Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. But I do own too much stuff, yeesh!

Author's Note: Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "combination".

Reminder: I post all review replies on my personal forum topic found right here on this site. Replies to the previous chapter are often posted about an hour after the newest chapter is posted. To find the topic, navigate to the little drop down menu at the top of the screen for Forum to Anime to Digimon. Find the forum called Digital Connections. The topic you are looking for is called "Blurring Boundaries: And so it begins..." Or you can go to my profile and use the direct link there!

Also written for April's Camp Nano. This chapter brings me to 4,209/10,000. Yes, I have an extremely small word count goal this month. I mentioned possibly selling my house, and it went through. I have to be out of here by the 29th, so unfortunately, that has made April all about moving. I didn't want to go all of April without writing a little bit, though, hence the small word count goal. I'm honestly just happy I'm putting out anything at all! I hope you all...

Enjoy!


Chapter Five

On the way to the director's office, Riley bought him a bottle of fizzy pop and a sesame rice ball from the office cafeteria.

TK inhaled the rice ball. The fizzy pop was great. Now, TK thought, if he could just get a shower, a change of clothes, and some uninterrupted sleep, he'd finally start to feel human again as opposed to some strange half-digimon creature wandering around the Real World.

Just the thought of a nice warm bed and a hot shower made his eyelids feel heavy. He brought a hand up to cover his mouth as he yawned.

Riley glanced toward him. "We'll get you a nice place to rest soon where you can sleep and get a shower." TK sighed in anticipation.

They stepped into a spacious-looking elevator with 51 buttons of where they could go, 48 floors and 3 basements. Patamon made a small gasp at the number of buttons in front of them from his spot on top of TK's head. The elevator refused to move until Riley pulled her ID badge off of her neck and swiped the magnetic strip against the sensor, setting the elevator in motion and sending them upward toward the 48th floor. TK's stomach flip-flopped uncomfortably as they ascended toward the top of the government building.

"What do you people actually do here?" he asked.

Riley stood with her hands clasped behind her back. "Our original purpose was to monitor the electronic communications moving throughout Japan to identify and lockdown any potential threats."

TK raised an eyebrow. "You spied on people."

Riley didn't deny it.

"Sounds kinda creepy," Patamon said.

"So where do the digimon come in?" TK asked.

"About four or five years ago, Hypnos started to intercept electronic signals that weren't used in any communications system we had ever seen," Riley continued. "At the same time, reports started flooding in about strange monsters appearing all over Japan – right where those strange signals were originating."

"The digimon were coming to Real World," TK realized.

Riley nodded. "We call it Bio-Emerging, which is what those Vilemon did earlier today."

"Does that happen a lot?" Patamon asked.

"It used to happen a lot more," Riley said. "Things have slowed down a lot, but it still happens enough that we're necessary."

For some reason, that surprised TK. He wasn't sure why. The last few weeks he'd been so worried about surviving day to day, and he'd seen no hints or signs of how to get to the Real World. He had started to doubt his own intuition of it even existing. The idea that while he and Patamon been scavenging for food digimon all over the Digital World had been casually appearing in the Real World – that seemed almost unfair.

"So Henry and Rika and the others – they work for you guys?"

The corners of Riley's mouth twitched as if she found the question amusing. "No."

"Then why are they—?"

"Before we accepted the tamers' help, part of our job was to create computer programs that could locate the Wild Ones before they bio-emerged and terminate them," Riley said.

Patamon's eyes widened. TK glanced up toward his partner, feeling his heart clench in his chest. "You'd kill them," he said.

"Yes. We didn't understand digimon then," Riley admitted. "Not fully. It wasn't until we learned more from Takato and the other tamers that we started to understand and come around. Now we do everything we can to avoid history from repeating itself, but not everybody feels the same. Bio-emergences have started to pick up again here recently, and more and more people are crying out for a military presence."

"Against digimon?" TK said.

"That seems like a bad idea," Patamon said.

Riley nodded. "We don't have a reliable and safe way to return digimon to the Digital World as it is, so destroying them is often the only way to ensure public safety. But the last thing we need is for the Japanese government to declare martial law and start a war with the digimon when they have no idea what they're up against. That's why we try to work alongside the tamers."

"So it's more like a partnership?" TK said.

"An unsanctioned one," Riley added. "Not everybody agrees that the kids should be involved in our affairs, but Yamaki and I – along with a few others – know that the tamers are the best at containing any digital threats that bio-emerge into our world."

"So not everybody is your biggest fan," TK guessed, "because of the tamers – er, us?"

Riley adopted a scowl. "That's one way to put it. And things have only gotten worse since October."

"When that Takato kid disappeared?"

TK knew he'd hit a sore spot. Riley pursed her lips as if she were trying to contain saying something she'd regret.

"Let's just say it was a PR disaster when one of the tamers we were working with up and disappeared," Riley said. "The Digital World had to be involved, and Yamaki ended up shouldering most of the blame. He was demoted, and the worst person possible was put in charge."

TK had a feeling he wasn't going to like this. "And that's who we're going to see now?"

"Oh, brother," Patamon bemoaned.

"Come on," she said as the elevator doors opened. "I'll show you the best view in all of Japan."

x X x

They stopped at a set of windows that extended from floor to ceiling. The building was situated in the middle of downtown Shinjuku and was the tallest building in the district, so they could see pretty much everything.

Buildings on top of buildings were built as far as the eye could see. Skyscrapers touched the horizon, and the further ones disappeared into the foggy skyline. Apartment buildings and businesses were scattered throughout the city, making all of the buildings blend into one big gray and blue mess. Even from this far up, TK could see people walking along the ground below in the plaza, shoppers milling around as they moved from market to market, parents walking their kids home from school, and salarymen heading home after a hard day's work.

It was beautiful, but despite knowing that Japan was where he was from, nothing looked remotely familiar. TK put his hand up against the glass and stared through his fingers down at the world below. Great, he thought. He'd found his way back to the Real World, and he was just as lost here as he was anywhere. He would never find where he belonged, where he was from. His best hope was to make friends with a government agency that couldn't seem to decide whether he was a threat or an asset. Maybe if he behaved really well, they'd let him actually leave once in a while.

Standing here, staring down at the beauty of Japan, TK felt something stirring inside of him, pulling at his heart like a band-aid trying to be removed slowly.

"TK?" Patamon asked gently as TK dropped his head and closed his eyes.

"I'm okay. I just—I just wish I remembered and knew what was going on, what I should do."

His voice cracked. He hadn't meant to get emotional, but he was exhausted and scared and above all else, homesick for a home he didn't remember. He'd been lost for so long, he would've given anything for someone to just tell him a single fact about his life. He needed guidance. He wanted to know something, some fact, about his life for certain without feeling as if he were grasping for straws and missing memories.

Patamon rubbed his wing against TK's cheek, wiping away a tear trying to escape down his face. "It'll be okay. We're here now. Rika, Henry, and Terriermon may seem like a weird lot, but I think they're on our side."

He felt awkward struggling against a breakdown with a government agent hovering just a few feet behind him, but he was glad for his own dignity's sake that Riley didn't try to offer him any comfort of her own.

To their left, several men in black business suits filed out of a set of double doors.

"Hanaharu's out of his meeting," Riley said. "Let's go."

x X x

Compared to the offices back on the floor he'd woken up on, Hanaharu's office definitely announced that he was the boss.

The marble tiling expanded across the entire floor. The only part of the top floor that seemed not to be part of Hanaharu's office were the elevators and short hallway they had just entered from, but everything else was owned by and controlled by the boss-man. Glass walls separated Hanaharu's secretary from his main office, and TK could see a separate conference room around the corner behind the elevators.

In first glass-domed room sat the secretary's desk. She barely glanced up at them before waving them in; she had far more important things to deal with than some random kid and a Patamon. In the center of the main office stood the director. He was a tall and toned man with a head of dark hair and expensive taste. TK didn't know much about clothes, but TK could've been told that the very stitching of this man's dark-colored suit was woven with pure diamond and he would've believed it. His entire look spoke of money, and lots of it.

Riley stopped just a few steps into the office, waiting for the director to notice them first.

"This is Director Hanaharu," she said quietly. "Whatever you do, don't mention your amnesia. Don't do or say anything to draw attention to yourself."

"What?" TK asked.

"Trust me," she said.

"Why not?" Patamon asked.

"What are you talking about?" TK said.

Riley gave him a look that quieted him immediately. He wasn't sure what Riley was going on about, but he thought about the warning Rika had left him with. This guy, whoever he was, he didn't think he was going to like him very much.

The director was talking into a Bluetooth in his ear as he paced in front of his desk. He seemed completely oblivious to their presence, too self-absorbed in his own words to notice he was no longer alone. He let out a boisterous laugh about something that went way over TK's head before giving a cheery farewell.

"Idiot," he said cheerfully after hanging up.

TK frowned. "So, what?" he muttered quietly to Riley. "He's your boss or something?"

The balding man turned. He had a crooked smile and a slightly crazy look in his eyes, like he'd had one too many espresso shots. He looked like a typical businessman with his phone in one hand and a pen in the other. Yet TK decided that his first instinct had been correct: he was not going to like this guy.

"Director," Riley said, "we found another tamer. This is Takeru Takaishi with a Patamon for a partner."

"Another one," the director harrumphed. "They're just popping up everywhere, aren't they?"

"Yes, sir," she said in a way that made TK believe that she actually meant Not really.

"Uh, hi," TK said for lack of anything better to say.

"Nice to meet you!" Patamon said.

Hanaharu looked at Patamon with a grimace of disgust. "How… cute." His gaze turned onto TK. "Takeru Takaishi, you say? Why does that name sound familiar? Have we met, boy?"

Unlike the other times that people had recognized his name, TK felt his stomach sink uncomfortably. He struggled for words for a moment, trying to figure out a vague way to respond that wouldn't be an outright lie. As much as he wanted to know who he was, he had a distinct feeling that he didn't want to learn it from him.

"I… don't remember," TK said, trying to sound casual.

"You may have heard his name in passing," Riley said with an uncaring shrug. But something in her eyes made TK realize that she was making up a story on the spot. "This is Yamaki's nephew."

TK was quite proud of himself for managing not to outwardly react to that story. For one, he was one hundred percent certain that was not true. For two, the idea alone was pretty horrifying from the few interactions he'd had with the man so far. And for three, he was pretty sure if he had reacted, Hanaharu would have seen right through the lie immediately from the way he was staring right at his face.

"Is he now?" Hanaharu murmured. "I don't remember Yamaki mentioning a sister."

"They're estranged," Riley said.

So estranged she doesn't exist, TK took that lie to mean.

Hanaharu stepped away from his desk. He was probably close to sixty with wrinkles around his eyes and mouth with jowls that were starting to sag. He could have easily passed for older. If TK ignored all of the warnings he'd received not to cross this man, he could even imagine that he was completely harmless – for all of two seconds. As he got closer, TK could see the way Hanaharu's eyes glittered with harsh curiosity, like he wasn't above more unsavory measures to get the answers he sought, no matter how young or innocent the victim.

Hanaharu narrowed his eyes. "Yes, I suppose I can see it. You seem nervous."

"Should I be?" TK asked.

"What reason could you possibly have to be nervous?"

TK's active imagination could come up with quite a few creative reasons as to why, but he knew that they were all conjecture. He was coming up with hyperboles and ghost stories based on assumptions, but something in his instincts told him that he wasn't too far off. "I don't know. What am I doing here?"

"Just having you check in." Hanaharu gestured around his grand office. "I like to keep tabs on all of the tamers, make sure we keep them in line, and that they don't run off and destroy public property with their… pets. When did this creature appear to you?"

Riley spoke for him, which was probably a good thing since TK was only two seconds away from saying something he'd regret. She told Hanaharu a total tall tale about TK meeting Patamon two months ago and how Yamaki had only learned of his relationship with his partner when he came to visit today. TK kept his lips sealed the entire exchange, but he listened closely to her story in case he'd have to regurgitate any of this information back later. And even though the history was completely fake, it at least gave him something to cling to as some form of identity for now.

When she mentioned Angemon, Hanaharu looked surprised.

"Angemon?" he mused. "I was told that there was a problem with forming celestial data. Something about it destroying every digimon that attempted to digivolve to a celestial form?"

He glanced at Patamon as if he suddenly found him a little more interesting. TK resisted the urge to hide him behind his back.

"The summer solstice is this week," TK said, changing the subject. "The Vilemon said that there'd be an invasion on that day. Did your data tell you that?"

"No, boy, it did not," Hanaharu said. "The Digital World is a frustratingly hard to discern place, and it's only made harder by Shibumi's unwillingness to share information with us."

"Don't you… I don't know," TK said, "have contact with a digital entity or something? Whoever chose us to be tamers?"

"A digital entity that chose you?" Hanaharu smiled. "What a cute idea. You must watch too much television. No, my dear Takeru, I'm afraid we are fresh out of digital entities. You were not chosen by anybody. You are not special. You becoming a tamer is a fluke, a mistake of the system, one we're trying to rectify."

"I'm not a mistake!" Patamon said.

"Well, you certainly weren't intended to exist," Hanaharu chortled.

"Director," Riley interrupted, "perhaps now is not the time to discuss political views."

Hanaharu's lips curled. "I suppose not." A pleasant ringtone sounded throughout the room, and Hanaharu pulled his phone out of his pocket. He hummed curiously. "A chain letter? How on earth did they get my email…" he murmured.

"Sir?" Riley said.

"One of those kids, no doubt," he continued. "Quite amusing really. And pretty poorly worded. Listen to this: Six that fate chose from the world that mimics earth, and six that chose fate from the world that man did birth, must unite against the enemies darkness has risen to keep earth itself locked in its prison." He chuckled and moved as if to shut his phone off.

TK listened to the words, not really expecting them to mean anything. But something tugged painfully at his gut and threatened close his throat.

"What's the rest of it say?" he whispered.

"The rest of it?" Hanaharu repeated. He frowned at the inconvenience but returned his attention back to his phone all the same. "Gluttony must not be allowed to hide for the Doors of Darkness must be closed with foes side-by-side. Then the world will crumble with its final breath as a miracle leads them to victory or death."

A chill traveled straight down TK's spine. For a moment, he thought a storm had started to brew outside causing the entire building to shake. Then he realized his whole body was trembling. "That's important."

Hanaharu arched an eyebrow. "Nonsense."

Riley glanced at TK out of the corner of her eye. "Who sent you that email, sir?"

He glanced back down at his phone. "Unknown. But as I said, it's obviously a prank sent by one of those kids we've let in under our tutelage while under the direction of someone with severely poor judgment." He smirked. "Chosen by fate, what a funny idea."

"You're a funny idea," Patamon grumbled.

Riley cleared her voice. "Takeru needs an access badge for our floor. Can he have one or not?"

TK could almost see Hanaharu's mind working, calculating whether or not TK would be useful. He held out his hand and pointed to his digivice on his belt. "That's an interesting device. May I?"

TK didn't want to hand over his digivice, but he could tell from the way Hanaharu simply stood there with his hand outstretched that it wasn't really a request. Feeling like he didn't really have much of a choice, he took the device off of his belt and put it in the man's hand. Hanaharu turned the device over before grasping it with both hands in a way so that he could pull it apart.

"Hey!" TK protested, his heart leaping into his throat.

The device refused to come apart. Hanaharu's knuckles turned white with the effort, and his face started to turn purple with frustration. Finally giving up, he muttered a few curse words under his breath, and tossed the digivice back to TK.

"I've always wondered what's inside those things," he said. "But, of course, Yamaki is expressly against us taking one to experiment on. Such a shame. Well – yes, he can get an access badge. Go, go, I don't care. Those are the regulations currently in place after all."

TK clutched his digivice to his chest, an angry glare on his face.

Riley's shoulder relaxed. "Good. Come on, TK."

"Oh, and Riley," Hanaharu said. "Changes are coming to Hypnos. When the Prime Minister visits on Friday, my promotion and the changes I want to implement will be finalized, and I hope you'll remember—"

"Yamaki is still head of Hypnos, and he knows the system best," Riley said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're just the figurehead. You'd be lost without him."

"Oh, I have no doubt," Hanaharu said, making TK believe that he had all the doubt in the world. "His expertise and knowledge is invaluable to me. But people aren't happy. Attacks are becoming more frequent, property damage is estimated to be in the billions, unemployment and homelessness is on the rise, and then… of course… the Matsuki incident. This has not been a good year for him. We can't have the people not trusting us for much longer. Change is a must. I hope you'll support me in this transition period. It would do wonders for our relationship and your career."

Riley's face remained impassive, but TK saw her hands tighten into fists. "I see."

Hanaharu ventured back over to his desk, walking as if he didn't have a care in the world. He removed his Bluetooth from his ear and set it and his phone onto his desk.

"If I have enough support in these coming months," Hanaharu told Riley, "I may even be able to protect Yamaki from any backlash people try to throw his way. God forbid he take the fall for… well, everything."

TK had to bite his lip to keep his mouth shut. The guy was blackmailing Riley to protect Yamaki. That much was obvious. TK hadn't even decided if he liked Yamaki or Riley yet, but whether or not he liked Hanaharu? That was an easy no.

Riley's knuckled turned white. "I'll take that into consideration."

"Excellent," Hanaharu said. "You may go now."

Riley put her hand on TK's shoulder and steered him out of the office. Despite her stronger than necessary grip, he was more than happy to follow her.

x X x

The doors to the elevator opened to Jeri, Kazu, and Kenta waiting out in the hall. TK glanced over to Riley who had been stubbornly silent the entire ride down, and she gave a small nod. TK took that as a sign that he was finally allowed to go where he pleased, at least within the confines of the government-controlled building. Jeri and Kenta listened patiently as he gave them a brief recap of what happened in Hanaharu's office as Kazu led them down the hall.

"Riley told him that you were related to Yamaki?" Kenta repeated. "Tough luck."

Jeri giggled. "He's not that bad."

"I wouldn't want to be related to him," Kenta said. "Even in pretend!"

MarineAngemon chirped in agreement.

"Man, I hate that Hanaharu guy," Kazu said. "If I had my way—"

"He's pretty scary," Jeri said.

"He didn't look too bad. I bet I could take him," Patamon said.

Kenta shuddered. "He doesn't look like much, but… he's got too much power and not a lot of love for us or our digimon." He reached up and gently stroked the top of MarineAngemon's head.

"I can't believe he's the director of… all of this," TK said. "He seems like a jerk."

"He's a big one," Kenta agreed. "But he wasn't always in charge. It was Yamaki for a while."

"So, what happened?"

"Four years ago, Yamaki got fired when he created this program called the Juggernaut that was meant to destroy all digimon," Jeri explained quietly. "It went bad. More powerful digimon were able to use the combination of the program and the excess energy created by it to digivolve and bio-emerge into our world, and when he tried to amplify the power, it, well…"

"Boom," Kenta deadpanned.

TK's eyes widened.

"He learned from his mistake, though!" Jeri added quickly. "And he realized that we and our digimon weren't the enemy. We were just trying to help."

"Yeah, but not before causing us a lot of grief," Kazu muttered.

Kenta gave him a look. "You weren't even a tamer yet! It wasn't like he was causing you grief."

Kazu glared at him. "Neither were you!"

TK looked between the three of them. That didn't seem like the end of the story. "So, what happened?"

"Hanaharu happened," Kazu said. "That idiot tried to reactivate Juggernaut while we were in the Digital World. He could've killed us! He nearly killed Takato and Henry!"

"Yamaki pretty much saved the day with that one," Kenta said. "Got his old job back, and everything was pretty much cool again by the time we got back."

"We didn't even know of Hanaharu's involvement until it was all over and done with," Jeri said. "But we didn't think we'd ever have to deal with him again, not after he messed up so badly."

"Turns out, if you have a lot of friends and a lot of money, nearly killing a bunch of kids is merely a setback."

TK turned. A boy about his age (maybe older) stood with his arms crossed and his back leaning against the wall as if he had been waiting for them. He had tan skin with blue eyes and spikey brown hair. He wore brown gloves with a rustic red button-up shirt and brown cargo pants. A blue digivice hung from his belt next to a black leather pouch that was just the right size for playing cards. He'd spoken without looking up, and when he finally did, his eyes immediately zeroed in on TK.

For a microsecond, the boy seemed shocked – panicked even, like he'd been caught in a searchlight.

"Ryo!" Kazu cried. "It's about time!"

"Yeah, where were you?" Kenta whined.

Jeri stepped forward. "Ryo, this is TK. He's a tamer, one of us."

The boy regained his composure and held out his hand. "Pleased to meet you," he said. "I'm Ryo Akiyama."