Disclaimer: Digimon Tamers is owned by Toei Animation and Bandai. Original characters and concepts are mine.

Series Warnings: Violence; Language; Mature Themes
Pairing Types: (For those that actually find it important) Male/Female; Female/Female
Edited Notes: Thanks to Dark Qiviut in a review for this chapter for pointing out an HTML error, which has thus been fixed. :)


She had been told to simply go home and deal with her assignment the next day. Most other workers within Hypnos would have happily followed those orders. Reika, however, knew Yamaki. She knew how he worked, and just how deeply his sense of dedication to that work went. If she had been anyone else, she would be working on that assignment the moment it was given to her. Thus, that was just what she was doing. Even if it was late into the night and she couldn't really get much of anything done, she was determined to at least do something which resembled getting a start.

Hoshi Yumi. That was the girl the Wild One had attacked before Takato and Impmon destroyed it. With how far Hypnos' information network reached, it took only moments of sitting at the computer in her personal office to pull up files on her. For the most part, everything was decidedly... normal. She was a third year high school student, her parents were successful enough and made enough money to easily take care of this girl and her younger brother. There was definitely something amiss, though... Such as her having disappeared without a trace for a period of three months. Upon resurfacing, the girl underwent several more months of psychiatric help.

There was certainly something wrong with that. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on... but given that everything else checked out fairly normal, that was the only lead she had. She just hoped that it would go somewhere, and couldn't shake a feeling in the pit of her stomach that this wasn't going to be easy...


Digimon Tamers: Inner Demons
Realization 11- "Investigation"
By Infinity Blade

Looking around at the bustling hallways of the hospital, Takato was wondering if this was such a good idea. At his side were Juri and Hirokazu, with the girl carrying a small bouquet of flowers. It was a few days since the battle with Evilmon, and since the digimon attacked that girl. Juri had been insisting that they visit her, even though they didn't even know her. Also despite the fact that she still remained in a coma. 'It's the thought that counts' wound up being her main argument, and Takato eventually caved, though more for the sheer fact he couldn't say no to her than anything else. Hirokazu, he figured, was just tagging along for the hell of it.

Looking around at the various nurses and doctors that roamed about, Takato couldn't help but find it strange how clueless any of them that may have treated the girl would be. He and his friends were well aware of the source of her condition, as were Hypnos and the other Tamers. Yet these people would only know of it as some mysterious, unsolved attack. He imagined not even the girl's parents knew about what happened. The official explanation currently was that both the girl's attack and the mysterious blackout experienced by faculty and students was 'under investigation.' Takato imagined it would remain as such until it just vanished from people's memories by way of some other event. The fact that he was a party to that made him feel slightly unsettled.

Understanding all of that, he just didn't feel as if it was right for him to be there.

After finding out where this Yumi's girl's room was, and making sure she was allowed visitors, the trio went on their way to a higher floor. As they rode up in an elevator, just the three of them with no one else, Juri sighed.

"It's still so hard to believe," she said. "I saw it all with my own eyes, and yet..."

Takato couldn't really think of anything to say to that. It WAS pretty unbelievable. Even more so was the fact all of this Tamer stuff had only been apart of his life for just over a week...

"Hey, isn't this the hospital that Katoki's being kept in?" Hirokazu asked absently.

Juri nodded. "But why would you want to... wait, you're not thinking of harassing him, are you?"

"Nah," Hirokazu said, waving a hand. "I'm just wondering if that poor sap's still talking crazy."

"Well, it wasn't exactly crazy talk, you know," Juri said, frowning a bit. "What happened to him was real..."

Takato got an uneasy feeling in his stomach. It always cropped up whenever Juri spoke about what Impmon did to Yosuke. Something about the way she talked about it just bothered him, somehow.

"Oh, here's our stop!" Juri suddenly exclaimed, her face brightening as the elevator doors slid open.

They continued onward, around the bend of a hallway and towards their destination. As they went around the hall's corner, however, Takato came to a sudden stop as he saw who was standing outside the room they were headed for. "Reika-san?"

The long-haired woman blinked, glancing down the hallway as she heard him. "Takato-kun?"

"You know her?" Juri asked as the older woman walked towards them.

"Oh, yeah-" Takato began, and then abruptly stopped. He looked helplessly at Reika, realizing the bind he was suddenly in. Hirokazu and Juri didn't know that this woman worked for Hypnos, and she didn't know they were aware of the exsistance of digimon. "Um, she, I..."

"My name's Ootori Reika. I'm a friend of Takato-kun's mother, Mie," Reika lied with a smile. "I work at the same office as Yumi-chan's father, so I figured it would be appropriate to pay my respects."

"I'm Katou Juri," Juri said, bowing. She then gave Hirokazu a light slap in the arm and he followed her lead.

"Oh, heh. Shiota Hirokazu."

Takato just stared at Reika. She was really good at lying and sounding so sincere about it at the same time.

"So, what are you doing here, Takato-kun?" Reika asked, eyeing him.

Takato gulped and started to reply before Juri cut in. "We heard what happened to Hoshi-sempai," she said. "Even though we don't know her very well, we thought it'd be a good idea to do the same as you are, Ootori-san."

"I see," Reika said, and just as those words left her mouth, the door to Yumi's room flew open.

A boy, probably a year younger than Takato or his friends, stormed out, which was followed by a man yelling. "HIKARU! Get back here!"

The boy spun around, running a hand through his black hair. "Lay off, Dad! I don't care if that slut stays like that!"

An older man with graying hair came out with a furious look on his face. "Don't you dare talk about your older sister that way!"

"After all the shit she's done?" Hikaru spat. "She probably asked for it and just got more than she wanted!"

The elder man looked about ready to punch his son right in the mouth. His body was tense, and his hands were balled up into fists. "Just... get out of my face."

"Gladly!" Hikaru shot back, spun around, and began walking down the hallway. As he passed by Takato and company, he made sure to flip up his middle finger in his father's direction before disappearing around the hallway's corner.

Everyone else just gawked as the boy's father stormed back into the room, slamming the door behind him. They continued to stare for several moments until Reika adopted a sweet look as she turned to Juri. "Say, Juri-chan," Reika said. "Maybe I should deliver those flowers for you. Obviously, this may not exactly be the best time... I'll make sure to tell them where they came from."

Juri just nodded mutely, handing over the bouquet. Obviously, she was a tad shaken from that display. Hirokazu, on the other hand, just gave a half-hearted laugh and scratched his head. "Remind me never to complain about my family ever again."

Reika's gaze shifted to Takato. "Takato-kun, could I talk with you for a moment? Alone?"

"Eh, we'll meet you outside, buddy," Hirokazu said, giving Takato a slap on the shoulder as he turned around. "C'mon, Katou. No use in hanging around here any longer, right?"

"Y-yeah," Juri stammered. "I suppose..."

As the two other teenagers left them, Takato looked back to the older woman. "What's all this about?"

"I'm sure you know," Reika said, staring down at the flowers. "You were the one who gave Yamaki-shitsuchou the report on the Wild One and what happened to this girl."

"Well, yeah," Takato said, rubbing the back of his head. "I mean, what are you doing here?"

Reika sighed, glancing back at the door to Yumi's room. "I'm investigating that incident's relation to this girl. Yamaki-shitsuchou's suspicious, and the more I dig into it, I'm starting to understand why. Something about this whole mess is very wrong." She looked back at him. "Can I ask you a favor?"

"Uh, sure," he said, blinking. "What is it?"

"I need to speak with this girl's parents," Reika said. "I don't know how they'll react to me, but it needs to be done. I want to know if you can tail this girl's younger brother, who you just saw make that little display."

"Tail him? I... don't really know how to do something like that."

Reika smiled again and pulled out a cell phone, which she placed in his hands. "Don't worry about it. Just see where he goes and what he does. If you need some help, contact Shuichon-chan, Jenrya-kun, or Ruki. Their numbers are in my cell. Can you do that for me?"

He looked down at the phone, and though it wasn't really something he wanted to do, he nodded regardless. "Thank you," she said, patting him on the shoulder, which somehow caused him to blush a bit. "I really do think that this is something important..."


"Hirokazu-kun!" Juri said frantically. "Just what are you doing?"

Hirokazu pounded a fist into his palm, cracking his knuckles as they headed out of the hospital. "If there's one thing I learned from Katoki, it was how to kick someone's ass." His eyes were locked right on Hoshi Hikaru, who was slinking away down a sidewalk cursing to himself.

"Hirokazu-kun, no!" Juri said, grabbing the back of his jacket. "That's not going to solve anything. I know what we saw, but we don't know everything about this."

"I can't forgive someone who would talk about their sister like that," he said. "After seeing what we saw, knowing what that stupid digimon did..."

"Hey, I know what we can do!" she exclaimed, a smile popping up on her face. "We can go get some ice cream! You like ice cream, right?"

Hirokazu paused and glanced back at her. "Did you just ask me out?"

Juri's cheeks became red. "NO! I just don't see any point in fighting like this! You wouldn't be any better than Katoki or the Kobayashi brothers if you did something like that..."

Hirokazu's shoulders slumped as he came to a stop and sighed. He cursed mentally, glaring at Hikaru from behind. Much as he hated to admit it, she had a point. The last thing he wanted to be then was anything like Katoki Yosuke.

He turned back around and grinned. "Okay, you win. Y'know, Takato and I were gonna head to the card shop after this. Wanna come with us?"

She blinked, releasing his jacket as it was now sort of twisted around him. She breathed a sigh of relief and smiled back. "Sure, I'd be glad-"

"Which way did he go?" a gasping voice panted from behind Juri, and both found it to be Takato. He looked as if he had just run straight out of the hospital.

"Who?" the other two teens chorused.

"Hoshi... Hikaru," Takato gasped, and then stood straight up.

Juri groaned, palming her face. "Not again..."

Takato took several deep breaths, and gave her a weird look. "What? ...listen, I didn't want to say this back there, but Reika-san is one of those people from that Hypnos organization I told you guys about. I just couldn't say anything with her standing right in front of me. Something's going on, and I need to follow him to see what he's doing."

Hirokazu's face brightened and he gave his friend a thumb's up. "Alright! We'll lead you straight after him."

"No," Takato said, shaking his head. "I can't let you guys follow along this time."

"We can't just let you go by yourself, Takato-kun," Juri said. "Why wouldn't you want us to...?"

Takato scratched his head, looking around the general area. He then whistled. "Hey, I know you're around here even though I told you to stay home again!"

Only moments later, Impmon's head popped out of some bushes along the sidewalk they were on. "Whaddaya want, kid? I'm stayin' hidden! You're just not helping matters!"

Takato smiled back to his friends. "I'll be alright, but if something happens I was told to contact the other Tamers. I don't think it'd be a good idea for you two to be there if I had to do that. Plus, it'd probably be easier to follow him with fewer people."

Juri frowned, while Hirokazu just snapped his fingers. "Just be careful," the brown-haired girl said.

"I will," Takato assured her, and then kneeled down where Impmon was. He slid his backpack off and unzipped it. "C'mon, Impmon."

Impmon waved a hand. "Oooh, no. Not again."

"...you know, I think Mom's supposed to be making something really good for dinner tonight..."

The small demon just stared. "...there ought to be laws against this."


Frowning a bit, Minami pulled a jacket around herself as she stepped out of her apartment building. Even then, she found herself shivering at the cool autumn air. Though it certainly wasn't as cold as it was when the freak snowstorm hit, the temperature was starting to drop again. She really wasn't used to these kinds of temperatures yet...

"Uehara Minami, right?"

Minami blinked, immediately stopping in her stride. She certainly hadn't been expecting anyone to greet her the moment she set foot outside. Yet, glancing down the sidewalk, she saw another teenager with blue hair who wasn't dressed anywhere near as warmly as she was. He also wore a backpack that she could have sworn just sort of... twitched on its own.

She recognized this young man, however. She didn't know him well, but she did know him. Not that she had any idea why he would be there. "You're... Lee Jenrya-kun?"

"This is convenient," Jenrya said, smiling as he walked over. "I actually came around here looking for you."

Why would he come searching for me? Minami wondered. She cycled through her memories, trying to figure out in that moment why he would do something like that. She knew, at least, that he was the same thing as Ruki. It'd been awhile since the last time she had seen him, though. Ever since she saw that flaming cat monster... Since that day when she had been fully exposed to all that was happening...

From what little she knew of him, she considered him trustworthy, but... this was just a little strange.

"I know this is a bit sudden," Jenrya said. "And probably a little odd. You were just the only person I could think of to come to."

Now Minami was really confused. What could she possibly do that would help him?

"It's about Ruki," he finally said.

She let her gaze linger on him silently for a second, and then quickly looked away, blushing a bit. "What about her...?"

Jenrya sighed, scratching his head. "How do I put this... I wanted to ask someone I know is close to her. But that would only leave three people that I know of... and out of them, you're the only one that I really can ask."

"Well, she's a good friend..." she murmured, and then glanced up. The look on Jenrya's face immediately told her she couldn't treat him like he was clueless. "...um, well..."

"I know that you're an important person to her," Jenrya said. "Honestly, I normally wouldn't go behind someone's back like this, but..."

"...is there something wrong?" Minami asked, now starting to feel a tad worried. He didn't really strike her as the type of person to go out doing this if it wasn't important.

The smile fell from his face, and he stared up at the overcast sky. "Honestly, that's what I'm trying to understand," he then looked back at her, his smile returning. "Hopefully we can figure that out."


In another place, and another world...

Across the desolate wasteland, the two combatants stared at each other from a distance. One was a reptilian creature whose body was engulfed in flames. The other was a samurai-like warrior that wielded a large sword. Grunting, the latter, named Musyamon, lifted his blade high. His expression shifted to glaring at his opponent, and yet he smirked at the same time.

The former, DarkLizamon, gave a raspy sigh as he breathed heavily. "You realize it, don't you? How pointless this really is?"

Off in the distance, Musyamon could see it happening already. He saw a piece of the world - a small mountain - just outright disappear in the blink of an eye, its data scattering to the wind.

"This level of the Digital World has been little more than his dumping ground for months," DarkLizamon snarled. "All that's left now is for the trash to be destroyed..."

"Then talking about it doesn't really matter anymore, does it?" Musyamon said before chuckling. "Didn't stop you from attacking me first..."

DarkLizamon's eyes narrowed behind the mask covering his face. "That is our way, after all... until our lives come to their eventual end... Better to go out like this than wait for him to delete us all."

With those last words, DarkLizamon rushed at Musyamon, who stood ready for the coming assault. As the fiery digimon neared his foe, his raised his claws to strike...

Then, a bright light washed over the both of them, and they were gone.


Megumi rolled her eyes as the alarm went off within the main Hypnos chamber. Months ago, any such warning would send everyone on staff into a frenzy. After the past couple of weeks, it was becoming so commonplace that all the procedures were just starting to seem strangely mundane. Taking a brief glance at her monitoring screen as she hopped around several stray cables lying on the ground, Megumi's indifference was lifted a slight bit. Not much, but it was something. At least it detected something before it actually Realized this time, she thought. When she took her seat, she was unsurprised to find Yamaki there a second later.

"Well, lets see what's on the agenda for today," Megumi murmured, tapping commands into the control panel. Moments later, her eyes widened before she slumped over, sighing. "Just when I thought these things couldn't surprise us."

"Two Wild Ones," Yamaki said calmly, reading off the screen. Hands held behind his back, he then turned back and began walking. "Monitor them. When you can detect where they will Realize, contact the Tamers and get me."

"Alright," Megumi said, frowning up at the monitor. "Um, Yamaki-shitsuchou?"

He paused briefly. "What?"

"Isn't there anything else we can do, sir?" she asked, a hint of caution in her voice. She didn't say everything she wanted, though, due to who she was speaking to. Why did they have to always rely just on these young people? Wasn't there any other method they could take to prevent putting them in harm's way?

Yamaki glanced back, his expression hidden by his sunglasses. "Don't assume everything will always stay as it is, Megumi."

He then strode off, leaving her with just her thoughts and her job.


Takato grit his teeth as he moved along the sidewalk. He knew very well that Impmon didn't like having to ride around in his backpack, but Takato didn't like it any better. Mainly because Impmon was a lot heavier than he looked, and an extended period of carrying the digimon around was probably the last thing the teenager's back needed. On top of that, Impmon kept making noise, which continually attracted weird looks from strangers. Plus, it made it so he had to stay a considerable distance from Hoshi Hikaru.

He didn't particularly like having to sneak after someone. It made him feel strange. Particularly when he knew this boy didn't have anything to do with what happened to his sister. He'd seen what happened to that girl. Reika knew about that, as well. So how could this guy possibly be connected to that?

Still, all of that didn't change the fact that he agreed to do this. Although he was starting to regret leaving Hirokazu and Juri behind, as the more he thought about it, he didn't see why he would have to call any of the other Tamers. He just couldn't put all of the pieces together.

As he saw Hikaru round a corner, a muffled scream suddenly erupted from the backpack. Seconds later, Impmon's head burst out of it, only to have Takato hastily shove it back inside. "You had a pen in here!"

"Impmon, SHH!"

"IT POKED ME IN THE ASS!"

"I'M SORRY!" Takato screamed, now holding the backpack in his hands with his face in the opening.

"Whatever," Impmon huffed. "I ain't doin' this again! No way, no how."

Takato just gave an exasperated breath and looked around him to find a single man on the mostly deserted street staring at him. Just laughing nervously, Takato hurriedly continued on his way around the corner... only to be met with Hikaru face-to-face.

"Just why are you following me?" Hikaru asked bluntly, his arms crossed as he tapped his foot.

Takato gulped hard, hoping for Impmon to stay quiet now. "F-following you? Why would you think that?"

Unlike Reika, of course, Takato was a horrible liar.

Hikaru glared at the older boy, clenching a fist. "You were outside my sister's room before. Why the hell are you following me?"

It seemed clear that the hostility shown back at the hospital wasn't just a one-time thing for this young man. "L-listen, I just..."

Hikaru grunted, spun around, and began to walk off. "Whatever. I don't care. Just leave me alone, alright?"

Takato sighed, rubbing the side of his head. He had to figure out something to say... there was just something not right about the whole ordeal. "...you're wrong about your sister, you know."

That made Hikaru stop. "Excuse me?" he asked, looking back at Takato before he gave a quick laugh. "Give me a break. If you know Yumi, then I'm sorry that you've had to put up with her."

"I... don't exactly know her..."

"Then what are you doing following me around like some sort of lemming?" Hikaru growled.

"You don't know what really happened!" Takato suddenly blurted out, and after a second of considering what he said, regretted it.

Hikaru stared at him, a bit of surprise on his face, before he gave Takato a dark look and began walking towards him. "And you do?"

"Well, th-that's complicated," Takato stammered.

"What did you do to my sister?" Hikaru asked, his voice... freakishly calm.

Takato felt like pounding his face in with a hammer, suddenly realizing how what he said must've come across. "I... I..."

Hikaru then grinned, causing a disturbed shiver to run down Takato's spine. "I just want to know so I can thank you. You have no idea what all that bitch has done to me... not to mention others... There's so much I've wanted to do back, but I've never had the power or opportunity... So c'mon, tell me..."

This wasn't quite what Takato had expected. As Hikaru approached, Takato found himself walking backwards, and wishing the small street wasn't quite as deserted as it was. The look on the younger boy's face seemed to almost delight in the thought of something horrible happening to his sister, and that alone made Takato want to go running. What would bring someone to think anything like that of their family? It was made worse by the fact that he seemed to have himself utterly convinced that Takato had something to do with the attack on her.

"Please," he said, his voice having both a laugh in it, and a pleading tone. "I've got to know. I've got to know how she was hurt, what made her scream in pain..."

"I didn't do any-"

"TELL ME!" Hikaru screamed, suddenly lunging for Takato. He grabbed the older teenager by his jacket, shaking him violently. "TELL ME NOW!"

Takato wanted to just knock him away and run, but somehow found himself very frightened. Not even Yosuke outright scared him, but something about the deranged look in this boy's eyes...

Takato could also feel Impmon squirming around in his backpack. If he didn't do something, Impmon was liable to, and that was probably the last thing he needed.

'At least the hospital's close,' was the first thing that sprang to mind when he considered the possibilities of that. Then he mentally kicked himself before physically kicking Hikaru in the shin. The boy gave a howl of pain before releasing Takato. Without skipping a beat though, the black-haired boy punched at Takato. Having spent so much time trying not to get killed by Yosuke and the Kobayashi brothers, Takato had learned how to duck a punch, so he did so. He then quickly began to stumble back until he ran into a light pole.

He was sure Impmon wouldn't appreciate that... in fact, Impmon didn't have any reaction to it. For that matter, the small demon had stopped squirming several moments before, and seemed almost... tense.

It was then that Takato realized why. The air around them quickly became hot, just like when that Allomon appeared. And behind Hikaru, in the middle of the street, there was a small cloud of fog... which quickly began to grow larger and take shape.

Any chance of not blowing their cover then was gone. Takato understood that, and apparently, so did Impmon, as he burst out of the backpack and landed on the street. Either that or he just didn't care, which Takato figured was far more likely.

Hikaru completely froze as he saw Impmon. His eyes went wide, and he began to back away from the digimon. The look in those eyes was most definitely one of fear, punctuated by tears welling up in them. Even with something as strange as Impmon, the reaction seemed rather... extreme.

"Y-you're... that's..." he stammered, and then went silent as the fog patch formed into another digimon. It was larger than the average human, a reptile of some sort, with its entire body, beyond its mask-covered faze, ablaze with black flames.

Takato tried his best to ignore Hikaru, pulling out his D-Ark and triggering its analyzer. "DarkLizamon, Adult-level digimon, Attacks are-"

He was interrupted as the younger boy screamed, tears now freely flowing down his cheeks. "NO!" he cried, shaking his head wildly. "It's all here again... you... you're all just..."

Takato just stared at him. Not even HE freaked out that much when confronted with digimon for the first time... ...mentally, Takato paused. Did Hikaru just say 'again?'

Finally, Hikaru just gave one more scream and ran off like a bat out of hell. Takato quickly understood that may have been for the best, as a roar brought his attention back to DarkLizamon. "Okay, kid!" Impmon shouted back to his Tamer. "Lets see if what you did last time was just a fluke or not!"

Takato frowned at his partner. Truly, his confidence was overwhelming...


"It's not that I want to worry you, or anything," Jenrya said as he and Minami strolled down the side of a street. "It's just that... well, I'd be lying to you if I said Ruki and I are close. Lately, however... there's just something about the way she's acting. As if she's hiding something, and I'm worried that her doing this may hurt her more than anyone else."

"Ruki is someone difficult to get close to," Minami said softly, seeming to pay more attention to her feet as they moved along the ground than what was ahead of her. "She doesn't like to let many people in..."

"But you're different."

Minami's cheeks flushed again. "I... I suppose..."

"Really, all I wanted to know is if Ruki has said or done anything recently that seems odd," Jenrya said, and the smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "I don't want to sound like I'm prying, though. You just have to understand that what we deal with constantly is dangerous."

Minami's head jerked up and she stopped walking. Jenrya did the same, and she turned to look at him, an expression of worry now etched on her face. "Do you think that what you're talking about really would put her at more risk? That she could be hurt from it...?"

Jenrya sighed. "Like I said, I didn't come to worry you, though I guess that's unavoidable... and I know Ruki would tell me this is none of my business. In fact, if she knew I came to you, what she would tell me would probably be a whole lot worse."

Minami smiled a bit at that. "Yeah, probably."

"But the fact remains," Jenrya continued, "that Ruki and I are both Tamers. Whether she likes it or not, we're both working towards the same goal. So even if she won't allow us to be her friends, we're still comrades. So, I'm sort of worried, and I just want to know. If there's nothing you can tell me, then I'm sorry for bothering you with this..."

Minami opened her mouth to speak, and then stopped. She was paused like that for a moment before she bowed her head again, a look on her face that seemed like she wanted to say something. "S-sorry, Lee-kun. I can't really think of anything..."

The blue-haired teen frowned. She was lying. He could tell that much. And he could imagine why, as well. After all, why should she betray Ruki's trust to someone that almost amounts to a perfect stranger?

Jenrya bowed to her. "Sorry for troubling you, Uehara-san."

He then began to turn away before she quickly grabbed his coat-sleeve. "Wait!" she said, and it almost struck him as if she was second-guessing herself by the second. "I know Ruki's a stubborn person, but please don't think badly of her because of how she acts."

Jenrya blinked, and then smiled. "Heh. I think maybe I can see why you're the important person that you are to her..."

Terriermon then chose that moment to pop right out of Jenrya's backpack, his ears tense and standing on end. Minami yelped, but that seemed to be more out of surprise than anything else. "Jen, there's something-!"

He didn't have to say anything else. Up ahead was a construction yard, where a building was just starting to be built. The area around it suddenly blackened, and in that one, isolated area, it began to rain quite heavily. Minami just stared in mild shock at the freak weather, while Jenrya only frowned.

For a Digital Field like that to just appear right in front of them so randomly was very strange. There wasn't time to ponder on it, however.

"Uehara-san," Jenrya said, glancing back to her. "Sorry about this, but we've got to go take care of this." He then smiled once more. "And sorry again if I've worried you. Take care, all right?"

Leaving it at that, he turned to run straight for the construction yard. He was quite thankful for the fact that no one was presently working on the site, and then quite annoyed when he realized how cold that rain was going to be.

And it was, indeed, very cold. He quickly ran under the cover of apart of the partially constructed building, and then glanced around. "Terriermon, can you tell where-"

"DOWN!" Terriermon suddenly screamed, and Jenrya did just that, dropping to the ground. It was a very good thing he did so, too, as something had quickly come from around the halfway-built wall he was next to. That 'something' swung a very large sword, which embedded itself in the wall where Jenrya had been standing.

Jenrya gulped and looked up, finding a Musyamon standing over them. The digimon grinned, yanked his sword out of the wall, and raised it into the air. "Heh. Guess today's my lucky day..."

-To Be Continued


Note: Not much to note here, but here goes...
- The title for the series you're currently reading will soon be changed to "Inner Demons Part 01- Rising Shadow" to reflect the fact that this is going to take multiple series to tell this whole story. It'll be sometime in the next couple of chapters, so keep an eye out for it. :)

- ALSO be on the look out in the near future for the first spin-off of ID, "Inner Demons: Gaiden" a series that will collect multiple side-stories that I've developed for the ID universe that don't fit into the main storyline, but expand on several elements of the world and its characters.

- I should do this more often, but thanks to all of my readers and reviewers. Realization 10 got the biggest reaction, review-wise, that ID's gotten since the first couple of chapters. So thanks for letting me know that there ARE people out there reading this thing. :)


"In the midst of trying to gather information, two battles erupt on opposite ends of Shinjuku. As Takato, Jenrya, and their partners are faced with these enemies, one Tamer will have their motivations brought into question..."
Next: Realization 12- "Flame/Sword"