Chapter Seventeen

For the second time in less than a week, harsh light flooded into Hikari's eyes when she cracked them open. A sharp, throbbing pain soon followed and she squeezed them shut again until the discomfort had subsided, trying again more slowly this time until the blinding light faded and resolved itself into a single bulb and bland ceiling tiles. She was quick to deduce she was in a hospital again, though she couldn't quite recall for what. Her memory was hazy, for the moment, and the best Hikari could dredge up was that she had fallen for some reason and slammed into a door head first.

That seemed to concur with a dull ache coming from her forehead and when she reached up with a shaky arm, she found a dressing fixed into place over a very tender feeling patch of skin that she was certain now held a spectacular bruise. Hikari groaned and let her arm fall back into place, only to hiss in pain when she tried to move the other. Fire spread out from the shoulder and discouraged any further movement, even something as simple as flexing her fingers, and Hikari complied as best she could to avoid exacerbating the wound more.

What happened to me? Hikari wondered, her memory still foggy as to the specific circumstances that had led to her injuries.

She struggled to remember anything more than just barging into a door but only got a blurry image of a room and a shadowy, almost demonic figure looming over her. Had the Dark Ocean tried to take her again?

Another groan escaped her lips and Hikari gave up on trying to remember. The pain medication she was on and the resultant neurological trauma from a head wound meant it could be a long, long time before she was able to say for certain what had happened to her. Besides, someone had brought her here to this hospital so they probably had some kind of idea about what she had done to herself.

'Ah, you're awake,' a soft voice called from the opposite end of the room, a kindly looking doctor in surgical scrubs hovering by the door. 'That's a good sign.'

'Where am I?' Hikari murmured, her own voice little more than a rasp.

'You're in a hospital,' the doctor said. 'A military one, I might add, which makes your presence here most unusual.'

'The army…' Hikari began. 'The army's… looking after me.'

'Yes, Captain Ishida explained the situation to me,' the doctor said, smiling. 'Don't worry. You're in safe hands here.'

'What happened to me?' Hikari said. 'I remember hitting a door with my head…'

'Two doors, actually,' the doctor said as he stepped closer, picking up a clipboard hanging from the edge of the bed and reading the contents. 'Which resulted in a luxation between the scapula and humerus on the left side, and a linear fracture of the frontal bone of your cranium, which in turn led to a mild traumatic brain injury and loss of consciousness.'

'What?' Hikari said.

The doctor smiled again. 'You dislocated your left shoulder and cracked your skull, and suffered a concussion that knocked you out. In layman's terms, at least.'

'How did I fall into two doors?' Hikari asked.

'That I don't know,' the doctor said. 'All the good captain would say is that he found you lying in a hallway, unconscious, and brought you straight here for treatment.'

'Am I going to be okay?' Hikari said.

'Certainly,' the doctor said. 'We popped your joint back into place without complication, and the fracture is only an inch long at most. Both are going to hurt for a few days and you'll have to wear a sling, but that's it. As for the concussion, it might take upwards of four weeks to fully clear given your age and you'll have to avoid certain concentration heavy activities, like reading or schoolwork, and get plenty of rest.'

'I think I can manage that,' Hikari said.

The doctor smiled. 'Excellent. In that case, I expect a full recovery in no time.'

He made some annotations on the clipboard and replaced it, then adjusted some of the numbers on the IV machine feeding its contents into Hikari's arm, and left. He was soon replaced by Captain Ishida who remained near the threshold of the room, looking uneasy, which set off alarm bells in Hikari's head from the word go.

'Can I speak with you?' Ishida asked.

'Of course, captain,' Hikari said, nodding weakly at the room's sole chair.

'Thank you,' Ishida said. He stepped into the room but declined the chair, hovering between it and the bed. 'The doctors tell me you'll make a full recovery.'

'They told me that as well,' Hikari said. 'But that's assuming I can actually get the rest they're advising. Something tells me I won't be so lucky.'

'No,' Ishida said. He hesitated then sat down on the chair but he didn't seem too relaxed, perching himself on the very edge and clasping both hands before him. 'Hikari, what can you remember about how you suffered these injuries?'

'Not much,' she said. 'I think I was in a room somewhere, and there was this dark figure in there with me, and then…'

She trailed off and struggled to recall anything else, bits of information popping back into place randomly as she did. It had been a room on the base and she had gone there to speak with the occupant, or maybe it had been her room and someone had come to talk with her? No, it was definitely somebody else's room and she had specifically gone to talk with them about something. About what, though? And how had it ended up with her dislocating her shoulder?

Then it came flooding back to her all at once.

The room had been Daisuke's and she had gone to see if he wanted to talk, only for him to try and force himself onto her the moment the door was shut. She recalled his hand as it groped her breast and tried to explore somewhere else, and how he had bent her over a desk and pulled down her jeans whilst twisting her arm behind her back, and the terror that had gripped her very soul upon feeling his erection pressing up against her exposed backside.

She was soon crying and wailing as the trauma of being assaulted in such a terrible manner by someone she had once considered a close friend and ally reared its head again. As much as he seemed to hate her, Hikari could never bring herself to think Daisuke would actually carry out such a vile act against her, much less anyone else. And yet, he had come very close to accomplishing his goal.

'Daisuke tried to rape me!' she cried at Ishida, who was watching her with a grim expression. 'How could he do that? How could he even think of raping me?'

'It's… complicated,' Ishida said quietly. 'Which isn't what you want to hear right now, but that's the truth.'

'You're right it's not what I want to hear!' Hikari shouted. 'Someone I thought was a friend attacked me!'

'I know,' Ishida said, holding his hands up. 'But please, let me try and explain it.'

'Oh, please do,' Hikari shot at him, her anguish giving way to anger in the face of somebody she had taken a liking to trying to defend such a reprehensible act.

Ishida was silent for a moment, gathering himself, then said, 'There's no way of saying this without sounding crass, so I'll just come out with it. Daisuke mistook you for a hooker.'

For a long minute, Hikari said nothing. She couldn't be sure if the concussion was messing with her hearing, or if it was causing some kind of hallucination, but it certainly sounded like Ishida had told her Daisuke thought she was a hooker. She shook her head and blinked several times, and said, 'He what?'

'He thought you were a hooker,' Ishida said. 'Specifically, this woman.'

He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a small, leather bound book, flipping it open to the page he wanted and holding it out to Hikari. She saw a polaroid photo of a young woman, somewhere in her mid-twenties, that looked almost identical to herself. Her hair was a little longer, and her bust a little larger, but they could have easily been mistaken for sisters. Or, one another in a dimly lit room by somebody that was drunk.

Suddenly a lot of what Daisuke had said made a little more sense.

'Her name is Saori Amaki,' Ishida continued. 'She's a call girl that, for lack of a better term, specialises in rape fantasy services. Daisuke hired her last night.'

'So he did want to rape me,' Hikari said. 'He just chose to pretend someone else was me to do it.'

Ishida made a face but shrugged.

'Objectively, yes,' he said after a moment. 'That was his intention.'

'Then it's not that complicated,' Hikari said. 'He wanted to rape me. That's the end of it.'

'He's wanted to do a lot of other things with you, as well,' Ishida said as he began flicking through the book, showing Hikari dozens more women who all bore a resemblance to her across several different nationalities. With each, he gave a rundown of what fantasy Daisuke had indulged in with them.

'With this one, it was just sex,' Ishida started. 'With her, she played the part of a girlfriend. Her, she simply acted like a close friend who listened to him. He had this one kneel and apologise before giving him a blow job. And, of course, Saori and the rape fantasy.'

He closed the book and leant back, glancing away from Hikari, who tried to process this information. All those women and scenarios, all of them involving her, all of it at odds with the disdainful attitude Daisuke had shown her recently. It just didn't seem to add up, no matter which way she tried to look at it.

'I-I don't understand,' Hikari finally said. 'Daisuke hates me. Why is he hiring prostitutes that look like me?'

'Why indeed?' Ishida said softly.

'Do you know?' Hikari asked.

'Yes,' Ishida said as he returned to looking at her. 'As near as we're able to infer, Daisuke still has some unresolved issues over his infatuation of you.'

'But that was a schoolyard crush,' Hikari said. 'He grew out of it.'

'Did he?' Ishida said. 'Have you ever wondered why Daisuke seems to despise you the most out of everyone? Out of everyone, the most logical choice should be Taichi, who with one hand bestowed upon him the position of leader and with the other, made no great effort to locate his protégé. Yet, his anger towards you is the greatest.'

Hikari didn't say anything for a while. She had thought about why Daisuke seemed to hate her the most out of the older generation of DigiDestined but the answer never seemed to present itself no matter how much she looked for it. Obviously she had factored in the crush he had had on her when they were kids, but discarded that option in short order given how he seemed to tone it down shortly after their battle with MaloMyotismon outside of asking her on a single date, which she had promptly turned down.

'Did he…' she began to ask quietly. 'Did he love me?'

'We seem to think so,' Ishida said. 'Part of him may still do, according to our psychologists. Barring scenarios like with Saori, most of what he asks the call girls to do seems to reflect a great deal of desire for intimacy with you.'

'Oh,' Hikari said.

It was all she could think to say in light of that revelation. To say that learning Daisuke had once loved her, and may still do, was a shock was putting it mildly. Of course he would have taken her abandoning him the hardest if he truly felt that way. What other was there to react?

The anger she had felt towards both Daisuke and Ishida, which had slowly been draining over the course of the conversation, ebbed away to nothing. In its place was sympathy, of all things, for the young teen despite his attempted assault on her. Besides, what punishment could be brought down upon him that was worse than the ordeal he was willingly putting himself through? A stint in jail would seem almost like a holiday compared to the near constant deluge of combat he underwent on a daily basis.

'If you want to press charges-' Ishida began but Hikari cut him off.

'No,' she said with a shake of his head. 'No. I… It wouldn't be right.'

Ishida nodded. 'If you're sure.'

He waited to see if Hikari had anything else to say and stood when it seemed apparent she didn't, making for the door, but stopped just before it when she asked, 'Does it help?'

'Does what?' he asked, turning back to her. 'Him hiring those girls?'

'Yeah,' Hikari said.

'I have my doubts,' Ishida said. 'His combat effectiveness seems to take a noticeable if temporary downturn in the immediate aftermath, suggesting he loathes himself for giving into such desires and allows the Digimon he fights to knock him around more than usual as penance.'

'But I thought he wanted to be with them,' Hikari said.

'Part of him does,' Ishida said. 'A small part, I might add. The rest of him hates you with a passion, and in turn himself whenever he does anything that suggests he still wants to be with you.'

'So why do you let him keep doing it?' Hikari asked. 'If it's actually hurting him, stop it.'

'It's not that easy,' Ishida said. 'For starters, he's only able to call upon these services infrequently at best given the nature of the attacks. Second, his combat ability only becomes slightly worse, and for a day or two at most. Thirdly, he's earned himself a significant amount of leeway in how he deals with the stresses he endures.

'I can't say I approve of the idea of an underage teen soliciting the services of a prostitute, or even of him drinking high proof alcohol, because I don't. He is still just a kid. Laws have been broken. But, he seems to be keeping things under control for the time being so he's allowed to carry on as he has been doing.'

'What about in the future?' Hikari said. 'What about when this is all over and he goes back to a normal life? Will he still be keeping things under control then?'

'At this point, thinking about what his health is going to be like in three months is considered optimistic,' Ishida said. 'To say nothing of three years from now, or three decades.'

'That's cruel,' Hikari said.

Ishida shrugged. 'That's how it is.'

'Look, I know where you're coming from,' he added, sighing. 'And I agree. We should be doing everything to ensure that Daisuke actually has a chance at a decent future if, or when, this is all done with. I like him. I really do. The problem is finding a solution that doesn't screw us.

'Say we take the drinks and the girls away. They might be the only things keeping him from finding a way to end it all. In which case, nobody wins. Daisuke would be dead or comatose, and the planet would be under the control of the Dark Ocean.'

'So you're not going to do anything?' Hikari said.

'No,' Ishida said. 'Daisuke's mental state right now is best described as delicate. I don't want to do anything that might cause it to break completely.'

'He could be ruined for the rest of his life!' Hikari said.

'I know,' Ishida said softly. 'But at least he'd be alive.'

For a moment he seemed to deflate, appearing only half as large to Hikari, and she got the impression Daisuke wasn't the only one barely holding it together. After all, the captain was the one for the past two years that had sent a teenager out in combat where he might meet his end, or suffer such trauma that he'd be little more than a living husk for the rest of his days. Worse, he had likely seen the gradual transformation Daisuke had undergone from his usual energetic self into the barely functional zombie he was now. That had to have some kind of effect on a person.

Then he blinked and seemed to go back to normal, saying, 'If that's all, Hikari.'

It was and she let him go without interruption, leaving her all alone in a hospital room once again. There was no Taichi asleep in the chair or a Gatomon curled up near her, nor any get well cards on the beside cabinet or thoughtfully provided snacks in a bag on the floor. All she had was a pitcher of water, a glass, and her phone which Hikari reached for, ignoring the stinging pain of her shoulder as she disturbed it.

There were no missed calls from her friends and family, or waiting text messages, which surprised her. Had Captain Ishida not informed her parents about what had happened? If not the attempted rape then certainly the hospitalisation that had resulted, even spinning a tale about how she had tripped and fallen which, to be fair, wasn't exactly an outright lie. She had tripped and fallen, but over her jeans which had been down around her ankles after Daisuke had undone them. Maybe he wanted to see what her reaction was to the scenario before making that call, or maybe he had decided to leave it up to her about what she told them.

The truth would see Taichi, and Takeru, try to beat Daisuke to within an inch of his life for the assault, followed by calls to the police to have him arrested no matter how many times she might try to convince them everything had happened because of a simple misunderstanding.

Hell of a misunderstanding, Hikari thought glumly to herself as she scrolled through her contacts list, finding the name she wanted.

It was Daisuke's, rather than her parents or Taichi's or Takeru's, and her finger hovered over the select key as Hikari tried to figure out exactly what she wanted to say to him. Eventually she sent him a message containing only four words and snapped her phone shut, not expecting a reply from him any time soon. He hadn't replied to any of her other communiques and he may not be in a coherent state to answer, anyway. He could be blind drunk now, passed out in his room with an empty bottle in his hand.

To her great surprise, he soon came back with a reply that contained only a single word answer that nonetheless shook Hikari to her core and made her hand quiver a little as she sent him a follow up question, this one containing a staggering five words. This one he didn't reply to, so Hikari put the phone back on the cabinet and went back to staring up at the ceiling, dwelling on everything she had learned today and the reply Daisuke had sent.

Her first message had read did you love me?

His reply was yes.

Then she asked if he still loved her and had gotten no reply.