Authors Note: Yesterday Crazyeight insinuated I had poor eating habits because I only had two food groups: cheesy potatoes and chocolate. This is a false allegation. I eat meat too.
Chapter 36: Orpheus
The woman who was almost the spitting image of Jeri save for her age tilted her head at the girl in confusion. "You…" she began, hesitating as if to say, You're not my daughter. A guarded look appeared in her eyes, but she didn't yet appear alarmed.
"Who are you?" she asked. "Are you looking for a part time job? I know my husband has been talking about hiring someone to help out with all the extra work, but you're not…quite what I thought he had in mind."
She's an echo, Jeri reminded herself, licking her dry lips.
Still her mother not recognizing her crushed her heart somewhat, despite the last time they saw each other was when she was just a child. They said a mother always recognized their child, and for that not to be true, it was like a bit of her soul died inside.
"Mum. It's me, Jeri," she said quietly. "I'm 16 now."
She glanced downstairs, half expecting her father to come up any moment or Masahiko or her stepmother to appear.
Oh gods...
Her head swimming, she suddenly wondered what they were going to do, what she was going to do. Say. How to explain to her entire family that this woman in front of her was merely a fragment of the past ...
And one that's like Renamon too... she noted mentally.
The woman scrunched up her face, clearly not happy with Jeri's answer.
"That's not funny, young lady," she said. "I don't know what kind of game you think you're playing, but I'm not laughing. I think…perhaps you should leave."
Jeri ran her hand across her face, tears beginning to peek out of her eyes, taking a deep breath, her heart now in the pit of her stomach. She tried to think of something, anything, to prove it was her ... but she was but a child when she died. It was so long ago, she didn't remember any little quirks she might have had or habits she used to do which were unique to her.
She wasn't even sure if she did remember something, she would be able to convince the woman in front of her she was her little girl, more than 10 years older than she thought she ought to be.
And she didn't want to get her father involved ... open up old wounds ... not if she could handle this…whatever this was by herself.
Just then her phone buzzed, and jerking in surprise, she rooted in her pocket for her cell phone, a text from Rika asking how Takato was. Jeri stared at it dumbly, wondering how to respond, her mind completely elsewhere - mostly situated with the problem in front of her.
She looked up once mother at her mother and then down at the phone before realizing - almost like a truck ran her over - that there was no way her mother would recognize the technology. That surely had to prove her point - after cell phones weren't like how they were now, sleek and small, but rather large and chunky. She wasn't even sure if her family had a cell phone back then, or if her father just had a pager.
Holding a shaking hand up, she licked her lips and uttered two words:
"It's 2008."
Her mother simply looked at Jeri's cell phone and then at Jeri, not comprehending what she was saying. 2008? What nonsense was this?
"All right," she said, starting toward her. "You've had your fun. Tadashi!" Her voice raised suddenly as she called for the man who had once been her husband. "Tadashi! We have someone inside our home who needs to leave! Tadashi!"
At that Jeri facepalmed and groaned, wanting to bury herself in whatever she could. Whatever was going on before this was suddenly much preferable to what was going on now.
What do I do? Say? Looks like either way dad is going to find out ...
She thought desperately for some sort of reaction, something to do. Yet her mind was blank. She was still in too much of a shock that her dead mother was in front of her to properly think about what to do.
And it's not like she's Renamon either who understands ... and could hide, Jeri realized, a sudden epiphany coming that the second her mother's echo appeared now that echoes were visible, there was no way to keep this from her family even if she wanted to.
Hope this doesn't complicate dad's marriage ... she thought suddenly.
Her mother brushed past her, her foot touching on the stairs. "Tadashi! Where are…you…?"
It was at that moment that Shizue, Jeri's stepmother, came into view, and her mouth fell open as if at a ghost.
"No… It…can't…be," she stammered out. Grabbing hold of the wall, Shizue staggered, her vision swimming, and in the next moment she crashed backward, collapsing to the floor.
"Shizue!" came the surprised shout of Tadashi as he rushed into view. "Shizue! What…?"
His eye caught sight of Jeri's birth mother standing at the top of the stairs and his face paled in shock. His mouth worked, opening and closing, completely uncertain as to what to make of what he was seeing. The woman he loved before Shizue… Who had been Jeri's mother before being taken from them… Here. Now. Alive.
"Hisako!" he exclaimed in a harsh whisper. "Hisako! Oh gods, if you're mad at anyone… If you want to take someone take me and leave my family…our daughter out of it! They've done nothing to you!"
"What…? I…I don't understand…" Jeri's mother withdrew her foot from the stair as she retreated a step. She saw the pained expression on her husband's face, the look of abject terror…directed at her of all people. Tears brimmed at the corners of her eyes and one hand went to her mouth.
"Tada…" she said hoarsely. "Why…?"
"You died about 10 years ago now of cancer," Jeri whispered. "Sorry. I should have lead with that."
Her mother whirled about on her, and there was a sudden change in her eyes. Gone was the sweet woman from before, and in her place was a terrified, upset, and angry Hisako Katou.
"You… Just what is going on here?!" she exclaimed, tears starting to flow freely now. She took a step toward Jeri. "Will someone explain to me just what…?"
"Get away from her!" Tadashi roared suddenly, barreling up the stairs, causing Hisako to stagger backward, her fright becoming palpable. Missing a step, she collapsed to the floor just as Tadashi reached the top of the stairs.
"Dad!" Jeri yelled, suddenly taking a step in front of her mother protectively, holding her hands out toward her father, trying to calm him down.
"It's fine, I'm fine," she insisted, wondering how to explain all of this. She very well couldn't tell the truth; everyone would think she was insane without their own memories. Dad no doubt would send her back to the psychologist again, and the last thing she wanted was for her family to start treating her with kid's gloves. Again.
"I'm sure there is a reason for this," she pleaded, hoping to think of a reason that wasn't 'Digital entity which messes with our memories because Digimon' only to find none.
Suddenly, she wished, not for the first time in her life, she could properly lie.
She glanced back to her mother, her amber eyes trailing to her father and then landing on her stepmother.
"So ... let's just ... sit down and figure it out," she pleaded quietly.
Tadashi looked at Jeri, breathing heavily before taking hold of her and picking her up off the floor.
"Go downstairs and call a priest," he growled to her, setting her down to the side. "We need someone to send the ghost to the next world."
"Tadashi…" whispered Hisako, blinking back tears as she got back to her feet. "I don't… Why…?"
"Jeri!" Tadashi interrupted. "Downstairs! Now!"
Jeri returned stubbornly in front of her mother. She didn't think a priest would be able to help them - any of them. Mom wasn't a wayward spirit - at least not in the way dad was thinking - and she was sure whoever she brought here would be confused why he was brought for a woman, who, as far as he could tell, was still alive.
Mnemosyne would ironically not only be able to but, sweep this entire thing under the rug.
I can't kill my own mother, she thought pressing her lips together, her body shaking. I can't let daddy or anybody else either. Ma may be an echo ... but she's still alive.
"No," she said, her voice quivering.
"Jeri, Go downstairs and call a priest! I am your father! I will not let you be in danger!"
"Jeri…?" Hisako whispered. The girl…was telling the truth? She's…really my baby girl? But… No! That's impossible! I…I…
She lowered her face to her hand. It was shaking badly.
I'm dead…?
"I'm not in danger!" Jeri shot back, anger for the first time shooting up since her mother appeared. "Do you really think mum would ever hurt me? Or any of us?"
"That is not your mother!" Tadashi roared at her loudly. "Your mother is dead! Now go downstairs now!"
"Make me!" Jeri yelled just as loudly back, channeling for the first time teen rebellion.
She didn't want to see her mother get hurt, she had no way to offer any explanation for this, and she was tired of people acting like they knew what is best for her. She had enough of that after the D-Reaper.
Just for once she didn't want to be treated like some sort of fragile thing that would break at the slightest touch.
Tadashi did just that.
Grabbing hold of Jeri by the arms, he flung her over his shoulder and ran down the stairs. Upon reaching the bottom, he quickly set her down and rushed over to Shizue, hefting her up. She groaned in response, starting to awaken, albeit slowly. Tadashi glared angrily at his daughter.
"I am going to have a talk with you later," he promised.
Jeri glowered back, having watched the angry redhead do it plenty of times to know how to furrow her brow just so correctly to look particularly angry (even if said redhead always laughed instead, insisting she looked cute), before throwing up her hands in frustration.
She didn't know what she could do to make her father stop this without sitting him down and telling him her mother isn't a ghost but a literal fragment of the past.
This is all Mnemosyne's fault, she thought angrily, the tears beginning to come down her face now. If they were from anguish or frustration, Jeri's feelings were too jumbled to properly tell.
"I don't think a priest is going to help anything," she said bluntly. "Since ghosts tend to be invisible."
Most of the time, she added mentally.
"Whatever it is upstairs, we're not staying to find out," Tadashi insisted, grabbing hold of her by the arm. "Thank kami that we have no patrons here. Now hurry! We need to…"
"T-Tadashi…?" came the exhausted sounding voice of Hisako as she emerged from the stairs. "Tadashi… Please, can we…?"
"You're not Hisako!" Tadashi raged, hurt flashing across his face before he began to break down in tears. "You're…You're not. You died… Kami… You died more than ten years ago. Why… Why are you haunting us now? I did… I did my best to raise Jeri, but… I…"
With great effort, he forced himself to back away from Hisako, pulling Jeri and Shizue along with him.
"Please… Leave us in peace," he continued, his voice cracking as the tears came even stronger now, the dam around his emotional façade breaking link by link. "Move on to the next world. Please…"
"Do you really think mum would be haunting us out of malice?" Jeri demanded, trying for a different tactic to calm down her paranoid father. Why were non-Digimon or Digital events appearing now? Did it have to do with the Hazard?
Why couldn't she be non-sentient … she thought quietly to herself.
"Be quiet, Jeri!" Tadashi ordered. He pulled on Jeri's arm again, backing them closer toward the door. "Stop dragging your feet! We've...got to get out of here!"
"Why?" Jeri demanded, doing the exact opposite of what her father told her to do, and dug her heels in more. She was going to get a yelling later, she knew that much, but right now she wasn't thinking about that. All she was thinking about was her mother's hurt expression. "Why are we running? What has mum done besides just show up to get this reaction?!"
"Do not talk back to me and get out! I won't tell you aga-"
"Tadashi!" exclaimed Hisako shouted suddenly. "Don't you dare talk to her like that!"
The woman was fuming. She was angry and confused, but if there was one thing she didn't like to see was her husband losing his temper with Jeri. Their daughter.
Her baby girl, even if she wasn't a baby girl anymore.
Hisako fixed her gaze on Jeri, eyes blazing with anger toward her as well.
"Do as your father says and step outside. Tadashi… Please. If… If we could just talk… Call the priest if you want, but...just...talk to me. I…" She pressed a hand to her face. "I...need to know what's going on. I'm...so confused right now. It's almost as if I stepped into another world."
Jeri fixed her mother with a "really?!" stare before looking at her father to see how he answered his wife - her mother. If he agreed to talk to her, well, the teenager would listen. If not, Jeri had plenty of rebellious examples to borrow from.
In his arms, Shizue groaned and righted herself.
"Tadashi…" she whispered, shaking her head. "Did...Did I pass out? What…?"
"Shizue," Tadashi said, pulling her toward him. "I need you to take Jeri outside. I'll be along in a second."
Might as well go, Jeri thought with a sigh, taking her step-mother's hand and smiling at her awkwardly. She felt perhaps it would be better if she explained the situation outside and away from this emotional drama. Not to mention, if she was honest, she needed to step outside herself.
"C'mon," she said, glancing back at her mother worriedly.
Shizue looked between Tadashi and Jeri strangely before her eyes fell on Hisako. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth parted, but to her credit she didn't pass out again. Closing her mouth, she looked over at Tadashi and nodded, understanding that whatever was going on, this was a ghost Tadashi had to handle himself.
"We'll be outside if you need us," she said, stepping away and toward the door with Jeri. She gave her stepdaughter's hand a small squeeze, wondering how the girl was taking this unexpected shock.
Far better than I did, by the looks of things, she thought. But...is she doing okay?
A sense of unreality washed over her, but she pushed it aside for the moment. Jeri was what mattered right now. She would handle herself once things settled down enough for her to have a private moment to do so in.
Taking one last look at her parents, she went with Shizue outside, closing the door behind them, the last thought in her mind was thanking whatever god was listening that Masahiko was at Akira's.
###
IceDevimon drew a frozen tongue along his corpse-pale lips, bringing it to a halt on a pointed fang, where it caressed it lustfully. In his remaining hand hung Takato's unmoving body, eyes rolled up in their sockets and ice creeping along his jaw. He didn't react to it. He was beyond reacting now.
"So long I've waited for this," the demon digimon whispered breathily, his claws drawing more tightly around Takato's neck. He could feel the vertebrae beneath the skin groaning beneath the pressure; his larynx pushing backward, restricting airflow to his lungs. It would take but a second and then the miserable flicker that this sack of meat called life would wink out of existence.
"What should I do, I wonder? Should I freeze you and put you on display for my Queen to see? Perhaps I should, so that she may…be with you forever. So you may never leave her…"
His smile dropped into a twisted snarl, and he pulled Takato closer to him. Anger throbbed in his digital veins as pure hatred for the boy rushed through him. How he despised this human… The human who took him from his Queen to begin with, and she…she showered him with affection! Oh, how he watched it.
"You made her weak, and she repays you for that weakness by joining her heart with yours. Death is too good for you. And yet…" He squeezed all the more tightly, and this elicited an instinctive twitch from his legs followed by a choking gag.
Still alive… he tsked. Time to finish this. No more playing games. This is business now.
His skin prickled just then and he frowned. There was a flash of light and he looked up just in time to see a trio of blazing orbs, bound together by lines of sparking electricity, ripping free from empty air. A digital fog blasted over IceDevimon a split second before the orbs – Yuggoth – exploded against his back.
IceDevimon screamed, dropping Takato to the ground. His back burned… Burned! He could see his wings collapsing before him in tatters, dissolving into shards of data. His wings…ripped free from his back were gone.
Dying… he thought deliriously, barely able to think of anything else. Every instinct that survived shouted at him to live…to escape! Another hole tore in the air and IceDevimon jumped into, shrouding himself with a digital field of his own, and then…he was gone, leaving a gasping, shaking Mako, crawling toward the unmoving Takato, clutching his stomach. Groaning, he forced himself up to him and brought his head to rest next to him.
"T-Takato…" he wheezed, only to receive no answer.
He's…He's not breathing, he realized in horror. Adrenaline flooded him and with great effort, he heaved Takato over onto his back.
CPR… was all he thought, his mind racing as he tried to remember everything he needed to do for it that he had been taught. Adjusting his hands, he took a deep breath.
This is going to break ribs, he thought with a grimace before beginning his work.
Broken ribs or not, it was better than Takato dying.
###
"IceDevimon's signature has disappeared," Tally reported, her chair swiveling around.
"Did we get it?" Riley asked, her voice tense. They had been tracking it going in and out between the world barriers for weeks now, and IceDevimon always seemed to give them the slip.
"Negative," Tally replied, scanning the network. "I'm still detecting his digital trail. I'm trying to reestablish lock now. Launching Tracer…" She frowned beneath her visor. "Damn it," she cursed under her breath. "He's fast."
"Launching two additional Tracers. If we triangulate them, we should be able to…"
Just then, there was a flicker on the screens and then they all went dark.
"Wha…?" Riley gasped, pulling her visor up. "What the hell just…?"
The screens lit back up. Tally's hands flew across her console. "Systems are booting back up," she reported. "Looks like we had a power outage of some kind."
"So we've lost the IceDevimon."
"Looks like. Better call the director. She'll want an update on this."
Riley nodded, hating the idea but it needed to be done.
Speaking of the woman summoned the devil herself, the black-haired director coughing as she re-entered the room. Looking at Riley and Tally, she pawed at her pants for a cigarette.
"Status report!" she barked, wondering if the blackout from the Hazard affected the rest of the building.
Riley jumped in her seat, but quickly fell into answering.
"We located the IceDevimon and managed to get a yuggoth blast on him before he retreated into the spatial warp between worlds," she replied. "We were tracking his movements when we suffered a blackout."
"Our systems are finishing coming online now," Tally added. "But we've no doubt lost the target again."
"Keep an eye on it," Himiko said, putting a new cancer stick into her mouth. While she wasn't worried about IceDevimon "escaping" - Mnemosyne's death should have taken care of the echoes - it wouldn't hurt to be paranoid. "If it appears again for some reason, destroy it."
Our problems should be taken care of though, she thought, surveying the room, taking the first relaxed breath she had in months.
Of course the universe saw fit to ruin that within seconds.
"Director!"
Himiko turned to see one of the agents from the surveillance unit she had established to listen in to emergency calls and deal with the public coming in contact with the echoes. Raising an eyebrow at the young man gasping for breath, as if he had sprinted from their office which wasn't that far away, clutching a piece of paper in his hand, she waited for him to catch his breath and continue speaking.
"Ice … demon," the agent breathed, holding up the paper. "Your orders."
Himiko's heart dropped to the pits of her stomach as she snatched the paper from his hands, her eyes quickly scanning over the report. An unresponsive person in the park, critical condition. Caller spoke of an ice demon "Digimon."
"Fuck!" Himiko swore, quickly pulling out her phone and dialed Rika's phone number.
Come on brat. Pick up. Pick up! Don't let everything I did be in vain!
"Hello, this is Rika-"
"Rika!" Himko gasped only for the girl's voice to continue on.
"And I'm not here right now. Leave your name, number and a message, and I'll get back to you." There was a long beep, and Rika's answering machine recorded Himiko saying things she shouldn't be saying in a work environment, 95 percent of which was swear words before she hung up.
"I'm going out!" Himiko said, storming out of the room. "Riley you're in charge!"
###
"So, tell me doctor, can you explain what exactly happened. I'm also going to need the caller's information," Himiko sighed, glancing at the door toward the critical care unit. She still didn't know who the victim was yet, but she was told it was a male. While her cousin could look boyish, she doubted (or better said, hoped) the doctors wouldn't mistake Rika for a boy. As a result, she was able to start thinking rationally again.
If she came down here anyway, she might as well get the information and start making bullshit excuses to the boy's parents when they got here. For her to do that though, she needed to make sure she knew what exactly was reported and his injuries to make sure things were consistent.
"The victim is a 16 year old male," the doctor said, flipping through the report. "He has injuries consistent with strangulation and, oddly enough, frostbite around the neck." He furrowed his brow, not understanding. "Fortunately the frostbite isn't as bad as it could be. First degree so the damage is localized to the skin's upper surface area. It's the injuries from the strangling that concern me more, but there doesn't appear to be any long term damage outside of bruising."
Stopping in front of the door, he turned toward her. "This is an...unusual case due to the two types of injuries. The other child who was with him reported something about an...ice yokai. I've recommended a psychiatric evaluation. He could be in shock."
Himiko nodded, silently thanking the doctor for the excuse, but-
"How would you explain the frost bite then?" she asked, jotting the information down in her notebook.
"I'm uncertain," the doctor replied, pushing open the door. "But I am a man of science. I don't believe in things like supernatural spirits. Not without proof that they exist anyway. It could be a deodorant burn from aerosol sprays or, and I believe this to be extremely unlikely, poor circulation." He scrunched his face up at that possibility, revealing his distaste for it. "At this point, a yokai sounds like the more plausible answer to both of them. We identified the victim and pulled up his medical history. He has no history of circulatory problems, even in his extended family and the burns don't show any signs of prolonged contact with aerosol sprays. I'm sorry, but I can't explain it at the present."
"Who is the victim?" Himiko asked, scribbling down what he was saying even though she knew that the caller knew what they saw. "Also the person who called for help. I'll need to interview them as well, obviously." She paused and glanced at the doctor. "Are they still here?"
"The other victim has been picked up by his parents… Ah, I don't have his release forms. You'll have to go to the information desk. As for the victim…" He glanced at his paperwork. "Matsuki, Takato."
Himiko paused in her writing, glancing up at the doctor wondering if there was any coincidences in this world.
Son of a bitch.
Her obsidian eyes ghosted over to a hospital bed she had become very intimate with herself a few months ago to see the boy who Rika was much too good for lying there, unconscious, an IV hooked up to his arm. A brace was wrapped around his neck like a hug, and suddenly the urge to smoke came over her like a wave.
"Is his condition stable?" she asked, going back to writing, staring a note to herself to go to the front desk to get the other victim's information. She had a feeling that perhaps this wasn't a random attack, and Rika wasn't the only one in IceDevimon's gaze.
Well … he's been taken care of now, she thought, assuring herself.
"Aside from his ribs having been broken from CPR, he appears to be doing well. He...hasn't woken up yet though. We'll be running some more tests on him soon to determine if there's any damage to his brain from oxygen deprivation, but otherwise he's healthy." He winced. "Healthy and lucky. There can be no doubt that whatever - whoever - attacked him was definitely looking to murder him."
"I see," Himiko said as her phone began to ring. Frowning slightly, she pulled it out and saw Rika's name flash up on her caller ID. Pressing her lips together, she murmured an apology to the doctor and stepped outside of the intensive care unit and picked it up.
"Rika," she greeted calmly, closing her eyes. "Good that you actually can return a call, even if you can't pick up a phone. I have something to tell you. You're not going to like it."
###
Henry leaned against the wall outside of Takato's room, listening to the sound of his friend's parents talking quietly to each other in hushed whispers. They were both clearly upset, particularly Mie Matsuki, which didn't surprise him. He remembered how much she worried about her 'baby' even before Mnemosyne arrived in their lives. It often struck him that she had little faith in his ability to take care of himself without her watching over him.
This incident isn't helping, he thought before glancing over at Rika. Her face had bitter lines to them, reflecting anger, similar to how she looked when she learned about Kazu's fight with the boy, but there was more behind it.
She blames herself, he thought. She's probably thinking if it weren't for her, IceDevimon wouldn't have gone after Takato. He'd be safe. Safe and not in a hospital room.
"It's not your fault you know," he spoke up. "I know that's kind of the expected thing to say, but...don't beat yourself up over this."
"IceDevimon is after me, and has been going after people close to me," she said in a quiet whisper, clutching at her hair as if she wanted to rip it out. "First it was Renamon. Now it's Takato. Both of them came near death … and …" she choked up unable to go on, but she doubted that the Chinese boy needed her to go on.
She wasn't sure what was worse; the fact she could hear his parents fretting in the other room, not knowing what happened to their son, who tried to murder him, yet two of the people who could provide them the (horrible) answer were sitting just outside the room. Or that one of them was responsible for their son's condition in the first place.
Not to mention I broke his heart just the day before, she reminded herself bitterly, rubbing at her dry eyes.
"It's still not your fault," Henry affirmed. "You can't help how you feel. IceDevimon couldn't handle that. If you blame yourself...if you let what he did eat you up, you won't be able to do anything about him when you have to. And that's what IceDevimon wants. He wants you to be vulnerable."
He reached out and placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "You don't want him to win, right?"
He hoped to tap into her combative spirit; to get her to rise up and fight. If she stopped and let herself collapse...it wouldn't end with Takato. IceDevimon would destroy everything she cared about.
"Of course I don't want him to win!" Rika hissed, rage welling up in her and she quickly took hold of it, the sound of waves crashing against the beach ringing in her ears. Rage and anger was easier for her to deal with then helplessness.
She hated being helpless, unable to do anything. She hated not being strong.
"If I knew where he was, I'd destroy him myself," she snarled, slamming her first against the bench only to instantly regret it, pain coursing through her arm.
"We'll work it out," Henry said. "We're there for you. We just have to figure out a plan."
It sounded bad in his mind. Without their actual partner's, thinking about tackling someone like IceDevimon was tantamount to suicide. They had no real way to combat him outside of Renamon, and she couldn't digivolve. Still, hope wasn't lost. The road to it however was difficult.
That's just the way the universe likes it, he thought grimly.
"... Himiko … did tell me … that Hypnos has IceDevimon's signature," she said quietly. "That the next time he shows up … they'll finish what they started." She dragged a hand over her face and sighed. "I can't just leave it at that though. Just … hope for Himiko and Hypnos to pick up my messes. To let her protect me like I'm … I'm useless."
She gripped her hands together and closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, the ocean noises had stopped and suddenly everything was in grayscale. Her brow furrowed in confusion, and she rubbed her eyes and somewhere far away, like at the bottom of the well, she could hear Henry's voice.
"-a. -ka. -ika. -Rika!"
Snapping her eyes open again, suddenly the hospital was in color again, and she turned to Henry who was looking at her worriedly, his hand still on her shoulder. Shaking her head, feeling slightly lightheaded, she frowned slightly.
"Sorry, what?"
"You kind of drifted off for a second there," Henry said, his voice full of concern. "Maybe you should get some rest after we're done here. You're under a lot of stress."
"Yeah…" she agreed, frowning slightly, putting a hand on her forehead, not quite sure what just happened. "Yeah…" she repeated herself, frowning slightly, glancing at the hospital room. Visiting hours were finishing soon, and she hadn't finished her homework. "... I think … I'm going to go home," she said quietly, wondering if that was selfish of her, not to stay until the end.
"Okay," Henry nodded. "Don't worry about it. For right now, Takato's out of danger. He's going to be fine."
From within the room, the voices of Takato's parents grew louder and they stepped out into the hall, Mie's eyes red and damp. Takehiro held her close, though he looked grim and as haggard as Rika.
"Hey," the man greeted with a nod. He offered them a strained smile, trying to put on a brave face. "We're taking off so...if you want some privacy with him in there…"
He let the sentence drift off. He had tried to let them know they were allowed to stay earlier, but Rika insisted on allowing them privacy with their son.
Rika looked at Henry. She didn't want to go in there alone. It hurt just seeing his parents like this, and unable to do anything.
That might not be necessarily true, she thought, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a napkin she had from earlier, and borrowing the pen attached to the clipboard outside his room, she quickly jotted her number down before handing it to his parents.
"Uhm, if there is anything …" she said quietly, drifting off, not quite sure what to say as she handed them the worn (and clean, except for the ink now staining it) napkin.
Takehiro met Rika's gaze before accepting the napkin and handing it to Mie.
"Thank you," Mie replied, pocketing the napkin. "Takato… He's really lucky to have friends like you. A much better influence on him than Kazu and…"
Her words drifted off, her mind going back to the unmoving body of her son in the room, holding her attention. Shaking herself free of it for the moment, she forced a tired, false smile on her face.
"Thank you," was all she said.
"Yes, thank you," Takehiro added. "Take care of him while we're gone, okay? See you around."
Henry watched them go, Mie leaning against Takehiro as her shoulders shook, quietly crying again. He turned to Rika, starting toward Takato's room.
"Are you coming?" he asked. "Visiting hours are almost over."
"Yeah," she said quietly, watching them leave, feeling a lump rise in her throat. She felt like she was lying to his parents. She was not a good friend. She was a terrible influence. And she let his parents think she was something else, someone better than what she really was.
Sighing, she turned on her heel and followed Henry inside.
Henry winced upon seeing Takato lying there in the bed, a brace around his neck. He looked...vulnerable, which was not something he was used to seeing from him, even with all the changes forced on him by Mnemosyne's machinations. Approaching him, he took a spot by his side, tilting his head slightly to get a better look at him. At the corners of the brace, where it met his jawline, he could see a slight discoloration of his skin - bruises from the force of his strangulation - and the skin was cracked where the ice had burned him.
He gripped the bed guard tightly, feeling a wave of anger wash over him.
IceDevimon…. If I had the power to destroy you…
Rika stood just behind Henry, and next to the boy, the vulpine materialized in the room. There was nobody around, and her sensitive hearing would allow her to pick up anybody approaching. Looking at the fallen boy, the kitsune pressed her lips together.
It's a miracle he's alive, she noted, but she didn't say anything. If it wasn't for the timely intervention of Hypnos and the phone call of the boy - whose name and address Renamon made sure to memorize when she followed Himiko quietly to the front desk - Takato would be dead. There was no doubt about that.
The question is though, she thought, glancing at Rika, taking a protective step closer to her, resting a paw on her shoulder, where will he strike next?
Henry forced himself to release his grip on the bed guard and turned his gaze up to Takato's closed eyes.
"Takato," he began quietly. "I don't know if you can hear me. Probably not, but...I just thought you might like to know that we're here. Rika's blaming herself though, so when you wake up, you should let her know that she's being a Gogglehead." A pause, and his fingers curled into his palm before he unclenched his hands. "We can't stay for very long though. Visiting hours are almost over. We'll be back tomorrow though to see you. Hopefully you'll be awake then."
He glanced at Rika and stepped away. "I know it's kind of silly looking but...would you like to say anything? It might help."
Rika looked at the fallen form of Takato and took a step forward. She didn't know what to say. She was never good with this sort of thing. Communicating was hard for her, and it was even harder when one of the people was unconscious.
"...We'll take care of IceDevimon," she said finally. "So … don't have any nightmares. We'll make sure you - or anyone else - will never get hurt again." She glanced at Renamon, who smiled and nodded at her, squeezing her shoulder. "... We'll be back tomorrow, so don't worry about anything else but getting better."
Henry smiled at Rika and then turned back to their friend, bowing politely.
"Until then, Takato. Momentai."
Turning, Henry and Rika exited the room, Renamon disappearing from view as she followed after them. The half-Chinese Tamer looked at the red-haired girl out of the corner of his eye, smiling softly.
Rika turned her head and upon noticing Henry's smile, gave an awkward one of her own.
With Henry and Renamon, IceDevimon didn't have a chance.
###
Mako stared at the bottom of Ai's bed, his twin sister sleeping soundly.
While his parents and sister didn't believe him about IceDevimon - Ai in particular had scoffed - his parents, at the suggestion of the doctor, had promptly enrolled him counseling.
"Watching someone almost get murdered is very traumatic, for any age," the doctor said in hushed undertones as he addressed his parents, jotting something down on a piece of paper and handing it to his mother. "The police no doubt will be visiting you soon for your son's statement, but I don't think his current mental state of shock will be much help to anyone. Never mind this can severely mentally scar him if left untreated."
True to the doctor's word, the police did come. A woman with short black hair and cold black eyes. While she didn't say anything about his story, he knew she didn't believe him just like the doctor didn't believe him.
Covering his stomach, wincing slightly when he rolled to his side, his eyes found the computer and he scowled.
IceDevimon is out there, and the adults aren't doing anything, he thought angrily, his hand clutching his blanket tightly. If they won't do something, I will.
He turned around, his back facing the computer.
It's the least I can do to make up for everything.
Authors Note: After last chapter, we suddenly remembered that neither Takato or Mako were lions, or had names which meant 'lion.' As a result they live.
For now.