Chapter 4

There was a boy: navy blue, spiked hair, purple tinted glasses, wearing a blue, black, and white suit, complete with a cape around him. He wore a stern, angry look on his face. In his hand, he held a whip. With it, he was whipping strange creatures, forcing them to work tirelessly to no end. He was shouting at them, and laughing every now and then.

Suddenly, a little green bug-like creature appeared behind him. "Master?" it called.

The boy turned around, narrowing his eyes behind those glasses.

"Maybe you shouldn't make them work so hard," the thing suggested. "Or at least give them a break."

"Don't talk!" the boy ordered, whipping the creature. Then he added, "Ever!"

"What happened to the kind boy I once knew?" it asked.

"Don't you ever listen!" The boy whipped it. "Here's a suggestion: Why don't YOU go work with them!" He whipped it again. "Go, NOW!"

Ken opened his eyes. He looked around, finding himself in his room. 'What a strange dream,' he thought, with images of the harsh boy and the weird creatures stuck in his mind. He sat there for a moment, pondering what it could have meant. Then he shrugged, figuring that it was only a dream, nothing more.

He got up and tiredly and made his way to the kitchen. He sat down at the table, yawning. There was no one in the room. He yawned again, then laid his head on the table, shutting his eyes. And sitting there, half asleep, he heard whispers and a quiet sobbing. It provoked a curiosity in him, and he got up and made his way toward the soft sounds. They lead him to… his parents' room.

He stood right outside the room, silent, listening carefully:

"Oh, I feel terrible," came his mother's voice.

"I know," his father told her, "and so do I."

"We're not good parents," Mrs. Ichijouji said.

"It's true," Mr. Ichijouji agreed.

"We went wrong when Ken was just a little boy, and look what's happened now. We can't do anything right."

Ken peeked around the corner, just enough to be able to see. He caught a glimpse of his parents. The two of them were sitting on their bed. His mother had her face buried in her hands, crying, and his father had an arm around her. The sight touched him.

"And what about Sam?" Mrs. Ichijouji went on. "Everything we've ever done has been wrong."

"Sam…" Mr. Ichijouji muttered.

"We're a failure as parents."

Ken stepped into the room at that moment. "Mom," he said soothingly, "don't cry."

She looked up at him.

Then Ken turned to his father, who was about to cry too. Ken wriggled in between them, and put an arm around each of them. "You're not failures," he said.

His mother complained, "But, yesterday, you said…"

"I didn't mean it," Ken told her. "I've said a lot of things I didn't mean in this past week. I've been so mean to you… I didn't mean it. I didn't mean any of it."

"Really?" she asked.

Ken nodded.

His mother hugged him, squeezing him so hard that it hurt. His father, too, had his arms around him. Ken never said a word, but it was that moment that he knew they were real. The embrace, the tears, the love… It was all sincere. He knew that he could trust them. Though he didn't quite know everything to them, he knew that they true; that fact he remembered.

The next day…

"What'd I tell ya, Ken?" Davis asked, grinning. "I said I'd put together a meeting and I did! Any moment now and we'll be at the park!"

Davis sat next to his sister, Jun, who was driving, and Ken was in the back seat. He was nervous.

In a few minutes, the car came to a halt.

"Here we are!" Jun exclaimed. "Have fun boys!"

The two friends got out of the car. Davis looked over at his buddy, inquiring, "Think you're ready for this?"

Ken examined his surroundings. The park seemed familiar, in an odd way. He didn't exactly recognize it, but he knew somehow that he had been there before.

"We're gonna meet in the middle of the park," Davis explained, "and… Oh! I forgot to tell you! Yolei can't make it."

"Which one is she again?" Ken asked confusedly.

"Oh, come on! You know!"

Ken shook his head.

"I know you know! Come on, come on, come on, think!"

Ken shut his eyes tightly, thinking hard. "Oh, that's right," he said then. "She's the one with lavender hair and glasses that's clinging onto me in the picture." He smacked his forehead. "How could I forget?"

Davis shrugged. "Don't worry about it, man."

And then they appeared: TK Takaishi, Kari Kamiya, and Cody Hida. They greeted Ken cheerfully, each shaking his hand and introducing themselves. Then, the five of them sat on the ground in a circle.

"I'm sorry about what happened," Kari said. "Just thinking about it makes me feel horrible. But we're going to help you, Ken."

"Yes," Cody told him, nodding.

"Thank you," Ken said gratefully.

"Now, Ken," TK said, "does the word 'digimon' mean anything to you?"

Clueless, Ken asked, "Digi… what?"

"Digimon," TK repeated.

Ken stared at him. "No. What is it?"

The other digidestined exchanged nervous glances.

"Digimon is… uh…" Kari began. She then looked over at TK, who, in turn, looked to Cody, and Cody looked to Davis.

Davis shrugged. "Ya know," he said, "it's… um… a computer program! Yeah, that's it! A computer program."

Ken, puzzled, further questioned him: "What about it?"

"Oh, you were just… really… well… involved in it. Yeah. Involved. Like a hobby!"

"I don't remember anything about it," Ken said.

"Anyway," Davis said, changing the subject, "Yolei couldn't make it cause she's working at her dad's convenience store. Bummer, huh?"

Kari nodded.

"Especially for you, huh, Ken?" Davis joked.

Ken ignored him.

"Hey guys, I had this awesome dream last night!" Davis exclaimed.

"Let me guess," Cody said, "Kari was in it?"

"Nah… I mean… Yeah, but she was just cheering for me!" He winked. "Yeah, that's right. I was playing basketball, a one on one, and who was my opponent?" Grinning, he pointed to TK.

"Me?" TK asked.

"Yep! We were playing, and Kari was there, cheering for me, but it wasn't just her. Cody, you were there, and you too, Ken, and Yolei. All my friends were cheering for me. In fact, the whole crowd was! And who was winning the game, huh? I was, of course! By a long shot! TK, you couldn't even make a single basket! In the end, I won it all! I'm not even gonna tell you what the score was cause it would be so embarrassing for you, TK!" With that, Davis laughed.

TK rolled his eyes. "Not even in your dreams, Davis. Not even in your dreams."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You couldn't beat me."

Davis glared at him. "Oh yeah? I'll take you, one on one. Right here, right now! Somebody give me a basketball! I'll show you!"

Kari giggled. "Davis," she said, "you're funny. There's no basketball court here."

Davis blushed. "Oh, that's right…" Then he crossed his arms angrily. "Later then. Alright, TK? Next time we get together, it's on! I'll kick your butt!"

TK rolled his eyes again.

"You know," Ken said thoughtfully, "I had a dream last night too."

The others looked to him curiously.

"It was about this really harsh boy. He was whipping these weird creatures and ordering them around, making them work non-stop. And then there was a little green bug that came to him- he called him 'Master'- and told him that he should stop making them work. He just yelled at it, whipped it, and then made it work with the others." He shrugged. "Talk about weird, huh?"

The other digidestined looked at each other, all of them frowning.

"The Digimon Emperor," Kari whispered.

Cody nodded.

"What should we do?" TK asked softly.

"I don't know," Cody replied.

"Yeah, that's pretty weird," TK told Ken nervously.

"Think it means anything?" Ken asked.

"It could," Cody told him.

"But I doubt it!" Davis piped in.

"It's too… um… too strange to mean anything," Kari said.

All of the others agreed.

The day had gone fairly well. That everybody agreed on. But there were still worries and concerns in the back of the other digidestineds' minds…

After their meeting with Ken at the park, the four of them stopped by Davis's house to have a talk.

"How are we supposed to explain the digital world to Ken?" Kari asked.

"We can't," TK answered. "I thought maybe he might remember it, but I guess not. His amnesia must be serious."

"It is," Davis told him. "He's forgotten practically everything."

"But we can't hide it too long," Cody said. "Sooner or later, something's bound to slip out. Like mentioning one of our digimon or something."

"And besides," Kari added, "Minomon's depressed. He needs Ken."

"There's gotta be some little memory stuck in his mind somewhere," Cody pointed out. "I mean, he did have that dream about the Digimon Emperor."

"Yeah," Davis agreed, "but we couldn't even try to explain the digital world to him. He wouldn't believe it. We've gotta keep our mouths shut till he gets his memory back."

"But what if that's not for a long time?" Kari questioned worriedly.

Davis shrugged. He didn't know the answer to that question.

No one did.