Double the Darkness

               Or at least the digimon thought so. Takato had been gone for a little while, having taken off after a nervous breakdown the day before. It wasn’t often he left Guilmon on his own for too long, so the dinosaur wasn’t worried.

               That was a lie. He worried so much about Takato.

But he wasn’t just going to ignore Guilmon’s question. “Impmon’s good...yells at me whenever I tease my sister too much.” He laughed a little, running a hand through his hair and trying to play it off as no big deal.

“The lighter something is, the easier it is to darken it.” ― Bruce Crown, How Dim the Promised Land

Heroes. Saviors. Champions and upholders of justice. All names the Digidestined have heard before, in reference to themselves. But what if they weren’t the heroes? What if they had become something else, had taken a trip to the opposite end of the spectrum?

Dark Digidestined Roleplay explores the fallen, takes the dark crevices in each hero’s soul and brings them to the forefront. Will you join the former champions of good now that they’ve journeyed down?

Because after all, even the light flirts with darkness.

               They ran, one by one, until only the one child remained, staring at him, and he looked around, sniffing curiously, as if trying to smell his Tamer, but another scent clouded his nose. 

                The bipedal dinosaur crept forward, following the odd scent right toward the last teen, and finally he recognized the scent. Impmon. He’d recognize it anywhere. But if this one smelled like Impmon, that meant…

“U-um...yeah, actually,” he said with a nervous laugh, scratching at the back of his head. “Well, one of them? My sister Ai’s also...yeah. Sorry,” he added, shuffling back a few feet, “for disturbing you. We thought the place was ditched.”

That really wasn’t much excuse for illegal behavior, but at least it made it clear that the intent had never been to bother the creature. Mako really didn’t know much about Guilmon’s tamer, apart from the name Takato and what the pair had looked like on the news all those years ago. Nothing further, not really.

               Guilmon took cover, wing-like ears laying back as he scuttled his body underneath a cardboard box, an all-too-familiar action for the dinosaur. It wasn’t the first nor the last time he would hide under a box for cover. 

               Guilmon hoped, as soon as he heard the adolescent voices, that they’d simply leave before Takato returned, because that’s something he didn’t want to think about. His partner was not kind to others anymore, and if he ever had to witness a bloodbath like the one years ago, he might never be the same.

               Luck was not on his side, he decided, when something hard and vaguely foot-shaped came down on his tail and he bolted up, knocking over the pile of boxes as he scrambled to grab his tail and not cry over the sudden pain.

“What the fuck is that!?” came his friend’s panicked cry. The boy scrambled backwards, falling over himself in his attempt to get away. The trio of Mako’s friends were frozen now, staring at the beast in fear.

“Fuck this shit, I’m outta here,” one of them muttered, bolting for the broken window. The one who had stepped on the tail and caused the problem followed him out as soon as he was back on his feet. The third was still immobile, unable to remove his shocked gaze from the creature, but he finally regained his senses and chased after the other two.

It left Mako standing alone in the room. He could hear his friends shouting for him to hurry the fuck up from outside the window, but he wasn’t sure what he should do. If Impmon found out he’d disturbed one of his old friends and done nothing, not even apologize, he’d be pissed with the boy for days.

               Honestly, he did feel guilty. Though he couldn’t have known, the warrior, the protector, in him felt guilt over the failure. He was determined to make it up to her, and make sure the ones who did this to her were punished.

Ai put on a real smile. “I’d love to meet her,” she said. Looking at the number briefly before taking it, she nodded, hoping not to tear up again. “Thank you, Tomoki-senpai. I appreciate it.”

Arcanine ♂ Lv46 Intimidate | Crunch, Heat Wave, Flare Blitz, Extreme Speed

Serperior ♂ Lv48 Contrary | Leaf Tornado, Slam, Leaf Blade, Giga Drain

Archeops ♂ Lv47 Defeatist | Acrobatics, Dragon Breath, Crunch, U-Turn

Magneton Lv50 Magnet Pull | Zap Cannon, Tri Attack, Metal Sound, Flash Cannon

Deerling ♀ Lv23 Sap Sipper | Double Kick, Leech Seed, Feint Attack, Take Down

Phantump ♀ Lv22 Natural Cure | Tackle, Confuse Ray, Astonish, Ingrain

Piplup ♀ Lv20 Torrent | Pound, Growl, Peck, Bubble Beam

                His face lit up when speaking of his niece–she was his pride and joy! Yutaka often left her in his care, so he’d become quite versed in the ways of caring for children. Momoka was a cute baby who wormed her way into everyone’s hearts. She was an excellent judge of character, at least Tomoki thought so.

“Impmon, don’t,” she admonished gently, giving something as close to a real smile as she had since the incident. “It’s fine,” she claimed. “I’ll go to get it cut tomorrow, okay?”

               Though he followed her into the house, he’s scanning his surroundings–not out of suspicion or anything like that, but because Ai had once said Impmon was quite the trickster, and he didn’t need any untold scares.

He was about to offer to beat up whoever did it when his phone buzzed. Glancing at the screen and seeing the text about what his friends had done that afternoon, his face flamed red. How dare they? He still wanted to beat them up, but--but he wouldn’t.

“...Oh,” he said flatly, before glancing back at her, trying a smirk, and giving a half-hearted ‘ha.’ Flicking off the TV, he got to his feet. “I’ll just...go tell Impmon you’re home. Yeah.”

               Let alone the fact that her brother played along. Could he truly hate Ai so much that he allowed his friends to bully her so horribly? He doubted it, but his own rocky relationship with his brother wasn’t a great comparison.

“I appreciate that, senpai. Maybe it was time to try a new hairstyle anyways.” She followed him to the office, and the pair were soon walking their way back to her house. After unlocking the door and taking off her shoes, she turned back to face Tomoki again. “Please, you’re welcome to come in. Let me get you a drink or something.”

Finishing her offer, she led him inside after calling out “I’m home!” Walking past the living room to get to the kitchen, she spotted Mako at the TV, playing some video game.

               “It’s okay to cry, you know,” he said, as if he could just tell what she’d been thinking. He had once been emotional like that as well. He digs into the pocket of his bag and pulls out a handkerchief, offering it to her.

That shouldn’t really matter when it came to something like this, but she always felt bad interfering with her brother’s life. “Do you think I’ll be allowed to go home early? I don’t think I can handle my last class.”

She would have to arrange for an emergency haircut soon, too... Tears were threatening again. Mako would probably just laugh when he saw, even if Impmon yelled at him for it.

               It’s not like it was hard for him to figure out they’d cut off one of the girl’s pigtails–he recognized her as Kizuna Ai, a girl from a lower grade he’d taken a class with. They’d gotten close as she’d tutored him in English, and it made him angry that she was being picked on.

               He descended the stairs to the lower floor, and walked to them, breaking his stride only when he can put a hand on Ai’s shoulder and frown at the other boys.

              “I suggest you back off. Kizuna-chan’s had quite enough, and you could all get suspended for this,” he told them, in the most innocent voice he could. Still, it wasn’t like he’d let them get away with it. He quickly pulled out his phone, flipped it open and snapped a picture.

She had been fighting back tears, but as soon as Tomoki came and intervened on her behalf she lost control. They’d muttered half-hearted apologies, one of the boys forcing the cut locks back into her hands before they all ran off, probably not back to class. Ai was left with her forehead against her locker, trying to keep her sobs to herself and failing miserably.

“S-sorry, I--thank you, Tomoki-senpai, I just--” She’d grown closer to him and felt a deeper connection after they had run into each other during that awful trip to the Digital World, but they’d seen little of each other since. This was hardly the image of herself that she wanted to give him. Mako called her a crybaby for a reason, after all.

"Wow. Sometimes I wish I could live on my own… Living with Mako can get really annoying." She rolled her eyes and gave a half-hearted smile. She wasn’t about to let Juri know just how much his words hurt her. That was a private burden, one she could manage on her own.

"It’s good you have someone though. That way you have him to rely on when things get tough." She lowered her head, with a sigh, and closed her eyes. Opening them again, she heard the other talk to her more.

"I’d like that, Ai-chan, really." A soft yet forced smile came to Juri’s face, her insides twisting at the thought of seeing their partner after so much time… "Maybe sometime soon alright? I…I have to get home, sorry."

Turning around, she waved to Ai, and jogged away from where they were standing. She was going to go home and cry.