Three years ago, me and Ken - he's a friend of mine - were playing video games, when suddenly the picture faded out and we saw this battle between some things called "Digimon". We couldn't stop watching... and after one of the Digimon had been destroyed, our video game came back on. We just looked at each other, and I turned the thing off. No video game was going to live up to that. I was staying over at his house that night, so we stayed up a long time talking about it.

Next day, we were ready to start on our game again, and this weird little device came out of the TV screen when we turned it on. It looked kinda like a Tamagotchi, and I was just starting to wonder where it had come from, when both Ken and I were sucked into the TV.

When I woke up, this... little... blue... dragon... stuffed animal... THING was sitting on my chest. I'm very proud of myself for the calm, rational matter in which I handled it - I stared at it, it stared back with those big red eyes, blinking a couple times, and then I very calmly picked it up, sat up, set it down on the ground, looked around, saw Ken, screamed, and hid behind him.

Well, I was calm and rational up until I screamed.

Then, this little green thing in Ken's arms that I'd somehow managed not to notice turned to look at me, blinked, and asked me what was the matter.

Now, I make it a rule not to scream and beat a panicky retreat twice in the same day, so I composed myself... sorta.

"KEN!! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!"

"Keep your voice down, I'm right here. Remember that fight we watched yesterday?"

"Uh... yeah..." I blink.

"Well, apparently we're in the world that those Digimon are from." He turned to face me and held up the little snail-bug-thingie he was holding. "This is Minomon; he's my Digimon partner." Ken was usually such a somber little boy, but right then he was beaming.

I looked around for the little blue dragonling, figuring I owed him an apology, but I didn't see him. Then I felt something nudge my ankle and I looked down to see it hugging my leg and looking up at me with those red eyes that I knew a girl would be going nuts over.

"I'm Chibimon!" it squeaked, happily. "Good to meet you, Ryou!"

How it knew my name, I didn't even want to know - but it told me anyway. Apparently Ken had told it.

"Uh, hi," I said, leaning down to pick it - well, him - up. He jumped into my arms, and I stood up again, cradling Chibimon in the crook of my arm. He made himself comfortable.

And after that, things get vague in my memory. I do remember when Minomon first evolved into Wormmon, and how utterly cool I thought it was... Wormmon saving Ken from a Gazimon... Chibimon being a little jealous that Minomon had evolved and he hadn't... and a lot of other stuff... and then we had to go home.

If there is one thing I regret, it was not saying a proper goodbye to Chibimon. I thought we could come back the next day, I really did... so I told Chibimon I'd see him tomorrow.

I didn't see him tomorrow.

Apparently, you needed a Digivice - that's what Ken called the device that had come out of the TV - to go to the digital world... and if I'd known that, I would have taken the departure much more seriously. Because I didn't have a Digivice.

I kept hoping, though, that maybe I'd get one. Maybe I'd see my pal Chibimon again. I knew we weren't as close as Ken and Wormmon seemed to be, but that didn't mean I didn't like him, that he wasn't my friend. For three years, I hoped that.

And then...

I watched the soccer game between the Odaiba Elementary team and the Tamachi Elementary team... and it was a time of many epiphanies.

See, back when Ken and I used to hang out, I used to have a little crush on him. At first it was just a big-brother complex - he was ignored at home and he was lonely, and I felt sorry for him - and after a while, I realized I really liked him, in the romantic way. I didn't want to spring something that big on someone so much younger than me, so I was content to be his "big brother" when I wouldn't have minded kissing and cuddling him.

Then I had to move to Odaiba, before I ever got to tell him.

Actually, there's a lot of things I regret. Not telling Ken, having to move away, not really saying goodbye to Chibimon... 

I don't know just what happened to Ken when he ran off to the digital world - yes, I know about that, where else could he have gone? - but it must've been bad, and I bet if I'd been there for him, it wouldn't have happened...

Anyway, the soccer game.

When I saw Ken, my heart practically stopped because he looked so good... and then I realized he looked cold. Dark, cruel, icy, dead, soulless... Words like that kept popping into my head whenever I saw his eyes. That was before he ran off, so I can only imagine what he did in the digital world with eyes like that...

And worse... after the game... I saw Odaiba's best player, Motomiya Daisuke.

Chibimon was with him.

My Chibimon.

Well... no, he wasn't my Chibimon. He was never my Chibimon.

He was my friend, but he wasn't my partner. He wasn't my Chibimon.

When I left the field, and went home, I collapsed in my room, and started laughing. I don't know why, I just laughed and laughed and then I started crying and I just couldn't stop laughing. It wasn't funny, and I was pretty miserable, but there I was laughing at the whole damn stupid thing.

I didn't have a Digivice, I shouldn't have been in the digital world, but I went there and I met a Digimon that I never should have known, much less befriended, but I did. I was out of place, I didn't belong among the Chosen Children, but I'd had a taste of their world and I wanted to go back and I knew I couldn't, not ever, because I didn't belong. I never belonged.

Daisuke is exactly where I want to be. He's a Chosen Child. He's Chibimon's friend and destined partner. He's right by Ken's side, always. I'm willing to bet he's the one that put the light and life back in Ken's eyes. 

And once...

I saw him and Ken kissing.

I was taking a walk in the park, and apparently so were they. Ken seemed ashamed of something, and Daisuke was trying to reassure him. They were standing so close... and then, Daisuke gently placed his hands on the sides of Ken's head. Ken looked up, and then they kissed.

I couldn't watch anymore. It was clear that Ken loved, needed, and wanted Daisuke, which was more than I could hope for. I ran away as quietly as I could, not wanting to disturb them.

I'm so very, very jealous of Daisuke, but I can't hate him for being everything I'm not, everything I want to be. Does the serpent hate the dragon for having wings? No, because the serpent doesn't belong in the skies.

I'm the serpent, and Daisuke is the dragon, flying with the sun and moon.

The sun and moon being Ken and Chibimon.

I don't belong there; I never did.

So I'll just sit and watch him fly.