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dragonandtiger · 6 years

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Digimon 00 - Fragments - 26

Ken made his way up the small grassy hill, his steps swift as he carried Wormmon with him. Although it was night, the full moon granted plenty of light to guide him to the top of the hill. Once he reached his destination, he stopped to admire the dazzling view of the night sky, an infinite field of black painted with countless glittering stars.With the forest keeping its distance around the base of the hill, he and his partner were granted a completely unfettered view of the cosmos.

It was enough to take Ken’s breath away.

“It’s so beautiful. I never got to see stars like this back home,” Ken murmured. “Are each of those stars a different Digital World?”

“That’d be amazing!” Wormmon chirped, eyes wide and shimmering with starlight. “There’s so many of them!”

“It’d also be exhausting,” Nyamon said as she approached the two from behind. “Narakumon has enough trouble with just this world.” She flashed the pair a grin. “It’s an illusion, made to resemble the night sky in your world. Behind it, you’ll find nothing but lines and lines of Digital Code.”

“Oh,” Ken said, sounding a bit disappointed before he perked up a moment later. “Well, it’s still very pretty, and it feels real!”

“Right,” Nyamon said, giggling. She paused before casting a knowing glance down the hill at her partner, where Keiko fidgeted about before tentatively moving to join them. “And that’s what counts.”

Keiko didn’t meet her partner’s pointed gaze, but moved up the hill anyway to join the group. As she drew closer, Nyamon smiled up at her before using her tail to nudge the Chosen of Darkness closer to Ken.

Ken glanced over to Keiko before he smiled, then looked back up at the stars. “Thank you for inviting us... I’m really glad you wanted to show us this!”

Keiko gave an awkward nod before she began to fidget. She glanced up at the sky, watching through her peripheral vision as Ken sat down on the soft grass and set Wormmon down beside him. She hesitated to sit as well, instead turning her gaze to her hands before rubbing them anxiously together,as if warming them.

After several long moments, the Chosen of Darkness glanced over to Ken as he stared enraptured at the night sky. Keiko hesitated before she braced herself. “Ken?”

“Yes?” Ken asked as he turned to look at Keiko, then stopped as he noticed the conflicted expression on her face. A moment later, he realized she dropped her typical nickname for him, which only magnified his worry. “What is it?”

“I’m sorry,” Keiko said quietly, too ashamed to look directly at Ken.

Ken blinked. “For what?”

Keiko forced herself to stop being a coward and looked Ken in the eye. “For going off on you earlier,” said, a little stronger than before. “The life I had before coming to the Digital World was… bad. It’s taken me years here with Narakumon and Tenraimon and everyone else to get over it.” She paused for a moment, her expression turning sour. “Or at least, I should be over it by now. I shouldn’t be still sensitive to it like that.”

Ken stared at Keiko for a long moment as the cool night wind delicately brushed against his cheek and made Keiko’s long black hair dance. “I-I’m sorry, I… I didn’t realize… I shouldn’t have mentioned your parents at all.”

Keiko sighed, trying to hide her frustration. Making Ken feel bad again was not what she wanted. “Don’t… Don’t apologize. Your parents are crap for neglecting you and treating you like Osamu’s leftovers, but they didn’t abuse you. You probably thought that my parents were, at worst, as bad as yours.”

One word was all it took to set off alarms in Ken’s head. “A-abuse!?” he repeated, voice practically shrill. “They abused you!?” The guilt intensified, as he realized his actions went beyond merely reminding her of unpleasantness and to outright reminding her of abuse. The sheer depths of his unintended insensitivity made his stomach churn.

With a nod, Keiko took a deep breath to steel her nerves. “That woman…” She stopped, her muscles tensing up as she forced herself to spit out a word covered in barbs. “My ‘mother’ was a demon.” A wretched acidic taste coated her tongue, but she forced herself not to falter. “She gave birth to me, so she felt that I owed her everything.”

Nyamon silently moved to her partner’s side, reaching up to take Keiko’s hand in hers with surprising tenderness despite the hard metal gauntlet that she wore.

Ken stared at Keiko before thought to his own parents, then grimaced. In a way, he saw shades of his own parents in that statement, though he didn’t dare make the connection between that entitlement and ‘abuse’ - especially when he had been raised to believe it was normal to think that way.

“My birth father… I have no idea what he was like,” Keiko said with no real emotion. When it came to the man she never met and only saw once, there was just an empty pit inside her, something she skirted around and refused to think about in detail to avoid further pain from loss. Ultimately, such a tactic left her feeling a dull sense of apathy and numbness. “That woman murdered him when he tried to take me away from her.”

Ken was stunned speechless, openly gaping at Keiko in pure horror.

Keiko tried to smile to ease the tension, but all that she could manage was a sickly crook at the corner of her mouth. “She lied to me that I even had a father. Or older siblings who lived with him in Tokyo. As far as I knew, there was just me, my ‘mother’ and her relatives. I lived out in a very small village in the rural countryside, one where anyone who comes from the outside are outsiders and everyone keeps secrets. The family I was born in, the Makuras, basically owned the entire town, and if they wanted to make someone disappear… like someone who cared enough to try to save me…”

The increasingly terrified expression on Ken’s face was enough to veer Keiko away from finishing that thought.

“I’ll spare you the nightmares of the details,” she murmured. “Basically… everything in my life was dictated by that woman, and if I disobeyed, she would…” She paused again, fumbling for words that would give a hint at the weight of her experience without traumatizing Ken. “There were… things in the basement. Nasty tools and rooms for… for punishment. They’re things that aren’t supposed to be in anyone’s house. Things that made people never want to fight back again, or to make them disappear…” She paused to let out a shuddering breath. “I still have nightmares of… nights I spent down there.”

Ken trembled slightly before he stood back up and moved closer to Keiko. Even as her words baffled and terrified him, the sight of her pain was enough to break through his stupor and cause him to want to comfort her, though he hesitated to offer a hug in case she didn’t want to be touched. “It’s… it’s okay now, though. You’re not there anymore, you’re… you’re here. You’re in the Digital World, with me and everyone else. S-so...” He trailed off, realizing how weak his words sounded, but he was at a loss for what else he could say. “I’m sorry…”

Keiko focused on Ken before she wrapped an arm around him and pulled her friend close. “Yeah. I’m safe here. I’ve been safe here for years. That’s why there’s no excuse for me getting so angry with you like I did. Just the idea of you feeling sorry for a woman like that…” She tried to keep the venom from her voice, but her mouth twisted with taste. “She always, always made everyone feel sorry for her… including me. Even after spending a night in the basement. Because it was my fault I had to be dragged down there. Because everyone agrees she deserves the sympathy because it’s so hard to raise me. Because she was my mother and she loved me.”

Just saying the words made Keiko feel like throwing up, but she held back the urge, realizing she was straying from the reason they were having this conversation. “I’m sorry.” She slid both arms around Ken this time and hugged him close. “You had no idea, so don’t blame yourself. Who expects to hear that their friend grew up with a literal murdering psychopath? That’s only supposed to exist in dramas, not real life.”

Ken’s eyes began to water as he hugged Keiko tightly. He was still at a loss for what to say, but he could at least express himself physically. “Keiko…”

“I’m sorry,” Keiko muttered as she gave Ken’s shoulder a gentle squeeze before rubbing his back in small circles. “Being friends with you is one of the best things to ever happen to me. I care about you. It wasn’t right for me to hurt you just because you were worried about me and anyone related to me. Of course you care - you’re Ken-chan! You’re the kindest, most compassionate person I know.”

Ken couldn’t respond with more than a sniffle as he squeezed Keiko tight, his small body quaking with emotion.

A soft sigh escaped Keiko at the sound of Ken’s tears, and she berated herself for making him feel bad. Again. Faking a smile, she tried to lighten the atmosphere with a perky attitude that wasn’t as convincing as she would’ve liked. “Hey, don’t worry about what happened to me back then. I’ll protect you and everyone else who’s good like you in the Digital World. I’m the Chosen of Darkness - I’m no one’s doll anymore-”

“Which is a crime that simply must be fixed,” came a voice that neither of the children recognized. “You would, after all, make such a lovely doll.”

The oily voice was all the warning either Keiko or Ken had to turn and see the white handkerchief that flew at them and exploded in size until it became more like a large blanket. Neither child could react in time, but, fortunately for them, the voice already set Nyamon on high alert, and the sudden movement set her off instantly. She lunged upwards and lashed out, her claws blazing blue flames that immediately incinerated and shredded the cloth before it could touch the human children.

Nyamon landed in front of her Chosen and Ken as bits of burning fabric fluttered down like snow, her expression fierce. “Show yourself!”

“How… unfortunate,” the voice said, slithering from somewhere in the darkness. “That would’ve been a rather ironic ending to this little performance, wouldn’t it?”

Anger pounded through Keiko’s veins instead of blood as she whirled about to find their unseen opponent, not just because of the attack but also the sense of violation that the Digimon had overheard something so private, so personal. She had spent too much time working herself up to a place where she could tell the story to one of her dearest friends. How dare this bastard slip in to hear something not meant for them. She placed herself between Ken and the source of the voice, who stepped back instinctively with wide eyes and scanned the sky as well.

“Show yourself,” she snarled, “so I’ll know who I’m going to kill.”

“But then,” the voice continued as if Keiko hadn’t spoken before Piemon suddenly appeared above the Chosen Children, sneering down at them. “Every veteran performer knows that not every act ends as it should. That is when the true test of an actor’s abilities begins.”

Nyamon glared up at Piemon, crouched in a battle-ready position. “Another of Millenniumon’s goons, I assume.”

Piemon smiled down at Nyamon, though his eyes were anything but friendly. “I am Piemon, of the Dark Masters - and your executioner.”

Keiko pulled out her Digivice from her pocket. “I’m not in the mood for this. Nyamon, take care of him.”

Nyamon nodded before she was engulfed with the light of evolution. She barely had time to transform into Nyxmon before Piemon drew his swords and flung them at her with deadly accuracy. She brought up her scythe to defect them, a loud clang issuing through the night with each strike.

Keiko wrapped her arm around Ken and held him against her as she took a defensive stance. “Stay close to me.”

“O-okay,” Ken said as he stared up at Piemon, with no small amount of fear.

“Don’t worry, Ken-chan!” Wormmon said as he took a defensive stance at Ken’s feet. Even though he knew that he was hopelessly outmatched against Piemon, that wasn’t about to stop him from defending his partner. “I won’t let him near you!”

Nyxmon lunged at Piemon, fanning her wings to take flight as she erased the distance between them. Piemon showed no sign of fear of the aggressive angel Digimon, meeting her charge head-on as he drew more swords and lunged to greet her.

Nyxmon grunted as her scythe met the Digimon’s swords, being halted from puncturing his digital flesh. In response, she drew her foot up and slammed it into Piemon’s groin, sending the harlequin Digimon flying backwards before he righted himself.

“H-hitting below the belt, are we?” Piemon asked as he wobbled slightly, but recovered quickly enough to block Nyxmon’s next attack as she lunged for him once again. “That’s foul play, my dear!”

“It’s a fight, not a sport!” Nyxmon retorted. “I won’t hold back and neither will you!”

Piemon smirked before he redirected Nyxmon’s attack with his swords to slip away from her powerful attack. Once free, he lunged forward, forcing her back and forcing her to bring up the scythe in defense, blocking his swords with the handle this time.

“Keiko! Ken!” Ryo’s voice called out as he rushed out of the woods and up the hill. The fighting could be heard from a considerable distance away, disturbing the tranquil silence of the night. It was more than loud enough to even reach the camp and send everyone running. “Are you okay!?”

“Lady Keiko, Ken-chan!” FlaWizarmon called as well, racing stride for stride alongside Ryo and Leomon, as Witchmon rode her broom. Only Neemon and Bokomon were absent, as the two non-combatants knew far better than to rush into probable battle - or at least, Bokomon did, and made sure Neemon stayed out of the way.

“Interrupting such an important moment!” Witchmon said with a cluck of her tongue. “No manners at all.”

“You bastard!” Leomon snarled out as he raced ahead of the Chosen of Miracles, his eyes focused on Piemon. “Ryo!”

“Right!” Ryo shouted as he whipped out his Digivice.

Piemon glanced down just in time to see Leomon evolve to Panjamon, then grimaced. His eyes darted to Keiko and Ken, then back down to Ryo as the brown haired boy reached his friends. “It seems the curtains are falling on this act much faster than anticipated…”

“Allow me to cut them down that much faster!” Nyxmon said as she lunged at Piemon again.

Piemon swerved out of the way, twirling around Nyxmon as she struggled to stop her charge and whip about to follow him. He didn’t give her much chance for that, planting his foot on her chest and using her as a springboard to send himself flying away.

“Stay behind me,” Keiko said as she nudged Ryo with a little more force than necessary to stand by Ken.

“Right,” Ryo said as he placed his hands on Ken’s shoulders from behind. With the three of them, they created a makeshift barrier around the youngest and most vulnerable of them.

With so much attention on his safety, Ken cast his gaze from Keiko to Ryo and couldn’t help but cringe at the reminder that he was the weakest Chosen Child of them all.

Blade and claw clashed as Panjamon barely repelled Piemon’s attack, skidding back several feet and leaving deep grooves in the earth. The difference in power between them was too great, and it was only through the grace of Nyxmon’s attack that he was spared from the swords drawing blood.

Piemon narrowly dodged Nyxmon’s latest attack even with his incredible speed, flipping upwards and back to kick the fallen angel in the back of the head to force her and her deadly scythe towards Panjamon. Nyxmon barely managed to stop in time before her blade reached her friend, but the distraction cost her.

In the precious seconds Piemon gained, he charged the children. He smirked as his eyes dancing with glee as he met the hateful gaze of Keiko as a deadly aura of darkness overtook her. However, though the child was powerful, he was far more agile and flipped above and behind the small group of children and his true target. With a flick of his wrist, he pulled out a small black barbed sphere before he threw it at Ryo with expert precision and speed.

“Ryo!”

Everything happened at once. Ryo barely had time to turn his head, only for Ken’s cry to bring his gaze back to the front as two small hands shoved him with unexpected force, sending him to the ground. Keiko rounded about, but didn’t see the attack in time, only Ken placing his hands on her chest for a push that never came. From the ground, Ryo had a perfect view of the barbed sphere as it slammed into the back of Ken’s neck, while Keiko witnessed Ken’s eyes widen in shock and pain. Both could only helplessly watch the blood splatter as they screamed Ken’s name.

Keiko grabbed Ken, babbling his name and hysterical denials as she snatched him up in her arms as he fell limp and unresponsive. “No no no nonono no! Ken!”

“Ken!” Ryo shouted, nearly in hysterics as he sat up while Keiko sunk to her knees. “Oh my God, Ken!”

“Ken-chan!” Wormmon wailed, tears in his eyes as he pawed futilly at Ken’s leg.

FlaWizarmon raced over as Keiko cradled Ken in her lap, ripping off part of his clothes to try and stop the bleeding. “D-damn it… Ken-chan, hold on!”

“Shit,” Witchmon hissed as she cast a glowing blue summoning spell circle before her. It was far more difficult than her teleportation spell, especially due to lack of practice, but she managed conjure a first-aid kit from thin air.

“Ken!” Nyxmon cried out, before her horror quickly turned to rage as she lunged after Piemon like a rabid beast. “I’ll kill you!”

“You intended to do that anyway, my dear!” Piemon said, with a snide smirk. He jumped backwards to avoid the slashing scythe, glancing down at the human children. While he remained smiling, inwardly he grimaced. He could already feel the master’s fury at him for hitting the wrong target. However, he had no way of making a second attempt - not with the element of surprise gone and Nyxmon in hot pursuit - and thus, no reason to linger. With that, he quickly flew skyward, putting distance between himself and the scene.

“You’re running away!?” Panjamon demanded from his helpless position on the ground, clenching his fists. “You attack a helpless child and then flee!?”

“I won’t let you!” Nyxmon snarled, practically quaking with anger as she streaked across the sky like an angel of death.

Piemon simply flashed a grin over his shoulder as he took off into the night, slowly, but steadily, widening the distance between him and Nyxmon due to his maddening speed.

“I’ll get the bastard!” Witchmon snarled, about ready to take off on her broom.

“Witchmon!” FlaWizarmon barked, his voice cutting Witchmon off and causing her to stare at her comrade. Beside him, the first-aid kit box lay open, with spools of bandages unwound and stained with red. “I can’t stop the bleeding! We’ve got to take him to Crystal Tower!”

Witchmon felt her heart jolt before she rushed over to the group of children, allowing Nyxmon to do the chase as she focused on the higher priority. “I’m on it, dearie!”

“Ken! Ken!” Keiko cried out as she cradled the small boy against her, her eyes going moist as she watched the color drain from his face. “Ken, say something! Anything! Answer me!” She continued to plead, to beg the injured boy to respond in some way, even as Witchmon’s cloak engulfed them all.

#Dreaming To Reality #Fragments #Digimon Adventure 02 #digimon

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