9. The Cat Falls Out of the Tree
Taichi stumbled, fell, and got up again.
It would've been easier to lie down. More fruitful too, probably. Nothing was accomplished by wandering the town while drunk on tears and grief, except more grief.
Maybe he was looking for more grief.
'Taichi?'
Except Agumon was there. Agumon was keeping him somewhat rooted, somewhat aware. Because Agumon wouldn't let him walk into a wall or in front of a truck or off a bridge. He'd burn the bridge first.
If only Hikari had been the eighth child, then she would have had a protector like that as well.
'Taichi!'
His head smacked a tree this time. He heard a hiss, probably from his own lips, and then sunk to the base of it. 'Why couldn't she have been the eighth child?' He was sobbing suddenly. He thought he'd long run out of tears. 'Why couldn't she have had a protector like you? A friend like you?'
He cried and cried, and finally the crux of the agony came out. 'Why couldn't I have been a better brother?'
'Taichi...' Agumon was at a loss. Digimon died in their world, but their friends had made it through. And they didn't have families. Not like the human sense of the word. No mothers, no fathers, no sisters - no-one except maybe their partners they could ever think to grieve for like this. 'You couldn't have known...'
But if she'd been the eighth child, then they would have known. And why couldn't she have been? She remembered the digimon. Better than he did, in fact. She remembered Koromon's name while he'd had to be reintroduced. So she didn't have a digivice. So what? Maybe -
And he was crying anew, because maybe that thought process had killed her. 'Dammit!' He punched the tree. 'Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!'
There was scurrying above and he didn't realise it. Just punched the tree again. But Agumon did. And he aimed a pepper breath at the trees until a feline jumped out.
'Tailmon!'
Taichi still wasn't looking, but Agumon was. 'Taichi! Her gloves!'
She hissed at him, but Taichi was looking now, at Agumon's call.
The gloves that gave way to claws had stains of reddish-brown on them.
