YamiKibou-Hope - I'm so glad you're enjoying my story, it really makes my day!
Pubertty7756 - Dude, nothing makes me happier than seeing you review, especially since you're one of the big reason I never gave up on this story 3 A pretty decent amount of events are gonna be reworked and, most notably, pushed back, so it might be a bit until the crest comes into play
Guest - here it is! I do so love Calumon and giving them a good relationship with TK
KingPhoenix666 - Here's the next chapter for ya ;P it should become increasingly clearer who is who as time goes on, since I'm really bad at being subtle, but it makes me happy that you enjoy everyone! I will say that every single main character from Adventure and 02 are in this story, although some don't become noticeable for a while yet.
oOo
"Camping?" TK asked as he stared at himself in the mirror again. Takato had woken him up at the ungodly hour of 7:00 (okay, so not that ungodly, he'd just really gotten used to waking up at 10). His face hadn't looked quite right since he had arrived in Shinjuku, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"I thought I'd surprise you." Takato said as he shouldered his own bag. "Y-you don't have to go if you don't want to though! I just thought maybe you'd get lonely without me or Guilmon, and Henry and Terriermon are coming too." Takat nervously pressed his fingers together, avoiding eye contact. TK gave a broad smile and put an arm around Takato's shoulders.
"It sounds like a great idea! Let me just grab my stuff." He did wish that Takato had told him earlier, but the boy was obviously really excited and nervous about asking him. It was a little sweet and endearing actually. It reminded him vaguely of the first time Ken had asked to hang out with TK. Shy and mumbling, looking anywhere but at TK's face, fiddling nervously with his hands and their nails bitten down to stumps. Bad habits he had picked up after becoming just… Ken again.
TK tossed some clothes and notebooks into a spare duffle bag the Matsuki's had. Sure he couldn't look for his friends while on a trip, but he doubted that missing one day would actually do any harm. Plus getting out would do him a lot of good. Really there wasn't a downside here.
The pair of them stopped by the park on their way, picking up Guilmon. The excitement coming off of the digimon was palpable, his big tail swaying back and forth at such a speed that TK had to be careful not to get too close to it.
"Where are we going?" TK felt something land on his head. "Looks like fun!" Takato gave a small laugh.
"I guess this really is going to be a big party if everyone's coming." They came up to the school. Most of the class was outside with different bags tucked under their arms. Takato slowed down as they approached, telling TK to wait back with Guilmon, rushing forward to talk to his friends. He took a seat on the ground while he waited. Calumon played with his hair while Guilmon sniffed him and then nosed at his arm until he gave in and began petting him.
"You're a good sport, Guilmon." TK said. "It's a shame you have to stay in the park. Takato should just… rip of the bandaid and tell his parents about you."
"That would be good!" Guilmon said, little ear wing things perking up.
"I guess it would cause a lot of problems. You're really patient." Guilmon smiled as he rested his head on TK's leg.
"I'll always wait for Takato-mon." Deep breaths. Deep breaths TK. Or else he might cry, thinking about Patamon, somewhere in the digital world, waiting. Takato emerged from the group of kids jogging back to us. Guilmon's ears perked up and he quickly walked over to Takato, who gave him a few pats on the head.
"In order to get Guilmon onto the bus Kazu and Kenta are distracting Ms. Asaji, so we need to act fast." TK pulled Calumon out of the air and held him firmly in his arms like a stuffed animal while Takato herded Guilmon onto the bus. TK caught a glimpse of KAzu and Kenta talking to the teacher, waving their arms around and talking loudly. Ms. Asaji looked… vaguely familiar. She actually reminded TK of Mrs. Kamiya. TK follow Takato onto the bus as pushed past all the students to the back of the bus, where they would be furthest from the teacher. Most of the kids TK recognized from having been in the park the other day, giving Guilmon high fives as they made their progress back.
"Alright now Guilmon, you have to stay quiet during the whole ride, okay?" Takato looked his digimon in the eyes as he said it, doing is best to wrangle a serious look onto his face.
"Okay." Guilmon said, a little disappointed, and Takato reached into his backpack and pulled out a few blankets.
"Here, I was thinking you could take a nap or something." TK smiled as Guilmon gladly took the blankets, wrapping himself up in them and rolling around, Calumon jumping down and playing with him.
"It's neat you could make it, TK." Henry said from his seat, arms wrapped around Terriermon.
"Welcome to the torture bus." Terriermon chirped happily.
"W-what?" Tk asked, taken aback. Henry just rolled his eyes and gently batted at Terriermon.
"You know I'm right, Henry." The digimon replied stubbornly.
"Don't pay attention to him." Henry inserted, sending Terriermon a glare. "He just hates long car rides." Oh, that TK could understand. It had been a while since he'd gone on a car ride with fidgety digimon…
"We could sing some songs!" Calumon offered, to which there were various very loud 'no!'s throughout the bus.
"What about a good bus game? Do you guys know concentration?" Takato tried. "Oh, I guess it's hard to play with your small hands…" A very long car ride indeed.
oOo
"I know I have it somewhere…" Mr. Matsuki fumbled through another box of items, grunting in dismay when what he was searching for wasn't found.
"You sure you don't want some help babe?" His wife asked, peeking into the storage room. "Two heads are better than one you know." Really his wife was right.
"No, I got it." Mr. Matsuki waved her off anyway.
"Okayyyyyy, but if you ever change your mind…" She said, adjusting her bandana and giving him a very pointed look before walking into the room, placing a hand on his back. "Let me know if you change your mind." She gently rubbed a few circles before getting up to go.
"Wait, I did remember something." Mrs. Matsuki paused, seeing her husband gesture for her to come closer. "It's… this!" He gave her a quick peck on the cheek, earning a soft, special smile on his wife's face.
"Oh, Mizuki." She playfully batted the back of his head. "Tell me when you need some real help." He watched her go, smiling, living for a moment just in the flutter of his heart, before turning and facing the towers of boxes once again. The remnants of who he used to be. He had never unpacked them, didn't have the heart to throw them out, so instead they had just rotted here. Cardboard monoliths gathering dust.
He sighed and pulled another one over, sifting through the contents. His old jacket. Papers from school. A few different drawing he had done in his free time - very badly done in crayon, but the awfully colored blue companion in the pictures was what made him hold on to them.
"Ah-ha!" He cried as he pulled out a flash drive, holding it up with a broad grin on his face. If this was here then the papers… Sure enough, under a few more miscellaneous knick nacks was a manilla envelope, a letter taped to the front. Emblazoned on the front in bold sharpie was the words 'To Davis'.
Mr. Matsuki pulled it out. There was no need to read the letter, he'd gone over it enough times. It was broken down simply enough into 'in case you ever wanted to go over things again.' At the time the gift had seemed superfluous and even frustrating. What with his intentions to start a new life, the last things he needed was to be getting more things from his old one. But now he was insanely grateful for the pairs thoughtfulness. Almost greedily he pulled out the papers, the files on the disappearance of Takeru Takaishi and everything they knew about the circumstances of it.
It was time to re-evaluate the evidence.
oOo
"Fresh air! Stable ground, oh how I've missed you." Henry collapsed onto the ground as he exited the school bus. In the background Ms. Asaji was telling kids where the the tents were and the approved placed for campsites, but TK's group was just excited to be out of the Box of Pain. All the digimon (well, Tk wasn't sure about Calumon) we're rookie level, which roughly equaled the mindset of a smaller child. Which was perhaps the most exhausting thing TK had ever realized when it became clear that no, none of them were willing to take a nap on the ride. They'd much rather play ever game on the entire planet except the quiet game. Thank goodness they had chosen seats in the back of the bus, far, FAR away from the teacher.
"Alright, we should probably grab our tents." Takato said, just thankful to be out in the open air again. "I, uh, can't. I have to get Guilmon as far away from Ms. Asaji as possible." Kenta and Kazu easily stepped forward.
"No worries, Chumley, your best buds have got your back. Just go find a good spot - we'll find ya." The pair left, and once again TK was reminded of how the digidestineds supported each other. He really was surprised that they didn't have partners. In fact, the whole concept of there only being three, ahem, tamers here was boggling his mind.
The follower the crowd to the campsite, carrying their luggage (plus Kenta and Kazu's stuff as a nicety) with them. They found a nice spot on the edge of the group on the opposite side from the teacher's tents.
"Anyway, after deliberating at length, we've decided we get TK." Kazu announced and he and Kenta approached them, pulling the bags of tents with them.
"M-me?" TK asked, surprised.
"Of course. We want the cool, secret Tamer." Kazu replied steadfastly.
"Also you don't come in a package deal with Guilmon." Kenta inserted, and Guilmon made a shocked and sad noise.
"You don't like me?" He whimpered, and immediately the pair turned to him, apologies flowing out.
"It's not that we don't like you big guy! You just take up lots of space!" Kenta tried to explain.
"Also a tail. You have a huge tail. That's an entire additional appendage we have to take into account." Guilmon was still looking up at them sadly, and TK could feel guilt radiating off of the pair.
"Hey, you get to sleep with me and Henry though!" Takato said, and immediately Guilmon perked up, a wide and goofy smile on his face.
"Sleepover with Takato-mon!" They embraced in a hug, Takato beaming at his partner.
Putting up a tent turned out to be something on par with rocket science. There were so many long sticks they had to use, and then try to get into the holes while maintaining tension on both sides, and also not get bowled over by the playing digimon. Eventually they managed to get something that at least resembled a tent up, a feat that they were all very proud of.
"Hey, I think I'm going to take Guilmon out for a walk, will you guys be willing to cover for us?" Kazu and Kenta gave firm nods of confirmation.
"Sure thing, but I have no promise of the totally legit excuse I'll make up for you. Ms. Asaji just might think you've gone to the bathroom for three hours." Kazu teased, tongue out. Henry grabbed Terriermon and started to leave before pausing and glancing back.
"Hey if you want to tag along you can come and hang out with the Digimon." TK appreciate the offer, and a part of his wanted to go so bad, but really it didn't make sense. The digimon should go off and enjoy themselves with their partners.
"I'm good. If too many kids are missing the teachers will get suspicious." He waved the two off and the four of them ran off into the woods, their digimon already giddy with excitement.
"Takato and Guilmon already ran off, huh?" TK glanced over to see a girl with reddish hair approach them, glancing around. Her recognized her from the bus ride, Jeri if he recalled correctly. She had been one of the people who had helped them survive the trip by entertaining Guilmon, seeming to really enjoy playing with him and teaching him games like cat's cradle (which was incredibly difficult with his claws, but it certainly kept him occupied for a bit). It was also pretty obvious that her and Takato had light crushes on each other, the kind that can only happen when you're so young. TK was only a few years older, but with all he'd been through it felt like decades.
"Yeah, off to have fun without us." Kenta lamented as he lobbed a couple sleeping bags into one of the tents.
"I don't know, they're starting up some arts and crafts projects that look pretty neat." Jeri said and Kazu's head shot up.
"Did you say arts and crafts?!" He exclaimed. "I am the KING of arts and crafts." He did a few fist bumps and kicked his backpack into his tent, zipping it up. "What are we waiting for, let's head over!"
oOo
So obviously I won't rush this section as much as I did last time, so it will bleed into the next chapters :) I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I'm excited to write the next one! Have a lovely day 3