-7-

They left the hospital, Koushirou agreeing with them to meet at his office. Taichi was thinking the universe must hate him now because he was once again on Yamato's motorcycle and racing around the streets of Odaiba. He always has said that he hated the motorcycle, but being honest, Taichi could understand why Yamato loved riding his motorcycle. The wind was blowing at them and he wanted to feel the wind on his hair, but the helmet prevented that. Somehow, Yamato avoided the freeway and went to the route closer to the beach. Taichi looked around and smiled. The sun was shining on the beach and the bridge looked alive with people and lights. It was a totally different view of that place from the last he had on his mind. He squeezed Yamato's waist with his arms and smiled at the back of his best friend's head.

"What?" Yamato screamed at Taichi. The brunette just shook his head, knowing that the blonde could feel the movement "We're almost there"

"I know" he screamed back… though, he was kind of enjoying the ride.

Like Yamato said, they were at the building where Koushirou had his office in less than 10 minutes. Koushirou was already there, surely having taking a taxi at the freeway was faster, but he was glad Yamato took the other route.

They went up; Koushirou opened the office's door and, without a moment to waste, logged in the system to bring the digimon to the office. There was an orange blur and suddenly, Yamato had a very excited Patamon on his face. Taichi laughed while his friend tried to dislodge the small digimon from his face.

"Hello, Yamato!" Patamon said when he was finally away from Yamato's face.

"Hello, Patamon… why did you have to try and suffocate me?"

"Huh… I was trying to get to your hair, like I do with Takeru. I think I missed it" Patamon had a confused face on and Yamato just scowled at the digimon, before he had a Patamon-shaped hat on his head "See? Like this! Can I stay like this, Yamato?"

The blonde just sighed and made noise of agreement that made Patamon snuggle on Yamato's hair. Tentomon's wings buzzed around the office and Taichi realized that all of the digimon were in the little space. Agumon and Palmon were stuffing their faces with snacks while Gomamon cheered. Piyomon and Gabumon were seated with Tailmon on the sofa. The little cat digimon was somber and scowling and Piyomon was trying to talk to her without much success. Taichi felt a pang of guilt about it all, again. He wanted to erase all that happened because he felt on that chasm in the Digital World, but he knew he couldn't do anything now.

"Okay, here's what I wanted to talk to you guys about" He opened a few smaller windows on the screen "I was working on tracking the waves of the D3s to try and locate Ken-kun's missing device. However I found something else, too" he showed one of the windows to Taichi and Yamato, where a sort of graphic was displayed there in colors "See here, these are the normal waves that our digivices and D3s emit" and he did something and some of the lines on the screen dropped so drastically that Taichi was intrigued "And these are the waves in the last month. They are in the same colors as our crests…"

Taichi could see that their waves were almost at zero, while the younger chosen's waves – Daisuke, Miyako, Iori and Ken – didn't change at all. "What does this mean, Koushirou?"

"Well, I think I found why we have memory lapses. Somehow, our digivices are making us forget lengthy periods of time, with specific waves. Just like they work to get us to the digital world or to make the digimon evolve. It's a very complicated process but we must make sure that we are able to disable it" Koushirou didn't sound particularly sure about all this.

"Who could have done this and how?" Yamato was trying to understand what was happening. Taichi could get his friend's confusion.

"Uh… I'm thinking that, somehow, Ichijouji-kun's digivice is involved in this. However, I don't have any specific proof that…"

"I hope you're not implying that the younger kids have anything to do with this, Koushirou" Yamato's voice broke through Koushirou's explanation of the situation. Taichi could see how the blonde was slightly shaking from anger.

"Of course not, Yamato-san! I'm just saying that, whoever stole the digivice holds the key to all this."

"Well, then we need to find that digivice more than ever, don't you think?" Taichi added sourly.

"I'm already working on it. I started the search on the digital world because that's where they all were. However, I couldn't find any specific trail that could lead me somewhere, so I'm turning my investigation to the real world now. See if I can find something here"

Koushirou was still explaining what was going to happen while he tracked Ken's digivice when the door opened and Takeru and Hikari came inside with gloomy faces.

"Takeru!" Patamon left Yamato's head to go greet his partner.

Takeru hugged his digimon close. Hikari also went to hug Tailmon. Taichi saw how Sora, Mimi and Jyou were behind them.

"Uh, guys… what are you all doing here?"

"Well, Jyou's father threw us all out. Even him!" Mimi sounded outraged "I was trying to cheer Miyako-chan up and suddenly, they told me I had to leave! Unbelievable!" Mimi crossed her arms and huffed.

"Well, I broke a few rules around and…" Jyou tried to explain and Mimi was having none of it.

"I don't care. They are our friends, sempai! We need to be there for them! They didn't even let Takeru-kun and Hikari-chan stay!"

Takeru was looking somber than ever and Hikari was hugging Tailmon like her life depended on it. Taichi wanted to hug his sister but he knew he had to give her time. I'll probably never forgive you for this. Her words rang inside his head all the time.

"What's the point? They're safe. And we would only be in the way" Takeru whispered from the window. Yamato frowned at his brother's words.

"We're not part of their team anymore… we let them down" Hikari added with her head buried in Tailmon's fur.

Taichi wanted to rip his hair out. He was feeling that too. He felt he let the younger team down by not being with them. But Hikari and Takeru have always been the hopeful ones of them all. They always managed to see the bright side of things. They always managed to make the team smile. And now they were the ones feeling poorly because they were supposed to be with Miyako and Iori while they were fighting Alphamon.

"Okay, hear me out. I understand that you might feel this way. Really, I get it. Because every time I remember that I forgot Daisuke… but we need to see why we couldn't seem to remember them. We need to understand why we couldn't go with them to the digital world that time" the rest were all staring at nothing and not meeting his eyes "Guys, we need to be there for them! We need to help them adjust once more to all of this! And we need to find who did this and stop them!"

"But Taichi-san…" Takeru started and Yamato stopped his brother.

"Otouto… Taichi's right. There's something messing with all of us and especially with the younger kids. They are our friends! We need to be with them. We need to find Ken-kun's digivice. We should stop this weird thing that's messing with our heads! I also feel bad knowing that they went through all of that without us there to help them out, but we can't dwell on the past" he went to his brother's side and made him look him in the eyes "We can do anything. Even earn forgiveness from our friends, you know?"

Takeru had tears in his eyes "Did they tell you what happened to them?"

Taichi sighed "A little bit. Daisuke was telling us when Ken woke up" Taichi then looked at Jyou "Did you know how are them? I mean…"

"I know… and no. Otōsan didn't let me see the results of the tests they did to them. I only know that Daisuke threw a fit when they separated him from Ken-kun. Otōsan had to sedate him to be able to perform the tests he needed."

"Well, one way or another we're gonna be there with them. And we need to find Ken-kun's digivice. Then we'll decide what to do"

Everyone looked at Taichi like he should know what the next step was… but honestly, he felt in the dark about all this.

The next few days were weird enough and strange because nothing even happened. They were waiting for something to happen, but nothing did.

It was Friday now and he had to return to his place for dinner at least. Yamato was singing quietly in the kitchen while reheating lunch and Gabumon and Agumon were playing video-games on the TV. Taichi knew he had to go home, but somehow, he felt like he belonged here. With Yamato and their digimon. He didn't want to return to 'normal'. He didn't want to face Hikari and her disappointment.

"Wow, I can see your head emitting smoke from how hard you're thinking!" Yamato said while giving the digimon food and sodas and making motions for Taichi to follow him "You know, you don't use that enough and then you overheat it from using your brain too much. That must be unhealthy, Taichi"

"Shut up, you" he mumbled while starting to eat his ramen. Yamato had condimented it just like he liked it. "I'm just… I have to be home today. For dinner, according to Otōsan"

Yamato looked at him when he didn't add anything else "So… what's the big deal?" Taichi didn't say anything to that and just scowled at his ramen. Yamato knew him well enough to know he would crack sooner or later. He always did. It didn't mean he would be happy about it.

Besides, he still didn't know how to deal with those emotions for Yamato. He had joked around with Ken that one time – he knew that was a memory, now – but he didn't have the guts to make something with those feelings. He didn't want to ruin a friendship of more than five years just because he suddenly couldn't stop thinking about his friend and how would it feel to be more… romantic with him somehow.

Yamato wasn't looking at him. Not directly at least, but he could feel his best friend wanting to know what was the deal with him. Taichi stopped eating and smacked the chopsticks against the table "I just don't want to. Is that so hard to believe?"

"Uh, yeah. A little. Are you okay, Taichi?" Yamato stopped eating too and was looking at his friend with concern "You know you're more than welcome to stay here all you want. But I think your dad would be angry if you don't show up" Taichi just squeezed his hand around the chopsticks. He didn't want to admit it to Yamato; he didn't want to be weak in front of him. Yamato put his hand on top of his, making him loose his fingers on the chopsticks "I'm right here, Taichi. I'm not gonna disappear just because you're having dinner with your family"

Taichi closed his eyes and turned his hand around, interlocking fingers with his best friend "You don't know that…"

"Yeah, I do. You would know if I suddenly disappeared"

"I didn't know when Daisuke, Ken, Iori and Miyako disappeared!"

Yamato looked at him like he wanted to say something else to that but his cell phone alerted him of a new message. He read it without letting go of Taichi's hand, smiling at the message "Well, apparently, Hikari asked Takeru if he would come to dinner today. You won't be all alone there"

Taichi had several feeling going through him. Anger. Disappointment. Guilt. Want. Relief. Determination. He looked at Yamato in the eyes and smiled a little "Well, if Hikari can have her boyfriend to dinner, then would you come with me?"

Yamato smirked "Am I your boyfriend?" Taichi blushed beet red and spluttered, making Yamato laugh "Shut up, Taichi. If you want me to go with you, you only had to say so… I don't mind" he kept eating with one hand, holding Taichi's hand with the other "… and Takeru is not Hikari's boyfriend. You need to let it go"

"You know, most people always say that you and Daisuke are basically clones because you're so much alike… but, I have to say, Yamato-sempai also has something in common with Daisuke"

"What?! Yamato and Daisuke are NOTHING alike"

"I didn't say they were alike, I said they had something in common"

"And what would that be?"

"They are both oblivious. They don't realize what's in front of them until something gives. Daisuke is a little better than Yamato-sempai. And he doesn't have the temper to deal with. However, if you really care about Yamato as I think you do, you should tell him, sempai. I'm sure you would be surprised at the answer"

Ken was right after all... Yamato and his obliviousness. "Whatever you say…" and then he whispered "Onii-chan"

And he got a wave of ramen noodles on his face for that one. He had to laugh, making Yamato laugh too, especially when Agumon yelled "Food fight!" and started running to their position, Gabumon behind him trying to stop his partner.

Taichi got a feeling he would have to clean Mr. Ishida's apartment before leaving for his dinner…