Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Matter of Perspective ❯ Daisuke ( Chapter 1 )

DISCLAIMER: The characters and elements of Digimon Adventure 02 do not belong to me. They are the unquestioned property of Toei Animation. This fanfic was written for free entertainment purposes only. The only thing I can even pretend to own is the first really plausible gender-bending concept, but I have learned not to claim originality in a fandom of this size. No copyright infringement has been intended.

WARNINGS: Girl!Yamato, Seme!Taichi, Nice!Sora, and Scheming!Daisuke. Incidental pairings include daiken, hikeru, sorato (but eventual taito or I wouldn't post it!), and possibly jyoura.

A/N: Well, this is a semi-insane little fic concept I've been tossing around for the last year or so. For anyone who's actually curious about the reality of what Ken says, all of it is either proven fact or logical assumption. In the second-to-last episode of the first series, the Chosen Children were actually deleted...something that I don't think would have been possible if what I'm theorizing here isn't true.

Like all of Daisuke's really wild ideas, it started out innocently enough -- on a lazy Sunday at the end of the school year, when there was nothing else to do and no one else to do it with. Every other Sunday for the past two months, they had gotten together and studied for their respective final exams, despite not taking the same classes or even being on the same level. That sort of thing didn't seem to matter, not between them. Showing up at the Ichijouji residence a little after 10 o'clock that morning was really just force of habit. Fortunately, even though Ken hadn't expected him, he didn't mind the company.

They set up in the living room, their digimon wrestling happily on the floor, in front of a television with the sound turned off. This was a precaution, as Daisuke saw it -- if they ran out of things to talk about or Ken got too technical, he could always crank the volume. Oh, it wasn't that he minded Ken being technical, but...he did hate having to ask his boyfriend to dumb things down a little. Looking like an idiot had never been one of Daisuke's top priorities, and it happened often enough on its own without his actively encouraging it. After all, that was Takeru's job. He sighed heavily, and rolled over on his back.

Of course, Ken would notice something tiny and insignificant like that. "Are you all right, Daisuke?"

"What? Oh, yeah. I'm fine." He paused. Lies weren't something that sat well in his stomach. "Okay -- so maybe I'm not so fine. But you wouldn't be, either. Sure, I'm not chasing after Hikari-chan anymore, but I still care what she thinks of me!"

A slow, elegantly lifted eyebrow. There would be no further questions, because the eyebrow said it all. Long ago, Daisuke had dubbed them Inquisitive Indigo Eyebrows because of the way Ken did that with them. He had names for several other parts of Ken's body as well, though they weren't all quite that innocent.

Still thinking about this -- and feeling much better, incidentally -- Daisuke shrugged his shoulders. "It's kind of a long story. Boring, too. What were you saying?"

"Well, Koushirou-san and I were discussing the unusual algorithms present in the Digital World, and he mentioned a theory of his that might explain it. You see..."

His hand itched for the remote, but Daisuke forced himself to nod attentively. If he didn't want to explain what had happened with Takeru and Hikari, he was going to have to pretend he actually found this more interesting than watching mold grow or paint dry or a thousand other things that were beginning to sound really exciting. Blah blah Digital World blah blah digimon something or other software blah blah theoretical applications t'yadda t'yadda t'yadda. Where were those people in commercials that broke down the door to show you their great dishwashing liquid or unbeatable homeowner's insurance policy when you really needed them?

Then Ken said, "...but of course, it would be extremely dangerous."

Dangerous? He perked up immediately; as the now-former leader of the Chosen Children, he had a duty to keep them out of harm's way. And besides, it was almost impossible to be dangerous and boring at the same time. "What's dangerous?"

"Reprogramming the Digital World, of course. Certainly, there are potential benefits -- I mean, imagine being able to contain all the malicious digimon in a single area by simply erecting natural boundaries around it! Deep gorges, sheer cliffs, or creating a completely separate land mass. The possibilities are virtually endless. But at the same time..."

Okay, he had obviously missed something important here. Note to self, try to pay more attention next time he gets started on one of Koushirou-san's theories. Daisuke frowned thoughtfully. "Are you saying we could...like...fix the Digital World? Make it so that the really evil guys -- BelialVamdemon, if he ever gets reborn; that kind of thing -- couldn't hurt any of the others?"

"Well, yes. Again, in theory. The Digital World is really not that much different from an enormous and incredibly complex computer. Its program can be freely rewritten, provided that you understand the language and, of course, can locate an access point -- what would be the Digital World equivalent of a keyboard, if you follow the metaphor."

But that was insane. Why the hell hadn't anyone done it before? Just thinking of all the battles they had fought instead of just a little rewiring was making Daisuke dizzy. For the love of god, he had almost lost Ken over and over just because Koushirou wasn't willing to take a risk?!

As sometimes happens when two people spend so much of their time together, the other boy seemed fully capable of reading his mind. Ken's voice was soft when he spoke. "It's not that simple, Daisuke. Not nearly that simple."

"No? Well, fuck. It seems pretty damn simple from where I'm sitting! Ken, don't you get it? How many times did y -- one of us come close to dying out there, huh?"

They looked at each other, and the Keeper of Kindness gave a tiny warm smile. "I get it, Daisuke. And for what it's worth, I feel the same way. I wanted to punch Koushirou-san when he explained what we theoretically could have done...but it's still only theoretical. The Digital World is too big for us to tamper with it -- too infinitely complicated. There are all sorts of different ecological systems intricately wound together. Even raising a mountain peak as little as a few meters could have a profound impact on a million tiny things that we don't want to change. Besides which, we think the Digital World is running on a number of different servers, maybe even as many as a hundred."

Daisuke shook his head. He was starting to have trouble following this again. "Meaning what, exactly?"

"Koushirou-san found several access points when he and the others originally visited the Digital World, Daisuke. Each one only affected the area immediately around it -- never more than a few hundred kilometers and sometimes much less." When his itoshii still looked vacant, Ken said in exasperation, "Meaning that we might need to have someone at each access point changing the same things in order to keep the ecological balance intact...and I don't know where we would find that many people who understood the Digital World's language."

Ah. A hopeless task. That, Motomiya Daisuke was all too familiar with. He slumped back onto the couch, and stared unhappily at the ceiling. "So. Correct me if I'm wrong here. We have the power to make the Digital World totally safe for like the rest of eternity, but we don't have enough geniuses like you and Koushirou-san to pull it off. Plus, even if a whole bunch of them suddenly appeared out of thin air, there's still the teensy weensy little problem of how messing with the Digital World could just make everything a hell of a lot worse. Is that about the size of it?"

Ken hesitated, considered, and then nodded dejectedly. "It's really too bad we have to change everything at once. Between the two of us, I think we might actually know enough otherwise. If we were only dealing with a more basic system -- the digimon themselves are easy enough."

One blink. Two, three. Only then did it sink in. "Excuse me? You can change digimon?"

"Well, of course you can, Daisuke. Koushirou-san was very sure of that. In fact, the first thing he ever tried to alter was the level to which Tentomon evolved...but of course it would be seriously impractical. Rewrite the program of every living thing in the Digital World -- and do it again when they were reborn? That would be even harder than what we do now!"

"But you can change digimon." He felt enthusiastic again. "Like, what -- put wings on XV-mon? What kind of changes are we talking about here?"

The indigo-haired boy laughed gently. "Wings would be easy. You could make him bright pink, if you felt so inclined."

They had both long forgotten that their digimon were actually with them, and Ken almost fell out of his chair when V-mon responded. "But I don't want wings," his little voice squeaked indignantly. "...Pink might be okay, though. Wormmon, would I look better in pink?"

From his tone, Wormmon had shrugged. "I think you look nice just the way you are."

"Okay, then. I won't be pink either."

Daisuke couldn't help snickering. "Guys, you don't have to worry. I wasn't being serious. I mean, what if it threw off your jogressing? It wouldn't be worth it." He reached down, and scooped V-mon up off the floor. "Now, if we could alter Miyako so she wouldn't keep telling me about all the cute boys she meets like she thinks I'll be interested just 'cuz I'm gay..."

"Actually, we could do that."

It was the sort of line that makes your heart stop beating, and at first he didn't realize that his grip on V-mon had tightened to the point of being painful. When the little digimon began to squirm and whimper, Daisuke quickly let go, but still found thinking difficult. "What?"

"Well..." A doubtful expression flickered across Ken's face. "No, maybe not. Behavior is pretty complicated, too, even if it is all just chemicals. Scientists used to think that they understood the brain very well, because certain parts of it were reliably active during certain functions, but now what we're starting to understand is that this doesn't actually tell us very much. We know a little about which parts do what, but we don't know how or why. And for a change as delicate as that? You'd have better luck bribing a hypnotist, frankly."

The Bearer of Friendship spent a few minutes trying to figure out how this answered his question, and was immensely frustrated when he realized it didn't. Not that his question had been that specific in the first place... "No, Ken, that's not what I meant. Look, you're talking about changing a human being, here!"

His boyfriend looked exasperated. "You can't really think we're that much more complicated than digimon. In fact, with the chaotic way they grow and evolve, I would say that they would be the more difficult to successfully alter."

"But we'd have to be made of data, wouldn't we? I mean, you can't just screw around with people's DNA like that..."

Ken favored him with an extremely blank stare. "Daisuke. We are made of data."

"WHAT?!"

"Naturally. Well, at least when we're in the Digital World. The gate converts us temporarily, and the digimon when they come back here with us. Why are you so surprised? What did you think was happening?"

Well. Daisuke had always thought the digital gate felt a little funky. He wanted to sit down, thought that might steady his nerves a little, but this was difficult to do from a lying position. Then he began to laugh. Apparently somewhat concerned for his mental health, Ken ventured to ask what was so funny.

"Everything! One minute we're talking about saving the world, and now all I can think is how great this would be for costume parties. Do you think we could give Iori, like, rabbit ears or something? Make him even more of a freakish little gnome than he already is?"

"Daisuke! That's a horrible thing to say!"

"Why? What's horrible?" He couldn't stop laughing. "'Daisuke!' me all you want. You know it's true. Not that I want to play God or anything, but there could be some...real...advantages..." The words slowed down, and finally stopped. Daisuke wasn't laughing now. After the idea he had just had, laughter seemed entirely inappropriate. He frowned, thinking quickly. Maybe it wouldn't work, but surely...surely the mere possibility was worth the attempt...

"Ken," he began cautiously, "how sure are you that you could change a person? I mean, just physically. You said they'd be easier than digimon, and Koushirou-san changed Tentomon..."

The answer came without reservation, though Ken himself was obviously suspicious. "Positive. I didn't quite believe Koushirou-san when he told me about it, and he turned my hair bright yellow to make his point. I felt a little disoriented, but not seriously. It wasn't much worse than going through the gate." He paused, licking his lips. "Daisuke, what are you going to do?"

But Daisuke wasn't listening to him anymore. The redhead was on his feet, picking Wormmon up off the floor and tucking both digimon into his backpack, heading for the door -- muttering under his breath all the while. "...need to do it here, 'Neesan would freak if she saw us shopping...still, how to get him to go for it...sure, Mimi-san would help, but there's only so much she can do from America...doesn't matter, I guess. We've got to try anyway, no matter what...wonder if she'd be willing to...?"

"Daisuke. What are you talking about?"

That more than slightly irritated question brought him to a standstill. The Bearer of Courage glanced back over his shoulder, and smirked. He wasn't used to explaining things, not to Ken. "I'm talking about life! Love! And making sure people don't fuck them up! Come on, Ken. We've got work to do. I'll explain it all on the train."

TRANSLATIONS
itoshii: Beloved, lover, etc.

End Part One