Hi again! Back to Takumi this time. This chapter was a little tricky to edit, but not too bad. One advantage of doing drabble chapters is that editing each chapter is a little easier, since they're short. Though you still have to make sure everything lines up with later chapters.
Case 3: Sweet
Ghosts were fleeting beings, but Takumi took their cases because no one else could. Their cases were simple. Play tag. Give a hug. Deliver final messages to loved ones. Stay with them until they faded away. A final battle to put them to rest before they lost themselves. That kind of thing.
It was always...interesting trying to explain these cases to his boss Kyoko. If she was still possessed by Alphamon it would have been easy, even useful, but...
The spirits were a small, sorrowful community, but they cherished the little they had left. Their brief borrowed existence gave them time to accept their fate, and then move on when they were ready.
Today's case was a spirit named Makoto. A sweet kid, maybe about five or six. Ghosts like these always made Takumi especially sad. The boy himself was cheerful though, if a little shy. All he wanted to do was see ride a pony and go to space.
Well, the pony part was easy. Takumi arrived as Unimon and carried the boy across the safest parts of Kowloon 1. In his excitement Makoto sometimes sprouted the colorful blocks of a ToyAgumon. It threw off Takumi's balance sometimes, but he easily course-corrected with his wings. But space? The boy had already stared at lots of uploaded photos of stars and galaxies, but apparently it wasn't enough. Maybe Takumi could download the kid onto his Digivice, and then download him onto a shuttle?
"Aw c'mon, you gotta give her a chance!"
Takumi halted. He recognized Nokia's bright-pink hair and bright-pink voice even at a distance. She was with Yuuko near Kowloon 1 elevator.
"I...suppose you're right..." Compared to Nokia, Yuuko's quiet voice was barely audible. "But...I don't know if I can ever trust Rie...not after everything she did before..."
"But she was possessed before, right?" asked Nokia.
"...Yes, but...It wasn't entirely because of Crusadermon that she..."
Takumi almost wanted to join, but...No, he didn't want them to see him like this. He wanted them to keep seeing him as human. He quickly flew away before either noticed them.
Takumi noticed Makoto stayed quiet too. Not too surprising. Most sane ghosts were cautious around living beings.
Then, as Takumi flew to the edge of Kowloon 1, he spotted Arata. He was walled in by hacker screens, standing near the defunct portal at the center of the platform.
What's he doing? thought Takumi. Without a moment's hesitation he dove down to investigate.
"Oh, he's okay to talk to?" asked Makoto.
Takumi slowed. What was he doing? Arata didn't know about Takumi or ghosts. Was this really a good idea?
But it was too stared at them through the transparent hacker screen, frozen.
...Well, if it was already too late, Takumi might as well own up to it. He glided down the rest of the way, landing right in front of Arata. He flared out his black wings as he trotted toward Arata with his head high, because he wanted Arata to see him...as a Digimon?
Takumi stopped mid-step. What did that mean?
"So...a Unimon huh?" Arata said, seeming just as unsure about the situation. "Well, I guess it's inevitable...anyway, that your Digimon, kid?"
"We're not partners." Takumi felt the need to clarify that. "But I want to help this boy fulfill his wish to go to space. But I'm...not sure how to do this, and was wondering if a great hacker like you might be able to help me? If it's, uh, not too much trouble, that is." Takumi sure hoped that sounded natural.
"A great hacker, huh?" Arata sounded both flattered and wary. "Well, honestly, trying to hack into space is too risky. Lots of really high security around space stuff. It's just not worth the trouble."
Makoto's face fell.
Arata frowned too. "...But, what if I told you that I could make something better than real space?" Arata went on. "A place where you don't need astronaut training or anything? Where you could go anywhere you wanted and see everything? That's something I can do in a few days. How's that sound?"
"I wanna go to real space though!" Makoto whined.
"Makoto," Takumi scolded gently. "Why don't we try the space simulation first? Then you'll have someplace to play in while we figure out how to get you to real space?"
"Okay..." said Makoto. "Sorry..."
"Nah, I get it," said Arata. "It sucks that we still don't have real space travel yet. I mean, really? But yeah, just give me a few days to set things up, and then I'll see what else I can do."
"Thank you," said Unimon. "You're very kind."
"...Sure," said Arata.
But Takumi knew better.
Is there a character named Makoto in Digimon anywhere? If there is, they're not related to this one at all lol