DISCLAIMER: I do not own Digimon, any of its characters or its ideas. This is a non-profit work of fiction written purely for entertainment purposes.

CHAOS

By TheApex

CHAPTER THREE

Gogglehead

The drive to Rika's home seemed to last a lot longer than it did in reality. Takato felt very uncomfortable in the passenger's seat next to the fiery redhead, who did not seem interested in any type of conversation what so ever. He would steal an occasional glimpse at the girl, which only seemed to deepen her glare. He wondered how she managed to spot him looking at her every time while keeping her eyes on the road, but he decided against asking her outright. Even with his newfound strength, he had his doubts about whether or not he could defend himself against Rika.

More than once he found himself subconsciously clutching his seat belt with both hands. He hadn't discovered much about Rika, but he had come to the conclusion that she was a very aggressive driver. Or she did a very good impression of one as she slammed her foot down on the pedals and stopped within mere inches of the car in front when they encountered traffic.

"You're getting very close to hitting that car in front," he said cautiously. "Do you have an issue with people who drive Audis?"

"I know what I'm doing," she replied, ignoring his attempt at a joke to lighten the mood.

"I'm sure you do…uh…" he paused. "What's your name?"

"Rika."

"Nice to meet you, Rika," Takato said. "I'm Takato."

"That's nice," came the monotone reply.

Another pause. Takato ran a finger along the dashboard, feeling the grooves and bumps of the aesthetic pattern along it. He then placed both hands on it, and began to tap his fingers down on the plastic surface. Rika grimaced at the action.

"Stop that," she ordered.

"Stop what?" Takato asked.

"That."

"Huh?"

"The damn tapping! Stop tapping my car!"

"Oh…sorry."

Rika turned the steering wheel and pulled in to the side of a one story building Takato guessed was her home. She turned the key, killing the engine, and unbuckled her seat belt.

"You can wait by the door. I'll go in, get your money and the second it leaves my hand and goes into yours, I'm shutting the door. You got that?"

"Uh, sure?" Takato said, unbuckling his seat belt.

Rika didn't bother replying. Instead she opened the car door, got out and slammed it shut again. Takato followed suit, except he was considerably gentler as he closed the car door. Rika pressed the lock button on the car key and the car beeped in acknowledgment. She walked over to her house door and opened the lock. She pushed the door open to a ninety degree angle and walked inside.

Takato stepped into the door frame, careful not to enter the house but enough to satisfy his curiosity. The Nonaka home was beautiful. It was all on ground level, with a wooden platform all the way around the building. The garden was vast and very green. In the centre of the garden was a long pond surrounded by large strategically placed stones, with a small bridge connecting each side of it in the middle. It was certainly a lot nicer than Takato's apartment.

"Oh hello there, are you one of Rika's friends?"

Takato turned to face the source of the voice. He saw a woman standing there, smiling at him. He guessed she was in her late fifties or early sixties judging by her aged face and wrinkled hands. She wore a long yellow dress that covered her from neck to ankle, with a pair of white sandals on her feet.

"Hi, nice to meet you," Takato began, smiling. "I'm Takato."

"Very nice to meet you Takato. I'm Rika's grandmother, but you can call me Seiko," she replied. "Rika never brings her friend's home, you must be a special one!"

"Well, uh, I'm not exactly a friend of hers to be honest…" he said, blushing slightly at the suggestion of a special friendship.

"Hmm, how do you know my granddaughter?" Seiko probed.

"It all started in the street. I was walking along and I saw Rika arguing with a traffic warden over a fine she was about to get. She didn't have the money to pay it so I offered to do it for her. She insisted on paying me back and I guess that's how I ended up here."

Rika walked out of her room and towards the waiting boy she left on her doorstep. As she got closer, she noticed her grandmother was standing there talking to him.

'Oh no, please don't tell her what happened. Just take your money and go away!' she thought to herself.

"Here's your money," she said, handing over the notes. "You can leave now."

"Rika Nonaka!" her grandmother reprimanded. "That is not how we treat our guests. Young Takato here was extremely kind to you today, and you should be very grateful he was around to help you."

Rika rolled her eyes and huffed in annoyance as Takato scratched the back of his head uncomfortably.

"Takato, do you have somewhere you need to be today?" Seiko asked.

Rika glared at the brown haired boy threateningly. She knew what her grandmother was going to do next, and it was definitely not what she wanted. Takato raised his eyebrows at the glare, but didn't quite understand the meaning behind it, much to Rika's dismay.

"Uh, no I'm free today," he answered.

"Excellent!" Seiko cheerily replied. "You must stay a while, for a cup of tea at least. If my granddaughter can't show how appreciative of your gesture she is then I shall show my appreciation. And there's no use arguing, I won't take no for an answer!"

Takato felt the heat drain from his face as he saw Rika's fists clench in defeat. He slowly inched forward inside the grounds, and braced himself as he noticed Rika was heading towards him. He thought he was in for a pounding, but surprisingly she walked right past him, instead choosing to slam the door shut as an alternative to hitting her guest.

"The kitchen is the first door on your left," Rika said through clenched teeth.

A grey haired man walked along the deserted residential road he lived on in South Shinjuku. He appeared to be in his fifties, and he wore a dark blue jumper with some black chinos. He was glad his journey was nearly over, for he had been struggling with the groceries he had been carrying home from the local shop. He didn't go out much anymore, so he always stocked up when he did venture out.

He turned into a gate and walked up to the door. He unlocked it and stepped inside, wiping his shoes on the welcome mat as he always did, before shutting the door behind him. He walked through the hallway into the kitchen and set the bags down on the floor with a sigh of relief. He pulled his jumper off and hung it on the back of a dining chair, and then he walked out of the kitchen and headed towards his living room.

'What? I am sure I closed that door before I went out…I never leave the doors open…'

He stepped inside, and jumped as he noticed a figure sitting in his armchair. The strange figure looked rather large as he sat in the small chair, his broad shoulders stretching to cover the entire width of the chair, and his feet placed a fair distance from the chair itself.

"At last, I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to show up old man."

"So Takato, tell us a bit about yourself," Seiko pleasantly suggested.

Takato took a quick sip of tea before placing the mug down on the table. He managed to catch Rika glaring at him as she sat opposite, her facial expression fiercer than he thought was possible. Seiko sat to his left at the end of the table.

"Uh…well, I'm eighteen years old. In fact, I just graduated yesterday."

"Rika graduated last night too! Although, graduation is a bit of a sore topic at the moment," she said, glancing at Rika. "Where do you live?"

"I live in the new apartment block in West Shinjuku, about five minutes away from the park."

"Ah yes, I know the one! I read about that block in the newspaper, very modern. They are very small though, how do you and your parents cope with only one bedroom?"

Takato's face dropped, and he looked down into his mug of tea. He clasped his hands together on the table and took a deep breath before replying.

"My parents are dead. I live alone."

'Damn it!' Rika thought, feeling her conscience creep into her mind. 'Why did I have to be mean? Now I just feel guilty.'

"I'm sorry to hear that," Seiko said apologetically.

"It's fine," Takato said abruptly. "You make a lovely tea Mrs Nonaka."

"It's Ms Hata, but please call me Seiko," she replied softly. "Rika, why don't you take Takato to your room? You can play some PlayBox or whatever those contraptions are called."

Takato expected another moan from the girl, or some form of defiance, but to his surprise she didn't say anything. Instead she simply stood up and walked towards the hallway. Realising she wasn't being followed, she turned around and looked at Takato.

"Well I'm not going to drag you. You have a perfectly good pair of legs, use them."

He obeyed the order by picking himself up and following the girl's footsteps as she guided him towards her bedroom three rooms down the hall.

'I really do hope they get along. Takato seems like a nice young man, and I think having a friend like him would do Rika the world of good,' Seiko thought to herself, smiling at the idea.

"Who are you and what do you want?" the old man asked, failing to mask the intimidation in his tone.

"Oh you don't remember me?" the man asked. "I suppose it has been a long time. Ten years in fact. Ten years since my sister and I ran away from you."

The old man's eyes widened slightly in acknowledgement. He had not expected to ever see the younger man again after all these years. He breathed a sigh of relief and felt himself relax.

"Daniel? What the hell are you doing here boy? You don't live here anymore, how did you get in?"

The young man laughed.

"You know, old age doesn't suit you at all," he noted. "There was a time when you used to terrify me."

"I may be old but I can still give you a beating boy."

"I bet you'd love that, wouldn't you?" Daniel taunted. "You never could quite get enough of beating me. When you weren't beating my sister of course. Aren't you interested in what happened to Sarah?"

The older man snorted. He'd hated those bloody English orphans. He remembered the countless times he'd wished he'd never allowed his wife to talk him into adopting children.

"Enlighten me."

"She's dead," Daniel stated. "Which brings me to the reason for my little visit."

"What are you talking about now boy? Her dying ain't got anything to do with me."

"I disagree," he countered. "I strongly disagree. It all started with you, old man. You are the reason she ended up dead, and you are the reason I am here with you today. You set us on this path, and I hold you at least partially responsible for it all."

"Oh yeah? Well what are you going to do about it?" the old man smirked. "You never did have the balls to stand up to me, you whiny little bitch. Get the fuck out of my house!"

The younger man leapt out of the armchair speedily and thrust a hand towards the old man's throat. He gripped it tight and lifted the older man clean off the ground before slamming him into the wall with such force that several picture frames fell off and smashed on the ground. The old man let out a whimper of pain, which only served to satisfy Daniel

"I am going to make you pay for your part in all this old man. I'm going to make you understand how guilty you are. And then I am going to kill you."

Rika's room was fairly large, bigger than Takato's room by quite a bit. There was a desk to the side, with an open laptop sitting on it and surrounded by various bits of paper and odd bits and pieces. Towards the other side of the room was her futon, which lay in front of Rika's clothes drawer. In the corner was a smaller desk which propped up a widescreen television and a PlayStation console.

Takato cautiously edged towards the desk, careful to keep an eye on Rika in case she disapproved. She seemed to ignore him as he did so, either that or she didn't care where he went. He looked closely over her desk, and noted a novel, a yoyo, some papers covered in science work, some chocolate wrappers, a pair of yellow rimmed goggles and a big stack of Digimon cards.

"You like Digimon?" he asked.

Rika was surprised at the question. She thought most people had forgotten about the old card game she used to play when she was a pre-teen. She gradually stopped playing the game when she reached the age of fourteen. By then she'd already won the Digimon Card Tournament in Tokyo four years running, and the lack of any decent opposition bored her. That, and she disliked the infamous title she was branded with; the Digimon Queen. She still liked to play by herself every now and then though.

"I used to," she said. "Nobody could beat me though. I was already the best so I didn't see any point in continuing to play."

"I'll play you," Takato offered.

He picked up the goggles on the desk. He placed the elasticated band around the back of his neck and positioned the goggles on his forehead, smiling as childhood memories of the Digimon television show came back to him.

"Are you brave enough to challenge me?" Rika smirked.

"You bet. While I'm wearing these goggles, I'm as strong as Tai Kamiya himself!"

"Fine, I accept your challenge," Rika said. "But don't cry when you lose, Gogglehead."

"After your wife's death, the endless beatings you gave us became too much," Daniel explained. "Sarah couldn't take it anymore. She begged me to take her away, but we were only teenagers, we couldn't survive on the streets. I was sixteen years old, and she was only thirteen. I tried to help her through it…"

An expression of pure rage took over Daniel's face like a disease. His face contorted, even his eye's natural green colour seemed to burn with anger and bloodlust. His teeth were bared and gritted as if ready to strike.

"…But in the end I realised I had no choice. So we ran, forced out of our home by you. We tried to survive on the streets alone, with no money, no food and no help. Nobody would employ us, and there was no support from any agencies or any government backed projects for us to turn to. So eventually we turned to crime…"

He took a deep breath and tightened his grip on the old man's throat.

"…That worked, for a year at least. We just about got by. Until one day I was arrested robbing a grocery store with a knife. With no money to make bail or to pay for decent legal representation, I was sentenced to six years in prison. Six whole years. Sarah was sent to a children's home after the trial, but it wasn't long before she ran away again. You destroyed any trust she had left in people, except for me. Only I wasn't around this time. So she tried to survive on her own, until one night five years ago when she was killed in a street fight with some drug addict…"

A tear ran down Daniel's cheek, the cold droplet sending shivers throughout his body.

"…I wasn't even allowed to go to her funeral. Apparently I was considered too dangerous at the time. I still had two years left on my sentence. But now I'm out, and I've come to set things right. You started all this for us. You are largely responsible for what happened to both of us, and I swear to you, you will pay for it!"

He raised his free hand and clicked his fingers. A small ball of electricity formed in his hand, crackling away yet not harming the palm it rested on. Daniel smiled.

"What was it you used to say to me?" Daniel asked. "Oh that's right. You said 'you won't get any mercy from me, so take it like a man.' You said those words every single time you raised your belt at me, without fail. So I think it's only fair I give you the same treatment."

The old man's eyes widened in terror. His entire body shook with fear and adrenalin. He tried to break free, but Daniel's grip was far too strong. The ball of electricity grew larger, the crackling louder and the light it emitted ever brighter.

"I will not give you any mercy, so die like a man!"

"Taomon Digivolves to Sakuyamon and you lose again Gogglehead!" Rika announced triumphantly.

"Aw man, not again!" Takato exclaimed in disbelief.

"Ha! Not so strong now, are you?" Rika taunted.

She had now beaten Takato fifteen times in a row. He really wasn't the challenge she was hoping for, but his reactions to losing were priceless. Every time he thought he had the upper hand, Rika would play a card that would completely flip the game around, and before he knew what was happening he had lost again. Unexpectedly she found herself actually enjoying the time she was spending with the despairing boy.

Takato on the other hand, was not enjoying himself so much. He was baffled at how he kept losing. He never was a really good player when he used to play at school, but he couldn't remember being this bad at the game. He sighed in defeat and spilled his remaining cards onto the floor. He took the goggles off and held them out towards Rika.

"Okay, you win. Again. You deserve the goggles more than I do!"

"Well I don't want them," she insisted. "From what I remember of the show, goggleheads are stupid."

"Hey, Tai and Davis were both brave Digimon tamers!" Takato defended.

"Some might say you're brave seeing as you've lasted this long in my home without being beaten. Or stupid," Rika countered. "So you really are a Gogglehead. Wear the goggles with shame."

Takato couldn't tell whether she was joking with him or not, so he obliged and placed the goggles back on his head. From what he could tell, she seemed to be warming up to him, but he wouldn't go as far as to say she liked him. She was still brutal, only more with her cards than her words as they played. He was about to ask her if she thought they could be friends, but stopped himself. Thinking about it he realised it was a stupid and very awkward question to ask, and the answer would probably be no. All they had in common so far was a like of Digimon. He had to get to know her better first.

"So, if I go home tonight and practice, can I challenge you again tomorrow?"

Rika stared at him, one eyebrow raised suspiciously. She looked him intensely in the eyes, as if she could somehow see through to his thought processes and his motives.

"Why?"

"W-why what?"

"Why do you want to challenge me again?" she asked plainly.

"Uh…'cause it'll be fun? I thought that maybe we could…you know…become friends?"

'Aw man, seriously? So much for avoiding the friendship issue!' he thought to himself.

"I'm not fun, and I don't need a new friend," she stated coldly.

Takato felt a bead of sweat drift down the side of his face. He was shocked at Rika's reaction to the mention of friendship. He hadn't expected it to go down well with the redhead, but neither had he expected it to go down that badly. There was no doubt about it; Rika Nonaka was a very complicated girl. But he wasn't the type to give up.

"This last hour has been fun," he said with a half-smile. "And what's wrong with being friends?"

"I don't need any friends. I've survived this long just fine on my own. Friends only let you down, sooner or later."

"Uh…okay…" Takato replied quietly. "I guess we don't have to be friends…but I was thinking about getting back into Digimon anyway and well…who better to play with than the best player in Tokyo?"

Takato was lying through his teeth. In truth he hadn't thought about getting back into Digimon at all. He'd never really grown out of it, but he hoped that by saying he was getting back into it, she might think he could improve and be more of a challenge, and if she thought that he hoped she would be more likely to accept. He added a sneaky bit of flattery on the end too, although he doubted it would work to his advantage. He certainly wasn't renowned for his charming ways.

"Okay fine, anything to get you to shut up about it," Rika conceded. "But we're not friends, got it?"

"Absolutely!" Takato said, a little happier than he meant.

'There's something about this girl. She seems lonely, like me. She reminds me of myself really, after my parents died. I think she lost someone close to her at some point, and that's why she acts the way she does. I don't know what I'd have done without Henry to keep me from sinking into depression. I really needed a great friend, and I think Rika does too. So I guess I'll do my best to be a friend to her. What's the worst that can happen?'

A/N: So I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Quite a bit more Rika and Takato for you, although it didn't all go as smoothly as Takato may have hoped! I tried to keep them as in character as possible. I like how Rika seems to get lost in the card game, but as soon as friendship is mentioned she clams up again. Poor Takato.

And not only that but we have an introduction to a new character; Daniel. I am English so I thought I'd use an English character, haha. I hope that's not a problem. As you've probably gathered, he has powers similar to Takato. Similar powers but wildly different personalities and motives. Let me know what you think of him/his backstory!

As always, please do review! I love to know what you think, what you liked, what you didn't like, and what you think can be improved! I always answer reviews personally, so if you have any questions stick them in a review and I'll be happy to answer those too. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!