Faking Redemption
Chapter 5

Taiki-san might have been surprised when I showed up out of the blue, but his face morphed into a smile soon enough.

Then again, I've seen him protect a Pinocchomon who didn't remember him in the least and was trying to destroy all of us, including him and Shoutmon, at the time. So I suppose that's not saying a whole lot, that he's not pressing the buzzer and having me dragged out of the room… or else throwing one of those flower vases or something of the sort.

Then again, I've never seen Taiki-san actually lose his temper, no matter how angry he's been at the circumstances. Quartzmon is a case in point. And us, when he'd thought we'd gone too far in our hunting. And maybe, once we'd realised it went far beyond a game, we had gone too far even without Quartzmon's influence – or maybe it was Quartzmon's influence spreading to them as well. Airu and Ren. Maybe that was why they were the same as they always were. Or maybe…

'You'll get lost in your thoughts if you keep going like that,' said Taiki-san softly, still smiling. 'Come on. Have a seat.'

I took the seat almost automatically. It was like the school counsellor telling you they were going to fix everything and even if you didn't quite believe them, they were so smiley and gentle you couldn't help but follow along like a doll. And I did exactly that. Sat down and waited for whatever speech he'd give me and taper my reaction to it and then walk out and nothing's changed at all… right?

Isn't that how people "got over" things? But it sounded rather depressing, right then and there.

And maybe Taiki-san could see or at least guess what I was thinking as well, because he didn't say a word.

We just sat in silence, for a while. Taiki-san leaned back into his pillow and closed his eyes. I just sat and watched him. He was still looking a little pale, but otherwise better. Shoutmon had bounced back a lot quicker but he was a digimon taking a digimon's attack. Taiki-san would have bounced back far more quickly too, if I'd punched him instead. Assuming I could punch him. The guy's a sporting prodigy after all.

'What are you thinking about?' he asked, suddenly.

So suddenly that I'm an automated idiot and blurt out what I really had been thinking about, at the time. 'I was wondering if I could punch you.' And then realising how badly that sounded, I scrambled to make amends. 'I meant if I could punch you, as in if I was capable of doing it because you – I mean you're – '

He laughed and I cut myself off. He apologised as if he'd been the one to say something so wholly foolish. 'You probably could,' he said, finally. 'I'm not particularly good at any sport. I just get lucky. Of course, I wouldn't have a clue how you measure on that scale, but – ' He shrugged. 'You'd do just as well as anyone, I imagine.'

And there was Taiki-san's modesty at its finest. I've seen him in action and I'm telling you, that is not luck. And I'm not sure if I buy it all being instinct, either. Sure, he has fantastic instincts and that's why he's the hero, the General. But he worked hard too. Too hard.

'You're not that different,' he continued, 'from most of the other Hunters, you know.'

'The ones who became the victims of the lost digimon,' I muttered to my knees. 'So you say.' So Ren said as well. 'But none of them amounted to anything permanent.'

'Neither did this,' said Taiki and I had to stare incredulously at him for that because, really, he was saying that in a hospital bed. 'Really; it's got nothing to do with the Brave Snatcher. It's just the doctor isn't too happy with my blood tests.' He gestured at the drip, and for the first time I noticed it wasn't pain medication or anything of the sort going through but some sort of electrolyte mixture. 'There was blood too, the first couple of days. Again, nothing to do with the Brave Snatcher.'

I wasn't sure I believed him that far, but the electrolytes pointed to him having overworked and not taken care of himself again.

'Honestly,' Taiki-san was continuing. 'Akari was always saying I'd wind up in a hospital bed like this and I had to go and prove her right. But I just can't slow down, you know.' He had a pensive look on his face suddenly, and I found myself watching the way the colourless fluid slipped under his skin. 'Yeah, we took a beating from the Brave Snatcher and I can't just vanish into a Xros Loader and heal my wounds so they stick around for longer, but scratches and bruises and aches and pains… They all go away. The parts of me that can't heal so easily are all okay and they always were. After all, you hadn't been aiming to hurt us at all, were you?'

I stared at him. Again. Because of all the things I expected him to throw at me, that wasn't a question I'd considered in the least.

And what in the world made him think that, anyway?

I asked him precisely that.

'Isn't it obvious?' he asked. 'You defeated Tagiru in a one on one fight. The strength of a digimon isn't determined entirely by their own prowess, after all. You fight with your digimon. Your soul fights with them. And regardless of anything else, when you were fighting with Astamon in that space the old Clockmaker had made for you guys, you were one with your digimon and Tagiru was one with his as well. Quartzmon couldn't have fooled everyone watching otherwise – and it's the same with every other battle the two of you have been in, as well. Quartzmon may have been Quartzmon and acting behind the scenes, but he was also the Astamon that was your friend and partner and the two of you had an understanding and a bond.'

'And what, Taiki-san?' I asked him bitterly. 'Isn't it because of all that that Quartzmon almost destroyed us all?'

'Maybe,' said Taiki-san, 'but he had everyone fooled. You were close and, really, the only one who can be blinded and forgiven because you were that close. But the rest of us had a perfect outside view and we still missed it. It's just like Lucemon in Heaven's Zone. He bided his time so patiently and never slipped up, as though the one we'd seen day by day was the real one and the one at the end the false. But who knows. Maybe Quartzmon panicked when old Clockmaker made his move, panicked when the Brave Snatcher came out of the bay. Maybe he just wanted to keep on living and hunting with you.'

'That's kind of ridiculous, Taiki-san,' I laughed, though really, I wanted to cry instead. Because Taiki-san was saying pretty much everything I wanted to hear and I wanted to believe it, I did, but that would mean absolving both of us and we'd played too big of a role.

'It's not,' he said seriously. 'And I might have misled you a bit, Ryouma-kun.'

I stared at him. That was the third time in a row he'd caught me off guard. 'How so?'

'I'll explain my earlier point first,' he deflected. 'About you and Quartzmon not aiming to hurt us, but rather just knock us out of powering the Brave Snatcher. It could've been any of the other five heroes, but you chose us.'

'Poetic irony,' I replied.

'Maybe.' Taiki-san was smiling softly. 'Tagiru told me, you know. About how you'd seen our final battle in the Digital World, against Bagramon.'

Honestly, I wasn't sure how I should feel about that. It was personal – and yet, it wasn't exactly something I'd told to Tagiru in confidence and if anyone else had a right to know, it was Taiki-san.

'And you worked hard with your digimon, trying to catch up to me. You and Tagiru too – and it must have seemed very unfair to you, watching us from afar and together.'

I shrugged at that. 'It was more that I didn't want you getting further ahead,' I admitted. 'It made it harder to catch up. As for Tagiru – I didn't really appreciate him until…that day.'

'He takes some getting used to.' Taiki-san smiled. 'It was the same with Yuu. But we all change when we come into contact with digimon – and it's not just digimon. When we come into contact with other people too. You two were rivals before either of you put it into words, you know.'

'Yeah…' It had taken me the better part of a year to realise it, but we had been. Or I thought we had been. Quartzmon had… twisted the old perspective.

'I've gotten on topic again.' Taiki rubbed his brow. 'What I meant to say was, when you and Astamon had the Brave Snatcher, you targeted me and OmegaShoutmon because we were the only ones who mattered to you, beyond being heroes. And when you did target us, you struck the chest armour-plate where OmegaShoutmon's defences were strongest, and where I wasn't sitting. We took most damage from the ripple effect.'

'You think either of us thought it through so thoroughly?' I asked. It was ridiculous. Still ridiculous. Kudou Taiki-san really was too forgiving, and everybody else wasn't much better. I wondered, at the time, if there'd be a lynching squad waiting for me once I got out of there. That'd be just perfect.

But no. Adults might learn to hold grudges but all the hunters were children and children were altogether too forgiving.

'No,' said Taiki-san. 'I think it was instinct talking there.'

The same sort of instinct that made Taiki-san good at sports he'd never played before, I wondered half-sarcastically before considering that statement a little more closely. Maybe that was exactly what Taiki-san was saying.

'As for Quartzmon,' Taiki-san continued – and this time, he dropped the big bombshell. 'Actually, I've had some inside info on that, so to speak.' And he went on to explain how he was still able to talk with Shoutmon through the Xros Loader – and the reason all those kids were here was so Wisemon could sort it out with their Xros Loaders too and not because Taiki-san was grievously hurt or they were planning a funeral or an intervention or anything of the sort.

Really? How was I supposed to see that one coming?