Author's Note
I scheduled these next three chapters to drop away from two conventions… that are no longer happening. But we're dropping three chapters with no threat of shutdown, so plenty of reading material heading your way during the long shutdown. I was all about to say the upcoming Adventure reboot will have no bearing in the story… but you never know what sort of ideas will come about that could worm their way in.

Nexusworld

Rise up you lonely wanderers. Rise up you hungry people.
The hurricane is coming. The land will soon be flooded.
The past is dead and over. Rise up now and claim your freedom.
You are the sleeping giant: arise, arise, arise.
- Jim's Big Ego, "International"

Episode 15

Henry Wong shuddered as the Trailmon came to its inevitable stop. Many people encountered nausea while traveling, their systems unable to process the constant motion and frequent jolts of their ride. They were all that kept Henry from throwing up. Once they stopped, he was ready to heave.

"C'mon Henry, I'm sure it won't be that bad," said Terriermon. Nobody in the car believed him.

Tai stared out the window at the cart arriving to pick them up. "Look, let's just focus on what we can do going forward. We're here to help them."

"I'm sure they need it."

Henry eyed his partner. A reminder of the destruction didn't help. "Are we sure they want it?" he mumbled.

They disembarked and met Meiko by the cart. Tai swooped his arms around her, cradling her in a embrace. Despite taking comfort in it for several seconds, she said, "I'm okay. Nobody got hurt. Everybody took shelter." She stepped back and forced a smile. "I wouldn't have been in any danger if it weren't for Yolei."

"No trouble if it weren't for Yolei… that's a mood," said Terriermon. Both Tai and Henry glared at him.

As they boarded, Tai taking the front seat and sticking Agumon behind with Henry and Terriermon, he asked her, "So what's the mood like over there?"

"I don't know," Meiko replied. "They have a lot of questions."

"But they aren't too angry?"

She hesitated. "Well… I guess that depends on the answers."

Even before they reached the end of the woods, the damage to the settlement made Henry squirm. The command room and the dorms above it were gone, remnants of both scattered across the lawn alongside part of the building that had collapsed. They could see all the way into the courtyard thanks to mangled sections of interior wall. Stray wires dangled from the surviving section.

They drove past the response team helping the residents attempt to clean up. Meiko parked in front of the door to the receiving area.

"No power?" Tai asked.

"Not safe yet. Too many wires everywhere," Meiko answered as she parked. "They'll need it out here anyway." As they got out, she added, "Also we can't use the stairs until we make sure nothing inside will collapse."

Henry found Takato and Rika loading a destroyed computer into a wheelbarrow. They looked back for a moment, eyes filled with worry and remorse, before their heads fell down again and they resumed their work.

Mina approached them and nodded at Meiko. "Thank you." She turned to Tai. "We'll meet in the back. Follow me."

Tai turned to Agumon. "Why don't you and Terriermon see what you can do to help around here."

"Good luck, Henry!" Terriermon floated from his tamer's head to Agumon's.

Leaving Meiko behind, they followed Mina inside through a dim hallway. Despite no structural damage in this corner, stray papers and scraps of clothing still settled on the floor. She opened the door to a windowed corner room too small to have much functional purpose and too large to be a closet. A single table and several chairs lined it, with the only other furniture a small stand with a couple decks of playing cards atop it. The other four international representatives and Sampson crowded around the table, with Megumi seated at it with a notebook and pencil. By the time Mina, Henry, and Tai squeezed in, nearly every square inch of the floor was occupied.

The only available space separated Tai and Henry from the others. "You don't have a better room to do this?" asked Tai.

"We used to," answered Mina, straightfaced.

Tai gulped, but after a deep breath nodded at the seven. "Okay, so before we get started we should be clear that the goal is to get you guys back on your feet and make sure this was a one-time thing."

Nobody responded. Sampson turned to Henry. "Henry, what is the Yaddith program and is it true you're responsible for it?"

Henry shivered. The question cut at his weakness, launched from a voice authoritative and uncomfortably familiar. None of the other eyes in the room were any friendlier. The door was the only comfort in sight and he considered running to it. He knew it wouldn't help.

"Yaddith was a program I wrote to, um…" He fought back the swell of remorse churning his stomach. "…pull our Digimon back to our world."

He couldn't look at them but sensed everyone's eyes on him. "With a tornado?" said Michael.

After a few false starts, Henry answered, "It… was a modification of some programs that had similar…" He fished for a polite term. "Disruptive effects across the two worlds."

"You knew it would be disruptive?" the African rep asked.

"I ran it in testing environments." Henry couldn't even close his eyes as memories of those crept in. "So yes."

"I don't understand," said Mina. "You created a program with such a devastating an effect on the Digital World, with the intent of hunting down your partners?"

Henry kept his eyes down, refusing to answer. His shaking hand balled into a fist.

Catherine shook her head. "We were chosen to protect the Digital World, not destroy it."

"That's why I couldn't activate it." He looked up again, hoping to find safer ground. "I had days where I thought about it, days where I woke up swearing I was going to do it. Lord knows the others wanted me to."

"The others?" Now Tai got in on the questioning, to Henry's surprise. "You mean Takato?"

For all the dread he carried, it was the first time Henry panicked. He regretted Yaddith's existence, but could at least take comfort in knowing he never unleashed it. Even its appearance here wasn't because of his actions. Had the gun been in Takato or Rika's hands, things would have been different. The only way he could defend them was not to incriminate them in the first place. One frustrated mumble ruined that.

Less certain now, he deflected as well as he could: "We all knew about it. I don't even think I came up with the idea. It gave everyone hope, you know? I think Suzie even told Ai and Mako."

"What positions does this group hold?" Sampson asked Tai. Henry's eyes widened. Now they all were in trouble.

Tai shifted in his seat. "Uh… well, they're all over the place, you know?" Hesitating, he asked, "Why?"

"Yeah, why does that matter?" Henry could handle a small amount of blame at him, but protecting his team needed more force. "None of us wanted this to happen. We didn't bring it with us. And we all knew it was a last resort. Here we didn't need to. "

"But you were ready to," said Mina. Her voice only raised slightly. That's all it took to read her fury. "Your entire team was prepared to destroy part of your Digital World for selfish reasons."

"Selfish?! These are our partners!" he cried. "Can you imagine a world without them?"

"Yes. Because that was our world for years."

Henry froze, eyes drifting across the table. Even Sampson and Megumi nodded in agreement. He understood why they didn't sympathize. No doubt they were close to their partners, but Henry and his friends became part of their Digimon. To separate from them was to separate part of themselves. Yet if he said that aloud it would sound dismissive. He couldn't afford digging an even deeper hole.

Nobody wanted to help him. Even Tai, Mr. "focus on looking forward," refused eye contact. Henry had to apply his advice himself: "The important question is why did it show up now? And why did it target you guys? If it was looking for our Digimon, our castle has more of them."

The Brazilian rep raised a hand. "Another question is why could only an Appmon touch it?"

Henry sighed. "I wish I knew. Obviously I didn't know what Appmon were when I programmed it."

"But you planned to unleash it in the Digital World," said Sampson. "Did you protect it against a response from other Digimon?"

Freezing, Henry's eyes glossed over. "Yes," he answered meekly. "There were anti-Digimon defenses programmed."

After a long pause to let the answer soak in, Michael moved on, stone-faced: "You said you didn't do anything to bring Yaddith here?"

"Of course not! There's no reason for it to be running here."

"But it would still exist here," Sampson declared.

Megumi nodded along. "Right, the network has stuff from every world. That would include Yaddith."

"So it got activated somehow…" said Michael. He turned back to Henry. "But if you and your friends were the only ones that knew it existed, who else could find it? It's not like you looked it up."

Henry's involuntary wince caused all of the reps to widen their eyes and straighten their posture. If not for the table, someone may have lunged at him. "Um… I did, uh… pull up the source code last week."

"Why would you do that?!" Catherine asked.

"I don't know! I was just wondering if it was still there! It's been on my mind lately." He clutched. "You know, hearing about all the Maki stuff."

"Well…" Mina huffed. "Having survived the 'Maki stuff,' and now this, we have many concerns about our security going forward."

"Who can we trust to make sure this doesn't happen again?" added Michael.

"Hey, we'll be on that!" Tai almost jumped out of his seat. "We're great at researching stuff! We'll look at where this came from and what might have let this thing loose and we'll shut it down! We're pros at this stuff."

If Tai expected everyone to fill up with reassurance, he had to be disappointed by the empty stares in return. "Research…" says Mina. "For our records, who is your head of research?"

"Um…" Henry raised a tepid hand. "That would be me."

Everyone at the table let out a deflated sigh, almost at once. With some hesitation and a heavy grimace, Michael said, "Um… that might not work for us."


Rika Nonaka needed a drink in more ways than one. The hard day of cleanup left her dehydrated and sweaty and ready for whatever refreshments were available. The continued lack of power and compromised water filtration system left resources scarce. She needed Renamon to find something, anything, for them. The stares and silence she and Takato received left her hoping for something harder than water.

Renamon's delivery didn't hack it: "Milk?" Maybe after the bath she'd take the second she got home, but here? Parched with plenty of work left?

"They're out of water and don't want it spoiling before the power's back." Renamon took a long swig of her own. Rika did too, suppressing the urge to throw up.

Staring into her bottle, Renamon asked, "Is it really true? That the tornado came from your plan for finding us again?"

Rika glowered. One good glare could keep the random international from asking her about it. Renamon was harder to dodge. And who fed her this information in the first place? With a scoff, she answered, "It wasn't my plan. It was Henry's. I just wanted you back. I didn't care how he did it."

"The way it called to us… it was a painful feeling. A helpless feeling. It made us believe it would draw us in no matter how hard we resisted."

Flinching away, Rika said, "I didn't think it wouldn't hurt that much. I didn't know what was involved with it."

"But you didn't care either."

Her head snapped back to her partner. "What are you saying?!"

Renamon stayed calm. "I don't know." She looked down. "It just raises questions."

"Well don't worry so much. We're together now, we survived that thing, and I need to find something else to drink."

She stormed off, certain she wouldn't find anything but needing to get away from the conversation. If Renamon wasn't going to offer support, Rika didn't need to be around her. Instead she found Ken, talking to one of the American digidestined whose name she never learned. When she tried to join in, the American gave her an uncomfortable look and excused herself.

With a grunt, Rika said, "Seriously, what's everyone's problem?"

Ken took a long time to answer. "Given how bad this was, I can't blame them for looking at where it originated."

"It didn't come from us. We didn't send it here."

"But your team made it. And you wanted to send it to your Digital World."

Rika glared, not at him, but at a fixed point in the trees. She was sick of defending herself. Around Ken, she knew she didn't need to. "So?" she spat.

Again, Ken waited to answer. She felt his eyes on her. "Maria says we need to figure out what activated Yaddith and stop it. But they don't want Henry involved."

She scoffed. "Why not? He knows that stupid thing better than anybody. And why are they mad at him? He's the one who wouldn't go through with it."

"So… you would have?"

Her expression didn't change, even with the concern in his voice. She kept glaring, kept recalling the pain of separation, the attempt at normalizing life without her partner, and her eventual rebellion against it. Relying so heavy on a balancing force meant flipping the scales without it.

"Yeah," she said. It was the wrong answer and she knew it, even adding more venom. "I would have done it in a second." She turned to Ken. "Even now, even seeing what it actually did… I would have done it." With a defiant snort, she added, "For Renamon, it's worth it."

Ken turned pale, but she wasn't worried about his disgust or surprise. He struggled to come up with anything beyond stunned silence. If anything, it made her impatient. "What, you wouldn't do all that for Wormmon?" she asked. There were a million avenues to get him to concede to her stance. This was the gentlest.

Except he answered, "No." He shook his head, deep in thought. "At least not anymore."

"But you would have once. Right?" Rika had to keep the fire up.

Ken didn't. "Maybe… maybe when the gate stopped working. If I didn't know what it was capable of… I guess I could have been talked into it."

She allowed herself to relax a little. It was close enough. She didn't need validation, just enough middle ground to land on and stop talking about it.

"But not anymore," he added, incensing her all over again. She held it in as he explained, "Not after what happened to us. I saw what thinking like that can do to the world. I saw what it can do to us."

"Don't be ridiculous. It's not like I'd go that far."

"You wouldn't?" Ken narrowed his eyes. "So what's the limit? How far would you go?" He looked over her shoulder at the wrecked walls. "If this is all right, then…?"

"I… I don't know!" Rika really didn't, and it scared her. Where did she draw the line? If it meant being with Renamon, was there a line? It only made her angrier. "What does it matter?! You bring Maki up but you were all palsy with her before."

Ken's answer came fast: "The Maki here doesn't know what she did. She probably doesn't even think it's possible. All we can do is steer her in a direction where she doesn't make those…" He took a deep breath. "…mistakes." He looked down. "But knowing what she's capable of means we have to handle her carefully."

"So what, you have to handle me carefully now? What about Takato? He was with me." Ken winced, leaning back. She kept the heat up, even more confident now. "Be real, any of us can do all sorts of nasty stuff if we get desperate enough." She scoffed. "I shouldn't have to tell you that."

Rika should have slammed on the brakes there. Really, in hindsight, she should have stopped before going there. Ken's eyes widened, mouth opening in shock, pained memories of both victim and perpetrator molding into one solid color of wrong.

She never noticed, blowing past it in her ranting: "And if you don't like it, if you don't get that I care enough to get dirty sometimes, just walk away. I don't need to explain myself to anyone. Not even you."

He stared back, that same tormented expression on his face. Only then did she see it. Only then did she realize how far she'd gone. She couldn't take it back. Ken obeyed her: he walked away.

Rika didn't go after him, frozen to the spot in regret and panic. She'd gotten her point across, justifying her behavior in a way he couldn't argue with. He didn't argue, after all. He didn't have to. He didn't want to. In explaining her rationale after losing Renamon, she lost Ken. Whether for a tense few hours or a day to cool down or permanently she didn't know—it killed her not to know—but it wasn't worth it. So who was she really arguing with?

"You okay?" She turned around. Ken was long gone, but Henry was there with Takato, both partnerless, the ruined walls behind them.

She didn't know how much they'd heard. Normally she'd raise her shield and snap back at such a question. Her defenses didn't click this time. She could only shake her head and ask, "Why don't they understand?" She sounded pathetic, a confused child asking about the unknowable.

"I don't know," Henry answered. "But we made this thing. And fair or not it's on us."

"We're just going to lay down and take it?" All the anger and frustration she wanted to use had been tapped.

"Will fighting it make anything better?" Takato asked. With a deep breath, he added, "What happened with you and Ken… that, uh, sounded like the talks Jeri and I used to have about it. They don't help."

Rika had to fight back tears. This feeling of losing someone so important to her, the desperate need to turn everything back and try it again, it was all too familiar. Even without actual crying, her heaving breaths were enough to draw Takato and Henry to her, wrapping their arms around her, three lonely tamers huddled as one. They could have been back home again, nobody else in the world understanding them, outcasts in broad daylight.

"So are we just… terrible?" Rika asked.

Takato tightened his hold, his head shaking. "We are what we are. It's too late to be sorry about it."

Rika pulled them in closer. Anything to not feel so alone. It was the same feeling that caused this trouble in the first place. Yet they refused to let go.


Maki Himekawa finished squeezing the jelly pouch into Yuujin's mouth. When he finished drinking, his head fell back onto his pillow. "Thanks," he said. "Guess I need to stop picking on Rei for liking those so much."

"When's Rei supposed to be back anyway?" asked Daigo, seated in the corner.

Haru didn't peel his eyes away from the computer monitor. "Soon, I hope. I don't want him to get into trouble."

"How about Tagiru?" Haru only shook his head. "Poor guy. Must have known Ken."

Maki shot him a look. Daigo piped down the moment he saw it.

"Who's Ken?" asked Yuujin, confirming Maki's fear.

"You didn't know him," Maki answered, turning away from his face, pretending to take his pulse. "He died yesterday. Bad run-in with a Scorpiomon."

"This Digital World sounds rough." She wasn't really tracking his heart rate, but she still sensed it speed up. "No doctors around, monsters everywhere. Weird place to come back to."

"This is the only place you could have come back to. It's quite a miracle actually. Took a lot of faith not to stop trying."

Yuujin smiled. "That's Haru for you."

Haru kept staring at his monitor, hiding how much he was beaming.

"So… Scorpiomon, huh?" Yuujin continued. "That's a Digimon then?"

"Yeah. Nasty thing," said Daigo. "Hey Himmy, how long did he have you three locked up?"

"Two days," Maki answered. She flashed a smug grin. "Then we poisoned his clams."

To her surprise, Yuujin chuckled along. When it subsided, he asked, "Hey Haru? Is there any chance Offmon made it here?"

Haru stopped and turned around. "Yeah! He's even got your appdrive. I was going to wait until you were on your feet but…"

Yuujin smiled back. "He could keep me company until I can move again."

"Of course!" Haru grinned as he realized Yuujin's buddy. The little jacketed puppy popped out, intimated by the cramped, crowded space. He was too cute for Maki to avoid smiling. She extended her hands. Offmon reared back for a moment, then looked up at the table and pieced it together, walking into her arms so she could hoist him up.

The bandages around Yuujin's face had come off, but his limited mobility prevented him from drawing his partner in. All he could do was greet Offmon with a smile.

It was enough to send the little guy into tears. "Yuujin, I'm sorry!" he bawled.

Yuujin chuckled, traces of tears himself. "It's okay. We knew Leviathan was dangerous." He sighed. "Can't say I didn't know what I signed up for."

Offmon lunged off Maki and onto the table, head nuzzled into Yuujin's neck. Yuujin winced, unable to bring his hands around him, but still smiling all the same.

The rush of emotion flooded Maki all at once. With just an involuntary gasp to warn her, the tears burst out of her own eyes. She stepped back and bent over, a hand covering her mouth as she cried out.

Daigo had a hand on her shoulder in a flash. "Hey, Himmy, what's wrong?"

She shook her head and sniffed. "Sorry." Despite the outburst, she still got her words out. "Just… they were apart for all those years and… they did it. They made it happen."

As Daigo rubbed her shoulder, she patted his hand and looked back at them. Offmon had picked his head up and stared back at her. "It feels good, doesn't it?" she told him. Offmon returned a teary, smiling nod. Maki smiled back, heaving a contented sigh.

The hatch opening almost didn't register with anyone amid the moment. Rei waited in silence until Haru asked him, "How did it go?"

"Fine," Rei answered. He pointed up. "Haru, Maki: let's talk upstairs."

Maki collected herself in an instant, pulling away from Daigo, who turned to Rei and asked, "What about me?"

"Entertain the patient. I don't know, talk about… sports."

As the others left, Daigo turned to Yuujin. "So, uh… how about those sports?"

Topside, Rei led Haru and Maki away from the wall, to the rocks along the shore. Haru couldn't wait that long: "Rei? Is everything really okay?"

Rei stopped and turned around. "Yes. I told them we attempted a full reset that took hours to complete. He failed to boot properly and his physical data was deleted. That's what would have happened if I tried that anyway."

"That's… good." Haru hesitated before condoning such a lie. "But what's this about?" He looked around. Nobody else was in sight. Other than their lab project downstairs, it was a normal, peaceful day.

"Answering to everyone had me thinking. What do we tell them when this new guy shows up?"

Maki raised her eyebrows, turning to Haru. "You didn't have a plan for this?"

Haru chuckled nervously. "Getting him back was the main thing. Never thought about what happens next."

"Right, so a day after somebody dies, in walks someone everyone thought was dead." She folded her arms. "That's suspicious."

"They don't know he died!" Haru pointed at Rei. "We made sure never to talk about Yuujin around anybody here. So they shouldn't know anything about him."

Maki shook her head. "So they'll notice when a new one drops in."

Rei steeled his eyes, staring down. "We could have them to transfer us to the new settlement. Convince everyone there we had one more. Eri and Torajiro would back us up."

"Um…" Haru grew uneasy. "They had that tornado or whatever it was. Eri says everything's a mess. They don't have enough rooms down there as it is. And I'd feel bad leaving Tagiru after everything that's happened."

"We also just had another death," added Maki. "They're more likely to send reinforcements here, not the other way around. That's how we ended up here in the first place."

"We could tell them Yuujin came up here to help us!" Haru deflated immediately. "But they'd still wonder why there's another appdriver."

"What if we said he wasn't an appdriver?" Rei suggested. "There are a million hunters. Some assigned to the settlement."

Haru's face lit up. "Rei! We have his Fusion Loader!" Rei nodded and retrieved it from his deep pockets. "They won't ask about an extra hunter!"

"Don't be stupid," said Maki. "Those all have different colors. Do you honestly think he could carry around Ken's digivice with no one asking questions?"

Haru stared back in disappointment but conceded a nod. "I suppose that would be a lot to explain to Yuujin."

"So he has to be here and he has to be an appdriver," said Rei, eyes off in the distance.

"Got an idea?" Haru asked with a hopeful grin.

"No. But that narrows it down enough to come up with one."


Meiko Mochizuki knew better than to interrupt, but she hated having to watch Tai in the middle of the crossfire. The international representatives didn't work in secrecy. Every piece of information they acquired interrogating Henry spread to the masses. All of the tamers faced instant scrutiny. Meiko hadn't heard about any confrontations, but the loud whispers and loaded glares in their direction revealed the anger. Honestly, she didn't have much sympathy for them. But everybody was quick to demand a strong rebuke from Tai. They quietly shunned the tamers, but Tai they outright yelled at.

The international digidestined formed a tight, united community. Given the threats from the Digital World that could crop up at any time, they had to be. But as much as they prided themselves on a common bond and their online communications breaking barriers of language and distance, they were still scattered across the globe. Incidents rarely had the same reach, isolated to a specific region and handled by the closest team. Some regions were hotter than others. While digidestined in Japan always seemed to be busy, someone in New Zealand could spend years never having to take action. But everyone still needed to know what was happening. Everyone still needed to be ready. Even the tiniest troublemaker meddling in the most remote desert defeated by the weakest team had to be reported. The team tolerated different religions, customs, and lifestyles. They did not tolerate secrets.

Meiko discovered all of this the hard way. Ironically, she didn't join the digidestined community until after her partner died. Meicoomon was too unstable to be a reliable defender, so why risk exposing her when they could hide in obscurity in Tottori until the experts could figure out what was going on? Maki, of course, strongly advised this course. So Meicoomon, and all of the poison lurking inside her, became Meiko's little secret. By the time the Odaiba digidestined saw the infection in action, she was too ashamed to admit the truth.

Still, they were more forgiving than the international digidestined. When Meicoomon sparked a global catastrophe and Meiko's existence was dramatically revealed, she had a lot to answer for. Not only had she hid herself from the only community capable of helping her, she concealed the problem until it grew unmanageable. The words stung, especially as she was still grieving when they poured in. She accepted them without fighting back. They were right: she didn't handle it correctly. Their criticism allowed her to validate her personal shame, that nagging voice reminding her she screwed up. The unconditional support from Tokyo helped keep that voice in check and allowed her to carry on, but part of her healing meant accepting her own mistakes rather than pretending they didn't happen.

Now, after taking her lashings with dignity and fighting to earn the community's respect, Meiko had to watch them go after Tai.

"The whole time we were planning this settlement, everything had to meet your approval," said Mina, eyes fixed, inches away from Tai's. "Now we're raising a serious concern about your team and you say it's out of your control?"

Tai tried to turn away. She wouldn't let him. "I mean, yeah, basically! New officers and big stuff like that has to go through the other five leaders! We set it up that way so I'm not the only one making the call on this stuff!"

"Five other leaders?" Eri folded her arms. "When's the last time you counted?"

"Yeah, we're still working that out. What are we up to now? Eight?"

Eri huffed. "So is there a point to me telling Haru we want this guy kicked out?"

"And is there no one for us to petition?" asked Mina. "We are simply not comfortable with Henry in a position of leadership right now."

"Look, I'll talk it over with them! I know you're mad at him! You just need to let us figure out what to do about it." He sighed. "I hear you, you know? But we have to do this the right way. Otherwise it's not fair."

"I respect doing things the right way. But not if it means nothing gets done." With a curt nod, Mina excused herself.

He still had to contend with Eri. After a long period of silence, he said, "Anything else?"

She kept her glare on him, but tears dotted her eyes. "A bunch of us thought we were going to die yesterday. If Tora and Yolei didn't step up they might have. I don't care if us all being freaked out and angry is an inconvenience to you." Eri opened her mouth again, but stopped and turned to Meiko. Rather than saying anything else, she marched off.

Meiko respected the frustration. Most of the international digidestined never encountered life and death situations, at least ones she didn't cause. Of course they'd panic hunkered down in a shelter, and of course they'd turn on the easiest scapegoat. She struggled to avoid joining them. But once again, Tai needed support. The same non-judgmental support he'd graced her with once.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out." She stepped forward and rubbed his shoulder.

"That's good, 'cause I'm not." Tai grunted, voice rising. "Where did this come from? Blowing up part of the world to get your partner back, I just…" He turned to her, calming the moment their eyes met. "Is it that hard?"

She nodded. This was one reason she couldn't completely snap at Henry. "Losing Meicoomon still hurts. But… maybe it's easier knowing it had to happen. Maybe it was fear of becoming Miss Himekawa." Meiko choked up. Despite her words, the sadness still bubbled. The anger of being fated to a soulmate doomed from the start was a hard one to suppress. She forced it down with a loud breath and a clenched fist. "I still can't excuse what they wanted to do."

"But they didn't do it!" Tai jolted upright, back leaning away from Meiko and against the stone wall. "And it sounds like Henry was the reason they didn't do it." He shook his head as he looked at her, traces of fear and confusion in his eyes. "And it's not like he meant for this to happen. Can I really punish him for it?"

His worry made her forget her personal pain. "He is good at the job," she conceded.

"No kidding. If anyone's going to figure out what happened it's Henry. He wouldn't be easy to replace. We're lucky he was around to replace Izzy."

"What happened with Izzy?"

"Uh…" His eyes jerked away. "Long story."

Despite her curiosity, she smiled it away, hands on his shoulders. "Okay… so you have to ask all the others, and then you have to promise to figure out how us and Eri's team fit into all that, and then… uh…"

"I have to figure out how to sell whatever we decide."

"You're good at that part." She pulled herself in closer for a kiss. "Whatever you end up deciding, I'm behind you all the way."

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her again. Finally the smile came out. A smile so perfect and hands so warm could keep her selfish frustrations bottled up forever. She wouldn't dare risk turning them loose.


Takuya Kanbara's hand shook even trying to carry out the simple task of knocking on a door. This was an easy job: organizing the memorial service of a human casualty fell to their leader. Ken was a hunter, therefore this was Tagiru's problem. Takuya's only job was to remind Tagiru of this, give him permission to order whatever he deems appropriate for the service, and make vague promises of support from the entire castle. He couldn't even stomach doing this.

After Keenan's initial investigation, everyone in the command room accepted the blips on the radar were decoys. Takuya just wanted to make sure. There wasn't supposed to be a temperamental Scorpiomon. The team checking it out wasn't supposed to prod it into a fight. Nobody was supposed to die. All of the other parties checking out the remaining blips reported back nothing. The sum result of the entire mission was no new information and one dead hunter.

To be more accurate, they learned one thing: Marsmon played mind games. The opposing forces planted bad information, chose what to allow Takuya's team to discover, and disrupted Isthmian's entire perception of the situation. The mountain raid must have been part of this as well. It couldn't have come from overconfidence or toying with an inferior enemy, but rather a tactical effort to weaken resolve and gain a strategic advantage. It was working.

Takuya couldn't guess whether the next attack would come the next day or in a month. Or whether they would ambush a small team or launch another full assault on the castle. He had to be ready for anything. Sometimes this meant doing nothing. Takuya hated doing nothing.

Maybe it was the fear of inaction that brought his fist to the door. He didn't get an answer. "Hey Tagiru! Open up!"

After another silence, Takuya heard Gumdramon inside: "C'mon, I think it's the boss!" The door still didn't open.

Gumdramon gave him an idea: "Let me in, man! That's an order!"

There was still a delay, but the Digimon pulled the door open. "Are you really allowed to barge into our room?"

Takuya stepped inside, shrugging. "I 'unno. But we gotta talk about what we're doing for Ken."

Tagiru laid prone on his bed, his Fusion Loader and goggles on his nightstand. He didn't budge even with the guest in his room. Takuya expected some sorrow over a loss to the team, but wasn't ready for full incapacitation. Especially from Tagiru. If anything, he was banking on him to be his usual ignorant self over the implications and permanence of what had happened. This ran the risk of the memorial lacking sincerity, but at least it would happen and it wouldn't be hung on the leadership.

Instead, Takuya had to play psychologist. This was where he had gained an appreciation for the concept of partner Digimon. He asked Gumdramon, "What's wrong with him?"

"Someone died."

Takuya rolled his eyes. "I know someone died. Which part of it's got him locked up? Were they friends?"

"Nah, they didn't really get along."

That gave him second thoughts about Tagiru planning the memorial, but priorities… "Okay, so what's up? It's Tagiru; I would have guessed he'd be trying to cheer everybody up."

"Yeah… me too." Gumdramon's sudden somber tone worried him. "It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt."

"What, he didn't think people could get hurt?" Takuya turned back to Tagiru. "Dude, you're hurt right now! Your ribs haven't healed! You can't really think bad stuff doesn't happen here."

Finally, the hunter shifted, mumbling, "I guess I did. Hunting Digimon sounded like a really cool game."

"Seriously?!"

Fidgeting behind them, Gumdramon said, "Ehh… some of that could be my fault."

"Bad guys were trying to destroy the world! Of course it could happen. Hell, first week we got there Koji or JP or… I don't remember who, but they said someone could die." His hands rose. "And they were right!"

"No! Nobody was supposed to die!" In one impossibly swift motion, Tagiru spun around and hopped to his feet, his panicked eyes glaring back, his teeth gritted. "We just wanted to have fun and hunt Digimon and help people! It's not supposed to be like this!"

"Well, it happened! And you can't fight right now so be useful and do something to help us remember this kid!" Takuya almost regretted his aggressive tone. Maybe if he understand why this hit Tagiru so hard he would have. More of him just wanted to pass on this responsibility so he wouldn't have to think about it anymore.

"I barely remember him anyway! I can't do this!" Tears poured out as Tagiru only grew louder. "Besides, this is my fault!"

The punch came out of nowhere. Some unfathomable instinctual reaction brought Takuya's fist forward and striking Tagiru under the neck. The force almost knocked him back on the bed. His rear slid off the edge and he fell to the floor, an uncontrollable sobbing mess clutching at his chest as his heaving tested his still-fragile ribs.

"Hey!" Gumdramon jumped on the bed and pointed at Takuya. "Nobody punches Tagiru but me!"

Tagiru wasn't the only one panting. Takuya stared at the lost, pitiful kid under him and whimpered a sigh. Why was he letting this become a fight? Why did Tagiru's despair anger him so much? This wasn't him. He had to get out.

"Just… just do something for him, okay? God…" he mumbled, backpedaling out the door even before he finished. Takuya slammed the door shut behind him and pounded the wall. He forced himself not to cry or admit how much he wanted to. Leaders didn't do that.

He staggered down the hall. The few people he passed gave him plenty of space. Had anyone asked about his well-being, he wasn't sure if he'd punch them too or fall apart in their arms. He had nowhere to turn, no answer to his problem, and no one to blame but himself.

Stumbling into his room and falling onto the lone bed inside, he wondered how he looked compared to Tagiru. Maybe someone else would force their way in and find him in the same position. No… he wasn't that lucky.

All he could hear was one voice. Hers: "You can't do this by yourself. You need help."


Davis Motomiya was happy to hear the knock at his door. He wished he could have spent more time at the settlement. They had plenty of bodies to help with cleanup and utility repair, but he still wanted to be among them. Even more than that, he hated only hearing about the tamers after the fact. Henry ostracized at the settlement? Rika and Ken fighting? His only views of it came from vague texts from Ken and a guarded chat with Takato after Tai sent the response team home the next day. It was difficult to make sense of. Davis figured an outsider's perspective might help, and no one was more outside than Rhythm.

As she sat upright on the bed, he leaned back on his elbows next to her. "So yeah, Henry built something to destroy the world, Ken's upset with his girl, and everybody's just kind of pissed off."

Rhythm chuckled. "I wonder who flipped on that program here."

He sat up a little. "Oh… yeah, any clues about that? I guess Henry was looking at it the other day but nobody turned it on."

"I don't know. It could be Algomon. It existed on the network already so it wouldn't take much for him to set it loose."

"Think you can look into it and let us know?"

"What's the fun in that?" Her tone was far too playful for such a threat. "I hope you're not being nice to me so I'd fix all your problems."

Kari's face was stone as always, but Davis imagined a devilish grin on a younger girl's face. He fell back again, close to laughing. Who would have thought a god trolling him could be fun?

"So your friend's having girl trouble?" Davis raised an eyebrow at her. She chuckled again.

He obliged. "Well yeah, she was okay with doing all that to the Digital World and she's not even sorry about it. Like how do you think he's going to feel about that?"

"Hmm… that's a tough one. Ken used to be the Emperor, right?"

"Wait, hold on…" He sat up to be level with her, wearing his own grin, a chance to tease back. "You won't help us with the big stuff but you'll help Ken with his girl problems?"

"Of course, that's way more of a challenge!" Her cheek had him grinning for a different reason. She didn't have to be serious or professional or distant. Strip away the need for all those and Rhythm could be cute and fun. It was fascinating.

"And I guess I'm sort of a girl," she added.

Stupid a reason as it was, something clicked on inside him. They hadn't talked about anything meaningful, neither doing anything to solve each other's problems. Yet he was enjoying her company far too much. It became the best time of his day, whiling through his shifts in hope of hearing that knock at his door. Heaven knew it wasn't about thinking of Rhythm as a girl per se, but that it opened the door to consider her something more reachable than a god.

Whatever dumbfounded expression he had on his face, it forced her to break the silence: "Though I suppose I'm not a girl like Rika though."

"You're way better than Rika," he mumbled.

"Hey…" Rhythm hesitated, putting more care into her words. "Just because she… well, was willing to damage her world for her own benefit… and not a god and all…"

"I don't care that you're a god," he said, staring into her eyes. He didn't see Kari. He didn't see the hued lenses. He saw Rhythm, a playful optimist with a cool job, absolute faith in mankind, and a lonely existence he could offer a respite from. "I just… like hanging out with you. I wish we could do it more. I… I wish you didn't have to borrow Kari for it."

"I… wish I could too." He waited through her pauses, no matter how long. " I never thought about it until I started spending time with you." Davis drifted closer to her as she continued. "How nice would it be to have a real form there? To… sense things. To be around… people." He was inches away now. "Around you…"

Davis leaned in further. His heart pounded, each beat urging him forward to take her hand and just kiss her already. More of his weight fell on his arm, enough to buckle just slightly, causing the tiniest flinch. It was enough to remind him who was really in front of him. He couldn't go further. It ached.

He had nothing left to say either. Everything he would have normally told her should have been done through his hands and lips. Rhythm wouldn't have received them. And he knew, just from her hushed, inviting voice, she wanted to.

Rhythm's head drifted down and she blinked. Kari's eyes returned, confused and groggy, but open. She fell forward. Davis's hands shot up on instinct to catch her.

When he did, her head perked up again. Kari blinked a few more times. Her eyes only opened halfway but she was awake.

"Kari?" Her consciousness confused him, enough to replace his disappointment.

She surged forward and kissed him, one arm reaching up to clutch his. It was just forceful enough, direct and natural. They breathed it in together, a fit as perfect and wonderful as he had always imagined a kiss from Kari to be. Davis received it and returned it. He wanted a kiss, and he got one. Part of him wondered why it was from Kari; the rest wondered if it was from Kari.

He prolonged it as much as he could, but she pulled away in time, letting him see the broad, bashful smile on her red face. Her eyes strayed down, still refusing to open all the way. He forgot how beautiful they were intact.

"Kari?" he asked, this time in a low whisper.

She shook her head. "I don't know." She leaned in again, this time just a quick peck. "I don't want to think about it." She took a slow, controlled breath. "Can we just leave it there? I'm… pretty tired."

He was still perplexed, but sleeping on this sounded like a smart idea. He was already looking forward to his dreams. "Can you make it back to your room?"

Kari frowned. "I guess, but… I'd rather stay here?" He barely got a nod out.

Davis gathered his senses enough to stand up and pull back the covers for her to slide into. After some hesitation, he joined her on the other side. It wasn't the first time they'd shared a bed. Before it was an unfortunate effect of Rhythm or some random horrible event they needed to console each other through. This time it was a choice and desired.

As soon as he was in, she slid closer to him, a hand finding his chest in the dark. Before he'd always been so careful not to overstep he never appreciated her warmth. He draped a hand over her arm, his eyes adjusting to see the peaceful smile on her face as she drifted off. Davis settled in and let his head fill with thoughts of the beautiful soul next to him, whoever she was.


Kenta Kitagawa wasn't one to show off. He had learned that lesson from Kazu, whose efforts at bravado were either quickly upstaged, rendered irrelevant by someone more talented, or ignored entirely. He was useful when he could be and smart when he had to be, but shied away from puffing himself up. MarineAngemon, on the other hand, never passed up an opportunity to impress.

That's how they ended up floating in a red bubble high over the tree line with Angie, Suzie and their Digimon. It started out simple enough: now that Angie had a Digimon to herself, she could go outside the castle without having to borrow someone else's. Kenta, ever the worrier, didn't think an In-Training like Pusurimon was capable of any sort of protection. He offered to go with her. Angie, interpreting every gesture he made as an attempted date (she was only wrong half the time), declined in favor of Suzie. Suzie countered by suggesting a MarineAngemon-powered bubble ride, which the little Mega was all too happy to provide and Angie liked too much to pass up.

The early morning jaunt was so peaceful and offered such a great view that Kenta kicked himself for never trying it before, especially offering to take Angie. Despite the pink barrier between them and the woods and rivers below them, her eyes were fixed on the outside world. She held Pusurimon up, pointing out unique landforms or colonies of Digimon starting their day. He was afraid to interrupt, doing so only once, tapping her on the shoulder, pointing, and saying, "Hey, ever seen Alraumon before? They're like Palmon, just kind of meaner."

Angie loved the bird's-eye view of a half-dozen purple-petaled Virus types rooted in the lush grass near a river. "Isn't that cool!" she said to Pusurimon. "Palmon's grumpy sisters!"

"They aren't actually related," said Lopmon. "They just look alike."

Suzie chuckled, and Angie joined in, hugging Pusurimon tighter. That smile stayed through the whole trip, her spirit as airy as the bubble they floated in. Kenta was happy to see it again. It wasn't her first smile since her demotion from upstairs, but it was the first with a glow, maybe ever. This was a newer, brighter Angie and he loved it. He wished he could say part of it was due to his partner's homemade balloon ride, but he knew the real reason all too well.

"Lower! Lower!" Pusurimon chirped. "Let's go right over the ground!"

"Even better!" Suzie pointed down. "Right over the river!"

"Yes! Perfect!" Angie cheered.

Kenta ordered them down to the creek below, a shallow tributary of the bigger supply river. At a low enough elevation, hovering over it felt like walking on water. They all leaned in, trying to stay as low as they could to the bubble. A pair of trees leaned over each side of the book. Suzie shouted, "Go under them!" Kenta obliged.

They noticed a problem only after it was too late to avoid it. Sunlight angled just right for them to catch the glare off webbing between the two trees. The bubble powered into it, and despite how thin it was, it not only held together against the impact, it trapped the bubble in a pocket, the top ends folding around to envelop the six of them and pop their ride.

"Who put this thing here?" Angie cried, still cradling Pusurimon, her head wedged under Suzie's armpit.

"MarineAngemon, can you get out?" asked Kenta.

"Tight!" his companion replied. It couldn't fit its head between the gaps.

"Lopmon, cut us out of here!" said Suzie.

Lopmon was at the bottom of the pile, head squeezed between the webbing and Kenta's rear. "Using an attack now would be a very bad idea, Suzie."

They tried to shuffle positions, but the net jostled with every move, only entangling them further. Lopmon remained underneath, now sandwiched between Angie's legs. "This is becoming a problem," she mumbled.

"I don't want to meet whatever put this up," Angie groaned. "If it's a spider…"

Interest piqued, Kenta snared the fingers of his one movable hand around the string. "It's not. This isn't silk. It's like mesh or something."

"Mesh?" repeated Suzie. "What Digimon puts up mesh netting?"

They got their answer: below them, Airu tapped her feet angrily. "Do you idiots have any idea how long it takes to set up mist netting?"

"Of course it was you…" Angie muttered.

Airu returned a sweet smile. "If by that you mean no one else is as smart or is as dedicated to finding cute Digimon, I'm guilty as charged! I heard Pipismon like to fly through here at night." The smile became a scowl. "I heard nothing about you three."

Opossummon floated up to them. "Let's throw them back in the river, Airu!"

"Whatever, just get us down," said Kenta.

Folding her arms, Airu said, "What makes you think you can spring a trap and just walk away?! That's so rude! I deserve something for my trouble!"

After tugging on the net to no avail, Kenta groaned, "What do you want?"

"Let's see… cute bunny… cute hedgehog… cute…" She peered in at MarineAngemon. "I don't know what that one's supposed to be but it's adorable. They're no Pipismon but I'll take any of them. I'll even let you pick." Airu flashed a bright smile. "Fair trade-off, right?"

"We're not giving you nothing!" Suzie shouted back.

"Exactly! Give me nothing and you don't get out!"

As they bickered, Pusurimon tried to wiggle out of Angie's arms. "Let me out, I want to help!"

Angie clutched tighter. "It's okay! I won't let her take you!"

"But Angie!" It relented, but only to force her to look into its eyes. "Everyone else is stuck!"

"What, and you think you can get us out?"

"Don't you believe in me?"

She had every reason to continue panicking, but Pusurimon's words froze her. It was a bold statement for a helpless fluffball, leaving her staring in awe as the trouble around her carried on. "Please Angie. Trust me."

The hesitation subsided. "O… okay," she said, voice hushed.

That was all it took: "Pusurimon digivolve to…Herissmon!"

His fur didn't change color, but his nubby spikes became proper spines as he grew into a full hedgehog. Luckily for everyone he rose to to the top of the pile before he poked anyone. The key upgrade was a set of claws capable of tearing a hole in the mesh.

Leaping out, he fired at Opossummon: "Lightning Quills!" The balloons popped, dropping her into the creek.

Herissmon tore apart the rest of the net as Airu fished her partner out of the water and scurried off. Once on the ground, Suzie shouted, "Wait until Henry hears about this!"

It got Airu away from the scene, but Kenta said, "I think Henry has bigger problems right now."

"She doesn't know that!"

Kenta shrugged and turned to Angie. "Hey, great job getting-"

Nothing he could say would have taken her out of her moment. She held Herissmon's claws, both radiating with each other's energy. "I digivolved because of you!" said Herissmon.

Angie shook her head, nearly in tears. "And you saved us! We're such a great team!"

"The best!"

Kenta smiled, accepting a greeting from MarineAngemon and silently admiring the pair. He tried not to get emotional himself; this was the happiest he'd ever seen her. It brightened his day as well.

The younger Wong sibling had finished her shouting and joined him in watching the love fest. "That's so cute! Good for them!" Kenta nodded along. Suzie sighed. "Times like these make you remember why Henry did all that, you know?"

It caught him off guard. Kenta had always distanced himself from the Yaddith business, both past and present. He reasoned Suzie had as well. Even so, the uproar over it implicated all of the tamers. It would reach them in time. But no matter how much hate they'd get for it or how much any of them might try to walk it back, one look at Angie and Herissmon and Kenta knew how they all really felt.


Haru Shinkai steadied his nerves pacing outside the meeting room. The crafted narrative was simple enough: they just found Yuujin. How he washed up near Isthmian and why he was in a coma they didn't know, but it was important Haru and Rei verified and legitimized his identity before nursing him back to health. Stories of the dead rising rarely had happy endings, after all. Haru especially dreaded having to joke about that.

He had to stress that since everything looked okay, Yuujin didn't want to know what had happened. Investigating the circumstances meant revisiting whatever uncomfortable situations he may have been in, and it was probably better for everyone if he didn't remember them. He had died, remember, and who would want to revisit something like that? Haru was to ask for a quiet integration at Isthmian, and in return Yuujin and Offmon would be a willing unit when it came time for the next operation.

"There's no way he's going to buy this," Haru mumbled to himself. Rei and Maki mixed this concoction. Haru just had to convince Takuya to drink it.

At least it was only Takuya; Maki figured it would be easier than addressing multiple officers. If he could get Takuya on board, the others wouldn't be as skeptical hearing it from him. Haru wasn't sure if Takuya's noticeable slouch and red eyes hurt or helped his cause.

"So what's up?" Takuya's eyes shifted to the door rather than Haru.

"Um… well, have I told you much about Yuujin?"

"Name doesn't ring a bell. Who's that?"

"Well, he's a really close friend of mine, and part of our team. And, uh… well, he died to stop Leviathan." Skipping over the critical details came easy. He preferred to remember it that way.

"Okay…" From his groan of an answer, clearly this was not the subject Takuya wanted.

"Or… that's what we thought." Haru trained his eyes on Takuya to gauge a reaction.

He got a tiny rise out of Takuya's eyebrows, head shifting to the door. "What, he, like, pulled a Koichi or something?"

"I… don't know what that means. Look, it sounds crazy, but-"

Takuya opened the door instead of waiting for the explanation. Yuujin and Offmon waited inside, the Appmon shaking in terror as he stared at Takuya.

Yuujin returned a nervous smile, nodding back at the leader, hand clutching a cup of coffee. "Hey," he said.

"Huh," was all Takuya said in response. He sounded more disinterested than suspicious or inquisitive.

Haru squeezed into the room. "I know it looks weird, but…"

"What, he just showed up?" asked Takuya.

"Seems so," said Yuujin. He smirked. "I'm as confused as anyone."

Before Haru could launch into the lies crafted for him, Yuujin continued, "But it sounds like you could use some help here." He patted Offmon's hat. "Offmon's tough. We'll chip in wherever you need us."

Takuya stared back for a long time, enough to make Haru worry. He turned to Haru, who slapped on an uneasy smile in response. Eventually he faced Yuujin again and shrugged. "Cool. I'll get Matt to figure out where to put you." Back to Haru, he asked, "Anything else?"

Haru stammered, "Uh… I guess not…"

"Great." Without looking, Takuya shouted back, "Nice meeting you!"

Takuya squeezed past Haru out the door. Haru wanted to call back, to say something about not investigating what happened and cement the cover-up for good. But saying anything would have been too out of place, too forced to be useful and potentially backfiring. He couldn't tell how much Takuya bought it, or if Matt or Koji or anyone else would get suspicious instead. Haru just knew he couldn't influence them any longer.

Yuujin chuckled as he and Offmon stepped out of the room. "I think that went well. So when do I get the tour?"

Haru smiled, Yuujin's simple words fading his worries. Why overthink it? Yuujin was back, upright, and healthy. Now they were free to enjoy the reward of six years of work. After fighting so hard to return everything to normal, maybe it was just hard to see that they'd arrived. If Yuujin did, Haru could too.

En route to the cafeteria for a snack and maybe some early integration with the other residents, Haru passed Tagiru's door. He hadn't heard from him in a couple days, not since Yuujin's restoration at least. "Yuujin, hold on," he said before knocking.

From the other side, Gumdramon shouted back, "No, we're not ready!"

"What's going on?"

Yuujin stared at Haru, matching his worry without knowing any of the context. Gumdramon, calmer, answered, "Oh, it's you." Yuujin snickered. Haru motioned for him to wait as Gumdramon opened the door.

Tagiru sat motionless at a desk, his chair pulled two feet out. On the desk, a notebook had "Memorial" scribbled on it with nothing else. He stared at a wall.

"It's hard, losing somebody you care about," said Haru, gracefully approaching.

The chuckle from Tagiru started out sad, but it didn't stop and even grew louder. By the time he was done, there were tears in his eyes. "Care about Ken? He was an ass."

Before Haru could respond, Tagiru ranted: "I don't know anything about him! I don't know anything about any of the other hunters! Just me and Mikey and Ewan. For a second I thought I knew Ryouma. Nope!" He turned to Haru. "But I'm their leader, I guess. So I gotta plan his funeral or something. Isn't that stupid?"

"Do you need help or something?"

"Yeah…"

Haru knew this meant he'd be doing it himself. He didn't mind. No one else knew the extent of Ken's sacrifice anyway.

With the burden lifted, Tagiru straightened up in his seat. "I just wanted to be the number one hunter. And yeah, helping people out was cool. But does being good at all that stuff really make me a leader? So I'm good at catching Digimon. How does that mean I'm good at saving the world? Or fighting in a war? Or giving speeches about kids I don't care about?"

Gumdramon jumped on the bed and sighed. "You know it was a lot easier when you didn't bother to think through all this stuff"

"Right?! It was great when no one believed in me! Nobody cared when I screwed up!" He shook his head. "It… it matters now."

Haru struggled to handle how lost Tagiru looked. This was the kid who never seemed to lack confidence, who craved the spotlight. His crisis almost deflated Haru as well. Even worse, Haru couldn't help. He wanted to lead. He wanted to be relied on. He wanted it to matter. Tagiru dreamed of the glory while the responsibility intimidated him. Haru was the opposite.

The solution was simple, and Haru buried a smile when it came to him. "It does matter. But that doesn't have to be a bad thing." He poked the door open and made a gesture. Yuujin followed him in.

Tagiru was already craning his neck toward the new friend. "Tagiru, I want you to meet Yuujin," Haru announced.

"Yuujin?" Tagiru blinked in awe, his mouth curling into a smile when Haru nodded. "The Yuujin? For real?!"

Barely holding a smile in, Yuujin glanced aside. "Whatever Haru said about me, he's probably exaggerating."

Tagiru jumped out of his chair and bounced up to Yuujin, extending an eager hand. Yuujin slapped it. It wasn't what Tagiru expected, but he pulled back and laughed it off. Haru chuckled along and said, "Almost! It's, uh… fist bump, then a high five." He and Yuujin demonstrated; Haru silently ecstatic at performing their old greeting for the first time in so long.

"Fist bump, high five, okay!" Tagiru and Yuujin tried again. This time it was flawless. "Oh my God, you shared your dap! So cool!"

Once the laughter subsided, Yuujin said, "Hey, so I overheard you saying you weren't sure you should be a leader?" Tagiru's smile vanished as he nodded. "Don't think like that. If other people think they can count on you when it matters, there's a good reason for it. You should believe it about yourself. Haru taught me that." Tagiru took it in with a broad nod.

"Yuujin…" Haru blushed. "How about we finish that tour?"

"Long as there's real food at the end of it." Yuujin gave Tagiru one last smile before walking out.

Haru watched him go, but didn't move. "Man, he was wrong. You weren't exaggerating!" gushed Tagiru.

After Haru snickered, he looked down. Part of him wanted to invite Tagiru along. The thinking part didn't want to complicate the integration process. "We'll swung by later to figure out what to do for Ken."

Tagiru looked down too. All the laughter and happy tears and secret handshakes in the world brought them back to funeral arrangements. Something prevented Haru from leaving it at that. Tagiru deserved better.

"You know… this wouldn't have happened if it weren't for you," said Haru. "I would have given up and resented it for the rest of my life. You made me keep trying. You made us figure it out." He looked back up. Now the tears were in his eyes. "You saved his life." He lunged forward to wrap Tagiru up in a hug.

No matter who was waiting on the other side, he didn't want to let go until he knew Tagiru was at ease. "I needed you back then, and all the times you came through for me and Rei," he whispered. "Nothing mattered more."


Michael Barton saw the meeting as a culmination of an exhausting few days. The rubble was gone, most of the castle had power and water again, and material to reconstruct the damaged side of the building was on its way. This last meeting with Tai was supposed to put the mess behind them and offer some stability going forward. Everyone in the room knew that would be impossible.

Tai faced the five representatives alone this time. Only Megumi joined them to take notes, and even her presence seemed out of place.

The first part of the meeting was cordial, making sure everybody was on the same page on rebuilding, guaranteeing that all resources would be available, and estimating a timetable and how far it set back the overall construction project. For all the intricate details and disheartening talk of building something they had already built, at least everyone was united.

That was why he dealt with it first. Everything else in the meeting was bound to come with heat.

"The next matter is the investigation of Yaddith's appearance," said Mina, a calm, focused glare at Tai.

Tai nodded, trying not to look directly at her. "Izzy's going to head up the investigation. Henry's only going to answer questions. Um… Thomas will sign off on everything."

"But Henry keeps his job?" asked Catherine.

Head down, Tai answered, "I did what you wanted. I met with the other five leaders. Which wasn't easy: Marcus is on patrol and Isthmian's going through some stuff too." He sighed. "Three for removal, three against. Removing someone from power needs five."

Michael shook his head. He sympathized with Tai in the sense that there was a system beyond him. There was a structure, it functioned the way it needed to, and Tai was stuck delivering the bad news. Michael respected that it existed. He just would have liked to know how Tai voted.

"Only six?" The South American rep sounded more curious than suspicious. Mina eyed him, taking a deep breath before her eyes fell back on Tai.

"I already talked to Mina about this. I know we need to get some new arrivals in the room. But it's not that easy."

"Well, how did you settle on six?"

"Uh, it was Mikey's idea. Every group kind of has a leader so they can, I guess, represent his team."

"By group you mean different worlds?" Michael asked. When Tai affirmed, he added, "But Davis is one of them."

"Well yeah! You know, his guys are kind of their own team, you know?"

"Yes, more than you realize!" Catherine covered her mouth to avoid giving away her smirk.

"So how do you define a group? Or a leader?" asked Mina. "For all of us that arrived three months ago, Eri's team is the only one from a new world."

Tai nodded along. "Right, so because of that Haru would be in for sure. And Davis is in so it makes sense to include Tagiru." Tai paused and pondered. "I guess Nishijima counts too."

"Nishijima absolutely counts," said Catherine, lowering her head. "You'd do well not to forget him."

"But why them?" Mina's questioning grew more pointed. "Why Haru instead of, say, Eri? Who makes that choice?"

For the first time in the conversation, Tai leaned back and winced. He already braced himself for the response to the answer: "They're the leaders of their original teams. If anyone's going to represent them, shouldn't it be them?"

"What, and we don't have teams?" Michael asked. "I know we haven't seen as much action as you guys, but it wouldn't be hard to sort ourselves if need be."

"More than just by continent, of course," Mina added. "No one person can possibly represent everyone within Asia."

"That's your dilemma isn't it?" Catherine said, more gentle than Mina or Michael. "No clean way to divide us and no proven leaders standing out in them."

A chuckle escaped Tai. "You know I don't know what's up with all the leaders wearing goggles, but it does make us easy to pick out of a crowd."

Mina nodded along. "Well, in that case there's a Malaysian boy here with an eye condition we should be deferring to."

"Anyway, you see the problem."

"We do. Your civil structure is not equipped for our community. You expect teams who have all been in the thick of the fight to save their world. We work to prevent crises and maintain a global support network. We don't have conventional teams, therefore we lack conventional leaders. Is that right?"

"Um! Uh…" Tai hesitated, mouth attempting to response but stumbling. "Well yeah but… I mean I'm not trying to write you guys off."

"It's all right." Michael waved him off. "We came up with a solution. You can go ahead and add Haru, Daigo and Tagiru."

Tai didn't buy the false cheer. "What about you guys?"

"We will be operating independent of anyone's authority," answered Mina. She stood. Tai sunk. "The other digidestined will craft our own rules, elect our own leadership, and we will decide what's best for our group, just as your leadership decides what's best for yours."

"You can't just…" Tai shook his head. "You can't just decide you're not going to work with us."

"Oh, we'll still work with you," said Catherine, smiling. "We just agreed on a wonderful rebuilding plan, and that requires your help. We'll still be friends. But our house will have our rules, and your house will have yours."

Dumbfounded, Tai faced them again, head drifting between all five of them, all staring back, unwavering. "I'm going to have to tell the others what's going on. What if they don't like this plan?"

Michael shrugged, a smug grin forming. "Well, just ask them three questions. One: do you think we're going to go rogue and destroy the place?"

"Your officer did more to do that than any of our people," Mina added.

"And after that, two: why should any of us trust your team to look out for our best interests?"

Tai seethed, head turned and shaking, his face pale. No doubt Michael wasn't the only one of the five feeling pity for breaking him this way. He had been a reliable leader putting himself through trials they couldn't fathom for the sake of protecting their world. But this was bigger than their roles back home. Here they could no longer afford to live under the shadow of the Japanese team. They needed to do things their way. They needed to flex the might of their numbers. They needed to prove themselves. All the sympathy to Tai, sure, but their unity and ability to take a stand gave them a rush.

Confirming his defeat, Tai asked, "So what's question three?"

Mina leaned in and waited for Tai to look back before answering: "How far would you actually go to stop us?"


Next Time on Nexusworld- Episode 16: "Lipstick and Barbed Wire"
The patrol team encounters a new threat that might rival Yaddith. Yuujin gets his first taste of action on the front lines. Sora, Ewan, and Mimi head to new positions and new locations.

"Bad ideas are my favorite."


Author's Notes

Henry's uneasy feeling hearing Sampson probably has to do with him having the same voice as his dad.

Feels like I'm playing with fire talking about the internationals with a bunch of new information about their dynamic embedded into Kizuna already. I stuck to pretty safe assumptions with them. Meiko fitting into that was a nice chance to add a touch of integration to the whole scenario. I don't expect anything to tell me I'm wrong!

Lopmon's line about Alraumon and Palmon only looking alike and not being related is straight-up stolen from the running gag in Appmon. The add comes in hearing it in Lopmon's humorless monotone rather than a trolling Musimon.

Before accepting that Airu finds Pipismon cute and reading on, make sure you know what Pipismon actually look like first.