72

Onii-chan

"If the child gives the effect another turn of the screw, what do you say to two children—?" – Henry James, The Turn of the Screw

It would seem like the longest day of their lives. Until they were contacted by Lilithmon's promised messenger, there was nothing they could do. There were no further reports of mysterious sexual assaults – apparently the thing that had committed them was a creature of the night. But with things as they were, that was hardly a relief. If the younger Chosen Children were indeed back in the human world, and there was every reason to believe that they were, any monster that was not causing trouble in the city could even now have them at its mercy – whether Lilithmon, or Chiho's attacker, or some unknown entity just as diabolical.

If only one person had been unaccounted for, things would have been bad enough, but instead there were six humans and six Digimon whose current status was unknown. Of the six humans and six Digimon that remained, each of them naturally had some friend – or family member – that they were particularly worried about, but it was the cumulative effect of so many missing that did the most to make the day a hellish one.

And among these larger concerns, there was also the question of what to tell the parents of the missing children. They had faced the problem before, of course, but never under such trying circumstances. When Hikari had been stranded in the Digital World, Taichi had felt comfortable with telling his parents that she was just over at a friend's place, since Daisuke and Takeru had been there to find her. During the final confrontation with the Kaiser, a feigned camping trip had sufficed to explain the absence of the younger six.

But now things weren't so simple. Now all the parents of the missing children knew about the Digimon, knew that there were dangers around every corner, and knew that their sons and daughters were embroiled once more in battle. They had to be told something, but there was no real way of predicting what their reactions would be.

In the end it was decided that they would be given half of the truth. For now they would be told that their children were staying overnight in the Digital World in an attempt to put a stop to the current invasion of the human world. Whether they would accept the explanation was in doubt, but it was a start. With luck the events of the night would see the missing Chosen safe once more, and no further contortions of the truth would be necessary.

That was the plan. As Taichi approached his own apartment, he tried to focus sufficiently to practice what he would say to his parents, but other thoughts kept breaking his concentration. He had been assigned to explaining the supposed situation to his own family and to the Motomiyas, whom he knew socially. But his thoughts weren't with his parents or the Motomiya family, but with his sister and his friends. They were the ones in danger, the ones that he could do nothing to help.

There had been no reply yet to the mail he had sent Hikari. He was beginning to worry that no reply would ever come. In the four years since their first adventure in the Digital World, Taichi had come to be less overprotective of his little sister, as she grew older and her general health had improved. Thinking back now, he could see the irony in how he had treated Yamato's franticness in the search for Takeru on File Island, only to act much the same way later when it was his own sibling in danger. The terrible mistake he made in second grade, when he had inadvertently brought Hikari to death's door, had become a distant memory, but this situation was bringing it back into sharp focus.

Now he stood outside the apartment. Once he opened that door he would have to explain himself to his mom. As he had done so long ago in that hospital hallway, he would face the consequences of his negligence. Agumon waited patiently at his side, without rushing him. When Taichi finally did open the door, and looked into the kitchen to see his mother, for a moment he forgot everything that he had been planning to say. The full truth, as he saw it, wanted to spill out all at once.

Mom, Hikari's gone and it's my fault. I let her go outside and they took her, and we may never see her again. They're doing terrible things to her and it's my fault, all my fault, all my fault.

"Taichi," Yagami Yuuko asked. "What's wrong?" Her son had such a strange look on his face, with his mouth open and his eyes staring. He looked very pale.

"Ah…" he answered, beginning to recollect himself. "Oh, uh, I wanted to…tell you about…something that's come up."

"Alright," she said, looking at him curiously. "What is it?"

"Hikari and the others are going to be in the Digital World for a while," he said. "I just…didn't want you to worry."

"How long is a while?" she asked.

Taichi swallowed. "Probably just overnight. They think they've found a way to stop more Digimon from showing up in the real world."

"It'll be dangerous, won't it?" she said, and it didn't come out like a question. Taichi suddenly felt like crying.

"Yeah," he said, not really thinking about what he was saying. Then he caught himself, and hurried on, "But they'll be okay. It's nothing that they haven't been up against before."

She looked at him doubtfully. Over the past few years, Yuuko and her husband had become perfectly comfortable with their children's partner Digimon, and come to have confidence in the ability of both children and Digimon to deal with any threats that arose, but something of Taichi's desperation was coming across despite his efforts.

For his part, Taichi was about ready to drop the charade. It would be easier to get everything into the open without any deception. For an instant he felt as though it might actually be a relief to bring everyone else's world crashing down around them, as his was. He might really have done it if his mother hadn't turned away from him at that moment to start scrubbing at the breakfast dishes still in the sink.

"I hope this ends soon," she said. "The news has been full of terrible things happening all over the city." She raised her head to gaze out the kitchen window. "I hope Hikari and the others are careful," she murmured.

Taichi had turned away, moving with Agumon toward his bedroom. He didn't trust himself to say anything else.

Yamato's sole responsibility was to talk to his mother. The Inoue and Hida families lived in the same building, but Koshiro, who, along with Miyako, was a member of the school's computer club, would be contacting both of those families via telephone. Yamato was glad at least that he didn't have to deal with people he didn't know very well. He thought about Daisuke's sister Jun, and how she had once detected him lying about Daisuke's whereabouts. Hopefully Taichi would be able to conceal from her the greatness of the danger her brother was now in.

Takaishi Natsuko was still in her office when Yamato arrived at her apartment. She would have to be leaving later that afternoon to give an interview about the recent attacks and to what extent Digimon might be involved with them, but that was still a few hours away. She hoped that it would be enough time to prepare. Maybe she should have started sooner, but a combination of restless nights and constant work on other projects had left her feeling unusually drained.

She was glad when she heard the apartment door open, because that meant Takeru was home, and she needed to ask him some questions that would likely be brought up at the interview. She looked up from the computer, but her greeting died on her lips when she saw that it was her elder son standing in the doorway.

"Yamato…"

It was easy for him to detect the surprise in her voice and face. It wasn't often that he visited his mother at home, especially when his brother wasn't there. He had thought about knocking instead of just walking in, but decided against it. He may not live here, but he wasn't a stranger, or a first time visitor. On some level, this was his home too. Now that he was inside, his next dilemma was what to say. But Natsuko spoke next.

"It's good to see you," she said. "What brings you over?"

Yamato's instinctive reaction was to resent the question. Couldn't he visit his mom without needing a reason to do so? But at the same instant any resentment he might have felt disappeared as he remembered why he had come, and how unfair his reaction was. There were more important things at hand than his sometimes awkward relationship with his mother.

"I wanted to tell you something," he said. After a moment he added uncomfortably, "Takeru wanted me to tell you."

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

Yamato had to fight back a sickened chuckle. Yes, something was very wrong, but he wasn't here to tell her about it.

"Takeru and his friends are going to be spending the night in the Digital World."

"All of a sudden?" she asked, raising her eyebrows "He didn't say anything about it when he left."

"They decided on it after they got there," he answered. "They thought it would be better to make sure they were finished with things there before they came home again."

"But…don't they need supplies, or anything like that?"

"We've…" Yamato looked down at his shoes. He was starting to regret all this. "…got things all worked out."

"It just seems strange that…" She stopped. Was it really so unbelievable that Takeru would do something like that without letting her know in advance? He'd had a lot of practice keeping things from her. For seven months of the previous year he had been an active participant in a war for the Digital World, and she'd known nothing of it. But even so this new turn of events seemed sudden and unusual.

That led her to Yamato. Was he telling the truth? Or was he hiding something of his own? It had been a long time since she had lived with him, and she couldn't read him well. He seemed a little awkward, he wasn't making eye contact – but then, that wasn't unusual, in her experience. It made her sad. All in all, she hadn't been much of a mother to him. Apart from the divorce, her workload kept her from building a better relationship with him. It would have come in handy now.

"A-Anyway," Yamato said, breaking the silence, "I should get going." He turned to go, but Natsuko couldn't just let him leave like that.

"Wait," she said. "Couldn't you stay a little longer? We could get lunch, and maybe talk a bit more about what's been going on."

"Maybe later, Mom," he answered. "Right now I've got some other things I have to do."

"Well… if you're sure."

Yamato was at the door when she stepped into the hallway and spoke up again.

"Yamato?"

He turned and looked at her, and something in his eyes made her uneasy. The expression looked strange on someone so young.

"Takeru is really alright? You'd tell me if something was wrong, wouldn't you?"

"He'll be fine," Yamato said. "I promise." And with that he hurried out of the apartment.