Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Human Eyes, Digital Soul ❯ The Icemon's Stratagem ( Chapter 2 )

Ice Devimon has been called many things in the Digital World. But stupid is not listed among them. He had long been known for his ability to plan out his battles well in advance. But now he wasn't after the defeat of an opponent. That was a secondary bonus. No, what he wanted was a Tamer. And as far as he was concerned, only one would do. Ruki Makino. She who was called The Digimon Queen. The only obstacle to this, he believed, would be the fact that Ruki already had a partner, Renamon. The fox digimon was indeed powerful, but he was by far her superior. The other Tamers might pose a threat though, if he acted too soon. And in the unlikely event he was defeated, he planned to have his revenge, whether or not he was alive to see it come to fruition.

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Ruki Makino, the famed Digimon Queen, was at that very moment, doing something nobody would expect her to be doing. She was, in all seriousness, looking over her cards, but her mind was a million miles away from the deck she was going over. That was automatic by now. Review the deck. Change cards when and where needed or wanted. No, her mind was on a certain brown haired, green eyed, Goggle headed boy named Takato Matsuda. More specifically, she was pondering over why she couldn't stop thinking about the naive, yet somehow sweet, Tamer.
I don't understand it. He's nothing. He's LESS than nothing. I could tear him up in a card battle, and still have enough pieces remaining for someone ELSE to beat him. Yet lately, I can't get him out of my head. If I'm not thinking about Digimon, I'm thinking about HIM!
This bothered her to no end. It had begun only days after her recent victory. Ruki had been thinking of him more often now. In fact, the previous night, she had been drawing up some notes on some of her cards and comparing them to the ones she had yet to use, when she had absent-mindedly written his name down, and didn't realize it till almost a half minute later, which was when she realized that she hadn't moved her pen at all after his name had been written. Frustrated by this, she had taken to listening to her walkman, but one of the first songs that had come up was some sappy romance, and she had again let her mind wander in his direction, which prompted her to turn off the walkman and fling it onto her desk carelessly. Amazingly, it hadn't broken, which was a surprise in itself. Now, as it turned out, she had begun to think back to the way he had acted when Guilmon had vanished, seemingly never to return. Up until that point, she had pegged him as some foolish little boy who had little courage at all, the way he constantly tried not to fight her. But then he had surprised her, going into a tunnel which could conceivably become his tomb had something happened, all for the sake of his Digimon. For his friend.
That's Gogglehead all over. No brains, no common sense. Just acts on impulse. And all for a bunch of useless.....
She stopped before completing the thought. Was it really true that they were just data? Renamon had thrown herself into the line of fire. Had taken a nearly lethal blow from Dokugumon to save her. Why would she have done that if she were just data? Despite how often she said Digimon were nothing more than data, and only made for battle, she had to admit, they were also capable of being more than that. As she put her cards away, her attention turned towards Renamon, who was resting outside while the time permitted. She couldn't help but smirk just a bit. Her mother had gone off to do another one of her modeling jobs. She'd tried to convince Ruki to join her, but as usual, she'd been turned down. She had been gone the entire night, which was no surprise.
At that moment, Ruki could hear the sounds of the large gate of her home opening, and the sound of her mother's voice. It seemed she was speaking to someone. Someone who, at the moment, had yet to speak a word.
"....Mother? Are you here? We have a guest!"
"Oh? Bring them in, Kei. Ruki, we have a visitor!" That, needless to say, was Ruki's Grandmother.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll be right there." With a sigh she got to her feet and headed out to meet this new stranger. Renamon had taken on look at her Tamer, then vanished from view. Ruki smirked again, and then headed into the living room.

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Takato Matsuda was having one of his more typical days. Having gotten out of school, he headed into the park, bread in hand, where he was almost instantly tackled by Guilmon. His partner was always a friendly creature, and was constantly enthusiastic about greeting his Tamer after several hours without getting to play with him. Jenrya and Terriermon came by a few moments later.
"No sign of Impmon?"
"Not a one, Takato. Of course, I think we'd smell him before we saw him." Terriermon replied.
"Terriermon! Don't be rude."
"Sorry, Jen. But he smells!"
"Gotta give him that one." Guilmon said. He knew from his own experiences that Impmon did smell like brimstone after using one of his attacks.
"What about Ruki? Any sign of her in the last day or so? She dropped by near my home yesterday, which was odd." Takato said. he was still trying to figure out what that had been about. It hadn't helped that he had then daydreamed about her the rest of the night. He'd almost forgotten to do his homework!
"Oh? Hmmm. No, I haven't seen her since we fought with Allomon, actually."
"Ooooo! Maybe she likes you Takato! You should have asked her out!" Terriermon cracked, which had the effect of causing Takato to blush beat red.
"Hey! It's not like that! She just walked by, that's all! She looked like she was headed to her home or something."
"Uh, Takato, isn't her home in the opposite direction from yours?" Terriermon said, with a smug look.
"Yeah, so? Maybe she was coming from someplace nearby where I live." Takato was still blushing, but also sweating a bit. He didn't want anyone to know he'd started to develop a crush on Ruki since the last few days. The fact that he'd been thinking about Ruki and Gargomon the other day had simply proved it. His daydreaming hadn't exactly been a counter argument. Especially when it was one in which he and Ruki had been in each others' arms, and kissing in a much more than innocent style. Of course, he wasn't about to let his friends in on that!
"Hey Takato?"
"Yeah, Guilmon?"
"Why is your face all red?"
So much for nobody noticing....
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Ice Devimon smirked. he'd made a habit of capturing other Digimon, to prove his superiority to the Digimon Queen. But, like many a Digimon of evil, he also had his own henchmon. He wanted to cover all his bases. Summoning a group of Keramon, he smirked, as he began work on a few chemical concoctions.
"You all know why you are here?" he asked, though he knew none of them would be foolish enough to be here without knowledge of what he wanted done.
"Yes, milord." They chorused in unison.
"Good. here are the vials. You will know what to do should by some miracle, Renamon challenge me and win, if she even dares to set foot in my presence."
Taking the vials, the Keramon vanished. Ice Devimon began to laugh. In just another few days, either he would have a Tamer, or Renamon would be taken away from Ruki Makino. Either way, he would win.

"Perfect."

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Ruki was back in her room, going over her cards again. The stranger was out in the yard looking out over the koi pond. Ruki took only a few cursory moments to size him up when her mother had introduced him.
Firstly, he was an American. That much she could have figured just by looking at him. He was a little over five feet. Perhaps around five foot seven. Secondly, he was an amnesiac. He knew only a name, which he believed to be his own. Thirdly, he didn't speak much. Indeed, he'd been almost completely silent, except for the brief introduction of himself. And fourthly, he had no idea what he was doing in japan. having run into him during her modeling shoot the previous night on her way to the shoot, her mother had offered him the use of their guest room, as he seemed to have no money, and it was doubtful he knew anyone in West Shinjouku, let alone Japan on the whole. The stranger- Marc, she'd heard him call himself, though he'd said he didn't know if it was his name. Just that it was the only name he could recall- had reluctantly accepted. his Japanese was decent, if heavily accented in what her mother had recognized as a New York City accent. He was young, but had a wild air about him. An air of danger, and it was something Ruki suspected could be interesting to see if it were ever applied to anything. She briefly considered challenging him to a card battle. Of course, she'd probably have to teach him how to play first, which would be a waste of time.
Then her thoughts began to slowly drift towards Takato. Strange as it sounded, she wanted to see him again. She couldn't understand why. In every way, she was better than he was. She was far more aggressive, obviously a better card-player, since she'd never encountered him at any tournaments, and knew far more about Digimon. Renamon was easily the best, and most powerful Digimon partner one could have. Though for some reason, anytime Renamon spoke of Guilmon, she thought she detected a slight tinge of respect. Obviously, Takato couldn't be all bad. Guilmon must have impressed Renamon with that battle they'd had. Ruki had merely considered Guilmon to have had the most unbelievable luck anyone could have. Renamon had finished Armored Digimon, even CHAMPION Digimon in her rookie stage, and she knew that at her Champion level of Kyuubimon, that no Digimon, not that deranged gun-bunny, nor the Gojira wanna-be could possibly match her power.
Now if she could just make herself believe it about the latter two...... And as her mind struggled to remain on the train of thought about the Digimon, she again found herself thinking about Takato. How he was soft-spoken, and seemed cowardly, but yet possessed a strong loyalty to Guilmon. That was a rare thing in her eyes. And to express such sentiments for a Digimon truly confused her. Yet when he had ventured into that tunnel, she'd found herself thinking about how his hair looked in the moonlight, and why in God's name he would be doing something so insane. She'd surprised herself by joining him. Them, she corrected herself. That other moron was there too. She had no real desire to think about Jenrya Lee. To her, he was a pacifist fool who should never have gotten a Digimon to begin with. Yet he was a Tamer. How the Digital World had screwed up so royally with that one was beyond her. What irked her more was that he was Takato's friend. That he spent more time with her Takato then she did!
......MY Takato? When did I suddenly start thinking of him as if I owned him? This was starting to scare her. Considering how her mother brought home men almost constantly, and seemed to care about nothing but modeling, and about forcing that same career on her, she had vowed not to let herself become too open with others. Renamon was practically the only one she ever talked to. And here she was thinking about Takato like she had any claim to him! This was why she hated feelings. They confused her and got in her way. It was like the time Calumon had appeared after Renamon had destroyed Vilemon. Her first thought was that he- at least, everyone ASSUMED Calumon was male- was cute, and for a moment, she'd been half tempted to smile at the little puffball. It was even more surprising, considering how hurt she'd felt after Takato had chewed her out just a second after Renamon's victory. Despite her attempts to cover up her hurt feelings, she couldn't stop herself from acknowledging the sting of the boy's words.
That's it. I don't care who it is that comes through next. I need a Digital Field to crop up just to get my mind off this bullshit!

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To be Continued.....