DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon, but I do own the OCs introduced in this story and later stories (except where stated).


CHAPTER 3

Her Reluctance


REAL WORLD

Stevens & Flynn Residence

10:21 JST

3rd July 2010

Rika stood outside the white door of the apartment that had been inhabited by Ryder Stevens and Mari Flynn for exactly five weeks now. The number 29 hung on the door, and the hallway leading up to it was quiet, carpeted with dull cream-grey carpets, designed with lifetime in mind rather than style. The apartment block itself was not far from Henry's, although it was newer; Tokyo's upwards climb visible throughout the city, although this particular apartment was located on the second floor at one end of the building.

Rika breathed a deep breath and tapped her knuckles against the door. She was normally with Takato when she went to this place, and this time she was not only dealing with more major topics, but also wasn't with him. In fact, he seemed to always be there to back her up, and vice versa, each complimenting the other in what they did. It almost seemed they were destined to be together, except for the fact that Chaos and Harmony hated each other and would avoid being together at all costs. She was unsure about the exact details of being incarnated, but it seemed that they had some control over the process regardless.

Rika faked a smile when she met the smiling face of Mari Flynn. "Morning Rika…" she greeted, stepping aside for Rika to enter the apartment.

"Hey…" Rika replied bleakly and quietly. Mari glanced at her as she entered, holding the door open for a short while longer and smiling as Renamon entered the apartment as well.

"I see that the perception filter I normally use doesn't have as much effect on you?" Renamon asked. Mari nodded, oddly glancing around the apartment, something which unconsciously caught Renamon's attention, before it was diverted again when Mari began to talk to Rika, now seated on the sofa.

"Ryder's out purchasing a new mouse…" Mari explained. Rika nodded understandably. "Donmon broke another one; it's particularly insane when they are both trying to one-up each other on Battlefield 2…"

"How do you cope?" Rika asked, faking a smile.

"I beat them both at their own game…" Mari replied, smiling.

Rika chuckled; it wasn't particularly surprising to hear. Mari sat next to her on the sofa, as Renamon continued to silently stand up, glancing once again around the mid-sized apartment with very light blue walls and pale blue carpets. In the main room, it featured a living room area on one end near the large pane-glass window with two sofas around a small glass coffee table with an LCD television by the window, and on the other end, a small kitchen alongside the front door. In the middle of the room, there were two doors opening onto Mari and Ryder's bedrooms, and a door to the bathroom in-between, opposite which was a desk with a laptop on it, a swivel chair, and a broken mouse.

"So, what brings you here?" Mari asked, placing a glass of water on the table in front of Rika, alongside her own already there.

"Nothing much, just wanted to talk…" the redhead replied, Mari noting her glumness.

"Takato busy?"

"Yeah, Kristy insisted that he go down the park, taking Guilmon with him…" Rika replied.

Mari nodded. "Heard the news?" she asked.

Rika's eyes opened wider, looking to Mari with curiosity dominating her features. Unless the goldfish had been blabbing, something she didn't expect to happen in a million years, there was no way that Mari could possibly know already, was there?

Mari noticed Rika's odd expression and, ignoring it for the time being, picked up the TV remote, switching the device on, a news channel coming up straight away.

"Authorities are saying that there is absolutely no threat to people in the city, and that these were isolated incidents" a reporter spoke, standing in front of a pile of rubble surrounded by fire engines, police cars and ambulances, the later leaving regularly as more arrived.

"But surely the fact that both the incidents occurred on the same day merely half an hour apart is no coincidence?"

"It seems that way, but authorities are quick to point out that the pair of buildings have two buildings between them, and are not next to each other, ruling out anything that would affect them directly at the same time."

"What is going on?" Rika asked, now bewildered by the news report they had switched on in the middle of.

Mari muted the television. "Well, these two buildings in Tokyo collapsed randomly only 30 minutes from each other. The web has gone alive with news, some suggest that it's a government conspiracy; others suggest that the buildings were both built shoddily by the same contractor. Some even suggest that it's a Digimon attack, but the fact that you are here and not fighting out there suggests otherwise…" Mari explained. Rika nodded.

"I haven't got any signals on my D-Vice…odd though…" Rika replied. "Did anyone die?"

Mari nodded glumly. "Fifty-two people is the current count, with more injured…" she replied. Rika frowned sadly.

"Awful…" she replied. Mari nodded in agreement.

"I heard that you had a battle this morning, even going to hospital…are you okay?"

Rika nodded unconfidently. "Yeah, I'm fine…just some bruises…"

Mari raised an eyebrow. 'Bruises hardly seem worth going to hospital for, particularly not for Rika…' Rika noticed the slight expression, and continued talking.

"Takato got paranoid and all…it was a BigMamemon…"

"Aha, like in the world tour in the TV show…" Mari noted, eliciting a curious glance from Rika. "I decided to watch the TV show to find out exactly what all you guys are talking about half the time, shame that I can't watch a TV show to find out your adventures though…" she added, prompting a chuckle from Rika.

"Could you imagine that? Being a character in a TV show…" Rika replied.

"Well, in Ryder's universe, you are…" Mari noted. Rika nodded, remembering.

"Still seems unbelievable though…" Rika replied.

"We were talking about it the other day, in particular the fanbase that set up regarding all the shows."

"Really?"

"Yeah, some parts of it are like Digital Watch, but based on a TV show. Anyway, he was talking in particular about the community concerned with writing stories of their own, normally extensions to the usual continuity."

"I see…anything particularly interesting?"

"Well, he mentioned a fanfic, that's what they called them, where Takato turned out to be this being known as Chaos, that ended up bringing about his death and an ongoing adventure involving Gods, Archangels, Archdemons, a prophecy called Gospel and a bunch of other interesting plot points in an epic saga that Ryder never managed to finish reading before he ended up here."

"That is hauntingly similar to real life…" Rika noted.

"There was another one where Guilmon was killed in battle…" Mari began, before noting Renamon's surprised glance, and continuing. "…and Takato went into depression, which climaxed in him rescanning his drawings for Guilmon. Suffice to say, the events that followed were not exactly reassuring for him, although there was a point where you, either accidentally or intentionally, kissed him…" Rika looked at her curiously with the mention of the kiss.

"Is it all about our lives, or do the Digidestined get a look-see?"

"Well, in a bit of a crossover, there was one where Davis wrote the Tamer's storyline, that's your lives up to the end of the D-Reaper, as a novel to distract him from his crush on Kari…"

"Interesting…" Rika replied, lifting her drink to her mouth and beginning to sip it.

"And then of course, there's the one where you two ended up stuck in a cave and you got pregnant…"

Rika spat out her water back into the glass, as Renamon was similarly surprised. Mari chuckled at the reaction (not knowing the underlying irony about it), as Rika turned to her. "What?" she asked.

"Well, writers can write anything they want, in their fanfics, they have complete control over the characters…Ryder noted that some of them were extremely good writers as well…"

"So they could write absolutely anything, like Takato ending up with Jeri, or me, god forbid, with Mr Perfect?" Rika asked, this discussion now increasing her curiosity.

"Yeah, but Ryder said he never, or at most rarely, read them. He was a…what did he call it…Rukato fan…"

"Huh, Rukato?"

"Yeah, it's a portmanteau of Ruki and Takato, the original Japanese names that you had, the dub changing things to Rika and Takato."

"Ruki? Sounds like a misspelling…" Rika replied, smiling weakly. Mari chuckled.

"Yeah, most couplings were given names, Takari was Takeru and Hikari, TK and Kari in other words, Taiora was Tai and Sora…"

"This is very disturbing…" Rika commented.

"I said that to Ryder. He told me that in that case, to avoid being disturbed further, he'd suggest that you guys avoid a particular art website, or alternatively some websites far worse than that, if you ever ended up in his universe. Particularly Renamon, he then added for some reason."

Rika's eyes widened, as she sat back in her seat, taking a sip of her water again, Renamon having a similarly surprised reaction. "Seems like you guys are getting along well here…" she noted, deviating from the fanbase subject that was at best a distraction from her intended topic of conversation, and at worst was downright disturbing.

"Yeah, we get along surprisingly well actually. I expected us to have arguments over something or other, but apart from the whole unfriendly competition at video games thing, we haven't had any problems…"

"Lucky you, my sister is a pain, and I'm forced to live with her…" Rika replied, smiling.

"There really are no similarities between the Angels, are there?" Mari replied. "Compare Ryder with Rey with Kristy, they're all different."

"Yeah, anyone could be an Angel…"

Mari frowned, and sat back in her seat, sighing. "Not without a Digimon it seems…" she replied glumly, drinking her drink. Rika frowning in response, this was a deep-seated bitterness about Mari that she had only begun to see recently. Bitterness was probably the wrong word, but it was clear that Mari disliked taking a backseat in proceedings. Her personality wasn't exactly passive, and the hit to her confidence of having to stand back and watch them almost be killed without being able to help in any way must have been substantial. Rika looked around the apartment for something to break up the silence, before realising that this was the point where she would have to tell her big news.

However, reluctance tore her back from asking. A nagging doubt that this route was the correct one, a thought that there was someone else far better to talk to. But there was no-one, no-one she was close enough to to talk to about the situation except Takato himself or her parents, in particular her grandmother, and she really wasn't up to that yet.

Fate spared her from having to tell, as Mari noticed something on the television, and looked curiously at the screen, an expression that turned to one somewhat of horror.

"Another building?" she asked, shock in her voice as she restored the sound on the television. Rika sat forward for a clearer look; to see the anchorman now reading from a piece of paper he had been given.

"We've had reports that another building has collapsed near the scene of the previous two collapses. Reports are currently limited, but it appears that it is the eighth building away from the first one. It also collapsed thirty minutes after the previous one. Quite what this means is still a mystery, but the death toll has increased, with five reported deaths so far. A link has yet to be established between the buildings, although this does decrease the chance that it is a one-off incident."

The display switched to that of a reporter speaking to a person on the street. "Now, Mr Hosoda, you witnessed the collapse, what exactly happened?"

"It was like a bomb went off in the building, and then it cracked and splintered, before breaking down to the ground. I heard screaming, a small dust cloud was raised, it was awful."

"What on earth is going on?" Mari asked, shocked at the events. Rika shrugged unsurely, Mari seemed to now be distracted by this piece of news, and she had begun to have doubts that she was the right one to talk to. Doubtless, someone would've pondered her absence back at her home by now, given the fact she hadn't left a note or anything, and that she had said that she would be resting for at least a few hours if not the whole day. Rika frowned, deciding that it was now about time that she made her leave.

"I'm going to go now, okay?" Rika told her. Mari nodded and smiled cheerfully.

"Feel free to come here any time, although I can't guarantee that you won't walk into the middle of a competition between the three of us…" she replied. Rika nodded and smiled, standing up and walking to the door.

"Bye…" she said, lacking any real emotion in her voice as she left, Renamon bowing in respect and following her partner. Mari sighed after the door closed, and switched off the television, before turning to the wall.

"So, where were we?" she asked, as DarkRenamon dropped her perception filter.

DarkRenamon closed her eyes and spoke calmly. "We were talking about Rey…" she replied.

Mari nodded, gesturing for DarkRenamon to once again take her seat, on the sofa opposite the red-brown haired girl. "I think that she is significant, but I'm not sure why…"

"She comes and goes from our lives randomly" the vixen replied.

"I find it difficult to believe that for her, it is like mere seconds. I can understand her worries about aging too much, imagine going away one day as a child and coming back as a teenager or an adult…it'd be hard to explain at birthdays…" Mari said chuckling. DarkRenamon nodded, smiling.

"Can you order 'about 17' candles?" she joked. Mari laughed.

"Speaking of that, I think if we knew her age, we would better know who she is…"

"You said that she said that she would tell you more in a few months, once you knew some other things that you would learn in the meantime…"

"Yeah, but what could possibly change in a few months?"

"A lot of things, by the looks of you and Ryder…" DarkRenamon replied, Mari nodding in agreement.

"So who do you think she is?" Mari asked.

"I have a theory that I've been piecing together based on what you and the others have told me…but I'm not sure whether I should tell you or not…"

"Go ahead; I'd rather hear your idea than not suffer from what it is…"

DarkRenamon closed her eyes, taking in a breath. "I believe that Rey is your daughter Mari…"

Mari's eyes widened. "What?"

"It is mainly based on how she acts around you and Ryder, and how particularly friendly you said she was to you two, in particular Ryder…"

"But her surname is Matsuki?"

"That is where my idea falls apart you see…the thing is, by the dates she told you about the future, and various other hints, I think that she's from about 2027, which would mean that, from what you told me about human aging, she would be born only a few months from now."

"So you think that the surname is a red herring?"

DarkRenamon nodded. "We were quick to assume that she was related to Takato Matsuki because of the surname."

"But not just that, she actually mentioned that she was related in a far too mind-blowing way to tell us now."

"So what do you suggest?" DarkRenamon inquired.

"Well, it's reasonable to assume that Rika and Takato will get married at some point in the future, giving Rika the name Rika Matsuki, if she takes on his surname, that is…"

"So you're suggesting that Rey is their daughter?" DarkRenamon asked.

Mari nodded. "It would explain a few things…"

"It has one fatal flaw though…if she is sixteen, which she appears to be, and she is from 2027, then she would've been born in 2011. By that theory, Rika is either pregnant now, which we can assume she isn't, or she is going to become pregnant in the next few months, equally unlikely considering their age."

Mari nodded, sighing and falling back on the sofa. "When we find out who she is, I think it'll change our lives forever…"

DarkRenamon nodded. "Certainly…" she replied, before looking over to the door as the sound of keys being placed in the lock began to resound.

"Thanks for the chat…" Mari told her.

"Any time…" DarkRenamon replied, vanishing as Ryder entered the apartment.

"Hey Honey…" Mari greeted.

"I got the new mouse…" Ryder replied, holding up a case and glaring at his bat-like partner.

"Hey, I said sorry!" MiniDonmon replied. Mari sighed.

"Do I have to beat you all at Battlefield again?" she asked, mocking exasperation. "It's just too easy…"

Ryder chuckled. "So, anything happen while I was away?" he asked, plugging the new mouse into the laptop and booting it up.

"Yeah, two things. There have been three buildings collapse randomly in Tokyo…"

"Yeah, I heard…" Ryder replied sadly. "What was the other thing?" he asked.

"Rika came over for a chat; we ended up talking about the whole fanfic and your world business…"

Ryder chuckled. "How did she react when you mentioned the story where they were trapped in a cave in and she got pregnant?"

"She spat out her water into her glass, understandable really…"

"Yeah, must be strange to hear about things written in another world about yourself" Ryder replied, checking his email. "Hmm, email from Hypnos…" he said, opening it up as Mari and MiniDonmon peered over his shoulder in curiosity.

Ryder,

We have discovered a problem with the Digital World, and need your help to figure out what's causing it.

Henry (at Hypnos)

P.S. Terriermon says to pick up a CD from my apartment, not sure exactly why. It's apparently on the shelf alongside my main computer in my room, and is apparently marked 'Program Delta'.

Ryder looked at the email with curiosity, before standing up and glancing to Mari. "Are you coming with?" he asked, as MiniDonmon flew onto his shoulder.

Mari smiled, and shook her head. "Nah, I'm going to go shopping in the Ginza district…I'm taking my cell phone if you need to contact me…"

"Same…" Ryder replied, pulling her into a kiss and an embrace, before heading to the door.

"Laters!" MiniDonmon said from his shoulder, as Ryder waved quickly and left, Mari's expression changing to a frown afterwards.

"Everything's always exciting for them…" she said sadly, picking up her bag.

TO BE CONTINUED…


A slower paced opening few chapters than previous books, but don't let it be deceiving. This book definitely has action in it, and it forms an important part of the storyline that has yet to begin. Please review; I enjoy reading every one of them, and replying if I can think of any way to confuse you further.

In response to General Blackout's review, I'd like to note that not everything is as it seems here, a fact to be explored in Chapter 5 when we truly learn the nature of free will, and the reasons why some are not part of it.

Next time…

Why does Terriermon need the CD? Who actually is Rey? Will Mari always be on the sidelines? What on earth is going on with the buildings?

Find out in 'Their Secrets', Chapter Four of Dimensions Book Five: Demons.