For Takeru, it was the waiting that was the worst. The not knowing.
One moment she was here and then she was gone in a flash of light. Giant armoured angel in her place. No Hikari. No Gatomon. No Alice.
The fight raged and then both the demon and the angel were gone too. Up into the hole in the sky.
The sounds of the mob trying to fight their way into the apartment tried desperately to grab Takeru's attention, but he just stood there, out on the balcony, eyes locked on the hole in the sky.
Shouts from both sides blurred into one. The sounds of glass breaking reached his ears as something was thrown through. Sobs from Yuuko. It all meant nothing if the angel failed to make it back through the portal.
At some point, the cacophony subsided and the mob went home. It was over for them. Their demonic influencer must have been dealt with up there in hell, he reasoned, the fight must be over.
But Takeru kept staring up at the sky.
If the fight was over, where was his angel?
The minutes grew long.
Eventually, Mimi's voice broke through his tunnel vision. Wallace wanted to start work on shutting the door to the digital world and closing the hole in the sky.
Iori and Ryo wanted them both sealed. Mimi and Jou wanted to wait for Hikari to decide. Jun didn't seem to want to have a say in the matter and Ken didn't seem to care.
They wanted his opinion.
They were looking to him to lead.
He was not sure he wanted that burden.
With a sigh of relief, he noted a disturbance in the darkened portal.
A white glove.
An arm.
An angel in an asymmetrical swimsuit, complete with golden breastplate, sight obscuring helmet and over-sized decorative pink ribbon wrapped around her other wrist dove out of the hole in the sky as if in slow motion.
The ribbon usually floated in place around the angel's shoulders as if by magic, but now it was taught and trailing the angel in an arc as she re-oriented herself with the gravity of this world. On the other end was a sight that almost moved Takeru to tears.
Hikari swooped down from the sky and landed her pendulum swing with the smooth grace of one whose descent from the clouds was aided by angels – which, of course, it had been.
He ached for her to embrace him as she landed. All her petty, prickly acts over the last few years were forgiven. She was here. She was safe. She was saviour of the worlds.
The moment was perfect.
But naturally, she ran to embrace her mother.
Her brother was gone.
Reality crept back in. His brother, Koushiro and Daisuke were all still dead. There was still a portal to hell, wide open in the sky. The door to the overrun digital world was still open.
"It's not over, is it?" he muttered; half to himself and half to the eight-foot tall vision of angelic beauty that had just drifted down beside him.
"No, not in the slightest," replied Hikari's partner.
He stepped inside, and beckoned Angewomon in.
"You don't have to wait outside. Power down and relax for a while."
She shook her head, "We can't stay long,"
"She's right," agreed Hikari, "We're only here to say goodbye, and to make sure you guys close the doors after us."
Protestations popped up from all corners, but Hikari wasn't having any of it.
"You guys haven't seen what it's like over there. Lillithmon and Barbamon have–"
"Who?" interrupted Iori, oblivious as ever to the flow of conversation.
"You remember when we fought Daemon the first time, he had the three Generals, right?"
Iori nodded "And even though we defeated them back then… three years ago they were somehow back… marshalling Daemon's troops… killing innocent Digimon…"
"They're the reason this all started. After the battle, the three Generals all evolved into Demon Lords in their own right. Daemon then sacrificed MarineDevimon's evolution Leviamon, the Lord of Envy, to the Ocean as payment for the army of Deep Ones. This caused LadyDevimon and SkullSatamon's evolutions to turn on Daemon. They locked him up and took control, and by the time he eventually escaped, the only place left to run to was our world."
"How, do you know all this?" asked Takeru.
"Jackie told me as he led me to the gate to get back here,"
"And who is Jackie again?" asked Ichiro, the plain-sight answer to where Ryo Akiyama had been hiding.
"One of Gennai's copies, the one who went to India with Koushiro and I. He and Eucalyptus are the only ones left – look the longer I stay here, the longer that hole in the sky needs to stay open. Once I'm gone, we can close it, and the gate to the Digital World for good,"
It was a lot for Takeru to take in.
"But how will you get back?" he asked, not picking up the subtext for a second.
Hikari looked at him and smiled a wan smile.
"I'm not coming back. Don't you see? Every three years the balance between the worlds gets sent towards evil. Every three years we come in and restore order, and every three years we say our tearful goodbyes because we have lives in this world that need to be lived. As human beings, and children at that, we needed the intervening time to grow and experience normality outside of our destiny. But that time we took for ourselves only let evil back in. And no matter how hard we have worked to be normal, we never were, because we were Chosen. We were special. We actually had the power to do good in the worlds and we just ignored it. I ignored it. Me! The one whose connection to our destiny was so strong I actually had it spoken through me!
"It's time someone went over and stayed to keep the balance. And it has to be me."
She spoke all of this directly at Takeru. Looking deep into his eyes. Hoping for understanding.
It was as if he was once again that naive teenager who would write a whole novel about their shared experiences, just to show her how much he loved her.
Before he knew it, before he could even think about what following through on his words would entail, he had blurted out, "I'll come with you,"
The moment would have been perfect were it not for the chorus of other voices around the room offering exactly the same thing.
He saw her look around at all the determined faces, her smile tinged with sadness.
"I can't let any of you do that, you all have lives that you've built here that are too precious to give up. Jou, you've finally qualified to be a doctor. Ken, you've got your future kids and Miyako to think about. And Mimi, you're living in America for heaven's sake – the land of the free – you've earned the right to enjoy that. Iori, you–"
"I actually didn't offer my services,"
"Because you're young and you've got so much more to experience here in this world, getting a job, finding a steady boyfriend… and before you say anything Ichi–," she paused, "Sorry, Ryo, I need you to stay here and help Wallace close the gate to the digital world and fix the hole in the sky once I've gone back through it,"
He was about to protest but she held up a hand to silence him.
"I also need you and–," she moved to address the horned purple ball in Ryo's arms, "you're a Hopmon, right?"
The ball nodded, impressed.
"You and Hopmon need to protect this world if something gets through, or if I fail…" she trailed off and Takeru seized his chance.
"And what about me Hikari? My brother is gone, my job is worthless – just telling truth so fantastic it can pass as fiction – it's like I sell a piece of my soul every time I tap my keyboard. My parents and I don't see eye to eye and I honestly don't see my brother's death changing that. Hikari, if I don't go with you, I don't know what I'll do,"
He looked away, but he could hear her approaching. Felt her hand grasp his.
"I know how you feel, but you have to stay here. Because you've got the most important task of all. You need to give the world a plausible explanation for all of this. Those people out there are hurting over your brother's death. Maybe not as much as you, but enough that they were susceptible to the influence of an extradimensional demon – they need an answer so that they can move on. As do the Izumis and the Motomiyas – present company excluded. You need to come up with a lie so believable that even the police buy it. And on top of all of that, the explanation needs to keep my brother and Sora out of it."
"That's some task…"
"You are right, it will have to be the one of the greatest stories ever conceived and it'll take one hell of an author to write it. You – only you; Takeru Takaishi – can do this,"
Tears welled in his eyes and it was all he could do not to let them escape.
"Now," she said, changing her tone to one of finality, "I need to say goodbye to Sora, and then we've got to go, before any of this portal to hell stuff gets any worse,"
Once Hikari was in the other room, Mimi began hurriedly talking to Wallace in English.
Takeru had not really kept up his English after senior-high, but he assumed it was a quick rundown of what Hikari had just said. The words 'close' and 'door' featured prominently but her perspective seemed to be out of whack – he kept hearing what he was sure were first person collective pronouns being thrown around, and it sounded like she was the one saying goodbye and not Hikari – but maybe that was just because he was so out of practice.
Takeru looked over at Ryo. The mystery man who had been hiding in plain sight.
"Are you going to listen to her, Ryo?"
"Of course,"
"But you love her, don't you?"
"It's hard not to," he paused, "but I don't need to tell you that,"
"And you're just going to let her go? Just like that?"
The boyfriend formerly known as Ichiro took a second to gather his thoughts.
"It's the right play. Limited resources and two discrete locations to defend and attack. Send the heavy hitter to do the attacking and let the lesser light defend the home turf if needed,"
"But you love her, shouldn't that transcend what's logical?"
"I– I've lied to her since the day we met, it doesn't matter how I feel. But you…" he started but did not seem to be able to continue the argument.
Jou walked over and put an arm around his shoulders.
"Takeru, I understand what you're trying to get him to say, and I can't bear to see her go into all this alone either–"A cough from the balcony interrupted him, "– newly re-formed deities excluded, of course – but do you really think that if you insisted on going with her, after she made that big speech and everything, that she wouldn't resent you for it?"
Takeru had to concede his lot. Now that Jou had said it out loud, he could no longer deny to himself that he and Hikari's futures lay in separate worlds.
"And besides that, writer-boy," Ryo piled on, finally articulating his previous thought, "do you think taking anyone you are even remotely attracted to into battle against a Demon Lord of Lust is a good idea?" he shook his head in answer to his own question, "That story might be fun for a while, but it's definitely ending badly,"
Hikari appeared back in the room, and Jou immediately asked her how Sora was doing.
Hikari replied that she was sleeping.
"Her mother said she came to, saw that she was there for her and then fell back asleep; I didn't wake her because she needs the rest, but I said my goodbyes,"
This is the moment, thought Takeru, she is about to step out the door and out of our lives forever.
"Miyako left me,"
Everyone turned to look at Ken.
"Her routine test went bad, emergency C-section, I think… she said she lost them… lost them both, and then she… she couldn't stand the sight of me," he looked Hikari dead in the eye, "so when I say 'I'm coming with you' again in a couple of minutes time… please, just let me,"
Yuuko immediately embraced him, Iori wondered aloud at what 'them both' meant, and Takeru tried to console him.
"Give it a couple of days Ken, she'll need you to get through this, she'll come around. You just need to be patient,"
"She'll be fine," said Ken, still staring at Hikari intensely, "she's got three siblings, and two parents who would do anything for her. She has something to get her through this, and it doesn't involve me. And I… I need something else, making tea for random people isn't going to cut it. So, Hikari, I'm coming with you,"
Hikari turned to her partner. Angewomon gave a slight nod.
"And I'm coming too,"
"Mimi, no… what about America?"
"Do you know what is waiting for me back there? Another long line of meaningless one-night stands that start out with me drinking alcohol to try to forget about what happened the night before, and end with me drinking even more to numb myself to the depraved shit I'm agreeing to do for some weirdo whose Asian fetish is the least of my worries. No matter how I approach things the outcome never changes. I'm just an exotic sex-doll to them, and that's not a life. The only time I ever felt like I had a purpose was when I was with Palmon,"
"Mimi, I told you before–"
"I'm not saying I want to go because I want to try to get Palmon back. I want to go so I can actually do something useful. I want that direction back in my life, Hikari. Please let me try to get it,"
"Mimi, if the guys do their job, we may never be able to come back. You get that right?"
Her eyes fluttered in the direction of Wallace, before she replied with a sigh, "All that's here for me is more of the same,"
"Well then," Hikari said, clearly keen to change the subject, "ready for an adventure?"
And so it was, the three of them said their goodbyes, Angewomon made a couple of loops in her magic sash, and then, in a moment that seemed to be upon them much too soon, the four figures ascended away from the human world for good.
Takeru never took his eyes off Hikari as she rose, committing every second of her journey back into the skyward Hell to memory, but she never looked back.
As he watched, he felt strangely calm.
She and her partner had saved their world single-handedly.
She had become in flesh the angel he had always known her to be.
If anyone could restore the digital world it was Hikari Yagami.
Once the final atom of their angelic kite passed through the void, he heard himself ask aloud if they even knew how to close it.
Ryo just shrugged and then translated the question for Wallace who mirrored the response.
"At least," the secret tamer continued, "not without Alice,"
Takeru looked back to the heavens and saw, with a pleasant sense of comprehension, that the portal was closing on its own.
The dark mass shrunk down to a point over the space of a minute. A return to order. A closing. An end.
Just as Takeru was about to look away – satisfied in the very least that his world was safe – he noticed a crack of darkness arc out to the north-east over Tokyo and well out over the Pacific.
It was only a flash, like some sort of negative lightning bolt, but it filled him with a sense of dread.
He waited with bated breath.
One minute passed.
Nothing.
Another minute passed and then a message pinged on his phone.
Then Jou got one.
A muffled sound from the adjoining room meant at least one of the Takenouchis had received a message as well.
Then Iori, Yuuko, Ichiro and Jun all got one almost instantaneously.
They all looked at their phones.
Chaos ensued.