Chapter Eighteen

The army base Hikari found herself in after stepping out of the hospital wasn't anything like what she had been expecting. There were no tanks rumbling past on squealing treads or soldiers in camouflaged fatigues marching in formation, a foul-mouthed sergeant leading them. Instead, she found it looked just like any other town she had visited. Shops of all kinds lined the street, there was a bank, a supermarket, even a cinema or two. More shocking was that plenty of the people walking around were, like her, dressed in civilian clothes rather than military uniforms.

They were probably family members of service personnel, she reasoned, going about their daily lives whilst their partners carried out whatever tasks were assigned to them. She took a few steps towards this strange, bizarre scene, entranced, then snapped out of it and turned her attention to a waiting sedan idling at the kerb. A private was stood beside it holding a sign bearing her name, and he was quick to take hold of her luggage, what little she had, and open the door for his passenger.

Hikari slid into the backseat and struggled with the belt, her arm still in a sling and still aching despite three days of rest and a regimen of painkillers, whilst the private stowed her bag and got back behind the wheel. He took off without a word and navigated the streets towards what looked like a hotel, a modest one, and pulled into a vacant spot near the main lobby. The rest of the spaces were filled with near identical cars to the one they were in, all of them bearing official military and government plates.

Maintaining his silent façade, the soldier alighted from the car and did everything in reverse, collecting Hikari's bags and then opening her door whilst she struggled with the seatbelt before half leading, half escorting her into the hotel building where a polished wood desk with a receptionist in a dress uniform was sat. He gave Hikari's name to the receptionist who glanced at a hidden computer, tapped in a few commands, nodded and produced a room key which the private took hold of. He then led her to a nearby lift and together, they rode it in silence to the floor her new room was located on.

It was only when they reached her room that the soldier actually deigned to speak with her, presenting the key to Hikari and saying, 'Your quarters, miss. The rest of your luggage has already been deposited inside, plus a briefing packet concerning your stay here. If there are any questions you have, the numbers for the necessary personnel are included.'

He stepped back and waited for Hikari to open the door, following her in, and deposited her bag on the bed before leaving her alone in the room. Once the door had closed Hikari took a moment to examine her new home for the first time. It was more spacious than the spartan room Captain Ishida had given her back at his base, and better decorated, with a plush double bed sitting in the centre of the room. Either side of it were bedside cabinets finished in the same polished wood as the front desk, brass lamps sitting atop them.

Opposite it was a wall mounted television that had access to almost every channel Hikari could think of when she turned it on, including a 24/7 news channel, which she left running in the background. Over in the corner was a simple desk, complete with the means of making a hot drink should she want one and a plain looking telephone set. There was an envelope on the desk too, addressed to her and no doubt the briefing packet she had to read over, but Hikari ignored it for the time being and turned her attention to the room's en suite.

Like the rest of the room it was bigger than her old one and better furnished too, the floor alone being made of tiles rather than cheap linoleum, and she wasted no time in stripping her clothes off to take a long, hot shower that left her skin flush with colour when she stepped out. She wrapped one of the complimentary towels around her body and padded, barefoot, back into the room to sit on the bed to watch the news. It was showing more of the same as it had before, of ever-increasing attacks by Digimon and the JSDF's attempts to quell them, and the growing civilian casualties following each battle.

There was the occasional snippet of Daisuke in his suit, throwing himself against the enemy, but nothing with a clear enough view to make out any major detail. Despite this, the anchors consulted with so called experts who gave their opinion on what was happening, getting things wrong far more often than they got them right. Hikari watched it until she grew bored and reached for the envelope addressed to her, opening it up to deposit a booklet and some laminated ID passes bearing her photo.

She flicked through the booklet with feigned interest, seeing that it was really just a list of places she couldn't go and things she couldn't do whilst staying on base, plus the procedures her family and friends would need to go through if they wanted to visit, and when her eyelids started to feel heavy Hikari tossed it aside and lay down on the bed, allowing sleep to claim her without a fight, and suffered through a fitful slumber plagued by nightmares that ended when she jerked awake, roused by the incessant trilling of her phone as it received a call from her brother.

'Hey, Taichi,' she mumbled, rubbing sleep from her eye as she answered.

'Hey, sis,' Taichi said, sounding far more alert than his sister. 'How are you feeling?'

'Better than before,' Hikari said. Her shoulder was hurting again, a sign the medication was wearing off, and there was still a gentle throbbing from the fracture in her skull, but nowhere near what it had been only a few days ago. 'I'm in my new room, now. It's nice.'

'Nicer than home?'

'Almost,' Hikari said. She struggled to sit upright and looked out the window, seeing it was raining again, and added, 'How's Gatomon?'

'She's missing you,' Taichi said. 'Takeru has her. He said he'll bring her over with him when he visits.'

There was pause then he said, 'Is everything all right with you?'

'Aside from the wounds, and being the target of an evil monster, I'm fine,' Hikari said. 'Why do you ask?'

'Because it took them a full day to tell us you were in the hospital again,' Taichi said.

'So?' Hikari said.

'So,' Taichi said. 'Why did they take so long to let us know where you were? Did something happen to you they don't want us to know about?'

Hikari felt her heart beat a little faster as her grip on the phone tightened, flashes of a drunken Daisuke groping and molesting her appearing before her eyes, but she forced her breathing to remain steady and her voice to stay level as she said, 'Nothing happened, Taichi. I tripped and fell, is all. Maybe they just didn't have my contact information.'

'They're the military,' Taichi said. 'The government. I bet they have all our information downloaded onto their phones, ready to use it at a moment's notice. How could they just lose it for a day?'

'I don't know,' Hikari said. 'Maybe you should call and ask Captain Ishida. He was the one who found me.'

'Yeah, maybe,' Taichi muttered. 'Because he'll give me a straight answer.'

No, I don't think he would, Hikari thought. Not for this.

'He's got all our best interests at heart,' Hikari said instead. 'And he's got a lot to deal with. Maybe he was just distracted by the infected Digimon. They did a number on Daisuke that day.'

'I didn't know that,' Taichi said.

'That's because you never thought to check up on him,' Hikari said, her tone accusatory. 'Not that you've had too good a track record of that, recently.'

There was a long, heavy silence from Taichi after that comment, to the point Hikari wondered if he had hung up on her, but then she heard him give a short, irritated sigh and say, 'Don't start up with that, again. We looked for him and the others. I know it and you should as well, so why do you keep saying we didn't look for them?'

'Because we didn't,' Hikari said. 'I know I didn't and I know everyone else didn't, either, and we have the records to prove it.'

'You mean you have files that Captain Ishida says are records that prove it,' Taichi shot back. 'They could be fakes, Hikari.'

Her headache, that up until now had been subdued and ignorable, became sharp at that and Hikari raised a hand to massage where the fracture was, her brow furrowed in irritation.

'And they could be real,' she snapped at Taichi. 'And it's you who's lying. To yourself and everyone else. What then, huh? What if everything Captain Ishida has in those files is true? What then, Taichi?'

'Hikari-' he tried to say, either a scathing comment to fire back or some late attempt to soothe her, but she didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence.

'I don't want to hear it,' she shouted at him. 'Go on a date with Meiko and lie to yourself about that as well, how you aren't really boyfriend and girlfriend, or find some other kid to take under your wing so you can abandon him at a crucial moment in his life.'

She snapped her phone shut and threw it against the wall, too hard, and watching it explode into a dozen pieces startled her by the violence of the action. It was a testament to how much these past few weeks had gotten to her and Hikari was quick to regret her actions. That phone was her only means of getting in contact with her friends, the only number she had memorised being that of home, and now it was lying smashed on the floor.

Hikari sighed and knelt down beside the mess, scooping up everything she could, and stared at the plastic components in her hands for a second of two before standing and dumping it on the desk where her eyes drifted to the telephone sitting next to the pile that was once her phone. She picked up the handset and held it to her ear, hitting the button marked reception, and waited for the staff to pick up.

'Hello, front desk,' was the neutral answer.

'Yeah, hi, it's Hikari Yagami in room 501,' Hikari said. 'I was wondering, could you tell me if the base has a phone shop? I broke mine.'

'Certainly, Miss Yagami,' the receptionist said. 'One moment, please.'

There was a faint tapping of keys as the receptionist called up whatever directories she had access to that listed the base's amenities, running them down, and said, 'We have three on base currently, all of which carry civilian models. Would you like for me to call a car?'

'If that's okay,' Hikari said. 'Thank you.'

'Not at all,' the receptionist said. 'They should be here within fifteen minutes.'

Hikari thanked her again and hung up, turning to her suitcase. It was the one that she had left at Captain Ishida's base, which he had generously had delivered, and she opened it up to see her clothes were neatly packed away with typical military precision. Sitting on top of the clothes though was another envelope addressed to her, bearing the captain's now familiar handwriting, and when Hikari opened it she found a debit card in her name and a letter from Captain Ishida, explaining that it held over a hundred-thousand yen for if, or when, she had to buy something during her time on base.

She smiled and grabbed some clean clothes, pocketing the card once she was dressed and sweeping what remained of her phone into the envelope it had come in and, after grabbing her new IDs, headed for the hotel lobby to wait for her driver to come. It seemed strange that the staff here were going out of their way to cater to her, especially as she was a civilian with zero ties to the military, and Hikari wondered what they had been told about her. Did they think she was the daughter of some important officer, or a visiting diplomat? Or, had Captain Ishida and his superiors ordered them to extend every amenity available? Whatever it was, it certainly seemed like she had VIP status on base.

The receptionist smiled and nodded at her when she reached the lobby, busying herself with work at her desk as Hikari perched on a sofa to wait out the rest of the fifteen minutes for her driver, who arrived exactly on time. Like before, he was dressed in camouflaged fatigues but this one was a corporal, not a private, though he was just as polite as the other one and he held Hikari's door open for her and closed it when she was seated.

He got in behind the wheel and said, 'Where to, miss?'

'A phone shop, please,' Hikari said. 'I kind of broke mine.'

'An all too common occurrence on base,' the corporal said. 'Is there anything else you wish to do?'

'I don't think so,' Hikari said. 'Why?'

'Because that'll change which shop I go to,' the corporal began. 'The nearest two don't really have anything around them, but the third is in what passes for the base's city centre. There are places to get some food, new clothes, even a cinema. I hear it's playing a bunch of new anime OVAs. If you're interested, that is, miss.'

'I could go to the cinema,' Hikari said. 'It beats sitting around in my room all day, alone.'

'To the city centre it is, then,' the corporal said.

He took off and they made the reverse of the journey Hikari had made only hours ago, driving past the hospital that had looked after her for all those long days until they reached a busy looking street. As promised, it had a cinema, clothes stores and eateries, which were a mixture of western style fast food joints and traditional ramen booths, and a phone store. Hikari thanked the driver and got out the vehicle, watching it drive off once the door was shut. Then, she orientated herself on the phone store and went inside.

A man in his thirties was standing behind the counter, flicking through a manga, and he looked up at the jingling of a bell the door had nudged when Hikari opened it. He flipped the manga shut and stood up, a smile on his face, and said, 'Welcome. Can I help you?'

'Probably not,' Hikari said as she pulled out the envelope containing what had once been her phone. 'I accidentally smashed it.'

'Well, let's have a look,' the man said, patting an open space on the desk. 'You never know. Miracles do occasionally happen.'

Hikari nodded and did as requested, spilling the envelope's contents onto the surface and stepped back, waiting for the man's appraisal, wincing when he let out a soft sigh and shook his head.

'I can fix it,' he said, prodding the internals. 'But it'd take me a week. You'd be better off buying a whole new phone, and transferring your numbers over. Are there any photos on here you might want to save?'

'No,' Hikari said, shaking her head. 'I have a camera for that. Besides, any photos on there should be on a memory card.'

'Smart,' the man said.

He sifted through everything until he found the part that held the card and popped it out, presenting it to Hikari who took it, followed by the SIM card. Then he turned to the wall behind him and cast his eye over the vast array of models hanging from hooks. There were plenty of models from Japanese companies, but she spotted one or two that came from the west. To her surprise, the man actually reached for one such phone and placed it on the counter before her with a flourish.

'If you're looking for a replacement, might I suggest this one?' he said. 'It's from a Finnish company called Nokia, the N95, that launched earlier this year. It might not be quite on par with what Sony, Fujitsu or Panasonic can offer in terms of features, but it beats them all in terms of durability. Especially if you're likely to drop it again.

'Though if you want something really tough,' he added, a grin on his face. 'And don't mind a lack of features, I've got some other phones from that company, the 3310s, that'll outlast anything and everything. Heck, I doubt even Segata Sanshiro could break one.'

He chuckled at his joke but Hikari just stood there, nonplussed, and turned her attention to the blue box that contained the phone being offered to her. It was slightly bigger than her old phone and coloured silver, and rather than being a flip phone it slid to reveal either a keypad or playback buttons for music or videos. On the back was a camera bigger than any Hikari had seen on a phone, though it still paled in comparison to her actual camera.

Like the man said, it wasn't quite as packed with features one might expect from a Japanese model but there was a reassuring heft to the phone, a sturdiness, that made Hikari feel like it could probably keep up with her, at times, dangerous lifestyle as a DigiDestined. Failing that, she could always try one of those other models from Nokia the man had mentioned.

She handed over the debit card Captain Ishida had set aside for her and the man swiped it through his machine, placing her new phone into a plastic bag and sweeping the remains of her old one into the bin. Hikari thanked him and said goodbye, stepping back outside into the base's commercial centre. The rain had stopped during the drive over but everything around her was still wet, glistening in the sun as it broke through a grey cloud cover to begin the long process of drying the land out.

She squinted against the brightness and aimed for the restaurants, choosing ramen over everything else, and used her time at the table to set up her new phone. It came to life with the press of a button and she was treated to the start up screen, of two hands reaching out to touch one another beneath the Nokia logo, and she soon found herself thinking of Takeru and his upcoming visit tomorrow. It would be good to see him again after everything that had happened with Daisuke, and to talk to him about what kind of future their relationship might have if he backed down from every fight they had.

Then she looked at the half-eaten bowl of ramen and was reminded that Daisuke's dream was to become a ramen cook, something that now might not ever come true if things with the Dark Ocean didn't turn out just right. There wasn't even a guarantee he'd still want to become a cook if he survived this battle. Her appetite soon faded but she forced herself to eat anyway and glanced at the screen as it came alive, notification after notification popping up as a deluge of missed calls and new text messages were received by the phone.

It took a little while to figure out what was from who, her contacts not yet transferred over, and when they were Hikari spent the next ten minutes sorting through them and sending replies. Taichi had sent a few, apologies for the most part, which Hikari promptly ignored and deleted out of spite. Everyone else she fed the same story of tripping and falling by accident whilst on the base, assuring them everything was okay, though of course Joe had to delve deeper into her injuries and use the proper medical jargon to describe them, most of which Hikari remembered from when the doctor first spoke with her.

Once that was done, she spent another ten minutes stumbling through the menus to set the phone up properly and to her liking, sliding it shut and pocketing it. Feeling complete and in touch with the wider world once more, Hikari stood and scanned the street for the nearest cinema, her next destination, and looked at the titles on offer as she approached. Like her driver had said, there were plenty of OVAs rather than feature films but some of them ran almost as long, so Hikari picked one that sound half familiar that was starting soon and bought a ticket.

An usher directed her to the right screen and found she wasn't alone. Around half the seats were already filled by other movie goers, none of them in uniform or older than eighteen or nineteen, clustered in groups as small as three and as big as eight. There were only three people other than her that were by themselves, splitting their attention between the screen as it showed previews for upcoming features and their phones, and she joined them in their pursuit.

Her phone buzzed with an incoming message from Takeru, details about when he'd show up tomorrow and suggestive promises about what they could do to fill their time together. Hikari allowed herself a smile and messaged him back, reminding him that her arm was still tender and they couldn't do anything too vigorous without risking her needing a third trip to the hospital. He promised he'd find a suitable alternative and that was that, Hikari shutting the phone, as a trailer for another anime came on.

It looked like a slice of life series with a heavy emphasis on the growing romance between the two main characters as they navigated the intricacies of high school, plus them weathering the hijinks of their larger than life friends, with the OVA serving as a finale for the show as a whole. One of the major selling points for the film revolved around answering the question of whether or not the main boy and girl would get together, which they probably would do in Hikari's opinion. She was vaguely familiar with the show and the teasing between the two characters was anything but subtle.

Of course they'd get together. It was as inevitable as the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening, and a trope that Hikari found a little boring. Why not shake it up on occasion by having the hero fall in love with a supporting character, even as an aside? But no, those two characters were all but fated to fall in love with one another and live out the rest of their lives together because destiny said so.

She let out a soft sigh and watched the rest of the trailer, but her mind soon wandered back to Takeru and her relationship with him. Like Taichi, he was absolutely certain they had gone looking for Daisuke and the others, something she utterly disagreed with. Could they remain a couple if they remained at odds about such a thing? Simply ignoring the issue and acting like it didn't exist wouldn't work, because it would fester and stew inside Hikari until she could no longer bear the guilt. Sooner rather than later, she would confront Takeru about it and they'd wind up in some massive row, assuming of course he would carry through with it rather than bowing out at the first hint of an argument.

Her giddy anticipation at meeting Takeru tomorrow turned to anxiety almost instantly following that thought, and her desire to see the movie went with it. Hikari stood and left the theatre before the film could even begin, exiting the theatre entirely shortly after. There was no car waiting for her because she had told the driver she wanted to go to the cinema rather than return to the hotel after sorting her phone situation, and neither was there a bus running in that direction which left travelling by foot.

Hikari spent most of the two-mile trip grappling with her newfound worries and possible ways to overcome it, barely perceiving the walk, and when she reached her hotel room she picked up the list of numbers Captain Ishida had provided her. His was top of the list and she quickly dialled it, hoping the captain was free to answer.

He was, picking up after only a few rings to say, 'Hikari. I'm surprised to hear from you so soon. How are your new quarters?'

'They're fine,' she said. 'Thank you for arranging it.'

'Not at all,' Ishida said. 'Have you read through the briefing packet?'

'Yes,' Hikari said. She paused, then asked, 'Captain, the records that Ken, Miyako and Iori read, about the IAA's observations of us, you're certain that they're true?'

'Absolutely certain,' Ishida said. 'The people that watched you were from a joint task force between the IAA and my unit. In fact, I participated in some of the missions. Everything that's in those files is genuine.'

'Did you ever watch me?' Hikari asked. 'Or Takeru?'

'No,' Ishida said. 'My targets were either Koushiro or Joe.'

'Did you ever speak to the people that did?'

'On occasion. Why?'

'Because I want to know if they saw anything unusual,' Hikari said. 'Like, if there was anything extra strange about how we were acting.'

'You mean, outside of the lack of concern for your missing team members?' Ishida said.

'Yes,' Hikari said. 'Anything to suggest that we were being controlled or manipulated or interfered with. I need to know if there was anything like that going on.'

'Ah,' Ishida said. He was silent for a moment, then, 'No. We never saw anything like that. It was business as usual for the eight of you, beyond the apparent lack of concern for the missing four. We even had psychiatrists come in and evaluate everyone.'

'And?' Hikari said.

'And, nothing,' Ishida said. 'You all came across as healthy, normal people. No sociopathic tendencies, no emotional disorders, nothing to suggest why you would suddenly fail to care about your absent friends. Neither was there anything to suggest an outside influence was forcing you to not care. None of your other behaviours were affected in the slightest.'

'And you're absolutely, positively, one-hundred percent certain, that those files are entirely authentic and a fully accurate record of what we did in those three months?' Hikari said.

'I am,' Ishida said. 'I know what Taichi thinks, that they're just a gimmick to fragment you, but he's wrong. Everything in those files is a fully accurate record of what happened two years ago. The eight of you barely lifted a finger to find your missing friends, for no reason that we could rationally discern, for a full three-month period. Then, you convinced yourselves that you had.'

He finished talking and waited for Hikari to reply, though when she kept silent he asked, 'Why the sudden desire to know this?'

She remained quiet for a few moments more, almost a full minute, then let out a soft sigh and gave him an answer.

'I'm breaking up with Takeru.'