Digimon 02 - Beetle Saga

Chapter 8: Him

Chapter 8: Him 

Davis could not say anything at the sight of the image before him.

It was Ken alright. Short, dark blue hair about neck length, tall stature, black boots, dark blue eyes. He even had a jacket with long sleeves and long pants that were the same gray the beetle shell had been. Ken didn't say anything either, he just nervously looked away while remaining upright. Davis then realized something. Nobody else knew about this.

Millions of Questions flooded his head. So Ken was the Digimon Kaiser-Emperor guy this WHOLE TIME?! The person he looked up to?! And he himself had actually kept Ken from going to that soccer game because he was instead stuck in a jar?! And he'd rambled about looking up to him smack dab when he was in the same room with him?! He felt heat rising to his face as his heart rate sped up.

Ken watched as Davis had an external crisis, not really knowing what to say without sounding awkward. He knew it was a shock to know that a villain of the Digital World was actually someone you looked up to. He knew Davis probably had a lot to think about right now. He knew he was at least out of the jar, and...wait.

Moving swiftly, Ken quickly leaned over and decked Davis in the face.

"ACK! What was that for?!" he yelped, though he at least snapped out of the storm of thoughts swarming his head.

"I told you that when I got out of that jar, I'd deck you in the face," Ken replied calmly.

"I didn't think you'd actually do it! And after all this time?! Sheesh."

Ken smiled lightly as Davis rubbed the spot where he'd been hit.

"But...all this time...it's really been you..."

"Y...yeah..."

"Well, does that mean you're ready to be with us now? You've changed and accepted your mistakes!"

"Not really...I...I JUST opened up enough to trust you of all people and I don't know if-"

"Ah, it's okay then, don't worry about it!" Davis interrupted, understanding where the other was coming from. "But...what am I supposed to tell the other Digidestined? They still think you're...well...wait, I did tell them you were upset, but they don't know about..." he made a wild gesture at Ken, "This. Yet."

"You could at least say I'm okay and well. Why? Have they been talking about what sort of punishment I get?" Ken asked.

"Well yeah, but...sending you back to your parents is a thing too...yeesh, this is harder than I thought."

There were indeed, three different paths to take from here. One: get Wormmon, or at least try to when they could, two: tell others about this, which was the one Davis was leaning away from the most, or three: return Ken back to his home, because it had been practically a week and his parents were probably super concerned. However, upon realizing what the second option was...

"Wait! What am I gonna do with YOU?! For the past few days, you've just been a beetle, but now I...I have to take care of more than that!" Davis exclaimed, hands flying to his head.

"I can just resume beetle form again and stay in the jar?"

"But doesn't it hurt to stay in that form for long periods of time?"

"Not really."

"Well...okay then. But still. Wormmon, or parentals?"

"Wormmon."

"Alright, I guess it's settled. But I'm trusting you too, you know-"

"I know, I know..."

-----

The next day, Davis explained to the others that "Kai" wanted to see Wormmon again, so they needed a way to access the Digital World. Some of them offered their home computers to use to open a portal to the Digital World, and in the end, they managed to agree on one computer. Once everyone was together, they left for the Digital World. Davis had trusted Ken to stay at home and outside of the jar now that he trusted him a little bit more. Eventually, the group fell out into the digital world, coming from a TV screen on a pile of rocks.

Wormmon wasn't there when they first landed, so they figured they had some searching to do. They started walking around the area, hoping to not lose track of where the TV was so that they could get back. The winged digimon of the group went for an aerial approach, and split a little as they looked around. It took some time, but the group soon found Wormmon being kicked around by some angry Monochromon. The remaining Digidestined digivolved their partners to scare the Monochromon off, and once the black and gray rhino-like digimon fled, Davis ran up to Wormmon. The others stayed behind, watching Davis from a distance.

"Wormmon! There you are!" he exclaimed happily.

"Oh...hello..." Wormmon replied in a rather glum tone despite recognizing the Digidestined.

"You alright? We've come to take you back to Kai!" Davis said, not ready to tell the others who Kai actually was yet.

"Kai?" Wormmon asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Oh, uh. I nicknamed the Digimon Kaiser just to make things easier on me. But he's still the one you've been following around!" Davis replied.

"Has he changed since I've last seen him? It's been a long time...digimon have been attacking me for siding with him..."

"Yeah, he's been upset recently. I was hoping you could talk to him since he seems to want you."

"He wants...me?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, in that case I'll go with you."

"Alright!"

And just like that, Davis picked up Wormmon, turned around, and sped back to the TV as fast as he could, with the others exclaiming things in surprise behind him. Veemon digivolved to Raidramon again to make things go faster. Things were going great.

-----

Davis ran home with Wormmon as fast as his legs would let him. Neither of them spoke as they made their way back. Once Davis got to his apartment door, he tried the doorknob, surprised to find it unlocked. He ran into the house and took off his shoes, muttering a brief "hi" to Jun before speeding to his room. When he got to the door, he knocked, immediately hearing shuffling afterwards.

He opened the door, only to find...nobody was there? Closing the door behind him, he set down Wormmon and glanced around.

"I'm back," he said quietly.

The trio noticed a small gray beetle fly out from a lower area of the bookshelves and towards the center of the room. Ken resumed humanoid form and looked down at his digimon partner with a thankful smile.

"Hey...Wormmon."

Davis watched as the happy little caterpillar digimon leapt into Ken's arms, the two laughing lightly over how much they missed each other.

This was definitely a step in the right direction.