It was recently brought to my attention that I've been spelling Terriermon's name wrong for the last seven chapters. (A writer who can spell properly? Now you're asking too much, dear readers.) This was not done on purpose and has since been fixed. Honestly, "terrier" is one of those words that I'm always getting misspelling, despite the fact that...my family had a Jack Russell Terrier for over 17 years…
So. Yeah. My bad.
Additionally, I am not aware of any canon-established friendship between Dorumon and Tsukaimon. The reason I wanted to include the latter was 90% his being Patamon's viral counterpart, with maybe a touch of interest in his potential evolution line. And Dorumon was a last-minute switch from Mikemon (who would have been the Tailmon parallel) because I decided it would be more interesting to throw an X Evolution nod, given its plot similarities to TRI. Though Dorumon obviously is taking on a different role here than he did in the movie.
Finally, I thought I would just mention that, for the first time ever, I signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo this month (under my fanfic penname, of course, since I'm writing fanfic for it). Mostly to help motivate myself into keeping up with the story in between everything. (The main challenge for me has always been the fact that it takes several drafts before I'm confident enough to post, so a 5000 word Chapter has another 10,000 behind it, give or take.) I'm even including short chapter previews as excerpts.
o
o
DIGIMON TRI: BALANCE
o
o
Ken awoke to the sounds of fighting.
Slowly, he pulled himself to a seated position and rubbed the remaining sleep from his eyes. A large thud reverberated from somewhere on the opposite side of the wall behind him. He yawned, stretching both arms up and over his head. According to the clock, it was early still. Not yet half seven. Muffled cries rang out. But also what sounded like laughter. His stomach rumbled with hopes of breakfast. Someone clapped.
There were also no explosions.
That was always a good sign. If it had been any of the digimon fighting, there would have been explosions. And a lot more shouting.
There was a fresh change of clothing by the door. He took it into the adjacent bathroom to change. He used the wash basin to splash cold water on his face. A comb to smooth down his hair. He had shaved the previous day, so there was no need for that. Otherwise, his routine was virtually identical to the past four mornings.
Early morning sunlight greeted him as he stepped into the common room. He winced, allowing the time for his eyes to adjust before glancing around. All the other doors were wide open. Including Miyako's. Apparently, she was recovering from the Inter-Dimensional Jet Lag better than he.
Echoes of grunts and the occasional yelp carried into the hallway. Ken knew by now, even before he reached the entrance of the dojo, what he would see. Training. Intense training. To his and Miyako's initial shock, the "Chosen" of this world—though they preferred to call themselves Tamers—followed a regular martial arts schedule that would have knocked even Iori for a loop. Because they didn't just fight alongside their partners. They literally, and in ever sense of the word, fought with their partners.
It was still so surreal to even think about.
Somehow, even moreso than to think they did all this as part of a specialized branch of government.
His feet eventually led him to the open entrance, where he spotted Miyako sitting to the side of the center ring. Juri was with her. The two girls were equally captivated at the ongoing match, though Miyako's eyes practically had hearts in them as she watched the couple sparring.
"You're still throwing too much force into your attacks." Jian was saying as he slowly circled around his opponent. "If you overdo it, you're going to knock yourself off balance and lose recovery time."
Ruki nodded her acknowledgment. Her eyes followed his every movement as if expecting him to strike first. Her weight shifted to the balls of her feet, but she otherwise remained still. Conserving energy.
They were both dressed in top of the line workout clothes. Ken had initially assumed this was because of their government contacts, but apparently Jian's family owned a thriving dojo. They provided the equipment, while Jian—and occasionally, his littlest sister, Xiaochun—provided most of the instruction. He certainly looked every bit the part, with dark green cotton training pants that sat loosely enough on his waist to allow for maximum movement and comfort. And a white tee that clung to his lean torso like a second skin, hinting at the definition beneath it.
Ruki, meanwhile, had on a black, sleeveless crop top made of the highest quality moso bamboo with matching leggings cut just above her ankles. Unlike Jian's, her skin glistened with sweat. Given how she was clearly just as in-shape as her teacher, either she had been working out for much longer that morning, or he had only recently entered the ring with her. Even the tips of her bangs were visibly wet. Yet the moisture-wicking fabric appeared completely dry.
Jian came up on her left side, then pause. Without letting her guard down, Ruki tossed her hair from her eyes with a single, sharp jerk. Then, she dropped her center of balance and extended her foot into a low sweep. Jian jumped out of her reach, but rather than immediately counter, he simply pulled further back.
Ruki used the momentum to rapidly spin herself back up to a stand. With that same foot, she came up for a solid roundhouse kick to his side.
He sidestepped, slapping her foot away.
It dropped back to the ground, only to bounce back up for a second strike. He blocked that too. A third. Same effect.
This time, when her foot touched ground, she shifted her weight to the opposite side and threw a more forceful roundhouse with her right. Also blocked. She leaned back, maintaining enough balance to remain on her left leg while her right swung around for a more complicated hook kick. Jian also leaned back. Just enough to watch her foot harmlessly sweep the air in front of his chest.
A second of recovery.
Then she went in for a punch. Blocked. Then another. Slapped sideways. Frustration, her fists clenched at her sides. Knuckles whitening. She tried a left-right combination with neither landing.
Her next punch was aimed directly at his face.
Jian's response was almost too quick to follow.
He spun well out of her reach, one hand coming up to grab at her wrist. In the same move, he positioned himself directly behind her—and with that, twisted her arm just enough to leave her partially immobile. Ruki half growled as she swung blindly at him in retaliation, only to have him grab that one too. She struggled against his hold. He made restraining her look effortless on his part.
"Damnit, Jian! Let go of me!"
"No." Though the corners of his lips just barely twitched at her flustered outburst, he remained an otherwise paragon of calm. "Get yourself free."
Words that would have made Makino Rumiko faint in horror passed through gritted teeth as she put all her strength into fighting back. She jerked one way. Then the other. She tried to double over, hoping to slip under his left side, but his hold on her was such that she could barely move without risking pain from the awkward ankle he'd twisted her shoulders into.
She panted. Chest heaving with labored breath. Her hair had flown into her eyes once more. She tried to toss it back again, but it stubbornly fell right back down. She was growing more and more agitated by the second.
Jian saw this. And leaned in over her shoulder just enough to start whispering something in her ear.
The effect this had on Ruki was instantaneous. Her body stilled. Her shoulders tensed, then gradually slumped. She started focusing on her breath. Inhaling through her nose. Letting it out through parted lips in a slow exhale. Her breathing began to steady. Her eyelids fluttered shut as she continued to follow his ever word.
Ken heard Miyako gasp. Just before she started to...was she fanning herself?
"It never fails." Matsuda Takato appeared behind the girls, coming to a crouch directly behind his girlfriend. He too was wearing an outfit from the Lee family line, and though it fit a bit looser than those of his fellow Tamers, it still betrayed hints of his own physical strength. "Jian has to be the only person who can rile her up and calm her down in the same breath." He accepted the water bottle Juri passed back without once taking his sight off the ongoing match. "Usually, it's one or the other."
"Usually, it's just the one," Juri giggled. She risked a glance back at him properly over her shoulder. "How'd they do?"
Takato's face fell mid-sip, head bowing as he gestured to the rightmost corner of the room.
The entangled forms of Ai and Makoto could barely be distinguished from one another as the two siblings rolled around on the mat. He was pulling her hair. One of her hands was on his throat, the other trying desperately to yank his back. Both were screaming obscenities they could have only learned from Ruki.
Juri winced. "Oh, dear..."
"GAH! XIAO-CHAN!"
Meanwhile, Shiota Hirokazu was dealing with a face full of tatami after having been flipped for the umpteenth time. A split-second later, Xiaochun unceremoniously plopped the full of her weight onto his back, which earned her an undignified squawk that was partially muffled by the ground.
It was Takato's turn to wince.
Juri shook her head. "You did try to warn him."
Another body hit the mat, this time so close they could feel the reverberations beneath them.
It was Jian's.
The wind was forced from his lungs as he landed flat on his back. Before he had a chance to recover, however, Ruki was on top of him. A knee pressed firmly against his chest. Smirking in victory, she leaned down until her face was decimeters from his:
"Got you."
"You did," he croaked. Despite his defeat, there was a growing smile on his face as well. One of pride. "Guess...breakfast is on me this morning."
"Unfortunately, breakfast is going to have to wait."
Ken nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of Ryo's voice so close behind him. He turned to find the older boy standing in the doorway, eyes staring at something inside the room. There was an...odd look on his face. Ken couldn't place it. Nor could he decide if it was one he had ever seen Ryo wear before.
Though the corners of his lips did at least turn upward at the sight of Xiaochun and Hirokazu.
"Don't you think he's had enough, Xiao-chan?"
"He started it!"
"What did you mean about breakfast?" Jian asked as Ruki got off him. She extended a hand to help him to his feet. "What happened now?"
Behind them, Ai and Mokoto were also sitting up. All hints of fight having left them at the oldest Tamers' abrupt appearance.
"Yamaki wants to see us," was all he offered before turning to Ken, though he did offer a quick glance towards Miyako. "You guys too."
"Us?" Miyako blinked.
"Trust me. You're both going to want to hear this."
o o o
o o o
If the thought of government-sanctioned training was surreal enough to process, then the notion of Chosen-Tamers gathering for a semi-formal briefing was borderline disorienting.
Ken had caught glimpses of the conference room before. By itself, there was nothing impressive about it. At maybe a quarter the size of the dojo, it had bare walls and minimal furniture. Not a single piece of digital technology to be found, save for a small device he noticed in one corner of the room.
A scrambler, Juri had told them the first time he'd asked.
Which...he supposed would have made sense. Better to not risk the enemy listening in on anything that could be used against them in battle.
Oh, it's not for the digimon. Juri had chuckled to herself at the correction. It's for the press.
He still wasn't entirely sure what she'd meant by that.
One by one, the group filed into the room. Every Tamer but two, as Kenta and Alice were still out on what they called Glitch duty. Even Guardramon made a brief appearance just long enough to pass something along to his partner before hobbling off back towards the dining hall with his fellow digimon. They would be filled in later.
Ken found himself in a corner seat adjacent to Miyako. Juri took the seat a few down from them. Hirokazu seemed to make a point of sitting himself as far away from Xiaochun as physics would allow, which seemed to suit her just fine. She sat next to her brother, just as Ai and Makoto sat directly opposite one another. Ruki, on the other hand, opted to remain standing. She leaned against the wall by the door, unzipped jacket hanging off her shoulders as she slowly sipped from her water bottle.
Takato was the last of the group to enter, which made it much easier for Ryo to pull him aside. A few quick words were exchanged by the two at a volume too soft for even Ruki to hear. Takato's expression went from confused to mildly concerned to carrying hints of shock and worry. He looked to Ryo with wide eyes, receiving only a solemn nod in affirmation.
Pressing his lips tightly, the goggle-wearing Tamer joined the rest of the others in a seat to Juri's right. She noticed the change in his demeanor even before he sat down, but when she looked to him in silent question, he only shook his head.
Then scooted his chair a few centimeters closer to hers.
Yamaki stood at the head of the room, looking about as joyless as Ken and Miyako had come to expect from him. He shot a glance at Ryo, which was apparently all he needed to start handing out a stack of stapled packets. The instant they touched the desk, each Tamer began scanning its contents with habitual intensity. Even Makoto. Even Hirokazu. Juri was already flipping to the second page, eyes flickering back and forth at a rapid-fire pace.
Ken stared blankly at the cover page in front of him, unable to imagine the Chosen collectively operating like this.
Beside him, Miyako was lightly skimming it with her finger.
"I'll get right to it." Yamaki spoke as they read. "These are our updated intel gatherings, containing a mixture of Akiyama's latest reconnaissance mission as well as some new readings graciously provided from our inter-dimensional liaison."
"His what?" Miyako's brows furrowed, turning to Ken. "Does he mean us?"
Yamaki shook his head. "I'm speaking of Himekawa Maki. A name I'm sure you're both familiar with."
Again, she looked to Ken. After a second of unspoken communication between them, they shook their heads in unison.
Yamaki's brow rose from behind his trademark shades.
"NO!"
Juri shot up from her seat with such force, it knocked the chair back. She looked utterly terrified; wide eyes stared at one of the latter pages in her packet as her face went pale. Then, without explanation, she turned and made a dash for the exit.
Takato was equally startled and worried as he called after her. He paused long enough to turn back to Yamaki, waiting for the man to nod his approval, before getting up as well. His own packet lay still on the table, unopened, as he headed out the door after his girlfriend.
Ruki didn't bother seeking permission before following after them both.
Yamaki sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. "She's gotten too damn good at reading these. I was hoping to have enough time to explain before she reached that part."
"You're the one who offered to place her under Reika-san's tutelage," Ryo pointed out.
"Not one of my better decisions, apparently."
Jian's eyes lingered on the doorway. The weight of Juri's reaction bore heavily on him. More than that, it unnerved him. A lot. He may not have been as close to the girl as Takato and Ruki, but she was still a dear friend. One he knew well enough to know there was only one thing that could ever trigger her that badly.
Except…
It couldn't be.
Against his better judgment, he glanced over at her packet still sitting on the table. He couldn't read the text, but he could count which page it was on. He flipped to the same page in his own packet, and from there, began scanning the document. It looked to be a series of cross-referenced witnessed testimonies gathered in both the Tamers' and Chosen's respective Digital World.
The results themselves were inconclusive at best. But just familiar enough to cause his blood to run cold.
"That's...impossible." Eyes hardening, he shot Yamaki an accusing look. "How long have you known?"
Yamaki didn't flinch. "Only slightly longer than it took for me to properly document everything. This isn't exactly something I wanted to spring on you all in casual conversation. Especially considering it's, as of yet, unverified."
Much to Ken's surprise, Miyako too had flipped ahead. Wanting to know what could have frightened her newest friend. She seemed to not only understand most of what she was reading, but was able to absorb it. Except for one word.
A name.
"What's a...D-Reaper?" She looked up, directing her question at Yamaki. "It says here it's some kind of...mass-data program. But the very next line talks about it like some sort of sentient entity. So which one is it?"
"It's both."
It was Jian who answered. His voice low. Dark. Beside him, his sister visibly shuddered at the look on his face. There were few times Xiaochun had ever seen him this angry, and while none of that anger had ever been directed at her, specifically, it left her with an uneasy pit in her stomach.
"Jian-niichan?"
He didn't acknowledge her.
"It started out as an antiviral program, but it was uncontrolled and left to wildly absorb all kinds of data. Then it evolved to the point where its entire directive grew corrupted. Rather than just going after viruses, it tried to erase the entire Digital World population. And our World's. We very nearly couldn't defeat it, and when we did...it came with a terrible cost."
"Oi," Hirokazu chimed in. Hesitantly. He tried to smile for his friend, but it came out awkwardly. "We got our partners back eventually."
"But we didn't know we would at the time."
Ken could empathize, recalling all too painfully the time he thought he'd lost his partner. "I see. That explains Katou-san's reaction, then."
Silence.
One heavy with tension as several uneasy looks passed between the Tamers. At one point, Hirokazu looked as if he intended to comment further, until a sharp look from Xiaochun quieted him. Ken knew then there was far more to the story than he was willing to ask.
"But...how can you be sure?" Ai spoke up instead, visibly trembling with nerves. She risked a glance towards Jian, but the older boy was still staring at his own clenched fist atop the table. "Jian-senpai's dad said the Doodlebug made it harmless and sent it back to our Digital World for good."
"Yeah. How could it have ended up in theirs?" Makoto agreed.
To their credit, Yamaki did give pause before shaking his head. "You're both not wrong. The Juggernaut program countered the flow of time within its singular vortex, reverting the D-Reaper back to its pre-evolved state before sending it through the resultant wormhole to the Digital World." Something akin to guilt flashed across his features. "It's possible we miscalculated, sending it across Dimension as well as Worlds. Ironically, the same miscalculations that led to it affecting your Digimon might even explain the discrepancies in process."
"So you're not actually sure it's the D-Reaper." Jian stated coolly.
"We're not actually sure of anything," Yamaki turned to him. "But you know as well as anyone in this room why we can't rule the possibility out."
Ryo stepped forward. "Even the Guardians themselves don't seem to know what this is." And they always know was the unspoken sentiment. "One of them kept talking about some sort of ancient deity of theirs." He gave a low snort at that. "I didn't even know any of the Digital Worlds had religion. Though they didn't seem quite as adamant about it in this Dimension."
"Umm..." Miyako sat up, glanced down at her paper—which she had actually been taking notes on—with a furrowed brow. Her fingers twitched as she resisted the urge to raise her hand. "You keep going back and forth between Dimension and World. Is...that on purpose? I mean...what's the difference?"
Ken wondered the same thing.
Ryo almost seemed to expect the question, nodding once to himself before looking around the room for a spare pen. He found one on the edge of the table and uncapped it. Then he reached for a spare packet and flipped it over so that the clean back was exposed.
"Try thinking of it like a stack of carousels..."
"Carousels?" Ken echoed.
"Ask Juri later. She's the one who came up with the metaphor."
He worked quickly. Rough circles and crooked lines. Harsh strokes. More concerned with the symbolism than aesthetic. Ryo was very much not an artist, especially compared to Takato, so the representation was a far cry from accurate, but when he finally put the pen down and held the paper up, it looked like what he had said.
Namely, three crudely-sketched carnival carousels stacked on top of one another.
"Each Dimensional plane is like a whole carousel. Each of these—" he indicated to stick figures of what they could only assume were meant to be horses "—represents a World. Separate, but still connected by the carousel floor. Even if one World moves up and down faster than the one next to it...and that's definitely a metaphor for their respective time streams, by the way...you can still find a way to walk between them if you know how. But to leave the carousel altogether and go to an entirely new carousel..." He indicated towards a bunch of perpendicular lines besides the stacked carousels meant to represent an actual ladder "That's much harder. And potentially dangerous, given the amount of energy required."
Yamaki nodded. While he often bemoaned the childish imagery they'd attributed to such a serious and complex manner, he had yet to find fault with Juri's rational. It really did explain just about everything.
"Until now, Akiyama was the only one we knew for certain who could safely make the journey because he'd already done it. Quite possibly as his original method was a little more...unorthodox."
Ryo noticed Miyako look to him curiously and shrugged. "Long story. You probably don't remember it, anyway."
She opened her mouth. Then closed it, coming to the conclusion that every time she sought an answer, she only got more questions anyway. And her brain was starting to run out of space to process them all.
"It was only last month we even realized the glitched Digimon weren't originating from our Dimension, either." Yamaki continued. "Our scanners were having trouble with code identification, but we'd been attributing it to whatever then-unknown entity was attacking them. And while it seems that may have been at least partially true after all, there's also the strongest possibility that the database simply didn't recognize them because of the subtle differences in Dimensional Coding."
"And then there's you two." Ryo turned back to Ken and Miyako. "What you did was supposed to be impossible. Which means that either we don't actually need as much Digital Energy as we thought to safely pass through the Dimensional Barrier, or else that Barrier is weakening."
"Wait."
The room shifted as all eyes turned to Hirokazu. For once, the boy appeared in serious thought. Two of the legs of his chair lifted off the ground as he tilted back, but his eyes were closed and arms folded across his chest. Lost in contemplation.
"So what you're telling us is that we can all go with you next time. Bring the fight to them. Which I'm totally in, if that's true, by the way." Here, his eyes snapped open and the legs slammed down on the ground as if to accentuate his next point. "But what do we actually do when we get there? I mean, if this is going to end up one giant Land of the Glitches, we're going to need a lot more backup."
Xiaochan was halfway through rolling her eyes before realizing: "Actually...he's right."
Ryo rubbed at the back of his neck, wincing. "I still think it has to do with the missing lines of the Prophecy, but obviously we won't know until—"
"Prophecy?" Ken and Miyako's ears both perked up at the familiar word.
"Yeah. It's...actually, you might as well read for yourselves." Ryo gestured towards their packets. "Page four."
Unlike the rest of the pages, Page Four contained only a single image. Either taken in the Digital World itself, or else expertly recreated. A fine print note at the bottom indicated its origin as the Chosen's Digital World, specifically, which...honestly, was the least surprising thing they'd heard yet.
The ruins looked old. Hints of moss peppering weathered stone. Pillars, mostly. Save for a single slab in the center with what looked to be ancient Digimoji code. Most of it was so worn, it was barely legible, but there was just enough contrast to four of the eight lines—the first two, and the last two—that HYPNOS' matrix had been able to provide a rough translation:
The Child born of two Worlds
Will be protected by two of one
…
Until the Sun sets on the final day
And the Truth will finally be Revealed
"Explains everything, doesn't it?" Hirokazu asked them, voice thick with sarcasm.
"As much as they ever do," Miyako found herself taking an odd comfort in the familiarity of its vagueness and sighed. "I'm guessing this Child is supposed to be the key to defeating what might be your D-Reaper re-evolved, the details of which are conveniently still missing and we're probably going to have to go look for, except for the part where it's all going to go down at night?"
Hirokazu looked impressed. "You're actually getting the hang of this. Nice."
"Believe it or not, this isn't our first Prophecy," she told him. "So how do we go about finding them?"
"Actually," Ryo cut in, grimacing. "I think...it might be talking about me."
The room collectively turned to him in surprise. Including Yamaki. Hirokazu, in particular, nearly fell out of his chair.
"Seriously? You're telling us this now?"
Ken slowly nodded to himself. "No, that...could make sense. Ryo-san was born in our World, after all. For him to have ended up here must mean he had a connection to it as well." But then he glanced up with a frown. "There's something about that second line, though. I can't quite..."
"No, that one fits too." Hirokazu let out a low groan, slamming his palm against his forehead. "I can't believe I didn't think of it! That story he told us about Cyberdramon being two digimon fused together. Something something traveling to time and space and the two of them fighting over him until they did that...jo-thing."
Miyako's jaw dropped. "Cyberdramon is a Jogress Evolution?"
"Hey, yeah, that's the one! I figured it had to be a your-Dimension thing. Your rules are weird."
"Says the guy who's friends can actually merge with their digimon," she snorted back.
"You really have to rub it in, don't you?"
"It's not Ryo." Ruki's voice cut in.
The room turned to find her standing in the doorway. How long she had been there was anyone's guess. Long enough to have heard enough, for certain. One hand still rested against the frame. She was staring directly at Ryo. Unflinching and perhaps unaware—or at least uncaring—that anyone else was staring back.
Their eyes met. His expression remained as calm as hers as he waited for her explanation.
"You're not a Child of Two Worlds," she stepped into the room. "You're not a child of any World. That's why you can never stay in any one of them for long before moving onto the next."
If he was affected by the accusation in any way, he didn't let it show.
Ken returned his attention to the translated words. Rereading them over and over. Ryo's situation would have offered a strong possibility, yes, but...there was still something that bothered him about that second line. A feeling he couldn't shake.
Like he were missing something completely obvious.
o o o
o o o
Takato knew where he would find her without having to look.
He didn't bother knocking. For two reasons. One, he couldn't be sure she would even hear him right then. And two, he had spent enough time in her room over the past year that...well...in a way, it was kind of like his room too. A thought which still caused his ears to burn even though Hirokazu and Kenta were nowhere nearby to tease him over.
She was sitting on the edge of the bed. The lights were off, with only an uneven streak of sun trickling in from the common room. Her head was bowed, and there was something clutched tightly in her hands.
He bit his lower lip. Juri only ever reached for her digivice anymore when things got really bad.
"Juri-chan..."
She showed no signs of acknowledging his presence.
Quietly, he shut the door behind him, leaving them in a moment of darkness. Except for the soft glow emitting from her digivice screen. In the quiet that followed, he could just barely hear the sound of static. A constant reminder of the broken connection that could never be repaired.
"Do you think he's there?" He heard her ask. Her voice sounded so small. "Do you think...he's alive?"
Takato's answer caught in his throat. Unsure which one would risk causing her heart even more pain.
Her eyes squeezed shut in a vain attempt to hold the tears at bay. Takato took that as his cue to sit beside her. Almost immediately, she turned to rest her forehead against his shoulder. He stiffened—an old habit he'd never fully grown out of, no matter how many years they'd been dating. He couldn't help it.
Soon enough, his body allowed him to relax. An arm wrapped itself around her, holding her close. He gently rested his chin against the top of her head. Her shampoo was nice. Jasmine something. He wished he could have enjoyed it more. He wished this was nothing more than a whimsical night where she was just a little too tired to move, and his room a little too far away to bother.
More than anything, he wished he knew what to say.
For a time, his eyes drifted upward to the scatters of drawings on the wall. All his. There were faces of friends and family. Loved ones. Digimon and human alike.
People that had always made her feel wanted.
He could still remember when he'd hung up the first one for her. The first night after she'd officially joined HYPNOS. She'd been one of the last, hesitant due to her lack of any official partner. Yamaki hadn't seemed to care and offered nothing but encouragement for her decision, which was unusual for him. So Takato celebrated the change in him with a rather delightful sketch of the man standing tall and grinning with one hand atop Juri's head.
It had left her giggling at a moment when she might otherwise have burst into tears.
Weeks passed. More drawings appeared. Culumon had been adamant about posing for his official portraits. Renamon had been as enthusiastic as Ruki. So he drew them together. It had gone over much better than the time he'd attempted that one painting of Ruki and Ryo playing cards (that one, he hid in the safety of his room, where Ruki never went). One of the pictures featured all the girls together. There was a sister picture in his room of all the boys. Juri loved them both equally.
Even his own mother and father had made the cut. Three separate doodles of the two of them were scattered along the wall. Including one where they were baking bread with Guilmon. There was also one of the time his mother had offered to take Juri shopping a few weeks after he'd officially brought her to the bakery as his girlfriend. Both his parents had adored her from the moment she told them how wonderful the air in the room smelled. And she'd adored them in return.
She even had an actual photograph of them in the small frame by her bedside. Where her father and stepmother should have been. But weren't.
Not since the day she'd told them about joining HYPNOS.
He felt her stir against him. The weight of her head lifted from his shoulder. She had yet to look at him, and in fact, most of her hair remained hidden behind a wall of silky brown hair.
"Juri-chan..." he began, but trailed off.
He felt pathetic. Ashamed he had no idea how to comfort her. That he was basically sitting uselessly while she cried.
He shut his eyes. Tried to gather his thoughts. Think of all the things he wanted to say.
That it wasn't her fault. That none of it had even been her fault. She'd been young and emotionally torn by loss. The loss of her mother. The loss of Leomon. The D-Reaper had used her pain against her, and yet she had still managed to find strength in the end to—
His train of thought was cut off as Juri's lips pressed against his.
His mind went blank. He felt his shoulders relax and realized just how tense he'd been getting. A hand came up to rest at the back of her neck, slipping beneath her hair as his fingers grazed over the collar of her shirt. The kiss was as sweet and tender as any they had shared. A much needed gesture for the both of them.
Even as she was the first to pull back, when Takato opened his eyes again, her face remained close enough for him to see the tears being freely shed.
But behind those tears...was resolve. A strength and courage Leomon himself had seen in her lion's heart all those years ago. And one of the countless reasons why he loved her.
"I know what comes next," she whispered to him. Then nodded. "It's alright, Takato-kun. Go. Stop the D-Reaper once and for all. And then...come back to me."
Not for the first time, he was left to stare at her in awe. Until, gradually, his expression melted into a warm smile.
"Always."