Chapter 33 - It Happened One Night
I was completely out of my depth here.
"And then he told me that I shouldn't be placing myself in danger! Who the hell does he think he is?!"
I blinked, then cringed mentally. This was a side of Kari that had never really been shown in the series. But that was probably because they had better judgment than that. Kari ranting about people was not a pretty sight.
This had been less a study session than it had been listening to exactly what had happened between her and TK. While he seemed to be her favorite subject, I suspected that if I hung around long enough, Tai would be in there somewhere too. I also suspected that these moments were rare, and then paused to wonder what made me special enough to be present for one of them.
Oh, that's right. My life sucks.
But on the other hand she had a good point. Then she grinned, signaling that she was going to move on to a happier topic, and I, again mentally, sighed in relief.
"So, Takato… what was with all the girls today?"
To reiterate, my life sucks.
I put on a cautious expression.
"I have no idea why they did that. If you know, tell me so I can undo whatever it was that I did."
She grinned some more. In this case, I reflected, it wasn't a good sign.
"So you're not interested in any of the girls who kept throwing themselves at you?"
I sighed. I wasn't under any particular delusion that Rika would return my feelings even if she knew that I was alive, but the memories, and occasional fantasies *cough*, were too strong to ignore. Even the thought of dating someone else gave me the sensation of her fist meeting my gut. Kari's smile calmed a little.
"I'll take that for a 'no', then."
She gave me a sidelong glance, and I suddenly felt nervous.
"So, what do you intend to do about the present situation? I mean, if you don't like any of them, then you obviously won't date any of them…"
Now her gaze at me was somewhat speculative, I could almost see the wheels turning in her head and there was this weird gleam in her eye.
I was suddenly afraid.
Very afraid.
Like Rika's holding me by the throat and accidentally discovers my good luck charm afraid.
"W-What?"
"How about I be your girlfriend?"
I heard wrong. That much is obvious. Kari could not have said that. But what else could she have said?
"Come again?"
She had on a mischievous grin. Never a good sign. Never.
"I said, I could be your girlfriend."
My face paled.
"I like living. Your brother would kill me."
Kari waved her hand dismissively.
"Nah, he won't be a problem. And if he is, I'll straighten him out. Besides, I bet the rumors are flying already anyways."
"What?!"
She looked at me like I was stupid. I apparently am stupid, but that's a story for another day. Or maybe it's simply this story. Hard to tell. Possibly both.
But in any event, she arched an eyebrow at me.
"I bailed you out twice today, remember? It's already commonly known that TK and I broke up, and you and I being seen together so much so soon? If it isn't already common knowledge, it will be by the time school starts tomorrow."
I would have broken down and started sobbing at this point, but I felt it was necessary to save my few remaining shreds of dignity for now. Instead I tried to get out of it.
"Now, now, it's not that bad. I'll survive, there's no real reason for you to do this…"
She smiled a little.
"No! No. It's okay, really. Besides…"
"Yes?"
Why must my life suck so much?
"It's not like I'm being completely unselfish here. I was thinking that maybe this would get TK to stop being such a jerk."
My eyes nearly bugged out of my head.
"Um, Kari? I don't think that's a good idea. In every single TV show I've seen with this in it, it never works out. Let's just quit while we're ahead."
Much to my horror, she just dismissed my comment.
"Oh, come on Takato! That's TV, and this is real life! It can and will work here, I promise!"
There wasn't a heck of a lot that I was allowed to say to that.
I'm going to regret this. I just know it.
Even if Azulongmon's restrictions hadn't been in place, I wouldn't have had the heart to tell her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I looked at Izzy a little questioningly. He seemed to be having trouble, well more than usual, expressing himself.
"I guess I'm not really sure what to say here. I don't even know if I should be talking about this now, it seems a little insensitive to me, what with everything that's going on in our lives right now… I should just forget about it…"
I grabbed his arm as he tried to rise and forced him back down onto the couch.
"No. Tell me. You started for a reason. I want to know what's wrong."
He looked at me, and his eyes looked haunted.
"I guess… I'm scared."
I frowned.
"Scared? Scared of what?"
He sighed.
"Scared of loosing your friendship."
I smiled reassuringly at him.
"You aren't going to loose my friendship, Izzy. I promise."
He shook his head.
"It's not that simple. You'll look at me differently after this. It'll be… awkward."
I frowned at him again.
"Well, you've got nothing to loose. It'll be awkward anyways, now that I know you're keeping something from me."
He nodded slowly, then looked away.
"I-I think I'm… falling for you…"
My eyes widened a bit.
"Um, how long has this been going on, Izzy?"
"Since about when you moved here."
I nodded a little, deep in thought.
Well, that explains a bit. But, how do I feel about Izzy?
I pulled out of it a few seconds later, and he was looking at me, fairly afraid of what I might say or do. I looked at him, and began to speak softly.
"I… I remember when we fought MetalSeadramon - Michael's, not the other one. You were right there with me Izzy, comforting me. You were also there whenever I needed a hand with something, even if it was just an ear to listen. Those are things a good friend does."
I smiled a little more reassuringly at him, pulling my mouth into a small grin.
"I also remember the 'dates' we had to throw him off. I really had fun on those. And having a great time together is almost a prerequisite of being good friends."
I stood up then, and offered him a hand. He took it, albeit somewhat cautiously.
"But I also know that some of the best relationships grow out of friendships."
His eyes became as wide as dinner plates as they filled with hope.
"And I'm willing to give it a try if you are."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The phone rang, so I picked it up.
"Hello?"
[Kenny?]
I blinked.
"Oh, hi Yolie!"
[Are you doing anything tonight?]
I winced a little. This would hurt.
"Um, actually, Davis and I were going to go see a movie…"
[Oh.]
That's odd, she sounds more sad than angry… What's today? Am I missing an important date or something?
I glanced at the calendar.
No. I'm not. That's funny…
"What's wrong Yolie?"
She sighed.
[Nothing, really. I'm just bored to tears, that's all. Kari's busy with something else, I couldn't get any details out of her.]
I smiled a little, and it showed in my voice.
"So I'm the second choice? I'm insulted!"
[Oh, be quiet you! Um…]
"Yeah?"
[Any chance you could come over and see me after the movie lets out?]
I frowned.
It'll be kind of late, but…
"Sure. I can stop in for a bit, but I probably shouldn't stay too long. It's a school night after all."
[Great! See you later Kenny!]
"I'll see you later Yolie."
A few minutes later, Davis knocked on the door.
"You ready Ken?"
Veemon poked his head in.
"Yeah, you ready?"
I grinned. It had been a while since we'd hung out like this.
"Absolutely. Oh, and I promised Yolie I'd be over after the movie, so we can't mess around too long afterwards."
He rolled his eyes as I bent to pick up Wormmon.
"And the old ball and chain calls."
"And you wonder why you can't get a steady girlfriend."
He shrugged.
"Ah, I'll settle down eventually. But probably not anytime soon. Let's just go."
"Right."
The movie was surprisingly good for something that Davis picked out, and with a few more cracks about my relationship with Yolie, we laughingly parted ways.
"You sure you'll be okay Ken?"
"Sure, Yolie's house is only a few blocks down, you know that."
Davis smirked, and then headed off to his car. Wormmon safely in my arms, I started walking.
Then it happened.
"TRUMP SWORDS!"
I didn't stop to think, I just dived out of the way as four swords impaled themselves in the ground I was standing in only moments before. The ground exploded in a shower of stone, sending me smashing into a wall. I groaned and turned back to see a smirking Piedmon.
Oh no. Where's Davis when you need him?
"Wormmon, GO!"
"Right Ken!"
Digivolution_
Wormmon digivolve to… Stingmon!
Piedmon grinned.
"Oh please, you think you can stop me with an champion? I'm invincible!"
"SPIKING STRIKE!"
I pulled out my D-Terminal to try t get a hold of someone. And promptly cursed.
It was smashed, broken beyond repair.
Of all the days to not have a cell phone…
"Looks like we're going solo on this one Stingmon."
"Don't worry Ken, we'll make it!"
Piedmon laughed as Stingmon's attack did absolutely nothing against him.
"Really? Better pray for a miracle then boy. TRUMP SWORDS!"
Stingmon managed to dodge three of them, but the fourth caught him.
"STINGMON!"
Digivolution_
Stingmon digivolve to… DinoBeemon!
Perhaps the biggest bug digimon I had ever seen, DinoBeemon looked like Paildramon gone wrong, being quadruped with the majority of him looking like Stingmon, but with the arms and tail of X-Veemon. He had a spiked collar around his neck, which amusingly still had the blue bandanna under it.
DinoBeemon charged.
"IRRITANT BUZZ!"
"CLOWN TRICK!"
Piedmon dodged and countered, and DinoBeemon barely dodged.
"HELL MASQUERADE!"
DinoBeemon slammed into Piedmon's chest, who just smirked.
"You really think you can hurt me?"
Then he slammed his elbow down onto DinoBeemon's next, snapping the spiked collar, sending him slamming into the ground. He struggled to stand. Piedmon just looked amused.
"Still with us are you? Well, I'll fix that."
He then bodily picked up DinoBeemon, which was shocking because DinoBeemon had about double his bulk. Then he threw him into the building above me, and debris came showering down, nearly beating me senseless. Piedmon just smirked. My ears were ringing, and I could barely hear him.
"Goodbye boy. TRUMP -"
"…DESTROYER!"
Piedmon looked left just in time to see twin black bolts of energy slam him into the building across the street as BlackWarGrowlmon came forward. Then Angewoman swooped in and began picking the rubble off me while I struggled to stay conscious. Piedmon got out of the wreckage. He glanced around as a car screeched onto the scene and Davis got out looking shocked. He smirked.
"Ah, it seems more have arrived to play. You get off easy for now boy."
Then he flew behind a few buildings. Takato was about to start after him, but BlackWarGrowlmon held him back.
"I can't sense him anymore Takatomon."
He sighed, then they turned to come help Angewoman and Kari pick rubble off me while Davis started dialing franticly on his cell phone.
That was about all I saw before I passed out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I yawned and looked over at an insistent tapping on my window.
What the…
I ran for the window and opened it, letting Gomamon inside, tears streaming down his face.
"It's horrible Sora!"
Oh no. What happened to Joe?
"What happened Gomamon?"
He sniffed, and started rambling.
"I tried Izzy's place, then I was going to Tai's but I came here because it was closer, and then…"
"Gomamon! What happened?"
He looked up at me, a helpless look in his eyes.
"Joe's gone, Sora! And I don't know where he is or how to find him!"
I was completely out of my depth here.
"And then he told me that I shouldn't be placing myself in danger! Who the hell does he think he is?!"
I blinked, then cringed mentally. This was a side of Kari that had never really been shown in the series. But that was probably because they had better judgment than that. Kari ranting about people was not a pretty sight.
This had been less a study session than it had been listening to exactly what had happened between her and TK. While he seemed to be her favorite subject, I suspected that if I hung around long enough, Tai would be in there somewhere too. I also suspected that these moments were rare, and then paused to wonder what made me special enough to be present for one of them.
Oh, that's right. My life sucks.
But on the other hand she had a good point. Then she grinned, signaling that she was going to move on to a happier topic, and I, again mentally, sighed in relief.
"So, Takato… what was with all the girls today?"
To reiterate, my life sucks.
I put on a cautious expression.
"I have no idea why they did that. If you know, tell me so I can undo whatever it was that I did."
She grinned some more. In this case, I reflected, it wasn't a good sign.
"So you're not interested in any of the girls who kept throwing themselves at you?"
I sighed. I wasn't under any particular delusion that Rika would return my feelings even if she knew that I was alive, but the memories, and occasional fantasies *cough*, were too strong to ignore. Even the thought of dating someone else gave me the sensation of her fist meeting my gut. Kari's smile calmed a little.
"I'll take that for a 'no', then."
She gave me a sidelong glance, and I suddenly felt nervous.
"So, what do you intend to do about the present situation? I mean, if you don't like any of them, then you obviously won't date any of them…"
Now her gaze at me was somewhat speculative, I could almost see the wheels turning in her head and there was this weird gleam in her eye.
I was suddenly afraid.
Very afraid.
Like Rika's holding me by the throat and accidentally discovers my good luck charm afraid.
"W-What?"
"How about I be your girlfriend?"
I heard wrong. That much is obvious. Kari could not have said that. But what else could she have said?
"Come again?"
She had on a mischievous grin. Never a good sign. Never.
"I said, I could be your girlfriend."
My face paled.
"I like living. Your brother would kill me."
Kari waved her hand dismissively.
"Nah, he won't be a problem. And if he is, I'll straighten him out. Besides, I bet the rumors are flying already anyways."
"What?!"
She looked at me like I was stupid. I apparently am stupid, but that's a story for another day. Or maybe it's simply this story. Hard to tell. Possibly both.
But in any event, she arched an eyebrow at me.
"I bailed you out twice today, remember? It's already commonly known that TK and I broke up, and you and I being seen together so much so soon? If it isn't already common knowledge, it will be by the time school starts tomorrow."
I would have broken down and started sobbing at this point, but I felt it was necessary to save my few remaining shreds of dignity for now. Instead I tried to get out of it.
"Now, now, it's not that bad. I'll survive, there's no real reason for you to do this…"
She smiled a little.
"No! No. It's okay, really. Besides…"
"Yes?"
Why must my life suck so much?
"It's not like I'm being completely unselfish here. I was thinking that maybe this would get TK to stop being such a jerk."
My eyes nearly bugged out of my head.
"Um, Kari? I don't think that's a good idea. In every single TV show I've seen with this in it, it never works out. Let's just quit while we're ahead."
Much to my horror, she just dismissed my comment.
"Oh, come on Takato! That's TV, and this is real life! It can and will work here, I promise!"
There wasn't a heck of a lot that I was allowed to say to that.
I'm going to regret this. I just know it.
Even if Azulongmon's restrictions hadn't been in place, I wouldn't have had the heart to tell her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I looked at Izzy a little questioningly. He seemed to be having trouble, well more than usual, expressing himself.
"I guess I'm not really sure what to say here. I don't even know if I should be talking about this now, it seems a little insensitive to me, what with everything that's going on in our lives right now… I should just forget about it…"
I grabbed his arm as he tried to rise and forced him back down onto the couch.
"No. Tell me. You started for a reason. I want to know what's wrong."
He looked at me, and his eyes looked haunted.
"I guess… I'm scared."
I frowned.
"Scared? Scared of what?"
He sighed.
"Scared of loosing your friendship."
I smiled reassuringly at him.
"You aren't going to loose my friendship, Izzy. I promise."
He shook his head.
"It's not that simple. You'll look at me differently after this. It'll be… awkward."
I frowned at him again.
"Well, you've got nothing to loose. It'll be awkward anyways, now that I know you're keeping something from me."
He nodded slowly, then looked away.
"I-I think I'm… falling for you…"
My eyes widened a bit.
"Um, how long has this been going on, Izzy?"
"Since about when you moved here."
I nodded a little, deep in thought.
Well, that explains a bit. But, how do I feel about Izzy?
I pulled out of it a few seconds later, and he was looking at me, fairly afraid of what I might say or do. I looked at him, and began to speak softly.
"I… I remember when we fought MetalSeadramon - Michael's, not the other one. You were right there with me Izzy, comforting me. You were also there whenever I needed a hand with something, even if it was just an ear to listen. Those are things a good friend does."
I smiled a little more reassuringly at him, pulling my mouth into a small grin.
"I also remember the 'dates' we had to throw him off. I really had fun on those. And having a great time together is almost a prerequisite of being good friends."
I stood up then, and offered him a hand. He took it, albeit somewhat cautiously.
"But I also know that some of the best relationships grow out of friendships."
His eyes became as wide as dinner plates as they filled with hope.
"And I'm willing to give it a try if you are."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The phone rang, so I picked it up.
"Hello?"
[Kenny?]
I blinked.
"Oh, hi Yolie!"
[Are you doing anything tonight?]
I winced a little. This would hurt.
"Um, actually, Davis and I were going to go see a movie…"
[Oh.]
That's odd, she sounds more sad than angry… What's today? Am I missing an important date or something?
I glanced at the calendar.
No. I'm not. That's funny…
"What's wrong Yolie?"
She sighed.
[Nothing, really. I'm just bored to tears, that's all. Kari's busy with something else, I couldn't get any details out of her.]
I smiled a little, and it showed in my voice.
"So I'm the second choice? I'm insulted!"
[Oh, be quiet you! Um…]
"Yeah?"
[Any chance you could come over and see me after the movie lets out?]
I frowned.
It'll be kind of late, but…
"Sure. I can stop in for a bit, but I probably shouldn't stay too long. It's a school night after all."
[Great! See you later Kenny!]
"I'll see you later Yolie."
A few minutes later, Davis knocked on the door.
"You ready Ken?"
Veemon poked his head in.
"Yeah, you ready?"
I grinned. It had been a while since we'd hung out like this.
"Absolutely. Oh, and I promised Yolie I'd be over after the movie, so we can't mess around too long afterwards."
He rolled his eyes as I bent to pick up Wormmon.
"And the old ball and chain calls."
"And you wonder why you can't get a steady girlfriend."
He shrugged.
"Ah, I'll settle down eventually. But probably not anytime soon. Let's just go."
"Right."
The movie was surprisingly good for something that Davis picked out, and with a few more cracks about my relationship with Yolie, we laughingly parted ways.
"You sure you'll be okay Ken?"
"Sure, Yolie's house is only a few blocks down, you know that."
Davis smirked, and then headed off to his car. Wormmon safely in my arms, I started walking.
Then it happened.
"TRUMP SWORDS!"
I didn't stop to think, I just dived out of the way as four swords impaled themselves in the ground I was standing in only moments before. The ground exploded in a shower of stone, sending me smashing into a wall. I groaned and turned back to see a smirking Piedmon.
Oh no. Where's Davis when you need him?
"Wormmon, GO!"
"Right Ken!"
Digivolution_
Wormmon digivolve to… Stingmon!
Piedmon grinned.
"Oh please, you think you can stop me with an champion? I'm invincible!"
"SPIKING STRIKE!"
I pulled out my D-Terminal to try t get a hold of someone. And promptly cursed.
It was smashed, broken beyond repair.
Of all the days to not have a cell phone…
"Looks like we're going solo on this one Stingmon."
"Don't worry Ken, we'll make it!"
Piedmon laughed as Stingmon's attack did absolutely nothing against him.
"Really? Better pray for a miracle then boy. TRUMP SWORDS!"
Stingmon managed to dodge three of them, but the fourth caught him.
"STINGMON!"
Digivolution_
Stingmon digivolve to… DinoBeemon!
Perhaps the biggest bug digimon I had ever seen, DinoBeemon looked like Paildramon gone wrong, being quadruped with the majority of him looking like Stingmon, but with the arms and tail of X-Veemon. He had a spiked collar around his neck, which amusingly still had the blue bandanna under it.
DinoBeemon charged.
"IRRITANT BUZZ!"
"CLOWN TRICK!"
Piedmon dodged and countered, and DinoBeemon barely dodged.
"HELL MASQUERADE!"
DinoBeemon slammed into Piedmon's chest, who just smirked.
"You really think you can hurt me?"
Then he slammed his elbow down onto DinoBeemon's next, snapping the spiked collar, sending him slamming into the ground. He struggled to stand. Piedmon just looked amused.
"Still with us are you? Well, I'll fix that."
He then bodily picked up DinoBeemon, which was shocking because DinoBeemon had about double his bulk. Then he threw him into the building above me, and debris came showering down, nearly beating me senseless. Piedmon just smirked. My ears were ringing, and I could barely hear him.
"Goodbye boy. TRUMP -"
"…DESTROYER!"
Piedmon looked left just in time to see twin black bolts of energy slam him into the building across the street as BlackWarGrowlmon came forward. Then Angewoman swooped in and began picking the rubble off me while I struggled to stay conscious. Piedmon got out of the wreckage. He glanced around as a car screeched onto the scene and Davis got out looking shocked. He smirked.
"Ah, it seems more have arrived to play. You get off easy for now boy."
Then he flew behind a few buildings. Takato was about to start after him, but BlackWarGrowlmon held him back.
"I can't sense him anymore Takatomon."
He sighed, then they turned to come help Angewoman and Kari pick rubble off me while Davis started dialing franticly on his cell phone.
That was about all I saw before I passed out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I yawned and looked over at an insistent tapping on my window.
What the…
I ran for the window and opened it, letting Gomamon inside, tears streaming down his face.
"It's horrible Sora!"
Oh no. What happened to Joe?
"What happened Gomamon?"
He sniffed, and started rambling.
"I tried Izzy's place, then I was going to Tai's but I came here because it was closer, and then…"
"Gomamon! What happened?"
He looked up at me, a helpless look in his eyes.
"Joe's gone, Sora! And I don't know where he is or how to find him!"