Taichi leaned against Hikari's bed, his eyes trained upon her sleeping form. His hand rested on her arm and was shaking it gently, but he wasn't having much luck waking her. He shook her harder. Nothing. Frustrated, he continued the motion without pause, his arm rocking back and forth like a machine. After nearly a minute of fruitless effort, he gave up at least and leaned back slightly, keeping himself from falling only because he held onto the beams of the guard rail.

I've been at it for five minutes, and nothing, Taichi thought, though the frustration building up as a result of not waking her slowly turned into amazement that his sister was so immersed in the land of dreams that she refused to wake up. It reminded him of himself, how he had begun to wake later and later as he grew older, and how frustrated his mother got when he refused to get up. Now he could sympathize with her.

"Kari, wake up," Taichi said, curious to see if speech would make a difference. "Kari?"

It did not.

He rested his chin on the railing of the bed a moment, thinking, then perked up and tried a new approach. "Kari, remember where we're going today?"

Hikari rolled over on the mattress so that she faced the wall, effectively turning her back on him. It wasn't much of a reaction, but it was more than he'd been expecting.

Taichi cleared his throat and leaned over the railing so that he could whisper into Hikari's ear. "Kaaaariiii~ Don't you remember? The mall?"

". . . what?"

Ah-ha, a response!

Hikari sat up a little and turned her head to face her brother. "We're still going, aren't we?" Even though her voice was still rasp from disuse, it was clear she was worried. The panic seeped into her eyes as well, which were open, fighting the bright light entering her pupils.

"Of course we're still going," Taichi said, hanging back from the railing once more. "That's why I've been trying to get you up. You take forever and a day to get ready. If you don't start now, we'll be late."

"Oh."

Taichi released the railing and fell a short way to the floor. "And hey, if you're ready early, we can go meet the gang outside."

Hikari stretched and hung her legs off the end of the bed. "The gang?"

"Oh, didn't you know?" Taichi grinned. "Everyone's gonna be there. Even Mimi! No one even knew until she showed up this morning on Joe's doorstep."

"Really?" It seemed as though Hikari had awoken completely in a single instant. A huge grin spread on her face to match her brother's. "It's been so long since everyone's been together. . . . This is gonna be great!"

"Yeah, it'll be just like the old times." Taichi turned and headed toward the doorway. "But I mean it, Kari. You hurry up and get ready. I want to leave early so we can get there on time."

When her brother had left the room, Hikari climbed down the ladder against her bed. Standing on her feet now, she glanced at the clock. So I've got three hours before we're supposed to be at the mall. That's plenty of time.

She got some clothes from her dresser, then went to the bathroom to shower. A half hour later, she emerged, dressed in a heavy pink sweater and khaki pants. Whistling to herself, she returned to her room, and sat herself down at a vanity desk near the window. Reaching into a draw, she retrieved a brush and began to run it through her shoulder length hair.

While she brushed, she looked out the window. A group of children played in deep snow that had fallen over night, which made the day bright, despite the gray clouds looming in the sky and threatening to spill more. While the kids played, adults shoveled their walkways, and store owners cleared the sidewalk outside their buildings. It seemed as though the only undisturbed snow was that which had accumulated up in trees.

At least, trees which didn't have a person nestled up in their branches as well. Hikari craned her head a little, curiously gazing at the man who sat on a high branch with his knees pulled up to his chest and his head bowed. He was taller than she was, and had a thin frame; the meager clothes he wore hung off his frame as though his body were a clothes hanger. His hair was blond. Layered bangs hung on either side of his jaw, and tapered upward, hanging in the center of his forehead no shorter than his eyebrows. The mass in the back was far longer, hanging down his back and dangling in the wind past the bottom of the branch he sat upon.

How'd he get up there? Hikari wondered, rather amazed at the man's feat. She'd tried to climb that very tree plenty of times, but had always fallen down before she could make it half way up. Then again, Taichi had no problem climbing even higher on the same tree, so she supposed she shouldn't be that surprised.

He must be cold, she thought with a frown. Poor guy. He looks so familiar though, but where would I have seen him before?

Almost as though he could sense her thoughts, the man's gaze turned upward, directly in line with Hikari's window. For a few tense moments, the two stared at one another. The man's jaw set firmly, and his eyes seemed to have widened quite a bit. At that moment, Hikari's widened too. Her fingers lost their grip on the brush, which clambored to the ground.

The man snapped his head away and carefully stood. A moment later, he glanced back at her, then slid quickly and gracefully from the branch to the cold snow below.

Hikari jumped as the door behind her creaked open. Tailmon shuffled inside, stretching as she walked, the way cats do when they've just woken from a long nap. She saw her partner, smiled, and began to speak, but Hikari barely payed her heed. Instead, she raced out the opened door in search of her brother, thinking that it probably wasn't a wise idea to tell Tailmon what she had seen just yet.

"Taichi?" Hikari called, shuffling down the hall. "Tai, come here! I think I saw-"

"Not now, Kari!"

Hikari froze midstep and strained to figure out where the voice had come from. "But Tai, I-"

"I said I'm busy, Kari!" The voice had come from behind the bathroom door. Taichi was either going to shower, or was mucking up his hair with that gunk he liked to use. "Go bother Mom or something."

A lump caught in Hikari's throat at her brother's dismissal. She was probably just imagining it, but at the moment when their eyes had met, she could have sworn she'd seen instead a monster she thought was long dead.

Tailmon poked her head between the crack between the door and the wall. "You okay, Kari?" she asked softly. "You don't seem yourself."

"I'm . . . I'm fine." Hikari wrung her hands together uneasily. Tailmon rose her little cat brow. "I've just . . . I've got to go for a bit, okay? I'll be back soon!"

Before Tailmon could protest, Hikari had spun around and ran to the door. She slipped on her shoes, then let herself outside. There was no time to waste. She had to catch up to him. She had to know for sure.

When she reached the elevator, she pounded the button until the doors finally opened and let her in. While it lowered her to ground level, she tried desperately to steady her shaking hands.

Vamdemon, she acknowledged, bitterness swelling up in her mind. He looks like Vamdemon.

What was she going to do? If the man was just some stranger, she'd only end up making a fool of herself, but what if he really was Vamdemon?

There's only one way to find out, she thought as the elevator came to a stop with a small lurch. The doors drifted apart. Hikari stepped out warily, carefully looking around for any sign of the mystery man. How far had he fled by now? Would she be able to catch up to him before he got away?

Her worries were for naught. It took but a minute of searching before she saw him in the shadows of an alley between her apartment and the next. He was leaning against the wall, and was turning something about in his hands, something which reflected off its surface the little bit of sunlight that made it through the cloud covering.

Hikari sucked in a breath, took a couple steps forward, and shouted, "H-hey! You there!"

The man visibly tensed, and slowly rose his gaze to meet hers. When their eyes locked once more, Hikari faltered. The resemblance was striking. There was no way it couldn't be him.

But how? How is this possible? We killed him. We killed him three times. How is he here?

He said not a word. Whatever he held in his hands, he tucked away inside some pocket, then he ducked into the shadows, walking briskly away from where Hikari stood.

No, I can't let him get away, she thought, desperation welling up inside of her. She breathed in a few times, squeezed shut her eyes, then ran through the alleyway after him.

I'll figure you out, Vamdemon. Even if it kills me.