Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or any of it's characters and any new digimon created is not my own either.
This is a story centered around relationships between Takeru and Hikari with moments of Yamato/Sora, and Koushiro/Mimi, but don't worry, their is still the feeling of Digimon Adventure. As a side note, I attempted to make sense of all three of the digimon adventures stories of Season1, 02, and Tri into this story which will compromise of three stories of Digimon the Digital Record: Realized, Personified, and Finalized, completed into one cohesive plot once the stories are all published online. It is attempted to be written in a similar vein as Tri. I ask for all reviewers to take this into consideration when judging each individual story, but, they may also be judged on their own merit as well.
I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I enjoyed writing them. Once you get going these things end up taking a life of their own. So, here it is, The Digital Record: Realized.
Chapter 1: The Herald
The sunlight started to fade away eventually being swallowed by the rain clouds. They whispered out a chilling wind as if to remind Takeru that even though this was the digital world he had to treat it as if it was the real world. He took a deep breath as he stood on the unstable branch of a tree and scanned the horizon around him watching to see if anything extraordinary had taken place ever since the incident with Meiko and Meicoomon.
"Takeru..." a familiar voice said flying over ahead and landing right beside him, "...I didn't see anything above the trees. How about you?"
He merely smiled and rubbed his best digital friend's head, Patamon smiling and flattening his winged ears like a dog. He had not seen anything as of yet that was strangely amiss. Ever since the whole unfortunate incident with Ordinemon and the chaos that warped everything, the digidestined had taken it upon themselves to inspect the digital world and see if their was anything wrong or if their were any affected digimon left over from the incident.
No one protested returning there, and so, for the last three weeks they had all been committed to this task. For Takeru, he himself did not mind it so much. His life at home was tenuous at best with his mother rarely home, and whenever she was home she seemed to be in a world of her own. He remembered seeing a couple of wine bottles lining up on the kitchen counter, their contents emptied every night and replaced. If she ever asked about how he was doing, Takeru would merely reply fine with a smile that that could be as seen as either sincere or faking and went about either listening to music or, as he was lately doing, writing a story in a notebook.
"Takeru? Takeru?" Patamon said shaking his forearm.
Takeru snapped out of his thoughts and smiled. "Sorry Patamon. Kind of was lost in thought there."
His friend only looked at him, a puzzled look on his face. "Hikari's been shouting your name for the last five minutes," he scolded.
Mildly surprised, Takeru literally ran over to the edge of the tree branch and stared down to see his best friend staring over at him with an annoyed expression; The 'dang it Takeru, I bet you were spacing out again' scolding kind of face.
"Takeru, are you ok?" her voice yelled out.
"We're good!" Takeru replied. "Hold on for a second!" he said as he quickly climbed down from the tree. It had been a couple hours since he saw her, but even still Hikari always looked amazingly kept together, not one strand of her brown hair out of place thanks to her clip of course and Tailmon's care. She had lately seemed concerned for him what with how he had isolated himself from contact with the other digidestined except for Yamato for the last couple weeks. Not to mention Hikari had, well, been on his mind a lot lately. She had always been in the back of his mind somewhere always in his memories from all the adventures and just day to day events. He grew fonder of every time he looked back at them.
Takeru landed from the tree on the ground effortlessly. "How did your search go?" he said walking over to her.
Her eyes seemed to lighten up a little bit as if she was very happy to see him. "I'm fine. Just a little tired from the search. It's also gotten a bit cold,' she said rubbing her arm.
Takeru said nothing and took off his green and gray sweater and draped it over her shoulder. He just smiled as if to say 'You could have just asked if you wanted to borrow my clothes.'
She looked at him slightly embarrassed and also smiled shyly as if to say thank you.
To Takeru it was amazing they knew each other so well. They had a language of their own just by being together that no one but them seemed to figure out. He quickly frowned and looked at her a bit more seriously.
"Have you had anymore black outs?" he asked. Ever since Homeostasis possessed her, and, even more recently when darkness over came her, he had felt so powerless to help her. All he could do was stand there, holding her.
He stared at her directly in the eyes firmly, but with a certain gentleness to them.
Her eyes did not betray him.
"No. But lately I have this incredible heavy feeling burdening me," she said, placing her hand on her forehead as if she had a fever. "Like I have to sleep more because I'm so tired. I get plenty of rest and everything, but even still I'm exhausted," she sighed.
Takeru put a hand on her shoulder and just stared at her. He had no idea how it would feel to be possessed, but he knew it must put a heavy burden on her shoulders, and strain her both mentally and physically. He never dared though to let her know about this. The last thing he wanted is for Hikari to feel like she was a burden.
He smiled offhandedly wondering if she knew what he was thinking.
"You still haven't put on the sweater," he chided.
Hikari grinned back. "If I catch a cold you'll be buying me green tea for a week."
She pushed his arm away, took his sweater and pushed it over her head and slim figure. Takeru could only adore her as she had to roll up the sleeves a bit.
"Looks better on you than me," he said
"Maybe I should let you borrow some of my outfits then," she laughed, a hand to her mouth stifling her laughter. She seemed pleased with the sweater the way she kept staring at it.
"Hikari," a cat-like voice said climbing onto her back. "Nice sweater. Did you tell him about the clouds?"
"I was just getting to that," she said one finger stroking Tailmon's chin like a kitty, Tailmon purring slightly
"Hey," Tailmon said slightly embarrassed snapping out of it. "We talked about this Hikari! Don't do that in public!"
Hikari giggled a little more.
Takeru could not help chuckling either. He felt partially responsible anyway. Whenever Tailmon was down or needed affection he had recommended for her to do that because she would also do that to Miko. He wondered how she had never thought about that before.
Just then all around them the other digidestined and their digimon waved and started to trickle over. First Taichi and Agumon, Mimi and Palmon, Joe and Gomamon, Koushiro and Tentomon and then the others would arrive soon except the other digidestined of late. They still had not been released from the hospital, rehabilitating, but seemingly empty, as if they had returned physically, but their souls had not, but at least they were alive... Well, all except for Meiko. Ever since her digimon was put down by Omegamon she had stopped going on the adventures with them. Probably because it was too painful thinking about her digimon. She still stayed in touch every now and then.
He saw Taichi approach him, laughing at the antics of Agumon who no doubt was communicating something about food. "Takeru, Hikari..." Taichi said adjusting the goggles on his head, "...How did the search go?"
"Uneventful," they both said at the same time smiling.
"O...k..." Taichi said, his voice slightly agitated as if not directly accusing them of not having worked at all. "What were you doing all this time? And Hikari where did you get that sweater?!" he scolded.
Hikari touched the sweater and slightly smiled. "It was a present."
Taichi's eyes glared at her as if inspecting his sister. "That's funny, you weren't wearing a sweater when we got to the digital world." His eyes then shifted to Takeru.
Takeru only smiled the way he could.
"I almost forgot Taichi," Hikari said as if taking Taichi's attention away from Takeru, "That cloud above us seemed really ominous, and I was thinking we should check it out."
"That's an excellent suggestion," Koushiro said who, unbeknownst to them had already sat down and started slamming into his computer. "The composition of that cloud is of a different code than this area. I'd say you guys hit the nail on the head."
Mimi put her arms on Koushiro's head and stared down smiling at him. "Can you still concentrate?"
Koushiro looked as if he was having a nuclear melt down but kept his composure.
"They seem to be awfully chummy nowadays," Takeru overheard Tentomon whispering to Palmon.
"Yeah, lately Mimi even got herself a pair of fashionable glasses so it would look like they matched well together in public so she would look smarter," Palmon explained.
"Mimi is VERY smart thank you very much," Koushiro stammered as he hit the enter button. "I am running a data comparison of this cloud and the chaos that happened nearly a month ago. If they match we know something is up."
"Oh that's just terrific," Joe said, Gomamon looking at him like a laughing seal pup with claws. "I was hoping this would be over so I could get back to my studies. It's only been one day but I tell you it's murder on the academics," he said his hand on his face shaking his head.
"Cheer up Joe. At least you don't need to find the murderer since we all pulled you into this," Gomamon consoled.
Everyone had a laugh at his expense.
Last to arrive was Yamato and Gabumon, Sora and Piyomon.
"What kept you?" Taichi said turning around.
Takeru could not help but chuckle inside his head as Yamato walked over coolly, the wolf-like digimon with a unicorn horn on his head Gabumon nipping at his heels. "Well...you know stuff happened," he said confidently.
Sora put her hand over Yamato's mouth. "Don't tell them about anything," she scolded. "Don't you want to at least look like your being responsible? We don't have time to goof off." Her face had turned a slightly reddish hue.
"Is that why your faces touched?" Piyomon said obliviously.
"Yeah I saw so to from the bushes," Gabumon added.
Yamato put his hand over the back of his head like he was trying to think of an excuse.
Sora stammered, emotionally lost between the responsibilities and probably just how digimon don't understand human relationships or emotions.
"Hey, you need to take this more seriously," Taichi said flustered. "Just 'cause you both are in a relationship now does not mean you can slack off."
Takeru enjoyed the drama unfolding. At least the attention was a hundred percent off of him now. But Taichi seemed just a tad jealous...
"Whose slacking off?" Yamato said, his hand curling into a fist. "Just cause we made out does not mean we're not working hard to! We needed a little break!"
"Is that why you stopped for five minutes?" Gabumon asked.
"Well," Sora stammered, "It was more like ten minutes," she barely made audible.
Takeru had developed such a skill listening to others he could hear all of it. Everyone seemed to get a good laugh out of it. Even Taichi.
While he enjoyed himself, he suddenly felt a familiar petite hand pull his sleeve, not unlike how it used to be when they were kids. It made him feel somewhat brave being her protector.
"Ta...keru?" Hikari's voice, said instantly pulling his full attention.
He turned to Hikari who stood frozen staring up at the sky as if something dangerous was approaching. He glanced over at Tailmon who seemed on edge to hissing at something he couldn't see. The other digimon also seemed to sense a disturbance.
"It's not a good digimon," Agumon said.
"Better get ready then," Yamato added taking out his digivice.
Takeru put one hand in front of Hikari like he always had as if shielding her from any danger.
Everyone seemed prepared for it.
A sound that sounded like flashing wisped from behind Takeru and Hikari.
"There!" he heard Tailmon cry, as she turned around.
A single harsh voice cried out "Shaded Strike!" as a black surge of power emitted from the bushes nearby them. "Lightning Paw!" she screamed as she pushed her paw in front of it, but the attack was too much for Tailmon and the attack knocked her away from him by the recoil, the tree down, and the impact knocking the other digidestined out of commission,completely taken off guard as they were focused on the cloud before.
Takeru felt the ground beneath his back, as he fought back dizziness. Somehow he had survived. He slowly got off the ground taken aback by the sudden force of power. Immediately his attention focused back on Hikari. He bent down to help Hikari up who also seemed to be a bit dazed. He saw that Tailmon had taken the brunt of the attack and the other digimon seemed fazed out. Yet, he knew no one had seen a digimon attack them.
"Hikari," he said helping her stand wincing from the impact.
Shifting in front of them out of the corner of his eye he saw a shadowy presence manifest and make it's presence known.
"What digimon is that?" Patamon said getting flustered. "I have never seen it before!"
The digimon seemed to be dressed head to toe all in black armor with a mask around it's mouth and a sharp blade at it's side.
"My name is of no importance," it said coldly. "Just know I come as the herald of your demise oracle."
Takeru felt his head pound and shift slightly as he tried to get his bearings back still. He knew that whatever this digimon was that it was quick, efficient, and ruthless. The way it said oracle and looked at Hikari brought him to realize she had been his target. He knew that with the speed of the attack that came at them he had to do something, anything to protect Hikari.
The being shouted out "Shaded Strike!" once more, as a dark shadowy sharp blade wave came straight at Hikari.
Takeru desperately reached down to the ground at the nearest object he could find and held up a large chunk of the broken tree that had been nearly pulverized. He held it back, having no idea what would happen to him, standing in front of Hikari as if he was the only thing separating her from a painful death. "Hikari!" he shouted, afraid, but determined as he brought the large chunk of the tree back and swung at it with all his might. He felt the branch crack as he swung it, the branch splintering chunks away his his face and torso shuddered from the pain of being cut. The impact of the large tree branch and the blade sent him flying, his head spinning, aching all over his body as he started to feel his body numb up and go cold. The last thing he he heard was Hikari's voice crying out as if it would cost her her life just conveying the emotion:
'Takeru!"
It was his send off into the darkness.