FicWad

It has been a few months since that fateful day Kanbara Takuya and his friends had received that compelling message; sending them spiralling into an adventure that they would never forget; there isn't a day where they don't look back fondly at their time in the Digital World. Takuya often dreams of returning to that place, to become the Warrior of Flame once again. Unbeknownst to him, his dream is about to come true, just not in the way he thought it would.

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Takuya sat on his desk by the window, a melancholy look on his face as the teacher droned on with his lesson. The teenager paid no mind to the teacher's ramblings and simply gazed out toward the courtyard; lost in thought. He sighed and gazed at the clock, there wasn't much time left in the school day but every minute felt like an eternity to him.

"-The principles of the haiku are as scared as the shrines' in Kyoto as such..." The teacher's lecture had that effect where if you slipped just a little- you'd be asleep in an instant.

Takuya rolled his eyes, checking in on the lesson briefly before returning to his thoughts.
He wondered if his friends were as bored as he was. Kouji and Kouichi were very likely in the same position as him, now attending the same school to spend more time with each other. Izumi had many new friends in her all girls school now. Junpei was attending a trade school and he too found a circle of friends. Tomoki and Takuya's little brother, Shinya, had grown close as they were both on their elementary schools soccer team. Takuya was happy for all of them, but somehow felt like a pariah around them.

He took a deep breath to try and rid his head of the thought. The summer had lulled him into a false sense of togetherness- but now that school was back he realized what a fool he'd been, they all lived in different parts of the city, went to different schools, and had their own social circles and families to handle; with all that going on, Takuya barely got to see any of them. "Friends Forever" ha, he really believed those words too, what a fool he'd been.

The brunette glanced over at his goggles that lie idle at the corner of his desk. They had become something of a reminder to him, of all the good times he had with all of them. He fiddled with them for a moment, still lost in thought. Man, he wished things could go back to the way they were.

Takuya was quickly dragged out of his musing when the bell finally rang, he exhaled deeply, thankful for the distraction.

He made a beeline for his locker, opening it quickly to dump the unnecessary books he had to drag around all day. He wouldn't need them for the next couple days, today marked the start of the term break. Takuya smiled to himself, knowing that now would be the best time to see his friends.

He shouldered his bag and made his way to the locker rooms to bring his gym clothes home for a well needed wash. His mother would probably kill him for how stinky they'd gotten over the week.

Takuya waved to a few classmates on the way, excited for the oncoming break. He had figured out his plans for the day in advance, after bringing all of his things home he would pester his friends and (hopefully!!) get to hang out with them during their time off.

The teen grinned to himself, admittedly he was starting to get on everyone's nerves, having called each of them countless times to make plans, but it was worth a few scathing remarks, and a smack from Kouji, if it meant that they could all spend time together. The brunette picked up his pace, eager to get home as quickly as possible.

"Where do you think you're going loser?!" A harsh voice echoed in the boy's locker room. Takuya froze, the door still wide open, he swallowed, slowly scanning the room. The was a crash followed by a yelp from a younger student.
"I said get back here!" the harsh voice shouted again.

The brunette closed the door, and quickly proceeded made his way to his locker. An upper classman had another, younger student cornered by the showers. Takuya recognized the victim as one of his classmate's younger sibling. The elder, whom he did not recognize, moved forward, grabbing the younger boy by the collar of his shirt.

"P-please… I-I didn't do anything…" the younger boy pleaded and curled up like a ball, he was quivering under the upper classman's glare.

Takuya glared at the older boy and charged in without any hesitation, his hero complex kicking in immediately upon seeing and hearing the terror from the younger boy. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

The upper classman stopped terrorizing the younger student. He turned to face the goggle head, sizing him up quickly before letting out a snort, unimpressed with Takuya's stature.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Leave him alone!" Takuya replied evenly, glaring at the older boy. He tossed his victim aside, allowing him to escape and hopefully go for help. Takuya braced himself for a fight, which the upper classman seemed to be looking for.

"Oh, Tough guy I see," the boy sneered, towering over the brunette. "Let's see how tough you really are!"

In an instant fists went flying. The older boy had a knack for fighting, Takuya realized after barely dodging a punch aimed for his face. Lucky for him was used to fighting with corrupted digimon.
The older boy had not expected the brunette to put up much of a fight but that didn't stop him from continuing the assault.

The older boy managed to grab Takuya by his collar to keep him from jumping around and took this chance to strike the goggle head right in the face.

Takuya cried out, clawing at the older boy's hand. "Let me go!"

The elder laughed, grinning in a twisted way. "What was that, You piss your pants or something?"

The brunette glared, anger welling inside of him. He gripped his captor's arm tightly, "I said, Let. Me. GO!" the was a flash and a yelp of surprise. The older boy released Takuya and both tumbled to the floor.

"What the hell?!" the upper classman screeched, eyes wide with shock.

Takuya blinked in confusion, before realizing his hand was on fire. Literally on fire. He immediately shook it, making the flames dissipate.

"Shinoba! What on EARTH are you doing?"

Both boys looked to see one of the coaches standing in the doorway looking beyond pissed.

"Fighting? AGAIN!? You are in a world of trouble!" the coach roared, bearing down the the elder student like hellfire. He looked at younger student briefly, "Get yourself to the nurse boy." He instructed curtly before hauling the older boy into his office.

It took several moments for Takuya to realize a few things. One, he was just punched in the face and likely had a black eye forming, and two, his hand had just spontaneously combust; it didn't hurt but he was vey confused. He stumbled to his feet, gathering his things quickly before bolting from the school, forgetting the coach's instructions to go see the nurse.

Takuya ran like a madman back home, he was a blur as he made it to the front door. He quickly made his way inside, slamming the door behind him and startling his mother.

"Takuya? What're you…" she started but stopped when he rushed his way up to his room. He didn't even let her finish. "What on earth is going on with that boy?"

The boy quickly locked the door behind him and turned his computer on. "Come on, come on, come on…" he muttered impatiently as the computer slowly started up.
A knocking was heard at his door, his mother no doubt.

"Takuya? What's going on? Why's the door locked?"

He flinched, having forgotten his mother would be home early today.
"Uh- it's um, nothing mom! I'm fine!" He lied as best as he could. He opened up an internet browser and began to look for a way to hide the black eye from his mother.

"Takuya Kanbara you open this door this instant!" She demanded from the other side of the bedroom door.

"J-just a second!" Takuya answered shuddering from the dangerous tone in her voice. He searched desperately for what could help him as his mother banged on his door, he muttered a curse under his breath, failing to find anything that could give him an immediate solution.

As a last minute ditched effort, Takuya turned his cap forward in an attempt to have it shadow over the dark coloring around his eye. He scrambled to the door and unlocked it, facing his enraged mother. "Uh… hi Mom…" he gulped and laughed nervously. "…is something wrong?"

She stood there arms crossed, looking annoyed as anything with her eldest son. "What on earth was all that about? You're lucky your father isn't home because- Takuya..." She lost her train of thought spying the boy's swelling eye. She brought a hand to her mouth to suppress a gasp. "What happened to your eye? Were you fighting!?"

She reached out and removed his hat to get a better look at the swollen eye. "You march yourself downstairs this instant so I can treat that. You better have a good explanation." She added the last bit after a short pause.

Takuya sighed and nodded, making his way downstairs. "Should have known that wouldn't have worked." He muttered, sitting down at the table as his mother went to get ice for her son's eye.

He winced upon feeling the bag of ice come in contact with the bruise but stopped fidgeting when he saw the stern look on his mother's face. "So… Uh.... I guess you wanna know what happened?"

"That's right young man. I want to know every detail." She answered, looking down at him with her arms folded. She was in no mood for any funny business. "So start talking."

He inhaled sharply, "There was this guy- I guess he was an upper classman, but he had a younger kid cornered in the locker room. I... I ...he was gonna him Mom... And I got involved... But I didn't fight back! I swear- He hit me!"

It was his mother's turn to sigh, "Oh Takuya... I don't understand how or why you get into all this trouble. It's like something compels you to get into the middle of a situation- You should have gone for help- not get involved!"

"But by then the kid could have really gotten hurt!" Takuya spoke up but looked back down at his hands that were clenched on his lap. "I had to help him."

"Takuya… do you realize how much trouble you could have gotten yourself into? You need to think these things through!" Yuriko groaned and rubbed her temples to help her calm down. "You're starting high school in a couple of years, You need to curb these impulses of yours before things get any more out of hand."

Takuya opened his mouth to reply, but bit it back, knowing she was right. He was too, to an extent but this wasn't the Digital World- he couldn't protect everyone. "I... I'm going to go lie down for a bit."

He retreated from the kitchen back to his room before his mother could start on him again. Takuya groaned as he collapsed onto his bed. He wanted so badly for everything to be okay for him.

He had helped the kid but in doing so got himself into a heap of trouble. He looked to his hand and remembered how it had suddenly combust. Takuya sat up in his bed and examined his hand closely. He wasn't burned but the hairs at the back of his hand were singed a little. This was definitely not a fluke. His hand really was on fire.

The computer chirped from across the room. Someone had messaged him while his mother was lecturing him. The brunette stood and crossed the room, sitting before the computer to read the message.

Kouji: Are we still on for tomorrow?

Takuya began to write a response but as he was writing he realized that with everything that happened within the last hour he needed someone to talk to. Someone who could understand what was going on with him. Kouji knew him well enough; maybe he could figure this out.

Takuya: you free to talk? something weird happened to me today

There was no written reply rather a window came up with the video call request. Takuya accepted, the webcam started up and Kouji appeared.

"You? Weird? Never. What's up?" He asked with lighthearted sarcasm before pausing, seeing the other boy's bruised eye. "Dude, What happened?"

Takuya ghosted a hand over his eye and groaned. "I got into a fight with some jerk at school, don't worry about it"

Kouji interrupted, "Takuya- that hero complex of yours is going to get you into trouble."

"What are you, my mom? I just got this spiel from her a few minutes ago, lay off" Takuya grumbled, still feeling on edge from the lecture his mother gave him.


"Alright, geez" Kouji replied defensively, taken a back by his friends outburst "Seriously dude, are you alright?"

Takuya sighed nervously and ran a hand through his hair. "Look… something really freaky happened to me when I got in that fight with that jerk. I know it sounds crazy but one moment the guy's holding me by the collar the next my hand's suddenly on fire!"

Kouji blinks, not sure how to respond. "Okay... and...?"

Takuya gave Kouji an incredulous look, having expected a better response than that. "My hand. Was on FIRE!!! Like… pshhhhh!" he waved his hands to try and simulate fire to further sink the message in.

"You're being dramatic, I'm sure it wasn't that bad." Kouji scoffs, before becoming serious, "So what do you think happened with the fire?"

"I don't know! It happened so fast. It disappeared almost instantly." Takuya worriedly and looked back at his hand. "It... It didn't hurt or anything but I know I'm not nuts!! The hairs on the back of my hand are completely singed!"

Kouji sat back in his chair, thinking about the situation "This's really getting to you huh?" he whispered before speaking to Takuya directly "Are you sure you weren't just imagining it? Absolutely positive?"

"Of course I'm sure." Takuya answered. "Really freaked the other guy out too, so unless we were both hallucinating it I think it's safe to say that this really happened." He finished and rested his chin on the desktop. "I have no idea what the hell is happening to me."

"Yeah... Neither do I... Do you think we should call the others?" Kouji asked, his tone became hushed. "This could be something... Digital..."

"Digital?" The brunette repeated, letting the thought linger in his mind. He hadn't thought about that, it made sense but left so many questions unanswered.

Takuya turned his attention back to his friend "Uh… yeah. I think so. If it is digital then... It could be happening to all of us right?" he asked, almost hysterical.

Kouji took his friends words to heart, "We'll tell them all tomorrow when we meet up, and so far nothing digital's happened to me, but I'll let you know if I glowing in the dark or something"

That got Takuya to laugh a little and ease up a little. "Thanks man. I really owe you one. This is really freaking me out."

"I know man," The dark haired boy smiled. "You just need a little R and R you know? Give that shiner of yours a chance to heal."

"Yeah. I hear you." Takuya nodded and sat up straight. "See ya tomorrow Kouj'."

"See ya" Kouji chuckled, ending the call.

"Takuya! Dinner!" The brunette blinked, when did it get so late?

"Um, I'm not hungry mom!" His nerves were making him sick to his stomach.

He glanced at his bed. "Kouji's right, I should get some rest..." He got up after shutting the computer down and crawled into bed, curling up beneath the covers. He yawned, suddenly tired from the day's events and drama. He closed his eyes thinking to himself 'sleep should do me some good...' and was sound asleep before he knew it.

-----


'Where...' He was hanging midair in a dark void. It was cold and he was all alone. A burst of light and sound exploded before him. Two figures locked in battle fought beneath him.

One he recognized all too quickly-Black Seraphimon-seeing the dark angel filled him with dread. The other was one of a far more comforting feeling- Agnimon.

The two clashed again and again, neither backing down in the slightest. Takuya could only watch as the human Spirit of Flame engaged the sinister angel of Metal. Another flash- Agunimon was down. Black Seraphimon stood over him, aiming to kill-

-----

-Takuya sat upright, panting. 'Just a dream...' he tried to calm himself, glancing at the clock on the bedside table. The numbers read 6:23 am. Way too early for him to be up Saturday, but he was wide awake now.

Takuya yawned and stretched before getting out of bed. He quietly peaked out of his room and listened to hear if anyone else was awake. He was relieved to hear the faint sounds of his family's snoring.

The opportunity to get ready to head out before his father could wake up and question him became present and so Takuya jumped in the shower. He allowed himself the leisure to think while showering. His thoughts lingered on his dream. It was so surreal and there was something unsettling about it.

Takuya remembered his battle with Black Seraphimon, he shuddered at the thought of how badly it turned out for him.

This was Not that fight, it was different, Black Seraphimon seemed more bloodthirsty (data thirsty?) and that scared him. What scared him even more was the thought that it had some kind of connection with the incident yesterday.

He stood before the fogged up mirror so long the steam began to fade away. Takuya looked up, expecting to see his right eye swollen and blackish-purple from yesterday. He gasped- it was... healed? He touched the skin around his eye carefully. It was as though it had never happened.

Takuya's breathes began short and unfocused- 'impossible. Impossible!' And yet- his eye was completely fine. "Did I... dream all of that?" he wondered out loud, heart racing.

The brunette quickly made his way back to his room and pulled out his cell phone from his pants pocket before dialing Kouji's number. Sure the teen would probably chew him out for waking him up so early but it was important. He waited patiently for Kouji to pick up before he heard the phone pick up. "Kouji…"

The ringing stopped and the brunette could hear someone fumbling with the phone on the other end. "Takuya.... it's six thirty in the morning... What do you want?"

"Sorry dude but look, I just woke up after a really freaky nightmare and when I checked in the mirror, my was eye completely healed!" Takuya answered quickly, pressing his fingers around his eye to make sure. "It's like I didn't get punched in the face at all and… you...You remember the black eye right? I'm not imagining things?"

Kouji growled softly, "If you're lying about this I swear, I am going to kill you and eliminate any witnesses." The younger twin sighed softly, "What do you want me to say man? I can't see you."

"Can we... meet at the usual place so we can talk about this?" Takuya asked with a remorseful whine. "I am on the verge of a breakdown and I need someone to tell me I'm not going bananas"

The elder boy sighed, caving. "Alright alright... You already woke me up. I'm assuming now?"

"If you wouldn't mind." Takuya answered sheepishly. "Just... Come when you can, I'll probably be there a little early anyways but I guess I need the time to think this stuff over."

"If you're not in that park, when I get there, I'm coming right back home and going to bed." Kouji said flatly, "Let me get dressed, I'll be there soon."

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." Takuya sighed in relief. "I'll be there as fast as I can." He hung up, deciding that he needed to out the door quickly if he's going to prove he was serious about everything.

The gogglehead quickly got dressed in his usual attire and came rushing downstairs to leave a note before heading out.