Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digital Phantom ❯ Digital Phantom Index 0:2 ( Chapter 2 )

Sunday 16th May 200X, Unknown

Unknown

"Culu.Please don't hurt me, culu." The small white rodent-like creature with large ears and a red triangular design on its forehead jumped out of the way as a large claw slammed down where it had been. With this it began running as fast as its stumpy little legs would carry it.

The attacker let out no reply to this. It was revealed to be a large black humanoid dragon with a metal faceplate and horns, metal pads on the thighs, metal claws on both his hands and feet and long metal blades on his elbows. Four dark red tattered wings were on his back and wires seemed to go from some parts to others.

With a roar it brought the clawed hands down together ripping through the bushes the rodent had sought sanctuary in. That's when a boy came running after the dragon-like creature.

"Cyber Dramon, stop it. You can't kill a defenceless digimon. I won't let you." The boy had a metal gauntlet with red trim on his right arm. As he got closer a whip of light emerged from it wrapping around the dragon's arm pulling him back before he got another chance to attack it.

"Ooh thank you, culu. I was very scared, culu." The rodent seemed to do a little dance as it got back to its feet. The dragon snarled as it turned to face the boy who shrugged.

"Don't worry. Cyber Dramon is just rather uncontrollable at times. I don't know why he'd attack a little guy like you though." The boy smiled as the rodent bounced up and down in front of Cyber Dramon. The dragon just relaxed and the boy released the whip from its arm.

"Well I'm going to go now, culu." The creature turned to leave. But as he did that a bestial snarl emerged from the metal faceplate. With a roar it spun as its claws reached out for the creature grabbing it around it's stomach tightly.

And it disappeared.

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Sunday 16th May 200X, Unknown

Unknown

And in a swirling land of data it reappeared. And looked around.

"What is this?" The small rodent looked around inquisitively as numbers flashed past some even passing through his transparent body and shot off again.

"Welcome to what the humans call a Digital Field. Whatever goes in here can come out in the human world," said a sugary voice from somewhere.

"Oh, what is the human world? How would I get there? Culu." The rodent jumped up and down as it began running towards where it assumed the voice was coming from. And yet as much as it ran with its little legs it couldn't ever find the body the voice came from. And there didn't seem to be anywhere for anything to hide.

"It's a terrible place. You wouldn't want to go there. You can stay with me. I'll take care of you, Culumon." The voice seemed to get closer and as it did it spun around looking for whoever was offering to let him stay with them. But it wasn't interested in this place.

It had become dull for the inquisitive digimon.

"No thank you, culu. I don't like this place much. I want to go to the human world. I wanna see what it's like." Culumon began running away from where the voice was coming. Suddenly the world he was in felt all so more frightening. And so did the voice that had felt inviting before.

"Culumon, you can't leave me. I'll take care of you. I won't let anyone hurt you. Now stay where you are. I'll come to you." The voice was a cruel mockery of was it had first seemed like. Somehow Culumon found an extra burst of speed and ran faster than he had been.

"No, culu. I want to go to the human world. I don't want to stay with you, culu. You're scaring me." Numbers seemed to swirl around more and more now. And the seemingly non-existent sky became dark.

The world was frightening and cold.

"Culumon, you belong to me. I will have you no matter where you run. You are mine." The voice was closer and yet Culumon couldn't find it no matter where he looked. And he knew he didn't want to know what it belonged to even if he was curious. After all sometimes curiosity wasn't the smartest option.

"Culu."

And he disappeared once more.

"Bugger." A line of expletives could be heard from the mysterious voice. Laughter suddenly came from elsewhere, a gruff but booming laugh.

"Ahh, seems you've failed again. But you always fail. Hmm, am I going to have to hunt down him now that you've lost him? Now that you've lost him, once more." The new voice was cruel and mocking to the original voice.

"I shall go. I will not fail once more. He shall be mine." The original voice was indignant.

"He shall be ours, brother." And with that the newer voice grew silent.

"I won't fail."

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Sunday 16th May 200X, 23:34

WestShinjukuElementary School

And Culumon popped into existence.

And found himself in the schoolyard.

And saw the football field.

And smiled to himself.

This place looked interesting.

"Culu," he said in awe.

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Digital Phantom

By Misc666

A Digimon Tamer fanfiction with Boogiepop Phantom influences. I don't own either series. I only own the idea of the story and several minor characters.

Index 0:2- Beings of unnameable fears

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Monday 17th May 200X, 14:12

GijukuPrivate School, Front Entrance

"Wow Makino-sempai is so cool," squealed a nine year old girl. The person she'd been talking about, a girl with red haired ponytail and sour expression, shot her a dirty glare. The girl backed away frightened of the girl she been praising. Then the red-haired girl straightened the plaid skirt and walked off.

"Ruki-chan, you're not going to make friends if you scare them off. Poor Sugita's going to be traumatised because of you, probably. Try to keep a less apathetic attitude, how's anyone going to get close to you?" Another girl with small brown pigtails and a pleasant smile appeared.

"Uehara, don't call me that. And what makes you think I want to make friends with little girls?" Ruki continued walking while the other girl pouted.

"You don't have to be so mean. Besides you can call me Minami anyway, we've known each other for how long?" The girl started counting upon her fingers as Ruki continued walking. Noticing this Minami ran to catch up.

"We've only known each other for six months. Now leave me alone. I have somewhere to be in a little while." Ruki continued walking as Minami noticed her counting wasn't needed and let her hand drop as she blushed profusely at how silly she must have looked.

"Well you can't leave now. We still have classes. You can't just skip school. What would your mother think of that? Hmm, I know my dad would go ballistic if he knew I was skipping school. Not that I would. But you shouldn't either." Minami stopped to think but again Ruki ignored her as she kept walking towards the front door and away from school

"I'm already ahead in all my classes. It's not like I'm going to fall behind any of you. Besides Mitsuya-sensei probably won't even notice I'm gone. Stupid woman's too dense to notice." Ruki kept walking all this time despite Minami attempts to stop her. Minami was growing more impatient.

"Come on. If you got to know me I'm sure you'd like me. I can tell you about growing up in Okinawa and you can tell me about what it was like to grow up in Tokyo with a famous mother." Minami smiled but Ruki frowned and sped up her walking. Minami had to run to catch up with her.

"I don't care about what it was like to grow up in Okinawa. And frankly I don't want to talk about my mother. There are few things that I'd least like to talk about. So why don't you go find someone else to tell stories about your childhood pet to. I've got to go." As she made the pet comment Minami frowned but pretty soon she'd lightened up once more. She ran round in front of Ruki and began making funny faces.

"Come on, don't you want to show people that you're not the 'Ice Queen' they say you are. You can be fun-loving can't you? Everyone can be fun. Come on, we'll go sing some karaoke." Minami put on a big smile. But with a disgusted look Ruki pushed her aside and walked onwards and out of the door.

"Hmmph. She doesn't have to be so mean and aloof all the time. I only want to be her friend. After all, it's not like I have many myself. And if she just took some time to look around she'd discover that a lot of people want to be her friend." Minami began to walk back to her class when someone reached out to stop her.

The owner of the hand was a girl with Caucasian features and blond pigtails. Unlike the other girls at the school she didn't wear the school uniform and instead wore a gothic black dress. Minami vaguely remembered her.

"Arisu-chan? What would you like?" She hoped she gotten the name right. Of course she wasn't good with Western names and she hadn't ever met the girl. Although from what she could remember she was a girl who nobody seemed to associate with and even the teachers were afraid to tell her to put on a school uniform instead of what she always wore.

"Alice. But that's not what I wanted to say. It's about Makino." The Japanese was flawless but still held the Western accent of wherever she was from.

"Ruki-chan?What about her? Do you know why she's always so distant?" Alice looked at the hopeful girl and smirked.

"Yes. I do. You see as you probably know she comes from a common situation nowadays. Her parents aren't married and she doesn't want to end up like her mother. She views being feminine as being weak and instead focuses on being independent from anyone else. Most importantly she views having friends as a weakness." Alice stopped there to let Minami comprehend it. The girl however just scrunched up her face.

"But having friends is a beautiful thing. You can't just always rely on yourself. Sometimes you need a helping hand." Alice just shrugged as Minami started thinking once more.

"Everyone has to follow their own path in life. Makino just wants to walk her own path alone. Normally paths cross and sometimes people walk the same path together. But she just refuses to let any path near her own, be it you or her mother or any number of people who've tried to get closer to her at some point in her life." Alice's philosophical explanations were beginning to make Minami's head hurt.

"But Ruki would be much happier with friends. I'm sure of that. If she's just let someone get close… You know what? I'm going to never let up. I'm going to make her my friend no matter what." Minami jumped away and smiled at Alice. Then with a wave she ran off to class leaving the blond girl standing there alone.

"Hmm, seems like Makino's life is going to get that little bit more difficult. But who knows, maybe she'll come out of it as a better person. Well looks like it's time for me to go as well." With a last look at Minami who was sliding open the door to her class she turned away and left the school herself.

After all, Makino Ruki wasn't the only person who had something to do this certain afternoon.

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Monday 17th May 200X, 14:59

MetropolitanBuilding, Lobby

It was midday and as such nobody paid attention as a ten year old girl, with a red pigtail, in a school uniform strode into the lobby of the building. Settling down she sat beside the statue.

The statue was one that to most would not seem all together out of place to most people. It was marble and of a god-like man with youthful features, a magnificent beard, a curved smile and dense locks for hair. But the most striking feature of the whole statue was the writing on the base. The writing that named the piece of art in the writing of the ancient Greeks, Ύπνος, or as it was more easily translated 'Hypnos' the Greek god of Sleep.

"So I see you're marginally early today. Tell me about Thursday. I want to know what you thought you were doing." Ruki didn't bother looking behind herself. She knew who it was by the voice and knew it was better to not draw attention to the two of them. Instead she snorted disproval.

"Please, spare me that crap. I had nothing to do with that. You think my partner could create cracks in the floor like that? Yamaki if that's what you believe then you don't know the two of us very well." She laughed as the owner of the voice placed a hand on her shoulder.

"So, who did? I assume you know, if you're cocky enough that you're going to use that tone with me. Bear in mind I have no patience for games today. So spit it out." Yamaki seemed angry and this made Ruki smirk just a little. It always pleasured her to anger him.

"First, maybe you can tell me what I want to here. How well is it going? The search, I mean." She seemed impatient which brought a brief spurt of laughter from the man behind her.

"It's going well. Seems he nearly, accidentally, returned to this world. Seems that he managed to stop it happening none the less, although something else did manage to come through. Maybe you could head down to West Shinjuku Elementary School later on to check it out. But what happened on Thursday?" The owner of the voice, Yamaki, came round and sat down next to Ruki revealing himself to be a blond haired man in a neat black suit and sunglasses.

"Well it seems that the Digital Phantom claimed another victim and took care of another suspect on our list. Of course he seems to know whether they're a Tamer or not, definitely. As for what happened at least we now know that whatever he's using is big, although how it managed to create cracks like that implies extremely big…" She trailed off causing Yamaki to shoot her an impatient glare.

"And what are you getting at?" His fingers curled around a lighter in his hand which he began flipping open the lid and then closing it and repeating.

"Well this is what? The third time he's done this? And yet have we ever found evidence that he was accompanied by something big. It it's a big as I guess it is then it should be knocking buildings over everywhere and leave cracks in the ground wherever he goes. And yet it doesn't." Ruki stopped to think some more as Yamaki looked at all the people entering and leaving the building.

"Hmm, all these people come in day in and day out and never once realise what's going on above their heads." Yamaki stood up brushing his hands across the arm of the statue with awe clearly in his eyes.

"What's your obsession with that statue?" Ruki meanwhile held something in her hands which she seemed to view with awe but kept her hand shut and fingers tight.

"Well a long time ago in America the police were drawn to the house of a promising, but not great, sculptor. His neighbours had heard him shrieking and between them and the police broke down the door. Now this man had taken to drugs and sold all the sculptures he made to buy more until he had no more sculptures and no materials to make anymore and his drug supply ran out. But it seems that there was one statue he hadn't sold. This one right here. Of course he was utterly mad and raved about how this wasn't a statue but a friend who'd just suddenly turned to stone. Of course how my organisation came into possessing it is another story." He left the statue and sat once more next to the girl.

"Hmm, so tell me about the signal you got last night. What kind of digimon came through?" Ruki no longer cared a bit for whatever stories Yamaki had to tell. After all once she got what she wanted she'd leave him as quickly as she had came into his 'control'.

"Hmm, well it seems that it was too small for Reika and Megumi to detect and that it managed to slip in until we refined the search for whatever came through. However we felt that it wasn't worth sending a unit to deal with. But there must be a reason behind its emergence so maybe you could take a look." He got up to leave.

"Fine, but there are other things I've got to do beforehand. I'll look into it later." She stood up ignoring Yamaki who she knew wouldn't offer his hand to shake and she wouldn't have taken it anyway. And without a second glance she strode out the door and into the afternoon sun.

And beside her the world shimmered.

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Monday 17th May 200X, 11:06

WestShinjukuElementary School

"Matsuda, Katou go get two more cones. I wanted six, not four." Asanuma-sensei sighed as the boy and girl looked sheepishly at her. Around them some of the kids were giggling and behind her were the worst pair when it came to this, Shiota Hirokazu and Kitagawa Kenta.

"Heh, she's gonna have another breakdown," sniggered Hirokazu. Kenta meanwhile burst out laughing before stopping and shushing his friend.

"Come on, I still say that last time it wasn't really a breakdown. She just got a, really bad, migraine when Takato gave her the wrong homework. It wasn't really a true breakdown." She felt another migraine coming on as she spun around. The two boys jumped up at the sight of this. They hadn't expected her to hear the pair of them.

"Okay, Katou and Matsuda go now. Shiota and Kitagawa, be quiet right now or I'm sending you to Kurosawa-sensei. And the rest of you get into a line." She walked away wishing for the day when the current 5-B would be out of her hair. Why couldn't she have one of the younger classes? Or one of the other fifth year classes.

"Okay Asanuma-sensei. We'll be back in a minute." Takato began bowing deeply hoping to escape her wrath. Juri meanwhile grabbed the boy by the collar and dragged him away. Just in time as well as veins popped up on Asanuma-sensei's forehead.

"Takato, you've got to stop putting yourself in her way. You're not exactly her favourite student." Takato nodded his agreement while watching her carefully. He'd spent the weekend thinking about what she'd said to him on Friday and he was still no closer to understanding why she'd believe him. Was she like Sakamoto? Did she have experience with digimon herself?

"Katou, why did you believe me on Friday? Why were you the only person to believe me? You can tell me." Takato grabbed her by the arm as she began to open the door to the shed. Inside it was totally dark but the light reflected off something inside there although neither was paying attention.

"Hmm, why did I believe you? Well I suppose I believe you because there's no real reason not to believe you. You may be a little over-imaginative but there's no real reason for you to lie about something like that." She happily pulled open the door while Takato returned to thinking.

And that's when something shot out of the door.

Juri noticed it coming and jumped away.

But Takato wasn't paying attention and was hit full in the face.

By the small rodent like digimon, Culumon.

"Whoops, culu." Culumon stood up on his two little legs and began brushing dirt and dust off his body. That's when he noticed the unconscious boy underneath his feet, whose chest he was standing on.

"Oh, hello little guy." Juri pulled her hand out of her pocket letting go of whatever had been in there. Nearby the bushes rustled despite the lack of wind.

"Ouch, what hit me?" Takato groggily opened his eyes and reached a hand up to rub his head. That's when he noticed Culumon. With a cry he jumped up throwing off Culumon who sailed through the air and landed with a thud on the ground sending up a shower of dust.

"Woah, what the hell is that?" asked Takato as an indignant Culumon got to his feet and stared him down.

"I'm Culumon. What are you?" As Culumon spoke this he caused Juri to giggle. The little marshmallow like creature looked so odd with his little voice and attempt at a violent and angry expression.

"It can speak. Well that's… odd. Umm… I'm Matsuda Takato." Takato bent down on his knees and poked Culumon in the stomach.

"Umm… Takato maybe poking him isn't the nicest thing to do. Poor little guy's probably scared witless by us. After all look he's so little and young." Juri picked up the little guy holding him close to her chest. Takato blushed at the sight as Culumon also seemed to be blushing at the place he was being held.

"Katou, I don't think that's the best place to hold him. Culumon seems to be getting dizzy." Sure enough as Juri put him down Culumon's eyes started spinning as he spun round in a daze. With a plop he fell down and lay there. Carefully Takato walked over to him and poked him again.

Culumon shot straight up and bit Takato's finger.

What followed was an odd scene as Takato ran around with Culumon latched onto his index finger.

"Katou, Matsuda. Where are those cones I asked for five minutes ago?" Both kinds shot straight up as they heard their teacher's voice. Noticing that Culumon still had yet to let go Takato put his hand behind his back as Asanuma-sensei appeared rubbing her forehead.

"Umm we were just looking for them, they weren't in the same place as the others which was the reason why we didn't bring them back in the first… place." Takato began to sweat as Asanuma-sensei studied him closely. Behind him he felt Culumon clamping down harder which brought a yelp of pain from him.

"What was that? Are you okay Matsuda?" She began to walk around him but every time she got half way he'd also turn so she never saw what was going on.

"Okay Asanuma-sensei. I've got the other two now. How about Takato locks up while the two of us head back and he catch up." Asanuma-sensei stopped chasing Takato to turn towards Juri. Finally she sighed and helped Juri carry the two cones. As she departed Takato saw Juri shoot him a wink.

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Monday 17th May 200X, 18:21

WestShinjukuElementary School

"Silly, silly Takato." Takato sweat-dropped as the yellow dog-like sock puppet on Juri's hand talked, admittedly Juri's ventriloquism wasn't very good with her lips obviously moving. Of course she seemed to never notice this and after a while everyone got used to the dog-puppet.

"Well what was I supposed to do? I couldn't carry around that weird rodent creature all day. Where was I going to hide it during Gym? Down my shorts maybe? Besides there were no classes that needed it after us today so I thought it would be the best place for him" She pouted as he walked over to the door to the shed the Gym equipment was kept in, the one he'd decided to hide Culumon in after removing the little creature from his hand.

"Well I suppose. But how are we going to get into the shed? You locked it, remember." He grinned as he pulled the door open easily and motioned for Juri to go in. However this time he was surprised as nothing shot out of the darkness. In fact as he went in himself he found it empty of small white rodents.

"Where the hell is Culumon? I left him in here. I left him in here… with the door… open. I left the door open. He got out." It slowly dawned on him that maybe leaving the easily excitable little creature on his own for several hours with an unlocked door should have been an unsurprising result.

It was gone.

This would never be a good thing.

He could be anywhere in West Shinjuku, maybe even all of Shinjuku or all of Tokyo.

He'd be near impossible to find.

"But he couldn't have twisted the handle. Didn't you see those stubby little things he called arms and paws. He couldn't have held onto it. There's no way he could have gotten out…" A noise stunned him as he spun round to find Culumon strolling out of the bushes with chocolate smeared over his face.

"Hi, culu. I went and got some food. It was good." The little creature looked satisfied as he walked over to the two of them. Juri bent down to pick him up when the bushes rustled again.

"That's what he sent me to find? That's the wild digimon that passed over last night? Damn it, what a waste of my precious time. Well might as well deal with it now that I'm here. It's not like it'll be a problem for Renamon." The owner of the voice was a girl with red hair in a ponytail wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a broken heart on it. Her eyes were covered by sunglasses making her expression hard to see.

"Yes Ruki. I'll delete it now. I'll take it away from its pitiful existence." The voice seemed to come from nowhere. However soon it appeared as a tall yellow fox on two legs appeared beside the girl.

"Culu, she looks scary." Takato saw Culumon push himself closer to Juri's chest and half wished he had someone to hold him at that point. The fox seemed lacking in any emotions and his eyes kept being drawn to the claws on her paws. Meanwhile the girl seemed to throw him a dirty glare despite her eyes being covered by sunglasses.

"Okay, now what exactly do you want? Leave Culumon alone and go away." Takato tried to show bravery however the light struck both the fox's claws and the girl's sunglasses. Slowly the girl removed the sunglasses revealing hard eyes which glared straight at Takato.

"Hmmm… So you don't want to hand him over. You want me to make Renamon come and get him? Well I think I'd enjoy that. Go ahead Renamon. And don't be afraid to use force." The girl smirked as Renamon slowly started walking towards the other two and the little digimon.

"Stop it now. You… you're the Digital Phantom, aren't you? Everyone talks about you as if you were some kind of mystical being who does what it feels is right. But you… you're just a plain old bully. You just want to hurt others for your own pleasure. You disgust me." Juri's outburst resulted in a raised eyebrow and bemused look from the other girl. This slowly progressed into a laugh.

"That's pretty funny, girl. No… I'm not the one you call the Digital Phantom. Hmmm, I suppose I can tell you my name. I am Makino Ruki, the Digimon Queen. The greatest player of the digimon card game in this country." She smirked as Takato's memory jogged.

"You're the one who lost to Akiyama Ryou during the New Years Tournament. But if you're not the Digital Phantom what are you." He noticed the scowl she developed as he mentioned Akiyama Ryou.

"Don't say his name. He was a nothing from a small town who got lucky. He used cards I'd never played against to win and wouldn't have won if he'd played with fair cards. As for what I am. Call me a Tamer. I'm one of the special few who can partner with a digimon. And mine is the strongest. Now give me the digimon." She seemed to grow angrier and angrier as her partner got closer and closer to them.

"And you want to kill them to increase your own power? You disgust me but at the same time you're not the only one who tries to abuse the power we were given. In my opinion that makes you a lot worse than the Digital Phantom. And I'll bring justice to you for your actions. That you can be sure of." The voice was angrier than Takato remembered it but the face was exactly the same.

"Lee? Lee Jenrya? What are you doing here?" Takato scratched his head but was very surprised to see what looked like a white and green cross between a dog and a rabbit run up onto the blue haired boy's shoulder and wave its large ears around.

"Wow, that's one fine looking digimon." The bunny wolf-whistled earning a glare from Renamon. However he still managed to grin and leer at her.

"Look. I'm going to get rid of that thing. And if you get in the way I'm not going to make Renamon hold back." Ruki's glare grew darker. But they all stopped startled as a roar pierced the air.

And out of the bushes flew a beast.

A red dinosaur with a look of bestial ferocity on its face.

And it wasn't going to stop any time soon.

And the assembled children looked at it with a feeling of dread.

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Sunday 31st December 200X-1, 21:56

Streets of Shinjuku

"Damn that Akiyama. Damn him for that card combination. Damn him for beating me. Damn him for everything." Makino Ruki walked the darkened streets avoiding the busy ones where revellers were partying and preparing for the New Year. With a yell she kicked a stone hard satisfied as it hit the window of some abandoned building breaking it.

"What was that card combination anyway? I've been the champion of the Tokyo Regional Tournament three years in a row. I've never known of those cards and yet he pulled them out and used them easily. And they were legal moves as well." She heard the tinkling of glass behind her.

Slowly she reached down into the pocket at her side in which her card reader and best cards were kept. She pulled out a card and the reader and looked down at them. The card was that of a bipedal yellow fox. In fact it was that very card that she'd nearly defeated Akiyama with only for her to be the loser.

"Damn this card. Imagine if I had a real digimon. None would stand before me. Akiyama wouldn't stand before me, that's for sure." A giggle was heard from behind her. Abruptly she spun to find nothing.

And then the air split down the middle.

Hideously grotesque figures stared out at her from within the void.

Monsters of old mythology; mummies, minotaurs, harpies, cyclopean beings. They were all there.

And they all beckoned to her.

But from there numbers strode one.

And beside her the crowds parted, growling at the being.

And the bipedal fox, Renamon, emerged into the real world.