A/N: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, c19 - write about finding something.
.
.
After They're All Back
.
Gumdramon is the first. Taiki and Yuu see their silthouttes and then the smirking face of the Old Clock Maker as he played words with them. And then they dashed into the trees and saw them blending together: light blue and dark, red and yellow, grins and laughs. And they smiled as well and dashed faster to meet the pair, met them as they separated and stood tall, in the rays of light piercing the thick canopy above.
The ray of light. The ray of hope. The ray that would create a sunburst and light up the universe and their lonely hearts once more.
.
Taiki found Shoutmon next. It was pretty easy, because he was standing in the middle of downtown, yelling orders and curses. They found a few of Hideki's coin-like friends as well. Not the main boss, though. And they were Hideki's so he'll have to hunt them himself. Tagiru called him from a pay-phone to let him know, once Yuu got annoyed enough at the little coins and sent him there.
It took a little more looking to locate Damemon, but they managed it. It helped that he left a trail of confusing digimon behind that left Yuu trying unsuccessfully to supress the giggles that escaped him. Tagiru just looked blank. Taiki thought he knew what Yuu found so amusing.
So they found Damemon, and the three of them were back with their primary partners and ready to hunt down the rest of their friends.
.
Akari found Cutemon first, then Dorulumon, then KnightChessmon, all before Zenjirou managed to track down Ballistamon - which he didn't think was quite fair. It couldn't be helped, though, because Ballistamon blended in a little too neatly with the robotics projects and he'd run out of power too. Considering Zenjirou didn't go to that school anymore - it took Taiki, who'd been looking for his classmates from the Robotics club at the time, stumbling upon him.
A little nap in the Xros-Loaders and some tinkering from Wisemon set him straight. And then it was tracking down the other members of Xros Heart. Or at least the ones that were in Japan.
.
Kiriha wasn't too pleased to find out most of his digimon were in Japan or Hong Kong, considering he was in neither of those places at the time. Thus, it fell to those who were to catch them and send them over while he chased a mass of PawnChessmon.
So Akari supposed she couldn't befault the boy of his grumpiness when the final PawnChessmon was sent to her Xros Loader. At least he couldn't claim she owed him a favour, since she'd spent a good few hours arguing with MetalGreymon before he'd gotten ready for transfer.
.
Tracking down the other Hunters was rather a chore, and the Old Clock Man had vanished so they couldn't even ask him for help. Taiki and Yuu had contact with Nene and Kiriha, but Taiki had Akari's and Zenjirou's details as well. Tagiru had a few - like Hideki, but aside from that, it was phone books and asking people who knew people and trying to find them all.
It was the one time in his life Yuu might regret the fact that he'd thrown out Airu's mobile number. And Tagiru definitely did regret not having Ryouma's. They'd become good friends in the final battle - before the chaos that messed up their minds on the issue. But that wasn't Ryouma's fault. As far as Tagiru was concerned (and he thought the rest of Xros Heart agreed with him), that was all Quartzmon and the Ryouma who wanted to be just like Taiki wasn't wrong at all.
Except none of that mattered until they found Ryouma - but Airu first, because they had Opossumon with them and she was a nightmare in Yuu's Xros Loader. He wasn't too thrilled with the arrangement, but Tagiru and even Taiki flat out refused to take her.
Akari claimed it reminded her of when he'd tiptoed off and left her and Zenjirou to do some "stupid love dance."
.
Tagiru stumbled upon Triceramon, and it was a tough digimon. No wonder it had beaten Arrestadramon - or contributed to the defeat. But Taiki and Yuu were there too. A clear win - except Triceramon had hurt their pride, in a sense, and they had to win that one on their own. Even if Astamon wasn't there. Even if Astamon had never been there.
That meant it wasn't Gumdramon's fight either, but Sagomon's. Luckily, he'd already found Sagomon (or Mizuki had, rather, enjoying the ocean). And maybe it was still unfairly in his favour because Tagiru was there and Ryouma wasn't. But he didn't give Sagomon any instructions and that was as fair as he could manage it.
Somehow, unless they found Psychemon (which they hadn't, yet), he didn't think Ryouma would want to fight again like that.
Hopefully they would find Psychemon. Preferrably before they found Ryouma.
.
They found Ren at an electronics shop in Akihabara whose electronics had been acting up. They also found a few more of Hideki's coins and they'd brought Hideki along for that very reason.
And Ren, of course, had Airu's and Ryouma's contact details.
'But, ahh...' he said, then lowered his voice (though that really was unnecessary), 'He's not too keen on this hunt, you know?'
'No Psychemon?' Tagiru asked sympathetically.
'Nope. He's pretty convinced we won't find him either. And, of course,' he shrugged his shoulders, earphones bouncing, 'Airu took that as a personal challenge and has set traps as far as she can manage.'
.
It turned out to be a good thing that Ren had warned them, because Airu's traps had trapped quite a bit of Xros Heart. No wonder they hadn't been finding them! And she was more than happy to switch them for her Opossumon - though that didn't stop her from trying to get her hands on a few of their members too, like Cutemon and Bastemon.
Bastemon had just tossed her head, and Airu had marched off in a huff to detatch Jijimon. She kept Cerberumon though. 'It's Ryouma's,' she said, then added: 'I'm definitely going to catch that stupid Psychemon before you lot.'
Yuu, at least, took that to mean it was her way of worrying about Ryouma.
.
They found Jajamon - or, rather, Nene found him in Hong Kong and sent him over. Now they had two of Ryouma's digimon, and Airu had one. 'We really should call him,' Tagiru muttered, almost to himself. But they still hadn't found Psychemon. How could they call him like that?
He called anyway. He couldn't stand the waiting. 'I'm sorry,' Ryouma said. 'Can you keep them for me?'
No interest without Psychemon. Tagiru had known that - and, still, he wondered what would happen if they did meet again. They'd never known each other, in truth. It had always been Quartzmon.
Which reminded him, what had happened to the egg?
.
'It's in my Xros Loader,' Taiki said. 'Shoutmon says it should stay there, at least for now.' There was a pause, and then he added: 'I don't think that's who Ryouma wants to see, anyway.'
'No,' Tagiru agreed. 'Probably not.'
But where was Psychemon? He looked out his window. The moon was bright, and there, in the distance, was the address Ren had given him, where Ryouma lived.
Hang on. There was something on the roof.
He was going to be in so much trouble if he got caught. 'Gumdramon? Let's go.'
.
It was Psychemon, and Tagiru couldn't help but roar with laughter. Psychemon had been on Ryouma's roof the entire time!
The digimon looked confused, and a little scared. Tagiru tried to swallow his laughter. 'Sorry,' he said. 'You gave us a bit of a chase.' He paused. 'Are you nervous to see Ryouma?'
The digimon nodded. He'd never really met the other - and what if Quartzmon had created an unclosable rift between them?
Tagiru smiled, more gently this time. 'He's waiting for you.'
He was actually climbing the stairs to the roof, wondering what that loud laughing was.