The Bee and its Stinger

Chapter 2
Cars and Worms

Oikawa was not pleased. The current stage of his plan should have been a straightforward one. The timing was perfect: not three weeks after the spore had begun to sprout and Ichijouji Ken had had a falling out with his elder brother. It was the prime opportunity to cement those seeds and mould him into the perfect pawn – but he just had to be so soft as to throw himself into the path of the oncoming car and almost undo all of their hard work.

Luckily, Arachnemon wasn't a complete dunderhead and had swerved the car – and scampered before being found in it. However, watching the brothers make up was more than simply frustrating, and how easily the little boy was able to forget his anger with his elder brother – even with the seed feeding it – spelt doom in any further planning containing that boy.

And it was impossible to find the other one; he had, simply put, vanished off the face of the earth.

The monitor stared at him, humming quietly. He had numerous programmes open on it, including a portal to the Digital World through which he had sent the Arachnid. It seemed to reach the limit of what the computer was capable of handling, because the data on the dark seed was taking an age to load.

It was good to know he would be getting a newer operating system at work in the coming weeks, and the old one would make an admirable replacement to his current one. A little extra hardware wouldn't go amiss either; it might be expensive, but well worth the investment.

For the meantime though, he had to tolerate the snail speed of his current system and the frustration that came with a failed plan.

'Surely the seed will start growing again,' he mumbled to himself, wishing he had the time or the resources to be able to keep a close eye on the boy. It wasn't as though he could install security cameras all over the home, and computing hadn't reached the era where it could do the spying by itself. The Digital World lent some assistance, but until he could enter the Digital World himself it would be a small help. And it wasn't as though he could accomplish much by sending Arachnemon or Mummymon into the Ichijouji's bedroom; they were hardly inconspicuous.

Thank goodness he worked with the Ichijouji's father, though unfortunately he had more of a tendency to talk about his other son instead. But Osamu was, without a Digivice, completely useless to him. It was Ken who was a Chosen, with a Digivice and a digimon…and the dark seed.

Now if only that seed would take root. Because if it didn't and he fell sick again…

He scowled, scrolling through the file as it finished loading. There had to be something in there that would help, because he refused to let his dream slip through the cracks of his fingers.

Nobody could believe it. The car was empty, and as the driver's door was smashed in it was inconceivable someone had managed to leave undetected.

Ken was over his scare (relatively speaking) and was looking curiously at the car. 'Do you think a ghost was driving?' he asked innocently.

Osamu couldn't help but laugh; who could with that cute tone? Sadly though, it wasn't possible that some ghost had been in the driver's seat. Or Fate out to get him – because until Ken had leapt on him, it had looked like he had been on his way to an early grave.

'No Ken,' was all he answered. 'We'll probably see some bloodied guy wandering around.'

He said that without thinking, and Ken whimpered a little. 'I hope not,' he whispered. 'That would be scary.'

He had forgotten his brother didn't like anything remotely picturesque of a horror film. Funny then how he could be said to pity ghosts…unless one looked at his pictures and found them to be the cute sort, reminiscent of an imported cartoon about a friendly ghost called Casper.

'Someone would have noticed,' Osamu pointed out. 'They're hardly inconspicuous.' At Ken's brow furrowing, he quickly amended: 'I mean, it would be pretty obvious.'

'Yeah, I guess so.' Ken put on his "thinking hat", as he so aptly described it. He was still at that age where the process of thought showed on one's face, and in this particular case, quite cutely too. 'But somebody had to drive then…right?' He blinked at his brother. 'Do you think it was a Digimon?'

'Digimon?' Osamu repeated. He'd never heard of those before. He almost asked if they were imaginary friends of his brother's, but thought against it. Since Ken had never mentioned them previously, it was possible it had something to do with the strange device and those two odd instances of flashing lights emitted by his monitor, in which case it might still be a fragile subject and better addressed over their ices…which he needed now more than ever.

It didn't seem Ken had heard his question anyway; instead, he was tugging on Osamu's sleeve. 'I think I can hear the police,' he said, sounding somewhat excited.

Osamu on the other hand groaned. There went those ices, as well as their hopes for a peaceful afternoon.

Ken's attention had been quite wildly diverted over the past half hour, between Wormmon appearing in the sky and the police grilling them both so thoroughly they had managed to annoy the elder Ichijouji. Ken himself hadn't minded so much; it was something new, and as thus naturally interesting, and beyond that they were paying attention to him as something more than a little figurine by his brother's side. Not that he wasn't proud of Osamu's achievements (even though he didn't understand all of them), but it was nice for adults to be asking him questions for a change.

Generally speaking, it was Wormmon asking the questions. And that thought reminded him to look up once they had finally managed to leave the scene behind (and Osamu managed to convince them that neither of them were in any way injured – whether physically or mentally – and they didn't need an escort home).

That also apparently reminded Osamu to ask as well. But before that…

'I'm sorry for hitting you.'

Ken stopped walking until a light push from Osamu sent him going again. Naturally, they didn't want to linger. It was noisy, now that a tow truck had come as well to remove the battered car, and the police were now trying to find out the identity of the driver.

The younger Ichijouji immediately felt guilty, remembering how he had felt and what he had said – and clung to.

'I'm sorry too,' he mumbled, eyes watering a little. 'I didn't want you to disappear. Really, I didn't.'

'Silly.' And there was a quick ruffle of hair. 'I knew that.' And Osamu quickly changed the topic; he wasn't the sort of person who could really handle emotional scenes. He was book-smart, but hardly people-smart…though he had quickly learnt how to act in the general society. 'So what did you see in the sky?'

'Wormmon,' Ken answered happily, more than willing to talk all about his new friend from the Digital World now that their disagreement was shoved behind them. 'He's my best friend. And afraid his brother might misunderstand, he quickly added: 'and so are you, and Ryo-san too…' His smile dimmed as he mentioned Ryo's name.

Osamu smiled, but shook his head at his brother's rambling. 'Best normally means only one.'

'Doesn't have to be,' Ken said stoutly. 'That's not very fair when you have to pick.'

Eventually, they managed to get their ices, a simple vanilla for Osamu and a multitude of bright colours for Ken. And by the time Ken's dish contained a puddle of liquid a colour neither could name and Osamu's was about dry, Osamu more or less understood what – or rather who – Wormmon was.

It didn't mean he could easily accept it though.

'You went through the computer?' he asked sceptically.

Ken shook his head, waving his spoon around before dipping it back into the dish. Even melted, the ices were delicious after all. 'I went through the Gate.' He emphasised the last word. 'I know it's crazy, but it's the Digivice. It opens the Gate somehow. I can show you even!' His voice rose excitedly, and Osamu quickly shushed his brother. Anyone listening into their conversation would think they were both crazy.

And maybe they were, but no-one knew Ken as well as Osamu did…except maybe this Wormmon he had never met and this Akiyama Ryo he couldn't for the life of him remember. Though what Ken had said defied almost every law of science in existence, Osamu knew his little brother really believed. He knew what Ken's made up stories sounded like and this was definitely not one of them – so it was either reality or an impossibly vivid dream, the latter less likely than the former.

And Ken, after establishing he had gotten that point across, was happily chatting about his adventures.

Osamu had to admit that if he ever got quizzed on the material, he would probably fail. It wasn't though he wasn't trying to pay attention, but things that didn't conform to logic he found very difficult to grasp and therefore remember. But it was Ken, and it was important to him, so he continued to listen carefully – and be suitably horrified every time he heard about his little brother getting into a dangerous situation.

And Ken was more than happy to tell it all. Chatting about the friends he had made and the enemies he had fought and some Milleniummon who sounded like a real jerk – albeit a childish jerk.

And all the while his melted snack continued to warm up and the sun slunk away beneath the horizon.