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Post by heroslayer on Oct 22, 2014 4:55:40 GMT
"Damnit!"
Hiro ran. He ran as fast as his legs could take him. His legs felt like lead but he pushed past the pain and continued to run. The landscape blurred in a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes. A small part of his mind noted the odd trees and Digimon that he passed by, but he didn't care. The only thing his mind could focus on was that he needed to keep running and the image of his partner, impaled and dying as he bought him time to run.
"Damnit."
He lost track of time of distance even of pain as he ran. He had long pushed past his second wind or even his limits. So he wasn't surprised that his legs gave out and he feel to the ground in a heap. He lay there for a moment bewildered that he had stopped moving. For a moment he panicked that he was still being followed and looked back. There was nothing. Just empty land.
"ah...ahahaha..." Hiro laughed. He also cried. Tears streamed done his face as everything seemed to crash down on him all at once.
He had left Tetsu behind. His partner. His best friend. The little purple fox that he had carried around for months. The buy that had believed in him and did his best to make him a hero. The Digimon that had saved his life in exchange for his own.
Hiro sat there crying for a while. He didn't know how long he lied there crying, but the sun had begun to set by the time he sat up. His mind idly wondered if time ran the same way in the Digital World as in the Human World. It was then he realized that his mind had started to work again.
Almost like a switch had been flipped, his mind started going through the options that he had at the time. He could have run. He could have given Tetsu a different strategy. He could have stayed away from Tetsu so that he had time to dodge instead of pushing him away. His mind spun with the different possibilities until more tears started to gather.
"Damnit..."
Hiro shook his head. There was too much in it. He dug through his pack and pulled out his water bottle and drank deeply from the canteen.
"I...what am I going to do?" Hiro wondered aloud. He pushed his body up to his feet and stumbled. His legs were weak. He had pushed himself too far. His body was falling apart.
He was alone, half dead, and lost.
Hiro looked around the horizon. The first thing he saw was a set of towers in the distance. Almost mechanically, his body staggered towards them.
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Post by heroslayer on Oct 23, 2014 3:16:07 GMT
One step forward, another step forward, repeat ad infinitum. That was Hiro's entire plan at the moment. His brain was not running correctly, there were no analysis of his surroundings or his own state. It was just a dull repetition of stagger forward and hope that something would work.
It was inevitable that something would go wrong with even this simple plan.
A rock, it wasn't even a big rock, materialized underneath his foot. He tried to twist his stance to compensate for the lost of balance but his legs were shaky from his earlier run. Hiro grunted as he collapsed into a dull heap.
"...damn..."
Hiro closed his eyes. He was grateful that his eyes seemed to be out of tears. It was a small reprieve.
"Geez, you're really a mess, aren't you?"
Hiro's eyes snapped open at the voice. He looked up and stared at the speaker in complete bewilderment.
"Wow, I haven't seen that face in a while." Shun Tsukino, Hiro's older brother, chuckled as he squatted down next to Hiro. "You always try to seem like you know what you're doing."
"Shun? What are you..." Hiro tried to wrap his head around his brother being in the Digital World, but shook his head. He didn't have time for pointless thoughts. Hiro felt his eyes sting and shut them before they could tear up again. His body shook as it could no longer contain the emotions that he was trying to suppress. He looked up at his brother and admitted something that he had promised never to say again. "Ni-san... I... I need help."
"Geez, when you make a face like that, how am I supposed to say no?" Shun rubbed the back of his head as he stood up. He pulled Hiro back up to his feet and waited patiently as his little brother wiped his face of tears. He didn't comment on the show of emotion. He just waited until Hiro was ready to talk.
"Ni-san... I don't know what to do... Tetsu is... he's gone and it's-" Shun raised a hand to stop Hiro.
"Stop." Shun sighed before slamming his head against Hiro's. The younger brother flinched back, but couldn't stop the older man from holding his head against his. "Get this straight. You messed up." Hiro flinched again, but Shun didn't relinquish his grip so he could only endure his brother's resolute gaze. "You've cried all your tears, Hiro. You already know what to do."
Hiro stopped his closed his eyes and nodded. "Think. After you've cried as much as you can, think. Think about what you can do given the circumstances you find yourself in. That way... no matter how sad... you can still smile after everything is done." Hiro laughed weaklky and shook his head. "You totally stole that from a doujin, Shun."
Hiro opened his eyes and found himself alone.
"Shun?"
There was no sign that his older brother had been there. The surrounding area had been engulfed by a thick fog and Hiro looked at it in confusion.
Hiro lifted a leg to continue, but hesitated. His mind flashed through all sorts of wild theories. He sifted through them all before stepping confidently. "Right. I need to move forward." He had nowhere else to go but forward. Now... if only he knew which direction was forward.
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Post by heroslayer on Oct 23, 2014 3:43:04 GMT
Hiro had no idea what kind of area he was in, so he wondered if the thick fog around him was natural. It was a valid question considering that he was in a world where the residents came in shapes ranging from foxes to sentient bombs to robot mummy dinosaurs. All of which had powers ranging from manipulating metal to causing earthquakes.
"Geez, it's so thick that I can barely see." Hiro waved a hand in front of him. He could make out the appendage decently, but anything past it was obscured by the fog. He slide a hand to his messenger bag and flipped the flap open. "Hey Tetsu, can you smell... oh..."
Hiro paused and looked down at his bag. It was full of food and supplies for the trip. There was no tiny purple fox hiding in there eating all his snacks.
"Right..." Hiro felt a spike in his chest as the absence of his partner hit him. It was quiet in the fog. He hated the quiet. Before, he would constantly have his headphones on blaring some music to fill up the silence. Then he had gotten used to having Tetsu's constant chatter in his ear. He preferred it. He liked being able to talk to someone. "I... never really realized how close we've gotten."
"That's because you suck at making friends."
"Shun." Hiro spun around and found his brother standing behind him with an amused smile. Now that he had a clearer head, Hiro looked at him closely. It certainly looked like his brother. The short hair that had grown a bit past the business style that his brother wore for work, styled with just a hint hint of gel, a mono color polo and slacks and even the necklace that his girlfriend bought for him hanging around his neck, he looked exactly like he did when he said goodbye before jumping into the Digital World.
"I mean, before you met Tetsu, how many people did you speak to in Japan?" Shun said as he started to walk to the side, circling around Hiro who was taken back by the question. He hesitated for a moment before answering.
"I... I don't know. A few..." Hiro murmured.
"Right, a few. Me, your older brother, Kasumi, my girl friend, and you're best friend back before you moved." Shun ticked off a finger at each name. "Wow, three people, and you haven't talked to your best friend since that one talk either. Amazing. You were close with everyone in your class before you moved. And how many people did you talk to after meeting Tetsu?"
Hiro paused as he tried to recall. There were a bunch. So many people, many of them having Digimon, or finding Digimon.
"A lot, right?" Shun said smugly. "Heck, you even got closer with me and Kasumi. God only knows you avoided us. Kasumi was worried since her 'little brother' was being so mean to her." Hiro winced. He had been pretty cold to his brother and in turn to his brother's girlfriend. It wasn't until Hiro had introduced Tetsu to her that Hiro even realized that Kasumi was a family friend that used to hang out with his brother. Tetsu had cleared up a lot of the bad air in his home just by being there. Hiro gritted his teeth at the thought. "I mean-"
"I get it!" Hiro shouted as he threw a hand to the side. "Tetsu was great. Even if he was a brat, even if he was naive. He was my friend. He helped me a lot. He was good for me. Okay, I get it. But he's gone now, so what am I supposed to do?!"
Hiro twisted around to continue yelling at his brother but found that he had disappeared again. A growl rumbled Hiro's chest as he stomped forward.
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Post by heroslayer on Oct 24, 2014 6:35:10 GMT
Hiro angrily stomped through the fog. It had cleared a tiny bit, but it was still too thick to make anything out beyond a few feet away from him. He had no idea if he was heading closer to the towers he had seen before or if he was hopelessly lost. But none of that was important.
"Where are you?!" Hiro yelled. "Come out!"
Hiro was searching for it. The source of this mist. It had to be the reason that he was seeing his brother. It didn't make sense for his brother to be in the Digital World, so that meant it was a fake.
"Why are you doing this?" Hiro screamed out his question. "What's the point of all this?"
"Maybe I'm trying to teach you something." Hiro twisted around at the familiar voice. 'Shun' was standing in front of him again. His older brother was smiling at him indulgently. "I mean, even if it's fake, does that mean it doesn't have value?"
"That..." Hiro couldn't disagree with that. He didn't exactly agree with the statement, but he couldn't disagree with it. "But..."
"What have you learned so far?" 'Shun' asked.
Hiro stared at the image of his older brother for a moment before looking away.
"I was reminded to walk forward. My brother used to quote an old doujin." Hiro looked up at the sky. He wished that he could have seen the blue sky but even that was obscured by the mist. "He would tell me that we can't do anything about our mistakes. So regret them as much as you can, then move to make things better."
"And..." Hiro lowered a hand to his pocket and pulled out his Digivice. The blue device seemed dull in the dreary mist and the screen was dim and only showed static. "I learned that Tetsu did a lot for me."
Shun hummed thoughtfully. "Not bad, not bad. But it's not enough."
"Enough for what?" Hiro snapped his gaze back towards his brother. "What is this all about?"
"You'll see soon enough." Shun said with a smirk as the mist consumed him once again.
Hiro growled again before running deeper in the mist. "Get back here and explain you damn fake!"
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Post by heroslayer on Oct 24, 2014 20:33:34 GMT
"I swear to god, when I catch you..." Hiro was bent over trying to catch his breathe. He still hadn't fully recovered from his sprint away from Graedon. He had barely started running into the fog before he had felt his fatigued body protest the motion.
"Ugh..." He felt sick. He had pushed himself too hard.
"Geez, you need to take care of yourself." Hiro's mind froze. He knew that voice. It wasn't Shun. No, he had just heard that voice a little bit ago. It had told him to run and he had. Hiro's head slowly turned to the side and his heart leapt to his throat.
"Tetsu..." There in front of him was his partner. The DORUmon was sitting on the floor with a smile on his face as always. "You..."
"A hero needs to be able to take care of himself if he wants to save other people, you know." Tetsu chided him.
Hiro took one step towards Tetsu before he stopped himself. His hand was trembling so it was difficult, but he managed to pull out his Digivice once more. The screen was still full of static.
"Damnit..." Hiro cried. For a moment there, he had allowed himself to hope. Even though he knew that this was all an illusion. Even though he knew that someone was out there doing this. Hiro shook his head. He had already cried all his tears. He needed to move forward.
"I already know that." Hiro walked past his partner. "You don't need to worry, Tetsu. I'll be fine."
"You know, for a Digimon, death isn't the end." A different voice came out of the DORUmon's mouth. It wasn't the innocent and energetic voice of Tetsu. No, it was an old voice. A thick deep voice that sounded like gravel.
Hiro froze. His mind stopped. He looked over at the fake DORUmon and just stared. He wasn't stupid. He knew what the illusion was alluding. He had forgotten. Digimon don't just die. If their data isn't absorbed by another Digimon it goes to be reformed. He had forgotten.
"You..." Hiro stared at the image of his partner.
"I was kind of worried before." The DORUmon tilted his head side to side as if to get rid of a crick in his neck. "You didn't seem like the dangerous type, but you looked pretty crazed out there. So I put up the Illusion Mist just to be safe. If you were alright, it would lead you right here. And if you stayed crazy, well it would have led you away from here and you wouldn't be my problem."
Hiro stared as the mist around him started to lighten. The fake Tetsu started to waver as the mist disappeared and in his place was a large tree Digimon leaning on a cane. Matching it's voice, the Digimon looked like an old man of some sort.
"Well, you're here now and I'm half sure that you're not going to do anything dangerous, so I may as well let you in." Cherrymon grumbled as he turned around and started to walk. Hiro followed him with his eyes and saw that he was standing next to the towers he had seen before. He stared at them for a moment. They were large block towers, like the ones that he played with as a child.
"Well, are you going to stand there like an idiot or are you going to come in? God only knows which of these eggs is your partner's and you aren't getting anywhere just standing there."
"Wait," Hiro blinked before running after the Cherrymon. "Wait a second, are you saying...?"
"Aye, this is the Village of Beginnings. Where Digimon come to reborn." The Cherrymon spoke with a hint of grandeur before going back to his normal gruff voice. "So get your ass in here. You've got a lot of work to do before I tell you which egg is that partner of yours."
Hiro stopped and stared at the Cherrymon. "Wait, didn't you say that you didn't know which egg was mine?"
"Look boy." Hiro swallowed at the deadpan look the large tree gave him. "Do you want your partner back?" Hiro nodded. "Then you're going to have to work for it. I can't remember half of what I say, but I do remember how to find that partner of yours. If you want to learn how, you're going to take care of some babies. Capiche?"
"I..." Hiro didn't know what to say to that. This conversation had changed paces so fast he was feeling like the carpet had been pulled out from under his feet. "Okay?"
"Good, now get running boy. It's almost feeding time."
"I... okay..." Hiro just agreed with the old man. He was too tired to do anything else. Still, he let himself hope a bit. He had no idea if they old man Digimon was tricking him, but if he could find Tetsu again...
Yeah, it would be worth a little babysitting.
[Exit Thread. Thread Ended]
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