Kai-chan here! Sorry for the late update. Go one, read now!

Chapter 8

"I'm telling you buddy, theres just no way you can beat me at that game. "

"Nu-uh, I'd totally whip you Takuya. "

"No way"

"Yes way!"

Kouji laughed a little as Takuya grappled the youngest digidestined in a head lock, arguing the points of why he would win in any videogame. Tomoki giggled, fighting back playfully. Takuya seemed relaxed at the moment, a calmed air around hm for the first time in days as they walked the rest of the way to the castle.

'He looks best when he's happy' Kouji thought, watching the brunette and his antics 'boy, when did I get so. . .sappy?'

"I bet I can beat the both of you!" Junpei boasted. Takuya and Tomoki looked at him a moment before breaking out into laughter.

"We'd totally own you junpei" they sang in unison.

"boys" Izumi sighed, before looking at kouji thoughtfully. " hey kouji, can I ask you something?''

"sure, go ahead"

"Do you love Takuya?''

"Wh-WHAT!?' he asked, causing the others to look at him. He blushed a little and pulled Izumi out of earshot. Takuya watched for a moment before being drawn back to the conversation by Tomoki. "What?" Kouji asked quieter.

The blonde shrugged. "I was just wondering. You know, Ive seen the way you two look at eachother so I was just wondering if you had said it yet."

"Said what?"

"Oh jeez and here I thought you were brighter then those other boys. You know, those three little words every girl longs to hear" she teased.

"I. . you know . . I just haven't thought about it. . " kouji shrugged "and I kinda didnt want to think about it right now"

"Oh. well, "Izumi looked over at Takuya with a slight frown "I think, you should think about it atleast a little bit. Takuya looks like he could use it."

"He looks fine to me"

"I don't think he's as fine as he lets on you know, after the attack. I'm pretty sure it shook him pretty bad."

"Yeah. . . "

Kouji sighed remembering how much Takuya was shaking after he found him in the car. He shook his head, Takuya looked fine at the moment and bringing up the incident again would probably just make him depressed.

Kouji shook his head. At the moment he just didnt feel like bringing up anything.

Takuya glanced back at the other two. Kouichi had entered their conversation and it had caused Tomoki and Junpei to completly ignore him to speak with the other twin. He sighed. He had slowly begun to notice that they no longer looked at him like a leader which was understandable considering they had gone through and saved the digital world already but even in the real world it was that way now. Takuya always had to call everyone up and arrange for them all to meet up and hang out; fearing that if he didn't, theyd all drift away from eachother but after a while, Izumi or one of the others would start to arrange the meetings and the brunette would just participate. He felt a little. . . . useless.

Calumon, sencing some distress from his mother, looked up at the brunette, watching how the expression on his face slowly became more and more saddened. He was having a bad feeling about something. . .

"Hey! We finally made it!"

Takuya looked up, to see that yes, they had indeed arrived at the tall structure they hadnt seen in a few years. He smiled despite how lowsy he felt and punched the air enthusiastically.

"Alright! It only took us a few days but we finally made it!" he grinned "now lets see who lives here!!"

Izumi nodded " I agree. If someone told Takuya to come here then that must mean someone still lives here."

In agreement, they all warily passed the gates and entered through the large doors. Takuya glanced around before conveniently yelling.

"ANYBODY HOME!?"

"Takuya. Dont yell like that"

"Why not"

"what if we get attacked?''

"oh.. .yeah. . ."

"Who goes there!"

The group looked around at the sound of the echoing voice. Their attention was drawn above them where an annoyed looking seraphimon stood. The digimon looked down at them before letting out a gasp of suprise.

"Takuya? Kouji? " He asked "What are. . why you humans back here?"

"We actually thought that you might know the answer. . and how do you know our names anyway?"

The angel digimon flew down to them "You mean you dont remember? I once travelled with you all. I watched you defeat cherubimon and lucemon. "

The former digidestined blinked and pointed. "Patamon?" they asked in unison. The digimon chuckled a little.

"Yes yes. I was patamon. Its been years since you last were here. You all must be hungry. Come, we'll set up some food for you and you can all tell me what youre doing here." Seraphimon said before leading them to a set of stairs.

Takuya blinked and stopped in his tracks, realising there was another digimon standing there. "Whos that?"

"Hm?" the angel digimon caught his glance. The digimon standing at the top of the stairs had large black eyes and was obviously a female human type digimon. Her ears were rounded like a bears and she had long black hair. she wore clothes much like a priestess from one of those shinto shrines or something. "This is Taromon. She stays here with us. She is unable to communicate unless she is touching you directly. "

"Oh." Takuya grinned. He always liked meeting new digimon so before anyone could protest, he ran up the stairs to greet her. "Hi. I'm takuya." He said with a grin, holding out his hand.

Taromon stared at him before smiling slightly, a clawed hand reaching out to grasp his.

'its a pleasure to meet you Takuya'

"Thats so cool." he exclaimed, fighting back the sudden realisation that he had heared her voice somehwere before.

Seraphimon chuckled "Come now. the food is this way"

Nodding Takuya and the others followed, Kouji trailed behind. He looked at Taromon with a frown. She was staring after Takuya with a sad and pained expression. He touched her shoulder, startling her at first.

"Are you okay?"

'yes, its just, ' she looked over at the brunette again. 'he shouldnt be here'

"What do you mean?"

Taromon looked at him with slight pity and shook her head.

'he's in more danger here then he ever was in your world.'

With that, she left to catch up with everyone else, leaving kouji to stand there in confusion. He blinked and frowned even more.

"What the hell does she mean by that?"

--

'dont come back to the digital world warrior of flame, you're in danger'

--

okay, im not a big fan of this chapter. -pokes it- damn you, be better. I was trying to chase my damn plot around all week for this chap but it still sucked. Oh well. the next chapters will be better! I swear!

The digimon taromon was created purely for this fanfic. I checked my online list of digimon and theres none listed so yay. lol. And the line at the end, if those of you ca remember is similiar to the one in the beginning XDD le gasp. what could possibly happen next.

p.s. To the one who guessed shadow seraphimon, I'm not going to divulge to much info, but no. its not. I had never even thought of him actually. good guess though