I feel like I've been saying this for a while, but things are finally starting to get interesting… and by interesting, I mean chaotic. Following this chapter, you'll be seeing a lot of narrative skips, as all the kids are going to be in different places or in different pairs, following the mystery at their own pace. Which I find to be both very fun and a little stressful to write. And I hope you enjoy reading it!

Thank you for reviewing chapter eight: ToastyToaster22, dnofsunshine, Berry Doyle, and Nightwing2013! I really liked reading all your input!

Chapter Nine: Stalker

"Wow," Yolei said at last. The two girls had set their course back in the direction of Yolei's family store, but their pace was slow, allowing Kari to give a detailed retelling of her conversation with TK's mother. Yolei had absorbed it all but didn't seem to know quite what to say. She murmured, almost to herself, "What is going on here?"

Kari nodded contemplatively. It was hard to feel like they were making much progress. Every answer came with about a dozen more questions attached. She still believed that whatever was going on with TK was connected to her brother's disappearance—after all, hadn't it always been? But how this could possibly tie in to the magic and monsters she'd also recently decided were part of the equation, she couldn't say. For one startlingly clear moment, she understood exactly why Cody was so reluctant to buy into any of this. If this was still a case that could be solved by logic and some good old-fashioned detective work, they might have a hope of solving this. But as soon as you accepted all these crazy, otherworldly components into the mix… Kari felt like she was adrift in the sea of possibilities.

"So what now?" Yolei's question seemed to anchor her. Just focus on one step at a time. She could do that. And what was the next step?

"I'm going to go see TK's father," she answered, making the decision on the spot. "If he's been covering for TK, he has to know something, right?"

Yolei nodded. "That's a good idea. I mean, even if he doesn't know much, it's got to be more than what we have now."

They stopped in the Inoue convenience store to stock up on supplies—and to get out of the heat for a moment—before starting out on the next leg of their journey, but it wasn't to be. Yolei's mother, poised behind the counter and looking more than a little stressed, perked up immediately upon seeing her youngest daughter walk through the door.

"Oh, Yolei! Perfect timing! I need you to mind the store for a bit."

"What?!" Yolei exclaimed. "But it's Momoe's day!"

"I know, but she had a big paper due for that summer class she's taking."

"Sure she did," Yolei muttered just loud enough for Kari to hear.

"And I want her to stay on top of that," her mother continued, not seeming to notice the interruption. "You know she just barely got through her exams this last year, and she's going to have to start thinking about college soon. Your father is meeting with the delivery team to discuss the schedule. There was some sort of miscommunication this last week and they missed two drops. There's a prescription I've got to pick up, and you know the pharmacy closes early today."

"Well…" Yolei floundered, searching desperately for a way out of it. "What about Mantarou and Chizuru?"

"I couldn't get ahold of Chizuru, and Mantarou is out with friends."

"I'm out with a friend!" Yolei protested, pulling Kari back to the center of the aisle to wave sheepishly at Yolei's mother. The other girl had been trying to make herself scarce, perusing the merchandise, as she always did when it came to Inoue family politics. "Can't you just get it tomorrow?"

But Yolei's mother was already stepping out from behind the counter and untying her apron. "I'm sure Kari understands. It's just while I run this one errand, honey. You'll be free again the second I get back. See you soon. Love you!"

"Yeah, sure," Yolei grumbled, but Mrs. Inoue was already out the door. "Soon. She'll get stuck in rush hour traffic for sure." But she was already tying the store apron around her own waist, resigned to her fate.

Kari remained uncertainly by her side. Luckily, with a sigh, Yolei released her before she was forced to make the decision herself. "It's okay. You can go."

"Are you sure?" Kari asked with a twinge of guilt. She had agreed to stop shutting her friends out of the investigation.

Yolei nodded. "Yeah. TK's dad works over in Odaiba, right? If you wait for me, it'll be dark by the time we get there and he might have already gone home." A grin quirked at her lips. "I mean, unless you want to break back into the school to see if they have his home address too?"

Kari smiled back. Had that little adventure really only been a few hours ago? "I'll report back to you as soon as I learn anything new."

"You'd better!" Yolei called as her friend also rushed out, back into the clutches of the mystery.

…

Kari was soon grateful Yolei had pushed her out the door. Had she been a second later, she would have missed him.

She had slipped onto the train at the last minute. Just as Yolei had predicted, she'd run right into the thick of the rush-hour traffic, and the nearest passengers seemed a little annoyed that she hadn't waited for the next train. She had just smiled apologetically at a few of them before deciding to keep her head down until her stop… but then she spotted him. Something about the white hat she saw through the crowd of other passengers made her take a second look. And when she did, she found… TK.

For a second, Kari was frozen, but then one of the passengers between them leaned back ever so slightly, and she had to shift in turn to keep the boy in her line of sight. TK was near the back of the train, gazing out the window, his face reflected back in the afternoon light. She supposed his expression was always a little hard to read, but today he looked especially distant, staring off into space, not moving a muscle. It was the absence of the smile that really made a difference, though. If he'd been acting like himself, taking everything in, perhaps chatting up the teens playing some handheld game beside him, maybe Kari would have called out to him. Confronted him directly about the way he'd just disappeared this summer. Again.

But something about his faraway look made her keep her distance. She suspected he was not on some innocent trip to visit his father. No more innocent a trip than her own, at least. In the space of a second, Kari's mission changed.

When the train came to its first stop, Kari tried to shift out of the way, moving deeper into the train car, as subtly as possible. It was the only logical option, right? She was blocking the exit otherwise. But she got a few more dirty looks as she squeezed into the smallest spaces, making sure to keep out of TK's line of sight should he turn around.

She got lucky. The train remained relatively full for the duration of their journey, filling back up at nearly the same rate the previous passengers got off. When TK started moving up to a spot closer to the doors, Kari took a spot on the edge of a cluster of girls her age. She made sure to keep her back to him, checking on him out of her peripheral vision each time she felt the train slow.

When at last he moved to get off—at a stop near the end of the line in a town she was unfamiliar with—Kari got off too, making sure to keep a good number of the other disembarking passengers between them.

The town was a quaint little place, based on what she could see from the station. The group of girls she'd been pretending to be a part of started to make their way down a worn dirt road. Kari could see a row of homey little cottages off in that direction. Perhaps those girls were visiting their grandparents for the summer? In any case, they would offer her no more protection. TK set off in the other direction, away from civilization, it would seem. All Kari could see in that direction were a cluster of mountains rising up in the distance.

TK seemed to be the only one going that way, making her job a lot harder. Kari scanned the area and then crossed the street, climbed a little brick ledge and was able to hide herself in the sparse forest separating the town's cottages from the road and the isolated path TK was following. She was able to keep him in sight, but they were far enough apart that she didn't have to worry about being spotted immediately, even if he turned her way.

Kari lost track of how long they walked. She even tired of wondering where he was going. Her mind began to wander. What a day it had been. She'd gone from breaking into her school to flat-out stalking one of her classmates. She supposed she could no longer claim her sparkling reputation.

The sun was starting to set when she first considered turning back. Her current course of action was absolutely insane, wasn't it? The mountains were no longer looking all that distant. But then TK turned to cross the little stream separating his path from a massive stone staircase leading up one of those mountains, and her curiosity was piqued once again. Just who was this boy? Why was his sneaking up a mountain for the night? What was up there?

Kari hesitated before stepping out from the cover the trees provided. TK hadn't turned back once, but she let him get even farther ahead. It wasn't like she was going to lose the only other person for miles around. Still, she didn't want to follow directly behind him. She darted across the road and started up the rougher path alongside the stairs. Thankfully, the setting sun bathed most of the hillside in shadow, and she was able to keep her footsteps quiet.

The only moment of unease came when TK crested the mountain and was suddenly out of sight. The thought of being up on a mountain alone at night was enough to hurry her pace, heedless of being caught. But TK had not stopped, and she found herself… in another little town? No… Not quite. The mountain plateaued and there were a series of little buildings, but they were too simple. Not full-fledged houses, but little cabins with two sets of bunk beds apiece. She climbed the steps of the biggest building and peered in at a deserted mess hall. TK had climbed the mountain to an old summer camp? It must have gone out of business or else there would be campers this time of year.

She realized she was standing out in the open at the same time she realized she'd lost TK again. All concern for stealth had left her at this point. It was getting darker by the minute, and she had seen enough to confront TK. She wasn't sure she could keep track of any more questions. So Kari rushed down the path, running through the camp, and came upon a breathtaking sight.

She turned the corner around the last cabin to find that the camp opened up to a small fenced-off cliff that broke through the surrounding peaks and gave them a full view of the sunset. TK stood facing the sun. She watched as he pulled some sort of device from his pocket. A tiny, portable radio, a pager? She couldn't tell from her current position. But she watched as he held it up to the sky. Were her eyes playing tricks, or was the light surrounding him getting brighter?

In another few seconds, the phenomenon was unmistakable. Kari was just raising a hand to shield her eyes when, in a sudden flash of light, TK was gone.

Unable to quite believe her eyes when the light died down, Kari ran into the now empty field, exactly where he had been standing just seconds earlier. He was nowhere to be seen, and the sun was setting rapidly. She was soon standing in the dim gray of twilight, even more lost than before. As she stared out at the darkening mountain, she was struck by what an odd time of day this was. This atmosphere was almost enough to make her believe TK really could have disappeared into thin right before her eyes.

But then, would that really be the strangest thing, considering all that had happened lately? Had she not been stepping in and out of reality herself? She'd come this far. Perhaps it was about time to get to the bottom of this. She'd never succeeded in purposely summoning the strange fog world before, but something about this time, this place just felt… right.

Kari felt herself gravitating towards that feeling of being adrift that she'd experienced earlier. Perhaps that was the key. Accepting that she could never hope to understand everything. That some things would always be out of her control, as scary and stressful as that might be.

Kari closed her eyes, took a deep breath and, like magic, found herself transported when she reopened her eyes. This time, the strange world spit her out on the banks of a lake. An ocean? It certainly looked big enough. She couldn't see the other side. The water lapped up at her shoes, and she shuffled back a few steps. She heard movement behind her too and whirled around.

Shadowy figures with bright eyes were crouching all up and down the beach, each and every one of them angled to face her. She had to resist the urge to retreat back to the water's edge. There was murmuring all around, but she couldn't quite make sense of the sounds. Slowly but surely, they began creeping closer.

"No," she said, her voice shaking nearly as much as her hands. "Stay back."

The creatures were totally unaffected, and her voice seemed to be swallowed up in the fog. "I said stop!"

This time her scream hit a pitch that could cut through anything. The sky itself opened up as a pillar of light shot down to engulf her. She gasped, frozen, as a literal angel dropped down, fending off the nearest creatures with his golden staff. The force of this blow was magnified in this dim world that seemed to suck light into a vacuum. But when Kari tilted her head back, the shaft of light the angel had come down through had not closed up. There was a shockingly blue sky above and, as she watched, a hand reached down for her, a voice she couldn't quite place with the distortion calling her name.

The angel grabbed her around the waist and up they flew through the shaft of light, just as the creatures overwhelmed them down below. They shot up, up… and then she was deposited on soft warm grass under that blue sky.

The first thing she noticed was TK on the ground beside her, looking worn and exasperated, but smiling that familiar smile. He met her eyes, shrugged, and said, "Well, welcome to the Digital World, I guess."

Review please!

I don't own Digimon.

We've made it! First big milestone achieved! And before hitting ten chapters, even!