The rain had recently come to an end, leaving a mess of mud and puddles all over the path. The air was cool but not unpleasant, and the weather was perfect for a stroll to the market.
The only bad thing about it, in the opinion of Miyako of Inoue, was that it was fairly impossible to keep the hem of her skirts clean. If there was too much mud upon them, she would certainly hear a long lecture from her mother. It was thus necessary to lift the stupid things and carry them, which wouldn't be too difficult if she wasn't trying to carry a bulky basket as well. At least the basket wasn't full, yet. Returning would be twice as difficult.
Hawkmon, her digimon partner, had no such trouble. He flew along beside her, occasionally pausing to rest and wait for her on nearby tree branches. He was doing so now, absently pruning a few of his feathers as he waited.
Sora, of Takenouchi, her closest friend, was also a few steps ahead of Miyako. She was dressed in a blue dress and a white apron, which would likely be not quite so white by the time their excursion ended. Unlike Miyako, Sora had no great concern about her skirts, and so did not take quite such care in keeping them clean. Perhaps, Miyako thought, it was because Lady Takenouchi was not likely to give her a lecture.
"Sora, wait up!" Miyako half-wailed. Sora was quite a bit ahead of her now.
"Oh, come on," Sora cheerfully called back. "We're almost there. Don't hold us up now!"
"I'm not," Miyako returned. "I'm trying to keep my dress clean!"
A shrug was Sora's response. "It'll only need to be washed again anyway," she said, but waited a few moments for her friend to catch up.
"Do you suppose they will have the noon meal waiting for us when we return?" Hawkmon wondered absently from his perch. "I'm not sure we'll return in time to eat with the rest of the house."
Piyomon, Sora's pink and blue partner, giggled a bit in response to this. Miyako glared wordlessly toward both birds as she came closer.
It was not long after that they reached the small village of Takenouchi-Inoue. Several centuries previous, the Lords of Takenouchi and Inoue had decided to pool their land and resources and form an alliance which stood to this day, and which kept its name despite the fact that there was not now and likely would never again be a Lord of Takenouchi, and had not been since Sora was quite young and her father had been killed.
Lady Takenouchi had spent quite a bit of time and effort in an attempt to groom her daughter into a young lady. Several dozen times, Sora had been sent off to the palace in the hopes that she might meet a suitable young man, and each time she had returned with tales of gossip and adventures, but without any interest in marriage.
Miyako had watched Sora leave and listened to these tales with some great interest, but her parents had refused to allow her to go along. Miyako had never been to the capital, never seen the King and Queen, never met any other young ladies with whom she might have become friends.
All this had promised to change a few days earlier, when an invitation had arrived from the palace. The Princess was to celebrate a birthday, and it was her wish that all the young ladies of the land celebrate along with her.
"I don't have any clue how to act," Miyako confessed as they passed by a stand filled with shiny, beautiful fabrics. "I've never even seen the Princess. What if I say something completely wrong?"
"All I know about her is that she has a Tailmon for a partner," Hawkmon said unhelpfully. "That's a very rare sort."
"Very rare," Piyomon chirped in agreement. "I don't believe there are any others in the world."
"Not that you're particularly common," Miyako said to her partner. "I've never met any other Hawkmon. Not," she added, "that I've met very many people or digimon in general."
"Your family's nobility, Miyako," Sora said, gently running her fingers over a particularly smooth bit of blue fabric. "You know how to conduct yourself."
"The only formal occasions I've ever been to were my sisters' weddings," Miyako replied in disagreement. "They told me to sit there and be quiet. No one paid much attention to me, no one expected me to make conversation. I was too young. There certainly weren't any Princesses there!"
"Your last sister was married quite young," Sora recalled, and sighed. "My mother seems to think I should do the same. You should be glad your mother hasn't pressured you to marry yet."
"Marry who?" Miyako returned. "I've met no one to marry."
"You will meet a few at the palace, I assure you."
Miyako snorted in disbelief. "Why would any of them pay any attention to me if there is a Princess available?"
Sora said nothing in response, instead calling to the merchant: "I'd like to buy this, please."
Seeing nothing which caught her eye, Miyako wandered away from the fabric stall and absently surveyed the marketplace. There were a few shops, and carts and stalls set up with a multitude of objects for sale. Amidst the merchants went potential shoppers of a multitude of backgrounds. Most were villagers, dressed in plain and unremarkable clothes. A few were obviously travelers, picking up goods while on a long journey.
Having finished her purchase, Sora returned. "Well, I probably don't need it," she confessed, "but it's quite nice, and so I didn't think Mother would mind. Did you get everything you came for?"
Miyako looked down at her basket. There were a few loaves of freshly baked bread, wrapped in cloths to keep warm, and a few vegetables, along with a particularly juicy fruit she had bought for herself to eat on the return journey. "I think so," she replied. "Shall we go back?"
"If it makes you feel better," Sora said as they walked, "none of the young men will have an easy time with the Princess, as both her father and her brother are quite protective of her."
"Her brother?" Miyako echoed, for she had heard quite a few stories of him from Sora. "Is the Prince quite intimidating?"
"He can be," Sora replied, "when he wants to be. He certainly has a temper, and he can be a bit impulsive."
"Sounds like someone else I know," Miyako commented with a slight giggle.
Sora only shrugged. "Maybe."
She was about to ask another question when someone abruptly stepped in front of her, blocking her path. Almost stumbling, Miyako took a step backward to avoid colliding with the stranger. She opened her mouth to say something, but the man raised his hand, clad in a black glove, and then something else appeared in his hand. It was only afterward that Miyako recalled hearing a whooshing noise and realized that something had moved through the air.
"What…?" she began to say, and simply stared at the object. It was a long, thin stick of wood, and a few feathers plucked from some undetermined bird digimon had been attached to one end of it.
"Miyako!" Hawkmon said. "Are you all right?"
"An – arrow?" Sora wondered. Miyako had apparently lost control of her voice.
"An arrow indeed," the stranger replied as he turned to face the girls. Miyako could see now that he was, indeed, a human being, and not simply some odd specter of her imagination. Dark, indigo hair peeked out from beneath a dark, wide brimmed hat, and piercing blue eyes stared at her from behind a black mask. The figure was dressed all in black, except for a purple sash that was wrapped around his hat. On his shoulder sat a mysterious little green creature that she could not identify.
"Are you all right?" Sora asked of Miyako, and she then pulled herself away from the stranger's eyes and saw that the others were all looking toward her with some concern. Shaking slightly, she nodded.
"Who are you?" she managed to ask of the stranger, turning back to him. Once more she found herself drawn into his eyes.
"Just a friend, milady," he replied. He was not much taller than she, and she now guessed by his voice that he was a young man, not much older than herself.
"A friend?" she echoed blankly. "Then tell me your name."
He shook his head, those eyes closing for an instance. "That I cannot do, madam," he replied. He held out his right hand, and the arrow rested in his palm. Miyako stared at it for a long moment and then took it from him. It was lightweight, capable of soaring quite a long distance, and tipped with a sharp, deadly point.
"Aimed at – me?" she wondered.
"So it would appear," the stranger replied, and she looked up to see that his eyes were now twinkling, as though he were amused by her reaction. "Someone out to get you, Lady Miyako?"
"To get me?" Miyako repeated blankly, and shook her head. "No one I could think of would wish me dead."
"Well, then you have an unknown enemy," the dark-clad figure replied, his amusement having vanished from his eyes, his tone now deadly serious. "I would advise extreme caution."
"It looks as though you are in danger," the creature upon his shoulder agreed.
"Extreme caution," Miyako said, and nodded. "I'll try. This is all new to me. I'm not used to having my life in danger, you know."
"Of course," he replied in a sympathetic tone, and took a step backward. "If you'll excuse me, I'm afraid I must depart now." He turned, bowed toward Sora, and then turned away from them.
"Wait," Miyako called after him. "What do I call you?"
He shrugged, as though it mattered not to him what name he held. "Whatever you please," he replied. "My enemies call me a Dark Bandit."
With that, he was gone, disappearing into the crowds of the market.
There was no real good way to inform her parents that she had nearly been killed in the marketplace. Miyako stared at the arrow as she walked back home. She sought out her father, at work in his office, and simply held out the small weapon to show him.
"Where did you get that?" he asked, looking up from the journals he had been studying.
"In the marketplace," she replied unhelpfully.
"It was fired at her," Sora explained, since Miyako had still not completely regained the power of speech. "We don't know who, or why, only that a stranger managed to intercept the weapon, probably saving her life."
"In the marketplace?" Lord Inoue asked. "Someone fired an arrow at her while she was in the marketplace?"
Miyako nodded. She waited, but her father said nothing further. In an instant, he was gone, and she could hear his voice in the hall. Undoubtedly, he was seeking out the man in charge of village security, demanding to know how such a thing could be possible. He did not sound angry, but nor did he sound pleased.
"Maybe you should sit for a bit," Sora suggested, and Miyako allowed herself to be led to a nearby armchair. She had barely had time to sink into the soft cushions when the door opened and shut, and Lady Inoue arrived.
"What's this I hear that you have been attacked?" she demanded, and saw then the arrow still in her daughter's hands. "Oh my, by that thing?"
"She isn't hurt," Sora assured her, since Miyako still showed no inclination for speeches or explanations, "only a bit in shock from the whole thing. A stranger intercepted the weapon and saved her life."
"A stranger?" Lady Inoue echoed. "What stranger?"
"He said that they call him a Dark Bandit," Miyako said, and all other eyes turned back toward her. "He said that he was a friend."
"A Dark Bandit?" Lady Inoue repeated. "Protected you from an arrow?"
"That seems to be it, yes," Sora replied when Miyako again said nothing. "He didn't indicate that he knew who shot the arrow. The marketplace was quite crowded and busy, and so it could have come from almost anywhere."
For a few moments longer there was silence. The door opened and shut once more as Lord Inoue returned.
"Well," Lady Inoue said at last, "I don't think you ought to go down to the market again without some sort of security escort."
"Or go out again at all," her husband agreed. "If there's a chance that this assassin has some desire to kill you, he will not stop after one attempt."
Miyako nodded without speaking. Absently, she brushed her fingers over the feathers on the arrow, and thought again about the Bandit's eyes.
"I suppose I could go in her place," Lord Inoue went on, speaking now directly to his wife. "It'd be best if one of us put in an appearance, and it would be best if it was not you."
"I don't like the idea of you going there alone," the Lady replied, "but I shall manage here if I must."
"In her place?" Sora echoed. "Why…?"
"Miyako must stay behind," the Lord replied. "If her life is in danger, there must be no need to risk her further with travel."
"Oh, but…," Miyako began, and then fell meekly silent again, visibly unhappy.
"Do you not think that she might be safer in the palace than here?" Sora asked. "You could ask for the King's help in protecting her, and…."
"I do not require the King's help," Lord Inoue interrupted. "I will protect my own daughter on my own lands before I ask such a thing."
"In the midst of a party, though," Sora continued, "there will be much security, and she will be no easy target. Besides, aren't we supposed to travel with the Lord Motomiya? Surely he will help."
"Surely he would," Lady Inoue admitted. "We have no quarrel with him."
"That is true," the Lord agreed. "This enemy might not kill her with so many witnesses, and he might find it a harder task there."
By the time the evening meal was to be served, Miyako had bathed and been dressed in clean and suitable clothing, a more formal gown of pale blue, with yellow trim and white lace, perfect for the task of greeting visitors. She left the arrow upon her bed and made her way to the entrance hall of the building.
As she descended the stairs, she saw that a small crowd of people was assembled in the foyer. Along with a half-dozen servants, there stood a small family of nobles exchanging greetings. Miyako watched from a distance as her father exchanged a warm hug with another man. Her mother and Lady Takenouchi were similarly greeting another lady, and their digimon were also converging in the space. The sounds of conversation echoed off the tall ceilings and filled the hall.
Nearby, a small crowd of younger people stood, talking to Sora. The young lady and one of the men were obviously siblings, as they had a similar reddish colored hair, matching the visiting Lord and Lady. A second young man was with them, however, this one with dark indigo hair. He was dressed in shades of blue and black, and had stuffed both hands into his pockets and adopted a slightly bored expression, as though he was not quite involved in the conversation. Near his feet was a small green digimon which looked quite strange, and yet quite familiar.
As though he felt her eyes upon him, the young man turned his head in her direction. Even from a distance, she could see the color of them, a piercing blue that seemed to see her quite clearly from so far away. Miyako felt a shiver run down her spine, though the temperature was nowhere near to cold.
Almost immediately, however, he turned away from her.
"Miyako!" came the sound of her mother's voice then. "Come, join us, please!"
This was enough to cause all eyes in the hall to turn toward her, even those of these visitors she had never met. Having no other choice but to obey, Miyako made her way down the steps and paused at the bottom to curtsy to the whole of the crowd.
"Oh, she's beautiful," said the unidentified lady. "We have not seen her since she was quite small indeed, but yes, she's grown up quite nicely."
"Of course, of course," Lady Inoue replied proudly. "Miyako, come now," she said, and took hold of her hand, coaxing her into the already crowded foyer. "You don't remember them, do you?"
Miyako looked over the newcomers and shook her head blankly, for she had no recollection of them. "No," she replied. "Sorry, I…."
"It's quite all right, dear," said the lady. "You were barely six years old last time we saw you."
"Miyako," Lady Inoue said, making the introductions, "this is Lady and Lord Motomiya."
Miyako curtsied once more. "Pleased to meet you," she said politely, and they responded in kind.
"I wonder," Lady Motomiya replied, "if you might remember my children." She turned toward the younger members of the crowd, and gestured for them to step forward. "Jun, Daisuke, do you remember Miyako?"
"I remember her," Jun said immediately. To Miyako, she said, "My brother pulled your hair and you punched him in the face."
Her brother, Daisuke, appeared to be as astonished by this recollection as Miyako was. "She did?" he asked of his sister, who nodded, quite certain of this fact.
"Sorry," Miyako said. "I don't remember that."
"Don't worry about it," Jun assured her. "I'm sure he deserved it."
This produced a round of laughter from most of the others in the room. Daisuke frowned indignantly toward his sister, and Miyako merely blinked at them all in confusion.
"Well, it's nice to meet you," Miyako said when the laughter had died down once more. "I promise not to punch anyone this time."
"Ah, and this is Ken, of Ichijouji," Lord Motomiya said, gesturing toward the unidentified stranger. "He's coming along with us for the ride."
"Nice to meet you," Miyako said again, meeting his eyes. He said nothing, though, only nodded back to her, and bowed slightly.
"Come," Lady Inoue said, "let us head into the dining room and eat. I'm sure you are all hungry."
"Very much so!" came the response of several of the digimon in unison.
Dinner on a whole went quite smoothly. The food was delicious, and both the adults and the younger people conversed quite effortlessly and pleasantly. Miyako found herself seated beside Jun, with Sora on the other side of their visitor, and the conversation between them all was quite fascinating. Jun had as many tales to tell as Sora did, and some of them were far more interesting, and interestingly told as well.
Across the table were the two young men. Miyako found her eyes drifting in that direction every so often and meeting the gaze of Ken of Ichijouji. Somehow, each time she glanced in his direction, he was looking back toward her. When he did, she blushed and looked away.
Jun noticed this attention almost immediately and grinned toward Miyako. Lowering her voice so that neither their parents nor the boys could hear them, she said, "He is rather pleasant to look at, isn't he?"
She had, in fact, been thinking this thought, though it was not the only one she had been thinking. "Well, I," she stammered for a moment, and supposed that she was blushing again. "He seems very mysterious," she finally said.
"Oh, quite," Jun replied. "Ken has many secrets, and I think the only one he's ever shared anything with is Daisuke." She took a gulp from her glass. "Do you want to hear the whole story as I know it?"
Miyako hesitated, wondering if showing too much interest would cause Jun to misconstrue her motivations. "I would," Sora said. "I admit I've never had more than a two word conversation with him."
"Well," Jun said, swallowing her latest bite of food, "his older brother, Osamu, was killed in a terrible accident several years back. He was a brilliant soldier, even though he was quite young, and very lucky in battle."
"Oh my," Sora said. "I don't think I knew that."
"That was almost six years ago," Jun went on. "It seems that since then, Lord and Lady Ichijouji have been positively grief-stricken, and have paid little attention to any social matters, or, it seems, their own remaining son."
"How awful!"
"Well, over the past few years, Ken has mostly been staying with us," Jun said. "Daisuke and he are practically inseparable."
"What is he like?" Miyako wondered aloud before she could stop herself. Jun grinned toward her again.
"Quieter than my brother," she replied, "though that's not saying anything, comparing him to Daisuke. He doesn't speak much. I, too, have never had much conversation with him. If you want to know what he's like, you'd have to ask my brother."
Miyako glanced over once more and saw the two young men were quietly conversing. Quickly, she looked away before she could once more meet Ken's eyes and begin another blushing fit.
Come morning, Miyako found herself crowded into a small but comfortable carriage with the other young people. Hawkmon and Piyomon wisely chose to ride atop the carriage, or fly beside it, enjoying the pleasant weather, but the partners of Jun, Daisuke, and Ken were inside the carriage as well. Alraumon, a plant digimon who was partnered with Jun, sat upon her partner's lap, as did Ken's partner, a small green caterpillar that Miyako did not know the name of. There was space enough on the seat for the small blue digimon known as V-mon who was partner to Daisuke. Almost immediately, he fell to sleep beside his partner.
Miyako was squeezed into a seat between Jun and Sora. The boys were seated across from her, and Miyako did her best to look at anything other than Ken. She had spent most of the evening pondering the unspoken thoughts in her head, and had come to the conclusion that he was most likely not the Dark Bandit, but the questioning voices kept appearing.
"So, Mimi had nothing to say to that," Jun finished, concluding a story that Miyako had only half been paying attention to. Sora nodded as though in agreement with this statement.
"Well I should hope not," she replied. "Sometimes, she ought to stay out of things that don't concern her."
"Sometimes?" Daisuke interrupted. He and Ken had spent most of the journey so far peering out at the scenery on opposite sides of the bench, mostly uninterested in the conversations between the females.
"All right, most times," Sora conceded. "She's a gossip, I'll admit."
He snorted a half-laugh in response and turned back toward the window. "You forgot also a busybody," he added. To Miyako, he said, "When she arrives, she'll spend an hour, at least, trying to tell you how to do your hair correctly, I promise you."
"Well, there's nothing wrong with that," Jun replied. "Sometimes she has good ideas. Sometimes, I said," she added when he looked at her once more with a skeptical expression.
"And sometimes not," he replied with a shrug. "Not that my opinion matters."
"Well, it doesn't," Jun returned. "Not to me, anyway." Again, he shrugged.
"Can I ask a question?" Miyako said after a moment of silence had passed. "What's the Princess like, really?" Sora and Jun had both offered their perspectives, and so she now directed this toward Daisuke.
He shrugged. "She's nice enough, I suppose," he replied.
"Oh, don't listen to him," Jun said, waving a dismissive hand toward her brother. "He has a rather biased opinion of her highness."
It didn't seem to Miyako as though he had offered much of an opinion whatsoever, but Sora giggled slightly at the statement. "When they were younger," she explained to Miyako, "Daisuke and Takeru used to fight over Hikari."
"Fight?" Miyako echoed. "Why?"
"Well, they were both infatuated with her, of course," Jun replied. "Why else would they fight over a girl?"
"It's in the past now," Daisuke stated dismissively, waving a hand. Attempting to divert their attention, he turned toward Ken. "Tell what you think of her."
Ken looked away from the window for the first time since they'd entered the carriage. "She's very quiet," he replied. "Too agreeable for my tastes."
"Some people find agreeable to be a very pleasing trait," Jun retorted.
Ken frowned in her direction, his eyes suddenly quite steely and disagreeable. "That explains things," he replied quietly, which managed to infuriate her somehow.
"It explains quite a great deal of you," she retorted, to which he merely shrugged.
It was after dark when they arrived at the palace. An official looking young man stood beside the carriage and waited for them all to disembark. He had dark hair and green eyes, and was dressed in the formal wear of one who often deals with important business.
"His majesty has asked that I welcome you in his place this evening," he stated. "He expresses his regrets that your official greeting must wait until the morning. I shall show you to your rooms, if you will follow me."
"You can tell him there is no cause for concern, Iori," Lord Motomiya replied. "I wish we could have arrived earlier in the day, but we are all tired and eager for sleep."
"Was the journey unpleasant?" Iori asked as they began to make their way through the corridors. The sound of conversation and footsteps echoed through the halls as the party walked, most of them carrying half or completely asleep digimon partners in their arms.
They wandered through the corridors for some time in a somewhat roundabout path. The rooms of the older adults were separate from those of the younger people, which were arranged in connecting suites, with the boys on one side of the hall and the girls on another. By the time they reached this hall, the luggage had been unloaded from the carriage and left in the rooms. With half-asleep farewells, each departed into his or her own room in order to sleep.
Ken had barely had time to set his sleeping partner down upon the bed and open the lid of his trunk of clothes before he heard a voice in the doorway.
"You're not planning to go out tonight, are you?" Daisuke asked from the connecting doorway. He was visibly exhausted, leaning against the wall as he suppressed a yawn.
Ken didn't turn around. "Did you close the door?"
"Of course," Daisuke replied. "All doors."
"I knew it was a mistake, helping her," Ken grumbled, rummaging inside his trunk. "She's most likely recognized us already."
The other shrugged. "Maybe," he said, "but she did need your help. And if there's someone after her, they're likely to try again in this place."
"Why?" V-mon asked from his partner's arms, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Isn't the palace pretty safe?"
"Not if the assassin is working for the King," Ken replied, beginning to unbutton the shirt he wore, a pale gray garment with a bit of ruffles near the neck.
"You are going out," Daisuke observed. It wasn't a question, and was stated with a faint bit of disapproval.
"It might be my best chance," Ken returned, removing the shirt and tossing it upon the bed. "Come morning, they'll realized I've arrived, and thus put suspicion toward me." He pulled a black tunic over his head.
Daisuke sighed. "It's not safe for you here. If the King really does intend harm to Miyako, and you get in the way, then what? Taichi will follow his father before he helps you or I, and it's not as though I can free you from the dungeons."
"Not to mention that you'd be in danger, too, wouldn't you?" Ken replied. He sat upon the bed and began to remove his shoes.
"If I tried, yes," he returned. "I knew that when we started this, you know."
"Why would the King be after Miyako?" V-mon wondered. "Did she have any clue when you asked her?"
"No," Ken replied, "but she was basically completely incapable of speaking at the time, so maybe she does have some idea."
"It doesn't make any sense," Daisuke said, agreeing with his partner. "So far as I can tell, the King has never even seen her before. Why would he want her dead?"
"Why would anyone?" V-mon pointed out, to which there was also no answer.
Ken was lacing up his boots, tightly tying knots at the top. He got to his feet once more. "Maybe, if I look around, I'll find an answer," he said.
"You're going without Wormmon," Daisuke noted, and Ken nodded.
"If I'm spotted with him, they'll know it's me, won't they?"
"He's not going to like it," V-mon predicted.
"There isn't much choice," Ken replied, setting the wide-brimmed hat atop his head. "I'll be back in a few hours."
Daisuke yawned and turned back toward his room. "As you wish," he replied. "I will be here. Sleeping."