CH 7
Daisuke's eyes shifted from place to place, nervously avoiding anything that might make noise. He'd had enough trouble for one night. Daisuke traced the treeline, the wind whipping across his clothes; dirty, worn, ripped in multiple places. His wounds had crusted over, but they still stung faintly if he concentrated on them. He was surprised he'd made it this far without suffering infection.
Light shown from ahead, bright and unwavering. Daisuke had to halt to cover his eyes. Where had that light come from? It certainly hadn't been there before. Gradually, Daisuke lowered his claws, leaping off into the trees and taking shelter in an oak, before glancing back in the direction the light was shining from.
A girl that looked about seventeen with fiery orange hair and an irritated scowl plastered over her face was walking with an exceptionally bright flashlight clasped in her hands. She was looking left and right in turn seemingly searching for something. Daisuke shrank deeper into the foliage, claws sunk into the wood of the tree.
When she stopped suddenly, Daisuke was sure he was done for. She glanced vaguely in his direction, and, much to Daisuke's relief, continued walking. Once she was out of sight, he hopped down from the tree branches, and began walking in the opposite direction that she had headed.
Daisuke's ears twitched when he heard footsteps approaching at an unnervingly fast pace. He knew that the clicking of his claws on the pavement would give away his location, but the only other choice was to stay put and let whoever it was find him. So he promptly gave up hopes of silence and raced off towards the forest again, the footsteps following.
Daisuke struggled through the thick debris, shaking tendrils of ferns off his tail and back claws. The footsteps were hot on his heels, gaining speed and crunching unceremoniously through dead leaves and twigs. Daisuke stopped abruptly, back claws caught under a conveniently placed root. He fell forwards, throwing his hands out in front of him to catch himself.
"I've never seen an animal do that before…" a female voice pondered aloud. Daisuke turned his head to see the girl with the fiery orange hair. Daisuke was extremely tempted to scare her off with a snarl or two, since he couldn't actually retort with words. Instead, he held his temper and waited to see what she did next.
"Come here boy! I've got some tasty treats here for you~!" She held out a handful of meaty dog biscuits. Daisuke shuddered. Geez he wasn't a dog! Carefully, he dislodged his claws from under the root, and rose to his full, meager height. He rested his claws on his hips and looked her straight in her forest green eyes, scowling. Ears erect, tail still.
"Eh? Y-you can stand up… g-good puppy?" the girl backed away slowly, laughing nervously, eyebrows upraised.
Daisuke turned and began walking again, deeper into the woodland, before he gracelessly tripped, not able to catch himself with his hands this time. He turned to see that he had not tripped, but rather the green-eyed girl had latched onto his leg.
Oh come on… how much longer is she going to bother me? Daisuke growled at her and she laughed. Laughed. Her eyes were brighter than before, glowing with an emerald fire.
"I don't give up that easy dragon-boy~" Daisuke scoffed. Dragon-boy? Daisuke growled again, shaking his leg irritably. The girl only clasped it tighter, using that time to grab his other leg. While he was thrashing, the girl grinned and hoisted Daisuke over her shoulder. He yelped in surprise and froze.
"Geez you weigh like nothing!" She marveled. "What are you made of, marshmallows?" Daisuke huffed as she carried him off.
Ken tapped Hikari's shoulder.
"What's a six letter word for hope?"
"TAKERU!"
"I was thinking 'expect' but…"
Miyako's cries halted and she peeked out from beneath her blanket, glancing anxiously at Takeru's bedding. Hikari looked at Ken, then at Miyako, then at Takeru's cold, empty sheets and was surprised when she felt tears welling at her eyes.
"How did… where… T-Takeru?" Hikari managed, before collapsing onto her pillow and letting her tears flow, not only for Takeru, but for Daisuke, and Iori. Ken looked at her for a moment, before going back to his crossword puzzle, scratching 'Takeru' into the boxes.
Miyako almost went over there and slapped him, before thinking better of it. He'd almost been reverted to a six year old, and you couldn't get angry at a six year old for not understanding a situation like this.
"I-I'm sorry Hikari-chan." Miyako said, quickly collecting herself and wiping her tears with the sleeve of her shirt.
Hikari quieted, looking red-eyed at Miyako. Ken only stared into space thinking of a five letter word for surprise.
"We need to get out of here and do something. I'm tired of just sitting around and wallowing in angst!" Hikari shook the teardrops off her cheeks and slammed her fist into her pillow with a muffled 'fmp'.
The words caught Ken's attention and he shot up, practically glowing.
"Can we go to the playground? Pleeeaaaasssseee?" Ken put on violet puppy-dog eyes.
Miyako melted at once, Takeru, Daisuke and Iori pushed to the corners of her mind temporarily. Hikari wasn't surprised, seeing as Miyako had long had a cutesy crush on Ken.
"Yeah of course~!" Miyako squealed. She faltered after she considered Ken's words. "A-and why, might I ask, do you want to go there?"
"Because it's fun! Don't you want to climb on the monkey bars with me? And play on the swingset?" Ken whipped out the watery, shiny eyes again.
"O-okay…" Miyako was less sure this time, but she still couldn't resist the pleads and begs. Ken lit up immediately.
"Yayyyy! Thank you... uh… Miyako-chan?"
Miyako nodded.
"Ken… chan…" She hesitated with the honorific, unsure how he'd take to it.
"Ken-chan…" Ken whispered. It was barely audible. "T-that's what he would call me… W-wor…" Ken paused, looking confused. "…I…forgot…"
"Wormmon…" Hikari breathed. Ken didn't hear her.
"Push me Miyako-chan!" Ken laughed, the swing he was seated on slowing down. Miyako nodded hesitantly, moving over and pushing the blunette on the back, fingers lingering on the ends of his indigo hair. Hikari was sucking on a piece of rock candy, seated on a bench nearby.
"Miyako-chan…"
"Hmm?"
"What's wrong?" Ken tilted his head like a puppy.
"Nothing's wrong Ken, let's go play on the slide now!" Miyako faked a smile. Ken looked confused for a second then sad, like he was fighting with himself. But just as quickly as it had began, it stopped and Ken grinned.
"Okay!"
Both were oblivious to the empty bench and the pigeon pecking happily at an abandoned piece of rock candy lying on the sidewalk.
Iori squeaked in surprise as Takeru unceremoniously grabbed him in his arms and fell from the window sill, landing hard on his knees. Takeru grimaced and set him down.
"Takeru-san!" Iori, eyes wide, found Takeru's hand and tried to help him up. The older male proved a bit too heavy for Iori, but Takeru eventually stood up on his own and looked around, ignoring the bloody mess of his knees.
On the ground near his feet, a set of pilot goggles were strewn across a field of broken glass, the lens amazingly intact. Takeru bent and picked them up, turning them over in his hands. They were speckled with dry blood; blood also splattering the ground outside the window.
"It seems the other test subject didn't get away entirely unscathed. In fact, it looks like he took quite a beating. The jagged glass most likely." Takeru said thoughtfully.
"So he's injured then? I wonder if he's okay…" Iori sounded sad.
"Wait… Iori look at these goggles. Don't they look familiar?"
"They're Daisuke's!" Iori exclaimed.
"I thought they looked like Taichi's goggles! I'd know them anywhere!" Takeru turned them over in his hands.
"Bursting Friendship… That's what Lighdramon says when he armour evolves!" Iori realized.
"That must mean that old psychopath fused Daisuke with Lighdramon!"
Iori nodded.
"How are we supposed to find him? He could be anywhere in Odaiba, heck he could be anywhere in Japan for all we know." Takeru chewed his lip. He started moving forwards, and, suddenly aware for the searing pain in his legs, grimaced and stopped.
"Ta-Takeru-san? Your legs…" Iori crouched down, tearing with some struggle a sizeable strip of cloth from his sleeve, and held the fabric to Takeru's wounds, despite the blonde's weak efforts to stop him.
"You ruined your shirt for me…" Takeru murmured.
"And you ruined your knees for me. Now we're even." Takeru only grumbled at the younger boy's logic.
Hero mentally cursed, seeing the shredded dog crates and the hardly noticeable blood trail from the crates to the window. He face palmed at his lack for forethought, honestly, you'd have thought he would've gotten the window space filled in or at least blocked after what happened last time.
Well, at least now he had the girl, and he figured out from the beginning that blondie was attached to her, so she'd make perfect bait. The smallish boy, Iori if memory served, seemed to follow blondie like a dog follows its master. He'd no doubt manage to smuggle his way into coming with blondie to save the damsel in distress.
Now the only thing he had to worry about was that nuisance of a masterpiece that seemed to attract trouble. If only he knew where that idiot Motomiya was, the rest of this would be a lot easier. The other girl wasn't a worry, but Hero was concerned about the supposed genius Ichijouji; if he figured out way to counter the transformation, or even reverse it completely, the entire thing would be for naught.
That brought him back to the girl at hand, and the problem that was her being nearly as aggressive as the boys. Hero had had her restrained, but she quickly proved herself irritatingly and surprisingly strong. The dog crates wouldn't do, seeing as the other two brats had ripped them open, and especially now with her claws it wouldn't be a problem for her to do the same.
Hero guessed he'd just have to find another way to hold her until her winged freak in shining armour came to rescue her.
