Chapter 6: Unsex Me
Davis:
"Are you positive you never sold a ring like this?" Kari asked yet again.
"I'm positive." The jeweler said. "I'd remember it if we ever carried a black ring. Good ruby though."
They left the jewelry shop, yet another jewelry shop, with no new leads... not that there would be any new leads of course, but Kari didn't know that.
"Was that the last jeweler here?" Davis asked.
"I think there's one more." She said. "It has to be the place."
The former gogglehead followed the current down the aisles. The trip to the mall had been boring but it was almost over. Davis looked at the ring. By now the ruby was back into the same position it had came here with, the one that didn't switch. The jewelers who examined the ring had turned it multiple times. The first time he was tempted to point out how the ring had turned on its own, but for several reasons he decided not to. Better to wait until there was no one else in earshot to ask questions. Of course, that wasn't the only reason. By the time they left that first jewelry shop, the gem was back in the parralel, non-switching position. Davis had decided that we would wait until the gem was back into the switching position to point it out. At this point he didn't dwell on only having one more chance for that.
The clerk at the last jewelry shop also denied selling it. "Whoever did sell it to you ripped you off. That's not even real ruby."
"Really?" Davis asked. "None of the other jewelers said that."
The clerk looked at the ring again. "It is the best fake ruby I've ever seen, by large margins. I don't know how the con made it, but I do think it is a fake. If nothing else it's not pure ruby."
Kari sighed. "Are you positive you didn't sell it to us? You're the last store at this mall and I know we bought it here."
"We do not sell fake jewelry. Nor does anyone else here."
The current gogglehead led them away in defeat. Davis looked at her ring. Once more it was in the locked, non-switching position.
"Darn." he thought to himself. "Looks like I can't switch back today after-all."
"That is BS and you know it." Another part of him objected. He ignored it.
Kari addressed him before he could reply. "Are you positive this was the mall you bought the rings at?"
"This is the only one I ever go to." He replied.
"Then why didn't any of the vendors recognize it?"
"Maybe the store isn't here anymore. Like that magic store in the movies that goes away when the heroes try to track it down."
"This can't be happening!" Kari whined. "This is real life, not some stupid movie!"
"We're already switching bodies, you know." Davis responded. "Why not that too."
The former girl sighed.
"Is this really we're left with? Movie logic? Again?" She lamented.
"We could still try going back through Veemon and Gatomon."
"I'll think about it." Kari said. "In the mean time I guess I really don't have a choice but to find out what I'm apparently supposed to learn about you."
"I'll do that too on my end." Davis replied.
"Thanks." She yielded.
They walked toward the entrance to the mall. When they got there Davis turned to Kari and asked. "Tai wanted me to meet him at a soccer practice before I went home. You wanna come to?"
"I don't think that's a good idea." She replied. "I didn't tell your parents I was coming here... They... decided I was faking being sick and grounded me. If I don't get home before they do I'll be in worse trouble. I don't think they'll be back before practice would be over, but Jun definitely will be. Would she tell on you?"
"Yes, yes she would." Her brother replied.
As many times as she had told on him lately, Davis felt she relished getting him grounded.
"I better get home then." Kari said. "See you at school tomorrow?"
"See you then."
They parted ways after that. As Davis walked toward Tai's high school, he couldn't stop himself from thinking back to the mall.
"You idiot." That same part that insulted him before continued. "You threw out the plan! When are we gonna switch back now!?"
Tomorrow. He decided he would tell Kari he had thought about the jewels overnight after what the jewelers said and would point out the changed positions then. Tomorrow would work well.
When he approached the soccer field he saw Tai's team playing a makeshift game. A stray ball came his way as stepped into the outfield.
"Look out Kari!" Tai yelled.
Davis smiled. He waited until just the right moment and gave the ball a kick, straight toward the goal post; it went in. Tai was speechless. The rest of the team cheered. When the cheer ended, one of the teammates turned to the goalie and laughed.
"Step up your game bro! If Tai's little sister can get the ball past you there's no way the other team can't."
"The ball was out of bonds away. That totally didn't count." The goalie replied
"Is why you didn't block it?"
The goalie stuck to his story. Davis wasn't sure if he believed him or not. The former captain sat down in the bleachers while the older team finished their game. Tai kept glancing at him throughout the match. At first his face was still surprised from his earlier interception, but as practice progressed he looked more and more... happy? That was definitely how he looked. He went out the greet Tai when practice was over. This team cheered again.
"Great job Kari." One member said. "Wanna join our team? I know you play better than Izuma."
"Hey!" another member, apparently Izuma, shouted.
"Come on, you know middle school girls can't join a highschool guys team." Tai said. He turned to Davis. "I am proud of you for that, though. I really am. I didn't think you had that in you."
Kari's borrowed cheeks turned red. "Thanks big brother."
As Tai smiled, another of his teammates said "I know there's a girls' team at the middle-school. You should join. You would dominate."
Tai stuttered a bit; he did not seem to like that idea. Davis knew why. The memory of Kari almost dying playing this game would be hard to shake away.
"It's okay Tai, I wouldn't want to join a team anyway." He said. "I just wanted to impress you."
Tai blew a sigh of relief. "You succeeded." he said. "Just please don't do it again."
Davis could tell saying that upset him as well. Davis nodded. They left and started walking home. As they approached, Tai turned to him, apparently changing his mind.
"You know, if you do wanna join the girls team, I won't stop you. I shouldn't try to keep you out for something that happened that long ago, and you're healthy now. If I were the one that happened too, I wouldn't want you keeping me out."
"Really it's fine." the switched one said. Whatever his feelings on the matter Davis knew Kari had no desire to join the team. They were switching back tomorrow anyway, no need to put her through that.
"Do you have to switch back tomorrow?" Some other newer part of him asked.
"Of course I have to!" He looked at Tai again. "I just have to make today count."
When they arrived home, they found an unexpected guest talking to their mother.
"Hey Tai. Hey Kari." Jun said greeting them.
To say Davis was surprised to her there was an understatement. Tai and Jun had met each-other; Tai had been over to his house to many times not to have met her, but mostly she seemed to want to avoid him. Seeking him out, let alone at his own house, was something the former gogglehead would never have expected of her.
"Hey Jun..." Tai said. From the tone of his voice the older leader was as surprised as he was.
"Hello... Tai." his sister replied. From her tone Jun was annoyed rather than surprised.
"There's no way she came to see him." Davis thought. "Why is she here then, for me?"
Did Jun know Kari at all? Kari had visited them with Tai or on her own a few times, so she knew of her, though if she hadn't addressed her body by its name Davis might have guessed she didn't know it. Apparently his sister had heard him say it before...
"Go on, tell them." Mrs. Kamiya said.
Taking the cue, Jun explained. "As much as our brothers hang out, I'm thinking we ought to get along well, Kari. We should spend some quality time together."
"Great! More quality time with Jun!" another, much older, part of him whined.
He ignored it easily. It actually was nice to see her again after close to a week of separation.
"She's cutting into your last day as Tai's sibling!" Yet another part of him objected. "You can have quality time with her tomorrow."
That was a much better argument. Davis was about to refuse Jun when Tai said "That actually is a good idea. I need to shower after practice anyway.".
"Eh, might as well then." Davis thought.
He sat down on the couch. Turning his thoughts into words he went on "What do you wanna do?"
Jun sat down too as Mrs. Kamiya left the room. "Oh nothing, just talk a bit."
"Sounds as good as anything." Her brother thought. "What do girls talk about anyway when guys aren't around?"
Tai also left as he thought that, heading for the bathroom.
"I guess I'm about to find out..."
"How have you been," She asked "Davis?"
"Fine." He replied… and then realized just what he'd said.
Jun's eyes widened. "No way! You really are Davis!"
"Wha… what are you talking about?" The switched one replied, panic in his voice. "Y… you just asked how I'd been and I said 'fine'."
"Don't play dumb." Jun responded. "You heard exactly what I asked. 'How have you been, DAVIS?'"
"I didn't hear that last part." Davis said. "I'm obviously not Davis; look at me, I'm Kari Kamiya, sister of Tai Kamiya."
"No, you aren't." Jun said; she pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it toward her brother. "I know about the rings."
Davis took the paper and read it. It was the note that came with the rings his sister now seemed to know about.
"You… believed this?" He asked.
"I didn't at first," she replied "but with 'Davis' acting so out of character I couldn't help but keep thinking back to it... Then I began to think of just how wonderful it would be if it were true. I had to see if it was, and it looks like it is!"
"Come on Jun," Davis said. "Surely you weren't convinced of something this insane just because of one word."
"Believe me, your panicked tone at the start of this conversation was much better evidence. I know you're a bad actor, Davis, and I knew you would break character if confronted. If 'Kari' had not been so defensive, I would have known she had just misheard me. Combined this with Kari's behavior in your body and I'm positive it's you."
"Well it isn't." Davis yelled, getting up out of his seat. "Get out of my house!"
"You don't want me to do that brother." The accuser replied. "Not unless you want 'Davis' to know everything I know when I get home."
Davis sat down. He knew exactly what it would mean if she did that. Kari would know he'd lied to her about where the rings were from and what he knew about them. If he ever wanted to speak to her again, she had to stay in the dark. He couldn't let her go, or else...
"You win." He said. "It's me, Davis."
Jun smiled. In a strange way, it made Davis feel better. He wouldn't admit it, especially not now, but he was starting to miss his sister. Still, being found out bothered him.
"How did you know I'd become Kari?" he asked. "Like, her specifically?"
"Because that's exactly what I'd do if I had gotten the rings." Jun said.
"Switch with Kari?" Davis asked, now more confused.
"With the one I love." She replied.
Davis pondered this briefly. "Are you saying you want to switch with Matt?"
"Of course." She said. "In what way could we possible be more united in body and soul than that? What could possibly be a greater marriage?"
Davis did not know what to say to that… His sister continued before he could find his response.
"I want a pair of rings like yours. I want to use them with Matt. I also I want your help getting one of them on his finger. You'll help me do that, won't you?"
"I don't think Matt would agree to it." He said finally.
"Of course he would." Jun replied. "We're soul mates."
"I'm positive if I asked him 'Hey, you wanna marry Jun by switching bodies with her?' he'd say 'No.""
He was positive he'd say that a lot less nicely that that, but the digidestined kept his mouth shut about it.
"He'll come around." Jun said that with seemingly as much certainty as if she'd said that two and two made four. "It's just like our first date. He'll be surprised at first, but by the end he'll be loving it as much as I am."
"Besides," she continued "The first thing 'Davis' did out of character was to scream in front of the mirror. Is this really different from what you're doing with Kari?"
"I… didn't try to do this with Kari." her brother replied. "I had planned to swap with TK in the first place... He just gave Kari the ring instead before I could."
"Matt's brother?" Jun chuckled. "He would have been my second choice."
That wasn't the reaction Davis was trying to get... He did not want to refuse his sister, but somehow, he didn't want to help her either. He did not know which made him feel worse… it didn't matter anyway.
"I don't have another pair." He said. "I don't even have the first two rings anymore. Kari has the other one, and I doubt she'll just hand it over to you. I couldn't help you with this even if I wanted to"
"Can't you just call up that guy who sent you the first rings and ask for more?" Jun asked.
"I don't know who sent me the rings. The sender never said who they were, and you're the first person I know who's shown any sign of knowing I'd had them."
"You're telling me someone you don't know randomly mailed you a pair of body swapping rings?"
"Is that any weirder than there being body swapping rings?" Davis countered.
He had her there.
"So you have no way of helping me switch…" Jun whimpered.
"I'm sorry." Davis said. "I don't even know where the rings came from."
"This can't be the end of the road…" Jun whined. "Wait! How do you not know where it was from?" She pulled the package from her purse. "It has a return address."
Davis had not considered this before now. He took the box from her, and read the return address in the top corner.
"Okay… I know where it's from…" He said. "still no idea who it's from. I don't know anyone near Tamachi."
"You're about to!" Jun replied, heading for the door. "We're going there and getting my wedding rings!"
Davis knew he wasn't going to be able to stop her.
"Mom! Dad! I'm going out!"
Jun:
"This is it." Davis said looking at the apartment door.
Jun was already knocking. The man who answered the door greeted them kindly.
"Hello there!" he said. "Do you want to see my son? He's not taking visitors right now."
"Um, maybe." Davis said in response to the question. "Was he the one to send me the rings?"
"Rings?" The man puzzled.
"I got them in a package in the mail." Davis spoke. 'two of them; black with ruby jewels, switch bo.."
Jun cut him off an elbow to the side. If this man didn't know about the switching rings it was probably better he did not find out.
"Ken isn't mailing out rings. I don't know that anyone should be sending rings to girls your age."
Jun heard Davis mutter the word "Ken" under his breath. She spoke normally. "This is the return address on the box."
She showed it to him and he read it.
"I don't know you." The man said unconvinced. "I can't speak for my wife or son but I don't know why they would mail you jeweled rings. It was probably some prank by your schoolmates."
"It's okay father." A voice said from inside the house. "I sent them the rings."
The man turned around. Behind him was a dark haired boy about same age as Kari or Davis. Jun didn't know him, but it felt like she'd seen him somewhere before.
"You sent a girl black rings?" the father asked.
"Trust me it's nothing like that." The son replied. "The rings are a new storage device I was working on. These girls are friends of mine from the computer club I had test them." He turned toward his guests. "Did they work well?"
"Perfectly!" Jun said before her brother could speak. The former boy was already a bad actor, and he seemed surprised by what he was seeing. She couldn't have him mess things up.
"Excellent!" The son replied. "Please come in and discuss the details with me. Father, please leave us. You said you'd give me as much autonomy as you could on my projects."
The man looked suspiciously at his son, then at his guests, and then back at, what had he called him? Ken?
"Alright son, I trust you." He said. "Just don't take them to your room. You're too young to be alone with girls there, let alone send them betrothal tokens."
He stepped aside to let them in.
"Thank you, father." Ken said.
He stepped back toward a hallway and motioned for his guests to follow him. "Come this way."
They did as he said and followed Ken into a living room. Once they'd all entered he peeked his head to look down the hallway, as if checking to make sure his father had not followed them. Seeming satisfied, he turned back into the room.
"So I see you got my gift." He said.
"Ken!" Davis said. "You sent me the rings! I don't believe it!"
"I did." Replied their host. "From the looks of you I'd say you've used them. How do you like them?"
"I can't thank you enough for them." He said.
Jun did not wait for Ken to reply. She said to Davis "I thought you said you didn't know anyone near Tamachi?".
"I don't" he replied. "I just played soccer with him once."
Now Jun remembered. This was Ken Ichijochi, the prodigy all the tabloids were praising. Her brother had spent days boasting about his match with him, as though it were him leading the last samurai against Meiji's Gatling guns. She hadn't cared much reading about Ken, or hearing about him from Davis. The latter, in fact, kind of annoyed her, but now Jun was thinking back to everything she knew about the young celebrity.
"Did you create the body switching rings?" She asked him.
"Yes." He replied. "Did he tell you about them?"
"No." Jun said. "I figured it out."
The boy laughed. "I have a feeling I'll like you." He said. "Not many people would be willing to believe in body switching even if they could figure out it was a thing. Tell me, what is your name?"
"My name is Jun." She said. "I'm Davis's sister… or I guess was now that he's in a new body. She's called Kari by the way… his new body."
"Thank you for that." Ken replied. "What brings you here, Jun? Were you just coming with your brother?"
"No," she said. "I'm the one who wanted to come. I was hoping you'd have a pair of rings for me."
"I see." He said. "I'm sorry, but my gift was intended for Davis alone."
"It's okay with me." Davis said. "Heck, I'd like to have a familiar face, so to speak, switching around with me."
Ken's smile turned sour, but only just for a moment.
"Only asking for more rings to use with loved ones?" he chuckled "You must be quite content in your new body, very well, I'll give you another pair. Heck, I'll give you as many as you want, but I have a condition."
"What would that be?" Davis asked.
"Intelligence."
A look of befuddlement filled Kari's borrowed face. "What do you mean by that?" It spoke.
"Don't tell me you haven't figured it out by now." Ken said. "Surely you've noticed how similar those black rings look to the dark rings I use."
The look on Kari's face changed from one of confusion to one of horror.
"No!" Davis said. "It can't be!"
"It is." Ken said. "I am the Digimon Emperor."
"What?" Jun thought.
"No!" Davis boomed. "You're not getting jack from me! Come on Jun, we're leaving."
"WHAT!" Jun yelled. "No! If you get to be Kari, I get to be Matt!"
"You don't understand!" Davis cried. "That guys is evil! We can't help him, not for anything!" He was already walking toward the door.
"You come back here right now!" Jun yelled.
"Never!" Davis had his back turned and was already in the hallway.
Jun reached into her purse and mashed the buttons as fast as she could. Familiar voices then rang out: "How have you been, Davis?" "Fine" "No way! You really are Davis!"
The fleeing Davis turned around. He saw the tape recorder in her hands.
"Wha… what are you talking about. Y… you just asked how I'd been and I said 'fine'." "Don't play dumb. You heard exactly what I asked. 'How have you been, DAVIS?'"
"Wha.. You recorded everything?" The now stationary Davis spoke.
"I did," Jun said. "Including your confession. If you don't want EVERYONE to hear it: Kari, TK, your precious Tai, come back here, right now."
"P... Please don't make me do this." Was all the switched one could say. It looked like he was about to cry.
Jun turned to Ken. "May I have some time alone with my brother?" She asked.
The host paused for a moment. "Alright." He finally said. "I should probably talk to my dad anyway. If he's heard the yelling, he will be worried."
As soon as Ken was out of earshot Jun turned to her brother. "What's the matter with you?" She said. "One minute you can't thank him enough and the next you refuse to help him!? What has he done that is so 'evil'?"
"I… can't say." Davis said.
"You're a hypocrite." Jun said. "You won't let me have what you have, and you won't even say why."
"Please," Davis said. "I swore to Kari. I swore to Tai."
"I bet you swore to Kari you didn't know about the rings too." She said. "Tell me what the problem is or everyone hears the recording."
Kari's head fell down in the defeat. "Promise you won't tell anyone else." The boy within said.
"If the secret is worth keeping I'll keep it."
That was enough. "Ken is a slave mongering tyrant." Davis said. "He uses rings like these to enslave digimon."
"Digimon?" Jun asked.
"They are creatures that live in computers."
Jun sighed. "What is this some videogame you're playing?"
"Digimon aren't videogame characters! They're real!" The switched one yelled. "I can show you one. Heck you saw them, we both did, four years ago."
"Four years ago…" Jun muttered. Her eyes then widened. "Are you talking about the monsters that held us captive!?"
No surely he couldn't possibly have meant that.
"Well, yes." Davis said. "Those creatures were digimon, but they're really not good examples…"
"You know what they are." Jun sutured. "You knew what whose monsters were but you didn't say anything." There was more than that. "You would protect those evil ghosts over your own family." She wasn't sure which made her angrier.
"They're not all bad." Davis said immediately. "Digimon are living sentient creatures, just like us. There are good and evil digimon just like there are good and evil people. That fairy that saved us then, she was a digimon too!"
"You still know what they are." Jun said. "Real monsters rampaging in the world's biggest city! Those things were the subject of prophets of doom. Don't you remember the panic that happened? You could have ended it, but you did nothing!"
"I only knew three months ago!" He defended.
"Then why didn't you tell us three months ago!?"
"I already told you I swore I wouldn't." Davis said. "Tai made…"
"Tai!" Jun yelled. "Do you care more about him than your own flesh and blood? Is that why you became Kari? Am I not good enough of an older sibling for you?!" She did not wait for a response. "How did you find out?"
He pulled a strange looking object from Kari's coat pocket.
"This is called a Digivice."
He then went on to tell an absurd tale of going into a computer and bonding with a blue dragon that he could "armor digivolve".
"Apparently Tai and Kari had been there before, along with their friends." Davis continued. "They had a guide then, Genai, who made them swear not to tell anyone about what they saw. He was afraid humans might abuse the digimon if they ever found their own way into the digital word, so he didn't want them to know about it."
"That's stupid." Jun said. "Do you have that little faith in humanity too?"
"He was right." Davis replied. "Ken found his own way in, and now he's taking over."
"Didn't you just tell me there were good and evil people like with digimon?'" Jun snorted. "We're not all bad either."
"Tell everyone about the digimon if you have to," Davis said "but please don't make me help this guy… I can't. I'm sorry."
Jun pondered her options. On the one hand she could say "If I tell, I tell everything, including about the rings." It was bluff; telling the world about the rings meant no swap with Matt. She had been confident before coming here Davis would not call the bluff, but now… there had to be another option. She looked around as plan b formed… Ken was nowhere to be seen… it might work.
"Jun?" Davis asked. Her silence had not bothered him, but her darting eyes seemed to raise his eyebrow.
"You want to bring this Ken down, right?" Jun asked. "You can do that 'helping' him better than not. He wants intelligence? Tell him lies. It's called being a 'double agent'."
Davis pondered this. "
He's on the fence." Jun thought. "Maybe if I bluff now..." She was about to do that when her brother burst into laughter.
"Jun, you are one clever villain." He said. "That's an awesome idea! Maybe I should have told you about all this sooner. "
"Victory." Jun thought.
Matt:
"I cannot resist your fruit… the serpent in me stirs"
No, to obvious...
"When I see your fruit, the spirit in me weakens. The serpent grows stronger."
That was even worse...
Matt sighed and put away his notebook. This was going nowhere.
"Damn it Akira!" Matt thought to himself "if you think writing a whole song around a stupid Engrish pun is a good idea, why don't you write it?"
The song's title was a pun on the English phrases "falling for you" and "fallen angel". It was meant to be about going bad for someone you love. He actually did like the idea when it was pitched. He didn't expect everyone else to push it on him when he voiced this. How had Yakuta said it? "You're mom's Christian, right? I bet you can make 'Fallen for You' a great song!"
Jerks.
Matt had not set foot inside a church since before his parents broke up. Any one of his band mates was as equipped to write this song as he was. If anything he was probably less equipped than them since he came back from the digital world. He was never a stranger to the mountain gods before he encountered Garurumon, but now that he was literally under the protection of a divine beast… he was much stronger a Shinto than any in his band.
Might his Christian family be able to give him some ideas? Eh, probably not, but it was as good an excuse as any to visit them again… yeah that pleased him. TK might think the song was blasphemous or something, but mom would love the idea. He hadn't seen her in a longer time anyway… Yes, time to give mom a visit.
He then heard the doorbell ring. "Yamato, could you get that!?" Came his father's voice from down the hall.
"Okay!" Matt called back.
He joked to himself "It might be mom anyway.". Wouldn't that be convenient?
Opening door he saw not his mother but Tai's sister Kari.
"Hey Matt!" Kari said. "I have a present for you!"
Now wasn't that a fine greeting?
"What's the occasion?" Matt asked.
"Oh nothing." Kari smiled.
She took a ring out her pocket and held it up to him. "I just found the cutest ring and thought it looked like the one TK has! Wouldn't it be even cuter if you had one that matched your brother's!?"
Matt laughed. He took the ring in his hand and examined it… yes it did remind him of the expensive present Davis gave TK on his last birthday. The only major difference was the that the gem was blue instead of red. Was it sapphire? He was no jeweler but it did look that way...
"I don't think I've seen TK wear his ring." Matt said. "Will it be as cute if it's just me?"
Kari hesitated for a second.
"Matt you'll look cute no matter what."
Had anyone ever complimented him like that before? It felt... forced. Still this was an expensive gift. How could he pass it up? Might as well see how "cute" it made him.
"Thanks very much Kari." Matt said.
He slipped on the ring.
Suddenly it dark… wait bright again… what? The musician was suddenly in a room he did not recognize. Looking around he saw most of the trappings of a teen girl's bedroom, including a very large "Teenage Wolves" poster, as well as... Jun?
Suddenly Matt jumped to attention. He quickly glanced back toward where he though he saw his stalker. He made eye contact with her… in a window… no, it looked like a mirror…
"J… Jun" he said lightly.
The girl in the mirror mouthed the same word. He jumped back. The girl in the mirror did exactly the same. Matt felt his back rub against the wall. He looked down. He saw small feminine hands trembling where his own should be, and obscuring his view down toward the rest of his body he saw… oh gods… oh gods no!
Things went black again for just a minute. When he came too he saw Davis standing over him.
"Jun, are you okay?"
"I'm not J…" he began "Wha… what's wrong with my voice?"
He looked down. Once again, there they were: two small breasts protruding from his upper belly.
"Oh gods!" he said again.
He pushed Davis out of the way and ran to the mirror. Sure enough, there she was staring back at him with a horrified expression on her face, Jun Motomiya.
"This can't be real."
"You aren't really Jun, are you?" Davis asked.
The new girl stared back at him. "I'm not. I swear I'm not." He replied. "I know it's crazy, but you have to believe me. I'm not Jun, I'm Matt, Yamato Ishida."
"I believe you." He replied. "I'm not Davis either; I'm Kari Kamiya."
"Ka.. Kari?" Matt asked. "What happened to you? What happened to us?"
"Not to sound sarcastic, but we switched bodies with Davis and Jun." She replied "Also Gatomon did it with Veemon, she's in my, or rather Davis's room now."
"How did it happen?"
"I suspect through that ring on your finger now." Kari pointed toward Matt's hand.
Matt raised Jun's hand up toward his face. Sure enough there was a black ring on his borrowed finger… and it looked exactly like the one Kari… no her body had given him.
Kari spoke again before he could. "Just now you were wearing a ring like that in your body too, weren't you? How did you get it?"
"Kari… you... erm, Davis gave it to me." He replied. "He came to my door in your body and said he had a ring that looks like this one, and it would look cute on me."
Suddenly Kari then started looking distraught as well.
"No way!" she exclaimed. "Are you certain it was Davis?"
"It was your body." The former boy answered. "You said you switched with him, didn't you? That would mean it was Davis."
"That can't be right." Kari said. "He promised me he didn't know how the rings worked or where they came from."
"You were switched by rings too?" Matt asked. "Rings like this?"
"I was." She replied. "Follow me and I'll show you."
Matt followed his current brother back to her current room. She pulled a small ring out from within her pillowcase. It too looked like the one he was wearing, expect the jewel was red instead of blue... the ring Davis had given TK.
"Davis and I were both wearing rings like this when we switched places. Later Gatomon and Veemon wore them and switched as well."
At the mention of the digimon's names a DemiVeemon came out from beneath the bed. "What's going on Kari? Who are you talking to?"
It looked over and saw Matt. On seeing him, the dragonspawn tried to rush back under the bed, but Matt interjected before such was possible.
"It's okay, Gatomon." He said "I'm not Jun; I'm Matt."
"Matt?" Gatomon asked "Did it happen to you too?"
"Looks like it." He and replied.
They quickly filled Gatomon in on the details.
"Then it's true." She said softly. "They stole our bodies."
"That… that couldn't have been what happened, could it?" Her partner whimpered.
"It has to be what happened." The former cat replied. She turned to Matt. "You said it yourself. Davis gave you the ring, didn't he? He was doing to you exactly what he did to me when he gave me the other ring! He was helping his friend do what he did!"
Matt had not known Davis very well. TK hadn't had much good to say about him, but Tai seemed to love the guy, and from the few trips he made to the digital world with him, the boy seemed alright. Would he really do something like this? It was obvious he liked Kari, but would he really steal her body to get closer to her? Would Jun do it to him? Thinking back to that date he could almost see it… The girl was so ecstatic to be near him, but she didn't seem to care at all what he felt about it. Would she really go this far? He had not thought highly of Jun since that date, but he would never have guessed she'd steal his body. Then again, he never imagined such a thing was possible to begin with… Would she really… Wait, what if she did? What would she be doing now?
"Oh gods." He said once again.
Surely she wouldn't. Surely she was just as confused about all of this as he was. Yet, he had to know. His eyes darted around the room. He saw a landline on a nightstand near Davis's bed.
"What's wrong Matt?" Kari asked.
"Can I use that phone?" he replied. "I… want to be sure. If Jun is in my body I want to hear what she has to say."
"Good idea." The former girl replied. "We shouldn't accuse her of this without hearing her side of the story."
"She's only going to lie to you, just like Davis did." Gatomon interjected.
"We don't know that." Her partner replied. "Even if Davis did lie, which I'm still not convinced of, maybe Jun doesn't know about it. Maybe he lied to her. Maybe he just led her on."
From Gatomon's expression it was obvious she did not believe that. From the tone of Kari's voice it was clear she didn't fully believe it either. Neither of them responded before Matt picked up the phone and called his home's number.
The phone rang a few times before his father picked up.
"Ishida residence." He said.
"Da... erm, Mr. Ishida, it's um… Jun." Matt said.
He wanted to tell him who he really was, but he knew there was no way he'd believe him.
"Oh hi Jun, you're the girl Matt when out with last month, aren't you?" Mr. Ishida began "How was it? I don't think I've seen you since then."
"It was… um... fine." Matt said gritting his teeth.
He hadn't told his father he'd been shanghaied in going out with Jun. If he did that, he would have to explain exactly why she'd been able to shanghai him, and telling him he was hiding information on the digital world would have been counter-productive.
He went on "I need to speak to Matt, can you put him on the phone?"
"I'm sorry, but no. He's in the shower right now."
Matt's heart fell to the bottom of his chest.
"I... wha... what happened?"
"He went straight to the shower after he answered the door. It's a bit weird for this hour, but, well, why not?" His father said. "There must have been a really sick person at the door or something."
"She really did it." He almost whispered.
Matt was sure his father made some confused reply to that, but he never heard it. The phone dangled off the night stand as he fell down onto his knees tears forming in his eyes. He couldn't stand anymore.
"She knew everything. She really stole my body."
Kari hung up the phone for him. She sat down with him. "I'm sorry." She said. Apparently she had heard enough of the conversation to know what happened.
"Don't be, Kari." He replied. "You said yourself Davis helped her. If she's doing that in my body, surely he's done it in yours too."
Matt could see the tears in her eyes forming too.
"Yeah, I figured as much…" she said.
They sat there together and wept.