Chapter Twelve – Things All Fall Apart
"Oh dear."
That was really about the reaction Rue expected from Mirei. Her partner was never much of 'scream in horror and swear' kind of woman. More of 'oh this could be a problem, let's deal with it.' sort, even if her methods had once involved violence and nosy, pushy interference. It was understandable.
"Any reason for the sudden breakage on that side?" Mirei asked the black cat, who waved her tail and went back to the grainy monitor nearby. Her sister Ivy slept in their partner's lap, because god knew what she would do if she was awake right now.
Reluctantly, Rue removed her gloves and set to typing on the tiny keys. She clicked with care, activating one of the security cameras with a virus' ease and swiveling it about from the ceiling. There was nothing but black at first, nothing but the black and the lights of the room. Then the metal bar distinguished itself and she saw a mop of white (blond).
"The two of them are alive," she reported and Mirei makes a note of that on her own computer. Considering that they had somehow survived the falling of an entire section of lighting. Currently, it would be very hard to play, but then the bastards are kind enough to put the full lighting back in. The game must go on.
Or maybe Mirei did it. She probably did do it.
"That Yuuya kid is still gone," she said to fill the silence.
Her partner let out a weary hum. "Do you want to go looking for him?"
Rue made a face. "I don't trust Ivy with you."
"You really should."
She really shouldn't. Ivy was a good watch cat but nothing else. It did their partner no good to stay in silence, no matter how much she seemed to prefer it. Still. She needed… experience. Yes that was a good word. "When Ivy wakes up."
"Very well."
Rue glanced at her partner, hoping for a smile. It was no good. Mirei hadn't smiled in hours, not one that mattered.
She tried very hard not to be disappointed and went back to work instead.
...
Niko expected pain, even the briefest flicker of it before his head splattered open like an egg – man that was morbid, thanks for the active imagination Taiga – so when it didn't happen, his eyes opened relatively quickly. Looking up, the black object was centimeters above his head, shuddering in place. His eyes were drawn to the right, where Rina, in the span of seconds, mind you, was standing up, holding the beam up with a determined fist. For a moment, all he could do was just stare at the sight
"Niko?" she said. "Not to uh, rush you but… can ya move please?" She moved her right foot over to stand better on the chair, which wobbled and cracked at the weight. "This is a bad angle..."
Niko jumped and nodded, scrambling away from the table, his brain too blank to form words. The second all of his lanky body was out of the way, Rina hopped off the chair and to the side, leaving the beam to crash to the floor and crush chair, table, and food in one blow that splatters everything everywhere in a way that might have been-
Niko doubled over, overcome with the urge to throw up. Someone shoved a trashcan close enough and he did so into it, feeling disgusted with himself as the fear took hold.
Holy shit I almost died. If it wasn't for Rina, I-
He came up for air and to shout his concern only for Rina to shove a wet napkin in his face and rub it with the grace of a drunken tyrannosaurus rex.
He dropped it within twelve seconds to the trash can and tackled her. "What the hell were you thinking?" he finally managed to say.
"You're welcome," she chirped, hugging him back. Like it meant nothing. Like she hadn't just randomly held up a heavy metal object and saved his god damn life.
Niko opened his mouth to ask how, but then jumped at the scraping sound of the trash bin being moved away. Akiho stood there, concern written in her face. She also held a cup of water.
"For your mouth," she supplied, pink eyes looking a little red. Maybe it was a trick of the now ruined lighting. Niko drank, slowly hearing the thump of his heart go quiet in his ears. She smiled a bit. "I'm glad you're okay."
"How am I okay?" he croaked. Rina was still hugging him, Niko realized in the back of his mind. She was shaking a little herself. The shaking was mostly in her legs.
"Adrenaline?" Akiho offered in that soft voice. But she wasn't looking at him at all. She was looking at Rina and Niko couldn't help but stare at her expression, at the steady, fearful tinge curving her mouth the way it was. Still, she gripped Niko's arm with incredible strength and guided them over.
Slowly, as they sat there, the world came back into focus. People were all staring, but some were playing still. Taiga, from what he could see of him at the other side of the building, was looking between battle and their small group, fingers itching to pull out his V-Pet and run to them. And yet his eyes kept getting drawn back to their opponent, a tiny kid who wasn't even taller than the coliseum machine. Niko couldn't tell from the distance but it seemed like it was out of fear.
Then his V-Pet beeped with a notification. A notification? Now? Even as arcade staff swarmed him and the fallen metal (and the rest wasn't falling, how was the rest not collapsing? Niko would figure later that it would take more than a single lighting construct falling to collapse an entire building, theoretically, but he was panicking right now), and people were shepherded back to their games like there was nothing wrong, no problems what so ever.
The reasoning came back to him fairly quickly: he was still in a tournament. For whatever reason they were still in a tournament for some unusual, unnamed prize that even the announcers themselves had been baffled by.
"You can bow out, if you want to."
Akiho's soft, somehow gentle voice pulled Niko away from staring at his watch screen. He forced himself to read it and see the words 'Nyanko Tamer' in bright white against his black screen. Akiho held up her phone, where his own username sat, properly worded and all.
"You can bow out," she repeated gently. Her pink eyes held nothing but sympathy and for some reason that scared him more than her easy break into Taiga's apartment. "You just almost died."
Rina let go of him to watch, and she was concerned. Again with all these weird concerned faces.
Perhaps it was just the shock, but Niko found himself saying, "No, I can fight."
After all what could be worse than nearly dying under some headlights?
…
When the darkened ShineGreymon finally stopped moving, Taiga felt his breath catch in his throat. He was, for some reason, panting. He hadn't even done anything except say a few orders! Fergus had done it all himself. Yet his arms felt like lead. So id a spot on the back of his neck, two spots in the very obvious shape of eyes.
Mi, from the other side, wasn't looking the least bit downtrodden. She just recalled the Digimon with a pout on her chubby face that didn't seem even the slightest bit real. She unplugs her V-Pet and beams at him.
"Not bad," she chirped. "Too bad Fergus did all the work. You just had to watch. Easy job."
Fergus made a sound of disapproval. "No one likes a sore loser, child."
"No one likes a cheap win either."
That line she spoke, everyone heard, and a fair few people looked. They looked towards her and the new sad look on her face, frown as deep as the water under Rainbow Bridge. Then they looked at Taiga, who was drooping in his spot.
As they kept staring, Taiga made himself look away, towards Mi, maybe to yell at her, maybe to prove her wrong. But the little girl was gone.
And good thing too, because he also saw the now caution tape wrapped light fixture and shattered table. Rina was standing by it, talking to a staff member with exaggerated arm waves. Niko was… clearly not pinned down or someone would have halted the entire thing. No… Niko was… in a battle. With, with that Akiho girl.
Taiga winced. He didn't like her. She said weird crap and did even weirder crap and no one, not even Rina, seemed capable of stopping her. She always had some kernel of truth in everything too, and for no reason. Still Niko was a damn good strategist. Fergus admitted the only thing that stopped Niko from defeating him was himself. Taiga figured that meant his all-but-blood brother was too stubborn for his own good.
He had this in the bag.
Still, Taiga sat down where he could see as two blurs crashed into each other in the middle of the coliseum. He couldn't help but wince. It sounded so painful. How could they do that?
The Digimon separated, the Piyomon spinning to the side and shooting up into the air. Sashenka leaped after her, using a piece of falling arena as leverage. A wing slammed into his throat as Piyomon dove. Niko flinched visibly. He was shaking, gripping the podium like it might shatter. By contrast, Akiho was dead silent. She didn't open her mouth at all, not even when Piyomon hit the ground. Taiga looked away.
"The hell's the matter with you?"
Taiga looked up and bit back a sneer. Kurosugi was ignoring him, watching the fight. "Digimon do that. That's how they win." He slurped an obscenely loud slurpy puff, grey eyes still watching the Digimon's movement, even though Taiga can't look. "They like it."
"We don't like hurting ourselves for entertainment," Fergus said in his soft, grandfather voice.
Now, Kurosugi looked, messing up his already awful black hair. "Yeah," he agreed, and Taiga really did consider throwing up now. "You don't o that." He paused, fingers hooked in his pockets. "You just… I dunno, use humans for power instead. And beat up little girls." He smirked at Taiga. "Seems like we finally have something in common, or we did anyway."
Taiga stood up to his full, stunted face, making sure to try and sneer into Kurosugi's face. "You wish," he said with the best scowl he could muster.
Kurosugi laughed. "Nah, you do." He twirled his V-Pet. Least if you were like me, you could pretend you weren't just doing this because you could. I mean, why are you here if you're just gonna ruin it?"
Taiga swallowed a sudden lump in his throat. HE tried to speak but was cut off by a very loud, horrifying crash. He turned his head to see Sashenka, a lump of blood and fur, cratered into the coliseum grounds. Niko looked suitably horrified.
Akiho? She pressed a button on her V-Pet, and poured healing light over the bleeding shiba inu. "Thanks for the match," she said in a soft voice that Taiga didn't know how he could make out in the crowd.
Nyanko Tamer flashed on screen in bold white as she stepped away.
Taiga swallowed. Well, it was all over now.
