Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
Digimon Trinity
Chapter: 36/The Path to Trinity
Takeru glared at the anomaly on the screen; a pixilated field of energy unlike anything he had ever seen before. Yolei looked up at him from her spot by his side, worry masked behind the outward calm of professionalism. Takeru had been quiet since the Chief Cabinet Secretary left Hypnos to return to his duties.
"You've shown yourself to be powerless to stop further digimon from breaking through. …find the ones that have already come through. Theneliminate them. Otherwise, we'll be forced to find someone else to head this operation."
Takeru's hands tightened as he remembered the Chief Cabinet Secretary's words.
Find someone else to head this operation? he thought, pulling out a com device and activating it. Yolei raised an eyebrow at that. I don't think so. I've come too far to let anyone else put Hypnos and the world at risk.
Typing in the password to the com device, he plugged it in to the control panel.
"Sir?" she asked as it began to feed a program into Hypnos' systems. She didn't recognize it as belonging to one of their standard containment programs.
"I've had this in development as a personal project for some time now," Takeru explained as the progress bar on the com devices screen began to fill. "For a long time now, digimon and digital phenomena have always had the advantage in that their attributes could impact the real world while our equipment could barely even scratch them. This will make an excellent test run." He grinned slightly. "My little Yuggoth program should disinfect the area."
Yuggoth? Yolei definitely didn't recognize that designation. "Shouldn't we study the phenomenon sir?" she asked cautiously. "We have no idea where it came from or what impact attacking it in the real world will have."
"Don't get soft on me now, Ichijouji," Takeru berated. "This little anomaly or whatever it is has caused me more grief than it's worth. And it's about to become nothing more than an unpleasant memory."
Yolei frowned at the man as the progress bar neared completion.
"But sir, unapproved programs are strictly forbidden."
"Forbidden?" Takeru scoffed. "Those fools upstairs order me to deal with a problem but can't even begin to understand the technology needed to do the job. They can barely understand the idea that there's a whole digital world out there. Who do they think they are to forbid me anything?"
Yolei frowned, but turned away. She knew the pressures Takeru was under to get the job done and protect the balance between the worlds. The most she could do was support his efforts in spite of her concerns.
"Yes sir," she said as the progress bar completed its upload of Yuggoth into Hypnos' systems.
###
"This is it you guys," Rika heard Takato say as the group – composed of herself, the Gogglehead, his teacher, Henry, Ken, Davis, and their respective digimon – neared a fence. "This is where he disappeared."
"Hey," piped up Ken from behind Rika. "Isn't that the entrance to one of the storm tunnels or something?"
"It is," replied Kari, frowning slightly. "I actually had to teach it to my class today."
"That's a weird coincidence."
"Coincidences aside," cut in Ken, "let's not jump to any conclusions until…"
"Rika!"
Grinding to a halt, the group turned around to see the vulpine digimon had stopped dead in her tracks and was holding out her arms. A strange, static-like blur distorted her hands, causing them to become transparent. Rika gasped, frightened as she suddenly felt that her partner was being taken from her.
"Don't move!" she ordered as Henry turned toward his own partner.
"Terriermon?"
"Check it out," the diminutive dog-bunny replied, hopping off his partner's shoulder and over to the nearby wall. Extending an ear, the same effect danced along its tip, causing it to crackle.
"It's happening to Renamon and Terriermon too!" Takato exclaimed.
"Whatever it is that's causing this, it seems only to affect the digimon," Henry observed as Renamon withdrew her arms. "Renamon you'd better leave before you start to disappear too."
Renamon didn't move at Henry's suggestion, and instead turned to her partner. "Rika?"
"It's okay," the girl replied. "You can go."
With that, Renamon faded into the background and disappeared. Turning, Terriermon looked at the others. "I suppose the rest of us should go too, huh?" he asked.
"You should," Ken nodded. "We don't want to have to rescue anyone else."
"Fine," Terriermon said, wandering off down the stone wall. Reaching up, Ken set Wormmon on the wall as well, followed by Davis with DemiVeemon.
"You guys stay out of trouble, okay?" Davis asked. "Even if you hear us screaming in terror, don't come running, otherwise the weird thing that kidnapped Guilmon will get you too."
"You're…not exactly helping, Davis," Ken told him in a flat tone.
"Sorry, bud."
Rika barely paid any attention to this exchange. Instead her focus was on the half-Chinese Tamer.
"Don't order my digimon around, got it?" she told him darkly. "She's mine."
Henry frowned at her.
"I'm just trying to keep them out of danger," he replied.
"Keep them out of danger?" Rika scoffed angrily. "From what? We know where this thing is now and so far it doesn't do much of anything unless you just stand around for too long." She leveled her gaze on Takato now, narrowing her eyes. "What else could it be that we have to worry about? This isn't a big deal."
A hurt expression crossed Takato's face and for a second she saw a flicker of anger coming from within his eyes. That was normal. She was used to expecting anger from others. Today especially seemed to pit the world against her, and some of that had to do with this ridiculous, goggle-wearing kid and his Hazard Digimon. She wouldn't be surprised if whatever this was happened to be a direct result of that marking. For all they knew the digital world was cleaning up the kid's mess!
"You don't have to be here you know," Gatomon said, glowering up at the red-haired girl. This was more or less true. Rika only tagged along over Davis' quite vocal protests to see what the deal was. Now, as far as she was concerned, she wasn't needed.
"Gatomon," Kari interceded as Rika and Gatomon exchanged dark looks with each other. "You should join the others. We've got to get going."
"I'd rather not leave you to deal with this by yourself," the feline digimon scowled, tail twitching in worry. "What if it's a trap from the Dark Ocean again?"
"Gatomon does raise a good point," Ken said as their partners vacated the area.
"We don't know that," Kari replied, frowning slightly. "If you think you're going to leave me out of this, then you'd better think again. Takato's my student. Do you think I would just let him walk into danger to protect myself?"
Ken and Davis exchanged looks. The thought of excluding Takato – or any of the children – hadn't quite entered their minds, primarily due to their own experiences as Digidestined and due to the fact that they needed Takato to locate Guilmon. However, the fact that Kari had been sought after specifically by the forces of Darkness – and remained to this day a target by them – weighed heavily on their minds.
"No," Davis replied for the two of them finally, rubbing the back of his head. "I guess…we're just worried, that's all. Especially since we're trucking into the unknown here, like usual."
"It is the risk we take," Ken acknowledged. "However, we still can't bring Gatomon with us. It's like Davis said, the fewer digimon we have to rescue the better. It's better if we just focus on Guilmon."
"That's if Guilmon is still alive," Takato said, looking forlornly in the direction of the tunnel entrance. Rika rolled her eyes at him.
"Give me a break, kid," she said. "Your partners made of data. Even if he were destroyed, as long as he's not loaded he'll reformat. Why do you even care if he…"
"Be quiet!" Takato shouted, his temper finally stretching to its limit. Rika stiffened, taken aback by the force of emotion in his voice, as did the others who were more used to Takato's quiet, polite nature. This was the kid she thought would just roll over no matter how many what? The same ridiculous Gogglehead who refused to fight her in the alley because it 'wasn't always the answer'? The one who panicked in all of their encounters, begging and pleading with his partner to listen to him?
As quickly as his fire rose up against her though, it also rapidly abated, and he looked away, as if ashamed of his outburst, leaving Rika even more confused. Neither reaction was something she expected.
"I don't care what you say," Takato continued, his voice softer now. "Guilmon was my friend. And I'll do everything I can to find him…with or without you."
His digivice beeping, Henry pulled it out from his pocket. "I'm getting a signal," he said, the compass function clearly pointing toward the tunnel. He looked up at the others. "Come on, let's go and find Guilmon."
Ken, Davis and Kari all eyed Rika for a moment as Takato and Henry immediately began to scale the fence before turning and following suit. Rika glared at their backs, knowing they were judging her.
"Let's go and find Guilmon," she mocked under her breath. "Waste of time."
The incessant beeping of her digivice caught her attention. Pulling it out, she saw the compass pointing in the same direction that the others were going in. Tucking it back onto her belt, she turned to walk away, only to stop and look back, her expression pinching a little, remembering Takato's words.
"Guilmon was my friend. And I'll do everything I can to find him…with or without you."
She thought back to last night in the park and how, as much as she hated to admit it, she had needed help.
Just like this kid came to her for help.
Her expression softened ever so slightly as the group entered the tunnel.
Eyes narrowing once more, she started for the fence. "Waste of time," she repeated under her breath, yet it didn't stop her feet or change their direction.
###
Takehiro flipped through the news while behind him, dishes clinked as Mie washed them. Takehiro barely read the paper, and his wife's washing sounded half-hearted. The kitchen was eerily quiet, owing to the chair at the other end of the table that remained conspicuously unoccupied.
"He'll be home any minute now, I'm sure of it," Mie spoke up finally, giving voice to the white elephant in the room. Takehiro glanced at her over his shoulder, feeling much the same.
"He's probably turning the corner for home right now." He didn't sound as confident as he would have liked, and Mie picked up on it as she ceased in her scrubbing of her son's plate.
"Yeah," she said in a quiet voice. "But it is getting kind of late, isn't it?"
###
"Done," Takeru said as he closed a panel above Yolei's work station.
"I've got to state my objection one more time sir," Yolei said as she analyzed Yuggoth's schematics. She was not liking what she was seeing. "This program could cause widespread network damage!"
"And I've got to warn you one more time," Takeru began, turning toward her, "that you're walking on thin ice, Ichijouji. Start the program before that ice breaks and you drown."
Yolei schooled her face still as she fired up Yuggoth, not liking this one bit. "Yes, sir."
###
As a child, Takato had a minor fear of the dark. Most children, as far as he knew, did, but they also grew out of it as they got older. Yet here, staring out into the seemingly endless depths of the tunnel, bathed in shadow and a dull, almost blood-red light, Takato felt that old fear resurface. The flash of fright from all his battles with Rika and Mephistomon almost seemed to pale in comparison.
"Why don't they make tunnels that aren't dark and scary?" he asked to no one in particular. Behind him, Kari placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"It'll be okay," she told him, smiling. "We're all here with you. As long as we stay together, I'm sure we'll…"
She was abruptly cut off as the entrance to the tunnel creaked open. Takato spun around, half-expecting to see a Phantomon come dropping out of the ceiling toward them, but instead Rika emerged from outside, stepping toward them, her expression neutral. Davis blinked, his mouth dropping open in surprise while Ken raised his eyebrows.
No less surprised was Takato, though his reaction once again did not meet Rika's prediction.
"Hey Rika!" he exclaimed happily. "You decided to come! That's awesome!"
Awesome? Awesome?! Rika narrowed her eyes and harrumphed at him. Why's he so happy to see me? He doesn't have any reason to.
Seeing her look, Takato suddenly became sheepish and began to stammer awkwardly. She felt more at ease upon seeing this. This was what she came to expect from him.
"Uh…" he coughed. "You know…whatever."
"So why are you here?" Davis asked. "I thought you said this was a complete waste of your time."
"A Tamer doesn't walk away from danger," Rika stated matter-of-factly, causing Henry to grin and turn toward the tunnel.
"Yeah, right," he chuckled. "Enough talking. Let's go find Guilmon."
"Yeah!" Takato exclaimed, falling in line right behind as Rika leapt down the steps to quickly join them.
The Digidestined adults watched the three children as they linked up and began to move on ahead of them.
"I…don't believe it," Davis said after a moment, pointing in their direction. Looking at him, Kari smiled.
"Why so surprised?" she asked. "You believed in Ken when none of us did."
"Yeah, but…" Davis shook his head and gave a wry chuckle. "I don't know. Maybe I was too ready to expect the worst of her after she admitted to loading digimon."
Kari's nodded in understanding. She had been in the same position years ago when they were considering what to do about Ken following his defeat as the Digimon Emperor. Previously the cruelty he visited upon digimon had been done by other digimon. She remembered well the wickedness of WaruMonzaemon and the mass extermination of the slave Numemon by the Dark Master, Machinedramon. She didn't want to believe that a human was capable of the same kind of cruelty. Over the years as she studied and taught, she learned a great many things. It was certainly possible that humans and digimon could be needlessly violent toward others. Some out of malice, while others…
"Some people are only bad out of ignorance though," Kari said. "Maybe that's what it is here with her."
While Davis pondered this for a moment, Ken marched forward. "Come on," he said to them. "We have a job to do still."
"Right," Kari nodded as both she and Davis followed after him, Kari taking a moment to slip a comforting hand around Davis' wrist to get him going again before letting go, confident that he would keep moving once he started. A light blush crossed Davis' cheeks, but he didn't say anything.
He didn't want to bring up that old heartache. Not if he could help it.
"Um…it is kind of scary down here though, right guys?" Takato asked as the group joined together.
"Oh brother…" Rika groaned.
###
Rika glared at Takato's back as he led them forward. "How long is this stupid tunnel anyway?" she asked, annoyed. Time had passed and so far they saw nothing except more of this tunnel.
"It goes all the way to the next town," Kari said, causing Rika to groan in exasperation.
"That's so stupid," she grated.
"Yeah, so you say," Henry sighed, wondering himself how long they were going to have to put up with this.
"It's too bad they don't have one of those people movers," Takato said, trying to fill the air so as to break the tension. "You know like at the airport, that'd come in handy about now, don't you think?"
"It's not funny, you know," Rika snapped. "I don't want to walk all the way to the next town just to find your little fiend."
"Well if it makes you feel any better Rika, the tunnel might flood and we could all swim there," Henry joked, causing the girl to clench her eyes shut as though she were about to experience a headache.
"It's just my luck to be stuck down here with a couple comedians…"
"You think that's a joke?" Davis started. "Hey, how about the one where an Ogremon walks into a bar and…"
"Davis!" Kari interrupted before he could continue. "There's children present!"
"Eh? Oh!" Davis blushed at her admonishment. "Sorry. I wasn't…"
"Would you guys can it?" Takato spoke up, looking at his digivice. The arrow was pointing dead ahead of them now. He turned toward Henry, only for Henry to point directly ahead of them.
"Look! Forget the digivice! Take a look at that!"
Takato turned and gaped at the sight ahead of them. A ways ahead of them, flickering with glowing white light, was a twisting field of energy.
"What is it?" he exclaimed loudly.
###
"I've pinpointed the energy field," Yolei said, her scanners finally displaying the anomaly. It appeared to be a shell of energy of some sort.
"Well done," Takeru replied. "Prepare to delete the area."
###
"This is no digital field," Rika said as they all drew to a halt in front of the crackling, white light. "A digital field is a fog! This…" I don't know what this is!
"Ken!" Davis exclaimed. "I don't suppose you have any idea about what this thing is, do you?"
"Not a clue," Ken replied, though something nibbled at the back of his mind – some memory from the War. "I this is a digital field, it's not of a kind I've seen before."
"It doesn't matter!" Takato exclaimed. "Guilmon must be inside of that thing! I know he is! Guilmon!"
Rika looked at the boy, bewildered. "Don't be stupid! How could you possibly know that?"
"I don't know how," Takato replied, searching his instincts quickly. "I just feel that he's in there!"
As soon as he said that, his digivice began to glow and a beam of light shot out from its screen. Rika gasped as her digivice did as his, and Henry's digivice followed in turn. One after another, digivices lit up and shot forth a beam of light.
"What's going on?" Takato asked.
"If I remember what you told me before right," Henry began, looking at Ken after considering the blazing column thoughtfully for a moment, "digivices connect us to our digimon. Maybe we can use them!"
Suiting action to words, he pointed his digivice at the field, causing it to distort and crackle.
"Let's do it!" Davis nodded, doing likewise, and as one the group joined him.
"Look!" Kari shouted as the field distorted all the more strongly now, sending waves of light sweeping across them. "Something's happening!"
"It opened!" Ken exclaimed, shielding his eyes from the intensity of the light.
Sliding his goggles down over his eyes, Takato burst into a run toward the field. "Guilmon! Hold on! I'm coming!"
Henry raced after his schoolmate, pulling his sunglasses out of his vest and slipping on his sunglasses in the process. "Hey! Wait!"
Rika gaped at Takato as he disappeared into the field, once again surprised by his actions. Today was just one surprise from him after another.
"Stupid…" she grated, doing as Henry and chasing after the Goggle-wearing boy.
"After them!" Ken called, quickly following. Davis and Kari didn't even need to be told twice.
###
Solid ground vanished between their feet, leaving the group of humans twisting and floating in midair as they fought to orient themselves. Takato shouted, struggling to keep the contents of his stomach down while Rika floated past him, trying to make sense of where they were. White. Solid white surrounded them on all sides, leaving them with no sense of direction; no up or down. She tried to focus on something – anything to keep from becoming completely disoriented.
Falling! she told herself as she focused on Takato. I'm falling toward him!
That helped. Her mind reoriented itself as she swept by him and eventually her momentum ground to a halt. The lack of something to stand on however was still a problem, and her feet kicked uselessly, trying to find a surface to ground herself on.
"This…This is the digital world?!" Henry asked in amazement, taking in the surrounding field. The white was starting to give way to a rainbow of colors, intermingling, shifting…never the same for more than a moment. "It doesn't look like anything from the history textbooks!"
"It's not," Ken said, from where he, Davis and Kari floated. The latter two, being out of practice, were having a difficult time orienting themselves, but they were managing. "We're in some kind of in-between zone. This…" He scowled around him. "This…almost looks like some kind of containment field of some kind. But…where…?"
"Guilmon!" Takato shouted suddenly as he pulled his goggles back. "I think I see him!"
Sure enough, down below him was the crimson dinosaur, entangled in a mess of what appeared to be wires of some kind. His eyes were closed, as though he were napping. Twisting in midair, Takato immediately began swimming toward him, causing Rika to tilt her head at him.
"Cool," she heard him say to himself. "This is how I fly in my dreams."
"Wait up!" Henry called, doing likewise.
He sure got over himself quick, she noted. The swimming motions he was making also helped settle her even more. In her mind, she was convincing herself that she wasn't simply floating in the middle of the air anymore, but instead swimming. Mimicking the two boys, she quickly followed, becoming a bit annoyed that the Gogglehead was adapting so quickly to the alien environment. He was just so focused on his partner that it might as well not exist for him. And that last line of his…
"You and you're dreams…" she grumbled as they drew near Guilmon.
"There he is!" Takato exclaimed again, not even hearing her comment. "Guilmon! Wake up!"
Slowly, ever so slowly, Guilmon's golden eyes cracked open. He looked so exhausted, as if the wires attached to him had been draining him of his energy.
"Right now?" he slurred. "Five more minutes."
With tears brimming in his eyes, Takato laughed at seeing that his partner appeared to be more or less okay. They were here now and as long as he still lived there was a chance of rescuing him.
"Don't worry boy. I'll get you out of there somehow," he promised.
"Are you two all right?" Ken asked, turning to Davis and Kari. The Digidestined of Light shook her head, managing to clear it of the disorientation that threatened to make her upchuck her dinner, as was Davis. They were taking longer than the kids to adapt, but they were managing.
"Just lead the way, Ken," Davis replied. "We'll keep up."
"It looks like the kids have the right idea," Kari suggested, orienting herself onto her stomach and pumping her arms. "Come on, we've got to…"
All of their digivices shrieked in alarm as the field crackled and shook, as if from something striking it.
"What's that?!" Henry shouted.
###
Yolei frowned at her sensors as they detected something unexpected.
"Sir," she began. "Some unusual data has entered the zone created by the energy field."
"I don't care, just run the program," Takeru ordered. "Delete everything now."
"Yes…sir," Yolei said, tapping her controls. As she did so, she frowned beneath her visor. The data she was picking up… The zone was distorting it, but she could almost swear that the unusual data she was picking up were digivice signals.
Probably just the zone effect, she told herself, completing her commands to Yuggoth ordering the zone's erasure.
###
The zone quaked and warped as it began to shatter, fragments of sparkling light floating away.
"Something's attacking the field!" Ken realized in utter dread. Did that mean that this whole thing really had been a trap specifically set for them by the IceDevimon? A 'honey pot' to make them leave behind their partners? He had seen it happen during the War, when dark soldiers would capture someone and injure them just badly enough to cause allies to try and rescue them…only to start picking off the rescuers. Slow death for the captured; quick and multiple deaths for the victim's friends. Ken felt himself start to shake as the zone's destruction crept toward them.
I led us right into it…
"Look!" Rika pointed up in response to Henry's question, snapping Ken back to reality. "It's being erased!"
Sure enough, the binds that held Guilmon began to dissolve at the top, the erasure working its way down at a rapid clip. Panicking about what could possibly happen when this deletion met up with Guilmon he looked over at Rika and Henry helplessly.
"I can't reach him in time! Help!"
Henry grabbed hold of one of Takato's arms and turned toward Rika expectantly. "Hey!"
"Huh?" Rika blinked before realizing what he was getting at. "Oh!"
Clasping Takato's remaining arm in her hands, the two Tamers swung him back and then threw him at Guilmon's direction.
All of this Ken watched, reminded of his earliest adventures from before the War. Moving in the moment, focused on protecting their own and working toward the higher goal of saving two worlds. They had lost friends yes, but nothing that had been irrecoverable.
Ken envied them for that innocence, and feared for what their experiences would take from them.
He wanted to protect that as best he could; make their pain less than what he and the others had to go through for their hard-earned lessons.
We'll be better this time around, he thought, raising his digivice toward the cascading wave of deletion. Light began to emerge from the screen, and with it a symbol; pink in color with a seemingly fragile stem that blossomed up into an orb, like the bud of a rose. Pink light emerged from the black and grey-trimmed digivice, growing, meeting with the oncoming wave of destruction. They clashed violently, sending a shower of sparks flying in all directions.
He wasn't alone. A blue and white digivice soon followed, its screen showing a blue circle with twin curved points along its ends pointing outward glowing blue, and it was joined by a pink and white digivice, its screen displaying a pink, sun-like logo. Both digivices burst with light, joining Ken's in keeping the destruction at bay. As if in response, more destruction rained upon the digital-zone, slamming into the light that opposed it. Ken grunted, feeling their hold slipping.
Hurry up…!
Takato flew toward Guilmon, well aware of the struggle going on behind him and the others. He thought only of his partner though and so great was the need to protect him that he felt all traces of fear vanish from him. Strength flowed through him – a strength he never felt before – and as if he felt it too, Guilmon suddenly began to struggle against his bonds, tearing through the wires with ease. The wires broke apart, shattering into thousands of shards of data as Guilmon and Takato crashed into a powerful embrace.
"I thought I was going to lose you for sure!" Takato cried, hugging his partner tightly to him, never wanting to let go. The strength he felt from before still flowed through him. This wasn't over yet. They needed a way out!
He felt something flow through him and then…where? Somewhere, he didn't know, but Guilmon began to glow with a dark red light, and at once a red path shot out from him and speared a hole through the digital field.
"Whoa!" Rika exclaimed in astonishment, a sentiment shared by Henry.
"He's created a road for us!" he proclaimed excitedly, immediately swimming toward it.
Rika was quick to do likewise, but she shot a quick glance at Takato. Just what was with this kid today? "Yeah, well, Renamon could have done the same thing!" she said, feeling as though the Gogglehead she had earlier dismissed as an idiot was showing her up.
"Whatever," Henry said, his feet touching down before he turned toward the Digidestined. "Come on! Let's go! We've got a way out!"
"You heard him!" Ken ordered. "Let's do this by the numbers. Keep the pressure on, but fall back. No leaving anyone behind, got it?"
"Roger dude," Davis replied as Kari nodded, the three of them beginning to retreat. The wave of destruction began to advance once more, but its progress was only as slow as the Digidestined moved as they maintained the light of their digivices to check its progress.
"You okay?" Takato asked as he and Guilmon touched down on the red road. The crimson dinosaur turned toward him, golden eyes large while his body trembled.
"Skating on sausages," he replied simply. Rika stopped along with Henry, wondering just what the heck Dino-boy meant by that before chalking it up to him being his usual, idiotic self.
"Have your reunion later," Henry called out as the Digidestined joined them. "We've got to get out of here before we're erased!"
Nodding to each other, Takato and Guilmon quickly began to run, joining the others as they all rushed toward the exit created by the red road.
###
On the screen at Hypnos' control center, the blinking reactor-like icon and the white field around it vanished. The unusual data had left before it was destroyed, leaving Yolei feeling conflicted as to whether she should feel relieved or not.
"The zone has been deleted, sir," she reported, logging the incident.
Down below, Takeru nodded and flicked his lighter closed, pleased with his program's test run.
"Problem solved."
###
In the soft glow of a lamppost, in the presence of the other digimon Takato beamed gratefully at the others. He felt exhausted, but in a good way. This incident, whatever it was, had been resolved. He could rest easy tonight, knowing that his partner was safe.
"I never could have gotten Guilmon back without your help," he said, his gaze moving from one to the next before finally settling on Rika. "I don't know how to thank you guys."
Rubbing up against his partner, Guilmon laughed. "That's easy, just say, 'thank you.'"
"Momentai," chirped Terriermon from his spot on Henry's shoulder.
Laughing, Takato placed his hand on Guilmon's head and rubbed it gently.
Next to Rika, Renamon looked dispassionately at Terriermon.
"The little one didn't even do anything," she said, as if scolding the rabbit-dog.
"Well, neither did you," Terriermon grinned. Crossing her arms together, Gatomon glared at Renamon.
"None of us did," she added. "Let's not make something of it, okay? Some of us would like to have a cat nap tonight."
Rika looked at Takato, uncertain as to what she felt in regards to tonight's incident. This…kid didn't do anything she had expected him to do. He leapt into danger without fear, vowing to rescue his partner even when he had no clear idea on how to do that. He had…acted like a Tamer, and yet…
"Look at you," she derided him, "blubbering like a wuss."
Takato's eyes met hers as Davis bristled at her comment, but a quick touch on his shoulder from Kari followed by a shake of her head held him back from barking back a response. Ken seemed to be of the same mind as they all watched Rika and Takato look at each other. In the silence, something seemed to pass between them – something unacknowledged – and with nothing more to be said, Rika turned and began to walk away, Renamon vanishing as she did so.
"Are we just going to let her go like that?" Davis whispered to Ken. "We still have to deal with her after all."
"Let it go for now," Ken sighed. "She's not going anywhere." Turning toward Takato, he offered the boy a smile. "Good work today. I'd like a statement from you tomorrow so I can report this later, if that's all right…"
"I'll stop by," Takato replied, bobbing his head up and down. Ken nodded in return before looking up at Kari.
"Are you going to take him home or…?"
"I've got this," she said. "Henry, would you like me to…?"
Before Kari could even finish, the sound of two adults calling interrupted them.
"Takato!" this one male, and one that was familiar to Takato and Kari.
"Is that…?" Kari began before the next voice, female, caused Takato to laugh.
"We bought more ice cream!"
"That could only be my parents," he said. Smiling, Henry turned toward him.
"I guess that's my cue. You were really brave, you know that?"
"Yeah?" Takato grinned. "First time for everything."
Stepping back, Henry held his gaze one second longer. "Well, something tells me you'd better get used to it. Later."
With that, Henry broke into a run, heading for home. Watching him go, Takato patted Guilmon.
"You were really brave too, you know."
"That's because of you," Guilmon chirped back at him. Laughing again, Takato hugged his partner gladly.
"Good night, Guilmon," he said. "Tomorrow I'll bring you some ice cream."
"Oh! Can I have some?!" DemiVeemon exclaimed from atop Davis' head, causing the man to sigh.
"I'll hook you up when we get home, dude," he shook his head. "Now how about we get started on that?"
"Yes," Kari nodded. "I'll be along in a second. I just need to talk with Takato's parents."
With that, Guilmon pulled away and began to run toward his home while Kari waved down Takato's parents as they stepped into view, flashlights in hand and worried expressions on their face. Davis smiled as the Digidestined of Light began to spin a tale about how Takato was helping her look for her cat Miko.
"I thought Miko died like, eight years ago," Davis said, more to himself than to anyone else. "She posted about it and everything on MyBook."
"She's just providing a convincing cover story," Ken sighed, folding his arms together. "It's no big deal."
Davis turned toward him, looking at him quizzically. "Hey, you all right, bud?"
Ken shifted his arms uncertainly. "It's…nothing. Just bad memories, that's all. For a second there, I thought I had led us into a trap."
"Well, even if it was, we got out of it okay," Davis replied, clasping him on the shoulder. "It's stuff we've done a hundred times. That's the risk we take, right? Just like Kari said."
"Yeah," Ken nodded, trying to relax a little as he watched Kari part ways from Takato and his parents, bowing apologetically. "Yeah it is."
We've just got to take better care of ourselves. Who knows what'll happen the next time around if something like this happens again.
Above them, the stars twinkled their promise.
11