Taking A Break (Open to All Tourney Participants)

The first battle of the tournament, against Hasenya, was quite intense all things considered. The magic realm in question had allowed Skadi to access her Perfect form, Markhormon, prematurely, allowing her to stand toe-to-toe with Hasenya's bubblegum pink Doumon form in combat. Ultimately, Skadi had won, but victory was slightly bittersweet, as, like Valt before her, Skadi had refused to hold back to the bitter end, practically tearing into her little gremlin sister until she surrendered. But true to her promise, as soon as the Scout took them away from the arena, Skadi would leave Hasenya at the good hands of Ramona, who was now patching up her wounds as of this moment.

But while SilverGrademon alleviated the strain on Skadi's body thanks to the Digimental of Reflection, allowing her to revert back to Rookie without any hassle, Markhormon offered no such luxury, and thus, Skadi had reverted back to her fluffy dustbunny Mallimon form. And, considering she was wrapped in Persephone's crafted scarf and resting in it like a blanket as Kenny cuddled her in his arms, would you blame her for feeling a little tired?

Walking along, Kenny and Skadi had spotted an angry African-American man being dragged away by a Veemon and a non-fluffy Gumdramon. The young man stopped for a moment as he watched him, staring in confusion. After they left, Kenny just scratched his head and turned his head to Skadi, "What's his problem?" Skadi just shrugged in confusion.

Still questioning about... whatever that was, Kenny opened the door and entered the training room, as they were greeted by a slew of contestants waiting around for their matches to start, including a gogglehead with a small cat-like Digimon tackling a friendly Deckerdramon looming over them, a Meicoomon merely tapping away on her phone, and a clean shaven man with a serious looking Commandramon, accompanied by a swarm of Missimon, a nest of MetalKoromon, a BlackTerriermon, and a Strabimon.

But among them a few familiar faces, like the surprisingly amicable Mephistomon X, Amaranthus, who was talking with the clean shaven man with a similarly pleasing manner. The status of hitman and murderer made them still a little naturally cautious, but after their last meeting, their tensions had eased up a bit; after all, members of KIZNA swore to keep the peace within the Digital World, and Kenny and Skadi knew that upsetting a dangerous assassin was a huge no-no.

With a smile and wave, Kenny would greet the other contestants, "Hey guys! We just finished up our first battle."

"Did you see us out there? We were amazing, and Hasenya's so cool! She called me her sister!" She squeaked in excitement, bouncing around in the scarf. It seemed no matter what level Skadi was, her energy dial was almost always stuck at 11; it would probably take a minor deity to restrain her fully.

But do you think I was gonna leave a certain somebody out? Quite the opposite. Skadi's eyes would light up at seeing her mentor, and Kenny grinned as well, as he came over to a familiar duo, "Ryouta! Valt! Great to see you again, you's two!" He exclaimed happily, leaning over to give the muscular tamer a one handed hug around the neck (although Skadi would probably squish up against Ryouta, and would try to nuzzle him affectionately). Valt he would greet with a fistbump instead, as from what he learnt last time, he wasn't exactly the biggest cuddlebug out there.

Kenny barely got any time to sit down before Skadi started rambling to her mentor, "Valt, did you see me? Did you see me? We were amazing out there! And Haseyna's so cool! She actually managed to copy my sword and she made this pretty magical dimension, and I was all like-"

Kenny, with a little chuckle, pet Skadi on the head to calm her down, which she did, "Easy now, Skadi, I'm sure Valt was watching you guys earlier. And besides, even if he didn't," He glanced at one of the screens replaying her battle against the Doumon in full, "I'm sure he can see it right now." With another chuckle, he turned to Ryouta, "So, Ryouta, how you've been doing, man?"

"A tournament, you say?" Owen asked, his yellow eyes blinking with surprise when his twin sons Matty and Jimmy had showed him the brochure.

"Yeah, dad!" Jimmy said, the Musimon looking very eager. "We wanna see you participate and win it! You're the strongest digimon we know, so you'll totally rock it!"

Well... ordinarily, Owen didn't really like fighting. These days, the Gaomon either taught young digimon in Rosewood how to survive and fend for themselves as they grew, or spent time in Ys with his family. However, if it was in the style of a tournament, hmm, maybe he could participate? Matty and Jimmy seemed eager anyway. Plus, the old fighter deep down the blue and white dog rather liked the prospect of a good scrap.

And so, Owen had signed up for it and was now making his way to the combatants' room, Matty and Jimmy at his side, the Onmon and Musimon clearly excited and trying to get him revved up.

"You're so gonna kick ass, dad!" Matty declared. "With your jetpack and mecha-hands, they have no chance!"

"Now now, mate, don't think I'm invincible." Owen said, not wanting his son's expectations too high. "All I can do is fight fair and do my best, it's not a battle to the death after all."

The three digimon entered the room. Owen was dressed in his usual khaki tunic, complete with the sword-and-wheel badge of the 7/71st Recon on his sleeve. The usual red bandana and boxing gloves were in place too.

"Whew, lot of participants here." Owen remarked, looking around the room at them all. A few were familiar, like Ryouta and Valt, he was sure he had seen Kenny and Skadi around Ys as well, others were not. There was also an unsettled air in the room as though something significant had just happened and he had missed it. "Hiya, everyone on their top game?" he asked, making conversation.

As it had become the norm these days, the unassuming, silver fennec found it difficult to relinquish her focus and thoughts to instead pay attention to her surroundings. Then again, to be fair, what happened in these halls was of no significance in the grand scheme of this amusing tournament. Solely the battlefield and its outcomes mattered, for it was there were thousands of eyes would linger on the participants, bearing witness to their prowess. Not that she cared much for the exaltation of others, but some fun and the recognition of bystanders would not hurt. Her cherished friend had suggested her to take a break from her endeavors after all.

Sitting in a corner on top of a wardrobe, Cion had her arms folded as her gaze lingered on those who had chosen to join this day of martial arts and competition. A few possessed a remarkable aura of strength of potential, but many had evidently not reached their apex yet. Still, everyone who was willing to test their capabilities was noteworthy in her opinion - naturally to varying degrees. Of course, given the enforced power balance, actually evaluating her odds was a delicate act for someone mostly utilizing support and CC techniques. Attrition was a game played long.

Sighing quietly, the aureate gleams of the tiny fox shifted to the most recent newcomers - a trio of which one attendee she was very familiar with. Who the younglings were she did not know, but there were coherent hypotheses to be made. "When not... Owy?" She rhetorically asked back, an almost cocky smirk lingering on the vulpine sentinel's lips as she starred at the blue pupper. Apparently, this was the accidental meeting of this year. The last time was a brief banter in Rosewood, together with his little dragon-kid. More fate did not see fit for them.

How the months and years passed them by, even while separated. And obviously, the lad had been quite busy with what he had begotten. Chuckling and shaking his head, she exhaled once and visibly tugged at her green scarf, which he wore literal eons ago. Taking a closer look at him, Cion was slightly delighted to realize that he too carried his memento - the red piece of clothing that used to be hers. Unfortunately, this was a rather odd place for sentimental nostalgia. Hence, she confidently pointed an index finger at him and beckoned him to approach. Needless to say his entourage who she had not met before was welcome to stay by their side.

Owen, Matty and Jimmy noted the entrance of the Shutmon shortly after them, and that she seemed to be offering drinks.

"Heey, wait a minute, you sure all this stuff's legit?" Matty asked, his red eyes narrowing with suspicion. Was this digimon trying something shifty with them?

"It's alright, mate, don't worry, I doubt she intends to poison any of us." Owen told his son. He couldn't quite put his paw on why, but, somehow he thought he could trust this digimon, as though he had met her, or at least, someone like her, some time ago. Was it a tavern in the timberlands? Ugh, Owen just couldn't remember, the excitement of the tournament was too much for him to recall vague memories. But at least he answered how he could.

"Don't really have big cups on me, sorry." he said, but wouldn't mind a drink from a keg nonetheless. Some root beer sounded neat. Not alcoholic, that would be a problem if he wanted to keep his wits for his own match.

Then Owen turned and his yellow eyes widened as he saw someone very familiar. "Cion! You're in the tournament too?" he asked, smiling. It had been a while since he last saw her, and he was glad to see her again here too.

Jimmy was about to say "Who dis?" when he realized who he was talking to. "Ohh, you're Aunt Cion!" the Musimon concluded. "Oh boy, was expecting to see some family in this!"

Owen then realized with a start that Cion hadn't yet met the two boys with him. "Ah, right. Cion, this is Matty and Jimmy, they're my twin sons." Owen explained. "They kinda convinced me to take part in this tournament. But I'm glad to see you here too, hoping we both make it to the finals."

The Gaomon then turned his attention to another in the room that had replied to him. A human with short hair that confirmed the fighting spirit in the air. Although he went on to say that it was good to see him. Owen turned to look at him, tilting his head slightly as a confused dog would. Had he met this human before? In the end, he concluded that he didn't, and he was just being friendly.

Attention then turned back to the current matches. Matty and Jimmy flinched as they saw the final blow dealt in one of them. Owen looked as well, too late to see it, but in time to see the result. "Hm. Looks like we'll be up soon." he remarked. He then looked at the bracket, and was somewhat glad to see he wasn't going to face Cion soon. Instead, it seemed his first opponent would be Ophelia.

"Ohh, isn't she Bu's girlfriend?" Jimmy asked Matty, who gave a shrug in response.

"Dunno, haven't asked her. But heh, wouldn't this be an anime episode if it was?" Matty asked, grinning. "Ophelia challenging dad to prove herself worthy of his daughter... I bet there's some human fairy tales about things like that, eh?"

"Now now, boys, let's not talk about it like that, keep it respectful." Owen instructed his sons, who gave bored replies as they usually did when reminded to keep their manners.

"Oof!"

Alan dropped unceremoniously to the floor, breaking Levi's fall as he did. The Veemon had a blank stare, and mysteriously was wearing his grey ivy cap again.

The human opened his eyes below his partner. "I guess we got kicked out? Maybe we can pretend this never happened..."

"No..." muttered the Veemon. "We're still in the lobby... I... I wanna go home..." He fell over onto Alan with his head next to his tamer's, essentially a signal that he wanted to be hugged. The boy complied, not paying much mind to the fact that he was still on the floor, looking as undignified as he felt. "Um... wh-which one? We're kinda drifters... or at least drifty."

"Rosewood." Levi had his face buried in Alan's shoulder, but his words were understandable enough. "I'd feel at home with the brand new rookies who don't know left from right."

"Levi." The tamer wasn't about to tell his partner they were being dramatic. Levi knew, and Alan was frequently guilty of it himself. "We did this for fun."

"Yeah! We did! Thought it'd be a good test of how far we've come! Well here's our answer! Not at all!"

"We had to be Ultimate level to even answer this tournament."

"I'm talking about martial prowess! Some... participation bits are nothing but bitter! They had to shave off some people before the real tournament could start! Worst of the worst!"

"We lost by decision, Levi. The weird clay-looking thing said it was a tough choice! You know what that mean? If Amelie wins, that makes us a finalist!"

Levi thought about this for a moment, but eventually mumbled, "...doesn't get us 20000 more bits and a cool card." Alan finally had to stand up and place Levi on the floor for that.

"So now this is about rewards? What happened to "martial prowess?""

"Gah…" Levi finally gave a guilty look and rubbed his arm. "...what does 'playing within her limits' mean anyway...?"

"Levi..."

"I'm just saying, if I had fought any less hard, I would have lost a lot faster!"

It was at that moment that Alan realized he had been shirking his most important duty as a tamer after every battle. He would kneel down and put his hands on the Veemon's shoulders. "Levi... you were amazing. I couldn't take my eyes off of you." This caught Levi off-guard, taking him out of his train of thought, and causing him to somehow blush. He even started to pose and preen a bit. "W-w-well, you've never had an easy time of it!"

Alan was happy to see that it worked. Ash Ketchum always had a habit of praising his pokemon after every battle, win or lose, and it used to upset him, but now he understood. He was even more glad he stopped arguing with his partner when he finally turned his attention to the crowd of other people in the room who might have been listening. Alan noticed first and waved awkwardly. "H-hello, there."

Moments later, Levi leapt up in surprise and hid behind Alan's leg. "Don't look, I mean... h-hi."

Upon seeing Amelie approach and recognizing her, the two made shocked expressions, and, in a rather cartoonish manner, scrambled over each other to shake her hand, both of them clasping BOTH of their hands onto hers, in the order, from their left to their right:

ALAN LEVI AMELIE ALAN LEVI,

and bowing deeply as they did so. When they got up...

"Th-th-thank you so much!"
"We're honored!"
"I... t-tried my best! It wasn't enough but I did! I swear... I'm super glad you liked it, though. Needless to say, you were fantastic!"

Finally, they let go, and calm down.
"Oh, I don't know if we've even introduced ourselves. I'm Alan, and this is my partner Levi. Don't mind our... franticness. We're shaken up after that intense battle!"

Levi's eyes would be sparkling, though with passion or tears it wasn't quite certain. (The answer was both.)
"You gotta teach me some of that, sometime! I mean, I guess digimon all have their different powers n' all, but I wanna know! Where's somebody get moves like that?" The sparkle was slowly changing to complete passion.

The two were absolutely relieved that their opponent had been such a pleasant person. She seemed like it from her opening line before her first attack, but actually having a full conversation was just plain nice, even cathartic after all that conflict.

"It's so nice to finally meet you for real, Amelie!"
"Yeah! To be honest... I try my hardest to have a chat like this after combat... I hate leaving impressions on a bad note! It's just not my style!"

The Veemon then addressed Amelie's response to his request:

"I don't uuuuuse crossbow's... but I DEFINITELY fancy them! They're like guns but with unreasonably large bullets! 'You thought I'd put a bit of metal in you? Nah!' CHK-CHK!" He would make loading motions at the end of his childlike bout of banter. "I've always admired digimon who can just pull cool magic tricks like that! And the wind thing! I love being all buff and all but magicians have so much style! So much flare! I want a magician form!"

"I want a magician form..." added Alan, honestly.