Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Digimon.
This isn't much of a chapter. Sorry guys. Next chapter will be better, promise!
Ryo had said that there were four-hundred and twenty-nine people out there, but looking at them, Ruki was sure that there had to be more than that. Besides, who taught him how to count, anyway? Digimon.
She crossed her arms. She knew that this had been a mistake. Lee had invited her here, but the seat that had been saved for her was between Ryo and Hirokazu, her two least favorite people. Lee and Takato were of course sitting together at the beginning of the line, and Lee's Dad was sitting between him and Kazu.
She rolled her eyes at Kazu, who was posing for the cameras. She wished that she'd brought her headphones, but Seiko had thought it would be inappropriate. Ruki'd agreed at the time, but now she was starting to question her sanity.
Not that she would have much sanity left, since Ryo kept trying to talk to her. They weren't on mic yet, but the roar of the crowd didn't do much to hide his voice from her. She'd recognize that annoying sound pretty much anywhere.
"So, Ruki."
Ugh. Ryo needed a new hobby. Couldn't he tell she was ignoring him?
"I haven't seen you much lately. Where've you been?"
"Avoiding the paparazzi, journalists, photographers and other people who can't take a hint," Ruki informed him. "And since that includes you, I would appreciate it if you'd leave me alone."
He was quiet. Thank God. But after what seemed an eternity (and since the host was still on the introduction, she knew it couldn't be more than five minutes), Ruki had to look and see what he was doing. Ryo was never, ever quiet.
He was talking to Kenta.
Okay. That was a bit insulting. He was supposed to be still looking at her, trying to think of some new way to annoy her. He must have really been bored to see what Kenta was up to.
Who cares? Ruki thought. At least he was leaving her alone now.
They were starting the interview now. Surprisingly, the started with Takato instead of Ryo. The introduction was pretty basic. They'd only seen Dukemon, and Dukemon Crimson Mode, so they wanted to know his Digimon. And then after hearing about his little red dinosaur, they wanted to know how he took care of it. And they really wanted to know how he kept it a secret from his parents.
Boring. Ruki turned her attention back to Ryo. He was still talking to Kenta.
How did those two find so much to talk about? Ruki wondered in disbelief. Ah well, there was no accounting for taste.
The reporters were moving their line of questioning on to the D-Reaper, catching Ruki's attention immediately. She couldn't see Takato through Jiang-yu, who filled in every gap that Kazu's skinny frame left, but, she reminded herself, Takato wasn't about to spill. He knew as well as any of them that they needed to keep this secret, for Juri. A new development on this story would lead to another two weeks of circling sharks, waiting for another bite.
They did bring Juri up. Ruki tensed, but kept her expression completely neutral--though it quickly transformed into a look of shock when she saw one of the girls in the crowd holding up a sign with the words !Ryo, I love you! written on it. What do they think he is, a rock star? She wondered. Looking closer, she saw that he had an entire fanclub out there, and not all of them were teenagers. Not all of them were girls, either, but a lot of them were.
It was about as bad as Hirokazu and Kenta were when they'd finally met their 'idol.' Disgusted, Ruki looked away, and saw Ryo still talking to Kenta. What are they talking about?
It was Lee's turn. She tried listening to him. The reporters were starting with the basics again, finding the link between the Blue Card, and the Digimon. They were appropriately awed when they discovered Lee getting Terriermon through his computer game. These days, she thought, video games were akin to heaven. That meant Terrier could easily be called a gift from the gods.
After breaking into the topic of the Digital World, karate, and fially the D-Reaper, the reporters made the mistake of bringing up his little sister, Shaochung. Ever polite, Lee admitted that she had been a Tamer, named her Digimon as Lopmon, and then turned the questions in Hirokazu's direction. Since he was one of the public Tamers, and eager to tell a story, the reporters were all too happy to get him.
What, now a gogglehead is getting my place? Ruki thought, irritated.
Kazu would be so dead right now if she didn't know that killing him would only bring more media attention.
Luckily, the media was a bit disappointed that Kazu didn't get a Blue Card, but brightened when he started talking about the Digital World, and Guardromon, and meeting Ryo--whom he was all too happy to talk about.
They were finished with him pretty quickly though. Ruki figured that if you were on TV for a while, saying the same thing for the benefit of others was pretty boring. She was starting to think that they were going to move on to talking to Ryo--they had been putting it off for a while, after all--but the next series of questions were for her.
"Makino Ruki," one of the reporters started, "who was your Digimon?"
"Renamon." The answer was flat. If they wanted a longer one, they'd better work on better questions.
"Where did you get her? Did you have a Blue Card, too?"
"I got her at the end of the last Digimon Card Tournament. I found the Blue Card, scanned it, and a bunch of Digimon came to me asking to be my partner." She remembered the scene perfectly. It had been, she thought, one of the more frightening moments of her life. But she'd been too angry to be scared then. "I chose Renamon."
There was a stirring in the crowd. They apparently liked the idea of Digimon fighting to be her partner. "Can you name some of these Digimon?"
Boredly, she shrugged. "Gekomon, Deramon, Minomon, Musyamon, WaruMonzaemon, Dolphmon. Apemon, Phantomon, Bakumon, Tsubumon, Mummymon. Gizamon, Tuskmon, Aquilamon, SkullMeramon, and," she continued, "Apocalymon." She deliberately left out IceDevimon. She didn't want to think about him.
"Aquilamon's one of my favorites. How could you decide on Renamon?" The one speaking was representing the Digimon company. Ruki recognized her immediately.
"I wanted the strongest."
"You've been Renamon since then, haven't you?"
"Until after D-Reaper, when they had to go back to the Digi-World."
The Digimon representative was speaking again. "How did you keep anyone from finding out about Renamon over that amount of time?"
"Renamon can bend light around her and disappear and reappear at will," Ruki said. "All I had to do was call her and she was there, so taking care of her was easy." In fact, Renamon had taken care of herself.
"What was your relationship with your Digimon?"
Oh, pointed questions here. "By the time we met the D-Reaper, my relationship with Renamon was as deep as Lee's with Terriormon."
The Digimon representative was smiling. She'd obviously noticed the way Ruki had dodged that question. Ruki glanced at the other reporters. They hadn't. Good. "Were you ever self-conscious about being the only girl on the team?" She asked.
"Actually, at the time I thought I could do better without them. So no, I've never been very self-conscious."
"The Digimon Card Tournament is in November. That's only a few months away. Will you be participating?"
Unconsciously, Ruki looked at Ryo, who had finally stopped talking to Kenta and was looking back at her. He was smiling at her and, she thought, also waiting for her answer. "Of course I'll be there," she said. "I have a title to defend."
Ryo's smile widened. He was, she thought, laughing at her.
Note: I'm going to try and put up two chapters a day until it's done (though you'll have to allow for some leeway in case I miss a day). I've been trying to write a Ryuki fanfic for a while, and I just needed the right hook to get me started.
I did check though, and it says that Ryo and Ruki don't get together chapter 9. Though they do get this cute lunch scene that chapter though.
karika88 -- Of course, thanks for reviewing.
AzNAnGeL07 -- Glad you like it. :D