Disclaimer: Only Mikado Kashimi, Kyoko Ginju, and Shikumon belong to me. The rest belong to Toei. I claim no ownership, and if I did, it would be my evil twin. Thank you.

Notes: Once again, I have been getting little feedback on this story. It's frustrating, as I would really like some feedback, but as writing is a passion of mine, I'll just keep writing.

Chapter 5

Kyoko stood still for a moment. Everyone's eyes were still on Tailmon as she finished her story,

"You can't say that he didn't care, Tailmon," Kyoko said quietly.

"I'm saying that the only one he cared about was himself. The only reason he was ever nice to you was because he..."

"Shut up," she said suddenly. Her eyes were on fire. "Shut up, and don't you dare tell me that you knew Vandemon better than I did."

Tailmon fell silent.

"He betrayed you," Daisuke said, stepping close to Kyoko. "Can't you see that?"

She turned her eyes away from him. "Of course I can. But you guys just don't understand."

"Of course we understand," Ken growled. "He killed lots of innocent Digimon, and loving you doesn't make up for any of it. He was pure evil."

"Evil can't love."

"He didn't love you," said Tailmon. Kyoko darted around to face her.

"And exactly how would you know that?"

Tailmon bit her lip. "It's just...I would look into his eyes. It was looking into a bottomless pit. There wasn't any room for love inside of them."

"That's the biggest load of crap I ever head," she said. "Alright, yes, he betrayed me. And no, I haven't forgiven him yet. But I know that he's sorry."

Daisuke scratched his head. "Ok, so let me get this straight..."

Miyako rolled her eyes. "Here we go..."

Mikado started to stand up. "Staying on topic is easier for others."

"Kyoko is a vampire, Tailmon used to be her best friend..."

Kyoko nodded. "Not as dumb as you look, are you?"

"...and Mr. Kashimi," he spun around and pointed at Mikado, "was one of the original Digidestined!"

Mikado laughed. "Well, I suppose that's close enough."

To everyone's surprise, Kyoko laughed too. Then she walked over to Mikado, blushing slightly.

"I wanted to thank you," she said with a deep bow, "for stopping me. And also, I wanted to apologize for the way I acted."

"Don't worry about it."

She looked at the ground. "There's something else, too..."

He raised an eyebrow. "What might that be?"

"Something...something I've been wanting to do for awhile..."

Before anyone could react, she had raised her hand and slapped Mikado hard across the face. Her long nails had created four long gashes across his cheek.

For a moment, nobody dared to say anything. Mikado gently touched the side of his face, observing the blood on his fingers. "Well," he said softly, "can't say I didn't deserve that."

"What are you talking about?" exclaimed Takeru. "You helped us!"

Mikado looked at Takeru, and for a moment, his eyes looked like they were about to fill with tears.

Kyoko looked at him with distaste. "It doesn't amount to anything. I can't stand to look at you, because you're so convinced that a few good deeds can make everything ok."

She ran out of the park and down the street, leaving the Digidestined and their Digimon completely confused. Tailmon jumped out of Hikari's arms and walked up to Mikado. He looked at her expectantly. "I'd have to agree with Kyoko on this one," she said, a mound of disgust in her voice. Tailmon turned and dashed off in the direction that Kyoko had ran.

Kyoko was leaning over the bridge where Icedevimon had appeared. She was staring at the moonlight with tears in her eyes. Tailmon walked up behind her. Without even turning around to face her, Kyoko spoke.

"You knew, didn't you? You knew who he was."

"I felt something, but I wasn't sure it was him until he attacked you."

Kyoko turned around, sobbing. "I thought I could start over. You know, on my own. But he just doesn't want to leave me alone."

The rest of the team stood silently and uncomfortably. Mikado was leaning against a tree.

Once in awhile, it looked like someone was going to say something, but nobody did.

Finally Ken broke the silence. "Who are you?" he said to Mikado.

Mikado's face was a blank. "Mikado Kashimi," he answered, "acting principal of Odaiba middle school."

"I don't think that most principals can shoot lasers out of their hands," said Ken coldly.

"You know, I was just thinking that," muttered Daisuke.

"Are you really one of the original Digidestined?" asked Iori.

"No."

"Then how do you know about Digimon?" demanded Miyako.

Mikado bit his lip. "You mean you haven't figured it out yet? The laser blasts, the way

Kyoko looked at me, please don't tell me it's not obvious."

They looked at Mikado, then at each other. Patamon flew up to him, observing him closely. Mikado made no remark to stop him.

"You're Vandemon..." he said softly.

"WAS Vandemon, a long time ago. When Angewomon defeated me, I split in two. Part of me wanted to become human, to be with Kyoko, while my other side wanted to remain as I had always been: evil."

"You...you split?" Takeru could barely believe his ears.

"Yes."

"But when you attacked Shikumon..." Ken wondered aloud, "how did you do that?"

"I still retained some of Vandemon's powers. It's not much, and it takes a lot out of me. I became a principal because...well because I thought it might help make up for all the trouble I caused. I wanted to help the Digidestined this time, and I decided the best way was to first get a job at their school."

Hikari raised an eyebrow. "And when were you planning to tell us who you really were?"

"Well," he said softly, "I'm telling you now."

Everyone fell silent once more. Then, Mikado took a breath and spoke again. "I didn't know that Kyoko was still alive, or that she even went to your school. I have no idea where she's been hiding, or for that matter, why she's been doing so. But as soon as I found out that she was, and that Shikumon was still inside her, I knew I had to do something to stop her. But I was a coward, and the longer I put it off, the less I wanted to tell anyone who I was. The first time I saw her again was a couple of nights back. I saw one of the attacked women lying unconscious, and I tried to convince myself it couldn't be her, but it was. I saw her."

Nobody dared to say a word as he paused for breath.

"I didn't want to believe it was her. I couldn't think of any other explanation, but I went home and told myself over and over again that if it had been her, she wouldn't have hurt me like that. But she didn't even recognize me. I finally had to face up to it and admit that I had seen Shikumon when I saw Kyoko at the school festival."

"What were you trying to do?" Takeru asked. "I still can't figure out if you wanted her to recognize you or not."

Mikado sighed. "Even I'm not sure. But I knew, from the moment I saw her, acting so innocent, when the night before I had come face-to-face with her dark, vicious side, that I couldn't just sit back and watch her. I just had to talk to her. She didn't know who I was, but I think she knew that I was aware of her secret."

"Did you love her?" Hikari asked, staring right at him.

"Of course I do. I always have, and I always will."

Patamon scoffed. "After everything you put us through you expect us to believe that you..."

"Why is it so hard for you to believe that I can love someone? WHY?" There was fire in his eyes, but he didn't look ready to lift a finger to Patamon.

"Only people with souls can love. You tried to kill us without mercy, without remorse, and you think that proves you have a soul?" Takeru's voice was full of spite and anger.

"Open your eyes," he said softly. "I'm showing remorse now."

"Well, it's a little late for that, dude!" said Daisuke angrily. "Kyoko trusted you with her LIFE, and you repay her by turning her into a monster. Now you show up all clean and happy, like everything can be normal between you two. Well, it can't, because you may have loved her, but you blew her chance to get her to love you back!"

Everyone expected Mikado to lash out right then. To say something like, "You shouldn't speak that way to your elders," or, "What would you know?" But instead, he simply shrugged and said, "You're right. I've been an idiot. I can't expect you to not bother me about it, to look at me the same way. I can't hurt you. Just that one blast made me want to fall over, and I can assure you I won't attempt anything like it again. You may think I want the power back, but I don't."

Nobody said anything for a moment. Then.

"Tailmon."

Takeru looked at Hikari quizzically. "What?"

"She went off with Kyoko. Do you think something happened to her.or them?"

Daisuke turned to Mikado. "Would Kyoko ever hurt Tailmon?"

Mikado shook his head. "She would protect Tailmon with her life."

"Up until now, you've acted like a normal girl."

Kyoko raised an eyebrow. "Normal?"

"Well.somewhat." Tailmon smiled nervously. "Plus, you acted like Digimon were some foreign concept. I mean, you fainted when you saw Icedevimon."

"You have to admit, though, he was pretty freaky."

"Do you know why he was after you?"

"No. At first I thought it was Devimon, but then I remembered Devimon was dead. And besides that, I didn't know if Devimon was pissed off at me or what. You ever think that maybe he was only nice to me 'cause if he wasn't, Vandemon would take him down."

Tailmon looked up. "To Chinatown?"

"Yeah." Kyoko leaned over the railing. "Do you want things to go back to the way they were? When you and I were friends? When all we did was hang out and tell jokes? You know, kinda like this."

"We can still do that."

"It's not the same. Everything's just.lost its innocence."

"How so?"

Tailmon hadn't uttered those words. Mikado had. Kyoko and Tailmon turned around to see the Digidestined and the other Digimon, along with Mikado. Kyoko almost smiled in spite of herself.

"So, they've accepted you, have they?"

"I wouldn't go THAT far," said Ken.

Kyoko scowled. "What do you know about Vandemon?"

Miyako scratched her chin. "What do you mean?"

"You were convinced, this whole time, that it was him attacking those women, because you all thought you knew him. Every single one of you, including Tailmon, thought that. But you were all wrong, because you've gotten misconceptions about him. Just because you've beaten him a few times, you think you know all his tactics, all his strategies." Mikado stared at Kyoko. He almost looked confused, but Kyoko didn't pay any attention.

"Well, I'll let you know right now that none of you know him. Don't you dare think for one second that Mikado isn't the same person. He might be good, his intentions might be, but in the end, it's me who knows him best of all, who guards his most precious secrets."

She turned to Mikado. "Wouldn't you agree that I know you better than anyone?"

His eyes widened. "What are you talking about? What secrets?"

She suddenly looked concerned. "You.you honestly have no idea as to what I'm talking about, do you?" He shook his head slowly. Kyoko gulped. "You're secret.the most precious one. Don't you.don't you deny it. I know what it is. You're keeping it even now, so hidden, even you can't find it." Tears were welling up in her eyes again.

"Kyoko?" Daisuke took a step forward.

"There's a wall.it's keeping your true self from sprouting. That's good, isn't it? But, it's not. It's both. It can't be both. It just can't." she grabbed the railing and doubled over.

Daisuke ran over to her. "Kyoko, you really need to."

She looked up. Her eyes were blazing. "Secrets are something you keep, aren't they?"

For a moment, Daisuke was stunned. He didn't really know how to answer that. "I-I guess so."

"They're very mysterious things. Shh.can't tell." At that very moment, her body glowed bright red and she turned into Shikumon before their very eyes. Her black wings expanded from behind her. She grinned, baring her fangs.

"Gotta take my baby home. She's all tired out, you know. I blame all of you."

"Shikumon, you can't keep doing this. It's driving you insane," Mikado said calmly.

"No, you're driving me insane. You and those horrible secrets."

"Tell me what they are. I can't help you unless I know what you're talking about."

"They're driving me insane. Makes me sick to look at you, to know every single thing about you. I thought I knew everything, but to know that you don't know, to know that you've been hiding from me like this, these secrets of yours really take the cake. Almost as big secrets as the one I thought you knew."

"You have to tell me. If it's causing you so much pain, then let it out."

"Nuh-uh. Daddy's gotta figure it out all on his own. It's his turn to learn stuff. Cause we all know, you taught me plenty."

"Kyoko, please don't act like this," Tailmon pleaded.

"Kyoko wouldn't act like this, dearie, oh no." Shikumon shook her head slowly.

"But neither would Shikumon," Tailmon countered. "Shikumon and Kyoko were always one and the same."

"Not since we went beddy-bye."

Mikado narrowed his eyes. She hadn't acted like this since. "Beddy-bye?"

"We were very tired. Not only that, we were scared and ashamed of what we were. There was so much pain, so much sadness, and we just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. But we were cowards, so we did the next best thing."

Daisuke's eyes widened. "You went to sleep, didn't you?"

"No," Mikado said softly, "you couldn't have.not for that long."

"Daddy's not thinking outside of the box. Don't need air. Don't need food. Just as long as I close my eyes and dream, I don't need anything else."

He grabbed her shoulders and stared into her eyes. "That's why you've aged. Drinking blood kept you young, and you didn't drink anything when you were sleeping."

"Woke up a couple of times, sure. With such horrible nightmares, you would too."

"What kind of nightmares? What did you see?"

She grinned. "You think I had premonitions again, don't you?"

"Well, did you?"

"Didn't see anything I haven't already seen. Mostly there were just explosions. Big ones. And you were there. You were in them, blowing up before my very eyes. But that wasn't enough, was it? You couldn't just die and leave me alone. You had to make it difficult. You had to come back so that I would hate you. It wasn't YOU who caused me to go to sleep, it was your second form, Venomvandemon."

"I wasn't in control of that," he said calmly. "This form, the one I'm in now, hadn't been created yet. I was still floating between time and space, creating a life for myself."

"Well, you find one a little too late, cause by the time you did, I was already back in the Digital World, fast asleep in my cozy little cave, among the bats, and the rats, and the."

"Stop it!" he screamed. "I don't want to hear anymore. Not now."

Shikumon tilted her head to the side. "Aww.ish Daddy afwaid?"

"Quite possibly," he whispered. "This isn't what I wanted for you."

"Too bad. This is what you got, and this is what you'll have to live with." She jumped onto the railing and gave one final look back and the group. "Or, if you don't want to live with it, I could provide you with some nice alternatives."

School the next day was a very quiet affair. After Shikumon had flown into the night sky, her last words had shocked everyone too much to tempt them to follow her. That had probably been her intention, in any case. By the time she couldn't even be seen in the sky, nobody could find the courage to say anything, and so the whole team, including Mikado, just quietly disbanded.

But of course, they all had to school the next day, including Mikado. Especially Mikado. The only one who wasn't there was Kyoko, which was no surprise to anyone. Most of them had long since concluded to themselves that Kyoko had no parents to force her to go to school anyway. How she had managed to register was anyone's guess, but Mikado knew she had a way with computers. His little princess was growing up after all. Maybe he should disappear, just like her. Would that make her happy? Would that make her smile again? Would it make her normal again?

He saw the Digidestined in their little group in front of the school. For a moment, the option of not approaching them lingered in his mind, but he knew that wasn't right anymore. But there was the fact that he didn't know what to say to them. What did one say in situations like this? Was there anything to say? Or were you just supposed to say "hello," and go on your merry way? He sighed. Maybe it was better to just say what came naturally.

They turned to him as he came up to them. It was clear they weren't going to say the first words. He would have to.

"Last night was.well, I apologize for it."

Daisuke sighed. "Dude, you really don't need to apologize. I mean, if you hadn't been there."

"Do you know where Kyoko lives?" asked Mikado.

He was taken aback for a second. "Uh.yeah. I've seen it. I'm not exactly sure where it is but."

Mikado interrupted again. "This afternoon, after school, I'm going there. I need to talk to her, to find out what she's hiding. Will you come with me?"

"Why me?"

"Because you know where it is, and more importantly, she trusts you the most."

Daisuke looked confused. "What makes you think that?"

"Kyoko loves you. Every time she's with you I can see it in her eyes. She's attracted to you, and she wants to be around you. If you come with me, I have a bigger chance of getting through to her."

Daisuke hesitated. He wasn't sure whom he was supposed to trust anymore. It was getting to the point where he wanted to tear his hair out and scream. He looked at Mikado. There was no pleading in his eyes, but there was trust. Was it trust that Daisuke would fall into his trap, or trust that Daisuke would help him to help Kyoko?

He sighed. "Alright. But I want your word that you won't try anything."

"What do I have to try?"

V-mon walked beside Daisuke nervously. He didn't trust Mikado, not one bit. Not around Daisuke, and not around Kyoko. The funny thing was, he didn't even know if he trusted Kyoko, but he was worried about her anyway. Maybe it was because Daisuke liked her so much. He hadn't seen him obsess over anyone besides Hikari, and even then, Daisuke had known that she was Takeru's. Now he had someone whom he loved and who could be his. But he got the feeling that something was amiss. There was an obstacle that he couldn't quite put his finger on, and he knew that it wasn't Kyoko herself.

Daisuke coughed uncomfortably. "So, uh, I guess you've noticed that Kyoko's been pretty crazy."

Mikado sighed. "I'm used to it."

Daisuke raised his eyebrows. "Used to it?"

"After I changed her, she started acting like that. Spewing out words that didn't seem to make any sense. But they did, at least to her. I drove her to the brink of insanity by giving her power that no child that age should have."

"Woah, you're saying she's actually insane? Like, it's not just an act?"

"In a matter of speaking, yes, Kyoko did lose a bit of her sanity with her humanity."

"So.does that mean that whatever she thinks you're hiding might not be true."

"I don't know. We'll have to see. How much further is it?"

"Um, I think it's just up ahead. Yeah, there it is."

They walked up to the porch. Daisuke gulped, but Mikado looked incredibly calm. Then he saw it, a bead of sweat running down the side of his face. It might have been the heat, but, then again, Mikado hesitated before finally ringing the doorbell.