Digimon belongs to Toei! *sob*

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Last time on Tomodachi: Shi-chan left everyone a lovely lengthly author's note. Oh, and Daisuke and the others escaped from Sekitomachi and are hiding out with Mimi and Sora.
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Tomodachi
Chapter 9 (The real one, this time)
~By Shimegami-chan
Screw warnings. You all know what it's about.



Daisuke was awakened by a knocking that similarly woke Ken and Jyou, and had the three of them staring in horror at the door. "Tachikawa-san? Takenouchi-san?"

Daisuke went rigid as Miyako stirred and slowly sat up, recognition dawning in her eyes. She stood as quietly as possible and checked the lock, and, finding it still drawn tightly, let out a silent sigh.

The voice outside the door said something inaudible to herself and walked away, footsteps echoing down the hall. Daisuke pouted. "Man, I thought we were dead! What time is it? Should we go now?"

Jyou glanced out the window. "It's still light out."

"It's nearly five o'clock," Miyako said, checking her wristwatch. "The girls stopped by a few hours ago just to let me know that none of the Isolder girls have heard anything about students escaping from our school. Maybe Osamu didn't go after us at all."

"It's unlike him," Ken said thoughtfully. "Especially concerning me. No, they must have gotten away quietly. We should too."

The group froze as they heard the lock turning, and Sora stepped into the room. "Hi guys...I brought you something to eat."

"Thanks, Sora-chan!" Miyako said enthusiastically, her ravounous eyes following the bag of sandwiches that emerged from Sora's backpack. The girl set the bag down on the table and Daisuke, Ken, Jyou, Miyako, and Koushirou began to hungrily eat. Daisuke thanked Sora around a mouthful of bread, and even the shy Jyou had picked up a sandwich without being told to. It seemed that the effects of the Pet training could be erased...eventually.

After eating, the group began to re-pack, with Sora's help. Koushirou, Ken and Jyou left their torn Tamachi uniforms in a heap in Sora's closet and donned whatever clothing Daisuke, Sora, Miyako, and Mimi could spare. Daisuke urged Ken to once again wear the sweater and windbreaker, for fear the more fragile boy would catch a cold.

As Daisuke fastened the straps on his backpack a flustered Mimi entered the room. "Sora! We've got trouble!"

"Nani?" As if instinctively feeling her girlfriend's distress, Sora jammed the discarded clothes further into the closet and shut the door.

"They're coming," Mimi breathed, her eyes wild. "A boy got caught sneaking around the school and they think there might be more of them, so the headmistress is doing a dorm inspection!"

"What?!" Sora bit her lip. "Now what?!"

Miyako had already sprung to her feet and shot out the door. "The others!" After a moment she reappeared and motioned for the boys to follow her to Hikari's room.

The other dorm was in turmoil. Yamato scrambled to re-pack while Hikari jammed on a sweater. Takeru, looking more alert now, tried to wrestle a jacket over his broken arm.

"What do we do?" asked Ken fearfully.

"We make a break for it."

Daisuke moved to the door just as Sora rushed in and locked it behind her. "They're on our floor!"

"There are too many of us! We can't possibly hide!" Koushirou argued.

Hikari was unfastening the latches on the windows. "It's almost dark. You can go this way! Just jump into the bushes, and run!"

Koushirou nodded. "Meet in the forest just ahead--go!" He tucked his laptop under his arm and gracefully leapt from the ledge into the foliage.

"But...Takeru..." Yamato looked worried.

"I can handle it," the younger boy said, and eased himself over the windowsill. A muffled sqeak came from below as the redhead tried to catch the injured blonde before both disappeared into the night.

Yamato vaulted over the sill and fell without sound to the grass below, followed by a silent Iori. Jyou nervously eased himself down, holding the sill until the last possible moment.

Ken took Daisuke by the arm as Taichi and Hikari hugged. "Dai...if I don't make it away, I want you to know that I appreciate everything you've done. I want you to get home, even if I don't."

"Don't talk like that!" Daisuke admonished, voice failing as a knock sounded at the door. "Ken..."

"Who is it?" Hikari called, her voice desperate.

"Headmistress Takada," came the muffled answer.

"I'm coming." Hikari delayed as Taichi disappeared out the window.

"Go," Ken whispered, and pulled Daisuke to him for a short kiss. Daisuke froze, but the bluenette was pulling him to the window, and Miyako pushed him through the opening and slid the window closed just as the Headmistress opened the door herself using the master key.

Daisuke gazed up at the illuminated window, his heart in his shoes, wondering whether he'd lost Ken for good.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dai didn't even remember the following moments in which Taichi dragged him into the woods, his eyes still watching, praying to see Ken's lithe form leap from the sill. "Come on, man, we're going to get caught! You heard what he said. We'll figure out some way to go back for him, I promise."

Taichi's words meant nothing to the desperate boy. He kissed me. He really does have feelings for me! And now... Tears threatened to well up in Daisuke's eyes.

"We have to get away," Takeru was saying. "As soon as they find Ken and Miya, they'll call Sekitomachi and they'll be sent back. We have to escape and get help if we want to come back for them!"

Jyou hushed the group as they all spotted a shadowy figure run from one end of the Isolder campus to the other. Daisuke's hopes soared--Ken!--but plummeted with Koushirou's terrified squeak. "Aki..."

Yamato could wait no longer. "They're here--they could have us surrounded even now. I'm sorry; Daisuke, Koushirou--we have to go now." The group grabbed their bags and ran deeper into the treeline, out the other side, and onto the dusken road.

They ran until even Taichi was short on breath before slowing to a walk. "This is bad," he moaned. "I hope nothing happens to Hikari or the girls...they'd have nowhere else to go."

Yamato nodded in understanding and glanced at Koushirou, at the back of the group, who hadn't spoken since their flight. "Hey--'Shirou."

"Mm?"

"How much further?"

"Less than twenty kilometres, I estimate." He checked his laptop. "That's correct; at the rate we're moving I'd say we'll get there in about five hours."

Daisuke was also uncharacteristically silent, letting Yamato lead the way. Taichi carried Daisuke's backpack, staring at the forest floor. "Hey," Takeru said softly, addressing them all, "I'm sure Kari will take care of them. She knows how to keep a level head with these things."

"That's why I worry," Taichi mumbled. "Sometimes my little sister is just a bit too much like me." Yamato grinned in good humor.

The other two Pets, Iori and Jyou, hadn't spoken in quite some time, so Takeru turned his attention to them instead of trying to cheer up the sombre boys. However, neither child would give him anything more than a monosyllabic answer, so the young blond fell silent as well.

The group remained like that for the duration of the hike, with one Ishida brother in the front and one in the rear, and an uncharacterteristically quiet Taichi and Daisuke trailing behind everyone but Takeru. About three hours into the journey they stopped to rest in a small clearing, breaking out the instant ramen that Daisuke had brought. Koushirou sat off to the side with his knees pulled up against his chest, staring into the darkness, laptop lying forgotten on the ground.

Jyou did the cooking, somehow managing not to look as gloomy as the others as he dished out ramen into mugs and paper plates that Mimi had brought and handed around Daisuke and Takeru's chopstick sets. Daisuke ate mechanically, eyes unfocused and gaze forlorn. I was so close...and I lost him, again. Why does this always have to happen to me!

Ken...

Takeru moved close to Daisuke, and put an arm around the redhead. "Relax, Dai, we're almost there. We'll come back for them, and take them away."

"I doubt it," Koushirou said miserably. "Miyako has all the evidence against Aki and the school with her. We don't even have anything to bring to the police."

"We'll think of something!" Iori added.

"And what about Mimi and Sora and 'Kari?" Taichi asked. "What if they get expelled? Mimi's got nowhere else to go, and I don't know what my parents would do if imoutochan got sent back. They'd flip."
"We'll be there before anything happens, Tai, I promise," Yamato said. "You just wait and see."

Tai smiled hesitantly. "Not that I liked Isolder a hell of a lot, either...if I'm going home, I want imoutochan to be there too."

"That's the spirit."

There was no solace for Daisuke, though, knowing that Ken would be back within his brother's grasp. After everything we went through.

"We should go," Jyou said worriedly. "Who knows where M-M--," he broke off, unable to call Osamu by the title he had been forced to.

"Where Osamu is," Iori finished. "He's right; we should leave soon."

Slightly cheered, Taichi helped break camp and marched at the front beside his boyfriend, chattering aimlessly as they walked until a sharp sound caught Yamato's trained musical ears. "Shh--there's someone there." The blond dropped to his stomach on the ground and motioned for the others to do the same. Koushirou quivered, his fear of Aki written clearly in his movements, and buried his face in his long sleeves.

The sounds were coming closer, almost as though the group was being tracked, and Jyou whimpered. Taichi and Yamato joined hands, and Daisuke's courage steeled itself to attack anyone who might appear.

Closer...

"We're dead," Takeru mouthed, though only Daisuke and Iori could see his lips. The blonde was in no condition to fight, and without Miyako most of them were defenseless anyway. The realization dawned on the redhead with despairing finality. Without Miyako's judo skills, Daisuke, Taichi and Yamato could only handle so many attackers--and out here in the forest, no one might ever find the bodies Osamu's gang would leave behind. It was over.

Daisuke closed his eyes and waited for the end.




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Shi-chan: Ah, suspense! I love it. :) More soon! Review! ^_~