4.
"I'm sorry," Ken repeats. He doesn't understand where the compulsion to just say that is coming from, but it's there. Their eyes say he should say it forever and even if he does, it still won't be enough.
Where is Osamu?
The girl next to him, her eyes are different. She does think he should be sorry, but she also thinks something else? Something that seems to grow the more he pets Wormmon. Wormmon cried before. But why?
A pain bursts in the back of his neck. He touches it like you would touch the dead body of a mosquito. His fingers tremble and expect blood that isn't there. He wants to cry, but he can't.
Osamu wouldn't cry because he was confused. He would try to figure it out. But he wasn't here. Where was he?
We killed him.
Ken looks up. His arms tighten around Wormmon. The girl regards him with that concern again and he doesn't understand why. Since when was he someone people thought about?
How can you forget this? You killed him, horrible little boy. You wanted his spot.
Ken shivers. The pain spikes.
The girl regards him with worry and shakes her head. "We'll find a way to make things right."
"What's wrong?" he asks and it dawns on her then. Her eyes light up like his mother's when Osamu does something right (and when doesn't he?) and then they grow sad again.
He wants to help her.
"The Digital World," and something in him coils with rage and glee and desire and he doesn't like it, it's too much like- "My friend's partner was hurt by something you created." Her voice is so gentle even though she's saying things that hurt. "And now, we aren't sure what he's doing. We're hoping you can fix it."
Ken stares at her. "I created something that could hurt people?" That's awful, he thinks. It's also impossible. He looks at his hands. "I didn't even know I could create things."
That's a little far, he realizes. He just didn't know he could be useful. Of course if he creates something, it does something bad. That would figure.
How do you know it's bad? Maybe she just doesn't understand how beautiful it is.
Ken shakes his head to himself. No, anything that hurts a partner is bad.
Anything.
You just keep telling yourself that.
A/N: Sorry for how late this came out! I ended up being pulled into Daredevil. Anyway, here we are!