glanced at his hand.

There was so much blood.

There was no chance he survived.

”I’m sorry, Ken.” He mouthed.

As his vision faded, he caught a glimpse of a Scubamon in the doorway.

”Help.” He tried to mouth, though he wasn’t sure if it worked.

And his tired eyes closed.

Chapter Text

Ken sat at his desk, chewing on his lip while twirling around his pencil.

He had barely spoken since...what happened to Daisuke.

He hadn’t slept either.

Leafmon was really worried, but...but he knew this was a reasonable reaction to the situation. And at least he wasn’t the Kaiser again.

”Um...Ken-chan?”

He half-expected to be screamed at and kicked...when he was the Kaiser, he hated when he interrupted his ‘studies.’

”Yeah...?”

Leafmon sighed in relief.

He just sounded like the normal Ken-chan, despite how tired he looked.

”Do you wanna go talk to the other Chosen? We should probably make a plan for Dragomon, right?”

”I’m sure they can handle it without me. Miyako-san is very smart.”

”Yeah, but...” Leafmon braced himself for conflict at his next words. “...they’re missing their leader...”

Ken didn’t respond.

He stared at the wall like it would give him answers.

”That doesn’t mean they need me.”

And he just got back to scribbling.

”Are you doing homework?”

”Yeah...I let my grades slip really bad, and if I want to at least succeed in school a little bit, and get into College, I have to study harder.”

”Do you want to succeed in school?”

Ken paused again.

”I...I want to be...a good student.”

”Okay...”

Leafmon knew he was just using it as a distraction, that was what Ken-chan used nearly everything for.

But he didn’t wanna make him any more sad.

He wished he could just help...

Leafmon yawned.

”You should go to sleep, Leafmon. I promise, I won’t try anything.”

”But I wanna stay with Ken-chan...”

Ken picked up the little Digimon, and despite his weak protests, he set him down on the bed.

”Time for sleep.”

”Time for Ken-chan to sleep too...”

”...no. But you should get sleep.”

Leafmon huffed.

Ken-chan...if he didn’t sleep for too long, he...he would die...

That wasn’t a plan, was it...?

”I don’t want Ken-chan to die...” He ended up mumbling even though he meant to just think it.

Ken’s eyes widened.

”Hey...I’m not gonna die...are you okay, Leafmon...?”

He picked up the little Digimon again, hugging him close.

”No! Cause Ken-chan’s not okay!!”

He glanced away.

”I...I’m sorry, Leafmon.”

”Nooo! Don’t apologize!”

”...okay. I’m...I...”

”I don’t want Ken-chan to die...”

He kept saying that...

”Why do you think I’ll die...?”

”Cause humans die if they don’t sleep!!”

”...oh. Right...”

”Please sleep!!”

Ken just looked at the little Digimon, before sighing.

”Okay...let’s both sleep.”

”Yay!!”

They climbed up onto the loft bed, and snuggled under the covers.

”Nuh-night, Ken-chan...”

”Goodnight, Leafmon.”

He’d try to get to sleep.

Even if he had nightmares.

He’d figured it out before...this happened. He could do it again.

He had to sleep, for Leafmon.

So he shut his eyes.

And...he was so tired...

He’d barely even realized.

And he just fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Daisuke gasped, sitting up.

Wait...gasped...sat up...

H-He was alive!!

He winced.

Barely...alive.

”Wha...Scubamon?! Did you save me?”

The Digimon shoved his hand in front of Daisuke’s mouth.

”Shhh!! If Dragomon hears us, he’ll kill us both! You wanna get back to Ichijouji, right?”

”Yes! Y-Yes, can you get me to him?”

”I can’t leave the Dark Ocean. But I’ll get you your D-3 back.”

”S-Scubamon, I don’t know how to thank you...”

”You don’t have to. But...you could bring Hikari...?”

”No chance, man.”

He sighed, before walking away.

Daisuke was left alone again.

The room was dark...as was everything in this place.

Daisuke was bandaged, and it seemed like his wound had mostly healed!

He tried to get up.

Okay. Maybe not, because he almost fell down.

”Gah...stupid...weak...human body...”

He had to get back to Ken, no matter what.

”Here.”

Scubamon came back into the room, and handed Daisuke’s D-3 to him.

”Thank you, Scubamon.”

”You don’t have to keep thanking me, y’know. Just get out of here before you get us both killed.”

Daisuke chuckled.

”Okay, okay. Bye, then. Seeya never!”

Daisuke ran out into the hall.

Oh...he was missing his goggles.

Agh!! It didn’t matter!! He had to get to Ken.

So he ran as fast as he could.

Stupid hallways!

He eventually crashed into the icy water, sending shivers up his spine.

The salt water burned his stab wound, but he didn’t care.

He swam up, higher and higher, until he finally surfaced, gasping for air.

”Okay...let’s get back. DigiPort, open!!”

He crashed into the water again.

It was just as cold and dark.

He swam up, and looked around.

His feet couldn’t touch the ground anymore.

Right. Tamachi, get to Tamachi.

He swam to the metro station, it wasn’t completely flooded, but water spilled down the stairs.

He ran down, pushed through crowds, and stumbled into the train.

He let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.

When they reached Tamachi Station, he started running again.

To Ken’s apartment.

And he finally knocked on the door.

He waited for a moment, before his father opened the door.

”...Motomiya Daisuke? Didn’t you...die?”

”I...uh...I came back to life! I’m a zombie, wooOOOOooo!!”

He just looked at him like he was trying to figure out if he was joking.

”Um...I need to see Ken. Please.”

”Well, some of his other friends have come to visit, but he turned them all away.”

”How long have you guys thought I was dead?!”

”About a month...”

”A MONTH?! Please, please let me see him, Mr. Ichijouji!!”

He sighed.

”Well...okay.”

Daisuke slipped off his shoes and ran over to Ken’s bedroom door.

”Ken!! It’s Daisuke!! You can come out now!!”

Silence.

Then the floorboards quietly creaking as footsteps approached.

Ken unlocked the door and pulled it open.

As soon as he saw Daisuke, he gasped and his eyes widened.

”D-D-Dai...Daisuke...”

”Hi, Ken.”

”DAISUKE!!!”

He pulled him into the biggest hug ever, sobbing into his shoulder.

”Ken, I’m so sorry...”

Daisuke wrapped his arms around the other boy, running his hands through his beautiful hair.

”W-Why are you apologizing? This was all my fault...”

”Hey. None of this was your fault.”

”Daisuke, I can’t...I can’t believe that you’re really here...”

He just hugged Ken tighter, as some tears slipped from his own eyes.

”Um...D-Daisuke, I...um...you know how...we...we kissed...that one time...?”

”...yeah?”

”Can I...can I kiss you?”

Daisuke pulled away for a second, just staring at the other boy’s gorgeous blue eyes.

He didn’t know how to even get words out.

So he just moved his hands to cup Ken’s face, getting on the tips of his toes to give the taller boy a little peck, though he fell back down soon after.

So Ken wrapped his arms around Daisuke’s neck, bending down to kiss him deeply.

It was the best kiss ever.

Well, he’d only ever had two.

But this one was definitely the best kiss he’d ever have.

Daisuke’s lips still tasted like candy.

He knew what it meant now.

Daisuke was sweet.

He didn’t care how sappy that was, it was true.

The two boys pulled away for just a second.

”Ken, I love you. I still love you.”

”I-I love you too, Daisuke.”

And they kissed again.

Ken didn’t realize how much he really loved Daisuke until he thought he was gone.

Now he was never going to let himself forget.

Daisuke started to grin as they adjusted their heads a bit, and kissed again.

Every kiss with Ken felt like it would last forever, and yet it still wasn’t enough.

Then the two boys reluctantly pulled away.

And Ken giggled as Daisuke gave him little pecks all around his face.

Then they placed their noses to each other’s, just looking at each other’s eyes.

”M-Motomiya Daisuke, you gorgeous, amazing, brave boy, will you be my boyfriend?”

”OF COURSE!!”

He kissed him again, basically jumping into his arms and almost knocking them both down.

Both boys giggled, as they just pulled each other’s faces closer.

Ken was kissing Motomiya Daisuke.

Daisuke was kissing Ichijouji Ken.

They were both the luckiest boys in the world.

Oh, and they were boyfriends now...

It was like a dream.

Daisuke couldn’t wait to flex on Jun about how he got a cute boyfriend before she did.

Ken hoped Osamu would be proud.

”God, I love you so much, Ken.”

”I love you so much, Daisuke.”

They were sure they’d bore their friends with how much they told each other that from now on.

But they didn’t care.

They were back together. They could just hold each other.

And they were never letting go.

Chapter Text

Ken gently tended to Daisuke’s wound, switching out the bandage and washing it in cold water to make sure it didn’t get infected.

He was the only one he trusted to do it.

His wound was healing well, considering everything, though it would definitely leave a huge scar that he wasn’t sure how to explain to his family.

He didn’t want to tell them about the Digimon.

Maybe the others would be better at coming up with an excuse. Maybe Iori, he’s kinda good at that when he wants to be.

”There,” Ken pulled Daisuke’s shirt back down, concealing the bandage. “Make sure to rest and don’t beat yourself up.”

”When did you become a doctor?”

Daisuke rested his head in Ken’s lap, and he laughed.

”I didn’t. I just know my boyfriend.”

Boyfriend.

He still couldn’t believe it.

He had a boyfriend.

And not just any boyfriend, the best boyfriend in the whole universe.

”I’ll go ask my parents if you can stay the night. If you end up having to explain the scar to your parents, you shouldn’t be tired while doing it.”

Daisuke nodded, and they both got up.

Their faces both turned red when their eyes met.

The butterflies hadn’t left, even though they were really dating now.

That just made them love each other even more.

”And Miyako-chan messaged me, Koushiro-san is meeting with all of us at his house tomorrow to figure out our game plan.”

”Alright.”

The two of them headed out into the living room, it was still the same familiar house as always.

Though, Ken’s parents were talking. It sounded serious.

”Mama? Papa? Can my...can my...”

He fidgeted with his fingers.

Why was it so hard to say?

The two of them just looked at him patiently.

”Can my...my boyfriend sleep over?”

Both their eyes widened.

”Your boyfriend?”

Ken nodded shyly, and Daisuke wrapped his arm around him, pulling him close.

”I’m his boyfriend.”

Ken’s parents just looked at them for a few more moments, as Daisuke grinned like he wasn’t worried at all.

He probably wasn’t.

Ken wished he was as fearless as Daisuke.

”Oh, Ken-chan, that’s wonderful!!” His mother’s voice finally broke the silence.

Ken looked up from the ground with surprise.

”Yeah!” His father smiled. “He seems like such a nice boy. We’d be so happy to have him over.”

Ken’s face lit up.

”T-Thank you, mama! Thank you, papa!”

He ran over to them and they pulled him into a hug.

His mother gestured for Daisuke to come.

So he gladly joined the hug.

”Take good care of our Ken, Daisuke-kun.”

“I will, Mr. Ichijouji, I promise.”

Once they all pulled away, his mother clapped her hands.

”Well, It’s been a big day for you boys, hasn’t it?”

They both nodded.

”I can get out the video games, and I can order some pizza?”

”That sounds great, Mrs. Ichijouji!!”

She smiled, and went to go find the video games.

Ken’s father turned back to the boys with a serious look.

”Now, can you explain to me what that thing was on the TV? And where you keep disappearing to?”

”Oh...um...”

”I know you two have been doing something dangerous, even if I don’t understand just what. And you don’t have to tell me right now. But know you can tell me.”

Ken and Daisuke just thought for a moment.

”Well, it’s a bit of a long story...but soon. I’ll tell you soon.”

”Okay. Now, you two can go get changed into pajamas, and I’ll order the pizza.”

”Okay, papa.”

The two of them headed to Ken’s room.

Tonight was going to be fun.

Just goofing off with Daisuke.

That was all he needed.

Ken’s mother opened up the door.

”Boys? Pizza’s he-”

The two of them were sharing Daisuke’s sleeping bag (which was difficult as it was barely big enough for one of them), snuggling close with Ken’s head on Daisuke’s chest, feeling his heartbeat.

Ken’s mother smiled.

”Goodnight, Ken-chan, Daisuke-kun.”

And she softly shut the door.

Chapter Text

“Okay.”

Everyone sat in a circle on the floor, Ken and Daisuke sitting the closest to each other, though Miyako and Hikari were a close second.

”So, this is Dragomon.”

Koushiro turned his laptop to the younger Chosen Children, a picture of the Digimon on it.

”He’s a Perfect-Level Virus type Digimon who lives deep in the Dark Ocean. His attacks are Thousand Whips, Tentacle Flapping, and Forbidden Trident. Any questions?”

Daisuke nodded.

”When Dragomon captured me, I had...a dream, maybe? But it was probably real. He said he wasn’t a Digimon. That he was better than both Digimon and humans because he was a god. Is that true?”

”Hm...I’m not sure. He definitely acts like a god to the Scubamon, they have to follow his every order or he kills them.” Koushiro answered.

Ken looked down at the ground, twisting his hands in his lap.

Daisuke grabbed his hand, and gave him a look that he hoped conveyed exactly, ‘You’re not like that anymore.’

Ken gave him a small smile in return.

”And he sure seems to have the power of a god,” Takeru added. “With everything he’s already accomplished.”

”He has no power. He has control.” Ken said in a low voice.

”What do you mean?” Daisuke asked.

It sounded like Ken was about to start to spiral and hate himself again, but Daisuke was there. And he knew he could pull him back.

”All his power comes from his army, the Scubamon. Without them, he’s just like any Perfect-Level Digimon. Control is the most valuable tool if you’re like that, and you’re nothing without it.”

”Thank you for sharing that, Ichijouji-kun.”

He nodded to the older boy.

“So you’re saying we just have to separate him from the Scubamon?”

”Exactly. Take away his control, and we can defeat him, I’m sure.”

Daisuke smiled.

Ken was so smart.

He didn’t care if he didn’t see it anymore, Daisuke did, and Ken would always be his favorite genius.

“Then how can we get him to come to us?” Miyako prompted.

”He still thinks I’m dead in his castle,” Daisuke said, squeezing Ken’s hand tighter when he flinched. “If he sees I’m alive, he’ll have to come to the Real World. And we’ll be ready for him.”

”What do we do, just scream at the top of our lungs that you’re alive?”

”Mm...maybe.”

”I might be able to transmit a signal to everyone through the radio. I’m not sure if Dragomon will hear it, but it’s worth a shot.” Miyako grinned.

”That’s a great idea, Inoue.”

Miyako smiled at Koushiro’s praise.

“Thanks, Koushiro-san.”

He nodded.

“Well,” Takeru punched his palm. “Let’s do this.”

Everyone nodded.

”Chosen Children,” Miyako started.

”Let’s roll!!” Everyone finished, all placing their hands together, before throwing them up in the air.

Then everyone got ready.

Miyako grabbed the radio from her family’s store, twisting the antenna.

”Transmitting.”

It beeped for a few seconds, before it stopped.

”This is Inoue Miyako, a high-schooler from Takaishi Takeru, Yagami Hikari, and Motomiya Daisuke’s class in Odaiba. We’re currently fighting a big enemy, Dragomon. And we need to get this news to him. Dragomon, Motomiya Daisuke is alive. Come, fight us. You’re nothing without your army. And we’re ready for you.”

The radio turned back to static, and she sighed.

”Go, Chosen Children.”

Everyone gathered in Hikarigaoka, all looking at the shadow slowly approaching.

The water had lowered for the first time since it appeared, now only reaching halfway up their shoes.

Clearing out a battlefield.

Daisuke and his friends pushed through the crowds. This was it.

As they skidded to a stop, Dragomon stopped in front of them.

He towered over the children, being almost as tall as the buildings.

”CHOSEN CHILDREN!! THIS WORLD IS MINE. YOU WILL REGRET MESSING WITH ME.”

”No,” Ken said firmly. “This world is not yours. It was never yours. So snap out of it. You could never have won.”

He imagined himself as the Digimon Kaiser standing in front of him as he said that.

He was angry.

But Ken didn’t care.

”I know this. I know you. You won’t be ruling any worlds. And don’t you even think about hurting my boyfriend again.”

”YOU PATHETIC HUMAN. YOU THINK YOU KNOW ME?! YOU THINK YOU CAN TELL ME WHAT TO DO?!”

”Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

He growled.

”THOUSAND WHIPS!!”

Whips.

Whip.

His whip.

He could let it hit him.

But he jumped out of the way.

The Digimon all quickly evolved and jumped into battle.

XVeemon threw punches at Dragomon, but he blocked them all with punches of his own.

Shurimon hit him in the arm with a shuriken, though he barely reacted.

”Sanctuary Bind!”

Nefertimon and Pegasusmon flew around Dragomon, tying him up.

”YOU THINK THAT’LL STOP ME?!”

”As a matter of fact, I think it does.” Takeru said.

”X-Laser!!”

XVeemon’s laser hit Dragomon, and he winced, though he wasn’t very badly hurt.

”STUPID, INSOLENT HUMANS!! YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW THE EXTENT OF MY POWER.”

The children just glared at him.

Whatever was next, they were prepared for it.

”SCUBAMON!! RAISE THE OCEANS!!”

The illusion of the inky black water of the Dark Ocean started to rise, they could still breathe and walk normally, but it had to be doing something.

And as the water rose above their heads, suddenly they felt...hopeless.

”The...Dark Ocean...”

They fell to their knees.

They all felt like they could just break down sobbing.

Why?

What...what were they doing before...?

Dragomon laughed loudly.

”SO EASY TO MANIPULATE. EVEN YOU,” He pointed to Daisuke. “THE SO-CALLED FEARLESS LEADER. LOOK AT YOU NOW.”

He looked down at the ground, his eyes cold. Like you could almost see how numb he felt.

”Ken...he...I wasn’t there to save him...”

That one thing echoed in his mind.

His deepest, darkest fear.

The one he’d been trying to hide.

”Daisuke,” Veemon frantically shook his partner, trying to get at least a reaction out of him. “Daisuke! Daisuke!!”

Nothing.

”Ken-chan...”

”I’m the Digimon Kaiser...Wormmon is dead because of me...”

”I’m right here!! I’m fine!!”

Dragomon laughed again.

”WEAK HUMANS. PETULANT HUMANS. THIS IS THE PRICE YOU PAY FOR DEFYING ME.”

The Chosen Children sighed, all lying down in the shallow water like they’d just given up.

They would sink...they would be taken and drown in the Dark Ocean...

There was nothing they could do about it.

As the color faded from their faces, and they started to glitch away, a loud noise startled them out of it.

A high-pitched, drawn-out, piercing sound.

A whistle.

”WAKE UP!!!”

And they all did.

The light returned to their eyes as they turned to the boy standing up on the concrete bridge over the street.

”Taichi-san!!”

Chapter Text

Taichi and Agumon ran down to the Chosen Children quickly, stopping in front of Dragomon to glare at him.

”Our whistle.” Hikari said with a smile.

Taichi turned to her, and nodded.

The younger kids got up from the street, with the fire in their eyes reignited.

”Motomiya-kun...what happened to your goggles?”

Daisuke chuckled nervously.

”Uh...well, I’m honestly not sure.”

”Well, we’ll have to get you a new pair, huh? Can’t have a guy without his goggles.”

Daisuke smiled, nodding.

Taichi turned to Ken, and he wanted to run away.

He hadn’t seen him since he captured his Digimon and tortured him.

Taichi walked over and patted him on the shoulder.

He just blinked for a second.

Then he looked up at the older boy with widened eyes.

”Ichijouji-kun. I’m glad you’re alright.”

”You’re...you’re glad I’m alright...?”

He nodded.

”Daisuke told me what happened when you first returned to the Digital World. He was really worried about you.”

”...oh.”

”You don’t have to say or do anything, just know me and the other older Chosen are all happy you’re safe.”

Tears formed in his eyes.

”Thank you, Yagami-san.”

He patted Ken on the shoulder again.

”Now, Hikari, tell me next time you plan to fight a malevolent god from the place of your nightmares.”

She chuckled a bit, before smiling.

”I will, big brother. I’m sorry.”

”No apologies needed. Now, c’mon. Let’s beat this guy.”

”Yeah!!”

All their Digimon evolved, charging into battle.

”Mega Flame!!”

”Spiking Finish!!”

”X-Laser!!”

Punches were thrown back and forth, knocking Dragomon back into a building.

”HOW DO YOU STILL HAVE HOPE?! I ALMOST KILLED YOUR LEADER!! I SHOWED YOU ALL YOUR DEEPEST FEARS!!”

”We’ll always have hope, Dragomon,” Takeru said. “And there’s nothing you can do about that.”

”Go, XVeemon!!”

”Stingmon!!”

The two Digimon nodded to each other, flying away from Dragomon.

”X-LASER!!”

”SPIKING FINISH!!”

They attacked at the same time, piercing Dragomon for the second time.

He just glared at them as he slowly digitized and disintegrated.

The water in the streets finally drained, leaving the city pretty much exactly back to normal again.

”I...we did it.” Daisuke muttered.

”WE DID IT!!” Surprisingly, Ken was the one to cheerfully exclaim that, pulling the other kids into a group hug.

”Hell yeah we did!!” Miyako cheered.

”Did we...really kill him?” Iori asked, glancing back at where Dragomon was.

”We had to,” Takeru said softly, placing his hand on the younger boy’s shoulder. “He tried to kill Daisuke, and he tortured Hikari and me.”

”Yeah...you’re right, Takeru-san, it’s still just...confusing...”

”Yeah. I get that.”

He hugged Iori, and tousled his hair, as he always did.

”I say we all have a celebratory picnic,” Hikari suggested. “Like when we all first gathered as a team.”

Miyako smiled.

”I’d love that.”

Everyone agreed, and Hikari turned to Taichi.

”You wanna come, Taichi? You can invite everyone, and we can all hang out together!”

”Yeah! Definitely. I’ll message them.”

Taichi walked away for a small second, and the Chosen Children just smiled at each other.

After a few minutes, Taichi ran back over.

”They’ll meet us at the same spot as you guys’ last picnic. Even Mimi-chan’s coming!”

”Mimi-san!!” Miyako threw her hands up in the air. “Let’s go, we don’t wanna keep her waiting!”

Taichi chuckled, and Hikari got out her laptop and held up her D-3.

”DigiPort, open!!”

The Chosen Children walked through the forest, leaves and twigs crunching under their feet.

”Do you guys remember the first picnic we had here?” Miyako asked, and Ken nodded.

”Hopefully there will be less fighting this time.”

Everyone chuckled.

”Oh, uh...I forgot to mention, in the battle, Ken, you called Daisuke...your boyfriend?” Miyako walked up next to Ken and grinned.

”O-Oh, um...”

A blush spread across his face, as he chuckled nervously.

”Yeah...we’re dating now.”

Everyone started talking loudly over each other, congratulating them and cheering.

Daisuke and Ken could only smile as big as possible.

”Guys, thank you so much.”

”Of course, you two! That means you’re the first of us to get significant others.”

Hikari nodded.

”I thought Miyako would certainly get a cute girlfriend before anyone else even thought about dating.”

Now Miyako was the one blushing.

”Uh, yeah...well, I guess since we’re doing this now...yeah. I’m lesbian.”

Everyone started congratulating her now, and Hikari pulled her into a big hug.

”That’s awesome, Miyako.” Ken smiled.

She smiled back.

”I think she could definitely get a girlfriend.” Daisuke muttered, glancing at Hikari, and Ken playfully elbowed him, rolling his eyes.

Daisuke guessed he’d picked up on the whole Miyako and Hikari thing too, he was the best at reading people, after all.

”Well, I...I hope so.” Miyako chuckled.

The seven of them, along with their respective Digimon finally reached the familiar clearing in the woods.

The other older Chosen Children were already there, setting up a picnic blanket and each setting down some food.

”Hi everyone!!” Miyako waved excitedly, and Mimi waved back.

”Miyako-chan! Everyone, come sit down!”

They all did, their Digimon sitting in their laps and already grabbing a bunch of food from the blanket.

”Cheers to defeating Dragomon!” Mimi said, and everyone raised up their glasses.

”I can’t believe it’s been so long since we were exploring this place. It still only feels like yesterday.” Sora muttered, looking around.

”Yeah. It’s a pretty nice place when...it’s safe.” Ken smiled.

He wanted to try his best to make up for everything to the older children, so he wanted to start with just...saying things. That was a good start.

Jou nodded.

Oh, he remembered him!

”Kido-san, I...I just wanted to thank you for helping with my head that one time.”

Jou chuckled.

”No problem. I’m studying to be a doctor anyway, so it’s good to get some practice.”

Ken hummed in agreement.

Yamato glanced away, before looking at Ken.

”Ichijouji, I heard what happened. I just want you to know, if you’d like to come to me for advice, you feel free to.”

”Daisuke!” Ken turned to his boyfriend with mild annoyance. “Did you tell everyone what happened?”

“Oh, no, Taichi told me. We kinda tell each other everything.”

”Oh. Sorry, Daisuke.”

He smiled and shook his head.

”I understand. I won’t tell anyone else.”

Ken smiled back at him, before smiling at Yamato.

”Thank you so much, Ishida-san. I think I might do that.”

Daisuke grinned, placing his hand on Ken’s.

”Well, it’s kinda cold here, huh?”

Takeru chuckled.

”Yeah, kinda. It’s almost fall.”

”Do you want my jacket, Ken?”

He smirked teasingly.

”You just said that so you could give me your jacket.”

”Well, maybe, but it’d look so cute on you! And I wanna do cute boyfriend things!”

Ken laughed.

”Okay. Yeah, I’m cold too.”

”Here!”

Daisuke took off his jacket and draped it over Ken’s shoulders.

Daisuke was right, it looked adorable on him.

Maybe he should borrow it more often.

”Well,” Iori grabbed a roll of sushi that Miyako brought from the store. “This was really nice!”

”Yeah! We should do this more often!” Sora agreed.

The Chosen Children looked up at the sky, which was starting to turn a hue of pinkish orange, with maybe a hint of yellow.

”Agh, we should probably head back home.”

”Aw...well, I hope we’ll see you guys again soon!” Miyako grinned, and Koushiro nodded.

The children packed up the blanket and grabbed the leftover food, their Digimon hopping into their backpacks.

”Here’s your jacket back, Daisuke.”

Ken wrapped the jacket back around Daisuke, he looked really different without his signature goggles and flame jacket.

”Aww...you should keep it!”

”I can’t take it home with me, it’s Digital, remember?”

”Oh, yeah.”

”But maybe I can borrow some of your other clothes.” Ken gave Daisuke a little peck on the cheek, and his face turned bright red.

”Yeah, maybe. I’ll see if I have any jackets at home.” Daisuke’s words were mumbly, still not out of the giddy haze of the kiss yet.

Ken chuckled.

”If just kissing you does this, I don’t know how I lost so badly when I was the Digimon Kaiser.”

Daisuke just looked at him with surprise for a moment, before smiling.

He was able to joke about the Kaiser.

That made Daisuke so glad.

”Yeah, I’m not sure. Maybe you couldn’t handle my handsomeness either.”

Ken playfully shoved him, and Daisuke playfully shoved him back.

The two of them just smiled at each other.

”Well, we should get home now. See you tomorrow, babe.”

Babe.

Daisuke called him babe.

Now he was the blushing mess.

”S-See you tomorrow, babe.”

Daisuke gave Ken a little peck, on his lips this time, before he opened up the portal and they all headed home.

Chapter Text

Daisuke poured himself a bowl of cereal.

He twirled around the spoon, before sighing.

His parents didn’t exactly react well to the Digimon.

He’d ended up having to tell them last night, and they just screamed at him.

They told him not to be so stupid and reckless.

Stupid.

That was their favorite thing to say.

And Veemon...they freaked out seeing him.

Oh, and the worst thing?

They didn’t like Ken now.

He’d told them all about their adventures, including...the Digimon Kaiser.

They said he didn’t need a bad influence if he was already such an idiot on his own.

Bad influence.

He scoffed.

Ken was a better influence than they had ever been.

“Hey. You’re blocking the cabinet.”

He turned to his sister and rolled his eyes, stepping out of the way.

He just twirled around his spoon more as she poured herself some cereal and set it down on the counter next to his.

They were both silent, the only sound being the crunching of Jun’s cereal.

”So, you got captured by some evil overlord who tried to kill you.”

He scoffed.

”I already got a lecture from mom and dad, I don’t need one from you.”

”I just wanted to say I was worried about you. And I think Veemon seems cool.”

He snapped his head towards her with widened eyes.

”You...really?” He spluttered.

”Mhm. And your boyfriend’s pretty cute. I always thought you two would end up together.” She grinned confidently, and Daisuke smiled.

”Thank you, Jun.”

”You’re welcome, Daisuke.”

He took a bite of his cereal, before taking a break to walk to his bedroom.

”Hey. Demiveemon, come out.”

”But your sister’s there!”

”Yeah. She said you seem cool.”

The Digimon’s face lit up, and he ran out into the kitchen.

”Jun, here’s Demiveemon!”

He waved enthusiastically for dramatic effect, and she chuckled.

”Can I pet him?”

”Yeah!” Demiveemon answered, and she gently pet him on the head.

“Make sure not to do anything too dangerous, Daisuke.”

”I can’t make any promises. But I’ll try my best.”

She nodded, heading into her room to get changed out of her pajamas.

Daisuke headed back into his room too, holding Demiveemon.

And he shut the door.

As he went to find out an outfit with a jacket, they were both startled by a beep from his D-3.

He ran over and grabbed it. It was a message from Ken.

‘Good morning, Dai. ❤️’

He smiled warmly.

He just wanted to tell him good morning. No danger or anything.

He typed back a message.

‘Morning, baby! 💕’

He hoped he made Ken blush all across his face with that.

He loved calling Ken cute pet names.

He still couldn’t believe they were actually boyfriends.

It happened so fast.

He’d have to take him out on a date sometime soon.

Or maybe right now!

He didn’t have any plans for today.

’Hey Ken, can I take you on a little date?’

He waited anxiously as Ken typed out his message.

’I’d love that. Where?’

Uhhh...

He chuckled nervously.

’Maybe to a restaurant?’

’Sounds good! I’ll meet you at the train station?’

’Yeah!’

He grinned.

He didn’t care what his parents said, Ken was amazing.

He quickly hopped out of his bed and went back to his closet.

Hm...he’d have to pick something really cute, or fancy, maybe.

He didn’t really have any suits. He didn’t go to formal events much, and he didn’t think they looked good on him anyway.

Ken would look gorgeous in a suit, he knew it.

Hm...

After a few more moments, he picked out a plain cream shirt, a dark blue jacket, and black cargo pants.

That was good, right?

Yeah. Maybe he was overthinking this. And he never overthought anything.

Except when it came to Ken.

Then he overthought EVERYTHING.

It was tiring, he had no idea how Ken did it.

”Does this look good, Demiveemon?” He asked after changing into his new outfit.

”Great, Daisuke!”

He smiled.

”Thanks, buddy. Now, let’s hurry! We don’t wanna keep Ken and Leafmon waiting!”

He held out his backpack and Demiveemon hopped in.

”Alright!! Let’s do this!”

He ran out of his room to find Jun watching TV.

”Bye, Jun! I’m off on my first date!!”

”Good luck!”

She winked at him and he chuckled, before heading outside.

He couldn’t wait to get there.

He couldn’t wait to see Ken.

He wanted to see him even more with every passing second.

When he finally reached the train station, Ken looked even more gorgeous than he expected.

”Daisuke!!”

He ran to him and wrapped his arms around him, giving him a little kiss.

”Hey, handsome. How did you get even cuter?”

He blushed, and shyly looked away, before turning back to Daisuke.

”C’mon, you’re the cute one.”

He just looked at Daisuke. Ken was so lucky.

When his gaze drifted to Daisuke’s jacket, he snorted.

”You brought that for me to steal, huh?”

He chuckled.

”You read my mind.”

”Well, I’ll gladly take it, because it actually is kind of cold.”

Daisuke smiled, handing the jacket to Ken, who slipped it on.

Daisuke was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, so he wouldn’t get too cold.

”Well, the other Chosen and I went to this restaurant in the Digital World this one time, Digitamamon’s.”

Ken nodded.

”I remember that.”

”So I’ll take you there!”

Ken smiled warmly.

”Alright.”

Daisuke led his boyfriend through the trees, until they arrived at the restaurant.

”Hey Digitamamon!”

The Digimon turned to them, and he smiled.

Well, with his eyes. He...didn’t really have a mouth.

”Daisuke, from the Chosen Children! What a surprise! And-”

He paused as he glanced over at Ken.

They just stared at each other for a moment.

Please don’t recognize him as the Kaiser...

No...with how long he’d been staring at him, he had to.

So Ken just looked down sadly, letting his hair fall into his face.

To hide his stupid, horrible face.

His stupid, horrible self.

Great, Daisuke thought. He couldn’t take his eyes off Ken.

He was spiraling again. This date was a bad idea...

”You’re not welcome here.”

“...I understand. I’ll le-”

Daisuke grabbed his hand, pulling him back.

”Digitamamon, I know he’s done some bad things in the past, but he’s made up for it. And I love him.”

Digitamamon looked at the boy. He was determined. And he had so much love in his eyes.

Like Taichi.

He smiled.

”I’m sorry. You should stay, both of you.”

Ken looked at him in surprise.

”You don’t have to-”

Digitamamon shook his head.

”I get it. I’ve done some bad things in the past too. Really. I want you to stay.”

He smiled.

”Thank you.”

Daisuke grabbed Ken’s hand, pulling him over to one of the booths.

They sat down next to each other, and Daisuke picked up the menu.

”Alright! What do you want?”

”Hm...”

He looked over the menu.

”The chicken curry looks good!”

”Yeah! I think the Chinese soup looks pretty good too.”

Ken nodded.

”This is a nice place, Daisuke!”

”Thanks!”

Veemon hopped up and down.

”When’s the food gonna come, Daisuke? I’m starving!”

The two boys chuckled.

”Well, it might take a bit,” Ken gently pet the little Digimon. “First we have to order, then they have to cook that order, and then bring it to us.”

Veemon sighed.

”Wormmon, let’s go run around outside!”

”I’m not very good at running.”

”Oh. Well, let’s play a game! Let’s play soccer like Daisuke and Ken!”

”I’m not very good at kicking either.”

Veemon sighed.

”How about you two can draw on the menu? After we order.”

Daisuke looked around in his bag, before pulling out some pens for school.

”Yay!! I’m gonna draw Daisuke!”

”I’ll draw Ken-chan!”

The two boys smiled.

Veemon and Wormmon were just like two little kids.

It made them think a bit about whether they wanted kids when they grew up.

Both of them did.

Daisuke because he wanted to be a better parent than his were, to support his kid and praise them and always love them.

Ken because he wanted to give that little kid the best life ever, and make sure they never went down the path of evil like he did.

Ultimately, they both just wanted to be the person the younger version of them needed.

”Hello! I’m Tapirmon, what’s your order?”

The four of them turned to the Digimon, and Daisuke showed him the menu.

”I’ll have the Chinese soup, and Ken’ll have the chicken curry.”

”Okay!”

Tapirmon disappeared into the kitchen, and Daisuke set down the menu in front of Veemon and Wormmon.

”Doodle away.”

”Yayy!!”

They both got to drawing, while Daisuke and Ken just laid back and enjoyed each other’s company.

Ken scooted closer to Daisuke, and he wrapped his arm around him so he could lay on his shoulder.

”Still cold?”

”Mm-mm. Just wanted to hug you.”

Daisuke blushed a bit, and smiled, using his other hand to softly comb through Ken’s long indigo hair.

Daisuke’s hair was a bit hard to comb through, and somehow it was always messy. He didn’t care, he liked his hair, but it was so calming to run his hands through Ken’s hair.

”Don’t fall asleep.”

He hummed in agreement, though he still didn’t open his eyes.

Daisuke rolled his eyes, but kept combing through Ken’s hair.

”You’re so cool, Ken.”

”You’re so cool, Daisuke.”

He just smiled.

A few moments later, Tapirmon arrived and set the food down on the table.

Daisuke softly nudged Ken, and he lifted his head, sitting back up.

”Thank you.”

Tapirmon nodded, heading back into the kitchen again.

Daisuke and Ken starting eating, making sure to share a lot with their Digimon.

”This is delicious!”

”Yeah! You picked a good place, Daisuke.”

Once they finished their food, the two boys laid back again, and their Digimon got up on the table.

”Whatcha doing?”

”Look at what we drew!”

Veemon and Wormmon held out the paper in front of the two boys.

There was Daisuke and Ken holding hands, with their Digimon next to them.

Their hearts melted.

”That’s a great drawing, you two!”

”Thanks!!”

”You should keep it, Ken-chan.” Wormmon said, and Veemon and Daisuke both nodded.

”Thank you, Wormmon.”

He softly pet the little Digimon, who instantly relaxed.

It seemed like, at times, he was still instinctively tense, but it quickly faded away.

Ken felt horrible about that. The tense part.

But he felt horrible about nearly everything.

He was trying to work on that.

”So, what would you say? By Ichijouji Ken standards, how would you rate this date?”

Ken chuckled.

”A million out of ten, Daisuke. It was really nice.”

”A million?? Wow. I don’t know how I’m gonna top that.”

”Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find a way.”

Ken lied down on Daisuke’s shoulder again, and he continued his combing through his hair.

Feeling the other boy’s warmth, there was no way he could be cold, even if he didn’t have a jacket anymore.

”Thank you, Daisuke...”

”Of course, Ken.”

His eyelids fluttered closed.

Daisuke decided just to let him sleep. He’d have to wake him up eventually, but for now, he just liked being with Ken and he didn’t wanna get back home.

Even if he got to tell Jun all about it.

”I love you, baby.” He whispered, kissing Ken on the head.

The other boy didn’t respond, he’d already fallen asleep, but that was okay.

Daisuke yawned, and leaned on Ken’s head, now wrapping both his arms around him as he drifted off to sleep.

The little Digimon joined the cuddle, snuggling close to their partners, and fell asleep too.

Yeah. This was a really nice date.

Chapter Text

Daisuke groaned, being shaken awake by someone.

“It’s time to go home.”

That didn’t sound like Ken’s voice, but he was still basically asleep, so he didn’t think much of it.

He took the person’s hand, rubbing his eyes, before letting them lead him back to the Real World.

They stumbled through the portal, gah, it was bright...

And the person pushed him over to the door, causing him to hit his face a bit.

”Oww, Ken...”

He looked back, his eyes now fully open.

Ken wasn’t there.

Actually, nobody was there.

”...what?”

He rubbed his eyes again, he was just tired.

So he headed into his house, and just collapsed onto his bed, easily falling asleep again.

He was woken up by the bright light of the sun through the window.

He groaned and put his arm over his eyes.

”Morning, Daisukeeee~!”

He groaned again.

”Let me sleep, Veemon...”

”It’s Jun. Where is Veemon, anyway?”

Daisuke jumped to sit up, glancing around the room.

Veemon...?

”I...I must’ve left him in the Digital World last night...”

The weird experience with the mysterious person came to mind.

Yeah. It definitely wasn’t Ken. He knew what Ken’s hand felt like.

Who was that, then...?

They didn’t sound like any of the other Chosen, not even Wallace.

Hm...

”Well, you’d better go find him, huh? I’ll cover for you, hurry!”

”Thanks, Jun.”

He hopped out of bed, not bothering to throw on a coat, and ran to the door.

He hurried to the computer lab at school. When he arrived, some of the other Chosen were already there, staring at the computer.

”Eh? Miyako, Hikari, Takeru, Iori? And Izumi-senpai?”

”Daisuke...”

”What? Why are you all here?”

Miyako bit her lip.

She was always eager to talk, so the fact she was holding back...

”We can’t...open the gate.”

Daisuke froze.

Everything fell silent as he processed her words.

”WHAT?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE CAN’T OPEN THE GATE?! I LEFT VEEMON THERE!!”

Hikari nodded, and Miyako pulled her close as she spoke.

”Tailmon...she was there when I went to bed, and then she just...wasn’t.”

”We have to find them!!”

“But how...?”

”Maybe Ken can open the portal! I’ll message him!!”

Daisuke pulled out his D-3, but his heart sank when he saw the most recent message.

’Daisuke, have you seen Wormmon? I can’t find him anywhere, and I thought he might be at your house.’

You couldn’t tell from how calmly the message was typed, but Daisuke could basically hear him panicking.

’All the Digimon are missing...Come to our school, the computer room, we’ll chat.’

He sighed and put his D-3 back into his pocket.

”What now...? We can’t hack into the Digital World, can we?”

”Not that I know of...but we might be able to. I’ll see if I can link the computer to the D-3 or D-Terminal, that could give it a stronger connection.”

Koushiro grabbed a cable, and plugged it into the computer, connecting it to the D-3 as well.

The Gate seemed to be opening for a second, before it shut down again.

”Agh! It’s the school’s security system, it thinks we’re trying to hack into the PC.”

Daisuke groaned and punched the table.

”We can defeat a Digimon ocean god thing, but we can’t hack into a computer?!”

”We’re not trying to hack into it, we’re trying to strengthen the connection between this world and the Digital World.”

”Oh, my mistake.”

“I can try this on the computer at my house.” Iori suggested.

”That would be a good thing to try. But it seems there’s another level of encryption entirely, the first one keeping us from opening the portal in the first place. I’m not sure how your D-3s will react to that on your computers, you might even get sent to a whole other world.”

Takeru sighed.

”Hey!!” Someone skidded to a stop in the hallway.

”Ken?”

”No, sorry. Koushiro messaged me.”

Taichi walked over, poking his head over the six other kids.

“Can’t Koushiro fix it with genius stuff?”

”He tried to strengthen the connection between the D-3 and the Digital World, but it didn’t work because there’s two separate layers of encryption.” Miyako recounted.

”What are the layers?”

”The school’s, and some other one that’s keeping us from opening the portal in the first place.”

”So somebody basically put a barrier between here and the Digital World.” Taichi muttered, glaring at the computer screen.

”Yes, exactly,” Koushiro nodded. “But who?”

They all thought for a moment, though no answers came.

”There was this person last night.” Daisuke said.

”What person?”

”Well, I’m not sure. But Ken and I fell asleep in the Digital World, and someone just woke me up and told me it was time to go home.”

”It wasn’t Ken?”

”No, I know what his voice sounds like. I was basically asleep, though, so I didn’t get a good look at them.”

”Maybe that’s who took the Digimon!”

Koushiro nodded.

”It very well could be. You don’t remember anything about this person, Motomiya-kun?”

”I remember what their voice sounded like. Kinda like Hikari’s, but a bit deeper, and like...more monotone.”

“Hm...”

They all thought for a moment again, trying to think of someone who matched that description.

Monotone...had they ever met someone who talked completely monotone?

That sounds like they’d be a zombie, or like, possessed or something.

”Were they a zombie?”

”No, Taichi.”

Hikari giggled.

”Well, with what we’ve seen, it doesn’t sound that weird!!”

The door slammed open, and a young teen boy finally ran inside.

”Ken!!”

”Hi! I’m sorry, the train was a bit late, they had to fix up the road.”

”That’s fine!”

Daisuke pulled him into the crowd of kids, and Miyako filled him in on everything.

Once she’d finished, he hummed, indicating he got all of it.

”Did you just wake up and head home yourself?”

”No...now that I think about it, someone brought me home too. They said the same thing.”

”Strange...”

All the Chosen Children just stared at the computer screen more.

”To put it bluntly, we have absolutely no idea what we’re dealing with.”

Daisuke sighed.

”...yep.”

Chapter Text

The Chosen Children sat around the room, Miyako eventually switching to pacing around instead, as Koushiro fiddled with the computer and the D-3s.

”Come on...I’ve tried everything I could think of to decode this...”

Takeru sighed, leaning back on his chair.

”You’re the smartest person we know. If you can’t figure it out...” Taichi muttered.

”Thanks for the pep talk, Taichi-san.”

”Thanks for the sarcasm, Daisuke-kun.”

Koushiro sighed.

”You’re good with computers, I’ve heard, Ichijouji-kun. Do you want to try?”

”Oh, um...I could. But I’ve never dealt with anything like this before.”

“You’ve never tried to hack through two separate layers of encryption? What a shock.” Miyako mumbled.

”Gee, everyone’s just overflowing with sarcasm today.”

Ken rolled his eyes, getting off his chair and sitting down in front of the computer.

He stared at the screen, hard, so hard.

He clenched his fists.

He bit his lip.

”I don’t...remember how...”

He sank back into the chair, throwing his head back.

”You...you don’t remember how? How did you just forget?”

”I don’t know.”

”But...people don’t just completely forget every bit of knowledge on a subject for no reason...you should’ve retained at least some small things.”

”I’m sorry, Koushiro-san, I...I don’t remember a lot of things. School’s harder, soccer’s harder...I don’t know.”

”Why would you just suddenly lose your skill in everything?”

”Koushiro-san, I don’t know!!”

”He’s told you everything he knows,” Daisuke stated. “I think we’re all just tired from sitting in this room together for the whole day.”

Koushiro nodded.

”I’m sorry, Ichijouji-kun.”

Ken shook his head.

”I know you just want answers. I do too.”

”Speaking of wanting answers...” Takeru muttered, trying to get back on track.

”Agh, right. Thanks for trying, Ichijouji-kun. I’ll try a few more things.”

Ken nodded, and Koushiro took back his spot at the computer again.

”Well, I...I should probably head back home for dinner. I don’t want my mom and grandpa to worry.”

”Oh. Yeah, It is getting late...I should head back too.” Miyako nodded.

Hikari, Takeru, and Ken all agreed, and Daisuke sighed.

”Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

”You’re not going to sleep in the computer room, are you?”

”Bold of you to assume I’ll be sleeping.”

Ken snapped his head towards him with a worried look, and Daisuke gave him a worried look back.

”Sorry. I was just joking, I’ll probably head home eventually.”

”Probably?”

”You don’t need to worry so much about me, Ken, I’ll be fine.”

”You got captured by Dragomon and I thought you were dead for a month, so I very much doubt that. If you’re staying, I’m staying too.”

Daisuke sighed.

”I’ll be glad to have your company.”

Ken smiled.

”Me too. I’ll just call my parents and let them know.”

Daisuke nodded, and Ken slipped out of the room for a second.

”Well, I’ll seeya tomorrow, everyone.”

”See you, Daisuke.”

Miyako, Iori, Takeru, and Hikari walked out of the room.

”I’ll tell mom you’re at a sleepover, Taichi.” Hikari remembered to say before she fully disappeared into the hallway.

Ken came back inside a moment later, his gaze quickly drifting to the computer. The gate was still closed.

He sat back down, with his chair backwards, so he could lean forward.

”I hope Wormmon’s okay...”

”Yeah. Veemon too...if there’s some new threat...”

Ken nodded.

Slowly, minutes turned into hours, and the two boys had switched from sitting to standing to just lying on the floor to sitting again.

And still nothing.

”We hit 5:00 AM.” Taichi said with a yawn after checking the clock in the hallway.

”You two should probably go to sleep.” Koushiro turned to the two younger boys, who were glaring at the screen with determination.

”Maybe...but we wanna be here when you fix it. So we can help our Digimon if they’re in danger...”

”At this point, I doubt we’re going to figure it out anytime soon, and you’ll have to wake up for school tomorrow anyway.”

”I guess...” Daisuke finally gave in, and Ken set up their backpacks like pillows on the floor.

”Not the most comfortable bed, but it’s better than nothing.”

Daisuke nodded, lying down next to Ken, and closing his eyes.

The floor was cold, but it didn’t really matter to him. Veemon was really what it was missing.

And same for Ken. It wasn’t the same without Wormmon...

Though their thoughts were racing, they eventually fell asleep without even noticing.

“You can’t lie.”

“Lie? I’m not lying.”

Daisuke glanced around, it kind of looked like the Dark Ocean.

”Dragomon was weak. Easily defeated by children. His ego was his downfall, ultimately. But he was right about one thing. You are dangerously close to the darkness you claim doesn’t affect you.”

”It doesn’t. And what, are you gonna tell me Ken’s getting taken by the darkness too? I don’t believe you. He’s strong.”

”Oh, he’s strong, alright. He’s healing remarkably well, it seems I couldn’t even think about trying to take him again. But you? You say you fear nothing. You say you don’t understand why your friends keep so much inside. And you don’t even realize how much you bottle up.”

”I don’t bottle up anything!”

”Then tell me, Motomiya Daisuke, if I told you Ken had been taken by the darkness, you would fall apart, wouldn’t you?”

He glanced away.

”You are afraid. You have been since that day in Primary Village.”

”I-I-”

”So, I suppose you understand now. I’m not after Ken or Hikari. I’m after you.”

”This is just a nightmare,” Daisuke clenched his fists. “You can’t do anything to me.”

”Oh, can’t I? Nightmares can be devastating.”

The indistinguishable shadow in front of him shifted to Ken, lying on the ground. Motionless....dead.

No. No, no, no.

It’s just a nightmare. It’s just a nightmare.

He stepped forward to find he didn’t step into dark water. It was hard ground, like he was standing in a canyon.

Oh...oh god...

He was here.

”M-Motomiya,” Fake Ken coughed out, weakly trying to reach out his arm. “What are you doing here...?”

It isn’t real.

Daisuke ran over.

It isn’t real.

Daisuke cradled the other boy in his arms, blood already staining his favorite jacket.

His breath was raggedy. It sounded like his lungs had collapsed.

”You idiot...I-I-I’m so sorry. I-I should’ve been there when you were younger, I could’ve stopped you from becoming the Kaiser, I-I should’ve been there that month, not just...just resting in Dragomon’s stupid castle. W-What if you’d done something to yourself while I was gone?! It would have been my fault.”

“I-I did it...I killed the Digimon Kaiser...are you proud of me, Osamu?”

Daisuke’s chest tightened as tears stung his eyes.

Ken’s glassy eyes, his colorless face, the blood dripping from his mouth, they all looked so real...

”You don’t have to kill the Digimon Kaiser for me to be proud of you.”

”I deserve to die.”

Daisuke let out a sob, pulling Ken closer.

”No, you...why...” He desperately choked out. “I’ll save you. I will always save you.”

But what if he couldn’t?

”Ken...I’ll always save you.”

”But nobody’s going to save you, Daisuke.”

Those words echoed through what became a dark void again.

Those words echoed as Ken’s body went limp, his eyes cold.

Daisuke took one look at them.

And now he was going to regret it forever.

But nobody’s going to save you, Daisuke.

He buried his face in Ken’s bloody shirt, mumbling apologies he’d never hear.

This was real.

Nobody was going to save him.

Ken, Koushiro, and Taichi woke up to quiet, broken sobs.

Everyone expected them to be from Ken.

But they weren’t.

”...Daisuke...?”

He shook the other boy, who had rolled the other direction and curled up to hold himself self-soothingly.

”Daisuke...”

He shook him harder this time.

”Daisuke!!”

The other boy finally gasped and jerked up, startling Ken, who jumped back a bit.

He was breathing in fast, panicked breaths, sweating and shivering.

”...Daisuke...did you have a nightmare?”

Daisuke gulped, like he was trying to push down the wave of guilt and fear and loneliness that had suddenly started to spill out of his eyes.

”Mm...yeah. Nothing much,” Daisuke grinned, trying to make that signature Daisuke smile which would always get him a nice Ken smile in return, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Just worried about the Digital World, y’know.”

He went to get up, before Ken pulled him back down.

”You only slept for an hour. You’re going back to bed.”

Daisuke shuddered.

Ken felt so powerless.

He didn’t know what was wrong, but Daisuke...he...he was falling apart...

That was usually Ken’s job, but he thought as he’d started to heal and take control of his life, he’d have it all figured out.

But now Daisuke...

He was breaking, and hiding it, and Ken didn’t know how to read him.

Because Daisuke never hid anything.

So he just scooted over and wrapped his arms around him, pulling him close to his chest.

”You’re safe.”

But he wasn’t safe.

And if he wasn’t safe, who could guarantee Ken was?

When Daisuke’s breaths slowed down a bit, and Ken tried to pull away, Daisuke just held him tighter.

“Please don’t let go yet. I’m not ready.” He mumbled quietly.

”Okay.”

Ken still didn’t know what was wrong, but he wanted to protect Daisuke from it, and it wasn’t like he didn’t love hugging him anyway.

So he pulled him close again, softly running his hands through his spiky hair like Daisuke had done for him.

Ken didn’t think he’d perfectly mastered the calming Daisuke-like soothing motions, but it was the thought that counted.

”Thank you.” Daisuke mumbled, even quieter this time.

”Of course, Daisuke...whenever you’re ready to tell me what’s wrong, I’ll be here.”

Ken didn’t need to know, he’d just worry, and he was so much happier now.

Daisuke would gladly give up his own happiness so Ken could be happy.

Now he was starting to sound like Ken.

With all of the guilt over things that never happened, he very well could be.

”Just do whatever makes you happy, Daisuke.”

Well...being with Ken made him happy.

So he’d do that.

But he wouldn’t tell him what was wrong.

”Okay. Let’s go back to sleep, hm?”

Daisuke started to huff in protest.

”I won’t let go.”

He relaxed a bit.

The two of them laid down, with Daisuke’s head tucked under Ken’s chin, and Ken’s arms still wrapped around him.

”Goodnight, Daisuke.”

”...night, Ken...”

Ken was still so worried.

About Wormmon, all the others’ Digimon, and Daisuke now.

But right now he just needed to sleep. That’s what Wormmon would want.

So he let his eyes flutter closed, still holding Daisuke tight.

And Daisuke reluctantly shut his eyes too.

Chapter Text

Ken opened his eyes, blinking the sleep away, to see a girl about their age messing with Daisuke’s D-3.

She couldn’t have been older than Taichi and Koushiro, at least, but he’d never seen her around the building.

And of course, the obvious concern.

”Hey. School’s not open yet.”

He expected her to be at least a little surprised at the sudden sound, but she just turned to him and glared with cold eyes.

”Then you shouldn’t be here, Ichijouji.”

That voice. A completely monotone voice.

She was that person.

”Who are you? What are you trying to do?”

”Only what he wants. I’m nothing more than a servant.”

”Who’s he?” Daisuke asked, having been woken up from the conversation.

Ken couldn’t help but feel guilty for waking him up, he knew too well how much someone needed sleep after bad nightmares.

”You’ll find out in due time.”

”Let us go back in the Digital World!! At least let us make sure our Digimon are okay!!”

”In fact, that’s what I was doing. We thought you should see us conquer your precious Digital World.”

”We can beat you!! We-”

But before Daisuke could even finish yelling, she had just disappeared in a dark haze.

”Gah...”

He sighed, lying back down.

”You seem to be back to your energetic self.” Ken smiled, and Daisuke gave him a smile in return.

Though, just like last night’s, It didn’t reach his eyes.

That kind of broke his heart.

He never should’ve mentioned it.

”...at least, if she was telling the truth, we can go back to the Digital World now.”

Daisuke nodded, smiling for real this time.

”I’m so glad.”

Ken glanced over at the window.

It wasn’t super bright, but it wasn’t dark either.

Considering how late they stayed up, they wouldn’t have gotten nearly enough sleep, and he could still feel the tiredness in his eyes, but at least they got a bit of sleep before school.

”I should head back to Tamachi. I’ll meet you back here after school?”

”Yeah! Definitely. Don’t miss school, we couldn’t have the perfect Ichijouji missing school, could we?”

Ken chuckled, and Daisuke chuckled too.

”I’ll see you soon, Daisuke.”

He planted a kiss on the other boy’s cheek, before grabbing his bag and taking off.

Daisuke just sat there for a moment, smiling wearily yet genuinely.

He glanced up at his D-3, now lying still on the desk. Hopefully that person didn’t mess up anything...

He got up and grabbed it, inspecting it from different angles.

Yeah, everything looked fine.

That was good.

He sighed and looked back at Taichi and Koushiro, who were still deep in slumber.

He didn’t wanna wake them.

It was awfully quiet in here, though. Normally Veemon was there.

He glanced over at the computer.

Sure enough, when he booted up the computer, the gate was open.

He glanced back at the door and the older Chosen.

...they would be upset.

But...he needed to go see Veemon! And the others’ Digimon!

He couldn’t wait for school to let out!

He just had to.

So he raised up his D-3.

”DigiPort open!!”

The bright blue light, as usual, sucked him inside.

Daisuke planted his feet in the grass, starting to run through the forest.

Man, he’d missed the Digital World, even if it had only been gone for a day.

It was like that saying.

But he was too focused on seeing Veemon to remember the whole thing now.

”Veemon!! Everyone!!”

When he rounded a corner through the trees, like weaving through kids in a soccer field, he froze.

Water. Slowly rising up to the cliff.

He’d know that inky black water anywhere.

He was ready to turn around and run as fast as he could back to that classroom. Suddenly it didn’t feel so bad anymore.

He couldn’t get taken by the darkness. He just couldn’t.

That wasn’t who he was!!

H-He didn’t have that many problems! He really didn’t worry about that many things...

Ken...he couldn’t leave Ken. Or Veemon. Miyako, Iori, Takeru, Hikari...

”No, no, no, no!!” He choked out as the water started to reach his heels, already chilling him to the bone.

”Daisuke!!” A voice shouted from behind him.

He gasped as little arms flung themselves around him, hugging him as tight as possible.

”Veemon!!”

He hugged the little Digimon back.

He was so happy to see him.

Both because he was worried about his best friend, and because his presence had seemed to dispel whatever dark forces were trying to take him away.

So he could stay with Veemon. Stay with Ken.

”Veemon, I’m so happy to see you...how have you been? Nobody’s tried to take over the Digital World, have they?”

”No, not yet, anyways.”

Veemon hopped out of Daisuke’s arms, and started leading him back through the forest.

”The other Digimon are over this way! Where are the other Chosen Children?”

”Uh...they’re still at school. I kinda wasn’t supposed to come yet. Someone was keeping us from the Digital World, and just let us back in, but I was supposed to wait for after school let out.”

He chuckled nervously.

”I’m just glad you’re here, Daisuke!”

Daisuke smiled.

”Me too, buddy.”

Chapter Text

“Daisuke!! Daisuke’s here!!” Wormmon announced to the other Digimon as he walked over with Veemon.

They were in the village they’d stayed in that one time. It felt like such a long time ago now.

It made sense that the Digimon would stay there. They knew it was safe.

”Hey, everyone!!” Daisuke waved, running over.

All the Digimon were gathered, even the older Chosen Children’s.

After explaining the whole situation to everyone, they all took a moment to think.

”That girl...who do you think she is?” Piyomon was the first to speak.

”I’m not sure. Since she said she was just ‘his’ servant, I’m willing to guess she’s somehow working with Dragomon.”

”But you defeated him!”

”Yeah...we did, but he’s come back once...”

He glanced away for a moment, and then his nightmare suddenly came back to him.

...all of it.

He fought back tears, as he clenched his fists.

”I had...a dream. Some dark shadow was talking to me. And he said all these things about Dragomon...he was weak, his ego was his downfall...maybe some other things...”

”So she’s not working for Dragomon.” Palmon came to that conclusion.

”No, but the person she does work for knows him, so they might be working together.” Tentomon clarified.

“This is complicated.” Daisuke muttered.

The Digimon nodded.

It was weird talking to them without the Chosen Children, but they were definitely smart.

It made him think maybe they didn’t need him as much as he thought.

Not that he meant...like, he didn’t like himself or anything, just...It was good! It was a good thing! The Digimon could defend themselves, even if...the darkness did take him.

That first day he traveled to the Digital World, he never thought it’d lead to this...

The Digital World had helped the others grow!

But now he was just...perpetually terrified.

And weak.

He was weak.

He was always fearless before, but...

”Hey! Daisuke? Er...what’s that?”

He turned to the little blue Digimon. He was pointing towards Infinity Mountain. It seemed to be...changing? Getting taller?

As it started to tower over Primary Village, it too seemed to swallow the landscape, making more space for evil plans or something.

”Oh no...” Patamon finally mumbled after the mountain stopped changing. “It’s...it’s...”

He immediately took off, flying past Daisuke’s head.

”Hey! Patamon-w-where are you going?!”

Daisuke and the other Digimon followed Patamon to the best of their abilities.

”Hey!! Wait!!”

”Can’t wait!! I have to warn Takeru!!”

”You haven’t even told us what’s wrong!!”

”Have to warn Takeru!!”

He tumbled to the ground in front of the computer, letting it pull him into the Real World.

”Patamon!!”

Daisuke sighed, holding up his D-3.

”Guess we’re all going on a little field trip to the Real World.”

Taichi and Koushiro’s jaws dropped when Patamon, followed by Daisuke and all the other Digimon jumped through the computer.

Yeah, Daisuke had left, but they thought he’d just gone to school.

Luckily for them, they’d somehow succeeded at the oldest trick in the book, pretending you were sick so you didn’t have to go to school.

The younger boys weren’t so lucky.

Because Ken didn’t sound sick enough (apparently he was terrible at voice impressions), and Daisuke had pulled enough tricks that they wouldn’t fall for that. Daisuke’s parents would never help, and Ken would have to tell his about the Digimon, so...

They were just gonna go to school and then to the Digital World.

But that didn’t exactly work out.

“Y-You went to the Digital World?? We thought you were at school! And how’d you get the gate open in the first place??”

”It’s a long story, Koushiro-san, and-”

”Gotta warn Takeru!!”

Patamon zipped past the boys and out into the hallway.

”Agh!! Patamon, wait!! If the other kids see you...agh...”

Daisuke quickly got up and ran after the little Digimon.

“Should we...follow them?”

”No. I think they can figure it out.”

Daisuke groaned, now he was gonna get in trouble for missing classes, and for bringing a flying pig hamster angel man thing into school.

”Patamonnn!!”

The little Digimon just kept flying, checking every classroom for Takeru.

”H-He’s probably in algebra right now, but-”

The Digimon swerved around a corner and flew into the Algebra classroom.

Daisuke groaned, pushing open the door and skidding to a stop.

Everyone in the classroom stared at him and Patamon, who had now completely froze, except for his wings, which were still flapping to keep him in the air.

Daisuke laughed nervously and grabbed Patamon.

”This is just my...talking flying toy!! He got kinda...out of control, and I had to chase him through the hallway.”

”Motomiya, is it?”

He nodded.

”Keep this ‘talking flying toy’ in your backpack next time if you absolutely must bring it.”

He nodded again.

”I will. Sorry again for the trouble.”

Takeru has just been watching with a worried and surprised expression the whole time.

”Meet us in the computer room later.” Daisuke mouthed, he hoped as clearly annunciated as possible.

Then he ran back to said computer room.

”Agh! Nooo!! I have to warn Takeru!”

”Whatever that mountain is, it doesn’t seem like it’s about to blow up in five seconds. I’m sure you have time, and I don’t want Takeru to fail his class cause of me.”

Patamon sighed, jumping down to join the crowd of Digimon.

“Now, care to explain how the gate reopened?” Koushiro asked.

”Yeah. Of course, Koushiro-san.”

Daisuke sat down in front of the other boys, and started talking.

“Patamon!!” Takeru shouted, almost tripping and collapsing into the room.

”Takeru!!” Patamon shouted with equal enthusiasm, flying into the boy’s arms.

”Hey, Patamon! Now, Daisuke...what happened?”

”I-It’s Infinity Mountain,” Patamon said shakily. “Devimon’s back.”

Takeru’s eyes widened in horror.

Chapter Text

The Chosen Children ran back to Primary Village, guided by Patamon.

”Was he behind everything?” Hikari asked.

”I don’t know.” Takeru answered with a sigh.

Everyone stopped at the cliff Daisuke was standing on earlier, and looked at the tall mountain.

”...oh...” Was all Takeru said.

He stumbled backwards, but Hikari grabbed his arm and gave him a look of reassurance.

Miyako tried not to feel jealous. They were all friends, after all, and it wasn’t like Hikari ever reciprocated her feelings anyway.

And there was a much bigger threat than relationship drama.

”I’m gonna go up there and give him a piece of my mind.” Daisuke declared.

Though, not with as much confidence or enthusiasm as he would’ve said that with before.

Ken noticed that.

”No, don’t do that!” Iori grabbed him, pulling him back.

Part of him was glad they wouldn’t let him go rushing up there. Devimon was probably the shadow from his nightmare.

The one who...

”Let’s go together,” Ken placed his hand on Daisuke’s shoulder. “We just don’t want you running into danger alone.”

”...okay.”

To be honest, he didn’t want himself running into danger alone either.

Agh...

He...he didn’t deserve the Digimental of Courage anymore...

“Let’s go.” Hikari said softly, taking Takeru’s hand. He just nodded.

They headed down the slope, making their way over to Primary Village.

The mountain towered over everything even more now, especially them.

”Hey! Have any of you seen Devimon?” Miyako asked the little Digimon.

”Mm-mm.”

”Oh. I don’t know if he’s here, guys!”

She turned to Takeru, who glanced up at the mountain.

”I think he might just be up there.”

”Oh. Oh yeah.” She chuckled.

Now was not really the time for chuckling, in Takeru’s mind.

He wasn’t even sure what they were about to do.

But Takeru didn’t want Patamon to fight him.

Takeru would punch him himself. He seemed pretty good at that...

”It’s not as steep over here!” Iori pointed out after scoping out the other side of the mountain.

”We should head up. Right, Daisuke?” Takeru asked.

Right now, he just needed someone to tell him what he should do. A leader.

Unfortunately for him, Daisuke wasn’t feeling much like a leader right now.

”Yeah, of course!”

He grinned confidently, before giving a considerate sad smile to Takeru.

Ah.

He’d picked up the knowledge of how to fake a smile from Ken, it seems.

’How To Pretend You’re Fine 101.’

Ken had mastered it. And Hikari. Takeru too, most of the time.

It seemed like Daisuke wasn’t that far from knowing it by heart either.

Just knowing the three of them was a masterclass in it.

”Alright then.”

The Chosen Children all hiked up the steep slope, it wasn’t enough to be too steep to walk, but enough to absolutely exhaust them.

Luckily, despite how tall it had seemed, as a mountain, it really wasn’t that tall.

Devimon had to step up his game if he thought a silly mountain would stop them.

”We’re here.” Miyako muttered in between huffs and puffs.

The kids waited with bated breath.

Devimon had to be around here...

”Helloooo!! Devimon!” Daisuke called. That was probably a bad idea. “It’s the Chosen Children!!”

They started to walk through the thick fog, the snow reaching their shins.

Daisuke shivered.

Now this was really cold.

He looked over at Ken.

He was shivering too.

It must’ve been even worse for him, the snow was just frozen water. Like the Dark Ocean...

So he took off his jacket and wrapped it around Ken.

”D-D-Daisuke you don’t have t-to d-do that.”

”D-Don’t be silly, your lips are blue.”

”S-S-So are yours.”

He just gave Ken a weak smile.

And Ken sighed.

”I d-d-don’t see Devimon around here a-anywhere...” Miyako said in exasperation.

”Yeah...me either.”

In the fog and strong winds blowing snow into their faces, they somehow made out a building.

It was a gray steel, fortified so no blizzard could hope to damage it.

Daisuke thought It looked a lot like a fortress. Or a hospital. Really, any kind of bleak place that just felt cold.

Y’know, certain things feel warm! Like kissing Ken, playing soccer in the humid spring rain, eating ramen, cuddling up in bed with Veemon when he was sick.

But certain things felt sad and cold.

Like the Dark Ocean. The unanimous shivering between the group. The fact there weren’t even any trees on the mountain.

Daisuke’s thoughts all felt cold.

And so did this metal fortress.

”We...w-we should look I-Inside.” Ken declared.

Daisuke just nodded. That was what they should do.

So they all headed into the building, shutting the large doors loudly behind them.

Now it felt...warm?

It was just like...a normal living room.

A couch. A burning fireplace. A kitchen.

Man, Daisuke wanted to be next to that fireplace right now.

A small yelp made them all jump, and turn to the girl standing in the doorway from the hall.

It was the girl from the computer room, and the Digital World.

”Hikari-chan? Takeru-kun?” She asked.

The others whipped their heads to the mentioned children, staring at them as their jaws dropped.

”Hayama-san...?”

”Y-You know her??” Daisuke asked, mouth still gaping.

“How about...I make you all some hot chocolate?”

All the children sat on the couches, sipping their hot chocolate.

Daisuke felt warm now. But there was still that little unsettling feeling.

”So, you’re Hayama Mika. And you met Hikari-chan and Takeru-kun on the day Vamdemon took over in Odaiba?” Ken recapped.

She nodded.

”That’s where I met Hikari-chan. But Takeru-kun I met online during the first battle with Diablomon. I was sending messages during the battle.”

”You must be pretty close to be on a given name basis.” Iori noted, and Mika nodded.

”They were only a year younger than me, we were all pretty confused little kids back then. But look how much you two have grown up!”

”You sound like my mom.” Hikari laughed.

Mika rolled her eyes.

”Yeah, but really! You seem so cool now, Hikari!”

”So cool now? She was always cool.” Takeru muttered under his breath.

”Anyway, um...what was up with the whole, y’know, working with Devimon and messing with the Digital World stuff?” Miyako finally asked the question that had been living in all their heads this whole time.

”Oh...you see, I was just at home when I heard a voice calling me. Devimon...he lured me to the Dark Whirlpool in the Digital World and told me to let him out. When I did, he mind-controlled me. He made me work for him and help him with things in the real world so he wouldn’t raise suspicion. He’s still mind-controlling some other Chosen Children...”

”If you’re a Chosen Child, then where’s your Digimon?” Takeru grumbled more.

”Oh, Bakomon...Devimon took him...I don’t know where he is...”

Mika broke down sobbing, and Hikari moved to sit down next to her, patting her softly on the back.

”I’m so sorry, Hayama-san,” Ken said sincerely. “Is there anything we can do to help?”

”I wouldn’t want you to do that for me. It would be too much trouble...”

Mika wiped her tears, nodding to Hikari that she could go sit with Miyako again.

Hikari stayed with Mika. Miyako definitely wasn’t jealous. No. Hikari could be friends with other people.

She didn’t even like her.

Snap out of it.

”We’d be happy to help. Do you know where we might find Devimon?”

She sniffled.

”He’s probably back at the Dark Whirlpool, biding time. But really, you don’t have to-”

Ken put his hand up.

”Not another word. We’re helping.”

Mika’s eyes widened a bit, but she soon smiled.

”Thank you, Ichijouji-san.”

He nodded.

”Well, everyone up for another adventure?”

”Always.”

”Yeah.”

”Of course.”

They all got up and waved to Mika one last time, before leaving.

As soon as they were out of the surprisingly warm fortress, Takeru sighed.

”Can we really trust Hayama-san?”

”What do you mean, Takeru? Of course we can.” Hikari insisted.

”But she-she was just on Infinity Mountain in a fortress for no reason!! And she just suddenly broke out of Devimon’s mind control?? How?!”

”I think we can trust her. She seemed like she was really hurting. And I want to help her.” Ken interjected.

Takeru glanced between him and Hikari, before groaning in exasperation.

”Alright. Guess we’re going to the Dark Whirlpool.”

Chapter Text

The Chosen Children flew through the sky - the whirlpool their destination - on their Digimon; Ken and Daisuke, along with their Digimon, with Miyako on Halsemon, and Iori with Takeru and Armadimon on Pegasusmon.

Takeru and Miyako worried a bit about Hikari.

After all, she was sensitive to the darkness, and she was all alone.

But Daisuke and Ken didn’t want to be apart, and Iori probably wouldn’t be able to give her the comfort she’d need.

So they just hoped she wouldn’t need it.

There was nothing but vast ocean under them. Miyako sighed.

”Ken-kun, are you sure it was around here?”

”Yeah. I remember it really clearly.”

He didn’t remember many things, let alone remember them clearly. But his memory didn’t fail him for once, Hayama was counting on them.

“Well, okay...”

”Go right.”

The Digimon turned to the right as he said, and kept flying.

He remembered it. He remembered flying here.

”Ken-chan?”

No response.

Despite the fact nobody would see through his shades, he still didn’t allow himself to cry.

Even he wasn’t really sure why.

Oh.

A single tear slipped out.

He touched his cheek as it ran down, feeling how cold it was.

He pulled away his hand. The tear was in the palm of his hand, slowly getting his glove wet.

He frowned.

And he closed his fist on it.

He couldn’t even have the satisfaction of crushing it.

It wasn’t solid.

He growled, looking at the blinking dot on his screen, the base, heading towards the huge source of dark energy.

Some kind of twisted laugh was strangled from his throat.

“...Ken-chan?”

He kept laughing. It got louder, more twisted.

It barely even sounded like Ken anymore.

It just sounded like some kind of dark and horrifying thing that Wormmon wasn’t even sure how to comprehend.

Horrible, terrifying, twisted laughter. It never stopped.

Ken’s lips twisted upwards more, soon his smile was just as twisted as his laughter. His whole face was.

He snapped his head towards Wormmon just to see if he would be scared.

And he was.

He jumped back in fear, shaking.

He just stared at Ken’s eyes.

He hadn’t been focused on his eyes. But somehow they’d ended up the most horrifying thing.

Ken found his shoulders slumping.

His heart sank.

His breaths hitched, a sob almost slipping out before Ken violently choked it back.

He was sad.

Wormmon was scared of him. Too scared to even go near him.

That was what he wanted, wasn’t it?

No. No, no.

Another cold tear slipped out of his horrifying eyes.

He violently choked back another sob. His throat stung.

His breaths got faster. Faster. Soon there were no gaps between his heaving.

He was so lonely.

He was all alone.

He wasn’t Ichijouji Ken, or the perfect boy genius, or Ken-chan anymore.

He was the Digimon Kaiser.

...yes.

No.

“Ken...? Are you okay?”

He looked over at Daisuke, and gave him a sad smile, along with a nod.

”Just...thinking about the first time I came here.”

Daisuke wrapped his arm around Ken.

”Daisuke, I’m so sorr-”

“Mm!! No! You are not allowed to apologize anymore!”

“I know, I’ve made up for what I did, but I...this place is just...making me remember everything I did...”

He softly touched his chin where Takeru had whipped him in retaliation that one day.

He could still feel the scar. He was surprised his parents hadn’t noticed.

”We can go back. I really don’t want you to have to deal with that.”

”No. Absolutely not. I’ll be fine, it’s just a few memories.”

”...okay. If you say so.”

Daisuke was kind of dreading going to the Dark Whirlpool himself. Of course he was worried about Ken. But he was also worried because of Devimon because he was worried about himself because he was worried about Ken.

Yeah, confusing.

Ken could tell Daisuke was thinking.

He was looking out at the ocean absentmindedly.

He did most things absentmindedly, so most people wouldn’t be worried, but Ken could tell there was some kind of distance in his eyes.

Maybe it was about his nightmare the other day.

He still hadn’t told him about it, so Ken had tried to shrug it off...after all, Daisuke always told people everything. But...what if he wasn’t telling Ken for a reason?

What if it was a really horrible nightmare?

”Hey, earth to Ken and Daisuke. I think we’re here.” Miyako half-shouted.

”Oh. Heh...sorry, Miyako.”

The two boys looked before them, where the ocean was swirling into a huge whirlpool that seemed to descend into complete darkness.

”Yeah...that’s it, alright.” Takeru muttered.

Ken could still see his scar on his cheek, too.

He swallowed.

”Well, um...we should go...in?” Daisuke asked more than said.

”I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Ken mumbled. “Back then, I...I sent some Digimon in there and they didn’t come back...”

Takeru’s eyes widened.

”...oh.”

Ken fought back a wince.

This place wasn’t reminding him of their fight too, was it?

He did seem tense...

”We have to. We don’t know what he’s going to do if we don’t stop him.” Iori stated, a much needed reassurance.

Everyone hesitated for a moment, gathering all their courage, before agreeing.

So they flew in.

As they got closer and closer, the sinking feeling in their stomachs got worse, to the point Ken felt he could throw up.

He really didn’t like it here.

All the signs in the universe were telling him not to go in, but...his mind told him otherwise.

”Ken...are you okay? You’ve gone pale.” Hikari noted, ironically not looking any better herself.

He gulped, before nodding.

”Yeah. I’ll be fine, Hikari-chan, don’t worry about me. It’s just...um...negative association, I suppose.”

”Mm...”

They flew deeper into the whirlpool...it just kept getting darker.

Then a familiar voice sent a shiver down their spines.

”WELL, IF IT ISN’T THE SO-CALLED CHILD OF COURAGE.”

Daisuke winced, and a bit of concern crept into Ken’s face.

”YOU ARE FOOLISH CHILDREN. YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN DEFEAT ME?”

”We did it once, we’ll do it again.” Takeru hissed through his teeth.

”YOU KNOW IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT I’VE BEEN RELEASED.”

”...what? Hayama-san told us she was the one who released you!”

He laughed. It sounded so much like that familiar twisted laughter. Now Ken felt even sicker.

”MY LOYAL SERVANT. AND YOU BELIEVED HER. GULLIBLE INSECTS,” Ken flinched. He could just imagine Devimon smirking at seeing him squirm. “IT WAS YOU, DIGIMON KAISER. WHEN YOU COLLECTED MY DATA, YOU RELEASED ME.”

His eyes widened. Only a small mumble of surprise escaped him.

”Ken. Ken, that wasn’t your fault. Ken? Ken!” Daisuke choked out, grabbing the other boy by the shoulders.

This was a horrible idea...

He was losing Ken...he was going to lose Ken...

”NO!! KEN!!”

He just stared into the darkness, his eyes still wide and distant.

”Ken-chan...?”

Wormmon crawled into his lap, nuzzling him softly.

”COME NOW, INSOLENT PESTS. WE’LL SEE HOW BRAVE YOU ARE.”

Dark shadows crowded around them, grabbing their legs and pulling them down.

”DAISUKE!!”

”MIYAKO!!”

”IORI!!”

”TAKERU!!”

”HIKARI!!”

”KEN-CHAN!!”

The Digimon could only watch in horror as their partners fell into the darkness and disappeared.

Chapter Text

Daisuke groaned, rubbing his head.

”Ken...”

He opened his eyes, struggling to adjust to the light...wait. There was no light. It was so dark.

Was he...dead?

”Ken!” He mumbled more frantically this time, getting to his knees at least.

”Ken!! Veemon!!”

Where was Veemon?

Oh, right...he was still on Halsemon. The Chosen Children fell.

”Hikari! Takeru! Miyako, Iori!!”

Nobody responded.

”Ken!!”

He stumbled to his feet.

It wasn’t pure darkness everywhere like his dreams. It was just really hard to see.

He took a few steps forward.

And he ended up walking forwards more.

He didn’t know where he was going.

But he had to find his friends.

Had he been...taken by the darkness?

Was this what the darkness looked like?

Before he could find anyone, a blinding light flashed before his eyes.

Yeah, not his life. Just a weird light.

Once it disappeared, he was...in a cell.

He groaned.

It was like Dragomon all over again.

“Hey!! Devimon!!”

Nobody responded.

So he just leaned back against the wall, sighing.

He had to find everybody...but it wasn’t like he knew how to pick locks or anything.

”Ah, look who’s awake.”

Oh...

No. It was another dream.

”Agh! Wake up, Daisuke!” He hit himself in the head, trying desperately to open his eyes.

But he couldn’t.

...he wasn’t dreaming.

”...Ken? Why...are you...did you...”

”Ken?” He hissed. “I am the Digimon Kaiser.”

”Did you capture me, Digimon Kaiser?”

“Uh, yeah. You must’ve hit your head harder than I thought.”

”I hit my head?”

”When we were battling? With SkullGreymon?”

”Wha...no! That was you! And...and we captured you!”

”...sounds like you had a weird dream.”

”A...a dream?”

It was...a dream? Everything?

Ken...him being nice, making up for everything, being their friend, dating him, that was all a dream...?

He...he couldn’t feel the scar from when Dragomon stabbed him anymore.

Tears stung his eyes and threatened to fall.

Of course it was a dream...

It was too good to be true.

”What...what do you plan to do with me?”

”Well, you always seem to win, so I thought you’d make a good ally. You’ll help me, won’t you, Daisuke~?”

He grit his teeth.

It was Ken...he wanted to help Ken...

But...Ken wasn’t real.

It was just the Kaiser.

”No. I will never help you.”

There was more pain in those words than he even thought possible.

”Oh...well, that’s too bad...I guess you don’t care about Veemon then.”

He snapped his finger, and a Deltamon walked in carrying Veemon.

The same one from that day...

”Daisuke!!”

”Veemon!!! Let him go!!”

”I will let him go unharmed, along with your silly little friends, if, and only if, you agree to be my servant, and help me create my perfect Digimon.”

Daisuke growled. He glanced between the Kaiser and Veemon.

”You...your tricks won’t work on me again...”

”Tricks? I’m not bluffing, Motomiya. Just do it.”

He hesitated for a second.

”Motomiyaaa...”

Deltamon opened his mouth wide.

Veemon looked scared, though he tried to put on a smile so Daisuke wouldn’t worry.

”...fine. Fine! I’ll help you...”

He grinned.

”Deltamon, let go of Veemon.”

He did as he said, and Veemon ran over to Daisuke.

”You didn’t have to do that!”

”...yes I did, buddy. Go, get out of here.”

”I’m not leaving you!”

”Please...”

Veemon sighed.

”Be careful, Daisuke.”

Daisuke nodded.

And Veemon ran away.

”Perfect.” The Kaiser said, unlocking Daisuke’s cell door, and opening it. “Well? Where’s my thank you?”

”I’m not going to thank you!”

”I just spared your pathetic friend.”

”...thank you, Digimon Kaiser.”

He laughed.

”Now, go explore or whatever you do. I’m going to go work on creating a more worthy being.”

”...alright.”

The Kaiser headed out into the hallway, leaving Daisuke alone.

He sighed.

Ken...Ken really wasn’t real?

The Ken he loved so, so much?

This was really the real Ken?

”Ken...”

He buried his face in his hands.

Everything seemed hopeless.

Daisuke had to serve the Digimon Kaiser, and Veemon had to leave.

There would be no kissing Ken, no soccer games in the humid spring rain, no eating ramen, no cuddling up in bed with Veemon when he was sick.

Everything...every single thing would be cold now.

Ichijouji Ken...the Digimon Kaiser...

Why...?

He longed for Ken’s touch.

He just wanted to hug him again, to bury his face in his shirt and apologize. Apologize to him when he was real and alive. Apologize for keeping things from him, for basically dying for a month, for letting him go to the Dark Whirlpool, for not knowing him sooner.

For everything.

Ken was here...he could go tell him all of those things.

But it wasn’t the Ken he knew.

He didn’t think the Kaiser’s touch would comfort him. It never did. Not like Ken’s.

Sure, it made his face get hot and his brain stop working, but...it didn’t really mean anything.

It wasn’t Ken.

Ken’s eyes widened as soon as he opened them.

Then he shut them again.

He was here again.

Trapped in the Dark Whirlpool.

And Wormmon wasn’t there to hand him his D-3. He couldn’t call for Airdramon to save him.

He could only call for-

“DAISUKE!!”

His voice came out muffled and his throat stung horribly, but at least he could kind of hear it.

He forced himself to open his eyes. They burned...they burned so bad. But he saw Daisuke. Sinking, fast. And completely gray. Glitching.

...oh no...

He swam down as fast as he could.

He kicked off his shoes. He’d just have to get new ones.

”DAISUKE!!”

Bubbles floated up from his mouth, as he wrapped his arms around him. Tight.

He tried to swim up.

But an arm appeared out of the darkness, grabbing Daisuke’s leg.

”KICK IT!! DAISUKE!!”

His air started to slip away as he tried to get through to his boyfriend.

”L-Like soccer!!”

Daisuke kept glitching.

Black spots dotted Ken’s vision.

He held the other boy tighter.

He held him as tight as he could.

And as he lost consciousness, he thought he heard Daisuke whisper something.

So soft, it could’ve definitely been a hallucination.

But it felt real.

”I’m sorry...”

And everything went black, just like it had the first time he came here.

Except this time, Daisuke was next to him.

Chapter Text

Ken coughed and spluttered out water, blinking his eyes open.

Miyako leaned over him, worry in her eyes.

His cheek stung.

”Did you just...slap me?” He mumbled weakly.

A grin spread across her face.

”You are alive!! Oh. Uh...yeah. Sorry,” She chuckled nervously. “I was trying to get you to wake up...”

He bolted to sit up, almost bonking heads with Miyako.

They were in some kind of dark forest...? That was what it looked like, anyway.

When he glanced beside him, he gasped.

”DAISUKE!!”

He was still and lifeless, though his eyes were still open, staring blankly out into the darkness.

He was still gray, though he’d stopped glitching.

”...is he...”

”I don’t know...”

Ken propped up the other’s boy’s head with his arm, to look into his eyes for any sign of life.

...there was none.

He let out a sob as he pulled Daisuke close to his chest, his tears falling onto the other boy’s goggles.

“Please don’t die...” He choked out. “We need you...everyone needs you...you’re like...the biggest source of happiness in the world...you never gave up...you never let me give up...”

He didn’t respond.

Ken broke down sobbing.

He wouldn’t give up.

He couldn’t.

He didn’t before.

And he wouldn’t now.

Daisuke would hate if he gave up.

Miyako just watched the two of them sadly, before she glanced away.

”Ken, we should...we should probably go find the others...whenever you’re ready! I mean, we don’t have t-”

“You want to find Hikari.” He stated, turning back to her with a serious look.

She looked down guiltily.

”Miyako,” He smiled reassuringly despite himself. “I’ll stay here. But you go. Go find the person you love.”

Her eyes widened as she looked back at Ken, before her expression shifted to a smile.

”I will, Ken.”

He nodded to her, and she ran off, disappearing into the dark forest.

“...let’s go look for Takeru and Iori, Dai.”

He still didn’t respond.

”Okay...um...that’s okay...I’ll...I’ll carry you.”

He got to his feet, and carefully picked up Daisuke bridal-style, heading off in the opposite direction.

”Daisuke...I’m kind of furious at you...y’know that?”

He looked down at the other boy, fighting back more tears.

”You didn’t tell me anything was wrong. You tried to bottle it all up. Just because you’re the leader doesn’t mean you can just...just not tell me when you’re dying inside!!”

He choked back sobs, before continuing.

”Now the darkness has you and I don’t know how to get you back.”

The other boy still just looked out into the distance.

”I-I hate you, but I...I love you, Daisuke...don’t leave.”

He started to quietly cry, his voice echoing through the empty forest.

The sound of waves still lingered, though it seemed they were getting farther away.

So soon the only sound was Ken’s wails.

He was truly all alone.

Just like he was the first time in the Dark Whirlpool.

How ironic.

No matter what, he would always be alone...

He would always be the Digimon Kaiser.

Wet grass crumpled under Miyako’s feet, as she ran as fast as she could.

Go save the person you love.

Love...

She has always been looking for love.

Sometimes it felt like she was lacking in it.

As the youngest of four siblings, she didn’t really get much attention.

Sometimes she wished she was an only child. She’d get more attention that way.

But attention wasn’t love.

It had taken her longer than she’d like to admit to realize that.

So she loved Mimi.

Mimi was so cool, like a cool older sister, and she’d give Miyako attention like she wanted and never tease her.

She’d wished Mimi was her sister.

And then she thought she loved Ken.

The first time she saw him on TV with Daisuke, Hikari, and Takeru, she’d scoffed.

She was confident she could do cooler things than he could, so why did everyone think he was so cool?

Then she thought about it.

Everyone thought he was cool.

Everyone wanted to date him.

If she dated someone, they’d love her and give her all the attention she wanted.

So she started to daydream about it.

To daydream about loving Ken, and he’d be sweet like Hikari, cute like Hikari, he’d love her too.

And then he was the Digimon Kaiser.

Man...all that got really complicated.

And she didn’t love him anymore. She didn’t want to love him anymore.

Because he wasn’t like Hikari.

So she lost interest.

Hikari.

The wonderful angel girl who’d just walked into her life.

And she gave her love.

Real love.

Not just attention.

When they hugged, she felt butterflies in her stomach.

When she smiled, she wanted to smile back.

Hikari was always who she wanted.

It was never new parents, or her siblings to disappear, it was never a cool sister, it was never Ken.

It was Hikari.

Hikari was the person she loved.

”HIKARI!!”

She pushed up her glasses, clenched her fists, and picked up speed.

She was going to find her, and she was going to save her.

She was going to give Hikari all the love she gave her now.

She was going to give Hikari everything she needed.

Miyako hopped over logs and pushed bushes out of the way.

She ran and ran, and swerved around trees.

Normally she ran away from the danger if she could.

But now she could be running right into Devimon.

And she would be brave.

She would be brave like Hikari.

She finally stopped as the grass turned into sand.

And there she was, on her knees, clutching her head and screaming.

”DON’T TAKE ME AWAY!!”

She was turning gray and glitching like Daisuke.

Miyako couldn’t lose her too.

So she ran over, and got to her knees, grabbing Hikari’s hands and taking them in hers, pulling them away from her head.

”Hikari.”

”THEY’RE TAKING ME AWAY!!”

”Nobody can take you!! I won’t let them!”

”I’M NOT STRONG ENOUGH!!”

”You’re the strongest person I know!!”

”I CAN’T DO THIS!!”

”You can do anything, Kari-chan!!”

”I’M ALL ALONE!!”

”You have me!!”

”I-”

”I LOVE YOU, HIKARI, SO SHUT UP!! YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!! IF THE DARKNESS TRIES TO TAKE YOU, I’LL PULL YOU BACK!! I WON’T EVER LET YOU LEAVE US!!”

Hikari gasped as the light returned to her eyes.

The color returned to her too, all the beautiful colors that made up Hikari.

She just looked at Miyako with widened eyes.

Miyako smiled shyly.

”...you do?”

She nodded.

“Mhm. I do. I...I love you. I think I always have.”

A few tears slipped from Hikari’s eyes, and she just looked at Miyako for a few more seconds.

”I-I love you too, Miyako, I-I-”

She just burst into happy laughter and tackled her into a hug.

Miyako hugged her back, tight.

”I-I...I never knew you loved me too.”

”Me either...I-I thought you still had a crush on Ken.”

Miyako sighed, as Hikari giggled.

”That’s...ugh...that’s a long story. I thought you liked Takeru.”

”Ah...um...yeah. I...I think he might be...disappointed that I don’t.”

”We can tell him together, hm?”

Hikari smiled.

”Yeah. I’d like that.”

”So...are we...dating now?”

Hikari blushed a deep red.

”I-I mean, if that’s something that...um...you’d like.”

”Is that something you’d like?”

She had to ask, Hikari had always been a people-pleaser.

”I-I would love that.”

Miyako grinned.

”Yay!”

The two of them placed their foreheads together, just looking at each other for a moment.

”Oh!” Hikari jolted up, looking around. “Where is everyone else?”

”I was with Ken and Daisuke before. I’m not sure where Takeru and Iori are...”

”You were with Daisuke? Was he...”

”He still hasn’t responded...not even to Ken. He told me to go look for you. I think he’s still back there.”

”Let’s go find them.”

She nodded, taking Hikari’s hand.

They both jumped when lights shot up from their backpacks.

They slipped them off and looked inside.

”Our D-3s...”

”They’re glowing. That only happens when our Digimon are evolving...”

”Are they...evolving?”

”Maybe...I-”

Before you could say ‘bingo,’ another bright pink and red light appeared in the cloudy sky.

Both girls looked in awe at the Digimon that appeared.

”Hawk...mon?”

”...Tailmon...?”

”Miyako! Hikari! I’m Silphymon. A Jogress evolution.”

”Jogress-”

“-evolution?”

”Yes! I’m Tailmon and Aquilamon combined! Your hearts beat in sync with each other, and we combined as a result!”

Miyako and Hikari looked back at each other.

And they grinned.

”Silphymon, can you help us find everyone and get out of here?” They asked at the same time.

Silphymon flew down and picked up both of the girls, one in each arm.

”Let’s go find the other Chosen!”

Miyako and Hikari nodded.

”Let’s go, Silphymon!”

The Digimon took off, the wind blowing leaves into Hikari and Miyako’s hair.

But it didn’t matter.

Their hearts were one.

And they were ready to get out of here.

Chapter Text

Daisuke winced as the whip cracked against his cheek.

”WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!”

”I’m setting the Digimon free.”

He turned to glare at the Kaiser, putting his arm in front of the Punimon.

The Kaiser growled, glaring right back.

”What are you gonna do, whip me again?”

He did just that, in the very same spot.

Daisuke didn’t back down.

”Do you want me to lock you in that cell again?”

”What difference does it make?” He asked hopelessly.

The Kaiser raised an eyebrow.

”You’d...be trapped? What kind of question...”

”It doesn’t make a difference because I can’t see Ken either way.” He muttered, wrapping his arms around his knees.

The Punimon glanced between them awkwardly, before quickly slipping out of the room.

”I’m Ken. I mean, I’m the Kaiser, but...I don’t get it.”

“You’re not my Ken...”

The Kaiser’s eyes widened.

”...your...Ken...?”

”Yes. My Ken. The kind Ken. The...the Ken that...I guess was never real...so, go ahead. Throw me in that cell again. Let the darkness take me.”

The Kaiser just stared at him.

”Well, if you insist.”

He grabbed him by his goggles, dragging him back to the cell.

Daisuke just looked at the ground.

He wanted to go home...

“I’m so glad you two are alright.” Ken smiled.

”What about...” Iori looked at Daisuke. They’d know what he meant.

And Ken’s smile immediately faded.

”He...he’ll be okay! He will. I’ll...I’ll...”

He bit his lip.

”...I don’t know.”

”Everyone!!”

The three boys turned to the sudden voice.

It was coming from a Digimon, flying over and holding Hikari and Miyako.

”Miyako! Hikari!!” Takeru sighed in relief.

”Who...who’s that Digimon?” Ken asked.

The Digimon landed, and the two girls hopped down.

Takeru ran over and pulled Hikari into a tight hug. She hugged him back.

“This is Silphymon,” Miyako said with a grin. “Hikari and I...our hearts synchronized, and our Digimon combined as a result!”

Everyone’s eyes widened.

”You...and Hikari?”

She nodded.

”Woah...”

Miyako grinned.

”Mhm!”

”Can Silphymon get us all out of here? I think I’m about ready to go home.”

Hikari nodded, finally pulling away.

”Silphymon?”

The Digimon scooped up all of the children.

”Alright. Ready?”

”Yeah...ready.”

Silphymon smiled, flying up into the sky.

They broke through the clouds and fog, the landscape suddenly turning into water again, surrounding them.

As the water started to close in on them, Silphymon burst out, rising above the sea once again.

The Digimon, who had been watching the Dark Whirlpool worriedly, all cheered.

”Ken-chan!!”

”Iori!!”

”Takeru!!”

”...Daisuke?”

Ken’s chest tightened.

”He...he...t-the darkness took him...I...” His voice broke, starting to get more mumbly. “I’m so sorry, Veemon...”

Silphymon set down Takeru and Iori on Pegasusmon, and devolved back to Aquilamon and Nefertimon to carry the others.

Wormmon crawled over to Ken’s leg and nuzzled him, though he couldn’t pick him up, as his hands were literally and figuratively, already full.

”Daisuke...is he...”

”I-I don’t know...he hasn’t talked...or moved, but...I want to think he’ll be okay...”

”He will...Daisuke’s too brave to die.”

Ken was about to say he didn’t know about that.

But Veemon didn’t need to hear that.

“I’m exhausted,” Miyako sighed. “Is everyone else ready to head home?”

Everyone simultaneously agreed, knowing they couldn’t fight Devimon tired.

So the Digimon flew them away, back to the computer they’d set up on land.

Ken just held Daisuke tight, Takeru didn’t take his eyes off Hikari, and Iori seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.

Soon enough, they all reached the cliff. They hopped off their Digimon, who devolved and jumped into their partners’ arms.

”DigiPort open!!”

Ken had called Daisuke’s parents to ask if he could sleep over.

He...he really didn’t want to be away from him right now.

Jun picked up. And she just said to take good care of him.

Ken promised he would.

He pushed open the door, and shut it behind him.

There he was, standing in the doorway holding a gray person, with no shoes, soaking wet.

...he’d probably have to tell his parents about the Digimon today.

”Ken-chan! You’re ho-”

Her gaze drifted to Daisuke and her eyes widened.

”I...I don’t feel like talking about it right now...is it okay if he sleeps over...?”

”Of course, Ken, but...you know you can tell us...”

”I know, I know, I just...I...I think I just want to sleep.”

”Okay. That’s okay too.”

He smiled weakly at his mom, before heading to go put on some dry clothes. He put some dry clothes on Daisuke too, and set out his goggles so he could wear them when...when he woke up.

He carefully climbed up the ladder and gently set Daisuke down, climbing in next to him.

He wrapped his arms tightly around him. He’d keep him safe, even if he wasn’t with him right now.

Demiveemon and Leafmon settled in next to the boys, quickly falling asleep.

It took Ken a little longer...

Okay, maybe a lot longer.

But eventually, his tired eyes fluttered closed.

“Why did you let me out?” Daisuke prodded, walking next to the Kaiser as he patrolled his territory. “You know I’m just gonna mess with more stuff.”

”...I...um...”

”You’re lonely...aren’t you?”

”W-What? Lonely? Pfft. Looks like your head still hasn’t healed.”

Daisuke...smiled slightly.

”You’re not that far from my Ken, I guess. If you squint.”

”...your Ken...what’s he like?”

”Ah, he...he’s like, the nicest person in the world. And he’s so loving. He’s...always blaming himself for everything...and worrying about me,” He chuckled, though it quickly turned sad. “Worried...worried about me getting...getting...”

”Getting lost in the Digital World.”

”No, no...getting...getting...”

”G-GETTING SAD.”

His voice...

Daisuke snapped his head towards the Kaiser.

”That was not Ken’s voice.”

”O-O-Of course it wasn’t, I’m...uh...I’m the-I’m the Kaiser!”

“You’re...you’re not Ken!”

”I’m the Kaiser!”

”This isn’t real!!” Daisuke started to grin. “You’re not the real Ken!!”

The ‘Kaiser’ growled as he shifted into Devimon.

”URGH...NO!! YOU WILL STAY HERE FOREVER!! AND SOON I’LL TAKE ALL YOUR PRECIOUS FRIENDS TOO!!”

Daisuke glared at him.

”No!! You won’t.” He said firmly.

Devimon grabbed his arm and the ocean started to rise up around him.

Ken was woken up by a scream.

Daisuke’s scream.

He was tossing and turning, glitching furiously again.

”DAISUKE!!”

He grabbed the other boy’s hand, tight.

”Fight him, Daisuke. You can fight him.”

The water had risen up to Daisuke’s shoulders. He was prepared to drown.

And then he heard a voice.

Ken. The real Ken.

”YOU CAN’T GIVE INTO THE DARKNESS, THAT’S WHAT YOU TAUGHT ME!! FIGHT!! FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!!”

”Fight,” Daisuke muttered. “Fight, fight, fight!!”

He grabbed his D-3 and held it up.

A portal started to tear through the sky.

”NO!!”

”FIGHT!! FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!”

He jumped into the air, the portal pulling him in.

His eyes shot open.

He was in Ken’s bed, in his bedroom. It was real. He was really there.

And Ken was next to him.

He started to shake.

And he finally broke down sobbing, wrapping his arms tightly around Ken and sobbing into his shirt.

”DAISUKE!!”

He hugged him back, even tighter, and kissed him on the forehead.

The Digimon were startled awake by Daisuke’s sobs, and they gasped.

Then they joined the hug too.

“Daisuke...you did it.”

”I-I’m so sorry, Ken...”

”Ah-ah-ah, what have you told me about apologizing?”

Daisuke gave him a weak but sincere smile.

“I love you so much, Daisuke...you don’t have to keep things from me. You can tell me whenever you’re feeling sad or overwhelmed.”

”I...”

”No excuses. Now, you tell me what happened in your nightmare the other day, because I know there’s something you’re not telling me.”

Daisuke sighed.

He wasn’t going to get out of this one.

And he was already crying, so...

He gave in and did his best to recount the entire nightmare.

After he finished, everything was silent for a moment.

”...oh.”

”Is that all you’re gonna say?”

”I mean, I...I guess I wasn’t expecting that...”

”What else would scare me enough to get taken by the darkness?”

”I...I don’t know.”

Ken hugged Daisuke tighter.

”I was worried about you...and angry. I wish you’d told me sooner.”

”I...I know. I should’ve told you, I just...you have your own problems, and you were so happy, I didn’t wanna...ruin it.”

”You could never ruin anything, Daisuke.”

He chuckled.

”You’re literally, like, the only thing I haven’t ruined.”

”I doubt that.”

The two of them just smiled at each other, enjoying each other’s company with no secrets and no darkness.

Just Daisuke and Ken, together.

The door swung open, startling them both.

Ken’s parents stood there with a flashlight.

”Ken! We heard screaming and...and crying...”

Daisuke glanced away.

”Uh...that was me...” He chuckled nervously.

Ken sat up and turned to them both.

”Mama, papa, I...I think it’s time I tell you what we’ve been up to.”

“Oh...uh...okay. We’ll go wait on the couch.”

Ken nodded and they pulled the door closed.

”Need an emotional support Daisuke?”

Ken giggled.

”No. The ‘emotional support Daisuke’ needs to get some sleep. You must be exhausted.”

He sighed, but laid back down anyways.

”I’ll be back soon, okay?”

”Okay, Ken...”

He yawned.

”See? I knew you were tired.”

Ken gave him a little kiss, before climbing down and opening the door.

”Goodnight, Daisuke.”

”Night, Ken.”

And he softly closed the door.

Chapter Text

“So...um...the Digimon Kaiser...that I told you about...t-that was...that was me.”

Their eyes widened.

They just stared at him for a second.

”And I...I...when I ran away that one time...it was to the Digital World...”

They still continued to stare.

”...please say something.”

”Ken-chan, I-”

His father pulled him into a hug.

He softly gasped, before hugging him back.

His mother wrapped her arms around him too, now their whole family was hugging.

Ken looked over at Osamu’s picture.

He smiled and nodded his head in a gesturing motion.

He could imagine Osamu coming over and hugging them too.

Hopefully he...he wouldn’t be too disappointed that Ken had been the Kaiser.

”We’re so sorry, Ken-chan...I-If we’d have been better parents, that never would’ve happe-”

“Wha- no!! No, no, no, no, it wasn’t your fault!! My actions were my fault and no-one else’s.”

”But we were partially responsible, weren’t we?”

”No! I-I was a horrible person, I-”

“You were a child, Ken. And you still are. Of course, none of what you did is okay, but you’re still learning about the world, and that was how you decided to learn about the Digital World. Any one of us could’ve done the same thing if we thought it was just a video game.” His father stated sincerely.

Ken just looked at him with still widened eyes, and hugged him tighter.

”And some good things came out of it, hm? You met Motomiya-kun, and Inoue, Yagami, and Takaishi!”

Ken smiled, and nodded.

”I have another friend too, Hida Iori. You haven’t met him yet, but he’s in junior high.”

Tears formed in his mother’s eyes.

”That’s wonderful, Ken. I’m so glad you have so many sweet friends.”

”Yeah. Me too, mama.”

The three of them turned to the window. It was still dark outside.

”Well, you should probably get back to sleep. I think Motomiya’s waiting for you.”

Ken blushed.

”Y-Yeah, probably. Um...thank you. Thank you so much for not hating me, or...disowning me, or something...”

”Oh, Ken-chan...we could never. We love you. So much. And that will never change, okay?”

”Okay. I love you too, mama, papa.”

His mother placed a kiss on his cheek.

”Alright, now you head back to sleep.”

He nodded, and walked back to his room.

”Night, mama. Night, papa.”

”Goodnight, Ken-chan.”

He opened the door and pulled it closed behind him.

”Ken!” Daisuke tried to exclaim sleepily.

”You’re still awake??”

”I was waiting for you...just in case you did need an emotional support Daisuke...”

Ken chuckled.

”Okay, you need to go to sleep.”

He climbed up and settled down next to Daisuke, pulling the blankets up over both of them.

The Digimon were already asleep.

”Where are my goggles...?” He mumbled, even more sleepily now.

“I set them down in a safe place. You don’t seriously wear them to sleep, do you?”

”Ah always wear ma goggles...”

Ken giggled, wrapping his arms around Daisuke.

Daisuke tucked his head under Ken’s chin, resting his head on his chest and feeling his heartbeat like he’d wanted.

He was so glad to be back with Ken.

The real Ken.

And wearing some of Ken’s pajamas too. The world was just filled with Ken right now.

”Ken, thank you for saving me...”

He made sure to say that clearly despite how tired he was.

”You saved yourself, Daisuke.”

That was the last thing he heard before his tired eyes fluttered closed.

They had a lot of things to think about, and a lot of things to do.

Hikari and Miyako’s Digimon, for one...Digimon can combine?

And Hayama-san...she tricked them.

But right now the only thing Daisuke could think about was Ken. And sleep.

And sleeping next to Ken.

So he just decided to do that.

Chapter Text

The Chosen Children had just got out of a long meeting at Miyako’s house with Koushiro discussing Jogress Evolution.

Now they stood outside as the sun set, wondering what to do next.

”Well...Koushiro-san and the others’ Digimon are guarding different areas in the Digital World like they used to, and they’ll let us know if anything’s wrong.” Miyako said.

“So we can just hang out together for a bit!” Hikari smiled.

It was a bit hard to adjust to Miyako being her girlfriend, especially since they...hadn’t exactly told anyone yet.

It was kinda their little accidental secret.

Hikari was probably a bit shy for super public displays of affection anyways.

”Actually, Hikari...I’d like to talk to you, if you’re available.” Takeru added.

”I’ve been wanting to talk to you too,” Hikari turned to him with a serious look. “Everyone, we’ll be back soon.”

The others nodded, and Takeru and Hikari walked over to a bench, not too far, but far enough that they were out of earshot.

”Okay...” Hikari sat down, and Takeru sat next to her. “You say what you wanted to first.”

“I...” Takeru sighed. “All this Dark Ocean stuff, and you always getting taken to some place where I can’t save you, I...I’ve realized that I...I like you. And...yeah. I like you, Hikari. And, I...I wanted to ask if I could take you on a date.”

”Oh...a-a date.”

Hikari glanced away.

She did expect him to say that. That he liked her.

But she’d planned out at least a possible reply to that.

But the date...she didn’t really expect that.

So she just took a deep breath, and started.

”I...I’m dating Miyako.”

Takeru’s eyes widened.

”You are?”

She nodded.

”She...she asked me yesterday. When our Digimon combined and she saved me again...and I said yes.”

”I’m happy for you two.”

”Takeru, I...I’m sorry-”

He put his hand up.

”No. You have nothing to be sorry for. You don’t like me. That’s completely valid.”

”So...we’re still friends?”

”Of course we are. Aaaand, Miyako is quite a cutie. I’m glad you finally confessed to each other.”

Hikari blushed, and chuckled.

”You knew?”

”I definitely suspected.”

She chuckled again, before looking down.

”I...I hope this doesn’t change anything between us. That we can stay how we’ve always been.”

”Yeah. I’d like that.”

She looked back at Takeru, and smiled.

”Ready to head back to everyone?”

He nodded.

”Yeah.”

They both got up, and started walking.

Yeah, it still stung a bit. But Takeru was more happy for Hikari than anything.

And he knew Miyako would be happy too.

So he’d be okay.

There wasn’t anything he’d regretted with Hikari.

He just wished that just once, he’d gotten to be the one to save her.

No.

The one to help her save herself.

”Kari-chan!”

Miyako grinned, waving energetically.

Hikari giggled.

Once Hikari and Takeru had made it over, Miyako whispered to her; “Did you tell him?”

Hikari nodded.

”What did he say?”

”He’s happy for us.” Hikari said with a smile.

Miyako smiled back.

”Welll, if he knows,” She turned to everyone, flinging her arm over Hikari’s shoulder. “HEY GUYS!! TIME FOR A GUESSING GAME, I’VE GOT A CUTE GIRLFRIEND!!”

Hikari just watched her in stunned silence for a second, before laughing and facepalming.

”Hikari?” Daisuke and Ken asked in unison.

Miyako just stared at them, mouth gaping.

”Were we really that obvious?”

Ken chuckled.

”A little bit.”

”It wasn’t obvious to me, if that helps.” Iori stated.

Miyako stifled a laugh.

”Er...well, yeah! Hikari’s my girlfriend!!”

”Congratulations!”

Miyako planted a little kiss on Hikari’s cheek, and her face turned red.

Yeah, she’d never get used to that.

She didn’t know how to be somebody’s girlfriend yet. But they’d figure it out together.

”My parents are out at a movie with their friends, so d’you guys wanna come over? We can hang and play games and stuff!” Daisuke prompted, kind of ruining the moment, but in a funny Daisuke way.

”That sounds fun! You know I’m in.” Ken smiled.

Everyone agreed, so they headed to Daisuke’s apartment.

They hadn’t been there in a while.

Ken actually hadn’t been there since he was the Kaiser...

He’d barely even realized. Daisuke always came to his house.

”Hey! Jun!” Daisuke pushed open the door, poking his head through.

”What do you want?” Jun shouted back from the couch.

”My friends are here, so don’t be annoying!”

She rolled her eyes, and smirked playfully.

”Okay, c’mon in!”

Daisuke basically pulled everyone inside, before shutting the door behind him.

”I’ll make us some ramen!!”

Daisuke kicked off his shoes and ran into the kitchen, getting out a pot, dishes, and noodles.

When Jun glanced over at the five people still standing awkwardly in front of the door, they waved, and Iori bowed politely.

”It’s nice to properly meet you, Motomiya-san.” Ken said, slipping off his shoes and stepping inside, gradually followed by everyone else.

He still remembered their first meeting, how she’d mistakenly called him Daisuke’s boyfriend.

Ken stifled a laugh, it was funny now that they really were dating.

”Nice to meet you too, Ichijouji-kun. Daisuke talks about you all the time.”

Ken blushed, and chuckled softly.

”Somehow that’s not hard to believe.”

He looked over at Daisuke, who was still fully focused on his cooking, not paying attention to their small talk.

”I’m glad he’s dating you. It was annoying watching him mope about how he didn’t know how to talk to this boy he liked.”

Ken blushed more, and Miyako laughed.

”Ee-I’m not a part of this conversation. Sorry.” She chuckled nervously, and stepped away.

Ken rolled his eyes.

”So, uh...yeah. Daisuke really likes you.”

Ken smiled wider, though it was hard to top at this point.

”I really like him too.”

Jun smiled in return, before switching on the TV and turning her attention to it.

“Need any help with the ramen, Dai?”

Daisuke looked over at Ken now, shaking his head.

”I’m all good! I wanna open a ramen cart someday, so I’ve gotta get some practice in!”

”That’s awesome, Daisuke.”

Daisuke grinned at him.

”What about you? What do you guys wanna do when you grow up?”

“I’d love to be a data scientist!” Miyako was the first to answer.

”A kindergarten teacher.” Hikari said with a smile.

”I’ve always wanted to be a writer.” Takeru muttered.

”A lawyer, I think. Or maybe I’d run my own Kendo dojo.” Iori answered, serious as usual.

Everyone naturally turned to Ken, who chuckled nervously.

”Hm...well, I...I haven’t thought much about it, as when I was the Kaiser, I...I just thought I’d, y’know, rule the Digital World. Maybe...a detective? As I tend to be pretty good at reading people, maybe I could put that to good use for once? And, I think maybe it would suit me, too.” He started to smile.

”I think you’d be the coolest detective, Ken-chan!” Wormmon exclaimed, popping out of Ken’s backback.

The boy chuckled.

”You think so?”

Wormmon nodded enthusiastically.

”I think so too.” Daisuke seemed to appear out of nowhere to place a kiss on Ken’s cheek.

Ken smiled, giving him one in return.

”Daisuke and Ken, the ramen detectives!!” Daisuke gestured dramatically for extra flair.

Ken tried to stifle a snort, but ultimately failed, and burst out laughing.

He was followed by Miyako, and then Hikari, and suddenly everyone was laughing, while Jun just stared at them in annoyance.

”I don’t think we should be in any rush to grow up, though,” Ken said once the laughter has quieted. “These moments are precious.”

Daisuke nodded.

”Any moment spent with you is.”

Ken blushed a bright red, glancing away.

”Aw, c’mon, you know you’re adorable.”

Ken just blushed even more.

”Stop it, Daisuke, you’re turning him into a tomato.” Miyako joked, and Takeru laughed.

”He’s my tomato.” Daisuke declared playfully, wrapping his arm around his boyfriend.

Ken chuckled, finally looking up at Daisuke’s cute face.

He rested his head on his shoulder, and let his eyes flutter closed.

They just stayed like that for a few moments, feeling each other’s warmth.

Daisuke suddenly jumped up, and Ken opened his eyes in confusion.

”I FORGOT ABOUT THE RAMEN!!”

He dashed into the kitchen, and Ken laughed, shaking his head.

”How are you going to run a ramen cart if you forget about the ramen?”

”It’s not my fault you’re so cute!!”

Ken laughed more, as Daisuke rolled his eyes, pouring the ramen into bowls for everyone.

”Alright, alright. Well, ramen’s ready! Jun! Want some?”

”Sure!”

He set out bowls for everyone at the table, gesturing for them to come over.

They all sat down, ate their ramen (which was absolutely delicious), and chatted, laughing and smiling like a big happy family.

It made them all so happy.

Soon enough, they’d finished dinner, and they were all warm and sleepy.

Daisuke yawned, lying down across multiple chairs so he could put his head in Ken’s lap.

”Daisuke, c’mon, let’s get to your bed and set up sleeping bags.”

”Mm-mm...staying with Ken...”

”I’ll be there too.”

”Oh...okay.”

Ken chuckled, scooping up Daisuke like he’d done yesterday, though this time, he squeaked and a bright red blush spread across his face.

”Y-You’re strong.”

”I do judo, remember?”

Daisuke nodded, both looking up at his boyfriend in awe, and leaning into his touch.

“Alright, come on, let’s go to sleep.”

Ken carried Daisuke over to the bedroom and pushed open the door, everyone following them.

Ken set Daisuke down in his bed, while everyone else set up their sleeping bags.

”Are you gonna sleep on the floor with us, Ken, or...”

”Is it alright with you if I stay, Daisuke?”

”Of course! I wanna stay with you.”

Ken smiled, lying down and tucking himself in.

Hopefully he wouldn’t roll off the bed. He wasn’t used to sleeping so close to the floor.

Once everyone had settled in, Iori switched off the lights, before snuggling up in his sleeping bag with Upamon next to his head.

”Goodnight, everyone.”

”Night.”

”Night!”

”G’night!”

”Goodnight.”

”Goodnight!”

Daisuke and Ken both wrapped their arms around each other, and closed their eyes.

They would have to figure out this whole Jogress thing, and defeat Devimon, and maybe even fight the mind-controlled Chosen Children, but...they were safe for now.

They were safe with each other.

Chapter Text

Ken sighed, taking his sweater out of his bag and slipping it on over his shirt.

He was trying not to wake anyone.

Yeah, there was still that voice in the back of his head telling him this was a horrible idea.

But he had to go back to the Dark Whirlpool, he had to get some answers, and rescue the children Devimon had captured.

Yeah, with Miyako and Hikari’s new Jogress evolution, it would be better to go with them...

But...

...yeah...he knew the real reason he was going.

Because this was his fault.

Devimon was freed because of him.

Daisuke got taken by the darkness because he trusted Hayama.

And maybe...maybe everything Devimon said had made him think about...y’know...

He tried to remember what his parents said. He was just a kid.

But that was no excuse.

“Mmnh...Ken...?” Daisuke mumbled as he was stirred from his sleep.

“Shh...you can keep sleeping.”

”Mm-mm...where...where are you going...? You’re wearing your sweater...”

Despite being half-asleep, Daisuke had immediately figured out something was wrong.

Yeah, it was cause of his sweater, but he could wear that inside if he got really cold.

It was mostly because of the look on his face.

He knew that look.

That was the ‘thinking about the Kaiser’ look.

”I’m just...going somewhere real quick, I’ll be back soo-”

And Daisuke had quickly rolled out of bed and stumble-ran over to Ken, grabbing his hand.

”Not without me.”

”Daisuke...”

”No. Don’t say another word. I know that look. What are you going to do, Ken?”

“I was...going back to the Dark Whirlpool...”

”You were WHAT?! KEN, THAT’S A HORRIBLE IDEA!!”

With how strong his voice had become, you’d never have known he had just woken up a few seconds ago.

”...I know, but-”

”No! No, you’re not going there!”

”Dai...”

”Don’t ‘Dai’ me!! You were really going all alone, Ken?! Without Miyako and Hikari? Without me?”

“I...didn’t want any of you to get hurt...It would have been my fault if you did.”

”Ichijouji Ken,” Daisuke softly cupped Ken’s face with his hands. “You are perfect and handsome and amazing and smart, why do you blame yourself for everything?”

Ken’s face was painted with guilt as his lip wobbled.

”Because, Daisuke, everything is my fault. Devimon came back because of me. You got taken because I trusted Hayama.”

”You didn’t know what you were doing would bring Devimon back!! For heaven’s sake, you didn’t even know you were doing it in a real world. And Hayama? You trusted her because you’re kind!! Because you wanted to see the good in her!! It worked with you.”

Ken just breathed out an exhausted sigh.

”Ken. Look at me. This. Is. Not. Your. Fault. Say it with me. This. Is. Not. Your. Fault.”

”This is not your fault.”

Daisuke groaned in exasperation, and playfully shoved him.

”You know what I meant.”

Ken chuckled, before softly mumbling: ”This is not my fault.”

“Yeah...this is not your fault. Let me come with you.”

”What if he takes you again? What if I can’t get you back this time?”

Daisuke’s eyes widened slightly, before he kissed Ken. A deep, comforting kiss. He could feel the other boy’s tears gently running down his face.

Ken...what did he have to do to help him stop blaming himself?

Even now, he worried that he still was. He thought they’d been through that.

But...maybe what Taichi-san said that one time applied to this situation too.

How did Daisuke not realize before?

Maybe he had been a bit selfish.

What happened to Ken was horrible too.

So he couldn’t expect him to stop thinking about it...

It would take many more months, maybe even years.

But he would be right by Ken’s side the whole time. And he would never stop loving him.

Once the two boys pulled away, Daisuke gently wiped away Ken’s tears, letting his thumb linger to caress his cheek.

”Thank you.” Ken whispered breathlessly.

”Of course, baby.”

Ken smiled.

”I’m sorry, Daisuke. I shouldn’t have tried to leave without telling anyone.”

”You have nothing to apologize for. Don’t worry about it,” Daisuke eventually got up from where the two boys had been sitting, and nudged Demiveemon awake. “We should probably get going, mm?”

Ken blinked, and Leafmon bounced over into his lap, receiving a gentle head pat. He had wanted to comfort Ken-chan before, but he wasn’t the one he needed in that moment.

“I...I guess so...I’m still...a bit worried.”

”Well, I’ve been thinking. I...I realized I really don’t have anything to be scared of. I have you. And you’re not going to do what I was so afraid of you doing. So I don’t have to be afraid,” He smiled. Oh, that signature Daisuke smile was back. That one that...maybe he hadn’t seen since he was the Kaiser. Since what happened that day. “I’m Motomiya Daisuke. And Motomiya Daisuke doesn’t give up. Y’know what he does?”

“Be...amazing?”

Daisuke blushed and smiled even wider.

”Yeah, that too. But most of all, he pummels evil guys...”

Ken started to grin too, remembering the first time he said this.

”Into next week.”

Daisuke nodded, the grin not leaving either of their faces.

”Hey, everyone!! It’s time to go.”

The others groaned, slowly waking up.

”No it’s not...” Miyako mumbled, rolling out of her sleeping bag.

”We’re gonna go back to the Dark Whirlpool. We gotta fight Devimon.”

Everyone eventually sat up, a determined look in their eyes despite their tiredness.

Miyako took her glasses and put them on, nodding.

”Kari-chan?”

The other girl hummed in agreement when Miyako placed her hand on her shoulder.

”Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

“Okay,” Hikari said firmly, being carried by Silphymon along with Miyako. “Everyone. We stick together no matter what. And if anything happens, we immediately head back, okay?”

Everyone nodded.

”Alright...you ready?” Daisuke asked Ken softly, squeezing his hand.

”I am. Are you?” Ken returned the gesture.

”Always.”

Daisuke adjusted his goggles, and looked on towards the whirlpool.

“Chosen Children, let’s roll!!” Miyako exclaimed, as the Digimon swooped down into the darkness.

They landed quickly in the water, creating a huge splash.

The water swirled around them, the force of the whirlpool starting to pull them in.

Though they didn’t know what they were going to find down there, they were ready.

So they tightly shut their eyes, and held each other even tighter.

Miyako got up and squeezed the water out of her hair.

”Everyone okay?”

”Mhm.”

The purple-haired girl smiled, helping Hikari up.

Once everyone had gotten up, they surveyed their surroundings.

Huh...?

Wait...

”...Odaiba?”

Ken looked over at Hikari and Takeru, who seemed lost in thought or memories.

He knew that feeling all too well.

Hikari tried to push away the dark fog with her hand, to no avail, while stepping forward through the street, which was simply lit by only a few street lamps.

”It’s Odaiba,” Takeru finally stated. “When Vamdemon took over, and captured everyone in hopes of finding the Eighth Child. There was no Internet, the boats and trains were out of service...nobody knew what was going on. Except for the Chosen Children.”

Daisuke rolled his eyes as he looked around. “Agh, I remember that. I kinda tried to punch some of the Bakemon. It...didn’t really go well.”

”That’s...not surprising in the slightest.” Ken remarked with a chuckle, and Daisuke gave him a playful glare.

”Well, uh...why is Odaiba here? And Odaiba from all those years ago, at that.” Miyako finally asked, placing her hand gently on her girlfriend’s shoulder.

”Devimon’s probably trying to mess with us again. He has to be somewhere around here. We could check all the places where important battles or events occurred? Tokyo Big Sight, the harbor, maybe each of our houses? And the...the TV Station.”

Hikari gulped, before looking back at Takeru and Miyako with a smile.

”That sounds like a good plan. We should split up, then?”

Daisuke nodded. He could tell there was something Hikari wasn’t telling them, but...he didn’t want to push if she didn’t want to say it, and he really just wanted to defeat Devimon and get out of there.

This place gave him the creeps for a reason.

”You and Miyako is a given, cause Silphymon. I wanna go with Ken!”

Daisuke grinned as he linked his arm in Ken’s, getting a sweet smile in return.

”I’ll go with Takeru-san, then.” Iori stated.

”We can head to the harbor, since you have a water Digimon, or we could go to my house.”

”I think we have enough time to check both.”

Takeru nodded in agreement.

”Miyako and I should...should probably head to the TV Station, that’s where Angewomon killed Vamdemon.” Hikari added.

”Sounds good to me.”

”Then Ken and I can head to Tokyo Big Sight! I can show you my Bakemon-punching skills!”

”Right...the skills that don’t exist, gotcha.”

Daisuke scoffed jokingly and rolled his eyes.

”I’ll show you, Mr. Genius Boy.”

”Well, we take two hours, k? And then we meet up back here.” Miyako proposed, and everyone nodded.

”See you guys soon!”

”See you!”

“Gah...I can barely see anything! Vamdemon has terrible taste in lighting.”

Ken giggled, though he surveyed the endless fog to make sure there were no Digimon about to jump out at them.

”Hey, Ken, I know Hikari-chan, Takeru-kun, and I were all here during Vamdemon’s takeover, and I think Iori was on a plane, and Miyako hadn’t moved here yet, where were you?”

”I...um,” Ken rubbed the back of his neck, looking up at the sky. “I...I don’t know. I can’t really remember my childhood. I just...I just remember...a desert, I think? And...pain. I don’t know. Something hit me, maybe? But who’s to say if that was even at the same time all of the Vamdemon stuff was happening.”

”Mm...a desert? Were you, like, on vacation or something?”

”No...I...I think Wormmon was there...”

”So...you were in the Digital World? I thought you hadn’t been there before...you were the Kaiser.”

”Well, I’d have to have known how to get there, right?”

”I guess so,” Daisuke turned to the big building in front of them, and gestured to it. “Anyway, we’re here!”

The two boys stepped into the building, to find it dark and empty. Almost abandoned-looking.

”Uh...well, there were people here before.”

Ken stepped through the building, each step echoing.

”I...I guess there’s really nobody here.”

”Hm.”

”Um...hello!”

Daisuke and Ken turned towards the sudden voice, coming from the entrance.

A little girl with short brown hair and bright eyes, wearing an outfit of bright pink and yellow. She bounced on the soles of her feet with her arms behind her back, smiling shyly.

“Are you two lost? Everyone’s already been evacuated. My big brother and his friends are fighting the bad guys.”

”Uh...yeah, we were looking for this Digimon, Devimon.”

”Hm. Is he working with Vamdemon? I’ve never heard of him.”

”Not that I know of.”

”Hmm...” The little girl placed her finger on her chin, before bouncing on her feet again.

”My brother might know who he is! C’mon!”

Before they could say anything, the little girl had dashed out of the building.

”We...should follow her, right?”

”Agh...”

Daisuke grabbed Ken’s hand and the two of them ran after her.

”Man...there weren’t even any Bakemon there...”

Ken chuckled, before glancing back at the little girl to make sure she didn’t disappear around a corner or something.

”Maybe we’ll see some soon, Dai.”

Chapter Text

The road seemed to get darker and darker, foggier and foggier, as the mysterious little girl lead them through Odaiba.

All of them had gotten tired of running, so in an unspoken agreement, they just walked from that point on, but the fact the little girl’s enthusiasm and energy were completely gone really hadn’t helped the eeriness of the situation.

Not that it was weird to run out of energy after running for like two blocks; even Daisuke and Ken were tired, but she wasn’t talking or bouncing on the soles of her feet anymore...Ken couldn’t really place it, it just felt strange.

Like she was distant, somewhere else entirely, or following a programmed route.

Honestly, it was kind of strange she was the only other human they’d seen there, too...

“Um...where exactly are you taking us?” Daisuke finally asked.

”To my big brother, I told you.”

”Yeah, but where is he?”

”Near the TV Station.”

“The TV Station...that’s where our friends are.” 

“Ah...what a...weird coincidence.”

”You sound annoyed.”

”Just don’t wanna help more people find their way back home.”

”Well, we’re...we’re not trying to go home right now, there’s a lot of kids that Devimon’s captured, and we need to save them and make sure they’re alright.”

”We all have to go home soon, Ichijouji.”

Ken just thought about that statement for a moment, before he paused.

”...you know my name? And what do you mean soon?”

The little girl crossed her arms and huffed.

”You were on the TV all the time! And it’s almost bedtime!”

”Ah...I...I guess that does make sense...”

She promptly returned to her normal, cheerful demeanor, stopping in front of the TV Station.

It looked equally as abandoned, with no lights on inside, save for one room. Miyako and Hikari, maybe?

“Here we are!”

An eerie laughter echoed through the fog, and Daisuke and Ken froze.

”...did you hear that?”

”Huh? I didn’t hear anything! You boys are silly.”

“But...”

Ken’s voice trailed off, and nothing followed.

Maybe it was just in their heads.

But it sounded so real.

Daisuke was even less convinced.

Because it sounded like Devimon.

”C’mon, my brother’s in here!”

”I thought you said he was by the TV Station.”

”By, in, same difference! C’mon!”

The little girl, once again, dashed inside before Daisuke and Ken could protest.

And they didn’t exactly want to be left alone in the city, it felt like it got creepier by the second.

And Miyako and Hikari were here, so it couldn’t be that bad...right?

Sharing a glance, they both sighed, and followed her inside.

It was as expected.

Dark hallways that seemed to extend on forever, but other than that, nothing out of the ordinary.

But that alone was enough to spook them.

“Miyako!” Daisuke both mumbled and shouted somehow.

When that got no response, he sighed.

”Hikari!”

No response either.

Daisuke looked back up at the dark hallway to see that they were approaching the room they seemed to be headed to; the one room with a light on, shining out into the hallway.

“Here we are!”

”Your brother’s in there?”

”Mhm!”

Daisuke, Ken, and the little girl stepped into the room.

It seemed to be just a normal office room. Desks with stacks of papers, swivel chairs, but...no people.

”Where...is he?”

Strings, not unlike a puppet, suddenly appeared on the little girl’s arms, being pulled into the shadows.

A shocked yell escaped both boys’ throats as a Digimon stepped out.

It wasn’t Devimon, though.

”What, you didn’t think Devimon was working alone, did you? With your stupid little friends,” He tugged on the strings of the little girl for emphasis. “And the other older kids defeating all of us all those years ago, now that there are more of you stupid kids, we couldn’t beat you alone, hm?”

The Digimon pulled two more puppets from the shadows with a twisted smile.

”MIYAKO!! SILPHYMON!!”

”Then...that must be...”

The Digimon smirked again, as the puppet transformed, becoming the Hikari they knew, though she really didn’t look that different.

The little girl was just a younger Hikari. How did they not realize sooner...?

Veemon and Wormmon shared worried glances, as Daisuke clenched his fists, and lunged at the Digimon, who wrapped the same puppet strings around him and held him in front of him like a shield, effectively preventing everyone in the room from attacking at the same time.

”DAISUKE!”

”AARGH!! LET OUR FRIENDS GO!!”

”Hm...I think not. I just wanna play a little game with you two! You like games, hm?”

A terrifying laugh, and Daisuke only clenched his fists harder.

”So you’re not alone? How many of you are there?”

”You pest. You don’t know how to play games? No talking! That’s not fun!”

As the strings tightened around Daisuke’s neck, Ken stiffened as he frantically tried to come up with something.

”Hey! Er...like, 20 Questions? That’s a game. That can be fun, right? Just let Daisuke go and we’ll play that, okay?”

The Digimon just glared at him.

”No deal! You just want to know what we’re planning!”

The strings got even tighter, causing Daisuke to grit his teeth.

”Ken...a lil help here?” He managed to mutter.

”I’m trying.” Ken grumbled, glancing around as if it would give him ideas.

Still just office desks, chairs, and messy stacks of paper.

”Tick, tock! You’re running out of time to save him, so-called genius boy!”

Ken snapped his head back to the Digimon with a growl.

”What game do you want to play?”

“Hm...maybe tag? Ooh, maybe you two could be my puppets for a bit! Then you’d get to be with your precious friends.”

”You’re not making Ken-chan and Daisuke into puppets!!” Wormmon snapped.

”Oh, little brat, I’m afraid you don’t have much of a choice.”

The Digimon shot out more strings from his free hand, wrapping around Wormmon and pulling him away from Ken.

”WORMMON!!”

”Right now, with Devimon’s illusion, we’re technically in the Real World, and if he dies in the Real World, he doesn’t come back.”

”We’re not in the Real World. We’re in the Dark Whirlpool.”

”Well, this boy dies either way. Do you really wanna risk it?”

The strings tightened on both Daisuke and Wormmon, and Ken finally gave in.

”Fine! Fine! Let them both go, and we’ll play your games! Just promise neither us, the Digimon, or Miyako and Hikari will be puppets forever.”

”Great! I promise!”

The Digimon finally let go of Wormmon and Daisuke, Ken running over to make sure they were okay.

”I’m sorry.”

”Don’t be sorry, Ken, you did your best to come up with something. I guess we’ll just have to do what he says.”

”I’m scared, Ken-chan...who is he?”

A twisted smile spread across the Digimon’s face again, as he spread his arms.

”Pinochimon, of course!”

Chapter Text

“Completely abandoned...”

Iori sighed as the waves splashed against the metal dock.

Takeru shivered slightly in the cold wind. ”It wasn’t like this before...there were so many people stuck here.”

”I...I think this is a trap. W-We have to go get everyone and get out of here, Ta-”

”Takeru! Takaishi Takeru, what a pleasure to see you again!”

Iori whipped his head around to face whoever the voice was coming from.

”...Pinochimon? H-How are you back? Are the other Dark Masters here?!” Takeru was the first to ask questions.

”We’re all here, young one. It’s just a matter of time until we’re the only ones here.”

”We won’t let that happen. Are you working with Devimon?”

”Ah, call it a truce. He needs our power, so he’s promised us the Real World in return! How fun is that?”

”T-The Real World?! The rest of you aren’t...”

”Oh, not yet, but soon. And I’m afraid you won’t be fast enough to stop us.”

Takeru grit his teeth, pulling out his D-Terminal.

”You’ll see, we-”

When he looked back up at Pinochimon, his eyes widened.

He was carrying six Marionette-like puppets...

But they weren’t just puppets, no, the resemblance was too close to be a coincidence...

Daisuke and Ken, and Miyako and Hikari, Silphymon, Veemon and Wormmon.

Their friends.

”WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

”Calm down! You were never such a killjoy before, Takeru, we’re just playing a game!”

”THAT’S NOT A GAME!!”

”Says you. If you don’t wanna play with me, I’ll just make you!”

Takeru hissed, placing his arm in front of Iori.

”Let our friends go. We’re going home.”

”I guess you don’t care about the mind-controlled kids then. Huh. I didn’t think you’d gotten more selfish too! Well, it doesn’t matter. You’ll be going home now.”

”Good. I-”

Strings zipped towards Takeru and Iori, a faint scream echoing from Takeru’s throat, almost like he was just a scared little kid again.

And everything went dark.

“I don’t wanna be here,” Mika mumbled, Devimon’s clawed hand on her shoulder. “Why do you still need me, anyway?”

”The Chosen Children’s stupidity, of course. They all came right back despite how badly it went the last time, just because of the promise they’d get to rescue the poor captured children. And now we just have to go to Vamdemon’s castle to open the gate to the Real World.”

She sighed, looking at the lineup of the rest of the captured children; some of the little ones were crying, some were still confused, and some had just given up.

“After all, you’ve already been taken. You were never happy, were you? You really thought you’d have a place with the Chosen Children?”

”...I guess not.”

”Exactly. You belong here, in this army. You belong in the darkness. You are home.”

A few tears slipped from Mika’s eyes as she forced herself to look away from the crying children.

”...I am home.”

It had been so long..minutes turned into hours over and over and over...

Knowing about all the Digimon stuff now, they were even more worried.

What if he really didn’t come back this time?

Mr. and Mrs. Ichijouji’s attention was grabbed when a big fissure-looking...portal opened in the dark sky.

The two of them ran out onto the balcony, looking up with widened eyes.

”Please, Ken-chan, be there...come home.”

Their hearts sank when a voice that wasn’t Ken-chan’s responded instead.

”HUMANS!! THE AGE OF ALL YOU PETULANT HUMANS IS OVER!! NO LONGER WILL WE BE CONFINED TO THE DIGITAL WORLD, SEEN AS MERELY DATA. THE AGE OF DEVIMON AND THE DARK MASTERS HAS ARRIVED!!”

Four large beasts jumped through one of the fissures, into Odaiba, it seemed, as a large dark cloud spread across the sky, darkening everything as far as you could see.

”Those things are attacking Odaiba.”

”Should we...go? I know we can’t do anything, but...It still feels wrong just to sit here.”

Mr. Ichijouji nodded with a small reassuring smile.

”I’ll grab our coats.”

“HIKARI!!”

”TAKERU!!”

”DAISUKE, MIYAKO, IORI, KEN!!”

Taichi and Yamato stopped in front of the Dark Masters. Mugendramon was destroying buildings, MetalSeaDramon destroying the harbor, and Piemon turning people into keychains.

”HEY!! WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE NEW CHOSEN CHILDREN?!”

Pinochimon turned to Taichi with annoyance, while the others continued their rampage through Odaiba.

”Ah, the pest leader strikes again.”

”ANSWER ME!! WHERE IS HIKARI?!”

Pinochimon thrust the Hikari puppet in front of Taichi, mimicking her voice. “Taichi, I’m right here! Ohh, you weren’t expecting me to be a puppet! That’s fine! Let’s make that better!”

The Hikari puppet transformed into a normal-looking Hikari. Nothing was odd about her except for her eyes, which had none of the normal life in them.

”Don’t worry, Taichi, we’re all good and fine!”

”Miyako too!” Said the Miyako puppet, smiling in a way that would almost be normal, but it was off. Sinister somehow.

”And Daisuke,” Pinochimon pulled out even more puppets. “Iori. Takeru’s here too! And Ken. Even the Digimon.”

Taichi growled, and clenched his fists.

“Let them go. You’re already taking over the Real World, what could they do to stop you?”

Pinochimon frowned, moving his hand as if puppeteering, the Hikari puppet dancing around, though no strings were present. She still just looked like Hikari.

”But we’re playing together! It’s a very fun game! You should play too, Taichi, you’d have so much fun!”

”Mhm,” The Hikari puppet agreed. “It’s the most fun game ever! You should play too, big brother!”

“Never.” Yamato snapped, running over to the Takeru puppet, which still just looked like a puppet resembling Takeru.

”Takeru!! C’mon, it’s Yamato!!”

No response.

”Oh, you wanna talk to Takeru? No problem!”

The Takeru puppet came to life as Hikari and Miyako’s had, smiling eerily at Yamato.

”You wanted to talk?”

”I-I wanted to talk to the real Takeru.”

The Takeru puppet sighed, rolling his eyes as he looked back at Pinochimon.

”You’re no fun, big brother. You never were.”

Yamato growled at Pinochimon.

”They’d better be okay. Takeru’d better be okay.”

”They’re fine! Ugh, you’re just like your brother and his friends. Why does nobody like games anymore?”

Yamato growled.

He still had so many questions. Could they think while they were puppets? Was it like just being passed out? And of course...what are they supposed to do without the younger kids? They can’t open the portals without the D-3s...

”Ah! Pinochimon, I actually had an idea for a game!”

The Digimon looked at Taichi with intrigue and doubt.

”We, uh...play some game you want. And if Yamato and I win, then you have to let at least one of the puppets go.”

Pinochimon pouted, before he sighed.

”Well, alright! You’ll never, ever win though!”

He snapped his finger and the three of them were transported to a colorful world filled with toys and games.

It looked cheerful, but...there was nobody else there.

”Well then, Chosen Children, let the games begin!!”

Chapter Text

We all have to go home soon, Ichijouji.

“Hey, kid...you okay?”

He sniffled, moving his arm from his face and looking up to see the older boy.

”I...I’m lost...I don’t know what happened...I was just in my house and now I’m here...”

”It’s okay,” The older boy smiled comfortingly, helping him to his feet. “I can help you find your way home, bud. I’m Akiyama Ryo.”

“I’m Ken! Ichijouji Ken!”

A small purple Digimon stepped out from behind Ryo, grinning at Ken, whose face lit up.

“Is that a dinosaur??”

Ryo let out a soft chuckle.

”He’s my Digimon Partner, Monodramon.”

Ken tilted his head. ”Digimon? What’s that?”

”Uh...hm. Basically, like, little guys made out of data. Some of them are friendly, but some are not.”

”Lil data guys?”

”That’s right!”

”So he’s data,” Ken reaches out a hand to softly pet Monodramon, who smiled. “How is he here?”

“Well, that’s because, Ken, we’re in The Digital World!”

”...The Digital World?”

I can help you find your way home, bud. I’m Akiyama Ryo.

Ryo...

The name felt both so familiar and so far away.

Sort of like...Osamu’s name.

Who was Ryo?

His friend, it seemed. Before he was the Kaiser.

Where...was he right now?

Ah, right...he was a puppet.

It felt like it had been a long time...Pinochimon promised they wouldn’t be puppets forever...

Takeru and Iori...they’d better be okay...

Hm...

There was definitely something Ken’s mind was trying to tell him, to figure out. And it had been trying for a long time.

And he was tired...

Maybe...he could just slip back into the dream for a while.

The two boys and their Digimon were buffeted by sand as they trudged through the desert.

”Milleniummon.”

Lo and behold, the Digimon was right there in front of them.

The one Ryo had mentioned so many times.

It looks...so much like Chimeramon...did I subconsciously base it off of Milleniummon?

Ryo turned to Ken, Wormmon, and Monodramon with determination.

”Monodramon, buddy, let’s g-”

The world seemed to slow as Ken noticed something flying towards Ryo in his peripheral vision. Some kind of spore-looking thing.

”RYO, WATCH OUT!!”

And everything seemed to blur now, as Ken tackled Ryo out of the way, into the hot sand.

The hot sand. That was a familiar feeling.

The spore embedded itself into the young boy’s neck, causing him to shriek in pain as the world spun around him.

Ryo ran over to him, shaking his shoulders and shouting something in horror, though Ken didn’t get any of it.

The only thing he could hear was ringing, and the only thing he could feel was pain.

Pain. He knew that feeling.

Finally, he heard a; ”KEN!!!” Before everything went black.

We all have to go home soon, Ichijouji.

Maybe he knew what she meant by that now.

He remembered Ryo. Milleniummon. The Dark Spore.

And everything made sense now.

“KEN-KUN!!”

Ken gasped, bolting to sit up.

Where...

Ryo...?

No, no, it was Taichi. And Yamato as well.

”I’m...I’m not a puppet...?”

The first thing Ken did was lightly touch the back of his neck. It didn’t sting as it sometimes did when he was the Kaiser. But it did still feel...strange.

”Yamato and I made a deal with Pinochimon. We played some games with him in exchange for him turning one of you back.”

”And you...you chose me?”

”You used to be...y’know...”

”The Digimon Kaiser.”

Taichi seemed surprised at how willing he was to talk about that specific topic, but Yamato just nodded, and added; “We thought you’d be the best at getting into our enemies’ heads.”

”Well, I’d be happy to help.”

Ken got up and brushed himself off.

He only realized now that they were in some kind of giant toy room, games and...well, really anything a child would like was here. But it was still strange somehow. Wrong-feeling.

Maybe because there were no small children here.

”Alright, Pinochimon. We beat your game. Now take us back to the real world.”

Pinochimon rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah...” And he snapped his fingers, teleporting them all back to Odaiba.

It was much darker, much sadder than the room they had been in before.

Mostly because of the fog.

But a city just wasn’t as pretty as a child’s room.

”KEN-CHAN!!”

Ken turned to the side to immediately be taken into his parents’ arms, hugging him tight.

”Mama, papa. I...I’m sorry I made you worry again.”

”It’s okay, baby, we’re just glad you’re okay.”

After a few moments, the three of them pulled away, and Ken glanced over at the Dark Masters, still mindlessly destroying the city.

”Um...”

”You have to go fight, right?”

He turned back to them and nodded firmly.

”Then we won’t stop you. It’s time to save the world.”

A confident smile spread across Ken’s face as he gave his parents one more hug, before running off to join the older Chosen Children.

”So, Tai, what do you think we should do?”

”We have to go to The Digital World. Devimon’s still there, our Digimon could be in danger, and there’s no way we’ll beat these guys without them.”

Sora and Yamato nodded, before smiling reassuringly at each other.

”Well,” Ken held up his D-3. It was still the same Dark D-3 as it had been for so long. Maybe that’s because the darkness would never truly leave him. But the fear of it did. “Chosen Children, let’s roll.”

It sounded weird if it wasn’t Miyako saying it. But maybe she’d be smiling at Ken’s effort if she was here.

”Yeah,” Taichi grinned. Almost the same kind of happy grin that Daisuke always had. “Chosen Children on three! One, two, three,”

”CHOSEN CHILDREN!!” They all exclaimed at the same time.

Koushiro held up the laptop he brought, and Ken nodded to everyone, before finally saying; “DigiPort open!!”

The Digital World was dark.

In many ways, it resembled Odaiba right now. Foggy, cold, and gray.

But neither Devimon nor the captured children were anywhere to be seen.

“Oh, I hope Agumon’s okay...”

Everyone silently agreed, looking around for their Digimon.

Wormmon was still a puppet...but Ken went off with Sora, Mimi, and Jou to help them find their Digimon.

Why did he go with them specifically? Well, he still had some apologizing to do...even if they all knew he wasn’t evil anymore, that didn’t delegate his responsibility to make up for everything.

And though he knew; and Dai and everyone knew, he’d come a long way already, he still wanted to go the extra mile.

”So, uh...” It was clear Mimi didn’t know what to say either as she twirled a lock of pink hair.

Sora took over, with a caring, almost motherly smile. “It’s nice to be teamed up with you, Ichijouji-kun. We don’t really know each other that well.”

Jou nodded, still focused on searching every nook and cranny for Gomamon.

”Yeah, I suppose we haven’t really met, huh? I...I’m truly sorry for everything I did as the Digimon Kaiser, and I promise, I won’t stop trying to fix all of it.”

All three of them had some bad experiences with the Kaiser. Everyone had. Piyomon, Palmon, and Gomamon...he’d definitely apologize to them too.

Jou straightened his glasses before finally speaking. ”I really admire how much you’re taking responsibility for everything. Nobody we’d fought before would even think about doing that. Case in point, this...entire situation. But as Motomiya-kun has said so many times, you don’t have to worry. You’ve more than made up for it.”

Ken smiled.

”Thank you, Kido-san.”

”Call me Jou.”

”You can just call me Sora as well, if you’d like!”

”And Mimi!!”

Ken chuckled, nodding.

”Then you call me Ken.”

Mimi nodded, grinning.

”Deal!”

”Agh, no more deals.” Ken chuckled, and everyone else chuckled nervously along with him.

”Well, hopefully, we’ll defeat Pinochimon and everyone pretty soo-”

”Mimi!!”

”Sora!!”

”Jou!!”

The four of them turned around to see all the Digimon running towards them.

The three older Chosen’s Digimon tackled them into a hug.

It only made Ken miss Wormmon more.

But to his shock, Agumon tackled him into a hug too.

”Ken! Is Taichi here?”

His smile widened and he felt tears start to form in his eyes.

Agumon, the Digimon he captured and tortured and forced to evolve...he forgave him.

He even seemed to want to be his friend.

It just made him so glad. Even though everyone here absolutely had the right to hate him...none of them did.

“Taichi’s back the way we came. He and everyone else are looking for you guys.”

Agumon jumped out of Ken’s arms, grinning at everyone.

”C’mon, let’s go to Taichi!”

Sora chuckled, still hugging Piyomon tight.

”Yeah, let’s go find Taichi.”

Chapter Text

“Taichi!! We found Agumon!”

The group had been running for a while. Just enough time to start to worry a little.

”Ah, look who’s back to the Digital World...”

Ken stiffened as a clawed hand grabbed him and held him up by his shirt collar.

“Why do you keep trying to mess with me,” Ken jabbed, no fear in his eyes as he glared at the dark creature in front of him. “I’m not afraid of the darkness anymore.”

Devimon growled, tightening his grip.

”You were always supposed to be the Kaiser. You never had any chance of being happy. Until those meddling pests came in and ruined everything. Wasn’t it more fun to rule the world? You can’t do anything now without Miyako and Hikari’s powerful new weapon.”

“Silphymon is not a weapon. Digimon are not weapons.”

”Oh, but they always were to you, were they not, Kaiser-sama?”

Ken’s glare only got angrier, as he clenched his fists.

”You can’t do anything without your precious Daisuke or Wormmon. You’re worthless without the darkness. It was always there, and it always will be. Come home.”

Ken punched Devimon hard in the face, and he finally let go of him, Ken landing on the ground with a slight roll.

As Devimon growled and grit his teeth in pain, Ken smirked.

”Takeru taught me that one.”

“YOU WILL REGRET EVER MESSING WITH ME. WE WERE ON THE SAME SIDE.”

”No. We were never on the same side. I didn’t care about anyone other than myself, and I doubt you do either.”

Devimon yelled furiously, as dark energy surrounded him.

”INSOLENT CHILD!!”

Beams of Dark Energy were shot from Devimon’s hands, racing towards Ken.

”What a shame. You really could have been useful.”

Ken’s eyes widened, but his legs wouldn’t move. As much as he despised it, as much as he wanted to run, it was like the darkness was trying to call him back.

“KEN!!”

And Agumon jumped in front of him, screaming as the darkness enveloped him.

”How...disappointing. Oh well.”

Ken’s body finally allowed itself to move, stumbling forwards so fast he just went tumbling to the ground.

He hissed through his teeth, lifting his head to see Devimon holding Agumon, who seemed to be suspended in the middle of a small void.

”Give him back!!” Sora started running towards Devimon, before Jou pulled her back. “NO!! AGUMON!!”

“We can’t defeat him alone, Sora.” Jou hesitantly mumbled.

Mimi remained in shocked silence.

”If you want Agumon back, come to the Kaiser’s old base. But you’ll have to trade someone.”

Devimon laughed coldly, as Ken slowly got up from the ground, clenching his fists again.

”What do you want me for anyway?!”

”Oh, nothing much anymore. Just for the fun of breaking every last bit of hope you all still have.”

Devimon turned away and spread his wings before Ken could punch him again, flying off into the dark sky.

Once he’d fully disappeared, Sora got to her knees and pounded on the ground.

”Agumon...”

”I...agh...”

As hard as they tried, nobody could think of anything to say.

Ken turned to Jou, Mimi, and Sora, with a firm look despite the situation.

”As much as I hate to admit it, he was right about one thing. We can’t defeat him without the rest of my team. My best friends. We have to save them.”

The three older Chosen Children just stared at him, along with the other Digimon.

”You can all go find the rest of your group. I have to find mine.”

”Alone? Are you sure, Ken-kun?”

He nodded.

”You have to find Taichi, and Yamato, and Koushiro. I used to be the Kaiser. I think I can handle a few Digimon. And besides,” Ken grinned playfully, surprising everyone. “I can always punch more people!”

Against all odds, Sora laughed.

”Alright, Ken-kun. We trust you. Go save your friends.”

He nodded with a fire in his eyes, turning away and opening a portal back to the Real World, giving one last reassuring nod before jumping through.

As the portal closed, Sora chuckled again with her hands on her hips.

”I definitely get why he’s a Chosen Child now. With that confident grin...he reminded me of Taichi.”

Mimi smiled, nodding. “I was thinking the same thing.”

”I guess Daisuke-kun’s optimism has really rubbed off on him.” Jou added.

”No,” Sora shook her head. “I think he found his own.”

Chapter Text

The city barely looked like a city anymore.

It was gonna need a lot of repairing after this.

Devimon’s dark tornadoes blocked his view of anything. Ken had to get to the TV Station. If the puppets were anywhere other than with Pinochimon, it’d be there.

He blocked his face from the harsh winds as he stepped into the chaos, trying to be as loud as he could over all the noise. “DAISUKE!! MIYAKO!! TAKERU, HIKARI, IORI!!”

No response other than the wind, which was really starting to get on his nerves.

After he finally made it through all the tornadoes, his eyes widened at a battle that was going on a little while away.

A big Digimon was fighting Pinochimon, a Digimon he didn’t recognize.

He still had to find his friends, but his instinctual reaction to run over and see what was going on ended up being what he went with.

Once he made it through all the buildings and the fallen debris, his eyes widened.

”Takeru? Iori?”

The two boys turned to Ken and wide grins spread across their faces as they ran over and pulled him into a hug.

”Ken!!”

”H-How did you escape Pinochimon?!”

”Devimon set us free. I guess he wanted me to see the destruction of Odaiba. But me and Iori-kun’s Digimon ended up Jogress evolving after we both agreed on how we had to save everyone. That’s Shakkoumon!”

Takeru gestured to the big Digimon fighting Pinochimon, who backed up before sending his explosive Nigimitama attack at him.

”Where’s Daisuke? And Miyako,  and Hikari?”

”They’re in the TV Station, I think.” Iori stated.

Takeru nodded. “I don’t know what Devimon’s planning with them...Iori and I have to stay here and stop the Digimon from destroying the whole city, you-”

”I have to save them.”

Takeru and Iori nodded at the same time, as Pinochimon got back up and growled in anger.

”YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!!”

He shot strings from his hands, wrapping around Ken to restrain him.

Ken hissed as Pinochimon pulled him over before Takeru and Iori could do anything.

”Why do you even want my friends to stay puppets? Just so you can be involved in the plan? It’s not exactly helping you.”

Pinochimon glared at Ken as he tightened the strings.

”You know this trick is getting old, right?”

The strings only got tighter. Maybe taunting him wasn’t exactly the best idea.

”Are you trying to get on my bad side, Ichijouji?”

A smirk spread across Ken’s face. ”Which side is that?”

Pinochimon finally snapped, grabbing Ken while also tightening the strings even more.

”KEN!!” Takeru screamed, trying to get over as fast as he could.

”LISTEN, YOU LITTLE PUNK,” Pinochimon held Ken by the neck over the edge of the skyscraper. “THIS ISN’T YOUR GAME ANYMORE. SO WHY DON’T YOU JUST RUN ALONG LIKE A GOOD LITTLE BOY?!”

”Because I think you’ve learned by now that I’m not exactly a good little boy. And I love my friends. And my family. I’m not going to let you take over our world.”

Pinochimon laughed coldly.

”Still so entitled. I don’t think you understand who’s in charge here.”

”Oh, it’s not me, but I know damn well it’s not you either.”

Pinochimon screamed in rage, throwing Ken into one of the buildings with a crash.

”KEN!!!” Takeru and Iori screamed, dashing over to the other boy, who was gritting his teeth in pain, but luckily seemed okay.

”Hey. You okay?”

”Yeah. Thanks, Takeru. I...” Ken grit his teeth harder and winced as he tried to get up. “I still...have to...save them.”

”Then go. Hurry. We’ll stall Pinochimon.”

Ken mustered a smile. “Alright.”

As he finally managed to get up and ran off towards the TV Station, Pinochimon gave Iori and Takeru an unsettling grin.

”Looks like you two are trying to get on my bad side too.”

Ken burst through the doors of the TV Station, running as fast as he could to that room he remembered, the one room with a light on.

”Hurry. Hurry, hurry.”

He finally made it into the room. A tornado was tearing through the wall, controlled by none other than Devimon himself.

”Oh, well, look who it is.”

Ken growled, running over and grabbing the puppets before Devimon could.

”The darkness will eventually swallow everything. Why are you trying to stall it?”

Ken just ignored Devimon, shaking all the puppets by the shoulders.

”They won’t wake up, pest. Pinochimon’s magic is stronger than your will.”

”I don’t have time for you right now.”

”Oh, sorry! I didn’t realize you were busy. How about we just free up some time?!” Devimon sneered, the tornado starting to pull the puppets in before Ken grabbed their hands.

”DAISUKE!! MIYAKO, HIKARI!! WORMMON, VEEMON, HAWKMON, TAILMON!! IT’S KEN!! C’MON!! WE HAVE TO SAVE THE WORLD NOW!!”

”Tick, tock, boy. The city’s on the verge of destruction.”

”DAISUKE!! WORMMON!!”

As Ken felt himself being pulled in by the wind as well, he pulled Daisuke and Wormmon close and hugged them tight.

”Looks like you’re out of time!”

And they all went flying into the dark tornado.

Ken hissed as everything spun around him, still not letting go of his boyfriend or his Digimon partner.

”Daisuke!! We have to save the world, now come on, snap out of it!!”

Still no response.

”Wormmon!!”

No response.

Ken groaned in frustration, pulling away from Daisuke slightly to see his face, though like everything, it was spinning horribly.

And as Ken ran out of ideas, he shouted out and slapped him.

That was how Miyako woke him up that one time...who’s to say it wouldn’t work in this situation?

As Ken gripped Daisuke’s arms, there was a firm look in his eyes, but a kind smile.

”Daisuke. Hey. It’s me, Ken. I promised Leafmon this one time, right after I stopped being the Kaiser, that I would never leave him. He promised he wouldn’t leave me either. No matter what, we stick together. And I’ll promise that to you too. No matter what happens, both of us get out of this. Both of us get out of this, together.”

The crest of kindness in Ken’s pocket started to glow with a bright pink light, along with Daisuke’s crests of Courage and Friendship.

And he opened his eyes with that familiar Daisuke grin.

”I promise.”

It felt as if time froze for a second as the two boys just smiled at each other, before a huge light burst up from the ground.

”XVeemon!”

”Stingmon!”

”Jogress Evolve...”

”Paildramon!!”

Daisuke and Ken found themselves on the ground, with a Digimon in front of them.

Their Digimon.

Paildramon.