Authors Note: Story time: Deer are not dogs.

Also call out to Wolffury who got the characters Crazyeight and I wrote last chapter correct! This chapter, the characters which you all have to guess are: Yamaki, Riley, Tally, Rika, Takato and Jeri. Can you guess them all?

Chapter 07: Long Distance

The room was dark, save for the glow of the screens built into the walls, illuminating the three individuals seated within. Two women swiveled around from screen to screen on chairs attached to rotating pedestals, typing away on their control panels. Relevant information was fed to them via the visors that obscured their faces, though they in no way encumbered them in their tasks.

Below the women sat a man, wearing sunglasses – an odd choice of facial-wear given that the only light in the room was the dim screens surrounding them – and flicking a lighter in one hand, slowly, methodically, like a beat of a heart. It was an old habit, brought about by his other habit of quitting smoking, a quest that many assumed now to be impossible due to the stress his job entailed. He himself didn't care. Whether his ultimate fate came by way of tar destroying his lungs or the bullet of a madman, he would meet it as he always did; on his feet and doing his duty to his government, despite their foolishness in believing in a world that allowed them to be free and safe so long as they stood vigilant against the slings and arrows of misfortune.

He studied the data being fed to him in the screen in front of him and he leaned back in his chair, his thumb once again flicking open his lighter before snapping it shut with a heavy click.

There it is again, Yamaki thought, frowning as he finished reading the diagnostics report – one of many. It can't be just a simple glitch in the system anymore. Not with our recent upgrades. There has to be something more.

Still, this was only the beginning. They hadn't yet finished testing everything. Perhaps this was only one glitch – something in the new systems not meshing well with older equipment.

Yamaki didn't buy that theory however. The scanning equipment – a holdover from when their organization had run under the different name of Hypnos – had seen its changes because of what they were detecting.

"We're getting another reading, sir," Riley informed him, breaking the silence of the clacking of the keys, whirling of the machines and irritating click of her boss' lighter. "Atmospheric readings are the same as they were five minutes ago ... there seems to be some clouds in the quadrant, but nothing that can affect our sensors."

She swiped her hand across the keyboard, pulling up some more graphs as she checked atmospheric conditions, weather patterns, electronic readouts ... anything which could possibly account for the abnormalities in the system.

Everything was the same. Everything was normal. There was no rhyme or reason for the abnormalities.

There has to be something though, she thought as she furrowed her brow as she squinted at the numbers in front of her.

"Abnormality disappeared," Tally announced suddenly before sighing. "Again."

"Where?" Yamaki asked, looking up at the two. "West Shinjuku again?"

"Again," Riley confirmed as she pushed up her visor, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment only to see the endless numbers run in front of her eyelids, melding together in a confusing mess.

I need a break, she grumbled to herself, knowing that it was very unlikely she was going to get one anytime in the near future.

"West Shinjuku…" Yamaki murmured. "Why is it always this city? It's almost like…back then…"

No. Yamaki couldn't afford to dig up that old file. It was bad enough that his superiors saw him as something of a crackpot for that incident. He came away with no solid, conclusive evidence then, resulting in millions of taxpayer money spent chasing ghosts. This was looking to be the same as well, which did not bode well for him.

"Very well," Yamaki began, clicking his lighter shut once more. "Expand search parameters. We'll begin as we did before the upgrade and compare searches with this… glitch. Tally, I want you to pay attention to drone and satellite images for any abnormalities we might be missing. Riley; your job is to cross reference cell phone and email communications within the targeted areas with areas outside of Shinjuku. We'll be doing this by the book for the time being."

Our new superior should have nothing to complain about once she arrives, Yamaki thought, a part of him hoping that would be the case.

###

"She deserved to know," Rika's said, her voice quiet as so it didn't carry throughout the large home lest her mother or grandmother heard her talking and started making wild assumptions. Her index finger wrapped around the black string which held the yellow ball of fluff to her cell phone - she had the charm since she was a child, she didn't even remember who gave it to her - as she pressed the phone closer to her ear.

There was a heavy sigh on the other end, signaling a measure of frustration from Takato. "I don't know," he replied. "It's just...I'm worried. We still don't know much about what's going on, and… I just don't want her to get hurt, okay?"

On the other end of the phone, Takato ran a hand through his hair, feeling conflicted about the situation. He had wanted desperately to keep Jeri out of this if at all possible, and now that had been taken away. A thousand what-ifs ran through his mind, everything from aliens to Jeri hurting herself on purpose due to… But no. Takato's mind refused to venture any further down that dark path. He was half-afraid that by giving voice to it, his fear would become a reality.

Those versions of us… They're from the past. But is that all there is to them?

Rika had touched one of them and seemed to 'remember' something. What if that happened to Jeri? Who knew how that would affect her? She hadn't exactly been happy when she was younger after all.

"I let her know about your concerns," Rika assured him as she leaned against the wall, her violet eyes traveling upward at the ceiling. "She understood them, but made her choice. I don't think you or I have any right to make a decision for somebody else, just like a decision shouldn't be made for us."

The freedom of choice … that was something she didn't like taking away from anybody, knowing first-hand how awful it was to be denied to her. Mother meant well with all her instances, at least she knew that mentally. Still, she couldn't help but feel furious and frustrated each time her mother suggested she try on another dress or model in front of another camera. No matter how many times she said it, mother just didn't seem to understand she didn't want to be like her.

Takato sighed again. "Okay," he said, surrendering to the fact that the decision was completely out of his hands regardless of his worries. "Thanks for letting me know. Is she okay?" He coughed. "The last time I talked to her...uh...was...a while ago."

"She's doing well enough. She took things rather well, you know, all things considering," she said, a ghost of a smile appearing on her lips as the memory of Jeri drifted through her mind as she leaned forward like a small child, hanging on to every word Rika said.

Her smile fell as she fell quiet for a moment, remembering what else Jeri had told her - even if it wasn't completely unintentional besides to blame her for it - at least at first.

"She told me you had a fight with Kazu," she said after a minute, unsure how to go about bringing up the subject matter. It wasn't really any of her business who Takato had a fight with, but it seemed she was in the middle of it … and, well, she was curious of to how she was involved. "Are you doing OK?"

"I…" Takato hesitated, not enjoying the memory as it all came back to him. The harsh words. The actions that couldn't be taken back. A friendship that had been there for years now in ashes. "I don't really want to talk about it," he finished, pushing his feelings to the back of his mind - at least for the time being. "I'm still kind of mixed up about it. I shouldn't have lost my temper." He paused again before continuing. "I don't think I can be friends with them again. Not after that."

"You lost your temper?" Rika asked incredulously as an amused snort escaped her nose. She tried to picture Takato being mad, but she just couldn't. All she could picture was a flustered chibi Takato flailing his arms as smoke poured out of her ears around before she grinned a bit. It was a cute mental image.

"Yeah," Takato replied, his tone depressed. "Like I said, I'd rather not talk about it. I...didn't leave them in a good light. I felt…"

Takato bit back his reply, remembering the heat of that moment and the aftermath as he stormed away, desperate to be anywhere where his now-former friends weren't. The fear he had seen in their eyes… In that moment he saw how he looked to them. Out of control. A monster. He could feel himself starting to shake a little at the memory, but he clamped down on it with as much strength as he could muster and his body stilled.

"...never mind," he finished finally.

"Mn …" Rika hummed for a moment, worrying her bottom lip and her body fell to the side as she sprawled across the floor like a lazy cat. And just like a cat, her curiosity wasn't one to be easily satiated - at least when she was possibly involved. "Was I involved in this fight? Jeri seemed to infer I was."

There. Blunt. Straight to the point. Lacking in any social etiquette.

Takato pressed his lips together. Although he couldn't blame Jeri, he found himself a bit annoyed that she would go straight to Rika about this and then blamed her for it. Rika hadn't done anything wrong.

Well… She doesn't think that anymore, he reminded himself. Rika told her everything and managed to get proof for her to see.

"Kazu said...a lot of things," Takato began carefully. "If I told you, you might try to kill him."

"Takato, cleaning up murder scenes is a lot of work," she told him with a straight face before remembering that he couldn't see it before a small smile cross her lips. "I promise I won't commit homicide if that makes you feel any better though."

"It doesn't really," Takato said. "Look. I don't think Kazu really meant anything that he said. He was angry with me and he was drunk. He's...got a bit of a jealous streak to him. I don't think he'd have said all that stuff if he had been sober."

"You're only making me more curious," she said as she rolled on to her back and wondered what exactly Kazu said. She kicked her legs up and down, pondering what Takato meant as well by jealous streak and what that had to do with her?

"He...called you a half-breed," he finally admitted, realizing that Rika was only going to pester him until she dragged it out of him. He could hang up, but there was no guarantee that she wouldn't call him back up. For some reason it didn't occur to him that she still didn't know where he lived, preventing her from immediately seeking him out at his abode.

Not that it would have stopped her anyway, as the Internet and the phone book - as amazing as it was for such a thing to still exist in this day and age - would have provided her with all the information she needed to track him down should she have the whimsy to do so.

"Pfttt - hahahahaa!" Rika snorted before full out laughed, holding her stomach as the mirth ran through her and her body shook as her shoulders moved up and down. She was worried over a racist comment? She had heard worse too - it wasn't like she wasn't used to be ostracised for being a hafu. It wasn't even something that got her riled up anymore. In the past, maybe, but she was a bit proud of her heritage - it made her different. Special. "That's it? Oh thank kami. I thought …"

You lost your friends because of me and the things only we could see. That my actions really did cause harm.

"I don't know really. I'm glad it was nothing serious," she said, her true thoughts not crossing her lips. It seemed trivial now, and a weight which had been resting on her chest felt as though it had been lifted.

"You're...not mad?" Takato asked, perplexed by this unexpected behavior.

"Takato, have you seen me? I'm obviously not fully Japanese - I've been mistaken as a foreigner so many times I lost count already. I've been experiencing this stuff since I was a kid. You sort of get used to it real fast," she said as she managed to regain control of her breathing. Her hand reached for her hair and threaded the short locks around her finger. While everyone always said she looked just like her mother with each passing year, it was always her bright red hair which her father gave her that she loved the most. "It's something you just need to learn to deal with. Besides, I like who I am and being half. An idiot like Kazu making a stupid remark isn't going to ruin that for me."

"Oh… Uh… Okay." On the other end, Takato scratched the side of his face in uncertainty. That Rika didn't want to pound Kazu's face in the ground because of this like she did the first time she met him just felt...odd to him. Still, he was glad that she seemed to be okay for the most part.

Still… Does she have to put up with it? he wondered. It didn't seem fair.

"Don't worry about me, Takato," she said softly, blowing a piece of stray hair out of her face, a serene smile playing across her face. "I'm a big girl. Still, thanks. I do appreciate it." She chuckled a bit as she closed her eyes. "They didn't know how good they had it though. Even now, you're worried about them. You're an idiot, but I like that about you."

Takato blushed a little, not sure how to take that, but decided to look no further than the surface level of her words. "Um… You're welcome and thanks?" Had it good? he wondered, shaking his head. Just because I'm worried? It was a strange notion, but it didn't matter. "Um… Anyway, I've got to go." Even though Rika was on the other end, he still jabbed a finger over his shoulder to indicate the action. "I...guess I should give Jeri a call and apologize for, you know, not telling her the truth and getting into a fight with Kazu." He sighed. I am an idiot… "Thanks for letting me know and... you know. Stuff."

"Mn. Anytime, Takato," she hummed. "Pretty sure that is the sort of thing friends are for, right? Helping and listening to each other. Letting them know when they are being a complete idiot. I'll talk to you later, OK?"

"Okay," Takato nodded. "Later Rika."

With that, the phone on his end went dead as he hung up.

Rika kept the phone next to her ear for about 10 seconds before pulling it back and looking at the time they had spent talking.

An hour.

An hour … it took her forever to talk that long with Henry, and when she did it was mostly Henry dragging answers out of her to the best of his ability. However, since then, she had been slowly able to hold actual conversations and not one sided interrogations, and part of her was rather pleased about the natural flow of the conversation.

Well … maybe it was natural once upon a time, she mused as the smile fell from her lips as she pushed herself back up. The fact there was an apparition of a younger version of herself hanging out with not only Takato and Henry, but Jeri as well, had been gnawing at her conscious for a long time now. Something about it bothered her, and if she was honest, scared her.

Making friends was always hard for her. If it wasn't her half blood status, it was her power status. If it wasn't that, it was her attitude. Sometimes it was all three. She was fully aware how difficult she was as a child … and even up until recently. The constant angry haze which had seemed to cloud her mind was finally beginning to clear through Henry's meddlesome efforts. If anybody told her when she was 10 she would have friends, she doubted she would have believed them.

But … what if I did have friends back then? What happened? What did I do to lose them?

It was a question she wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer to.

###

Takato stood there for a moment, staring at the phone in his hands before hesitantly dialing Jeri's number, each button feeling as though his arms were tied to heavy weights. After what felt like an eternity, he finished dialing and he cradled the phone to his ear, listening to the ring tone.

What am I going to say to her? he wondered. Is 'I'm sorry' enough? What about what happened at the karaoke place?

It would seem that one way or another he would find out.

"Hello?" Jeri's voice came on after the third ring, a bit breathless as if she had sprinted to her phone.

Takato's heart almost jumped out of his chest and he nearly dropped the phone, having not expected such a response. She seemed… Well, he wasn't sure what she sounded like, but he didn't expect this.

"H-Hello, Jeri? It's me, Takato."

"Takato?" Jeri echoed a bit uncertainly as there was a bit of a pause. "Ah … uhm … how are you?"

Takato dry-swallowed. That sounded a bit closer to what he expected upon her answering. He felt his hopes dry up and die a bit there but he persisted.

"Jeri, I'm...I just wanted to say I'm really, really sorry for what happened at the karaoke. I...I haven't done a lot of smart things lately and...well, I'm sorry."

He wasn't sure what else to say really. This was the first thing that weighed the heaviest on his mind, and he had to know where they stood in order to proceed. Until then, there was a wall between them; one that was insurmountable until one of them made a move to break the first hole in it.

There was a momentary pause on the other line as Jeri looked at herself in the vanity of her room, her phone pressed against her ear. Clothes were thrown across the floor, laid on her bed, and she was holding the fifth outfit she was going to try on in her hands. Her face was still bare, and she hadn't done anything to her hair yet, but all of a sudden all her thoughts from a moment ago had suddenly run into a wall.

Licking her lips, she tried to find the words to say. Part of her was wondering why he was apologizing to her, especially when the whole mess was her fault anyway. And right now, of all times.

If Kazu hadn't agreed to help me, they would have never fought in the first place, she thought glumly. Really, the only thing good to come out of that night was to find out a relationship between herself and Takato was impossible - even now, her heart ached at the loss, but she supposed that you never really do get over your first love easily.

"No … it's OK," she said finally. "I'm sorry too … for … well a lot of stuff."

Trying to make him jealous. Blaming Rika for the mess. Not stopping the fight when she should have. Takato wasn't blameless, but she wasn't either.

"Don't say that!" Takato exclaimed. Catching himself, he took a deep breath to steady yourself. "It's okay. I know you were just concerned about me and…I…haven't really been a good friend lately. I can't pretend that I can make up for that but…I want you to know that I'm still there for you…if you want me to be there."

"You'll always be my friend, Takato," Jeri assured him, a small smile playing on her face as she decided that red wasn't her color after all and threw it to the floor with the others.

He's still the sweet boy after all, she thought, relieved. She was worried ever since she had that awful dream she was becoming scared of him - that something inside him had changed. But he hadn't. Not really.

A relieved smile drew across Takato's face and he felt some tension release from his body. Not much, but just enough to feel like a burden had just been eased.

"Thanks Jeri," he said. "How's…" he coughed. "How's Kazu doing?"

"Mnn," she hummed as butterflies fluttered uncomfortably in her stomach. Talking about her current crush to her ex-crush somehow seemed wrong - especially when she was getting ready to go on a date with him.

Part of her wondered if she should tell Takato they were going on a date, but the memory of their disastrous last hang out stayed her tongue.

"He's doing all right," she said finally, not sure what else to say.

"He is?" Takato blinked, perplexed. That didn't sound like Kazu. He thought that after the last time he saw him, he would be…well, sulking still. "Well…that's good. Great." He paused. "I really need to talk to him sometime and apologize. I just… I'm just not sure if this is a good time and if he'll even listen. He's been ignoring me ever since…you know."

"Yeah," Jeri said. "I think he just needs some time to cool down. I'll try talking to him ... see if that will help."

She planned to bring up the subject anyway - at least on the ghosts which haunted Takato and Rika. Now that she knew that what both of them were telling the truth, and there was something bigger at play - or at least that is what it seemed - there was no way she could turn her back on them.

Not only that, but she didn't like that a friendship had ended just like that, and that she had played a major hand in it. If there was anything which could be done to make things right, she was determined to find it.

"Thanks Jeri," Takato nodded. "Um…so… Rika said that the two of you talked and she…showed you evidence about what I was talking about at the karaoke? How…? Um… I'm not sure what to say. Um… How are you feeling about that?"

"It was really interesting!" Jeri gushed, glad for the change of topic and latched on to it like a lifeline. Finally, a safe subject. "I saw me and Rika - well a younger version of us. Well I didn't exactly see either - Rika took a photo of us, and I watched it disappear which was really weird. The photo I mean. She told me she had been seeing all this stuff for a year now. How about you? I wish I could see these things too ..."

"I only just started seeing these…whatever they are," Takato replied, scratching the back of his head. "I know this already sounds weird, but it was right before I visited Rika's house. I saw a younger version of me and I was walking with my made-up digimon, Guilmon. Only he was real for some reason. The photo on the train was supposed to be Rika sitting next to younger versions of myself, Henry and, well, Rika."

Takato thought about it for a moment. He hadn't seen anything new since the last time. Maybe it's like a weird disease that spreads? "I don't know. You might end up seeing something eventually."

"Oh I hope so. I would like to see digimon and younger versions of us too," Jeri hummed as she held up a green dress to herself, turning side to side in the mirror before deciding to try it on. Placing the phone on her vanity, she put Takato on speaker so she would be able to talk to him while getting ready.

"Also, you've been to Rika's house already?" she asked distractedly as she pulled the dress over her head wondering if the two were closer than friends before chasing the thought away.

It doesn't matter. As long as Rika isn't hurting him, I shouldn't interfere with his romantic life, she reminded herself even though a smaller voice whispered in the back of her mind; What is their relationship? Are they dating? Would he tell me if they were?

"Yeah," Takato nodded again. "I wanted to apologize for the…" He coughed politely. "…bad first impression Kazu gave her last month and Henry gave me her address. That was when I saw the other me with Guilmon and when I accidentally mentioned it…" He shrugged. "The rest is history. We've been looking to figure out what was going on ever since."

"She mentioned something like that," Jeri said, remembering that the other girl said she was relieved to have someone to validate what she had been seeing. If she had to be honest, looking back, it sort of put into perspective how alone Rika must have been. Guilt wrangled in her stomach again, and she suddenly didn't want to continue down this path of conversation either.

"... You've been keeping safe, haven't you?" she asked after a moment's pause, feeling obligated to keep the conversation going yet having no idea what to say.

"Oh yeah. I mean, besides me being myself, I've been safe." Takato chuckled. "Actually, if anything else, Rika's been keeping me out of trouble. She had to give me a talking to after I…ah…wasn't paying attention once."

He didn't want to say that he nearly got hit by a car so as to not worry her, but he didn't want her to worry all the same. Hopefully the notion that Rika kept track of him would be enough for her to feel relieved about Rika's presence in his life.

"What am I going to do with you?" Jeri complained as she twirled around in front of the mirror, making sure the cloth accented her good parts and hid the bad. While it wasn't perfect, it was good as she was going to get as the clock ticked closer to the time she was supposed to meet Kazu. "Well at least someone's keeping track of you when I'm not there."

Sitting down on a small tool, she rooted around for her brush. She wondered what exactly Takato had done that Rika had to keep him out of trouble. Even though it seemed she was nice enough despite the rumors, the fact remained she was a bit of a trouble child.

"Still ... kind of weird that Rika of all people is keeping you out of trouble," she admitted, meaning nothing malicious about it.

"How is that weird?" Takato asked, genuinely confused. "I mean, aside from the time she busted Kazu's nose, she seems to be a pretty nice person. At least once you get to know her."

"Well she does get into trouble a lot - at least she did in our first year. Her nickname didn't come out of nowhere - although I'm not sure if she actually sent someone to the hospital with a meatloaf anymore. I just remember thinking at the time it was impossible to believe that she was top of our grade," Jeri said quickly, trying to defend herself. She didn't want to seem like she was picking on Rika and making Takato upset again, now that they were talking. "She's calmed a lot down since then. I mean since talking to her, I do think she's nice and means well. Rather quiet though and seems to be completely oblivious to things around her."

Even if she was getting along with Rika - or starting to at least - a flicker of irritation of the fact she didn't seem to notice her existence even after being introduced still burned inside her.

"I see…" Takato scratched the back of his head, not really convinced. After all, he, Kazu and Kenta had something approaching bad reputations.

Kazu's is accurate though, so that's probably a bad example. "Well, maybe we just don't know enough about Rika. I mean, you know how rumors are and everything."

"Yeah," Jeri said, hoping to drop the Rika subject, as she finished combing her hair and turned on her straightener.

A pall of silence hung over the phone, leaving Takato uncertain as to whether or not he should keep her on. There didn't seem to be much left to say except…goodbye.

"Okay… Well…it was good talking to you again, Jeri. I was really worried that I had messed up even worse than usual. I…ah…better get going. My mom is giving me looks."

This much was true, as the Matsuki matriarch was just now poking her head into his bedroom, wondering what he could have been doing to be taking so long with joining them with the evening shift.

"Yeah. It was good talking to you as well," Jeri said truthfully. "I'll talk to you later?"

"Yeah," Takato agreed. "Later."

With that, they both hung up, and Takato leaned his head back against the wall of his bedroom. Mie was still standing at the door, eyebrow now raised in concern.

"Is everything all right dear?" she asked worriedly, seeing the odd expression on Takato's face.

"Hm?" Takato blinked, remembering that she was there and wanted him downstairs. Pulling away from the wall, he forced a grin on his face. "Oh yeah! Everything's fine. Just…peachy."

Pocketing his cell phone, he brushed past his mother and hurried downstairs to change shifts with his father in the kitchen. Making more bread suddenly seemed exactly what he needed to clear his head.

Authors Note: Real talk; Crazyeight and I are going to be touching on a lot of themes here, and we've been talking about how they affect the characters, how they would react in character to them as we try to keep to what we've seen in the show and all that sort of stuff. The ones that is sort of being touched on right now is racism, particularly the treatment of those who are of duel citizenship such as Rika and Henry in Japan. We've been reading a lot of stuff and testimonials, looking into things and trying our best to capture it correctly.

However, the thing is we don't live in Japan. We're Americans and we haven't experienced this sort of stuff for ourselves. And we really want to correctly represent that sort of struggle. So to anybody who could give us some pointers or stories or whatever, we would really appreciate it. The greatest thing we can do as writers I firmly believe is to the best of our ability accurately represent struggles that people go through and bring attention to them since not every struggle is the same.