Trying to get my ideas out for this one to explore how Nishijima Daigo could fit in my previous fanfic, Digimon Adventure Zero Two: The Alternate Adventure and The Alternate Destiny sequel if I ever try writing one day. Incorporated some settings from the two fanfics I wrote years ago.

My writing skills is still quite bad, please bear with me. Reviews are always appreciated. :)

Side: Nishijima Daigo

It hurts like hell. Nishijima felt his body was on fire. There was an earthquake earlier from Digimon attacks and before he even realised his body moved itself as he shielded an unconscious teenage boy with huge wild brown hair from the worst when the rocks fell on them.

Nishijima released his arms over the unconscious boy on his arms as he struggled to lay him against the wall. He was safe at least. He felt warmth coming off his body.

He rested himself opposite the unconscious boy. They were trapped underground in a facility. Nishijima smiled and grimaced in pain. Before he realised, he was drenched in blood, his own blood. Who knew he could ever survive this if help ever came to them?

He could not save Hime-chan but surely he could do something if he tried. At least there was still something he could do. Glancing at the boy's peaceful facial feature, he finally had a chance to look at the boy closely. Nishijima smiled weakly.

"Why on earth was he even chosen if he can't save anybody?" Nishijima thought as darkness crept over him.

*Flashback*

Graduation was never an easy affair. It just meant that they were out of job. Nishijima Daigo was merely another person who became out of job.

He ran out with his scroll after her, Himekawa Maki. After today, they might not meet again since they had broken up. He saw her walking out of the college after the ceremony.

"Hime…" He suddenly found himself feeling loss of word as he was about to reach her. He stopped in his step. He was just being a coward. Just what was he after confessing to her but they were not getting anywhere. Hime-chan was going to work in a government agency while he had not decided on anything. Of course, she dumped him or was he the one who had given up? He watched on as she disappeared from his view.

"Daigo." A big sized guy with brown hair in graduation gown knocked him in his head with his certificate. It was his buddy who had been through trials and tribulations with him many years back. Oh yeah, they were also graduating together.

Everybody had changed except himself. Nishijima laughed at himself.

"Perhaps, finding dreams by going back." His friend suggested. Somehow, something clicked within Nishijima.

And he ended up becoming a teacher. Finding dreams from the students who felt future and dreams were still something faraway to even think about yet. Perhaps he would get some inspiration from them.

Practicing calligraphy helped to distract him from reality.

"Dream big." He decided while writing the word. Perhaps he would be able to get closer to Maki one day. A knock on his door brought his attention back to reality.

"Ano… " He saw a head peeking in as the door slide open a little. It was a new student who was trying to ask for direction. He had a huge brown hair which stood out much to his annoyance. How on earth could his hair defy gravity?

"Come in." He urged. The boy slide the door fully as he walked towards his direction.

"You must be a teacher?" He picked his cheek saying that looking unsure.

"Why makes you think otherwise?" Nishijima did not know whether he should laugh or cry at the boy's assumption. He forced himself to smile as he replied. He was in shirt, short and a white coat over his top and most importantly he was in slippers. How on earth was he looking like a teacher? At most a lab assistant in his impression?

"I'm sorry." The boy apologised noticing Nishijima's awkward expression.

"It's fine. Now that you had caught my attention, tell me your name?" Nishijima urged him to take a seat. The boy fidgeted a little pausing indecisively before he finally spoke up.

"Takenouchi… Takenouchi Taichi." Nishijima nodded in acknowledgement as he wrote his name with the brush.

"Is this it?" Nishijima raised the paper with the words "太一" which means 'big one' and showed him. Taichi's eyes sparkled with admiration much to Nishijima's dismay. It was his own name, nothing uncommon.

"Hey." Nishijima felt that they might just click.

It was later he learnt that the boy suffered from amnesia. Other than these two words which was his name, he could not remember anything about himself.

Well, the world is small.

He realised that he was adopted by a professor who taught him before in college, Professor Takenouchi Haruhiko.

Even so, he was not going to treat him any differently.

One day, he found himself counselling Taichi as he rejected an offer from the soccer club. With his skills, he could easily achieve a top spot in the club. Taichi was determined about it but yet Nishijima felt he was defying his own wish. Taichi was the only one in class who had not submitted his club application form which was why he brought him to the teacher's room to talk about it.

"I'm sorry, I'll not join the Soccer Club." He merely said while Nishijima practiced his calligraphy.

"So?"

"That's it?"

"It's my principle." Nishijima wrote "原則" which literally meant 'principle'.

"Can you feed yourself with that?" Taichi bit his lips. Nishijima found him very fun to tease. Taichi obviously could not answer him but he could deal with him somehow.

"Ahh, my cake!" Nishijima cried out as Taichi helped himself to the sweets.

"Oh, sorry, do you mind if I have this?" Taichi asked on purpose. Some cream remained over his lips.

"Go ahead, you had bitten into it." Nishijima could only lament about it while Taichi ate in excitement.

"Thank you, sir!"

Nishijima tried to probe him further. Taichi had yet to join any club, surely there had to be something he was interested in.

"Just put anything in!"

"Then I want to be with my friends" Nishijima heard him. He frowned at his answer. He had never seen Taichi hanging around with a single group of students before although students were looking for him for advices some times.

"I used to be able to see them often. I hope his younger brother is doing well after he gone somewhere far away." Nishijima wrote "外国" which literally meant overseas. That was totally out of bound but kind of correct except that Taichi could not reach him anymore.

"In this case, I thought of something you can try." Nishijima grinned as an idea crept to his mind as he raised another word "夢". He was after all still a new teacher of Nagaokakyou Junior High School. They could try anything.

"Dream big, boy!"

That was how he recommended and made Taichi ran for Student Council President. It was not an easy journey but together they made it happen.

Nishijima then realised he could still do something after all.

As fate dictated, they had to part after a year.

Nishijima frowned as Taichi continued to help himself with the Swiss roll on his last day in school. He was going to piss him off. His "Calligraphy Room" would become his "Student Council Room". He would make it happen. To think his teacher had to leave them at this juncture after putting him into such position in his first year.

"Without sensei around, I'm afraid I'll fail everybody's expectation." Taichi suddenly said stopping halfway with the cake Nishijima tried to stop him from gobbling. Nishijima could see he was getting emotional. His eyes widen in shock. Suddenly, he realised how lonely this boy actually was. Come to think of it, he did not have any real friend.

Placing his hand on his shoulder, he allowed Taichi to release his stress. However, the boy would not, never cry before him.

"Did you think I'm going to cry?" Taichi grinned suddenly much to Nishijima's dismay. He was fooled.

"I'm going to make the school strong. Watch me."

"Well, if so this wouldn't be the last time we meet." Nishijima decided. He would make the two schools he joined to collaborate and with his assistance, Taichi managed to reached out to Odaiba Junior and Junior High School for collaboration.

"Ishida, Izumi! What's wrong with you boys again?" Nishijima spotted the two boys, a blonde and another one with reddish hair in argument again as he walked over to them pulling a female student with black hair in glasses from his former school aside.

"Is this the attitude you want to show to students from Kyoto?" He asked with a sigh. He overheard their conversation about something that hatched. It could be his imagination if it was related to the world he had been to when he was a child.

"No, I'm sorry, Nishijima-sensei." The boy in reddish hair known as Izumi Koushirou lowered his head while the blonde boy, Ishida Yamato avoided looking into his eyes. Nishijima commanded both boys to see him in his office later. He would counsel them after leading the group of students from cheerleading squad out of the school. It would be a disgrace if he allowed the boys to continue making a scene.

"Send my regards to Takenouchi." Nishijima told the cheerleading squad.

He wondered what was the big deal between Izumi and Ishida that Izumi was hostile to Ishida. They could not have interacted much other than collaboration in their respective club activities. That was not the first time they had engaged in an argument and another girl with shoulder length orange hair, Professor Takenouchi's daughter, Takenouchi Sora had to try and stop them. He could literally see hatred and resentment from Izumi's eyes when he tried to probe one of them. Realising he could not force them to share their problem with one another, he tried changing the subject, if the boys like any donut?

That Sunday, a senior from another Junior High School came by to meet Ishida, he was going to catch Ishida red-handed to see what they were up to when he saw a boy with huge brown hair running down the corridor.

"Takenouchi?" He was definitely Taichi much to his surprise. Somehow, Taichi would not come to Odaiba in person. Some students would pop over on his behalf with Kyoto sweets he had missed so much when they came over for activities. Nishijima appreciated the gesture. Nishijima took after him but lost him on the side road. Taichi looked really pissed. Nishijima felt uneasy. He tried to contact him but he was unable to get him since that day.

The next time he saw Taichi, he was in the hospital with his life hanging by a thread. Nishijima looked into the window of the in ICU in horror. Just how on earth was Taichi hurt that badly by a Digimon? His head was wrapped in bandages and was hooked up to all sorts of machines monitoring his condition. He heard that his condition was not very hopeful as his heart was punctured by a Digimon and he suffered serious concussion being tossed from height.

"He is a Chosen Child like you." Nishijima turned to the direction of the voice. He was a blonde Caucasian young boy at most twelve, also known as the veteran Chosen Child, Wallace. Nishijima turned to the direction where he was seated at the hospital corridor, that boy knew his history. Even though Nishijima had been following news about Digimon rampaging in the Real World once again for the past few weeks, he was unable to get any closer.

"I'm sorry we're unable to deal with your request to release the seal. Like it or not. It'll have to wait until he wakes up, that is, if he can ever wake up." The young boy merely said laying back against the back of the chair.

Nishijima's legs gave out on him as he sat himself heavily beside him. His attention was switched to Nishijima, watching his every moves yet not intending to do anything. Nishijima was in disbelief at the revelation how closely intertwined their lives were. Ishida and Izumi were Chosen Children as well. He glimpsed through the window where Taichi laid ghastly pale on the hospital bed with a fogging oxygen mask covered his mouth as he breathed in and out. Nishijima buried his face in despair.

*End flashback*

There ought to be something he could do to avoid things like that from happening again. He would make it happen. Through his research and network, he finally found his way in to the government agency, Incorporated Administrative Agency and there, he reunited with Himekawa Maki, his ex and ended up where he was now, battered and dying.

"Sensei?" The boy before him looked horrified. Probably because he was in blood. He wondered how he would have reacted if he ever seen himself, the version of him in this world drenched in blood after being assaulted by Digimon? He would never let the incident like that happened to him again.

He cheated him to get into the only pod for survival. The boy had to live for the sake of their future.

It was uncanny that they looked the same. In actual fact, they are the same person yet so different." Just months ago, Nishijima recalled seeing the boy with the same face but the difference was he was cold and was covered by a white sheet as his parents were crying over his body in the hospital, whereas the boy before him had to be the holder of the Crest of Miracle who transcended between space and time to help them.

"I'll pass on my hope to you." Nishijima smiled laying back on the chair. He felt his life leaving him as he was bleeding out. His eyes were losing focus but he was no longer in pain. He was in peace.

"Was that how the other him felt before he breathed his last surrounded by his friends?" He could almost see the back of his former student walking away. Yeah, he could never forget that smile of his lying peacefully with his eyes closed in the hospital. Ultimately, despite his request being fulfilled with the release of the Crest of Courage, he did not get to talk to him again. He could not save him, he could not save Maki.

"Listen, Yagami, no matter how hard reality is, don't ever give up. Go build the future." His voice was weak. He raised his clenched fist with all his strength ignoring the plea by the boy knocking in the pod. He wished for the children to be happy.

"Return to where you came from. Don't make those who loves you and you love cry again."

"Dream big..."