Life Under the Rose [Luneth]

"Math sucks..." Luneth groaned as he laid his holosuited head on his desk, a series of unfinished homework papers to the right of his head. Math was easily his worst subject, and the final math exam was in just a couple days. He had been using his free day to study for it but it just never clicked for him. The Hackmon was this close to giving up, completely losing his confidence on getting a decent grade.

Suddenly his D-Terminal started going off. He picked it up and opened it, reading the message. It was from his younger brother Rory! School for him was done for a couple weeks, so he invited Luneth to come stay with him for a couple days. That message really couldn't have come at a better time, maybe that's all what Luneth needed, a break from his studies. He replied back to Rory:

"Hello, Rory! Yes, a nice break from my own studies is very much needed right now. I will be over there as soon as I possibly can. Meet me at the Trailmon station. P.S. you probably made the better choice attending school in Rosewood, since you don't have to do math."

After sending the message, Luneth grabbed a couple of human world drinks he thought Rory may like from the mini fridge and put them into his red jacket and left the dorm room to head for the Shibuya Train Terminal.

---

Some time later, Luneth the Hackmon would walk off the Trailmon at the station is Rosewood. It felt good to be back in the Digital World again, and Rosewood was easily his favorite city in the Digital World. It was kind of a cloudy day, but it definitely didn't look like it was about to rain anytime soon.

Luneth wandered around the train platform as he searched for his brother, a Coronamon with a white belly. Surely a sight like that wouldn't be too hard to find, right?

Eventually it turned out to be Rory who would find Luneth at the station first. He heard the familiar sound of his brother's voice and he turned around to see the Coronamon run right up to him, the cloaked dragon's face forming a bright smile as Rory got closer. "Rory!" Luneth had felt the need to call out.

The Coronamon extended a paw to Luneth, as if expecting a handshake. While that would be acceptable in most cases, the two of them were brothers. They needed a more expressive way to greet each other. Luneth accepted Rory's paw, but then pulled the Coronamon in closer for a little hug. In his sitting position, Luneth was slightly but also noticeably taller than his brother, so this hug shouldn't hurt Rory at all with the Hackmon's natural armor and spikes as Rory would most likely be hugging primarily Luneth's body.

Hopefully after the hug, Rory would ask his brother how he's been. "I've been doing good, Rory. Quite a bit has happened since the last time we met up. I got to see Father digivolve into a Mega level Digimon as well, believe it or not. I can explain more on the way to your place if you would like. I would also like to know how you have been doing as well."

Unlike Rory, Luneth had close to zero fragments of memories about his parents' lives. The Hackmon had no clue that something bad had happened before when Shoutmon became a Mega level. Hell, he wasn't even aware that his father could even do that until he saw it with his very own eyes. Seeing his father as a powerful Digimon like that... well, it made him more proud of him. Hopefully that image would remain later on...

Rory was definitely interested in hearing more about the story as they headed over to Rory's place, the Coronamon stating that it's kinda small. Luneth chuckled a bit. "I spend most of my days in a cramped dorm room provided by the school. Small spaces are not an issue for me. I bet your place will be like a mansion in comparison."

Now Luneth had to explain what happened... "Well it started when father and Adrian took me along to go to a beach in the Southern Tropics. From there we found a Wizardmon and a Leomon couple training on the beach... and before long an unknown shadow Digimon came out of the Wizardmon's shadow and pulled him down into the ground." Luneth would allow Rory to take it in before continuing.

When they arrived at Rory's place, Luneth was shocked to see how much of a mess it was. It was only now that Luneth was here that Rory would spend the next few minutes cleaning up everything.

And I thought Adrian's bedroom was a mess, Luneth thought as he watched Rory clean up, unsure if he should help in tidying up or not...

When they arrived, Rory was initially dismissive about the messiness of his house and told Luneth to continue his story as the Coronamon cleaned up the place. Despite being the guest, Luneth didn't feel right leaving it entirely to Rory to clean, despite it easily being a one person job. The Hackmon would go around helping out as well, throwing trash into the trash bin and putting things where he assumed they originally belonged. "Adrian doesn't do a good job at keeping his room clean either. Don't tell him I said that, though."

Rory was definitely interested in Luneth's story, so of course he had to continue. "Once the Wizardmon was taken, who's name was Mandrake, the Leomon named Lothar told us that the shadow Digimon that took him planned to enslave him to use Mandrake's power for its own cruel purposes."

"But the weird thing was that Lothar could immediately sense Mandrake's presence, which he figured meant that it was obviously a trap. We followed Lothar to this weird building that was just in the middle of the forest. I wanted to help but Father demanded that I stay behind. I did initially but I just had to see what was happening. I opened the door a little bit to find our father who became a red Magnamon facing against possibly the scariest Digimon I had ever seen before, a Digimon that looked as if it was entirely made of shadows."

"You should have seen it, Rory. The shadow Digimon was trying to convince Father and Adrian to leave unharmed but they stuck by the couples' side like true heroes. Adrian used one of those modifier cards to give Father the shield of Gallantmon, which he used to fire a beam of light at the shadow Digimon, hopefully defeating it once and for all. Seeing something like that gave me a lot of respect for Father, something I didn't have much of before, if I am being honest."

Luneth gasped when it looked like Rory was about to fall over! Was it because of something the Hackmon said? Regardless, Luneth rushed over to his brother to prevent him from falling before Rory prevented that himself as he leapt off the stepladder he was on. "I-I did not mean to surprise you like that, Rory," Luneth said, quickly bowing as a form of an apology. The Coronamon asked Luneth to repeat what he just said. "What? That Father faced against a shadow Digimon?"

He continued and finished his story afterwards, and Rory was impressed and proud of his father as well. Their mother had told them both stories about when she had served in the army, so it seemed as if both their parents had both performed amazing feats in their lives. Luneth smiled. "Yeah, our parents are pretty cool, huh? I don't know how we could ever live up to them, personally... but we'll find a way, right?"

Not too long later, the apartment was completely clean. Luneth was pondering what the two of them could do as well. He was getting kind of hungry so the idea of getting dinner was considered, but it was a very faint hunger and it was too early to eat anyways. The idea of sparring came across his mind before Rory suggested the two of them explore Rosewood, and even having Luneth meet Rory's instructor Owen. Father had told stories about his journeys with him, so Luneth was definitely willing to meet him.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. This is actually my first trip to Rosewood, since my journey to find Mother and Father didn't take me here at all. Plus I would very much like to meet Owen, Father has told me some things about him."

"What else did you think Father was doing?" Luneth asked, "He has a Tamer, after all. And Tamers are usually able to have their partner Digimon reach incredible levels of power. Father may have done a lot of things like that before the two of us were born. He tells me some stories of his past here and there though."

Rory was a bit more optimistic than Luneth was about their own paths in life compared to their parents, bringing up how Luneth was learning in the human world and Rory was learning from their mother's previous commanding officer, despite him being a big softie nowadays. "Father told me that the first time he met Owen, the first thing he did was slip and fall into the Backup Bayou. He's not that clumsy all the time, is he?" Didn't matter if he was or not, Luneth was honestly just curious about it, was all.

Once the cleaning was finished, the brothers left the apartment and Rory led Luneth toward a building that he presumed was the school Rory goes to. The school building and the environment surrounding it was simply breathtaking. Luneth was used to the pure concrete jungle that Tokyo was, so it was a treat for his eyes seeing a city like Rosewood, where it looked like everything blended in with nature itself despite... well, being a city. Luneth observed the school's campus and building with pure fascination as the two walked. "My school looks almost nothing like this..." Luneth commented to his brother.

The inside of the school was even prettier to Luneth, or at least it was as pleasing to the eyes as the outside was, and the two were only in the hallway still. If Luneth had to compare it to anything, he felt as if he had walked into a school for wizards or fairies. Rory would then knock on a door before opening it, revealing a Gaomon sitting at a desk who seemed to be grading assignments. When Owen's eyes would meet with Luneth's, the Hackmon began to speak. "Hello, sir. I am Luneth, Rory's older brother and son of Skye's... though you seem to already know that." Owen mentioned how Luneth had his mother's eyes before offering a paw for Luneth to shake. The Hackmon lightly blushed as he accepted the pawshake with his own paw. "Thank you. It is an honor to meet you, sir."

Owen would then sit back down in his chair, asking for Luneth to share his experience going to a school in the human world. "Well, it's pretty different from how Digimon schools work. For one, all of us are required to wear the same outfit as everyone else provided by the school. I do not truly understand why, but I never questioned it myself. We learn subjects such as Japanese, history, literature, Phy Ed, music and art, science, and the worst of it all... math." The Hackmon shuddered. "I was studying for a math test when Rory invited me down here, and I was hating every second of it."

Luneth smiled when Rory showed interest in learning more about humans. "I think you should. There's a lot of fascinating things about humans and their world's history. Though I will admit not all of it is for the best. They've made mistakes just like we have. Still, it's interesting to see how humans reacted to certain situations in their world." Rory then brought up how Mother and Owen told him that Digimon don't like how humans are a major part of the Digital World, being the source of a lot of conflict. "A lot of human history is like that, too. Discrimination isn't exclusive to us."

As Rory laughed at Luneth's story, the Hackmon couldn't help imagining it either and laughed alongside his brother. He even followed it up with a story that he was there for, when Owen apparently forgot to put on his boxing gloves when teaching boxing. It was also when the Coronamon learned to heal. Luneth's eyes widened slightly upon hearing that. "You inherited Mother's healing powers..." Luneth would then smile, giving his brother a good ol' pat on the back. "Congratulations, Rory. I seemed to inherit mostly Father's abilities, so it's nice you got something of Mother's."

That did bring up the question though: did Luneth inherit anything from Mother? The most he could do so far was generate fire and use his tail like a sword. He felt more like his mother than his father, so not having any noticeable trait from her like an ability to heal... it felt kind of disheartening.

Now over in Owen's office, he and Rory listened to Luneth as he explained what his classes in the human world were like. Rory admitted he knew nothing of those subjects, and Luneth chuckled. "I knew nothing about them either, but that's why school exists, right? I'm actually the number one student in terms of test scores apparently, it all just came naturally for me." Plus the fact that he spends half of his free time studying helped, as well.

Owen was more interested with these particular subjects, and asked Luneth if he could give him copies of assessment sheets of things that he's learning. "I can certainly try. I'll ask my teachers for them tomorrow and bring them right to you."

Luneth chuckled at Rory's expression as well, despite it being the exact same one he usually has when math is involved with anything. "The basics aren't so hard but it's the extra stuff that school teaches you that is pretty challenging for me." He would then look back to Owen. "Rory told me that humans helped develop Rosewood. Is that true? If so, they did an amazing job, this city is unlike any place I've ever seen."