A/N: This was originally two stories. Dunno when the muse mashed them into one, but it happened. :D Context wise, 02 proceeded as normal and this is set in the year 2017, where the 01/02 Chosen are all adults and in their respective professions, but younger than the epilogue. As far as Tri goes, because the whole story hasn't been revealed yet, I'm going with one of my theories, and that is the Agency Himekawa and Daigo work for is responsible for the virus, and due to the presence of the Dark Seed, Ken got a hefty dose of it as well. And everyone saved the day, except there were a few changes in the world (that are explained later in the chapter). As far as Frontier goes, this is a few months post-canon. And I went with the first google result I found for Kouichi's birthday (though I pushed ahead the year to make the ages line up), and made Osamu's up. :D

Challenges

The Prompts in Steps Challenge, 5.09 – problematic
The Diversity Writing Challenge, i41 – write in the mystery genre

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The Gate to Styx
Chapter 1

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There was a ghost on the loose in the hospital. And a bunch of missing kids, showing up dead one by one. Oh, and let's not forget mister lion-mask on the prowl in the streets. But how were they supposed to know from the offset that all three were connected?

The first hint any of them got of the mess was when Jyou brought Gomamon to his clinic at the hospital one day. He tended to do that at least once a week, since Gomamon seemed to be good, therapeutically speaking, for the children. But there weren't any children in his clinic right then. He was doing paperwork. And Gomamon, last he checked, was playing with a few toys he kept for the kids.

So then why was he introducing himself to someone?

Jyou swivelled his chair around – and gaped. There was someone else in the room…if they could be called someone. They were translucent, enough so that the playhouse behind him was still plainly visible. And he was floating. Crouched as though he was speaking to someone a quarter of his height, except he was floating a foot in the air, above those action figures Gomamon had been coaxing into position.

If he'd still been twelve years, he would have fainted right then and there.

He wasn't, luckily. Though his vision did blur. And when it came back, the child was gone and he had to ask Gomamon whether he'd been there at all. And for a description in case he cropped up again.

Of course he did.

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That afternoon, Ken was handed a missing person's report. The first missing child. And bile rose in his throat and the back of his neck burned because he remembered how children had gone missing before in his youth, and why, and what had come of it. Those were the cases he hated the most. And also the ones he had to work the hardest on to get those kids back to their families.

Except there were no leads at all. She'd disappeared on the last leg of her journey home from school: the only leg she was unaccompanied for. No reports of unwanted attention beforehand. No trouble her parents might be in. No reasons for her to run away from home – and having run away himself at one stage, he knew better than most his co-workers to look out for those signs.

And then the second kid turned up missing the following night. Or the next two, rather, one who'd actually been missing earlier than the first girl but had a longer time out of sight so they hadn't realised until later on.

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Jyou met the ghost again. With Gomamon again. Actually, he'd brought Gomamon twice in the same week for that purpose. The two of them were playing chess…which was actually quite amusing, because Gomamon simply couldn't move the pieces on both sides of the board without hopping from one side to the next. So it was quite exhausting for the little seal.

'Hello,' he said, once he'd composed himself. 'I'm Doctor Kido.'

The boy – because it was a boy, now that he could see better (because Gomamon, as a digimon, doesn't worry much about things like genders) – looked up at him. Kind of. He more floated up to him. 'Hello,' he said quietly, his voice echoing like he was speaking from far away even though he was so close. 'Kido-sensei,' he said, a moment later. He'd listened to the introduction.

'That's right.' He gave an encouraging smile. He worked with kids after all. Kids of all ages. Most of them scared or hurt and none of them really wanting to be in a hospital. And as far as ghosts or spirits went…well, he was a Chosen. He'd seen weird things before. 'And could you tell me your name?'

'My…name?' the spirit repeated blankly.

'He's forgotten it,' Gomamon piped up. Helpful…but the fact that the spirit or ghost or whatever didn't know his own name was decidedly not.

'And do you know what you're doing here?'

'…playing with Gomamon?'

Jyou could have hit his forehead. That worked fine when testing GCSs or mini-mentals, but not when trying to work out what a ghost – or spirit or whatever – was doing in his clinic. He didn't, of course, because that would've just frightened the poor kid probably.

'In the hospital, I mean,' he clarified. 'Were you sick? In an accident? Did you lose your parents?'

The boy looked at him, then down at Gomamon, then at his hands. 'I don't know.'

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The ghost vanished again after a little while. Jyou doodled notes on his writing pad. 'Black hair, blue eyes, pale skin, was wearing grey jeans and – ' He froze when he recognised the sweater. Ken used to wear one like that when he was little. And the blue eyes too. And the hair that was maybe only a few shades darker, but messier (but not very messy, all in all). And a bizarre idea was starting to form in his mind.

He called Ken. 'I seem to have a ghost on my hands,' he said, after the pleasantries.

'Pardon?' Ken was bemused. Understandable, because he hadn't made much sense.

'A boy,' Jyou clarified. 'He's been playing with Gomamon, but he seems to phase in and out. I think some of the kids have played with him too.'

'A ghost,' Ken repeated, 'as in, you just don't know who the kid is or…'

'Actually a ghost,' Jyou confirmed. 'Or a spirit. Transparent. Not tangible – he can't touch the chess pieces, though he has no problem beating Gomamon.' Or himself, but he wasn't going to mention that. 'And he floats. And he's got blue eyes and blackish hair – now I don't know whether it's actually blue like ours – and he was wearing that sweater. You know, the one you used to wear in winter when you were eleven or twelve?'

'I remember.' Ken's voice sounded funny suddenly. He'd picked up on Jyou's theory. 'That was Onii-chan's sweater.' There was the sound of rustling paper. 'I thought at first, when one of the missing kids – ' There was a clunk. 'The missing kids!'

Jyou winced. Ken had been unexpectedly loud, there. He knew a few kids had gone missing in the area, but no further details, though it sounded now as though Ken had landed with the case. He winced again. Poor Ken hated cases like that. But what did his ghost have to do with them?

But he could hear rustling papers again. 'Found it!' Ken's voice returned. 'I thought I remembered seeing that sweater in the photos. 'kaa-san gave most of our old clothes to one of those second hand stores. And then one of the kids who disappeared was wearing it.'

Jyou blinked. That was an odd turn of events, as far as the sweater went. But… 'So this kid, do you have a description?'

'Of course.' And he rattled off a description that sounded more exact than Jyou's own observations, but didn't contradict anything. And Ken sounded relieved at each "yep", as well. It was becoming less and less likely that the boy was his brother Osamu from the dead, and more likely the kid who'd disappeared somewhere between Kyoto and Tokyo.

'He's actually the first to disappear,' Ken explained. 'But because it takes over four hours for him to get to his father's house from his mother's and there were lots of innocent things that could have delayed him, they weren't sure until he didn't show up by nightfall.'

That sounded like Yamato and Takeru, before Natsuko-san had moved back to Odaiba and brought them close again.

'Mmm,' said Jyou sympathetically. 'I'm afraid this…uhh, spirit (because ghost was less tactful and he'd made the mistake of calling him that once already) has got amnesia. Doesn't even remember his own name.'

'It's Kimura Kouichi.' Ken was reading off the report again. 'Eleven years old and in fifth grade. Born March 10, 2006.'

Jyou scribbled that quickly. 'I'll let you know if that winds up ringing any bells,' he promised.

'Osamu onii-chan's was April 22, 1988,' Ken added, after a pause. 'Just in case.'

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'Kimura-kun?' Jyou tried, interrupting yet another chess match between seal and spirit.

The boy shot up. Entirely. As in, he shot through the ceiling and Jyou waited a moment, before climbing the stairs to check.

Indeed, the boy was trying to find the way down again. 'Gomen nasai,' he cried when he saw the doctor. 'It just sort of happened and I can't –'

'You can always take the stairs,' said Jyou, showing him. The spirit followed meekly behind and it made for a rather funny sight – if the implications of reacting to the name weren't so serious. 'So do you think that could be your name? Kimura Kouichi-kun?'

'It sounds familiar, I think,' said the boy. 'I reacted automatically, even though you could have been calling any – ' He cut himself off. 'There was no-one but Gomamon and us.'

'Instinct has a habit of making us forget details like that,' Jyou pointed out. 'Ken will be relieved to hear, at least.'

'Ken..san?' the boy repeated. 'A friend?'

'A very good friend,' nodded Jyou, as they returned to the clinic. 'He's a police officer as well. He's got a case of missing kids at the moment.'

'Missing kids?' The spirit's voice sounded funny, suddenly. Subtly, but Jyou was a doctor. It was part of his job description (and Ken's, and Iori's, though all in different contexts) to notice such subtleties.

'Do you know anything?' Jyou asked, gently but curiously. He hadn't mentioned what else Ken had told him yet. Didn't want to if Kimura-kun could remember by himself. Didn't want to period, because why was he floating around here if he was missing? It made little sense at all. The simplest explanation was that he'd died because he'd met a few ghosts in his lifetime, Oikawa being the most prominent non-digimon one. And the long gruelling road of medical school had taught him all about Occam's razor, how the simplest answer was usually the right one. But that never meant to ignore the other differentials, especially the time critical ones.

And though it was in the context of emergency diagnosis, he didn't see why that sort of advice couldn't apply to all aspects of life.

But the boy shook his head slowly. 'I don't know. Or remember. Gomen.'

`Don't force yourself,' Jyou said softly. 'Hey, you seem to like Gomamon. Why don't I tell you more about digimon?'

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Ken sighed over the paperwork. Jyou's phone call had been draining and interesting all at once. The possibility that Osamu's eleven year old ghost had crossed over – but more likely it was the missing boy from Kyoto. Though he wanted it to be Osamu. For two reasons; he could finally see his brother again and not just nightmares from the Dark Ocean or BelialVamdemon or even just his own mind, and also for the sake of Kimura-kun and his loved ones. Because for him to be a spirit, or a ghost…did that mean he was already dead? And what did that mean for the other missing kids. There were four of them now. Five days. Four kids. He was dreading the phone ringing again. There hadn't been a report yet but right then it felt like a matter of time.

The phone rang, and despite expecting it, he jumped. 'Odaiba Police Department,' he snapped. Please don't let it be another missing kid.

It wasn't, but the next phone call was. This one was also mind-boggling though. 'There's a lion loose near the shore!'

But there wasn't a circus anywhere nearby at that time. So where had the lion come from. And when Ken sent a squad car out to inspect, they found nothing there at all except some bewildered witnesses who insisted "it was right there, but it disappeared."

And Ken was distracted as he wrote that report down, because the dreaded phone call announcing the fifth missing child had, in the meantime, come.

The final call for the night was, surprisingly, Jyou again. 'Did something come up?' Ken asked, tired but concerned.

'In a way,' said Jyou. 'Kimura-kun doesn't remember anything about the missing kids, but when I was explaining stuff about digimon, he already knew it.'

Ken's eyes widened at that. After the events of 2005, the Harmonious Ones had reverted to their original plan of avoiding unnecessary contact between the two worlds. So while the Chosen Children had their partner digimon and were aware of them, nobody else was. And others' encounters with them were warped, so they never noticed it odd that extra-terrestrial creatures were holding perfectly normal conversations and walking around, or sometimes saving the world.

He didn't like remembering that either. The infection that had caught him, caught his friends, almost cost him the most precious thing in the world. He still remembered the blank way they'd all looked at him. The way they'd fought as though they were strangers and nothing more, just because some virus had gotten into his body and clashed with his dark Seed. And poor Wormmon and V-mon, stuck in that infected jogress until Vikemon and Rosemon tore it apart…and, oddly enough, it was one of the things that wound up bringing him and Jyou closer together. And that virus had arisen because humans had gotten too close to the digital world.

Humans were awful sometimes. He saw a lot of that, being a police officer. And now, some monster was kidnapping children and possibly doing worse. And the missing children reports started at him from the desks. Their names. Their photos. All the people worried about them.

Hang on…

'Jyou…' he said slowly. 'Why would he know about the digimon, unless he's a Chosen?'

There was a pause on the line, and then Jyou's reply: 'Sometimes I forget, having Gomamon here soothing the kids…'

If the events of 2005 hadn't been removed from the minds of the world, Gomamon wouldn't have been able to do such a thing.

'But that just adds the possibility of a digimon being responsible.' Ken rubbed his head, still staring at the files. The writing blurred. He rubbed at his eyes and re-read the file. 'I got a report about a lion being on the loose as well.'

'A lion?' Jyou repeated, incredulously.

'Hasn't been confirmed,' Ken replied. 'But it would explain how a lion got to Odaiba when there's no circus for miles. And – ' He paused on a particular line. 'He has a twin brother.'

'Pardon?' asked Jyou. 'The lion?'

'Kimura-kun,' Ken corrected. The misunderstanding might have been funny in another situation, but not right then. 'Of course, he's already been questioned by the police – but we didn't try the digimon angle.'