Hello everyone! I've thought long and hard about this chapter- this is a kind of bridge, if you will, in-between one leg of the story to the other. In response to all my wonderful readers, well, thanks, really. For reading, and reviewing! In particular, the anonymous reviewer. Thank you for your points. I already knew that Jenrya's sister was called Shuichon and not Suzy in the original version, but when I was writing the first chapter I completely forgot. I realized when I was writing the second chapter ages ago, but I was hoping that there would be no such sharp-eyed reviewer amongst my throng. Oh well- I hope you'll bear with me if I continue to refer to her as Suzy, for continuities sake. And Ruki's dad won't play a big role, don't you fret. He won't abuse Ruki or anything- in fact, think of him as a plot device. To everyone else (Bunni Girl (by the way, check out the link in my favourite stories section for my favourite Ryuki story, people), kairi kingdom, LittleHikari542, and GT Kari-123), thank you, thank you.

One more note- one song that I felt applied to this chapter is "Overdue" by The Get Up Kids. I won't write out the lyrics here, mainly because it's a bit pointless if you haven't heard the song, but I will quote one line:

"Went on a limb for you...my only hope is letting go"

It's a truly great song, I think, and encapsulates the kind of feel I want for this part of the story- a kind of quiet, understated, clever kind of dialogue.

Oh, and by the way, it is exactly six days until Yours Truly has her birthday! Woohooo!!!


"Nope. Nippy, nada. No. Nein. Non. Not in sixteen-hundred years. Not over my dead body. Absolutely negative."

Ryo looked at his dad with pleading eyes. Negotiations with him had hit an all-time low, as the aforementioned papa busied himself with the TV remote. This was not the face of a man carefully mulling over his son's future. No. It was the look of a man desperately wanting to watch the news, and hoping that his offspring would disappear into thin air so he could watch and moan about the inflation in the country.

He stood there, staring at his father, waiting for the fun-destroying ogre to speak.

'This must be how UN negotiators must feel like before bombs start being lobbed.'

"Look, Ryo. There is absolutely no way I'm going to let you and your little posse of herberts go to your new girlfriend's house for a party." As he said the word 'party', Mr. Akiyama screwed his nose up, and shook his head in a horrible disdainful way, shrugging woefully, as if the entire weight of the world and the moral hygiene of its teenagers rested with him. "It is just not responsible father behaviour, son. Why don't you go out with those nice digimon friends of yours? You are not going anyway. Nicky nacky nada way."

"Please?" Ryo had run out of pointers and arguments, and was reduced to begging.

"Not in my lifetime, bud." His face softened for a moment, obviously guilty, before he said, "Why don't I bring you and your friends to Walrus World in South Shinjuku? Remember when I used to bring you? You used to love them! Especially the one that could juggle balls"

His voice faded to a well-meaning whisper, clearly supposed to be full of father-son love.

And with that, his dad turned and watched TV, satisfied that he had won the argument, hands down.

Ryo trudged out of his house and went to the park, a little bit sulky. He plunked himself down on a bench, and crossed his arms, sighing to himself. He had just wasted a whole 20 minutes arguing with a man whose idea of fun was watching giant grey animals eat smaller grey fish.

"Why are you in such a bad mood? Have you finally realized how hideously ugly you are?"

Ryo looked up and saw a familiar redheaded girl smirking down at him.

"No. My dad won't let me go to Midori's party with the guys. And I think that he thought, that by dressing up the word "no" in cute and amusing ways, he would win me over."

Ruki sat down next to Ryo and laughed. "What- no smart-ass comeback? Come on, it can't be that bad."

"He wants me to bring all of the Tamers to Walrus World."

Ruki laughed again, harder, at the despondent look on the usually cheerful boy's face. Ryo was always funny when he was upset, and being able to snicker at him was a rare pleasure, for anyone. Well, it was a rare thing to be able to do, but needless to say, only Ruki found pleasure in it.

"I was definitely someone like Vlad the Impaler in a past life, because I'm paying for it now."

"Hey; at least you haven't been chased by ravenous wolves all week." Ruki scrunched up her face, and held out her arm, which had some faint bite marks.

"What happened to you?" Ryo grabbed her arm, and inspected it, before giving his diagnosis, and let it drop to the bench. "It doesn't look that serious though."

"No, it's not. But I was just walking along this lane, and a dog came at me! The woman couldn't keep it under control- it just went totally feral. Luckily I know how to handle myself in that kind of situation, thanks to Jenrya. The thing is, all these animals seem to be turning against me. I can't understand it."

"Bad week then?"

Ruki's left eyebrow shot up at that statement. "You could say that."

The truth was, she'd been dodging "incidents" like it ever since the date with Midori. They'd been coming at her so fast and thick that she didn't really know what to think. It was as if someone in heaven (or hell) was targeting her. And she wasn't even religious.

It wasn't just the animals. It just seemed like wherever she went, weird things started to happen. When she went with her mother to a photo shoot (just to keep her company- besides, she had nothing else to do) the day before yesterday, a light she'd been standing next to burst into flames and fell on the ground, making Ruki run to the walls, trapped by the flames, whilst the photographer desperately try to put it out. Happily, the fire was extinguished before it could do Ruki any harm. But it still worried her a little. How often does a light, a dim light, as well, do that?

She shook her head and returned to reality, turning to look at the ever so slightly depressed Legendary Tamer. "You know, you could just go, and lie to your dad. I lie to my mum all the time. Say you're going out with us, or something."

He returned her gaze and smiled regretfully, "I already told him which day it was. He'll know."

In fact, as she was walking home one night, she'd been the target of one drunken man, with a broken bottle in his hands, a mugger, and had been at the scene of an armed robbery. She'd gotten so freaked out by it, she'd called Renamon to bring her home. The rate that things were going, she'd been surprised that her mother and grandmother hadn't been turned into small bite-sized goujons on the kitchen floor, no doubt destroyed by the bad luck that seemed to be following her around. Instead, her mother had been fussing about her and her wetness, whilst Seiko was peacefully using a pair of mini-secateurs to trim an unruly bonsai tree.

"You fool, you."

"I know."

The pair sat in silence for a moment, each harbouring their own worries, one's ever so slightly more important than the other's.

"Hey, Ruki?"

The girl beside him made a small 'hmm' sound, not bothering to look at him, preferring instead to look at her hands.

"Can I have my umbrella back?"

'Oops.'

What could she say?

'Well, Ryo, after you left me, I had to dodge a falling tree, and I let go of your umbrella, only to lunge for it and find broken glass in front of me. After that, I got Renamon to bring her home. The next day, I went back to the park to see if I could find it, but all I did find of it was a charred mess on the floor, with part of the frame still left there. The frame then was carried by the wind, seemingly aiming for my eyes.'

Wow. Believable. She sighed inwardly, preparing a lie to tell him.

Ryo sat for a moment, surveying his companion. She'd gone into a sort of trance. "Ruki? Ruki? Ruuuuki?"

"It's drying out in my house. You don't want to take it back yet."

He shrugged. "As long as I get it back eventually. Wouldn't want you to turn into a kleptomaniac, would we?" He smirked, regaining some of his original spark.

"I'm not the one who thought that it would be a good idea to steal counting blocks from his nursery class."

"I'll have you know that it was a carefully executed scientific test, designed to test the teacher and see how...um..efficient the school security system was."

"Not even you are perfect enough to hold that kind of intelligence at the age of, what- 3?" Despite saying this, she could picture a mini Ryo, already outshining everyone else. Always clever, always cheerful, always determined, always heroic, always handsome, always perfect. Of all the Tamers, Ryo was the most lusted after, because of his looks. Kind of pretty-clean-cut-guy-meets-modern-Indiana-Jones. She was sure that across the world, thousands of girls had tapes on which the near-naked Ryo starred, during the D-Reaper incident.

"No, I wasn't. I forgot to include the dependant variables."

"Uh-huh."

He looked at her curiously. "Are you alright? You're not asâ€sarky as usual."

She glanced back up at him, eyes mocking. "I could say the same of you, you know."

The two returned to an uncomfortable silence. Ryo was worried. He could usually detect Ruki's subtle micro-moods, which were practically invisible to the rest of the world. Ruki was good at covering up feelings, but he'd (finally) learnt how to read her somewhat. And she was often pissed, he found. Very often. And it would fade away eventually, somewhat slower than how it began. Still, he had a kind of worried feeling at the back of his head. He pushed it back, and scolded himself for being paranoid.

Ruki was fine. She was. Except...except for this small nagging feeling at the back of her head. She had to admit it. She was worried. It was getting far beyond weird, and she had to get to the bottom of it. She didn't know how, and she didn't know if she even wanted to know. But she had to- bad things were happening, and Ruki Makino would find out, and be in control again. She glanced at her watch. Time to go to the train station.

Ryo watched as one of his best friends stood up and walked away, head down, eyes glazed, eyebrows knitted. He reached out, and opened his mouth to shout to her. He hesitated, and let his arm drop to his side. With Ruki, it was better to let it go.


Hm...well, I hope you like this chapter, and I also hope that, if you listened to the song, you liked it.

Anyway, read and review!