-clears throat- Kouichi ISN'T DEAD!

Chapter 10 - Ice Cream News

"Speech"

'Thoughts' 'Memories'

'Telamon/Takuya's thoughts'

Telamon landed on the ground, smoke circling around him. His hands were smoking too. He landed ungracefully and cursed under his breath for his blindness. Standing up, he shook his head and turned to leave. Two steps later, he tripped on some rubble and face-planted.

"Dammit!" he growled. He punched the ground. "Is it even worth it?"

'Yes...It has to be! But...what if I messed up? What if my multi-colored, tormenting, yet still strangely beautiful memories-' -tape winds down-

-Authoress looks around- What? -sigh- Ok! I'll cut it out! Just don't hit me with a brick! -tape starts up again-

'Yes...It has to be! But...what if I messed up? What if, even with my memories, I couldn't do this right?'

"I just want...to know who I am..." he stood up and ran off, somehow missing all the rubble at his feet by mere inches. "Somebody tell me who I am!"

-

"Here you are." a nurse wearing white, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a strangely white smile laid the tray next to the hospital bed.

"Uh...thanks." Kouji waved slightly as she left, then looked at the food. He grimaced.

"Come on Kouji." Zoe said from her bed, to the right of his. "Hospital food isn't all that bad. At least it's food!"

"Yea, and your nurse is way prettier than mine." J.P. complained softly from the bed next to Zoe's. Zoe glared at him. He sweat-dropped.

"Can we watch the tv?" Tommy asked. "I'm bored." He was next to Kouichi, who was next to Kouji.

Indeed. They were told that they'd be free to go that afternoon, in about 3 hours actually. But until then, there was nothing to do but sit and think, stare, or watch tv. They'd been put in the same room because all the kids, 'cept Kouji - who had been sleeping, insisted on it. Zoe reached out and grabbed the remote from the table between her and Kouji and clicked the tv on.

News. She clicked 'channel up.'

"Hey, Go back!" Kouji ordered softly.

"Huh? Alright...Boring person.." she clicked back to the news and they all gasped.

Fire. Smoke. Rubble. There was a story on the fires.

"Turn it up." Kouichi said softly. Clickity click.

"Over the past week, many fires have been lit, all over the city." the male reporter was saying.

"Good, right at the beginning."

"So far though, there have been no casualties. The only wounded victims were five children-"

"We're not kids!" J.P. said angrily.

"-who were found with slight burns on their backs from exposure to the flames."

"What about us?" Kouichi asked, looking at Kouji.

"Police have been searching for the arson culprits, but so far have come up with nothing."

"Well duh. It's a digimon!" Zoe said as if the reporter were stupid.

"Late last night, the arsonist struck again, this time on a larger scale than ever before. Which leads us to believe that more than one person is behind this."

"Blindness doesn't seem to be slowing him down at all." J.P. commented.

"This time, instead of a thought-to-be random target building, or forestry, the culprit struck on a large area and made, a pattern. Julie, over to you."

"A pattern?" Tommy wondered a loud. The screen switched to a woman reporter with long black hair and eyes. She was in a helicopter that was flying over what appeared to be the city.

"Thank you Tom!" she started. "You just mentioned the 'larger scale' and 'pattern' that the arsonist has moved to. We believe it's the culprits way of teasing the police. The message written on the ground appears to be a riddle of some sort, leading investigators to believe the culprit or culprits are teens between the ages of 14 and 18."

"So? What's it say?" Zoe asked impatiently. Kouichi and Kouji 'shhh'ed her.

"In this shot, we can read the 'message.'" The camera switched from Julie to the ground from high above. Written across the city, were the words- "It says, 'Who Am I?' We are still looking through all the evidence, and have no real idea what it means. The good news, no one got hurt in this possible terrorist attack. Back to Kuwashima, in the studio."

"Yes well, that's all we know on that. We'll get back to you with more information, when we get it. Until then, we hope those kids are ok."A slightly chubby guy said.

"Yea right. They don't care a lick about us!" J.P. said loudly. Zoe put her hand to her chin.

"What d'you suppose that means? 'Who Am I?'...Who am I..." she muttered, like a mantra.

"Kouji?" Kouichi asked. "You got any ideas?"

"Ya! You were the last of us to see him before passing out, right? You should know something. What d'you think?" Tommy asked, edging to the side of his bed closest to Kouichi and Kouji.

Everyone was now staring at him. He looked at them and sighed.

"Alright..." he gave in. "You wanna know what I think?"

"Yea." J.P. muttered as the others nodded. Kouji took a deep breath and they got ready for a long one...

"I think that Telamon is actually Takuya being controlled by the digimon named Matamon and being forced to work for their leader Heraldomon. I think that Heraldomon destroyed Baronmon when he blinded Telamon and then gave the data to Telamon so he could see, which is how he could fight so well. I think that Matamon can control and alter the mind, wiping Takuya of all his memories of us or his past in particular. I think that Takuya was actually going to kill us last time, having become so mad he didn't care what he killed as long as he killed. I think that Takuya didn't kill us because he remembered something and I think that's why he ran off."

"I think that's the meaning of the message. I think Takuya is confused about who he is because he looks like a digimon and had only known being a digimon until his memories came back and he started remembering human things. So he doesn't know if he's Telamon or Takuya but I think he's Takuya because he obviously knows me. I think that the first two times we saw him he was being controlled and that after that was when he got his memories erased, seeing as how he stopped pausing at that point."

"And, going off subject a bit. I think Baronmon was power hungry, Matamon is a bit queer, and Heraldomon is just the idiot ordering them all around." Kouji took a deep breath and stared at their confused looks. "What?"

No one spoke...

-

Three hours later, they were released from the hospital, still not having said anything to Kouji about his rant.

As they were walking, the others kept glancing at the loner, who tried ignoring this. A shadow flew passed a small alley near them and Kouji's head snapped in that direction.

'What was that? It wasn't Takuya, or Matamon. It might've been Heraldomon, but I doubt it. To small. I've seen it before, but where?'

"Kouji?" he blinked and looked around. The others were 3 steps ahead of him, looking back. Apparently he'd stopped walking as he thought. "Are you alright?" Zoe asked.

"Yea. I'm fine. Just thought I saw something..." he glanced back at the alleyway, then followed the others.

Once he was gone, a grey digimon with black claws and a white stomach popped it's head out from the alley. There was a black ring on it's almost spiky tail. His ears were long and stood up slightly and were slightly spiky like it's tail. His eyes were surrounded by a thin line of black, like it was wearing too much make-up. He cracked a smile, revealing tiny fang-like teeth. Then it frowned again.

"No sign of Lord Telamon..." he jumped off the trash can he was standing on. "Lord Heraldomon won't be happy about this one." he shrugged. "Ah well, I'll keep looking. How hard can it be to find a blind digi-kid?" and he ran off.

-

"The Gazimon are out searching as we speak. The rain has stopped. The children are out of the hospital. And they have yet to find Telamon themselves." Matamon said in an almost monotone. Heraldomon smiled.

"You seem quite happy about that Matamon." he commented on the slight happy tone to the monotone. Matamon flinched. "But yes, that is good news. As long as they don't find him first, we have a chance to reclaim him for ourselves."

"That is our goal for now." Matamon spoke. "The one true goal of Lord Heraldomon, to rule over the human and digital worlds."

"Indeed, quite right." Heraldomon said, suddenly happy. "Make sure the Gazimon don't slack off, I'm going to go plot!" he ordered in a sing song voice. Matamon bowed.

-

"What makes you think Matamon is queer?"

Everyone but Zoe face planted right into their ice cream. She looked at them.

"What? What'd I say?"

"Zoe..." J.P. started, wiping chocolate strawberry swirl ice cream off his face.

"What made you ask that?" Kouichi asked, dragging a finger along his cheek through vanilla ice cream, staring at it, then eating it. "Hm, not bad." he smiled.

They were sitting in a nearly deserted ice cream parlor around 4 in the afternoon. Tommy had insisted ice cream as a pick-me-up of yesterday. It was nearly deserted because everyone was at home with their families fearing a terrorist attack or at work, worrying. So they were the only ones here besides the workers.

"Nothing really, but Kouji said, when he went off subject, 'Matamon is a bit queer.' I was just wondering..." Zoe explained, taking another bite of her ice cream. All of them had gotten ice cream in a bowl so that they could get more ice cream. Apparently they were also good face magnets. -snigger-

Tommy was laughing as he and Kouichi ate ice cream off their's and each others' faces. Tommy made a face.

"Ew. Vanilla and Mint chocolate chip don't mix well..."

"I think it tastes great." Kouichi laughed.

"You're really weird..." Tommy said, and they went back to their own ice cream bowls.

"Well, he's always hanging around Takuya, and he always stares at him. And that comment...'He takes last night as some kind of betrayal'..." Kouji stopped as unwanted pictures filled his head and made him shudder.

"Kouji, you pervert." J.P. started laughing. "You really think Takuya, if this is Takuya, you really think he'd just let someone do something like that to him?"

"Uh..." Kouji paused.

Dark Inner Kouji - "Come on! You know you were hoping he would!

Light Inner Kouji - "No! He has a choice who he wants! It doesn't have to be you!"

Dark Inner Kouji - "Shut up pixie. You and your high squeaky voice!"

Light Inner Kouji - "High and Squeaky? What about yours? It's always cracking...LIKE AN OLD BRIDGE!"

Dark and Light Inner Kouji start beating each other up.

Kouji waved away the inner him's with a blink and a shake of the head. But he still had a slight imprint of a him dressed in black with wings whacking him dressed in light blue with wings over the head with a telephone pole...

"No." he answered.

"Of course not!" J.P. agreed. No one knew of the interaction going on in Kouji's head, for which he was grateful.

"We should really be looking for him, you know?" Kouichi stated calmly, pulling ice cream from his hair as he spoke.

"But we don't know where their hideout is." Zoe said dumbly.

"He's not with the others." Kouji muttered.

"What?"

"That message, plus the fact that he ran off, and didn't disappear with Matamon, mean he's probably somewhere in the city. Blind, confused, and alone." Kouji explained. He still had ice cream on his face.

Tommy laughed.

"Kouji's serious look is funny when he's covered in ice cream."

The others had to agree, it was pretty funny. Kouichi gave his brother a towel to wipe his face with.

"Thanks." once the ice cream was gone. "We should start looking as soon as possible. But this time, you can go home at 8." he was saying this because all their parents were nervous because of their hospital visit.

"Alright then. Let's go!" Zoe stood up and put her empty ice cream bowl on the counter before leaving. The other's followed suit, J.P. was last.

"Aw, come on guys! Why am I the one paying?" he asked, but they were already out the door. He paid and then left.

"We'll split up." Kouji pointed and they went wherever he told them to.

-

'I don't know this place...'

'But...I do know it...'

'What is this place? This house?' He didn't know how he knew his surroundings, a whisper of a memory...perhaps...

'Who lives here? Me?'

'And that's? A mom? My mom?'

'Mom! Look over here, please!'

'No, don't look. I'm not your son anymore...'

'Damn! This sucks! Who am I exactly?'

'This woman, this place! It all seems familiar...'

'But strangely...distant...'

'I'm sorry...'

'Good-bye...'

-

Shinya looked out the window a second after the shadow in the trees disappeared. So he didn't see anything.

"Mom, it's getting kinda late. What's for dinner?" he asked, acting like nothing was wrong.

"In a minute Shinya."

-

'8:00...' Kouji sighed.

"Today went by fast..." he muttered, walking down the street towards his house.

He looked at the ground as he walked, like usual. He was nearing the opening in the wall that surrounded his house. He paused at a rustling in the bushes. A moment later, he kept walking.

Another rustling. As he turned to stare at the trees and tall bushes on the other side of the wall, something jumped out of one of the trees.

"Ah!"

Chapter 10 End!