One of the most frustrating things about the way TRI was written—at least, from my perspective—was the fact that certain moments were necessary to further the plot, yes, but still kind of just happened with little explanation regarding the HOW or WHY.
Ironically enough, this is one of the biggest issues I'm facing right now.
This chapter, in particular, gave me several headaches that ended up delaying its completion because I was worried about writing myself into a corner too soon. I'm not going to lie and claim that I have 100% of this story outlined and ready to go. I really don't. What I do have is a broad outline and a scattered array of very specific scenes and plot points I'm trying to jigsaw together. It's not easy, because that leaves the original problem of giving the WHY and HOW...as well as an additional dilemma of figuring out the WHEN, since I'm not following the original canon time-line as closely.
Part of me is worried this will make the story feel too rushed. Then again...the true start of this story is when things are happening so I figured I might as well begin there.
o
DIGIMON TRI: BALANCE
o
The streets were filled with screams of chaos. People ran in all directions. Some remained frozen to the spot in a sort of terrified awe; it was these individuals Taichi had to watch for most, so captivated by the monsters battling hundreds of meters above they would have missed getting run over by a train, let alone a teenaged soccer captain.
As it was, he utilized ever soccer skill committed to muscle memory to weave through the dense population.
"Hikari!"
He paused only once at one of the larger intersections, cupping his hands over his mouth to amplify his voice. A few seconds of no response, and he took off once more. Around him, people were beginning to take shelter in some of the street shops, peppering the display windows and open doorways with wide-eyed expressions. A few officers were scattered, doing their best to maintain professional composure all while unable to hide the uncertainty in their own expressions.
His sister was nowhere to be seen among them.
"Hikari, where are you?" Calling out once more, Taichi nearly tripped at the sound of a large crash came from above.
He looked up, and to his horror, saw the pair of Digimon for the first time. Parrotmon, a being he could have recognized in his sleep, was fighting...at a glance, he could have sworn the silhouette bore a resemblance to Greymon, with that horned helmeted head, but a second glance revealed a much leaner frame. The wings were wrong, the way it moved...so erratic, but swift. Limber. Each time Parrotmon let out a cry, it was because his opponent had struck yet another blow. High and higher into the sky, only to turn around and send it crashing directly into one of the rooftops below.
The impact not only sent a shock-wave even Taichi could feel from where he stood, but sprinkled the streets below with debris.
Still...Taichi's eyes narrowed. It was clear to his trained eye the difference in power levels between the two, and yet…
"He's holding back." He watched Parrotmon move to stand, head shaking in attempt to brush off the latest blow, only to get knock right back down again by the mysterious opponent. "He's not trying to win. Or Parrotmon would've already...it's more like he's trying to...distract? Contain?"
A few more steps, and Taichi rounded the next street corner. Only then did he realize there was a third figure involved. One significantly smaller than the other two, and standing on the edge of the opposite rooftop. Something in their hand glinted in the afternoon sunlight, and Taichi's eyes widened.
"Is that-?"
Movement. To his left.
Taichi spun on his heels, fists clenched at his sides...and saw his sister standing nearby.
"...Hikari!"
A heavy weight lifted from his chest as he signed in relief, quickly jogging over to her side. But if Hikari was aware of his approach, she gave very little indication. She too, was staring up at the ongoing battle. Brows furrowed in concern. A hand pressed to her chest. Occasionally, her lips would press together and her fist clenched that might tighter. Like she were in pain.
"Hikari..."
In pain, but unafraid.
Her eyes continued to follow each subsequent attack above with a practiced precision, taking in anything and everything she could. Not for the first time, Taichi was reminded of just how used to fighting his little sister was. How much of their life had been spent either actively involved, or paying witness.
No wonder she had yet to run away. Nor bat an eyelash at his approach, only turning to him when he gently tugged at her arm.
Their eyes met, and though Taichi could see his own certainty reflected in her eyes, it faltered at the reluctance in hers.
"...I know. Trust me, Hikari, I get it." His words were calm and calculated, in direct contrast to the rapid pounding of his heart. "But Agumon and Tailmon aren't here. There's nothing we can do."
For roughly half a second, it looked like Hikari would argue. Instead, she closed her mouth and nodded. Taichi's hand slid down her arm until it found her hand, clasping it firmly in his. Unwilling to risk getting separated again. With one eye lingering on the ensuing (albeit increasingly one-sided) battle above, he started out. Hikari was less than a step behind.
Hikari's cell rang. She used her free hand to reach into her pocket and answer.
"Hikari-chan?"
Takeru's voice stopped her in her tracks; feeling the pull, Taichi stopped as well, turning back in question. Her eyes remained locked with his and she nodded.
"We're here." She responded to the unspoken question. "Where they're fighting. A portal opened up in the sky as I was on my way to meet Miyako-san."
"So she's there with you now?"
Hikari shook her head. "No. Oniichan is."
"Taichi-san?" Hikari waited for Takeru to say more, but it was a series of muffled voices and audible distortion that followed. The phone was being shuffled around, and when things settled, it was Yamato's voice she heard next: "Put him on."
She pulled the phone away from her ear just long enough to stare at it before obliging, handing Taichi her cell without explanation. He, too, seemed confused at the situation, wondering what Takeru needed to say to him he couldn't say to Hikari. However, he barely had time to lift the receiver to his ear before they both heard Yamato shouting from the other end:
"ARE YOU ALLERGIC TO ANSWERING YOUR PHONE?!"
Wincing, Taichi recoiled back so quickly he nearly dropped the phone. He allowed a split second's time to glare heatedly at it before switching the audio to speaker instead.
"What are you, my girlfriend?" He snapped back, not waiting for Yamato to respond before adding: "I don't have it on me. The minute I realized what was happening, I took off. My bag's still at school."
"Is there anyone else with you?" Takeru's voice came through, most likely in an attempt to curb a potential fight between the older boys.
"Yeah. A bunch of people panicking." Taichi frowned as he looked around. The crowds had thinned considerably in the last thirty seconds, but he could still hear screaming in the distance. "It's like Vamdemon all over again."
"Or Hikarigaoka," Hikari added softly.
As was often the case with the young girl, there was something about the way she spoke the name of the Chosen Children's former home that gave Taichi pause. He spared her a sideways glance, only to find her looking up once more. Still taking in the battle.
On a hunch, Taichi followed her gaze. He saw...essentially more of the same.
"Taichi!"
"Taichi-san!"
A pair of voices called to him in the distance, and when he looked in the direction they came from, he saw two varying shades of auburn making their way over.
His lips twisted upward in an amused smirk. "Sora! Koushiro! Over here!"
The former appeared to be having a much easier time of things, jogging over to the Yagami siblings with a weak, if concerned, smile. Koushiro, meanwhile, arrived seconds later with slightly flushed cheeks and an audible heaviness to his breathing. He stopped to rest his hands on his knees, slightly hunched over as he managed to get out:
"Good thing..." a gasp. "...we were out…" another gasp "...shopping today."
"What's going on, Taichi?" Sora's attention was split between the Chosen leader and the battle above. "Why are there Digimon in the real world again?"
"I don't know." He shook his head before turning to Koushiro. "I thought you said the portals were all closed."
"They...were..." Allowing himself one last, deep breath, the Chosen of Knowledge shrugged the backpack from his shoulders and knelt down. Undoing the clasps, he reached in and pulled out his favorite PinApple brand laptop—a recently upgraded model. The three remaining Chosen gathered around him as he opened and booted up the device, rapidly inputting a series of commands to pull up the desired program. An 'error' message popped up, and he shook his head. "They still are. We can't get through."
"And yet they did."
A fourth voice drew everyone's attention then, and they turned to find the Ishida/Takaishi brothers walking up the opposite street. Yamato made sure to send a fleeting heated glance Taichi's way—which the brunette promptly shrugged off—before coming up on Koushiro's other side, next to Sora.
"How'd you two get here so quickly?"
Maybe it was the casual nature of the question itself, but despite the current situation, Sora found herself rolling her eyes. "We were on a date." She echoed the same flat tone she'd given Taichi earlier.
Yamato snorted. "Yeah, right."
Below, the clacking of keys paused just long enough for Koushiro to mutter: "...seriously, why is it that hard for people to believe?"
"Hikari-chan..." Takeru spoke up then, and it was the concern to his tone that drew everyone's attention. Including the aforementioned girl, who seemed equally confused until he stepped forward and indicated downward. "You're bleeding."
Sure enough, when Hikari looked down, she saw a gash on her leg several centimeters in length just above the ankle. Her torn sock was drenched in blood on one side, parts of it so over-saturated that trickles were making their way down the side of her school loafers.
The crash. When the above debris hit the ground, she must have been hit in the leg. In the heat of the moment, with so much adrenaline coursing through her veins...not to mention, distracted by her mysterious savior...she hadn't even noticed.
When she looked up again, Takeru was standing in front of her. He hesitated just long enough to smile reassuringly before tilting his head to remove the scarf around his neck. Then he knelt down and—as she watched in a silent awe—used the fabric to blot some of the area around the injury. Just enough to stop the trickling. From there, he wrapped the entire scarf around her leg several times before tying it off. Tight, but not so tight as to restrict movement.
Once satisfied with its security, he rose to his feet, smiling brightening as she continued to stare back with an unreadable expression on her face.
"...Takeru-kun..."
Several seconds of silence followed, in which the pair were either oblivious to or uncaring that they were being closely watched by both their brothers. And Sora, who looked equal parts worried and intrigued.
It was Koushiro's laptop that finally broke the spell, drawing everyone's attention back to the present. Wordlessly, the six of them crowded around to get a good look at the data filling in.
An image of Parrotmon appeared first, along with the usual Intel. None of it new. He was still registered as a Giant Bird Type at the Perfect Level. He still bore two Holy Rings, one on each ankle. His two main attacks involved flying at the speed of sound to create a series of shock waves and generating electricity in its feathers.
"Neither of which I've seen it do." Yamato pointed out.
"Probably because it hasn't had the chance." Taichi looked up just in time to see Parrotmon take another harsh blow to the sternum, and winced. "There comes a point when you almost start to feel sorry for him."
"Is there any way to tell if he's the same one from before?" Sora asked.
Koushiro shrugged. "There's no way of knowing for certain. Statistically, there's always a chance. If it saw a portal and recognized it for what it was because it had gone through one before. One this one didn't open up in the same place as it did ten years ago."
"Ten years ago, our time." Sora lightly amended. "The worlds were out of synch at one point, remember? We don't know how long it would have been for them."
"Actually-" Koushiro began, looking quite pleased with himself, before he was once more interrupted.
This time, by Yamato: "What about the other one?"
The question gave him little time to mourn the lack of shining spotlight. All the more because the process to identify the second Digimon would take longer. They were fighting at a greater distance, and he had even less information to go on. Still, once he managed to hone in on their signatures and filter out Parrotmon's data, a new entry appeared.
It was blank.
Koushiro blinked once at the vacant spot where the image profile would normally go. Twice at the distinct lack of characters filling in the text boxes. "What do you mean there's no data? There's ALWAYS data!"
"Maybe your database is out of date?" Taichi suggested.
Koushiro looked offended for a solid three seconds before realizing he had no adequate comeback.
"It's more than that..." Everyone turned back to Hikari, and she indicated upward. "Look. Around Parrotmon's ankles. Where the rings are."
They looked
For several tense seconds, their eyes remained locked on Parrotmon. Focusing on its legs. It was almost impossible to see, and at one point, even Koushiro was tempted to give up.
But then, Takeru let out a sharp gasp: "There!"
A flickering of sorts. Like static, only pink. Focusing primarily in the area around the Holy Rings. Each time it appeared, Parrotmon gave a loud screech. One that could easily be mistaken for a battle cry, particularly as its opponent continued to gain the upper hand. Blow after blow ensued, though with noticeably less intensity than before.
Parrotmon was weakening. His opponent not only recognized this, but was showing mercy.
"He's in pain." Hikari's knuckles were practically white. Her arm trembled, to the point where both Takeru and Sora were tempted to intervene. Yet she stood her ground, showing no other signs of wavering as she turned back to the others. Confident. "Whatever that is...it's hurting his heart."
Not one of them questioned how she knew this.
"Are you sure it's the cause?" Takeru asked gently, though even he seemed nearly convinced it was. "He's fighting a losing battle. It could just be the attacks."
"Or an updated version of his electricity-based attack." Koushiro suggested. Sounding even less certain than Takeru.
Hikari merely shook her head.
o
o
High above, the hooded figure was similarly focused on the pink static. Diverting his attention away from the battle long enough to check the readings on his wrist device.
"That's it." Confirmation aside, he was less than pleased at the finding. A deep frown appeared as he straightened before cupping his mouth with both hands and calling out: "Don't touch his legs! Aim for the wings!"
A growl was the only verbal response. Short and curt, like the Digimon equivalent of a snort.
Allowing a sheepish smile, he shrugged. "Right. You already knew that, didn't you?"
In an attempt to further prove his point, his partner proceeded to wait just long enough for Parrotmon to take a sluggish swipe at him before dodging back. But not before executing a spinning kick to his shoulder, just hard enough to knock the Giant Bird Type flat on its back. His body twitched several times before falling still.
"See, now you're just showing off." His partner grinned, hands proudly coming to sit on his hips. The air of victory lasted approximately three seconds before the air between them began to twist and warp, and he recognized what was happening even before the portal ripped open. "...oh, now it decides to show up. How thoughtful."
A series of nonverbal gestures were exchanged, and the remaining conscious Digimon lifted his foe over his head. Quite the site, given the blatant size difference between the two. Yet Parrotmon may as well have been the size of a Chuumon, for all the effort it took to roughly toss him off the roof, directly into the open portal.
"You did it." Her voice rang in his ear, and he couldn't decide if she sounded relieved or proud. He liked to think it was the latter. "Now see if you-"
Not for the first time, however, he ignored what she had to say next in favor of exchanging a look with his partner. And a knowing grin.
In near perfect unison, the two jumped from opposite sides into the air, only to be swallowed up by the portal just before it faded.
o
o
"NO!"
The young woman shot up in her seat, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. For the next few seconds, she heard nothing but the sound of blood pumping in her ears. Saw nothing but the vital signs being displayed across one of the smaller screens. A hand came upon her shoulder, attempting to offer a comforting weight, but she quickly shrugged it off and stepped forward.
Reaching up, she pressed on the ear piece in desperate attempt to detect even the faintest sounds indicating-
"You know, if I lose hearing in that ear, I won't be able to hear you yelling at me."
At the sound of his voice, strong (and cocky) as ever, she felt her knees go weak. Closing her eyes, a single deep breath was all it took before she slowly lowered herself back in her seat.
"Maybe if you stopped doing stupid things all the time, I wouldn't have to yell at you." She replied after a moment's pause. Her voice not even cracking once. "What do you think you're doing? That wasn't part of the mission."
"It kind of is. I mean, we need answers, right? Can't think of a better place to find them than here."
"No, what we need is help. According to our readings, six of them were right there."
"But not the rest. Including the Wild Card." There was a moment of auditory distortion, and she felt her heart start to speed up again before his voice returned. "Besides...it's getting late. You know I'll have a much better chance of finding a good place to sleep here than there."
"But-"
"Sweet Dreams!"
The gentle click of him disconnecting on his end may as well have been a thunderous boom, the way it echoed in her ear. Recoiling, she was left for several seconds afterward in a stunned silence. Jaw slack. Waiting for him to reconnect and tell her he was just joking.
Ten seconds such signal came. Slowly, she removed the headpiece from her ear. Knowing it would be hours before he attempted contact again.
"Well?" A deep voice from behind asked. The only one who dared speak because he was the only one not intimidated.
She allowed herself time to remember herself before turning back with the most deadpan tone she could muster: "If he manages to survive all this, I'm going to kill him myself."
Behind the cigarette, his lips twitched upward.
o
o
o
It was a little difficult managing the bottle of sanitizing alcohol in one hand, cotton swab in the other, and balancing her cell against her ear, but somehow, Sora prevailed.
Her mother was taking the news surprisingly well. Sometimes, she forgot just how much credit the older woman was owed. For all the early years of strenuous relationship between them, she had been one of the first to come around to the idea of her daughter being a Chosen. Rivaling Hikari and Taichi's mother only in terms of accepting nature towards the Digimon and what their continued presence in the Real World signified.
"I'll be home in a little while, mama." Sora reassured on her end, wiping away the last of the blood from Hikari's leg. This gave her an opportunity to finally put down both the swap and bottle, freeing her hands enough to alleviate the burden from her neck. "Right after dinner. Yagami-san insisted I stay." A slight pause, and she bit back a small laugh. "Of course I'll tell her you said hello. Bye-bye."
With the conversation ended, Sora returned her attention to the young girl sitting on the bed...and her smile quickly faded.
Hikari looked about a million miles away. Barely flinching as the alcohol came into contact with her open wound. Nor did she respond to the pressure of the gauze Sora pressed against it. Nor the bandages tightly wrapped around her leg. They were large enough to be obvious to anyone, even beneath her knee-high socks, so perhaps it was fortunate for her the attack had been so public this time. She wouldn't have to think of some other excuse for the injury.
Satisfied with her work, Sora stood up, looking to Hikari for a response. She received none, and when she followed Hikari's distant gaze, she saw her looking at the bloodied scarf sitting on the edge of her bed. Takeru's scarf.
"I can wash that," Sora offered.
But Hikari shook her head. "No. I'll do it." She leaned over just enough to pick it up, holding the stained fabric in both hands. "It's the least I could do."
"It was very kind of him." Sora commented lightly. Watching Hikari's expression carefully for any signs of a reaction as she came to sit on the bed beside her. "He still looks after you, even now, doesn't he?"
She expected a smile. Or at least the ghost of one.
"...I wish he wouldn't," the younger girl murmured softly as she got up.
Sora followed her movements in confusion, wondering what she meant by that.
o
o
Taichi was sitting on the couch in the main room, leaning forward with his arms resting on both knees. His mother was in the adjacent kitchen, sipping from a glass of juice as she added a bit more seasoning to their evening meal. At one point, she asked him something about setting the table. He didn't seem to hear.
Instead, his eyes were glued to the news broadcast discussing that day's attack. Stock footage of past Digimon sightings, some consisting of amateur video footage while others still images, flashed across the screen while the reporters did their best to explain away the event.
"I can help," he barely registered Sora's voice emerging from Hikari's room.
"That's sweet of you to offer, Sora," his mother tutted in return, and he could have imagined her waving a dismissive hand if he bothered to pay the conversation more attention. "But just because I think of you as a daughter doesn't mean you're not still a guest. Unless you think you can grab Taichi's attention long enough to get him to help you."
A few more exchanges between them followed, but Taichi was instead drawn to the sudden shift in weight as Hikari came to sit beside him. He glanced at her leg just long enough to affirm Sora had done a fantastic job seeing to her leg before returning to the news broadcast.
The anchors were talking about Hikarigaoka now, and his frown deepened.
"What are we going to do, Taichi?" Sora asked him, coming to sit on his other side.
His hands gripped the remote tightly. "I...don't know." He answered truthfully. "Part of me wants to believe this was a one-time thing. But we know better, don't we?"
Her silence was one of affirmation. Weight awkwardly shifted against the seat, and it was from sheer exhaustion alone that Taichi allowed himself to relax against the back cushions, sinking into them with the weight of everything he was feeling right then.
"Koushiro said he was going to look into it." Sora spoke up again, even though she was only repeating what they already knew. "He still has contacts all over the world. With luck, one of them might know something."
Taichi sat up at that, her words recalling something else to mind: "What about that guy on the roof?"
"What guy?"
"He looked like Gennai." Hikari spoke up then, and they both turned to look at her. "But it wasn't him."
"You could see from that high up?" Taichi asked, brows raising.
She shook her head. "No."
"Then how…?"
"Who was he, Hikari?" Sora asked.
There was a long pause on her end.
"...I have no idea."
The weight of those four words, coming from Hikari, of all people, left Taichi and Sora in an uneasy silence.
Koushiro was generally considered the uncontested Genius of the group. He was the bearer or Knowledge, after all. But there were often times when even he would concede to Hikari's eerily confident awareness of things regarding the Digital World. And if this was something even she had no answer to? Not even the slightest inference?
For perhaps the first time since their Digital World Adventure began, Taichi had the feeling they were navigating completely uncharted territory.
o
o
o
The room was dark. The curtains, drawn. Only the faint glow of the computer monitor provided any light at all, casting shadows upon the young woman's face that made her seem far older than her years.
As did the deep frown she bore.
"I realize this is not the time to say 'I told you so'-"
"Then don't," she snapped at the man on the other end of the line. Unflinching at either the low chuckle it earned her or the way the screen flickered in and out as a result of the weak connection. "It's nothing we weren't already prepared for."
"And yet he somehow managed to get the jump on you so quickly, he took out the threat before you had a chance to mobilize."
"He got lucky," A very unlady-like snort echoed into the air. Leaning back in her chair, she folded her arms across her chest. It was a subconsciously defensive movement the man seemed to pick up on, and the second she caught hints of a smirk on his irritating features, she dropped the arms to her sides. "This whole damn department was created specifically for this reason. To study. To train. To prepare."
"And to protect," He added, though they both knew well enough she hadn't intended any more. It was as if he were finishing a moto not her own. "Yet, despite all that, it still won't be enough."
"You don't know that."
"Actually, I do. Better than you think."
"You don't know what I think."
"Wrong again. I know exactly how you think. Because I thought the same way. We all did. And, just as you will be, we were buried by our own hubris. In the end...they truly are the only ones who can make a difference."
She snorted again, uncaring at the lack of professionalism in her response. "You're telling me I should leave the safety of this world to a bunch of children."
"Children who have literally been fighting this fight since before your Department formed."
She opened her mouth to comment back, but hesitated when another figure stepped forward. The only other person in the room, and not because he'd been granted permission. Still, she turned to acknowledge him with the thinnest of patience.
"I think you should hear him out."
"Don't think," She muttered back. "You're no good at it."
"Harsh." He sounded undeterred by the biting comment. Far used to her demeanor. Especially when she knew she was in a losing battle but prepared to fight to the end. "You can get your own coffee next all-nighter, then."
An awkward cough interrupted them. "Much as I hate to disrupt a good lovers' spat, I still need an answer."
"And here's mine."
Practically slamming her hand down on the keyboard, she ended the connection right there and then. The smug face she was already growing to hate was replaced with a black screen, its surrounding illumination allowing her own scowl to reflect back at her. As did the face of the man behind her.
"If you're going to stand there and judge me, you may as well give me something useful in the meantime."
His reflection looked close to mirroring the smug man's for a split second before a cough to cover it up, followed by the retrieval of a small envelope. When he spoke next, he was reading from its contents.
"Two are still unaccounted for, but the rest are set to convene Friday evening. It's unknown whether or not they're aware of the American's presence." A pause, and he risked closing the file before, in a more personal tone, asked: "Should we intercept?"
"If you still need to ask me that, you really are no good at thinking."
Tempting as it would have been to smile, he instead maintained his professional aura as he clicked his heels together, straightening his posture. "Ma'am."
With that, he turned to exit the room and convey the new orders. The light from the hallway was bright, and she averted her eyes until the door clicked shut again, leaving her alone with her thoughts.
"...he thinks I don't know." She sat back in her chair with a heavy sigh, eyes falling to a small picture frame on the edge of her desk. "But the truth is...we knew better than anyone. Didn't we, Tapirmon?"