Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Drifting Pieces ❯ The Shadows Dream ( Chapter 13 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Yeaomi 
How can you let go of a past that won't let go of you?
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Psychological | Type: Shounen-ai | Uploaded On: 09.19.2010 | Updated On: 09.11.2012 | Pages: 6 | Words: 6.0K | Visits: 274 | Status: Completed
How can you let go of a past that won't let go of you?
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Psychological | Type: Shounen-ai | Uploaded On: 09.19.2010 | Updated On: 09.11.2012 | Pages: 6 | Words: 6.0K | Visits: 274 | Status: Completed
Author’s Note:This fic was originally partially posted at the end of 2010. Since then, I have rewritten every single chapter and done a serious edit as well as finished the story. If you have not visited since October of 2010, I recommend that you start over. It’s worth it (05/2012).
This chapter gets a little weird. Enjoy and please review!
Chapter 13: The Shadows Dream
“Osamu?” A quiet timid whisper as he looked over the top of the desk. He had to stand on his tip toes to see fully.
“Hm?” A distracted response as a pencil flew neatly across perfectly lined paper.
“How come you’re always studying?”
“So I can learn things, Ken.” The pencil turned over and the eraser neatly rubbed out a stray mark.
“But you’re already so smart.” Large eyes watched as the pencil resumed making neat perfect lines.
“You can always be smarter…” A book flipped open and answers were compared to those on the paper.
“Osamu?”
“Yes, Ken?” He sounded tired as he marked through a few of his own answers neatly and sharply.
“Will I be as smart as you someday?” The desk creaked as he bounced on his toes slightly, looking up at the older boy with such hope and wonder.
“I don’t know. Maybe. If you work hard.” A pale hand turned the pages of the book quickly with the smallest hint of annoyance.
“Did you have to work hard?”
“Always.” Silence followed as a fresh piece of paper was pulled out, neatly straightened, and then brushed clean.
“Osamu?”
“What, Ken?” Not nearly as patient as before.
“If I work really really hard, can I be just like you?”
Silence.
“Osamu?”
“You don’t want to be like me, Ken.” The book closed slowly.
“Yes I do! You’re perfect!”
“Perfect isn’t as great as everyone says it is. Listen to me, Kenny-boy. Don’t be like me. Be like Ken. Understand? Just be Ken.”
--
“Hey Osamu! Let’s play a game! I wanna play hide and seek!” The demands of a child who was tired of being ignored all day long.
“Not now, Ken. I’m studying.” A tired and dismissive reply.
“But you’re always studying. You never play with me anymore!”
“Fine. You count to ten and I’ll hide.”
Ken smiled brightly then eagerly turned his back on his brother and moved to the wall, covering his face and squeezing his eyes shut tightly so there was no change that he could possibly take a peak and cheat. He began to count slowly and carefully.
“One…Two… Three…” He didn’t hear Osamu get up from his desk, but maybe his brother was just that quiet. “Four… Five… Six…” There were only so many places one could hide in just ten seconds. The closet? Maybe under the bed or on it if he pressed under the covers up against the wall. There was even under the desk, though Ken knew his brother was too smart for such a simple place. If Osamu was really quiet and clever, he could even sneak out to the balcony or out of the room where the whole apartment would be game. “Seven… Eight… Nine… Ten! Ready or not! Here I come!” He spun around eagerly.
Osamu remained at his desk, still staring down at his textbook with deep concentration.
“Osamu! You didn’t hide! You’re still studying!”
“I don’t need to hide, Ken. I was never here to begin with…” His voice was distant and cold. It scared Ken, though he didn’t understand why.
“Yes you are! You’re here! I can see you! You’re right there!”
“Go out and play, Ken. Go out and be real. Be real for me. Be real while you still can, Ken. You never know when they’ll take it away from you.”
--
“Hey, kid. What’s with the water works? Are you all alone out here?”
A nod and a sniffle in confirmation.
“Really? Damn… I thought there’d be more. Man you’re little. Well, I guess you’re all I’ve got to work with. What’s your name?”
“Ken Ichijouji.” A shy smile as the waterworks slowly melted away.
“Ichijouji? Like… Osamu Ichijouji’s little brother?”
“…Yes. But he’s not here! And this isn’t his! It’s mine! He always gets everything! This time I’m here and he isn’t!”
“Whoa whoa. Easy there, buddy. You’re one-hundred-percent right on that. He’s not here and this is all yours.” The other boy smiled and laughed. “Hey, do you have something like this too?” A small device was held up, glinting in the sun majestically.
“Yeah, but it’s different.” He held up his own little device, screwing up his face as he examined it.
“That’s because you’re special, Ken.” He smiled and the trust there was instantly present. This boy would never lie to him or hurt him or ignore him. “I’m Ryo Akiyama and I’m here to help you and look out for you. It’s not going to be easy being here, but I promise that it’s worth it.”
“Do you have any brothers?”
“No. Only child, I’m afraid. But hey, I’ve always wanted a little brother. Think I could be a stand in for your real brother for a while?”
“Are you going to study all the time too?”
“Who me? Ha! Hardly. Don’t get me wrong. I’m no dummy, but I’m not at exactly at the top of the class either. How about you?”
A firm head shake. “Then… You’ll play with me?”
“Course I will! We’ll have lots of fun here. I won’t lie, though. We’re in for a real time here. It won’t always be fun. Sometimes it will be dangerous… Sometimes scary.” He kneeled down till he was eye level with Ken. “But if we work together and trust each other, we’ll get through okay. If you’re brave, I’ll be brave and then it won’t be so bad.”
A bright smile, almost as bright as the sun beating down on the sand. “I promise I’ll do my best!”
“That’s a good boy, Ken! Now, let’s get a move on! I happen to know there’s another friend out there who can’t wait to meet you. He’ll be your partner digimon and he’s been waiting just for you.”
A small hand reached up and squeezed the larger one. This place wasn’t so scary after all. He wasn’t alone anymore…
--
“Ken! Wasn’t that amazing? Did you see me? Did you see?” A small green digimon bounced up and down excitedly.
“Oh, Wormmon! That was amazing! You were so cool! Ryo! Ryo! Did you see?” Kind hands hefted the digimon up and pulled him into a warm hug.
“I did! I’m very proud of you both. I knew you could do it! Stingmon was pretty awesome out there. Bad guys will think twice before messing with us again! And it was all because of you, Ken. You believed in yourself and you made it possible.”
A laugh and the two partners nuzzled each other happily. “Wormmon… You’re my best friend.”
“Does that make me second best?” Ryo laughed behind him, teasingly ruffling his hair.
Ken turned and looked up at him with large eyes that startled the Tamer. “You’re my big brother, Ryo!”
Ryo smiled almost sadly. “Ken…” He pulled the boy in and wrapped his arms around him protectively; shielding him from a danger only he could see. “My little brother…”
--
“RYO! WATCH OUT!” He dove, pushing the larger boy out of the way.
“Ken!”
The world exploded in white hot searing pain, screams reaching out across the desert.
“KEN!”
“Ryo? What’s happening to him?” There was chaos as the sand storm billowed around them and panic filled the air.
“I don’t know, Wormmon! Ken? Ken! It’s alright! It’s okay, little brother. I’ve got you… I’m here. I’ll take care of you. Big brother’s here.” He was near panic, clinging to Ken tightly with trembling hands.
“Ryo… It hurts… It hurts so much…”
“I know… Be brave for me, okay? Be brave for me, Ken. Stay with me and be brave…”
“I’ll try…”A brave smile through the tears. He had to be brave for Ryo… Ryo needed him.
--
“You have to do something, Gennai. He’s getting worse.” Quite whispers reached out to the feverish boy as he grasped at dreams and delusions floating just out of reach.
“The guardians are still not sure what it was that attacked you. It wasn’t from this world. They are looking into it to see if there are any known cures, but it could take time.” A somber tone echoed softly.
“Gennai, he could die! We don’t have time! We need answers now! We can’t just wait for them to get around to it when they feel like it! I’m responsible for him here and he trusts me to protect him! I’m…”
“You are not his brother, Ryo.” Those stern words seemed to echo around them with a finality that was painful to hear. “He has a big brother waiting for him. You are his trainer and his guide. You are his friend. While he is here, you are only meant to help him find his own path. He can’t stay here forever and neither can you. When this is done, he will go home. You will go home.”
Ryo’s voice was angry and soft. “You know that’s a lie. There’s nothing for me back in that world. You know why I’m here.” When next he spoke, he sounded desperate as he pleaded. “He needs me, Gennai. I need him. Just a little longer… Please. I haven’t even told him yet…”
“I’m afraid that time is running out. You don’t have much longer, Ryo. You are already on borrowed time. He can’t live in the shadow of a brother forever. He will eventually have to learn to grow on his own. You and his brother will need to learn to let him. You can’t always be there for him… You know that better than anyone else. It’s cruel to teach him otherwise.” It was stern but kind.
Ryo was silent, looking away. “He’s suffering, Gennai. I can’t stand to see him like this. That… That monster hurt him and it’s my fault.”
A caring hand settled on Ryo’s shoulder. “Trust him and he’ll get through this. He’s stronger than he looks. If you love him, you will tell him the truth and let him go.”
“I trust him…” Ryo looked down at his hands sadly. “But I still don’t think he’s ready… I don’t think he’ll ever be ready.”
“Osamu! I’m real! Please see me! I’m real!” Ken cried out deliriously into the night.
“Ken… It’s okay, you’re real!” Wormmon desperately tried to comfort his partner and protect him from unknown nightmares.
--
“I’m losing him!” Ryo’s voice sounding so far away in the darkness.
“Where’s Gennai? He said he’d be back!” Poor Wormmon didn’t understand.
“Ken? It’s not your time. You can’t do this. You can’t go…” He could see Ryo’s face floating just above his, hazy and dark with the sun behind his head. He looked like an angel from the old pictures.
It was so hot there in the sand, how was it possible that the bubbles didn’t melt away as they floated past his eyes? Ryo’s face blurred and Osamu was before him, waiting on the cool balcony with a smile.
“Osamu…” He held out his hand as he tried to reach for the straw. “Let’s make bubbles together. I want… I want to show Ryo how beautiful they are…”
“Stay with me… Stay with me, damn it!” Ryo and Osamu’s voices blended and Ken smiled at the thought of them all being together where there were no expectations and no fear.
--
“Ryo?” Ken slowly blinked out across the sand away from the small shelter that had been set up for them. “Big brother?”
He was feeling better, though his head was still pounding and spinning unpleasantly. The past few days were a blur of strange images and dreams.
“Ryo?” He took a few shaky cautious steps, afraid of being scolded for being on his feet so soon. Behind him, Wormmon was curled up and sound asleep on the makeshift bed.
Ken slowly staggered through the sand, wondering where everyone was. They were supposed to be there, though Gennai kept leaving to supposedly meet with the mysterious guardians he kept talking about.
“Big brother? Where are you?” His voice was small and scared as he peered out into the dark. Not too far off, there was something odd illuminated against the starlit sky, stretched out in the sand.
“Ryo! Hey big brother, I…” The moon shifted out from behind a cloud and the pale light pierced the darkness.
“No.” Hands flew up to his mouth as he felt a scream well up inside him. “No no no no…” Ken slowly made his way over the shifting sands towards the figure, falling on his knees as he reached the lifeless form of his partner, his trainer, his brother and his friend.
Ryo didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.
Ken didn’t cry. Didn’t scream. His eyes were dry and his throat was clenched tightly shut as he slowly reached out a hand and ran it gently down the cold cheek, brushing away traces of sand.
He looked so still and peaceful. So… Perfect.
Ryo’s empty eyes stared up at the sky with such determination and resolve that Ken wished he could see what they saw too.
This was the only human friend that he had ever known. The only human that had ever cared about him… The only person that had known who he truly was. Ryo had promised to be with him, to trust him, and above all to love him. Ryo had loved him more than anyone in his life ever had.
The back of Ken’s neck burned and deep inside something twisted.
“Ryo… Don’t leave me alone… I don’t want to be alone…”
--
“Ken? Ken! Snap out of it! Ken!” Gennai’s voice from somewhere far away.
“It’s so peaceful now…” A small voice responded, utterly foreign to his ears.
“Ken! What happened here?” Gennai was gripping his shoulders so tightly it was starting to hurt.
“He can stay here forever now. Just like he wanted...” It was so hard to focus. What was going on? Why was Gennai shaking him?
In the distance, he could hear Wormmon begging and pleading with Gennai, desperate for him to help… Help who? Was someone in trouble?
Gennai’s voice softened. “Ken… Stay with me. Just focus on me, okay?”
And then Ken did focus on him with such intensity that the guardian released him and stumbled back as if he’d just discovered a poisonous snake that had been hiding right in front of him the whole time.
That mysterious voice was back, high and terrifying to his young ears. “I killed him, Gennai. I killed him.”
--
“You broke my trust, Ken! You disobeyed me.” Why was Osamu so angry with him?
“But big brother, I… I didn’t break it! See?” Couldn’t Osamu understand what had just happened? Couldn’t he see how wonderful he felt inside? All he wanted to do was to share it with his big brother.
He didn’t see it coming until it was too late. His cheek stung; all of the peaceful and wonderful feelings that had been left inside were suddenly gone as he stared up at the menacing figure towering over him.
Osamu had struck him. His big brother, who was supposed to protect him and make all the bad things go away, had struck him.
“Get out. I have to study.” Osamu was cold and so far away as Ken staggered past him.
“I wish…I wish you’d just disappear!” His voice was angry as he yelled out to the empty hallway.
He was alone.
--
“Osamu?”
“Not now, Ken.”
“But Osamu… I had a scary dream…”
“I don’t have time to keep babying you, Ken! You’re an Ichijouji! Maybe you should start acting like it! You’re so pathetic sometimes. That’s why no one cares about you. You’re nothing special and no one wants an annoying little cry baby!” Ken could see his own scared reflection looking back at him in his brother’s perfect glasses.
“O-sa-mu…” A hiccup as he shrank back under that cold gaze.
“God! If you weren’t so pathetic, maybe they’d leave me alone now and then! Give me a break and ignore me! But just look at you! You can’t do anything right! That’s why they need their precious perfect Osamu! Without me, all they’d have would be you.”
A soft whimper and Ken slowly got back into bed, curling up under the covers and hugging his pillow tightly. He didn’t cry.
The only sound in the room was that of the pencil moving across the paper.
--
“Wait here, Kenny-boy. Wait here.”
“Osamu? Where are you going?”
“Just… Wait here…”
“But Osamu… Osamu? Osamu lookout!”
Crunch.
--
Ken’s eyes snapped open. He was in a large dark room that smelled of decay and salt. Voices echoed around him softly.
“Where’s the kind and gentle Ken I used to love?”
“Wait here…”
“I trust him…”
“Pitiful, isn’t it?” Ken spun around and came face-to-face with Kaiser, now fully adorned in his old uniform. “It’s all so pathetic.”
“It is not!” A small voice called out defiantly as a much younger Ken walked out from behind Kaiser.
Ken backed up, staring in horror. “Where am I?”
“Nowhere. Maybe everywhere. Does it really matter?” Kaiser shrugged and slowly circled around behind him. “But that isn’t the question you should be asking here, Ken.”
The child moved to stand before him, looking up at him with angry eyes. “Who are you?”
“Now that’s the million dollar question. Someone get this kid a gold star.” Kaiser laughed from somewhere behind him. “He has so much potential, don’t you think?”
Ken found himself looking away, unwilling to meet those large demanding eyes. “I… I’m Ken. I’m you.”
“Wrong!” There was a chuckle in his ear and Ken turned to face the Kaiser, suddenly tired with this game.
“What are you talking about?”
“It really is very simple. Even the brat over there could get it.” The younger Ken stuck out his tongue petulantly, earning a laugh from Kaiser.
“I was here first. I was Ken!” The younger boy smiled proudly up at them and seemed to glow softly in the dim light.
“Yes. Kindness was here first. Young, sweet, innocent Kindness… How boring. How disgusting. How… Pathetic. Kindness was weak. It’s no wonder that he had to die.” Kaiser walked up to the child and slowly wrapped his fingers around the smaller boy’s throat.
For a heart stopping moment, Ken was positive that Kaiser was going to squeeze.
“But then… I was here.” Kaiser’s hand flitted away, moving to gently straiten the younger boy’s collar. “I came along and understood just what a cruel place this world really was. I could handle the desperation to be just like your dear Osamu. I could accept the fact that you were utterly alone. There is only one truth, and that is that you can only trust yourself.”
Ken looked from one to the other, starting to feel dizzy and sick. “I… I’m not that person anymore. I found my heart!”
“Did you really?” Kaiser raised an eyebrow at him. “You swore to stop trying to be like Osamu. You promised to just be yourself… But you can’t just erase everything you’ve done and expect something to still be there. You can’t go back to that innocence. The reality is that there is no ‘you’. Not after what you’ve done. You don’t want the power anymore but you also still crave the release. You want to be kind and caring and make friends, but you don’t trust them. You want to be alone while the darkness terrifies you.”
Kaiser shook his head, looking angry and amused all at once. “You can’t have it both ways!”
“Who are you?” The boy asked again, looking up at Ken intently.
“I… I don’t know…” He felt like he was crumbling away under their scrutiny.
“We were Ken Ichijouji.” Kaiser stepped up and looked him in the eyes fully. “You… You are nothing. We were created out of necessity. You were created by accident in a desperate attempt to fill the gaping hole you created when you failed.”
“You tried to kill us. That wasn’t very nice.” The boy’s brows furrowed in disapproval.
“No. I… I didn’t. I am Ken. I’m Ken… Can’t I just be both? Can’t I go back to the way things were before?” He looked pleadingly at the small child.
“It’s too late for that. You aren’t innocent anymore.” The child looked away. “Not with so much blood on your hands.”
“And you refuse to be me anymore. So what’s left? What are you?” Kaiser sneered darkly.
“I’m Ken! I’m just Ken!”
“Who is Ken?” Kaiser and the boy asked at the same time.
“I am Ken… I am… I…” Ken backed up away from them and their accusing eyes.
“You are not Ken. You aren’t even human.” The child looked down.
“You are nothing. Just a mask over an empty shell.” Kaiser gave him a disgusted look.
“Please… You have to tell me what to do…” Ken looked desperately from one to the other. “Who am I supposed to be? What am I?!”
Both looked up at him almost sadly.
The room was suddenly plunged into pitch blackness. Ken trembled in the dark as he blindly reached out for the two before him and his fingers encountered only empty air.
“Please… Don’t leave me… Come back… Come back!” He cried out desperately, slowly reaching out into the dark.
A terrified step forward was met by a squelching wet sound that made him freeze in his tracks.
Just as he was about to call out again, the lights flicked back on, blindingly white as they completely lit up the room.
As his eyes adjusted, all the air was suddenly forced from his lungs as his eyes fell on three figures laid out before him.
Ryo, Wormmon and Osamu’s lifeless bodies burned their images into him.
Ryo, so cold and so utterly still as he stared into the nothingness, Wormmon, bruised and limp, and the worst one… So vivid and in so much detail...
Ken felt sick as his eyes refused to leave the sight.
A steadily growing pool of dark red was spreading out almost beautifully under the crumpled form of Osamu, the puddle expanding out to where Ken stood as it stained his shoes crimson.
His limbs were at awkward angles, trembling slightly as the nerve endings and impulses in his body slowly started to fade away.
A single shoe was halfway across the room, thrown there from the force of the impact. A pair of cracked glasses lay at Ken’s feet, gleaming in the light up at him mockingly.
A heavy wheezing sound reached his ears as lungs struggled against crushed ribs. One of them was probably punctured as blood spattered out of his mouth into the air on each pitiful attempt to breathe.
A moan of horror escaped Ken’s throat as his eyes slowly moved up to his brother’s face. A face that was now so familiar …
His once silky dark locks were matted with red thick blood and speckled with chunks of white that, Ken realized belatedly, must have been fragments of his fractured skull. Those once vibrant and deep eyes that Ken shared were now wide and staring down at nothing, all the light taken from them. There was no peace in those eyes. Not like Ryo. Nothing like Ryo. Scrapes and gashes ran down one side of his face to mark the areas where his brother had slid across the rough pavement.
But the worst part…
“His smile broke…” Osamu’s lips curved upwards in what could almost be a peaceful smile as the life drained away from him. But Ken knew better…
Ken’s stomach lurched. “Oh god…. Oh god no… No… Please… Please stop!”
He sank to his knees, trembling in horror as felt the warm sticky blood under him. His horror only grew as the three figures suddenly shifted and sat up, unsteadily climbing to their feet.
“We know who you are, Ken. We’ve seen inside of you…”
“No… Stay away.” He fell back as he tried to back up too quickly, the panic welling up inside of him. “Stay away!” His hands slipped in the blood as he clawed at the floor in a desperate attempt to get back up.
Slowly, they moved closer, their dead eyes on him and piercing through him. They could see what he was and they knew… They knew.
“What you are…” Wormmon sounding unnaturally cold.
“What you hide from everyone…” Ryo’s voice angry and sharp as he reached out.
“Is nothing.” Osamu hissed at his side, his smile pulled wide across his bloody face.
--
Kaiser bolted up in bed, gasping for air.
Beside him, Ken was already sitting up, staring wide eyed off into the distance.
A scream was still echoing off the cold metal walls around them, ringing through the air painfully. Ken’s lips were still parted, a ragged breath escaping him. The poor fool could never handle his nightmares.
A hand flew to his own lips as his stomach lurched, threatening to heave up his lunch as the long hidden memories resurfaced.
The truth was a terrible thing. A slow acting curse that steadily ate away at his soul.
He had allowed Wormmon to die. He had not cared as the little digimon was crushed and killed. That was a truth that Ken had understood and dealt with, though he had yet to deal with the intense guilt each and every time he looked into those wonderful blue eyes.
The truth behind Osamu’s death was still just a shadow of a ghost to Ken, but it was still something he could understand. Something that he had only been a part of. That had been Osamu’s choice, not his. He hadn’t pushed his brother. He hadn’t told him to step out into the street at that precise moment. He hadn’t wanted his brother to splatter across the whole block as he watched the life slowly leak out into the gutter. Osamu had chosen that path, not him.
Kaiser closed his eyes against that memory bitterly. That was a pain for another time. A pain that Ken had yet to fully experience.
The truth he faced now was something even Kaiser could not prepare himself for.
Next to him, Ken’s lips moved in an unsteady whisper as the memory of a boy long forgotten came back to him. “Ryo…”
Kaiser understood that they had shared the same dream. The same memory. Yet he had taken more from it than Ken had. Ken couldn’t see past those cold dead eyes like Kaiser could.
Ryo had been living off of stolen time. Another damned secret that Gennai had neglected to tell him. Perhaps it had been meant to be another of those silly lessons on how to deal with your emotions. The ‘how to cope with loss’ lesson that apparently Ken had never mastered. But if that were true, one could infer that the digital world had known about Osamu’s plans to try to imitate road kill.
That thought was more than enough to make his stomach lurch again.
No… That most likely wasn’t the case. Ryo wasn’t supposed to die then. Stolen time or not, Ryo had made no indication that his time was up or coming to an end. Ryo would never have just left him like that. Not when he was hurt and still needed him.
Ryo wasn’t Osamu. Kaiser thought bitterly.
But why had Ryo died so suddenly? Why was his body left in the sand so carelessly? Why…?
And the truth arrived at last. A truth that Ken must have only seen a glimpse of and pushed aside before he could fully understand what it meant.
It was hidden in a hazy memory littered with fevered hallucinations and fragmented whispers choked full of despair and regret. It was not hard to see why Ken had not yet deciphered such a cryptic meaning from half remembered words.
Ryo. Ken and Kaiser only agreed fully on a few things. They both desired Daisuke. They both understood that Wormmon was precious to them. Osamu’s death had been tragic, though they disagreed on the real reason why. Last but certainly not least, they both agreed that Ryo had been one of the single most important people in their lives.
Ryo had been the caring big brother that didn’t ignore him or hurt him. He had listened to him and paid attention to him when others simply wished he was someone else. He had believed and trusted in Ken when no one else would…
“Ryo…” Kaiser’s breath caught in his throat, his chest and wind pipe suddenly far too tight.
This was a truth he didn’t want. This was more than Osamu. This was more than just a time bomb to be used against that pathetic double sitting next to him. This… This was everything…
Kaiser’s fists tightened in the sheets till his knuckles turned white. Oh no. No no no…
The door had flown open as the others ran in, alarmed by the earlier scream. Somehow, Wormmon had made his way to the foot of the bed and was looking up at Ken with worry.
Gennai blurred at the edge of Kaiser’s vision, that damn guilt ridden look back in his eyes. Did he know? Does he still blame me?
Kaiser struggled to suck in air that only seemed to want to get out. He was trembling, gasping, dying inside as he tried to fight back against this ugly truth that threatened to drown him.
Next to him, Ken spoke the words that Kaiser had been desperately fighting to keep from his mind. “I killed him, Gennai. I killed Ryo…”
Air filled his lungs in a painful ragged gasp. Deep inside, he could feel the last of something shatter.
At last, Kaiser started to scream.
--------
Disclaimer: According to Wikipedia: Akiyoshi Hongo was the creator of the Digimon concept. Bandai, Saban Entertainment and various other entities that are not me own Digimon. I am in no way making money off of this and am strictly using the characters and world for my own fan based fiction.
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This chapter gets a little weird. Enjoy and please review!
Chapter 13: The Shadows Dream
“Osamu?” A quiet timid whisper as he looked over the top of the desk. He had to stand on his tip toes to see fully.
“Hm?” A distracted response as a pencil flew neatly across perfectly lined paper.
“How come you’re always studying?”
“So I can learn things, Ken.” The pencil turned over and the eraser neatly rubbed out a stray mark.
“But you’re already so smart.” Large eyes watched as the pencil resumed making neat perfect lines.
“You can always be smarter…” A book flipped open and answers were compared to those on the paper.
“Osamu?”
“Yes, Ken?” He sounded tired as he marked through a few of his own answers neatly and sharply.
“Will I be as smart as you someday?” The desk creaked as he bounced on his toes slightly, looking up at the older boy with such hope and wonder.
“I don’t know. Maybe. If you work hard.” A pale hand turned the pages of the book quickly with the smallest hint of annoyance.
“Did you have to work hard?”
“Always.” Silence followed as a fresh piece of paper was pulled out, neatly straightened, and then brushed clean.
“Osamu?”
“What, Ken?” Not nearly as patient as before.
“If I work really really hard, can I be just like you?”
Silence.
“Osamu?”
“You don’t want to be like me, Ken.” The book closed slowly.
“Yes I do! You’re perfect!”
“Perfect isn’t as great as everyone says it is. Listen to me, Kenny-boy. Don’t be like me. Be like Ken. Understand? Just be Ken.”
--
“Hey Osamu! Let’s play a game! I wanna play hide and seek!” The demands of a child who was tired of being ignored all day long.
“Not now, Ken. I’m studying.” A tired and dismissive reply.
“But you’re always studying. You never play with me anymore!”
“Fine. You count to ten and I’ll hide.”
Ken smiled brightly then eagerly turned his back on his brother and moved to the wall, covering his face and squeezing his eyes shut tightly so there was no change that he could possibly take a peak and cheat. He began to count slowly and carefully.
“One…Two… Three…” He didn’t hear Osamu get up from his desk, but maybe his brother was just that quiet. “Four… Five… Six…” There were only so many places one could hide in just ten seconds. The closet? Maybe under the bed or on it if he pressed under the covers up against the wall. There was even under the desk, though Ken knew his brother was too smart for such a simple place. If Osamu was really quiet and clever, he could even sneak out to the balcony or out of the room where the whole apartment would be game. “Seven… Eight… Nine… Ten! Ready or not! Here I come!” He spun around eagerly.
Osamu remained at his desk, still staring down at his textbook with deep concentration.
“Osamu! You didn’t hide! You’re still studying!”
“I don’t need to hide, Ken. I was never here to begin with…” His voice was distant and cold. It scared Ken, though he didn’t understand why.
“Yes you are! You’re here! I can see you! You’re right there!”
“Go out and play, Ken. Go out and be real. Be real for me. Be real while you still can, Ken. You never know when they’ll take it away from you.”
--
“Hey, kid. What’s with the water works? Are you all alone out here?”
A nod and a sniffle in confirmation.
“Really? Damn… I thought there’d be more. Man you’re little. Well, I guess you’re all I’ve got to work with. What’s your name?”
“Ken Ichijouji.” A shy smile as the waterworks slowly melted away.
“Ichijouji? Like… Osamu Ichijouji’s little brother?”
“…Yes. But he’s not here! And this isn’t his! It’s mine! He always gets everything! This time I’m here and he isn’t!”
“Whoa whoa. Easy there, buddy. You’re one-hundred-percent right on that. He’s not here and this is all yours.” The other boy smiled and laughed. “Hey, do you have something like this too?” A small device was held up, glinting in the sun majestically.
“Yeah, but it’s different.” He held up his own little device, screwing up his face as he examined it.
“That’s because you’re special, Ken.” He smiled and the trust there was instantly present. This boy would never lie to him or hurt him or ignore him. “I’m Ryo Akiyama and I’m here to help you and look out for you. It’s not going to be easy being here, but I promise that it’s worth it.”
“Do you have any brothers?”
“No. Only child, I’m afraid. But hey, I’ve always wanted a little brother. Think I could be a stand in for your real brother for a while?”
“Are you going to study all the time too?”
“Who me? Ha! Hardly. Don’t get me wrong. I’m no dummy, but I’m not at exactly at the top of the class either. How about you?”
A firm head shake. “Then… You’ll play with me?”
“Course I will! We’ll have lots of fun here. I won’t lie, though. We’re in for a real time here. It won’t always be fun. Sometimes it will be dangerous… Sometimes scary.” He kneeled down till he was eye level with Ken. “But if we work together and trust each other, we’ll get through okay. If you’re brave, I’ll be brave and then it won’t be so bad.”
A bright smile, almost as bright as the sun beating down on the sand. “I promise I’ll do my best!”
“That’s a good boy, Ken! Now, let’s get a move on! I happen to know there’s another friend out there who can’t wait to meet you. He’ll be your partner digimon and he’s been waiting just for you.”
A small hand reached up and squeezed the larger one. This place wasn’t so scary after all. He wasn’t alone anymore…
--
“Ken! Wasn’t that amazing? Did you see me? Did you see?” A small green digimon bounced up and down excitedly.
“Oh, Wormmon! That was amazing! You were so cool! Ryo! Ryo! Did you see?” Kind hands hefted the digimon up and pulled him into a warm hug.
“I did! I’m very proud of you both. I knew you could do it! Stingmon was pretty awesome out there. Bad guys will think twice before messing with us again! And it was all because of you, Ken. You believed in yourself and you made it possible.”
A laugh and the two partners nuzzled each other happily. “Wormmon… You’re my best friend.”
“Does that make me second best?” Ryo laughed behind him, teasingly ruffling his hair.
Ken turned and looked up at him with large eyes that startled the Tamer. “You’re my big brother, Ryo!”
Ryo smiled almost sadly. “Ken…” He pulled the boy in and wrapped his arms around him protectively; shielding him from a danger only he could see. “My little brother…”
--
“RYO! WATCH OUT!” He dove, pushing the larger boy out of the way.
“Ken!”
The world exploded in white hot searing pain, screams reaching out across the desert.
“KEN!”
“Ryo? What’s happening to him?” There was chaos as the sand storm billowed around them and panic filled the air.
“I don’t know, Wormmon! Ken? Ken! It’s alright! It’s okay, little brother. I’ve got you… I’m here. I’ll take care of you. Big brother’s here.” He was near panic, clinging to Ken tightly with trembling hands.
“Ryo… It hurts… It hurts so much…”
“I know… Be brave for me, okay? Be brave for me, Ken. Stay with me and be brave…”
“I’ll try…”A brave smile through the tears. He had to be brave for Ryo… Ryo needed him.
--
“You have to do something, Gennai. He’s getting worse.” Quite whispers reached out to the feverish boy as he grasped at dreams and delusions floating just out of reach.
“The guardians are still not sure what it was that attacked you. It wasn’t from this world. They are looking into it to see if there are any known cures, but it could take time.” A somber tone echoed softly.
“Gennai, he could die! We don’t have time! We need answers now! We can’t just wait for them to get around to it when they feel like it! I’m responsible for him here and he trusts me to protect him! I’m…”
“You are not his brother, Ryo.” Those stern words seemed to echo around them with a finality that was painful to hear. “He has a big brother waiting for him. You are his trainer and his guide. You are his friend. While he is here, you are only meant to help him find his own path. He can’t stay here forever and neither can you. When this is done, he will go home. You will go home.”
Ryo’s voice was angry and soft. “You know that’s a lie. There’s nothing for me back in that world. You know why I’m here.” When next he spoke, he sounded desperate as he pleaded. “He needs me, Gennai. I need him. Just a little longer… Please. I haven’t even told him yet…”
“I’m afraid that time is running out. You don’t have much longer, Ryo. You are already on borrowed time. He can’t live in the shadow of a brother forever. He will eventually have to learn to grow on his own. You and his brother will need to learn to let him. You can’t always be there for him… You know that better than anyone else. It’s cruel to teach him otherwise.” It was stern but kind.
Ryo was silent, looking away. “He’s suffering, Gennai. I can’t stand to see him like this. That… That monster hurt him and it’s my fault.”
A caring hand settled on Ryo’s shoulder. “Trust him and he’ll get through this. He’s stronger than he looks. If you love him, you will tell him the truth and let him go.”
“I trust him…” Ryo looked down at his hands sadly. “But I still don’t think he’s ready… I don’t think he’ll ever be ready.”
“Osamu! I’m real! Please see me! I’m real!” Ken cried out deliriously into the night.
“Ken… It’s okay, you’re real!” Wormmon desperately tried to comfort his partner and protect him from unknown nightmares.
--
“I’m losing him!” Ryo’s voice sounding so far away in the darkness.
“Where’s Gennai? He said he’d be back!” Poor Wormmon didn’t understand.
“Ken? It’s not your time. You can’t do this. You can’t go…” He could see Ryo’s face floating just above his, hazy and dark with the sun behind his head. He looked like an angel from the old pictures.
It was so hot there in the sand, how was it possible that the bubbles didn’t melt away as they floated past his eyes? Ryo’s face blurred and Osamu was before him, waiting on the cool balcony with a smile.
“Osamu…” He held out his hand as he tried to reach for the straw. “Let’s make bubbles together. I want… I want to show Ryo how beautiful they are…”
“Stay with me… Stay with me, damn it!” Ryo and Osamu’s voices blended and Ken smiled at the thought of them all being together where there were no expectations and no fear.
--
“Ryo?” Ken slowly blinked out across the sand away from the small shelter that had been set up for them. “Big brother?”
He was feeling better, though his head was still pounding and spinning unpleasantly. The past few days were a blur of strange images and dreams.
“Ryo?” He took a few shaky cautious steps, afraid of being scolded for being on his feet so soon. Behind him, Wormmon was curled up and sound asleep on the makeshift bed.
Ken slowly staggered through the sand, wondering where everyone was. They were supposed to be there, though Gennai kept leaving to supposedly meet with the mysterious guardians he kept talking about.
“Big brother? Where are you?” His voice was small and scared as he peered out into the dark. Not too far off, there was something odd illuminated against the starlit sky, stretched out in the sand.
“Ryo! Hey big brother, I…” The moon shifted out from behind a cloud and the pale light pierced the darkness.
“No.” Hands flew up to his mouth as he felt a scream well up inside him. “No no no no…” Ken slowly made his way over the shifting sands towards the figure, falling on his knees as he reached the lifeless form of his partner, his trainer, his brother and his friend.
Ryo didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.
Ken didn’t cry. Didn’t scream. His eyes were dry and his throat was clenched tightly shut as he slowly reached out a hand and ran it gently down the cold cheek, brushing away traces of sand.
He looked so still and peaceful. So… Perfect.
Ryo’s empty eyes stared up at the sky with such determination and resolve that Ken wished he could see what they saw too.
This was the only human friend that he had ever known. The only human that had ever cared about him… The only person that had known who he truly was. Ryo had promised to be with him, to trust him, and above all to love him. Ryo had loved him more than anyone in his life ever had.
The back of Ken’s neck burned and deep inside something twisted.
“Ryo… Don’t leave me alone… I don’t want to be alone…”
--
“Ken? Ken! Snap out of it! Ken!” Gennai’s voice from somewhere far away.
“It’s so peaceful now…” A small voice responded, utterly foreign to his ears.
“Ken! What happened here?” Gennai was gripping his shoulders so tightly it was starting to hurt.
“He can stay here forever now. Just like he wanted...” It was so hard to focus. What was going on? Why was Gennai shaking him?
In the distance, he could hear Wormmon begging and pleading with Gennai, desperate for him to help… Help who? Was someone in trouble?
Gennai’s voice softened. “Ken… Stay with me. Just focus on me, okay?”
And then Ken did focus on him with such intensity that the guardian released him and stumbled back as if he’d just discovered a poisonous snake that had been hiding right in front of him the whole time.
That mysterious voice was back, high and terrifying to his young ears. “I killed him, Gennai. I killed him.”
--
“You broke my trust, Ken! You disobeyed me.” Why was Osamu so angry with him?
“But big brother, I… I didn’t break it! See?” Couldn’t Osamu understand what had just happened? Couldn’t he see how wonderful he felt inside? All he wanted to do was to share it with his big brother.
He didn’t see it coming until it was too late. His cheek stung; all of the peaceful and wonderful feelings that had been left inside were suddenly gone as he stared up at the menacing figure towering over him.
Osamu had struck him. His big brother, who was supposed to protect him and make all the bad things go away, had struck him.
“Get out. I have to study.” Osamu was cold and so far away as Ken staggered past him.
“I wish…I wish you’d just disappear!” His voice was angry as he yelled out to the empty hallway.
He was alone.
--
“Osamu?”
“Not now, Ken.”
“But Osamu… I had a scary dream…”
“I don’t have time to keep babying you, Ken! You’re an Ichijouji! Maybe you should start acting like it! You’re so pathetic sometimes. That’s why no one cares about you. You’re nothing special and no one wants an annoying little cry baby!” Ken could see his own scared reflection looking back at him in his brother’s perfect glasses.
“O-sa-mu…” A hiccup as he shrank back under that cold gaze.
“God! If you weren’t so pathetic, maybe they’d leave me alone now and then! Give me a break and ignore me! But just look at you! You can’t do anything right! That’s why they need their precious perfect Osamu! Without me, all they’d have would be you.”
A soft whimper and Ken slowly got back into bed, curling up under the covers and hugging his pillow tightly. He didn’t cry.
The only sound in the room was that of the pencil moving across the paper.
--
“Wait here, Kenny-boy. Wait here.”
“Osamu? Where are you going?”
“Just… Wait here…”
“But Osamu… Osamu? Osamu lookout!”
Crunch.
--
Ken’s eyes snapped open. He was in a large dark room that smelled of decay and salt. Voices echoed around him softly.
“Where’s the kind and gentle Ken I used to love?”
“Wait here…”
“I trust him…”
“Pitiful, isn’t it?” Ken spun around and came face-to-face with Kaiser, now fully adorned in his old uniform. “It’s all so pathetic.”
“It is not!” A small voice called out defiantly as a much younger Ken walked out from behind Kaiser.
Ken backed up, staring in horror. “Where am I?”
“Nowhere. Maybe everywhere. Does it really matter?” Kaiser shrugged and slowly circled around behind him. “But that isn’t the question you should be asking here, Ken.”
The child moved to stand before him, looking up at him with angry eyes. “Who are you?”
“Now that’s the million dollar question. Someone get this kid a gold star.” Kaiser laughed from somewhere behind him. “He has so much potential, don’t you think?”
Ken found himself looking away, unwilling to meet those large demanding eyes. “I… I’m Ken. I’m you.”
“Wrong!” There was a chuckle in his ear and Ken turned to face the Kaiser, suddenly tired with this game.
“What are you talking about?”
“It really is very simple. Even the brat over there could get it.” The younger Ken stuck out his tongue petulantly, earning a laugh from Kaiser.
“I was here first. I was Ken!” The younger boy smiled proudly up at them and seemed to glow softly in the dim light.
“Yes. Kindness was here first. Young, sweet, innocent Kindness… How boring. How disgusting. How… Pathetic. Kindness was weak. It’s no wonder that he had to die.” Kaiser walked up to the child and slowly wrapped his fingers around the smaller boy’s throat.
For a heart stopping moment, Ken was positive that Kaiser was going to squeeze.
“But then… I was here.” Kaiser’s hand flitted away, moving to gently straiten the younger boy’s collar. “I came along and understood just what a cruel place this world really was. I could handle the desperation to be just like your dear Osamu. I could accept the fact that you were utterly alone. There is only one truth, and that is that you can only trust yourself.”
Ken looked from one to the other, starting to feel dizzy and sick. “I… I’m not that person anymore. I found my heart!”
“Did you really?” Kaiser raised an eyebrow at him. “You swore to stop trying to be like Osamu. You promised to just be yourself… But you can’t just erase everything you’ve done and expect something to still be there. You can’t go back to that innocence. The reality is that there is no ‘you’. Not after what you’ve done. You don’t want the power anymore but you also still crave the release. You want to be kind and caring and make friends, but you don’t trust them. You want to be alone while the darkness terrifies you.”
Kaiser shook his head, looking angry and amused all at once. “You can’t have it both ways!”
“Who are you?” The boy asked again, looking up at Ken intently.
“I… I don’t know…” He felt like he was crumbling away under their scrutiny.
“We were Ken Ichijouji.” Kaiser stepped up and looked him in the eyes fully. “You… You are nothing. We were created out of necessity. You were created by accident in a desperate attempt to fill the gaping hole you created when you failed.”
“You tried to kill us. That wasn’t very nice.” The boy’s brows furrowed in disapproval.
“No. I… I didn’t. I am Ken. I’m Ken… Can’t I just be both? Can’t I go back to the way things were before?” He looked pleadingly at the small child.
“It’s too late for that. You aren’t innocent anymore.” The child looked away. “Not with so much blood on your hands.”
“And you refuse to be me anymore. So what’s left? What are you?” Kaiser sneered darkly.
“I’m Ken! I’m just Ken!”
“Who is Ken?” Kaiser and the boy asked at the same time.
“I am Ken… I am… I…” Ken backed up away from them and their accusing eyes.
“You are not Ken. You aren’t even human.” The child looked down.
“You are nothing. Just a mask over an empty shell.” Kaiser gave him a disgusted look.
“Please… You have to tell me what to do…” Ken looked desperately from one to the other. “Who am I supposed to be? What am I?!”
Both looked up at him almost sadly.
The room was suddenly plunged into pitch blackness. Ken trembled in the dark as he blindly reached out for the two before him and his fingers encountered only empty air.
“Please… Don’t leave me… Come back… Come back!” He cried out desperately, slowly reaching out into the dark.
A terrified step forward was met by a squelching wet sound that made him freeze in his tracks.
Just as he was about to call out again, the lights flicked back on, blindingly white as they completely lit up the room.
As his eyes adjusted, all the air was suddenly forced from his lungs as his eyes fell on three figures laid out before him.
Ryo, Wormmon and Osamu’s lifeless bodies burned their images into him.
Ryo, so cold and so utterly still as he stared into the nothingness, Wormmon, bruised and limp, and the worst one… So vivid and in so much detail...
Ken felt sick as his eyes refused to leave the sight.
A steadily growing pool of dark red was spreading out almost beautifully under the crumpled form of Osamu, the puddle expanding out to where Ken stood as it stained his shoes crimson.
His limbs were at awkward angles, trembling slightly as the nerve endings and impulses in his body slowly started to fade away.
A single shoe was halfway across the room, thrown there from the force of the impact. A pair of cracked glasses lay at Ken’s feet, gleaming in the light up at him mockingly.
A heavy wheezing sound reached his ears as lungs struggled against crushed ribs. One of them was probably punctured as blood spattered out of his mouth into the air on each pitiful attempt to breathe.
A moan of horror escaped Ken’s throat as his eyes slowly moved up to his brother’s face. A face that was now so familiar …
His once silky dark locks were matted with red thick blood and speckled with chunks of white that, Ken realized belatedly, must have been fragments of his fractured skull. Those once vibrant and deep eyes that Ken shared were now wide and staring down at nothing, all the light taken from them. There was no peace in those eyes. Not like Ryo. Nothing like Ryo. Scrapes and gashes ran down one side of his face to mark the areas where his brother had slid across the rough pavement.
But the worst part…
“His smile broke…” Osamu’s lips curved upwards in what could almost be a peaceful smile as the life drained away from him. But Ken knew better…
Ken’s stomach lurched. “Oh god…. Oh god no… No… Please… Please stop!”
He sank to his knees, trembling in horror as felt the warm sticky blood under him. His horror only grew as the three figures suddenly shifted and sat up, unsteadily climbing to their feet.
“We know who you are, Ken. We’ve seen inside of you…”
“No… Stay away.” He fell back as he tried to back up too quickly, the panic welling up inside of him. “Stay away!” His hands slipped in the blood as he clawed at the floor in a desperate attempt to get back up.
Slowly, they moved closer, their dead eyes on him and piercing through him. They could see what he was and they knew… They knew.
“What you are…” Wormmon sounding unnaturally cold.
“What you hide from everyone…” Ryo’s voice angry and sharp as he reached out.
“Is nothing.” Osamu hissed at his side, his smile pulled wide across his bloody face.
--
Kaiser bolted up in bed, gasping for air.
Beside him, Ken was already sitting up, staring wide eyed off into the distance.
A scream was still echoing off the cold metal walls around them, ringing through the air painfully. Ken’s lips were still parted, a ragged breath escaping him. The poor fool could never handle his nightmares.
A hand flew to his own lips as his stomach lurched, threatening to heave up his lunch as the long hidden memories resurfaced.
The truth was a terrible thing. A slow acting curse that steadily ate away at his soul.
He had allowed Wormmon to die. He had not cared as the little digimon was crushed and killed. That was a truth that Ken had understood and dealt with, though he had yet to deal with the intense guilt each and every time he looked into those wonderful blue eyes.
The truth behind Osamu’s death was still just a shadow of a ghost to Ken, but it was still something he could understand. Something that he had only been a part of. That had been Osamu’s choice, not his. He hadn’t pushed his brother. He hadn’t told him to step out into the street at that precise moment. He hadn’t wanted his brother to splatter across the whole block as he watched the life slowly leak out into the gutter. Osamu had chosen that path, not him.
Kaiser closed his eyes against that memory bitterly. That was a pain for another time. A pain that Ken had yet to fully experience.
The truth he faced now was something even Kaiser could not prepare himself for.
Next to him, Ken’s lips moved in an unsteady whisper as the memory of a boy long forgotten came back to him. “Ryo…”
Kaiser understood that they had shared the same dream. The same memory. Yet he had taken more from it than Ken had. Ken couldn’t see past those cold dead eyes like Kaiser could.
Ryo had been living off of stolen time. Another damned secret that Gennai had neglected to tell him. Perhaps it had been meant to be another of those silly lessons on how to deal with your emotions. The ‘how to cope with loss’ lesson that apparently Ken had never mastered. But if that were true, one could infer that the digital world had known about Osamu’s plans to try to imitate road kill.
That thought was more than enough to make his stomach lurch again.
No… That most likely wasn’t the case. Ryo wasn’t supposed to die then. Stolen time or not, Ryo had made no indication that his time was up or coming to an end. Ryo would never have just left him like that. Not when he was hurt and still needed him.
Ryo wasn’t Osamu. Kaiser thought bitterly.
But why had Ryo died so suddenly? Why was his body left in the sand so carelessly? Why…?
And the truth arrived at last. A truth that Ken must have only seen a glimpse of and pushed aside before he could fully understand what it meant.
It was hidden in a hazy memory littered with fevered hallucinations and fragmented whispers choked full of despair and regret. It was not hard to see why Ken had not yet deciphered such a cryptic meaning from half remembered words.
Ryo. Ken and Kaiser only agreed fully on a few things. They both desired Daisuke. They both understood that Wormmon was precious to them. Osamu’s death had been tragic, though they disagreed on the real reason why. Last but certainly not least, they both agreed that Ryo had been one of the single most important people in their lives.
Ryo had been the caring big brother that didn’t ignore him or hurt him. He had listened to him and paid attention to him when others simply wished he was someone else. He had believed and trusted in Ken when no one else would…
“Ryo…” Kaiser’s breath caught in his throat, his chest and wind pipe suddenly far too tight.
This was a truth he didn’t want. This was more than Osamu. This was more than just a time bomb to be used against that pathetic double sitting next to him. This… This was everything…
Kaiser’s fists tightened in the sheets till his knuckles turned white. Oh no. No no no…
The door had flown open as the others ran in, alarmed by the earlier scream. Somehow, Wormmon had made his way to the foot of the bed and was looking up at Ken with worry.
Gennai blurred at the edge of Kaiser’s vision, that damn guilt ridden look back in his eyes. Did he know? Does he still blame me?
Kaiser struggled to suck in air that only seemed to want to get out. He was trembling, gasping, dying inside as he tried to fight back against this ugly truth that threatened to drown him.
Next to him, Ken spoke the words that Kaiser had been desperately fighting to keep from his mind. “I killed him, Gennai. I killed Ryo…”
Air filled his lungs in a painful ragged gasp. Deep inside, he could feel the last of something shatter.
At last, Kaiser started to scream.
--------
Disclaimer: According to Wikipedia: Akiyoshi Hongo was the creator of the Digimon concept. Bandai, Saban Entertainment and various other entities that are not me own Digimon. I am in no way making money off of this and am strictly using the characters and world for my own fan based fiction.
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