Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Love Is A Battlefield ❯ Phase I- Preparation: Practice ( Chapter 2 )

Love is a Battlefield

Phase I- Preparation: Practice

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Disclaimer: Digimon and all related characters are not mine. The title comes from the song sung by Pat Benatar, written by Mike Chapman and Holly Knight so it doesn't belong to me either. No money, don't sue.

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After the party, I was more determined than ever. The more I saw him, the more I wanted to see him... and that sounds incredibly sappy... but true. <grrr> (I will _not_ turn into a mooning girly-girl!) Anyway, I needed to find some way to get him alone and spend some time with him without tipping my hand. No stupid dates with dinner and a movie... we both needed more action than that (get your minds out of the gutter perverts.) I finally decided on laser tag... it was fun, active, and we could work together or against each other. There was a good place that I'd gone with the guys a couple of times.

Now, I just needed an opportunity to ask him. School started the week after his party making Tamers meetings difficult until everyone adjusted to their new schools. I had the fortune, good or bad, of being in an elevator school so my schedual stayed exactly the same. That just left me more time to ponder and plan... I couldn't just call and ask him, that would be too obvious... and I couldn't just go visit him because he lived so far away. Very unsubtle. No hang-out times or get-togethers were planned for a few weeks. I began to get impatient.

However, the dilemma was solved by a phone call from the quarry himself on Thursday, the second week of school.

"Hello."

"Hey Ruki. How's it going?"

"Fine."

"That's good. How's school?"

"It's school... how's university?"

"Pretty good... just slightly more interesting than high school."

"Hmmm..."

"Listen, Ruki... do you have school on Saturday?"

"Yes."

"In the morning?"

"Yes..."

"Then tomorrow night is probably bad... hmmm... are you and Renamon busy on Saturday night?"

"Me... and Renamon?... no..."

"Do you think you could meet me and Monodramon at Shinjuku Park about 9:00 that night? Monodramon needs a really good workout and I was hoping Renamon could battle practice with him."

...

I didn't know whether to be complimented or angry. Mentally sighing, I agreed to meet him at the western entrance of the park.

Saturday night, I found myself waiting, along with Renamon, just inside the park gate. I wore dark blue cotton capris that my mother and I had compromised on during out most recent shopping trip, a white T-shirt with a blue collar, and gray athletic shoes. I carried a bag with some drinks and snacks. The air was humid and warm but not too hot. I looked at my watch again to see that they were five minutes late. When I looked up, they were jogging around the corner. Ryo was wearing his usually khaki pants and a gray shirt with the English words "Got Milk?" on it. I almost laughed to see Monodramon running... he sort of waddled and it was just... cute.

"Sorry we're late! We missed one of our trains."

"Yeah, well, don't do it again," I replied as we headed in toward the center of the park. When we got to a more secluded area, I asked, "What type of battle practice did you want to do?"

"Mostly just up close, physical fighting... brawling, chasing... that sort of thing."

"Is that okay with you Renamon?" I asked. She nodded and went to the center of the clearing.

"Good. Okay Monodramon, let's burn up a lot of energy tonight!"

"Okay Ryo!"

With that, Monodramon joined Renamon. They squared off against each other and feinted some before starting in earnest. Soon, they were brawling in the clearing, moving in and out of the trees and putting on a good show. Renamon had the advantage in speed and sized but Monodramon was pretty resilient and tricky. Ryo and I sat down against a low wall and watched in silence. After awhile, the digimon took their fight out of the clearing and over a wider area.

"So why did you want to battle practice tonight?" I asked breaking the silence after a little while.

"Monodramon had too much energy and needed to burn it off," was his reply. He was staring forward with and unfocused look in his eyes.

"What happens when he has too much energy? He wrecks the apartment?" I asked laughing a little.

Ryo cracked a smile. "Sort of." Then creasing his forehead, he continued, "If he gets too much energy, he evolves back into Cyberdramon."

"Oh." That could be awkward in Ryo's small apartment.

"He naturally evolved to perfect level before he found me here and that's where his body wants to go... but Cyberdramon is too difficult to control for long periods of time here so we try to keep him at a low energy level."

"What do you do if he does evolve?"

Ryo sighed as he replied, "We take a long training trip away from people to wear him out... last time it happened was in my final year of high school, about three months before college testing time. We were gone for over three weeks."

"Is that why you were a ronin last year?" I asked before I could stop myself.

He didn't look offended, just gave a wistful smile and said, "Yeah... it kind of interrupted my studying."

"Not as much as your first trip to the Digital World," I returned with a snarky grin. I was trying to get him to laugh and snap out of this weird mood he was in. He seemed out of it tonight. He smiled and laughed but it was not the type I had been aiming for.

"That wasn't my first trip to the Digital World."

"Huh?" I replied oh-so-articulately while raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"I was eleven the first time I went to the Digital World. I borrowed someone else's partner and digivice to free him and his friends from a bunch of evil digimon that had captured them."

The skeptical eyebrow raised higher. "How can you use someone else's partner... you wouldn't be able to card slash for them."

He got a not-quite-there look on his face as he replied, "They didn't card slash there... their digimon evolved and devolved naturally... I went again a little while later with a friend's younger brother and a different person's partner and digivice. We fought and killed the same evil digimon that had kidnaped the kids before."

"Ryo, what are you talking about?" I asked with much confusion abounding.

"Then, I went there again when I was twelve for a tournament," he continued without hearing me. "I thought it was for fun but I ended up fighting the same Digimon I killed before. We fought and I was going to win but he sent me to another time and I lost my memory... but I had to fight him anyway. That's when I got Monodramon."

"I thought you said Cyberdramon had naturally evolved?" Still confused and kind of worried too... he was just staring unfocusedly at the center of the now empty clearing.

"He did. Monodramon and I fought the evil digimon together... Monodramon wanted to be my partner because I didn't have a real one... then the digimon we were fighting said he was my partner."

It was my turn to crease my forehead as I looked at Ryo... he verging on looking upset. I had never seen him this way and I didn't understand all of what he was saying.

"Do you know," he continued, "that they fought over who was really my partner?... until Monodramon forced Zeed Millenniumon into a Jogress. They devolved into a digiegg so that then, they were both my partner."

Zeed Millenniumon, evil god digimon... a part of Monodramon... wow.

"Then I found myself here... and my parents were here too. I don't know how that happened because this is not where we are from."

"What do you mean, this isn't where you are from?"

"Zeed Millenniumon had dimensional shifting powers so I had to go to other worlds to fight him. Afterwards, I ended up here... with my parents. I don't know how they got here but we were all settled in like we had just moved to Fukkuoka. But things just felt off to me and I didn't have very much memory of what had happened. I started to feel better though, when I began playing the card game."

"That feeling I can relate to," I interjected trying to draw him out of himself.

It worked, at least a little because he relaxed a bit and gave a small, real smile before continuing.

"After we battled at that first tournament, Cyberdramon showed up and things felt right again. He'd hatched and evolved and come to find me. But he couldn't stay here and I had to be with him so we went to the Digital World. I felt even more right there and some of my memories started to come back."

"So, is the reason Cyberdramon is hard to control because of the Zeed Millenniumon part of him?" I wondered aloud.

"Yeah... when he's at child level, he's more like the original Monodramon though."

He smiled again and I looked at him hard. He looked better than before but something still wasn't right... so I decided... I had just the thing to help snap him out of this.

"You are going with me to play laser tag tomorrow."

"What?" It was his turn to look confused.

"Meet me here at noon. Don't be late... I don't like waiting."

"Why?"

"Because you owe me for tonight."

We were saved from further conversation by a crash. Monodramon had fallen from a tree in a rather undignified way. Ryo rushed over to where the little dragon was rubbing his head. I check my watch. 10:30.

"Does he need any more practice tonight?" I called over.

"What do you say buddy, need to burn any more energy?"

"No... I'm fine now."

"Then we're going home. Remember, tomorrow... noon... don't make me wait."

With that, we left.

TBC

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Author's notes: A 'ronin' is technically a masterless samurai but also refers to a high school graduate that didn't pass his college entrance exam and has to wait until the next year to take it again.

This is the chapter that my Ruki-muse wouldn't let me sleep until I wrote it... she doesn't understand work schedules... but this chapter flows (at least I think it does.) Let me know what you think. Oh! And a special thanks to Kira Wagner who has kindly been my beta-reader (and who I forgot to mention last chapter.)

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Riah-chan
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ruki_and_Ryo/
.. .because everyone needs a little R&R.
"Well, then there'll be just one less person to poke fun at you, right pumpkin."
"Tashika ni kimi wa Queen, kedo dattara ore ga King da na!"