Takato
I

When he was starting to gain consciousness already, his first thought was that it was too late.

Too late for what?

To escape.

There is a key difference between fear, terror, and horror, fear is the perception of a threat or danger, psychologists say that fear is necessary because fear helps you to keep yourself alive, either by fly or fight, it depends of what originates it, terror and horror, however are a bit different despite they derive from fear, terror was being anxious or nervous of something before it happened, while horror was the revulsion after said shocking event happened.

But he was no psychologist, all he knew was that it was too late, and he was terrified.

Running away was meaningless, but even though he wanted to do it, he couldn't, he was paralyzed - he didn't know if something had happened to his legs, or if it was due to the body's reaction, yet still, the stubborn human in him, the one that refused to die, started to crawl away, despite knowing how useless it was.

It was too late.

Too late for what?

To tell the others.

To alert them, like the D-Arc's irregular beeping had alerted him, how the black screen with the message ERROR had do it, but he had paid attention to it too late, he knew that Jian was out of town but Ruki didn't carry her D-arc with her anymore so she could not be alerted, a voice on his head told him that it didn't matter, due that it was too late for them as well.

The roar of a monster made him turn his head around, Blackgrowlmon's eyes focused on the teenager as one of his arms went to grab him.

Blackgrowlmon grabbed him like he was a toy, with one of his claws he picked him from his school jacket and while the boy had his eyes closed, he knew that Blackgrowlmon was looking at him like a predator observed it's prey.

It was too late.

Too late for what?

He felt the Digimon's mouth open up and it's disgusting breath surrounded him.

Too late for everything.

He woke up screaming - but it wasn't his screams the reason he woke up, it was the uncomfortable wet spot on his pants.

His first thought in the morning? Oh no.

His heart was beating too fast and his throat felt raspy and he wondered how strongly he had screamed and most important, for how long? His parents must be off because elsewhere he'd be trying to explain something that he wasn't sure he could share, he could only be thankful that the dream was over and his parents were doing whatever they had to do, besides not wanting to explain his nightmare, he didn't want to explain his wet bed.

He tried his best to ignore his dream – nightmares weren't strangers to Takato, even after four years, the D-Reaper had plagued his dreams in all ways possible, they were starting to fade now, but at the same time, when those nightmares happened, they came back stronger than ever, like a painful reminder hello tamer, your Digimon might not be with you, but I am still here, I'll always stay here .

After he put his sheets on the washing machine, he confirmed with a sigh of relief that his parents weren't at home, probably getting ingredients - today was Sunday and they didn't work on Sundays, which meant that he could grab all the bread he wanted with no restrictions, bread with cheese and lettuce wasn't something healthy, but it filled his stomach and he could eat better at lunch.

Perhaps today could be one of those days where he could stay at home playing with his used PlayStation console, he didn't had homework (or at least, he didn't remember, and being friends with Jian kinda helped him to remember those things) and he really wanted to forget about the dream, so he went back to his room and pressed the button, to be greeted by the PlayStation 2 logo.

The disk that was on the console was a football game - he really wasn't a fan of football, or any sports and it wasn't even his, Hirokazu brought it to his house one day and they played it, and forgot to take it back home with him and well, Takato forgot to give it back to him because he forgot he had it, but he supposed that it was good for killing time.

He was choosing a team to play with (despite he had a very limited knowledge of football teams, only the international ones and a few ones that his classmates talked in school) and was going to choose the default rival when he heard his cellphone ring.

It was Ruki, which was rare on itself because Ruki rarely called, in any case he was the one that called her and it would be on an emergency status - which made Takato's brain go on red alert, he hoped nothing bad had happened, nightmares didn't mean bad days - but he'd be damned if he doesn't think a nightmare can ruin a day.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Takato-kun!"

It was relieving that it was Juri's cheerful voice that was talking through the other side of the phone, she probably picked Ruki's cellphone while the other one was distracted and decided to call Takato just for the sake of it.

"Katou-san! How are you? Is Ruki with you?"

"Yes! I'm at her house at the moment, do you want to talk to her? Ruki, say hi!"

He overheard another girl's voice - that was most definitely Ruki saying Hi and another bunch of stuff he couldn't understand, so he assumed she was talking to Juri, the last thing he heard about the conversation was Juri saying to her 'see you soon' before returning to her conversation with Takato.

"Sorry, she went out."

"She went out and left you alone at her house?"

"Well - if I'm going to be honest, I have been here since 8 A.M."

"WHAT? I-It's almost afternoon, Katou-san."

"I shouldn't tell you this, but Ruki is incredibly lazy, so her grandma told me to come here around 8 a.m to wake her up so she could do the house chores because she was going out."

Takato felt an uncontrollable urge to laugh, and the only reason he didn't it was because he was the exact same and as illogical as it sounded, because he was scared Ruki could hear him, even if she couldn't because she didn't had superhearing as far as he was concerned.

"I-I b-bet she told you to fuck off." His stutter was making it obvious that he was trying not to laugh.

"Not really! The correct reaction was…" And so, Juri did an exact imitation of her friend " Juri, what the fuck ?"

He couldn't hold his laughter anymore, and Juri also laughing at the other side it didn't help.

"So, you've been helping her?"

"Actually more of a motivator! She hasn't let me do any chores because it wasn't my house, so I just stare at her and play games of her phone while she does all the hard work. She left to get some food from the delivery that's like two blocks away from her house."

"Katou-san, I'm sorry to tell you this, but Ruki doesn't eat junk food."

"I might be...corrupting her a bit. Or that's what she says, anyways I... SHIT ."

"W-W-W-What?"

"I FORGOT THAT I'M USING RUKI'S PHONE, SO I CAN'T CALL HER TO TELL HER WHAT DO I WANT, and you can be sure she didn't pick my phone because she rarely carries hers! Let me catch her, she told me to tell you something but I forgot already. Call you later!"

"Goodbye!"

As the girl hung up, Takato sighed - he was sighing a lot today, but this one was a happy sigh, he still had a crush on her, but it was started to vanish, yet every time she laughed she found a way to send butterflies on his stomach that made him almost forget his dream, so he resumed his original goal of playing this videogame, he was glad he was alone, because he couldn't score a damn goal against the CPU on easy. No wonders why a sleep deprived Kenta scored three goals past him the other time he came around, he wondered where were his other games - probably around or under his desk, he wasn't very organized on that.

After fifteen minutes or so - the phone rang again, this time it was Juri's number, so he picked it up before the second ring happened.

"Hello Katou-san!"

"It's Ruki, gogglehead."

Juri must have been by her side though, because he could hear her laughter, and the only acceptable comeback it came to his mind at this moment was

"I don't use goggles on my head anymore."

"...You truly need to get better comebacks, kid, even Kitagawa could've saying something better than that."

"Don't call me kid, you're younger than me and -"

He was going to add why she was calling by Juri's phone instead of hers or if she liked mayonnaise on her teriyaki burger, but he could bug her with that later, Ruki didn't call anyone if it wasn't necessary and not even Juri could bug her to it, so instead, he said.

"Katou-san said she had to say something to me but she forgot."

"Yeah. Well, it's not me who's going to say it, it's Jian. Come to my house around maybe...one hour. It's about Digimon. See you."

"See y-"

She hung up.

One day, he hoped she learned some manners, like saying hello, how are you and goodbye, see you soon to your friends.

But - that didn't matter, what was important was Digimon.

If Jian was the one that brought the news - it should mean that it was something important, obviously they had promised to do everything that was on their hands to meet their friends again, and they tried, every summer of every year they tried to find places (as small as they were) that connected with the Digital World but every time they found them, the spots had been closed by Yamaki-san, despite he was never at the scene, they knew it was him and maybe Jianliang's dad, but that was something that went unsaid.

On the early days of their failed plans, Takato had been angry, he didn't care if the world was in danger again! They could save it again, he just wanted to see his best friend, but now that he's a bit older, he admits begrudgingly that they do have good reasons, that didn't really stop him or his friends though.

Perhaps he felt bad because Jian was the smart one of the group, not that him and Ruki weren't, but Jian was the better one with computers, and perhaps he felt a bit more responsibility than the others, sometimes he felt more of a moral support than an actual help at times.

He left a note saying that he was out hanging out with his friends today, and he'd be back later.

Despite how much he had been disappointed at times when their reunion plans failed, this time he was actually excited - he was always excited at the prospect to see Guilmon again, he hadn't sent a message since a year after the departure, but that's because every time he failed when he tried to say anything other than an 'I miss you' and he didn't want to worry Guilmon when he heard his voice break.

He was still a very emotional kid.

Something worse than eavesdropping? Eavesdropping and not understanding what they were talking about.

Although Ruki might say otherwise - girls are complicated, she says that they are not complicated, that he (and Hirokazu and Kenta, sometimes Jian was left out of her insults) were just stupid - and she might be partially right, but she has to admit that she is complicated to deal with.

And though he knows Ruki and Juri have grow up to be very close - hell, Takato and Juri go to the same school but Ruki and Juri saw each other almost every single day, he stopped counting the times Juri had refused to hang with Hirokazu, Kenta and him because she had to go accompany Ruki to a photoshoot so her friend wouldn't be miserable - right now they seemed to have something that sounded like an argument, but he didn't know the context, Ruki saying something about influences and Juri denying it.

When she opened the door, she stared at him for a matter of seconds before she greeted him.

"Gogglehead, you're early." She was genuinely surprised.

"Hel-"

"Hi Takato-kun, tell her I'm not a bad influence and she's being silly." Juri interrupted

"Don't get Matsuda into this."

"Emmm...hi" Takato greeted awkwardly "Where's Jian?"

"Not here."

"I hope he's okay, he's never late."

"He's actually meant to be here in like, 30 minutes or so, I didn't expect you to be on time."

What?

Did Ruki had so little faith in him that she made him come 30 minutes early so he would get in time? He could feel his cheeks turning red - he doesn't even know if it's out of embarrassment or anger, he arrives late to a movie once and Ruki permanently thinks that he's going to always be late?

"Isn't she mean?" Juri intervened, clearly feeling sympathetic for Takato.

"Yes, she is." Takato agreed as he took his shoes off.

"Yes, I am." The good thing about Ruki is that she didn't deny that she could be mean, awareness was a good thing "I don't think you were doing anything interesting, anyway. We have tea on the refrigerator, Juri made it, and I still have a bit of the trash Juri made me eat early if you want to finish it."

"She liked it more than she'd admit." Juri grinned.

"Could've worse." She admitted "But you know how bad that stuff is for your organism?"

"Ummm…" Takato tried to interrupt the conversation - feeling like a third wheel, but decided against it at the end, they were going to tell him to shut up anyways.

"It's not like I always eat it, I just like to make you try new things, you know, since you're so pretentious - am I right, Takato-kun?"

He didn't know what to say, theoretically Juri was right, but in practice Ruki would send him a glare that would make him exit the house, go back to his apartment and call Jian later to get the news, luckily for him, Ruki cut him off again before he could even speak

"Don't get gogglehead into this, and I'm not pretentious."

Juri did a fake shocked gasp that could have been convincing if the nature of this argument wasn't as absurd as it was.

"You are not?"

"Don't play dumb with me."

Takato wishes he had arrived late.

"No, I mean, I only thought you were because every time I ask you what you're listening to you always answer you wouldn't know this band, I thought only pretentious people did that." She turned to see Takato with a smile "Don't you think so, Takato-kun?"

"Eh…She's right."

"Did someone ask you?"

"Katou-san did." He hoped he wouldn't die for saying the truth.

As stated before, arguing with Ruki was difficult - but surprisingly enough Juri seemed to know how to argue back, which was a skill that he'd only seen in Jian before (although the argument was dumb), if Jian were here, he'd probably be laughing alongside Takato, but he knows if he laughs...well, Ruki will kick his ass right to the Digital World, considering how much he wants to see Guilmon, that didn't sound like a bad idea.

"See? I told you, you are pretentious."

Ruki rolled her eyes and Juri clapped her hands together and gave her a smile that was almost apologetic.

"But, if you weren't the way you are, we wouldn't be best friends, my pretentious best friend, don't be mad."

"I guess I could say the same." And by the tone of her voice, Takato could get that she wasn't mad, just a bit annoyed "You're still an awful influence though." She finished with a playful grin on her face that she usually used when she called Takato a dumb gogglehead.

"I'm not a bad influence!"

"Whoa." Takato couldn't help to say what it was very obvious "You girls are very close."

Ruki seemed to have a sarcastic reply ready to be unleashed, but Juri interrupted again.

"Yes! We are best friends! Though you are my best friend too."

Takato wondered if it was a girls thing to be at each other's homes almost every weekend and having silly arguments that always ended back on the point of origin, he would feel weird going at Hirokazu's home every week and he's sure he'd get his ass kicked if he dared to do it - he supposes that boys like to have their own spaces while girls tended to be closer.

He's going to ignore the warm feeling on the stomach about Juri calling him best friend, though.

Ruki's phone vibrated on the table - but she didn't bother to look at it.

"That's Jian."

"It could be your mom." Takato pointed out.

"It's Jian, my mom doesn't text."

"The apple doesn't fall away from the tree."

The girls stared at each other in disbelief and then then stared at him, Ruki didn't even sound annoyed, she sounded surprised.

"...Okay, that was a good one."

He doesn't know if he should be insulted of how surprised they looked, he could sometimes be witty too!

Jian looked hopeful - which was good news.

He and Shaochung had a talk with his dad and he had in essence told them to give up (as Jian recited the scene, he clenched his fists as an automatic response) that it was impossible without bringing other dangerous Digimon and perhaps something more - the Digital World had to be more than the Digital Monsters.

Takato tried to re-imagine what would happen if Yamaki-san had said that to them, it would have probably gotten ugly.

But Jian - who was amazing for keeping the calm in moments where it was required - said that they just couldn't do it, that would feel like betrayal - like they would forget about them and Shaochung had obviously agreed with her brother on this topic.

"He said he shouldn't say this, but...we are special. Takato-kun is special."

"M-me?"

"Well, you were the first to get to Ultimate." Juri pointed out.

"I guess."

He wouldn't say it, but he knew that when someone mentioned Ultimate, Jian and Ruki thought about SaintGargomon and Sakuyamon - which made sense, not only were the strongest level that their Digimon could archive (as they know) and also a reminder about how strong the bond with their digimon was, but for Takato it was slightly different, first he thought about Megidramon and his dangerous rage - the rage that came from him, and that he almost destroyed Guilmon and the Digital World, followed by Dukemon's birth that made the eased the memory a little.

If he met Guilmon again, he's absolutely sure he would evolve to Dukemon with no problems but in the back of his mind, he always was there...almost like he was ready to appear if Takato were to give up.

"We all know gogglehead is special, he made his Digimon." Ruki spoke "But, if he's so special, then why are you and I needed to open a portal?"

"Though Takato-kun is special, he cannot do it alone and well...we are special too."

"Should we call Dumb and Dumber?" Ruki was obviously referring to Hirokazu and Kenta "Gogglehead, Jian, Shaochung, Dumb and Dumber and me...and maybe the brats."

"Who are the brats?" Jian asked

"Impmon's Tamers, I don't know their names." The girl shrugged "Juri, are you coming?"

Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to discuss Digimon and how specia l Tamers were in front of Juri, she was smiling but all of them could get that the topic still made her uncomfortable (what a big understatement) he didn't know if he could comfort her, or even if she wanted comfort, but he tried to do it anyways.

"U-Um...you don't have to if you don't want to."

"I want to go." Juri's tone was decisive, despite that everyone on the room could feel the tension "But it's not like I could do something."

Takato, Jian and Ruki exchanged stares.

They all seemed to have the same reaction: Shit.

"...What?" Juri seemed to be annoyed at their silence when they hadn't stopped interrupting each other minutes ago "Keep talking."

Should they just leave the topic as it was and continue?

"Um...Katou-san…"

"Listen, Juri" Ruki interrupted, her hand on Juri's shoulder "Takato is right, you don't need to come if you don't want to."

"I'm fine, don't worry about it."

Ruki and Takato interchanged looks and if he read her correctly, she seemed to think that it was okay to let her be for now, it's not like they had any better options, Takato nodded at Jian, telling him it was okay to continue.

"W-We can try to open the gate to the digital world with our D-Arcs."

"Like it happens on the anime?" Takato asked.

Ruki did the longest sigh Takato had heard on his entire life.

"Guys, please focus." Takato knew that deep down his friend had also realized the connection "Unlike in the anime, it's not something we can open every time we want to, I didn't really understand, but it would mean it would be open until Yamaki-san finds it."

"And how are we going to avoid him?" Ruki asked "He is shady, and has stopped our plans more than once."

It doesn't help that he was a grown man and they were teenagers.

"You guys can leave that to me." And by the way Jian spoke, Takato felt this time wasn't going to be in vain "But first we must tell our digimon friends about the idea…have you both send messages lately?"

"No." Takato admitted, feeling guilty.

"Neither have I, but I'm sure Renamon has better things to do that check a voicemail."

"Should we move this conversation to my house? That way you can tell our Digimon what is our plan."

"We could have this conversation in your house to start with, genius." Ruki pointed out.

Jian grinned.

"It was more likely that Takato-kun listened to your threats to get to your house early than my pleads."

The three of them started laughing, Takato didn't consider it funny though, he didn't say it outloud but he was sure Taichi wouldn't be treated like this.

"Jian!"

"I'm joking, I'm joking!" He said while laughing "It's Ruki's fault, she's awfully mean and it's contagious."

"I told you that you were the bad influence here." Juri said, clearly more cheerful as than she was before.

"...Shut up Juri."

It was now his time to join the laughter, even Ruki was smiling.

Juri was absolutely decided to go with them, but apparently she had to take care of her little brother while her dad worked in the bar and her step-mom had to go out to meet with a friend that was on the hospital.

After a ten-minutes discussion between them Ruki and Juri, Juri agreed that one of them accompanied her to the subway station.

Takato and Jian stepped out, not wanting to get into that territory (Takato only experienced it once and honestly? Never again.) He was siding with Ruki on this one, because Juri shouldn't go all on her own, not that he is worried about her (which he was, but it was another topic enterely), but girls shouldn't go alone all on their own, but Juri seemed to think they were overreacting and he's sure he heard her name on the argument, and all that Jian and Takato did was stare at each other until Ruki stepped out and said.

"Gogglehead, you're accompanying Juri to the station."

He supposed it wasn't subtle at all how he grabbed Ruki by the arm and dragged her to speak in private, but he talked before she could even say anything.

"I thought you were going to -"

"I was going to." Ruki interrupted "But I think she's annoyed at me for not letting her go alone" Ruki rolled her eyes, and Takato almost pointed out that Ruki would be annoyed too "And you know I can be kinda mean and don't say nothing or I send Jian instead." He closed his mouth immediately "And well, I really don't want to hurt her feelings on a discussion about something serious. So, you'll do it, are sensible, consider it a gift from me, I'll give you time to be romantic"

He doesn't know if she meant it just to annoy him or that she was actually setting him up.

"W-we a-a-are just friends."

"And you don't want to be something more?"

She had a perfectly good point there.

They were silent for a couple of minutes before Ruki told him that they needed to get back where their other two friends were, since dragging your friend by the arm to talk was a very suspicious act and the longer they took to get back, they were looking even more suspicious.

But before, he had to ask something - he doesn't know if Jian is a more suited candidate for this question, but Ruki is his friend as much as Jian is, and the only reason he hadn't asked before is because he didn't want to look like a paranoid guy in front of Juri.

"Ruki, have you had nightmares lately?"

If she hasn't, she is going to answer with a sarcastic joke and some reference about when he dreamed about her three years ago, if she is, then it's something worth worrying about, he knows she doesn't talk about feelings, but if two of them share a nightmare, then the three of them share it and that's not good at all.

"What kind of nightmares?"

"Ummm...Digimon are on it."

Ruki crossed her arms and shot him an unimpressed look.

"No, no nightmares...why do you ask?"

"N-No, nothing."

Part of him was relieved that it was just him and that it was probably a silly dream.

Yet, part of him couldn't help but think about the possibility that Ruki was lying.