Title: Escape
Characters: Ken||Romance: N/A
Chapters: 1-1||Words: 500
Genre: Drama||Rated: G
Challenge: Diversity Writing, breeds, A57, 500 word drabble; Include The Word Boot Camp, #17, north
Summary: Abducting a Chosen Child isn't a good idea under normal circumstances. When that Chosen Child is the former Digimon Kaiser *and* has Digimon blood in his veins? Even worse.

No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't quite get the ropes to loosen. They bound his wrists together, his ankles, wrapped around his chest and his knees, and another looped around his neck, so if he moved that too much, he'd start to choke himself.

They thought they had a successful arrangement for restraining virtually anyone.

Ichijouji Ken wasn't anyone.

He breathed. Slowly. Carefully. He had to focus to do this just right without slicing himself to pieces.

A long blade wouldn't work. He wouldn't have the control or the leverage to get himself out of there with his usual weapons.

But he had more than one tool at his disposal.

He almost wished he could summon fire the way that Yamato could. But with the way he was bound now, that might have burned him as well. As it was, he'd still have to be careful not to cut himself anyway.

Focus. Again.

His fingers moved, barely more than a twitch. Not only did he have to keep himself calm to do this, if his abductors came back and found him trying to escape, they'd probably at least do their best to prevent him.

It wasn't impossible. His time as Kaiser taught him that nothing was impossible if one worked for it hard enough. What one needed to do was decide if the price paid for it was worth it, and if it were worth having in the first place.

His freedom was definitely worth having and if he cut himself a little doing so, then that would be a small price indeed to pay.

There.

The small knife appeared in his hand, edge sharp as the breath of the North Wind, and turned in a moment to work on his bonds. He didn't have much room to work with, but his captors hadn't anticipated him being able to manifest something he could use to cut himself free.

They'd regret not having thought about that. If they dared to take him hostage, they should've at least thought about how he could get out of it.

The tiny part of him that would forever remain the Digimon Kaiser, the part of him that was Piemon's secondborn son, prideful and defiant to the end, snarled at the thought of not having been taken that seriously. He fought it back, straining to replace it with the simple need to escape.

Then he heard them talking, and his eyes lit with rage at what he heard.

"Did we really need to tie him up like that? I mean, he's so pretty. He'd probably stay where he was if someone gave him a dirty look."

"You're probably right. Still, can't be too careful. Some of those kids are weird. Who's next on the list? The Motomiya brat, wasn't it?"

Daisuke? No. Ken thought they'd get a surprise if they tried that, but he wouldn't let them. They thought the Chosen, the children of the Digital World, were weird?

They hadn't seen anything yet.

The End

Notes: Look, I had a prompt of 'rope' and I didn't use it to mess with Daisuke! I'm actually leaving him unharmed...for now.