AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Hi everybody! How's it going? You doing okay over there? Are you safe and well?
I am super excited to share this chapter with you. As I've mentioned before, this fic was initially started waaaaaaay back in 2014, and as I'm posting it now I'm taking the time to edit, tweak and rewrite certain sections. And HOOO BOY did this chapter get a facelift! It almost wasn't ready in time, but after finally finishing it I couldn't wait to share it.
(Also it looks like I'm now posting on Thursday evenings instead of Fridays, so that's a thing now I guess.)
If you get a sec at the end of this fic to leave a little review, it would totally make my day! I hope you enjoy today's update.
BRUISES AND BROTHERS
"Well other than a few bumps and bruises, you're fine. You should probably get some antiseptic on that shoulder when you get home though – I'm all out, I'm afraid." Taichi nodded and poked at the singed shoulder of his shirt. His blazer had taken the worst of the hit; one of the sleeves had been torn apart at the seams, left hanging by several stray threads that Sora was trying to stitch back together with one of Jou's needles and a thin piece of twine.
The atmosphere around the campfire reminded Takeru of old times as they sat in the afternoon sun. Miyako and Iori were huddled near their digimon, each talking animatedly to their partners. Daisuke sat close to Hikari with Veemon perched on his shoulders, whilst Hikari was staring at her brother with Tailmon curled at her feet (Takeru thought she might have been sleeping until he noticed how her blue eyes would crack open every now and then to watch Daisuke closely). Koushiro sat on Jou's other side, furiously typing on his laptop while Tentomon sipped a Koushiro's cool tea. Sora sat to Takeru's left, watching Taichi and Jou closely, while a morose Gabumon had settled in on Takeru's other side. It still hurt to see Gabumon without Yamato, especially given how hard he was working to try and put on a brave face about it, and Patamon had curled himself up in Gabumon's lap to try and offer some sort of comfort.
"So, are you guys lookin' forward to comin' home?" Daisuke asked eagerly, although Takeru was left with a distinct feeling that 'you guys' was pointed more towards Hikari than anyone else. The uneasy silence that followed the question made Takeru swallow his enthusiasm. He glanced first to Jou who was staring in to the small fire with a tight, unreadable expression, and then to Hikari who was picking at the threadbare hem of her tunic. She glanced up at her brother and offered him a warm smile which he easily returned, but when Hikari turned away Taichi's face fell and he turned to Sora who gave him a sad sort of smile.
"I can't," Takeru heard himself announce suddenly. He felt the others turn to stare at him and he swallowed thickly. The glimmer of relief that flickered over Hikari and Jou's expressions lit a fire beneath Takeru's resolve and he sat up a little taller. "I'm not going home with Yamato." Gabumon lifted his head and slipped his large paw in to Takeru's hands with a tearful smile.
"Hikari?" Daisuke asked. Hikari's shoulders stiffened – as did Taichi's. The two glanced at each other, and Takeru couldn't tell who was more nervous.
"I… I don't want to go home without Yamato either," she said, watching Taichi carefully. When Taichi didn't object she straightened a little. "We should all go home together."
"The way we should have," Jou agreed with a slow nod. Hikari nodded too and lowered her gaze to Tailmon who was sitting up now and watching Hikari carefully. Takeru glanced to Taichi, surprised to find that he looked – if anything – relieved. (Daisuke, on the other hand, was openly pouting at their decision.)
"You can all stay here with us!" Gomamon exclaimed brightly. "Now that we're all together again, there's no sense in splitting up!" Daisuke brightened at that, but Sora shook her head.
"We can't all stay," she said, her voice sombre. "The rest of us have to go back and pretend like everything is normal. People will get suspicious if we all go missing too." Daisuke's shoulders slumped again while Miyako looked a little relieved (Takeru glanced to Iori, but the boy gave no indication of what he was feeling).
"We don't even know where Yamato is or how to get to him," Koushiro murmured without looking up from his laptop. "It could take weeks or even months before we-" Sora elbowed him sharply and he looked up, confused. She tilted her head towards Takeru and suddenly Koushiro's cheeks flushed. "But I-I'm sure it won't take that long. We'll all be back together before you know it!" Takeru tried to smile, but judging by the way Sora's face fell it seemed that he hadn't quite hit the mark and he quickly abandoned the attempt.
"The Kaiser used to have some holding cells north of here where he's been keeping captured digimon," Takeru offered. Hikari turned to him with a confused frown and he shrugged a little. "They used to be there, but it looks like they've disappeared. I don't think that was his full base, but it might be somewhere to start looking around for clues." Koushiro's face lit up and he nodded eagerly.
"I'll see if I can find anything. I think I'm close to being able to make some kind of map, so I'll see if there's anything that crops up nearby.
Their goodbye was subdued and tense. Hikari seemed somewhat lost in thought when Taichi approached her, but her surprised jump turned in to a tight hug that was eagerly returned. Takeru watched them with no small amount of jealousy before turning away to pull himself together. He gripped Gabumon's paw tighter and was grateful when Gabumon pressed himself against Takeru's leg. Patamon was about to settle in to Takeru's lap when Sora pulled him gently to his feet and gave him a tight hug; she wasn't Yamato, but Takeru held on tight all the same. Daisuke, Miyako and Iori all offered him awkward goodbyes before Taichi and Koushiro brought up the rear, both promising to do whatever they could to get Yamato back as soon as possible.
Dusk was settling over the camp by the time the others disappeared in to the trees, and once they were gone Jou quickly started handing out tasks for the evening. Hikari and Tailmon were asked to fetch more water from the nearby river, while Takeru and Patamon were asked to collect, boil and dry the used bandages. He supposed he should have been suspicious when he saw Hikari leaving with her bow and a quiver full of arrows, but then Patamon was dumping another armful of soggy bandages in to the woven basket in Takeru's arms and he was soon distracted. Most of the injured digimon were still nervous around Takeru, and it took a conscious effort for him to make his gestures as slow and steady as possible to avoid startling them.
"Most of these digimon were hurt by the Kaiser," Jou murmured after a particularly nervous Pagumon hurried away from Takeru to hide in a nearby shrub. Jou sighed and took off his glasses, polishing them on his shirt. "I think it does them good to see us helping. It shows them that we're not all like the Kaiser." Takeru nodded, and Jou took the basket of soaked rags from his arms and asked him to set about making sure everyone had clean bedding for the night which took them all the way through to dinner, where Jou tasked them with delivering slates of hot food to the digimon who were too big or too injured to eat in the main hut.
It was only later, when Takeru was washing up in the nearby river in the last fading rays of daylight, that he realised Hikari and Tailmon still hadn't returned. He straightened slowly, shivering as a cool breeze danced across the back of his neck. There was no real need to worry – the pair had survived years in the Digital World alone together, after all – but something was churning in Takeru's stomach. He quickly gathered the last of the pots and pans and returned them to the main tent before finding Patamon who had been lounging beside the fire.
"Are you okay, Takeru?" he asked, his ears twitching nervously as Takeru perched on the tree stump beside him.
"Hikari and Tailmon haven't come back yet," he said in a low voice. Patamon lifted his head and peered in to the darkness, his little nose twitching.
"It is late…" Patamon murmured "Maybe they were tired and went straight to bed? Didn't Jou say they had their own small hut on the outskirts of camp?" Jou had; he'd pointed it out when Takeru had been gathering the blankets and bedding. Takeru scooped Patamon in to his arms and picked his way through the camp towards it. The hut was dark and Takeru hovered by the doorway, his eyes fixed on the cloth that had been draped across the entrance like a door.
"Hikari?" he called softly. "Tailmon?" No answer. He rapped his knuckles lightly against the doorframe, and when that too didn't receive an answer he pulled the cloth back a little.
The hut was empty aside from a pile of blankets that were laid out along the far side for a bed. Takeru stepped back outside and glanced to the fire pit; the hollow was filled with lumps of charred wood, and when he pressed his hand to them they were cold as stone. Nobody had been there recently. Takeru knelt slowly and Patamon wriggled out of his arms, blinking his large blue eyes up at Takeru.
"What about your D-Terminal?" he suggested. "You could message her on there and ask if she's okay!" Takeru's eyes widened and he let out a surprised bark of laughter.
"Of course!" he breathed. They made their way back in to the big hut where Takeru retrieved the D-Terminal from beside his makeshift pillow. He dropped down on to the pile of blankets and Patamon crawled in to his lap as he flipped through the contacts until he found her name.
It had been a long time since he'd typed anything. Or written at all. He frowned, his fingers hovering over the keys as he tried to remember the last thing he'd written-
Ah. His letter to Gennai before answering Elecmon's call for help. That would have been it. (He'd tried to explain why he'd disobeyed Gennai's orders to stay put, but he figured he hadn't done a good enough job to avoid upsetting Gennai because when he tried to return to Gennai's underwater house some months later, the lake hadn't parted for him no matter how many times he plunged his digivice beneath the surface).
FROM: Takeru
TO: Hikari
Hi Hikari! It's Takeru. It's getting late and I wanted to make sure you were okay.
He deliberated over the message for several long minutes before showing it to Patamon who read it several times before nodding. He sent the message on its way and stood, slipping the D-3 in to his pocket. He scanned the camp, wondering if perhaps they had just missed each other. It was a fairly big camp, after all, with lots of huts and narrow winding paths between them. He unclipped his D-3 from his belt and glanced down at the screen. He saw his green dot in the centre, and Jou's blue-white dot busying around the bottom left corner, but no sign of Hikari. Wherever she was, she was a fair distance from the camp.
Takeru pursed his lips and drummed his fingers against his D-Terminal. There really was no reason to worry – Hikari and Tailmon could take care of themselves – but there was something about her disappearance coupled with her lack of response that left his stomach churning. He wandered aimlessly around the camp a while, keeping one eye on his D-3, but as more and more digimon began to turn in for the night with no sign of Tailmon and Hikari, Takeru found that he couldn't stay put any longer.
And so they went to Jou. They waited for him to finish up with his last patient of the evening, and when they explained that Hikari and Tailmon still hadn't returned Jou sighed and cleaned his glasses on his shirt.
"I was hoping I'd just missed them," he sighed.
"I'm sure they can't be far, Jou!" Gomamon said brightly. "Maybe now that Tailmon can evolve to Nefertimon they just went out for a fly and lost track of the time." Jou's expression fell a little.
"I didn't even think of that," he murmured, glancing at his partner. "What if they got lost?" Gomamon shook his head and waved his paw.
"They found us twice already, I'm sure they're not lost."
"Patamon and I will head out and look for them," Takeru said with a bright grin. "Pegasusmon's a fast flyer, and we'll be able to see more from the air." Jou pursed his lips and stared at Takeru, studying him for a long moment before nodding slowly.
"All right," he conceded, "but don't stay out too late and don't go too far."
"We won't!" Patamon chirped.
"If Hikari gets back before us, ask her to send us a message and we'll come right back," Takeru added. Jou nodded, his lips pressed together in a thin line.
"Just… be careful, okay? I don't like the idea of sending you two off alone…" Takeru gave Jou his most reassuring smile.
"We'll be fine, I promise."
"We'll be back before you know it!" Patamon added brightly.
Taichi frowned as he stared out towards Rainbow Bridge, as though it somehow held the answers to all his problems. It had yet to answer him in the silent hour he had stood before it. The last of the sun's rays were finally fading, and the lights of the bridge were spilling pools of red, white and green that blurred together in the misty rain.
She had changed. Of course she had – it was stupid to expect that she wouldn't have – but somehow seeing it made it so much more real. Her slender arms had squeezed tighter than he had thought possible, and he had melted in to her embrace the way he hadn't melted in years; not even when Sora held him close. As he stared out at the bridge, he felt the regret bubbling in his stomach. He should have tried harder to convince her to come home, consequences be damned. If she could sooth his worried mind with a single embrace, then imagine what she could do for their parents-
Certainty's iron grip clenched his heart and he gripped the railings a little tighter. He couldn't bear to imagine her face as she walked through the door to find their mother lost to the television, drowning in a cocktail of medications that were supposed to keep her above water. Or to see her deal with their father's absence and the knowledge that he would rather spend the night in a capsule on the other side of Tokyo then spend the night in an apartment haunted by memories. He sighed, and let his head loll forwards. Perhaps Hikari was better off in the Digital World after all.
(Perhaps he might even join her.)
A hand on his shoulder made him jump, and with a startled curse on his lips he span wildly on his heel. Natsuko laughed a little, though her sharp eyes were studying him carefully as she stepped towards him, bringing him under the shelter of her umbrella.
"Did I interrupt a deep thought?" she asked with a gentle smile, and Taichi was suddenly struck by how much she resembled her son (or, rather, how much Takeru resembled her, he supposed). Taichi scratched the back of his neck and tried to smile.
"Nah… it was nothing," he said with a strained grin that quickly faded as Natsuko tilted her head and fixed him with a look that was so… motherly.
"Which is why you're out here, alone in the rain," she challenged. He ducked his head and let out an awkward chuckle, and something shifted behind her eyes. "Do you want to talk about it?" He forced a smile before stuffing his hands in to his pockets and shaking his head. Natsuko clicked her tongue and ran a hand through his damp hair causing rivers of rainwater to run down his face. "Well at least let me give you a hot dinner; you'll catch a cold if you stay out here. Your mother will be fine," she added as he began to object. "I stopped in to see her on my way home from work. We had some extra soup which I thought she might enjoy. Judging by your fridge I'm guessing you haven't booked that cooking course yet." Taichi grinned at the jab.
"I haven't gotten 'round to it yet. Bu-u-ut I can cook rice now," he boasted. Natsuko arched an eyebrow.
"In the rice cooker?"
"In the microwave. It comes in these little pouches – you just tear off the top and throw it in!" Natsuko sighed through a smile.
"You could just let me teach you."
"You're busy enough without taking care of me. We'll get by; we made it this far."
Being slightly taller than Natsuko, Taichi took the umbrella as they walked back to the apartment amidst a pleasant stream of small-talk. Natsuko offered tidbits from her recent articles and investigations sprinkled with questions. A slow news week had caused her article about toilet paper to be featured above the fold, and how was he getting on at school? Her boss had just gotten a new dog and now they were running a 'cutest pet' competition next month, and was he still enjoying being a soccer coach? Her colleague was running a new intern initiative during the autumn holidays, and did he have anything new he wanted to tell her?
Before long they were tucking their shoes in to the rack and draping dripping coats over the rail above a small heater. The rain had soaked through Taichi's blazer, soaking his shirt, and when Natsuko motioned for him to take the wet clothes off he heard something clatter to the floor.
Taichi froze, his eyes upon Natsuko as she picked up the digivice, holding it like a viper poised to strike. She studied it for several agonising seconds before lifting her gaze to Taichi, and it was hard to ignore how the colour had faded from her face.
"I'm – I'm sorry – I-" His tongue was too big for his mouth and his words were sticking in his throat like tar. He fought his way out of his damp shirt, but by the time he was free Natsuko had already made her way in to the kitchen. He cursed under his breath and snatched up his blazer, straightening his undershirt as he hurried after her. He stumbled over a thousand apologies but Natsko – who had taken a seat at the table with the digivice infront of her – held her a hand for silence.
Mouth still limp from his last half-formed 'sorry', Taichi slipped in to the seat across from her and waited. Slowly Natsuko's colour returned, and the shock and pain that had flashed across her face were quickly schooled behind calm indifference (her Reporter Face, she called it). The longer she stared at the digivice, the thinner her lips became until they were drawn in to a tight line across her pallid features.
"I had a meeting last week," Natsuko began suddenly, and the sound of her voice made Taichi jump. "It should have been for a new column at the newspaper, but the writer never showed up. So I just sat and finished my coffee and just watched the world go by for a while. I was about to leave when suddenly a young boy walked in." She paused, slowly lifting her gaze until she was looking at Taichi again. "I thought he was you at first. Only at a glance, from the corner of my eye, but what drew me in was the… toy in his arms. Just seeing it… it looked so alive and it reminded me of… I thought…" The words hung in the air between them and Taichi felt his throat tighten at the hope burning in her eyes.
"We can go back to the Digital World." Within the walls of his home, the statement might have caused some kind of explosion; his mother might have started to weep and scratch at her ears, unable to hear the words, whilst his father comforted her and berated Taichi in the same breath, much as he used to do when Taichi was younger. Natsuko on the other hand took a moment to pause and consider the information before finally letting out a slow, shaky breath.
"And… are they… have you…" Taichi nodded slowly.
"We… Takeru's safe," he began. Natsuko hiccupped, her hands flying to her mouth as her eyes began to water. "And we've seen Yamato. We're… we're just working out how to get to him."
"Can they come back?" she asked. "You can go to them, but can they come to us?"
"Yes – we think so," he added. "Takeru didn't want to come back without Yamato." Natsuko barked another dry sob as a tear slid down her cheek. She tried to compose herself, folding her hands neatly on the table, but she quickly buckled and the tears began to fall in earnest. She reached out, gripping Taichi's hands in hers.
"And the others, your sister and Jou, they're okay too?"
"They're fine. They want to resc- to get to Yamato, too." For once, his quickly-changed choice of words went unnoticed as Natsuko squeezed his hands firmly.
"They're all right," she whispered. "We always knew they would be. We always said that we would see them again." She laughed again and Taichi couldn't help it. Years of fear – of trying to decide if finding a dead sister was better than finding no sister at all – rose in his throat as a strange noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob. Natsuko was by his side in a heartbeat, gathering him in to her arms and holding him close as they sobbed and laughed together.
The sound of the door made them pull apart, each wiping away tears as Hiroaki took off his shoes and slumped in to the kitchen. Taichi tried to smile, but it did little to keep Hiroaki from glancing between them with a concerned frown. Natsuki rushed forwards, throwing herself in to Hiroaki's arms as the news came out in a sudden rush. In an instant his tired face passed through surprise, concern, fear and hope before he looked to Taichi for confirmation. Taichi could only nod wordlessly.
They were perhaps the only ones to come through the last four years with more than they'd had before. Whilst the loss of Hikari had torn a rift between Taichi's parents, the loss of both of their sons had brought Natsuko and Hiroaki back to each other. Through their shared grief they had found what they had needed most, each taking what the other had to give. They had never remarried (and Taichi thought perhaps they never would), but when Natsuko's secondment to Kyoto had ended unexpectedly little over a year ago, leaving her needing to move back to Tokyo at short notice, Hiroaki had suggested she move in with him until she found her feet. Nearly three years later, and she still hadn't moved out.
When they hadn't been helping each other, they'd been helping Taichi. They'd been frequent visitors to the apartment in the early days, trying to talk Susumu and Yuuko away from the abyss they were inching towards. When Natsuko returned from Kyoto to find the situation had spiralled significantly, she and Hiroaki had started showing up with flasks of soup or offering to drive Taichi to the big supermarket for a monthly grocery haul of things he couldn't buy at the local convenience.
As promised, Natsuko served Taichi a hot dinner of thick broth – a French recipe, she announced as she set the bowl before him – and it took all of Taichi's reserve not to eat like a starved dog. Worrying about Hikari, Agumon and the Digital World had taken up so much of his energy that what little food he had been able to cook had mostly gone uneaten.
Hiroaki sat across from him while he ate, answering e-mails on his laptop and occasionally surfacing to ask Taichi questions about Yamato and Takeru. Some were easier to answer than others, and some – especially those about Yamato – required carefully crafted white lies that Taichi wasn't entirely sure he got away with. When Hiroaki asked if he was excited for Hikari to finally come home, Taichi took a large spoonful of broth that seared his tongue, and he was grateful when Natsuko passed him a glass of cool water and moved the conversation along to Daisuke and the other new Chosen.
When the rain continued to pour, Hiroaki insisted on giving Taichi a lift home. Natsuko pulled his shirt and blazer from the dryer (she ran her fingers over the hasty patch-job Sora had done on his shoulder, but said nothing as she handed the clothes back to Taichi. Hiroaki leant him an old weather jacket from the TV station that had seen better days, and together they made a break for the car. It was raining heavily now, and traffic was so heavy that they practically crawled the three blocks to Taichi's apartment building. It might not have been fast, but at least it was dry (and Hiroaki's choice of music on the radio wasn't all that bad).
After driving around the block twice, Hiroaki finally managed to find a space near the front of the building. He turned off the engine and Taichi eyed the rain warily. It would take him less than a minute to make it from Hiroaki's car to the shelter of the building, but it would be long enough for him to get soaked through all over again. Hiroaki's jacket was made for spring showers, not summer storms.
"It's all right, y'know," Hiroaki murmured. Taichi turned to him with a confused frown and Hiroaki offered him a reassuring smile. "To be scared about her coming home. A lot has changed while they've been away." Taichi tried to smile, but it quickly fell flat. He sighed heavily and fiddled with the zipper.
"I know things will get better once she's home," he mumbled, "but… How can I bring her home to this?" Hiroaki reached out and patted Taichi's knee softly.
"With your head held high," he said firmly. "Taichi, what is happening to your parents is not your fault. You've done your very best by them, and you've done more than any child should ever have to do. You have done nothing wrong." Taichi bit the inside of his cheek and turned his head away, watching two raindrops race down the window and Hiroaki patted his knee again.
"Try and ease her in to it," he suggested. "It will be a lot to take in. I know it's going to be difficult, but if you let her know what she's facing before she comes home, it'll make it easier. For both of you." Taichi nodded a little.
The rain eased off, if only for a little while, and Taichi took it as as opportunity to bid Hiroaki goodbye and make a break for his building. He took the stairs slowly, thinking about the wisdom in Hiroaki's words but unsure how he was going to put it in to practice. Of course it would make sense to prepare Hikari for what she was coming home to, but how would he even begin that conversation?
Hey, Hikari! Just a heads up for when you get home - mom's practically comatose and dad's not gonna be there!
He slid his key in to the lock and shook his head. He'd never been any good at handling bad news with any kind of sensitivity. His attempts often trailed in to awkward silences (or, worse, bad jokes that were supposed to break the ice but just came off as insensitive). Maybe he should ask Sora for some help; she had always been better at this sort of thing.
The apartment was dark and silent. Taichi slipped out of his shoes and flipped on a light, surprised to find his mother's usual chair empty. Natsuko's Thermos sat on the kitchen counter – untouched, judging by how heavy it was when Taichi moved it into the fridge. He shrugged his way out of his school jacket before slipping down the hall, pausing to listen at the bathroom door. Silence. He knocked lightly on his mother's door, and when he didn't receive an answer he carefully pulled it open. She was asleep in bed. He spied the glass of water beside the pill organiser, and he let out a sigh of relief when he saw one of the compartments was open and empty. One less thing for Taichi to worry about.
He busied himself in the lounge, unpacking the bags from their trip and loading up the washing machine ready for the morning. Then he took his bags and headed in to the bedroom, putting away the clothes his aunt had washed during their stay before stuffing his weekend bag back under his bed and collapsing heavily in to his desk chair. Miko mewled at him from the windowsill.
"What?" he sighed. Miko stood and stretched and yawned, her tail swishing from side to side as she jumped down on to his bed and trotted along his covers until she was standing on his desk, her golden eyes staring at him. He leant back in his chair and folded his arms. "What do you want?" Miko meowed again and padded closer, craning her neck to sniff at Taichi's face and his arms. He reached out to scratch under her chin and she pulled back. Taichi rolled his eyes. "I know I'm not Hikari. She'll be home… at some point, and you can go back to bugging her and leave me alone" Miko gave a derisive chirp before stalking back along the bed and curling up on the windowsill once more. Taichi closed his eyes and let his head loll back with a sigh. Once Hikari was home, she could go back to looking after her cat, Taichi could go back to ignoring Miko, and Miko could go back to camping out on Hikari's pillow whenever Hikari wasn't around.
Except…
Taichi opened his eyes and sat up. Miko couldn't go back to sleeping on Hikari's pillow because Hikari didn't have a pillow. Or a bed. Or pyjamas or clothes or a toothbrush… She wouldn't even have a place to store what few belongings she did have; Taichi had sort of grown used to having a bedroom to himself. The bookshelf that used to be divided down the middle was now full to the brim with schoolbooks soccer memorabilia and other unsorted trinkets ("Junk," Sora called it).
Perhaps it was just as well that Hikari had opted to stay in the Digital World, at least for the time being. Taichi would have to make room for her to come home. At the very least she needed somewhere to sleep. How much did beds cost? 100,000 yen? 200,000? And then there was everything else – clothes, shoes, underwear, toiletries, not to mention bags, coats, scarves and accessories… His thoughts drifted to his fathers' emergency credit card stored in the kitchen drawer. Did it have a limit? How would they even pay it off?
Taichi's head was spinning. Where was he even supposed to begin? There was an itch under his skin – a frenetic energy compelling him to just do something – and after scribbling down his thoughts in what was best described as word vomit, he started decluttering the bookshelf. Books were wedged in to nooks and crevices while trinkets and toys were swept in to a box and stuff under the bed where he rediscovered his old camping gear. The sleeping bag was old and a little musty, but nothing that a bit of airing out wouldn't fix (he hoped). He opened it up and laid it out on the floor before tidying away laundry and clutter that littered the carpet.
He would eventually collapse in to bed somewhere around 3am. It was hardly worth going to bed now, given that he'd be up again in a few hours for school, but his eyelids were growing heavy and he was quickly becoming clumsy and uncoordinated. He stripped down to his boxers and undershirt and slipped in to bed, realising too late that he had left his bedroom light on.
He was asleep before he even thought to turn it off.
Lying on the floor with only his hands cradled behind his head, Yamato felt the Kaiser storming down the corridor towards him. The heavy boots rattled Yamato's knuckles which the CLUMP-CLUMP-CLUMP of his raging footsteps rang off the walls, accompanied by a string of muttered curses that turned the air blue. Yamato closed his eyes with a sigh of relief; if the Kaiser was angry then that meant things hadn't gone his way. He heard the Kaiser come to a halt outside his cell and he smirked.
"I thought you'd be happy to reunite me with my friends," Yamato said idly. He opened one eye and tilted his head towards the Kaiser who stood by the cell bars, alone. "Or did they not want to come and play?"
In the blink of an eye the Kaiser was inside the cell and his hands were balled in Yamato's shirt. He lifted Yamato off the ground with ease and slammed him against the wall. Yamato blinked away stars; the kid might have looked like a runt on the outside, but there was no denying that he was fast and strong. Impossibly so.
"One of these days," the Kaiser growled, his black eyes burning with fury, "I will make you regret every word you have said to me."
"One of these days." He regretted the taunt even before the Kaiser had slammed him in to the wall again. Yamato's vision was lost behind an explosion of stars as the Kaiser threw him across the floor. He slid in to the far wall with enough force to wind him; he rolled on to his knees, trying to catch his breath, but then the Kaiser was there again – his fists buried in Yamato's shirt as he dragged him from the ground.
"I am the Kaiser!" the boy roared, his face inches from Yamato's. "You do not mock me! You and your friends will rue the day you ever set foot in my world!"
Yamato tried to swing for him but the boy caught his fist easily. He tightened his grip around Yamato's fingers until Yamato was left gasping, and just when he thought the boy might crush his hand completely he was shoved back to the ground. The Kaiser's lips were curled in a furious sneer.
"You dare raise your hand to me?" he spat. "You are an insect. You're all insects!" Yamato tried to stand but the Kaiser's boot found his shoulder and he tumbled backwards, his head slamming against the wall as he fell. The Kaiser was reaching into is cloak, and a vein in his neck was throbbing with rage.
"I tire of your insolence," he hissed. "If you cannot learn your place, then I must teach you." He withdrew a spiral of thick, black metal. The object itself wasn't particularly terrifying, but there was something about the smooth black surface that made Yamato's stomach churn. He scrambled back, his head and his shoulder throbbing, but he had nowhere to go. He backed himself against the wall and the Kaiser's furious snarl quickly shifted to a satisfied sneer as he held the spiral out towards Yamato.
"M-Master?"
"WHAT?!"
A small digimon cowered in the doorway; green and worm-like. with pink claws and a purple mouth and two large blue eyes. The Kaiser turned towards it and it shrank back, its antenna drooping and its eyes wide and terrified.
"There's a problem with the security systems," the digimon warbled. "They all seem to be offline. I tried to bring them back online again but I think I just made it worse-"
"Idiot!" the Kaiser seethed. "You've probably just made it worse! Maybe I should put a ring on you to keep you from ruining my hard work!" He snapped is attention back to Yamato and sneered down his nose at him. "I'll deal with you later." He turned sharply on his heel with a flourish of his cloak and stormed away. Over his shoulder, he added: "Lock the door, Wormmon. I trust you can do that without messing up, at least."
The pounding footsteps faded, silenced by the furious slamming of a heavy door, and then there was silence. Wormmon hovered in the doorway, looking down the hall after the Kaiser, though when Yamato tried to sit up the little digimon quickly turned his attention to him
"Please be careful," he said softly. "I didn't realise he was so angry. I'm sorry that he took it all out on you." Yamato fixed the digimon with a strange look.
"You're apologising?" he asked. "For him?" Wormmon ducked his head a little and nodded before scurrying out of sight. He returned a moment later, dragging a small satchel in his mouth. He pulled it in to the room and then nudged it towards Yamato before quickly scurrying out of reach.
"It's not much, but it's all I could manage on my own," he said. "There are some bandages and some food a-and something to drink." Yamato pulled the bag closer and peered inside; it was mostly junk food and juice pouches, but Yamato's stomach rumbled hungrily.
"Why are you helping me?" he asked. Wormmon tapped his pincers together nervously.
"One day, K- the Kaiser is going to remember who he really is, and he's going to be really, really sorry for everything he's done," Wormmon said quietly. His eyes were wide and watery as he lifted his gaze back to Yamato. "I'm just… I just want to help." Yamato frowned and sat up a little higher, trying not to wince.
"Don't suppose you'll help me by letting me go?" Wormmon shuffled back and shook his head.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I wish I could, but he would get too angry. I took the security systems offline so that hopefully he'd be mad at me instead of you, but if I set you free then he would get really angry. Even angrier than he is now." As if on cue a howl of rage echoed down the corridor and Wormmon shivered. His eyes flicked fearfully to the doorway as his antenna twitched nervously and Yamato felt his stomach twist.
"Maybe you should stay in here with me," he offered. "You might be safer." Wormmon made a strange noise that Yamato thought might have been a nervous sort of laugh as he shuffled back towards the doorway.
"I should go," he muttered. "It won't take him long to bring the security systems back online, and if I'm not there when he does then he might come back. You should rest – and eat the food. The chocolate is the best; it'll make you feel better, I promise." He shuffled back out in to the corridor and the bars of the cell door slid back in to place with a heavy slam. Wormmon bobbed his head one last time before hurrying back down the hallway and leaving Yamato alone.
He pulled the satchel closer and tipped the contents out onto the floor. Candy bars, juice pouches, jelly sweets… It reminded him of Takeru's secret candy stash that he hid in Yamato's room; Yamato would always make sure it was full on the rare weekends that Takeru came to visit.
His stomach twisted at the unexpected memory. Where was Takeru now? Still with Jou, he hoped. Safe. Yamato sighed and reached for the nearest bar – he'd never had a sweet tooth like Takeru's, but he wasn't about to turn down food. The chocolate was sickly-sweet and the sugar rush made his stomach churn, but he finished the bar and two more before inhaling two juice pouches. Then he stashed the rest of the food back in to the satchel and hid it in a small alcove before curling up against the wall to try and get some sleep. Hopefully his body would ache less in the morning.
He was awoken some time later by the door creaking open. The pain in his head was worse, and there was a ringing in his ears as he forced himself to stand. If the Kaiser was back for round two, then Yamato wasn't going to let him catch him off-guard again. Something was whispering closer – mis-matched footsteps too swift and light to be the Kaiser – and when a figure finally appeared on the other side of the bars Yamato felt his heart leap to his throat.
"T-Tailmon?!"
Her blue eyes widened and her ears twitched as she glanced back down the hall.
"In here!" she hissed. Footsteps followed and then Hikari was there. Her bow and arrow fell to the floor as she clutched at the bars.
"Yamato!"
"What are you doing here?" he hissed. He raced to the bars, wrapping his hands around hers. She was tall now – still a head shorter than him, but so much taller than when he'd last seen her. "Are you crazy?!" She shrank back a little.
"I – We didn't mean to come," she whispered. "We just wanted to take a look around and try and figure out what the Kaiser was doing, and then the security system went down and we saw your digivice signal. We couldn't leave you here." Yamato bit back a bark of startled laughter as she peered up at him nervously through her lashes.
"You're turning in to your brother," he warned. It wasn't meant to be a compliment, but Hikari's face lit up and he stifled a sigh. "You should go. There's no point you getting locked up in here with me-"
"We're not leaving you," Tailmon said firmly.
"Well you can't take me with you," he countered. He tapped the bars and fixed her with a look, and she rolled her eyes at him with a smirk as she sauntered towards the wall. There came a scratching of claws on metal, the creaking of metal being bent the wrong way, and then the click of a lock. She reappeared and tugged at the bars, heaving them open.
"Tailmon!" Hikari breathed. "How?" Tailmon shrugged and dusted off her paws.
"His set up is just like Myotismon's old cells," she answered breezily, though Yamato didn't miss the anxious twitch in her tail. "Once you've broken one, you've broken 'em all." Yamato was about to ask if she'd broken many of Myotismon's locks but then Hikari was crashing against his chest. His head throbbed and his shoulder ached but he squeezed back, holding her tightly against him as she buried her face in his chest. Tailmon hovered in the hallway, her ears and tail twitching as she peered in to the darkness.
"We should go," she murmured at last. "We don't know who else is here." Hikari pulled back first and gave Tailmon a firm nod.
"Let's go."
It was almost too easy to sneak back out of the Kaiser's base. Hikari kept glancing longingly in to the cages, hovering here and there by digimon who seemed especially wounded or troubled, but Tailmon quickly kept her moving – it was enough of a risk to try and break Yamato out; it would be far too dangerous to try and free the digimon too, most of whom were bound to the Kaiser through his rings and spirals. Luckily Hikari agreed (though with obvious reluctance, and it didn't stop her studying the prisoners as they passed).
The exit was almost in sight when Yamato heard footsteps. Tailmon's tail twitched and she hurried them along, but as they drew closer to a crossroads of corridors something snared Yamato's wrist. Vines wrapped around his arms and dragged him backwards, binding him against the bars of a cell wall and winding around his waist and his legs.
"Yamato!" Hikari cried as Tailmon leapt forwards with a yowl, placing herself between her partner and the shadow that was approaching from the darkened corridor.
"You have some nerve," the Kaiser hissed, "creeping in to the fortress of the Digimon Kaiser who controls the powers of darkness itself." Tailmon flourished her claws and Hikari knocked an arrow.
"Let us go," Hikari demanded. The Kaiser stopped several paces away and laughed.
"You think you can tell me what to do?" Hikari drew the arrow back, aiming at the Kaiser who merely chuckled. "You don't scare me, little girl-" The arrow pierced the floor at his feet. The Kaiser glanced down at it, his eyebrow arching as his lips curled in to a smirk. Hikari quickly loaded another as the Kaiser sidestepped the arrow, moving slowly toward her. "This isn't you," he continued, and there was a mockery in his voice that made Hikari bristle. "You don't want to hurt me. Otherwise, you would have done it already."
Tailmon leapt towards him, claws flashing, but the Kaiser was faster. His whip appeared from beneath his cloak and lanced out towards Tailmon, wrapping around her back paw. He threw her off-course with ease, sending her crashing in to a far wall. In the blink of an eye he was upon Hikari, and before she could defend herself he had backhanded her across the cheek and sent her spiralling to the floor with a strangled scream.
"Hikari!"
Three voices cried out at once and suddenly the Kaiser was reeling backwards, clutching at his jaw. A new figure had arrived, his right hand clutched in to a tight fist while the other was wrapped around a thick wooden staff as he stood between the Kaiser and Hikari. Yamato's breath caught in his throat as the low light of the cells flickered across shaggy strands of golden hair.
"How long are you going to play ruler of the world?" Takeru hissed. "Is it fun? Do you even know what the power of darkness you keep talking about means?" The Kaiser rubbed at the blossoming welt on his jaw and sneered.
"I-"
"You don't, do you?" Takeru took another step closer, his fists trembling at his sides. The Kaiser stepped back with a sneer.
"And what do you know?" he spat. "You're insects. You're all insects!"
"Is that all you can say?"
The whip whistled through the air and caught Takeru on the cheek. His head snapped to the side, and as the crack of the whip slowly echoed in to silence Takeru lifted his finger to brush the sliver of crimson beneath his eye.
"You can't win with words, so you resort to violence," Takeru said softly, his words calm and measured. This only seemed to unnerve the Kaiser who shuffled backwards, his shoulders hunched and shivering. "Are you done? Because now it's my turn."
Takeru darted forwards. The Kaiser lifted his whip again but Takeru's staff intercepted; the whip wrapped around the shaft and Takeru tugged it from the Kaiser's grip, leaving him defenceless as Takeru charged towards him. The staff struck the boy in the side and on his shoulder before the Kaiser managed to catch it and tug it from Takeru's grip. It didn't phase Takeru who continued the attack, lashing out with a fist and catching the Kaiser's cheek. The Kaiser stumbled and tripped, falling heavily to the floor as Takeru continued to advance.
"Takeru!" Patamon cried. "Stop!"
Takeru paused, his fingers twitching at his sides as the Kaiser backed himself against the wall. For a moment nobody moved; a stifling silence flooded the corridor and Yamato shivered, his eyes glued to his brother. At last Takeru straightened and uncurled his fists, stepping back and scooping his staff from the floor, and the Kaiser scrambled to his feet.
"You're all insects," he spat, clutching his cheek and scurrying back in to the darkness of the corridor beyond. Takeru watched him go, peering in to the darkness until they heard the heavy slam of a door. Takeru sighed and turned towards Hikari, offering a hand and helping her to her feet.
"Why didn't you tell us where you were going?" Takeru asked. Hikari chewed her lip and lowered her gaze. "We would have come with you."
"We just wanted to look," she answered. "We didn't mean to come inside, but then…" She trailed off, gesturing towards the corridor they'd come from and to Yamato, still bound to the bars by Vegiemon vines. Takeru turned, peering towards Yamato, and after a moment his eyes widened.
"Y… Yamato?" he breathed. Yamato lifted a hand as best he could to wave slightly.
"Hey, Takeru."
Tailmon made short work of the vines holding him in place, and as the Vegiemon shuffled back in to the depths of their cells Takeru wrapped himself around Yamato and held him close and buried his face in his brother's hair. How long had it been since Apokarimon? Since he'd last seen his brother disappearing behind a curtain of white light as they defeated the darkness that had been haunting them since their arrival? Takeru's fingers clutched at his shirt as he sobbed happy tears in to Yamato's chest, and Yamato bit back tears of his own.
"We should get moving," Tailmon murmured after a brief pause. She glanced over her shoulder towards the corridor the Kaiser had disappeared down and her ears canted back. "I don't want to give him the opportunity to come back with reinforcements."
They quickly made their way out of the base, and Yamato allowed himself to savour the cool breeze on his skin. Patamon and Tailmon bounded ahead, disappearing behind twin curtains of light and emerging in forms Yamato didn't recognise. He was quickly introduced to Pegasusmon and Nefertimon, and then Takeru was helping him into Pegasusmon's saddle. Yamato bit back a groan as the ache in his shoulder flared again, and he waved away Takeru's concern as his brother slid in to the saddle infront of him.
And then they were flying. The cold wind made Yamato's eyelids heavy, and soon he was dozing against Takeru's back as the digital world flew beneath them in a moonlit blur. Miles away a voice asked if there were any more brothers that needed saving, and then the world faded into darkness.