Shinjuku, Matsuki Bakery
"Ok, so you swiped some random card that you've never seen before through your Card Reader... and it turned into this?" Kou said as he held up a small white device with a red rim around its screen.
"Yeah!" said Takato excitedly. "I think it's a Digivice, Kou! I'm a Digidestined!"
"And how did Guilmon show up again?" asked Kou. "You say you made him up, but if that were the case, he shouldn't exist. Besides, he seems…familiar."
"That's because you were so fascinated with the drawing!" said Takato. "I mean, he's perfect! Exactly like I drew him!"
"I guess…" said Kou, "but that still doesn't explain how he got here."
"I told you," said Takato, "when I went to pick up my cards, I thought, why not scan the notepad in this little slot? Next thing I knew this weird compass popped out and led me to him. That's why my pants were ripped; Guilmon was in this old factory or… or something."
Kou sighed. It had sure been hard getting Takato by their parents while hiding that rip. If Yoshie had seen it, she probably would have called in the SDF to find out just who dared hurt her son.
"Takatomon, I'm hungry," said Guilmon from under the bed. It had been hard getting him upstairs too. After all, how often do children come home with boxes bigger than they are?
"Takatomon?" said Kou, amused.
"Haha, yeah," said Takato before turning to Guilmon. "Guilmon, you already ate my dinner."
"And what was left of mine," said Kou.
"But I'm still hungry!" whined Guilmon as his ears drooped.
"Guilmon…" said Takato.
"Oh, fine," said Kou, "I'll go get some of the day-old bread."
"No, I'll do it, he's my responsibility," said Takato as he went for the door. Kou stepped in the way.
"No, you get a shower, you're filthy, and Mom will interrogate you to find out why if you go down there again," said Kou. "Besides, I'm your brother. I'm helping you with Guilmon whether you like it or not."
"Alright, fiiiiine..." said Takato. "Thanks. I won't be long though! Gotta get back quick and play with Guilmon…"
"Ok, then, Guilmon, you wait here, I'll be right back with some food," said Kou as his brother stepped around him to exit the room.
"Yay Koukimon!" said Guilmon happily.
"Oh, brother…" said Kou, turning to leave the room. He shut the door behind him to hide Guilmon, then made his way down the stairs. It was quiet in the house, so Kou figured his parents must have been getting ready for bed. He went into the kitchen and started to pick out some of the tastiest looking bread that hadn't sold that day. He and Takato would often sneak in some extra dessert this way.
"I guess we're gonna have to practice our bread-stealing skills a lot more now. I wonder if Guilmon eats as much as the Digimon on the show?" thought Kou. Given the dinosaur's size, he figured, it probably ate even more. Kou grinned at the thought, grabbed as much bread as he could and practically bounced back up the stairs.
"This is too cool!" he thought. "A real live Digimon!"
"See, Guilmon!" Takato was saying, "A Digimon Tamer!"
"Oooh," said Guilmon, "Goggles!"
"Yes, ooooh," said Kou as he walked into the room. He tried his best to make it sound deadpan, but it wasn't very convincing. He was almost as excited as Takato, who he found trying to explain to Guilmon that he was human, not Digimon. "Goggles! Now you're a Gogglehead like Tai and Davis!"
"Hehe, yeah, I even have the fire Digimon, don't I?" said Takato. "I guess that makes you Kari."
"Hey!" said Kou. "I wanna be T…" He didn't get the chance to finish. Guilmon saw the bread.
"Koukimon has food!" said the dino as he leapt out from under the bed and pounced on Kou. Chaos reigned in the bedroom as Guilmon ate and Takato tried to save Kou from the bread-snarfing machine. When Guilmon was finally done, they heard a creak in the stairs from outside.
"Oh, no!" Takato panicked, "Mom and Dad heard us!"
"Guilmon, under the bed!" whispered Kou urgently.
"There's no Guilmon under the bed, silly!" said Guilmon.
"He means you, Guilmon!"
"But I'm not under the bed, Takatomon."
"Then get under there!"
"Oh."
Guilmon quickly scrambled under the bed and hid while Takato and Kou cleaned everything up as fast as they could. The second they finished, Takahiro walked in in his pajamas.
"Everything ok up here, boys?" he asked.
"No," thought Kou and Takato at the same time.
"Yes," said the pair, once again at the same time.
"But your mother and I heard an… animal," said Takahiro with a quizzical look on his face.
"Well, we, uh…" babbled Kou. He had no clue what to say.
"We were, um, playing Digimon again!" said Takato as he pointed to his goggles. "Kou was Agumon, and I was Tai!"
"But I thought Kou liked Angel-Man or whatever…" said Takahiro, confused. He had no clue when it came to Digimon, but being around Kou and Takato, you do pick up on some things. For example, their favorites. For Takato: Agumon, Greymon, MetalGreymon, and WarGreymon. For Kou: Patamon, Angemon, MagnaAngemon, and Seraphimon. Both of their decks were based around these, as well. Takahiro didn't know that last part, though.
"I do!" said Kou. "But, um…"
"Oh, I get it," said Takahiro.
"Umm… you do?" said both boys, puzzled.
"Yes, I do," said Takahiro, nodding seriously. "Now Takato, I know you want to pretend to be Tai, but let Kou be Angel-Man. Just pretend that he's Tai's Digi-Man instead of Agu-Man, ok? If your mother hears you two fighting again, I don't think I'll be able to stop her from coming up here. She's already mad enough with you for coming home so late."
"Umm…" said Takato slowly, "Ok, Kou, I guess Angemon can be Tai's partner this time."
"Umm…good!" said Kou, doing his best to fake being angry.
"Now those are the brothers I know!" said Takahiro happily. "See, I can tell what's up sometimes! Now have fun, but don't be too loud, we'll be going to sleep soon."
"Ok, Dad!" said Takato.
"Good night!" said Kou as Takahiro walked down the stairs. The room was silent for a few seconds while the boys watched their father go. When the coast was clear, they closed the door and let Guilmon out.
"I don't like it under there, Takatomon, it's really dark," said Guilmon. "And there's no bread."
"I'm sorry, boy," said Takato, "but you have to stay under there when our parents come up here. If they see you, they'll panic."
"But why?" asked Guilmon innocently. "I'm really nice!"
"We know, Guilmon," said Kou, "but adults just don't understand sometimes." Kou turned to Takato. "I think we should find a place to hide him. Away from home. If he comes out in the middle of the day while we're at school, Mom will have a heart attack."
"Yeah, you're right," agreed Takato. "Guilmon, I'm sorry, but you'll have to sleep under the bed. Dad usually wakes us up in the morning and we can't let him see you."
"But I don't wanna!" complained Guilmon.
"We'll give you bread in the morning," tempted Kou. It worked. Guilmon practically warped to his spot under the bunk bed the brothers shared.
"Good night!" said Guilmon. He fell asleep instantly.
"It's just like the show," said Kou. "Food and sleep."
"Please don't feed the addiction," said Takato.
"What, the bread?" said Kou. "He's gotta eat something, and we've got tons of it for free. Now let's go to bed, I'm tired."
"Fine," said Takato as he changed and got into the bottom bunk. Kou did the same and climbed up top.
"Night, Takato."
"Night, Kou."
###
Walk all over him, Renamon. Digi-Modify!
With pleasure, Rika. Diamond Storm!
###
"….to…..Tak…..kato….Takato!"
"Whoa…" grumbled Takato as he woke up from his incredibly vivid dream.. "That was weird… who was that girl? She had a Digimon with her… was she another Tamer?"
"TAKATO!"
"AHHH!" screamed Takato as Kou screamed into his ear..
"Wake up, bro!" said Kou, was standing over Takato's wet bunk and shaking him. "Have a nightmare?"
"What do you mean?" asked Takato.
"Your bed is wet," said Kou.
"Takatomon, it's damp down here," said Guilmon. "Can I come out?"
"Um, sure Guilmon," said Takato. Bad move. Guilmon burst out from beneath the mattress and nearly trampled Kou, having been promised bread in the morning.
"Guilmon!" said Takato as he pulled the dinosaur off of his brother. "Don't worry, boy, we'll get you some bread when we take you to find a place to hide, ok?"
"Ok!" said Guilmon as he stepped away and sat down. "Sorry, Koukimon."
"It's ok, Guilmon," said Kou. "Anyway, Takato, that must have been one scary dream for you to have gotten Guilmon wet."
"Hey!" said Takato, "I didn't wet the bed!"
"Then why's it wet?" teased Kou.
"Well, um," said Takato, "I sorta… had this dream… and there was this girl with a Renamon… and I think she was a Tamer like me!"
"So... why was the bed wet?" repeated Kou. "Was she fighting Piedmon or something?" Takato shivered. He had always been afraid of Piedmon. He had turned his beloved WarGreymon into a key chain. Stupid Clown.
"No," said Takato, "but it was raining. I know it sounds crazy, but… I think I was actually there."
"You're right, that is crazy," said Kou. Then he looked at Guilmon and at the red Digivice on the desk beside the bed. "But then again, you have a Digivice, and there's a dinosaur in our room. Why can't you be floating above a Digimon battle?" Resting a hand on his chin, he contemplated it a moment longer. "And I mean, Renamon looked right at you, right? Proof enough I guess."
"Yeah," said Takato, nodding in agreement. Then he noticed something odd. "Hold on… I never said I was floating, or that Renamon looked at me. How'd you know that?" Kou froze in place and turned to look at him, a little bewildered.
"Wait a second… how did I know?" thought Kou. "Umm… lucky guess?"
"Well… whatever, I'm too tired to think about it right now," said Takato. "Let's hurry up and sneak Guilmon out."
"Uh…right," said Kou.
###
Shinjuku, Downtown
"Sorry boy, but you'll have to stay here for today," said Takato. The two boys had found a little nook between a few buildings and stacked up a bunch of boxes around it. It wasn't the best hiding place, but it was all they had for now.
"Be sure to stay behind these boxes, okay?" said Kou.
"Okay!" said Guilmon.
"And here's some bread if you get hungry," said Kou as he turned his bookbag upside down. Takato's textbooks and binders fell out.
"Those don't look like bread…" said Guilmon.
"Kou… is that my bookbag?" said Takato.
"Umm…" said Kou as he looked it over. Sure enough, it was Takato's. "Uhh…sorry." Takato sighed.
"Don't worry about it," said Takato as he turned the bookbag he had- Kou's- upside down, causing bread to rain down on an extremely happy dino.
"Yay!" said Guilmon. The brothers laughed as the Digimon began to inhale the day-old food.
"Only a Digimon could eat like that," said Kou.
"Haha, yeah," said Takato as he looked at the time on his Digivice. "Ah! We gotta go!"
"Huh?" said Kou, "why, what time is…" he froze when he saw the number on the small device. "AHHH!"
"See!?" said Takato as he picked up his books and stuffed them in Kou's bag. "See you Guilmon!"
"Yeah, see you!" called Kou as he chased after his brother.
"See me!" called Guilmon as he continued to eat his bread.
"I hope he'll be ok…" said Kou as the boys ran to school.
"He'll be fine," said Takato. "He's a Digimon! What could happen?"
"Anything."
"Oh, yeah."
###
Shinjuku, Yodobashi Elementary School
"Alright!" exclaimed Takato. Jeri, who was measuring the distance of everyone's jumps in Gym today, had just told Takato that he had broken his previous record.
"So, Buddy," said Kazu as he watched Takato jumping up and down with excitement, "what was the deal with that phone call last night? Chumley didn't ever come over."
"Oh, yeah, sorry about that," said Kou as he, too, watched Takato. He was way too happy today. But then, his crush just complimented him, and one of his dreams had come true the night before. Kou figured he'd be pretty happy, too. Unfortunately, all he could think about was what would happen if Guilmon wandered off. He'd been excited the previous night, and even this morning, but now... he couldn't explain it, but something was going to happen. No matter how much he tried to tell himself everything was fine, he just couldn't shake the bad feeling he had about leaving Guilmon in that alley. All that aside, Kazu wanted an explanation. Now. "I told Mom Takato was at your house for a rematch. I didn't want her to know that he had detention."
"That reminds me," said Kenta, "where were you two this morning? I had to play Kazu."
"So?" said Kou.
"I didn't stand a chance!" said Kenta. "At least I win sometimes against you. So where were you?"
"Well, uh…" said Kou, "Dang, forgot we'd need a reason to not show up at the park."
"Ohmigosh, did you hear!?" squealed a girl from behind the trio. "Principal Kurosawa saw a monster in the hall!" Takato stopped jumping, and Kou stopped listening to Kazu and Kenta. They slowly turned to face one another, and the moment they made eye contact, they knew what the other was thinking.
"Guilmon!"
The brothers took off, leaving behind a very confused Kazu, Kenta, and Jeri.
"Nonononononono!" said Takato as they ran inside. When they reached the spot where the principal was, they heard him babbling about a red dinosaur.
"No…" said Kou. He knew something would happen. And he had been right. But now wasn't the time to think about that, they had to find the bread-snarfer. "Takato, the cafeteria!"
"Right!" said Takato as they took off. After they were out of view, a blue-haired boy in an orange vest turned around and watched the brothers run off. After a few seconds, he ran after them.
Meanwhile, Takato and Kou had arrived at the cafeteria to find the lunch ladies grieving over their lost gruel.
"I just know it's him, Kou," muttered Takato. "Only Guilmon could eat this stuff."
"Then we better hurry up and find him!" said Kou as he grabbed his brother's arm and ran. "I think I have a good idea of where he might be!"
"Hold on a sec," came a new voice.
The pair stopped and turned around. The boy from before was leaning against the wall.
"You're…Takato, right?" said the blue-haired boy. Takato nodded. "I guess that makes you Kou, then?"
"Yeah," said Kou. "You're Henry Wong, right? Sorry, but we're kind of in a hurry."
"Looking for your Digimon?" Henry said. Takato and Kou were shocked.
"H-How…" stammered Takato.
"…do you know?" finished Kou.
"Well, my D-Arc picked up a signal," said Henry as he held up his Digivice. It was green where Takato's was red. "And since you two are running around like crazy, I figure it belongs to one of you."
"H-He's mine," said Takato, "I… created him."
"Created?" said Henry, puzzled. "But how…" He was cut off my another voice.
"You must not be a very good Tamer if you can't keep up with just one Digimon!" said a little rabbit looking creature that popped out from behind Henry.
"Whoa!" said Kou, "It's Terriermon!" Said rabbit "flexed" his "muscles."
"That's me!" he exclaimed as he jumped onto Henry's shoulder and wrapped an ear around his neck.
"Terriermon, apologize!" scolded Henry.
"But he's right…" muttered Takato as tears began to form in his eyes. "I'm a horrible Tamer!"
"That's not true, Takato!" said Kou. "You're just… inexperienced is all! I mean, Guilmon only showed up last night!" Kou grabbed Takato's arm and began running again. Henry just watched them go. He figured he and Terriermon had done enough damage already.
"Terriermon."
"Yes, Henry?"
"Remind me later to teach you the meaning of the word 'tact.'"
"Aw, Momentai, Henry!"
Meanwhile, Kou was leading Takato back inside and up the stairs.
"Where are we going?" said Takato.
"To Guilmon!" said Kou, "We're going to find him, and when we do, you'll know that you're not a bad Tamer!"
"But, Kou…" said Takato, "finding him doesn't mean any… thing..." His voice trailed off as they came out onto the roof. Guilmon was sitting on the ledge. When he turned around and saw Takato, his eyes brightened in joy and he dashed toward him as fast as his legs could carry him.
"Takatomon!" yelled the dino as he jumped on the goggle-wearing boy and began licking his face.
"H-Hey, boy!" said Takato, "I'm glad to see you too, but your tongue is a little, um, wet. And why are you here? We told you to wait in the alley."
"Sorry," said Guilmon, "but I just couldn't stand being away from you, Takatomon."
"There, Takato," said Kou. "If you were a 'horrible Tamer,' would you have a partner that would come all this way for you? He even ate the cafeteria food so that we don't have to!"
"Haha, yeah, I guess he did," said Takato. "But you wanted to see Kou, too, right?"
"Of course!" said Guilmon. "But you're my partner, Takatomon! You have the Goggles, remember? That makes you a Tamer! Isn't that what you told me?"
"Yeah, I did, didn't I?" said Takato. "Thanks, Guilmon." Then he turned to his brother, who was watching Guilmon. "Thanks Kou."
It Takato's brother heard him, he didn't show it. He just kept watching Guilmon.
"Umm… Kou?" asked Takato. "Earth to Kou?"
"H-Huh?" stammered the boy.
"I said… thanks."
"Oh…right."
"…Are you ok?"
"I'm…fine. I'm fine."
Of course! But you're my partner, Takatomon!
Those words echoed in Kou's head, over and over.
"That's right…he's Takato's partner. Not mine. Guilmon is not my partner. Takato is a Tamer, not me. I'm just…Kou. Just Kou. Just Kou."
A/N: Once upon a time, as a hyperactive teenager who had had too much mountain dew, I made come clarifications about a few things here. I'm here to do it again without the copious amounts of caffeine.
First off, on the note of Takato's dream. Back in the day, I was just too lazy to write it out, and at the moment, I still am. I trust you to have seen this part in the show.
Secondly, on the order of events leading to Guilmon's creation. I am allowing myself some liberties with minor details such as this, with my reasoning being the Butterfly effect of Kou's existence. Nothing innate to him would cause things to fall out of order, necessarily. It's just that in this slightly different world, Takato made the slightly different choice to scan his notepad early.