Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
Digimon Trinity
Chapter: 146/ Episode 21: Dreams Broken
Makuramon plodded along through the park until he came upon a trench that had been carved into the ground by something heavy crashing into it. Following its course, he saw his comrade, Kumbhiramon, smashed up against a tree, eyes circling about in obvious pain.
"What are you doing?" the monkey Deva tsked, hopping over to the rodent. "Get up already! You are embarrassing our order!"
"S-Silence!" Kumbhiramon stammered out, squeezing his eyes shut to cut off the waves of nausea that still hammered him. "That w-warrior… He was not ordinary!"
"He's just a mere Leomon," Makuramon scolded, kneeling down at the edge of the trench, his eyes scornful. "If he were the Leomon, you would be dead by now, but that one was destroyed long ago. Makaaa… Get up! Don't make me have to say it twice!"
Kumbhiramon groaned and rolled over. Getting his spidery legs underneath him, he hoisted himself back up and shook his head.
"A mere Leomon or not, I would have considered him a candidate for the Devas. Such speed… Such strength behind his sword!"
"Such idiotic excuses you're making to hide your weakness!" Makuramon growled, kicking at his comrade in arms. A dull clang rang out from where his foot struck, and Kumbhiramon struggled to keep from falling once more.
"I'm serious!" he snapped. "If you don't believe me, why don't you have a fight with him? He is a true warrior!"
"My orders are to observe, just as your orders are to test the human pets to see what that little digimon is capable of!" Makuramon bared his teeth angrily. "No one goes against the Sovereign! Such is our oath. Now move already before you break yours!"
"All right, all right! Stupid monkey…" With that, Kumbhiramon bounced away, causing Makuramon to palm his face.
"The other way, you oaf!"
"Right," Kumbhiramon replied, changing course at the monkey's word. "I knew that!"
Sovereign save us… Makuramon sighed before leaping away to return to his vigil.
###
Henry sat in his room, browsing an online forum from the site, 'With the Will.' Behind him, Terriermon sat on the bed, quietly turning a page in a book he had been reading this morning while munching on the sandwich he had so desperately wanted earlier.
Sometimes, I forget that he actually knows how to be quiet, he thought distractedly before returning his attention back to the forum discussion. Shifting in his seat, Henry furrowed his brow slightly. Presently, the website offered very little practical information with regards to the 'Zero Unit' on Calumon's forehead. There were references to the mythological Keter, the top end of the Sephirot tree of life from the Kabbalah in Judaic mysticism, but what that meant with regards to digimon there didn't appear to be anything known. There were a number of digimon who had the symbol on them. Lucemon, Alphamon, Kuzuhamon and Sakuyamon – the latter two who were related to Renamon – and both MegaGargomon and BlackMegaGargomon – forms related to his own partner. Yet, aside from perhaps Lucemon, a digimon known for his ability to combine light and darkness, the symbol appeared to be more…well, symbolic than anything else.
Digimon are usually just a collection of human data, he thought, reciting what he studied about them over the last few years. Unless they're something special, like Lucemon, a lot of the data they have, even if it's something religious, doesn't often mean much. That's why we had a LadyDevimon fighting on the side of light during The War. Digimon absorb data and their Memetic chain reacts to it. It's only when they absorb something from the emotional spectrum that their personality can become good or bad.
Of course, he knew there was more to it than that. That was the bare-bones gist of things though. The Zero Unit's presence usually appeared on digimon closely related to mythology and influenced their digivolution. Digimon like MegaGargomon were the exception to the rule, but that didn't surprise him, nature being full of exceptions after all. But what did that mean for Calumon?
Could it cause him to make other digimon digivolve like Takato suggested?
Reading about the mythology behind Keter didn't suggest that to be the case. There was a discussion on it being like a 'crown,' representing a form of divine monarchy and a place in the universe concerning morality and ethics, but nothing concerning evolution or even life. Even popular culture had it take the form of some kind of protective force.
At least, that's what the forum says about that Final Fantasy game, Henry thought, running a hand through his hair. He hitched a sigh, feeling as though he were at a dead end.
"How's it going?" Terriermon asked, looking up from his book.
"Not good," Henry replied. "So far nothing I'm finding is helping."
"Doesn't the card say it's about digivolving or something?" Terriermon asked.
"That's just the thing," Henry said. "I can't find the card anywhere. All the pictures where it was talked about on card forums are gone. It's really weird."
"Sure sounds weird," Terriermon agreed, planting a bookmark to save his reading spot. Setting his book aside, he hopped up from the bed and onto Henry's shoulder. "You sure you don't have some kind of out of date app or something interfering with your computer or anything?"
"Positive. I already checked." Henry frowned slightly and ran a hand along his chin. "I wonder… Could it be possible that Gennai is doing something?"
"Oh, come on! Henry, why would one of the Digidestined's old friends try to hide a card?"
"Terriermon…"
"What? I didn't say he was 'old.' Just that he's an old friend of theirs! Momentai!"
"That's not it. It's just… I remember Ken mentioning before about how Gennai used to delete any information about digimon from human computers. Videos. Pictures. Research data. Anything. Maybe Calumon really is something important and Gennai is hoping to hide him."
"So he's scrubbing the Internet of a single game card? That's real helpful."
"Maybe it's something about the card itself," Henry surmised. "I don't know. Maybe Rika knows someone who owns a copy. If so, we can go talk to them and see what they know about it."
"I don't think Rika made many friends," Terriermon pointed out. Henry gave him a pointed look to which the digimon simply shrugged. "What? I'm just saying what we're all thinking."
"It still qualifies as rude though. Anyway, I'll call her and see what she knows. Maybe we can…"
"Henwyyy!" came the sing-song call of Suzie from down the hall. "That angwy kid is on the phone!"
"Sheesh, talk about first impressions," Terriermon said. Pushing back his chair, Henry got up and headed out the door. Approaching his sister, she held out his cellphone for him, a cat-like smile on her face.
"Thanks," Henry said, taking the phone while Terriermon clambered onto the top of his head, already expecting Suzie to make a grab at him. The girl pouted slightly, clearly unhappy with having her intentions read before she could even do anything about them.
"Hey, Takato," he greeted. "What's going on?"
"Hey, Henry. We've got a bit of a light situation here in the park." There came the sound of heavy thumping and a squeal of glee.
Oh nuts, Henry winced. Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like this?
"So, a Leomon bio-emerged today…" he began to explain. Both Henry and Terriermon listened intently. The boy sounded fairly calm, so whatever was going on certainly wasn't serious. So why…?
Wait, what did he say?
"Jeri's a Tamer?" he asked, just to make sure he heard his friend right. "Are you sure?"
There came an affirmation on the other end, followed by additional information that only made Henry blink in surprise.
"She's chasing him? Making eyes?" A concerned expression crossed his features, guessing what Jeri's reasons were for her described behavior. "That's…not about being his Tamer."
"I'll say this for him," Terriermon giggled. "He's taking this pretty well. Guess he's fine being stuck with Rika after all."
"Terriermon…" Henry waved him off. "What I don't understand is how does she know she's his Tamer if he's running away from her?"
"Wait, I'll ask." A pause on the other end. "Hey Jeri!"
There came a more distant, but still loud response that sounded like, "Yeah?"
"Are you sure he's your partner?"
"Yes!"
"How come?"
Something muffled came in reply before a single word was shouted out. Destiny.
"Okay, thanks!"
"She says it's destiny," Takato said, returning to his conversation with Henry. The boy made a low, awkward groan at the whole situation.
Of all things to have happen… he thought as Jeri's distant reply suddenly became loud enough for him to hear over the phone.
"You can't escape destiny, Mr. Leomon!"
"That doesn't sound good at all."
"Hang on," Terriermon interjected, snatching hold of the phone with his ears. "Takatomon! Ask her if she's ever been in love before?"
"Say wha…? What for?"
"Just ask her! It might be revealing…"
"We'll be right there," Henry interrupted, snatching the phone back. "Let's hope nothing crazy happens until then."
"Henry, I think we've already graduated to crazy," Terriermon said as his partner hung up. "What else could happen now?"
Henry gave his partner a concerned look. "Let's not tempt fate, shall we?"
###
"Henry's on his way," Takato said to Guilmon, hanging up the phone with a dull click. Not for the first time was he grateful for the continued presence of payphones. In a world of cellphones, they had briefly become an extinct breed, but the revelation of the digital world's presence and the impact it had on cellular networks ensured that at least some were retained for emergency purposes.
"That's good," Guilmon said, casting a look over his shoulder a Leomon thundered about. Somehow, Jeri stayed on his tail. "I hope it's quick. I don't know how much longer he can go on."
Takato's lips pressed together in agreement. Leomon was certainly a very physical digimon, but in either dimension, digimon still required energy and stamina. Jeri wasn't letting up on the chase and with all the muscle Leomon carried around, he couldn't imagine that he could keep up such a pace for much longer.
He wondered if he and Henry could even keep Jeri off the Champion long enough for him to catch his breath.
"I guess I should tell Rika too," he sighed. As much as he respected Henry, he got a feeling that Rika's presence might have the firmer touch necessary to defuse the situation enough to slow things down.
Lifting up the phone, he dialed Rika's number and waited.
"Hello?" came the response as the phone was picked up. Rika's grandmother.
"Um… Hi. This is Takato. Is Rika home?"
"Oh, hi, Takato. Yes, just a moment." A pause, followed by Ms. Hata's call for her granddaughter. A minute later, Rika's voice appeared.
"Takato?"
"Hi, Rika. Sorry to bother you, but we have a bit of a situation in the park."
###
Rika arced an eyebrow as Takato quickly – and for a change, without a single stutter – explained what was going on. She took a second to digest this bit of news and that it had somehow gotten her goggle-wearing friend to speak without difficulty for once. Clearly, things were serious. Yet, simultaneously, also utterly ludicrous. She pondered on that oddity briefly, slightly curious about it.
Somehow, where Gogglehead is concerned, this doesn't surprise me, she thought, trying hard not to imagine his friend chasing after a full-grown Champion level digimon.
"Jeri?" she began carefully, giving him a chance to correct her in case she somehow hadn't heard him right. "That just…isn't possible."
"She's pretty convinced that he's her partner," said Takato, sounding no less baffled than she did. "I asked her earlier why she was so sure, and she said that it was destiny."
"Destiny, huh?" Rika scoffed. "Does she have a digivice to prove that with?"
"Wait, I'll ask. Hey, Jeri! Do you have a digivice?"
Rika tapped her foot against the floor, imagining how the scene must be playing out. If Takato's quick explanation was anything to go by, Leomon was off at a run; a hulking mass of muscle with a thick mane streaming behind him. Jeri, paused in place as she replied to Takato's question.
Why is Leomon letting her do this? she wondered. Most digimon in her experience wouldn't have put up with such nonsense. Digidestined digimon and the occasional untamed ones tended to be the exception, but by and large, Jeri would have been long since attacked for such shenanigans. So what was going on here?
"That's a negative," Takato reported, breaking her out of her thoughts. Rika frowned, pondering on that too while the boy briefly replied to something Jeri was saying to him.
This just…doesn't make any sense, she thought. Takato… What is it with you and all these weirdos you have for friends?
Rika tried very hard not to think about how she considered Takato a friend. She didn't want to consider what that might say about her taste in friends.
"No digivice? She's obviously not a tamer. She's delusional!" She made an annoyed tsk at what her day was turning into. And she had just gotten home too! "Oh whatever! I'm coming right down to prove her wrong."
With that, she hung up the phone and made a low, groaning noise. Renamon materialized next to her, eyebrow raised.
"Rika?"
"More goggleheaded weirdness," came the girl's brusque response. "At least this time it's not Takato's fault. Come on. We've got to settle this one."
"Hmmm…" Renamon tilted an ear slightly, thinking on what she had overheard from the conversation. "A…Leomon, is it? Should we let Ken know what's going on?"
Rika paused in consideration at that before nodding.
"Might as well," she said, taking out her cellphone.
###
"Mr. Leomon! Wait up!"
Jeri's pleading cry rang upon the air as Takato hung up the phone and turned to join Calumon and Guilmon while they watched the state of affairs.
"Rika's coming too," he reported, his gaze following Jeri and Leomon as they raced across the park path and towards a set of stairs that led up into some brush. Jeri's breathing was finally starting to run ragged while Leomon's showed no sign of exhaustion.
Maybe that's a good sign, he thought. He felt a little uncertain though about the whole thing. The strangeness of it all was bizarre, no question, but he felt an odd sting in his heart. Small, yet perceptible. Terriermon's question to him about Jeri and love got him thinking. Was Jeri in love with Leomon?
There's certainly a lot to admire. I mean, he's strong, brave and pretty cool looking…
"And he wears leather pants," came the unexpected – yet somehow predictable – voice of imaginary Terriermon straight out of the boy's imagination.
"Terriermon…" came the groaning imaginary Henry's response.
"What? Momentai! He does wear leather pants! What girl wouldn't like that? Well, I mean besides Rika…"
Takato sighed, not for the first time wishing that his imagination wouldn't be so vivid. All too often, it felt like the boundaries between the real and imaginary…
Jeri's sudden scream broke him out of his thoughts and Takato instinctively broke into a run toward the stairs.
Jeri raced out of the brush, gasping more from fear and surprise this time than exhaustion. Takato called out to her as he approached, but before she could reply, Leomon suddenly crashed out from the woods behind him, a strange, rodent-like creature wearing strange, spider-like armor with wings jabbing a fork-like protrusion upon the lion warrior's sword. Takato's mouth fell open as the two combatants' ground to a halt in the park path.
"Who…or what is that?" he asked as the pair separated.
"He's been chasing me!" Jeri hastily explained between gasps for air. "He says he's a Deva!"
"A Deva? You're kidding!" Pulling out his digivice, Takato did a quick scan. The holographic circle rose up from the screen, but as was the norm with these particular digimon, nothing came up just yet.
"Looks like whoever put him together lost the manual…" he began before the holo-circle receded and then expanded once more, providing more detailed information. "There we go. Kumbhiramon. Deva digimon. Ultimate level. His Deva Clone attack makes him six times the trouble!" Takato glanced up as the holo-circle receded once more. "Deva Clone? Ultimate level too? But… This guy's so small!"
"Whoa…" came the sound of Terriermon as he and Henry drew up. Lowering his digivice, Takato nodded to them.
"Henry!"
"So this is what's going on," Henry said, taking in the scene before them. Leomon and Kumbhiramon circled one another, Leomon's sword ready in a slashing position while Kumbhiramon crouched low, ready to pounce at the first sign of weakness. "This just doesn't make any sense! What's Leomon doing here if he's not Jeri's partner?"
"Does it matter?" Terriermon asked. "He's fighting a Deva. Doesn't that make him on our side?"
"Maybe… But maybe not." Henry's brow knotted. "Let's watch for now and see what happens."
At this, Jeri looked at Henry, startled. They're not going to help? But…
She swallowed, returning her gaze to the battle. Then again, Leomon had proven himself capable of fending off the creature earlier. Maybe he didn't need any help.
And yet… Did she dare just continue to sit on the sidelines while her partner put himself on the line for her? For them?
###
Makuramon came out from the brush and closed in on the group of humans and their partner digimon. So engrossed were they in the fight that they didn't notice his approach. His eyes zeroed in on the smallest one – the Calumon. He was making a funny little dance, chanting all the while in favor of the Leomon.
"Leomon's a hero! Leomon's a hero! The Devas don't got nothing, 'cause rat-face is a zero! Yay!"
Come on… he thought desperately, clenching his fists together tightly. Show me your magic. Confirm my suspicions you little rat!
###
"You're about to be outnumbered you oversized alleycat!" Kumbhiramon exclaimed, the color around his body distorting. "Deva Clone!"
The distortion grew in intensity, and just like that, six images of himself split off from his body and surrounded Leomon. The lion-warrior gasped in surprise as they solidified and took shape, becoming what appeared to be perfect duplicates of the Deva. Straight away they came in for the attack, one at a time in rapid succession. Leomon fended them off with his sword, but the speed of their attacks now tested his reflexes to their utmost limits. If one of them got in a lucky shot while he was distracted…
There's too many of them!
"Leomon!" Jeri exclaimed, almost darting forward. Takato's hand shot out in front of her however, blocking her charge.
"Stay back!" he urged, his eyes fixed on the battle. "It's safe here!"
Leomon fell to one knee while knocking away one of the rodents, but a second charged at him before he could catch his breath. With reflexes burned into him from long experience, he dashed to the side and rolled out of the circle of Devas. Despite no longer being surrounded however, he remained at a disadvantage as now the front of their attack was multiplied six-fold. Her eyes flashing, Jeri turned toward Takato.
"Give it to me!"
The boy turned to her, confused. "Huh?"
"Your digivice!" she snapped, her urgency growing with each passing second. She needed to help him! Why was he hesitating?
Thoughts whirled about in Takato's mind, wondering what she was thinking. Digivices… Don't they only work for one person? However, as he thought about it, he realized no one ever told him if that were actually the case before. And if he could use a drawing of a crest to digivolve a digimon, or even create a digimon from pencil and paper, then maybe…just maybe…Jeri could help Leomon if she believed enough on her own?
What did belief mean here when it came to digimon?
"Okay." With sudden confidence, Takato passed Jeri his digivice. The girl snatched it up eagerly and taking out a card, she quickly slashed it through the slot just as she had seen the boy do dozens of times before.
"Digi-modify!" she shouted. No sparks came to her however, and Leomon continued to fight the same as ever. Jeri looked down at the digivice in confusion and then back up at Leomon as he just barely deflected an oncoming attack. With a grunt of frustration, she tried again.
"Once more! Digi-modify!"
The card slashed through the slot in the digivice's side, but once more, no sparks, and Leomon fell to the side as one of Kumbhiramon's attacks struck his sword with enough force to almost wrench it from his hand. Jeri felt herself grow cold as realization dawned upon her.
"Guess I'm…not Leomon's Tamer…after all…" she said in a hushed voice. Her legs gave out from underneath her just then, all her hopes and dreams shattering at once. She wasn't a Tamer. She wasn't even Leomon's Tamer. She had been so very, very blind. Shame and humiliation bloomed up within her and she let out a cry.
"Jeri…!" Takato began, reaching for her, but Jeri's cry had been enough. Deciding that enough was enough, Henry broke forward.
"Terriermon!" he shouted, and the long-eared digimon hurled himself off his partner's shoulder. With practiced movements, Henry's hands whipped out his digivice and an evolution card. A swipe and a spark later, and Makuramon's eyes widened eagerly.
Yes… Do it! Do it!
A red light burst free from Calumon's forehead and the tiny digimon gave an excited shout. A shell of data formed about Terriermon as he sailed through the air, rapidly expanding upon the Rookie's metamorphosis.
"Terriermon! Digivolve tooo… Gargomon!"
The shell of data burst apart, revealing the gun-toting Champion who, upon landing, immediately dove toward Leomon's defense, smashing his gun barrels into a charging Kumbhiramon.
Makuramon couldn't have been happier.
It's true! he thought with a wild laugh. The light in Calumon's forehead symbol was dying down, but he had all the proof he needed now. The Catalyst! The Catalyst is here!
He barked another laugh, unable to contain his excitement. Hearing it, Takato looked up and his eyes went wide with recognition.
"It's you!" he shouted, and Makuramon, still laughing, fell back, his whole body shaking gleefully. Oh, he was going to be rewarded for his find! He…
Oops! Time to go!
He leapt away, narrowly avoiding being caught by Renamon's claws as they slashed the now empty space he had been in. She gave a frustrated growl, glaring at him angrily while he disappeared into the brush. Rika drew up behind her, turning briefly in Takato's direction, taking in the scene before her. Jeri was on the ground, crying with Takato's digivice on the ground, and he knelt over her. Something had happened. It seemed that the puppet-loving girl had received a dose of reality and wasn't taking to it very well.
Her heart squeezed at the sight, but before she could say or do anything else, Renamon spoke up, dashing toward the woods.
"I'm going after him!"
Rika broke her gaze away from Jeri and Takato. The gogglehead had things in hand it seemed and didn't need her. Renamon, on the other hand, did.
Especially since that monkey boy's a Deva, she thought, starting after Renamon. "Not without me you're not!" she called.
###
Leomon shook his head, attempting to clear it from the blow Kumbhiramon had given him. Gargomon laid down a line of suppressing fire with his lasers, giving them some room to breathe, for which the warrior was immensely grateful.
He digivolved… Leomon thought in realization, the jarring strike having given him some spark of insight. Is that what the girl meant by partners?
That tugged at him. Something about that felt painfully familiar, like a bolt of lightning to the back. For the present however, nothing came to him. Still, the thought stuck with him. Partnership… A symbiosis between a digimon and a human that gave the latter protection while providing the former with power. It seemed strange, but made sense in a way. His blue eyes turned toward the girl, only for them to widen upon finding her on her knees, tears falling from her eyes. That tugged on him all the more, pulling something from deep inside him. Some memory…
A girl in a pink dress sat in front of him, sobbing next to a green, ogre-like digimon. He bore a bone club, but one arm lay in a sling, wrapped in bandages. He was injured, but had come out to fight. To fight someone…someone powerful. Someone he stood no chance against and the girl was pleading with him to stay away. He was vulnerable.
And so was she. And he had leapt to protect her from danger without thinking. Now she was crying. Crying for his loss. He felt strength slipping away from him, but…
…but it was gone almost as soon as it came. Jeri's tears though, they awakened a fire within him. Taking up his sword, he rose to his feet.
"For that girl too…this is for you, kid," he said before whirling about, blade gleaming in the sunlight. The Kumbhiramon squad advanced on them in a neat little line. Leomon was no longer concerned now. With Gargomon at his side and the range of his firepower, they were no longer the threat they once were.
"Glad to have you with us," Gargomon said, taking aim with his cannons. "Gargo Lasers!"
Emerald laser bursts shot out from his gun barrels, slamming into each and every Kumbhiramon with pinpoint accuracy. Though their armor protected them, the impacts left them stunned for a fraction of a second.
That fraction was all the time Leomon needed.
Drawing back his fist, orange fire erupted about it, blazing with ever increasing intensity until, with a cry of, "Fist of the Beast King!" he launched a wave of burning light shaped like a snarling, lion's face. It slammed into the Kumbhiramon team, sending them flying skyward, where all but one broke apart into clouds of sparkling light.
There is the real one, Leomon thought, and with that knowledge he leapt into the air, drawing his sword back. Once close enough, light flashed along the blade, its edge cleaving through Kumbhiramon's armor and through the vulnerable digi-core that lay beneath. Kumbhiramon gagged, digital blood spurting from his mouth. He broke apart into shards of data before he even struck the ground.
Leomon landed gracefully and sheathed his sword. The battle was over now and with its end he felt calm fall over him. "My work here is done," he breathed, sighing with relief. Looking over his shoulder, his azure eyes fell on Jeri and the boy who knelt by her side. Jeri's eyes were downcast, not even looking at him. Something within her had been crushed.
A hope… he thought. A hope for whatever future she felt she had with me.
He felt an urge to go to her. To comfort her, but he knew, at the very bottom of his heart, that would be the worst thing for him to do. She needed to get back up after this fall. He couldn't indulge her hopes, lest they weaken her and leave her unable to stand back up on her own.
"I should go before her tears make me stay," he said softly "Goodbye, Jeri."
And with that, he strode off into the path of the setting sun and disappeared.
###
What…do I do? Takato found himself wondering as the orange glow of the setting sun cast long shadows upon the park. Jeri continued to cry softly, doing her best to keep from being loud, but her tears came thick in spite of her efforts. Reaching out toward her, Takato began to fold his arms about her in a hug, but Jeri forcefully shrugged him away, covering her face with her hands.
"Don't!" she sobbed. "Please… Just leave me alone!"
Takato drew away in shock, her rejection of his offered comfort stinging like a slap to the face. Yet…his heart softened, knowing she was hurting, and he lowered his arms. "I'm…sorry, Jeri," he said quietly, feeling his eyes beginning to well up, feeling her pain. Why… Why does it have to be like this for her?
Jeri's shoulders shook. Her eyes burned. She sensed Takato's sympathy for her and she found herself regretting lashing out at him.
"Sorry," she whispered, lowering her hands, revealing her tear-streaked, flushed face for him to see. "Could you…give me some time alone?"
Takato felt a large, painful lump form in the back of his throat, leaving him unable to form a response. Off to the side, Gargomon's body lit up and shrank, regressing to his smaller form of Terriermon.
"I'm sorry, Jeri," the half-Chinese Tamer said sympathetically, turning away. "Come on, Terriermon. Let's go help Rika and Renamon."
The long-eared digimon hurried after him, but not before throwing a sorrowful look over his shoulder.
"Momentai, Jeri. Momentai!"
Takato gave a start. Rika! Renamon! That's right. They were chasing after that strange digimon who was pretending to be a human.
But…Jeri…
"Takato?" Guilmon said, pausing in stride after Henry and Terriermon. Takato wavered, looking back at Jeri, who didn't meet his gaze.
I'm sorry, Jeri…
With that, he and Guilmon hurried off, leaving only Calumon, who cocked his head at her before flitting away as well, a sorrowful expression on his face.
Jeri sat alone now, and because she was alone, she lifted her face in the direction Leomon had headed in. She didn't try to stop her tears now or hide them. A great well of shame rose up in her as she thought about how she had behaved today. Chasing after Leomon… Winking at him. Imagining their love and partnership for one another…
I made a fool out of myself, she thought bitterly. How could I think I was special enough to have a partner of my own?
###
The sun drew closer to the horizon as Ken, held aloft by Stingmon, swooped into the park where Guilmon's hut lay – the meeting place Rika had told him she would see him at, only to find no one there to greet him.
"Looks like we're here early," the insectoid Champion said. "Or perhaps this new Leomon appeared here and they had to chase after it."
"Maybe," Ken said with a sigh. He looked at his IC digivice. Unlike his old D3 model, his IC digivice didn't come equipped with a mode that allowed it to detect other digivices. Taking out his cellphone, he ran down the list to Rika and hit the dial button.
"Hey," he greeted as the girl picked up with an annoyed tone to her voice. "Where are you? I'm… You fought another Deva and now you're chasing after that disguised one?"
"Yeah, but it looks like he gave us the slip again," came Rika's response. She gave a huff sound, clearly unhappy with that.
"Don't beat yourself up over it," he said. "What's the situation with the Leomon?"
There came a pause as Rika conferred with the other two Tamers before she responded.
"Gone. Apparently, he took off after beating up the other Deva. Guilmon says he can track him down…"
"That's fine," Ken nodded. "Meet me back here so we can…"
He rocked on his feet suddenly as the earth shook violently beneath him. Stingmon caught him before he could fall.
"Careful," he said, lowering his partner to the ground in case the ground decided to quake again. Ken waited, yet nothing came.
"Weird…" the Digidestined of Kindness said with a frown before returning to his conversation with Rika. "Anyway, meet back with me at Guilmon's home. We'll come up with a plan and go from there."
Rika responded with a click as she hung up. Ken pocketed his phone, not feeling the least bit irked by her rather terse nature. As long as they could work together, he would put up with her behavior.
"A Leomon…" He frowned slightly. There hadn't been too many of those around when he last fought alongside the digital world. Leomon were something of a rare breed, requiring first a particular kind of noble heart to begin with. A nobility that the forces of Darkness hated and often went out of their way to destroy at any opportunity they could find.
"Maybe that's a sign of the future?" Stingmon offered. Ken stared off into the orange sky that peeked out above the tree line.
"Maybe… But is it for good or bad?"
As if in response, the low, growling tremor of the quake's aftershock shook the earth lightly.
11
