U/N: I know that this chapter involves more law things that are more than likely not completely accurate, but we did what we could in such a short time. And Kura's chapter was initially planned to be a comedic one, but when writing it I found that it wasn't actually funny content at all, so there's that.
Title: Digimon Adventure 08: Vaccine
By: UrazamayKing
Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.
Part 2: Conclusion
Chapter 26: Deposition
Sora Takenouchi:
I was stuck.
I was trapped inside again and that was the worst thing in the world. It was an awful feeling to be cooped up like an animal in a zoo and it was worse that my face was all over the news so curious people came to my home to peer through the windows to catch a glimpse of the 'murderous tyrant' as the most recent news broadcast had referred to me as. I couldn't believe that the world could be so unkind, and I could not believe how much I missed the sunlight.
It was for that very reason that I was soaking up as much as I could before I was put back into my house. Horitsu was sitting next to me, looking rather uncomfortable, but I didn't care how he felt just then. I was going to take this minute for myself. With the window rolled down I threw my hand out into the wind. I stayed as still as I could for as long as I could and just let the sunlight dance off of my pale skin.
Horitsu's hand was on my shoulder a moment later and I turned to him. He motioned with his head up to the front seat and I followed his gesture to see the driver—a stick in the mud police officer—was giving me quite the stink eye. I relented and withdrew my hand from the window, not bothering to hide my disappointment.
"You know what to say," Horitsu told me, misreading my displeasure for worry. "We've been over it all, you'll do fine."
I nodded, because I was sure I could say what he wanted me to, I wasn't completely mindless in terms of the law. I wasn't worried about that. I was worried about how it would be received. I trusted Horitsu, honestly it would be impossible not to because he had done so much for me, and Iori was my friend who knew what he was talking about, but that did not mean their words were magic. I could not repeat what they had told me and change the view of the entire world who viewed me as a murderer.
And then I was experiencing the familiar sensation of my eyes burning with their desire to shed tears accompanied by my throat tightening up. I wasn't a murderer—I was a good person. I hadn't done anything aside from allow Kurayami the chance to exist without being harassed for something she had to do. She was protecting someone else, and I would do the same for her in payment, just as Michael had paid my bail. Kurayami deserved this to know that we would never let her throw herself under the bus after what she had done.
And Haruki needed her. I related to him more than should have been allowed. He was an infant who couldn't say anything, but there was a connection between him and myself in a way that was starting to frighten me a little. But what mattered was that he needed to grow up with two parents. My dad had lived in Tokyo for most of my childhood, and while he and my mother were together they were never together, and that worried me and it hurt me. I'd lashed out at my mother because I wasn't ready to be what she saw in me, and I needed my dad. I needed both parents, and I had them. Had one of them been dead I would at least understand why they could not be together, but that wasn't the case. I was always angry and confused. One day they told me they were getting a divorce, which I saw coming—thankfully they mended their issues and are now living under one roof, but it was just hard. I could not let Haruki live in a world with two parents but exist trapped in a world where he could only see one.
Of course I knew that working full-time in Tokyo and being in prison were two different things, but I couldn't help but draw the comparisons when it came to Haruki and myself.
"Has Iori messaged you?" Horitsu asked, leaning closer to speak in a quiet voice. I shook my head and he hummed disappointedly. "Perhaps it is time to shut your phone off, or allow me to hold onto it for you. We wouldn't want to give them any reason to think you were unavailable mentally."
"Sure," I agreed, handing off my phone without question. I didn't need it anyway. No one was messaging me, even though they knew I was crammed up in my house all alone—okay I wasn't alone, I had six others living with me—but that didn't mean I wasn't lonely. But I could deal with being lonely if it meant I wasn't being tried for murder.
I wasn't sure how to recover from this. Not only would my name always be tainted by the prospect of a man's death, but I had essentially ruined any future career plan.
When the car came rolling to a stop I realized that I'd been drifting off into a train of thought that could keep my mind off of what was going on. The nerves had been hidden and distracted, but now the anxiety was kicking in as we got out of the car. The police officer, who genuinely seemed to be just an all around rude man, lead us to the door of the big glass building. Horitsu asked for permission to use my phone without saying a word and I nodded. He looked disappointed. Iori hadn't replied. Apparently we'd be doing this without him today.
Or so I thought.
On the eleventh floor, when the elevator doors opened, he was just there. He was speaking to someone I didn't recognize initially, but upon closer inspection saw that it was Teki Hanzai, the lawyer who was working against me in the case.
The police officer behind me, nudged me along and I obeyed, stepping onto the carpeted hallway. The walls to each of the offices around us were made of glass and although I tried, I could not keep my curiosity from getting the better of me. I looked left, into the nearest office and saw a man who was yelling at someone on the telephone sitting behind a desk in a room filled with photographs. To my right was another man, angry as well, sitting in an office exactly like the previous. Nothing here seemed unique or creative and instead was all focused on everything boring. I didn't like it much.
As we made our way toward Iori, I caught sight of a name on one of the glass walls next to an open doorway. 'Mantarou Inoue'. I turned sharply to look into his office but felt rather disheartened when I didn't see him. Under his name on the wall it read 'paralegal' which made sense as that was his position here at the firm. I hadn't taken my eyes away from his desk, since I was looking for something creative, to let me know that the man I was in a relationship with actually existed within the boring office, but instead I ran directly into someone.
I looked up and gasped. I had been hoping it would be Mantarou, but instead it was a man who I recognized as Bengoshi. "I'm so sorry!" I told him seriously, side stepping and allowing him to pass by.
"My fault, honest," Bengoshi said with a nervously friendly smile. I smiled back but as I did his face fell and he stared at me, as though he were trying to read my mind or something. Then he patted my shoulder comfortingly like he thought that stare was kind rather than intense and then he was on his way.
"Sora!" I turned sharply at the sound of Mantarou's voice and I shook my head. I saw him hurrying down the hallway toward me but he stopped when he caught sight of my expression. I mouthed the word 'later' because I could not explain now. But it would not be beneficial for his career to fraternize with me the woman who his firm was against. He seemed to understand though and he nodded, before straightening his posture and his tie. He looked very strange in a suit, as he usually wore brightly coloured t shirts with strange designs, or bleach stained sweaters and a baseball cap. He was just a regular guy and seeing him so dressed up was strange to me. He turned, with a red face, and addressed a woman sitting behind a desk.
At the sound of my name, Iori had turned and his face lit up at the sight of me. He was quick to pull the glass door open and allow me to step through. "Hello," he said as brightly as he could. I nodded kindly, but said nothing. Iori was feeling particularly courteous it seemed as he pulled out my chair for me, and then pulled his own out to sit next to me. Across from us sat Mr Hanzai who seemed all too smug with his tiny camera set up to record everything.
"As you're no doubt aware," Hanzai said. "My name is Teki Hanzai, you may simply refer to me as whatever it is you wish to. I'm not too picky." It became clear to me then that he was acting, rather than actually being kind. One look to the stern faced woman behind him and I could tell why. They were going with the good-cop-bad-cop sort of deal and that was highly predictable. "You are here for your deposition, and it is standard procedure for us to record everything you say. Will there be any issues?"
"Of course not," I told him.
"Perfect," Hanzai said. "So unless anyone has any further questions, we should begin." I looked up to Iori who nodded encouragingly, and my nerves died a little because he seemed to feel particularly confident. "Alright, here we go." With a click of a button, the camera had begun recording. "Could you please state your name and today's date?"
"Sora Takenouchi," I said in as clear a voice as I could muster. "The twenty-eighth of October."
"Have you ever been arrested before, Sora?" Hanzai asked.
"Just this time," I said, my insides churning at the recollection.
"You were not arrested by Officer Truman in May?" Hanzai asked.
Iori leaned forward. "As you know the answer to that inquiry I will assume it to be a statement rather than a true question, and as such it serves no purpose in a deposition."
"I'm well aware that I am to ask only questions," Hanzai said snappishly to Iori. "I am just getting the answers for the record." He tried to smile but looked pained instead, and then he turned back to me. "Had you been arrested before?"
"Not technically, no," I answered.
"Why technically?" he asked.
"The paperwork wasn't signed and it wasn't legal." It was just annoying to have to recall the events of that day. I had never been more stressed in my entire life. I had thought I'd killed all of my friends—but they were back. All of them. Including Rei, Willis and Kiyoko and while I was ecstatic about that, not a single one had come to see me.
"And what was the arrest allegedly meant for?"
"Physical assault," I said quietly. Hanzai held a finger to his ear, wanting me to speak up and I sighed. "Physical assault," I said louder. "A girl threatened to kill all of my friends and I lost control, and I hit her. I was then arrested because her father was the officer, and instead of caring about the murder threats made by his daughter, he instead arrested me for reacting."
Hanzai ignored that entirely. "Have you ever been deposed?" I shook my head. "I will need a verbal response, please."
"No, I've never been deposed." I tried to not sound bitter, but it was just so hard.
Hanzai didn't miss a beat. "Have you ever encountered Sakana Moretsuna?"
I nodded again. "Yes I have." Several times, "Just the once," I lied and I tried to make it convincing. I'd seen him twice inside his base while we attempted to break out the digimon he had kidnapped to kill, and I had also encountered him when he had entered the Temple unwanted, but I was instructed to specifically pretend I had never seen him inside the Digital World—the place of his death.
Hanzai nodded and looked down to his neat file of papers, and waited a moment, flipping through them. The sound of the sliding paper was the only sound in the room and it was just making me feel restless. Instead I tried to focus on the beautiful landscape through the mostly glass wall behind the two lawyers. The city was beautiful from where we were, and the sun was shining down on the beautiful autumn day. "Okay, so where were you during the time of Sakana's death?"
I felt Iori tense up next to me, but he had no reason to. I caught the trick too. "I haven't any idea when he died," I told them seriously. "So I cannot answer that." They were trying to catch me in a lie, or get me to admit to something, but I wasn't stupid. I didn't understand the law particularly well, but that didn't mean I was foolish enough to fall for simple tricks.
Iori relaxed in his seat, but his poker face did not stray.
"Very well," Hanzai hummed to himself. "What steps did you take to prepare yourself for this deposition?"
After that it wasn't particularly stressful. Hanzai continued jumping between serious direct questions and playful inquiries about the generic principles of my life. It was good to know that I could keep up with what he said and even outsmart him if need be, because it helped calm my nerves. It wasn't until the end of the deposition itself that the bad-cop started to play along. The lingering nerves had been trying to escape in the form of tears and when she joined in, my eyes began to heat up.
"What might you say to someone who thought you had killed Moretsuna?" She said, pursing her lips, "How might you turn their suspicions away?"
"I would expect them to trust me when I say that I didn't do it," I replied simply, my eyes stinging with tears. "The truth is subjective and never one sided. I could not ever fully convince everyone of my innocence, but that is because people judge and people have differing thoughts. I didn't do it, and I trust that the law will help to prove that."
Iori smirked, seemingly impressed with my statement, but the bad-cop wasn't. I didn't even know why she was here since she wasn't the lead lawyer against my case, but obviously I couldn't question her. I was the one being tried here. "Okay," she said, turning back to the window in thought, then all at once she turned to me and said. "Who do you think killed Sakana?"
"Yeah, don't answer that," Iori said, but it had been too late. At the same time I had said, "I don't know." Iori stiffened again, but I didn't see how my answer could have been so bad.
"Alright, that's all the questions we have for you," Hanzai said in a bright and cheery voice. "You have a really nice day. It was lovely to meet you."
"Likewise," I said with just as much fake enthusiasm, throwing my hand out to shake his. His hand was cold but sweaty and his grim was firm and hesitant. Our hold didn't last long though and then we were parting ways. Hanzai and his prissy partner left the room first, giving the rest of us time collect our things. I watched the glass doors close and the moment they had met in the middle I turned to Horitsu, "How did I do?"
"Well," he told me with a smile. "The deposition going well is a good sign."
"Doesn't mean much overall though," Iori said flatly. Horitsu gave him a dirty look, like he was afraid that Iori would upset me, but honestly I would have preferred him be even more brutally honest if would help me win this. I didn't want to lose and Iori being honest was only the truth. I loved the truth, because the truth said that I didn't kill anyone. "Is that Bengoshi?" I turned to see where Iori's sights were focused and sure enough, through a glass wall or two, Bengoshi was holding a binder to his chest as he stared down to the city below. "I didn't think he still worked here."
"I saw him earlier," I confirmed. "I don't think he's having a good day."
"Surely not," Horitsu confirmed. "He neglected to attend his job for several months, and his employers are strict."
"He was in the Dark Ocean," Iori said, fumbling with the folder in his hands, like he hadn't ever wanted to speak those two words in that particular order ever again. I understood even if I had only set foot there once or twice for short periods. It was not the same as being there, eating there or living there. "They can't be upset with him."
"With the recent quarrels about digimon, they will not fire him," Horitsu said, as he pulled his bag over his shoulder, looking to Bengoshi. "It would only reflect poorly on their firm, but that will not stop them from being upset with his absences. They may not even believe him when he says he was locked away in a world full of dark water and demons. It sounds preposterous."
"But it's true," Iori clarified.
"I know," Horitsu said seriously, turning to Iori to verify that he did in fact believe him. It was that look of pity and seriousness that sent me back to how much money I owed this man. He looked to me in the very same way when we spoke about a retainer. I didn't have any money. Any money I had had been used on schooling. My parents were not poor, and I lived in a respectable home, but I had been to school for five years collectively, and I was still technically attending until December! My final year was meant to be spent attending internship positions and sending ideas into the world, not fighting for my right to stay out of prison and helping along the creation of propaganda videos by placing manikins dressed in digimon styled clothing in the park. I just didn't have the time or money to offer Horitsu anything, and yet he was still helping me. I would find a way to pay him back. I'd have to.
On the way down the hallway we passed Mantarou's office again and I waved to him discreetly and he held his hand up to represent a phone to imply that he'd call me before he realized he was holding a phone in his other hand. His face turned red and I held back a laugh.
"Bengoshi!" Iori called out happily, but he flinched when Bengoshi dropped his book and turned sharply toward us all with a nervous smile. Iori simply waved, feeling guilty for startling him and then we were on our way, still being led by the annoying police officer.
The drive home was simple and calming because I didn't have to think about anything. The weakness that had filled my body with relief after the deposition was working itself out of my system while Iori and Horitsu spoke about what kind of public statement I should make. I zoned out because I trusted them and I just wanted to relax for a moment. Apparently though, I was required to say something because of the specifics of the situation I was in, but I couldn't simply claim to be innocent, because that's what everyone would say.
It was when we had finally made it back into my house that I started to truly focus on the two of them again. "They didn't give us any information about the knife," Iori reminded him. "We don't 'know' about it at all."
"But we do," Horitsu said firmly. "We found out about the evidence they are withholding, and it matters not what methods we used to obtain this information, but what choices they made pertaining to the hidden evidence."
"So we're going to cheat?" Iori asked nervously. Horitsu shrugged his shoulders and Iori smirked. "Doesn't that just go against everything you've taught me?"
"I didn't have time to squeeze in a lesson on when to throw your morals out the window," Horitsu said, but Iori's face fell then, and he began to contemplate whether or not it was ideal for himself to cast aside the morals he worked so hard to stand by. I had zoned out again though, because I noticed that Biyomon had not come to greet me at the door. Biyomon always greeted me at the door, and Daisuke and the others weren't even supposed to be here, so that was curious.
"Oh they've selected the first run of jury members," Horitsu said, catching my attention as I stared up the stairwell, looking for Biyomon. "We may swap out up to six of the twelve members. We will bide our time of course, because they may swap out our members immediately after our attempts." My curiosity was being torn in two directions at that moment and eventually Horitsu won out and I hurried to his side to look at his phone where there were twelve pictures on the screen with information underneath them all.
One down the right side of the screen caught my attention and I zoomed in on the page and stared at him. "He works for EVOLVE," I said, remembering the face of the man from one of our break in attempts. "He might remember me," I realized, "I remember him, what if he remembers me?"
Horitsu shook his head. "The jury is not permitted to say anything or be involved. If he worked under Moretsuna's rule, he will be removed from the position. You mustn't worry about this just yet, Sora. There are many other details of this case that require our attention."
I was done focusing on murder for the day, and simply walked away from him and Iori, heading toward the stairs to find Biyomon. Once at the top of the stairs I heard her voice coming from inside her bedroom. But who was she talking to? I knocked on the door and gently pushed it open, and was immediately blinded by the pink that was Biyomon's bedroom.
"Sora!" she squealed in a less excited and more mournful voice. "Look who's here!" My eyes fell on Koushiro who was sitting with his back against the wall, and his head in his hands. "He's sad."
He wasn't sad. I knew what sad looked like and I knew what it felt like. His red hair was messy and his clothes were old, wrinkled and dirty. I couldn't see his face but I knew he wasn't crying. I had seen Koushiro cry. I had seen him come to me with all of his problems for years, and I had helped him work through them. This was another one of those situations, and I knew that already. As I made to move toward him I hesitated, hearing Horitsu on the stairs.
"Sora?" he called. "Would you mind if I made some tea?"
"Go ahead," I called, not taking my eyes from Koushiro. "I'm just getting changed."
"Would you like some tea as well?" Horitsu asked.
"I would," Biyomon whispered, but I ignored her.
"No thank you," I told him.
"Very well," and then my eyes were back on Koushiro. He was still hiding his face from me, and somehow it seemed that things were more wrong than I had initially thought they were. I held a hand up to Biyomon to ask her to stay where she was and she nodded.
I made my way around Biyomon's bed and sat down, the mattress squeaked, and that was when Koushiro took his first glance toward me. His face was pale and his eyes were red and he looked like perhaps he had been crying, but it still seemed to be the wrong assumption. I hadn't seen him in a while, since no one visited me here in my prison, but I couldn't imagine I had missed something this big. "Did something happen?" I asked hesitantly. "Is everyone okay?" Koushiro didn't reply immediately and a panic rose in my chest quickly as my hands tightened around the bed sheets, but Koushiro shook his head lightly and I knew my assumption had been wrong. There was something off with him though. He was... messed up. I couldn't find any other way to word it. "You're here to tell me what's wrong," I said knowingly. "So tell me."
Koushiro looked up, revealing his whole face now and just how messy his hair was, but he couldn't find a way to say anything.
"I'm worried," I said honestly, feeling that very sensation whirring around in my chest and my mind. I didn't want something bad to have happened and I wanted him to be okay. But I wasn't sure that he was.
"It's nothing," Koushiro said in a voice that sounded like it was definitely not nothing. "Honestly, I'm here to tell you so you won't think it's something later when I know you'll find out."
"Then why are you pulling all of your hair out?" I asked gently, sliding off the bed to take his hands. I was startled to find just how cold they were, but he didn't react at all.
"T-Takeru!" Koushiro snapped. "It's his fault! He's making me feel wrong about it."
"About what?" I asked flatly, concerned and confused as to how Takeru fit into all of this. Koushiro didn't want to answer, and I wasn't going to force him into it, but he if he needed help like I knew he wanted but wouldn't admit, he would have to say something. He didn't though. Instead he simply grabbed something from behind him and held it up in his fist. Slowly he uncurled his fingers to show me a bottle of medication.
"What is it?" Biyomon asked eagerly. "What is it, Sora? Sora, what is it? Hey Sora, what's that? I can't see it. What is it?"
If he hadn't made such a big show of it all it would be easy to ignore the obvious reality, and yet he had come in with the intention to clear up 'nothing' and that just showed how big of a something it really was. "Koushiro," I said slowly. "What the hell are you thinking?" I smacked his arm hard and he gasped in pain. I knew it wasn't the supportive reaction he was hoping to get from his best friend, but I wasn't in the mood to give him support. Not after this.
"It's nothing," he said again.
"I see something," Biyomon said. "But what is it?"
I ignored her again. "How long? How many? What the hell were you thinking?" I asked again, smacking his other arm and knocking the pills from his hand. They rolled along the floor and came to a stop somewhere underneath Biyomon's bed. "Answer me!"
"I don't want to," Koushiro said in a weak voice. I straightened my posture and he flinched, thinking I was going to hit him again. I wanted to, but I wouldn't.
"Koushiro," I said in a much more reserved tone. "You have to explain to me so I can at least try to understand." I wouldn't understand, of that I was sure, but that didn't matter. Unless he told me that he had secretly been concealing a case of ADHD for years and was now coming clean, I wouldn't buy the story. Not that I would believe Koushiro of all people had ADHD anyway.
"I need to focus," he said in a small voice. "I need to think. Gaia—the great evils. Gennai! I don't understand. I need to understand and I need to help. I—Gaia!"
"This isn't the answer, Koushiro," I told him gently, patting his shoulder.
"You followed that?" Biyomon asked, confused as she dug under her bed to find the discarded pills.
Of course I had followed it. I had experience following disjointed sentences from Biyomon, and I knew Koushiro pretty well. "This isn't the answer," I said again. "We can help. I can help. I don't know why you think you have to take care of everything alone. Is it because of the crest of knowledge? I've activated it too! I can help. Iori has used the Digimental—he fits your standard. We can all help you."
"I don't need help," Koushiro shook his head. "I need you to understand."
"I don't," I told him honestly. There was silence as he leaned back into the wall, defeated. He realized that I wouldn't be able to understand, but if he could just know that I would be able to help him with whatever drove him to take them in the first place, as well as finding a way to stop he would feel much better about this I was sure.
Suddenly he sat bolt upright and looked me in the eye. "You can't tell Mimi."
"You can't ask me to keep a big secret like this," I said flatly, not even considering the idea. "I would give you the opportunity to tell her yourself, because I respect you."
"You would?" Koushiro asked. "Why won't you now?"
My face turned slightly red and I looked back over the bed. "Biyomon's already telling her."
Koushiro's face turned to that of panic very quickly and he jumped to his feet as Biyomon's voice floated from my workshop—the home of the nearest phone. "Mimi, what are amphetamines? Sora and Koushiro won't tell me. He's crying about them and he ate them. Are they bad? Is he sick? It looks like—HEY! Koushiro give that back!"
Kurayami Higorashi:
"Just because Norn is gone doesn't mean you should stop trying," Daisuke said with a shrug as he leaned back into Hikari's bed. Hikari, Takeru, Labramon and I were sitting in the open space between her bed and her dresser. Gatomon found comfort in laying near the pillows on Hikari's bed, while Patamon and Veemon had joined Armadillomon, Goblimon and Natsuni in the kitchen where they were preparing snacks for us. Natsuni was a perfect host.
"What good would it do to keep trying?" I defended as Hikari looked toward Daisuke, feeling hurt. "It wasn't working. We didn't stop because Norn left, we stopped because we weren't accomplishing anything." Norn had just been here, trying to utilize her abilities to find Gaia, but found herself unable to do anything more than Hikari or I could.
"Since you're the queen of the universe, shouldn't it be pretty easy for you to find someone?" Veemon questioned, his boredom was not hidden well as he gently knocked his head against the wall behind him again and again.
Norn turned to him with frustration written all over her face. "Everyone seems to think I have the power to do everything! I don't! Remember that, okay? I was just trapped in a different world for four months. Not only do I not have the powers you seem to think I do, but I also have a lot of catching up to do!"
"Eesh," Veemon defended, throwing his hands up nervously as protection from her wrath. "What kinds of things do you even do then?"
Norn clapped her hands against her thighs and positioned herself so she was looking toward Veemon more than anyone else. "I try to purify spirits in the Dark Ocean for one," she told him, and I noticed her eyes flick toward me. "I ensure that Yume has the continued power to overcome Akumu and keep the dreams flowing at a steady pace. I watch over everyone using the pools in the In Between—"
"Like watching TV?" Patamon asked with wide, interested eyes.
Norn didn't seem to appreciate his comparison so she folded her arms and decided to ignore them all. She closed her eyes and took Hikari's hand again, trying to use the broken connection between Gaia and the two of us. Norn was just as unsuccessful as we had been, and I would never have said it aloud, but I didn't even care. I hadn't been up late the previous night thinking that we would find Gaia, I had been up with anticipation of seeing Norn again. I was no stranger to losing people, but I had never experienced them coming back. It was something new entirely, and finding a way to cope with unexpected life was somehow harder to me than letting go of someone.
"Okay," Norn said flatly, dropping Hikari's hand. "This isn't working."
She hadn't been wrong, but now we were still trying even though neither of us truly believed that we might make any progress. It seemed the only person who was thinking positively at all was—not surprisingly—Takeru. He was leaning primarily on his left arm with his legs folded out to the side as he watched with furrowed brows, looking between Hikari and I and waiting for one of us to find a connection that did not exist.
"What if you hold hands," Labramon suggested, receiving an affectionate pat on the head from Takeru who nodded along with the idea. Hikari gave me a quizzical look and I shrugged deciding to play along. We moved closer to one another and took each other's hands. "Now close your eyes," Labramon suggested. I cocked my head and he shrunk under the look but I still did as he had said. With my eyes closed it was easier to focus, but it didn't mean we would make any true progress. "Picture Gaia in your minds," Labramon said in a soft voice. I tried to do as he said but my mind would not calm itself. I pictured her beautiful skin and her long shimmering hair, but I could not form her face. I could not make heads or tails of the memories I had of her. But I saw the magic pollen she had used to show me my past. I could see her magic, but not her. "Focus on her," Labramon said in a voice that was calmer than I felt was necessary, and it reminded me far too much of the time when Hikari and Gatmon had hypnotized me to learn of my past. My heartbeat picked up instantly. "Remember what it felt like to have her draw you close. Remember the way she called to you."
With a flash of light I saw Fanglongmon's beady eyes open wide in the forefront of my mind and my eyes shot open immediately as I dropped Hikari's hands. I turned to Labramon and shrugged my shoulders. "Doesn't seem to be working."
"It's really not," Hikari said when Takeru looked like he might want to object.
"But it has to work eventually," Daisuke was sitting up again and he had stirred Gatomon as well who had come to sit in his lap. "She wanted you two dead. If she finds out that you're not dead, she'll try to make it happen. I'm not okay with that."
"Neither am I," Takeru said in a low voice. "Let's try again."
Hikari and I exchanged tired glances and thankfully Gatomon seemed to notice. "What if we talk about a different way to catch her?" Hikari brightened up at the suggestion and we all turned to Gatomon waiting for her to save us from more pointless thoughts of Gaia that were leading us nowhere in particular. When Gatomon realized we had placed all of the pressure on her she seemed startled and sat up straight, thinking. "Well," she said, stalling for time as Hikari and I urged her along.
"This does seem like the best option, obviously," Labramon said, interrupting Gatomon's thoughts.
"No," she insisted, as Hikari subtly motioned for Gatomon to deepen her recommendation with an actual example. Then her eyes lit up and she said loudly, "The keys!" There was a small silence following her words but she didn't seem to be put out by that. "Gaia wants the keys. We keep them safe as can be, but somehow make it known that they are not and she will come to them, and voila! We'll have her where we want her! Just like trapping a cat in a bag!"
"That's not how you use that idiom," Takeru said before anyone else had bothered to speak up. "In fact I don't even think it is an idiom anymore. You broke it."
"That's brilliant!" Hikari said brightly, holding out her hands to thank Gatomon for her saving words with a hug. Gatomon leapt from Daisuke's lap and landed in Hikari's arms.
"It really isn't," Takeru insisted. "By that logic she just implied that we're going to make a secret out of trapping Gaia."
"We should tell Taichi our plan," Daisuke noted. "He'll know what to do."
"It's just that when you say 'let the cat out of the bag' it means to let the secret out," Takeru said, stroking his chin in thought.
There was a knock on the door and we all turned to see Natsuni holding a massive tray that was held heaps of food. "Maybe you could wait," she offered as she stepped into the room, followed by Veemon—who was holding a smaller tray of food—and Patamon who was fluttering in behind her carrying a bag of mixed nuts. "We could try to relax—just for one night." Natsuni assured Daisuke when he looked at her like she was insane. "Everyone has been worked up for far too long, and I'm worried that you are all going to pass out from overexertion."
"What would you have us do in this night of relaxation?" I asked, hopeful that Daisuke would agree to her offer. I didn't know about him but I for one needed this. I was constantly on edge about Sora's murder trial because she wouldn't let me come clean. This was also my first night away from Haruki in a long time, and while he was possibly the least attention seeking child of all time, he was also a baby and did take a lot of focus. Having a full night of freedom and fun might be exactly what we all needed.
Natsuni shrugged as she reached down to grab a grape. She twirled it between her thumb and forefinger and then let out a soft "Oh!" and popped the grape into her mouth before pulling herself to her feet and running out to the hallway again.
"And we wouldn't be making a secret out of Gaia, so it just doesn't make sense," Takeru continued as if his point was actually much more important than it was. Hikari gently placed a hand on his arm and squeezed softly to show her support. He smiled to her and let Gatomon's grammatical error go.
When we heard a loud crash and Natsuni shriek we all stiffened up, ready to come to her rescue but with a laugh she shouted out, "I'm so good!" her laughter faded and she said in a much less convincing voice, "I'm good."
Hikari was off to help her a moment later, accompanied by Armadillomon's accusatory cries. "You're disrupting my baby!"
Daisuke looked questioningly to Veemon who held a finger up as he swallowed a handful of unsalted crackers with a dry look on his face. "Egg," Veemon managed to say before grabbing a glass of water to pour down his throat. When he came back up for air he explained further. "Armadillomon is incubating a broken egg. He's hoping it'll be alive one day." That seemed like a dangerous experiment to me. I didn't want to see Armadillomon's spirits fall.
"I think it will be," Patamon said with an overly optimistic voice. "At least I hope it will."
"That's the spirit," Takeru said with a bright smile.
There was a second crash, but this time it was further from Hikari's room and it came equipped with a voice to explain itself. "Natsuni, I'm home and I brought company!" It was Iori, though I hadn't a clue what company he had thought to bring along.
There was a moment of silence as Takeru clambered to his feet to go greet Iori, but Natsuni had replied as he made it out the doorway. "It's okay I have company too!"
"I see that," Iori said over Takeru's joyous greeting. There was only a moment of emptiness before Takeru was dragging Iori into Hikari's bedroom. "Why are we—oh hey everyone," Iori said as he nearly tripped onto Hikari's bed. "What's going on?"
"Natsuni wants a night of fun and relaxation," Daisuke explained in his mock-Natsuni voice as he waved a finger toward Iori. "So you can't bail. She's your girlfriend. You have to play along too."
"Playing?" I was surprised to hear Miyako's voice and when I looked back to the doorway I saw that she was not alone. Ken was standing by her side with Hawkmon in his arms and Wormmon was scuttling through the doorway to keep up. I felt Labramon shift to move into the corner to make more room for everyone and I knew he had the right idea. I followed him and leaned against the wall, pulling Veemon toward me to hold in my arms. He struggled for a moment but surrendered and leaned back, using me as a seat. "What are we playing?"
"I don't think we're actually playing," Daisuke said as Miyako joined him on the bed, dropping her heavy looking bag to the floor by Hikari's nightstand. "I just mean that Natsuni came up with the idea, so it might be eating healthy food, listening to whale songs and giving each other massages." Veemon shook with laughter in my arms and I caught the bug as well.
Ken snorted but Iori's face turned red and he pushed his shoulder gently. "Natsuni wouldn't do that," he objected, but he didn't sound all too convincing.
Patamon, who had sat as close as he could to Gatomon, said, "She has a hundred different candles that are scented as different oceans in a cupboard with books like 'How To: Yoga' and 'The Art of Finding Inner Peace'. It sounds to me like she would do exactly that."
"Would it be so bad though?" Gatomon asked, rolling her shoulders back. "I could use a good massage."
"Couldn't we all?" Takeru joked, moving to sit with Gatomon to give her the massage she had subtly requested. She purred at his touch.
A moment later Natsuni had popped back into the room with Hikari, walking backwards, carrying a large ornate wooden box. Hawkmon let out a surprised shout when Wormmon was nearly trampled and he pulled the green digimon into his feathery arms for protection as Natsuni and Hikari heaved one last time and dropped the box to the ground. Natsuni tossed her hair over her shoulder and turned to us with a sheepish smile. "I just couldn't decide!" When she received no replies except for a series of curious and confused expressions she added, "They're games."
Hawkmon dropped Wormmon immediately and rushed over to the box to peek over the edge to look inside to pick the first game to play. His eyes lit up with excitement and he pulled out a sleek black box, "How about 'Take Over the Country With Hotels and Houses?'" He suggested eagerly. Miyako groaned, but Daisuke pushed her aside, toppling her back into the bed with excitement.
"Set it up!" he said with a fierce voice. Hawkmon literally jumped for joy and rushed over to Patamon to get help to set it up. Ken took Wormmon into his arms and followed Hikari to the other side of the room where they sat, leaving room for Natsuni, Iori, and Goblimon who was dragging Armadillomon behind him as he went. Daisuke crawled off the bed to join Hawkmon, while Veemon made his way over to the box of games to take a look for himself.
"There are too many of us to play this game," Hawkmon said as he read off of the instruction booklet. "It says two to eight players. There are sixteen of us."
"Well someone play this with me," Veemon said, holing a large colourful box above his head that, in big block writing, said 'Follow a Direct Path and Make Simple Decisions That Ultimately Lead to Retirement and a Car Full of Unemployed Children'. Natsuni seemed eager to join him in that game, and Ken took Wormmon to play as well. Hikari, Labramon and Goblimon moved to join Daisuke in his game, while Gatomon snuck away, looking in disgust to the game itself. I understood. It sometimes took days to finish that game, it just wasn't any fun. Miyako seemed to be in the same boat and she pulled out a deck of cards from the box and looked to me, asking if I wanted to play with no words. I nodded and she grinned, leaping toward the bed and bouncing more than she had expected to in Hikari's array of white and pink pillows.
Takeru and Iori joined me, sitting around the bed, with Armadillomon, Gatomon and Miyako taking a seat on the bed itself and then the cards were dealt out.
It was weird to be in a room with so much laughter. I hadn't expected to be in such a mood when I had woken up that morning. Daisuke and I had discussed Gaia long and hard, and had a serious talk about keeping secrets from one another. We ended on a good note, but it still set the day off to a rocky start, but even through that, and worrying about Sora, and worrying about Norn and what Gaia was up to, I was having fun now.
Miyako roared loudly when Armadillomon took yet another of her cards in his journey to dominate and win the game. He was ginning and laughing along with the rest of us now, forgetting about the egg just for a while, and with a single look to the bright smile on Natsuni's face it was clear that she knew what she had been up to. Even if we all looked like children playing games in our friends room like we were having a slumber party, it didn't matter. Because that release from the problems of our lives was exactly what we needed.
"If you ask me for my card I'll draw a picture of a Numamon on your shell," Miyako warned as it came back to Armadillomon's turn.
He smiled maliciously and looked over to Takeru thoughtfully. "Miyako, you have any three's?" Miyako's face turned bright red as she looked down to her cards and all at once her tense expression turned to that of joyous relief.
"NOPE!" she shouted, "HA! Go fish, you bully!"
"That's a three though," Gatomon said, pointing to Miyako's hand. "The card with the bent corner is a three." Miyako looked confused but separated her cards and found that one had been hiding. Her face reddened again, this time in embarrassment and she handed the card over to Armadillomon before freezing and holding the card tightly when he tried to take it from her.
"Cheater!" she exclaimed, "You've rigged the cards!"
"I live here, what did you expect?" Armadillomon asked, taking the card from her once and for all and matching up his final pair. "I'm the winner!" Miyako screwed her face up but eventually just laughed and dived toward Armadillomon, taking him into her arms to tickle him. He roared with laughter.
The others started laughing along, but I heard something behind me that caught my attention and turned to see Ken clap Wormmon on the back. It came as a surprise to Wormmon to see that he had in fact won the game. He was so shocked in fact that he urged Ken to recount the money, but Ken didn't bother. Natsuni congratulated him and hugged him, but Veemon looked rather sour about the whole ordeal.
And in the final game, though it was still ongoing, it seemed that Daisuke and Hawkmon—who had decided to team up—were in the lead. As time went on, since we couldn't play with a faulty deck of cards, we began to watch the final game, and the room's hyperactive energy slowed itself. The intensity in Daisuke's eyes as he begged the universe to allow him to win was both adorable and hilarious. At one point he outwardly prayed to Norn for the correct roll of his dice, but he didn't get it, so it seemed she wasn't on his side. Hikari and Goblimon were the first pair to fall from the game after Goblimon irrationally spent all of his money on upgrading their most expensive property, and that left Patamon and Labramon who were both still in the game due to sheer luck since neither understood the rules.
Several times Patamon had sent a gust of air toward Daisuke when he took his money, claiming that the game was about 'teamwork' and not 'thievery' but in the end it seemed that their luck had run out, because their money had run nearly dry.
"What time is it?" Takeru asked finally, stretching his arms up and leaning back into Hikari's bed with a yawn.
"Late," Iori replied, though he didn't seem to be paying much attention. He was having a silent conversation with his eyes, and when I followed his gaze I found Natsuni at the other end. She nodded and he shrugged, but when she caught sight of me watching the two of them her cheeks flushed pink, but Iori shook his head ever so slightly and Natsuni looked sad suddenly. I wasn't one to pry, but that didn't stop me from being curious. Iori and Natsuni were a particularly secretive pair, and they'd been that way since before they even started their relationship. Back in high school when Iori was helping me study and get back up to my grade level, he and Natsuni had more inside jokes than they had outside jokes. If that was even a real thing. Hikari and I were always left to wonder what they had gotten themselves into time after time, but never really tried to pull the information from them. Then when they started their secretive relationship it became even clearer to me that there was more than just something between the two of them. Just like now, but I wouldn't ask. I would wait, not matter how badly I wanted to know.
"Maybe we should think about getting home," Ken suggested, but Miyako shook her head and flopped over the side of the bed to grab her heavy looking bag. She dragged it up into her lap and flung it open. She pulled out a box, but the top was facing her. It looked to me like it was another game, and Ken seemingly thought the same. "Is there time for another game, Miyako?"
"It's not so much a game," she said defensively as she set the box down and ripped the top off before anyone could see what it said. Inside was a folded black board, and it was beginning to look more and more like a game.
"Then what is it?" Takeru asked, looking all too excited now after having been tired a moment before. Miyako looked up to him nervously, but matched his eager expression and then pulled the board out and laying it flat on the bed. "Oh you've got to be kidding me."
"I'm out," Veemon declared, recognizing the board.
"I don't think it's a good idea," Hikari offered shyly.
"Where did you even get that?" Ken gasped.
Miyako turned to Ken and shrugged, "When you went out for coffee, I took a walk to the store and bought it."
"But why?" Natsuni asked with a horrified expression. "That was a terrible idea, Miyako."
"You're all babies," Miyako snapped, folding her arms in a sort of pout. On one hand, I agreed with her, and on the other hand was right on board with everyone else thinking she had flipped her lid. We were all crowded around now, staring down to the thin cardboard that Ouija board that was decorated with gothic gears and swirls.
Hawkmon cleared his throat and looked over to Hikari's balcony door. "I must say, that does look intriguing, Wormmon, would you care to join me?" Wormmon nodded fervently and the two rushed out of the crowd, but I noticed that they did not open the door, instead choosing to cower in the corner.
"Like I said," Miyako rolled her eyes, "babies."
"I don't think that's it," Labramon inputted in his quiet voice. "It might be more true that we are simply frightened of the concept of your game."
"It's not a game," Miyako added again, "but I guess if you're scared, we won't have to use it." She turned her sights toward Daisuke and looked to him intensely. "Right? You're scared?"
Daisuke's head shook slowly at first, but the speed picked up quickly and he pushed Gatomon aside to lay the top half of his body onto the bed where he reached into the box to grab the device that would make the board useful. Miyako grinned devilishly and joined him, holding the device. "Who's with me?" Daisuke asked. Hikari and Takeru stepped back with their partners instinctively moving toward Ken and Goblimon who were already pressed against the wall. Natsuni pulled Armadillomon into her arms and let Veemon and Labramon cower behind her. Iori looked up to me and we shrugged as one, reaching out to join in the game.
"What's this about though," Ken asked, worried.
"It's about having one last chance to be me, Ken," Miyako said, though it seemed more than likely she was simply using whatever excuse she could find. "Mai comes home tomorrow, and I want to take this last adventure before that happens." Ken didn't look convinced, but he let her have her fun.
"This is silly," Takeru said, shrugging off the tension that had built up in the room. "It's just a toy, right?" Miyako nodded with a smile on her face, so Takeru moved forward, but Patamon didn't seem as brave as he did and he fluttered toward Hikari to avoid coming nearer to our circle. "Ask the spirits if my grandmother takes as many naps now she's dead as she did when she was alive." Hikari looked to him like he was insane, but my attention was pulled downward where the device in my hand was already moving across the board.
I felt like a fool when I noticed my mouth had been hanging open slightly as I watched it slide toward the word 'yes', but when I saw the grin on Daisuke's face I knew it had been he that had moved the small looking glass. Takeru grinned at the outcome and the tension seemed to crack a little, allowing the others to lighten up a little.
"Where is Gaia?" Veemon suggested, hopping forward, and pulling himself onto the bed next to Daisuke. "Maybe they can tell us that?" The looking glass did not move, and Veemon pouted. "Ask why we don't live with Patamon anymore."
Daisuke turned to Veemon and released the device with one hand to pat his head. "Because we're poor, Bud. We don't need a spirit to tell us that."
There was silence as Miyako stared down to her hands, begging to ask a question, but not having built up the nerve to do so. I took the silence as my own chance. "Has my mother interacted with Zeta in the Land of Light?" The device reacted instantly and slid toward the word 'yes'. This time Daisuke was shocked into focus, so I knew it hadn't been he that had slid it this time. We moved our hands back to the center of the board. "What about Yukai?" Once more our hands were sliding down to the word 'yes'.
"Why is the sky blue?" Patamon shot out his suggestion.
"No, ask where that last gumball went to!" Veemon fired off another question.
"Why does Daisuke snore so loudly?" Labramon asked.
"Who is haunting my baby?"
We all froze and the tension built back up in the room as all eyes turned to Miyako who was looking down to the board with wide eyes as if she was afraid to miss the answer. I hesitated, but pulled my hands away nervously. Daisuke had already lost his balance and slipped off of the bed. Iori took one last look to Miyako and then followed our lead, removing his hands. "Miyako," Ken said softly, braving the walk over to the bed to comfort his wife. "I told you, you need more sleep."
"I don't," Miyako said fiercely, slapping Ken's hand off of her shoulder. She rounded on him and stood on her knees to close the gap between their eye levels. Veemon pressed his side closer to me for protection and I wrapped my arm around him, never removing my eyes from Miyako and Ken who were locked in a staring contest of sorts. "I know what I saw. I just want to know more of what I saw."
"This can't tell you," Ken argued. "It's just a game."
"Then it shouldn't matter if we test it out, right?" Miyako countered without missing a beat. It was then that I felt a chill run down my spine, but the intensity in Ken and Miyako's eyes did not falter, even when Gatomon let out a surprised yowl.
"It's dangerous that you're allowing yourself to think this way," Ken said flatly. "I can't allow you to torture yourself like this." Then Labramon snarled, barring his teeth, and when I turned to comfort him I saw that he looked more scared than upset. Takeru had moved to stand behind him and was staring down at the board.
I looked up to him and saw that his eyes were wide. "It's moving."
Another, very different, chill shot down my back, this time spreading through my whole body as we all looked back to the board spread out on Hikari's bed spread. He wasn't wrong. The small plastic device was sliding ever so gently across the board, and Miyako, with wide fearful eyes, was leaning down to read what it was spelling. When it stopped she looked up to us all and swallowed thickly. "Me," she read out.
The moment the word had escaped her lips the lights went out. It had only been for a moment but it was enough to stir the atmosphere. The board on the bed flipped through the air, flying toward Hikari who screamed and held tighter to Gatomon and Patamon, rushing toward the door to her room with Hawkmon and Wormmon closer at her heels.
Miyako's eyes were staring toward the board with more horror than before but when a high pitched squealing sound filled the room she, and everyone else I was sure, looked toward Hikari's cabinet where five thin lines were appearing, as if someone were sliding their fingernails down the wood. Miyako's face paled and Ken didn't waste a second more time, lifting her with ease into his arms and jumping on the bed to escape the room.
I was still staring in a daze of fear and confusion when Labramon tugged on my sleeve with his teeth, capturing my attention. Daisuke's arm was around me a moment later and I was being pulled to my feet, following Natsuni and Iori out of the bedroom.
"My egg!" Armadillomon cried out, but Takeru was quick to lift up the digimon and allow him to guide him to where he was incubating the egg, even if it didn't have much chance of surviving, Takeru wasn't going to leave it behind. There was no telling what would happen to it if we did. No telling because I didn't understand. I couldn't understand. My mind was on Haruki, and on Mai and on Emiko. I was scared for the children, scared like Miyako was.
Soon enough we had all made it out of the apartment, and Goblimon slammed the door behind Takeru, who was holding both Armadillomon and the pale coloured egg.
"I'm not ever going back in there," Hikari said with wide eyes.
"Sleep at our house," Ken said, tossing Hikari a set of keys. "I'm going to Mai."
"Me too," Miyako said, her face still pale and horror stricken. "Iori—come?"
"Of course," he said, taking her hand and hurrying down the hallway, leaving Ken to ensure that Hikari had the keys and new the password for the burglar alarm. She nodded and hurried him along, but we wasted no time in getting a move on. Hawkmon wanted to check on Poromon, and I wanted to see Haruki.
Whatever Miyako had just spoken to was malicious and terrifying, and it was not my first experience with a dark entity. I hoped it would be my last though.
Next on Digimon Adventure 08: Kari is forced to get over the scare she and her friends encountered while Koushiro decided to run from his problems and finds a way to create bigger, and more serious issues than he had before.