Cartoonprawn - I'm glad you're excited!
ReaperofShadows215 - thank you!
Yuutojaden - working on it :P
Guest - also working on it
Puberty 7756 - I managed to get it fixed cuz of the warranty actually!
YamiKibou-Hope - Sorry it took my so long to get this chapter together!
Thanks for your patience guys. I know it's been a while. But we're back at it again to do our best.
oOo
Mr. Wong let himself float in the place inbetween. Somewhere that wasn't awake and wasn't asleep. Trapped in the middle of life and death. A place where he didn't have to worry about what name he was using now, the things that had happened and stuff that he had done. He had closed his eyes from the cruel and harsh reality of the world, the pain that came with it, and when he opened his eyes he found himself somewhere else. Somewhere softer. A field of swaying grass and flowers, and from somewhere in the distance the salty taste of the ocean coated his tongue. There, lying in the field, was a small white and purple creature.
"Gomamon?" He exclaimed, voice small and young, looking just like he had when him and Gomamon had first met all those decades ago. The creatures head bolted up and turned his way, eyes wide and a broad smile breaking out on his face.
"Joe!" In a few fast, but somewhat clumsy, bounds Gomamon had crossed the small distance between them, launching himself into Jo's waiting arms as they toppled onto the grass that didn't truly exist, two halves of a whole reunited. "I-I've-" Gomamon choked on a sob, voice muffled from where his head was tucked into Joe's sweater vest. "-I've missed you so much. I thought… I thought I'd never see you again."
"Some things are unbreakable." Joe said, letting the tears slip out of his own eyes.
"Y-you're such a sap, Joe." Gomamon lifted his head off of Joe's chest and attempting to wipe his eyes. "Where are we? And how are you here?" He lifted a hand up to Joe's face, eyebrows scrunching together. "You look so young Joe… younger than even the last time I saw you." Joe lifted his hands up, taking a moment to marvel at how small uncalloused they were, noticing for the first time his current youthfulness.
"I'm not sure, I'm definitely way older than this in the real world." Taking a quick survey of the surroundings Joe cocked his head to the side. "This isn't the digital world is it? Maybe it's like… unconsciousness? Or something. Is this dream?" As the words left his mouth he aged five years, his hair grown out to his shoulders again, gaining several feet of height.
"It can't be a dream Joe," Gomamon dug his paws into Joe's arms, his claws digging in ellicting a small amount of pain, very real. Too real.
"This has to be because of what happened." In a blink of an eye Joe was old again, was Mr. Wong again, the red blooming from his chest as blood oozed out, recalling his injury.
"Joe!" Gomamon cried, a paw hovering over the injury. "What happened? Are you okay?!" The world around them was beginning to fade, like a watercolor painting, the taste of the sea disappearing to be replaced by the distant smell of antibacterial hospital.
"I'm going to be okay. I'm better than okay - Gomamon, this means that we're still connected. I knew it, we knew it. I never should have stopped searching - Gomamon, I'm going to see you again, in person, I swear it." Gomamon was little more than a smudge in Joe's vision.
"I believe you Joe. I'll be waiting."
oOo
It's a while before the doctors let Henry into the room - and even longer before he can get a chance to have a moment alone with his dad, without his siblings and his mom crowding his dad. They keep stealing glances at one another, even while Suzie complains about being unable to sit in her dad's lap and plays doctor, putting bandaids all over him at random. The time however did come, when it was just Henry, Terriermon, and his dad in the room, the soft beeping of machines filling the silence as Henry stared at his dad's chest, uncovered with the blanket at the moment showing the bandages.
"Are you okay, Mr. Wong?" Terriermon was the one to break the silence, gingerly wrestling himself from Henry's grip and softly landing on the foot of the bed. Mr. Wong gave a smile, looking at Terriermon with an indecipherable look, his eyes shining.
"I've been better. I've been worse." He made an attempt at a shrug and then winced. Henry grabbed a chair and dragged it over to the bedside, face screwed up in emotion.
"I'm sorry dad, I never meant to get you wrapped up in this stuff." Henry bit his lip even as he felt his dad's hand land on his head, giving his hair a light tousle. Henry stopped for a moment as a small sob came to him, tears beginning to prick at his eyes. "Th-thank you dad. Thank you for saving Terriermon, he's… dad I was so scared." Mr. Wong did his best to give his son a hug, as awkward as it was with his current state of incapacity. After a moment Henry managed to recompose himself, sniffling as he wiped away his tears.
"Henry, you can't drag me into something that I've always been a part of." Terriermon's ears picked up at that and Henry's head jerked, eyebrows knitting together.
"What do you mean?"
"There are things I haven't told you. When you gave me that card to scan the other day, I did know the code. The people who developed it, they're people I used to know. Their signature is a double sided K - Kamiya and Koushiro. I don't know if that'll help you much, but it's something." His dad's hands played with the bedding nervously, smoothing it out against his lap.
"Dad… how long have you known about Digimon? How did you know the creators of the card?" Mr. Wong just slowly shook his head, looking out the hospital window.
"I'm sorry Henry, I'm just not ready yet." And when he turned back to his song Henry was shocked to see the hurt that was in his eyes. How painful it must be, to constantly be carrying that much sorrow inside yourself. "But I've known about Digimon for a long time."
oOo
TK took a deep breath, reached his hand out, retraced it and straightened out his cap, and reached it out again. It hovered there for a moment, finger a breath away from the doorbell, before he finally steeled himself and forced his finger forward, a song chime sounding from somewhere within the house. Tk instantly stuffed his hand in his pocket, fiddling self consciously with his digivice as the sound of someone moving inside the house got louder and louder.
"How did you find my house?" Rika asked coldly as she opened the door, keeping one hand on the doorknob as if ready to slam it shut at any moment.
"I- uh - Henry, he told me, cuz I wanted to talk to you-"
"About what? Don't tell me goggle head got you trying to start up a neighborhood digi-watch program too?" Tk shook his head so hard it nearly spun off of his shoulders, trying to stop Rika before this conversation could gon in any worse of a direction.
"K-Kenta and Kazu said you're good at the Digimon card game." There was a pause in their conversation, Rika's eyes narrowing.
"The best." Rika corrected. "World ranked. What's that to you?" Tk bit his lip and pulled out a small handful of cards - he had borrowed them from Takato, and they were worn and well loved by the boy.
"Earlier, at the fight downtown, I was completely useless. Pata- my partner - may not be here, so I can't right, but if I can learn the tactics of the game maybe I can use cards to help." He said, letting the hope bleed into his voice. Rika's piercing eyes looked him up and down, and suddenly he felt incredibly naked and vulnerable under her gaze. Finally she let out a breath and pushed the door away from her, turning around and flicking her hand out is a flicker-quick 'follow me' gesture.
"Come in, but be quiet, my grandma's sleeping." Her house was modeled traditionally, and after the shift small hallway was mostly open planned - she disappeared into what he assumed was her bedroom for a brief moment before emerging with an ornate box, taking it outside onto the backyard porch. Tk obediently followed.
There was a small stream that sang sweetly into the lazy afternoon as the sun beat down, making the shade of the porch extremely comforting. A low table was on the porch and Rika took a seat on the floor next to it, placing down the boz and taking the cover off of it. Curiously TK sat down on the opposite side - the entire place reminding him distantly of his grandmothers house, or Cody's place.
Inside the box were small cases for cards, each had a handmade label on them with a variety of titles like 'defensive - electric' 'offensive - well rounded' 'support focused'. Rika's hand hovered over several before finally pulling out a 'well rounded - underestimate' case and flicking it open, pulling out the deck and flipping through them before placing them down and pushing towards TK.
"Here, you can use these for today's lesson." TK fumbled with the deck he had taken from Takato, fanning it out in his hands.
"Oh, Takato lent me-" Rika reached out and pushed down on his outstretched hands.
"Don't make me look at what kind of awful unbalanced deck he plays with. I might actually die." Rike retorted and took out one of the other decks, placing the big box to the side before going through her own current deck and nodding to herself. "Alright, so first let's go over type of cards you can play with - modifying cards are most useful in real life, they're good for the sport too but there's more than that. We'll start with Digimon cards themself…"
oOo
"Okay, so I'm going to attack your Zudomon with my Lilymon but I'm first gonna use the digi-modify… Digmon's drill?" TK attempted to sound confident but it turned more into a question as he looked up at Rika's impassive face, waiting for her approval. Slowly she nodded.
"Well played." She took out one of her cards and placed it down, flipping back over all her defeated Digimon and smirking. "I'm better of course, but you're certainly coming along." Tk let out a grumble as he looked at the impending butt kicking Rika was about to give his deck. Rika's hand paused for a moment over her diamond storm card, a small frown appearing on her features.
"How's Renamon doing, after the battle?" For a moment TK was worried that he's overstepped his bounds but after a moment her shoulders sagged - TK was beginning to learn that interactions with Rika included a lot of Moments. In a lot of ways it was like talking with Cody, learning patience and letting the other a chance to process and think and decide what they wanted to say.
"She left." His eyes widened as Rika spoke.
"Left?"
"She went to investigate, and… I haven't really seen her since." Rika's hand fiddled with the card that she had picked up.
"Is she okay? Should we, I don't know, go looking for her?" She shook her head slowly, withdrawing her digivice from her pocket.
"She's fine. I think, I'm pretty sure if she was in danger I'd know. And if she's been gone this long then she's probably found something and is checking it out." The 'at least that's what I hope' went unsaid but was heard loud and clear. "Renamon is okay." She tried to put her usual confidence into it. "She'll come back to me."
Tk opened his mouth to say something, words of comfort maybe, assurances hopefully, but instead the sound of the front door opening interrupted him.
"Yoooo hooo, Rika sweetie!" Immediately all the blood drained from Rika's face and time seemed to stop as Rika looked from TK to the inside of the house before jumping to her feet, grabbing TK's arm.
"You have to leave." With one hand Rika swept up the deck that TK was using and thrust it into his other hand. "You can borrow this deck - practice with Kenta and Kazu, I hate to admit it but they aren't completely hopeless."
"A-are you sure I know they're your-"
"I have like a billion cards Bucket Hat, you can borrow twenty of them/ Now get out of here, before my mom sees you and starts to get ideas." She emphasized ideas with so much disdain, like the word could kill a person. Specifically TK if he didn't make himself scarce. He started towards to the front of the house but Rika jerked him away from that direction.
"She might see you that way." She hissed.
"But there's no other exit!" TK whispered back as the click clack of heels grew louder, th jangling of jewelry filling the air. "Do you expect me to jump the fence?!" Rika' face was impassive. "Oh my gosh."
"Get going or get dead!" Rika bit back and ran into the house, presumably to distract her mother. TK eyed the fence. Looks like he was really doing this.
oOo
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Thanks for reading and have a great day!