Something was wrong, somewhere. Ruki could tell. Staring out the window of her school's hallway, she could see the city. What she couldn't see, what she couldn't pinpoint, somehow, was just what was wrong out there. This overall fact was very... troubling. Even more so than the little problem she had experienced earlier...
"Ruki?" Ruki turned, briefly, and found Minami standing behind her. She then turned right back to the window, saying nothing. "Are you alright?" the other girl asked. "You just walked right out once lunch started, and with what happened before..."
"It was a headache," Ruki said. "Nothing else."
"Oh. Well-"
Minami was suddenly interrupted by the ringing of Ruki's cell phone. Ruki quickly retrieved it and answered. "Yes?"
"This is Yamaki. Are you alone?"
"Whether I am or not doesn't really matter," she replied. "All I know is that something's just happened."
"It's at Takato and Jenrya's High School," Yamaki said. "With Jenrya incapacitated..."
"Roger that. I'll be right there."
As she cut the signal, Ruki gave Minami another brief glance. "You need to return to the classroom."
Minami just blinked a bit, looking perplexed. "Where are you going...?"
Shoving the cell into her pocket, Ruki spun around and began walking away. "Not important. Just tell Sensei that I had something that needed to be taken care of... I shouldn't be long. I'm guessing..." She eyed a clock hanging on the wall. She couldn't be too cocky this time. "Forty minutes at most."
Realization 09- "Friend"
By Infinity Blade
To put it simply, Hirokazu was completely freaking lost. One moment, he had been walking through the hallway with Takato... and the next, everything had grown dark, the power had went out, and Takato had fallen to his knees screaming. All of these had happened almost all at once, and it was if something about the darkness had struck Takato with a force that completely bypassed Hirokazu.
The spiky-haired boy kneeled down next to Takato, who looked as if he was going to tear his hair out. The other boy's eyes were wide open, filled with fear... yet he didn't seem to even see Hirokazu.
"Takato!" Hirokazu exclaimed, shaking his friend by the shoulders. "Man, snap out of it!"
Of course, this did nothing. Takato just continued staring ahead, blankly and fearfully. "D-Dad..."
Hearing Takato utter that word, in the way that he did, was almost painful. Hirokazu was fully aware of how long it had been since Matsuda Takehiro passed away. How it must still constantly haunt Takato every day... and this... the way he was acting...
"Mom!" Takato suddenly doubled over, his hands covering his face. "No... not real... don't... not you..."
Hirokazu could only stare wide-eyed as his friend's body began to shake while he sobbed uncontrollably. This was just insane! It was if Takato had been knocked down by some kind of nightmare. Which didn't make any sense, obviously.
Smacking his own face, Hirokazu groaned. He grabbed Takato by his shirt and lifted him back upright. "TAKATO!" he yelled, although he realized at this point that no matter how loudly he talked, Takato probably wouldn't hear him. "I hope you realize that if I have to drag your ass to the nurse's office over something stupid like this, people like the Kobayashi brothers are just going to have more ammo!"
Nothing. Other than the tears that were now flowing freely from Takato's eyes, nothing had changed. About now, Hirokazu was pretty much ready to pull his own hair out. He opened his mouth again, but then promptly shut it. He would just be talking to himself, and he didn't want to look any stupider if anyone wandered out and saw them...
The brief quiet was quickly cut as he heard a shout from elsewhere. Looking quickly in the direction of the nearest classroom, he jumped to his feet, ran over, and threw the door open. Within, he found that every single person inside was in much the same position as Takato. All the students were slumped over or sprawled out on the floor, looking to be wide awake... but fear was etched on every face. They shed tears, screamed, and otherwise looked to be just on the edge of going completely out of control. None of them noticed each other in all of this, much less Hirokazu.
"What the hell?" he muttered, and then ran over to the next classroom. It was the same thing. He shut that door quickly, unable to stand the sight for much longer. Returning to Takato, he knelt back down. "Dude... what the hell's going on here? And why am I the only one..."
"N-not real..." Takato murmured, obviously still in his own little world. "This... Field..."
Wasn't he?
"Can't... let this... but... Mom..." With that, Takato once more fell over and began crying.
Hirokazu sighed and sat himself on the floor. He bit his lip and stared out at the dark hallway, trying as hard as he could to figure out what to do. This was just way too weird. He should seek out the authorities, but just leaving everyone like this was something that he had a hard time bringing himself to do. There was something about the whole thing... Something that told him he needed to stay where he was.
His brief pondering was, however, cut abruptly short. He started to see something moving in the hallway. No, not moving... appearing. As if it just came out of thin air, something began to appear before him...
Seeing what he saw, his eyes went wide as his body froze up, fear and shock hitting him all at once. Floating behind Takato was what looked to be some sort of ghost. As if a bed sheet had been draped over something with claws, fangs, and red glowing eyes. Just seeing a monster like this so suddenly out of the blue was bad enough, but he immediately recognized just what it was. From those games he always used to play... The ones that he still liked, but had kept to himself for so long.
It was a digimon. He was staring straight at a real DIGIMON, of all things. A Bakemon, to be exact. And it was headed straight for the both of them.
Hirokazu snapped back to reality, setting aside his fear and awe. He tackled Takato, knocking the other boy to the ground, and the Bakemon flew over them, its claw barely missing them both. It quickly realized this, however, and turned around to look at them both. That brief bit of movement was all Hirokazu could muster, though. Much as he tried to tell them to move, his legs were not carrying him away from this. Of course, at the same time, if he ran, then Takato would be at this thing's mercy...
"Tamer," the Bakemon said, red eyes shifting to Takato. "You're the one..."
"Oh shit," Hirokazu gulped, not understanding what the thing meant, but knowing it couldn't be good. "Oh shit, ohshit, ohshitohshit-"
"HANDS OFF!"
Something else suddenly streaked into Hirokazu's view. Some... purple, little imp-thing, wearing red gloves and a scarf. Another digimon. The little demon punched the Bakemon in the side of the head, and the ghost was sent into the wall. The attacking digimon landed on the ground and grinned.
"Geez," the digimon said, thumbing his nose. "The kid's sure gonna feel dumb for tellin' me to go home now." He glanced over to Takato. "Ain't that right?" The grin quickly faded as he saw Takato's condition. "Kid...?"
The moment of attention he spared to Takato, however, was one moment too many. "BEHIND YOU!" Hirokazu exclaimed, almost without even thinking about it, but it was too late. The Bakemon smacked Impmon away, and he was tossed into and through a classroom door. The creature then immediately turned its attention back to Takato.
"The supposed 'Shadow Tamer,' cowering before the shadows," the Bakemon said, drifting down the hallway. The ghost scowled slightly. "If you were truly what they thought, you wouldn't be about to die..."
"Th-this..." Takato stammered. "Digital Field... It's.. not..."
Hirokazu gulped hard, his eyes darting back and forth between Takato and the approaching Bakemon. This was so unreal, but it was happening, and he was helpless to do anything about it.
Takato's eyes suddenly snapped wide open, his fearful look subsiding. "This isn't real!" At least, that look vanished for a moment, until he saw the Bakemon flying straight at him. "...oh crap."
"DIE!" the Bakemon cried, thrusting his claw forward. For a second, Takato seemed as frozen with fear as Hirokazu.
Then, he raised up a hand and shut his eyes tightly. "C'mon," he muttered to himself. "Just have to concentrate..." His eyes opened again as a small light pulsed out from the palm of his hand. "DRAW FIELD!"
The light from Takato's hand seemed expand, creating a bubble around the both of them. It was like some sort of shield, inexplicably pushing back the darkness that surrounded them. The ghost slammed against it, and with a crackle of some sort of energy, was blown back. The bubble fluctuated a bit from the digimon's contact, but held. "Ta- Takato..." Hirokazu muttered. "What. The. HELL.
Takato blinked hard, and then looked at the other teenager. "I... don't suppose you would buy that you're having a hallucination, would you?"
Hirokazu's mouth flapped, but nothing came out.
"SUMMON!" a shout came out from the room the small demon had been tossed into. "ICE!" Still recovering from slamming against Takato's shield, the Bakemon had no chance to react as a shard of ice went flying out of the doorway. It plowed straight through the ghost digimon and embedded itself into the hallway's wall. Not even having the chance to scream, Brakemen's body then... blew apart, breaking down into little floating red fragments.
Takato shoved a hand into his jacket pocket, pulling out a small silver and purple device. "Data Load!" he shouted, and the fragments promptly flew straight into the device, causing it to glow briefly.
"Kid!" the demon growled as he came running out of the room. "What the shit was that? I killed that thing! That was my data to load!"
"You killed it..." Takato mumbled thoughtfully, and then shook his head hard. "I was just doing what Shuichon-chan did against the Allomon a couple of days ago, Impmon. I figured that's what we're supposed to do..."
"That was my data!" Impmon snarled. "MINE."
Takato looked down at his device, and just shrugged. "Well, not much I can do about it now..."
Impmon screamed, pulling at his short fur. "For the love of... all that work for nothin'!"
Hirokazu was about ready to faint. That is, if there hadn't been a part of his mind fearing he would wind up in the same position as Takato was just in if he did so. He also wanted to run away screaming from seeing these monsters actually living, but his legs still didn't want to follow his commands.
"Hey," Hirokazu spoke up meekly. He raised a hand as he spoke, and then quickly dropped it as he saw he was visibly shaking. "Care to explain this crap to me...?"
Both Takato and Impmon looked at him, and the young man sighed. "Well, this really isn't good," he muttered. "Guess I don't have much of a choice, though."
"Well, I could do somethin' about him if ya wanted," Impmon said with a sadistic grin that made Hirokazu want to run even MORE.
"IMPMON!" Takato shouted, glaring at the digimon.
"What'd I tell you about getting a sense of humor?"
"What did I tell YOU about violence?"
Hirokazu groaned and buried his face in one hand. This was not going to be fun...
"Something's wrong," Ruki said as she was held in Renamon's arms while the fox bounded from rooftop to rooftop.
The digimon's eyes narrowed, landing on a railing and running along the thin surface with ease. "About this Wild One?"
Ruki nodded, her usual look of solid confidence wavering a bit as she frowned. "The closer and closer we get, the more this Digital Field seems just like IceDevimon's. IceDevimon wasn't some random Wild One, either. He targeted me specifically. This one's not as strong as his Ice Field, but I'm still certain of it... This digimon's a Field Controller as well."
"So what you're thinking is," Renamon paused in her speech as she bounced in-between two buildings, "if IceDevimon targeted you, and a digimon of the same type of power appeared so quickly after him..."
"It appeared at Takato and Jenrya's school," Ruki said. "That can't be a coincidence, can it? Jenrya's home recovering, so that only leaves Takato to fend for himself. Who knows where his partner is. That rookie doesn't even understand the first thing about being a Tamer..."
There wasn't any need for Renamon to reply. She understood exactly what her Tamer meant, and quickened her pace.
"Aw man," Hirokazu sighed, running a hand through his spiky hair. He leaned up against a wall and examined Impmon. "This is just... surreal."
Takato had finished his explanation. Or an abridged version of it, anyway. Yamaki had warned him about letting anyone know, but here he had been forced to come out with things without any choice. "You can't tell anyone about it, though," Takato said. "If you did... well. Things probably wouldn't turn out too well."
Hirokazu just grinned, giving the other teenager a thumb's up. "No problem, man. That's what friends are for, right?"
Takato stared at him for a few moments, still not used to Hirokazu starting to act like his old self again. He then smiled back and nodded. "Thanks."
"But anyway," Hirokazu said. "What happened here, exactly?"
Takato scratched the back of his neck nervously. "I'm not exactly sure... we're in a Digital Field right now. I know that much. This is what appears when a digimon crosses over. This one feels just like the one that appeared the other day and caused that freak snowstorm." Hirokazu almost seemed surprised that statement, but it was obvious that any possible surprise was considerably lessened by then. "Which means that we're probably dealing with a powerful one..."
"That's not what I meant," Hirokazu said. "I meant... what happened to YOU? Take a look at any of the classrooms around here. That was you five minutes ago."
"Yeah, you were curled up cryin' like a little baby when I came on the scene," Impmon stated matter-of-factly.
"What I saw..." Takato trailed off. Putting it into words was somehow difficult. "It was some sort of nightmare... I saw Dad just before he died. Then I saw Mom, and right in front of me... she... she was..." He stopped himself as those images came back into his mind rather vividly. Seeing his mother's broken body before him, blood all around, while voices cackled in the distance. All of this, with a penetrating feeling that all of it was his fault...
"Takato." The boy nearly jumped again as he heard Hirokazu's voice, and found him putting a hand onto his shoulder. Takato realized his own eyes were tearing up, and he quickly wiped them. "Dude, don't go blanking out on us again."
"Next time I'm giving you a swift kick in the ass, got it?" Impmon added.
Takato smiled weakly, nodding. "Right... I'll keep that in mind." Then, as he had a moment to think, it hit him. If the students in these other classrooms were out like he had been, seeing vivid, horrible nightmares, that meant... "Juri!" Takato broke away from Hirokazu, and started to run back to his classroom. "If everyone else is like that, then the others-!"
"TAKATO!" Hirokazu shouted as both her and Impmon ran after the Tamer.
He didn't stop until he reached the classroom, opening the door. The sight inside was... disturbing, to say the least. With everyone sprawled out, the looks on their faces... it made Takato sick to his stomach. Even seeing Norio like that felt so incredibly wrong. On the other side of the room, though, was Juri. She was sitting up against the wall, hugging her legs up against her chest. She was definitely out of it, just like the others. "Juri..." he gulped, walking over to her. The crying of various other students was enough to make him shiver. Seeing Juri doing the same was just painful.
She made no sounds, however. She just rocked back and forth, a strangely blank look on her face as tears streamed out of her eyes. What is it she's seeing? Takato thought as he knelt down next to her. If it's even half as horrible as what I saw...
Juri's lips moved, struggling to get a sound out. "D-... De... Destiny..."
Takato frowned deeply. "Juri, c'mon..." Of course, he knew she couldn't hear him or see him. He clenched a fist, his anger rising. He couldn't stand this. He had to do something... and as he heard Hirokazu and Impmon come up behind him, he knew that he could do just that. If he used his Draw Field, he could wake her up...
Looking around, however, he also realized that if he did that, she would be aware of what was going on. He would have to explain all of this to her, just as he had done with Hirokazu. Only this time it would be his own choice, going against what Yamaki had demanded of him. It would also be selfish, he realized... he couldn't afford to wake everyone. There were digimon roaming around, and given that the Digital Field still stood, he knew the source wasn't that Bakemon. It would blow everything if so many people became aware of their existence...
Still, there was Juri. He knew that due to this Digital Field, she was suffering inside. She had always tried to help him so much, and yet he had never been able to do anything in return...
Nodding silently, he made his decision, holding out one hand. "Kid?" Impmon asked. "What're you doing?"
"Waking her up," Takato said.
"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Hirokazu asked. "I mean, if she sees all this crap..."
"It's better than whatever she's seeing right now," Takato muttered. "And... wait a second." He glanced back at the spiky-haired boy. "How did you wind up not getting affected by the Field?" Hirokazu just looked at him blankly, scratched his head, and then shrugged. "...I... see." He looked back at Juri. "I just can't let her stay stuck in that nightmare."
He concentrated again, knowing he had to create the Draw Field smaller this time. Light appeared briefly from his palm, and then formed into a bubble that surrounded both Takato and Juri. As the darkness itself was shoved away, the effect on Juri was almost instant. She blinked her eyes hard and stared at Takato... before suddenly lunging forward and hugging him. This, in effect, surprised him so much that his Draw Field collapsed as he fell on his back with her right on top of him.
"Um... J-J-J-Juri!" Takato stammered, his face a very bright crimson. Juri pulled away a bit, glanced at their position, and quickly jumped off him.
"Sorry, I just... I, err," she mumbled, her cheeks flushed... before she looked around, seeing the various students. And Impmon.
"Yo," Impmon smirked, giving her a wink. "'Sup, babe?"
Juri's jaw fell open as Takato and Hirokazu both looked at one another very nervously. Then... she screamed.
"Ruki, I just realized something," Renamon said, bouncing off a flag pole.
"What's that, exactly?" Ruki questioned.
"Impmon and his Tamer," she said, "what all did they wind up getting taught before we got caught up fighting IceDevimon?"
"Well, I told them about the Draw Fields and Psi Cards, anyway," Ruki said. Renamon landed on another rooftop and ran along the flat surface. "Why?"
"So you DID teach Takato how to use the cards, then."
"Well, I told him what they DO," she said, and then her violet eyes went wide.
"Ruki...?"
"..."
"Right. Move faster.
Having once again explained himself, this time with Hirokazu helping him along the way, Takato sat in a hallway with the young man, Juri, and Impmon. Actually, both boys were currently just sort of staring at her as she was... well, hugging Impmon rather tightly. "He's just so cute!" she proclaimed.
"She's taking this well," Hirokazu whispered to Takato.
Takato wasn't really sure that she fully understood just how much danger they were in. Or maybe she was just good at hiding things. Whatever the reason, he was just glad she took all of this better than he was expecting...
The Tamer looked at Impmon. His digimon actually didn't seem to mind his position, despite his obvious difficulty in breathing. Then, he realized that Impmon was squeezed right up against Juri's chest. His eyes widened, and he looked at Hirokazu as the spiky-haired boy obviously just came to the same conclusion. Impmon looked back at both of them and just grinned, pointing at the girl's chest to emphasize his point. Luckily for him, Takato imagined, this went unnoticed by Juri.
"That little bastard," Hirokazu muttered beneath his breath. "When this is over, I swear..."
"Please don't," Takato mumbled nervously. "That would, uh, kind of hurt me too... though I know it's tempting..." Actually, thinking about it, Shuichon had called Impmon 'cute' too. That was something Takato really, really couldn't understand.
"What about the others, though?" Juri suddenly asked, her voice becoming more serious. "If you said they're all like I was, then..." She shuddered. "Can't we help them, too?"
Takato sighed. He knew that she was going to ask something like that. It was hard to resist the temptation, too, to ask what she saw in her nightmare. With the look she had on her face, he wasn't sure he wanted to know. "If I just go around flashing my Draw Field, it's not going to fix this problem... we have to find the source. We just need to figure out where that is."
"I see," Juri said, smiling a little sadly. "If that's the case, then I'm sure we'll be fine. You're the only one here that can stop this. Right, Takato-kun?" Takato just nodded. "Seeing what I just have, then... I don't have any choice but to believe that. So knowing that it's you... as I said, we'll be fine."
Takato's cheeks turned red again. "I really hope you're right..."
"Guys, touching as all this is," Hirokazu spoke up, jumping to his feet, "I think we should maybe, sort of look at the end of the hallway. Just a suggestion before I start running."
Takato, Juri, and Impmon did just that and found several Bakemon flying down the hall. "DRAW FIELD!" Takato called out once more, the field of energy surging out to protect him and his friends. He then grabbed his head, suddenly feeling a bit woozy. As if doing it this time had put more strain on his mind than the times before. "Impmon," he said, pulling out his D-Ark, "we don't have any choice."
Impmon gave a laugh, popping out of Juri's arms. "No prob, kid!" he exclaimed, running outside the Field. "Just do that card thingy like those other guys and I'll wipe the floor with these punks!"
Takato's face suddenly went completely blank, and his D-Ark clattered on the floor as he felt himself go sort of... limp. "Oh crap," he mumbled, and then hit himself in the head several times. "CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!"
"What's wrong, Takato-kun?" Juri asked.
"We were so busy fighting IceDevimon that we never got the chance," Takato gulped, clutching his hair. "Ruki, Shuichon-chan, Jen... none of them taught me HOW to use the Psi Cards!"
'Just think about it,' was the most Takato had gotten in terms of instructions on how to use them. Well, he was certainly thinking right then, and nothing was happening.
Impmon screeched to a halt, despite the fact the Bakemon were still flying straight at him. "WHAT?"
Takato just bowed his head in shame. "I'm sorry?"
"SORRY?" Impmon snapped. "WHAT DID YOU EXPECT ME TO DO OUT HERE?"
"Well, you think you're so tough!" Takato shot back, his head jerking back up. "I figured you would know what you're doing!"
"It HELPS when the digimon's Tamer KNOWS HOW TO BE A FREAKIN' TAMER, DUMBASS!"
"I reeeaaally don't think this is a time you guys want to be fighting," Hirokazu gulped as the Bakemon were almost on top of Impmon now. Impmon snarled and turned around, fireballs lighting up on his fingertips.
"Okay, shitheads!" the small demon shouted. "Lets party!"
The gaggle of Bakemon released a howl in reply, and then bunched together. The fireballs Impmon had lit fizzled out and his hands dropped to his sides as he saw what happened next. Namely, the Bakemon all somehow melding into one GIANT Bakemon. Spinning around, Impmon went running straight back for Takato's Draw Field. "LEMME BACK IN!" Once behind the safety of the energy shield, he promptly dropped to the ground and covered his face.
"You chicken!" Hirokazu snapped at the small demon.
"Oh yeah?" Impmon asked, jerking back upright. "Lets see you fight that thing with a worthless partner!"
Takato frowned, but at the same time sort of understood his position. The large Bakemon barely fit in the narrow hallway, and looking at it, it was obvious a Child-level digimon wasn't going to defeat it unassisted. He wanted to take issue with Impmon calling him 'worthless,' yet he also knew that he really couldn't do much to help him...
The large Bakemon gave a horrible scream as its claw thrust out, colliding with Takato's Draw Field. However, it wasn't tossed back like normal. Energy crackled against its claw, but the large ghost kept on pushing against the shield. Takato gave a gasp, holding his head as that woozy feeling returned. At the same time, the Draw Field began to go into some sort of flux, with the darkness of the Digital Field seeping into it. The energy pushing back the Bakemon, as well, was starting to lessen with each passing second.
"Takato-kun!" Juri exclaimed. "What is it? What's wrong?"
Takato squinted as his vision started to blur, and he wiped his brow, suddenly finding himself sweating. The stress that the Bakemon was putting on his Field... it was as if was pressing against his mind as well. He couldn't hold this for much longer, but why was it so different this time?
"GIHEHEHEHE!" came the sound of a shrill laugh filling the hallways. It wasn't the Bakemon. It was definitely someone else. "Aww, has the poor wittle Tamer exhausted himself? Yes, yes! It seems he has!"
"What the hell?" Hirokazu and Impmon chorused in unison.
"Indeed, indeed!" the voice exclaimed. "You really are stupid for what you're supposed to be! Gihehehe! You don't even know your own powers, or how to truly conquer my Nightmare Field!"
"Nightmare Field?" Takato repeated, and then looked at the Bakemon continuing to bear on his shield. "Those dreams... How all of those Bakemon became this thing... They're both apart of the same thing?"
"Very, very good!" the voice replied. "Not that it'll help you much! GIEHEHE!"
"Impmon," Takato muttered, trying to focus past the sharp pain stabbing through his brain. If his focus and his mind somehow went towards the Draw Field's power, he had to keep his thoughts steady. "You were afraid of these things when you were out there, weren't you?"
"I ain't afraid of nothin'!" Impmon shot at his Tamer.
"Then why did you run back in here?" Hirokazu asked, deadpan.
Impmon scratched his chin nervously. "Um, err..."
"We can't be afraid," Takato said, getting onto his feet. "This whole Digital Field is preying on our fears. That's what this thing is fighting us with. If we try not to be afraid, then maybe we can-"
There was a sudden crashing sound, cutting into Takato's speech before something big and black flew out from a room. It rammed into the Bakemon and the giant ghost crashed straight through the hallway's wall. It fell out into the school yard below, leaving the short digimon and three teens in shock at the sight.
"...or, hey, we could always wait for the nearest deus ex machina," Hirokazu said. "Y'know. Whichever comes first."
Takato immediately recognized the large figure that had struck the Bakemon to be Dobermon. The dog digimon looked down through the hole he had created just as the Bakemon started to pick itself up from the rubble. "SCHWARZ STRAHL!" the beast cried, releasing a black beam of energy from his mouth. It struck the Bakemon and obliterated it from existence before it could even think about striking back.
"I had hoped you would have realized things sooner, Matsuda-kun," a soft, female voice said. Alice walked out of the room Dobermon had burst from, holding her hands behind her back. Her black & silver D-Ark rested in one of those hands. "Unfortunately..."
Dobermon spun around and dashed at Takato's Draw Field. He rammed his head into it, causing the Field to shatter and Takato to scream. As he began to fall over, both Hirokazu and Juri caught him.
"Hey!" Hirokazu shouted. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I mean no ill intent," Alice said calmly. "The fact remains, however, it wasn't feasible for Matsuda-kun to hold his Draw Field any longer. As an inexperienced Tamer, his personal Psi-energy had already been depleted far too much. Had I not intervened, you four would now be dead. Even if you are the Shadow Tamer, your powers mean nothing until you learn them." She rested a hand on Dobermon's head as he returned to her, gently stroking the dog digimon's fur. "That is why I exist now as the Death Tamer. It is for your benefit, Matsuda-kun..."
Takato pushed himself away from his friends as he slowly felt his strength return, and found himself able to stand on his own again. "I'm the... Shadow Tamer?" Takato asked, only really grasping half of everything she had just said. Actually, this is the first time he remembered her talking so much.
"So Alice-chan is like you, Takato-kun?" Juri asked, glancing back and forth between Impmon and Dobermon.
"Yeah," Takato said absently, scratching the side of his head. "I think."
Hirokazu grinned, punching Takato in the arm softly. "Ooh, so that's why you were searching for her!"
Takato gave the spiky-haired teenager an annoyed look. "I told you it wasn't anything like what your gutter-mind thought up."
"Gutter-mind?" Juri said, giving Hirokazu a look that was surprisingly dangerous. "Just WHAT did you think Alice-chan and Takato-kun were doing?"
Hirokazu held up his hands with some nervous laughter. "Hey, hey, Katou! It was just a joke!"
Juri looked away from him, crossing her arms. "I always knew you were a pervert."
Alice just stared with her usual, unemotional face, obviously uninterested in their conversation. "The source of this Digital Field," Alice continued, ignoring Takato's friends, "that is what you should be searching for. This Field Controller will only grow stronger with each passing moment as your fears continue to build upon themselves."
"What am I supposed to do, though?" the male Tamer asked. "I don't know anything about this, like Ruki, Jen, or you..."
"Did you not listen to me?" Alice asked, a phrase that would sound annoyed coming from anyone else from her. "My existence is for your benefit, Matsuda-kun. Now, come..." She paused, glancing at Hirokazu, and then Juri. "These people are not Tamers. They should not interfere with matters that don't concern them."
"Takato-kun's our friend!" Juri proclaimed, grabbing Takato's arm and causing him to blush.
"Yeah, lady," Hirokazu said, clamping a hand down on the male Tamer's shoulder. "We ain't abandoning him." He then smiled sadly. "Not again..."
"Yay!" Impmon exclaimed with thick sarcasm. "More useless targets!"
"Your partner digimon is correct," Alice said. "They are liabilities."
Takato just smiled, rubbing the back of his head. "That doesn't matter," he said. "They're my friends. I don't want to put them in any danger, but if they want to come with me, I can't stop them."
"I see," Alice replied. "If that is your wish..."
Takato nodded. "It is." Alice just nodded and turned away from them to start walking. Takato stared after her, and then spoke up again. "Oh, and thank you." Those words made the blonde girl stop. "That's the second time you and Dobermon have saved me."
Alice was silent for several moments, and then looked back at him briefly. Surprisingly, a small smile had formed on her lips. "That is merely what I am needed to do, Matsuda-kun. Now, let us go."
As Alice and Dobermon, followed by Juri and Impmon, started to walk off again, Takato found himself... not moving. Hirokazu gave him another punch in the arm, this one considerably harder. This made Takato jump... and Impmon yelp and grab his own arm. As the demon glared back at them, Hirokazu just smirked.
"What was that for?" Takato asked, rubbing his now-sore arm.
"You were blushing again," Hirokazu snickered, his voice low. "Not to mention just staring. And this time not at Katou."
It took a moment for what Hirokazu said to register in his mind, and then he paid his friend back by giving HIM a punch in the arm. "You're imagining things!" Takato protested, running up ahead to Juri and his partner.
Hirokazu just laughed as he ran behind him. "Hey, whatever you say, man!"
-To Be Continued
Notes: That ended a little similarly to Realization 05, I know, but... that's just the way things wound up happening. ; Oh well.
Next: Realization 10- "Activation"