Chapter Seven: The Determination

Between two teams of powerful digimon humans and partners, the threats went down easily enough. Daisuke was grinning with relief the whole way. Ruki raised an eyebrow.

"Having a good time there, goggles?"

Daisuke laughed, either mistaking her tone for friendliness, or genuinely used to cutting through bullshit. She suspected the latter.

"Not as fun as making ramen, but I'm making do. You?"

"Not really." She half expected a Parasimon to come out of the woodwork just to fuck with her specifically.

Daisuke nodded along. "Yeah. I kinda wanna get this over with and get back. But still!" He pierced her with a look that had been on Takato's face a rare few times. Mostly against the D-Reaper and getting Culumon back. "Are you okay?"

Ruki grunted. "Yeah. I'm fine. Just tired." She hated the smell of this world. It was the scent of overripe mulch. It reminded her of a time on a swing set and a man who didn't stay when he could have, when he should have. She swallowed that feeling.

"I mean we have been messing around in time and space and stuff like that. You haven't gotten much of a break."

"What about you, mister Traveler?" She jabbed at him, more for fun than anything. He was clearly not like Takato, who years later, teasing felt like kicking a well meaning puppy. He could dish it and take it… somewhat. "Aren't you tired?"

Daisuke stretched. "Absolutely exhausted. But I'll take tired over flattened, ya know?"

"Goggle brained optimism," she muttered under her breath, but it was fonder than usual.

"It works!"

She couldn't deny that.

A stooped old man met them in one of the rotting buildings. Even at age eleven, Yagami Taichi took charge and spoke to him first. As introductions went around, Ruki shared a look with a few of the others. She didn't even know who half of them were. Tachikawa Mimi met her gaze and waved cheerfully. She nodded, awkwardness seeping into her bones. Renamon brushed against her flank.

Finally, the old man got to the explanation. The proper explanation for why they'd called at least fifty tamers or chosen ones or whatever.

There was a dimension eating monster, apparently.

Ruki thought of the D-Reaper, but somehow, this felt more overwhelming. They had done something that, in context, had likely saved two worlds but had really only centered on their city, large though it may be. This really was the world, a dimension, all the dimensions at stake. And they were going to put it on the shoulders of a kid they didn't even know?

Suddenly, she was very glad her family could not have stopped her, that none of them had considered the logistics of what they'd been doing or had to do, really. This didn't so much feel impossible as unfair.

All of them were just cannon fodder and it was still overwhelming.

Juri shifted by her side as the strange old man continued. "I assure you, no matter the situation, no one here will die. No one will lose their digimon. Everyone will return to their worlds like nothing happened, even. Well, mostly."

Then the meddling dimension traveler laughed. Whatever the joke was, it didn't feel like something even their parents would laugh at.

He felt gross. Just looking at him, just acknowledging his existence, felt terribly wrong.

Juri squeezed her hand. Ruki squeezed back. Around the room, Daisuke was leaning back precariously on his chair. His discomfort was somehow more obvious than everyone else's. Despite how casual and relaxed he looked, his fingernails dug grooves into the decaying wooden chair.

In the ensuing silence, a guy in a red jacket suddenly snorted laughter. "I'm breaking your fucking nose when this is over, old man."

The old man gave the teen and his Agumon a glance and then chuckled. "I welcome you the chance, but the King may need an opportunity first."

"I'm closer."

There was something hard and angry in those eyes, something that promised things would get done. It was Takato against the D-Reaper; it was for heroes. It was in Ryo's eyes.

"Hey." Daisuke tipped his chair over. "We don't gotta do that. We're a big team now so we'll all protect each other." He grinned over at Yagami Taichi, who had been regarding everyone in the room. Yagami Taichi's eyes held that gleam. Daisuke's did not. "Right, senpai?"

Taichi grinned. "Course. We're friends and partners."

For now.

There was something steady in those eyes, a promise.

It made her blood stir. She wanted to fight.

She found Daisuke outside. Night didn't fall in this place, so people slept and ate wherever there was enough of a roof. He sat against a tree, tussling with his V-mon over a pack of sausages.

"I need to cook 'em, Vee!"

"You always burn 'em, Daisuke!"

Renamon snorted, muffling it with her fur. Ruki tried not to smile as she approached. Goggleheads really did have a way of cutting through the tension. A tiny fire crackled, barely the size of a head.

V-mon waved at her from his spot by the fire. "Hello! You want one?" He pointed to what looked like a mountain of sausages and a pot Daisuke was pouring broth into. "The others will be back soon, so you should get some now."

Renamon and Ruki shared a glance, and Ruki shrugged. "I brought stuff with me. Mind if we share the fire?" She figured by the time she went back to her camping spot, the others would have gotten everything sorted. Besides, Juri… looked like she needed some time alone to process. It was better not to harass people.

"Go for it." Daisuke laughed. "Wanna settle the great hot dog debate for us?"

"Put relish on it and I'll think about it."

Human and Digimon stared at her in horror and Ruki resisted the urge to smack them both upside the head. She settled for laughing in their face. "You believed me."

Daisuke set up the pot of water. "You and Ken have good poker faces. I swear between you two and Hikari-chan, you'd clean house."

"I suck at poker," she said. "Juri beats me every time. She knows the rules better."

Daisuke barked a laugh and sank against the branch. He sat quietly for a long, long while. Then he said, "My sister's gonna get chosen soon."

Ruki was an only child. She couldn't relate. Jenrya probably understood it way better. "Yeah?"

"She wasn't when the old man showed up and yanked us through time, but she got a digimon and she's like… she's too bullheaded to not get involved in my problems. Sure we, we fight a lot and I hated her sometimes like sibs do but like, I'm glad she's not here. Because she'd get in the way and we'd fight and even if that old man says no one's gonna die or anything, I'm still glad she's home safe with mom and dad and I'm… I'm gonna keep it that way."

Ruki raised an eyebrow. "Not by yourself, you're not. What are we, background characters?"

"Buzz off!" Daisuke grinned as he spoke. "You know what I mean, Makino."

"Ruki, goggles."

"Sure."

She rubbed Renamon's flank; the fox having chosen to curl up in a ball at her side. "Yeah," she said after a while. "I know what you mean. If my mom was here, if my grandma was here… I dunno what I would do."

"You'd be fine." Daisuke said it with certainty, like they knew each other that well.

"Maybe. But everything else would be charcoal."

"Good." Daisuke smiled at her. "I think that's good."

Ruki wondered, but it wasn't a bad kind of wonder. It was the wonder of three hours using someone else's kitchen for breakfast. It was the wonder of showering off flour and laughing about it.

It was… good.