Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Digimon seasons or any of its characters. The plotline is based off a Manga titled "Penguin Brothers", which has not been licensed in America. I don't own that either.

Shades of Gray: Chapter 10
"Don't do anything stupid, Yagami!" Sora yelled behind him. "Fighting isn't going to do anything right now!"

"Tch," he spat as he rolled up his sleeves, "We gotta settle the score, Takenouchi. They're not leaving until we make them leave."

"I'm afraid I can't stop him," Hikari sighed, leaning against a pillar. "There's no use stopping those guys if my brother's already in the way."

"Wait…!" Sora ran out and reached for his sleeve, which she – unfortunately – missed as he lurched forward the same time she did. He began to take down the gang members, one by one. However, one came up and smacked him with a bat, bringing him down.

Suddenly, sirens roared louder. Mimi took noticed of the police cars approaching their high school. "Did someone call them?"

No one spoke up.

"Damn it, Taichi's totally into it," Jyou cried. "I begged Hikari for nothing! All that effort wasted!"

Sora began to push her way through the gang members. "Yagami, get out of there or you'll be caught! Yagami!"

There was no response. The crowd was way too large to find out where he was, even with his huge mop-head.

"Stop it, Sora, you'll get hurt!" the blue-haired boy cried, trying to follow after Sora. He mustered up his courage and began to randomly hit people. "Didn't I ever tell you physical labor isn't a strong point of mine?"

"Can I go in?" Ken asked Hikari with a grin. "This looks fun."

"No," she said sternly. "This is pointless now. My brother's too stubborn to listen to us."

He tilted his head. "Hm… Perhaps. Don't you think the police arrived too fast? We weren't even ten minutes into the fight."

"I didn't notice," she shrugged. "It's not our problem now."

"All of you over there, don't move!" a policeman shouted. Behind him appeared to be an entire squad.

Taichi felt his arm being pulled. "Stop it, Takenouchi!"

"You have to run, the police are coming!"

"Jyou, take care of her!" the boy shoved her away.

Sora stumbled into Jyou, who began to pull her out. "But, Taichi…!"

"He'll be fine, WE need to leave," he said seriously. Reluctantly, she went along.

"The police arriving too early makes me suspect someone knew this was going to happen," Ken said. "Can you show us the video, Koushiro?"

I wonder what's going to happen to him… Sora thought. Juvenile detention? Jail? Court?

"Here, watch this." Koushiro connected the videotape onto the computer and played it. "They were obviously speaking, but the sound card was broken," he sweatdropped.

To everyone's shock, the person helping Taichi Yagami was his adversary: Yamato Ishida.

The video commenced. After their conversation, Yamato kneeled down in front of him and sliced the ropes with a pocketknife. He proceeded in giving the knife to Taichi.

"He GAVE a knife to a guy like HIM?" Mimi nearly fainted. "What's wrong with this guy?"

"And you became a White for him…" Miyako sniggered. Mimi flustered.

Ken spoke, "Well, this is all very interesting."

"Can you guys not tell Yamato we know about this?" Koushiro asked. "It might be better this way."

"Sora just took off running to the student council office," Hikari pointed.

He smacked his head into the keyboard. "Damn it."

Yamato heard footsteps getting louder. He stood up, about to walk to the door when it slammed open, revealing Sora.

"Why did you untie Taichi?" she panted.

He sat back down and propped his arm on his desk. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't act dumb, we saw the video camera! You untied him with the knife and gave it to him! I suppose you reported him to the cops as well?"

The Student Council President was silent for a moment. "Ah, a video camera. I guess I didn't think about that." He rolled his chair back and stood up. "It's out in the open, then. My association with him, too?"

"The sound card was broken." She said bluntly. "Spill."

He flinched. He knew it was a mistake saying that. "Anyway," he diverted the topic. "I don't know why you're blaming me. I got rid of an obstacle. Perhaps now it's easier to change things around here now that he's gone for a while."

Sora frowned. "Are you saying you did this for me?"

He smirked and looked away at her. "And if I did?"

She clenched her fists and stomped over to him. Sora grabbed the top of his shirt and pulled him so he would look at her. "Why don't you look at me when you speak?"

A pair of azure eyes gazed at her.

"Huh?" Sora released him and placed her hand over her forehead. "Didn't I do this before?" A swing… Those blue eyes… "Didn't I… say this to you before?"

When she looked at him, his eyes were different. They looked hopeful.

She stepped back when he began to walk towards her. What is he doing? She finally found herself stopped against a bookshelf. He trapped her between his arms. Sora had never realized how tall he was when he leaned over her.

"Do you remember yet?" he asked softly.

She arched a brow. "Are you trying to seduce me?"

His eye twitched and he dropped his arms. "Forget it."

This is pointless. He's not going to say anything else about Taichi, the girl growled. She walked towards the door, but stopped to say one last thing. "If Taichi had stabbed someone… or gotten stabbed himself… I would have never forgiven you!" she shouted, and ran out of the room.

The boy sighed, closing his eyes and sitting back against his chair. He ran a hand through his blonde strands. He nearly jerked in surprised when Koushiro was suddenly appeared before him. "What do you want?"

"To say you're her enemy is a lie," he said firmly. "You're always protecting her, aren't you?"

He remained silent, but kept his eye level with him.

"It started out when you gave her your Physics book so she wouldn't have to open her putrid-smelling locker. You helped her to the clinic when she took the attacks from Ken. You protected her at the masquerade. You released Taichi and gave him a weapon. And I know you called the cops to stop him, too. You don't do these things… without a strong feeling to back you up. I know how you feel."

Yamato narrowed his eyes. So he likes her too… The blonde smirked. "Forgot about Mimi already?"

"If you don't take center stage, I will," Koushiro challenged, ignoring his comment. "I don't intend on losing someone again."

"Taichi's been suspended for about 4 days now…" Jyou sighed. "It's been very quiet without him. I'm sure everything will go crazy when he comes back next week."

"However, I'm very impressed by the large increase in Grays," Ruki smiled. "Soon enough this segregation will be eliminated."

Kouji shrugged. "The deadline's coming up soon, you know. We have about 3 weeks until the challenge is over. If we don't get enough Grays, all this work will be for nothing."

Izumi nudged him. "You're so pessimistic."

"Where's Sora?" Takuya questioned. "Shouldn't she be here by now? She almost never misses a meeting."

"Koushiro said he had to visit someone," Jyou responded. "I think Sora went with him, too."

"What the hell?" Taichi's eyes widened at all the pages of notes Koushiro handed to him. "Am I supposed to care about school right now? I'm in a freaking hospital!"

"Listen, exams are coming up," the boy said. "If you don't pass, Sora will feel responsible since the gang members were after her too."

"So you like her, hmm?" he grinned.

"I do," he said, blushing a bit.

"What happened to Mimi?"

Koushiro sighed. "She doesn't pay that much attention to me…"

Taichi patted him on the back. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"No, you aren't!" he snapped. "Just study, okay?"

Yamato ambled his way down the sidewalk. He donned jeans and a brown trench coat over a black long-sleeved shirt. A dark blue scarf was wrapped around his neck. His hands were stuffed in his pockets. He sighed. I'm not going to have this peace when Taichi comes back.

Suddenly his cell phone rang. He answered unwillingly. "Hello?"

"Hey there, Yama-kun. How are you doing?"

He hung up. A few seconds later his phone rang again. He kept it a few inches away from his ear when he clicked it.

"YO! How could you do that to me, you jackass!"

"I hate being called that. I'll kill you if you say that name again."

"Hmph!"

"What do you want? It's been nice not having you around lately."

"I'm bored, so I wanted to know what was going on over there."

"It's almost time to determine the winner of the deal."

"Time flies, doesn't it? I really hope you're doing your best to stop her."

"I don't really care. I just went along with you so I could become head of the school. Same with you isn't it?" Yamato asked, slightly amused. "At least to achieve a position that gives you the freedom to do anything."

"You think you sound so cool and smooth, huh?"

"Let me ask you," he continued. "Why didn't you use the knife?"

"Let me ask you why you gave me the knife."

"I was curious to see how far you would go in fighting."

"Or is it that you really want me to stay away from Takenouchi-chan?"

His eyes widened at the statement, and before he could respond, the boy had hung up.

Sora strolled through the park. I know I know something about Yamato… There was something about us a long time ago… but what? She had asked her father if he remembered anything from her childhood, especially friends or enemies. He told her to bring him by to see if he maybe remembered his face.

And to her luck, she spotted Yamato not too far away from her. She ran up to him. He stared at her, angry. "What do you want?"

"You looked nicer when you're not wearing a uniform," she teased. Is he blushing? Or just really angry at something?

"I know you didn't frolic over here to say that."

"So blunt," she sighed. "Let's go on a date!"

Koushiro spotted the two walking towards the museum, which was not far from the hospital. "What are those two doing…?"

And he, being the curious boy he was, decided to follow them.

"These paintings make you feel at ease, huh?" Sora smiled.

"What did you ask me here for? I know your motive wasn't really a date," he replied bluntly.

"It was… ah!" Sora waved. "Yuta-san!"

A young man around the upper-thirties turned to them. He had medium length black hair that clashed with his crimson eyes – eyes that Sora had.

She walked over to him, ushering Yamato to follow along. "This is my Uncle Yuta. But actually, he has raised me since I was very little, so he's practically my dad. The paintings in this area are all by him!"

Yamato bowed, keeping his eyes on Yuta. "Hello."

"This is the boy I mentioned before. Maybe you two know each other!" Sora pulled on her uncle's sleeve. "Does he look familiar?"

The man studied his features. "Unfortunately, this is the first time we've met."

Damn… Sora felt defeated. I thought I was on to something.

"Hey, Sora, could you go to the store next door and get me some cigarettes?" He pulled out a wallet and handed her some cash.

"Isn't this a non-smoking area?"

"Please, I can't leave my place today."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. Sorry Yamato, I'll be right back."

Yuta kept watching her back until she had left the door and turned. "Well, she's gone now." He looked over his shoulder at Yamato. "Long time no see! It's been what, nine years since I've seen you?"

They know each other? Koushiro stayed hiding behind a pillar. What's going on here?

"I knew I recognized you," Yamato said, "but I decided to play along with your game."

"So you do remember me! I used to play with you all the time when you were little."

The boy twitched. "You call that playing? I was running away from you."

Yuta crossed his arms and smirked. "Still pissing people off, huh?"

Yamato shifted his weight to one leg. "What happened to Sora? She didn't forget me… she doesn't know me at all! Like only one part of her memory is gone. Please tell me what happened."

"So straight forward, as usual," the man grinned. His features suddenly stiffened. "You were one of Sora's most important friends back then. So I'm going to tell you, Yamato-kun."

To Be Continued…