Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
Digimon Trinity
Chapter: 172/ Episode 24: Decisions
Ken sat at the side of the hospital bed, looking at Davis' face. He was still unconscious. There had been no change in his situation since the end of the battle, save that the swelling of his injuries had gone down.
"Why won't he wake up?" DemiVeemon asked from Ken's lap, his voice thick with emotion. "Davis… I'm sorry."
The blue reptile's voice faded and he looked down, tears welling up in the corner of his eyes.
"I'm sure he'll wake up soon, DemiVeemon," Ken said, patting him on the head. "Joe says these things can take time, and he took a pretty bad hit."
"He's taken a lot of bad hits before though," DemiVeemon replied. "His head was always so tough. I even took a hammer to it once and it didn't even hurt him. I mean, sure, he complained about it, but he was all right. Well, besides the lump…"
Opting not to ask what the In-Training digimon was doing hitting Davis with a hammer, Ken heaved a heavy sigh and glanced out the window. The view from Tokyo Medical gave him a clear view of the devastation that had been caused by the battle. While much of it had been confined to Meiji Avenue, wreckage and construction crews stretching all the way to Toyama Park etched a scar across Shinjuku. It conjured up memories of the War.
All I have to do is close my eyes and I'm back in Odaiba, Ken thought, tension running along his limbs. Back in the smoke and fire.
"Ken? You're squishing me."
"Hm?" Blinking, Ken looked down at DemiVeemon and promptly relaxed his grip. "Sorry." Sighing again, he looked back up at the window and found the reflection of Rumiko looking back at him. Whirling about, he found her at the entrance. Hastily, he climbed to his feet and bowed.
"Ms. Nonaka!"
"Um, h-hello," Rumiko said awkwardly, her gaze flickering over to Davis. A pained twist appeared on her lips. "H-He's still…?"
Ken opened his mouth to respond, but DemiVeemon hopped out of his hands. Landing on the bed, he strutted across the sheets, climbing over his partner's ankles as he did so, before coming to a halt. His eyes were one of determination and tears.
"He'll wake up!" he pronounced confidently. "Ken's the smartest person around. If he says that Davis will wake up, then he will!"
"Oh," Rumiko replied. Her eyes fell on the dark-haired man, who returned her gaze blankly. Ken wasn't sure what to say to her and it was clear Rumiko didn't either.
"Do you mind if I sit down?" she asked softly. Ken arched an eyebrow.
"You…? I don't mind, no." He frowned. A strange thing to ask.
Rumiko shakily took hold of one of the chairs and set herself down in it. As Ken watched, she fingered the engagement ring on her hand, twisting it about this way and that.
"I-I used to be afraid of this when we were first dating," she choked out finally. "Back when we were kids. I guess it was well founded."
"It is," Ken agreed, not sure what else to say. He thought of all the close calls he had been in back in those long-ago days. The near misses. The attacks that singed his clothes or claimed the life of a comrade in arms.
"But this is what he does," Rumiko continued, still twisting the ring on her finger. She sounded as though she were circling about something she didn't want to address. "He's a Digidestined. He-He has to protect everything. He…"
She trailed off, her shoulders sagging. Grabbing her purse, she began to dig through it for a tissue. When she couldn't find one, she made a low, keening noise. Almost childish in tone, but it was clear to Ken that she was barely holding back her tears. DemiVeemon, seeing this also, dashed over to one of the nightstands by Davis' bed and snatched up the box of tissues seated on it.
"H-Here!" he called out, hopping over to Rumiko. She looked at him, half-startled, half-looking as though she were caught in a fog. She took the offered box however and, after taking out a tissue sheet, dabbed her eyes with it.
"Thank you," she said weakly. She tried to smile, but it didn't touch her eyes.
"He'll come back," Ken said after she took a moment to clean herself up. "He's in there, fighting to come back." He offered her a more hopeful smile. "If there's one thing Davis is good at, it's not giving up. Trust me, he'll make it. He wouldn't let something like this slow him down."
"Davis has a hard head!" DemiVeemon said, pumping a tiny paw into the air. "He's taken way worse hits than this!"
Probably not the sort of thing you want to be telling his grieving fiancé, Ken thought, cringing inwardly. He was, however, saved, by the ringing of his cellphone. Snatching it out, he saw the caller's ID.
"I need to take this," he said, hitting the reply button. He picked up DemiVeemon and hastily exited the room. A part of him breathed an inward sigh of relief at their exit. He felt bad about it, but he didn't know how to comfort her in a situation like this. He wasn't very good at those kinds of situations. That was more Davis' specialty.
"Ken here," he said in a hushed voice to the phone. "What's up, Izzy?"
"Ken! We got a call from Henry. He says Guilmon found a portal at his hideout. We need to get ready."
"Understood," Ken nodded, his thoughts refocusing. Go to the digital world. Rescue Calumon. Defeat the bad guys. That narrowed his concentration to a razor's focus. It almost made him feel better having the more readily solvable problem in front of him. Almost, that is, until he remembered that Rumiko was Rika's mother. He almost immediately balked, thinking about how she would respond to news of her daughter going to the digital world and fighting the same kinds of battles that landed her fiancé in the hospital.
But we can't just leave them behind, can we? They're the 'Trinity.'
"When are we meeting? And where?" he asked, his voice straining.
"The apartment still," Izzy replied. "Takeru's people still haven't removed the lockdown on my company and its assets."
"Right, right," Ken nodded. "All right. I'll call Ri-" He caught himself. "I'll call the others. Let them know what's going on."
"Ken, are you okay?"
"Fine. Just fine." Ken took a shaky breath. "I was just visiting with Davis with DemiVeemon. Still no change. I've got to get going. I'll see you when I see you."
With that, Ken hung up. DemiVeemon, tucked underneath the man's arm, looked up at him.
"Are you okay?" he asked, tilting his head to one side. Wordlessly, Ken went back into the room.
"Sorry about that," he said, grabbing his jacket from off the chair he had occupied earlier.
"Duty calls?" Rumiko asked. Ken looked up and met her eyes. Setting DemiVeemon down, he drew his jacket on and nodded. He didn't know why, but something in her gaze told him that she meant more than she was saying out loud.
"Unfortunately," he said, picking DemiVeemon back up. Rumiko closed her eyes tightly, shaking. Ken stood there for a moment before bidding her goodbye.
###
Rumiko burst into tears once Ken left. She found self-loathing rising in her chest angrily at her not asking Ken about her daughter and what he intended for her. Whether he would continue to bring her into danger. Whether he would do his best to protect her. She leaned forward in her chair, burying her face in her hands as she cried, not caring what happened to her makeup. What use was her beauty or her fashion contacts here? It wouldn't stop her daughter from walking into danger. She doubted Sora would even stop her.
Does she know? she wondered, lifting her eyes suddenly. It struck her as likely, especially with how much more time the Digidestined of Love had been spending around the girl of late. That, and she was friends with Davis. If he knew, then likely all the other Digidestined he was friends with knew.
"I thought I could trust you," Rumiko said quietly, twisting the ring on her finger. "Oh, Davis." She blinked blearily, looking up at his unmoving form. "I thought it would be different from before. That all this digital world business was behind you. And now my daughter! And you kept that from me!"
The ring's twisting ceased, but her grip on it remained tight. Her hand trembled, as though it were caught between two warring choices.
"And she kept that from me," Rumiko continued. "And so did Mom. So did everyone."
She released her grasp on the ring and turned her hand over.
"Am I actually a mother?" she asked herself. "I can't even talk to my own child."
No answer came to her as she sat there in the quiet of the hospital room. Shakily, she slid the ring off her finger and then leaned her head between her hands, crying softly once more.
###
"I didn't think I'd be back here so soon," Takato said to himself as he looked up at the apartment building that served as the temporary base of operations for the Digidestined. He wondered if he was on time. He left home as soon as he got Ken's message, a fact that his mother was not too pleased with and one that caused a bit of a delay. That, coupled with having to navigate around detours to avoid damaged streets, he would honestly find himself surprised if he did arrive on time.
Well, no point in standing still, he thought. Balling up his fists, he started forth toward the door.
"Hey! Gogglehead!"
Takato jerked to a halt, almost unbalancing himself as he did so. Whirling about at the all-too-familiar voice who had hailed him, he found Rika casually approaching, hands in her pockets.
"Rika!" he exclaimed, a smile forming on his face. "Hey! You made it!"
"And you're on time for once," Rika replied, her lips pinching as she fought back a smile. She wanted to hate it, especially in light of Ryo's warning to her about the future that now haunted her thoughts, but she couldn't help it. After everything they had been through by now, their friendship was starting to feel natural. With that comfort of familiarity came smiles that a year ago she had ceased thinking she was capable of having.
Such thoughts however still made her stomach feel a bit squirrely, even if only a little, so to distract herself, she asked, "How'd things go with your parents?"
A look of relief flooded Takato's face, though she could see that a touch of tension remained in his eyes.
"Ah, better than I thought," he said as Rika drew up next to him. "My dad more than my mom. Turns out he served in the Self-Defense Force during the War so he knew how important this is. My mom…" He shrugged; his expression sympathetic. "I can't blame her for being upset."
"Moms are like that," Rika agreed, thinking of her own mother and how upset she had been when she returned home following the battle with Vikaralamon.
"I think she was a little disappointed too when I told her that you had been training me to be a Tamer," Takato continued with a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head as they resumed their trek. "Now she knows why we were hanging out so much, sooo…" He coughed. "I, uh, think you don't have to worry about her bothering you anymore about that anymore."
He blushed and Rika looked at him, her brow tense and uncertain.
"Sorry," Takato said after a second. "I was trying to lighten the mood. And I know how much that's been bothering you, so I figured, you know, one less thing to worry about."
"Right." Rika rolled her eyes as a faint blush colored her cheeks. "Because if there's anything I'm worried about right now, it's whether or not your mom thinks we're 'together.'"
Takato's shoulders stiffened at that. "Sorry."
"Don't be," Rika replied, feeling guilty. She hadn't meant to respond quite so roughly in her tone. Takato had been trying to lighten the mood after all, and given recent events, a little lightening was something of an improvement. She hesitated before adding, "At least now she can stop thinking of wedding dates."
She glanced at the boy to check his reaction to her joke. True to expectations, Takato stumbled on a crack in the sidewalk and gave a surprised squawk. Rika hmphed and folded her arms together.
"And that's why you're not carrying me over the threshold," she said, continuing the joke. Takato looked at her in confusion, his face a mass of crimson.
"Wha…? Threshold?"
"You are so naïve," Rika replied, giving him a flat stare. A stare that lasted for only a second before she looked away, blushing and fighting back a smile. Scratching the back of his head, Takato felt his own lips twist themselves into an awkward, lopsided grin as he finally put two and two together. Of course, she was teasing him again, just as she had when they met in that alley back near her school.
"You know, you have a weird sense of humor."
"It's not weird at all," she hmphed again as they approached the apartment door. "Maybe your goggles are just cutting off the oxygen to your brain. I'm the best Comedian there is. If you're lucky, maybe I'll teach you a thing or two."
"Does that mean you're the Comedian Queen?" Takato grinned.
"If you have to ask such a stupid question then you're the one who has to buzz us in, Gogglehead," Rika scolded, schooling her expression back to stillness. "Well? What are you waiting for? Aren't knights supposed to obey their queens?"
Takato laughed and did as he was bid. All the while, Rika watched him, a pensive look in her eyes, thinking again of her encounter with Ryo and his words.
###
"Members of the team going to the digital world will be chosen based on experience and necessity," Izzy said. "As things currently stand, with our ability to defend the real world from further attack compromised, we'll need it to be a small group with no more than six members. Of these, the Tamers will fill out half the roster."
The group of adults – minus Takeru – children and digimon sat crowded together, having entered with little fanfare (save from Terriermon). Of these were the Digidestined that Rika was already familiar with, but there were also two more that she hadn't seen in a while. The girls from Ken's detective agency, Megumi Shirakawa and Miki Kurosaki along with their respective PawnChessmon.
"Hold on, you're actually letting us go?" Rika asked, arching an eyebrow at the computer nerd. Izzy nodded as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Given that you, Takato and Henry are capable of forming the Trinity Burst, which is capable of defeating Mega Level digimon, it stands to reason that we will need that kind of power, especially with so many of us having lost our ability to digivolve to the Mega level."
"Or haven't even reached Ultimate yet," said Megumi, lifting a hand. "Going to the digital world seems a little bit out of our level class."
"And for all we know you might end up achieving Mega while we're in the digital world," Ken chimed in. "Given that there's a prophecy involved, we can't afford to have you sitting on the sidelines. Whoever the Sovereign is, they have Calumon, who has been the primary source of their attacks. We may expect a temporary reprieve until they get what they want from him."
"I wouldn't count on it," Rika hmphed, crossing her arms.
"Which is why Leomon and I will be there to help," Jeri smiled from her spot next to the fire-haired girl. Rika pressed her lips together, but nodded reluctantly.
Well, at least Leomon is pretty strong, she thought to herself. She wasn't so sure about Jeri, who was largely untested and had only brief training in the way of cards. She wondered if she should give her some more lessons before leaving.
"So, who else is coming with us?" Takato asked, feeling an edge of anxiety creeping into him. He was glad that they were going to the digital world at least, but they had no idea how to navigate it.
"Ken will go," Wormmon said without preamble. "He knows the digital world the best. Not to mention he and I stayed in shape. We've still got a few tricks up our sleeves that will surprise you."
"So that's four," said Henry.
"Five," chimed in Joe, pushing up his glasses. Next to him, Gomamon grinned.
"There's just no way that anyone's going to the digital world without my pal Joe. No one is more reliable or more prepared, ain't that right?" The seal clapped his partner on the back. "Whether there's danger or you need to cross a desert, he'll have whatever you need. Sunblock, toilet paper, bandages…"
"I figure that the bandages and first aid will be top priority," Joe said with a touch of resignation. Neither Tamer said anything in response to that.
"Which leaves me last," said Sora, earning her a surprised look from Rika. The older woman gave her a wan smile and shrugged. She offered no explanation.
"The rest of us will have to divide up tasks back here with regards to patrolling and connecting with the Japanese government," continued Izzy. "They're not going to like that we're doing this independently, but with the state of things as they are and the rapid degradation of the portals, there's not much choice."
"How much time do we have?" Henry asked, suddenly becoming worried. "We're still gathering supplies."
"Things should remain relatively stable for the next 24 hours," Izzy said. "At least, that's my estimation. Without my company's equipment, Tentomon and I can only do so much with the calculations. But I believe there's plenty of room for us to work within."
"Either way, we ought to make the most of them," Ken said, getting up from his seat. "Everyone, pack as much as you can carry and only what you need. Don't overload yourselves. We won't know what we'll be in for once we arrive so we need to be able to move quickly if we have to. If we have to, we can rough it. Are there any questions?"
"Um, I have one," Jeri said, raising her hand. "How will you all be getting home?"
Izzy sighed as the Digidestined all looked at one another. Certainly, the question had crossed their minds, though they knew they had little time to formulate a solution while taking advantage of the sparse time to cross over the dimensional divide.
"We'll be working on it from this angle," Izzy said. "There's a weak point in the dimensional barriers over Hypnos that we believe we can exploit. It will take some doing though. I've been in contact with my friend from America, Willis. He's making arrangements to help in whatever ways he can."
"You'll need me too," Yolei chimed in. "I've been monitoring that weak spot for a while now. I know it inside and out. Only Takeru knows it better."
"I'll see if I can get him to pitch in," Cody said, looking at Izzy. "Is that everything?"
"Just a bite to eat," said Armadillomon, cradling his armored stomach. "I'm sorry Cody, but there's just no way that I can go see our other half on an empty stomach."
With a giggle, Mimi carefully lifted herself from off her seat and knuckled her back. She winced slightly. "Guess that's my cue," she said, putting on a smile to chase away the discomforts of her growing pregnancy. "Tell you what, Armadillomon. How about some Mimi-Cakes? It's a recipe I've been cooking up for when I get back to my show. Would you like to try it out?"
Armadillomon's stomach growled noisily in answer.
###
The sun dipped toward the horizon of Shinjuku as Takeru Takaishi found himself making his way down the halls of Tokyo Medical, flicking his father's lighter open and closed. Nurses and doctors busied themselves, ignoring the former Head of Hypnos just as he was content to ignore them in turn. He didn't have a fondness for hospitals. His father had died in one and he had woken up in one after Patamon's death and Kari's capture. Hospitals did not hold pleasant memories for him.
Arriving at a room, he stepped inside to find his brother seated in bed, a nurse and a doctor hovering over him, his arm in a sling and his head bandaged. Takeru stood there, watching the scene unfold. He flicked the lighter open with a click, overcome with a sense of déjà vu. The sound caught Matt's attention as well as that of the doctor, who all turned toward him.
"Takeru," Matt nodded.
"Yamato," Takeru replied before amending, "Matt."
Silence fell between the two brothers and after a moment, the doctor coughed.
"Anyway, like I was saying, we would like for you to stop in after a couple days for a checkup. But other than that, you're free to go."
"Thanks," Matt replied, carefully getting up from the bed. He swayed slightly and the nurse moved to catch him, but he waved her off. "I'm fine, I'm fine," he said, taking a moment to adjust before picking up his jacket from off the bed and slipping it over his shoulders. With great care and precision, he managed to slip his good arm into its respective sleeve. The other just hung there limply. For half a moment, Takeru had the nightmarish image of his brother missing his other arm and he flicked the lighter closed with a loud snap. Matt's eyes fell on the lighter but he said nothing. Instead, he made his way to the door and brushed by his younger brother. Takeru wordlessly followed him.
"Took you long enough," Matt said after some minutes had passed. Takeru raised an eyebrow beneath his sunglasses, but he didn't rise to the bait.
"Events are moving forward," he said instead. "Koshiro has informed me that your wife intends to go to the digital world with the Tamers."
"I told Sora that I would be fine. It'll only take me twice as long to cook dinner like this anyway and the new kids need her more than me. Better for her to be out there than worrying about them." He glanced at his younger brother. "You have a lot of faith in them."
Takeru took a moment to adjust his sunglasses. He said nothing and Matt looked away.
"I really should punch you," he said. "Too bad we're in a hospital right now."
Takeru's mouth quirked, almost smiling. It vanished swiftly, remembering his part in recent events and the devastation they caused. "Unfortunate, indeed."
"Are you going to walk me home?" Matt asked. "I can do it when we get there."
"As long as you don't incapacitate me," Takeru replied. "There are some things that I need to take care of. Things that Sora and the Tamers will need and I don't have enough time to compensate for being unconscious or in a hospital."
"Too bad," Matt nodded. Lifting his free hand, he balled it up into a fist and tapped it against his brother's chin. "There. Consider that a first installment of future payment. Let me know when you have some free time and I'll hit you then."
Takeru was quiet for a moment. Passing near a room, he spied Davis' unmoving form within, along with a familiar woman standing at the window, hugging herself quietly. His gaze followed them until they fell out of view.
"I'll keep you posted," he said.
7