Me: Hey, everybody, I'm back~!
Kazu: Oh no…
Rika: Suck it up, Kazu
Ryo: Don't you mean Karu?
Kazu: Shut up, Ryo!
Takato: Kazu don't start a fight.
Me: Man, it's getting crowded in here! So, from where we last left off, Takato finally found Guilmon and Karu met him. Well, with further delay, take it home Kenta!
Kenta: Princess Luka Vocalzal does not own Digimon or any of its original characters.
Me: What can you do? And here we go!
Chapter 6: New Friends and Pains
After finally managing to smuggle Guilmon out of the school unnoticed, Karu and Takato (after changing out of their gym clothes), managed to sneak him into the much more secluded part of the park. "Huh, somewhere around here should do it," Takato said as they walked towards a hill, taking note of the big lack of people around, "Barely anyone comes around here."
"Yeah, until they actually do," Karu pointed out, just because people rarely come this far into the park doesn't mean they don't, "We need a more permanent solution that doesn't involve turning Guilmon into a digi-egg." This made him sigh, she did have a point…per usual.
However, a sudden burst of excitement made Karu nearly trip, while a sudden loud movement made Takato look back and laugh, "Guilmon stop that!" Curious, Karu looked back and covered her mouth with her hand with a laugh to see Guilmon had been chasing a terrified squirrel.
"But if we're not here to chase squirrels, why are we here?" Guilmon asked innocently as he followed the two up the stairs that went up a hill, "I like squirrels."
"We need a place for you to hide out while we're at school and I'm at the pet shelter," Takato said. "And when I start my new job," Karu added as a reminder to Takato that she too would soon have an after school activity to be doing.
"And this seems like a good choice since not a lot of people come here," Takato finished. "Hmm," Guilmon said as he paused to sniff a purple flower, "Pretty."
After reaching the top, they walked along side a metal fence, Takato being deep in though and Karu was keeping a sharp watch for people out of the corners of her eyes, Guilmon tagging along behind them. "Oh, this feels to out in the open," Takato said in distaste at the lack of hiding places the area had, "Where can we hide you?"
But then, Karu felt her heart tighten as her ears twitched, she instinctively narrowed her eyes as she inched her head to the side to see what caused this odd feeling, gritting her teeth with a dark growl. At the same time, Guilmon growled as his eyes turned wild and more reptilian, turning his head in the same way. This caught Takato's attention just in time to see a yellow, white-tipped leg land a strong kick right to the side of Guilmon's head, sending the poor dinosaur right into the fence.
"Hey!" The goggle-head shouted, while Karu jumped in front of the fallen dinosaur, eyes dark and narrowed with anger as she brought her fists up.
"What a wash lousy fighter," A familiar female voice drawled, making the two humans gasp as Karu's eyes lightened a little as she recognized the voice.
Standing by a nearby tree, was Rika, who they both recognized from the dream-like vision they (unknowingly to Takato) shared. "But a fight's a fight," The redhead said stoically with an un-emotionally expression.
"But…but I…I dreamt you," Takato stuttered in shock, making the redhead raise an eyebrow in confusion, but dismissed it as Renamon crouched in the tree branches above her. "So what, its time to fight," Rika said, "So clam up," She raised her arm toward her Digimon, "Renamon," She brought it down, pointing to the trio, "Walk all over him."
But poor Guilmon was literally seeing stars from being so dizzy from the kick and at realizing the intent of the girl's words, Karu suppressed her essential shock at actually seeing the girl from her vision and internal fear of the coldness of the girl who had deleted that poor Lynxmon in cold blood. She then felt Takato's immense panic.
"Hey, he's in no condition to fight!" Karu snapped causing the girl to actually notice her, "Your Renamon hit him so hard I wouldn't be surprised if he's actually seeing stars right now!"
"Not our fault he's such a lousy tamer he never saw her coming," The girl responded nocturnally, much to Karu's annoyed-anger as she tightened her fists as Takato flinched and looked crestfallen, "Now am-scray, you're obviously no tamer, so I have no use for you, Cave-girl."
"No u…? What are you some female Digimon Emperor?" Karu shouted her anger slowly creasing as the wind began to whip around them and Takato was the only one to notice the already bent metal of the fence Guilmon had crashed into started to bend even more, "And who are you calling 'Cave Girl'?"
'What the?' Takato thought confused. "And Takato is no lousy tamer, he just got Guilmon barely a week ago!" Karu continued her voice boarder-line shouting.
"Then like Tamer, like Digimon," The girl replied hardly fazed and ignoring Karu's 'cave-girl' question, "He's at least a Rookie, right?"
This made the two of them pause and share an unsure glance, Karu's stance drooping a bit, unable to think of a clever comeback. "Um…ugh…" Karu said unsure what to say, before they looked at the now recovered raptor. "Well…." Takato said as said Digimon just shrugged, not knowing the answer himself making Karu face-palm, "I'd have to guess so," He turned to look a the redhead his shy, quiet demeanour made her raise an eyebrow, "I honestly don't know, he's not exactly a normal Digimon."
"And why's that?" The she-tamer asked hand on her hip. "Um…well…" Takato said unsure how to explain how Guilmon came to be, Rika took this as a sign of lack of knowledge.
"Oh, how clever," She muttered in annoyance, earning a poisonous glare from Karu, which she pointedly ignored before saying to her partner, "Renamon." She then stepped back as Renamon walked forward menacingly, Karu immediately felt Takato's previously calmed panic return tenfold as her own battler's instincts got kicked into overdrive as she resumed her kick-boxer's stance.
"No, oh no; wait, wait!" Takato meekly shouted, while waving his arms, "Call her off, we don't wanna fight!"
"I knew you were a weak, mousy little boy with a pet Digimon!" Rika said unimpressed, "I'm surprised Fighter over there isn't the tamer; what do you think Digimon were made for?"
"Ugh, to be our friends?" Karu asked in a mocking, unimpressed tone that actually made Rika growl at her in annoyance for both the jab and not moving. "Karu…" Takato whispered with an immense feeling of dread.
"Oh, for Azlongmon sake, let's just get this over with!" Renamon said impatiently, never noticing a small, bright pink light hidden within one of her arm-bracers as she leapt into the air, "Now get out of the way, foolish girl!"
As Renamon prepared her Diamond Storm, eerily reminding both Takato and Karu of the vision, Takato's panic grew, mixing with Karu's own. "Oh no!" Takato shouted, "Guilmon, Hikaru; get out of the way!"
"Diamond Storm!" Renamon called out even though Karu didn't move. Alarmed, Takato grabbed the girl and yanked her away just in time to avoid being impaled by the sharp, glowing crystals, Guilmon, however, just stood there, his tough, diamond-hard hide acted like natural armour.
"Listen for once!" Takato whisper-yelled as he clung to a highly-startled Karu, who finally realized what would've happened had Takato not grab her.
However, Guilmon rose his head out of the smoke, eyes narrowed and dilated as he called out, "Pyro Sphere!" And fired a plasma ball at Renamon as she landed on a tree branch. Renamon was quick to dodge, causing the blast to take out part of the tree trunk.
"Or not," Takato whimpered as he clung to Karu, who's eyes were wide as she realized the similarities between Renamon and the fox in her recent vision as well as Guilmon and the other large red dinosaur Digimon.
As Renamon launched herself at Guilmon, who just stood there, she couldn't help but wonder, 'Who is this guy?' But then she finally noticed the glow and gasped, 'What?' She glanced over at the girl she nearly hit with her Diamond Storm.
Meanwhile, Rika was holding her Digivice and was looking at the same hologram Takato had when he was searching for Guilmon, only instead of a red pointer, it was showing her a picture of Guilmon. However, large red letters spelt out 'Digimon Unknown', much to her annoyance.
"Come on, some time today," Rika groaned in annoyance, "Why does it not have any data on Petmon over there?" She looked over and frowned, "What a pick of junk!"
Guilmon jumped up to meet Renamon's lunge halfway, sending both Digimon in a heap on the ground. When they started to roll around, Guilmon bit onto one of Renamon's arm-guards, which was incidentally the one that the glow was coming from. Renamon growled with effort to try and pry Guilmon off before he damaged the precious item hidden within her guard.
As this happened, Takato and Karu could only watch with wide eyes. "Guilmon, please!" Takato called out. "Takato…" Karu said as she noted the wild look in those once innocent-filled eyes, "I don't think he remembers we're here."
Fed up with the struggled, Rika fished out a card from the pouch that was on the back of her belt. "That's just plain sloppy, Renamon!" Rika said as the two took notice of what she was doing. "What now?" Karu asked.
Rika swiped the card through the slot on the Digivice, creating a pure white light, casting multiple shadows around her in a circle as she shouted, "Digi-modify! Armour activate!"
Takato could only gape, while Karu's eyes widened in alarm as Renamon's free paw turned into a metal cannon, which she aimed at Guilmon's head, but the dinosaur didn't seem to notice. "Guilmon…" Karu whispered in horror.
She was surprised when Takato yelled, "RUN AWAY! I'M BEGGING YOU!"
Rika however, smirked wickedly as she thought to herself, 'That's more like it.' Thinking with one blast, Guilmon would be finished. Hearing these thoughts made something in Karu snap as she turned her now growing her on the redhead.
"You…" Karu growled eyes flashing dangerously, before yelling, "You cold-hearted witch!" Rika looked over just in time with wide, surprised eyes to see Karu run at her and punch her in the face, sending the startled redhead flying onto the ground, before she could say anything, Karu tackled her and they started to roll around like the two Digimon were, scratching and pulling each other's hair.
"Karu, not you too!" Takato said miserably torn between who to help, before looking at Guilmon and whimpered once more, "Just when its my turn to be right, no one listens to me."
However, hearing this seemed to snap Guilmon out of it as he finally let go of Renamon's forearm, much to the fox's relieved-surprise as his eyes turned normal again. "Takatomon?" Guilmon said turning away from the fox, but she adjusted her aim, but he still didn't notice the cannon, "Was I not listening again?" He then ran towards his tamer just in time to avoid the airy blast of the cannon, which sent Renamon flying backward a bit, "I'm sorry, we play now?"
At this point, Rika had rolled herself over so she was on-top of Karu, who had a firm grip on a strand of her messed-up hair with one hand and pushing on her lower jaw with the other, while Rika herself had a grip on the girl's shirt and the other hand was on the ground by the girl's head to help the redhead support herself. At seeing this change of events, she called to her Digimon, "Renamon, now's your chance, don't mess this up!" She yelped at being pulled harshly by her hair by Karu who rolled them again so she was back on-top.
Renamon just stood there, both perplexed and surprised to see Rika doing the actual fighting, since she's never seen her tamer fight with anyone that wasn't necessary. Guilmon finally noticed the fight and titled his head curiously, while asking, "Takatomon, why is Karumon fighting that lady?"
Takato sweat dropped when Rika managed to squirm out of the brunette's grasp, only to be tackled by the enraged girl again. "I wonder if I should stop this," He said more to himself.
"I wouldn't if I were you," A familiar voice suddenly said, making the two Digimon and Takato look over to see it was the blue-haired boy and his Terriermon up on the hill. Sliding down in a rather cool-fashion, he added, "A wiseman once stated 'its very smart to never get involved in a cat-fight'." Takato stared at him dumbfounded, almost falling over.
"I-I-I-It's y-you!" Takato stuttered both surprised and shocked, surprised to see him and shocked by what he had said. "It's me, it's him; it's us!" Terriermon said with glee as he walked over as if two girls were having a petty brawl a few feet away, "Aren't you happy to see us?" He then said to Renamon, "You were pretty good out there, but you must've felt kind of silly, rolling around in the dirt like that!"
Renamon just stared at the little thing with wide eyes as if unable to believe her ears. "It's not exactly smart to mouth off to someone that's bigger than you," His tamer said wisely with a strained smile. "Henry, momentai!" Terriermon responded making the blue-haired boy, Henry Wong, to roll his eyes before looking at the girls with a wince as Karu landed a good punch on Rika again.
"What are they fighting about?" He asked raising an eyebrow as Rika elbowed Karu in the face, but the brunette girl didn't seem to register the hit, a murderous expression on her face that honestly scared even Rika and Renamon.
"No clue, Rika summoned that cannon and not a second later Karu called her witch and went AWAL," Takato answered looking rather unsure about to do, "She only does this when someone calls her the g-word or is stupid enough to try and hurt me or our friend Kenta." Henry raised an eyebrow at that.
It's not often you see a girl whose friends with two boys instead of being around girls, let alone a girl who didn't seem to mind picking fights. In all honesty he admired a girl who wasn't afraid to stick up for herself, but he was really concerned about how far Karu would let her anger go.
"Dark Angel, please…" Takato whimpered as he watched his friend fight with a girl they just met, "STOP!" He yelled this, surprising Henry since he hardly heard Takato so much as raise his voice before from the few times he's been around him, but his eyes widened upon seeing the tears that threatened to fall. Did seeing Karu like this really upset him that much?
At hearing the yell, just as she was about to punch Rika again, Karu's eyes widened as she finally got a grip on herself and blinked owlishly, as if coming out of a trance, before taking in the bruises on not just herself, but on Rika and the angry scratches. Not to mention the messy tangles from pulling on Rika's hair.
She looked over and was surprised to see Henry and his Terriermon, but upon seeing Takato's teary face, her anger disappeared as she lowered her arm and got off Rika, who scrambled away. "Takato…I…" She said in an almost quiet voice as she walked over, she hadn't meant to go so far that she nearly beaten the other girl.
"What were you all fighting about anyway?" Henry asked looking from Karu to Rika, who had been joined by Renamon, who was concerned for her tamer. "Well, what else are they suppose to do?" Rika asked him while pushing some hair from her face, "As for Cave Girl, who knows what set her off."
"How about the fact you were about to shoot Guilmon in the head for no good reason!" Karu nearly shouted as she shot the other girl a harsh glare, before noticing Takato flinch and instantly calmed down, pulling the goggle-boy into a tentative hug. They were surprised when Guilmon pushed himself between them, wanting to join the hug and cheer Takato up, which worked as Takato smiled brightly.
"Besides, Digimon can do whatever they want to," Henry added to Rika smiling a little at the interaction, "Their not our pets or slaves; their our friends!" He smiled as Terriermon climbed up his pets before pulling the Digimon into his arms, "They just wanna do the same things we do."
"Well, Renamon wants to fight," Rika stated as she fixed her hair before turning away, "So do I for that matter."
"Funny, you didn't seem to wanna fight me when I attacked you," Karu remarked earning a poisonous look from Rika, but she ignored it in favour of petting Guilmon, who purred at the attention. With that the female duo walked away, vanishing behind a hedge as they watched.
"Well, that went well," Takato said with a helpless shrug, much to Henry's disbelief, while Karu snorted and the two remaining Digimon giggled.
"Baby Dragon, you really are to nice for your own good," She stated matter-of-factly, making him blush while Henry raised an eyebrow at the nice name. "Baby Dragon?" He and Terriermon asked in amusement. "Because he mostly uses Dragon-Type cards," Karu answered before giving an uneasy smile as she remembered their previous encounter, "And…sorry, about before."
Both tamer and rabbit-Digimon grimaced a little as they too remembered the encounter, but for different reasons, before focusing their attentions elsewhere. "Nah, no biggie, I guess I kind of deserved it for letting Terriermon's behaviour get like that," Henry said with an assuring smile that he wasn't really offended by her snap as Terriermon climbed onto Guilmon's head, making the raptor laugh.
"So, you two are Hikaru and Takato, right?" Henry said wanting to make sure he got their names right. "That's right, but I prefer Karu," She answered as they continued searching for a hideout for Guilmon and upon following a stone staircase, they found it. It was an abandoned little place, probably an old, forgotten shed of shorts.
"We have some classes together, right?" Henry asked again. "Well, I've seen you plenty of times in my Arts Class," Karu replied. "And I've only seen you back at the school when…" Takato said trailing off as he looked at his Digimon Partner. "When Guilmon got board and came looking for ya," Henry finished for him with a chuckle.
"His own fault, leaving him at a construction site," Karu remarked frowning at her friend, who had the decency to look sheepish. "Really?" Henry asked raising an eyebrow at the male brunette. "It was the only thing I could think of at the time," Takato mumbled blushing up a storm, much to the two's amusements.
"Well, I'm Henry," The blunette smiled.
"I'm just sorry you had to see that," Karu said referring to her fight with Rika, "I honestly don't know what came over me."
"I've seen my older sister do worse, believe me," Henry assured with a wary chuckle. "I just don't get it though," Takato said as he watched Guilmon bounce Terriermon on his tail, "I mean, just look at them! How can that girl think their just here to fight? They remind me of the little cute critters back at the shelter."
"Expect they could probably eat the shelter out of business with their two stomachs alone," Karu joked as she leaned against the wall, while Takato sat on the cold floor, Henry standing next to him, hands in his pockets, "Maybe now the cafeteria staff with start putting on a lock."
"Hey, he probably saved our lives," Henry joked back giving a lopsided grin, "It was only a matter of time before they poisoned us!" This made all three of them laugh as he helped Takato up and had to admit, as tough a girl as Karu was, she was actually a nice person to be around, unlike the rumours he heard about her. To be honest he really wanted to ask her how she knew about him planning to give Terriermon a lesson in behaving properly, but wondered if Takato knew about her apparent ability, so he decided to keep the questions to himself for now.
"Now there's an idea!" She gigged her laugh like a little golden bell, "Maybe Guilmon can be our taste-tester!" This made the two chuckle along with her.
A shout made them look to see Guilmon had accidentally flung Terriermon right onto his head. "But then, we'd go hungry," Takato joined in much to their mirth.
"Hey, I'm hungry," Terriermon said from atop Guilmon's head. "But you just ate!" Henry said in disbelief and his partner just stared at him. "And your point is…?" The smaller Digimon asked before rolling down Guilmon's front while saying, "Momentai!" He then ran up and jumped onto Henry's back, clinging onto his vest with his little paws.
"Okay, dinner time," Henry chuckled before beginning to leave. As the remaining trio watched Guilmon suddenly nudged his tamer's friend, surprising her as he said, "Takatomon, Karumon, I'm hungry too."
"Oh no!" Karu said playfully "Look what you've started!"
"Hey, what does momentai mean anyway?" Takato asked as politely as possible. Instead of Henry answering, Terriermon did, "Haven't you caught onto it by now, it means 'take it easy'!" As they watched the duo walk away, Guilmon let out a purr as he nuzzled his tamer, making the remaining two humans laugh.
"I should be getting home too," Karu said with a thoughtful smile, "Don't want to give Dad another heart attack."
"You won't want me to walk you home?" Takato asked her. "Shouldn't that be my line, Mr. Unbeatable?" Karu teased while nudging him playfully, making him blush in embarrassment as he remembered that she took on four high-school boys by herself and came out without so much as a scratch or bruise.
"Just be careful," Takato requested. "No promises!" She said in a sing-song voice as she headed off, stopping at the bottom of the stairs to wave at the duo for a moment before running off again.
Takato smile before realizing something and shouted, "Wait, how are you going to..." But seeing she was already gone, made him finish quietly, "Explain those bruises to Mr. Shiota..." He sighed.
As Karu walked down the empty-ish streets towards her home, her mind played over today's events and realized that aside from the vision when she was entering the school, she had no other migraines or even remotely similar episodes today since. Though she had to admit being able to feel others emotions and hearing their thoughts was rather creepy and odd, since it never happened before. Let alone having a violent episode like that for such a small reason.
As Karu mused on today's events, she never noticed two different figures watching her. One being Impmon, who was watching her from above on a lamp-post. He wasn't sure why he's been watching over the girl since the episode at the hospital, but there was something about her that drew him in, made him want to make sure she's okay, something he hadn't felt since he left the twins. He was honestly surprised to see her wearing his bandanna on her wrist but in an odd way, it made him crack a smile, never noticing the same pink glow coming from beneath his glove like it had Renamon's.
The other figure, however, was hidden well within the shadows high atop a building, in his hand was a little silver badge with a single pink crystal in its center with two little pale yellow wings. It too was glowing pink just like whatever was hidden in Impmon's glove, only his had an ever lower dim. The figure looked from the badge to the girl as she went inside a human training facility and hugged a young human male with longish-brown hair and eyes.
Giving Impmon a knowing, yet wicked grin, the figure vanished leaving not a trace of itself behind accept a single wet boot print on the alley floor.
Me: Whew, that took forever!
Rika: You weren't exactly helping yourself you know.
Me: Hey, people wanted 'Sleeping Viking and the Snow Wings' and 'Siren' updated, how could I say no?
Rika: *groans*
Takato: So we've met Rika...
Kazu: And I totally handed her butt to her!
Kenta: Someone's had a change of heart!
Takato: Not to mention re-introduced Henry and Terriermon.
Me: Yeah, and Impmon, but who was that other figure? Well, that's for later.
On that note, I have the current results of my poll:
Myotismon and Ranamon are tied for first with 1 and everyone else hasn't been voted for yet, so who will be Karu's new partner? The repenting vampire or the legendary warrior of water? Or will it be the former demon lord of pride? The former henchman or the former she-devil? It all up to you guys!
Till next time!
Ryo: And remember the golden rule!
Everyone: NO FLAMING!