Almost every review I've gotten from Oapekay (and that one by Shadow of the Kyuubi) has had me answer about three billion questions regarding Kalypso and Absolution. Well, it occurs to me that some others might want to know the answers to those questions as well, so I'm creating a section on my profile that answers them. So, if you ask a question in a review or e-mail, I'll respond to you personally, but I'll also put the answer in the new section for others to see (unless it's super personal, in which case it's a little bit creepy that you'd be putting it in a review anyway and I'll probably be inclined to ignore you). The new section should be up in a couple of days (say May 3rd).

Chapter Ten: Tokyo

Odaiba Apartments

Odaiba, Koto Ward: Tokyo, Japan

3:45 P.M: January 12th, 2010

Tai sat cross legged at the edge of the roof, letting the wind wash over his face.

"Enjoying being three inches away from death?" Izzy Izumi asked from behind.

"How do you figure that?" Tai inquired.

"Scoot forward a little; see what happens." Izzy replied.

"You're funny. What's up?"

"It's almost time for the big group pow-wow. Is there any news on Takato?"

"The doctors just wanted to keep him overnight for observation. There wasn't any permanent damage, miraculously enough. What about Joe?"

"I wish I could say the same thing," Izzy replied, "His condition hasn't improved much from last night, and the doctors haven't been able to contact his family."

"Don't we know anything about Joe's personal life other than his name?"

"All anyone knows is that he's Joe Kido: and finding his family in one of the biggest cities in the world based entirely off of that one last name isn't going to get us anywhere anytime soon." Izzy answered.

"Damn..." Tai mumbled.

"What about his digivice?" Izzy's eyes lit up.

"What do you mean?" Tai responded.

"Joe didn't have his digivice with him when he went to the digital world," Izzy explained, "So he probably left it at home. We can use our digivices to pick up his signal, and then find his house!"

"That's a great idea Izzy!" Tai jumped up, careful to stay away from the edge. "I'll go do that: you meet the others up here in fifteen minutes."

"Wait, I was going to do it." Izzy replied as Tai started for the stairs.

"You have to inform everybody about your efforts to get back to the digital world: besides, you're better at the technical stuff than I am."

"But, we made you leader. You don't just get to cop out of that position at any time you know!" Tai was now walking down the stairs, ignoring Izzy's gestures to stop.

"I know Izzy, and as leader I'm delegating you to do the meeting while I go find Joe's house. Oh, and let the Digimon out, would you?"

"You didn't let them out?" Izzy called to Tai as he disappeared down the stairs.

"I was going to!" Tai yelled back in a fading voice.

"You're an awful person!" Tai was now gone. Izzy rolled his eyes and walked over to the penthouse garage, where Tai had left the key. "Stupid Tai, leaving me to do a meeting, he knows I'm not good with people." Tai unlocked the garage and lifted the door up. A pile of Digimon then fell out of the cramped garage.

"What took you so long?" Gomamon gasped as he crawled out of the pile of Digimon that was sprawled in front of the garage door. "I heard talking out there!"

"Tai forgot to let you out." Izzy answered quickly.

"Damn him." Gomamon gasped. "They're like a group of children: it was awful."

"Aren't four of them actual children?" Izzy asked.

"Hey, my age of one day does not call for you to have fun at my expense!" Coronamon yelled as he stumbled out of the pile.

"Yeah, what he said!" Guilmon cheered obliviously.

"Coronamon, kindly remove your foot from your mouth if you will." Lunamon grumbled to her "brother".

"I don't understand." Coronamon cocked his head.

"They aren't insulting you ingrate, they were merely stating a fact!"

"For the record, I was insulting you." Gomamon mumbled.

"Do you see his rudeness?" Coronamon cried. "I shall smite you down you odd sea monster!" Coronamon lunged for Gomamon.

"Brother no!" Lunamon intercepted her brother and wrestled him to the ground. "He is an ally you fool!"

"Do you see what I've had to put up with?" Gomamon murmured to Izzy.

"Okay, despite the fact that you seem to want to kill each other, it seems like all of you survived your first night in the real world just fine." Izzy sighed.

"Well why wouldn't we?" Guilmon inquired.

"There was a slight chance your bodies would have an issue transitioning to energy that isn't combined with data."

"What does that mean large headed child?" Coronamon announced.

"It means we could have died you idiot." Gomamon answered.

"Do not threaten me again fish thing!" Coronamon struggled to get to Gomamon, but Lunamon kept him pinned down.

"Brother, do not fight with him, he will kick your shiny red buttocks!" Lunamon grunted.

"Why do you talk like that?" Guilmon inquired.

"It makes us feel unique, like we're not some stock supporting characters without any actual personalities of our own!" Lunamon responded.

"Hey, aren't we missing somebody?" Izzy scanned the group of Digimon.

"It's Hawkmon," Kudamon, who had been sitting quietly in the middle of the group, answered, "He's in the back." Kudamon nodded towards the garage. While Coronamon and Gomamon continued to squabble, Izzy crawled into the back of the garage to see the Digimon Hawkmon sleeping behind the motorcycle.

"Hey, Hawkmon, you okay back here?" Izzy asked as he shook the feathered monster awake.

"Oh, Mr. Izumi, yes I'm fine." Hawkmon replied as he rose to a seated position. "Yesterday was just rather hectic for me and today I find myself unusually tired."

"Hey Kudamon!" Someone outside cheered gleefully. Izzy helped Hawkmon out from behind the vehicle and they both exited the garage to see Kudamon perching itself on Sora's shoulder, who had just arrived. Yolei and Kari were walking behind her.

"We passed Tai on the elevator," Yolei said to Izzy, "He said you had found a way to find Joe's parents?"

"It's a whole thing with the digivice. Tai's got it covered." Izzy replied.

"And how is Joe?"

"Not much better than he was doing last night," Izzy answered, "He's still in critical condition. I think the doctors were feeling comfortable that he was going to make it out of it, though."

"Fortunately Takato's doing better," Kari interjected, "He's at home with his parents now."

"Yeah, Tai told me." Izzy replied. "Where are Iori and Jeri?"

"I don't know," Yolei answered, "But I'd imagine Iori has convinced himself that everything that happened last night was a dream."

"I resent that." Someone grumbled from behind. The group of humans and Digimon turned to see Iori and Jeri walking up the stairs.

"That's a fast elevator." Izzy mumbled.

"Iori! Friend! Brother!" Coronamon cheered as he continued his struggle to free himself from the clutches of Lunamon, as Gomamon continued his childish taunts of raspberries and cackling at Coronamon's lack of mobility. "Help me by teaching this mammalian, amphibian, fish, thing a lesson he will not soon forget!"

"Um, I'd, rather not." Iori mumbled.

"Alas, my own partner takes the side of my rival! Oof!" Coronamon stopped struggling as Lunamon head butted him in the back of his skull.

"Nobody will take your side while you are acting like a buffoon." Lunamon said calmly as she walked away from Coronamon's dazed body. "Jeri, how are you friend?" Lunamon then bounced to her partner and grasped the girl's waist in a hug. "You are very tall, and hugging you is very awkward!"

"Iori!" Coronamon jumped up, stumbled towards Iori, and then fell back over in front of his partner's feet. "Help would be greatly appreciated."

"Are you okay?" Iori picked up his dazed partner by his underarms and looked him in the face.

"Yes, though I fear my oversized mouth may have had a hand in me falling out of favor with the others."

"I think we both have that problem." Iori lamented.

"Yes, further proof of our close bond by revealing the similarities between our personalities!" Coronamon cheered.

"That's weird, Takato's nothing like me." Guilmon pondered. "He doesn't seem to like bread or fish or fighting crazy bad guys at all."

"Listen, Izzy," Iori put down his partner and walked over to the boy," I wanted to apologize. I realize how rude I was before, about Takato disappearing, even though you were completely right, and I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

"Yeah, we really kind of put our feet in our mouths yesterday." Jeri chimed in.

"It's okay; you didn't have any reason to believe that what we were saying was the truth." Izzy replied as he rested his arm on Iori's shoulder.

"Yeah, but we didn't have to be so awful to you about it." Jeri faked a cough. "I mean, I didn't have to be so awful to you about it." Iori corrected himself.

"It's okay; we can put it behind us. The important thing now is that you two know what's going on here. An entire world is at stake here, and if we want to save it we're going to need you two to help. Are you accepting of that?"

"Of course!" Iori urged. "When all I heard was talk of the digital world I thought you were all crazy, but then I went there and I saw what was going on. There were real people and Digimon in danger, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if there was something I could do about it and I just ran away."

"Oh." Izzy replied, partially shocked. "You too?" He asked Jeri. She nodded with determined eyes. "You realize how much better they are than us right?" He leaned over to Yolei and whispered.

"Better than you maybe," Yolei answered.

"What?"

"We jumped right in there when the Digimon asked us to help the first time Izzy. We didn't beat around the bush trying to figure out if it was the right thing to do."

"We didn't… wait, you were evil!"

"Not at first and not by choice."

"So we were the only ones who were hesitant." Izzy sighed.

"I don't know where you got 'we' from." Kari said in irritation. "I was all for helping them when we got here. I just wanted to know if there was an army or something that could help us."

"So you weren't, but the others-"

"I can't speak for Joe, but T.K. told me he didn't feel right leaving the Digimon to fend for themselves, and my brother talks big but the second he got there he knew that he was going to end up helping them."

"Does anyone know what they're talking about?" Sora asked Iori, Jeri, and the Digimon quietly, who had all gathered together outside of the original Digidestined's conversation. Everyone shrugged. "Did you get your chess board back?"

"Yeah, thanks, it was an expensive set." Iori whispered back.

"So pretty much I was the only one who was a jerk-ass about helping the Digimon?" Izzy inquired much to his dismay.

"Well Rika too," Said Kari, "She definitely didn't want to have anything to do with anyone."

"Oh great, I feel so much better."

Matsuki Residence

Shinjuku Ward: Tokyo, Japan

4:30 P.M: January 12th, 2010

Kairo sighed with relief as he finished his adjustments to the machine. The batch of wiring he had purchased (and used to replace older wiring from the same batch during his troubleshooting process) had been faulty, and didn't conduct electricity properly, hence the overheating problem. Now he sat back in his chair and looked over the design plans for the modifications to the digivice, which allowed both he and J.P. to be in the digital world at the same time. Henry had pressured him to fix it early, and there were still some issues to be had, but now Kairo had the time to fully adjust the device until it was working properly.

The doorbell rang. Kairo only noted it because it was so odd. Visitors usually did not come to the house. Kairo shrugged and chalked it up to a solicitor or something similar. He continued examining the schematics. Some mumbling could be heard out in the family room. It lasted for a few minutes. It must be one of Mom or Dad's friends, Kairo thought. Wait, do Mom and Dad have any friends? Then somebody walked towards his door. Kairo almost shrugged it off again, but his paranoia got the better of him. He shoved his digivice and schematics in his desk drawer and threw the large sheet over his machine, hiding it from plain view. Then his door opened.

"Hi Kairo." Takato Matsuki walked inside and closed the door behind him. He was carrying a backpack, and set it down on Kairo's bed.

"What are you doing here?" Kairo snarled.

"I just wanted to come and say hello," Takato shrugged, "Se what's going on with my aunt, uncle, and cousin: anything new in your life?"

"Nothing much: you?" Kairo replied sarcastically.

"Really? You don't have any new projects going on? No sports, hobbies, inter-universal travel, terrorism?"

"What do you hope to accomplish here Takato?" Kairo growled.

"I just wanted to talk to my cousin Kairo, away from the pressures of his axe crazy friends. What's your partner's name by the way?"

"That's none of your business."

"Hey, he tried to kill me. The least you owe me is the pleasure of knowing his name. You know, 'know your enemy'." Takato smiled. "What's under there?" He pointed to the white blanket covering the portal. Kairo didn't answer however. He lunged forward towards Takato. Takato backed into the wall to avoid what he was sure was a fist to the face, but Kairo instead slammed his palm into the wall besides Takato's head, his eyes now a few inches from Takato's. Then he laughed. Kairo let out a triumphant-like cackle and backed away from Takato.

"You're not going to get anything from me Takato. Not, why I'm doing this, or how Henry got how he is, or anything of the sort. So either come up with a better excuse to be here or get out of my room. I've work to do."

""Like I said Kairo," Takato sighed, "I just wanted to come and talk. Speaking of which, we'll have a bunch of time to talk at dinner tonight."

"Excuse me?" Kairo's smile disappeared. He turned to his cousin, who had turned around and was putting his backpack on. He then slowly turned back face to face with Kairo.

"I convinced my parents that it would be a good idea to invite you all over tonight to eat at the restaurant. My Mom's preparing the whole thing: I hope you like it." With that, Takato opened the door to Kairo's room and exited, closing it behind him.

"Crap."

Some Random Location

Some Unimportant Ward: Tokyo, Japan

5:00 P.M: January 12th, 2010

"Hi, is this Joe Kido's residence?"

"No, sorry."

"Do you know which apartment he does live in?"

"No, sorry."

"Thanks anyway."

"Sure."

This was the conversation that Tai had with every single door he had knocked upon within the building. One apartment complex, five floors, and 20 doors to a floor: he was on floor three, room 17. But this was where his digivice indicated there was another digivice. Joe lived somewhere here, and he was going to find his building. His parents needed to know where their son was. They must have been worried sick. But Tai would find them. In the meantime, he knocked on another door.

"Hi, is this Joe Kido's residence?"

"No, sorry."

"Do you know which apartment he does live in?"

"No, sorry."

"Oh, thanks anyway."

Tai knocked on another door.

"Hi, is this Joe Kido's residence?"

"No, sorry."

"Do you know which apartment he does live in?"

"I don't know if there is a Joe Kido in this building," The resident of door number 19, a middle aged woman, answered. "Hey J.P., do you know if someone named Joe Kido lives in the building?" She turned away from the door to ask the question, exposing the couch in her room. On the couch was a boy, with short and spiky brown hair, and a full blue jumpsuit.

"Joe Kido?" The boy turned his head. Tai got a complete look at the guy. The apartment was very well lit, and the sun was blocked by the clouds. "I don't think so Mom." J.P., the Digidestined, answered. There was no mistaking it. Tai clearly remembered that face. The two times he had seen him may have been short, but they burned the memory into his head.

"Oh, thanks anyway Junpei." The woman turned back to Tai. "I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong building."

"Thanks anyway ma'am," Tai nodded. As he spoke, J.P. turned his way. The woman closed the door, but Tai couldn't tell if J.P. had seen him. He had to hope for the best. Once the door was closed, Tai got a look at the sign hanging on the façade.

Shibayama

Junpei Shibayama, Tai thought to himself, the evil Digidestined. That explains the digivice signal. I wasn't tracking Joe, I was tracking J.P. So that means I haven't gotten Joe's digivice within range yet. Tai then rapidly clicked the button on his digivice, a trick that he learned would quickly zoom in and then out of the screen so that it would cover more ground. He zoomed out of the current location, which focused on J.P.'s digivice, until a second blip appeared on the screen. This is Joe, Tai thought, and then headed off. Then he stopped, realizing he needed to do something. He dug a pencil and a piece of paper out of his pocket, and wrote down J.P.'s full name and address, and then proceeded down the stairs so he could locate the home of Joe Kido.

Odaiba Apartments

Odaiba, Koto Ward: Tokyo, Japan

5:30 P.M: January 12th, 2010

Izzy flipped through the phone book. He was looking for the name of someone, anyone, who was a Digidestined. He had remembered the last names of every Digidestined he had met in the digital world, so trying to find them should have been an easy task: if it wasn't Tokyo. He had no way of knowing if one of the five thousand Ishidas in the phone book was Matt and T.K.'s father or if it was just someone else with that name. Furthermore, few of the Digidestined lived in Tokyo, and no one had been smart enough to give each other their numbers and addresses before they all left the digital world.

The only destined that Izzy had ever had contact with on Earth were the destined up on the roof right now (as well as Takato and Tai), and Eric and Zoe. But they were in America and Italy, respectively, and trying to locate one 16-17 year old individual in a country as populous as those two was not an easy task: and once again, neither one of them had the thought to leave Izzy a way to contact them. This discouraged Izzy. He gave up his desperate search. He was hoping he could find the address of one of the Digidestined, if they had moved to Tokyo, to help with the current situation. But there was no way to locate them. The Tokyo group was on its own.

"Izzy," His mother opened the door to his room and called to him, "You have a friend at the door: another one."

"Wow, who knew I was so popular?" Izzy shrugged innocently to try and throw his mother off of the scent. While Mrs. Izumi didn't have a problem with her son making friends, the fact that he now had about 7 on his second day of school, constantly calling him or knocking on the door, she had a reason to be suspicious.

Izzy arrived at the door to see Takato standing there, looking no worse for wear. "Hey, Takato, you're looking not beat up."

"Yeah, it's a miracle, isn't it? Hey, can you meet me up at Tai's place," He said for the benefit of Izzy's mother, "I wanted to show you something."

"Yeah, just a second," Izzy went back inside and put on his shoes, then followed Takato down the hall and up the stairs. They walked up a few flights to arrive at the roof, where Yolei, Kari, Sora, Iori, Jeri, and the Digimon were.

"Takato, hey, you're alright!" Sora cheered at the sight of her ally.

"Takato!" Guilmon immediately sprang up and rushed for the boy. Takato, realizing what was about to happen, jumped out of the way and narrowly avoided a collision with his partner as the dinosaur came screeching to a halt.

"Do you want me to have to go back to the hospital?" Takato asked his partner as the Digimon came up to him and shoved his nuzzle playfully into Takato's stomach.

"Sorry Takato. I was just so excited. We were really worried about you."

"Yeah, I can tell, but right now we should focus on the task at hand." Takato then opened his backpack and pulled out a video camera. "Here." He handed it to Izzy, who opened the screen and played the tape with a perplexed look on his face.

"What is this?" Izzy inquired as he watched the video of a dark room, sans the sound. "Do I not get to hear the audio?"

"The audio isn't important. That's Kairo's room."

"Who?"

"Kairo. My cousin."

"As fascinating as that sounds I don't see how this applies to anything going on up here." Izzy said dryly.

"What do you mean, he's- didn't- didn't anybody tell them?" Takato leaned over to be in Sora and the Digimon's field of view.

"About what?" Sora asked.

"About what? How about how Kairo's- you know what, never mind." Takato grumbled. "Izzy, when we were in the Digital world, we were confronted by the three the evil Digidestined, and one of them was my cousin."

"Kai's evil!" Kari proclaimed.

"No, not Kai, Kairo." Takato corrected her.

"Oh, that's less surprising." Kari murmured.

"That's my cousin you're talking about Kari." Takato grumbled.

"Wait, you have a cousin named Kai and another cousin named Kairo?" Izzy inquired.

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Well that's just weird."

"Listen, can we get back on topic?" Takato grumbled in frustration. "My cousin is evil! Can we do something about that?"

"What'd you have in mind?" Izzy asked.

"Kairo and his parents are coming over to our house for dinner tonight. So his house will be completely empty."

"Oh," Izzy's eyes perked up.

"And look at the video," Takato pointed at the screen, "See the large white blanket? What do you think is under there?"

"They have to be using something to go to and from the digital world," Izzy said mostly to himself, "And considering my method uses up more power than playing an fps on a laptop, I'd imagine that they would have to have something more permanent around."

"Are you seriously suggesting we break into your cousin's house and then steal from him?" Yolei asked in shock.

"No," Takato answered as he dug into his pocket and pulled out a key, "I'm suggesting you take this key and open the door to my cousin's house, and then steal from him." He gave the key to Izzy.

"Works for me," Izzy shrugged and put the key in his pocket.

"Do none of you have ethics?" Yolei cried.

"He's evil!" Izzy said in an obvious tone.

Some Other Random Location

Some Other Unimportant Ward: Tokyo, Japan

6:30 P.M: January 12th, 2010

Tai departed from the subway station, and preceded up the stairs to the city streets. This had been the third exchange he had made that day: but he was almost there. The indicator on his digivice showed that Joe's digivice was getting closer. Standing in the empty city street, he looked forward to see a suburb ahead. This must be where Joe lives. He began to run forward, the device in his hand.

"Going somewhere?" Somebody yelled behind Tai. Tai stopped running, the voice he heard grating to him. He turned around to see the one person he was hoping wasn't there: J.P.

"So you noticed me, huh?" Tai laughed nervously.

"It was hard not to," J.P. replied, "With those goggles your hair stands out more than Yugi Moto's."

"Really, with the anime references?"

"It's called obligatory for a reason."

"So what's about to happen here J.P.?" Tai sighed. "Are you really going to attack me, out here, in the open, in the real world no less?" He scoffed. "I don't know if you've noticed, but you're at a serious disadvantage here."

"I'm not going to do it, Tai." J.P. snapped his fingers, and a bipedal blue dog walked out from behind him. "He is."

"Crap."

(This is called an author's note) Also, regarding my ongoing effort to revise Absolution based on the numerous contradictions and ridiculous plot points which I've written that occur to me every so often (as well as implementing the mad writing skills I've learned from TVTropes dot org), I'll be interested to know of anything in Absolution any of you had a problem with, so if I don't know about it I can either fix it, or tell you to stop whining about small things you don't like and to suck it up (Although I'm an awful writer, so it'll probably be the former). The message: Review! Give Oapekay and RazenX a break, so they don't feel obligated to review every chapter out of pity! (At least that's what I assume their reasoning is due to my low opinion of myself).