CHAPTER THREE: Bars and Brawls
When the police arrived several minutes later, Takeru realized that the girls were nowhere to be seen. Only Taichi and Sora remained behind to give their statements to the cops. Takeru noticed that when one of the hostages mentioned Kari and her friends, Taichi pulled the man aside and gave him several crisp looking twenties. The man glanced down at the money in his hand, and then at the stern face of Taichi before nodding slightly and backing away. Takeru watched Taichi and Sora closely while they repeated this act with several officers.After Takeru had given his own statement to the cops, he fled from the bar. Waiting outside, in all of its inky perfection, was his motorcycle. Takeru removed the high-tech locks he'd placed on it, and then pulled on his matching black helmet. He sped off into the night, needing time to think about what he'd seen.
He rode late into the night, not returning to his apartment until well after dawn. After he locked his bike away in the parking garage across the street, he rode the elevator up to his rooms. Pulling off his shoes, he collapsed straight into his bed. He fell into an exhausted sleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.
Sunlight streaming through his window woke him up once more, and he groaned and drew his spare pillow over his head. When that didn't work, he finally rolled groggily off the bed. He sat on the edge, rubbing his gritty eyes with a tired hand. When he'd finally woken up enough that he wouldn't immediately fall over, he headed for his shower. He let the warm water wash over him for several moments, resting his head on one of the shower walls. He finally pulled himself out when the water turned cold.
After he'd changed into fresh clothes, he sauntered into the kitchen in search of something edible. As always, everything in the fridge was his. Kari's portion consisted of a tiny jar of expired ketchup and some moldy cheese. Shrugging in resignation, Takeru poured himself a bowl of cereal and sat down at the dining room table.
Kari was nowhere in sight, but Takeru spotted an opened newspaper in the middle of the table. He pulled it towards him, noticing that it was opened to a photo featuring the club from the previous night. He scanned the article quickly, relieved to find that neither he nor his friends were mentioned. Strangely enough, neither were the girls. You'd think that somebody would have said something, he mused. After all, they were the ones that saved everybody.
As
soon as he finished his meal, Takeru meandered into the living room in search
of something to occupy his mind. As he'd expected, he didn't find any suitable
reading materials. Thinking that Kari might have something in her room, he
tiptoed down the hallway toward her bedroom. He wondered idly if she were
sleeping, but found that the bedroom door was open. Takeru slipped inside,
glancing around for his roommate as he did.
He'd been expecting her room to be decorated similarly to the rest of the
apartment, so he wasn't prepared for the sight that met his eyes. She still had
the inevitable crystal and crème decor, as well as the same huge, four-poster
bed. There was still a large rug on the floor, and a gigantic dresser similar to his own. Unlike in his room, though, her desk was piled
high with video game boxes. He peered curiously at them, surprised to see that
they were all Digimon games (). He shrugged. He
hadn't taken his roommate for a Digimon junkie.
Curiosity overcoming common sense, he pulled open some of her desk drawers.
Inside, Takeru found dozens of different types of Digimon
merchandise, including pencils, rolled up posters of some strange cat with
gloves, and even an authentic-looking pink divice.
Takeru rifled through the contents of her desk for a few more minutes, thinking
ruefully that Kari's obvious obsession with Digimon,
particularly the strange cat took her far beyond a mere junkie. The extent of
her obsession was almost scary.
Takeru heard the front door slamming, and voices filled the hallway. He slipped
from Kari's room, careful to leave no trace of his presence. He slipped into
his own room, hiding behind his bed. His caution was rewarded as his bedroom
door creaked open, and a brunette head peered inside. Kari shut the door behind
her, calling loudly, "He's not here, guys!" Kari's footsteps receded towards
the living room, and Takeru breathed a sigh of relief.
Deciding that he didn't want to face her just yet, Takeru settled into an
overstuffed chair with a book. He didn't know Kari's friends well enough to
distinguish individual voices, but he could pick out Kari's. She was making an
awful lot of noise in the kitchen and bathroom cabinets, shouting hysterically
for mouthwash. "Argh!" she cried. "How
can I not have mouthwash?! I've got to get the taste of that guy out of
my mouth or I'll never be able to eat again!"
An exasperated voice muttered, "Not eating has never been an issue for you, Hika. You're almost as bad as Yolie."
The front door slammed, and another voice yelled angrily, "I heard that, Jade!"
Kari squealed, and Takeru heard her footsteps running for the front door.
"Bless you, Yolie!" There was a pause, and Takeru
could hear her rummaging through what could only have been a brown paper
grocery sack. "Look what this angel brought, guys! Mouthwash!" she cooed
triumphantly. A second later, Takeru heard her slam the bathroom door. He
cringed as Kari started to gargle and spit noisily. The gargling continued for
several long moments. He heard Kari emerge again, and then Yolie's
voice protested, "Hey, this bottle is empty! You weren't supposed to use all of
it, Hika!"
"I'm just sorry that I ran out. Besides, you weren't the one that slime ball
kissed. I swear, he must have been drinking rancid
milk before he came to the bar." Several sets of feet plodded down the hall to
the kitchen, and Takeru heard the refrigerator door being repeatedly slammed.
There goes all of my food, he scowled. "Hey, there's some really good stuff in
here, Kari! Where'd it all come from? You never go to the grocery store."
Kari's voice piped up. "Must be Taki's," she guessed.
"Don't touch it. He gets really mad when people mess with his stuff." Takeru
suppressed a relieved sigh. She'd learned that much, at least, though she
hadn't yet learned to apply that lesson to her own actions.
"But I'm hungry!" whined Yolie. Obviously ignoring
their friend's high- pitched complaint, a fourth voice cut in. "I have an idea!
When's your next photo shoot, Hika?"
"Not for a couple of days. I'm supposed to be doing a perfume ad, but the
people in charge are having problems booking just the right site, so they
postponed it. Why? Have you got something that you want to do instead, Cathy?"
Cathy's voice was thoughtful. "Well, we haven't gotten together with just our
group in a long time. Why don't we have a party?" Four voices cheered. "How
about tomorrow?" inquired Jade.
"Nah, I've got a hot date tomorrow," said Kari. "Why not just have it here, tonight? We can invite the Outers, Mimi and
Matt, too." The girls groaned at the mention of Kari's upcoming date, and Cathy
finally asked in irritation, "What about your date tonight, Hika?
Are you willing to cancel that?"
Kari's voice was dismissive. She was obviously used to their teasing. "Sure.
It's just one of the guys from the arcade. I can't even remember his name." The
groans were even louder this time. "I'd hate to be your date, Hika. Those poor boys."
"Come on, Jade, it's not like I'm ever serious about any of them,
anyway. 'Sides, they have as much fun as I do." Takeru heard several chairs
scraping against the kitchen floor. "Okay, guys. We'll meet back here in a
couple of hours. Oh, and Yolie? Bring some more
mouthwash, will you?" Kari's voice was wistful. "I can still taste him."
The other girls left, and Takeru heard Kari going into her bedroom. A few
minutes later, he heard water running. Kari made a little more noise, and the
Jacuzzi tub kicked on. Deciding that Kari was going to be awhile, Takeru deemed
it safe to leave his room.
He hesitated in the living room, wondering whether he should wait for Kari to
come out or just take off on his own. His need for answers had abated
considerably, though he was still curious about where she'd picked up her odd
skills. She must have taken martial arts or something, he mused. That's all it
is.
He sauntered into the living room, deciding to wait for Kari, after all. He
wandered around for a few minutes, straightening the few items that Kari's
friends had disturbed. When the room was spotless once more, Takeru wandered
over to the painting on the mantle.
As he approached the painting, his heart automatically started to beat a little
faster. He stared at the city in the painting for a long moment, waiting in
vain for the sensations he'd experienced that first time. When they didn't
come, Takeru was almost disappointed. Granted, those sensations hadn't exactly
been pleasant, but they'd left him with a strong desire for more. Maybe, just
maybe, some of the answers that he sought for his own mysteries lay in the painting's
images.
When nothing happened, Takeru stepped even closer. He was now near enough that
by simply stretching out one arm, he'd be able to touch the surface. Unable to
stop himself, he did just that. His heart skipped a beat as his fingers touched
the painting, and he chided himself for expecting something momentous to
happen. Still, he didn't draw his fingers away immediately. In spite of his
better judgment, he was intrigued by the feel of the canvas under his fingers.
Most paintings are rough, marked by the layers of paint placed upon them. This
artwork, however, was as smooth as glass. Takeru wasn't exactly an art critic,
but he knew that this was unusual. Still, he didn't think that the image on the
canvas was computer generated. It was too lifelike, too real, to have been
created by anything except a true artist and brush.
As he ran his fingers along the surface, a particularly bright spot of paint
caught his eye. This bright swatch of paint was set in the heart of the city,
and he could have sworn that it hadn't been there before. He leaned closer,
wondering how he could possibly have missed such a colorful splash of red. His
fingers brushed the red, and Takeru suddenly felt incredibly dizzy. He tried to
pull his fingers away, guessing that the painting was responsible, but they
were glued to the canvas. He closed his eyes, trying desperately to fight the
nausea. He collapsed as the wave of dizziness overcame him.
Someone was slapping his face hard enough to give him bruises. Takeru waved the
person's hand away, trying desperately to open his eyes. He felt as though his
eyelids were weighted down with lead, but he eventually managed to crack them
open.
A child with bright blonde hair was staring down at him,
worry clear in his blue-colored eyes. Takeru grunted and sat up, and the boy
backed nervously away. Takeru stared at the child, wondering briefly why he
seemed so frightened. TK glanced down at himself. He wasn't that scary, was he?
Realizing that something else must have frightened the child, Takeru stood
slowly. His body was stiff, almost as though he'd been lying on the ground for
many hours. He still wore the same clothes, but they were now smeared with dirt
and grime.
He
looked around, knowing instinctively that he wasn't anywhere near his
apartment. He was standing in an abandoned courtyard, outside a building that
must once have been very beautiful. Now, though, the air was thick with dust,
and not even a blade of grass grew between the smooth cobblestones. Half of the
building was torn down, and the fountain in the center was a smoking ruin.
Rubble was scattered everywhere, and, for a moment, he feared that he was
experiencing something similar to the events that had brought him to Tokyo in the first place.
As Takeru shook off his confusion, he noticed that the boy was beckoning
furiously. Takeru followed the child into a shadowed corner of the courtyard,
though he still didn't see anything that could make the boy shake so. As he
came near enough to the child to hear his frenzied breathing, something
whistled through the air over their heads. Takeru looked into the sky, startled
to see something that looked a lot like a comet. The sizzling comet left a
trail of black smoke behind it, and Takeru felt a rush of pity for the people
that lay in its path. The fiery rock was at least the size of Takeru himself,
and it would inevitably cause a lot of damage.
Strangely enough, Takeru didn't hear the comet land. Odd, he thought in alarm.
I should have heard that thing crash. Takeru turned back to the child, hoping
to get some answers. His eyes widened when he saw that the boy had disappeared.
As more comets sped through the air above him, Takeru edged slowly into the
corridor. If he could find the boy, he might learn where he was.
Takeru slid into the cool darkness, pressing his hands against the smooth walls
to keep from tripping. He was a little unsettled by the fact that the walls
were the same incomprehensibly smooth texture as the painting back in the
apartment.
Just
when Takeru was ready to turn back and find another route, a small hand latched
onto his wrist. Takeru jumped, shaking the hand off as quickly as he could. A
light flared in the darkness, and Takeru shielded his eyes with one hand. When
his eyes finally adjusted, Takeru could see a set of semi-familiar topaz eyes.
The child whispered something in a language that Takeru didn't understand, and
pointed to a grate at the base of a wall. As the child scuttled over to the
grate, Takeru finally understood what the boy was trying to say. The boy kept
speaking, but Takeru merely shook his head to show that he didn't understand
the words. The child sighed, and gestured that Takeru was to help him remove
the grate. Takeru knelt beside the boy, and together they dragged the heavy bit
of metal away.
The boy handed the lamp to Takeru, and then dropped into the hole. That tiny
hand crept back out, grabbing the lamp. As the light faded into the hole,
Takeru thought that he heard footsteps coming from the direction of the
courtyard. His first impulse was to go to the footsteps, but something held him
back. The footsteps were too loud and too rhythmic to be anything but a
military unit, and TK had the feeling that he didn't want anything to do with
them. He slipped into the hole.
He fell for a few feet, landing with a bone-jarring thud on harsh concrete. As
he straightened, he realized that there were people all around him. Several of
them held lamps, but others carried crude sticks and similar weapons. Several
of these men kept their weapons pointed at him, though Takeru knew they were
not a true threat to his safety. These strange men held their sticks too
loosely, and they obviously didn't know how to use them. Several of them
actually looked afraid of Takeru. From their expressions, Takeru knew that they
didn't really want to hurt him. Without understanding the source of his
knowledge, Takeru suddenly realized that these men were farmers and artisans,
not killers or soldiers. His fear of them evaporated as quickly as if it had
never been.
As the sounds of the army came closer, several of the more brawny men pulled
the grate back into place. It slid into its socket just as dozens of
steel-tipped boots entered the alley. Along with the other men in the tunnel,
Takeru held his breath until the soldiers passed. As soon as the threat was
gone, Takeru looked to the boy for further instructions. The child just
shrugged and pointed to one of the adults, a man with more cunning and less
fear on his face than any of the others. This man gave a single, curt nod, and
held his fingers to his lips. He then turned and walked into the darkness. The
other men followed immediately, but Takeru hesitated. These men were obviously
rebels, and Takeru didn't really want to get involved with whatever war they
were fighting.
As
the last man disappeared, the child latched onto one of Takeru's
hands. The boy pulled insistently on his arm, but still Takeru held back. The
boy lifted his lamp, and Takeru stared into those tawny eyes. This boy has seen
too much for a child of his years, Takeru thought in disgust. Whoever did this
to him is a monster. Sighing at his own weakening, Takeru allowed the child to
pull him away from the grate.
The child did not release Takeru's hand for a very
long while. After a time, Takeru realized that the darkness wasn't quite so
deep. If he squinted, he could just make out a light up ahead. The light was
far too steady to be just another lamp, and Takeru felt his spirits lifting.
Something about this tunnel had been too familiar, too oppressing. It was too
much like the eternal darkness in the red-eyed witch's caves.
Takeru shook his head suddenly, trying to dislodge the rest of that
half-memory. Another clue to that lost year, he thought tiredly. I just wish I
could remember the rest. Of course, I might be sorry that I did remember when
the memories come back.
Takeru glanced down at the boy beside him. He truly hated the look in the
child's eyes. It was too much like Kari's after the fight in the bar. It was
the look of someone who had lost his innocence, someone who had lost hope.
Involuntarily, Takeru clutched the child's hand more tightly.
Within a few minutes, Takeru realized that the light was, indeed, getting
brighter. TK and his companions emerged from the tunnel into a large,
underground room. This room was only dimly lit, as if the people feared
discovery even here. As he glanced around, Takeru saw that he was surrounded by
literally thousands of people, all of whom had that bright blond hair. He
wondered idly if they dyed their hair, or if the color was natural.
The child released Takeru as several big men pushed him into the center of the
room. As his guards led him forward, Takeru could hear a single voice rising
above the general cacophony. He still could not understand what was being said,
but he was able to pick out the words 'digidestines'
and 'Digital world'. Both words were issued repeatedly, and the crowd murmured
them amongst themselves like a prayer.
After
several more moments, the crowd hushed. Several people turned to look at him,
faces hostile. Takeru was pushed forward once more, and the people parted to
let him through. He was shoved onto a platform where a group of
official-looking men waited. Takeru was grateful to notice that the officials,
at least, weren't so openly aggressive.
As Takeru finished mounting the dais, the people around him started shouting
questions. Takeru just regarded them all with a blank look, and eventually they
quieted. One of the men standing by him, an older man whose brown hair was
streaked with white, came over to him. He murmured something in his own
language, watching Takeru's bewildered expression.
Finally, he nodded to himself, and then pointed to the floor. "Digital world,"
he said, obviously expected Takeru to understand. "Digital world," the man
repeated.
As Takeru continued to look at him in confusion, the man gestured to a member
of the crowd. The new person, a younger man with just the beginnings of a
beard, carried some kind of chart with him. He handed the chart to the
official, who spread it out at Takeru's feet. Takeru
stared at it, wondering why he was being shown a map of the world, or was it
the world.
Takeru knelt, gazing hard at the map. His shrewd blue eyes took in the
exquisite detailing, the colorful letters. Unlike the maps Takeru had seen in
school, this chart showed mountain ranges, lakes, rivers, and even what
appeared to be major cities and roadways that should have been completely bare.
Takeru stared at the official, wondering why somebody would bother doing such a
thing. It's not like I don't know any better, though Takeru in annoyance.
Once more, the official pointed to the ground, saying "Digital world." He then
pointed to one of the planets, repeating the same word. "Digital
World." Deciding that this guy was crazy and needed to be humored,
Takeru pointed to Earth. The man nodded, and then addressed the crowd. Whatever
he said appeased the restless people, and most of them lost their hostility.
The official gestured to yet another man, who started to come forward. The
brunette child that had found him in the first place suddenly shouted
something, and the man hesitated. The child said something else, and the
official waved him away with a dismissive hand. Taking the official's dismissal
as permission to approach, the child scurried up to Takeru, grabbing his hand
in a familiar gesture. The child pulled Takeru back through the crowd, though
the people did not let him pass this time. They seemed to think that he was no
longer a threat, so they weren't willing to give him extra space.
The child led TK through yet another tunnel, though this was not the same one
they had entered by. In a tiny cavern just a few feet from the main room,
Takeru found a young man huddled over a table. Scattered across the table were
literally dozens of tiny machines. Takeru blinked, having a hard time
reconciling this place of refugees and darkness with these obviously advance mechanical devices.
The young man looked up as they entered, and the boy started speaking again.
The man stared shrewdly at Takeru the entire time, and then he sighed and
picked up a crescent shaped bit of metal. He made some adjustments on the metal
with an equally tiny tool, and then approached Takeru. Takeru jerked back
involuntarily, and the man said something else to the boy. The child shrugged
and spouted off a stream of incoherent sentences. Surprise flitted across the
man's face as the boy repeatedly mentioned Earth.
Finally, the child reached out and grabbed Takeru's
hand once more. The man held up his own hand, signaling that Takeru was to
remain still. Takeru nodded tersely, and the man slid the device onto TK's ear. Takeru felt a little sting of pressure against
his skin, but this sensation quickly passed. He tentatively felt the device
with one hand, relieved to discover that the thing wasn't hurting him in any
way.
As the boy and the man continued to speak to each other in that musical tongue,
Takeru could have sworn that some of their words suddenly made sense. He shook
his head, trying to clear his ears, but the language he was hearing continued
to change. "...Toi said he was from Earth, but that
he's not with those guys attacking us. What do you think, Lano?"
The man, Lano, shrugged. "He doesn't seem to be too
dangerous. Still, you should be careful around him, kid. We don't know anything
about him or his people." Lano glanced once more at
Takeru. "Unless I miss my guess, he can understand us now. What's your name,
man?"
Takeru continued to gape at him, but he answered quickly enough, "Takeru. Where
am I?" The other man shrugged and half-laughed. "Not the most original of
questions, but understandable, I suppose." He spread his arms wide, taking in
everything around them. "This is the Digital World, earth- man."
Takeru stared, eyes wide. "Digital World? As in the game?" The man glanced at the boy, who shrugged.
The man's intense eyes took in Takeru once more, and then he smiled amicably.
"Why don't you take TK here back to Toi, Doni? I'm sure they can answer each others' questions."
The man waved a farewell to Takeru as he and the boy headed back to the main
cavern. The difference was remarkable. Instead of just a confusing ramble of
unintelligible words, Takeru could now pick out individual conversations. He
felt less like an interloper now.
The official was still addressing the crowd. "Please be calm!" he shouted.
"Princess of Light is on her way. In the meantime, we can only hide and pray to
the goddess that the enemy doesn't find us."
"What if she doesn't come? What if Myotismon sends
more of those comets? Our shield will only protect us from one or two more.
What will we do if she doesn't come?" demanded an angry voice from the crowd. Toi spread his arms wide. "When has she ever failed us?"
The official kept his expression reasonable. "She will come."
The official spotted Takeru, and waved him forward. As Takeru started up the
steps, one of the cavern walls exploded in a flash of sparks and rubble.
Through the hole, hundreds of heavily armed men in green uniforms poured into
the cavern. As the crowd started to back away, a second blast blew out the
opposite wall.
They were surrounded.
Takeru
and the rebels were herded back into the courtyard. They were bound together
with strips of metal, and then forced to wait in the hot sun while the soldiers
in green kept their weapons trained on them.
As they crouched on the decimated floor, Takeru gazed at the people around him.
They were frightened, of course, and they kept glancing at the sky as if they
expected angels from heaven to come down to the planet to save them. Takeru
thought they were incredibly foolish to rely on anybody but themselves, but he
couldn't see a way out of their bonds, either.
One
of the soldiers, a man to whom the others all deferred, sauntered along the
line of prisoners, glancing at each face as he walked by. Takeru noticed that
he gazed longest at the officials. He grunted, and then continued on. Takeru
expected the soldier to pass on by without a second look, but the man
unexpectedly stopped. He stared at Takeru for only an instant before gesturing
furiously to another of the soldiers. The second soldier came forward, a large
key in his hand. The lead soldier merely pointed to Takeru, and the man with
the key quickly unlocked the chains holding him. Takeru rubbed his wrists as he
was shoved forward.
Takeru faced the general, seeing the fear and hatred in the man's face. Again,
Takeru wondered why anyone would fear him. "Take him to the general!" barked
the soldier, and Takeru was immediately loaded onto some sort of transport
vehicle. He glanced over his shoulder as the car pulled away. Both the boy and
the main official were staring at him with a mixture of suspicion and hope.
Takeru knew they expected him to break free and somehow rescue the others.
Takeru looked around, trying to find some method of escape. The soldier sitting
next to him glared and pointed his weapon at Takeru's
heart. Takeru looked away, knowing that the soldier would fire long before
Takeru had the chance to jump off the vehicle.
As he entered the building, Takeru tried not to feel so much like a lamb being led to the slaughter. The soldier behind him kept poking him in the back with his weapon, and Takeru had to repress the urge to spin and hit the man. The soldier prodded Takeru up a long flight of marble stairs. At the top of the stairs was a door guarded prodigiously by no less than four big guards. The guards stopped Takeru, inspected him with blank faces, and then allowed him to pass. TK was shoved into a large office, richly furnished by red carpet and plush chairs. The door slammed shut behind him.
As Takeru gazed around the room, he noticed that someone was sitting behind a desk in a leather chair facing the floor-to-ceiling stained glass window. The back of the chair was too high for Takeru to see anything but the pair of crossed legs clad in dark green fabric. Tired of being treated like an animal, Takeru cleared his throat rudely. He heard a sharp intake of breath, and the man in the chair stood to face his prisoner. Takeru couldn't help gasping.
The man was himself.