Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

Digital Manifest

Keepers

Chapter 14: Nobody

Ryan's mind reeled, and the boy blinked his green eyes in response to what Yamaki had just told him, hoping that he had misheard the man. Next to him, Henry, Terriermon, and Richoemon did likewise. After what felt like an eternity, Ryan opened his mouth and spoke. What he said, though perfectly predictable in a situation like this, was also understandable.

"Would you mind repeating what you just said?"

Yamaki sighed.

"I'm sorry, but our initial investigation hasn't yielded any results that can be of any help to you. As far as the U.S. government is concerned, there is no one of your description by the name of Ryan McCabe, and the same goes for your friend Chris."

Yamaki glanced at the file once again before looking up at Ryan, his eyes analyzing the boy as he prepared to deliver the next bit of information.

"There are adults ranging from ages twenty-four to seventy-eight with your name, but no children even remotely in your age group. There doesn't seem to be any indication of the existence of your home town…" Yamaki glanced down again. "…Greensborough in any of the records that the American government has on the state of Illinois."

Ryan shifted in his seat and his mouth opened in protest, but nothing seemed to come to mind immediately, so his mouth closed with an audible click and he settled back down in the chair as the full impact of Yamaki's news began to hit home for him.

No information… no records… but… how…? Why…? That… that can't be right! Can it? No. It can't be! I've grown up in that town all my life! Why aren't there any records?!

While Ryan continued to process the information, Terriermon and Henry, finally recovering, joined in on the conversation.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," said Terriermon from his spot on Henry's shoulder. "But are you saying that Ryan here made up everything that he told you? Er… no offence to you Ryan, buddy."

Henry glanced at his partner with a slightly annoyed look before looking over at the brown haired boy that was sitting next to him. Ryan was being awfully quiet, and there was a look in his eyes that was a mixture of confusion and anger, not directed at Terriermon, but was rather focused inward.

"Are you sure about this, Yamaki? I mean, it's only been a few days since you sent out the request for that information, so you know that these things can take quite a bit of time…"

Yamaki nodded.

"I've already thought of that, so I requested that a second search be made just to be sure. Given that Ryan and Chris are also Tamers I'm starting to think that Hypnos should also lend its resources in this, but with the arrival of those new digimon we have to monitor the net and make sure that there are no more Wild Ones trying to get through. For now, we should leave this to the American government."

"Are they planning on taking Ryan and Chris into federal custody?"

Yamaki shook his head.

"I already headed them off on that. I don't believe that the American government is going to be happy that we aren't going to send them what may be two of their citizens, but as I stated, they have digimon, and Hypnos is the foremost authority on digimon in the world at present. All other international agencies are lacking in research, technology, and funding to properly deal with this situation. That, and Shinjuku tends to be the center of digimon related activity…"

"Wouldn't that make it a bad idea then to keep them close to danger?" Asked Terriermon.

"Not necessarily," said Yamaki folding his hands. "As much as I don't like the idea, keeping Ryan," Yamaki nodded to the boy, who was frowning at the head of Hypnos. "And his friend close to our resources enables us to move faster, and if there's a digimon threat that's coming after them and threatening our world as well, then they might prove to be a valuable resource."

Ryan glowered.

Resource? Is that what we are now?

"But… what about home?" Asked Ryan in a harsh voice that was barely above a whisper. Ryan closed his eyes, trying to find some sense of stability, but all he was feeling was that his world was beginning to spiral out of control. He was holding out hope that there was some kind of goof up, and that information had just been mixed up or something, and he held onto this belief with a stubbornness that would have put even Rika to shame, grasping onto it as though it were his only lifeline in this city that was so far away from the place that he called his own.

"I'm sorry Ryan," said Yamaki, turning his attention to the boy. "But until we know something more, you and your friend are going to have to wait here a little bit longer."

Ryan gripped the chairs arms and took a steady breath. In. And out. No big deal right? Yeah, there probably was just a mix up and that the information would be checked and double-checked, and pretty soon he and Chris would be on the next plane back home. Back to Greensborough. What was Yamaki talking about? Greensborough not existing? Of course it did! He lived there! His father, mother, and sister lived there, even if they weren't together…

Ryan shook his head.

"It's just… I was hoping that Chris and I could go home soon, and…" Ryan sighed. There wasn't anything that he could do that could change how the dice rolled this time around. Yamaki was right. All he could do was just wait and see what happened.

"I understand your desire to return to a normal life," said Yamaki. "But unfortunately with everything that's happening, you, your friend, and your digimon partners are going to be needed to get to the bottom of what's going on. Digimon have followed you here, two of them that Chris had described as having been pursuing you in the digital world appear only one day after your arrival, and at the same time you are attacked by a digimon that had data algorithms in it similar to what remains in your body. A digimon with an appearance similar to other digimon that you had encountered prior to your return to the real world…"

As Yamaki spoke, Henry's mind went back to that day in the park, when a Champion level Apemon, a rather unique Apemon so to speak, had stood off four Champions, took two Ultimate level attacks without blinking, and had…

Henry blinked as an image of the Apemon charging towards Ryan after he had passed out. There was something about the way that it had been moving at that time.

Now that I think about it, thought the half-Chinese Tamer as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. It looked more like it was going after Ryan's digivice when he threw it away from himself. But why? If the Apemon were after the digivice, would it have something to do with my Dad's theory that Ryan and Chris's digivices are alive? What's so important about them that would have a digimon try to steal them? I should probably tell Yamaki about this, but I need to think about it some more, and see what else Dad has to say about those digivices. We know so little about them, and even their owners admit that they don't know a whole lot about them either other than that they're capable of a number of tasks similar to our D-Arcs, only slightly more advanced.

We should probably take another look at the data that Dad has on them. I wonder if he's gotten any closer to translating the data.

"… And that was when Ryo said 'Thanks' to me and Guardromon!" Spouted Kazu as he rambled on about another one of the adventures that the Tamers had had before Chris and Ryan arrived. The boy had been telling them ever since Chris had asked about them three days ago, and usually went on to edit or over-dramatize his involvement in the major battles. One example of this had been the infamous Blue Card that Kazu had drawn and colored before the battle against the horse Deva, Indramon, having elevated himself to near godlike status and unmatched artistic prowess that was only shattered when Kenta jokingly claimed that Kazu had just barely made the cut when he had been making it. Pun intended, including the insult about how his coloring skills, though in the lines, were in need of quite a few art classes. Guardromon wasn't exactly helping the boy's case either with the accuracy of his memory banks, causing him to correct his partner every time he went overboard in describing his own self-importance and actions during their adventures in the digital world and during the D-Reaper invasion.

"I mean," continued Kazu as he walked down the streets with his hands behind his head. "Who would have thought that Ryo of all Tamers would say thanks to a guy like me? I guess it's about time that someone recognized my natural talent…"

"Or lack of," joked Kenta before indicating the blonde haired boy that was walking behind them. "But don't you remember that Chris doesn't know about Ryo's reputation the way we do? I mean, we've told him about it and everything, but he had been sucked into the digital world before Ryo really became famous. I think."

"Oh yeah," said Kazu looking over his shoulder. "I forgot about that. Hey! We should see what Ryo's up to and… Whoa!"

Kenta turned his head to see what it was that had stopped his visor-wearing friend in mid-sentence, and then smiled, trying more or less to hold back a laugh. Not that Kazu was making any better effort, far from it in fact, and for good reason. The sight in front of them was just too funny to not laugh. Even Rika probably would have chuckled at it. Well… maybe not chuckled, but she might have smirked. Either that or roll her eyes but that's beside the point. The scene that was causing Kazu and Kenta to crack up had to do with Chris, or rather what was going on with Chris at this moment. Even MarineAngemon couldn't help but giggle and do cartwheels in the air at Chris's rather odd situation.

"You know," said the blue-eyed boy as he tried to remove a certain, white colored, giggling creampuff of a digimon from the top of his head. With a sudden increase in the intensity of the childish guffawing that was emanating from the In-Training's mouth, Calumon tightened his grip on Chris's hair, and the boy winced in pain.

"This is fun," laughed Calumon as he bounced up and down on Chris's head. Kazu and Kenta snickered at the scene.

"Well, we warned ya about having him tag along with us."

"Kazu," said Kenta, trying to restrain his own laughter long enough to sound like he was scolding his friend. He failed miserably. "We didn't… actually… warn him about anything."

"Sure we did. We told him about the food, didn't we?"

"But Kazu, that was Ryan."

"Oh. Right. Oops. My mistake."

"You know," growled Chris. "Instead of simply standing there having fun at my expense you could at least be doing something to help me out here."

"I don't know…" said Caramon, grinning from his spot on Chris's shoulder as he sat up on his hind legs and stretched. "I kind of think that Calumon makes a good… what'd you call it? A hood ornament?"

"That's only for cars," grumbled Chris as he tried to pull Calumon off his head again, and this time managed to succeed. Holding the giggling white ball Chris looked at him, wondering just what to do with him. He half considered sticking him back on his head since he seemed capable enough to sit there and not go anywhere, but he had just gone through a lot of trouble getting him off. And besides, he was also starting to get stares from the people around him. Well, more stares than he was already getting anyway.

"Anyway, you were saying something about meeting up with Ryo."

"Yeah," said Kazu, shifting gears once more to what had to be his second favorite subject (the first being the Digimon card game). "Dude, he could probably tell you all sorts of things about the digital world. He was in there for almost a year before we met up with him. He'd do a way better job at teaching you some strategies about handling yourself in a digimon brawl. He may even tell you how he beat Rika at that tournament…"

"Ahem…" went Kenta. "As much as I'd like that information too, I think that in the interest of Chris staying alive the next time he plays her in a match, we should probably avoid that subject."

"Phhht!" Kazu waved a hand dismissively. "You're never going to win a game against her with that kind of attitude. I thought that you'd be glad to have an edge against the Digimon Queen."

"Yeah, but I'd rather not have to cheat to have one."

"Pih," said MarineAngemon with a smile and a giggle, to which Kenta smiled back.

"Thanks buddy."

Kazu stared blankly at the duo before looking over at his partner.

"Guardromon? Translation please?"

"I believe he said something meant to elate Kenta's spirits."

"I kind of guessed that," said Kazu. "But how about a more direct translation. Like for example, what he said."

"I didn't digivolve with a translator unit," said Guardromon with a slight look of annoyance at the boy.

"Aren't you supposed to be a machine? An android or something? Isn't this stuff supposed to be built into you?"

"Yes, but I'm not as advanced as Andromon…"

Chris sighed and rolled his eyes at the scene before him. Thinking about it he felt that it would be a good idea to head on down to Ryo's place, get in touch with him and see if he could learn anything else about his last trip in the digital world, and about the girl that he had met there. But he'd need something to shut Kazu up for a while in order to get a word in edgewise. He considered bringing up Ryo's name since that seemed to be the usual way of attracting Kazu's attention, but…

Well, he wouldn't have any fun in that.

Chris looked at Calumon and grinned. Calumon spread his ears wide and smiled back.

"Calumon? You see the visor that Kazu's wearing? It's really a Frisbee. Go play with it."

And with that, Chris tossed the small In-training at Kazu just as he looked at Chris, wondering just what the kid was talking about.

"Wha…?" The boy began before jumping backwards. Calumon descended on the hapless boy's head.

"YAAAY! FRISBEE! YAAAY!"

"HEY! NO! DON'T… GUARDROMON! A LITTLE HELP HERE?!"

As Kazu struggled to keep his visor safe from the tiny, giggling monster that had latched onto his head, Chris easily passed by him and smiled.

"So… which way to Ryo's house?"

Ryan got up from the table, having completed yet another session of tests with Janyu Wong to make sure that the data that remained in his body was behaving and continuing to deteriorate without harming his body as it did so. Ryan's thoughts were mostly not focused on the reasons for the tests, having other things to think about right now. He was thinking about the conversation that he had had with Yamaki, and whatever it might mean for him and Chris. If Yamaki's first investigation into the whereabouts of his family and hometown were true, then where did that leave them? Or rather where did it leave them? The where part felt much more important to him since it seemed rather obvious that having come home, or rather what looked like home to him and Chris, and finding out that there was no home to go back to, they were left with… what exactly? Greensborough… their family… how could the American government not have any information on any of them? They were all registered… they paid their taxes; Ryan's own mother was an executive at a fairly prosperous company that had bases in Chicago.

Just what was going on here? It just didn't make any sense!

What do I tell Chris? Wondered Ryan as he got down from off the examination table and reached for his shirt. The answer did seem pretty obvious. Just tell him what he knew and what the leading theory was and leave it at that. Of course, there was the fact that Chris might not take the news well. They had both toughened up some mentally from their time in the digital world, but the fights that they had in the desert were still sore memories to them, even if they both needed them at the time in order to keep going. As close as they had gotten during their adventures, there were some things that they weren't sure about approaching the other with because they weren't sure how the other would react. Of course, Chris had shown himself capable of taking things pretty well since then…

Either way. Ryan would tell Chris. They had gotten this far being honest and open with each other, even before they had gone to the digital world. Ryan saw no reason to discontinue that aspect of their relationship. It wouldn't sit well with him, and Chris wouldn't have liked it either. They had too much respect and history with each other to operate differently.

Ryan snapped out of his thoughts as Janyu began speaking to him.

"Well Ryan, it looks like I have to give you a clean bill of health again. The data is still there, but it's still fragmenting. Doesn't seem to be posing a threat to you so far so it doesn't look like you have anything to worry about."

Janyu gave the boy a soft smile, one that Ryan returned, though it felt more forced to him.

"Thanks for doing this for me, Mr. Wong," said Ryan.

"Sure thing," said Janyu. "Are you going to be staying at my place tonight, or are you going to be at another one of the Tamers?"

Janyu grinned.

"My wife is planning something special for dinner, and Suzie has been asking about your partner…"

Ryan shuddered. Suzie was so far the reason why he had been avoiding the Wong's residence, if only because of the fact that she had tried to dress up Richoemon in what Henry had called the Princess Pretty Pants treatment (lord knows why it was called that. It just was). Well, that and the fact that Henry's older siblings tended to ask a lot of questions about him and Chris. Henry's sister, he recalled had been especially interested in hearing about both his and Chris's story, which wasn't bad at first, but somehow Caramon had let it slip about the incident involving Sukamon and Chuumon. No details mind you, but just enough to perk up everyone's curiosity. Not least of all a certain bunny rabbit who had the habit of asking loud, pointed questions and was perfectly capable of dragging up an old subject the way dogs do old bones that they've buried.

Of course, balanced out with Mrs. Wong's cooking (which he had to admit was quite superb), the risks were almost worth it. Given the amount of time that he had spent in the digital world without eating a decent meal, he probably would have gone toe to toe with a Metal Tyrannomon for one of Mrs. Wong's meals, and have tossed in an Etemon just for good measure, but still.

"I'll have to pass on it," said Ryan. "Sorry."

Janyu didn't look put out.

"That's okay. I understand that you've had quite the day so far."

Ryan chuckled.

"Well, it's been one of my more quieter days…"

"Even so. I can certainly understand the need for a quiet evening. Some of my kids were quite the handful the last time you and your friend were over as I recall."

"Ahhh… Suzie wasn't that bad," said Ryan, scratching the back of his head. "I have a little sister back home," if home exists. Ryan lamented in his mind. "She can be pretty rambunctious herself. I just think that Suzie caught Richoemon by surprise, that's all. Until now, Chris and I were the only humans that he's ever met, and now he's seeing more than he can probably handle all at once. It's going to take some time for him to get used to that."

"Perhaps just as much as it took my family to get used to the idea of digimon," said Janyu with a humorous smile.

Ryan's own smile became a bit more genuine at that, until thoughts of his own family reentered his mind.

Richoemon sat down in the lobby with Henry and Terriermon, waiting for Ryan to come back downstairs and share the news with them. Richoemon swung his clawed feet nervously as he sat in the chair, looking almost like a little kid in his anxiety rather than the dangerous looking tiger-striped, fire-breathing dinosaur that he really was. He was worried about Ryan. When they had left Yamaki's office after receiving the news about Ryan and Chris's home apparently not existing, and that the same held true for the two boys as well. Richoemon wondered what it would be like to know people, and to have a place to call your own and then find out that none of it was even there, worse yet that it never even existed. Richoemon couldn't say that he knew what it was like to have that sort of thing happen to him. He never had a home as far as he remembered, and Chris, Caramon, Ryan, Leomon, and Centarumon were really the first beings that he had made friends with in all the time that he had existed.

Richoemon frowned.

Something tugged at his mind. In all the time that he had traveled with Ryan and Chris, they had always said something about their lives back home, and the years that they had lived there. Now that Richoemon thought about it, he didn't really have that many memories. Nowhere near as many as his friends did, and he had never really had a reason to question that. His first memory in fact revolved around sniffing a yellow flower, right before…

"Will you stop swinging your feet?" Complained Terriermon. "You're making me nervous."

"Terriermon…"

"What? Come on, Henry. I know that he's worried about what Ryan's test result is going to be, we all are. But sheesh! All the other examinations have turned out fine, so why should this time be any different? Richoemon really needs to have more faith in his partner…"

"I'm sure that he's got other things on his mind too, Terriermon," said Henry, glancing over at the striped dinosaur. "I mean, he was there when Yamaki gave Ryan the news…"

"Yeah," said Richoemon. "I am kind of thinking about that. It was making me wonder what it would be like to have that happen to me."

"And?" Prompted Henry, curious what Richoemon's response would be.

Richoemon shrugged.

"I can't really say. I didn't have any friends before I met Ryan. Sometimes I think about how we met, and I can't help but wonder if that moment was preordained or something."

"How did you two meet, exactly?"

"Wasn't anything special really," said Richoemon, staring at his toes. "I just remember…"

"HEY! GUYS!" Called out Ryan as he stepped out of the elevator and walked on over to his three companions. Richoemon hopped down from his seat and ran over to the boy while Henry stood up, Terriermon already wrapped around his partner's neck.

"Took you long enough," said Richoemon and Terriermon at the exact same time, and the two glared at each other before breaking into matching grins. Ryan and Henry did likewise.

"What's the news?" Asked Henry.

"Well," said Ryan. "Your dad says that I get to live another day, which is all very well and good if you ask me. Probably the best news that I've had all day."

"So what do you plan to do now?"

Ryan shrugged and gave the Chinese Tamer a tired smile.

"Nothing special. I was thinking about taking a walk, think things over in my head for a bit before heading down to the Matsuki's Bakery and see what I can do there before packing it in for the evening."

"Thinking about staying there tonight?" Asked Henry with a raised eyebrow. Ryan nodded.

"Your dad already asked me about that, and no offence, but I could do with a quiet day today. And I think Suzie would be a little too much fun for Richoemon to handle as well…"

"That's a fact," said Terriermon. Henry chuckled.

"Well all right. Are you going to be in the park?"

"Most likely. I don't think that I could navigate the city on my own without getting lost. Why?"

"Well, I wanted to talk to my Dad about something, and since you like to take these walks on your own, I figured that if you would be able to handle going out on your own for a bit while I had a word with my Dad. It does concern your digivices though so I'm also curious as to whether or not you would like to stick around."

Ryan thought about it for a bit. He probably should, but he didn't think that he could learn anything that he didn't already know, and he was sure that Janyu would have mentioned it while he was upstairs with him. Besides, he didn't really want to have to sit down and listen to a lot of talk that concerned technology and algorithms. Some of it he could understand, but at a certain point it just flew over his head and all he could do was either ask questions or nod dumbly.

"I know that it would probably be a smart idea for me to do that," said Ryan. "But right now, I really need to clear my head."

Henry nodded.

"That's okay. If anything comes up, I'll be sure to let you know. I'll be going back down to the park later on myself, so if you're going to be there I'll meet you at Guilmon's place. Okay?"

Ryan smiled.

"Sure thing."

In the depths of the layers of the Internet, a shadowy digimon had begun its race across the networks grid, aiming with all its strength and willpower towards breaking the barriers that separated it from the real world. Its mission was far too important to let something like this, or anything else disrupts it.

Three spheres of energy connected in the form of a triangle began to fly in its direction, and the digimon paused for a moment, as though regarding it as it approached. A second later, data warped and then the energy phenomenon changed direction, completely oblivious to the digital life form that watched it go before resuming its journey. A light that was above him, the light of the real world, shone off of metal that made up its hands.

Loki will be pleased with me when I find out why Ahuramon's been showing so much interest in this particular world… the digimon thought, visions of rewards flashing through its mind.

The digimon cackled, continuing its race.

A/N: I had wanted to put in some action in this chapter, but after the third page, it didn't seem like the sort of chapter that would have it in it, especially with the length that fight scenes can have, so I separated it, wanting to give the next chapter its own sense of the dramatic before signing off for the night. While not much really happened here, next chapter is guaranteed to have quite a bit going on as yet another player is about to be added to the game. Next chapter should focus some more on Beelzemon and Leomon, have some action in it as well as more character interaction, particularly with the OC's as they try to figure out what exactly is going on and deal with the situations as they arise, though the Canon's will have their fair share of screen time as well (being kind of important to the storyline as well). Later.

-Crazyeight

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