7. And Love With Pain

Homeostasis looks at him through Yagami Hikari's eyes, with none of the flaring exuberance that hides behind normally reddish-brown. Looks and looks, regards him.

"She says hello," she says in that mechanical cassette tape voice that Hime had used whenever it happened, whenever things grew so bad emotions were irrelevant.

And then she falls backwards and almost cracks her own skull. Daigo has only a few instincts that remember to work on time but he manages to catch her before she hits her head.

Her cat looks at him with disgust and fear. Maybe not disgust, but distrust. That would make sense according to Gennai's records. "Explain."

Daigo smiles thinly. "Why?"

She stares, for a moment at a loss. The other seven look at each other. "Because you're supposed to…?" ventures the Agumon, as if he doesn't believe it.

Adults don't explain things. They lie. "You'd be better off not knowing, I think." Before they can ask, he runs away because he used to be courageous and to tell them that it's their own fault whats about to happen is not.

He carries Hikari to his van and knows the cat is following but that's fine. Yagami Hikari will be fine.

She won't die. She won't.

His heart thumps too loudly.

In the end, he panicked for no reason. She was anemic. That's the excuse the hospital gives him. What, does possession drain blood or something.

.. He's never considered that before.

Daigo waits for her to wake up, just long enough for Tailmon to sneak in. "Is she all right?"

Daigo nods quickly. "Just a touch of anemia. Make sure she gets something to eat when she gets out."

Tailmon dips her head and begins to wash her head. Daigo turns away. He's tempted to leave, but that would be irresponsible as a teacher. And he's only a part-time teacher, but still. "We're infected," Tailmon says eventually. All of us. With the virus from Meicoomon."

Daigo schools his face while his stomach drops. He'd considered the possibility, they all had. Then they would need to be rebooted too and then-

He doesn't want to think about it.

"There's no cure, is there?" She sounds resigned, tired. Old.

Daigo lets out a single breath. Then, he opens his eyes. "You should tell your partners."

"Why?"

Daigo smiles bitterly. "Because mine knew the truth and didn't tell me."

"There was always going to be a cost, Dai. You had to know that. You have to have known. How could you fight and not know?"

Because they were children. Children weren't supposed to know these things.

"Besides, Izumi-kun might think of something we adults have not." He tries to sound casual, fists his free hand into the Digivice sewn into an extra pocket. "So he should know at least."

Tailmon thinks, then watches Hikari's face scrunch. "I see. What about their happiness?"

Daigo goes to alert the doctor. "Are they really happy not knowing if it's going to happen anyway?"

It's a hard question to answer and hypocritical advice to follow.