FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Since we'd been off of Devas for a few days, thing began to settle somewhat. Renamon insisted on her patrols, but didn't really seem to be out of the house too much. Raia stuck around me a lot, as did Renamon when she wasn't out. I was honestly starting to get a bit bored, just because I was so used to all the activity, but my problem was solved by a combination of my guitars and the internet, which provided me with a large amount of entertainment. I switched back and forth between my electric and acoustic, mainly learning on the electric and practicing on the acoustic to make sure I had anything I played down. I'd played a fair amount before, but because of the lack of anything much else to do, I was able to really focus on it.

"Alright, how about this one..." I said, placing my hand in the starting position and plucking strings. Raia sat across from me listening happily, probably glad that I'd gotten past the point where I'd randomly mess up and hit a harmonic that would hurt her ears. I played through the song, humming to the rhythm, but when I got to the final chorus I decided to fill in the ending lines. "And it takes you babe to make me smile. It takes you to make me smile." I smiled, glad I'd finally gotten it without a screw up. Raia was giving me a sort of sultry look, and I remembered she hadn't heard the actual song and that was the first time I'd sung any of it.

"I'm gonna play another one now," I said, a bit nervous about being molested, grabbed my electric, tuned a half-step up from the acoustic (half-step down from standard), and flicked on the amp. I started through the beginning riff and played along until the where the singer comes in. Before I knew it, I was singing along, only realizing it when I saw the pissed off look on Raia's face.

"Very romantic song." She said, sarcasm crammed into each syllable. "You play that one for all your girlfriends?"

I knew it was a bad idea, but a joke seemed appropriate. "Only one," I said with a smirk. "Pretty fitting in that case."

"Mhm." She was still a bit unhappy with me, as any woman would be after a guy played a song about a cheating ex-girlfriend, but I wracked my brain for another song that I knew that would remedy the tension. An idea sprang to my mind and I retrieved the acoustic again along with a chromatic tuner, and I put the acoustic down a stop before grabbing a pick and strumming away, singing softly along with the lead of the strings. I pressed on through the short solo of the acoustic version of the song, praying to God I wouldn't screw up and ruin the effect. The lyrics may not have meant the right thing, but they sounded good enough on a casual listen. By the time I was done, Rai looked happy enough, leaning in to hug me.

"Much better." She said, breaking away from me long enough for me to set the guitar aside. She lightly brushed her lips to mine and stared me in the eyes. I had just long enough to wonder where this was going when the phone rang. Renamon appeared at my side after a moment and handed the phone, a cordless, to me.

"How long have you been home?" I asked, unsure of her coming and going in general.

She smirked. "Long enough." She sat over next to Raia and I could swear I heard something about 'my cheesy ass', but I ignored it and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey, can Jeri become a tamer?"

"Are you asking permission?" I asked, knowing full well what was going on. But why spoil the chance for an entertaining conversation?

"No, I mean is it possible?"

"Well, sure it's possible. Does she have a digivice?"

"Let me ask." I heard him shout to Jeri and heard a muffled reply. "She said no."

"Well, her partner, has she been giving him strange looks, like you may have seen mine give me?"

"Well, yeah, actually."

"She could be a tamer, but I should probably head over to be sure."

"Alright. See ya then!"

"Yep." I hung up the phone and snickered. "Who wants to see a lion kick a rat's ass?"

(Break)

We arrived at the scene to find Leomon and Kumbhiramon going at it. I signaled not to go in and watched. For his size and the size of his weapon, he was repelling the little rat quickly and easily enough. Jeri began to become troubled at the display and took Takato's digivice and attempted several card swipes, but to no avail. The duel went on for quite some time, Kumbhiramon seeming unphased by Leomon's strikes.

"Quite the tenacious rodent!" Leomon taunted as Kumbhiramon came back for another attack. The little rat snickered, feinting and slipping beneath Leomon's resulting strike. He rammed into Leomon's stomach, knocking the air out of him.

"Deva clone!" The little beast called out, breaking into six clones and attempting to lock Leomon in a telekinetic barrier. Seeming to know he was screwed, Leomon tried to bound out of the circle of Kumbhiramon before they could close together and crush him in a sort of telekinetic singularity, but was struck back by the barrier which repelled him with force. Leomon was in a pretty dire situation, but I still signaled for Raia and Renamon to stay back.

"He's a warrior." I explained. "For him it's death or honor. So, if you take one, he'll take the other." Renamon relented, seeming to understand, as I'd expect her to, given her own unwritten honor code that was hard not to notice. Raia, conversely, groaned, probably irritated at another being following such an honor code.

"I don't understand the fixation on honor, really, what's the attraction?" She asked. I was going to reply but Renamon took over for me.

"Some of us have nothing else." She said, keenly watching Leomon slide his blade flat beneath one of the rat clones and flip him into the circle, breaking it before they could close him in completely. "You may not get it, but when everything is taken from you, you survive on your name, the only thing no one can take from you. Loss of honor is by your own actions, never by those of another." The rat hit the ground and rolled into the center; the barrier collapsed and crashed the Kumbhiramon together, reintegrating them.

"Seems like a stupid reason to kill yourself in pointless fights. Pride, a cardinal sin, leading to hubris, an epic tragedy." Raia said. I blinked hard for a moment, considering what she'd said and turned to her.

"Have you been looking into my mind again?" I asked, wondering just where in the holy hell she got something like that, completely out of her more simple nature. "I haven't heard you say something like that since we met."

"I'm not an idiot, Caleb." She said with derision. "I just don't think all the time."

"You must've been made for me then." I said, turning back to the fight. "Because I've said those words, truthfully, more than once."

Leomon had leveled his blade at the rat, staring him down. "Where is your Sovereign now?" He asked.

"I am a servant of God, yet I am defeated by a lower digimon?" The pathetic rodent said, more to himself than Leomon.

"Sounds like a pretty weak god then." Terriermon said. I realized he hadn't gone into the battle when he spoke and began to examine the whole encounter as Henry scolded him for his comment. None of this followed the canon. In fact, less and less of the plot was remaining unchanged the longer I stuck around.

"He's right, human." Kumbhiramon said, interrupting Henry as he reprimanded Terriermon. "My sovereign is weak, and I am a fool." Leomon's gaze softened and he sheathed his blade. "Why're you stopping? You've won, just kill me and put me out of my misery!"

Leomon shook his head. "No, you were misled. You were led by the weak and thereby became weak." Leomon walked past him, into the sunset and turned back to the defeated opponent. "Challenge me when you become strong, I'll be waiting. 'For a wounded man shall said to his assailant, 'If I live, I will kill you-'"

"'If I die, you are forgiven.' I know the code of honor, beast king." Kumbhiramon forced himself to his feet and leapt to a tree. "Expect me." And with that, he was gone.

Leomon grinned and walked away, saying a single word as he did so. "Omerta."

A few moments passed, everyone was silent and the boys were fairly stupefied by the display they'd witnessed, but then the peace was shattered.

"Well that was stupid." Raia said.

"Shut up." Renamon and I said.

"This honor crap." Raia said, shrugging.

"Let's just go home." As I turned to walk away from the still confused group, I felt a pull on my hoodie. I turned back to see Jeri behind me and she made a motion for me to lean down to her. I crouched low to match her height and she whispered in my ear. Renamon and Raia stared in interest, as did everyone else. Jeri finished whispering and I stood up and tousled her hair. "Of course," I said in reply to her. "I know that I have, twice, actually." I wrote a number on a piece of paper for her, turned, and began to walk away. After we'd gotten some distance away, both Renamon and Raia began to pester me about what Jeri had asked.

"Well damn, aren't you both nosey?" I chuckled a bit and explained. "She asked me if it was possible to fall in love with a digimon, and I said 'yes, I have twice'. Simple as that."

"And the paper?" Renamon asked, Raia nodding briskly and eagerly as she did.

"Home phone number, in case she has a question, because I doubt she'd get good advice from Takato or Henry, as if she'd even call 'em."

"You want to help someone else love a digimon?" Raia asked, like the concept was somehow ironically strange to her.

"Yeah, if she thinks it'll make her happy. God knows it made me happy." They both smiled and hugged me, one on each side. "Now, if the interrogation's over, can we go home?" They both agreed and we whipped through the evening air, arriving home around the time the sun was set. I walked through the house slowly, entering the bedroom alone for once.

"You two coming?" I called out, stripping down and changing to comfortable clothes.

Renamon replied. "Not right now, we'll be in later." I shrugged, crawling into bed.

"Alright, don't stay up too late arguing, and try not to wake me up." I said half-serious, hoping I wouldn't wake up to an argument to break up.

(Break)

Renamon had held Raia back, whispering "We need to talk." before letting their tamer head to bed.

"So, what do we need to talk about?" Raia asked, pretending she didn't know. The tension between them had gone down recently, but there was still a serious grind there and it needed to be dealt with.

"We both know, don't play stupid." Despite being without her original tamer for so long, the personality which had rubbed off on her so heavily still reared up occasionally. "We don't mesh, and we need to fix that. We can't properly act as a team unless we can actually work together."

"And just how would you suggest we do so?" Raia asked as she walked to the couch and sat down, Renamon taking the end opposite her.

"Well, I suppose we could state what we don't like about each other and go from there."

Raia gave her a curious look. "Fine, but you start."

Renamon sighed. "You are, in the shortest terms I can state it, a crybaby. Every time something goes wrong, you run right to Caleb and make him comfort you. It shows weakness, and I can't respect that."

"Alright. My turn." Raia tried to prevent any venom from anger at the criticism from bleeding into her speech. "I don't understand your whole fixation with "honor" and all that crap. It's stupid, regarding the opinions of other people over those of yourself. Who gives a damn if people think you're a horrible person? I understand the need for respect, but your idea of honor takes it to a whole new level."

Renamon looked her in the eye and spoke very clearly. "Answer this question honestly. Do you remember anything before coming to this world?"

Raia shook her head. "No, why does that matter?"

"You don't have any memory of living in a village? With a tribe?" Raia shook her head. "That explains it. You weren't raised as I was. Where I came from, honor meant everything. My tribe fought for what they wanted, killed for what they earned. The reason I even came to this world is because I was the best fighter we had. Legends told that our village would provide a partner for one of the saviors of the digital world, who would cross over to the real world. I still remember my last fight clearly."

(Break)

The rank stench of binary blood filled the air of the village, the origin being the crimson-stained earth of the sparring circle. Fights had been taking place all day, in fact through the past few days. Two contenders remained. One was a young female, nimble and spry, and the other was a tank of a creature, large and strong. The smaller of the two, the female, kept herself light on her feet as she prepared for the fight. The larger, a male whose fur had been coated in blood from his wins, simply stood and cracked his knuckles. A stick was brought to the ground and the fight began.

The female dashed in and swept her lithe form around the hulk's thrashing limbs, barely avoiding blows of bone-crushing force. While she could dodge, she couldn't press back, and was forced to the edge of the circle. The circle was merely aesthetic, however, marking where the fights would begin; some battles travelled far across the barren valley, far out of sight of the village. This hardly crossed her mind as she continued to retreat. The titan grew weary of this constant chase and threw a particularly heavy blow at the female, barely missing her. She used his arm as a step and vaulted over, taking him by the head and throwing him to the ground with momentum created by his own weight. As she landed, she spun and brought her own arm down on him, blue flames engulfing her paw as she did. The strike hurt, that much was clear, but the giant of a Renamon stood, still clinging to life and managed to seize the female by the arm.

A wicked smile ripped across his face as he took advantage, swinging her around and smacking her to the ground like a ragdoll. After half a dozen impacts, the female caught a break and landed with her feet on the ground, and while she was still chained to the behemoth by his iron grip, she could use that to her advantage. She sprung over him, vaulting as she had before. As she landed, she transferred as much of the momentum to her arm as she could. The result was the male leaving the ground, swinging over the top of her, the force nearly ripping her arm from the socket, and crashing to the ground. This time, the beast could not rise, but he wasn't quite dead yet. She stared down at him, nearly dead herself.

"You can't do it." He muttered from the ground. "You aren't strong enough." She remained silent, tears streaming down her face from the pain in her shoulder. "You should just give in and leave. If you cannot best me, then what chance do you have in the real world? You are weak, look at you, crying! Have you no honor? If I could move, I would kill you, then myself for allowing you to do this much."

The female began to stumble away, gripping her shoulder and wincing from any movement. "That's right little one, run! One such as you hasn't even the courage to rid the world of your plague!" The female continued on, moving to where the fight had begun. She seemed to fall to the ground, but pressed back to standing and returned to the male. "Back again? Why have you not left yet?"

"Shut your damn mouth." She said. "The honorable die in silence, as should you." She brandished the stick used to signal the beginning and brought it down on his head with as much force as she could muster. The blow sunk in and after a moment the stick dropped through a cloud of data, which was absorbed quickly by the female.

(Break)

"That's why I believe in honor, and why I despise those complain." Renamon said as she stood. "Come to bed if you wish." With that, she padded off to the bedroom, lying next to her tamer and pulling him into an embrace.

Raia didn't move though. She sat and reflected over the story she'd heard, resolving to become stronger like Renamon had. They may not have become friends as her tamer had wished, but a connection began to form between the two kitsunes.