"Sins of the Father"
5. 'Scared'
"I think there's something out thereI think I heard it move
I've never felt like this before.
I wish you never told me
I wish I never knew
I wake up screaming
It's all because of you.
Scared and lonely
You won't be scared
You won't be scared and lonely
You won't be scared, you won't be lonely."
Three days grace 'Scared'
A month had slipped by very smoothly while the Chosen Children waited with bated breath for the next disaster, which they knew, was coming. After all they had spoken to the Digidestined from their mirrored world and knew what was supposed to be coming.
Ken and Miyako had spent the past month getting much closer to one another. She was helping him dramatically in grieving for and getting over Osamu's death. Daisuke helped too, though in his own unique way of getting Ken involved in a sport he hadn't played in years, which was a pity because he was an excellent soccer player.
Kouen had finally gotten a job, thanks to Miyako. She was working the tills at Miyako's parents' shop. Shinsei cared for Sam while Kouen was working, which suited the Oracle fine, since she loved Sam and was able to keep a close watch on him. Kouen and Ken had noticed this about Shinsei and questioned the young woman about her reasons. Kouen seemed quite panicked about it, but Shinsei had reassured the redhead that her son was in no immediate danger.
Hikari was paying for some snacks from Miyako's store, for a meeting that was to happen in the next hour, where all the Chosen would discuss the lack of activity going on, and she grinned at Kouen as she paid.
"What?" Kouen asked finally.
"Oh nothing, only that guy over there, has been checking you out since he stepped into the store."
Kouen looked over Hikari's shoulder and noticed a tall young man in his early twenties. He had jet-black hair that was long, though not as long as Ken's and his bangs hung in his deep brown eyes. Kouen felt a sudden jolt in her stomach that she couldn't quite place, but knew that the last time she had felt that, was when she first looked at Osamu.
Kouen thrust Hikari's change into her hand and said shakily, "So what if he has been checking me out, I'm not interested."
Hikari inclined her head, "Kouen, Osamu was the only guy you ever went out with and now, well now he's gone…it's time you moved on."
The redhead opened her mouth to yell at Hikari but felt the air escape her lungs as if someone had hit her in the gut. She closed her mouth again and sighed heavily, "I'm not ready Hikari, and I feel like I would be betraying Osamu some how."
Hikari picked up her bag and shrugged, "I'm not saying marry the guy, just…talk to him at least."
She smiled kindly at Kouen and left the store with a tinkle of the bell.
Kouen busied herself with neatly stacking the magazines in their racks when the young man in question approached her, "Kouen?" he asked quietly.
She turned sharply, "How do you know my name?"
"My name's Akihito, I was one of the resistance members last year. I was a friend of Mike's."
"Oh," she studied his face but still couldn't place it.
"You probably don't recognize me. I understand, things were very confusing during that time. I'm…well, I'm sorry about Osamu." His voice was full of compassion and it made her smile for some reason.
"Thank you." She said quietly.
"Didn't you have a son?" he asked innocently.
The smile slipped off her face, "Yes I did, how did-?"
"Mike told me."
"Oh, how is he?"
"Doing alright." Akihito glanced Kouen up and down, "You can't tell you know."
She frowned, "Tell what?"
"That you had a baby." He looked up into her face and smiled genuinely, "You're still as beautiful as you were the first time I saw you."
Kouen was taken aback, "I-I…um…"
"I know you're going through a rough patch, but could I possibly ask you to dinner?" his tone was kind and gentle, and his voice had a soothing effect on her.
She searched her brain for some excuse to say 'no', but she could not find one and so sighed and said, "Alright, I suppose dinner couldn't hurt."
----
Kouen entered her apartment to find Miyako, Shinsei and Sam all in the living room. "Not everyone here yet?" she asked as she put down a bag of groceries.
"No, just me." Miyako informed her and went to help Kouen unpack the food, "The others should be here soon though."
"Where's Ken?"
"He's up on the roof."
Kouen paused and looked up slowly, "He hasn't been up there in years."
Miyako nodded and smiled grimly, "He said he thought it was time he went there."
Kouen put down the bottle of baby food on the counter and moved passed Miyako, "I think I'll go check on him. Would you mind seeing the others in?"
"Not at all."
Kouen turned and marched to the door and then down the corridor to the elevator. She pressed the highest numbered button and as the doors closed, she felt the jerk of the elevator as it assented the building. When it stopped, it's steel gray doors opened and she went to the stairs leading to the roof.
She stopped when she saw the tall young man with chin-length indigo hair doing Tai Chi.
The sun was low in the sky and was casting long shadows over the roof.
She closed the door quietly behind her and moved over to Ken. She paused when she saw his eyes were closed.
"I thought you never wanted to come back up here?" she said quietly.
Ken opened his blue eyes and regarded her for a moment, "That was a long time ago. It was something I needed to do. We had good times up here."
Kouen smiled despite herself and nodded, "You used to blow bubbles up here for hours."
"And then we used to train up here." He added quietly.
"Who knew we would use those skills against him?" she sighed heavily. "How are you doing?"
"I'm…all things considered, I'm doing better. My grades are back where they should be, which means I'll graduate with colleges begging me to go to their schools. I've been visiting my parents more often now, and things are better between us. We talked for hours the other day…about him and, well, things are okay now. Miyako and I have gotten a lot closer too. I've been thinking of asking her to marry me…after I have a job of course, but I don't know…"
"She'll say yes." Kouen promised.
"How do you-?"
"I've seen the way she looks at you Ken. And the way she missed you when she was in…in the Base. She's in love with you."
For the first time in a long time, Ken smiled a genuine, heart-bursting smile. It was so infectious, Kouen felt herself grinning too.
"We should get back downstairs, the meeting should be starting soon."
Ken nodded and followed her to the door.
When they reached the apartment, they walked into the living room to see all the Chosen Children, along with Shinsei and Sam.
They sat down and Daisuke took this as the introduction of the meeting.
"Well, I called this meeting because we all know that we aren't out of the hot water yet. We know there are other things to come, but I don't know about anyone else, but I'm feeling very unnerved by this eerie calm that's taken over the Digital world."
Takeru nodded, "It's like the calm before the storm."
"Actually, I'm pretty sure that's exactly what it is." Ken said darkly, "We may have – thanks to Kouen – been able to stop Blackwargraymon from destroying the Destiny Stones, or whatever they are called, which kept the balance of the worlds in order, but we haven't stopped everything the Digidestined warned us about. We know that when the fabric to both worlds was disrupted, the Digidestined went off for a while to gather up and send back a bunch of Digimon to the Digital world. Clearly, this hasn't happened for us, so the next disaster we had to face was the kidnapping of those kids, who as my double had pointed out, might be teenagers now. But so far, nothing, no news of any of this. Which makes me think, why don't we go after this Owikawa guy before he comes after us?"
"NO!" Kouen burst out suddenly and everyone turned to her sharply, "Ken, you know what will happen if he gets his hands on you! Which means that he will get to the Digital world, thanks to your Dark Seed and turn into Malomyotismon. We can't have that."
"Actually," Shinsei said quietly, though her voice shivered with energy, which made everyone shudder and face her, "We can. More than that, we should let all that happen."
Kouen and Ken frowned, but Miyako was the one to ask, "Why?"
"Because, I have told you many times before, Fate and Destiny are twins, though they are similar, they are not the same. Things happen for a reason, even if the path that Fate has mapped out for Destiny changes, Destiny will still get her way, because Fate plans many forks in the path."
Everyone stared at the young woman with long black hair and pale blue eyes. She didn't speak often, but when she did, the Chosen often found themselves unable to understand what she was saying, which was a big pity because when she did speak, it was often with high importance.
Ken seemed to figure out what she was saying, "Do you mean, that even if I tried to avoid being kidnapped, it would happen anyway?"
Shinsei nodded, "Things happen for a reason." For some reason, she said this looking directly at Kouen who shifted and looked down at Tailmon.
"What about them?" Hikari asked, seemingly reading Kouen's mind, "Davis seemed concerned that our digimon had not leant how to DNA digivolve, which means we can't fight Maloyotismon, we're not strong enough."
Suddenly Kouen understood what Shinsei had said through the look in her eyes and frowned at Hikari, "You have me. I'm a god remember? Maloyotismon should be a breeze to defeat."
Ken felt a horrible sensation in his gut when she had said the word 'god' and he looked up to correct her, "The Spirit is a god, Kouen, not you."
She sighed, "You know what I mean."
"So are you saying," Demiveemon butted in, "that we aren't going to fight?"
"We could try, but like Hikari said, we aren't strong enough." Tailmon replied, "We should leave it up to Kouen."
"So," Daisuke said after a beat, "that's it? We're just gonna sit around and wait for the fight to come to us?"
"It's all we can do." Takeru breathed and folded his arms.
"Well, if that's everything," Kouen began, "I have to get Sam bathed and fed and then to bed."
Daisuke nodded and stood up, followed by everyone else.
Ken saw everyone to the door and then returned to Miyako who had stayed in the lounge. They watched Kouen pick up Sam and move to the bathroom with him, closing the door after her. Shinsei drifted off to her room and closed the door behind herself too, leaving the two alone with Wormmon.
The lavender-haired woman sat next to Ken on the couch and rested her head on his chest. "Something is bothering you." She stated and Wormmon looked up but said nothing.
"Hmm?"
"Something about Kouen."
"It's…well, it's…ever since Azulongmon told her that the Spirit in her is a god, she's gotten…well I guess a 'god complex' or something. I think we're relying on her too much, it's not right. What if she's not there to help us?"
"But you told me that she's immortal." She said sitting up to look into his worried face.
"I said she's invulnerable, and even so, there may come a time where she is unable to fight, who knows." He sighed heavily, "Maybe I'm just paranoid."
"No, you worry, it's what you do." She ran her hands through his hair and kissed him, then looked back into his face, "You worry about her too."
He nodded, "She's lonely Miyako, she doesn't have some one to…to hold her, like you hold me when I need you. I sometimes think she'll never love anyone again."
Miyako gave him a wry grin, "I wouldn't think that, Hikari told me that this hottie was checking her out this afternoon and after she left, she saw them talking and it looked promising."
Ken smiled and felt his heart lighten, "I'm glad. I know she keeps telling me to grieve and move on, but I think she needs to take her own advice too."
After about two hours, Kouen exited her bedroom wearing a long violet, figure hugging dress that reached her ankles, with thin straps over her shoulders and a glittering silver butterfly motif on her left breast. She wore black strapped sandals with a slight heal, making her appear a little taller than she really was. Her copper hair was loose and her bouncing curls fell all around her. She marched into the living room, with a business-like seriousness and stood in front of them, "How do I look?" she asked desperately.
Miyako smiled and beamed at her, "You look gorgeous! Do you have a date?" she asked innocently.
Kouen nodded and smoothed out the creases in her dress by her waist, "It's not too sexy or anything is it?"
Ken opened his mouth, "It's very pretty. I've never seen you wear that."
"No, I bought it a couple of weeks ago but haven't had a chance to wear it yet."
"So who is this guy?" Ken asked sitting up.
"He's from the resistance actually." At that point Sam started crying and she looked sharply in that direction, "I better go-"
"Shinsei will see him." Ken interrupted her.
Kouen hesitated, "Maybe this is a bad idea. Maybe I should call him and cancel."
"No!" Miyako said sternly, "You deserve this, go have fun, we'll be here if anything goes wrong and we'll call you if we have to."
Still she hesitated, "I don't know."
"She's right Kouen." Ken stood up and led her to the door, "You deserve this, and you keep telling me to move on, now it's your turn."
She looked as though she was going to argue with him for a second but then her face relaxed and she sighed, nodding. She picked up her keys and put them in her handbag and left the apartment.
Ken looked anxiously at Miyako when he closed the door, "This is the right thing for her right?"
Miyako smiled wisely, "Yes." She stood up, "Now, you sit down and get the movie ready while I get the popcorn." Smiling, she marched to the kitchen with Wormmon at her heels, while Ken turned on the television and sat down.
"Thank you Miyako." Wormmon said gently.
She looked down, "For what?"
"For taking care of Ken, the way I couldn't."
The corner of her mouth lifted and she nodded to him, "I love him, it's-"
She was interrupted by the sound of glass breaking and they both ran to the living room to find Ken on his feet staring transfixed at the television, one of the glasses knocked over onto the tiled floor. It had obviously been knocked when Ken had sprung to his feet.
"Ken!" Miyako breathed, "What is it?"
"We should have known. We should have kept a closer watch on the news, but we were too busy with…" he trailed off as he turned up the volume. Miyako looked at the TV and gasped.
The screen filled with the faces of missing teenagers.
----
When Kouen arrived at the restaurant it was to find that Akihito was already sitting at the table waiting for her. He was dressed in an electric blue shirt and smart black pants. He smiled when he saw her and stood up, guided her to her seat, pulled the chair out for her and then sat down.
"Sorry I'm late," she began breathlessly, "I didn't know what to wear…it's been a long time since I've been on a date."
His eyes never left her eyes, "I think you look beautiful, and you're not late, I was early."
She smiled gratefully for the white lie. She knew full well that she was about ten minutes late but the fact that he over-looked it made her feel less nervous about the date. Osamu had always told her first impressions were important and she didn't want this hansom young man to think she disrespected him by being late.
Throughout the evening she found many traits in Akihito that she found desirable. He had a very good sense of humor, which she seemed to need. He sensed that she hadn't laughed heartily in a long time. He was also a good listener, though he did seem a bit blunt at times when he did interject, but it didn't seem to bother her. In fact, she liked the honesty.
"It must have been hard for you, having Sam when Osamu was gone and Ken was the Kaiser."
Kouen nodded, "But Ken's back to himself now and he's been a great help. I guess we sort of hold each other up in a way. What about you? Did something happen to your family to bring you into the resistance?"
Akihito took a sip of his drink and set the glass down again, looking up at Kouen he replied, "My father was captured and turned into a Sniper…he was killed while in the Kaiser's duty. My mother and I live alone now."
Kouen blanched and opened her mouth to say she was sorry but Akihito cut across her, "It's okay, I don't blame Osamu, it's not his fault. He was taken over by something evil and he didn't know what he was doing."
Kouen's mouth closed and formed a grim smile, "How are you so understanding?"
He smiled and inclined his head, "I guess because not many people understand me, I am able to understand others well." He shrugged, "Anyway, lets change the subject. I take it you didn't choose to work in a grocery store, so what's your real dream?"
She smiled and went into how she wished she could be a Sensei like her father was and run his old Dojo. The night progressed smoothly and when it came to saying goodbye, Akihito insisted on walking Kouen to her van, where he gave a small bow and thanked her for the wonderful evening. He also asked if he could see her again and after a slight hesitation she nodded and got into her van and drove off around the corner. She stopped the van and felt her heart pumping incredibly fast and a sudden lack of air in the van was making her gasp. She felt the corners of her eyes start tingling and fanned her face to force the tears to recede. A mounting guilt was filling her up inside until she could not take it any longer and put her arms and head onto her steering wheel where she burst into tears and sobbed loudly.
"Stop it." She finally told herself sternly, "Just because I really like this guy it doesn't mean I don't love Osamu any less. Besides, he's gone and he would want me to move on and be happy. I know he would."
She pulled out a tissue from her bag and dabbed her eyes dry and made a little noise somewhere between a laugh and a hiccup. She tried to start the van again but it wouldn't turn over. She sighed and pulled out her cell phone. She dialed and waited for someone to pick up.
"Hello?" Ken's voice answered through the phone.
"Ken? It's me, I'm stuck, and the van won't start again. Can you come by and pick me up? Or give me a jump start or something?"
"Okay, I'll be there in a few minutes, where are you?" There seemed to be a distracted tone in his voice but she reserved asking him for when she met him face to face.
She gave him the directions and hung up the phone. Then she sighed and turned on the radio and listened to a few songs and then finally a news report. The report of the missing children brought a sickening jolt to Kouen, where she sat up straighter and turned up the volume. The reporter talked of how several more children had gone missing over the past few days and how they still had no leads on the children who had gone missing over the past week. She jumped when Ken knocked on her window and she opened the door and stepped outside.
"Ken," she breathed, "I just heard a report on the kidnapped -"
"I know, I saw it earlier." He stated grimly.
Kouen looked about and then said anxiously, "Let's do this quickly."
Ken nodded and took out his jumper cables and hooked them up to his battery and then to Kouen's. He got into her car and turned on the engine, which fed electricity and power to her battery, enabling her to start up her van.
She got out to thank him and tell him to head home but a white truck pulled up right beside them and the back door opened. Arukenimon stepped out and walked straight up to Ken. "Ken, you and I need to have a little chat."
He narrowed his eyes at her defiantly, "Go to hell."
"Actually I was thinking that you would join me in the back of this truck." She said smoothly.
"I know what you're doing!" he spat at her.
"Good, that means less explaining. So do us both a favor and get into the back here."
He made a movement forward and Kouen ran up to him and yelled, "NO Ken!"
He turned to her, "I have to. Remember what Shinsei said? I'll be okay, but if I don't go, these kids will get hurt."
"I can kill her now." Kouen growled, indicating to Arukenimon.
"You could, but it wouldn't stop the inevitable. It's something I have to do Kouen, for some strange reason."
She frowned, looking into his eyes imploringly, "Ken…"
He shook his head gently and stepped into the truck. He looked at Arukenimon, "If I go with you, you will let these kids go right?"
She bowed slightly, "I give you my word." She slammed the door shut and the truck peeled away, leaving Kouen fuming with anger.
"Screw this!" she hissed and phoned Miyako telling her what had happened and telling her to call the others. Then she threw the phone into the van, locked it and transformed into Houomon. Using the strong fiery, feathery wings coming out her back, she took flight and followed the truck as it sped off through the streets heading for Heighten View Terrace.
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(AN: Ack, sorry, I thought I had gotten all these chapters up but I suddenly realized that I hadn't. Sorry about that. I realize that these chapters may seem a bit dull but then again re-writing the finale of season 2 was a bit dull. I added a few twists, all set up for 'Cruel Angel's Thesis'. Like I keep saying this is to bridge the gap between that story and 'Doppelgangland'. Again, if you spot an error with a digimon name or something like that, let me know so I can fix it.)