OmnicromXR I can't say too much about Taiki but he's not the same Taiki as from the anime/manga.

NarutoNineTaleFox The question of Kimiko's mother will only deepen.

The boy watched Taichi and Kimiko walk down the sidewalk for another moment before pulling his head back around the corner. Shoutmon was hiding beneath the shrubs in front of the office building. He held up the phone. "She wants an update."

He snatched the device and put it up against his ear. "Yeah?"

A girl's voice answered. "What's going on, Taiki?"

"She made contact all right."

"You sure?"

"I watched them delete one of the Dark Tyrannomon."

"What about the others?"

"I lost one yesterday."

The girl groaned. "Mother's not going to be happy."

"So don't tell her yet. I'll report back tomorrow."

"You'd better."

Taiki hung up and dropped the phone in his pocket, murmuring, "And you'd better stop barking orders." He gestured to his partner. "Come on, Shoutmon. We've got some planning to do."

Child of Courage

Chapter IV

"Just let her rest and make sure she drinks plenty of fluid. She was a little dehydrated too." Jyou finished writing on the paper attached to the clipboard. "Now, since Kimiko's underage, I need to discharge her to someone."

Taichi turned to Hikari. "Well, I, um…"

His sister sighed. "Taichi…"

He turned back to Jyou. "How can you just do that? Don't you need proof of a relationship or something?"

"Well, normally, but I can fudge the papers a little bit," he said with a smile, "I told you, it's an open secret about Chosen here." He paused, "So…?"

Taichi turned back to Hikari. She looked at him with the same expression he'd seen on their mother's face. "Fine!" he snapped. He grabbed the pen from Jyou's hand and hastily signed the paper.

Jyou nodded and started to walk to the nurse's station. "Just give me a minute and she'll be ready to go. You can tell her she can get changed."

Taichi turned back to Hikari. "I washed the clothes she had, but I'm sure she'll want more. I'll take her shopping later today if you want but you should get a cot."

He shook his head. "She's not staying with me."

"Taichi-"

"I'll have to answer too many odd questions from my neighbors."

"Tell them she's your cousin or something."

"I was just going to put her in a hotel."

"You don't have money for that," Hikari groaned, "Didn't you just say you accept she's your daughter?"

He kept his voice level. "No, I said I accept that she's not lying. She doesn't remember, or at least, doesn't know why she's got my DNA. I'm going to figure it out but no, she's not my daughter."

"So what are you saying now? That she's a…a…clone or something? Even though she's clearly a female? And a pre-teen at that?

"Well, maybe…"

They heard someone clear his throat. They turned and saw Jyou standing by them in the hospital hallway. "Um, didn't mean to overhear, but Taichi, you and Kimiko took a paternity test. It's a little different from a DNA test."

"How?"

"Well, not to get too bogged down in the details but, basically, a paternity test determines, well, paternity. Despite the advances in genetic science, cloning is still pretty much in the realm of science fiction, so I can't be a hundred percent on this, but I'd imagine that if she were a clone, even one that was altered to be female, the paternity lab would've flagged your test as inaccurate."

"Why?"

"Because there would only be your genetic tags in her sample."

Taichi felt his stomach twist. "You mean her…"

"Her mother's genetic tags? Yeah. I assume since the test was normal, there wasn't anything weird with Kimiko's sample."

Hikari's face lit up. "Can you search for her mother?"

"Not really. The lab can match up samples, but it's not like matching fingerprints in a database."

"But we're Chosen," Taichi protested, "Couldn't that have something to do with it?"

"That's where I tag out," Jyou said, "You'll have to talk to Koushiro about that."

Taichi nodded. "All right, fine, that's what I'll do."

"In the meantime," Hikari cut in, "You can get Kimiko settled in your apartment. I'll take her shopping for some clothes tomorrow with Mimi and Sora, but for now, take her to the store. I'm sure she knows if she needs anything. Then take her out to eat or something."

Taichi opened his mouth to protest but then closed it. He already knew that yelling at Kimiko wasn't going to work but maybe if she was relaxed she'd be willing to open up. "All right, fine."

"Good. That'll make her happy."

Taichi wanted to say something about his happiness but decided it'd be better to keep that to himself. "Yeah, yeah…"

Hikari smiled. "Alright. Let's go give her the good news."

Taichi followed Hikari into the hospital room. Kimiko turned from looking out the window. "Dr. Kido said it's all right for you to be released."

She nodded slightly and looked from Hikari to Taichi. "Okay…?"

Hikari looked at Taichi and cleared her throat. "Yeah," he said, "I guess you're staying with me."

Her face lit up and ran toward him with her arms open. "Oh, Daddy! I-"

He stepped back and she stopped, letting her arms fall. He sighed, "Look, it's just weird having someone call me that."

He saw Hikari narrow her eyes. "But you believe that you're Kimiko's father, right?"

"I…" He focused on the tween, "I believe that you're not lying and that something weird is going on here. I want to help you find out the truth, okay?"

The girl's eyes were shimmering, like she was about to start crying. "But we're not abandoning you, okay? You're still staying with me. We'll go shopping and then maybe go out to eat or something. Hikari will take you clothes shopping tomorrow, okay?"

Kimiko closed her eyes and filled her lungs. "Okay, sure. Thank you, um, sir."

Taichi felt relief wash over him. Well, that wasn't so hard.

Hikari placed a hand on Kimiko's shoulder. "Are you sure you're okay with that?"

She shrugged. "At least he's talking to me now, right?"

Taichi wondered why that felt like a slap to the face. "Um, I'll let you get changed and then we'll head out."

Taiki took a bite out of his rice ball. "So we've got two Tyrannomons left. Gotta be careful about using them."

Shoutmon nodded from beneath his oversized jacket and fell back against the park bench. "So what's the plan?"

"We'll just have to tail her until we get a chance. Best bet would be when she's alone. I really don't want to mess with Yagami."

Shoutmon shivered. "Yeah, I'm not too eager to fight a Mega either. Probably wouldn't end well."

Taiki studied his phone. "You gonna give the status update?" the digimon asked.

The human hesitated but then dropped it back into his pocket. "Anything I give now would just be bad news." He finished the last of his meal and threw the paper wrapper into the trash. "Come on. Let's get our Tyrannomon prepared."

Taichi opened the door to his apartment. "Well, here we are. Standard one-room studio apartment. TV's in that corner, the table's in the center."

"Where's the bathroom?" Yuki Agumon asked.

"I'm guessing through the only door," Kimiko muttered. She walked to the kitchenette and opened the refrigerator. Her face fell.

"What?" Yuki Agumon asked. She joined her partner and then gasped. Taichi could guess why.

"Yeah, it's a little bare-"

"A little?" Yuki Agumon snapped. She swung open the cabinets, disturbing the cobwebs inside. "No snacks either?"

Kimiko opened the bottom drawer of the refrigerator and pulled out a car of beer. "Aren't there, like, child endangerment laws or something?"

He snatched it out of her hand. "Give me that." He dropped it back into the drawer and shut it, along with the refrigerator door. "Those are off-limits, got it? And you're not going to starve. We'll go to the store now, all right?"

Kimiko bit her lip. "What?" he asked.

"You, um, mentioned something about going out to eat?"

He checked his phone. It was close to dinner. "Yeah, all right."

Kimiko and Yuki Agumon squealed in delight. Kimiko started running to Taichi with her arms open. "Thanks, Da-" She stopped and dropped her arms. "Sorry, I know you don't like that. Um, thanks, sir."

He felt his heart start to soften but then he willed it to be stone again. He wasn't her father. He'd watch out for her until they figured out who she really was. "Um, yeah, no problem." He studied her drooping face. "Do you, um, like McDonald's?"

The answer was a definite yes. However, the definite no came when Taichi tried to order her a kid's meal. She looked up at him with her hands planted firmly on her hips and her brows a furrowed mess. "Those are for little kids. I want a regular meal."

"Are you sure you can eat all that?"

"Yeah," she said like the answer should be obvious.

He just sighed and then smiled at the cashier. "Four large combos." As he counted out yen, he whispered to Kimiko, "You'd better eat it all."

She did. Not even a fry was left. Then she wanted to know if they could get ice cream. She looked like a toothpick; where did she put it all? He remembered what Hikari told him but did he really eat like that at her age?

"Ice cream sounds great!" Yuki Agumon said from within the trenchcoat Agumon had lent her. They'd need some disguises for her too.

"That does sound pretty good," Agumon added, wrapped in his own disguise.

"Three yeses," Kimiko said, "So?"

"Um, we'll get some at the supermarket and then have it at home, okay?"

"Okay!" she grinned, with the digimon nodding in agreement.

As they headed down the sidewalk to the store, Taichi typed onto the notepad function on his phone. "We'll need basic foods, right? Agumon, what are basic foods?"

"I dunno. Uh, eggs and meat and stuff, right?"

Taichi typed dairy, meat, and veggies. He thought for a moment and then added soap and toothpaste. He paused as something else Hikari said popped into his mind. "Um, Kimiko, when we get there, you can tell me if there's anything you need."

"Okay. Um, ice cream, right?"

"Yeah, I know about that. I mean more like, um, hygiene products."

She blinked a few times. "Oh, um, you don't have to buy any kind of, like, girly shampoo or soap or anything."

"No, that's not what I mean." He did notice how tangled her hair looked and added hairbrush to the list. "Agumon, help me out here."

The dinosaur held up his hands. "Don't look at me."

"Thanks," Taichi muttered. He rubbed his eyes. "Do you need any, um…" He groaned and started dialing on his phone, "I'll just call Hikari to-"

"I know what you mean," Kimiko laughed, "I'll get what I need."

Great, a prankster too. That was definitely him at her age. "Well, good. I would have felt like a pervert explaining that to a little kid-"

"Stop calling me that!" she snapped, "I'm almost a teenager! Why do I have to keep telling you that!"

"Okay, okay, sorry."She had a temper too. That was also him at that age; laughing and having a good time and then shouting and pissed off the next. She wasn't his daughter but he couldn't deny there were a lot of similarities.

She crossed her arms and started walking faster, "How hard is it to remember how old I am?" she muttered.

"I said I was sorry," Taichi retorted as she and Yuki Agumon walked further ahead, "And don't mumble like that under your breath." He almost added young lady, but managed to stop himself.

"She does look like you," Agumon said, "I mean, like, a lot. Why can't she be from the future?"

"Koshiro said her digivice was activated recently or something like that."

"Yeah, well, we still don't have any idea how those things are made, right? They just appear to new Chosen, so how does Koshiro really know that?"

Taichi noticed how far ahead Kimiko and Yuki Agumon had gotten. He was going to call to the tween to take a right at the next intersection but she made the turn around the corner herself. "She seems to know where she's going. If she is from the future, it's not that far." He groaned and rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, I still don't think she's a time traveler."

"Then who is she?"

Taichi wished he could answer.

Kimiko was still a little moody at the grocery store and Taichi wondered if she wasn't already a teenager. Her face brightened though when they walked into the frozen food aisle. She ran to the ice cream and licked her lips. "Vanilla, chocolate!" Her face lit up even more, "Fruity strawberry! Let's get that one!"

Taichi found himself smiling. "You like that, huh?"

Her hair bounced as she nodded. "Yeah, I used to eat it all the time when-" She gasped slightly, "When I…"

"When you what?" Taichi asked. He put his hands on her shoulders. "Do you remember something?" He frowned, "Or were you about to say something you weren't supposed to? Tell me!"

He felt her shoulders slump in his hands and she stared at him with those shimmering eyes again. Those brown eyes looked so intense before and now they looked like glass about to break. "You don't believe me at all, do you? You were just lying to me!" She pushed his arms away with a sudden burst of strength. "Then I'm just gonna run away and not bother you anymore!"

Taichi watched her and Yuki Agumon run for the door. He didn't mean to shout the last part and he didn't mean to ask, aloud, at least, about her slipping up. "Wait!"

He and Agumon ran out the door and twisted his head but they had vanished into the crowd. "Great job," the digimon said, "Do you think she'd just go back to the apartment?"

"Probably not," Taichi said, "She looked pretty pissed."

"I think she was heartbroken," Agumon replied, "What if she doesn't come back?"

Taichi felt a familiar pain in his chest and he saw the memory of meeting Meiko on the bridge in his mind. "We'll find her." He started running down the sidewalk, hoping that she hadn't gone the other way.

Taichi fell onto a park bench and tried to catch his breath. It felt like he and Agumon had run across half the city. "Damn it! Where the hell is she?"

Agumon plopped down beside him. "Are we gonna call the police or something?"

"And tell them what? That a kid that doesn't exist is missing?" Did she not exist? Maybe she already was on some kind of missing person's list. Maybe they should have tried to run her fingerprints before doing a paternity test.

"Maybe we should call the others?"

Taichi thought of Hikari berating him like their mother or Jyou calling child services. He wondered why the thought of Kimiko being taken away by men and women in black suits bothered him so much. Still, the thought of her shivering in some alley was enough for him to take out his phone. He was halfway through dialing Hikari when the roar filled the air.

Taichi jumped up and twisted around. Two Tyrannomon were towering over the tops of the trees in the park. A moment later a column of light exploded beside them. It faded to reveal a blue dinosaur.

"Allomon!" Agumon cried.

Taichi's heart pounded in his chest. "Kimiko!"

"Kimiko!"

The human ignored the cries of her partner and continued running through the trees in the park.

"Kimiko!" Yuki Agumon cried again but the human didn't care. She wanted to keep running; if she kept moving she didn't need to think about how screwed up her memory was, how evil digimon were chasing her, and about how the only person she could remember, the only person she could latch onto, didn't want to have anything to do with her.

"Kimiko, where are you even going?"

She came to a halt in a thicker part of the overgrowth. "I-I-" She fell backward against a tree and slid onto her rear. "I don't even know. Somewhere, anywhere."

Her partner plopped down beside her. "You don't remember anything more, do you?"

The dinosaur shook her head. "Not since we woke up in that alley."

Kimiko nodded with a sigh. She remembered waking, panic washing over her like she was drawing, with only one thought on her mind: find her father. Then the Dark Tyranomons appeared. She could still hear their roars, like thunder exploding.

"Kimiko!"

She blinked a few times and came crashing back into the present. Yuki Agumon had shed her disguise and was flailing her arms. Kimiko spun around and gasped. Two Tyrannomons were glaring down at her from over the treetops.

Kimiko fumbled for her digivice. "Crap! Crap! Crap!" She grabbed hold of the device and thrust it at her partner. "Go!"

"Yuki Agumon evolve to Allomon!"

The two Tyrannomon roared and advanced in unison. Allomon blasted out her Dino Burst into one of the tyrannosauruses but the other slashed with his claws. The allosaurus spun around, whacking him with her tail, but this left her open for a Fire Blast attack from the other Tyrannomon.

She twisted again and inhaled for another Dino Burst.

"Behind you!" Kimiko cried.

It came too late as the other Tyrannomon rammed Allomon with his head, causing her to tilt forward. The other Tyrannomon slammed the top of his head into Allomon's chin.

Kimiko felt her digivce creak in her hand. "Allomon!"

Taichi pushed through the overgrowth and leaped into the small clearing. The two Tyrannomons had Allomon pinned between them and were taking turns wailing on her from behind. One headbutted her in the back and when she twirled around to face him, the other attacked with a blast of fire.

Agumon ran into battle. "Hang on! I'm coming! Agumon evolve to Greymon!"

The twin Tyrannomons looked at each other. "Trouble," one growled.

"Not orders," the other said.

The first one nodded. Taichi felt as though the world slowed as the Tyrannomon focused on Kimiko. "Fire Breath!"

He tackled her to the ground and they slid across the grass as the Tyrannomon's attack exploded behind them. They tumbled along the ground before slamming into a tree. Taichi hadn't realized he'd been shielding the young girl with his entire body. "Y-you okay?" he heaved.

Kimiko nodded and slowly pushed out of his embrace. "Yeah, just a little-" She gasped, "Your arm!"

Taichi's left arm was covered in black and blue spots that were growing larger. "Must have hit a rock or something."

Kimiko stared. "Why? You don't think I'm-"

"I was dating a woman named Meiko about a year ago." Taichi was hardly aware of the words as they tumbled out, "One day she came to me and said she was pregnant. I was pretty freaked out at first but then I really started to get excited about being a dad. We decided to wait to tell everyone until she was further along, but then, about two months later, she told me that…that the baby had…"

Kimiko winced. "I-I.."

Taichi swallowed. "So I guess when you came along I just didn't want to deal with all that again." He looked her in the eyes, "But when I saw that Tyrannomon about to kill you I just…" He heaved again, "Kimiko, I don't know how any of this is possible, but you are my daughter."

She wrapped her arms around him. "Daddy!"

Then Greymon's voice cut through the air. "Glad you two made up or whatever but we're kind of in the middle of something!"

Taichi smiled at Kimiko and she grinned back. "Let's kick some butt!"

They joined their partners, each one taking a Tyrannomon. "All right, Greymon, here's the plan," Taichi said, "We're in an empty area of the park, so take him down quick and hard."

"You got it!" his partner roared. He knocked Allomon back with his shoulder and then whipped his head with his tail.

Kimiko was cheering on her Allomon while giving out the occasional command. "Get him from the side. Yeah, that's it!"

Allomon head-butted the Tyrannomon and he fell onto his back. Greymon whipped his tail into the back of his Tyrannomon's feet, causing him to join the other dinosaur. "Great job!" Taichi shouted, "Now take 'em down!"

"You heard him, Allomon!" cried Kimiko.

Greymon and Allomon stood side by side and shouted their attacks in unison.

"Mega Flame!"

"Dino Burst!"

Heat and flames mixed into a giant fireball that enveloped the Tyrannomons. They cried out as their data exploded and vanished in the afternoon sky.

Agumon and Yuki Agumon regressed to their Child forms. Taichi rubbed the top of his partner's head while Kimiko tossed her's into the air. "Yay! We did it!"

Then the sound of clapping cut through the air. Taichi spun around and saw a boy walk out of the tree line. His face fell as the boy walked closer and his features came into view.

"Taichi," Agumon said, "He-"

"I know!"

Kimiko and Yuki Agumon ran to Taichi's side. "Dad, he-"

"I know!" Taichi snapped. The boy had wild brown hair and a pair of goggles. He didn't look exactly like Taichi did as a preteen, but looked pretty damn close.

"You're pretty capable after all," the boy said, "I like to think I'm pretty strong but until you see one of the original Chosen in battle you realize you weak you really are." He bowed slightly, "You can call me Taiki."

Taichi glanced at Kimiko. "You're not gonna tell me he's your brother or something?"

Kimiko shook her head. "I've never seen him before."

"Really?" Taiki asked, "I can't tell if you're lying or not." He shrugged, "Well, since figuring that out isn't part of my orders, it doesn't matter."

"What orders?" Taichi asked.

Taiki smirked. "I'm sure you can guess."

Taichi inched in front of Kimiko.

Taiki gestured to where the Tyrannomons had been deleted, "After I screwed up the first time, I figured I'd better see how strong you two really are." He chuckled, "You're stronger than I thought. I'll need to rethink this." He gave a short wave, "Later."

He darted back into the treeline. Taichi started after him but stopped when he remembered Kimiko. She was still standing in the same place with the two Agumons beside her. "Are you okay?"

She shook her head. "I guess I'm supposed to know him. That's what he was getting at, right?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"And he's the one that sending those digimon after me and Yuki Agumon, right?"

Taichi nodded. "Yeah, I think so too."

She looked up at him. Her eyes were starting to shimmer again. "What's going on?"

Taichi wasn't sure what to say. Instead, he pulled her into an embrace and hugged as tight as he could.

To be continued…