Could you be dead?
You always were two steps ahead
of everyone.
We'd walk behind while you would run.
Rumiko found that she couldn't concentrate at all. She could not concentrate on her work, she could concentrate on what she was doing, and she couldn't concentrate on anything but getting the photo shoot done as soon as possible and looking for Ruki.
'Ruki will come back, she has to come back because God knows what I'll do if I lose her,' Rumiko thought as struck another pose in front of the camera. She was at her photo shoot but wanted to get out of the damn dress she was in and go looking for her daughter.
"Okay Rumiko baby, one more time! You're gorgeous in front of the camera!" The photographer announced in English. Rumiko understood what he said and for the first time ever Rumiko felt like punching the daylights out of the British fashion photographer Ryan Linvail. She did not want to be stuck in front of a camera knowing that her daughter was missing. Rumiko couldn't lose Ruki like the way she lost her husband Katoru. She would be completely lost if she lost another person precious to her. Ruki looked and acted so much like him at times that it amazed Rumiko. He was strong and quiet yet overbearing outside most of the time, yet kind and warm inside. That was one of the main reasons that Rumiko fell in love with Katoru all so many years ago. Rumiko however picked up a few bad habits from him that her mother Seiko probably wouldn't have approved and most likely shock her daughter, Ruki.
Rumiko forced a smile on her face while inside she screaming various obscenities at Ryan that would probably make everyone who knew her go into shock or blush. Example one of a bad habit that Rumiko picked up from knowing Katoru. The photo shoot was all ready an hour overtime and as her husband commented about the entire modeling career.
"Let me get this straight! The prick pays you money to strut around in clothing, pose and $#!& like that? What the &^%& is he? A voyeur that gets off on taking pictures of women with their clothing on? He must not get any from his mother. Cause this has got to be the easiest job I've ever heard."
Rumiko posed again in front of the white screen and smiled. She was somewhat happier remembering her husband's first reaction when he heard that she wanted to model. Katoru let her do it of course, but the idea to him was completely foreign. Not too mention that Katoru noticed that her first fashion photographer was making less than polite passes on Rumiko. He made sure that she was safe from the pervert and a success. He helped her career by finding jobs and photo ops to do. Strolling down memory lane for Rumiko however did not end the torturously long photo shoot. Rumiko became a bit desperate and decided to pray.
'God, I'll make you a deal. I'll stop dating for an entire week... No make that an entire month! If you'll just make Ryan %^&@ing stop the damn photo shoot and call it a day!' Rumiko thought as another flash from the camera went off. Hundreds of pictures had been taken all ready and Ryan didn't seem satisfied yet. If God had been listening at that moment when Rumiko made her deal then He enacted his will on the situation and made Ryan announce the end of the photo shoot.
"All right! Let's call it a day!" Ryan said as he finished the last shot from the camera. Rumiko breathed a sigh of relief and headed straight to her makeup room to get of the dress. While she walked towards the exit of the room she decided renege on deal that she made with God.
'Oh yeah God? I lied,' Rumiko proclaimed in her head. Not being the type that likes being cheated out of a deal, God threw the situation back at Rumiko's face.
As Rumiko headed towards the exit, Ryan stopped her.
"Rumiko I need to talk to you for a sec," Ryan said smiling an oily sort way that screamed dishonesty. Rumiko refrained from her urge of screaming in utter frustration and strangling Ryan.
"What is it?" Rumiko said politely in English, trying to keep venom from entering its tone.
"You see your become more and more famous, not only in Japan but in Europe as well! I've been thinking that you should move yourself to Europe and do modeling over there! I know lots of people in the industry, we could really sky rocket your profile if we do," Ryan explained excitedly. He didn't even allow Rumiko to answer and barrelled straight on ahead.
"Not only that your daughter. Ruki's her name right? She's a good-looking one! Imagine this! The daughter and mother duo of the modeling world!" Ryan said as he dreamed up new angles to increase Rumiko's and his own fame. Rumiko felt mildly ill, Ruki hated modeling and Rumiko was starting to accept that her daughter didn't want to do it. If Ruki learned that Rumiko had agreed to do some modeling contracts with Ruki, there would be hell to pay.
"What we need to do is to get your daughter into the business. Small stuff really to start her off and then we have to present her to a couple of agencies in Europe! It should be easy!" Ryan continued heedless of the trembling fist that Rumiko had by her sides. Katoru would probably label Ryan as a 'no good bastard whose dick's been cut off and shoved up his ass and who BS's a lot'. There was no way in hell Rumiko was leaving Japan and her missing daughter behind.
'Must not hit Ryan... Must not hit Ryan...' Rumiko chanted to herself as if mere words would prevent violence.
"Oh yeah... I've noticed a few things about you Rumiko. You're the fast and loose types aren't you?" Ryan said slyly. He looked over Rumiko's figure with an appreciating eye.
'Oh good grief! This @$$#@!# thinks I would go out with him? He doesn't even look like he could handle his own wet dream,' Rumiko thought bitterly.
"I know a few hotels where we could... you know 'discuss' business," Ryan hinted. Rumiko had enough and shoved Ryan aside. This surprised him and he almost fell over onto his back. Rumiko stalked out of the room and into the makeup room to get out of her dress. Ryan blinked and wondered what he said to make her so mad.
"Must be that time of month for her..." Ryan sagaciously observed. He didn't stop Rumiko from leaving and decided to meet her after she got changed. Then again, why wait for her to get changed? Why not just go right in? Ryan smirked and entered into the changing room that Rumiko just went in.
A half-minute latter after much cursing, slapping, punching and insulting Ryan was thrown out of the changing room. He was paled faced and had a beautiful black eye that graced his features plus some other bruises. He lay there shocked and silent before finally commenting.
"Definitely her time of month," Ryan said as he painfully extracted himself off the floor. The door opened violently hitting his back and propelling him into the wall. Out came a completely indignant Rumiko who gave her best example of the "Makino" glare of death that Ruki often gave out to everyone. A glare that promised much pain and suffering if the person didn't go away. Ryan took the hint and left Rumiko alone.
'Perhaps some of the bad habits that I picked up aren't so bad after all,' Rumiko thought as she watched the retreating Ryan.
*****
Ruki soon discovered she had three very strange urges when her senses were heightened. First thing she wanted to do was experiment and experience her senses which included running her hands through her hair to feel it, taking a bite out of a tree leaf and tasting it, looking at the finer details of a flower and so on.
The second thing that she had urges to do was run around and do something or play a practical joke on the farmers or dance and sing or some other silly and pointless thing. It was completely utterly foreign to Ruki because she had no reason to do such things but her brain was insistent on it. The only answer that she got from her brain for doing such pointless and often destructive things was 'because'.
The third and possibly most disturbing urge that Ruki wanted to do was look for her fellow Tamers and do... inappropriate things with them. Both male, female and digimon. She began to notice just how damn cute Takato was when he pouted, or how attractive Ryou's blue eyes were or the nice ass that Jen had or how damn beautiful Renamon and Juri were when they wanted to be. To name just a few of the little things that ran through her head.
Ruki steeled her self-control and discipline to control her urges. It was disturbing because just moments before did not suffer from such an obvious lack of reserve, control and quite possibly sanity.
"Holy $#!&," Ruki finally commented as she tried to cap her urges. They finally subsided a bit and were under her control but it was tenuous at best. Anything could ruin her tight but frail self-control. The potential embarrassment of losing control over her urges however managed to galvanize her common sense into action.
Kaho watched Ruki concerned but unobtrusive. Her calm eyes observed Ruki in silence and waited for Ruki to say something.
"Is this normal?" Ruki asked confused. What is wrong with me? No, I do not want to do that to Guilmon!
"I have no idea... I've never had to deal with one who is about to ascend..." Kaho commented. The old woman shrugged in defeat and watched Ruki struggle.
"Ascend? What is that supposed to mean?" Ruki asked out of curiosity and annoyance. Where are these... feelings coming from? Ruki absently rubbed her hand through her hair and then forced herself to stop.
"Ruki... You're a kitsune... You're about to be... completed;" Kaho tried to explain as clearly as possible. In truth Kaho had no idea what was going to happen to Ruki. It was a mystery to Kaho, never in her fifty-nine years at the temple had she ever seen anyone about ascend or meet the 'Gods' of the spirit world.
"Okay then how do I stop myself from becoming 'complete'?" Ruki asked. An urge to find some plum wine and drink it boiled up from within her.
"I thought you wanted to find what you were looking for? This is what you have been missing for all those years," Kaho commented amazed.
"Yes I want to find what was missing but I don't want to these urges to run around and..." Ruki couldn't finish her sentence. A perverted mental picture of doing Ryou, Takato, Jen, Hirokazu, Renamon and Juri all at the same time popped into her head. Ruki shuddered and tried purging the mental image.
'I am not a god damn slut!' Ruki roared at her uncooperative brain. Her urges still came barrelling down through mind.
"I think what your going through is temporary Ruki. It should go away in a few days... What are theses urges of yours anyway?" Kaho asked.
"Other than the fact I want to find my friends and *%#$ them all!" Ruki shouted at Kaho in embarrassment. Kaho coughed lightly and was about to say something rather inappropriate but decided not to.
"I'll... go get something for you to eat Ruki. You should get into some clean clothing;" Kaho commented and beat a hasty retreat from Ruki.
"That doesn't help my problem at all!" Ruki shouted after Kaho. She blushed in embarrassment and started to pace around her room. Ruki began to rant out loud as she paced around her room.
"This cannot be happening to me! My mother is the one who acts like a whore! Not me! Gah! Why is this happening to me!" Ruki shouted in frustration. Her mind was in chaos and she began to feel her urges crack through her control.
"Because you never had much choice in the matter and insulting your mother isn't going to get you anywhere," a young male voice answered in an annoyed tone. It was right behind Ruki and she didn't hear his approach. She whirled around and saw a rather handsome blonde haired boy in a business suit. He was frowning and in one of his hands was a pair of sunglasses. His blue and green eyes looked at Ruki levelly.
"Sen?" Ruki intoned shocked.
*****
Takato sighed and entered the Matsuda Bakery. They had spent some time discussing the strange boy, Abaddon and what to do with the offer he made. Takato was worried, what if Abaddon was telling the truth? What if Ruki was really in danger? What did he mean by she is more of a danger to herself? So many what ifs and so few answer to his questions. They all ready knew Ruki was no longer in Tokyo but what good was that information? Ruki could be anywhere in Japan by now or she could be dead. Takato pushed away the thought of Ruki being dead, negative thinking such as that would only depress him and send Rumiko into hysterics once more.
Ruki's mother seemed more than frightened about the possibility of never seeing her daughter again. So frightened that she was speechless and could only tremble and cry.
"Damn it Ruki. Why can't you see the pain your putting your mother and grandmother through?" Takato asked out loud as he walked upstairs to his room. He then slumped into his bed and began to think about it.
Ruki had been getting along so well with them. Why did she leave them? Was it something that they did? Impossible. What could they have possibly done to make her leave? Except be her friend and try to understand her? Nothing made sense to Takato. Ruki seemed happier and more contented lately. The coldness in her character was still there despite warming up but her smiles, still quite rare, made him overlook it.
Takato groaned and wondered why he was thinking so intently about Ruki's smile. Then again there was a time when he and Jen thought it was impossible for her to smile. Boy, were they wrong when they first saw her smile after a battle. Then they assumed she would never smile for anything except after winning a battle or succeeding in something either. Her victory smile from such things was haughty, cold and distant like a majestic mountain in the distance. They were wrong again when they saw her smile with joy and laughed when they baked bread together so many months ago. A smile that light up the darkest regions of one's soul, precious as a gem and rarer than anything Takato knew about. It was different from the smile that Juri often gave out to everyone. A smile that was given so freely that it became regular part of her but with Ruki such a smile about anything made it feel special.
Takato stopped thinking and stared up to the ceiling of his room. He was confused about it all. There was no reason that he could see that would make Ruki leave. She used to be such a loner and now... A loner...
The idea clicked in Takato's head immediately. Ruki had always been a sort of loner, even within the group. Ruki wanted to get away from them and be alone.
"That's it!" Takato shouted out loud and tried to get off his bed. Unfortunately he accidentally slipped and fell off his bed, which was rather high up. He hit the ground painfully and rubbed his aching back from the fall. He cursed his clumsiness and then realized he had to tell everyone his theory why Ruki left.
"I've gotta call Jen!" Takato realized and immediately picked himself off the floor and opened the door. He went out of his room and then slipped again. This time he fell down all the steps and lay on the bottom of the stairwell.
"... Why is this happening to me?" Takato groaned in pain.
*****
Jen was busy typing away at his computer. He was checking airport passengers' lists in an attempt to find Ruki. Though he highly doubted that Ruki would take such an expensive route. As he had expected nothing came up.
"Found anything?" Terriermon asked as he sat on Jen's bed.
"No... I just finished the airport passengers' list... Now to start on the train passengers' list... This is going to be fun," Jen said as he began to type away into the computer. As he had expected there were hundreds, if not millions of passengers using trains. Jen began to methodically cut the list size down to size.
Tokyo trains lines leaving city only.... 1,903,123 registered passengers....
Female..... 829,912 registered passengers....
Age 11..... 143,043 registered passengers...
Name Makino Ruki...... 942 registered passengers....
Shinjuku..... 100 registered passengers...
Jen lightly hit his head against the computer monitor screen.
"A hundred girls have the name Makino Ruki? Wow... that's a lot and they all live in Shinjuku!" Terriermon commented.
"I guess I better start looking through them all and we're not even sure that she took a train out of Tokyo in Shinjuku either so we might have to check those other passengers," Jen said tiredly.
"But there are almost a thousand of them!" Terriermon noted.
"That's why hit my head against the screen... Wait a second... Ruki was gone in the early morning so..." Jen typed onto his computer more input to cut down on the list.
Morning trains... 15 registered passengers...
"Well that should make it easier... I hope we can find Ruki quickly and get back on that session we were having..."
"Way to go Jen!... Session?... Oh you're a sly one, looking for your one true love who will apply a generous amount of leather, whipped creams and some other things... Never knew you were the type."
"Terriermon it's not like that! It's a card game session we were both playing!"
"What?! You expect to believe that? I know the little looks you give her sometime."
Jen blushed and Terriermon smirked at the embarrassed look on Jen's face. Terriermon's smirk soon wore off when Shiuchon burst through the door.
"Terriermon! We need to play!" Shiuchon squealed. Behind the young Tamer was ever patient Lopmon who gave Terriermon a piteous look. Terriermon paled at the sight of Shiuchon and her enthusiastic tone.
"NO! JEN HELP ME!" Terriermon grabbed Jen's arm and tired to hold on as Shiuchon began pulling on Terriermon's ear to make him let go.
"Why should I?" Jen stated smirking at how the tables turn.
"NO! NOT THE PRINCESS PRETTY PANTS TREATMENT! JEN HELP ME! I'M SORRY!" Terriermon shouted in terror. His grip finally slipped off of Jen's arm and he was dragged away by Shiuchon so quickly that Jen was amazed how fast his little sister moved.
"... Maybe I was too cruel to let Shiuchon take him..." Jen commented to himself.
"JEN YOU NO GOOD B******!" Terriermon shouted back.
"Watch your mouth Terriermon!" Jen shouted back.
"Oh my Terriermon has a potty mouth but don't worry Nurse Shiuchon will fix that! Won't we Lopmon?" Shiuchon said reprovingly at Terriermon's words.
"AHHH!!!" Terriermon screamed.
'Perhaps I'm not cruel enough...' Jen thought to himself as he closed his bedroom door to drown out Terriermon's pleas. He went straight back onto the computer and started to check the first file. He still felt fairly embarrassed by Terriermon's comment on Ruki. It was accurate but he didn't really have a chance with her. That didn't kill his attraction, if anything it only increased it.
'I must be a glutton for abuse or I am an idiot when it comes to crushes...' Jen noted to himself when he thought about it. It was just that Ruki was different from many people he had met before. The people he knew were polite, nice and well... normal but Ruki was completely the opposite. She was strong, rude and driven and different from all the girls he had meet before. Where most girls slap a guy in the face, Ruki would punch the guy out. Strong, confident and beautiful and so... actually Jen didn't know what it was that also drew him towards Ruki. There was just something about her that made him feel... happy. She didn't need a stable ground to forge ahead in life; she wanted randomness, challenge and perfection through external change. The opposite from him and he constantly wondered why Ruki would go to such lengths.
When he had first met Ruki, he believed she was merely lost and thought she could only find what she was trying to achieve through fighting. It was destructive and it was getting her nowhere, yet she kept on claiming that it wasn't true. He began to see it was just another way people could express themselves.
"Fighting gives me purpose!" Ruki once proclaimed.
"But the fight itself has no purpose! You just fight because you can!" He remembered arguing back.
"To become stronger is not a peaceful path. The path to perfection. That is my purpose."
"Perfection doesn't exist."
"I know... that's why I pursue it."
Jen sighed and still wondered why she would pursue a path that was impossible to achieve. She was always a one of kind of person. She didn't seem to mind that she was alone on her path, though Renamon pursued it as well. Alone she acted she was strong but in truth Jen could see it was a flawed illusion. Alone? No one could live without others in their life.
Jen noted that the file he was looking at was not the Ruki he was looking for. He clicked on another file and thought about Abaddon and his offer. What did Abaddon have for information? Surely it wasn't just Ruki's location, Jen could find where Ruki went by looking through passenger lists though it was a painstakingly slow process looking through each file separately every time a Makino Ruki name came up. Abaddon didn't unnerve him for some strange reason while everyone was set on the edge by his mere presence. Juri didn't feel threatened by Abaddon's presence either yet almost everyone was ready to kill him. In fact Jen found Abaddon's presence almost pleasant to be around. Another mystery to add his pile of work.
"AHHHH! LOPMON YOU'RE BETRAYING ME TOO?" Terriermon's shout could be heard.
"HEY IT'S NOT MY FAULT! YOU FORCED ME TO GO THROUGH THE "TEA PARTY"! TURN ABOUT IS FAIR PLAY!" Lopmon shouted back.
"Hold still Terriermon!" A quieter voice belonging to Shiuchon said.
Jen deftly ignored all of their shouts and filed through all 15-passenger information on Makino Ruki. Nothing came up, all the girls listed were either leaving the city to return home, go on a school trip or something like that. None them looked like a certain red headed purple girl he was looking for. Jen scowled and realized he would have to go through almost a thousand files on other Makino Ruki's. He typed into the computer some more information.
Return to Makino Ruki..... 942 registered passengers...
Morning trains.... 411 registered passengers...
Jen scowled even more at the large database of passengers he had to search through. He laid back and thought about it even more. An idea came to him and he typed it down.
Those without parental guardians... 3 registered passengers....
"Finally..." Jen commented and opened the first file. Sure enough a picture of the Makino Ruki he was looking for came up. A picture of a neutral looking Ruki was shown and she purchased a round trip ticket, three days ago. Jen looked at the train taken and where it stopped. He soon discovered that it was Kyushu Island line. There were almost three hundred different stops up and down Japan's mainland and Ruki could have stopped anywhere.
To say none the least Jen was not looking forward to his self appointed task in the slightest. He paled at the magnitude of his search and there was always a chance that Ruki had purchased a bus ticket and wandered away from the train line after she got off. Or she could be simply dead and her dead body buried somewhere in the city. And in the background Terriermon was still screaming in terror... well almost in terror.