Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
A Story for Suzie
Chapter: 37
As the next crow warrior reached out with its talons to snatch up another victim, Renamon flung herself out of the window faster than the eye could see. The human eye, that is, as the crow's face twitched at her blurring form, but so committed to its goal that it lacked the time to respond properly. Renamon lashed out with a fist and struck the crow across the beak, causing its eyes to roll up into its head, its wings going limp. It crashed to the dirt with a heavy thud and Renamon landed across from it with a smooth grace.
The battle, she quickly realized, wasn't over.
Looking up, she saw at least a dozen more crow warriors circling above, screeching excitedly at each other. Her sudden and unexpected appearance clearly having taken them by surprise. They were quick to regroup however as they drew javelins from behind their backs and took aim, hurling them toward the vulpine digimon with deadly accuracy.
Unfortunately for them, as accurate as they were…as fast as they were, Renamon was faster…and deadlier. No speed boost card was necessary. A simple slash of her arms sent out a flurry of razor sharp, glowing shards that cut into the javelins, causing them explode into thousands of splinters before evaporating into shards of data.
This caused the small flock to pause, making note of the ease at which she dispatched their attacks. After a moment of cawing to each other, one of their number, adorned in silver armor, flew in for a landing and drew itself to its full height.
"You fight well," it said, its voice thick as its mouth was not made for human speech. "What is your name?"
"I am called Renamon," the kitsune replied, her eyes tracking the crow warriors as they lit upon the rooftops surrounding her. It struck her that they appeared to be attempting to draw her in some kind of tactical noose. "What is the meaning of your attack on this place?"
"This town lies within the domains of the Crow god," the avian replied, one claw coming to rest on its left sword. "The god of flight does what he wills with all that falls within his wings. That is all you need to know." Raising its other claw, it pointed at the vulpine digimon. "Whatever god you represent, know that you are out of your territory and you have no business here. If you wish to dispute this land…"
There was a scraping sound as the crow drew one of its two swords.
"…you will find many arguments to be had from our side," it finished, its steel glinting in the sunlight.
Renamon narrowed her eyes, raising her fists.
"I have no dispute over land ownership," she said, her voice taking on a sharp, angry tone. "I have concerns over the way you treat those within your land. A child was murdered just now, and for no justification!"
The crow took a practice swing with its sword. "The Lord of the Winds does what he will in his lands. These mortals are his to do with as he desires."
With a sudden caw, the crows made their move, and a ring of lightning surged amongst the crows before coiling outward toward Renamon. Gasping, the vulpine digimon leapt into the air and teleported out of view, narrowly missing the electrical blast as it struck their own comrade, setting it afire and causing it to burst asunder into a shower of sparkling data.
"You missed," Renamon said, materializing behind one of the crow warriors as it ceased its attack, stupefied by what had just happened. Moving quickly, she latched hold of the soldier and with a quick twist, snapped its neck with a loud crack.
Again, an eruption of data and then there were only eleven more that they had to deal with.
"Pyro Sphere!" came the shout she was expecting, and within short order a crimson fireball spat out from the door of the inn, slamming into a crow warrior just as it drew a javelin to throw at Renamon, causing it to evaporate into fading data particles.
They fall fairly easily, Renamon noted with a slight frown. But then, they aren't exactly digimon.
Guilmon sprang into view, his claws slashing out viciously at a Crow warrior as it brandished an axe and attempted to hew his head off. With the speed upgrade card coursing through his data, the reptile deftly dodged the blow before following it up with another Pyro Sphere, blasting his opponent apart. The crows saw quickly that things were not going their way, and they all took to the air, hurling javelins at Guilmon, testing to see if he would be any more vulnerable than Renamon. His pace didn't lag however, and he evaded the vicious javelins, sending streams of fireballs hurtling at the crows.
However, while they were slower than Guilmon, they were superior in their nimbleness, and at the distance they were Guilmon's attacks were easy to dodge, making the fight a stalemate. Renamon threw herself back into the fray, sending streams of glowing shards flying at their opponents. They tried to counterattack…to rally, but they were quickly proving to be helpless against the two digimon. Nonetheless, it didn't stop them from attempting to do as much damage as they could as they retreated.
Soon enough, the crows were too far away for any attack to be worthwhile, leaving the two digimon unopposed on the field, with all their defeated opponents deleted, save for the one Renamon had knocked unconscious earlier.
Rika and Takato emerged from the inn as Renamon and Guilmon knelt down beside their remaining, defeated foe, Guilmon growling dangerously the whole while that his kitsune comrade prodded it, investigating the crow. Information was power, and right now they needed to know as much as they could about their adversaries as possible.
"Renamon?" Rika asked, casting a glance over her shoulder and back at the inn they had vacated for any sign of the citizenry as they would surely become brave enough to venture outside and confront them. She was sure they would, given their appearance and the presence of their partners being so utterly outlandish. They would no doubt blame them for the attack.
As of yet, none were to be had, but she doubted things would last that long.
"It has a heartbeat similar to humans," Renamon noted, pressing a claw to its neck. "This digital life form was made to be closer to mortals than digimon."
"Um…if we're going to be interrogating or whatever we're going to do with this guy, shouldn't we do it somewhere else?" Takato asked, taking a look around them. Shadows were already starting to appear in front of windows as people were starting to become braver. Rika grimaced, seeing them as well. It seemed her estimation hadn't been very far off the mark.
"A good idea," Renamon agreed, getting to her feet. "Rika, I should digivolve so that I can carry…"
"Monsters!"
A rock whizzed through the air and Rika found herself staggering backward as it glanced along the side of her skull, splitting open skin. Takato, Renamon and Guilmon all gasped in surprise as she fell into her partner's arms, dazed. Furious, Takato spun around, hands clenching onto his digivice and cards.
"Stop it!" he shouted. "We saved you! Why are you…?"
The boy didn't get a chance to finish as more of the crowd erupted onto the streets and a rock smacked into his cheekbone with a loud crack while another struck him in the chest. Raising his arms to shield himself, Takato looked up just in time to see a red tomato come flying at him before splattering crimson across his face.
"Stop it! We… Ah!"
He didn't get a chance to finish as he saw someone rushing them with a pitchfork, murder in his eyes. Reacting quickly, he slashed a card through his digivice, and at once a shell of data materialized around Guilmon, growing to immense size before shattering with a tremendous explosion.
"Guilmon, digivolve tooo…Growlmon!"
The much larger dragon rose to his full height, snorting fire from his nostrils before letting out a tremendous roar. This brought the crowd grinding to a halt and the air was filled with screams again as the man with the pitchfork dropped his improvised weapon with a dull, stupefied clatter.
"Get out of here!" Takato shouted, rage barely contained in his voice, causing the man to snap to attention and take off at a run. Within short order, the two humans and digimon were left alone in the street, Takato breathing heavily as Renamon helped get her partner to her feet.
"Takato…?" the girl began, her voice full of concern before wincing, one hand going to her head where she had been struck, her fingers coming back stained with blood – not a lot, but enough for her friends to worry. Hearing his name from her lips, Takato turned around and Rika nearly had a heart attack from the red staining his face before realizing it was tomato juice.
"Rika! Are you okay?" he asked, starting toward her. Rika wiped at her head, grimacing.
"My head hurts, but I think I'm fine. You?"
Looking him over, she found a nasty swelling starting on his cheek bone. She had heard the smack through the haze of her pain right before he lost his temper. She glanced over at Growlmon's looming form.
Got to say one thing about him, when he loses it, he sure knows how to make a big enough scene…
"Fine as long as you are," Takato breathed, visibly relaxing, though he still looked at her worriedly. "We should get out of here."
Rika felt a faint blush color her cheeks as he said that, but chose to ignore it as she withdrew her cards and digivice.
"Right," she agreed. A quick card slash and a moment later Kyubimon joined them, her burning paws coming to rest on the ground. Pocketing her equipment, Rika swung herself up onto her partner's back.
"Let's go," she said, indicating the spot behind her with a jerk of her head. Takato nodded and started forward before noticing something out of the corner of his eye; a small metal pot.
"One second," he began, running over to it.
"Takato! What are you…?"
"Trust me, we're going to need it," he said, snatching it up. He frowned as he started back toward them. "Wait, where'd that crow guy go?"
"He must have taken off while we were being mobbed," Rika suggested. "Will you hurry it up? What do you need that thing for?"
"Let's get somewhere safe first," Takato replied, swinging himself up onto Kyubimon's back, handing the pot to Rika for safe keeping. He blushed as he wrapped his arms around her waist, muttering a quiet apology. Rika rolled her eyes at his antics.
For goodness sake. Him and Henry. It's not like he needs to apologize for hanging onto me.
Still, given recent events, she found her face coloring slightly. With a soft nudge with her knees, Kyubimon bounded off with Growlmon lumbering not too far behind.
###
The fire crackled as Takato poked through the boiling water in the pot he had salvaged from the town, removing one of the pieces of his white T-shirt that he had torn off earlier. The cloth steamed as he drew it toward him. Gingerly removing it from the stick, he went over to Rika, who was eyeing him with a thoughtful expression.
"Okay," the boy began, kneeling down next to her. Leaning forward, he brushed aside her hair and set about to cleaning her wound. "This isn't perfect, but it's better than nothing."
"You didn't have to sacrifice your shirt you know," she said softly, taking hold of the makeshift washcloth and taking over from there. Releasing his grip, he sat back, heaving a heavy sigh.
"We don't exactly have much to choose from," he countered. "I still have my hoodie at least, so it's not like I would be going around…you know."
Rika harrumphed. "Right," she said, withdrawing the cloth and grimacing at the blood. "Good thinking by the way. I didn't know you were an outdoor survivalist."
"I'm not," the boy chuckled, blushing as he rubbed the back of his head. "But Kai taught me a few things. He lives a bit more roughly you know, so he has to be a bit more mindful about that sort of thing. He thought it might be good to know."
"Glad to see that he was able to pass some of those smarts on to you," she smirked. "Are you going to do yourself next?"
"Hm? Oh! Yeah." Climbing to his feet, the boy went over to the fire and, using the same stick as before to draw out another torn piece of cloth for his own use. Using the pot to boil water to kill any potential parasites might not have been necessary, given that they were in a digital world of sorts, but as they didn't know what sort of rules this place ran by, it was better to be safe than sorry.
"Guilmon, can you take the pot off the fire now?" he asked, indicating the makeshift setup they had put together to hang it over the flames. Getting up from his spot, Guilmon took hold of the sticks holding it aloft and pulled them away, setting it down on the ground. Soon, once it cooled, they would have safe drinking water.
He heard the soft crunch of dirt as he pressed the cloth to his face, and he turned to find Rika setting herself down next to him. Taking hold of his hand, she retracted it from his washcloth and took over, pressing it against his injury before spreading out to deal with the residual tomato juice staining his face.
"Uh…Rika?" he began, blushing in confusion at this unexpected act. Her lips thinning, Rika kept her attention on her task, though crimson marred her cheeks as well.
"I'm just paying you back," she muttered. "Don't look too deep into it, Gogglehead."
"W-Wouldn't dream of it," the boy said, flummoxed as the red blemish deepened. Her violet eyes turned down to meet his, the washcloth going back to his injury. There it was; that elephant in the room, or rather campsite. One of many elephants.
"I would have thought you would anyway," she chided, though her tone was neutral as she resumed her ministrations. "You and your dreams have a habit of doing weird things."
"Aren't you always assuming Takato has weird thoughts about you?" Guilmon prompted, earning him a confused look from the girl while words spilled out haphazardly from his mouth.
"What are you talking about?" she demanded, annoyed. Guilmon tilted his head to one side quizzically.
"Well, you know. When we met you at the alley, you asked Takato if he was in love with you. And there was that one time you thought he was going to compliment your shirt…"
"I-I think that's enough, Guilmon!" Takato stammered out, squirming under Rika's touch. Sighing, the girl gripped his shoulder and sat him back down.
"Take a chill pill, would you, Gogglehead?" she asked, shaking her head. Honestly, it was amazing that the boy hadn't had a heart attack yet with how wound up he could get sometimes. Retracting the cloth, she passed it back to him, her eyes contemplating him once more.
We…do give that impression a lot…don't we? she thought before scowling. Was there something going on between them? Had that been why Henry chose her and Takato to be the romance of his story to his sister? There had been times where she thought Takato was interested in her, and that whole mess on her birthday where he asked her out to go Cherry Blossom watching – as painfully obvious a distraction as it was – made it even worse.
Just what was going on with the universe with regards to her and Takato?
Briefly, she remembered a lecture she and the others attended during the D-Reaper crisis about their digivices, hoping to learn something more about them from their creators, the Monster Makers. Most of them had been fairly mechanical in their descriptions, and she barely paid any attention to them beyond the 'communication' aspect since they lacked anything that told her how to use her digivice to fight the D-Reaper beyond what she was already doing. Shibumi's more mystical approach had caught her attention though; the matter of bringing together 'like-pairs'. She saw it as having to do with herself and Renamon the same way it had been for any of the digimon and their human partners, but now that she thought about it further…
"Are you okay, Rika?" Takato asked, shifting worriedly. Coming back to the present, Rika harrumphed again and turned around, sitting herself down next to him while wondering where Renamon was.
She should have been back by now with food…
An awkward silence passed between them, during which Takato prodded the fire with his stick.
"Rika…" he began nervously, licking at his lips. "I know how everything looks… This place and our doubles and…our…weird moments." He blushed brightly at that as Rika looked at him curiously, realizing that he wasn't as dense as she thought he was.
"It's not a big deal," she shrugged. Takato swallowed.
"You sure? Because, back at Henry's apartment…"
"It was a mistake," she interrupted, folding her arms around herself. "Just a mistake, okay? I was upset. I thought Henry was hiding stuff from me, and I saw that he told you and not me, and I was just weirded out about everything involving our doubles so…just…let it go."
Takato hesitated before replying.
"Okay," he nodded. "But I just want you to know that I wouldn't think of you like that. Not…imagine you that way, I mean. Like you 'like-like' me or anything." He ran a hand through his hair, wishing that this wasn't as hard as it felt. "We're just friends, so…you don't need to worry about that kind of thing with me."
Rika was silent, not sure how to respond to that. Takato didn't see her as anything more than a friend, which she already knew, so she wasn't surprised by this by any stretch of the imagination.
Still… Hearing it out loud was… She wasn't sure how to feel about it, or even how to respond.
"You should consider taking your own advice," she decided finally. "So where do we go from here?"
The question was obvious, but for some reason Rika felt that there lay a double meaning behind it. If Takato felt it, he didn't give any sign as he dug out his digivice. When in doubt, the first thing they could check was the compass function. As she watched, the holographic circle rose up from the digivice's screen, swiveling around wildly before pointing ahead of them.
"I guess we go that way," Takato said. "I mean, it's not much, but it's a start. There's not a whole lot we know about this place after all."
Rika nodded, wishing they had Henry's brain to pick at. As irritated as she was by him at the moment, he was the person to go to for this place.
Tightening her grip on her sleeves, Rika scowled at the sky.
Henry… This is all your fault.
###
Renamon sat in the tree, her collection of herbs and fruits that she identified held in one hand as she gazed out past the tree line. She had spotted the crow from the town making its way across the sky. While she would have been content to let it go and return to Rika and the others, she felt an odd pull to track it for a little bit to see where it was going, perhaps so that she could have a clue as to where to go and what areas were best to avoid.
She didn't like what she found.
The crow warrior came in for a landing amidst a flock of its brethren, but this was more than just any mere flock. A storm of wings and feathers stretched in all directions as far as her eyes could see, blackening the landscape and deafening it with the sound of their caws. This army was, fortunately, far enough away from their encampment to not be trouble or even be heard as anything more than mere birds at a distance, at least for the time being.
Renamon, however, had the distinct feeling that would change in the very near future.
Getting up from her spot, the vulpine digimon vanished out of view to return to camp. She had been gone for far too long as it was.
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