2004: New Year, New Problems

Story #1: A Dino and a Special Cat

Part 1

Author's Notes: This story involves Tai and Kari Kamiya and what happens on New Year's Day 2004 (one day after the defeat of MaloMyotismon in American continuity) that causes them to formally introduce Agumon and Gatomon to their parents. This story also helps show how subsequent stories in the series will be shaped. Flashback/remembrance sequences are written in italics. Also the names I use as the first names of the Kamiya parents (Susumu for Mr. Kamiya and Yuuko for Mrs. Kamiya) are based on information found in Wikimon (http://wiki. look under Family of the Digidestined). Enjoy! Rated T for a depiction of drunkenness (in Part 2).

Date: 1/1/2004

Time: 8:30 pm

Place: Kamiya apartment, main room

"Hey, Susumu, great party! You somehow seemed to pull it off; I honestly didn't think you could do it!"

"Thanks!" Susumu Kamiya gratefully replied to the guest's compliment. It was his idea to host a New Years party with some of his coworkers in an attempt to distract them from all the craziness which had been occurring over the past eight or so days… monster attacks, supernatural events… it had happened before, four and a half years ago, and the explanation that had been provided to him for both the recent events and those of four and a half years ago was proving hard to swallow, to say the least…

Out of the corner of his eye, Susumu caught a glimpse of his daughter, Hikari (more commonly called Kari) taking several cans of soda and also some food from the food table. She started walking back to the room of her older brother (and Susumu's son) Taichi (aka Tai). Susumu had also noticed that this had been the third time he had seen his daughter do this since dinner time. He firmly and loudly (so as to be heard over the din of other conversations) spoke in the direction of his daughter, saying, "Hikari, may I ask why you keep taking soda and cookies into your brother's room? Why don't you and your brother join the party with your mom and me?"

Hikari turned her head to overhear what her dad was saying, balancing to keep her food and drink from ending up on the floor. Upon hearing her dad's words, she blushed, like somehow her hand had gotten caught in the proverbial cookie jar, and quickly scooted toward Tai's room, trying to keep her load balanced in the process. Before her dad could say another word, Kari had disappeared into Tai's room, Tai having quickly opened and closed the door for her.

A worried and confused look briefly crossed Susumu's face. Apparently his wife had noticed what was going on, for she now came over to where he was standing. "Something wrong, honey?" she asked her husband.

"I'm not sure." he replied. "But that's the third time I've seen Kari take snacks into Tai's room since we had dinner. Neither Kari nor Tai seem to want to join the party, and Kari seemed really embarrassed when I asked her about it just a second ago… could they be hiding something? I keep getting this weird feeling…"

"Like its déjà vu?"

"Well, kind of… remember what Tai was talking about yesterday, on the way to the summer camp where they went four and a half years ago?"

"Most of it went over my head… all I managed to understand was about the monsters we saw recently and four and a half years ago are something called Digimon from some kind of digital world, and that he and Matt and Sora and Izzy and the other kids there all had to help save it and Earth from the Digimon generating the shroud of darkness… it was all very confusing!"

"Yeah, it confused me too… but wasn't there something in the back with Tai in the car? Because I thought I may have been hallucinating when I saw a little monster sitting next to him; with all that was going on, I thought I couldn't be sure of anything I saw or heard…"

"A little monster?" Yuuko Kamiya asked her husband.

"Yeah, that's right. Yellowish, about 3ft tall maybe…"

"Did it look like a dinosaur?" Yuuko asked. "Because I remember seeing something that looked like a yellow T. Rex in the back seat with Tai, only it had longer arms and long claws at the end of those arms."

"That sounds right…" Susumu pondered, a thoughtful look on his face. "Well, if you saw it, than I must not have been seeing things… and that means I wasn't hearing things either when I thought that monster talked directly to Tai, during the whole deal at the camp about trying to open some kind of portal there… I was just running on faith alone, faith that they were right at the time, but now that I've had a chance to think about it, I'm not so sure anymore…"

"I know I was running on faith when we got to the campground, that if things got fixed those four years ago then they could get fixed now. But I think you're right, dear; I just wish we had a little more evidence to make sure what they said really is believable or not…"

"Well, when I asked Tai in the car about who was in the backseat with him, he kinda skirted the question, saying that it wasn't important at the moment and that we should concentrate on getting to the campsite. When I pressed the question, all he ever said about it was that it was a Digimon and to concentrate on getting to the campsite, that nothing else was really important at the moment."

"Right, I remember that… but now that the emergency is over…"

"Exactly my point!" Susumu concluded. "Tai and Kari seem to be unwilling to reveal more about what happened ever since we got back. I think if we go into that room and see what they're trying to hide in there, things may start to make sense…"

Yuuko's face quickly turned to an alarmed expression. "Dear, do we have to do it now?" she asked worriedly.

"Better sooner than later." Susumu replied, rising from the couch he was sitting on.

Yuuko gently pulled her husband back to his seat. "Honey, not in the middle of the party. It would create a scene, and besides we have guests to attend to. It's New Year's Day, a day for celebrating the new year; let's wait until after the party to deal with this, all right dear?" Yuuko smiled after saying this in order to reassure her husband.

"You're right." Susumu admitted. "We can deal with this after the guests are gone. Let's get back to the party; I don't want my confusion bringing it down." Susumu and Yuuko went back to the party, the conversation thankfully having gone unnoticed in the din. However, what was going on in Tai's room was always in the back of the mind of the host and hostess for the rest of the party…

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Meanwhile in Tai's room…

"Whew, that was close!" Kari said after she had recovered her breath from the fast traveling she had done to dodge answering her father's question.

"What happened?" Tai asked his sister as he took some of the awkwardly balanced load from her.

"Dad saw me and asked why we were bringing soda and food into the room. I couldn't give an honest answer without causing a scene, so I just ran for it. It was good thing you were ready at the door, otherwise I may have dropped something and made a mess."

"That wouldn't have been good." Tai concluded. "So what did you manage to get for us from the refreshment table this time?"

"Yeah, Kari! What did you manage to catch this time?" asked a curious cat, colored white with purple stripes on a long tail. This "cat" was actually a Digimon, specifically Gatomon, and she was Kari's Digimon partner. She and Agumon, a pint-sized yellow-orange T. Rex-like Digimon who was Tai's partner, raced over in the direction of Kari, expecting goodies from her hand any second now.

Kari chuckled. "Relax guys. Remember, we're supposed to be incognito. Shhhhhh!"

"Oh, yeah! I forgot! We're supposed to be quiet in case someone comes by." Agumon said. He and Gatomon shushed each other, then quietly chuckled, as if being incognito was a kind of game to them.

"Well, I don't think it's that funny." Tai thought to himself, scowling slightly in the direction of the Digimon. "And believe me it won't be, once we get found out… because we will get found out…"

Kari now quietly started handing out snacks, taking from whatever she had in her hands and also asking Tai to give from what he had taken from her. Some chocolate chip cookies went to Gatomon ("if milk is a cat's favorite drink, then chocolate chip cookies must be a cat's favorite cookie!" Kari confidently stated), some spice cookies were split between Agumon and Tai, and a couple of star cookies were reserved for Kari herself. Additionally, Kari had gotten a couple of root beers for herself, Tai and Gatomon (Agumon had already drank some soda, and he couldn't have too much because he might burp up some smoke or a wisp of flame, which would be smelly, embarrassing and dangerous all at the same time. This was an unfortunate side effect of the fact that Agumon could actually spit fireballs as his main attack against other Digimon; despite this fact, it didn't seem to damper Agumon's spirits… at least in any way someone else could tell).

All four in the room were quickly sitting on the floor; a general spirit of happiness pervaded the room, despite what had happened just yesterday and also the looming prospect of having to truly come clean about their Digimon. "Who wants to play a board game?" Tai asked enthusiastically. His reply was an instant and eager nod of heads all around the room.

"What kind of board game, Tai?" Agumon asked.

Tai rummaged around some shelves. "Just a second… ah-ha! I knew Mom hadn't thrown this out!" Tai produced a flat, rectangular, slightly dusty box with the words "Slides and Ladders" printed on the front. Tai walked over to the middle of the room, where the others were sitting, and set the box in the middle of the "circle" which Kari had gotten herself, Agumon and Gatomon arraigned into in order to make room for the game board on the floor.

"How do you play this game?" Agumon asked as Tai set the box on the floor in the middle of the "circle".

"I'll explain it to you once I have everything set up." Tai replied, opening the box and spreading out the board and pieces while managing to stuff a spice cookie into his mouth, causing the others in the room to chuckle a bit.

Yes, a good time was being had by Digimon and kids alike, but the kids knew that sooner or later they wouldn't be able to keep their Digimon under wraps anymore. The secretiveness of being a Digidestined was beginning to come undone, and neither Tai nor Kari liked it at all…

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Kamiya apartment, main room, 10:30 pm

"Bye. Have a good night." Yuuko Kamiya said as the last guest of the party left the apartment. Both Kamiya parents collapsed onto a couch, physically exhausted.

Susumu held his head in his hands and sighed heavily. He wondered if the "intrusion" into Tai's room would be worth the trouble at the moment. He considered waiting until tomorrow to deal with the issue until he realized that Tai and Kari would not likely leave the room unless the secret was safe. "No, I can't leave this until tomorrow! I have to know tonight or it'll keep me awake in bed." Susumu said to himself.

He wearily picked himself up and went over to Tai's door. He leaned over… and pressed an ear up to the door. From the sounds inside Tai and Kari were still awake, probably playing some kind of game. Susumu sighed again and returned to the couch.

"Dear," Yuuko began, gently grasping Susumu's hand, "we don't have to do it tonight. Just tell Tai and Kari to go to bed and we'll take care of it in the morning."

"No, I've gotta know now or I'll be up all night trying to puzzle it out." Susumu bluntly replied. "Because I think there's even more to the story than what we know now."

"What do you mean?" Yuuko asked, looking confused.

"Well, that supernatural 'blanket of darkness' had been on the news all morning and probably was on the news all afternoon too. I heard one theory that the darkness came from another dimension, and with what they've been telling me…"

"So you think it really came from a digital world?"

"Well, I haven't heard a better theory about what happened. No volcanic eruptions were reported, no giant meteors struck, and the fact that it was penetrated at certain points by what looked like giant beams of light and then disappeared so quickly and completely seems to exclude all other theories…"

"Wait, I remember seeing one of those reports. They had some satellite images of the spreading darkness, and then lights just breaking through out of nowhere. After a while the darkness just disappeared like that!" Yuuko snapped her fingers to emphasize her last point.

"Exactly!" Susumu concluded, his face brightening. "So if it is from another dimension, then the story starts to sound reasonable… but there are still details which don't add up in my mind."

"What details?" Yuuko asked.

"Well, we both saw something with Tai, but that's not the only unusual presence I have felt recently…"

"Oh?" Yuuko now looked very confused. "What do you mean?"

"Remember when Meko died, about, oh, 2 years ago now?"

"Yeah, that's right. What does that have to do with what's going on now?"

"Did Kari say anything to you personally just after we buried Meko?"

After a minute's thinking, Yuuko recalled the following:

She knelt by her daughter at a small shrine for Meko. The cat had been buried beneath a tree near the apartment building, but there was no possible way to put up a tombstone at that site, so they had set up a small shrine near the apartment building's entrance. Yuuko saw her daughter kneeling and saying a prayer in front of the shrine.

"Dear, don't mourn over Meko." Yuuko said to comfort her daughter. "Meko's in a… better place now. Don't worry about it."

"Well, I do kind of miss Meko," Kari replied. "and I hope his spirit really is in a better place, but I also know that somewhere out there is another cat waiting for the day I can meet with her again."

Yuuko was somewhat taken aback by what her daughter had just said. "What do you mean 'again'? Are you going to use the extra cat food to draw in one of those strays living nearby?"

Kari chuckled. "No, Mom. Didn't I tell you? There was a cat that had been waiting a very long time for me, and now I'm just waiting for the opportunity to meet her again."

Yuuko was not believing her daughter's story. "OK, when did you first meet this cat?" she asked.

"During those monster attacks and that crazy fog. She was originally a very bad cat, but once she learned she had been waiting for me she became my protector and a very good little kitty. We went to that other world in the sky, and I had to leave her there. I gave her my whistle and promised her I would return one day. Don't you remember me telling that to you and Dad?"

Yuuko sighed. "There goes Kari's imagination again!" she said to herself. "World in the sky and other cats indeed! She's probably been feeding strays and is trying to rationalize it away." Yuuko just got up and started to leave. As she left, she said, "I don't know about other cats and worlds in the sky, but if it makes you feel better I will leave your story alone."

"But it's not a story Mom!" Kari was saying as Yuuko slowly walked out of earshot. "It's all real! Don't you remember the world in the sky and all those monsters? All those destroyed buildings? It's not a story Mom…!"

"Huh!" Susumu said. "Because I remember having a conversation like that at the time too. I also thought it was just a crazy story at the time, but now… I do remember there being another world in the sky seen four and a half years ago, and it certainly seems possible considering the theories Tai and Kari have given us…" He trailed off in thought, then asked his wife, "Have you noticed a feline presence in this apartment within, say, the past couple months?"

"Well," Yuuko thought, "now that I think about it, I do remember having… feelings similar to those I had when Meko was around. I never could find anything though, and I just thought the whole thing was weird, so I ignored it. You think it has something to do with this?"

"All I can say is that I have had a feeling that there is more than one additional presence in this household, and I think this cat Kari mentioned could be another of these 'presences'."

"So… are you thinking two creatures?" Yuuko suggested.

"I know there's at least one… but we can't find out anything for sure just sitting here talking about it. There's only one thing left to do…" Susumu started walking toward Tai's door, determination all over his face, while Yuuko meekly and worriedly followed him...

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Meanwhile in Tai's room…

"This is a fun game!" Agumon was commenting. "I'm glad you suggested it Tai."

"Yeah, I almost forgot how much fun 'Slides and Ladders' can be." Tai replied as he rolled the game die. He moved his piece the number of spaces on the die, landing on an "ordinary" space on the board. "Your turn Kari."

Kari picked the die up off the board and rolled it. She moved her token, landing at the bottom of a short ladder. "All right Kari!" Gatomon cheered as Kari moved her piece up to the top of the ladder.

"Here you go Agumon." Kari cheerfully said as she picked up the die and dropped it into Agumon's outstretched "hand", indicating that it was his turn. Because Agumon had trouble rolling the die in the way Tai and Kari did, instead he rolled the die by clasping it between his two "hands" and shaking it around inside there, then directly dropping it in front of him. Agumon did just that to roll the die, then carefully (so as to not disturb or knock over the other pieces) reached over and slid his piece over the number of spaces shown on the die (he had trouble getting the coordination to actually pick up the piece and move it, so sliding the piece was easier for Agumon to do). Unfortunately for the Digimon, his piece landed at the top of a fairly long slide, and he was forced to go back over much of the length his piece had covered over the board. Agumon just shrugged it off and smiled as Tai repositioned Agumon's piece at the bottom of the slide.

Gatomon now eagerly scooped up the die off the board. It was her turn, and she now rolled the die in the same way Agumon had. However, Agumon noticed that Gatomon's eyes had flashed pink just before she dropped the die from between her paws, which worried him somewhat. But before Agumon could say anything, Gatomon had already reached out and moved her piece. The piece now rested at the bottom of a very long ladder which, when climbed, led to the last space on the gameboard, instantly winning the game for the player. Gatomon beamed as she slid her piece up the ladder to the final space on the board.

Tai was left completely taken aback by this. "Again?!" he exclaimed. "That's the third time in a row she's won using that ladder! Kari, are you sure she's not using her powers to influence the die?"

"Yeah, and I saw her eyes flash pink just before she dropped the die on that last roll!" Agumon added. "That looks like using her powers to me!"

Kari winced; she was afraid this might happen. One of the best kept, "don't ask, don't tell" secrets about the Digimon of the Digidestined was Gatomon's extensive psychic powers. When Gatomon had been a servant of Myotismon, she had used those powers in fighting against what would eventually become her comrades; because of this, Gatomon became very reluctant to use those powers after she became Kari's Digimon partner and joined the Digidestined. However, because of the missing tail ring, she had not been able to use most of the powers at all for quite some time, and with the double blow of the "return" of Myotismon and only briefly having the power to Digivolve to Ultimate again before having to give it up for the good of the team… well, Kari wondered if the temptation would be too much for her and, judging from what Tai had just said, apparently it was…

"Tai, you can't be serious!" Kari exclaimed, her face having quickly changed to one of shock.

"I am serious, particularly after what Agumon said." Tai bluntly replied.

"But Tai!" Kari complained.

"No buts, Kari! I am not playing with a cheater, simple as that!"

"Why do you think Gatomon would cheat?"

"What, you don't believe she could use her powers to fix dice?"

"Well…"

"Kari, she brought statues to life with those powers! Compared to that, fixing dice is child's play! She's cheating, end of story!"

"But Tai!"

"I already said no buts, Kari!"

Kari sighed. She didn't want to start defending Gatomon, but she didn't want the parents to get involved either. She looked over at Gatomon, who had backed away from around the game board and was now in a corner, her face turned away from the others. She heard her partner sigh, then sniffle. "Now look what you've done!" Kari said. "You've gone and made her upset again!"

"Well it was her own fault! She shouldn't have been cheating in the first place!" Tai exclaimed, sending a nasty scowl in Gatomon's direction. Gatomon's response was to turn around in Tai's direction and pull a classic "trick" she had seen done before: sticking out her tongue (in a very unfeline manner) and using a claw to pull down her right eyelid. Gatomon then turned around, gave a "hmph!", then just sat in the corner sulking.

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After a moment's silence, Agumon asked, "Can we play another game?"

"No!" Tai clipped out. He started taking the pieces off the board.

"Tai…" Kari began.

"Not another word!" Tai replied. "I am not in the mood to play anymore!"

"But Tai…!"

"What did I just say, Kari? No more!" Cowed by Tai's raised voice, Kari and Agumon watched as a very annoyed Tai put the board back in the box, closed the box and finally put the box back on the shelf where Tai had found it. Tai then went over to his desk and slumped down in the chair. He put an elbow on the table and leaned his head on it, giving out a frustrated sigh.

Kari and Agumon exchanged looks. "Something wrong?" Agumon quietly asked Kari.

Kari looked at the clock in the room. "It's late. He's probably tired and just a little cranky after what happened." she replied just as quietly. "I'll talk to him."

Kari went over to her brother and gently placed her hands on his shoulder. "What do you want now?" Tai wearily sighed out.

"It's about 10:30. You must be pretty tired. I'll take Agumon and Gatomon to my room so that you can go to sleep." Kari offered.

"I appreciate that, but I don't think it'll help me much."

"What do you mean Tai?"

"Well, that blanket of darkness MaloMyotismon made has been on the news all day I figure, and even though I barely managed to avoid 'naming names' Mom and Dad have probably thinking about what happened yesterday a lot, and… I don't know how much longer we can go on hiding them. I'm sure the party's over by now or will be soon and if our parents don't ask tonight they will tomorrow, and I have no idea what we're going to do or say when that moment comes!"

"Well then, let's deal with it now, because it may keep us up with worry if we don't."

Tai smiled and turned his chair to face his sister. "You're right. But… what will we do when that moment comes?"

"Well, we can start by just introducing them…"

"But we can't let them talk first."

"Right. We'll just introduce them, be honest, tell them to behave and be nice… stuff like that. And definitely tell them not to talk until our parents talk first."

"Agreed. Well, that didn't seem so hard!" Tai felt surprised and a little relieved.

"In principle anyway. Practice may be another thing all together…"

"Oh well, there's not much we can do about that other than not goofing up and sticking to the plan."

There was silence for a moment, then Kari said, "So… do you still want to take me up on the offer?"

"I don't know." Tai quietly replied. "Maybe…"

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Knock, knock, knock!

Tai and Kari heard someone loudly knocking on the door to the room. Agumon and Gatomon instantly began racing for a spot under the desk. "Taichi, Hikari, may your mother and I come in?" Tai and Kari heard their dad ask.

Brushing by the legs of Tai and Kari, Agumon and Gatomon managed to squeeze under the desk, complaining a bit in the process. Tai and Kari just looked at each other; the moment was fast approaching when all would have to be revealed…

End of Part 1