10. The hunt is on…
Your other friends are avoiding you and it hurts. You were with her when she went in the coma, of course they blame you. She may have hurt all of those people but they don't know that and you do so of course this is all your fault.
Ami sends you worried texts once a day. You reassure her with that gnawing maw in your heart. Or you think you do. When she stares at you the way she does over the phone, it's hard to tell what she's thinking. She says you're the same way.
Hah. That's stupid. There's no way that's true.
You start looking for any signs of a purple scarf.
Akemi Suedou takes time to find. You don't know what to think of him. He eyes the Digimon with something like hunger and also like pity. How freaky. His voice is familiar, or at least his intonation.
You try to interrogate him, and only get sorrowed laughter.
-They are necessary for our evolution, Arata-kun,- he says. -As are you and yours, as someday you will understand.-
He's gone again before you can even ask, like he is simply winking out of existence. Like a dying star.