DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon, but I do own the original characters introduced in this story and my other stories (except where stated otherwise here or elsewhere by myself).

A/N: Cheers again go to Crazyeight for beta-reading.

DIMENSIONS

BOOK SEVEN

Escapes

By Blazing Chaos

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Phase Two

Catharsis

FRIDAY, 13th MAY 2011

Yamaki Mitsuo

Yamaki normally fell asleep at this point. So why couldn't he right now?

"Too much on my mind," he assumed. It had been a long day, and an exceedingly difficult one too, and he was far too uncertain about where the next one would lead (or, indeed, with how chaotic this world seemed, how soon it would arrive), so there was plenty to populate his thoughts. But, oddly, he found himself absent of them. He found himself oddly content…happy even.

He glanced to the woman, the futon's cover's feeble attempt to conceal her modesty completely pointless: he had seen all there was to see. His arm wrapped around her, as she gently slept. They were far from their typical waking positions, usually facing opposite with mouths wide open and suggesting a high degree of snoring had been involved during the long night. Right now, everything was organised, proper…perfect?

Certainly, the situation would be a nightmare if he didn't have her, and worse still if she were still stuck in the real world away from him (or with the other Tamers in god-only-knew where). With the latter he doubted he would be able to get her off his mind and act professional (as much as he prided himself on not letting personal relationships get in the way), while with the former he wondered if he would feel empty, or simply not have known what it felt like to be…loved.

He had to assume that she loved him. Of course, love was a tricky thing; even the words "I love you" didn't necessarily mean it was deep. Nor did their absence echo a shallow relationship.

It had to be deep, of course. Nothing else could withstand such a career, such stress, such…non-sexuality. Programming, government, military-style protection and secrecy…it hardly made for romance novels, let alone the disturbing world of hentai.

But was it out of necessity? The blonde found himself uncertain. He had hardly had the time nor incentive to go out in the evenings like a regular man of his age and former relationship status to play the dating scene. They had simply ended up together thanks to work: they both needed an apartment near the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Again, a complete lack of romance, and he was surprised that they had stayed together, given his attitude during the initial days of the Digimon situation. But when it had…gone further…was it just because they were both in the same place, and happened to be of opposite genders? Convenience, much like one of the myriad of TV dinners in their fridge (now going uneaten), not depth, like a well-cooked meal.

Did it matter? Did she care? Did she feel the same? He found himself uneasily like a teenage schoolboy, only in retrospect he found those dilemmas simply far misplaced, and his feelings weak.

His hand stroked down her wrist to hers, the redhead not waking as he caressed her ring-finger ponderously, contemplating the real question in the depths of his mind.

"If we survive this…"

And if he needed anything to make him fight to do so, for their sake and for everyone else's, there was surely no better thing than Miss Riley Ootori.

Unknown

He wasn't sure what to shout when he got no answer initially. Not that he needed to press the doorbell, of course – the gate was opened, seemingly by force – but it felt like a courtesy given the situation.

Eyes flicked up and down the street. Not a soul to be seen. Perfect? Maybe not.

The gate opened without a creak, a testament to its housekeeper. Whoever that could be. Was she still living with them? This was certainly more of a symptom of her presence than of the other woman he suspected still lived here. The damage to the house from all angles, a targeted damage aimed to break in, only seemed to agree that this was the house. This was the place he needed to look for them.

The front door was ajar, and his hopes for finding anyone inside fell quicker. Even if he did, they would have to be hiding (and he could barely remember the layout enough to remember anywhere worth hiding in) or, worse, tied up in some way. And the man on the news hadn't given him the impression that the latter was the kind of thing they were aiming to do.

"Maybe there's a clue…" he pondered, looking into the living and kitchen room, ornaments fallen and sofas flipped. From what he knew of Digimon, from what every random bloke on the street knew, this was the sort of damage they could do. But he got the sense: it was too careful, too inspecting…looking for something. And even if he couldn't tell from that, the news had said enough to let him know what, or who, had broken in.

Wandering through the hallway, he glanced into rooms, cupboards all wide open. The first…Kristy's? How old would she be now? Long gone were all the toys he recalled her getting when she was born, excepting a teddy bear or two as a lifetime memento. She was growing up, a few posters of bands on the wall. A teenager. It just seemed like a whole different world.

Wandering further, he came to another room, this door wide open and the cupboards open too. It was as relatively Spartan as the one before, but one feature was particularly notable about it.

A wooden crib.

Yet, the brief pleasure he got from seeing it was tainted by the fact he saw it was empty, a blanket tossed aside hurried like the cupboards opened around them. But this was not a sign of lacklustre parenting – no, it was an escape. The door wide open, the porch door wide open, and the devastation to any semblance of order in the household. The break-in was fast and unexpected.

Leaning on the side of the crib, he stifled the urge to cry. What did she look like? The brief pictures on the news and the internet, a dashed picture from afar, simply couldn't help: he couldn't imagine her. Would she have Rika's hair? Or blonde? Or what?

That cinched it. No longer was he going to be fearful of interrupting, no longer was he going to step so far out of affairs that he simply didn't exist to them. Sure, they'd lost contact, but the news had awakened him to what he had lost in the process, and what he stood to lose if he didn't take this one chance now.

They would be home. They would be home at some point. They just had to be. Rika couldn't have killed the Prime Minister. She'd find justice soon, she had to.

He scrambled to the kitchen, opening cupboards and drawers as he gripped onto his enthusiasm for dear life, practically shaking. All those years of fear. All those years of not knowing what his daughters really looked like in the flesh. They had to end now.

A pen.

A piece of paper.

Would they want him back? Would they accept his offer? Could he fix things, make up for lost time? His mind raced as he scribbled down his thoughts, his feelings, his phone number. He wouldn't force them. He couldn't. He'd wait, wait until they were ready, hope they would be ready. Frowning, he knew that the days ahead would be even more painful than the day he heard of the PM's murder, and the day he heard of Rika's pregnancy.

His signature.

Kiyoyuki Nonaka

Promptly, he glanced around, looking for a secure place. Somewhere the soldiers, if they came back, wouldn't immediately grab it. He hurried around, looking around increasingly unfamiliar surroundings. He rushed through into Rika's bedroom, and, hitting a brainwave, lay it beneath the covers of Rey's crib.

Putting his hands together in hope, he stood there as silence fell. There was no more to it. Now…he had to go back to his hotel, and wait.

Takeru Takaishi

The water gently rippled in the lake, the area tranquil even here, at the closest side of it to the village. The gently sloping bank provided a perfect sitting point for the blonde – perhaps even a 'designed' sitting point by how convenient it was. Even in the dim light, the other side was reasonably visible, but the thick forest beyond prevented him seeing much further. The trickling sound of water from the stream was soothing for the boy's stirred soul, as he resisted his urge to deep his feet in it. He doubted it would be too cold.

Perfect.

And yet, events had given him a bias, of sorts, against perfection. Perfection meant inaccessibility, heartbreak, sorrow. Perfection meant pain.

"Takeru."

That voice. Too familiar. The boy clenched his eyes shut, wishing she wasn't there. Why had she stumbled in on this moment? Why? A moment when he was trying to forget what still plagued him, even when so many other things were so much more deserving of his attention.

A hand, softly on a shoulder, a familiar form gracefully sitting down beside him. "Hey," he said, without his usual enthusiasm.

"You 'kay?" Her voice rang of childlikeness, innocence, and yet she was far from that now. She was a woman, practically, and she showed it in both body and spirit. But those memories still rang back from the old days, that voice that could do no wrong, even when possessed by an outside force.

"Yeah. Just a long and weird day, and doesn't look like things are set to get much better."

"I'd believe that if it weren't coming from the Digidestined of Hope."

"We'll get home and stop Rayleigh, I know. It's just tiring getting to that point, you know? Everything in the world seems to be acting against m…us."

She let loose an ordinary laugh, but to Takeru, it was so much more. "When did we ever have good luck?"

"Good point. Where's Gatomon?"

"Sleeping."

"Patamon too. I couldn't get to sleep. I'm surprised you can't though," he mused, for the first time taking the luxury of actually looking at her face. And instantly regretting it. Dear God did she look beautiful in this light. If anything, her eyes only seemed brighter, her lips softer… He grimaced, trying to suppress those thoughts but knowing that, like always, it would be futile. "This is Davis' girlfriend," he thought, reminding himself of his best friend (well, one of several) in order to dispel it. But that only made him end up hating Davis, and Kari (even though he knew he genuinely couldn't), and, as a result, himself, for even trying to hate them. A downward spiral of self-loathing. "Is…is Davis snoring again or something?" His words were nervous, fearing that pointing out flaws in his 'competition' only drew scrutiny on himself.

Kari brushed a hand through her hair, matted from a pillow. "I slept in a room with Tai since I was a kid…I'm used to having people around snoring. Anyhow, Yolei is worse," she chuckled. Their group of 'New Digidestined' had wound up in one of the larger houses together, but it was a room Takeru had barely been in at all so far. His parents were with a few of the other folks, the pair probably having an argument as always. "Just don't tell her I said that."

"So why are you here then?"

"I…was worried about you." She uncomfortably jabbed him in the shoulder in a friendly manner. "And…I can't get what we learnt today off my mind," she quickly added with a shudder…one that looked oddly fake. Was she trying to take back what she had just said? Why was she worried about him? Did she know? Or had she just seen him leave in a flash? Or, indeed, barely seen him at all for most of that evening?

He wanted to ask about what she had said at first, but his gut wrenched and pushed him to take the easy option. "I'm still torn about it."

"It's pretty clear cut Takeru," Kari sounded offended rather fast. If there was one thing that quickly riled Kari up, it was someone acting against her principles. She had quite a black and white perception of the world at times: not unexpected for the Digidestined of Light, of course, but which often led to arguments. "They stole those girls against their will."

"Mhmm," Takeru agreed for the sake of agreeing. He could see both sides here quite clearly, and for all his brain-wracking he couldn't see any clear 'victor' morally. But he didn't want to argue with Kari, partly because of the fact that he didn't want to sour this evening, and partly because he didn't particularly like that fault of Kari's. He insisted to himself, of course, that he could grow to love it, but it was an empty insistence. "I wonder what it's like for them."

"Must be lonely. Being in Ophanimon would drive me insane if I didn't know Gatomon was there to talk to me…and being stuck there without knowing how I got there…" Another shudder. "I wish we could help them. Even if just to wake up and know what's going on."

"Maybe they do. Maybe that's who we've been talking to all this time," Takeru mused. "The Priestess does seem to have multiple personalities."

"Hmm…"

The pair fell into silence, half out of contemplation and half of exhaustion, both of energy and topics to talk about. The lake joined them, aside from a nagging, dripping trickle from the stream that increasingly tapped at Takeru's mind the more he consciously acknowledged it.

At that point the calm silence changed into an alarmed one, one of 'what to say next' rather than 'I wish this moment would last forever'. He hung on the edge of sentences, topics surfacing in his mind to discuss but always being too trivial or too deep to be talked about right at that moment.

He swallowed another subject, about where the water came from. After their deeper, meaningful conversation about the Sakuyamon and Kuzuhamon, it seemed too…simple. And he doubted they would be able to work out the answer either. This place often didn't have answers to questions like those.

Unfortunately, this pushed him onto only one remaining thing he could talk about, the elephant in the room for them right now. An elephant hiding an even larger elephant behind it. "So…uh…what did you mean when you said you were worried about me?"

There was a pause, Kari frowning and glancing away into the water. "I thought you might be cold…or have got lost."

"I'm fine. And you found me pretty quickly." The blonde found himself refuting her suggestions too harshly, something he instantly regretted, although he did wonder how precisely she had managed to find him.

"I thought it'd be easier to look around the village before trying to find my way about inside. Besides…I thought this place looked beautiful and I wanted a look around. I was just hoping I'd find you really."

"Why's that?"

There was an intense pause.

How a pause could be so intense, Takeru didn't know. But time seemed to slow as the verbal bullet shot from a loaded gun. She picked at her fingernails briefly, the first grazes on her otherwise perfect tips. And then, there was that horribly clotted feeling at the base of his throat, a breath taken in to try and clear it as butterflies threatened to overspill out of his stomach.

"We need to talk."

So often were those words heard from girlfriend to boyfriend, followed soon after by such revelations as 'I'm pregnant', 'I think we should see other people' or 'I don't like your dog'. But they weren't boyfriend and girlfriend, and he found himself envying the position of someone who was in such a situation, even with such revelations. He didn't know why he envied such a case either: it was rarely good to hear the words 'we need to talk'. Somehow, however, that position seemed elevated above his, and he imagined in another timeline, maybe if he'd never met Kari, his position upon hearing such words could invariably have been better (even if those words made it subsequently much worse).

"Do we?" The words stumbled out stupidly, staggering around in simplicity before sliding over and admitting, with a sigh of submission "…yeah…we do." His head hung. Anything to get away from her eyes. He knew he needn't have bothered though, she wasn't looking in his direction at all. But he felt wrong to subject her to a lot of pressure in this situation.

"Takeru, I think you have a crush on me."

There it was. Not a question, as he'd been expecting. She had to have known for a while. A long while. He felt embarrassment and cringing creeping up his spine, laughing at him as they poked at his mind.

He found he didn't say anything at first. He was too busy thinking. Could he deny it? Pretend that he didn't have one? "If I was planning to do that, it'd have probably been a good idea not to have waited this long to reply though," he pondered, the thought which finally led to his admission.

"I do, yeah."

One weight was lifted off his shoulders, as another was firmly dropped onto them, panic rising in his heart. He was used to panicking, but not about stuff like this. Not about anything even remotely close to this. And at least normally, when he panicked, there was someone else running around like a headless chicken with him.

This time, he was alone.

Kari paused, looking uncomfortable herself. Takeru knew why. This was hardly your normal situation, and there weren't really any manuals for this. Heck, even if there were others who had been in a similar situation, he speculated that few of them were as friends with the object of their desire. But he had known Kari for so many years now; they had been into the heavens upon Spiral Mountain and into the depths of hell in the Dark Ocean, and had come through it together. They were hope and light, the partners of Angels…and some of the best friends you could ever know.

And that was why he wasn't surprised by what she said next.

"Takeru…it's…difficult."

"I know, I know, I'm really sorry," he apologised unreservedly, but the guilt and regret lodged in his heart failed to budge. There was no way out of it. They had to have this painful conversation, in full. His hand rose to push through his blonde hair, but was stopped when she put hers on his, gently lowering it.

"It's okay," she softly said, in that gentle voice that seemed to make everything okay. But it was only the calm before the storm, the levees breaking before unleashing a wave of words upon him, her thoughts broken open in one fell swoop "It's just…we are really good friends Takeru. Really good. I'm better friends with you than I am with Davis…and I know that's probably not how things are meant to be," she paused in contemplation, and to catch her stopped breath. "You know all of my secrets, and I know all of yours…we've known so much about each other…but it's too much. You're like…a brother to me…and I know it hurts to hear that, but it's a compliment."

He was a kid again, nodding along to his parents' arguments while not entirely agreeing with them. He wanted it to just pass by.

"Takeru, we've been through so much together…me and you…but…I don't want to spoil that."

"I don't want to either."

"I know you don't, but…"

"I love you," he quickly uttered, jamming it in while he still could. She paused for breath, while his eyes dropped to the ground.

He felt like such a bastard for even trying to say it. Yet, at the same time, he wanted to lash back. But the word felt like a curse. This was love. Love was meant to be good, better than anything – it was what they had always fought for. A billion songs were sung about it, probably more. It was the only emotion that could rise up and fight hatred.

But…somehow, now, it was wrong, bad – disgusting, even.

Before he could check her eyes, he felt her arms wrap around him tightly, a tighter embrace than was ever the norm for them. The back of his mind knew it was a courtesy, a consolation prize, a…joke. To her, it was just being friendly, trying to comfort him when she knew she couldn't do anything else.

But to him…it was a moment he didn't want to end, as fake as it was, and for all the seconds it lasted in real life, to him it felt like an eternity. The smell of her hair as it brushed past his face, more pleasant than freshly baked cookies. The soft feel of her top beneath his hands. The gentle push of her breasts against his chest, a false sharing of comfort, as his hands urged to pull her closer and never let go…

His attempts at restraint were pointless. For to his lost and lonely mind, once his reservations of friendship and pleasantness were put aside, he was in heaven, even if it were for such a brief, platonic instant.

But a brief platonic instant it was, and she pulled away all too soon. "I'm sorry. I love you too. But like as a friend. I just…don't feel the same way."

The world cracked around him, a sense of falling in his heart, mind, everything. There was the truth. The solid truth, something he had always known but never wanted to admit fully enough. That glimmer of hope that there was something else, the little flame burning in his heart in spite of everything, blinked out, and darkness enshrouded him.

There was another silence.

She averted her eyes and head over his shoulder, and hugged him…not an embrace like before. Everything felt a step short of what he really wanted. He could reach out and touch it in his mind, but the cold, hard, solid bonds of reality held him back, told him that life could never be so simple, could never simply be rewritten to turn out the way we want it to.

"It's okay," he cried. He knew he was crying more than her, he knew his tears flowed more freely. This was the whole world to him, but only a small part of hers. And it would never be anything more.

"Takeru? Kari?" called one of the larger parts of Kari's world, the voice undeniably familiar.

It was Davis.

Takeru didn't want to look, fearing this scene was already too much. She held him in her arms, the aftermath of a tighter (and perhaps mistaken) hug which he had just taken too far…hell, even without any of that, he had just confessed that he loved her. It was like that inevitable scene in a movie you'd seen a thousand times, the one you wished never happened when you re-watched it and instead wished for an alternate version to just happen to have made it onto your copy.

In his mind's eye, this could only go one way. Davis would be the jerk of a boyfriend who he hated, asking what Kari was doing out here with another guy, and would have good reason to doubt her faithfulness after what he'd probably seen. Takeru himself would be the timid boy everyone rooted for, but knew was about to be punched in the face. Would Kari end up being the sort of girl who broke up with him for such a thing, or who was so love-crazed that she stuck with that kind of jerk and left the audience hating her?

But Takeru was deluded in his sadness. For this wasn't a movie. Davis wasn't a jerk.

"Is Takeru okay?" was, instead, his first question. Takeru cracked open an eye through tears and wandered worriedly towards them down the slight incline, Kari looking sadly to her boyfriend and clearly not wanting him to be there for once. But she could hardly tell him to go away.

Because Davis was worried for Takeru. Even if he had seen the rather overly tight hug too, his first thoughts were for the crying boy, the boy who he had to have known liked the same girl he did.

Kari went to speak, but Takeru wanted to speak for himself. He wasn't about to let this completely cripple him into a crying wreck for the rest of the day, let alone his life. He just…couldn't. "I'm okay Davis, thanks," he said with the utmost sincerity, yet he didn't mean any of it.

"What's wrong?"

Takeru glanced to Kari, hoping that she'd speak for him, but she looked just as worried. Here it was. The question that they had been dreading.

The blonde stood up, freeing himself from Kari's embrace, and standing face to face with Davis. And yet, he felt lower down, not just thanks to the slope he was on. Davis was so much better than him right now. He'd done nothing wrong. And yet Takeru wanted him to do something bad, for the red mist to descend. He unconsciously braced himself for violence, even though he doubted it was coming. Sadistically, he wanted it. He wanted some reason to be able to take a higher ground. Or, at least, to have some sense knocked into him.

"I love Kari."

His lips had betrayed his attempts to say anything softer.

The Gogglehead reacted with surprise, and as a result so did Takeru. Did he really not know? How couldn't he? Wasn't it obvious? Or was it only obvious to Kari?

Davis' brown eyes flashed with a sense of anger, and Takeru remembered how painful a punch to the face would probably be, moving his hands forward slightly in worry. To one side, Kari watched on, the scene almost straight out of a movie as she stood between her two boys.

But it was a flash, and only that, for Davis moved into a frown, his usual talent at inspiring words failing right now. "Oh."

"She doesn't feel the same way," the blonde added. "But I'm sorry. And I…I obviously won't do anything," Takeru became apologetic, putting his hands up, bracing himself against the mental attack now more than anything physical. "I know it's going to make things weird between all of…"

"It's okay Takeru," Davis began, his eyes closed for a moment before they opened with a smile. A smile that threw Takeru for more of a loop than anything Kari had ever said or done – indeed, more than anything had ever done.

Kari's curiosity echoed his. "Why are you smiling Davis?"

The boy chuckled, furthering the mystery and weirdness. "It's just…I always imagined something like this in the old days, but I never thought it'd be this way round."

"What?" Takeru asked, thoroughly confused.

"I always expected to be you in this situation, and you to be standing right here shouting at me." Davis was jovial, almost too jovial, as Kari watched him gesture about, the girl looking completely bewildered by this turn of events.

"Wait, so you expected me to end up with her?"

"Duh! I mean, I always used to, at least. Come on, think back to when we were fighting the Digimon Emperor and Arukenimon and everything…I was crazy about Kari but you always seemed to be the one who actually got her heart. You and her both had Angels and a load of history, and I had a hard-headed dinosaur with a cross on his chest. Even I could see there had to be something going on there, as much as I hated it. And yeah, when we grew up and nothing happened I realised it was just my overactive imagination and jealousy, and, you know, you guys and everyone just playing games with me. But…" His amused tone dropped into a deeply honest one, as he looked straight into Takeru's eyes. "I imagined so many times what it'd be like to be like you are right now, and how much it'd hurt so bad. Even when she kissed me for saving her life back in Domain, I really just expected it to be a kiss of thanks. I still thought she really liked you. But…I guess that isn't exactly what you want to hear about right now. But still, I know how much it probably hurts, and I'm probably within my rights to hate you right now but…I just can't Takeru. You're one of my best friends, okay? And that's not gonna change no matter what happens."

Silence. Not a peaceful silence, not even an uncomfortable one, just one to take things in, and consider words that could be said. Davis, meanwhile, looked extremely uncomfortable, and was probably fretting that he'd said something stupid, or simply too much. He had certainly been talking for a long while without anyone trying to interrupt. He even went so far as putting a hand out, waiting for Davis to return something.

"Thanks Davis," Takeru finally mustered up, freeing the poor boy from his flustering and taking his hand, the pair leaning in for a standard 'guy hug'. "I really do appreciate it."

"Just don't tell Veemon I called him a 'hard-headed' dinosaur," Davis laughed nervously, pulling back.

"It was a compliment, obviously," Takeru said sardonically, the tension having finally passed, even if there was still so much to talk about. "Where is he anyhow?"

"Sleeping," Davis yawned. "Geez, we must all be insular to still be up at this time."

"Insomniacs Davis," Kari corrected.

"Oh. Right. Thanks. Where would I be without you," the Gogglehead laughed, Takeru noticing uncomfortable glimpses towards him. Was Davis…nervous about being with Kari now? This was something he hadn't ever really contemplated. Davis had won, so why would he be nervous? Or was this just Davis? Seeing him be so insecure seemed so…unlike him. He would usually disguise his weaknesses with excuses, not least when they played basketball.

"Are you okay Takeru?" Kari was now looking at him too, and he increasingly felt compelled to lie. Truth was, he wasn't okay. This had all come too fast for him to be okay with it yet, but the fact that everyone around him was increasingly happy made him feel like they were insisting he was. He hoped he would be in time, but right now he just wanted a break from everything.

So he bluffed. "Yeah, I think I am. But…thanks. Thanks for all of this. Where would I be without friends like you guys?"

Kari and Takeru glanced to each other, giving the same relieved smile. "I'm really sorry Takeru," she said again, but he could only shrug. All words had been said by now, and anything more seemed like pressing the issue more than the tone allowed.

"It's fine."

"I'm sure you'll find someone some day," she added, trying to put a hopeful side on things. Takeru knew that was meant to be his job.

"Yeah, I'll set you up with someone," Davis said bluntly and with no end of enthusiasm, making Takeru feel like the 'bad guy' for putting out that particular fire.

"Uh, no offence Davis, but every girl I know you know."

"Oh, right," the boy replied, scratching the back of his head and chuckling. "Well, if you ever want to talk, or anything, just ask, okay? I hate to see you cry like that."

"Thanks Davis," Takeru nodded, taking in a deep sigh. "But what I want right now more than anything is to go to sleep. I'm wiped out."

He knew that was a lie too, at the back of his heart. But something had been lifted. Something very heavy, and while something only slightly lighter had been dumped in its place, he knew it had to account for something.

Kari didn't feel the same way. He would never get that out of his mind again. The bliss of that veil of ignorance had passed.

The girl reached out a hand for his, and Davis patted him on the back, the trio beginning to walk back to their current accommodation, and their (probably still sleeping) partners, who had missed everything. There would be one almighty catch up in the morning with Patamon, that much was for certain. He still partly wanted for Kari, and Davis especially, to have been rash, for him to be the only victim. But that was only the darker part of his mind speaking, for right now he knew that he wouldn't have had it any other way aside from one, and even that would've led to hell with Davis. So…maybe this was for the best. Takeru found himself smiling, even only lightly, and took a glance either side to some of the best friends anyone could have.

Sure, he still had a huge weight on his heart, but he had some pretty damn strong people to help him lift it.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Big emotional scene to end this chapter – even more so than the one I wrote for Chapter 10 of the rewrite of Book One. But there are a lot of similar themes in it, which worked quite neatly, and these two scenes couldn't be more different on the most part. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoyed the insights into Yamaki's thoughts and…well…my other little (okay, big) tease. Hehe. Bet you didn't expect that one.

This chapter was intended to be double the length but I felt that a lot of these scenes needed their own space to be contemplated (rather than being shoved together with equally big or bigger scenes in a rather larger chapter that would've 'drowned' them out), and it meant I could update a bit sooner rather than leaving all you guys hanging. I'm going to focus on Book Seven again for a while now, but I'm glad I got some work done on the rewrite.

Meanwhile, I'd like to let you know about a new forum I've set up here on this website, accessible via my profile. It's called The Writer's Corner for Digimon, and is intended for two things. Firstly, it will allow anyone who has an idea that they can't/don't want to use (a plot bunny) leave their idea for 'adoption' by another writer. I've had a lot of these in the past, and it always seems like a shame to let them go to waste. Secondly, it will be for discussion of Digimon writing in general (and any other writing if you feel like it), both from a writer and a reader's point of view. I hope it gets popular, but so long as it provides a place to drop off any random ideas I have (but can't use – I have a lot of them), it'll serve its purpose, and I hope others do the same. It is co-moderated by Crazyeight and I, so at least it has one pair of capable hands managing it. Hint: they're not mine, heh.

Until next time…

B.C.