I don't own digimon.

Story 27

What remains of Maki Himekawa

Maki Himekawa wasn't completely sure why she was even alive. Her last moments were that of drowning, falling into the endless void without any sign of stopping. She probably would still be in there, if not for the fucker running the place realizing she wasn't the desired prize. Not that it would make a difference in the grand scheme of things. She still wanted to die. The least of her worries. Laying on this beach in an unknown land, a million different thoughts echoed through her head. Where exactly had she washed up? Was Diego somehow alive? Had he in any way fucked her over? How was Meiko doing? If she was, could she by any chance borrow Meicoomon for some things. But most of all, had anything happened in the time that she had been gone? That one most of all. Great and all that there was a world that she could come back too, but the state of the digidestined as a whole was up in the air on all fronts. Had anything of note occurred while she drowned in an endless sea of black.

"Oh. It's you." a voice announced and Maki's gaze bounced about. Eventually, she focused on a brunette in a swimsuit. Eyes glazed over, what looked to be a Veemon of all digimon pacing back and forth in frustration.

"Homeostasis." Maki announced and got a chuckle in return. Leave it to the one person she didn't want to see to show up to make themselves known right away. The human shield was just plain fucked up. Otherwise, she would lay into this stupid entity for all the acts committed for the supposed sake of 'balance'. Or whatever bullshit that they would be claiming this time around.

"In the flesh, bitch." the brunette announced, an inhuman smile forming on their vessel's face. Try as Maki might to evade their gaze, she always found herself back in Homeostasis's gaze. Absolutely aggravating. The least this entity could do was give her at least a miniscule amount of time to at least get her bearings and come up with a proper argument. No, that was asking too much here. Had to make sure she suffered fully for her crimes. Regardless of the punishment she had faced down in that black abyss. "Were you somehow hoping that your friend Menoa would kill me by way of her plan to save the chosen? A shame that she saved no one and accomplished absolutely nothing."

The words rolled out, Maki completely unable to believe her ears. While the name 'Menoa' rang a handful of bells, what was this about a plan to save the chosen. Far as Maki was concerned, the chosen (the ones that matter at least), seemed like the sort who had some amount of their lives figured out. But she could be wrong about that. She had been wrong many times. If Maki wasn't on top of the world, then she was messing something up. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not.

"What the hell are you talking about now?" Maki countered and stood up. Even on the sand, she still had a solid footing. Perfect for reacting to anything that Homeostasis might throw her way. "There was no plan to 'save' them. If anything, you are the blight that makes everything worse. Balance or not, you can't just use people like your personal toys and then discard them when the dust se-"

"Says the pot calling the kettle black." Homeostasis countered and rolled their eyes in Maki's direction. Doesn't have the desired effect on the government agent.

"At least I'm willing to acknowledge that things didn't go to plan!" Maki screeched, resisting the urge to push her opponent. No, would only bring a far worse counterattack. Possibly from the Veemon pretending that they weren't seeing any of this. Initially, Maki thought they were the vessel's partner, but now that wasn't really looking to be the case. Was Homeostasis trying to guilt trip her? No, there was probably a good reason for this random rookie digimon to be here. Not that she could discern what that reason was currently. Pushing that thought to the back of her mind, Maki's gaze swiveled over to Homeostasis. Quite content with themselves, their smile was now even wider.

"You do realize how easy it would be to kill you? All I would need to do is hold you down and wait till the bubbles go away. If I'm feeling really cruel, I can just speed the process by forcing you to choke yourself." Homeostasis cooed and Maki ran past her. Every second she was here, that was just one more chance for Homeostasis to snuff her out. While there probably existed people who wanted to see her pass on, a (hopefully) small minority in the grand scheme of things. But where could she go to escape? There was likely not a single place where she could escape Homeostasis's vision. No, she would need to outsmart the entity. But how exactly?

Coming to a stop, Maki looked her options over. She was clearly at some kind of seaside town. But without any visible signage, she didn't have a way of knowing her general location. Not that such knowledge would serve to be particularly useful beyond knowing what language to speak and the general customs to follow. Moving beyond that, Maki continued looking.

"Bingo." she thought, her gaze locking onto a set of umbrellas. Running in that direction, handfuls of sand and mud flying by. Maki ignored the projectiles, choosing to pick up her pace. Once she had something defending her front, she could worry about maybe holding this possessed woman at bay until Homeostasis got bored and fucked back off to the digital world. Had to be far more important duties they could be working on. No, they decided to take out time in order to kill her. Truly fucking wonderful. No wonder someone had to create a plan in order to create a plan to 'save' the chosen. If she made it out of this clusterfuck alive, she would need to look it up. Probably a crudton of resources to help her fill in the blanks. Yeah, that sounded wonderful. "Is that really the best you got?"

Right after saying that, the veemon appeared before her. Not even trying to stop Maki from pulling the umbrella out from the ground, they instead observe her. Absolutely annoying, but there was little she could do about it. Attacking the veemon would only serve to piss them and Homeostasis even more. But if the government agent just left it to their own devices, who knows what they could do to her when she wasn't looking. Either way, she was screwed.

"I could put you in a black hole, but that would be a tad overkill." the veemon explained and Maki shot them a look. Wonderful. Just one more thing to add to the list of things that could kill her here. Unless… Yeah. That could very much work.

"Wouldn't putting me in a black hole also take you and your boss with it?" Maki inquired and took a moment to position the umbrella. Last thing she needed was more sand getting in the way of countering whatever else her opponent threw out.

"If that's what it takes to keep the balance, I would do it." the veemon answered and received a head shake from Maki. Bad enough that she got dragged back into this mess, but to have death threatened on her once more? Part of her wanted to laugh at all of this. But no, she needed to keep a straight face here. At least until they both got bored of toying with her and went elsewhere. At least, that was what she hoped. Considering how far they had chased up off of the beach, Maki couldn't say for sure.

"Cute as your barrier is, it won't save you from me." Homeostasis cooed, gusts of wind tearing through the area. Trying her best to hold on, Maki's grip eventually gave way. The umbrella shot out of her hands and made a beeline for Homeostasis. Grabbing hold in a single motion, they took a moment to close it back up. A couple swings followed, a smile formed on their face. "You know, I quite like this."

Maki rolled her eyes.

"Just end me." she muttered, looking about for anything that could help her. In these winds, there was little that she could do. Whatever she attempted to grab, Homeostasis would just pull it in. Even if they somehow didn't, there was still the veemon that could do just about anything here. Clearly on Homeostasis's side, why had they gone through the trouble of bringing a digimon with them. Homeostasis could clearly handle this all by themselves. Why bring someone else with them? Did they consider her that highly valuable of a target to rid the world of? Or was there some other motive at play for her to discern? For now, Maki pushed those thoughts away. Not much of a use in dwelling on that. Instead, she charged right for her opponent. If she was lucky, then Homeostasis would jump over to her. Or at least, try too. If she somehow failed, then it would be a cinch to capture the entity. "Bitch, if you want me gone so bad. Then here I am."

Fist pulled back, Maki slammed her hand into the woman. Homeostasis staggered about for a couple steps, only to fall to the ground with a soft 'thud'. Shaking a couple times, eventually a white sphere of light floated out of the woman's body.

"Not a fucking word from you, Missy." Homeostasis announced and floated forward. The nerve of this rat. Couldn't she see how futile this actually was? Even if Maki were to get out of this situation, where the heck could she go? Nowhere, that's what. She could very easily track her down and snuff out what life rem-

Homeostasis didn't get a chance to finish that thought, Maki grabbed hold of the ball and pushed it into her body. Waiting a couple seconds, every sensation within felt as if she was on some kind of acid. So intense and yet… absolutely beautiful. If she put her mind to it, mountains could be moved and demons exorcised from this world. Maybe even bring forth arrows of light to empower people. Okay, maybe not the last one. She was only in this for herself, at least for now. Once she had a better grasp on all that had gone down, then she could start making big decisions.

"Are you happy now? Was it worth getting your husband killed and you nearly drowning?" Homeostasis taunted, but the government agent ignored her for now. No, Maki took a couple steps forward in the hopes of having a better idea of where the hell she was.

"If it means that you won't hurt anyone… then yes." Maki answered and cracked a smile to no one in particular. Holding back a cough, she stared up to the sky. Not a cloud in sight, the sun shined brightly. "Also, he's my ex-husband."