Chapter Text
“Winner of this Digimon battle is…”
*Jingle*
“Tied game!”
“Woah! Wow!”
“They did it again!”
“How does Kamiya do it?”
Taichi Kamiya and Neo Saiba pulled their Digimon docks away from each other. To the onlooking crowd around them, it was their second battle once again ending in an impossible tie.
Tai, Neo, and four other kids knew better. Tai had beaten Neo several times over, except, not in a traditional Digimon battle.
“A tie once again? I guess we’ll have to settle this next time.” Neo grinned at Tai.
“I guess we’ll have to, rival.” Tai smiled.
Tai waved bye to Neo and his friends as he left the building of the tournament, which he wasn’t officially let into, and found another friend waiting for him.
A girl with bright orange hair hidden under a large blue hat waved at him.
"Sora!" Tai waved back.
“Hi Tai!” Sora smiled.
“Hey Sora. What are you doing here?” Tai quickly moved to her side, and they walked down the street.
“I came to watch the tournament, but it looks like it already ended. Who won?” Sora pointed at his Digimon dock.
He spun it around and smiled. “Tied with the champion, Neo Saiba. I guess I shouldn’t have taken him so lightly.”
“I wish I could have a Digimon of my own. Mom says that working at the flower shop, having A’s in every class, and playing soccer takes too much time for me to be playing baby games.” Sora sighed.
“Well, at least your best friend is one of the most well known Digimon Tamers around.” Tai grinned.
“Yeah, makes me feel real great.” Sora huffed.
“Tai Kamiya! I challenge you!” A random boy ran at him with his Digimon dock in hand.
“Alright. Just don’t complain when I win.” Tai tossed his dock into the air and caught it.
The two boys pushed their devices together.
On Tai’s screen was a knight while the boy had a dinosaur on his.
After a quick battle, Tai came out on top.
“Dang it! Useless dinosaur.” The boy muttered.
Tai furrowed his eyebrows. "Hey, kid. Don't blame the Digimon. You two are a team...So if your Digimon loses, you lose too." He reminded him. "And hey, if he wins, then you win too."
"Tch. If my Digimon loses, then it's their-"
"Then YOU lose too, okay?" Tai narrowed his eyes.
"E-Eh...U-Understood, Kamiya..." The kid walked past Tai quickly.
"It's good for him to learn to appreciate his Digimon now before he loses it." Sora commented. "It's good that you told him that, Taichi."
"Yeah. I know how much it can hurt someone later when they realize how poorly they treated their Digimon." Tai sighed. "Anyways...Let's keep going. And let's hope I run into someone with a much stronger Digimon soon."
“Welp. This is my stop.” Tai and Sora walked over to an apartment building.
“I live here too, doofus.” Sora laughed.
“Then let’s get going.” Both of them walked up the steps.
“See ya later, Tai!” Sora waved at him before entering her home.
“Yup!” Tai waved back. He closed the door behind him.
His father and mother were out, leaving him alone in his apartment. He quickly scrambled to his computer.
He turned it on and wrote up an email to Gabo in the Digital World.
"I hope this gets to him...though, I don't even know if he could respond." Tai sighed. "Oh well."
He clicked send and walked off.
Tai stretched as he walked back to his computer, a completely new day dawning on him.
He opened up his emails to see if he got a response.
His eyes popped as he found his very first email had been sent by someone going by "Your Local Priest".
"That has to be...what the heck does it say?" Tai quickly opened it up.
He read through the email. He gripped his Digimon dock tightly as he finished.
"I have also told Neo...come soon." Tai finished.
Tai ran over to his phone without a second thought.
Tai and Sora walked towards a certain destination.
“Where are we going?” Sora looked over at Tai.
“To a friend’s place. Should be quick.” Tai felt the wind in his hair. If he was wearing his yellow cape, it would be flowing freely.
“Why are we going there?” Sora asked.
“Fun of it. After all, you said I needed to hang out with other people more often.” Tai shrugged.
“I guess it will be nice to meet your fabled ‘other friends’.” Sora made quotation marks with her hands.
“Fabled? Don’t trust my word?” Tai smiled.
They both heard the sound of movement stopping in front of them. “A-Are you Tai Kamiya?” They found a short red-haired boy in front of them.
“Yes. You need something?” Tai saw the boy was holding something in his hand.
“I-I want, um…” The boy fiddled with the item in his hands.
“I think I know where this is going.” Tai took out his dock and smiled.
“Can we please have a Digimon battle?” The boy managed to squeak out.
“Right away! Let’s go!” Tai and the boy put their devices together and both made a beeping noise. On Tai’s screen was a knight while the boy’s screen had a large bug.
“G-Go, Kabuterimon!” The boy shouted out, almost sounding excited.
“Come on, Zero! Let’s get another win!” Tai fist pumped.
“Electro Shocker.” The boy’s device said.
“Tensegrity Shield, Zero!” Tai pressed a button.
“Big Horn.” The bug did a swiping motion with his horn.
“Not good enough! Ulforce Saber!” Tai punched the air again.
“Kabuterimon: Out. Winner: V-Tamer Tai Kamiya.” Tai’s device announced.
“Another one for the record book.” Tai pulled back his device. He waved bye to the kid and walked past him with Sora.
“H-Hold on!” The boy turned to Tai.
“Yeah? Want a rematch so soon?” Tai took out his device again.
“N-n-no! Could you please give me some advice so Kabuterimon and I can be better?” The boy’s hands shook.
“Alright, kid.” Tai put away his device.
“I-Izzy Izumi.” The boy bowed.
“Izzy, the most important things in a fight are strategy and knowing your limit. Even a Champion can take out an Ultimate if you have the right plan. Admittedly, it’s been a while since I have had to do any complex thinking, but still. I know from experience that brute force struggles to outweigh a good plan.” Tai gave Izzy a thumbs up before walking off.
“Thank you!” Izzy waved at him.
“Izzy...Izzy Izumi...Why is that name familiar?” Tai continued to walk with Sora.
“I think he's in the soccer club. Actually, he might live in the same apartment building as us." Sora tapped her chin.
“Huh. Well, that was fun. I guess I’ll see him again soon enough.” Tai looked over his shoulder.
Sora stared at the dock in Tai's hand. "Wasn't 'Zero' a 'Champion' level the last time you showed him to me? And didn't he look like a dinosaur?" She squinted in thought. "And now he's a...knight with a sword?"
"Uh...well..." Tai hid his dock. A grin crept onto his face. "I don't know why you're questioning it! I am the best Tamer around here, after all!"
"I guess. I don't really know much about the Digimon game, so I have no reason to not believe you." Sora shrugged.
Tai and Sora continued to talk about random stuff for several more minutes. They walked in a large courtyard as Tai put his device away again.
“How often do people challenge you?” Tai had already been challenged three times after Izzy left.
“Quite often. I’m not against it, but I kinda wish somebody could actually give me a challenge. I guess Zero and I are just too good!” Tai spun the dock in his hand.
“How do you think I would fare?” A familiar voice called out to Tai. Tai looked at the end of the courtyard with a confident grin.
“Maybe you’ll win if you believe in-Neo?!” Tai jumped back.
“Neo? Neo Saiba? The champion of the V-Tamer tournament for the last four years!” Sora laid her eyes on him.
Neo had a confident smirk. A brown-haired girl in a wheelchair waved at Tai.
“So Tai? Do you accept my challenge?” Neo walked over to him.
“I would never deny you a fight, champ.” Tai walked towards him.
The girl in the wheelchair rolled over to Sora.
“Are you Tai’s friend?” The girl asked.
“Yup. Sora Takenouchi.” Sora smiled at her.
“I’m Rei Saiba. Neo’s sister. Those two really like to fight, huh?” Rei directed her attention to the two boys.
“Let’s do this, Neo! No holding back!” Tai and Neo connected their devices.
"Like I ever would." Neo and Tai went at it for a few very tense minutes.
"The winner of this Digimon battle is…"
*Jingle*
"Tied game." Their devices announced.
"For the love of..." Neo rolled his eyes.
"We must be cursed or something." Tai laughed.
"The third time we have tied." Neo leaned in close to Tai. "Did you get it too?" He whispered.
"Yeah. Can you check it out?" Tai responded with a serious voice.
"Rei and I are going to go watch a movie with Hideto right now. I don't know when I'll have the time to go." Neo responded.
"Alright. I'll head off once I get home. I'll call you soon." Tai nodded. They broke away from each other.
"The heck were they talking about?" Sora whispered to Rei.
"Probably some after fight taunting. Neo and Tai really enjoy doing that." Rei responded in a normal voice.
Neo grabbed onto her wheelchair. "See you soon, Tai. You better watch your back if you want to keep your '100%' win rate." Neo did a gunshot motion at Tai.
"Same to you, scarf boy. Take care, Rei!" Tai waved bye to them as they walked off.
"Is that how you two bond? Fighting it out, insulting each other, then saying bye to his sister?" Sora teased.
"The sister part really gets under his skin." Tai beamed.
Sora stared at Tai for several seconds.
"Did you have a growth spurt? I could have sworn that you were only a tiny bit taller yesterday." Sora moved her hand between her forehead and Tai's. Tai was now several inches taller than her.
"I guess I did. Heh...hehe…" Tai had completely forgotten that he had spent nearly a year within the Digital World. He was basically 12 rather than 11.
"Well, whatever. I'm sure I'll grow taller soon. To the arcade we go!" Sora grabbed Tai’s hand and led him.
"Alright!" Tai cheered. He looked at Zero on the other side of his device. "A whole year in the Digital World...and now I have to go back..." He thought to himself.
Tai and Sora stood outside Tai's apartment. Tai was clearly miffed.
"I won more games today." Sora informed him smugly.
"You got lucky!" Tai argued.
"Know how to spell luck? S-K-I-L-L!" Sora countered.
"We both know that's not how you spell skill-I mean...luck! That's not how you spell luck!" Tai narrowed his eyes at her.
The two laughed.
"See ya later, Tai." Sora smiled.
"Yup!" Tai nodded.
She walked off as Tai entered his apartment and closed the door.
Tai quickly ran to his computer. He held his dock up while scrolling through the email from before.
He got to the very bottom of the email.
Tai clicked the reply button.
His Digimon dock turned into a D-1 and it quickly wrapped around his wrist.
“Here I come, Zeromaru!” Tai pointed his D-1 at the computer. The computer shot out a bright light, and Tai was gone.
“Tai! I hope it's okay that I kinda broke into your house.” Sora walked in, fully aware that Tai’s parents were out. "I wanted to ask you something about the summer homework!" She got no response.
Sora knocked on his room door and waited for a response.
Nothing.
“Alright, you asked for it!” Sora threw the door open and jumped in.
Nothing.
Sora scratched her head and walked out. She looked up and down the apartment, figuring that he was either in the bathroom or the computer room.
She quickly checked the bathroom, finding…
Nothing.
She quickly moved to the computer room and opened the door. She got ready to jump him the second the door was open.
Nothing?
“Tai? Where are you?” Sora scratched her head again.
Tai landed on the some bright grass. He patted the ground in surprise.
"Grass? And so much of it too!" Tai looked around. "It wasn't like this before..." He looked upwards.
Tai caught his breath.
“Hey there pal!” The sun hit the back of a tall figure. "It's been a hot second, huh?"
Tai grinned widely.
To be continued...