#shibayama

Nekoma

Antique Shibayama Insect Rolled Gold Locket Pendant

word count; 953 – f!reader

“I wish that handsome libero would just notice me!” you whined, all your friends giggling or rolling their eyes. Shibayama listened from around the corner, a small pout on his lips. Of course, you would like Yaku. He’s confident, handsome and the reliable backbone of Nekoma’s defence on the volleyball court.

“Who are you dragging along to the game this time? You’re literally a volleyball player, on the starting team no less, you don’t need an excuse to go to volleyball games,” your best friend said, smiling as you discussed your crush once again. They found you cute but it became quite frustrating to watch you send him heart eyes every day without actually talking to him, claiming he was too cool for you. That made them frustrated for sure because, to them, Shibayama was just Shibayama.

“I was thinking you could come with me, please?” you asked her, putting on your best puppy eyes and clutching your hands together. She sighed, tilting her head in contemplation. Shibayama huffed from where he stood and walked away, not hearing the next part.

“He doesn’t even get to play.”

“That’s just because Yaku is the best right now,” you start saying before going on to explain how Shibayama is so lucky to learn from such a great senpai, and how he seemed prepared to work hard to earn his spot after the third-years graduate, which made him even more admirable.

“Shibayama does have great potential, but I can’t say I understand what you see in him.”

You smirked, nodding in agreement. “That great potential is hot.”

Time flew by, and then you’re in your second year, still going to the games to focus on your fellow Nekoma libero. After the third-years graduated, Shibayama was put in as the starter and you were thrilled to watch him in action more often. You still forced different friends to come with you, shamelessly cheering a bit louder when Shibayama made great saves and passes.

When Nekoma won the game that qualified them for the Tokyo finals, you were ecstatic. After your best friend had joined you for so many games, she became interested in and got close to Inuoka. This gave her the perfect opportunity to drag you with her down on the court to congratulate them. You weren’t about to deny it, but you tried not to be too obvious about who you were looking for in the crowd of red uniforms.

But never mind you being shy, that’s what best friends are for, and as your bestie was about to jump hug Inuoka, she gave you a strong push that sent you flying over to Shibayama. Luckily, he had quick reflexes and steadied you, but suddenly you had to talk to him. You weren’t even sure if you had talked to him before. Surely you’ve said hi, right?

“Hi. I’m a libero too,” you say, completely stiff.

“I know,” he said, looking at his shoes to laugh under his breath. “You’re great.”

A warm gust of wind seemed to rush past you when he acknowledged you, but it was just in your imagination. “We should practice together sometime!”

“Totally!” Kenma caught the interaction from the side, a tiny smile on his face as he thought about how this might play out. He does care about his friends and underclassmen, and everyone on the team knows how Shibayama has ranted about you this year, ever since Yaku graduated.

Shibayama was not about to let this opportunity go, so he bribed Lev with food to get him to do an extra day of practice with you and him. Lev had been practising his jump serve and was getting pretty good. It would be good practice for all of you.

You three were pretty sweaty after an hour of seemingly constant serves and receives. Wiping your arm over your forehead, you smiled and sat down on the gym floor. “I’m so jealous you got to learn from Yaku your first year. We didn’t have a libero so I was thrown right into battle.”

If he minded you mentioning his senpai (he did), he didn’t show it. “I guess I am, and covering for Lev’s lack of skills has challenged me even further.”

“Hey!”

You didn’t do much to acknowledge the other boy who pouted and went to get his water bottle. “It shows, you’re really good,” you told him, hoping the warmth in your cheeks could be excused as from the workout.

Shibayama stared at you for a second before looking away, nodding his head. “Thank you.”

You considered him for a moment, hesitating on how to continue the conversation. “Must be quite some pressure, taking over after him.”

He sighed, looking at his feet where he clacked the tips of his shoes together absentmindedly. “Yaku? I suppose.” You smiled when he looked at you again, but then frowned at his next shy words. “I heard you found him handsome.”

You stuttered, utterly confused as to why he would think you had any particular liking to the other libero when he had been the apple of your eye for all this time. “I find you handsome,” you admitted, practically spitting the words out and then curling your legs closer to you to hide your face in embarrassment. “Sorry.”

Shibayama’s jaw loosened as he stared at you. “Me?” his face practically matched his uniform now. “You’re, like… gorgeous.”

There was a silence between you as you finally lifted your gaze again, and the two of you smiled in what felt like understanding, only to be interrupted by the third wheel, who Shibayama surely regretted inviting now. “Are you two going to kiss or something? I’d rather leave before you start.”

In Episode 47, the Digidestined land on the Yellow Moon, courtesy to an attack from the freed Lucemon. There they meet the Baby Digimon and Digimon Eggs they had previously encountered, which had been under Swanmon's protection. And each of the Digidestined picks up a newly hatched Digimon, holding them in their arms. One day, I had the idea of making a list. Based on the Digimon they each picked up, what would each Digidestined's partner be if they had partners instead of Spirits?

I went according to what each Digimon would evolve in according to Wikimon, which contains all kinda official evolutions throughout all the different media (be it Pendulums, games, or whatever). At the same time, I tried to stick to each kid's theme where possible, like electricity for JP and wind for Zoe. Only ones that were impossible were Takuya and Tommy, since none of the Digimon they picked up had anything with ice or fire in their evolution trees.

Also, the Digivices would be the D3 from Adventure 02, cause I like the idea that these partners would also be able to Armor Digivolve - into armor Digimon we didn't see in anime yet as well (or at least not with the 02 kid's Digimon. We got Sagittarimon appearing shortly twice, but I'd loved to see Veemon actually evolve with the Digimental of Hope in an anime).

So, have fun, and if you have any ideas, don't hesitate to let me know with a comment. ;) Enjoy the list!

Takuya

Digivice color: Dark blue

Chibomon - Demiveemon - Veemon - Veedramon - Aero-Veedramon - UlforceVeedramon

It would have been quite tempting to put the evolution line of Davis's Veemon. However, Paildramon and Imperialdramon are Jogress Evolutions, and we don't know what Exveemon would evolve into without Stingmon. Luckily, we have a very cool alternative option in the line of Tai's (probably) Veemon from the V-Tamer manga. So I went with that. Speaking of Tai - it's interesting that they gave him Chibomon and not Botamon/Koromon. The Agumon line would have kept the fire theme. But honestly... I would love to see the Veedramon line in anime one day. Or why not animate V-Tamer?

Koji

Digivice color: Light blue

Poyomon - Tokomon - Patamon - Angemon - MagnaAngemon - Goddramon

What can I say, with him getting a Tokomon...? Of course I had to pick the Angemon line. I only switched up the Mega level, picking Goddramon instead of Seraphimon. For... multiple, sometimes obvious reasons.

Koichi

Digivice color: Dark purple

Poyomon - Tokomon - Tukaimon - BlackGatomon - LadyDevimon - Mastemon

Oooff... my favourite Frontier kid, and he was the hardest to do. I wanted to keep a dark aestetic, since he does have the Spirits of Darkness. And I wanted to do like a dark counterpart to Koji. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of dark colored angel or angel-like Digimon that aren't evil. I think there are even none of those. That's why I was reluctant to pick LadyDevimon, since she usually is an antagonist when she appears in the anime. Isn't the only good LadyDevimon the one from Cyber Sleuth? But I think this is the list I feel most content with from all the option that I checked out. And Mastemon is pretty cool-looking. n.n I also could have gone with a cat aestetic, since, well, AncientSphinxmon, Löwemon and KaiserLeomon, but that worked out pretty badly as well.

Zoe

Digivice color: Pink

Poromon - Hawkmon - Aquilamon - Sylphimon - Valkyriemon

Thank god they gave her Poromon. This made her list pretty easy. I mean, as holder of the Spirit of Winds, what better for her than a bird Digimon? Unfortunately we don't have a proper Ultra Level for Aquilamon, so I had to pick the Jogress Evolution Sylphimon. But I am not sad; it visually fits quite well with Aquilamon, and is also a perfect segway into Valkyriemon.

J.P.

Digivice color: Dark yellow

Motimon - Tentomon - Kabuterimon - Alturkabuterimon Blue - Herakleskabuterimon

Another veery easy pick. Tentomon line. Elektric bug. Need I say more? I only switched Izzy's red Alturkabuterimon its blue variant to pay tribute to the blue in Beetlemon's color pallet.

Tommy

Digivice color: Light yellow

Upamon - Armadillomon - Ankylomon - Shakkoumon - SlashAngemon