A/N: It lives! This story likes to be stubborn, I swear. Anyway, here we go!


Episode Eight

She was too close to this. It didn't take much for Ruki to figure this out. She had saved someone's life and had thu put someone in her debt, which was horribly inconvenient. The smart thing to have done would have been to just walk away, walk away and leave the odd girl to go on with her life like they had never met, instead of continuing to let her follow her around.

Unfortunately, Ruki couldn't seem to do that. The girl didn't seem to care about her discomfort either. She followed Ruki for a while, even when Renamon disappeared from plain sight to hide in the treetops. She didn't need to be seen by some gawker and all. This girl's questions were the weirdest thing she had ever heard.

"Is she going to be okay?" the girl had asked once Renamon disappeared. Her eyes were like flames of their own. That much pure enthusiasm was a little nauseating to be honest. Lucky her that she hadn't eaten much breakfast.

Ruki's first answer was to shrug and ask who cared, but something held her back. It was probably how earnestly she asked the question, like it even mattered. Like data mattered. Sure it was working on running the world, but that didn't make it sentient."She usually is."

"What do you do if she's not?"

More annoying, uncomfortable questions. Questions that stabbed at her world view, at something already fragile. "She leaves," Ruki said. But Renamon hadn't left, like she usually did when things were over. She was sitting on a bough instead. Her ears were pointed up, and her gaze to the right. "What?"

"I am not certain." She placed a paw to her chest. "I feel… something missing." The fox rose up to her full height, and disappeared before their eyes. Ruki couldn't sense her at all, like she usually vaguely could.

The girl's gaze went wide. "Wow! She does that a lot huh?"

You would think the novelty of seeing a Digimon would wear off. Then again, it was her first time seeing one.

Ruki had never placed importance on it before. "Yeah..." It was so hard to find the cutting, damaging remark that would make htis irl leave.

"Cool!" The girl beamed. "Thanks again for saving me! I have to go to class now, but my name is Katou Juri. It's nice to meet you! Let's talk again!"

Before common courtesy could be observed (odd as that sounded) and Ruki could answer, the girl was gone. For a moment, Ruki was relieved. Then her brain caught up. She hadn't been able to ask about that glow in the girl's bag.

She… she would just have to have Renamon look into that later, or she'd run into her herself.


The cat let out a groan of pain. He rolled onto his back, then gingerly onto his paws, translucent paws at that. He touched his chest warily. He should be dead. He had felt his data being absorbed. It had happened, right? So, so why was he alive right now?

Well, he was in pain, but if he had to choose between pain and death, he could choose the agony. Every time. The worst of it was the headache. It was a headache of dehydration, or hunger. He needed to eat, but what he was hungry for, he wasn't sure. None of these grasses would heal his wounds. Human world grasses seemed to be low on nutrients. Only data could do that. Only data and power. Well, he was in no condition to get one, but perhaps he could get the other. He just needed to be like that fox, and become a parasite. The pain in his head seemed to soothe at the thought.

Excellent.

Slowly, carefully, he left the bush he had been laying behind. If anyone was watching, he couldn't pay attention. Nor did he notice the trail of blood from his paws.


Juri tapped her pencil against her desk, murmuring along with the teacher's lesson. To be honest, her mind was still on this morning. That fox creature from before had murdered the creature chasing after her, with ease! On the order of a girl just like her, no less.

Well, okay, it wasn't that simple, and yet it was. That girl was nothing like her. She was beautiful and focused. She was very strong, able to watch her Digimon (oh goodness that was a Digimon, mom did you see that from where you are, that was a digimon!) defeat another and barely pause. Too bad she had run off without getting her name. Though that was because Juri had been… been what? Been where mentally? She could still recall the feeling in her stomach, the heady rush in her ears that was probably the blood. It was sick and had only grown when the Digimon had been beaten-

(No, no, killed. Dead is dead, remember?)

Because in that instant, in the instant that Renamon had begun to take her fill, Juri had felt so warm. Something had happened right then, and whatever was going on, whatever was being taken away there, she had wanted it so badly, it had parched her throat and spun up her steps.

Whatever she had done, it had scared her savior friend. And she had looked familiar, too. Looked like she was from posters or tournaments that no one went to that she knew except maybe Takato-kun and his friends and she didn't spend nearly as much time with them as she could have (and maybe should now, because Digimon were real and dangerous and what did that mean?) and maybe she could ask him if he knew a pretty, strong girl with Digimon cards and red, red hair.

Boy, that thought sure went on a super long time.

Her fingers went to her tiny purse in her desk, went to the toy nestled inside of it near her deck. Her cards now felt woefully inadequate if they were real. How would she protect herself? How would she protect her dad? Her papa was tough but Digimon clearly were tougher. As her hand closed over her toy, it began to warm. It was a little close to burning her hand.

Juri pulled her hand away and went back to taking notes.

For some reason, she felt a little nauseous again.


In a tall building overlooking Shinjuku, two women worked at their computers. One scratched beneath her visor, blinking to look at the beeping dot of a Wild One. "Coordinates locked," she said. "Megumi, can you check the news reports?"

"On it." Megumi's voice was muffled in her sleeve for a moment before she sneezed. Reika continued to keep her eyes on the signal. "It's moving again."

"Abnormally slowly too. Bio-Emerged tend to be much faster than this."

"It's too public to run in and capture, isn't it?"

Reika pinched her nose and went back to typing. "We still have to capture it. For the sake of the public, anyway."

That was how it was justified and as long as Yamaki believed that would be the case, so would she.


Juri gave up during lunch, and went to the nurse's office. The woman didn't seem to mind, but then, perhaps she was feeling sorry for her. She wished that would stop. It had been a month and a half. Juri was already tired of flimsy kindness. She just wanted honesty, or at least something without pity. Her mother had never wanted pity…

No, that wasn't true, was it? Her mother had, sometimes. She wanted to be weak sometimes, or for the illness to be real and accepted and not some arm candy that leeched off of her expenses.

Juri shook her head and closed her eyes. It was bad to think that way. Mom wouldn't want that.

She closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

Then, in the front of the office, there was a very loud crash. Someone started screaming.

Her toy, gently resting in her other hand, warmed to scorching hot.