Author's Note: Ok guys, I think this is once again the spot for a big sorry for being really late, but I've got a life too and it catches me much quicker than I want it too. I may have still one year till graduation but I still have got tons of work but at least I've got my driving licence now.
Well anyway I don't have much time for writing, even though I have tons of ideas and half the time I have trouble to get me self to sit down and write.
So please enjoy this chapter.
Warnings: a bit AU and OOC, crossover with Zero Two, Frontier and a bit Tamers
Pairings: Taiora, Takari, Kenyako, Takumi and Mimato (other Pairings will be introduced later on)
Last time: While a weakened Agumon takes on Etemon, Taichi meets Bokomon and Neemon as he is trying to organize the Digimon's retreat. When it looks like everything is lost, Agunimon appears to Tai with a proposal he can't refuse and a restored Agumon manages to warpdigivolve to WarGreymon and defeats MetalEtemon.
In the Real World, Takuya and Zoe overhear a conversation between Cody and Izzy, who is going to meet with the other DigiDestined.
At the same time Tally gets a call from Yamaki, who informs her of a new threat to Real World…
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.
"…" – Speaking
'…' – Thinking
--- … --- – Scene-change
--- Guardian of the Spirit ---
Chapter 03: Twenty Questions--- 14. 10. 2011 ---
--- Odaiba playground, Real World ---
"So, let me get that straight… You felt uneasy, found your Digivice glowing and then just decided that it would be nice to make a short trip to Digital World, a place that, as I may remind you, we haven't visited in over seven years and where trouble is just bound to find you, and didn't think it worth to call for backup… Tai, you are my best friend and to-be-best-man should I ever choose to marry, but I've just got to ask you… Have you completely lost your mind?" Matt mock-frowned while glancing at his best friend with an eyebrow raised.
But his brown haired friend, who had just had started to recount what had happened the day before, just shrugged and hid a slightly guiltily grin behind the pink ball, that was Koromon, in his arms while leaning back into the bench he was sitting on.
"I wouldn't say it like that, Matt… But yeah, that sums it up pretty good." Beside him, Sora shook his head while trying to hid a smile and even Izzy, who sat on their opposite, chuckled silently.
They had met at the old playground in Odaiba, that they had already used in their Middle- and High School time as meeting place, but today only the four of them were present. Joe was sleeping and would soon get up and ready for his nightshift, Mimi and Davis were cooking for their employees, Ken was having his watch with the police and Yolei and Cody were in class, leaving only them available for this conclave.
'Really sad actually,' Matt snored privately. 'All the time we wished for the portal to open and now that it has, everybody is to busy to look into it.'
"Why don't we leave that part for later on." Izzy stated, becoming serious again, "What happened after you entered Digiworld?"
"That's what I would like to know." Matt had to hide a grin as watched Sora eye Tai with a dangerous glint in her eyes. She turned to the hazel-eyed DigiDestined and started to poke his chest (much to Izzy's and Matt's amusement)
"Not only that you stood me up on our date, made me worry sick and when you finally turn up you collapse on me and make me worry even more…" Tai's easy smile started to turn into a rather pained expression, although Matt wasn't sure if it was because he could imagine what his girlfriend had gone through or simply because of the harshness of said girlfriends poke.
"…But then you finally wake up and just refuse to tell me why the hell you look like somebody dragged you through the Sahara. So you better spill your guts now mister or god help me I will…" Wavering his hands, Tai stopped his girlfriends ranting, almost dropping Koromon in the process.
"Alright, alright Sora, I got the picture." Turning away for a moment he massaged his temples, trying to gather himself while scoping up Koromon.
"It's complicated" he started after a while. "After I entered Digiworld, I ended up in front of some new city, called Flame Terminal."
That caught Matt's curiosity. The terminal-part implied that there was some kind of public transport, which would be defiantly something new (Matt cringed at the thought of the muscle aches he had suffered of the first time around). Shortly he thought about asking but then decided to keep him questions for himself for now.
Silently he listened as Taichi (with some help of Koromon) recounted his tale of meeting Agumon and the homeless Koromon. But when he moved on to the encounter with Etemon Matt couldn't stop intervening.
"Wait a moment." He said, now being in the focus of the other three. "Etemon. Etemon as in the ultra level Digimon we had trouble with when we came to Server? The one, we thought had been destroyed by Zudomon twelve years ago? That Etemon?"
"The one and the same." Tai nodded with a wire smile. "With all memories and as bad of a singer as before."
"How strange…" Izzy mussed aloud, "But explain at least a few things." Seeing how the others where waiting for him to explain he sighed and asked Tai to continue, but not before promising that he would explain himself afterwards.
Tai went on telling them of the fight, of the strange two little Digimon Bokomon and Neemon and of course his deal with Agunimon, the change of his Digivice and the reappearance of the crest of Courage (though he hadn't noticed that one until after he had reawakened today).
After he had finished they fell in silence, absorbing the incidents of the day before. Finally Matt decided to break the quiet, full of questions and sure that not even a quarter of them would be (and could be) answered between the four of them.
"So how do you plan to find Agunimon's partner?" he asked, leaning back with his arms crossed. He watched how his best friend shrugged, looking a bit wistfully.
"Frankly speaking I have no idea. Agunimon wasn't about to give out much information and back then my priorities were a bit different. The situation is even worse than back when we were looking for the eighth child because there is so little information and no clue to where to start. I already have the bad feeling that this is going to be one wild-goose chase." They nodded, understanding their friend's predicament.
"What did you mean with what you said before Izzy?" Sora asked, abruptly changing topic.
"Well, you all now that although the portal hasn't been open till now, I kept monitoring the Digital World, don't you? And what would you know, yesterday it reacted about the time, you said that you were pulled through the portal Tai."
"Hardly coincidence." Matt thought, narrowing his eyes slightly as he listened to the computer genius.
"After I tried, and failed to reach you…" the redhead gave Tai a hard stare, leaving no doubt about who was meant, "… I tried to isolate the signal, but somebody managed to hack into my system and crashed it before I could get any results."
Even a sudden bomb impact couldn't have shocked the friends more. Izzy was an adept concerning computer networks and security. There was hardly firewall crafted by human that he couldn't break and his own security programs were a nightmare for most hacker, who happened to came across it. It was unheard that anybody had ever managed to get even through the first lair.
"Wa-Was there any damage?" Sora inquired carefully, knowing how sensible their friend was about his files. But Izzy just shrugged, almost helplessly Matt observed, and said.
"Who or whatever crashed me, he didn't damage or delete anything on my PC. My best guess is that I managed to trigger the security of the Digital World. Since my security programs are based of what I researched from there, it would be an cinch for the original to get through it. What disturbs me more is what happened before the crash."
When the others just regarded him with curious glances, he pulled out a sheet of paper, showing it to them. Drawn onto the sheet was a symbol that had resemblance with a vicious grin, however the design strangely remembered Matt of a crest. "This sign flickered over the monitor in the few seconds that the hacker used to crash me."
The silence between the companions spoke of the weight of the countless questions that each of them held.
And there were no answers in sight.
--- Yamaki's apartment, Shinjuku ---
Around the same time, far away from our heroes, another group was about to meet too. And Tally was already much to late. Her car had broken down on her the week before and so she had been using public transports. Normally efficient, but today with incoming weekend, the bus had been forced to crawl through the streets of Shinjuku.
'At least I know that I would have been late whenever I had had my car or not...' she sighed as she crossed the last street to her destination. Another surge of annoyance shot through her as she entered Yamaki's apartment building to see that the elevators didn't work and she would have to climb up the stairs.
After hasting upwards she came panting to stop before the apartments door. She was about to ring the bell, but then the door opened in front of her reviling her slightly smirking best friend Riley.
"Cutting in late, are you?" she chuckled, stepping to the side to let her in. Tally frowned for a second but then took a moment to regain her breath and walked inside while greeting her former colleague with a smile.
"Yeah indeed." They hugged as the door fell closed.
"It has been to long, 'lye." she said as they dissolved form each other. "Indeed it has."
Riley nodded smiling. "I can't wait to hear what you have been up too."
But before Tally could even think of an answer, she was cut short by the stern voice of her former employer. "As happy as your reunion may be, I have to ask you to delay it until later."
They looked up to see him stand on the other end of the room. He hadn't changed much in He gestured them to come into the living room. " Come in please, we have much to talk about."
------
While Mitsuo led his former subordinates to the couch he couldn't help but remember the last times when they had come together in a similar situation. The first of these informal meetings had been, after the government had fired him after the deva invasion. They had met when the D-Reaper showed his hand and after the Shibuya incident. The last one had been three years ago after the closing of Hypnos.
And to his surprise he found that he had missed them. Not only as work partner but also as participants of his life. Sure he and Riley met from time to time, still being friends with 'benefice' and he had made sure to keep himself informed about Tally and every other former Hypnos-employee he knew he could trust.
'But it still isn't the same…' He blinked at the thought, and then he moved to examine his mood and feelings. He snored mentally at the melancholy and shoved it into the farthest corner of his consciousness, regaining his iron control while settling on the seat oppose to the other two.
"So what are we here for?" Tally asked, bringing him back to the topic on hand. Mitsuo cleared his throat readying himself for the incoming discussion. "I already hinted it when I called you. I fear that the Digimon are about to emerge again."
The two in front of him nodded. They had already guessed something like that. "You know I keep an eye on these things so I knew that something had happened. However I didn't know what exactly and today in the morning I was approached by an agent of the Japanese Intelligence Bureau. They, of course too, noticed the disturbance of the realms and now want me to investigate unofficially."
He paused there, giving his former (but hopefully soon again unofficial) subordinates a moment to absorb this information.
"Unofficial… Meaning that if we are found out, Intelligence will deny every connection to us?" Riley asked with a bit hesitation.
Mitsuo nodded and smiled inwardly. That was why he liked Riley so much. She was analytic, finding mistakes, problems and obscurities within minutes, yet she stayed loyal to those she believed in. Her eyes told him that she would involve herself into this no matter what, daring him to contradict her. "However they gave me all information they have on this case and promised me to increase our resources. Should we be successful, they will probably re-establish Hypnos."
"So, what do we have?" Tally asked, looking him straight into the eyes, and as he looked at her he noticed a fire burning inside her, carving for adventure and excitement yet with the knowledge what costs would come with failure.
'Of course…' he smiled, when he incorporated his earlier thoughts on Riley, '…Tally is much the same.' Then he pulled out two files and displayed them on the coffee table between them.
And while doing so he couldn't help but feel great anticipation. In the last few years all he had been doing was to teach kids on university, who didn't understand half the stuff he told them about, not to mention the significance of it. But now he was about to go back to his lifework. He had already looked through the files and found that he wasn't actually really surprised by it.
'Well, well... this is going to be an interesting time to say at least...' he thought as he started explaining.
------
Tally starred at the pictures before her that were clipped to the first page of each file. Both showed two young men in there early twenties. The first had short brown hair and hazel eyes and was showed while standing at a podium speaking to a crowd of people. Even on the photo he seemed charismatic and honest. The second one was red-haired, dressed with a white cloak and standing in front of a PC, apparently explaining something with great skill. She looked up to Yamaki, who had taken a breath before starting his explanation.
"Yesterday evening around eight o'clock in the evening, the JIB detected a minor case of digital activity in the Odaiba-district. That JIB-agent, that debriefed me, told me that similar disturbances have common over the years, so they didn't think much of it."
"However, four hours later they registered several strong digital disturbances, more activity than ever seen since the Shibuya-incident." He drew out a map of Tokyo, unfolding it over the two open files. Tally immediately noticed the two red cross marks, one in the area of Odaiba, the other somewhere in Shibuya.
"Those points are the epicentres of the disturbances." Yamaki went on.
"As we know are all digital matters somehow connected to humans. JIB managed to reduce us the list of possible subjects to those two." He removed the map, showing them the two pictures once again.
"We are to observe them and find out if they have any connections to what happened last night. If they aren't we'll move on with the list that we have."
Tally noticed her best friend lean forward with a frown. "So who are those two? They both seem familiar to me."
And now that she thought about it, Tally had to agree. Especially the redhead seemed to tug on her memory, but as hard as she tried she couldn't remember where she had seen him before.
Yamaki just chuckled lowly. "As they should be. Those two are Taichi Yagami and Koushiro Izumi."
Riley set up straight as her eyes widened, but Tally just kept looking confused onto the pictures. Now that she had heard the names, she recognised the red haired man as Izumi; how couldn't she, especially after the waves the young genius had made in the last few years among experts. But the other one…
"So who's Yagami?" she finally asked, deciding that it was better to be laughed at by her best friend than to stay silent and unknowing. Riley looked at her puzzled.
"You really don't know? Haven't you seen the news lately?" she asked. Tally just shrugged, causing her best friend to sigh while shaking her head almost dramatically.
"Yagami has been elected to be student council president a few weeks ago. The media already handles him as one of Japan's future leaders, but then again that doesn't mean much yet."
"So you don't know if he's good or crappy with all the speeches and stuff he must have already made until now?" Tally exclaimed disbelieving.
"Oh, but he is good." Yamaki cut in. At their slightly confused look he shrugged a bit (which surprised Tally. Yamaki hardly ever came out of his stiff pose.).
"I had the pleasure to listen to his last address before the election. If he can stomach all those intrigues and dirty plays that come with politics, I have no doubt that we will see him with Japans top in a few years from now. But that's off topic now." The two women nodded in agreement, focusing back to the task at hand.
"Is there any connection between Yagami and Izumi?" Riley asked.
Yamaki (almost) smiled; apparently he had anticipated the question. "Yes indeed. As it seems, both of them have visited the same schools, although Izumi was a grade below Yagami. According to what I know, have both been friend for about at least twelve years."
Tally raised an eyebrow. "According to what you know? Do you mean you are watching them already?"
Yamaki leaned back, and hadn't Tally known better she would have thought that the stern man was being smug. "Well… I've had an eye on Izumi for quite a while now and after seeing him with Yagami a few weeks ago, I thought it better to check out their history. I didn't go into depths but I can't say that I'm really surprised that they are involved."
'Strange…' Tally couldn't help but think. The way Yamaki had just talked, sounded as if he had followed a hunch, which would go totally against what she knew of him.
Had she gone to him in her time at Hypnos with just some feelings as proof, she probably would have risked getting fired. Maybe stopping working for the government had made him open up a little bit (which was not such a bad thing she supposed).
"So how do we figure out if they are involved or not? Simple Background-research will get us that so far." Riley asked. Y
amaki nodded and Tally leaned forward, and deep down she started to feel the anticipation of the excitement ahead.
"We will split up for that." Yamaki started to explain.
"Riley, I want you to continue the background research I started. Find out how deep Izumi and Yagami are connected. Look at how big the circle of friends is they share." The dark-haired woman nodded. Research was one of her strongest points.
"I'll go undercover and watch Yagami." Yamaki continued. "I already have a few classes with him and I'm sure Odaiba University will be to glad if I take a few more."
He turned to Tally. "Tally, I want you to do the same with Izumi. As far as I know, is he being substitute teacher for Physics in a High School in Shibuya. Go there undercover as teacher. If possible establish contact with him. Even if he has nothing to do with the disturbance he could turn out to be a good ally."
It took Tally a few minutes to comprehend what just had been spoken. Then she noticed her dropped chin. Quickly she closed her mouth and blinked a few times before speaking up. "You want me to do what? Go into that school and act as a teacher?"
Yamaki didn't answer but it was obvious that he was amused at her reaction. Tally felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around to a wide-grinning Riley.
"Don't worry about it!" she said, her grin seeming to become wider with every second. "Didn't you tell me about finishing that course about Pedagogic just weeks ago?"
"Ye-yeah, but I never actually…" Tally was at loss of all her vocabulary. Yes, she was legally able to take onto a teaching job but despite that she never had actually planned to do so. Now she was to go into a high school, pose a teacher, become friends with a genius and suspect and actually teach somebody.
Half an hour later Tally waved off Riley (who was still having a good laugh at her costs), as she went on her way home, the file with the data about Koushiro Izumi and Shibuya High school tugged safe under her arm. She still couldn't fully believe the assignment she had been given.
Now that she thought about it, it was a sign of the confidence Yamaki seemed to have into her abilities. Sighing she stared at the picture of Izumi. 'Guess we are stuck with each other now…' she though at him. And a few moments later: 'Well at least, he is kind of cute…'
--- Zoe's room, Shibuya ---
Swinging his feet slightly, Tommy squirmed slightly uncomfortable in the, for him a bit to large, chair, he was sitting on. He always felt slightly uneasy, whenever they met at their only girl's place, partly because of the slightly violent nature of the older girl but also because it meant that whatever they had to talk about, it was serious.
Between siblings and curious parents the white and violet coloured room (probably themed after the spirits of wind) was the only place they could talk without having to fear somebody to overhear them. Around him were the rest of the Chosen Children; J.P. in another chair, Kouji leaning against the wall (almost outside their circle), his twin brother together with Zoe on the bed and their unofficial leader Takuya (on whom everybody had themed their eyes) on the desk in front of the window.
Tommy had to bite back a grin as he noticed the slightly uncomfortable look that was displayed on Takuya's face and mentally he started to count down the seconds waiting for the hotheaded boy to snap.
"What?" Takuya hissed, finally having enough of all the staring. "Do I have something in my face or what are you starring at me for?"
The outburst immediately released the tension inside the room, causing everyone else to giggle.
"Sorry Takuya…" J.P. managed to get out between chuckles, "but it is just that…"
But their oldest member was cut short as somebody knocked at the room's door.
"Come in!" Zoe called and when the door opened a young woman, Tommy had never seen before, with long brown hair, who was dressed like a chef came in.
"I came up to bring you the snacks you asked for, Izumi-chan." the unknown woman said. "Thank you, Tachikawa-san." Zoe smiled, as she stood up and took the plate. The woman glanced at them for a moment and then smiled.
"School friends?" she asked, looking back at Zoe, who nodded. "Well then I don't want to keep disturbing." Tachikawa-san said cheerfully as she turned around to leave the room. "Have fun!" she called just before the door fell back into the lock.
Tommy smirked when he noticed the slight blushes of the rest of the males in their group. He was glad that he wasn't that far into puberty yet, so that while he recognized Tachikawa-san as good-looking woman, he wasn't about to blush in her present. Deciding to spare his pears the pain of getting called on it by Zoe he asked quickly: "Who was that?"
Zoe chuckled slightly, she hadn't missed the faces of the others but apparently decided to spare them, and so she answered. "That was Mimi Tachikawa, our new chef in the restaurant. She's a really nice person."
J.P., who had gotten his act back together, smiled. "It sure comes handy that your father owns a restaurant and you live right above it."
Zoe nodded sat down on the floor, placing the snack plate right in front of her, the rest of the group following her, creating a far more comfortable atmosphere.
"So why were you guys starring at me before?" Takuya asked between two bites of his rice ball. "Well I waited kind of an opening statement from you, since you are kind of or leader or so…"
J.P. said with a grin and a glance around confirmed that the others had thought something similar. Takuya could only raise both eyebrows disbelieving at that. "H-how do you guys get that idea? I can't even remember holding elections or something similar."
"Well Takuya, in the Digiworld you always made the final decisions and that didn't really change since than." Kouichi shrugged with a slight grin.
"And though you are really an idiot most of times we always respected those decisions." Kouji finished, headshaking. Takuya was already about to protest, but Zoe stopped him by simply laying her hand on his shoulder, causing him to turn to her a questioning look in his eyes. Tommy watched as the girl bit back a wide grin.
"We should make it official then." she suggested. "Who of us is for Takuya to be our official leader?" she asked, clapping one hand over the surprised boys mouth, silencing all sounds of protests and a moment later disbelieve as five hands went up.
Tommy watched Takuya as he blinked a few times and sighed after Zoe had removed her hand. Then the now official leader of the Chosen Children shook his head but when Tommy spotted the older boys slight grin, he felt reassured that Takuya wouldn't abandon them in this. "Thanks for that vote of confidence, I guess." he said, his grin widening now. "With that I officially declare the meeting as opened."
------
Hiding a small smile, Zoe watched as Takuya opened the meeting, still a bit flustered by the election that had taken place just minutes ago (but hiding it well under that grin of his).
"So, what are we here for?" Kouji asked, coming straight to the point that the rest had been waiting for. Zoe, of course knew exactly what that meeting was about; after all, just like Takuya had she been present to watch the strange dialog between their new friend Cody Hida and the substitute teacher Koushiro Izumi.
It had been her, who had asked for Takuya to call this meeting (after he had apologised repeatedly for that broom-closet-episode), so she wasn't all that surprised when Takuya gave her the word, leaving explanations to her.
Normally she would have been angry with him for shoving work on her, but this was her case, her investigation. Taking a deep breath she told the other four about what they had overheard and about her suspicion that there was far more to both the new class mate and the new teacher, than any of them knew.
After she had finished she looked expecting at the round before her. But the boys all just looked at the ground or each other, anywhere but to her, something she absolutely hated, for whatever they were thinking about it, didn't fit with anything she thought. Finally fed up and ready to force a result she asked: "How are you guys thinking about this."
Finally Kouichi sighed and looked at her with a rather pained expression. "What do I think, Zoe? Well I'm sure that all you have told us about has really kept you busy for quiet a while now, however I don't really see how we fit into this. What do you WANT us to do? Even if there is really something strange about those two, it isn't really our business."
The other boys nodded, apparently agreeing with what just had been said.
"But guys you've got to admit that those two give of this really strange…" he had to break off her defence, for in this moment she realised that she couldn't quiet name the vibe that she felt from those two. It was just a feeling that the girl could neither name nor place but that she knew to be very important.
"I don't want to say that you aren't right Zoe-chan…" J.P. said scratching his head nervously, "but even so Kouichi is right too. If they are befriended, so what! Maybe Cody doesn't want us to know because he thinks that we would think that he is a teacher's pet or so. I mean try to see his point of few: He is totally new here and just found himself some people to talk with, so he is really careful about what he says and does so that he won't lose that threat to community. He doesn't really seem like a guy he makes friends that easily."
Zoe's protest died on her lips. It was true; she hadn't considered that, which was silly of her for she knew exactly how it was to come into a community as an outsider. But even so she couldn't shake of the feeling that there was more to this than they saw on the first glace. While she was still in thoughts Takuya asked if any of the others had something to say. When all of themnegated he closed the meeting.
Silently the others gathered their stuff and got ready to go home. Zoe just sat there as she watched them leave. She felt far away and silly and somehow she felt torn in her believes. Only when somebody said her name, she was snapped out of her trance. She looked up and saw Takuya standing already at the door, his hand touching the doorframe. The others had already gone. "For your sake, it would be probably better if you would leave it as it is." she heard him say. And then he was gone, too.
------
Humming cheerfully Mimi finished sorting back the last pans and pots for the day. Her shift was close to finish and soon she would be on the way home. For two weeks now she had been cooking in the Italian-touched restaurant that Orimoto-san owned and while it was a challenge to the food she had cooked before, she liked the atmosphere the small restaurant had and the people she worked with.
None of the other cooks was arrogant and the staff almost felt like family to her. The owner's family was also very nice. His wife Miki was working at a large company that designed pretty much everything, from baby-cloths to floor lamps and their daughter Izumi was a nice teenage girl she was beginning to befriend with.
'I wonder what Palmon would say, if she could see me now?' Mimi thought with a silent giggle as she changed from her work clothes. She remembered how awed she had been about Palmon's ability to point out what plants were eatable and which they should keep their hands of.
Now she probably could do the same, could even fix them into something delicious. But the thought of the rookie-level Digimon also brought her sadness and for a moment she closed her hand around the dead crest of Sincerity.
Sighing Mimi shook herself out of her stupor and reached for her cloak. However before she had reached the backdoor, she heard the sound coming out of the staffroom.
Curiously she peaked through the open door and smiled when she saw Izumi sitting at the table, her head resting in her arms. The ret of the staff had already told her that the owner's daughter sometimes hid there when she was brooding and apparently it was rather bad right now for the girl's whole posture cried out defeat.
Chuckling Mimi leaned against the doorframe. "You know, we still have a while until the world ends." Surprised the teenage girl looked up.
"What do you mean?" the teenager asked puzzled.
"Well, the way you sit here one could think that something absolutely unfixable that could only be topped by the apocalypse happened." Mimi answered with a small grin and was glad when she heard the girl giggle at her extravagations.
"Nah, it's nothing that tragic." Izumi said with a small smile. "My friends and I just didn't agree on something."
"I see." Mimi replied, now moving closer. She took of her cloak and hung it over the chair that she had moved out, and then sat down beside Izumi.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she offered but the girl just shook her head.
"No it's okay, but thank you anyway." Izumi said, shaking her head. "Boys are just stupid sometimes."
Mimi giggled and nodded. She could sympathise after all most of their group was male. "Are you talking about those school friends of yours that were here today? Have they already left?"
"Yes and yes." the girl sighed. "Normally we are best friends really but right now… it's just complicated."
"Are you really sure that you don't want to talk about it?" Mimi offered again, feeling that the teenager was in the need of a serious girls talk.
"Well, I…" the girl started and Mimi was sure that she was close to the breaking point. Now she would probably try to distract her.
"Don't you have to catch your train to Odaiba?" Izumi busted out.
'Bingo!' Mimi thought, grinning inwardly. She knew the schema of this kind of girls talk more than well, having forced it on each Sora, Yolei and Kari more than once.
"I already missed my train and the next one won't come anytime soon." she answered with a wink.
"I won't be going anywhere anytime soon, so you better start talking." Seeing the girls mine Mimi quickly cut her off.
"Don't make such a face Izumi-chan. I chose to stay behind so I could help you out a bit, so don't apologise. It was my choice." she said and cornering the girl this way into answering.
"Well you see…" the girl started and now Mimi knew that she had succeeded and leaned back to listen. "We got this new classmate and this new substitute teacher and there just seems something… strange about them. I really can't point my finger on it. And they also seem to know each other however when I asked the new guy, although we became friends and I wouldn't have laughed or something, he denied everything."
"So you are curious." Mimi concluded, looking upwards as she tried to imagine herself in the situation and also to find out why something was tingling in the back of her mind at the word substitute.
"Well, yes." the girl admitted and now it seemed that Mimi had broken through a wall because now a tiradeleft Izumi. "I was talking it through with my friends before but the all said that I should stay out since it isn't my business, and I KNOW that it isn't my business, but I can't help but feel…"
"That it should be your business." Mimi finished for the girl, and now the tingling grew even worse because she remembered that Izumi was visiting Shibuya High School.
Of course she could be wrong but it was too much for a consistence. 'A substitute teacher and a student, who seem to know each other... I wonder if…' "Say, Izumi-chan…" she asked carefully, "what is the name of that substitute teacher of yours?"
Izumi looked at her with a puzzled expression; after all she had no idea how important that information could be. "His name is Koushiro Izumi. Why are you asking?"
Mimi smiled, for her intuition had hit right into bull's eye. "So you are one of Izzy's pupils? Well, we always thought that he was the only teachers material of our group. Well of our age group anyway. Then I guess that that classmate you talked about is Cody, isn't it?"
She had to grin wide as she saw the girl's wide-eyed expression. "Ho-how do you know?" the teenager asked stuttering and Mimi's grin widened even more. "Izzy and I were class mates when we were in Primary School and later in High School. We share the same circle of friends."
Smiling at the girls still shocked look Mimi bent down and quickly looking through her bag searching for her purse. After finding it she quickly pulled out of the pictures, careful not to pick out one that showed Digimon. She didn't feel like having to use the stuffed-toy-excuse.
It was an old picture of their group, having been shot shortly before the gate to Digital World had been closed, about seven years before. She had been about sixteen back then, had ended her America stay a short time before that and had returned in order to visit High School with the others in Japan. She leaned back towards Izumi and showed it to her. "Here have a look, before your eyes fall out."
The girl leaned forward and studied the picture. Helpfully Mimi started to point out the various people. "This is Izzy as you can see; nobody has red hair like this; and there beside him is Joe, he is about to finish his practice as doctor here in Shibuya I think. Those two are Tai and Matt, they are best friends since ever and the girl there is Sora, she is Tai's girlfriend now. It was so obvious that they have a thing for each other ever since they are children though Sora was together with Matt for a while. You'll meet her soon I guess. Your mom is looking for a new designer and I asked on Sora's behalf for an interview."
But the girl seemed far a way as she starred intensely at the picture. "They seem familiar." Izumi said slightly puzzled after a while but Mimi smiled again for she of course knew exactly why that was.
"That doesn't surprise me. Tai has been in television quiet a bit in the last few weeks, ever since that election… and Matt well, I'll give you a hint. His full name is Yamato." Her smile widened into a grin when she saw the look in Izumi's eyes change from puzzlement to realisation and then into another shock.
"Y-You know THE Yamato Ishida? For real?" Now Mimi started to giggle, she always found it amusing when people awed at her childhood friend, even more when she imagined the sore expression that Matt made every time when he was on the run from his fan girls.
"Yes I do. But how interesting, I never had you pegged for that teenage-fan-girl-type." she smirked, teasing the girl.
"I-I'm not!" the girl said flustered, which made Mimi only laugh for a moment. But then she pulled her attention back to the picture, continuing to point out her friends to Izumi.
"Those two are Davis and Ken. Davis was really a goof back then but he matured up now, a bit at least. And Ken has become a policeman, though I heard that he is in trouble with his fiancé right now because his partner is rather beautiful. He has always been bad with female advances." she grinned.
"This is said fiancé Yolei, by the way. And those two are Kari and T.K; they are the younger siblings of Tai and Matt. They got married last month, of course we have seen that one coming since ever. I'm the girl with the cowboy hat over there, and you already know the boy who sits in the left corner." she said pointing at the short figure on the picture.
"That's Cody?" Izumi whispered, almost not recognising her classmate.
"Yeah he was really short back then." Mimi said nostalgic as she looked at the picture that showed the ten-years-old-self of the youngest DigiDestined. At the last big get-together at T.K. and Kari's marriage she had noticed just how much he had changed in the last few years. 'In fact, I wouldn't be surprised, if he had quite a few problems with keeping the girls away.' she thought amused and made a mental note to ask Izumi about it. Then she noticed the intense stare that the teenager gave the picture and she could almost see the wheels turn in the girl's head.
"He is so much younger than the rest of your group." Izumi stated finally, looking up from the picture.
"That's what his mother thinks too." Mimi replied sadly, and for a moment she thought about the other reason why Hida-san wanted to separate her son from their group.
"That's why she decided to move away from Odaiba after his grandfathers death. I guess she wanted a fresh start and for Cody to find a few friends in his age group instead hanging around with us." A few minutes of silence passed between them until Izumi broke it with soft voice.
"I didn't know…" she whispered, not daring to look into Mimi's eyes.
"I didn't think that Cody would go around and tell everyone about it. He likes to keep stuff like that for himself because he doesn't want to trouble anyone. It takes a while to get him to open that shell of his. But don't worry; if he regards you as friend he'll start to after a while. Just give him some time to warm up."
"And that is why Koushiro-san came as teacher to Shibuya High?" Izumi asked, a slightly guilty expression on her face. Mimi felt sorry for the teenager; apparently she had sensed some kind of conspiracy between Cody and Izzy and had wanted to find out more about it.
"It's one of the reasons, I guess." she said, trying to ease the girls consistence. The girl stayed silent for a moment and then asked hesitating. "What are the other reasons?"
"Curious, aren't you?" Mimi meant amused but as she noticed that the girl was about to start excusing flustered she added quickly: "Well I guess mostly because Izzy is a rather curious soul too. You see he always has been interested in anything that has to do with computer and similar stuff, since we were kids. God that was really exhausting sometimes. Separating him from his laptop was pretty much impossible. Anyway, six years ago there was some kind of digital disturbance here in Shibuya, you know about that, don't you? I think Izzy is looking a bit into it, but that's all I know about it."
"I see. Thank you for explaining their situation to me." Izumi said finally. "It was no problem. Is your curiosity satisfied?" Mimi asked and smiled when the girl nodded.
Izumi was a nice girl. And in one point Mimi really agreed with Cody's mother. 'He really needs more friends outside our circle. And somehow I think he has already found them.'
------
Later that night, Zoe went to bed with a smile. Tachikawa-san had stayed for another hour (and had missed another train) and had told her a few stories about her friend and also about Koushiro-san and Cody-kun.
In return Zoe had told her a bit her friends and slightly edited about a few of their more believable adventures in Digital World. She was also surprised how empathic the older woman had turned out to be as she had correctly guessed Zoe's growing feelings for a certain brown-haired idiot…
Shaking her head she banned away all thoughts of goggles and hazel eyes as she tugged herself in.
'It's really nice of Koushiro-san to come to Shibuya to keep contact…' she thought tiredly turning of the lights while replaying the whole dialog in her mind as she suddenly noticed something.
'Wait a moment… a digital disturbance, six years ago? Could it be that…' And then she sat up straight, her eyes wide open and all thoughts of sleep gone. 'Koushiro-san is looking for Digimon!'
--- 15. 10. 2011 ---
--- Tai and Matt's flat, Odaiba, Real World ---
The morning clear and surprisingly warm for October. The sun had already risen and shone in all pride through the windows of the house that two of the DigiDestined called their home.
Normally Matt would have far better things to do on such a Saturday morning than looking through his stuff. However there was nothing that could have been called normal that had happened in the last few days and with the incoming digital danger the DigiDestined had decided to react with bringing back out their Digivices.
Since Tai had his already back in action (and upgraded too) and Izzy took his wherever he went it was only a matter of finding his and Sora's. And since Tai was such a good boyfriend (and feeling guilty for missing their date), he had volunteered to help Sora with her search. Izzy had taken over the job of coordinating everyone, so that today they finally would be able to tell everyone about the new threat, which left Matt to search through the flat alone.
But that was better anyway since Matt (as he had to admit to himself ashamed) had no idea were exactly he had hidden it. So he had to look into pretty every shelf, drawer and closet the two of them posed.
'I should have watched out better!' he thought sighing, as he closed another box and put it back into his closet. He felt rather close to admitting defeat and calling Izzy, so that he could track down his Digivice with help of another. Yeah, asking Izzy for help sounded good. He certainly didn't feel like getting teased about this.
After stretching himself, he reached for the phone but he halted the movement as he noticed another box in the back of his closet that he hadn't looked through yet and on the stand he couldn't remember what the content of the box was. Curiously he took it out and opened it, only to smile as he saw what it contained. It was full of old sheets of music that he hadn't seen in years.
They were old, a bit childish and meant to guide a harmonica player through the beginning stages. But for Matt those sheets held memories of being an unruly ten-to-eleven-years old. Chuckling lowly he pulled them out and set them aside in order to look what other secrets that box was hiding. His eyes widened as he recognised the oldest musical instrument in his life, the harmonica that he had shed shortly after their return from Digital World, since which now almost twelve years had passed.
He picked it up; it seemed weigh so much less then he remembered it to; and looked at it fondly before setting his lips onto the musical instrument, listening to the soft tune that was formed. His eyelids dropped slowly, as he listened to the music alone; in his mind he relived memories from so long ago of his first journey through the Digital World.
When he opened his eyes again he was surprised to see blinding white light emerging from the box in front of him, and as he reached for it he was not so surprised anymore to feel his hand clasping around his digivice, the light's source.
He pulled it out and looked at it with a joyful smile as the white light started to vanish again; he should have known that it would be, could only be there for this kind of music was what his partner, his other half had loved and cherished. Absently he placed it on his belt while guiding the harmonica back to his lips, his thoughts at far places as a familiar melody emerged.
Later on he wouldn't be able to recall what he had thought about.
He wouldn't remember that he hadn't noticed how his digivice had started to shine; it's white light meeting the sun and dyeing the room in myriads of light colours.
All he remembered later was that suddenly his world had been of bright white and without shadows.
When Tai entered the flat to pick up his best friend in order to meet the rest of their group an hour later, he faced an empty room. He searched the rooms only half-heartedly because his intuition had already told him where exactly Matt had disappeared to.
"Seems like I'm not the only one out of my mind, Matt.", he sighed as he as he went to drive back to Sora's apartment, where the meeting would take place. A meeting that once again wouldn't be attended by all of them.
--- Digital World ---
For what seemed eternity all that Matt felt was nothingness. When he tied to move, he found that he couldn't. His arms and legs seemed like lead weights and even his eyelids felt like they weighed tons. He couldn't hear, nor could he smell, taste or touch anything.
And then Matt felt the nothingness being replaced. Suddenly he smelled the so very sweet aroma of flowers, heard the sound of all kinds of live, be it birds or crickets, around him and felt the unpleasant pressure of bumpy soil pressing against his back. Never before he had been so glad about this kind of situation.
Moaning he brought his hands to his temples massaging them for a moment before opening his eyes, only to close them again quickly for they were hit with to many colours in the bright sunlight. Carefully he opened them again and studied his surroundings. All he could see was a sea of green and bits of yellows, as well as the light blue, cloudless sky above him; which lead him to the conclusion that he had landed right in the middle of a meadow.
'So I guess this is Digiworld…' Matt thought with a sigh as he clumsily tried to get up, his body still a bit shaken from passing from one world to the other. With the third try he finally managed to regain his balance and stand on his feet.
"Task 01: check." he whispered with a smile now starting to . 'Next thing on order is finding Gabu…'
But before Matt could finish that thought he felt a breeze and something hitting hard into the hollow of his knee, knocking him back into the ground, making his world spin again. Groaning he fought his way back into sitting position, rubbing the hurting spot with one hand while keeping himself stable with the other, and searched for who- or whatever had knocked him over.
Shock and excitement passed through him as he recognised the familiar outline of the small culprit, the ochre coloured body, small enough to easily pass as stuffed animal and the in comparison to the body rather large, silver, sharp horn on it's forehead. Matt watched speechless as it agitated in a way that could be compared to rubbing a bruise when one had hands and deep down he felt a whisper that confirmed his hope, that said that this Digimon was indeed HIS partner, the very same that he hadn't seen in seven years.
"Tsu- Tsunomon…?!", he exclaimed, as his eyes met with the small In-Training level's, his tongue tied and all word's he might have wanted to say in this confrontation gone.
But the excitement he had felt before was quickly replaced by horror as he saw how Tsunomon narrowed his eyes and titled his head as if not sure about him, as if unable to recognise him. And this suspicion was confirmed as large, innocent, amber eyes looked up to him and a far too familiar voice asked: "Who are you?"
--- Unknown location, Digital World ---
At the same time, at the place, where only shadow and darkness existed, Puppetmon strolled down the corridor towards the lord's main chamber. Although he had been called with highest priority, Puppetmon saw no reason to hurry. The lords had called them back to live, had given them a second chance to take over the reigns of the Digital World and to take revenge on the ones, who had stopped them the first time around. The lord's had made them invincible. So why hurry when there wasn't anybody around to defeat you in first place?
He reached the main chamber, and there he found the lord with the back turned to him and watching what the water surface in the stone bowl that shoed that happenings beyond the realm of darkness. Puppetmon fell to one knee and bowed its head, and felt how the despair in the air around him almost made him chock, and he loved the feeling.
"You summoned, my lord?" he whispered, not daring t break to much of this heavy silence around them. Then, after what seemed eternity, the lord finally turned his head to him.
"I did. Come here, Puppetmon." he said and Puppetmon quickly moved to his side now also looking at the pictures of the water surface and his eyes widened as he recognised the face of the human shown there.
"You recognise him?" the lord asked slightly amused. "This is why I called you. It seems that this DigiDestined has found his way into Digiworld. I want you to go and capture him. He may be the key to find one of the spirits."
Puppetmon nodded, after all the tale of Etemon's fate had already spread through the whole realm of darkness.
"What should I do, in case that the DigiDestined already has found the spirit?" he asked, hoping that the lord wouldn't notice the eagerness in his eyes. "Should he have already found the spirit then he is no more use to us. Take the spirit and kill him." the lord's cold voice replied.
"Of course, my lord." Puppetmon said as he stepped back and bowed, then he became one with the darkness and left the castle. Only when he reached the end of the dark realm, he allowed himself to laugh madly. Yes, he would make Yamato Ishida regret the day he had crossed path with Puppetmon, the Master of Darkness.
TBC…
------
Review replies:
Thanks to Marie Ravenclaw, JapanManiac, midorimouse7, Twin Tails Speed, sightbent, Super garurumon, nekoofdeath and Sephyrah for reviewing and to Kudari-chan, ker-plop and Courage Sun whose latest chapters got me various times over my writer's blocks.
Things, I feel like explaining (a.k.a. w nymph's second Author's Note):
1. Tamers situation:Since I got that questions a few times now I decided to explain it once for everyone. When I started planning out this story it was only ZeroTwo/Frontier. But then I started out to spin how it would turn out with Hypnos mixing in, who now will be featured prominently (especially Tally and Yamaki). The original Tamers won't appear in person until a much later point of time in this story. I'm sorry about this but I couldn't find a way to fit them in sooner (for I like the characters quite much), but maybe I will make up with writing a one-shot or two that gives a peek into the tamers life in this universe.
2. Artwork: I'll put up pictures of Tai's new Digivice and the strange grimace-like Symbol, mentioned in the last two chapters on my profile as soon as I can, which should be somewhere in the next week.
3. Character development: For those who might feel sad since their favourite character hasn't been featured yet. I know that my focus till now has narrowed only to a few characters and that I still have tons of potential POVs to explore, but all due time. I'm already trying to lead the focus to one character at time. For example this chapter we had Tommy and Mimi and you'll get a good look on J.P. in the next chapter, while Cody won't reappear until in two chapters. Of course it also has to do with my own preferences (for example I find it much easier to write Tai, Takuya or Izzy than Yamaki or Kouji). But I try to get everybody into spotlight, promised.
4. Pairings: Yes, there will be other Pairings than the ones mentioned above. I chose not to reveal them from the start to keep up the surprise and not to betray any plot-twists, and also because some of them developed while writing. However I want to remind that this isn't a romance story, the romance only works as subplot.
Preview: Next time Matt tries to find out what happened to Tsunomon but he doesn't know yet that he is on borrowed time, for the time has come to test the true bond of friendship and this test just might be to much for Matt to endure. Meanwhile in the Real World, Tai, Sora and Izzy are trying to warn the other DigiDestined and J.P. finds himself facing his own doubts while gaining a new friend at the most unusual place…
Prepare for next time: Chapter 04:Shining Friendship
REVISED: 31st August 2009
