The Showstoppers. [Maia/Rei & Boru]

While Maia seemed to be busy trying to equal her level of evil with Rodney’s in order to beat him, Rei was paying more attention to the digimon and the situation developing around them. Without even noticing, he was getting progressively more involved in this world and its matters, although slowly.

Once the movement had stopped and they found themselves inside this elegant building, the situation would continue to escalate. Boru just stared at the casino with his eyes wide open. “A-amazing…” This didn’t look like the underground hideout he and Jazz’s bandits use to have! This was way cooler!

After getting mildly distracted by the group’s amazement, Rodney fixed his eyes on Maia again. For a second, he looked actually surprised. “So… you accept?” His head moved backward for a second before he laughed. “That’s just perfect! We’ll have a nice game of Henshin-ball, then.” He revealed the name of the game while showing that evil smirk. “If I win, you… No… ” He pointed at Maia for a second, before changing his mind and pointing a second finger to Rei too. “…you two will be my tamers forever.” The Footmon tried to set the bet in stone.

“… Ugh.” Was this guy really trying to get not one, but two tamers, through a game? What did he think human lives were!? For some reason, this was making Boru slightly angry.

“You got it. But if we win… we’ll immediately become the owners of this casino and whatever surrounding territory you own.” Rei firmly interjected.

Viza blinked twice. Had this human… understood the core of the issue that quickly? His words were very specific for it to be just a coincidence, weren’t they?

Again, Rodney looked surprised, this time a bit more annoyed. “Fine… You’ve got a deal. It’s not like you’ve got a chance at winning, anyway.” He declared. Meanwhile, the group of Kiwimons giggled behind him. After a pause, he spoke again. “In good sportsmanship, I will give you some time for Viza to explain the rules of Henshin-ball to you.” He declared while looking at the black cat for a second before his eyes trailed back towards the pair of humans. “Meanwhile, my team and I will get ready. See you at the court.” The Footmon started doing some warming-up stretches before he jutted out of the hut running, the group of Kiwimons following him. The group ran towards the horizon and entered one of the many doors the casino had to leave everyone’s sight.

After a second or two of silence, Rei stated something that was… interesting, to say the least. “Surprisingly, I am less confused than before.” He noted, his eyes going to Kuu for a second. And still… there were some things to clear up!

“Hey… wait a minute.” Viza’s voice took Rei away from this little exchange with the pipe fox. The little cat-witch was looking at him from below. “What do you think you’re doing? I didn’t ask for your help.”

The human stared at the cat for a second or two before blinking.

“Well… at least you have a way of getting your casino back now, Viza.” Boru noted, getting closer while holding a smile the witch would describe as goofy. Was that true? Could Viza be certain they were going to give the Casino back to her if they won? It didn’t seem like she was. Neither did she think they could actually beat Rodney at Henshin-ball.

The cat looked at the Psychemon for a second or two, still visibly perplexed by his tone that showed legitimate relief about this. “You’re kidding, right? All of this is your fault! Why did you keep this stupid radar if it was worth nothing?” The cat took out that strange gadget she had used to get to the humans before. “If I had managed to sell this for a decent amount, I could have paid the debt!”

“Well, why did you think it was worth anything to start with!?”

Again, Rei looked at Kuu. Was this a good moment to make things a bit clearer for himself? Well… he could try.

“So… you two know each other from way back, don’t you? What happened?” If Maia was paying attention, hopefully, things would be clearer for her too after this!

After giving a quick nod, Boru started explaining things a bit. “I met Viza while I was at ElDoradi… a distant land in this world.” Yes, let’s try to keep it in understandable terms. “A friend and I were trying to rescue my brothers who had been kidnapped, and Viza was working for the evil guys who kidnapped them.”

After finding herself under the lights of Rei’s judgmental gaze, Viza shrugged. “I mean, I didn’t even know who these guys were. They offered money for me to help guard their fortress, and I needed all the money I could get to buy the casino from Rodney.” She explained, not really caring whether these guys were bad or not. “I fought this loser and beat him in a glimpse, and then he dropped this radar.” She pointed at Boru and then showed the item to Rei, the same she had used to bring him and Maia to this world. “When I tried to take it he got furious and…”

“… T-That doesn’t matter!” Did Boru not want her to tell them what he had to turn the fight in his favor back then? “The point is I needed the radar to find Katherine, so I beat Viza to stop her from taking it!”

“You didn’t beat me!” Viza protested. “I… strategically retired.” After clearing her throat, she continued. “So! Since that plan went south and I still needed money, I started traveling the world again after I recovered from my wounds. I got to the Western Fla… the region where this dimwit lives.” She noted pointing at Boru again. “And actually heard rumors of a family of Psychemons that were known across the region for helping small digimon. When I went to see who they were, guess who I found.” Again, the witch’s eyes went to Boru. “I noticed he still had that radar thing and I FIGURED it was worth something if he had fought to protect it that much last time, so I stole it while he slept.”

“Yes! Which caused me a lot of trouble! Even if I already found Katherine long ago, that radar was created by someone important to me and I want to be able to give it back to him when I see him.” Boru added.

“I later found out the radar is not worth anything. It can only be used to track that digivice the girl had.” Viza pointed at Maia.

“T-That’s the thing you dropped when we bumped into each other, right?” Rei asked timidly, looking at the blonde. "But you're not this Katherine they're talking about... why did you have it?"

Once Maia had answered, Boru would interject. “Once I find out the radar was gone, I started asking around my village if someone had seen anyone weird around our house. One of the residents described a Blackgatomon lurking around some nights ago so I started checking for any weird scent around the house. I followed the scent as well as a I could and tried to ask people along the way if they had seen a Blackgatomon. Somehow, I had the feeling it was her.”

“So then he caught you and…”

Viza interrupted Rei. “I tried to lure him out of the Casino by telling him I would grant him a wish. Then, he actually wished for something I could grant so…”

“… He wished for a human partner." Rei looked at Boru. An evident blush formed around the creature's face. "So you granted it. You used your skills and the radar to actually get to the ‘digivice’, which Maia happened to have at the moment.” Rei, who had finally started understanding this whole mess, glanced at Maia for a second while he spoked to Viza.

“Exactly. So I brought him his humans because that’s what he asked for. I just wanted him to leave me alone.”

“… You didn’t have to grant his wish though. You could have just keep running away.” Just like that, Rei posited the obvious statement. “… Did you… feel guilty for what you had done?”

Boru’s eyes widened. He then looked at Viza. Was the cat… blushing now too?

“… W-What!?” She shook her head quickly. “Of course I didn’t. Idiot!”

She seemed actually fretted. Rei smirked and looked at Maia.

Either she or Kuu probably had questions. Whether they were about further details on how they got here or what to do about the weird game they had gotten involved in, Rei would let them go ahead and provide their input.

Something as simple as Mai’s first statement after Rodney’s speech managed to throw Rei’s off-balance. “It… isn’t?” He blinked twice. He wasn’t even kidding! If Boru had wished for a human partner, he could only assume humans could be bonded to digimon through the creatures’ wishes! Naturally, that was not the case.

“I-I’m not rich at all!” With that, Boru backed up Kuu’s statement. “… I… did use to steal a lot, though…”

Rei blinked again, looking at the Psychemon. So that’s why he wasn’t judging Viza for the stealing part, but for complicating his life while doing it.

“You can call me Boru…” The Psychemon added. 'Psychemon-friend' definitely sounded inconvenient. Not that Kuu seemed to be the kind of digimon who cared about convenience a lot though. It didn’t seem like Boru cared at all about being called poor either.

Then, Rei listened closely to Maia’s short but substantial explanation about why she had Katherine's digivice. “Oh, so you two are friends.” He concluded, not without staring at the blonde for a second too long again.

“I didn’t know digivice meant digimon partner!” Viza explained in a rush when faced by Kuu's statement. “Now I assume that’s the case, judging by what happened… but I hadn’t had much to do with any humans before. Not that I remember…” She knew there were memories of a past life somewhere in her core but… it wasn’t like she could access those anyways.

“I guess that answers your question…” Like fish in the water, Rei addressed Kuu’s inquiry, referring to what Viza had just said. If she didn’t know digivice meant digimon partner, she didn’t know she would need to make a digivice to bond a human and a mon! And probably Rodney didn’t know that either!

“W-Wait…!” Viza blinked twice before turning towards Rei and tilting her head. “Is that why you made that bet? If there is no digivice, you won’t be bonded to Rodney so… even if you lose, you won’t have to be his partner.”

Boru turned towards Rei immediately, too. “T-That is very smart! You made the bet because you knew you wouldn’t have to be his partner anyw-“

“--Nah. I had no clue about that digivice thing. I’ll just stay with him forever if I lose.”

… maybe not so… smart?

Boru’s eyes widened. After a second or two of silence, he rushed to take a couple of steps forward to argue with the human. “Are you crazy? If there’s no digivice, you can’t grant him any power! He’ll have no use for you!”

“He’ll probably kill you when he learns you are not of any use to him.” Viza added, coldly.

“See!? You can’t accept that deal...!” Seemingly a lot more compromised with Rei’s safety (probably out of guilt?), Boru tried to talk the human out of this idea.

The brown-haired man sighed and put his hands inside his pockets. “Well, if that’s the case, I better not lose.” Slowly, his eyes went down to look into the Psychemon’s irises. “Getting into a bet I’m not willing to pay is kind of lame, after all.”

Boru froze upon those words. Was this man... incredibly brave or... with no interest in living whatsoever?

“You’re such an idiot…” Viza let out a long sigh, right before she listened to Mai’s question.

The least she could do was explaining the rules of the game, right?

“Henshin Ball is a team-based competitive game that was somewhat popular around the Southern Tropics many years ago. Although its popularity has partially worn off, it’s still quite known around by some digimon, and the professional Henshin Ball League is still televised.

The game faces two teams of five players each. Henshin Ball is played on a Digital Court, a field that changes its properties every 2 minutes. Both teams compete to put a round metallic object known as HenBall in the goal of the rival team. Each time a team manages to put the HenBall inside the adversary’s goal they score one point. The match lasts 10 minutes and, when the timer reaches zero, the team that has scored more points wins. You can use your legs, arms, or any part of your body. You can’t evolve naturally or use digimon techniques of your own.”

“Five players…” Boru muttered. That meant... the five of them?

“Did you say something about a field change?”

“Yes. The Digital Court starts as a regular dirt court, nothing special. Its properties change drastically every two minutes: At minute 2, it turns into a water field, then into a forest, then into a swamp and finally into what we call the Fire Colosseum. It’s… hard to explain how each of these look, but they’re very definitely from each other and with many factors that can either benefit or affect your team. It depends on how you use them. Regardless of how the court changes, there is a central screen where you can see the scores and the digimons that are available for evolution.”

“Evolutions? Wait… You said something about not evolving naturally earlier.”

“Oh. Before the game starts, each player needs to wear a Henshin Bracelet. A Henshin Bracelet allows you to turn into any of the 5 digimon the central screen shows. These 5 digimon available for evolution change every time the court changes and are displayed on the screen. They are sorted randomly, so you never know what kind of digimon will be available until the screen shows it. Then, you can choose which from the 5 digimon you’ll turn into through your bracelet.”

“Wait… does this work on humans too!?”

“I—Think so.”

Immediately, Boru turned towards Rei and Maia. They were turning into digimon!?

“A Henshin Evolution lasts for 1 whole minute and you can cancel it to go back to your regular form at any time. However, if you manually go back from the Henshin-Evolved form before a whole minute has gone by, you’ll need to wait for a 10-second cooldown before you can turn into a new digimon. If your transformation runs out by itself, you can turn into a new digimon immediately, no cooldown. When the field changes, everyone goes back to their regular form, though, that way they can pick a new digimon from the new pool of 5 to turn into.”

Boru remained quiet, looking at Viza. This was too much information. And it sounded like a dangerous game!

Had either Maia or Kuu understood anything ab… well, had Maia understood anything about Henshin Ball rules? Did she have any questions?

Was Kuu smarter than he looked like? Putting to the side the fact that he had messed up the premise from Robin Hood, it seemed like he had somehow gotten the grasp of what Boru did. Not that Boru could say himself that’s what he did, but it was not that far from it. “You could… say that, yes.” He nodded. Yes! The poor don’t have things to steal and yet…!! “… And yet she stole a thing from me that is not really worth anything!” Boru claimed, glaring at Viza, who just scoffed. It was clear this whole mess had been caused by Viza’s venture, to begin with, but also Boru had a lot to do with it.

However, once Kuu claimed to be capable of murder, Boru, Rei, and Viza’s eyes widened, the black cat quirking an eyebrow while staring at the Kudamon. Could… that thing, being capable of murdering anyone? He currently barely seemed able to murder a bag of chips by eating it, honestly. In hindsight? No one took it too seriously at that particular time.

Once Viza had explained the rules, Mai had posited a strange question. “It is possible, but you will be completely useless for the team and could get severely hurt. After all, you would be competing in a physical game against stronger, bigger creatures.” The cat then shrugged. “But it’s your call, after all.”

“I’m not sure I feel very good about the digivolving part either.” Probably for different reasons, Rei had his doubts too. Mainly because he wasn’t too sure of what digivolving was. “But these are the rules of the game I agreed to play so I guess the least I could do is sticking by them.” Truth be told, though, Maia had also agreed to take part in this bet, so… even if she had a plan B, it was safe to assume she would at least try to go with plan A for as long as it made sense. What could be the blonde’s backup plan for this situation, though? Boru could only wonder.

Actually! Boru was so curious he started funneling energy inside his body, trying to focus the best he could. Fei had taught him how to use Onnix and, after an undisclosed number of practice sessions, he had managed to get some grasp of it. Could he use it to find the answer he needed? For now, the Psychemon walked along with the group, which headed towards the same door Rodney had entered earlier to make their way to the court.

“The court is over here.” Viza walked in front of the group to take them where the game would take place.

“You seem to know this place very well” Rei noted while they walked through the dimly lightened hallways, his hand inside his pockets. “But you told us you were trying to but it from Rodney, right?”

Viza sighed, almost knowing the best she could do was trying to explain the situation a little bit. Even if there was not much to it.

“I memorized the hallways on the blueprints. One of my ancestors owned this Casino. I am not even sure if it was me in a past life or actually a digimon code-related to me. The point is one day… I can’t even remember when…” She made a pause, making it clear there were a lot of things about her past that wasn’t clear to her. “… I found a letter with the ownership document of this Casino and its blueprints, to my name. The letter also explained how my ancestor had fought hard to build and promote a free place for all digimon, where they could be themselves and just enjoy the pleasures of life without no one judging them or condemning them. It sounded like what I had always been looking for, so I decided to go look for it, since it actually belonged to me. When I arrived, I noticed the place had been abandoned for years. I found out this Rodney, a retired, well-known Henshin-Ball player, had bought the whole beach from Whitewater City’s mayoralty. That meant that, since it had been over 30 years since my ancestor had passed away, the Casino now belonged to whoever owned the beach, which was Rodney. Since then, I’ve been trying to gather five hundred million bits to buy it from him. That is the price he put.”

“F-Five hundred million!?” Boru stuttered, breaking his focus for a minute. “That is a lot more than what an abandoned building like this could be worth!” Probably five hundred times more, even.

That did sound like a lot of money to Rei. So that was why Viza had dedicated herself to steal and even got into some weird businesses to get the money. The cat was only trying to fulfill her ancestor’s legacy, giving life back to an abandoned building that could be a heathen for fun and pleasure. And although Rodney seemed to have no use for it, for some reason he wanted to profit so greatly from the building. He was probably just being greedy.

Now that he had some background about Viza, and with it seeming like her intentions were honest, Rei couldn’t help but want to win this a bit more, even if he did not see any plausible scenario where they could do that.

For now, the group kept walking through the Casino's aisles, making their way to the playing field. Was everyone ready to go?

The first step to success was not holding a millenary grudge against the neighbor’s cat. The second step to success was clearing off any remaining concerns before stepping into the Digital Court, right?

“I’ve never heard of anything like that. The Henshin Bracelet is pretty easy to take off so… once you take it off, you’re back at your regular form, whatever that is.” Viza explained. Okay. So there didn’t seem to be any potential danger of being stuck as a digimon forever. There did seem, however, to exist a potentially high risk of being crushed by a rival digimon if you didn’t evolve and decided to stay as a feeble human.

While Viza responded to Kuu’s questioning of her life choices (which, for the first time, was quite valid, to be honest), the group got to the end of the hallway and entered the Digital Court. This space seemed to belong to the casino itself too. Although abandoned right now, it was clear this casino could become something amazing should it be put back into operations.

The Digital Court was quite massive. Although the court itself was around half the size of a regular football (or as some degenerates call it, ‘soccer’) court, the bleachers were big and with enough seats to hold a large crowd. The court looked pretty standard so far, a regular dirt surface, although Rei was aware that, according to what Viza said, it was going to change later. The goals were basically two quite sizeable holes with a metallic ring around them. They were supposed to score by throwing the ball in there, right?

It did seem like there was a way to access the casino from somewhere else besides the abandoned cabin they had all entered through, as there were some spectators here ready to see the match, probably invited by Rodney. More crowd would arrive as time passed, slowly filling those bleachers.

A Jungle Mojyamon was the first one to welcome them to the court, extending a box with five bracelets to the group. These were metallic, light-blue-colored accessories that locked to their wrist and adjusted to the size of it easily. Rei studied his as he slowly locked it around his wrist. The Henshin Bracelet had 5 buttons, each of them with a number from 1 to 5, and another extra red button that, once pressed, made the bracelet come off immediately. Quite simple.

As Boru locked the bracelet around his own hand, he stared at the numbers, figuring each of them was to evolve to a particular digimon shown on screen.

“To transform into the digimon you want, you just have to press the number that matches the image on the screen, say the name of the digimon out loud, or just think of the number. If you don’t have any extra limb or limb at all to press the button, the thinking and speaking feature will certainly come useful.” The Jungle Mojyamon bowed respectfully. It seemed like this was the referee for the match. In one of the corners, a table with three more Jungle Mojyamons sitting behind it could be spotted. Probably more referees.

“So you finally made it.” That raspy, annoying voice again. With four Kiwimons at his back, Rodney approached the group. “I hope the rules are clear enough, because everyone is ready to watch a show!” The Footmon extended his arms with a smug demeanor, as the bleaches kept filling with random spectators slowly.

“Each team should take two minutes to settle any relevant detail and choose a captain. Then, we’ll start.” The referee noted, Rodney turning and going back to his group.

“Well… I’d guess the logical thing to do would be picking Viza as a captain.” Rei dismissed this important decision with this sentence, as they invited the group of five to form a circle and discuss their strategy. “You tell us what to do, and we’ll do it.”

As Viza elaborated some kind of plan so they had even a tiny bit of chance of winning this, Boru continued to focus his energy and stared at Kuu; something he had been doing since the last post, 5 months ago for a while now. Using Onnix, in this case, would let him properly detect the real power of this Kudamon, who claimed to be capable of murder.

Once Viza was done explaining the plan, which could honestly change at any minute, the group talk would be interrupted by the Jungle Mojyamon calling them to the center of the court. Viza and Rodney stood right at the center, one in front of the other with the referee in the middle of them. The rest of the teams would deploy into a simple formation, each on their side of the court.

Rei observed everything in silence. The scenario. The preparations. Was he... shaking? How has this day taken such a weird turn? He wondered. Assuming for a second that this wasn't, of course, just a very weird dream.

It was finally time to do this.

“This game of Henshin Ball is set for 10 minutes. Rodney’s Team faces Viza’s Team. Rodney's crew against... the Showstoppers!”

"W-Was that the name you registered?"

"It was the first thing that popped into my mind."

The Jungle Mojyamon was holding a silver, dodecahedral item that, quite honestly, resembled a ball a lot. Its particular structure was due to its metallic nature. Although it didn’t look like it would ‘bounce’ too well, it did look quite resistant. “Winner stays on.” The referee summarized the whole conflict into a single idea that was, in the end, quite accurate.

Just like that, he threw the ball into the air, as a loud whistle echoed around the Digital Court and, the multiple screens deployed around the upper part of the digital court, changed into a timer of 2 minutes (until the next change of field) and showed the picture of 5 different digimons, with a number below.

1 – Minotaurmon

2- Stingmon

3- Blinkmon

4- Shimaunimon

5 – Black Galgomon

Viza glanced at the screen for a second, right before springing up and going for the ball. “Black Galgomon!” She shouted. There was no transformation loading time or recoil. As soon as she finished declaring the name, Viza was not a Black Gatomon anymore, she was a giant, black rabbit with guns attached to his arms. What did she find when going for the ball up above? An enormous minotaur, yanking the giant weapon attached to his left arm down aggressively.

Luckily, Viza would be able to kick the ball to her right with swiftness, getting it out of Rodney’s reach, just as the former Footmon stroke her down with his giant gun.

The Henshin Ball traveled directly to Maia. Luckily, Viza had jut it with a controlled amount of strength, making it easier for her to catch it. Whether she did or not, the noise caused by the steps of something quite heavy running at full throttle would probably startle her. She had another Minotaurmon (a massive, at least 30 foot tall, beast) running towards her! Rodney’s goons had already started transforming.

What would the human do now?

Alternate realities where they could have picked violence (and get the Whitewater authorities on their tail) or reminisce of Maia’s stupid Impmon boyfriend that… wait. Was she single now???? Not that Rei was interested or… anything. Na. Not at all. He was asking for a friend.

ANYWAYS. Time for talking was over, both for the allies and enemies involved in this and for the narrator too. Phew. Finally shorter posts. The game had started so, for better or worse, they just had to play and see what came out of this.

“Viza!” Boru yelled when he saw the so-called witch (now a Black Galgomon) be aggressively smashed into the ground by Rodney as soon as the game started. The violence the giant minotaur had bestowed when hitting Viza made Rei froze in place, his eyes wide open.

What the hell had he gotten himself into.

As soon as she finished uttering the name, without the need of even pushing anything on her bracelet, Maia’s body had changed completely. She was now a humanoid bug, looking like a character that had been pulled straight out of a Power Rangers series. The blonde would feel her body extremely lighter. She could fly easily as if it was a regular body function. She was faster, stronger. And she would catch that ball with ease.

Zooming and dodging chonky Minotaurmons was the name of the game, indeed, and she would manage to do that quite easily. However, those things were armed, so the monster would instantly start shooting the flying insect warrior, jutting yellow, energy bullets at her. Luckily, he would eventually stop, as Kuu had tackled the beast and represented a more than necessary distraction.

As she flew around the court, Maia would find Rei right below her, still in his human form. She would drop the ball to the human, who would at least manage to catch it. Not a lot more from Rei, though. He was completely paralyzed, looking at all of these monsters running around. Before this started, somehow, he thought that, if this was a dream, he would just know how to act and react as soon everything started, like if his body were playing a movie already written in his head.

It was a shame the realization that this was not a dream had come just now, as he had a zebra-like monster (one of Rodney’s goons) running at full throttle towards him, with the ball in his hands. He was feeling the true nature of his life being threatened. The true possibility of him dying in a matter of seconds. Nope. This was not a dream. Mainly because he had no clue what the hell he was supposed to do now. This was very real. This was happening NOW.

“Rei! REI!”

Suddenly, his ears would un-deafen as the adrenaline made him slowly regain some senses. The voice of Boru, asking for the ball several meters ahead, would reach him.

“REI! REI WATCH OUT!” The Psychemon, now turned into a Stingmon too, yelled desperately.

From below Rodney’s giant gun, Viza managed to shoot the Shima Unimon going Rei’s way, jutting him to the side. Desperate, trying to make his body react somehow, Rei just threw the ball forward.

It was a regular, human throw. The thing basically floated in the air slowly, perfectly vulnerable for Rodney’s team to capitalize.

And they did. One of Rodney’s teammates, who have turned into a Stingmon, simply zoomed into the air and delivered a perfect kick, shooting the ball aggressively. The object traveled faster than eyesight and a honk would echo around the court. It had bolted through the metallic ring behind Viza Team's court.

The score changed.

1 – 0

Rodney’s team had scored. The timer showed 30 seconds. That was for how long they had been playing.

Automatically, the ball was jutted out of the hole and up. It was back in game! The object flew over Viza Team's court, particularly close to Kuu for him to grab it or... secure it, somehow. Rodney, however, freed Viza in order to reincorporate and charge against the Shimaunimon.

A reminder of how the changing form rules of Henshin Ball worked would probably come great now. So, in case Kuu (or anyone playing) needed it, they could remember what VIza had explained earlier.