Warning for canon-typical violence and possible character death.
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Hikari often drops by when his mother isn't home. He knows he should go back. He knows he needs to. It's his destiny, and all of that. He chose this. His Crest tells him what he should be doing, even though he doesn't have it anymore.
He can't though. He tries, makes it to school, makes it to the computer lab even. But his Digivice beeps and he runs away, heading for groceries or homework or things that just aren't the Digital World.
He's not sure why he's running, not exactly. He knows who is on the other side of that portal. His heart thuds every second to remind him.
Hikari never tells him to come back, or asks him to, or anything. She just tells him what happened. Daisuke-kun is still struggling with himself. Miyako-san is keeping Iori-kun with her because they can't both run off into the Digital World. The others are analyzing, thinking, contacting help even if no one will arrive. Her voice doesn't waver. It's like that strange, gray ocean never happened.
She goes to the Digital World and speaks to him every day. She is rarely harmed in the process.
"Hikari-chan..."
"It's going to work out," she says, as peacefully as the past, like when they were in Mugendramon's city and they were facing Warumonzaemon. It is that same peace that made him think miracles can happen, if they really try.
"I can't." The words are more numb repetition in his mouth than anything now.
"I know."
She leaves, and he sits in his room, staring at the math homework he's not going to do. He looks at the block set he wanted to build with, to make his dear friend his own personal castle.
He's such a hypocrite. He knows it. His room is so silent, so empty, and the piece that fills the hole is on the other side of the internet and his enemy.
Maybe it's payback for PicoDevimon, Takeru thinks, and a shrill laugh lets itself loose from his chest. It's heavy and he's tired, so tired. The effort of the noise makes him want to sleep.
The messages go ignored on the D-Terminal. All but one, and that's only because he deletes it with more force than necessary.
Damn it Ken. It's none of your business.
But it's his business, because it's all his fault.
A/N: Hello all! Another drabble novel from me! Please review if you can! Back to Then Again! Please enjoy Light and sorry for all the runaround.
Challenges: Diversity Writing Challenge (Anime/Manga) H40. Fic that diverges from a point in canon, Digimon Non-Flash Bingo: 668 - prompt: "Where, now, the ships that drove before the blast, /Threatened by angry breakers as they passed" William Wordsworth,Valentine's and White Day Fic Exchange pinch hitter gift fic to The Light's Refrain, Valentine's Day to White Day Advent Day 24: write about a brainwashing/trickery, Song Time Challenge, AU Devils of Doom, #2, divergent AU