Dark Secrets

Chapter 1 Nice to Meet You Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or any of its characters.

Shinjuku was busy during that time of day despite it being the middle of July and the weather was blistering. Kari weaved her way through the crowds as best as she could. Despite Shinjuku being only ten miles away from Odaiba she had only been there a couple of times. It took over an hour to get there by train. Kari was there for a reason this time though. A couple of the digidestined had moved or was moving to Shinjuku for college. Izzy was attending Japan Electronic College and Joe was attending Tokyo Medical University. The last six months for them had been tough for them though. They had both been dropped from their colleges and had been fighting with them to get reenlisted. And now Matt had a come-back concert here in Shinjuku so all of the digidestined decided to spend time together in Shinjuku and get away from all of their overprotective parents for a while. So despite it being only ten miles away from home all of the digidestined chipped in for hotel rooms for a week. Kari was naturally rooming with the three other girls of the digidestined. All of the digidestined agreed to see some site-seeing while they were there.

Kari was currently walking down the street by herself. She was on her way to the park in order to take some pictures of the wild life. The other digidestined had decided they wanted to take a look at the main area of where the so called D-Reaper had first appeared. They hadn't been around so see it all happen so could only learn about it from secondary sources. The only problem was that it seemed someone had managed to block and delete all digital evidence of what had happened so it had taken a while for the digidestined to learn what had happened. Kari didn't want to learn what had happened though. Every time she thought about it a bad feeling came over her. She knew something bad was coming.

When Kari got to the park she stopped for a moment in order to breathe in the fresh air. She could already feel a new found strength growing in her that wasn't there a moment. She was able to find a garden of flowers that had been planted by park caretakers. Pulling out the new camera she had gotten for her birthday, she lost herself in taking pictures in whatever caught her attention. After a few shots of the flowers, she started taking pictures of the local life, whither it was a squirrel running up a tree or an elderly couple sitting on a bench, she took a picture. I wasn't long until she pointed her camera over to where a bunch of shouting was coming from.

In the distance, through her lenses she could see what looked like a bunch of school kids playing a game of soccer. After years of going to Tai's and Davis's soccer games, Kari couldn't helped herself but to approach the game and start taking pictures of the kids. It wasn't until one the kids caught her attention.

One of the boys playing looked somewhat like Tai and Davis. He could have been no older than fourteen years of age, had red-brown eyes, and short spikey hair. But what made stick out the most was the pair of goggles that were sitting on his just like the pair that Tai used to wear and now Davis wears even if he didn't wear them as often anymore. He seemed just as energetic as Tai and Davis when playing soccer. She could see him shouting out orders to the other members of his team just as Tai and Davis would. Kari could also tell that there was something else about him that was familiar that she couldn't put her finger on.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Looking down, there stood a little girl no older than five looking up at Kari. She was clearly Chinese with a brown-purple hair color, with eyes to match, and bright rosy cheeks. She was looking up at Kari with confusion on her face.

Kneeling down Kari switch the little screen on her camera to show the pictures she had already taken. "I was taking some pictures of the park and the people." She started showing her the pictures she had taken of the kids playing soccer.

"That's my brother Henry." Kari stopped at a picture showing a Chinese boy with blue-black hair bouncing the soccer ball off his chest.

Kari looked up to look for the same Chinese boy in her camera. He was on the other side of the soccer field by now. "He's good."

"He practices Tai Chi. He's very strong but he never lets me play him and his toys."

Kari chuckled. "I have an older brother too. When I was younger he never allowed me to play with his toys either. He used to always take off with his friends to play soccer."

"Henry is always taking off with Takato and the others. He never takes me but always takes Terriermon."

Before Kari could respond she heard to shout coming from the side. She looked up to see Henry running towards them. "Suzie what are you doing? You know better than to talk to strangers." Henry pulled Suzie towards him.

"She was taking pictures of you."

"Uh, hi. Sorry, I was taking pictures. I was taking pictures of a lot of things in the park and when you and your friends caught my attention I couldn't help but take some pictures. Your sister was just looking at the pictures I took. You have a very cute sister." Suzie grinned up Kari with a smile that took over her entire face.

Henry just stared at Kari with a look like he didn't know what to say. Suddenly there was another shout behind Henry. "Dude! What are you doing? Are you playing or not?" It was another boy who shouted. He seemed to be around the same age as Henry with brown spikey hair and a sun visor to shield his eyes.

"Yeah! Hang on!" Henry turned back towards Kari. "Can I see these pictures if you don't mind?"

Kari handed over her camera to Henry and watched as he went through her pictures. She watched the different emotions cross his face as he looked at the different pictures. Soon the spikey haired boy came to see what he was looking at. Before Kari knew all of the kids that had been playing soccer came over and were looking at the pictures she had taken. They were all oohing and aahing at the pictures. Kari loved it when people would enjoy the pictures she had taken. She rarely showed her pictures to others though. The only people she would show her pictures to were her family and friends. She would quite often take pictures of Digimon and the digital world so she was afraid that the wrong people would see these pictures. She wasn't afraid of these kids seeing these types of pictures right now because the only pictures on her camera were pictures taken during the Digidestined's current vacation and their Digimon were back in the Digital World. They weren't coming to the real world to join them on their vacation for at least another couple of days.

After all of the kids were done looking at them, Henry handed the camera back to Kari. "They're wonderful."

"Thank you. But I can't take all the credit. I had very good subjects. You all are very good at soccer and I would know. I have both an older brother and a couple of good friends who are obsessed with soccer. So I've been to a couple of games myself." The kids all gave several of thank yous. "What are your names?"

"Henry Wong." He gave a little bow.

"I'm Takato." The boy with the goggles that reminded her of Tai and Davis introduced himself.

"Rika." A girl with red-brown hair in a ponytail stood in the very back as if she could really care less.

"Ryo." This boy looked to be a little older than the others and could be the same as Kari. He also had brown spikey hair but didn't seem to be related to the boy with the visor.

"Hello, I'm Jeri." Jeri had a very sweet smile on her face but for some reason Kari felt off balanced with her. It was the same felling she would sometimes get when she stood next to Ken.

"I'm the handsome Kazu." The boy with the visor tried to give off a strong guy pose but it only in succeeded in making him look dorky.

Kari was just barely able to catch the last kid's name, "I'm Kenta," before the girl named Rika interrupted. "If you're handsome then I'm not the Digimon Queen." Kari could only raise her eyebrows at this. The first thought that popped into her head was the image of Ken as the Digimon Emperor.

"Excuse me? What do you mean Digimon Queen?" Kari asked.

"That was the title she was given after she won the Digimon card game tournament. She was only given that title though because I was not there to defend my title as Digimon King." Ryo answered.

"Yeah. Rika's good but she isn't as good as Ryo. He's the best." As soon as Kenta realized what he said he hid behind Henry, using him as a human shield.

"I dare you to say that again, Four Eyes! And you Akiyama, if you had been in that tournament I so would have defeated you and you know it! Why else have you been giving me excuses as to not dueling me?" Rika looked like she was about to pound the two boys but you could see just the hint of a smile under her glare. This was clearly an argument that had happened more than once in the past.

"Ah, come on Hellcat. You know why I won't duel you. I would prefer to take you on a date than duel you but since you keep telling me no, I guess neither of us is going to get what we want." Ryo had the biggest smirk on his face.

Rika looked ready to kill Ryo. Both Takato and Jeri had to hold her back. Henry was shaking his head. It was clear he had heard all of this before. Kenta and Kazu were looking at Ryo with a look that clearly said that they thought he was crazy and had a death wish. Suzie just stood there with mild interest. Kari couldn't help herself at this point. She busted out laughing, this reminded her very much of only a few years ago when every one of Digidestined were going through couples drama because some of the members were too scared to admit their true feelings to each other. Of course the last couple of years, things seemed to have calmed down a bit in the group even if some of the relationships seemed shaky right now.

All of them turned towards her. Rika was glaring at her with a blush on her face, daring her to say something. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But you remind me so much of my friends. We were the exact same way when we were your age." Kari stopped to ponder over her words. "And I'm making myself sound older than what I really am. I'm only seventeen but sometimes I feel older."

"I know how you feel." Ryo responded.

Rika shook off Takato and Jeri; she had calmed down enough by now that they didn't put up a fight. "Yeah well, this idiot is sixteen and he still acts like a ten year old. It's a miracle that he even made to high, let alone a good one."

"You wound me Pumpkin." Ryo clutched his chest as if he was really wounded.

Rika hung and shook her head at him. "My point exactly, the idiot can't even remember my damn name. He always has to give me damn nicknames."

"They aren't nicknames, they're pet names. It's what couples do." Ryo had the biggest grin that clearly said he knew what he just did.

"Okay! Changing the subject before we have a blood bath in the middle of the park." Takato stepped in. "I didn't catch your name." He turned towards Kari.

"Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Kari."

"I've never seen you here before Kari." Henry commented.

"I'm from Odaiba. I've only been to Shinjuku a couple of times before."

"Why are you here today?" Jeri asked.

"My friends and I decided we all needed to get away from our parents for a short time so we all chipped in and rented a few hotels over here to have a small vacation. They decided they wanted to check out the city cites and I decided I didn't want to go with them, I wanted to spend some time among nature."

"Not much of a vacation if you only go ten miles." Rika snorted.

"I know, but our parents are being really overprotected right now and wouldn't let us go any further than ten miles."

"Why?" Suzie asked.

"Because." Kari didn't finish though. She just smiled as if that would explain everything. She knew she couldn't tell them the real reason and she couldn't come up with a convincing lie to tell them.

They all looked back and forth between themselves and her. No one knew what to say. This was a complete stranger and they weren't going to press for answers.

"Can I ask a favor of you?" Henry asked. "Would you be interested in taking more pictures of us playing and then you and I can go over to my dad's work where we can have the pictures printed? It won't cost you anything. I'll even give some money for your time and service. I just think it would be nice to take some pictures home to our parents."

"That'll be fine. You don't have to pay me. I'm more than willing to take pictures of you." Kari started preparing her camera to take more pictures.

For the next hour Kari stood off to the side of the soccer field taking pictures of the kids playing. She would move to different angles of the field to take better shots. At one time she even moved just off of the side of the goal post so that she could shots of the kids kicking into the net. After they were done playing she took group pictures. She took pictures of just girls, just guys, and even to Kari's amusement, couple pictures of Jeri and Takato, and Rika and Ryo. She didn't know how they managed to get Rika to agree to take a picture with Ryo, but they did and Rika didn't even glare at the camera. She didn't smile but she didn't glare. Kari even took some pictures of Suzie so she didn't feel left out even though she wasn't playing soccer with the others.

After all of the picture taking was done Kari waited as all of the kids gathered their items. Kenta and Kazu took off after making Henry promise to give them copies of the pictures. They needed to be somewhere else. Kari followed the kids through the city with them talking about whatever topics such as school, homework, and their parents. At one point their conversation turned to a topic that had Kari paying close attention. They were talking about Digimon. They were talking about the card game and different cards and strategies. They were talking about the strengths and weaknesses of different Digimon. Kari could only smile. She couldn't believe how popular the franchise was becoming. When Matt's and T.K.'s dad first came to the Digidestined about wanting to turn their adventures into a cartoon, there was some doubt. They were scared some would believe in the stories and would try to find ways to get to the Digital World or would try to harm it and it occupants. The government already had its hands full trying to cover up the attacks on Odaiba. They claimed the monsters were just terrorists in disguises and the giant monsters were just tricks. When the cartoon came out Mr. Ishida convince the studio to come out with a lie saying that the giant monsters were stunts to advertise for the cartoon. And they did the same thing years later when Digimon appeared around the world. It was hard trying to cover up for everything but they were able to thanks to the cartoon. But as the cartoon became more popular in the most recent of years, the Digidestined got a real kick out of it. It was fun listening to people talking about Digimon not knowing what they were talking about was real. All of the Digidestined had copies of T.V. series at home but they didn't really follow the merchandise and card games. It felt silly for them to be interested in fake stuff when they could just go and see the real Digimon and the real Digital World. The first time there was a Digimon convention they all went and had a good time but it wasn't the same without real Digimon. The problem now was that Mr. Ishida is now bugging them for new ideas on a new Digimon series but they had no more stories to tell. There were a few things they left out of course for safety reasons, such as Daemon, the incident with the kids that were controlled by Oikawa, and the Dark Ocean. They made alternate stories for Mr. Ishida to put in the cartoon so that there weren't too many holes. Kari felt though that soon they would have more stories to tell Mr. Ishida.

Kari was taken out of her thoughts when Henry spoke to her. "We're here."

Kari looked up to see a tall, wide building that split up to two parts. "Where are we?"

"Hypnos. I guess you can say my dad is a program writer."

"Do you know where you are going?"

"Yeah. We've all been here more than a couple of times." Henry looked as if he wasn't proud of this fact.

"I guess they have a lot of 'bring your kids and their friends to work today' days?" No one seemed to know how to answer Kari's question. There seemed to be more of a reason why they all have been to this building more than once.

Henry led the group over to an elevator that was off to the side, away from the other main elevators. Instead of their being an up button, there was key pad which Henry had the pass code to. After waiting for a couple of minutes the elevator arrived and all of the kids got on. There was only three other buttons other than the call for help button. The bottom button was lit, signaling what floor they were on. Henry pushed the very top button and the doors closed. It was a very long ride up to the floor with the top button. Kari couldn't tell which floor they were going to since none of the buttons had floor numbers. The elevator ride was very silent; there wasn't even any elevator music to make up for the lack of noise. After a long elevator ride all of the kids stepped off to single hallway. The hallway wasn't long but there were no doors on either end. At the end of the hallway there looked to be a security block with two security guards and a metal detector.

Henry walked right up to the guards, knowing what to do. "Can you call Janyu Wong and tell him that his two youngest kids and their friends are here to ask for a favor?"

One of the guards got on a phone and started talking to someone in a hushed tone. Not long after he hung up and nodded towards Henry. They waited for a few minutes before a blue haired man in his mid to late 40s, wearing a white coat came walking down the hallway on the other side of the hallway. "Henry, Suzie what are you doing here? I thought you two didn't like coming here."

"Dad, this is Kari. We met her at the park. She took pictures of us playing soccer and we were wondering if you could help us get them printed fast."

"Henry, you know better than to bring unauthorized people to this floor. You should have had her wait down on the ground floor." Mr. Wong spoke in a strong, disapproving voice.

"I know dad but we really wanted to get these pictures developed and I couldn't have just left her down there. Security would have thrown her out for loitering."

Mr. Wong just shook his head at Henry then preceded to lead the kids back towards the elevator. The ride down was just as quiet as the ride up and it felt it took twice as long. Once back on the main floor, Mr. Wong led the kids over towards the main elevators where they all got on immediately. This elevator had the standard number buttons that is normally found in a building this big. Jeri tried to break the silence at one point but it didn't really work. When they reached the floor they wanted Mr. Wong led them to a room where a bunch of computers were. He took Kari's camera bag and pulled out the camera and computer plug then hooked it up. He ran the software needed to access the pictures.

Mr. Wong started going through the pictures until he hit the pictures where the soccer game was. He stopped to take a closer look at them. "These are good. The parents would love to get copies of these." He preceded to print multiple copies of the pictures. As they were waiting for the pictures to print Mr. Wong turned towards Kari. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name. I'm Janyu Wong."

"I'm Kari Kamiya." Kari bowed slightly towards Mr. Wong.

"Very nice to meet you, Kari. How do you know my son and his friends?"

"I just met them a couple of hours ago at the park. I was there taking pictures of the park when I spotted and couldn't control myself and took pictures of them. I have a brother and some friends who play soccer as often as they can and when I saw you son and his friends it reminded me of them."

"Well there are definetly some pictures here worth framing and I know at least my wife will want to hang some of them on the walls. Of course she loves doing that with all pictures of the kids."

Before Kari could respond her phone started buzzing in her pocket. "I'm sorry, one moment." She walked over to the side to take a look at the text. It was text from Yolie. She wanted to know where she was. The Digidestined wanted to get together to go have lunch somewhere. She texted back where she was and she would meet them in half an hour. Yolie texted saying they would meet her outside the building.

"Who was that?" Suzie asked.

"Hm, oh, that was my friend Yolie. She wants me meet with her and my other friends in front of the building in a half an hour to go have lunch."

"That's right it is close to lunch time. We were going to go back to Takato's place to get lunch." Ryo commented.

"Well we better get the rest of these pictures printed so that you guys can take off." Mr. Wong finished printing the rest of the pictures, then he and Henry divided the pictures up so that everyone got one copy of each pictures. Mr. Wong disconnected Kari's camera and returned it to her where she put it back into her bag.

Kari followed the others out of the room and towards the elevators. This time down, it wasn't as quiet as before. Everyone was talking about the pictures and which ones were their favorite. When they finally left the building a weight that was on Kari's heart disappeared. She wasn't even aware it was there when they entered the building. Looking back towards the building she could now feel as if something was wrong with the building. Not evil, but not right.

Mr. Wong returned to the building to return to whatever he was working on. Kari didn't want to ask what that was since wherever he was working in the building seemed to be top secret, as hinted by the private elevator and security guards. She waited outside with the other kids for her friends. Henry said it would be rude of them to just leave without making sure she was safe with her friends. It wasn't long before there was a shout of her name.

Turning towards the shout, Kari spotted Yolie running towards her with her arm in the air, waving. The others were walking behind her at a slower pass. "You missed it Kari. Davis got schooled by a bunch of kids about Digimon. It was sad."

"Hey! I was not! I just allowed them to think they knew more about Digimon than me!" Davis screamed.

"Davis was outsmarted by elementary kids." Cody said.

"Hey, sis. What are you doing here? I thought you were going to the park?" Tai was the first to properly greet Kari.

"I did. But while I was there I started taking pictures of these kids playing soccer and they asked if I could come with them here to print the pictures for them. We were half way done printing when Yolie texted." Kari motioned to the young teenagers standing behind her. They all bowed to Tai and the others while they bowed back.

"Well I'm hungry so…" Davis was unable to finish his sentence before there was a shout behind Kari.

"OH! MY! GOD!"

To be continued…