Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Drifting Pieces ❯ Foundations ( Chapter 21 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Author's Note: One to go.

This chapter flowed out like endless rain into a paper cup. Please review.


Chapter 21: Foundations

The flames had died down and turned to nothing more than wisps of smoke curling up into the sky as the field of flowers became nothing more than gray ash.

Looking out at the blackened and now empty field, it was hard to imagine a time when it had once been overflowing with blooming flowers. It must have been hypnotic to see them gently blowing in the salty sea breeze. The scent alone would have been overwhelming as their petals let off that light fragrance that had long drifted into other worlds and to be dabbed on the necks of ladies, adorned around the dead to cover up the weight of decay, and pressed between the pages of our favorite books.

Had there been color back when this world was still new? When had the flowers first start to press their way up through the weeds? Had they all bloomed at once, creating new paths with the flourish of their petals, or had they opened slowly over the years as new worlds came into being?

Slowly as time crawled by, measured only in the grains of sand that washed out with each passing wave, the flowers had started to fade. The leaves wilted and grew brittle while the outer petals fell away. Before the very core of each path could fall away, the flowers had closed tightly against the harsh winds.

It was here that they had waited as the world died around them. There were no new worlds and life did not renew. The pathways grew narrow and untraveled as the weeds and grass grew tall around them, choking them out.

The world seemed content to remain in a state of static for the remainder of time, frozen on the brink of loss just before the core of this and the next world collapsed inward and disappeared forever.

It was then that an unknown hand plucked away one of the trembling buds and discovered the unfounded seeds.

A single seed had survived the trials of worlds unfamiliar to it, trembling as it desired to return to a home it had only dreamed of, it reached the end of its journey only to find that the center of the universe was already dead.

Rage burned hot and white as the flames spread, turning everything in its path into fuel to build on. Now that the fuel had run dry, the last of the seeds waited for fate to find it.

Would it be plucked out and crushed before it could bloom? Would it bloom and find a world that had ended before it had begun? Or would it take root in the soil fertilized by its brethren and become something unknown?

It waited and called out to become one again. To be swept away in the winds of destiny that billowed like a hurricane just off shore.

--

Once it had been established where they needed to go, Daisuke had instantly been impatient to get there. Had he been alone, he would have attempted to climb the sheer cliff face without so much as a second thought. Sure, he was confident that he would have made it, but he was also confident that it would have been a climb filled with many close calls.

With Takeru and the young Ken at his heels, Daisuke had set off to find a safer place to start their ascent.

"Maybe the boy should stay down here." Daisuke glanced back at the two.

"We can't leave him here. Who knows what sorts of monsters might still exist in a place like this." Takeru protested.

"You would stay with him." Daisuke had it in his mind that facing Ken was something that he should do alone.

"You aren't going up there alone!" Takeru disagreed.

"Glad to know that I'm still being counted." Kaiser muttered under his breath.

Takeru sighed. "I'm not letting you go up there with just Kaiser and Ken."

"Well, maybe you should stay down here with both of them." Daisuke stopped and looked at the three of them fully. "I'll be honest, I don't know what I'm going to find up there. He wasn't exactly the easiest to talk down when he was whole, and no offence," He gave an apologetic look at the Kaiser, "but just talking with you was difficult at the best of times."

Kaiser smiled slightly, but it didn't reach his eyes. "It's hard to converse with only half a mind that already knows where it stands."

Daisuke continued. "Even with just the initial split from Kaiser, I could always sense that there was something wrong with Ken. He just didn't feel... Whole." He sighed in frustration as he failed to explain what had always been there but what he was just starting to understand.

At first, he had felt closer to Ken. It was as if he was with the part of Ken that he had always longed for back in the days when he was still just trying to reach out and connect. Yet being around the Kaiser had given him more of a sense of completion than he would have thought. There was more substence. More emotion. More... Ken.

"When you two came over, Ken changed. It was like..." He struggled to find a way to make them understand just how wrong that Ken had been. How dangerous that Ken had suddenly felt...

"It was like finding out that the monster you thought was in your closet was under the bed the whole time." The younger Ken spoke up quietly.

"Or sleeping on the top bunk anyways." Kaiser shrugged, though Daisuke could hear the bitterness.

"Yeah." Daisuke looked up at the cliff, picking out a potential route that didn't seem as steep or dangerous.

"So what you're trying to say is that you think that we should stay here because you think there's a monster up there." Takeru crossed his arms over his chest and looked up at the cliff, picking out the same route as Daisuke.

"That might be true." Kaiser moved forward, looking up to the edge of the cliff, his eyes moving along the structure as he judged just how stable it all was. "But we can't stay here."

"Why not?" Daisuke looked at him in exasperation.

"Because he won't let us."

They all looked up to the cliff in unison and took a step back as they saw the slender form of Ken standing on the very edge, looking out at the ocean.

"If we don't go to him,” The younger Ken reached up and took Takeru's hand. "He will bring us to him."

"Are you saying he can transport you?" Takeru gaped. "Then why hasn't he done so yet? What is he waiting for? He could just take you and leave us two alone down here!"

Daisuke felt his heart jump start at that notion.

"Because he knows we'll go to him. No matter what happens, we have no choice." Kaiser sighed and ran a hand through his hair in a motion that Daisuke found familiar and strange. "If I were in his place, I would rather wait than expend energy like that. It takes a lot to create a world."

Takeru turned to look at the Kaiser with wide eyes that, much to Daisuke's shock, almost seemed to be filling with tears. "Kaiser... Did you?"

Kaiser did not meet Takeru's gaze. "You were worth it."

Daisuke looked from one to the other curiously.

“We’re wasting time here.” Kaiser sighed and headed up to the rocks to start the climb. “Don’t any of you die here. It would be a shame to come this far and miss the end.”

--

The back of his neck burned and throbbed, sending shooting pain along the base of his skull and out across his temples.

The pain came in bursts, pulsing until he saw white flashing before his eyes one moment, only to fade into nothing the next.

Each wave crashing in on his state of being seemed to pull more and more of him away, tearing away his psyche piece by piece until he wondered if he would fly into a million pieces, or at the very least crack down the middle like a piece of glass -glasses- cracking from the stress of too much pressure.

Standing on the edge of the cliff, he could feel the others moving closer. It was a strange sensation that was so simultaneously foreign and familiar that he wondered if maybe it hadn’t always been there.

If he closed his eyes, he felt that he could see the thoughts of all those pieces floating just out of his reach. He could feel the emotions rushing past him in a river that he was no longer a part of.

The whole thing was so ridiculous that it made him want to laugh. To give in to that growing desire to throw it all to the wind and just let himself burn up along with everything else.

He had already removed the part of himself that he loathed the most, but that part had proven to be stronger than he had anticipated. It was a part that refused to die easily and fade away into the darkness. With every passing second that it was allowed to remain, he could feel the ever growing pull that was threatening to bring them back together.

When this world had opened up to him, the notion that perhaps he just needed to take down the smaller pieces first came to him.

The young boy found in the sand was the furthest one from him in terms of connecting. He was foreign and unknown and therefore one that Ken would have the least problems disposing of. There would be no emotions spent over this one’s loss.

There was a soft crunching sound followed by scuffling as the four boys pulled themselves over the tops of the cliffs.

Ken smiled and turned to them in greeting. “That must have been a hard climb. Do you need a moment to rest?”

The four sat in the burned up grass for a moment, catching their breaths and looking up at him with a wide range of emotion.

Daisuke, ever the hopeful optimist, carried a deep sense of hurt in his eyes while Takeru just looked angry and just the slightest bit confused.

The smaller Ken, still wet and sandy from his un-earthing earlier, looked frightened. Ken couldn’t blame him.

It was when Ken looked to the Kaiser that he found himself unable to meet those hard and cold eyes.

“Oh Ken,” Kaiser purred. “I can see your sanity.” He laughed breathily, still winded from the apparent climb up. “How very little of it you have left. Have you decided to join me in blissful destruction?”

“I will be rid of you soon.” Ken clenched his fists tightly, the nails biting into his flesh. “Once you are gone, everything will be so much better. No more pain. No more guilt. No more suffering. I will be renewed and can finally be free.”

“It doesn’t work that way.” The smaller Ken stood up. “You can’t kill who you were and become someone new. You can’t just forget the past and still be Ken. You can’t forget Osamu or Ryo… You can’t forget Ken.”

Takeru stood up and took his place behind the younger boy. “He’s right, Ken. You can’t keep doing this. You can’t tear yourself apart and expect something to still be there.”

“I don’t want something to still-be-there.” Ken looked at Takeru angrily. “But I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”

Daisuke got to his feet but stayed quiet, keeping his dark eyes on Ken fully. The disappointment in them stung and Ken wished that Daisuke would just understand. This had to be done.

“This has to be done.” Kaiser echoed Ken’s thoughts, startling him. “You need the spores. One way or another, you will get them. More than that, though… The last one standing is the one that remains. Is that your theory? Is that your game?”

“This is something I can do easily. I could do it right now if I so desired. It would take just one motion and he’d be over the edge of the cliff and dead before he even realized he’d left the ground.” Kaiser slowly walked up to the smaller Ken and placed a hand on the top of his head. Everyone tensed, expecting him to attempt to do just that. “But that’s just such a pathetic way to go. So fast… So messy… Not to mention you would still have to go down there and get the spore. It’s just not practical. You would need a much more hands on approach.”

They relaxed slightly at that, the younger Ken looking up at the other cautiously. Kaiser smiled down at him reassuringly. “Frankly… I don’t think you have it in you.” He moved before Takeru or Daisuke could respond, grabbing the boy by the back of the neck and shoving him forward.

Ken felt the now familiar stab of pain branching off from his neck as the boy stumbled towards him. He was so small… So innocent and naïve. Ken could see it in the boy’s eyes. The trusting and wide eyes that had done little more than watch as the two people he loved most in his life died.

No, this was not the boy he wanted to become. This one was far too comfortable in his own little world. This one did not understand just how hard things could be. This one had yet to feel real pain or cause it.

The searing white lights were before his eyes again and the world slid away from him.

Do it, Ken. Kaiser’s voice was in his head, whispering and laughing. Let me help you. It will be so easy… All you have to do is squeeze…

Chaos erupted around him as the lights faded away and the world returned. There was yelling, screaming, and laughing all around him. He was on the ground, sitting on a warm body and his fingers were trembling from the strain of clenching down.

Someone was pulling at him, trying to knock him away, but his grip was far too tight.

The smaller boy’s arms fluttered at his side, reminding him of a bird he had seen once when he was younger that had flown into a window and broken its neck. The small fingers grasped at the ground below him and clawed at the ash as he kicked helplessly. There was a rasping sound as he struggled for air and his eyes rolled back, hazing over slightly.

Just a little more and you’ll never have to feel his pain again.

Ken cried out as his thumbs suddenly sunk down and there was a loud snap.

Daisuke slammed into him and they both went flying, rolling across the field and skidding to a stop dangerously close to the cliffs.

The world spun and he could just barely make out Takeru kneeling over the smaller boy and desperately trying to revive him. Daisuke lay at his side, coughing as he got a face full of burnt up flowers.

Ken closed his eyes, aware that his cheeks were wet but not knowing why. He opened his eyes and found the Kaiser standing over him, holding out his hand. “One down.”

The heel of a hand slammed into Ken’s stomach making him cry out and curl protectively in on himself. The Kaiser then grabbed a fist full of Ken’s hair and pulled him up just enough to expose the back of his neck.

Next to him, Daisuke had started to scramble up, trying to desperately stop them.

Ken was aware of something sharp being pressed to the back of his neck just before the world exploded in pain.

--

How could so much go so wrong so fast?

Just a few feet away lay the younger Ken, his eyes open wide in shock and the light slowly fading away as they stared up at the gray sky. Takeru sat beside him in shock, hunched over the smaller frame with his hands trembling as they curled into the mud stained shirt. A strained wheeze and gurgle sounded each time the small boy’s chest struggled to rise.

There was a dim light coming from the back of the child’s neck, appearing black in the negative world. It flickered with each shuddering wheeze, growing dimmer with each passing second.

Daisuke felt his heart sink as he listened to the air straining through the crushed trachea, knowing that there was nothing that anyone there could do for the boy. He didn’t have time to feel the panic that was clearly running through Takeru as Kaiser came up behind Ken and attacked.

Daisuke caught a glimpse of something glinting brightly in the palm of Kaiser’s hand as he scrambled to his feet, kicking up ash in his panic. Ken was screaming as the Kaiser slowly pressed what appeared to be a shard of glass into Ken’s neck.

Daisuke charged forward and slammed into the side of Kaiser, taking all three of them down roughly.

They rolled across the burned field and slid to a stop near the edge, Daisuke’s feet sticking out over the cliff slightly.

“Only one…” Kaiser breathed out heavily from under Daisuke. “Only one can remain. Do you really want it to be him?”

Ken had landed slightly off to the side, clutching at the back of his neck and breathing hard. Blood, tinted black in this negative world, slowly dripped down between his fingers. “Don’t you get it, Daisuke? Can’t you see it yet?”

Daisuke looked over at him. “No.” He could feel his own heart pounding in his chest. “Why are you doing this? Why are you tearing yourself apart? There will be nothing left of you.”

“That’s exactly what I want, Daisuke…” Ken slowly got up, his right hand sliding across the blackened ground till his fingers closed around the glass shard. “I want to start over. You can’t start over if there’s still something left of the past.”

Kaiser laughed and pushed Daisuke off of himself. “I can’t go back to what I was. I can never be that naïve again.”

“And I can never let myself be so full of malice… So prideful… So full of guilt.” Ken looked down at his blood stained hand then at Kaiser with cold eyes.

“There’s so much more to you, Ken.” Daisuke sat up, hating the look that was in his partner’s eyes. “You can’t just start a life over. Not like this. There will always be more.”

“Then I’ll just have to keep digging it out, won’t I?” Ken ran his bloody hand through his hair, sending those perfect strands into chaos.

“That’s not how it works, Ken!” Daisuke felt the frustration rising in him. “You can’t keep digging down. You’ll be digging forever! If you really want to reinvent yourself, I think you’re supposed to go up, not down.” His eyes stung with tears now, making the world blur around him. “And you can’t go up if you have nothing to stand on.”

Ken stared at Daisuke, his cold expression slowly melting as fear flashed across his eyes. “What if it’s too late? What if there’s nothing left to stand on?”

“There’s always something to stand on, Ken.” Daisuke got up and held his hand out to Ken. “From the moment we come into this world we’re building a foundation. It’s a little unsteady at first, and sometimes a little fragile, but it’s just enough to stand on. It’s the people that we take into our hearts that help us build. Even if you just let one person in, together you can build something wonderful.”  

The shard fell from his hand. “I’m scared.” His voice quivered and the fear ran so deep that Daisuke felt his own heart clench. “I’ve lost so much. What if… What if I lose you too?”

Daisuke slowly moved forward and placed a hand on Ken’s shoulder. “It’s the risk we take with everyone. Maybe someday you will lose me… Maybe someday I’ll lose you. It’ll hurt and there’s a good chance the pain will always be there… but I wouldn’t want you to stop building. As long as you live, you should never stop building. It would be such a shame if you let what we built together crack and fade away.”

Ken took a step forward and was suddenly in Daisuke’s arms, trembling and clutching at his back. “What about my brother? What about Ryo? It still hurts so much. I could have done something…” His whole body was shaking now and Daisuke squeezed him closer.

There were no easy answers. Ryo’s choice was an easy one that Daisuke could see himself making. He gave what was left of his life to save Ken. It was something Ken might already understand if he allowed himself to really feel it someday. Yet, what about his brother? How did you explain that? How could he tell Ken it was okay when Osamu had done something that Daisuke could never understand.

“It was love.”

Daisuke was startled as Kaiser spoke up, now standing behind Ken near the very edge.

“Ryo gave you everything because of love. His time was over and you are all that is left to feel for him. We can’t keep marring his memory with pain. He didn’t live his life that way and he wouldn’t want us to remember him like that. It was bad enough that we had to lose him twice. As for Osamu…” Kaiser looked down, his fists clenched tightly.  “You were the only one that he ever let in. He loved you so much… But he couldn’t see past his own pain.”

“It wasn’t right that he wasn’t given the chance that I was given.” Ken looked back at Kaiser, tears running down his face. “He could have been helped. He could have been saved!”

“But he wasn’t.” Kaiser looked up at the sky. His face was calm and almost serene as he gazed into the eerie gray light. “There is nothing you could do about it and nothing you can do now. I can see that now. Even if I had saved him that day… How long would he have gone on after? Would he be the one standing here now filled with pain and rage?”

Kaiser held up a fist and slowly opened it, palm up, revealing a small black seed.

Ken’s hand instantly flew to the back of his neck. “You dug it out…”

To the side, there was one last painful gurgle and wheeze followed by silence. Daisuke knew without looking that the small boy’s eyes were now empty, the fading light gone.

Kaiser smiled. “You know me… I always have to win.”

“Kaiser?” Daisuke suddenly noticed that Kaiser had picked up the forgotten glass shard in all the commotion. In this light, it appeared to still be connected to a twisted and broken metal frame. “Kaiser, wait!”

The shard moved in a blur as it was lifted and plunged deep into Kaiser’s neck, cutting a jagged horizon across the perfect flesh before being pulled out and falling away.

Kaiser’s body staggered forward and fell to the ground heavily. Daisuke released Ken, screaming as he sank to Kaiser’s side.

He rolled the boy over and frantically held his hands to the gushing wound. “No… No! Please no…”

Kaiser sputtered and spit up blood as he attempted to speak, no air making it past his torn throat. Daisuke was aware that Ken had moved to his side, looking down at the life that was rapidly slipping away. Behind him, Takeru was yelling something.

“Kaiser… No… Not Kaiser. You were never Kaiser, were you?” Daisuke trembled as his hands slipped in the blood and he knew that there was no stopping the flow. “Ken… You were always Ken… I’ve always loved you, Ken. All of you.”

Kaiser smiled at that, a humor in his eyes that Daisuke had long ago learned to cherish. His lips moved silently, carefully forming Daisuke’s name as he reached up to weakly push the hands away from his neck.

It was over quickly. There was no lingering hope and no final goodbye. The blood continued to pool, slowing as the working force to pump it out failed.

“When did you know?” Ken whispered.

“That you were him?” Daisuke went to wipe his eyes and stopped as he saw the blood on his hands.

“That he was the real Ken.” Ken reached out and lightly wiped Daisuke’s cheeks clean.

“But he wasn’t.” Daisuke slowly wiped his hands on the ground and stood up. “And you aren’t either.”

He turned to face Ken, smiling as tears continued to fall freely. “I think… I think I’ve known since we came back to the digital world. When you both went to speak with Gennai. I should have known sooner, but I was always a little slow.”

Takeru had joined them now, looking pale and shaken. “What are you talking about? If he isn’t Ken, who is he? What is he?”

“You must have sensed it too, Takeru. You just didn’t know what it was.” Ken looked at the blond fully. “It was why you didn’t listen to her. Why you didn’t trust him… Why you came here.”

Takeru’s eyes widened for a moment as he thought about it. “Are you another split? Just another part of him that he broke off?”

“I didn’t see it then.” Ken looked down at his hands. “I thought that I was real. Had to be the real one. I see it now. He knew.” He looked back at the lifeless body of Kaiser and slowly moved to pry the seed from the cold fingers. “Once he cut the seed out… I knew that he was more Ken than I ever was.”

“What are you?” Takeru repeated, this time sounding angry. “Why did you kill him?” He pointed back at the smaller body just a few feet away.

“This world is dead. I think it’s been dying for years and waiting for someone to come and save it.”  Ken looked down at the seed in the palm of his hand. “Just like me.”

Daisuke blinked and looked around as if noticing it for the first time. Considering that his first priority had been Ken, he may as well be noticing it for the first time.

Ken smiled faintly and clenched his hand around the seed tightly. “But you can’t just wait around for someone to come by and save you. You have to ask for help. You have to want to be helped… You have to have people that want to help you.”

Takeru opened his mouth to repeat his question but Daisuke cut him off. “Where is he?”

Takeru blinked and stared at Daisuke. “Where is who? What are you talking about?”

“Ken. The real Ken.” Daisuke shook his head. How could he have been so blind? No wonder they couldn’t join back together. No wonder they were so different and the same all at once. “You were all just fragments… Projections.”

“You mean we’ve just been dealing with imaginary people?” Takeru looked at Daisuke fully. “How is that possible?”

“I’m not sure…” Daisuke frowned. “I think it has something to do with this world. It’s not supposed to be like this. I think the two are connected somehow. Maybe if we can help one…”

“Kaiser had the right idea. The seeds need to be returned to the soil that first produced them. It’s been growing in me for so long that I think we’ve become one and the same.” Ken held up the seed. “A seed nurtured on pain and suffering is only going to yield more suffering. What if I let go and nothing grows? What if all that’s left is just a husk?”

“You can’t think that for even a second, Ken.” Daisuke moved closer and gently brushed the hair back from Ken’s eyes. “There’s so much more in you than you believe. Who ever put that seed in you tried to convert it into something wicked and evil, but they failed. There was just too much beauty in you to tarnish it. You alone kept it alive all this time. You alone were enough to keep it safe until it could return. All that’s left is to let go and move on.”

Ken looked down, his hand trembling slightly. “I’m afraid. I’m afraid of what I’ll find on the other side.”

Daisuke swallowed hard and took Ken’s hand. “It’s okay to be afraid of the future. I don’t know what I’ll find on the other side either… But what I’m most afraid of is that I’ll return and you won’t be there. I meant what I said… I have always loved you. I loved you as Kaiser and I loved you as Ken. I have always loved every part of you and I look forward to loving the you that is waiting out there to become whole once more.”

Ken looked up at him, tears in his eyes. “I’m sorry I put you all through this.”

“Don’t be.” Daisuke smiled. “I got to see parts to you that I will always cherish.” He paused as he felt the briefest bit of panic and worry trace over his mind. “What happens now?”

“I return.” Ken pulled away from Daisuke and looked down at the small seed in his hand. “Everything returns to where it belongs. This body is a part of this world and it must return to nurish the seeds and help them grow. With any luck, the others are waiting for me on the other side where we can finally come back together.”

Daisuke swallowed hard. “I’ll meet you there.”

“Thank you.” Ken held out his hand and released the seed to let it fall to the ground. His body went limp on impact and hit the ground shortly after. Even after all this, Daisuke found that it still hurt his heart to see those deep dark eyes that he loved be so void of life as they stared blankly up at the gray sky.

“What do we do now?” Takeru stepped up beside Daisuke and looked up at the sky as if expecting to find something there. “How do we get back and how do we find the real Ken?”

Daisuke let his shoulder slump as he realized that he had no idea what they were supposed to do now. The seeds were home where they could grow and bloom safely without taking any more of Ken’s life… But was that enough? Was it as simple as that?

“Let’s go back down.” Daisuke didn’t want to stay up here any longer. It was too disturbing and painful to see the lifeless bodies of his friend, partner, and special someone laying in a puddle of deep red blood.

Wait. Red?

He froze mid step and turned back to the Kaiser. “It’s red!”

It started small, a dark red patch coming out from under all three boys and slowly spreading out around them.

“It’s not blood.” Takeru breathed out in a mixture of relief and wonder.

Daisuke couldn’t help but feel relief flood over him too as he saw that Takeru was right. Small dark red buds were pushing up out of the ashes, stretching up towards the sky and trembling as the tightly folded petals formed around the core.

The flowers spread out to the edges of the cliffs and back towards where the trees had once been, racing out into nothingness and beyond Daisuke’s ability to see.

Blue flooded the sky, so deep and vast that Daisuke felt he would become lost in it at any moment. With the sky came the water, reflecting back a glistening range of blues and greens that reminded him of fairytale picture books.

All around them, the world slowly woke up, seeming to breathe and stretch under them. Each flower seemed to swell and become richer with each passing second. Could it be that each one contained a world? That each flower held life in it that was unimaginable?

Daisuke…  A soft voice calling to him, so small and frail compared to the power of this place.

He felt that if he remained there for much longer that he would get lost in such beauty and richness, never to return. It was intoxicating.

Daisuke… Don’t leave me. It was so soft, but somehow the power of this place couldn’t snuff it out.

Daisuke… Please find me.

It was Ken! “Takeru, I know the way back!” He grabbed the other boy’s wrist and pulled him across the field to the very edge of the cliff that overlooked the water.

“Daisuke?” Takeru gave him a doubtful look. “I don’t see anything…”

“He’s there. Trust me.” Daisuke smiled and looked back at the field just as the flowers slowly started to bloom. “It’s time to go home.”

He pulled Takeru sharply and to his credit, the other boy didn’t resist as they both plunged off the cliff together.

The sensation of falling was both terrible and wonderful as the fresh sea breeze pushed at them and the world bloomed around them. Daisuke smiled as the urge to spread his arms and welcome the warm breeze overwhelmed any sensation of fear.

It was gentle and soothing as it slid through their hair and brushed over their cheeks. There was no sensation of fatalism as they plunged past the green and brown rocks towards the water. There was no pain as they slipped past the surface of the water, letting it surround them and add a new sensation of weightlessness to it all as they still continued to sink.

It wasn’t cold and it didn’t press in around them as it had once before. There was no fear of suffocation and no resistance as the world around them slowly faded to white until there was nothing.

This is where the world ends, thought Daisuke as they drifted through the white void together. The only sensation was of the other boy’s fingers as they gripped their hands together tightly.

No… This is where it begins. He amended silently. This is where it waits to be born.

A deep sense of utter calm and serenity washed over him as he felt the nothingness envelop him. A conversation with the Kaiser from earlier came back to him softly, this time lacking all of the malice and pain.

“What are you?”

“Potential.”  

Potential was the perfect word for this blank canvass of a world. Out here, he felt that any desire his heart could ever dream of could manifest and bloom before him.

How tempting it was to paint his own picture and fill this nothing with color and joy… He could practically hear a soft voice whispering in his ear: What do you dream of?

But there was only one thing Daisuke wanted and he did not hesitate on the answer. “Ken. Take me to Ken. It’s time for us to go home.”

With that, the world went dark and Daisuke was jolted as his feet were suddenly planted firmly on solid ground.

Takeru was gone and Daisuke found himself alone in the dark.

“Takeru?” Daisuke spun around, reaching out for his friend. “Ken?” He tentatively took a few steps forward. “Hello?”

“You must be Daisuke.” The voice came from behind him, so familiar but somehow strange.

He spun around and came face to face with spiked hair, glasses, and sad dark eyes. Only one name crossed his mind.

“Osamu.”