Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Less than Human

Chapter: 7/ Breaking Silence

Terriermon glanced around the playground, his ears twitching slightly, his eyes reading a mixture of confusion and worry. The boy whose shoulder that he stood on looked over at him and gave the long eared digimon a comforting smile.

"I'm sure that they'll be here Terriermon. After all, they did announce that school was to be reopened today last week. And they were there for it then…"

"How would you know, Henry?" Said Terriermon. "I mean, no offence, but you're not even in the same class as those two goofballs are. You can't possibly know what they know about what they're teacher told them concerning school when it got closed down last week."

"All right. I'll concede that point but in case you forgot, Kazu spent most of the walk home that day complaining about something involving Ms. Asagi…"

"Which was strangely inaudible I might add seeing as how it's Kazu," said Terriermon.

"Well," said Henry, smiling wistfully. "You've heard the stories about her from the others just as much as I have."

"True, but I hardly call that evidence that Kazu and Kenta know enough to remember that school is back on today. I know that it's a teacher's duty to tell you guys about this stuff but don't you think that maybe this one time she might have…"

"Aren't you giving Kazu and Kenta a little too much credit?" Asked Henry with a knowing smile, even though in all honesty he would have done so himself. The opportunity though to tease Terriermon about it, with the rabbit dog's view that both Kazu and Kenta were rather empty headed inside, was just too good to pass up.

And just like that Terriermon fell into it. Or so the dark haired boy thought.

"You've got a point there, but tell me something: if those two are late because of their lack of brains and attentiveness then where's Jeri?"

Henry sighed.

"You're just doing this to prove me wrong aren't you?"

"Well it would be nice to hear you admit it just once…preferably when a digimon isn't attacking though…"

"Don't jinx us then," said Henry with a laugh. Looking up at the clock that sat on top of the dinosaur dome that was the usual meeting place of the Tamers before school Henry sighed again. "Well, we might as well get going or else we're going to be the ones who are late."

"What do you mean we?"

Before Henry could even pose a response to his partner's rather sarcastic (and correct) question, the familiar sound of Jeri Katou's voice hailing him from at the edge of the playground caught his attention. Smiling a little the half-Chinese Tamer turned and nodded in greeting to his friend.

"It's about time," said Terriermon crossing his little arms and pretending to scowl at the girl as she came to a stop in front of them, smiling happily. "Henry here was starting to think that you had thrown in with Kazu and Kenta…or even worse took up Takato's habits."

Henry rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Terriermon…"

Jeri giggled.

"No. My dad just wanted my help with something that was he thought would only take a minute and…well, it took a little bit longer than he thought."

Henry nodded as the three of them began to make their way towards the school.

"So I take it that we should be expecting Kazu and Kenta to be held back for detention today?"

"Maybe. I was going to have a talk with Ms. Asagi about that if they did show up late. You see they took it upon themselves to work for Takato's parents while he's visiting his cousin and…"

"Gah!" Terriermon suddenly began to pinwheel on Henry's shoulder, his little paws twirling about in a mad attempt to balance himself.

"Ah!" Exclaimed Henry as reflexively he brought up his arm to try and help his partner out. "Terriermon! You okay?"

"Oh yeah," said the long eared digimon as he gripped his partner's head with his ears. "I'm fine. Just…" Terriermon turned to Jeri and gave her a worried, scrutinizing gaze. "Did you just say that Kazu and Kenta were working at Takato's bakery until he got back?"

"M-hm." Jeri nodded.

Terriermon bowed his head and gave a shaky breath.

"And I thought that I've heard everything. Next you'll be telling me that Rika joined in on the fun too…"

"Actually…" Jeri began only to be interrupted by Terriermon's body hitting the ground with a plop sound. Henry sighed again and bent down to pick his partner up.

"If you keep this up Jeri you're going to end up killing him."

"Sorry."

Henry shrugged.

"At least this way he'll be quiet for a little while. Anyway, you were saying about Kazu and Kenta?"

Jeri nodded again.

"Yeah. They volunteered to help out at the bakery for…well, just about everything. Even getting up extra early in the morning to pitch in." Jeri tapped her chin thoughtfully as she remembered in detail what Kazu's response had been when he had been told about that little detail. "Somehow I don't think that he was quite expecting it, but surprisingly he took it rather well. He only complained once and then turned around and said that he'd do it."

Terriermon made a sound of commiseration at that.

"So what was Rika doing there?"

Jeri smiled as she thought back on that particular memory.

"She was with me, and we wanted to make sure that those two didn't goof up. I don't think she gives them enough credit though. They weren't doing half bad when we worked with them."

Funny. I was saying something along a similar line of thought to Terriermon earlier, thought Henry as said partner took a moment to clamber on top of Henry's head and sit there, looking for all the world like he was torn between passing out or throwing up. For his sake, Henry hoped it would be the former and not the latter.

"Anyway, I don't think that she'll be doing that sort of thing as often as those two. She seemed to have a lot on her mind when I met up with her yesterday."

Henry nodded in agreement. He could understand that. Seemed like everyone had something on their mind lately

The two of them walked in silence for a minute.

"So…how are you doing Henry?" Asked Jeri quietly.

Henry frowned slightly as he pursed his lips into a thin line, unsure as to how he should answer that question. He didn't usually talk about things that bothered him unless it was someone like his father or his teacher (and more often than not it was his teacher), though he did occasionally with Takato and at times Rika whenever she was willing to lend a sympathetic ear. He didn't know precisely why this was, and why this trait had heightened itself these past few weeks, although if he were to hazard a guess he supposed that it had something to do with the battle with Lucemon, the day that he had lost complete control of himself; abused his partnership with Terriermon and nearly killed Rika and Renamon.

Who am I kidding? Thought Henry to himself. That might as well be the reason why I've been keeping things inside of me more. I haven't even talked about it with Terriermon, or anyone else for that matter, with any great amount of detail since that day. Rika, Renamon, and Terriermon said that they understood and forgave me but…I guess that…I haven't forgiven myself…for what I came so close to doing.

As Henry thought about Jeri's question, the image of Sakuyamon placing herself in front of Lucemon as he unleashed the full fury of his Mega form's arsenal flashed through his mind and he involuntarily shuddered. Seeing this, Jeri reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Henry?"

"I don't know Jeri," said Henry finally. "I wish that I did but…I don't. I keep thinking back to that last battle with Lucemon and how angry I felt for what he did and how he didn't care about it at all."

Henry felt Terriermon shift on top of his head, but at the moment he said nothing.

"There was a time, shortly before I became a Tamer that I was playing a digimon computer game. I had selected Terriermon as my partner," Henry smiled remembering the little nutball's antics that he had pulled when he had been selected. But the smile quickly vanished as he continued with his tale. "But then we encountered a Gorillamon…a real one that had somehow bio-emerged into the game, altering it so that no matter what I did I couldn't shut it down. The two of us fought back and managed to defeat him. Terriermon digivolved to do it and…well, he went out of control in his counter attack. After that I had a talk with my dad, and he told me about how that was just how the game worked, laughing at how I took it so seriously. But it was serious. I had never thought about it at the time but all those digimon that were in that game…they were real and I hurt them. Hurt them using Terriermon as a weapon, and when he arrived into the real world…"

Henry halted, realizing that he was narrating a little too much now. Jeri had already become familiar with some of their stories about how they had all become digimon Tamers. While she showed no signs of interrupting him, he felt that it was better if he just moved on to what he was trying to get at with his explanation.

"Takato and I used to talk sometimes about whether or not we'd be able to control our digimon when they digivolved. We had some trouble in the beginning after all…"

Jeri nodded, not interrupting or saying anything in response, simply content with letting the boy speak from his heart. Even if she weren't already aware that Gargomon had nearly killed Rika in a parking garage while she was trying to load Guilmon's data, she still wouldn't have interrupted him. She felt that it was far more important that he let out the fears that he had been holding in these past few weeks than to remind her of any specific details that she already knew about.

"…And I know Rika was afraid of it once after her encounter with IceDevimon. But the one thing that we never considered for the longest time was how our partners would react if we couldn't control ourselves."

Jeri nodded, still not saying anything even though their school was now starting to come into view.

"I thought that I had already learned that lesson," continued Henry. "Once, quite a while ago when I was just learning martial arts I hurt someone. Hurt them pretty bad. Ever since then I always tried to keep my emotions in check. For the most part I thought that I did okay with that. Not great, just okay. But now…after what happened with Lucemon when I nearly…"

Henry ceased talking as the two friends began to climb the steps that led to their school and came to a stop in front of the doors. Terriermon took a moment to hop down from his partner's head and glance up at him.

"Henry?" said Jeri after a second. "I can understand what you went through. I've had moments like that where I've just been nothing but angry at the world or at a particular person. We all have. I guess that it's important to you to feel as though you're in control of yourself but…sometimes you do need to let things out. Let things go, otherwise they build up and…" Jeri turned away, a look of shame crossing her face. "…Well. They…"

Jeri frowned, and her expression firmed.

"They can grow, and become something ugly. Something that you barely recognize as being a part of you."

Henry's face softened as he realized what she was talking about.

D-Reaper…

"I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't beat yourself up over what happened, and don't repress it either. It'll…" Jeri paused, trying to find the right words to say but not really doing a good job at it. She wasn't exactly used to this sort of thing. Besides, she was sure that Henry already knew most of this anyway.

Just needs a friendly reminder, thought Jeri to herself, hoping that she didn't come off sounding bad with what she was trying to say.

"Trust me. It can be much, much worse that way."

The two of them stood there for a moment, letting the words sink in. Finally, Jeri shrugged her bag's straps into a more comfortable position.

"Thanks Jeri," said Henry. "I guess that I needed to hear that. It's just that there's a lot about it that confuses me still and…well, thanks."

Jeri nodded and smiled.

"Just remember, we're all there for you if you ever need to talk."

Henry smiled and nodded.

"I'll remember that. Thanks again, Jeri."

With that said, Henry bowed to his friend, who blinked in surprise before smiling herself and opened the school door.

"You coming?" She asked.

"In a minute. I've just got to say 'bye' to Terriermon here."

"Why bother? You know that you're just going to see me in a few hours anyways…"

Henry sighed.

"It's just the principle of it Terriermon…"

"You can be so weird at times, you know that Henry?"

Jeri giggled as she went inside and left the two friends alone. Terriermon looked up at his partner.

"She does have a point you know. All that stuff that she said? Even Takato would have a few words to say on the matter."

"I don't doubt it," said Henry before looking down at his partner and then getting down on one knee to look at him better. "Hey Terriermon. I just want to say that I'm sorry again for what happened that week. I shouldn't have lost it like that."

"Hen-ry!" Exclaimed Terriermon. "How many times do we have to go over this? You don't have to apologize to me! What's that you're teacher's always saying to you? 'Apologize to yourself?' Boy, even before Rika became our friend she hit you on the nail right away. You can be a broken record sometimes. Now get in there and get to class before you're late!"

No sooner than the words left his mouth the bell that signified the start of classes suddenly rang out loud and long, causing both Tamer and digimon to look first at the clock and then at each other with an expression of both surprise and resignation.

"Um…momentai?"

"Terriermon…"

The two friends suddenly broke into laughter.

"I'll see you later, Terriermon," chuckled Henry as he got up and headed towards the door.

"Bye!" said Terriermon, waving an ear at his friend before bouncing away to get out of sight.

The morning sun found Impmon sitting at the open window of his Tamer's home, looking out at the twin towers of the Hypnos building, feeling the wind play on his skin as the morning sun warmed it. He heard the noises of his partners as they woke themselves up, or rather Ai did. Mako was still sound asleep in bed, snoring away.

Lazy, thought Impmon good naturedly as he sat there, thinking, pondering about all the possible things that he could do today, but for the most part he wasn't really focusing on them. There was something else that held his attention at the moment, something that he considered very important, as important as the friendship and love of his two Tamers.

Jeri…

The all too familiar image of the brown haired girl and her smiling face, accompanied by an imagine woof from her sock puppet made Impmon's expression fall a little. When he had come home yesterday after leaving Renamon behind at Hypnos he had been told that Jeri had stopped by to say hi to him. It saddened him a little that he had missed her and he was almost curious enough to go find her and see her but…but he didn't. Thoughts from earlier that day had stopped him from doing so. Just what was it that had stopped him from entering Hypnos and asking to see someone who could help him? Renamon's presence? Jeri and Rika's being there as well (he was fairly certain that it was them, after all, Rika's distinctive hair style was a dead giveaway. Well, that and the fact that they had both entered Hypnos)? Of course, he still had some doubts about this idea of his. Doubts that had some validity from Takato's recent experience with trying to bring Guilmon back on his own. And Jeri…yes, there was Jeri to consider. If she knew that he was thinking about trying to remove Leomon's data from his own she might try to talk him out of it. He couldn't say why he thought that, except perhaps out of concern of what something like that could do to him. Always, always her first thought would be about someone else, and he didn't think that it would be a good idea for her to know…if he decided to go through with it that is, if it were even possible in the first place.

And she would talk him out of it too. That was just how she was. She cared about others too much to worry about her own personal happiness, and it was that happiness that Impmon wanted to restore to her.

Just like Hypnos did for Takato with Guilmon.

Impmon raised one hand and set it outside. A red fireball flickered to life above one glove covered fingertip and he set it to dance there for a bit as he thought things over.

The sound of something stamping on the floor…hard…snapped Impmon out of his thoughts.

"Got 'im," crowed a childish voice triumphantly.

"Huh?" Impmon enquired as he turned around, looking curiously at one of his Tamers, Ai, as she stood in the room, one foot planted firmly on the ground triumphantly. "Got who?"

"Just a fly," said Ai in a satisfied voice as she raised her shoe and picked the freshly crushed insect off from beneath her foot. "Mako's been complaining about it for days now and I finally got it for him."

Ai looked up at her and her brother's partner with an expression that looked so proud and happy, and hoping to see something of the same measure in Impmon as well. Impmon for his part however felt a little bit of disappointment make its way into his heart.

"You know, this window here was open. I'm pretty sure that it could have flown out on its own. Either that or you could have just caught it and let it out."

"But it's a fly," said Ai, tilting her head to once side, confused as to why Impmon wasn't happy with her for killing it. Her mother certainly didn't have any qualms about doing so with those bugs.

"Yeah, so what?" Asked Impmon as he hopped down from his perch and strode up to his partner. "That fly ever do anything to you? What if it was you're grandmother?"

Ai just giggled.

"Grandma's not a bug."

Impmon came to a stop in front of the girl.

"Okay, so it wasn't. But what if it was someone else's grandma? Or better yet, what if someone came along and wanted to squash your grandma? Would you like that?"

The little girl looked at Impmon, taken aback by the diminutive digimon's attitude over a simple fly. No one ever complained when she and Mako killed one before, so why now?

"Impmon? Are you all right?"

Impmon placed both hands on the girl's shoulders and looked fully into her eyes.

"Tell me somethin' Ai," he said, bypassing the girl's question. "How would you feel if someone just decided to step on you for existing?"

Unsure as to why Impmon was at all behaving like this (and all over a fly of all things) Ai simply shook her head, wanting to understand what was going on and hoping that her partner would explain it to her.

"I didn't think so," continued Impmon. "Now why would you want to do something like that to a critter that wasn't doing a thing to you. That couldn't…well…harm a fly?"

"I…" Ai scrunched her eyebrows as she thought hard, trying to understand the whole reason for this unexpected turn of events and answer Impmon's question at the same time. "…I don't know. I guess 'cause…I saw Mom do it. And…sometimes they…they…bug me!"

Ai smiled at her own joke, wanting to laugh at it, but the expression on Impmon's face kept her from doing that. Why? Why did he not look happy with her? Did she do something wrong? It was only a fly…

"Ai. I want you to listen to me, and listen good. And pass it on to Mako when he gets around to waking up too. You have to think more about what kind of consequences you're actions will have on others!"

"Conse…quen…ses?" The girl questioned, pronouncing the word carefully. That made Impmon smile a little, remembering a time when he had been dragged into helping her practice her spelling and things had wound up with her trying to teach him how to read. Something that had helped him out quite a bit (and could have used ages ago in fact). If nothing else he could now tell what kinds of box wrapped objects were unsafe to eat without resorting to the trial and error process.

"Basically how you make others feel by the stuff that you do. Remember how I left you guys because you and Mako used to fight all the time? It's something like that."

Ai nodded, a little bit of understanding entering her young mind. But, the way he had said that. Did that mean that he was going to leave them again? Because of that fly?

"Anyways, as I was saying. You have to think about what you do, because before you know it you might end up hurting someone. That fly you killed, it may not be the most important thing in the world to you but it might have been to someone else. I…did something like that once, and I took something important away from someone. All because I saw it as a fly, and I caused a lot of trouble afterwards. I've regretted it ever since then too. Do you understand now?"

"I…think so," said Ai nodding carefully. She did get it after a fashion, but she didn't know why he was acting this way.

"Glad to hear that," said Impmon giving the girl a powerful hug. One that was gratefully returned. After a few seconds Impmon pulled away and strode over to the open window.

"Anyways," said Impmon with a smile on his face and a thoughtful, and happy tone to his voice. "Give your brother my love for me. I'm going out for a bit."

Ai blinked.

"Huh? W-where are you going? Impmon. Is everything okay?"

Impmon turned to look at Ai. He was still smiling.

"Remember what I said about how I took something from someone that it was important to? I'm going to see if I can't give it back."

And with that Impmon sprang out of the window like a bullet that had just been fired from a gun.

I promise Jeri. I'll make it all better again…

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