The Lion Saver
10: the surviving Leomon

Honestly, it seems like using a cheat to win a game but everybody's too busy crying in the ER to really care about that, including her.

But seriously, how can he be so lucky as to have lost consciousness at the precise moment the Digital World gate opened, getting swept in, and then be killed in the digitital world the same time the gate opened again to wind up back in his human body and alive? Though it seems like Ofanimon helped out a little (or that's what Takuya says) –

But she doesn't have to repeat this anymore so she doesn't really care how it happened. She just wants to see her Leomon.

But she's stuck in this world, for some reason. Nothing changes. Nothing happens, except Kouichi slowly recovers from his tumble down the stairs and is discharged and now she has to do sleep somewhere other than the hospital lobby.

Though it seems like his mother's seen her doing that and invites her home as well.

She accepts.

And then nothing changes after that either, until, frustrated, she explains the whole story and hopes she can get some help.

Also turns out to be the first time she's mentioned her surname to anyone aside from Kouichi, and that flicks lightbulbs in their minds.

Because it turns out Kouichi's not much of an anime watcher but there is a series called Digimon Tamers in this world. And, as luck would have it, it's about her and Takato and all the others. Their story. And the only reason they didn't notice it immediately is because she's changed. Her cheeks are hollower now. Her hair's grown longer and she wears it down. And her dress has turned into a skirt because it got torn one too many times (and she's not even wearing that now because Tomoko-san's given her some of her older clothes and they're old and worn but much nicer than wearing the same thing for months on end). But there she is on screen, and there's Leomon as well – and a brief glimpse of his spirit reignited –

But that's unfair. That's like cheating, if that's what the voice meant and she's stuck in this world and her Leomon's back in their home world. And what about all the Leomon? What about Takato and Ruki and Jenyra and all her other friends? What about her father, and stepmother, and step-brother? What about the life she'd known?

She cries and Kouichi is the one nearest to her because they kind of live together and they came together and he pats her back and her only consolidation is this Leomon (even if he's only like a third Leomon, or something), is still alive – and that the world hasn't tossed her out onto the streets to fend for herself in the aftermath of all of this. Even if she is essentially freeloading. Though they both split the chores and work unofficially part-time and pitch in everywhere so maybe it's not really free-loading at all and maybe there's a bit of net gain going on in all of it and maybe she does get to be with a Leomon for the rest of her life after all.

It's just not what she pictured the happy ending at the end of the road to be. But she can deal. She thinks. Maybe. She's been dealing, after all. Even if she's become someone unrecognisable because of it.

And at least she's not fighting anymore, fighting to save a Leomon who's always fated to die.

Or maybe she is. She has got a housemate to keep an eye on and make sure he doesn't prove the third time being the charm in the wrong way, after all.