Y/N: Ken's dealing with the after effects of Moretsuna's death in the work place. There's more than that, obviously, but that's what I remember the most. I like writing Ken in the work place. It gives him a place to call his own, where he can grow as a character without having to adopt someone else's plot as his own. He has friends and enemies and it's all very different, but it's exactly what he needed to be a better character to me, and I was very pleased to have another shot at writing it.
U/N: Sora's final plotline really starts here (and when I say final I mean I'm a bit bitter about her not having much plot in the second half of 08) and it's kind of fun, but also kind of sad. We've written so many stories about these characters, and probably twice as many for Sora as we did to anyone else, and this being one of the final stories is kind of a weird thing.
Title: Digimon Adventure 08: Vaccine
By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing
Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.
Part 1: Incomplete
Chapter 12: Arrested Development
Sora Takenouchi:
"Do you feel anything yet?"
"No, Taichi."
"Nothing at all?"
"Nothing at all."
The two of them were on a loop, and while they both seemed irritated with one another, they somehow seemed to understand that it would soon pass. I didn't have a sibling, so I didn't know what it was like to be able to roll your eyes out of utter frustration one moment and be genuinely chipper and friendly with the same person a moment later. Takeru and Yamato didn't act this way, at least not as noticeably as Taichi and Hikari did.
It didn't make much sense that she couldn't feel anything though. It had been two hours and still there was no pull drawing her toward Gaia. But as she had said, she hadn't felt anything at all since we had left the maze of white walls. Winter said the same, so it made sense to be true. I couldn't help but look down and smile at Biyomon as she walked along with a little bounce to her step. She was pleased that we had gone to pick up Gabumon since she hadn't seen him in a while and the two were close friends, but she was also happy that we were walking outside on Earth without a disguise. It wasn't safe necessarily but there were others that I passed every now and then on other days, people who thought that a statement was better than hiding away, shut up in a house with no fresh air. Biyomon loved fresh air and she also had a lot of opinions. I trusted her now, and if I was allowed to walk around, so was she. I knew what it was like to be shut up somewhere.
Agumon had apparently said something funny because both Gabumon and Biyomon began laughing to his confusion. I loved hearing her laughter—any laughter at all was nice these days. We'd been through a lot and laughter wasn't the first thing on my mind most days. Instead I started every day with a cold sweat and painful flashbacks to Arnold and pressing the button. I had dreams about prison—even though I'd never really gone—and then flashes to the virus. I had not seen the virus itself until after we had all made it out alive and that was only from a distance at the Temple.
Only we actually hadn't all made it out alive.
It was too bad that Arnold hadn't been the one that had died. I knew it was a gruesome thought, but in a lot of ways I didn't even care. Willis and Kiyoko were both confirmed to have been killed by Gaia, the witch we were searching for now, but she, or whoever actually did the murdering of them, would never have been able to get to them had Arnold not sent the virus. The digimon who were killed by Moretsuna and his stupid league of idiots shooting guns they knew nothing about mattered too, and the same went for the digimon who were caught in the virus before they could find their way to safety. Etemon, Divermon, Yanmamon, Chicchimon, Otamamon, Gekomon, Jackie, D'arcmon… the list went on and on. And to top that off we had been forced to join in the blood sport by taking Behemoth's life. He was Arnold's pet and I could not believe we had saved him. I often found myself physically angry at the part of me that had thought to save him. I knew it was right, and I knew it was what I would do if the situation were to rise again. But I didn't have to be happy about that.
I was happy that Biyomon had mastered her Super Ultimate evolution, or whatever Koushiro was calling it. There was something involved in the Dot Matrix that seriously altered the genetic makeup of the digimon and gave them a path to a new evolution. What I was worried about is how that new path would affect Biyomon, and I had Koushiro do some very serious tests on her and everyone else who had been attacked by the Dot Matrix. There was a solid handful of them too. Agumon, Gabumon and Patamon had both been nearly taken for good when Arkadimon turned on Neo. Then Palmon, Dracomon and Biyomon all experienced that when Arkadimon met his match with ZeedGarurumon. And of course, more recently Gatomon and Gomamon were nearly wiped away by Behemoth's Dot Matrix. Luckily Koushiro didn't find any long term damages to be noted, and even explained that he had created a similar path with Tentomon to bypass his mega form into a form he was always meant to become, TyrantKabuterimon. It was not the exact same method, but the outcome was the same in itself. And that meant we had four members of the team who had used their Dot Matrix alterations for their own benefit. Of course it was theorized by Koushiro that Dracomon's ability to jogress with himself from an alternate timeline was the cause of not only Neo's inane ability to fuse anything that moved, but also from the glitch that Arkadimon passed on to him. So that brought us to five of the nine members of our glitched team to activate the glitch itself. I hoped that we were never confronted with any need for Palmon, Gomamon, Patamon or Gatomon to ever make it that far.
I looked to Gatomon who was walking near Hikari's feet and wondered what she might turn into in the end. Her evolutionary line was rather chaotic as it was, starting with a cat, then moving to a dog only to pass back to a cat then an angel warrior to a queen. It was erratic and that meant that in the end she could be anything.
And then Moretsuna's stupid face crept into my mind, blocking all of my creative theories away. It was impossible to not see his face at least once a day. It was everywhere. His stupid crime was trying to be solved and apparently I was a suspect. As if that even made sense. I didn't want to think about it though because it was making me nervous already so I tried to pay closer attention to what was going on around me instead.
"And so he said 'knock knock' and—" Agumon started.
"He didn't!" Biyomon gasped humorously.
"Oh he did," Agumon said as Gabumon laughed between the two of them. "And of course I said, 'who's there' and he said 'Tapir'—"
"Oh no," Biyomon shook her head in despair, "don't do it!"
"And I said 'Tapir who?'" Agumon continued, "And he said 'Don't forget to Tapir noodles with you when you go!" Gabumon simply lost it at that point and was roaring with laughter, Biyomon seemed distraught however. She just couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"I thought we were done with those jokes!" She cried out, "Can someone please talk to that boy!"
"I thought it was funny!" Gabumon said, still not entirely finished with his laughter.
Looking back to Taichi I saw that he was smiling. It was good to know that he wasn't completely lost. Taichi usually wouldn't laugh at a joke so simple as that, but just seeing that he hadn't lost himself away completely was something I was grateful to see. I didn't know what I would do if Taichi lost his footing. He was my rock. He was everyone's rock. I knew he was much worse off than he would let on to any of us, but just to see that he was able to smile was enough to know that we'd all be okay. Even if we couldn't have Rei with us.
"Now do you feel anything?" Taichi asked, prodding his sister with his finger. She slapped his finger away from her shoulder and rolled her eyes at him again. "I'll take that as a resounding 'no' then."
Hikari stopped walking and sighed, slouching her shoulders, "I don't think I'm going to feel anything, this is becoming more than just pointless, it's becoming tiring and I think we're wasting time putting so much faith in me because someone else might have a better chance of finding her."
"Like who, Hikari?" Gatomon asked, leaping up onto Taichi's shoulder so she could be closer to Hikari's eye level. "None of us even know who she really is. Only the fairies seem to know at all because they're related, I gather. They can't find her, so how can anyone else?"
"Besides," Taichi said, "Koushiro is on it. He's promised me results."
"He's promised a lot of people results about a lot of things," Hikari noted, "And—"
"And he's always delivered before," I interjected.
Hikari looked to me and nodded, "I know, I didn't mean to imply that he couldn't do it. Honestly I think that boy can do anything. But he doesn't know what he's looking for any more than any of us do. Shouldn't we be helping him think of a way to find her rather than relying on some radar inside my body that isn't even working?" I could tell Hikari was hiding something, but the size of the secret was still a mystery to me. Was she simply trying to get away so she could take a break? Was she expected somewhere else, like by a certain boyfriend? Or did she know something about Gaia that she wasn't telling us. The latter of the options surely couldn't be true. Hikari would never keep us in the dark like that. She was, well, Hikari. Keeping important details from us just wasn't in her nature.
"Do you have any suggestions?" Taichi asked.
"Oooh!" Biyomon shouted loudly, fluttering across the sidewalk to where Taichi was standing, "I have loads of ideas! Why don't we send Tentomon with Ken and Wormmon into the Fairy Land—She-den-door or whatever it's called, it has such as silly name, don't you think it's kind of like a foreign—oh right, sorry! Well they could go investigate Gaia and learn more about her heritage and then someone else can find the fairies and get a sample of their DNA because digimon are able to be detected by our digital structure, maybe the fairies have a different structure too. It's totally possible that their DNA could help Koushiro form a link in the atmosphere and then he could use the information he might get from the sample!" Taichi stared down at her because honestly they were pretty good ideas.
"What if we find out why she had a link with Hikari," Gabumon added, "Instead of trying to use the link, we could find what Gaia wants, then maybe we could at least discover what she's up to. That might help us find her too!"
"We could also find some digimon with good senses of smell," Agumon suggested, "What if we could get them to pick up her scent from the Maze—because there weren't many people there—and they could follow the scent to find her."
There was silence as Taichi stared to the ground in thought. Hikari looked to Gatomon who was suspiciously looking to her partner, but Hikari broke eye contact as if to say she was feeling accused and hurt.
"Those are all really good ideas," Taichi said, seemingly aghast as he looked up to the three of them, "Why didn't you tell us those thoughts before?"
"You never asked," Agumon said, shrugging his little shoulders.
"You're on the council," Taichi said, "You're supposed to give ideas then."
"We never get a chance," Gabumon said, "You ask the others how their time has been and if there is anything worth noting that is going on in their respected areas, and then we talk about ways to improve the world, but mostly we just agree with what you say."
"I thought that's what we were there for," Agumon admitted, "Just to have two more votes on your side."
Taichi looked hurt that they'd think that way of him, "But you were on the council before I was."
"And that's why Gennai put us on," Gabumon said, looking away from Taichi like he was being scolded, "he wanted us to vote with him."
"Not me though," Taichi said, kneeling down to the two of them, "You're my equals in the council, and my superiors on the battlefield. You both have every right to speak up. And don't worry if your idea is stupid, you'll know soon enough because Babamon won't let you get too far." Both digimon laughed, and Biyomon patted them on the back looking all too happy.
I looked up to Hikari and saw her and Gatomon, who was climbing down Taichi's back, give each other a serious gaze. I knew it had nothing to do with me, but I also knew how serious keeping secrets could be. We'd done that as a group, everyone doing their own thing, and it did not go well. "Hikari," I said seriously, staring directly toward her, she looked up to me and knew immediately what I was doing.
"It's nothing," she said seriously, "Honestly it's just that I'm scared of finding her," I wasn't sure yet if I believed her, "Spring was just so scared of her. I know she hurt her and I don't want to find out what else she can do with her powers." I narrowed my eyes, letting her words wash around inside my head for a bit until finally I nodded. "That, and I still feel really guilty about opening the door and letting her out."
"That wasn't your fault," I said, feeling apologetic for accusing her, even if it was only inside my own head. "You were trying to get us out of there. Besides, for all we know you may have saved every one of us from death. It's like you said, we know nothing of Gaia's power. It is possible she could kill us faster and easier than we could even imagine."
Taichi got to his feet and turned to Hikari, nodding his head, "It's true. The fairies have powers that we don't understand. Gaia is the mother of the four royal heirs. Who knows what she can do." Hikari looked up to Taichi and nodded, and it was clear she was still nervous, but soon she'd see that it wasn't her fault.
I heard a faint ringing sound from inside my purse and I was quick to pull out my phone to answer it. All eyes were on me which I was almost painfully aware of as I pressed the little green phone icon. "Mom?" I asked, having read the name.
"I need you to come home," She said, though she didn't seem to be in any urgent danger thankfully.
"I didn't even know you were home," I told her.
"Your father and I took some time away from the Coliseum," she explained, "I had a migraine—there are just so many children there—"
"I understand," I told her.
"Just come, I have something to show you," She said, and she was smiling now, then with a small laugh the line went dead.
"Rude," I commented as I put my phone away, "She hung up on me." The others were all still staring at me, "She wants me to go home."
"That's fine," Taichi nodded, "This wasn't working anyway," Hikari looked to him in a defeated sort of way as if she'd been saying that the whole time—and she had been. "I'm going to see if Koushiro might want to give the new ideas a shot."
"I'll take Gabumon home," Hikari offered, "Takeru and I haven't had much time together recently, so I'd be okay with that." Taichi pushed his sister's head lightly and she laughed ducking out of the way. "I'm allowed to want to spend time with my boyfriend, Taichi." Taichi made a disgusted face and then turned away from her. "Oh how mature of you."
"No one ever said I was mature," Taichi noted, waving to me, "See you later, Sora. If Koushiro's too busy I might use your knowledge to try out Biyomon's ideas." I didn't think it wise to tell him that I had no idea how to go about tracking a new form of DNA in the atmosphere, because I just didn't think he wanted to hear negative thinking at that moment, but even so it was true. I just had to hope that Koushiro was on the ball.
Biyomon bid farewell to Agumon and Gabumon as Hikari and Gatomon left with the latter of the two. Agumon hurried after Taichi and Biyomon was flying next to me a moment later, talking about how she missed spending time with her friends, "Next time we do something can it be with Mimi and Koushiro again—we make such a good team and Palmon and I haven't had much time to talk since before the virus. The last time I spent any length of time with her was in the Temple in our little hotel room—I liked that room, it was nice. I guess Tentomon doesn't need to be there because I don't need to become Eaglemon anymore!" She let out a friendly laugh, but then stopped, "but I want him to come anyway. He's my friend. I miss him. I wonder what Gomamon's up to—do you think he's busy?"
"Do you ever breathe?" I asked her curiously.
"Yes!" Biyomon laughed, "Silly, Sora! Anyway—" And she was off again on some rant about how maybe the digimon should have a specific day once a month that they all got together because they missed each other just like us humans did—or at least she missed them. She had no proof that they missed her but she was such an optimist that she was just sure they did. I was sure they did too. How could they not? Whenever I was apart from her I missed her.
Her rant was only interrupted when a very dirty man spit on the ground and stumbled toward us, moving the opposite way to us along the sidewalk. He looked either homeless or drunk. Or both, perhaps. He certainly smelled revolting. He looked to Biyomon and sneered, barring his teeth in disgust. "Filth."
"Excuse me," I asked, putting my hand on his shoulder to stop him from moving by.
Biyomon pulled on my leg, "Don't Sora, its okay. I don't mind."
"You should," I told her before rounding on the man again, "You have no right to insult any living creature. What does it get you? Do you feel satisfied, or do you just get that proud burning in your chest that dies out and burns all the positivity with it? You probably feel pretty damned superior strolling down the street with your heart void of love."
The man spit to the side and I removed my hand, he looked to me and leaned closer, "I wa'n't talkin' teh you."
"And yet you are now," I noted, feeling like maybe I should have listened to Biyomon's advice and just let him go. I wasn't really a conflict oriented girl. I didn't want to start a fight, I just wanted Biyomon to feel safe and like I wouldn't let anyone walk all over her.
"Righ' you are," the man said, "An' I think I rec-eh-nize you from the news. Yer the girl who go' outta jail by throwin' e'eryone else under the bus." I stared at him, eyes narrowing, and I was ready to just walk away because rumours were just that and no matter if I corrected him or not, the rumour would always be thriving.
Biyomon had different thoughts though, "You're disgusting," she snapped, "And it's not because of your race—or your appearance or any other dividing characteristic. It's because you're a mean, mean man. I cannot allow you to insult my friend Sora. She was unjustly arrested, and she got out of it by using the general principals of the law in this country." She tried to snap her claws and move them in a sassy way but she sort of failed. She didn't seem to mind though. "Back of hater." I looked to her, amused and then the man, after staring at her for a moment, took a step toward her, "By the way," she added, "The laws clearly state that a citizen shall not be permitted to be intoxicated in public." The man was quick to look nervous now and his fingers twitched for a moment before he decided he was done with us, and he strolled off, stumbling away.
There were a couple people who had witnessed the display and while I was nervous at first that they would be against what Biyomon had done it soon became clear that she had impressed them more than anything else. They were mostly amazed at how a digimon was able to follow the laws of the human world. That was a good thing to be putting out there, I realized. Showing the people that they meant no harm and in fact wanted to follow the laws we had put in place.
When we escaped the earshot of the people Biyomon looked up to me and smiled up to me. Mostly with her eyes. Because she was a bird. "I think I'm gonna be a lawyer and enforce law more often. Or maybe a police officer! I just really like helping out and I think I have a lot of good ideas!"
"If you want a job," I told her, stopping her by grabbing her hand because the lights were red at the crosswalk we had come to, "I'm supportive. Why don't you try something like public speaking?"
"I can get paid for speaking?" Biyomon asked in pure shock. "I'm gonna be rich!" I couldn't help but laugh, but it was the last thing I got into the conversation all the way back to my mother's house. Biyomon was ecstatic about her new job prospect and she was listing all the different ways she might go about it. Eventually she had to stop though because I was knocking on the front door of my mother's house.
"Ooh!" A voice from inside shouted, "Can I get it?" There was no answer because a moment later the door had been thrown open, "Hello Sora!"
I was staring back to Professor Miru, my fashion teacher from school. He clapped his hands together and then threw his arms around, he then looked to Biyomon and pulled her into a hug too, "It's good to see you both again!"
I didn't know what to say, but thankfully I had Biyomon for that. "What are you doing here? Aren't you a teacher? You can come back to your students' houses?"
"Ah well," he said, taking a step back and giving me the moment to see my mother who was standing by the kitchen doorway smiling to me, "I don't usually come to my student's houses actually, but I was trying to find Sora because I had a genius idea for using her fashion as a stance in the digimon campaign, but she wasn't at the restaurant anymore." He was using dramatic facial expressions to tell the story and I felt a strange sense of longing for being in school. He was always the most dramatic person, "Your friend Mimi told me you went home, but this was the address you had used in the school's database! I came here and much to my surprise, your mother is Toshiko Takenouchi?"
I looked over his shoulder to my mom who shrugged her shoulders, "You know each other?"
"We went to school together," Mom explained, motioning for us all to follow her to the kitchen, "Come along, I made dinner."
We all followed, but Miru wasn't finished with his excitement, "As you're obviously aware Sora, the school celebrates one student above all others for their poise and excellence and beauty and—"
"That's not even true," Mom said, rolling her eyes. I laughed as I hugged my father who was sitting at the end of the table chatting with Mushroomon. "The school recognizes excellence, sure. But it was only in grades."
"And the grades are given to the most skilled artisan," Miru said dramatically, "When you won Sora I had no idea that you were living up to your mother's name!"
I rounded on my mom who was purposely directing her eye contact to the mashed potatoes on the table in front of her. "Mom?" I prodded, but she simply smiled to the potatoes, "I had no idea."
"She was just telling me," Miru said, "She always wanted you to live up to her name but you used to be quite the little tomboy!" I blushed, "I've seen pictures." I blushed even more. "Your mother may never have been the most open of women, but I know she's just so proud of you."
She looked up to me and smiled, but said nothing. She didn't have to. It hadn't been until that very moment that I really understood what my mother ever wanted from me. She just wanted me to be me and she knew well enough to know that the 'me' I was looking for was so much like her. She always did know me better than I knew myself, even if I didn't like to admit that out loud. I wasn't proud that I had won that stupid school competition, and I knew my mother wasn't either. I was proud of myself for being the person I always wanted to be but wasn't sure if I had it in me. My mother had seen it though, all of my potential.
My emotions were having quite the day. Miru and Biyomon occupied most of the dead space with conversations—or rants really—during the dinner and the rest of us sat in peace and ate. I always loved visiting my family. It was nice to know that everything was falling into place in my life though. True love was those who touched your heart for the better and actually stuck around to see the result. I knew that now, and I knew that love and happiness were directly linked.
It was too bad the dinner had to be interrupted.
There was a very loud and harsh knock on the door and Dad was the one to go to the door. He excused himself from the table and was gone only a moment when loud voices filled the hallway. Seeing the look of panic on my mother's face twisted my insides up immediately. Miru was gasping and turning around as Biyomon prepared to fight, but when she saw the humans coming in she knew she wouldn't get the chance. Mushroomon ducked under the table to hide and I wished I could have joined him.
The men that had entered the kitchen were built rather largely and each of them was wearing a similar and familiar uniform.
"Sora Takenouchi," the nearest one said boldly, "You are under arrest for the murder of Sakana Moretsuna."
Ken Ichijouji:
Once again, I was faced with a new boss. Thankfully, like the last one, this one didn't seem to be openly against the digimon. Unfortunately, this one wasn't quite so vocally against EVOLVE either. I was sure that he wasn't about to openly declare his allegiance, but I was disappointed to know that he wasn't going to vocalize his support of RISE either. I wasn't sure if he even supported RISE. It shouldn't have mattered to me as much as it did. He wasn't Moretsuna, and that was all I could ask for. He wasn't even going to be permanent. He was just another temporary stand-in while the investigation for Moretsuna's killer continued.
It was difficult, knowing exactly how Moretsuna's death happened, and not being able to share the information. I couldn't defend Kurayami's actions without declaring her the guilty party. I couldn't talk about Sora, just in case someone thought I supported that ridiculous theory. I couldn't explain just how necessary it was that Moretsuna was defeated when he was.
He had his hands wrapped around my wife's throat.
He was killing her and the baby.
If anything, it should be me, not Sora, that was taking the brunt of the focus off of Kurayami. It wasn't fair for me to leave Sora to take the blame. Sora wasn't even there. But I was. And I could explain it away. I was an officer too. I worked under Moretsuna. I knew it would make a mess of things, and I really couldn't afford to risk my job at this point in my life—what with our new baby and plans of getting a new home—but it still wasn't fair for me to put this on Sora's shoulders.
I was thankful though, that she'd offered.
She didn't want Haruki to grow up without a mother, and the one time I'd mentioned my uncertainty, she assured me she didn't want Mai growing up without a father either. I tried to convince her that the situation wasn't quite as dire as that, but the truth was that I didn't know.
Each of our temporary chiefs were intensely focussed on apprehending a culprit, and they weren't stopping to consider that perhaps Moretsuna wasn't actually murdered. They weren't stopping to consider that Moretsuna was very deeply involved with the EVOLVE nonsense that plagued both the Digital World and Earth. Once Moretsuna died, it was as if all the horrible things he'd done weren't real, and hadn't happened. It was as if he was a martyr instead of a torment.
I didn't know how to go about changing everyone's opinions of him.
I wasn't sure I really wanted to.
The man was dead, and Miyako was deeply upset by it even now, after three months. She awoke some nights with the memories of his dying seconds on her mind. I held her as she cried for that horrible man. I didn't have any respect for him, nor did I truly believe he deserved any sort of legacy, but for Miyako's sake, I kept those opinions to myself. To her, he was a mean man that didn't deserve to die. He deserved a second chance.
I understood that opinion, really I did. But I had the choice of wishing he'd gotten a second chance, and knowing that my wife and daughter were still alive because he wasn't.
It wasn't that difficult to me.
My wife and now my daughter would always come first. They were my top priority. My entire family was, really. Hawkmon, Wormmon, Mom, Dad and now Poromon too were among my highest concerns. I didn't want anything to happen to any of them. I refused to let it.
So yes, I wasn't too fussed that Moretsuna wasn't with us anymore. It was an easy decision, since Moretsuna seemed to have it out for my wife. I couldn't understand why. Miyako was the sweetest, most caring, most beautiful person I'd ever known. He had literally no reason whatsoever to want to hurt her.
"Hey," Kimi said, leaning against my desk. "How's the baby?"
"Good," I said. "It's hard, knowing that she's going to take one step forward and a couple small steps back. She lost weight again this morning. Miyako's distraught."
"I can imagine," Kimi sighed, saddened by the news.
"She's a tough cookie though," I said, trying to brighten her mood—and consequently my own as well. Kimi was really the only thing that made coming into the office worthwhile at this point. Our boss was constantly changing, and we weren't doing enough to support the digimon in the wake of the EVOLVE disaster that had spread across not just our nation, but most of the nations around the globe. We should be out there in the streets doing our best to make up for the major screw ups the police force had committed whilst still under Moretsuna's command.
Instead, we were stuffed in our office, sending out minimal patrol officers in order to solve a "murder" that was pretty self explanatory.
It was well past the point of being ridiculous.
"How are you holding up?" Kimi asked.
"As well as I can be, considering Mai's health," I said, confused.
"Not with the baby, though it's nice to hear," she said, shaking her head and laughing a little. "I mean with being the big shot around here. After your big speech you're the talk of the town—or the office at least. Don't tell me you haven't noticed your increased popularity."
I had actually, but I'd written it off as a fluke.
"Seriously?" she said, laughing again. "Everyone's convinced that you can solve all the office problems. They keep trying to put a good word in with the chiefs so that you can get out there and really start working again. I mean, the chiefs aren't buying it. They're insistent that you stay in the office until further notice."
"Because I disappeared for two months 'without explanation'," I said, rolling my eyes. There had been an explanation, it just wasn't one they were willing to accept. Moretsuna and Arnold had locked me and all my loved ones in the Digital World. They seemed to be turning a blind eye a lot when it came to Moretsuna's case. I didn't like it, not one bit.
"I know," Kimi sighed. "But you've got the support of a lot of the office. Obviously not from the more involved members of EVOLVE, but you're pretty much top of the class otherwise. You should be proud."
"I haven't done anything to be proud of," I pointed out. "I just spoke my mind when I probably shouldn't have, and made Yakuin more invested in EVOLVE. It's like I can't win. How am I supposed to save him from Moretsuna's clutches when Moretsuna is still able to influence him, despite being dead?"
"You can't save everyone," she told me gently. "Sometimes, they need to save themselves. Just make sure he knows that you're there for him if he ever wants to come around. It's got to be his choice, or he's never going to go for it."
"I know," I said, glancing over to Yakuin, who was also confined to desk work, though for a different reason than I was. He wasn't here because of a disappearance, and was instead being punished for joining in on EVOLVE's gimmicks. He wasn't trusted to be out there defending the city and all of its inhabitants. He wanted all of the digital ones dead, after all. They were hoping to bring him around, the same as I was. But he wasn't really putting in any effort. Sooner or later, they'd have to come to a decision. They would need to decide whether it was worth keeping him around or not.
I hoped he got his head in the game before they made their decision, because he wasn't going to make the cut in his current mindset.
Yakuin was attacking the stapler that wouldn't relinquish his paperwork when he looked up to the door with intrigue. I was anxious about just what was causing him so much pleasure. I followed his gaze and saw Sora standing there with an officer on either side. I got to my feet immediately. The officers sat her in a chair, and stepped back to give her the illusion of privacy, but everyone—Sora included—could tell that they were on their guard.
What was she doing here though?
She caught my eye, and pleaded with her eyes for me to explain what was going on. I couldn't. I didn't understand myself. I made a quick decision to grab a glass of water and bring it to her. The officers were watching my every move, but I couldn't help it. I needed to get to the bottom of this.
"What's going on?" Sora asked as carefully as she could. She wasn't moving her lips much, so the others wouldn't know we were talking. She was kind enough not to want me to be accused of conspiring with a felon. "I can't be arrested for this. I didn't do it. You know that. I know that. There has to be proof of it."
"I don't know," I murmured.
Yakuin cleared his throat rather noisily, pointedly calling for my attention. I looked to him, and he raised his eyebrow conspiratorially. I suppressed a groan. He would rat me out if I stuck around to talk to Sora more. I understood the situation a little better now, at least. She was being arrested for killing Moretsuna even though she had no part in it whatsoever.
And she was right.
There had to be proof of it somewhere.
"I'll see what I can do," I whispered as I walked away, leaving Sora alone to face whatever so called justice my police force wanted to inflict upon her. She was acting brave, but her eyes were watering, and her lip was quivering. She was scared, and I didn't know how exactly I was going to be able to help her. But I would. I would not leave her here on her own. She was doing us all a great service, taking the blame like this. I would make it up to her by helping to get her out of this mess.
I headed directly towards Kimi again, feeling Yakuin's eyes on me, following my every move. I didn't have to look at him to know he was grinning like the cat that got the canary. He was too smug, I thought, to be entirely innocent. I didn't know if he had something to do with Sora's arrest, or if he had some other plan in the works, but I didn't like it. The idea settled uneasily in my stomach.
Yakuin was still watching me when I reached Kimi, so I walked passed her. I sat at the nearest desk, and stared at the screen. It wouldn't take much effort to enter my own password, but my password wouldn't give me access to what I needed. I needed to get into Moretsuna's personal files.
Unfortunately, unlike Koushiro, Willis or Kiyoko, or even Miyako, I didn't actually know how to go about doing that.
I sat there, staring at the computer screen, trying to think up a password that Moretsuna was likely to have used—while pretending to be working, so no one would get suspicious about why I was just sitting there. I was wondering whether he would have been dumb enough to simply use: EVOLVE as a password when Kimi stopped by my desk once more.
"You gonna tell me what that was all about?" she hissed.
"It was nothing," I lied, pretending to be typing away on a report. She rolled her eyes and looked pointedly at the login screen.
"I have eyes," she reminded me.
"I can't get in," I told her. She looked at me skeptically, and I knew I wouldn't be able to lie to her and pull this off. "Fine," I sighed. She looked pleased. "I need into Moretsuna's files." She looked worried almost immediately. "I know," I said quickly. "I could lose my job, asking you to help would be asking you to potentially lose yours as well. I know that. But I also know that Sora did not kill him. I was there when it happened, but I can't prove it."
"You were there," she said softly. "Of course you were. That makes perfect sense. Okay. She didn't do it?" I shook my head. "And you know who did." I nodded. "But you're not going to share."
"No," I said. "There were extenuating circumstances. He was trying to kill a pregnant woman. He'd lost his mind. I can't prove it, because that would make this too easy. EVOLVE isn't going down without a fight. I'm going to fight back. The first step of that, is finding a way to prove that Sora and Moretsuna weren't in the same place during his speculated time of death."
"But you know the real time of death," she pointed out.
"I don't have proof though," I sighed. "There isn't even a body to prove that he died at all."
"Fine," she said, making a big show about rolling her eyes. "Move over. I'll fix it. I can't understand how you can mess this up so often. It's just a simple login. You've got a daughter now, right? So use her birth date as the password or something. Find something easy to remember."
She scooted me over and her fingers started flying over the keyboard. She kept up the charade though, of fixing my computer for me. She sighed when she finished and made a show of cracking her knuckles.
"Seriously, I'd think about picking an easier password to remember," she offered, before she headed back to the front desk. She was too good to look back towards me. She wouldn't show any signs of her actions, and I didn't want her to. Yakuin was still watching me, after all. He didn't look suspicious though.
I got closer to the screen and started sifting through the information I found there. He was still logged into his email account. I wondered if he had problems with remembering his passwords, but shrugged it off. He was logged in, and that was all that mattered. I wouldn't have been able to hack in if he wasn't.
It looked like Director Arnold was the recipient of Moretsuna's final emails. There was quite the collection of them. I was tempted to print them off, in order to have hard proof of their involvement with one another, but stayed strong and didn't give in to that urge. I couldn't risk someone else getting the pages first. I didn't want any questions before I had answers to give in return.
I couldn't help but skim through the messages though, even if I couldn't print them. They didn't exactly tell me anything I didn't already know though. The two of them were working together in order to eradicate all digital life. It wasn't anything new or surprising, so I started to scroll further down his email list. There had to be someone other than Arnold that he talked with.
My eyes lit up when they came across a different name: Chiryo.
I racked my brain, knowing that I'd heard that name somewhere before, but I couldn't place it. I started reading the email and was surprised to note that Kurayami's name was mentioned.
Sakana,
I must request quite fervently that you not utter a single word of what you encountered in Mrs Kurayami Motomiya's file. It was not yours for the viewing, and as I allowed your eyes to view her progress during a moment of vulnerability, I must express upon you that my employment depends on your ability to hold fast to secrets.
If at all possible, please think of my potential unemployment before sharing what you've learned.
Dr Chiryo
PS I would like to say thank you in advance, hoping that I'm not being pre-emptive and that you will agree to my simple request.
I pursed my lips. What did Moretsuna need with Kurayami's files? And did this Dr Chiryo really think he was going to get away with revealing personal information about his clients—and if he wanted to, why would he send an email? He had no way of knowing whether Moretsuna was going to delete it or not. Didn't he know that once something was on the internet it was up there forever?
Well, unless it was hit with EVOLVE's virus, but that was beside the point.
A quick search on the internet provided me with an address and telephone number for Dr Chiryo. After I found that, I logged out of Moretsuna's desktop, and quickly logged into my own. I pulled out my daily planner, and penciled in a visit to Dr Chiryo for some point during the coming week.
"Dr Chiryo?"
I jumped back in shock, and nearly smacked my head against Yakuin's. I didn't know what he was doing suddenly being in my personal space like that, but I didn't like it. I was also really glad I'd signed into my own account. It was far less suspicious that way.
"What do you need to go to him for?" Yakuin asked. I got the feeling that he knew who this doctor was. I wondered whether Moretsuna mentioned him at some point, or if it was simply a coincidence. I couldn't allow my mind to jump to every possible conclusion. Sometimes while unraveling a mystery, there were red herrings. I couldn't let myself latch onto such false leads. I didn't have time to back track. Not when Sora was counting on me to help fix things for her.
"He's a therapist," I told him. He nodded, because he knew this, though I still didn't know how. "My daughter was born early, I'm not handling her arrival as well as I should be. I was wondering if he'd be any help to me. I'm no help to Miyako if I'm freaking out all the time. I just need someone I can vent to."
"I'll be watching you," Yakuin said, as though my explanation wasn't air tight.
"You do that," I said awkwardly, letting him think he was making me uncomfortable, when in reality, he was just making me more determined to get to the bottom of things. I needed to know exactly what he had to do with everything—and why Sora was the one that was targeted.
Next on Digimon Adventure 08: Jun's wedding is fast approaching and Cody has some serious work to do in order to help Sora out in her desperate times.
