So, I think (but don't quote me on this) that this chapter should be the darkest it gets. Let me explain. There's some drama and darkness yet to come, but it's going to be more fantasy world darkness, not totally out of place for Digimon. This chapter addresses some real world stuff.

Also… I'd forgotten the high even just a few reviews could put me on. The only story I've worked on recently (and recently completed) was a story I'd come back to after a three-year hiatus. Suffice it to say it wasn't getting much traffic when I did start updating again. So to get five reviews on this story after less than a week…

Thank you so much for reviewing chapter one: Guest, ToastyToaster22, Shiki Shiori, and Sweet Cari! Each of your reviews brought a smile to my face, and I hope you enjoy what comes next! (And I'll give you the benefit of the doubt too, Messenger777. You probably won't be back to see this, but I'll assume you meant well.) Anyway…

Chapter Two: Speculation

The difference was striking. As soon as Kari closed the door behind her, the quiet of the morning became peaceful rather than haunting. Stepping out into the open-air hallway of their apartment building was like stepping into another world. Even with the anniversary date drawing so near, it felt almost like the day could be normal.

Kari took her regular route to school, ducking into the park to sit down on the bench. Yolei met her here every morning so they could walk the last stretch together. Today it felt like she spent an especially long time waiting on that bench, listening to the birds. But this was not so strange. Yolei's home life was a lot more chaotic than her own. It would not be the first day they ran into class just as the final bell rang. To be honest, Kari was a little grateful to her friend's last-minute mindset. Being late to class was such a banal sort of anxiety. A welcome distraction from her bigger worries.

"I'm here!" Yolei shouted breathlessly as she ran into view. Kari stood up with a smile. She was surprised to see Cody running along behind Yolei. Cody was a younger boy who lived in Yolei's building. He was very studious and responsible. He walked with them sometimes too—but usually only on the rare day that Yolei was on time. Otherwise, he would go on ahead. And now he seemed to be berating her as he struggled to keep up.

"Five minutes!" Kari heard him say between pants. "You promised you'd be out in five minutes!"

"I know; I'm sorry! Momoe was taking forever in the shower, and I still had to brush my teeth—"

Kari's laugh cut her off. Rather than waiting for the other two to come to a stop for her, Kari fell into step beside Yolei. Upon reaching the school, their paths split. Cody did not wait long enough to catch his breath to say goodbye, and—true to form—the two girls reached their desks in homeroom in the nick of time. Their teacher gave the two a very pointed look but continued on with the morning announcements as usual.

It was shaping up to be a regular Thursday. Her first few classes passed by painlessly. She and Yolei passed notes throughout their math lesson. The test in geography allowed her to ignore Davis's dramatic attempts to get her attention. It was only once they returned to homeroom before the lunch break that Kari began to ponder the coming week.

The fourth anniversary of the attack fell on a Monday this year. She'd gotten lucky on years two and three, but the first anniversary had been awful. The school had put together a special assembly in memoriam, and Kari had felt like all eyes were on her. A few of her classmates had lost family in the destruction, but she was the one with the famously missing brother. There hadn't been anything in the morning announcements today, but Kari thought she'd seen their teacher give her a look. Tai's disappearance was a constant reality in her household, but she kind of wished the rest of the world could move on.

"Kari, are you listening?"

She jumped a little at the sound of Yolei's voice. She'd been so lost in thought that she hadn't realized Cody had joined them at their lunch table. She smiled with a little laugh and said, "Sorry, guys. I guess I just have a lot on my mind lately."

"That's understandable," Cody said in his typical solemn way.

Well, there went her reprieve. It took a moment for Yolei to make the connection, and when she did, she slapped her hand over her mouth with a little gasp.

"She was just complaining about something her older brother did this morning," Cody explained when Kari gave her a quizzical look.

"You didn't have to tell her if she didn't hear it!" Yolei hissed, perfectly audible to all. To Kari, she said, "I'm so sorry, Kari! I wasn't even thinking about the date! Me and my big mouth again, huh?"

Kari brought her hands up placatingly. Yolei's remorseful expression was making her feel bad. "It's okay, Yolei, really. I don't want you guys to feel weird talking about it just because I'm here." After all, that night had been a tragedy that had befallen the whole city, not just her family.

It wasn't like she hadn't talked to Yolei about Tai in the past. The two shared practically everything. In fact, she liked the way Yolei tended to get caught up in the Inoue family's more mundane problems. Yolei's house was always so loud and energetic. A welcome change from her own.

"If that's the case, I've been thinking about that night a lot lately, too," said Cody.

"Are you sure?" Yolei asked, her eyes swinging from one to the other.

"Positive," said Kari. "What's on your mind, Cody?"

"Motive," he answered matter of factly.

"Motive?" the girls questioned together.

He nodded. "You two have noticed how the media hardly ever brings the incident up anymore, right? Why do you think that is?"

"I always thought they'd just moved on," said Kari. "I mean, there weren't actually that many casualties, and there's always a new tragedy to overshadow the ones that came before it..."

"That's true," said Cody. "But I think there's more to it than keeping up with current events. I think the authorities would prefer it if the public puts it out of their minds as soon as possible."

Yolei blinked blankly. "What are you getting at, Cody? Some sort of conspiracy theory?"

"No. And that's exactly my point. No one seems to have any theories. No one who isn't relying on shallow gossip, that is." He sighed when they both continued to stare blankly at him, looking much older than his eleven years. "Initial reports blamed it on terrorism, right? But they never found the guys who did it."

"But there was that terrorist cell that disbanded shortly afterwards, right?" Yolei pointed out. "I thought they were to blame."

"Convenient, wasn't it?" said Cody. "I think the government was hoping everyone would jump to that conclusion, but I've watched all the news reports surrounding the attack, and they never come right out and blame anyone directly. And no one was ever charged with anything. And actually, the terrorism angle doesn't make a lot of sense. Terrorists want to make their presence known. They destroy things of symbolic importance, like government buildings, to make some sort of point. What could possibly be to gain from a low-casualty, anonymous attack on a bunch of residential apartment complexes?"

"Wow, Cody. It sounds like you've done more research on that night than I have," said Kari, impressed.

He shrugged humbly, twirling his chopsticks between his fingers. "Maybe. I just can't stand an unsolved mystery. But there's more. Whoever's responsible, no one really knows how they did it. There was fire and water damage, but the bomb squads couldn't find any evidence of explosives or accelerants. In a lot of places, it looked like something had hit the buildings from the outside, but all the debris was 'clean.' No unnatural, external sources."

"How weird," said Yolei. She still seemed a little bewildered at the turn their conversation had taken.

"And that's without factoring in all the holes in the missing kids case." Cody glanced quickly at Kari before moving forward. "It's like they just vanished into thin air."

"Given the circumstances, that's not so strange," Yolei jumped in. "I mean, the street was almost totally destroyed, and every kid in the city was out that night. In all that chaos, it would be almost impossible to find any clues, and it's a miracle anyone remembers seeing them."

Kari slowly pushed her lunch tray away from her. This discussion had stolen her appetite. The most popular theory—among all those gossipmongers Cody had mentioned—was that a serial killer had kidnapped the missing. There had been a series of child disappearances throughout the previous years, and those disappearances had never started up again after the attack. Best guess was that he'd either died during the attack and never been identified as the perpetrator… Or he'd grabbed as many kids as possible during the chaos and split.

But, as with the terrorism theory, there were holes in this explanation, just like Cody said. For example, every single one of the kids who'd gone missing in the past had been found within a few months… dead. For a while, the attack had gotten so much attention, every police station in the country had the missing's DNA on file. If their remains had shown up anywhere, news would have gotten back to the families by now.

Kari could tell her friends' thoughts had kept pace with her own. Yolei broke the contemplative silence with, "It's super weird that nothing ever showed up, though. I mean, apart from TK."

It was strange to hear his name pass someone else's lips. Kari forgot sometimes how widely publicized his discovery had been. At the time, it had felt like an event occurring in a realm made up exclusively of the six families.

"Not necessarily," Cody broke in grimly. "Not if he had some way to dispose of the bodies."

There was a single beat of heavy silence.

"That's so dark, Cody! I say they're alive until we get proof otherwise!" Yolei again. Too loud and too cheerful. With another nervous glance at Kari.

But Kari smiled at her gratefully. "I'd like to think so too. But it's not as if I haven't thought about it. I've done my own research. If they were all being kept prisoner by the same person, chances are they would have outgrown his… preferences by now. Kids grow up a lot between twelve and sixteen."

"If that is what happened, it makes sense that he let TK go. He was too young." Cody looked a little uncomfortable at the turn this conversation had taken. Clearly, he preferred speculating about bombs and logistics rather than human evils.

"I disagree," said Yolei. Then, at their surprised looks, she blushed and said defensively, "What? I've done some research too. I've been friends with Kari for too long not to wonder. And I don't see why they wouldn't just keep TK. You know, to like… 'groom' him until he was the right age. At the very least, they wouldn't keep him for a whole year and then just let him go… Amnesia from some sort of trauma usually only pops up after the victim has gotten to safety, right? So how could they be sure he wouldn't give away all their secrets?"

"They…" Cody repeated thoughtfully.

"I've always thought it must be more than one person," Kari jumped in. "I don't see how a single kidnapper could control six teenagers and a little boy for even one night, never mind years."

Almost subconsciously, the three had leaned closer over the table, lowering their voices. Kari was solemn, Cody thoughtful. Yolei appeared almost fearful.

"So what are we looking at?" she whispered. "Some sort of trafficking ring?"

"To be honest," said Cody slowly, "that might be the best bet of finding them alive."

The bell rang then, signaling the end of lunch and their dreary discussion. But for an extra moment or two, none of them moved.

Review please!

I don't own Digimon.

I worried as I was writing this chapter that it may seem a little strange for a bunch of twelve-year-olds to be brainstorming this sort of thing… I'm gonna go with the exposure excuse. That they had a legitimate reason to be knowledgeable about things like… say… serial killers and pedophiles because they were caught up in the middle of this mystery that your average kid there age hasn't experienced. For Kari, at least, it holds personal significance, and you can extend the same to Yolei—being her best friend and all. With Cody, I'm gonna say he's just that kind of kid—always looking for answers to everything.

Also, I do have the first few chapters already written out. I'm trying not to burn through my updates too quickly. Like I mentioned at the top, reviews can have a drug-like power. Even so, I probably would have been able to curb my excitement. It's just that the first chapter was so short… I plan to keep updating in a timely manner. Just maybe not quite as quickly as this one came out. Thank you for reading!