Digital Shuffle
By famirad
Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon, this fic is for Fun.
Author's Note: Long chapter. Hardly any Juggernaut or Takato. I had to shift all those parts for the next chapter since this one was getting ridiculously long. The focus will be eventually shifting more from the Juggernaut to Jenrya and Ryo.
Reviews are very much appreciated!
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Digital Shuffle
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(The Waltz of Wolves)
Several days passed in silence. The number of Golems didn't increase; if anything, their numbers shrank and for a short period of time, people were able to live without fear of the alien lights. Those days went quickly. The human children with Digimon moved into different sectors. Once two of them went back to Odaiba's harbor. The next stage drew closer even as the uneasy silence stretched.
The Juggernaut watched.
The Juggernaut waited.
The barrier forming around Tokyo by now enveloped most of its sectors. Odaiba, Ueno, Akihabara, Kasumigaseki, and Shinjuku, among others, were all already under it. Over 80 percent of Tokyo's entire area was covered. But the barrier hadn't reached its anchor points yet, which gave the supercomputer plenty of time to make preparations. The Juggernaut made sure to reinforce the building with cables and materials it pillaged from its surrounding skyscrapers, worming its way underground and pulling what it needed. The earthquake would easily topple its neighbors, but the Hypnos headquarters wouldn't be reduced to rubble.
After all, having the entire tower collapse on top of it wasn't an option to the Juggernaut.
Even being located so far underground didn't mean that it wasn't going to take the necessary precautions. That much weight – with that much force – could easily reach the lower levels and damage important machinery. Parts that couldn't be easily replaced could be lost. Complete control over some of the sectors like Shinjuku and Ueno could be compromised, leaving "blind spots" where targets could roam freely without the Juggernaut being aware of their activities. Then there were other precautions that needed to be taken for future events. It had received news from its Creator that the Council in the Digital World, after some initial misgivings, appointed the Juggernaut as the Sword.
Which meant that the Juggernaut would be able to attack openly. But it also meant that it would leave itself more open, in turn, to retaliation. The chances of something unfavorable happening were…minuscule. Beyond even that. Something Takato Matsuda wouldn't have bothered with if he'd been left to make the decision purely on his own.
It was fortunate the Will wasn't the dominant one.
The probability that anything would happen during the impending earthquake that would tear through Tokyo was extremely small. The Juggernaut did everything possible to ensure it would be well protected. But…it would look into the other options. There were no facilities outside of Tokyo that could accommodate all its programs and such in one bundle. But in pieces, compressed packets, even the common household computer could be put to use.
Monitoring the progress of the barrier forming around Tokyo, the Juggernaut began to select the easiest of its data to work with and began copying and preparing it for compression. Most likely a pointless gesture since all calculations pointed to complete success of its duties and – more importantly – its continued survival. As a machine, the Juggernaut was used to performing tasks that didn't always seem to serve a purpose. This was no different.
Two days.
Two days and five hours remained before Zudomon's barrier anchored itself.
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Ryo had another one of those dreams.
Jenrya wished he knew what they were about. It wasn't like Ryo remembered. It was obvious from his quickened breaths as Ryo bolted up from the couch – scaring the living daylights out of Jenrya, who'd been watching TV – that it was a nightmare. The other boy stared blankly at Jenrya without seeing him, chest heaving, his black eyes wide. Long seconds passed before Ryo finally came to himself. Without meeting Jenrya's gaze, he turned around and went back to sleep.
That was a few hours ago.
Jenrya woken up to find Ryo was already up. The Tamer rolled over in his bed, hearing the sounds of the other boy moving about the apartment. The quiet clatter of dishes, a cabinet slamming shut. Good lord, what time was it? Jenrya groped for his clock through the early morning's darkness, feeling Terriermon shifting in his sleep at the foot of the bed, and turned the display toward him. It was barely five in the morning and Ryo was already up. Did he ever get any sleep?
Probably not. Less and less especially since Ryo kept waking up in a cold sweat.
Jenrya lay face-first in his bed and tried to calculate how many hours Ryo was down and out on average. Under five hours a night, easily. Five was even being generous. At five, Ryo probably thought he was sleeping late. Today, he hit barely four hours. Great. So he's an insomniac too. Jenrya sighed into his pillow, wanting to flop back to sleep. Most kids weren't up at weird hours in the morning like this. This was insane. Not everyone could survive on four hours of sleep over and over like that. Sooner or later this was gonna catch up to Ryo. It was only a matter of when, he thought.
Still, now that he was up, he wasn't going back to sleep.
Jenrya groaned at this but dragged himself out of bed. Still wearing an old t-shirt with faded green stripes across the front and his boxers, he shuffled out of his room and down the hall, trying to rub sleep from his eyes. He entered the dimly lit living living room.
Ryo was sitting by the window, half-heartedly eating a bowl of cold cereal and sitting on the sill, one bare knee up against the cool glass. He was still wearing the black tank-top and shorts he borrowed from Jenrya as pajamas. The Tamer could see the edges of the ugly scars covering Ryo's side peeping through the tank-top, but he pretended not to see them. He didn't want to get into another fight over those, especially this early in the morning.
The taller boy looked up as Jenrya staggered into the living room.
"Morning," Ryo said around his spoon.
Jenrya flicked a helpless glance outside. It was still dark.
"Ryo, it's five in the morning."
"I know."
"Five. In the morning."
"I got you the first time. Sorry about waking you up."
Jenrya sat down heavily across from Ryo, following the other boy's gaze. Shinjuku was usually a lot brighter than this. Lights used to dot the cityscape outside the apartment high-rise like millions of false stars. The sky itself used to have an orange sheen from the light pollution. Now it was muted. There were splotches of black throughout West Shinjuku – and the rest of Tokyo surrounding it - where they hadn't been able to restore power. Or where people hadn't come back to their homes. Maybe the Golems got them. It sent a chill up his spine as he realized again how much things changed over the course of a couple of weeks.
"You talked with your dad about Digimon, right?" Ryo asked.
Jenrya reached over and stole Ryo's spoon. He used it to swirl the cereal around before taking a casual bite. Way too soggy from sitting around in the milk for too long. Ryo had barely touched the food.
"I told him a little. He knows we're serious: he said he'd call Mom and get her out of Tokyo."
"Good."
"I heard from Alice and Ruki about Odaiba. Zudomon went back into hiding in the harbor, but that weird blue energy is still coming out from the water. They want us to go take a look ourselves."
"We can't go together."
"Well, I was thinking I'd go with Ruki, and you could pair up with Alice."
Ryo went silent at this. Jenrya took another experimental bite of the cereal, made a face, and set the spoon back into the bowl. It hadn't miraculously improved since the last time he tried the soggy mess. Jenrya looked up, noticing the other boy's pensive look.
"What's your deal with her?" Jenrya frowned. "You've been giving her evil eyes ever since she showed up."
"I dunno. Something about her bugs me."
"Paranoia much?"
Ryo rolled his eyes. "Very funny. I'm busting my gut laughing."
"Fine, be like that."
"I think I will, thanks," Ryo replied lightly. The corners of his lips turned up in a smile. It vanished, quickly as it appeared, as he turned serious again. "What I think about her doesn't matter – she seems like she knows what she's talking about with the whole D-Reaper thing. I can deal if she bugs me."
"You sure? I mean, if you want, we could switch places."
"Pretty sure I'll live."
Jenrya nodded. While he hadn't gotten any straight answers out of Ryo – it sounded like Ryo himself didn't know why he didn't care for Alice – at least the air between them cleared a little bit. It wasn't like when they first met in class. Ryo looked down at the cereal bogged down in milk and made the same face Jenrya had minutes ago. But unlike the Tamer, Ryo simply picked up the spoon with his uninjured hand and continued to robotically eat the soggy cereal.
Ryo went to wash the bowl out. Jenrya twisted in his seat to watch him, resting his chin on the couch's arm. A squeak of a faucet and water rushed from the kitchen sink. For a while, Jenrya was content to watch and let his thoughts wander.
Ryo had been watching the city last night too, when Jenrya first turned on the TV to watch the news. There hadn't really been that much on the news, at least not anything he didn't know about. The newscasters were talking about the recent string of disappearances in Shinjuku. People were suddenly vanishing into thin air. No one really knew why. It was mainly a lot of speculation without real evidence. One guest came on the air to place the blame on the lights that used to appear nightly in the sky, saying they were UFOS. Totally abductions. One of the newscasters asked if it was an alien invasion. Everyone laughed but it felt tense. Forced. Come to think of it, I haven't seen as many of the Golems as before, Jenrya realized.
But whether that was a good thing, or just a lull, Jenrya couldn't say.
Still, he had to be optimistic about this. Before, it was only him, Terriermon, Ruki and Renamon. They knew practically nothing about what was going on before Ryo and Alice, with Dobermon, arrived. It helped to know he wasn't alone. But even with the extra help, it seemed like they brought more questions than anything else.
Those things that attacked Ryo earlier. And went after Ruki and Alice when we got attacked by Black Growlmon…
Something about those was important. There had to be a link.
Dobermon, Renamon and Ryo all agreed the silent attacker wasn't a Digimon, nor were the cables being controlled by one. Ruki and Alice also tried to help, but all they could do was describe the attacker's behavior, nothing else the others hadn't already touched on. Jenrya tried to imagine what could animate objects like that. It didn't control everything, obviously. Houses weren't leaping at them. The tunnel hadn't tried to eat Ruki and Alice that night. Neither had the doors locked Ryo and Jenrya in during Black Growlmon's ambush.
Phone wires. Gas lines. The others identified a few other types, among them what looked like the power lines from some of the newer ones installed underground to conserve space.
Okay. So what they've got in common is they're all connected to something. All these lines run in a network all over Shinjuku and the rest of Tokyo.
Jenrya frowned to himself. All of the wires and such were controlled by an electrical source. But if the source was attacking them, then... Jenrya didn't even know where he was going with this. It felt like he was running in circles, chasing after some bait blind-folded without knowing who – or what - was at the other end.
But there was some kind of connection. Something they should look into.
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Ruki hadn't told her family about everything yet.
Renamon was ready to show herself when she did, but each time Ruki tried, it seemed like one thing or another came up. First her grandmother got a cold – she couldn't be bothered since she slept most of the time. And then it was Rumiko rushing out for photoshoots before everyone was awake. Renamon was starting to get worried; while she hadn't been able to speak face-to-face with Ruki's family, that didn't mean she didn't care about their well-being.
No matter how Ruki acted, Renamon knew those two were important to her.
The blue aura above Tokyo still grew. All the more reason to be concerned.
Renamon spent the night about Shinjuku searching for Black Growlmon. She had talked to Dobermon a little; the other Digimon agreed to go with her, giving them more of chance to feel each other out. Dobermon was of the impatient sort – quick to anger, unwilling to wait for others when he thought he could do the job himself. But he genuinely cared about his "charge" (for some reason he always called Alice this), and he had complete faith in his mission. The way he fought was rather elegant, which was surprising considering how hot-headed he could get on certain subjects. Renamon believed he could be depended on future battles.
Renamon and Dobermon returned to the site of the ambush. The damage was still there, the ground missing where those metal tentacles attacked. The street was torn up so heavily in some places that the gaping holes extended dozens of feet underground. Naked electricity sparked and spat, but nothing moved. Some humans had set up some yellow tape blocking the area off, but other than that, it hadn't been touched. Dobermon caught Black Growlmon's scent at the other end of the tunnel. They followed it for several miles before having to give up and call it a night.
The sun rose. Gold shone through Renamon's fur as she stood on the roof. Dobermon remained asleep in the shadows of the yard, hidden behind the little family shrine no one visited anymore. Sunlight crept over the horizon.
Normally Renamon would welcome this new sunrise. The light now had an eerie, green tint as the sun peeked through the faint blue of the shimmering barrier thousands of feet above Shinjuku. The uneasy feeling had multiplied to the point she looked back on Impmon's flight and saw it in a different light, honorable or not. It suddenly seemed like a rather good idea and she couldn't blame Impmon for having that rather uncharacteristic foresight to do what most people – and Digimon – hadn't.
At the very least, Ruki should go. Whatever happens when that barrier finishes spreading, it's going to be too dangerous.
But Renamon knew her partner better than that.
Ruki didn't run away. It wasn't her.
There was activity from the house and Renamon faded out from her perch to appear near Ruki's bedroom. Both Alice and Ruki were up. Ruki turned to find Renamon already behind her.
"No luck?"
Renamon stared down her snout at her Tamer. "We found a scent, but we couldn't follow it very far. Too old of a trail."
Alice began pulling her blonde hair up into her customary pig-tails. Her face, as usual, was expressionless.
"We need to keep looking. Or we could always wait until Black Growlmon attacks us."
"We'll keep looking," Ruki said. "My mom hasn't left work yet, so I want to talk to her first."
Renamon nodded solemnly. Good! There were other matters they could move onto now. She had already located several places where Rumiko and her mother could hide underground. Considering how intelligent the Golems were – based on her own observations – they probably would remain hidden safely there. Renamon was willing to bring Ruki's family there, but she couldn't simply waltz in and expect them to accept her with open arms. It was up to her partner now.
The two girls finished dressing. Ruki promised to keep Renamon informed of the situation before leaving the room.
Renamon sat down on her haunches and prepared to wait.
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Ruki found her mother preparing coffee in the kitchen. Alice remained in the doorway, thinking it best to let Ruki do the talking rather than a complete stranger. Rumiko had been waiting for the coffee to stop dripping, staring out the kitchen window as if she was looking for something, her face drawn in puzzled concentration. She turned, coffee mug in her hand, at Ruki's approach.
"Ruki, shouldn't you be off to school?" Rumiko asked in surprise. Her eyebrows drew together. "I don't want you ditching again."
Ruki sat down at the kitchen table. It was one of the few Western influences in the Makino house, with tall legs and chairs, the kind that felt more like an overgrown school desk than anything else. "I've got something more important than school right now," Ruki said. "Where's Grandma?"
"Still in bed. Why?"
"She needs to hear what I've to say too," Ruki said. "Alice, could you wake her up?"
"Ruki, she's still sick!" Rumiko protested.
Rumiko glanced helplessly over her daughter's shoulder. Alice had disappeared before she could stop her. Just what was this all about? Who exactly was the adult here? Rumiko frowned. Her daughter was taking this too far – she knew her grandmother was still ill and needed all the rest she could get.
"Ruki, this is too far," Rumiko began. "I let you make a lot of decisions in the past because I didn't want to be a control freak. But you can't go dragging people out of their beds like this!"
"I can't wait for her right now."
"Whatever it was, it could wait a few days."
Ruki was stubborn. "No, it couldn't."
"It could too," Rumiko said, and, realizing she was about to starting to sound like a kid, continued, "You don't go around deciding when people are healthy or not, Ruki."
"I can't wait for her," Ruki repeated.
"She's your grandmother!" Rumiko exploded. "Why don't you ever stop and think about the rest of us for a change?!"
Ruki stared at her, lips parted in a small "o" of surprise at her mother's outburst. Rumiko's hands flew to her mouth. She hadn't meant to shout like that. Blushing, she looked away from her daughter. Taking a few seconds to calm herself down, she met Ruki's eyes. Rumiko saw grudging respect, as if Ruki was astonished to find her mother wasn't all about dresses and high heels. Rumiko knew she should be angry at that realization, but she swallowed the urge down. It was bad enough she lost her temper.
"Ruki, what I'm trying to say is not all of us run at the same pace you do," Rumiko said at length. "I know we don't share any common interests. I'm not there for you as much as I should be. I want to be there."
Ruki said nothing, but the hard expression on her face was all that was needed.
"Maybe I haven't been as good of a mom as I need to be, but that doesn't give you any excuse to treat your grandmother like that," Rumiko narrowed her eyes. "Please give her the respect she deserves."
Ruki was silent for a moment. This time she listened – not like the other times where Rumiko tried to half-heartedly scold her in the past. Her daughter bowed her head, her expression softening. Rumiko expected a retort or more sarcasm.
"I'm sorry," Ruki said. She looked down at the table, tracing the grains in the wood with a finger. What she said next was obviously hard for her to admit, "I get impatient. Maybe I've been too hard on everyone."
"Maybe you have."
"Maybe. But we can talk about our family problems later," she paused as Alice returned, walking slowly and helping Ruki's grandmother into the kitchen. The older woman didn't seem to need it though, and sat down at the table after shooing Alice away. "We've got bigger problems."
With obvious reluctance, Rumiko sat down at the kitchen table with the others after pouring another cup of coffee for her mom. Ruki waited until everyone was settled in before launching into her story.
The Tamer started with the most important fact: everyone here was in danger. They all needed to abandon the house and seek shelter. Immediately. At least within the day, as soon as she got into contact with some friends of hers about evacuating. But anything above ground probably wasn't safe, so she and these friends of hers were looking into places for everyone to hide in until the danger passed. They should just pack what they needed – like a lot of food, clothing, water – and leave everything else that couldn't be moved.
Rumiko was about to protest, but it was Ruki's grandmother who interrupted first, slamming her cup down. A few drops of coffee leapfrogged over the rim and splattered onto table's surface. Everyone jumped.
"Leave? We've lived here for years. Leaving is out of the question!"
Alice broke in, her voice cool. "It's for your safety. It's better to risk losing a house than your lives."
"From what? What's so dangerous?" Rumiko demanded.
"I'm getting to that," Ruki answered impatiently.
Ruki continued on. She went backward, talking about the lights in the sky, describing what they really were. Golems were probably responsible for the mass disappearances that plagued Tokyo recently, the reason why the numbers kept increasing after each night. Maybe why people weren't showing up for school or work. No one really knew why they were there since they appeared out of the blue.
At that point, Ruki knew it was sink or swim. She rushed to the beginning. The cause of all this was Digimon – no, they weren't just a game, she said before Rumiko could say anything. As far as she knew, there were two Worlds – the Real and Digital. Humans lived in the Real one, Digimon in the Digital. For the most part, the Digimon kept to their own world. But every now and then, one would cross over. It used to be a small problem. But somehow things changed and they were going to come over in large numbers. What made it worse was that they were more than likely going to be hostile.
"Ruki, look. I don't know what to say but…"
"It's true, Ms. Makino," Alice turned her ice-blue eyes on her. "There has been recorded Digimon activity for years now, with reports from as far back as the ENIAC days."
Rumiko had no idea what that was. Ruki's grandmother had the same expression.
"Not all Digimon are against us," Ruki said. "Some of them are on our side – they protect us and help us. They're our partners."
Here Ruki paused – whether it was for theatrics or not, Rumiko couldn't tell. All she knew was she had a downright flabbergasted expression on her face when a strange creature suddenly materialized behind her daughter's chair. The model was half out of her seat in surprise.
The proud creature stood as tall as she did, if not taller, on its hind legs. Its – His? Her? - hide rippled with golden fur. Does it even have a gender? Rumiko wondered in a daze. Fluffs of soft white fur dotted it on its chest and stomach. The paws crossed over the creature's chest were decidedly humanoid, tipped with stubby black claws and purple-dyed cloth gauntlets with the ying-yang emblem across the back of the knuckles. Whatever it was, it wasn't human: its face extended into a sleek fox's snout, a bushy tail sweeping at its ankles. Long pointed ears turned this way and that in alertness. Although it looked like an animal, keen intelligence shone in its alien eyes.
"Mom," Ruki said calmly. "Meet Renamon, my partner."
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"So how'd it go?"
On the other end of the phone, Ruki's voice bordered on wry. "As well as dumping a Digimon into your mom's lap could possibly go."
"So what're they going to do?" Jenrya asked after switching the receiver to another ear.
"I don't know. They're grilling Renamon right now."
Jenrya had to smile at this. The mental image of Renamon in a chair with a single light focused on her face as Ruki's mom and grandmother circled about like cops in some old movie was too downright weird not to be funny. Wisely he kept it to himself. Off in the distance, the school bell tolled. Classes were already starting.
"I gotta go. We'll talk later."
"Have fun. I know I won't."
Jenrya hung up. In all honesty, he didn't envy Ruki's position. It had been pure luck Dad was an easier sell…although he still could taste the bitter failure he experienced with the Matsudas. That attempt tripped and fell right on its face before it had a chance to step through the door. After Jenrya got back home after the disaster with Takato's parents, he'd locked himself in the room, avoiding Ryo and Terriermon's questioning looks. He just didn't know what to do with the Matsudas. They'll be okay, Jenrya promised himself. He wasn't going to give up on everything like that.
Leaning against the wall next to the payphone Jenrya used to call the other Tamer, Ryo glanced at him, hands shoved in his pockets.
"Finished with the pillow-talk?"
It was Jenrya's turn to roll his eyes. "Yeah, right. We're late for school."
"Why do we even bother? Let's start ditching."
Jenrya didn't have an answer for that. Terriermon asked the same question earlier. Jenrya didn't want to tell him that if he gave up one of the stable things in his life…well, he didn't know. Something about the schedule of going to school day in and day out helped. A little.
School work or not, he'd rather think about something else besides Digimon all the time.
He didn't want to obsess over it, like Ryo.
Jenrya dove into the group project with Hirokazu once class started. The teacher today was a substitute again, since Mr. Mori hadn't shown up for the past two days. Jenrya wondered if this had anything to do with the Golems. He hoped not.
The day passed way more quickly than he would have personally liked. Ryo got in trouble for falling asleep in class. The substitute hadn't liked that at all, hitting him with detention. He was going to have to stay and take over the day's cleaning duties, she said in front of the class, her mouth pursed. Jenrya groaned inwardly. Now he'd have to stay behind too since he couldn't leave Ryo alone. It'd be too tempting for those wire-things to strike. Wonderful. Jenrya sighed.
Ryo stared out the window, barely pretending to listen to the lesson.
Jenrya could still hear kids running down the halls as he stepped into the empty classroom. It didn't take long to catch up with Ryo; the other boy was now sweeping under the desks and looking like he was bored out of his mind. He looked up and gave a little sarcastic wave. Outside, the school yard sparkled from the recent rains, sunlight reflecting off puddles. The clouds continued to hang overhead.
Jenrya let Terriermon sit on his lap as he watched Ryo make his away around the linoleum floor with the broom. Terriermon insisted on coming with him everywhere now. If something happened, it might take too long to reach Jenrya. Those few seconds (or minutes) might actually make the difference, Terriermon reasoned. Personally, Jenrya suspected he'd say anything to get out of playing with Shuichon.
The Rookie watched Ryo for a few minutes before speaking up.
"Hey, Ryo?" Terriermon asked.
Ryo looked up from near the window. The broom paused. "What?"
"Where'd you get those?" Terriermon pointed with his small paw at his face.
Ryo reached up in reaction and touched the outline of a scar under his eye, and the three earrings along his ear's edge. "What, these?"
"Yeah."
Ryo went back to sweeping. It couldn't hurt to talk about it. It wasn't like Terriermon was asking about the big scar and anyway, it was obvious Jenrya hadn't told anyone else what he saw. His opinion regarding the Tamer rose up a few notches higher. Nice to know he could keep his promises. Feeling in a relatively good mood, Ryo touched his left ear, pointing at the earrings: two circular studs in his lower ear, a small square clip on the upper rim. All three were made of the same strange metal that broke up his human's ear shape.
"The earrings I got from the Digital World. I had to wear some weird clothing to make myself look closer to a Digimon. Y'know, rags, fake claws we jury-rigged from metal, stuff like that. My hair grew out since there wasn't any barbers there," Ryo shrugged. "There are some humanoid Digimon out there. So long as I did whatever I could to look less human, I didn't get stopped too much."
"But when you did, what happened?" Terriermon pressed, leaning forward.
"Not much. Cyb –" Ryo cut himself off, instead saying, "It didn't happen often."
Terriermon was about to pry further into the matter but he only squeaked as Jenrya poked him in the side. Nose twitching in protest, Terriermon looked up with indignation at him. Ryo, busy with finishing his detention chores, missed the warning look Jenrya gave his partner. Terriermon pouted but behaved.
Jenrya and Terriermon watched as Ryo finished cleaning and put the broom away into the closet. The bunny-Digimon waited until he came back before asking, "What about that scar?"
"It's a really stupid story," Ryo actually grinned at this, shaking his head as he remembered something embarrassing. "I didn't really know anything about the Digital World back then. It was my first year, so I was still picking stuff up as we traveled West. I got my fake claws and I was talking. Forgot I had them on. Got this crazy itch on my face so I went up to scratch it –"
Terriermon burst out laughing. Jenrya couldn't help but smile himself. "Is this going where I think it is?" he asked.
Ryo shot the two of them a wounded look. "I seriously forgot about them. Nearly took out my eye."
Terriermon snickered. Jenrya didn't laugh as openly as his partner did, but his gray eyes twinkled with amusement. Maybe it was nice to see Ryo in a good mood and smiling, really smiling, for a change.
"Hey, I wasn't laughing when it happened. Freaked out bad. Thought my eye was a goner since there was all this blood," Ryo said. His voice was strangely wistful, "It ended up looking worse than it was. This," Ryo pointed at the scar under his eye, "was the deepest of them. The others are pretty faint, so you can't really see them anymore. But for a while, it looked like I ran into a rake."
Terriermon choked down another laugh, picturing this in his head. The bunny-Digimon managed to keep his snickering behind his paws this time as Jenrya tried to be at least more sympathetic.
"That must've hurt," Jenrya said. "Did anyone notice?"
"What, that I had all these gashes all over my face? Yeah. Everyone thought they were war wounds or something. I, uh, never bothered to correct them."
"A…war wound…" That was too much for Terriermon. "From what war? The one between your fist and your face?"
Ryo snorted. "Yeah right. Like I had a chance in that one."
Jenrya laughed for the first time in a while at this. His laughter was contagious and soon Terriermon was laughing all over again. Even Ryo couldn't help a little chuckle at this – his own laughter wasn't sarcastic or self-deprecating as it usually was. He still remembered that incident in clear detail. The fact he'd been scared half to death when he realized what happened, how his cheek went ablaze with pain only to go frighteningly numb later. The next few days he spent with his face encased in crude bandages that were clumsily applied by his partner. Ryo downplayed that part in his re-telling.
But Ryo couldn't remember actually laughing like that in…well, years.
Since Ryo finished cleaning up the classroom, he was free to go. He shut the door behind him as Jenrya and Terriermon waited in the hall. They decided after the second call to Ruki that they would meet up at her school; Alice was gone out on some errand, so she wouldn't be there. They'd meet up with her at the park where Guilmon's old shelter was. Jenrya sighed at the mention of this. He still blamed himself for what happened with Black Growlmon, which was stupid since Ryo knew Jenrya only beating himself up over it, again.
It was Takato who was the problem. He had to be the one responsible.
The more Ryo thought about it, the more he realized how the missing Tamer kept cropping up in all of this, whether through just mentions of his name to his partner running rampant to an imposter wearing his face. Weird. The whole incident with Black Growlmon a few days ago had convinced him that his "change" wasn't accidental. Wherever Takato was, he'd been put in a bad way on purpose. Black Growlmon was just a puppet's puppet, dangling on another's jerking strings.
A depressing thought, but Ryo made habit of collecting those.
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Ruki found herself doodling in her notebook. Unlike Takato, she couldn't call herself an artist. Drawing wasn't her thing. It wasn't active enough. Doing it when you were bored out of your mind was another thing. The teacher wasn't even pretending to pay attention to her class, her back turned as she wrote some poem on the green chalk-board no one would remember by the end of class. Ruki's pen scratched along her paper in mindless circles.
Can't believe Mom still made me go to school! After the whole fit with Renamon appearing right behind her – Ruki told her to it was "okay to come in now", not "appear like you're a ninja" – the Tamer thought she wouldn't have to go. Especially since her grandma and mom, after picking their jaws from off the floor, went gone into a group huddle. Then they pounced on Renamon. Ruki thought she saw a glimmer of panic in her partner's face as the two women immediately converged on Renamon, sat her down and began firing off question after question. Renamon was really one of these…"Digimon"? Was she trustworthy? How long had she been with Ruki?
The questioning ("interrogation" seemed like a better word) lasted for the good part of an hour. At that point, Ruki sat down in the living room and waited with Alice, leaving her backpack in the kitchen. She'd never seen her mom so serious. Usually it was Grandma who was the one setting down the rules in the house. Today Rumiko seemed to forget about her career and everything else.
Ruki didn't know what to think. Now her mom was stubbornly set on making sure Renamon was a suitable companion for her daughter. Ruki glanced over toward the kitchen. From here she could see Renamon's tail and her back, Rumiko standing to the side with her arms planted firmly on her hips as if she was a cop, her beautiful model's face currently turned down in a frown.
Alice busied herself during by asking Ruki about events in Tokyo. She asked about Takato, Jenrya, their Digimon, the kind of details surveillance alone couldn't account for and personal association could. She sounded troubled as Ruki told her about Takato's disappearance. About Guilmon acting strangely. About how days later, a blue-eyed Takato attacked her during a battle and stolen the real Takato's D-Arc. But it was when she started asking about Ryo that Alice sounded the most concerned, although she tried to hide it as best she could. Ruki knew probing when she saw it, especially to the questions after the phone call from Jenrya.
"You never heard of him?" Alice asked.
"Aside from his whole card game deal? No."
"So you never met him before this?"
"Nope," Ruki answered, wondering where this was going. "The only tournament I heard he went to around here was one I ended up missing 'cause I got sick."
The foreigner tilted her head. "I see…Have you noticed anything strange regarding Ryo?"
"Like?"
Alice only shrugged.
"Why don't you ask Jenrya? He's around him all the time," Ruki replied. "What's with all the questions?"
Alice was silent for a second before answering. "Just satisfying my curiosity. I like to know who I'm going to be working with."
Ruki was left with that enigmatic remark before her mom came back. Rumiko sat down on the floor with the two girls and let out an explosive breath that fluttered her bangs up from her face. The model rubbed at her eyes with her manicured hands, as if still unable to believe her eyes. It made sense, considering she'd been forced to accept Digimon were real, that her own daughter was running around, putting herself in danger behind her back. Rumiko shook her head.
"Okay, I think I understand," Rumiko said. She sounded tired. "Alice, we need to talk after this. Same goes with you, Ruki."
Alice nodded. Sensing what was coming next was going to be private, the foreigner excused herself and left, her drab dress flouncing after her. Ruki glanced back at the kitchen: Renamon stood by the door watching the two of them, Ruki's grandmother shambling about in the back and preparing more coffee. Rumiko cleared her throat. "Ruki, let's go to my room. I want to talk with you again after school," Rumiko said, standing up.
"School?"
Rumiko shot her a look. "You're still going to school. We'll write up a note saying we had an emergency."
"But that's lying – " Ruki cut herself off, realizing how silly she sounded as her mom led her down the narrow halls to her room.
"Everyone lies, Ruki," Rumiko said tartly. "You have to be mature enough to know when not to lie."
Ruki didn't know what to say to that. She couldn't even remember the last time she even talked this long with her mom – she was always running out for modeling and dating. Ruki had been off doing her own thing too. Between the card games, Renamon and battling, and later this whole new thing with Takato disappearing, she hadn't been home much herself.
Rumiko's room was one of the smaller ones in the house. Ruki vaguely remembered her switching rooms after her dad left, something about it being too big for one person. Still, she was surprised to see the room was fairly neat, not struggling to emerge under a heap of laundry. Rumiko gestured at the bed – yet another piece of Western furniture, something picked up from a tour out of the country - and indicated that Ruki should sit on the corner of the mattress.
Rumiko turned to face her daughter. "I don't like that you lied about something this serious. I know you didn't exactly lie to my face, but still, you should've told us earlier."
"I did it for – " Ruki started. Her mother cut her off.
"For what? Because you thought we wouldn't understand?"
Ruki flared. "I did it so you guys wouldn't get worried! It wasn't your business!"
Rumiko's voice took on a strange tone Ruki never heard before. "What happens in this house is my business. What happens to this family is my business."
"I didn't think you'd listen," Ruki said, but it was a weak argument.
Rumiko stared down at her daughter. "Maybe you should have tried coming to me for once. Just because I pose at a camera for a living doesn't mean I'm incapable of intelligent thought. If I knew about Renamon about…about whatever's going on here now, maybe I could've helped. I could've moved us out of Tokyo by now if only I knew."
"I can't leave," Ruki latched onto that idea and clung onto it, just as she found her fingers were kneading the thick down inside the bed's comforter. She forced herself to stop. "We're the only ones who even have a chance against all this."
"And you expect Mom and me to leave without you?"
Ruki didn't say anything as her mom sighed.
In the dim light from the lamp, Rumiko reached up to rub at her eye with her fingers. It took a second before Ruki realized she was starting to cry in helpless frustration. The Tamer looked away quickly. This wasn't like the big dramatic tears she'd seen her mother display in the past. These were far more real, heartfelt. The fact these were quiet and nearly invisible was more moving than anything else. Her mother's tears began to jar Ruki more than anything she faced so far. Wild Digimon screaming for her blood she could take; at least she knew how to handle those.
"We'll need to figure out what to do now," Rumiko said, doing her best to hide the quaver in her voice. "I'll talk with Renamon. I need to tell my agent I'm going to be taking my vacation starting tomorrow, and I'll call the Matsudas and Lees, see if we can arrange something together about all of this. Tomorrow's going to be your last day of school. After tomorrow, I don't want you going anymore, you hear me?"
Ruki nodded, subdued. That had been the end of any discussion. After that, Rumiko drove Alice and her to school. The ride there was silent, Rumiko constantly looking in the rearview mirror at the two girls sitting in the back of the car. She dropped them off without any word after scribbling a letter to give to the teacher. The teacher had barely looked at the note.
Which brought Ruki back to the present.
" - I want you all to pick a poem," the teacher at the chalkboard was saying. "I'll be giving you certain poets. Read the poem and write a few short paragraphs on what it means to you, what it might mean for someone else. It's due tomorrow."
Ruki glanced around the room. Her class was suffering the same problems Jenrya's school was. The number of empty seats and shrinking attendance increased daily. So did the nervous looks the teachers threw each other. Rumors had begun to fly between the students about all of this. But no one could explain it. Ruki's gaze turned toward the front. Sitting a few desks ahead of the Tamer, Alice was writing something; unlike the rest of the students, she appeared utterly focused. She didn't look up at the teacher passed her aisle and set down a paper in front of her. Ruki picked up her own poem and scanned it automatically before stopping after she realized something.
Why am I even bothering? Ruki wasn't even coming back tomorrow.
The rest of the class went almost like any other day. It was hard to believe it was any different then it had been a few months ago. It was around lunch that Alice got up and talked to the teacher; the woman leaned down as Alice whispered something into her ear, her pale lips moving noiselessly. Whatever it was, she seemed to have permission. Alice turned and gathered up her small book-bag and went down the aisles toward the door. Ruki leaned over her desk, hissing.
"Where're you going?"
"I need to look into something," Alice whispered back. "I'll be back in an hour."
Ruki frowned. "But –"
"It won't take that long."
"What if you don't come back before school is over?"
"I'll meet you at the park you told me about. I'll be right back."
With that, Alice passed her and left, the door sliding closed. Lunch period passed. Next came their gym.
Ruki changed into her gym clothing in the locker room, pulling on the black shorts and shirt after stuffing the rest of her clothing in the locker. Gym had been one of her favorite classes; not because she couldn't do the school-work, but because it gave her a chance to stretch her legs, do something…well, active. The Tamer pulled on her tennis shoes and trotted out into the school yard.
It occurred to her this might be the last time she'd see this place in a while.
Nostalgia started to rise up, but Ruki crushed it down. It was just a school. So what if she spent several years here? It was only a hunk of concrete and steel. Stupid to get worked up over something like that.
Ruki did her warm-ups with the rest of the class. Stretched her calves, did her sit-ups and jumping jacks in the back like everyone else. Like the school, she probably wouldn't be seeing the other kids again. That was a little more depressing. Once they got out of this whole mess, she'd probably see everyone again.
"Okay, everyone's all stretched and ready?" The gym teacher, Mrs. Leiko, asked.
Everyone nodded. Off in the back, Ruki stood with her hands on her hips, tapping the dirt with the toe of her tennis shoe. Mrs. Leiko pulled her aviator sunglasses off from their perch on her head and put them on. She pointed to her right.
"See those hurdles?" she asked. Everyone nodded. "Well, we're not doing those today. Ground's still too wet to be jumping around in your gym clothes."
A few students in the group made disappointed groans. Others shrugged.
"We'll be working on endurance, so here's the deal: a little long-distance never hurt anyone," the gym teacher turned and pointed to her right, where the lot went around the side of the campus. "Go around the main building to the pool. Once there, I want you guys to circle the pool and then go back on course until you come back over here. We'll do three miles.""
Didn't sound that hard. Ruki looked up at the sky becoming overcast again after a full day of sunshine. Still the same bluish tint. If she looked closely, she could actually see the ripples through the aura's surface. It's already over Shinjuku, Ruki thought. What was going to happen when it reached its limit? Maybe we could try to launch an assault on Zudomon. It was a crazy idea. Zudomon was an Ultimate. He could easily blow them off the map at the strength they were at now. Didn't mean she couldn't daydream about it.
"Let's go!" Mrs. Leiko shouted encouragingly at the class assembled and started off.
A few of girls tried sprinting despite her warnings this wasn't a race and pulled ahead. Ruki went at her own pace, her bare legs pounding against the ground. Running like this always seemed to take her mind off things – she could focus more on her breathing, her leg muscles and her pacing instead of thinking about all her problems.
The first couple of laps were uneventful. By the sixth lap, Ruki was starting to have fun.
In fact, she didn't notice the strange fog rolling in until her eyes started burning for no reason.
Ruki looked up, feeling involuntary tears at the edge of her vision. Thick white mist was swirling near the pool. She couldn't even see the other kids and she slowed to a walk, her heart still pounding in her chest. Slowly she focused on the fog, falling out of her running rhythm until she came walking to a stop. Was this what she thought it was?
A chorus of screams ahead of her answered that question.
A digital field!
The shadows of girls ahead of her turned and ran past her, scattering like deer. There was a deafening roar. An explosion. More students fled shrieking. Ruki stood her ground. Another howling roar shook the foundations of the school through the spreading digital field's fog.
A Digimon. Ruki could hardly believe it. A Digimon bio-emerging at her school in plain view!
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Ryo peered through the bars of the gated walls surrounding Ruki's private school - it was bigger and a lot nicer looking than their campus. He let loose a whistle.
"Fancy place here," he said. He glanced at Jenrya, sitting on the ground to wait. "How long do we have to wait?"
"Maybe an hour?"
Ryo threw another glance toward the school. Off to the side, almost out of view, he could see a group of at least two dozen girls in gym clothing doing a few stretches in orderly lines while a teacher supervised. "Looks like they've got gym right now."
"Is Ruki out there?" Jenrya asked.
"If she is, I can't see her from here," Ryo paused. "They started doing laps – wait. Yeah, I see her."
Ryo sat down next to Jenrya, who looked like he wasn't in any mood to talk. The other boy looked like he was ready to doze off, his head bowed. Terriermon and Ryo remained awake, keeping quiet while they waited.
Ryo stared up at the sky without really seeing it. Meanwhile, Terriermon found a pile of gravel and began tossing them in boredom across the street as he tried to skip them. A few danced across the street in little hops. The others bounced clumsily and hit trash cans across the street. Ryo's hand had begun aching again. He focused on keeping it perfectly still, wondering if he should try to get some sleep too and follow Jenrya's example.
Thud. Thud. Terriermon's aim improved.
Seconds stretched into minutes. Half an hour passed.
Ryo rubbed at his head, blinking. He didn't know was bugging him. At first he dismissed it; he knew he was paranoid and sometimes even he had to admit sometimes he could jump at shadows every now and then. But when his head suddenly started throbbing, he realized it wasn't just paranoia. Whatever it was, it bugged Terriermon too. He stopped tossing gravel and stood up to waddle over to the front entrance's gate. The Rookie's eyes narrowed as he peered through the bars at the school.
Ryo stood up to join him.
"You feel that too?" Ryo winced. It felt like there was some a weird, increasing pressure between his ears, as if he was coming down from the mountains.
"Sure do."
"Is that what I think it is?"
Terriermon nodded. "Yep – "
The pressure increased further and further. Were his ears going to start popping? With a sudden explosion in the distance, the pressure in his head vanished as a thick cloud of white mist erupted from behind the private school's main building in a mushroom cloud. The cloud spurted straight up, sending out plumes that sank back to the ground. Instantly recognizing what happened, Terriermon pounced on Jenrya. The Tamer grunted under the weight and bolted awake.
"Jenrya! Wake up! We've got a problem!" Terriermon squeaked. "A digital field!"
"What?" Jenrya gasped.
Ryo reached down and hauled the other Tamer up and onto his feet as Terriermon ran in circles about their ankles, his long ears flopping behind him. Turning, Ryo tried the gates with his good hand – aside from a rattle of metal, they didn't budge. A frown. They were locked. Of course they're locked, he thought sarcastically. Why leave it open so weirdos can walk right in? Not like that would stop the Digimon about to bio-emerge. Locked of not, they'd have to get inside. Jenrya apparently had the same idea after sizing up the situation. He picked up Terriermon.
"Do me a favor and make sure Ruki's alright, okay?"
Terriermon nodded. "I'm on it!"
Jenrya gave his partner a toss upward. The Rookie took to the air easily, his ears spreading as if they were wings. Terriermon disappeared over the gate and was gone, diving into the spreading thick mist rolling around the sides of the school. Jenrya watched Terriermon fade quickly from view. Hope he'll be okay, Jenrya sighed. He reached into his backpack and found his D-Arc. Attaching it to his belt, shoving his cards in his pockets and placing his green-tinted sunglasses on his nose, he turned to Ryo.
"One of us has to climb over and unlock the gate."
Ryo shook his head. "I can't do it. I'm heavier than you. I'll give you a boost."
"What about your hand?"
"Don't worry about it," Ryo said, touching the bandages on his mangled fingers. "I can't climb with it anyway."
It was easier to support Jenrya's smaller weight for a few seconds, Ryo explained, than have to support his own heavier weight for a longer amount of time. But either way, it couldn't be avoided that he'd have to use his bad hand. So long as they got the gate open, it shouldn't matter. He'd suck it up.
Jenrya's voice was still doubtful. "…Okay, guess I'll do it."
Ryo knelt next to the gate and locked his fingers together so his hands could provide a foothold for the smaller boy. It took a few seconds since he had to have help positioning his stiff fingers together with his unwounded hand, biting back the pain. Jenrya lifted his left foot and placed it on the Ryo's hands – he winced at the strangled sound Ryo made - and grabbed the bars. Grunting, Ryo heaved upward with his interlocked hands, arms straining to propel the Tamer up. A loud gasp of thick pain from Ryo.
Jenrya shot up a few feet with the boost and scrabbled frantically to grab the bars. He managed to get good enough leverage that he slid over the gate and landed heavily on the other side. Staggered a little, righted himself. Standing on his tip-toes, Jenrya reached up and undid the lock.
The gate swung open.
Ryo joined him. There was a thin sheen of sweat on his face from the pain and he looked like he was about to get nauseous, but he insisted he was good to go. Already the digital field's fog had spread to the entrance of the school. The mist closed in as the two boys ran toward the field.
Something toward the back howled. Human screams. Vague shapes in the fog that had to be people scattering. A few girls ran past them without sparing the two boys a glance.
Jenrya raced toward the back of the school. One of the shapes wasn't running up toward them up ahead: she was running in the opposite direction, taking long strides that looked anything but scared. He slowed, called her name as he realized who it was. Although she wore the same gray shirt tucked in and the black gym shorts as the others, the girl sported familiar auburn hair pulled up into a pony-tail. Ruki turned at the sounds of their approach and slowed to let them catch up. She already had her own tinted glasses on, eyes flicking toward Ryo and Jenrya.
"Terriermon went up ahead!" Ruki called back.
"Did you see what bio-emerged?" Jenrya asked.
"Didn't get a chance," Ruki answered curtly. "I had to run back to the locker and get my stuff for this before I went back into the field."
Ryo looked around. "What about Renamon? Where's Alice?"
"Renamon's on her way right now. And I told you Alice vanished somewhere on some random errand."
Ryo muttered something under his breath but had no choice except roll with it. The three ran through the fog, following the sounds of scuffling and thudding. As they neared the school's pool, there was a loud explosion, a cry of "Bunny Twister!" and a splash of water. Jenrya heaved the fenced gate of the pool open and ran toward the battle, Ryo and Ruki right behind him. Terriermon had just engaged the enemy Digimon, flashes of green energy becoming clear as they closed in.
Jenrya's D-Arc identified the other Digimon as "Garurumon", the holo doing his sheer speed no justice. The Champion moved way faster than anyone could've believed possible for his size. The height from his shoulder blades to the ground towered over even Ryo, the tallest in their entire group. Gray fur lined with blue stripes stood up in thick tufts around Garurumon's head and back. Twin tails snaked behind the wolf-Digimon as he lunged forward at Terriermon, who was using every trick in the book to dodge. Strong purple claws punctured the pool's deck as Garurumon went after his enemy with barking snarls, tongue lolling between his fangs.
Jenrya slashed his card as Terriermon bounced over Garurumon's head.
"Digi-Modify! Digivolution, activate!"
Terriermon vanished in the burst of light as he digivolved. His small shape peeled away into streamers of curling data. Garurumon wheeled around, growling as the light flashed and Gargomon replaced the Rookie. The gun-bunny fired at the other Champion as he landed, the barrels of his weapons whirling rapidly and laying down suppressing fire. The Wolf snarled under the cracks of the rounds exploding around him.
"You waste your time!" Garurumon sneered as he lunged through the flak-clouds and ash. His burnt amber eyes flicked toward the kids standing across the pool. He bared his fangs. "We don't have to be enemies, Gargomon!"
"Then how come you're attacking the kids?" Gargomon demanded.
"If I don't, who will?!"
Garurumon sprang forward, jaws snapping. Gargomon hastily brought up one of his gun-arms in a block. With a jarring screech of teeth meeting metal, Garurumon worried the arm viciously like a dog. Fangs scrapped across the barrel. "Come to your senses and free yourself from these vermin!" he growled around Gargomon's arm. "They'll only drag you down!"
The two disengaged after a second and leapt backward. Garurumon landed and skidded on all fours, claws splayed, hackles rising. Gargomon assumed a defensive stance in front of Jenrya, Ruki and Ryo. Garurumon regarded his enemy with a look bordering on pity.
"I'll give you another chance," his eyes narrowed. He spoke earnestly, "Leave these humans to me. I've seen the spells they cast over our kind. It's not too late to be freed from their influence! Leave them to me and I can fix this wrong you've committed."
"And what wrong would that be?"
Garurumon whipped about at this unexpected voice, searching for the source. Gargomon glanced over toward the newcomer emerging within their very midst: Renamon's sleek form swirled into view next to Gargomon, the fog distorting with her appearance, her arms folded across her chest as she perched on a fence pole. Renamon stared down her snout at the gray Wolf, disdain on her face as she lifted her chin. Her eyes fixed on Garurumon.
"Who are you to tell us how things are better off?" Renamon asked. "You're little more than a wild beast."
Garurumon flexed his claws, muscles bunching in preparation. "Wild beast? Ha!" Garurumon laughed. "I understand: you've been blinded by your reliance on your human masters. They use you, whisper sweet nothings, poison you until you are incapable of any thoughts of your own. Until you can't think of anything but them!"
Renamon unfolded her arms. They hung at her side as she took a graceful step down from the pole to balance with ease on the fence. It bowed a little under her weight. Despite her deceptively relaxed poise, she was ready to spring into action. She sniffed at Garurumon's words as if they were something a child who didn't know any better would say.
"We'll see about that," Renamon glanced at Ruki, then back at Garurumon. "But you were right – we don't have to fight."
Garurumon tilted his head back and laughed again. "Oh, but we do, my dear, now that I've seen how you slave under her. As long you play pacifist and protect humans, we must fight if I can't convince you to better and step aside."
"I? A pacifist? Doubtful," Renamon's mouth turned up at the corners in a humorless half-smile. "You give me entirely too much credit."
Gargomon leveled his guns. "Enough talking. I'm sick of his stupid preaching!"
Garurumon smirked, baring his row of knife-like fangs in a grin. "So you'll be foolish like I once was. I pity you all. You won't get a second chance like I did. But perhaps once your data is free after your deletion and eventually reborn, you'll understand what it means. You'll see how things really are. Perhaps then we will understand each other," his chest puffed out as he took a deep breath. Blue bolts of energy crackled around his snout. "Howling Blaster!"
Ruki and Jenrya dived into the battle as their Digimon did the same. Jenrya had to admit he was shaken by what Garurumon said. Maybe a small part of him wondered if it was true. Gargomon didn't seem to think so. The Tamer hadn't ever seen his normally happy-go-lucky partner that bothered by anything someone said. Now Gargomon was about to leap into the fight without waiting for any help from his Tamer. Jenrya hurriedly selected a card as Ruki slashed hers.
"Digi-Modify! Battle Tomahawk, activate!"
Renamon leapt straight up as Garurumon's Howling Blaster tore through the fence. Her outstretched arms glowed as two battle axes suddenly materialized in each paw. Her claws closed around them as she landed on another one of the fence poles. The section of fence where Garurumon hit it melted into a sinking mass of metal that had become, strangely, frosted with ice. Renamon ran lightly along the fence where she landed. Her arm snapped forward and sent one of the Battle Tomahawks hurtling toward the large gray Wolf.
It plunged into his shoulder, sinking several inches into his fur with a metallic clang. Garurumon let out a pained howl. But he only whipped his snout around and closed his jaws around the axe's handle protruding from his flesh. He plucked it out and, with a shake of his snout, tossed the blade into the waters of the pool. The weapon sank quickly to the bottom.
Garurumon bounded after Renamon as a trail of gunfire from Gargomon spurted after his hind legs. His wound seemed to do little to slow him as he kept up with his enemy on the fence.
Jenrya selected his card, "Digi-Modify! Power Charger, activate!"
Gargomon shouted a thanks over his shoulder as one of his guns began to morph into a different weapon, glowing. Metal plates lifted up and shifted around until he bore an angular cannon on his left arm with cables running along its length. He continued to fire rounds with his regular arm as the other began to charge, humming in an increasing crescendo. Meanwhile, Ruki was selecting another card as Renamon leaped off the fence and drove her last Battle Tomahawk into Garurumon's back.
Garurumon shook her off with an infuriated curse, sending her back-peddling a few paces.
Ryo watched the battle. Something about it felt wrong, like if he focused on it too much, his head started throbbing. Something out of place. Ryo glanced at the others. Jenrya was busy with the battle. Same with Ruki. Gargomon had fired off a charged blast from his new cannon-arm, discharging a boom that roared like a thunderclap. Garurumon easily evaded the shot and was now driving Renamon back toward the gun-bunny Digimon. A large hole had been blown into the deck next to the pool, rapidly filling with chlorinated water. Something's wrong with this picture, Ryo frowned. He found his eyes returning back to Garurumon more and more.
It wasn't the fight itself.
It was Garurumon. Something about him seemed hauntingly familiar.
But that didn't make any sense. Ryo remembered all his time in the Digital World more than we wanted to; he knew he hadn't ever encountered Garurumon back then. Or ever. But the more he stared, the more his head began to ache and his stomach began to toss and turn in unrest. Garurumon hadn't ever acted like this…
"I'm sorry about all of this," Garurumon apologized after his partner did the same. He bowed his wolfish head, "But we had to trick you. It was necessary."
A boy, his face shadowed by the overbearing sun behind him, approached Ryo. The sunlight glinted off his goggles for a second as he explained why they tricked him. His words didn't seem to make sense to Ryo. The words were there, but they didn't seem to make sense. It was gibberish to Ryo's ears. The boy with the goggles went on like that for awhile until he noticed something was wrong. He stopped and exchanged troubled looks with Garurumon's partner, who was standing out in plain sight unlike the other boy.
Ryo couldn't remember the other boy's face at all. There was a blank spot where his head should be.
"...he's not talking. This's bad…"
"Ryo? What's wrong?"
Wrong. Even that memory felt wrong, another niggling voice said. He knew/didn't know Garurumon at the same time. It was because the intel on the Threat was bad...
Intel? What intel? Ryo looked up sharply. He half-expected to see Garurumon sitting on his haunches before him, looking apologetic, those big amber eyes avoiding his own in a mixture of respect and guilty apprehension at what Ryo would say.
Now Garurumon was busy fighting Renamon and Gargomon, pouncing in the air and sending a ray of his Howling Blaster arcing across the pool after Renamon. She leaped over the expanse of water. The pool steamed and then cracked as a swath of ice crackled after the blue trail of the energy beam.
What was that? Ryo wondered. His black eyes slid over the battlefield. Keep it together! It was harder than it looked to to convince himself that the only boys here were Jenrya and him. That he wouldn't suddenly see a boy with a shadowed face and goggles, or Garurumon's headless partner.
It was then he noticed they were being watched.
Ryo froze as he met the watcher's icy blue ones. A young boy with plastic-rimmed yellow goggles sat on power line standing tall outside the outer wall beyond the pool, legs crossed, his chin resting in his hand, lips twisted up in a little amused smile that somehow looked mean. He made a mocking little wave to Ryo as he watched Gargomon empty clips at Garurumon.
Jenrya jumped at Ryo's unexpected touch on his shoulder. The other boy simply pointed. Jenrya followed his gesture.
"It's him!" Jenrya gasped. "Ruki, it's the fake Takato again!"
"Digi Mod –" Ruki cut herself off, the card she selected half in her D-Arc. "Where?!" Jenrya pointed and she looked ready to reach out and try to charge the boy sitting out of their reach.
"Takato" waved and smiled, revealing a mouth of needle like fangs. His blue eyes were almost glowing as he dropped off the power line and dropped out of sight.
The battle itself wasn't going well. Despite the fact Renamon and Gargomon were teamed up against Garurumon, they didn't seem to any closer to dropkicking him to the next timezone. For a while it seemed to be an even match, but that changed. Garurumon was simply too fast. Whatever blows he took from their joint attacks, he shook them off and went after both of them with a single-minded zeal bordering on scary. It didn't seem to bother him how many cards the humans used on him. He'd long since stopped bothering to talk the other Digimon down, howling his fury as he drove them back toward their Tamers. His eyes flashed with hope that he could take them all down in one strike.
But he didn't get his chance.
"Schwarz Strahl!"
Without warning, delicate beams of energy lanced out from the left, behind Garurumon. It cut a hissing path through the destroyed pool deck. Water shot up in a spray of liquid through the thin holes left by the Schwarz Strahl and rained down on the Wolf. Garurumon lunged to the side as one of the beams shaved by.
"Alice!" Ruki stopped short.
Alice sat on her partner's back, holding onto the spikes of his collar with her pale hands. She nodded at Ruki's call. Dobermon's snout quivered with a growl that ran along his frame as he stared at the Digimon facing off with Gargomon and Renamon.
Garurumon was now out-numbered. The Wolf could take two, but three was pushing it. Especially when two of them were already Champions like himself. It frustrated him to see these slaves making the terrible mistake. All of them were! But he couldn't teach them any better at this rate; he wasn't stupid. Snarling angrily, Garurumon glared daggers at the group assembled. A shame, really. He could have helped them so much, but they were like addicts, defending the very filth poisoning them.
Truly creatures to be pitied.
Garurumon made a sudden move: he darted to his left and jumped over the fence with a single, powerful spring of his hind legs, and then over the outer wall. Renamon and Dobermon went to pursue him, but he was already long gone. Jenrya lowered his D-Arc. Off in the distance, the fake Takato eyed the group for another second longer and then hoped off from his viewpoint, vanishing after Garurumon.
The battle was over.
Jenrya let out a sigh of relief, surveying the damage. The pool was frozen at one end, its deck torn to shreds between Renamon's Diamond Storm, Gargomon's cannon barrage, Dobermon's Schwarz Strahl and Garurumon's Howling Blaster. Water bubbled and frothed from the maze of holes in the deck as the digital field's fog faded away. There was hardly anything left of the original pool. Jenrya welcomed Gargomon as he came trotting back.
"He got to you, didn't he?" Jenrya asked.
Gargomon scrunched up his nose. "He was only bashing you and calling you names," the gun-bunny said roughly. He offered a little grin as an afterthought, "Only I get to bash you!"
"We should get out of here," Ruki removed her purple-tinted shades and grimaced, "They probably called the cops or something by now. Besides, I'm freezing. I'm not running around in my gym clothes all day."
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Ryo listened without really paying attention as they agreed to head back to the park. Jenrya still wanted to go to Odaiba, but Ruki wanted to change plans and pursue Garurumon and the fake Takato. Things were different now, Ruki said. They're already gone, Jenrya replied back. Besides, it could just be bait. Why waste time chasing those two if they could be focusing on the bigger picture? The two Tamers nearly got into a fight right there and then until Alice intervened, saying calmly it would be better to come to a compromise once they reached the park. The planned meeting hadn't changed despite the battle with the Wolf. Instead of wasting time fighting, they should be working together.
What was that back there? That weird memory blip, whatever he wanted to call it, kept bugging him.
Ryo was quiet during all of this, his tanned face thoughtful. Must be imagining things, Ryo decided. Last thing I want to do is run my mouth about it to the others. Ryo decided he wouldn't mention his hallucination to Jenrya or the others. No sense making them think he was crazy…well, more crazy than he already was. You had to be a little crazy to run around after monsters that could sneeze fire, he thought dryly.
Ryo didn't notice the strange looks Alice gave him.
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It was times like these Jenrya wished Ruki didn't have such a stubborn streak. She wasn't making any of this easier.
They made it to the park after making sure no one was hurt from Garurumon's attack. Only one of the girls from Ruki's class had suffered an injury, a sprain from when she twisted her ankle running. After that, they left for the meeting grounds: Guilmon's old hiding spot. Once everyone arranged themselves – Ryo leaning against the wall near the entrance, his good hand in his pocket, Ruki sitting on the largest chunk of rubble in the back with Renamon standing behind her, Alice and Dobermon near the entrance closest to Ryo and Jenrya with Terriermon sitting on his shoulder – they tried to decide how to approach this new problem. Ruki couldn't be budged.
"I'm going after those two."
Jenrya tried to reason with her. "Ruki, they're not the main problem."
"You even agreed with me that the fake Takato could lead us to the real one," Ruki returned bluntly. "It's part of the main problem. All of it is!"
Renamon nodded in agreement with her partner. "Ruki's right. We can't ignore one for the other since it appears that all of this is linked up somehow. We must split our efforts so we can try to recover Takato."
Jenrya fell silent. The thing was she had a point there too. It was hard butting heads with someone when you agreed.
Surprisingly, it was Ryo who suggested the compromise. "It's not like we can't split up. You guys even agreed we couldn't travel as a group anyway," he said. "Why don't you two go after Garurumon and that fake Takato? I could go to Odaiba and check it out."
Jenrya thought about this. "That could work."
"Besides, I might recognize whatever it is. If a Digimon is making it, I might've seen it in the Digital World," Ryo said. He didn't notice Alice's eyes narrowing at his words. He continued, "Anyway, there's no point in me coming to look for that fake Takato; I'd just get in the way. It's a waste of time trying to protect me if you guys are having a hard enough times defending yourselves."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Ruki snorted.
"My pleasure," Ryo replied with the same dryness.
"So it'll be me, Ruki, Terriermon and Renamon. That leaves Alice, Dobermon and you," Jenrya mused. He glanced at Alice – the foreigner hadn't said much since she got back. "Is that okay with you?"
Alice nodded slowly. "It's fine," she shot a look at Ryo. His expression was resigned. "Ready to leave whenever you all are."
That settled things. Jenrya made sure the Digimon were fit and ready; Terriermon scarfed down the lunch Jenrya hadn't eaten, hungry from the battle with Garurumon.
Jenrya glanced at his watch. "It'll take a while for you guys to reach Odaiba before it gets dark, so you should leave soon."
"Dobermon went to wait outside," Alice turned to go. She nodded to the others. "We'll see you later."
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Alice wandered outside as Ryo prepared to leave himself. Now that he knew he was going to be stuck with the strange girl, he found himself dreading it. What was he even afraid of anyway? She was weird, but that was all. End of story. "Don't have too much fun without me," he gave a mock wave over his shoulder as he left Guilmon's former den. "Catch you when we get back."
"Be careful," Jenrya called after him.
Ryo walked outside and nearly started in surprise: Alice hadn't gone to the bottom of the winding concrete stairs to be with Dobermon, as he assumed. Instead, she was waited for him right outside the little hut, standing to the side so he didn't see her at first. Feeling stupid that he was jumping at shadows he could actually see, Ryo continued past Alice. She followed him like a living ghost, her shoes making hardly a sound on the steps. Every time he got near her, he felt like he had to be on his guard or something. Stuff like her running off, only to come charging in at the last second bugged him.
If she tried to pull that kind of stunt in the Digital World, she would've never made it, Ryo thought irritably. The rules in the Digital World were different. You couldn't abandon your allies like that and expect them to greet you with open arms just because you swooped in not once – but twice – and played like you were some kind of hero. Not if you wanted to survive. You either stuck with your allies or you didn't. There wasn't any kind of in-between. Either you were with them or you were on your own. Ryo had found that out the hard way.
They made it a quarter of the way down before there was a sound behind them from the top of the hill. Ryo turned, Alice doing the same a few steps behind him. The flash from Renamon's digivolution faded. Kyuubimon squeezed through the entrance to Guilmon's hide-away, her passengers ducking. The sleek Champion bounded into the bushes and vanished out of sight.
The air crackled with electricity as they walked, oppressive humidity indicating they had another storm coming. The sunshine had been too good to last for more than a couple of days. A hot, humid breeze gusted around them as the two went down the steps toward the main path. Ryo was well aware of Alice behind him despite her silence. Alice had been staring at him more and more ever since they'd first met, he was sure of it. Maybe I'm imagining it. I mean, I did start hallucinating or something during the Garurumon battle. Whatever the reason, he was getting fed up.
They had just reached the bottom of the steps when Alice stopped.
"We need to talk."
Ryo turned to face her, raising an eyebrow. "Can't it wait until we're at Odaiba?"
"No," Alice said. "It can't wait."
Here we go. Great. Ryo was tempted to turn and keep walking to Dobermon. The Digimon was only a few yards away at bottom, only a few more steps down, watching the two of them. They didn't have time for this. He needed to see whatever was happening in Odaiba and do his part here before his luck ran out. Somehow he doubted Dobermon would side with him. It was usually like that: Tamer first, everyone else after. Wondering if he'd regret volunteering, he decided to get this over with.
"What's the problem?" Ryo scowled.
The breeze continued to grow stronger. It whipped Alice's blond pig-tails in her face. That didn't seem to bother her as she took a step closer to him. Her expression was troubled, blue eyes wide:
"It's you."
Ryo was startled. "Me?"
"…Who are you?" Alice asked quietly.
Ryo stared at her. "What're you talking about? I introduced myself the other day."
"I'm well aware of that," Alice said. She continued to meet his gaze. "But I don't think you're Ryo Akiyama. You should have remembered me."
To be continued
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