Never Take A Dare Because Life's Too Short

Chapter 8: More Than Service

DF103: The Ryuki section died with occasional twitches and spasms. Oh yes.

M/D DF103:comes behind DF103: Hahah:constantly hits DF103 with a pan: I'm back! No one will stuff me back in her brain again! No more mushy-close-to-gushy stuff. I can only give credit to DF103 for torturing some people by handing them a copy of the 155-page fic LRIFR&R to edit, evil her…but not as evil as me! Anyway, back to the evil-ness…it's been a while. I don't own Digimon.


Walking out of the Nonaka gates, Ryo hollered, "In your face, Envymon!" lifting himself into the sky, though the pain in his feet brought him back down to sheer reality. He, unfortunately, remembered he fibbed to Rika about the window situation. "My life's turned into a lie…" He brought his arms to the back of his head. "At least he's gone. Hmm, maybe he dissipated back to the Digital World." He laughed to himself.

"Ryo!" someone yelled out from behind him. Ryo whirled around and perked his eyebrows at what he saw.

- - -

Lingering about her house, Rika heard a light beeping sound from somewhere, although she couldn't pinpoint where the sound was coming from or what it was. Her grandmother was out and her mother was at work, so what was making that noise? Rika followed the pulsating sound and eventually found herself, staring at her side-table. She slowly opened the drawer and glanced at the digivice where the red arrows blinked simultaneously circling around as it searched for data.

Rika stumbled back, frantically moving her eyes about at all the darkened corners of her room. Someone emerged from the shadows, an indefinite human-like figure. For the moment, Rika thought it was… "Renamon?"

A deep chuckle resounded from that corner and it abruptly stopped as the figure moved out of the shadows with a bland expression. Rika gasped, red gaunt eyes gazing into Rika's violet orbs.

- - -

Ryo gawked at Kazu, who had a necklace of garlic cloves over each of his shoulders, a chain with a cross around his neck, a stake, in one hand, and a hammer in the other. Then, Ryo spotted a large water gun, latched onto his belt loop. "I won't let you get away with this!" Kazu pointed the stake at Ryo as if unsheathing a mighty sword.

"Kazu, what are you talking about?" Ryo's eyebrows furrowed. "Did I miss something?"

"Um, yeah, whatever you are, E.D.," Kazu scoffed.

"E.D.?" Ryo's face grew more confused.

"Evil-doer! Don't kid yourself, big faker. Ryo's gone! I'm the only one who actually knows you did something to him, so I'm going to get rid of you!" Kazu held both the hammer and the stake in one hand, slowly raising the silver embellished cross in Ryo's face. Kazu's face blanched. "It's not working!"

Ryo's façade faltered. "Maybe because I'm real?"

"The garlic doesn't have any effect at all either." He peered down at his stake and hammer with narrowed eyes.

- - -

"Erika, I've longed for your return…"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Rika asked, raising a brow. "Are you okay, Ryo? Wait. Don't answer that. What are you doing in my room? No, how did you get in my room; you just left. And what's with the Erika business?"

With his red piercing eyes glazed over, he answered, "This is only a mere disguise. Don't you recognize my voice, Erika? Envymon, remember, 'Rika' Kurosawa? I've waited for you in the Digital World…waited before I came to your world and searched for you. And then one day I saw you with all those scumbags, those people who made fun of you. Why didn't you return?"

"Okay Ryo, I don't know and I don't care how you got in my room. Just quit with the childish act, okay?"

" 'Rika'…" The Ryo look-alike digimon took a step closer to Rika.

Rika stood up grabbing her digivice and sidled along the wall toward her door. "It was you. You're the one who grabbed Takato's leg from the edge of Henry's balcony. You came to my house and escaped from my bathroom window this morning. And the way you look. What did you do with Ryo?" Rika demanded. "What's happening around here!"

"Erika, I'm doing this for you…"

Rika mouthed a solemn 'what' before answering, "Well, first of all, I'm not the same Rika you're talking about and secondly, I don't need your assistance in anything. Get the hell out of my room!"

"But, 'Rika'. I'm helping you…like last time, remember?"

"Haven't you heard of privacy?"

"Nothing can be kept in privacy forever." He neared her. "You hold the digivice in which we become tamer and digimon. Do you not remember, Erika? Why didn't you come back when you said you would?"

"Rika? I'm home!" a voice resonated throughout the house, followed by a distant sound of bags being set down.

Saved by grandmother, Rika thought. She grabbed the door and glanced once more at Envymon before leaving the room, rushing into the kitchen where her grandmother was.

"What's wrong Rika? And why are you clutching the table like that?"

"I'm fine. I'll be back," Rika said, leaving through the front door.

Upon closing the door behind her, a pale green butterfly, its fine angelic dust trailing behind, flew into the house. Wanting to let the insect out, she opened the door again and found herself staring into the house with the butterfly gone. "Strange."

Dialing Jeri's phone number, she pushed the thought aside and sat within the gates of her house. "Why isn't anyone picking—oh, hi. Is Jeri there? Oh, okay. Bye." She put her phone back in her pocket. Jeri should be home by now… Rika pondered and looked at her D-arc, which blinked and pointed back into her house. It's still in there. I should stay out for a little bit. Maybe this is a nightmare. I'll wake up soon. As Rika approached the gates, putting her digivice into her pocket, she heard distant voices squabbling over something. She opened the door, only to find Kazu and Ryo standing in front of the next house looking like they're about to have a duel.

"This is for you, chumley," Kazu uttered before lunging at Ryo with both the stake and hammer.

"Kazu! What are you doing!" Rika yelled out, running up to the two and snatching the stake away from him.

"Rika, that guy right there is not Ryo, so give me back the stake and everything is going to be fine," Kazu assured, reaching for the pointed wooden stick.

"Kazu, you're delusional! Even if Ryo wasn't Ryo, although he is the real Ryo, he's not a vampire!" Rika exclaimed.

"Look at him, Rika! How can he not be a vampire?" Kazu shouted pointing at Ryo and flailing his other arm.

Rika took a large step back; the garlic fumes hitting her square in the face. "The sun is still up…" She felt something brush by and saw something from the corner of her eye. Great, now I'm seeing and feeling things. Could my day get any better? A light beeping was heard.

Again, Kazu's face blanched, before he narrowed his eyes. "You two are in on it together. You got rid of both of them and I'm—I'm probably next." He whipped out the water gun and pointed it at Rika and Ryo. "Stay back. I'm warning you. I'll shoot." He approached them, inching slowly. Ryo stuck a foot out and Kazu, as a reflex, shot Ryo with a high pressure of water." A light beeping was heard.

"Oh no…I'm melting," Ryo joked, pretending to sink into the ground.

Rika put her hands on her hips and shook her head. She looked at the ground and saw four shadows. Kazu's shadow was above hers and Ryo's. Who owned the other shadow? A light beeping was heard. Ryo continued to laugh at his own act. Dropping the water gun forced Ryo and Rika to look up at Kazu's frightened face.

"Kazu…I was only joking," Ryo assured.

"Oh man. I'm so sorry. I believe you, okay? The jokes on me. I'll see you later," Kazu blabbered, before stumbling away from Ryo and Rika.

"What got him all spooked out?" Ryo questioned, turning to Rika, before everything in his vision seemed to black out. A light beeping was still heard.

It occurred to Rika when the anomalous shadow disappeared that the beeping had been her D-arc. She snapped it out and found the arrows blinking simultaneously in place. Beep. Beep. Beep. Ryo's eyes glared the same colors of the horizon, an ominous red.

It's all making sense now. "It is all making so much sense now," Rika whispered, backing away. Ryo stared at Rika. The only solution Rika thought of was to run and so she did. She glanced back a couple of times as she had done before and saw him just staring back at her, not moving from his place.

"She ran in the same direction as Kazu…" Envymon's voice crept out of Ryo's mouth. "Shall we visit your friend then, hmm?"

- - -

Why am I running? He's not behind me anymore. Rika glanced behind her. Good. She was near Takato's bakery. The lights weren't on and not a soul stirred inside the building. Takato's parents must be devastated. A golden-colored and a yellow butterfly fluttered past Rika. Watching the two butterflies go by reminded Rika of the pale green butterfly she saw earlier. Strange. Rika sat in front of the bakery and hung out until she felt things were safe.

Thoughts pounded against her head and the one that hit the hardest seemed to be the one about Envymon. Psh. Yeah, Erika…right. That digimon is obsessed. Who would want a digimon like that jerk? She let out a sad sigh. Renamon.

- - -

Ryo lurked along the outside walls of Kazu's house, while a one-way argument occurred.

"Kazu! You wasted my perfectly good garlic." Kazu's mom stared down Kazu. "What am I supposed to do about dinner?"

"I'm sorry." Kazu timidly offered his mom the necklace of garlic.

"Oi. I would make you go buy it, but you need to study for once instead of clowning around. I'll be right back." With that, his mom grabbed her shopping bag.

Whew, she can get really crabby sometimes, Kazu thought, plopping himself on his swivel chair.

Envymon crept under the window view of Kazu's window and listened. The door to the front door opened and closed, followed by the dwindling sound of clattering shoes. "Perfect." He spotted a hose and grabbed it. He opened the window and Kazu screamed.

"Dude, Ryo. You scared me. This thing called a door… Use it, the next time you come over," Kazu explained, awkwardly.

"Nice to know…" Ryo replied, climbing into Kazu's room, dropping the hose on the floor. "Hope you don't mind me bringing that in here."

"Not at all Ryo-man. Hey, that prank you and Rika played on me was awesome. And you know what? This is great. Kenta is going to be here soon and now you're here, Ryo." He spun around in his chair. "We can play a prank on Rika tonight."

Here's my chance. Envymon wrapped the hose tightly around Kazu. "Don't move now."

"Hey, what's the deal?" Kazu attempted to free himself of the hose's grip. "Ryo. Did I piss you off that much for me to deserve this?"

"No…you just piss Rika off. Now hold still!" Envymon lunged at Kazu, before Kazu pushed against the floor to roll away. Envymon tried to get Kazu again.

"Okay, Ryo, you can stop joking around now." Kazu rolled away from Envymon's grasp again. Kazu wanting to get away tried to escape and rolled to the door, but the hose caught on one of the wheels and he fell over. Envymon laughed sinisterly. "Gee Ryo. I didn't know you could laugh like that. I don't remember your voice being that deep either," hints of fear overtaking his voice.

Envymon snatched the end of the hose and brought it to Kazu's neck. "Ryo. No. No! Ryo! No!"


M/D DF103: Argh. I'm a little rusty on my writing. How horrible. Any repetition in this fic is/was intentional. Apologies for if this chapter seemed rushed. We're still recovering from the damage made by most of the hurricanes that hit our area, but anyway, the computers are fine. I will be back. Indeed. Two or three more chapters to go. Until our paths cross again, kiddie-os, rest in pieces.