DISCLAIMER:

The characters and all related material herein are the property of their creators and/or copyright holders, who may be too numerous to name here. Team Hydro and all affiliated parties do not claim ownership of said characters and/or material. Team Hydro does not seek to infringe upon any trademarks, copyright, or any other existing legal document that may be connected to any of the above.

Please Note: This chapter is not a continuation of "The Rematch". This story preview, 'Rumour', takes place further down the line in Ryo and Rika's relationship. This piece isn't lemony, but Rika does rough up one of her classmates - sorry if that is in any way a discouragement. Also, Renamon appears! And how!

Story-wise, this is a rather sharp turn of events. Rika is plagued by a rather nasty rumour at school, concerning the identity of her boyfriend, and the resident bully makes the grievous error of throwing it in her face. How she deals with this might seem a little OOC, but not so, when one considers the personality shift she experienced during Ryo's four-year absence.

Be advised: here be a very irate Rika, and a school bully who just doesn't know how to keep her mouth shut.

Chapter edited: new Digi-Modify/card slash scene.

Team Hydro Preview - Tamers #2

Rumour

Rika slammed her locker shut and threw her backpack onto her shoulder; those stares were starting to get to her. Renamon's only a whisper away, she reminded herself, but passed it up. She didn't need her Digimon partner to help her ignore a few childish sputterings, to hold her hand like a little kid. Besides, Yamaki would blow a gasket if she called her Digimon into view of the public for something trivial like this. No; she'd handle this herself. But, why the hell was everyone talking about her?

Usually, these spineless ingrates were too afraid to even look in her direction, and yet now they were all talking about her. So, what was so interesting and yet so incriminating that she was supposed to have done, but no-one wanted to say louder than a whisper? She'd had to stop herself several times already from just turning around screaming Would somebody just tell me what's going on here?!

But suddenly, that snide bitch Maria from the next grade up beat her to it. "So Rika, why don't you tell us about your new boyfriend?" The girl sneered, putting herself in Rika's way with that smart-assed look on her face - something Rika had always seen as a good reason to crack her knuckles and lay the cretin out like a tapestry. It also usually meant the girl had some morsel of embarrassment to hurl at her – or thought she did - which caused her to feel the need to make a scene.

But then Maria always looked that way - until Rika pushed her out of the way, or gave her another black eye.

Maria had quickly become a nemesis of sorts upon Rika's return to private schooling, at her interfering mother's behest. Maria was half a head taller than her, so skinny it had to hurt. And, evidently, in possession of too few braincells to see the danger in putting herself in Rika's bad books. If not for her auburn hair and her eyes being brown, everything else about Maria screamed Stereotypical-Blue-Eyed-Blonde. Even to the point of being a rampaging bitch.

American-born, Maria and her family had moved to Japan when her corporate-junkie father got transferred to a Shinjuku office by one of the big firms. Hers was one of many families pulled in from overseas, to compensate for the workforce panic six years ago, where some forty percent of the working population had quit their deskjobs during the aftermath of the D-Reaper's invasion. Fearing that the city was a Digimon magnet and no-longer safe to inhabit, they'd upped sticks, grabbed their families and possessions, and point-blank fled.

Maria was from a different world, and had made efforts to model her new life on whatever her old one had looked like – a life so plastic, in Rika's opinion, it boarderd on prosthetic. The girl strutted around their private city school like she owned the place, with her so-called clique trailing along behind her, flouting her whole Classy-American-Girl act with her expensive hair extensions, big brown eyes and tacky make-up to any remotely-popular guy who stopped to watch her go by.

Naturally, she'd been under the impression, for most of her Japanese school-life and probably most of her American one too, that she was both pretty and tough; in her opinion, she was everything any self-respecting guy, of any given nationality, could ever want. That is, until the day Rika arrived and rained on her sad little parade, putting the nasty American piece of work squarely where she belonged - in the nurse's office, knocked clean into next week and with every colour of bruise to show for it.

Even the school Principle had to admit, it'd been one hell of an entrance for Rika's first day back, and only a taste of things to come because Maria kept coming back for more. The two arch-rivals had been at each-other's throats ever since; not a day went by that they didn't have some kind of argument or harsh words to spit at one-another.

Rika knew she'd snap like a rotten twig if Maria didn't get out of her face; just one more sneer, one more snide comment about her relationship with Ryo would be all it would take and she'd put that ignorant, bullying bitch in a bodybag. But she wasn't in the mood for a visit to the Principle's office today. Instead she held her head high, and gave the snotty wench a solid not in the mood for this shit shove, a shove that was really more a grab-and-throw manoeuvre than the half-assed push she'd meant it to be, and followed it with something plain and simple – something the brainless idiot would understand.

"I don't have time for your bullshit, Maria; so either get outta my way, or get hurt - again. It's your choice."

And move the girl did. But not before adding some quick remark that Rika didn't quite manage to catch.

"…screwing…stupid kid…goggles."

Rika's left eye twitched momentarily, as the mumbled words passed between her ears, and her mind took an extra second to compile the three phrases into the inaudible sentence she'd missed. The realisation of who they were talking about, of who the Rumour Mill had paired her with, finally hit home. And it hit her hard enough to stop her in her tracks.

Rika didn't care that they knew she had a boyfriend; Ryo was great, and in more ways than one... But him?! Of all the Tamers, why did they have to saddle her with Takato Matsuki?! That was it, enough was enough; she'd have to put a stop to this before she became the laughing stock of the whole damn school.

Ryo would have been the truth, and she'd have admitted it there and then, with her dignity unscathed - and made an example of the first one stupid enough to laugh at her, by killing them where they stood. Henry perhaps wouldn't have been so bad; the guy was alright, and she owed him some serious kudos, given the Operation: Doodlebug stunt he'd pulled off as Mega Gargomon – hell, every Tamer owed him something for that.

But Takato?! That was a real insult, and she wasn't going to stand for it. But she'd have to have a damn-good reason to skip school for the rest of the day, if she was going to do something about this here and now… And it occurred to her that she did, but only if she snapped at just the right moment; the moment when Maria went that one, single, tiny step too far.

To say the least, Maria was predictable, as usual; "So, what's this 'Goggle-Head' kid like?" the girl leaned on a locker nearby, wheeling her free hand in circles to emphasise herself, "Is he… y'know… any good?" The crude and utterly tactless remark struck the correct nerve, and the rest, the urge and reaction, tumbled violently into place.

Rika felt her control slipping through her fingers like grains of sand, and did little to hold onto it; it was bad enough that Maria had the impression that she'd been dating Takato, but to imply that she'd been sleeping with him as well…

The moment Rika raised her fist and swung for the girl, a crowd seemed to materialise out of thin-air. This was not, and never would be, a good sign; now Rika wouldn't have any choice in the matter, if she wanted to get out of here in one piece. If Maria's friends got their hands on her after this, she'd end up in the hospital bed next-door to Miss American Super-bitch. She'd be pulled to the ground and beaten unconscious in seconds. Nevertheless, in a single movement Rika spun on her heel, and with an effortless grace borne of her experiences as Sakuyamon, marched her fist straight into Maria's sneering face.

Maria stumbled from the force of the blow, but picked herself right back up, and wiped the blood away from her split lip. Nonaka would not silence her, not this time. She'd obviously been right on the money with that one. The spiky-haired, fashion-challenged lunatic would have to beat her to a pulp before she'd let this one slide, before she'd shut her mouth and keep it shut.

Everyone knew Rika was crazy; she'd been booted back here from public school for mangling a guy who'd been stupid enough to rag on one of her friends. The moron had been trying to impress her, had called Ryo Akiyama a gutless wonder who ran away from his problems. Why anyone would want to impress a tramp like Nonaka was beyond Maria; the witless idiot had been right, anyway - Akiyama was a sad little looser.

And then, as a determined Maria pulled herself up from the tiled floor and her cronies moved in for the kill, Rika smiled self-confidently, tossed a stray lock of hair out of her eyes, and played her trump card. Calmly, she uttered that one, special word that would solve all her problems, and could make so many more.

"Renamon?"

The world warped and bent out of shape, and the bright-yellow fox Digimon phased into sight behind her. A gasp rippled through the crowd; everyone jumped back a foot or so in shock, followed quickly by a quiet mumbling; was that a Digimon? Here? What the hell was this?!

Maria's so-called clique promptly abandoned her, melting back into the blur of surprised faces. Renamon's eyes fell upon her calm-faced, but inwardly turbulent Tamer and asked, "Is there a problem, Rika?" If the Digimon had realised that her Tamer had called her into full view of the public, she didn't show it.

"No," Rika replied in her usual cool, aloof tone as she glared daggers at Maria. A bone-chilling smile broke across the left side of her face, and she cracked her knuckles against her palm; she was going to enjoy every spare nanosecond of this - just like she always did. Because, in terms of peer support, this was a moment where Rika could say, without a second's hesitation, mine's better than yours. Nothing that Maria had at her beck-and-call could trump the power and skill of a fully-trained Digimon Partner.

"I just needed someone at my back." Rika answered calmly, still grinning that evil smile.

"For what, might I ask?" Renamon enquired, and received no reply.

A half-second layer, Rika snapped her knee into the girl's stomach, before slamming her fist into the side of Maria's head as she buckled with the impact. The prissy girl dropped to the floor like a stone down a well; tiny droplets of blood from her disjointed nose and split lip scattered like a fine mist on the metal locker behind her.

Damn, that felt good… Rika thought to herself, shaking the tingling out of her hand and snarled as it began to take on a familiar numbness. But she'll never learn when to quit…. Rika waited patiently for Maria to pick herself back up. That one was probably the first of a few; it usually took a while, and a lot of otherwise-avoidable pain, for Maria to concede defeat, and kicking someone while they were down was something that Rika just wouldn't do – brawler she might be, but even she had morals.

Renamon flinched visibly, if barely, at the unnecessary violence, but it had been provoked for all she could tell. "For that, Renamon. Now a little crowd control, if you don't mind..." Rika answered the Digimon's question flatly, and retrieved her D-Arc from its place on her belt.

She grabbed the special Modify Card she'd been saving, for an occasion exactly such as this, and said, "Unlike some Digimon I know, I don't have a sixth sense to watch my own back with. Instead, I have you."And then she raised her hands into her signature card slash formation, and uttered the prase she hadn't properly used in six years:

"Digi-Modify! Reckless Abandon, activate!"

She slashed the card through her D-Arc's reader slot, and realised with a rush just how good it felt to be able to do that again – that she'd truly resumed her role as Renamon's Tamer.

Renamon didn't recognise the card that Rika had Digi-Modified her with, but she certainly felt its effects. For the duration of the card's time equipped to her, she realised, she would have little trouble dealing with anyone who attempted to get in Rika's way.

These were human beings, she knew, not Digimon, but suddenly one seemed just as good as the other when it came to throwing around a Power Paw. The thought surprised and shocked her, and it dawned on her then that Rika had swiped a card that took away her moral obligation to avoid hurting people.

Rika smiled, as she replaced her Digivice on her belt and jammed the expended card into her pocket. Reckless Abandon was a dangerous card to equip a living Digimon with; it turned them into berserkers, willing to thrash anything that crossed their path – human or Digimon alike.

It meant that should anyone be stupid enough to interfere, Renamon wouldn't think twice about tossing them around like a ragdoll, and she wouldn't feel bad about it later either. Hopefully, no-one would be so brainless as to get in her way.

Rika turned back to Maria, and blew an annoyingly familiar strand of hair out of her eye as casually as if this kind of thing happened every day.

The thing was, it did happen every day; Rika frequently sent her classmates, particularly Maria, home with more minor cuts and bruises than all the members of the school's martial arts team put together. The number of hours she'd wasted, wondering why they didn't just learn to stay out of her way, was something that actually hurt to think about.

Renamon knew differently, however; the hypersensitive Digimon could hear Rika's rapid heartbeat, could see the sweat running down the back of her partner's neck and the vein pulsing near her temple as the girl's opponent got to her feet again and again, only to be struck down once more the very moment she raised a hand to fight back.

Like her partner's opponent didn't seem to know the meaning of surrender, Renamon had discovered that, in her absence Rika had become something of a fist-fighter, and was notorious for beating her adversaries until they couldn't stand.

So far beyond enraged was Rika that Renamon couldn't think of an appropriate word to describe her Tamer's fury with this girl, whom Renamon knew bore the scars of past beatings from Rika. This was the second clash between them in a week, and whatever the girl had done to anger Rika this time, it must have been bad.

The lupine Digimon could plainly see why Rika had required her presence, despite their agreement with Yamaki that forbade the Tamers from calling their Digimon into view of the public. There were several humans in the crowd who, if not for her shocking entrance, easily looked as though they would attempt to help the girl whom had wound Rika to the point of snapping like this – not that it was a difficult feat to achieve at any rate, but the girl probably deserved it nonetheless.

With her Digimon watching her back, Rika kicked Maria's legs out from beneath her for the final time as the bloodied girl rose to her feet, and put her back down like a rabid dog; she pinned Maria to the floor with a foot planted firmly on her chest, and grabbed the girl's neck tie as she tried and failed to rise under the weight.

Wrapping it around her hand in one quick motion for a good grip, Rika pulled the garment tight around Maria's neck and watched her struggle in panic when she yanked her rival off the floor, and rammed her face-first into a row of lockers. Rika smashed her fist into the metal inches from Maria's bloodied face. The blow left a crater that could be seen from down the hallway. It was a clear warning; move a muscle, and that's your head.

Maria froze in fear; for all the times she'd dared to cross Nonaka, the girl had never gotten this pissed off with her – and she'd never had one of those things watching her back, either. Still refusing to back down, she summoned the last of her courage to dare to look Rika in the eye, only to falter and flinch when the violent redhead snarled in her face.

"Next time you think about trying to piss me off, Maria, try to remember this piece friendly of advice: do not be stupid enough to drag my personal life into your sick little mind games. Because I will take you apart, one piece at a time, until there's nothing left."

Rika grabbed the girl by the back of the scruff of her neck, spun her around and shoved her backwards. Cotton met metal with a resounding *thud*. She wanted Maria to see the seriousness in her eyes as she made her point.

"Now allow me to clarify this for you, and for everybody else: I am NOT, and would NEVER date Takato Matsuki. Get it? … Answer me!"

Maria remained stubbornly silent, and resolutely refused to respond. Seething at her rival's insolence, Rika grabbed the girl by the chest of her school blazer with both hands, and slammed her back into the locker. She took a small measure of satisfaction from seeing Maria's head whiplash forward as it bounced off the metal door; "I said answer me, damn it!" she bellowed, a fist raised above her head, ready to make Maria more sorry than the girl had ever been before.

Maria managed to grunt an acknowledgement; satisfied, Rika unclenched the fist that was holding the girl up, and allowed her rival to crumple into a heap again. Rika stooped to collect her things and calmly walked away, with Renamon right behind her, as if nothing had happened at all.

Every face in the crowd turned to watch Rika go, all of them edgy; the redhead was well-known to turn on anyone who dared to help the morons that were stupid enough to cross her, sometimes beating them more viciously and more quickly than she'd beaten the one who'd pissed her off in the first place.

Who would dare to help Maria, and risk incurring Rika's wrath? There were always a small few, usually the ones who trailed around with her between classes, but today even they shrank back with their heads bowed, eyes trained on the floor until Rika was gone.

Now Renamon understood; the girl, who was being quietly helped to her feet by some certain members of the crowd, had insinuated that Rika was dating Takato. For that, the Digimon was surprised that Rika hadn't stuffed her into that metal box and buried her alive.

True, Rika's opinion of Takato had apparently risen ever-so-slightly since the events of their brief stretch in the Digital World and the small war with the D-Reaper, and indeed in her six-year absence, but not enough to warrant any form of affection on her part, other than the simple friendship they shared.

To Rika, Takato was a Digimon Tamer; at best she quietly respected him as the group's unspoken leader – nothing less, and almost certainly nothing more; the only sure-fire exception to the fact was that his relationship with Jeri was a strong one and made the once-lonely girl happy, which earned him a mite more respect that he might receive otherwise.

So, quite naturally, the mere idea that Takato might betray Jeri for a brief fling with Rika had been an insult of the gravest nature, and had angered the volatile Tamer to such a degree that it had resulted in yet another bloody fist-fight.

Sometimes Renamon wondered what kind of Digimon her Tamer might have been, had Rika been born a digital lifeform like her; it was not something she chose to ponder too closely, for quite frankly, the idea of there being a Digimon capable of Rika's savage ferocity scared her – and, having been forced to brave the dangers of life in the Digital World alone for six years, very little scared her any more.

Granted, there probably wasn't a single person in the whole of Japan who didn't know that Digimon actually existed, that they were more than just characters in a videogame or on trading cards, but this was probably the first time that any of Rika's so-called classmates had seen – really seen - a 'live' Digimon up-close.

Renamon hadn't actually done anything to help her smear Maria across the hallway, but Rika could tell that each and every one of them was afraid of her Digimon partner – she could see the fear in their faces. And in all honesty, she wasn't sure whether or not that was a good thing. Scared people sometimes did stupid things…

Either way, Rika wasn't sticking around to find out which it was; in the mood she was in now, she'd probably send half her school grade to the nurse's office in the next ten minuets just for existing if she stayed here, and if she caught anyone else spouting this bullshit, they'd be heading home early in a six-foot rubber bag.

"Renamon, get us out of here before I break someone else…" Rika muttered through gritted teeth, quietly seething and doing her best not to shout. The Digimon placed her hand on her Tamer's shoulder and, in front of an entire crowd of onlookers, teleported them away; reality warped around them like ripples on a pond, and then suddenly, they were gone.

Quickly, the rumours as to the identity of Rika's boyfriend were forgotten, replaced with something that was all too true:

Rika Nonaka's one of the Digimon Tamers!

And for that small fact alone, the flame of fear that burned among her fellow students – a 3-grades-wide fear - of the notoriously-violent Rika Nonaka erupted into an inferno. Now, no-one would dare speak ill of her or look at her in the wrong way; rumours like the one that had put Maria back in the nurse's office had just been made extinct.

Now, everyone knew that Rika Nonaka had just stepped up her game from aggressive to outright savage – and that the girl had a real, live Digimon watching her back that would appear with the mere calling of its name. For Rika Nonaka's grade, along with those in the grades that were above and below hers, life at school would never be simple, or quiet, ever again.

Anyone care to try to give Rika a hug?

No? I didn't, either. Lord help the idiot who gave Maria the idea that she was sleeping with Takato... as for who the culprit is, well... that'll have to wait.

Many thanks to those who reviewed "The Rematch". Hope this met your expectations.

I'm still willing to fill a few ears with the backstory for this, by the way.