Author's Note
If there's been one positive from this whole quarantine thing, it's that I've been able to keep up a more consistent writing pace. Chapter 18 is now finished and chapter 19 well under way. We'll see what happens come chapter 20 (it's going to be a doozy!) but hopefully the pace keeps up and I'll be back before we get too deep into summer!
Nexusworld
There's no reason to take me apart.
Extension cords and circuit boards don't mean there's no heart.
I can tell somehow you relate.
We're indifferent to the difference between program and fate.
- No More Kings, "Robots Don't Cry"
Episode 17
Sora Takenouchi learned relying on the hunters helping her in the kitchen for a social life wasn't going to work outside of it. The one from Saitama hated cooking, only decent at it because her useless father and absent mother left her in charge of raising her brother alone. The one from Kawasaki got caught up in a bad crowd in school and needed to keep his hands busy to avoid relapsing into old self-destructive habits. Sora figured a Digimon partner should have done them both a world of good, but they weren't that close to theirs, too far outside Tokyo to see much action in digiquartz. With childhoods rougher than hers (outside of Digimon-related traumas at least), they weren't interested in any of her or Biyomon's life advice.
While she could mold it into a stable working environment, the barrier to true friendship lied in the lack of connection. They didn't connect to her, with no common background, no common interests, and an irreconcilable perspective on human-Digimon relations. Almost as bad was their lack of connection to the palace intrigue around Isthmian. With Takuya, she knew everything going on. With these two, she didn't learn about Tai and the entire patrol team paying a visit until the train was already in the station.
Knowing what was in store, she rushed through the initial prep and left Biyomon to supervise her underlings through the rest. By the time she got outside, the goals were up. She chuckled and joined the small gathering around them. Soccer was one of the few things unifying Tai and Takuya. Regardless of the reason for the visit, she knew they wouldn't resist the urge to sneak in a quick match.
The scattered crowd also gave her a chance to interact with some new faces. Her first instinct was to catch up with Meiko, who had tagged along with Eri. Their proximity to Haru offered Sora the opening to get to know him better, but she hesitated when she saw the appdrivers reunite. They had too much to discuss and she didn't want to disrupt that.
Instead, she found Mizuki. Isthmian resident, all-around cool girl, and former opponent during Takuya and Mikey's board game nights. Sora put on her most casual smile, squeezed in between her and Submarimon, and said, "Hey there!"
"Oh, hey." Mizuki's welcome was more subdued than Sora had hoped. "What brings you out here?"
"Tai and Takuya playing soccer? Wouldn't miss it."
Mizuki raised an eyebrow. "Is this a soccer thing or a hot guys working up a sweat thing? Because I don't see you as a soccer girl."
Sora froze. That was the problem with talking to new people: they didn't know her. There for hot guys?
Mizuki took her silence as an answer and grinned. "It's okay. I'm not a soccer girl. I'm just here for Mikey." Only then did Sora notice Mikey was one of the combatants roped into the battle.
She wasn't sure if she should broach the subject, but curiosity was getting the better of her. Besides, new friendships meant opening up… "You know I never get a chance to talk to you alone. You and Mikey, huh? What's that like?"
Mizuki hesitated, glowering for a moment before shaking it off and answering, "It's good. It's good. We have a lot of fun. Ever bang underwater?" She smirked and tilted her head. "Good times once we figured that out."
A little more information than she wanted, but Sora smiled and nodded all the same. She didn't notice Mizuki's eyes turn to her until she asked, "Why do you ask?"
They were sly eyes, the ones trying to size up a potential rival. Sora backpedaled, maybe a little too far: "Oh, no, I uh…" She chuckled. "Mikey just… has a history."
"History, huh? With you?"
"Me?!" The thought made her a little nauseous. "Why…" She preferred to end it there than get an answer.
It was the rare time she was happy to see Takuya, running up in his black-and-white striped soccer kit emblazoned with an official club badge. "Sora! Hey, we need a ref!"
Sora stared back, incredulous. Two against two on a bumpy strip of sparse grass and they needed a referee? She should have expected this. "I… broke up with you."
"You broke up with him too, so…" He shrugged. "Just make sure we don't kill each other. You know how we get."
As Takuya jogged off. Mizuki smirked at her. "Who has a history now?"
Sora sighed. Maybe being friends with Mizuki wasn't going to work. "For the record, Tai broke up with me."
She stepped onto the tiny, imperfect field, grateful she wore pants instead of a dress. Takuya stood in the center, trading long passes with Mikey. On the other side, Yuujin finished stretching while Tai bounced a ball on his knee.
Leaning in towards Takuya, she said, "Hold on… you're with Mikey and you're sticking Tai with the new kid?"
"Have you seen the new kid play? He's got skill! Mikey's athletic but soccer's not his main game. Tai might have a shot."
Hearing the shade, Tai kicked his ball away and ran up to them. "Hope you didn't get rusty up here. You're not in Italy anymore." He looked over his shoulder. "What's this kid's name again?"
"Yuujin," Sora answered. "And hello, Tai."
Tai stared back, lost in thought. "That name sounds familiar."
"Are you guys ready?" She added an extra huff.
"Yes, Sora," they both answered, heads lowered.
That bit of respect they afforded her helped her officiate the game even without cards or a whistle. She let nothing dangerous slide, calling every reckless tackle or high kick. No matter her decision, they kept their frustrations to themselves, feeding it into their play instead. No matter her history with Tai or Takuya, they still cared for her. It was a good feeling.
It also prevented the game from getting too chippy. It was as fun to watch as she expected. Yuujin struggled at first, misplaying a ball that Takuya and Mikey turned into the game's first goal. But he worked his way back, his instincts taking over and his body behaving enough to drive him and Tai back into contention. Tai met every completed pass or successful run with a smile.
After Yuujin headed in an equalizer to take the match to a final decisive goal, Mikey dribbled the ball forward. Takuya evaded Tai, cutting into the wing as Mikey made a pass. Knowing he couldn't defend Takuya one-on-one, Tai charged into the path, sliding in just in time to make contact with the ball. He popped to his feet, belting the ball ahead before his opponent could arrive. Yuujin was already making the run after it.
Yuujin collected the ball, but still had Mikey to contend with. With some dribbling trickery, he lured Mikey ahead enough to knock the ball through his legs, spin around, and receive his own pass. Another kick gave him the separation he needed for a cross.
"Far!" Tai shouted, in full sprint, Takuya right behind him. Yuujin crossed it to the farthest end of the goal just as Tai arrived. Before the ball landed, Tai's elevated leg smashed it into the net for the win.
Sora declared it with maybe a little too much cheer, but she knew this was a rare feat. Tai pumped a fist and ran up to exchange a excited bump with Yuujin. The happiness was infectious. She missed the feeling.
Takuya and Mikey joined in to trade respectful handshakes, Takuya taking his loss with enough humor, much to Sora's relief. "Told you the new kid was good!" He and Tai kept talking, smiles everywhere, as their teammates walked away.
In her attempt to eavesdrop, she didn't notice Yuujin approaching her. With a smile and an extended hand, he said, "Thanks for officiating. I'm sure it wasn't easy keeping us in line."
She was surprised by the gesture, enough to generate a blush, but she smiled and shook it. "That was fun. You were really good out there. Tai's been itching to beat Takuya for a while."
Yuujin chuckled. "Glad I could help then." A smile as pure as his made the blush impossible to suppress. "I'll see you around."
He jogged back to Haru and Eri, both applauding his effort. Sora didn't mean to stare, but…
The sweaty hand on her shoulder broke her trance. "Am I interrupting?" Tai asked. She knew she'd find his smirk when she turned.
"No! He just thanked me for playing referee. The only one of you four, I should mention."
With a chuckle, Tai said, "Hey, you were part of something. I finally beat Takuya at soccer."
"Happy to play a part. It's…" Her smile faded. "It's nice to see you again."
"Yeah." His did as well. "You, uh… you and Takuya didn't work out then?"
She looked away, back at Takuya. "No… the war's been hard on him. I tried to support him… but not the way he wanted."
He extended a hand to rub her back. "Sorry to hear it."
On the sidelines, Takuya and Mikey laughed with Mizuki. "I hope he's doing better now," she said.
"I, uh… was kinda disappointed you didn't come back after Mimi quit." Her chest ached hearing that. Times like these reminded her of everybody at the other castle, all the friendships she could have picked up again, all the happiness that would have been waiting.
"Not gonna lie. I miss you," Tai added.
"I miss you too," she replied, staring into his eyes, long enough that she needed to forced herself away. She found Meiko, smiling in silence with the celebrating appdrivers. Sora was grateful for her presence: without it she might have suggested something she'd regret.
"But I had to stay," she said, louder, to herself as much as him. "I can't let myself go backwards. I need to keep moving. I can't get stuck in one place."
"No, I get it." Tai's nodding grew longer and longer. "Believe me I get it."
He turned to Meiko. Instead, he saw Yuujin and snickered. "You know, I bet I could get into Yuujin's ear about you if you wanted."
She snorted, that blush returning. She turned to Yuujin as well, only she saw the way he and Haru smiled at each other, their keen stares, the joy she sensed in Haru that she had never seen prior to his friend's return.
"Thanks… but I'm not sure I'm his type."
"What do you-" Tai stopped. He must have seen it himself. Only he didn't find it cute the way she did. He stiffened up, teeth clenched. An odd reaction to two boys enjoying each other's company, especially for Tai.
"Tai, I'm joking," she said, with a drop of scolding. "I don't know. They're friends. Why do you care?"
"He's Haru's friend…" Tai mumbled. "When did he get here?"
"Uh… I don't know, a week ago?" Sora was surprised by his sudden suspicion. "Hard to say. It's been pretty chaotic here. Why?"
After staring at them for long enough, he shook his head. "Don't worry about it. I'm… gonna take a shower. I'll… see you around." He sped back to the castle. That concerned look never left him.
With him gone, she was alone again. With all the fun escaping him, she was lost again. Sora knew she should have picked a group in the crowd and attempted to fit in. No matter who she chose, she'd be the outsider. No matter how long she had called Isthmian her home, being the outsider was becoming a common feeling.
Daigo Nishijima knew this meeting would come eventually. Two weeks of doing nothing but hanging out with Haru and Tagiru spoiled him. Combat action slowed down after the bombardment on the mountain and Ken's death. Watching LoaderLiomon fall off a cliff made him never want to fight again. He knew at some point Takuya and Koji would get over the dangers and send him out once more.
Tagiru was more ready, his hands drumming on the table before the meeting. Daigo wasn't sure whether to admire or dislike him for that. He'd suffered as much as any of them, with both a painful injury to recover from and the loss of a teammate. Daigo knew Tagiru struggled with losing Ken, with raw emotions surrounding the first death to his team of hunters. They were complex and mature and Daigo respected his capability to feel all sorts of things. But he also had to deal with the same things years ago. They were with him in every mission, every time Bearmon or his teammates were in the line of fire. He could muscle through with determination, but not straight enthusiasm.
"I hope this is worth missing Mikey's soccer game," said Tagiru, apparently to Daigo since they and their partners were the only ones in the room. "I wanted to play."
"Takuya's playing in that too," Daigo realized. "So who's in this meeting?"
The door opened and the patrol team walked in, four with partners, drowning out the conversation with their chatter. They were, casual, relaxed, not at all what Daigo would have imagined from a group about to be thrown into the war.
Kazu at least tried to work him into the conversation. "Daigo! How's life been up here?"
"Uh… it's been better," he answered, trying not to be too negative. Then again, he wasn't sure there was ever a time up here he'd qualify as measurably better either.
"We've heard," said Ryo. "Sounds like the old days."
"After that Gizumon, I'd almost prefer that." Cody stared back at Ryo as he sat down, not realizing he was next to Daigo. When he did, he froze up, eventually staring forward at Kazu trying not to laugh.
Daigo wasn't sure he wanted to say anything. Bearmon didn't hesitate: "Thanks for that letter, Cody. We really appreciated it!"
Cody shifted his eyes. "W… who's we?"
"Me and the other Digimon! Tapirmon was one of a kind."
"Oh. Um… you're welcome." He flicked his eyes at Daigo once before staring ahead again.
They all jolted when Tagiru leaned forward at the man ahead of him. "So Marcus! Punch anything good today?"
"Uhh…" Marcus narrowed his eyes. "I haven't punched anything. Why, got something that needs it?"
Koji walked in next, shutting the door and silencing the small talk. "Okay, Takuya and Mikey are caught up so we might as well take care of this now. We're not sending anybody out today, just filling you in on where we're going now that we're healthy and have some more bodies."
Daigo tried not to glare at the use of "bodies." Instead, he raised a hand. "Is the rest of my team part of this?"
"Yes. Fill them in later." To the whole room, Koji continued: "We took out most of the D-Brigade's presence nearby, but Marsmon still controls most of the territory. They haven't done anything yet, but they're too close. We need to drive them back. Both sides have a problem: everyone knows where everyone else is. Our radar picks up any Digimon we know to be connected to either army. Keenan's verified this still works."
"Okay, but we've always had that," said Marcus. "So what?"
"They have the same thing." A few eyes widened. "That's where we messed up on the mountain. They knew we were coming."
"How do you know this?" Yoshi asked.
"Because when we send someone they don't know about, we surprise them. Keenan and Falcomon haven't been discovered yet. And Yuujin got close enough to Dianamon for Offmon to disable her connection to the radar. That's how we beat her."
"Oh, gotcha." Marcus flashed a cocky smile. "They don't know about us, so we can get the jump on them."
"Exactly."
"So where do we fit in?" asked Daigo. "I'm sure they have us tracked."
"Which means they'll react if you guys go in first. Do it right, and they'll walk right into our trap."
"I like the sound of that," said Marcus. "Steer 'em right at us. Makes things nice and simple."
"So we're bait," Daigo muttered. "Wonderful."
Tagiru slammed the table. "Yeah, c'mon! Why do they get to be the big heroes?"
Koji's stare turned hostile. "Because they have Digimon that can actually evolve to Mega." Daigo fought off the urge to pound the table himself, looking away in frustration. "Drawing their strongest Digimon into battles with ShineGreymon, Justimon, or Rosemon is our best strategy." He turned to Daigo, calmer. "And we'll make sure Mikey and Christopher are around so nobody's getting left stranded. We're not losing anyone else on our watch, got it?"
Daigo didn't bother to turn his way, only returning a bitter nod. Tagiru just seethed. Koji shook his head. "Whatever. We're running some plans by Tai tomorrow. We'll let you know when we're close."
"You wanted me in that meeting, right?" asked Marcus.
"Yeah."
"What about me?!" Tagiru blurted. "Don't you want to hear what I think?"
Koji paused for a long time, then shook his head. "Fine. Daigo?"
Daigo shook his head, still not looking back. "Nah, just point me where we need to go."
"Good." Daigo bristled as Koji blew past his sullen response. "That's all for now." He was out the door without another word.
The patrol team shared plenty of words as they filed out, none having to do with the upcoming mission. Cody bowed his head at Daigo once before asking Kazu about the quality of food in the cafeteria.
Daigo leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling and pondering not only how his team would react to not only getting another job, but being little more than the agitators steering the enemy to the real fighters.
Tagiru rattled his chair back. "Hey! How are we going to step up if you won't even be in the room making the plans? You want them to think these guys are stronger than you?"
"They are stronger than us. I've seen them." Daigo straightened himself up. "You're not happy about this either."
"Yeah, that's why I gotta be in the room making noise!"
"It won't change anything, but at least we'll have their attention!" Gumdramon added cheerfully.
"Yeah!" After a moment, Tagiru spun around to his partner. "What do you mean it won't work?"
Daigo shook his head. "Make all the noise we want. The enemy can track us and we don't have Mega forms. That means we're stuck."
Tagiru scoffed. "Sure, with that attitude!"
Bearmon stood on his chair to better stare down Tagiru. "Okay, we get it! You think you need to prove yourself after you lost somebody, but you can't get so into it you end up in even more trouble. Trust me, Daigo knows all about that!"
"Do we have to talk about this?" Daigo mumbled.
It still froze Tagiru. Daigo almost chuckled; his partner was never afraid to strike such nerves.
With Tagiru stumbling to find an answer, Gumdramon jumped on the table and pointed at Bearmon. "Well at least he's trying to get over it! So it went bad last time! You still gotta get up and fight again!"
Leaning in, trying to keep his voice measured, Bearmon said, "I know that. But I'm glad Daigo's a little scared. I like that he wants to keep us safe. It means he cares."
Gumdramon had no such concern for his temper, chiming in before Tagiru had the chance. "Are you saying Tagiru doesn't care?! He does! But what he cares about more is us being the best!"
"You two are just going to get yourselves killed that way."
"Then we'll go down fighting!" Tagiru's eyes widened, but Gumdramon didn't stop. "If we gotta go, we gotta go. That's how it was with your friend, right?"
Now Daigo raised his eyebrows. "Leave Tapirmon out of this!" Bearmon shouted.
As their arguing wore on, Daigo turned to Tagiru and pointed for the exit. Despite his bemused expression, Tagiru nodded and they slid out, leaving their Digimon to fight for their honor alone.
Outside, Daigo shut the door behind them, slumped his shoulders and shook his head. "Listen, I can't get excited about doing this again. It's a lousy job and we both know it." He turned around, looking Tagiru in the eyes. "But I also know we can't quit on it. So I'm in."
Tagiru grinned, still staring back. "That's more like it."
"Just… can we get a couple wins under our belt before you start planning to take over the place? It's too much."
The grin remained. "Fine… you sourpuss." Then it widened. "But we are taking over the place someday, right?"
Daigo chuckled. "Dream big." He raised a fist. Tagiru bumped it.
Izzy Izumi wasn't ready for another curve ball. He had broken down Yaddith about as well as he could have, reported what he had to Thomas, then obsessed over it some more for good measure. There wasn't much left to uncover. The Gizumon attack changed just enough of his findings to frustrate him, while preserving the parts he was already frustrated by. There was an undeniable connection between the two—even the teams fighting it picked up on that—but that only made his job harder.
Nobody knew what Yaddith was. Even the information from Henry was a matter of hypothetical coding. All the testing environments in the world couldn't have prepared him for the devastation of the real thing. That meant surprises like the tornado form, its splitting off, and the Appmon vulnerability. All were explained in the code, but none were anticipated.
The entire DATS team, on the other hand, was familiar with Gizumon. On a normal day, he wouldn't have questioned why it appeared at all. Recurring foes from everyone's original battles were commonplace, and the presence or absence of any weren't worth a second thought. The only cause of concern was Gizumon adapting some of Yaddith's properties. That was enough to kick the patrol team off the road and up to Isthmian, and give Izzy another pile of code to sift through.
He didn't hear the light rapping on the library door, so he didn't react until Tai said, "Hey. Matt said you'd be in here." Izzy shuddered; he wasn't far enough for this. Tai pulled up a chair next to him. "What do you got?"
Clearing his throat, eyes on his monitor, Izzy answered, "Thomas sent me a copy of the source code for Gizumon. I'm not sure where he got it."
"Oh, he downloaded that a while ago. It wasn't in our records 'cause it's, you know, not real and all, so he dug it up after we got internet. He's wanted that guy in our system for a while."
"That I understand." Izzy shook his head. "What I don't get is why it acted like Yaddith."
Tai raised a skeptical eyebrow. "How do you know it's acting like Yaddith? What if we're getting a bunch of stuff that only Appmon can hit?"
"It's not that only Appmon can hit it, Tai. Yaddith just had a resistance to Digimon. If there were a hypothetical third type of monster, that could hit it too." Izzy scratched his chin. "That would have been nice to test against Gizumon."
"Hypo… what are you talking about?" The slight rise in voice startled Izzy. He was always used to Tai tolerating his wayward thinking. His best ideas often came from there, after all.
Instead of trying to complete his thought, Izzy sensed the growing awkwardness and changed the subject. "Never mind. This Gizumon also targeted the tamers' Digimon. That's an important clue too."
The swerve didn't help. Tai just pointed at the code on the monitor. "So what's all this say?"
"This a from a standard Gizumon-XT model. If Marcus encountered one of these in the wild he could bring it down with no trouble. The one they ran into was modified with these new traits." He turned to Tai. "It learned them from Yaddith."
Tai stared back blankly, then blinked. "Great, so how do we stop whatever's happening?"
"Uh…" Izzy had no answer for that. He was so focused on trying to learn about the threat he hadn't considered that they needed to stop future occurrences.
"Come on, all this and you've got nothing?!"
"Uh…" he moaned louder, sensing sweat on his forehead. "First let's consider what Yaddith and Gizumon have in common without the learned behavior."
"What they have in common?" Tai still sounded annoyed. "They're from different worlds, one's supposed to be a Digimon, one's not, we've never seen one of them… what do they have in common?"
Izzy's voice rose to match Tai's, "They're manmade, they have archived source code, they were designed to have form in the Digital World…" His arm muscles clenched, a hand gesturing as he recited all the similarities. "Not to mention they're destructive as hell. Really, they're more alike than different."
Only when he stopped did he notice Tai glaring back. Did he lecture too much? He used to know how to explain things to Tai. Tai used to know how to listen. Their collaborations used to come easy. Now there was a wall.
"Okay, so what?" Tai remained terse. Izzy wished he didn't have to find all the answers himself.
"Well… we have to be on the lookout for anything else that fits that description."
"So what else fits that description?"
He stared back, dying to find the instant answer that could break through and fix everything with Tai. He had nothing, only able to shake his head and shrug. "I… don't know."
"Great…" Tai huffed and popped up from his chair. Izzy returned to his computer, intent on riding out Tai's presence staring at something far more readable.
Tai made it to the doorway, but didn't leave. In a calmer tone, he said, "Izzy?" The computer genius turned around. Tai looked more lost now. For a moment, Izzy wondered if maybe there was hope of a reconciliation after all.
Instead, Tai asked, "What's the deal with that new kid? Yuujin."
Deflating all over again, Izzy replied, "W… what about him?"
"What's going on? Did he just pop in out of nowhere? That's weird, right?"
"I'm afraid I haven't really been following." He gestured at his laptop. "I've had my hands full with this."
Tai narrowed his eyes. "Just surprised no one's asking questions. Does… anybody ask questions here?"
This time, he left for good. Izzy shook it off and dismissed it. Maybe once he would have found it another intriguing mystery to pursue. Now he wanted nothing more than a little clarity.
Kari Kamiya didn't get far into her new relationship without confirming what Astra had once told her: making out with Davis was fun. There was a playfulness to his approach, darting around to pepper her lips from different places, switching at random between fast pecks to long, slow kisses that consumed her. He was experienced, practiced, knowing just what to do with his mouth and just where to put his arms that made her feel safe and welcomed. Yet there was a quiet giddiness to him, like he'd kept just a little of his love in the off chance he and Kari would find themselves together. It was impossible for her to regret making it happen.
Their certainty mesmerized her as much as anything they did or talked about. They had so many wrinkles: the overeager boy with the transparent crush, the unsteady friendship that grew in spite of it, him showing up in this world years older and years after her team's arrival, the way she relied on him for support in TK's absence, all those times she wondered if maybe she was the one with the crush on him. Add in TK's return, constant presence, and the ill-fated relationship between their alternate selves and the red flags were everywhere. Finding each other was supposed to be complicated. And yet, in one moment, they just knew it was right.
That certainty even applied in knowing when to stop. They always hit a point where she understood the need to cool down. She stopped, pulled back, and stared him in the eyes. They could hold the gaze for ages, both smiling. And they knew it was over. Her head fell back into her pillow, her legs still tangled up in his.
Of course, this was when they had to fish for something to talk about. Spending as much time throughout the day as they did exhausted most of the conversation topics. There were few things either had to say that couldn't be discussed around TK or the others.
She had one this time, but only because she forgot to use it up earlier: "So while you were out you missed the Pteramon singing competition."
"The what?" He rolled back to her. "That sounds… what did that sound like?"
"Horrible!" She laughed. "It flooded the radar for like an hour. We almost sent Rika to check it out. Then TK realized they were singing. We placed bets."
"Who won?"
"Thomas's… I think. They were all pretty off-key."
"Should have sent Rika, then. She would have mopped up."
She snickered. "Rika can sing?"
"That's what Ken says."
Kari fell quiet. She didn't want to think about Ken and Rika. Outside of the most professional mission communications, they hadn't spoken. They weren't desperate enough to bring that up.
Davis must not have had a replacement topic, since he stared back in silence. She wanted to imagine they were losing themselves in each other's eyes again. This time didn't have the same magic. In fact, his eyelids started to droop.
"We can go to sleep if you want," she said, though she wasn't tired.
"We could…" he didn't suggest anything else.
Someone else did. The distinct and separate voice in her own head asking for her turn. Kari couldn't think of a good reason to decline. "Um… I guess Rhythm wants to talk. If you're tired-"
His eyes snapped open. "No, that's fine! Let's do it!"
With a heavy, tired sigh, Kari squeezed his hand. "Oh. All right. Good night."
She felt the transition begin. Despite her eyes staying open, she drifted out of consciousness. By the time Rhythm finished her mantra, "I am the master of creation and destruction, of heaven and earth, of life and death, of light and darkness," everything beyond was a hazy dream she'd struggle to remember in the morning.
"Do you really have to say that every time?" asked Davis.
"It centers myself in this world," Rhythm answered. "I know where I am. I know who I am. You know who I am."
"Kinda long, don't you think?"
"You're not supposed to hear it very often." Her voice turned playful. "Gods appearing before mortals is a big deal!"
"I guess it is to some people." In the most exaggerated way possible, Davis stretched out in bed. "Just a typical night for me."
"Well, you're special like that."
He turned to her, a blush forming despite his smugness. "Special? You… think I'm special?"
"Most of you freak out when I borrow somebody. You actually talk to me. Like you can get past the whole body stealing thing."
Davis's smile vanished. He faced the ceiling again, looking up with a stare almost as vacant as Rhythm's. "I really like this," he said carefully. "I really like you. But I also really like Kari."
"Good thing you have both of us now."
He blinked. "Is that really okay?"
"Everybody's happy. Why wouldn't it be?"
After a moment's pondering, he rolled over and smiled again. "Yeah. It's all good."
This time, Rhythm was content to stare back at him. The loving gaze was back, at least for him.
"Hey, Rhythm?"
"Yes, Davis?"
His smile grew. "You're pretty special too."
JP Shibayama spent the morning replacing a water pipe by the river and was in no mood for the rest of his workload. Knowing his partner's lack of discipline, he assumed it would still be necessary. Some days when he was lucky, he could talk Airu into completing one or two of the less strenuous tickets on the list. Other days she couldn't be bothered, and in some cases never showed up at all. Although he was starving, JP figured he'd get this little dance out of the way and learn the fate of his afternoon before breaking for lunch.
The moan inside their office suggested she was at least inside, although he wasn't sure if he was about to walk in on something compromising. He also wasn't sure whether walking in on something compromising was desirable or not. JP threw the door open before he could form any pictures in his head.
Airu moaned again, shifting the ice pack on her arm as Opossummon massaged her back.
"Do I want to know?" JP asked, even though he already did. She and Ewan weren't exactly subtle.
"I stopped moving," she muttered. "I shouldn't have stopped moving."
Much as he wanted to stay out of it and as little as he wanted details, it was too obvious what was going on and impossible for him to not be angry about it. "How can you be okay with this? And are you sure it's actually Ewan that you're with? Surprised that guy's capable of this."
"I am too!" Her eyes faded to dreamland. "I'm learning a lot."
"But look what's he's doing to you! Are you really okay with him hurting you like this?"
"Ewan?! Hurting me?!" Airu glared at him. "He wouldn't dare. He just likes to play a little rough. He even said we have to have a… what was it called?"
"A safeword," Opossummon answered. "None of us know what that is but he looked it up and said it's important."
"It's a small price to pay for our kind of love."
JP shook his head and headed to the workbench he used as a desk. "Doesn't look like love to me."
"You wouldn't understa- ow, ow!"
He spun back around as she curled up. "What's wrong?!" he blurted in a panic.
Opossummon stopped floating and landed on Airu's back again. "I got a little too deep! Sorry!"
Airu smirked at JP and mockingly said, "Oh no, it hurt. Guess she doesn't love me." As he fumed back, she said, "Why do you care anyway? Wish you could show me what real love looks like?"
"You're lucky you got to take her on a date," added her partner.
"What, I'm not allowed to worry about you?" said JP, sneering at her mocking tone.
She scoffed. "Nobody else does. Why should you?"
Rather than commit to the lost cause of explaining why caring about others was sort of mandatory for digidestined, he returned to his folder of job tickets. "Well, for starters, I need you upright to help me do our jobs."
"Oh, so I only exist to make your life easier."
JP wanted to say, yes, her taking a job as his assistant implied making his life easier. That wasn't a battle he had the patience to fight. Instead, he picked up a stack of tickets and read the top one. "Clothes drier has a blocked vent."
"Oh that's done," Airu said. JP turned back to her in confusion. "Jeri said if that didn't get fixed I wouldn't get my laundry done on time. Unacceptable."
Rolling his eyes and dropping that ticket, he tried the next one: "Medical freezer needs defrosting."
"Done. Where do you think I got this ice?"
Raising an eyebrow at her, JP read the final ticket. "Okay, I know you didn't do this one. There's a file cabinet in the archive room with a busted drawer and Command has the only keys."
She held out a hand. "Done! Jeez, are you saying you don't know how to pick a lock?"
"You did three tickets this morning?" JP rarely forced himself to do more than two before lunch. "I can't get you to do three tickets in a week."
With a wicked smile, she said, "Don't you wake up sometimes and just want to be productive? Like everything's going right for once and you just gotta pay it forward?"
"And you feel that way because of… Ewan?" JP's stomach stirred. Her smile only grew.
"That and if she sits still for too long her back tightens up and she can't move," Opossummon added.
Airu nodded. "And now that somebody's finally giving me his time and attention, I suppose I can spare some of mine for the rest of the castle."
JP only stared back. He hated everything about her relationship with Ewan. Their gross disregard for anyone's safety, the terrible demon it must have drawn from Ewan, and yes, the bitterness in knowing he'd treat any girl better than that if he could convince one he was worth a shot. He often imagined how well he'd treat Airu, always before convincing himself she didn't deserve him. He was torn on whether she deserved this.
"Tell you what, I saw some heating pads in medical. Score me a couple and we'll tackle that HVAC unit on Ophani you keep mumbling about. With ChoHakkaimon we might not even need a ladder."
He sighed. No matter what was happening to her in private, this was an Airu he could learn to appreciate. Could he really put up with the red flags in her private life if it made his job easier?
Of course he could. He just didn't have to like it. With a grumble, he said, "Eh, Joe owes me a favor. Be right back."
"Good boy," she replied.
Tommy Himi nearly keeled over after completing the lunch service, just barely breaking out a sandwich bar in the nick of time. If he hadn't been able to wrangle Koichi and a few Digimon in to help, it may not have happened at all. He was used to being able to mass produce meals more or less on his own—breakfast was routine for him—but only when he knew it was coming. This time caught him off guard and it showed.
As Koichi wheeled the first trays of dirty dishes into the kitchen, Tommy looked down at Damemon. In exasperation, he said, "That was no good."
"Took the words right out of my mouth!" Damemon replied.
They took a deep breath to collect themselves, then marched into the office. Ewan's face remained planted on the desk, his hands covering his messy head. "What happened, Ewan?" his Digimon asked.
Ewan rose, sitting up in his chair and staring forward, an empty look on his face. After a few blinks, he answered, "I froze. Just… shut down."
"Nope, no good!"
"I know. It's… it's inexcusable. I'll do better for dinner."
Tommy tilted his head. "Are you sure? You don't look so good."
"I can't leave you hanging again." Ewan's voice wasn't much higher than a mumble. "I won't turn my back on you."
"Do I need to find Joe?"
"No." Ewan blinked again, now letting himself look around at the decor, the pink accents left over from Mimi's days. He recoiled at them. "There's nothing wrong. This is… who I am."
"You got any ideas, Damemon?"
Damemon nodded. "Yep. She broke him."
Ewan's eyes shot straight to his partner. "She didn't break me!" Both Damemon and Tommy took a step back. "She forced out the real me."
"The real you? What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. That me."
Pausing to take that in and grow a deep frown, Damemon said, "That's not the real you. I know it isn't."
"Then why am I doing this?" Ewan lashed a hand out. "The way I'm treating her, the way I can't do my job, the way I don't even care right now. I just want to… rush off and find her. Right now. What is wrong with me?"
Tommy shrugged. "You like her."
Ewan's eyes flashed manic tics. "I don't like her! She's horrible!"
"You're not wrong."
Slumping over, the Twilight general calmed down, a moment of clarity in his madness. "But she lets me be horrible too. And it's freeing. I don't have to be careful. I don't have to be nice. I don't have to care." He picked his head back up at them. "Have you ever tried not caring? It's a really good feeling."
With a cringe, Tommy said, "I don't know, this whole thing sounds kind of toxic."
"It's incredibly toxic." Yet Ewan described it fondly. "Sometimes I wonder if she's really getting hurt and she's just too stubborn to say it. Then I think… it's Airu. She deserves it." He chuckled and shook his head. "It doesn't get more toxic than that."
After a long pause, with Tommy scared to wade in further, Damemon said, "But Ewan, you care about everybody. That's the best thing about you."
"I know, and I hate it sometimes." Ewan looked up at the ceiling, head shaking. "I can't stand it when someone gets hurt. Or they're treated unfairly. Especially when I'm helpless. I couldn't even read the news back home. That's why I was so happy when I thought I found a world where nothing mattered and I didn't have to care. I could just…"
"…be horrible," Damemon concluded with resignation.
"That's who I really am. Airu made me see that. She doesn't care what people think about her, or who gets in her way, or any of that. She does what she wants without worrying about the consequences. I want that. She lets me have that."
Tommy again was too terrified to speak. Ewan was among the nicest kids he'd ever met. If he was this close to becoming a monster, what did that say about everybody else?
"Part of me wishes I could fix everything," Ewan continued. "Just go around and heal everybody. Fix all the problems and make everything better. Part of me knows that's not possible. Once I realize that… then comes the part that just wants to burn everything." He looked up at the other two. "It's okay to burn Airu… right?"
Still squeamish, Tommy said, "I'll, uh… I'll get back to you on that. Meanwhile, uh… dinner…"
Ewan stared back for a while, then nodded. "Dinner. Yeah, I'll be right there."
TK Takaishi didn't mind this particular needless job. Hearing about Yaddith unsettled him as much as anybody, but the international reps' lack of trust in any of the tamers had gone extreme. Everyone upstairs was annoyed at their insistence on supervising Jeri's settlement-bound river pickups. But since Catherine volunteered to do the supervising, it gave her and TK another chance to improve their IRL chemistry.
The unloading process also distracted Angemon and Floramon, giving the pair the freedom to sit on the riverbank undisturbed.
Hands intertwined, TK tried to shift the conversation to them, but Catherine still kept an eye on Jeri and Suzie. "You know this isn't necessary, right?" he said. "I hate what they did too, but it's not like what happened was on purpose. Jeri'll make sure you get everything."
Catherine shook her head. "I don't speak for the entire group, but I'm not worried about her. I'm here for two other reasons. At some point, we'd like to do these pickups ourselves rather than rely on your castle. If Meiko's placing the orders, her team should retrieve them."
TK could picture Tai unhappy about another sign of the settlement's growing independence, but the actual hospitality team would probably love to have it off their shoulders.
"What's the second reason?"
She turned to him, clutched his hand tighter, and gave him quick peck on the lips. Yet she still turned straight back to the dock.
"We don't have to stay here. There's plenty of spots where wouldn't be spotted…" As suave as he tried to play it, he bit his lip at his word choice.
"Maybe later. Right now it's nice to just talk." She half-turned to him again. "Unless you have nothing to talk about."
He smirked. "I always have something to talk about."
"I'm listening."
His smile faded when he realized the only thing on his mind. "Nah… why ruin the moment?" His hand slipped away from hers.
"It's about Kari, isn't it?"
TK tried to hide a smile, pleased with how well she knew him while equally frustrated at her forcing the topic. "It's probably stupid."
"Good. I have more fun when it's stupid."
He sighed. Already he knew it would start poorly: "So she says she's with Davis now." Catherine burst into snickering. TK recoiled. "I seriously confide in you?"
She covered her mouth and shook her head. "When we're online you don't hear me snickering."
"Great." It was all he would picture now. "I don't know. There's something weird about it."
Catherine narrowed her eyes, peering into his problem. "So are you afraid Davis and Kari are going to ruin their friendship or wondering why she likes him and not you?"
"That's not it!" Actually, one of those might have been. When the problem took the form of a vague unsettling feeling, everything was on the table. "I don't think that's it." He stared into the water. "Maybe that's it?"
"It could be. You said Torajiro didn't bother you, but was that because she didn't know him before? You accepted it because he just swooped in and marveled everybody. You knew you couldn't compete."
"Gee, thanks."
"Whereas Davis is more… familiar. Maybe you assumed he wasn't in the running anymore."
TK gritted his teeth. "That's the thing. If that's all it is… that makes me the jerk, doesn't it?"
"It certainly does."
"Well I don't want to be that guy. If it's real I don't want to screw it up for them."
"If it's real?" She leaned back, wearing the analyst's face again. "Ooh, what if you spent so long convincing yourself you and her weren't a good idea that you can't help but think they aren't either?"
"Okay, I get it!" He tried to play it off with a smile and good humor. He wasn't sure he succeeded. "The idea of them together seemed like such a joke and now it's actually happening and it's messing with me."
"I know you care about her, TK." Her tone carried less humor now. It was softer. "But you can't dwell on it. If they're happy, that's all that matters."
"You're right, but it's weird… I…" He exhaled. "I can usually tell when something's wrong with her. When she's in some kind of trouble and needs help. She never asks for it, so…"
"How romantic." Catherine wasn't any brighter.
"All these alarms are going off in my head." TK's hand clenched. "She says she's happy. She looks really happy! But I would swear something's not right."
An abrupt chuckle escaped Catherine. "Kari being really happy is strange. And we're sure it's actually Kari and not that god girl from the festival?"
TK's eyes flashed open. That was it. He had no way to prove it other than his feeling of dread, but that was the missing piece, and the reason for his worry.
Turning to look her in the eyes, his dazzled with enlightenment. "Rhythm! That's what's going on! She's making Kari get closer to Davis!"
"That's quite a stretch. You don't think Davis would notice that?"
"He wouldn't care," he huffed in anger. "She takes over Kari and he doesn't bat an eye. It's probably why she likes him."
Catherine attempted a calming hand on his shoulder. "So what do you plan to do if you're so convinced?"
"I gotta get Davis to cut it out so she'll leave Kari alone! And if he doesn't, I'll get Tai to do it."
She only returned a frown and an uncertain murmur. "What?" he asked, maybe more angrily than she deserved.
"I should have taken you up on the woods when I had the chance," she muttered, before setting her hands on his cheeks. "Maybe you should make sure someone's actually being harmed before you go in trying to stop it."
"Yeah, yeah," he conceded. He took a deep breath; her hands did calm him somehow. "But I just have this feeling. And if Rhythm's really doing this, Davis can't allow it."
Catherine shook her head. "Kari has a good head on her shoulders. Rhythm is literally a goddess, and the good one if I understood correctly. And Davis is many things, but he's won't let Kari get hurt. Nobody's bad here." She winked, adding the cutest smile. "It's not like there are any tamers involved."
"All packed up!" shouted Suzie, startling Catherine enough that her nails dug into TK's shoulder. He fought it off with a pained smile as she pulled her arms back, slowly turning to find Jeri, Floramon, Lopmon, and Patamon with them. Patamon flew onto TK's shoulder. He winced.
"How much of that did you hear?" he asked.
Jeri shook her head. "It doesn't matter to me. I told them even back then Yaddith was a bad idea." She turned to Catherine. "Were you going to catch this train or wait for another?"
Catherine eyed TK. He smiled back at her. She turned to Jeri and said, "I should get going. Meiko's at Ishtmian today so they may need another hand." He blinked, looking at Patamon, who only smiled back and chuckled.
"Really, you're leaving already?" Suzie asked. "Without sneaking into the woods?" She leaned in to Catherine and her red face. "If you need help dumping him, let me know. I've done it."
Matt Ishida listened to Takuya freak out in his face just long enough to get the idea, then tuned him out. Yes, serving raw chicken to everybody in Isthmian was a problem. Yes, his title put him in charge of everybody's safety and well-being within the castle walls, therefore making this his problem. Yes, he would have to follow up with the kitchen staff and make sure they had plenty of diarrhea medicine on hand. He still didn't understand why Takuya was still talking.
"What happens if everyone catches salmonella?! We were planning a mission for tomorrow!"
"We'll deal with it," Matt muttered back. "Is salmonella even a thing here?" In all his time in the Digital World, all the pre-river years of eating random meat growing out of the ground, he had never heard of anyone catching food poisoning.
"I don't know!" Takuya grunted, his hand unsteady. "But it's bad timing with Tai and the whole patrol team and the girls from the settlement here. They're all going to think we're a mess."
"We are a mess."
"Not helping, Matt!"
"It's fine. They can eat the rice tonight, I'll call Joe so we know what to watch for, and if we have to hold off on sending everybody out it's not the end of the world."
Takuya took a few deep breaths, calming a little. "You'll talk to Sora, right?"
Matt needed a sigh of his own. "Fine, but it's not like she did it on purpose. If you wanna yell at her, you can do that yourself."
Staring back in disbelief, Takuya said, "You know I can't do that."
"That's not my fault."
Takuya raised his hands. "Just… deal with this." He walked away, shaking his head.
Sora proved more elusive than Matt had expected. Her two hunters were in the kitchen doing the dishes, a pail of the uneaten bad meat beside them. One of them cowered when he walked in, dropping a plate that shattered on the floor.
"Where's Sora?" They both shrugged and said they didn't know. Matt spared them the lecture.
After trying a few other spots around the castle with no luck, he found himself in the hallway outside her room with Biyomon walking towards him. She saw him, turned around, and tried to fly away.
"Hey! Is she in her room?!"
As she flapped away, she cried, "She doesn't want to see anyone! Why do you want to talk to her?!"
"Because it's my job!" The Digimon was gone, but that was answer enough. He knocked on Sora's door, taking a breath to settle his fury. It was at the situation, not at her. "C'mon, let's talk."
"I'm not really in the mood," Sora said from the other side.
"Neither am I, but I have to. We'll make it fast."
The door clicked open. By the time he pushed it open, her back was to him, sitting on her bed. Rather than upset the other bed—he was pretty sure he'd assigned it to Yoshi and didn't want to hear complaints—he sat in a desk chair, facing her.
"I couldn't decide whether to write an apology or a resignation," she said, eying the paper on the desk.
"Stop it. I'm sure it wasn't your fault."
"It is!" Sora looked up at him, eyes filled with frustration and anger. "I assumed one of those two knew how to read a meat thermometer."
"Okay, so it was a disaster. I'm sure Mimi's done worse."
She paused, then nodded. "Yeah, you weren't here for the burrito debacle."
Much as he wanted details, Matt stayed silent. He knew what ruined dinner, and Sora was responsive. His job was done and he could have walked out as fast as he promised.
He didn't, of course. No matter how loud the voice in his head told him she'd be fine and to leave the encouragement to Biyomon, he refused to let Sora beat herself up over this. It was just a matter of waiting for her to let loose.
It didn't take long. "What was I thinking?" She shook her head. "Staying here for no reason… who was I trying to fool?"
"What's wrong with up here?"
She looked up, incredulous. "Without Takuya, I don't know anybody up here. It's just you and Izzy. And it's… hard for us to be close." Matt nodded. She didn't need to elaborate on that. "I thought I could get to know some of the hunters but…"
"Yeah, they're all kind of useless. But the new guy seems okay."
"Yuujin? Maybe if he'd detach himself from Haru for a second." She shook her head. "I don't know, they have that weird group with Rei and Tagiru… and I noticed Mr. Nishijima and Miss Himekawa spending a lot of time with them too." He nodded in understanding; he still wasn't used to them being around, and he couldn't even avoid them the way Sora could.
"And you figure down south you know more people?"
Sora looked up, nodding quickly. "I know I said it would be like I was giving up. But I was talking to Tai and…" She sighed, closing her eyes. "It felt really good to talk to somebody who knows me. Someone like Tai… that's what I'm missing."
Matt turned away, dissatisfaction and frustration on his face, a hand clenching a fist. Exactly the kind of expression Sora was bound to misinterpret. Eyes widened and face red, she blurted, "Not… like that!" Matt wasn't fooled; the three of them were always at risk of being like that. But she added, "Joe's down there, Jeri's down there… Kari… I thought I could find that up here. Maybe I was wrong."
"What, so you're giving up?"
She glared ahead. "I don't want to but… would anyone care?"
"I would!" His reply was angrier than expected, enough to get her to look up. He stammered out a clarification, "I… I'd have to figure out how to replace you. We can't trust your hunters."
Her head fell. "Oh."
The disappointment in her eyes made him relent. He turned away, cornered into sincerity. "Look, if nobody up here cares, it means you can do whatever you want. Stay, leave, hide, put yourself out there, do what you want to do."
She struggled with the question. "I don't know." Sora tossed it around her head for a while, still unable to settle on an answer. "Do you think I should go?"
"I already said-"
"I'm asking as a friend. Not as an officer." Their eyes met. Matt couldn't remember the last time he thought about her as a friend. It was always more than that, or nothing at all, or deep down hoping they could salvage something out of the wreckage. "What would you do?"
The answer came faster than he expected: "I'd tough it out." Despite his furrowed eyebrows and intense stare, a smile formed. "Act like you made the right choice even if you didn't. If no one knows you here, be whoever you want."
He doubted Sora could actually take such advice. She was always too beholden to the expectations of others. No surprise she was so helpless when there weren't any. But she smiled back, happy to at least get his genuine thoughts whether or not she'd follow them. Matt breathed in the sight, then hopped out of the chair. "I'd better go," he mumbled.
Before he could take two steps, Sora reached out, squeezing his hand. "Matt?" she said, freezing him to the spot. "You're right. I should make this work. But… would you mind if we talked more?" He looked down. Her head was lowered, but the smile remained. "I think this is the most we've said to each other since the move. It's nice."
She lifted her head, nodding with more confidence than she'd shown all night. It transfixed him. "If you're here, I can do this."
He pulled his arm away from hers, only for it drift to her shoulder. By now, they had stared at each other too long. Mumbling that he was okay with being her friend again wouldn't cut through whatever was happening. Matt took his own advice. Damn the expectations, do whatever he wanted, and act like he made the right call no matter what. Before giving her a chance to react, he bent down, leaned in, and kissed her.
Sora jolted and Matt felt the gasp within his mouth, but she didn't pull back. She closed her eyes, pushing back with more intensity. He didn't know what they were doing or where they were going—and surely she didn't either—but they were determined to make this last as long as they could.
The kiss lasted long enough for him to need a breath. He let go, drew in a rush of air as quickly as he could, and leaned forward again. It must have been too far because she pulled back, almost falling flat on the bed. He stopped. Too much of him didn't want to.
Once the euphoria was over, they were stuck staring at each other again. They were right back at awkward, only now it was the exciting breathless kind. Sora blinked, then shook her head. "N… no… you… can't do that." Her eyebrows narrowed. "What about Nene?"
Matt cringed. After some deliberation, he decided that if they were really going to try being friends or… whatever, he'd have to be honest with her at some point. "There's something you should know about me and Nene…"
Haru Shinkai sat on the rocks by the shoreline, staring out into the moons' reflections in the water, pondering what it was like to have everything he wanted. Behind him, Yuujin and Offmon played catch as Maki watched with a peaceful smile. Dokamon and Bearmon pretended to box as Eri encouraged them and Daigo worried about actual punches. Gatchmon sat by Haru's side. Old friends, new friends, revived friends… what else could he have wanted?
Yuujin handed Maki the ball to join Haru. Offmon stared at her with uncertainty. She lobbed it towards him, not strong enough to cover the same distance Yuujin had, but he laughed with glee as he reacted to the bounce and caught it. Maki chuckled back and readied herself to catch the return throw.
"I wasn't sure about it at first, but I like it here," said Yuujin. "I miss home, but there's a lot of cool people here."
"I like it here now," Haru replied, his smile growing.
"Yeah…" Yuujin nodded. "It grows on you. Could use more soccer games though. Does Tagiru play?"
With a laugh, Haru answered, "I'm sure he would if you asked."
Yuujin chuckled back. "I hope this new team will help us take care of that war so can have more nights like this."
"Is the plan to have Marcus punch everything that moves?" Eri snuck in behind them. "Seriously, what's up with him?" She sat next to them, defiant to their moment. "You two can be alone all you want when I leave. For now you're stuck with me." She turned up her nose. "It's the least you can do after skipping the festival."
Haru chuckled. "I would have thought you and Marcus would hit it off."
"Why would you think that?" she asked, half-raising a fist.
Behind him, Yuujin raised a hand and shouted, "Tai!" Indeed, Tai, Meiko, and Agumon were joining their little party. Tai waved back. It made Haru even happier.
Meiko eyed Maki and Offmon. "I… see you've made a friend," she said politely.
Too focused on throwing the ball to look at her, Maki said, "We have a lot in common." Offmon caught the ball despite tripping on his coat. He looked up at her and laughed. She smiled. "We don't enjoy people."
Tai raised an eyebrow at them, but shook it off and turned to Haru. "Hey, you got a second? Wanted to catch up."
"Sure!" Haru replied. He excused himself and followed Tai to the edge of the moat. "Glad we get to talk again. You and Yuujin sure make a good team!"
It was the first time he noticed Tai wasn't smiling. He never had been. He was staring at Yuujin. "Yuujin's, uh… your friend. Isn't he?"
The panic set in. Haru had kept Yuujin quiet at Isthmian. But the whole project happened because Tai forbid it. What was he supposed to do now?
For starters, he wasn't going to say too much: "Yeah."
"So Yuujin's actually…"
"No!" Haru wouldn't have admitted it even if it was still an android, but at least he didn't have to lie. "He's human now."
"What, he just… showed up with a human body? That's what you told Takuya."
"Yeah! Uh…" Unsure whether to persist with the lie or stay silent, he asked, "Did you say anything to Takuya?"
Tai narrowed his eyes before answering. "No. Sounds like he was just happy for the extra help. I didn't want to say anything before asking you first. So… what happened?"
As Haru struggled to figure out what to say, Tai raised a finger. "And be honest. If you've been doing stuff behind our backs I can find out. And if it was some…" His hands fished for the words. "…miracle from the gods, Kari can get in touch with a god here pretty easily."
So that was that. Haru had one path: confession. He looked at Yuujin again, now talking and laughing alone with Eri. No matter what happened from here out, Yuujin was still back. It was still worth it. Confessing was necessary. Remorse wasn't.
He lowered his head. "We've been working to get Yuujin back… pretty much since we got up here. Everybody's connected to the internet now because I needed his code. Once we had that…" Haru looked up, staring Tai in the eyes, no trace of shame. "We did what we had to do to bring him back." Somehow he hid all the shame of stealing Ken's body. This wasn't the time.
"Who's we?" Tai scanned everyone by the shore. He honed in on Maki.
Haru shook his head. "I… no." With a deep breath, he grew bolder. "I'm not throwing anyone under the bus, Tai. You do whatever you want. But only to me."
"Again, I can find this stuff out-"
"Then find out." He gritted his teeth, more confident with every exchange. "I'm not betraying anybody. I did this for my best friend. He's worth it. I don't know what rules I broke and I don't care. I'll accept any punishment. Yuujin's back, and nobody got hurt." He choked up, pausing to remind himself Ken technically was already gone when they started. "Saving Yuujin was the right decision. I don't regret it."
Tai stared back for a long time. Haru held his ground, only once glancing back at Yuujin. Eri was gone. "You know we don't really have anything laid out for punishments." Haru turned back. A weird admission for someone trying to lay down the law. "We have little stuff… because when we got here we thought that was all we'd have to worry about." Tai looked away, sad and disappointed more than angry. "We figured that since everyone was a digidestined or whatever that everyone here was good."
Clenching, Haru felt his chest ready to burst either in shame or anger. Whatever it was, he suppressed it.
"I'm not as sure anymore."
"What are you saying?" Haru mumbled.
"The trouble with the settlement happened because of something the tamers made to see their Digimon again. A lot of people could have been hurt." Tai looked back at Maki. "I don't even know how bad Himekawa let things get. All just to see Tapirmon."
"Maki?" Haru looked too. She seemed happy. "But… Maki's no different than me."
"Yeah, that's why I couldn't let you do this. We get attached to our Digimon or the people we care about and we don't care what happens as long as we can see them again. That's how people get hurt. That's how more Digimon die. And then what are their partners supposed to do?"
"But we're fine now!" Haru pleaded. "Yuujin's back! Everyone's fine!" When Tai didn't respond, Haru became more desperate. "I'm sorry if I put anyone in danger, but it's over! He's here! He's human! He's going to help! It's all fine… right?"
Tai folded his arms. "It better be. From what you said about him before I'm still…" He turned to find Yuujin. "Oh, great…" he mumbled as he found someone else instead.
"What are you two talking about?" Eri said, her own arms crossed, a wary eye on Tai.
"Eri, this isn't…" Tai returned one of his own back at her. "You have access to river orders, right?
That was all it took for her to recoil, arms falling to her sides. "Y… yeah. Why?"
"You hooked them up with extra stuff for… whatever they were doing. Didn't you?"
"I didn't send them anything!" she shouted. "I… I…" Her hands balled into fists. "Leave him alone! Haru's been trying to get him back since we lost him! You really expected him to stop now?!"
"Kind of, yeah! This stuff is dangerous! He could still be dangerous for all I know!"
"He's not!" Haru cried, sobbing as he softly added, "I made sure of it. I… I know I did."
Tai continued to shake his head. "You guys don't know what you're messing with. Haru, I…" He sighed. "I had a lot of hope for you. And Eri, we're going to have to talk about-"
"Nothing." She glared back. "I'm in the settlement. I answer to them."
They locked eyes, neither giving an inch. Haru couldn't say anything. He wanted to shrug off Tai losing faith in him. It didn't change his position. It didn't take Yuujin away. It still hurt.
Someone else needed to step in: "Can you two stop it?" None of them noticed Meiko approaching until she was already behind Eri, Agumon behind her. "What is it this time?"
Haru slumped his shoulders, waiting for someone else to hear his big secret.
But after looking at Meiko for a while, Tai only said, "I'll tell you later." He glanced at Haru and Eri again. "We're done here. Come on."
Meiko eyed Eri nervously, then approached Tai. He put a hand on her back and led her towards the castle's entrance. "Is everything okay, Tai?" asked Agumon. Tai didn't answer.
As they left, Haru took two steps towards them and shouted, "I didn't do anything wrong!" Tai didn't respond. Haru wasn't sure he believed himself.
"Seriously Tai, what was that about?" they heard Meiko ask. Tai stopped. Haru gulped; they were right above the hidden entrance to his workshop. Tai glanced at Haru again.
Whatever he said in response, Haru couldn't make out, but Meiko darted her head to them a few times, shock across her face. Then they kept walking.
Haru gritted his teeth. He couldn't show remorse. He couldn't regret his actions. It was too important. "We… we did the right thing… right Eri?"
Eri didn't answer. He turned around. She stared out at Tai and Meiko. She was in tears.
Next Time on Nexusworld- Episode 18: "Cinematic"
Matt and Sora try to figure out their relationship. Izzy finds a possible breakthrough in the Yaddith case. TK tries to convince Davis and Kari of the dangers of welcoming in Rhythm.
"Everything's out in the open. No being polite. No being scared. We let it all out."
Author's Notes
With so many existing characters to juggle, there's not a lot of room for OCs. In that sense, it was kind of fun having a need to create backstories for these hunters assisting Sora. They have the sort of stories that would have been cool to see in Hunters were it to have more of an anthology feel about the hunters themselves rather than Tagiru and company running into innocent bystanders.
I have no idea about the logistics of banging underwater, but if anyone's going to figure it out, it's Mizuki.
The recent Frontier audio drama reveals that Takuya trains with an Italian soccer team. It doesn't say which one, but I figured why not go big and imply that it's Juventus.
Reviewing this scene between Tai and Izzy hurts even more watching how well they get along in the reboot.
Matching up Tommy and Damemon was a weird fit of convenience, but since Damemon has the same voice actor as Neemon it's kind of appropriate.
My wife has a tendency to sneak onto my laptop and replace random words with "burrito." Mimi's noodle incident referred to in the Matt/Sora scene was the first chance to keep one of the changes.
And going on break again, just a reminder to let me know what you thought, and find me on social media to chat me up!