What They Don't Know Won't Kill Them
Mindlessly, Yamaki removed a cigarette from the packed kept in his breast pocket and lit it. He had replaced his flip top lighter with a more conventional model, he pressed the button and the flame appeared.
"You know, those things will kill you." From behind him he heard Megumi speak. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his jaw. He wished she wouldn't.
"They have over sixty different chemicals in them, probably more, and all of them lethal."
Slowly Yamaki turned around to face her. She looked ready to recite more useless facts about the chemical content of tobacco, but one look from him stopped her.
"There are a lot of other things in this world that will kill you faster," He took a drag from his cigarette and blew the smoke in her face, "I'll chose how to kill myself."
She coughed and waved her hands around her face in disgust. Reika walked up beside her and gave him a distasteful look
"I
really wish you wouldn't Mitsuo." She said softly shaking her head slightly.
Yamaki scoffed and turned his
back on her. The children would be here any moment; he didn't need to start an
argument with her about his health.
He heard Reika grumble and Megumi curse at his back; he focused his attention towards the darkness of the city. The few cars that passed the park gave inadequate light and his eyesight wasn't as good as it used to be. If the first child hadn't been carrying a torch he would have missed them completely.
"Takato." He nodded his greeting to the boy who, through the darkness and torchlight, looked younger and more vulnerable than ever. It was hard to believe they were handing such a burden over to such fragile creatures.
"Hi," He replied nervously, "Am I the first here?"
"Yes," Reika replied for Yamaki, kneeling down in front of the boy, "We should probably wait until everybody is here before we start. I don't think Yamaki would appreciate explaining everything twice." She glanced up and him, he moved his gaze back to the empty blackness.
Until the second and third children arrived they stood in a generally uncomfortable silence. Takato played with his flashlight, flicking it on and off and pointing it towards the sky. Yamaki had to fight the urge to yell at him.
"Lee, Koharu," Takato greeted the second and third children when they arrived, "You both made it."
"Well of course, we're both digidestined." The small pink haired girl replied proudly.
"Of course we are." The taller boy said, patting the girl on the head. The resemblance she had to a dog was stunning.
"Has anyone else come yet?" Lee asked, turning his attention away from the girl to address Takato
"No, but here comes Ruki." He pointed out into the blackness to an approaching, torch-less, figure.
The red head girl said nothing to address the other three children, or anyone else for that matter, only nodded once and leant up against a nearby pole.
"Nice to see you too Ruki," Takato called to her. She grunted and turned her face away.
Yamaki was becoming impatient. He should just start right now, there was no need for the other children they weren't nearly as strong or important as the ones here now. He opened his mouth to speak when three more figures emerged from the darkness
"Hey, are we late?" One of them called waving his hand
"Nope, we haven't started yet." Takato replied as they approached
"Well can we?" Ruki asked impatiently tapping her fingernails on the pole, "I have other, more important things, I could be doing right now."
"Come on Ruki, surely we're not that bad to be around." One of the boys who had just appeared said
"Then you seem to have underestimated how annoying you are, Ryo." She spat back, removing her weight from the pole and walking up to Yamaki, "Can we start now or did you just call us out here to look at us?"
Yamaki didn't answer, instead he began.
"I have called you out here tonight in light of a certain situation regarding your digimon partners." Some of them looked ready to voice their concern, he hastily continued before they could speak, "We are running an experiment that involves testing data which can only be found in digimon. In theory, it is possible to breach the barriers keeping our world from the digital world. It is most important that we acquire some digimon samples, but obtaining wild digimon is a difficult task. We require you and your digimon's cooperation in order to attain the data necessary."
For moments after his speech they were plunged into silence. He could feel Reika and Megumi's eyes boring into his back. The children stood in a dumbstruck silence, and stared.
"Wait, wait, hold up a second." One of the children, the one with the visor, started, "You're saying, you want to run experiments on our digimon? Our digimon?"
"That's precisely what I'm saying." Yamaki replied
"And what, pray tell, will you be doing with this data?" He continued boldly making wild hand gestured to accent his question
"We will be examining it," Yamaki replied simply. This seemed to infuriate the boy.
"Oh, I get it now, you want to hook them up to some computer and drain the life out of them? How stupid do you think we are buddy? If I recall correctly it was you who was trying to destroy all digimon. What makes you think we'll just hand them on over to you?"
"Wait, Hirokazu, don't go jumping to conclusions here," Lee interrupted him, "In the past they may have wanted to destroy digimon but in the end whose side were they on?"
"What I'd like to know," Ruki started coolly, "Is exactly what kind of experiments you're running."
"I am not at liberty to release any information about them at this time. Once we have your complete cooperation we will give you details."
"Okay, so want our cooperation doing what? If you can get to the digital world by yourself what do you need us for?" Takato asked; the rest of the children nodded along with him.
"We need you're cooperation in order to locate the digimon. If I recall correctly those devices you used allowed you to trace any digimon movement in a certain radius."
"You mean our digivices?"
"Precisely."
"Okay, so you want our digivices, why didn't you just say that in the first place?" Hirokazu asked sceptically, "Sounds to me like he's hiding something."
"Don't be so cynical Hirokazu; it doesn't sound that bad to me." A short boy with glasses said, placing his hand on Hirokazu's shoulder.
"But the question is; what are you going to use this data for?" Ryo asked, cocking one slender eyebrow
"Again I am not at liberty to say until I have your complete cooperation."
The children fell silent. A few of them made eye contact, silently discussing the matter with each other. During this silence Reika placed her hand on his shoulder and, as quite at possible, asked
"What on earth are you doing Yamaki?"
He shrugged her off and took one step closer to the children
"Do I have your cooperation?"
The children didn't reply, the only one who seemed to notice he had spoken was Ruki. She regarded him closely, as if she was calculating just how much he could be trusted. Suddenly, with little to no emotion in her voice, she asked
"Why are all the lights out?"
The question caught Yamaki off guard, unwanted memories and guilt rose up in his gut. Hurriedly he shook them off and turned to face the girls scrutinising eyes
"How should I know?"
She grunted and turned her attention away. At that moment the children seemed to reach their conclusion, silently.
"Okay, we'll cooperate, but we want a complete explanation." Takao said for the whole group, the other children nodded silently.
"You can count me out." Ruki said turning her back to the group, before she could retreat into the darkness Ryo addressed her
"Why are you running away Ruki?"
His voice stopped her and the muscles in her shoulders tensed. She turned back to him and the light from Takato's torch caught her eyes making them glow ferally. Her voice was venom.
"I'm not running, Ryo. Unlike the rest of you I'm not stupid enough to trust a spider." She didn't spare Yamaki or any of the other children a glance before turning away and disappearing beyond the torch's radius
"Why does she always have to rain on our parade?" Hirokazu asked, poking his tongue out to the empty blackness Ruki had just vanished into.
It was true the girl wasn't exactly a liability; things would be a lot more difficult without her. However, She would come too eventually, Yamaki was sure of that. Once she discovered the truth she'd be begging to join them. He shrugged off her insubordination and turned his attention to the remaining children.
"Be at the building tomorrow morning, you will have your explanation then." He said simply, ignoring the questions pending on the end of the children's tongues. Before they could voice any of them he turned, flanked by the two women, and retreated out of the park.
When she was sure they were out of earshot of the children Megumi exploded in a rush of accusations and questions. Only one Yamaki had the patience to answer
"What on earth are you thinking? Why didn't you just tell them the truth? You would have had their complete, undivided collaboration had you just told them what was really happening. Don't you get it, we're on the verge of apocalypse here, they're our only hope, why the bloody hell did you go lying to them?"
"Had I told them the truth, it would have gotten out. Children can't keep their mouths shut no matter how much you bribe them. The last thing we need is panic." He smiled in spite of himself, "Plus, what they don't know won't kill them."