Disclaimer: I don't own any of the official Digimon characters.

Last time, the Tamers stayed up until after midnight celebrating Christmas. Everyone got good gifts and each was happy with what he or she got.

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Chapter 6: TAKATO TAKES A SPILL

Takato woke up feeling refreshed and ready for a new day. The party last night had been a blast. He looked over his shoulder and saw Lee and Ryo were still asleep. "We should go to the slope again, today," thought Takato, "This time, I'll try snowboarding. And that's final!" He picked up his watch from the nightstand and looked at it. It read 11:00 a.m. Takato quickly got up, brushed his teeth, combed his hair, changed, etc, etc, etc. Finally, he walked over to Ryo & Lee's bed.

"HEY GUYS! Rise and shine!" yelled Takato. Lee and Ryo practically jumped out of the skins.

"Takato! Can you keep it down?" said Lee, "We're trying to sleep."

"What time is it anyway?" asked Ryo.

"11:15 in the morning," said Takato, "I wanna go snowboarding!"

"Can't we just get some extra sleep?" asked Lee.

"How can you even think about sleeping?!" asked Takato.

"We're still tired," said Ryo.

"Okay then," said Takato, "You leave me no choice. Guilmon!"

"What is it, Takato?" asked Guilmon.

"I think Lee and Ryo are hiding some bread somewhere in their bed," said Takato, tauntingly. Guilmon immediately jumped onto Ryo and Lee's bed and began searching. The two boys yelled when Guilmon began searching through their pajamas.

"I hate strip-search," said Lee, "Okay! Okay! We're up! We're up!"

"Down, Guilmon. There's no bread here," said Takato.

At breakfast, the Tamers decided on whether or not to go to the slope again. "Takato's really gung ho about the whole thing," said Lee.

"I'd love to see Takato on a snowboard," said Kazu.

"I can be fairly good on a snowboard! Just watch me!" said Takato.

"I think we should all go to the skiing again," said Juri.

"All those in favor," said Lee. Eleven hands went up. It was a unanimous vote.

"It's agreed," said Ryo, "When does the bus leave for the slope?"

"In five minutes," said Lee.

"Five minutes?! That doesn't give us a lot of time!" said Takato. The Tamers quickly left the restaurant and went upstairs to grab their things. Carrying their gear under their arms, they were able to make it to the bus just before it left.

"Whew! We made it!" said Takato.

"Let's put our things on," said Lee. For the next seven minutes, the Tamers donned their ski gear. About another fifty-three minutes, they arrived at the ski hill.

"First things first," said Lee. They walked over to the lodge and checked in. they got the same room as the one they had before. The dropped off their backpacks and headed off towards the rental shop.

"Takato! Ski boots are over here!" said Kazu.

"I'm not going skiing," said Takato, "I'm going snowboarding!" Takato, Ruki, and Lee fastened on their snowboard boots and walked off towards the rental counter.

"Hey, where's Ryo?" asked Kenta.

"He's going to be snowblading!" called Takato.

"What's snowblading?" asked Juri.

"It's kinda like skiing, but with shorter skis and no poles," said Lee. Even with his explanation, the others were still confused about what snowblading was. That was until they saw Ryo with his snowblades, which really were like mini-skis.

"They're easy to pack, too," said Ryo, "But you have to be really good because they're REALLY fast." Juri, Kazu, and Kenta snapped on their skis while Ryo snapped on his snowblades.

"This is it," said Takato as he, Ruki, and Lee fastened their left legs to their snowboards. "To the bunny hill!"

"Be careful, Takato," said Lee, "This is your first time on a snowboard, so you're bound to fall several times."

"I remember when we came here last time," said Takato, "You fell a dozen times."

"My butt is STILL sore," said Lee, pounding it with his fist.

Takato carefully took hold of the towrope and zoomed up the hill. Knowing full well that this was his first time, he decided to stop a quarter up the hill. "This looks like a good starting point," said Takato.

"I think so, too," said Lee, "Remember Takato, this is the real thing. It's nothing like those video games back at the arcade at home."

"I know," said Takato, "It's fairly much the same except you might actually get hurt." He strapped his other foot to his board and took off. His descent went fairly smooth, but when he reached the bottom, he fell.

"Maybe we should teach you some of the basics first," said Lee when he stopped net to Takato and helped him up.

"Okay," said Takato.

"Now, the first thing you need to know is how to balance on your board correctly," said Lee, "I suggest putting less weight on your front foot and more and your back foot. It'll give you more maneuverability. To balance out your sides, hold your arms out like this. Think of snowboarding as skateboarding, but with no wheels and you're going on snow, not concrete."

"Okay," said Takato. He tried to follow Lee's example.

"Watch out!" called Ryo. He zipped by on his snowblades faster than anyone's eyes could follow. "Pretty exciting, isn't it?"

"RYO!" shotued Lee, "Watch out for that..." Too late. Ryo crashed right into one of the large metal support poles used for the chair lift.

"Ouchie," said Takato, "That has to hurt."

"Yeah, I know," said Kazu, "MEDIC!" Ryo slowly got up.

"Maybe I should go inside and rest up," he said.

"I think that's a good idea," said Lee. Ryo removed his snowblades and walked off to the lodge.

"Somehow, I get the feeling that he hurt himself in another place other than his face," said Takato, "Did you see the way he was walking?"

"I did," said Lee, "It's going to take some time for him to recover."

"Did what I thing just happened happen?" asked Kenta.

"Yes, Kenta," said Lee, "Ryo got hit in the nuts."

"Can we please get back to my snowboarding lesson?" asked Takato.

"Oh right. Sorry, Takato," said Lee. He continued teaching Takato some more of the basics of snowboarding. By the time they were done on the ground, they went halfway up the bunny hill. Surprisingly, Takato did fairly well and arrived at the foot of the hill smoothly.

"I did it!" said Takato.

"You're getting it," said Lee, "Just keep on practicing." Takato smiled. He quickly went back to the towrope and went up the hill. This time, he went higher. Takato spent the whole morning and the first two hours of the afternoon practicing on the bunny hill. He decided to take the next step and go on one of the green circle trails. But he decided to talk to Lee about it first.

"I'd better come and watch you first," said the silver-eyed boy. Lee accompanied Takato to the chair lift, up the hill, all the way to Takato's choice of trail.

"Here we are," said Takato.

"This is it?" asked Lee.

"Darn right it is," said Takato.

"You certainly should confident," said Lee.

"I know," said Takato with a smile.

"Hey guys. What's shaking?" asked a voice. Takato and Lee looked behind themselves and saw Kazu standing there. "Watch and be amazed."

"Out of the way, visor-boy!" said Ruki and knocked Kazu down as she went down the slope.

"See, Takato?" asked Lee, "Just like that."

"That doesn't look too hard," said Takato. He strapped on his right foot and, with Lee to give him a jump-start, he was off. Takato was scared at first, but only at first. He slowly regained his confidence as he went down the slope. By the time he reached the bottom, he was so eager to go back up that he immediately unstrapped his foot and headed off towards the chair lift without Lee. Takato began to enjoy the freedom of snowboarding more and more. Firstly, he could go to areas that were designated only for snowboarders. Secondly, he didn't have to worry about poles. Thirdly, he enjoyed the newfound speed the snowboard provided for him.

"I am Matsuda Takato," cried Takato, "Champion of the world!" In his head, Takato could hear crowds cheering and cameras clicking and reporters asking him questions.

""SHUT UP!" someone yelled at Takato.

"You'll have to excuse my friend," said Lee to that person, "My friend just learned how to snowboard today, so he's feeling really cocky."

At lunch, the Tamers sat around in their private room and talked about what they did so far. Even Ryo, who had a large pack of ice over his groin, was there too, sitting on the couch eating his lunch. "So, what did you do so far, Ruki?" asked Lee.

"I spent the whole time snowboarding," answered Ruki.

"Okay, how about Kazu and Kenta?" said Lee.

"We skied," said Kenta.

"I went on a few black diamond trails," said Kazu.

"Kazu, you only went on one black diamond trail," said Kenta, "After that, you stuck with green circles and blue squares."

"Couldn't handle it, could he?" asked Lee.

"No, he couldn't," said Kenta.

"You all know what happened to me," said Ryo.

"Does it still hurt?" asked Takato.

"Now that you mention it, it doesn't," said Ryo, "I'VE RECOVERED!" He stood up a little too quickly and then he yelped in pain. "No, it still hurts."

"So what's everyone going to do for the rest of the afternoon?" asked Lee.

"I'm going on the halfpipe," said Ruki.

"I'm going to go on that towards the end of the day!" said Takato. Everyone just stared at him.

"Maybe you should wait," said Lee, "It's for your own good. I had to practice several months before I could master the snowboard well enough to go on the halfpipe."

"And what will happen to me if something happens to you?" asked Guilmon.

"Good point," said Takato, "Okay, I'll just go the designated snowboarding areas."

"Now that sounds more realistic," said Lee.

"I'm going back out there," said Ryo, "There's nothing good to watch on TV right now, anyway."

"Are you sure you're feeling good enough to continue snowblading?" asked Lee.

"I'm better," said Ryo, "A little sore, but not too much."

"If you say so," said Lee, "Okay, everyone! Listen up! We still have lots of time. We meet back at the rental shop at 4:30. Everyone clear on that?"

"Yes, Sir!" said all the others, except for Ruki, who was used to hearing Lee talk in this tone.

The rest of the day seemed to go by fairly well. Takato lived up to his word, and even went snowboarding on some blue square trails. It seemed like nothing could go wrong. Not far away, Lee and Ruki watched Takato as he snowboarded.

"He's improved a lot," said Lee.

"He's okay," said Ruki. A teenager suddenly passed in front of Takato on his snowboard.

"Watch it, kid!" said the teen and went off. His suddenly barging caused Takato to lose his balance. The blond-haired boy began to sway back and forth and fell backwards, using his arms to help break his fall. He screamed out in pain as he landed.

"TAKATO!" shouted Ruki and Lee. They quickly snowboarded down to Takato, who seemed to be okay. However, one close look and Lee could tell that he was not okay. Tears were streaming down his face and Lee could see that there was something wrong with Takato that was more than just a sore butt.

"My God! He's twisted his wrist!" said Lee. It was freaky. Takato's left hand was turned so that it didn't even look real. "Takato needs medical attention immediately!" said Lee.

"I'll go get help!" said Ruki. She strapped her foot back onto her snowboard and took off towards the first aid office.

"Just hold on, Takato," said Lee. A few minutes later, a snowmobile with a Red Cross on it arrived. They put Takato on the back and drove him off the slope. By then, everyone had heard about Takato's accident and were already at the first aid office. After a few minutes, the medical examiner came into the waiting room.

"Your friend needs to go to the hospital," he said, "We suspect he's broken some bones."

"Okay, people. Let's think this out calmly," said Lee, "The medical examiner will call for an ambulance. In the meantime, we return everything, and grab the Digimon. I'll go with Takato in the ambulance. The rest of you will take the bus back to the hotel and meet us at the hospital. Ruki, I'm trusting you to make sure everyone does as told."

"Don't worry about it, Lee," said Ruki.

"Okay. Is everyone clear about what to do?" asked Lee. Everyone made a sound of agreement. "Alright! Let's do it!" said Lee.

Everyone followed Lee's plan exactly. Within one and a half hours, they met up at the hospital, where they found Takato laying in a bed with Lee sitting in a nearby chair.

"How is he?" asked Juri.

"He just came back from getting his X-rays," said Lee, "The doctor will come with his X-rays in just a moment." At that moment, the doctor came in with a brown envelope. He switched on the fluorescent light panel on the wall and clipped Takato's X-rays to it.

"I'm afraid to say that your friend has, in fact, broken his wrist," said the doctor, indicating towards the X-rays. Everyone turned towards Takato and saw that he was crying.

"Poor guy," said Lee. A nurse walked in and lifted the sides of Takato's bed and released the brakes on the wheels. She took him down to the casting room where everyone waited outside.

"Now Takato, you'll have to bear with me," said the doctor, "I'm going to put your bones back into place. It's going to hurt, so brace yourself." Takato gulped and shut his eyes tight. Outside in the waiting room, the other Tamers could hear screams of pain coming from the casting room. When the doctor was done, Takato's face was red and soaked in tears.

"Now I'm going to put a cast over your arm," said the doctor. He walked over to the wall and wheeled over a cart containing a bucket of warm water and several sheets of plaster. He rolled up his sleeve and picked up one sheet, which he carefully touched to the surface of the water. He gently placed it over Takato's left forearm, wrist, and hand. He repeated this process many times, holding the plaster in place for a few seconds before applying more. When the doctor was done, he smoothed out the surface of the plaster and waited until it completely solidified.

"All done, Takato," he said. Takato looked down at his arm, which was now encased in white plaster. A tear ran down his cheek as the nurse wheeled him back into his room.

"So Takato, how do you feel?" asked Lee.

"Don't ask," said Takato.

"Well, your friend can go now if he wants to," said doctor.

"Thank you, doctor," said Lee, "Ryo, help Takato change. Kazu and Kenta, if Ryo needs help, he'll call for you." Lee walked off with the doctor to take care of the hospital bill. Ryo helped Takato out of the hospital's pajamas and into his street clothes and ski gear. In about an hour, the Seven Tamers and their Digimon walked out of the hospital with Lee and Ryo supporting Takato.

"You'll be okay, Takato," said Lee, "Just keep that cast dry."

TO BE CONTINUED...

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What's going to next? Final chapter coming up.

Please read and review.