Second chapter…aah! This time, I'm not beating around the bush. I'm going to tell you what has been happening with the kids from the last story. Brace yourselves: this will be long!
Predestined
Chapter Two: Re-Enter Danger
Brushing angry tears from her deep blue eyes, sixteen-year-old Hikaru Takaishi walked briskly down the sidewalk, dragging her little sister. In her mind were her parents' angry voices:
"Hikaru, Chris Hida is twenty years old. He's too old for you."
"But Dad, I love him!"
"This isn't about how much you love him. It's about the fact that he is an adult, and you are not. And right now, you're acting like a child."
"This isn't fair!"
Her four-year-old sister Tania tugged at her skirt. "Hikaru, where we going?" she asked in her cute baby-talk voice. The two of them both had the same lush brown hair and blue eyes, but Hikaru looked more like her father than Tania did.
"We're going to the park. Mommy and Daddy said I have to take you."
"But I wanna watch TV…"
Hikaru commenced dragging Tania with her. The little girl's small hand was hot and extremely sticky from the candy apple Hikaru had bought for her at a vendor on the street corner. "Look how nice it is outside. You don't want to be stuck inside when the sun is shining, do you?" To prove she wasn't going to let go of her anytime soon, she gave Tania's hand an extra hard tug.
"Don't care if the sun is shining. It's going to rain soon. " Tania blew her cheeks out like a chipmunk. "'Sides, you're only taking me 'cause Mommy and Daddy said you had to."
The older girl sighed. It was true what Tania was saying, but she really did like taking her baby sister to the park.
At that moment, dark clouds drifted overhead. The April sun was blotted out, and fat raindrops slid from the sky. They splattered onto Tania's little face, and she smiled.
"I was right," she said.
Hikaru felt the back of her neck prickle like it always did when Tania did this. Her little sister was more like her cousin Kinaka than anything, and it often scared her. Because Tania was always right.
"It's raining," Mike informed Kiko, who was hunched over the keyboard. "You think you ought to turn the computer off?"
"Not yet," the blonde twelve-year-old replied, his fingers busily typing away. He could type over 250 words a minute, 350 if he was really trying. "I'm almost done modifying the program. You think it'll work this time?"
Mike sat on his bed and sighed. "It had better. Last time we tried, the computer crashed."
Ten minutes later, Kiko finished his work and took out the disk he was using. "Ta-da!" he proclaimed, quickly shutting off the computer as a lightning bolt pierced the sky. "It's all done. Now we have to test it…but how?"
Mike tossed him a chocolate bar. "Let's use Lauren's laptop. But later, OK? I'm starving!"
"Rain!" Lee Kamiya blew a strand of chestnut brown hair off her face and picked up her soccer ball. "We should probably continue this inside, Kim."
"Our soccer match?" Kim asked, looking bewildered. "The last time we tried that, we broke a window, and not to mention Leon's nose!"
Lee shrugged. "Whatever. We can watch TV or something, if Jenna and Leon are gone."
The two teenaged girls traipsed into the Kamiya family's apartment in Nakano about fifteen minutes later, after a mad dash from the park to the building. Covered from head to toe in mud, they dropped their soccer gear at the door and dashed into the kitchen. There, they bowled over Jenna and Leon, who were in the midst of making popcorn in the microwave.
"Son of a—"
"Shut up, Bubby, we just want to get dry!" Lee yanked open the door to the linen closet and tossed a fluffy white towel to Kim.
Leon looked like he wanted to axe-murder his little sister. "What have I told you, Lee?" he asked her, his eyes lit up fiercely.
"Always stay the hell outta your way when you have Jenna over," Lee intoned piously. "So you guys can get all lovey-dovey and spare me the nausea. Unfortunately, I'd rather be in here than getting soaked out there. Plus, Kim's apartment is farther away than ours." She grabbed a carton of chocolate milk from the fridge, tipped her head back, and drank directly from the carton with the fridge door hanging open.
When the two girls had grabbed a snack and headed off to Lee's room, the popcorn was done. Leon dumped it into a bowl and put parmesan cheese on it—something that both of them liked with their popcorn, mainly because it grossed out their sisters. They took it into the living room and plopped on the couch.
"What are we watching?" Jenna asked.
Leon grinned and held up an old DVD from his dad's collection. "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me."
"Is it any good?"
"It's so freaking hilarious. And it's over twenty years old."
"OK then."
"OK!"
He put the movie on, then settled back on the sofa with his girlfriend of four years. She rested her head comfortably on his broad shoulder and reached for his hand, with her other hand not far away from the popcorn.
"So," she said through her full mouth, "I got us reservations at that new Italian restaurant for this Friday. You know…since we're almost at our four-and-a-half year mark." They celebrated their anniversaries every six months. Everyone who knew them thought it was pretty weird.
He squeezed her hand and grinned. "Works for me. What time?"
"7:00. I already know that you have nothing planned."
"You know me a little too well."
"Are you complaining?"
"Not one bit."
While Jenna was munching away contentedly, Leon put his other hand in his pocket. There. The narrow gold band with a tiny diamond nestled between two amethysts, their shared birthstone. It had been burning a hole in his pocket for almost two years, since he was seventeen and she was fifteen. He had been that sure of their relationship that he had up and bought it.
Friday, he decided, running his fingers over the smooth surface. I'll give it to her over dinner, and then…
His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden yell from Lee's room.
"Cleo Ichijouji, phone call!"
Cleo's blonde head snapped up from her book. At that moment, she had been studying for her chemistry exam when the announcement interrupted. She quickly shoved her books into her book bag and ran to the office. All incoming calls were directed there.
For the past six or so months, Cleo had been attending college in Finland. She lived on campus with the resident advisor, Lena Jappinen. She was enrolled in a four-year program to be a chemist. She often kept in touch with her friends and family over the phone and through e-mail, but she was mostly in close contact with her best friend, Deanna Ruble.
Panting from her sprint to the office, Cleo picked up the receiver the secretary handed her. "Hello?" she gasped into the phone.
"Hey, Cleo!" Deanna's voice piped. "How's it going? Did I interrupt you or something?"
"I was just studying. So why'd you call, Dee?"
"To tell you three things. One—our computer's broken, so obviously I can't IM you for a while. Two—I've been accepted at an art school in Rhode Island. And three—there's something that's been bothering me about the you-know-what's."
The you-know-what's, as the two often referred to them, were the prophecies that Gennai had let Deanna have. Dee treated them like holy relics and often read them over until she had them practically memorized.
Cleo immediately dropped her voice. "What do you mean? What's bugging you about them?"
Dee cleared her throat and began reading from the papyrus she had next to the phone. "Ahead of the Digidestined lies two paths. If the right one is taken, they shall conquer one like them but different. If they take the wrong path, however, we shall all die. However, there is another path that an innocent one must take. He alone may be the one in whom all the powers of the Digital World and Earth lie. He has his own journey to make, and once he is finished, it will become clear what will be our fate."
"It makes no freaking sense," Cleo said. "What's so disturbing?"
"What disturbs me is this: the prophecy I just read to you appeared only last night."
While Cleo was struggling to make sense of that, Dee's voice suddenly broke up over the phone.
"Hey!" she cried. "Dee? Dee, are you there?"
She was answered by an evil cackle, then a sharp click as the line was disconnected.
"Rain, rain, go away, come again another day," three-year-old Julian Ishida chanted. He had his small face pressed against the pane of glass in the living room, his china blue eyes wide.
His seventeen-year-old sister Kinaka laughed and picked him up. "As soon as it stops raining, I'll take you for some ice cream. OK?"
"'Kay, Kina!" She let him down, and he instantly ran around her and took hold of her long brown hair. It was down to her knees by now, and she had it in a long braid. Giggling, Julian lifted his feet off the ground and swung from her hair. It was a habit of his that entertained him and annoyed her.
"OWW!" she howled. "Mom! You have got to do something about him!"
Angel Ishida ran in, saw the predicament her daughter was in, and laughed. "Kina, he's only three," she reminded her, gently disentangling Julian's little hands from her hair.
"And he's getting heavier," Kinaka grumbled, rubbing her scalp. "How 'bout we let him swing from yourhair!" Her mother's hair was just as long as Kinaka's, and just as thick.
"Put on a video for him. I'd like you to help me make a pie for dessert," Angel said. She plopped Julian on the couch. "What do you wanna watch?" she asked him.
He grinned. "Big Bird! Big Bird!" he chanted.
Kinaka popped in the videotape, and went into the kitchen. Since her parents had remarried a little over four years ago, she had been more than happy to spend a lot of time with her mom.
Holly and Tina stood shivering on the curb, trying to hail a cab. They had been shopping at the mall all day, and desperately wanted to get out of the rain so they could take their purchases home.
"TAXI!" Holly bellowed. "HEY!"
One of the bright yellow cabs roared by, spraying both sixteen-year-old girls with water. Tina whipped off her glasses, wiped them quickly, and perched them back on her face.
"TAXI!!!" Tina called, waving her arms like a windmill. She was rewarded for her efforts by another spray of water in her face.
Holly giggled. "We might as well take the subway or something. I'm not standing around here in the rain any longer!"
Lauren poked her head into Mike's room. "Are you two still working on trying to open the Digi-Ports again?" she asked.
Mike nodded. His cheeks were stuffed with chocolate.
She sighed. "Any luck yet?"
"Unless you count that time last month where we opened part of it and got a virus, no. Not yet." Kiko held up a chocolate bar. "Want one?"
"Sure."
He tossed it to her, and she ripped open the packaging. "I'm going over to Kina's place after dinner. Think you two squirts can manage to not crash the computer?"
Mike saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"
"Problems, Hida?"
Chris was slumped over his desk. Raising his head, he looked from his co-worker Tomiko Shimada to the two double tall lattés she held in her hands.
"Is one of those for me?" he queried. "'Cause if not, I'm definitely going to die in here."
She laughed. "Here," she said, handing him one.
Chris thanked her and took a sip. He was running low on caffeine in his blood, and the workload he had been assigned wasn't making it any easier on him. He worked as a graphics designer for a small computer company downtown, and being fresh from college and everything, his boss liked to pick on him when something went wrong.
"You look like hell," Tomiko commented after watching him slug back his coffee. "Anything I can help with?"
He massaged his temples. It just so happened that he'd received a phone call from Hikaru about half an hour ago, in which she had told him that she wasn't supposed to see him anymore but was going to find a way.
"Just stress," he lied. "The boss has me managing three accounts at once. He says that since I have a Ph.D. and all, I can obviously handle all this crap." Chris put on Mr. Diezel's phony French accent and said nasally, "After all, Mr. Hida, that's what you went to college for. Am I right? Since I am God in this company, of course I am right. So kiss my tight ass, college boy!"
Tomiko giggled hysterically. "Ooh, you are so good at that!"
Chris grinned. He was on a roll now. "I gave you this job because you seemed to be highly qualified. Don't disappoint me. That means if you disappoint me, your ass is mine. You are not good enough, and I know that, but I am doing this to embarrass you in front of your co-workers. You are…"
Tomiko immediately stopped laughing as Mr. Diezel himself walked up. "H…hi, Mr. Diezel," she squeaked.
The boss surveyed Chris's work disdainfully. "Not bad," he said. "For a college boy."
Chris groaned. 5:30 couldn't come soon enough!
Leon knocked on Lee's door. "Lee?"
No answer. He pushed the door open, and was met with something no brother wants to see, no matter how much he says he hates his siblings.
Lee was face down on the floor, in a pool of her own blood. The computer was on, the screen flickering. Kim was gone. And the whole room was completely torn apart.
"Jenna!" Leon yelled. "Get in here!"
He ran to his sister and lifted her. Lee's eyes were closed, and she lay limp in his arms. She was bleeding from a wound on the right side of her chest.
Jenna raced in. "Leon, what…"
"Wake up, Lee!" Leon cried, rocking with his sister clasped to him. "Lee, can you hear me? Lee!"
To his immense relief, Lee sucked in a deep breath and exhaled deeply. "They took her," she murmured. Her eyes were still closed.
"Who? Who took who?"
"They took Kim."
"Who's them, Lee?"
Lee's eyes opened then. "I don't know. Digimon. And some lady."
Jenna and Leon's eyes met. "Looks like dinner's cancelled," she quipped.