"promise me takato. we'll play again okay?" as guilmon turned into gigimon and slowly vanished into the digital world, takato felt the same pain as jeri must've felt when leomon died. he smiled, but could not hold back his tears "yeah, i promise buddy... i promise we will play again." then all of the baby level digimon vanished into the digital world. gigimon, the two gummymon, viximon, tokomon, ketomon and kapurimon.

"yeah. i'll promise..." he said. smiling softly while laying his head down on the desk.

takato matsuki was a 17-year old sophomore student, and by lack of better words: a handsome devil. tall, naturally tanned, quite muscular. after the D-reaper incident he started wearing a steampunk-style pair of goggles, seven piercings in his right ear, a celtic trench coat and studded boots.

then at the age of 14, his parents died in a plane-crash. after that,he dyed his hair with white highlights. he also became more mature and serious about his studies. he was the shared second smartest in class together with his girlfriend nonaka rika.

"excuse me?" the teacher looked at takato with a confused expression on her face.

"nothing, just daydreaming" takato said, not bothering to look up from his desk or lying to his teacher. she was brand new, fresh out of school herself, so the ex-tamers decided to teach her the pecking order around school. without being too harsh of course.

astonished by his laid-back additude, she tried to respond with a strict tone. "mr. matsuki, if you have enough time to dream about that weird toy dinosaur you always draw, you'll probably have enough time to solve this equation." finally, he looked up, and he didn't look happy. rika and henry both pinched their noses. kazu and kenta looked at each other with a worried look on their faces and jeri sighed.

"first of all. this equation is so easy that i can do this shitty thing in my fucking sleep. the answer is 4865,13. he stood up, standing 2 feet taller than her. and second of all. guilmon is a digimon. no, not even that, he's my best non-human friend. so if i ever hear you bad-mouth him or any of our friends again, i will fucking humiliate you in front of the entire school, got it?" he glared at her. his eyes bright red. even more due to the black eyeliner around his eyes.

obviously intimidated by his length and sharp look she backed down. rika smiled, pinched his hand softly and he sat back down. "freaking unbelievable" takato muttered. "calm down goggles, you don't have to scare her shitless, that's kazu's specialty." even though every tamer in that room felt the same, and they all agreed with takato, they didn't react because he made the point clear enough.

after classes were over, everyone went to the school roof as usual. they were known as the freerunning group 'hazard run' and they always practiced there. rika and takato were the top runners. jeri and kazu the secundary runners, ryo set the matches up, kenta was the first aid and henry was the accountant. 20% every yen they earned went to his cashbook for emergencies. the rest whould be distributed amongst the members. however today they didn't train as usual. they had a game that evening and couldn't afford exhaustion or injury, so they were just lazing around.

jeri was nearly consuming henry's face, ryo was nearly asleep and takato was playing the song pleasures of combat on his guitar while kazu and kenta were trying to beat rika at a game of digimon cards.

"allright! i digivolve my weregarurumon to metalgarurumon AP60/HP45 and then use my wulf guard to pump his HP to 55. your turn rika." kenta smirked. rika looked over to takato, who was still playing his guitar and smiled. "it was fun boys, but it's time to show how it's done. i digivolve my taomon to sakuyamon AP45/HP39, and i equip brave armor, giving her a AP20/HP20 boost. next i digivolve my rapidmon and wargrowlmon to megacargomon and gallantmon. AP120/HP90 and AP70/HP35. then i blow both your metalgarurumon and your hiandromon away. you both lose."

takato couldn't stop laughing when he saw kazu's face and kenta asked rika to shut him up.

she walked over to him, whispering "oh goooooggles. why don't you put that pretty mouth of yours to good use." she then slammed her lips against his and they furiously started making out. "oh great, now you two fuck-ups awakened the two beasts of disturbing loooooove!" ryo teasingly yelled at kazu and kenta, who sweatdropped when rika and takato simultanously turned around, glared and growled. ryo jumped off of the pipe he used to nap on and ran for his life.

exactly 3 minutes later rika returned, with a screaming ryo. begging for mercy.

"ah, shit!" takato suddenly bursted in fear. rika stopped torturing ryo for a second. "w-what's up?"

"i should have left for home about ten minutes ago. see you tonight at the usual spot guys" after he gave rika a kiss goodbye and patted henry on the back, he jumped from the roof to the flagpole. he slid down the pole for 5 floors and ran off at top speed. (which was surprising sinch he was wearing his silver studded boots) rika blushed.

ryo started smirking. "that just now got ya wet didn't it?" she scowled and continued bending his arm the wrong way. he screamed again.

fifteen minutes later.

" .to." mimi smiled as radiant as ever (while pinching takato's cheek). "you're late again. did'cha enjoy yourself too much, training again?"

"yeah meems, sorry, ryo was being an ass again so we tortured him for a while, and lost track of time." takato sat down to eat, while taichi tried not to laugh at takato's reed cheek. "so ya gotta run tonight?" he asked. even though taichi and mimi yagami (yes they married, so freaking deal with it) were his foster parents they let takato do as he wished and always supported him, no matter what. he loved them almost as much as his real parents. "yeah"

he knew taichi and mimi since childhood. taichi always bought bread from their bakery and was devastated when he heard that takato's parents died. mimi immidiatly filled in the form to adopt the poor boy.

"well, as long as you're careful, i don't mind."

"kay. love you guys. gotta run, or else i'll be late" takato said after he finished dinner.

he grabbed his boots, trenchcoat and leather fingerless gloves and ran off.

mimi smiled and hugged taichi from behind. "he acts like we did around that age."

tai turned around and kissed her. "they all do, my love. they all do."