"Give up, tamers!" a brunette male yelled as he blocked a punch from Rika
and counter-acted with his own. She blocked his just as easily.
"Never." She sneered, catching his jaw hard with a strong left hook. He stumbled backward, startled at this. Rika noticed a small smile play on his lips as he watched something behind her. She was about to turn and see what he was smirking at, when an arm wrapped around her neck and a cold metal blade was pressed against her throat. She gasped, only to have the blade compress more. Ryo swung around, his eyes widening.
"Never turn away from a fight!" A young blonde yelled behind him as she kicked him hard in the back. The wind was knocked out of him for a brief moment.
Takato himself stood poised, watching the red head in front of him intensely. She swung her foot up to his jaw but his hand caught it just in time to save him from a knock out. He flipped her leg, which would have normally resulted with the person flipped to be lying on the ground, but this girl must've been trained. When he twisted her leg, she swung the other up and knocked him square in the side of his head. He blacked out almost instantly.
[pic]And the real Takato bolted up in his bunk bed, his breathing fast and raspy. This was no ordinary dream. It felt. different. Like it was real. But weren't most dreams like that? He shook his head and snapped his mind into reality. He pushed the dream out of his mind, it was, after all, just a dream.
He looked at the clock beside his bed and jumped up.
"Holy cow! 11:35!" He rushed around the room, looking for some clean clothes. He found a pair of jean shorts and a yellow t-shirt, quickly pulling them on. He scrambled around the room, looking for his tennis shoes.
"And where do you think you're going?" his mom asked as she put some bread in the oven.
"I was supposed to meet Jeri, Rika, Ryo Henry, Kazu, and Kenta at the park at 11:30!" Takato shouted as he rushed to the door, not stopping to look at his mother while he was talking to her. He dashed out as quickly as his thin legs could carry him He ran back inside as quickly as he ran out.
"Back so soon?" his mother asked. Guilmon stood in front of the oven, watching the bread bake. The dreamy look in his eyes told everyone that he wasn't planning on moving from that spot.
"Guilmon, come on!" Takato rushed out the door again. His orange friend either didn't hear him, or was ignoring him.
"I think you're supposed to follow him." Takato's mom told Guilmon, who snapped out of his trance
"Oh." Guilmon ran out the door after Takato.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the park, Rika and Ryo were having an intense Digimon card game. Sure, they were best friends, but Rika's sensitive, caring friendship side was no match for her competitive one.
Each sat, looking from each other to their cards, a determined look plastered on both faces.
'Hmm.' Rika looked through her hand. She looked up to see Ryo looking at her, a malicious glint in his cerulean eyes. She recognized it immediately. "Oh, no you don't." She knew this look, it was the same look he always had when he was going to play his secret weapon, and win. She placed down her secret weapon, a blue card.
"Where'd you get that?" Ryo asked, looking at the card.
Rika clicked her tongue. "And they call you The Legendary Tamer." She commented, smirking at the young man.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Ryo asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It means that I'm better than you, to put it simply." Rika said. "Now are you going to pull some miraculous move, or am I going to win?"
Ryo stared at her for a moment before placing his hand on the table, showing his defeat.
"YES!" Rika jumped up and began prancing around the small enclosed area of the park they had chosen for their meeting, rubbing in Ryo's defeat.
"What happened, man?" Kazu asked, slightly disappointed in his idol, and totally shocked.
"I dunno. never saw the one coming." Ryo shrugged.
"Hey guys? What's happening?" Takato yelled as he ran towards the group.
Jeri was the first to answer. "Rika finally beat Ryo!" she squealed. Takato was just as shocked as Kazu.
"So, we losing it?" Takato playfully jabbed Ryo in the rib. "Or are we just letting our love win?"
Ryo's cheeks tinged red as he stuttered and hit Takato back on the shoulder. Playfully, but a little force was in it. "N-no, I didn't let her win." He was telling the truth, and they all knew it, as well as all of them knowing how much he liked her. They pretty much figured that one out a while ago. Rika might have known, but she didn't show it.
Rika finally stopped her dancing and settled down beside Jeri on the park bench.
"So what are we going to do today?" she asked, leaning back against the bench and letting her arms fall to her side in a careless, but relaxed, position.
"I don't know," Henry, who had been sitting on the stone wall, replied. The small Terriermon bounced up onto his head, making him jerk forwards a little, with various giggles coming from the group.
"How 'bout we go get some pizza?" the small rabbit-dog piped up, licking his lips with glee.
"You just ate! You're hungry already?"
"Yep!" he squealed, hopping from Henry's head and onto the sidewalk in front of him, looking up at Henry with puppy eyes.
Henry seemed unfazed. "Later, Terriermon." He patted his small friend on the head and turned back to the others.
"We could go to the mall or somethin'." Jeri suggested, leaving the boys nervous at the thought of going anywhere that had stores, especially with those two girls.
"Heh heh. sure? Why not?" Takato replied, casting a worried look over at the other boys.
"Okie! Let's go!" Jeri hopped up and grabbed Takato's hand, prancing down the street towards the bus stop. The others followed. No one really felt like being a bag boy today. well, ever for that matter.
Most of the crew trudged down the sidewalk, the exception being Jeri, who was skipping merrily, occasionally sighing, until they reached the stop. Kazu plopped himself down on the bench to wait before anyone else could, Kenta sitting beside him.
Takato walked over to the small post next to the stop, reading a small sign and checking his watch.
"The next bus will be about ten minutes."
"How long do you think it will take us to get there?" Kenta asked, pushing up his glasses.
"Hmm, about a half hour."
"Great, thirty minutes with three goggleheads, four if you include Henry Hey!, Mr. Perfect, and Little-Miss-Perky. What a joy ride." Rika said sarcastically.
"Aww, come on, Rik (A/N: No, that is -not- a spelling mistake, just what Ryo calls, ahem, will be I guess, her sometimes, and its pronounced 'reek'.), you know you'll love it." Ryo said, jabbing her arm with his elbow. She rolled her eyes and leaned back onto the tree behind her.
Kazu and Kenta blabbed on and on about, well, nothing, Jeri and Takato talked about miscellaneous 'coupley' things, Henry and Ryo had a conversation about discipline techniques for Digimon, and Rika continued to lean against her tree, but eyes closed. It was only when Bus 13 slowed to a stop that she made any sign of living.
Jeri hopped up from the wall behind the bench and practically danced into the bus, the others still not being too thrilled about this idea. They took their seats in the back of the bus, Rika sitting by herself. She looked out the window, trying to concentrate on something else besides the headache Kazu's non-stop chatter was triggering.
+Meanwhile, in the seat beside her+
"So, aren't you excited at the thought of going shopping with two girls that will probably make us carry bags throughout the whole mall?" Ryo asked Henry, who was sitting right beside him.
Henry chuckled. "You read my mind Ryo."
"Although I doubt Rika will buy to much stuff. I don't know, just something about her makes her seem like she's not the shopping type," Ryo stated, looking at Henry.
"You're right. She's not like many other girls. Well, at least the girls I know. In a way, it's almost like she's more likable than most girls, even if she does have that icy composure to her environment. I wonder what happened to make her that way," Henry was looking out the window now.
"Her father," Ryo said flatly.
"Hmm?"
"Her father made her the Ice Queen, not to mention a good-for-nothing boyfriend who cheated on her with her best friend," Ryo replied.
"How do you know this?" Henry asked curiously.
"Renamon, plus a little chat with the queen herself at our vacation," Ryo said, looking pitifully over to Rika, whose eyes were closed. He knew she wasn't asleep, though.
"What did her father do? I mean, I know her mother and father are divorced, but what else did he do?"
"It's not as much what he did do, it's more like what he doesn't. She barely ever sees him, and when she does, he barely pays attention to her. He pretty much acts like she's not there. And, it was more like he just left her mother, not exactly divorced her," Ryo explained, hoping Rika wouldn't get mad at him for telling Henry all this.
"Wow, that's pretty deep," Henry was also staring at the peaceful-looking Rika. "She actually told you all that?"
"Yeah, I mean, we've gotten pretty close over the past year," Ryo began digging around in his jean pocket, searching for something. He finally found his wallet and began counting the money he had with him, which was a lot more than the average sixteen year-old boy usually had.
+In The Seat Behind Them.+
"Takato, don't you think Rika and Ryo look cute together?" Jeri asked Takato, the two sitting behind Ryo and Henry. She didn't care if either of the two heard, everyone knew Ryo liked Rika, and she knew that Rika had a 'thing' (translation: Put up with all Ryo's cockiness, which could also be filed as 'trying to impress Rika'.) for Ryo.
"I guess so," Takato wasn't sure what she was getting at, but, Takato's Takato, if ya know what I mean.
"We should try to get them to go out, "Jeri suggested, looking at Takato for approval.
"Oh, no. I ain't taking a beating from Rika. You can do it yourself. You're the cupid of the group, not me."
"Yeah, you'd probably just mess everything up," Jeri joked, Takato giving her a mock glare.
"Haha, very funny, Jer (A/N: No, this isn't a spelling error either. Geez, can't people have nicknames?)." Takato said, leaning back onto the seat.
The bus slowed to a stop about a block from the huge West Tokyo Plaza, the largest, and almost only, mall close to Shinjuku. (A/N: I don't live in Japan, so don't yell at me! I made this mall up, so don't get mad.) Jeri jumped up, followed by Takato, who patiently waited for the slightly disgruntled Ryo, Henry, and Rika. Kazu and Kenta got up and started going out of the bus, not really looking where they were going, resulting in Kazu tripping over his on feet a few times. They were all finally on the sidewalk, when.
+Back to the Studio+
Whitney (me!): Haha, cliffhanger!
Simon (my muse and s.o.b., lol): *play kazoo dully* Whoohoo
Whitney: I know you all are excited for the next chapter, but you'll just have to wait. Stay tuned for the next action-packed (yeah right) episode of LOVE CONQUERS ALL! (From now on referred to LCA!!)
"Never." She sneered, catching his jaw hard with a strong left hook. He stumbled backward, startled at this. Rika noticed a small smile play on his lips as he watched something behind her. She was about to turn and see what he was smirking at, when an arm wrapped around her neck and a cold metal blade was pressed against her throat. She gasped, only to have the blade compress more. Ryo swung around, his eyes widening.
"Never turn away from a fight!" A young blonde yelled behind him as she kicked him hard in the back. The wind was knocked out of him for a brief moment.
Takato himself stood poised, watching the red head in front of him intensely. She swung her foot up to his jaw but his hand caught it just in time to save him from a knock out. He flipped her leg, which would have normally resulted with the person flipped to be lying on the ground, but this girl must've been trained. When he twisted her leg, she swung the other up and knocked him square in the side of his head. He blacked out almost instantly.
[pic]And the real Takato bolted up in his bunk bed, his breathing fast and raspy. This was no ordinary dream. It felt. different. Like it was real. But weren't most dreams like that? He shook his head and snapped his mind into reality. He pushed the dream out of his mind, it was, after all, just a dream.
He looked at the clock beside his bed and jumped up.
"Holy cow! 11:35!" He rushed around the room, looking for some clean clothes. He found a pair of jean shorts and a yellow t-shirt, quickly pulling them on. He scrambled around the room, looking for his tennis shoes.
"And where do you think you're going?" his mom asked as she put some bread in the oven.
"I was supposed to meet Jeri, Rika, Ryo Henry, Kazu, and Kenta at the park at 11:30!" Takato shouted as he rushed to the door, not stopping to look at his mother while he was talking to her. He dashed out as quickly as his thin legs could carry him He ran back inside as quickly as he ran out.
"Back so soon?" his mother asked. Guilmon stood in front of the oven, watching the bread bake. The dreamy look in his eyes told everyone that he wasn't planning on moving from that spot.
"Guilmon, come on!" Takato rushed out the door again. His orange friend either didn't hear him, or was ignoring him.
"I think you're supposed to follow him." Takato's mom told Guilmon, who snapped out of his trance
"Oh." Guilmon ran out the door after Takato.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the park, Rika and Ryo were having an intense Digimon card game. Sure, they were best friends, but Rika's sensitive, caring friendship side was no match for her competitive one.
Each sat, looking from each other to their cards, a determined look plastered on both faces.
'Hmm.' Rika looked through her hand. She looked up to see Ryo looking at her, a malicious glint in his cerulean eyes. She recognized it immediately. "Oh, no you don't." She knew this look, it was the same look he always had when he was going to play his secret weapon, and win. She placed down her secret weapon, a blue card.
"Where'd you get that?" Ryo asked, looking at the card.
Rika clicked her tongue. "And they call you The Legendary Tamer." She commented, smirking at the young man.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Ryo asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It means that I'm better than you, to put it simply." Rika said. "Now are you going to pull some miraculous move, or am I going to win?"
Ryo stared at her for a moment before placing his hand on the table, showing his defeat.
"YES!" Rika jumped up and began prancing around the small enclosed area of the park they had chosen for their meeting, rubbing in Ryo's defeat.
"What happened, man?" Kazu asked, slightly disappointed in his idol, and totally shocked.
"I dunno. never saw the one coming." Ryo shrugged.
"Hey guys? What's happening?" Takato yelled as he ran towards the group.
Jeri was the first to answer. "Rika finally beat Ryo!" she squealed. Takato was just as shocked as Kazu.
"So, we losing it?" Takato playfully jabbed Ryo in the rib. "Or are we just letting our love win?"
Ryo's cheeks tinged red as he stuttered and hit Takato back on the shoulder. Playfully, but a little force was in it. "N-no, I didn't let her win." He was telling the truth, and they all knew it, as well as all of them knowing how much he liked her. They pretty much figured that one out a while ago. Rika might have known, but she didn't show it.
Rika finally stopped her dancing and settled down beside Jeri on the park bench.
"So what are we going to do today?" she asked, leaning back against the bench and letting her arms fall to her side in a careless, but relaxed, position.
"I don't know," Henry, who had been sitting on the stone wall, replied. The small Terriermon bounced up onto his head, making him jerk forwards a little, with various giggles coming from the group.
"How 'bout we go get some pizza?" the small rabbit-dog piped up, licking his lips with glee.
"You just ate! You're hungry already?"
"Yep!" he squealed, hopping from Henry's head and onto the sidewalk in front of him, looking up at Henry with puppy eyes.
Henry seemed unfazed. "Later, Terriermon." He patted his small friend on the head and turned back to the others.
"We could go to the mall or somethin'." Jeri suggested, leaving the boys nervous at the thought of going anywhere that had stores, especially with those two girls.
"Heh heh. sure? Why not?" Takato replied, casting a worried look over at the other boys.
"Okie! Let's go!" Jeri hopped up and grabbed Takato's hand, prancing down the street towards the bus stop. The others followed. No one really felt like being a bag boy today. well, ever for that matter.
Most of the crew trudged down the sidewalk, the exception being Jeri, who was skipping merrily, occasionally sighing, until they reached the stop. Kazu plopped himself down on the bench to wait before anyone else could, Kenta sitting beside him.
Takato walked over to the small post next to the stop, reading a small sign and checking his watch.
"The next bus will be about ten minutes."
"How long do you think it will take us to get there?" Kenta asked, pushing up his glasses.
"Hmm, about a half hour."
"Great, thirty minutes with three goggleheads, four if you include Henry Hey!, Mr. Perfect, and Little-Miss-Perky. What a joy ride." Rika said sarcastically.
"Aww, come on, Rik (A/N: No, that is -not- a spelling mistake, just what Ryo calls, ahem, will be I guess, her sometimes, and its pronounced 'reek'.), you know you'll love it." Ryo said, jabbing her arm with his elbow. She rolled her eyes and leaned back onto the tree behind her.
Kazu and Kenta blabbed on and on about, well, nothing, Jeri and Takato talked about miscellaneous 'coupley' things, Henry and Ryo had a conversation about discipline techniques for Digimon, and Rika continued to lean against her tree, but eyes closed. It was only when Bus 13 slowed to a stop that she made any sign of living.
Jeri hopped up from the wall behind the bench and practically danced into the bus, the others still not being too thrilled about this idea. They took their seats in the back of the bus, Rika sitting by herself. She looked out the window, trying to concentrate on something else besides the headache Kazu's non-stop chatter was triggering.
+Meanwhile, in the seat beside her+
"So, aren't you excited at the thought of going shopping with two girls that will probably make us carry bags throughout the whole mall?" Ryo asked Henry, who was sitting right beside him.
Henry chuckled. "You read my mind Ryo."
"Although I doubt Rika will buy to much stuff. I don't know, just something about her makes her seem like she's not the shopping type," Ryo stated, looking at Henry.
"You're right. She's not like many other girls. Well, at least the girls I know. In a way, it's almost like she's more likable than most girls, even if she does have that icy composure to her environment. I wonder what happened to make her that way," Henry was looking out the window now.
"Her father," Ryo said flatly.
"Hmm?"
"Her father made her the Ice Queen, not to mention a good-for-nothing boyfriend who cheated on her with her best friend," Ryo replied.
"How do you know this?" Henry asked curiously.
"Renamon, plus a little chat with the queen herself at our vacation," Ryo said, looking pitifully over to Rika, whose eyes were closed. He knew she wasn't asleep, though.
"What did her father do? I mean, I know her mother and father are divorced, but what else did he do?"
"It's not as much what he did do, it's more like what he doesn't. She barely ever sees him, and when she does, he barely pays attention to her. He pretty much acts like she's not there. And, it was more like he just left her mother, not exactly divorced her," Ryo explained, hoping Rika wouldn't get mad at him for telling Henry all this.
"Wow, that's pretty deep," Henry was also staring at the peaceful-looking Rika. "She actually told you all that?"
"Yeah, I mean, we've gotten pretty close over the past year," Ryo began digging around in his jean pocket, searching for something. He finally found his wallet and began counting the money he had with him, which was a lot more than the average sixteen year-old boy usually had.
+In The Seat Behind Them.+
"Takato, don't you think Rika and Ryo look cute together?" Jeri asked Takato, the two sitting behind Ryo and Henry. She didn't care if either of the two heard, everyone knew Ryo liked Rika, and she knew that Rika had a 'thing' (translation: Put up with all Ryo's cockiness, which could also be filed as 'trying to impress Rika'.) for Ryo.
"I guess so," Takato wasn't sure what she was getting at, but, Takato's Takato, if ya know what I mean.
"We should try to get them to go out, "Jeri suggested, looking at Takato for approval.
"Oh, no. I ain't taking a beating from Rika. You can do it yourself. You're the cupid of the group, not me."
"Yeah, you'd probably just mess everything up," Jeri joked, Takato giving her a mock glare.
"Haha, very funny, Jer (A/N: No, this isn't a spelling error either. Geez, can't people have nicknames?)." Takato said, leaning back onto the seat.
The bus slowed to a stop about a block from the huge West Tokyo Plaza, the largest, and almost only, mall close to Shinjuku. (A/N: I don't live in Japan, so don't yell at me! I made this mall up, so don't get mad.) Jeri jumped up, followed by Takato, who patiently waited for the slightly disgruntled Ryo, Henry, and Rika. Kazu and Kenta got up and started going out of the bus, not really looking where they were going, resulting in Kazu tripping over his on feet a few times. They were all finally on the sidewalk, when.
+Back to the Studio+
Whitney (me!): Haha, cliffhanger!
Simon (my muse and s.o.b., lol): *play kazoo dully* Whoohoo
Whitney: I know you all are excited for the next chapter, but you'll just have to wait. Stay tuned for the next action-packed (yeah right) episode of LOVE CONQUERS ALL! (From now on referred to LCA!!)