"I can't go back to the Digital World?"
The words tumbled out of Ken's limp mouth with all the weight of a prisoner repeating their death sentence. He almost felt betrayed, staring up at Keiko with, wide, haunted eyes.
He should've known something was wrong when he woke up in a strange new place. It was almost like a fancy hotel room, but Wormmon happened to be sleeping beside him. Confused and disoriented, it took him some time to remember what had happened before he went to sleep. Only snippets of Factory Town remained - his work on the D-Terminals and fragments of his kidnapping. All he could imagine was that his friends had rescued him, but why had they not brought him back to Crystal Tower?
When Keiko arrived to check up on him, Ken felt relieved and so did she, but soon the smile disappeared from her eyes. That was when she sat down beside him to deliver the news that left him devastated.
"I'm sorry," Keiko said before taking Ken's hands in his. Then she explained the reason why, and he almost wished she hadn't.
Ken was left feeling dirty, used, and afraid. He had seen the puppets Millenniumon had controlled. The idea that he could become one the second he returned to the Digital World to threaten his friends into doing whatever horrible thing that monster wanted…
He wanted to throw up.
"It'll be okay, Ken-chan," Keiko said gently as she held the Chosen of Kindness in a comforting embrace. "We'll figure out how to cure whatever Millenniumon did to you. I won't let him keep you away from home forever."
Home. That was exactly it. Ken felt as though he had been thrown out of his home, the only place that truly accepted him and made him feel wanted. As dangerous as the Digital World was, Crystal Tower was a wonderful place, and the more he thought of his adventures, he recalled other places he enjoyed. The Village of Beginnings and its childish wonder, Factory Town with its impressive machines and contrary nature… There were so many places now completely closed off to him.
It wasn't fair.
When Ken eventually digested the news and could focus past the injustice of it all, he thought of Ryo and felt guilty. Here he was focused entirely on his suffering while his best and oldest friend had spent a day with Zeed, and, from the sound of it, it seemed as though Zeed had intentionally set off Ryo's social anxiety. The diabolical mastermind was truly sick to figure out and exploit one of Ryo's greatest weaknesses.
"Is Ryo here?" Ken asked. "I want to apologize…"
Keiko sighed and held her head, the reaction sending a jolt of panic through Ken. "Ken-chan, what Millenniumon did isn't your fault. You don't have anything to apologize for… and it's not a good idea for you to see Ryo until you're cured."
Ken felt his insides go cold. "Why not?"
Leaning back, Keiko made a vague gesture in front of her. "Remember that thing that brought you to the Digital World in the first place? The mysterious gold light? Zennyu says he and Higashi figured out what might've caused it after the whole thing with Diablomon."
There was an uncomfortable pause before Keiko continued. "It seems Zeed figured out a way to use Ryo's crest against him. Miracles is basically the Digital World, so, I guess he's somehow tapping into it to use it to zap Ryo to the Digital World whenever he wants, or lock him out, and anyone nearby who can go gets sucked in with him. That's why Wormmon wound up trapped in Turkey with Ryo."
It made a cruel kind of sense, one Ken didn't want to accept. Unfortunately, the world - both worlds - didn't care about what he wanted. Reality only wanted to come up with new, terrible ways to crush his soul.
That moment haunted Ken far more than any of his past experiences, even the near death he had experienced at the hands of Piemon or the nuke. It was a moment that his illusions about his own worth were finally shattered - even as a Chosen Child, he was still a burden.
Osamu's jabs came back with full force, the barbs digging into him. The fact that Osamu had been right all along made the sting all the more painful. He really had been playing hero, and everyone else had humored him until they could no longer afford to do so.
But while the temptation to sit and cry in his room was strong, there was also a sort of desperation that drove him beyond his sorrow. Maybe he really was delusional, but he wasn't willing to accept his fate just yet. If he could prove to be even the slightest bit useful, maybe he would finally stop being a burden. Maybe he'd finally have a right to exist.
Ken sat in the closet of their bedroom, surrounded by equipment as he focused on his last hope to his own worth - his D-Terminals. He had cleared out all the useless items that had previously occupied the closet, stacking them high against the wall to give him as much space as possible. Tools and bits of equipment scattered around him as he sat isolated in the small room, he poured his heart and soul into the project.
It was all he had left.
Ken furrowed his brow as he chewed on his pencil, grinding his teeth in frustration as he looked over his half-built prototype and the sketchpad he was using as a notebook. He stared hard at the drawing in front of him, glancing between it and his device. "Okay, so… if I..."
"What're you doing?" Osamu asked, peering into the closet and down at his little brother, who jerked with a yelp in surprise. "You've been hiding in here all day. What's going on?"
Ken paused at that but didn't turn to face Osamu. "I'm working."
"On what?" Osamu asked.
Ken was immediately suspicious. The fact that Osamu wasn't studying was the first red flag, and the fact that his older brother was trying to pry into his affairs was the second. He needed to be careful how he responded, or risk having Osamu freaking out on him again. "I'm making something."
Osamu crouched down to get a closer look at Ken and the mysterious project. "What is it? Can I see?"
Ken wanted to refuse his brother, but knew better than to do it. "Um, okay..." He moved to the side, giving Osamu a glimpse of his prototype, even as he desperately wanted to hide it. "It's not done, but…"
Osamu looked over the sketches of circuitry and parts along with neatly detailed note, his interest piquing. His tired eyes lit up with curiosity as he unthinkingly took the notebook and eagerly looked the pages over. "Did you come up with all this this yourself?"
Ken gave a tentative nod as he anxiously watched Osamu, waiting for his brother to say or do something to shoot down his ideas. Osamu was a genius, after all - leagues more intelligent than he was. And it just seemed that with the way the world was going, it was only fitting that his brother get a shot in too.
"This is brilliant!" Osamu said with a wide smile, his eyes sparkling as he met his little brother's gaze. "If we made these changes to our computer, it'd be better than anything on the market!"
Ken stared at Osamu, expression going blank. Even though he understood the words coming out of his brother's mouth, his brain couldn't process them. "H-huh?"
Osamu flipped to a particular page and pointed to part of the schematics. "I mean, just look here. You solved the efficiency issue that Dr. Watanabe said couldn't be cracked in that recent interview. I think they were offering some sort of cash reward if anyone came up with a solution. You could probably sell this and make enough money to buy every video game you want."
Ken blinked slowly before his eyes widened. "You… you really like it?" While Osamu had said some other incredible things, nothing compared to the sudden realization that his brother was praising him. At least, it sounded like it, even as he was afraid to believe his ears. "Y-you're not just saying that?"
The question made Osamu falter for a moment, blinking blankly at Ken for a moment before his brow furrowed. "Why would I do something like that? If I lied that you were doing something great when you were screwing up, you'd just keep messing up and it'd screw you over."
Ken hesitated at that before he furrowed his own brow. "I… I guess that's true…"
Osamu flipped to another page, taking a moment to read the notes. "You know, if you rearranged transistors here to here," he tapped on the schematic, "it might allow you to get get a better power output in this area." He paused and let out a hum, reconsidering his own suggestion.
Ken looked at the page before lifting his eyes to Osamu. The whole exchange felt surreal, like a dream. "I-I thought about it, but… I can't think of a good way to make sure it doesn't overheat and melt the circuit board…"
Osamu hummed again as he turned the page and double checked the sizes. "You're right. You can't have much in the way of cooling if what you're making is this small. Maybe you could scale up the casing. A desktop should have more than enough room for extra fans." He vaguely gestured over his shoulder at the computer that displayed some unfinished document he had been working on.
Ken glanced at the computer before turning his attention to the device. "I-I wanted to keep it small, like a handheld… so that if anything were to happen again, I could… call and not…" He trailed off, then grimaced. He hadn't meant to reveal so much, and was sure his brother would figure out what he was saying.
Osamu paused at that, his enthusiasm diminishing and quieting his voice as a certain incident immediately sprang to mind. "Like when the nuke fell?"
Ken hesitated before giving a tiny nod, his eyes lowering to the floor.
"I see," Osamu muttered. "Then we definitely need to keep it portable." He rubbed his chin as his gaze drifted away. "Maybe we could talk Mom and Dad into giving us enough money to make two of them… maybe I could submit some more research papers to magazines to get some extra money that way. Making something this groundbreaking won't be cheap unless you sell the rights to some company, but you don't want to deal with people like them. Those money hungry parasites will eat you alive."
Ken was surprised by Osamu's reaction - or rather, the fact that it wasn't an angry reaction - and instead found himself hopeful again. "A-actually, I don't need to worry about getting parts," He turned to gesture towards the parts scattered around him. "I-I can get more than enough to make as many as I want!"
Osamu blinked at Ken, surprised, only for his mood to sour a moment later. "From the Digimon, right?"
Ken paused at that. While it was the truth, he could tell that the knowledge was quickly tainting the moment. Even if it was selfish not to defend his friends, he really couldn't deny that he wanted Osamu to continue praising him. He needed to think fast if he intended to recover. "A-actually, no… um, Keiko's brother owns a business, so…"
"Oh, her," Osamu said, though he didn't exactly sound thrilled by it. Still, he wasn't quite as irritated as when he mentioned Digimon. "I looked up stuff about her. You should be careful and try not to deal with her family. The Ryuzaki are said to have ties to the yakuza and might even be a yakuza family. It'd be safest for you to just deal with her instead of them if you're going to spend time with her no matter what I say anyway."
Ken did his best to make an innocent face even as he felt sweat appear on the back of his neck. "I… just asks for parts and she gets them for me. I'm sure that won't get scary… right?"
Osamu folded his arms over his chest and scoffed. "As long as her brother isn't getting the parts by throwing people into garbage compactors, it should be fine."
Ken outright gaped at his brother, his reaction completely genuine this time. "Eeeh!? Is… is that even possible!?"
Osamu's eyes darkened as he gazed intently at Ken. "What I just said is a real incident a former associate of the yakuza had the 'pleasure' of seeing firsthand. There are other stories even worse than that. Even if it wasn't the Ryuzaki specifically, crime families do stuff like that, and they can exist anywhere, in big or small towns. Hell, your friend Keiko actually is attached to two of them! There's not a lot about the Makuras online, mostly that they live in this small town called Onigara, but I found a rumor that people who mess with that family wind up disappearing."
Ken felt a chill run up his spine as he trembled. He had never really considered it before then, but suddenly it dawned on him that maybe Keiko's family was far more incredible - and intense - than he realized. It also explained her mother and how the awful woman could accomplish so much in terrorizing her daughter. "T-that's… scary..."
"Yeah," Osamu muttered, his eyes drifting down to the notes to avoid looking at his brother's pale face. "I guess if I was someone like her, I'd buy the whole chosen hero thing too and run away to another world if it meant not being surrounded by killers all the time. At least monsters show you that they're monsters on the outside. I'm kind of surprised she actually wanted to go back to them."
Ken frowned at that before he lowered his eyes to the notes. He wanted to try and argue with his brother and defend Keiko, but he suspected it would only make the conversation worse. It was better to end the conversation before Osamu said anything else, and move on to a better topic. "...Hey, um, I… I was actually in the middle of… a problem with my prototype. I-I know you're busy but, do you… um… maybe..."
Just like that, Osamu's eyes sparked to life as he met his brother's gaze with a cocky grin. "Are you kidding? I'd love to work on something like this! With the two of us working together, we'll make something incredible that the world's never seen before."
Ken's own eyes immediately lit up. "R-really!? It won't be a bother?"
Osamu snorted, eyes rolling to the sky as his grin turned crooked. "Really? You show me something like this and think I wouldn't want to drop everything and join in on the fun?" He made a show of wagging his finger and winked. "You don't know me at all, little brother."
Ken's smile widened as the brightness in his eyes spread to the rest of his face. It was like finding an oasis in a desert, and he couldn't help but want to desperately drink from it. "O-o-okay! Th-then…!"
The happiness spread to Osamu too and shined on his face. After far, far too long, he and his little brother were going to spend time together doing something that excited both of them. Even when their parents tried to interfere again, as would often happen whenever they played a game, he could easily lie and claim work like this was a science project for school, one that they both needed to work on. "What're we waiting for then? Let's get started!"