Chapter 9: Torture
Rika had something of a cross between cabin fever and a burning desire to keep away from Tina. For this reason, she worked hard to change her sleep cycle and managed to get a shift on Seek Patrol that was at the exact same time that Tina was usually asleep. She also slept during Tina's shift at the orphanage to ensure that Tina wouldn't get a chance to pull another prank on her.
The weather during Rika's first Seek Patrol duty was rotten, and, for once, the sky and the air around her agreed. Both looked like thundershower conditions.
Renamon tapped Rika on the shoulder.
"What is it?"
"Rika, this weather is getting pretty intense. Do you think we should turn back?"
"I'm not scared of a little rain. And I want as much distance as possible between me and that spoiled-rotten, little brat!!"
"Rika…"
"What is it?!?!"
"Rika, you're being too hard on Tina. She's just trying to be your friend. She only tied you up in duct tape as a friendly gesture."
Rika stopped in her tracks. Renamon couldn't tell for sure, but she thought that she noticed the raindrops instantly vaporizing from the heat on Rika's forehead. Rika spun around and stared Renamon in the eye. "That is why I don't like the idea of having friends! I don't like the idea of being tied down in bed, not even able to yell at them! So don't you dare try to be my friend like that!!"
Renamon was taken aback: this was one of the first times Rika had tried to really push her away. "Rika…I…"
"Oh, forget it!!!" Rika spat, walking away.
Still speechless, Renamon hurried forward to catch up with Rika. Suddenly, Rika stopped. There seemed to be some kind of a glow enveloping her. "Rika, what is it?" Renamon asked, still catching up.
"Renamon, I can't see! It's too bright!"
"What're you talking about---!" Renamon had to shield her eyes from the brightness as she got another meter closer to Rika: three suns were in the sky, and their beams burned right through the clouds, somehow. Neither of them could see.
It got worse: the two of them could hear the smacking lips of a saberstrike somewhere near them.
"Rika, come towards the sound of my voice!" Renamon yelled.
There was the loud shriek of a sonic cannon.
"Rika!" Renamon felt human skin and wet plastic against her paws. She scooped Rika up, turned around, and began running.
"Garem Non!" the saberstrike insisted. Renamon stopped and hunched over, setting Rika on the ground, but still hanging on to her. She'd been hit by one of the saberstrike's low-energy sonic blasts, meant to mix up Renamon's stomach and make her too queasy to fight. It seemed to work.
"Renamon?"
"Rika, I'm…I can't explain it; I feel like I'm about to throw up! I don't know if I can still fight!"
"I do: Digi-modify! Stamina, activate!"
Renamon felt her energy increasing, and she did a back flip over the saberstrike's head. The saberstrike growled in frustration. "Say goodnight, hot shot!" she said, grabbing its tail, swinging it above her head, and hurling it to the ground. It smashed to pieces. Getting the exercise worked out of her system, Renamon shook off her fur and readjusted her poncho. "Rika, are you all right?"
Rika was also breathing heavily. "Yeah. …C'mon, let's keep going."
As the day wore on, Rika found someone: it was a tiny child who was huddled beneath a store awning. She had her arms folded because she was so cold. How she'd managed to stay under there without getting eaten, Rika didn't know. But, unfortunately, Rika wasn't the warm, friendly humanitarian that one needs to be when dealing with such children: she yanked the child to her feet and forced her to come along with her. And until Renamon told her to, she didn't even give the child one of the "recovered child" raincoats that Sora had pilfered from the refugee camp in Montana. Even when she did give the child a raincoat, Rika only tossed it over the child's head, fully expecting her to know how to put it on. Unfortunately, the poor girl didn't, and just kept the coat draped over her head. It didn't provide much warmth that way, and it kept falling off. Before long, she was drenched and cold---worse than before. That wasn't all of what Rika was doing to torture this child, either: Rika was walking very quickly---too quickly for the little girl to keep up, and she kept falling behind. But Rika continued to keep a tight grip on the girl's wrist, and with every whimper the child let out of her mouth, Rika only yanked her forward all the harder. Before long, they were inside 500 meters of the power plant, so they wouldn't get attacked, but the absence of danger didn't make Rika slow down. She kept going and kept taking out every once of frustration in her mind on the child.
As she was coming towards the plant, she saw Sora coming out. Sora saw Rika and the way she was treating the girl, and Sora's jaw dropped. "How can you torture that poor kid like that?!"
"Like what?" Rika asked.
"Look at her! She's exhausted, she's cold, she's wet, and she's scared! Is this how you've been treating her all this time?!"
"Huh?"
Sora scooped up the child in her arms and put the raincoat on the child more properly. She held the child more tightly to her chest in a reassuring embrace. "You're certainly being a good role model! What exactly did you do with her when you found her?"
"I just picked her up and brought her here! That's what I'm supposed to do, isn't it?"
"You didn't ask her where her parents were? For all we know, her mother might've---"
"I found her under a store awning out in the open. If I were her mom, I wouldn't have left her where any menace machine can eat her."
Sora frowned. "You need to take care of these children; that's the entire idea. If you can't love them, then you shouldn't be doing this job!"
Rika frowned right back. She hated mush, and "love" fit under that category. "What-ever," she spat, walking back out to find another victim-child to torture.
"This isn't one of those 'whatever' things, Rika! How would you like to be dragged two kilometers through a thunderstorm? …In fact, didn't that happen to you back in Montana? As I recall, you hated it so much that you wanted to die! Do you want someone else to have to go through the same thing?"
Rika stopped in her tracks, hissed over her shoulder, "What---EVER!" and began walking away again, trying to ignore Sora.
Sora frowned. She turned to the child and asked, "I'm so sorry about her! Did that old witch hag hurt you?"
The child nodded with a sob.
Sora wiped the child's tears away with her glove. "You look like you could use a hot bath and a good meal, huh?"
The child nodded again.